Saturday, 2 February - AV Shield North West Region Final

Didn't go to bed until late last night after Madeleine woke at 11:30 pm for a feed. Went to bed around 12:30 am but Kylie got home from her night out soon after and then I could sleep for nerves thinking about the Final

Finally drifted off and woke up at 7:30 am to give the children their breakfast. We had a children's birthday party to attend which by extrairdinary coincidence was down the road from the Aberfeldie track at the Maribyrnong River Boathouse

Arrived at the track to find that some our women's team were late in arriving. They eventually turned up and we were ready. Handed out everyone's program and settled back to see how the day progressed

First up, I had the Hammer Throw. I did a measly 12 metres and given that I probably wouldn't have done much better than that I opted out after that one throw

Next up the 800 metres. I was running this in Division Two. First lap went through in 64 and I thought I might be on track for a good time. Ended up fifth in 2:14, so disappointed with that time. The third 200 was the killer going through in 36 seconds or so before a 34 second last 200. Still, we were second, third and fifth there so a good grouping of points

A nice long break until my next run, or so I thought ...

Three of our sprinters all pulled out of the Relay after doing their 100 metre event, which meant that I had to run in the Division 4 relay team. I was just going to jog it, but when I saw Benny Tancredi coming though like a freight train to hand over to me, I figured that wasn't fair on him and I ran it reasonably hard. In the end, we came in second which was a great result

The 3000 metres was next and I was keen to tackle it like I had four days before, in that I was really going to try to push. The first kilometre was pretty quick in 3:15, which might explain the slower 3:20 second kilometre split. A finish with 3:14 was much better and I ended up with 3:49 and third place. Very pleased with that effort as it is the only one of my events that is getting closer to the pre-injury form. Interestingly, both my 1500 and 3000 are around 10 seconds off my full fitness form

Last event was the 400 metres, in which I was in Division Four. With three sub-60 guys from Essendon in front of me, I was only running for fourth place. I felt really cruisy through 300, before I heard a Brunswick guy come up on my inside. I really tried to put evertything into that last 100 metres but he got me on the line. I was pretty cranky with that, given that bloke was an absolute tosspot. The last laugh was mine however, as the team I was running in or that event ended up beating his into the Shield Final by just five points

Did two laps warm down before cracking open the beers then continuing the post race cheer with a few pints of Cascade Light at the Pascoe Vale Hotel. I was on the light beers as any heavy beer was going to get me very well smashed! I was feeling the two heavy cans at the track

Rest day tomorrow or hour run depending on how the knee is feeling

TOTAL DISTANCE = about 5.5 kilometres including warm up and down