Run > Race

Avon AA Open Meeting 800m at Stoke Gifford 'WISE' campus. I had been feeling a bit crap and very lethargic (and breathless) all day, as if I hadn't had any sleep and I were coming down with a virus. I nearly didn't go tot he race just because of that, but then to make matters more stressful, after looking after Tyler all day I had to go shopping, then cook his dinner and by the time I sorted that out (tried ordering takeaway but couldn't because of minimum spend) I finally managed to quickly cook him a hot dog before rushing off and just making it there for 7pm (and annoyingly taking the wrong exit at the roundabout just before Sainsbury's! Warming up my hamstring was feeling bad, tight and a bit sore, not really much better than last week. I had to rush the last part of the warm up because they got ahead of schedule by nearly 10 minutes, so only managed 2 strides. We had a full race and a para athlete, but looked like I had a few guys to run with. I was luckily in lane 1 and went off nice and swiftly but this time kept it strong and found myself in a pack of 4 at the front. I tailed the front 2 runners before being passed by Alex (from last weeks race) and clocking a high 64/low 65 through the bell, which is exactly what I wanted. I still felt reasonably strong, so kept on the tail of the runners ahead and managed to surge around Alex at 600m and just hold onto 3rd place for the last 200m until the finish - the last 150m felt tough and I was in lactic city with about 70m to go, but managed to push through. Really happy with the result though, I wasn't expecting to break 2.13. Official time was 2.12.9, 2nd place was 2.11 and first was 2.10, so not too much in it. I didn't get locked in this time (last year I had to climb the fence/turn gate to get out)!