Good morning/afternoon/evening, and if you haven’t read my previous post, Happy New Year! For the reasons I summarised in my first challenge post, I’m trying to cut down how much I spend this year. Like, seriously cut back how much I spend. Although I suspect I’ll find not buying any new clothes or shoes easy, I’m not sure the same can be said for my second challenge.

Although I want to save as much money as I can, this isn’t the only reason I want to get through 2021 without entering any races and without buying more running clothes. I care a lot about the environment. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life working in water resources; trying to enhance and to protect our rivers and streams. Despite this, I’ve definitely been guilty of entering races purely for the race t-shirt.

The environmental cost of manufacturing a t-shirt is huge. It takes the same amount of water that a person drinks in 2.5 years to make a single cotton T-shirt, plus over 2kg of eCO2 [Source: Trees not Tees]. Currently, over 5% of the UK’s total annual carbon and water footprints result from clothing consumption [Source: ReRun Clothing]. Every year in the UK, it is estimated that 300,000 tonnes of used clothing go to landfill. [Source: ReRun Clothing]. The average life of a running shoe on our feet is 4 – 6 months, if sent to a landfill they then hang around for a further 11,994 months before beginning to decompose [Source: ReRun Clothing].

So, with two exceptions – physio sessions and my running Club fees – I’m aiming to spend nothing on running this year. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. That means spending no money entering races and spending no money buying running clothes, trainers, accessories, etc. I don’t need any more running stuff. I suspect that I have enough running clothes to last me for the rest of my life.

When I worked out how much I’d spent on what I call running-related purchases last year, I had a huge wake-up call. The total was so much more than I had predicted, I doubled-checked everything to ensure I hadn’t got my sums wrong. I hadn’t, and I’d somehow managed to spend £1481.11 in a year that for me featured no actual races, a couple of virtual runs, and a spot of parkrun volunteering. Some of the more expensive purchases were what I’ve previously described as one-off purchases, I guess I could describe them as investments. However, the majority were what I’d describe as non-essential purchases, the type of impulse purchases I tend to make when I’ve seen something advertised online or in an email.

[Source]

I have zero willpower, so I’ve unsubscribed from what feels like dozens of email lists. I’ve also stopped following several running brands and events on social media. If I need to temporarily stop following members of the Brooks Run Happy and Asics Frontrunner teams I will. It’s nothing personal, but I need to avoid as many sources of potential temptation as possible. I hope that it will be a case of out of sight, out of mind.

As I love nothing more than proving people wrong, I ran a quick and simple poll on Instagram. 91% of the people who responded didn’t think I’d get through 2021 without spending anything on running-related purchases. To be honest I thought it would be 100%.

Anyway, I’m waffling on as per usual, apologies. I’ve split this challenge into two parts: entering races and buying running clothes.

Entering races

I’ve lost count of the number of races I’ve entered and subsequently DNS due to a combination of running injuries, unreliable friends, and an inability to motivate myself to drag my lazy arse out of bed.

I feel confident that I’ll find this aspect of the challenge relatively easy. Last year, most of the races I’d entered were unfortunately cancelled due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This means that in theory, I already have a place in five races; the Cathedral to Castle run, the Market Drayton 10k, the Vitality London 10,000, the Richmond Half Marathon, and the Wheaton Aston 10k.

And knowing me, a few other races I’ve forgotten I entered. I look forward to receiving a couple of unexpected race numbers in the post, it happens most years.

I have a sneaky suspicion, however, that unless the situation with Covid-19 improves, some of these races won’t be able to take place this year. I hope that I’m wrong, but I can see a lot of races being either postponed or cancelled. My ‘rules’ prevent me from spending money on public transport to and from races and on accommodation. This means I’m only going to be able to travel to local races, so I’ll have to DNS the Vitality London 10,000 and the Richmond Half Marathon if these races go ahead.

A second year without any organised races medals sounds shit, but I have a cunning plan. If parkrun returns, I’ll be running rather than volunteering. After running injuries last year meant my running was severely limited, I think concentrating my efforts on the 5k distance is sensible. In addition, one of my goals last year was to complete my 50th parkrun. Covid-19 and the cancellation of parkrun clearly meant I couldn’t achieve this goal, hopefully, 2021 will be the year I get to wear the red 50 t-shirt I was given a few years ago.

So, I’m reasonably confident I’ll be able to avoid entering any races this year. If I find myself experiencing serious race or medal #FOMO, I’ll read some of my race reviews and admire some of my medals.

Buying running clothes 

During the lockdown, I spent some time sorting through the running clothes, running accessories, and trainers I’d put in storage in the loft. I found running tights I’d forgotten about, running tops I’d never worn, heart rate monitor straps, phone holders, shorts I bought at the 2006 London Marathon Expo I should have thrown away years ago, and three pairs of unworn trainers. When I feel more confident heading to the Post Office, I’ll be attempting to sell some of the running clothes I know I’ll never wear.

I completed what I’d describe as an informal inventory of my running clothes and accessories to work out if I needed to buy anything before starting the challenge, and discovered I’m the proud owner of:

Running Clothes

• 7 x vests
• 21 x short-sleeved tops
• 5 x long-sleeved tops
• 5 x crop tops
• 3 x gilets
• 2 x jackets
• 2 x skorts
• 9 x shorts
• 4 x capris
• 4 x tights

Accessories

• 1 x cap
• 3 x visors
• 4 x head bands
• 2 x gloves
• 3 x bobble hats
• 1 x arm sleeves
• 18 x socks
• 2 x compression socks
• 2 x compression sleeves
• 1 x sunglasses
• 1 x hydration vest
• 1 x running rucksack
• 1 x Garmin 220
• 1 x Garmin235
• 1 x Fitbit Charge 4
• 1 x Trekz Air headphones

After completing the inventory, I decided that I could probably do with a couple more crop tops, headed onto TK Maxx, and took advantage of the women’s activewear clearance sale. I didn’t include my trainers in my informal inventory, but unless a gait analysis recommends I switch from Brooks Adrenalines to something else, I won’t need to buy any trainers this year.

Due to the washing machine shrinking things – it’s so irritating when this happens – I can’t physically squeeze into a few of my running tops and shorts. Despite this, I’m confident that I have more than enough running clothes, running accessories, and trainers to get me through not just this year, but also the next 10 years! If I continue to lose weight, I’ll have even more running clothes to wear.

I’m going to finish this by apologising in advance for what may well be another 12 months of writing a running blog that contains no race reports. I also want to apologise in advance if my race #FOMO rears its ugly head. And finally, running brands and race organisers, I’m sorry if I unsubscribe from your emails and stop following you on social media. I’m just doing my best to avoid temptation.

Have you ever tried to get through a year without buying any running clothes? I suspect I’ll find it difficult, but I hope that by regularly reminding myself of the reasons I’m attempting this challenge, I’ll manage to avoid entering races and buying running clothes.

Have you ever done an inventory of your running clothes, running accessories, and trainers? I didn’t expect to find 18 pairs of socks and 21 short-sleeved tops.

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