Churchtown South 4 Mile 2024
/10 Things I Think About The Churchtown South 4 Mile 2024
1. Ballycotton Weather
I think that people from the city should assume that the weather will be good in Ballycotton for a race regardless of the weather in the city. It has it’s own microclimate. Leaving a rainy Glanmire I was worried about a wet race before arriving in Churchtown and remembering that it is always sunny in South East Cork
2. Different Field
I think that the field we parked in for the race this year was a lot better than last year’s field. It was manned by a man who said he was either Sean McGrath’s brother or father. In the field I met Viv who had travelled down especially to beat me because I had destroyed him in Dublin in the 10 miler.
3. Same Field
I think that other than the addition of Viv the field of runners for the race was almost identical to last year. The only difference was that Tony Forristal wasn’t carrying a phone in his hand which would presumably make him even faster than last year.
4. East Cork Mafia
I think that it is very intimidating to be running in East Cork in a sea of East Cork maroon singlets. Viv and Anthony Mannix were the only other non-East Cork people in the lead group when the race got under way. The first mile of the race is a gentle downhill so I just sat at the back of the lead group and hoped that it wouldn’t get too fast.
5. Time vs Racing
I think that Nick O’Donoghue was too worried about how his race was going to look on Strava. After an initial quick downhill mile the pace slowed quite a bit for the second mile. I didn’t know how slow we were going as I am banned from looking at a watch in a race under 10k but it seemed a lot slower. As we passed the two mile mark Nick looked at his watch let out a roar and took off up the road which restarted the pace again.
6. Cruise Ship
I think that it is a good sign of how focused you were on the race that you miss the spectacular sight of a cruise ship on the horizon at the most scenic part of the course. The views between mile 1 and 3 are amazing if you have time to look, unfortunately for me I spent the time looking at the James McCarthy and Tony Forristal’s Vaporflys.
7. The Sequel
I think that Tony Forristal essentially ran the same race as last year. I think even the time was the same. I remembered the spot he made his move last year and was ready for the attack, despite my knowledge of the likely spot of the attack I could do nothing when the attack was launched. Only James McCarthy made any attempt to follow so I tried my best to hop on his back.
8. The Slip
I think it shows how obsessed Viv is with beating me that even when I nearly fell at the hairpin that brings you onto the final mile he still stayed behind me. The near fall was quite spectacular, my Vaporflys skidded on the loose gravel, I nearly ended up on the ground but owing to my amazing agility I caught the fall and quickly refocused on catching James McCarthy and keeping Viv behind.
9. Second
I think I did very well to catch James McCarthy in the last mile. I went straight by him hoping that I would break his spirit especially as Viv was on my back and the sight of both of us flying by would be very demoralising. I knew that Viv would wait until the last possible moment to launch his attack because he’s afraid of the air so I did everything I could to get rid of him. I thought I had him gone but I was very wrong.
10. Fourth
I think that I couldn’t have picked two worse people than Viv and James McCarthy to have to sprint against over the last 200m. I did my best but I went from second to my usual fourth in the blink of an eye. The speed of the two lads was frightening with James prevailing over Viv because Viv only hates me. Luckily there was a prize for fourth so it wasn’t as tragic as usual especially as I managed to stop total East Cork dominance by beating Nick O’Donoghue. Although he did seem very happy with his prize for 5th which included a huge hamper with a box of tea bags that he said he would sell in the morning.
