10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Autumn Open

1. Old Man Trial

I think that this was the third of hopefully at least 40 times that I will run the old man cross country trial. So far I’m three from three on at least making the reserves with one actual appearance when it was only against the North. I know that I’m far from the 6th best moderately old man at cross country in the country but it’s fun to actually try and qualify for something.

2. Bere Island to Dublin

I think that driving from Bere Island to Dublin in one weekend is not very good for running. To minimise the impact of the drive I stayed in bed until 11am had a quick breakfast and took of for Dublin. Billy and Rhona stayed at home because they had had enough driving for one weekend.

3. Experience

I think that the great thing about being a moderately old man is that you know stuff due to experience. I knew that the best time to arrive was about 1410 when all the people for the juvenile events would have left and I’d be able to drive right up to the start which I was. After an efficient double number collection, the regular and the M35 number, I was ready to warm up.

4. Portaloo Warmup

I think that the only problem with arriving 45 minutes before the start is that the warm up is a bit hectic. My warm up involved running over and back to the portaloo. My legs felt terrible mainly from the drive and a little bit from Bere Island.

5. How’re the Legs?

I think that it is wonderful self sabotage to be able to answer the question how are the legs immediately before a race, “they’ve been better, I ran a race yesterday”. Michael Harty found it funny, although he was probably laughing more out of pity than anything else, I’d love to believe it was envy but it doubt it.

6. Beware of the Youngfellas

I think that there should be a pre race safety briefing for the moderately old men and old men before the race. The main content of the briefing should be a warning not to try and go off down the hill after the youngfellas who are only doing three laps because you will end up in a sea of lactic acid after a lap. I gave myself the safety briefing and took it relatively handy off the start which is great fun especially the bit where it narrows on the spike breaking path that is supposed to be a sand pit according to the design document for the course but isn’t.

7. Downhill Progress

I think that I made most of my places up on the downhill section of the course. My general plan was to run as hard as I could down the hill and then hold position as best I could up the hill. I think it worked well. I definitely prefer the 2k lap over the 1.5k laps even if it is probably a slight bit slower.

8. Performance Gauge

I think that it is very difficult to gauge your performance in a race where there are youngfellas, moderately old men, old men and normal men. After two laps I could see the back of Brian Murphy and Pat Fitzgerald so I was happy enough. Then I caught Barry Twohig who looked like he had fallen fowl of the youngfellas on the first lap.

9. UCC

I think that I could probably have run a better third and fourth lap. I started to get a bit lazy on the hill being happy to just hold position when I should have been trying to catch people. Pat and Brian got slightly further away every lap and by the end I was left battling with Ben Smith who confusingly was wearing a UCC singlet rather than a Leevale singlet.

10. Eight Best Moderately Old Man

I think that 8th in the moderately old man category was the perfect position to finish in, I will probably get named as a reserve which is ideal as I have absolutely no money left for a trip to Glasgow in November. Hopefully some year I can qualify properly by coming fourth and not be subject to the risk of wild cards being selected ahead me due to my lack of any historical talent. I imagine this will take until I become a fairly old man, but sure what harm. I’ve plenty patience.