Category: Running

Being a researcher in renewable energy as well as being vegan in part for environmental reasons, I would certainly consider myself to be an environmentalist. But one part of environmentalism I had neglected for a while was sustainable fashion and buying second-hand. I don’t buy a huge amount of clothes as it is, but I’ve definitely been guilty of turning my nose up at the thought of buying second-hand in the past. Buying second-hand means you’re diverting items from potentially going to landfill, as well as avoiding the environmental cost of making new items, with all the raw materials and manufacturing that comes with it.

I’ve made a considerable effort over the past year to buy clothes in a more sustainable way, either by buying from more ethical brands when I do buy new, or buying second hand from sites such as eBay or Depop, and recently I’ve started to apply this to running gear too.

I’m trying to focus on some solutions in this post, rather than just talking about the problem of clothing waste, and there are plenty of great sources for information on the scale of the issue, such as WRAP, clothesaid, and ReRun (for a more running-focussed take).

When it comes to running kit, not everything is well-suited for the second-hand market; for example, I’m still not that keen on buying used base layers or running tights for hygiene reasons. Socks are another essential item that you’re obviously not buying anything other than brand new. Pretty much everything else is, though, especially jackets, shorts, and tops. I tend not to buy t-shirts (second-hand or otherwise), as (like most runners), I’m slowly building a collection of souvenir race t-shirts, so there’s just not the need to buy any more. There is an ever-growing conversation about the sustainability of souvenir race packs, and many races are now offering opt-outs as a result. The sustainability of races in general is a huge talking point, but that’s beyond the scope of this post (maybe for a later one…).

With summer drawing to a close and the cold, dark winter months creeping in, I needed some new running gear that was either warm, reflective or both. I decided to put my money where my mouth is, resist the urge to buy fancy new kit and look for some second-hand steals.

Running Kit

I went looking for jackets and a pair of shorts, and ended up pretty happy with what I found:

Hopefully these buys have convinced you (if you’re not already) that there are some great second-hand running finds to be had on sites like eBay and Depop, and that we can all do more to make running a more sustainable sport.

Running Shoes

We’re constantly being told to replace our shoes around every 300-500 miles, which for even the casual runner, isn’t actually that many. I bought my current pair at the end of March, and they’re already at 500, without the two races and subsequent training I had planned since then. Assuming we all follow that advice, that means a lot of old pairs of shoes, so the question is; how do we get rid of them? I often relegate an old pair of running shoes to either gym shoes or trainers to prolong their life, but at some point you have to make room in the cupboard. I haven’t been a serious runner for long enough yet to have gone through a lot of shoes, but I’m already thinking about what to do with them when the time comes. I haven’t looked at the second-hand shoe market much, but there does seem to be a reasonable amount on eBay, mostly pairs that have been worn once or twice before being sold.

I did find a couple of good initiatives for disposing of well-worn pairs though, those from Runners Need and ReRun, below:

Sustainable Initiatives

Runners Need and SOEX are currently running (no pun intended) a great scheme called Recycle My Run, where you can recycle your old pair of shoes at one of their stores in return for £20 off a new pair. Your old shoes are then sent off to second-hand markets around the world or broken down into raw materials, depending on the condition they’re in. This is a win-win really, as you’re getting a discount off a brand-new pair of shoes whilst diverting your old ones away from landfill, and possibly providing a good used pair for someone else.

When doing some research for this post, I came across ReRun, an organisation whose aim is to prolong the life of running clothes and equipment. They get involved in a whole host of sustainable and ethical initiatives, from taking donations and reselling used clothes/equipment, to upcycling pieces of kit that would otherwise be unsellable, and they even have a shoe bank that offers free shoes and equipment to those in need. They’ve got a great collection of second-hand and upcycled clothes in their online store, and I’ll definitely be checking them out next time I need some new kit.

With so many great initiatives for recycling old pieces of kit, the days of just throwing your old shoes in the bin are long gone. And with the second-hand market booming, there’s really no need to buy a brand new piece of kit every time you need one, and also piece of mind that you can find a good home for your old gear when the time comes.

Thankfully my shoulder is feeling good enough to get back to running sling-less (seems like a plant-based diet is great for injury recovery after all!), and I managed to get a few nice runs in this week.

The elite-only London Marathon was last week, and with Shura Kitata winning in 2:05:41, it appears that Eliud Kipchoge is human after all, finishing eighth and bringing his superhuman streak of 10 consecutive marathon wins to an end. The end of the belated 2020 race means that the ballot for 2021 entry opened, and after years of telling myself I’d enter, only to back out at the last minute, I finally took the plunge. 2021 will be the year I do a marathon, London or elsewhere (I’m writing it on the internet, so I have no excuses now).

A year is a long time, and the thought of potentially training for an event a full year from now got me thinking about what I’d like to achieve between now and then. My current times can be found on my About page. Having a physical record of my targets should act as an extra motivator too, and it’ll be fun to look back at this post this time next year to see how well (or not…) I’ve done! All race entries come with an asterisk these days of course, but I’m hopeful that races will return towards the summer.

So here are my targets for the next 12 months:

5K: a sub-20 5k would be the dream, but I have 39 seconds to shave off for that achievement. Hopefully, the return of Parkruns will provide the extra motivation, whenever the time comes. In an ideal world of regular Parkruns every Saturday (and a solid training routine) for a good stretch of next year, I think I can push closer to the 19:30 mark by the end of the year, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself…

10K: I haven’t actually ran a 10k race yet, so my current best time isn’t really an ‘official’ one. I plan to enter one as soon as I can though, and I think the 45-minute mark is a realistic target for my first real go.

Half marathon: In the event that I’m lucky enough to get a place at the iconic London Marathon, getting at least a couple more half marathons under my belt is a necessity. I need to up my training runs to HM distance regardless of the return of races, but nothing beats having a crowd to cheer you to the finish, so for the next time I race a half, 1:45 is my aim, taking a full 4 minutes and 23 seconds off my current PB. This would also put me at 8-minute mile pace the entire way, which is nice and simple for pacing.

Marathon: Finish! I will do my first 26.2 in 2021, whether its London or somewhere else, and just crossing the finish line in one piece will be enough for me. Having a target time is important, though, and whilst going for a sub-4 debut time is an appealing (albeit highly ambitious) target, somewhere between 4hrs and 4:30 seems like a much more realistic goal.

If I don’t get a ballot place for the London Marathon (which, lets be honest, is the most probable outcome here), I will try and get a charity place through the MS Society, a charity dedicated to fighting multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition that my Grandad has suffered from for many years. And if I am lucky enough to get a ballot place, then I will use that to raise funds for the MS Society as well.

The ballot results are announced in early January, so fingers crossed! As soon as I hear back, I’ll make a post about the outcome and next steps. I’ll revisit these targets in a years time as well, should be interesting…

Running in Lockdown

Running has been somewhat of a saviour for me during lockdown, and I’m certain it has been for many others as well. Going for a daily jog has wonderful for combating the stress and monotony of working from home, not to mention the challenges and anxieties of just living through such a global crisis. For me, transitioning to working from home brought its own challenges, and a morning run was a great way to set myself up the day and clear my head before working, and is definitely something I’ll keep doing.

The importance of running during lockdown was reflected in the numbers, with apps such as Asics Runkeeper and Couch to 5K reporting around a doubling of usage over various parts of the lockdown in comparison to last year^1,2, despite the cancellation of races as well as the ever-popular Parkrun. It’s great to see such a boom in running, hopefully it will continue long after we’re through the worst of the pandemic, and form lifelong habits to improve peoples physical and mental health.

The cancellation of races, especially big ones such as the London Marathon, has been hugely disappointing, not to mention a massive hit for charities in the way of loss of income. I’ve experienced this myself with the cancellation of two planned races: the Robin Hood Half (which would have been tomorrow!) and the Leicester Half, both of which I would’ve been running for Born Free Foundation. There seemed to be a glimmer of hope for the return of races in recent weeks, but the latest reinstatement of lockdown measures has put an end to that. I hope races can return safely soon, after completing my first half marathon a month before lockdown started I was looking forward to getting a few more under my belt this Autumn.

Birth of the Blog

This blog is definitely a product of the lockdown, with the increase in running alongside the need for a project and desire to gain some new skills; writing in a less formal way than scientific writing, as well as running a website, which I’m really enjoying so far (I was way too excited to learn how to add my Strava feed to the side bar).

Reading is one of my favourite hobbies, and lockdown gave me a lot of time to read. Many of the books I’ve read recently are about running, by authors such as Adharanand Finn as well as athletes like Scott Jurek, and I plan to do a brief review of my favourite running books in a future post (in time for Christmas, to get your gift ideas sorted!). Reading about other people’s experiences of running, as well as veganism in the case of Scott Jurek, is another big part of what inspired me to start writing about my own.

My plan for this is to have regular posts every Saturday, maybe a midweek one every now and then, so check back again next week!