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!