Thursday, August 30, 2012
Day 1 Paralympics
"Beep beep"......the alarm was telling us that it was 4.50 in the morning.
Up, washed and dressed, picked up rucksacks and were off to the station.
We were in London by 7 0'clock.
We took the Jubilee Line round to Stratford.
And then into the Olympic Park.
It is so WOW!
Viewing it from the outside had not prepared us for the vastness and the people.
Such an atmosphere of expectation.
We were there for the first morning of the paralympics.
Slowly we made our way to the velodrome, stopping for photos on the way. It's a 20 minute walk at least to the velodrome, even without the stops.
We sat outside and had the first part of our picnic.
Once inside we to adjust ourselves to heat and noise.
Worse we had to adjust ourselves to a couple of seats which were not good. We were behind the barrier separating seats from the top of the track.......but we couldn't see over the barrier!!! Well, yes we could - but couldn't see the complete lap of the track.
I decided to stand at the back of the 4 rows of seating we were in. It was much better there and felt less like sitting in a wooden box.
I was happy at the back and felt myself sucked into the amazing noisy, enthusiastic atmosphere.
The morning session was all about qualifying....the top 4 times would fight is out for the medals later.
The first events were for women of various categories of disability - pursuit races, where 2 riders start on opposite sides of the track and aim to catch each other.
Invariably one did catch......to great cheering and applause.
The highlight was the race involving Sarah Storey GB); she already has a clutch of paralympic medals and was expected to do well.
She obliged by completing the distance in a world record time.
Exciting!
This afternoon she followed this up by winning the gold medal.
The colour of the wooden track is picked up in the cyclist's visor.
Even Sir Chris Hoy looked like he had a long floppy blonde fringe during his races.
Sarah Storey actually has long dark hair.
The second half of the morning was devoted to blind cyclists - or visually impaired.
In this event tandems are ridden with a sighted pilot on the front and the blind man peddling like mad at the back.
We have pictures from all parts of the day, of course - but have sorted none of them.
Once outside again, we found a place to sit down watching the big screen which has TV coverage of everything throughout the day. We ate the rest of our picnic.
Rain was threatening.
We walked along by the park waterways with some lovely planting.
Foolishly, I demanded to go into the shop. I wanted something - I still want something. After all I have a collection of all sorts of things from all the post war Olympics.
But I am not a shopper - even when I am trying very hard to be.
Things that I guess I didn't really want were much more expensive than I wanted to pay.
I'll wait - things are on EBay.......over 42,000 things. Once its all over I can start bidding.
By this time we had had enough - well, our bodies had.
Next week we must think a little more about what we will do with time when we are not actually in the Olympic Stadium.
We must pace ourselves better.
I am pretty certain that we have a couple of very good evenings of athletics coming up. On Tuesday, look out for Jonny Peacock - he's British. And next Saturday we will see the 400 metre final which Oscar Pistorius is expected to win.
We stopped for a cup of tea at Victoria Station before catching the train home.
Once home we felt fit for nothing.
Up, washed and dressed, picked up rucksacks and were off to the station.
We were in London by 7 0'clock.
We took the Jubilee Line round to Stratford.
And then into the Olympic Park.
It is so WOW!
Viewing it from the outside had not prepared us for the vastness and the people.
Such an atmosphere of expectation.
We were there for the first morning of the paralympics.
Slowly we made our way to the velodrome, stopping for photos on the way. It's a 20 minute walk at least to the velodrome, even without the stops.
We sat outside and had the first part of our picnic.
Once inside we to adjust ourselves to heat and noise.
Worse we had to adjust ourselves to a couple of seats which were not good. We were behind the barrier separating seats from the top of the track.......but we couldn't see over the barrier!!! Well, yes we could - but couldn't see the complete lap of the track.
I decided to stand at the back of the 4 rows of seating we were in. It was much better there and felt less like sitting in a wooden box.
I was happy at the back and felt myself sucked into the amazing noisy, enthusiastic atmosphere.
The morning session was all about qualifying....the top 4 times would fight is out for the medals later.
The first events were for women of various categories of disability - pursuit races, where 2 riders start on opposite sides of the track and aim to catch each other.
Invariably one did catch......to great cheering and applause.
The highlight was the race involving Sarah Storey GB); she already has a clutch of paralympic medals and was expected to do well.
She obliged by completing the distance in a world record time.
Exciting!
This afternoon she followed this up by winning the gold medal.
The colour of the wooden track is picked up in the cyclist's visor.
Even Sir Chris Hoy looked like he had a long floppy blonde fringe during his races.
Sarah Storey actually has long dark hair.
The second half of the morning was devoted to blind cyclists - or visually impaired.
In this event tandems are ridden with a sighted pilot on the front and the blind man peddling like mad at the back.
We have pictures from all parts of the day, of course - but have sorted none of them.
Once outside again, we found a place to sit down watching the big screen which has TV coverage of everything throughout the day. We ate the rest of our picnic.
Rain was threatening.
We walked along by the park waterways with some lovely planting.
Foolishly, I demanded to go into the shop. I wanted something - I still want something. After all I have a collection of all sorts of things from all the post war Olympics.
But I am not a shopper - even when I am trying very hard to be.
Things that I guess I didn't really want were much more expensive than I wanted to pay.
I'll wait - things are on EBay.......over 42,000 things. Once its all over I can start bidding.
By this time we had had enough - well, our bodies had.
Next week we must think a little more about what we will do with time when we are not actually in the Olympic Stadium.
We must pace ourselves better.
I am pretty certain that we have a couple of very good evenings of athletics coming up. On Tuesday, look out for Jonny Peacock - he's British. And next Saturday we will see the 400 metre final which Oscar Pistorius is expected to win.
We stopped for a cup of tea at Victoria Station before catching the train home.
Once home we felt fit for nothing.
