Erm… I thought about this post, and thought some more, it now being 2025 and now some time sits between the tail end of 2021, 2022, and 2023.
I now have closure after a lot of hard work on self, recognising my bad behaviour. But what is the closure?
When off my tits with addiction and lashing out, the Saddleworth Runners Club and its members had always been an anchor for me. I’d even joined the committer and organised races for the Club. I had friends in the Club, or so I thought. The Club was a safe place, or so I thought. People would understand me, help me, rally around. Or so I thought.
SRC / Saddleworth Runners Club
What I discovered about the Club was that it is heavily populated (not all members) with people who are hypocritical, gossip, and only give two hoots about self. I wish I’d realised I’d joined a running version of a stuck up golf or yachting club, run by a committee and Chairman with as much empathy and caring as a household brick.
So in making closure I’d like to say thanks to the committee for not having my back, nor most of the members. And most of all to the clique of men and women who make the Club their life and who would not even sully themselves to piss on you if you were on fire, if woe betide your face does not fit or you transgress against the norm.
I am glad to be rid of the Club, glad to remove the windscreen sticker, and thankful, oh so thankful that the cruelty of people helped led to Tobermory; for we are now truly blessed.
There are some fine people in the Club who have values. But there is a cabal of people, mostly women who can make life difficult. If you are thinking of joining this fell running Club, I’d advise looking to others, as the Saddleworth Runners Club is not what it portrays itself to be.
I think the spinelessness of the Chairman and his number two has also led to a malaise in the Club, so that it has simply become the bastion of white middle class types that also socialise in white middle class places. As I said this “inclusive” Club could not be anymore “exclusive” if it tried.