Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix 3000

Having had a bit of a disappointing run for my own standard last weekend I was thrown a lifeline and given the opportunity to race in Birmingham. Only problem was that it had been changed from a 3000 to a 5000 so Mo and Galen could have a crack at their respective national records. 

I was told the pace would go through at 7:48 pace... ouch! Thankfully this was slowed down to 7:55 pace so it turned out to be perfect. There was 2 other guys shooting for the 1 qualifying spot with me, Rossco Murray and Jonny Mellor. We were all in shape as proved the week before so it was just a case of working together on the day and hopefully at least one of us could hit the 7:54.00 target.

The race got underway and off went Overall the pacemaker to the front followed by the 2nd pacemaker and Ross. I think they went through 400 in just under 62, I was a little off that, maybe 63.5ish and then 800 in around 2:07 which seemed good for me, so it was good to just ease into the race.

I got through the first km in something like 2:38/9, so I thought, ok, time to get moving and close down the gap to the front 3 guys. I got round to 2km in just over 5:17 which was prefect for me, it meant I did need to pick up though if I wanted to get under 7:54 though.

It did begin to wind up a little but I would have preferred it to go a little faster in the last km rather than holding my pace and trying to run a strong last 300m or so. I hit the bell in 7:23 but I just didn't have the legs to pick up as fast as I would have liked. I crossed the line not knowing my time, only to see 7:52.8 on the clock for the pacemaker. I thought I must have been within a second of him, I was sure I was! I was delighted anyway though as I was so happy the way I ran the race. I had felt great throughout, I just didn't have the sharpness there on the last lap. 

Ross and Jonny followed me home closely, both ran great races, especially Ross. Not many athletes go for it like he did and it's great to see athletes with that attitude. I hope he's learned from the experience and goes out this summer and makes that huge breakthrough everyone knows he's capable of. 

The next 8 minutes was quite entertaining, it's not often you get front row seats to a British record! It was awesome to watch Mo and Galen blast round the next 10 laps. 13:10 indoors is ridiculous! It was a pleasure to watch. For those who didn't see the race, we were told by the organisers for our 3k split to count we needed to finish the race. So off we went, plodding round in lane 3, cheering on the 5k boys when they came by. Ross seemed more eager to finish and lapped Jonny and I! We then finished in 16:32, an indoor PB for 5000m. I'm sure i won't be beating that for a while with the lack of indoor 5k's.

Regardless of what happens now, i'm still delighted to have come out and ran 7:54 in February off the training I've been doing. I think I only did 1 specific session geared towards the 3000 outside of the original plan. It would have been nice to do a couple of cross countries I was asked to race in but maybe next year. Hopefully this will be a good stepping stone into the summer season now.