Over the last weekend I was competing in the
Peninsula athletics to try and qualify to be able to race at the state
championships in Brisbane in late October. Unfortunately for the past few weeks
I had been sick, but thankfully I had two fantastic sessions in the week
leading up so I felt that I was going to have some good races.
My first race was the 1500m and I knew that from
races leading up to this competition and I knew that I wasn't too far off the
qualifying time and this made me confident stepping up onto the start line. I
went out way too hard in the first lap and I was running at sub four minute
pace. Unfortunately for me this upset my whole race and although I was able to
take a clear win, I only ran a 4:36 which was 10 seconds off the qualifying
time. I was really upset about how I ran that race. I am just so thankful that
I have built up a network of people who know who I am and one of the team
managers came up and said that he would allow me to run in Brisbane because he
knows my capabilities. This gave me a confidence boost to try and run the good
800m and to try and qualify the official time.
Monday morning saw my 800m final and I was
confident that I could run a 2:06 to qualify. There was one person who I knew
would be tough competition from the Tablelands and so my plan was to stick on
his shoulder. We went through the first lap in 60 seconds, which was on the
planned time that I wanted to run. The last 300m was the toughest part of the
race because I ended up with lactic acid through my arms. I pushed as hard as I
could and at 200m another runner came past me, putting me into third. I ran to
my very limit and was almost able to get back into 2nd but I just couldn't get
there. Thankfully I ran a 2:05, which was under the qualifying time. I was over
the moon considering that I had been sick. I now had to turn my focus to the
3000m that afternoon.
Racing a 3000m on the track can be quite boring
because there are so many laps and the thinking off this and the fact that it
was run as the last race at the end of the day saw my motivation drop. I wasn't
too keen to run this but after watching the first 3000m (13-15years) I started
to become excited and eager to race because a training partner ran a very quick
time, so I was out to try and get as close as possible to what he ran. For the
majority of the race I sat with the leaders and I would put in the occasional
surge to test the legs of the other boys. With about 1km to go I heard my coach
yell out that I was off the time that we had set and something in me told me to
go. I put in a huge attack and coming up with 800m to go I could hear people
yelling that I had cracked the other runners. I ran as hard as I could and
finished the race off with a win and a time of 9:56. This was a 16 second PB
and I broke the old record by 36 seconds. Unfortunately I still didn't run the
qualifying time but after already been accepted for the 800m and 1500m, I had
the opportunity to race this at states.
I think the carnival was quite successful and
thankfully I was able to get onto the team and now I will be competing in
Brisbane in late October. Hopefully I'll get over my illness and then I'll be
able to train and stay committed to get into the top 10 in both or maybe three
of my races.
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| Finishing off the 3000m |
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