I was very, very surprised last week when the email came through with all the runnerslife website statistics for June.  I’m fully aware that I haven’t blogged much recently, so it was a huge surprise to see that of all the athletes on the site, my pages were the ones which received the most traffic last month. 

It got me thinking about who reads this website.  When I started writing for the site, I wasn’t sure that anybody was reading what I was writing!  I suspected that the website had a following, and that the typical reader would be someone like myself, a good standard club runner who was enthusiastic enough about the sport to travel up and down the country doing BMC races, league races, chasing PBs in the big road race events, etc.

I’ve been continually amazed this year as it has become apparent just how many people are actually readers of this website and equally surprised by the demographics of that readership.  I remember being at a half marathon in Wales back in February, getting ready to go for my warm down and being approached by a runner from Stockport Harriers who had just ran 76mins and wanted to let me know that he religiously reads my blogs.  The same thing happened at Bath with a runner from Coventry. 

I also had a guy buying some running shoes from me at work recently, he was a 38min runner from Rochdale Harriers and a regular reader of my blogs.  This happens quite frequently at work but still it continues to amaze me.  When I was organising the Trafford 10k earlier in the year, I had several runners in their correspondence to me mentioning that they read my blogs.  Each and every one was a surprise.  Even though people have told you they are reading, you still write a new blog and wonder if anyone will actually bother reading your latest offering!

The only way I actually know somebody is reading is when the blog receives comments.  Unfortunately we don’t get a notification if anybody does comment, so it’s purely a case of if we happen to check back that we will actually see your comments but I do tend to come back and check for a week or two after posting so you generally will get a reply!  If there’s one thing I’d like the guys at the site to work on, it would be to get a notification system set up...please!

In the aftermath of the disappointment of this years London Marathon, I did receive some really useful and constructive feedback via the comments section and this discussion was then continued via email.  Hopefully my ongoing minor injury problems will subside at some stage and allow me to put some of your ideas to the test!

Without wishing to sound cheesy, I do want to thank everyone who reads my blogs, training diaries and race reports.  Running is not an easy sport and comes with many challenges.  I enjoy reading the contributions of the other athletes on this site and it does help to know that other runners are facing similar challenges.  You can be riding on the crest of a wave one minute (as I was back at the National Cross Country in February), and yet a short time later you can be struggling – either with an injury or loss of form.    That’s the nature of the sport.  That has happened with Andi and Ben in recent times and it’s great to see Andi now returning to form and Ben getting back into the swing of things after his injury.   Whether you’re a 2:15 marathoner, 76min half marathoner, 38min 10k runner, we all face the same challenges and I think that’s why I find the runnerslife site an interesting read. 

Thanks again for reading
Cheers,
Dave