Haven’t written a blog in AGES…would say I’ve been busy but I
haven’t :L Selections for JWOC have come out WOOP WOOP I got in :D
Okaay so there has been the British Sprint and Middle
championships…which was held in/near Loughborough. Excellent weekend…we had all
the JWOC squad (cept some slackers who had school/exams ;)) together to ‘bond’.
Saturday morning I managed to get a lift down to the event at a ridiculously
early time of 7 in the morning with the Maxwell family (VERY GRATEFULL!) saving
me from an even earlier start and train journey! So having got into the
assembly I sussed everything out before heading off to the start in my short
shorts…WEATHER WAS STUNNING!! There was a heat and a final in which I was
running with the W21E’s too so I knew I still had to run well to get into the
A-Final. I was starting in the same minute as Katie and Charlotte, who both
beat me back in…but
of course I decided I had the longest gaffle with the most climb etc :P managed
to get in the A-final but was one of the last qualifiers so had an earlier
final start time (which wasn’t announced until VERY LATE so was a bit rushed to
get ready but with my ‘pre-race preparation’ being awesome (aka non-existent) I
managed to cope :P)
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| SHORT SHORTS |
The race was great bants…there were LOADS of Loughborough
students out and about tanning, Frisbeeing, BBQing etc etc making it hard to
focus when they were shouting abuse…I was asked if I was winning at one point,
replied no which they all loved and began shouting motivational comments (probably
in pity that I was running round with a map trying to look cool :P) ALSO ran
into a tree in front of a different group…SO SMOOTH!!
Anywaaayy…had a pretty
decent race and came 7th (two minutes down on the pro’s: http://www.leioc.org.uk/results/2013/bsoc/finals/wopfa2.html
and 7 seconds off Charlotte Watson – the winner of the W20s) ALTHOUGH check out
the split times for the run-in…BOSSED everyone ;)
That evening I found out I had an incredible tan line (aka
wife-beater burn line L)..attraaaactive!
Also that evening there was a quick meeting and a pub meal with the rest of the
team :D Not too many strenuous meetings etc as we all were focused for the
British Middles the next day.
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Weather wasn’t as beaut on this day and when I arrived
I realised my preparation was crap…looked at the area and it looked
mingeeeennn! The start was in the assembly field which was so exciting and then
the course sent you straight into this rocky (VERY ROCKY) technical part…I was
SO sneaky though and worked out where my no.1 was in the start box (very proud
of myself)…still it didn’t help, had to walk as running in the first bit was
almost impossible whilst navigating perfectly!!) After the first part there was some RAPID
terrain which I was LOVING :D everything is soooo much more exciting when you can run fast! and then the run-in…UPHILL.
Complete Joke :( waaahhh finished 1st though so I was sooo happy…AND
even got asked to do an interview…FIRST EVER :O thought I would say something
stupid and retarded but I think it went okay!!
Hahaa anyway, it was a good day
and I was really happy when we set off back to the accommodation.
NOW then...it’s MY blog so I can say what I like but that
evening we were told the JWOC relay teams. After having been to Denmark and
JWOC last year running in relay with Charlotte and Florence I had naturally
come very comfortable with imagining the relay team as us three but during
Sunday evening we were told that this wasn’t going to be the case and Florence
wasn’t in the team. This was said to be because she was “subject to fitness”
after getting a stress fracture and not running in many selection races. She’d had
the fracture in her shin since February (although it wasn’t diagnosed until middle
of April!!) and was working through exercises and progressing, all be it, slowly
to running again. (Note she ran in Denmark, in the team which came 2nd
with the stress fracture…bloody impressive no?). I know Florence, if we told
her to run in the relay team, even if she wasn’t fit enough, she would do it or
absolutely kill herself trying. Nevertheless, Zoe's in the relay team instead :) she's perfectly capable of performing as well as any of us with plenty of experience
at JWOC so no hard feelings there at all, just being through a lot with
Florence has made us close and I knew how much the relay meant to her.
After this draamma it didn’t take long the group dynamics to
return back to normal and we finished the night with a couple more meetings (where
there was a special consideration of the Party and how awesome it’s going to be
;)) HAHA.
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| Having waaayy too much fun ;) |
Monday, the last day of the pre-jwoc camp we all packed up…fed
the ducks (we were staying by a canal :P) and left for some quality Relay
training, planned by Kris Jones. We completed 4x1km in which a relay scenario
was created and we all had to race, head to head/chasing people down to the
finish. It was a fun way to finish the weekend so thanks to Kris and the other
coaches and people that made it happen!
A great weekend with excellent training and exciting racing, It has definitely made us all excited for JWOC this year
:D
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