Ramblings and Nordic Walking

I had debated whether or not to write a blog-post about this and I'm sure my friends on twitter and facebook are already tired of hearing about it but back in late February I had the opportunity to meet Clare Balding when she came to Nottingham to record an episode of Ramblings with Catherine and her Bramcote Park Saturday afternoon EZ Nordic Walking group.  This season's theme of Ramblings is bonding and in my opinion there isn't/wasn't a better group to interview for it (I'm not biased at all!).  I occasionally help out with this class and enjoy my time with them immensely--it always seems like the hour flies by far too quickly!

Clare, if you haven't figured it out by now is kind of a 'big deal' over here in the UK and people either seem to love or hate her--all based upon her television/radio persona of course. I received my first inkling of this back in December when we had the chance to attend the Olympia Horse Show and my partner spotted her while she was doing her interview prep. He pointed her out and with an extremely rare tone of admiration (and a wee bit of awe) that I rarely hear from him said "There's Clare Balding! Watch how she works, it's amazing."  Of course there was the flip-side when someone else remarked they couldn't stand her because (paraphrasing here) she's always on every time they watched television.

The day that Clare spent Nordic Walking with the group has left me firmly in the camp of being impressed with her though, totally professional yet very personable.  She took the time to speak with everyone, was very patient, and appeared to never be anything less than fully engrossed in what each person had to say.  We were out in the park for several hours for her and her producer Lucy to record what ended up being condensed into 23 minutes and the result was fantastic and very moving--when one of the girls (Jessie) started talking about where she wanted to travel to Nordic Walk it left me in tears. Thankfully the only time you can hear my voice is in the very beginning during the introductions.

Rachel, Clare, Catherine, and me

And how did Clare do at Nordic Walking? She took to it quicker than anyone else I've met!

Ramblings: Series 29 Episode 5 Nordic Walking in Bramcote Park, Nottingham  It's already aired on BBC Radio 4 but you can listen online or via podcast

British Nordic Walking

Midlands Nordic Walking

Sport Nottinghamshire article

Broxtowe Sport Facebook

INWA Nordic Walking Facebook

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