Race date: Saturday 25th November 2023

Race location: EIS, Sheffield

Report by: Seth Kirby

Barring, representing the club at the last South Yorkshire cross-country fixture at Winterhill, I have strangely not raced much recently. This is set to continue into the new year where my focus will shift to fewer road and off-road races! But onto the event itself, and after an enjoyable Sheffield inter club indoor track event the night before, I arrived late morning following acting as chief parkrun pacer for my partner at Manor Park.

I was entered into two races, 1000m and 2000m and went straight to warm up around the Olympic Legacy Park as I arrived later than intended. Once back inside we got called to the holding area near the sandpit at the back of the arena. The officials then tried to organise into heats based on our expected times. I didn’t feel comfortable going into the sub-3 minute heat for the 1000m, so I joined the 2nd heat with Jed instead! Some of the younger lads were aiming for just under 3 minutes too, so that seemed like a better fit compared to running at the back with other runners who were targeting 2.30-2.45 in the first heat.

The race started relatively quick with some of the younger ones charging at the front. I stayed in the middle of the pack between two athletes from Rotherham and Mansfield. They both looked like they might be able to pace the race more evenly. That was a good strategy and I stuck behind the Rotherham athlete for most of the race. The race passed by pretty quickly, and I thought I was close to 3 minutes, as a result, I was fairly pleased. Jed finished a few seconds after and he was content with his time too considering his exploits the day before. 

Just after the race there was a short delay due to an athlete investigation, as one of the runners had apparently kicked over a cone. One of the officials spoke to the Mansfield runner and just reminded her that she could be disqualified if this was a championship event. I told her to forget about the incident and just be happy with her performance instead. We were then moved off the track to the stands.

There was about 3o minutes until my next race, so I went for a wander to have a look at the selection of Team GB kit being sold to the left of the stands. Whilst perusing the offers I chatted to Jed about his upcoming masters events and then he headed off. To cool off I went for a jog outside and then returned to EIS.

Selection of Team GB kit up for grabs on the cheap!

The final race was a bit of a blur, to be honest, I just tried to hold a more sustainable pace that would be around my 3k pace. I followed a Lincoln Wellington AC athlete who was ahead of me in the 1000m race. He started to tire up at about 1k and I eventually passed him (whilst being lapped by the other youngsters who finished 1st and 2nd!), but couldn’t quite catch and close in on any other runners. Again, I think I did ok. I then sat to watch the remainder of the 200m events and then left EIS to cool-down.

200m races to finish the meet!

I can’t make the next Northern open meet at EIS but will attend the indoor Run Throw Jump event in December. This was another decent event! Jed and I were the only Striders at this meet. Our results and the complete results from the open meet are below.

1000m result (heat 2): 12 total runners