AAA's National Champs 1500m

Heats:

The heats on Sunday were as always pretty cagey.  I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible and I warmed up with Steve Davies and his coach Chris Moss.  I felt pretty good warming up and the purpose was to stay as relaxed as possible and get the job done and finish in the top three.  I have stated in my blog that the seeding was a little strange to have the three fastest guys this year all in the same heat, and also after winning the heat in the fastest time of the day to find yourself in lane 1 in the final, but ce la vie these things happen.

The heats were pretty much a formality, although I got caught a little at the start and so got boxed in.  I then had to slow down and wait for people to go around me, so that I could go out of the back of the pack, before coming wide to the front.  There were too many guys still in contention so I hit the front with 600 to go and wound it up enough to stretch the field out and win in 3.52.0.  I felt pretty good but then I should at that pace!

Final:

I wish I had an answer to how the human body works, I would then be a rich man!!  The warm up was terrible, and I could hardly put one foot in front of the other on my jog, but then in the past this has happened and I have run some of my best races.  On the flip side I have had races like the Oslo Golden League and London Grand Prix where I have had the best warm up ever, feeling fantastic and then the gun goes and I feel horrible and have run rubbish, go figure!?

Being in lane 1 and with Mo in the race I knew I had to get out hard and hope that he would take the pace on.  This pretty much went to plan and he took over after 200m  I had already decided to go after him before the race started, although I didn't think he would go quite as hard as he did.  A 27 second 200 and through 800 in 1.54 is quick and I was not able to hold that pace, unfortunatley it meant I was a good 15m off Mo but the same in front of the other guys so ended up running most of it on my own.  I believe that both Mo and myself would have run quicker if he had been maybe 2-3 seconds slower at 800.  This would have meant that we would have been together and then could have helped each other out over the second half and come home stronger.  I'm not sure how he felt over the last 600 but I know he was slowing down, unfortunately so was I!!  So much so that Warbo and Steve D managed to catch me and even go past by about 10m with a lap to go.  I was dead on my feet, but from somewhere I managed to get some inspiration and a second wind and my last lap was really strong, going back past the two of them to take 2nd behind Mo.  I was a little annoyed not to have run the time for the Euros today and a more controlled race might have brought me that time, but I was very happy with the place.  Obviously I came here to win, but Mo was just too strong and so I'll take 2nd if it is a means to an end, and I can run the time at the British Grand Prix.  Will that be enough to make the team, we shall have to wait and see......

Sp8y