Feb Update - Sarah
21 February 2008
Well it has been a pretty exciting couple of weeks with a fair bit going on. I came back from Australia last weekend for the double UCI rounds at North Harbour but also to meet my new strength and conditioning coach (Matt Kritz). Things went really well and I can see awesome things happening there already as I am in so much (good) pain after a session.
The two UCI rounds couldn't have gone much better with two wins out of two. Since the last UCI round, I have changed a few things so I was interested to see how they were going. I felt good and I believe I did improve from the last round which was only a few weeks before that so it definitely helped my confidence.
It was a bit of hard work to start with as the gate dropped a lot slower than what everyone was used to. On the Friday evening before racing, there would have been about a dozen people who flipped the gate with people doing it more than once. It took a while to get the timing worked out, but I managed to keep it fairly consistent for the rest of practice then through racing as well. Racing went really well with no big mistakes and I think everything is falling into place really nicely.
The Halberg Awards were held last night at the Town Hall in Christchurch and I would class it as one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. It started with the Red Carpet and photographers and went onto the countless names of "famous" Sportspeople you could only dream of mixing with. The Awards itself was amazing with an Academy Awards style ceremony followed by a dinner across the road in the convention centre. The night was filled with incredible singers and a list a talented athletes from the past, present and future.
The highlight of the evening was a tribute to Sir Murray Halberg. It was filled with past competitors and stories about when he was an athlete, about how the Halberg Trust started and also about what he has passed onto athletes who have been involved with him. It was very inspirational and entertaining.
I am back in Auckland now where I will be based between now and the Olympics (excluding trips), training at the Millennium Institute and the North Harbour BMX track.
All in all, things are going good and as the Olympics edge closer, things will get more and more exciting.
Thanks for your support,
Sarah
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