10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Castlegar XC

1. Cross Country Deficiency

I think that it has been too long since I ran a cross country race. Six months is a long time to go without suffering. No one really suffers on the road, they think they are suffering but they aren’t, suffering in running only occurs in cross country, even the magic spikes haven’t made it easy.

2. World Cross Country

I think that I wouldn’t be surprised if Galway ends up hosting the World Cross Country in February. The Croatians had it taken off them and I can think of no better place than Galway to host the World Cross. It has everything you could need, car parks, a good road from Dublin Airport, stands and a proper cross country course. Imagine it in Galway in February after five continuous months of rain, it would be wonderful, epic. It’ll probably end up in Abbottstown though, won’t it.

3. Magic Spikes

I think that magic spikes aren’t as great as I remember them to be. I have all of the magic spikes now, regular Dragonflys and XC Dragonflys. The cross country dragonflys are only for pure muck as they have the christmas tree shaped football ball studs that I imagine and hope will be amazing and a huge advantage over everyone else that doesn’t have them. For a Galway racecourse that seems to have seen no rain regular Dragonflys with 9mm normal pointy spikes were perfect, they just didn’t seem to have the same pop on the Galway grass as they had on that sand dunes surface in Donegal.

4. Youngfellas

I think that I felt very old on the startline, there were very many youngfellas running, way more than you’d see in a road race. There were also moderately old men like me that train with youngfellas who were able to run as fast as the youngfellas. The youngfellas and good moderately old men took off at a ridiculous pace and I was soon left wishing that it was a half marathon cross country race and not a 6k. A half marathon cross country race would be a great idea by the way.

5. Femke Bol

I think that we need more jumps in cross country races. We had many excellent jumps in Galway. They must have had a good summer as they had enough square bales to put many jumps in, I didn’t manage to count them as I was concentrating on not falling but they were great fun. I realised after a few laps that I was tall enough just to run over them but for the first few laps I was like Femke Bol changing legs trying to find the perfect lead leg. I reckon it’s my right leg.

6. Fast Eddies

I think that trying to catch someone in a cross country race is much more tormenting than on the road. I spent the first three laps desperately trying to pass Kerry Eddie who was confusingly wearing a Limerick Track Club singlet. It was tormenting. I would get right up onto the back of him down the lovely, wonderful hill before the first of the jumps, then he would gradually reopen the gap up the long winding windy hill.

7. Sweeping Bends

I think that the great thing about cross country races is that even if the race is on in the same place the course can change. The last time I ran in Galway in a cross country race I had my excellent lion like hair and beard from time when the barbers were closed for 18 months. The new course was great fun to run even if my hair wasn’t as excellent, it had downhills, sweeping bends and nice longish grass. The only change I would make is to let the grass longer to slow down the youngfellas.

8. Wind Socks

I think that the one thing that you are guaranteed in Galway is wind, the council should send you an automatic message on your phone when you arrive in Galway apologising for the wind. Fast Eddie from Kerry not Limerick seemed unaffected by the wind, they must have lots of wind in Kerry not Limerick too. Every time up that bloody hill into the wind the gap grew very annoyingly. At least it was entertaining to see the wind blowing the front group of youngfellas apart every lap.

9. No Progress

I think that it was very disappointing to make absolutely zero progress in the race. After a lap I was 10th, at the finish after three more laps I was 10th. This is the problem when you take 6 months off cross country, and you forget that you aren’t as good as you think you are at cross country. I can see now why Michael Herlihy doesn’t race so often as it’s a lot easier to just think about the few races that you won rather than deal with getting a bad beating from a load of youngfellas and Fast Eddie at Galway Racecourse.

10. No Photo, Great Coffee

I think that there is no worse feeling than crossing the finish line to see the top nine finishers lined up together delighted with themselves having a photo taken. From behind they all looked so happy in the photo, now no one will even know that I ran reasonably well in the race. Luckily Rhona took lots of photos of me jumping the bales so I can use those instead for Instagram and make it look like I was great. After a good long warm down to make up miles for Strava and the marathons I got the nicest coffee at a cross country race since Nick O’Donoghue brought his van to the wettest cross-country race in history in Whites Cross. Good coffee and good cross country go well together, coffee must be one of the things World Athletics look for in a cross country venue.