David Weir's Blog by David_Weir

Hi and welcome to my first blog here on realbuzz.com. I hope to give you a real insight into my preparations for the Virgin London Marathon next April and the build up to the Paralympic Games in my home city! At home it has been an exciting few weeks as my fiancé Emily had our baby boy Mason on 1 August, three weeks early, so it was a bit of a surprise. I was racing the day before in Stoke Mandeville over the 1500m. The following day we were just doing normal things at home and then Emily said her waters had just broken just before 7pm. We rushed to the hospital and Mason arrived about 3am on Monday morning. We knew we were having a boy, but it was just amazing to see him arrive. It definitely beats winning any gold medal!

It has taken a bit of time to get into a new routine with Mason’s feeding and sleeping. I took a few weeks off training at home to be with Emily and Mason, but now I’m back fully into training again ahead of a long winter. He is already seven weeks old, which is scary really. My daughter Ronie (she is 8 years old) absolutely adores her baby brother. She is really good with him, she loves holding him and feeding him. Reflecting on my track season, it has gone well really, but it was a long season following the World Championships back in January in New Zealand. My shoulder has caused me a few problems. It has been a recurring injury which I have been managing since before the World Championships. So I have cut back on my road racing plans, to prepare 100% for the London Marathon next year and the Paralympic Games.

I decided to miss the Great North Run, which is one of my favourite races in the autumn, plus the New York Marathon. I’m gutted actually to miss the New York Marathon, after winning it last year. It was one of the highlights of my career, so I really hope to race in New York next year. My training base is Richmond Park and Kingston Athletics Track and I have a great support team at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. I see my physio Paul Martin and strength and conditioning coach Nick Cooper on a regular basis, and work very closely with my coach Jenny Archer. Everything is tailored to my winter training now and peaking for next year - the London Marathon will be my next big race in April. It will be a long tough winter, but I may be going away to Australia for some warm weather training in January.

Looking ahead to the Paralympics, it has been great to see such excitement around the one year to go mark and the launch of ticket sales. I have to admit I didn’t think I would see the large amount of media coverage around Paralympic sport in my career, with such wide coverage in the national press and TV. It has been nice to be picked out as one of the top Paralympians to watch at the Games, in various national papers. I attended the Sainsbury’s Super Saturday event on Clapham Common to promote the Paralympics. It was a great day; everyone really treated us like celebrities. It was surreal to be backstage meeting the Sugarbabes, Chipmunk, Alex Reid etc. I even did a live interview for Channel 4 with Chipmunk and Ellie Simmonds.

For the launch of the Paralympic tickets, my image has been used in the ticketing ad campaign. I haven’t actually seen my image on a London bus yet, but people keep texting me to say they have seen me on a bus! Looking ahead to the London Marathon, it has always been a massive part of my life. The London Mini Marathon was my first race in a wheelchair and I watched the race for years on television. This year it will be my 12th London Marathon, I have never missed one! I would say honestly that my hunger never dies to win in London, this year I would love to go under 1 hour 30 on the course, but we will see! Have a great week!