Armagh 5k

I was treating this as a session so I was a bit more relaxed than I normally would be, also practising to relax in general as sometimes I do over think things and my nerves to get the better of me I think when I am aiming for something. I even had a roast dinner in the afternoon which I wouldn't normally do!

I warmed up with Neil Speaight and Mark Pollard around the town as the 'Mall' gets pretty crowded with people, after a couple of laps we did our own thing as everyone has their own routines. I felt ok in the warm up but no where near as nervous as I normally get which was good and seemed to get the warm up done just about right, but then like all the guys that changed as we had to wait about 15-20minutes for a woman to be cleared after collapsing. These things happen and it is a good chance to see how you deal with it as it could happen at anytime so it was good practice, I put my long sleeve top on straight away as I waited for the news on how long it would be. Like most you want to get the balance of being ready and warm without being knackered from doing a hundred strides! I asked one of the marshals how long it may be and he said at least 10minutes and would give us warning a few minutes before the start anyway, so I jogged back to my stuff and put on another t-shirt, bottoms and warm hat and then just jogged very slowly with a stride every couple of minutes but not that hard.

Then soon enough he said we had 2minutes to go, I threw my stuff off and then we were off! I was on the outside and as said above I just wanted to run hard and get a good session, I knew I wouldn't be able to go that fast with tired legs so was very surprised to be getting close to the front of a very strong pack. It was pointless me just sitting so kept going and by the turn I was next to Jonny and he probably thought 'what the hell is Jonesy doing up here', I went to the front and felt good but being quite good with pace judgement knew that this was a slow start and was not going to be anywhere near 2.48 that some guys would be after but I was just doing my own thing really. I seemed to get a second or so on Jonny although knew he was probably just taking a breather, I was still surprised and shocked to be leading after a lap and heard the man with the watch shout 2.55 as I passed and as I was aiming for 14.30 so thought I did a good job.

The next two laps were difficult although not due to tiredness but a bit more mental, as guys started to shoot past me (like Jonny) and you can get disheartened and lose your head but I knew I was just doing the same pace and had to keep telling myself that (as one after the other went past). It's a strange feeling unless you get it but although I wasn't blowing the legs just don't have another gear in them, guys went past and some might say couldn't you just jump on the back but it's hard to change pace with tired legs. Every another lap or so everyone seemed to be in their rightful place and I was just off the back a few guys which I got back by the last lap. The crowds were good and knew I was ticking over quite well with shouts of 5.50 and 8.46 as I ran through the 'K' marks, I missed the 4k shout but knew it was probably the same sort of split. I was now just behind Afan and just ahead of Marc which are two guys I train with so was a bit weird as we normally help each other where as now we are trying to drop each other. We all know Marc has the best sprint of the three of us so Afan made a push for it before the home straight and I managed to push on a bit and heard Marc drop, we both passed a couple of people in the last 200m but then about 30m before the line Marc came past me and just missed Afan, we all finished within a second of each other. (14.33, 14.33, 14.34).

I soon heard about Jonny just missing out on the win and that something went wrong with him nearly coming to a stop on the fourth lap, unless you have really run hard to the breaking point it might be hard to understand how he missed counted the laps but he was probably just trying to think about the next step and keep working and then before he knew it had lost count of the laps. I have no doubt if he was to be pulled round rather than running on his own he would of got the time he wanted and maybe the win, but that's racing and he made a split second decision to go for it early on which didn't quite come off on the night.

Simx