10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The North Cork A.C 5K

1. One Year to Become Perfect

I think if you’d told me I’d have a full year between races I’d have told you I’d train perfectly and be in the best shape ever. Unfortunately, two broken metatarsals and a broken fibula meant that the full year of training became seven months of training and five months of injury. A missed opportunity.

2. Fatopotamus

I think the key to returning from injury is to avoid becoming a Fatopotamus while injured. I think I did well on this front.

3. Tyre Strategy

I think that it was a difficult choice which shoes to wear for the 5k in Doneraile Park. Three out the five kilometers were on a rough enough trail, bumpy and lumpy. While the magic shoes are essential for making you faster than you actually are they are dangerous on rough ground due to their 40mm stack height. An additional 40mm in height makes toppling over a real risk. I thought a lot about wearing regular flats to reduce the risk but I was terrified of getting a desperate beating so I was willing to risk a broken ankle. Everyone else except Michael McMahon wore magic shoes, even John Meade.

4. Da Vax Scene

I think that it is amazing that I am still able to run after the inoculation for the disease that shall not be named. It’s a very excellent inoculation. My extreme hairiness has absolutely nothing to do with the da vax scene, I promise. That’s the Alpecin shampoo.

5. No Frills

I think that the North Cork A.C 5k approach is the way to go with races. It was very efficient, sort of like da mass vax scene centres, in and out in about 16 minutes. I don’t need anymore t-shirts, I don’t need anymore medals, I just want a race, a marked measured course and a clock. That’s it. Pretty simple.

6. First Corner

I think that it was very important that I got to the right first corner by the big tree first. Both for my confidence, my safety and my ego. I can’t corner at all in magic shoes as they make me about 190cm tall. I tore off at the start so I was able to take the corner nice and slowly. The corner slowed me down a lot, seven people overtook me and that was pretty much the end of the race. It stayed that way until the end.

7. Training is not Necessary

I think that after a mile I thought that training wasn’t necessary at all. I was happy out running a 5-minute mile just off the front of the race. Not too bad after pretty much three months of zero running.

8. Training is very Necessary

I think that after two miles it became abundantly clear that training is very necessary. The last mile was very terrible. It was nearly 50 seconds longer than the first mile, which is pretty bad. No one passed me which was good and justified my tactics, but it was very depressing to see the two Michael’s disappear into the distance when I briefly thought that beating them was possible.

9. Time Trials

I think that it’s a great pity that my amazing time trials at the start of the year are as worthless as a ticket for the Tokyo Olympics. Like everyone else my time trials were unbelievable. I got nowhere near my time trial times today.

10. Anger is Fuel

I think that I missed races a lot. The last year was a desperate year to be a runner, the disease that shall not be named meant that people thought it was acceptable to flap and shout at runners in the street every single day, it was like a national obsession, there were even radio programs asking “Should you be worried about sweaty mouth breathing joggers?”. It was desperate and it made me very angry. Instead of reacting, I have carefully stored this anger as fuel for racing. I have lots and lots of fuel, at least a year’s worth of pure undistilled racing anger. I hope I get to use it all up. It would be a shame not to.