Читать книгу Goals to Gold - Lee Sandford - Страница 18

I had an early lesson in dealing with criticism and overcoming challenges. At the age of 14, I returned home from a training camp down in Portsmouth and Dave Hirst was soon on the phone to my dad telling him I had to work on my fitness. Other players were fitter and I had to do something about it.

You would expect most sporty youngsters to be athletic and fit but you need to raise the bar if you want to make it at the top. I was surprised when Dave called but I wanted to be the best player I could possibly be and I was determined that I would do anything to increase my fitness levels.

So what do you do if you’re a dad and you have just been told your son is not fit enough? You enter him in the Hampshire Cross Country Championships for under 14s! This was a three-race competition, over a month. The Championship medal winner was determined by the average position over the three races. I was up against all the best runners in the county under the age of 14 who had, in all probability, run these distances many times before. The only time I had done anything like this was in school PE when we went around Down Grange fields. It was always muddy and wet.

The first race was no different. The rain had been falling and the course was full of mud. The first race was a shock to the system but I went on to come first against a field of nearly 60 teenagers. In the second race I knew what to expect and, even though I felt nervous, I went on to win that race too. So now I had won the first two races and only had to come in the first three on the final race to be crowned champion. And this is what I did.

The third race didn’t go as planned but I still finished in the first three and was duly announced as the Hampshire Cross Country Champion for the under 14s. I remember finishing the last race and sitting down on the soggy grass to take my spikes off, saying to dad “I’m never doing that again!” My dad laughed. We often speak about that day still.