Clonmel A.C 4 Mile 2022
/10 Things I Think About The Clonmel A.C 4 Mile 2022
1. Where it All Started
I think that this race in 2015 was the reason I started going to Spain after Christmas. It has taken me 7 years to recover from how cold and wet it was that day. You could see the cold in the photos that’s how bad it was.
2. ParkRun + Goal Mile
I think that Christmas Day is a lot better when you can leave the house to go running. I spent Christmas morning pushing Billy around the Glen like a maniac (according to Tobi) with a Santa hat on followed by a goal mile at CIT where I got destroyed on the last lap by two young fellas. It was a very good morning.
3. Fake Sun
I think that there is something terrible about the sun in Ireland in December. It is horrible, it blinds you but provides no heat and no benefit other than permitting sunglasses to be worn in a race. I hadn’t worn my excellent orange sunglasses in ages.
4. Blueway
I think that I might have to go back to Clonmel for a normal run. It looks like a great place to train, a lovely path along the river that the signposts say goes all the way to Carrick on Suir with Font Romeuesque mountain trails looking down the town. No wonder there are so many good runners from Clonmel.
5. Green Light Indicates Satellites are Secured
I think that I will have to get a new watch or just stop wearing it in races. I thought the days of not being able to find satellites ended with the old Garmin 305 square watch. At the start my relatively new Garmin Forerunner 945 couldn’t find the Clonmel satellites. It didn’t look like it was going to find them in time for the start so I prepared myself for the worst and accepted that this race wouldn’t end up on Strava. Then just as the race started the watch went green indicating satellites have been secured so I pressed start and started running, then the screen went blank. I spent the first 400m of the race looking at the watch pressing buttons until the screen came back to life after pressing the lap button. I should have just dropped out.
6. Third Group
I think that I was lucky I didn’t fall while troubleshooting the watch issues. It’s amazing how far and fast you can run while not actually looking where you are going. Its a skill that I have probably developed from walking around town scrolling through Twitter. When I looked up and stopped looking at the watch after about 400m I saw that I was just off the back of the third group led by Cillian O’Leary. This was acceptable so I tried to stay with them.
7. The Bridge
I think that I did well to get to the bridge at two miles in the third group. I felt terrible, the sort of feeling that makes you question why you bothered, it is interesting how some running days are just terrible. An unusual combination of a long sleeve and a pair of orange sunglasses was probably reflective of my level of motivation, neither interested nor disinterested, neither happy nor unhappy.
8. Fast and Flat
I think that this must be one the nicest courses in Munster. It’s perfectly flat in that it’s not totally flat, it’s nicely flat, there are some nice little short bumps and a few bends to keep it interesting. The only thing that is a little annoying are all the noisy non-electric cars on the road on the way back to Clonmel. It might be nicer to come back along the Blueway after the bridge but I don’t know how that would work with the dog walkers and cyclists.
9. Wind
I think that there should be a name for the wind that we encountered once we turned left after the bridge. It was both cold and persistent, no gusts, just relentlessly resisting our attempts to return to Clonmel as quickly as possible. I thought I’d be clever and tuck in behind Cillian and his gang but with about a mile to go just as we passed David Mansfield I was eliminated from the group and left to go solo into the wind which was hopeless especially with a long sleeve t-shirt under my singlet.
10. The Final Turn
I think that Susan was right to warn about the finish being left around the corner. It is an unusual finish sort of like the race in Spain where I beat John O’Connell because he thought the finish was before it really was. Unfortunately in Clonmel I was on my own and my course knowledge was useless other than for ensuring that the time on Strava was faster than it would otherwise have been. It’s a great race, if only it was on in Spain or maybe May.
