29/05/2026
Planning is the name of the game if you want success in athletics. But should it spoil your fun.
When I first started out there were three seasons: cross country, track and field and road running. Most races could only be accessed through a running club membership.
Planning was easy, and the seasons worked from a championship point of view.
I say a championship point of view as running clubs were small and those who joined them invariably were ambitious to get to what we would call club level, then into the county team, qualify for the national championships, and maybe, one day, run for the country.
The seasons determined how you trained.
From October to March, it was cross country, from county leagues to the still highly regarded 'National', run over a muddy 9 miles. The National was held in places like Parliament Hill, London, or on Town Moor, Newcastle, Roundhay Park, Leeds, Newark Show Ground - courses that became the vocabulary for the sport. The club elders would say, 'did you do Parlie-Hill', or, 'did you run when Dave Clarke won', and so on.
If you were a senior, and in a club, there where then a few road races: The AAA Marathon, the road relays 6 & 12-stage. You waited for the country Track & Field Champs in May. Afterwards, Track leagues lasted until September, interspersed with regional champs, the English Schools and the AAA's at Crystal Palace in July.
The very, very best went to the Olympics, Commonwealths or Europeans. The rest of us did some early season cross countries, or some town carnival race, or other, then rested until the cycle started again.
The current sport of running shows no resemblance to this.
My coach, Cliff Temple, who was the athletics writer for the Sunday Times, was involved in setting up the Sunday Times National Fun Run. This was held in Hyde Park in the summer, with the aim to have 5km races for every age group and develop wider participation in the sport of running.
The Cancer Research 'Race for Life' helped propel running into the mainstream; big city marathons started to evolve, starting with New York, then The Great North Run became the worlds largest half marathon (on an unlikely route along the A1 from Newcastle to South Shields - it was created by the Northeast athletic superstar Brendan Foster, so it had to take in Newcastle, Gateshead and South Shields ).
Then along came parkrun, muddy runs, even more massive half marathons, trail races of all distances from 10km to 100miles, stage runs, every sort of run you can think of.
Far from the structure of the season planning things for you, you now have to plan a season!
If you want to improve at a particular distance then a good race plan is an essential part of the journey. But there's latitude to try different things.
If you just want to enjoy the variety of the sport, then you can just drift through doing a bit of everything. As long as you don't mind where you run, as most races now fill up quickly, and as the very biggest have ballots, you don't know if you are in until the drawing says you are in!
As a goal focused coach, planning is very much part of what I do to help runners achieve their personal goal.
Most often this is a marathon, sometimes a one off marathon but more often two or three in a year. Once the runner has a confirmed marathon place then I will look back from marathon day and suggest dates for preparation 10kms, half marathons, etc.
This doesn't have to neglect other races that keep interest high.
Running on a seasonal basis (between marathons) still works - marathons tend to be spring or autumn/winter. In the periods after your marathon you can enjoy other types of event.
Many runners looking to keep motivated after a spring marathon may turn to shorter races to try and improve leg speed.
The early summer is perfect. I will be at the Yateley 10km next Wednesday. Yateley is a series of 10km races which are on the first Wednesday of June, July and August.
In Scotland I have a runner who is doing the Babcock 10km series around Glasgow. There's a similar series of evening 5kms around the Cambridge, Ely and Haverhill area. I expect there are many more.
There are otherd doing long distance relays; the Welsh Castles relay, the round (the boundaries of various counties) Relays, including the Greenbelt Relay around London. Then there's The South Downs Way Relay, and the Ridgeway Relay
There are the ultras, which are mostly on trail: Race to the King 50 & 100kms on the South Downs and The Race to the Stones, on the Ridgeway, again with 50 and 100km options, Hadrian's Wall, West Highland Way, John O'Groats to Land end.
In the autumn-winter, variety may become less but muddy runs, cross country races, 10kms, half marathons are aplenty.
I am involved with the Basingstoke Half Marathon,10k and 5k and the Farnborough Half Marathon (2:09 Events) as well as the Longleat 10km (2:09 Events). Then there's the Surrey Bacchus Wine Half Marathon (2:09 Events). They are just a few of the many great events to give a try outside of your immediate marathon plan.
Go give something different a try this summer and autumn before you get locked back into 'the marathon block'.
