Glasgow - Commonwealth Games

As we said goodbye to Francois family we boarded our easyjet flight bound for Glasgow. I was really looking forward to catching up with and watching some mates compete in various events. We were staying at a makeshift campground quite a way out of town at a sports field in my famous tent. My tent has been through a lot and kept me safe and dry while staying in Arthurs Pass a few years ago during a massive thunderstorm while training for Coast to Coast, so I am very fond of my tent and its abilities. But others not so – The last time I had shared this tent with a gf, she was no longer my gf a week later after a tough weekends camping while there was a slight leak. So I was worried I might once again find myself single after 6 nights in the tent.

Our first event we checked out was Laurens 400m freestyle final. Louise had bought me tickets for my birthday which I was stoked about. It was very expensive to get tickets to certain events, and as much as I wanted to go to watch Lauren race I didn’t think I could really afford it, so was happy when Louise surprised me a few days before Glasgow with tickets. We had awesome seats about 5 rows back, and I could see Smally and the Boyle contingent on the other side of the arena. Laurens race was first up, and just was so stoked to see her win gold. I have known Lauren since I was about 15 when we were both on the Don Oliver Sports Foundation, and know how hard she works so was so happy and proud to see her win gold. We were sitting with a NZ contingent and a family of another swimmer who told me to go down when Lauren was doing her victory lap, so was great to be able to give her a big congratulatory hug.

The next day we headed to the track to watch Lennie compete in the 3km. Lennie ran at Rice in the girls team while I was there, and recently got engaged to one of my best mates from Rice, Matt. We met up with Matt, his family, and coach Jim (Womens coach from Rice) prior to the race, and it was awesome to see them. But it was race time shortly, so after seeing Lennie warm up on the warm up track we headed to our seats. Louise and Mine were right in front of the start for the 3km steeple, and was able to wish her luck and give her a high five as she was led out. The atmosphere at the stadium was awesome, and since Lennie was racing for Scotland she got a massive roar from the crowd which mustve been a huge buzz. She ran a great race and was able to finish 9^th just outside her PB, and although I think she was a touch disappointed she loved the experience to compete on home soil. The next day we were able to catch up with them again and enjoy a coffee and then went out for beers that night. Was like old times. We were joined by Lennies sister Katie and husband as well who were both Rice athletes in athletics, and baseball. Katies husband also went on to play Major League Baseball for the Angels, which Rhys and Amber will be proud of.

Our last day in Glasgow was a big one. Louise convinced me to head to the Hockey semis with her which really surprised me. Being someone who was never really been into Hockey, I really enjoyed it. Like the Tour, it’s the speed of the game that really impress youes. We saw the Aussies take down England in a good game, and then were surrounded by another loud Kiwi contingent and team members families for the black sticks game. Although it was about 10C, drizzly, and the Black Sticks lost to India after being 2-0 up, I really enjoyed it. It was great to have Louise at a sporting event she enjoyed and see her passionate about, as she was also able to fill me in on a few of the rules and tactics too.

In between events our days consisted of walking to and from the campground and enjoying the cheap pub meals in Glasgow. I mustve had about 3 stake and ale pies in 3 days, and Louise reminds me that I had 3 chicken bakes (chicken pie pastries) from Greggs (much to Matts disgust) in 24hrs. But after one last pub meal in Glasgow we headed to Hampden Park to watch the final session on the track.

The stadium was rocking for the last session as Usain Bolt was making an appearance in the 4*100m in the last event of the night. But I was most looking forward to the mens 1500m final with Nick Willis and Julian Mathews both racing. I had grown up and raced against both guys, tangling with Julian at Sec Schools on occasion, so was great to see them qualify and ready to take it to them. I was really confident Nick would pull of the Win as he was in such good form leading up to the event. But as what happens in championship racing, tactics didn’t quite work in his favour and found him caught on the inside before having too much work to do kicking down the straight. Julian had done awesome to make it to the final, but couldn’t quite click into another gear when the heat went on. Was great to be able to watch them, and again we had awesome seats just at the turn heading into the straight.

 

Thankfully we were undercover though as it was bucketing down the whole night! The runway for the Pole Vault was flooded and required officials to use giant squeegies to dry it out enough to compete as athletes would hurt themselves otherwise. But the whole time it was raining I couldn’t help but think of my tent back at the campground and whether I would still have a girlfriend tomorrow.

We enjoyed the rest of the night watching Stu Farquhar compete in the Jav. I had met Stu a few years ago when I was lucky enough to go to Noumea to race up there. His folks were sitting two down from us, so was good to have a chat to them as well even though I was wary of not bothering them too much as no doubt they were feeling the nerves along with Stu.

The final event of the night finally arrived with the man himself- Usain Bolt, making an appearance. We were just fortunate that Usain was competing the same night as the 1500m final. He showboated his way around and entertained the crowd all the way until the starting gun, even dancing along to the Scottish theme song, The Pretenders – I would walk 500 miles, which was played all over Glasgow while we were there. He absolutely blew away the competition in his leg of the 4*100, and although it was over in a flash he really was incredible to watch live.

We finally headed back in the drizzling rain to the campground where I had said to Louise that I would check the tent first before she took a look so I could survey the damage (if any). While we were away a peg had broken causing the rain to get in, so we had a big puddle in our tent. I let Louise keep warm in the clubroom while I fixed up the mess which involved shifting bags into the clubrooms to dry out, emptying the water out, drying out the tent with a towel, fixing the tent, and getting our sleeping gear back in. Long story short I fixed the situation, we had a dry nights sleep, and Louise remained with me the next day as we headed to the highlands where we hoped for a roof over our head and a warm fire to keep us dry and warm.