This was a core piece of advice given to us by Laura at the Write this Run running bloggers conference on Sunday. I’ve read about so many blogging events in America, so it was great to have one in London! Over the past couple of months I’ve really connected with a number of UK running bloggers, seeing many of them regularly at Nike #weownthenight events, so it was great to attend a blogging event with some of them, and meet some new faces.

Our day was broken into four parts, each with a set of three speakers focusing on different topics. Notepads at the ready…

Social Media and PR
I think many of us were keen to learn how to increase our online presence, and work with brands to ‘get free trainers’, so these speakers were hotly anticipated.

Carys Matthews @Carysmatthews
Online editor of Women’s Running and Men’s Running magazine, encouraged us to respond to everyone, ask questions, create relationships and above all, don’t moan!

Fraser Sim @aspiremktg
Works for Aspire PR and Marketing, and managed to dishearten many by warning us that brands look for bloggers with 10,000 twitter followers, and those that don’t dilute their brand by blogging about things other than running. Erm, unfortunately advice that I am going to chose to ignore.

Rhalou Allerhand @rhalou
Rhalou told us about lying at a job interview about being a keen runner to get a job at a magazine, learning to run, moving to Scotland to live with a running man, and to write at least 300 words per blogpost for google to recognise it. Oh and writing about running probably won’t make you rich.

Motivational Speakers
Although I was there to learn how to improve my blog, and increase my social media ‘presence’, one of my favourite parts of the day was the talks by the motivational speakers.

Donna de Wick @donna_de
Her motto was ‘Get strong to stay strong’, a lady that was told not to run due to a progressive degenerative nerve disease and who has since learnt to run and now competes in paratriathlons.

Kevin Bett @52marathonman
‘Only ever stop if there’s no other option’. Kevin’s story about his dad suffering from depression and taking his own life really hit home, and made me sit back and remember how and why I first started running and blogging (read about it here). He has run 52 marathons in a year, including 12 of them on a treadmill, raising money and awareness about mental health disease.

Mimi Anderserson @marvellousmimi
Wowzer- she is ‘chicking the boys’, beating world records for distance running. And when I say distance running, I mean hundred of miles and ultra ultra marathons. If you ever need motivation, inspiration and a good read, go check out her blog. #whatwouldmimido

Quick break to enjoy a BBQ lunch outside with Becki, Becs and Laura. We were also treated to a Chobani yogurt-I still haven’t made up my mind about them, maybe I need to try some different flavours!

Bloggers
It’s funny meeting people whose blogs you read online, you always have that weird, ‘I know you’ moment. I went up to Sophie of beprettyfit.com at a running event a couple of months ago and had to say, ‘hi, are you Sophie, I read your blog…’ er embarrassing.

Laura Fountain @lazygirlrunning
Founder of Write this Run and author of the Lazy Girl Running blog and book, she talked about writing as if you were talking to a friend in the pub, using everyday language and being your own editor- ie. pitch ideas, give a brief, wordcount and deadline, and PROOF READ!

Philippa Moore- @philippa_moore
The girl behind ‘Skinny Latte Strikes Back’ who encouraged us to be authentic and to have bravery, boldness and balls! She suggested spending 50% of your time blogging, writing good content, and the other 50% of your time connecting with readers through comments and on facebook and twitter. Certainly going to be following an award winning blog writer’s advice to make content findable, shareable and manageable.

Stuart Amory @stuartamorypt
A celebrity personal trainer with a big online presence, check out his #fitteam13 for inspirational tweets, advice and physical challenges. He shared lots of twitter tips with us, including tweeting first thing in the morning, so that your tweet is the first one people read in a day.

Running Advice

Rebecca Randell @rrandell86
A researcher at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, she told us how to work out our sweat rates to discover how much fluid we should be drinking during training. To calculate your sweat rate, weigh yourself before a 60 minute run, run without fluid, then weigh yourself when you get back. 1kg weight loss is equal to 1 litre fluid loss!

Karen Weir @runwithkaren
Karen told us it was OK to be a heel striker (yay!) but that we should aim to run as if ‘we had a credit card in between our bum cheeks’ and adopt a ‘squeeze and lean’ technique, leaning forward to let gravity assist you moving forwards.

 

Scott Overall @Scottoverall
Last but by no means least, we heard from Scott Overall, Olympic marathoner and 5min miler. He drinks 4 Pro Plus crushed up into water as marathon fuel, and practices hurdle walkovers to open up his hips. He also happens to run 2.10 marathons, no biggie.

I probably haven’t followed any of the blogging rules yet, or gained 10,000 followers, but I did have a brilliant time, met some lovely people and came away feeling inspired to keep writing, running and having fun. Oh and I may have signed up for a few more races too (no ultras…yet!)

Thank you to the amazing Laura and Liz for organising such an awesome day, I’ll be back next time!