
Wow, so here we are just 3 days away from our first event!!!
Those of you that know the story of ESCAPE trails will know how much this means to me, for those of you that don’t here’s a little bit of background story –
Rewind to the beginning of last year, and I was currently in a job of 24 years, I’d just lost a significant family member, and was feeling a little stuck in life. So what did I decide would be the best plan of action?……..That’s right, quit my job, start up my own trail running business doing the thing I love, oh and to run from Switzerland back to Dereham in Norfolk.
So on the 19th May 2019 I registered ESCAPE trails as a business, and started planning my escape from what had been my life for the past 24 years. The planning for my little jog from Switzerland was obviously taking up a large part of my free time, so the plan was to let ESCAPE trails sit on the back burner for a bit, and to give it a real go once I got back from Switzerland.
The run from Switzerland did’t quite go to plan, and after 13 days of running and over 150 miles I picked up an injury that wouldn’t see me run up until the beginning of 2020. Without being able to run the running side of the business was put on hold, with the majority of my work time over the past 6 months being spent on planning, and learning. Planning events, planning routes, planning trail running breaks away to other parts of the UK, planning talks on the benefits of running, planning how many cups of coffee I can realistically drink in a day, and most importantly planning when I’d be fit enough to run my first event for ESCAPE trails.

Well, here we are, 3 days away from that first event, and I have to say I am very very excited. Over the past 5 years trail running has become a massive part of my life, it has gone from being a slight hobby that I do every couple of weeks, to one of the biggest passions in my life, with the biggest part of that being able to get people out on to the trails for the first time. So to be able to do that at my first event is fantastic, especially at somewhere as beautiful as Harling Woods, so if you have always wanted to try trail running but haven’t known how to, this Intro To Trail Running event is the one for you, I will use my experience of running trails both here in the UK and around the world to make sure you leave with the knowledge to get out and enjoy trail running, and more importantly that you have fun in a safe and friendly environment. I know a lot of people worry that they will be too slow for events like this, but I don’t believe there is such a thing as too slow, none of my events are races, we run at a social pace with no one being left behind and everyone being included no matter what their ability.
There are still some spaces left for this event, and it would be great to meet some of you out on the trails, you can find more info and tickets at https://escapetrails.co.uk/event/intro-to-trail-running7-3-20/
Neil