I also hoped that given the amount of training and hard work that would go into preparing for it, and the challenge itself, that people would find it worthy as a fundraising event for the Rays of Sunshine Childrens Charity.
I had been to a concert organised by the Rays of Sunshine for children with life limiting conditions and could see what joy they brought to those little people who so deserve it. I felt it was a particularly worthy cause to try and help as the charity co-ordinators really believe in what they do and they make a huge difference to the kids' lives.
I set about my training and looking into it to see what I thought I might be able to achieve in each event. I then had an idea of asking Olympic Heroes to set me their own targets for each event to help raise awareness. I was amazed and thrilled to get targets for all events and also for the whole thing from the greatest Decathlete of all time in my opinion, Daley Thompson.
Here are the targets:
100m - 12.80s - set by Jodie Williams. GB sprinter and World Junior Champion.
Long Jump - 5.00m - set by Greg Rutherford. GB Long Jumper and Olympian.
Shot Put - 13.00m - set by Kelly Sotherton. GB Heptathlete, now 400m, Olympic and World Bronze
High Jump - 1.60m - set by Steve Smith. GB Record holder and Olympic Bronze
400m - 62.00s - set by Katharine Merry. GB sprinter, now commentator and Olympic Bronze
110mH - 18.00s - set by Andy Turner. GB Hurdler and Euro/Commonwealth Champ, World Bronze
Discus - 32.00m - set by Louise Hazel. GB Heptathlete, Commonwealth Champion
Pole Vault - 2.80m - set by Holly Bleasdale. GB Pole Vaulter and BR record holder
Javelin - 57.00m - set by Goldie Sayers. GB Javelin Record holder and Olympian
1500m - 5:10.00 - set by Heather Fell. GB Modern Pentathlete - Olympic Silver
Total - 4500 pts - set by Daley Thompson. GB Decathlete - 2 x Olympic Champion, ex WR holder
So, after a few months of hard training and a few practice competitions....
....the time came to get myself to Oxford and get stuck in!
Day -1
The day before, I was feeling more and more excited and nervous about what I was about to do. I had been visualising each event in my head most nights before sleep to try and ensure that there were as few surprises as possible when it came to the real event. This can only go so far of course but I do believe it helped me to psychologically prepare for the 10 event ordeal spread over 2 days.
My wife prepared lots and lots of food and drinks for the journey there, the day itself and the journey home. Mostly sandwiches (lots of them), nuts, juice drinks, energy drinks, coffee, carrot cake, white chocolate. Trey Hardee, World Champion, said that eating and drinking plenty was the best advice he could give me. It was going to be an early start so it was time to get an early night and sleep as much as possible. Eeeeek!
Day 1
4.45 am - alarm clock went off signalling the start of a long and eventful day. Took a little longer than expected to get ready but set off at about 5.45am with my wife Tammy and our dog Bagel in tow. The journey was straight forward but took about 3 hours.
8.45am - Arrived at Horspath Stadium and saw people with Pole Vaults and javelins and looking rather energetic as they were jogging around and stretching. Gulp - this is it! Better go and register....
9am - The registration was simple and the officials were very friendly, in fact everyone I met over the two days was really friendly. At registration I discovered that there were 6 of us in my category, the 35-39 year olds.
So, first race starts at 10am - got time to have a little explore and then warm up.First though, the important job of putting the numbers on my vest:
100m - First Event
I was looking forward to getting my first event done and dusted and had done a fairly decent warm up. There were lots of thoughts running through my head though -
"What if I am miles behind?"
"What if I false start?"
"Why am I even doing this?!"
Anyway, we went to the start line and I got focused. When the starter called us to our marks and then set...the gun went and I got off to a great start, BUT it was fired twice for a false start by Steve in Lane 2. I was a little annoyed as i had managed to blast off as well as I could have hoped for! Oh well, try again...
This time we were off. I got up to speed but was behind Stuart (orange vest) this time for the first 30m. I managed to get ahead of him and try to hang onto Andrew's coat tails in the lane outside me but he managed to stay ahead until the end. My right hamstring started to hurt at about 60m into it. I didn't slow down, just kept going until the line. I knew it wasn't brilliant, but at least it was completed.
13.50s - into a 2.0m/s headwind. It was blustery alright - the heat before us had a 4.8m/s headwind!
I was miles off my target of 12.8s, but even with a wind behind it would have been tough to beat it I think.
13.50 - 413 points - 4th position
Long Jump - Second Event
Having had a small rest period, it was time to prepare for the long jump. For the run-up, I just picked a marker and hd a go to see where I was with my take off foot. It was about 2 feet over the board so next time I moved the starting point back 2 feet and it was about right. This is slightly less technical than the other guys with their tape measures or measuring 72 footsteps for example!
First jump - as I hit the board, my right hamstring and my right heel hurt a lot. The jump wasn't bad, 4.93m, but I hobbled out of the pit and couldn't believe how much my heel hurt. I asked Stuart Richards why it could be and he said as I planted my take-off foot I must have slammed down my heel. Ouch!
Second Jump - I started off the run-up from the other foot so that I could try a left leg take-off instead. I hit the board ok but it felt slightly awkward jumping off the left foot and I didn't land very well. 4.82m
Third Jump - went off the right foot again. The wind had died down a bit and a fellow competitor said he'd moved his marker forward to allow for the difference it would make to the run-up. I did the same and set off for the last jump. I got a good take off and flighted much better. As I extended my legs forward for the landing both hamstrings screamed out in pain. Even worse, I'd hit the plasticine and no jumped. Someone said it looked about 5.20m so I was a bit gutted but you can't afford to sit and think about what might have been. I learned very quickly that you have to focus on what is immediately in front of you - each attempt, each event.
4.93m - 398pts - 5th. Running Total - 811 pts - 4th
Shot Put - Third Event
Now. This is what I was looking forward to! Shot put - shouldn't hurt and I should do well. In the warm up, I did a standing throw and again my right hamstring screamed at me. What?! How am I ever going to finish this with the pain so bad so early on? I decided to just try and ignore the pain, rub some ibuprofen gel in and take a couple of ibuprofen tablets and just get on with it.
The first put was pretty good, 11.80m or so. Still way down on the 13m target but at least I had some good points in the bag. I could relax and give it as much power as possible on the next two. The second went a bit to the right of the sector and I'd not quite hit it right, about 11.50m or so. On the last one, I just thought "Come on, you've got to hit Kelly's target, give it your all". I hit it very nicely and it was straight down the middle, best throw of the competition. It felt good to win an event!
12.30m - 652 pts - 1st. Running Total - 1463 pts - 3rd position
High Jump - Fourth Event
I was pleased to have climbed into Bronze position after the Shot and wondered if i could try and stay close to Andrew over the next few events to be in with a shout on day 2. As we warmed up I could see he had a lot of spring and was going to do well so it was a case of just doing the best i could do.
I came in at an early height to get some confidence and practice. I think I failed the first attempt at the opening height - a little embarrassing but I knew I'd get it on the next one so got on with it and moved up a height. As it got to 1.39m I felt pretty good - better than in Exeter when I tried it before last month. Darren said that I could attack it a bit more and get closer to the bar for more height. As we got to the 1.45m mark the heavens opened and it became slippery and hard to see properly. I managed to get it and move up to 1.48m but just couldn't get it right on the first couple of attempts. My last attempt was close - I didn't even feel it as I clipped the bar slightly, annoying because I thought I had a bit more in me.
Was good to watch the better guys having a go, and very impressive tedchniques and spring. Darren won with 1.72m, Andrew second with 1.69m and Steve third with 1.60m.
1.45m - 374 pts - 4th. Running Total - 1837 pts - 4th
400m - Fifth Event
The last event of Day 1 is the lactic killer - 400m. I was in a lot of pain from the waist down, my hips, my legs, knees, ankles, feet - the lot. I wasn't sure how to run this as I haven't done one for about 20 years. My tactic was to take it fairly easy for the first 200m and see how it felt from there. As we set off, a couple of guys came flying past me on the inside. I wasn't tempted to try and follow them. Stuart on my inside lane crept past me after 100m and I decided to take long strides down the back straight in a cruise. As we got to 200m, I felt good and coudl see Stuart starting to struggle a bit so I pushed a bit harder into 4th gear around the bend. At 100m to go I still felt good although it was getting harder and harder. I saw Andrew outside me abotu 20m ahead and I pushed again into 5th gear and saw that i was starting to reel him in. I had to work 100% all the way to the line to just pip him at the post. That was a satisfying run and I definitely put it all in - lactic headache kicked in after about 2 minutes. Time was almost irrelevant, I'd beaten Andrew and kept myself in the game as much as I could.
68.92s - 218 pts - 4th. Running Total - 2055pts - 4th
Day 1 Standings:
1 - Darren Dodd - 3313 pts
2 - Steve Wren - 2829 pts
3 - Andrew England - 2227 pts
4 - Graham Lay - 2055 pts
5 - Stuart Richards - 1640 pts
6 - Nathan Kitchen - 1521 pts
There were two mini competitions forming - Stuart v Nathan and Andrew v Graham. Darren was unassailable and Steve was too far ahead of Andrew but to far behind Darren to have a fight.
Tammy and Bagel had spent most of the day in the car, partly because Bagel was afraid of the starting pistol, partly because the weather had been rubbish - wet and windy most of the day. The journey home was a weary one and we decided that it was best if I travelled alone for Day 2.
At home, I ate a lot, had a cold shower and rubbed loads of gel into my legs but the pain was simply terrible. I almost questioned going back for the second day but the thought of all the donations and the kids who'll benefit made me slap myself out of it! I got to bed at around 11.00pm for about 6 hours sleep before getting up for more pain.
Day 2
As I thought - totally seized up when I woke up. It hurt to try and put my socks on. It hurt to sit on the loo. It hurt to walk to the kitchen. Basically, everything hurt doing anything. Ah well, it'll not last forever....
Three hours later and I got to Oxford for the registration and to find out the race times. We'd be hurdling at around 9.45am so time to do as much as possible to warm up and stretch out.
110m hurdles - Sixth Event
I haven't done hurdles except for when I used to be a Young Athlete and the club would ask me to do the 400m hurdles as it was Race 1 and the Javelin was the last event. I was a little bit afraid of them...
I had a practice and managed to get to the first hurdle with my right leg going over first. I did it a couple of times before I braved going for 3 hurdles. I found out that I would have to take 4 strides and alternate on each hurdle so right leg first and then left leg on second.
We set off and as I jumped the first hurdle, my left arm clattered with Stuart's right arm, a bit like Dayron Robles in the World Champs except I wasn't cheating I was just clumsy! Stuart said it hadn't put him off, same as me - it just happens sometimes apparently.
Back in the race, I was getting over each hurdle but also conscious that it was hurting a bit more each time as my hamstrings were being stretched out. At about number 6 I only just cleared the hurdle so I had to drive even harder to get back to the next one and keep the rhythm I'd got into. I tried really hard to drive as much as possible to catch Andrew but I just couldn't gain enough ground. He beat me by 1.5s and gained another 112 pts on me.It was starting to look impossible to catch him unless the Discus went in my favour.
21.53s - 252pts - 4th. Running Total - 2307 pts - 4th
Discus - Seventh Event
I was looking forward to trying Discus. I wondered if my Shot and Javelin prowess would transfer across to the 3rd throwing event. In the warm up I got one to come out nice and flat although it went to the right of the landing sector. On the next practice, the Discus flipped over and over. I decided not to try a spin and just do the best standing throw I could.
First throw - my hand came over as I released and the Discus dive bombed into the ground at 22m. Poor! Second throw it came out better and it was pretty good at 28m. On the last one, I wound it up and really went for a strong release and it pinged out out my hand nice and flat and soared out to 32.23m. I was chuffed to bits! Not only that I got a good one in, but that I'd also beaten an Olympian target for once. Louise Hazel's 32m was mine. Yeeha!
32.23m - 518 pts - 3rd. Running Total - 2825 pts - 4th
Pole Vault - Eighth Event
We had to travel in convoy to another stadium to do our competition. It wasn't too bad and the venue was nice. I knew that a few of the guys could do 3m and my best at 2.30m prior to this competition would mean more points lost, but then I've only done it twice before! I chose to start at the lowest height so I could practice with a few vaults. Nathan struggled and almost bottled out after missing his first attempt at 1.40m. We all convinced him to have another go and he managed to get over. That was a big achievement for him and very pleasing for us all to see him get some points and overcome his fear.
As the bar went up, I was feeling better and better. I cleared my PB height of 2.30m easily and there was more in the tank. As you go higher, you have to hold the pole futher up and this means you have to move your run up back a bit and the bar bends a bit more each time - a lot to deal with! I managed to get to 2.50m clear and then was so close at 2.60m on my third. I really got the bar to bend and got the catapult action going but wasn't able to control it. Shame because I was really starting to feel like I was getting the hang of it.
2.50m - 251 pts - 5th. Running Total - 3076 pts - 4th
Javelin - Ninth Event
I was looking forward to the javelin but also conscious that there were some big expectations on me to perform. Pressure was on - to deliver and to earn as many points as possible. I felt ok in the warm up, despite legs being on fire my arm only took a few throws to feel loose.
First throw - shuffle into 5 strides crossovers and BOOM. It flew fairly well - we had to aim slightly to the right as there was a strong wind coming into our faces from the right. 51.90m. Second throw wasn't as good - I pulled across it and it didn't fly well. 49.80m or so. Last throw was time to let rip. I gave it some power but hadn't hit it quite right and it took a nose dive at the 51m mark. If I'd remembered to bring my own javelin (which i forgot at silly o'clock that morning) it may have faired better as it is rated to 70m. the one I threw was a 50m rated javelin (flies optimally at 50m). Still - pretty happy, season's best with fried legs.
51.90m - 626 pts - 1st. Running Total - 3702pts - 4th
1500m - Tenth and Last Event
I was not looking forward to this at all. 300m and then 3 whole laps of the track. Someone worked out that for 4000 points I'd need to run 5:51. I had no idea how fast that was or what speed to try and run at! It was about 93 seconds per lap.
We set off and down the back straight I started running and someone said "this is a bit quick isn't it?". i repleid "don't worry I'll not be bale to keep this up". True enough, even before the line at 300m gone I was struggling. the chap called out our splits at the first lap which was 93,94,95.... this meant that I'd have to keep going at that pace for almost 3 more laps! No Chance in hell was that possible. I had to slow down and just try and keep going. Andrew was right behind me for the whole race - he only needed to be somewhere with me in sight to guarantee his Bronze so I don't blame him at all.
What do you think goes through your mind when you hear the bell for the last lap? I always thought "That must be a real motivator for them - only one more to go". NO. When that bell sounds it says "Oh my God - a whole 'nother lap to do!!!". it was not fun. It wasn't pretty. It was awful, awful, awful. Having said that - even though Andrew sped past me with 100m to go I didn't care, the end was in sight and when I crossed the line as sense of euphoria come over me - I'd FINISHED! Finished the 1500m and finished my first Decathlon!
7:05.32 - 67 pts (!) - Last. Running Total - 3771 pts - 4th.
Final Standings:
1 - Darren Dodd - 6109 pts
2 - Steve Wren - 4523 pts
3 - Andrew England - 3983 pts
4 - Graham Lay - 3771 pts
5 - Stuart Richards - 3237 pts
6 - Nathan Kitchen - 2826 pts
From Left - Steve Wren | Darren Dodd | Stuart Richards | Nathan Kitchen | Andrew England | Graham Lay
Summary
I now have even more respect for anyone who's done Multi Events. It's a lot harder than the top athletes make it look. I learned to focus on one event at a time, give it 100% and forget about what's to come and to enjoy it as you go along. It's tough, very tough but also very satisfying.
At the time of writing, I have aches all over and have felt whacked all day and run down (day after). we have also managed to raise £344.71 so far for the Rays of Sunshine Childrens Charity which is fantastic - thank you so much to all who donated. If you haven't yet, and would like to, it's easy to do:
SPONSOR
Or simply Text "CFAO52 £2" to 70070
Thank You!
Would I do it again? Well - there was mention of a Double Decathlon - 20 events over 2 days! That sounds like even more fun.....
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