I took the new racing wheelchair out for a spin. It was…. moderately successful.

As I suspected, the steering works only at speed, which is going to take some getting used to. I also realised that I have the footrest on wrong (for me) and the steering needs some adjustment.

What I realised most of all, though, is that I’m going to have to practice somewhere with very wide paths and no traffic until I get used to it.

Somewhere like The Tees Barrage, which is close by, has some good, smooth wide paths and which you might remember from such Olympics as 2012. If you want to come and jeer at me (and who doesn’t?) then I’ll probably be there much of the weekend. Probably at the bottom of a hill. Possibly upside down.

As always, take a look at my fundraising page. I’m doing wheelchair half marathons (hopefully three this year, plus sundry 10k events) to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.