Introduction

Julie, Edward and I had returned to Dublin the Monday before this race. We had spent the previous week in Cork celebrating my brother and his now wife Robyn’s wedding. The week was a whirlwind of emotion for me. My brother and I are very close on all things sport. We supported each other on every on and off the field matter. We’ve lived a sports oriented life. To see him married to someone who has shown the exact same unwavering support for my brother’s GAA lifestyle is amazing. A lifestyle devoted to any sport is a hard one. Long spells of dedication and suffering are intermingled with the elation of victory (if you’re lucky) and that is just what the person living a sports lifestyle experiences. It’s much worse if you’re the athletes immediate family. You see all the blows psychological and physical and the best you can do is either listen to the frustration or cajole your loved one give it one more try. I remember lying on a bed in the Herbert park hotel in October 2018 having finished the Dublin Marathon refreshing twitter furiously to see if my brother was finally a county champion. The news burst onto my screen and I went bezerk in the hotel room cheering. A year previously I’d suggested Jamie give it one more try. My involvement to give 10% more to his Hurling team hadn’t worked out. I had suggested that he should return to Football because it was a long summer to be idle. Later that year after his return he then lost in a county final replay. I doubt I convinced my brother of anything in 2017 by then he and Robyn were an item and I have no doubt her support played the biggest part in giving it one more try. In other news I read Sinn Féin said Simon Harris was ‘failing his way to very top’ if they have found another way I’d like to hear it because so far in my short thirty five years on this planet failing is part of every path to the top. What seems to matter is not ones failures but ones ability to bounce back from said failures.

The Great Ireland Run 2023 was a disaster. The participants went the wrong way only ending up cover about 8.6 km and based on how they looked as they crossed the line they all knew this was a race to forget. If you want to read the full breakdown it is here on the Running in Cork Blog and on Donal Coakleys famed 10 things I think about. Someone somewhere persuaded the Dublin City Harriers to give The Great Ireland Run 2024 another go and thank god they did because this was an outstanding success. They used the same route as 2023 but this time everyone was on point. The announcer told us what way to turn for the small loop. They couldn’t have had more stewards to encourage participants on the route. With 2,015 finshers an increase on the previous year I think it is only fair to say this has worked out incredibly well.

Race

This is a race you can run a personal best on. You have one uphill at about 5.5 km as you get off Upper Glen Road but that is preceeded by almost a kilometer of gentle downhill. You won’t have to make rapid turns in quick succession in fact the turns you make arch nicely which will help you stay in your rhythm. I was aiming to finish with an overall pace of 4:30 per km. I finished with an overall pace of 4:34 per km. I need more long runs in my training but this wasn’t a bad race to get me back in the groove. I’ll get another crack at 10k in the Cork Marathon 2024 in June.

Conclusion

The Great is back in the Great Ireland Run.