Love Trails

I recently had the pleasure of going to this year’s “Love Trails Festival” and went with another of The Running Charity team, Programme Coach, Ezrin. A fun weekend designed for runners of all abilities and jam packed with specialised running workshops from trail running for beginners, all the way to 50mile ultras. It really was a running festival created by runners for runners.

However, the weekend wasn’t just about the running, there were plenty of opportunities for us to learn, plenty of workshops from “How to plan a training programme for 21k race” to “Creating your own Race”. One of the best parts of the weekend for me was the inspirational talks from everyday runners to adventure runners. Incredible stories from runners like Dan Keely who ran 1250miles from Rome to London after suffering a mental breakdown whilst in Italy, a run which raised money for charity was described with passion and sincerity.

The weekend as whole weekend for me was full of firsts – first festival, first time camping and the first time I had been to Wales. I’ll be honest the camping part took a lot to get used to and I feel like I have yet to really find it enjoyable however despite the discomfort of the tent and the rather surprisingly cold Welsh summer nights, the Goa peninsula more than made up or it. Rolling hills far as the eye could see and the sheep that wouldn’t sleep…

Still me and my colleague had to take advantage of our surroundings and so we went for a 25-kilometre run to the coastline where we were met by one of the most stunning beaches in the United Kingdom.

Then came the Sunday, I was quite nervous about this day because the main reason why I came to the festival was that I was also invited to do a speech. Its not a speech that I was unfamiliar with – in fact I have told a similar story about myself before – it was about how running has changed and continues to change my life. But I feel like the reason I was so nervous was I was in a sense preaching to the choir after hearing all those inspirationalstories about running some unfathomable distances, how was my story even going to stack up?

I learnt that the running community is probably one of the most openly inclusive communities I have ever been to; EVERYONE says “hi” with a big beaming smile on their faces and after 4 days camping, eating and just hanging out with them they are absolutely the kind of community I want to belong to.

So, in conclusion, Wales was amazing, the running was great, the camping I haven’t totally given up on.

Until next time.

Claude Umuhire. Programme Coach.

The Running Charity would like to thank Love Trails Festival and in particular, Sarah Pritchard, for supporting us this year and making us feel so welcome at this awesome event.