Jenny Blizard - Second stage of the Northern League in Sheffield

Having competed in the first round of the Northern track at York I was then invited to run the 3000m again this time in Sheffield.

We arrived as usual approximately 90 minutes before the event at Woodbourne Stadium in Sheffield ( a stadium I have been frequenting on and off since age 13, which used to be my local track!). We had a very confusing initial conversation with a Rotherham Harriers member about the  change in start times and then the same confusing conversation with the team manager Nigel Brookes. Never in the 20 or so years that I have been competing in this league have the start times ever changed, however on this occasion they had and the 3000m was moved from 2.35pm to 4.05pm so i quickly changed my plans and chose to relax and watch the other competitions for a short period (the men's pole vault was highly entertaining!). Nigel Brookes then had another change of plan for me, "Jenny (stated with a grin) would you compete in the 1500m at 3.40pm for us?", what!!!! I thought about it .... I haven't done the 1500m for 4 years and that one was my first one since 2010 but sod it, I am already here and have a long wait so might as well. My best for 1500m in 2006 was 4.29 and then I ran 4.40 in 2019. My thoughts instantly turned to what time I could do, having done no speed work for 1500m at all, then went onto considering how fast/young everyone would be compared to me. Then my thoughts turned to how I would plan my warm up, what I would do in between the two events with only a 20 min gap. In this situation where your plans change and then change again, having a well drilled pre race plan that you have used time and time again comes into its own. No nerves, no panic, just a rejig and then execute. It worked really well until I got to the start line and saw just 4 other girls all really young! My plan for the race was to not come last and aim for under 5 mins. I knew two girls would be aiming between 4.30 and 4.40 so it helped to know that I wouldn't be trying to set off with them. Fast forward to the end of the race I ended up 3rd in 5.02. It was painful but having finished I knew that I was a bit rusty and couldn't quite let it all out knowing I had the 3000m 20 mins later. Anyway, I had to get cracking on with the next one and I quickly changed back into t-shirt, trainers and did a 10 min jog, whilst Dave changed my number on my vest and then straight back into spikes again and a few strides before the 3000m. This really helped to keep my legs moving so they didn't feel like jelly. Got to the start and saw Sophie Wallis (rapid) so knew there was no chance of winning!. My team mate Ellen McLeod was also running and I had no idea how she would run. I wanted to go faster than my last 3000m a few weeks ago but knew that would be me having an absolute stormer of a race having just done the 1500m. Race set off and Ellen led with a 72 second first lap!!! I set off at 78 seconds which probably looked like i was crawling. After the initial first lap surprise i continued at my own pace thinking "well that's those two gone (Ellen and Sophie)", so I just got my head down trying to shake off the girl behind. After a few laps that happened, and then i started to notice Ellen coming back to me which got me thinking "could I?". I kept the same effort going and slowly caught her up. Having no idea how she felt but suspecting that she probably was very fatigued but knowing that she would beat me in a sprint finish I picked the pace up with 500m to go and opened up a gap to finish 2nd in 10.26. 10 seconds off the previous 3000m but i think a miracle would have occurred if I had ran faster. Pleased with the two events, not great times but for me to go a lot faster now I would have to focus solely on training very specifically for one or the other and forget 5K and beyond.

Next 3000m in a few weeks and first reserve for the 1500m .

Thanks for reading.