10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Raheny 5 Mile 2020

1. Best Race in Ireland

I think that the Raheny 5 mile might be the best race in the country. The times were amazing. 22 minutes for 5 miles is ridiculous, silly stuff, if it was a road race in Saransk in Russia everyone would call B.S, but it’s not in Russia it’s in North Dublin just off the M50. 22 just isn’t a number you associate with 5 miles. It doesn’t make any sense, but then they don’t have Vaporflys in Saransk.

2. Air Quality

I think that it was nice to be back running in nice clean air. Cork was a polluted smoggy mess all week because there was no wind to blow away the smokey coal. Raheny was very nice, definitely good air, no taste of coal.

3. 4000

I think it seems impossible that there could be 4000 people running in Raheny. Somehow it’s one of the last few races in the country that isn’t sold out. The only problem is that 4000 people and a startline is never a good idea. Everyone can run fast for 100m.

4. Garda

I think that the poor Garda on the motorbike would have been in big trouble if it wasn’t for me clearing a path for him around the first bend. There seemed to be a bit of confusion with the start, in that the runners on the line just decided to start the race themselves. The Garda bike got swamped. I don’t know how he got going in the chaos but I could hear him behind me so beckoned him around the outside of the first corner. I don’t know how he didn’t run someone over. It was kind of exciting.

5. Bananas

I think that the first mile of that race was properly insane. I didn’t think that I could run a 4:50 mile but apparently in a pair of Vaporflys I can. Even doing that pace I was miles and miles back, depressingly far back, I felt like giving up and going home. Then I saw Fionnuala McCormack up ahead and realised that I wasn’t doing too bad.

6. Hate

I think that I was missing a vital ingredient in this race. There was no one that I really wanted to beat badly, no one. It’s very hard to run without the incentive of administering a bad beating, it’s an excellent fuel, much better than carbohydrate. I need to develop more enemies. Beating people is one of my main reasons for running.

7. Election Posters

I think that I knew I was getting tired when I started noticing the election posters after about 3 miles. Up to that point I’d seen nothing, no mile markers no posters nothing just a flurry of multicolour Vaporflys and Fionnuala Britton’ New Balances. 3 miles is a good long way to get without thinking or seeing.

8. Next% Noise

I think that the sound of a road race has changed forever. You can’t tell if someone is running behind you if you’re wearing a pair of Next%s as one person sounds like two people. They kind of clap off the ground twice, it’s not a pleasant noise. Two people sounds like four people. Very noisy.

9. Eternal Happiness

I think I’ve finally realised that I’ll never be happy with a time no matter how fast I run. There is no such thing as happiness with a time, it doesn’t exist. 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, all irrelevant, the happiness just moves, like a carrot, a carrot that cannot be eaten.

10. Nike 3.7%

I think that I finally have scientific evidence of how much faster the Next%s are than my old Brooks Ghosts. I ran this race last year in almost identical weather conditions and similar shape, any improvements from training were probably negated by the remnants of the Spanish disease I picked up in Madrid. This year I was 3.7% faster but 2 places further back so technically I got worse. Running is confusing.