AAA 5k - Blackburn 5k

I arrived at the course thanks to Matt Janes nicely offering me a lift, it was not exactly like the weeks we have been having for last couple of months and I found it a bit cold. The wind was not exactly welcome either, as we walked to the changing rooms a nice man (think he was the organiser) explained the route of the course and where the finish was. As we were there quite early we sat and chatted in the changing rooms as did some other runners like Matt Barnes, Mark Buckingham etc, but it wasnt long before it was time to warm up with 45minutes to go.

I warmed up out on the course with Matt and other Welsh runner, Carwyn Jones and the 'lumps' were more like hills to me but what goes up must come down I suppose so after 10minutes we turned around and headed back into quite a strong wind, lucky for me I wouldnt be at the front so wasnt much to worry about. After some drills and the toilet stop we shot off to the start line and I was feeling confident along with nervous as there wasnt any pressure on me....I said good luck to Jonny and a couple of others before the call to get your ass on the start line.

When the gun went off I just thought 'make sure you get to that turn around a few runners and not in no mans land'....we ran down a hill and straight back up another and I was nicely placed amoungst a load of runners, as we approached the first kilometer somone shouted "two thirty eight" which was a bit surprising and then not long after the field strated to stretch and brake into little groups, I was at the front of a pack with the odd person going past and me passing the odd runner also. I wouldnt say I was really comfortable but was not in any danger of dying and by the turn there were a few people breathing down my neck!

We turned around a cone and about 6 runners shot past then a few more until the whole group behind was now infront....that was fine with me! I jumped on the back of the group and then it was more about concertrating on where runners were going and jumping, sometimes it amazes me that more runners dont clip each other as you get pretty close to each other and like today there is quite a bit of jumping around to get more protection.....it's quite an art really.

for the next 5minutes all I saw was Ricky's (another Welsh athlete) bum before I realised we were heading back down the last hill before we turned into the park and people were starting to make a move and get the best position. I followed a couple up the inside and got a nice line without having to slow to much then it was 400 to go, I ran hard to get onto the shoulder of one guy who then pulled me towards Simon Deakin of Leeds, with about 30meters to go I jumped out into the wind and just about got past him on the line and was surprised to see the clock on 14.36 as was hoping to just get back under 15.

I enjoyed the race and would do it again, it was also a nice change of scenery although the weather lived up to my image of the north!

Well done to Jonny getting 2nd place and thanks to Matt for dropping me back to the station.

Simx