“HOW did you feel before running your very first race?”

The girl who asked that question, sat cross-legged in the sunshine wearing a Vale Royal Athletics Club vest, looked straight at Jenny Meadows while waiting for a reply.

She hung on every word the former Great Britain international said back.

“That was a long time ago!” quipped the 37-year-old.

“I was excited, definitely, and probably a little bit nervous too.”

The answer will surely have resonated.

If somebody that has won a medal at a world championship while representing her country can be anxious, then so can an 11-year-old pensive about her own forthcoming debut.

A group of close to 40 boys and girls, all of them part of the club’s junior section, spent 90 minutes with Meadows at Hartford Campus last week.

They trailed her excitedly during a warm-up jog, a long line of blue and gold-clad runners literally following in the footsteps of an athlete that competed at the Olympic Games in 2008.

There was concentration etched on their faces while they tried to copy a technique she demonstrated before each drill.

For some, it was an effort to resist the urge to go flat out when the opportunity arose.

But they did.

“When running was my job, I didn’t have time to visit clubs like yours,” she remarked.

“I’m glad I can now.”

The group gathered in a circle around her during the final half-hour, patiently putting up their hand – many of them holding small bits of paper in the other on which they’d scribbled a question beforehand – while waiting for their turn to talk.

A bronze medal she had won in Berlin was passed around; eyes grew wider and brows creased to study it in detail.

Some of the topics were predictable; memories, meals and making trips around the world.

Others, surprisingly, were less so.

“When did you realise you were good?” asked one boy.

It prompted Meadows to tell a tale of finishing last in the under 13s girls’ 800m final at the national schools’ championships.

Even the best have been beaten at some point.

Of course, the message was to just keep on trying.

As is often the case, a question near to the end captured the mood perfectly.

It went simply: “Do you run for fun?”

Meadows grinned.

“You should always enjoy it if you can,” she said.

And that includes the first race.