NK Teams: 1500/3k double

Last Saturday I raced a 1500m & a 3000m for my club Olympus'70 at the National Team Championships. You won't find races like this often in the United States, because it is all about points, not time. Every track club puts its best athlete in every event, and if you win you get 8 points, if you are 2nd 7, etc. On the end of the day, the club with the most points combined wins.
This makes the distance events very tactical. In the past I didn't necessarily run great in tactical races: I always just wanted to go out fast and run a good time, and hated running for place. So today was a good day to practice that!
In the 1500m I had to compete against a strong field. Unfortunately, my legs didn't feel good at all and I wasn't able to go with the first girl. Luckily I could secure 2nd place in the last 300 meters. Nothing to worry about necessarily, because training has been going great. I didn't really rest for this race, because I needed a good week of training, but that also comes with the risk of not feeling too great in a race.
After this I tried to keep moving so my legs would stay in the action-mode, and recover as much as possible: 1 3/4 hours later, I stood on the starting-line again for a 3k! I was the only girl in this race that had already ran and my tactic was simple: follow, follow, follow and in the end pass all the other girls and win the race. I really hoped my legs would feel better than in the 1500, otherwise it would be a lonnnggg 7,5 laps. Luckily, they did. It also helped that the pace was very slow, around 82'' / lap. It felt supereasy, and I was considering early just to take the lead and go for it. On the other hand, I was a little scared that maybe with a faster pace, I would start to feel my legs from the earlier race. So I ended up just staying patient and waited, waited, waited, until I really didnt want to wait any longer. With 600m to go I went for it, and I was able to secure the win! It was very exciting, because one of the girls was right behind me and I had to keep pushing till the line. Luckily I felt strong and was able to make it. Finishing with a +- 1:45 last 600m gives me confidence that my kick is good. All the other Olympus70-girls did great too, and it was a really fun day.

Next up is a 1500m at the Gouden Spike meet this Saturday. The field is very good, so it is a good chance to run fast and hopefully improve my PB!