RunSome: new campaign for running everyday journeys

RunSome is a new, year-long, nationwide campaign for running everyday journeys. This could be run-commuting, but also running to the shops, to see friends & family, running the school run or anywhere else where you are replacing other transport with running. It hopes to realise the untapped potential of such utility running for individuals and society, and to get running more widely thought about, considered and included within active travel discourses, policies and practices.

This has close ties to my research into run-commuting and I am thrilled to be supporting the campaign as an advisor and a member of its Brains Trust, a group of running/active travel researchers who may explore the questions and queries emerging from the campaign. Officially launched in mid-September, I’d like to give a quick, albeit belated, overview of the campaign in this post – its impetus, aims and how you can get involved.

Borrowing from the official press release:

Running is booming: according to Sport England, 1 in 5 UK adults have been running regularly in lockdown. With COVID-19 changing the way we live and move alongside each other, and city leaders and mayors doing all they can to avoid a car-led recovery, the RunSome campaign is an urgent call to arms (and legs). 

Led by Runners World, active travel app Active Things and a coalition of leading running brands and organisations, the RunSome campaign encourages more of us to run as transport while urging government to include running in its £2bn active travel funding alongside walking and cycling. With a quarter of a million people in the UK already running everyday journeys, RunSome wants to double that number within the next 12 months. 

Running is as an efficient mode of urban transport – it’s cheap, it’s typically twice as fast as walking, often faster than driving in congested cities, has a low carbon footprint and aids our mental and physical health. Cities worldwide are adapting streets for people to enable more journeys on foot and bikes. If the UK’s 11 million runners ran just one or two everyday journeys a week rather than drive, it would be significant, enabling us to navigate our cities more healthily and sustainably.

As well as doubling the number of people who regularly run-commute to over half a million, campaign goals include achieving a ten-fold increase in run-trips, and influencing government to recognise running as active travel with proper funding, policy and support. According to fitness app Strava, London is already the run-commute capital of the world ahead of Amsterdam, Paris and New York, and is growing by over 40% year-on-year. 

The campaign will run for the next 12 months and will see the appointment of the world’s first Running Mayors to champion the needs of everyday runners; petitions to influence government; a six-point plan for change and a series of stories and films to inspire every day running.

I think this is a really exciting development. It’s great to see a wide-ranging coalition come together around running as transport and commit to doing things around it. For long-time jographies readers, you’ll know this has been a driving element of my work and thinking for a number of years. The campaign is coming at a time when usual patterns and habits are being totally disrupted, along with the wider social and geographical fabrics of our everyday lives. Disruption can instigate change however. Active travel is already receiving action and attention in the UK at levels unseen before, so now is a great opportunity to get running more firmly included in such conversations and happenings

You can join the campaign as an individual or partner at www.runsome.org and follow RunSome on Instagram and Twitter.

I’ll provide some RunSome updates over the next 12 months as things progress with the campaign.

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