John Treacy tells a great story about waking up on the morning of the 1979 World Cross-Country in Limerick.
The rain had been lashing against his hotel window the evening before, right through the night, and it was still hammering down that morning.
“Christ above, that’s some rain out there,” said his older brother Ray, sleeping in the hotel bed opposite and also running for Ireland that day. “The course will be an absolute mud bath.”
“Perfect for me,” said John. “That’s going to scare off the softer runners. I’m definitely going to win today.”
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Treacy knew what he was talking about. He’d become the youngest winner of the World Cross-Country over a similarly treacherous course at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow the year before, and despite the weight of a nation on his slim shoulders he would effectively run away with a second title in Limerick.
By race time on Sunday, 3.50pm, it was still lashing, many of the 25,000 spectators trying to find some shelter around the old stand at the Green Park racecourse.
Treacy hit the front halfway through the second of the five ‘U’ shaped laps around the 12km course, and just like that he was away.
He was a back-to-back World Cross-country champion, at age 21, although some of the joy was briefly lost that evening when he arrived back to his hotel room to discover all the hot water was gone.
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What Treacy proved that day in Limerick is that we’re certainly not a soft nation when it comes to cross-country running. Never have been, never will be.
On many occasions over the years, the National Cross-Country wasn’t so much about finishing as not drowning. That merely strengthened the hand of the hardiest runners, such as Peter Mathews from Dublin and his training partner Séamus Power from Clare. And none more than Catherina McKiernan, who could run over any cross-country surface and still leave her rivals treading water.
All of which explains the eye-watering reaction to the news that two cross-country races were cancelled in Dublin earlier this month because of a small drop of rain. Long before the Status Yellow and Orange rain warnings issued by Met Éireann this week, when things might have turned properly tricky.
The first casualty was the Dublin Cross-Country at Corkagh Park off the Naas Road in Clondalkin, the 120-hectares owned and operated by South Dublin County Council (SDCC).
The senior and junior races were set for Sunday, November 2nd, before the Dublin Board were informed the day before that Corkagh Park was off limits because the grass was too wet, even though the sun was splitting the sky on the Saturday, and again until late on the Sunday.
The second casualty was last Saturday’s cross-country race at Jobstown Park in Tallaght, organised by the Business Houses Athletic Association (BHAA). Jobstown Park is also owned and operated by SDCC, who informed the BHAA three days before that “due to the weather forecast for the coming days the District Parks Supervisor has advised that ground conditions will not be favourable to host your event”.
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Turns out weather was grand last Saturday, a balmy 15 degrees, and even if it wasn’t, the essential purpose of sport and recreational spaces such as Corkagh and Jobstown is to facilitate outdoor activities such as cross-country running.
It’s entirely different to playing fields being waterlogged or flooded, which may need sufficient to time to recover, and perhaps can even carry something of a health and safety risk if played on in the lashing rain.
The Dublin Cross-Country was subsequently moved to Kilbeggan Racecourse last Saturday, which is of course in Co Westmeath. The event was successfully staged along with the Leinster Cross-Country, on a excellent course, a welcome gesture from the provincial athletics board. Otherwise, the Dublin Cross-Country might also have been cancelled outright.
It’s no wonder the Dublin Athletics Board and the BHAA are beginning to wonder what is happening here. It’s not unreasonable to avoid wet playing fields when the weather turns foul, but from the cross-country perspective, the runner expects to be out there in any conditions.
There have been similar issues with all four local councils in Dublin, including at St Anne’s Park in Raheny, owned and operated by Dublin City Council (DCC).
The course for last year’s Dublin Masters Cross-Country had to be altered to avoid damaging the playing fields, and the running battle to hold the race at the same venue next January is already underway.
The Dublin board is also seeking a meeting with SDCC to see whether the runners’ needs can be better accommodated.
Meanwhile, sitting mostly idle is the National Cross-Country course at Abbotstown, which has excellent drainage and rarely gets cut up. Owned and operated by Sport Ireland, and funded by the taxpayer, there is a charge of €2,000 to host the larger cross-country events, which is beyond the pockets of many and certainly the BHAA, which is entirely voluntary.
It may be that some of these cross-country events need to reduce the number of juvenile races, if that’s a concern in terms of health and safety, or should things get slippery when wet.
Either way it’s no exaggeration to say the cancelling of any cross-country race in this country because of some rain is a bit of a running joke, even if the biblical rainfall amounts of the last few days might scare off some of the softer runners.
