Running and Remembering

Over the past few years, an idea has been nagging away at me and it’s something that I cannot ignore. In the life of the church, on 2nd November there’s a day of remembering called All Souls Day. In churches that I’ve been a part of before what has happened on All Souls Day, is that we invite the families of people whose funeral we have taken in the last year, and have a reflective time of remembering.

It struck me a while ago that we as a running community lose people too. In the last issue I wrote about the very small part I had to play in Joss’ funeral. After that we as a community lost Charlie Ramsay, Hugh Symonds and no doubt running clubs across the country have lost fellside companions.

It’s with this in mind that I came up with the idea of Running and Remembering, a reflective space for all runners, to gather, to run, to share and to reflect. On 2nd November at Rydal Hall at 11am we’ll be hosting, in partnership with the FRA, an event that acknowledges and celebrates those we have lost from the fell running scene. This is a space, for runners and by runners. For those of any faith and none.

We will run together, sharing stories and memories of those we’ve lost along the way. There will be food, a chance to eat together and continue that time of sharing. We’ll close our time together with a short reflective space informed by the Christian faith but open to all.

If you or your club would like to share about someone that you would like to remember then please do get in touch. We would love to hear the stories of fell runners who meant so much to this community.

If you personally have suffered a bereavement recently and would like to remember someone even though they didn’t run but you do, please do come and let us support each other. We all carry people with us, we share a lot more than just fellowship on the fells, so as a community let’s come together to reflect and celebrate those that we have loved and lost.

By signing up to this event you understand that you will have to carry full FRA mandatory kit for the run.