Over the past few months, I’ve been pondering a lot about what it is that brings me joy in my running. Since starting running regularly over five years ago, a lot has changed in my approach to training and life more generally. For the last couple of years, especially, I’ve felt as if I have been treading a fine line between running because I want to, to running because I feel like I have to. Getting fitter, stronger and quicker has been fun, but I am starting to think that something isn’t quite right; that I don’t feel as if my running is serving me like it could anymore. I’ve been grappling with trying to strip back my running, yet some fixation about splits, heart rate, elevation gain, and other metrics remains. Slowly, I’m losing touch with my surroundings and my body’s natural feedback in the name of ‘performance’. This is just one example of how I’ve felt that such a simple, primitive thing, has become at risk of taking over my life, instead of facilitating a life well lived. Luckily, a well timed ankle sprain has given me time to reconsider my running. This is why I’m starting a new project. It’s called joyrun.

What is joyrun?

At it’s core, joyrun is a project that I’m starting to help others (and myself) (re)find joy in their running. I believe that running mindfully, stripping back our running, and connecting to nature are powerful enablers to finding joy in our running.

Now, to be honest with you, I don’t yet know what this project will look like exactly, but I have some ideas and I’d love for others to be part of the ride too. However, I do know how I am going to start the project. I’ll be going a whole year, up until the Ring O’ Fire 2026, training without a GPS watch (or any GPS). This is just one experiment that I’ll be doing as part of this project. I’ve talked in the past about stripped back running. In fact, my first blog post was about exactly that. Since writing that post, I’ve found myself overcomplicating my running again, which I believe has stripped some of the joy out of it. That’s why I’ll be running without GPS for a year, to completely strip back my running. I’ll still be ‘training’ over the year, but I hope to tune back into my body’s feedback and to run off feel, as opposed to what technology tells me.

The first steps

As well as conducting this series of ‘experiments’, I also hope to start building a community of runners (which everyone is!) who want to (re)find joy in their running. My plan is to try to get others to experiment a little with their running too, to see whether it makes them feel different (and hopefully better).

Watch Free Wednesday

The first challenge I propose is something I’ve called Watch Free Wednesday (WfW).

The idea is that runners try running without their watches on Wednesdays. Why? Firstly, you can choose any day of the week that you like, it’s just that Wednesday sounds good. The principle remains the same: choose one day during your week and run without a watch on that day. From experience, I think that there’s a lot of power in running without a watch from time to time. I don’t think I’m alone if I say that I’ve been on a great run in the past, only to finish and look down to see that my watch thinks my performance was ‘poor’. Is it really necessary for our watches to intrude our psyche and have a say in how we feel about our run? I also don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’ve had runs where my watch buzzes to give me splits mid-run and I go from feeling groovy and in tune with my body to feeling like I should be going quicker as my pace is too slow. Again, is this intrusion necessary during every run? I don’t think so. At the end of the day, we all know what an easy run feels like. We just have to be honest with ourselves.

As well as being a way of tuning back in a little with our bodies, not wearing a watch also allows us to do something else that’s perhaps just as important. It forces us to do something that’s uncomfortable to many of us: to run without tracking our run and sharing it with the wider world. External validation is something that, as runners, I think is a slippery slope. I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t ran because it will ‘look good’ on Strava at times in the past. And, yet again, I don’t think that I’m alone here. I think that doing things for external validation is unsustainable in the long term and that, ultimately, we need to find a more meaningful reason as to ‘why’ we run. By running without a watch, you’re doing something that might make you uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, it’s the impermanence of things that makes life so beautiful, right? So, we don’t need a digital log of a run for it to be a good run. In fact, I think that not logging a run makes it feel all that more special. It’s a subtle act that can help us find our intrinsic motivations and move away from the extrinsic.

So, I propose that we all try this, at least just the once. I think that one watch free run is enough to realise just how fun and liberating it is. I’ve certainly loved how free I feel without a watch and, hopefully, others will be able to find some more joy in their running by doing this too.

Mindful Miles

The next thing I’d like to propose is the concept of Mindful Miles. The name isn’t too inventive, I know, but it somewhat flows off the tounge again!

Unlike Watch Free Wednesday, Mindful Miles is a broader idea that I’d like to share with others for them to try. It will also very much be something that will evolve and change over time as I learn more about mindfulness and its relation to running. However, I do have an initial idea that I think would help me and others to find joy in their running.

Many people have heard about journalling and are aware of the benefits of this practice. I’ve been journalling every day now for nearly two years and I can really vouch for it. One of the main reasons I like journalling is that it allows me to reflect on things. Since I believe in the power of having a regular reflective practice, I wanted to think of a way of incorporating a similar practice with running. It’s been shown that if we tie two habits together - known as habit stacking - then it’s easier to keep up these good habits. So, my idea is for Mindful Miles to be a ‘practice’ that runners at least try, and ideally consistently do. It might sound cumbersome and tedious, but I think that it will pay dividends in the long run (no pun intended). Here’s the initial concept:

1. Pre-run: Before heading out of the door, maybe just after lacing up your shoes, take a few deep breaths (inhale, hold, and exhale for 4 second each, 5 to 10 times) with your eyes shut and think about why you run.
2. During run: Pay attention to how you feel, to your breath, to your rhythm, and to your surroundings. Pay attention to your senses. What do you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste? Take moments to pause and take in your surroundings and to listen to your heart working and your breath deepening.
3. Post-run: Take time to transition out of your run. Do some light movement, maybe even some stretches to loosen up. Importantly, take time to reflect on your run. Recollect how you felt during the run. Write down what you saw, felt, heard, smelt, and tasted. Reflect on how your mind and your body felt. Was your mind busy and full of thoughts? Or was it calm and at peace? Write freely, without judgement.

This is the general idea of Mindful Miles and the guidance I wanted to give to anyone wanting to try it. Taking deep breaths before the run helps to regulate our nervous system and thinking about why you run will help remind you of why you want to get out of the door. Tuning in with our body and with nature allows us to feel more connected to these two things, thereby finding more joy in our running. And, finally, reflecting on how we felt and what we were grateful about during our run allows us to cultivate a sense of gratitude and incorporate some mindfulness into our lives. The hope is that by listening to how our bodies feel when we’re running, we can run more sustainably in the long run and, ultimately, find more joy in our running.

Finding joy

So, having talked about my initial plan for the project and ways that others can get involved, I’d like to list a few more ways that I plan to find more joy in my running. Hopefully these will also form the foundation for anyone else wanting to do something similar too. Throughout this next year and beyond, I will write about these points, and any others that arise, in more detail. For now, here they are as a list:

• Remember your why
• Set non-race related goals, like exploring a new place or going on an adventure.
• Have variety in your running
• Join or start a club or community
• Run without a watch
• Run for something bigger than yourself

What I’d like people to notice is that none of these points are directly to do with joy. That is, none of them simply say ‘enjoy my running more’ or ‘find more joy in my running’. As I’ve touched on before, joy is something that cannot be chased or pursued and, instead, it is something that arises in the moment. However, I believe that by creating an environment and a better headspace that we can find more joy in our running. All the points above allow us to connect with why we run, to nature, and to others, which are all elements that help facilitate joy. Personally, I’ve found that these different points also manifest in different ways too. Running with a club brings an almost ‘instant’ sense of joy, whereas knowing your why is more subtle and can take time to ‘appear’ as joy. Ultimately, I think that it’s the combination of these different elements that come together to allow us to have a joyful and sustainable life, both inside and outside our running.

Importantly, we can’t chase joy.

I’m excited to see how this project unfolds and this next year of running without a watch. Hopefully I can encourage others to take part in Watch Free Wednesday and Mindful Miles so that we can collectively find joy in our running.