Blog Spot: Chris Thompson

Hello one and all,

May has come and gone and I have finally raced!

I left April's blog a few days before running a 10k in Stanford and trying to run both the Olympic ‘A’ standard of 27:45 and maybe break the British record of 27:18. Eventually, I finished in fourth with a time of 27:27. 

I felt good going into the race although very stale from the altitude trip I had recently returned from. As I said in my last blog, it was an odd feeling going into a big race not feeling 100%, but that happens sometimes and is all part of the gig. The race itself went well - I went through the 5k point in 13:47 and felt great. Although in all honesty, I would have liked to be seven seconds quicker as I felt this was the best pace for me to go under 27:20. I realise it does not sound a great deal different but when you're running at your body's limits you need things to be optimum. Unfortunately, when it came to 3k to go I did not feel comfortable enough to push on the pace, so set my mind to making certain of the Olympic standard and then in the final mile, a personal best. Another day and another situation when less people are on the start line I will take the gamble, but that situation was not that day.

Also in Stanford a young British lad, Tom Farrell (Aviva English Schools 3000m Champion, 2009) ran a 13:26 in the 5000m, which puts him 2nd on 2011 UK Senior Men's ranking and 8th on the U23 all-time list, which is obviously well worth a mention!

Shortly after the race I was on a plane back to the UK for the first time in 4 months! Stepping off the plane after what felt like a very long successful and business trip was a great feeling. Seeing all things English again was awesome!

The trip itself was a bit of whirlwind visit, as I was only back for the week to race in BUPA Great Manchester 10k road race against the legend that is Haile Gebrselassie. It was crazy going up and sitting in the press conference with him, Christine Ohuruogu (Olympic Champion and Aviva UKA Academy Ambassador), and Tyson Gay (the second fastest human ever!). I mean... what am I doing sat with legends like that! Questions were fired at me, with people tipping me to beat Haile, which is obviously very flattering and would be a great honour to do this but man it feels surreal. There is a massive part of me, which I try to make sure stays the main focus, of how much fun this is and not take myself too seriously. I want to win and I want to push my physical limits to the max, but in the end of it all, I am still just Chris Thompson a simple lad who loves to compete. So to do press conferences with legends like that is hilarious in my mind because I still feel like the guy who watches at home thinking: 'I would love to run with those guys and be that fast!'

When it came to the day of the race that’s all I could think about, is being 'that' guy who people watch on T.V. giving it his best shot. Who cares if I fail? I tried to stick to Halie like glue, and when he kicked away from the lead group at around the 5k point it was almost exactly when I thought he would kick, and I ran like it was the final kilometre of the race. Not knowing when and if he was going to settle back into a more realistic rhythm I could sustain to the end was very tough to mentally keep pushing with him, but I kept thinking ‘I am not letting him go, I am riding this break!’ Then he finally settled back to a more realistic pace at around 7k, I thought ‘yes, I’ve stayed with him and now I need to shift this lactic acid and fast, because he is going to go again very soon!’. In my mind I knew I had more waves of attack to come from him but I also knew he had really pushed hard in the most uphill section of the course, so the next wave would not be as intense. However it would be harder to cover the next move having now flooded my system with lactate, which I was not getting rid of fast enough; and as a result, I started to fall back before he surged off again. I was livid and said to myself 'Well, the only way back now is to shift this lactate at my own pace and make a crack at him again with 1k to go.' I started to re-group and the gap was not big, five seconds at most. But Haile is a genius and had surged the finish out of me and I could not bring out another attack on him. For me it was a great race to be part of and he was very clever in how he won the race. But I learnt more lessons that day than I have ever learnt before. My aerobic threshold was severely tested that day and my system's ability to cope with an overload and flushing it out was tapped into and found wanting. It was great to give it one hell of a crack and go to a place in racing I have not been before, but also showed me how and what I need to do next in training and racing. If I am going to the next level I need more strength and it will not come easy. But... I am up for the challenge!

Running seems so simple, then you do something and realise hang on, no its not! 5000m is 12 and half laps of a track, simple on paper, then you train for it and more and more things become apparent you need to work on to be the best.

Think of it like this... There are so many different ways to win a race, you just have to figure them out and work on them. Be strong and ready in all areas because you could come up against anyone who could throw any number of challenges at you within a race and you need to be prepared for any eventuality when it comes to the crunch.

I am now back in Eugene and re-setting the body and mind to start building on the training and racing of the past few months. Over the next weeks, those races will have brought me physically on a lot. Now it is time to use this and start preparing to hit some hard 5k training. A trip with UKA to Font Romeu looms, which I cannot wait for. Very chilled and good honest hard work!

Hope you have enjoyed reading my inner thoughts while I compete. It’s a mind field out there and you have to enjoy the challenge and think clearly because you know the guy next to you won't hang around for you!

Thommo