This week sees the launch of a new campaign, billed as the first of its kind globally, to enable more people to run as part of their everyday journeys and commutes. The team behind #RunSome is tapping into a new running boom to encourage individuals away from a reliance on car-use.
‘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 specialist Active Things and a coalition of leading running brands and organisations, the RunSome campaign encourages more people to run as transport while urging government to include running in its £2bn active travel funding alongside walking and cycling.
With an estimated quarter of a million people in the UK already running everyday journeys, RunSome wants to double that number within the next 12 months.
Rather than looking to novel technology, running is seen 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 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.
RunSome brings together a growing coalition of leading running and lifestyle brands and organisations for a year-long campaign. Ahead of its launch, partners already include Tracksmith, Runderwear, Findarace, Airhead, Belu water, the National Running Show, Train As One, ukactive, England Athletics, London Sport, Run4Wales, Sport Tech Hub and Her Spirit, along with running-related mental wellbeing charities such as RED January.
Running tribes, clubs and communities getting behind the campaign include BlackGirlsDoRun, This Mum Runs and Midnight Runners.
Scott Cain, CEO of Active Things and co-founder of the RunSome campaign, said, “To run is part of who we are. We just designed it out of our daily lives, and now – with COVID-19 and all the changes in how we live and move – it’s time to design it back in again.
“Just think: if the 11m people who already run in the UK swapped the car for even just one or two short trips a week, we can make a big difference.”
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.
The campaign is already having some successes with city governments and transport bodies. In London, Will Norman, the Mayor’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner said “Never has it been more important for Londoners to choose active and non-polluting ways of getting around our city, and to avoid public transport if they can to free up precious space for those that have no other option.
“Whether that be walking, cycling, scooting or running, every journey not made by car is good for London. That’s why I’m a supporter of the RunSome campaign.”
