Investigating communities: cancer research 10k fundraiser

On Sunday the 17th of October, the annual Cancer Research 10k fundraising event took place, and i went along, seeing it as a great opportunity to help out as well as to speak to various members of this large and diverse community.

I felt that it was made up of a few sub-sections (based upon the groupings of people)
-solo runners
-couples
-small friendship/family groups (adults)
-larger professional groups of runners (5-20 members)
families

I saw a few parents looking after children whilst one parent ran. The children were generally very well behaved: no tantrums, although they were playing and running around a little causing chaos in the large crowd.




With over 3,000 runners taking part on the day, Victoria park was hugely crowded, but with everyone in a good mood and a common cause it was a fantastic atmnosphere.






http://www.flickr.com/photos/24605631@N07/5102872802/ a link to ( a shortened version of) the video footage i took of the family.

I managed to speak to a few people on the day, and identify the vast minority of individuals who had brought young family members with them, and to see how they handled the chaos with kids in tow.

I managed to speak to the family above, and the mother kindly filled in one of the 'daily diarys' that i designed to try to get a greater understanding of the challenges that parents faced.

The family was made up of two parents, 3 kids, and an older couple who i later learnt were a sister and her partner.

The mother was attempting to take part in a group warmup, but with the dad a few yards away (after a few seconds) and not paying attention, she had to stop periodically and settle them down, as well as doing the warm up half heartedly whilst trying to keep track of where the kids were.

It was here that i came up with the idea of day-mapping which would hopefully highlight problem areas, and to map differences and to compare it with another daults daily life (childess) to see what either of them are possibly missing out on, what challenges they face and what could possibly be improved.




The finish line.

Whilst i was waiting here i was asked by a dad if his (2 year old, face-painted) son could get to the front to support his mother.




What i learnt from this day was being able to compare the behaviours of parents with children, to adults without children of the same ages. Every parent here had a partner or someone else to take care of the children, and with the huge amount of people, the children were in danger of getting lost or even knocked over and hurt. The parents were quite distracted, and it would have been easier perhaps if they were seperated from their children during the warm out and admin parts of the run. At the finish line, i got asked by a dad if his child could squeeze through to the front, and i wondered if it might have been easier if there was somewhere for young supporters to go where they wouldnt be crushed and could see easily.