A Monumental Challenge
I'm no runner.
I'm reasonably fit, a decent skier, walk a fair amount, and have staggered around a ParkRun a couple of times.... but I'm no runner.
Of course, I'm going to set myself a goal of running a 10km race then.... why wouldn’t I?
My Rotary Club is always raising funds for local and international causes, and I thought I'd top up their coffers a little by running for them.
Training was sporadic and, as I grudgingly set myself increasingly challenging goals on my treadmill and turned up at my local ParkRun to get used to the hills and the damp winter weather, I saw myself improving but still, I couldn't call myself a runner.
The day of the race, The Bath Skyline, arrived. It was damp, but the rain of the last few days had subsided and I drove over there with trepidation.
I apprehensively collected my run number and eyed all the fitness fanatics, feeling a bit like a wildebeest amidst a gang of cheetahs and questioning myself on yet another flaky idea.
I lined up and the starter's gun fired. Off we went, jostling for position along the slippery path leading to the woods. Only about a minute had passed before I could feel my heart bursting out of my chest.
I saw what seemed like hundreds of people passing me, but I couldn't have cared less. I seriously considered stopping just as soon as I started then I heard a voice say, "Hi, I'm Terry, I'm the Sweep".
For those who aren’t familiar, the Sweep is the person allocated to run at the back of the pack, picking up the stragglers and making sure they don’t go missing or die in the course of the race!
I muttered some expletive under my breath and exclaimed, "What! Am I last? Not already! We haven't even done half a mile. God, I'm useless!"
Terry looked at me and said,
“No you're not, you're still achieving 100% more than everyone sat on their sofas and it's my job to get you round. So come on, let's get going”.
I looked at her, grimacing in pain already with a pleading look that I hoped she’d interpret in such a way that she’d just let me stop. But no. She made me run! Stop, start, stop, start, round the whole 10km, much of it with me swearing under my breath and chastising myself for trying to be a runner, much to Terry's amusement.
Terry was about the same age as me, and we shared stories of achievements and how we hadn’t let things beat us along the way. She was running the London Marathon the following month. I thought she was crazy, but I was full of admiration!
She told me something that struck me though. She’d run more races than she’d cared to count and she was more than familiar with the people for whom this was a serious hobby, chalking off the races and collecting the medals along the way. But she said it was people like me who she admired the most, the ones for whom this was actually a monumental challenge and something we were not used to doing and may never do again! She said that in many ways, we were the ones with the most guts, the most determination and we found it the hardest. And she admired that. It was nice to hear and it was encouraging. But I was still grumbling my way round the course, counting down the laps and longing for my sofa!
We kept running… and walking… and acknowledging the course markers as they encouraged me to keep going, even although they looked freezing as they stood around waiting for the likes of me to get my ass round the course. It was wet and it was muddy from the rain of the previous days, and by lap 7, I no longer cared about stepping around it and I was just running through it, soaking wet and covered in mud. But I was past caring!
Halfway through the last lap, it looked like everyone was packing up and going home...and I was still running...well, staggering! But you know what, with a bit of extra grit and Terry's encouragement, I got over that line in 99 minutes and in last place! Last place! But I did it, and the sense of achievement I felt was overwhelming, that me, the non-runner, had actually dragged myself around a 10km course and finished it. And let's not forget I raised just under £1000 for the Rotary Club too. Tick, another bucket list item done and a little bit of a difference made to someone I’ll never know as a result. My work here was done!
