Wednesday 17th June
We made it!! Thank you for all your emails, texts and donations, to help me on my way.
We cycled from Lands end to John o'Groates in 9 days, starting everyday with a school assembly. It was 860 miles in about 59 hours, with 40,000 ft of climbing. There were five of us and we were joined by some guest riders for a few of the legs. We all bonded very well, with everyone being quite different, but all supporting each other.
Sarah (Ayton) had organised a school, mainly primary, in each of the places we stayed over night. Pippa (Wilson) was with us for some days so the kids morning assembly was taken by the three blondes in a make shift boat. We talked about having a dream, winning and the fun of success, let every kid touch a medal and then they formed two lines which we cycled through on our way to our next destination. Sarah gave us a count down and then we had a huge cheer from the kids. A very uplifting and positive way to start every day.
I am not sure how I thought I would be up to writing a blog every night as most days we were late arriving to our hotels and it was straight for a shower, food and then bed. Even if I did have the energy most areas had no mobile phone service and none had internet!
We cycled through some stunning countryside and some awful places, after our hail storm the day before we kicked off we stupidly thought the weather couldn't get any worse. Day one and we started in rain and a head wind, in fact, only one day did we have the prevailing South Westerly we were hoping for. Whilst the countryside always changed it did become a bit monotonous so I broke the time up in various ways to keep on going, either into 15 mile/1 hour chunks, if I was struggling a lap of Richmond Park (6 miles) or for the longer days a lap of the Isle of Wight (60 miles) or two laps for the last day!! As the days progressed we religiously stopped every hour for a five minute stretch, re fuel etc etc!
The best parts of the days were our lunch stops. Our support team (Sarah and Adam) made a rod for their own backs by producing a great feast on the first day and then out did themselves as the days went on. It wasn't just the food they produced that was rated but also the location of the stop that they chose. Key points being, proximity to our route whilst being away from the noise, a good view, a nice grass bank for us to picnic on and most importantly quiet enough for the dogs (Derek and Ringo) to be off the leads and playing around safely. The food highlights were aplenty perhaps surpassed by the puddings which included custard and bananas, rice pudding and the on last day pancakes!!
Our first two days were billed as the hardest, I don't think they were. They were long and the A30 a bit boring, there were some great downhills though and I got my top speed of the trip, 45.5 m/hr. When we crossed into Wales on Day 3 the road and the countryside was brilliant and we had brilliant sunshine. Unfortunately after that Shrewsbury up to Carlisle taking in Preston was grim in terms of roads, traffic and rain. It all changed on day 6 with sunshine, little wind and lovely countryside. Our support crew chose the best location of the trip for lunch, next to a river, which was freezing but it was decided it would be good for our legs so a swim was necessary, before the BBQ Steak sandwich! The 7th day we referred to as our rest day, 60 miles (still a lap of the Isle of Wight!) and we went straight through, giving the support team a day off! (I think it might of had something to do with the fact the Lions were playing in the afternoon and we had to have finished for the day by kick off!) The last two days were stunning in the Scottish Highlands. The snow we saw on the hills indicates how cold it was at times and the full on hale storm was fairly unpleasant!
Our last day was almost the hardest, the longest in terms of mileage, 120, and one of the bigger climbing days 5,500 ft. It was made easier by the Support Team with a morning stop, another cracking lunch and then afternoon tea with 20 miles to go. We had a 13% bendy decline which was wicked only to be followed by a 13% incline a mirror image of the down hill. I was disappointed not to get a better top speed but I had such a speed wobble I wondered how on earth I stayed on, Simon behind me was very surprised I managed it. The view was stunning, Hugo seemed to think it wouldn't have been ruined by a viaduct!!! There was almost no life with 10 miles to go and no trees at all but the view was stunning, we all stopped at one point to take it in and turn round to see the rolling hills for as far as you could see. For the first time in the trip we all cycled on our own, just taking it all in and then with a couple of miles to go we regrouped, and cycled into John o'Groats all in a line.
We had a sweepstake for our arrival time, Sarah got it spot on, 8.30pm, still a few hours until sunset, Unfortunately too late for the sign to be up though! They had the Champagne ready and Jason the hand cyclist had driven up to see us arrive. He started with us but unfortunately pulled out on day three, he's hoping to attempt it again but maybe not in 9 days! I expect Sarah will also win the sweepstakes about when her baby is due the 27th June her date and bet. Adam was very pleased not to have needed his midwifery skills and just to be sure drove the four of us home as fast as possible to relieve himself of the responsibility!
Wednesday 3rd June
Had a great night last night at the Glamour Awards. The Gold Medallists from Beijing were nominated for the Sports Woman of the Year Award, and we won. It was a scary moment on the stage accepting the award following a stream of comedians who had the audience in stitches. I got to speak to a lot of very cool people, and meeting Kyle, Jenson Button and Michael Macintyre were definitely the highlights.
Wednesday 27th May 2009
It didn't look that promising yesterday morning with low cloud and rain but after a couple of hours waiting and a very small bit of tuition on what to expect off we went.
There were 20 jumpers and 5 per plane, the lesson showed us what to do and got me thinking. I have to say I hadn't really engaged my brain in what I had committed to doing, I felt that was an easier way to deal with it. However when our instructor said, don't worry if we hit our heads on leaving the plane and he gets knocked out the parachute has a clever device to track our descent and if we get too close to the ground without deploying, our parachute automatically deploys the emergency one..........unconscious.....now I was thinking about it!
So all kitted up and lessons learnt it was into the plane and off we go. I was last into the plane as we were due to be first out, all very well but it meant sitting next to a plastic roller door which wasn't shut very securely, so very drafty! I have never taken off on a grass runway and with the plane bouncing around and full of people all facing backwards between each others legs, in other circumstances you might be playing a rowing drinking game!! I am sure I looked it but I wasn't nervous, more keen to get back on to the ground without breaking my ankle!
Suddenly the door was opened and I found myself suspended outside the door. Billy who I was attached to (he, who gave the briefing, so was expecting me to head butt him!) was perched on the edge of the plane and I was just hanging there. I didn't look down! but suddenly at a great rate of knots we were falling. The initial feeling is completely horrendous, you are falling at about 120 miles an hour, 13,000ft in the air, the ground looks a very long way away and your stomach isn't quite sure and it just keeps going!
At 5,000ft the parachute was opened and you shoot back up, the camera man was next to us at that point, he carried on falling, the distance that opened up between us was freaky. After the initial feeling of being yanked back up, it all sort of calms down (a bit). You can speak to each other now and Billy flew the kite towards the landing point. He said 'you might find the next bit a bit tickley' (tickley sounded nice quite frankly!) It however proved to be an interesting description and not one I would use, he twirled us around fast under canvas showing me how quickly we went when the kite was facing downwind (I believed him I didn't really need the demo!) He then let me try and fly the kite and do more twirls, which was actually quite cool. Then I had to practice my landing position, I could see all the faces looking up to see who was first down.
Luckily my Red Devil was the tallest one, so even if I completely got it wrong on landing it would be very hard for me to have my legs touching before his! Falling back into his lap on landing was a weird sensation but to be honest we were back on grass and that was the most important thing! Billy was the only one who managed to land in the landing area the other four all ended up in the field of long grass, something to be grateful for!
My legs were like jelly and poor stomach was not happy but I had done it! The others were all pontificating about how it was the best thing they had ever done, I am not so sure, maybe when the awful sensations subside I will look back on it as a good experience!
At 23.00 hours last night with my stomach still in knots I was thinking it might be a long while for this to be the case!
22nd September
Everyone talks about the public pride at the performance of Team GB in Beijing and it sort of seems a difficult thing to quantify. Last week Pippa and I went to The Little Britain Challenge sailing regatta (for the construction industry) to give out the prizes. We were welcomed on to the stage to a standing ovation of 2500 people. That felt amazing and the warmth of feeling generated was great. I eclipsed the numbers in a big way yesterday. Chelsea fans in the team were invited to watch the Man U match and then were announced to the crowd at half time to walk around the pitch. A standing ovation of 42500 thousand people was a different feeling altogether! There were definitely some of the Manchester united fan cheering for Mark Foster after his first night of strictly come dancing, but seeing as we were announced as Chelsea Fans we were just grateful not to be booed!!
18th August
17th August
Yesterday was incredibly light and yet again our race officer made the right call.
A far more promising day dawned today. There was a light splattering of rain on my walk back from breakfast, and it looks windy. With wind against tide at the moment it looks pretty rough out there with plenty of white horses. Let hope the wind is still here by 1 o’clock. It will certainly make for a different race and tactically we will have to have a different approach to yesterdays strategy.
Either way bring it on!!
15th August
It’s all on tomorrow!!
Its medal race time and its all on for the Gold. It’s a great position to be in, who beats who between us and the Dutch.
We had a tough day today, a lot of waiting around and then finally a race. We struggled a bit for speed which was a shame, however we sailed very well and go into tomorrow ready….
14th August
An uneventful day in the Yngling Girls world today!
We woke to no wind and a touch of rain, it stayed much the same for the duration. We made the punchy call not to launch the boat even though we weren’t postponed ashore and sat tight until the postponement flag went up (half an hour after we should of left the dock). Our day revolved around the container, with everybody on the schedule to be racing for the first time it was fairly busy. I managed to watch four episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on my I phone, whilst games of cards were played, magazines read and general banter kept everyone entertained. Half way through the day Sarah got out her Jam sandwiches….Stevie Morrison suddenly saw the secret of our successes – apparently because we were fully ‘jammed up’ we are able to be jammy out on the course! (Stevie could of kept us laughing all day!!) He may well be onto something with the jam sandwiches (something Sarah and I only eat at important events) but here in particular because Pippa is making the bread every night!! One of the things you just can’t get hold of here in the supermarkets is bread, all the bread here is sweet. Pippa decided to bring her bread maker and we shipped out a lot of flour (something else impossible to come by) and she has been keeping the team in daily fresh bread for weeks!
I think because we have all be on such strict diets for months now food seems to be an important factor, when Goody pulled out a bag of snakes (long jelly sweets) the container morale hit a high (perhaps from the sugar boost!) Eddy the Chef has a secret bag and today was the first day he had allowed some of them out of the kitchen.
When Sparky came to report that the abandonment flags were due to be hoisted and we asked him for some daily news (he normally informs us on returning to shore how everyone’s day has been) he said he thought Team GBR had had a good day. We all felt we had a great day for overall results, all day inside with air conditioning, all entertained, all well fed and all well hydrated and ready for tomorrow.
13th August
Our first day of proper Qingdao conditions, light winds, high humidity, poor visibility and a bit of tide.
The day dawned with little wind, we weren’t held ashore so we towed out to the race course ready for a start. The hours tow was made more pleasant yet again by the use of our shelter. On reaching the course we did our usual tuning runs with the Dutch team to ‘check in’ with our speed, and then the wind almost disappeared. We had a long postponement, a couple of hours, during which we tried to stay out of the sun, whilst monitoring the wind and the tide. It’s a hard time, standing by to stand by, being ready to go at the slightest increase in wind yet not wasting unnecessary energy. However the wind did slowly come in, we had almost a start and then a bit more of a delay until finally we went. Our race officers seems impeccably sensible and whilst our race was light it was still a good and fair race. We are sailing with neaps (very weak tides) at the moment and today’s race was during the change so the tide didn’t have a great impact on our tactics. We started well, there was a recall and we questioned if we might have been over, Pippa was certain we weren’t, we backed her call. We sailed another conservative first beat, rounding the top mark in 7th, a good first run and second beat had us 2nd at the top mark for the second time, which we held on to until the finish. The wind had slowly decreased during the race and so we only had the one race, as usual it was then a race to the crane!!
It was Nicky D’s birthday and Eddy the Chef had made Carrot cake, so now it’s a piece of cake a cup of tea and some evening TV!!
12th August
One of our guiding principles in this campaign has been keeping every day the same, training each day as hard as we would if we were racing at the Olympics. You can build confidence by having routines so when it comes to the high pressure moments you automatically default to the training and the routines we have in place. One of the examples along the same lines I always gave after Athens was, we left the apartments in the morning and turned left to go training for the day, when the Olympics started everything stayed the same except we turned right to the Olympic Marina. I am sure the RYA didn’t take this into consideration when they were looking for our accommodation here in Qingdao but…….here we turned left out of the hotel to go to the training marina, and turn right out of the hotel to go to the Olympic Marina…..routines!!
(The Girls cruising in the village)
So on the morning of our rest day, we were all at breakfast at the same time, eating our porridge and peaches for me, blueberries for the girls. We took the same bus down to the Olympic marina and set about doing a through boat check which was carried out by the girls. A couple of replacements were needed – some cleats weren’t working perfectly and some rope needed replacing. I took the main sail to the measurement tent to apply the union flag to the sail. The Chinese have had a bit of a disaster with the sail stickers, an apparent cost saving measure, making them here has resulted in them not sticking to the sails! So some new ones have arrived today and we needed to put them on the sails. With our jobs completed it was out of the sun for the rest of the day.
On leaving the venue we bumped into Chris Owen – our spinnaker maker, he is out here, supporting us and ready to fix anything if required!! We took a quick visit to Jusco – the local supermarket/department store for a short visit to Starbucks for the girls. In the middle of the building there appeared to be a mass of people, on getting closer they erupted into applause…..there was a bank of wide screen tv’s – showing the gymnastics!
It was back to the hotel for a spot of lunch (the usual salad) and a briefing on the tidal situation for our course tomorrow, now its an afternoon of relaxing, I have just had a massage with Sarah our masseur. We have the BBC Olympic channel feed in our rooms now, which is great. Its so nice to feel that there is so much going on around us!! At the moment I am torn between the Laser racing on Chinese TV (Penny has just finished second in her first race) the diving (British females synrco also in Chinese) the Badminton on BBC or even for something completely different, Radio 2 on the internet!!! (I have finished the sixth series of 24 so no more Jack Bauer for me!!) Its tough………..
11th August
Day three complete and all is on schedule! Today we could have been in Palma, the weather was fantastic. When we arrived at the race course we had about 15 knots with a choppy swell. The wind gradually decreased throughout the day, with the first race in about 8/9 knots and the second 6/7 knots. The tide was less of a factor, with a slow increase during the day.
Racing wise we continued with our conservative strategy, but attacked the starts a bit more, giving us better options on the first beats. The first beat on the first race didn’t really go our way, but we sailed a great second beat taking us through the fleet to finish fourth. The second race worked out a bit better with a second place finish.
Tomorrow is a rest day for us so a good opportunity to go over the boat and check everything is ok!
10th August
Day two and we could of been in Miami. Perfect conditions greeted us out on Course E. The hours tow out to the course area was made far more pleasant as we were shielded from the sun with a fantastic shelter made for us by Chris Owen – our Spinnaker maker. On arriving we had a good 6/7 knots and sunshine. The tide remained fairly light with the change happening during our racing, so not greatly affecting our tactics today.
We continued with our conservative tactics, safe starts and positionally strong against the fleet. Our speed was again good, but with about 7 knots the fleet is very much the same speed up wind and most of our gains were made downwind.
We finished the day with a four and a seven, happy with the areas we can improve on, ready for tomorrow!!
9th August
I am not sure anyone would have been confident that we would get two races in on the first day, however we did.
We had perfect Qingdao conditions today, about 5 knots, a strong tide with sunshine. Our day started much the same as normal, we did our urine samples, weighed in and had breakfast – everyday the same, porridge and peaches. The only difference was on arriving at the venue we had to officially weigh in. We were there early, waiting at the door. Today we were on the closest course in to the marina, so we had a bit of hanging around to do after rigging before going afloat.
With a very short postponement at the starting area, we were ready for the racing to begin.
Our first start was average, our approach to the day was very much, safe and conservative. Our first beat perhaps in hindsight not so conservative, had us last around the first mark. With the tide against us downwind the fleet all bunched up and a good down wind leg had us back in the race, a solid beat followed by another good run and we were 3rd at the finish. It was nice to have good down wind speed, especially as the tide made it very much a down wind race, our beats were less than 10 minutes the runs 30 minutes!!
The second race got underway very swiftly, the breeze increased slightly and we were all sitting on the side, making the runs not quite so slow, a good but conservative start saw us in the leading pack all the way round.
It great to be able to go to bed not looking for anything special, knowing we just have to sail well to finish in the counting positions.
8th August
The opening ceremony has started, and its hours until our first race. The journey Sarah and I started four years ago is nearing a close and we feel ready to go out tomorrow and sail well. We had our final training session on the water this morning, we had six knots and clear blue sky – you could almost have mistaken Qingdao for Miami. It was great to be on the water and not ashore thinking about things. We accomplished another great session, learning some more valuable lessons.
We had our own opening ceremony here at the hotel, with the whole team – minus Sas, Christina and Morgan who are at the real thing in Beijing. A (quick) sit down dinner in our opening ceremony uniform with a couple of TV’s with the BBC showing the opening ceremony. I have now retired to my room and am missing the English commentary. I imagine the opening ceremony will continue on in the spectacular manner it started, but I will soon be turning it off and getting ready for bed as if it’s just a normal day, and tomorrow is just a normal day.
It’s great to be able to go to sleep with complete confidence in our programme which has got us to this point, with confidence in our results, with confidence in our equipment – all proven at major events and most importantly confidence in each other’s ability and our ability to work as a team.
The forecast for tomorrow is much the same as today so fingers crossed we get some racing in!!
With my two 'Buddies' - we have a buddy system matching sailors with support staff - I have two Leslie (our police man) and Nathan (our Nutritionist)
5th August
Pippa and I are just on a way back to Qingdao. Its 4 days to go until race day one. The time spent here has been good, as a four it has been good to relax with each other and we all feel like we are ready. We are travelling with the whole sailing team. Sarah and Paul left yesterday and are currently in the venue getting our Yngling ready for measurement. Measurement is a half day affair where all our equipment is measured and scrutinised.
3rd August
Our hotel here in Shanghai is apparently where the golfers stay when they are in Shanghai for the open. It is has been relatively empty during the week days, the weekend was heaving. These two pictures show the difference in views from the window, you look left and see the most massive satellite dish in existence, look right and see the pool with a lake in front. On the lake are two Chinese men – they appear to be fishing for weed…..a slightly different variety to the Qingdao delicacy.
1st August
We are at our holding camp in Shanghai. The BOA have organised a holding camp in Macau for the whole of the British Team, but it was decided that for us to get there from Qingdao was a bit too much travelling. As a result we have been in Shanghai for a couple of days. The Beijing Olympic Organising Authority have provided security for us whilst we are here, we have a whole floor sectioned off for us with a separate lift and entrance, perhaps the 30 police are a little overkill. It does however make me feel like we are in an episode of 24. I have been saving up the TV series 1-6 to watch on DVD’s whilst in China. So far we have been here for 6 weeks and I am nearly through the lot!! The hotel the BOA has provided for us is amazing. It’s a lot hotter here than Qingdao and most of our activities have involved air conditioning. It’s been a good opportunity for us to all relax, rest and prepare both mentally and physically for the next few weeks.
31st July
A few days ago the Olympic torch came through Qingdao. Sarah and I were on our way to the gym on our bikes. We left the hotel and tried to cycle down the hill only to be stopped by road blocks. The bottom of the road was jammed with people, we thought we had better go and see what was going on. There were people as far as you could see on both sides of the road, there were hundreds of flags and the chanting was too loud to even be drowned out by the helicopter overhead. The excitement was palpable and quiet unbelievable. We had timed our exit of the hotel perfectly and within minutes the torch was coming towards us. We were at a change of runners spot, so when it got to us it stayed there a while whilst the crowd went mad and then moved on down the road. I remember watching the torch go past in Sydney days before the Games started. I was in Manley and it came past the beach and then went on a ferry across the harbour. I remember being excited to see it and there being a few people there watching it with me, it was nothing like what I witnessed here. The Chinese are so excited about the Games coming to China it’s almost impossible to describe their levels of enthusiasm!!
30th July
Our last training camp in Qingdao was fantastic although we didn’t really experience much ‘normal’ weather. We had some of the best Yngling sailing ever, a nearby Typhoon was producing the biggest waves we have ever sailed in and the downwind surfing was fantastic!
We also had some really good testing weather which allowed us the perfect conditions for finalising our Games equipment. It was a great position to be able to sail the last few days with the kit we will race with. Picking our games kit was always going to be a difficult decision. We took to china one of our new boats and our older boat. Between the two boats they have each won major championships including the Worlds, Europeans and the Test event here. We are happy sailing both boats and deciding a favourite was always going to be hard. We have spent a lot of our training in China testing the two boats against each other. The day we made our decisions not just in terms of boats and masts but also sails was a good day for our campaign. There was a real sense of relief between us and sailing with the chosen kit for a while now has given us a real sense of confidence.
Monday 29th July
Obviously we have been preparing for this occasion for the last four years, but its little things that suddenly make it feel like the Olympics are just round the corner. I am not sure how to compare China to Athens with a week to go. My recollection is that Athens still had a fair amount still to be done, yet it was all ready or ready enough when the Games started. China is an altogether a different proposition. The Olympic venue and village appears to be finished and with the coach loads of competitors arriving to move in, I imagine its state of the art. China itself has a feeling that it will never actually be ready, not because everything isn’t good enough but because there appears to be a constant programme of self improvement going on combined with a bit of disorganisation. Daily you see work being finished and then the following day something else being done. Last week the pavement I run along was finished with nicely coloured sections in the slabs, the other day they were laying a pipe under the slabs and so they were all lifted and then put back. A large screen was installed on one corner for adverts, only to be relocated about 5 meters as it was in fact blocking the view if you were trying to turn the corner, leaving the hole for a couple of weeks. The flower beds are being planted in a way that’s hard to describe. Lorry’s rammed full of plastic boxes with flowers planted in them arrive, about 15 people are there replanting an area the size of an average front garden and then they move on down the road. The shear number of people constantly working is frightening. They appear to have removed the weed that was plaguing the water, a feet that is quite incredible.
The sailing course areas have over the last few days been closed and the water has been searched. Its hard to know what they are doing but each course area has been subjected to the patrolling Navy ships and a contraption which you can just about see through the fog that looks like an oil rig. Sailing over the last couple of days has been eerily quiet. The training venue we have been sailing from has been getting quieter as containers are lifted out and put into a holding area to go into the venue. As a result most of the sailors have put their boats inside the containers and taken the opportunity to go home. Apart from us there has only been Ben and his British training partners, Iain and Andy and their training partners, and a couple of foreign Star sailors. With the Sailing venue and Olympic Village opening now I imagine it will all suddenly spring back into life. We went down to get our accreditation validated, the efficiency was impressive but we decided against standing in the huge queues to get inside as the Dutch and French Teams had just arrived and all their luggage was going through the x-ray machines.
