Not a bad start to 2021
This year, City Asset Management are delighted to support Danny Sidbury in his efforts to reach the Tokyo Paralympics. Danny has an inspirational story to tell and we hope you will join us in following his journey through his blog posts with City Asset Management or on Instagram @dansidbury .
Despite 2021 being a year that packs a lot of promise and hope, I find myself training from home once more for the first 2 months of the new year due to another government lockdown. Now 2 months may not seem so bad, however, at the time not knowing if you're going to be training from home for 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years was a concept that I'm sure many of us have struggled with. Not knowing, is the greatest uncertainty.
This uncertainty had an impact on my mental well-being. How to motivate yourself when you're not sure if there's anything to be motivated for? The answer is surprisingly simple. In times of crisis, we need structure, routine and to come together, which is exactly what is needed when training through the long dark winter months in solitude. Doing sessions with my training partners over zoom made the sessions more fun and engaging, and more importantly, kept me motivated to want to do more day after day. We kept this up throughout Christmas and the first few months of the year and time flew by until we got the call from our coach to say that we could start training on track again! There is no better news for an athlete stuck in lockdown.
It wasn't the only thing to get excited about either. For the new 2021 season I had a brand new, completely bespoke carbon fiber racing wheelchair, which I was itching to try on track, and it didn't disappoint.
For the next month or so things were looking and feeling good. Training once again with my training partners and coach (under strict COVID rules) and starting to get back into the gym was also a huge privilege, making lockdown feel like a distant memory. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an opportunity landed in our laps - a Marathon no less, at Thruxton Circuit, Britain's fastest motor circuit. This was an event that had been put on by British Athletics for the best Marathon racers in the country (I am not one of them... yet) to give them the opportunity to get qualifying times for the Paralympic Games and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next year.
Two months of lockdown training plus four weeks of track training doesn't seem like ideal preparation for a Marathon, and you'd be right to think so. It isn't. Especially when you consider I would be up against the best in the country that have been training for nothing but Marathons. But when life gives you lemons...
I decided to take up the challenge and see what I could do.
Sadly, conditions were brutal. With 20mph winds and cold weather, no one got the qualifying times, so everyone was racing for pride and the win. To my amazement I finished in 2nd, just over a minute behind the 1st place finisher and over two minutes ahead of 3rd.
Not a bad way to start 2021!
All pictures credited to British Athletics and Getty Images