Whippets Away!

The Rossendale Whippets
are a group of women who try to hold back age and ailments by running together. It is hard to say whether we get the biggest therapeutic effect from running, or from the social support which results from long periods trotting side-by-side. We have been running and entering races together since about 2005. The membership of the group is variable, but with a hard core at its centre. We don't break any speed records. We don't all come from Rossendale. We laugh a lot, and we have been through a lot of ups and downs (some of which were to do with running).
On 30th-31st July 2011 we had our second Whippets Away trip, when we went to stay in York to run in the Jane Tomlinson Run-for-All 10k. (Our first Whippets Away trip was to London a couple of years ago, when we couldn't find the beginning of the race). This blog tells of our successful Yorkshire appearance.

Introducing the 7 girls
The York race team was made up of 3 original Whippets, who have been round the block a few times, and have the medals to show for it. Sprinting Whippet likes a quick sprint rather than a 10k & 2 of us (Plodder 1 and Plodder 2)are plodders who usually get there in the end. We had a fast, younger person (Fast-Whippet) with us this year, who is an inspiration to us all, and has a fancy watch-thing that tells her what her average speed and performance are. Another of our group, Teacher-Whippet, a 10k virgin, also boasts a fancy watch-thing, but we are always puzzled about what it is telling us. We had 2 other 10k virgins with us - both of them Walking-Whippets. Walking Whippet 1 walks as fast as I run, which is very disturbing. Walking Whippet 2 prefers a country ramble, it transpires.

Training Regime
We didn't really have one, although we tried to run twice round our reservoir, instead of once. We have an inner confidence that we will perform, on the day.

Pre-race prep
The day before the run we arrived in York, had lunch, had a group clothes try-on in Reiss (pronounced Rese, not Rice). We bought abut 5 trousers and 2 skirts and then the group split up,
some to do yet more shopping (Yay!! - one absent Whippet would have liked this bit best) and some to go on a boat trip. We found all this to be a good way of psyching ourselves up for some serious running. Pub-visit, shower, then we ate lots of chips and fish and chicken and bean-burgers, and drank lots of drink, while playing a game in which we decided who, in the pub, we would like to have a date with. We also dispensed a lot of helpful relationship advice to whichever Whippet felt they wanted it.

Task allocation
I won't go into all this, but Plodder Whippet 1, who is bossy, delegated tasks to all of the rest of us. E.g. Sprinting Whippet was in charge of safety pins, Walking Whippet 1 had to negotiate table-bookings in restaurants. Fast Whippet and Walking Whippet 1 were put in charge of singing an inspiring anthem, which they didn't do, in my hearing. I had to set everyone a personal performance indicator for the Race (we all work in either health care or education, where performance indicators are all the rage).

Day of race - pre-race nerves
None of us seemed to sleep well, what with York being the Hen and Stag party capital of the North. One Whippet heard a fight outside the hotel, and another heard a 'Hen' getting out of a taxi, being asked is she had got her knickers. Over breakfast we discussed anxiety and our various levels and sources. 'What if' I get lost? 'What if' I don't finish? 'What if' I get an injury? 'What if' we don't get back to the hotel in time for a shower? We ate our carbs again. Walking Whippet 2 insisted on her cooked breakfast.

Conditions
Very hot and sunny. Sometimes a breeze. Some slow long hills. As usual in these things, there were many more uphills than downhills.
It was a lovely race-route - through lots of residential back-streets and then out into the City, past the Minster and Clifford's Tower, and past all the lovely clothes shops, over the river and then back to York Race-course, where we began.

Performance
We all achieved great success, and met our PPIs. Fast Whippet brought our Whippet team average up splendidly. Minor incidents to report - 3 weak-bladdered Whippets had to find bushes to squat behind before they had been running 5 minutes! We blame the coffee and the slight delay in start time. One Whippet (the fast one) lost 50 seconds when her shoe-lace came undone. Teacher Whippet tripped and nearly splatted her nose when a big burly fellow elbowed her out of the way to get past (this is why we usually do women's runs).

Then we had a shower or two, then we had a nice lunch and another little shop (resulting in 2 nice tops, a pair of baby bootees and 3 bars of soap). The the train home. A GOOD JOB, WELL DONE. Lancashire can be proud of its represetnation that day, in York.

All in all, we were privileged to run this race, and I think I can say that York was privileged to have a visitation by the Rossendale Whippets.