ETO Runner, George Taylor, recently took part in Chippenham half. Here are his 3 tips for your next half marathon. Oosh. Love this. Here goes: 1. As a wise man told me, split the race into 4 sections - I go 5k/5k/5k/6.1k. Start slow enough that it feels very comfortable. That you could run at that pace all day. That you’re holding a bit back and need to work hard to not run faster. Then increase for the second 5k, again for the third 5k then ideally maintain (or even push on)

There’s one challenge that’s been simmering in the back of my mind for over 10yrs, cycling from home in Winchcombe to my folks in Norfolk. When you have family in different parts of the country you become familiar with the routes to see them and I often wondered what the non motorway/A road route between them and home are like. I planned the route on OS maps using the snap path feature, plugged in the start and finish and lo and behold a route straight across the country, 1

If you're reading this, it's probably safe to assume you know what a Backyard Ultra is – but in short: runners complete a 4.167 mile loop every hour, on the hour, until only one remains standing. Last man or woman running wins; everyone else, however far they got, is technically a DNF. Backyards come in all shapes and sizes, so I can only really say what it’s like crewing at Barry and John’s Dublin Mountain Backyard Ultra. It is a hardcore race amongst hardcore races, pridi

The analogy goes that once the hay is in the barn you can’t do anything more. Apply that analogy to running and it fits the taper wonderfully. You’ve done your training, you can’t add fitness during a taper, but you can take away from it. But what you can do during the taper to avoid the tantrums, twitchiness, anxiety and general “maranoia” to use a post London phrase, is… Plan. I’ve got a race coming up and I’ve asked ETO members for their pre race organisational tips to kee

This USB, the one in the picture above, holds all of the ETO session plans, coaching info, certification, routes, risk assessments, terms and conditions etc etc etc that I’ve ever created for Embrace The Outdoors Running Club. And last week I lost it. Before I go on, I know the more tech savvy amongst you will be screaming “USB?!!, why aren’t you using THE CLOUD” I tried that (twice) and both times my files became corrupted and unusable. I went back to good old (relatively) f

2025 was a year of firsts for many ETO'ers: marathons, ultras, road 5kms... So for 2026 I wanted to change the focus, to the sub ultra races Gloucestershire (and a little further) have to offer. "But you love ultras?!" I hear you all cry. I do, but there are three reasons sub ultra will be the focus for ETO this year: Training time/life balance Ultras take a lot of time to prepare for and take a long time to run! They can fit into a busy lifestyle but every race you do needn

You’d recognise it when you see it. But unless you’ve experienced it, you might not fully appreciate it. When a runner crosses the line,...

Magnificent Eastnor Castle 7 Race Report: Myself and Honesty representing Embrace The Outdoors running club. I've not done a Race Report...

On reflection, could that 100km debut have gone better? Tapering, the most hateful part of race prep. The lethargy, kit panic, taper flu....