Abandon your social life. Get up at 4am. Run a quick half-marathon before heading to the office. For some fitness superfans that’s all in a day’s work. After smashing a personal best (PB) on a Tuesday morning (and on a Wednesday and Thursday too), they log it on Strava and head to their day jobs in recruitment and law.
Not long ago it was really only elite athletes who meticulously tracked their fitness statistics. But now any jogger, cyclist or swimmer who downloads the app can obsessively monitor their pace, distance and elevation gain and brag about it to their friends. The app recently joined the ranks of TikTok and Spotify by hitting 100 million users. Each month it has more than two million new downloads, and each week its users upload 21.5 million runs, cycles or swims. Last year 7.1 billion expressions of “kudos” were recorded — Strava’s version of an Instagram “like”.
Even at Glastonbury the fitness fiends were at it. The truly hardcore met for a “tent to 5k” run in the 26C heat. Others logged on the app 3.7 million steps trekking around Worthy Farm between Lizzo and Elton John. And it doesn’t look like the cost of living crisis is getting in the way of performance either: Brits are still splashing out on fancy running trainers and workout gear, spending on average £207 ($443) a month on health and fitness last year, according to the sports nutrition and clothing brand Myprotein. So, are we a nation addicted?
Some certainly sound it. Here we meet the current winners of Britain’s PB wars, five of Strava’s fittest users – those who run or ride the fastest, the longest or just the most — to find out exactly what it takes to be the best. And to ask: is it really worth it?
Amy Lowe, 24, recruitment consultant, Burton-on-Trent
Average runs a week: 7. Average running time a week: 6hr 14min. Average distance covered a week: 73km.
Year-to-date stats: Runs: 164; time: 149hr 20min; distance: 1,775km; elevation gain: 15,623m
All-time stats: Runs: 547; distance: 5,434km
Personal records: 1 mile (1.6km): 4:56; 5k: 18:02; 10k: 38:15; half-marathon: 1:22:08; marathon: 3:04:56
When my boyfriend and I were looking at holidays to Cape Verde, the first question we googled was, “Can you run in Cape Verde?” If you can’t run in a holiday destination, it’s off. There’s really only one week of the year when we can go on holiday, because we’ve got to plan around marathon training blocks.
On my last holiday, to Ibiza, I was going crazy because I didn’t have enough room in my luggage to take my trainers. So I forced my friend to do HIIT sessions in the hotel room with me before we went dancing at Ocean Beach.
I was never athletic at school and I fake-fainted on sports day. Now I spend about 8-10 hours a week running. I run every day, unless I get told off for doing too much by my boyfriend or my coach.
I’ve always had issues with food, but it got bad when we were coming out of lockdown. I was eating as little as possible – I wouldn’t eat until 6pm, then I’d just have a plate of broccoli. It was like a game, seeing how little I could consume. I was in denial at the time. People close to me didn’t dare say anything; I wouldn’t have wanted to hear it. When I wasn’t eating I was “hangry” all the time, so they probably didn’t want to get on my bad side. As soon as I started running I couldn’t eat as little as possible any more, because you need the energy. So running pulled me out of that before it got really bad.
Friends I’ve known for ages think I’m bonkers. But I’ve made so many new friends through running and they’re as mad as me. My old school friends can’t believe I run all the time. When we catch up they’re like, “What have you been doing?” “Running.” “Anything else?” “No.”
Since I got into running my whole day’s structure has shifted. I used to get up at 7am and go to bed at 11pm. Now it’s 5am wake-up, and 8 or 9pm bedtime. I moved in with my grandma when my grandad passed away last year, but she and I are like ships in the night because my grandma has late nights and gets up later than I do. Her bedtime is midnight, but I wake up early to run. I have to text her saying, “Can you turn the TV down?” The other day I got up at 4.15am to get my long run done before starting work as a recruitment consultant. A long run is 25 - 32km and takes 2.5 hours. I’ll run, eat breakfast in the office and sometimes go to the gym after work.
I’ve been sober for eight months now. When I first started running I definitely got a few Parkrun PBs still drunk on prosecco. It didn’t work out with a previous boyfriend whom I was with for two years because I wanted to get up early and go running but he wanted to stay up late and go out drinking. It didn’t help that he cheated on me — he was messaging other girls, one of whom contacted me on Instagram. I’ve been with my current boyfriend for nine months; we met through a running club. He’s just as bad: he’s got a tattoo of the runner David Goggins’s symbol on his arm. He’s obsessed.
My boyfriend makes me my overnight oats or he’ll have dinner ready for when I get back from a run. On a typical night we’ll watch Game of Thrones, then go to bed early. His presents are all about running. I got him a £180 ($385) running physiology test at Loughborough for his birthday the other week. I’ve also bought him £100 ($214) Shokz running headphones, running kit, running shorts and socks.
My social life revolves around running. On Saturday night my boyfriend and I were invited out to a meal, but we looked at each other like, “We’ve got a long run in the morning – no.” Sunday is our date day: we’ll go on a run, go to the gym, get some food, then it’s an early night.
I use Strava more than any other social media app — I scroll on it all the time, probably every time I pick up my phone. My boyfriend and I get notifications when the other runs on Strava, so if he doesn’t give me a kudos in the first five seconds after I’ve finished a run, I know he’s doing it on purpose. On my run I’m thinking about what to name it, what caption to put. Even my mum’s obsessed with Strava — she’s got my brother using it. We all give each other kudos.
If you get the fastest time on a Strava “segment” you get a crown. Once a waitress serving me said, “Oh, are you Amy Lowe? I stole your crown on a Strava segment.” The next week I sprinted that segment and got my crown back.
I spend a lot — easily £300 ($640) a month — on trainers. At work we get a £200 ($428) monthly car allowance. But I’ve already got a car, so I’ve renamed it the “trainer allowance” and all that money goes on my running shoes. Race shoes cost £200 and they don’t last. I’ve got around 50 pairs of trainers filling up the garage and I keep all my race numbers in a scrapbook. Running has ruined my feet — I’m four toenails down now.
Harry Wakefield, 33, corporate lawyer, Manchester
Average runs a week: 13. Average running time a week: 6hr 45min. Average distance covered a week: 86km.
Year-to-date stats: Runs: 364; time: 215hr 2min; distance: 2,875 km; elevation gain: 8,832m
All-time stats: Runs: 1,234; distance: 13,709km
Personal records 1 mile: 4:08; 5k: 14:29; 10k: 29:39; half-marathon: 1:09:40
I run every day. It’s basically all I do. I can’t remember the last time I had a rest day. Days off aren’t good for me because it’s mental torture. I naturally wake up at 6am, check my work emails, then put on my trainers and head out the door. I only started running three years ago but I can now run 5km in under 15 minutes and I run 85-90km a week.
When I’m on holiday I’ll get up and run at 5am to beat the heat and avoid tourists. There was one time when I was away in Sicily with an ex-girlfriend and got up at sunrise to go. It sounds like weird holiday behaviour, but I’d be insufferable and fidgety all day if I didn’t get it out of the way so I could then lie on the beach and do normal things. I understand that some people might find that annoying, but trust me, I’d be more annoying if I didn’t get the run out of my system.
The last time I had more than a couple of pints with friends was about four months ago. To be honest, I’m probably just off the invite list with some friends now. I think there’s an assumption that I’ll come out but I’m not going to drink more than four or five pints without being a bit of a liability.
I try to avoid talking about running on dates because I don’t want to appear one-dimensional. I’m probably revealing myself as woefully single right now, but we’re talking about a very small sample size. My life is all about running at the moment, so I’ve not been on many dates recently. I’ve always thought if I did want to get back out there I’d sign up to a running club because I know lots of couples who have met that way.
My work is really time-intensive. I’m a few months into my new job but I have had to make sacrifices. I have declined quite a few invitations from colleagues, from big nights out to a pint. For corporate lawyers, Friday nights are the only day they can let their hair down, but I always have a session on a Saturday morning. I don’t really have an appetite for drinking because it affects my performance.
I have to run further to get the endorphin release some describe as “runner’s high”. It might sound like an addiction but it makes me happy and feel good. I’ve spent thousands of pounds on kit and events. The shoes are the big problem — they’re all over my apartment. I’d say over three years I’ve had about 50 pairs of trainers. But I do always give away old ones to charity shops.
I use Strava every day and sometimes I’ll message people I find on the app and ask them if they want to go on a run with me. I run an official race once a week. Last year I completed a 100km ultramarathon race in Austria which involved climbing to 4,000m above sea level. I tried to do an Everesting challenge, which is when you run up and down a mountain so many times that it’s the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. I almost finished but the battery in my head torch ran out. It’s the one time in my life that I’ve had to tap out.
George Schwiening, 28, technical writer for a physiotherapy app, Cambridge
All-time running stats: Runs: 5,142; distance: 50,789km
Personal records: 5k: 15:49; 10k: 32:20; half-marathon: 1:10:55; marathon: 2:26
Cycling: Year-to-date rides: 95; time: 153hr 21m; distance: 3,807km; elevation gain: 13,782m
All-time cycling stats: Rides: 1,958; distance: 40,295km; longest ride: 212km; biggest climb: 1,914m.
I don’t watch Love Island, I watch the Tour de France. I love watching extreme sport documentaries because then I know there’s someone who’s crazier than me.
Aged 11 I started competing in triathlons and duathlons. To celebrate finishing my GCSEs I cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats. At 14 I began training with a pro Ironman athlete.
Last year I did three marathons, got a marathon PB in December and competed at the Commonwealth Games. When my cousin got married two weeks before the Commonwealth Games, I set my alarm for 5.45am, did a 30km run, then drove to Kent for the wedding at midday.
I met my boyfriend of nine years through a triathlon club and we’ve lived together for five years. We decided to invest in a sauna because it’s good for when you’re training. It’s in the back room of the house and I go in there every day for half an hour in the winter.
I entered the Valencia Marathon after I was made redundant in August. It was a really difficult time for job hunting, but I’d wake up every day like, “Marathon, marathon, marathon” — I had that to focus on. When I’m in full marathon training, I do three runs a day, so 21 activities a week. I spam everyone’s Strava. People probably get fed up of seeing me in their feed and mute me. I worry about making someone else feel inadequate but that’s not my intention.
I didn’t sleep for about four days after that marathon because I did a big PB. I was just so fired up with adrenaline. My time was 2:26:08, the seventh fastest all-time British woman to run a marathon. Until, at the London Marathon, Samantha Harrison went slightly faster than me, so now I’m eighth fastest. It was the dream day — absolutely epic.
All my friends do sports and are into their fitness. When you’re in that bubble you think, “Oh, it’s totally normal to run more than 100 miles a week.” Then you realise there’s a whole other world out there where people don’t do that.
We don’t really go out drinking. I’ll say yes to a gin and tonic, but being hungover is not part of my life. I don’t do beach holidays. A few weeks ago we went on a trekking holiday to France where we were on our feet for eight hours a day. It was absolutely amazing. But you’re only walking about 16km a day with 9kg on your back. We were staying at 2,500m, climbing 1,000m a day. It was a very lazy holiday in the sense that we did have a guide. I go on holiday to feel good, and to feel good I’ve got to be moving.
I’m injured at the moment so I’m cycling. I train mainly on an £800 ($1,700) gravel bike. Racing flats can be £250 ($535). It’s embarrassing that I have around 25 pairs of trainers. I’m quite an anxious person and without exercise I would be lost and very sad. Life would not be the same.
Savannah Sachdev, 29, running influencer, Chelmsford
Average runs a week: 7. Average time spent running a week: 3hr 30min. Average distance covered a week: 34km.
Year-to-date stats: Runs: 221; time: 134hr 53min; distance: 1,395km; elevation gain: 8,832m
All-time stats: Runs: 855; distance: 5,416km
Personal records: Marathon: 3:30:58
I’ve always been anxious, even when I was a child. I used to have panic attacks. I once fainted because I was so anxious. Since I started running I haven’t had many, and it’s so much better than it was.
I’ve run at least one mile for the past 795 days. Sometimes I’ll run more than a mile – I average 5km a day but if I’m training for a marathon I can reach up to 32km in a day.
Running is now my full-time job. I am a running content creator and I have almost 100,00 followers on TikTok and 134,000 on Instagram. Since my running streak got attention my social media accounts have grown and I started to get partnership deals from brands. I got an agent last October. I gave up my job in marketing in December but being a content creator requires a lot more work, so my days are much longer than when I did the nine-to-five and ironically I have less time to run.
I won’t put a number on how much I earn but it’s a lot more than I did. My job helped me get a mortgage for a flat.
Since I started running every day the main barrier has been everyone else thinking what I am doing is stupid. I’ll be at a hen do this weekend and I know when I’m there they will say, “Don’t go running on your own. It’s a bit weird.” But I’ll just go and do it anyway.
I never want my running streak to interrupt anyone else’s life so I’ll go at any time of day or night. I’ve run at 11pm, or if I have an early flight I’ve gone at 3am. I’ve run in snow and at sunrise and in the middle of the night. Last month I was in Canada for a wedding party that started at 8am and went on late into the night. That day I ran at 5.30am.
If it’s late in the evening I will ask my partner to come for safety. I always carry an alarm and enable the Strava Beacon function which tracks my location and shares it with my phone contacts.
My boyfriend and I met in a CrossFit gym in Chelmsford where we live. We are both obsessed with exercise and would go six or seven times a week, but he wasn’t a runner. He comes with me once a week. I don’t think he can stand me being better at something than he is.
Since building up my strength over the past three years nothing fitness-related fazes me. In September I am running my first ultramarathon in Chamonix. That same month I have five marathons on five consecutive days in the Dolomites in Italy. It’s going to be crazy.
Deo Kato, 36, personal trainer, London
Average runs a week: 3. Average running time a week: 10hr 15min. Average distance covered a week: 83km.
Year-to-date stats: Runs: 104; time: 222hr 36min; distance: 2,017km; elevation gain: 11,489m
All-time stats: Runs: 1,081; distance: 12,874km
Personal records: 1 mile: 5:01; 5k: 19:58; half-marathon: 1:31; marathon: 3:57:30
In lockdown I started running 10km every day. It was after the murder of George Floyd and I was documenting it as a way to protest against the racial injustices in the world. Then it became a relay where someone else would take on the baton for a stint then pass it on.
Now we’re in the third year, so I wanted to take it to a bigger scale. By the time you read this I will be running from Cape Town to London. I’ll be covering about 40km a day — about the distance of a marathon – and the whole journey will take me 381 days.
Most people said I was crazy when I told them what I wanted to do. Almost everyone I told said I was insane. I’d be running through deserts. It would be too hot. What if I got lost or attacked by animals? I was born in Uganda where loads of amazing long-distance runners are from, so it’s in my DNA. But even the greatest runners from my country would be shocked by how far I’m going.
My daily routine involves waking up as early as possible, around 6am. I’ll do some coaching sessions for my clients, fit in my own runs and, for the past year or so, I’ve been planning my route from Cape Town to London.
I live with my girlfriend and she has always supported me. We have had to discuss how we can stay connected with each other while I’m really far away for more than a year. There’ll be weeks when I won’t see her and I won’t always have an internet connection, so we’ve written lots of letters to each other for us to open while I’m gone.
Obviously, when you set yourself challenges like I have, there are days when you don’t want to run, but I remember my “why”. Running is my way of protesting. I’ve already had people say they will run segments with me. They will be supporting me, either in their thoughts or in person.
Bad GPS data can result in your activities on Strava having missing or extra distance recorded; segments not matched at all or recorded inaccurately; inaccurate elevation data; inaccurate achievements such as estimated best efforts; and more.
Written by: Georgina Roberts and Hannah Evans
© The Times of London
