10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Charleville Half Marathon 2024

1. National Championship

I think that it was about time that the Charleville Half Marathon became the national championship. The entry list was like the entry list for the time when it was the unofficial national championship back during the lockdown years when they were one of the only organisations willing to organise a race. I didn’t get to run it that time due to a madness induced stress fracture, so I was looking forward to the humbling experience that is running in a national championship.

2. Dunnes

I think that it was a pity that I was too late to get a car park space in Dunnes. Charleville has some of the best located race parking in the world. You can’t really be too far from the start because of how the English planned the town years ago. Because Dunnes was full I drove around to the main street and luckily enough found a spot even closer to the start near the lane that runs down by the Aldi.

3. Happy Mike

I think that it was great that Michael Herlihy was so happy on the start line. The quality and depth of the field was similar to the time it was the unofficial championship. I knew that a happy Mike might result in over exuberance from the start, so I made sure and stay calm for the first and only downhill mile where most people ruin their race. Sure enough as we turned right to exit the town Mike took off up the road.

4. The Usual Suspects

I think that when you run as many races as I do you get fed up of racing the same people over and over again. Most of our training is entirely ineffective and serves only to avoid getting worse due to getting old so we all end up around the same level all of the time. After about a mile it was clear that my company for the day would be John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan plus the Dublin versions of John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan because it was the national championships.

5. GOATs

I think that the shoe distribution in the race was unusual. The new Alphafly 3 and Vaporfly 3 appear to be very unpopular amongst the top 50. I think they are terrible shoes, especially the Alphafly 3 but it could just be nostalgia and familiarity with the Vaporfly 1 shoes that made us all so fast when they arrived in 2019. I have found a source of the old Vaporflys and to prove my point about the new shoes, everyone of John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan were wearing Vaporfly 1s and 2s sourced by me.

6. Four Hours Study

I think that the section of the course from Charleville to Kilmallock is the most terrifying piece of road in road racing. I know there is a price to pay for having a fast course but my god is it bad. I can’t hack the road at all. It is beyond boring. When we passed the three-mile mark I felt like I used to sitting down to study for the leaving cert thinking how the hell am I going to get to 9pm. It is mind numbing, I know some boring runners will love it but I need distraction, it felt like it took about three hours to get to Kilmallock. The only distractions were catching Michael Herlihy and Aidan Noone along the way.

7. Fearful Viv

I think that Viv is absolutely terrified of running at the front of a group. It is like some sports scientist told him that he should never run without someone in front of him. By the time we got to Kilmallock I was pretty fed up with having Viv attached to my back. John Meade and Michael Morgan were very willing to go to the front but Viv just sat and sat and sat. I tried to wave him through in Kilmallock but instead John Meade thought I was saying it to him and put in that awful increase in pace that only John Meade can do which made everyone miserable.

8. Frightful Meade

I think that John Meade is an awful man to have to race. He is very hard to beat because he has so many little tricks from so many years of winning BHAA races. His favourite tricks are the accelerating out of the water stop and the accelerating out of the corner. Both tricks were executed to perfection during Charleville. Luckily, I was able to neutralize both tricks when they occurred because I was wise to them so our big group stayed together all the way to Mount Charleville.

9. Mount Charleville

I think that the race in Charleville always comes down to that mountain of a bridge just before 11 miles. It is a huge bridge that can be seen as soon as you turn back out onto that road. The reason the bridge is so important is because it is basically a short version of the last mile. Anyone who goes up the bridge well will go up the last mile well. On the bridge John Meade unveiled his newest trick the attack on the bridge and sure enough a gap opened, and he was gone. I was left with Aidan Noone, Viv and Mike Morgan to battle it out to the line up the hill.

10. Sprinting for Nothing

I think that it is interesting how motivated we all were for the sprint for the finish. In reality we were all running for nothing as we were miles off the front barely in the top 50. Despite this when we turned left after the speed bump I sprinted as fast as I ever have in a race possibly because it was a national championship. Unfortunately, it was only good enough to distance Mike Morgan in his fake Vaporfly 2s as Viv and Aidan Noone were way too fast. I ended up 42nd overall and 8th moderately old man which wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, there are no medals or prizes for those positions or for beating Michael Herlihy so I warmed down with Brian Murphy who was 6th in the nearly an old man category and went home. Hopefully the national championship will stay in Charleville, it’s a good home for it.