Has a nice sound to it, doesn't it.

Hello again

Picture by Caro Swan

I want to start this post by saying thanks very much for all the support and messages that have been sent to me over the last few weeks. It has been great to know so many people are backing me. The atmosphere when on the track is something I will never forget. Having that many people cheering for you is out of this world. Rather than be distracted by it I have been able to absorb it. There certainly has been a home advantage from my point of view as you can tell from my grin during the lap of honour (the picture of Libby and Mikhail celebrating was taken by Caro Swan).

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed to end up coming second in the T12 100m. However, after a few hours passed the initial disappointment was replaced with delight as I realised I was involved in a competition where the world record was broken four times and I ran a personal best in the final. At the start of the season I was looking to get my personal best below 12.5 seconds. So to now be the European record holder at 12.13 seconds is wonderful. I will be channelling the remains of any disappointment into my 200m races on Thursday. I think I am going to have to run a PB to make the final but I am sure that will be possible.

After my race on Sunday I managed to catch up with family and friends for a little bit before heading back to the Paralympic Village and spent Monday at GB House (an area where athletes can meet up with friends and family) with my bronze-medal-winning brother, James.

I have been back to the athletics stadium to cheer on a few of my friends. Within the village there is lots of entertainment and you can go to any of the venues. However, I am spending most of my time relaxing to keep my legs as fresh as possible for Thursday.

The volunteers around the Paralympic Park have been amazing - so helpful. One of the volunteers helped me find out that James had won his bronze medal when I was in Final Call before the final on Sunday night.

There was meant to be a heat for the 200m race on Wednesday but this has been dropped from the programme. So there is one heat on Thursday morning and the final that night. My focus is all on this now and hopefully I can make it back onto the podium.

I will post another blog on Friday. If you have any questions send them in via twitter with the hashtag #asklibby or via www.facebook.com/espcteamlibby.

 

If you missed Libby's race you can watch it on the Channel 4 Website.