RUNNING – competitively or for fun


If you’re tempted to join the world of running, at whatever level, here’s an inspiring read by one of our very own Families Federation’s Covenant Co-ordinators, Jo Wilkinson.


W


inning the RAF 10k Championship race in October 2014 is the accumulation of a


long career of running whilst being an RAF dependent. Through all our years of moving around, running has been the one constant thing in my life and whilst my husband has been representing his country on numerous deployments, I have been representing my country on the track, road and cross country.


I started running at school and achieved some success but gave up at university as


the attractions of a buzzing social life far outweighed the dedication required to be an athlete. Meeting my husband and the desire to prove I was a better runner than him provided the impetus to start again. Unfortunately for me at that time David was fresh out of Initial Officer Training at RAF Cranwell and at his fittest whereas I was most definitely not. It took me nearly two years to get back to a good enough level of fitness to beat him but since then I have never looked back . . . except to check how far behind he is.


If there is one key quality required to make a success of military life I would say it is flexibility. From the need to find new training


Jo Wilkinson competing in the 10,000m in Manchester


routes each posting, to travelling long distances for races, to finding childcare to enable me to train whilst being a single parent during deployments; flexibility and


Alex & Rosemary Stanton, Paula Radcliffe, Liz Yelling 34 Envoy Winter 2014 www.raf-ff.org.uk


Photo by Mark Shearman


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