10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Allihies 5 Mile

1. Hurricane Season

I think that after last year’s glorious sunshine in Allihies it was inevitable that this years event would be held in the tail end of a hurricane. Hurricane Lee I think. I knew last year wasn’t real West Cork weather so I was kind of happy to see the place without its make up on.

2. Top Gear

I think that if I did nothing else today driving from Kenmare to Allihies in sheets of rain and wind would have been a good thing to do. That road is amazing, I’m pretty sure I’ve cycled it before but it is almost better in a car where you don’t have to worry about your hands going numb and not being able to change gears.

3. Dwell Time

I think that this is the first time I’ve encountered dwell time at a race. Normally dwell time only happens during the week when you wait in the car for 30 minutes picking the fluff from the car key because you’ve no one to run with. I parked up in Allihies and spent 10 minutes trying to motivate myself to get out of the car into the wind and rain. Once I got out I realized it wasn’t very bad, just normal Galtees bad.

4. Reconnaissance

I think that it was a good idea to do a warm up lap before the race. The race might as well have been on a different circuit than last year because of the wind. It felt effortless running up the hill from the start which was great. Unfortunately after the left turn with the incredible view across the Atlantic, the wind was so strong that it was not possible to wear a hat during the race.

5. Dressing Room

I think that I was a good idea to collect all the runners in the hall before the race for the safety briefing. It wasn’t as unpleasant outside as it looked as who ever built Allihies obviously built it for days like this as it is perfectly sheltered from the vicious wind. After the excellent safety briefing we left the hall like we were heading out to play a match, a match where the score would likely be 0-1 to 0-0 with the winning point scored by the goalkeeper taking a kick out and the ball blowing back over his own bar.

6. Bobby

I think that it was great that Bobby from Kenmare decided to take the race out reasonably hard, after my reconnaissance lap I knew that the flat open road with the hurricane would be difficult so I was keeping something in reserve for that. Once we got to the corner with the downhill view across the Atlantic to Canada I swept around the side of Bobby and braced myself for the hurricane.

7. The Wall of Wind

I think that the worst conditions for running are wind. Wind is a terrible thing because you can’t see it or photograph it so people on Strava or Instagram can’t feel how hard it was and think that you were just slow. This wind was the sort of wind that after you’ve cycled into it you realise why all cyclists wear sunglasses even in winter. It was particularly terrible for Strava as it slowed me significantly.

8. Magic Road

I think that the most interesting part of the course was the downhill after the hurricane road. It was interesting because even though it was downhill the wind was so strong that it felt like running uphill, after a while gravity won out and the controlled fall down the hill to the surprisingly busy campsite began.

9. Posterized

I think that after one of the two laps I realized that trying to beat the time that Michael McMahon paced me to last year was not going to be possible. The woman who took the wonderful picture that posterized Michael McMahon was out on the same spot again this year. By the time I came by for the second time she had gone probably after realizing that a photo of a wet windswept haggard man with his singlet off to one side from the wind probably wasn’t going to be needed.

10. Goodie Bag

I think that the Beara races have the post race prize giving perfected. Like the pre race safety briefing it was an efficient affair with lovely colourful goodie bags that contrasted well with the grey clouds for the podium photos. I’m still unsure which version of Allihies I prefer the stormy or the sunny, they were both beautiful.