Runners First is a blog for runners. It features thoughts, ideas, tips, recommendations, tutorials, nutrition guidance and various other topics, to help runners and guide them on their journey.
Who is behind Runners First?
My name’s Craig Barden, I’m 23, and I created Runners First in 2018 after running became a huge part of my life. I live in Kent in the south east of England.
After a couple of years out from running I found it difficult to get back into the swing of being a runner. I was out of shape, didn’t create or follow a training plan, lacked motivation, had no organisation, injured myself constantly and I had the wrong mind-set. Basically, a complete running fail.
How did I go from running failure to becoming a decent runner?
One day I decided to change my approach to running and I really fell in love with the sport.
I became extremely motivated, focused, and found massive amounts of enjoyment in running. I ran 5 half marathons in 5 months, ran at least 5 times a week and participated in parkrun on Saturday mornings. I developed my own thoughts and ideas, and became organised.
Some of my running achievements to date include:
- Completing 25 half-marathons
- Achieving a half-marathon PB of 1 hour and 22 minutes
- Clocking up 2000 miles in one year
- Climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland and Mount Snowden in Wales as running training
- Achieving a 5K PB of 18 minutes and 30 seconds
- Running at last one mile every single day since new year’s eve 2018
I created Runners First to help others. Having gone from being totally unmotivated to running becoming a huge part of my life, I have learnt a lot.
We all have a vision for what we want in life. Without guidance, suggestions and a helping hand, it can be difficult to achieve our vision. I created Runners First to help people in the path towards a better life. After all, life is better when running is a part of it.