10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Streets of Portlaoise 5k 2023

1. Peugeot Series

I think that it’s great that Peugeot have replaced Kia as the sponsor of the race series. I’m unsure if the sponsorship actually works because if I’m at a rental car counter and the rep says Kia or Peugeot the reply is always “Ah no, have you got anything else like say a Volkswagen.” The lead car did look nice, not what you’d expect a Peugeot to look like.

2. Miserable

I think that the weather was particularly miserable for the race. It was a St Patrick’s Day special, incredibly grey, wet but not raining, cold but not cold and humid but not warm. Utterly horrible a day for the pub or perhaps the bookies.

3. Warm Up

I think that my warm up was impacted by Lizzie Lee. She does a very slow warm up, even though she was wearing magic shoes and I wasn’t, I kept having to slow down to run with her. Then she said my time in Tokyo wasn’t great and gave out to me about my blog.

4. No Go

I think that the start of this race felt exactly as you’d expect a 5k would feel 12 days after a marathon. There’s a certain freedom in it all the same, expecting nothing from the race is sort of liberating. I stood care free on the start-line beside Michael Harty afraid to say anything to him because he looked like he was concentrating on the race. The race went off at what felt like a ridiculous pace and I was quickly swamped by the crowd with legs that wished they weren’t running a 5k.

5. All The People, So Many People

I think that it was great that there were so many people in the race. Going through the town the first time around was like a big city marathon with people everywhere. I tried to catch up to Mark Walsh and Michelle Finn but I wasn’t able so I just tried to keep them in sight. There were a remarkable number of young fellas in the race which was unusual, perhaps running is getting popular again.

6. Not Much I Can Do Here Now

I think that it is very important to be realistic about what is going to happen in a race. After about 2km I started to feel ok like my legs had woken up. I couldn’t actually run any faster but I felt like an airplane that had reached cruising altitude, it was exactly as I expected utterly pointless. I got left in no mans land about 50m behind Michelle Finn to fight the wind on my own.

7. Climate Control

I think that wind is the worst of the climactic conditions that you can encounter in a race. Nothing will derail a potential great PB by me more than a bad wind. There was only a minor wind in Portlaoise but it was bad enough to make the last mile the slowest.

8. Small, Far Away

I think that the straight sections on the course are a little deceptive. On the straights you could be fooled into thinking that you were on for a great PB by me as you could see a small Michael Harty in the far distance and a full size Mark Walsh in the near distance.

9. Vaporfly 3

I think that today is the first time I saw the Vaporfly 3 in the wild in Ireland, they were on the feet of Michelle Finn, you wouldn’t have known unless you were behind her like me and could see the rock catching groove in the new version. They looked very fast and they were used to beat me badly. The arms race continues, the arms race that involves transferring €275 to Nike, Asics and soon probably ON every 3 to 6 months.

10. Palpable Disgust

I think that the finishing area was an interesting sight. It was a collection of confused and disillusioned runners pointing at their watches in disbelief seeking comfort from someone else having run just as bad a time. The only person who seemed pleased naturally enough was the winner Eoin Everard, everyone else had been beaten by the clock, the rain, wind, cold, humidity and slight hill. Never mind the weather might be better next time and if not the cross country will be back soon.