What’s this? A race review on my blog? How long has it been?
It’s actually been a whole 28 months. May 2018 — that’s when I did my last race review here on my personal blog. I’ve done a few short event recaps for RunIreland in that time, as well as a few Tough Mudder and general OCR stuff for them. But yeah — it’s been that long since I did a write up here on my own site.
Intro
So before diving in to this review, let me take a few paragraphs to explain why my writing on here fizzled away, the gist of what’s gone on with my running since then, and a little reflection on why I started writing. I’ve a fair few more followers on Facebook, Strava, and Instagram since I last wrote a post on this blog, so let’s set the scene here.
Writing Hiatus
I actually paused for a moment in the last paragraph, as writing like this again put a smile on my face. I’m not going to lie and say I consciously missed it every month, but when anything makes you smile, it means something. So what do I mean by writing like this? I mean writing on this site — my personal blog. Sure, I’ve written a bit elsewhere over the past two years, but those write ups are more like articles I guess, and they’re much more focused and concise. It’s a different kind of writing — much more informative. Blog posts I write are also intended to be informative, but they’re written from my point of view. I can be biased if I feel like it. I can swear. And I try pop in a little humour and lightheartedness where I can. I enjoy both writing styles, but while my articles will probably reach a wider audience with more easily digestible information, the stream of consciousness that a blog post allows suits me better.
So why did I stop? Well, a few things combined to cause that. My last race review was of a race where I just had a shite performance — utterly shite. And then when the following race came, I was slow to start the writing process, and then the next race after that came before I was done. I have this little rule where a review has to be done before the next race, and there’s a reason for this. It’s hard to talk about looking forward to the next race in the previous race’s review, if I already know how the next race went. It’s just the way it is with me! So anyway, I had overlapped race reviews, and this was also at a time when I was actively trying to move job and home, and it was also in the middle of that un-fucking-real summer of 2018 too — suddenly four or five reviews were overdue, so I just had to stop. The plan then was to leave it all until the end of 2018, and do a summary of the year, as I did in 2017 when a few reviews overlapped late in that year.
So why didn’t I do that? Well, I wrote this piece about Jon Albon, and I had a surge of motivation to do it that December, as it was time-sensitive, due to it being a summary of Jon’s achievements in the lead up to a race with a million dollar prize. It was in my opinion, the best article I ever wrote outside of my own blog, and I got a lot of great feedback about it. Even if it wasn’t the best one I wrote, I had more fun writing it than any other. A lot of the UK OCR community shared it, and thanked me through private messages, as it meant a lot to some of them to see an article about Jon’s quest from outside the UK, and from someone who was just a fan. This really meant a lot to me. I spent a lot of time polishing that article, and so it took a bit out of me, writing-wise. The bigger problem though was that I just didn’t feel I could write anything for a little while after it, as I couldn’t top it! And so, 2018 fizzled away with no recap. And it’s a pity that happened — writing about events made me think about them in greater detail, and it also etched them better in my memory. Events in 2018 and 2019 that I didn’t write about have partly fizzled from my mind, and some have blurred together. Some moments from those races are now lost altogether from my mind, as I didn’t reflect on them in a review.
I started this blog back in December 2016, with a recap on that year, ahead of writing regularly for over a year. I always enjoyed the casual writing process, and had dabbled in blogs before, but I had suddenly found myself getting deeply involved in OCR, and I loved it. I wanted to write about it, and to tell the story of the emergent sport in Ireland through event reviews — An Irish OCR Tale. Kind of stuck with that name now, as changing it would no doubt break links somewhere, and so I’ll just truck on with it. Meh. I may change the name in the near future, but I don’t wanna break things, so I’ll wait until I’m good and ready. But anyway, I wanted to also use the blog to tell people how much fun and genuine fulfilment I was getting from something I took up in my thirties, as well as, I guess, teach people a little about fitness and racing. These were things I didn’t properly get into until my thirties, and I cam across a fair few people in their mid twenties back then who would recoil at the idea of starting anything fitness related. “Ah it’s too late for me to start something like that”, they’d say, or something to that extent. Too late me hole! In the race I recap down below, I got new 400m and half mile PBs, and I’m now into the latter half of my thirties. To be fair, as every year goes by, people are more and more accepting of the idea that it’s not too late to get into something fitness related, but I still come across people who think otherwise.
But now I’m back writing race reviews, and I’ll try do them every time, even if it’s only a quickie if I’m stuck for time. Hopefully I’ll make the odd person laugh. Hopefully I’ll inspire someone to try get a bit fitter, or try something new. And even if nobody else gets anything from it, I enjoy the writing process.
Homecoming
So how have I been doing since…May 2018? Fabulous! Cheers for asking. I moved back home to Clonmel that July. It ain’t easy save towards getting my own place while paying €800 a month in rent. Plus, while single, it doesn’t bother me to move back in home for a while. I have access to cat every day again — the best cat in the world last time I checked. And sure whenever I do get my own place, it’s going to be within a half hour of the hometown anyway. That’s just how I’m inclined. Home is home to me, and I love where I’m from. Most of the people who matter to me are here, and I just get on better living in or around Clonmel. It’s home. I’ve lived elsewhere in Ireland, and I lived in Cambridge for a few years — beautiful place — but it was never going to be home — not for me.
Moving back to the town where I intend to spend my life meant it was time to finally join Clonmel AC — the town’s running club. I had been thinking about this for over a year, but left it until I moved back to actually do it. Having developed as a self-trained runner who mainly ran looser forms like OCR and mountain running, learning who’s who in traditional athletics, along with all the structure of Athletics Ireland and their politics was a learning experience for me, but running is a pillar in my life now, so it’s nice to learn more about it all. I was recently inducted into the club’s committee, which was unexpected. Hopefully as an outsider coming into traditional athletics, I can bring something to the table.
I’m involved in a few other running related things too. I’m a Tough Mudder ambassador again for another year, and so RunIreland will get a few articles from me on that topic over the coming months. I may do some longer form write ups on this site too. I’m helping out with OCRA Ireland again too. I was one of the board members of OCRA Ireland from 2016 to 2017, and I’m giving the new guys (and gal) a little help again now. We’ve got an Irish Championships again this year (register here), and so I plan to put out a few articles about that over the coming months too. And I’m one of the founders of a running club at the place I work, where I’m currently helping out with a C25K program. I’m involved with a lot of running/fitness related things so, but this is where I want to be.
Clonmel has a great fitness pedigree. Our running club has some of the best runners in the country, including Sean Tobin, who broke the National 4 Mile record on Stephen’s Day just gone — an honour to be there when it happened, and Angela McCann, who at 49, is still able to win a handful of races a month when she wants — and overall wins — not age category! And as much as I have my gripes with CrossFit, the town has some very good CrossFit coaches and gyms, and there’s a callisthenics gym too. We’ve also got some top boxers and other fights too. The tow has its fair share of talent. With a huge new Xtreme CSC gym in the town now, as well as a new athletics facility and running track coming, I’m delighted to be back here. I’m part of Clonmel’s fitness scene, and I feel I have something to contribute.
My running
So how have I been doing with my fitness, racing, and all that? I’ll just give an overview, as I could go on forever into the weeds here. On the off chance you care about the finer details, flick back through my Instagram posts.
So after moving home in August 2018, I finally got a watch with a heart rate monitor, and have been all about heart rate since. I’d been doing regular long slow runs for a year by that point, and now I could really see the fruits of it — nice low heart rate. That September, I had my first ever back-to-back wins, at the Glen of Aherlow Half Marathon and Hell & Back. Having mountains close to where I lived again was great. I could just simply pop up Slievenamon on a weekday evening now.
And 2019 then was just my best ever year. I won the MMRA Winter/Spring League, and seemed comfortably able to bag a podium at any league race now. In March then, I got my first win at Runamuck, after many a try. At the end of March I went to the Lake District to train/sight-see under the tutelage of Sarah McCormack and Paul Tierney for a few days. I learned here how to run uphill efficiently, and have been using that successfully since. During the summer, I ran some of the MMRA Munster Championships races. I’ve yet to podium at one of these, but it was a great experience to run at these more challenging races. All in all, the first two thirds of the year was full of solid results.
The final third or so probably had roughly the same mean result, but the results were either phenomenal or miserable! First up was the Boston Scientific Half Marathon, where I finished third. An event spoored by my new employer in my hometown — getting a podium here was to this day my greatest ever race result, and topping that feeling, if I ever do it, is a goal now.
A few weeks later then, myself and two of my OCR pals teamed up to do a cross-functional adventure challenge, where we won the overall trophy. It involved dead hangs, kayaking, climbing, running, and an obstacle course — mighty craic altogether. In October then, the three of us would run in the Mixed Pro Relay for Ireland at the OCR World Championships. An unfortunate slip on my part screwed up our chances of a good result here. This hurt me a lot to be the one to mess up a relay event. Let’s not speak of this event again!
Sometimes though a shattering experience can help purge the mind. It does for me anyway. Anything that I have on the long finger is effortless to implement on the back of a really bad experience — even if the change is unrelated to the experience. My miserable DNF at Europe’s Toughest Mudder in 2017 encouraged me to bite the bullet and get into long slow runs, rather than running a 40 minute 10K or equivalent, two or three times a week, most weeks. Messing up at OCRWC last year shattered me enough to go back to the drawing board with my nutrition. I went full vegetarian for six weeks, a period which included a podium and my greatest ever race finish at the Long Way Round — a 15K night mountain race in Clonmel, where I blindly chased down the final podium spot with two 5:10 pace miles at the end. I couldn’t event seen the guy for the first mile, but hammered down a hill in the dark, knowing that on the off chance he was in range, I had to just give it everything and hope. My best ever race finish I think.
I’m not going to give my full rationale for going vegetarian. In part, it’s to experiment, but I have other reasons too. Honestly, if I knew how much it annoyed people who are just thoroughly uncomfortable with someone else’s diet, I’d have done it sooner! There’s this constant joke that people who are vegetarian/vegan will tell you about it up front, but I’ve yet to come across that myself. I’m hearing more people slagging off the vegans actually, and getting very defensive about it, as if it somehow affects them.
I broke character though the weekend after my birthday, as I needed a chicken fillet role to brace an imminent hangover — I panicked! Then I took a veggie break at Christmas too. And since then, I’ve gone to maybe just one meat meal every week or two. I’m not fully vegetarian right now, but I’m leaning towards it. I’ve yet to see a disadvantage since making this change. It’s an interesting thing to try out anyway.
And then to wrap up the year, amid a few middling race results, myself and my Clonmel AC teammates won the Munster Intermediate Cross Country title. That was my first time experiencing a true team effort in a race. We genuinely approached it as a team, and went for the win.
All in all, I raced competitively 28 times in 2019, in addition to running a non-competitive midnight mountain marathon, a Tough Mudder, and a few Parkruns. May sound like a crazy number, but I raced 42 times in 2017, so I am slowly reducing the volume! So anyway — enough of 2019. Let’s look ahead to 2020.
2020 Goals
My main 2019 goal was to get better at climbs in mountain races, and I did that in style. I’ve a lot more to learn, but I’m now a comfortable intermediate climber. I’ve more speed still to find in climbs, but I can at least climb at a slow to moderate pace effortlessly now.
My 2020 goals are a little different. It’s all about speed this year. In a decade, I’ll be an ultra runner I’d say, but I’ve still got plenty more untapped speed in me for now. I wanna unlock all my speed before it levels out. I hardly ever did speed work before — not consistently anyway. Constant long slow runs with occasional sprint sessions kept me quick enough in the past. But now I want to go even faster — much faster. I want a sub 1:11 half marathon and a sub 15:30 5K this year, at least. I want to run a sub 15 minute 5K at least once, even if it’s not this year. I want speed for its own sake — to be quicker, but I also just want to learn more about speed development. I’ll be more likely to get injured with the extra speed work, and so I will need to sacrifice race volume to facilitate more recovery. As such, I’ll omit much of the IMRA league races, unless they have sentimental value to me.
The Irish OCR Championships and Boston Scientific Half Marathon are my two highest priority races this year. Races like Galtymore and Carrauntoohil will certainly be on my schedule too, even if these aren’t winnable by me right now, and Carrauntoohil might never be. I’d also like to try a triathlon this year too, as this feels like a huge gap at the moment in my fitness knowledge.
I’d like to get into some casual coaching this year too, though I’m still to-ing and fro-ing about how to do that. I’m a qualified PT and S&C coach, and am doing the World OCR Level 1 certification in February, so I’m already in a position to give tuition to people. I have my own philosophy that’s continually improved me year on year since 2015, and I want to see if it’s a fluke, or if it will benefit other people too. I adore the nuances of race strategy, as well as in-race psychology. I’ve boiled this stuff down, and derived extremely reliable principles from it. I never seem to be injured, I continually improve every year well into my thirties, I’m always focused, and I’ve never lost the love for pushing myself. I feel there’s stuff I should pass on to people.
I’d love to find three or four advanced beginners (45 min 10K guys, 48 min 10K gals) looking to establish themselves as intermediates (looking to knock at least 5-8 mins off their 10K), and help them manage their race season and training to achieve that — not tell them what to do, but teach them how to manage it themselves. It’s not something I’d even charge for. I’d like a little crew like that. Teaching is a great way to learn, so I’d gain too. I’d like to help people who I think would be receptive to my principles and mentality. We’ll see. Like I said, I to and fro about this idea.
So that’s where we’re at. I know I meandered quite a bit! On to the titular race review now.
Corrin Hill
Corrin Hill — the location of my first ever IMRA race way back in January 2017, when I came 14th. In 2018, I came 15th, and then last year, I came 2nd. This is a race I want to win some day.
Corrin Hill was the first MMRA race of the year on each occasion I’ve done it so far. This year though, it would be the second race. As I said above, I won’t be running as many league races this year, but this would be one of the exceptions.
The lead up
I was a little unsure of my fitness coming into this race. I had a bit of a tender left calf for a few days from a speed session on the Wednesday before the race. I tried to find the right balance between full rest and active recovery, but this isn’t an exact science. I was going to run regardless, as I knew from experience that this wasn’t a genuine injury — it was just a bit of soreness.
I also hadn’t done too much running on trails over the holidays, and so I was worried that a hard push on a hill may take it out of me more easily than it normally would. I did try to fast-track some trail work closer to the race though. The Sunday a week out from the race, I did an 18K jog on some undulating trails, and then the day before the race, I did a short 4K jog up to and down from a 130m summit near Clonmel, and in the trail runners I’d be racing in. I could have been much better prepared all the same.
On race morning, I reverted to my usual pre-race routine involving a McDonald’s breakfast — a routine that served me so well in 2019, though I’d not done it since September. The reason why it works for me is less important to me than the fact that it works for me. It’s something I can consistently depend on no matter where in the country I’m racing. So I drove into Clonmel, went for an easy 2K jog around town, and then downed a Beet It shot, before going to McDonald’s. On the road to Fermoy then.
I arrived at the race location around 10:15, 45 minutes before it starts. I always aim to be at a race location an hour before start time, in order to give myself enough time for registration, chit-chat, warm up, and to allow for any delays along the way. By my standards, I was a little late getting to this one. I did another easy 1K jog to warm myself up My eyes were glancing around to see who was there that would be in contention for the win. I spotted Tom Blackburn soon enough. I reckon I’ve raced against Tom around 40 times in IMRA races, and only finished ahead of him once, by a few seconds on a ridiculously flat course. Based on past form from those 40 or so races, I’d have to break new ground to finish ahead of Tom here.
The start
Listening to the race director giving the briefing, I realised that I wasn’t sure if I was signed into the race. I picked up my number (1345 — I love a good prime number, but I get a boring one here again!), but wasn’t sure if that also meant I was signed in. I jogged back to the registration tent to check, knowing the race was moments away from starting. Lucky I did, as I hadn’t been signed in! The race literally started as I was just back to the front of the start line then. And then I went off — with gusto. For the fourth year in a row, I broke my 400m PB on the opening straight at Corrin Hill. My calf was having the odd wobble, but I could hear from the footsteps that I was opening a gap on the other runners behind me.
By the time we reached the first big climb, I had a good 10-15 seconds of a lead in first place. This meant I could afford to hold back a little on the climb. Saying that, I seemed to be able to glide up the hill quite easily. Before the summit then, I slowly power-hiked for a few seconds to prepare myself for the descent — crossing the crest of a hill at speed is difficult, due to the hamstrings and calves being lengthened, so I find slowing slightly before the top to be very useful. And then I just flew down the other side. I’d never been in the lead at this summit, and so I was feeling super at this point. I’d just come out of the toughest part of the race in first place. This was now mine to lose. It’s in my own hands. I was running at 2:55 min/K now (4:40 min/mile), and cruising. I’m doing this, I’m gonna finally bring bag win at Corrin Hill. I had the wind in my sail now, and I just flew down the trail with a smile on my face. The trail just kept on going.
The mistake
And…going. And…g…going. And, wait, what’s going on here? Is that…a fucking dead end?! Noooooo! Agh! The fuck?! No, what’s gone wrong? I missed a turn!!!
Well, who cares how — I missed one, and that’s all that matters. I did u-turn right away, hoping I was only gone wrong a short bit, but I had a fresh memory of absolutely hammering it at serious pace for a few minutes. It’s gone. I’m not winning this. I blew it all. Gotta laugh at myself here. In total, I had gone around a half kilometre the wrong way, and now had to do another half kilometre on top of that to get back to where I was. I must have confused a lot of runners who were now seeing some guy well down the pack flying back up through it. Ah, it was funny to be honest.
There’s not a whole lot more to say about this race really. Had I not gone wrong, the final 2.5K would almost certainly have been more exciting. Would I have held onto the lead? With a big hill still to come, and Tom Blackburn in the fray, it was certainly all still to play for.
When I finally crossed the line, I got the expected slagging from the lads who were there before me. Tom took the win, as I felt he would. Off then for a little cool down jog around the course with a few other lads. No matter what happens — always do a cool down run after a race. It helps lower your body temperature and heart rate in a controlled manner, as well as mobilising joints that may have taken a pounding during the race. Do it.
The positives
I was of course a little disappointed with the outcome here, but I took more positives than negatives from the day. I was not expecting to have so much fire in my legs on the day for a start. With a slightly sore calf, and not having the finest of sleeps the night before, I surprised myself with my performance. I feel so charged and ready for the races ahead of me this year now. It was also nice to learn another lesson — pay more attention if in the lead. This was the first time I ever got lost while leading a race, and hopefully it’ll be the last. I wasn’t expecting to be in first place at the summit, and so I was in fairyland running down the trail on the other side. If ever there’s a time you can afford to slow the pace by a few seconds to pay more attention, it’s when you’re leading.
Next up
Next up on my schedule is the County Novice Road Championships on the 26th of January in Moyne. I feel I had a potential fantastic race performance cut short at Corrin, and so I’m just itching to get stuck into a fast race right away. I’m going to give absolutely everything in Moyne. It’s a 6K race, but if the ground isn’t slippy, I expect to push for a 5K PB. If I don’t win, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying. If someone else wins, I’ll make sure they earn it. I’m hungry right now.
It’s good to be writing like this again.
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