RUNNING ADVICE, SUPPORT AND CHARITY FUNDRAISING

For many runners, caffeine is already part of everyday life. A coffee before work, a cup of tea in the afternoon or an espresso before a weekend run might have nothing to do with sports performance, but caffeine is also one of the best researched performance aids available to endurance athletes.

The best vegetables for runners provide a combination of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and plant compounds that can support training, recovery and overall health. Every runner knows vegetables are good for them, but many of us still don't eat enough. Potatoes often make it onto the plate because they're familiar and filling, yet the colourful vegetables that provide some of the biggest nutritional benefits are often overlooked.

Calcium might not receive as much attention from runners as carbohydrates, protein or iron, but it is an important part of a healthy diet and particularly important for maintaining healthy bones. It also contributes to normal muscle and nerve function, so its role extends well beyond simply keeping your skeleton strong.

For people working in charity fundraising, supporting runners through their training and fundraising can become a familiar part of the job. You encourage them, provide fundraising ideas, check how their training is going and help them towards their target, but experiencing the challenge yourself can give you a very different perspective on what those runners are actually going through.

Taking on a half marathon for charity gives you a brilliant opportunity to raise money for a cause that matters to you. You might have secured a charity entry with a minimum fundraising target to reach, or you may already have your own place and have decided to use your 13.1 miles to support a charity of your choice.

The Loch Ness Marathon is one of the most distinctive marathons in the UK, taking runners through the spectacular Scottish Highlands and along the shores of one of the most famous lochs in the world before finishing in Inverness. This is very different from a major city marathon. There are long stretches of beautiful Highland countryside, relatively few spectators through parts of the course and enough changes in elevation to make pacing important.

The Peachtree Road Race 2027 takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 4 and will once again bring together tens of thousands of runners and walkers for one of the biggest mass participation running events in the world. Starting in Buckhead and finishing beside Piedmont Park, the 10K has become an important part of Independence Day celebrations in Atlanta.

Iron probably does not receive as much attention from runners as carbohydrates, protein or hydration, but it plays an essential role in both your health and your ability to exercise. One of its most important jobs is helping your body produce haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen around the body.

Training for a marathon is a major commitment. For several months you organise your running around long runs, recovery, nutrition and the gradual build towards 26.2 miles. As race day gets closer, it is perfectly understandable that you start thinking more about what could go wrong. Maranoia explained simply is the combination of marathon and paranoia, a term runners use to describe the excessive worrying, second-guessing and heightened awareness of every little problem..

Calf pain is a common problem for runners, affecting everyone from beginners increasing their mileage to experienced runners introducing harder sessions into their training. Your calf muscles play an important role in every stride, helping to control movement at the ankle and generate force as you push away from the ground.

Running watches can now tell you considerably more than how far you have run and how quickly you covered the distance. Look through the data after a run and you may find cadence, stride length, ground contact time, vertical oscillation and vertical ratio alongside the more familiar pace and heart rate information.

Huawei has developed an increasingly sophisticated range of running watches, but the watch itself is only part of the experience. Behind Huawei's wearables sits Huawei Health, the app used to connect your watch, examine your running data, manage training and bring together information about your wider health and activity.

Google Pixel Watch has developed significantly since the first model appeared in 2022. Originally positioned primarily as Google's flagship smartwatch, the range has gradually gained much more sophisticated fitness and running features through the integration of Google's Wear OS platform, Fitbit technology and the wider Google Health ecosystem.

Salomon is one of the biggest names in trail running, with shoes designed for everything from muddy woodland paths to technical mountain terrain and ultramarathons. The French brand has also developed a much broader road running range in recent years, giving runners far more choice than its traditional off road reputation might suggest.

Craft may be a familiar name to runners who know the brand for technical clothing, base layers and cold weather running kit, but its running shoes are still considerably less familiar than those from ASICS, Brooks, HOKA, Nike or New Balance. That is beginning to change. Craft now has a substantial footwear range covering everyday road running, faster training, carbon plated racing, trail running and shoes designed to move between road, gravel and lighter trails.

Looking for a fast autumn marathon in one of Europe's most distinctive cities? The TCS Amsterdam Marathon should certainly be on your list. With a start and finish at the historic Olympic Stadium, a famously flat course and sections through Vondelpark, beneath the Rijksmuseum and alongside the Amstel River, it combines serious racing credentials with an excellent city break.

The Barcelona Marathon has grown into one of Europe's major city marathons, offering runners the opportunity to complete 26.2 miles through the heart of one of Spain's most fascinating cities. Officially known as the Zurich Marató Barcelona, the event has grown rapidly in recent years, with all 32,000 available places for the 2026 race selling out.

True Motion may not yet have the same recognition as Asics, Brooks, New Balance or adidas, but the German running shoe company has developed one of the more unusual approaches to footwear design. Instead of dividing runners into traditional neutral and stability categories, True Motion has built its shoes around a distinctive U-shaped midsole technology designed to influence how forces are applied beneath the foot.

If you have noticed more runners wearing headphones that seem to sit outside their ears rather than inside them, there is a good chance they are using open ear headphones. They are becoming an increasingly popular option for running, particularly for people who want to listen to music, podcasts or audio coaching without completely blocking their ears.

Running shoes are complicated products. A typical pair combines engineered textiles, cushioning foams, rubber, plastics, adhesives and numerous smaller components, often made from materials that are difficult to separate once the shoes reach the end of their useful life.