Holidays Are Coming

Ok so it official the Christmas season is fast approaching as I have seen the famous coca cola advert 'holidays are coming it's coca cola' I love this advert but I'm sure it gets shown earlier every year! :-)

Also this week I was asked to help turn on Plymouth City Centre Christmas lights and I joined Fame Academy Student Lemar, Diving sensation Tom Dayley and the Face of Plymouth Charlotte Holmes in pressing the plunger and lighting up the streets of the Town Centre.
Lemar performed three songs for the crowd and he was fantastic and sang live, I had one of the best seats watching from the side of the stage. I got to meet him before we where taken down to the stage and he was lovely really down to earth and even had a chat with Mia (my daughter has a great life for a three year old haha).


I couldn't believe the amount of people that turned out to see the lights being turned on the street was packed. They even have an outdoor Ice Rink in the middle of town and I can't wait to get my skates on and have a go on it, I have an excuse as Mia keeps telling me she wants a go. ;-)


I have never been to any of the Christmas lights switch on as it always falls on a training night so this was my first one and I got to turn them on and I really enjoyed it they had many local dance acts and singers performing on stage so it was an entertaining night for all. I even managed to get a little bit of shopping done but I have to confess it wasn't any Christmas shopping I went and treated myself to a nice new dress to wear at next month sports awards. I have been nominated for Sports Personality of The Year and Champagne moment at the Herald Sports Awards and then I have also been invited to attend the BBC Sports Personality of The Year Awards. I really looking forward to going as it will be great to meet some amazing sports stars and witness the evening in the crowd instead of sat on the sofa watching the telly.

I am enjoying every moment of my life and feel very blessed to be able to be part of all these wonderful events

I'm A Celebrity........Keep Me In Here

So for the next four weeks the only way I am going to get to see my coach is to tune into 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' lucky for me I have been given my training sessions for the next month, so while Linford is having fun in the jungle I shall still be banging out the sessions.

I am a big fan of the show and have watched every series but this series will have my undivided attention and will be even more interesting. I know I am going to be glued to the telly watching Linford on his journey in the jungle and I may even phone and vote for L to do a bush tucker trial as a pay back for all those lactic sessions I have to endure, myself and Conrad Williams are already on the case haha

Linford has a wicked sense of humour, cracks jokes all the time, laughs alot and is a fun person to be around. There is not a session I have been to where I haven't had a giggle or two he's crazy!

I saw on a website recently that L had said "people will be going in there to win and they have an agenda. But I am going in there to meet people and have fun" this comes from a sprinting legend that has more golds than I have had hot dinners, you can't take the competitive streak out of any athlete I don't even let my daughter beat me at snap! Haha

I'm pretty sure that the whole nation will fall in love with Linfords sense of humour and he definatly gets my vote, here's to some great viewing TEAM LINFORD all the way do us proud coach :)

Winter starts all over again

Ok so I am two weeks into Winter training after a few weeks recovery following the Games and I'm certainly putting the hard work in. Training has stepped up a gear this Winter as I have plenty to prove next year and I need to stand up and deliver.

I have been working hard on shifting some body fat and leaning up as I have always struggled with my weight due to my diabetes and having Mia (even though she is 3 now haha) and I have been doing well. I have lost over a stone in weight in the last year and when I returned to training two weeks ago and did my 1rep max testing session in the weights room I hit everything hard, hit some pbs and realised my power to weight ratio was even better than before and can only get even better :)

I have also made a return to Boxing, which I did last Winter in prep to return back to athletics after five years out. This year my Boxing trainer has made me train with the men which has made me step it up a gear, I love it, I love working on the pads. These sessions are intense but I love the feeling when I leave knowing I have worked my ass off!!
My trainer had a chat with my dad after one of my sessions this week and told him I could have a good career in Boxing as he has never seen a women who can hit as hard and as fast as me. You never know maybe when I finish athletics I could take up Boxing instead ;)



whilst in the Boxing gym I saw a great quote which I would like to share with you

"when you have been defeated and you feel hopeless and all you want to do is feel sorry for yourself, this is the time a TRUE CHAMPION evolves to pick themselves up and keep going no matter how many times they've fallen in the past"

Commonwealth Reflection

Commonwealth Games double medalist still hasn't sunk in to be honest. It certainly isn't a championships I am going to forget in a hurry.

I must be the first women in history to go from 4th place to silver. However for me I was over the moon finishing in 4th this was a great achievement in my first year back after a long time out, and then the events unfolded which I am not going to go into as it has been covered everywhere you look and it's certainly not a highlight for. However coming away with a Gold medal was amazing and with three great girls who truly deserve it made it even sweeter :)

It was definitely the most emotional week of my life I went through every possible emotion but when standing on the podium it makes you realise that all the set backs you have, the hard work and graft you put in every day is worth it. I grew in confidence at the Games in every round and I learnt alot about myself and I now know that I want to achieve more.

I do have to say a massive thankyou to Christine Bowmaker who gave me such great support and encouragement whilst in Delhi she was my rock :) and also a massive thank you to my parents as they have been amazing this year and have been by my side every step of the way they have been there through the highs and the lows and more importantly my on tap babysitter for Mia haha love you all so very much. Also my brother John he was great whilst I was in Delhi keeping me updated on all the support I had at home and picking me up when I was feeling down :)

Enough of the love now haha but thank you to everyone for all your support whilst in Delhi now it's time for 2011 :)

Commonwealth Games Doha

Sorry it has been so long since my last blog but the Commonwealth Games have now arrived so all the hard work comes down to the next ten days or so. As some of you may know I am competing in the 100mtrs and the 4x100mtr relay and I really cant wait to get under way.

The last week I have been at the Team England holding camp in Doha and training at Aspire with my coach Linford and my training group Laura Turner, Mark Lewis-Francies and Conrad Williams. I have been busy doing my final preparation before heading into Delhi tomorrow. I have been fine tuning and sharpening up in the heat of Doha and I am feeling great and confident I can deliver a good performance.

The hotel we stayed in was lovely and the facilities where amazing however cause of the heat it made the block sessions hard as putting your hands and knee on the track was like putting them into a fire!!!



It's been great being here as everything I have done has been around the Games, I have ate, and slept athletics and ignored all the things in the press regarding what has been going on in the athletes village in Delhi. I don't care where I sleep I would sleep on the track, I am out here to do a job and that is to run and for the first time ever in England colours. I have been training hard and walked away from every session I have done out here getting better, sharper and full of confidence and I am ready to go to Delhi and step on the track and let rip. I kick off my first round of the 100mtrs on the 6th at 2.30pm UK time.


I have a bit of a story to share with guys as I am at the moment suppose to already be at the athletes village in Delhi with 29 athletes, however I am sat in a not so nice hotel in Bahrain!! we left Doha at 5am this morning on our first flight to Bahrain with some athletes being given two boarding cards for our connecting flight and others including myself only given one. Little did we know that when we would arrive in Bahrain those athletes that didn't have the connecting flight boarding pass where not getting on the connecting flight as the airline had OVER BOOKED the plane leaving 19 athletes and team management stuck in Bahrain! After about an hour of talking to the airline we where told that we would be put on the next flight to Delhi at 12pm travelling business class and while we had to wait we would be put up in a hotel. Could this day get any worse? YES to say the hotel is basic is an understatement and it looks like it has never been cleaned before!! To say all 19 of us are not happy is also an understatement we cant wait to get into Delhi this certainly hasn't been a stress free day haha. I'm confident that we will finally get to Delhi in the morning and I will be catching up on lack of sleep until the 6th haha. We maybe a little annoyed about what has happened but we are still in high spirits and making jokes out of the bad situation but please God get us to the village.

Anyway that's me done for now as we shall be leaving the hotel shortly next stop the Athletes Village followed by my time to shine so please tune in and support myself and Team England.

Chat soon.xx

Busy week working the press

Since the news of myself being named in the English Team for the Commonwealth Games I've been busy doing alot of press work this week and I feel like all the days have rolled into one.

I went on BBC Radio Devon breakfast show with my good friend Mr Gordon Sparks who was thrilled for me getting on the team. I love going onto his breakfast show as we don't really take things too serious and we have very good banter and always have a giggle. I had to be up at 6am in the morning to be on the show for 7am I am not a very good morning person at all, if I could I would stay in bed all day!!! On the show they where asking people to phone in with a poem consisting of four line about Plymouth so I wrote one myself so I thought I would share it with you............
Plymouth City holds a special place in my heart
Which is why us sporting Heros never do part
The swimmers, the divers, and an athlete too
Are off to Dehli to fly the Plymouth flag just for you!!!
I'm a women of many talents!! Haha

Following the breakfast show I then went onto the Countywide show and had another chat on the radio about how pleased I was to be included in the team and how I found it coming back after five years out. The talk on this show was about G.C.S.E's seen as it was result day and they where talking about how people offer their children rewards for good grades!! I never had that when I was at school and I didn't have good grades either, the question was asked "if I had been offered rewards would I have done better?!" I replied I don't think so I just wasn't that focused at all when I was at school, I was the child that always got in trouble ;)

Next stop was BBC Spotlight interview for local news. So I took a visit to the track with Mia to film me doing some drills and have my interview whilst walking around the track. The interview went really well and I was very pleased with the outcome. Whilst filming me doing my drills who was copying me in the lane next to me??!! Mia!! She was a little star a champion in the making for sure she stole my limelight, she looked so cute watching it back on the news, the presenters even said it looks like kathereine has an athlete in the making with Mia.......wonder how much I would get on her if I went to the bookies and put money down on her making the Olympics?! Ha

Commonwealth Games Here I Come

OK well it goes like this............I knew on Tuesday that I was going to Delhi and I had to keep it a secret until today when the Team was announced. I don't know how I managed to keep my mouth shut, this is a first for me!!! haha. However, I was allowed to tell my family so that made it a little easier for me.

So it's official I am going to the Commonwealth Game in Delhi to represent England in the 100mtrs and 4x1 relay. I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to compete in the 100mtr as I was chasing the qualifying time race after race and was coming into form with PB after PB. I am grateful that the selectors have seen that I am coming into form and I know that by the time it gets to the Games I will be in better shape and ready to run fast and lay down a marker.

I am amazed at the amount of support and well wishes I have received during my season, even from people I have never even met and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all very much. I will do my best in Delhi to make everyone proud and I cant wait to go out there and do the business. I am very glad that I decided to give my athletic carrer another shot after five years out it goes to show that with alittle hard work and dedication anything is possible