Posted March 10th 2017 by The 2017 Running Awards
Following our recent runners survey, with over a thousand responses, we take a look at what matters the most to runners when choosing an event; is it fantastic support to help you through the pain barrier? Beautiful surroundings? A well-priced race? The opportunity to prove yourself with a new PB? No, surprisingly runners are lazy, Location is key.
To be fair to the 2.1m weekly runners in the UK, it won’t be really laziness, but surely practicality that makes location so important. With the majority of events taking place early in the morning and often on a Sunday it is understandable not to want a long commute pre-race! A long train journey, or worse drive, is unlikely to help the nerves or warm-up. Many races are clocking onto this and now offer some impressive race packages that include travel and accommodation options. A quick browse through the Best International Event shortlist shows that many of these are popular as they are doing this well!
A great example of this is the Best International Event 2016, The Uganda International Marathon, which not only offers a range of accommodation packages but also makes it a week-long event offering some fantastic extras and all in the name of charity. It is, admittedly, pricey for many of us to fly to Uganda but these extras, the charity focus and of course the stunning scenery seemed to outweigh this to last year’s voters. Perhaps it helps that beautiful surroundings are the most important element to an event to 23% of runners! 2016’s winner is by no means the only International Event doing this, have a browse through the top 12 here.
A quick scroll through last year’s winners shows quite how important atmosphere is to runners, with 29% viewing it as the most important aspect to a race. Races that focus on this such as The Virgin Money London Marathon will always be popular. As any runner knows, a well-placed sign or cheer of encouragement can really make the world of difference at a crucial stage of the race. Knowing there’s a cold beer waiting for you at the finish line doesn’t hurt either!
So, having looked at this feedback from our voters, yes location is certainly important, however it seems that the many extras that events are now putting together in fact helps more. The cold drink at the end, the small expo, extra accommodation options etc. This is where the focus now seems to lie with the top events, as the with so much competition out there now the majority of events now run seamlessly with efficient bag drops, ample facilities, great locations, support and prices. It is these extras that make the very best events stand out.
Posted February 06th 2017 by The 2017 Running Awards
A common debate amongst runners, what to listen to. Personally, when training it is invariably a podcast, but looking at the results of our survey I am in the minority, so I’ll try and take an unbiased look at the results and latest facts out there on the matter…
Posted December 16th 2013 by Dr Fenella Corrick
I can’t be the only person who has started laughing out loud during a long run when a strange thought popped into my head, or who finds mental arithmetic simultaneously extremely important and almost impossible in the final few miles of a twenty miler. I call this my long run madness.
Posted September 25th 2014 by The Running Awards
After reading through our hundreds of nominees this month we realised some amazing running statistics had cropped up. Interesting, inspiring or just weird here are some of the favourites we stumbled upon…
Posted December 06th 2013
'I first discovered my turn of pace when I was playing football as a kid.' - Michael East, British 1500m Commonwealth Gold medalist.
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