Review of 2015 - Massive Highs and Bottomless Lows.

Well 2015 was a funny old year!

 I started out well with that 5min PB in the London Marathon and then went on to prepare for the Great Manchester 10K. It's a race I love because it is the closest to home that I have ever raced and I've always found it a shame that it doesn't attract a bigger field. 2015 was different a few coincidences made it the biggest wheelchair field the race had ever had, there were new athletes involved, people who would normally be at the Swiss champs were there and a couple of racers came out of retirement. All that meant that there was no way I was going to defend my 3rd place from 2014 so it was all about the time for me.
  As soon as the gun went there was the mad charge that seems to happen in every race although it is heightened at Manchester as there are two start lines that are on opposite sides of the road and the athletes cannot see each other. We set off harder because we don't want to be left behind by the athletes on the other side of the road. After about 80m the two groups come together on a gentle bend, there was a clash of chairs at this point in 2014 and with the extra athletes involved in 2015 it was no different. I took a big hit from Mark Telford (the guy I argued with mid race during the London Marathon) I think I swore at him but didn't think much of it at the time and just got on with my race. The first 1km or so is downhill so we get some decent speed going, the lead two were off and gone in the distance but they were David Weir and Simon Lawson who are a cut above the rest of the athletes in the UK. I would have expected the likes of Patrick Monahan, John Smith, Nathan Maguire and Stuart Bloor to be ahead of the likes of myself and Callum Hall but they weren't! When the mad dash at the start had settled we had got involved in a huge group with a few of the other athletes that don't normally race at Manchester, the group was a bit ragged at first but myself and Callum soon got them in order and working together. We were both laughing to ourselves, both knowing that really we weren't the most experienced or the fastest in that group - we were just the gobby ones that took control. We didn't half shift, most people doing their bit at the front of the field, John was a bit lazy and did virtually nothing but in the end he was out sprinted by somebody we could have dropped earlier in the race if he'd of helped us out - swift justice!
  Whilst heading towards Old Trafford we could still see Dave and Simon ahead so we knew we were going well. Just after Old Trafford there are some corners on the course and I realised that without putting any effort in I was hitting the front of the pack just because my cornering was better. I decided that when we got to the worst corner on the race I would hit it hard and try and break up the pack as I knew most of them could outsprint me and that would leave me outside the top ten. So, I sprinted into the corner, didn't break and then worked out of the corner. I had a quick look over my shoulder and I had dropped the whole pack by 20m or more, everybody in that pack had a faster 10km PB than me so I fully expected most if not all of them to catch me. I was just over halfway in the race, I knew I couldn't keep a group of faster athletes behind me whilst they were working together. I didn't make a break for home, I simply kept myself moving at a decent speed so the pack would need to work to get back to me. I hoped that as they were chasing me down the weaker members of the pack would drop off the back and once the leaders in the pack caught me I would be fresh enough to up the pace again and open up the gap between us and the weaker athletes. It worked! Exactly what I wanted to happen did so! I was a bit gutted that one of the athletes dropped was Callum who I get on great with, he was having a great push none the less. Another was Stuart who I had only ever beaten at Half and Marathon up until that point. Unfortunately, with about 2km or less to go, as the course started to climb a small gap opened up in the group of six I was racing in and it was me getting dropped. I kept working hard hoping that somebody else may be dropped and that I may get to pick them off but the five remaining lads kept strong and finished well. When I crossed the line I couldn't believe the time I had produced 24:04! Well over 2min Knocked off my 10km PB! Yes, it wasn't the 3rd place I got in 2014 but 8th in a fast time feels better to me. The post race analysis consisted mainly of people asking what had happened at the start between me and Mark Telford, apparently it looked like we were both going to come out of our chairs. Two people asked if it was round 2 of the London Marathon ranting. It wasn't, Mark had been rammed into me  by an inexperienced athlete when the two starts merged. There was no malice in it at all and we had a good chat about the accident and about London. He is actually a sound guy. We both apologised for shouting in London and shook hands.
  After manchester I set my sights fully on the Swiss Marathon Champs, My club the Weir Archer Academy sponsored myself, Martyna Snopek and Justin Levene's travel and board. It felt great to be representing the club abroad I wanted to produce something that people would be proud of. I trained really hard for the event and felt in the best shape I have ever been in. The trip started with a long drive down to London to sleep on Martyna's sofa the night before we flew from Luton airport. On the morning we were flying we headed over to the airport and parked up, I didn't have a disabled parking bay so had to park miles from the airport and push my race chair in its flight box, two wheel bags and a suitcase across a gravel carpark and then catch the bus to the airport. I didn't half get some funny looks! Once inside the airport we tried to check in and because we were flying with EasyJet the inevitable happened - we were dealt with by idiots! When booking the tickets we had let them know we were flying with wheelchairs and sports chairs, they were given the dimensions and weights of the chairs and my travel box. I had over estimated the weight of my box and told them 36kg, on the day it weighed 32kg but they wouldn't let me check it in as it was over 30kg! They let me book tickets stating I would be travelling with a 36kg box telling me there would be no problem and they would put a note on the system... but a box 4kg lighter was "too heavy"! I explained that there should be a note on their system from when we booked and the manager who had been called over said she could see the note but the box was still over 30kg so it didn't matter. Well over an hour of arguing ended with somebody else higher up the hierarchy letting me check in. It did sour the start of the trip, being made to wait at the side of the queue whilst passengers stared at us and EasyJet staff pointed at, talked about us and asked ridiculous questions like "does it have an engine?". Once checked in we literally had minutes to get to the gate and sort ourselves out. The flight was ok, I had Martyna hanging off my arm as she is petrified of flying! I don't like flying either so I couldn't do anything other than completely blank her! We must of looked like a really odd pair, her clamped onto my arm and me with head phones on watching a film an not even looking at her. What makes it even stranger is that Martyna is doing a masters in Avionics! She knows how safe planes are and knows exactly how they work yet she is petrified, haha!
  Once landed in Switzerland the problems continued, EasyJet had left Justin's race chair behind so whilst he was sorting out what was going on we stacked all 6 wheels, Martyna's race chair and all 3 suitcases on my travel box and I wheeled it through the airport whilst Martyna went to find the race organisers who were supposed to be picking us up. There was no sign of them. They eventually got there an hour and a half after we had made it through arrivals. Once checked into the hotel that was lovely we headed down into the town to try and find some cheaper food, the food in the hotel was very expensive but even the Aldi store in the town was a bit pricey. Whilst going through the town Martyna noticed my wheelchair looked odd, we stopped to look and it had been completely battered during the EasyJet flight all the wheels were buckled and the frame twisted. On our way back to the hotel up a very steep hill both of my castors broke so I had to pull a wheelie whilst carrying my shopping. Justin and Martyna just abandoned me, it must have taken me a good half hour to get up the hill. When I was about 1 minute away from the top Martyna wheeled back to me to offer to take my shopping bag, it took everything I had not to blow up at them both - there is noway on earth I would ever leave a friend to struggle like that.... actually I wouldn't even leave a stranger to struggle. Never mind, they live in the south so I guess thats normal!
 On race day we were bussed down to the start in the next town, it was raining heavily and very cold so we got ready in a large marquee, when we went out to warm up they were already lining us up in speed order with all the cyclists taking part in the various races. I managed to get about 400m warm up done then I had to take my place in the startling line up. We were sat getting cold for quite a while although the rain had stopped. Once it was time for us to start I was flying, I was drafting both the Great Marcel Hug who is a multiple World Champion and a Dutch Paralympian. I felt fine, my heart rate was within my target zone, I even climbed a small hill with the pair. Then at about the 7mile mark I couldn't exhale properly my chest went very tight and my breathing was very shallow, it came from nowhere. Justin was about 200m behind me at this point and I was in 3rd place which came with prize money which was much needed at the time. As soon as it happened I lost touch with my illustrious company but I hoped I could hide it from Justin and not give him the boost of seeing I was struggling. I carried on pushing, with the prettiest technique I could manage, whilst gasping for air. It wasn't working though, Justin soon caught me and passed me - I couldn't even hang on to him on a downhill section where normally I could hang on to anyone. I kept working for another 7 miles or so but by this point I was starting to fall asleep, it must have been lack of oxygen getting to my brain, whatever was causing it - I was scared to death. I had been struggling to breath and getting pains in my chest for 40min or so, I was starting to be lapped by the cyclists in their various races and as they were coming past at incredible speeds it started to get dangerous. If it was a case of just me limping on and finishing in a jogger's time I probably would have attempted it and who knows what would have happened. I was putting other people at risk by wandering all over the road so I pulled out, the first time I have ever pulled out of a race like that and I was devastated. I felt like I had let Jenny, Dave and everybody else at the academy down. I had wasted their money in getting me there.
  It turned out I had had an asthma attack in the race, probably brought on by the lack of warm up and the cold mountain air. I had childhood asthma but hadn't had an attack since the age of 15, I had't used an inhaler since 17 and didn't even own one. I thought I had grown out of it, I had a severe cat allergy as a child too but I have two pet cats now and they have never caused a problem in the 9 years  I have had them. My dad developed asthma in his late 20's so I guess thats where it has come from. It didn't take long once home to get the diagnosis, get an inhaler and try pushing again. The inhaler helped with the asthma but there was a bigger problem for me - the feeling of letting everybody down and the wasting of months of training brought my depression back with a huge bang. It completely bitch slapped me and I really struggled to motivate myself to do anything at all for weeks on end. I shied away from friends and family, I didn't get much training done, neglected my garden (which means a lot to me) and didn't look after myself properly. I've suffered from depression for a long time but normally it is kept under control and only rears its head in winter. To get hit in the summer so hard was really nasty.
It was a few months before I plucked up the courage to race again, I avoided the track at all costs over the summer, I came back on the Tyne Tunnel 2K - the fastest wheelchair race in the world. Haha! Only I could have months off then decide the fastest race in the world followed by the Great North Run less than 48 hours later was a good idea! I think the Tyne Tunnel 2k race is amazing and didn't want to miss it. I drove up to Newcastle and checked in to The Hilton and found out I was sharing with Mark Telford - luckily we had chatted after the Great Manchester Run and sorted things out. The Tyne Tunnel 2k takes place on the Friday evening and runs 1 kilometre downhill into the tunnel where we reach speeds of 45mph then we have a gruelling push uphill kilometre to climb out of the tunnel. I got to the hotel early and the nerves started to build as I was waiting for the time to pass before heading to the tunnel. For some silly reason I decided to swap my push rims for some newly covered ones I had with me. Newly covered rims have nice tread on them but them haven't built up a sticky layer of cluster to help with grip. As soon as the gun went I was stuck behind a slow starter but when he got going I couldn't keep with him because my gloves wouldn't stick to the rims. It took me a long time to get up to speed but as you can see in the video I was flying by the time I got to the bottom and overtook lots of faster athletes. Climbing wasn't good, my gloves slipped, you can hear them slipping in the video and I lost a lot of places. Getting beaten by my mate Jamie Carter was hard to take but he pushed really well and I didn't so he deserved it! I'll get him back next time I race it!

I always knew the Great North Run was going to be difficult for me with no real training for it, it's not my favourite course on the best of years. I had swapped back to my old rims, I had a decent warm up and waited on the start line for the gun to go. I had a storming start, next to Callum Hall and just off the lead pack. The first 2 and a bit miles are mainly downhill but even on the slight climbs I was holding my own. Then when we got to the long dragging climb that takes you past Gateshead Stadium I lost the big group I was in. I am just too heavy with my legs to stick with the other lads. I tried and tried to close the gap but they were working in a group and I was in no-man's land. I had patches working with each of the three lead women but all three of them were stronger than me on the climbs and I was faster on the decent so it was more like bunny hopping than actually pushing together! I finished fairly strongly to say I pushed most of the race alone and for the first time ever I enjoyed the GNR. My time was less than a minute behind where I had been in 2014 and with about half the training I was happy with that. The best thing about the GNR is that after the race they ship us back to the hotel and we all get a meal in the Hilton laid on for us. Myself and Martyna made full use of it, She had what looked like half a cow as a stake and I had swordfish. All with lots of post race analysis.
  The next target on my radar was the October edition of the Lisbon Half Marathon, a race that I love to support as I consider the organisers friends now. I trained really hard for this race after the confidence boost that the GNR had give me. My friend John Lloyd who owns a race organising company called Cannonball Events was due to travel with me and take part in the running event. I was looking forward to this so much, John's been really good to me and put on a few races that I could take part in when other local organisers don't want the hassle of a wheelchair athlete. I had lots to do in the lead up to the race and hadn't had time to pack until the night before the flight. It was my own fault, I should have said no to people asking me to do things for them but I didn't , I just kept saying yes. I packed my kit, broke down my race chair and stored it safely in its travel box. Then went to get my passport from the safe place it has been kept in for years... it wasn't there. I spent a few hours looking for it and couldn't find it. I phoned my mum for help at about 11PM, I was due to set off at 6:30AM to the airport. We spent another 5 hours looking, we looked everywhere, we emptied each room then put everything back. We even checked in each dvd case. Nothing. I think my cleaner might have binned it with some junk mail. So, at 6:30AM after about 40min sleep I drove John to the airport on his own. I had the same feelings that I had let people down again and it took a good few weeks to get over it.
 The year ended with me just getting back on track when another disaster happened. I had been trying to decide if I was in shape to do the Dubai Marathon in January, at first it was a no but two key sessions had swayed my mind. During my 3rd good session in a row I decided I was going to go for it in Dubai, I knew I would finish in the prize money and I have always wanted to visit Dubai. My school mate lives out there and I had received an invite from the organisers so it seemed perfect. My session went so well I decided to add an extra rep, whilst on the 3rd lap of my extra rep I was took out by a runner. He had been running in lane 2 for the previous hour and as I had been at the track for over an hour and a half he had seen me using lane 1 plenty of times. Going down the home straight, just as my front wheel drew level with him he changed lanes as if to run on to the infield. As my front wheel was already along side him when he changed directions there was nowhere for me to go and no time to do anything to avoid hitting him. My back right wheel ran over him, this sent me up on two wheels. I was tipping sideways, I put my left hand out to save myself but my arm ended up twisted behind my back. My shoulder had bee dislocated. Luckily there were a group of runners near the incident and they helped me up, it was also lucky they witnessed the accident as the runner involved wasn't a very nice person. He didn't apologise or even ask if I was ok, instead he just said "I didn't hear you!". What type of excuse is that? You wouldn't cross a road using sound alone, so why cross a track  without looking? Since the accident I have had a bit of a lynching from his club mates, abuse on Facebook, letters to my sponsors, the sports centre I train at and to my club. All from people that didn't actually see it happen. This is the club that I used to represent, I have seen them turn on people before and it isn't pretty. It would have upset me if the other runners that helped me up hadn't witnessed it and said it was his fault, I even had strangers contact me after to see if I was ok.

My poorly shoulder :(

  When you have a serious injury to your shoulder as a wheelchair user you are basically a prisoner on your sofa, you can't use a wheelchair to get around, crawling is much harder and even with some use of the legs like me you can't use crutches. Being immobile over xmas and pissed off that you can't race in a race you've had your eye on for over a year isn't good. Comfort eating and copious amounts of alcohol ensued! Read the next blog to find out the result.

Phew! Glad 2015 is over. It sounds odd to wish away a year where you produced huge PB's but I can say 100% 2016 will be better for me!

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.

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. 

Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Lisbon 2013

Report from October 2013

I’ve just got back from my first international race as a wheelchair athlete in Lisbon, Portugal. It was an invite only race so I was pretty surprised to get an invite 8 weeks ago as at the time my PB was a next to useless 77min.

  I am part of the Weir Archer Academy which was set up in April by David Weir and his long term coach Jenny Archer – I’m sure David needs no introduction but his (and now my) coach is little known outside disability sport and that is a huge shame. Jenny coached David to six Paralympic golds, four of which were in London last year she has also guided him to six London Marathon wins, four world records and British records at every distance from 100m to Marathon! She also worked with the famous Wimbledon Crazy Gang and was known as the ‘woman who tamed the crazy gang’! Anybody who is considered to have tamed Dennis wise, John Fashanu, Lawrie Sanchez and Vinnie Jones is obviously hard as nails! Jenny and Dave wanted to get involved with this whole legacy thing that we had drummed into us all during the London Games, they took it upon themselves to set up a group where disabled athletes can get world class coaching and access to all the backroom support that international athletes get.

Being a member of the Weir Archer Academy is what got me invited to the race along with four other WAA athletes; My mates who did the Manchester to Blackpool push with me which CLEM members helped with Kirsty Grange and Stuart Bloor along with London based athletes Ash Archer and Justin Levine. When I got the invite I spoke to Jenny and we said if I accepted I needed to get some serious work done as 77min wasn’t an acceptable PB, I spent a week on a new training program whilst I decided if I should accept or not. I loved training twice a day and doing the extra milage so I decided to give it a crack. All I had to do was find £160 for my flights everything else was paid for by the organisers.

Five weeks into my new training plan I did the Tyne Tunnel 2km and Great North Run. The Tyne Tunnel race is the fastest wheelchair race in the world and I finished 9th overall and 3rd Brit. I was over 2min faster than last year and enjoyed every moment!

Two days later I did the GNR one year after the course almost made me quit racing because of the pain I was in for a few weeks after the race. This year I was in a new chair custom built to fit me exactly, I was fitter and lighter. I really enjoyed the race this year and  smashed my PB with 55:36 and 12th place. I think that is the one and only time I will ever have a 22min PB! The weekend in Newcastle gave me a huge boost of confidence and made me knuckle down and train even harder out on the roads of Rossendale and down at Barden Lane track for the last 3 weeks building up towards the Lisbon race.

I flew out on Thursday morning, had quite a few people in the airport doing the ‘trying not to stare’ routine. I guess a lad pushing a wheelchair with one hand whilst pushing a race chair along in front with his spare hand complete with suitcase, spare wheels and pump stacked on top is a fairly unusual sight! Whilst sat in departures the mother phoned to wish me luck and remind me that last time I competed abroad I ended up in a wheelchair so I “wasn’t to do anything stupid” – yeah, cheers for that mum!

We were met at the airport in Lisbon by the race staff who had our chairs in a van and us in a car on the way to the elite athletes hotel in no time. The hotel was the same one the England football team stayed in during Euro 2004, my apartment had three bedrooms, two bathrooms a kitchen and large lounge with a wrap around balcony. I shared with Justin and Ash, who are both fairly new to the sport like me. We had time to explore the hotel, test out the indoor pool and sauna, pick up a start list and google everybody’s PB’s before tea. The dinner table was like a who’s who of wheelchair road racing with most of the athletes being paralympians. Friday morning was spent chatting with the foreign lads and picking up tips on everything from gluing sandpaper to gloves for grip in wet weather to how much pressure to put in tyres on a rough course like Lisbon. At lunch time all the elite athletes able bodied and disabled were taken to a press conference at the Hilton. I have to say sitting through two hours of foreign politicians making speeches which looked to be of the mutual back patting type was extremely boring when you don’t speak a word of Portuguese, a few of the Kenyans fell asleep!! The speeches were followed by the papers taking photo’s and once we were all suitably blinded by the flash bulbs we were led to the dinning room for lunch. I managed to make an idiot of my self on the way by pulling a hand rail off the leather lined walls of the lift – still it got a cheer and a round of applause from all the other wheelers waiting for the lift!

Lunch made up for the two hours of boredom a thousand times over, swordfish and it was b.e.a.u.tiful and once I knew it was definitely free the northerner in me came to the fore ‘owt for nowt’….. I had an apple crumble for desert, followed by gateaux..followed by fruit salad… followed by chocolate cheesecake. All of which were great! After stuffing my face at the Hilton we had a couple of hours rest before a training session at Portugal’s national athletics center which was built into the side of a hill which meant it had virtually no wind at all. The track was old and worn which made it really fast for chairs as there was no give in the surface. Jenny had us do an easy 10km, it was hard to hold back on such a fast track when I felt so fit, I didn’t want to give anything away to my competitors so each time somebody was near me on the track I stopped pushing and started doing arm drills instead.

Saturday morning we had another session on the same track, just an easy 5km. As soon as the minibus and van stopped I was out and in my chair, I got the 5km done whilst others were still messing about getting sorted before starting the session. That suited me and helped me with my tactic of not giving anything away. In the afternoon I had a massage from the race physio on a niggle in my shoulder that Garry Wilkinson has been working on at home. I ate my own body weight in rice and had an early night.

On race day I was up and ready for breakfast at 6AM, WAA athletes and Jenny had a table to ourselves and she did a great job of calming us all down. Once our chairs had been loaded all the elite athletes traveled to the start in convoy with a police escort, complete with out riders who closed off roundabouts and traffic light controlled junctions to let us speed through. We had a 200m long stretch of road on a hill to warm up on which was soon filled with nervous looking athletes, about 5min before the start we had our final team talk from Jenny and then made our way to the start grid. I was 4 rows back but there were another 4 rows behind me so it was the furthest forward I have ever started a race. Once in position Jenny went round her athletes and whispered a final instruction for each individual. She has a way of getting the best from us and I used my instruction through the course.

Once the gun went there was the usual mad dash for the racing line, my main targets were Stuart who was next to me on the start grid, Bret Crossley who beat me by over three minutes at the Great North and was on the row in front of me along with Shelly Woods who also beat me at the great North by a few minutes (however old we get and however good they are, lads don’t like losing to girls!). I knew lads in the row behind were gunning for me so I started fast and shot around Shelly before the roundabout  followed by a steep climb 80m into the course. Stuart stuck by my side up the climb and I think we were both a little surprised that Bret had stole a march on us, Bret is faster than both of us but he isn’t usually as strong on the climbs. we spent a kilometer or so closing the gap on him and by the next hill we had caught him and passed him. Stu then worked at the front for three kilometers or so and I hung on like hell, to be honest he had me blowing big time but I didn’t let him go. By kilometer six we had caught a Portuguese athlete but Bret had caught us, I noticed the Portuguese guy pushing one handed for long periods and it annoyed me he was keeping up with me so I hit the front of our group and tried to drop him. After going past the 10km mark in 24:29 (1min 37 under my 10km PB) I decided I’d done my bit and asked Stu to take over at the front. I tucked in behind him and unfortunately he took us straight to a huge pothole, Stu hit it, I rammed Stu and hit the pothole but Bret and the Portuguese one armed bandit managed to swerve round us and keep their speed.

We spent another two kilometers closing back in on the pair of them when Bret’s tyre exploded – it’s awful seeing that happen to a mate but there is nothing you can do about it. The one armed bandit almost stopped pushing until we caught him, he really didn’t like doing any work at the front of the group. At kilometer 14 I was starting to think about the finish line and the fact that my training buddy has a much much faster 100m pb to me. I’d never been with him at any point other than the first 5km in my other two Half Marathons but I decided to try an wind it up ‘Paula Style’ and drop him before the finish. I worked my backside off and opened a gap on three occasions but each time the course threw a hill at me. Stuart only has one leg so his power to weight ratio is slightly better than mine as I have two useless limbs to carry around with me, he closed the gap each time and the inevitable happened…. We hit the last 300m and he shot round me along with the one armed bandit who was now pushing with both arms again. The Finish was an experience to say the least, it was made with small uneven cobbles complete with speed bumps (who the hell speeds on cobbles?) it was like riding rodeo and I seriously thought I was going to end up out of the chair. Stu and the part-time one armed bandit both got given the same finish time and they had taken 6 seconds out of me but I was mega happy with my 8th place and 54:26 taking 1:10 off my three week old PB on such a rough old course was a good day at the office.

At the finish line everyone was comparing war wounds and missing kit, there were GoPro, Garmin, race gloves, push rims and tyres that had been lost whilst trying to stay seated in the home straight…. luckily I had only lost my Jelly Babies that I hadn’t had chance to eat.

That night the Weir Archer crew hit the hotel bar with Shelly Woods and her fella. We had a few beers and swapped stories just like I would have done after a big race as a runner. It was a cracking trip and I learnt so much from both my coach, the other athletes and the organisers (who did a cracking job). I can’t wait for my next opportunity to wear the Clayton vest abroad.