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Up very early this morning (3am) but can’t explain why. Went downstairs, had a cup of tea and a blue riband and watched re runs of come dine with me. Napped for about 30mins then went to get showered and ready. Off to the NEC today to watch HYROX. Been a bit unmotivated lately, so hoping this will get my mojo back. Left before 7am and arrived just after 9am. Journey ok, lots of spray on the motorway. Parked in hotel car park where we were stying the night and walked to the arena. Bumped into Darren (my partner’s boss) who was competing in the individual male category. Met with lots of loud bass music and lots of people, mostly shirtless and buff 20 something males (yep..I’m jealous). Arena much bigger than I expected. Buzzing atmosphere and lots of sweat. Greeted with a free can of red bull and proceeded to wander around taking it all in. Now, I’m going to admit that it didn’t take me long to become hooked and declare that “I should do this next year”. It’s in my head. I need my motivation back. And I need a goal to work towards. It’s settled then. HYROX Birmingham NEC in 2024. One whole year to train and prepare. My focus turned to strategy; what were the weights in the sled push and sled pull, I wondered, what was a “good” split 500 time on the ski-erg? How could I compartmentalise the running and make it effortless? With a semi knackered right Achilles problem (most likely a heel spur) I couldn’t reasonably run for 8km. I need to work at it, I convinced myself of that. Watched Darren on each station, he’d trained really hard for 6 months then been ill the last 2 weeks, so it’s hugely commendable he turned up to do it. We filmed, photographed and yelled at him all the way round and you could tell in his eyes he probably wanted to tell me where to go! Once he’d finished we went for some lunch then went back to watch some more. The atmosphere seemed more electric in the arena than it had in the morning and the mixed pairs was a great category to watch. I was in awe at the women moving the same weights as their male partners, with the same grit and pace. After an hour or so, we headed back to check into the hotel, chilled for half an hour then left to grab a quick drink in the hotel bar and then back to the arena to watch the pairs and individual females. One thing that really struck me and irritated me was that people seemed to lack any manners. They’d congregate in the walkways, not move out of the way and spent most of their time praying to the cellphone god. Likely updating their social feeds, and there is nothing wrong in that, just not when you’re walking in front of me, holding me up! Decided after watching a few more stations that we’d had enough for the day so headed over to Resorts world to get some tea, then back to the hotel for an early night.