I awoke two Saturday's ago, wished my missus a top time on her own hols - she was off to Ibiza with the girls, for an altogether different time - and I got comfy in my car for the 3 hour journey to join my mate Josh and his pals for The Ron Goreham Memorial El Classico Cup Of The World Birthday Final; a match Josh put together in memory of his father whereby each side took on the persona of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Arriving at the match I was met by my parents, with my brother Mike (he was playing for Barca) and his missus. Also there to greet me for the first time of many this week was Beach, a local photographer who runs his own firm: 8-19 Photography; he'd heard about my antics on Southend Radio Station while I was being interviewed the week before and had made it his mission to help me get into the national press.
While I got kitted out in my Real Madrid team kit (OK so it wasn't exactly the correct kit but who cares, this was a fantastic occasion to be part of), Beach surveyed the pitch and set his gear up - two impressive looking cameras; I would soon know what around 0.01% of being a Premier League star feels like.
Beach snapped plenty of pics while I took to offering the team as much help as I could as we chased a deficit against a more free-flowing Barcelona side.
Beach met me at every opportunity he could that week, and all the while he gained more of an insight into the adventure that is The Everyman Olympics; not just a sporting effort for a fat lad having a go but also a logistical nightmare which poses many a challenge of its own.
We covered Basketball with Southend Swifts, Modern Pentathlon training - on the track at Garons Park and in the pool at Belfairs, me signing up and training with Southend Amateur Boxing Club and my first ever Hockey training session with Southend Hockey Club.
Somewhere in the middle of this excellent and varied week, I managed to honour an invite to be interviewed for the Jamie & Louise Show for the third time on BBC Radio Wales; you can listen again to my interview until the end of Thursday 2nd August 2012:
Click the link here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01l3xgs
My interview starts on 11:24, I hope you enjoy it.
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| Beach and The Everyman Olympian after a great week in the story of The Everyman Olympics |
Cheers to Beach, 8-19 Photography and of course to ALL the Sports Teams and facilites involved!
Here's hoping Beach's photos make it into the national newspapers, stay tuned as I'll keep you posted.
