There were a few new roads opened in Carrigaline over the last few years, after generations of house building, the village finally got a bypass/relief road to ease traffic on the main street. The benefit of this, for us runners, is that it adds to the routes we can run. I was on one of those roads recently, Pottery Road, so named as it is very close to the site of the old Carrigaline Pottery. I was on a recovery run the day after the Youghal Half Marathon. I was shaking out the legs and trudging along at a nice and easy pace. As my mind wandered, (I tend to do that on my runs) I noticed the memorial of Joe West on the junction of Pottery Road and Ballea Road.
Memorial of Joe West
The beautiful memorial is an outline of Joe running in full flow, with the inscription below saying ‘Joe West Olympian 1952’ along the five Olympic rings. I have passed this memorial many times before, it was previously situated on Bothair Guidal by the community park, before being moved to its new location. For some reason, I had gotten into the habit of acknowledging Joe, whenever I passed him by, something I had stopped doing since the memorial moved. My acknowledgement was just a personal one, a little nod to a man who had represented his country on the biggest stage and yet a man that I knew very little about. I wanted to know more about the man who had run at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. I ran on and completed my recovery run and when home, I started to look into Joe. Inspired by a number of articles by John Walsh and others, I delved into Joe West and his very rich running history.
Joe was born and reared on the Ballea Road in Carrigaline, on the same road where his sculpture now sits. A multi talented sportsman, Joe hurled for Cork at Senior level. He started his athletics journey with the local Owenabui club where he won three senior Cork cross-country titles, team cross country titles and numerous races over various distances. He emigrated to England and again excelled winning many races. He was invited back to Ireland to compete in the AAAU marathon, which was the designated Olympics trial. Joe won the race and qualified for the marathon in Helsinki in 1952, despite having never run further than 15 miles before the race.
Joe’s build up to the race at the Helsinki games wasn’t ideal, as he didn’t have any fellow Irish competitors in the race or any accommodation. Some Dutch athletes took him under their wing and allowed him to stay with them. In determined fashion, Joe finished 49th, in a race won by the Czech great Emil Zatopek. It is said that Joe ran with Zatopek in the earlier part of the race. The Czech legend would of course, create history at those games by winning gold in the 5,000 metres, 10,000 metres and the marathon. After his spell in England, Joe returned home and ran with Rising Sun AC and later with Hilltown AC.
Last Sunday, (18th August) the St Finbarrs AC Cork City 10km was held starting down the Mardyke, onto the Lee Road before turning along the Carrigrohane straight. Joe competed in a similar race, albeit in the opposite direction, in July 1953, when The Cork City Sports hosted an 8 mile road race. This started at the Grand Parade, before hitting Carrigrohane. It then turned onto the Lee Road before finishing at the Mardyke. Joe won in a time of 45 minutes 44 seconds. I ran the 10km on Sunday, oddly my time was 44 minutes 45 seconds, not quite at Joe’s level but I did remember him as I ran. As a warm up for the race, I ran the race route with Antonio to get some miles in, beforehand. I was well aware of the hills on Lee Road after the warm up! I made a decision to go out easier for the race and go as hard as I could once I hit the Anglers Rest. Thankfully I was able to keep a decent pace going and I was delighted with the run.
My races and training runs of late have shown me that each and every run that I do can be extremely meaningful and beneficial, in more ways than one. That recovery run and my follow up research on Joe, inspired me for days after, I’ll continue to acknowledge him when I run by his memorial. What had started out for me as a sluggish run the day after a race, turned out to be something much more educational and inspiring than I could have ever imagined. I got to learn about an incredible local man and athlete who ran at the Olympic Games.
That’s one of the many great things about running, we get to run on the same roads and courses as legends and heroes from our past and we also get to run with legends of the here and now. At the 10km, we lined up with a phenomenal field of runners, Shona Heaslip, Michelle Finn, Sean Tobin and Ryan Creech to name a few. These are such high calibre runners, but I was there with everyone else, running together with them but running our own race.
I mentioned previously that I ran the Youghal Half marathon recently. Here, I ran with two very local legends from that area, Mary Sweeney and Aoife Cooke. I watched in awe as I warmed up with Mary and our gang, everyone greeting her with a smile and a friendly wave. Mary went on to win her age category. Aoife took the outright win and was a popular winner when she crossed the finish line. Her cheer, at the finish line, was the second loudest of the day, Marys being the loudest of course!
That race went very well for me. I was delighted to maintain a good pace throughout and was ecstatic to reel in the 1 hour 40 minute pacers towards the end. I crossed the line in just under 1 hour 39 minutes. I’m continuing to build fitness and I now have some very good training and races in my legs. I’m in a good place, both mentally and physically. No doubt there will be some tricky moments going forward (there always is in marathon training) but I’m strengthening my resolve with each run and I feel much more mentally stronger. I’m just enjoying my running again, more than ever!
The best thing about my most recent races in Youghal and Cork, was that the gang all got together afterwards. We chatted over tea, coffee, cakes and whatever other food was put in front of us. We shot the breeze about the race we had just done and plans going forward. It’s wonderful and magic and it’s also our sport at its very best.