10 Things I Think About The Cobh 10 Mile 2026

1. Social Media

I think that social media has a lot to answer for. It’s causing a lot of problems. Big problems. People don’t want to run races with hills because of social media because you are supposed to run a P.B in every race and be in a state of perpetual improvement and betterment, regression will not be tolerated. Time goes out the window in Cobh, it’s a race, it would probably work better as a random distance, whatever the lap is.

2. Down With This Sort of Thing, Careful Now

I think that there is always something to worry about with races. This was a new one on me. Will I have enough diesel to get to the race? Will the protesters have taken the roads in? Luckily the scirocco sips diesel as slowly as I run up hills so there was no problem. I took the backroad of the backroad from Glanmire to Carrigtohill on the advice of John Meade who rang me as he was on his way to Cobh while I was having my breakfast of brown granary toast with peanut butter and an aeropress coffee which was very nice.

3. The Ascent

I think that my favourite part of the Cobh 10 is the ascent to the start from the town centre by the cool coloredy houses that tourists come to take photos of. I don’t know why that hill isn’t in the race. It would make the race better, probably attract more lunatics like me, the flat track runners are already deterred by the lesser hills in the route. Actually start the race in the town up the hill and make it 18k. Perfect. Imagine the photos, my calves would look excellent.

4. Sted Sarandos

I think that John Meade isn’t to be trusted. You never know what he is up to. There was no sign of him on the entry list, perhaps he entered under a pseudonym Harry Styles style because as soon as I completed the ascent to the start I spotted him looking fresh and rested having lots of photos taken with all his fans. I should just assume he will be in Cobh as it is made for him.

5. Sonia Asked Me

I think that John Meade is a genius mind game player. He loves to play tricks on his opponents. The first thing he said to me was “Sonia has asked me to pace Lily”, “We ran 53:30 last year”. It must have been totally made up as within half a mile John Meade was gone having resigned from the pacing job and appointed me in his place.

6. Me a Lady and a Bike

I think that once John Meade resigned from his pacing duties and disappeared up the road I had a nice stress free race. I didn’t really mind John Meade beating me as much as I normally would as I won the East Cork Road Championship on Thursday so I had enough glory for the week, I wouldn’t want my head to get too big, I could end up minding myself and selecting two races a year to peak in. Miles two to seven were hilly but fine running along with Lily Partridge and the bike assigned to the first lady.

7. Let Me Help

I think that I would have been better off resigning from my unofficial pacing job rather than being fired after seven miles. I thought I was doing an excellent job but on the long straight slightly uphill section into the relentless wind after mile seven Lily didn’t seem to appreciate my help anymore and said “let me help” before opening a gap that I only closed on the downhill before turning left under the railway bridge at mile eight.

8. Mná na hÉireann

I think that it would have been better if John Meade had stuck to his assigned pacemaking role as he could have responded as gaeilge to the shout of Mná na hÉireann as I ran past struggling to hold onto the back of Lily Partridge. Unfortunately my gaelige doesn’t work at 5:30 pace so I couldn’t correct the error.

9. Two Miles Easy

I think that the last two miles would remind you why people like running great P.Bs by me on nice flat courses with no wind. It’s really lovely and effortless to float along on a flat road in magic shoes. I looked at the watch and realised that all hope of a sub 55 clocking had vanished so I ran home at an enjoyable effort only to pass Michael McMahon who was obviously and visibly horrified at my lack of pointless suffering.

10. Aperture

I think that I was very unlucky not to get to go up on the bandstand and meet Sonia. I was first of the people who got no prize, a thing that will probably never happen to me again once I finally turn 40 in May. Shane Myler felt sorry for me so he gave me a hat to compensate which was nice. I also got another cup, the second of the week, the Cobh 10 cups are very good cups having the perfect aperture for sitting an aeropress on top. It’s a great race the Cobh 10 once you free yourself from the tyranny of times or perhaps run under a pseudonym if you must.

10 Things I Think About The Cobh 10 Mile

1. The Great Wind Island

I think that the winner of the race today was the wind. The wind was a great wind, an unusual wind, it was very strong, it was big, it was consistent, and it brought no rain. I heard a lot of negative things being said about the wind, if I were the wind, I would be extremely upset at what was said about me out on the course.

2. Rest Day

I think that I will never again take a rest day before a race. I said I’d try it as everyone seems to think that tapering is great. The wind on Saturday made it easy to do no running as it was even windier than today. I ran no miles on Saturday even though there was nothing wrong with me which makes no sense to me. I expected to wake on Sunday morning feeling like a fella who drives a Tesla after two weeks of restful holidaying in Center Parcs. Instead the rest day did nothing, if anything I felt worse that normal, even the combination of coffee and beetroot shots didn’t work.

3. Never Judge a Startlist by its Contents

I think that it was scandalous altogether that all the better runners than me were allowed enter after the entries had closed at 1000 people. The published start list looked very promising for a potential top 4 finish, John Meade, Barry Twohig and Anthony Forristal seemed to be the likely 1,2,3 so I was hoping for my usual 4th place finish and a few bob. I was absolutely horrified to arrive at the start line and see numbers that went over 1000. What made it worse was that every person with a number over 1000 was a very good runner with far more talent than I have. It was very unfair on me.

4. The Fast Two Miles

I think that the hardest job today must have been pacing. On a calm day the Cobh 10 route would be hard to judge but with the great wind it must have been next to impossible, even an AI robot would have had difficulty calculating the splits required. The race went began with two miles with the great wind behind us. They were also downhill miles which made them very fast. The late entries group plus Anthony Forristal took off at a Sean Tobin course record breaking pace. I was left with the group that entered the race before the deadline. We went through two miles bang on 10 minutes which was about as good as the race got from a Strava bar graph point of view.

5. Alp Du Cobh

I think that the geography of Cobh is unusual. It is an extremely hilly island, very similar to Achill in that it has great wind and great climbs. After the first two miles the Strava bar chart took a steep drop, the beetroot juice stopped working, the wind started blowing and the road went up and up. The first hill before three miles is probably the worst on the course. It destroys average pace, destroys it and makes ones Strava look terrible. I just about got up it on in contact with Barry and John who climb like sherpas compared to my elephant like efforts.

6. Hatred Acid

I think that the combination of the great wind, the great hills and constantly being destroyed by John Meade and Barry every time the road titled upwards generated excessive hatred. On Youtube influencers use €400 lactic acid testers to test their lactate so they can put numbers they don’t understand on Strava and sell stuff to people with too much money. I think I might develop a similar hatred tester, a simple prick of the ear to test the blood for hatred. There is probably a hatred inflection point too where the hatred becomes too much for the body to process like happened to me today just after mile 5. I’m not sure what you would do with the data but sure everyone loves data.

7. Sports Psychologist

I think that the next big thing will be in race psychologist calls. It’s only a matter of time. I would definitely have paid money for someone to talk to me from mile 6 to mile 8. The wind, the straight road, the John Meade disappearing up the road with the other fella I don’t know wearing AlphaFlys. It was torture. I needed to phone a friend and have them talk to me and tell me I can do it. Instead I was swimming in a sea of hatred acid with a horrible wind pushing me further and further away from John Meade.

8. The Rugby Match

I think that the worst part of the great wind was the turn just after mile 8. It was cruel, like a trick. I ran down the steep hill full of hope thinking that once I turned the corner the great wind would blow me back to Cobh. Unfortunately the shape of the great island meant that the great wind was a full on headwind for that crucial ninth mile. When I rounded the corner it was like the wind turned into a giant second row rugby player and stood me up preventing any further forward progress. Then to make it worse Barry Twohig came flying by like he was running in a different climate.

9. The Final Straw

I think that the last mile of the race was wonderful. If all the other miles had been like mile 1, 2 and 10 we would have been fine and all broken the course record. The race organisers should make that happen next year, they could either turn the island around or run the course in the opposite direction. I would have been very fast on mile 10 too but just as I started it I came down with a case of exploding toe nail which meant that I couldn’t be bothered trying to chase Barry so I jogged home, I slowed down even more when I saw that we were miles outside the most important metric in 10 mile running, the 55 minute cut off for being included in John Walshe’s list of almost good runners.

10. The Last Leg Hurter

I think that the Cobh 10 is the only race left that is brave enough to leave in the hills. Even though I’m terrible at the hills I love the hills, especially mad Cobh hills. It’s like returning to the good old days of Ballycotton, with wind, hills, sunshine, sore legs and a nice race mug at the end. The atmosphere in the town at the end is worth suffering for, just maybe dial down the wind a little and close the entries just after I enter so that I can win or maybe come 4th, that would be perfect.