www.paulhession.co/ Many people think that all the travel around Europe to different races in different countries is about as good as it gets. Much of the time I’m in perfect agreement. Take my recent race in Luzern, Switzerland
I caught an early Easyjet flight to Basel airport, from where it was a short one-hour train journey straight to Luzern.
The athlete hotel was directly across the road from the station and I was relaxing in my room in no time. Luzern itself is, like most of Switzerland, a really great place. Scenery is amazing and the towns have a classy feel to them. I often say I will come back to Switzerland on holidays sometime but, alas, it is quite expensive! The meet is organised by Terry McHugh (Irish javelin legend) so it was great to get a nice welcome and see some other Irish athletes there.
Coming into this race I had one goal really….get my first 50m right! After the stumble in Kortrijk and the terrible start in Brussels I was anxious to run a good bend. If I did that the rest of the race would take care of itself…or so I thought! Felt good in warm-up and my practice starts were solid. This was a high profile meet and I had Walter Dix (Olympic Bronze medallist) to contend with, plus some other good sprinters. The race itself was a bit strange. I did get my start well and ran decent on the bend. I went too wide on my lane as I was drawn in the tight lane 2, but was still very much in contention coming into the straight. However, I didn’t finish quite as strongly as I have been doing and ended up fading a bit to 20.82 and 5th position. I definitely tightened up too much when Marvin Anderson started to go away from me. I was ranked 5th going in but still hoped for more as I felt like my training had taken a big step forward. Dix obviously ran phenomenally and to beat that field by a half second shows the type of form he is getting into.
And so it was onto my next race in Pergine, Northern Italy. This was a much smaller meet but I had heard that Andrew Howe was running. The lack of races this year has meant that I had to take any opportunity so I went for it. So we get back to the jet-setting lifestyle of the athletes. Sometimes things are not as easy as Luzern was. One would think that getting from Switzerland to northern Italy would have been easy enough. Alas the flights were too expensive and the Italian trains were on strike. I managed to get myself on one of the Swiss trains to Milan, crossing the Alps. The scenery was indeed incredible and I have added the Lake Como area to my ever-growing list of potential holiday destinations! From Milan I had to get a bus to Bergamo and then pray that there was someone there to pick me up. The guy was indeed waiting, and drove me the three hours from Bergamo to Pergine at ridiculous speeds in a Fiat van that was as glad to arrive safely to Pergine as I was I’m sure!
It’s fair to say that this meet was a world away from Luzern. The hotel was not the best and the room looked and smelled like it hadn’t been occupied in a few years. Breakfast consisted of a basket of hard bread rolls and….nothing else. No OJ, tea, coffee, cereal, meats, nothing…just a hard bread roll. We were ‘lucky’ enough to get some butter! Oh well, I didn’t mind all that much. I was here to race. Anyway, the meet itself was actually great with a good crowd and nice atmosphere. It was an advertisement for what can be done with a smallish budget. Much of it was based around Andrew Howe. He is taking a break from jumping and doing well over the 200m. He had hammered me in Rome at the beginning of the season. This time it was an awful lot closer but, unfortunately, he still beat me. All in all, though, this was my best race of the season. It was raining when we ran and there was a delay as we were stuck under an umbrella for 15 minutes. Not ideal prep, especially for sprinting. If the race had gone ahead a little earlier it would have been perfect! I came 2nd in 20.67, another B standard (alas no A as yet). I ran a good bend and didn’t die as much up the straight as Luzern. If the conditions had been favourable I would have ran a decent time. I’m hoping I’m saving all that up for the Championships this time!
I eventually was told at 2am that I was going to take the train the next morning at 6am…ouch! It was the first part in yet another 14-hour journey. So, sometimes the jet setting is not as glamorous and easy as people may think. Whole days are taken up in airports and train stations and buses. However, when push comes to shove, I still love it! Just bring a book and the thought that even though you’ve had 2 hours sleep and you are facing into yet another flight/train/bus, a lot of people would give anything to swap places with you. And, to be fair, I wouldn’t blame them!
Finally, I want to offer my congratulations to my cousin Alice on her marriage to Aidan. Unfortunately, I missed the wedding in order to go to Italy but everyone had a great day and they are now in Barbados on their honeymoon!
The athlete hotel was directly across the road from the station and I was relaxing in my room in no time. Luzern itself is, like most of Switzerland, a really great place. Scenery is amazing and the towns have a classy feel to them. I often say I will come back to Switzerland on holidays sometime but, alas, it is quite expensive! The meet is organised by Terry McHugh (Irish javelin legend) so it was great to get a nice welcome and see some other Irish athletes there.
Coming into this race I had one goal really….get my first 50m right! After the stumble in Kortrijk and the terrible start in Brussels I was anxious to run a good bend. If I did that the rest of the race would take care of itself…or so I thought! Felt good in warm-up and my practice starts were solid. This was a high profile meet and I had Walter Dix (Olympic Bronze medallist) to contend with, plus some other good sprinters. The race itself was a bit strange. I did get my start well and ran decent on the bend. I went too wide on my lane as I was drawn in the tight lane 2, but was still very much in contention coming into the straight. However, I didn’t finish quite as strongly as I have been doing and ended up fading a bit to 20.82 and 5th position. I definitely tightened up too much when Marvin Anderson started to go away from me. I was ranked 5th going in but still hoped for more as I felt like my training had taken a big step forward. Dix obviously ran phenomenally and to beat that field by a half second shows the type of form he is getting into.
And so it was onto my next race in Pergine, Northern Italy. This was a much smaller meet but I had heard that Andrew Howe was running. The lack of races this year has meant that I had to take any opportunity so I went for it. So we get back to the jet-setting lifestyle of the athletes. Sometimes things are not as easy as Luzern was. One would think that getting from Switzerland to northern Italy would have been easy enough. Alas the flights were too expensive and the Italian trains were on strike. I managed to get myself on one of the Swiss trains to Milan, crossing the Alps. The scenery was indeed incredible and I have added the Lake Como area to my ever-growing list of potential holiday destinations! From Milan I had to get a bus to Bergamo and then pray that there was someone there to pick me up. The guy was indeed waiting, and drove me the three hours from Bergamo to Pergine at ridiculous speeds in a Fiat van that was as glad to arrive safely to Pergine as I was I’m sure!
It’s fair to say that this meet was a world away from Luzern. The hotel was not the best and the room looked and smelled like it hadn’t been occupied in a few years. Breakfast consisted of a basket of hard bread rolls and….nothing else. No OJ, tea, coffee, cereal, meats, nothing…just a hard bread roll. We were ‘lucky’ enough to get some butter! Oh well, I didn’t mind all that much. I was here to race. Anyway, the meet itself was actually great with a good crowd and nice atmosphere. It was an advertisement for what can be done with a smallish budget. Much of it was based around Andrew Howe. He is taking a break from jumping and doing well over the 200m. He had hammered me in Rome at the beginning of the season. This time it was an awful lot closer but, unfortunately, he still beat me. All in all, though, this was my best race of the season. It was raining when we ran and there was a delay as we were stuck under an umbrella for 15 minutes. Not ideal prep, especially for sprinting. If the race had gone ahead a little earlier it would have been perfect! I came 2nd in 20.67, another B standard (alas no A as yet). I ran a good bend and didn’t die as much up the straight as Luzern. If the conditions had been favourable I would have ran a decent time. I’m hoping I’m saving all that up for the Championships this time!
I eventually was told at 2am that I was going to take the train the next morning at 6am…ouch! It was the first part in yet another 14-hour journey. So, sometimes the jet setting is not as glamorous and easy as people may think. Whole days are taken up in airports and train stations and buses. However, when push comes to shove, I still love it! Just bring a book and the thought that even though you’ve had 2 hours sleep and you are facing into yet another flight/train/bus, a lot of people would give anything to swap places with you. And, to be fair, I wouldn’t blame them!
Finally, I want to offer my congratulations to my cousin Alice on her marriage to Aidan. Unfortunately, I missed the wedding in order to go to Italy but everyone had a great day and they are now in Barbados on their honeymoon!
