As Garry thumbs through the Rundown Diary and fills up numerous dates on the calendar for races I'm avidly reading his suggested race list and adding encouraging or dissuading comments. But my criteria for a good race are considerably different from his as I am judging them from the point of view of a mother with three children.
While Garry considers race length and terrain to be important, I'm more concerned with where the event centre is and how long it will take to get there. With children aged 4, 7 and 9 who all suffer to some degree with boredom, if not sickness, on car journeys, we limit our accompaniment to races which take less than an hour from home.
For us, races need to be held in places where there is something interesting to do, where the start and finish are easily accessible and with good views of incoming runners. Somewhere to get drinks and snacks is a bonus. Garry can always tell if the race area is family friendly if we fail to get to the finish before he does!
The Beast at Corfe is always good as the start allows you to watch the runners loop back swiftly over the Common and the children can shout and scream for Daddy (usually several men wave in the hope of being the right father) before we head for the castle. From the top of the castle the race car park and finish can be seen and this usually leads to a panic as we see the first runners coming in and realise we have missed Daddy yet again. A promise of hot-dog and chips from the van in the car park can persuade tardy children to move quite quickly back to meet a tired runner (who pinches the kids' chips!). If the weather is fine a trip down to the beach is in order for a final summer swim in the sea.
Other races where we have failed to beat Daddy to the finish include the Oke Croak and Yes Tor Challenge races based at Okehampton football field. There is a wonderful playground, stream (and for the Oke Croak, the May Fair) and swimming pool, plus large area for kicking a football around. Admittedly the weather plays an important part in the enjoyment here, but in 1997 we had two lovely days. At the Yes Tor Challenge not only did we miss Garry finishing, but we also missed him receiving his trophy due to a loo call!
'Entertainment' for the children takes numerous forms and varies tremendously between races from a great place to hunt for fossils and minerals at the Mendip Muddle to a wonderful play-area at the holiday camp HQ for the Grizzly (as well as the beach, which is dreaded by half the family and eagerly anticipated by the other half). As the children get older they are looking for 'Fun Runs' where they can run "like Daddy does". The Seaton Half Marathon was their first and was excellent. Some races though should be avoided by the family. This unexpectedly included the Exmoor Stagger which turned out to be too far to walk to the beach, the car got totally hemmed in so we were stuck at the event centre where the only redeeming feature was the serving of very acceptable flap jack and cups of tea. There was a sanity-preserving fir tree near the finish and it's amazing how you can get children excited about collecting fir cones to use as Christmas decorations. We did see Daddy finish this race, and were thankful he was 4th (whereas he was grumpy and fed-up with his performance). I'll leave you to guess our respective moods on the way home!
Most of the races where this is the perceived state of affairs for the family see Garry heading off on his own, and these are the races he inevitably does well in and (dare I say it?) wins. In fact his only win of recent months, at the Xmas Pud Mud Run, was without family 'support'. I hope this doesn't reflect the effect we have on him when we do all go, as if it is, I can see we will be left behind more often!