World Masters Athletics Championships Lyon : M50 5000m finals

It's likely Lyon has set a new record temperature for August today of around 40 degrees. Organisers at the track in Bron provided a water table at one end and water cannons at each end of the track. There was a headwind in the home straight. Since the bends are wide and the straights short it didn't make as much of an obstacle as it normally would.

I watched both the C and B finals. Only one athlete broke 17 minutes.

The A final split up on the very first lap with a lead group of 10 and the remainder 50m adrift on lap 1. Pace was consistent around 3:10/km for the first 3000m. A few took their chances at the front. Eventually Ben Reynolds ran 15:47 having disposed of everyone else late in the race. Only four athletes broke 16 minutes.

I survived almost 7 laps with the lead bunch, lost contact with a Belgian (Luc, 16:01 seed) at the same time. We went through 3000m around 9:40 and ran together in 9th and 10th for the rest of the race with nobody close behind. I tried most laps to get rid of him in the home straight without success. In the end he out sprinted me 16:30-16:31. It was a tough day out there in the heat.

Results for M50 B and C finals plus aggregate M45 finals listed below. M45 had hotter weather than M50 being held from 11am.

Next and final race for me the 10000m on Monday at 2:30pm. It shouldn't be as hot as today, low 30s expected.

Comments

David said…
Well done Bruce those conditions sound brutal, I reckon you will get a very good placing in the 10
I guess you know most of the Brits David. It was fun just hanging in the for a while and more fun watching the race videos after

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