I finally indulged my desire to dabble in a track race at the weekend. 37 may be getting a bit long in the tooth to make your 1500m debut, and I'd been scarcly doing any training in the few weeks leading up to the meet thanks to a knee injury, but having pre-entered I figured I may as well run. I'd skipped on the 5000m that I had been planning on doing as well due to lack of fitness, and so my public humiliation would be confined to three and three quarter laps.<br><br>
I swear I have never been more nervous leading up to a race as this...I was one of three senior men running, and there were 4 under 20's in the same field. The heavens had opened leading up to the race, leading to a delay in the programme (you mean you can't run in the rain??? I never knew that...) and conditions were blustery and dry by the time we lined up. The seemingly endless sucession of junior races weren't helping the nerves any, and I was glad to eventually be called to the start line, my neophyte status obvious from the road shoes even before I admitted to never having raced on the track before!<br><br>
My plan was to sit at the back of the group and see what happened...tactics born of ignorance. Off went the gun, and the first 300m were passed in 53s, and i was at the back with 2 of the under 20's, the rest of the field pretty well stretched out. Somewhere on the second lap the elastic snapped and seemingly in the space of a few seconds I was 10m adrift and still with 800m to go. Lap 3 was hard, but I'd been expecting that,and I hit the bell in 3:42 still off the back. Along the back straight I started to dig in seriously and started to catch up on the kid in front, who was looking over his shoulder and digging in as well, so even though I never caught him, he sure knew I was there! A final blast down the home straight and just missed out on sub 5, finishing in 5:02, which as better than I'd been expecting given my lack of preparation. Third out of 3 in the senior race earned me a bronze medal, the race being won overall in 4:28 by one of the juniors, first senior in 4:44.<br><br>
An interesting experience, and I was still readjusting my mind to not having 3 miles to make up a gap when the race was all over! Once it had stopped hurting I was already planning a re-run next year, hopefully off more solid training than this year. I was also pleasently surprised at the friendliness of the other competitors, as track runners have a bit of an elitist reputation, but at least for this group that was way off the mark.<br><br>
Sub 5 or bust!!
I swear I have never been more nervous leading up to a race as this...I was one of three senior men running, and there were 4 under 20's in the same field. The heavens had opened leading up to the race, leading to a delay in the programme (you mean you can't run in the rain??? I never knew that...) and conditions were blustery and dry by the time we lined up. The seemingly endless sucession of junior races weren't helping the nerves any, and I was glad to eventually be called to the start line, my neophyte status obvious from the road shoes even before I admitted to never having raced on the track before!<br><br>
My plan was to sit at the back of the group and see what happened...tactics born of ignorance. Off went the gun, and the first 300m were passed in 53s, and i was at the back with 2 of the under 20's, the rest of the field pretty well stretched out. Somewhere on the second lap the elastic snapped and seemingly in the space of a few seconds I was 10m adrift and still with 800m to go. Lap 3 was hard, but I'd been expecting that,and I hit the bell in 3:42 still off the back. Along the back straight I started to dig in seriously and started to catch up on the kid in front, who was looking over his shoulder and digging in as well, so even though I never caught him, he sure knew I was there! A final blast down the home straight and just missed out on sub 5, finishing in 5:02, which as better than I'd been expecting given my lack of preparation. Third out of 3 in the senior race earned me a bronze medal, the race being won overall in 4:28 by one of the juniors, first senior in 4:44.<br><br>
An interesting experience, and I was still readjusting my mind to not having 3 miles to make up a gap when the race was all over! Once it had stopped hurting I was already planning a re-run next year, hopefully off more solid training than this year. I was also pleasently surprised at the friendliness of the other competitors, as track runners have a bit of an elitist reputation, but at least for this group that was way off the mark.<br><br>
Sub 5 or bust!!
