National Running Show 2019

What runner doesn't love a huge room full of other runners, shoes as far as the eye can see and a sprinkling of top names from the worlds of running and endurance sport? That's exactly what I found when I went to the National Running show!

Wow, what a great weekend. On the 19th & 20th of January, along with my Fiancé Hannah and my friend Tom, I went to the National Running Show. Held at the NEC in Birmingham for the second time, the show is the UK's biggest independent running exhibition and a celebration of all things running.

The event was chock-full of running related brands with some top names showcasing their latest offerings and even a few product launches from big names such as Saucony and Polar! But it's not all about spending your hard earned pennies on new shoes and flapjack, for 2019 there were two separate stages with full speaker programmes dripping with inspiration and advice.

How the Running Show came to be.

The first show was held in 2018 after founder, Mike Seaman, had seen room for improvement in what was already on offer. He thought the expos before big marathons were great, but badly timed. A week or a day before a big race is not the time to try new gear and especially new food (gut problems at mile 9, no thank you!), and being exhibitions for a marathon, all the other races there promoting themselves were other marathons in different cities. Mike's idea was to hold an expo that meant runners could come and try all the great products without risk of a nasty surprise ruining their big race. With an independent event it also opens it up to more brands and more races. Looking for a holiday with wine and running? Go see the guys from "Trails and Vines"! How about a running buggy to take the little tyke out for a spin? Sure Buggy running has a stand! A light up bum bag to keep you visible on those dark winter runs more your thing? The show has you covered with LightupU!

2018 was a good year for the show and now Mike and the team were back, having learnt a few lessons, to do it all again.

I heard about the event through the Bad Boy Running Podcast when they interviewed Mike and offered complimentary tickets. Free tickets to two days surrounded by people selling running kit and a chance to hear from Olympic legends Paula Radcliffe, Roger Black and Jo Pavey? Sign me up!

Day 1,  Roger Black Wild Gingers and Flapjack.

All set with a list of talks we agreed were "must see" and pocket money saved up we arrived at the venue, unfortunately too late to see Jo Pavey but in time to catch Roger Black. As you would expect from Black his talk was slick, engaging, relaxed and entertaining. He thrilled the crowd reliving victory at the 1991 World Championships 4x400m relay and the grainy footage of the race got such a reaction from the crowd a passerby would have been forgiven for thinking it was live! The takeaway from the presentation for me was "courage". In '91 Roger, Derek Redmond, John Regis and Kriss Akabusi had the courage to change a winning formula and it paid off, changing the way people approached the event, his talk implored us to apply this sort of courage in our own lives and spend some time out of our comfort zones.

An Olympic quality talk from Black.

As with all the speakers, Roger ended with a few questions from the audience, expertly managed by the fantastic Susie Chan and Ben Smith, who did a great job hosting the main stage for two days. Alex Cook was next to take to the stage. As an experienced sports dietician Alex gave a great talk on how the science meets reality. She emphasised the importance of having flexibility with a nutrition plan, giving good examples of her own races and those of her athletes. Her description of ultra marathons as "mobile picnics", for some reason, made me tempted to try one!

We decided it was time to hit the stands! I had seen a video from the folks on YouTube’s new "The Running Channel" with a few things to look out for and I wanted to look for their recommendation of the Flapjackery. Surprising that at a show full of super healthy runners, a stall selling what can only be described as bricks of flapjack, had the longest queue! For the purposes of research, dear reader, I had to try some, and I can tell you they were worth the wait!

So much flapjack, so little time!

With the snacks sorted we went exploring. There was a great selection, not only of running brands selling their wares, but also races of all distances promoting their events and plenty of podiatrists, physios and training experts to talk to and get a check up of all those niggles. There were brands to cater for almost every type of runner. I say almost, because here comes my only criticism; trail running was a big feature of the talks (or at least those that I attended, maybe I had a skewed view...) but there were none of the big off road brands like Inov-8 and Salomon. I thought this was a shame, especially with the recent launch of the graphene products from Inov-8 that could have made an interesting display. Fell runners are notoriously stingy so perhaps they didn't think it would be worth their investment to attend. Or perhaps, as the show continues to grow we will see them there in the coming years!

Quite a few of the stands had a "Wheel of fortune" game where for the price of your email address you could be in with the chance of discounted or free swag. Between us we managed a free t-shirt, a protein bar, discounted race entry for family and friends, and the chance to enter a further prize draw for a free race entry. Not a bad haul! We had covered about a quarter of the show (and queued for flapjack) by the time we called lunch. All the free samples of energy balls and recovery bars weren't quite filling us up and the legs needed a rest! Over our sandwiches we decided that the next talk we wanted to see was from Claire Maxted. Claire was the founder, and for a number of years, editor, of Trail Running Magazine but has recently started a YouTube channel "Wild Ginger Running" and I have been following her videos for a while. Among interviews with top runners, she posts great gear reviews and helpful Q&A videos full of top tips for running when the tarmac is left behind..

Claire's talk, "Don't be afraid of a DNF" was told through the story of her attempt at the Cape Wrath Ultra. A 400km, 8 day stage race between Fort William and Cape Wrath on the North West tip of Scotland, traversing challenging, stunning and frequently trackless land. As you might have guessed Claire had to DNF. Apart from making me want to enter the Cape Wrath Ultra her talk was uplifting, at times gross (pictures of her feet after 3 days and 160km of running) but mostly inspiring. She encouraged everyone not to look on a DNF as a bad thing, but a learning experience and in her case, the CWU was still a fantastic memory to be cherished, not a demon to fight or a bad experience to move on from. Claire calls for "Did Not Finish" to be redefined “Did Not Fail”!

The Wild Ginger herself in action!

Claire was followed by Vassos Alexander, known to many from his time on BBC Radio 2 and lately as one of the hosts of the official parkrun podcast "Free Weekly Timed". Vassos has written two books on his running and I have listened to both as audiobooks read by the man himself. The easy, relaxed and welcoming conversational tone he has on radio and in the book recordings, unsurprisingly transferred to his talk. As you would expect, he was the most slick and polished speaker that I saw. He even started his talk by spending five minutes on what Claire had said (the two of them are good friends) and still finished his talk on time without it feeling clipped or rushed. Vassos spoke about his only DNF, an attempt at the "hardest multi stage trail race in the world", the Berghaus Dragons Back Race, which like the CWU is held every two years, and the DNF played heavily on his mind (despite admitting he knew Claire was right). He spoke at length about his years chasing a sub 3 marathon and the epic Spartathalon race. As I have listened to both of his books none of the stories were new to me, but I still enjoyed hearing them again; such was Vassos's skill at storytelling and ability to make everyone feel like you were listening to a friend regale you over a pint instead of addressing a crowd.

Vassos's enthusiasm and love of running shone as he spoke.

 Another hour or so of shopping later we were wiped. Time to go home, get a recovery shake down (read “flapjack and beer”), and regroup for another lap!

Day 2: Bad Boy Running takeover and jumping on Shetland ponies

On day two we checked in with the guys on the Bad Boy Running stand, who seemed to be up to their usual mischief, before heading to the main stage to catch one of the podcast's presenters, David Hellard, talk about why people should do smaller marathons. He hit the stage with energy and despite a couple of minor technical glitches with his presentation, spoke with enthusiasm and passion. As David said "the only people who care about your marathon PB are you, and people with a slightly faster marathon PB", so whilst the marathon majors are often great for setting a good race time, going to a small marathon means you are more likely to have a good time, and even have the opportunity to make a difference. He talked about the time he did a marathon in Somaliland, a country not recognised by the UN but with the international marathon came a platform to highlight the struggles of the nation. He got emotional remembering how he cheered over the line the first woman to complete a marathon in Afghanistan, such a powerful image for a country with very little gender equality (this also made Hannah quite emotional, even though she attempted to hide it). How about the time he did the Sierra Leone Marathon, being cheered along by the villagers he had been raising money for as he passed their houses. For anyone who has listened to the podcast, Hellard's talk was everything you would expect!

Hellard presented with great energy

A bit more walking and talking to people on the stands and we found a great new company. Runners Heal's mantra is "One shirt - one child - one month". Their aim is to relieve hunger and drive education in East Africa, and they do this by donating a month's worth of school meals for a child in Africa for each top sold. The founder, Chris, told us he was about to head out to make the 12th food drop in Kenya, taking them over 300,000 meals supplied, an impressive achievement in under two years! This is no doubt boosted by the high quality clothes and eye catching designs, which obviously ended up taking some of our spending money! Look for them on instagram to see their great stuff.

Only a small stand but big ambitions and great people at Runners Heal

I think the most surprising famous face I saw was ex Formula 1 driver turned trail runner and mountain biker, Mark Webber. He had dropped into the show to promote Aussie Grit Apparel, the sportswear company he spearheads. I managed to grab a few words with him and I think I just about held my composure without gushing too much (Formula 1 meets running, I tell you, my head almost exploded!). I was so blown away that I didn't even realise that the other ambassador on the stand was the terrific adventure journalist, Tobias Mews until we had chatted with him for a few minutes. Two friendly guys who clearly have a love for the outdoors and adventure, hard to imagine better brand ambassadors.

Can you tell I'm trying to be an adult?

As well as talks from individuals there were two panel sessions on the main stage over the weekend. We caught Sunday's session which featured Luke Tyburski, Rob Shenton, and another of the BBR crew, Allie Bailey. All of the panel members struggle with their mental health and the discussion touched on their backgrounds, their fantastic achievements, and some of the techniques they use to help them cope. I was impressed with how open all of the speakers were and judging by the questions from the audience, a lot of people found it useful, and I would be amazed if anyone left it without at least some food for thought!

Susie Chan, Luke Tyburski, Allie Bailey, Rob Shenton and Ben Smith discuss mental health.

Probably my favourite speaker of the weekend was Huw Jack Brassington. With his strong, melodic Welsh accent Huw charmed the crowd as he waxed lyrical about taking on the Coast to Coast in New Zealand. The World Multisport Championship race covers 243km across the width of the South Island in a single day by foot, bike and kayak. Huw had four weeks to train, with no prior kayaking experience and interrupted his schedule to enter a 7 day mountain bike race alongside Commonwealth and World Champions! All through his talk he blamed his madcap adventures on an 80 year old man. This octogenarian was special though; it was Huw. “When you are sitting in a rocking chair, stroking a micro-pig,” pondered Huw, “you can’t go out and do these things. When an opportunity presents itself, you should ask your 80 year old self what he/she thinks you should do,” Huw had a great analogy; each opportunity is a little shetland pony walking past, you can either try and jump on and find out if it’s possible to ride “one of the little buggers” or let it keep on walking; but once it's gone it isn’t coming back. Success or failure is not what matters, the important thing is trying. As Huw said, if you fall off and find yourself looking up at a pony from your back, you still learn something new! I loved his energy and his attitude. I’m really looking forward to getting to know my 80 year old self (although I'm not convinced he will have a micro-pig!).

Huw captivated the audience with his energy and passion. 

 The final talk we caught saw Allie Bailey return to the stage. She spoke with almost brutal honesty about her mental health once again, this time with the backdrop of her adventures as a guinea pig for Rat Race, taking her from a frozen lake in Mongolia to the depths of the Panamanian jungle. She often talks about her mental health on the Bad Boy Running podcast and in doing so has encouraged others to be more open about their mental health, helping the BBR community to become a supportive (if rarely serious) community. The emphasis was on her journey through the minefield that mental health can be as she moved from music industry high flyer to trail runner and how, whilst running helps, there is no magic wand for mental health. For her the strength is in the community, or what she calls her “tribe”, that she found when she took her running off road. Here nobody cares what your PB is or what you do for a living, all that matters is the shared love of running, and in Allie's case, running far!

It was't all go, Erdinger provided opportunity for relaxation and samples of their alcohol free beer!

The Verdict 

So, with the second National Running Show at an end, I look back on two days filled with new brands discovered, a few good purchases, but mostly inspiration. Hearing from such stirring speakers from a range of backgrounds left me with lots to think about and my running mojo at a new high. The show wants to be welcoming and open to all runners and I think this was achieved. Unfortunately I didn't find time to take in the more technical talks in the running skills theatre, but with it the show caters to those looking for that (to borrow a cycling term) marginal gain to take their performance up a level whilst the array of races and products on show suits everyone from the beginner to an ultra runner. The weekend felt like a celebration of what running can be at its best and a dream shopping destination for the discerning athlete.

To round it all off nicely Tom got an email the day after the event telling him that he had won the Running Channel prize draw (the one he earned a spot in after spinning the wheel, double win!) and there was a free place in the Brighton Marathon for him...time for him to jump on that Shetland pony and see if he can hold on!

The speaker programme for 2020 has already been kicked off; British athletics legends Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell and Kris Akabusi, and international Utra Marathon Man himself Dean Karnazes are the first names on the list. Looks like next year is shaping up to be just as motivational and tickets are already available, better yet, they are free until the end of January. Maybe I will see you there!

Photographs provided by my fiance, Hannah. Check her Instagram @hantoddie for more!