10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork City 10 Mile

1. Don’t Change Anything

I think that it was wonderful that the old course was used instead of the new course with the massive hill. This is possible the most perfect 10 mile race route in the world, combine it with perfect organization and you have one of the best races in Ireland. Unfortunately, it looks like the perfect course is on borrowed time with the Monahan Road bridge. Maybe they could build another tunnel instead, running is way more important than cars.

2. Genuinely Magic Shoes

I think that I would not have been able to run this race if it were not for magic shoes. I’m struggling very badly at the moment with the wound on my knee. It seems like it is taking forever to get better. Everyday there is some new weird and wonderful compensatory injury associated with being an idiot and running on it. It seems to be settling now but I have upset some nerves in my knee. When I put on my new Balance 880s to warm up I couldn’t really run, it wasn’t painful just I couldn’t do the motion of running. So I tried the Vaporfly 3s and it was fine, well fine enough so I warmed up in them and decided to race.

3. Hassan Start

I think that Sifan Hassan is what every runner should aspire to be. The world championships would be a lot more interesting and longer if everyone was made to run the 1500, 5k and 10k. At the start I had to use the Hassan method of jogging off the line and slowly getting up to speed because my nerves weren’t working. Once we were half way down centre park road everything started working and I could move up to the back of the group containing all the people I’d like to beat or at least run with for a while.

4. Ample Water, Ample Humidity

I think that it took about two miles for the heat and humidity to become noticeable. Cork in August is not a good place to be running 10 miles, it is up there with Galbally in July. The conditions are not conducive to ego improving times. At least in Galbally there are mountains to blame but in Cork there aren’t many mountains so it is a little harder to take when you don’t run as excellently as you expected. Luckily there were water stations everywhere so you could never blame your performance on a lack of water. If they could just reduce the amount of water in the air we’d be good.

5. The Beautiful Bunch

I think that there was a wonderful bunch to run with for the first five miles. It was very big, must have been nearly 15 people in it at one stage. Poor Michael McMahon was involuntarily appointed leader of the group and had to set the pace for the first 3 miles. As we passed the Marquee junction, we were given the most pointless piece of information ever, the time gap to Michael Harty, 90 seconds.

6. Mount Blackrock

I think that Strava makes it look like something changed after 5 miles, I was happy out in the bunch until we reached Blackrock village. I still can’t really run up hills with my knee so I tried to get to the front of the bunch before the hill so I could drift back. Unfortunately, instead of drifting slowly like I had imagined I was spat out the back along with Tom and that was the end of my time in the bunch.

7. Wrong Direction

I think that the race should be run like we do sessions around Blackrock. Just reverse the route based on the wind direction. There is nothing better than running around Blackrock with the wind at your back knowing that you don’t have to give it back because of the shelter of the line. Unfortunately getting dropped from a big bunch with today’s wind direction was not pleasant. Two miles of suffering along an overly familiar route with the overly familiar sight of fellas running away into the distance. At least it wasn’t John Meade and Mike like it is the rest of the time.

8. Passenger Tom

I think that it was great to have Tom for company after being dropped from the bunch. He told me he was suffering which probably means he wasn’t suffering as much as me as I couldn’t talk. I’m well used to suffering around Blackrock normally chasing Mike in some pointless session so I was probably the best person that Tom could have had to drag him around. I could see James Hayes getting slightly detached from the splinter group from the main group so I had something motivating me.

9. Racehorses vs a Donkey

I think that I couldn’t have picked two worse fellas than James Hayes and Tom to have to race over the last half a mile of a race. I dragged myself and Tom up onto to back of James which took quite an effort down the line. As we went around the Atlantic Pond someone told us we were 9th 10th and 11th. 11th will do I thought, 11th and not crocked after a pointless sprint. So I left the lads battle it out and ran home without hate or motivation.

10. Ghosts of the Past

I think that I will have to fix my knee before I race again. It is only 90% of the fun to race with a niggle. After the race lots of people were looking at my wound, no one stuck their hand into it but a dog did lick it so perhaps that will do the trick. I was a little disappointed in the time because it was nearly a minute slower than I ran in 2019 when I ran in a pair of Brooks Ghosts and everyone else had magic shoes. Perhaps it’s time to return to the Ghosts.