Week Ending - 2020/06/07

STEADY KAREN TO STEP DOWN AS CHAIR

Popular Badgers club Chairperson Karen Thompson is to step down in her role at the next AGM after five incredible years in the role. The hardworking mum of two has been on the club’s management committee since Badgers became an affiliated athletics club back in 2013, initially as Treasurer before filling the role of acting Chair after founder Nivette Chester had to aside. During her tenure, the club has seen incredible growth with membership numbers consistently in excess of 200 as well as the successful continuation of the club’s beginners scheme which many had expected to die off once the majority of the local populace had taken it up. As well as navigating her way through the inevitable challenges of the role, she oversaw an unprecedented period of dominance in the Leicestershire Road Running League with the men’s team winning back to back titles after successive promotions to the top-flight, a feat replicated by the men’s cross country side. The ladies team made their way into the top division too and the men’s vets side became county champions in 2019.

She has worked tirelessly and selflessly to help Badgers become the club it is today and still remains the club’s run-leader co-ordinator as well as one of their five qualified coaches. With all this being done in her spare time, she still manages to work full-time for a company in Market Bosworth. You could be forgiven into thinking that she is unable to race much, but the statistics show that she has represented Badgers in league events some 48 times, the fourth highest total for any Badger female behind Esther Holyoak, Nicki Bowman and Cheryl Dewis. In 2016 she coached her wife Jo to complete her one and only marathon at London, raising over £5000 for mental health charity MIND, for whom Karen is also the Badgers Mental Health Champion, an ambassadorial role which she has carried out with great pride.

Karen has run a few marathons herself, a whopping 76 to be precise! With a very impressive personal best of 3:40:51 set in Manchester 2017, her most memorable remains her very first, in London which she ran before joining Badgers in honour of her beloved late grandfather. Her journey went full circle when she revisited the capital in 2018 having qualified for the event through performance showing that her work ethic was not just restricted to administration. She still holds the senior club record for the 20 mile event to this day.

While she may be stepping down from her primary role, she still hopes to remain involved at the club as she seeks to run her way to the holy grail of 100 marathons once lockdown restrictions are further eased. With the 2020 AGM still postponed until further notice, time will tell who will ultimately take over but whoever it is, they will have big shoes to fill and a hard act to follow.