Nervous is probably an understatement when it comes to describing how I felt before this event. I'd entered the 1500m, my first tilt at this distance for 10 months. With training geared more towards 5000m, I feared I would not have the required pace in my legs to do the 64 seconds per 400m pace the pacemaker would be setting in my race. I had taken a planned rest day on the Tuesday to see Bruce Springsteen at Hampden (awesome) but missed the following day's training too after a draining working day including a stressful and lengthy client meeting after attending a seminar (no, I wasn't hungover). On the Thursday, I did a short road session of 1 minute and 2 minute repetitions to turn my legs over.
Driving to Scotstoun, my Dad seemed to have more faith in me than I did. The mind is a strange thing. Had I planned 2 rest days in succession, I'd have felt fine. However, because the second one was unplanned, it bothered me. Sport can be mind over matter at times.
Due to my nerves, I didn't feel like speaking to anyone so kept to myself, trying to get into race mode. About the only person I smiled with was another guy in my heat Mickey Breen who, on me conveying my feelings, confessed being possessed of the same self doubt. He's also a lawyer so a degree of empathy between us I guess.
At long last, we got away and I took up residence at the tail end of the field. The pacemaker misjudged the pace asked for spectacularly as I battered through 400m in 63 seconds in second last position, 3 seconds or so off the lead. Only Alistair Campbell, using me as his own pacemaker (which I was fine with incidentally), was behind me. This tempo was clearly too fast for some of the field as I took closer order in the pack. I could feel the strength from my recent mileage (back to my winter level of 60 per week) and sessions (tried and trusted Windfarm runs, High Point hill reps, track work etc) kicking in. It kept me in contention. What I didn't have in speed I made up for in endurance. 67 seconds for the next 400m.
I continued to keep up and another good lap (66 seconds) took me through 1200m in 3:16. A 50 second final 300m would give me a time just outside my best of 4:05. I'd have taken that. Some conversation however at the recent club prizegiving had discussed the rarity with which I produced a sprint finish. I was determined to have one this time. Mustering every last energy reserve, I covered the last 300m in 46 seconds (61-62 second 400m pace) to finish 7th out of 12 finishers in a new personal best of 4:02.48. I just edged out Mickey who clocked 4:03.33. We exchanged high fives, congratulating each other on our efforts. Alistair however produced the turn of pace he kills me with just about every Monday night on the track to finish 3rd in 4:01.02. He's finding some very good form.
The judicial examination over with for the night, I became more sociable then came up with a great idea for a warm down- if my Dad drove to Mount Florida, near Hampden, I could run there from Scotstoun and get picked up. It turned out a much longer run than anticipated, nearly 6.5 miles, and I felt fit for one of the beds in the adjacent Victoria Infirmary by the end. Running through the Tradeston area of Glasgow on a Friday night wasn't one of my better ideas.
At the same meeting, Ben Hukins ran 15:06.58 in the 5000m A race to claim West District bronze. Our other 1500m peformers were as follows:-
A race- Stewart Orr, 3:53.96
B race- Alistair Campbell, 4:01.02; Stuart Gibson, 4:02.48; Andrew Coulter, 4:14.88
D race- Greg Hastie, 4:18.53
F race- Niamh Brown, 5:00.32; Rebecca Bonomi, 5:20.87
Women's A race- Katie Bristow, 4:50.11
Women's B race- Eve Mackinnon, 4:53.26
Full results are on the Glasgow Athletics Association website.
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