10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Liscarroll 7 Mile

1. Donkey Sanctuary

I think it is apt that Liscarroll is home to a Donkey Sanctuaries and a seven mile race between two old donkeys like myself and John Meade.

2. Castle on the Hill

I think that this was my first time in Liscarroll. Liscarroll is very far from anywhere, especially Glanmire. It is to the opposite side of Mallow to Doneraile but about equally as far away. In addition to the Donkey Sanctuary there is a lovely castle up on the little hill and what looks like a nice pub. John Meade said that Liscarroll means Fort of Carroll.

3. Seven Miles

I think that there aren’t enough seven mile races. It is a lovely distance to run, not as horrible as ten miles and not as short as 10k. I won the last seven mile road race that I ran in Donoughmore so I thought it would be a shame to miss out on the final one of the year. That and I missed the deadline to enter the old man track 5k in Tullamore which has to be entered three months in advance.

4. Sure Who Else Could There Be in Liscarroll

I think that it was rather foolish of myself and John Meade to think that we would have the race to ourselves. Owing to the ridiculous heat I was happy to do John Meade’s abridged warm up of about a mile. When we got back the the car we were greeted by the sight of a thoroughbred Paul Moloney getting warmed up to ruin the donkey derby that we had planned.

5. Compressed Charleville Half Marathon

I think that this route had all the hallmarks of a Michael Herlihy designed course. It was pretty much the Charleville Half Marathon map compressed to seven miles and overlaid on the roads around Liscarroll. The only difference was that there was a slight up hill on the straight road out and a slight downhill on the straight road back. Perhaps the two races should partner up as it was the perfect preparation for Charleville. It even had the heat and humidity.

6. Group of Three

I think that I did everything right in this race. At the start Paul Moloney tore off ahead like we expected, I was left in a group of three with John Meade and Karl Lenihan. It was a lovely civilized group, we ran along together up the slight hill to the three mile mark where there was a much needed water stop.

7. Aqua Bleu

I think that John Meade must be the best man in the local road racing scene at collecting a bottle from the side of the road. As we approached the water stop John moved to the front and got the bottle from the only person standing at the left hand side of the road. Myself and Karl had to veer over to the other side of the road and with that John Meade got a gap. This made me very angry and I considered shouting at John to give back the unfair advantage. Thankfully my fitness is improving so with a massive effort I was able to bridge back up to John and get a gap on Karl reducing the group to two.

8. Gradually Growing Gap

I think that this was possibly my best ever performance against John Meade on the road. I have beaten him on the road before but on all occasions I had Vaporflys and he had Adidas suction boots so that probably doesn’t really count. As we ran back towards Liscarroll I tried everything to keep in touch with him but he just kept pulling away slightly bit by not until I had no hope of catching him. This is probably why they don’t get big audiences for road races on TV as gaps just grow gradually, nothing dramatic ever happens and no one closes a gap ever.

9. Podium

I think that it was wonderful to finally break my run of fourth places. This race was setup for another fourth place as in Galbally Karl Lenihan had flown past me at about 6 miles and bridged up to John Meade so I was particularly worried about him once we got to 10k. Despite the incredible heat I didn’t feel too bad over the last mile and was able to keep John Meade in sight and finish third just behind John and just in front of Karl. There was even a brown envelope for third which I should have given to Tim for minding Billy at the race but I didn’t.

10. 10% Coakley’s

I think that this race deserved a much bigger turn out for such a perfectly organized race. When I looked at the results 10% of the entrants were Coakley’s. Coakley is an extremely rare name. I suppose a Friday night in the middle of August in a heatwave wave when Westlife are playing in Pairc Ui Caoimh probably isn’t the best night for a race. It is definitely one of the better races that I’ve done, hopefully there is a bigger crowd next year, all preparing for Charleville in a big North Cork road racing series.