The beginnings of Wild Running
Increasingly we have come to define ourselves by what we do in our spare time. The quest for going in search of wild places in people’s leisure time, whether running, climbing, kayaking or adventure racing, shows there is a fundamental yearning to reconnect with nature.
Before moving to Devon on the southern edges of Dartmoor National Park about seven years ago, I had mainly lived and worked in large towns and cities: Newcastle, Madrid, Paris, Buenos Aires, Cusco. Living in a foreign country has the potential to be an alienating experience but for me there was always one thing that connected them all on a visceral level.
The first thing I always checked out when arriving, was its proximity to a park or some little strip of green. So long as it wasn’t a golf course or a running track. This became a navigational waymark and a haven.
Having spent much of my formative years at university, hammering around a running track, no amount of nostalgia was going to bring a return to that way of life, with its extrinsic rewards and mind numbing repetition.
It took an 800km walk across Spain, the Camino Santiago, which offered glimpses of changing landscapes with an elemental romantic appeal, for me to finally quit my job as a newspaper journalist. It flashed up the need to do something I loved doing. So five years ago, I set up my own business called Wild Running and was given an Unltd social entrepreneurs award.
The aim was simple: to take unemployed people out running on Dartmoor once a week. We provided the transport and picked people up on route. I knew first hand about the benefits of off road running for boosting resilience and wellbeing, as well as improving your running longevity. I have little cartilage left in my knees (a legacy of my years playing rugby) and find road running a challenge. I did not need to gather any scientific evidence to know about these benefits, as I’d already spent a lifetime acquiring the experience..
Like many people, I’ve endured brief periods of winter blues and occasionally been stuck in jobs that didn’t fit. Running was one way of regaining some autonomy and helped to put things in perspective.
The spirit of community and camaraderie of our group night runs, has cemented many friendships, since we began. The plan was and still is to replicate this in our wild running camps. Both our Beginner’s Fell Camps in the Lake District and Natural Running Camp on Dartmoor, involves sharing communal meals in a lamp lit camping barn, while our Scotland Camps involve sharing a cottage and listening to talks about the local geology and whisky tasting. The chance to run on a guided route over a munro is central but by no means the only part of the experience. This year, I learnt a lot about hygge when a large Danish group signed up for our Scotland trip. They were excellent company. Without the group, we are just loan wolfs bound for extinction.
Unlike most training camps, which frankly seem to me quite dull, ours encourages an outward looking mindset, useful when you are staying in such close proximity! While quite rustic, there are also plenty of creature comforts.
When Wild Running began, hardly anyone was doing this as a business in the south west. Now there are several trail running companies operating here. I’d like to think we were the trailblazers. My company has grown to become something much more inclusive and regular Thursday night attendees are mostly dynamic professionals who want to lose the shackles of their day jobs and home commitments. Many of them are NHS workers new to the area, who want to explore. The end goal is not to chip away at your 10k time but to enjoy the process of running and hopefully to avoid injuries, in as much as this is possible.
We have also had channel swimmers, brickies, GPs, business leaders, mechanics, teachers and even a Duchess.
We also decided to branch out by organising night races, after spotting a niche. Our Wild Night Run Series supports several local charities. We now organise the Something Wild festival and a swim in the River Dart, while also offering NNAS navigation courses for runners. Next year we are working on a Wild Running Wales Camp and hope to co run run-sail and swim-running camps. We also hope to stage our first ultra and plan to work with schools, to provide a running legacy as a fun activity.
Wild Running offers guided tours across the south west and camps in Scotland, Dartmoor, the Lake District and (in 2017) Wales. It mixes trail running, which follows well marked footpaths and bridleways, with fell running, which prefers to go off piste.
Wild Running (it could also have been called playful running or natural running) satisfies our curiosity for landscapes and reminds us of the impermanence of physical and mental discomfort. The aim is to engage in the kind of activities that adult life frowns upon.
The message we give to young athletes at our Wild Running Junior Camps, is to take their time and to enjoy competing in a playful way. Sport should not be a means to an end but an end in itself.
Some of our clients have suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress, or a potentially life threatening condition such as diabetes. We have also had mental health referrals, from enlightened practitioners who recognise that that there is something therapeutic about spending time outdoors. Since running wires your serotonin tap to your musculature, in ways we are just beginning to understand, it has a positive cognitive function. This doesn’t have to involve trekking through isolated wilderness, harsh mountainous terrain or attending boot camps aimed at pushing people to their physical limits in order to reveal something of their inner emotional resources aka Bear Grylls. But it can if you want it to.
In its essence, wild running can addresses the very basic need for humans to inhabit and know their landscape, therefore offering potential benefit to all ages and walks of life.
Three ways to wild your urban run:
-Lose the watch and find another intention, other than running 10k in under 45 mins.
-Think about how to get the most out of your run, instead of just going for a run.
-Find something you can focus on: hill runs on park steps, or slag heaps, slaloming in and out of bollards, a fartlek between lampposts, sprinting along a canal side or a promenade.
- Lift share or take a train to a place where you can notice the landscape, even if it’s the docklands at night, which is bristling with nocturnal energy. If you need to buddy up, do it.
I was once arrested for running around President Moi’s gardens in Nairobi but it was worth it! I was also questioned by security after crossing a barrier at Dinorwig power station in Llanberis. But I always close a gate after legging across a farmer’s field!
NB: Please can you include this: To find out more about Wild Running camps, guided weekends, navigation courses or events please go to www.wildrunning.co.uk or email us at info@wildrunning.co.uk
Increasingly we have come to define ourselves by what we do in our spare time. The quest for going in search of wild places in people’s leisure time, whether running, climbing, kayaking or adventure racing, shows there is a fundamental yearning to reconnect with nature.
Before moving to Devon on the southern edges of Dartmoor National Park about seven years ago, I had mainly lived and worked in large towns and cities: Newcastle, Madrid, Paris, Buenos Aires, Cusco. Living in a foreign country has the potential to be an alienating experience but for me there was always one thing that connected them all on a visceral level.
The first thing I always checked out when arriving, was its proximity to a park or some little strip of green. So long as it wasn’t a golf course or a running track. This became a navigational waymark and a haven.
Having spent much of my formative years at university, hammering around a running track, no amount of nostalgia was going to bring a return to that way of life, with its extrinsic rewards and mind numbing repetition.
It took an 800km walk across Spain, the Camino Santiago, which offered glimpses of changing landscapes with an elemental romantic appeal, for me to finally quit my job as a newspaper journalist. It flashed up the need to do something I loved doing. So five years ago, I set up my own business called Wild Running and was given an Unltd social entrepreneurs award.
The aim was simple: to take unemployed people out running on Dartmoor once a week. We provided the transport and picked people up on route. I knew first hand about the benefits of off road running for boosting resilience and wellbeing, as well as improving your running longevity. I have little cartilage left in my knees (a legacy of my years playing rugby) and find road running a challenge. I did not need to gather any scientific evidence to know about these benefits, as I’d already spent a lifetime acquiring the experience..
Like many people, I’ve endured brief periods of winter blues and occasionally been stuck in jobs that didn’t fit. Running was one way of regaining some autonomy and helped to put things in perspective.
The spirit of community and camaraderie of our group night runs, has cemented many friendships, since we began. The plan was and still is to replicate this in our wild running camps. Both our Beginner’s Fell Camps in the Lake District and Natural Running Camp on Dartmoor, involves sharing communal meals in a lamp lit camping barn, while our Scotland Camps involve sharing a cottage and listening to talks about the local geology and whisky tasting. The chance to run on a guided route over a munro is central but by no means the only part of the experience. This year, I learnt a lot about hygge when a large Danish group signed up for our Scotland trip. They were excellent company. Without the group, we are just loan wolfs bound for extinction.
Unlike most training camps, which frankly seem to me quite dull, ours encourages an outward looking mindset, useful when you are staying in such close proximity! While quite rustic, there are also plenty of creature comforts.
When Wild Running began, hardly anyone was doing this as a business in the south west. Now there are several trail running companies operating here. I’d like to think we were the trailblazers. My company has grown to become something much more inclusive and regular Thursday night attendees are mostly dynamic professionals who want to lose the shackles of their day jobs and home commitments. Many of them are NHS workers new to the area, who want to explore. The end goal is not to chip away at your 10k time but to enjoy the process of running and hopefully to avoid injuries, in as much as this is possible.
We have also had channel swimmers, brickies, GPs, business leaders, mechanics, teachers and even a Duchess.
We also decided to branch out by organising night races, after spotting a niche. Our Wild Night Run Series supports several local charities. We now organise the Something Wild festival and a swim in the River Dart, while also offering NNAS navigation courses for runners. Next year we are working on a Wild Running Wales Camp and hope to co run run-sail and swim-running camps. We also hope to stage our first ultra and plan to work with schools, to provide a running legacy as a fun activity.
Wild Running offers guided tours across the south west and camps in Scotland, Dartmoor, the Lake District and (in 2017) Wales. It mixes trail running, which follows well marked footpaths and bridleways, with fell running, which prefers to go off piste.
Wild Running (it could also have been called playful running or natural running) satisfies our curiosity for landscapes and reminds us of the impermanence of physical and mental discomfort. The aim is to engage in the kind of activities that adult life frowns upon.
The message we give to young athletes at our Wild Running Junior Camps, is to take their time and to enjoy competing in a playful way. Sport should not be a means to an end but an end in itself.
Some of our clients have suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress, or a potentially life threatening condition such as diabetes. We have also had mental health referrals, from enlightened practitioners who recognise that that there is something therapeutic about spending time outdoors. Since running wires your serotonin tap to your musculature, in ways we are just beginning to understand, it has a positive cognitive function. This doesn’t have to involve trekking through isolated wilderness, harsh mountainous terrain or attending boot camps aimed at pushing people to their physical limits in order to reveal something of their inner emotional resources aka Bear Grylls. But it can if you want it to.
In its essence, wild running can addresses the very basic need for humans to inhabit and know their landscape, therefore offering potential benefit to all ages and walks of life.