12th July 2003: MTV Meet IN - 800m - Ingolstadt, Germany
1st Edward-Kibet Mutai 1:51.10 Kenya
2nd Rees Buck 1:51.56 New Zealand
3rd Mark Rapp 1:51.61 Germany
4th Paul Hamblyn 1:51.95 New Zealand
5th Julian Seitz 1:53.50 Germany
6th Paul Bristow 1:53.61 Germany
7th Konrad Kufner 1:55.02 Germany
8th Matthias Fischer 1:55.18 Germany
9th Matthias Heer 1:55.32 Germany
Paul and I were disappointed to find that there was no pacemaker arranged to help with this race, but thought the presence of Mutai, a 1:47 athlete, may result in a fast race anyway. At the start all the runners got away quickly until 150m where things slowed significantly. I decided to take the lead at this time and set the pace till the 400m mark which we passed in 57 seconds. This was over 3 seconds slower than we had hoped at half way and Paul decided take the lead and increase his pace dramatically. Mutai, Rapp and I all stayed with Paul as we went down the back straight and as we came into the finishing straight Mutai made a move to the front with Paul slowing down after leading for so long. Rapp and I both passed Paul with less than 50m to go with me passing Rapp as we hit the line. Although I had run slower than anticipated, and two seconds slower than my PB, I was happy with the speed at which I ran the final lap.
