Well, another exciting day! I turned up half an hour later than planned at John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds, after a coffee detour, to find the place buzzing! All available disabled parking bays full and it wasn't the bowls centre taking up all the spaces, but elite athletes doing wheelchair race training with Tanni Grey Thompson.
If, like me, Dame Tanni was the first disabled athlete you had ever heard of, have watched winning medals for GB in countless Paralympics and followed avidly throughout her career, you'll know what a pleasure it was to talk to her. In fact, I questioned her mercilessly about her first ever, and definitely last, Paratriathlon, which I had read about in a magazine last year. To say that she is pretty hopeless in the water-by her own admission-is apparent by the tale of the triathlon ordeal, where she thought she might actually drown. It makes my fears about competition pale into insignificance, until she told me about someone who ended up in the lake...strapped to his bike.
Paul Mosely, who runs the wheelchair racing clinics, put a brand new pair of wheels on my chair so I am eager to try them out tomorrow. I did consistent 3:08mins for 400m on Thursday at the track and 1000m in 5:10mins on the last set, so am hopeful of a time of 25.5mins for 5km if I can keep to that pace. And I've still got ten weeks of training...
No comments:
Post a Comment