Have been struggling for form recently and before this race I'd basically given up and told myself that I'd race myself into form at some stage. Love running on the track and love running in the evening. Races were put back an hour which just heightened the tension and knew it would be fast with Earl O'Brien and Chadi in the C Race. I was secretly hoping for something under 9 minutes, telling myself that I'd be OK for JPMorgan on Wednesday if I did that. Farted around on the start line trying to tell the official that Jason Harrison wasn't turning up because he'd gone to the Rihanna concert (really shouldn't have got into that). Unbelievable how much more tense the start of track races are compared to road races. I was bricking myself. Tried not to go too quick to start off with but we still went through 200m in 31 seconds and the first 400 in 66. Chadi and Earl were leading the charge with a chap from Bankstown (Jason Hall). I was in a group trying to hold on to James Swadling.
Don't remember much else other than falling behind James during the middle km but then slowly catching his group over the final km. Caught James with 800m to go, got caught behind a chap for 100m trying to decide whether or not to go past him before just having a go. Was lactic with 300m to go and lost all form trying to sprint it home but chuffed to bits with the time. Got the following splits:
400m - 66
800m - 2:15
1km - 2:50 (was scared at this point)
2km - 5:53
2.2km - 6:30
2.6km - 7:40
3km - 8:51:06
In the overall times I finished 1 spot (and 1 second) behind CT. Closest I've ever got to him.
Roff looked very good for the A race win in 7:57 but run of the night for me was Josh Johnson winning the B race in 8:18 and he's only 16. Big Mikey H looked great taking the lead in the first km but struggled towards the end for an 8:38 - I think he can run a lot quicker. Likewise for Stevie T - he lead the pack in the A race for the first km looking very comfortable but then struggled. Bit more base and he'll be right back in it again.
Left heel is very sore today. Will take it easy until Wednesday, give it everything then take a bit of a rest before starting anew in January. Had a load of beers at Enda's 30th after the race where there was a lot of trash talking but it looks as though Gold Coast will be the showdown next year. Don't remember much else about the evening other than a vague recollection of beating Kanser's Irish ass at pool and thinking that, for however drunk I was, Timmy L was more so.
5 comments:
Congratulations on the PB. Supposedly out of form. JPM should be good on Wednesday.
How good does that feel!
Maybe if you raced track more often you could really surprise yourself.
Your 5K should be under 15m30.
Great stuff
Great run Tom, JPM should be interesting. Maybe under 17:30??
Fantastic result Tom. I got bored waiting for your blog so tracked down the results on the ANSW site and saw that you'd beaten your PB. Was thrilled to bits for you - couldn't wait to read the race report you posted here. Great result: I'm now able to brag that my bro can run 3k in 8:51 - it's almost as good as being able to run that fast mtself !!
Well done m'boy. You were much smarter with your preperation for this race during the week.
Post a Comment