Making Games - and now its all over!

After my first shift I had a couple of days 'off'.

I managed to finish my GamesMaker socks.

On the Tuesday I went to watch the Men's Triathlon in Hyde Park.

It was great to be in the crowd and hear the support for the Brownlees - and also for all the other athletes as they came round the run. all we saw of the cycling was teh helmets flying past in the background, but every lap a GamesMaker came down to tell us how the race was panning out.

I worked every athletics session from Wednesday morning to Saturday evening – lots of excitement but not much time for blogging about it. This post is a collection of memories, partly prompted by the photos I took.

My main role was as ‘buggy driver’, this meant driving or co-driving a buggy for putting out the hurdles; collecting the athletes’ kit boxes and taking them to the finish; giving injured athletes a lift; and any other delivery jobs that are needed.

I also helped the track team at the start and finish of the session – putting out drinks and seating for field athletes;  collecting litter from the track and infield;  setting out landing beds for high jump and pole vault .....  and reversing all that at the end of the session.

We were fortunate to have a hard working team, with a lot of experienced people so all went smoothly. As the week went on I got to know some of the folk better – there was a big spread of ages, and people tended to gravitate into age groups, but everyone got on well together. Towards the end as the hurdle sessions were over, much of our work as concentrated at the beginning and end of the session and we were able to go and eat together which was great.

Towards the end of the week we began to clear away the gear to make space for the closing ceremony – some equipment needed to be kept for the Paralympics, while other stuff would not be needed.

We were able to see snatches of the events  from the entrance tunnels while waiting to be called on for our duties.

Highlights included watching the Men’s Decathlon Pole Vault, this went on long after all the other events had finished, but many in the crowd stayed on, so there was plenty of atmosphere.

I was lucky enough to see Mo Farah’s 5K race, Steve Redgrave’s description of the wall of sound travelling round the stadium with him was exactly right.

Although I didn’t see the 100m relay final, I DID see the medal ceremony.

A great ending to Saturday evening was Mo’s medal presentation.



A perfect ending to a fantastic experience.