10 Things I Think About The Dungarvan 10 2026

1. Important

I think that there should be a list of important races. I don’t know who would decided who the important races are, maybe me or an influencer like Tadhg, but Dungarvan is definitely an important race, just like Newmarket 5K was an important race. Why is it an important race? It’s an important race because it is very important to beat people in the race, and even if the people aren’t in the race you can run a faster time than they’ve run before which makes you better than them. It’s very important stuff.

2. Cup of Goose

I think that I will continue to be amazed by how runners will park anywhere except in an actual car park. My trusty secret public car park 2 minutes jog from the start was free again 50 minutes before the start. I car pooled with John Meade which meant that I had loads of time to jog over to the fancy Meades cafe (no relation) to use the facilities. Unlike everyone else I bought an espresso to pay for the experience. 2.60 for the single shot espresso . The coffee was acceptable. Pre race espresso could become a thing.

3. Puma vs Li Ning

I think that it is only a matter of time before everyone is wearing Chinese shoes. Puma is basically a Chinese company now after Anta bought a good bit of them so I’m pretty much wearing Chinese shoes. Chris Murnane was the only one brave enough to wear the Li Ning Feidan Elite 6 which is the Chinese Vaporfly which can be bought for as little as 160 euro on tacky looking websites that you’d probably be wise to use a disposable revolut card on. There were a lot of my Pumas on the line, most people even had the new yellowee colour. I was a bit worried that my new pair were a fake pair as they felt a bit firm but it was probably more to do with having forgotten how they feel like after a few weeks in cross country spikes.

4. Loads of Them

I think that the importance of the race was evident from the start line. Everyone was there, if you weren’t training for an imminent marathon or weren’t injured you were there. Importance takes a while to catch on, Dungarvan has become important over the years because you can run fast times there, mainly because of the temperature and prevailing tailwind for the last five miles. Importance is all about the times, it’s nothing to do with winning or anything like that, just times, most people don’t even know what position they finished in, that’s how you define an important race, it’s a race where the only consideration is time.

5. Have a Little Patience

I think that I am a very experienced man at running the Dungarvan 10. It is a route that requires experience as it is very easy to get carried away in the first two miles. A quick opening two miles can ruin your race, the key is to be calm and run to feel and not get too angry at the annoying people who have gone ahead of you. I was a very calm and patient man on Sunday, I waited until as is normally the case after about three miles a group naturally formed, then we turned into ever present usual headwind and there was no leaving the group.

6. Mighty Beasts of Glanmire

I think that it was great to have a team to run with again. After the January transfer window where Glanmire A.C signed runners like Chelsea under Mourinho we suddenly have a very good team. We didn’t even have to roll out Aidan Noone, myself, Kris and Tadhg were enough with the three to score. We all ended up together in a group as we turned into the wind after three miles for the only hard two miles of the race. At one stage it was three Glanmire singlets across the road in a mighty ducks flying V formation with everyone sheltering behind, it’s a pity that no one was there to take a photo of it as it could probably be made into a film. Paul Mescal could play Tadhg, I’d be Benicio del Toro, don’t know who’d play Kris.

7. The Surface

I think that I did great in the race until we turned back towards Dungarvan just after 5 miles. The wind was at our backs for the last five miles but I was unable to respond to the injection of pace by Tadhg and Kris and was shed out the back of the rather large pack along with Emily Sisson and Pat Fitzgerald. The only consolation was that the road surface was so good that I almost forgot about how awful it felt to have a large group of people I really wanted to beat run away from me. What a road surface, smooth as silk.

8. Emily and Pat

I think that it was some consolation that after being mercilessly shed out the back of the Tadhg and Kris group I was left to run with Emily Sisson and Pat for the last four miles. I ended up going by Emily on the downhill section just after 10k leaving me with only Pat for the last three miles. Nothing much other than suffering happened for the last three miles, a lot of suffering. I used my trick of concentrating on keeping my cadence the same to keep going at the same speed as running is a very simple sport, stride length x cadence = speed.

9. The Uphill Stretch

I think that everyone forgets about the ninth mile in Dungarvan, it is a very hard mile for such a fast course. When I was driving into Dungarvan I saw the mile 9 sign and was suddenly overcome with a desire not to do the race. It is the point where the suffering is at it’s worst, you have to run up a hill and then run another mile. I was still just about stuck to the back of Pat at this point doing my best to minimize the amount that Tadhg was going to beat me by.

10. Europa League Champions

I think that no one forgets about the last little hill in Dungarvan, the hill when you turn left off the roundabout with about 800m to go is cruel. Pat took off up the hill leaving me to crawl up the hill as best I could, all I could hear were the shouts of “Well Done Emily”. Once I got to the top of the hill, I suddenly found energy and gravity again before launching a viciously slow sprint which was good enough for 20th position holding off an Ennis Track fella who seemed to appear from nowhere. It was also just enough to come second in the overall team competition and first in the Europa League version of the team competition where the individual prize winners are excluded. An important result in an important race.