Journey of an Olympian. Chapter 26

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Chapter Twenty-Six: Holidays – what’s that again?

After the Games finished, we holidayed, for about 3 weeks. I had a complete break from weightlifting, which I thoroughly enjoyed, while holidaying in South West England for approximately 10 days and then in the USA for a week.

At Bath (2002)
First, Meagan, Saree and I left the athletes village in Manchester and went straight to pick up a rental car. From there I drove us all down to Dorset, stopping off at Bath for lunch and then Stonehenge for some touristy photos, before finally arriving in Poole. There we met up with Steve at his Mum & Dad’s house where we were all staying for a week. During our week there, Steve and I showed Saree and Meagan all around Dorset. We visited Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove and the smallest pub in England and we introduced Meagan and Saree to our English friends.

Meagan, Me, Steve & Saree at Corfe Castle (2002)

Afternoon nap in Cherbourg (Aug 2002)
We even managed a day trip across to Cherbourg, a seaside village in France, which unfortunately turned out to be a disappointment. We took a night crossing on the ferry as foot passengers, which meant less than 5 hours sleep in recliner chairs. So when we arrived we were all extremely tired. On top of that, it was raining on & off and very little was open. We realised later that many places, shops, etc had shut down because it was August summer holidays in France and everyone takes their annual holidays to the south of France.

I trained once while in Bournemouth. It was all we had time for due to our full schedule, with all the places we wanted to see and old friends to catch up with. Not surprisingly, after the intensity of the last six months, I didn’t miss training at all. But I did feel a little guilty! I felt like I should be training…

After our time in Dorset, we headed to Heathrow, where we separated from Saree as she was returning to Australia. Meagan accompanied Steve and I to Los Angeles – Steve & I had made plans to get married in Las Vegas and Meagan wanted to join us as our best man/matron of honour. We spent a few days at Venice Beach first, shopping and relaxing. Then we rented a car and drove to Las Vegas for a couple of days.

The wedding party (Meagan, me Steve & my Dad)
My dad met up with us in Vegas for the wedding and we had a really nice day, although it was very hot (about 120 degrees Fahrenheit). A limousine picked us up just after lunch and drove us to the Courthouse to get our marriage certificate. Then we went to Red Rock Canyon for our wedding ceremony. It was a beautiful setting, in the desert about 20 minutes drive west of Vegas. Thankfully the ceremony was brief, as the heat was trying to dry us into prunes. There was just the four of us, plus the celebrant and a photographer. We were glad to get back into the air-conditioned limo afterwards, which took us back to the strip in Vegas where we then had drinks and dinner at The Venetian Casino.

Getting hitched to Steve at Red Rock Canyon in Vegas (14 Aug 2002)
I completely switched off weightlifting during this period. We had a brilliant holiday and wedding.  It wasn’t until getting on the plane to come back home that I started to contemplate what to do next.

Coming up next – Chapter 27: What next?