Delhi update

Hi folks

I've been in Delhi now 5 days and no Delhi belly... so all good thus far with regular hand washing being the order of the day. The games village has been very good and well organised and the standard of the accomodation has also been much better than the media reports were making out, although I did of course arrive a week later than most of the team. The stadium for the athletics is an old structure but still an impressive building with a capacity of 60,000 people, unfortunately it nevers manages to fill up but still creates a good atmosphere, espicially when Indian athletes are involved.

Those who have been following the games results will have realised that I have raced already in the 5000m on Wednesday evening, finishing 15th in a field of 23 and in a time of 14.19. Not a particularly fast time but the race and the conditions were not conducive for fast times unfortunately. The race started fairly slowly with a 71second first lap, swiftly followed by a 61sec lap at the front and then slowed again. Whilst the pace settled a litte after this it still made things difficult for me to run even pace with such a big field. I must also must admit that I found the conditions more challenging that I expected. The weather reports that are printed at the bottom of every athletics result sheet didnt really tell the full story either... they claimed it was 32c and 60% humidity however this was printed on the bottom of every result on the day I raced suggesting that one reading had been taken earlier in the day and used for all results. I actually think that the temparature was cooler but the humidity was much higher than this. When I raced in Barcelona earlier in the summer the humidity was 70% and this felt much more uncomfortable than Barcelona. In terms of the race I was in contact with the lead group until just after halfway however when the pace moved on during the 4th km I had a bad patch and was quite aware of the humidity during this stage. I managed to find something over the closely stages and was involved in battle with two indian athletes and a guy from Guyana, I thought I'd done enough coming down the home straight to hold them all off but with 50m to go one of the indian athletes sneeked through on the inside.

My 10k is now 2 days away and its good to have the chance to get back on the track (in previous games I've only competed in one event) and I'm sure the extra time should will enable me to adapt to the climate a little more. The race will be on at 3pm UK time I believe.