Following the Ultra MultiEvents champs, I was back to training (albeit a very light session) the following Tuesday. A massage and a huge amount of  food somehow revived my body to make it to our temporary track, and I was very glad I did. Lovely teammates Noelle & Steph made this glorious cake, featuring all 14 tetradecathlon events in confectionary form. Malteaser shot put, Liquorice Allsort hurdles, chocolate button discus and the like. I’ve never seen a more masterful artwork.

I didn’t imagine that the last dawdling 3,000m of the tetradecathlon would be my final race of the season. London Heathside had planned Club Championships for late September, but sadly the new track in Finsbury Park won’t be ready until after many of our number are well into the cross-country season.

I’d planned to do a couple of my usual events there, but also entered pole vault. Strange events make for fewer competitors, so thought I’d give it a go now the tetradecathlon European Champs are out the way.

When I got the email to say the competition had been cancelled, I was already heading to my first pole vault session. Meeting me there were Arron (a professional juggler); Emily (former gymnast & trapeze artist turned high-diver); and Jaime, a fellow Heathsider. Being amidst a bunch of such coordinated people, I quickly found myself the dunce of the group.

Having once almost fallen back into the metal box, and with blood dribbling down my leg having cut myself with my spikes, I eventually just about managed to do the right thing (albeit a metre or two lower than the others).

The session was a lot like the video below, except that we began running with the pole on the track (hard), went on to jump with the pole in a sandpit (scary), before heading in to the pit (hard, fun and scary).