10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The North Cork A.C 5k in Doneraile Park

1. Build Back Better

I think that every good long injury is a good opportunity to fix all the many niggles that you have. Because my injury wasn’t desperate altogether, I was able to do a lot of strength training and a little bit of cycling on Zwift while the pointless little annoying bone that is the fibula knitted itself back together. After three months of torture I am probably good for another two years of running without injuries hopefully. I have learnt a lot of lessons which I hope to forget

2. Divide and Conquer

I think that this weekend was a great weekend for racing in Cork with nearly everyone gone to Seville for the marathon. On Saturday I had a meeting with John Meade where we decided to divide and conquer with John heading to Carrigaline for an inevitable victory while I headed to Doneraile which is the only place in Ireland where I can win a race.

3. Harald Fairhair

I think that the Norweigan’s can teach us a lot when it comes to running. I am a great fan of Norweigan training methodology and mythology. In an attempt to speed up the injury recovery process I adopted a strategy last used by the first Viking King of Norway and told to me by the Norweigan physio and new Leevale runner Chris which was not to cut my hair and beard until I had conquered the injury. It has worked excellently and apparently when you cut your hair things get even better.

4. Superstition

I think that a race in Doneraile Park is a non-traditional choice of first race back after a crippling injury. Because after my last stress fracture and probably the one before that and the one before that my first race back was a 5k in Doneraile Park I kind of had to keep up the tradition as I got nearly two and a half years of injury free running out of the last race. That and Michael Herlihy is involved in organising it and as much as I enjoy tormenting him it is nice to support him.

5. Signs of Injury

I think that when you have had more injuries and comebacks than most people have run races you don’t really get nervous about the first race back. Sure I came back grand the last time why wouldn’t I come back again? I was late as usual for the start arriving at 1045 for an 11am start so I installed my original pink vaporflys and jogged over to collect my number at the big gate. It is actually a good test for recovery from an inury as you can tell the injured runners by how early they show up for races, if you are there an hour before there is probably a crippling injury that requires bands and dancing to loosen out before racing, 15 minutes before means 100% health.

6. I Remember

I think that it doesn’t take long to remember how to race. When we took off down the hill from the big gate one of Michael Herlihy’s future super stars took the lead. I was happy to follow behind with Kieran McKeown and Stephen Crowley. I took the bad bend at the big tree as terribly as normally before taking the lead as we went onto the trail after the bridge.

7. Hatred

I think that the thing I missed most about racing is the pure hatred. I haven’t hated anything in over four months and because I had raced too much before the injury the hatred had become very dilute by the end of last year. My hatred reservoir has replenished fully after the few months off, it’s almost overflowing. I like Kieran McKeown, he is a very nice man and an excellent coach but I had to hate him a lot for the first mile to get rid of the sound of his Vaporflys hitting the gravely trail. It took until the second bridge to get rid of him.

8. Corners

I think that the one thing that I didn’t fix while I was injured was my cornering ability. There are a lot of corners in Doneraile I basically had to stop at the corners because it was slippy and I am terrified of falling because falling caused all of my problems in the first place. I didn’t fall and my stress fracture leg was excellent at pushing off the corners so I was very happy.

9. Relax

I think that the last kilometre of the Doneraile 5k is one of the best finishes to a race in all of Ireland. What other race finishes on the uphill drive to a big old beautiful house. Because I was trying to hold onto some of my hatred for another day when I have to take on John Meade or Viv. I looked back to see where Kieran was, he was close but far away enough that I didn’t have to sprint just keep going which I did.

10. The First Law of Running

I think that the most crucial aspect of a comeback race is the warm down. It’s nearly more important than the race. It is a very good sign when you don’t even think about the warm down and just do it. This means that the injury is completely gone. If I was still injured I’d have needed to use bands and do dancing which I didn’t have to which was great. The unfortunate news is that because injuries are neither created nor destroyed only transferred from one runner to another there is now another runner out there with a crippling injury. I’m just glad it’s not me anymore.