Big time racing.

I got into the Sydney race, my performances so far over the summer & a bit of a push from my coach lead to my late acceptance to the race. The Sydney Track Classic is generally one of the fastest 1500m races of the Australian domestic season and this year was no exception. With a winning time of 3:35 it is far and away the fastest race I have ever been in. It was a great experience.
The pace was on from the gun, with the pack being spread out into single file by the end of the first lap. I wasn't able to hold my position in the middle of the pack and got spat out the back the back of the line.

By the last lap I was far from the front and had twelve strong athletes ahead of me. In the end I was only 0.5sec slower than my time the weekend prior at home in Perth. I got pulled around for my second fastest time ever but crossed the line feeling like I could've gone 2 seconds quicker.

Now I am staying in Perth until the National champs in mid April, getting a good block of training under my belt and will watch the Melbourne Olympic Trials with much anticipation to see how well they guys run.



The results of the Sydney race are all below.

1500 Metres Open Men
1, Torrence, David, USA, 3:35.66. 2, Birmingham, Collis, VIC, 3:35.74. 3,
Rowe, Brenton, AUT, 3:38.68. 4, Robinson, Brett, ACT, 3:38.94. 5, Leer, Will,
USA, 3:39.94. 6, Mottram, Craig, VIC, 3:40.04. 7, Foster, Ryan, TIS, 3:40.39.
8, Robinson, Paul, IRL, 3:40.50. 9, McCormick, Nick, GBR, 3:40.97. 10, Wright,
Joshua, NSW, 3:41.68. 11, Carson, Hamish, NZL, 3:43.41. 12, See, Marc, WA,
3:43.75. 13, Saunders, Philo, ACT, 3:44.05. 14, Toohey, Nicholas, QLD,
3:46.81. --, Rotich, Andrew, KEN, DNF.

Video also here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUEFwXQfp18

Racing in the South, racing in the West.

In the past few weeks I have competed in 1500m races in Adelaide and at home in Perth. And the two races could not have played out more differently from each other. Adelaide was a tactical "sit and kick" race controlled by the faster athletes coming back from injury. Perth was a paced race with a PB pretty much guarenteed from the get go.
The Perth GP meet was amazing, great to see so many locals fronting up to watch some of the best Australain athletes put on a show. And personally I was very luck to have a great support crew there to cheer me on - the community from The Running Centre banded together to will me towards a 5th place finish and 1.5sec PB.

Having two very different races, two weeks apart made for great racing experience and is part of the continual learning process that is developing as a middle distance runner in Australia.

I'm off Sydney this weekend to compete in another 1500m race there, one looking to produce many fast times.