10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork County Masters XC

1. Beautiful Rain

I think all cross-country races should be run on ridiculously wet bank holiday Mondays. Monday was a beautiful cross-country day, the sort of dark wet day where you put a SAD lamp in your Amazon shopping basket. The rain was so bad that I warmed up at home in Glanmire before driving the fifteen minutes to White’s Cross aka John Meade land as I knew what was ahead.

2. Parking at the Gate

I think that calculating when to arrive at a cross country race is a skill as important as actually running. I got the timing for this race almost perfect. Because of the terrible rain they rattled through the juvenile program in an hour which is unprecedented, Michael Herlihy looked delighted to be leaving when I was walking in, I was equally delighted as I had managed to park right beside the gate because everyone else had left.

3. Field of Dreams

I think that it is very important to remind people of great races that you ran in the past in case that they forget. There isn’t enough of this on social media. This field at White’s Cross was the site of my greatest achievement before the photo of me beating John Meade in the Rebel Run 10k while coming second. It is an achievement which I rarely speak of. It was in this field in 2015 that I won the County Novice XC. It was a great run by me on that day in perfectly dry conditions. Conor McCauley never won the Novice nor did many other people.

4. Pat Murphy

I think that Pat Murphy would be an excellent name for John Meade. John Meade had difficulties with the entries so he had to take Pat Murphy’s number for the race. It suits him perfectly. It might be a good idea for Masters Cross Country for people to get to choose a new name, it might encourage more participation, a sort of a rebirth, a new career, no one would know what age you are then.

5. Michael Herlihy Tactics

I think that it is a pity that Michael Herlihy didn’t hang around in the ridiculous rain to watch my perfect imitation of his tactics. I imagine I ran the race like Mike would like to have run it if he had my current fabulous form. I didn’t go mad on the first lap and left John Meade and Kevin O’Brien take it on in that sort of way you can when you know that you have good form. I’m beginning to see the logic in not going mad on the first lap, it makes the rest of the race easier. If only someone had told me this years ago.

6. Equipment Selection

I think that this course had the perfect level of muck. It was not deep muck, it was 12mm spike muck. I might have gone with 15mm spikes, but I gave my bag of 15mm spikes to Paul O’Donovan last week and I was afraid to ask for them back because he has Olympic Medals, and I don’t. 12mm spikes were perfect anyway.

7. Hairpin

I think that the course layout was fantastic. There was a lovely hairpin at one part of the course where you could catch the stake and use it to leverage yourself around the corner. The rest of the course was lovely and flat with only muck to slow you down. It had lovely short sections of good ground where you could make an effort before slowing down for the very mucky sections. It was perfect, none of that continuous effort nonsense from Abbotstown, this was real cross country, the sort of course that track runners would hate.

8. The Banshees of Puigcerda

I think that John Meade is going to live to regret that race in Puigcerda where he arrogantly sat behind me for the whole race and then did just barely enough to beat me on the line. I will remember that race forever. Once I had gotten a gap on the group after two of the five laps all I thought about was that race in Puigcerda. I wanted to bury him by as much as possible. Kevin O’Brien was in between the two of us but all I was concerned about was making sure the gap to John Meade was huge

9. We won’t call it quits, we’ll call it the start.

I think that this race was a step closer to avenging the race in Puigcerda, once I crossed the line just ahead of Kevin O’Brien, I had to wait for fifty nine seconds (00:59) for John Meade to appear in third. I was tempted to go and get a coffee as I was nearly cold by the time he arrived, considering it was only 7000m, fifty nine seconds (00:59) was a desperate beating, a crushing, an annihilation on home turf and all. This is only the start, I hope, he won’t be able to go to a small local road race in peace again.

10. Dialed in Coffee

I think that my favourite part of this race was the presence of the Rooskagh coffee van in the middle of the field. We have come a long way as a country, you can now get a perfectly dialed in coffee in a farmer’s field immediately after a cross country race. An oatie, a coffee and destruction of John Meade, bank holidays don’t get much better than that.