Monday, October 21st We arrived late afternoon – team meeting in the evening
As soon as we arrived in Benidorm I went for a short walk with my parents to get our bearings and shake out all the stiff muscles from travelling.
The beach was spectacular. It may sound strange but up until that moment I really never thought of where I was travelling to. I was just focussing on the competition and what the stadium would be like. I didn’t think of it as a holiday destination.
It’s always cool to walk down the streets and see the other countries wearing their team tracksuits. Everyone just looks at each other but doesn’t really talk until after the competition. Our game faces were on!
I wanted to get my body in tune with the time change so going to bed at the right time was important to me. We also had to find a store that sold water in huge 6L bottles since we were told not to drink any water from the tap or even drink anything with ice cubes. It might have been fine but it wasn’t worth taking the risk at that point.
We ate all our meals together as a team (with the supporters) which is nice so you don’t have to think about what you need to eat. They had a huge buffet for every breakfast and dinner.
I was so happy my parents agreed to give me my own hotel room for the week. I am very set in my ways when it comes to routines before competing and I wanted to be comfortable. Most team mates compete in one event but I was competing every day so I wanted to make sure I could go to bed when I wanted and I didn’t want to feed off any one else’s nerves. As soon as I got to my room I put out the little things from home that make me feel happy. I brought a picture of my grandma, some letters of inspiration from friends and of course my HUGE banner that my aunt sewed for me that all my friends signed. I used it as a bedspread.
