Can you guess what I’ve been doing all morning? I got up during half term with an alarm that was set even earlier than on a work-day in order to watch the Winter Olympics. The first event that I wanted to make sure I watched was the Men’s Snowboard Cross from 6:30-7:30. I love the fact that this is a side-by-side race on snowboards and it looks so much fun! I always think I’d be really good at snowboarding, despite never having tried skiing or snowboarding in my life nor being particularly sporty at all! I’m always relived when the riders get through the races without too many injuries and really enjoy the camaraderie of the boarders.
The other event that I was very interested to watch was the heats for the women’s 1000m speed skating, especially after GB’s Elise Christie was disqualified from her previous two winning races . She lost her silver medal after being disqualified for some mid-race scuffling, and even more disappointingly was robbed of her gold medal after receiving a ‘did not finish’ ruling after missing the edge of the finishing line by an inch. Nothing to do with time or ability – it was just a technicality and she was actually trying to skate more carefully and considerately so that she wouldn’t be jostling with the other racers and moved fractionally out of the way – a move that cost her the gold.
So I couldn’t wait to watch her in today’s heats for the 1000m and she didn’t disappoint. Elise skated comfortably at the back of the pack, letting the other racers push and shove each other out of the way and then finally made her move 3 laps from the end of the race. She skated past all the other competitors with ease and sped ahead, creating a huge gap between herself and the other skaters and finished almost 2 seconds ahead of them. There was no doubt she had won the race fair and square this time! I hope that she will have a confidence boost from this, just in time for the finals in two days time.
So in honour of the Sochi 2014 Olympics I thought I would feature ice skates for todays Tuesday Shoesday. I actually bought myself this pair of white ice skates from a car boot sale almost 3 years ago. At the time I’d only recently been ice skating for the first time in my life and although I’d really enjoyed shuffling around the ice rink I was far from being any good at it and even further away from needing my own skates! But they were under a fiver and I couldn’t resist – look, they even have my name on them 😉
I thought about all the skate hire costs they would save me in the future and how much more comfortable I would be in my own skates. So I snapped them up. What I didn’t figure on was the fact that I would soon be moving and I ended up living about as far away from an ice rink as possible – it’s a couple of hours drive at least to the nearest one. So you can imagine how often I’ve been on the ice since I bought that pair of ice skates… Yep, a big fat zero!
They had been packed away for a while but I actually got them out this Christmas. Not for skating purposes, you understand… But because I’d seen a lot of people using them in their Christmas décor on Pinterest! However, I never quite got round to stuffing my skates with Christmas tree branches or fairy lights so they still remain unused. At least they’ve featured in their own photoshoot now so they won’t be feeling totally dejected. And after watching all the Olympic speedskating, I think I’d be really good at it and am going to make the effort to actually GO ice skating this year! Let me know if you’ve got sports shoes that you no longer use or have, in fact, never worn, like me!
