Charity Golf Day

I would like to thank my uncle, Dave Masefield for his great achievement of raising the money for me to be able to buy my own race chair. These are expensive bits of kit made to measure for each individual. Without it competing in anything like the Great North Run would not have been possible. I hope that I will be able to continue to do many different races using the chair and raise as much money as possible for different inspirational charities.

Dave and Steve Knight played 102 holes of golf on 5 different courses in one day walking and carrying their clubs on each course. He also held a charity golf day at Kington golf course to help raise the remaining funds for me to be able to buy my own chair. Thank you both very much for the enormous effort and time you put in and to everybody else who supported the Golf Day in Kington. The Chair will allow me to push in Richmond Park and help get me fitter for my skiing. Thank you

The Great North Run

After the success of the British Disabled Ski Team competing in the Great North Run last year to raise funds for the team it was decided that we give it another go. This year saw Dave Chugg retired racer doing it for his third time myself and Russ Docker returning for our 2^nd up hill punishment and Jane Sowerby and Talan Skeels-Piggens heading up to Newcastle for the great event for the first time. Talans wife Jo also ran the race for the team. 

The Great North Run wasn’t just a great way for the team to raise much needed funds for our continuing improvement over the next few years leading to the Winter Paralympics but also a great way for us all to get in to good shape for the forthcoming season.  

Last year I borrowed a friend’s race chair and had a good few months to train. Due to complications this year I didn’t get a chair until three weeks before the race. I had been in the gym and swimming all summer but this was no real compensation for time pushing in my own race chair. As soon as my new toy arrived I went straight in to vigorous training.  

I headed up to Newcastle with my new race chair and Mars Refuel Drinks to give me the energy I needed to face the Hills. The Race went well and thankfully it was a pleasant day with no rain. I definitely felt the hills a lot more than I did the year before due to lack of training but was much stronger generally. I was on target to beat my time by a couple of minuets A mile from the end there is a steep hill in to a roundabout where they have put hay bales just for people like me as I tried to stop and slow down so I could turn left in to the final mile my breaks locked and despite all the officials waving at me to slow down and turn I went straight in to the hay bales at full pace!!! Just a little CRASH really but enough to mean I had to push the last mile with a wonky front wheel slowing me right down!! In the end I was 2 minuets slower than last year with a time of 1:17 

It was a great effort from all the team to do a challenging race and we managed to raise some much needed funds but we didn’t reach our target total so if you would like to sponsor us please go to www.justgiving.com/bdst. Every penny counts and its not too late!

 

The British Disabled Water ski Nationals, 15th September

 Over the Summer to take my mind of the rolling snowy mountains and all that skiing I am missing over in places like New Zealand, Australia or somewhere like Chilli or Argentina. I have taken back to the Water. Just a day after coming back from the Back-Up youth ski course in Sweden I was on the water enjoying the April sun thinking this is going to be a good summer.  

Water skiing is another sport that I loved before my accident and it was rare for me not to do it at least once every summer with friends. It is of course another activity that one might think impossible to do if you are ‘disabled!’ but was in fact one of the first things I did after my accident. I have always said that I never did enough and was hoping that a good hot summer would give me plenty of reasons to head down to my local lake just outside Stains and improve a little. Well we all know what the summer has been like but despite been a fair weather water skier I did manage to get some time on the water.  

On September 15^th I entered the British Disabled Water Ski Nationals in the Rookie competition (people who weren’t in the British Team. The British Guys retained the world champs in Aus this May by the way! ). Although I entered just for a laugh and to have some fun my competitive nature meant that of course I wanted to do well. On the day I managed to come 2^nd in the Slalom event and wasn’t expecting to get anything in the trick skiing as I’m not great but after pulling off a 180 and almost a 360 (which I have only managed to do once the day before the comp) I was awarded silver in that too! You have to be in it to win it and I had a great day and look forward to doing more when the sun comes out again next summer but my heart still definitely lies the skiing! So its time to hang up my trunks and get out the skis!