West Devon's Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.
FELT like a guinea pig this week. Over ten days I've had so many physical tests I've lost count, but they're all part of life as a sportsman. Even my eyes have been put through their paces, being tested by a visual coach and an eye-tracking specialist. The latter involved wearing funny goggles connected by a wire to a bum bag while competing in the run-shoot discipline. This equipment records your line of sight and focus so you might be caught looking at the boys, as one of my friends found out!
l On Tuesday the squad in Bath had a visit from the UK Sport anti-doping staff. There's no escape until you've filled the little bottle. The nutritionist wanted my blood – nothing sinister though, it's just to see if my natural diet is sufficient. But, not satisfied with just sticking a needle in me, it was then out with the calipers to measure skin folds — in other words fat!
l You probably know by now I'm a horsey person but I have never been a fan of flat racing. It's over in just over a minute, there are no jumps to spice things up and the favourite always seems to win. But Thursday evening at Newbury races turned me slightly. Each race was still over quickly but the horses with my money on seemed to cross the line first. I came home nicely in profit! I was asked where my 'knowledge' came from, but my boyfriend, quick at these things, pointed out that all the winners had pink livery. Pure coincidence I'm sure.
l I was lucky to be involved in the Blue Mile event at the Barbican, Plymouth on Saturday. A little hypocritically I managed to keep my feet on dry land, but played my part balancing my role as a 'Blue Champion' with that of roaming co-presenter on the BBC Radio Devon morning show. I had a great time and hopefully the event succeeded in raising people's awareness of the blue part of the earth's environment made up by our oceans.