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Vegan Runner shows a clean pair of heels – and wheels – to set a new world record

May 27, 2019 0

A Lancashire mum showed a clean pair of heels – and wheels – to set a new world record. Joey Armitage, from Brinscall, near Chorley, is confident she has achieved the best-ever time for a run by a female pushing a buggy after covering 10 kilometres in 42 minutes and 37 seconds at an event in Preston. The 34-year-old mum of two took part in Wesham Road Runners’ Summer 10K at Lea Town for her world record attempt, and smashed the previous best, set by Canadian Allison Tan seven years ago, by some 30 seconds. She is awaiting official confirmation from the Guinness World Records organisation after submitting all the necessary evidence and documentation but is delighted to have achieved her objective – with two and half year old son Arthur along for the ride. Joey, who works as a clinical psychologist at Lancaster University, said: “I was so pleased to break the record time. “I have been running for years but since the children came along much of that has been while pushing a buggy, which seemed more straightforward than always trying to find child care while I wanted to go for a run. “I regularly take part in the Preston Park Run with a double buggy and Arthur and his sister Elma, who is three and a half, love coming along. “I saw on social media that there was a world record for running with a buggy so thought i would give it a go. “The World Record rules say the attempt has to take part within certain race guidelines and the Wesham 10K fitted the bill. Thanks to everyone there for giving me the chance to take part and set the record.” Steve Gore, Wesham Road Runners’ race director, said: “Joey contacted me a week or so before the race explaining that she was attempting an official Guinness World Record for the fastest 10K pushing a pram (female). “I said she was more than welcome to enter our race and we arranged to run a reccy of the course so that she could get a feel of it. “Congratulations to her on a great achievement.” Well done and congratulations from everyone at Vegan Runners !!!

Vegan Runner completes marathon dressed as broccoli !

Vegan Runner completes marathon dressed as broccoli !

January 13, 2019 0

As you’ll have realised by now, we can be a pretty serious and not so serious bunch of vegan runners. One person that ticks both boxes is our very own Jhon Cosgrove.  On Boxing Day 2018 and to raise funds for Veganuary, Jhon ran a self designed marathon course around Petersfield in fancy dress as a piece of broccoli. Talking to John about his motivations, he explained “I am happy to say I came home in first and last place in the time of 3 hours and 41. Not bad considering I was dressed as a broccoli, there were lots of hills, I was full of cold again and had sore leg from parkrun! But we raised £1500 for Veganuary, with over 90+ people  donating. Today was really heartwarming and special to have so many people give up their time to help – this won’t be the last ridiculous charity run!’. You can still donate here: justgiving.com/fundraising/broccolimarathon From everyone at Vegan Runners, Jhon you are a great ambassador of the club and the cause !  Well done.

Vegan Runner completes 52 different parkruns in 2018!

Vegan Runner completes 52 different parkruns in 2018!

January 2, 2019 0

  In 2018 Daniel Patrick started to represent Vegan Runners, like many of us do, by attending the weekly Saturday 5k parkruns.   Now some of us even do a little parkrun tourism, when visiting family or friends. But Daniel took parkrun tourism to a whole new level by running 52 different parkruns in 2018. Yep, you worked it out, that’s a new course every week.  Not only does this make him possibly the most nationally travelled vegan runner in the club but he also got to meet so many VR’s from all around the country. Talking to Daniel about his experience, he explained “I don’t think I’ll ever manage this again, so I guess I have to brag about it.  I’ve done 52 different parkruns this year and in the process visited more of the UK than I ever have before. I met a lot of friendly and interesting people while running during 2018, many of whom wore VR colours. Thanks all of you for keeping me plodding on each week”. If you want to know where Daniel travelled to, then here’s a map of the 52 runs 52 parkrun locations From everyone at Vegan Runners, congratulations to Daniel and we’ll see you at parkrun in 2019 !

Vegan Runner becomes first frenchman to run over 500+ marathons !

December 21, 2018 0

So whilst some of us enjoy our 5k park runs and others have been known to run a few marathons, well Denys Baudry (a french Vegan Runner) just took that to a whole new level.  Denys recently became the first frenchman ever to have run over 500 marathons, which also makes him the french national champion, with a tally of 530+ marathons completed. Denys said, “I am obviously quite happy to have reached that landmark, not so much for myself but for the vegan movement. Having been vegan for some 25 years, and 20 years veggie before that, I have been living in the UK since the early 70’s and belong to the Vegan Runners.”   Denys has run a total of 511 marathons (at the moment) plus 21 ultra marathons and with 5 more marathons to run before the end of the year he should finish on grand total of 538! Where does he get his protein from? 😉   The France national website for marathon runners is planete-Marathon.fr and if you click on “les centenaires” you’ll see Denys’ marathon total (which excludes the ultras as they are tracked separately). From everyone at Vegan Runners, we wish Denys all the best and keep running !

Vegan Runners UK will be cheering on Forest Green Rovers FC

December 7, 2018 0

Vegan Runners UK will be cheering on Forest Green Rovers FC’s at the league 2 football match against Mansfield Town on Saturday the 15thDecember. The club received an invite from the football club to attend the match giving the running club members free entry to the Community stand. The sight of the green and black running vests will be something special and this will be undoubtable a day to remember. Forest Green Rovers are officially the first football club to adopt the Vegan ethic serving vegan only foods, using ethical companies such as Ecotricity – Britain’s greenest energy company, Grundon, a family owned waste management company and promote animal rights through the use of Sea Shepherds logo on the team’s kit. Isn’t it just amazing that our running club, the fastest growing running club in the Uk can come together to support such a high level professional team playing a different sport, yet have the same ethics and values as our own… times are truly changing! And let’s not forget how honoured we are to stand next to the local supporters who without them the football club would be nothing. Let’s help them turn up the volume and make an electrical atmosphere. Bring your noise! It is without doubt an honour for our running club to be joining the other local supporters for what is going to be an amazing day. Full details of the day including the pre match park run can be found on our clubs web site or by joining the Facebook group page and why not check out the football clubs ethos by clicking on the links below. https://www.fgr.co.uk/our-ethos/100-vegan https://www.fgr.co.uk/our-ethos Thank you Dan Grundy Press secretary

VR Kevin Dempsey wins Hell of a Hill (5 marathons in 5 days event).

VR Kevin Dempsey wins Hell of a Hill (5 marathons in 5 days event).

November 21, 2018 0

Every now and then one of our VR community of runners goes and takes on a challenge to make the eyes water and your legs ache just thinking about running. But recently our very own VR, Kevin Dempsey, not only took on the Hell of a Hill (5 marathons in 5 days event), he also WON it !!! So let’s break this down. You are looking at a 133.5 miles (apparently it’s a slightly long route) and there is over 20,000ft of ascent (hills to you and me). We asked, what was Kevin’s strategy? Kevin explained that, ‘I approached it sensibly and whilst I didn’t manage to win a single day, I came 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 7th and 2nd, with consistent times each day. I had a plan of approaching it ultra-like by backing off wherever and whenever the effort felt like it was not paying off. But over the 5 days, I won by around an hour with a total time just under 22h 10mins’. This result could also put Kevin in the top 10, Hall of Fame, all time results for this event ! The event draws in both national and international runners, with competitors from the US and Poland, running alongside locals. Also you can choose to run just a one day marathon, or all 5 events.  Kevin was also thankful to everyone who supported him. Paresh Patel and Simon Dally, both VR’s also joined Kevin to run a good few miles with him, which was really motivating. I think you’ll join us in congratulating Kevin and from the entire VR community, WELL DONE Kevin ! If you know of a VR achievement worthy of a shout out – then please let us know via the contact us page.

Vegan Runner sets out on 1,000 mile run across Nepal

October 24, 2018 0

On the 11th Sept 2018, Vladimir Morozov set out on a 1,000 MILE SOLO and UNSUPPORTED RUN across the length of Nepal. As a vegan runner, this will surely be one the longest runs for any club member and all in aid of a fantastic charity, the Nepal Youth Foundation. You can follow Vladimir’s progress via the link below, which has video blogs, instagram feed and FB updates plus his daily progress. The link to the full website is http://runacrossnepal.org From everyone at Vegan Runners UK, we wish Vladimir all the best and keep running !

Advice for race organisers: how to make your event more vegan-friendly

October 1, 2018 0

This article was originally posted on https://adventureandcake.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/advice-for-race-organisers-how-to-make-your-event-more-vegan-friendly/ Dear Race Director, I really appreciate all of the hard work that you put into events. You must get so many emails enquiring about various things, including food – an email asking what food you provide that’s suitable for vegans might just seem like a whole lot more work. Here’s the good news: you probably already provide plenty of plant-based options, whether you’re aware of it or not… Here’s a guide to help you stay ahead of the curve with a few simple tweaks so you can keep all your plant-powered runners happy. Let’s dive straight in with a few items you can make available at your next event without any extra bother or cost, that vegans and non-vegans alike will consume. Salted peanuts Ready salted crisps Fruit (runners love bananas) Jam or peanut butter sandwiches (no spread) Dark chocolate (most doesn’t contain milk) Biscuits (e.g. Lidl digestives, bourbons, ginger nuts, oaties. Varies by supermarket but fine if don’t contain milk or egg) Soya milk for hot drinks (59p/litre from Lidl) Intrigued? Read on to make your event extra vegan-friendly… I’ve written this to help out organisers and their teams, as the vegan lifestyle can seem pretty alien if you’re not familiar with it. This post’ll be a bit ultrarunning- and Britain-centric, but hopefully provides helpful tips whatever and wherever you’re catering for. It really makes my day when an event has animal-free food! It can make a massive difference on longer races of course, especially if frequent dropbags aren’t an option. The idea is also that this article can be linked by athletes to ROs – making vegan options more well-known, less daunting and less faff than composing multiple carefully-worded emails… Below is a (by no means exhaustive) list of food ideas for checkpoints and post/pre-race foods, followed by some tips to make the vegans love you even more. NB: ‘SFV’ = suitable for vegans. I’ve put a few links to the excellent Vegan Womble – their lists are massive now, so I recommend using their individual supermarket list once you know where you or your team will be shopping, and you can see exactly what’s available. Sweet food: cheap and easy Biscuits (e.g. Oreos, Lidl gingernuts, bourbons, digestives, rich tea biscuits, Jacob’s fig rolls. See the Vegan Womble for UK offerings) Chocolate (dark is cheap e.g. Lidl, Morrisons, Cadbury’s Bournville – most is SFV – check for milk. Lots of Free From ‘milk chocolate alternative’ options) Fruit (fresh bananas, watermelon and mango are classics) Jam sandwiches (no spread/dairy-free spread) Malt loaf (e.g. banana/apple Soreen, *not the standard one*, Aldi own brand, check for egg) Sweets: e.g. fizzy rainbow belts, Skittles, Starburst (see the Vegan Womble for UK offerings) Aldi malt loaf, Lidl fizzy belts & dark chocolate Sweet food: extra kudos Cake-type things: see the Vegan Womble Doughnuts (Coop jam and custard doughnuts are SFV) Fruit pies (e.g. Mr Kipling’s Treacle Tarts, Coop Bramley Apple Pies) Gels (e.g. hi5, Clif shot bloks, SIS, Torq, GU) Homemade cake – lots of easy recipes online using oil, apple sauce or banana instead of eggs (check out this easy banana bread recipe) Homemade cookies (my favourite recipe is here) Mince pies (many supermarket own brand) Smoothies (use fruit juice instead of yoghurt/milk) Snack bars (keep an eye out for milk and honey, see the Vegan Womble for UK offerings ) Savoury food: cheap and easy Boiled potatoes with salt (no butter/lard) Crisps (most – check for milk powder in salt and vinegar!) Houmous (everyone loves houmous) Peanut butter sandwiches (no spread/dairy-free spread) Pretzels (plain & party size) Salted peanuts Savoury food: extra kudos Falafel Onion Bhajis Sausage rolls (Linda McCartney or homemade) Drinks Flat coke (diet pepsi isn’t vegan) and other standard cold drinks Soya milk for hot drinks Hot food (for post-race or long races): The veggie hot food option after countless races I’ve been to recently has been accidentally or purposely vegan, which makes me super happy. When I volunteered on the Spine Race this year, I’m pretty sure the number of vegans working in CP1’s kitchen outnumbered non-vegans! Here’s some simple ideas… Baked potato with beans Cake (homemade, see above) & custard – Bird’s custard is SFV when made with non-dairy milk! Chilli sin carne (beans and chickpeas make it more proteiny and filling) Chips Curry with vegetables Pasta + bolognese with soya mince/lentil/beans (Quorn mince is not currently vegan, ownbrand soya mince usually is, check for egg) Pasta + tomato sauce Pie and peas (Linda McCartney’s country pies go well with mushy peas) Pizza with no cheese/vegan cheese Soup (check the label but most tinned vegetable soups are vegan-friendly; ‘cream of…’ not withstanding) Stew with vegetables/dumplings made from veggie suet Veggie burgers/sausages (some Quorn products contain egg, the vegan ones have a big green ‘vegan’ on the front) Veggie chilli and rice Tips If possible, let athletes know what will be available ahead of time, especially if we’re talking multiple checkpoints. Some ultrarunners love to plan in minute detail, ahem… Have packaging readily available, informed marshals/volunteers, or labels clearly marking animal products & allergens – vegans generally don’t mind about traces or ‘may contain’, but of course this could be an issue for someone who has a severe allergy. And some of us have trust issues and like to read labels, don’t take it personally… If you’re not sure, google it. “Is x suitable for vegans?” usually works. There are also millions of helpful vegan facebook groups out there, e.g. Vegan Food UK, and of course, the Vegan Womble. Supermarkets don’t label everything as SFV or not by any means, but they’re getting better. “Lacto-free” stuff is not vegan. If you have a small amount of a vegan item, keep it request-only. Trek bars might look more attractive to a non-vegan than a pork pie! I’ve been to races where volunteers have had a ‘secret box’ of vegan goodies kept back for us. Make your veggie option vegan. It might be as simple as changing the stock you use. Keep it simple: keep costs down by sticking to recognisable, cheap, ‘accidentally’ or naturally vegan foods, and non-vegans will eat these too. Bourbon or a banana, anyone? Fancy a challenge in the form of market research? Try a vegan race! The brilliant Kirsch Bowker’s Vegan Welsh 3000s asks its participants to stay plantbased for the day, and seriously, you’ll be amaaazed by their aid station offerings. The 55k ultra is not for the faint hearted…so I’ve so far tended to opt for the half, and gorge myself on delicious food at the finish party. Why bother? The market is here, and it’s growing. The vegan community is undoubtedly exploding, with some sources now estimating that 7% of the British population is vegan (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/vegans-uk-rise-popularity-plant-based-diets-veganism-figures-survey-compare-the-market-a8286471.html). What’s the biggest running club in the UK? Vegan Runners (https://www.veganrunners.org.uk/about/), which now has over 2000 members. It’s getting increasingly easier to be vegan, and many of us are following in Scott Jurek’s footsteps to become plant-powered ultrarunners. Food without animal products is almost always better for the environment, too (e.g. greenhouse gases, water usage), so it’s a great way to reduce the impact of your event and make it ‘greener’. It’s not just vegans, either. Many people avoid dairy due to allergies, and a lot of people are choosing to reduce or cut out meat. Why not cater for all at once? My awesome friend Louise recently conducted a poll in the #run1000miles facebook group (not an exclusively plant-based group by any means). Over 50% requested vegetarian or vegan options. The bottom line is: we really really appreciate it when an event caters for us. Most of us weren’t born vegan so we understand that it doesn’t come easy to all, but hopefully the tips above will help. If you do what you can, we’ll tell our friends and come back for more. Want to do more? Why not join other events in reducing your impact further by going cup-free, plastic-free or zero-waste entirely? See you on the trails!  

Limited edition Tee’s flying off the shelves

Limited edition Tee’s flying off the shelves

September 17, 2018 0

Vegan Runners Web Shop Update https://www.veganrunners.org.uk/shop/ Thank you to everyone who ordered one of the new limited edition T-shirts. These are now being dispatched and if you ordered one then you will get them over the coming days (please be patient)…. Also, you’ve been loving the new hats as well.  So again, thank you for all the pre-orders we’ve received. Please keep checking out the items in the VR shop.  We have SALE items, sports wear, casual fashion, event clips, buffs, hoodies and other stuff ! So head over to the VR shop and we hope to see many of you in the new designs in the near future !   https://www.veganrunners.org.uk/shop/

2018 Brighton Big Weekend (AGM & 10k)

2018 Brighton Big Weekend (AGM & 10k)

September 4, 2018 0

16th – 18th Nov 2018 is the annual Vegan Runners BIG WEEKEND ! Friday night is a social meet up for everyone that’s in town. All-Vegan all you can eat buffet at Bombay Aloo. Saturday am. Parkrun takeover at HovePark, follow by VR Big Breakfast / Brunch. Saturday pm. Annual General Meeting – full committee and all members welcome. This will be followed by special screening of “Run for Good”, film about VRUK’s Fiona Oakes, directed by Keegan Kahn (“Cowspiracy” and “What the Health”). Plus a talk with Fiona. Then it’s the club social with self-serve wholesome food buffet and music at Cowley Club, Brighton’s oldest all-vegan social club (as per 2017). Sunday am. Brighton 10k race and VR Championships. 9.30am start. Sunday pm. Brighton Vegan Festival from about 11am (at The Grand Hotel).  ADMISSION TO THIS IS FREE for VRUK Brighton 10k medal holders!

Big Stockport 10k Takeover Review

Big Stockport 10k Takeover Review

September 4, 2018 0

On Sunday 16th September 2018 a sea of black and green descended on Stockport for the Big Stockport10K race.  Runners from all over the North West and beyond attended with runners even coming from as far afield as Scotland and the South Coast. The race was adopted three years ago as an annual event where members from all over the UK could meet up with those they share a common bond and celebrate all the values that bring us together.  From the first year with 80 runners, then 160 runners last year, this year 229 runners signed up for the event.  In all the footage of this fantastic event, the Vegan Runners are everywhere. This amazing presence really helps to highlight the vegan community and keeping the rights of animals and health benefits in the forefront of people’s minds. As always, the community spirit that is indicative of the Vegan Runners was in huge supply. We had meet ups arranged prior to the race with old friends plus the forming of new ones and the overall support which is a huge feature of the club was in abundance during the race.  Everywhere you looked, before, during and after the race we had a huge presence and there were some fantastic costumes worn by the Vegan Runners especially abananas (Kevin Dempsey & Colleen Minto), a pepper (Mike Harper) and the large pikachu worn by Mark Love The Vegan Runners continued to dominate at the podium with Jo Armitage in a time of 41:43 getting gold in the women’s open category and the 1st Male went to Alex Hinchcliffe for the second time, coming in with an incredible 34.oo mins. Alex managed to take 30 seconds off his 2017 win, despite a modified route this year, which he loved.  Vegan Runners also has 2nd male, as well as 1st male and female teams. After the race, various eating venues across Stockport and into Manchester got the Vegan Runners experience with fun extending into the early evening.  Huge shout out to Jonna & Tom McFadden, for coordinating the fantastic takeover and everyone else who helped. Judging by all the social media posts it was a great day for everyone and let’s aim for even bigger in 2019 with a likely date of 15thSeptember, so keep it free and see you there. #TeamVegan     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVkC4nm4ksvh49BQbmZzLjg (Write up by Hélène Pettitt)    

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