It’s been six weeks since my last race and I
was pleased to end this racing drought yesterday with my first track race in
Japan. The 5000M race was scheduled to start at 13:05h at the athletics stadium
in Hattori Ryokuchi Park, Osaka City. It was hot by the time I arrived so I sat
in the shade and drank plenty of liquid whilst watching the 10000M senior men’s
race. I went through my usual pre-race warm-up routine and reported to the start
point at 13:05h raring to go. After some confusion, I was told that my race was
‘next’, so I waited for 20 minutes whilst the first 5000M got under way. The
same thing happened at the start of the next race! Such is the difficulties of
the language barrier because I couldn’t read the race schedule I’d been handed
when I picked up my race number.
 |
| The lead group of the senior men's 10000M race |
At 2pm I was called over to run in the third
5000M race, by which time temperatures had reached 28 C. I’m not used to
running in such heat. This time I hadn’t got warmed up properly as I expected
the race to start 10 minutes later than it did. There were 9 men in this race. As
I hadn’t done a proper warm up, I set off steadily when the starting pistol was
fired. I went through the first 200M in 7th place in 39 seconds. The
pace at the front of the field was very fast, so I was content to let them go.
At 600M I started trying to move up through
the field. I quickly got past the 6th and 5th runners,
but it took me until lap 5 to catch the 4th placed runner. There was
a table with cups of water placed half way down the home straight. The 4th
placed runner slowed to get a drink which meant I closed the gap much more
rapidly than expected and got in front of him on the next bend. My mouth was
bone dry by this point as it was baking hot, but I just thought to myself, I’m not going to get a drink; it’s only
5000M and I don’t want to lose any time.
The runner in 1st place at the
beginning of the race had set off at a blistering pace such that he had a huge
lead after the first 400M. However, his deterioration was dramatic. He’d slowed
to 3rd place by lap 6 so I set my sights on closing the gap and
caught him by the end of lap 8 and I then stayed in 3rd place until
the end of the race. He finished 19 seconds behind me and 53 seconds behind the
winning time of 16:06. Getting in front of him gave me great pleasure, as he
had clearly badly judged the pace of his race. Running at an even pace really is
the key to good performances, though by no means easy to do.
 |
| Under 40 years of age men's 5000M race results |
I finished in a time of 16 minutes 40
seconds. This is exactly the same time as my previous personal best for this
distance, set 3 years ago in Jarrow in May 2011. So it was a solid run, though
disappointing to get so close to a personal best and not make it! It’s the best
indication yet that I’ve turned the corner with my running after two terrible
years of decline and certainly whetted the appetite for more track racing in
Japan, if I can find races to enter.
