I had a very enjoyable day volunteering at the 3rd Brighton Marathon on 15th April. I started 12 Mini Mile races for the youngsters which had a record number of entries. It was good to see so much enthusiasm shown by the 17 year-olds and under.  The weather was good and when the sun shines it shows Brighton at its best.  The atmosphere was amazing with runners pushing themselves to the max and a record amount of money was raised for charities and good causes.

The clocks have changed and British summertime is upon us (supposedly!). It seems to be raining constantly at the moment which isn’t the best for track work! My training group travelled up to Watford for a mid-week Open Meeting. I did the 800m; it was a low key meeting so I got my friend Ben Tickner to pace for the first of the two laps. It felt a quick pace as I haven’t travelled that quickly for a while! I finished strongly in first in a time that was OK for the first race and it was quicker than I opened up with last year, so this is pleasing. The other objective of the race was to prepare for my favourite distance, the 1500m in Manchester ten days later. By running an 800m which is significantly quicker than 1500m, it should make my 1500m pace feel more comfortable so if anything the race was good training and was good for my fitness.

My coach and I travelled up to Manchester on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night as my race was on Sunday morning. The journey wasn’t too bad considering it was 254 miles away. We made good time and it only took 3.5 hours in Jon’s swift Jag. It is a long way to travel for a race but the idea is that there will be a very good standard of competitors and there aren’t often quick races like this around. Races like this are few and far between, hence the distance that we had to travel. I was against a very strong field with some professional athletes. On paper going into the race I was sixth fastest so I knew I would just have to relax and stick with the pace for as long as possible. It was good to be amongst these guys.

I am glad to say that it was well worth the effort. It was a quick pace from the start and I stuck with it and paced myself well. I came through strong in the last 300m to finish 3rd in the race, only 2 seconds off my personal best which we were pleased with for this time of year. This time puts me top of the under 20 UK rankings in 2012.

It is a great release for me to have some races because exams are getting closer and there is a lot of work pressures. But at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel as I have some very exciting competitions to look forward to over the next few months.

In my next blog I will be able to tell you about my experiences of competing at the Olympic stadium – so watch this space!

February has been an interesting month! Despite the grey gloomy weather I have had plenty to occupy myself with. Training has been going really well and I am still enjoying competitive racing during the indoor season. The National Indoor Championships in Sheffield went well. It was a busy time because on the Friday before the Nationals I was due to visit the Olympic Park in London and there was lots to see. Although is very baron at the moment and still a lot of machinery around, once all the planting is completed I think it will look much better but it was really cool to have a look to see how it is all progressing.  It was bitterly cold and bleak during my visit with grey skies and a biting wind but even so it is all very impressive. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to go onto the track but hopefully will get to another time! 

I travelled on from the Olympic Park to Sheffield on Friday. My first race was on Saturday afternoon (heats). I have never been to the Sheffield Arena or a senior major competition indoor or outdoor before. The Sheffield Arena is a lot bigger than where I have raced previously and the atmosphere during the competition was electric there were TV cameras around and lots of familiar famous faces.

Before the race on my warm up the weather had been previously very cold and unfortunately for me I slipped on some ice and fell and cut my knee just 30mins before the start of the race (not a good start!). Luckily it was only a bad graze and I didn’t let it shake me up although my coach got a bit of a shock when I came back from my run with a lot of blood running down my leg!

I was in the toughest heat out of the two. On paper my PB put me fifth and the qualification procedure was that only the top 3 in each heat plus the next 3 fastest losers out of the two heats were guaranteed a place in the final so I knew I had to run very well to get through and qualify which was my main aim. I ran a good race and was second up to finish but got out dipped on the line and came third in my heat with a tenth of a second separating the three of us, but we were well clear from the rest of the field.

Here is a brief interview of me after qualifying for the final:

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/248227-2012-Aviva-World-Trials-UK-Championships/video/601752-2012-National-Indoor-1500m-Qualifier-Charlie-Grice

After the race I iced my knee in order to reduce the swelling and then went back to the hotel and relaxed ready for the final the next day. I was lined up on the inside in lane 1 alongside some very good quality athletes and I was by far the youngest in the field. The race went off at a steady pace although it was very scrappy and I got boxed in a couple of times which caused me to run wide at some points however I was always in the top 6 and the plan was to hang on. With 400m to go the pace suddenly increased and it was every man for himself and we were now at this point in a line and I was accelerating towards the end and nearly caught a guy in front of me. I came sixth and increased my indoor personal best from the previous day which I was happy with.

Overall I have learnt a lot from this experience and I know now that I really enjoy racing indoors. There were only three seconds separating the front six in the final. This is now the end of my stint of indoor racing and it is now time to start building up the training again incorporating longer reps for strength. I want to get in the best shape possible come the summer season when competitions will start in May. This is an important year for me and so far my preparations are going well.

Charlie

January has proved to be a hard month for me because I have had a number of important exams (six in total!) so have had to get my head down which has not been easy but I have also had many challenges with racing. There has been a lot to fit into a short time but I am happy with the results!

I will be  racing the 1500m and will be staying up in Sheffield for two nights which is quite a way to travel from the South coast! The final is on Sunday at 2:40pm and the race will be shown live on Channel 4, so I hope you will see me there toeing the start line! This will be a tough competition for me as it’s my first Senior Championships but I am really looking forward to the challenge f running with the big boys – it’s what I need!

I will let you know how things go in my next blog.

Charlie

I travelled to Brussels with the England team last weekend to take part in the Lotto Cross Cup which is a series of races in the Netherlands/Belgium. England athletics took Junior and Senior teams to this race(4 in each category). I was really looking forward to this race after a couple of tough weeks at college! It was my first race for England over cross country and it shows how much I have improved over the last year. We travelled out on Saturday morning from St Pancras by Eurostar which was very efficient dropping us off at Brussels and then taking a couple of tube stations to the very nice hotel we were staying in, right in the middle of the city. The race was on Sunday and we were returning on Monday morning so it was a very short trip!

When it came to race day I knew that Brussels is notoriously muddy and cold! Last year it snowed and it was snowing before my race although luckily it did not settle. I was in the Junior Men’s race, running with boys that could potentially be 19 years old. The race was 6km and extremely muddy! I was literally covered from head to toe and I even had it all over my face! unlike any cross country races in the UK, the loops were 1km long! We had 6 laps to do which got a bit tedious but I didn’t mind it because I am a 1500m runner it feels quite quick and I can split the race up in my head quite nicely. There was also a bell for the signal of the last lap which was pretty cool as that only happens in track races! The race was tough, with a couple of hills. I started off in 9th place and worked my way through pacing myself nicely and moving through to 6th. I then overtook a couple of people up the last hill before striding out downhill to get 4th place. I came 2nd for the England team which was above where I was expected to come so I was pleased. It was nice to be in the England team as so much of this sport is individual and the other 3 guys that were in my team we all knew each other and had a good camaraderie for each other.

Brussels is such a cool place this time of year that is why the race is so popular throughout Europe. The night of the race we all went out for dinner and had a look at the Christmas market. I took the guys to a restaurant that I went to last year and loved it. I knew they would enjoy it too. It is a ribs restaurant and you pay a set price and you can eat as much as you like, we managed to get through a mountain of ribs between us! That was a great post race meal!  There were lots of people about the town shopping in the Christmas market and the shops are open till late, there was a great Christmas feel to it with lights everywhere and a massive Christmas tree!

For most people Christmas is a time for relaxing but for me it is a great time to get some hard training and resting in as being an athlete the time you are resting means that your body can recover and improve. On Christmas day I will be building up an appetite doing my Sunday long run(in a Christmas hat!) along the beautiful Sussex Downs. This will give me a very good appetite for my Mum’s delicious Christmas lunch, after which I will relax (after I have helped to do the washing up!).

I have been picked to race in Edinburgh for Great Britain on January 7th in the Junior men’s race. There are some great athletes who will also be there in the Men’s race including Asbel Kiprop who is the current World Champion and Kenenisa Bekele who is undoubtedly the best long distance runner of all time. He holds World records over 5000m and 10,000m and is the current Olympic Champion over 5000m and will pose the biggest threat to Mo Farah this Summer. I will look forward to watching this race after mine!

I Would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas, you will hear from me again in 2012!