By Liz Roberts

I joked to many, that would listen, that I was pushing to win the women’s GVS champs so that I had the opportunity, for once in my life as an actress, to give an award acceptance speech. The ‘many’ laughed…not realising I was serious. And then it dawned on me, having won said award, as the AGM event drew closer, that award acceptance speeches were not the done thing here and I would have to make my peace with not being to proclaim all those things I was itching to say. But as I was supping at my pint and enjoying the AGM evening, chairman Pete A approaches me and asks whether I was willing to write something for the monthly GVS letter. Oh, wonderful! dahling! of course I will write an article for publishing!

I joined the Goyt Valley Striders back in April 2024 when my husband Luke persisted with the comment “If you can’t find someone to run and have a pint with, in a running club then you should just quit it all now and we’ll move”.

I hail from Cumbria. Eskdale and Wasdale are my stomping ground. I dabbled with fell running as a kid, ran for the school cross-country, swam in the rivers and lakes. There was nothing else to do. When my husband and I moved from London to live in the Peak and be near one of my brothers who had done the same and settled in Grindleford, I had high expectations of meeting my respective ‘crew’ alongside my pursuit of a career in theatre and to move on from running alone. This imaginary ‘crew’ consisted of folk who liked running or walking in the fells, navigating in wild conditions, being outside more than indoors, camping, talking openly, but not actor-like talking, and most importantly, drank ale: I think my three brothers and I must’ve all been weaned on beer.

Since 2014 I had found few people to do this with, unwittingly because during the ten years before I joined GVS, I was mostly in the company of new mums who did not want to find themselves in ‘wild conditions on the fells’ (there’s a cringe-worthy story when I took a group of NCT mums and their newborns out on South Head in the snow and told them to “put on another layer we’ll be back soon enough”) nor did they want to drink pints of ale (I took said NCT mums to the Paper Mill, Chinley after our cold walk and they ordered decaf coffee whilst I breastfed on a Thornbridge’s Lord Marple).

Anyhow, I digress and talk too much of beer. What I really wanted to say was:

I came to running with the club, with some experience of fell running in my pocket, experience of the mountains and a childhood of weekends solely being on the Lake District tops, the odd fell race here and there, but I hadn’t found anything which had pushed me out of this history and into an adulthood of belonging to a new range of hills and people. In the two years that I have been part of the club I have:

• Discovered routes and places local to me which I had never explored before
• Come to know the beautiful Goyt Valley better
• Bought multiple head torches
• Forgotten to bring multiple head torches
• Bought modern-day kit
• Forgotten to pack kit

• Learnt how to use Strava and Garmins and understand my minute-mile
• Predict my imaginary marathon time
• Learnt how to run and talk at the same time
• Actually shown up to races, and known people there!
• Learnt how to race properly
• Learnt how to fuel myself better
• Learnt how to be more competitive, for my physical wellbeing
• Learnt how to prepare myself for the worst-case scenario (this has taken a long time…I’m still awful at it)
• Pushed myself out of my comfort zone
• Better prepare for my races and my condition, which has caught me out so many times in the past. (I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in my early twenties but had my large intestine removed in 2011 and instead have a ‘J pouch’- look it up if interested). I use Tuesday night runs as good tests to trial different foods and eating times to help me plan for urgent predicaments on races. I have accepted the time this can cost me when racing but I don’t feel it is so physiologically debilitating these days.
• Realised that not enough women race. That not enough women trust themselves enough to be good. That not enough women run with men without apologising.
• Made new friends

• Met some genuinely interesting and charismatic people
• Felt part of something
• Met some of my crew

Thank you, Goyt Valley Striders, for all you have given me and I’m sure many who have come before me. Here’s to many more miles, pints, interesting people and banter!