In September Thoughts Turn to Cross Country

  In September Thoughts Turn to Cross Country Part 1 by David Kissane.

“The freedom of cross country is so primitive. It’s woman versus nature”, American athlete Lynn Jennings once said. As a nine-time national cross country champion and pioneer of women’s cross country, she should know.

So in September, an athlete’s thoughts turn to cross country. Who said that? Well, if no famous athletics writer said it, I did just now. Cross country is in the air and in the shortening evenings, in the browning leaves, the falling apples and in the outward flight of the swallows. And we were talking about it at training this week. If Covid guidelines and the hands of fortune are kind, cross country may even be in the fields and trails again in 2020.

Cross country did cross my mind again on Friday as Coach Ursula announced that the Saturday Fit4Life run would be in the Town Park in Listowel. That is where I was introduced to the sport in the late 1960s as a student in St Michael’s College nearby. It was called The Cows’ Lawn then and a dry sod on it was as rare as hen’s teeth. Tough hill on the east side which brings the best out of modern parkrunners. Race on Sunday said John Molyneaux and Johnny O’Flaherty, our energetic teachers and coaches in 1969. What do I have to do at the start of the race, I asked. Run like the wind, they replied in unison and hope for the best. I almost did and I did.

It could be a great autumn and winter for local cross country this year. With the cancellation of so many events, including the Dublin Marathon, road races, parkruns (and the European cross country championships that were to be held in Dublin in December), the possibility of local cross country participation (under guidelines) could be huge. Many distance runners are crying out for safe action, to express themselves and find solace in competition or participation. And what could be safer than cross country: open fields, quick turnover of activity, no hanging around, ample space for social distancing and a trusted formula already used in the national senior, junior and masters athletics championships over the past few weeks. But we await advice from the experts.

Cross country running was in existence since the dawn of life. When the first tetrapods crawled out of the crowded seas around Valentia and elsewhere over four hundred million years ago, cross country began. When life further evolved on land and had to continue to hunt for food, cross country flourished. No medals, no clubs. Just cross. Born to run to survive. Later on when folklore developed, runners were heroic figures. Caoilte Mac Rónáin was the runner of the Fianna, covering vast distances to deliver news. Further afield, Pheidippides unwittingly caused the invention of the marathon when he ran the twenty six miles to Athens, cross country, to deliver news of victory at the battle of Marathon. The fact that he is reputed to have dropped dead after delivering the news need not be considered. He obviously didn’t have the proper training done. Gordon Pirie considered that cross country running caught on in English public schools in the 1900s when fields became too wet for rugby. The alternative was cross country running or extra study. No problem making a choice there. And then in Ireland there was John Treacy and Sonia O’Sullivan and Maureen Harrington and Catherina McKiernan and more…

“Cross country is a mental sport and we’re all insane”, one athlete is reputed to have said once after competing over a particularly rough course. Indeed cross courses are rarely forgotten. Along with the Cows’ Lawn with its own Calvary, there was Scahies in Farranfore. Ten out of ten on the scale of tough. Nearly blocked the shower tray washing off mud in my early veteran years after a county championships there. Mud in the hair, mud on the eyebrows, mud in the ears and plastered on the legs and in places not normally reached by mud. Great feeling afterwards. Not during. Probably one of the best cross courses in Kerry. Then there was Moss O’Connell’s land in Moyvane on a county senior championships Sunday in 1979. Testing, unforgiving land and a great course laid out by Moss whose enthusiasm for athletics was infectious. Moyvane club loved cross country. There was a wooden plank, possibly bog-deal acting as a bridge over the troubled waters of a stream. You bounced up and down as you went across. Like crossing the River Styx on the way into the eternity of the otherworld of Greek mythology. I did Greek in St Michael’s. I consolidated my understanding of Greek mythology that now-distant day in Moyvane. On the second crossing of the Styx, my right spike shoe stuck in the bog-deal and the sole left the body of the shoe. That’s when I thought of the River Styx. The sole left the body. Into the otherness of running with only one spike. How do I know it was my right shoe? Because the raw, cold, vulnerable, other feeling that invaded my right unprotected sole, ably assisted by the kiss of briars, furze and nettles is a never-forgotten experience. Even Michael Mangan, who loves to run barefoot would surely find that course a challenge. Even Achilles was rendered vulnerable in his heel after his mother had dipped him in the Styx in his youth, thinking that it was good for him. Look at all the achilles problems since! By the way, Styx was also the name of a nymph, one of the three thousand daughters of Tethys and Oceanus, the goddess of the River Styx. The Greek all came back to me that day in Moyvane. Having three thousand daughters had made us wonder in Mr Given’s classics class in St Michael’s. Actually, Greek was interesting.

But that course in Moyvane yielded a great cross country day. Willie Counihan (St John’s AC) won his third senior title in a row, followed home by clubmate John Griffin and John Lenihan (An Ríocht AC). My God, what company we were in that day!

For more mud and games the Claremorris mushroom plant course was a truly memorable experience in the 1990s with rain before, during and after. It is especially memorable as it was the day that Niamh Kissane won an All Ireland U18 title for St Brendan’s AC. More recently, the Demesne in Killarney has been one of the centres of cross championships in Kerry and is testing when the going is soft, while the hilly Cahersiveen course is a treat on a sunny Sunday. Ask Paudie Dineen about that course. His eyes will light up. Last year the Gneeveguilla AC-organised county event outside Barraduff was memorable but my van had a job to negotiate the hill back to the gate after a most enjoyable day. No problem to you, says Paddy O’Donoghue. That’s not a hill. It’s a slight rise. Firies is always a popular course and is real cross territory and the juvenile relays are a sight to behold there. With the efficient Farranfore Maine Valley AC officials in charge, it’s a social occasion to savour also. Another type of course was the section of the Cúl Trá near Banna where Ardfert AC athletes loved to compete in the past. Grass on sand was heaven for the athletes who liked the fast pace in the 1960s and 1970s.

Racecourses were the scene of some memorable cross country events once. Killarney Racecourse was a good venue and was I was privileged to compete for the Kerry junior team there in a Munster championships in the mid 1970s. Kerry came third county but we got no medals for some reason. We were penalised for turning up although Pat Griffin did his best to negotiate with the officials. Listowel Racecourse was a popular venue while famous national championships were run in Mallow Racecourse. Dingle Racecourse with the salt air coming in from the Atlantic over the Blasket Islands saw Tom Shanahan of Moyvane at his best in Kerry on a Sunday afternoon in the 1990s. Galway Racecourse with a good testing rise on the west side was the scene of great performances at national level by Geraldine McCarthy of Listowel. And only last year the Munster championships attracted massive crowds of juveniles and intermediates to the well-appointed but very yielding Limerick racecourse.

Of course the world championship win by John Treacy in Limerick Racecourse on a wet and windy day in 1979 has identified race course cross country with folklore. I brought binoculars to watch the detail from the crowded stand. The glass steamed up in the manic euphoria as Treacy cut through the ankle-deep mud to win his back-to-back titles. The public address commentator warned the supporters near the finish to keep back or Treacy could be disqualified. Some chance of that as the Waterford man ambled into legend. Sonia O’Sullivan had much drier conditions as she doubled up on gold medals years later over two different distances in a warmer climate, while Catherina McKiernan collected her four world cross country silver medals and one European gold over a variety of courses.

I can recall a Munster cross country championships in Horse and Jockey on a Tipperary Sunday on a dry course when Fr Liam Kelleher, the dynamic priest and coach from Cork gathered his huge host of athletes around him before the competitions began and shared a prayer of positivity for the races ahead.

In Ardfert we are proud to have some great cross country runners over the years. Irish international Tom O’Riordan won five senior Irish cross country titles in the colours of Donore Harriers between 1963 and 1970 while Dan Murphy also represented his country and left his mark on the Munster and national storyboard. Further afield in Kerry, Maureen Harrington won two international bronze team medals for Irleand as well as a host of other honours and Shona Heaslip has already had a brilliant career and we will see more from Shona in the years ahead. John Lenihan, the Griffin brothers, Tom Shanahan, Sonny Fennell…One could go on. Read all about that cross country success in Con Dennehy’s upcoming book.

For some reason one particular cross country event from 2019 stands out in my mind. Two Mile Borris, a short distance outside Thurles in Tipperary was a place apart. The Munster juvenile and adult championships were being staged and as you approached the venue you were conscious that something special was happening. Club banners, coloured club tents, activity, crowds – big crowds – ample and well-marshalled parking fields, great public address system and that buzz of expectation that often emanates from outdoor concerts. Food vans, coffee and hot tea, flasks of soup and sandwiches, bottles of water, numbers being collected, course maps being scrutinised, spikes being checked, club tops being distributed. Coloured tape adding prestige to the route. An imaginative winding course laid out like a piece of ribbon on rolling hills with a commanding view of the vast countryside. Winter sun colouring the winter land. Calm as dreams. Magic moments. The splendour of cross country even before the races begin. Then the announcer asked for attention as the national anthem was played. A moment of stunning silence as young and old stopped and thought. Music spreading for miles across fertile lands where the kings of Munster roamed in ancient times. Four fields away cattle stopped munching the rich Golden Vale grass. An incredible bonding of spirits for a window of time never experienced before by most. A child in a carry-cot beside me lifted her head and opened her little blue eyes. Somewhere in her future she will have a vague memory of a happy elusive moment which enriched her life and the lives of those around her. She may even be a cross country runner on such a day.

And then an explosion of cross country as armies of athletes rush out in their different age categories from whistle to tape. All the counties of Munster in a rush of youth. Parents with tops and spare clothes under their arms full of excitement and expectation. Coaches roaring their heads off in support. A convergence on the sign that proclaims FINISH. Words of praise, comfort, support, sympathy. Numbers checked. Photographs taken for posterity. Niamh O’Mahony and her cousin Conor O’Mahony (An Ríocht AC) outstanding for Kerry. Ben O’Connor, Aoibhinn O’Driscoll and the Horgan brothers carrying the St Brendan’s AC colours with honour. Did we get a team prize? Can I have chips from the van? When is the next race?

There are a million cross country stories to tell. There is a Two Mile Borris experience in all cross country runners, parents, grandparents, coaches, supporters, officials. Cross country deserves a place in the philosophy of total athletics. In St Brendan’s AC we have the motto Athletics for All…That means all athletics, cross country, track and field, walks for all. It keeps more athletes interested. It provides a universal package. It has a holistic approach.

And why not have cross country walks!

Let’s hope cross country happens again soon. Let’s embrace the primitive freedom.