AND I WOULD WALK 500 MILES . . .

and I would walk 500 more, but to be the man who runs 5000 metres and comes dead last.

Yesterday I left home at 6:30 am. I walked to the bus station where 8 other members of the Rzhyshchiv Athletics Club and our trainer hopped on the slow bus to Kyiv. Four hours, 2 buses and a train trip later, plus a short break to buy food, and we arrived at the Brovary Sports Stadium.

This is the Kyiv State Athletics Championships. The winners will go to the Ukrainian Championships, and the winners of that will represent their country at the European Championships.

From Rzhyshchiv we have 2 entries in the 500 metres, 4 in the 1000 metres, 2 running 2000, and I am entered in the last race of the day which is the men's 5000 metres.

I told all of our guys before the day started that for me everyone who finished their race was a champion. It didn't matter where they placed. well that proved to be good advice, because that made me a champion. I started the race thinking, just finish with the main group. Half way round the first lap (1 km laps) I realised this was a fast race so I adjusted my goal to not finishing last. There were still two guys behind me at the end of the first lap, but after the second lap my new goal was not to be lapped by the winners. I almost achieved this goal. I was overtaken by the first three finishers with about 50 metres to the finish (plus a whole lap for me). I finished the race in 17:56 which was a personal best for me. They had already started to take down the tape on the side of the race track. 

We left the stadium around 3pm but it was 7 pm before we arrived in Rzhyshchiv. I thought, if I had a van we could have left about 2 hours later and been home 2 hours earlier. Maybe that will be a blessing I will be able to offer in the future.