Saturday, 5 March 2005

Sat 5 Mar, Vic Masters Athletics Champsionships - 1500m

Well the WEATHER does occassionally spoil the party, I couldn't think of one reason why I wasn't going to run a PB on Saturday in my 1500m, I was feeling great, believed I was peaking and had done lots of training and was the lightest I have been in over 10 years (80kg), THEN I woke up and it was raining heavy and very WINDY.

Little A's was called off, even though it wasn't raining, the pits and throwing areas were a mess. For me this was good, meant I could go home and relax and listen to the wind from the safety of my house.

Arrived at Duncan McKinnon 75 minutes before my schedule race time and registered at the organising table and got my number. Went for my warm up 60 minutes prior, it is POURING and its very WINDY, oh well, time will not be a factor. Julie (wife) decides that her and the little ones will not come out today due to the weather, but Cameron comes out with me, he reckons I have watched enough of his races so he says he'll be the family rep. Also Burkie came out to provide some more guidance and a couple of the girls from the Club, team mates are so 'cool', thanks Sam & Lianne.

There are 16 starters for my race, a mixture of age groups ranging from 35-49, there were 4 in my particular age group. The wind was a cross wind and it was annoying but everyone experienced the same, so... I started off slightly harder than normal, completing the first lap about 1.5-2 sec faster than normal, trying to remain with 2 of my direct competitiors (the other was way ahead), from the 500 - 1400 mark I was in 3rd position and about 5 metres behind 2nd, but when I called upon my kick to finish off with, it wasn't there, and I got done in the final 30m and finished 4th in a time of 5:04.00. This was the 5th fastest time for me and in those conditions I was very happy and thinking back, I only broke 5:15 once last season. The winner of my age group, a guy from the Mentone AC, ran 4:38.

Overall happy, the conditions were horrible and I know I couldn't run that fast a couple of months ago in perfect conditions.

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