Runner's World UK

The HOKA Hackney Half returns for another year on Sunday 17 May. The vibrant, closed-road race through the heart of Hackney has already broken its own sell-out record for 2026, with general entries to this year’s half marathon selling out just two days after the 2025 event. If you're one of the many runners wishing you'd secured your spot sooner, you've landed in the right place.

Once you hit the big Four-Oh, it’s easy to start thinking that your running PBs are in the rearview mirror. There’s plenty of science to confirm that you’re now entering the age of diminishing returns. Lower VO2 max, muscle wastage, decreasing muscular power – there’s just so much to look forward to. But ageing is as much in the mind as the body. The narrative we tell ourselves about our own ageing matters. And last year, I wanted to flip the script.

‘How would you like to celebrate your 50th birthday?’ That was the question posed to Sam Tomlinson by his wife, Wendy. Most people might be thinking of a weekend away or a fancy meal. Sam’s mind, instead, turned to ‘the world’s hardest footrace’. The Marathon des Sables (MdS) is a seven-day, 270km race across the Moroccan Sahara Desert, where competitors must battle blistering heat, giant sand dunes and back-to-back ultramarathons.

In 2024, I completed my first-ever marathon in Paris with a time of 4 hours and 38 minutes. Fast forward to 2026, and I completed my second marathon in Rome with a time of 3 hours and 48 minutes. That's a 50-minute PB! So, what changed? In Paris, I was pleased with my time, but it was by no means the reason I was happy with my race. I set out to just finish the course and be able to make the claim that ‘I’d run a marathon’; that was enough for me. But the marathon bug got me.

London Landmarks has fast become one of the UK’s most oversubscribed half marathons. That’s thanks chiefly to its course, which offers a veritable sightseeing tour of London’s most iconic buildings, including Nelson’s Column, St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and the Tower of London. This year, almost 20,000 runners took part. Here’s a rundown of their finish times.

Is that sniffle the first stage of pneumonia? Is that slight knee niggle a ruptured tendon that’ll keep you out of the race? Sounds like an attack of acute 'maranoia', but we have the prescription to get you to race day feeling positive, ready and raring to go. THE MARANOIA: The mysterious and sudden new injury The average runner clocks up 400-1,000 miles during a marathon training cycle. That’s an awful lot of pounding on the body and a lot of opportunity for injury to strike.

Back in the early 20th century, Finland was a distance running powerhouse. It’s prize athlete, Paavo ‘The Flying Finn’ Nurmi, won nine gold medals at the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympics. Nurmi was renowned for his innovative training methods, one of which was his daily walk-and-sprint session. In many ways, the session can be seen as a microcosm of polarised training – the principle of doing most of your running easy and a small amount of it very hard.

‘Have you ever been tempted to give up during a race?’ a runner asked me during the surprisingly hot and hilly Geneva Marathon. We’d fallen far behind and keeping going felt like wading through molten fondue in gumboots. Even a surprise appearance by a curious llama peering over a fence wasn’t enough to lift our spirits. ‘I can’t think of a single race when I haven’t!’ I answered truthfully. ‘And that includes ones as short as 5K!’ The runner beside me, a marathon virgin, looked immensely relieved.

As a coach of both elite athletes and competitive recreational runners, I often hear false or misguided notions about weight training. Certainly, running will always be the primary focus of your training programme. Strength training, however, presents a different physiological stimulus, one that includes a host of distinct benefits that running doesn’t provide, but which are crucial to health and optimal performance. Here is a primer to help you safely become a stronger runner.

Whatever your goal is with your running, you need to be strength training as part of your schedule. However, it doesn't have to complicated or time consuming and you don't need a gym to injury-proof your running body. Here are 10 bodyweight exercises that runners can do anywhere: 1/ Superman Lie face down on the floor with your arms over your head and legs straight. Lift your arms and legs off the floor and hold for five seconds, then release. Repeat the move slowly.