Mullingar Harrier’s Cormac Dalton has successfully made two Irish teams in the last twelve months and is targeting a third at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn at the start of March.
Preparations began at the start of January with a trip to the popular but remote altitude training destination of Dullstroom in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa. Dalton was not alone on his trip, joining a large group of Irish athletes which included two fellow Mullingar men.
Mullingar has a strong pedigree in endurance running and Dalton’s club teammate Jack O’Leary explains that living in the town has meant that they don’t have to suffer with challenge of ‘the lonely long-distance runner’.
“The idea of this kind of long-distance runner really hasn’t been a thing for us in Mullingar.
“On a Sunday, we nearly have 10-plus people to train with every week,” details the 27-year-old.
The group of three from Westmeath spent most of January in Dullstroom, South Africa, which O’Leary was adamant in phone calls to family back home that it has been all work and no play.
“They kind of think it’s going to be this big holiday and stuff.
“It is very tedious… it is literally just get up, run, eat, sleep, run. And it’s that kind of cycle all the time,” adds O’Leary.
Dalton, O’Leary and Battle have been regulars in the Irish vest, with all three making European Cross teams in their respective age groups in 2019 and 2021, but the first vests they pulled on were the burgundy of Mullingar Harriers.
Battle credits the club culture as the key to his and others success as they climbed the ranks.
“I think it’s probably just the culture. There are always the numbers as well. There’s always so many kids in the area that do it from a young age and they all just come together and train and have fun with it.
“I can speak for the three of us, we’ve just stuck at it and just shown up week in, week out, year in, year out and just progressed steadily along the way,” lists Battle.
Despite O’Leary’s protest, there is some fun to be had while on training camp, and Battle, the youngest of the group, jokes Dalton wasn’t an idol growing up.
“I’m not giving him that credit. His ego’s big enough,” laughs the 24-year-old.
Dalton has a ten-kilometre personal best of 28-minutes which he set in 2023, this along with an 8th place finish at the European Cross Country in 2023 has placed him among the top Irish distance runners of this generation, you think that would be enough for Battle!
Cormac Dalton targets European Indoor Championships
The 26-year-old explains that the plan this year is to work on the speed element of his training and has a target of the European Indoors in the Netherlands at the start of March and the European Running Championships on the road in April.
“I’m targeting indoors this year pretty hard…I’m going to Boston for the two weeks…to try and run some good times because it’s hard to get into a lot of the European (race) scene.
“I need to head over there to try and bring down the times and see if we can give European Indoors a crack this year over 3,000 metres.
“There’s a nice little intro to roads in April, which I am kind of looking at, which is the European Road Running Championships. So that would be my only kind of road target this year.
“Other than that, I’m trying to keep working on getting the speed down a little bit more,” adds Dalton.
Dalton is right to target the infamous Boston University (BU) indoor series, in the 2024 season three of the top ten five-kilometre times in Europe came from their indoor venue. It is no surprise that there will be a large Irish contingent in the Massachusetts capital in the coming weeks.
There are almost 250 athletes entered in just the 5k at the prestigious Valentine Invitational meet and grand total of 18 Irish athletes entered across all the events.
O’Leary has a different attitude than the 2023 National Cross Country Champion, the Iona University graduate has less performance minded ambitions for this season.
“I’m just trying to find my former self…my running was going great in America and I’m trying to just kind of bring that athlete back in Ireland.
“I’m kind of just on my own journey of getting back to the best shape of my life.
“I’m slowly getting back to that athlete and then we can start kind of thinking of more specific goals,” reflects O’Leary.
Battle will also choose to forgo the indoor season and instead is focusing on the historically fast five-kilometre event at the Armagh International Road Races on 13 February.
“I’m going to do Armagh on the 13th and then see how that goes…I’m probably going to do a road ten-kilometre after that somewhere.
“I’m going to stay away from indoors this year and just stick to the roads and then get ready for outdoors,” explained Battle.
All three athletes have different goals but have managed to find common ground.
The three Mullingar athletes were on the camp partly supported by Athletics Ireland and Dalton describes rubbing shoulders with seasoned international athletes a highlight of their four-week stint at altitude.
“We’re mingling with some of the international athletes which is cool…You’re seeing Olympians up here and you’re going for runs with them and even training with a few of them.
“They are guys that are making Olympic finals and it’s cool to rub off people like that,” adds Dalton.
O’Leary agrees and describes the atmosphere at the 2100-metre altitude camp as ‘inspiring’, living in close quarters with other athletes has made him realise he isn’t alone in his pursuits.
“It’s inspiring seeing even Irish athletes…at times at home you might feel like you’re the only one out there doing this kind of training.
“Just to see so many other people, you know, you’re not the only one that might be a bit mad putting in the miles.”
Dalton ran a credible 7:50.09 in his opening race over 3,000 metres and will race again on 14 February over 5,000-metres in the Massachusetts capital. Battle will race the Armagh International Road Races on 13 February where Efrem Gidey will target the Irish five-kilometre road record.
