The Olympics

We were one of the fortunate ones to get Olympic tickets when the ballot opened last year.  I think I applied for £1500 worth of tickets, including athletics, swimming and Wimbledon.  I really couldn't bring myself to apply for tickets like archery or shooting just for the sake of getting Olympic tickets, if we were going to spend money then it would have to be something we wanted to watch.  I knew that we would never get all of the £1500 worth of tickets, and even if we did there was always the chance to sell them back again at the same price.  We did in the end only get three tickets, but they were for track and field athletics which is what we most wanted to see. 

We decided to take Niamh with us.  Eden was going to a camp for 7 days the following week so that is a special treat for her, and though Jude would've enjoyed going too, Niamh is the only one who has shown a big passion for running, and she follows the runners avidly. 

The whole transport thing was incredibly smooth, and a one hour train trip took us straight to the Olympic park.  We got there 15 minutes before the session started, even though we had to go through what felt exactly like airport security(my nail clippers were taken off of me in security).  The above photo is us walking under the aquatic centre towards the stadium.

Outside the stadium.

The iconic olympic landmark behind Michael and Niamh.

Just before we entered we heard a deafening roar come from the spectators inside, it was a really exciting feeling to know that we were going in.

It was goosebump stuff as we came into the stadium and felt the great atmosphere, it was packed out already.

It's been a very long time since I have been inside an athletics stadium, it brought back some great memories of the times I competed in running and high jump events at school.

The men's pole vault was directly in front of us, it was incredible to actually see the height they cleared up close, and to see the mistakes and accidents.  One man's pole snapped as he went for the vault.

Niamh loved every minute of it.

And then came the moment we had been anticipating for weeks, the men's 5,000m and getting to see Mo Farah.

His race started right in front of where we were sitting.  We were 4 rows from the front so we had a great view of the start and race.

Mo Farah is such a lovely guy and spent some time interacting with the crowd and showing his appreciation.

What really struck me is how much smaller he looks in real life than he does on tv.  He really is tiny and there is not much to him in terms of size and weight.

Michael had the camera on sports setting and got some lovely shots of him starting off.

The amazing thing was the sound in the stadium - as the runners went around the track you could hear the sound as it got louder where the athletes were, it was like a mexican wave of sound.

He did not seem to dominate this run as much as his 10,000m -  he was shoved around and seemed to be blocked from getting to the inside lane, but after watching the final and seeing how strong he is, he was just playing this race how he wanted, he is fully in control of getting to the front when he needs to.

Niamh wearing her supporting T -  we had to buy her a cap because the sun was burning down on us, she was so pleased to get it, and it will be a nice souvenir for her.
{Oh, a funny thing that happened when were getting coffee - one of the baristas asked if I was an athlete and what sport I did - I know I have developed some arm muscles with my body weight workouts, but that was unexpected}.
We then watched the men's decathlon 100m sprints, women's hammer, men's decathlon long jump, women's 800m(and saw Caster) and then we left the stadium.  There was still the men's shotput, but it was taking a long time to set up and Niamh was really burning up in the sun, so we took a walk around the Olympic Park and then headed off home.  Wonderful day, lifelong memories!