Hannah’s father Patrick is her coach, as well as working as a helicopter pilot.

olympic journal 4

I'm now getting ready for my 200IM heat. Up until then the excitement of Rebecca Adlington's gold medal is still fresh! After eating a big breakfast I plugged myself into my focus world that I put myself into to stop any distractions, to do that I listen to my music and psycologicaly put myself there. Once again I stepped onto the bus and waited to arrive at the pool. once at the pool i warmed up same as before for my 400IM but with faster pace work. Again I had to put on my racing suit - which by the way no matter how many suits you put on they are still the hardest to I've ever had to put on. After the 30 minutes I spent to put my suit on I was sent to the call room and wait to be called  up for my race. In my heat I had Stephanie Rice and Kirsty Coventry. I so wanted to make a semi so I had to swim my socks off. I felt unusally relaxed when I stood behind my block ready to start. All I can remeber from the race once i was onto the freestyle leg was that I got excited. I saw that i was ahead of Rice and Coventry, I knew that they would be saving their energy for the semi, but I needed to secure my place in the semi so I gave it my all. I turned and looked at the scoreboard and saw the number 1 next to my name and I felt estatic!! I know it was only a heat swim but it meant so much to me to win the heat and nothing can take that away from me. After speaking to Sharon and Steven I headed towards the swim down pool to start my recovery in order for me to be at my best for the Semi - final. The semi-final would take place the following morning so I had the rest of the day to rest and recover. I repeated the same process for the heats for the semis - as swimmers you become creatures of habit and routine so there are alot of things that I repeat. Anyway the preparation before the semi as I said was no different to the preparation for that of the heat swim. So I'll save repeating myself and skip to the start of the race. I was placed in the first of the Semi-finals, which is not ideal as the semi after can see the times that have been swum and can gauge how much effort to put in. Forexample if the first semi final all went really fast times then those in the following seim would know that they cannot save and enerygy as they woul risk not swimming fast enough. So being in the first semi I had to swim fast to try and secure a place in the final as I had no idea how the next semi would go. The whistle blew for us to stand onto the blocks and I remember wish with all my might that my swim would be enough to get me through to the final. I finished 6th with a time that was only 0.05 slower that the time i did in the heats. I was really pleased with my time however everybody in my semi had raised their game and I finished 6th. The chances of me making a final were very slim. However I was happy with the fact that I made the semi-finals as I never really expected me to make it as it is a sprint event compared to the 400IM.

olympic journal 3

I am writing this as the swimming competition comes to an end and what a journey it has been. The highs and the lows of Team GB are going to be the memories of a historic event that I was able to be part of. So I'll take you through each day as best as I can.

August 9th the eve of racing. There has been a real buzz around Team GB. After settling into our accommodation and getting used to our surroundings the racing was soon to start in around 8 hours. I have gone to the pool surveyed my surroundings and I am looking forward for the racing to start. One last swimming session with my coach before I can race to get the final preparations in place. It wasn't long when we arrived back at the village had lunch and had our team meeting before the heats started that the extent of what I was about to do really sunk in. I admit that I did have a few butterflies in my stomach. I travelled to the pool by the shuttle bus and started my focus preparations by having my headphones on with motivational music on and trying to visualize my race. I found out that I was to race in the last of the heats seeded next to the current world record holder Katie Hoff. This is the best place to be as I can view the other heats that had gone before me and see what time I would have to go to make the final. After the warm up I had to go and suit up with took around 30 minutes. It's really hard putting on a brand new racing suit and as a result I skinned my knuckles from trying to pull it on!! After the suit was on I had to prepare a small bag which I kept a small towel for drying the block, spare suit, caps and goggles and food for immediate recovery after the race. Sitting in the call room with some of the fastest swimmers in the world for the 400IM was quite surreal. I waited and watch heat after heat line up and leave to call room to walk onto poolside and race. Before my name is called for line up I usually do a small dynamic routine to get my body loose, limber and fired up ready to swim fast - usually involves swinging arms, jumping, stretches and some other stuff. As my name was called I line up with the rest of my heat, I had just seen the previous heat go a 3.34 which compared to the last Olympics would have won the event so these heats were really fast, I had to get up there and swim fast!! With my head phones on blocking any distractions I walked onto poolside feeling confident and ready to race.

This is it, this is what I have spent years of training for. The starter goes and I've enter the cool blue water. From then on it's all a bit of a blur but what I do remember when I finished was that I had to come in the top 2 to stand a good chance at being in the final. It hurt, I had given it my all and hoped it would have been enough to make the final. When I first saw my time a 3.36 my initial reaction was disappointment, I really thought that I hadn't made the final. When the final results came up I was filled with joy and in shock I had made the final going in 8th and it had hit me, I'm in the final.....an Olympic final......only 8 people in the world get the privilege to do so and I'm one of them. I think when I spoke to Sharron I didn't come across as being the happy bubble person, I was in so much shock of making the final I honestly didn't really know what to do. As I went further down the media mixed zone I started coming out of my shock started to act a bit more normally. I had a good swim down to remove the lactic acid from my body as I had produce over 11 mmols (that's pretty high and shows that your body has worked hard, my average reading is between 8-9). Travelled back to the village to have dinner and head to bed.

Next morning I woke up with the realization that I was going to be swimming in my first Olympic final. After eating breakfast at the dining hall I took the bus over to the water cube again and tried to resume the same mental state I was in before my race. Warm up was great, I was swimming faster pace swims than last night so that proved to be a good sign. Had the task of again putting on my racing suit this time with plasters wrapped round my knuckles to save my poor skin. Once again I was back in the call room this time with the top 8 fastest swimmers for the 400IM. It was very quiet and everybody was focusing on the up and coming race. Again I donned my headphones focused. As we lines up we nodded to each other as a sign of respect and wishing each other well for the race as we were called out onto poolside. Being in and outside lane, lane 8 I had to lead everyone out. As we walked out even with my headphones on I could still hear the roar of the crowd!! The announcer announced the names of each swimmer from lanes 1 to 8 and the whistle blew for us to get up onto the starting blocks. Again I don't have that much recollection of the race but what I do know is that I put everything into it as when I finished I was hurting real bad. Turning around and looking at the scoreboard I had a mixture of feelings. Firstly I saw I had come 6th so that was an improvement going into the final eighth and to come out sixth is really good. However I wasn't so happy with my time 4.39. I had gone a 4.33 in trials and the effort I put into that race felt the same I had nothing left to give. So I was ecstatic that I had just experienced my first Olympic final and finished sixth but also a little disappointed with my performance. With a good chat with Sharon from BBC and Steven Parry on Radio 5 Live I got back into the pool to recover.

I now have the 200IM left which I will swim in two days time. In the mean time I can watch some of the other races. By which I got to experience Great Britain's first Olympic gold medal in swimming. Rebecca Adlington's 400 freestyle. It was fantastic I still can believe that she won it. Screaming with all my might she touch the wall ahead of Katie Hoff. It was unbelievable, it was such an inspirational swim, I'll never forget it!!. She shares the apartment with me along with Julia Beckett and Jessica Sylvester. So when she arrived back there was huge celebrations and a real buzz.

olympic journal 2

It's been a week in Osaka and I'm getting used to the usual routine:

The alarm goes off at 6.30 and head down to breakfast. The hotel we are staying at has 51 floors, so if there are a lot of people on different floors calling the lift it can take ages!! I have to say breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, there's scrambled eggs, sausages, omelets, cereals and toast. The toast - I think I might have mentioned before is fantastic. Crunchy on the outside soft on the in side with margarine and jam on top....yum!!! Once fuelled up we left to catch the train to the pool. Outside is very humidity so it is a relief to jump into the cold water of the swimming pool.

We had a team meeting with Olympic Bronze medalists Steve Parry and Graeme Smith who gave a talk on their own experiences at the Games and gave us some tips on how to be the best prepared. The talk was very inspiring and gave us an insight to what we should expect at the Olympic Village. After the presentation we had a team building exercise - Whack a mole!! it was a Japanese game that Steven Parry bought in Japan. It was great fun and brought the team together at bit more.

We're now packing up our rooms to get ready to leave for the village, my packing is not going. I keep thinking I've packed everything and then I something like my wash bag, jacket hanging in the wardrobe, straightners etc.

It was sad leaving Osaka, it's is such a nice place and everyone is so helpful and polite I really liked the culture. Arriving at the airport we had to queue for ages and try and find tags to help us identify our bags as the French team where also at the airport and they had the exact same kind of bags as us.

We touched down in Beijing after 3 hours on the plane and picked up our bags. Walking out of the airport was a bit of an experience. We had to walk down this special lane for "Olympians Only" and it was like being at some sort of red carpet event, there was press surrounding everyone. We weren't the only team that was on that flight there were also the French team, Italians, Zimbabweans etc. So it was pretty surreal being surrounded by so many cameras. Once we loaded our bags onto the bus we were escorted by a police car to the Olympic Village. We arrived at the Olympic village and had to have our bags scanned and checked - with 2 bags each and 37 athletes that took a little while.

We were shown to our apartments and I have to say I've never seen anything like it. We have an apartment shared between 4 - 6 of us so there are always two to a room. We get given a sensor key ring in the shape of a coke a cola bottle, we scan it on one of the vending machines and as many drinks as we want. Also the Food hall is the size of like 2 or 3 football pitches put together, it's massive. There so much food and you really struggle to try and figure out what you really want to eat as there is so much choice. We also were given an accreditation pass which is used as id to let us into certain areas. Opposite the Team GB area we have an arcade where there is free internet and arcade games. It's pretty hard to describe everything as there is just so much. There are monuments and features, water features etc dotted about the village which makes it feel so peaceful and quite homely. At night it is pretty spectacular as there are little lights dotted on the ground and in the ponds and little rivers.

I do have to say my favorite part is the food hall, you can think of any meal that you want to have and just have to go over to the counter and get it. They are quite strict on security so whenever you leave the village you have to walk through a metal detector and have your bags (if you had any) scanned, kinda like the security check in at the airport.

olympic journal 1

It has now been a couple of days at the acclimatization camp in Osaka. The flight over was fine, just like any normal long haul flight as soon as you get on the plane you can't wait to get off. After the long 10 hour flight we landed in Osaka and collected our luggage. It was a great feeling being on the ground - love it!! we arrived the hotel a while later after packing the coach with our bags (we had two each so with over 30 swimmers that a lot of bags). We arrived at a the hotel and settled in for a short while before some of us headed off to the Osaka Pool. The swim session was just a nice light paddle to try and rid of some of the jet lag. It's a fantastic pool 10 lane 50m with a 6 lane 25m next to it. The humidity however is another story. It's really humid, you walk outside and immediately sweat - nice.

Amidst all the swimming, training at the gym and eating we had an evening of intense competition. It was a
Mario Kart race on our Nintendo DS. With swimmers being competitive in nature it was quite a serious event in a
funny way!! To keep us entertained and to do something other than swim we brought some DVDs and have a couple of
movies sessions.

The food is alright, we get to taste some traditional Japanese's food and some home traditional food -
spaghetti bolognas. Although it would be nice if we didn't have to eat it for lunch and dinner everyday. My favorite food so far I do have to say is the toast, I know that sounds a bit daft what with trying something cultural but the toast it amazing! The bread is so soft and having butter and jam on it is like the icing on a
cake.

So far there hasn't been anything too spectacular to report but I will keep you updated as often as I can.

december 2007 blog

It’s the final month of the year but that doesnt stop it from being a busy month. The Endless Summer Camp ended for me on the 3rd December.

It was a long flight home, eventually we made it back onto Scottish soil however our bags didn’t. Around sixteen hours later both me and my dad were back at the airport checking in for Eindhoven. One of my team mates was also flying out with me to Eindhoven.

Here at this meet I swam the 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 200m I.M, 400m I.M, 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle. I was 0.1 away from the British Record in the 200m I.M and I broke the 400m I.M British Record by 0.2.

It was a great meet and great to have my team mate there with me as well, he also swam several pbs’. However my coach was pacing me for one of my finals and slipped on the wet floor and he fractured his left wrist which has left him unable to drive and work as a helicopter pilot.

In some was it has been good as he now has more time to spend with me in coaching me. Finally I flew home on the 9th December and stayed at home till the 21st December.

There was an Inter-Clubs competition in Paris over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd. I took part in the 10x100m Freestyle relay and the 200m I.M ans 400m I.M. I swam for the club Clichy. Just missing the christmas rush home at the airport on the 24th I safly made it home and had a wonderful Christmas.

With both Inverurie and RGU swimming pools opeining and closing at different times during the christmas period, there has been alot of driving to and fro, with my dad not being able to drive I’ve had to tackle the main roads to and from Aberdeen.

Considering I’d only passed my test just before I travelled to Aus so I’ve not really been able to have much practice on the Aberdeen route only around the town of Inverurie. Now we’re on the count down to the New Year. Hope everyone has a fantastic 2008.


november 2007 blog

This month has been a very busy month. On the 28th October I travelled over to Australia (Sydney) where I took part in competitions and training.

The competition started in Sydney on the 2nd November. This was part of the World Cup Series, on the first day I competed in the 200m Freestyle, 200m I.M and 200m Backstroke.

I got into the final for the 200m I.M and swam a pb 2.11.62 which was a Scottish Senior record. The following day I swam 100m I.M and 400m Freestyle, then in the evening I swam the 400m I.M, which was a direct final, and went 4.33.00 which was a British Record.

It was a quick turn around as we flew out to Canberra the following day. There we stayed at the AIS in halls of residence. We trained for the first week and then competed at the weekend. The food at the AIS was awesome!

It was so good, there was always something there that you liked and they had nutrition cards for each of the main meals, letting you know how much carbohydrate, protein and fat were in the food. We were split into groups for training, as my coach could not come out to Australia just yet I worked with Jo Jackson.

Training was tough but enjoyable. The weather was a bit strange as well, the first week was really quite cold with temperatures of around 12 degrees however during the second week it became increasingly warmer with temperatures reaching 26 –28 degrees. We stayed in Canberra for two weeks before we moved on again to the Gold Coast.

So it was another trip on a plane to Brisbane where we were taken by bus over to the Gold Coast. This was to be just a training camp where my coach flew over a couple of days later. We stayed at the Beaconlea apartments; they were really nice although we had no air conditioning.

I shared an apartment with Julia Beckett. It got pretty hot. I trained with the Edinburgh team and my coach at the TSS pool and on occasions the Southport pool. It was all long course training and out doors, so I was able to get a little colour!

Now my family and I are in Mallorca for a family holiday/training camp. More so a holiday for my Mum and two younger brothers and mainly a training camp for my dad and me.

On the 1st of June I finished my last exam (Higher Psychology) and my final year at school. On the same day I travelled to Edinburgh to go with the Edinburgh team out to Cannet.

On the 9th and 10th of June I competed in a competition called the Mare Nostrums. On the 9th I raced the 200m Butterfly in a time of 2:14.32 which was a new Scottish Senior Record and allowed me to qualify for the A final that evening.

The following day (10th) I competed in the 200m IM and the 200m Freestyle.

For the 200m Freestyle I qualified for the B final in a time of 2:03.37 and the 200m IM I qualified for the A final in a time of 2:17.20.

In the final for the 200m IM I finished in 1st place with a time of 2:14.57 breaking Sue Rolph’s British Record. I was over the moon with that time as it was very unexpected, it was a long-standing British record and I felt proud that I had reduced the time.

On the 13th–14th June the Mare Nostrum Meet continued on to Barcelona. There I competed in the 200m IM again and came 2nd in a time of 2:14.10 which broke my previous British Record.

The swim though that I considered to be the best one for me of the whole two meets was the 400m IM. I came 1st with a time of 4:39.91, which is the first time anyone in the UK has gone under the 4:40 mark.

After the competition was over I spent a week and a half training with the Edinburgh team. On the 28th till the 29th I competed at the Scottish National open championships. I could only compete for the first two days as I had a training camp with my coach in Mallorca for a week.

On day two I swam the 200m Butterfly and 200m I.M and won both events and again both just outside my P.Bs.

Day three was the 100m Butterfly in which I came second with a new P.B of 1:03.17 and won the 200m Backstroke in a 2:19 which is quite a bit off my P.B.

On the final day I swam the 400m I.M, 200m Freestyle and the 100m Backstroke. I placed first in all three events but was a little disappointed with the 400m I.M, I was hoping for a faster time.

It was a really great meet to be at and some of the younger kids in the club were brilliant. It was great fun cheering for those who made their first final at this meet and see some of them get so close to medal positions. It was fantastic!