Tauranga Twilight (New Zealand)

Running a 3000m track race isn't the way I usually celebrate New Year's Day but it seemed like a good idea.  There would be no pressure on me, and it would be a good opportunity to see where I'm at and test myself over a distance that I have not done any specific training for.  It would also be a fun event with many of the rest of the group also taking part.

My New Year's Eve celebrations didn't hinder me a great deal.  I was tucked up in bed by 10:30pm after going out for a meal with the tour party.  The race wasn't until the evening of New Year's Day and I managed to stay quite relaxed most of the day.  The nerves really kicked in the last couple of hours before the start but all in all I wasn't ridiculously nervous.

The conditions weren't brilliant with quite a gusty wind around the final bend and down the home straight and although I revised my target lap times slightly as a result, I was still positive of being able to run a personal best time.

Unfortunately (for me anyway, not for the sport of athletics of course!) but there were quite a large number of entries in the women's, M45 and U17 boys' races which were all going to be run together, and hence right on the start line they decided to run it as two races - with the women running separately.  It would have been good to all run together but I wasn't really bothered and was prepared to time trial it if necessary.  It's not as though I have never run in No Man's Land in the UK before!

I went straight to the front as I had planned if the pace was a little slow and was slightly quick ( but not too much) through the first lap.  I then settled into a slightly slower but good rhythm for the next few laps.  It was quite hard, as I am sure you all know, trying to run faster than you ever have done before from the front and on the penultimate lap I was slowing a bit.  However, I was still feeling strong and managed to pull out my 2nd fastest last lap ever (the fastest being in a 1500m race) to cross the line in 9:28.87.

It was a bit gutting to miss my PB by such a small margin, but I'm still feeling fairly pleased with the result.  A few days before the race I felt that quite a big PB was on the cards, despite my lack of specific workouts for the race, and I had to revise my thinking upon seeing the conditions.  However, considering also that I was running alone for the entire race, I definitely feel capable of faster and am looking forward to getting in some more races in the near future.

A good start to the year and hopefully there's more to come!