Running

It was 2000 or 2001, I was on a farm work placement in Wales, I was back in Hampshire for a weekend, and my friends who I was staying with invited me out to watch one of the family run the 5K RaceforLife, back then it was not all hyped and commercial, I was just about work fit but not running fit, I didn't normally run, but that day, impulsively, with a little egging on from my friends, I decided to run. it was a hot day down at Netley, I was in some of the only clothes I owned, same as now, jeans and a cotton teeshirt, and I entered the race with no training and ran it, and completed it in good time, I remember someone shouting my name out as I ran and I leaped in the air and put my hands up, and the person shouting, a friend of my friends, got a great picture of me leaping in the air as I ran.
It was one of the best pictures of me, and I treasured it for years.
I completed that race, and although I had entered at the last minute and had not raised any sponsor money, I had paid the entry fee.
I was amazed at that impromptu run, and how I had done, and I treasured it.

The next RaceForLife, I was not running so well, but I completed it, and it was my last race, as the undiagnosed asthma and leg problems stopped me from running.
But I remember that first race and how joyful and lovely that day was.

RaceforLife is very commercial and hyped now, I don't think I would do it even if I could run, because it is not the same thing. You have to raise a lot of money, it is much more difficult to do, because of the money and forms and things.