Olympics Cycle Time Trial: the Gamesmaker's view

This was the only shift I had that was not in central London, I was not looking forward to the drive to Esher, the 40 mile stretch of the M25 Car Park, or the queues to get through the road closure.
With a 9am start time, I decided to try and miss the majority of the traffic and leave at 5:30am, hopefully getting me there by around 7:30-8am. Nope, it didn't quite work out as I had hoped, and I still got stuck in nose to tail stationery traffic at around the M4 / Heathrow exit.

Monday Night Sport: BBC radio Northampton interview

Monday Night Sport: BBC radio Northampton with Geoff Doyle and Laura Cook

I was invited to the studios in Northampton to be on the show, all Olympic theme, due to the fact that I am a Games Maker, and because I recently found out that I got onto the GB team for the world championships for a fourth consecutive year.

If anyone says that men cannot multi task, then they should visit a studio and see what a radio show presenter has to contend with.

Olympic Road Race; the Gamesmaker's view

Two long days ahead - with very early starts but who's complaining, this is the Olympics!!!

With great excitement I donned my uniform I set out from my friends house to Uxbridge tube station to travel to my first Olympics shift on Saturday 27th July. Dawn was just breaking, and from a house just down the road out came another gamesmaker, well, who else would be about at 4:30am on a saturday?! Londoners dot talk to strangers though, right? Wrong! Rob and I had a great chat on the way to the station, he was heading to Lords for the archery, lucky enough to be working on the Olympics all of week 1, And the proud owner of stadium tickets for week 2!

Blood sweat and gears: the day I almost quit

It's been a hard year, I suppose you have guessed that already. In fact, it was only today, when a friend congratulated me on gaining a spot on the GB team for my fourth world championships that she also reminded me how well I had done, considering I lost a whole season to the head injury last year.

Bristol Harbourside Sprint Triathlon: last world qualifier

Pre race:

It wasn’t the easiest of pre race preparation, with my husband being taken into hospital 48 hours before race day. He insisted I should travel down to Bristol and race as planned, however.

Deva Triathlon - First Olympic Distance in 4 years!

The first Olympic distance triathlon in almost four years, and it was fair to say I was feeling a little apprehensive. Why did I do it? Why not :)

The main goal for this race was to see if I could hold the new run form I have been practicing when fatigued. 

Collecting the Olympic Gamesmaker Uniform

I was dead excited about this, purely because I will have the kit that will be all over the TV in just a few weeks, when I join history in the making as part of a 70,000 strong volunteer team that will help make the Olympics happen.

Finding the positives in the negatives.

Another go at the same 10 mile time trial As a few weeks ago, however this one not quite to plan.

 

 

Am I worried? No. Here's why.

The art of the longer ride?

I'm very luck to live in a place like I do. 5 minutes of cycling in any direction of my house and I am in the countryside, yet ten minutes down the road I have a high speed rail link to London.


As with everything, we get wrapped up in our daily life, training, racing, and forget to look up and what we have around us. Today, I did a 35 mile ride round the country lanes of my local area, and once again rediscovered the reason why I do what I do.

The first 10 mile Time Trial of 2012: N7/10

It seems I manage to leave at least 12 months between visits to the local cycle club weekly time trials, even though I quite like them! Hmmm?! This one I was not looking forward to though, thunderstorms were forecast this evening, and I drove through an ALMIGHTY one to get home from work, plus, the cycle club web site was reporting that a guy was hit by a car while racing this course last week.

Emberton National Sprint Championships 2012

It would be fair to say I was a little nervous going into this race. I know that the standard and popularity of triathlon has exploded this year, and nothing less than an outstanding race would do, given the massive field expected here this weekend.

Race report: Eton World Qualifier no 1, 2012

Nervous apprehension I think would be a good way to describe my mood going into this race. Training had been going well, but this was not reflected really in the Eilat race times, as I suffered majorly from dehydration which really affected my run.

The Perishing Waters of Box End

I often wonder why I do what I do. Why was I up at 6am today, why was I even considering a dip in a lake when my car thermometer was telling me it was 4 degrees outside! Why are we considering this an improvement on the weather lately (today being dry and still and cold, rather than windy, rainy and cold!) This is May, isn’t it? Well, I thought it was!