Goats on the run (8)

Since the last edition of goats on the run (our London Marathon special), there have been countless Goats running all over the UK and beyond. As the club grows – “hello to all the new members who read about us in Runner’s World!” – it’s getting harder to keep track of you all. Nonetheless, whether it’s your first ever run, or your hundredth marathon, we want to hear about it!

Rather than try and include all the Goats that have taken part in a particular event, and end up missing people, we’re trying something new with this edition of goats on the run and highlighting a handful of the stories that have been shared and caught our eye on our Facebook, Instagram or Strava channels.

Alison Harling

Alison ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday 26 May. It was her first ever half marathon and she completed it in 2:01, breaking her 10k personal best (PB) along the way!

Alison said “you goats rock for all the support you have sent me, love to you all and well done to anyone who has run this weekend.”

Amelia Finn

One of the biggest jumps for a beginner runner to make is heading outside if you’ve only ever run on a treadmill. Amelia made that jump recently, with her first ever outside run. In her own words:

“I’m on week 5 of Couch to 5K and today was to run for 20 minutes – a big jump from the 8 minutes I’ve done so far. So I set off outside and picked a route and decided to run as long as I could and look what I managed – I might be slow but I ran it all and that feels great.”

Colin McKechnie

Colin is a new Lonely Goat who is hugely impressed with the positive attitude in the Facebook chat group. He turned 50 last week and in an effort to improve his fitness has taken up running again after a break.

About 6 years ago, a friend convinced Colin to enter the Men’s Health 10K in Glasgow. He experienced sore knees and hips, a bad back, and weekly physio sessions in the build up, before deciding to stop training 4 weeks out to allow enough time to feel recovered by the time he got to the start line. Despite the interrupted training, Colin managed to get to the finish line and rightly felt really proud of doing so.

We’re looking forward to seeing how Colin gets on this time around, as he gives Couch to 5K a go.

Dan Rodgers

Some runs are more special than others. Either due to the location, the weather, or just how you’re feeling that day.

Dan Rodgers enjoyed the “most amazing” run in Kenya to mark his 40th birthday (in the picture above). Kenya is home to some of the greatest runners in the world, and Dan thinks the sight of a white man running was a novelty, as everyone was so friendly and wanted to speak to him.

Over the course of 12km he saw goats and baboons, climbed two mountains and was caught up in a sudden tropical storm that made the unmade roads really tough. A group of children joined him for the last half a mile and they all raced to the finish.

David Sweeney

On Saturday 25 May David achieved a big goal of his and completed his first ultramarathon (any race longer than a standard 26.2 mile marathon).

He ran a “brutal” 50km event, the Donnersberg Trail, in Germany with over 2,000m (6,000 ft) of elevation. As if running 50km wasn’t hard enough, David got lost and ended up adding on an extra 2km!

He completed the event in 9 hours and is very happy and proud.

That’s it for this edition of goats on the run. Congratulations to all the runners mentioned, plus all those we missed. As always, if you’ve achieved something in your running that you’re particularly proud of – completing an event or otherwise – feel free to let us know about it in the Facebook Chat Group or use the #lonelygoatrc and #lonelygoatrunningclub hashtags on Instagram.