CHRIS RAWLINSON

©Press Association

WEEK 2
Date: August 7

Roller-coaster ride to a world record

I started my speed work last week, and things did not quite go according to plan. The first speed session went well and the times seemed to be coming with either little or no effort on my part. Good times ahead, I thought.

The next day, I hit the weights and boy, could I lift! I was only doing two lifts per exercise and the power I felt lured me into a false sense of security. What happened next was not expected.

On the Thursday, I drove down to Heathrow airport at 9am to catch a 1pm flight to Oslo, host of the Golden League event. It was a non-eventful flight to Oslo and our ride to the hotel was on time. One hour later I was sharing a room with Mr Mayock.

On such overseas trips, the hardest thing in between racing is the fight against boredom. Everybody thinks it must be cool to travel the world to great cities, but its not all its cracked up to be.

You can’t go sight-seeing because it is too tiring and all you do is rest in the comfort of your hotel room. Thank God for English-speaking TV channels: without them I'd go crazy when I have to stay in hotels.

Race day dawned. My race was at 9.30pm, one of the last events of the evening, and I was about to find out that all was not well with my speed work after all. I was shattered, utterly exhausted; there was nothing in the legs and my mind knew it. After a race of almost 50 seconds I’d finished fifth.

It was possibly my worst race for two years. I was embarrassed by my performance and no amount of words could express my emotions about the race. A swear box would have made a pretty penny from me at the moment I crossed the line!

After a long and depressing journey home, I wasn’t looking forward to my attempt at the world record at Loughborough. I was still suffering mentally from the fiasco in Oslo. After enduring a bad race, it can be hard to keep your self-belief and you even get to the point of questioning your own ability.

At such times, you have to shake off the past and look forward. The day after travelling home from Norway, I set my mind on attacking David Hemery’s 28-year-old world record for the 300m hurdles. The great Olympian's time, and my target, was 34.6 seconds.

The event had top billing, my coach had arranged it all and I didn't want to let him, or myself, down. At the first hurdle It felt like fighting a losing battle because I went over with the wrong leg first. But as the race progressed I got back into my stride and 34.59 seconds later I was the new world record holder - 0.01 of a second!

The week demonstrated how odd the world of sport and athletics can be: one minute I was at the bottom of my bucket of emotions and the next my spirits were soaring.

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 1 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 3 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 4 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 5 ...