This week was slightly differently set out to my usual, instead of my normal school routine I had a week away in Palmy competing with my school for the volleyball nationals. I’ve been playing volleyball since I was in year 9, so this was my 5th year playing but due to COVID and other sports overlapping I haven’t been able to make the past 2 senior nationals.
Making this my first and last year going down. Unfortunately we cut ourselves out of placing pretty early on in the quarter finals after playing to the deciding set and just missing out, this was gutting as we knew we’re able to do better than we had as we were there restricted to 9th place at the best.
We didn’t let that ruin our tournament and we continued to play out our utmost best winning each game from then. That allowing us to reach 9th place, the best place we could get for our place in the final round.
It was slightly disappointing when we watched the final for our division as both teams we can beat and have multiple times with clear scores, but that was on us for playing down we needed to play our best.
Through the week away I didn’t let it stop me from keeping up my training as I knew that I have a race I was competitive in coming up, but I had to factor in that I was playing 2 games a day and away from home.
I was only issued and allowed to run 30-40 minutes from both my volleyball coach and Ray, but this was smart as it kept me able to still play at my utmost best and keep on my feet at different speeds not allowing myself to lose any fitness and speed I will need in the following races.
Playing different sports allows me to be involved with others as running and triathlon is a individual sport especially with how I train alone all the time, it gives me chances to learn different skills and be in different environments which I don’t tend to be in surrounded by others, having to work not only for myself but for them as it’s everyone working together.
– Jessica Bray