Munster Senior XC 2026

10 Things I Think About The Munster Senior XC

1. Jet Lag

I think that jet lag is wonderful, the sleeps after a night time transatlantic flight are amazing, 13 or 14 hour sleeps waking up at 11:30am, it’s like being a teenager again. It’s not so great when you wake up at 11:30am on a Sunday morning and you have a cross country race that will start at an unknown time somewhere between 1pm and 3pm in a field in Conna.

2. Stiff Moderately Old Man

I think that one disadvantage of sleeping for so long as a moderately old man is that you wake up crippled with bizarre lower back tightness. I used always wonder why deep heat and tiger balm were so popular, you’d see auld fellas rubbing it on and wonder why would anyone ever need that? Now I know and understand the stiffness that old age brings.

3. Marathon Mike

I think that it was great that Michael Herlihy was getting so much kudos at the cross country for his marathon performance in Dublin, you’d swear he had climbed the North Face of Everest and then skied back down. I know it was secretly annoying him as he ran five times better in the Autumn open cross country and nearly qualified for an Irish team and no one cared. Run a marathon and everyone loves you, it’s a bizarre sport, marathons aren’t even hard anymore with magic shoes.

4. Glenmore A.C

I think that it was great that when I went up to collect my envelope with my race number, it was labelled as Glenmore A.C not Glanmire A.C, the number even had Glenmore A.C written on it. Another new club in Cork, exactly what we need, I think Glenmore is in Cobh, sure why not, the more the merrier. I wandered off delighted with my new club and warmed up with Michael Herlihy and Trevor Cummins, we considered forming a sort of Barbarians style amalgamation team but as neither of the two lads were running the race it would have to wait for another day.

5. Adversary

I think that it is very important to have an adversary or a target in the race. For this race I picked Michael McMahon, a fearsome opponent, he was mainly chosen due to the absence of anyone else as everyone else was doing or had done a marathon. In order to psychologically impact Michael McMahon I made sure he was aware of my recent bout of illness, probably flu. I told him that he should beat me as I was both slightly sick, jet lagged and had a stiff lower back. He didn’t seem convinced.

6. Big Young Field

I think that I was surprised at the size of the entry for the race. There were a lot of runners entered with a lot of youngfellas, most of the youngfellas seemed to be disciples of Rory Chesser. I don’t know anyone of them and probably won’t ever as they were way faster than me and were gone into the distance within 200m of the start. The only youngfella I knew was Jeremiah Sheehan who seemed to be the only person able to run with the other youngfellas.

7. Down The Hill

I think that once the first few 100m were out of the way I realized that the best I could do in the race was beat Michael McMahon and maybe get on the Cork County team. Beating Michael McMahon was looking unlikely as he was a good bit ahead after a lap. Luckily each lap contained a bit of a downhill section so I ran that as hard as I could each lap and after three laps managed to get away from Michael McMahon.

8. Limerick A.C

I think that it was good to see some new runners in the race. Once I had finished with Michael McMahon I was stuck behind a fella in a Limerick A.C singlet. I thought I’d get him on the last lap using the downhill but he seemed to be exactly as good as me on the downhill and a little better on the uphill. I suppose that’s what happens in races eventually you reach the level where you just can’t make any more progress. I ended up finishing just behind the Limerick A.C fella in 15th position which is about where I always finish in the Munster Senior XC.

9. Medal Monday

I think that it was great to get a silver medal for being a member of the Cork County team that came second. Running for the county used to be a big thing a few years ago, you’d get to wear the red singlet and then have to give it back afterwards. I used to rarely get to run for Cork as no one thinks I’m any good, but then I’d show them in the race. Nowadays it’s just the first six athletes from each county across the line. I think you are supposed to take a picture with the medal and post it on Instagram on the Monday after the race for Medal Monday. I won’t do this as I am a moderately old man and don’t use Instagram because it messes with the brain and is responsible for most of the problems in the world.

10. The Baddening

I think that it is extraordinary how a combination of jet lag, excessive sleep, sickness and a stiff lower back can result in extraordinary post race badness. I could just about manage a 1500m lap of the course as a warm down with Michael McMahon who was still talking to me despite the bad beating. He was trying to encourage me to do the Thomas Kent 10K as he knows that he would beat me on the road. This is the great thing about running, you are only as good as your last race and there is hopefully always another race just around the corner.

Photo: Rhona

Niagara Falls Half Marathon 2026

10 Things I Think About The Niagara Falls Half Marathon 2026

1. Always Ask

I think that in this era of sold out races it is always very important to ask about an entry.  I was going to be in Toronto for the weekend but the Niagara Falls Half Marathon was sold out. I tried a few Facebook groups but they were full of scammers so I sent an email to the organisers looking for an entry and they said no problem they’d be happy to  receive another $115.

2. Toronto to Niagara

I think that Niagara Falls is a bit further from Toronto than I thought. I thought it was about an hour, turns out with traffic it’s more like two. The organisers said that the numbers would have to be collected from the expo by 5pm on Saturday no exceptions so leaving Toronto at 3:10pm on Saturday I wasn’t too sure that I’d be allowed to run. Luckily the traffic cleared up ahead of us and the eta on google maps improved from 17:15 to 16:57, three minutes to park and collect the bib. I parked using the North Main Street Method of parking, ran in collected the number just as they were tidying up.

3. Bedford Falls/Pottersville

I think that Niagara Falls is an unusual place, I’ve been to seriously impressive waterfalls in Iceland like Gulfoss, I was kind of expecting a similar sort of nature first environment. Instead what you get is a seriously impressive waterfall surrounded by Las Vegas. It’s great for Billy’s with karting tracks and dinosaur mini golf. The hotel we stayed in was amazing too, just not what I expected.

4. What Time is it Again

I think that when you spend a week on the other side of the Atlantic time becomes meaningless. An 8.15am start, no problem. I’m such a great person on this side of the pond, go to bed and 9pm and wake at 6.30am. It’s great, can’t wait to go home and get back to normal.

5. Lineophobia

I think that the start line for the race was an interesting experience. The Niagara Falls Half Marathon and Full Marathon is a big event, there were a lots of people there at least a couple of 1000 with well organised starting corrals. I was a little late getting to the start as I couldn’t find anywhere to get breakfast so by the time I got down everyone was in the corrals. Not to worry the front corral was the least full with plenty of space. As we were about to get underway I had to encourage a few people to come up to the start line so that I wasn’t the only one up the front.

6. Some View

I think that the first kilometre of the race is very impressive and worth doing for the view alone. We ran down the street turned left and plunged down a steep hill facing straight at the noisy waterfall. The spray from the waterfall provided a cooling mist and made sure the road was never dry. Then we turned right and ran away from the waterfall out along a path by the lake. I had led the race into the first corner but two other fellas came past so I was only third when we met the waterfall.

7. Where Are My Legs and Lungs

I think that it is very important to not make excuses when running races. I had only one excuse on Sunday and that was that I had been a little sick during the week sick enough to have to take two days off running. Because of the sickness I had to be a little sensible and not go too mad in the race. After the first two kilometres I was in third place with a yellow and a blue singlet in front of me. I decided that the best strategy would be to let them get a little gap and just keep them in sight for later in the race.

8. Watching, Waiting

I think that my strategy worked very well for the first 15k of the race. Once the waterfall disappeared behind us the course was out and back on a flat extremely wide greenway. It was wonderful for running a steady consistent pace. I did not feel good but 3:40 per kilometre seemed to be comfortable enough and kept the two lads in front close enough that I could catch them if I put in an effort for a mile or so.

9. Hamstring Signs

I think that I thought that my strategy was working out perfectly after 18K. To my delight I could see not one but both guys in front intermittently clutching at their respective hamstrings. The only problem was that I had company, company that a slight increase in pace had not dropped. Then with 2.5K to go the company became a problem as he passed me out and flew straight up to the back of the front duo leaving me in fourth.

10. Uruguay

I think that if it wasn’t for the hill in the last kilometre of the race I would have ended up fourth. The hill finished off the unfortunate duo who had lead from the start taking me from 4th to 2nd. I closed back up to the fella who had ran behind for the entire race and as we rounded the corner into the finish I thought I might get him. Unfortunately I couldn’t muster much of a sprint and he remained just out of reach then as he approached the line he pulled an Uruguay flag out of his shorts and waved it in the air in front of me. Ah well, it’s not like I’m not used to second place.

PR Races Fall 10K 2026

10 Things I Think About The PR Races Fall 10K

1. No Plan

I think that the best races abroad are the ones that are found by chance. Get sent somewhere for work and google what’s on nearby. That’s how I found a 10k 15 minutes from Washington Dulles airport.

2. John Buckley Sports 10K

I that that races organised by running shops are the best. The PR in the race stands for Potomac River not Personal Record, it’s a chain of running shops in the area. Number collection was in the shop which was opened at 7am on a Sunday morning with the race starting just up the street from the shop. Something that would definitely not happen in Cork.

3. Anti Fragile

I think that it is very important as a moderately old man to get used to doing races when you are not 100%. Moderately old men are never 100%, those days are over, 90% is great. Arriving at 8pm the night before an 8am race or the other side of the Atlantic, not a problem.

4. Fragile

I think that somethings sound better in theory than in practice. Waking up at 3am and not being able to get back to sleep because it felt like 8am made me regret my excellent decision to enter a 10k race. How am I going to do it? My time will be awful. Luckily it seems that the feeling of awfulness was just regular 8am feeling and nothing to do with the jet lag as by the time 7am local time rolled around I felt fine.

5. Parking

I think that the there is never a problem with parking in America, there is parking everywhere. Much like Ireland there is little or no public transport but it’s not a problem because the roads are huge and there are huge car parks. Parking for the race was so handy, 2 minute jog from the shop and 2 minutes from the start.

6. Cold Warm Up

I think that it is great to have the nice cold weather back. My running performance is directly correlated to how cold it is, cold is worth way more than any training so I was delighted to feel how cold my hands were while doing my warm up. I jogged around the very new looking place which was called One Loudoun eventually finding a nice trail in the woods which looked both old and new at the same time.

7. Portaloo Kick

I think that I was very lucky to avoid injury exiting the portaloo. I was in a bit of a rush exiting the portaloo as it was only 2 minutes to the start so I ran out. Unfortunately there was a fella doing leg swings while queuing which I didn’t see and as I ran passed he connected directly with my right knee. It hurt but not in a running pain way so I wasn’t too worried. I said sorry even though it wasn’t my fault and continued on over to the start.

8. Leader

I think that I’m very lucky to be able to go to races abroad and get to lead out races. Leading out a race like this is the best place to be as you have the lead car in front so you can’t go wrong. The course was a lap of the One Loundoun development on the roads. The roads are huge dual carriageways so they just coned off one lane for the race which worked well especially as it was 8am in the morning.

9. Local John Meade

I think that I was very unlucky to come across the local John Meade in the race. I knew I was in trouble after 5k when we encountered the merest hill and the local John Meade breezed by on the hill totally unbothered and not breathing at all. I did get past him but with 2k to go he put in a classic John Meade move and put the foot down and that was it.

10. Mike Kiernan

I think that despite being on in Virginia the race was very Irish. Once I crossed the line I spoke to the organiser who happened to be called Mike Kiernan. I told him I was from Ireland and he said that he has a framed picture of Jerry Kiernan in his house as he “borrowed” it from a pub in Ireland. Then it was onto the prize giving where I got a $75 voucher for the PR running store which luckily enough was open on a Sunday morning. Four pairs of Feetures socks was my prize. I needed socks.

Cork County Senior XC 2026

10 Things I Think About The Cork County Senior XC 2026

1. Unforgiving Strava Graph

I think that filling in the 12 week bar chart on Strava is very important. My Strava chart had not been full for the last 12 weeks because of my career threatening injury earlier in the year. It was very fortunate that the most important race of the year fell just on the week that the Strava graph filled with 12 weeks of beautiful consistent 100km weeks and which is more, it happened to be on in Carraigadrohid one of my favourite cross country courses.

2. Finding Carraigadrohid

I think that it must have been very difficult to find cross country races before google maps. I have been to Carraigadrohid once or twice a year every year since probably 2016 but I can never figure out where exactly it is. Thanks to eircodes and GPS it’s just a case of following the maps until you see the familiar yellow signs saying “AAI Cross Country” with an arrow pointing the way. Then you know you are nearly there.

3. Glanmire Spiders

I think that it says a lot about the quality of the Glanmire A.C equipment that we assumed that the small black spiders that appeared in the field in Carraigadrohid had come from the Glamire A.C flag. It appears that the spiders were actually already in the field and were just upset at a cross country race upsetting their natural habitat.

4. Aggressive Warm Up

I think that warm ups are a neglected aspect of the sport. I have found two types of warm ups to be effective over the years for cross country. The arrive 5 minutes before the start, run over collect your number and franticly put on spikes warm up is very effective. My new warm up of arrive early, do a bit of a jog and then do three by one minutes at a bit of an effort seems to replicate the same level of adrenaline. A 20 or 30 seconds stride doesn’t seem to be enough, it needs to be a minute or maybe 45 seconds on a hill to get a little bit out of breath.

5. Hatred Is Nothing Without Control

I think that it is very important not to keep your head on the startline of a huge important cross country race like the Cork County Senior. It is very easy to get carried away due to the presence of lots of people that you would like to beat. Calm controlled hatred is much better. On the starting line it was mainly moderately old men with a scattering of under 23 runners, there were very few actual senior athletes because of marathons and Instagram. This was great as lots of my old enemies like Michael Herlihy, Michael McMahon and Mark Walsh were present, there was no John Meade.

6. Unsustainability

I think that it is very important to remain calm when you end up very far back after a few 100m of the Cork County Senior XC. The first few 100m were straight downhill with a sharp right hand turn at the bottom of the hill, this was very bad for me because of an old career horrific ankle injury which has left me with a permanent cankle I struggle badly to turn right so my main concern was not injuring myself in the first corner which I achieved. Everyone else appeared to have gone off at an insane unsustainable pace, or at least that’s what I told myself.

7. G Force

I think that the course in Carrigadrohid was fantastic. It was like a cross country roller coaster course. There were parts of the course that were so downhill and turny that I probably experienced mild G forces because I was going so fast. Once the first lap was over, I started to push the downhill sections as hard as I could, once the downhill was over, I sat behind whoever was in front and waited for the next downhill before pushing again. It was great fun, sort of like a luge.

8. Well Done Boi

I think that it was great to get to work my way through the field in the race. The only person I didn’t get to pass was Michael Herlihy as I seemed to be ahead of him for the whole race despite taking it very handy at the start. Passing people is great, I had to resist the old trick of going “Well Done Boi” as I passed in order to both psychologically and physically torment them. It took until the last lap for my progress to stop. The youngfellas of Cork Track Club and Cork City A.C could not be passed so I ended up crossing the line in 8th my best finish in the race since about 2010. A great P.B. by me if finishing positions can be P.Bs which they can and should be.

9. Bicarbonate of Soda

I think that it says a lot about what Michael Herlihy thinks of my athletic ability that he thinks that I took bicarb or some other magic supplement shortcut from Instagram to beat him so badly. I’d love to say that the bad beating resulted from some secret supplement, but the truth is that it resulted only from controlled hatred and the randomness of running. Some days are better for running than others, it’s just that those days become rarer and rarer the older I get.

10. Not Make Dreams Your Master

I think that it is important to realize one’s level in running. It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking if Michael Harty can win the County Senior XC as a moderately old man why can’t I? This would lead to a lifetime of unhappiness and stress fractures from trying to achieve something that is impossible, this human is limited. My maximum level is 8th in the County Senior, that’s as good as it is going to get so it’s very important to be happy with that. 8th is great.

Loughrea Grey Lake 10K 2026

10 Things I Think About The Loughrea Grey Lake 10K

1. Running Pilgrimage

I think that it is always nice to race in famous places in running history. Loughrea is probably even more famous than Ballycotton when it comes to running in Ireland. I remember watching the BUPA Loughrea Run on television when I was a small boy before I ever thought that I would end up running races. I’d love to have been running back in those days when there were no magic shoes and no nonsense. It must have been great, imagine a road race on T.V, what a time to be alive.

2. Grey Lake, Black Clouds

I think that it is a pity that the BUPA Loughrea Run no longer exists. In it’s place is the Grey Lake 10k named so because it involves a 10k around the lake which is grey. I’d never been to Loughrea before so I had no idea what to expect. On the drive up it looked like the race would be run in ridiculous wind and rain. Luckily as we parked up in Loughrea the black clouds departed for Dublin leaving behind blue skies, the wind however stayed in Loughrea.

3. Sweet Cash

I think that races that you can enter on the day are the best. There is nothing better than deciding to do a race a few days before rocking up putting a few euro in the biscuit tin or tapping on one of those sumup machines and collecting a bib. The entry process in the hall in Loughrea was very simple, fill out the form, hand it over, try to pay with my Revolut card on my watch, have it rejected, hand over cash, collect bibs, one for me and one for Rhona.

4. Lovely Lakes

I think that we don’t make enough use of our lakes in Ireland. If I was in government, I would make it mandatory for every lake to have a path around it for running and cycling, no roads. The lake in Loughrea is very nice for running but there is only a short path along the lake. It was perfect for a warmup all the same. It was very windy, the one disadvantage of lakes.

5. The Newness

I think that it is great to line up at the start of a race that you have never done before. I had deliberately not looked at the route map because I didn’t want to know what it was going to be like. I knew it was 10k that was all and that it went around the lake. On the start line I got talking to Simon O’Toole and Feidhlim McGowan from Galway City Harriers. Feidhlim had beaten me very badly in the cross country in Castlegar and Simon spoke of running with Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan and Donore Harriers, so I didn’t hold out much hope of winning.

6. Hilly Lake

I think that it was surprising how hilly the course was considering it was essentially a lap of a lake. How can a lake have hills? Lakes are flat. The first 5k was very hilly, rolling hills, nothing too steep but into the wind. I tucked in behind Feidhlim for the first kilometre before making a big mistake and overtaking him which probably made him angry as he put the foot down and dropped me the minute we met the first of the hills after a mile.

7. Chasing the Gardai

I think that I did well to keep Feidhlim in sight for most of the race. It was an unusual sight to see in front of you running around a lake in Loughrea, a fella in a t-shirt chasing after a Garda car. After 5k we appeared to reach the end of all the climbs and turned back towards Loughrea. I got going quite well on the downhill but the final little climb just before the 8km marker finished off whatever bit of motivation I had to chase after Feidhlim and the Gardai.

8. Very Cross Crosswind

I think that my time would have looked much better on Strava if it were not for the ridiculous crosswind for the ninth kilometre. It was a mad wind, the sort of wind that could only come off a lake. It nearly tore the excellent adidas Glanmire singlet off me. A t-shirt was a much better choice of attire for the wind which is probably why Feidhlim and the Gardai seemed to disappear entirely over the last 2 kilometres. I just about managed to retain both my singlet and my number but lost sufficient seconds to lose out on a sub-34-minute time for 10k which in the world that we live in was very disappointing.

9. No Great P.B by Me.

I think that it is terrible that the modern runner expects to run a P.B in every race, continuous improvement is the only acceptable form of movement. A race without a P.B. warrants a change in running coach, the addition of a new supplement to the race day routine, going dark on Strava and probably a new pair of magic shoes. Luckily as an experienced moderately old man I don’t worry about P.Bs. Podiums and prizes are where the joy is or just even being able to run and race without my knees hurting. Second place in a historic race in a historic place organised by a nice friendly running club, happy days.

10. Loughrea Crystal and Honey

I think that races where the prizes are trophies and not sweet cash are the best. After a short warm down around the nice path by the lake with Feidhlim and Simon we returned to the hall for the prizegiving. The first three prizes were nice pieces of crystal, Simon’s third place piece of crystal looked like it was made for preparing and consuming bicarb whereas my second-place piece and Feidhlim’s first place trophies were more suitable for displaying flowers. Rhona was happy with her tea and winning her age category. We walked back to the car with our prizes stopping in a shop to buy local Loughrea honey. Honey will be the next big thing in running, bigger than nomio, bigger than bicarb it’s only a matter of time.

Castlegar XC 2026

10 Things I Think About The Castlegar XC

1. The Famine is Over

I think that the cross-country season is too short. It has been way too long since the last cross-country race. September to January outside of that it’s relentless road races. I prefer cross country always have, always will. I think the reason that all my road race great P.Bs by me are in December and January is because my legs are strong from all the cross country races.

2. Any Excuse to go to Galway

I think that even if there wasn’t a high-quality cross-country race on in Galway, I don’t require too many reasons to make a trip. It’s a great place to spend a weekend, nice coffee, good restaurants and nice hotels. It seems other people think so too as all of the hotels in the city seemed to be either booked out or charging €400 a night. Luckily cross country is possibly the least popular form of running so the Clayton right by the course in Ballybrit was available for a reasonable price.

3. No Messing, High Quality

I think that even though cross country isn’t exactly popular in the same way that marathon running is, that doesn’t mean that a smaller field is necessarily lesser quality. Everyone who enters a cross-country race is good at running. Castlegar was no different from tough men like Kenny Rodgers, international athletes like Rory Chesser and up and coming stars like Oisin Davis and obviously me.

4. Popupraces Tent

I think that the one problem with Galway apart from the traffic is the weather, the weather is not good. It is very good for cross country but for general activities like standing outside watching a cross country it is very bad. Rhona ran the women’s race which started off in normal enough Galway conditions, a little bit of rain and a lot of wind. She had completed one of the two big laps when what can only be described as a mini hurricane struck Ballybrit. Billy and I took shelter under a Popupraces tent which while impressively built felt as if it was about to take off. I sent Billy into the stands while I stood in the warm rain and wind preferring to avoid the risk of being carried away by a Popupraces tent.

5. Tots Race

I think that it was amazing how the mini hurricane disappeared the moment the women’s race was over. It was just as well as the next race up was Billy’s race. Billy was a little upset with the choice of music for his race, he would have preferred the Seanie Maguire song Free from Desire that the girls crossed the line to rather than Blinding Lights that soundtracked his storming run to the finish.

6. No Cross Country for Moderately Old Men

I think that 10 minutes is plenty of a warmup for a race. I have nearly perfected it now, three or four minutes of jogging and then three by one minute of a bit of an effort. It was a bit intimidating to realize that myself and Niall Shanahan were probably the only masters runners in a field of predominantly young fellas. Kathryn Casserly organized us all on the line, told us the number of laps, one small and five big and away we went. It didn’t take long for the youngfellas to disappear.

7. T-Shirt and Asics

I think that just like in a road race one of the worst things that you can see in front of you a few minutes into a race is the sight of a fella wearing a t-shirt and non-magic shoes. There is another level to this awful sight, that is when the fella in front of you is in a cross-country race and is wearing a t-shirt and Asics Cumulus with no spikes and you are wearing top of the range Dragonfly XC 2s. Thankfully it only took the first small lap to go past the fella in the t-shirt and the normal shoes.

8. Moving on Up

I think that jumps over hay bales should be mandatory in cross country. After a few laps the race was pretty spread out. I could see Oisin Davis getting the better of the Ennis Track lads on the section where the course looped back on itself in what looked like a close battle. I had hoped to use Niall Shanahan as a gauge for my race but after three of the big laps he was nearly a minute ahead, so I just focused on beating the two Galway City Harriers fellas who I ended up running with. The four or five jumps every lap kept the race kept things interesting in the absence of any great enemies.

9. Beautiful Day

I think that it was amazing how good the weather was for the men’s race. It was a total contrast to the women’s race, blue skies, a gentle breeze, nice and warm, very uncross-country weather. There were a few wet spots in places because of the ridiculous downpour of rain but nothing that would slow down a fella wearing a pair of Asics Cumulus and a t-shirt too much.

10. 14th Good Performance?

I think that it is always hard to judge how great and excellent you are doing in a cross-country race. It wouldn’t make for a great Instagram post. “Well done to me for coming 14th in the cross country, I beat this fella who trust me is good”. It’s not as easy as “I ran 2:29 in the marathon aren’t I great.” In the end I beat the two Galway City Harriers fellas, I was surprised however to cross the line and see right behind me the fella in the t-shirt and the normal shoes. Surely, he must have another lap to do? But no, he was finished. I told him afterwards that he’d have beaten me if he’d spikes which he would have. Turns out that he’s David Carter’s cousin, the only Galway man who runs races in Cork and a very handy runner himself. So, it was a good performance even if the pictures say that I was nearly beaten by a fella in a t-shirt with no spikes.

Photo: rhona

Pacing The Charleville Half Marathon 2026

10 Things I Think About Pacing The Charleville Half Marathon 2026

1. Hardest Possible Job

I think that I worry about what running will be like in 10 years’ time. There are too many people like me and not enough like Michael Herlihy. Too many people who don’t like volunteering. We may need to consider implementing some sort of mandatory voluntary service. I always feel guilty about the Charleville Half Marathon, so I normally volunteer to do some pacing although last year I stood at the side of the road in the wind and rain wearing two jackets handing out water bottles. This year it was pacing, pacing 1:20 the hardest possible pacing job.

2. Clinical Organization

I think that it is terrifying how much organization goes into the Charleville Half Marathon. It is so well and thoroughly organized that it would put anyone off organizing a half marathon. Arriving in Charleville to see the thousands of runners running around the place warming up and collecting bibs with no sign of any chaos. I collected my bib and pacing balloon in less than five minutes, leaving time to talk to John Kinsella and John Meade before warming up. John Kinsella was a bit nervous about his new Pumas, he need not have worried.

3. Swedish Warmups

I think that there are very few good sources of information about running. There are a lot of charlatans and snake oil salesmen about. Let the buyer beware. The only decent source of information is interviews with athletes like Andreas Ahlmgren. He said in a recent interview that his warmup includes 4x1min threshold efforts which seems like a good idea, so I stole it and tried it before my pacing job. It did a good job of covering me in a thick layer of sweat.

4. I Don’t Speak Instagram

I think that for a moderately old man like me, discussing running with youngfellas is like when I run in races abroad and you can’t talk because you don’t know the running terminology in the different language. I was very fearful of being unable to communicate with the 1:20 group as I don’t speak Instagram, so I planned to stay quiet and not be a shouting encouraging style pacemaker.

5. Beautiful Straight Exciting Road

I think that Michael Herlihy is a great man. He is responsible for this course with its never-ending straight road from Charleville to Kilmallock. It is so long, it feels like at least 10 miles to someone like me who can’t concentrate. I was lucky to have Alan O’Brien to chat to for the first 3 miles to pass the time. Apparently proper runners like running on straight flat roads.

6. Balloon

I think that pacing balloons are not needed after the first few miles. As we reached the end of the never ending straight road to Kilmallock after clocking off what felt like 21 3:46 minutes per kilometer splits I saw a little boy about Billy’s go hopping up and down at the side of the road. He looked like he would appreciate a balloon, so I disconnected my 1:20 pacing balloon from the handy clip on my shorts and handed it him before rejoining my 1:20 pace group.

7. Peloton

I think that as we passed through the historic old town of Kilmallock which is a great town as it signifies the end of the terrible 10 mile straight road from Charleville I thought that I was going to lead a big gang of runners under 1:20. There were loads of them with me. No one seemed to be in any great difficulty although the air was thick with humidity, never a good thing for running half marathons.

8. Echelons

I think that it was interesting how the group thinned out on the nice bit of the course on the winding country roads back to Charleville. I kept clicking off the 3:46 kilometers but almost as often as a 3:46 would appear on the watch another person would disappear from the group. I felt bad about this but there wasn’t much I could do except stick to the pace.

9. Smithereens

I think that the last 6k were very interesting. I kept to the pacing regime but despite the constant pace I passed a lot of people in various degrees of running and walking. By the time we emerged back onto the straight road at 10 miles my group had been reduced to just one man from Mallow, Aaron Cahill. He was still able to talk so I was confident that we would make it to the finish together.

10. 1:20:00

I think that the picking up the pace at the end of Charleville is unlikely. The mallow man had notions of picking it up which I neither confirmed nor denied as a possibility, “we will see when we get to a kilometer to go” I told him. On the way home we collected a few more members of our group which made it seem like I had done a great job brining so many people home under 1:20. As we entered the last few 100m I let them all go and jogged home exactly, precisely and accurately at 1:20:00 which was great as it meant Michael Herlihy couldn’t give out to me.

Rob Heffernan Mile 2026

10 Things I Think About The Rob Heffernan Mile 2026

1. Josh Kerr W.R. 3:42.66

I think that after a summer where the world record for the mile was broken by the most humble athlete in the world Josh Kerr it was great to have the opportunity to do a mile race. I hadn’t run anything shorter than a 5k since last years mile which is a great pity as it is probably my favourite race distance to do.

2. What Are You Building?

I think that the best thing the minister for health could do in the morning is to ban all races longer than a mile. Marathons should definitely be banned as they are exceptionally bad for health causing stress fractures and relentless social media posting about training blocks and builds. We would all be a lot healthier and happier if we only trained for distances up to a mile, maybe 5ks would be allowed too and the odd 10 miler.

3. Ingebrigsten Session

I think that it was a bad idea to copy the Jakob Ingebrigsten, day before a 1500m race mini session, the day before the mile. I am a moderately old man, 40 years of age and I have not run fast all year apart from the death sprint against Viv in Donoughmore which took me nearly a week to recover from. 200m, 150, 100m, 100m with a walk recovery in between. That couldn’t hurt you could it, it’s not even a kilometre. Unfortunately, on the morning of the race I woke to same feeling I first felt as an U10 GAA player in February after running a few laps of the pitch after a winter of inactivity.

4. Discombobulatingly Early and Late

I think that I am almost used to being late for races. I thought that I was going to be very on time for this race arriving at 1:30pm but the traffic apocalypse at Mahon Point and a Munster senior cross country style timetable meant that I arrived just as the senior men’s race was about to start. I was a little discombobulated by everyone being on the actual start line waiting to go, so much so that I considered not running as I am a confirmed moderately old man and racing without a warmup at my age can lead to injuries that would bring my illustrious running career to a premature end.

5. Putting on Magic Shoes Race

I think that I was lucky that Rob Heffernan kindly delayed the start while I put on my beautiful colourful Puma Fast R3s which are exceptionally hard to put on. I didn’t feel at all stressed about the situation. I took my time and made sure to double knot the laces while Rob told everyone how I had finished 4th in the mile last year beating Denis Coughlan who was horrified at the time and probably still is.

6. Youngfellas

I think that the great thing about a mile race is that you don’t have to think. You especially don’t have to think when you have had no warmup of any sort, not even a jog or a stride. There were lots and lots of youngfellas in the race, the majority of them wearing the red singlet of Cork City A.C. They were very fast and impossible to keep up with. There was however a second pack of youngfellas from assorted clubs behind the main pack that were not impossible to keep up with and after 200m they even began to slow and my cold started diesel engine began to warm up so I began to move up the field which was very good for the head.

7. Uh Oh a Gruff

I think that my main fear in the race was being beaten by Gruff. Gruff has run 4:17 or so for the mile and that was without any magic shoes so it was not going to be easy. I thought that I was in trouble after 400m as I could see the distinctive high-quality Glanmire adidas singlet which can be purchased for the low price of €35 in my peripheral vision as we approached the cones that divided the course from 400m to the 800m turnabout. I knew I wasn’t beating Gruff in a sprint so the middle 800m was going to be key.

8. U Turn if You Want To, These Magic Shoes are not for Turning

I think that the course was a little slower this year with the U turn after 800m. The straight-line mile from end to end of the Marina last year with the wind behind us was a dream but I suppose also a bit of a logistical nightmare. I am not a fan of U turns, I can’t do them, especially in magic shoes, it nearly requires stopping as can be clearly seen from the speed graph on Strava. I think I will have to learn how to do the Japanese style turn that the fella in front of me did, although it kind of looks like a sort of magic trick. I didn’t fall over or hit anyone while going around the U turn so I suppose it wasn’t too bad.

9. 4:51

I think that I did well to hold off Gruff on the run to the line, I passed out two more fellas who were running in t-shirts as it is very important to beat fells running in t-shirts but couldn’t beat the only other non-youngfella ahead of me in a Duhallow A.C singlet Eoin O’Connell so I think that I was second non-youngfella which is good. 4:51 was the time on the clock which is ok and when you take into account the U turn probably the same time as I ran last year when I beat Denis Coughlan who was horrified at the time and probably still is.

10. Femke Bol

I think that my favourite part of the day was not actually the mile race at all. It was the relay, a 4x400m relay. We entered a team of me, Rhona, Roselyn and Gruff. In all the many years of my illustrious running career I had never run a relay with a baton in my hand. Everyone else in the relay was at least 20 years younger than us so it had an interesting dynamic. 200m into the first leg and I was last by a good bit but luckily the turbo lag disappeared, and I went from last to 3rd before handing off to Rhona. Gruff had the last leg and was like a man reborn again, bouncing off the ground like he was back in East Tennessee taking us from 5th to nearly 4th. Great fun.

Photo: Rhona

Mooreabbey Milers 10 Mile 2026

10 Things I Think About The Mooreabbey Milers 10 Mile 2026

1. Racing Reunion

I think that it was great to get the chance to recreate one of my favourite races of all time, the Galbally 10 Miler of 2023. The day when Michael McMahon, John Meade and I ran around Galbally in the sunshine with classic tunes from Declan Nerney blaring from the back of Kevin Moore’s father’s Suzuki Jeep. I was very keen to repeat the race so in contrast to the modern runner who actively avoids the potential for bad beatings that won’t look good on Instagram I persuaded both John Meade and Michael McMahon to come to Galbally for a reunion/rematch.

2. Norwegian Lactate Testing

I think that it was very professional of me to get my lactate tested before the reunion in Galbally. My last lactate test was in 2023 with Ian O’Sullivan. The numbers back then were amazing, some say they were the best numbers ever, better than Barry Donovan and identical to Cork’s number one running influencer Tadhg O’Sullivan. This time the test was performed by Glanmire’s only Norwegian Chris Smetana who grew up in a country where lactate testing is mandatory so I trusted him to ensure my values would be excellent. All I can say is that the numbers Chris tested were again very excellent with lots and exactly the right amount of lactate produced. John Meade doesn’t know what a good lactate is.

3. Reluctant Dread

I think that the worst part of any 10 mile race is the warmup, the dread of having to do the race is something special. Galbally has a perfect warm up field right beside the start so there is no stress apart from the dread of having to do a 10 mile race. Everyone including John Meade was very interested in the results of my lactate testing which formed the majority of the discussion during the warm up in addition to how much all of us were dreading the race.

4. I Must Say

I think that it was great to get a boost just before the start. I did one vicious stride before the start to scare my competition but all I succeeded in doing was impressing Kevin Moore’s father in the Suzuki Jeep. “I must say Donal Coakley is looking very well”. I felt apocalyptically bad, so this cheered me up immensely. He said nothing of the sort about John Meade, perhaps it’s the nice purple Glanmire singlet with the purple shorts and colourful Pumas.

5. Cruising Misery Speed

I think that the start was very efficient, we all lined up, Graham Meikle took a photo before sprinting into the distance and away we went. As we left the village of Galbally a group of five formed at the front of the race, John Meade, Michael McMahon, Michael Corbett and Sean Russell. It always amazes me how terrible you can feel 500m into a 10-mile race. I considered dropping out, how can I possibly run 10 miles with McMahon and Meade, this is going to be hell.

6. Magic Roads

I think that the roads around Galbally are deceptively hard. Because Ireland has lots of money now the road surfaces have become more and more excellent over the years. The excellence of the roads has turned a lot of the roads now into magic roads, magic roads where you can’t tell whether it is slightly uphill or slightly downhill. This is no issue for John Meade as he runs faster up hill than on the flat but for me it is very confusing to my head as what appears to be a relatively flat road can be extremely hard to run on. The magic roads led to confusing annoying changes in pace which eventually reduced the group of five to a group of three, Meade, McMahon and I, the original three amigos.

7. The Theory of Greek Gods and Local Elite Club and BHAA Running

I think that there is a hierarchy in Local Elite Club and BHAA Running. It is very similar to how the Greek Gods worked. There is a main god like Zeus was, this is probably Michael Harty, then there are other lower gods like John Meade and Barry Twohig, I am not a god, I am a mortal, a person that you must beat in order to become a god. I am not respected by the gods, but the gods respect each other. A perfect example of this was the key point of the race when we passed the water stop just after 5 miles, if I was Barry Twohig, there is no way John Meade would have put the foot down, but I’m not, so instead of pouring water over my head in an act of respect, Meade poured the water on his own head, put the foot down attacked opening a gap that would never be closed. I wish I was a god.

8. Marauding McMahon

I think that Michael McMahon is not a man you want to have chasing after you. The last four miles were very hard. John Meade was still in sight just up the road, an annoying amount ahead. A fella in a Toyota Avensis going in the other direction pulled down the window and said, “he’s suffering”. This added to the thought of a marauding McMahon behind me provided just enough motivation to get up the last big hill on the course at eight miles before the downhill run to the finish.

9. Sisyphus

I think that running is an extremely annoying sport, I have spent most of my long illustrious running career with one goal in mind, becoming good enough to beat John Meade frequently. I have thrown everything at it, supplements, orthotics from Belgium, magic shoes, lactate tests, even 140 miles a week. I finally achieved my goal in 2019. But much like Sisyphus sentenced to a life of pushing a rock up and down a hill I have been sentenced to a life of get good enough to beat John Meade, only to get injured and having to figure out how to beat him again. It’s a hard life, unfortunately I’m back at the bottom of the hill as he gave me a bad beating by over 30 seconds in the end.

10. Same but Different Podium

I think that it was great to have the same people on the podium as back in 2023. The order was completely different. I went from 3rd to 2nd, McMahon went from 1st to 3rd and Meade went from 2nd to 1st. The times were a little slower but close enough to make no difference. We collected our very generous envelopes sponsored by Hinchy’s garage where my grandfather bought all his Opel Fronteras and retired to the warmup loop for warm down in front of the Galtees. I lost the warm down badly as I was immediately dropped by Meade and McMahon who showed no signs of mortality. Perhaps they are actually gods.

Donoughmore 7 2026

10 Things I Think About The Donoughmore 7

1. Did I Mention I Won This Race Before?

I think that it is nice to go back to a race that you’ve won before. I love that I won this race before because it really annoys Michael Herlihy. Despite my recent terrible career threatening injury I had some hope of winning again as there had been two races already this week, so the potential competition had been worn down.

2. Viv and the Incoherent Nonsense

I think that Viv could be a character in a Shakespearean play. He is a nuanced character. On one hand he is a very nice kind man, one of the nicest you could meet, a gentleman. Then you have the viciously competitive runner that will not quit, and then the side that most people don’t see, the nonsense spouting man saying he would be taking it handy tonight.

3. Irish Singlet

I think I should apologize to anyone that was confused by my wearing of the Irish singlet during the warmup and during Billy’s race. I want to make it clear that I have not ever run for Ireland in a senior race, I know it’s hard to believe, I bought the singlet off the internet for €35. I was going to wear it in the race as it is exactly the same fit and material as my adidas Glanmire singlet, but I thought it might cause too much confusion. You can’t get them anymore now because they are sold out, apparently people have been coming from Gdansk to buy them.

4. Warm Up Session

I think that as I become more and more confirmed in my moderately old man status the more, I need a good fast warm up. A two mile jog doesn’t work anymore I need to do a few efforts to get the legs working. So after Billy’s race I did a few 300m reps on the grass pitch at some bit of an effort. I think it works although I still believe that the best warm up for any race is to arrive at the last minute a little bit very stressed.

5. Moderately Old Man Strength

I think that it is interesting that the top ten of most local cork road races seem to be dominated by moderately old men. During the first two miles of the race I think I could see why. Sean Davin was gone into the distance but the battle for second was between the same moderately old men that have been around since 2010 or so. The sheer strength of fellas like Mike Morgan and Mick Corbett is frightening. It is not strength from a gym; it is strength from running in the terrible shoes that we used to have to race in before 2019 and the dawn of the magic shoe era.

6. Anti-Ageing Shoes

I think that magic shoes are great. They get more and more magic every year meaning that despite the ageing process there is no deterioration in time. Viv is getting better if anything, it’s wonderful, the shoe du jour at the moment is the Puma Fast R3. There is no better shoe for a moderately old man. Mick Corbett was wearing the Saucony Endorphin Elite but Viv, Mike Morgan, Tim Twomey and I were all in the Pumas, the new king.

7. Get a Gap

I think that the great thing about being taller and bigger than Viv is that I can run downhill much faster than he can which drives him mad. The Donoughmore 7 is an unusual course, it starts with two miles uphill, followed by two miles downhill, then a rolling mile and finishes with two miles of a climb to the finish. I knew that the two downhill miles were my only hope so once we turned left onto the downhill section I put in a big effort and sure enough the pitter patter of Viv’s feet faded away only to be replaced by the sound of rain falling from blue skies.

8. The Alp

I think that the last two miles to the finish are wonderful, it must be the best finish to a road race anywhere. It is more like a cycling race than a running race. I am utterly useless at running up hills so I was terrified of what was about to happen when I swung left to begin the ascent, I had seen two consecutive 3:00 kilometers on my watch so I knew I had some bit of a gap but was pretty sure than most of the gap had been eroded by a marauding Viv when I saw a 3:48 minute kilometer appear on my Garmin with only one third of the climb completed.

9. Extreme Hatred

I think that no matter how far I was ahead of Viv at the bottom of the climb he was going to catch me. It was inevitable. He runs on hatred of me; it is his super fuel. All of his P.Bs are in races against me because he hates me so much. 400m before the finish the catch was made, Viv had also dragged Mick Corbett with him. I knew they would want to take a breather once they had caught me, so I eased up a little bit, let them catch me before putting in one last final effort in an attempt to keep second place.

10. Death Sprint

I think that if there is one person you don’t want to have to sprint against for a slightly larger John Buckley Sports voucher it is Viv, well maybe Aidan Noone would be worse, but Viv is pretty vicious. As we rounded the corner to the finishing straight, he opened a bit of a gap. I sprinted as hard as I could and was amazed to see the gap closing and not see Mick Corbett also going past. I started to believe I might actually beat Viv in a sprint but alas the finishing gantry came too soon, and I had to accept third place albeit in the same time as Viv. It was just as well he was only taking it handy.

Glen River Park Run

10 Things I Think About The Glen River Park Run

1. Local Park

I think it is great to have a ParkRun so close to Glanmire. Glanmire has lots of houses but no park or track or anything so the closest ParkRun is in the Glen. You could run to the Glen from Glanmire but it is about 5 miles and involves running up a very long steep hill.

2. Volunteering

I think it is amazing that ParkRun works entirely on a volunteer basis. Volunteers are great, I’m not a very good volunteer but Rhona and Billy are, this time they were timekeepers so I had no reason not to do the Glen ParkRun.

3. Warm Up

I think that the Glen is a great place to go for a run. It is a little short of lap but the surface is one of the few remaining no tarmac or concrete loops in the city. I did two laps of the flat loop to warm up in my New Balance 1080s before changing into my Nike Vaporfly 4s to show that I was intent on making a Barry Twohig or Michael McMahon style effort.

4. Visitors from Glanmire

I think that ParkRun is a very welcoming community. Before the start they have a little chat where they welcome all the people from different places. There were people from all over the place, Croatia, Wales, England and Glanmire.

5. English Tourist

I think that I was horrified to see what my running brain saw as an English tourist with significant running ability powering down the hill just in time for the start. I had hoped to be able to make my attack on Barry Twohig’s impressive course record of 16:30 on my own. Now I knew I would have company.

6. “I’m Only Doing a Tempo”

I think that after the first lap I was considering trotting out the usual excuse when you get a bad beating in a ParkRun that I was only doing a tempo. It was very hard work and it seemed to be completely impossible to drop the English tourist in his sunglasses.

7. Mount Glen

I think that I was very lucky that the Glen ParkRun route goes up a huge steep hill twice. It wasn’t so much the going up the hill that made the difference but the going down. The going down is harder than the going up and having navigated the hill with Billy in a buggy I was very good at running down the hill, good enough to get a little gap on the English tourist.

8. One Lap Left

I think that it is great to have courses with laps. Laps are great for breaking down a race into manageable chunks. With one lap to go I had a tiny gap on the English tourist, it wasn’t really a gap as I suspected that if he was anywhere near me on the finishing straight I would be easily out-sprinted so I knew I needed to make another effort up and down the hill.

9. First Finisher

I think I did very well to stay ahead of the English tourist and become the first finisher. In the end there was only 10 seconds or so between us all of which was found on the downhill. Once I had collected the finishing token I realised that it was in fact not an English tourist but a Glen Park regular Marcus Bishop who happens to be from England but is in the process of becoming from Cork.

10. Faster Than Meade

I think the great thing about ParkRun aside from all the other great things like the volunteering and the niceness is the historical list of fastest times. It was great to find out that my time while 30 seconds slower than Barry Twohig’s ridiculous effort was 20 seconds faster than John Meade which is great and wonderful. An indirect bad beating of John Meade.

European Athletics Championships Birmingham 2026 Unity 5K

10 Things I Think About The European Athletics Birmingham 2026 Unity 5K

1. Is There Anyone Left In Ireland

I think the European Championships in Birmingham were wonderful. It was basically a home championships with the amount of Irish in the stadium. “Is there anyone left in Ireland?” was a common question from the Brummies. It probably helped that Seamus Carey booked a lot of the tickets so all the Irish People were sitting together.

2. Noses Up

I think that mass entry races on the route that the actual championships take place are a great idea. What’s not to like about getting to race on the same route as used in the Championships? You’d think with the invasion of running talent that the race would be full of sub elite runners when in fact most of them turn their noses up at the thought of pretending to be an elite runner for the day. I don’t know why.

3. Waves

I think that despite the randomly assigned waves the event was still good fun. I was in the third of three waves setting off at 12:15 or so I thought. I jogged up to the start from the Jewellery Quarter where we were staying with a lot of other Irish people in the Irish chain apart-hotel Staycity. The wave opened at 12:05 so in I went thinking 10 minutes isn’t too long to stand around for before a 5k.

4. Man’s Best Friend

I think that I made a very bad mistake with thinking that the wave started at 12:15. I looked at my watch at 12:10 and said to the fella next to me “only 5 minutes to go”, “mate the start isn’t until 12:35”. It wasn’t that bad. I got talking to a fella that does Canicross which sounds cool, if you thought magic shoes were good being dragged by a dog is way faster, apparently the European Championships are in Ireland next year.

5. Sub Elite Zumba

I think that I can see why the sub elite runners turn their noses up at the prospect of a mass participation event. The 12:15 start that I had thought was the start of the wave was in fact the start of warm up with a very enthusiastic man who was hoisted up on a large cherry picker to conduct a zumba style warm up. It was good fun and was also fun to see the serious looking runner stare straight ahead expressionless and motionless for the entirety of the warm up.

6. Down The Hill

I think that it was interesting to hear what times my fellow runners were expecting to run. A lot of them were very young and seemed to be looking for P.Bs which seemed a little unrealistic given the nature of the course. They were all younger than the youngfellas I race back home so I suppose they didn’t know. After 30 minutes of standing around with a little bit of half hearted zumba in the middle we set off at a ridiculous pace down the hill.

7. Twisty Turny Topsy Turvey

I think that the course was fantastic if you didn’t care about what time or pace you were running. It was relentless, there was at all times either an uphill, downhill or twist and turn to be negotiated, there was no let up. I don’t know how anyone would do eight laps as one lap was bad and wonderful enough. The road surface was typical city roads with filled in potholes, cobbles, concrete and even bricks. It was never too rough but it was very far from the streets of Berlin or Valencia.

8. The Finishing Climb

I think that the last mile of the 5K was impressively hard. I did the first mile in under five minutes and was probably 10th or 12th, maybe the youngfellas were right to be going for P.Bs. Then the hills started the, relentless hills, there were at least four very bad ones, the one up by the nice coffee shop was the longest with the ramp that led up to the Staycity road where I was staying being the steepest. Then to cap it all off the last mile was completely mad with a 180 degree hairpin breaking up a steep downhill before an 800m climb to the finish. It was like a good cycling race circuit, except without the cyclists.

9. Mad Training

I think that Strava has ruined the modern runner. What I have noticed over my many years running is that before GPS watches and Strava a lot of training used to be done on hilly loops, like in Beaumont Park or Doneraile Park, we’d have a time that we knew was ok and would aim for that. Nowadays everyone trains on the flat so that sessions will look good and perfect on Strava. As a result courses like the one in Birmingham are seen as mad, I think I know what is mad, and it’s not the course in Birmingham.

10. Twentyfourth

I think that it was nice to finish in the top 25 of the race, I even made the moderately old man M40 podium in second place. Much like the history of Irish athletes in European Championships I was beaten to top spot on the podium by a polish athlete called Marcin by 7 seconds. After the 5k came the real highlight of the Europeans, the Unity 1K where Billy aka Josh Kerr ran with Rhona. He battered everyone apparently, don’t know where he gets it from.

Cursa D’Age 2026

10 Things I Think About The Cursa D’Age 2026

1. # Font

I think that it is great to be back in Font-Romeu (please, please don’t call it Font) for another training holiday. I don’t call it a camp because that would mean that I was a serious runner. I’m here to race, not to train which means that if the race is on in Age while I’m in Font-Romeu I’ll be there.

2. Rouxpaille

I think that when I was getting up a 7am to go to the Rouxpaille for baguettes and croissants I wished that I was in Font Romeu to train and not to race. I don’t like getting up early which is very not French as they’re all up at the dawn like John Meade. Une paille means drinking straw which is an impossible word to pronounce no matter how many time I have to ask for one for Billy’s kombucha or apple juice. I don’t know what Roux means but the Rouxpaille has great baguettes and average croissants.

3. Shopping Bags

I think that the race in Age has the best goody bags of all. For €15 or so you get a huge big bag of shopping and a chip timed number with your name printed on it. There is no race t-shirt which is great as I have probably over 200 at home in a press all of which will shortly be on sale on Vinted.

4. Portaloo

I think that it is great that they finally have portaloos in Age. I had become fairly good at finding spots in the bushes in the surrounding farm land but this year there was no need as there was a lovely clean brand new portaloo with all the requisite supplies right by the start. I waited until 2 minutes before the appointed start time of 9:30 which meant there was no queue.

5. Col de la Llose

I think that the problem with being in Font Romeu the week before a race is that it is too tempting to do all the nice routes. There are very few flat routes in Font Romeu, even the blue easy facile ones have lots and lots of hills. I thought the route 25 at the Col de la Llose would be a nice flat route but unfortunately Michael Herlihy and John Meade went well beyond the designated turning point and we ended up with 1000ft of climbing in 2 miles. All of which came back to me when the race in Age started off up a hill.

6. Meade and the Youngfellas

I think that John Meade was made for this race in Age. Unfortunately both me and John Meade are now moderately old men which means that we can never be confident of winning races ever again due to youngfellas. Unfortunately there were packs of youngfellas in Age and they got quite a gap on both me and John Meade in the first mile. Not to worry I thought, the old man strength will kick in. It did for John but I think I left mine on the Col de la Llose

7. Picking Them Off

I think that despite not being able to stay with John Meade as he chased after the youngfellas I did well to pick off the fellas between me and John Meade. I got two of them on the road before the trail began at 4k. Up ahead I could see that John Meade was about 150m behind the pack of youngfellas at the front. 150m is a lot I thought.

8. Buen Dia

I think that it was great to have someone to race. I ended up battling with a fella who said buen dia to all of the volunteers on the road. He seemed like a nice fella so I couldn’t really generate any desire to beat him so I just ran alongside him as we were going quickly enough not to be overtaken by anyone else.

9. Deadly Rocks

I think that I did very well to drop my buen dia buddy on the deadly rock section. I am normally terrible on the deadly rock section as I have size EU 47.5 feet and the chance of clipping a rock is significantly higher than with a EU 42.5 foot like John Meade. I even managed to make inroads into the next fella up the road. I wasn’t too worried as I reckoned I had done enough to make the moderately old man podium which was my B goal after my A goal of administering a bad beating to John Meade.

10. Chaos and Moderately Old Man Podium

I think that the last kilometre was very eventful. It’s a pretty straightforward route but one of the youngfellas up ahead went off on a trail that wasn’t part of the course. The fella in front of me told the youngfella he was gone wrong and was going to wait for him but the youngfella was gone a long way wrong and looked wrecked anyway so we kept going. I ended up 7th and 2nd in the moderately old man category which was great but not as great as John Meade who overhauled all but two of the pack of youngfellas to finish 3rd overall. John Meade is suspicious fast.

Me, Josh KERR AND rHONA, bILLY RAN A RACE TOO.

Churchtown South 4 Mile 2026

10 Things I Think About The Churchtown South 4 Mile 2026

1. On Holidays

I think that I hope my running and blogging was terribly missed. I hope everyone was wondering what I was up to. The answer is that I had a grade three bone stress response in my right anterior calcaneus. Basically my right foot was a bit sore under the arch and I had to stop running for 6 weeks. Chris Smetana fixed it with the magic shockwave machine and now I am fine again. I did 50 minutes of Zwifting most days while I was not supposed to run which was impressive enough for Chris Mintern to say that I should do Triathlons, although he probably just wants to give me a bad beating.

2. Sun, Sea and Churchtown South

I think that Churchtown South is a great place to go for the first race of the best summer in years. It has been extremely sunny; I am taking the credit for the sun as I got solar panels for the house and ever since they have been installed it has been sunny. The sun makes the Churchtown South race as there is nothing better than the view of the sea at about 2 miles.

3.Hatred y Agua

I think it was great that John Meade showed up as it made me motivated and nervous. The perfect combination of natural performance enhancing substances, nerves and hatred. The modern runner takes nomio shots, beetroot shots, bicarb, carbohydrate gels and lactate gels before races to maximise their performance. All I need is hatred and some water.

4. Revolut is King

I think that I was very bad turning up to a race with no cash. It just doesn’t feel right not putting the cash into the biscuit tin but I was very late and didn’t have time to go to the ATM. I had to jog up and down to the registration twice as the first time I didn’t have my phone as I thought I’d be able to pay with my Garmin watch but it was payment via Revolut so I had to go back down and get the phone. It all worked fine and excellently and I had a warm up and a number completed with 10 minutes to spare.

5. Multi Colour Pumas

I think that it is great how terrified Irish men are of wearing colourful shoes or clothing. It means that it is very easy to get clothes and shoes on discount. I’ve had this pair of multi coloured Puma Fast R3s sitting in box for the last three months. I probably should have worn the Vaporfly 4s as they would have been better on the rough section of the road but I couldn’t resist wearing the Pumas as they work very well with the purple Glanmire A.C singlet.

6. Bluffing

I think that when you haven’t done a lot of training the best thing to do in the first race is to bluff the first mile and pretend that you are as fit as you were before the injury. It is very obvious from watching many races that gaps are rarely closed in races so if you can open a gap in the first mile that is probably it. So when the race went off I ran the first mile as hard as I could, only John Meade came with me.

7. Two Kilometres

I think that I did very well to get to the two kilometre beep on my watch with John Meade. We ran 3:10 pace or 5:10 mile pace for the first two kilometres which was way too fast for me and the minute the course tilted any bit upwards John Meade opened a gap, a gap that with all the hatred in the world I could not close.

8. In Sight

I think that I did well to keep John Meade in sight for the rest of the race. I figured that if I can maintain the gap to him that it was unlikely that anyone would catch me as that would mean  they were catching John Meade which we all know is impossible.

9. Ineffective Training

I think that I will have to reevaluate my training as it seems not to work much if at all. All my training seems to be worth around 40 seconds over four miles which is pretty pitiful and a poor return on investment. While I was injured I asked Claude to analyse my training over the last 16 years on Strava. It concluded that the biggest single factor that resulted in faster times was the use of magic shoes.

10. Moderately Old Man Prize

I think that it was great not to win the moderately old man prize by finishing second overall instead. It means that I have yet to win an over 40 prize. There is something horrifying about seeing the three letters M40 after your name in results although if the M40 is towards the top of the list of results it’s not so bad and sure isn’t it great to be still racing and being beaten by John Meade.

Achill 10K 2026

10 Things I Think About The Achill 10k

1. Anterior Calcaneal Bone Stress

I think that I have been very lucky over the years to get to run the Achill Half Marathon. Unfortunately this year in April I was struck down with a stupidity induced anterior calcaneal bone stress injury. Without an MRI I would have thought it was plantar fasciitis not that it particularly mattered what it was.

2. 6 to 8 weeks

I think that I was lucky that my heel injury only took 6 weeks to heal. It gave me a chance to salvage a race from the trip to Achill. Although having spent the weekend in Achill last year sans race participation it’s not that much of a punishment not to run when you can stay in the nice B&B on the beach and not be exhausted from running around the island.

3. Change Down

I think that it was great to be able to change down to the 10k. I definitely wasn’t ready for a half marathon but after two or three weeks of running without issue I was confident I could do a decent 10k and test out how well Zwift had worked at maintaining my running ability if it can be classified as ability. Changing distance was no problem, I went up to the tent in the field where the numbers were to be collected on the Friday evening, they clicked a few buttons on the Popupraces app and away I went with my 10K number. Very efficient.

4. Vaporfly 4 Curse

I think that when returning from injury it is very important to choose the right shoe. I decided to give the Pumas a rest as I had attributed some of the blame for my stupidity induced injury to them. Instead I chose to wear the Nike Vaporfly 4s which had laid idle for the last year as I had blamed them for my last terrible career threatening injury. In truth it is never the shoe that causes the injury, it’s always the stupidity.

5. Wet Day Big Crowd

I think that it was nice to experience the last wet and cloudy day in Ireland. The morning of the race was a typical west of Ireland scene. Rain, wind and grey, almost dark even at 10am. It was still beautiful even if you couldn’t really see the sea. As always there was a huge crowd, even the 10k was massive. I thought about stats and how unlikely it was that I was the fastest 10k runner in this sample size of runners.

6. Follow the Chinese EV

I think that when you have been injured for a while and are back for your first race it is very important to bluff the first mile. Just run as hard as you can and see if anyone comes after you. Luckily for me in Achill I had a nice Chinese EV to follow and no one came with me. I was amazed so I carried on bluffing and hoped for the best.

7. 325

I think that it was very nice to see 3:25 show up on the watch for the first kilometre. I hadn’t really done any hard running since the injury so wasn’t sure how fast I could run. I managed another similar kilometre before the lack of running started to tell and I could feel myself start to slow. Although I was running uphill in the wind and rain so it was hard to know whether it was lack of fitness or the weather.

8. 1730

I think that I was very happy to see 17:30 on the watch as I passed the 5k mark just before the course links back up with the end of the half marathon. The 10k route is basically the half marathon route cut in half and leaving out most of the long hills. It’s still hilly but it’s nowhere near as hard. The first 5k had been relatively easy as we had basically been blown away from Keel by the incredibly strong wind off the beach.

9. Last 5k of the Half

I think that it was nice to have the half marathon runners to chase for the last 5k. They had stated 45 minutes before the 10k so we were only catching the front of the field. I only passed one runner as the weather was particularly bad and I wasn’t exactly hopping off the road. I never looked behind because you aren’t allowed to do that in a race. I can never tell the difference between the wind blowing my number against my singlet and the sound of someone running behind me so I pretended there was somone right behind me the whole way to the finish.

10. Pop up Pups

I think that it was great to be recognised by Popupraces as a running celebrity/influencer after winning the 10k. I have worked very hard to attain this status and it is nice to be recognised. I was however even happier than my heel survived the 10k and that the Vaporfly 4s had been absolved of any blame for injuries. The 10k is every bit as good as the half marathon in Achill, although hopefully next year I will be injury free and back for the half marathon and if not I’ll be there anyway to stay in the nice Stella Maris B&B.

Mooreabbey Milers Curley 4 Mile 2026

Mooreabbey Milers Curley 4 Mile

1. Children Chasing Conan

I think that it is a little-known fact that Galbally is the ancestoral home of Conan O’Brien. It is also the ancestoral home of me. This ancestoral link was the main reason I had for doing a four mile race a forty five minute drive from Glanmire on a Wednesday evening at 7.30pm. That and I also like races organized by the Mooreabbey Milers.

2. Sabotage

I think that I was very horrified to see Michael Harty parked up getting ready for the race when I arrived. I had said to Rhona on the drive up that anyone could turn up in Galbally but I was thinking more along the lines of John Kinsella or Niall Shanahan, certainly not Michael Harty who lives even further away than me and as far as I know does not have ancestors from Galbally and is not a Conan O’Brien fan.

3. Stop The World and Let Me Off

I think that it was great to have Kevin Moore’s father in the jeep commentating and playing excellent music for the race. The Galbally 10 mile race where I ran with John Meade and Michael McMahon to an excellent soundtrack is still my favourite race of all time by miles. Unfortunately once the National Anthem had been played before the start, no music was played for the rest of the race. Perhaps he thought that Michael Harty would not appreciate his course record being run to the sounds of the remix of Declan Nerney’s classic Stop the World and Let me Off.

4. Dog Impeded Warm Up

I think that it was a very bad idea to bring two dogs to the race. I was already cutting it tight to get to the race so when we arrived at five past seven I thought I would have plenty of time to do a warm up and jog up to the start. Unfortunately the dogs started barking like mad when I went to jog down to collect my number so I had to walk at 13 year old labrador pace to the hall and back. My warm up was the jog up to the start which was plenty as it turned out.

5. A Fitting Tribute

I think that I was even more surprised to see Aidan Connell on the startline than Michael Harty. Aidan had run and won the Stryker 4 mile road race the previous night just over the road from me in Carrigtohill. I had skipped it as I thought it was a bit risky, being only one day after the Brutal Battle of Bartlemy with John Meade. I suppose it was a fitting tribute to Curley who was never shy of back-to-back races or even two races in the same day.

6. Tactically Astute

I think that I probably went off a bit too hard at the start. Michael Harty had the race won within 400m, leaving me with only Aidan Connell for company. I knew that the last thing a fella who has run a race the night before wants is a fast opening mile so I ran the first uphill mile with the wind as hard as I could. It must have been very fast as I could easily have hit Michael Harty with a stone if I wanted to after a mile.

7. I Have a Gap

I think that I thought I had second place sewn up after about 3k. I had a bit of a gap on Aidan and felt like I was moving well in the Pumas. Unfortunately there was a little hill up to the left hand turn back to Galbally at the 2 mile marker and Aidan used this hill to close right back up to me for the primarily downhill run to the finish in Galbally

8. Man of the Rás

I think that cyclists turned runners are a fearsome species. First I had to deal with Barry Twohig, now I have to deal with Waterford’s answer to Barry Twohig, Aidan Connell. They are both viciously strong on any sort of hill, ridiculously strong, nearly impossible to follow. Unfortunately I got to witness this power on the final climb of the race just after 3 miles. I thought I had a good chance with the downhill run to the finish but on the little climb Aidan put in a dig that seemed impossible and opened a gap so large that I’m pretty sure he was going faster than Michael Harty at that point in the race.

9. Asymptotic Curve

I think that most people don’t think of running and times correctly. People think that if you improve from say 21:10 to 20:59 over four miles in a 6 day period that it represents a 0.87% improvement. When in fact because the performance has an asymptote, a limit that you can technically never reach, which in my case is probably about 20 minutes flat, this represents a performance increase of 15.7% which is amazing and excellent and also why that 119 minute marathon is difficult to understand because all humans are limited by their asymptote.

10. Podium, Irish Flag, Statue

I think that the post race setup was excellent. They had a lovely podium with the statue and the Irish flag flying in the background. There was no waiting around which was great when you have to drive back to Glanmire on a school night. I did my warm down with Diarmuid McNamara who I went to college with. It is terrible to think that we are both nearly 40 which doesn’t make any sense as we both look exactly the same as we did in college. Running must be great for the ageing process.

Bartlemy 6K 2026

10 Things I Think About The Bartlemy 6K

1. Bartlemy, Where is That?

I think that no one knows where Bartlemy is. “I’m doing a race in Bartlemy” is always met with the response, “Bartlemy, Where is that”. Turns out its just up the road from Glanmire, slightly to the east of Watergrasshill. It’s a lovely place that reminded me of where I went to school in Anglesboro. We even had to stop to let cows cross the road just before arriving in the village, I haven’t done that in a long time.

2. The King of Bartlemy

I think that most people in the local elite cork club BHAA runner circuit know that John Meade is the King of Bartlemy. He also owns the title of King of Dingle Half Marathon, yes it is possible to be King of more than one place at the same time, it’s just not very common, for example Charles V was King of both Spain and Austria at the same time. I always wanted to be King of a place so I was very motivated by the prospect of potentially beating John Meade in Bartlemy just like Denis Hegarty had done the year before.

3. Back in the Pumas

I think that it was great to be back in the Pumas again. My knees were very good after Ballintotis so I decided that it was safe to return to the knee crushers. I wore the original colourway which just like the old Vaporfly 1 seems to be better than the later colourways. Why do the shoe companies do this? Make a perfect shoe and then change it slightly, it doesn’t make sense.

4. Is Bartlemy in Spain?

I think that Bartlemy could have been mistaken for a small village in the hills above Malaga on Sunday. I love these small races in small villages. Add the bit of sunshine and it was exactly like one of the approximados races in Spain without the approximados bit and an accurately measured 6k course. Collecting the numbers was a very efficient process in the hall with a nice warm up out and back the first mile to where the cows were crossing the road.

5. Ready Steady Go

I think that it was great to see a sea of Glanmire A.C singlets on the startline. Along with all the Glanmire A.C singlets there were a lot of children running in the race which made the first few 100m a little challenging as they start much faster than moderately old men like me and John Meade.

6. Youngfellas in Magic Shoes

I think that it was a little worrying when after a kilometre myself and John Meade still had company. It inevitable that with running becoming cool because of people like Tadhg O’Sullivan, youngfellas will start to dominate these races and myself and John Meade will be forgotten about. Luckily today was not that day and as we got to the bottom of the hill the group reduced to the King and his worst enemy  

7. Quiz Run

I think that it was an excellent idea to look at the route on Strava before the race. I knew that the there was a major climb from 1k to 4k What I didn’t know was that the race also involved a quiz with quiz questions written on the back of each kilometre marker. Surprisingly John Meade didn’t stop and do the quiz, instead he concentrated on trying to drop me on the 3k long climb which he failed to do try as he might.

8. He Breathes

I think that I thought I was in with a great chance as we started the descent from 4k to 5k. John Meade was breathing hard, I have never heard him breath before. It was very promising so I pushed as hard as I could down the hill. I looked at my watch which I rarely do and saw a 3:00 minute kilometre split. This might be enough I thought, I thought wrong.

9. Logotherapy

I think that John Meade’s primary motivation in life is beating me in races. How else could you explain what he did on the climb to the finish a little back further up the hill than where we started? He finished in a time 30 seconds faster than he had previously run on the course before. I was left to trail home three seconds later. Why didn’t I run faster up the hill? I tried as hard as I could, but it is very hard if not impossible to overcome a motivated John Meade.

10. Sparkling Water and a Spread

I think that the organisers must have known that I like nothing more than a bottle of sparkling water after a race. It is the first time in Ireland that I have been handed a bottle of sparkling of water. So good, very popular in Germany. It made up for having to watch John Meade collect his winners prize before I got my second place prize. After a short warm down we returned to the hall where a spread the like of which has not been seen since the Coolagown 10k was on display. Then John Meade was asked to draw the raffle for the signed Cork jersey, he really is the King of Bartlemy.

pHOTO: rhona

Ballintotis 4 Mile 2026

10 Things I Think About The Ballintotis 4 Mile 2026

1. Brigadoon

I think that the Ballintotis 4-mile road race is an incredible event. An amazing logistical achievement. I have often dropped Rhona to a Mary Kelly yoga retreat in the community centre in Ballintotis and wondered how anyone ever thought of holding a road race here on a route that runs along a national main road. It is amazing to return on the actual night and see the race appear from nowhere almost like it was a magical event which it probably is.

2. What Do Ye Be Doing?

I think that the people who turn up for a race that starts at 745pm at 6pm are great. It is because of them that I can rock up at 715pm without issue. But I do wonder what do ye be doing for the nearly two hours? A warmup takes 15 minutes max, putting on the number 5 minutes, putting on magic shoes? Even the pumas can be put on by an old man like me with tight hamstrings and an immobile back in less than 5 minutes, still loads of time left. Instagram, I suppose.

3. Puma Fast R Kneecrushers

I think that the Puma Fast R3s are an amazing shoe, definitely by miles and miles and miles the best 5k, 10k and 10 mile shoe out there. They do however have a slight flaw in that they are crushing my already battered knees. After the 25k on Sunday my knees were not good, so I decided to try out the more forgiving shoe geometry of the Asics Metaspeed Edge Tokyo. The Asics are very different, very very bouncy, perfect for a moderately old man with temporarily sore knees. A few wallsits and I’ll be able to tolerate the Pumas again but I think I will stick to the bouncy bouncy Asics for half marathons and above.

4. Tribal Rivalry

I think that it is great that the Ballintotis 4 mile incorporates the county road championship. You could feel the tension and the hatred between the different clubs on the line, it was wonderful, like being back playing GAA. “Why don’t we like Banogue? I don’t know we just don’t”. I’m with a new club now Glanmire A.C who are like a beautiful labrador puppy that none of the established clubs see as a threat, “ah look at them aren’t they cute in their lovely white and purple adidas singlets”, so I didn’t have to worry about anything which was both terrible and wonderful as I love a good inter club battle and even better a battle to get into the top four of the club team.

5. Youngfellas

I think that it was great to see so many youngfellas on the line. It is ridiculous that I am nearly 40 and I’m one of the younger people towards the front of races. The youngfellas were mainly from Rob Heffernan’s Cork City A.C, they were very good youngfellas the sort of youngfellas that would make nearly 40 year old men like me consider not turning up for races in future. When the race got under way the swarm of youngfellas took off at a ferocious speed led by their leader Sean Doyle, only Jeremiah Sheehan, Mark Walsh Niamh Allen, Michael Bruton and David Carter were able to follow.

6. A Masterpiece of a Road

I think that the road surface in Ballintotis should be preserved and perhaps some day put in a muesum. It would be difficult to make a road like that again. Years and years and years of filling in the potholes, it is a work of art. The perfect test of a good local club runner, can you navigate the filled patchwork of potholes at 5 minute mile pace or faster. You really do have to concentrate. I was a little worried as the Asics aren’t as nimble as the Pumas so I had a few scares.

7. An East Wind Blows No Good

I think that the wind direction was a big problem for me in Ballintotis. After the first ridiculously fast mile I was left in the second group on the road which comprised of essentially the moderately old man section of the race plus Chris Mintern. Being worried about the last mile I took the lead of the group and tried to run as hard as I could to see if I could maybe drop some of the other moderately old men before the inevitable swamping on the home straight by the lake. I obviously wasn’t as strong as I thought because Niall O’Callaghan had to take over at the front and push the pace on, he was followed by Maurice Feehan so at least I had some shelter.

8. How Do You Run Faster?

I think that it is very difficult to explain what a four mile race feels like at the three mile mark. It’s not very pleasant but at the same time it is wonderful. I’d love to be able to get to that point in a race and be able to start running faster but it has always seemed impossible to me. Like how do you run faster if you have no oxygen left, your legs hurt and are moving as fast as they can? It doesn’t make any sense when fellas like Conor McCauley, John Shine and a Cork Track Club athlete start flying past you from every direction like the race has only started. Maybe I need to pace myself better?

9. The Waiting Game

I think that I might try playing the waiting game in a race some time. It doesn’t seem like much fun, I much prefer the feeling of utter misery from the very start, it seems pure and how it should be. Perhaps we could introduce judges into running like in race walking where you get a yellow card, and then a red card if you aren’t visibly suffering enough during the race. I think it would work well introduce a bit of jeopardy into the event. Michael Herlihy would be a good man for the job.  

10. Fifteenth

I think that fifteenth wasn’t a bad result on the night. I was less than two minutes behind Jeremiah Sheehan who somehow managed to beat all of the youngfellas and their leader Sean Doyle. I was fourth in the M35 moderately old man category which meant I didn’t get any medal which was awful and terrible but I’m well used to it so I didn’t mind. I did a good long warm down with Ciaran and Mark Walsh which was supposed to be a mile but ended up being nearly four. By the time I finished it was nearly dark and nearly time for the magical race to disappear again for another year.

Great Railway Run 25K 2026

10 Things I Think About The Great Railway Run 25K 2026

1. Sub 1:30

I think that there is a very important time barrier in 25k running that no one talks about. The sub 1:30 25k. You never hear anyone on about it, there are no Instagram hashtags, nothing. For me however it is very important having run all four of the 25ks that I have finished in under 1:30. It is probably my proudest achievement in running, I should probably get a tattoo of it.

2. No Marathon, No Problem

I think that it is an enormous relief not to be doing the marathon in Cork this year. I was probably the only person doing the race who is not training for the marathon. Not training for the marathon meant that I could arrive on at 8:35, 25 minutes before the start and do 2k of a warmup. No big, long four or five mile warm up to make the race even harder and absolutely no chance of missing the start of the race like Dave Buckley and Andy Goulding.

3. All You Need is Love

I think that there was someone very popular in the lead group that formed on the first lap of the Ryan Creech Tempo loop before we headed out along the Marina. “I love you” was shouted at our group on two occasions. It wasn’t directed at me because Rhona was at home. We discussed it as a group before Barry Twohig said that he loved me and we continued off on our 25k journey to Carrigaline.

4. Second Best Priest

I think that I owe a woman on the Marina an apology. I need to practice my water bottle throwing while running. Just before we turned right at the playground on the Marina, I carefully lobbed a bottle that I had just picked up towards the large bag for collection of the bottles. Unfortunately, I missed the bag and the bottle collided with the foot of a woman who was sitting on a bench behind the bag. She sounded very cross as you would be after being hit with a water bottle while minding your own business on the Marina on a Sunday morning.

5. Tadhg and The Moderately Old Men

I think that it didn’t take Tadhg long to tire of the presence of the three moderately old men that joined him for the first four kilometres of the race. On the small climb off the Marina onto The Line, he put in a small carefully calibrated increase in pace from his usual setpoint of 3:25 a kilometre to 3:23 a kilometre. This increase in pace was enough to jettison myself, Brian Murphy from Kerry and Barry Twohig.

6. Comfortably Uncomfortable

I think that 25k pace is a lot more comfortable than marathon pace. I’m convinced that my body knows what race I’m doing and allows me to run at a pace that it knows won’t do any real damage. Perhaps if I could trick it into thinking a marathon was a 25k then I could finally break 2:30 in the marathon. Anyway from about 4k to 16k nothing happen except that I ran in the quarterback position right in between Brian and Barry. It was very pleasant if slightly uncomfortable at approximately 5:31 minutes per mile or 3:25 minutes per kilometre for the people who are Tadhg’s age.

7. 120g of Carbs per Hour

I think that the number of gels that people had on them for a 25k race was ridiculous. Barry Twohig had so many gels stuck to his bicep that I’m surprised he could still swing his arms; no wonder he got faster as the race went on as there were less gels to carry. I brought one SIS beta fuel gel with me which contains 40g of carbohydrate because all of the youngfellas are putting the amount of carbs that they consume during the run into the description on Strava now, so I didn’t want to be uncool and old.

8. Bye Bye Brian and Barry

I think that I am not designed to take gels. I am probably a low carb athlete or whatever they call it. Because the minute I went to take my gel at 16k I got dropped by Barry and Brian. I think the gels crash my blood sugar. I’ve run marathons fine with no gels like. It didn’t matter too much as I had no intention of trying to run up the hills from Raffeen to Shanbally at Barry Twohig pace, all it meant was that I had to do a few extra kilometres on my own and didn’t get to see who won in the battle for second behind Tadhg who was well gone at exactly 3:23 a kilometre.

9. Puma No Marathon

I think that if I was doing Cork marathon I would not be able to wear the Puma Fast R3. They are a wonderfully fast shoe up to about a half marathon but once you get tired there is no heel to heel strike with so it causes unusual pains. The pains for me came in my knees probably because I was heel striking. The pain only happened if I forgot to run up on my toes so it was kind of good as it kept me on pace to run under the all important 1:30 barrier which I did with two minutes to spare finishing fourth behind Tadhg, Brian and Barry in that order.

10. The Box Down

I think that it was so nice not to feel the pressure to do some mad length of a cool down after the race to make up numbers for Strava and the Cork marathon gods. A long warm down after a 25k race is completely insane when you think about it. It should be called a beat down instead of a cool down. Bash the badness into your legs even more, that’ll definitely make them better. Running is an impact sport, it’s not cycling, swimming or rowing, it’s more like boxing and you wouldn’t take more punches to warm down from being punched in the head, would you?

Cobh 10 Mile 2026

10 Things I Think About The Cobh 10 Mile 2026

1. Social Media

I think that social media has a lot to answer for. It’s causing a lot of problems. Big problems. People don’t want to run races with hills because of social media because you are supposed to run a P.B in every race and be in a state of perpetual improvement and betterment, regression will not be tolerated. Time goes out the window in Cobh, it’s a race, it would probably work better as a random distance, whatever the lap is.

2. Down With This Sort of Thing, Careful Now

I think that there is always something to worry about with races. This was a new one on me. Will I have enough diesel to get to the race? Will the protesters have taken the roads in? Luckily the scirocco sips diesel as slowly as I run up hills so there was no problem. I took the backroad of the backroad from Glanmire to Carrigtohill on the advice of John Meade who rang me as he was on his way to Cobh while I was having my breakfast of brown granary toast with peanut butter and an aeropress coffee which was very nice.

3. The Ascent

I think that my favourite part of the Cobh 10 is the ascent to the start from the town centre by the cool coloredy houses that tourists come to take photos of. I don’t know why that hill isn’t in the race. It would make the race better, probably attract more lunatics like me, the flat track runners are already deterred by the lesser hills in the route. Actually start the race in the town up the hill and make it 18k. Perfect. Imagine the photos, my calves would look excellent.

4. Sted Sarandos

I think that John Meade isn’t to be trusted. You never know what he is up to. There was no sign of him on the entry list, perhaps he entered under a pseudonym Harry Styles style because as soon as I completed the ascent to the start I spotted him looking fresh and rested having lots of photos taken with all his fans. I should just assume he will be in Cobh as it is made for him.

5. Sonia Asked Me

I think that John Meade is a genius mind game player. He loves to play tricks on his opponents. The first thing he said to me was “Sonia has asked me to pace Lily”, “We ran 53:30 last year”. It must have been totally made up as within half a mile John Meade was gone having resigned from the pacing job and appointed me in his place.

6. Me a Lady and a Bike

I think that once John Meade resigned from his pacing duties and disappeared up the road I had a nice stress free race. I didn’t really mind John Meade beating me as much as I normally would as I won the East Cork Road Championship on Thursday so I had enough glory for the week, I wouldn’t want my head to get too big, I could end up minding myself and selecting two races a year to peak in. Miles two to seven were hilly but fine running along with Lily Partridge and the bike assigned to the first lady.

7. Let Me Help

I think that I would have been better off resigning from my unofficial pacing job rather than being fired after seven miles. I thought I was doing an excellent job but on the long straight slightly uphill section into the relentless wind after mile seven Lily didn’t seem to appreciate my help anymore and said “let me help” before opening a gap that I only closed on the downhill before turning left under the railway bridge at mile eight.

8. Mná na hÉireann

I think that it would have been better if John Meade had stuck to his assigned pacemaking role as he could have responded as gaeilge to the shout of Mná na hÉireann as I ran past struggling to hold onto the back of Lily Partridge. Unfortunately my gaelige doesn’t work at 5:30 pace so I couldn’t correct the error.

9. Two Miles Easy

I think that the last two miles would remind you why people like running great P.Bs by me on nice flat courses with no wind. It’s really lovely and effortless to float along on a flat road in magic shoes. I looked at the watch and realised that all hope of a sub 55 clocking had vanished so I ran home at an enjoyable effort only to pass Michael McMahon who was obviously and visibly horrified at my lack of pointless suffering.

10. Aperture

I think that I was very unlucky not to get to go up on the bandstand and meet Sonia. I was first of the people who got no prize, a thing that will probably never happen to me again once I finally turn 40 in May. Shane Myler felt sorry for me so he gave me a hat to compensate which was nice. I also got another cup, the second of the week, the Cobh 10 cups are very good cups having the perfect aperture for sitting an aeropress on top. It’s a great race the Cobh 10 once you free yourself from the tyranny of times or perhaps run under a pseudonym if you must.