Race for Life 5k
26thJuly
2009

 

Unofficial Results

Renette Wolvaardt

21.13

Katarina Darcy  24.53
Rachel Cocozza

32.12

 

Race For Life Race Report

It was overcast in Bedford as thousands of women gathered for the Cancer Research’s Race for Life. The good thing about this race is that you can choose to run, jog or walk the course, therefore, anyone can participate – as long as they are female.

Many runners had decided to support the race by wearing the charity’s colour of pink. There were varying shades of pink, with some runners wearing pink tutus etc. I was going to wear my flamingo costume but decided against it when I found out my friend would not run with me if I did. Little does she know that next year I will be in it! I noticed two runners who were lined up at the front of the start line were wearing their running club’s club kit, I personally did not think that this was in the spirit of things but, as they had paid their entry fee, at least this would be going to the charity.

The warm ups have always been like a full aerobics session which I am sure wears many people out before they even step foot onto the course. It is a really good part of the event itself and I certainly enjoy watching it. I could not join in with it unless I walked the course!

For some reason I was really nervous about running in this race despite having done it several times before and was shaking like a leaf when the 60 seconds count-down began. I should have been nervous in the race that I did yesterday but I didn’t even bat an eye in that one! I wanted to go out and enjoy the race and slowly jog around but when the siren went I completely forgot about the slow jog bit!

Fortunately we did not have the floods that we had last year and so all of the roads were dry. One runner was quite unlucky to have fallen a few hundred metres into the race, which I assume was because there were so many runners trying to make a quick getaway. I got caught in the buzz of it all and ran my usual 5K pace whilst looking out for and waving at my friends along the way.

The course is obviously very familiar to the majority of Harriers: Russell Park and the Embankment, but with the thousands participating today it certainly wasn’t a ‘training run’. It may have helped some participants though if someone could have shouted ‘post’ o r something similar when they reached the bollards etc. It was o.k. for myself and the runners around me but the majority were behind us and that could have been an ‘interesting’ situation.

Sadly for one person he could not keep his unhelpful and pathetic comments to himself, despite it being a charity event. However, it was great to see all of the supporters and the fire fighters in their kit this year cheering everyone on. A small goody bag and medal was given to all finishers at the end. The atmosphere is definitely what makes this event and certainly helps to raise money for such a worthwhile cause.

Katarina

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