Hi all, So you are probably all aware by now that I will be attempting the Hour Record on February 27th at Lee Valley Velodrome. On Friday I gave a press conference about why Im doing this and just wanted to share my thoughts with all of you too. Over the coming weeks Im going to be regularly posting about my training and preparation for the hour record, along with photos, and will keep you all up to date with how everything is going! The reasons for undertaking the Hour record are very personal to me and I hope youll take time to read the below information and support wherever you can! I spent my off season a little differently this year, I travelled around Europe with the miles for Haemophilia campaign sharing my story with families of kids that suffer from Haemophilia. The campaign was simple, just to raise awareness and promote a healthy and active lifestyle within the Haemophilia community. What I realised quite quickly though was the impact my story was having. As a young Haemophiliac things were tough, more so for my family than i as I didnt know any different. For Mum and Dad though it was a really hard time with only a predicted gloomy outcome, there was talk of wheelchairs, crutches, joints fused in place or replaced, a far cry from the Alex you see before you now. We cracked on though and a lot of those predicted outcomes never materialised mainly due to the efforts and care my family gave me. On these trips I realised quite quickly my story was spreading hope within the Haemophilia community, the hope given though wasnt necessarily to say to the parents that their youngster could be an elite athlete, it was more to show them that their boy or girl could in fact lead an ordinary life, which is what any parent wants. Things like the Commonwealth Games, Olympics, Tour de France and World Championships hit home with the general public, much like Wimbledon in Tennis, so to excel in these events for me is important as I know now its helping the Haemophilia community more and more with a positive outlook on the future alongside my own personal career ambitions. So I thought what more can I do? Everyone understands a world record so I wanted my next target to be the hour record. The hour is something that i’ve always been interested in, the simplicity of it mostly, no tactics, no hiding, just you and the bike so when I used to dream of attempting it years ago it would always have been for me and me only, but now it kind of isnt, I’ve got a new sense of drive as I know the more success I can achieve the more hope its giving everyone in not only the Haemophilia community, but also the rare disease community, we spend our childhoods being told what we cant do, what we wont be able to achieve due to a limiting factor that is completely out of our control, so I’m going for the record for anyone that gets told what they cant do and goes out to prove themselves otherwise, and I’m training a hell of a lot harder because of it. Thanks everyone, Alex.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:05:12 +0000
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