10 Things I Think About The Mallow 10 2026

1. Excitement

I think that I will have to do something about my lack of enthusiasm for racing. It’s getting very bad, the only thing that makes me nervous or excited is a cross country race. I wish I could be like the youngfellas at the races who are all excited and motivated about P.Bs. Perhaps I will have to start giving the races code names like Operation Epic Fury or something like that, that might work.

2. Hi B

I think that I have the logistics in Mallow down to a fine art. Please don’t move the start from the Castle it is very excellent. I wouldn’t have known the Castle was there only for the race, apparently there used to be a nice Castle in Mitchelstown too before they built Dairygold on top of it. Anyway the best place to park is outside the Hi B leisure centre in the middle of the town because if you ask kindly, they will let you use the bathroom which is great.

3. Kneerly Better

I think that it is very terrible to be getting even more moderately old. There is no solution to it. I have aches and pains everywhere. They move around the place randomly, you fix one thing and another thing pops up. My hamstring was bad for a few weeks now it’s perfect, now it’s my knee, the same leg, probably linked, maybe not. It doesn’t get any worse running on it so it’s probably fine. I wish I was younger; injuries are simpler when you are younger the bit that’s going to get injured just fails suddenly not gradually like now.

4. The Six Foot Club

I think that it is a myth that you must be over 6ft to be in Glanmire A.C. As we walked to the line in a pack someone said, “Do you have to be over 6ft to join that club?”. The height is purely a coincidence, and we probably look taller anyway in the purple and white singlet, it has that effect. It’s not exactly an advantage to be tall for running, we’d all be better off being about 5’6, that’s probably the ideal height for running.

5. Out the Gap

I think that the start of the race was very hard. There were a lot of very good runners which was terrible for my prospects of getting my €42 entry fee back. Paul Moloney, Sean Davin, Tadhg, Evan Fitz and Nate O’Leary were gone within 800m of the start, taking with them all the prize money. There is no moderately old man M35 prize so I essentially had nothing to run for except maybe trying to beat Aidan, Kris and Brian Murphy who are all very likeable fellas and hard to generate any desire to beat. Break 55 minutes, that’ll do I thought.

6. Bad Bad Legs

I think that there are days when you wake up with a bad body, there isn’t much you can do about it, it’s just random, somedays you feel good somedays not so good. The not so good days seem to be occurring more frequently these days. I knew after 400m that it was a bad bad leg day. It took emotional exertion to catch up to the second group on the road containing Aidan, Kris and Brian Murphy an unusual feeling, blocked, I think that’s what they call it in cycling.

7. Industrial Estate

I think that my race ended in the industrial estate. I don’t like running around industrial estates, don’t know why, just don’t like them, remind me of work. When we turned right into the estate to complete the lap, I knew I was about to be dropped. I didn’t fight it, off they went, gradually and annoyingly. Then we left the industrial estate and I felt ok again, I couldn’t hear anyone catching me so I kept going keeping an eye on the watch to make sure it didn’t drop below 5:29 pace allowing 1 second a mile for the GPS being off.

8. It’s 9 O’Clock on a Friday Evening

I think that the support out on the course was great. There were thousands of marshals on the course, they even had a fella out playing music of a questionable quality somewhere near the halfway market. I may have been the only person who had to listen to the dance tune “It’s 9 O’Clock on a Friday evening” on repeat. I suppose it was better than some AI written KPop Demon Hunters nonsense.

9. The Strait of Horseshoes

I think that my favourite part of the course was the most controversial. It nearly made more news and caused more Whatsapp messages than the Strait of Hormuz. The 750m in the grounds of Mallow racecourse was brilliant, a nice change from the road, the gravelly surface helped me to start running properly again as I realized that I was starting to heel strike which isn’t a good idea in the Pumas. I could see Aidan, Kris and Brian Murphy up ahead, so I didn’t feel too bad and the grass was nice to look at, there were no horses galloping alongside which is the only change I would make.

10. Wily Willy

I think that the finish is much better on this new version of the Mallow 10. It is such a relief to turn off the N72, there is nothing worse than a big wide open road to make you feel like you are running slowly. Turning onto a nice narrow cycle path is great as it feels like you are running fast again. The winding finish up to the castle was like something from a cycling race in Italy, it was wonderful, unfortunately Willy Hughes found it more wonderful than me and swept around me with meters to go taking 10th place with him but at the same time dragging both of us under the magical 55 minute barrier which is the whole point of running 10 mile races in the first place.