Preston hopes for positive mile experience at Cooks Gardens
New Zealand 800m champion James Preston jokes beneath his Instagram handle of ‘the misadventures of a 5:11 miler’ but after he has completed his quest over the 1760yd distance at the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic on Saturday he fully anticipates an IG update will be necessary.
It has been more than a decade since the third fastest New Zealander to ever run 800m has taken the track for the mile – hence the 5:11 clocking recorded in his early teens stands as his current PB.
However, given his class a 1:45.30 800m runner and with a 1500m PB of 3:45.50 – he will expect to register a time at Cooks Gardens much closer to four minutes than his current rather modest best time for the classic distance.
James will up against a top-class field for the New Zealand mile championship – which forms the climax of the Cooks Classic at 9pm on Saturday. Leading the opposition is New Zealand 1500m champion and 3:31.34 performer Sam Tanner, and the two-lap specialist is looking forward to measuring himself against top-quality talent over the mile distance.
“I generally enjoy racing over the 1500m/mile distance and this race really aligns with my schedule for the season,” he explains. “My 5:11 time is ten, 11 or 12 years ago and I’ve obviously run significantly faster in training. I’m strong at the moment, which lends itself to running a good mile.”
Yet given his inexperience over the distance, he is a wary of making predictions of achieving a sub-four-minute mile at the fabled Cooks Gardens – a venue which has witnessed 71-sub-four-minute performances.
“My 1500m PB is there or thereabouts with running a sub-four-minute mile,” he said. “I just want to give it a good go. I might end up running 4:10 or maybe 3:59 or 3:58. We’ll see.”
The 25-year-old of the Wellington Scottish club enjoyed the best season of his career last year. He not only retained his national 800m crown in Hastings, he also lowered his 800m PB on three occasions highlighted by his 1:45.30 in Pfungstadt, Germany – a performance which lifted James to number three on the all-time New Zealand lists behind Sir Peter Snell and Sir John Walker.
He just missed out on selection for the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, but he does not dwell on this fact and instead prefers to focus on the many positives of a breakthrough year.
“I didn’t go to Europe being dead set on trying to qualify for the World Championships,” he explains. “If I had done I probably would have been disappointed (to miss out). I can’t be disappointed to run 1:45. I have no regrets and I feel going over to Europe to race five times was best for my development as an athlete. I feel really confident going into this season that I can execute a specific race plan whatever the race.”
After taking a month’s rest on his return in August he started a full-time role as a graduate project manager with engineering firm Beca. The commitment of working eight hours a day and fitting in training has been demanding while a bout of Covid during the base training phase was far from ideal.
However, under the guidance of his long-time coach Evan Cooper and with flexible and understanding employers, James believes his work-training balance is manageable.
“It is not too bad because I no longer work in retail where I was stood on my feet all day,” he explains. “I can start work at 7.30am and after training I might only get home at 8pm. Sometimes some of the life-admin gets pushed to the side a little bit, it is just acknowledging that and addressing it when I can.”
James opened his 2023 campaign with victory in the Potts Classic in 1:48.05 – the fastest season opener of his career. He describes the performance as “a soft pass” as he wanted to run “marginally quicker” but overall he was satisfied with his efforts in Hastings.
Beyond his mile appearance in Whanganui, James intends to run over two laps at the ITM in Christchurch on 19 February followed by an 800m outing in Melbourne four days later. He then plans to go for a hat-trick of national 800m titles at the Jennian Homes New Zealand Track & Field Championships in Wellington with the Brisbane Track Classic in late-March another target.
Making predictions for the summer ahead is always tricky, but the tall middle-distance runner is cautiously optimistic.
“My shape is pretty good,” he said. “I did a workout a couple of weeks ago which would probably suggest I’m in even better shape now than when I ran 1:45. I haven’t done a lot of specific 800m work but I’m strong. There are a few things here and there I could probably do better I just need to weave in more of that specific work.”
***Follow the livestream of the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic starting at 4pm on Saturday 28 January here