The October Round Up
I don’t know about you, but this time of year seems to speed past me so fast I’d barely registered it was October before it was, according to my diary, suddenly time to write this post, wrapping up this month and, very soon, the year, with all that that entails. It’s quite easy for me, and most of us I imagine, to immediately race ahead in my mind to all the things that need to be done and bought and organised, to become slightly overwhelmed and maybe a bit mournful. But that is where running always helps to ground me back down, and just be in the present, in this month, in this moment.
With all this in my mind, this morning I set out early for a run in my absolute favourite place, Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Just as I was getting out of the car my Grandson Face-timed, “Nanny you’re in a jungle” he shouted with wide eyes, taking in the crimson tress all around me. Although the South Downs aren’t quite that tropical, as I said goodbye to him and set off on my run I tried to continue to look around me with that same wide-eyed delight.
Less delighted and delightful were the groups of students completing their Duke of Edinburgh awards that I had to weave through, and at points, push past, as they trudged along with their backpacks, heads down, miserable as sin with eyes only for their muddy shoes. I was seemingly invisible to them but then, I reasoned to myself, trying not to take it personally, so were the beautiful South Downs they were navigating. As I finally squeezed past them and carried on running, I thought about how they didn’t really want to be there, and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. It was a small moment of appreciating the wisdom that comes with experience and, possibly, thermals.
I went to see this film last week (full title Younger: Looker Forward To Getting Older) and god, it was brilliant. It’s about friendship and purpose in masters athletics, a place where every five years, getting older means becoming the youngest. It was incredible to see on screen strong, vibrant women who were showing up at 85 years old to compete. It really made me think, why don’t we know these women’s names? They are winning Gold medals in their age categories in Masters World Champion Athletics? Huge recommend!
'Help! My copycat ex-mate is bad mouthing me round town!' With Rivals hitting the small screen (have you watched it yet?!), Stevie Nicks reaction to Katie Perry assuming all women have rivals and need to compete against each other, I loved this article by the brilliant
that confronts the reality of a toxic friendship.I really enjoyed this article Doing Hard Things Makes You Better At Doing Hard Things from
and her Substack, The Ultra Trail. But it made me think a lot about something that has been coming up a lot recently, about how runners/people always have to do hard things i.e always being in the “hurt locker”. It’s something I talked about a bit on the 1st episode of the Run Verity podcast (if you missed it, you can listen to that episode here ) and it’s definitely something I want to explore more.Speaking of the RunVerity podcast, we just posted episode 2 where I talked at length about the reality of race days, especially now numbers are hitting record highs, and probably for too long about toilets! I’m really enjoying doing these whenever a topic seems better suited to a chat, so would really appreciate if you could give it a listen and/or a like! Any suggestions of subjects for us, let us in the comments know.
And finally, I wanted to wrap up with some shout outs for some of the Run Verity community who have achieved amazing things this October.
Anne, aged 66 years old and a great granny, completed her 7th marathon on Sunday. She has run Paris, Berlin, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Vienna, Yorkshire and Amsterdam, all since joining RunVerity in 2017. Amazing!
Claire ran Abingdon Marathon on Sunday, and got a massive PB!
Hannah ran her second marathon of the year, her sixth total since becoming an Run Verity member, and despite not feeling 100% on the day, she still dug in and gave Chicago marathon her absolute best!
And last but not least, this month we did the now traditional Run Verity annual trip to Palma, which we’ve been doing since 2017, and has become an absolute highlight of the year for me personally, as I just love Palma so much. This year, 9 members ran in Palma on Sunday, 7 in the half marathon and 2 in the 9km. I squeezed in a half marathon and it was just a joy, and the most beautiful way to see the city, and to see out Summer for one final time. Christmas, here we come!
