10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cork City 10k

1. UCC 10K

I think that it is a sign that I am becoming a very old man that I think of this race as the UCC 10K. It can be nothing else in my head. Any race that goes out the Lee Road and back in the Straight Road is the UCC 10K. The greatest BHAA race in history, won mainly by John Meade. Unfortunately, John Meade couldn’t do this one as he had to volunteer, all credit to John Meade and the other volunteers.

2. Hills of Glanmire

I think that tapering doesn’t work for me. There must be a level of individual variability to it, I mean no one is telling Sifan Hassan that she would have won the Olympic marathon by more if she hadn’t run the 5k and 10k, actually someone probably is, but anyway I don’t like tapering, so I ran 12 miles two steps behind David Buckley the day before the race because I like running and the weather was nice.

3. Western Gateway Building

I think that I will always associate UCC with worry and stress and being late. The only difference this time was that I was late for a race and not for a lecture or an exam. Fifteen minutes before the start is too late to be getting out of the car. I blame collecting the number the day before because it makes you complacent. A five-minute warm up and a trip to the queue less toilets and I was ready to race. Derek was late too so we jogged over together.

4. Loads of Them

I think that there were too many good runners on the start line. It was quite intimidating. Top 20 would be good I thought as I looked around and graded myself. Sean Tobin who I remember from the tent in Aarhus at the World Cross Country when the Irish team manager was horrified to see me, Ryan Creech Ireland’s number one marathon runner and a load of other people who are way faster than me or think they are faster than me. Then just before the start they started playing The Alan Parsons Project tune from the Berlin marathon to make it even more intimidating.

5. Mount Lee Road

I think that the race was dominated by two things, the mountain of a climb on the Lee Road and the very flat, very long Straight Road. Once we got underway, we were quickly split into two groups, those who thought they could beat Sean Tobin and Ryan Creech and those who thought they could beat the first lady. I was in the second group with Conor McCauley, Michelle Finn and Shona Heaslip. Viv and Michael McMahon were no where to be seen which was wonderful. I got slightly dropped by Conor and Shona on the mountain but using my incredible descending technique I regained all the lost time on the other side.

6. The Bad Bridge

I think that it was the skew bridge that ruined my race. I have big problems with short little inclines like bridges. I had just regained contact with Shona and Conor when the bridge at the back of the Anglers Rest arrived to ruin my day. Conor and Shona flew over it whereas I struggled with the combination of the uphill twisting and turning left and right, with that a small gap opened and we turned out onto the most feared road in all of Cork, the Straight Road.

7. The Straight Road

I think that the straight road is an awful place. I felt like I was running on the straight road forever during the race. It really is an awful stretch of road. It was utterly awful mainly because Shona and Conor were gradually getting barely further and further away from me. I dared not look behind for fear that I could see what I was imagining, Viv marauding after me in full terminator mode so I tried my best to concentrate on keeping my cadence less slow and my form less terrible. It was incredibly boring and terrifying.

8. The Straight Road

I think that when I finally retire from my illustrious running career, I will wake in the middle of the night terrified that I’m halfway down the Straight Road being tracked down by Viv. It took what felt like 20 minutes to get to the turn off for Inchigaggin Lane. Shona and Conor were now barely slightly further ahead than they had been when we got onto the straight road, not much else had changed except I was beginning to get tired and was slightly more confident that Viv wasn’t going to catch me as that would mean he would be catching Conor and that while possible was unlikely to occur.

9. Still on the Straight Road

I think that the least terrible part of the Straight Road is the bit where the bus lane begins. The road widens out and it suddenly starts to feel less like the world’s longest treadmill. I got to the bus lane slightly further behind Shona and Conor than I was at the start of the straight road but still close enough to indicate that I hadn’t slowed too much. I turned left into the Lee Fields finally off the awful Straight Road to hear Donie tell me to get under 33 minutes which I did just about, successfully completing a very bad beating of Viv.

10. First Moderately Old Man

I think that it was a wise decision of the organizing committee to have a moderately old man prize, it is the most underappreciated age category, it is so underappreciated that I assumed there was no prize and had to rely on the best volunteer in the world Graham to collect my prize. As for the race, I think they should keep this route as it is one of the classic routes in the country if not world and avoid going back to the Marina, there are too many races down the Marina, perhaps we could do a second lap and make it a 20k, do the straight road twice, wouldn’t that be nice.