10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork City Marathon

1. SMART

I think that it is very important to have clearly defined goals when doing a marathon. Like any good influencer I had an A, B and C goal to ensure that I remained motivated no matter what happened. The A goal was to destroy Viv, the B goal was to give Viv a bad beating and the C goal was to barely beat Viv. These were excellent goals as they met the SMART criteria of being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

2. Scope Creep

I think that it is amazing how much your goals can change on the morning of the race. I cleverly parked at the Q Park on Carrols Quay which is far better than any bag drop being 200m from the start. I jogged up to the Metropole for my warmup pretended I was staying in the hotel and used the bathroom there. When I was jogging back down the construction site that is MacCurtain street the crisp cool air reminded me of Seville or Valencia in winter, the perfect weather for a sub 2:30 attempt, sure I might switch to the A+ goal and go with Shane Collins I thought.

3. Elites

I think that it was great of the Cork Marathon organizers to have an elites section. I got an email the week before saying that we were to meet at 8am outside Elverys for a photo before being guided to the front of the race. Unfortunately, I missed the photo which was terrible as I looked very elite in my oversized orange sunglasses and red Nike singlet. I had to leave the Leevale singlet at home because it is constructed of sheep wool which isn’t great for anything above 12 degrees. My favourite part of being an elite was the WWE style walk on to the very front of the marathon which was only right really. Viv and Andy Goulding didn’t think they were elite enough so stayed with the masses.

4. John Quigley

I think that John Quigley’s article about the shortest possible route was possibly the most important piece to read before the marathon. Once we got underway, I quickly forgot about my A+ goal as I could already feel the heat and quickly settled into the sub elite group with Andy and Viv. We spent the first 10 miles of the race trying to do what John Quigley had advised. Viv clearly hadn’t read the piece as he nearly took me out on the skew bridge trying to run the wrong line. We hung along the center wall of the tunnel and tried our best to imagine where John Quigley would have measured a line. We weren’t too far off as we ended up only 0.3 miles over.

5. Edgar Allan Poe

I think that one of the main advantages of Cork is that you can have someone on a bike deliver you gels and bottles Deliveroo style. I had Conor McCauley with my simple still Italian water and Maurten gels. Viv had his son Darragh with a bag containing substances that if mixed in the wrong order could probably have taken out anyone within a three-mile radius The potions began to be mixed just after 10 miles. “take out the purple sachet and mix it with the bottle containing the clear liquid”. He was calling it Dioralyte but sure they used to call EPO Edgar in cycling so God only knows what it was. Interestingly the Dioralyte was never offered to either myself or Andy so it must have been good.

6. Bottle of The Day

I think that the best bottle I got all day was from Donal Coffey. The bottle was delivered just after passing the Marina Market. It was ice cold having been purchased from the petrol station. Myself Viv and Andy fought over it like the crows fight over chips outside Hillbillies. I had to give out to Viv as he nearly dropped the precious bottle by trying to catch it from the bottom while passing it over and back.

7. Andy Kipchoge

I think that Andy shouldn’t feel too bad about the point where he was dropped. If you compare marathon courses Cork is quite similar to Boston in where the hills are. Just like Kipchoge in Boston, the hills at the 18 mile mark were the crucial point for Andy. The decisive moment came on the hill before you turn left up the little lane before the zig zag chicane. Viv is a fright for pushing the pace on hills as he likes to keep the pace the same not the effort. With this little surge Andy became detached. I was nearly caught out but I quickly bridged back up to Viv and neutralized his Dioralyte fueled attack. Andy was left to fend for himself.

8. The Taming of the Viv

I think that if I ran every marathon with Viv his PB would be under 2:30. I did some excellent coaching of Viv over the last 8 miles. He is a fright for pushing the pace on hills, I think he doesn’t realize it but every time there was any bit of a rise the increase in effort came. The problem with this is that it spikes your heart rate which won’t come back down. I had to calm him down on every hill. Then on the Straight Road when he saw someone coming back to us he was like a sheepdog after spotting a big wooly sheep up ahead. He was about to put in a huge effort to close the gap immediately. “Relax Viv” I told him which he did, “We have ages to catch him” which we did.

9. Should I Stay or Should I Go

I think that racing someone in a marathon is great fun. I was so tempted to try and get rid of Viv along the Mardyke with two miles to go. I probably could have started increasing the pace there but foolishly I decided to wait for North Main Street. Psychologically I think he might have wilted if I’d gone to the front on the worn red tarmac. Instead, I let Viv stay in front which was a big mistake as on the narrow section opposite the Mercy as it’s impossible to pass.

10. 505

I think that I knew the game was up when we reached the bottom of North Main Street. I was just about able to stay in touching distance of Viv down North Main Street. When we reached Fast Als Viv picked it up again and started to look like he does at the end of a 5k, up on his toes gliding along effortlessly. Despite the hopeless position that I had found myself in I tried my own all-out effort with choppy hands which was at least a nice way to finish a marathon. When I looked on Garmin later, I found that Viv covered the last two minutes at 5:05 minutes per mile pace. I hadn’t a prayer.