Cork County Senior XC 2025
/10 Things I Think About The Cork County Senior XC 2025
1. Nerves and Terror
I think that the County Senior is the only race that terrifies me. No other race induces nerves like it. It’s great as it is the only race all year where almost everyone turns up to see who is the best in Cork at running around a farmers field with long grass and big hills. High stakes stuff.
2. Bethpage, Carrigadrohid
I think that I had another reason to fear going to the county senior this year. It was the first time I would have been at a cross-country race in 10 years where I wasn’t going to be wearing the Leevale singlet. I feared constant abuse from the sidelines, instead all I got was a handshake from Terry, good luck with the new club and a few encouraging shouts during the race. All very gentlemanly.
3. Number for The Unwashed
I think that the other thing I feared was going to collect the number from the horsebox. Due to the rules and regulations, I had to run as an unattached runner with no club for the race. Running club purgatory isn’t a great place to be, there is no team to run for, no tent, no one to collect the number for you, no one to tell you what not to do, no one to care whether you run well or not. I trotted up to the horsebox on my own to collect the number which was retrieved from the envelope labelled unattached and handed to me with instructions to make sure I wore a white singlet.
4. White Singlet of Shame
I think that it is bad enough that I had to run in club purgatory, to make it worse the rules and regulations stipulate that all runners in purgatory must wear a white singlet to indicate purity of club. As Cork’s second most popular running influencer after Tadhg O’Sullivan I decided that I would use the opportunity to create my new brand, Dónal, so I got Dónal printed on the back of my white adidas singlet. You too can do the same on the adidas website, it’s free with every white singlet, other colours are available too.
5. Dynamic Undulations
I think that the course in Carrigadrohid was designed by Barry Twohig and John Meade, there is no other explanation, Meade drew it out, Barry fenced it off. It was purposefully designed to favour the more dynamic powerful runner and not lumbering long limbed elegant creatures like me. There was no flat, no respite. The start was down at the lowest point of the course with an immediate steep 300m hill to make sure that everyone was at max heart rate from the off. When we got under way everyone tore off up the hill which filtered out the Barry Twohigs and John Meades from the Michael Herlihys and Nick O’Donoghues. I was left quite close to the back with the Michael Herlihys.
6. Jakob Ingebrigtsen
I think that I took inspiration from Jakob Ingebrigtsen in making my move to the front. It was very similar to a 5k track race where he is at the back of a big long pack, they cut away to a high jumper and then cut back to the 5k and he is magically at the front. It was a very good move. I could hear Michael Herlihy laughing at me as I went by which meant that it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
7. Content Creator
I think that it was great to get accused of trying to create content by Rob Heffernan. The cheek from a man who’s job it is to generate content. I don’t even use Instagram plus I have form of leading the county senior before. I used to do it long before there was social media, back when we did things because they are fun, a bit of craic and not because you might get 20000 followers and get sent a free pair of socks in the post. Anyway leading the county senior was great fun, I probably could have led for a bit more if it wasn’t for the John Meade and Barry Twohig designed hill.
8. Wet Socks
I think that I suffered far more than I thought I would from going to the front of the race. It actually wasn’t that fast, 5:25 minute miles but I was losing so much ground on the hill each lap that I was just getting slower and slower every lap as the lactic acid bath that I had poured for myself filled to the brim. It was particularly painful by the end, pain that was amplified by a poor choice of thin socks which slipped down off my heel and crumpled up under the arch of both feet. Socks are important, vital almost, at least I didn’t have wet socks.
9. The Barry Lane
I think there needs to be a separate finishing lane for Barry Donovans. It is not safe to have athletes like me crawling to the finish while Barrys tear in at twice the speed. Without separate finishing lanes for Barry Donovans collisions are inevitable. The only thing worse than having to run up the hill five times was the feeling of Barry Donovan running into the back of me 20m from the line. Feeling the unwanted contact, I immediately remembered that I didn’t have to beat Barry for Leevale so I waved him through to the finish so that he could score an extra point for my good friends in Cork has two tracks and one of them might be mondo Track Club.
10. The Most Important Thing
I think that the county senior is the greatest race of the year. It was a great event, well organised with a great atmosphere, it was great to see so many youngfellas in the senior race to dilute the abundance of moderately old men like me. Michael Harty showed that moderately old men can still perform at the highest level and beat any youngfella in the county which is great and inspirational. The most important thing though is; and it is very important, I gave Michael Herlihy a bad beating.
