Tracking Progress

Today was hot!   The thought of doing a 5000m race in the heat of the day filled me with fear as I drove to York.   With the air conditioning in the car going all the way I tried to convince myself that by 4pm the heat of the mid-day sun would be less - who am I kidding!   We stopped at Monks Cross for a bit of pre-race shopping and then headed off to the stadium...25 Degrees no less was the temperature but it somehow felt warmer.

No need for a long warm up today given the heat more like a cool down needed before the start!  My aim was a sub 16-45 which seems to be the "power of 10" standard for the 5000m.   After the last few weeks I was confident I could do this but the heat would be the deciding factor.

Make mine medium rare!

As we set off and settled into the early pace I found myslelf in 2nd place behind the eventual winner from Morpeth (I think Ian Harding of Morpeth but await the official results!).   What followed was an interesting race with Ben Mukherjee of Scarborough who had beaten me at Clairville in the last meeting.  In our last meeting he went off fast but came back to me but held on.  With approximately 400m complete he went past me and soon opened up a lead to put me in third place.  I thought I would try and hang onto the back of him for a while and see if he faded.   A 5-07 first mile could put us both into trouble but I held on as I felt him slow enough to allow me onto his heels.   I made the decision to go past him and test him out and I soon opened up a clear lead to put myself into 2nd place.   The heat was almost unbearable and I was glad to get some water from the NMH team manager (appreciated!).   Slightly slower miles :( then inevitably due to the heat allowed me to make a conscious decision to hold on for 2nd and hope that I could at least clock a sub 17 minute for my efforts.   A big push over the last mile and I was home and dry in about 16-39.   Happy with that!

This represents a personal best (as a V40) and a 12 second improvement since the last fixture in probably more difficult conditions than the cold, wind and rain of Clairville!

The highlight of the afternoon was the flying foursome of Best, Wiles, Piggford and Stevenson smash the opposition in the 4 x 400m....the heat was good for the short stuff but I would have preferred a cooler day today!    This must have been the inspiration for my 6 year old to join his Dad for a final lap of the track as the officials packed away...I'll have to watch him in the future lulling me into a false sense of security and then sprinting the home straight to claim victory!