10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork BHAA Musgraves 5K

1. Social Racing

I think that if I was a race I would be a BHAA race. They are great events, there is no stress, there is no worry, everyone is welcome and most importantly they don’t worry about being exactly on time. I have great problems with punctual people like John Meade and Viv who worry about being on time and give out when I am always late, 8pm is approximately the start time, don’t be getting stressed about it, it’s only a race, aren’t we lucky to be able to run, have a chat if you are early.

2. The Line

I think that this is the first time that a race has started on the line. The line is an unusual place to start a race. It is a nightmare for runners as the GPS signal is terrible so you can’t really rely on your watch. Despite the potential for inaccurate Strava many good runners had decided to turn up so I was faced with opposition not too dissimilar to the John Buckley 5k.

3. The Relay

I think that the great thing about being a person who doesn’t worry about punctuality is that when you are already late there is no problem in being a little more late. The start of the race just so happened to coincide with the women’s 4x400m relays race so we waited while Graham showed it to the 10 people who could see it on his phone and the rest of us listened. 400m races are short so it wasn’t long until we lined up at the S across from the lamppost a few 100m up from the Blackrock Train Station.

4. The Tunnel

I think that last night’s race would have been a good race for someone who likes collecting sounds. I think such people exist. The sound of a couple of hundred carbon plated shoes thundering through the dark tunnel where the teenagers light fires and break glasses was something special. Once we emerged from the tunnel it wasn’t long before we reached the 1km mark at the Mahon Point exit where Pa Murphy was on hand to tell us how slow we were going.

5. Secteur Pont Piéton

I think that the run to the pedestrian bridge over the south ring was what I imagine must be the running equivalent to the entrance to the Arenberg Forest in the Paris Roubaix. It was fabulous to charge at the narrow bridge, I seemed to be the only one in the group that was aware that we were going over the bridge so I got to the front as we approached the crucial narrowing having watched too many cycling crashes.

6. Cork (Nearly Has a) Track Club

I think that Anthony Mannix needs to be stopped. The clip he gave me just before the pedestrian bridge was worthy of a 6-month ban. It was like something an Armagh GAA player would do knowing that the referee won’t see it. I know that clipping is an inevitable part of running in a group, even I clipped Conor slightly earlier in the race but this was scandalous and likely coached by Ian who should probably be banned too.

7. Viv on a Mission

I think that if there is one lesson that I have learned in my many years of running is that you can never write off Viv. He is fueled almost entirely by a hatred of me. I should take a lot of credit for how well he is running as I don’t think he would be as motivated if I wasn’t as annoying. As usual Viv did not appear on my right shoulder until 3km, it’s always my right shoulder for some reason. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by Kris, Gavin and Peter Hanrahan all of whom seemed a lot more comfortable than I was.

8. Distancing

I think that it is always horrible to get dropped from a group in a race. My distancing by Viv and co started just after we passed through the 3k mark where Pa Murphy was on hand again to tell us how slow we were going. I was actually very pleased by the time Pa called out as I don’t think I’ve ever run 3k as fast. Then slowly but surely I couldn’t keep up. I don’t think Viv and co got faster, I just got slightly slower and the gap grew and grew until I could feel the ever so slight headwind that we began to encounter on the run to Blackrock Castle.

9. All Wrong

I think that I got my tactics all wrong for the race, my first mistake was not having enough talent to win the race, my next mistake was not just sitting in behind everyone and getting dragged around like Viv does. These two mistakes were enough to result in a terrible beating by Viv, it was nearly 10 seconds in the end which is huge and terrible. It was only one place so it doesn’t look too bad on the results but I may as well have been in a different race.

10. Supermarket Sweep

I think that the prizes for the race were excellent. They were in the smallest envelopes ever, too small to contain cash. Instead, they contained the next best thing SuperValu and Centra gift cards. Rhona won two prizes and I was lucky enough to get a spot prize for turning up late to the prize giving. The spread was hoovered up along time before I arrived but apparently it was as excellent as one would expect from Ireland’s largest wholesale business and purveyor of fine vegan food for the likes of me.