Meet the Leader - Sally
Sally lives in Waingroves with her partner Dale and their combined brood - Joe, Finlay, Florence and Freya and she joined Rogue Runner Ripley after returning to her home county, following 20 years of living in Shropshire.
Sally enjoyed a variety of sports throughout school and college – Netball, Hockey, Tennis, Badminton and squash – without a doubt, she favoured team sports and although running wasn’t completely off the cards, it was the shorter sprint distances she preferred. Her love of sport continued into her working life, playing badminton in the Inland Revenue’s (now HMRC) sports events and she also captained Derby Tax Office’s indoor cricket team, who played in a local league. In her wilder (braver) days Sally also bungee jumped, did a parachute jump and was a regular at the works go-karting competitions (she even won once!) although that recklessness has long since passed.
A work move to Shropshire in the late 90’s presented more opportunities to continue her love of sport and Sally played in a local badminton league and also met a running fanatic and the first running stint began. It wasn’t far or fast but the ease of it all appealed (as in, getting the trainers on and stepping out the door), as it worked perfectly around a busy work and social life. As the children arrived (3 in 4 years – it was a tough gig!!) sport took a back seat and although she had several attempts at getting back into running, she struggled to find the motivation and time whilst juggling a young family and work.
Returning to Derbyshire in 2019 and with the children becoming a little more self-sufficient, she was looking to get back into an activity and with the events of the last 16 months, running rather than badminton, proved to be the right choice. Sally spotted a Rogue Runners Ripley post on Facebook and an added bonus was that she knew one of the members from years ago. She signed up for the Rogues C25K programme and rocked up on a dark January evening in 2020, accompanied by fellow Rogue Carol and she hasn’t looked back.
Sally decided to give Shipley parkrun a go around 9 weeks into the programme, which turned out to be a good decision as we all know what happened in March 2020! Instead of graduating the C25K programme at Brierley Hill Park Run, Sally ran on the treadmill in her garage. She continued to run throughout lockdown and Dale also decided to get back to running, which helped her motivation enormously. As did the ‘Rogue Challenges’ which were run through the Facebook group which meant she started to get to know other Rogues, virtually at first and then face to face during the group runs, as restrictions eased. Her running went from strength to strength, and she challenged herself by signing up for virtual events such as Miles for mind, RATW, Race for Life, Derby 10k and Red January. In February this year, Sally completed her first half marathon distance with Dale, followed by a second in April with her Rogue running buddies Nat, Amie, Lara and Carly. Sally suffered her first running injury shortly after that, twisting her ankle whilst on a Rogue run, resulting in a torn ligament, which meant a few weeks on the bench recovering. Undeterred and recognising that Rogue Runners Ripley group were expanding in numbers rapidly and wanting to give something back to this fabulous club which had supported her on her own running journey, Sally floated the idea of sitting the LIRF qualification, which she gained recently, and she led her first Rogue run in early July 2021.
Without doubt, Rogue Runners Ripley has played a massive part in helping Sally navigate her way through what has been a difficult 16 months - de-camping from the office to home working, managing all that home-schooling, the increased levels of anxiety – those varying challenges that so many of us have faced. Finding running through Rogues - making new, lifelong friends, embracing both the mental and physical benefits that running brings, have all been an invaluable source of support to her.
