10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Clonmel 4 Mile 2024

1. Christmas Racing

I think that Christmas racing is great, normally I like to do all of the Christmas races possible as it limits the potential for having to visit other people’s houses which is one of my least favourite activities in the world. This year because of last year’s stress fracture still being in my head I have limited myself to just Clonmel and Glanworth, two excellent towns well located for Billy minding.

2. Hello Lizzie

I think that Lizzie Lee was more excited than a child on Christmas morning in Clonmel. I parked just in front of Lizzie despite arriving probably an hour later than Lizzie. I waved at her and said “Hello Lizzie”, before I even had the chance to say “Happy Christmas” I was told, “I warmed up with Emily Sisson”.

3. Tipperary Efficiency

I think that I could be employed to test the efficiency of races. Clonmel was well able to cope with my genetic lateness. I parked up 100m from the registration 20 minutes before the 12 o’clock start time. Ran over to the registration with Rhona, collected numbers, ran back to the car for Vaporfly installation before jogging over to the start with enough time to take photos with Lizzie and her new best friend Emily.

4. Arm Band Heart Rate Monitor

I think that I was a little disappointed that no one asked me about my new arm band heart rate monitor. It is very excellent, I bought it after seeing Jakob Ingebrigtsen wearing one in the European XC. I didn’t buy the Coros one the influencers are hawking and instead went for the Polar version because websites said it was better and it came in black which matches my Leevale singlet. It is so much better than a chest strap as it doesn’t leave you looking as if you are suffering from stigmata and seems to be just as accurate.

5. Surprisingly Fourth

I think that I was very surprised to be in fourth position after only a few hundred meters of the race. Kane Collins, a Kilkenny fella and a fella wearing an American Nike T-shirt took off in the front group leaving me to drag the unusual combo of Viv and Emily Sisson into the wind for the first two miles. It is very interesting that both Viv and Emily Sisson are almost silent in their respective Nike and New Balance magic shoes, both pawing the ground gracefully. I made up for them by thumping my Vaporflys off the road. I wonder could you come up with some sort of machine that would identify running talent based on the sound of a persons stride.

6. Unusual Sport

I think that running is an unusual sport. It is probably the only sport in the world where punters like me get to compete against the best of the best, in this case the American marathon record holder and probably the holder of the fastest marathon time of all the people competing in the Clonmel 4 mile by about 5 minutes. It was very odd to be running over the bridge at two miles side by side with a 2:18 marathon runner and Viv.

7. Olympian vs Non-Olympians

I think that I was a little disappointed at the ease at which myself and Viv were dropped by Emily Sisson. Once the wind was no longer a factor 5:10 pace became 5:00 pace which was enough to filter the group into Olympian and not Olympians. So I switched focus from beating Emily Sisson to beating Viv which was probably more important anyway.

8. Minardi

I think that the last mile of this race was like a Formula 1 race from the 90s where nothing happened for the first 70 laps and then there is complete chaos, safety cars, red flags and a Minardi driver like me ends up on the podium. As we approached the final roundabout at around the three-mile mark I saw a steward over at the side of the road tending to someone, as myself and Viv got closer I saw the Kilkenny fella who had been a good bit ahead of us lying on the ground. Viv being the nicest man in the world peeled off and went to check on him. The Kilkenny fella was fine, and Viv was quickly back underway after the pit stop.

9. Guilt

I think that I felt very guilty for the last 400m of the race, the combination of the Kilkenny fella pulling out and the niceness of Viv meant that suddenly I had gone from 6th to 4th and from 5th man to 3rd man without doing anything to deserve it. I tried to slow up a bit to let Viv catch up and beat me in the sprint like he was probably going to do anyway but it was too late so I ended up crossing the line as the 3rd man and 4th overall. It is like there is some sort of greater force that means that I must finish fourth in all races in Clonmel. It is obviously a very powerful force as I was fourth in Kilsheelan 10 mile, Clonmel Half and Clonmel 4 mile this year alone. Consistency.

10. Luck vs Talent

I think that it was very bad form of me to miss the prizegiving. It was not intentional, it was Clonmel’s fault for having a lovely path along the river for warming down which meant that I ended up running for longer than I should have with Viv, Rhona and Clodagh. Luckily my agent Graham was on hand to collect the generous prize for 3rd. Viv got the age category prize, so I didn’t feel too bad about the moral dilemma, these things even out over time anyway, it’s always better to be lucky than talented.

10 Things I Think About The Valencia Marathon 2024

1. Not Important

I think that I was a bit conflicted about doing a marathon in Valencia so soon after the floods. The race starts less than 5k from Paiporta which was badly impacted. Arriving in Valencia the week before the only sign that there was anything going on was the men staying in the hotel with work boots caked in mud. I’m still not sure if it should have gone ahead but I suppose it was a good fundraising opportunity and brought back some tourism. Marathons are difficult to get your head around at the best of times.

2. Donal X Trevor Collab Shakeout Run

I think that Valencia has not been impacted by influencer culture as much as the major marathons. The park on Saturday morning before the race was so crowded with runners and almost free of influencers. Myself and Trevor were probably two of the biggest influencers in town so we agreed to collaborate and hold a shakeout run. We had Rhona, Ian and Eoin in attendance which was a great turnout. We were joined mid run by random Norwegians who we knew were Norwegian by being fluent in Norwegian after all the Ingebrigtsen documentaries.

3. Rice

I think that eating the days before a marathon is very difficult. I know I need to eat a lot but I also know that I need to be careful that I don’t end up with a bad belly. I’ve it pretty much dialled in now, white foods are king, white foods and sugary things. I did feel a bit odd turning up to dinner with Viv and Derek and only ordering white rice but it was nearly 8pm and the food window was rapidly closing.

4. Quiet Start

I think that the start of the race was rightly subdued. Valencia is never one for the razzmatazz but the organisers had rightly toned down the start area. It was limited to repeated short bursts of an instrumental version of “Blinding Lights”. There was a moments silence for the victims of the floods with the race getting away immediately after. I was in group 2 which starts on the left hand side of the bridge, I took it handy as there has never been a marathon where someone has gone off too slow for the first mile.

5. Sweaty

I think that it was surprising to have sweat pouring off my head and face after 5k of the race. It was cool, about 13 degrees, but it seemed to be incredibly humid. I thought that it might just have been the after effects of removing my quite significant beard the night before the race with only a mach 3 razor but from looking around it wasn’t just me that was sweating. This didn’t bode well but I felt ok and soon enough the average pace of the watch had dropped from 5:50 to 5:45, I just needed to nudge it down a bit more.

6. Nostradamus Tadhg

I think that messages the night before a marathon rarely contain anything of consequence other than valuable good luck. Tadhg’s message about latching onto the back of some French fella and hanging on proved prescient when after 10k I found myself being perfectly paced by a fella in a Bordeaux singlet who even looked like Tadhg. Perhaps Tadhg is some sort of modern day Nostradamus I thought.

7. Deccie

I think that Tadhg was very wrong about who I should have followed instead he should have replaced the French fella with a West Limerick fella. Declan Guinea jogged up beside me just after 10 miles, we had a brief chat in my best Limerick accent before we got mixed up in the group. Declan ran 2:29, I didn’t. It is reassuring that you can be from Limerick and be where I was at about 10 miles and still run 2:29.

8. Mohawk Trevor

I think that if it wasn’t for Trevor turning up at about 29k I would have been in big trouble. I had a bit of an existential crisis after 16 miles. I began to question the point of running another mid 2:30s marathon, time does not motivate me the same way as competition for some reason. Then a fella with a mohawk wearing Trevor’s green Nike singlet passed me, he reminded me of Trevor and then almost instantly actual Trevor with no mohawk went past. Suddenly I wasn’t in a marathon anymore, it was a 13k XC race. To make it even more like a XC race Trevor had his number in his hand Nick O’Donoghue style.

9. Cross Country Mode

I think that if I could find a way to be motivated for the whole lot of a marathon I could run an amazing time. I just can’t focus on the time for that long, my brain just can’t do it, it must be phones. The minute it turns into a race with someone it becomes so much easier. For the last 13k I just chased Trevor. He was hopping off the ground, his Nike Vaporfly 3s flicking off the ground like it was a 10k .We passed Pat Fitzgerald and Terry Shanley from Clane which was a new experience for me as I never pass people at the end of marathons. Then Trevor got a 10 second gap and my cross country mode began to dim but as long as I could still see him there was still a chance.

10. A Bad Man

I think that I am not a very nice man in races. If it was a nice movie with 800m to go when I caught up to Trevor we would have high fived and jogged across the line holding hands with the pictures and videos all over Instagram. Instead it was all out war once we hit the downhill blue mat. I sprinted with everything I had which probably wasn’t necessary and resulted in extremely bad quads the day after. I just about held off Trevor who was running a 2 minute P.B which meant he wasn’t too worried about my antics anyway. I really enjoyed the marathon being a race and not a time trial, I just need to persuade John Meade or Michael Herlihy to do a marathon.