Hop, Skip and a Jump Over the Finish Line and Off to A and E

This weekend was supposed to be my second athletics meet of the season, and the first 200m that I would do for the outdoor season. The meeting was being held in Moorways Stadium in Derby, as part of the UK Women's Athletics League. This kind of event is a really good one for many reasons, as it involves running as a team, as opposed to running for yourself, as athletics is often a very individual sport. In the women's league every race counts, as your position over the finish line gets your team points. Then a bit like the football league tables, each club in the UK must compete to stay in the league, either for promotion or to fight relegation. Cardiff AAC, the club that I compete for, got promoted last season so this year we're in division one and battling against some of the best clubs in the UK to gain further promotion. Although we have the opportunity to travel up together to the event as a team by bus, my Mum and partner wanted to come and watch this meeting. They often do come and watch, but on this occasion, as it was also my 14 year diabetes anniversary, they wanted to be there to show their support. Thank goodness that they did decide to come along, because the outcome of my day didn't quite go as planned!

The 200m sprint (I'm in Lane 7)

I ran in the 100m race first and won in a season's best time, followed by the 200m which went okay, as I finished in 4th position in the event, not a bad position for the first race of the season. The 4 x 100m relay was the final event of the day and is so often everyone's favourite race because we get to work together to try and get the baton around the track to victory. My team mates decided to put me on the last leg of the relay, which I was excited about because there's only one change over as the incoming runner on third leg gives you the baton, and then you just have to run as fast as your legs will take you so as to cross the line first. The team did really well and by the time the relay baton got round to me, Cardiff were in third position out of eight, so I knew I had to run hard if we were going to win. So I got my head down and sprinted, I got us into second position and then into first. But I knew it was going to be close as I could hear another girl trying to overtake me on my outside. So as the finish line drew closer I dipped for the line, to make sure we were first across.

Me in the St. John's Ambulance

The only problem was that the momentum of dipping and crossing the line got too much and I started to fall. It all seemed to happen in slow motion as the ground came rushing towards me, but I still had the baton in one hand as I tried to break my fall. But my right shoulder and knees seemed to take all of the impact, so when I got up off the track after falling, they felt hot but weren't painful. By the time I got off the track some of my teammates were there along with my partner, and they all seemed to be staring. As I looked down to see what they were staring at, I saw two massive red patches forming on my knees. Although at this point I still couldn't feel anything, the team manager for Cardiff AAC and my partner quickly identified I was in shock and got me into the St. John's ambulance. The ambulance person cleaned out my knee wounds and tried to put plasters over my knees. That was when we noticed the cuts on my hands and shoulders too, and the pain started to make itself known.

Getting Patched Up

When I got out of the ambulance my shoulder bone felt like it was trying to pop out of my skin and my knees felt like I'd been kneeling on hot coals. So my amazing teammates picked me up and part carried me and part wheeled me to the car so that we could make our way to the local hospital in Derby and that was where the fun really began. My team mates were absolutely fantastic, so supportive and so kind looking after me after I fell. I truly appreciated being part of a team, I just wish it hadn't taken something so painful to help us achieve victory in the relay!