Watford BMC 3000

What can I say, you have those days that feel just perfect and last night was one of them! I went into the race with no expectations and just knowing i'd nailed a really good session at the end of last week (5x1mile) and because I had a sore calf I backed off my training a slightly more than I should have between then and last night. Maybe by doing it had freshened me up even more which couldn't have been that bad. The first aim was to break 8 minutes and run a pb and the next aim was to just hang onto the leaders as long as I could and see what happened.

I warmed up feeling as normal and was in good spirits having a chat with Jermain Mays about the up and coming fantasy football season! I got my hard strides done, sat down for a minute or two and then waited for the call up.

The pace was to go out at 62's for one Craig Mottram who's now starting to get back into shape. He was hoping to run 7:45 and had a pacemaker to 3 laps in 3:06. This was slightly quicker than I would have liked to run and because there was so many good runners in the race, Vernon, Stevenson, Geele, Mays, I was hopeful of a good train to latch onto. 

As the race got underway I tucked in behind the lads going through in 63 for the first lap and the first km in 2:36. I slowly started to try and move up the group. I'm not too sure on splits but I think I was around 4:12 at the mile. I was just concentrating on not getting dropped and hanging onto the lads as I knew that up to 6 laps would be tough. 

I got to 2 laps to go and thought to myself, hang on a minute, I feel alright here! So as I moved round the bend I tried to push through to take the pace as Moumin was beginning to slow. I gave him a shout to move out, he didn't, I gave him a wack in the arm then another shout and as he looked at me Mottram went round him and kicked on again. I went up the inside and tried to stretch out. 

At 500 to I still felt strong but I didn't have it in my legs to kick on like Mottram did, I guess that was him showing his class. I pushed as hard as I could through the bell as Moumin past me but couldn't get back on terms with either of them. I still ran my last lap in 60 high and held it together to come home in 7:52.99 in 3rd.

All I can say is I was delighted and it took a while to sink in how quick I'd actually gone but really happy and now I can look towards the 5000 in 10days.

The race video is here:

And results: