Sunday 23 September 2018

One day one photo - 23: Southern Relay Championships

The start of the Southern Road Relay Championships at Crystal Palace. This is not actually from this year because the weather was not quite so sunny. In fact it was pretty wet. Apart from the atmospheric conditions everything else was the same - the same wide array of running clubs, the same size field, the same officials making sure everything ran smoothly. It all did, and it was fun.

I ran for my first-claim club, Serpentine. It was nice to catch up with some of them after quite a long time.
For all the running and improvements I have made, I always seem to be one of the slowest runners in the squad. I am quite happy to put down that this year I'm taking 22 minutes to run 5km, but the fact is that when there are folks doing the distance in under 19 minutes and the next slowest person from me is doing just over 20 minutes it still makes you feel like a slow coach! And bear in mind that those taking 20 minutes are vets - as in women into their 40s, even 50s!

But the great thing is that at Serpentine they don't seem to be judgmental at all about your ability. They are just happy that you are taking part and giving it a go. And if the team wins prizes their attitude is "fancy that - that's nice isn't it?" Their ethos hasn't changed since when I joined back in 2001. So for that reason I will continue to be a Serpie member, and hopefully I will get to a point where I can run 20 minutes for 5km.

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