PPAC-104 1500m Race

The club's first middle distance track race of the season was a great success with 21 athletes running in three heats.

The 1500m is a great and accessible middle distance event and a staple of track running and racing at all levels particularly for non-sprinters. This event is a good test of speed endurance for track & cross country runners as well as anybody, looking to train for road races from 3-5-10km and beyond, who is interested in building their speed to become stronger, faster runners.

It is a challenging event that requires a strong aerobic system as well as speed, being run some way above VO₂ max speed for a hard effort. There is a tendency to set out too fast in 1500m races so for the less experienced racer it can be a good idea to start conservatively and aim for faster second and third laps before holding on in the final lap to the finish.

Training to run a strong 1500m will help make the pace on longer distance races feel much more comfortable.

Heats

Heats were split by Female and Male and, owing to numbers, were run with mixed aged categories. Conditions on the morning were somewhat overcast with little to no wind - excellent for some middle distance track racing!

The first heat saw three excellent PB performances, with first place Yin Ling beating a previous best by just under 1.5s. Ma Mon and Sreypov brought their times well under 10 minutes with respective performance improvements of 23% and 18%.

The second heat saw some close running with several athletes around or just below the 5-minute mark and all eight within 7 minutes. With only a handful of athletes having recorded previous times in this event these results will be a useful benchmark for future middle distance events.

Overall Results
The overall results are ranked by points which aim to give a fair assessment of performance level across different distances and male and female categories. First place category (M/F/Youth/Senior) finishers were Soboros, Erika, Ryo and Yin Ling, and 15/21 athletes achieved points scoring performances.

The points system is designed such that aiming for and achieving a points scoring performances is a good target and should be achievable for most runners with the necessary training. Congratulations to Lilian who scored her first point scoring performance and was the only athlete to score a PB on the morning.

At the level of younger or untrained athletes it generally gets more difficult to score points as the distance increases from 100 & 200m upwards, as it is more difficult to record objectively fast times the longer the athlete needs to run.

Analysis
Lap splits, lap pace and ranked by pacing consistency rating. Lap 1 is 300m, laps 2-4 are 400m. Though most athletes achieved fast final laps, pacing in laps 1 and 2 was often slightly fast leading to relatively low consistency scores across the field. Good pacing is one of the big challenges of running the 1500m and requires experience and practice to improve.

Thanks to race officials Meyjou and Neil, all helpers on the morning, and for everyone's support and contributions. Join us for more athletics soon and stay connected via the following to find out more about what's going on:

Like and follow us on our FB page, join our Strava club and watch our athletics videos on YouTube. If you're interested in helping out please contact us through FB or at phnompenh.athletics@gmail.com, you can also support our work further with details available on our blog.

© PPAC 2022