Crystal Palace

We all had an adventure into London yesterday to watch Nicks race at Crystal Palace. We made it across London and met up with Steve which was so great as we hadn't seen him for a whole week. We then saw Uncle Nick at the warm up track before his race and showed him the t-shirts we had made and gave him big hugs. He was feeling really good and we were so excited to watch the race.

Sari, Bella and Noah with Uncle Nick at Crystal Palace

Luckily we had seats in the Jubilie Stand, on the back straight of the track, as it was raining off and on during the afternoon and was only about 15 degrees. (You can see Nick wearing his gloves in the picture above!)  We met up with Aunty Sierra in the stands and were made very nervous by two false starts in Nicks mile race due to timing problems. The rain held off and finally the race got underway and Nick ended up tucked in behind the two pacemakers leading the rest of the field. Watch the race here at Spoleto Sport with a fantastic Italian commentary. Nick is staying in Spoleto as his final training base before the Olympics.

The crowd was amazing and really got behind the athletes and we were all cheering our hearts out as Nick increased his gap and was leading by about 30metres. The pacemakers dropped off and Nick continued to hold his lead but the chase pack were gaining on him and as he hit the back straight o the final lap and passed where we were sitting Team Willis rallied all they could to try and bring Nick home. 'Go again' we shouted as Nick entered the home straight but it wasn't to be and Nick ended up finishing in 4th place after an amazingly gutsy race! He nearly had it and if the pace had been slightly slower in the early stage of the race he would have held on to win. We were all super excited to see Nick running from the front with confidence and know that when he hits his peak in a couple of weeks and runs with the same confidence anything can happen! His next race is this Saturday over the 1500m at the Monaco Diamond League.



 

Caro, Noah, Bella, Sari and Mieke in the 'Team Willis' uniform

Youngest members of Team Willis, Phoebe 7 months and Elijah 9 months