Irish National Championships 1500m

All credit to the guys who tow the line at the National Champs, I have always believed that if you want to run for your country then you have to do them, and so it was a little disappointing that there were some guys missing that would have made the races more interesting.  Having said that, if you take out injuries, retirements and a few guys living and racing in the states it does reduce the numbers. 

I have always had great times in Ireland, run some terrific races and always well looked after.  Having said that the organisation shall we say left a little to be dersired on this occasion!  The fact that they had managed to get Christine Ohuruogu there to run would suggest that they want to grow the event, but the timing was shocking.  They had allowed 15 mins in the programe for the 60 m heats and the same for the 400m men.  There were 11 heats!!  Considering the entrants are done before the day, anybody knows that is not enough time to get those races done in time, factor in a few false starts and you have a disaster.  So before my warm up I went and asked what the delay was and was told 15mins.  Ok so I let 15 go then headed out for a 20min run, then some drills, stretching etc.  Then I found it was 30mins delay!  We were due off at 18.45, after the mens 400.  At that point we were told that they were half hour behind and the 400's would go at 19.15.  Hang on a min I said, thats not half hour behind, that half hour from here plus then the time to run the 11 heats!!

Anyway, I was planning on running really hard in the heats, but what with the warm up, warm down, warm up scenario my calfs were starting to cramp and I felt a little lathargic so just ran off the front as relaxed as possible to win in 3.52.  Was job done and hopefully run a little better in the final.  Oh and we eventually started 1 hour and 20 mins late!!

So to the final.  It was great that we were the 4th event after the mens and womens hurdles and then the womens 15.  At least there wouldn't be a delay.  Wrong!  The start was delayed by 10mins.  Hmm first event delayed.  So I went out for a warm up in the snow.  20 mins later and a few drills I was hearing the call for the mens 15.  Hang on a sec, they were calling even earlier than the supposed call up time!  So a few quick strides and we were in the call room.  Somehow after 40mins earlier saying they were late, they were now running ahead of schedule!!  Still I was there to get a run out and so thats what I did.  The warm up was far from ideal, but these things happen and you hve to deal with it.  The start was a bit of a shoving match and unfortuantely two young lads went down, pretty tough in a National Final, but hopefully they will learn from the experience, especially indoors which can be quite brutal!  I headed straight to the front and ran hard.  I was aware I was running inside 3.45 pace, as I was hoping to take James Noland's Championship Record, which was 3.44 something.   I felt pretty good and although probably tied up just a little in the last two laps, I was happy to come home in a 3.43.31.  Solid enough on my own, although a little disappointd not to have gone inside the Euro qualifying, but then there is always next week.  I think that it is going to be a good weekend up in Sheffield, and as long as I stay happy and enjoy the weekend then I'm sure it will be successful. 

Would just like to say thanks again to the Irish Federation for letting me run.  They do need to try and improve the timings of the event.  Everything else was spot on.  The venue, the accomodation, the hospitality.  They just need to work on giving a little extra time between events.  After all, they need athletes to keep on wanting to come back, so its the simple things that will help this. 

Neil