Southern Vets League Basingstoke: 3000m

My first track race of the season was last night, running for Havant AC.

It had rained all day, was raining when we arrived, but the rain held off for the event. It was rather cool and the track was covered in puddles, but the conditions were OK for me.

The cool conditions may have been a factor in several muscle strains and tears though. Poor Rob pulled up in the 200m with a torn hamstring and Tom Buckner pulled a calf muscle in the steeplechase. I felt sorry for Tom as the announcer declared "And here we see ex-international steeplechaser Tom Buckner still showing good technique, despite his lack of pace". Cheek! Tom scored some good points though, but I think team captain Pete was a bit disappointed by the several DNFs dragging the men's score down.

Meanwhile, the women were doing somewhat better.

I watched Vicki and Amanda show everyone how it was done in the 800m and then it was my turn in the 3000m.

I had a good race, winning the B race, pacing well and knocking 14s off my PB. Teammate Bev took a half lap lead over me early on, but from there I seemed to keep pace with her. I tracked Winchester woman Jan for much of the race, but she pulled away on the last half lap. At least I didn't get lapped by (Winchester's) Karen Hazlitt this time, but she had done the Great Manchester run the previous day (in under 35 mins). You may ask how I finished behind 2 Winchester women and still won the B race - I don't know - I assume one of them was guesting. I did however lap another Winchester woman and lapped my W50 team mate Marilyn, who provided a good target in the finish straight. I just had to lap you Marilyn - sorry!

I finished in 11:42.4.
The age graded result was 78.7% (the older you get, the more you rely on age grading to tell you how you've done!)

Here are the splits:
92s 124bpm
94s 151bpm
94s 153bpm
93s 155bpm
93s 157bpm
94s 158bpm
94s 158bpm
46s 157bpm

You will notice that the last 200m is a slightly lower ave HR even though it was as fast a pace as the opening lap and faster than the penultimate lap. My HR dropped by 2 or 3 beats in the finish straight despite me pushing hard for the line, and presumably picking up speed (chasing Marilyn!). I can only assume this was some weird effect of going totally anaerobic and dropping the need for oxygen? I'm not sure, but it might be something to research.

It was a fraction slower than I'd hoped, but I had a fairly full week/weekend and didn't taper for the race. I'm pretty pleased with the result.

In the women's match we were winning by the time of the final event, the discus, which was still going on when we left. Well done team!