Happy Bolt-Day

So now I've (Annie) turned a full 180. In the run up to the Olympics I reasoned that as I didn't really like watching sport - after all, I never do it at any other time - then while I was happy for others to enjoy it, it would just pass me by. Then I was nominated to carry the Olympic Torch, and the excitement touched me. But the torch is an icon: I was still happy to be part of that but separate from the Games themselves. But little by little, as I learned of so many people I knew volunteering and couldn't avoid so much coverage on the TV, I began to get interested. The last straw was yesterday, when we travelled to London to celebrate my birthday-eve, and the atmosphere was electric. This morning, after a lazy morning, we decided to have a little look for newly released tickets on the official website. 2 hours later, after some patient refreshing, we were both on our way out of the house to watch the athletics in the Olympic Stadium.

We had a very easy trip into London, and a sunny tea eaten by the wildflower banks in the Olympic Park. Then into the stadium. Fabulous. We'd been once before when it first opened, but this time it was full and so alive. We saw so many amazing events, from the women's triple jump final, through the women's 400m final and men's steeplechase, to the men's high jump and hammer throwing. We loved the remote controlled minis that returned the hammers back to the start position.

And there was the flame. I had a silly moment when I thought "I helped bring that here". Daft, but lovely.

But of course, the main event of the night, and our blip, was the men's 100m final. A hard race to call beforehand, as there were so many exceptional runners. But the main man, Mr. Bolt, was his awesome self and strode his long-legged run to win. All but one of the runners were under 10 seconds, and a new Olympic Record was set.

We were there.

Not a bad way for me to start the countdown to 40. 365 and counting...