So 2014 was the first year that Bupa have offered to put me up in the elite hotel which was a nice surprise. It was offered after I had been emailed yet again to be told there was no room at the inn. It was slightly bittersweet when I found out my club mate and friend Justin Levene hadn't been put up. The rooming policy at Bupa Great Run events seems to be a bit of a secret - if one actually exists. In my mind the rooms for wheelchair athletes should be given to the fastest athletes first and people doing it for the challenge should have to pay their own way, in the same way you wouldn't expect Mo Farah to be told to book himself in to a hotel whilst fun runners were put up in the elite hotel. The race missed out on another British athlete up front as Justin couldn't afford to make the journey to Newcastle for the race with no support from Bupa, big big shame.
Anyway, I was one of the first athletes to arrive at the hotel on the Saturday. I checked in and had a quick nap in the room before going down to get lunch. I met up with Simon Lawson on the way and we ended up having lunch together, it was great to catch up. Simon is a great lad and an impressive athlete -he went on to finish second in the race the following day. After lunch I went down to the riverside to watch the street athletics. It's great to see athletics pulling in the crowds. Although it was a sad day do see Andy Turner in his final race, what a cracking athlete for Team GB. I had a good mooch around the city, up and down those bloody hills and then headed back to the hotel to wait for the other athletes arriving.
I tried my best to direct a few people around the diversions to get to the hotel. I was told several times people could see the hotel but couldn't get to it. I have to admit I felt a bit smug that I had set off early and didn't have the stress of thinking I was going to miss the technical meeting. Although Martyna Snopek didn't find my smugness amusing when she phoned to say she had got to the hotel but couldn't find a parking place and I asked if she had "tried the car park?" .... she hadn't tried the car park incase you were wondering. My new sponsors were the next to be directed in by me. Dan Whittaker and Sanjay Joy of Alpha Fitness and Rehab based in Rossendale have been amazing with me and nursed me back fitness after all my injuries this summer. I have been so so lucky to get this deal, free personal strength and conditioning sessions three or four times a week, roller sessions, massage, acupuncture, taping and they have even found a welder for my chair! Dan and Sanjay made the trip north to support me in the race. They massaged my dodgy back just after they arrived and also delt with Martyna's sore pec/chest/tit. The technical meeting was next on the agenda which was the usual boring description of the course and the warning about the final downhill on to Southshield's seafront. The good thing about the technical meeting is we get fed after it! I had a good chat in the queue for the food with Stephen Kiprotich, the 2012 Olympic marathon champion , from Uganda. He was really interested in how fast the chairs go and we compared pb's, he did drop a bit of a clanger when he asked if wheelchair athletes had to train although he was genuinely interested in how many sessions and miles we fit in each week. The food was the usual pre race chicken and rice - I love both so the blandness doesn't bother me.
After food everybody drifted back to their rooms, I had been allocated a room with Mark Conway who is always a pleasure to share with. It's been fantastic to see him improve so quickly these last 18 months or so. We sat up chatting for a couple of hours then I decided to try and get some shut eye. I was really nervous as the race had snowballed in significance for me during the build up so I knew I was going to struggle to nod off. The Great North will always be special for me as I used to love the Rossendale Harriers coach trips away when I was 5, 6, 7 years old and the odd one as a teenager to watch my old man in his favourite race. This year's race was my comeback after a shitty couple of months with injuries, health troubles and chair breakages. It was the race that fell closest to the 25th anniversary of the day my dad took me for my first training session at Rossendale Harriers. It was also my first race after picking up the alpha sponsorship and I wanted to do the lads proud.
I woke up on race day ready to go, I hate eating breakfast on race day; nerves make it really difficult to eat but having Martyna there was great - I was worrying about her injured tit which took the nerves away from me! I had the now customary espresso - if it's good enough for Dave it's good enough for us all, even if I do think it tastes crap! After breakfast Dan and Sanjay taped up my back and Martyna's, er, tit and then we waited in the hotel lobby for the coach to take us to the start.... and waited. .. and waited. Eventually we got on the coach and made our way through the 55,000 runners who were walking to the start. It does make you feel like a celebrity especially when people are trying to look at who is in the coach. When we got to the start we were warned that because the staff had got us to the start late the warm up time would be significantly shorter than normal. As soon as we were out of the coach we were oined about getting in our race chairs ASAP! Not a chance I was getting in my chair until I had been for my last nervous pee! Pee done, I transfered into my race chair and managed about a quarter of my usual warm up before we were called to the start line. I hadn't seen the starting grid so I just got myself in a good position on the second row behind the Spanish lad who I thought would win and therefore start well, I was right on one count he won but he was slow off the mark.
After the TV introductions I glanced up at the clock above the start line and noticed it had ticked past the official start time, I got into the set position as fast as I could and a split second after I was in position the gun went, no warning, no on your marks just the gun! Most were not ready including Jordi Jimenez the eventual winner who I had lined up behind. I rammed him and shouted something along the lines of "c'mon! ". The balls up at the start really got me worked up and I hammered my pushrims and despite the problems had a cracking start, I was in 6th for the first mile or so feeling great. At 2 miles I was in a nice little group with my roommate Mark, fellow northerner Bret Crossley, Shelly Woods and Jade Jones we briefly worked well together but as soon as we got to the hill that climbs out of Newcastle to Gateshead Stadium I didn't feel my usual self. I tried hard to stick with the group, but I let them slip away - not by much but too far for me to draft off the group. When the road flattened out I tried and toiled and worked and gritted my teeth to close the gap on the group which was starting to break up. The gap narrowed but I didn't close in on the athletes in front before the next climb. That was it, I knew I would be pushing a mainly solo race for the next 8 miles.
Resigned to the fact I was going to have a tough race with no drafting I started to settle in to a rhythm that I thought I could keep going at and beat my PB, the old morale got a boost when I went through the 10 km mark almost 2 min under my 10 km PB. Doing sums in my head and taking into account the second half of the race is slower than the first I thought I was on for a PB of about 2 min and finish in the high 51's. That gave my pushing a boost and I started to close the now large gap between me and the athletes in front. At about 7 miles some idiot controlling one of the showers the runners go through to keep themselves cool decided to turn it on right before I got to it. I'm not sure why it was in the main carriageway as all the others were switched off as I went passed and positioned in a bus stop pull in but it was impossible to avoid. The guy who was controlling it got a mouthful from me and my gloves and pushrims got soaked which seriously slowed me down for the next half a mile or so. The next mishap happened at the 8 mile mark and it was a major mishap. My chair frame developed a crack in the frame on the wheel arch, each time I pushed the crack opened and the frame flexed so much the wheel touched the side of the frame making a squelching noise and slowing the chair down. I could of pulled out of the race there and then, for a split second I did consider it but it was only a split second and I'm pretty proud that it only took a split second to decide to nurse my chair to the end. A year ago I would of pulled out of the race with no hesitation. The next mile or so of the race I spent trying to find the maximum about of power I could hit the pushrims with that didn't open up the cracks, it was a fairly decent pace on the flat but on the ascents it was pitifully slow. Climbing slowly allowed Mel Nicholls to catch me, I did get back passed her on a flat part of the course and even opened a gap but another long dragging climb meant she overtook again and disappeared off in to the distance. The final hurdle In my race was the steep decent, unfortunately I had to take it really steady because I didn't want my wheel to fall off at 30mph! Once I was down the hill my final mile was fairly quick but the cracks had cost me a few minutes. I finished 9th in 54:36 which was 3 places and 70 seconds better than last year.
When I crossed the line I was completely devastated, I thought I had let myself and my team of supporters down. I like to cross a finish line and know there was nothing more I could have done, I like to throw the kitchen sink at races and finish without the energy to hold my head up. In this race I was fairly fresh at the end and I hadn't punished my body. Instead, it was my chair that couldn't go any faster. Once I had calmed down a bit I began to come round to the idea that me and my chair are a team and we are only as good as the weakest link, we had done the best that we could do on the day and to beat last year's time with only three and a half weeks training and a broken chair was a pretty good result.
After the TV interviews and the awards ceremony we were transported back to the hotel for my favourite part of the Great North Run weekend; the post race meal in the Hilton. I love the food there, it's amazing and chatting about the race with all the other athletes is great too. The drive home was less great!
Anyway, I was one of the first athletes to arrive at the hotel on the Saturday. I checked in and had a quick nap in the room before going down to get lunch. I met up with Simon Lawson on the way and we ended up having lunch together, it was great to catch up. Simon is a great lad and an impressive athlete -he went on to finish second in the race the following day. After lunch I went down to the riverside to watch the street athletics. It's great to see athletics pulling in the crowds. Although it was a sad day do see Andy Turner in his final race, what a cracking athlete for Team GB. I had a good mooch around the city, up and down those bloody hills and then headed back to the hotel to wait for the other athletes arriving.
I tried my best to direct a few people around the diversions to get to the hotel. I was told several times people could see the hotel but couldn't get to it. I have to admit I felt a bit smug that I had set off early and didn't have the stress of thinking I was going to miss the technical meeting. Although Martyna Snopek didn't find my smugness amusing when she phoned to say she had got to the hotel but couldn't find a parking place and I asked if she had "tried the car park?" .... she hadn't tried the car park incase you were wondering. My new sponsors were the next to be directed in by me. Dan Whittaker and Sanjay Joy of Alpha Fitness and Rehab based in Rossendale have been amazing with me and nursed me back fitness after all my injuries this summer. I have been so so lucky to get this deal, free personal strength and conditioning sessions three or four times a week, roller sessions, massage, acupuncture, taping and they have even found a welder for my chair! Dan and Sanjay made the trip north to support me in the race. They massaged my dodgy back just after they arrived and also delt with Martyna's sore pec/chest/tit. The technical meeting was next on the agenda which was the usual boring description of the course and the warning about the final downhill on to Southshield's seafront. The good thing about the technical meeting is we get fed after it! I had a good chat in the queue for the food with Stephen Kiprotich, the 2012 Olympic marathon champion , from Uganda. He was really interested in how fast the chairs go and we compared pb's, he did drop a bit of a clanger when he asked if wheelchair athletes had to train although he was genuinely interested in how many sessions and miles we fit in each week. The food was the usual pre race chicken and rice - I love both so the blandness doesn't bother me.
After food everybody drifted back to their rooms, I had been allocated a room with Mark Conway who is always a pleasure to share with. It's been fantastic to see him improve so quickly these last 18 months or so. We sat up chatting for a couple of hours then I decided to try and get some shut eye. I was really nervous as the race had snowballed in significance for me during the build up so I knew I was going to struggle to nod off. The Great North will always be special for me as I used to love the Rossendale Harriers coach trips away when I was 5, 6, 7 years old and the odd one as a teenager to watch my old man in his favourite race. This year's race was my comeback after a shitty couple of months with injuries, health troubles and chair breakages. It was the race that fell closest to the 25th anniversary of the day my dad took me for my first training session at Rossendale Harriers. It was also my first race after picking up the alpha sponsorship and I wanted to do the lads proud.
I woke up on race day ready to go, I hate eating breakfast on race day; nerves make it really difficult to eat but having Martyna there was great - I was worrying about her injured tit which took the nerves away from me! I had the now customary espresso - if it's good enough for Dave it's good enough for us all, even if I do think it tastes crap! After breakfast Dan and Sanjay taped up my back and Martyna's, er, tit and then we waited in the hotel lobby for the coach to take us to the start.... and waited. .. and waited. Eventually we got on the coach and made our way through the 55,000 runners who were walking to the start. It does make you feel like a celebrity especially when people are trying to look at who is in the coach. When we got to the start we were warned that because the staff had got us to the start late the warm up time would be significantly shorter than normal. As soon as we were out of the coach we were oined about getting in our race chairs ASAP! Not a chance I was getting in my chair until I had been for my last nervous pee! Pee done, I transfered into my race chair and managed about a quarter of my usual warm up before we were called to the start line. I hadn't seen the starting grid so I just got myself in a good position on the second row behind the Spanish lad who I thought would win and therefore start well, I was right on one count he won but he was slow off the mark.
After the TV introductions I glanced up at the clock above the start line and noticed it had ticked past the official start time, I got into the set position as fast as I could and a split second after I was in position the gun went, no warning, no on your marks just the gun! Most were not ready including Jordi Jimenez the eventual winner who I had lined up behind. I rammed him and shouted something along the lines of "c'mon! ". The balls up at the start really got me worked up and I hammered my pushrims and despite the problems had a cracking start, I was in 6th for the first mile or so feeling great. At 2 miles I was in a nice little group with my roommate Mark, fellow northerner Bret Crossley, Shelly Woods and Jade Jones we briefly worked well together but as soon as we got to the hill that climbs out of Newcastle to Gateshead Stadium I didn't feel my usual self. I tried hard to stick with the group, but I let them slip away - not by much but too far for me to draft off the group. When the road flattened out I tried and toiled and worked and gritted my teeth to close the gap on the group which was starting to break up. The gap narrowed but I didn't close in on the athletes in front before the next climb. That was it, I knew I would be pushing a mainly solo race for the next 8 miles.
Resigned to the fact I was going to have a tough race with no drafting I started to settle in to a rhythm that I thought I could keep going at and beat my PB, the old morale got a boost when I went through the 10 km mark almost 2 min under my 10 km PB. Doing sums in my head and taking into account the second half of the race is slower than the first I thought I was on for a PB of about 2 min and finish in the high 51's. That gave my pushing a boost and I started to close the now large gap between me and the athletes in front. At about 7 miles some idiot controlling one of the showers the runners go through to keep themselves cool decided to turn it on right before I got to it. I'm not sure why it was in the main carriageway as all the others were switched off as I went passed and positioned in a bus stop pull in but it was impossible to avoid. The guy who was controlling it got a mouthful from me and my gloves and pushrims got soaked which seriously slowed me down for the next half a mile or so. The next mishap happened at the 8 mile mark and it was a major mishap. My chair frame developed a crack in the frame on the wheel arch, each time I pushed the crack opened and the frame flexed so much the wheel touched the side of the frame making a squelching noise and slowing the chair down. I could of pulled out of the race there and then, for a split second I did consider it but it was only a split second and I'm pretty proud that it only took a split second to decide to nurse my chair to the end. A year ago I would of pulled out of the race with no hesitation. The next mile or so of the race I spent trying to find the maximum about of power I could hit the pushrims with that didn't open up the cracks, it was a fairly decent pace on the flat but on the ascents it was pitifully slow. Climbing slowly allowed Mel Nicholls to catch me, I did get back passed her on a flat part of the course and even opened a gap but another long dragging climb meant she overtook again and disappeared off in to the distance. The final hurdle In my race was the steep decent, unfortunately I had to take it really steady because I didn't want my wheel to fall off at 30mph! Once I was down the hill my final mile was fairly quick but the cracks had cost me a few minutes. I finished 9th in 54:36 which was 3 places and 70 seconds better than last year.
When I crossed the line I was completely devastated, I thought I had let myself and my team of supporters down. I like to cross a finish line and know there was nothing more I could have done, I like to throw the kitchen sink at races and finish without the energy to hold my head up. In this race I was fairly fresh at the end and I hadn't punished my body. Instead, it was my chair that couldn't go any faster. Once I had calmed down a bit I began to come round to the idea that me and my chair are a team and we are only as good as the weakest link, we had done the best that we could do on the day and to beat last year's time with only three and a half weeks training and a broken chair was a pretty good result.
After the TV interviews and the awards ceremony we were transported back to the hotel for my favourite part of the Great North Run weekend; the post race meal in the Hilton. I love the food there, it's amazing and chatting about the race with all the other athletes is great too. The drive home was less great!
