Kendal Race for Life 2011

On Sunday my 7 year old daughter and I gathered with over 800 ladies and girls of various ages at a cold and damp Westmorland Showground for the Kendal Race for Life. I have to admit that on arrival neither of us was feeling particularly enthusiastic but after a little while the atmosphere and the sea of pink and sparkly things really got us fired up. The team of Dan and Yakkers from Lakeland Radio were doing a great job at getting everyone motivated and very soon my daughter was like a little pink Duracell bunny jumping up and down and getting lots of people laughing:

Before we started it was down to my Rosemary Conley instructor Caytie to warm us all up with music We are family and Sisters are doing it for themselves. This certainly not only stretched out the muscles but got us inspired for what was to come and a laugh with Yakkers joining in:

Then it was time to decide whether you were a runner or a walker and choose which flag to line up behind. We went for the back of the runners as we thought jogging was a good option. My daughter's classmate set off the starting hooter and it was off on a 5 km route around the Crooklands countryside. My daughter shot off and I didn't see much of her for the next 2 km:

It was quite a hilly route but reading the messages on the backs of people's tops were and inspiration to keep going. When I caught up with my daughter we managed to combine walking and jogging to get us through the rest of the route. I have to admit it was a relief to see the finish line ahead as we hadn't done any proper training for the event and it was hard work! On the last leg with people cheering us on and Yakkers giving us a name check it inspired us to make a sprint finish to cross the line 45 minutes after we started (20 minutes faster than 2 years ago!). 

Two tired but happy bunnies at the end! It looks like we raised £150 for our efforts so we are very pleased with ourselves and if you would like to add to our total please click on the link at the top right of the blog. We want to do it again next year but with a bigger group so if you'ld like to join us please leave a message below!