Latest / The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast / CHATTING TO EVENT MANAGER SARAH JANE WINDING ABOUT FOLKESTONE RACE FOR LIFE 2024

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CHATTING TO EVENT MANAGER SARAH JANE WINDING ABOUT FOLKESTONE RACE FOR LIFE 2024 · The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast

• 0:00
  Well, I'm up on the Lees and folks and then I'm joined by Sarah
• 0:02
  Jane Winding from Cancer Research UK. Good morning, Sarah, how are you?
• 0:05
  Good morning? On very well? Thank you? How are you lovely?
• 0:08
  Yeah? I really well and it's so good to see you. Now
• 0:11
  tell us what your role is in Cancer Research UK. So I am one
• 0:15
  of the Senior area event managers for the teams. We've got a large events
• 0:20
  team that are split into divisions and I sit in the South South division as
• 0:24
  one of the Senior area event managers. And there's a big event coming up
• 0:28
  on Sunday, and that's why we're here today, isn't it. What's the
• 0:30
  exactly? Yes, we've got folks and Race for Life this Sunday great.
• 0:36
  So at the moment it's nice and quiet, calm and peaceful, but on
• 0:41
  Sunday that will all change, was wasn't it? So? How many you
• 0:44
  expecting up here on Sunday? Yeah, so we're hoping it's going to be
• 0:46
  a little bit busier than this. We're expecting over on thy about eleven hundred
• 0:51
  across the across all three events, So yeah, a lot busier than it
• 0:57
  is now. Yeah, right, So what tell us about Race for Life
• 1:02
  and what's going to happen on the day, how many runs are there,
• 1:04
  and just tell us all about it. Yeah, so there's three races that
• 1:08
  take part here, three distances. So we have a three k, a
• 1:11
  five k and a ten k here at Folkston and they all go off at
• 1:15
  the same time. So they all set off at ten thirty. They all
• 1:19
  head down the lees towards the memorial turn back and our ten kres drop down
• 1:26
  zig zagers. Some of our return in ten kres I'm sure we'll remember and
• 1:30
  are probably cursingly for drop down zigzag, head up towards Sangate turn around,
• 1:34
  back up the dreaded zigzag and then to finish here along the lees. Right,
• 1:40
  Okay, so now it's called Race for Life. But you don't have
• 1:45
  to race it, do you No, No, yeah, absolutely not.
• 1:48
  It's non competitive. You can walk, you can jog, you can run.
• 1:53
  You know, it's a family event. You can take part with your
• 1:57
  loved ones and stroll it if you like, or you can do it more
• 2:00
  competitively. Actually, a good point to note for this year, which is
• 2:04
  new, is our ten k is being chip timed the first time, so
• 2:09
  for those more competitive runners that do want to, you know, get their
• 2:13
  pbs or are really keen to know what their finished finished time is. Yeah,
• 2:17
  we're actually chip time in the first Yeah, it's a first for folks,
• 2:23
  and they've tried it in a couple of other events, but it's been
• 2:25
  so successful and the feedback is that our ten k participants like that. Again,
• 2:30
  they don't have to be runners though, but yeah, so we've rolled
• 2:32
  it out across all of our ten k's right across the board now. Years
• 2:37
  ago and it does seem like years ago it used to be ladies only and
• 2:40
  we changed it to a family event, and I think at first a lot
• 2:44
  of ladies were perhaps, you know, it wasn't quite the right thing to
• 2:49
  do. But it's proved successful, isn't it. Yeah, it has And
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  no one really likes change, do they. So yeah, you know,
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  some people are a little bit put out to start with, but I think
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  it's so important because it is a family event and everyone's affected. It's not
• 3:02
  just women that are affected, so and it makes it so much more inclusive
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  and like I said, already for families to now be able to take part
• 3:12
  or to take part with your brother or your dad or your husband, just
• 3:16
  meant so much to us to make that change, and I think it's I
• 3:20
  think it's worked brilliantly. You're right now on the day. In the past,
• 3:24
  for the past twenty odd years, we've had a lovely lady doing the
• 3:28
  warm up. Now, is that a lovely lady coming this year? Yes,
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  Yes, we've got Joe Thompson coming back to do a warm up.
• 3:34
  She's done it every year that I've been here, which is ten years,
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  so I think Joe's been doing it since to be started. Joe and I
• 3:40
  have been here since day one. We're part of the furniture. We've got
• 3:45
  cob webs all over us. But yeah, Joe is fantastic. She brings
• 3:49
  a great team with along with her and then she jumps down and runs you.
• 3:53
  No, she runs it every year. She's amazing. So no,
• 3:55
  we wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't want anyone else do in
• 3:58
  the warm up. No. Great. Now, when it comes down to
• 4:00
  entries, how can people enter? So they can still enter online at raceflife
• 4:06
  dot org. They can still enter this week. The later they enter,
• 4:11
  they just might not receive their running pack in the post, but they can
• 4:14
  collect their running pack from the admin marquee on the day and people can actually
• 4:18
  also sign up on the day. So if you think you've left it too
• 4:21
  late and you wake up on Sunday morning and think I really fancy that you
• 4:25
  can come down and sign up, just give yourself enough time because there may
• 4:29
  be a bit of a queue at the admin markee. Leave yourself enough time
• 4:31
  to get down and sign up, right they're talking about signing up. Another
• 4:35
  great thing that people might want to do when they get here is volunteer.
• 4:40
  Yes, so how are you fix for volunteers? Yeah, so we literally
• 4:44
  couldn't run our events without our volunteers. They do all of our marshaling for
• 4:47
  us. They hand out the water in the medals at the end, they
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  help us set up in the morning. Absolutely vital for us. We are
• 4:56
  a bit low on the ground. Actually we're quite low on the ground.
• 4:58
  We do tend to be in and folks and we struggle. The team that
• 5:01
  we do have come along always absolutely amazing, and I've got some volunteers coming
• 5:05
  back this year that joined us last year, so that's fab. But we
• 5:09
  could absolutely do with some more to make sure the course is safe, to
• 5:13
  make sure the water is handed out at the water stations really important roles.
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  So if you're at a loose end, or if you can't take part but
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  you want to help in another way, that is a great way of helping
• 5:24
  out. And again people can sign up online at racefulife dot org for that,
• 5:29
  or you can just rock up on the day come to our volunteer ten
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  Big Blue one and we'll sign you up on the day. And what sort
• 5:34
  of time spend would you allow for volunteers to get here? So, I
• 5:38
  mean if anyone can do just an hour at some point during the day would
• 5:43
  be helpful. But our volunteers arrive about nine am, back nine nine thirty
• 5:46
  and we're expecting our last participants across the line about one thirty. But like
• 5:50
  I say, if you could come down and just help for an hour,
• 5:54
  it would be helpful. Okay, Well, well it's looking like it's going
• 5:57
  to be a fantastic day. I mean it is nice and calm, and
• 6:00
  the weather forecast does look pretty pretty steady, which is what we want.
• 6:02
  We've done it too hot. We've come across all sorts of weather conditions here
• 6:08
  in folks, and haven't we bailling hot? The rain, the wind,
• 6:12
  wind, They're so for a good one this year. Yeah, it's looking
• 6:15
  okay, it's looking okay at the moment. Okay, No, there's anything
• 6:16
  else you want to add to No, I think the only other thing we
• 6:20
  haven't mentioned is the fundraising, because it's just important to stress to people so
• 6:28
  that they understand the cost of the sign up for the event actually just just
• 6:32
  puts on the event and the structures and the infrastructures. It's the just puts
• 6:36
  on the event itself. It's the fundraising that people do that goes directly towards
• 6:42
  the science and the research. And yes, the only other thing is just
• 6:46
  allow yourself plenty of time to get here on Sunday. There's no specific parking
• 6:50
  for this event, so people that are local will know the lees and know
• 6:54
  the areas anyway, and we do close a couple of roads around the lees,
• 6:59
  So just allow yourself enough time to park where you need to park,
• 7:01
  or get your public transport in or stroll up to us. Be a lovely
• 7:05
  day for a walk, yes, yes, okay, Sarah, thanks so
• 7:09
  much for taking the time to speak to us today. It's going to be
• 7:13
  a fantastic day and we're looking for a really big turnout. Yes, So
• 7:16
  we see you on Sunday. Thanks ever so much, thank you,