The Global Travel Retail Run Club

Right now I am training for a trail running weekend in the English Lake District and I had an idea. Wouldn't it be great to have a Global Running Club for our industry?

Working in GTR requires a fair amount of travel for some and we often find ourselves running alone on the hotel treadmill.

I realised there has to be a better way!

So, in Cannes, I started the Global Travel Retail Run Club.

The Purpose

I want to create a GTR community where networking can be done in a different way:

• People of all levels can participate
• People can ask advice, share running routes and meet up
• People who do not travel for work get to meet others in the industry
• Stories can be shared

In short, networking in a different way.

To enable this, I have:

• Created a Linkedin Group [Click Here]
• Created a Strava club [Click Here]

Please do feel free to join. Only people working within the GTR community will be accepted.

Do You Have To Be A Runner?

In short no.

I started running at the beginning of the year and joined a local running club in May. I was a bit apprehensive about that but quickly realised that the running community is super supportive. Even the best of runners will pause or walk for parts. Sometimes you have a good day, other times you struggle. That is the joy (& frustration) of running!

You will often find that a faster runner will quite happily have a "slower day" to run with others and encourage you.

The running club I am with has colour coded groups ranging from White to Purple. Walkers go into Rainbow. Each group has a speed range so that you can find people of a similar standard to run with but also jump into a slightly faster group to help you improve.

How Did I Get Into Running?

Hmm. Honestly? Accepting a challenge to do a half marathon while drunk!

I had met up with friends and one of them was a runner and he set a challenge for us to run in the Hastings Half Marathon (it is a tough one!). We all accepted but I was slow to start training.

I think it was actually my friends way of saying "mate, you need to sort yourself out". I had spent years tied to a desk, working crazy hours to build a company that our customers love working with. Great for customers, not so great for my heath.

I started training sporadically.

I did the half but suffered and was annoyed that I missed my time target.

I decided to continue running and I followed what my Garmin Fenix 6 was telling me to do with its Daily Suggested Workouts.

I started off slow. It was all connected to my heart rate (Garmin advises your effort based on that) and I spent half my time walking and building up. It feels like you are doing that forever and that you are not getting anywhere and then all of a sudden, you start to notice the difference.

Yes, I know I need to lose a few kg's but I have gone from it being an effort to run 400m to being able to run 20km non stop.

Remember, 5k in 40 minutes is still the same distance as 5k done in 18 minutes!

I have run multiple 10k's and 2 further half marathons raising money for 2 worthy charities.

They key is to start slow but be consistent. It is ok to walk when you need to.

And What About The Dystonia?

I have a condition called Cervical Dystonia [details in my post here] that started years ago and according to my neurologist was probably caused by the stress of my previous role. The signals to my neck muscles are out of balance and it causes my head to twist to the left. To offset it, I have injections in my neck every 8 to 12 weeks. Sometimes they work, sometimes they do not.

Despite my head constantly twisting, I am able to run. I do not let it limit me. I have had an incident where I almost fell into traffic but I lived to tell the tale!

At TFWA Cannes 2024

Despite everything going on at the show, I took my running stuff to continue training.

On the Sunday morning, the GTR Run Club had its first run at 8am. We had some wonderful conversations and sharing of ideas. The pace steady and enjoyable. We even walked for part of it. Thank you Christian Ruehrschneck , Nicole Regecová , Elssy Teo, CMktr & Clare Chung for coming along!

The lesson I learned was that a 6am start in Cannes is FAR too early!!

What You May Not Realise

An interesting thing happens when you run together. It enables great conversations.

I have noticed it with my local running club. It is probably something to do with running side by side rather than facing each other. It encourages a much more open way of communicated.

It also enables you to forget the pain! You find yourself running further or faster because you are distracted.

Great conversations is really want this run club is all about.

So. All I ask is one small favour....

Please Can You Help?

If you are a runner, please do join the Linkedin Group.

If you enjoy walking, please do join the Linkedin Group.

If you don't run but know someone who does, please share this newsletter with them.

Thank you so much.

Next Run?

I am planning on running at the The Moodie Davitt Report Events / The Moodie Davitt Report Trinity in Ho Chi Minh at the beginning of November if anyone wants to tag along.

Join the Linkedin Group - Global Travel Retail Run Club for updates.

Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.

Kevin

I am the Founder and Managing Director of One Red Kite, a commercial agency that our clients love to work with. We support our clients with Data Management, Analysis, Dashboarding & Reporting, Category Management, Bespoke Mystery Shopping. We proudly support our clients to deliver better.

One Red Kite's sister company, Recruit GTR run by Jilly Brocklebank is a specialist recruiter for the Global Travel Retail sector.