“Running is Dead”?

Lewis1 pointed me to this provocative piece “Running is Dead. Prove me Wrong”.

Which, if you haven’t read it, is worth a read.

I do wonder how far the running trend can go. Battersea Park was as busy as I have ever seen it last Saturday. A RunThrough Marathon and half marathon, different training groups, including ours and joggers and walkers galore. Almost too much, even for me.

I am also aware of the rise of Hyrox, which fascinates me in the way that Instagram does. There’s something both superficial (or do I mean artificial?) about them, and yet incredibly alluring at the same time. Is that just me? Am I too easily taken in by appearance and novelty?

For the record, I have been to a Hyrox event and seen Geordie Stewart (hi Geordie!) doing incredibly well in the mixed doubles.

I can remember thinking it was very loud and overstimulating but the energy of the event was palpable.

It wasn’t lost on me that middle distance runners could do very well. 8 x 1km with exercises in between, favours some of the athletes I know very well.

World class 800m and 1500m runner Elliot Giles did one the other day and obviously nailed the running but completely messed up the wall ball activity at the end.

He will get better and Elliot is a Nike athlete and Nike are moving into that world, which has hitherto been dominated by Puma. That is sport as a business, which isn’t quite the same as sport itself. Not yet anyway.

Women seem to love Hyrox as well. I don’t know the numbers but I wonder to what extent that is because there is no history of male dominance in the event. Given how new it is.

That it is entirely made up, and seems to be some sort of modern pyramid scheme for gyms is neither here nor there.

I don’t underestimate the social aspect of it either. The events in European cities, and the fact that lots of gyms have moved to it from CrossFit. Which is equally contrived, as far as I know2.

Just to be clear, I don’t underestimate the athletic fitness and talent involved in doing these events but I suspect I see the world through an “old school” performance lens - and I like those performances to be measurable in a way I recognise.

Maybe I still need to get my head around going under the hour at a Hyrox. The best are very talented and very, very fit. Worth keeping an eye on.

Cottage women and Charlotte’s brilliant run

I am always very aware that the Cottage women are an incredible group and there’s a risk they don’t get the credit they deserve. I mentioned Abbey’s first England vest the other day and there’s loads going on in the group all the time. It’s an incredibly talented pool, and the latest to find herself flying over the surface is Charlotte Ryan who I was delighted to see ran 2:46 at the Frankfurt marathon on Sunday. She ran 2:51 at London in April so this was a substantial improvement. It’s not entirely down to us. She’s coached by Nathan Shrubb who has provided her with huge support and it’s always good when you see an athlete exceed their own expectations.

Valencia Medio Maratona

Cottage had three men out in Spain for Sunday’s half. Ollie Way had a brilliant run (ignored by Matt and Oli on the Sunday Plodcast) but before Sunday his pb was 66:31 and now it is 63:28. He’s been training really well, and his dream of running well in the full Valencia Marathon in December remains very much alive.

It didn’t really happen for either Andy or Ugur, but they both live to fight another day.

Meanwhile, our Cottage Rankings coordinator, one Mr John Sanderson, has been busy updating the rankings and adding even more functionality to the Cottage website. Somehow, we can now link an athlete’s name to their Power of 10 profile without having to go through the Power of 10 gateway. Ollie goes in at number 6 on the Cottage all time rankings, and Charlotte goes 6th on the women’s marathon all time rankings. 3

Kenyan doping

The news that women’s world marathon champion, Peres Jepchirchir, has been provisionally suspended for doping is worrying. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced it although there’s nothing on their website today.

What do I think? Well, this quote in the Guardian from her manager spoke volumes:

Jepchirchir’s manager, Gianni Demadona, said she had tarnished her reputation. “When I learned from the AIU three days ago that she had been tested positive for EPO, I was confused and shocked,” Demadona said. “I can’t say anything because I was trusting her after 13 years working together that she was one of the most trustable athletes around. I was completely wrong. She spoiled her long and amazing career and she closes her career in the worst way.

Who is the devil here?

It’s all very well me writing pieces about how great it is for Cottage athletes to be pacing these athletes (and I don’t mean Peres Jepchirchir) but what assurances do we have that they are pacing clean athletes operating at the levels of integrity we operate at? Or am I being too highminded?

Connections

On a slightly more positive note, I am always pleased to find people I ride with or have ridden with in different contexts.

Graham Little features in this Drake’s piece (yes, I have an interest in men’s fashion too, not that you would ever know it).

Graham is a really good rider who I rode with several times when I was a member of Dulwich Paragon.

I was always fascinated that he was an artist, as if artists don’t race bikes. I know. I need more imagination. A really good climber as I remember and would race hill climbs.

Then there’s the Nick Sleep connection. Nick is interesting because when I first met him, he was one of the few people who managed to extract more out of me than I could get out of him.

It was an entertaining form of conversational jousting.

I can remember thinking, who is this bloke? Then Googling him (his name was on his frame) to find he had written some letters that had acquired a degree of “fame”, for want of a better word.

Well, now Stripe Press have put them together and they are going to publish them as a book, Nomad Letters, on 1 December 2026.

I saw Nick on Wednesday and explained I had come across a Tamara Winter tweet about him and congratulated him on the forthcoming publication. “How do you know Tamara?” he asked.

Of course I don’t. I merely follow her to see what books they are going to publish, fascinated as I am about how a couple of Irish lads can build a huge payments business and then diversify into other areas for no other reason than they want to.

Funny how so much comes down to running and riding. Although I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Odds and Ends

• It’s the National Cross Country Relays in Mansfield tomorrow (Saturday 31 October 2026). A club event that any club in England can enter. There’s an innovation this year in that there’s a mixed mile relay (4 x mile) which I am not entirely sure about because not all clubs have the depth to put out two teams, but let’s see how it goes. We have got loads of Cottage up there, so I will abandon all the marathon runners, and head that way myself.

• The New York Marathon is on Sunday. Looking forward to seeing what Andreas Almgren can do. Billie McCloskey (from the Cottage women) is doing it, and three “friends of Cottage”, Paddy Dever, Jack Rowe, and Philly Bowden are all racing. Paddy is really good friends with Dom Nolan (who is providing entertaining content for those who are interested) and was in the pub with us a few days after London. Philly trained with us (a long time ago it must be said) and Jack has never trained with us but we see him all the time. It will be interesting. The qualification window for the 2028 Olympics opens on Sunday too. A lot to play for in the next year or so.

• Substack throws up loads of good stuff and one of the latest offerings that I enjoyed was Breezy Johnson’s account of her first meeting with Mikaela Shiffrin and her mum. Worth noting that beating the boys (which is one of UK running influencer Mary McCarthy’s tag lines) featured as part of Mikaela’s motivation. Great voiceover on that Substack post too.

• Kyle Frost wrote this piece on being coached by Claude. According to him (and he is an American living in London) “good coaches cost a few hundred dollars a month”. I meant to comment that he should just join a club.

• Lee Glandorf is doing great things in the build up to the New York marathon and I am in awe of her efforts to put together the Rec Room. Running isn’t dead when it has people with this sort of energy.

• One of the Belgrave Run Club coaches mentioned he got an email from a journalist at The Telegraph4 asking him about the lighting situation in Battersea Park. Odd that it should get to the attention of a national newspaper, but the situation was no better this week.

• And finally, I really liked this video which Conall did one Thursday morning a week or so ago. 7:30am and I am rolling round on my bike in the background. They are quite good aren’t they? These lads I mean….and Conall too.

That’s it for this week. The title of this piece is obviously a Rolling Stones song. I am not a great fan of the Stones, but Jagger wrote it after reading Bulgakhov’s Master and Margarita. If we really are dumbing down, then there’s a suggestion that we may not get the music we deserve.5 Or the democracy. Or even the sport. It also made me think that Peres may not be the perpetrator of her own demise. Assuming that is what happens. The world is rarely that straightforward.

As to the second line, it’s a quote from Liam Gallagher. Not that I am a great fan of Oasis either, but I started watching the documentary “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger” (it’s on Disney+ in case you are interested). I have this idea in my head that band rehearsals are like training. I am still at the rehearsals stage in the film and there’s a point where Liam responds to the suggestion that the others in the band don’t think he cares. “I really fucking care” he says. “It takes a lot of caring to not give a fuck”. For some reason I don’t quite understand, I immediately warmed to this, accompanied by the very strong sense that we take this into the world of sport. We really, really care, but then we don’t. Hard to explain, maybe. But we race well or we race badly. And then we move on.

My thanks to all my new subscribers this week. There are now 200 of you and over 300 reading each week. Not a bad milestone and I am very grateful that you choose to spend time reading this.

The Quinn Effect

On Sunday, four of the men in the Cottage group were pacemakers at the Amsterdam marathon. Andy Fyfe, George Grassly, Charlie Sandison and Jacob Allen (who we are claiming).

The week before, Max had paced the Chicago marathon.

And the week before that Charlie and Andy had been pacemakers in Cologne.

It’s worth bearing in mind that we are a group of amateurs. All these men have jobs, good jobs. Yet, they have been asked to help do a job that allows other professional athletes to do their jobs.

If you have been here a lot, you will know that I like to think a little too much about all this, but it occurs to me that by turning up every Tuesday evening without fail for 10 years (which is more or less what it takes) there is some sort of ripple effect that is both unknowable and unquantifiable.

These pacing gigs are all down to a man called Kev Quinn, universally acknowledged as a really nice guy, who I have been aware of for years as a fixture in the south London running scene.

It’s Kev who has come in and sorted these guys out with these jobs. I have literally nothing to do with it, although he does keep me in touch. He seems to know race organisers and managers and agents and when someone is needed, Kev sorts it out.

The thing is, the people in the group are always professional, reliable and if they say they are going to do something they do it. There’s no fuss, no drama. It’s a job and they do it to the best of their ability. I would like to think I have something to do with this but the truth is, I don’t1.

What they seem to get out of it is as hard to quantify as my “ripple effect”. But it seems to be pretty immense.

The experience of rubbing shoulders with some of the best marathon runners in the world, travelling somewhere new, having to do a job and having the satisfaction of doing that job well. Dealing with agents, managers, race organisers. Professional athletes who only get one or two chances to race a marathon a year.

On top of which you actually get paid to do it. Although it has to be said, before you ask, I have no idea how much. Nor should I, by the way.

It just makes it all that little more worthwhile.

Cabbage Patch 10 and The Great South Run

I rode over to watch the Cabbage Patch 10, passing Richard E Grant with his grandchild in Richmond - classic London. You see someone and think you know them because there’s something familiar about them, and almost immediately realise you don’t.

I always enjoy spectating this race, because it’s low key but well organised with the Stragglers being responsible for marshalling, I think.

It isn’t the fastest course but it’s always a high quality race. Oli Smart was third in 49:41 and Jon Collier was 4th in 50:03. Good to see others in there as well.

The prize money is pretty good too. £1000 for first in men’s and women’s races with £75 for 5th.

Everyone gets a cabbage for finishing. Or at least I think they do. Sam Stevens, 5th in 51:31 was looking for his £75 in his cabbage.

I have also tried to find the images, but they insist I don’t copy them. Which is fair enough, but I am not going to pay £6.95 for each of several images.

Portsmouth was a little too far on the bike, but there was a decent live feed and Jack Shayler smashed it again. 4th place behind some very good athletes was a great performance and his 48:08 puts him equal top of the Cottage rankings. Which is no mean achievement. It begs the question, of course, of who will be the first to break 48 minutes?

Jack’s definitely putting himself on the proverbial radar and I know that Kev has already found him. 14:01 for 5k, 63:11 for the half and 48:08 for 10 miles. All since the beginning of September. Speaks volumes.

And then Sam Geb (who is one of two people who have contributed a little money for my efforts on this Substack) took the time to sort out a picture with Freddie and Jack. Essentially three generations of Cottage in one photograph.

Darkness

The clocks go back this weekend2 which, as I get older, seems to impact me more and more.

Frustratingly, the lights in Battersea Park haven’t been coming on for our Tuesday evening sessions although I am pleased to report that Bethanie and Hazel’s direct approach has prompted some response.

As has Charlie’s Instagram reel about it. 25,000 followers and one works for Wandsworth Council. They have promised action, let’s see.

I am also aware that the darkness can impact women disproportionately and that bothers me. I picked this up from the England Athletics website:

This autumn, England Athletics is once again supporting Let's Lift the Curfew, the national movement from Sport England’s This Girl Can that shines a light on the challenges many women face when being active outdoors after dark.

It also occurs to me that this may be why Battersea Park may be such a popular venue for running because it is perceived as a “safeish” sort of space.

In which case, the onus is really on Wandsworth Council to sort out the lighting. As you can tell, I am happy to delegate this aspect of things, but Wandsworth (which is the borough in which I live) really is a frustrating council when it comes to cycling and running.

There was also the Nike After Dark London Tour on Saturday described as:

….a women focused race. The tour was created to invite more women into sport, fostering a sense of community and self-expression. While all runners are welcome, all participants are encouraged to embrace and celebrate the intent of the race.

Clearly not explicitly connected to running in the dark, but you can probably see why I make the connection. It’s also another example of the way in which the sport is changing. I mean if you were new to the sport, or even a regular, would you rather go and do this, or some more traditional race where you get buried by a group of sweaty men? I suspect you could do both and I should probably ask female runners because what do I know?

What I do know is that 2:09 marathon man Jake Smith came down to join our session on Saturday and he’s now forgiven for his sins3. Nice to have him down. He was in London to support his girlfriend who was running the Nike After Dark 10k. And he was offering more support at Cabbage Patch on Sunday too.

Probably worth mentioning that his story about REDs4, which featured on the BBC website this week. It strikes me as a positive way of handling a setback and sharing that experience for the greater good.

Odds and Ends

• It’s a quietish weekend on the UK racing front, at least as far as I am concerned. Andy Fyfe, Ugur Altan and Ollie Way are racing the Valencia half on Sunday. And Dylan Evans is home in Tasmania and will be taking part in the Australian 10k road champs, which are on Sunday, as well.

• I went to the Ski Show on Saturday to see Warren, an old friend who runs a ski school (I bloody love skiing) and was in the pub afterwards where I met Challenge Sophie. We are now Strava buddies, because that is a thing. These online worlds are really strange and I don’t mean that in a critical sense. It’s more to do with how we all occupy different spaces, both physically and digitally. I think I have come across her before online at least, but there are worlds within worlds.

• Yes, I know you want an update on my dead hanging, because who wouldn’t? The bad news is that Martin casually mentioned “anyone should be able to do a handstand at any age”. I nodded along, thinking “there is no way I could do a bloody handstand”. Except it has lingered as a thought, as something worth doing. And I blame him entirely. I should be careful who I hang around with. This is Martin, by the way. And no, this is not an ambition.

• A podcast with the talented and lovely (because he is bound to like that description) Joe Hudson. Not listened yet, but I will have done so by the end of today. Joe trained with us for a year, and has just moved to Leeds where he got a new job. “Balancing a City Job with Elite Running”. Yeah, I don’t know how they do it either.

• I chatted to an actual actor who went to see Cadel (which I mentioned last week). I was reassured that I was wise not to review it. I can sort of tell who is good at running, cycling even, maybe skiing and gymnastics, but I have no idea about what makes someone a “good” actor.

• Darkness means lights on your bike (or your head if you are a runner). The cold means overshoes if you are a cyclist. The rain means you risk hypothermia whatever you are doing. Five of us at the velodrome on Wednesday, and even I gave it a miss today because of the rain. There are storms rolling in, a Run Through marathon (and a half) in Battersea Park tomorrow (Saturday morning). We will have people to navigate, sessions to get done. But we will manage. And I think there’s a vague chance the cross country aficionados may start to see some mud.

Thanks to all those following along, to the new subscribers and to anyone and everyone who takes an interest. Maybe I won’t thank Martin. Not yet anyway. But I can definitely thank Kev.

Have a great weekend whatever you get up to and I will see you out there.

I think one of the things I am doing in writing this is keeping track (excuse the pun) of my thoughts as the Cottage group evolves.

I am not sure if I have said it before, but I see it as a fragile ecosystem. To which I tend.

I didn’t build it. I just keep working at it. Day after day. Setting the sessions is the easy bit. Almost like planting the seeds. It’s all the work that needs to happen to make them flower.

Hence, I am less the architect of the group and more the gardener who keeps it going.

I give a lot away, or I think I do.

About how I think about these things, how the group works, about my own motivations. About training and racing. But I suspect I am barely scratching the surface.

I too am evolving.

There are no secrets though. No “magic sauce”, as much as we would all like to think there is.

I have to recognise there is a limit to the numbers we have training. I have to recognise that as much as I hate saying “no” to people who want to join the group, I have to do it. I have to recognise that maybe I can’t do all this on my own.

I smile, of course. Because all of life is in a group like Cottage and yet it’s very hard to see when you are immersed in it.

I was having a chat to some of the men on Thursday morning and made the point, that I have made before, that they will remember these days for the rest of their lives.

They will be friends with members of the group for the rest of their lives, or at least, I hope they will be.

And you never know, we might all be collectively changing each other’s lives.

Melbourne Marathon

I was delighted to see Reece coming third behind Eliud Kipchoge, and Thomas Do Canto on Sunday. I am a huge fan of Reece who made his mark on Cottage when he rocked up in London at what I remember was about the time of the first lockdown in March 2020. He arrived from Australia with his now wife Michelle, who is also an incredibly talented athlete.

Reece changed things in the group as we trained through that weird period. He just went a little bit harder than we tended to do (and we went hard), and a little bit faster. I don’t think Callan Moody would have run his 2:11:381 in April 2021 without Reece.

It’s also worth remembering that Callan missed out on a place at the World Championships by 8 seconds. The qualifying time in those days was 2:11:30. So the Kiwis2 didn’t take him.

It was also really good to see Jack Millar supporting his new club mates in Australia and pacing the women he was helping to the sub 2:30 times they were looking for.

Chicago Marathon

We are good at pacing and I want to say that Max Milarvie’s pacing at Chicago on Sunday was “another “landmark” for Cottage. But then I remembered I hate the word “landmark”. Well, hate is a bit strong, but you know what I mean.

Needless to say, Max was “only” pacing and he “only” ran a 2:17 marathon but he featured enough on the live feed to make his trip worthwhile for me. Seriously though, there is something quite incredible about members of the Cottage group going about their business in the way that they do. I put an impassioned3 note on the men’s WhatsApp chat this week excusing any sentimentality but expressing admiration for what we are doing out there in the big wide world of running.

Worth noting that the men’s and women’s races were brilliant to watch and the organisers of these marathon majors do a very good job of tending their own gardens.

Surrey League

I found myself on Wimbledon Common for the first round of the men’s and women’s races on Saturday. Big fields, quality at the front of both races and really nice to see so many people supporting.

I bumped into George Parker just before the start and she was there to take photographs, at which she seems particularly adept.

I am going to feature some of the Cottage women, who are impressive both in number and talent, although I hasten to add that it isn’t all the Cottage women who were racing. Nor is it a reflection of the numbers we have down on a Tuesday evening.

Well done to Kitty Shepherd-Cross for taking the win.

There were plenty of men from Cottage racing as well. Both past and present. Which is always good to see. Full results are on the Surrey League website.

The garden continues to flourish.

Odds and Ends

• Lots of races this coming weekend. Four of the group are pacing at the Amsterdam marathon on Sunday, and a few are actually racing. There’s the Southern Cross Country relays tomorrow (Saturday) at Wormwood Scrubs. “The big one” as Michael Cameron described it to me earlier this week. The Great South Run (10 miles) is in Portsmouth on Sunday as is the Cabbage Patch 10 in Twickenham. Because you need two 10 mile races on the same day.

• I seem to have lost sight of the World Track Cycling Championships. Odd that I get to hear about the guy getting thrown out of the squad before I hear about who is competing. It’s on BBC Two and iPlayer too (for those in the UK) with the event going on until Sunday.

• A bit of a culture for me this week. I went to Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery (ends this Sunday 18th October 2026). I won’t review the art, but disappointingly, there were no sporting connections that I could find. However, you will be delighted to know there was a little exhibition of the work of Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying which provided me with a provocative idea for future sessions.

• And there was more culture when I went to Cadel: Lungs on Legs at Riverside Studios. It’s a play, only 65 minutes long and again, I am not going to review it. Actually I questioned a lot about it. Minor details largely4. Nothing substantive. But what I think is important is that the effort people make to put this sort of thing on gets recognised. The actor, Connor Delves, who performs solo for the whole hour is really very good, and he gave an impassioned speech after the proverbial curtain had come down, saying how much the show needed support. Take yourself along if you like cycling a tiny bit. Because it’s cool. I was also chatting to the lady selling the merch, who had come from Perth, Australia. Who I am pretty sure was Connor Delves’ mum. Tending her own garden.

  

  I think that’s the lot for this week. I had a comment on something I wrote a while ago the other day. Which cheered me up. We are all out there planting seeds, never quite knowing which ones will germinate. Have a good weekend tending your own metaphorical (and maybe literal) gardens.

“ Heh, my name’s Mark and I am 63 and this week I appeared in Men’s Health magazine. Which must mean, I am super healthy. And I will tell you how I have done it. Please comment: “sign me up Marky Mark” and I will send you my exclusive guide to whatever sporting excellence you require”.1

Seriously, though, I mentioned David from Men’s Health coming down a few months ago and the piece appeared at the end of last week.

Andy and Charlie were the first to spot it at Gatwick Airport on their way to Cologne on Friday and I have finally managed to get hold of my own copy.

It’s really very good. I have sent a personal note to David, the journalist, so I don’t need to say too much here, but he captured the essence of what the group does really well. That isn’t easy.

In the same way that good runners make it look easy, good writers do the same.

I have been sent down by Men’s Health to try a training session with the 30 or so young men gathered on a hot summer evening, but it quickly becomes apparent this would be a fool’s errand. Having divided themselves into three packs - fast, blisteringly fast and Jesus Christ - they’re soon shirtless as they tackle this evening’s session of 10 times three minutes with 60 seconds jogs between reps.

The images (that several of us worked hard to put together) look great too.

More personally, I was jolted to see myself being described as a “semi retired solicitor”. Which may be true, and is more or less what I said to David, but I am still coming to terms with my own life.

I also note that I have been featured in both Cycling Plus and Men’s Health in the last six months. I am not being bigheaded about this, but it is clearly part of my own story.

I am not sure I have ever been mentioned in any legal publication of any sort, but there you go.

The National Road Relays, Cologne, the Manchester Half, and the Cardiff Half

I only went to one of these although I think it might have been quicker to go to Cologne than Sutton Coldfield.

The National Road Relays represent the “old world” I talked about last week, but they seemed well supported and enjoyed by those who took part. Loads of women from the group raced too. More than the men. The odd distance helps everyone in that you can’t compare your time to your actual 5k time. Especially with the hill.

It’s a slightly different experience when you are “club agnostic”2, but no less rewarding for that. Lots of chatting, as always.

My Sunday started early with me watching Andy Fyfe pacing Richard Ringer (the 2022 European marathon champion) in the Cologne half marathon, followed by Charlie Sandison pacing the leading women in the full marathon race. They hold the two events together.

Given Andy was in the lead of the half more or less for the first 10k (which he reached in 29:13) he got more coverage than he’s ever had before.

Meanwhile Charlie took the leading woman all the way to a 2:21 win.

Then it was on to the Manchester half, which started just after 9am. I am not entirely sure I had appreciated just how many men from the group were heading up to Manchester for this.

You can imagine what it was like for me to see so many of them chatting away on the start line just after the live feed started. So good to watch. And it was even better when the race started.

I could moan about Geoff Wightman’s dreadful commentary, but I won’t. Well not much anyway.

At one point I could see Max, Jack, Alex, Chris and George all in the same shot. Max was even representing, wearing his Cottage vest (they are as rare as hen’s teeth) and I was drafting emails in my head to Geoff when he started banging on about “sponsored” vests. No! We are not sponsored. And then when it got down to the final four, Geoff had no idea who Jack was!

Like, “it’s Jack Shayler, he’s Cottage. 3rd at the Podium 5k the other day in 14:01, 7th at Cardiff last week in 14:03. How can you not know who he is?”

Still. Racing it was probably just a little bit harder than watching a live feed on your telly box with a coffee on the go so maybe I shouldn’t complain.

I would guess that Geoff (who was in the same Kent Schools cross country team as I was 1000 years ago) might not be Men’s Health’s target market. Even if I am in it.

For the record, the men were brilliant. All of them. I will give you an extra column as Po10 should:

3rd Max Milarvie 63:03 (pb, great run, but would have wanted to win and break 63);

4th Jack Shayler 63:11 (massive pb by over 2 minutes. Huge run);

8th Alex Lawrence 63:47 (pb by over a minute - really good to see him in the mix);

13th Chris Thomas 65:05 (really good run given he’d been in Indonesia for work the preceding week);

16th Paddy Roddy 65:43 (pb, great run. Phil Townsend take note);

17th George Grassly 65:44 (a really good run from George who is on the way back from injury. Further ahead than I would have thought);

20th Amittai Ben-Israel 65:55 (pb by close to a minute - great run and a reward from some hard work);

32nd John Hutchins 66:56 (3rd M40) (another massive pb. Incredible run);

63rd Dillon Hobbs 68:50 (not 100% but still a really good effort and will go a lot quicker).

I have chatted to Molly Smith a few times in the last few weeks and wasn’t surprised to see her win the women’s race and Verity Hopkins (who is definitely more than a friend of Cottage3) was third.

I didn’t get to watch the Cardiff Half which looked a very different race at the front, but I was really pleased to see Dylan Nazareth pick up a bronze medal in the Welsh half marathon championships. Dylan is super talented, and nearly as good on the bike as he is at running. Which I say with a big smile.

Tracy Barlow ran 76:05 to be the first Fv40 home (well done Tracy!) and Elizabeth Apsley ran 77:30.

Bruce Springsteen

I was struck by something Lewis (my son) wrote this week on one of his two Substacks4 about going to see a documentary about Bruce that we went to as a family in 2010.

I was amazed he remembered it, at the same time as being aware that his view of it was very different to mine.

He was running at that point too, although he was still doing a lot of music.

This is his account:

I remember watching The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, a documentary composed primarily of footage from studio sessions with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band between 1976-8, at the BFI with my family back in 2010. There’s a moment in it where they’re all sat in the studio listening to a recording back, Bruce looking very perturbed because there’s ‘something wrong’ with it. No-one can work out what it is though. Then a friend arrives (their manager? the manager of the studio?) and listens to it. Immediately he hears the problem: ‘the bass is too quiet’. An adjustment is made and suddenly it works. The power of fresh ears!

My memory of the film is slightly different.

I can remember Bruce making the E Street Band work harder than they wanted to.

A sort of “it’s good Bruce, it’s time to go home”.

And Bruce, quietly saying “no, we can make it better. Let’s do it again”.

Nothing is ever quite what it seems.

I am struck that when I watch races I can’t see the whole race. I only see a very tiny part of it.

I was chatting to Steve Mitchell who coaches Dylan Nazareth about this up in Cardiff. Essentially, you focus on the athletes you are coaching or supporting, and you never see the whole picture. I mean, you can’t, quite literally.

With track races, you can watch them again, if someone has recorded them, but so much happens in what is essentially a blink of an eye. And your eyes can often deceive you.

Then I remembered this, which I often think about. I was actually astonished to find it was produced 40 years ago and in my memory the “victim” was an old lady. Still applies today though.

Odds and Ends

• I have been busy working on the drinks range

  

• When I haven’t been dead hanging

  I asked one of the young Russian calisthenics guys5 to take a photograph of me so that I had some record I was doing this. He clearly didn’t understand me and took this video. Or he saw me and maybe that is what he wanted to do. As I said at the beginning, I can send you my guide:-) If you don’t know, I ride a lot and I started off thinking this might help straighten me out. Now I can do about 3 minutes non stop6, I am doing scap pull ups7, single hand hangs and working on grip changes. I can do pull ups too, but that isn’t what this is about. The park is a cool community, and I like being the old guy who does the hangs;

• Cadel: Lungs on Legs will be on at Riverside Studios which I have walked past most days this summer. From next Tuesday (13th October 2026). Thanks to Billie for the heads up on that.

• World Champs Selection policies for 2027 were announced the other day. And the London Marathon8 will host the UK Athletics (UKA) Championships and be the official trial races for the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing and the LA 2028 Olympic Games. I may need to spend some time reading them;

• I mentioned Yamina Clay (the teenage cycling wonder who followed me up Beddlestead barely breathing) and I was pleased to see she is joining her sister Aalia in the camsmajaco team for 2027;

• It is the “official” start of the cross country season tomorrow with the Surrey League and the Met League. There will of course be a lot more races all over the country. I will be at Wimbledon Common;

• Jack Millar is helping pace some women at the Melbourne Marathon which is on Sunday. He will be missing the UK cross country scene, even if there is no mud. At least, not yet;

• And of course there’s the Chicago marathon too, on Sunday. Where Max Milarvie is pacing one of the leading women. The Quinn Effect, for those that follow me closely, is a story still in the making.

Thanks to those of you who keep reading and supporting this. Please feel free to encourage other people to subscribe. It’s a labour of love, much like running is I suppose. Have a good weekend whatever you are doing. As I say, I will be on Wimbledon Common tomorrow, and in Battersea Park before that. Have a great weekend!

There are times when it’s worth doing a little more than you would normally do. It creates a stimulus. Do too much and you dig yourself into a hole that can take weeks to climb out of. Get it right, and your fitness actually improves. Fine lines.

And coaches? Well, let’s have a look.

Friday night I was out. In Balham. It’s not all running and cycling, I will have you know. Bumped into Dan Mulryan (who is Cottage) and Miles in the pub. They had been to the comedy and had seen Michael McIntyre1 who was doing a “mystery” appearance. Presumably practising new material. I love how this happens in London.

Saturday morning, I am in the park2. It’s busy. And I mean really busy. Which isn’t unusual. This morning there’s a park run and then there’s a Run Through event, including a half, which some of the men are doing to get times for London. 71:30 is the cut off.

Cottage people are doing hard sessions. Some very hard. I ride my bike alongside, chatting away to distract them from the discomfort.

Not all of them of course. Partly because the group blows apart. But also because they are not all doing a session. None of them are going to Aldershot.

Lots of conversations afterwards. It’s all very real. Enormous amounts to think about, but I can do that. Or at least that is what I tell myself. AI has got nothing on me.

Meanwhile Dom Nolan, Jacob Brockman and Tim Lefroy are cruising the Run Through, getting the times.

I ride home (33k up to this point) and change into “proper” cycling kit.

I ride to Aldershot for the Southern road relays. The women’s race starts at 1:30pm. I jump on the wheel of a super strong rider (Alex3) and find myself going at 40kph. Had a great chat to him and he towed me out to Addlestone. From there I was on my own.

60km down to the lugubriously named Rushmoor Arena. Two hours. On a bike, that’s nothing.

I have been here too many times. Why do I have to keep coming?

Anyway, nice to see Mark Hookway there. Said something I shouldn’t have said while he was recording4, and I hope he edited it out. Only vaguely embarrassing and nothing to do with running, but you have got to be on your toes.

I should have made him take a photo of me. Because I need the content. Actually, I don’t need it, although I have noticed I think about images a lot more than I ever did. He took a good photo of Tim Eglen though!

I managed to miss Billie. Well, I say I “missed” Billie but with racing “braids” and sunglasses I didn’t recognise her. Although I did manage to recognise lots of other people. Funny what you remember. And Bethanie reassured me Billie looked different.

Lots of conversations too. Some people I have known all my life. Cain was two years above me at school. Keith is my age and he was racing! I’d take 2 x 60km off 5 hours, over two laps of that arena any day!

Athletes all over the place. People I miss. That sense that I need to do “better”. It never goes away.

I love it though.

But the question remains how do I integrate these chats with all this morning’s conversations? Have I processed them yet? Nagging, nagging.

I realise as I am leaving at around 5:30pm that I haven’t eaten anything other than a “performance bar” and a gel5. All day. And now I have a 60km ride home.

Still, at least I remembered my bike lights. Warm weather and darkness before 7pm. It’s weird.

On the way back, I bonked. It’s a familiar feeling and I go through this process of beating myself up for being stupid (again), wondering whether I should stop at a garage or a shop. But then I just carry on. With the voice in my head, saying, it’s amazing what bodies can do. I can still push myself, but “should” I be pushing myself? And the thoughts keep flooding through.

There was a moment in Richmond Park, pitch dark just after 7pm, when the moon was as beautiful as I have ever seen it and I deliberately chose not to stop and take a photograph. Because you never stop, right? It’s training.

At least I was able to eat when I got home because I made it. Transcontinental Race vibes. Not traumatic at all. And I booked my train to Cardiff.

Sunday morning, I am up early. The Berlin marathon has started. Loads of Cottage out there. People racing the Vitality 10k, the Ealing half is on (Ollie and George are racing6) and then there’s the Cardiff 5k in the afternoon. With Abbey and Andrew representing England and a load of others racing too. And I am booked on the 12:34.

I ride up to the Vitality 10k and have more chats. To a photographer, a young woman just getting going in the sport. To Amittai. And John. Whose partner Char is racing. I see lots of people I know. Some from the group (Jess shouts she is pregnant and I can barely get out congratulations before she has gone), others like John Scripps, one of the Velodrome coaches shout at me. I had talked to him about how to pace a 10k. Was that coaching?

And I ride home. I change. And head out again. I will buy food at Paddington. And I do. Phew.

On the train I bump into Jack. Who is racing. Great chat to him. We get off the train and bump into Kitty and Soraya.

And at the race there are more people to talk to than you can shake a stick at. And I like talking.

But there’s a lot to take in. I suspect I am scanning for stories. For the Substack. For me. Training and racing. Performance. I think of confidentiality (I mean I really do!), utility, and where this lovely sport is going.

There’s this theme running through my head that there are currently two running worlds. The road relays represent the “old” world. Clubs and esoteric competition. The Vitality 10k the “new” one. 20,000 people running for themselves. They look happy. Not necessarily happier, but happy nevertheless.

Events like the UK 5km championships/Podium Home Countries 5k are probably something else altogether. Much like the UK mile races the day before. Which I couldn’t get to. Where Pete Cameron was 4th in the men’s race.

I see dilution everywhere, as I look for coherence. There is none. Except it’s just running.

All this while the women’s and men’s world championship cycling races are on as well. I miss them completely.

I get the train back from Cardiff with Andrew Penney and Pete Cameron. We cover some ground. Fascinating, fertile ground and I am still thinking about all of it.

How have I found myself here? I bet Trevor Painter doesn’t do this.

Yet, I loved that weekend. Even if I did miss the cycling.

Odds and Ends

• In all this, there’s social media. I get Freddie to put up a post of where we are all racing on the Cottage Relocated Instagram. He does a great job. There’s a start up energy to all this. And I have acted for start ups so I sort of know. We just having to keep moving forwards. Freddie has some new branding he has done. I say “use it” and he does.

• It begs the question of what I do with the results I have compiled. They matter. I suspect Instagram is the way forward and that can become the public record. It’s why I feel I need to understand it without becoming the group’s social media manager. By my count, 40 members of the group raced at the weekend.

• I haven’t mentioned my experiment with Instagram. I want to learn how it works. I get ChatGPT to help me. It says create a reel. I film some of the runners. 21 seconds. ChatGPT says, put nothing on it. No tagging. No music. Nothing. You need to see where it goes. At that point I have 92 followers. I used Instagram once 3 years ago. Since then, nothing. That reel? I have just checked and it’s had 15,466 views. 11 seconds average viewing time. What does this all mean? I suspect it means I have peaked a little too soon and I may never make another reel.

• More of the same this weekend. It’s the National Road Relays in Birmingham tomorrow (Saturday 3 October 2026). The Cardiff Half Marathon and the Manchester Half Marathon on Sunday. Don’t worry, I am not going to them all. I didn’t even do the track this morning. My coach7 has told me to rest.

• Andy Fyfe has got a great gig pacing Richard Ringer at the Cologne Half Marathon on Sunday. And Charlie Sandison is out there too, pacing the marathon.There’s a whole post on what I am calling the “Quinn Effect”8. Maybe that is one for next week.

• Oh, and the managing director9 from Herne Hill Velodrome, Iain Cook came down to “shadow” me on Tuesday night. He was interested in seeing what we do. I was flattered. But you know I am easily pleased. Phil10 was down too. The session went really well. Iain seemed to “get” what we do. Lots of running in circles. And chatting, of course. Plus ça change.

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing and hopefully I will see some of you out there. Still undecided about Birmingham but there’s plenty of time to decide.

Cottage as a Case Study

It’s been a ridiculously busy week for all sorts of reasons.

Most of what we do, we do quietly. Or that is what I would like to think. But as I discussed last week, the world increasingly has other ideas.

The issue is the extent to which we try and participate in shaping the narrative. Very few people read this, in the scheme of things anyway, and I hope those that do are interested.

On Tuesday an image emerged of our group name “Cottage Relocated” on the marketing material of a major shoe brand. Apparently they are planning a “Performance Campaign” with us. Whatever that is.

I won’t say who they are although I am not entirely sure why I feel constrained. It’s also worth saying I had no idea at all of where this concept, or the idea, had come from. I had certainly heard nothing at all about it.

To be fair, they have handled it well. I sent an email to someone in the business I vaguely know. He was courteous and immediately involved the marketing director who responded rapidly to apologise and explain that the image and content shouldn’t have been made public.

Which is all well and good but all this stuff takes time. And energy, which could be better spent elsewhere.

I am long enough in the tooth to recognise these things happen, and there’s a flattering aspect to it too.

I had no idea they thought so highly of us. Perhaps we should talk.

Then there was the running influencer, who, again, I won’t name, who told one of the men in the group he was going to be in London on Tuesday and “would love to hop in a session”.

I responded and said he was welcome to jump in. I explained in some detail how the sessions operated, the timings involved and some background information.

This was all on Sunday by the way. Said influencer initially replied to say he was looking forward to the session.

But then, a few hours later he followed up with another message “double checking” he could bring a videographer along.

I had actually just been to see the world’s most depressing film (“Queen at Sea”) and so decided not to respond immediately and left it overnight.

Then on Monday morning I thought I would ask several of the senior members of the group what they thought.

This is the point where I tell you (and some of them will read this) that it is an absolute privilege to be involved with highly intelligent, motivated, thoughtful individuals.

It was essentially an “advisory committee” who all responded quickly and thoughtfully. And they changed my mind.

I had been equivocal, if anything. But there was a consensus.

Which meant I replied to the running influencer and explained that Tuesday’s Cottage sessions were “a delicate environment”, which they are, and that we weren’t comfortable with a videographer coming down. You will need to read on to find out what happened next.:-)

A Family Affair

Six weeks ago, I was riding out towards Kent when I bumped into a man riding at a similar pace and we got chatting. This is relatively normal behaviour for me and it won’t surprise anyone who knows me.

We had a really good chat and it transpired he had two daughters who were really keen, ambitious cyclists. And a third one who wasn’t a cyclist at all. Or I hope that’s right.

At that point, the two riders were out in Spain racing and their mother was out there chaperoning. Which suggested they were both very good and very keen.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I was heading out to Kent again and bumped into the same man, whose name is Dan, with one of his daughters, Yamina and ended up riding with them for a few hours.

I have been telling the story about how I rode up Beddlestead Lane (it’s a 7 minute effort) and Yamina just sat on my wheel and didn’t seem to be in the least bit fatigued. Whereas I found it hard. Really hard. I appreciate I am not in the first flush of youth, but I am a strong rider and I train regularly. It was astonishing actually.

Dan was dropped very early on, if that is any indication of anything. As he was again on another steep climb up the North Downs.

It was on this ride that I found out Yamina’s big sister was the GB Under 20 time trial champion and she had been selected for the GB team for the World Championships that are happening this week.

I talked to Dan about whether Richmond Park was a good place to do time trial bike sessions.

Anyway, Aalia, who I haven’t met, came 3rd in Tuesday’s World Championships Under 20 time trial race and is now the proud bearer of a World bronze medal. Which bearing in mind she is only 17, is pretty bloody impressive.

Yamina, it turns out, was second in the British Under 16 National Champs this year and is still 15.

Look out for both of them.

Another Bronze Medal

A note of congratulations to Alex Milne who was third in the @iau_ultrarunning 100km World Championships on Sunday, in a time of 6:17:50 for bronze, a national road record and a 25 minute PB. Alex is Cottage, although fatherhood and extreme distance running have limited how much we see him. But this is seriously impressive.

Odds and Ends

• I can’t quite believe how many domestic running races there are this weekend. I have just watched Mark Hookway’s video preview and realised that I had “forgotten” about the Mile Races in London tomorrow (Saturday 25 September 2026). I note that they are the UK One Mile Road Race Championships.

• There are the Southern road relays tomorrow in which the men and women will represent their clubs, while on Sunday, there are Cottage runners racing the Berlin marathon, the Vitality 10k in London (including John Scripps who coached the velodrome session I did this morning), the Ealing Half Marathon and the Home Countries 5k races in Cardiff.

• I want to make special mention of Abbey Brooke (who is a reader) who makes her debut for England on Sunday. Very well deserved and I am delighted she has had this recognition for her efforts. Andrew Penney is also racing for England, and although it’s not his debut, it’s a definite reward for the awesome season he has had on both the track and the road.

• We went to the pub after the session on Tuesday to celebrate John Sanderson’s 10th anniversary of training with the group. He said his first session was an 8 mile progression run. Which is what we used to do at the start of the winter season. Before everything changed in the world of running. Thanks to him, we also have a website too. It’s a work in progress, but it’s here: cottagerelocated.co.uk

• Oh, yes, that running influencer? He decided he didn’t want to come down. Sent a polite note. But you probably need to do a few sessions and get to know us first, before you can say you have “trained” with us. Bringing a camera in makes a difference as well. People run faster, some don’t want to be filmed, and what control might we have over the finished product? The Case Study continues.

• It’s the final Vets League tomorrow (Saturday 26 September 2026) at Herne Hill Velodrome. I will be relinquishing my over 60s trophy (now engraved) not having contested this year. Will I ever win a trophy again?

• The Storm in a Teacup idea came from something Antony (Buchan) said at the track this morning after the elimination efforts. I was complaining about the expression “making sure we close the loop with you” which had appeared in an email this week, and irritated me. Like, what loop? There is no loop. Antony said that he had found that some younger people in his team at work struggled with some of these idioms. Like “a storm in a teacup” and “make hay while the sun shines”. Which is the point at which the title of this post came to me. It links very neatly, as you will have worked out already, with the image at the top of the post. Charlie had bumped into Stormzy in the park yesterday (Thursday), before I had even got there. And I was there at 7am. Had a picture taken at Stormzy’s request and there you go. Cottage lore.

• Stormzy was particularly impressed with Charlie’s excellent 5th place in Sunday’s Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Weymouth although I am clearly only interested in world level bronze medals this week. “Needs to do better”. LOL.

  A busy weekend ahead then as I try to get to as many of these races as I can, look in on the session in Battersea Park tomorrow and maybe even go to the Velodrome in the evening. Hopefully Sunday will take care of itself, but it’s been a while since I went to Wales.

  I hope you all have a great weekend and if you see me out there, please say hello.

Putting Your Head Above the Parapet

I have a dilemma and I think it’s one a lot of you will recognise.

On the one hand, I want to tell people we are really good at what we do.

On the other, we don’t want to be too cocky about it.

And I am talking about the Cottage group now. Not my cycling. Because I am long past being good at that!

Athletics is one of those sports where performances should tell their own story, but that may not actually be true any more.

Then there’s the question of whether being a little too modest actually leads to invisibility.

I suspect it’s partly why the Cottage Instagram has no real direction. Or at least I don’t think it has one.

How do you say “we are really bloody good at this running lark” while also remaining pretty humble?

I appreciate there’s an irony here, in that I am writing this now, but that is part of the process.

Because then we run the risk of looking like “dickheads”1.

The group has always operated on the “if you know, you know” basis. Which has served us well, but something in the ether is changing.

Of course, I am all too well aware I can’t have it both ways.

I can’t get cross with Steve Cram for failing to notice Joe Hudson’s incredibly good run at the Great North Run2, when I suspect some of Joe’s motivation is showing the professional athletes that he is as good as them, if not better.

Matt Seddon may not recognise that Cottage had three men in the top 10 at Friday Night Under the Lights with Jack Shayler having a great run to come third behind James West and Jack Kavanagh. But how would he know?

Nor, I suppose, should I take issue with Tim Hutchings who singularly ignored Andy Fyfe when he was commentating on the Antrim Half where Andy was the first non-professional athlete.

It’s as if there’s this cosy world of insiders who everyone knows. The “Olympic class” for want of a better expression. The world of the professional athlete.

Do we want to be part of that world, or are we better on the outside?

And what happens, when we do raise our heads above the parapet? Are we just inviting others to shoot us down?

Friday Night Under the Lights

As I arrived on Friday, I was reassured that Ben (Noad) still wants me for New Year’s Eve after my “excellent performance” as lead biker last year.

It’s funny because these FNUL events are really well organised and generally very fast. Ben has had the course officially ratified now, although I can’t remember when that ratification kicks in, and I hope it continues to provide a draw to the top domestic elites.

The full results are here and it was an incredibly close race at the front of the men’s race, with James West just beating Jack Kavanagh.

Of the Cottage men, Jack Shayler was 3rd as I have said, in a pb of 14:01, Ollie Way was 6th (14:13 pb), and Jack Perry-Williams 9th (14:24). There were good runs too from Ugur Altan and Dylan Nazareth who both ran 14:36.

Georgie Grgec, who was in London before she heads off to Copenhagen for the World Road Running Champs (where she is competing for New Zealand) was unchallenged in the women’s race, but good to see Lea Adamson in 4th (16:09), Kitty Shepherd-Cross was 6th (16:33) just ahead of reader of this fine Substack, Emily Bradley who ran 16:38 in 7th.

World Athletics Ultimate Games

I thought these were great. Some really good races and events.

Well presented, apart from the kp/h times on distance races, because they make no sense to anyone when someone is running on a track.

People who were there enjoyed them and I really enjoyed the Sunday evening which was the only one I watched “live”. The other two nights I was out and caught up with them afterwards. Which, it turns out, is a pretty effective way to watch them.

There were loads of amusing interviews as well. Josh Kerr clearly didn’t want to wear his GB kit, given Brooks are his main sponsor. Noah Lyles crashed the interview with Denise Lewis and wasn’t going to let her come to his after party on a boat. And Jakob Ingebrigtsen was as entertaining as ever.

It’s always good when you don’t have a “studio” set up for these events, especially for all the readers of this, who understand the sport, more or less.

Actually, even if you don’t understand the minutiae I am not sure the studio stuff helps very much either.

World Road Running Championships

These take place this weekend in Copenhagen and although there are a couple of Cottage people racing in the annual Copenhagen half marathon on Sunday, which starts a minute behind the World Championship race, we don’t have anyone in the GB team.

That said, it will be interesting to see how all the British athletes get on. Road miles are very different to a mile on the track. Katie Snowden jumped in with us a few weeks ago so hopefully she will go well in the women’s mile.

Alfie Manthorpe was charming to me before the London Marathon, so I am supporting him.

And Jack Rowe too. Who is a friend of Cottage. He’s got a PB of 60:17 so you can tell what he will be going for.

The half marathon races will undoubtedly be very fast, on what is a very fast course.

It’s on BBC 2 and iPlayer for those of us watching in the UK. The Independent has a bit more detail on timings.

World Athletics Championships 2029

I thought it was a really good decision to hold the World Athletics Championships in Nairobi in 2029.

More based on an intuitive response that London already has enough world-class sport going on, and Africa deserves it, rather than an in-depth analysis of the bidding process.

I saw a tweet from Matt Lawton (Chief Sports Correspondent at The Times) that said:

“Hearing London has lost bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships. Has gone to Nairobi. Means three consecutive champs away from Europe. Incredible decision by World Athletics”.

Looking at his feed now, he clearly wrote a grumpy piece in The Times afterwards which none of us can read without subscribing. I don’t subscribe. But there’s over 700 comments on his tweet so he clearly ruffled a few feathers.

We all know Kenya has a doping problem, but I don’t see that as a reason to hold off awarding them a championships. Quite the opposite.

I think it is as likely to incentivise Athletics Kenya and the Kenyan government to work harder knowing that the spotlight of the world will be on them. Indeed, they are already investing $5 million annually in their anti-doping programme which can only be a good thing.

If athletics really is a global sport then it needs to do more around the globe.

Yes, there may be problems with drugs in Kenya, but address that head-on, rather than run away.

Odds and Ends

• Can I just express a note of thanks to David Chalfen for his piece last week and to all of you who read it, liked it and commented on it.

• It’s a relatively quiet weekend on the home racing front this weekend, before everything kicks off with a vengeance next weekend. A few years ago, we would have a break at the end of August as the track season came to a close, but things have changed. That said, it’s the Athlos meeting this evening (Friday 18 September) and the World 100km Championships in Ames, Spain on Sunday. Alex Milne, who is Cottage, goes in that.

• I was quite impressed that Andy Burnham got round the Great North Run (in 1:57:34) but no one seemed to ask his security detail what they thought about it. There was a guy in a blue T-shirt running with him, who looked like it wasn’t how he’d usually spend his Sunday mornings. I also note the Prime Minister’s time doesn’t appear in the results, which is odd, but I am going on reports.

• The GB team for the World Cycling Championships was announced this week. They start in Montreal on Tuesday. Lots of connections to Herne Hill Velodrome (which is an amazing talent centre) and I was impressed when Phil Wright, with whom I trained on Wednesday, announced he had “coached” 7 of the team.

• Charlie Sandison is taking part in the Ironman 70.3 in Weymouth on Sunday and has been doing a valuable series on his Instagram of his taper for the event. Or at least I think it is. I am also reminded that it would be good for me to write about what cycling does - and does not do - for your running.

• We had a big group down on Tuesday as is so often the case at the start of the “winter” build and things are busy. I have had a few people message the Cottage Instagram asking about shadowing me and I have seen those messages and will get back to you. There are too many communication channels in this modern world.

• I have just worn out a pair of New Balance 1080s, having walked well over 1000 miles in them over the summer. Which suggests they are decent shoes. But it’s not lost on me that the shoe world is no longer straightforward. Chatting to Lewis (my son) the other day and he mentioned that he had never worn carbons. Which probably seems weird, but then he stopped serious training several years ago. Lots of the lads in the group seem very happy with the Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3, for racing, at least. I will focus a little more on shoes this autumn as people get off the track and onto the roads.

• As to the titles this week, I came across “the monkey” quote somewhere and looked it up. This seemed a good explanation and I suspect I am one of the “unenlightened” trying to distinguish between illusion and reality. As to the “prevalence of humbug” it comes from an essay called “On Bullshit” by Harry Frankfurt which is well worth your time. I found a hard copy (remember those?) in some papers this week, as one does. It starts: “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this”.

I think I will take that as my signing off point for this week. I could go on, but then I risk you shouting “humbug” or something even worse.

I will be riding around Battersea Park tomorrow (Saturday morning) as people do their sessions. It’s as busy as ever in there, in case you were wondering. Although the track reopens today (Friday), having been relaid, so that may relieve a tiny bit of the pressure.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing and thanks for the support, as always.

I am slightly concerned that he is even funnier than I am, which isn’t what I want at all. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I hope you do too. It goes without saying that I am grateful for the contribution and he’s allowed to promote his own book as he does at the end. Which I commend.

Mark is taking this week off, yet another example of his disappointingly patchy commitment to the sport. Earlier this year, in April, I caught him reading Vasily Grossman’s “Life and Fate”. Now, there’s a time and a place for epochal Russian literature, but one wonders whether that is in the heart of the 12 stage and spring marathon season.

As this is a one off, I haven’t tried to be fully news focused and I have not addressed cycling. I love reading about cycling legends, and cycling is far better served in its literature than is athletics.

But I lost my faith and fascination in the elite end of the sport in the early 2000s for what I’d call ethical reasons. Indeed, I threw a very stylish T Mobile team shirt in the bin even though it was in really good condition.

I found out recently that Mark and I sat the very same A levels at the same time. Oddly we both dabbled in music journalism in our early 20s, in the same genre, and I suspect may have pondered whether the Sisters of Mercy1 were more exciting than watching Jack Buckner and Tim Hutchings in their prime circa 1986. Still an imponderable, I admit. Buckner at peak, battling against some errm full blooded Italians and Moroccans, was bloody tremendous. But so was this. The Sisters of Mercy - Some Kind of Stranger.

Counting the Euros

I’m a bit of a map obsessive and so find it exciting to draw together the best athletes from, at the extremes, the west coast of Iceland to the eastern edge of Turkey which borders Syria, with the vast historical and cultural features of the continent.

Looking at the modest to minimal attendances at so many of the European champs sessions (and as an absentee I am part of the problem, having travelled to 4 previous editions of the champs in cities like Gothenburg, Barcelona, and Amsterdam) it seems that there are 3 headline criteria needed to sell the tickets:

• Enough track and field lovers across the continent which minus Russia has 680 million people;

• Enough of the above fans need to have a few hundred quid to cover a full week’s season ticket to see loads of the world’s greatest athletes in competition that really counts. Many of these athletes (and with over 1000 entrants, that’s a lot of family and friends who might be inclined to travel to watch their nearest and dearest) compete in multiple events too;

• These fans have to base themselves in or near to Birmingham for the event.

I wonder which of the above were the limiting factor(s).

Paradoxically it’s possible that for domestic fans the outstanding and extensive BBC coverage led by Cram, Cotter, Backley and Radcliffe, helps keep bums on home sofas rather than Alexandra stadium seats.

And great succession planning by the Beeb too with Hannah England and Greg Rutherford providing slick and quality insight.

Though one endurance race in a recent edition where You Just Had To Be There was the men’s 5000m at the European championships in 2016 in Amsterdam. Ilias Fifa y Adel Mechal Campeón y Subcampeón de los 5000 m - Campeonatos Europa Amsterdam 2016 - YouTube The 4th place finisher finished 1 100th of a second (0.01) behind the gold medallist. The gold medallist was an economic migrant as a young child, smuggled across the border inside a lorry’s tyre. He showed his gratitude to his adopted nation by trashing the national vest (not untainted over the years, true enough) via a 4-year EPO ban.

Beggaring Belief

And speaking of the broader public’s enthusiasm for and (cough) knowledge of elite sport, a recent One Poll survey “of 2000 adults found that 38% of men thought they could qualify to compete at the 2028 Olympics if they started training today, had professional teaching and a strict training regime. “ I don’t know where to start with this one so will leave it there. Both laughing and weeping at this finding seem reasonable responses. Though before laughing too heartily, remember that these guys can vote.

RIP Tom McNab

I was sad to read of the recent passing of Tom McNab, aged 92. He played many roles in the sport - world class coach across numerous diverse events, fine author and occasional journalist, and administrator and gained wider acclaim as Technical Director for “Chariots of Fire”.

In a former working life I ‘coordinated’ some consultancy projects he did for UK Sport and Sport England and he was a tremendously lively character to work with.

His little-known novel ‘Rings of Sand’ published in 1985 proved uncannily prescient on what has since become known as ‘sports washing’ by the Middle East oil-rich states.

Let me tell you about Will Green

Partly because I doubt that anyone else will. But mainly because his truly exceptional running history may have a few pointers of inspiration or reflection for runners and coaches. Certainly, it’s made me ponder. In April 2026 in London Will, aged 51, broke the V50 UK marathon best, which had stood the test of time for exactly 40 years.

As context for younger readers, Will’s PBs from 5000, through 10k, and Half and Full Marathon, as a V45 and V50 compute to 98 to 99 per cent Age grading and his marathon is 2.5 mins faster than the Abbots Majors World Masters V50 record. Even more extraordinary, Will did this by setting an absolute PB with 2.23.07. His prior PB was a minute slower, set aged 45 in that memorable one-off Cheshire marathon in 2021.

I’ve known Will for over 15 years and none of his various previous marathons in this period were done off sketchy or light training. So the first point is that the sport never loses its wondrous capacity for delightful surprises. They don’t happen that often but its tingly stuff when they do.

A second point is that Will doesn’t agonise over or accumulate massive mileage though he does plenty (averaging low to mid 70s from January through April 2026), very consistently, and the easy miles are just what you’d expect from a 2.23 guy. The hard stuff though is arguably what is most notable. Without going into minutiae, Will’s big sessions, and let’s say there are 3 or sometimes 4 per typical 14 days, comprise of a challenge that I’d say is very tough and at the borders of what I’d consider doable....and then Will adds another 10 to 15 per cent beyond that.

We all know the old adage about monster sessions risking leaving one’s best performances in training but Will’s best results surely give assurance on that. He works to a very finely honed precision of pace in his harder sessions, finessing the Treadmill to a few seconds here and there. Nearly all his running starts at 5.30 a.m, bar one hard weekday session where he has some flex on his start time at work. Another notable trait is how little training Will does at quicker than 10k race pace. Ever, really. Even when he was building to what was a UK age best for V44 and older, 14.35 at 5000 metres, (his PB) his training was very scant on stuff at 5k pace, let alone faster. Makes you wonder. Especially if you are a regular - whether as coach or athlete - at a club’s Tuesday night track sessions.

Very close to 100% of his training is done solo - though he’s a perfectly normal socialised chap, indeed one of the most well-adjusted and likeable people I’ve met in life. He works full time as an NHS osteopath having had a major career change after over 15 years in commodity law for a major investment bank. Running matters aside, this career change did offer me the unusual chance to say “Good luck in your Biology A level’ to a guy then approaching his 40^th birthday.

The historic Green-Lloyd parallel is that Will did a Law degree at Leeds University and did very little running there after a promising but not dazzling schoolboy profile. Which is somewhat aligned with your Mark’s youthful trajectory though sport and life.

Commonwealth Games Missing In Action, and a new arrival

Some stats regarding the recent Games that Private Eye dug up.

The TNT coverage of the opening ceremony was viewed by a somewhat teeny 78k in England (the comparable figure for Australia was almost 100 times this) and the highest viewing figures in England for the sports sessions themselves was 120k. Hardly the scale to inspire a generation.

The next version is in India in late October 2028. Yep, late October. Those old stagers who would love a return to the two nation meets of the 1950s and 1960s may get something quite like India vs Australia.

As I write we are heading into the Ultimate World Championships.2 The title seems a little annoying, though I accept that Hybrid But Essentially A Beefed Up Diamond League loses in punchiness what it gains in pedantry.

It’ll surely have some great competitions and will help many of the world’s best earn something that deservedly bridges the gap between athletics and numerous other professional sports.

What none of these World Athletics innovations seem to achieve, in the UK at least, is to shift the dial on public interest in track and field athletics. UK distance legend Eamonn Martin, still very closely involved with the sport, relates how in the 1980s surveys consistently showed ‘athletics’ as the most popular ‘second favourite sport’ to watch amongst UK adults, and even for a period was the most popular sport amongst women. I rather doubt that, or anything close to it, is the position today.

Odds and Ends

Closer to home this weekend, thanks and good luck to Cambridge & Coleridge and Flycarb for putting on tonight’s Open 10,000 metre races3. Domestic 10,000 metre races have rather withered away after a pleasing pre-Covid resurgence, in the London area in particular, and this year’s UK Championships events were not classics, so it’s great to see that this very savvy and high performing club have offered this late season opportunity.

As autumn and winter approaches we can start anticipating the big trio of road races in the city that is now the unrivalled hub of UK performance strength in depth. That’s right, Valencia. It has “La ciudad de correr” as its corporate strapline and certainly delivers on that. And the trains run as reliably as Andreas Almgren with wavelights and real time lactate monitoring.

And signing off with a bit of European history that should hopefully inspire down the ages, there’s this beauty. European Athletics Championships 10,000m Final - Helsinki 1971 It’s what you might just achieve if you do a stack of 200 km weeks on soft surfaces, possess a 10.9 100 metres PB and fine tune with a suitable dosage of what we were assured at the time was reindeer milk.

Cue sighs of relief for Mark’s imminent return.

For more of the writer’s irreverence but hopefully not irrelevance from almost 50 years in the sport as runner and coach there is this - A Few More Laps - Run Coach 1to1

David Chalfen

Some “Dark Side” Thoughts

I try and keep an optimistic view of the world of sport, or indeed of the world more generally, but there are a couple of things that have been on my mind that I wanted to address.

The first is the death of 19 year old Finlay Tarling at theVolta a Portugal, caused, as I understand it, when a van got onto the course and then did a U turn thinking all the riders had passed. They hadn’t. It’s painful to even think about it.

It’s impossible to put into words just how tragic an accident like this is.

It’s more to do with a young man doing something he loves and losing his life as a consequence.

That just shouldn’t happen.

No one should die in a bike race, or any race for that matter. I know there are risks and he is not the first person to die in a bike race, but it just seems like a complete waste.

I don’t know him or the family although I am aware they are incredibly supportive travelling all over the place to support their sons.

I have to confess that I was surprised Josh Tarling (his big brother) started the Vuelta but then I recognise that people deal with grief in their own way. Credit to the team for supporting him in his decision and it was understandable when he subsequently withdrew.

The other issue is this really odd story about Leon Baptiste, the athletics coach who disappeared and was subsequently found to have been imprisoned in Morocco along with three other former athletes over an alleged sexual assault on a young woman.

Journalistically, this appears to have come from the hard work of BBC Sport who have covered the story in some detail.

I don’t want to be too judgemental when I don’t know precisely what has happened and I note that UKA has made no comment, but the responsibilities that come with being a coach are not to be underestimated.

Again, much like the story about Finlay, I don’t know what we can do about it, but I don’t want to get to the point where I think “these things just happen”.

More Positive News

We had a great Cottage session on Tuesday and I recognise what a privilege it is to be involved with fantastic young (and not so young) people.

Phil O’Dell was down as well, and it was fantastic to have him for the evening. I know I have said it before but it is always worth remembering that Phil started the group and his guidance and support have allowed the group to flourish.

Away from the running mecca that is Battersea Park, it’s the Diamond League Finals from Brussels this weekend.

The Tour of Britain is ongoing, as is the Vuelta a Espana.

Tom Pidcock’s win in the World Mountain Bike champs suggests he is in very good form and could be in contention for the World Road champs, given Tadej looks like he is out of it.

Run the Wharf 2026

I went along to watch this last night (Thursday 3 September 2026). A far better evening than I anticipated and in some ways it looked like the future of the sport. It was a road 5k, on a tight course, but with closed roads. Nice to see so many people I know there, and I liked this video (above) of Conall Whelan, sprinting ahead of the women’s start. The women actually started ahead of the men.

When I talk about “the future” I think I mean the sport probably needs to recognise that atmosphere matters.

Yes, there were very good runners at the front of both the men’s and women’s races but it was the masses who appeared to be having the most fun.

Participation in the sport is growing, or at least it looks that way to me, and giving people the chance to run a closed roads 5k seems to generate excitement.

There were more than a handful of spectators, lots of videographers and photographers too. You seem to need them these days.

Tom Keen outkicked Archie Davis to win the men’s race. These two have had great track seasons, and Archie is going on to race the mile at the World Road Running champs.

Cottage had Miles Clisham in 5th, Ethan McColgan 7th and Chris Thomas in 8th.

Maddie Jordan-Lee just got ahead of Abbey Brooke to win the women’s race with Kitty Shepherd-Cross in 3rd. The latter two train with the group which is getting stronger and stronger, I am pleased to say.

I also had a nice chat to the couple who, if I remember correctly, did all the branding for the event. Lewis and Imogen, of Wood & Ham, based in Guildford.

I thought they did great work, and they were patient as I warbled on about all things running. As I can do.

Full results are here.

The Great Lock In

I blame Instagram for this although I am not sure where if that is where it started. My assumption is that it is an Americanism that has found its way here.

Everyone seems to be locking in for a race, or the month or anything really. I am slightly conflicted.

On the one hand I can see how it might help someone in the way that New Year’s Resolutions might help someone, but so much behaviour change is incremental. If it’s training, then you keep training. If it’s writing a book, then you write the book.

None of this stuff is easy, but consistency of effort is what makes the difference.

And I say that as someone who has been training for about 50 years now. I was even thinking about what I have learnt in that time but it all comes down to recognising it’s a process.

Yes, having a target helps, but that just helps with focusing and refinement of effort. The basic work needs to get done regardless. You don’t need motivation, you don’t even have to feel like doing it. You just have to do it.

Odds and Ends

• It’s the Monument Mile Classic tomorrow (Saturday) 5 September 2026. It’s in Stirling and there are 34 races! Start lists are here. Josh Lay goes in the men’s A race.

• GB team for 100km World Championships - I noticed this got announced this week. Alex Milne (who is “Cottage” although he’s become a bit of an outlier) did a 65km run in Battersea Park last Saturday. Which is astonishing. I say “outlier” because he’s become very good at ultra distance events, like Comrades at the same time as improving over the marathon. There may be something in that.

• It’s the Big Half on Sunday (6 September 2026). We have got a few doing it but it doesn’t seem to feature that largely in people’s plans. I wonder if that is because it’s just not ideal timing?

• Sydney Marathon - I mentioned Jack Millar was doing this last week. 2:22:09 (38th) which given he was doing the National Cross Country champs the week before and seemed to do no specific marathon preparation, was a very good result.

• There’s the final BMC meeting of the year on the track in Bury tomorrow (Saturday) and the Cardiff 10k on Sunday as well.

• One of the many discussion points this week was whether cycling is ahead of running in terms of nutrition. Particularly for distance events. It’s something I am thinking about a lot. For the marathon people at least.

• And finally, I have another guest post coming up next week from a well known and very well respected running coach, David Chalfen. I am very much looking forward to that.

Thanks, as always for the support this week. Welcome to my new subscribers too.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to and tune in next week for David’s thoughts. I am sure he won’t mind me saying he can leave the cycling stuff to me. Unless he fancies a few laps of Herne Hill Velodrome in the morning.

My Thought for the Day

If you wanted to join a running group, which has built a bit of a reputation (he says modestly), what would you do?

This group doesn’t have a proper website (although that is coming), it has an Instagram account (to which you can send a direct message) and it has a private Facebook page. Which you can ask to join. We actually ask questions of people who would like to join.

It’s a rhetorical question, because I am very aware that the process is neither easy, nor clear. Even to me. And, if you don’t know, I run the group.

It’s not lost on me that London private members clubs, more often than not, require someone to introduce you or refer you for membership.

I have never been a member of a private members’ club but I used to think this was a ridiculous idea.

Now, I am not so sure.

If you wanted to join the Cottage group as a man or woman your best bet is knowing someone in the group. Essentially they vouch for you.

What are they vouching for? I don’t quite know, but there’s this idea I have that the existing member understands the group and thinks the new member will “get” the group and will want to be part of it.

Not that we have any rules, of course. But there is definitely a culture.

Someone messaged the group this week on Facebook and said they had recently moved to Battersea and wanted to “jump in” with some sessions.

They have run sub 30 minutes for 10k (I think at Telford) and they did some trail running.

Although he gave his name, he didn’t tell me which club he ran for, nor did he send me a link to his Power of 10 profile.

As frustrating as Power of 10 is these days, you are still able to glean a certain amount of information from it.

Naturally, I acknowledged the message and asked some questions of my own.

We are long past the point where I just say “yes” to anyone who wants to “jump in”.

Since when I have heard nothing.

There may be reasons for that, and I am not leaping to any conclusions, but if you are reading this and you were interested in being part of the group, then it might be useful to think about making it easy for me to say “yes”. I don’t need the hard sell, but the way you approach us matters.

Or find someone in the group to vouch for you.

Antrim Coastal Half Marathon

This is a curious race, if I think about it. Although I note I am only allowing myself one thought a day.

The Home Countries (Scotland, England and Wales) support it and select teams.

It attracts a relatively small number of elite runners, and it’s held during the track season before the road season really starts to take off. In Europe, at least.

I got very excited about various athletes from the Cottage group being selected for their respective countries. Andy Fyfe was selected to represent Scotland, Chris Thomas was selected to represent Wales and George Grassly was elected to represent England.

This triumvirate seemed to me, at least, to reflect a degree of success on the road running front.

Unfortunately, George got injured (although I am pleased to report he is now back running again) so it was left to Andy and Chris to take on the challenge.

As is so often the case it was a tale of two races.

Andy ran really well. The first non-professional athlete, he finished 12th in a personal best time of 63:17, which is all the more impressive given that from 10km onwards he was on his own.

It also makes me think that the front end of the group is moving forwards which is both encouraging and exciting.

Sadly, it wasn’t happening for Chris who didn’t have a great race (and I am sure he won’t mind me saying so) but he will live to fight another day.

Sometimes you can’t put your finger on what went wrong, but too much over analysis doesn’t really help. You just have to move on.

At the front end, it was a great race between Kenyans Isaia Lasoi (58:26) and Daniel Mateiko (58:30) with cyclist turned runner Jimmy Whelan coming in 8th, with an impressive 61:19. Full results are here and there are some good athletes in there like Ed Cheserek and a 40 year old Galen Rupp.

Jimmy was a pro cyclist and is making the transition over to road running. Seems to be doing very well. He’s about to move to Leeds, so I am told, to be coached by Andrew Henderson and train with Phil Sesemann although I am not sure of the precise arrangements. Given my interest in both sports, I need to do a little more investigation into how he trains and what his plans are. I think he’s down to do the Valencia marathon, but I will come back to that.

Zurich Diamond League

We are living through a purple patch, there’s no two ways about it.

Last night’s event was brilliant with two world records, world record attempts in the pole vault, and two excellent 800m races, for both the men and the women.

I actually thought Georgia (Hunter Bell)would beat Audrey Werro and Femke but she didn’t really get a look in. Audrey won in the third fastest women’s 800m of all time ( 1:53:70) which was a Swiss record and the fastest time in the world this year. Femke broke the Dutch 800m record (1:54:71) and it was Georgia’s second fastest 800m time ever (1:55:03). Incredible stuff.

As is so often the case, there’s almost too much to write about.

Parker Wolfe is good, though, isn’t he?

The genius of these Diamond League events is that they pack so much into them and it’s breathless in its intensity.

Next weekend, it is the Diamond League finals and a week after that it’s the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest.

Odds and Ends

• It’s the Sydney Marathon on Sunday. My one guest contributor (so far!) Jack Millar is racing it. By my calculations, the race starts at 9:30pm UK time.

  

• Great to see Ethan Hayter so nearly take the win in the prologue of the Vuelta. He has had an up and down time in his professional career but he is a class rider. At the risk of being boring, I told my Ethan story in La Canicule.

• It’s the Scottish Athletics Championships this weekend. In Aberdeen.

• Yomif Kejelcha broke the world half marathon record on Buenos Aires on Sunday. 56:51. Astonishing, but then he has broken 2 hours for the marathon.

• The British team for the World Road Running Championships was announced this week. The event is in Copenhagen in three weeks time. Will write more about it before then. Solid selections, I thought.

• It’s UTMB week in Chamonix this week. In fact, I suspect that one of the main races is about to start as I write this. (Yup, the 100k race is live streaming now). The Mayor of Chamonix, a former trail runner himself has apparently expressed reservations about the way in which the town is taken over for a week. I found what I thought was a good report, on Trail Runner.

• The Tour of Britain Men starts on Wednesday 2 September 2026. I don’t have to call it the Lloyds Tour of Britain do I? The women’s Tour of Britain was won by Kim Le Court-Pienaar last Sunday.

• The headline for this piece comes from Virginia Woolf’s book The Waves. I came across it this week and I thought it appropriate. Actually, I came across references to Virginia Woolf twice in the last few days which is possibly why this resonated so much. The full quote is:

  “Meanwhile, let us abolish the ticking of time’s clock with one blow. Come closer”.

  It goes without saying it is about love, but I obviously I prefer the sporting connection, given I now view everything through a performance lens. We all fixate on times and our watches have become our guides. I am not too sure how good it is for us, but sometimes it’s nice to turn off the tech and just run, or ride. I should try it sometime.

No music this week, but there’s still training and racing to be done. The weather has definitely changed in London. Cooler in the mornings (I needed a long sleeve top on my ride to the velodrome this morning) and we have actually had some rain. I don’t think it’s the end of the summer, but the schools go back next week and that’s always a sign.

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend (if you are in the UK) and I will see you next week.

I was listening to a podcast about politics this week1 and a former director of communications at no 10 said we are living in the age of authenticity.

The problem is that politicians are not very good at being authentic.

The worlds of athletics and cycling have similar issues, as we separate into those who “do” social media and those that don’t. I make no judgement either way but it is increasingly hard to ignore.

I remember talking to Charlie Sandison about this at some point last year when he probably had less than 1,000 followers on Instagram and he made the point that he thought it was important for people to be the same online as they are offline. So if you were to meet someone who has a significant following on Instagram or YouTube you should expect them to be recognisably the same person.

For the avoidance of doubt, Charlie is very much the same as he is online and that, I suspect, is one of his strengths.

Added to which, he seems very comfortable with it. Which I am starting to recognise as important.

Hugo Fry, a relatively well know running influencer, jumped in with the group on Saturday.

He had asked if he could, and I guessed he would struggle. And of course he did. The men were doing 15k and he was dropped after 5k. To be fair to him, he put out a reel explaining he had dnf’d and was pretty straightforward about it.

The Cottage distance lads are very good. Perhaps we don’t make as much fuss about it as we should, but historically, we have operated on the principle: “If you know, you know”.

I appreciate that in writing this Substack, I am breaking with that tradition but I can’t be alone in thinking about whether authenticity requires you to work in the proverbial dark, or whether we should be letting in the light.

Snapshots of the European Athletics Championships

There were so many great things about these champs, my initial thought was that I wouldn’t know where to start.

Three things spring to mind though.

The first is Andreas Almgren’s inspirational run in the men’s 10,000m. The sort of performance that every endurance athlete can get behind - and I have had cyclists tell me how much they enjoyed it this week.

The race started very slowly, and then he went to the front and just turned the screw.

Anyone who has ever done a race like this knows it’s magical when it works.

Some people went with him, and then, one by one, they dropped off.

He knew what he was doing. Methodical, and brutal. It was a thing of beauty. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching.

The second thing was the men’s 1500m and I am not sure anyone could have predicted who the medallists would be.

Nillessen is good, so I guess he could have been there or thereabouts, but he was badly tripped with 150m to go and yet he recovered to charge through the field and take the gold.

The silver was won by an even faster finishing Pihlstrom. If you are as fascinated by the sport as I am, I’d suggest rewatching his race.

He’s in the yellow Swedish vest and he sits at the back of the field at least for the first 800m.

Then he tries to come through but gets pushed back and at the bell he is last and slightly off the back.

It’s incredible because this was also the athlete who won the “B” race 800m at the St Mary’s BMC event a week ago in 1:46. Which is fast, but not ridiculously fast. Not as fast as Jake Wightman, certainly.

So I saw him there and had no idea he was that good.

The third thing was Georgia Hunter-Bell’s brilliant and accomplished win in the women’s 1500m.

Georgia chose a different way of winning. Undoubtedly the favourite, she didn’t seem to let that bother her and she controlled the race perfectly. Her ability to handle pressure is exceptional.

I don’t think I have mentioned it before, but Georgia came down to Cottage in the autumn of 2023. Dale King-Clutterbuck brought her down with Revee Walcott-Nolan who had been a regular visitor and they trained together in the women’s group we have.

I knew who she was because she is the same age as my son, and they had both been in various London Schools teams and I can remember Georgia winning the junior girls (u14) 800m at the English Schools in 2008.

In 2023 the sessions used to go up on Facebook and the joke was that it was the only reason any of us went on Facebook. Except Georgia didn’t use Facebook and she never knew what the session was. She would ask me, I would tell her, and she would do it. That was it. There was no drama, no fuss. No question of changing it. Just get on and do it. I always thought that told its own story.

A bit later, after she had reemerged into the limelight in 2024 I remember chatting to her and essentially she told me she just couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have another go at the top level and she literally had nothing to lose. It’s not a bad way to approach the sport.

BMC at Tooting Bec

This was a brilliant event, it has to be said. Put on by Keith Newton, Herne Hill Harriers and the British Milers Club it attracted athletes from all over the world as well as some of the best of the UK scene. Full results are here.

It was slightly breezier than one would have liked it to be, but there’s not much you can do about the wind. Plenty of Cottage representation too, for those who misguidedly believe we are “just” a marathon group.

It’s also an incredibly social event. The back straight was buzzing with chatter as coaches, athletes, friends and supporters all mixed together. It reminded me of a sort of party, one where everywhere you turn, there is someone new you want to talk to.

I always think it’s slightly invidious to mention one athlete in the group who has run well, and not mention everyone. Because everyone ran really well, even if they think they didn’t. And if you hang around athletes enough, you will appreciate they rarely think they have run well, even when they have.

The videos of the men’s A 1500m and women’s A 1500m give a sense of the back straight energy and are both good races - of which, I have to say, there were many.

The Antrim Coast Half Marathon

This is a big race for the Cottage group because Andy Fyfe is representing Scotland and Chris Thomas is representing Wales, as is Emily Lowery, who jumps in and out of the group.

Sadly, George Grassly, who was selected for the England team has had to withdraw through injury but I am pleased to see Sam Eglen will be putting on his very first England vest. Sam used to train with the group when he was doing his accountancy training in London, and whilst people move on, they are still “Cottage” as far as I am concerned.

The race starts at 11am on Sunday, and the livestream will be here. Ideal time to get a solid 100km in on the bike (or a long run, whichever is your preferred medicine) before settling down for that.

Ish

I went to see the film Ish the other day, which is absolutely brilliant for all sorts of reasons. There’s a really good review of it here. I went to the BFI, for what it’s worth. It’s that sort of film.

One thing I wanted to say is that I got a visceral sense that bikes represent a form of freedom. Of the sort I grew up with, and I hope people do today. Boys and girls. It’s something I have never grown out of and something I still do more or less every day.

It is also worth mentioning it takes a bit of skill to ride with someone on your handlebars but these boys (who weren’t technically actors before they got these parts) were pretty accomplished. Which I liked. Authenticity again.

Odds and Ends

• It’s the Diamond League from Lausanne this evening (Friday 21 August 2026). On BBC2 from 7pm. Silesia on Sunday (23 August 2026), and Zurich next Thursday where the women’s 800m looks to be one of the races of the year.

• Podium 5k was held on a cycling track on Sunday. Fresh from the European Athletics Champs, James West was trying to get the qualifying time for the World Road Running Champs, which take place in Copenhagen in September. He didn’t get it although he won the race in 13:49. Teams for the World Champs get announced next week. (Also Jack Perry-Williams from the Cottage group ran 14:28.)

• Vuelta a España starts tomorrow (Saturday 22 August 2026) with an individual time trial in Monaco. I see Ben Tulett is in the Team Visma | Lease a Bike team. I wrote about him a year or so ago.

• Women’s Tour of Britain - it started on Wednesday this week and finishes on Sunday. It’s on ITV4 and it’s also being livestreamed on YouTube. Current leader (as I write this after stage 3 has finished) is Kim Le Court-Pienaar who took today’s stage which finished up the Great Orm and with it the lead in the race.

• Tracksmith - they are closing down their London shop on Chiltern Street this Sunday (23 August 2026). According to the shop’s Strava (Tracksmith London), everything is 50% off until then. It’s a nice message actually, and states that the decision has been made by the “brand and leadership team'“. (Thanks to John Sanderson for the h/t on this one). Last time I was in there, there was a picture of John and Sam Gebreselassie on the wall.

• My son has started writing about music. Some of you may know he used to be a runner and to be fair he still runs, just not competitively these days. Anyway, I was amused to see he mentioned something I had said in his most recent piece when I commented on “performing” when you are DJing. You won’t be surprised to learn that I now see everything through a performance lens.

  This DJing business is tricky, whatever people might tell you. A real battle with myself, often. Which I guess is where much of the value in it comes from. I used to be a runner, and, as my Dad observed, it’s like racing. Ideally you want to come in feeling relaxed, rested, ready to go. But you can’t always guarantee that. Then it’s about how you manage all the other stuff happening around you, how effectively you block it out and stop it from getting in the way

  It reminds me that there are a lot of very good musicians in the worlds of running and cycling. I need to investigate that, so that I can expand on my theory that they are all performances. Plus, if we keep quoting each other, we might attract a few more subscribers to our respective Lloyd-Like Streams of Consciousness.

• Talking of performances and on a final note, I have a son-in-law. Who is the singer in a band. They are called New Translations. They are signed to Warner Brothers in the States and today marks the release of their latest single which I am happy to share with you. Because, why not? It’s really very good.

I think that is the lot for this week. It seems to be a longer one than usual, which I will take up with my editor. Thanks to for the support as always. It’s very nice when people talk to me at some of these events and tell me how much they like reading it. Or send messages. Or “like” it. As I said last week, and as Jack echoed in his comment, I am easily pleased.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you are doing, and I will be back next week.

The Week That Was and The Weekend That Will Be

There are so many things I could write about this week, but the thing I seem to be thinking about a lot is the psychology of sport. Not just the athletes but the coaches as well. And parents even.

I was wandering around the track at St Mary’s on Sunday looking at races from different angles and I heard a mother tell her late teenage daughter, who’d just run a race, and not done terribly well, that she was an “embarrassment”.

It broke my heart and I had to hold myself back from saying something. Because it might not have been about the race, there may have been some context I wasn’t aware of, and families are their own ecosystems. Not to be interfered with by outsiders.

But the way in which the athlete quietly walked away and sat down away from her mother told me everything I needed to know.

I hope she keeps running but I could understand it if she thought it wasn’t worth it. Because no one who takes to any start line is ever an embarrassment, no one who has that courage (because it is courage) is ever an embarrassment, and if you are a parent (as I am) you have to accept that it is never about you. Literally never.1

Contrast that with Elise Thorner’s parents immediately after the 3000m steeplechase final last night (Thursday 13 August 2026) at the European Championships.

She had been in with a chance of a medal, but had had nothing left over the last 200m and finished in 5th.

The cameras tracked her going to her parents who comforted her. When she gave what I thought was an excellent interview afterwards, she said that they had told her they were proud. Because that is the only response.

Sport isn’t just about the winners, as hard as it is for us to accept sometimes.

Taking part really matters too.

It’s also pretty unscientific, or at least a lot of racing is.

What makes athletics fascinating isn't simply the physical performance. It's watching human beings deal with pressure, expectation, disappointment and opportunity.

Jacob's win in the men’s 5000m for example, Matthew Hudson Smith who looked so nervous before the start of the 400m final, and the palpable relief he felt when he won, Amy Hunt’s approach to her racing, and Mark English’s response to his brilliant win in the men’s 800m.

You can see it with Keely as well. Does she have enough for the final? Will Femke actually sprint? And how will Audrey Werro come back from what was a really heavy fall. We will find out tonight at 21:45.

The European Athletics Championships which are currently being held in Birmingham (which I assume all of you are aware of) have been dramatic and fascinating in equal measure. It’s a reminder what a bloody great sport athletics is.

St Mary’s British Milers Club Grand Prix

I obviously have a few more thoughts on the European champs, but before I get to those, I wanted to say something about the BMC Grand Prix at St Mary’s University on Sunday.

It was brilliantly well organised by Craig Winrow and the BMC team and there was some really good racing too. Conditions were pretty perfect, a slight breeze but no more. Very warm but not so warm as to be debilitating.

I am not going to go through the results, which are available here but a few thoughts.

The first is that three men fell right in front of me in the A 800m with 100m to go. Which means they were going fast. And these were hard falls. I remember something similar happening last year. My assumption is that they are all about the same standard and they are fighting for the same space, but I am not too sure precisely what is going on. Seems odd, and looked painful. There have been a lot of falls at Birmingham too. Again, a lot of people of similar ability.

Second, I chatted to some athletes from Aberdeen AC who seemed delighted to be there. They said they couldn’t believe how hot it was. They had come from 14/15 degrees to 30 degrees and it was a shock to their system. Funny how we have all adapted to it more or less. In London and the south east I mean. They had got a grant from their club and used it to come down. Seemed a good use of cash to me.

Third, is that I really enjoy it when I see people I know running well. They don’t have to win, although Nancie Bowley and Abbey Brooke both raced really well to win both the women’s B 1500m and 3000m respectively.

Fourth, a special mention to Josh Lay who pushed on in the B 1500m, taking everyone through to a fast time, including himself. Sometimes you have to lay it on the line.

A few more.

Two men in the Cottage group are going through a bit of a purple patch. Sam Knee-Robinson had never broken 3:50 for 1500m until two weeks ago when he went to Belgium and ran 3:49. Sam will forgive me for saying he has been running a long time, so this was a pretty big deal, and he never gave up believing he could break 3:50.

Then on Sunday, he dug really deep and was rewarded with a 3:48 clocking. Incredibly impressive.

Similarly, Andrew Penney is now a V35 (sorry Andrew:-)) and has been running brilliantly well this year. A 3:44 1500m pb on Sunday to go with his 13:46 5000m and 7:58 3000m. Not a bad summer for either of them.

Let’s hear it for the over 30s!

I remember it was Mark Hookway who told me that most people gave up the sport too soon. He is a wise man, is Mark.

So don’t give up too early, or at least realise that there’s always a way back to the sport, if you love it.

The European Athletics Championships

I made some notes earlier in the week when I thought they had been good so far. “Not great, yet, but you can sense it is coming”, I wrote.

Actually, the last couple of days have been very good.

Yes, the wind is clearly irritating, because you need closed stands in the 21st century.

The qualifying rounds in the sprints are even more irritating. It’s clearly unfair. because everyone should race all the rounds.

The poor attendances particularly at the beginning of the week were not great. Not helped by these huge temporary stands which seemed to accentuate the problem. There must be a way to fill these spaces but I guess they will look at that afterwards. Still, it will be busy from now on.

Plus it’s all live on the BBC. Gabby Logan raises the standard every evening because she is so professional and Greg Rutherford has been good too.

It means it’s a good watch for both the avid and the casual viewer.

One caveat I have to the generally excellent coverage is this whole hoverboard/Segway cameraman thing where they film the athletes close up as they go around the bends.

Except it means you miss what is really going on.

I mean I saw Nick Griggs go flying in the men’s 5000m (and he lost his shoe) but I didn’t see Mike Foppen go down. Did you?

It’s happened several times and I have realised that we need perspective to see the moves properly.

Maybe it’s because I am fascinated with the sport and the less interested viewer might like it, but it’s not really working for me.

Did anyone watch Bloudek in the men’s 800m semi final? Yeah, I know this is niche.2 But he came right from the back all the way through the field. You need an overview to watch that. Otherwise, you are missing what is really going on.

I appreciate it is still considered innovative, but not every new idea is a good one.

It’s on again tonight, tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday starts with the marathons with the women at 7:30am and the men at 8:10am before the final session in the evening. Should be good.

Odds and Ends

• I wanted to mention Jack Millar’s excellent 6th place in Sunday’s City2Surf race. You may remember Jack wrote a great piece on here about his experience of Australia. I wasn’t sure how good a result this was (given what I suspect is my parochial world view) but the comments on his Strava from Australians made me realise it was pretty special. Further investigation has confirmed that. Good to see him running so well and he was 5th fastest up Heartbreak Hill.

• The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had some drama over the weekend, but it’s safe to say that Demi Vollering made it her own on the final stage around Nice.

• Battersea Park update - it’s busier than ever. On Saturday we were doing sessions (and I was on my bike) and it was challenging to say the least. A RunThrough event (5k, 10k, half marathon), brought in a load of people many of whom drove there. I saw Rose Harvey doing her session and she too was having to dodge dogs, dog walkers and other runners. This is an international athlete who is preparing to represent Great Britain over the marathon this weekend. I can’t help but think we must be able to do better with this. I mean, I know everyone should be allowed to run in the park, but international athletes who are starting their sessions at 8:30am surely need some consideration. Or should they be the ones who have to go elsewhere?

• Do you remember the Men’s Health story? Journalist David Smyth came down to do a piece on the Cottage group (and running groups generally). He was lovely but it ended up being a load of work dealing with images. Nothing to do with David, who was doing the words, but it’s a reminder to myself to ask better questions before agreeing to do things.

• “If you have got a chance, take it” came up on Wednesday morning at the velodrome, when we were talking about “match sprints”. One lap races with 2 or 3 others in the race. Phil Wright (dad of British national champion and World Tour rider Fred) said it was something he had picked up in the British Cycling coaching process, and I observed that it was good advice for life. A lot of racing comes down to this. You don’t have that many chances, and you need to rely on your intuition, and not overthink it.

• Matt Stonier, who I have mentioned before on here, has put out a load of his thoughts on Substack this week. He’s been through athletic hell and is coming back and they are his reflections on the experience. Worth a read.

• As if this weekend wasn’t busy enough athletically at least, it’s the Tooting Record Breaker BMC event next Wednesday (19th August 2026). It will be the last race of the track season for a lot of the domestic athletes although the international programme still has a long way to go. Looking forward to that.

• Cycling’s Renewi Tour (formerly the Benelux tour) starts next Wednesday as well as cyclists build towards the cycling world championships in Montreal next month. Stage 3 of the Tour finishes in Geraardsbergen, where the riders go up the Muur, which I rode up twice, at the start of the Transcontinental Race 3 years ago now. Time flies, doesn’t it?

Thanks for all the support last week. Lots of “likes” which I really appreciate. I am easily pleased.

Enjoy the weekend whatever you are up to and there will be more of this next week.

I went to see some art this week. At Sotheby’s in New Bond Street. Hassan Hajjai is a guy about my age (60s) who has taken to photographing young people in London who are doing great things in the creative world. It’s called My London Rockstars. Ends to Estates.

The images are really cool, although I was equally impressed with the way in which he uses physical things to frame the photographs.

Somehow I stumbled across a mini tour guided by a young man called Seb, who essentially works for Hassan’s gallery. If I wanted to buy one of these photographs for £25,000 then Seb would be the man to talk to.

Chatting to him, I commented that all the subjects looked pretty relaxed and clearly enjoyed the photographic process. They all looked as if they wanted to be there.

Seb told me that Hassan had a real talent for creating the sort of environment in which people feel comfortable and it allowed them to thrive and he agreed that you could see it in the photographs themselves.

I often think that we don’t spend enough time focusing on environments, particularly in the work place where generating the “right” sort of atmosphere seems to be a real challenge. Maybe that’s because there’s a sense of obligation about work. You are not really there out of choice, although, of course, you are.

We all know that it applies to sporting environments too. Teams, groups, clubs. All have the same dynamic. An atmosphere, a culture, a way of being.

As I have got older, I recognise its importance more and more.

It also reassured me that what I am doing with the Cottage group is creating the sort of environment where people thrive. Or at least that is what I am trying to do. I don’t make it a KPI although that would be funny and it’s very much an emergent property, if that doesn’t sound too “woo woo”.

It’s both harder than you think, and yet, at the same time, it’s obvious.

When I talk about seeing the wood for the trees, I realise that it’s not so much about the detail of the sessions, although those really matter, but it’s about the energy in the group.

We had a moment last Saturday when that feeling was palpable - and it was a fantastic buzz for all of us. In fact, we have lots of moments like that which, I guess, is why we do it and why people come.

We don’t get there every time we meet, but we do seem to do it more often than not.

I was going to say, “hopefully, I am not alone in feeling it” but actually I know I am not.

All we need is a bit of old carpet, some trendy running gear, and we will be able to give Hassan a proverbial run for his money.

The Commonwealth Games

I didn’t get to see everything but what I did see I enjoyed. I really like boxing for some reason. Always have. Even if I don’t understand the rules. The track cycling was excellent as was some of the athletics. Really pleased that Georgia Hunter Bell won the 800m, and as tense as the men’s mile was (and it was uncomfortable to watch for most of it), the “right” man won.

I am still not convinced the Games have a future, but my guess is that they will have a few more iterations before someone (Mrs Money?) finally pulls the plug.

Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift

What a great race. There’s so much going on both on and off the road.

There’s definitely an imbalance between the presentation of men’s and women’s sport.

Maybe it’s not quite the same in athletics, where the women’s events take place next to the men’s, but in cycling it’s world’s apart.

There was stage 3 where Sigrid Haugset attacked early and her attack wasn’t even filmed. All we, as the viewer saw, was she was up the road riding solo. What was even more astonishing about that stage was that former world champion (twice) Lotte Kopecky got within 12 seconds of her, but then the effort of getting across proved too much. Incredible racing.

And that whole ridiculous saga about the aerodynamic “chest padding”. Which, of course, the mainstream media picked up on with glee. That was annoying. Lots happening every day. Worth following, if you are not already.

Mount Ventoux today, and the race finishes in Nice on Sunday.

Odds and Ends

• There’s a British Miler’s Club Grand Prix meeting at St Mary’s University, Teddington on Sunday, which looks like being a great event. Last year’s, which was held earlier in the summer, in perfect conditions, produced some fantastic results. Let’s hope for the same this weekend. Looking at the weather forecast, it is supposed to be a little breezier than I would like, but it’s going to be warm. And that helps. I will hopefully see some of you there.

• Conditions make so much difference in athletics. The IFAM meeting at Oordegem in Belgium on Saturday produced some incredible results and the standard was ridiculously high. I wonder whether more and more people will start to make that journey. It’s a little longer than the trip to Wimbledon (although probably not in the case of someone like Charlie Brisley who lives in Dover) but all the Cottage lads who raced and finished, ran PBs. That said, there was a decent turnout at Hercules Wimbledon 5000m Festival and it was a lot easier to get home from.

• The European Athletics Championships start in Birmingham on Monday (10 August 2026). Decent preview here, although I really don’t really care whether Great Britain returns to the top of the medal table. That’s a sort of journalistic filler. I just want to see the competition and it looks as if it will be a great week. The women’s 800m final, which will probably be one of the races of the week is on Friday at 21:45. I may be forced into an overexcited mid-week post, but let’s see how we go. And I hadn’t realised it was the first time these championships have been held in Britain.

• I have been thinking about the patriarchy this week for all sorts of reasons. I am not going to do a whole post on it, but it came to my attention that one of the women in the group got pretty badly hassled on a solo run. By a group of workmen. This makes me very angry, and it is a reminder, as if one were needed, that there’s still a long way to go. I wonder if this is partly why Battersea Park is so busy. Because there’s safety in numbers. I wish people felt safe everywhere.

• I see that London has submitted a bid to hold the 2029 World Athletics Championships someone having done a deal with the Championship side, West Ham. Worth keeping an eye on. It is a good venue for athletics and the World Champs is a very good event.

• I got to the velodrome this morning having bumped into Andy and Charlie from the Cottage group on the way there. I absolutely love how I bump into runners from the group all over the place. It happens on an almost daily basis and it makes me feel as if London really is a village. Which all people of a certain age know it is anyway. I managed to get the session done although I have felt better. Nice of Olivier (one of the coaches) to take photographs of us. Maybe that should be my role at Cottage sessions. Rather than the “vibes coach” that I obviously am.

  

  I think that’s it for this week. Battersea Park tomorrow morning for sessions, St Mary’s on Sunday for racing. And I may do my own ride at some point. What’s not to like? Enjoy your weekend whatever you are doing and thank you for reading.

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You are only ever as happy as your unhappiest child

I remember hearing this for the first time 20 odd years ago. It was Katie Snowden’s mum who told me, and as much as I don’t want to believe it, there’s definitely something in it.

Sadly, Katie didn’t make the final of the women’s mile at the Commonwealth Games this week, so I am guessing her mum is testing the theory.

Actually, her mum has been supporting Katie for more years than I imagine she cares to remember, so she will have a handle on it by now.

I have also been wondering if that principle follows through to coaching.

If 9 people raced brilliantly, why do you find yourself preoccupied with the 10th who didn’t run that well?

Injuries are similar.

They are very much a fact of life, but when they happen, and they do, you feel the need to look at yourself and ask questions.

I think I have had four messages this week about injuries which is a higher rate than I would like although it is actually a small percentage of a large group.

We all know that performance is a complex system. There’s your body, the fatigue you carry, what you eat, how strong you are, how much sleep you have been getting and all the other stress you have got going on in your life all of which make a difference.

Do we train too much on hard surfaces? Could we do more on grass? Are people trying to do too much and not recovering? Is it the shoes? Did people recover from the last race they ran? And so on.

It probably goes without saying that the answer is not always obvious although there will often be clues.

There are so many things that can go wrong and the harsh reality is that injury is inevitable at some point.

Part of the process involves working out what might be best for you and there are many ways to get fit. I think it pays to be “sensible” and to be “flexible” in the way you train. You don’t always have to finish a session, you don’t have to run hard all the time, and there’s no shame in having a few days off if you are run down.

Always remember that the golden rule is to make sure you can do it the next day, and the day after that. Consistency is key. But you all knew that anyway.

Events, dear boy, events

I have been to loads in the last week, but so far, there’s been no sign of the government falling.

I guess it’s only been two years since the last one was formed but you never know, in this day and age.

The South London Grand Prix at Herne Hill Velodrome last Saturday was marvellous. I was told the Friday afternoon and evening had gone incredibly well too. Entertaining commentary, an international field and really high quality racing. Nice to have a quick word with Theo Bos, former pro cyclist, five time world champion and Olympic silver medallist and now coach of the Belgian team. “Nice vibes” he said. He’s down with the kids.

I didn’t get to the T100 triathlon on Sunday because it started at 6:30 am and I decided that was far too early to go to Docklands. Delighted to see that Charlie Sandison did really well, finishing 3rd. It was obviously the ride we did in Richmond Park that made all the difference to his preparation.

Seriously though, Charlie does appear to be quite good at this triathlon lark. I don’t want to encourage him too much, because we need him in the Cottage group, but I am not averse to dalliances with the less serious sports. (That’s a joke, by the way. In case you were wondering.)

Monday evening, I popped along to the Southern Vets League in Wimbledon which did much to restore my faith in human nature. Not that it needed restoring. Lots of people of a certain age (a veteran in athletics is someone who is 35 and over) having what looked like a lot of fun.

We do this sort of thing so well in the UK and it never ceases to amaze me how many people want to keep competing right up until their 80s. It’s inspiring.

And then there’s all the people who volunteer to make these events work. It’s always the same people too. The people I saw officiating on Monday, will be the same ones I see tomorrow. Amazing really.

Tuesday, was a warm and sunny Cottage session, with Battersea Park just as busy as ever, particularly now the track is shut for resurfacing.

Then it was back to an even warmer Battersea Park for the Top Flight 5k on Wednesday evening. 2:06 marathon runner Jack Rowe won the men’s race with Olympian Alex Bell winning the women’s.

Conditions weren’t great. Almost everyone I spoke to complained about having a dry mouth caused by the dust, the pollen and the heat but it was a well supported event and great to see so many people down there, both running and supporting.

I have to confess that I have been struggling to keep up with the athletics from the Commonwealth Games, but even looking at the results is fascinating.

Really sorry to see Max Burgin didn’t make the final of the men’s 800m. I noticed he said on social media he didn’t feel great. Georgia Hunter Bell looks like she should be favourite for the women’s 800m. Tomorrow night (Saturday 1 August 2026) should be a really good one in the stadium with Josh Kerr going in the mile. He looked good in his heat, but it won’t be easy. And pleased to see Megan Keith pick up a bronze medal in the women’s 5000m.

There’s a whole post on how the Australians manage their periodisation given they seem to have come into these Games with really good form, when basically it’s winter for them. I will have to look into that a little bit more but their system, whatever it is, seems to be working.

Finally it was good to see “Friend of Cottage” (it’s an official designation) Ollie Lockley running for the Isle of Man in the 10,000m too. He paced Andy Fyfe and George Grassly with Max Milarvie at the London Marathon which means that Andy and George are forever in his debt.

Odds and Ends

• In the Danny Mackey interview I linked to last week, he talked about helping Brandon Miller improve his kick and explained they did “neuromuscular drills” to work on turnover. Essentially, Brandon would do a “mile repeat”, then do the drills, then do a much shorter, faster interval. Makes absolute sense to me, and I am still thinking about that.

• The British team was announced for the European Athletics championships which start a week on Monday (10 August 2026) in Birmingham. Hopefully they will be easier to follow than the Commonwealth Games have been.

• I was really pleased to see Tom Keen (who has made the final of the men’s mile at the Commonwealth Games) giving Phil a shout after his heat at the Commonwealth Games. Phil started the Cottage group and although he now spends more time in Cambridge than he does in London, he is very close to our hearts.

• I said I hadn’t listened to the Rich Roll chat with Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Chavez but I have now. It’s really very good. Maybe I am biased because Malcolm Gladwell is my generation, but I appreciate the thoughtful (if not intellectual) approach he has to the sport. Well worth listening to.

• Lydia Thomson’s Substack popped into my inbox this afternoon and I thought it was really good, and echoed some of what I was trying to say about the stresses of running which are different for everyone.

• Athlos comes to London on 18 September 2026. At the Saracens stadium in north London.

• Lots going on this weekend. In London it’s the 5000m Festival at Hercules Wimbledon (where I will be) and there’s an IFAM meeting in Belgium. Where lots of British athletes will be. Which reminds me that I could either be racing or volunteering at the Vets League at Herne Hill Velodrome. You see the problem? I can get stressed too because I can’t be everywhere at once. And my rule is that young people’s racing matters more than old people’s. As much as I like Vets Leagues of all descriptions.

• The title of this post comes from something I read this week in the latest Ian McEwan novel, What We Can Know. It made me think about and appreciate just how pleasant this summer weather has been in London, particularly as the evenings go on, and the light and the air appear to soften. Or maybe they do actually soften. Who knows? Either way, it will be gone too soon so make the most of it.

Thanks for the support as always. Have a good weekend whatever you are up to and I will be back next week.

London Diamond League

What a great event. A bit like parties. The lower your expectations, the better the experience. 60,000 people, nice weather, and a brilliant show put on by some of the best athletes in the world.

Of course, Josh Kerr’s mile world record was extraordinary. Not just for the way he ran it, but for the atmosphere it generated in the stadium. I am not sure I have ever felt anything like it.

There is something too, in level of expectation he created in the run up to the race. I think that made a huge difference. Although I am sure there were plenty in the stadium who had no idea what he was planning to do.

A great race too, and astonishing results for all the British athletes given the opportunity. Getting into a race like that is one thing. Being able to perform on the day is quite another.

I was pleased to see Keely win the women’s 800m, although Femke looked like she was jogging.

A bit of a pity for Armand to bow out injured, but there were brilliant women’s discus, high jumping and long jumping competions. The track events were great and I thought Sarah Healy ran really well in the women’s 3000m to finish 3rd in a pb of 8:25.

Athletics is definitely having a bit of a moment and Saturday was a pretty good reflection of where we are in the summer of 2026.

There are loads of little things I could criticise about the event (not least the scheduling which left the 800m women on the track for far too long) but, as I have said, it really exceeded expectations and that has got to be a win.

Even if it is potentially the last Diamond League event to be held there.

The Tour de France

As I write this, the Tour is about to head up Alpe d’Huez, one of the hardest climbs of the race.

This was the stage used for last Sunday’s L’Etape (the “sportif” that is open to amateurs). Good riders I know took 7 hours to do it. The pros today will be a little bit quicker.

I was amused to see a quick interview this week with Luke Plapp who was commenting on how fast each stage was.

He said that on the 184k stage, he looked down at his bike computer and noticed that in 90 minutes he had ridden 100km. It’s not quite Josh Kerr level, but it’s pretty astonishing particularly given I think 3 hours for 100km is a decent effort.

The chat this morning was that UAE team have a virus in the team and the hope (for them) is that it doesn’t spread to Pog.

Which it doesn’t seem to have done, because he has just won the stage in 3 hours 17 minutes.

Poor Fred Wright crashed and hurt his hand the day before yesterday and he’s going to find it difficult to ride but he will make it to Paris.

It really is a war of attrition.

Tomorrow (Saturday 25 July 2026) is another very hard stage before the sprint stage in Paris on Sunday.

Then it’s all over for another year.

The Dave Clarke Mile Extravaganza

Hats off to Ben Noad for putting on yet another excellent evening of racing at Wimbledon on Wednesday evening.

Jack Kavanagh and Charlie Brisley both broke 4 minutes for the mile, and Cottage man, Andrew Penney ran really well for third in the A race, running a pb of 4:01.

It wasn’t happening for Dom Nolan, but he gave it a go. A reminder that it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to and there are fine margins when you are racing this fast. Go a little too fast on the first lap, and the last one becomes exponentially hard.

Of the other men, Michael Cameron (4:17) and Charlie Easthaugh (4:23) both looked to be getting their racing legs back. Racing is the best form of training.

Nice to see Chloe Baker (4:59) and Juliet Hodder (4: 54) racing too.

Lots of coaching chat, some of which happened away from Mark’s camera. Because we all worry we will get recorded talking rubbish.

I know you can’t imagine I’d ever talk rubbish.

Plus we had quite the coaches gathering at the end with Geoff Jerwood and Keith Newton (both of Herne Hill Harriers), Tim Eglen (of AFD), Mark Hookway (Tonbridge AC), and Matt Seddon, who had been commentating and is the coach at Oxford University all chewing over various things. You’d have thought someone would have taken a photograph of such an august gathering.

There’s a few years experience of the sport in that group and that includes Matt who is positively boyish compared to the rest of us.

Results are here (including Clare Elms’ world records for over 60s women in both the 1500m and the mile).

The Week in Podcast Land

• Sunday Plodcast - this is the above mentioned Matt Seddon and his mate Ollie Lum and in this week’s episode they have a good interview with Tim Brennan (who I ran against 1000 years ago) about the future of the British Milers Club. Tim is currently the co-chairman.

• Danny Mackey - Jonathan Gault of Let’s Run does a really good interview of Danny - who for those who don’t know is Josh Kerr’s coach as well as the coach of Brandon Miller who won the 800m on Saturday. Really, very, very good. For all sorts of reasons. If there any coaches reading this, it’s definitely worth listening to. And athletes too. I think we operate the same way at Cottage (“keep it light”). We just don’t quite as fast. Not yet, anyway. Go to 1 hour, 13 minutes, 35 seconds, if you want to go straight there. And thanks to Mark Hookway, who recommended it to me.

• Andrew Huberman with Dr Tommy Wood (who is British). Tommy explains the meaning of “clutch” which I has always assumed was an Americanism, although it’s clearly significant in the sports psychology literature.

  “The term “clutch” is colloquially used to describe important or crucial situations in sport, with clutch performance referring to successful performances during these pressurised circumstances”.

  Interestingly, Andrew Huberman had never heard of it and Tommy distinguished it from “flow” states. It’s an interesting chat all round with lots of performance points in there.

  It occurred to me that there was little about Josh Kerr’s performance that was “flow”. It might have looked smooth, but he worked really, really hard for that.

• Rich Roll talks to Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Chavez about how we are “selling running all wrong”. I haven’t listened to it yet, but I will - but I thought I would mention it. In case you were interested.

Frinters

I put this on my Strava most Friday mornings and it stands for “Friday Intermediate training”. Which is a session that takes place at Herne Hill Velodrome.

It’s a coached session, and this summer it seems to have got very hard. There are no age restrictions and you often get people who are racing regularly and racing, as you all know, makes you so much faster than someone who “just” trains.

I keep thinking that it’s age, and that may be part of it, but some of these guys ride very fast. Type 2 fun.

Sadly, there was a big crash in a keirin race last Sunday and two of the guys who regularly attend the session are still in King’s College Hospital, one with a split aorta (which I gather is pretty serious) and both have several broken ribs. It’s hard to get your head around the sort of track cycling we do when this sort of thing happens.

Anyway, today, Carl Ison was there. I love Carl. He is always cheerful, keen to race and quick to complain about my 50k “easy rides”. He has a point.

He’s also creative and this morning he “accosted” me as I was leaving with a very cool little camera and took my photograph, as he did everyone else who had completed the session. I really like the format. Not the picture of me, though, because who likes pictures of themselves?

Odds and Ends

• The Commonwealth Games have started. The cycling and the athletics both get going on Thursday next week. I tend to think it’s a dated concept, but I am open to persuasion. Hard to know what the other Commonwealth countries think. As if a country can “think”. That said, there’s lots to look forward to. And I have just discovered I can watch it on Now TV (who show HBO Max content). And HBO Max have the rights.

• The US track and field championships have also started and they are being held in New York for a change. Lots of other countries have their national athletics championships this weekend too.

• It’s the South London Grand Prix at Herne Hill Velodrome today and tomorrow. Elite cyclists from around the world rocking up in a perfectly formed corner of south London. My understanding is that the team at the velodrome has worked really hard to put these fields together and it looks like being a really good event. I will hopefully get there at some point.

• There’s triathlon on in London this weekend too. I mean, there’s always something on in London isn’t there? Charlie Sandison of the Cottage group is racing the T100 on Sunday and seems to have sparked some sort of competition with running influencer Hugo Fry. The pros race in the World Triathlon Championship Series races which take place tomorrow (Saturday 25 July 2026). Which the BBC will be showing in the UK. Free to air. The women’s race is at 14:30 and the men’s at 16:15. That’s the power of Alex Yee for you.

• Topflight 5k in Battersea Park next Wednesday (29th July 2026). This is the rearranged race which was postponed during one of the several “heatwaves”. Funny how we have all adapted. Chatting to Jack Rowe (one of the UK’s top marathon racers), I gather he is racing, so it should be a quick race.

• I am pleased to see that the Crystal Palace Sports Centre is going to get a much needed £130 million revamp. I think I first raced there 50 years ago and it’s been sad to watch it deteriorate over the years.

• Finally, Substack have introduced Pangram which tests how much AI generated text there is in a post. I just did a check, for fun, and you will be pleased to hear that this is ‘fully human-written”. Makes me smile anyway.

  Thanks for all the support as always. There’s a lot going on at the moment and I have to whittle down the list of things I want to write about every week. Not that successfully, I might add! I hope you all have a great sporting weekend whatever you are doing and wherever you are.

  Thanks for reading Mark’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

It’s the first anniversary of this Substack today so thanks for all the support over the last year.

Thanks too, to Jack Millar for his great piece on life in Australia last week. That seems to have gone down really well and it helped me out massively too.

It’s not actually that easy to put something out week in, week out and I am pleased I have kept it going. I had a few hiccups around Christmas, but other than that, I have managed to get something out every week.

It’s not unlike training, I suppose. You build consistency and then you just keep doing it. You don’t have to ask yourself “do I feel like it today"?” Because we all know that if we were to ask ourselves that, we’d never get out of the door.

I haven’t done the greatest job of promoting it but I am aware that a few of you have done some of that for me. I am grateful. It’s not necessarily about having lots of people subscribing or commenting, but it’s really, really nice when people do.

Looking back at the inaugural addition, I note that it was posted the day before the London Diamond League, as this one is. So let’s start there.

London Diamond League

The Cottage group gave me two tickets to tomorrow’s event as part of my Christmas gift which was both generous and appreciated. So I will definitely be going.

I am wondering if I will see my second world record of the year, if not a third or fourth? The first, being the London marathon, of course.

Josh Kerr has made no secret of his desire to break the world mile record and that looks like a great race. Yared Nuguse will be a threat but it’s a race and I suspect they both need each other to break the record.

Josh has been putting out some great videos promoting what he has called Project 222 and he is posting the last one tonight. This is the final lap of his 1200m time trial. Which I suspect went well, given how he looked at 800m.

The world record is a big ask, but you never know. Either way, he has given us all something to really look forward to.

And do you think he should shave his beard, for the milliseconds? We will see.

The men’s 800m could be very, very fast with both Emanuel Wanyonyi and Max Burgin in there. Has Arop withdrawn? I thought he was racing.

Then there’s the women’s 800m where Keely Hodgkinson faces Femke Broeders-Bol and Phoebe Gill. I was going to say it’s not billed as a world record attempt but I have just checked the BBC website and they are saying it is. Either way, it’s going to be quick.

Sadly, Georgia Hunter-Bell and Jake Wightman have both withdrawn from their respective 800m races. In Georgia’s case because. of illness and Jake’s case because of a niggle.

There’s plenty of interest in other events too with what looks like a very good national 800m men’s race at 1:15pm. Credit to the organisers for putting that together.

And there’s plenty of British interest in every event, as you’d expect with a “home” Diamond League.

For those not going, it’s on BBC One and iPlayer from 1pm. Definitely worth watching.

The Week that Was

It’s been a busy one. Watford Diamond League last Saturday, a huge group for Tuesday’s Cottage session (which included a visit from a journalist) and a chat to Phil Wright about how Fred was getting on at the Tour. He’s enjoying it apparently. Indeed, Fred was actually in yesterday’s sprint which meant he missed the crash, and there’s a great picture (below) of him here bossing it at the front of the world’s biggest cycle race. Impressive for a lad from south London, who learnt his craft at Herne Hill Velodrome.

David Smyth, who is doing a piece for Men’s Health magazine on running groups, was the journalist who came down.

David was lovely and charming and a pleasure to have around (and thanks for subscribing to my Substack:-)). And he chose a good night to see how the group works.

Oddly, for mid-July we had about 30 men on the road. With about 12 men on the track. And there were 10 women on the road, with 6 on the track.

When I say the “road” I mean in the park itself. Normally this is a staple in the winter months, but I sense that things are starting to change a little. I suspect we have a few more committed road racers than track racers these days but we still love the track. Great to see Dom Nolan, Andrew Penney and Angus McMillan (and a load of others) keeping the track flame alive.

I wasn’t able to make it to Watford for various reasons but I was really pleased to see so many of the Cottage lads running well.

Josh Lay had his first race for years (3:42), Andrew Penney broke 8 minutes again for 3000m, Angus McMillan ran 3:48 for 1500m, Harry Cox won his 1500m race in 3:48, and Elliot Moran ran another 3:45.

One other person I was pleased to see do well was Matt Stonier who is on the comeback trial after a long period out with injury.

I think I wrote about leading him out up Box Hill on a bike last summer and he was very charming. (I have just checked and I don’t think I did write about it, but it happened. You see? I don’t write about everything that happens!).

And you must know me by now. I only need to meet people once to then follow their careers in detail.

Anyway, Jack Kavanagh left the door open for Matt, who walked right through to win that 1500m race in 3:41 which must really give him confidence.

The Arlo Ludewick Story

I actually haven’t met Arlo notwithstanding he is a member of Herne Hill Harriers, which is a club I know relatively well. But he’s had a fantastic season and it is one of those great stories that give everyone some hope that they, too, could have a breakthrough year.

He won the 1500m at the British Championships and then on Sunday he went to Kortrijk in Belgium and ran 3:33.07 which is inside the qualifying time for the European Championships. So one would expect him to be selected to run for Great Britain, which would be a first for him.

He’s also been invited to run the mile at tomorrow’s Diamond League which I imagine will be an incredible experience for him and I hope he runs well.

I listened to Matt Seddon on the Sunday Plodcast who described it as a “Cinderella” story.

Matt also mentioned the selection policy doesn’t guarantee a place on the team for someone who runs the time after winning the national champs, but the lawyer in me would like to think that that is legal language for keeping your options open in a worst case scenario. We will see, but I would be very disappointed if he doesn’t get selected.

Phil Cavell

I was saddened to find out this week that Phil, the author of The Midlife Cyclist, and one of the partners in Cyclefit, got so badly injured after coming off his bike recently he’s had to give up work. Which shocks me. He has a Substack post about what happened.

For those who don’t know me, I ride a lot and I am very aware that it is dangerous. I am also the same age as Phil.

Last year I got knocked off and broke my arm. More recently, an angry motorist assaulted me. But you carry on because you like doing it.

Maybe I am feeling slightly pessimistic about this riding lark, but I see Phil’s story as a bit of a warning. Because shit happens, however good you think you are. Or however long you have been doing it.

I don’t know him terribly well although I have chatted to him, bought a bike from Cyclefit and think really highly of everyone there.

I also note his new book is called The Cycling Addiction. I mean, really? Is this cycling “addiction” a thing? I would have no idea what he is talking about.

Keir Starmer

This is Keir’s last weekend as Prime Minister of this country. I know he isn’t terribly popular but he’s a bloke in his early 60s, much as I am, trying to do his best. Even if it isn’t good enough.

I think it’s sad, for various reasons, but mostly because he must be acutely aware that he has failed as a politician and none of us likes that feeling. A successful lawyer, certainly, but the skillsets are very, very different.

I don’t think I have ever told the story on here, but I knew Keir at university. We both did law at Leeds in the early 80s and in my final year (after I had been battered into submission by Bill Taylor and Geoff Turnbull and their ridiculous 100 mile weeks) I abandoned running and played football for the Law Society team. With Keir. He was quite good. Not brilliant, but then it wasn’t a serious university side. It was just a bunch of blokes knocking the ball about. I always got on well with him. He was interested in music and sport, which at the time, were my two main interests, although I suspect he worked a little harder than I did. And was clearly more ambitious.

I last spoke to him when I bumped into him in a court 25 odd years ago, so I don’t consider him to be a friend as such, but I have always followed his career.

We have a mutual friend to whom I sent an email in May 2015 asking him what he thought the odds were of Keir becoming Prime Minister. He replied then relatively positively, and replied again in 2024 when it actually happened. Having remembered our exchange. A lot of things need to go right to get the job, although it seems a lot easier these days given the turnover.

He doesn’t appear to be the same person I used to know, but maybe that is a professional facade. I like how he still loves football though, and reportedly still plays.

I suspect he will be the only Prime Minister I actually know and I am disappointed for him that he didn’t get to go to New York for the World Cup Final. That would have been a great farewell.

Odds and Ends

• Football - yes, disappointing. I could write a lot about it, but everything has already been said, many times over. 2030 it is, then.

• Jessica Schiffer’s Three Weeks at Wimbledon - I am not quite sure what it was about this piece that I liked. It seems to cover a lot of ground. Sport, and covering it. London and how we manage (or don’t manage in the heat), the current emphasis on sport and fashion, and more tellingly, for me at least, how badly this lady appears to have been treated by the All England Club. Who knows if it happened as she described, but it has the ring of truth about it. Not too sure, either, if I should see this as “aspirational” for a Substack writer. She seems to be doing very well.

• Tom McNabb, who was a famous coach when I was growing up, has died. I don’t imagine the younger readers of this Substack will have heard of him. Although I may be wrong.

• I have mentioned Mark Kowalski before. He did the TCR with me three years ago. Did very well, in fact. Seems like he broke a world record and there’s a piece in Cycling Weekly about him. Now a Green councillor in Lewisham too.

• London 10k - I didn’t get to this, and it seemed like an odd race to have in the middle of July. Seyfu Jamaal is clearly going well and won the men’s race and Lucy Jenks won the women’s race. It seemed to have lots of running influencers involved.

• Battersea track closes on Monday 20 July 2026 for resurfacing. Which will have an impact for the rest of the summer.

• It’s the Summercross at Herne Hill Velodrome this evening. Sponsored by Rapha. Might have to think about racing one of these. Only two more rounds to go.

• Finsbury Park 5000s and Portsmouth 5000s this weekend

• Joe Scanes won the European U18 3000m yesterday. Which was a pretty impressive achievement. He won the “B” 5k race at Battersea Park on New Year’s Eve, when I was the lead bike. Clearly very talented, and good to see him win a major championship.

• Dave Clark Mile Extravaganza at Wimbledon on Wednesday 22 July 2026. Do you think Ben Noad got a little carried away naming the event? No start lists yet.

• And it’s that time of year when the Transcontinental Race starts. In Norway this year. And the official start is on Sunday at 8pm. Because you ride through the night. It’s a mad race and I can’t quite believe I thought I could do it. At least I lived to fight another day.

• That’s it for this week. As I said at the beginning, thanks for the support, have a great weekend and I will see you next week.

By way of introduction: I’m Jack (above, left), a Cottage regular since the pandemic. At least I was until May, when my partner, Liv, and I made the move to swap London for Sydney for a year.

So, a couple of months in, how does the running scene compare?

Centennial Park: Sydney’s Battersea Park?

If you want the closest thing Sydney has to an equivalent of Battersea Park, it’s Centennial Park. It’s become the obvious answer to “where do I go for a ‘workout’” here.

But Centennial’s importance to Sydney runners is even greater than Battersea’s to Londoners. Centennial’s trails and hills also make it a default option for easy and long runs. And it is the go-to inner city cycling loop too. Battersea, Richmond, and Regents parks all rolled into one, then?

Training: Run Crew, and some experimentation

On the training side, I’ve been running with Run Crew, which is a group based - you guessed it - at Centennial park. The group ranges in ability and includes athletes who will compete at the upcoming Commonwealth Games, a 2:11 marathoner, as well as more recreational runners, and several juniors too. The group is coached by Ben St Lawrence and Gary Howard. Ben is a double Olympian and former Australian record holder over the 10,000m, while Gary was still running sub 2 for 800m well into his fourties. So they both know their stuff, and the group has been a great way into the local running scene.

The sessions themselves aren’t wildly different in structure to what I was doing in London, but one adjustment I have had to get used to is that morning sessions here start early. I’m not sure I’d ever met at 6:30 to warm up for a Saturday session in London. But I can definitely get used to a trip to the beach to recover afterwards. Oh, and the frequency of well kept public toilets and water fountains has been a pleasant surprise!

On my own training, I’ve been using the move as a bit of an excuse to experiment - playing around with session structure, including some double session days. There has been more and more interest in double threshold and the Norwegian method in the past few years - and I have seen many trying out the “staple” double threshold sessions that the Ingebrigtsens use.

I have been reading Marius Bakken’s book on the topic, which Mark mentioned recently. I was pleased to find a more nuanced approach, that relies on a set of guiding principles while providing scope for variability. As with any training approach, it is best tailored to the individual, rather than blindly copying a boiler plate template. The fundamental ideas of accumulating volume at threshold intensity and carefully managing muscle condition (or ‘tone’) aren’t new to me. But I am still working out what works best and different philosophies are always interesting.

Racing: a long-distance pursuit

You don’t need me to tell you that Australia is a really big country. At the same time, the population is smaller, and the numbers follow that there is generally reduced depth. Taking the marathon as an example, in 2025 104 Australian men ran under 2:30 and 63 Aussie women ran under 2:50. Meanwhile, 327 British men and 117 British women broke those same marks. All this means that it quite common to fly a couple of hours for a race.

I picked out some of the top events and made the trips to Tasmania for the Launceston 10k and the Gold Coast for the Half Marathon, both of which were high quality events with very competitive fields. They also proved good excuses to exploring new parts of Australia, and running in new places has offered impressive scenery.

Gold Coast especially pulls people in from everywhere - the marathon, half, 10k and 5k all run as one big weekend, and runners from across the country (and further afield - Japan in particular) make the pilgrimage. It has a similar feel to the trip to Valencia, which is becoming more and more popular amongst UK runners. This year, the men’s marathon was won by Haftu Strintos in 2:06:20 - a new Australian record.

So far, I’ve come close to my PBs, running 29:43 for 9th at Launceston 10k and 65:45 for 42nd at Gold Coast half. Something to build from.

Cross country, but not how we know it

Those who know me will know that I love cross country. I didn’t think that it would be much of a thing here, but I found that many of the group were heading down to the State Championship a few hours South of Sydney, so I thought I’d get involved.

This is not British cross country though. The purpose built cross country course was dry and mown short like a golf fairway, and 6mm spikes were plenty long enough. I was, however, impressed with the hills, which made up for the lack of mud and created a tough challenge. The field was small compared with most UK across races, but good quality up front. I finished fourth, but third amongst those affiliated with New South Wales - so took home a bronze medal.

It’s not all sunshine

It would be dishonest to make this sound like an unbroken run of good weather and scenic running.

Aside from arriving to two weeks of rain (Sydney actually has more rain than London, apparently), leaving London meant leaving friends, family, a job I liked, and a training group that felt like home. There is a kind of quiet that comes with landing somewhere new and figuring out what comes next. Running has helped enormously with that - it’s the fastest way I know to make a new city feel familiar and to meet people - but it hasn’t made the adjustment weightless.

It has taken a little bit of time to get into the rhythm of training again after a busy few months leading up to the trip and the upheaval of moving. But I am getting there.

And it was sobering to witness the aftermath of a near-fatal shark attack at Coogee Beach, while I was putting my feet up after an early Saturday session - not something I’d quite bargained for as part of settling in.

Against all that, I’ve genuinely enjoyed following the UK scene - and Cottage in particular - from afar. It’s easier to follow than it used to be, not least thanks to the rise of the Cottage influencer, so even from the other side of the world it hasn’t felt like being entirely cut off. And there have been some great performances from the group, both on the track and the road.

It’s a small world

One thing that hasn’t changed is just how small the running world is.

I have seen many of the same faces at each of the races so far, and it doesn’t take long to form a (friendly) rivalry or two.

I have bumped into fellow Brits and ex-Londoners at races I had no reason to expect them at, and there’s a decent overlap with the Cottage crowd specifically - some of whom have helped to show me the ropes around Sydney, while others have sent recommendations and even cheered for me on the sidelines. I have been looked after well!

So, what next?

More of the same, I hope! I love to race, and have picked out several over the next couple of months. This starts with the state “short” (7.5km) cross country champs tomorrow, and ends with the Sydney marathon in late August, which will be its second running as a World Marathon Major. And there are a handful of others in between. Do follow along on Strava if you are so inclined.

Thanks for having me, Mark. Normal service resumes next week!

It might also act as a bit of an aide - memoire because it’s just hard to keep up.

• Cycling doing some interesting things before the start of the prologue in Barcelona. Netcompany Ineos keeping their arms in cold water before the start to lower body temperature.

  

• I thought the format in the prologue worked really well. The while team working for one rider, who went for the fastest time. A hard event, and an impressive - and, should I say, unexpected win for Visma-LAB.

• Keely doesn’t appear to be having much luck at the moment. A fall before heading out the States for the Pre Classic and what for her was an underwhelming performance in the 800m where she was beaten by World Champion Lilian Odira (1:56.19). It will be interesting to see if she manages to get this season back on track. I don’t doubt she is incredibly fit but it was be a test of her mental strength to turn things around. London Diamond League in 10 days time as well. That will be a good test. Nikki Hiltz looked really impressive in the women’s mile and beat Faith Kipyegon. Does anyone know what happened to Georgia Hunter Bell? Nice to see Sarah Healy running well.

• Wimbledon has been great this year. I suspect it is most years, but I also really like some of the chat. Annabel Croft (who I once saw jogging around Richmond Park) interviewed Novak Djokovic and asked him if he ever got distracted. He looked incredulous. “You played” he insisted. “Then you will know we get distracted all the time. The one who manages that distraction is the one who wins”.

• There was a moment at the end of Grigor Dmitrov’s game against Berrettini with when he mouthed “food” to his box of supporters. It was 10pm. He had just finished a 4 set match and he needed to recover. His box looked bemused. The whole recovery thing for both tennis and the Tour is fascinating. At least the cyclists don’t have to deal with 11pm finishes, which can’t be easy. Yes, I know, it is worse in New York, but getting home at 2am can’t be that good for you.

• Inrng reported that UAE managed to cock up their booking for Magny-Cours so didn’t get a team time trial session in. Aside from that being a weird oversight for what is supposed to be a highly professional team, I wonder if it made that much difference?

• Football now. And I was going to comment on England’s chances at altitude on Friday but I don’t actually know what they were doing in terms of preparation. Either way, it seems as if we shouldn’t have been worried. Astonishing that what look like the best game England have played in the last 50 years happened in the middle of the night. Fortunately I was woken by the roar from a local gathering at 2:38 am and got up in time to see the first goal replayed. Then I saw the second, and the third. Excellent result and being under pressure suited the English team as much as it suits many people. Less time to think. More to come on Saturday.

• Before the weekend, the fastest men’s 5000 time on the track in the UK this year was 13:27:00 run by David Mullarky in winning the British champs. Then on Saturday, Jacob Deacon, rocked up at the Pursuit 5000m in Stirling (Scotland) and ran 13:26:93 which becomes the fastest men’s 5000m in the UK this year. Looks like a great race, and I wonder whether we have enough 5000m races of this quality in the UK? First three were all under 13:30.

• I feel slightly embarrassed I didn’t even know it was the England Athletics Championships at the weekend. Nor did many other people by the looks of things. In my defence, we had about 6 different sessions happening on Saturday, so it’s not as if we were idle.

• I mentioned Iga Swiatek on Friday, who then got promptly knocked out. No sign of any of the Wimbledon Range Rovers since.

• If anyone sees a good explanation of how the LTA funding system works in Britain, I’d be very interested to read it. Seems to me, as an outsider, that a lot of money goes into the sport particularly from Wimbledon. And maybe the results aren’t there. I don’t know and I wouldn’t want to criticise because achieving success at world level is hard.

• There were the Mile End Miles on Saturday too. And it is the Tracksmith Twilight 5000m races at the London Community track tomorrow (Thursday).

• Lots of photos of Tom Pidcock in an ice vest before yesterday’s Tour stage. Looks like the next week or so is going to be incredibly hot. Average temperature on Tuesday’s stage, where they let the break go and the GC now looks really different, was 37 degrees.

  

• Monaco Diamond League on Friday this week too (10 July 2026). Alex Yee in the 5000m and Ben Pattison and Jake Wightman in the 1000m.

• Another busy night at Cottage last night. Both on the track and the road. Lots of people training for lots of different things. Still a long way to go with the track season and the heat seemed to make no difference to performance.

That’s it for now. I won’t make this a regular thing and I have something slightly different lined up for the end of this week but I hope you are all enjoying your sport!

Families and sport

On Sunday evening I found myself watching both the final km’s of the men’s British road cycling championships and the Diamond League athletics in Paris at the same time.

This summer of sport is the gift that keeps on giving.

Watching the cycling was interesting, because I really wanted Fred (Wright) to win. Partly because he is local but also because I would have been devastated for his mum and dad who I knew who had gone up to watch.

I have got to know Phil Wright (Fred’s dad) pretty well over the last few years as a fellow rider (and over 60s racer) at the Herne Hill Velodrome.

I know he can handle the ups and downs of supporting his children, but there’s a certain sort of discomfort that comes from watching your children perform at any level. Let alone the highest level.

You could see it on the face of Maya Joint’s mother in the match against Serena Williams which Maya went onto win earlier this week. It looked painful.

And I know Katie Snowden’s parents too. Katie being an international middle distance runner who has competed in the Olympics and at world level for the best par of decade and has just been selected for England team for this summer’s Commonwealth Games.

They have supported Katie much as Phil and Becca have supported Fred, but they do get put through the proverbial ringer. Katie was 10th in the Diamond League 1500m in a season’s best of 4:00.91, although I don’t doubt she wanted more. Like sub 4 minutes.

The other thought is that there are often siblings, and as supportive as they can be, they don’t always love the sport in the same way. Or care that much. Which can create pressures in any family.

Someone told me something the other day about the brother and sister of a world class athlete (who will remain nameless) who struggled with their sibling’s success. I suspect this happens more than we realise, and parents have the challenge of making sure they value the efforts of all their children, whatever they do.

Anyway, I was delighted for Phil and Becca that Fred won the race on Sunday and that he will be wearing the national champion’s jersey both throughout the Tour de France and the rest of this year.

The Women’s Cottage Group

A few months ago, my daughter (there’s a family theme this week) made the very good point that if you looked at the Cottage Instagram account, you wouldn’t think there were any women in the group. ”

Social media is not really my forte, and whilst individuals in the group are making the most of Instagram, I am not sure we, as a group, are. Which is something we are working on.

The thing is, that last week, we had 19 women on the track. Someone got one of the lads to take a photo of them all, and it made me proud to see so many of them all training together. It’s taken years to build up to this and I have been helped by Maddy and Katherine over the years too but it’s a bloody impressive group and we were even missing a few too.

London Marathon Double Day 2027

I have to confess that I don’t feel too bothered about this. Maybe I should be, but it’s still not clear precisely how it will work.

It would be good for the elite women to run with some of the faster mass start men, in my opinion. But London prides itself on the elite women having their own race.

Yes, it’s probaly about money, but running is having its moment, so who can blame the organisers?

Who knows how long it will last? I don’t think the atmosphere will be that much different, and I write as someone who does his best to avoid the crowds (except for Cottage Corner of course) but let’s see.

On balance, the more people who get to do the race, the better. And expect to see some of the other major marathons doing the same thing.

Paris Diamond League

I thought this was a great event. Astonishingly high levels of performance, particularly given that it was warm. The women’s 800m is looking to be one of the events of the summer and there’s still a long way to go.

Prefontaine Classic

The Eugene leg of the Diamond League this weekend. It starts this evening and goes on tomorrow. Keely Hodgkinson is racing in the women’s 800m with Georgia Hunter Bell, Laura Muir and Sarah Healy in the women’s mile.

Tour de France 2026

It starts tomorrow with a Team Time Trial in Barcelona. Can’t wait. I know I have mentioned him before but Inrng is always good on the Tour and I need to check what fellow track rider Nick Christian is doing for the next three weeks.

Odds and ends

• There seems to be a bit of a lull in the domestic track season, before things really get going again next weekend at the BMC Grand Prix in Watford. In the meantime, it’s the Pursuit 5000m in Stirling, Scotland tomorrow (Saturday 4 July 2026). Looks like a really good event. Tom Graham Marr, who comes from Stirling, is I think the only Cottage representative. Put on by Stride Athletics who appear to be doing great work north of the border.

• I am half way through Marius Bakken’s The Norwegian Method Applied which isn’t a difficult read. I will save a full review for now, but I was thinking about “muscle tension” as I rode over to the track this morning. Can I add that I am also trying to finish Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter although I don’t think that is going to have any impact on the way in which I coach.

• There was a bit of excitement as I left my building this morning, because Jamie, who is the building’s maintenance man, was watching out for the Wimbledon Tennis branded Range Rover which was circling. I live about a mile from the grounds and have seen this car a few times this week. The poor driver got lost apparently but it looks as if Iga Swiatek is staying in my building. She in the third round tomorrow so I will report back if I see her. Maybe Freddie Hessian needs to do one of his runs around here.

• A couple of the lads from the Cottage group are riding the Maratona ( a very well known sportif in the Dolomites) on Sunday. Both solid riders so it will be interesting to see how they get on. One, Charlie, is more “social”, than the other, but good luck to Alex Howard too.

• Jack Millar (a reader of this fine Substack and a stalwart of the Cottage group) races the Gold Coast half marathon this weekend as well. Where hopefully, he will get some support from the Cottage diaspora.

• Talking of families, as I was at the start of all this, my daughter has a new single out today which is available on all platforms. Called Brush My Teeth, I would obviously recommend it to you although it has nothing specific about running or cycling to recommend it. Other than we all have to do it. It amuses me to think she probably won’t read this Substack. And I am pushing it with the “probably”. Still, she’s taking her mum and me to see Biffy Clyro tonight so I won’t complain if she doesn’t share my obsessions. Well, not much, anyway.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy whatever sport it is that entertains you, whether watching or supporting.

More to follow next week and I am lining up some guest writers for a bit of a change of voice. Because you can always have too much of a good thing.

The Heatwave and its Impact on Training and Racing

There was a certain amount of frustration when the Top Flight 5k which was due to be held in Battersea Park on Wednesday, was postponed because of the hot weather. (The new date is 29 July 2026 by the way).

To be clear, though, this was going to happen before a mass RunThrough 5k and 10k, which may well have impacted the decision not to go ahead.

But I understand the frustration on the part of the athletes.

All the athletes I know who were planning on doing it are fit. I don’t think there’s any particular danger to their health, but I can see how the heat might have an impact on others. Like the marshalls and time keepers.

What’s odd is that there were inconsistencies this week. The Rosenheim track event at Tooting didn’t go ahead, but the BMC Gold Standard at Watford did. In fact, there were some great 800m races, as you might expect. Warm conditions are ideal for 800m.

I had no hesitation in going ahead with the Cottage session on Tuesday evening although the track session was designed to be a little less demanding than usual.

And the men on the road were prudent given the conditions and called it early.

At the Herne Hill Velodrome, they have allowed the early morning sessions to go ahead but they cancelled the Track League on Wednesday evening.

Clearly, the Met Office’s Red Warning has had an impact on some of these decisions, but if we are going go have more of this sort of weather, it would be good to be clear about what the risks actually are.

As I write this, I see that the Paris police authorities have asked for the Diamond League, due to take place this Sunday, to be cancelled because of the potential strain on emergency services. That makes sense because it is a pretty big event, and protecting the public is key.

Sports seem to have different approaches.

It’s been the Wimbledon Tennis Qualifying Tournament this week and I haven’t seen anything about that being impacted by the heat.

But I did notice the Henley Rowing Regatta has pushed back its qualifying races to this evening because of the heat.

And further afield, the Hamburg half marathon, which was due to take place this weekend, has been cancelled along with Ironman France and the 70.3 Nice. Maybe it’s more to do with not having enough emergency personnel available in countries where they are close to capacity already.

UK Athletics Championships

These were great, for all sorts of reasons. There were far too many highlights for me to list them all but Success Eduan’s win in the women’s 200m over World silver medallist Amy Hunt was a fantastic run.

Arlo Ludewick’s win in the men’s 1500m was a stroke of running genius, going long before anyone thought of it.

Sarah Calvert’s electrifying kick at the end of the women’s 1500m was brilliant, given that on paper she is four seconds slower than Katie Snowden and Laura Muir. That’s why we love racing.

And Georgia Hunter Bell showed that she has got a very quick 800m in her and it’s not just all about Audrey Werro and Keely Hodgkinson. Femke Broders-Bol is also in the mix after her 1:57 on Sunday. I sense there’s a long way to go in the women’s 800m this summer.

I was particularly interested in the men’s 5000m because Dom Nolan from the Cottage group was racing and he benefitted, as did most of the athletes, from Jake Smith’s early pacemaking. He finished in 12th in a pb of 13:42 which is a pretty incredible achievement given he was injured earlier this year and has only managed a handful of track sessions and races. Just goes to show, that you don’t always need them. Worth noting that the first 16 men went under 14 minutes, and there aren’t many domestic 5000m races in the UK where that happens. And a great win from David Mullarkey.

Dom also did a great interview with Activate the Burners (who is a supporter of this Substack) which made me smile. Lots of wisdom from Dom and worth a listen:

Scottish Selection for Andy Fyfe

More good news for the Cottage group this week as Andy has been selected to run for Scotland at the Antrim Half Marathon on 23 August 2026. That’s his third vest, which is a very impressive achievement, even if I say so myself.

I am not sure either or us would have thought that was possible when he joined the group but it’s testament to his commitment, and determination. And his talent of course!

Did I mention we have got George Grassly in the England team for the same event? And we are currently waiting on the Welsh selection.

I might have to venture to the land of my birth for that one.

Podcast Listening for the Week

There seems to be no end of podcasts, which probably means I don’t need to start one.

Chatting is easier than this writing lark, and if you know me, you will know I can chat.

My “problem” with all these podcasts is a bit of a niche one.

Do I have to listen to all the podcasts which feature Cottage members?

And what happens if they say something about me I don’t like (he says with a smile on his face). Because that is never going to happen…..

So this week, in no particular order, I have listened to the following:

• Toadally Running’s chat to new Cottage member Jack Perry Williams - gives a bit of an insight into how the group operates. Normally that sort of thing is top secret but Jack’s a nice guy so I don’t mind;

• The RunThrough podcast with Cottage stalwart Charlie Sandison - with Charlie being as interesting as ever on how he manages to do it all and more;

• The Sweat Elite podcast with Alex Milne fresh from his 4th at Comrades - Alex is phenomenal. Some good info on his hill running (65k!), heat training and carb loading. Plus he makes the very good point that he just loves racing so isn’t interested in 3 month “builds”;

• Peak Performance Unplugged interview with Kev Campbell - nothing to do with Cottage but Kev is in the same Scottish team as Andy for the Antrim Half. Thanks to my Scottish Athletics expert Max Milarvie for the tip;

• The Sunday Plodcast was good this week too. A review of the British champs. Interested to learn that steeplechasing is really popular at schools events. Definitely positive news. I love the ‘chase and the races at the British champs were great, even if you had to put up with Tim Hutchings saying that if he was coaching Elise Thorner (winner of the women’s 3000m steeplechase) he would have her racing a 1500m.

British Road Cycling Championships

These have already started with the time trial events happening yesterday (Thursday) and the crit races this evening (Friday).

On Sunday, the elite women’s race starts at 8:30am and the elite men at 11:30am.

It’s on TNT and for those who don’t subscribe, there’s also a live feed on British Cycling YouTube channel.

I am hoping it’s a good day out for Flora Perkins in the women’s race and Fred Wright in the men’s.

They are great attritional races these national champ races, with as many people as possible hoping they can hang with the professionals. A bit like the athletics, if i think about it.

Worth saying that it was good to see Ethan Hayter winning the Time Trial yesterday. I note he is 27, so it’s precisely 10 years since I bumped into him on a ride and he told me he was about to leave school and move to the British Cycling elite programme in Manchester without bothering with his A levels. That set off a little panic in my very conventional brain, but he was a World Champion within the year and he doesn’t seem to have done too badly since then.

Odds and Ends

• It’s the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event in Zagreb this evening (Friday 26 June 2026). Officially known as the Boris Hanžeković Memorial. There’s a live feed on World Athletics and some British interest, including Phoebe Gill over 800m. It’s 34 degrees in Zagreb, as I write this, and the first event starts in an hour.

• Paris Diamond League - as I mentioned, already in doubt for Sunday. But that is when it is supposed to happen. Scratch that. Seems to be going ahead in an adapted fashion.

• There doesn’t appear to be any doubt that heat training is good for us. There’s a good explanation here so I won’t repeat what they say. But one thing that I think is helping me is the Precision Hydration 1000 Electrolyte tablets which I pop into a pint of tap water both before and after training. I worry about losing sodium and it could be a placebo, but they “seem” to give me a lot more than “just” water. Who knows? I have no commercial link with Precision Hydration by the way. I just seem to like their products. And for context, I have probably done at least 6 hours of riding (some of it quite hard) in 30 degree heat this week. Still able to write this. Just! Oh, and I think I got this idea from David Roche who seemed to be of the view that a pint of water just tasted nicer with one of these effervescent tablets in it, so why wouldn’t you?

• Need to read this. I will have done it by this time next week. If I commit publicly, then I will.

• I am going to leave it there for this week. Obviously lots going on in the sporting calendar to keep us all busy and then there’s the benefit of just getting outside in what is beautiful weather. Look after yourselves though. Don’t forget hydration, keep eating even when you might not feel that hungry and remember that Factor 50 is your friend.

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