My crunch date in the Big Apple as I bid to fulfil dream

13 April 2012

The Commonwealth Games athletics begins today and there's a part of me that's really sad I'm not there as I've never competed at the Games or represented England.

I remember missing the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when I took a break from the sport and I was nearly in tears watching and knowing I should have been there.

This is a slightly different situation as I had to make a big decision a while back because of the timing of the World Championships in January.

The Worlds are a huge event for me as it's the biggest global competition before London 2012 and I need to be at my very best.

The GB team has just been announced and I'm competing in the 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m and the marathon. I know it sounds a lot but it's manageable, especially with the way I train.

I'd be happy to come away with one gold medal whereas people expect me to come back with a haul of them but that's very tough as some of the greatest Paralympians will be in action.

Looking back over the last few weeks, it's been a busy time. I was really touched to be inducted to the London Youth Games Hall of Fame at Lord's, alongside Mo Farah and Tasha Danvers, and join an illustrious group that includes Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie and Rio Ferdinand.

Competition wise, next up for me is November's New York Marathon. It has always been a dream for me to win that — a must-do on my list. I raced there five years ago and came fourth, which wasn't too bad, but I desperately want to win it.

The only problem is that the field is incredible — even better than this year's London Marathon.

The race is a nasty one — there are a lot of potholes — but the people there just treat us like all the other athletes, we get a lot of respect and I love that. My girlfriend Emily is coming along, so I'm sure my credit card will take a hit!

We're planning to do a bit of sightseeing as well. I'm not sure I could hack going up the Empire State Building as I'm not great with heights.

I went up the Eiffel Tower once in Paris and was relieved that there was only wheelchair access to the first floor and no higher, as that was bad enough.

I'll be racing in a relatively new racing chair in which I won the Great North Run a few weeks back. I wasn't entirely happy with my previous one and it's amazing how that can affect you psychologically. You think "is it me or the chair?" when things aren't going your way and that can affect confidence.

This time, I got in the new chair, pushed it around the car park and knew immediately it was a great fit. Really, I've only had to make minor changes to it so it makes me feel better than ever about racing at the New York Marathon and the Worlds.

Racing chairs don't come cheap. This one cost about £4,000 and it's thanks to Draft, who made the chair, and the charity Get Kids Going for funding the cost.

Anyway, I'm lucky — I've bonded with it straight away. I've not done anything silly like given it a name but I have complete faith in it as it feels superb every time I race in it, so look out for me in New York!

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in