10 Things I Think About The East Cork Road Championships 2026

1. A for Effort

I think that I made a serious effort to run the East Cork Road Championships. I watched for too many years with envy as the mythical fantastical first race of the evening running season was announced with the proviso that it was open only to East Cork affiliated athletes, also known as No Leevale. It had to be done, leave Leevale, setup a new club, get affiliated with East Cork Athletics by going to a meeting, run the race and you’d never know maybe win.

2. Ballynoe

I think that Ballynoe is a special place in running, it is almost as if the roads were built with running races in mind. It’s a great place with cross country courses, road race courses, a community hall and probably more important people who want to put on a road race and not make €40,000 from the race.

3. Photos > Internet

I think that running history is very important, the internet has forgotten all of my great races in my early days. It’s terrible because youngfellas like Tadgh O’Sullivan don’t realise how great me, John Meade and Michael Herlihy are. It was great to see that Denis McCarthy had created a display of all the people who had won the East Cork Road Championship over the years in a physical form that can’t be lost because someone forgets or doesn’t want to pay GoDaddy.

4. Road Cross Country

I think that there should be more cross-country style road races with laps. Laps are great, it’s easier for the organisers, good for spectators and great fun if there is a big huge massive hill every lap with an even longer downhill. I had never actually seen the famed hill in Ballynoe until the warmup, it was a very short warm up as taking inspiration from the cross country the start time was once the women’s race had finished. We got a 10 minute warning which was way more than we get in cross country so I was fine.

5. Shoe Chat

I think that the start line was a very relaxing experience. I have come to realise that I prefer smaller races, the big races are terrible, the stress, the crowds, the queues, the phones, the go pros, it’s become awful. The only technology in Ballynoe was shoe technology which I was having a good chat with Jim Harty about the difference between the Puma Fast R3 and the Asics Metaspeed Edge when suddenly the race started, Jim must not have been paying much attention to me as he was gone before I realised the race had started.

6. Colin Merritt

I think I was very afraid of Colin Merritt, Colin Merritt is a serious operator, and way better than me at running up hills and running in general. Once we got the only section of the course that is not repeated out of the way and passed through Ballynoe for the first time I realised that the race was between me and Colin. I ran down the hill as quick as I could, but when we started the hill for the first time Colin took over, I feared the worst. I sat in behind and hoped that the hill wouldn’t get too hard.

7. 0.7 Miles Downhill

I think that I was very lucky that the lap that is repeated four times in Ballynoe contains a lot more downhill than uphill. I may be terrible at going uphill, but I am magnificent and almost excellent at going downhill. I have also watched a lot of cycling races so I know that the most important thing on a hill is to go hard over the top to start the downhill with momentum so as Colin approached the top of the hill I ran as hard as I could to try and get a gap.

8. 0.4 Miles Uphill

I think that the race must have been entertaining to watch, a yo-yo race where I would gain going down the hill before Colin would gobble up the gap on the hill each lap. I was worried by the length of the gap that Denis McCarthy told me I had each lap. 20m gap with a lap to go, 20m is nothing when you can’t run up a hill and the race finished on the top of the hill and not at the bottom.

9. Where is The Finish?

I think that there is something great about finishing a race on a hill. Most race nowadays don’t even have hills never mind finishing on hills because everyone wants to run a great P.B by me and put it on Instagram and Strava to justify their perfect training. The great thing about hills is that they cause blow ups in races. People rarely blow up on the flat, but anything can happen on a hill. Unfortunately for me I feared greatly that I was going to blow the last time up the hill and that Colin Merritt would dance by. The stress was added to by not knowing where the finish was, to the left or the right at the top of the hill? Luckily Denis McCarthy was on hand to tell me it was right and I just about made it to the line in first.

10. Big Big Trophy and Photo

I think that it has been a long time since I won a big big trophy. Big big trophies are great because they are big and great and people ask you about them. The last time I won one was when I won the Cork County Novice Cross Country, did I ever mention that? I also got a photo with the trophy and an interview with John Cashman which I did in my best Cork accent. Hopefully Denis McCarthy will be able to find space for my photo on the display, it’s nice to be in the physical history books.