Tuesday, April 3, 2012

My first Indoor event in Finland - 800 metres

    Today was the day of reckoning, my first Indoor event (800 metres) here in Finland, it started early got up at 6am, shower and then breakfast at 6.30am, coffee, juice, a couple of boiled snags, scrambled eggs and finished off with Fruit Salad and Yogurt.
    My race was at about 11am, I headed out to the track at about 9ish, at the Hall where the Indoor track is, I did a few warm up runs in an under ground indoor soccer pitch. I went to the Call room where all the Athletes assemble before the race, There is up to 8 per heat in 4 lanes, I was in Heat 3 Lane 1 Inside, all up there was 23 in 3 heats. Talk about intimidating, they all look very fit and thin, I was at least 10 kilos heavier than the next runner, I was feeling nervous.
    I end up running the 800 in 2.40.34, my best time for a couple of years, I went thru 400 in 1.17.5, died a bit in the 2nd half, I was trying to hang on for sub a 2.40, but I can't complain about my time, I was really focused on my race and didn't worry that I was way behind the last runner, I am looking forward to the 3km Friday and the 1500 on Saturday, I can now plan those races based on how I ran the 800.
 Just to let you know there was plenty of snow overnight, it is very white here now, I then watched Peter Sandery from SA win the M70 8km xcountry in very icy and snow conditions.



5 comments:

Jog Blog said...

Good on you Roger. I'm so proud of you. It's exciting but also hard to go overseas and compete. Well done you!

GRIFFIN said...

Great effort Roger, keep up the good work, proud of you mate !

Janene said...

Way to go Rog! Here's hoping for some great times in your other events :o).

kathy. southgate said...

Great effort there Rog. Keep it up and keep up blogging. I'm enjoying reading any ur adventures.

Ewen said...

That was a solid time Rog. Looks like a great facility - would love to run at a world indoors one day.