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Yesterday I competed in my first 100m of the season. It was also the first time I competed at BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sports), I'm in my third and final year at uni so I thought I might as well do it! Only three of us were representing Kingston university, but I thought that was quite sweet, it made me even more determined to get some points! A huge congratulations to Anastasia Davis who got a bronze medal in the 100m Hurdles (Kingston is all about quality not quantity!). I was the only T64 competing in the Women's ambulant 100m, there were a total of six different disability categories being represented* so the medals would be decided by Raza points. This calculation decides which athletes get medals, factoring in different levels of impairment - meaning that the first person to get to the finish line might not necessarily get a gold medal. Going into this competition I really wanted to be first across the line and to win on Raza points! (I know, I'm getting greedy).
I had to get up at 6:30am in order to arrive at Bedford on time, I got an uber to the station, then a train, then the tube, then another train. I managed to hitch a lift to the stadium in a taxi with some other athletes and a photographer, that was the nicest part of the journey! There is an indoor warmup area in Bedford which gets very cramped when hundreds of athletes are in there, and the floor is very hard (much harder than even a mondo track surface) so the impact is not exactly pleasant for the my poor little bone stressed/arthritic foot in there! My coach was there - It's always nice to have someone tell you when to warm up, what to do in your warm up and when go to the call room - it takes some of the stress out of the competition environment (not that it was a particularly stressful experience for me, but I'm not going to turn it down!). Other ways to keep calm (for me) is to draw, so I've posted some of my favourites in this post.
I needed a wee before the race started and wished I'd gone to the loo beforehand, but I just tried to remember that study that says you make better decisions when you need a wee. I imagine that study was not conducted on people doing sprints... I got a pretty bad start, this is the part of the race I'm usually pretty good at. I didn't panic though, I probably would have a few years ago (CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!). Once I'd overtaken all the people who'd gotten better starts than me (nearly everyone) I had to concentrate on getting to the line without falling over! I have a new blade which I've not quite mastered over longer distances yet, so it was a case of clinging onto some semblance of balance for as long as I could. I made it to the line feeling pretty impressed with myself that I a) Hadn't fallen over and b) Kept a lead on most people, though I couldn't tell if I'd crossed the line first or second... I'd have to wait and see.
My name was called on the tannoy informing me I had medalled. When I got over to the podium I saw the results list and discovered I had crossed the line first (by 0.02 seconds) and I'd won on Raza points! I don't think this combination of things had ever happened before so I was very pleased!
My time was 13.48 seconds, and although the run itself didn't feel particularly great (it was actually a bit scary), I'm really pleased with this a s a season opener, and when I get my start right, I reckon it'll be a lot faster!
*These were T35, T37, T44, T46, T63 and T64