Like all great decisions... many are made out of bravery, some out of leadership, and in the Broadwood family a fragile few are made stoically with an empty ‘wine glass in hand’…Of the latter the majority are mostly fool hardy, highly questionable, nothing more than a (classic) ’grape induced’ lapse of judgement... to put it simply (in mother-esk tongue) aka - ‘a bad idea’…
However, (bizarrely) this isn’t always the case and just sometimes that extra glass of Pinot endorses an altogether uncharacteristic highly positive flash of bravery, which without lubrication (courtesy of Lindemans) would probably have otherwise remained hidden, unexpressed, and quite frankly silently dormant.
So for those of you who know me best (and who are most likely currently laughing into your collective wine glasses) it will come as no surprise that a few weeks ago my daughters, SIL and I once again took the (stoic and quite frankly stupidly painful) decision to sign up for yet another 5K race for life… and yes (before you silently tut) wine had been consumed…
You may also remember that last year, in memory of my late FIL, my daughters and I ran Lincoln’s 5k 'Race For Life' on what (unhelpfully) turned out to be the hottest day of the year thus far. Safe to say that at the time mild dehydration, an ongoing ankle strain and a minor case of heat enduced ‘exercise’ delirium all tried their best to phase me, however what I hadn’t expected was the collective momentum and energy of being carried, swept along by thousands of people, each of who were also running their hearts out for someone whom they had loved and lost or those who had fort the battle and won... it seems love and positive energy is officially contagious - catch it and you too can achieve great things… who knew?
At the end of the day and by whatever means (grape enduced or otherwise) or reason which prompted us to make the decision to initially take part, by the end of last May’s 'Race for life' adventure my daughters and I all felt that participating had been one of the greatest decisions we had ever made and (personally) when I crossed that ’sweat covered’ finish line, sadistically part of me knew that inevitably (like child birth) I’d simply have to do it all over again…
Admittedly this all sounds like brave words but (in light of yesterday’s events in London) by running standards 5k simply isn't very far and for thousands around the world it is nothing more than ’a walk in the park’ … ’a stretch of the legs’… ‘a modest warm up’….but for my SIL and I not so! *cough*
Rest assured compared to those brave souls in lycra who undertake and complete marathons, half marathons - shoeless, wearing nothing but a figure hugging nylon dinosaur costume...We salute you… !!!
At the end of the day I am certainly no athlete, for me ‘channelling Paula Radcliffe’ simply means stopping regularly for toilet breaks…BUT fuelled by the memory of someone very special who was prematurely and cruelly taken from our family because of cancer and fuelled by a few glasses of Pinot… I say ‘bring it on’… 5k - Pah!! 5k….It’s just a stroll in the park, a warm up, a gentle jog… how hard can it be?...
Mmm…..On second thoughts and from memory - please don’t answer that any time soon!!!!
Bea (Fiona) Broadwood
