Resurrecting The Blog With A Report On London Marathon 2015

So... there are many reasons that I did not keep the blog up to speed last year but, as you will see in a a few posts time, I have a huge challenge in 2016 and I will make a big effort to blog at least once a week from now onwards! 2016 is going to be an exciting but tough year for me and it will be nice to share that journey with you all on this blog.

Back to 2015, I stopped posting on the day of the London Marathon and I can't remember why as I had a great race. I think a bit of a run down on the race would be a good place to start so here goes:

  London Marathon is a great event but it is the people of London that make it the best race in the world not the organisers, as I said back in April we had a hard time of it at the race briefing with officials being over zealous with the gaffer tape and over protective of the race numbers. If only they were so efficient on race day morning, for the second year running all staff disappeared when it came to getting all the athletes on the bus. It's standard practice at other races, like the Great Run series, for the staff to help us on the bus one at a time and then wheel the day chair off to put in a van. At London as soon as this job needs doing the staff disappear and there is no van for the day chairs so we have to wheel onto the bus and then transfer onto a seat and then my dad carries all the chairs to the back of the bus. My dad has two fractured vertebrae so the fact that the paid staff all vanish really angers me. Anyhow, my sister, Ugly and her boyfriend arrived just in time to catch the bus to the start with the athletes - it was great to see her there as she had never seen me in a proper race before.

Myself and the old man, Nigel Gotts, just before I start my warm up. 

Myself with Ugly and her boyfriend.

    Once at the start and unloaded we are finally reunited with our race chairs that had been took off us at the race brief. We spend time pumping tyres and checking all the bolts etc are tight and then we have to say goodbye to family and get out on the road to warm up. The warm up area is a stretch of road around 300m long. This year the race was doubling up as the World Championship Marathon so the field was much bigger than normal with 77 wheelchair athletes and quite a few amputee runners and blind runners. I'm not sure having everyone warm up on the same stretch of road was the wisest plan but fortunately there were no crashes.
  On the start line you could see there were some really nervous faces, including mine! I will probably never get to compete in a world championship race again and although I knew full well that I wouldn't be anywhere near the leaders I still wanted to do something that I could be proud of. The organisers weren't helping the nerves by playing the sound of a heartbeat as we sat on the start line! I quite like to be nervous before a race as it seems to help my performance so I quite liked it! Once the gun went there was an epic sprint, I found myself just a fraction behind the leading group but I couldn't quite get on the back and draft them so I soon tired and got overtook by a few friends including Callum Hall who tried to let me draft him but he soon dropped me. About a mile in to the race I was starting to feel better and caught a nice group which included my club mates Justin Levene and John Smith. I drafted them for a short while to allow my arms to recover before I did my stint at the front of the group. Only that didn't happen - we got to a corner and Justin slowed right down to 4mph to take it! Haha! I rammed him good'n'proper! not on purpose but because I had no idea anyone would break for such an easy corner. The group splintered into individuals and pairs at this point which is a real shame. Somewhere in the next 3 miles I passed Callum again but I completely missed him, I only found out I had beaten him when I finished. I felt bad because he had let me draft - I would always do the same for him but this time I didn't offer because I just didn't see him.
  My dad, our Ugly and her fella were at the 10km mark and seeing them gave me a real boost, I love that part of the course because there are lots of bands playing and large crowds around the Cutty Sark. I got in a bit of a battle with Mark Telford at this point and after a few miles of him drafting me I let my frustration overflow and told him to "Do some bloody Work". Each time I told him to do some work I felt that he was going to the front and slowing the pace so I would take over again. We ended up having a bit of a barney mid race. oops. I pushed with Shelly Woods for quite a while but she crashed at the point we have to mount the curb and not long after she ended up with a puncture and pulled out. I Saw my family again at around this point which was another huge boost as I was starting to hurt.

A great photo taken by Shane Delport during the London Marathon, check out his other work on Facebook using the link on the links page. 

  The rest of the race was a solo push which was incredibly tough mentally but I kept on giving it everything I could. I was trying to do sums in my head about my finishing time but the fatigue made it difficult. I really hate the last 2 miles at London, even though the crowds are huge I just can't seem to lift my game along the embankment. I missed my family at this point but they saw me, I did hear the Weir Archer crew all shout me on as I turned  on to Birdcage Walk. it was only at this point I realised I was on for a huge PB. I went from 1:59:51 to 1:54:59 so very nearly 5 min faster! I was pretty chuffed to finish inside the top 30 in a World Championship event, even more chuffed when I got a bit of prize money for finishing high up in the British rankings. It wasn't much but it's nice to get a bit of recognition.

My race stats for London Marathon 2015.

After the post race analysis with all the athletes, friends and family we were bussed back to the hotel, myself and my dad got showered and changed and headed out to get a pint and a giant pancake! I'd earned it! I really enjoyed the pint and giant pancake but started to feel rough very quickly so we headed back to the hotel.

Post race pint and pancake!

I had a nap at the hotel and woke up to find my arms had stuck to the bedsheets, I had taken a very thin layer of skin off my bicep area on both arms and thought nothing of it. It's fairly normal to lose a bit of skin on the arms in wheelchair athletics and these wounds hadn't even bled. When I woke up after my nap just a few hours after the race there was a thick green puss coming from the wounds, it turns out it was a nasty infection i had picked up from my tyres rubbing on the wounds during the race. I had to spend two weeks on antibiotics and have my dressings changed everyday for 10 days at my local Health Centre. This is probably why I felt so rough after just one pint. That said, I wouldn't mind feeling like that after every marathon as long as I whacked out a 5 min PB each time!

My smelly wound!

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. 

Lisbon Half Marathon Race Day

Race day arrived and I woke at 6AM,  half an hour before my alarm, who needs sleep anyhow? I'd got everything I needed ready the night before so it was just a case of putting the kit on under my joggers and rolling down to breakfast, I always find it hard to eat on race day which is unusual for me coz I  love my grub! I forced down a few slices of toast and a couple of espressos which I don't really like. I then got myself ready to leave for the start. There were a lot of different makes of chairs in the hotel lobby, I like looking at foreign chairs. In the UK we only really see three makes of chair and they all look very similar so I am always taking note when looking at foreign chairs checking for new developments.
Soon enough it was time to get on the minibuses, the chairs were all packed in vans whilst the convoy waited for the police escorts to arrive. Portuguese police motorbike riders wear knee high brown boots with heels - very camp! Not sure if they are allowed to but they are always smoking. They ride like absolute nutters, once we set off everyone on the minibus was gasping at the riding antics out in front of us. In previous races the police had provided a lot more riders so the few we had were stretched to try and stop traffic, let us through red lights and keep the convoy together.
Once we got to the start, Justin and I rushed off to the toilet. We learnt last year that leaving the none flushing portatoilets until after the Kenyan runners had used them wasn't the most pleasant experience in the world. We had arrived at the start in plenty of time so there was no mad rush to get in our chairs like at the Great North Run. I took my time to get ready, eating a few jelly babies as I did. Once in my chair I did a couple of miles warming up and then made my way to the start.
We had been told at the technical meeting the previous evening that the women elite runners would be starting at the same time as us but on the other side of the road to us and we wasn't expected to meet them until the second roundabout.  There were some nervous looking people at the thought of that, 99% of races set us off before the runners to give us chance to get away. When we got to the start there was a bloke with a loud hailer telling us we would have to keep right as the women were on the left, not on the other side of the road but actually in the same lane as us! Complete madness! I don't think the wheelchair race organisers knew, they are brilliant at what they do and I doubt they would ever agree to this! It would be bad in any race but Lisbon has a roundabout just 70m after the start and we take the 3rd exit. Then we climb up a short but steep hill before turning right. The gun went and we set off, the runners getting away faster and us catching them right at the roundabout,  we had to take it wide to leave them enough room but it meant we couldn't manoeuvre around the slower chairs. We climbed at the same rate as the runners and then they just cut across us and separated us all from each other, it was like wacky races. We had kept right when they had the shortest route but they didn't care about our race when we had the racing line, how nobody was run over I will never know. I had a cracking start but found myself separated from the front pack by a group of joggers, elite joggers should have more sense about how they effect other people! By the time I got round the elite joggers the front pack had gone, there was no chance of me catching them now, I kept going hard waiting for someone else to come by me so we could work together to catch the group back up. The first person to catch me was Bret, I tried to draft him but he was in full flight and I can't match his speed yet. One day I will! Next to pass me was Justin, I managed to hang on to Justin for a few hundred meters but he was soon gone.

At the first turn around point I was way behind Bret and about 30m down on Justin. Sammy was about 200m behind me and when we passed each other I gave her a big shout, maybe that was the wrong thing to do as Justin seemed to kick on after that he extended his lead to about 120m. Eventually I pulled my finger out and started to close the gap, it took a few miles but I got back in contact with Justin. I wasn't sure if I should push past him as soon as I caught him or shelter behind him for a while. Stupidly I chose to whip round him, I'd just had a really hard couple of miles trying to close the gap so I didn't have much of an effort left in my arms to try and get rid. I think I might have briefly opened up a 5m gap but I never broke away and I had to settle in behind Justin for a while. About 400m before the turn around point I hit a pothole again and swore loudly, I think Justin heard again because he seemed to kick on and by the turn around point he had opened a small gap on me.

 After I turned I realised the second half of the race was going to be hard work! The wind was awfull, it was blowing at 27mph straight at us. I'm not very big for a wheelchair athlete so I do not have the strength to push into strong head winds. I gritted my teeth and tried to keep it going. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was pushing into the wind, the work in the gym at alpha is paying off but i still have a way to go yet. Justin slowly extended his lead over me. My PB also slowly slipped away, it was hard to keep positive but the course and weather wasn't on my side. Towards the end of the race a copper let a runner walk out right in front of me, I wasn't sure of the Portuguese for "get out the f**king way. Idiot." so I just shouted it in English extra loudly. Then I turned down the steep hill in which starts my least favourite finish of any race I have ever done. At the bottom of the hill we have a 90 degree turn through a narrow gap on to cobbles, cobbles with speedbumps. It truly is an awful finish. This year a few chairs, wheels and tyres were damaged. Luckily my equipment survived the finishing straight, I did cut my hip a couple of times but I do that on the roads of Rossendale anyway.

 Finish line crossed Justin ushered me into my day chair because he wanted to go collect his free beer! We dragged Mark along and collected the complimentary straw hats on the way to the free beer. We rolled past an angry looking Bret who was dissecting yet another crash, we all felt for him but none of us could let it get in the way of beer. Once free beer we were momentarily distracted by free ice lollies shortly after we all looked like stereotypical Brits on tour; sweaty, vest and straw hat wearing blokes with a beer in one hand and an ice lolly in the other. After a while Bret came and joined us but he wasn't the most chatty he had ever been, we all struggled to make conversation when was clearly at the end of his tether. Bret is a cracking bloke but he really is bloody clumsy in his chair!

Back at the hotel we all got in touch with friends any family to let them know how we'd done, I was ninth in 56:30 so not a great time but considering the wind and the race conditions it wasn't too bad at all, most people were further behind their best times than I was. Once showered and changed Justin, Mark, Bret and myself headed down to the new part of the city. We headed to the river and started to make our way along towards the old part, over cobbles, again! We even stumbled across some Portuguese doggers, well everyone but Bret did. Not sure how he managed to miss them when the rest of us were laughing and pointing but miss them he did, maybe that's a clue why he crashes so often! We realised we had underestimated the distance between the new and old city and turned back. When we passed to doggers they had finished and were much older and less attractive than we had imagined. We took a roll along a boardwalk... a boardwalk with inch and half gaps between planks perfect for wheelchair wheels to fall through. So we pushed about 800m zigzagging to avoid falling through. We didn't half get some funny looks even though we had removed our straw hats before leaving the hotel. We then spent about 40min in a mall waiting for each other to pop out of the lifts on the right floor. Back at the hotel Joao and Paulo laughed their tits off at us for trying to push from the new town to the old town apparently a round trip would have been much much further than the half marathon we had already competed in that day. When we mentioned the doggers Paulo, without even a seconds thought, asked if they were next to the VW garage which they were! Something you're not telling us Paulo?

It was a brilliant trip to Portugal, I can't wait to go back in March and race on the fast course, hopefully this time Dan and Sanj can travel with me as well as Weir Archer having a bigger contingent there racing. More racers means more drafting and faster times. For now it's a case of me upping my training load and getting stronger in the gym so I can edge closer to the big boys!

Great North Run 2014

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!