Watford BMC 1500- Race Report

Pre-race Report

It's only been a few days since the 3k but I'm heading out onto the track to race again, this time in a 1500m at a Watford Gold Standard BMC. Having looked at the start lists the field is LOADED!! There are some very quick guys who are going for some very quick times. As with all BMC's, all I'm going to do is just run as hard as I can for the required distance, and try to finish fast. Fortunately the field is fast enough so I can just get in the middle of the pack and sit in.

Since the 3k I've been doing some light runs and taking it easy running wise. On Sunday and Monday the hamstrings were a bit sore but only when I stretched them out, they were fine when I was runnng. Yesterday I did some drills and strides and felt ok, didn't feel any tiredness. This morning I went for an easy 10 min jog and did some stretching. The legs didn't feel as bouncy as they normally do but hopefully it's nothing to worry about. The rest of the day is just going to be relaxing then getting ready for the race and then travelling. Like the other day, I'm getting to the race by train and trying not to cut it as close, but with public transport, you never know what's going to happen. At least it adds a bit of excitement in getting to the race...

Race Report

So I made it to the race at the time I intended to get there, but only to find out the races had been bought forward, and mine was in 15 minutes! Fortunately I jogged to the track from the station so had a bit of a warm up already. I dashed to the startline, did some strides and quickly put my number on. When we were called up to the startline I felt horrible and things didn't improve over the first 300m. I hit a lap in 62 and was in the bottom half of the field. I then went through 700m in 1:44 and 800m in 2:03. I wasn't feeling great but only had a small way to go and was moving through the field. I went through the bell in 2:49 and put a bit of acceleration in. At 200m to go I kicked again and managed to go past a few more and put together a 60 second last lap to end up with 3:49, and three second PB.

I'm really happy I managed to break 3:50 for the first time. To be honest I did feel a bit of tiredness in the legs but I don't know if that was from the lack of warm up or the 3k a few days before.This time moves me up to 8th in the junior rankings but i reckon I can go a bit faster at Cardiff in a few weeks. With a proper warm up and a couple more weeks training behind me there might be another PB on the horizon.