10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Grant Thornton 5k

1. Someday

I think that someday I will win this race. I’m a proper loyal company man, I’ve run this race every year since 2016, I almost deserve to win it at this stage. I thought that today might be the day as there are lots of money races on Thursday and Friday that should have drawn away the mercenaries, then I saw John Meade on the South Mall and a realized that it would remain a someday.

2. Permadusk

I think that I am the only person who does a warm up to check if it is suitable for sunglasses. The weather is very strange at the moment, it is bright but dark, dry but rainy, warm but cold, very strange, very unsuitable for sunglasses. I ran the race route for my warm up as I was concerned that it would be too dark for shades under the trees. It was very dark, too dark, so no shades, this made me sad but safe.

3. Lizzie Gun

I think that the sight of Lizzie Lee holding a gun at the start line is one of the scariest things that I have ever seen. She had that glisten in her eyes that said “I have a gun”, she even pointed it at me. Thankfully it was only a starting gun.

4. Countdown

I think that Lizzie needs to work on her race start countdown, it’s goes 5,4,3,2,1 bang, not 5,4, bang. It didn’t really matter anyway as everyone starts running when they hear a gun, especially when it Lizzie’s.

5. Badness

I think that mile one was very fast, far too fast, way too fast, John Buckey 5k fast. I think that it reawakened my marathon badness. I’m pretty sure that I am actually still bad from the marathon but that I am just immune from feeling it, it’s like I’ve been vaccinated against the badness. Anyway it definitely reawakened after a mile and I got shelled from the Meade and Mckeown group.

6. Small Victories

I think that it’s always a good race when you pass someone and they don’t pass you back. Today’s victim was Niall Touhy, I caught him after about 2k. I wasn’t very confident that I’d keep him behind because he has far more talent that me but it was worth a try. Then I tried to catch the orange vest of Kieran McKeown. This didn’t work.

7. Tall

I think that it didn’t matter which one of Cian or Niall was behind me coming into the finish. I never look behind because that’s not allowed so I had to wait until I got passed to find out who it was. I knew it was someone tall because they sounded tall so I was sure it was one of them. It turns out that it was Cian. He was very fast, I didn’t really try to keep up, 6th was grand.

8. Fun

I think that it’s a very bad idea to run two races within two weeks of a marathon. I know this, but if you can get away with it’s great fun. I think I’ll just race until it’s not fun. I know it’s idiotic, I know it’s not sports science, I know that it’s mad, I know I should recover, but it’s fun and that’s all that matters.

9. Wisdom

I think that I might be a dramatically better runner after tomorrow. I have a cracked wisdom tooth which I will have to part ways with. I’d prefer to keep it but Niamh and Ian both said it must go. I’m hoping that it has been slowing me down all this time and that just like David Beckham when he moved to A.C Milan, fixing my teeth will have a miraculous effect on my performance. Tooth doping, perhaps, hopefully.

10. Trophy Time

I think that it was Meade’s fault that I missed the trophy presentation. Meade tells excellent stories so the warm down after the race became very elongated, I can’t remember any of the stories but they were excellent, I think one of them was about how John got great at running by not running. Unfortunately I missed the chance to collect the prize for third placed team. Thankfully Lizzie collected the trophy for us and I eventually got to go on the podium/stage after for an excellent photo with Lizzie and the trophy. I like trophies.