Sport City BMC 5000m

I had deliberated all week whether to run this race.  I’ve enjoyed running the 5000m at this meeting in recent years because it’s only a 10 minute drive from my house, and of all the BMC meetings the atmosphere at this one is pretty special with spectators lining the backstraight offering vocal support.  I’ve always felt the atmosphere here has gained me a few seconds, and I’m sure I’m not the only runner who will say that.

That said, things had been a struggle in the last five weeks, since the marathon.  A hamstring problem had caused me to drop out of London and I’d struggled to get any consistency or quality in my training since London.  I’d ran 30:48 at the Great Manchester Run the previous week which didn’t indicate I would run particularly quick here.

I had been given the responsibility of putting the fields and pacemakers together, and with four races there was a concern that there was a possibility one may withdraw last week leaving me high and dry.  I decided to run the race, and build my week around doing it, and then if I was needed to step in as a pacemaker at the last minute, I would just be able to step down to pacemake and not have to worry about messing with the rest of my week.

As it turned out, I did lose one pacemaker but Andy offered to double up and pace the C and B races.  This left me free to race.  I had been at work from 9am til 6pm and came home shattered so as the race was not until 9:30pm, I decided to have a 30min sleep when I got home, and then eat.   A great move in hindsight.

I was in the B race, paced at 14:10 pace, and the slowest target time from the online entries was 14:30 so I knew it would definitely go off at sub 14:30 pace.  Off we went and I wasn’t concerned to be right at the back.  Sure enough, I reeled off lap splits of 69s and was 5:45 at 2000m and still in last place, but in touch with most of the field.  It was a little quicker than I had anticipated but I felt surprisingly OK with it and looked on it as time in the bank. 

After those first five laps, those immediately in front did start to slow and I started advancing through the field.  3000m was passed in 8:41 so despite me moving up in position, I had ran a slower km of 2:56.  I continued to advance my position and caught James Smith and Matt Clowes who have been trouncing me in recent weeks.  I passed Clowes but Smith was moving up in position himself.  I followed James through, and then with 3 laps to go I pushed on past James.  I was now in 7^th place and there were a group of four in striking distance contesting 2^nd place.  This race was going a lot better than I expected.

James came back past me after 500m, and moved away leaving me in no mans land.  I toughed out the last two laps and was very pleased with my final time of 14:39 for 8^th place.  A good start to the track season, and the first race since London where my hamstring hasn’t caused me a problem.  Onwards and upwards!