10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork BHAA XC 2023

1. Beaumont Park

I think I had fond memories of Beaumont Park because of my early days of running with Togher A.C. We used to do laps of the park for cross country training back in about 2010, I remember it being wonderful and terribly hard so I thought a cross country race there would be excellent.

2. Christmas Madness

I think that you don’t have a problem if you know you have a problem. Christmas time has too much time off and too many races. I get horribly bored of the session, session, long run routine, I had enough of that to last me a lifetime during the lockdowns, it’s nice to mix it up and not worry about training at this time of year. That’s my self-justification for doing every possible race over Christmas anyway.

3. Spikes

I think that this was an unusual course for footwear choice. I forgot that when we did laps of Beaumont in 2010 we used the footpath for the section along by the wall and never went between the trees, we used never wear spikes. Parts of the BHAA course were more suited to trail running shoes, the grass sections needed 12mm spikes and the tarmac paths needed Vaporflys. Perhaps a pair of Inov-8s with 8mm lugs would have been best. Dragonflys with 6mm spikes were definitely a bad choice.

4. Damp Cold Dark Rain

I think that there was a special type of cold for the morning of the race. It was damp cold, horribly windy with a dark black sky, not weather for a singlet but too warm not to wear a singlet. I thought that the ground might not be that bad given that I only had memories of Beaumont as a nice place with firm ground. I was very wrong, it was a horrible surface with a thin layer of slippery muck on top of hard ground.

5. Left of John

I think that this was the first race I have run where a man in a high viz jacket has been used as a part of the course. On the start line we were told that they had changed the course to allow for the people who were wearing spikes. Part of the change was that we had to keep left of John at the top of the hill by the pylon. John did an excellent job, and everyone was sent the right way which was left around him,

6. Traffic Jam

I think that this race was more like a single track trail race than a cross country race. Normally in a cross country race passing people is not an issue, once we got around John and went back down the hill we were onto the single track trail through the trees. I went off handy enough so I ended up in about 10th, I could see that Barry Twohig had gone off hard but I thought that I’d be able to catch up after a few minutes. Then we started the single track and I realized it wasn’t going to be that way and that Barry was probably gone for good.

7. Trevor

I think that it felt like more like a Formula 1 race with Trevor Cummins than a cross country race. On the first lap I couldn’t get near Trevor but as we went through the single track for the second time I was able to close the gap enough to attempt an overtake. There really wasn’t any way to overtake as it was a single track through the trees with deadly rocks and deadly tree roots either side so I had to wait before dancing nimbly by on a brief opening in the trees. I made sure not to leave any gaps at the next few corners so that he couldn’t come back at me. It was great driving by me.

8. The Slippery Hill

I think that the hill in this race is what makes the race wonderful. It is a magnificent little hill, I remember running up it in my Togher days in normal shoes thinking what a great training hill that was. On Sunday it was a different proposition, the surface of the hill was a thin layer of slippery mud, what made it worse was that you have to turn as you are climbing so if you don’t get traction with your spikes you just go sideways. On the first lap Barry Twohig powered up the hill like a Dutch cyclocross rider and that was the last we saw of him, it was an impressive sight. I couldn’t get up it at all, my spikes and long tanned legs were useless, I was like a large calf trying to stand up on extra slippery ice, I even had to use a lapped runner for leverage on one of the ascents.

9. Final Sprint

I think that the finishing straight of this race is particularly excellent. By the last of the three laps I had worked my way up into third by passing a Carraig na bhFear athlete on the flat section after the slippery hill. I was still worried that he would get me as I was having severe difficulty with the downhill left hand turn by the pylon, I missed the corner completely on the second lap and had to go right around the pylon so had to take it handy on the last lap. Rounding into the home straight I could sense that there was someone close behind, I sprinted as hard as I could and made good progress towards the finish line, unfortunately what I thought was the finish line was just a man standing in the middle of the field. Just before I was caught the lads on the actual line shouted at me and I nipped in just ahead of the green and white singlet in third.

10. Wine, Chocolates and Chip Timing

I think that if I had known that the prizes for first second and third were almost the same, I might not have taken as many risks at the slippery corners. At the prize giving the main prize that we received was being the first people to hear that the BHAA have bought a chip timing system which is great news. Even though I finished third I got the second prize as Naoise wasn’t registered. First prize was a tin of USA biscuits, Cadbury’s Heroes, and a 2021 vintage Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon (3.5/5.0 on Vivino), second prize was Cadbury’s Heroes and the same wine. Excellent prizes so long as you weren’t a tee-total vegan runner.