Last week Strava published its 2024 Year in Sport report, identifying the trends and fitness habits that governed the world’s active landscape over the past 12 months. There are great insights here which seems to fit nicely with the ethos of GVH and made a few of us smile.
- Social running truly boomed in 2024,
- A large portion of those surveyed said that their main reason for joining a running group in the first place was to make social connections.
- Of the Gen Z athletes surveyed, one-fifth said that they had been on a date with someone they met at a group fitness activity.
- Group activities have also been shown to help boost running performance and motivation. Across the board, group activities were longer and garnered more kudos than solo workouts
- The average running pace in 2024 was determined to be 10:15 min/mi (6:22 min/km), which shows that people of all running abilities and experience levels – and not just record-breaking elites – are participating in the sport of running.
The London Christmas Lights Run
And speaking of social running activities , it’s the perfect lead-in to this week’s highlight – The London Christmas Lights Run! On Thursday evening, around 30 of our team hopped on the train to London Bridge for an enchanting 10k ish jaunt, guided by the expert elves at Secret London Runs.
As we jingled through the city, we took in some of London’s most iconic landmarks, all dazzling in their Christmas finery. The streets were alive with holiday spirit, and our merry band of runners couldn’t help but smile as we trotted through the twinkling lights, soaking up the magic of the season!
A huge thank you to Kim Morgan for organising this for us – looking forward to next year already!
Malaga Marathon
Another incredible achievement this weekend came from Priscilla Pathak, who tackled the Malaga Marathon! Unlike the frenzy of the mega city marathons, Malaga offered a laid-back, charming atmosphere that made the experience truly special. With its stunning views and a more relaxed vibe, it was the perfect backdrop for Priscilla to conquer her race. Plus, who could resist the bonus of running in sunny, warm weather – all while most of us are bundled up for winter? A fantastic way to kick off the holiday season with a personal triumph!
So a fantastically well done to Pricilla for a 4h 58 min finish. It sounds like a tough run as she reports “ at the start I was a Tigress, at half way I was a chicken at 20 miles I became a mouse”
Parkrun round up
With Storm Darragh now a distant memory, we were back at parkrun this week in full force, flooding the parkrun routes with energy and enthusiasm! We had 27 runners participating across 12 different park runs.
Well done to Rob Hawkes – who took 5th pace at Harrow parkrun in 19:51
Simon Morris celebrating his 50th parkrun at St.Albans in a finish time of 21:42.
Our other stand out performances were at Ricky and Gadebridge park runs.
Rickmansworth, where we had 9 runners, was the most popular parkrun this week and it also saw our fastest finishers. Russell Jones was our fastest male finisher of the week in 19:43 and Sue Crowther was our fastest lady finisher in 26:06. Chris Howe earner a nice PB in 26:24 and Louise Nash ran Ricky for the first time
Over at Gadebridge Parkrun, the storm may have passed but it was still pretty muddy. Micheal Linden took a 2nd place finish 21:46 with Jack Boughton & James Birnie raced each other for 5th and 6th position. Mary McCluskey was our first and only lady braving the mud.
Happy running everyone! Looking forward to more festive pictures next week