The Fun of a Relay
Milton Keynes Relay
This photo sums up the absolute delight of what it means to run and race with your teammates! As a 4-person relay team we crossed the finish line in 4hrs 31mins and 42 secs for the MK marathon on Monday.
I’d like to think that in a small way we are smashing up the gender stereotypes of what older, female athletes looks like; from right to left we are 40, 54 and 65 years old.
I’ve recently read some research from Women in Sport suggesting that girls as young as 5 years old were opting out of sport because they didn’t feel they belonged. That the gender stereotype of women and girls’ “personality” traits do not align with being sporty; that girls/women are not competitive, that sport is not important, that they will never be as good at it compared to boys and that sport can be at odds with femininity and a girl’s identity.
This made me feel so sad, especially as you can see the sheer joy of us crossing the line together, that being part of a team on a day out was great fun as we navigated our way around the many, many roundabouts of Milton Keynes.
It also made me feel sad that some people, not just girls, are missing out on the multifaceted transferable skills of what it means to be involved in sport and to be active and I wondered if stereotypes of not being sporty were where the complex and complicated relationship that some people have with sport begins?
To some people the thought of taking part in a team relay is petrifying, the pressure to perform, be fast and not let your team mates down was too much to even consider; the idea that you had to be competitive was choking. I understand this and when I looked at the marketing imagery and language on the relay website, I could see the perception that it was an event for “real, fast, runners only”.
But it wasn’t, it was really good fun, we laughed, we got lost, we spoke to a very stressed our race director when we got lost and he really tried his best to be polite to us (and he was through gritted teeth!).
The atmosphere was incredible with music playing, cheering from supporters and marshals, plenty of water stations and a final sprint finish with the last runner of your team up quite a steep hill! A cruel finish for the marathoners