I hope you all had a happy Easter. I have managed to go home for a few days and will join some of my mates from back home who are on training camp in the New Forest before returning back to Uni. I will then head off to the South of France for a 3 week altitude camp before taking my first year exams…where has first year gone?! Unfortunately this means that i had to turn down the massive opportunity of running at Penn Relays in the GB Middle Distance Relay Team as I will be away but hopefully get many more chances to run in front of 60,000 people ! Good luck guys-smash it ! Anyway, Here is my blog about the second part of the indoor season!

To get the call up for my senior British debut race at the British Athletics International match in Glasgow (26/01) was massive for me. It would be held at the new Emirates Arena, which was due to be a sell-out 5,000 capacity crowd. It was good progression for me, at the age of 19 to make my senior debut. It was the next step up for me. I already knew a few of the regular senior team members so that was nice. I was expecting it to be a lot different to the junior internationals but it was the same, if not a lot more chilled out.  The event was televised and this added to the occasion! On the start list I was the slowest in the field on indoor PB’s. The Kenyan, Bethwell Birgin was headlining my race. Over the last few years he has proved himself as a World Class Indoor 1500m runner and was in fact the World lead for most of the season until Galen Rupp ran the AR in the mile. Also in the race was the American, Matthew Centrowitz who won the Bronze Medal at the 2011 World Champs in Daegu. I’ve raced him previously and he is a really cool guy.  Apart from these two there was a Russian and a German who were pretty unknown.

I anticipated the race to go fast as I had heard that Birgin and Centrowitz would share the pace each lap and make it a fast one. The race started off quickly as expected and I slotted in on the inside.  I really wanted to make a good impression and do well for the team, so I went into the race aiming to finish highly and beat athletes irrespective of what my PB was in relation to theirs. I knew my PB wasn’t a measure of my current fitness. Looking back and analysing the race, I made a few unnecessary moves mid-race, overtaking people when I had no need to. This wasted energy. I finished the race in fourth. I learnt a lot from the race and it was a good experience for an early season race. I threw up after (my lactate tolerance needed improving). Jon and I decided we would turn up the screw a bit on the track work.

I then went on a quest to run the European qualifying time and in order to do this I travelled to Belgium (02/02) and hooked up with a few guys out there who I knew, also having the same aim in mind to represent their own country at the Championships.   Unfortunately the race didn’t go to plan; there was a delay by an hour which was not ideal preparation!  The pace-maker went off too slow which kind of messed the whole race up. In order to run fast it’s better if the race is run evenly and this was not the case.  The trip was not however a complete waste of time as I achieved a new indoor personal best by half a second. I left Belgium wondering how I was going to knock  a further 3 seconds off my pb! Jon and I decided to turn up the speed work in training and have faith that the racing will bring my fitness along nicely.

My next race was the National Indoor Championships in Sheffield (09/02), which incorporated the European Indoor Championship Trials. To qualify for the European Indoors you must finish in the top 2 of the trials and run the qualifying standard set. I was racing in the 1500m, which was run over 2 days with heats and finals.  To qualify for the final I had to come in the top 3 in my heat (there were two heats). My plan was to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride and cover any breaks. The race got taken out pretty quickly and I was in 5^th place at one point. I didn’t panic as I knew they would come back to me. I reeled them back in towards the end and the two other competitors who I expected to qualify were with me in a break-away group. There was a nasty collision on the back straight as I had gone to take the lead, Mitchell had moved out slightly to cover my move, and Warburton had tried to overtake Mitchell. As Mitchell moved out to cover me, Warburton clipped him and he went down. This all happened just in front of me and I was lucky to move out of the way avoiding any trouble. The collision resulted in a Disqualification for Warburton who was the favorite having been ranked Number 1 on the UK indoor rankings.

After the race I did everything I could to recover properly for the final. The other heat was won in a similar time by Emanuel, I knew he would be a handful in the final. He had ran a fast 3k so knew he would be strong and expected him to make some early moves in the final to make it fast and fair. The race started off fairly slow for the first 800m, after this it started to wind up and Emanuel took the lead. The two of us seemed to pull away and the pace was gradually increasing. I went to overtake him on the back straight but he held the inside lane forcing me wide. Emanuel and I were neck and neck coming round the last bend, suddenly we both got overtaken on the home straight as Fayers came storming past us both, managing to slingshot off the final bend and winning by half a second and making us look average. He had an amazing last lap and came from nowhere!  I was disappointed not to have won as I felt I had the ability and just got beaten by someone better on the day;   however it was very close.  I won a bronze medal to add to my collection but it was not the outcome that I wanted.  Once again I learnt a hell of a lot from the race!

Having come third at the Nationals I got invited to run at the Birmingham Grand Prix (16/02) in the 1500m. This would be my last chance to run the qualifying time for the European Indoor Championships. Only Warburton had run the qualifying time but he failed to make the final of the Nationals, so had not fulfilled the criteria for selection. The race was stacked and had a big range of PB’s.  Birmingham is one of the biggest indoor races in the World.  Again the BBC was filming the event.  Headlining the meeting was Mo Farah in the 3000m. The atmosphere was electric and I couldn’t wait to get out there and compete. There were two other Brits in the race so I knew I would have people to run with. My current indoor personal best was 3:45 and I needed to run under 3:42 which is quite a bit jump in a short space of time.  I knew I was in this kind of shape and now was the time to prove it!  In order to run the qualifying time I knew I would need to sit in and relax through 800m which I did, going through in around 1:57 which was right on pace. Luckily for me the guys at the front didn’t go through as fast as they had set out to, which enabled all of us to be in single file. We were like this most of the race; I pushed on with 200m to go as I felt people around me tying up a bit only to find Warburton to come around me again. The crowd really helped us during the race, the atmosphere was unreal. I crossed the line knowing I was really close to achieving the time. We walked off and I looked up at Jon my coach and he was fist pumping the air saying he thought I’d got it! I waited on the track and saw the results appear on the board. I felt amazing- a great sense of relief, I had done it! Only I and Warburton had run the qualifying time and three could be taken to the Championships. At the time I thought I had done enough to get selected, as did both the commentators on the BBC.

When I answered the phone to the head coach who gave me the news that I hadn’t been selected, my heart sank. He told me that they weren’t going to send any GB 1500m runners.  I don’t really want to go into too much detail as what is done is done and is in the past. But it hurt a lot and I was in a pretty dark place for a few weeks. I had worked really hard to try and get on the team and felt that the door was shut in my face. I received a lot of support on Twitter and in the media and even Paula Radcliffe spoke out about it. Basically because I didn’t fulfill the selection criteria of coming top 2 at the trials (I came 3^rd) AND achieving the qualifying time, I wasn’t selected in the first round of selections. I also didn’t fulfill the second round of selection because the selectors didn’t believe I could achieve a top 6 placing because my European ranking was lower. However it would be my first senior major champs, and would have been a great experience to learn for the next one. I couldn’t get my head around why the governing body would rather send NO 1500m runner. The governing body was really short sighted. I appealed but was told I was unsuccessful.

Anyway I have to move forward and make sure the selectors don’t have a reason not to select me ever again.  I’m the strongest I have ever been, knocking 7 seconds off my indoor personal best, and am looking forward to causing havoc on the track this summer, so watch this space!

I am very proud to be making my first senior debut for Team GB on Saturday 26^th January at the new Emirates Arena in Glasgow. I’m really excited as I will be racing World-Class athletes!  My race, 1500m,  will be shown on BBC1 and is on at 14:51.

After this race I plan to do The National Championships which are also the European Indoor Trials these are on the 9^th and 10^th of February in Sheffield where I will race the 1500m at senior level, so this is my main focus for now.  I will let you know how I get on!

Two weeks later the GB team flew out to Budapest. We had been warned about the severely cold temperatures but nothing could prepare you for what we faced. It was dangerously cold conditions with temperatures reaching around -10 degrees!

The journey to Budapest wasn’t the smoothest either. There was a fire at the control room at Budapest airport and they weren’t allowing any flights to land there, which meant that we flew to Vienna instead and then got a coach to Budapest which was another 2 hours. We didn’t end up arriving to the hotel until 1.00am. Luckily we had a day of chilling out and checking out the course, it was covered in snow, which made it firm under foot, suiting my style of running.

When race day came it was so cold I had to wear something under my vest together with hat and gloves. In a recent interview I said that I never like to wear anything under my vest because I feel like I’m in training however I was advised strongly by the doctor and physio’s that my performance could be impacted if I didn’t keep warm so I took their advice. The course was fast with a few hills and lots of downhill so I knew I had to get off to a good start. I started off in the top 10 and wanted to keep the leaders as close as possible because I knew gaps could appear easily from watching other races. That’s the way it stayed for most of the race, with the leaders getting away with about 1500m to go, and myself putting in a surge to 5^th place at one point which gave me a sniff of a medal, however it was not to be because on the last downhill sprint 4 people came past me and I had hit the wall. I came in at 9^th place, which was still a good run as before the race Jon had said a top 10 performance he would be thrilled with, especially as cross country is not my forte! The GB team came away with a team bronze which was nice, although a little annoying we didn’t win gold as there was only 3 points in it!

I have been living in London studying at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. I am training with Craig Winrow’s group up there. Jon (my coach) and Craig work together to set my training and they speak on a regular basis. Jon tries to come up and see me once a week if he can.  I do all of the group sessions in the winter but in the summer the training will become more specific and if there is something I need to do then Craig will make sure I do it. It has worked out really well and I’m pleased with the decision I made. There is a great group of guys in Craig’s group, including a number of international athletes; two of these guys were at the Olympics.  We all get along really well and help to push each other on in training. What I like is that there is always someone to run with, I can’t remember the last time I ran by myself! Nothing is better than a big group of guys pushing each other on in a session at Bushy Park in the sunshine!   The group meet up for sessions 3 times a week and around that it is just mainly easy/steady running which we organise between ourselves. I have a good group of friends who I live and train with.  We all live in athlete halls of residence. We are sensible with the runs between sessions and do not push them hard which I find works well for me.  The training facilities at St Mary’s are fantastic with an athletics track and sports centre including gym on site.  There are also physios and sports massage therapists working on site several days a week.

Being at university was a big life change for me and I am not going to lie, I did struggle at first. Little things like doing your own washing and going to bed at a reasonable time took some getting used to. I also got really run-down after fresher’s week, but that’s pretty normal!

I was only at University for 5 weeks and then found myself off to Kenya for a 4 week Altitude Training Camp with UK:Athletics /London Marathon. It was another great experience, I love it out there. There is no better place to focus fully on your training. It is a really inspiring place and there are great trails to run on. Also being surrounded by World Class athletes and training with them is really beneficial. I learnt a lot from being there the previous year and changed a few things and trained smarter this time when I was out there. One of the main targets of the camp is to prepare for the European Cross Country Championships. We had the trials to make the GB team 2 days after we returned which were held in Liverpool. Athletes need to be careful not to push too hard in the last stages of the camp because a combination of being tired and travelling overnight can really mess things up.

I had a slight injury during my preparations for the under 20 Nationals in June, I strained my hamstring which meant that I had to miss this competition. The UKA physio advised me not to race on it because it could potentially make it worse.  Fortunately it still meant I could be selected for the World Junior Championships because I was the only athlete in the country with the qualifying time for the 1500m.  It just meant a week of no speed work, which wasn’t ideal preparation for the Olympic Trials in Birmingham which were a week later but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

Once the heats were announced, I found myself to be put in a tough situation. There were four heats of the men’s 1500m, and I was in the first one. The qualification procedure was top 2 in each heat go through to the Final, plus the four fastest losers. Mo Farah was in my heat, and so were Brewer and Whiteman, who both have quicker PB’s than me. I knew that I had to secure a top 2 finish to qualify and therefore needed to treat this race as the Final! The race started off really slow and cagey, everyone was eyeing up Mo and waiting for him to take the lead, but he just waited and waited. It got strung out with 700m to go and I was patient sitting in 4th place, with 200m to go.  I finished like a train and was chasing Mo down the home straight whilst he did the Mo Bot!  It was a fantastic experience for me; I came second and was really happy with my performance to make my first senior outdoor final.

I had made the Olympic Trials Final and I was delighted. The top three finishers in the final would make the GB team for the home games, a lot was at stake and I was really pleased to be a part of it. I was really pumped up for the Final, no- one expected me to qualify for the final, although I expected it of myself because of all the hard work I have put in this Summer. The whole experience was really new to me, and I was loving it!  I seem to thrive on the big races and feed off the large capacity crowd who really get behind the athletes. The final came around quickly the next day, which was live on BBC 1. Unfortunately Mo had decided not to run in the final which ended up being another slow race and being physical with a lot of pushing to get the good positions. I found myself boxed in the inside lane at one point but managed to move out. With 600m to go I was in a good position but suddenly about 4 guys overtook me from all directions injecting a sudden burst of pace, they took a few yards on me instantly and I was blocked off by other people like me who were caught out with the kick. The guys at the front did the last lap in 52 seconds which is very typical in a slow race. I finished in 8th place, which I was initially disappointed with because tactically I didn’t run very well. However when I put the two performances over the two days together, it was good work. I ran my hardest in the heats and it took a lot out of me. Above all, I am learning a lot from these experiences.

A week after the Olympic Trials, I was off to Spain to prepare for the World Junior Championships in Barcelona with my coach Jon and my training partner Joel. My friend Joel has a place 1hr away from Barcelona, he kindly let us use it, and it was a perfect place to train and chill out. The track was a mile away and there were a lot of dirt trails near the apartment which were perfect for running on. It was great to get out there and focus fully on the task at hand and also acclimatise for the Championships. Last year in Estonia temperatures soared up to 34 degrees which caught most of the team out because we weren’t used to the weather and subsequently underperformed. We were not prepared to let this happen again and I entered the team camp full of confidence for the start of the Championships.

I was one of the first people to compete on the first day. Looking at the start-list for my heats the night before, there were 3 people quicker than me, from Kenya, Eritrea and Morocco. The qualification procedure was the first 3 in each heat through to the Final plus the next 3 fastest losers to progress to the final which would be two days later. As always with the heats you cannot be over confident, I knew I must be prepared to run a personal best to qualify, especially being 4th fastest in my heat and with only 3 guaranteed to qualify. I anticipated the race to be fast because I had 3 Africans in my race who are notorious for leading the races out in a fast pace.  Unfortunately for me this was not to be the case with the pace being pedestrian and it being quite physical jostling for position. It was going to be a kicker’s race and all of us were confident of our fast finishes. I was always in a great position, sitting on the leaders which is what we had planned. With 500m to go the wind-up began and we shook off most of the competition, and with 300m to go it was a full-on sprint to the finish, with myself getting caught out on the line and finishing fourth, all within half a second of each other! I was devastated because it wasn’t a true reflection of the shape I was in. I was confident that if I was in any of the other heats that were even paced I would have qualified. I had high expectations of aiming for a podium finish at these Championships and it was tough to take as I only narrowly missed out on the fastest losers slot, being the fourth fastest loser and missing the final by one place.

Back at the warm up track after my cool down and feeling very sorry for myself, Jon thought that I needed another race as quickly as possible to get the World Juniors out of my system and take out my anger on! He managed to get me into the Crystal Palace Diamond League and this was a good consolation prize for me. I jumped at the idea and felt that I needed to redeem myself. Unfortunately it meant that I had to leave the GB Team a few days early including missing the after party to get back to London in time for the race! I left two days after my race to get there two nights before the Diamond League in order to give me enough time to get over the flight and to get myself organised. I was to run in the Emsley Carr Mile, one of the most prestigious mile races in the Athletics calendar. I had never run a mile before, so it would be a really good experience for me and I was to be facing the likes of Bernard Lagat, Nick Willis, Leo Manzano to name a few. I was targeting a sub 4 minute mile which is a benchmark of world class running first broken by Roger Bannister in 1954. I was on the start line with some of the best athletes in the World. After the disappointment I had experienced in Barcelona, I really wanted to put in a good performance not only for myself but for Jon my coach who has put in so much of his precious time and thought into my training throughout the year. Both of us knew what I was capable of and now was the time to prove it!  I slotted where I belonged near the back of the field and tracked them through, keeping an eye on the pace that I needed. I went through 800m in 1min 56, way on schedule. I tried to stay with them when they kicked on for home, over taking a few on the back straight, the last 150m was tough, I dug deep and crossed the line in 3:57.90. Because it was a Diamond League they took a 1500m split during the mile, my split was 3:41.0, breaking my PB, two PB’s in one race!

The mile time put me third on the UK under 20 All Time List, ahead of Steve Ovett but just behind Steve Cram. It also took nearly two seconds off Ovett’s thirty- eight year old Sussex under 20 Record. That put a big smile on my face!

With the disappointment of the World Juniors, I was still motivated to carry on racing as I knew I was in the shape of my life and I wanted to capitalize on that. I ran an 800m PB in Birmingham a week later, beating my personal best by nearly two seconds.  This time has put me first in the UK under 20 men’s rankings and seventh in the UK Senior men’s rankings.

The moral of this blog is that failure is the greatest motivator. 

My main target this year is the World Juniors which are held in Barcelona from July 10th-15th. There i will be racing 2 times in 3 days and to get used to racing consecutively I had a busy weekend of racing in the Manchester Grand Prix 1500m where i just missed my PB by an agonising one hundredth of a second and then from there went on to the Loughborough International race where i was racing for GB Juniors against athletes selected from Loughborough Uni, England, Wales and Scotland.  The latter of these races didn’t go great, i think because i ran really hard the day before, however i still ran a consistent 800m in Loughborough just my position wasn’t as high as i had hoped although i was only 0.8 seconds off the time that i ran at the Olympic park so all in all it wasn’t too bad.

At my level there aren’t fast races week in week out, so travelling far is the norm. We decided i should compete in a race in Belgium, Oordegem which had promised to be a fast race by the organisers and it turned out to be great. I travelled up the day before straight after my Economics exam on the Friday ! It was hassle-free as I got picked up and taken to my accommodation which was in Holland. We then travelled with the other athletes to the track on the day. The weather was really hot with no wind which makes perfect racing conditions. I managed to run a new personal best of 3:41.16 which is over one and a half seconds quicker than my previous time. The only problem was that the pace maker who had a job of taking us through the half way point in 1:57 ended up being 1:59 which was a bit too slow. This is promising as my last lap was very fast which means that i am sure i can go quicker in a faster race.

The only problem was that my accommodation was in Holland which was 2.5 hours away from the race. We didn’t leave until very late because we had to wait until everyone had finished racing and didn’t get home until 3am and i was being picked up at 6am to the airport ! I was pretty tired by the time I got home and went straight to bed!

My last race in May was midweek at my local track organised by my club Phoenix Athletics Club . Although it was not ideal timing as I had a busy weekend and also had an exam the next day but it was great to have a race for once that was just around the corner from me. I was to run an 800m again with a view of breaking my PB. It was great as i had all the crowd behind me as the commentator told everyone that i was aiming to achieve the World Junior 800m qualifying time(I already have the 1500m Q time) .

I got my friend Joel to pace me for the first lap. It all started well and we went through on scheduled pace and after 400m he dropped out. It was tough as i ran most of it by myself and unfortunately it wasn’t to be and i was just outside the time again but it was a strong performance and i knew there was more to come in the perfect race.

I am working hard on the track and with my studies although it is tough doing both but my last exam is the week during the 2012 Olympic Trials which i can’t wait to get out there amongst Britains’ Great athletes. I will be racing in the 1500m which will be a great experience for me and this should be on the TV(BBC2) hopefully if i make the final on Saturday 23rd June at 6pm.

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!

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

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!