2018 started with high hopes and ambitious dreams. Kicking off the new year with a personal best over 10k, I was confident to continue my good run of form from 2017. Unfortunately my winning streak came to an abrupt halt at the recent World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Since returning from training camp in Kenya, things just haven't been quite right. I opened my season in Madrid with a 1500m race and although it was an indoor PB, I fell far short of the time I felt capable of achieving. Shortly after Madrid, I fell sick. This is not unusual for me after long haul flights – they are always my nemesis. But this time it seemed to drag on for much longer than a typical cold. I felt flat and was sleeping all day, every day, in the lead up to the British Indoor Championships and was pretty deflated with the way I my body felt during my race.
Although I managed to come away with a 2nd place in the 3000m and a win over the 1500m, securing my spot on the World Indoor team, I knew that physically something just wasn't right. For the next few days, I barely ran. My legs were exhausted and my body lacked the energy to train. This can sometimes be a side effect of returning to sea level after a spell at high altitude, but this time around it felt a little different.
Blood tests revealed that my white blood cells were very low and my body was fighting an infection. This obviously wasn't ideal heading into the World Indoor Champs, but I couldn't let the opportunity of running in front of a home crowd slip by. We decided that I should rest as much as I could ahead of the World Indoors and the day before my race, I started to feel better and much more like my usual self.
My mum travelled over from Qatar to act as my coaching support for the weekend which was brilliant. The weather had taken a turn for the worse but we were fortunate that her flight did manage to land. Picking mum up from the airport was something I’ll never forget. I thought she was going to freeze to death with her exclaiming, “I canny feel my fingers!” The last few years of sunshine in the Middle East have clearly turned her soft.
Luckily, we managed to get the train down to Birmingham for the championships despite several delays. Unfortunately, not everyone in the team were as lucky. Laura Muir was stuck in Glasgow and Zoey Clark was even further north in Aberdeen. The snow had put halt to all modes of transport other than driving, which (as you can imagine) was a long, old taxi journey.
With a 10th place in the 3000m and failing to qualify for the 1500m final, I left Birmingham with a heavy heart. It wasn't the performance I had hoped for and I felt I let a lot of people down. Not only do I put so much into this sport but there is such a big team around me who also put their life and soul into what I do. When it comes down it, it's me out on the start line, alone, and I'm the only one who can control the outcome, no matter how much effort everyone else has put in. And unfortunately, as with any sport, sometimes your body just doesn't play ball.
I decided to take all of last week off to let my body recover and allow whatever is in my system to pass. Then on Friday (9th March), along with Team Scotland, I headed out to Australia in preparation for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. As I type this blog, we’re sitting in the Sunshine Coast… though, I haven't seen an inch of sun since we landed. The Scots seem to have brought the weather with them, and we’ve had torrential downpours. We were however, greeted by a koala bear at our accommodation which put a big smile on everyone's face after a 22 hour flight. Bo, the koala, sleeps 21 hours a day and spends the remaining 3 eating – now that's certainly a lifestyle I can get on board with!
Now comes three weeks of hard training in Queensland before heading down to the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games. It's certainly going to be a different experience from Glasgow 2014, on the other side of the world with a lot less family and familiar faces in the stands, but I’m excited to put on the Scotland vest once more. This opportunity only comes around once every four years and is keeping me in a positive mind-set after the recent blip in my performance.
Hard work and fitness is something that doesn't just disappear overnight – it's in there and once my body regains full health, I’ll be raring to go. Fingers crossed the sunshine makes an appearance sometime soon too!