Cork Marathon 2018 City Half Marathon

Cork Marathon 2018 - Take a Bow

What a rip roaring success. This has been not something I have ever said about the Cork Marathon. In fact, I was almost inexorably left disappointed every year since my first involvement in 2010 when it came to June and I ran some portion of the Cork Marathon. Not that this was always the Cork Marathon and it's organisers fault by the way, I was there in 2010 when it rained I hadn't trained in any way, shape or form to get myself fit enough to complete a Marathon. I spent 3 days after the race using a crutch and the mental anguish from finishing with an embarrassing 4:53 means that I still get this chill down my spine whenever I sign up for a Marathon. I learned my lesson the hard way....Marathons require hard and consistent training over a long time.

In the years that followed the Cork Marathon and it's fantastic group volunteers and organisers learned their lessons the hard way as well. I saw it first hand as I ran in both the Half Marathon and Full Marathon over the years.

I was there in 2013 when for some inexplicable reason the start of the Half Marathon was delayed for almost 45 minutes. A Bus driver got the blame in the end but race organising is a team game and somehow a man got left out in the cold. What happened next was insane. Firstly the start was so sporadic that the eventual winner wasn't at the front when the gun went off. He was still warming up. Secondly, the tracking mats were not laid out so nobody got an accurate chip time. Thirdly, the Full Marathon field now had it's slowest competitors in front of the entire Half Marathon field. Marathons are hard enough without having to see the entire field overly energetic Half Marathoners fly past you. Finally, it was getting warmer and we were now running in the mid day heat. I got a PB that day but I fell away badly at the end. Things could have been different but I couldn't seem to catch a break with the Cork Marathon that year.

In 2014 I pulled off another PB in the Half Marathon but it seemed like we were getting less and less value for our race. The expo was practically non existent. It seemed like there wasn't a lot of good will towards the Cork Marathon. I thought the Marathon was starting to show signs of fading away.

In 2015 as I chased another PB over the half marathon distance it rained and we were washed out of it. You can't blame anyone for that but it just seemed like the Cork Marathon was now getting no luck organisationally.  I remember tearing down the carrigrohane straight as the Heavens opened and the rain came pelting down on top of us. The runners got on with it, they laughed and joked about how they had got a free swim at the Cork Marathon 2015.  

In 2016, I exorcised my Cork Marathon demons over the full marathon course only to cross the finish line and immediately hear that the Half Marathon course had gone the wrong way. I had persuaded a few of the new Fitness Instructors at work to go for the Half Marathon. Some were new to road running and had made sacrifices to be ready for the Half Marathon. I wanted them to enjoy it even if they never did it again instead they were left a little bewildered by the Half Marathon field running at itself like a scene from game of thrones. This madness also coincided with intense heat and a bizarre finish where spectators crossed the road within centimeters of me on the Quays just before I turned onto Patrick's street. At that stage I was on my last legs and warned them 'if you touch me your coming down with me?'. The sad part was that a steward stood a few meters away doing nothing. There were good points but severe draw backs. At this stage I had entered into my 3rd Dublin Marathon and the folks in the big smoke knew how to organise a marathon and I was starting to compare Cork unfairly and unfavorably. We needed to get the basics right and this seemed to be a tall order for us. We did turn a corner though. We swamped race numbers for names. At last were trying to win friends and influence people. A persons name unsurprisingly according to psychology is to them the sweetest sounding thing. The lift I got from people cheering me on was fantastic. There was a battle on and these times they were a changing.    

In 2017 common sense turned up when the organisers moved the race to a Sunday. The Dublin Marathon had moved to Sunday in 2016 and I was there. I no longer had to high tail it out of Dublin straight after the race on a Bank Holiday Monday. I could relax and come home as I pleased knowing full well I had Monday off. This I duly did. I was in Fionnbarra's on Douglas street the evening of the race wearing my shirt and medal as I was surrounded by folks dressed up for Halloween. I was the most terrifying person out that night. I had run a marathon and I was still standing. Finally, with the Cork Marathon moving to Sunday I could persuade people to run on Sunday in the Cork Marathon and then head out for some fun afterwards. This was a much easier draw than I thought... the message was simple work hard and have fun in the relay or Half Marathon and then have fun in the city that night. We did stumble though, what in gods name were we doing with the shirts? Who picked gray and salmon for the half marathon and thought 'thats cool and people will want that so they will sign up next year as well?' We chose to pivot correctly and then drop the ball. I tried to donate that shirt and to my horror I found out the charity shop were still trying to sell it 6 months later. The organisers also changed the course to move away from Churches. I still think this brought in two tough hills at the latter end of a tough marathon course and too many twists and turns which upsets your rhythm at a time when the infamous wall is stalking you, but I wasn't willing to go back to Monday for them to be taken out. We had Sunday, we couldn't have everything or could we? There was hope that we might build on this positive experience.

In 2018, after all the trials and tribulations we got there. Where is there you ask? Well we have the basics locked down and on point. What a difference they made. The logistics ran smoothly from where I saw them through the eyes of an eager Half Marathon runner. The shirts were awesome. The two of those alone kept me grinning from ear to ear. The Dublin Marathon shirt sticks out and marks it out as a premier event and now the Cork Marathon has a cool high quality shirt. People always ask me about my running shirts, the cool ones, they want to get one. The shirt is advertising for your event and Cork now has a lot to offer people. The woven bag was a nice touch. One other thing I liked about the Cork Marathon bag was that we didn't get a load of sponsorship leaflets with discounts. I never use these they are printed waste to me and in an era of online promo codes this can be done by email. The bag itself was woven well which probably explained the lean goodies in the bag but if I can reuse this bag and the shirt stays awesome for a while I'll accept less protein bars with questionable taste or crisps which let's face it this is a fitness based event healthier food is more appropriate. If we must add something to satisfy the masses then maybe go for a Cork Marathon branded mug but please consider all future moves carefully and remember if it ain't broke don't fix it.  We got a decent shirt and bag. I think that's fair enough. Maybe the Cork Marathon is about quality over quantity?

We made course changes again to the Half Marathon in 2018 which took us down to Pairc Uí Chaoimh. This is what we should be doing showcasing Cork keep this at all costs (bar moving back to Monday). The stadium and it's grounds are bright, new and look fantastic. The atmosphere was electric I could feel the buzz in city hall. The organisers and stewards were on point they knew what was going on and which relay bus was leaving when, where the bag drop was, they came and asked you what your plan was for the day and I felt that they wanted to help. I felt like I was back in the Hague getting ready for the Loop De Hague and remember that race had a world record set on it and in GAA terms it's a serious operator.

The Race: Half Marathon

I loved every bit of the race this year. I aimed to tip along at a pace between 4:35 - 4:45 per km. I was practicing holding a pace that would allow me to aim for 3:15 finish in the Dublin Marathon 2018. 

As you can see I have a lot of practise to do with only 8 kilometers on target pace. I went off too fast and in a marathon that would have cost me big time. I'll be returning to my diligent practise from the pre Loop De Hague training cycle of holding a narrow 5 - 10 second window of pace. In fact if I can go further and bring that to a 5 second window I will. At the end the heat got to me. On Inchigaggin lane I could feel the heat radiating off my shoulders. I slowed a little as a precaution although in hindsight I probably could have raced the last 4-5 km. This is also something I have to refine. My last third of a race is not as fast I would like it to be. I intend to introduce some 800 meter intervals at the end of my training runs to solve this. I feel the necessity to race the final third needs more practise.

Finally, lets finish hilariously as I was coming down Patrick's street on the final 200 meters a fine runner from Limerick came up on my shoulder. I offered 'The runway is yours I have nothing left'. He responded 'I'm have nothing left either'. I stirred up some cheers from the large crowd for the Irish Guide Dogs which led to this hilarious snap below. Don't worry this will be the first and last mic drop/rapper style strut in a half marathon ever. Anyway huge kudos to the Cork Marathon. What was I thinking on the final stretch your guess is as good as mine?