10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Olbia21 Half Marathon

1. Parco Fausto Noce

I think that Cork City Council need to go to Olbia to see how you build a park, I’m sure they’d be happy with a trip to the sunshine. Olbia has the most perfect running park I have ever seen. It has a track, a huge playground, two fountains, a one kilometre road width loop and a two kilometre loop all withing a tiny footprint that would fit anywhere in Glanmire. It was so perfect that I couldn’t resist doing a session on Thursday that probably wasn’t the best idea with a half marathon on Sunday.

2. Bureaucracy

I think that Italian races are the hardest to enter. It is almost like they don’t want any people like me running. French races require a medical certificate which is fine, Italian races need a medical certificate and evidence of affiliation to a world athletics affiliated club which is harder to get than you’d think. I thought I’d fixed it all by paying €15 for a Runcard which I presumed would make everything ok, money normally makes problems go away.

3. Are There Any Kenyans?

I think that the registration was full of surprises. I ran down to the square in the sunshine on Saturday to collect my number. When I got there, I saw my envelope with the sticker on it saying, “not certified”. I was well prepared for this, I had all my three documents ready, the medical cert, the Athletics Ireland screenshot and the Runcard. I showed them and was quickly given my envelope which I was delighted with. I jokingly asked the organizers if there were any Kenyans running, “yes, they are sitting over there in the café”, and sure enough there they were. All chances of a podium and the €700 for first were gone.

4. Fake Josh Kerr

I think that if the Kenyans weren’t enough of a surprise when I got to the start I met a fella who looked suspiciously like Josh Kerr, dressed head to toe in the professional Brooks gear and hanging around with a girl wearing a Scottish clubs singlet. He wasn’t actually Josh Kerr but a Slovakian version. We traded PBs and discussed the heat before we were called to line up for the start.

5. Umbrella

I think that the start of the race was excellent. This is the first race I have been at where there was a five minute dancing performance involving the Umbrellas and the Rhianna song. It was very good; I was lined up in between the two Kenyans who weren’t as impressed with the length of time that the performance was taking. When the dancing finished the gun was fired and off we went in the sunshine towards the big wheel before looping back over the big bridge.

6. 15%

I think that my race was over after two miles. After 100m it was obvious that the Kenyan would win as he ran off with two fellas that were doing the 10k. I was left with Fake Josh Kerr, and a few handy looking locals some of whom were doing the 10k. We had a nice group for about a mile before I started to feel the heat, after two miles I was boiling and reluctantly had to drop off into no mans land.

7. Solo

I think that being solo in a half marathon from two miles to the end is no fun. Up ahead once the 10k runners turned off at about 6k I counted that I was in 5th which wasn’t too bad. 4th was not catchable and there was no one behind so there wasn’t much to run for. The only entertainment I had was the wild gesticulations and musical language of the drivers who were being stopped from driving down the road.

8. Go to Beach

I think that the best part of the race was the section along the Pittulongu beach. The problem was that getting to the beach involved running up a very steep mile long hill to get to the beach. The beach was worth it though and if I still used Instagram the pictures would be excellent and make everyone want to run the race.

9. Heat Training

I think that when running in the heat it is very important not to worry about Strava. I spent the whole race looking at my watch seeing the average pace gradually drift higher and higher. I simply can’t run when it gets over 21 degrees, that seems to be the cut off. I just get slower and slower. I know how it feels at this stage so I just ran home as best I could. Up ahead there was a brief moment where I thought I might get 4th as Francesco who had won the Alghero race I ran last year was sent the wrong way at a roundabout but he got going again and held me off easily enough.

10. Don’t Run with Runcard

I think that the main lesson I learnt from the race was that if you are running a race in Italy don’t use Runcard. Runcard is like running a BHAA race as an unregistered runner, you aren’t eligible for any prizes. I just missed the podium because I had to checkout of the AirBnB, I asked if there was any prize for 5th and was given a nice bottle of Sardinian wine but without the trip to the podium. When I was walking back to the car I met Francesco who told me that even if I had come 4th I still wouldn’t have gotten the €250 as Runcard runners aren’t eligible for prizes. All you should enter with is the medical cert and the evidence of Athletics Ireland membership. Less is more when it comes to entering Italian races. Just as well I did that great session in the lovely park on Thursday.