Travel Day, 17th-18th May

Sometimes things don’t go as planned. But as we say on our team “planning is for fools." Schedules always change and therefore we have learned over the years not to plan to do something because most likely you won’t get to do it. Our day began like this:

As a team, we met at 1:15am to pack full our rental cars with bags and people. Departed on time 15 minutes later. With a quick coffee break at 3am, we were at the airport by 4:30am. Our original flight was scheduled for 7:20am, so we were good on time. With a few minutes to hang out, we stocked up on meal deals from Boots (sandwich, yogurt and a drink) and fueled up with some coffee and fruit toast from Starbucks.

All aboard our flight for Madrid, we sat in the airplane for 2 hours while the engineer had look at the breaks. Too broken to fix in a short time, we then returned to the gate and unloaded the plane. Went to baggage claim, picked up our bags and returned to the same Terminal. Stranded, we waited until we knew when we could get out next flight.

In the meantime, a few of us decided a game of rugby would entertain us. 4 v 4, we played an intense game outside Terminal 3 at Heathrow airport. People loved us as they tried to walk by. Now sweating, it was finally time to check in for our hopeful flight to Lima via Madrid.

By 5:50pm we were on our way to South America! Only 12 hours after arriving in London. A quick 2 ½ hour flight later, we were once again hanging out in an airport before our final 12 hour flight to Lima, Peru. We’ve mastered as a team the stages of no sleep and travel. First you eat from boredom, then you try to nap, with no success, you eat some more, and then come up with random games to play like rugby, charades, etc. The second to last stage, the last being just so exhausted you could fall asleep anywhere, is delirium. I’ve taken some great photos with photo booth, none my teammates would want me to share, but it entertained us for a good 45 minutes.

The flight to Lima actually went by really fast. 12 hours later we arrived to the smell of the ocean and a stray dog that followed us to our bus.

It was one heck of a travel day, one my legs are still recovering from. With my best friends the foam roller, hydration packs and my skins, I will hopefully be ready for training in 4 hours time.

Total players: 13

Total staff: 4

Total bags: 25

Total hours flying: 15

Total hours sitting on a grounded plane: 2

Total hours wasting time in Heathrow: 12 1/2

Total hours hanging around Madrid airport: 4

Total calories consumed: a lot

Total hours to get from Sheffield, England to Lima, Peru: 36

Total showers: 0

Even with everything happening the way it did, I’m still so excited to be in South America (this is my first time here!) and can’t wait for our first match vs. Peru on Friday the 20^th.

Waiting to check in for the second time, this was base camp for the morning/afternoon.

Amazed my pants didn't fall down catching this ball. Rules were like netball, you couldn't run once you caught the ball and had to touch the post with the ball for a point.

Resting before our flight to Lima and teammates showing off our new compression socks! Rock on!