TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

I was reminded with wonderful decorum by a fellow Leopallooza -  www.leopallooza.com  festival goer this weekend, that I had failed to update my blog for over a month, verging on the 2 months mark. Not acceptable I must agree and to be perfectly frank I have no idea why not.

I sit here with my document open only to discover my last ramblings still on my document and not posted onto the blog – slack just doesn’t even start to cover it! Where is my head at recently?

Please read the following post as if you were reading it around 30^th June 2011:

I have very mixed emotions this week as it is the final sessions of Bude Women’s Running Network. I started the Bude WRN back in October 2009 after having caught the running bug whilst running with some friends within the village. I gradually started to see improvements in many areas of my life, my energy levels and my new zest for life was very addictive. I also found that I very much enjoyed the social aspect of the runs with Claire and Katie and I am sure that is how our friendships became as solid as they are – something I will always be grateful for.

I had been a subscriber of Runner’s World magazine for no more than 3 months when I read an article detailing how a woman who had recently started running and had felt the same benefits that I had. She had decided to start her own running group as there wasn’t a group that catered for beginners or those who weren’t 9 minute miler’s in her area. I think I knew there and then that I was going to have to do the same. I had already been very aware of the Women’s Running Network when I had lived in Exeter (where it all started in 1997) and knew they were geared towards getting women of all levels and all abilities to run within a social, safe group. There were opportunities for runners in Bude through Bude RATS but nothing specifically tailored towards beginners at that time and so the idea of Bude WRN was born.

I booked myself onto a Leadership in Running Fitness course to be held in Launceston in Sept 2009 and then my first run was scheduled for 31 October. I remember thinking that no one would show up and that myself and my county activator, Charlotte Lawson, would end up doing a run together!! I was amazed when the women started to arrive and had to hold back my nerves when introducing the concept and the way the WRN worked. 

From that day to this, as they say, the rest is history. Myself and www.daytodavis.co.uk have encouraged many women to dust off their trainers and give running a go. Some have now gone on to join the Bude RATS www.buderats.co.uk who have accommodated all us ex WRN members and made us all feel very welcome. Many have achieved things they didn’t know they could, 10K races, half marathons to name but a few. The most wonderful memories I will take away from it all is that I have shared in someone’s feeling of triumph. Be it running all the way to the top of a hill which has always challenged them, finishing a beginner’s course when they had said “I am not a runner!”, booking themselves in for a half marathon and then training each weekend together, encouraging each other. I am so very happy to have been a part of an amazingly supportive bunch of women – to all of you, keeeep running!! (Said in a Bruce and Tess kind of way!)

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Each year around the world, IWD is celebrated on March 8. Hundreds of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark economic, political and social achievements of women. Without even being aware of it, I have already participated in one such event, the Women’s Running Network Exeter Half Marathon was one such event that has taken place to mark the 100^th anniversary. It is documented that 10 years ago in the UK there were a handful of events in the UK. The list this year looks vast and wide ranging, encouraging signs.

I became aware of it through reading an article in the Guardian a few weekends ago, being of interest to me I then went onto the IWD website to have a look at possible events in my area www.internationalwomensday.com. That’s when I came across the WRN event which I took part in on 19^th February and was excited to see so many hundred’s of events listed throughout March.

So make a difference, think globally, act locally, is a slogan used within the IWD website and I really do believe that the more our communities encourage and celebrate women’s achievements on a local level, the more rich and diverse we become from this.

Locally I know many women who are nurturing this way of thinking, many of them being mothers, like myself. A group of mother’s who helps to man the toy library to enable the members of the community to borrow toys to help educate and develop their children, a mother who develops her music business to encourage pre schoolers to have a love of music and use their natural development with sound, a group of mothers who set up an art club within a local church, a group of women who enjoy keeping fit through running within a social, encouraging environment. The list goes on and these are just what my friends achieve.

Bude Area Toy Library, Music Train, S.M.A.R.T club @ Bradworthy, Bude Women’s Running Network.

So today I am celebrating the way women have enriched my life in so many ways. From my first manager, Gerry Cunliffe, who gave me the encouragement and knowledge as a trainee manager to go out there and love a job I did for 11 years. To a district manager, Louise Pettener, who knew how to support a very nervous new manager and encouraged her to achieve things she never thought she could do, by taking her out of her comfort zone. To the friend’s I have who are studying to realise their goals after having their children, who are setting up their own businesses, who are making hard decisions about the relationships in their life, who are supporting other friends to achieve things they never thought possible.

All these women and more help to educate and encourage future generations to know the difference between real role models and those that grace some of the magazines that hit the newsagent shelves. I don’t have daughter’s but I know that if I did I would want to be encouraging a future that is safe, rewarding and equal.