10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Adare 10k

1. Limerick

I think that I will do more races in Limerick. I’m from Limerick not Cork even if I have spent nearly all my life in Cork. When I started running there were no races in Limerick, then there was the Ballyhoura series and now there are lots.

2. Tiger Woods

I think that Adare is an unusual place. It is like an oasis in a desert of terrible roads, a bizarre place, like someone from Limerick County Council decided to copy Kenmare and got funding from J.P McManus. It is a very good copy, very clean and tidy with a nice golf course and Manor. It would be nice if the race went in around the Manor but I suppose the golf is very important.

3. Late/Elite

I think that it is just as well that I can just about qualify for an elite entry for some local races. I wish that they would call it something other than elite, perhaps “Decent Club Runner Entry” or “Moderate Responder to Training Entry”. The only reason I went for an elite entry is because I missed the normal entry, and it was sold out. I emailed Kevin O’Donoghue with the required evidence of time over 10k and was quickly sorted. Very efficient.

4. Cold

I think that it was sufficiently cold enough in Adare to wear arm warmers without being accused of being a Kipchoge wannabe. Arm warmers are ridiculous looking things and probably completely unacceptable for a 37 year old man from Anglesboro to be seen wearing in public. They do however help when it is cold like in Adare. My ones are €8 from Decathlon so they aren’t as bad as the Nike ones.

5. Numero Uno

I think that Rory Chesser is a good target to have in a race. It helped that he was wearing the number one. I wanted to try and run 32 minutes for 10k and decided that Rory was the 32-minute man. At the start just like in Dungarvan William Maunsell was gone, unlike Dungarvan there was no man in a van tormenting him about a course record after 200m. Niall Shanahan was just off the back with Rory just ahead of my group which contained lots of people like me, some of whom were also wearing arm warmers and all of whom were wearing magic shoes.

6. The First Hill

I think that I did too much work over the first 4k of the race. I could see Rory an annoying distance ahead, I thought John Kinsella would be interested in catching him but he seemed happy to run steady, so I went to the front and tried to catch Rory. It wasn’t too bad as the wind was behind us. I didn’t succeed in catching Rory but I kept the gap the same. Then at 4km we met the first of many small hills and quickly realised that John Kinsella and Declan Moore were much better at running up hills. A gap quickly developed which only Chris Jeuken was able to bridge.

7. An East Wind Blows No Good

I think that was a particularly evil wind in Adare yesterday. It was a very unusual wind, from the east, very cold and very strong. It would have been much better if the wind was from the normal direction. Once we got to 5k the wind started to have an impact. Despite knowing that it would be very bad to get stuck on my own after 5k I got stuck in no mans land just off the back of the Kinsella led group.

8. Thank God for Colm Turner

I think that if it wasn’t for Colm Turner I’d have been a minute slower in the race. He appeared at the perfect time just as we reached the 6k point where we turned into the head wind. He was the perfect person to run with, almost the same height so excellent wind blocking and very good at running downhills. It was perfect and we started to close in on the Rory and Chris group which had become detached from the Kinsella group of two.

9. Chris Look and Go

I think that Chris Jeuken could be a name to watch out for in running. I first met him years ago on a bike, he was an incredible cyclist, the sort of fella you are glad doesn’t run. Now he has started running so we are in trouble. I thought it would be good to beat him, so I was motivated to try. Colm helped greatly to close the gap but as we approached 8k Chris turned looked back saw we had nearly caught up and took off up the road like he wasn’t troubled at all by the pace.

10. Not Able

I think that racing is very hard. Running at a steady pace is lovely, trying to race people is completely different. When Chris took off after detecting our presence, Colm immediately left me and took off after Chris quickly bridging the gap up to Rory and taking Rory with him. It was terrible, it was almost unfair, I was tempted to shout at them to come back it was so ridiculous. I couldn’t comprehend how quickly they dropped me. I was left to run the last kilometre on my own into the wind which was very lonely. Then I saw the finish line in lovely Adare so I did a bit of a sprint for the photos pretending I was racing someone.