Dead Runners society race report
Watford Open Track Meeting - wednesday 24th June
1998.
After our return
from the USA I really had to concentrate on finishing my PhD, I didn't have a
lot of time for training so I decided to try and train fast for some short
distance events as I wouldn't have time to train properly for anything long. So
off I went to Watford to run on the track.
Morning all
Last night I travelled with a bunch of kiddies to Watford to run on the track in the Watford Harriers open meeting. This was my first open track meeting so I wasn't sure what to expect. We were all running in the 3000m race, the last race of the night so we had a couple of hours to kill before we ran so we watched the people running the shorter races.
Eurodead Charlie Williams was running in one of the 800m races, I'd never met him before but I knew what colour running kit he would be wearing so after the 5th 800m race I said hello to a runner in dark blue vest and shorts and it was Charlie. He looked pretty tired after racing 800m, looked like hard work to me. I had a nice chat with him and then it was time to warm up.
I did a mile jog then got my spikes on. There were to be 2 3000m races, all the cambridge kiddies were running in the first race for fast runners and I wasn't. I did some stretching and some warming up on the back straight as they ran, we got 1,2,3,5 in the race.
Then it was time for my race, everyone in the first race looked young and fast but it was a real mixed bag in the second race. Some old men, children and ladies were running. An Oxford lady (friend of one of the Cambridge kiddies) was running in my race, she was worried as 3000m was a long way for her, I was worried as it was a very short race for me. Conditions weren't bad, there wasn't much wind and there was a bit of drizzle. Bang and off we went, usual mad dash for the first 200m before things settled down, my target was to break 11 minutes, I wanted to try and get in a bunch for as long as possible and get dragged along. Went through lap 1 in 85s and I was running with a man in light blue and a lady in dark blue, I decided to stick with them. Got to 1km in 3.35.5 and the light blue man was pulling away so I speeded up to follow him. Working hard to hang on but moving well, 1600m in 5.45. With 3 laps to go light blue zoomed off and I started to slow. 2km in 7.16.4, I was caught by a man in\par green and ran with him for a lap before he got away, tough going in from here, 1 lap to go in 9.33 so I had to speed up to break 11 but I didn't have much left and lost 2 places on the last lap finishing 12/19 in 11.04.8.
Pretty tired on finishing, did a cool down lap and felt better for it. The light blue man did 10.4x so he must have run a really fast last km. Said goodbye to Charlie and we all went back to Cambridge. Not too bad a run, my 2nd best ever 3000m track race, I ran 10.49.8 back in 1992 when I was young and fit. I think I'll do another one of these later in the summer and try and break 11.00.
ORN tonight when I get home
tony....
tony bell ageing student and marathon runner
cambridge university department of chemistry
amtb2@cus.cam.ac.uk Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
Help, help, I'm being repressed!
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