Thu - 05/09/19

This was the day of the first race, the 1500 metres. My race was at 15:00 so I was able to have a reasonably relaxed preparation. My goals for this race, as I posted on Facebook, were… (1) Get a season's best. (2) Don't get lapped (3) Don't come last (4) Don't be sh*t. I noted that Joe Gough from Ireland, the current world champion, was in my heat and that I've never been lapped in a 1500 metres race. I spoke to Joe before the race, he asked me how many qualify from each heat.  I explained that it was the first three from each heat then the 10 fastest losers. I succeeded in achieving each of my four goals. As it happens, Bo Larsson, a familiar adversary from Sweden, was in my heat. His season’s best time was 6:00.0 so I figured that he would be a good target. I tracked him and outsprinted him in the final few metres. We finished in times of 6:12.73 and 6:13,36 respectively. By making him my target I achieved a seasons’ best by 10 seconds. I would not have caught the next runner, a Frenchman who was well ahead of us both so this was a decent tactic. Joe Gough qualified in third place by the way.

I lent my spare large GBR vest to Peter Mountain – Peter, an M60 from Bristol, had mistakenly omitted to pack his vest. Peter got through to Saturday’s final so my spare vest at least will feature in a final, even if I’m not wearing it. I had a chat to an old chum, Fred Pidgeon, after the race. Fred has hung up his trainers after 50 years of running. One of his knees has pretty much disintegrated. He said he will do one last parkrun, a special ‘cos it will be his 50^th parkrun.

I was chatting to Wendy and Steven Doxey about the demise of Bury football club and the woes of Bolton Wanderers. As an aside one of Steven’s teeth fell out and Wendy has a nasty cough. After the chat I wandered back to my hotel. I asked the reception guy to fix my room safe and I went off for a dip in the pool. When I got back there was a new safe in my room. It was now opening time (pubs not room safes), so I headed up to the Royal Oak for dinner. The steak was great yesterday, so I had the same again (with French Fries). Sadly, the French Fries today were French re-Fries cold and not so great! Armenia v Italy was on the TV and I watched the first half there. When I finished my meal, I wandered down the road to a small wine bar with a large TV. The bar was called “Just Prosecco” so, to confound them, I had two glasses of red wine and a cioccolata con panna to finish. I went home and had an early night. The air conditioning in my room is magnificent. My room can be muggily warm, but switch the air-con on and it soon gets chilly. I went to sleep with the air-con on and woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold!