Guest Post: KEEPING THE FIVE ALIVE... by John Walshe

 

The Eyeries 5-mile road race would have taken place during the month of November 2020 if it wasn't for the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Last year, the organisers produced a special race booklet for the 2019 race and it included a guest article by John Walshe of Ballycotton. It is republished here with his kind permission.

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KEEPING THE FIVE ALIVE (John Walshe)
There is no doubting the popularity of the 5km on today’s fixture list. Part of the attraction is obviously due to the profusion of parkruns now held throughout the country every Saturday morning, along with the various Couch to 5K programmes.

Therefore, it’s heartening to see the five-mile distance alive and well in West Cork with the introduction this year of the Beara Autumn 5-Mile Series. Even though as a nation we may be all going the metric way, there is still something special about the imperial distances, especially the five and 10-milers.
When Mark Gallagher asked me to pen a little article for this programme, he suggested that maybe I’d recall the attraction of the Ballycotton Series which I was involved with. The years move on and today many new runners, especially in this region, probably have never have heard of such a venture. So a little bit of history mightn’t go astray.

John Walshe at the 2019 Allihies 5-mile

The first race to take place in the East Cork village of Ballycotton happened in August 1977 (yes, it was the last century!). A total of 34 runners turned up that night to run five miles and seven months later the inaugural Ballycotton ‘10’ arrived. The five-miler moved to June that summer with another race of the same distance taking place in the nearby village of Shanagarry in August. Over the following years, two more summer races were added in Chuchtown South and Ballyandreen and so a four-race series was born.

The fourth Thursdays of May, June, July and August therefore became sacrosanct because to gain the coveted plaque, runners had to complete all four events. Family holidays were arranged around the dates and for those on shift work, many a swap had to be accommodated.

Numbers taking part in each race gradually grew to around 200-250 and the standard was exceptionally high. At the Ballycotton ‘5’ in 1993 – a race won in 23:50 by Mark Carroll, European junior 5000m champion two years before and still the Irish 3000m record holder at 7:30.36 – a total of 51 runners (out of 262 finishers) were all under 28 minutes.

Into the new millennium, numbers continued to increase up to the 500 mark. These brought with them the headaches associated with parking, stewarding and the general workload undertaken by a small organising committee. Therefore, a combination of factors heralded the end of not only the Summer Series but also the Ballycotton ‘10’. After 40 years, it was decided, not without regret, that maybe it was time to go out while still on top.

And so, what constitutes a good race series? Well, there’s the obvious such as accurate courses (even though they don’t all have to ‘fast and fast!’), reasonable entry fees, individual and category prizes and of course that welcome cup of warm beverages and goodies afterwards. But there must also be an element of challenge so that those completing the set number of races can feel a sense of achievement.

There is no doubt that all those ingredients are evident in this Beara Autumn Series. You can be sure when those lovely commemorative medals shown on the website (by the way, one of the most impressive sites around) are presented today in Eyeries, they will certainly have been hard earned and richly deserved.

An extensive list of guest posts from John Walshe can be found HERE