By March, I had worked my way back to entering a competition: the European Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland. Fitting, really, since my European outdoor season had been rudely interrupted by my hip flexor. I wasn’t anywhere near peak shape, honestly more like 85%, but that was good enough for me.
Naturally, because no story of mine is complete without an additional setback, I got food poisoning, from chicken dumplings, a local delicacy apparently, the night before my first event, the 400m. The ideal pre-race diet, right? I planned to pull out of the race, but withdrawing meant I’d also have to scratch the 200m, so I reluctantly lined up, planning to run the first 20 meters and then step off the track.
But as anyone who has ever raced knows, adrenaline is a funny thing. I ended up completing the race, both laps, in fact. I crossed the line in a blazing (read: painfully slow) 68 seconds and felt like I’d just run a marathon. Food poisoning and 400m sprints? Not a great combination, if you were wondering.
Luckily, I had a few days to recover before the 200m. While it wasn’t spectacular, it was nice to be back on the track, even if I wasn’t breaking any records. The event I was most excited about, though, was the 4x200m relay. I’d hoped to be part of the men’s team, to make up for my disappointment in Torun at the World Championships a year earlier and in Pescara at the European Championships, but when the selection took place, I graciously ruled myself out. Translation: I was in no shape to keep up with the others.
Instead, I formed part of of the 4x200m mixed relay, alongside Christine Anthony, Shannon Evans and Andy Hunter. Now, here’s the kicker: the men’s team sadly didn’t manage to get the baton around the track, but our mixed team? We took home a bronze medal. Completely unexpected, but absolutely delightful. I was over the moon. A bronze medal in a race I’d barely expected to run!
Another highlight of the European Indoor Championships was watching my training partner, Trevor Hodgson, lock horns with the fastest men in Europe to win the M50 60m championship. Now, you have to understand, this wasn’t your average fun run. The field was packed with athletes who probably wake up sprinting and dream in slow motion.
Trevor, calmly breezed through the qualifying round and recovered from a heart stopping stumble in the semifinal. Then came the final, a nail-biter where he won by the kind of margin you’d need a microscope to see. Just like that he was crowned European champion.
It was a proud moment for Trevor, but also for me, his long-suffering training buddy. After all, I like to think my slow pacing helped make him faster. If nothing else, I’ve definitely perfected the art of being the supportive friend who can claim, “I knew him before he was famous.”
And so, that was my first step back to form, a slow, painful step, but a step nonetheless. I’m still ridiculously proud of that bronze, and it gave me the motivation to keep going. Now, I’m back on the road to fitness, training smarter (I hope), and listening to my body more closely.
Although, if running backwards gets me to the next race faster, I might just give it another go.
Stuart Lynn - Masters Athlete 