Good Friday, AMA 35-39 800m

5km today and 45km for the week so far. 12/14 runs this month & 81/104 runs for the year

Thursday: A long drive to Canberra with some 'slight' detours (a long & embarrassing story), arrived safely and found my accommodation quite easily, the Rydges on the Lake, a nice room on the 8th floor with full breaky each day within the package. Thursday night I had pasta for dinner and a couple of beers in Civic, a pleasant dinner and very nice relaxing evening.

Friday: A great morning, loads of sun and very little wind, but with my race not scheduled until 5pm I didn't get too excited. I went to the track nice and early to familarise myself, check in and register and confirm my call room timings etc.



I caught up with a fellow club mate, Tony, see picture. Tony is the Vice President of the Vic Masters and competes in the 65-69 age group, he is also on the Committee for Western A's. As well as Tony, one of the girls from Western A's, Clare, was in Canberra too, her Grandparents were representing Qld in the Men's 80-85 and women 70-75. Also there were a handful of guys from neighbouring AV clubs from the Aberfeldie venue, so there was always someone to sit down with and have a chat with.

Just after 1pm I decided to go back to my hotel and have a light lunch and flex out and watch the box for awhile. Returning back to the track about 3.30ish, the weather was 21, sunny and no wind, very happy!

I knew the 'meet' was falling behind but I stuck to my schedule of warming up 1 hour prior to my schedule start. I ran for 12 minutes around some of the roads within the AIS region, back to the track for a few easy strides and then stretched. It was starting to cool down now, but still nice but I kept my pants and jacket on to stay nice and warm. By now it was very obvious the race was going to start later than 5:20pm, but that was fine. With the ladies first (meet Southy from CR, well done Kathy on your gold medals in the 800, 1500, 5k & CC) and then the older men, this meant I could watch 2 races I was very interested in, the O50s, Terry Hicks from Bendigo YMCA was hoping to run again under 2:05, whilst also backing up in the 1500, 200 & 400, and also wanting to watch Rob McCubbin from Keilor St Bernards (KSB), Rob is 43 and very capable, he holds the Aust age records for the 400 (49.33) and the 800 (1:51.56), but he was here to win the 800 and to try and break sub 50 for the 400 (WOW).

Both Terry (2:05.??) and Rob (1:59.??) won their age groups, funny watching Rob obviously cruise and still break 2 minutes.... But back to me, about 30 minutes prior to my race I knew I was becoming nervous, mainly as the evening was perfect weather (with clouds now closing in) and I knew I could get close to a 2:16 and I didn't want to totally stuff it. In my race, we had the 30-34 & 35-39 groups and I knew most were hoping to run sub 2:08, with a handful around the 2:12 area.

I was allocated lane 1, which is my favorite, off we went, shit they were moving, but at the 70-80 area I knew I had to worry about me and I got into my stride pattern. The first 400 in 67ish and I felt good, along the back straight I knew I was catching the guy in 3rd of my group, with 200 to go I was probably 5-6m behind but I thought I was catching, but once into the straight I think he had a quick glance and gave a spurt which I couldn't match and he easily remained in front, running 2:15.9 and I ran 2:17.50, which either my 2nd or 3rd fastest time ever and I was exhausted, so I was very happy with 4th and my efforts. Within minutes of the race finishing, it started to rain....

I did my cool down in the rain and did my stretches back at the hotel. Very proud of myself and I can believe I can get faster next year with another good endurance base throughout winter and then next season I think this is the distance I am going to try and improve the most with a real concentration on!