Not running a spring marathon this year? Make a fellow runner smile by going down to support. Take a sign with you and cheer them up. I'll never forget the sign I saw during Brighton marathon that said "Run! Zombies are chasing you!" Be encouraging or be funny. Either way don't go for the old [...]
"Would you like to take part in a 6km race for charity?" It was an innocent enough question that the woman outside the Tate Modern asked me this lunchtime but one that demanded a more complex answer than simply yes or no. She'd already foiled my plan to avoiding her talking to me by pretending to [...]
We interupt your scheduled reading about my blisters and sore back to bring you this announcement about Playfair. As you know, I'm very excited about the Olympics coming to London - but let's make sure everyone is excited about the Olympics...Exploitation and denial of basic workers’ rights are rife in the sportswear, garment and merchandise [...]
Plan A for any runner is to make it to the start of their race well trained and at the peak of their fitness. Sometimes we have to settle for Plan B: make it to the start fit and well. Today was a Plan C kind of race day. Plan C being just make it [...]
by barney nicholls We all want different things from a race: PB hunters, medal collectors and those that just want to run alongside others because misery loves company. But one thing we all want from a race is value for money. I can run 10 miles on my own and time it on my Garmin, [...]
Until today, there were three things I knew about running-induced calf cramp. These are, in no particular order:1) It feels like your leg is about to explode, possibly with an alien life-form bursting through the skin to attack you. On a couple of occasions I've willed this alien to hurry up and put me out [...]
Today I had a day off and the sun was shining so I decided to go for a run at a fairly slow pace, take my time and explore. As Blogger Stats tells me that a lot of my readers live outside the UK, I thought I'd take some pictures along the way so you [...]
Kate Bush was on to something. She knew the impact hill training could have on running performance, so much so that she wrote a song about it. In all honesty I hoped that she and the thousands of other hill training devotees were wrong and that it wouldn't work. Unfortunately it does. I say unfortunately [...]
With less than two months to go until marathon training starts in earnest, I've been spending more time than usual looking at training plans, comparing them and itching for training to start. It seems odd that I don't see the running I'm doing at the moment as 'training' but more 'maintenance', and as a result [...]
We run for many reasons: to get fit, to lose weight, because we enjoy it and sometimes to raise money. A lot of people sign up for a race as a way of raising money for a cause that means a lot to them while others might raise money for a cause as a way [...]