FOCUS ON ATHLETES - No 2
BRENDA JONES (BRO DYSYNNI)
Age: 71
PREVIOUS CLUB: Alnwick (Northumberland) 1987
Been competing for 27 years
OTHER SPORTS: Rock-climbing (met my husband Roy when I found myself on the end of his rope). Mountaineering in Britain, N America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe. It was after climbing all 284 Munros in Scotland that we took up the challenge of running.
OTHER HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Puzzles, challenges. Various arty/crafty things; gardening - in 2004 won Snowdonia Wildlife Garden Competition; travelling, wildlife, anything outdoors
FAVOURITE RACING DISTANCE: Yes - distance. I have endurance rather than speed.
FAVOURITE RACE: No particular favourite but like variety, preferably off-road, mixed terrain and mixed gradients: ups and downs to use different muscles
PROUDEST MOMENT: No single one but any occasion when fellow runners congratulate me on a good race; also beating a male colleaue from work who said women couldn't run, which kick-started my career.
ATHLETES I ADMIRE: All those who have struggled against repeated setbacks and injury and never given up, like Kelly Holmes, also Jessica Ennis who is "a little toughie"
Outside athletics I admire people who triumph over adversity without bitterness e.g. Nelson Mandela
PERSONAL AMBITIONS: Not to stop till I drop
ANY REGRETS: No, even the bad things can have a positive outcome, sometimes forcing a change of direction that creates new opportunities
EMBARRASSING EXPETRIENCES: Like getting an uncontrollable fit of giggles in the middle of my wedding ceremony? I'll say no more, but I was humiliated in the 1980s when a local newspaper had criticised the total lack of any female veteran in a high-profile race in Newcastle upon Tyne. They chopped bits out of my letter and carried a very unflattering photo of me running with the title "Fe fi foe fume".
WHAT CHANGES, IF ANY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN THE SPORT?: I hope greater controls and ever bigger events (often not organised by runners) do not squeeze out small, fun races which encourage non-runners to have a go and hopefully 'get hooked'.
BRENDA JONES (BRO DYSYNNI)
Age: 71
PREVIOUS CLUB: Alnwick (Northumberland) 1987
Been competing for 27 years
OTHER SPORTS: Rock-climbing (met my husband Roy when I found myself on the end of his rope). Mountaineering in Britain, N America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe. It was after climbing all 284 Munros in Scotland that we took up the challenge of running.
OTHER HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Puzzles, challenges. Various arty/crafty things; gardening - in 2004 won Snowdonia Wildlife Garden Competition; travelling, wildlife, anything outdoors
FAVOURITE RACING DISTANCE: Yes - distance. I have endurance rather than speed.
FAVOURITE RACE: No particular favourite but like variety, preferably off-road, mixed terrain and mixed gradients: ups and downs to use different muscles
PROUDEST MOMENT: No single one but any occasion when fellow runners congratulate me on a good race; also beating a male colleaue from work who said women couldn't run, which kick-started my career.
ATHLETES I ADMIRE: All those who have struggled against repeated setbacks and injury and never given up, like Kelly Holmes, also Jessica Ennis who is "a little toughie"
Outside athletics I admire people who triumph over adversity without bitterness e.g. Nelson Mandela
PERSONAL AMBITIONS: Not to stop till I drop
ANY REGRETS: No, even the bad things can have a positive outcome, sometimes forcing a change of direction that creates new opportunities
EMBARRASSING EXPETRIENCES: Like getting an uncontrollable fit of giggles in the middle of my wedding ceremony? I'll say no more, but I was humiliated in the 1980s when a local newspaper had criticised the total lack of any female veteran in a high-profile race in Newcastle upon Tyne. They chopped bits out of my letter and carried a very unflattering photo of me running with the title "Fe fi foe fume".
WHAT CHANGES, IF ANY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN THE SPORT?: I hope greater controls and ever bigger events (often not organised by runners) do not squeeze out small, fun races which encourage non-runners to have a go and hopefully 'get hooked'.
