Race Date: Tuesday 11th July 2023
The Derby Athletics Development Association (DADA) organises an open series of track and field meets similar to the Run Jump Throw events in Sheffield. This was my first track race of the year and I’m planning to be back again for another fixture later this year. I missed the last couple of RJT events in Sheffield and this was one of the next local athletics meets.
My aim here was to set more realistic personal best times in some of the middle distance events, which I’m going to take more seriously next year. I last did an official track event back in 2019 and my times are somewhat different now!
In the evening after work, I arrived at Moorways Stadium in Derby (home of Derby Athletic Club). I collected my number (forgetting that I had entered two events…) and went for a wander around the stadium and facilities.
The meet was perhaps what I had expected – plenty of local young athletes wanted to run in the 100m and 200m but much fewer in the longer distances. Whilst the 200m was taking place I started to warm-up around the football fields and there was an older sprint track next to these fields that I did a few strides on. I chose the right moment to do this – as there were not many 400m heats, and the 800m races were next!
I changed into my racing flats and missed the announcement for the 800m runners to come down to the track, as a kid was having a tantrum in the stands about not getting a PB in the long jump, haha. Thankfully, the organisers had placed me into the second heat. I suddenly realised I was going to be running with some U13s and U15s athletes. This meant I was probably in the wrong heat but I included my most recent 800m time down (from 2019!). One of the track judges found a 30 something year old guy with a beard and a bunch of youngsters in the field quite amusing. I went off faster than intended but I managed to hold my form for the last 400 metres. Reflecting on my pre-race expectations I was pretty close to my target time. I ran a 10 second pb and didn’t get beaten by a load of kids in the process!
There were around 10 minutes until my next race, the 3000m – so a quick turnaround for another race… I was planning on doing a bit of a session after the 800 metres so running this race sort of made sense. In between races I pretty much had time to jog around the track to the 3000m start! A couple of us had ran in both the 800m and 3k races so I was not alone here. Again, the same track judge joked that the 800 metres were just our warm-up. My goal for the 3000 metres was to run under 10 minutes which I thought was quite achievable even after the earlier race!
Most of the spectators had left by this point as we were the final race. But we lined up for the start with a few people still knocking about. My pace throughout the race was fairly consistent but I just got stuck between the front pack and the back runners. I managed to stick with a couple of younger athletes in front and they dragged me around. One of the Derby AC coaches was providing us with our splits at the 200m mark so I knew at mid-way through the race I was virtually bang on pace. The bell rang for the last lap and I saw the time on the scoreboard, which gave me confidence going into the final lap. We turned into the final 100m and the clock had stopped for the chap in 1st place at around 9.15 and I worked out I was about 35 seconds behind.
After the race had finished there was a bit of a rush to cool down as they were moving the hurdles from one side of the track to the other… I did a few laps of the track and picked up my stuff and walked back to the train station.
I thought this was a decent evening’s work and DADA had put on a very inclusive track event. There were loads of race heats on the night to account for, from 75m to 3000m on the track! I was the sole Strider there and my results and the complete results are below.
800m result (sx 2 – heat 2): 9 total runners
