Chris crossing the finish line. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Knott.
Eye - 12 June 2015
From running into the Light to glimpsing the past
Running into the Light
‘There is always another race and I might yet be introduced as my mother who ran a marathon.’
So ended Chris Knott’s article, ‘The journey is the destination’ (19 April 2013), about failing to run the Singapore marathon in 2011.
Eye is pleased to report that Chris can now proudly pronounce that she is, indeed, the ‘mother who ran a marathon’.
With the support of her daughter Lucy Ivankovic, son Oliver and husband Steve, she completed the Singapore marathon on 7 December 2014
Chris and Lucy, both members of Blue Idol Meeting, were seventy-one and forty-seven respectively when they decided to train for the marathon. When the day itself arrived, they were as ready as they could be.
Chris told Eye how events unfolded: ‘I was well acclimatised, having been in Kuala Lumpur for six weeks, but Lucy only had one week in the tropics. We arrived at the race at 4.30am for a 5.00am start… It was already twenty-five degrees.
‘We were virtually the only women that we could see, virtually the only westerners and probably the only mother and daughter team from the UK. The race officials tried to split us up as we were registered for different times but we refused as we had decided to run the first part together.
‘We were together in spirit, body and mind, determined to give it our best and run for each other. We ran the first 10K together and then I encouraged Lucy to go, go, go. As Steve has often said, a good marriage is about separateness in togetherness and so we were.
‘As we ran out along the coast the sun came up over the sea. It was a most wonderful sight to see the dawn coming. We were truly running into the Light, minds flowing, bodies entering the easy state of continued movement. At that point… no pain, no cramp, no regrets, just pure joy.
‘At the half marathon point we turned to begin the run back to the city and it got much tougher as the sun rose higher. We stopped at each water station as we had planned.
‘The last 10K was gruelling with no shade, it was thirty-four degrees, our feet hurt, cramps were threatening but we were team Pulborough, Blue Idol Runners, set up in 2012 to help raise cash for the renovation of the roof, and we were going to finish.
‘We crossed the finish line, absolutely drained but we had done it… We will always have Singapore, where we truly ran into the Light.’
A glimpse of the past
The ‘Miscellaneous’ column of the Friend can make an intriguing read.
A century ago fundraising appeals for rescue homes could be found abutting a hundred varieties of ‘hardy herbacious plant roots’, and the ‘choicest dairy fed’ bacon vies with ‘practically unshrinkable’ Welsh flannels for attention.
Tucked amongst these offerings are also hidden gems, giving unexpected glimpses into Friends’ lives.
One such treasure was unearthed by Elizabeth Shields during a recent exploration of the 1914-1918 digital archive. Appearing in the 12 January 1917 edition of the Friend, it reads:
‘Married couple (Friends) with comfortable home, wishes to adopt, from the month, a thoroughly healthy baby girl of gentle parentage.’
These words struck a chord. Elizabeth writes: ‘’The couple were to be my grandparents and the baby girl my mother!
‘I have copies of all the correspondence from The Infirmary in Basingstoke to my grandparents throughout the adoption process.
‘According to the letters, my mother had been found in a first class railway compartment and taken by the police to The Infirmary to be cared for. They estimate that she was two to three weeks old when found.’
* Correction (3 July 2015): The edition referred to in ‘A glimpse of the past’ was 12 January 1917, not 2017.
