GUCR Race Report Report

This is a report about writing a report. If I kept on doing this I would disappear into infinity.

I have just finished the first cut of my report on the GUCR. I took a day off work to write it and it just flowed out of me fairly easily. It brought back some memories and emotions that I never want to lose. I was asked who I was aiming the report at, I've thought about it and realised that I wrote it for myself.

I realised while writing this and also reading Ian's epic on the MDS that it is very important to capture all that you can from things like this so that you remember them. It's something you do on your own and though I had a support team there with me they were not sharing the same experience, not like if we were treking. When you've written about that experience you have the choice of letting others in to see it. Sometimes you may not want to.

Then the next "writing" process starts where you have to take what you have and present it to the audiences that you want to. It's a bit like marketing, but with more substance. I'm pleased with what I've written which in turn was based on what I did. I have to make a decision now as to who I want to push this to.

I've just sent it to a few people who expressed interest in reading about what I did. I'd call them Advocates. They will read it anyway. I'd really like to see it on the GUCR website as I believe that it will be read in the same detail it is now. I was looking on that website keen to drain all the info I could on the people who did this race. All those who may enter in future I think will benefit from reading this.

There are then the people who may be interested in the general torment of doing something like this even if they have no intention of doing it themselves, or any running.  

Then there comes the question of the "wider audience".  The general running crowd are exposed to lots of broad articles and quick fixes. "5 foods that make you faster", "7 steps to a perfect 10k" and so forth. To reach these guys I am going to have to shorten it significantly and probably concentrate on the superficial (like the pain and feeling "really pleased" at the end and probably some cliche about "never again" with some exclamation marks).

 I know that this is where the money is. I know that if I ever intend to make a living out of this then I need to reach these people. I'm still undecided as to whether I am going to try to in this case.

 Food for thought.