Cork BHAA PWC 5K 2025

10 Things I Think About The PWC BHAA 5K 2025

1. Climate Change

I think that the new climate is great, it rains in Spain and it is beautiful and dry if a little windy in Cork. It makes running so easy and nice. To make it even better the clocks have returned to normal and the evening BHAA races are back.

2. Beautiful Clean Shoes

I think it is terrible that the modern runner believes that they are only a new pair of shoes away from greatness. Greatness can be purchased, victory over that person who always beats you is only a pair of shoes away, you just have to be online at 8am and get the shoes before they are all gone at 8:02am. Last Thursday I was that awful modern runner getting a pair of the Vaporfly 4. I’d have been better off getting an extra run in. Miles are the secret not shoes.

3. On Time

I think that I will try and be on time for the races this year. It is a much more pleasant experience being on time. No stress, no messaging Graham asking him to pick up the number, a warm up, a chat, it’s a better way to operate.

4. Stress Reaction

I think that I did well to limit the impact of a stress reaction in my left fibula to only a 8 week absence from racing. I think I hurt my calf in a cross country race then ran Seville, Dungarvan and the Little Island 5k with a calf niggle which turned into a bone injury. I’m getting wise in my old age so stopped before I couldn’t walk so the recovery was relatively quick.

5. 90 Day Pause

I think that the start of the race was very well organized. There was a line on the road for the start with microphone speakers mounted on a plywood plinth which meant that there was no need for the usual will ye for god’s sake push back, instead we walked forward slowly to the line and then waited for the chip timing. It was a good long wait but it was fine because it was sunny and nice.

6. SuperValu

I think that it was apt that the race ran around SuperValu Pairc Ui Caoimh as BHAA offers truly super value. A 5k race for €5, no inflation, no tariffs. It’s cheaper than a coffee at the Marina Market. The route was one I haven’t seen before, up to the red shed with no walls in front of Pairc Ui Caoimh, around that, then a sharp hairpin before running along the back of the main stand. I got to the stadium in contact with the front group containing one of the Barrys, Tadhg, Mark Walsh, Danny Mullins and Nate but the pace became too much and I lost contact as we went around the Blackrock End terrace.

7. Golden Mile

I think that the new Marina Mile is tremendously beautiful. It is a wonderful surface to run on, like a golden track. This was the first race to use the new path, it was so nice not to have to study the ground for potholes and patches. Unfortunately I was left to run along the path on my own as the front five were way too strong and left me to enjoy the new path on my own.

8. Tadhg Not Like Us

I think that it was great to see Tadhg win the race. I am happy because Tadhg is a believer in the more miles is better and that you don’t need to do 400s to run a fast 5k. For some reason marathon training is better for 5ks than it is for the actual marathon.

9. Not so Solo

I think that I was lucky that I didn’t end up solo to the end of the race, otherwise I wouldn’t have broken the magical 15-minute barrier. I did my best on the long run to the finish along the Marina Market Road to keep Tadhg in sight so that he wouldn’t think that he was that great. As I approached the roundabout I began to hear footsteps, then I heard well done Ray, so I initiated John Meade mode and sprinted for the line and the sub 15 minute 5k.

10. BHAA Vaporfly 6%

I think that instead of being stuck to a phone at 8am to buy magic shoes people need to start running BHAA road races. It is much better value and more fun. According to the GPS watches which have papal levels of infallibility the race was around 4.6 to 4.7k. Sure what harm. I think there should be more races like this, keep us guessing, have course records become a thing, a lap of the Marina is a lap of the Marina who cares if it’s 5k or not, Tadhg still won.

MTU 5K 2024

10 Things I Think About The Cork BHAA MTU 5K

1. Marginal Complaints

I think that the BHAA changing the start time of the morning races to 10am is terrible. It was probably because of people like Viv complaining about how late in the day it was starting at 11am. With a 10am start I am guaranteed to be late especially for far away races like MTU. The worst part of the early start was taking a beetroot shot immediately after getting out of bed at 830 which is like having a squirt of tomato sauce for breakfast.

2. Clement

I think that the conditions for the 5k were the opposite of last weekend in Kinsale. It was perfect for running on Sunday morning, cold but warm when running, dry and acceptably windy. My warmup was a jog up to use one of the million secret toilets in the new MTU building that should be an indoor 200m track but isn’t. That left about 5 minutes to put on magic shoes which is about as long as it takes to get them on and tie the laces properly.

3. Diversity and Inflation

I think that it is great to see the wide variety of magic shoes in use at local road races. It used to be a sea of Vaporflys, now you have everything from Asics, On, Saucony, New Balance, Hoka, Adidas, Puma and even the odd Mizuno shoes without heels that look a physio’s dream. The Edge and John Buckley Sports must be delighted because we are now stuck in that impossibly expensive game of trying to figure out that one shoe that will give you the same advantage that Viv had when he destroyed me down the Marina in 2019 when I didn’t know about the magic shoes.

4. Familiarity Breeds Contempt

I think that the start of a BHAA race is a source of great motivation. If I tried to do a session of 400s there is no way that I would be able to get near the pace that I can run at the start of a BHAA 5k. On the dot of 10am we took off out the gate of MTU with Heywood flying off into what looked like an unassailable lead. After receiving a few pucks from someone who had probably been watching too many 400m indoor races on TV I resisted the tremendous desire to puck them back and got up into my normal position of on John Meade’s tail by the time we got to the roundabout where we turned left.

5. Social Distancing

I think that the most interesting part of the MTU 5k course is the series of downhill corkscrew bends after 1k. It is sort of like a chicane on an F1 track, designed to cause accidents so that people will watch a Netflix series. It takes skill and agility to negotiate the chicane properly. As we approached the chicane I was behind Tom McKenzie and John Meade, realizing that John Meade would probably handstand and backflip his way through the chicane gaining a massive advantage I knew I had to get in front of him to block him, so I swept around the outside of him just before we got to the entrance to the chicane. Then I held out my hands like the people used do a few years ago on the very same path when we were all running within our 5ks. It worked very well, and I exited the chicane in front of John Meade.

6. Leapfrog Heywood

I think that one of the things you don’t expect to see 2k into a 5k is a fella bent over tying his shoelaces. After his promising start poor Heywood had to relinquish his unassailable lead as he had fallen foul of the notoriously terrible laces on the Vaporfly 2. He was just about finished tying them as my group came past. I presumed that he would just jog the rest of the race but within a few seconds a resurgent Heywood with fully secured shoes came storming through the middle of our group at a ridiculous pace in a futile attempt to regain his hard-earned lead.

7. Shoelace Tying Competition

I think that it would make BHAA races more interesting if we all started with our shoes off and had to put them on and tie the shoelaces sort of like a transition in triathlon. Heywood lost 15 seconds tying his shoe laces which is almost precisely as much as the magic shoes give you over 5k. It would be a good equaliser and allow us to compare results with the times in races back in 2018 when you used to be sore for a week after a 5k.

8. Hybrid Hatred Engine

I think that beating John Meade is one of the hardest tasks in Cork running, like Heywood he was wearing the Vaporfly 2s but unfortunately unlike Heywood he had them well tied up. I got to about 4k in contact with John Meade but as soon as the road turned upwards after the tennis courts John Meade and Tom said goodbye and began to disappear up the hill in that annoying way that generates pure hatred that will be stored up in my hatred battery and used to absolutely destroy him in a crucial four mile race somewhere in East Cork when I’m fit for that week in June or July.

9. New Adversary

I think that it is great how running is always refreshing itself. I have been doing BHAA races since 2006 and have had countless people that I have wanted to beat and have inevitably beaten. My newest rival in races is Kris, I don’t know who he is replacing in the game that is elite level local Cork running but he is proving hard to beat. I got to the final turn back into MTU just ahead of Kris but on the sprint to the finishing line by the new MTU building that should be an indoor 200m track but isn’t he destroyed me like he was a young John Meade.

10. Will Someone Please Think of the Children

I think that the only good thing about the new BHAA 10am start was that there was an option to do two races in a day with the Karen Fenton 5k race on at 1230 only 10 minutes away. I would have loved to have raced both the 5ks like a true running influencer but instead it was a good way for both Rhona and I to do a race without requiring Billy minding. Billy is not a fan of the double races; one race is enough to be dragged to on a cold Sunday morning in March.