It’s that time of the year again where we kick off the annual TeamBR trail series, it’s always an absolute pleasure and this year was no different. We started this about 4 years ago and each year it gets a tad more popular and we get a tad better at hosting it. This year we hit the cap of 100 people for the first round and even had to start a waiting list, fair enough it was only two people, but I’m taking it as a win!
Last year, we decided to dedicate each race to a club family member that has passed. It’s a nice thing to do and it gives the event a personal connection to the race for our members. This year we did the same again, round one is always in memory of my mother, Betty, but the other rounds we ask if anyone else would like one dedicating. This year round 2 is in memory of Joss, Jason Scatcherd’s father. Round 3, is for Irene, Cathryn Mann’s mother and round 4 is for Tony, Adam Demeester’s father.
I’m always nervous for the first event of the year, but I tend to chill a bit as the events go on. For this event I did the usual and got up at the crack of dawn to go and put out the course markings (it’s not that I was sleeping well anyway). There are always some go missing, so I try to mitigate it as much as possible by laying it out early on the day. I quite like doing it to be honest, it’s a nice early morning run, well, I say nice, this time it was drizzling and miserable! But I still enjoyed it, once it was complete (of course) and I had that sense of gratification of another job completed whilst I slurped my morning coffee.
We started the youth series last year, we capped it at 50 and it started with 8 participants, this year we had 18 so it’s starting to grow in popularity and I hope the trend continues. I think it’s really important to introduce sports to youth and show that recreational activity is something that’s enjoyable as well as beneficial. Give it that a sprinkle of competitiveness and they (usually boys) absolutely love it. We had quite a few of our club’s youth members taking part in it this year and, for some of them, it was their first race, so it would be the first time they would be going alone. I was really nervous for them all because it is these type of things that can make or break a young person’s athletic career. I made sure that I put a few videos out into the members facebook group to remind them how proud I am of them and to pre-prepare them for the mental side of racing. To help during the race, my eldest lad Archie didn’t want to race this year but still wanted to be a part of the day, so I asked him to be a back marker. That way he could assist anyone that’s struggling and have an important role in the day. As it happens, we did have one runner drop out of the race due to problems with asthma and Archie was able to talk to him and take him to a marshal. Archie felt proud to have an important job and was chuffed to do it. It wasn’t until I thought the lad dropping out afterwards, that it reminded me that everyone has a different race and right now these kids are going to be dealing with post race emotions that they might not be fully equipped to deal with yet. So, I put out another video in the members facebook group to remind them all of how to deal with emotions whether bad or good. We don’t want anyone that struggled to get downhearted then quit and we also don’t want anyone thinking they’re did great, get complacent and stop trying.
I really like that the kids event takes place just before the adults because the finish line is close to registration and when they’re finishing it’s close to the start time of the adults race. So, they start coming in when the most amount of adults are there to cheer them on. It must be a right buzz for them coming over the line with the crowds of adults cheering them in.
You may have guessed that my wife puts up with a lot from my running (but she also gets a few holidays out of it too). Most often than not, though, I’m roping her in for registration duties at this event. As much as she will like to complain about it to me, I really love that all of the family get involved. It’s a thing that we do together, even my youngest son, who isn’t ready to race yet, helps out on the day. We call him Race Director Henry and he gets to start the race and hand out the finisher slips. My Dad takes part as a participant and even my father-in-law doesn’t get away and will come along to marshal and help out. Rachel takes the brunt of me though, she has had to put up with a house full of race equipment and she deals with my stress on race day. A lot of the time she helps me with some of the organisation which I struggle with as a symptom of ADHD. Most of the time it comes across as her asking me “have you done this yet” or “you should put all this in a list” which I agree with, then promptly forget to do….
Seeing that start line stacked up with people on the adult race was fantastic! It hadn’t be the best of nights so I was expecting a few no-shows from the fair weather runners and we had 86 out of the 100 turn up so, all things considered, I was pretty happy with that. This year, we have a couple of local fast runners signed up, Stephen Geraghty (who’s won series champ for the last 3 years) and Sean Willis (who won the first years series champ). These two are usually competing against each other so we weren’t sure who would finish first this year. As I mentioned, the weather had not been it’s best through the night and the ground was pretty sloppy in areas so it would come down to who’s best prepared for the conditions. I’ll let you look at the results to find out for yourself. There was a decent show of TeamBR members there, it’s always good to see your club out in force at a home event and the yellow of the club kit really stands out. There’s something about having your club around you and seeing them with their families all competing and being a part of something together that makes you realise that running isn’t just about running. I’m not articulate enough to say it well enough, but the sense of togetherness and community that’s created within the club is really brought into focus at times like this.
It was lovely to get some very positive feedback from the participants on the day. I’m probably seen as the figurehead for most of the stuff around the event, but most of the effort comes from those people who give up their spare time to help the event go ahead. So, hearing feedback from the participants and seeing nice comments on social media really vindicates the effort these volunteers put into it.
