This week I competed at the Thames Valley Secondary Schools Athletics Championships which is the meet before Waikato so all the towns surrounding mine, at this meet I competed in the 1,500m and 3,000m.
When coming I knew I was here to prioritise my 3,000m and then give my 1,500m whatever I had left.
My 3,000m race went well and I felt strong from the start, I ran with the boys for the whole race so that gave me more confidence as usually they are strides ahead. I finished this race 300m and 45 seconds in front of second place female and was right behind the male finishers, I even had one of the boys pace off of me the whole race until the last 400m. This was the first time I have broken the 12 minute mark in my 3km going a 11:59. Completing this race made me pleased with my training as it is showing improvements even without having the complete focus on running.
I ran my 1,500m but this wasn’t as easy as a race as the 3,000m as I already dislike shorter distances, I had a girl on me the whole race and couldn’t drop her, this put pressure on me to keep going and at the end 120m from the line she tried to go around me but with the amount of effort I had put in the whole race I wasn’t ready to take second place so I found some left over energy and pulled off her taking the win.
This made me very pleased with my day and races I completed this in 5:30 so a solid time. I’m going off to the Waikato Champs next week racing the 3,000m so excited to see how I race there as I will be going up against bigger schools.
– Jessica Bray