Stretford BMC 1500m

I raced the Stretford BMC Gold meet 1500m on Tuesday night. The aim of this race was to turn the legs and get some pace in them. I haven't done any speed work what so ever so I was hoping to run even spits off my strength. Ideally I was looking to run close to my PB by getting out quite hard and hoping that I could hang on well however it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! We had pace to 1000m which was great, the pacemaker said he'd get there in 2:27 which was ideal if I was following that. The gun went and I immediately struggled to get my legs moving quick enough to get up to speed. I felt like it took me 200m to get going. I tried to stay relaxed and not panic as I knew once I got going I could hold it. I went through 400m in 60 seconds, a second down on what I would have liked with a gap to the pacemaker. As I came round with 2 laps to go Jonny Mellor came by. This was a real help as I was working quite hard and it is easy to fall off pace without realising and the race can slip away. He was switched on and not afraid to move through to the front. We hit 800m in 2:00, again slightly down on what I would have liked, it was not just a case of coming home strong. I heard Nuttall shouting at the 1k marker and Jonny and I went through in 2:29/2:30.  We tried to keep things moving through the bell (2:45) and as we came down the back straight I was hoping we could have a right good battle. I went round Jonny at about 130 to go and got a metre on him, he then came back at me, drew level and then just got away in the final 40m. Jonny crossed the line in 3:45.4 and I was a step behind in 3:45.5. I was pretty happy considering the training I've been doing and also the weekend I had. I paced the BMC 5000m race at Watford on Saturday evening to 9 laps. Going through 3000m in 8:11 an carry on for another 600m was a great workout for me and I kind of wished I'd carried on! Back to Stretford- it was a good race to put some pace in the legs and i'm now looking forward to my next race, the 3000m in 2 weeks time on the same track. There's already been about 7 entries and all are looking for sub 8:10 so it has the potential to be a great race. Finally, massive congratulations to Hodge Hodge Hodge Hodges on his first sub 3:50 race and to K Flan on his 6 second pb, both of who were in the race on Tuesday evening. And also Warbo finally showing what he's made of running 1:48 for the 800 too.

Race video:

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/238885-Stretford-Gold-Standard-BMC/video/496817-1500m-BMC-A-Race