10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Castlegar International Cross Country

1. Cunning Plan

I think that when you lack any real talent for running like I do the only hope you have of getting to a World Athletics Championships is to switch allegiances to Gibraltar or to read the fine print on the qualification standards. A little-known way of qualifying for the 10,000m on the track in Tokyo is to finish in the top three athletes in the World Cross Country Tour not qualified through entry standards or other ways. Improbable yes, Impossible probably, but sure stranger things have happened. Luckily enough the first stop on the tour was in Galway.

2. Orange Weather Warning for XC

I think that my chances of making the 10,000m in Tokyo would have been helped if instead of brining the silver medal winning team from 1979 to Galway, Castlegar A.C had brought the weather from Limerick Racecourse in 1979. Unfortunately, it was a lovely day in Galway, almost unsuitable for cross country with a complete absence of rain, muck and wind. If there was a weather warning system for cross country it would have been an orange level alert, consider postponing for a wetter day.

3. World Childminding Championships

I think that if World Athletics are looking for an idea for a new relay event sort of like the mixed relay, they could have the World Cross-Country Childminding Relay. I think it would be a great event. I did the pilot version of the event in Galway, meeting Rhona at the finish line of the women’s race with Billy before running over to the start of the men’s race. Adrenaline is better than any warmup.

4. Race within the Race

I think it was great to have an international field for the race. There was almost two races, the race between Keelan Kilrehill and the foreign invaders from Denmark, Scotland and Ennis Track and then the race between me, Mark Walsh and Barry Donovan. I was a bit surprised that after one small lap and one big lap the two races came back together again before the international athletes detected our terribleness and quickly left us behind to fight amongst ourselves for the glory of first Corkman home in a World Cross Country Tour event.

5. A Thing of Beauty

I think that the course that we got to run on was wonderful. I almost forgot about the lack or rain and muck. It was the perfect course for someone like me with no talent as there was lots of bends and corners to slow up the fellas who beat me badly in road races and like doing 400m reps on things called athletics tracks that we don’t have in Cork. My favourite section of the course is the series of S bends before the long back straight which was great for testing if you’d being doing the stability exercises that the physio told you to do.

6. They are Jumping Like Horses

I think that the biggest fan of the course design was Billy, his favourite aspect of the course was the jumps made of hay bales which runners had to jump like horses. I was also a big fan of the jumps, they are wonderful. I would definitely make them bigger, at least up to my knee height. By the end of the race I was jumping them very elegantly, I was evening switching legs like a proper hurdler.

7. In The Modern World

I think that it is unfortunate that in this modern world people have no ethics. Shortcuts, that’s all people want, quick wins, no 10,000 hours of work, 4 weeks to a faster marathon etc. A perfect example of this was Mark Walsh going around the outside of each of the many hay bale jumps. I jumped everyone gleefully and honestly. I suppose at least he had to run a bit longer by not jumping them. I was only aware of his non jumping because of Rhona’s videos as I was in the unusual position of being ahead of Mark for most of the race and couldn’t see him skipping around the outside of the bales.

8. The Northside of Cork Doesn’t Have a Track Club

I think that it was great to have the Cork Track Club send an athlete up to try and beat me. This time they sent Barry Donovan who gave me an awful beating in the Charleville Half Marathon. Because of this beating I was very motivated to destroy him in the cross country. I was so focused on beating Barry that I almost forgot about beating Mark Walsh. It took me a full lap to pass Barry, once passed I made sure to open the gap as much as possible as Barry is a hard man to beat in the cross country being a former County Senior Champion whereas I only ever won the County Novice, did I ever mention that I once won the County Novice?

9. Racecraft

I think that I really should have beaten Mark Walsh. On the last lap I got to the end of the long back straight ahead of Mark which was very surprising as if it was a road race he would have been finished and having a cup of excellent free coffee from the van. I knew that Mark would wait for instruction from Donie to launch his attack and sure enough just as we passed Donie with about 200m to go he went for home. There wasn’t much I could do except hang on and hope that hanging onto Mark would get me home ahead of Barry which it did which means that I should actually have run 1:10 in Charleville and not 1:12 and means I will run sub 2:30 for the marathon which is the most important thing in running ever because it will mean that I am great.

10. Tokyo Here I Come

I think that it is great to be currently ranked as the 15th best cross-country runner in the world. I am only 13 places from qualifying for the 10,000m in the Tokyo World Championships which would be only right and would horrify Athletics Ireland. Unfortunately, most of the other events in the tour are in Spain and not in Galway which is terrible as Galway is much greater for cross country than Spain. Hopefully there will be more World Cross Country events in Galway, they’re very good at organizing cross country races. World Cross, European Cross would be no problem, hopefully they will keep a place for me if they do.