British Indoor Grand Prix 3000m

Now this was nerve wracking. 

After I finished second at the indoor trials last weekend I was offered a place at the Birmingham Grand Prix and I was in a difficult situation. Do what my instincts were telling me, go with it, or sit back, be sensible and do a job today..

There were obviously two races in this one. One at the front running at sub 7.35 pace and one for me. Unfortunately I missed the guideline standard set by Uka for the European Indoors so I had one job to do, run 1.4 seconds quicker and I was in.

The difficult situation was this; There were a couple of Africans in the race who were capable of running the pace at the front with Mo and Nick had already told me that he was ‘going with it to see what happens’ so all that was left were myself, Gamma (who finished third at the trials) and a couple of other Brits. Knowing 7.55 was my target I knew I was in for a lonely run today.

As expected when the gun went I hardly saw anyone!! The lead group were off and gone and the rest of the Brits just sat in on me hoping I was going to pace them to a quick time. In my opinion the other Brits in this race who finished behind me missed a huge opportunity to do something here. They were probably on the biggest stage they have ever run on before and all they wanted to do was sit in and hope to hang on for a quick time!! But that was up to them. I had my job to do.

I ran a much more even pace here going through 2k in around 5.15 which was bang on the pace I needed for qualification. Up until this point I could sense the other Brits moving for position behind me and could see Nick falling off the lead group (I’m not surprised at the pace they were running). But as I’ve mentioned before it’s not until the 2k marker in a 3k that the real race starts. After passing in 5.15 very quickly I was on my own. No-one to catch and no-one behind. Unfortunately I faded slightly and finished with 7.56.4 AGAIN! However I was sure I could go faster with a race in the last 1000m.

Just have to wait and see now..I’m not holding my breath though

Drapes