London Marathon Build Up 2015

When I returned from Lisbon I was met with the welcome news my new chair had arrived from Japan, not a minute too soon as I have been struggling with my old chair. My old chair had been braking in most races and was costing me a bomb in welding services! My new chair was ordered and measured up by the British company Draft, they built my old chairs but have started to get a reputation for delaying chairs heavily. The lads at draft are great and I like their chairs but I needed a new chair as fast as posible so I decided to get them to order me one from OX in Japan.
  As soon as I went to draft to pick my chair up I knew I was going to like it. It looks brilliant and when I tested it out in the car park it felt amazing! I had just 15 days to get used to my new chair before the London. My first few pushes were promising, I was slower climbing but I was much faster on the flats and downhills. I needed to find the right positing for me to sit in to get the most power out of each push. My new chair is a solid kneeler which means I kneel on a solid metal plate, my old chair was a soft kneeler where you kneel in a sling. The solid kneelers are much more efficient because they flex less each time you push, more of the force is transfered through the wheels and into the ground producing faster speeds.  The problem I have is that I can still feel my legs, I had been told by coaches, that pretend they know more than they do, that I would never be able to kneel at all let alone in a solid kneeler. After being told that I had always thought I was pushing my luck by getting a soft kneeler. Now I have a solid kneeler I know those coaches were talking out of their backsides! The solid kneeler is much more comfortable and I'm glad I picked it.
The last 9 days before London wasn't great as I had three punctures to deal with. I ended up going out pushing on the dodgy front tyre I'd had to change before the Lisbon Half, it was fine on the first push but the second time I used it I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a learner bus driver who had thrown the anchor out when he saw a car on the opposite side of the road. Where do they find these people? Anyway, within 3 miles my tyre had punctured. Miles from home, with no spare and no phone. I saw two women stood chatting whilst having their cars cleaned so I went and asked to borrow their phone the only problem was I could remember my mum's home number and no others, she wasn't in. Bloody great. So I started pushing home but the roads in Rossendale are awful and I was scared I was going to do some real damage to my wheel. Front wheels cost around £700 so you can see why I was worried! After 4 miles I decided to pop in to the local cycle shop Ride On, these lads are always really helpful when I pop in for bits and pieces. They were soon crowded round my chair debating if they could fix it and how to attempt it. The tyre had completely had it, there was a patch without any rubber left on it and this is where it had blown so when the lads tried forcing the anti puncture solution into the tyre it ran straight back out. They tried a couple more ways to repair it but it was having none of it so the situation called for drastic measures. Out came the gaffer tape, they wrapped it round tight and put some more solution in to the tyre. They then managed to get about 40 psi in the tyre which was enough to protect the wheel from Rossendale's nasty road surface. I headed home gently trying not to rip the tape. I got to about 200m from home and had to use my brake which ripped the tape off and gave me a face full of gunk! I returned to ride on the next day with a box of chocolates for the lads as a thank you.
  The next few days were an anxious wait for the delivery of my new tyres, I didn't have any spares so I had to train on my handcycle instead of in my chair. They turned up the day before I travelled down to London for the marathon. Talk about a close shave! That day was spent changing tyres, packing my bag and getting a massage on my back. The mother came to get Bonnie my dog as she was dog sitting for me. Then I tried to sleep but I was too excited/nervous so I barely slept at all. Me and dad set off for London early on the Friday, I wanted to get checked in and then travel across London to the Marathon exhibition.
   The runners have to attend the exhibition to collect their race numbers but the wheelchairs do not  need to go, I just like to as it reminds me of when I used t o go and watch dad race. It gets me in the mind frame to race in one of the biggest events in the world. At the exhibition you get plenty of freebies and good deals on new kit and nutritional supplements,  you also get info on other races around the world. I got a few good ideas for events, watch this space! We ended up going for a Singaporean meal then crashed out early, knackered from travelling and shopping at the exhibition.
  On Saturday we went to the Victoria and Albert museum, true to form as soon as we entered the building I had a drama. My bloody caster flew off my chair, I think I must have damaged it on my way to the museum. I was lucky not to have been thrown out of my chair into some priceless sculpture but I was unlucky in the fact I couldn't see the bolt that holds the wheel on anywhere. I got out of my chair and started to look, dad was on his hands and knees and soon he was joined by several other, middle aged folk crawling along the floor looking for my missing bolt. I must have been a lovely shade of red, talk about embarrassing!  Eventually the museum staff radioed the maintenance man and he found some spare bolts and washers to temporarily fix my chair. We then got on with our museum visit. My sister, ugly to you and me, and her boyfriend arrived in London and met up with us at the museum.  There are some brilliant sights in the V&A it's a shame we wasted an hour and a half sorting my caster out! 

Me sat in the V&A whilst everyone looked for my bolt!

  That evening we had the technical meeting, I hate the London Marathon technical meetings, we are split up from the best guys. Our hotel is a complete shit hole and we are charged £150 a night which doesn't even include breakfast or wifi. As well as getting an awful hotel we get officials that don't have a clue. This year's antics at the technical meeting included some poison dwarf threatening to disqualify me for folding the number which was to be taped to the side of the main shaft of my chair. For some ridiculous reason they give us numbers the same size as the ones the runners wear on their vests, they have grown to around 9 inches high nowadays as they have become advertising boards for the race sponsors logo. The main shaft of my chair is 3 inches high. How the fuck did the poison dwarf expect me to tape a 9 inch high number to a 3 inch high part of my chair without folding it? Any sensible race organisers would provide an extra, small sticky number like the ones we use on our helmet so we can stick that on the chair, simple, problem solved!
  When I told the poison dwarf that we never have these problems at races like the Lisbon Half marathon she anounced that was because "They didn't know what they were doing!" She then proudly introduced some doddering old git as a member of the international paralympic committee technical delegation. I couldn't be arsed arguing with them so I just got on with what I was doing, about 5 min later my dad asked "is that safe?" and pointed at the poison dwarf and the doddering old git who were covering John Smith's front wheel in gaffer tape. They were trying to cover the wheel manufacturer's name and logo up. I pointed out that the technical delegate and the woman who thinks the Lisbon organisers 'don't know what they are doing' should really know better about sticking gaffer tape around the front wheel. They didn't have a clue what I was talking about until I pointed out that if John pressed his break the tape was going to get wrapped around it and cause a crash. The poison dwarf then protested that he'd not be allowed to race with the wheel unless the advertising was covered with tape. "Do you have shares in gaffer tape? Why can't he just peel the manufacturer's sticker off like the rest of us do?" Was my answer to her. Absolutely unbelievable,  this is supposed to be our country's premier road race and they can't even find officials who could run a successful school sports day. After the usual battles with the officials they did their little safety speech which was identical to last year. We found out the buses left at 6:30 am for the start and with that Ugly left for her hotel as her and her boyfriend would have to leave their hotel at 5:30 am to reach me in time to travel to the start with me.
  The rest of us were fed and I was amazed that the food was much better than last year, it was only lasagne but it was good. Pudding was a really rich chocolate tart, John didn't like it, Martyna wasn't keen but if they had have offered I would have eaten theirs as well as my own. We had a good laugh around the table particularly when I'd been asking if anybody had a spare washer for my dodgy caster and Martyna, who's English is normally better than mine, asked "what's a washer? Do you mean a sponge?" Haha! I can't really take the piss because I can't speak a word of Polish. We all arranged to wake each other up if we didn't arrive for breakfast in the morning and then headed off to bed.

Lisbon Half Marathon Day 3 and Race Day 2015

On day 4 I went back to the track in the morning. Just for an easy 5km, I pushed really well and felt comfortable so I was feeling much more confident about the race than I had done a few days earlier. After training I went back and chilled out in the hotel before meeting Jenny, Mickey and Justin to go on a tour of the course, we were put on a separate bus to the other athletes and Jenny told us we were meeting Joao in the city for a coffee then looking at the course after. Unfortunately something had gotten lost in translation and we ended up in the city centre doing the tourist thing without actually meeting Joao. We did manage to see a good artist painting at the dockside, a fancy port shop, we got caught up in an anti racism rally and stuffed our faces with chestnuts from the street vendors. We didn't actually get to see the course but we did have a good day and it made a nice change to thinking about the race 24/7.
Before the evening meal we had the technical meeting,  you never learn anything in these meetings but they must have to have them for the race insurance. I sat with Jenny opposite Dave who we both knew was on snapchat from the way Simon Lawson was giggling away, god only knows what they drew on our faces! After the meeting and food it was time for final prep, numbers taped to the chairs, compensators checked and tyres checked. My front tyre didn't look in great shape so I decided to change it for a brand new one. Once that was done I got myself off to bed nice and early.
  Race day came and I went to breakfast before most, I wanted to eat early so it wasn't sat heavy on my stomach. It was soon time to get on the bus and have the now ritual laugh at the police men in their knee high leather boots who were there to escort the convoy to the start. When we got off the bus we waited around for a short while and pumped tyres up until it was time to warm up. I warmed up really well and felt great.
  Soon enough I was sat on the start line and the gun was fired. Just like last year I ended up in a big group only this year I had lots of team mates for company. Shelly,  Mo,  John, Justin,  Mickey and I were joined by Jade and Callum, it felt great being part of such a big group which was mainly Brits. We were batting along at a good rate with the more experienced racers helping out the newer ones by telling them to tuck in etc. It was brilliant we all took our turn at the front. I was feeling really good at about 7km and with Justin and Shelly at the front we quickly decided to try and break away. I pushed on and quickly decided that wasn't the right place for me to put an effort in as there was a very very gradual uphill and a bit of a breeze. I'm not quite as powerful as other athletes so any climb or wind puts me at a disadvantage. Before I had managed to say anything Justin had shouted tuck in I will take this. Justin pulled us the final 400m to the turn around point. As soon as I got to the bend I hit the front and really kicked as hard as I could. Shelly shouting encouragement the whole time, over the next 2km we completely ripped the group apart. We had gone from a group of about 18 to just Shelly,  John,  Justin, a random Portuguese athlete and myself. I did the majority of that work which I was feeling so proud about as everybody in the original group should have been faster than me. I should have been hanging on for dear life but instead I had just put a bomb under the group. I had in my head that Shelly was on course for a world record and I was playing my a part in that. I know I will never be fast enough to get anywhere near a world record but playing a part in a record for somebody else was giving me a buzz. Then... disaster.... pssssssssssss... front tyre popped... fuck, shit, twat, bollocks. Shelly said "unlucky mate" and the group I'd worked so hard to pull away from the others just sailed passed me. I stopped pushing for a few seconds and then made the decision that I might be able to salvage something and I carried on. I had done over 10km so only another 10km to go. The tyre deflated completely and then started to catch on the brake pads which slowed me further and pulled the chair to the right so i had to constantly correct it which takes a lot of core strength. Within about 3km Mo had caught me, I shouted that I couldn't help him out and told him to kick on. I then had a very lonely race to the finish where I just ground out the best pace I could. As normal in the last quarter of the race I started doing sums to predict my finish time and to my shock I was still on course for a decent PB. Unfortunately the tarmac deteriorated in the last part of the race and with a flat tyre my wheel was getting thrown around, my speed was reduced and I only ended up with a 9 second PB which I am now proud of but at the time I could have cried.
  Once I crossed the line I turned round to see Callum and Jade crossing the line. I realised that apart from Mo nobody from the original group had passed me when my tyre popped so I must of put some serious distance between us when I broke the group. Jade was whisked off to get her second place prize so I waited for Callum before pushing to the minibus. He clearly wasn't happy so I asked if he was ok, he had a little rant about tactics but stopped himself midway through, mi apologised if he thought I had done anything out of order but he said it wasn't me. I felt a little awkward because I didn't actually see anything untoward,  maybe it was bumping and barging in the first few miles by the newer racers who aren't used to racing in a pack. I'm still not sure how or why Callum got so pissed off by it but he went on to tweet and post on Facebook about it, him and Jade didn't eat with the rest of us that evening which wasn't a good feeling. I would prefer all  the British athletes to get on well and work together when we are  abroad.  It makes sense to work together and produce good times. I now think Callum must have thought there were team orders for Weir Archer racers which if there were team orders I wasn't told about them. There was no planning we just got on and did it. I really like both Callum and Jade, I enjoy having a good laugh with them and I wouldn't ever work against them or sabotage their races.

Lisbon Half Marathon Day 2, 2015

This morning Jenny, Justin, Mickey and I had a look around the shopping mall near the hotel. I bought a kettle because there isn't one in the room and I have been gagging for a brew. We had a bit of a mooch around, Jenny climbed on a kids ride - she's a good laugh and doesn't act like a 70 year old!
At noon we had the press conference, luckily I ended up sat at the back with Mickey, Justin and Jenny so I could pass the time on my phone. The press conference for the March race seems to go on a lot longer than the October edition.  There is one middle age guy who speaks at both events and he goes on and on and on and on! He pauses every few words and sounds like he is reading a shopping list, a very long shopping list, probably a 45 minute long shopping list. The press conference was so boring Mickey fell asleep.
After lunch we went to the track for training, we were loaded on to two minibuses our driver made us all jump when he lowered the ramp and halfway down it just dropped to the ground with a mighty crash. I volunteered to try and use it first to see if it still worked but it worked fine and everybody was soon on board and heading to the track. The driver was a bit daredevil, we went to the wrong entrance first of all and that seemed to piss him off because his driving went mad. He was a pedal stamper, he was always either stamping on the accelerator or the break. We were being thrown around the back when all of a sudden we swerved, a coach had pulled out and almost hit us. I'm not sure  what the Portuguese driving test is like but I get the I impression all you do is turn up and show them you can go and stop and them you walk away with your license!
In training Jenny asked me to do a 10km steady, I set off slow and did a few drills in the first mile, by half way I worked out I was actually heading for a PB. I wasn't pushing particularly fast so I decided to up the pace slightly, by 7.5 km I had done the sums in my head and I realised I was on for a huge PB. Obviously it wouldn't actually count as a PB because it wasn't in a race but I wanted to know how fast I could go so I upped the pace again, by no means was I going all out but I completed the 10km in a time much faster than my PB. I felt strong and loved the push, it made me remember why I love this sport. Winter training was absolutely awful this year so I really needed a boost. On the way back to the hotel I spotted some really good street art which I am going to go and have a look at tomorrow between training and driving the race route if I get time. 

Lisbon Half Marathon 2015 day 1

  After an awful winters training things finally turned a corner a few weeks back so I decided to make the trip to Lisbon to race on the super fast course.

In the last couple of days before travelling I had the normal panic about if I was fit enough to mix  be here, if I'd done enough training and if I was even good enough to be invited. I always check my welds again and again to see if they show any signs of failing, I check my tyres are still in good nick and I check my bearings. The welds were good, tyres passable and the bearings... well the bearings were goosed! They were so bad that I couldn't get my axel to turn once when I gave it a flick, panic!! Last time I changed my bearings I managed to break the new ones whilst putting them in. I rushed down to the local cycling shop to get some new once and then set about changing them. After watching a couple of YouTube videos on how to change bearings I managed to do it in 30 seconds or so.  Absolutely no idea how I managed to spend 2 hours doing it last time! I've always said I was a bit special! I needed to check the new bearings were running well so I went out on my 10 mile loop, wow! I felt like I was floating. I can't believe I hadn't noticed they needed changing, what a tit!
I also needed to drop the dog off at the mothers, take my chair in bits, box the chair, get my haircut and sort out insurance for dad driving my car to the airport an for my chair during the trip. I seem to have inherited a tendancy to leave things until the last minute like my dad does. It really annoys me when he does it but I do it too, something I need to work on.
Today me and dad set off at 6:30 am to get to the airport on time. When we got to the airport we both commented on how easy it was this time to find the car park and  get into the the terminal. The reason it was so much easier and better sign posted was because we were at the wrong bloody terminal. We had to trek the best part of a mile pushing my box which weighs a ton, dodging kamikaze old ladies diving in front of me on route. Once at the right terminal I checked in and took my box, wheels and luggage to the over sized area. I said goodbye to dad and got his usual "give'um hell lad" instead of good luck. Bless him. I met up with the other northern wheelchair racers in the Costa and had a coffee and a good old chin wag.
  I was surprised that Mark Conway and Bret Crossley weren't going to be racing, I have never been to Portugal without these too and I had been thinking of one liners to give Bret about his habit of crashing! Jade Jones, Callum Hall, Simon Lawson and Mickey Bushell were the other athletes. Callum is fairly new to the sport and he's improving really quickly, I only met him once before but he's a good laugh. I've known of Mickey for a few years now but not really had chance to talk to him until today, cracking lad! I know Jade and Simon quite well now and I like and respect both of them! I wish I had their talent!
When we landed in Portugal the airport porter who helps the disabled passengers came and patted me on the back, it was the same guy from the last time I came in October,  he asked if I remembered him! What a nice guy he is, really jolly and genuinely interested in what wheelchair racing is all about. I did feel pretty famous being recognised in a foreign country!  Paulo met us at the airport with a van for all the luggage and a fancy minibus with leather seats for us. We are staying in a different hotel this year, it is the one in which we had the press conference last year, very nice! Well very nice except we have no kettle in the room?!?! Do they not know the English can't function without tea?
After a couple of hours Dave Weir CBE and our coach Jenny Archer MBE arrived, they had driven here! It was great to see Jenny because I haven't had chance to see her recently. I went to shake Dave's hand and missed and gave him the campest handshake in history, how embarrassing!  I am rooming with Justin Levene again which I would have chosen to do if I had the choice, he's the athlete I think I have the most in common with. Shelly Woods,  John Smith and Mo Jomni are flying out on Saturday,  there are more British athletes in the race than there are Portuguese!
The food this evening was great, I had sea bass with rice followed by a huge heap of fruit. Whilst we were all sat around the table Mo Farah arrived and he had a good chat with Dave.  I still get a bit star struck by Mo even though I have met him a few times now!
Going to cut this one short as it is getting late. I shall blog again tomorrow. 

Handcycle arrived!

  At last my handcycle has been delivered. I bought with the compensation money I received from being run over whilst training almost two years ago. I have never tried one out before but I have noticed other athletes becoming fitter and faster wheelchair athletes by using a handcycle for cross training and I wanted to get in on the action. It arrived with a couple of bits missing so it was stranded in my front room for a few days before I could use it. On the morning the wheelchair manufacturers sent the missing bits I was lucky the weather seemed calm and sunny. Knowing it would still be bitter I wrapped up well and headed out on my new toy to do my longest training route that I do at home in my race chair, It's 19 miles but quite hilly.
  I had heard that handcycling was easier than wheelchair racing and faster than wheelchair racing so I wasn't expecting the hard time I was about to have. Firstly I hadn't put the pedals in the correct position (not even sure if they are called pedals if you turn them with your hands?) I was having to do a mini ab crunch to reach the pedals when they were at the furthest distance from me. I had also forgotten about how gears work, in my defence it is 15 years since I have been cycling, I forgot that the big cogs on the wheel do the opposite of the cogs at the pedal end, doh! So I cycled miles in a gear that I was struggling to turn and only noticed when I was almost home! I didn't have any sports gloves and elected not to wear my normal gloves which was a bit of a silly choice, my hands were numb before I had covered 2 miles.
  When I had reached the turn around point I was way behind the time I would have done in my race chair, I was completely knackered and the heavens opened. Part freezing rain and part hailstones, it hurt. In a hand cycle you are laid on your back so it is impossible to keep your face and eyes out of the hail, I tried shielding my face with one arm and pedalling with my other arm but I was too wobbly with steering one handed. At the same time as being pelted in the eyes with mini blocks of ice the roads had become wet and the front wheel was spraying me with water as well as cars spraying me as they overtook me. I was completely sodden,  freezing and fed up. I considered stopping and phoning for help but then thought by the time anyone had got to me to pick me up I could have been home. I soldiered on, hating it but getting on with it nevertheless. For some reason I didn't think to stop and get my emergency rations or my thermal hat out of my bumbag!
Once home I really struggled to get my legs out of the cycle and then get to my door. I struggled to get my key safe number in because my hands were completely numb. Then my dad opened my front door,  he had turned up to do some jobs for me when I had been out and had let himself in, I've never been so chuffed to see his ugly mug. He dragged me into the house and then went to collect my cycle. By the time he got back in I had stripped down to my boxers to get out of the wet clothes and was sat in front of the fire which was on full blast. He wrapped me up in towels and put the kettle on. It was a good 10min before I could talk properly and over an hour before I stopped shivering!  A true baptism of ice! It hasn't put me off though, I shall just check the weather forecast more closely in future and be properly prepared before setting off. 

Review of 2014

Well 2014 wasn't quite what I planned or expected.
  It started off with the problems that would dominate my year, punctures in training and welds breaking in races. Training came to an abrupt halt when I suffered three punctures in 10 days and I had no money left to replace the tyres, luckily I wasn't out of action for too long as a couple of mates stepped in to replace the tyres for me. I trained hard early in the year preparing for the London Marathon.
  On the build up to the marathon I was forced to take part in the worst race I have been involved with in 25 years of athletics. The Silverstone Half Marathon, it's on the Silverstone race track and it is organised by the team behind the London Marathon,  well, I say organised when I actually mean it is 'put on' by them because you really can't call it organised. The first thing that winds me up is that athletes who haven't done a marathon before are forced to take part in this race to prove they can do a half marathon in under an hour and a half. This is ridiculous for athletes like myself who have gone under the hour mark for the half marathon on numerous occasions and have never once taken an hour and a half to cover the distance. In an age when results are easily accessible from any laptop, phone or tablet why are we forced to perform especially for these organisers? Could it be for the rather large entrance fee they charge us? So, already anoyed at being there, the day just got worse and worse. The experienced athletes all warmed up in driving rain and bitterly cold wind whilst the people who had turned up expecting to do well in a half marathon without much training went straight to the start line.  This meant that when the experienced athletes were called to the line there was no space left and because the organisers hadn't bothered to do a starting grid for us (standard practice for wheelchair races) we had paralympians on the third row back whilst obese people in their first ever race in the centre of the front row. I ended up behind some scaffolding, aimed diagonally across the start line so as there was no way for me to get behind the full front and second row. We were then sat on the start line in the awful weather listening to bloody speeches and interviews, brilliant! When they finally got round to setting us off they gave us a 30 second start on the runners, into the wind, uphill. These are the same organisers that pull people out of the London Marathon because it's dangerous for runners and the odd chair to be on the road at the same time. Obviously it must be perfectly safe for hundreds of runners and dozens of chairs to be on a race track at the same time because the runners soon caught most of the field on the first incline. The problems went on and on, tight twisty course causing crashes, crossing gravel traps, marshals strolling along the course with wheelybins, etc, etc. Nightmare!  I can guarantee I will not take part in that race again until there is a change in management.
  My least favourite race ever was followed by my favourite race of the year, the Lisbon Half Marathon.  The March edition of this race is held on a lightning quick, pancake flat course. It still has the amazing management team from the October edition who I have become friends with over the last few years and who I look forward to visiting twice a year. Unfortunately one of the British athletes smashed into me and sent me crashing into the fence mid race which dropped me from the peloton, I did produce a PB in the race and had a great time celebrating with Mr Weir and Shelly Woods fella Chris. We watched Chris's team Manchester United get humiliated on TV in the bar and we were pretty merry by the time we had our evening meal. Grown men playing with paper aeroplanes at the dinner table - classy or what?
  The next big race in my year was the London Marathon, unfortunately it is not as well organised as you would expect from one of the biggest races in the world. They contradict themselves with their silly rules and they really do not look after the wheelchair athletes that are not involved at the front of the race. That said, the people of London create a real buzz around the race and during the weekend the excitement builds. The race itself is a great experience even if the weekend is poorly organised.  The first 10km of the race are very quick, I beat my 10km PB! Once the crowds start to build it is an amazing atmosphere,  it was a little sad to know that none of the thousands and thousands of people out on the streets were there to cheer for me but I soaked in the atmosphere none the less! Dad had gone straight to the finish to watch as he had put his back out carrying everybody's wheelchairs onto the bus when the marathon staff did a disappearing act right when they were needed. I could of done with a friendly voice when I had run out of steam on the embankment.  The whole race I had been doing sums in my head to see if I could break the magic 2 hours mark. I finished in 1:59:51 so 9 seconds under! Way too close for comfort but I later found out my chair had cracked at the 17 mile mark! I had noticed it was making funny noises but didn't know why at the time. 
  Just two weeks later I opened my track season, the season was blighted by my chair cracking. I managed a PB in my first 1500m of the year even with my wheel rubbing on the frame every time I was on a bend. It is so annoying when your chair lets you down rather than your fitness level. During the track season I managed to PB at every distance on the track from 100m to 10km. I really enjoyed seeing the younger athletes at my club and others improve quickly this year, the times people are producing now are far better than when I first started racing just a few years ago... I cut my season short in late July as all the chair breakages started to get me down, I had missed several large chunks of training whilst waiting for it to be fixed. I decided to cut my losses on the track and start building milage ready for the autumn road races.
  My chair broke another three times on the build up to the Great North Run but I managed to keep training in the gym thanks to my sponsorship from Alpha, unfortunately the chair also broke in the race which meant I dropped back from the great position I had got myself into. I managed to nurse my chair home slightly faster than the previous year but I was totally pissed off with how things had gone. In the Lisbon race my missed training and low confidence showed in the result, I performed quite badly. Detailed descriptions of both races are found elsewhere on my blog.
  The year ended with a huge hammer blow, the icing on the cake for an unlucky year, my sponsors dropped me with no notice and that has left me with nowhere to store and use my rollers and nowhere to do my weights sessions. I am also missing the sports massages which I find vital to recovery. Losing out on this deal has also been tough because of the social side of training, I got on great with my sponsors and was starting to build friendships with the other gym users. It's bitterly disappointing that they decided to drop me without discussing the issues they assumed had happened, I'm sure if they had have spoken to me they wouldn't have dropped me. It did hit me hard at the time and I had to take time out to sort myself out but now I am back in action, I've managed to squeeze my rollers into my four room bungalow so I can train when it snows. It's not great but it's a start. Onwards and upwards!