Winslow 10k Report by Katherine Bates
Whenever I hear a mention of Winslow, I immediately think of ‘The Winslow Boy ‘ … a 1948 film adapted from the Terence Rattigan play of the same name.
A splendid film known only maybe to a few of us oldies out there which has no relevance to running or indeed the town, but thought I’d throw it in as a takeaway cultural reference. Personally I have to dig deep to find a positive ‘takeaway’ from my individual performance at this race. Feeling mentally under prepared and physically ever so slightly under the weather was not a propitious start and indeed thus was the case throughout the 6.2 miler. No gripes about the actual weather…mild and (hold the front page ) dry. The course was a pleasant loop, undulating, but not too severe and hosted by cheery lions of the charitable variety. I had no agenda with regard to pacing or placement and just ‘doubled down’ to get the job done. And then…well, it was done. And so was I.
Mostly as runners we like to talk about how positive and inspiring the sport is, how we can do better, what our next goal is etc, etc, but just sometimes a race can feel very pedestrian, figuratively and literally. And actually I realise that that IS my ‘takeaway ‘from this race. That it’s OK to feel mundane and a bit flat. We are not machines. No matter how much we want to push our bodies to go further and faster we have to embrace that just sometimes our spirit is lackluster. Just once in a while acknowledge the ‘human’ in us and actually we are mostly doing the best we can to stay fit and healthy. Being part of ERR encourages that in us. Without the race in the club championship I would have for sure backed out of this and missed out on the opportunity to see others in the club do very well and also to understand myself a bit more..to give licence to let go of constant striving for improvement and just ‘be’.
Many congrats to all ERRs out there who, whatever the circumstances on the day, gave it their all. Particular credit to the over 70’s … Mary for doing her first race for the club and Hugh for setting a new MV 70 record. Now that IS inspirational !
