10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Castlegar XC 2025

1. The Best Time of Year

I think that cross country season is the best time of the running calendar. It is the purest form of running, no times, no gels, no magic shoes, just magic spikes and grass. The Castlegar XC has become the Ballintotis 4 mile of the XC season, the opening event of four to five months of racing.

2. Popularity

I think it is great that XC running isn’t as popular as the marathon. I think I might be finished with marathons. They have become too popular. Imagine if you had to enter a XC race a year in advance although it isn’t that long ago that you could enter Valencia marathon a few weeks before hand, popularity spreads quickly, maybe someday there will be 50,000 people trying to enter a XC race in Galway.

3. Calf Rippers

I think that it is very important to do a few session in spikes before racing in them. I am very lucky to have the UCC Farm and the great Michael Herlihy to do sessions in spikes. The new spikes are great because they don’t immediately tear the calves off you like the old ones did. I am yet to decide which are better the track Dragonflys or the XC Dragonflys with the studs. For Galway I went with the studs.

4. Glanmire to Galway

I think that it is amazing how close Galway is with the new road. Many years ago when I was young it was impossible to go to Galway as it took 5 hours. Now it takes 2 hours and twenty minutes which is great and as quick as going to Dublin and as XC races are always on in the afternoon it is easy to do as a day trip especially when the weather is nice like it was on Saturday

5. Tot’s Race

I think that it was great that Billy got to run a race on the same course as me. The tots race took place just before my race. They ran the last 250m of the loop with even a few bales to jump over. Billy has the same agility as me so he climbed over the bales rather than jumping before passing someone out on the downhill run to the finish just like me. He seemed to enjoy racing as much as I do which is good.

6. The Dada’s Race

I think that I noticed how old I am on the start line. I was one of the oldest people racing, I could have been the father of a lot of the field which is both great and terrifying. Road racing has become the preserve of moderately old men so it was interesting to race youngfellas who just tear off with no respect for anyone. The course was slightly different to last year, nothing major just slightly less downhill from the start.

7. He’s Good

I think that the awful thing about XC racing is that it is very hard to tell if you are running well or not. Pace doesn’t matter it all comes down to position. Because most of the other runners were youngfellas I couldn’t tell whether I was doing well or not. The only runner I could use as a marker was Niall Shanahan. I was briefly ahead of him which I thought was great but then he got a small bit ahead which was also ok as I wouldn’t be anywhere near him on the road.

8. Mark Walsh Proofed

I think it was great that the course had been Mark Walsh proofed after last year. The hay bale jumps were back again but this time it was impossible to bypass them. You had to jump every single one as the course was hermetically sealed around each jump, unfortunately there was no Mark Walsh to actually test out the impossibility. It is interesting that incorporating plyometrics into my ever-expanding non running routine appears to have made no difference to my ability to jump over hay bales.

9. This is Hard

I think that 7.5k sounds like a very short race. It would be on the road, but 7.5k cross country is more like 10k on the road. After four laps I felt that familiar feeling of how the hell am I going to keep going for another lap. Luckily and unluckily, I was in no mans land, a bit behind Niall Shanahan with no one behind me so I thread the line between trying too hard and giving up and got home in the same 15th position that I started the last lap in. Another advantage of XC is that you don’t have to run for a time just a position.

10. On the Ground

I think that my favourite part of a XC race is lying down on the grass after the race. It is a different sport to road running, way way way harder, a far better sport. I was happy enough with 15th as I only recognized Niall Shanahan ahead of me and I don’t mind being beaten by youngfellas that I don’t know and shouldn’t be beating anyway. I did my warm down which was completed without any new pains before going to the best vegan restaurant in Galway Greens. A nice day out.

10 Things I Think About the Munster Masters 3000m

1. I Really Shouldn’t Be Here

I think I shouldn’t have been as afraid of becoming a masters runner. It has always been a great fear of mine. I used to see people like John Meade and Donal Coffey and think, that’ll never happen to me. Then it did.

2. The Poor Relation

I think what I saw outside The Poor Relation on Saturday at 10am might have been a sign from God. There was a man with similar hair to me, sitting outside the pub with a glass of wine and a pint of Guinness. I thought to myself he probably didn’t bother with masters athletics.

3. Track Work

I think that I will have to do some more track work if I’m ever to beat Viv on the track. My prep for this race was 4x200m on Thursday and Friday. It’s a different sport to the road and cross country.

4. Magic Spikes

I think that the magic Dragonfly spikes aren’t half as magic as the magic shoes. They aren’t bouncy, all they really do is make it possible to walk without significant pain the next day. The Dragonflys are an improvement but they don’t turn donkeys like me into racehorses.

5. Templemore

I think that every small town should be like Templemore with a lovely park and a lovely track in the centre of the town. This is what I imagine the country would be like if the GAA took over Athletics Ireland.

6. Vaporfly Police, Arrest This Man

I think that the main offical did a great job of policing the Vaporflys. God it was great, I’d loved to have been doing it. The official almost took as much pleasure from it as I would, “Are those Nike Vapourflys? They’re banned, as bad as doping, and don’t get me started on doping”. The poor man with the Vaporflys had to scuttle away and change into non-magic shoes. It was wonderful, possibly the best thing that has ever happened at a race.

7. 1600m

I think that a 3000m race is one of the most disgusting races you can run. It is pure pain, pretty much an all out sprint. I was pretty ok for the first four laps sitting behind Viv who was sitting behind Dermot Kearns who I had advised Viv was a potential adversary. Once we went through the mile my throat started to hurt.

8. 1 Km

I think that the second kilometer of the 3000m doesn’t actually start until after a mile. It is the hardest part of the race. I knew this, I don’t know why I lost contact with Viv and Dermot but I did. It kind of just happened gradually. To make it worse a fella from Thurles danced around me and easily bridged the gap up to Viv, he was wearing Air Zoom Victories so perhaps I need to get a pair of them, perhaps they’re the true magic spikes.

9. 400m

I think that the last 400m is actually the easiest part of the race. You know that the pain is going to be over soon so you might as well suffer a bit more. I tried to motivate myself by thinking of how embarrassing it was to be badly beaten by two M50s and an M40 but it didn’t work. I ended up in fourth about 15 seconds behind Viv but crucially and vitally the first moderately old man with excellent hair in the M35 category.

10. The Future

I think that masters running is great, I really enjoyed it. It’s sort of like starting running all over again. M35 is a totally ridiculous category, fellas have won Olympic medals over 35, but after a full year without races, anything that means at least three more cross country races every year is a great thing.

I used “Track Mode” on the Garmin Forerunner 945 for the race. It works sort of like the watch works in the swimming pool, it autolaps every 400m and overrides the GPS so you get an accurate distance and pace.