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Every month Derek will be shedding a little more light on a fellow Frontrunner. Seen them around, and wanted to know a little bit more? You’ll find it in Meet the Frontrunner. This month I’ve been speaking to Sandra.... |
Sandra, born in Germany, has been coming to the club since February 2010. She has tried most runs, but settled on a Saturday morning. She has often been the lone woman with the red hair seen outside St Mary’s waiting for the run to begin. A few weeks ago Sandra was approaching the women’s changing room and heard some noise. She hoped it might be another woman to chat and run with. Unfortunately it was a builder trying to fix one of the showers. Now Sandra is a keen DIY enthusiast, and has missed some weekend runs due to fixing up her south London flat, but it would have been nice to have some company.
Sandra has lived in London for about ten years. She had to do many sports at school in Germany, which she didn’t mind too much, but hated every second of the annual autumn event, where the school had to run one mile. She didn’t come back to running until two years ago. Her debut at Frontrunners was a Monday in February. She wanted to join a club to make sure she stuck with running, and wanted to improve her fitness to enter some races. She also figured it might be a good way to meet other people.
Although not a natural sports enthusiast, Sandra now seems to be on a bit of a roll. She does yoga, which is a great counter-balance to running, and has just started with a kick-boxing club, which is probably at the other end of the zen-ometer. Sandra was pleased to find Frontrunners extremely friendly and welcoming, and relatively easy to settle into. She likes the buddy system, where new runners are paired up with more experienced members. Sandra smiles when she remembers getting lost in Regents Park on her second Wednesday run.
Right at the start of this year Sandra ran the Serpentine 10k, and felt it was a positive start to the new year. The plan was that more runs would follow, but it’s been a busy 2011 so far, and there hasn’t quite been the time. As a marathon runner myself, Sandra flew right into my good books when asked if she has any role models. She admires anyone who has run a marathon, as the training alone requires so much dedication and time investment. Hear hear Sandra!
