East Cork Harbour Marathon 2019 : Time for 10k

Introduction

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.

It’s not just one thing it’s everything. I remember reading ‘From Worst to First’ (Gordon Bethune Continental Airlines) a long time ago, Gordon was concise when asked about how much better you need to be compared to your closest competitor? His answer was approximately 10%. In Marathon terms 10% can be a fast route, cool shirt or a great bonus in the goodie bag. The East Cork Harbour Marathon team are consistently good with their shirts. They look cool, fit well and wear well. That alone would win most people over. That isn’t where East Cork Harbour stopped. They filled the goodie bag which is also a nice drawstring bag, the race number comes with your name on it (great for encouragement by supporters), the finish chute was a marquee (they learned from the rain in 2018), the chute had a free burger, Ballymaloe sauce, coffee, tea and biscuits, finish line photos with the 96fm street fleet, a snap with the #eastcorkharbourmarathon banner, family fun day activities and pet goats on show. Yes I mentioned pet goats to illustrate the lengths these guys are going too. I believe the correct descriptive term is ‘tearing up trees’

The Hashtag Banner

The Cork City Marathon do a good job. East Cork Harbour Marathon now do a better one. I’m a little disappointed here. I warn you, I stray into public affairs a small bit here. Cork is a second city and I’m worried we’re dropping the ball of opportunity. The Dublin Marathon is a world class marathon but like most capital city mega marathons it’s now hard to enter. Across Europe the second city marathon is a huge draw for tourists. It can offer a great experience on a lower cost, smaller scale with a personal touch. Unfortunately the Cork City Marathon is stagnating. This is a symptom of a larger problem we opted out of the directly elected Mayor, our event centre is still a pile of rubble and we’re objecting to high rise high density accomodation in the city. Overall we need to look in the mirror here we’re a small country we don’t have the mega resources of an empire and yet our machinery acts like a large complicated bureaucracy. We’re small our advantages should be that we’re fast and efficient yet we’re snail slow and concrete clunky.

I’m worried we’ll lose our chance to access this second city opportunity and believe me when I say this lads Limerick already took Munster Rugby off us, their hurling is rising, they have a directly elected mayor on the way and I think they will have no reservations about stripping the second city tag off us as well.

The two Cork marathons are within 12 weeks of each other and a gap is emerging. The East Cork Harbour Marathon maybe small but it’s organisation is fast and adaptable. They will post your race number out, they are going green with car pooling encouraged this year (and more reforms next year) and every volunteer seems to know what to do on race day. They are everywhere drawing in sponsorship left, right and center. They have unifying cause in Marymount Hospice. By contrast the Cork City Marathon shirt for the Half Marathon was pink salmon and grey in colour one year, has had organisational problems repeatedly and sponsorship seems to be going away. Every year I look at the ‘trade show’ in city hall and see less and less interested people. Thankfully the atmosphere at the Cork City Marathon is holding firm at optimistic but grind away at that long enough lads and we’ll lose that too. You need to work with the optimism like the crew at East Cork Harbour. Right now we seem to operating in the shadows to remove the optimism.

The argument can safely be made to let the East Cork Harbour team takeover. Maybe they will start a journey towards fast and efficient thereby reigniting the rebel fire. Rebellion used to be about progress and winning. I’m not quite sure when we decided to make it about doing nothing. Thankfully East Cork Harbour missed that memo.

10K

Anyway my reservations about Cork city aside the East Cork Harbour Marathon 10k was brilliant. The wind was in our face on the way out but once we turned around at 5k it was a completely different race. The wind was at our backs but it also dropped off considerably and the sun started to pour down on us which made the second half very warm. On the way out I drafted behind a group. The wind in my face made it hard to breath. I did best to breath in and out through my nose but the wind was still a battle so where I could I drafted behind and next to a group and tried to save some energy. I am not at the peak of my running powers right now. I’m on the way back but I need more work in the gym and on the track before I hit form again. At the moment I want to break my Glen River parkrun PB of 21:36. I’m aiming at short and fast so I can build up to a faster marathon. I have a long way to go.

My consistency is all over the place

My pacing was all over place. Now the wind explains some of it but not all of it. I haven’t re acquired my ability to tolerate the pain at my lactate threshold. Also My lactate threshold is lower. I need more Tempo based work in my running. I will get there but this will need 6 weeks of consistency, a lot of pain and more strength training.

Conclusion

I mentioned a goat. Have a ‘goat’ day

Julie with a pet goat at Glen River parkrun