I’m sitting on a plane travelling to my next adventure. After paying far too much to enjoy being ‘online’ across the Atlantic I received an email from one of the many running groups that I follow. It was an invite to share an insight into my running journey in exchange for a chance to win a photo shoot with a major running brand (and keep the kit).
I’d normally scroll on but as I’m on the plane with nowhere to go for a few more hours I’ve been thinking about what I might say if I’m going to throw my hat in the ring.
The invite specifically asked about certain places, and certain races and how they had inspired you to run a personal best.
Nothing peculiar in that I guess. But it did get me thinking a little bit about what I get from my running adventures.
In a nutshell it’s about personal growth, and not about personal bests. I may be reaching a point in my running career when chances to PB are nearing extinction.
But personal growth, through running, has endless opportunities….still.
So I think I’ve found my reason for recording that 60 second video. Let’s see if this brand agrees with me.
Since I moved to Eastbourne I’ve not had many chances to get outside and run in the daylight. Today offered that chance so I took it.
After clearing the town centre it struck me how busy the sea front was compared to most evenings. That shouldn’t be a surprise given that a lot of people have finished work for the festive break. It was also great to see the inter-generational mix of kids, parents and grandparents all enjoying some fresh air as the strolled along the prom.
And here’s the thing that struck me most – give people the chance to enjoy ‘the outdoors’ and many will – unprompted and without the need to be ‘on a plan’ like most of us runners.
So this is the rallying cry… Vote Coach Al and I will legislate to give everyone more time to enjoy the outdoors.
And guess what… Vote Coach Al and will legislate to give everyone more time to enjoy the outdoors and solve the NHS crisis at the same time.
My reasoning is simple. Life, and in particular work, takes priority and prevents us from doing things such as enjoying a simple walk with family or friends. When life is busy stuff like this drops down the To Do List.
So vote Coach Al and I will bring in a 4 day working week and therefore instantly create more opportunity for everyone to get outside more.
And I won’t stop there because if the kids are still in school 5 days a week then parents are still limited or restricted accordingly. So schools will all go to a 4 day week too.
And if schools need to stay open longer to accommodate the kids learning needs then let’s fill that additional time with more play and more PE – let’s develop good habits from the ‘get go’.
So who is in? Maybe the economists will doubt my plan but I will save the NHS money.
The nation will be healthier and happier and that will help contribute to offsetting any fall on GDP.
We may pay more taxes but we will have more freedom to enjoy the non-monetary things in life.
Our physical health and our mental health will improve and may, just maybe Broken Britain may be fixed.
Ok, I’m not up for election any time soon but many politicians will be – either locally or nationally – so let’s start campaigning hard.
It’s nearly 20 years ago since Nintendo launched its brain training game for the DS console. And at the time I invested too much time trying to convince myself I could resist the march of time.
The reason I’m blogging about the topic of brain training is because of a very interesting podcast I’ve been listening to. This won’t come as a complete surprise but becoming better at running, and enjoying more of your training is as much about tricking your brain as it is about improving your physiology or your technique.
It’s quoted a lot and it’s a truism – in that we give up on hard runs, and hard stuff in general way before our physical limits are reached. We all have the negative ‘self talk’ to a greater or lesser extent and it’s therefore our mindset that is likely to determine an outcome than our actual physical fitness.
So therefore I hope we can all agree that mindset matters.
Now here’s the interesting bit. Apparently, happiness pushes the limit of fatigue further away.
Put simply, a ‘happy’ approach to running actually helps the unconscious decisions your body makes about oxygen intake, the metabolism of glycogen into energy, and the flushing of lactic acid out of your legs.
This all makes a lot of sense when you see and think about Eliud Kipchoge beaming from ear to ear as he approaches mile 25 at sub two record pace for yet another marathon.
Now, I don’t think it’s because he is reciting his favourite Dad Jokes to himself to distract his mind. Instead, according to Dr David Spindler, a high performance coach and an adviser to the Tour de France Legend Mark Cavendish, it’s because he excels at controlling stress.
It’s this approach that drives the meaning of Run Happy…
There’s lots of academic research that identifies that a little bit of stress is good for us all. It stimulates our natural ‘fight or flight’ instincts and it’s what triggers the release of a range of different stimulants such as cortisol and adrenaline.
And feeling those ‘drugs’ kick in on race day certainly allows us to push closer to our limits. I’m guessing we’ve all felt that rush at some point – we think we can’t but from somewhere we find another gear, or a little bit more of something.
But here is the catch – too much stress (referred to as chronic stress) releases too much stimuli and our body starts to work overtime in processing those higher levels of ‘bad’ hormones and this is harmful for performance.
I don’t want to patronise you by declaring that stress management is simple, and all it takes is a bunch of yogi-inspired chants and positive statements and you will suddenly PB at your next race. Dealing with sick children, worrying about job insecurity, having low self-esteem, feeling lonely are all complex and time consuming issues that create large doses of stress for sure.
But, as runners, there is something we can all do to reduce and lower the micro-doses of stress that we bring upon ourselves routinely as part of our training.
And here is the thing about ‘running happy’ and controlling those stress points.
Sometimes unconsciously but often, very deliberately, we set out a plan, a programme of training runs, a target pace, a set distance that, on the surface, pushes us towards our goals. And those parameters establish a series of stress triggers.
We go for a run and we find it harder than last time – we trigger a stress response.
We finish parkrun and we are 12 seconds slower than last week – we trigger a stress response.
We run with faster friends and we push ourselves to keep up because we don’t want to appear less capable – we trigger a stress response.
And even when we do achieve a new PB – we trigger a stress response (and we lay down the foundations for the next series of trigger points)
Therefore the answer is we need to train our brain, and in particular, that part of the brain that is analytical and judgemental, and encourage it to ‘look elsewhere’.
This means not making judgements about our run as soon as we stop our Garmin, not comparing our performance against our friends run that they’ve just posted on social media, and not seeking linear day by day step-change improvements. None of those behaviours help manage our stress responses.
If we can train our brain to be less focused on the outputs, and rather more intent on enjoying the experience then we can all Run Happy and Run Better.
I’m writing this twenty-four hours after competing in a 24 hour running relay, down in Southend. I’m making this statement now as my brain and body still feel abit fuzzy after the experience. Therefore who knows whether any of this will make any sense?
Ideally, I’d have waited a little bit longer so that all my senses are fully restored to their optimum before crafting this post. But sometimes it’s just better to say it and see whilst still in the moment, rather than wait.
Now if you’re not familiar with Harp24, it’s a 24 hour endurance race held every year where teams and solo runners gather to complete as many laps of a 5 mile trail route as possible in 24 hours.
I chose this title because this post is about change and growth. But don’t worry I haven’t morphed into a hardcore ultra trail runner. I still prefer my road races and will be back out in Central London this coming Sunday for the rebranded Saucony 10k. Much shorter distance (and much shorter grass to contend with).
Instead, I’ve been reflecting on the comments from all my fellow Fordy Runs club members who all took part across the weekend.
It’s the third time I’ve entered the race and I may have even blogged about it this time last year ( I’m just being too lazy to go back and check – doh! ) but this year felt very different.
We have definitely grown in numbers. The first year was 2 teams of six – caught up in the thunderstorms . Year 2 we grew to around 35 – and added on Camp Kitchen and still suffered the thunderstorms.
Now in Year 3 we exceeded 50 plus runners, had a bigger Camp Kitchen and added in some high winds and a second night of camping for good measure.
But that wasn’t the real reason it felt different this year.
In years past the attendees were pretty much already friends – trying something new- which is good for making memories and adding to the experiences of being a member of this awesome community.
And this year was better!
Very many of the same people, same location and route, and fewer miles (for me) – so why better?
That’s simple. The experience was shared with old friends AND new faces.
Virtual running buddies ‘transformed’ into real people. Strava likes became personal stories. Barriers based on distant locations were removed as we jostled for the remaining baked potatoes warming on the camp fire pit. The extreme winds and rains created new alliances as we sought to work together to prevent tents being blown into the sea. The post-midnight miles were shared, along with the rum shots (on the mile every mile). The list goes on….
Trophies were won and new personal records were set so as a running event it was a very successful race.
But as I often quote in this blog series, those things will be quickly forgotten whereas the new friendships will not.
Across the weekend I spoke to a lot of club members I knew, and have interacted with across social media but didn’t really know before Harp.
And so for me the real ‘wins’ we’re getting to know people better, and to be able place to their love of running in the context of their wider lives.
For some, their ‘win’ was doing something hard and uncomfortable – again nothing to do with miles or the terrain. Being outside of their comfort zone but in a safe, friendly environment (which I like to think I had a hand in creating being the experienced Harp-er from previous), had allowed them to embrace those new experiences and to participate as an active member of this community – in a way that maybe they thought wasn’t possible on arrival at base camp.
It is a cliche but all cliches come from a place of truth. Personal growth starts at the boundaries of your current limits.
And I genuinely hope everyone’s ‘limits’ have been pushed (in a good way) this weekend. And like me in the fancy dress ‘lap’, maybe a few more butterflies were hatched this weekend.
Don’t worry this is not an invite to sign up for a TV games show. It’s also not specific advice on how to run a marathon.
I’ve heard the statistic that only 1% of the population has ever run a marathon but it now seems that around two thirds of the world now enter the London Marathon ballot each year.
Instead, this piece is about how to make small improvements consistently to make significant progress over time. Now I’m not a mathematician but according to Google if you improve 1% every day for a year you will have improved by over 37% compared to where you started.
Now if that was a financial investment decision you’d be asking me where to send your money!
So what does that mean in terms of promoting your own well-being.
Well, it got me thinking about planks. Bear with me, let me explain – and I’m also gonna ‘wonk’ the logic a bit too.
Day one I hold a plank for one second. Day two I hold a plank for one more second – so that’s now 2 seconds in total (and 100 % improvement not 1%). Day three for one more second.
So I think you can see the sequence I’m getting at. Each day a little improvement – all very achievable, and in isolation not even worth posting about on Insta (LoLs).
Assuming you started on 1st January, by New Year’s Eve you will be able to hold a plank for just over six minutes. Now that sounds a lot more impressive.
And here’s the compound effect – not in absolute compound terms – but in terms of motivation, etc. If you’ve made that kind of progress, I’m also willing to bet you’ve pushed yourself to a point where you can plank for a lot longer than six minutes. Improvement drives more improvement exponentially.
And all this came from a) making the commitment to plank everyday, and b) being consistent with your daily plank.
Now delete the word ‘plank’ and insert pretty much any thing you want to improve about yourself, your mindset, or your physique.
Now, life is not fair, and progress is not linear. So the beauty and neatness of the math may not play out exactly as the theory suggests. But I think you’re getting the point.
All too often we take on a big challenge, set ourselves a huge goal, start with massive enthusiasm and then see things fall apart over time. This is why New Year’s Resolutions on the whole don’t work.
For me my 1% actions are as follows:
– daily journaling (consistency is my downfall)
– running easy 80% of the time (the ultimate ‘compound effect’ effect)
– maintaining connections with friends and colleagues.
If I’m successful who knows where the compound effect may take me? It could be my first book, it could be a Boston qualifying time or an address book full of friends I can call upon when times are hard. The outcomes are important but it’s the process that counts more.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending CowFest East 2024 – which has become an annual event for ‘parkrun tourists’ to get together to celebrate their own little bit of weirdness.
As it happens it was three weeks ago that I also became a member of the Cowell club. To be a member you have to have visited 100 different parkrun locations.
These two things together had me thinking about the joys of early starts on a Saturday morning – rarely in pursuit of a personal best, but always in pursuit of a little adventure.
Parkrun is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024, and the home of parkrun, Bushy Park, will host its 1000th event towards the end of August.
So what makes for such an enduring occasion?
I know parkrun takes place across 20 different countries these days but let’s be honest – the whole thing is very British in its nature, and I don’t think would’ve started or grown so big if it had originated anywhere else.
So why do I love it so much, and spend so much time plotting and planning where to go next. I think the answer is quite simple.
It’s the combination of familiarity and uniqueness. Now that sounds contradictory so let me explain.
Each week I know the run will be 5k and 5k only. I will get a briefing from the Run Director, we will celebrate milestones and thank the volunteers. We will follow the signs around the course and when we finish we will receive our finisher token, before heading of to look for someone to scan my barcode. And about an hour later we will all receive an email telling us our statistics for the day. All so familiar and familiar makes it safe.
And every week a different location means exploring and discovering new places, and new people and this brings me more joy than the run itself.
Say Hi to Joe. I met Joe at Bexley parkrun a few weeks ago. He is 91 and visits the park every Saturday in his wheelchair, before he assumes duties as marshal on the penultimate corner of each lap. He high fives everyone, and if you’re a regular he has a pocket full of sweets for you to choose from. I don’t know much about Joe but I’m pretty sure he looks forward to that early alarm call because he is being active, getting out into nature and making connections with people each and every week. And he is making a positive contribution to his own well-being.
Similarly, over in Lincoln Sandra has a corner named after her – she can’t quite remember why other than that she’s been standing in the same place, every week for over 8 years, cheering on all runners of all abilities.
And then there was Doris, also a Lincoln Legend. She recently passed away having reached her late nineties. Once parkrun arrived in Lincoln she stood every Saturday at her bedroom window and waved to the runners. It wasn’t until I arrived and asked about why everyone was waving at a care home did someone tell me about Doris. She became so famous locally that she was invited to be ‘official starter’ on her birthday and will be sorely missed now she has sadly passed.
So that’s just three amazing characters I’ve come across at just 2 parkruns.
And the uniqueness of parkrun doesn’t stop there. Lets’s pick out a few other highlights
What about….
The one where you run across a bridge, adjacent to a motorway, cross into another country and finish in a tunnel (Severn Bridge).
The one where you run around in circles, to the Benny Hill theme tune as you get dizzier by the metre (Somerdale Pavilion).
The one where you have to ‘touch the bird’ at the top of the hill or risk being disqualified (that’s not true by the way) (Great Notley).
The one where Grumpy Trevor tells you how hard his parkrun is, and chuckles loudly, as he is doing it (North Beach Great Yarmouth) I also don’t think he is that grumpy but he has grown to love the notoriety that his briefings have produced.
The one with the knitted tea caddy (Sloughbottom).
The one that actually encourages you to stop at the top of the hill and look out at the view. You miss the advice chalked on the floor on lap one, so you make a point of looking for those scribbles on lap two (Jesmond Dene).
I could go on – remember I’ve visited over 100 different locations. And not everyone warrants a glowing write up. Some are even quite boring and you shall remain nameless.
But each week I genuinely look forward to seeing what parkrun has in store for me.
Recently, tourists have had some bad press – not warranted in my view – but I think the benefits outweigh the negatives so I will continue to travel each Saturday in pursuit of a little adventure.
Don’t worry this is not another blog about 80:20 and running easy. But if you are interested in this please scroll back through my back catalogue of blogs to read about the why’s and wherefore’s (if that is even a word?).
Instead this is a post about slow productivity and how that mindset will propel you to success. Let me explain but first we have to take a little detour into the world of business and psychology.
Way back (in 2017 to be precise) I would lace up, power up the iPod and load up some banging tunes to keep me company on my training runs. I worked on the basis that a ‘good beat’ was all I needed to help me meet to the beat.
Nowadays, it’s all a bit slower and easier paced, and driven by a desire to devour podcasts, mainly about wellness, fitness and business. And in recent months it’s become evident (at least to me) that as an everyday runner we can learn a lot from our business leaders and apply similar principles to how we train and improve.
This is how I’ve come across slow productivity and how we can apply it to our approach to running, training and racing.
The premise of slow productivity is that life has got so busy and noisy that the risk of overload is real and increasing. Furthermore, the metrics of modern management drive a culture of more, more, more and less about quality.
Slow productivity also draws on the principles of Malcolm Gladwell and the 10,000 hours rule or in other words practice does make perfect.
Stay with me…. I’m nearly there…
Reflecting on my current and most recent training blocks I can see parallels about how I’ve trained, how I’ve evaluated that training and how I’ve tried to ‘hack’ the process to speed up me and my improvements – but without consistent success.
Let’s start with the world of business tech. Moore’s Law states computing power increases exponentially and guess what – I feel that Moore’s Law is at work in the world of running shoes too.
It’s no longer just about carbon plates, it’s now about carbon rods and PEBA foam and stack height.
That extra computing power means we can add up numbers a lot quicker but has that led to rapid and exponential growth of our GDP – er, no!
Similarly, lots of us are running a bit quicker but is that the shoe, or is that more consistent training. And are we getting injured more often because of the drive to go faster more frequently.
As I’ve become a more experienced and a more ambitious runner I’ve also sought out more opportunities to run and chase faster times.
Modern life allows for a host of different ways to seek out new experiences but we can’t consume those opportunities because resources are limited.
Race day weekends are the same. I could literally chase a new PB every weekend because there are enough events to do so. But would that help – definitely not. My performance would plateau, I would get frustrated and probably get injured more routinely. So here, less is definitely more.
I could go on because there are plenty of other similarities. But instead let’s focus back on why slow productivity is the way forward.
Slow productivity is really a philosophy of stepping back and seeing the big picture – and making time for that improvement to mature at a natural pace, relevant to you.
After seven years of running I may not be a faster runner but I am a better runner. Better experienced, better able to listen to my body, better placed to handle the bad races that inevitably happen.
Will one training block take me from my current marathon PB – maybe but probably not. But just a 1% improvement everyday leads to a compound improvement of 37% by the end of the year. Compound that over two or three years and the odds start to stack in my favour.
Slow productivity also places greater emphasis on perfecting a skill and appreciating the quality that comes from that, instead of marvelling in quantity.
The running analogy is to forget about race day chip times and instead reflect on the whole experience – the locality, the experience, and the company should influence decisions about “did I enjoy the run / race” and whether I will sign up for it again next year.
The more places I visit, and the more races I take part in, the more I understand what makes for a great race day experience.
And in conclusion my growth as an athlete can’t be rushed. It can be optimised for sure with a rounded attitude to training, nutrition and well-being but it can’t be hacked.
So slow productivity is now my new mantra.
Cool Runnings
Coach Al
Thank you to Cal Newport for your writings on Slow Productivity
#slowproductivity
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
We all have those days when even the easy runs feel hard. And some days it just all clicks and we feel awesome and wonder why we even need to bother to train. And most days and for most runs it’s somewhere in between.
For the last few months (closer to a year to be honest) and it’s been a real slog to get out but I’ve been fairly consistent in the number of days on feet, if not on the quality of each of those sessions – definitely some ‘junk miles’ in there.
I’ve taken my own advice and tried to run most of my runs easy. It’s often been easy by pace, but not easy by heart rate and not easy by relative effort. And it’s been blooming frustrating.
There’s tonnes of advice, and there’s tonnes of reasons why we have good days and bad. And on most measures yesterday’s 10k should’ve been one of those ‘bad days’. A busy Sunday, disrupted sleep, stressful stuff going on in the background and the emotional battery definitely felt drained to low.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a PB performance by a long shot. But is was a much better performance than I expected based on current ‘form’.
The negative self talk over many months seemed to have robbed me of speed, stamina, belief and so much more.
So what made the difference yesterday.
I’m not an expert in psychology but Hatfield Broad Oak 10k has become one of my ‘must do’ runs. It’s a community-based local run that takes place as part of the village bank holiday festival.
Think of a British church fete, with a (double) parkrun thrown in, with medals and tee-shirts, instead of finisher tokens. Cake and Coffee and a BBQ. What’s not to like.
And this is my point. I love the HBO 10K. I love meeting old neighbours (I used to live 20 minutes away) and friends from years past. I love the bunting and the families sitting in their gardens cheering with a tipple. I love handing out medals to all the little ones taking part in the family fun run.
And when you’re feeling good about your external environment, then it’s much easier to feel good about yourself.
Yes, I wanted to walk those hills between mile 3 and 4 but I didn’t (and others struggled at this point too).
Yes, I would’ve been happy stroll in a few minutes slower because I ‘can’t run that fast now ‘ but I kept going and therefore I proved to myself I can run a bit faster.
Yes, I had the best pacer to encourage me to the end but even the elites get that kind of help.
Now, we can’t expect the buzz of race day every time we lace up and open the front door to another training run. And in some respects if that buzz was there for every day and every run, surely the effect of ‘the buzz’ wears off and stops providing the needed boost.
I’ve always known that the buzz from big crowds can create the adrenaline rush that can help power a run (adrenaline can also be crippling if not controlled) – I definitely feel it for those big city races in London, Berlin, Chicago and beyond.
But the HBO 10K ain’t no world major…
But it’s a safe space for me. It’s familiar – faces, the course, and the tea tent. And it’s fun.
Now, how can I bottle all that for a ‘feel good factor’ that I can take in small, controlled doses when the motivation is low or the weather just plain hostile?
This is not diet advice, I’m sorry. It’s not even really nutritional advice although similar principles can be applied to how good nutrition underpins good performance.
Instead, it’s an attempt to help you find time and opportunity to build good habits, as they relate to cross-training generally, and strength & conditioning workouts more specifically, in what is probably already a busy day / week / month or year.
I’m guessing most of you, like me, have been brought up on the principle of ‘no pain, no gain’.
And in some circumstances this is true.
After a workout involving weights that muscle soreness is a positive, physical signal that your body is responding to those exercises – muscle hypertrophy is happening.
Similarly, it’s hard to develop mental toughness in the absence of some discomfort.
Finding time in a busy day is the most often quoted reason for not hitting the gym for some weights.
But does a gym session need to be 60 minutes plus of grunt, grind, sweat and soaks?
Increasingly research and evidence suggests there is an alternative – known as exercise snacking.
Think bite size chunks. Think little and often.
Now look back at your day and identify all those ‘gaps’ in your day when you were between tasks, or taking a mental ‘timeout’ or just waiting for something else to occur.
For example, how many times did you boil the kettle? Could you fit in a few squats after spooning your coffee into your cup?
How many times did you pick up your phone and spend time scrolling through Instragram. Could you have completed 10 calf raises each time instead?
What other exercises can you build into your daily routine without the need to loosen up in your Lycra.
But does the principle of snacking actually work? Can ‘little and often’ be as good as the big burn.
Bottom line – something is better than nothing, for sure.
The body will respond to those ‘snacks’ as it happens and as the muscles and neuro pathways are stimulated – it’s only your brain and your mindset that determines that the only good session is an hour long gym session.
Snacking can also help you build one good habit on top of another good habit, and the compound effect will soon show.
Maybe snacking can be seen as complementing and ‘topping up’ your existing fitness regime.
Maybe snacking has a role to play on those days and those weeks when life just seems to put up any barrier to prevent you from lifting, squatting, and lunging.
And if the idea of snacking and tackling the difficult stuff in smaller, manageable chunks sounds attractive, the maybe the principle can apply to other things in your life too.
When an obstacle seems just too big, breaking things down and managing them bit by bit – is not a sure way to succeed – but can allow you to see progress and feel motivated to keep going.
So on that basis I’m off to search for my Scooby Snax.
Not sure if anyone else has this problem but my race calendar continues to fill quicker than I can run them. Turn up for a 10k and before you know it another 3 races are being considered before your new medal has found a new home.
Now for some races it’s a bit of a no-brainer. If you want to run the World Majors then you know the locations and the dates years in advance – you just need to work out how to nab an elusive bib.
But on any other given Sunday the options are numerous – Location? Distance? Terrain? FOMO Factor?
Quite often I get involved in discussions about course elevation, and to what extent those hills are a killer – which really means runners are asking “is it really a personal best possibility” because there is a perception that flatter is better.
The other common decision factor is whether you have run the race before. We are all creatures of habit and if we know where the portaloos are placed, how hard or easy it is to park, and whether there are ‘hills’, then the chances are we may well sign up again.
I was definitely like that, but a little bit of parkrun tourism (did I mention I joined The Cowell Club on Saturday 🤣) had helped me widen my horizons a little.
So in 2024 there are a few more different races in my calendar and 2025 is looking different again thanks to the SuperHalf series.
But it’s also true that I keep coming back to some super favourite runs. And Stort 10 and 5 is definitely one of those. Literally as we (there were 30 of us from Fordy Runs Running Club) crossed the finish line, discussions started about signing up for 2025.
Let’s start with the reasons why it shouldn’t be one of my favourites. It’s a trail run. You can choose either one lap of 5 miles or two laps of 10 miles and I’ve done both. I’ve slipped and slid across acres of mud. And I’ve sweated and wilted in the midday sun. And normally all of that makes me a no!
So there must be a host of reasons it’s a yes. There are and most of them have nothing to do with actual running. And I’m not alone as the race has been happening for 40 years and is always a sell out.
Yes, it’s a local race and it’s a real treat not to get up at silly o’clock to go and stand in a toilet queue.
Did I mention that they actually have proper loos. No plastic portaloo in sight.
Parking is excellent.
It’s a small-ish race with numbers limited to 500 – which means there’s a good chance I know more than my fair share of participants and l love a pre-race chat with fellow runners.
The finisher tee shirts are awesome – I have several and they are a ‘go to’ top for a lot of my training runs.
And in recent years they’ve introduced a medal – woo hoo…
But the real and overriding reason I keep coming back is because it’s a (bloody) good day out, with a little bit of ‘festival feels’ thrown in the mix.
The venue is a working fruit farm and the infrastructure is awesome – did I mention there are proper toilets 🤣.
The farm shop is race HQ and you can buy some fabulous local produce whilst waiting to collect you race bib.
Yes, the run is a trail run, and I’m a fully signed up road race runner but let’s quickly skip past that.
For little ones that normally get dragged along because mummy or daddy is running have their own adventures in the playground complex – and probably haven’t missed the fact that mummy or daddy may have just PB’d
Cross the finish line and the entertainment starts – beer, pizza (freshly cooked) and music have become firm favourites. And this year local independent craft stalls were a feature – which makes a refreshing change from the apparel corporate’s trying to sell us something new, lighter and faster.
Throw in some good company and some sun and it’s so easy to forget that you turned up this morning for a race, rather than a family BBQ.
I now need to finish as those ‘early bird’ prices for 2025 won’t be around forever.
The Essex Plodder 