Running is a way of life

All orange and white

After the presentations I decided to make an impromptu speech! I was quite overwhelmed with the occasion as this club is experiencing a resurgence in numbers and passion. The room was filled with families where all members play a part in the club either as athlete, coach, official or volunteer and the level of commitment is huge. I spoke about my early life as a runner and an athlete. The Stockport Schools cross-country race that morning had taken me back to how I started out. I had done well for my school in the cross country league and asked my parents if I could join Stockport Harriers. They trained on a Tuesday and Thursday evening as well as on a Sunday morning. Uh-oh! The Sunday morning was a problem. Every Sunday morning I went, with my sisters to Sunday School. Actually that isn't quite right. Occasionally we didn't go to Sunday School, although our parents thought we were there, but sometimes we fancied spending our collection money on tooty frooties, Texan Bars or Barratts Shrimps (this was the 70s - yeah baby!) and sitting in a tree watching the world go by.

So Sunday morning was going to be a problem as my mum wanted Sunday School to teach me to be a good citizen and to make the right choices. I had a battle on my hands! I can't remember how I persuaded my parents to let me go to the harriers on a Sunday morning but somehow I did. It probably involved me promising that this wouldn't be just a passing phase. (Well I'm still here now!)

So, how might that have affected me - by not going to Sunday School and getting involved in athletics instead? I started to think about how running develops people.

Running improved me in many areas. I was asthmatic as a child and, although I wasn't sure how far I would be able to take my running, gradually my asthma improved and now I suffer with it so rarely that I can probably say it has gone. So running has improved my health.

It has certainly improved my skill. I was lucky to work with several great coaches, not only to learn how to run fast and efficiently but also to jump and throw. I didn't get to a great level in jumping and throwing but I learnt the movement skills, which ultimately helped make me more balanced, strong and coordinated, all of which have benefited my running. Of course my fitness levels improved too. All of the above are physical competencies and improving these has meant that I have also improved mentally.

My confidence developed and this gave me self worth and self efficacy. I'm not sure of the exact definitions of these but, to me, self worth is a belief that I'm okay and self efficacy is a belief that even if I don't get this right I'm still going to be okay. This has led to self motivation. I want to be the best that I can and I will work to get there.

It also taught me how to deal with success and failure. How to be a good loser but also a gracious winner. I spoke to the younger athletes at the dinner about the roller coaster ride they would go on. We were there that night to celebrate success but the reality is that there will be times of failure too. Athletes go through peaks and troughs and none more so than when they are going through adolescence. The troughs are often brought about by growth spurts, pressures in other areas of life such as busy exam times and social pressures.

Once they are through this they will then want to get busy with other things such as careers, relationships, travel. I took a few years out of running whilst I got busy with my career and spent a few years in Australia. I came back from Australia in 1993 on Czech Airlines, which involved a change of planes in Prague. Now you're probably wondering what this has got to do with running. Well, I was 29 then and not particularly fit. I came back to the UK and decided I would start running again to lose a few pounds and get some fitness back. That was my motivation at the time. I had no ambition to compete but I entered a local 10km and surprised myself by running it faster than I had in my early 20s. I got bitten by the bug and was soon racing regularly. By 1997 I had earned selection to represent Great Britain at the World Half Marathon Championships in Kosice. I flew out with the rest of the British team and it involved a change of planes at Prague Airport. I remember sitting in the terminal building, with my GB Tracksuit top on, with the rest of the team thinking, "If someone had told me, last time I was here, that the next time I was here, it would be with the British Team on my way to represent my country in a World Championship I would never have believed it."!

Running has been extremely good for me. I met my partner and best friend at Stockport Harriers in 1977, when we were 13, and we have made most of our best friends through running. We have travelled far and wide to compete on the roads and mountains and made more friends on these trips that have meant we've travelled to far flung places to visit and take in more races in Hawaii, Bahrain, Australia, America and all over Europe. I managed to progress through the rankings to compete internationally for Wales and Great Britain and now that I've finished competing I coach, write and advise about running.

So, has it helped me as much as Sunday School would? Has it made me a good person and helped me to make the right choices? I suppose you would have to ask those around me that. It has certainly taught me a lot about myself and the world. It hasn't been a completely smooth road but all of the experiences, whether good or bad, have been lessons for me and this is what has shaped my life.