With only two weeks to go before the West Midlands Masters Track and Field Championships in Nuneaton, I’m making my final preparations for my first athletics meet. This first meet will be all about me getting some racing experience, ready for the NI Masters championships at the end of June.

Next Tuesday will be a big day on my adventure calendar. I’ll be learning how to set up the blocks for the 400m (and get out of them  😎) with my running coach, Richard Lappin. I’ll also be running in spikes for the very first time in my life 😱. The folks at Ballymena and Antrim Athletics Club have been brilliant. I asked if I could go along to the track in Antrim to give my spikes a try out, and they invited me along to a training session, run by one of their middle-distance coaches.

I’ll let you know how it all goes, of course. In the meantime, here’s a video-blog about my upcoming running adventures, which includes a trip down memory lane to the very first time I stood on an athletics track. (Correction: in the video I mention Marlon Devonish. He was a 100m and 200m runner, not a 200m and 400m runner!) Below the video, you’ll find  some 400m and 800m inspiration, along with a video about how to set up blocks 🙂 .

Here’s Michael Johnson winning  his fourth 400 metre world title with a new world record time of 43.18 seconds at the relatively late age of 31 years and 11 months. The record stood for nearly 17 years before being beaten at the 2016 Olympics by the South African Wayde van Niekerk.

On 9 August 2012 at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, David Rudisha led from start to finish to win gold in what has been called the greatest 800m race ever. In so doing, he became the first and, so far, only runner to break the 1:41 barrier for 800m.

And here’s how to set up those all-important blocks!

Right. I’m just going outside and I may be some time 🙂 . (By the way, if you’re new to my blog, you can find more out about my #OldDogNewTricks project here.)

JT 🙂