Race for Life – Richmond Old Deer Park

My neighbour in Whitton persuaded me and my daughter to join her and a bunch of other women to complete the 5K Race for Life. This was months ago and I was confident that we would raise lots of money in sponsorship and have plenty of time to train – even if this involved running to the local pub on a regular basis.

It started a bit gloomy today and we had visions of running like a pack of drowned rats at Glastonbury in the mud. Undeterred we put on our pink trainers, pink Cancer Research tee shirts and pinned our registration numbers to our fronts and our “I’m in the Race for Life for…” banners on our backs. I was running for my step-mum Geri (currently doing chemo for liver cancer) and one of my best mates Hazel – all clear for 18 months after breast cancer. My daughter was running for her beloved grandmother who was lost to cancer several years ago.

After a short train journey to Richmond we joined the many other pink women of all ages to walk to the Old Deer Park buying water (and chocolate for sustenance) on the way. On arrival we made good use of the portaloos and then browsed the boutique where we added to our pink accessories with sparkly cowboy hats, feather boas and even flashing bunny ears. You’re supposed to write your emergency contact details on the reverse of your running number – some in our group (and we won’t say who) suggested that in the case of an emergency that any of the wonderful young army chaps who were on hand to help might be summoned.

And then the fun started. First up was a comedienne from Funny Women. Then we had a good natured instructor from Rosemary Conley take us through our warm up paces. I have to say that it was a heart warming moment to see all of those women shaking their stuff in anticipation.

Then the few brave runners went to the front of the line and the nearly as brave joggers lined up behind them. The vast majority of us were in the walking contingent – we had someone with a walking stick (hip operation recovery) in our group and a couple of others with recent injuries. After a bit of cheering and a Mexican wave we were off – following the jolly pink ribbon around the field.

They had marked out each kilometre and the fantastic volunteer race marshalls yelled and cheered us on. It was humbling to see an older woman and a relatively young girl tackle the course on crutches. The more mobile of our group picked up the pace – despite some grumbles about uncomfortable footwear. We got into the rhythm and were grateful for the overcast skies and the cool breeze.

Half way round, my daughter decided that she wanted to complete it within 50 minutes so we started to jog and decided to run the final 500 metres. And we did it! We were overjoyed to receive our medals, our free ruck sacks from Tesco containing an assortment of girly goodies and free water from Aqua Pura.

After a short sit on the slightly damp grass while we waited for the rest of our group to reach the finishing line we were up and off to a glass of wine or two and some pasta at Carluccios on The Quadrant in Richmond. Whilst the service was a bit slow, we weren’t too upset as we had a table out the front in the sunshine. We had enjoyed our day and managed to raise a fair amount of money for charity in the process.

Hope to see a few more of you next year!