Run Leeds caught up with Jilly Walstow, the inspiration behind the St Pol Striders. What started back in 2017 with a local facebook group post, asking if there were other women who would like to go for a run…  Now 5 years on, the St Pol Striders have gone from strength to strength.

Written by Jilly Walstow

We started in December 2018 with 5 members, and when we went into lockdown we had 25. 

The plan was to set up a new couch to 5k group in January 2021, and we had 30 women signed up to start but lockdown required a rethink… we spent a frantic 24 hours pairing up new runners with existing members to create a buddy system, this worked brilliantly, and by March we had two new groups, those who had got to 5k and those who were still on their way. 

By January 2022 another 30 new couch to 5k girls made our numbers up to 100, we’ve lost a few but we hover around 90 members usually. 

In March this year we did an article for International Women’s Day, where I picked one of our girls from each decade to write me a piece and had our pictures taken.

You can read the full article below:

My name is Jilly aka, Mamma Strider, I set up a women’s running group in Hebden Bridge just over 4 years ago, I had a year where every ultra I entered resulted in a DNF and was feeling despondent, I needed to do something, what if I couldn’t run anymore? Maybe encouraging others would be enough….

Below are the stories of 5 inspirational women I have met in the last 4 years, they span 5 decades yet they run together every week and they have given me so much more than they could ever know!!

Iona Davidson

Sport – that was my sister’s ”thing”, I was “the smart one”. I read books – if reading books was a sport, I would have been team captain.

When I was in school, I hated sports, of any kind. I danced but I didn’t consider it a sport in any way. People would say, “do you run like your mum?” I just laughed and said “not a chance!” There was my sister, the dancer, my brother, the aspiring football player, and my mum, the ultramarathoner, and me, (once accused of stealing a merit sticker for PE, because I was that bad at it). If I could have failed PE I would have.

Then two years ago, right before the pandemic hit, mum convinced me to go to her new running club group for beginners. I tried to get out of it pretty much every week, but I still went. I kept going, and one day I ran 5k without stopping. But I still wasn’t “a runner” and I still laughed when people asked if I was like my mum. Then the pandemic hit and I didn’t have to run anymore, it was like PE was cancelled indefinitely… until I really couldn’t stand being alone at home much more, and finally we were allowed to run again. The club needed my academic, administrative brain power to organise smaller groups of runners, then to organise an entire class of couch to 5k runners. I was getting more involved, I was even making friends, and I was running more. And one day I said… “I didn’t hate that”.

Somewhere along the way I became Admin Strider, and I signed up for races, and I put together events, and my weekly mileage was creeping up and up. Eventually, in January 2022, I took on ‘Run Every Day’ and signed up for my first marathon. At the end of February I was top of the club leader board for mileage, I had hit distance goals in 2 months that it had taken me 6 months to reach last year. I suddenly had twice as many pairs of trainers… it occured to me that I might even be a runner now.

 

Sarah Schlobohm

The second time I went to a St. Pol Striders run for Couch to 5k, I cried. I ugly cried, whilst running, my face as pink as the pink hi-vis top I was wearing. ‘I. thought…’ I gasped desperately for oxygen between sobs …‘That. This. Was. For. Beginners!’

Like a lot of people, I gained some weight over lockdown. I was just a few pounds from being morbidly obese. That second run in August 2021 was the turning point, and I remember thinking it shuffling along Birchliffe Road. I was either going to make some serious changes, or feel defeated forever. Jilly stayed at the back with me, far behind everyone else, for that run, and for so many others. I swore a lot, mentally. Not out loud though, I didn’t have the breath to spare.

By November, I had completed Couch to 5k. And they gave me a medal! With St. Pol Striders, a great gym, and some dietary changes, I’ve now lost over 20 kg/ 3 stone and am just a few pounds away from a healthy BMI. Weight is by no means the only measure of health. I have more energy, focus, fitness, and a community of supportive women to cheer me on every step of the way. What I’ve lost is nothing compared to what I have gained.

 

Rachael Dewhurst

Moving Forward at Forty with St Pols

4 Jan 21. I had a decision to make, spend lockdown in Scotland where I work as a mental health nurse/CBT therapist in the RAF, or work from the home I bought in Mytholmroyd in 2015. I chose the latter, accepting that I could be isolated but taking the chance to live at home for a time. I spotted St Pols Striders on Facebook, already being a runner, I contacted Jilly and she offered me the lifeline of taking on three couch to 5k-ers. These weekly jaunts out, kept me going through the winter months. I also entered the Whatsapp group of established runners, this was a funny place to be. Totally anonymous, in an already established group. These women were an amazing support to each other, I didn’t know any of them. On reflection, I was trying too hard to join in and be liked, that I may have been a little too much.

1 Feb 21. My 40^th Birthday. Looking back this was a miserable day, I received bunch after bunch of flowers, but no human contact and I was really starting to struggle now.

24 Apr 21. Jilly’s Calderdale Way. I was due to meet the pack mid-afternoon at Withins Reservoir. Luckily for me, meet time was later than planned because I couldn’t get myself off the bathroom floor. Wrapped in a blanket, crying for no idea why, ruminating on my uselessness and zapped of energy, I got the message they were on their way! Thankfully, I pulled on my kit and went. That afternoon Jilly completed the most amazing feat, but she also brought with her a gang of exceptional women. Whilst running from Stoodley to Tod, I broke through the shame of being a depressed therapist for the first time. I confided in a stranger that I thought I might be struggling.

Since that day I’ve made new friends, shared my first belly laugh in a while and talked through my future, coming to realise that if I hadn’t worked away so much, I could have had this life sooner.

1 Feb 22. My 41^st birthday. I handed in my notice to the RAF and on my 42^nd birthday I will be a veteran. I know I’m in the majority when I say I struggled through lockdown and I’m so grateful for those that I ran, confessed, laughed, and achieved with last year. For some St Pols gets them running, for me St Pols got me moving forward.

 

Pam Barmby

Women Inspiring Women

It’s 10 years since I started running. It was the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics and everyone seemed to be out on the road. My friend and I would meet up after school drop off on a Friday morning and do some form of exercise, but we soon found that the running beat everything because we could talk, laugh and let off steam at the same time.  I ran my first Colour Run 5km in Sunderland with my children in July 2014.

Later that year, we moved to Johannesburg in South Africa, and although there was much to love about South Africa, there were many challenges that came with moving to a new country both for my children, for my husband and for me. My visa status didn’t allow me to work, and since I was a stay-at-home-‘mom’, I needed a way to make friends and create a life for myself.

I started to run in my local area and came across a women-only gym a few blocks away – it was a Curves franchise that was owned by South Africa’s first female Navy diver, Nicky Seger. Nicky was a triathlete and had completed several Iron Man competitions and was passionate about women’s health and and engaging them with exercise in a way that wasn’t just about weight loss. She was inspiring and challenging in equal measure and for the first time, exercise wasn’t just something to be endured, it was FUN! I embraced it and used it to get through the stressful school run. Through Curves, I was introduced to Park Run for the first time and having met members of a local running/walking group, I started training with them.

Suddenly I had a structure to my day and although this group was a mixed group, it was led by a woman and most of the group were women – of all ages and sizes. Running with other women was a revelation –  I had never seen myself as an athlete before, never seen myself as ‘fast enough, strong enough, good enough’ to even take part, but being trained by and with other women was a real inspiration – it seemed possible that I can run further than I’d ever thought and I discovered a competitive spirit that I hadn’t had before, which was positively encouraged, in fact it was considered normal. I began to see myself as a runner.

It was my intention to be fitter in my 50s than I had been in my 30s, and being alongside others who were encouraging and supportive, this gradually became a reality. In the 3 years we spent in Johannesburg, I ran several half marathons including the iconic Soweto People’s Race and the Cradle of Humankind.

When we returned to the UK in 2017, we moved to Todmorden – yes I know, don’t ask, it’s a whole other story! I really wanted keep running, and although I joined Tod Harriers Pack Runs on a Wednesday night, I mainly trained alone and ran the Liverpool Marathon in 2018, something which had seemed completely out of my league just a few years previously. I also helped to set up the first Centre Vale Park Run in Todmorden and regularly marshalled, ensuring that the opportunity was available for others locally. But I really missed the warmth of South Africa, not just the weather, but my running buddies too, and training alone in unfamiliar cold, wet weather, up and down the hills of the lower valley was a slog.

In late 2018, after we moved to Hebden Bridge, I came across Hebden Ladies on Facebook. They described themselves as a small friendly group which met on Thursday nights. Thursdays became my sanity saver, my new tribe and trail running became my new challenge. There were more challenges for my children returning to the UK, than there had been in South Africa, and I would regularly pour my heart out and let off steam on our weekly trail runs.

Before the pandemic in March 2020, I hurt my hip and have only recently been able to run again, but the group developments since then have been really key in getting me through the different lockdowns. The WhatsApp group was fantastic and an opportunity to come together for the Three Peaks was amazing; flying visits from Jilly when we could find an excuse; advice and physio from the amazing Karen made me take care of my body in a way I hadn’t considered before, especially post menopause, and introduced me to yoga online (with the lovely Adrienne), which has kept me going when I couldn’t even walk very far.

There were other opportunities to take part when I couldn’t run – I marshalled for the Calder Valley Way and the first St Pol’s Equinox last year and was a big sister to new runners when we couldn’t run together. The St Pol’s Tri group, set up to enable people to arrange other activities, inspired me to start wild swimming, (Antonia’s pictures were a big part of that!) and throughout the winter, I have swum 2 or 3 times a week, and through this I have found a new connection with nature and growing tribe.

In November 2021, I went back to the beginning and began Couch to 5km again and even though I run alone, I keep in touch with the WhatsApp groups and I know that there will always be a space for me when I am ready to run again.

When I reflect on my running journey of the last 7 years, I am hugely grateful to the groups I have been part of, and the women who lead them. Women’s running groups work because, at their heart, there is one visionary woman with a passion, willing to share her time, her expertise, her commitment, her energy, and who realised her own power and used it to inspire others and bring others alongside her. Thanks Nicky and thanks Jilly for making the impossible seem possible and bringing us together.

 

Jean Delahoy

I never did any running when I was young, not even at school.  I played netball, went to aerobics classes (that’s how old I am!) and also did activities like aqua aerobics and yoga, but it never occurred to me to try running.

 About 10 years ago I did start doing very occasional short runs on my own, but what really got me started was when I was asked to take part in a 10k run to raise money for Cancer Research in memory of my cousin’s wife. I managed to complete the  run – it was in London, so no hills, which really helped.  Even though I was slow, there were still other people who were slower, so this encouraged me to keep going.

Soon after that I saw something on the local Facebook page about a running group for women and decided to give it a try.  I turned up expecting to be running round the streets of Hebden Bridge, only to find out that the first run was from Hebden to Stoodley Pike and back!!  I managed this (with a LOT of walking included), and started attending the group.  The group has grown massively since then and there is now a very successful Couch to 5K group for beginners.

 I still have a very stop/start relationship with running. At the beginning of lockdown I ran 5k nearly every day before work and my aim is to get back to that. I can honestly say that I always feel better after I’ve been for a run (that’s after the run, not necessarily during the run).  I’m definitely not very fast and I can’t run long distances, but I think people of all ages and fitness levels can benefit from running, both physically and mentally.

 One of the things I’ve been doing to try to motivate myself to run is to take part in virtual challenges, where you upload the miles that you’ve run/walked and they are plotted on a map – so far I’ve gone from Lands End to John O’Groats and back and am now part way round the South West Coast Path.

The Strider’s running group is very inclusive – there are people who run 100 mile races and there are people more like me – I move from the middle group back and forwards to the beginners group depending on how fit I’m feeling.  I’m also very much a fair-weather runner and find it hard to motivate myself to run when the weather is bad., This doesn’t matter – running and the running group isn’t just for people who want to run marathons or are happy to run in freezing temperatures/rain etc, it’s for everyone who wants to get out there and run. 

Someone did say to me that you never regret going for a run, but can often regret NOT going for a run and that is so true.

 

Run Leeds totally agrees, and thanks all the women of the St Pol Striders for sharing their running stories.