Harry Styles
Somehow yesterday I placed fourth, ahead of somebody on the Olympic team for Great Britain, and some men on the French team. It was definitely an ego boost considering I took a few months out because of my knee and I'm still ahead of some Olympians.
Frankie won gold, as expected. My perspective on her wins has completely changed. I thought the guaranteed gold medals in every race was simple for her, but yesterday changed my view. I've never seen her so distressed and usually she always keeps her guard up, but yesterday she couldn't. Finding out she has panic attacks before almost every race was a shock to me. If they're anything like the ones she had yesterday, then to still win gold miles ahead of the other runners is truly amazing.
This morning we got up to do a little session ahead of the races. It was nothing too intense, more so to keep Frankies mind busy because I know it helps. I could tell she was nervous but as we kept ourselves busy she seemed to relax more and more which was good.
When we arrived at the track, we found our seats in the stands and sat down for a while watching the races that took place earlier in the day. Alice met us there and spoke us through who was here and what people are saying about yesterday. Eventually Alice wandered off to chat to somebody leaving Frankie and I there alone. She had her feet up on the top of the seat in front of her, her legs bouncing as she fiddled with the label on the bottle she was holding.
'You wanna go talk to that group of girls from back home?' I asked her, wondering if maybe doing something to preoccupy her mind would help calm the anxiety I could tell she was feeling.
'Do you not have heaps of people you wanna talk to right now?' She replied.
'Nah,' I shrugged. I probably could go and speak to people, but I didn't want to.
'Fine, I'll go.' Frankie sighed, taking to her feet like it was a chore.
'You don't have to.' I chuckled, but she looked over her shoulder at me and wandered off anyway.
I followed behind, I wanted to make sure she was okay and to be honest, I enjoy talking to those people too. Frankie is more of an interest to them than I am, so I just stood around awkwardly nodding my head as the little girls looked up at her in awe.
She's such an inspiration to young girls and I think it's sweet the way they idolise her. It was nice to see Frankie looking genuinely happy too rather than stressed or grumpy. As she watched the races too, she looked happy and applauded those who took part with a proud smile on her face.
Frankie isn't somebody who the public knows a lot about, she's a very private person when it comes to the media and they love to speculate. I don't know a lot about her yet, but what I do know is that she isn't the person newspapers make her out to be. I don't even think Frankie can see the person everyone close to her sees.
A few hours went by and I made sure not to completely follow her around, I knew she'd hate it so I kept my distance. I watched from afar, trying to figure out whether she was getting nervous or not. It's hard to tell, she's too good at concealing how she feels.
When it came to my race she found me to wish me good luck and wandered over to stand at the finish line. Her face was the first one I found the second I took off from the starting line. When we first started working together, she'd never have wished me good luck and despite recent arguments and situations, I'd say we've come a long way since our first session together.
I crossed the finish line, and rested my hands on my knees to catch my breath. I heard Frankie rush over, she was screaming something I barely heard over my own heavy breathing and thinking heart from running. It wasn't until I lifted my head and looked at the board that I realised why.
