10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Golden Gate Park XC

1. Golden Gate Park

I think that a cross country race in Golden Gate Park sounds fabulous. It sounds like it would be amazing with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background and lots of fog. In reality it was great but for different reasons than you would expect. Golden Gate Park is pretty much the Phoenix Park in San Francisco and you can’t see the Golden Gate Bridge but it’s very nice and great for running.

2. Thirsty

I think that it is questionable as to whether you should be allowed to call a race a cross country race if it hasn’t rained in the preceding 6 months. San Francisco is thirsty, parched, yet the park is deceptively green due to the sprinklers which are everywhere so perhaps they get a pass for that.

3. Shoe Choice

I think that I didn’t bring enough shoes with me. Normally when you are going to a cross country race you bring only spikes. The only choice is how long your spikes are. American cross country appears to be very different as spikes are almost redundant. Concrete was the problem on this course, back home it would have been covered in fake grass but here it was just left as is with no thought for the Irishman who likes pure proper cross country. As it turns out I had the perfect shoe for the course but it was back home in Cork the New Balance 1400. All I was left with was a choice between a pair of Dragonflys with spikes and evil cheating Vaporflys.

4. Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

I think that wearing Vaporflys in a cross country race is an immoral act. It’s no longer illegal which is terrible but it is still very wrong. I really had no choice for this race as spikes would have been dangerous with the concrete and not ending up in an American hospital with a broken leg was one of my main goals. I felt so guilty lining up on the startline but then I looked around and most people had some sort of super shoe on. I suppose if everyone else is doing it it’s not really cheating.

5. Pre Race Ra Ra

I think that if Irish cross-country teams started doing pre race hype chants like some of the American teams did before this race they would be run out of the field. I can just imagine North Cork AC led by Michael Herlihy before the County Senior chanting “Two, four, six, eight/ Who do we appreciate?” It just wouldn’t work, it would be funny but it wouldn’t work. It even looked ridiculous in San Francisco, like something you’d see in an Adam Sandler movie but I suppose when your team is called the Aggies it can’t get much worse.

6. Sprinklers

I think that over zealous sprinklers ruined the course from a Vaporfly point of view. If it wasn’t for the wet and slippy downhill 400m stretch just after the start Vaporflys would have been perfect. It was so wet it looked like it had rained which it hadn’t. Unfortunately, Vaporflys are terrible on mud. I had taken the start handy anyway but being faced with 400m of slippy downhill mud in the first mile of the race made my start even worse. I ended up way back, miles behind the pre-race chant inspired Aggies, maybe they are onto something?

7. Standards

I think that the standard in this race was very high. I had wondered where all the American runners were as any road race I have been to has had a shocking standard. Now I know, they all run these USATF races which are like races back home. Unusually most of the runners were way younger than me, I was probably the oldest person there. I wish we had races like this at home all of the time, I don’t mind finishing nowhere as long as the standard is high.

8. Singletrack Sand

I think that my favourite part of the course was the section of sandy single track about after about a mile of the two mile lap. It came just after a wide-open green grass section so you could make a big effort on the open plain and then no one could pass you for the next 200m. It was also uphill and sandy so it increased the suffering. I would like more sections like this in cross country courses, at least we got to do it twice in this race. Vaporflys appear to be good on sand.

9. Uphill Gravel

I think that my next favourite part of the course was the brown uphill gravelly grass section after the sandy single track. You could take a little rest on the single track and then using your Vaporflys bounce up the hard brown gravel path up to the highest point on the course under the big American looking trees. I thought I was making great progress but I was still nowhere with loads of young fellas and Aggies ahead of me.

10. Celebration

I think that the greatest thing about a race like this is that because there is so much depth there is always someone to race. It reminded me of the All Ireland Novice just in America, it was even the same distance. Unlike the Novice I had no team to run for but that didn’t stop me wanting to beat and torment people. As we came into the finishing straight, I could hear someone catching me so I sprinted all out, I even looked over my left and right shoulder to see where he was, then when I kept him behind I did the finger wagging celebration across the line, for 29th place. Small victories, big celebrations. I must remember to do that the next time I beat Viv or John Meade.