RUNNING ADVICE, SUPPORT AND CHARITY FUNDRAISING

The Vancouver Sun Run is one of the great mass participation running events in North America. First held in 1985 with just 3,200 participants, it has grown into Canada’s largest 10K road race and an annual celebration of running that takes over the streets of Vancouver each spring.

A modern running shoe might look relatively simple. There is a fabric upper around your foot, a thick layer of cushioning underneath and rubber where the shoe meets the ground. Take one apart, however, and you discover a surprisingly sophisticated piece of engineering made from numerous materials and components.

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.

Vitamin D might not receive as much attention from runners as carbohydrates, protein or electrolytes, but maintaining adequate levels is important for anyone who runs regularly. It plays an important role in bone and muscle health, helps the body absorb calcium and contributes to normal immune function. For runners, this matters because training repeatedly places stress on muscles and bones, making good nutrition an important part of supporting recovery and long term health.

Creatine is one of the most extensively researched sports supplements available, but most runners probably associate it with weight training rather than endurance sport. Its reputation has largely been built around improving strength, power and repeated high-intensity exercise, which might make it seem less relevant if most of your training involves running.

The BOLDERBoulder 10K is one of the biggest and most distinctive road races in the United States. Held every Memorial Day in Boulder, Colorado, the race attracts more than 50,000 runners, joggers and walkers to a course that winds through the city before delivering one of the most memorable finishes in running inside the University of Colorado's Folsom Field.

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.