The Three-Peat

The last week has been an interesting one in my running life. For the first time in the last few years, I was at a loss. How to win the WA State 5000m.

The last two years, with no disrespect to other competitors, have been fairly easy victories. 2008, it was at 11am on a Sunday morning that I trailed Todd Ingraham for 3.8km before closing the last three laps in 3m18 – recording a modest time of 15.38.

2009 was a different year. I ran from the front, knowing that I was the best in the field. I ran 14:52 from the front, with my stopwatch beeping on 15 minute pace every 200m, and ended up dragging Ethan Heywood through for a great PB for him at the time.

2010 was different. The emergence of WA distance runners has begun. The field was to consist of Roberto Busi – a 14:34 man who outkicked me in a 1500m last week, Aaron Patterson – a 14:44 guy who has been improving steadily every week, and Marc See – the 3:48/8:12 guy, who was untried over the 5000m distance. So I was up against it all – strength, speed, and an unknown.

As it turned out, Patterson failed to front the start line, so on a blustery Saturday night at 7.10pm, I had to make a decision. Take the lead and drop See, with the possibility of Busi beating me. Or sit back and hope Busi took the lead, with the possibility of See being in the hunt with 600m to go.

The first km was slow. Painfully slow. 2m58 slow. Definitely not enough to hurt See. And not only that, it was in surges. Busi being in the lead had decided to surge with the wind, and relax into the wind – stringing out See and then letting him recover. This went on until the 6th lap – where See went for it, putting in a 67 second lap to break it up. We went through 3000m in 8m44sec, and then See dropped off.

It was then I put my race plan into action. 5 laps, increasing lap speed. It worked. Gradually pulling away from Busi, I made up the ground I needed, and was able to soak up a good win in 14:33. While it wasn’t the cracker 5000m that everyone had talked up for the months leading in, it was a win, and one that I was very happy with. I had felt pressure during the week to win from all my training group – but it was a quote by Ryan Gregson, about enjoying pressure, because it means you’re doing something right, that made me realize the win was there to take.

So from now – three weeks. Three weeks of hard work, three weeks of waiting, three weeks to get myself in the best possible condition for when the best of Australia descent on Perth for the 2010 Australian National Athletics Championships. Lets hope I can get up, and give my PB of 14:24 a shake.

I would also like to thank the great support crew I had down there on the night. Cody, G-Money and Jason for getting down there and yelling, Doigy for being on the back straight to keep me honest, my wonderful girlfriend Gemma for coming down to support, and actually finding the track on time (I’ll pay for that later) and to my family and friends for coming to watch.