A question about RFLs

Yes, well said Kwilter.
AND they've hijacked an entire colour!

Kwilter with a K wrote (see)

Cancers that affect mainly women (I know men can get breast cancer so probally a bit generic) have effected people known to the wider public who have used thier illness to  raise awerness ie Klyie Jade Goody etc. From male cancers Bobby Moore and Lance Armstrong spring to mind as people who have raised the profile but they may not have the mainstream appeal.

Personal gripe coming up here...women don't just get breast cancer you know! Imagine being diagnosed with cancer...pick a cancer, any cancer, let's just say thyroid for this example.

Imagine sitting in a clinic with a tower of leaflets for breast cancer, support group meetings for breast cancer, phone lines for breast cancer, sponsored events...races...for breast cancer while waiting to see your consultant and not having any support. Having 1 leaflet for your cancer that's inaccurate, having your nearest support group nearly 100 miles away, and having no way of finding information apart from Google.

Now imagine that every time cancer research gets mentioned, the most frequent cancer that gets talked about is breast cancer, as if it's the only cancer that women get.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my life!

What about people like MacMillan and CancerBackup?  My ex got support (and bags of information) from both of those organisations when he had non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

i haven't read everyones replies yet but i recently did the race for life 5k in Bedford It was my first ever entry in to anything remotly race like and although i know it isn't an 'Official' race and more of a fun run I personally did take it seriously becuase when i started training i couldnt even get down the road without being out of breath. I have since used my nike plus to run another 5k (or as close as you can get with these things) and am entering in to a 'proper' race In august.

Do proper races work differently  - genuine question - becuase I have no idea what to expect and after this one I would like to try for a 10k in October 

RFL was my first race too.  I've done the Bradford one 4 times now however I know it can't be any more than 2.5 miles (0.6 of a mile is a lot to cut the course by) as my fastest time is 21 mins something.  There is no way in a million years I could run 5k in that time!  Based on what I know I can run, I know the course is considerably shorter than it should be.  I'm now a regular runner and have done a few halfs and a full marathon and its disappointing that it's not the right distance, but I run it now to try and beat my previous best time, and not for a true 5k pb.