Munster Masters XC 2025

10 Things I Think About The Munster Masters XC 2025

1. On The Promenade

I think that Tramore was a great venue for a cross-country race. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to Tramore before, it is quite far away from Glanmire but worth the trip. A nice seaside town, like a Spanish town without the sunshine and heat. The course was right beside the promenade in a park with a playground, a bit different to the usual farmer’s field. It was almost like having a cross-country race in a town. A great idea.

2. Norwegian Michael Herlihy Method (NMHM)

I think that the closest thing that I have to a coach is Michael Herlihy, both of us are pretty much uncoachable but we do run together a lot so we must agree to do the same sessions. Before the start of the race, I told him that we should repackage the training program as the Norwegian Michael Herlihy Method and sell it on the internet for €20 a month more than normal training because of the word Norwegian, it could be a sensation, we could even get local Glanmire Norwegian physio Chris Smetana to endorse it.

3. Short, Long or Studs

I think that it is very important to come to a cross-country race prepared for all conditions. Because there is no timetable for these events you may not have a lot of time before the start of the race. What I do is I make sure I am prepared for all eventualities and bring three pre tooled pairs of spikes, one with studs, one with 6mm spikes and one with 12mm spikes. Then you can have a look at the course while collecting your number before taking the appropriate pair of spikes from the boot of the car and running over to the start. In this case the studded Dragonfly XC were chosen.

4. Sure I Wouldn’t Know I’m Just Getting Changed

I think that the self-service number collection system worked well at the event. It was sort of like the self-service checkout at SuperValu where there is a person watching you and they only intervene if you get stuck. I jogged over to the tent and found the numbers neatly stacked in brown envelopes on the table with the club names labelled on them. There was a man in the tent who I asked if I could take the number for Glanmire A.C but he was only getting changed in the tent and had nothing to do with the operation so I just took the envelope and jogged back to the car hoping that I might get a mile of a warmup done.

5. La Source

I think that who ever designed the course in Tramore should get an award for designing the best cross-country course ever. It was wonderful, a triumph of imagination, sort of like a combination of a Scalextric track and a Formula one track except with moderately old men instead of super-fast cars. The first corner was like the first corner at Spa-Francorchamps, I was wary of a first corner collision, so I took it handy off the line and waited for the second or third corner to make my move to the front.

6. Take a Mucky Picture of Me

I think that it was great that there was a bit of muck on the course. It wasn’t anywhere near as mucky as I had hoped for but there were still hairpins with ankle deep muck that made you grind to a halt before getting going again in the opposite direction. It appeared as if there were several people taking pictures which pleased me greatly as it is great to get a picture of yourself running through the muck.

7. Dermot and Me

I think that it was a very tough race with Dermot Gorman. You are always guaranteed a tough race in the Masters division. On the line there were numerous people with marathon times sub 2:30 with Dermot’s excellent 2:28 from New York this year being one of the more recent sub 2:30 marathons in the field. I was particularly worried when he was still following me around like my shadow on the third of the four big laps.

8. Downhill Difference

I think that I was very lucky with the course design. The great person who designed the course helpfully made the uphill section twisty with the downhill section straight, so I was able to push the downhill every lap and survive on the uphill twists. On the second last time down the hill, I managed to get enough of a gap on Dermot that I could see him parallel to me as we went up the twisty hill for the last time. I was still terrified of being caught so I continued to run as hard as I could all the way to the line which is generally a good idea when you are leading a race.

9. The Missing 500m

I think that it was terrible for Michael Herlihy that the course measured 500m short on the infallible GPS watch. It was very clear that he was catching me and only for the short course he would have beaten me. I do wonder about people who look at their watch in cross country race. What is the watch going to tell you? The pace? The distance? All are irrelevant just run faster than the fellas around you and run the number of laps that you are supposed to run, who cares about the distance. I felt like it was a good long race anyway as I was completely out of breath crossing the line, so out of breath that I didn’t see the black dog doing his best dancing priest impression.

10. Medals

I think that it was great to win the first cross country medal for the newly reformed Glanmire A.C. I don’t know the history of the old club as the internet only goes back to about 2006. I presume someone from the old Glanmire N.A.C.A club would have won some sort of medal at some stage as Glanmire is a great place for running. Hopefully it is the first of many more medals for Glanmire A.C.

Photo: James Veale

Autumn Open XC 2025

10 Things I Think About The Autumn Open XC 2025

1. Zero Year

I think that it is awful to be getting old, what makes it worse is that the degree of oldness in running is measured in chunks of 5 years. I have reached the end of the M35 moderately old man chunk which is probably the worst stage of moderately old man running as you are up against 35-year-olds when you are 39 which basically makes it impossible to get on the Irish Masters XC team.

2. Bere Island to Dublin

I think that it is a great pity that the Bere Island 5 mile is on the day before the Autumn Open XC, in the past I have experimented with doing both full tilt but one runs the risk of have to listen to annoying people praying for you to either get injured to confirm their correct suspicions that back to back races is a bad idea. In my old age I have become wise to this problem so instead I ran the 5 mile race in Bere Island at a controlled heart rate to reduce the risk of having to listen to annoying people.

3. Moisturizer

I think that it was about time that the October rain arrived. We were very lucky in Bere Island the day before as somehow it stopped raining for the race. Luckily the rain resumed in time to moisturize the Abbotstown course which remains my least favourite cross-country course in the world although it is slightly improved with moisture.

4. Two Bibs, Two Races

I think that I missed a trick by not registering for both the senior and master’s race. For some reason you had to enter each separately which doesn’t make much sense as they are the same race. I probably won’t get any world ranking points now to add to my huge collection of points as I only entered the moderately old man race. Despite not entering the second of the two races within the one race I still got to put on two bibs, one for the timing chip and one to mark me out as a moderately old man in the M35 category to aid other moderately old men in hunting me down.

5. Self-Made Singlet

I think that it was great to be the first person to represent the newly reformed Glanmire A.C in a national cross-country event. Our new Adidas singlets in the club colours of purple and white have not arrived yet so I had to make my own singlet from a purple Asics singlet, iron on lettering from amazon and an iron on club logo from stikets. I think I did a pretty good job of making it look like it was the actual club singlet. The only problem is that it is very difficult to find shorts to go with a purple singlet.

6. There Were Two Barrys

I think it was great to have the two Barry’s from Cork at the race. Barry Twohig was of no concern to me as he is in a different category of moderately old men, whereas Barry Donovan was in the same moderately old man category and needed to be avenged for the curious incident at the finish line in Carrigadrohid. I warmed up with Barry Twohig who kindly also allowed me to shelter in his tent before exchanging pleasantries with Barry Donovan in the starting area.

7. Slipping and Sliding

I think that the start of the race was great fun. The rain made the course sound different to previous years, the crunch and crack of spikes on the narrow gravel section 200m into the race was replaced with splashes and whatever noise those studded Dragonsflys make. You could almost tell who had the studs and who had spikes from the sharp slipperly left hand turn at the bottom of the hill. Those with spikes had no grip, with at least one person ending up on the ground each and every lap. I had the studded Dragonflys which are magical in the muck.

8. Nice Try, Now Get Out The Way

I think it is always interesting to catch the junior athletes after two laps. I wish I was young again and could run so hard that I literally grind to a halt after two laps. It must be great to be young and be able to produce so much lactic acid that you end up looking like Mark English 750m into an 800m race except two laps into a cross-country race. It was also at this point in the race that I managed to overhaul one of the two Barrys, Barry Donovan. I made sure to give him plenty of space as I passed and avoided any unnecessary contact.

9. Four Big + Two Small = No Good

I think that the four 1.5k laps followed by two 1k laps was a very bad idea. It was very odd, I was almost used to the 1.5k lap, then on the fifth lap we had to take this horrible left hand cambered bend to go onto a 1k lap that was completely different to the course we had been running on. It also meant that I was lapping people while also being in grave danger of being lapped myself. It was all a bit confusing and unnecessary. It would have been better to do the small laps first and then go onto the big laps.

10. Foubyfivek Virus

I think that there is a terrible virus doing the rounds at the moment. It is called Foubyfivek virus. A terrible virus for men over 40, it takes them weeks to recover from it. They catch it from younger men who watch YouTube, the younger men are unaffected, in fact the virus makes them faster. Foubyfivek virus meant that I didn’t have to worry about Michael Herlihy in the race as he contracted it last Saturday. Normally entering the finishing straight of any cross country race you could be assured that Michael Herlihy was catching you but not in Abbotstown, all I had to worry about was Barry Donovan who I just about managed to beat avoiding any collisions in the finishing straight crossing the line 8th in the M35 moderately old man category which unfortunately is not good enough to make the Irish team. Luckily next year is year zero of the M40.

County Masters XC 2025

10 Things I Think About The County Masters XC 2025

1. Lombardy to Lombardstown

I think that I must be the first man ever to run cross country in the regions of Lombardy and Lombardstown in the one week. I kind of couldn’t not run the County Masters XC after going all the way to Italy for a cross country race the week before plus it was a cross country race in a new field in Bweeng and I love running in new fields.

2. Snow Way

I think that I was very clever to do a session on Friday as a hedge against the race being cancelled because of the snow. On Friday evening it seemed almost certain that the race was not going ahead as a message in a Whatsapp group said it was “definitely not going ahead, don’t tell anyone.” I did 10 miles on Saturday morning waiting for the official announcement of the cancellation before seeing on Facebook, a source of great facts, that the snow was all gone and the XC was on again. Great.

3. Bweeng Mountain Dog

I think that the parking for the cross-country venue was amongst the best ever. It was directly across from the course in the driveway of someone’s house and a big friendly Burmese mountain dog came out to greet us. I parked up directly behind Tim O’Donoghue, possibly the actual best moderately old man cross country runner in Cork who I was thrilled to hear was not running.

4. The Beautiful Field

I think that the field in which the race was held is one of the best fields I have ever seen. If I was a farmer I would buy it immediately, it was free from rocks and showed no evidence of any snow or rain with high quality fencing. The high quality fencing reminded me how lucky I was that Barry Twohig was doing a long run rather than making my life miserable on the hills of Bweeng. The snow reminded me of how lucky I was that John Meade was snowboarding on the Galtees and not flying down the hills of Bweeng. The only thing that wasn’t great was the wind.

5. Intermediate + Masters

I think that it was great that the intermediate and masters races were combined together. This was key to my race tactics as I needed someone to take the race out hard as masters races always go off sensibly. I was delighted to see Naoise from Bandon tear off at the start as it gave me a target to chase down the first hill. I knew that Michael Herlihy and Nick O’Donoghue would hate this, so I went absolutely mad down the hill and then again the second time we went down it before heading out into the great field to begin the first of four long laps and big big hills.

6. Col de la Bweeng

I think I had major problems with the big big hill at the far side of the beautiful great field. Luckily everyone had similar problems with the big big hill. It was about 400m long, 15 to 20% gradient with a headwind, vicious. The first time up the hill I thought I was in big trouble as Naoise effortlessly reduced the gap I had opened down the hill I was fully expecting this pattern to repeat for the next four laps but luckily when I ran hard across the top of the hill and down the hill back into the main beautiful field Naoise didn’t follow.

7. Lovely Shorts

I think that it was great how many supporters were out on the course. It was a very picturesque setting for the race with the even hillier fields in the background still speckled with the last remaining few bits of snow. I must have added to the scenery as I received compliments on the course about how lovely my shorts were, more useful were the shouts about the distance back to my main rival Nick O’Donoghue who seemed to go from 20m to 80m behind depending on whether we had recently gone uphill or downhill.

8. Nick and Mike

I think that you couldn’t find too tougher moderately and properly old men than Nick O’Donoghue and Michael Herlihy to race on a course like the great beautiful field in Bweeng. I spent the full four laps terrified that they were going to catch me. I wasn’t particularly worried about Nick catching me as he is a perfectly pleasant man, on the other hand I was terrified that Michael Herlihy was only playing with me like a cat plays with a mouse and was going to initiate full terminator mode on the last lap, plough up the last hill and laugh at me as he waltzed past like he has done so many times over the 15 years of defeats I’ve had to put up with.

9. Bad Beating of Michael Herlihy

I think that I will never tire of beating Michael Herlihy in races. It is only great because I have spent nearly 15 years being absolutely destroyed by him in nearly every session and race so to finally get to beat him is excellent, tremendous and wonderful. It should serve as a lesson to younger athletes that you should never give up on beating people just because they seem impossible to beat, just get more bitter and angry, then use that anger and bitterness to fuel tremendous victories in the County Masters.

10. Ranking Points

I think that it is a great pity that there are no world ranking points for winning the County Masters. Coming into the race I was ranked 299th in the world cross country rankings, which is probably the highest ranking ever for a Cork moderately old man. It is a shame really because the show put on by Bweeng in the fantastic field with picturesque backdrop was up there with any World Athletics Gold Label event. Perhaps we could have Kenyans and Ethiopians running the hills of Bweeng, they’d probably love it even more than I did.