3000m PB - Porritt Classic 1985

I don't know if the meeting was called the Porritt Classic in 1985 but that's what it's known as these days so I thought I'd stick with that in the title.

In my prime as a track runner I used to seek out competition where I could which, more often than not, meant travelling north. The meeting at Porritt Stadium in Hamilton was a popular one with amny athletes and good competition was virtually assured. In 1985 there was a bit of added spice to the meeting with a bunch of juniors over from England or a bit of out of (their) season competition.

The 3000m was probably my favourite distance. I thought I lacked the pace to be a decent 1500m runner and seemed to lack the endurance to run a decent 5000m (although my cross country results tend to suggest this was all in the head). Unfortunately in those days 3000m races were few and far between so I took the opportunity to run them whenever I could.

Stan Grimes leads the chasing pack with Barry Ellis and me trailing.

The race started at a reasonable clip but one of the English juniors (who I suspect was a D Taylor from other results around that time) decided it was not quick enough for him so set off on his own, whilst Stan Grimes made the pace for the chasing pack. The gap between the leader and the chasing pack extended out to around 30m but the pace was reasonably brisk and it was looking like we were on for a good time, at least sub 8:10.

I've left the pack and am hauling in the leader.

With about three laps to go the gap to the leader had not closed and there didn't seem to be any urgency in the pack to close it, so I took matters into my own hands and set off after the leader. With just over a lap to go I had caught him and had a little breather while I considered my options of winning the race. It's always a bit of a worry when racing someone you don't know as you've no knowledge of how fast they are able to finish but I just had to back myself.

Just before the 200m mark I kicked with everything I had, sailed past the leader and ran away from him all the way to the line. The pace had been good and I was hoping for a PB but got a real shock when I was told I had run 8:04.1. That meant that I had run the last 200m in 26 seconds, probably my fastest finish ever.

In the following weeks I defended my Wellington 5000m and 1500m titles. In the 5000m I had a similar finish of 26 seconds over the last 200 so it showed that all the training I had been doing was most effective and I was in rare form.

Unfortunately I failed to get invited to compete in John Walker's 100th sub 4 minute mile attempt and ended up running in the B grade race virtually on my own. This was a big disappointment because I knew I had the form to break the mark that night but didn't have the support I needed.