Hi everyone,
Well I am now in the home straight. 3 days to go till the opening of the
games and 10 days to go till the cycling starts and I my friend am on the
first day of racing.
The time trial is first up on AUGUST 20th and the sprints for me are over
three days from August 22nd-24th.
Nervous you ask????? Bloody Oath! But only when I think about it so I am
doing my best to go about business as usual.
Training has been good. A little frustrating at times as this is the third
time this year I have peeked for competition and it has been hard work at
times and not so hard at others. A balancing act is best to describe it.
I had a top day last Monday doing PB's in the gym, time wise on the track and
power wise on the pedals but since then I have spent a lot of time recovering
from it. Which apparently is part and parcel of third time around peeking so
the coach says. But he has been right all year so far and done me no harm so
I think I will continue to listen.
We had a team meeting last week that was a very powerful and emotional
meeting. We went through the rigmarole of being told procedures going into
Athens and the village which sounded very exciting but exhausting at the
same time.
Then once that was said and done each staff member stood up and said their
piece about what the games and representing Australia meant to them. Then
Shane Kelly said a few words and yes Shane is my idol. Could you imagine it.
I very well may get to see my idol achieve his life long dream. That would
be awesome!
Then without warning, The manager turned to me and said, Anna, you have two
minutes to say what it ,means to you. I tell you I have never been so
speechless. I stood up and new what I wanted to say but nothing would come
out of my mouth. It was just to emotional for me to talk. Ha, me not be able
to talk now there is something.
But if I could say now what I wanted to say then, I would say this:
Ever since I was old enough to understand the Olympic Games it to me has
been the biggest, the grandest stage of them all. The Olympics makes
ordinary people stand tall and proud to see a fellow country man succeed and
feel torn when they fall.
If I only get this one chance to stand one this stage, then I will do it
standing tall and standing proud, and although it be the grandest stage of
them all, the act which is played upon it doesn't change. I will race the
same race I have ridden many times before, I will follow the same lines
around the same track, I will race the same girls and be judged by the same
officials. (This advice from coach Martin Barras).
Although it would be a dream to win, I am going to ride the hardest I ever
have and what result may follow, I will be happy with. But lets hope I get
to fly our flag high once more ay.
On that note, I will leave you all. Hope you liked the email. Please do
write back as I love getting them. I will hopefully get in before we head
over to Athens on the 16th if not I will try to over there.
Thanks to everyone for your support and I hope you can yell and cheer so
loud that I feel the effect over here.
Anna Meares