Build up

I arrived in Boston on the 14^th of April. I flew via London and missed the lock down on the UK airspace by a few hours. Somewhere somebody was looking after me!

My sponsor in Boston, Spaulding rehab, had set up a few appearances for me. It was a busy few day’s but it kept my mind busy while I worked though the jet lag. You can catch some of the highlights in this clips: http://wbztv.com/video/?id=88549@wbz.dayport.com

By Friday things slowed down a bit. On Saturday morning we had the BAA champions’ breakfast. This is a traditional event where the top dogs are given their bib numbers. To introduce me to the audience the BAA had prepared a video highlighting my 8 victories. The video took me down memory lane and I become quite emotional and few tears welled up. It’s been so long and so much had changed in my life since that first victory.

Krige arrived on Saturday afternoon and it was great to hang out with an old friend again. We also shared a room. We made our way to the start of the race on Sunday morning to go check out the new setup at the start. They decided to change the controlled start and made it shorter. Things were looking good for an early break for me!

For the rest of Sunday we hung low and had an early dinner of pasta. Later that evening we worked on our chairs making sure everything was ready.

Race Day

The alarm went off at 05:15. Everything was ready and we quickly got dressed. We headed down stairs for breakfast. I had some coffee, cereal and yogurt. That would have to do. At 06:00 we got on the bus and headed out to Hopkinton for the start.

We arrived at 07:45 and headed to a school gym where we got ready. I got in my chair at 08:30 and warmed up in the streets nearby. I met a guy from South Africa who was running so I did a quick photo with him. We lined up in the starting grid at 09:00. At 09:17 the gun went off.

They controlled us for a few seconds and then they let us go. I gave it everything I had and got away clean. At 5k I had a lead of 35 seconds – not enough. They could see me. A pack had formed and they got the train going. I was working as hard as I could without blowing up but they were moving faster.

At 20k just before the halve way mark they got me. I always wondered what would happen if somebody caught up to me. This was it, the moment of truth.

Two Spanish, two Japanese and two South Africans. I fell back and focused on recovering. They had also worked very hard and they were hurting two. For the next 10k not much happened.

With 30k down there was a big downhill coming. Krige spoke to me and we agreed it was a good point for an attack. I had to pull us down the hill and he would do the pace up the hill. I went for it and it worked like a charm but then we ran into so trouble at the bottom of the downhill. The lead cops and lead car got messed up and they slowed down. We had to slam on our brakes or run into them. So there went our move. We turned the corner and we headed into the hills. The first attack came from Kota up the first hill. One of the Spanish got spit out the back of the pack. He was gone. I hung in. Through the flats and downhill between the hills Soejima attacked. Then we got to the dreaded Heartbreak hill. First Kota attacked, but it’s a long hill, then Soejima attacked but he was hurting, he had done too much in the race leading up to this moment. The Krige attacked – it was a big one. The other Spanish was off the back. Then I was off the back. We came to the top and Krige was gone. I could only see Soejima in front of me. Kota was way ahead in the distance. With 7k to go I was 4^th – 30 seconds away from the leader.

I put my head down and sprinted as hard as I could. I caught Soejima. I could see Kota in front of me. He was moving. Again I sprinted. I got him but I lined it up and blew past him – I did not want him to jump in behind me and catch a free ride to the finish.

I could see Krige in front of me. He was hurting. I put my head down and went as hard as I could. With 2k to go I got him. We were both hurting but we could not rest. Kota was coming fast. We kept the pace high. We shook hands on a great race – it was going down to the wire.

Krige was leading the race as we turned the corner for the final straight of 800m. With 450m to go I went around him and started my sprint. The crowd was going crazy. Getting closer to the line I picked up the speed.

I crossed the line winning by 3 seconds. It was the closest winning margin in the history of the race in the wheelchair division. It was the hardest race of my life – ever.

Catch those final moments here:

http://wbztv.com/services/popoff.aspx?categoryId=37&videoId=88607@wbz.dayport.com&videoPlayStatus=true&videoStoryIds=88607@wbz.dayport.com,

88609@wbz.dayport.com,88608@wbz.dayport.com&videoTime=3.265&stationName=WBZ&