When she put her name down for the 100m dash at the school sports day she didn’t take it seriously. She planned to just turn up and do a gentle sprint.
When her daughter’s school sent out a message about the sports day it included an invitation to register for the 100m dash. Cyndi Khate (36) thought it would be a bit of fun and signed up for it. She had done a bit of light jogging and used to do park runs.
Since she had her daughter Cyndi hadn’t done any running but she had been thinking about it. She wasn’t competitive but enjoyed feeling fit. She assumed that all the other parents would be in the same situation.
Cyndi turned up at the sports day in a regular set of shorts and a loose top. Almost at once she was certain that she could spot the other mothers in the race. Some were wearing Asics Metaspeed, Nike Invincible 3 and other serious running trainers, Her suspicions were confirmed when she several women wandered away and started doing warmups and stretches.
Cyndi was determined to treat it as a fun event and not a serious competition. She came last. The other women gathered round and could be overhead commenting on how it was sad that some women let themselves go and how they should be a selection heat for the race to prevent women embarrassing themselves.
Cyndi was not too bothered as she accidentally scraped her key down the side of the winner’s BMW in the car park.