The month of May was coming to a close meaning only one thing ….. my big day on The Mall. The 20km Race Walking Olympic Games Test Event on Monday 30th May 2011. I have been training hard for this day now for 6 weeks.
The night before the race we were camping in Hamble, nr Southampton on a weekend motorhome rally. I slept well in the van despite waking up at 12:15am and realising that my two teenage sons had not returned meaning me going out in my pj’s to track them down by torch light. I didn’t need this …. sniff, sniff ….. my cold was still no better. In the morning I woke up at 8am and still was not feeling good. My nose was running constantly and I was getting through dozens of tissues. I had already purchased my train ticket to London so I decided that I was still going ahead with my travel and start the race, then basically see how I felt as to whether I drop out due to illness. On any normal occasion I would have probably cried off but I decided it would still be good to go and try out the Olympic Games course even if I only made 10km. At least I could still say that I had raced on the course.
I stuck to my travel plan which I had finalised the evening before. The only deviation was that when I arrived at London Waterloo I caught the underground to Green Park …. I did intend to walk but when I exited Waterloo station I walked up the road and decided that I didn’t have a clue on even which direction to head, so I returned to the station and headed straight for the safe option … the underground.
When arriving at Green Park I had a short scroll down to the registration area where I met up with my friends from Steyning; Joan, Jo and Trevor. We sat posing by the ‘Elite Athletes Sign’ and passed the time by chatting with fellow athletes.
At approximately 3pm we were allowed in the tent to collect our numbers. We then labelled up ‘special drinks’ to go on the feed station … mine was Tesco's Orange Isotonic drink. Everything seemed quite unorganised but I guess this is why it is a practise event. At 3:30pm we were called back to the tent to collect our race chip which had to be secured on to our shoe laces and scanned before we could leave. This then gave us a chance for a quick warm-up on The Mall before being called back to the tent and walked over in mass to the start line. The ‘very Elite’ athletes were called up on to the line and introduced to the watching crowd over the sound system.
The gun went and I set off leisurely with Jo, hanging at the back of the pack of approximately 50 walkers. We had ten 2km laps to race. My aim for each lap time was 11:20 which equates to 1hr 53mins 30secs. We got to the first turn at 1km then I started to feel my left hamstring cramping. This was not a good sign so early on in the race. It made me a little nervous but I kept relaxed and kept going. For the next lap again it kept cramping and Jo was complaining about her knee hurting. At about 3.5km we walked past her husband (coach) and told him of our problems. At 4k I started to pull away from Jo and slowly I started to feel better. By 5k I was very relaxed with all my main rivals behind me and my hamstring started to feel better. This was very strange …. in fact something that I have never experienced in my 30 years as a competitive walker/runner. I’m not sure if it was brought on by being under the weather with a cold, or the other possibility is that I had not warmed up enough and that it took 5km to get my muscles going.
After my set back I forgot all about my leg problem and started to enjoy the event. Some friends from Brighton appeared by Buckingham Palace and spurred me on with their huge yells (thanks Cathy & Tom, Fiona & Mike, and Caroline & Mark). Other faces from the past appeared too; Chris Maddocks (my old coach and Olympian), Mike Smith a fellow member of the Junior/Senior walking team in the late 80’s. After about 4 laps the weather turned and it started to drizzle. I was wearing my sunglasses but had to remove these after about 6 laps as I was finding it hard to see where I was going!
Each lap I kept check of my pace and was proofing to be going quicker than I had hoped, remaining consistent and feeling strong. It was only at the end of 8 laps, when I made a mental calculation, did I realise that if I kept my pace going I would finish in 1hr 50mins(ish) – much faster than I had thought possible. At this point I overtook a man that I had raced and just beaten earlier in the year and started to chase down the Hungarian lady who had been ahead of me for the whole event.
With one lap to go I looked at the clock and knew that to break 1hr 50mins I had to find a higher gear, but it wasn’t there. I tried so hard for the whole 2km, but with approx 200m to go my eyes focused on the finishing clock and I just knew that the line was too far to make in under 1hr 50mins. The Hungarian girl (Andrea) had taken off and finished in 1hr 49mins 46sec, and I crossed in 1hr 50mins 24secs. I didn’t collapse at the line but walked on feeling a bit weary, but very content and happy with my performance.
My lap times for the whole race were 11:10, 11:10, 21:50 (10:55, 10:55), 11:02, 10:57, 11:00, 11:02, 11:04, 11:09. I did even splits of 55:12 for each 10k which again must be a first.
Whilst changing in the tent I talked to Andrea, the Hungarian girl. She was only 31 years old and had a best time of 1hr 40mins. Another lady Cathy was the oldest lady in the race but she had to stop after 9 laps as she hadn’t made the cut off time of 1hr 50mins at 18km. After saying my goodbyes I was just heading off back to the train when I realised that the presentation was happening. When it came to the ladies UK medals Johanna Jackson (Commonwealth Games champ and race winner in 1hr 31min) got the gold and I got silver. When they called my name I had to quickly jump over two lots of road barriers and run over to the rostrum … but my legs where still working and I was feeling surprisingly fresh. It’s amazing how much better you feel after a good race when your muscles haven’t crashed out.
I got the 7:09pm train from Waterloo back to Hamble. I took the short 10 minute walk back to the campsite, saw the teenagers then was invited over to have a drink with my friends Allan, Dorothy and Viv. Only two cans of Amstel though – but enough for a little celebration. It was past midnight and I was feeling ill and very tired so needed my sleep. Unfortunately …. The shower had to wait until the morning!! It’s lucky that I’m single … the teenagers and cat didn’t seem to notice the sweaty smell
!!
Heading for The Mall (May)
