Europe Corporate Games 2019

Logging onto my work computer one morning back in May my attention was immediately grabbed by a headline on our intranet page - Warwickshire County Council were looking to enter a team in the Europe Corporate Games!  I signed up immediately!  How could I turn down an opportunity to represent Warwickshire County Council in an international event to be held right on our doorstep at venues in and around Coventry?  I have always received a huge amount of support at work for my running, from immediate colleagues, senior managers and Councillors (I was even presented with a silver clock at a full council meeting back in 2010 in recognition of my World 50km gold medal).  So I thought what a wonderful way to repay that support by representing WCC in the games, as well as it sounding like a really fun thing to do. 

The Europe Corporate Games sees teams from businesses and organisations compete against each other across 24 sports ranging from badminton to dragon boat racing; rugby 7s to volleyball and pretty much everything in between.  Points are awarded to the top eight in each event and added up to find which teams are overall winners.  The WCC team, comprising around 70 athletes, was promoted and managed by our Year of Wellbeing Team as 2019 is ‘Coventry and Warwickshire Year of Wellbeing’.  They did a fantastic job of organising us all, letting us know where we needed to be and when and providing our green WCC team t-shirts.

Warwickshire County Council team

Obviously I entered the running event!  I had the choice of doing either a 5km or 10km so, as I’m more of an endurance runner than a sprinter, I chose the latter.  It then transpired that there were four runners entered from WCC – just enough for a relay team - so we decided we might as well do the mixed relay too (4 x 1 mile).  Might as well go the whole hog, we thought!

So I continued with my usual training and ran a 10k race in Worcester at the end of May which I used as a benchmark of my fitness.  I ran 40.08, so I decided my goal for the Games would be to try and break 40 minutes.  However, things rarely go to plan and I’ve hardly ever had a smooth build-up to a main race!  Around the beginning of July I developed a pain in my left buttock and hamstring.  It was diagnosed as a jammed-up sacroiliac joint – something that seems to plague me a lot.  Unfortunately it didn’t respond to treatment and I hobbled my way through the next month’s ‘training’, which was actually just some short easy runs with no speedwork whatsoever and was, quite literally, a pain in the backside!  All hope of a quick time went out of the window and my goal became just to get round and finish, and do the best I could.

And so the long-anticipated Games weekend eventually arrived.  Friday evening saw everyone assemble at the NAEC at Stoneleigh to register and take part in the athletes’ parade and opening ceremony.  It was great that we had the support from our Chief Executive, Monica Fogarty, and Councillor Caborn, one of whose responsibilities is Health.  And of course we flew the WCC flag with pride!

Left:  Athlete registration    Right:  with the WCC flag

Left:  Getting ready for the athletes' parade    Right: the Games 'opening ceremony'

Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm at the War Memorial Park in Coventry and the parkrunners were just leaving as the Corporate Games athletes assembled to collect race bibs, timing chips and have a pre-race briefing.  

Pre-race briefing

Team WCC ready to run!

5k and 10k runners all started together, with 5k runners completing two laps of the park and 10k runners completing four (which actually worked out over-distance as the 10k was about 10.8k!).  Apart from a 15-minute delay at the start the race was really well organised, with the Coventry Ambassadors doing a brilliant job marshalling and handing out water and encouragement to the runners.  A huge thank you to them for volunteering their time so that we could run.  

So, after four very warm laps of the park I was over the moon to finish not only first in my age category, but first woman overall and 9^th in the combined men and women’s race.  My time was 44.58 which wasn’t bad considering the extra distance and disrupted training!

Left:  Running for Warwickshire!   Right:  My team-mates cheering me across the finish line

 

Gold medal number one

My team-mates ran brilliantly in the 5k too, with a silver for Kirk, bronze for Ben and bronze for Sian.  As team captain I was chuffed to bits that every member of the team came away with a medal.  But more was to come!

Ben handing over to me on last leg

Next was the relay!  I was on last leg to give me a bit more recovery time from the 10k!  Each leg consisted of two laps of approx. 800m and involved dodging a few pedestrians, dogs, children on scooters, pushchairs etc. too, just to add to the interest (or frustration!!!).  Again my team-mates were awesome – Kirk led us off and ran a brilliantly paced run to hand over to Sian in the lead.  Sian ran her socks off and lost just one place, but that was OK as we were still first mixed team.  Ben got his head down and worked really hard to hold onto that position as he handed over to me on last leg.  A mile is a bit short for me these days, and my legs were definitely feeling the 10k, but I managed to hold on to our position and we were delighted to take gold in the mixed teams.  We might have been a small team, but what we lacked in quantity we definitely made up for in quality!

Gold medal-winning relay team!

A lovely touch at the medal ceremonies was that, in the spirit of the Games, the winner was presented with their medal by a VIP and then the winner presented the silver and bronze medals to their fellow competitors (see photo right).

The whole event was a fabulous experience and I loved being part of Team Warwickshire County Council.  It was great to mix with people from other areas of the council who I wouldn’t otherwise come across in my day-to-day work.  I felt we had a great team spirit, especially our small running team, and I came away from the event buzzing!  I think sport has an amazing ability to do that – to bring people together and foster a team spirit.  I’m proud to work for WCC and was proud to represent them at the Games.  It was also great to see so many people of all abilities, across all the teams, getting involved in sport, having a go and having fun.

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to Warwickshire’s School Sports Ambassadors – a group of Year 5 pupils whose role is to promote sport within their school and local community.  I told them to enjoy their sport; to try their hardest – it doesn’t matter if you’re first or last if you’ve tried your best; to keep on trying if you don’t succeed at first; to have ambitions and to try new things and take opportunities when they’re offered to you.  I think all of the WCC team at this weekend’s Corporate Games displayed those characteristics.  We are the ones who grabbed the opportunity and took up the challenge.  I know everyone will have tried their hardest and I hope all the others enjoyed it as much as I certainly did.  Well done to everyone who took part and a huge thank you to our Team Managers – Neesha, Jane, Aaron and Alison – who made it all possible for us.

The fab four!