Running with the crowd

What a week: Boston marathon bombed, massive earthquake in Iran and then the explosion in Texas. Too many grieving families again this week...

I had always thought that city marathons were peripheral affairs, not worthy of much media and therefore terrorist attention. But I am learning otherwise. There are a lot of runners out there. Some, like me, enduring a solitary, non-competitive form of exercise. Others, seriously competing in 5km, 10km races on flat roads and hills. Then there are those uber-runners running half-marathons, marathons, double and ultra marathons: thousands of races going on all over the world. Running could be the last amateur sport for which anyone can train and have their moment of glory.

I felt some of the competitive excitement last week. It was our local school's triathlon. My 6 year old did the junior event. My 8 year old is a great swimmer but rides a bike like an uptight village spinster and runs like a duck. But we are indulgent and, we like to think, encouraging parents. We would enter a family team. Daughter would swim, husband would bike and I would run.

Given that I run, on average 7km 3-4 times a week and this was a 2km event, I knew I could cope easily with the distance. But I hadn't reckoned on the adrenaline I would feel. So as my daughter soldiered through the swimming (she was against children at least 3 years older than her and adults) and my husband struggled through the bike ride (just unfit), I found myself getting increasingly nervous.

But off I went...not sure about the pace I needed to run 2km quickly and my breathing was completely off. So, I slowed down, took a couple of deep breaths and found a running rhythm which I judged sustainable. It turned out to be easy peasy. And seeing (and hearing) my husband and children cheering me at the finish line was a rare moment of sheer, complete joy. For that alone, I could get into racing.

So how popular is running? This weekend, there will be 36,000 competitors in the London marathon. There were 23,000 in the Boston race. As for the ultra-marathons, the South African Comrades is 89km long and will have 18,000 competitors.  At our school last week, over 600 people competed.

These are astounding numbers, especially given the pre-qualification requirements for most races. My 7km run, 4 times a week would not get me a look-in. To give some idea of how large these races are....if the runners in the London Marathon on Saturday changed their mind and decided to play soccer instead, there would be 3,272 teams....quite a tournament!

Whilst such statistics are fantastic news for amateur running, the city marathon lost its innocence on Monday. Let's hope the organisers share the attitude of the competitors....you must just keep going...