10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Irish Runner National 10 Mile

1. Free Entry

I think that it was great to a get a free entry to the National 10 mile after the race that shall not be named that was also run in the Phoenix Park a few months ago. I probably wouldn’t have gone all the way to Dublin for a 9am start if it wasn’t for the free entry.

2. Not so Free Hotel

I think that I would have gladly swapped a free entry for a free hotel. Dublin is like New York to someone from Cork, the prices don’t make any sense. The anger kind of accumulates as the weekend progresses. The first time you get ripped off you just accept it and hope that it’s a one off but when someone knocks over your €4 coffee in Kaph and the shop doesn’t offer you a replacement you end up glad to be going home.

3. Paper Numbers

I think that I was lucky to know that when a race booklet in Ireland says that number collection closes at 830 it doesn’t actually mean it. It was particularly miserable on Sunday morning, deceptively warm but horribly wet. The sort of morning where you want to minimise any standing around. I jogged up from the not so free hotel for 845 to collect the number at the tent. Being a little haunted by the race that shall not be named I was on the lookout for any potential fiascos. It all looked very professional, the only thing I was worried about was that the race numbers were made of very thin paper and looked like they could fall apart in the rain which would have been problematic given they contained the timing chip.

4. Answering the Question No One Asked

I think that it is important to answer the question is it a good idea to run a 5K, a 4 miler and a 10 miler in 6 days. The answer to this question is No, it is a bad idea, you could probably do two of the three but all three is a very bad idea and will result in a particularly miserable trudge around the Phoenix Park on a pair of exceptionally bad legs that are full of badness. The main problem with it seems to be adrenaline, you have no adrenaline left for the third race so when you are on the line in the Phoenix Park for a national championships it takes about two minutes to get going and you are miles back after 800m.

5. Phoenix Park

I think that I don’t particularly enjoy running in the Phoenix Park. Am I allowed to say that? The hills are horrible, the exact sort of gradient that are terrible for tall people like me to run up. I rarely feel good running around there either, it might be some weird tree pollen or something but I always struggle even on easy runs. This race did nothing for my opinion, after a mile I got going but everything was annoying me, the weather, the darkness, the breathing of the fella from Drogheda who was following me and most annoying of all Michael McMahon and Mark Walsh up ahead just out of reach.

6. Pathetic Fallacy

I think that it is very difficult to run well on a day like Sunday. The weather was deceptively awful for running. It was as humid as it can be and moderately warm. The only good thing about the weather was the lack of wind. The miserable weather was good company for my bad legs which seemed to be getting deader with every mile. It is very important to have at least two things to blame when your performance is likely to be below par.

7. Too Fast

I think that you should never look at your watch when you are feeling terrible in a race. Nothing good will come from looking at your watch if your mental state is not good. After three miles I had convinced myself that my legs weren’t bad and that Mark and Michael were mad and that I was not mad about 10 seconds behind them. Then Brian Murphy stormed past me on the section of the course on the road outside the park. I looked at my watch and saw 16:20 for three miles. This affirmed my opinion that everyone else was mad and that I was right which was very wrong.

8. Keep Going

I think that even when you are struggling in a race it is always best to keep going in case the badness magically disappears. As we began the ascent back up towards the start after about 4 miles I obtained some help from a Donore Harrier. We began to close back the gap to Brian Murphy that I had voluntarily surrendered owing to thinking that he was mad and by the time we had reached the top of the climb where we had to do a bit of cross country running I counted the gap at 10 seconds. I started to think about triumphantly hauling back both Brian, Mark and Michael and how great it would be for me.

9. Humidity and Kerrymen

I think that Kerrymen might be immune to the well-studied effects of humidity on running performance. As we approached the marker for 6 miles which had possibly been moved further down the road by a rogue deer, the gap to Brian was down to 5 seconds, and the thoughts in my head were growing even more wild. Then we began the ascent along the snakey road. At this point the humidity kicked in and I was unable to run anymore. Brian on the other hand took off and did what I would have liked to do which was catch Mark Walsh and beat him. I was left floundering in my now negative but realistic thoughts on the many little climbs back to the finish.

10. Third Team

I think that if it wasn’t for the team competition I might have given up completely during the last two miles. I had reached peak badness at about the 8 mile mark, the hills got worse and it seemed even darker and wetter than it was at the start. I began to hope that the course was wrong and that the times would be invalidated so that my greatness wouldn’t be questioned. Unfortunately for my ego the course was excellently perfectly marshalled so the times were very accurate. Even the numbers which I had been worried about stayed perfectly intact. I ended up 22nd outside 55 minutes which is John Walshe’s threshold for inclusion in the list of 10 mile times. The only consolation was that we came third in the senior team which was about all I could have hoped for in the first place. Maybe it isn’t such a bad idea to do all the races.