A few more years passed and Sarah started to get a tad too comfortable. Someone told her that whatever your weight and fitness is when you reach 40 determines what you’ll be for the rest of your life. With this milestone rapidly approaching, Sarah knew that she needed to take action. Whilst out cycling, her husband had seen a banner advertising Jog Derbyshire and suggested to Sarah that this might be just what she needed. So, Sarah found her local group and signed up for their Couch to 5K programme. Sarah had never been a natural runner and it wasn’t long before all the awful memories from school cross-country came flooding back. Sarah really struggled and it took her three attempts to complete the programme as she was determined that she wouldn’t accept the medal and certificate until she could run the full distance without stopping. She received huge support from one of the group leaders and if it hadn’t been for him, she wouldn’t have stuck with it.

As more time passed, Sarah started to enjoy her running and joined another Jog Derbyshire Group so that she could run on another evening as well as participating in the monthly Kedleston Trail Runs. She wasn’t fast and sought comfort in her hankie when she needed to stop and walk – the infamous ‘comfort blow’. Sarah had no desire to run races she was a hobby jogger who enjoyed getting out in the fresh air, meeting new people, improving her fitness and keeping her weight in check. But in 2018, all that changed! Her jog group were taking entries for the Derby 10k and the suggestion of Sarah entering caused some amusement in the group. In ‘Dirty Dancing’, one of Sarah’s favourite films, there is the line, “nobody puts Baby in a corner” and in this case, “nobody tells Baker she can’t do something”. So, Sarah smiled politely, shared in the joke and said “I won’t be entering this year, but I will be next year”. And that’s exactly what she did! As a practice she ran the Thorsby 10k and Ashbourne 10k in the months leading up to the 2019 Derby 10k to get a feel for what it would be like to race in a crowd. Race day came and she smashed it and without the need for a comfort blow!

In October 2019, shortly after the Rogues Runners Ripley was launched, Sarah joined us for a Friday Night Fun Bus. She struggled, but was blown away by the support and encouragement that she received. Sarah was now training hard in preparation for the 2020 Derby 10K as she was focused on beating her time from the previous year. Sadly, with less than a week before the event, the pandemic struck and it was cancelled. Like many people, Sarah then fell victim to the curse of the ‘Lockdown Lard’ and also got injured which hindered her running. She lost her mojo (motivation to jog) and everything felt really difficult, everything she’d worked so hard to achieve now felt lost. But Sarah isn’t a quitter and soon became a regular at the newly formed Rogues Walking Group once we could meet again in person. Last summer Sarah volunteered to co-lead our Sofa to 3K programme to facilitate her own return to running but also to support others who shared all the same fears and anxieties that she’d once had. Sarah absolutely loved it and this gave her a taste for leadership but she didn’t think that she was fast enough to be a leader. Fast forward four months and after one too many Proseccos at the Christmas Party, Sarah had been persuaded to enrol on the LIRF Course. 

Sarah has just finished co-leading the latest Sofa to 3K cohort where she’s developed her own unique warm-up and cool-down routines. You’d never guess that Sarah was once embarrassed to wear lyrca; now she can always be relied upon to arrive in the brightest of outfits - our very own Mrs Motivator. It’s always a toss up to whether we see or hear her first as her personality is as loud as her clothing. Like lots of us, Sarah continues to battle her own insecurities but she’s a fantastic advocate of the club and ensuring that running is accessible to everyone. Her passion is helping and supporting others to be the best that they can be and proving that nothing worth having is ever achieved in your comfort zone. Also, our Sarah can always be relied upon to cross the finish line with her lip gloss intact – “it’s the photo that matters as that’s what people see!”