The Winter of our Discontent - Be Gone🧣🧤⛑

[lexi6]

Have been sitting looking out the window since Monday hoping for a break in the hail, rain, arctic winds, starting to get stir crazy, haven’t run since Saturday WTF, when did this happen? when did I care about running? Odd, but I was brought up in times when girls weren’t allowed to do anything especially running (talking the 60’s here) in a country where women were the first to get the vote for goodness sake! Our sports day at school , the boys allowed to do a long distance run (circuit of sports field) girls not! This indignant 11 year old recent import from the UK got the other girls together, talked to the headmaster and result we got our run and every year after that. C25 doesn’t discriminate like. Well done all of us! and when I ran today I thought of that little girl and those that say to us you can’t or shouldn’t do this. We can and we are.

Anyway, as I do, I digress, the mercury rose to single figures 8 degrees, almost sub tropical! so on with thick tights, gloves and cap. “Close your eyes and tap your heels together three times and think to yourself there’s no place like home” I was well ready by then puffed, beetroot red as usual, couldn’t bloody wait and so stumbled to my first 6 km.

PS discovered that I am descended from Beth Hesmondhalgh, suffragette from Preston. My Dad if he was still with us would say so thats where you get your lip from!

[Razouski]

Wonderful post. Stirring stuff.

Enjoy your run.

[lexi6 Graduate in reply to Razouski]

Thank you😀

[Bridget007 Graduate]

Well done 6k! 🏃‍♀️ and a descendent from a suffragette cool 😎

[lexi6 Graduate in reply to Bridget007]

Thank you, never thought I would be able to run that distance ever, c25k thank you and weren’t those suffragettes brave?

[Bridget007 Graduate in reply to lexi6]

Very brave!

[DeeRunning Graduate]

I love it how your announcement of your first 6 km run is almost incidental to the post 😂 That would have been my headline! Well done mate and especially in such brutal conditions 👍

[lexi6 Graduate in reply to DeeRunning]

Thanks Dee you Still think I prefer running in the cold to the heat. It was pretty cold yesterday, but I was still passed by a very fast, very gorgeous gazelle running in capris and a running singlet.

[Kamia Graduate]

Wow that’s fab the only thing the girls in my year ever achieved was to make the school stop making us take showers together.

[lexi6 Graduate in reply to Kamia]

Ha ha thats so funny. Different times I guess, I went to an all girls school and we got detention if we were caught without our hats and gloves, but wow taking showers with others sounds horrendous. Well done to the girls 😁

[Kamia Graduate in reply to lexi6]

Mine was an all girls school but we could run cross country and they didn’t care about hats and gloves 🧤 we could never believe the years before us had showers together.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Well done, good post, I am wondering where you live? most people are now complaining about the heat, you say you are waiting for the Arctic winds, hail and rain to break, Iceland has had a not of rain recently, or could you be in the North of Norway or Alaska.

[lexi6 Graduate in reply to AlMorr]

Funny! 😀 Wellington New Zealand, always very windy, but you almost get used to it. Having said that I wish my parents had decided to emigrate to somewhere more tropical and exotic, but then I would have just been hanging out in my bikini, tanning would never have had the fun (not always) of running.🤔

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate in reply to lexi6]

Thank you very much for your reply 'lexi6', of course, New Zealand is starting winter on 1st June, I love everything that is associated with New Zealand, I live in Scotland UK, have had e-mails from RNZ Concert on the radio. All Blacks Rugby, the best rugby team in the world (love seeing them doing the Haka before a game) and the beautiful New Zealand countryside, a really lovely country indeed, good for running, but of course being now winter is not so good for running or cycling. During the winter here in Scotland I don't go cycling, instead, I like going long walks.

[lexi6 Graduate]

Hiya yes the countryside is pretty spectacular here but sadly not where I go running, just to get away from the wind yesterday I ran on the track next to the railway lines yuck, I look at photos posted on here and would love to run along a towpath or in one of those lovely parks. Its 20 years since I visited Scotland, wonderful place and people. Its quite new to me not only running but trying to keep warm while doing it haven’t got warm gear sussed yet. The haka is pretty amazing, I still find it a little scarey, but I witnessed one for the bride and groom at a wedding not so long ago and I found it really emotional, so have changed my mind a bit now.

[Jod13]

I loved this post, it made me think about Katherine Switzer, who paved the women like us to run. I often think about her when I'm attempting to run - I'm not a great runner but I'm trying and will no doubt get there with baby steps. She's so inspiring and I found myself talking to my niece about her. My niece is 13years old and a runner, long distance and is an incredible young woman. The thought that she would work so hard and not be given the opportunity to compete in the same way as her male counterparts is madness to her. She doesn't even consider that she's anything other than equal to her male colleagues. That is down to women like Katherine who ran the Boston marathon when it was 'forbidden', albeit there was apparently nothing in the rule book. It amazes me to think how far the women's rights movement has come and yet how far we still have to go. Thanks for this post. I enjoyed it.

kathrineswitzer.com/1967-bo...