Kerrie's Race For Life Confession

by Kerrie Pateman

As quoted in the April 2007 newsletter…

“‘5km… I should be able to run that’…

Hopefully not the famous last words from Kerrie Pateman, aged 31 ¾ on Sunday 20th May 2007, but instead…

‘I feel fantastic, not an ache or a pain and I ran the whole race!’

We’ll see!”

You possibly read my account in the April 2007 newsletter about my experience of Race for Life in 2006 and my great intentions to train 6 weeks before this year’s event, so I didn’t end up with the John Wayne swagger again.

Hooray, it worked; I ran the whole race and my strenuous training regime paid off!

Well actually the last sentence is a complete porky and I have a huge confession to make…

In the end, I did even less preparation than last year (the one attempt at a run a week before). That’s right, I did absolutely nothing, zilch, zero ‘training’. My preparation went as far as ordering the t-shirt and trainer socks from the Race for Life website, so I looked the part at least! I could reel off a million excuses for it, but at the end of the day, I just couldn’t motivate myself enough to go out for a run.

Tell me I’m not the only one! Come on, I can’t be alone on this surely. I often try a new exercise class – pilates, yoga, belly dancing, step aerobics to name a few, but they all fall by the wayside after a few weeks or months. I suppose this 6 week training regime was just another good plan that never materialised. Not to beat myself up about it though, as I did complete Race for Life on Sunday 20th May 2007, and I’ve got the medal to prove it!

Here’s the lead up to Sunday 20th May 2007…

Saturday 19th May – All the Weight Loss Resources staff were at the wedding of our colleague Julie Chapman (now Mrs Howard and currently sunning herself in Fiji on honeymoon – how lucky). As you can imagine, the wine was flowing freely and everyone was having a great time strutting their stuff on the dancefloor (especially Member Services Manager Pat Wilson to Status Quo).

The realisation of having to run on Sunday morning was not that appealing to me when my alarm woke me up. I was a little tired – that’s tired, not hungover honest!

I arrived at Burghley House in Stamford with my Mum Dulcie and sister Carla in plenty of time for the aerobic warm up, which I did attempt, a little half-heartedly. Thankfully this year we were not at the front with the runners when the race started so we were able to set our own pace, rather than try to keep up.

My Mum and Carla were doing really well, but I felt like I was struggling so the jog soon became a fast-paced walk. After last year’s agony for a few days after the race, we had learnt our lesson and decided not to push ourselves too much. My Mum and Carla kept up a good walking pace; I lagged behind a little and had to do a sprint from time to time to catch them up.

We power walked the majority of the race, with stints of jogging when we were feeling energetic, like on the home straight where all the spectators were cheering everyone on. We crossed the line in 40 minutes, which was actually slightly better than last year’s attempt.

As I mentioned in the April newsletter, it is a huge sense of achievement when you cross the finishing line. It’s all the more worthwhile when raising sponsorship money for Cancer Research. We were on such a high by the time we got home and were convinced we hadn’t pushed ourselves too hard, so wouldn’t ache like last year.

Now on to my 2nd confession…

We decided to have fish and chips as a treat! OK, probably not what ‘proper’ athletes have after a run, but we figured we had burnt off a fair few calories, so why not! A little bit of what you fancy can’t hurt from time to time!

Later that evening I did feel like I was seizing up a little, so relaxed in a hot bath. As for the morning after, ask any of my colleagues at Weight Loss Resources! I was certainly not as sprightly as I had hoped; my back, hips and shins really ached and I was walking gingerly. However I was no where near as bad as the day after last year’s race.

All in all, despite the aches and pains afterwards, Race for Life is a truly rewarding experience. Who knows, may be I will try to train for next year’s event… ok let’s not get too carried away, I think we all know it’s unlikely, but I might surprise you and myself!

More Information

World Cancer Research Fund

WCRF UK is dedicated to saving lives by funding cancer research and providing education programmes that expand our understanding of the importance of our food and lifestyle choices in the cancer process. www.wcrf-uk.org