2016 - The Challenge of a Lifetime

So after my injury late in 2015 I have been put back by quite a chunk, I missed out on a trip to Dubai for the marathon there and I am now up against it to get fit for the +Virgin Money London Marathon. Hopefully I can get myself in shape for London, it is usually the biggest challenge of the year for me. All that will change this year when London is going to be a total walk in the park compared to the challenge I have set for myself later in the year..
 Starting on 11th August I'm going to attempt to be the first person in history to push from Lands End to John O'Groats in a manual wheelchair. I am also aiming to do this faster than it has been done in an electric wheelchair. The current record for an electric wheelchair is 30 days. My target is to knock two days off that record using arm power alone. Well, I say my target, it is actually +Guinness World Records target, even though this challenge hasn't been done before they have said they will only award me the world record if I do it in under 29 days. I seems a bit harsh when the Electric Wheelchair world record is 30 days but hey ho! 28 days it is! To do that I will need to push around 33 miles per day without a rest day for four weeks. To put that into perspective I have only completed two marathons in my life and even if you include my pre marathon warm up that would only be around 27 to 28 miles on marathon day..... and then I have 4 or 5 days off after the race. What have I gotten myself in to here?? haha!

Lands End to John O'Groats in a Wheelchair, I must be mad!

 Why?
Well there are several reasons why I want to do something out of the ordinary. The first is a personal one. I sustained my injury in 2007 whilst competing in Finland in the World Ultra Multi Events Championships. I had been entered in the Double Decathlon, 20 events over two days, every Olympic athletics event plus the 200m hurdles. I had been looking forward to taking part and I was in the shape of my life, my main two events the 400m hurdles and 400m had been going great. I had been smashing PB's all season and the rest of the club had been performing well too. At the time I competed for Blackburn Harriers, we had some amazing juniors coming through in the field events and that meant I was getting some top class tips on my weak events. Particularly  from Sophie Hitchon  on the throws (she was about to become British record holder in the hammer) and Holly Bleasdale's first coach for Pole Vault (a few years later she was to smash the British record). Everything was going great on the prep for Finland. Everything except peoples faith in my ability to complete the double decathlon, I was literally getting people telling me not to do it on a daily bases. I had absolutely no doubt that I could do 20 events in 2 days. I just wanted to get on with it and prove everybody wrong!
 It didn't quite happen how I had planned! My first event was the 100m where I broke my personal best, I hadn't run a PB in the 100m for over 8 years so this just confirmed to me that I was going to smash the next 19 events. The second event was the Long Jump, my first jump was poor so I adjusted my run up and my second jump equalled my PB, again it was an old PB so I was over the moon to equal it. Now this is where I went wrong, my plan for the jumps and throws was to retire early if I had an early attempt I was happy with and conserve energy for later in the competition. I made a choice that changed my life by deciding to stray from the battle plan and take my third jump to try and break my PB outright. When I took off for the third time my right foot was in slightly the wrong position and I left my leg behind. I suffered numerous injuries - I broke my pelvis, snapped muscles, damaged major blood vessels, damaged nerves and tore muscles. The pain was horrendous, nobody helped me up, I had do some stange manoeuvres to get onto my feet. Once on my feet in had to shuffle off into the stand, using steps of about 1 inch whilst in massive pain. In a way I am glad it happened in the second event, to me that means it wasn't the double decathlon that caused the injury - I would do 4 or 5 events at league meets for my club so 100m and long jump were not excessive.
When I got home I had a lot of people saying "I told you so" sometimes it was masked but mainly it was delivered in a blunt way. Since that time I have never been in a position in which I can prove to the doubters and to myself that my body is capable of doing extraordinary things. That might sound arrogant but it's not that I believe I am one of a special few that are capable of doing extraordinary things. I believe everyone on the planet can do extraordinary things - if they work hard and it means enough to them they can do something amazing. I turn 33 in July, I feel now is the time to do my 'Amazing thing'. I want something to be proud of, something to prove I wasn't being silly when I travelled to Finland to take on those 20 events and lets be honest, a double decathlon is child's play in comparison to pushing a wheelchair 900 miles.

At an event shortly before the World Ultra Multi Events Championships in Finland.

    The second and more important reason for taking on this challenge is to raise money for charity. I have been overwhelmed since taking up wheelchair athletics by the kindness most people show towards me. Right at the start of my venture into wheelchair athletics a local journalist introduced me to Candice Heys and Garry Wilkinson who had been part of a team of runners that took part in the Everest Marathon to raise money to help disabled people take part in sport. They helped me a great deal at the start by providing me with training kit and paying my gym fees. At the time I was struggling with the benefits system as I had never claimed before my injury and none of my family had ever claimed before either. It took 10months to get my benefits sorted so without the support of the Everest gang I would not have been able to start training.
The village that my dad lived in a few years ago raised the money to buy my first custom built wheelchair. The village of East Runton in Norfolk did so much to help me and I only knew a handful of the residents. They had cake sales, a village bizarre, sponsored walks and lots more. Without the generosity of complete strangers I would have had to struggle on with a second hand, worn out old chair that kept breaking, it was so badly fitted it was slicing into my love handles during every training session - attractive!

My first custom built race chair, largely paid for by the villagers of East Runton

More recently I have been having lots of help and support from the Weir Archer Academy, an athletics club and charity that was set up by David Weir and his long term coach Jenny Archer as part of their effort towards the 2012 legacy that we heard about in every news bulletin during 2012. They wanted to help people of all levels of ability get involved with wheelchair athletics. Jenny is my coach now too and David is always there if I need any help and advice. To have two sporting legends in my corner is a real confidence boost. WAA has helped me out so much since I joined, I've managed to compete all over Europe, I'm sure the number of race invites I get has increased because I am part of WAA.
I have been brought up to believe if you accept help when you need it you should be prepared to give help when you are in a position to do so. Although I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination I am physically and mentally strong enough to take LEJOG on and raise lots of money. It is important to me to raise money for a charity that will go towards disabled people taking part in sport and leading a healthy lifestyle. I'm not sure where I would be without doing sport but I am sure it wouldn't be as good a place as I am in now which brings me on to the third reason for taking on this challenge.
    This reason is the hardest one for me to talk about. I have struggled with depression from being a teenager, 90% of the time it was kept under control with my running and social life. It wasn't something I recognised as depression until after my injury, looking back it definitely was. I want to raise awareness of depression in sportsmen and to encourage people to talk openly about mental health issues. If you have flu you talk about it with everyone from family to complete strangers. Wouldn't it be great if people opened up and spoke about depression before they got to the stage when they are leaning over the edge of a bridge contemplating jumping?
 After my injury I went on a huge downward spiral. At the same time my only real relationship ended and I struggled to cope - in fact I didn't really cope, I was a mess and I messed up. I started hanging around with a group of..... erm.... cockwombles. Complete and utter oxygen thieves. I was going out Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with this group of idiots. They were all drug users - mainly bubble which was popular at the time. I ended up nearly 3 stone overweight, I had never had a weight problem before but the drinking and sitting in a wheelchair all day everyday soon took its toll. This bunch of halfwits were pretending to be my mates when in reality, each time we went out, they were taking money out of my bank account without me knowing and using my bank card to buy drugs online. In a way and yes, I know this sounds odd; I have a lot to thank them for. Without them stealing over £1500 off me I would probably still be going out with them. I may even be an addict myself by now if they hadn't stolen from me. I may have even continued on the downward spiral of depression until it was me hanging over the bridge contemplating jumping.

Me looking awful with some of my 'friends'.

Luckily the experience of being a cash cow for down and outs gave me the kick up the backside that I needed to try and sort my life out. I looked awful but I had been ignoring my fat body and bad skin. I decided to go to the track and do a few laps in my NHS wheelchair. It took me over 3 minutes to do a lap which really upset me but I went back each week. I fell out of my chair lots of times but I kept getting back in, kept going back for more and kept improving physically. Interestingly my depression eased too. I've now got to a point at which when I am training and racing my depression is in its box and causes me no problems whatsoever, the problem occurs when I am injured or ill and I can't take part in exercise. I think it is important for sportsmen to talk about depression to help make people more aware of what is going on. Great strides have been taken in the last few years to remove the stigma from mental illness but we still have a long way to go. From time to time on the build up to my LEJOG attempt I will mention my depression on this blog - not for sympathy but because I want people, especially sportsmen, to understand suffering with depression doesn't make you weak it's just part of life and it can be treated. You can't attempt to push a wheelchair 900miles and be weak!

This is me 9 months after I decided a change was needed. Still overweight but much happier.

   Another reason for me attempting LEJOG is just simply that I love Great Britain and I want to see as much of it as possible!

Planning this epic challenge is going to take lots of organising and I am looking for people to help with that, I already have a small team on board but if you can help out with admin please get in touch ASAP using this email address Ant400mh@Hotmail.co.uk . There is a lot of admin to do from now until the start, if you can donate one afternoon's worth of work between now and August or a couple of hours a week between now and August it will be massively appreciated.


Please visit the 'Pledge Help for LEJOG' page to see the other help I need and for a list of equipment I need to source. This page will evolve soon to include a 'rota' for people to see which days during the challenge I will be closest to where you live and what help I need everyday of the challenge.

We also have a 'Meet the Team' page on it's way and each and every person that helps will get a mention there. Companies that want to  sponsor the challenge or offer help in anyway will get coverage and a link to their company website on the 'Sponsors' page which will be launched soon.

Please keep checking back for all the latest news on my training and preparation for my challenge. Please spread the word too, the more people that know about the challenge the bigger the success it will be!

Thanks
Ant

Let's do this!!

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!

London Marathon Build Up 2015

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

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

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

Lisbon Half Marathon Day 3 and Race Day 2015

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

Lisbon Half Marathon Day 2, 2015

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

Lisbon Half Marathon 2015 day 1

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

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