‘10K community road race is the epitome of good news,’ says editor

Editor Jeremy Ransome writes this week’s From The Newsroom column, and discusses the ‘good news story’ that is the GEAR 10K…A common criticism levelled at newspapers, local ones such as the Lynn News, in particular, is that we concentrate on bad news, filling our pages with crime, council rows and car accidents.I’m always happy to take constructive appraisal of the way I run my newspapers but I do think the ‘bad news’ bullet is an unfair one to fire at us.

We are a newspaper and the definition of one, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “a set of printed sheets of paper, or a website, containing news and articles”. Reporters don’t enjoy writing bad news but we must write about what is going on in Lynn and the surrounding district, both as a record of current affairs and as a historical document to be referred to in the future. It is our job.However, when there’s something joyous happening in the area we are always delighted to report on that too. That’s why we always give up so much space to fantastic events such as Festival Too, Pride, the amazing concerts that have started each summer in Sandringham, the regular Tuesday Market Place events put on by West Norfolk Council during the summer… and the Grand East Anglian Run (GEAR). The GEAR 10K has been taking place in Lynn for many years now and is a highlight, not only of the running year, but of the community calendar in Lynn.Along with my Lynn News colleague Rebekah Chilvers, I took part in it on Sunday for, I think, the seventh time, and what always strikes me is the amount of non-club runners in the event. Ordinary people who pencil the date in their diary, do a bit of training and ‘give it a go’, many raising thousands of pounds for charity while doing so.The atmosphere on the Tuesday Market Place is electric by 9am, 30 minutes before the race starts, with Radio West Norfolk playing inspirational songs to get the participants in the mood, and the whole, scenic course full of spectators and well-wishers. All shouting words of encouragement. It really is Lynn and West Norfolk at its very best.Yes, it was hard to take when an elderly man drinking coke and eating a roll told me it was “all in my mind” as I stopped for a quick walk on my final kilometre, my legs paying me back for not having trained above my weekly 5k parkrun, but, like everyone else, he was extremely well-meaning.So I make no excuse for GEAR being on the front page and the centre pages of tomorrow’s Lynn News. It’s the epitome of good news and, after all, that’s what we all want, isn’t it?