25/7/25: World University Games 2025 - Semi - Finals

What a privilege it is to look back after struggling and to realise that everything that you thought hadn't worked out, had in fact worked out exactly how it was supposed to, and not only that, you are far better at being alive because of the way in which things happened.

Today is semi-finals day. I am not nervous rather filled with undiluted belief. However, my body is failing to share the same enthusiasm for this race as my mind. It's been a long time since it moved at a speed even remotely close to the pace of yesterday's race, and my chronically temperamental hamstrings and back are struggling. The physio tapes me up until I'm halfway mummified and then I go to warm-up. What followed was potentially the worst warm-up I have ever done. My body was in no hurry to get from A to B, literally the antithesis of what a warm-up is all about. It got to a point where I just said to my coach, let's put a pin in that, I know what I'm doing. 'You do' he reiterated, and with a couple of fizzy Percy Pigs down me, a less clammy shake of my coach's hand, a patient and calm wait in the call room and one marathon of corridors and stairways later, I found myself back on the startline.

I had no reason to believe that I could do anything of personal note in this race. My body was in bits and the warm-up was non existent. But over the last six years I have had no reason to believe that I could get back on an international startline in the first place, and yet here we are. I knew my stubbornness would come in handy. I think deep down I even knew that the universe would soften to a stubborn heart, it just takes time. Always time.

I ran 13.24, another season's best, again my fastest time in five years and only four hundredths of a second off of my personal best. When it mattered, it was there, and that knowledge and proof that I can raise my game is invaluable to me when looking towards future competitions.

I came into the competition ranked 33rd and with a plethora of niggles to navigate. I leave the competition having come 13th and with nothing but excitement for the future...and yes the same niggles but I choose to believe that's all part of the fun :)

If you choose not to find beauty in the struggle, you will have less beauty in your life but the same amount of struggle.

LM

What a privilege it is to realise you are proud of yourself and that you have only just begun.