Crystal Palace Grand Prix 5000m

This was my chance to go out there and run fast, the break i'd been waiting for. I knew the pace would be very hot up front, Mo was looking to run in the 12:50's lapping at 62's. I was hoping that there'd be the front group at that pace and then a group of Europeans and Americans running at 13:20 pace stretched out and my plan was to get on the back of that group at 65's and try to hang on for as long as possible.

Conditions were not great for distance running at all, a strong headwind down the home straight made fast times almost impossible and I knew I was going to have my work cut out. 

The race went off very very quick with a 58 first lap and I sat back in 62/63, again, the 2nd lap it was still very quick and I hit 800m in 2:07. When I reached the first kilometre at the back of the field in 2:41. I knew I was in for a tough ride. I tried to stay in touch with the group which was now a huge long line of athletes they just began to pull away. I reach 3 laps in 3:12, still running 64's and then the mile in 4:15/16. 

It hit home in my mind and I thought i'm not going to keep this up, I can't run 13:20 (which is 64s per lap)! Add in the wind and I was actually working harder than 64's just to maintain that pace. I reached 3000m in 8:10 roughly which wasn't that bad but at this point I was way out on my own with the leaders going through in 7:51 and then the back of the group around 8:05. I knew I'd worked too hard early on and I was going to pay the price and thats when my legs slowly began to just get slower and slower. My lap times dropped and come the last kilometre I was just jogging round. 

Some people may have just called it a day and stepped off the track and a few guys did that, but not me. I'm not a quitter, I don't drop out of a race unless I physically can't run anymore. To tell you the truth, that thought didn't cross my mind at all. I trotted home in about 14:18 with a ridiculous last couple of laps in the 70's! 

All in all I was pretty disappointed and felt a little embarrassed that i'd been accepted to run and not really performed. I did feel a little better when looking at the results and a lot of people had under performed, those who went off a 13:10 pace had all died and tailed back to the 13:30s and even Thommo who I train with sometimes ran 13:50 and he ran 13:26 the other week. I think the conditions played a huge part in the below par performances and the fact I was running it on my own for 11 laps made a huge difference. So certainly one to forget for me, i've got to get my head down, refocus and aim for another one before the season ends.