10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About the Munster Masters 3000m

1. I Really Shouldn’t Be Here

I think I shouldn’t have been as afraid of becoming a masters runner. It has always been a great fear of mine. I used to see people like John Meade and Donal Coffey and think, that’ll never happen to me. Then it did.

2. The Poor Relation

I think what I saw outside The Poor Relation on Saturday at 10am might have been a sign from God. There was a man with similar hair to me, sitting outside the pub with a glass of wine and a pint of Guinness. I thought to myself he probably didn’t bother with masters athletics.

3. Track Work

I think that I will have to do some more track work if I’m ever to beat Viv on the track. My prep for this race was 4x200m on Thursday and Friday. It’s a different sport to the road and cross country.

4. Magic Spikes

I think that the magic Dragonfly spikes aren’t half as magic as the magic shoes. They aren’t bouncy, all they really do is make it possible to walk without significant pain the next day. The Dragonflys are an improvement but they don’t turn donkeys like me into racehorses.

5. Templemore

I think that every small town should be like Templemore with a lovely park and a lovely track in the centre of the town. This is what I imagine the country would be like if the GAA took over Athletics Ireland.

6. Vaporfly Police, Arrest This Man

I think that the main offical did a great job of policing the Vaporflys. God it was great, I’d loved to have been doing it. The official almost took as much pleasure from it as I would, “Are those Nike Vapourflys? They’re banned, as bad as doping, and don’t get me started on doping”. The poor man with the Vaporflys had to scuttle away and change into non-magic shoes. It was wonderful, possibly the best thing that has ever happened at a race.

7. 1600m

I think that a 3000m race is one of the most disgusting races you can run. It is pure pain, pretty much an all out sprint. I was pretty ok for the first four laps sitting behind Viv who was sitting behind Dermot Kearns who I had advised Viv was a potential adversary. Once we went through the mile my throat started to hurt.

8. 1 Km

I think that the second kilometer of the 3000m doesn’t actually start until after a mile. It is the hardest part of the race. I knew this, I don’t know why I lost contact with Viv and Dermot but I did. It kind of just happened gradually. To make it worse a fella from Thurles danced around me and easily bridged the gap up to Viv, he was wearing Air Zoom Victories so perhaps I need to get a pair of them, perhaps they’re the true magic spikes.

9. 400m

I think that the last 400m is actually the easiest part of the race. You know that the pain is going to be over soon so you might as well suffer a bit more. I tried to motivate myself by thinking of how embarrassing it was to be badly beaten by two M50s and an M40 but it didn’t work. I ended up in fourth about 15 seconds behind Viv but crucially and vitally the first moderately old man with excellent hair in the M35 category.

10. The Future

I think that masters running is great, I really enjoyed it. It’s sort of like starting running all over again. M35 is a totally ridiculous category, fellas have won Olympic medals over 35, but after a full year without races, anything that means at least three more cross country races every year is a great thing.

I used “Track Mode” on the Garmin Forerunner 945 for the race. It works sort of like the watch works in the swimming pool, it autolaps every 400m and overrides the GPS so you get an accurate distance and pace.