Hero's welcome for star Simon
By Sean Lawless on 5th Oct 16
British Paralympic athlete Simon Lawson received a heros welcome when he returned to his hometown of Maryport in Cumbria after finishing 14th in the T53/54 marathon in Rio.
Locals lined the town's high street to cheer on the 34-year-old who was paralysed in a motocross accident in 2001.
"I didn't expect that, especially as I came back without a medal,” he said. "I knew they were going to do something for me but I didn't know the extent of it to be honest. I went along thinking it was going to be small and they'd closed the main street off and all the schoolkids got a morning off and they had flags and banners. It was amazing.”
Lawson, who works at the family-run Jack Horseman Motorcycles in Carlisle, struggled to stay in contention in Brazil when his drinks system suffered a major malfunction on the start line.
"It was one of the hottest races that I've done – 38 degrees with high humidity – and I had problems with my hydration because my water pack burst just before the start. I knew it would be hard physically and that made it mentally much tougher because I noticed it had burst when we were lined up on the start grid.
"There was a running marathon before us and quite a few pulled out and a couple passed out.”
Despite the heat and his lack of water he still managed to finish in 1:32 – just three minutes off his personal best set in Seoul at the end of May.
"I sat in with the leaders for the first four or five miles but I knew I couldn't last that pace without any water so I had to ease off a bit and sit at a pace I knew I could finish at. It was still a decent time but it wasn't where I wanted to be.”
After completing a marathon most athletes would be looking forward to a rest but Lawson's schedule didn't allow any time off.
"I flew back from Rio to Heathrow, stayed there for a day and then flew out to Berlin and did another marathon there where I finished sixth. I was in the lead of a pack of six and it was sprint finish for about 100 metres so I just missed out – there was only five seconds covering us – and the guy who won was the guy who won the gold medal in Rio. So if anything I'm even more disappointed with Rio knowing that I'd done that a week later.
"I'm going to Chicago on Thursday morning for the marathon on Sunday and then there's the New York Marathon the first weekend in November and then that will be it for this year. There's world championships in London next year and then there will be European championships leading up to Tokyo in 2020.”
