A very sunny yet windy day left a number of spectators with decidedly pink skin, a full on afternoon of spectating for us, Robbie raced in the 3ooom at 14:05 we arrived at the very new and very nice Wycombe Phoenix track at about 12:30, just missing Jack Boswell winning the U17’s 1500m. This time wee remembered our chairs, so a little comfort in our spectating, and we managed to kick back and simply watch a good chunk of the days activities, waiting around for the 4 x 400 at the end of the day, which in the end we were short of 1 runner in and had to pull out.
The 3000m was run at just after 2pm, and was, due to numbers run as a single combined race including both A and B stream U17’s and A and B stream U20’s the inclusion of the U20’s added some competition, but with a starting grid of 7 runners, not a lot. From the bell there was a determined charge to lead by Toby Clyde from Thames Valley Harriers who went on to win the combined race, as an U20, in 9’12”, Robbie came second overall but won the U17’s race in 9’33”, the second place runner (from Chiltern) in the U17’s finished in 10’17” so a very convincing win. Fellow AFD athlete Dan Rickards came 2nd in the U20’s finishing 3rd overall with a time of 9’49”.
A good, and quite tactical run, Robbie decided not to go with the U20, partially convinced that he would die, and to some extent not worried since he wasn’t in that race. Still slow compared to last season, but with all the problems hopefully behind us it is nice to trim another few seconds off his seasons best.
Robbie starts fast behind Thames Valley Harriers, Toby Clyde before settling down to run the race at a steady 77 second per lap pace.