by Sophie Walker (UK) | Jul 27, 2012 | Motherhood, World Motherhood
It’s raining and I am running.
To be more truthful: it’s pouring, and I am sort of jogging.
Actually let’s be honest. The rain is of epic, Biblical proportion and I am managing a staggering trot at best.
Bowed but not yet beaten by the joys of a British summer, I have laced my anorak hood so tightly that all I can see are the tops of my trainers as I shuffle along, head down. Even then they are a watery blur amid the precipitation driving into my face.
The last time I ran seriously was three months ago, when I completed the London Marathon. After some (more…)

Writer, mother, runner: Sophie works for an international news agency and has written about economics, politics, trade, war, diplomacy and finance from datelines as diverse as Paris, Washington, Hong Kong, Kabul, Baghdad and Islamabad. She now lives in London with her husband, two daughters and two step-sons.
Sophie's elder daughter Grace was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome several years ago. Grace is a bright, artistic girl who nonetheless struggles to fit into a world she often finds hard to understand. Sophie and Grace have come across great kindness but more often been shocked by how little people know and understand about autism and by how difficult it is to get Grace the help she needs.
Sophie writes about Grace’s daily challenges, and those of the grueling training regimes she sets herself to run long-distance events in order to raise awareness and funds for Britain’s National Autistic Society so that Grace and children like her can blossom. Her book "Grace Under Pressure: Going The Distance as an Asperger's Mum" was published by Little, Brown (Piatkus) in 2012. Her blog is called Grace Under Pressure.
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