Time stands still

This is a common thing to see at the start of races these days,runners concentrating on their watch instead of the race ahead. This is the start of the Canterbury Senior Mens 3000m Championship Race. Why worry about your watch 7 and 1/2 laps each lap has a lap timer calling times and the laps are counted. I watched Millies race and feel disappointment and anger, Millie ran poorly and my suspicions are probably correct in the way of 3rd party interference after the Secondary Schools, her new coach has done wonders. Today Millie ran at the same time she ran when we started 16 months ago almost 30 seconds slower than her best and on todays track 20 seconds slower than she should have. 10:28 for the 3k is a major disappointment and not only that had her butt well and truly kicked by a slower runner. I hope this is going to be a good lesson for her and my biggest concern for her is how long will it be before she gets injured or thrown on the scrap heap by this new coach. Millie has gone from being the 2nd fastest Junior in New Zealand to 3rd slowest in Canterbury in 1 month,not good statistics.