[Personal] Running in the Inaugural UK Ekiden
First leg of a 115km relay race, 18hrs notice. Classic Sofya move. Some reflections on gender, sports and challenging yourself.
Yesterday I ran my first running race. I didn’t know I would run it until around 18 hours beforehand. The story went something along these lines. It’s 4 pm on a Sunday and I am enjoying a salsa and bachata social on the grass. My partner turns to me and says that the cross country team is down a female runner for tomorrow’s Ekiden race starting at 8 am on Monday. Naturally, being a woman and having recently gotten (back) into running I say yes.
Next, came the flurry of registration, some free t-shirts, and a few (very British) sorry’s for having to ask the race organizers to write me in at the last moment. The race required 5 men and 5 women to run the 10 legs. With some last-minute changes, OUCCC’s second team was down a female runner.
I am nowhere near fast enough to run in these things on a team by default, but due to some serendipity and saying “yes” at the right time, I seized the opportunity.
This was the first year of the UK Ekiden. You can read more about the origins of the race here and in the BBC article covering yesterday’s race.
I arrived at the start at around 7:30 am and after a drumming ceremony, some photos, donning the Tasuki (sash) to pass on during the relay, lots of struggles with pacing and with my self-worth I finished the 12.5km of the first leg. It was exhausting and delightful. It was lovely to challenge myself and to say yes to something relatively spontaneously. I am excited to slowly progress my training so I can *hopefully* run a bit faster next time.
A reflection I had while running is that I sometimes struggle with imposter syndrome due to my gender. Would I have gotten this opportunity if I was male? It seems like it was rather unlikely. This thought pattern sometimes extends into my work as well, as I continue to spend time in somewhat male-dominated spaces. Female athletes and scientists, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Following the race, I had an important meeting with my PhD supervisors, so immediately after downing a few bottles of water, I had to rush back to Oxford to finish a graph. Some PhD students reading this will probably relate to the feeling of finishing *that figure* 30 minutes before the meeting. Phew, I made it!
While I was presenting about Hepatitis C genotypes, Oxford's first team won the racers category with an impressive 3:47 min/km. The second team (the team I ran on) came third in the runners category averaging 4:49 min/km. I’m incredibly proud of all the people that took part.
I’ve been wondering how to bring up sports on this blog. The moral of the story is that life won’t wait for you, it will just happen. Just go for it.
The moral of the story 🥹