I was expecting that many would be trying to break 50 mins and that many would be right on the cusp of that achievement. That being said it didn’t stop Jim and I joking around on Washington street during the first kilometer asked by one member of our pacing bus how often we ran Jim replied smiling ‘not that often’ I cajoled that ‘I never run and this was my first time running a 10k’. Our pacing bus crew were not easily fooled one of them knew how involved in parkrun I was and a few more had seen Jim finish on the live stream at the London Marathon.I was expecting that many would be trying to break 50 mins and that many would be right on the cusp of that achievement. That being said it didn’t stop Jim and I joking around on Washington street during the first kilometer asked by one member of our pacing bus how often we ran Jim replied smiling ‘not that often’ I cajoled that ‘I never run and this was my first time running a 10k’. Our pacing bus crew were not easily fooled one of them knew how involved in parkrun I was and a few more had seen Jim finish on the live stream at the London Marathon.

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The outright mad was the guy who ran with bandages on the balls of his feet. He had no shoes just these thin white bandages on his feet. I’ve ran alongside a guy in the Barcelona half marathon who ticked along in flip flops but this was another level of insanity altogether. The surface in Dublin is mixed, charred, potholed and then rough in other places. Of course I think of me as mad too Julie was on the phone to a friend the day before telling her I was running the Dublin Marathon the next day. Perplexed her friend asked

“Is he mad? You had a son, bought a house and now he’s running a marathon in the same year. Julie replied This is his 8th marathon. Oh that’s fine so.”

Almost like prior experience makes the madness ok but really the guy wearing feet bandages for now discernible reason seemed to have really jumped a shark and rode an ostrich up the madness scale. What I was doing looked like an average Sunday.

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I got to the start line as the final wave was about to be race off to half marathon bliss. I crossed the start line as the annoucer pronounced

Inch by inch life is sinch, Yard by yard life is hard

I took a deep breath reminded myself that my job was to finish this race. My plan was take it easy and let my body untangle itself from the week. Inch by inch I had bought a house. Yard by yard I was going to finish this race.

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I needed to be humbled by the distance, circumstances of day and other such lessons that came out of today. I needed to be reminded that the distance won’t kill you the pace if you get it wrong however will crucify you. I was overdue for a reality check. In running you can’t learn unless it all goes wrong and you still see the bits you got right and use them to rebuild. My learning curve was simple I finished after I had royal messed up. It didn’t matter that I was late arriving. I should have just hung back in the pocket and slowly moved through the gears. I slowed hugely in the last few kilometers but I didn’t stop I kept on my toes. I can still finish but my preparation and organisation were lacking. I shouldn’t have arrived late. To me lateness is rudeness and I tend to be ten minutes early for everything. Racing is no exception.

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This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.

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The Corkagh 5 mile is mostly flat. It pulls, drags and at the end twists but unless the heat is at you (which it was for me) then I think careful race management will help you PB over 5 miles. I found the finish brutal you ascend a drag for over 400 meters, take a hairpin turn left then drop a little followed by twists like a river meandering before finally with a flat 300 meters to go arriving at the finish line. I was with a bunch and I heard plenty of grumbles about the twists and turns but as one lad “put it if you can talk you can kick at the end”. I liked that so I picked a mark just before the last right turn and threw the kitchen sink at it.

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Julie and I met the Race Director Eamon at registration on Friday and he told us that the Cork marathon was at record numbers. Eamon had wanted the 10k race in for years and this race was going to be the product of years of work. The Sanctuary Runners had started a campaign to get 10 People in your group of friends to run the 10k race. The relay spirit wasn’t dead it had spread like a wild prairie fire into the the 10k race. We were optimistic because we’d seen this before the Cork Marathon was in the last 10 minutes of the champions league final and everyone believed they were about to score the winner.

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The Wheelworx FASTLANE Half Marathon atmosphere was concentrated on the Dublin Marathon. Lining up on the canal in Clondalkin the chatter was all about the Dublin Marathon. The Dubs are very proud of the Dublin Marathon. I’d be proud too if I had the 4th largest marathon in Europe on my doorstep. I detected the exact same willingness we had at the Cork Marathon I could feel people wanted their Marathon back and they wanted to it to come back with a roar.

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I was there in 2016 when the half marathon went the wrong way and came head on with the Full Marathon. I always felt we never quite figured out the Expo at registeration. It seemed to keep reducing in size and relevance. Despite this what we always had was atmosphere, the buzz on race day was always infectious and when you hit Patrick Street in the final 400 meters you knew the whole city would roar you home. In 2022 the Cork Marathon has morphed into a well oiled machine.

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Anyway getting back to the Cobh 10 Mile and staying positive I finished the Cobh 10 Mile in 1:14:45 and I kept up with Sonia O Sullivan and Rob Heffernan for 3 miles. This race was in aid of breakthrough cancer research. I help people rehab after cancer they need more help than you can possibly imagine. Click here to donate to breakthrough cancer research. If you need an added incentive my fiancé Julie is a cancer survivor and my mother at the time of writing is in the middle of chemotherapy treatment. I also studied the Chemotherapy and Pharmacology of inflammation and we need more scientists to chase down every cancer cell pathway and figure out how to stop it.

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Then COVID-19 came and took everything out. Mentally this rattled me and probably everyone else as well. I have been vocal that COVID-19 has revealed that Irish people are world class at powering through. The worse it gets the more resilient we get.

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I have run in the East Cork Harbour Marathon event for the last 3 years. They are very much the new kid on the block in the Marathon circuit. In one line ‘They are flying it’. The experience is superb. Alright I have been nice now I’ll be blunt, comparing the Cork City Marathon to the East Cork Harbour Marathon isn’t a contest. East Cork wins in a first round knock out and the Cork City Marathon were so confident they’d win they didn’t even put a rematch clause in the contract.

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I have raced from 5 km all the way up to the infamous Marathon distance and back again for more. I always go back for more, Why? I'm ambivalent towards running itself. I neither love it nor hate it.

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