Trail running groups in London: what happens at one

Most people who search for a running group in London are asking one question and typing another. The question is: will I be the slowest, and will that be humiliating?

Worth answering properly, because the honest answer is that it depends entirely on which sort of group you turn up to, and the two sorts are easy to tell apart before you commit.

The two kinds

Performance groups

Structured sessions, usually on a track or a measured loop, split into pace groups. Intervals, tempo work, a coach with a stopwatch. Excellent if you have a time goal and know roughly what pace you hold.

You will not be humiliated at one of these, because you get put in a group that matches you. But you do need to know your numbers to answer the first question they ask.

Social groups

One group, one pace, regrouping at junctions, pub or coffee at the end. Nobody is timing anything. The pace is set by the back of the group, not the front.

This is the one to start with if you have not run in a group before, and it is what we run.

How to tell which you are looking at

• •If the listing mentions pace groups or minutes per kilometre, it is a performance group
• •If it mentions a pub, a cafe or "social pace", it is the other kind
• •If it says "all abilities welcome" with no further detail, ask before you go. That phrase covers both.
• •A group that tells you where it finishes is usually a social one. A group that tells you the session is usually not.

What happens at a social trail run

The format is much the same wherever you go. Meet somewhere findable, usually a station or a cafe. Ten minutes of hellos while stragglers arrive. Jog gently to the start of the trails as a warm up. Then seven to ten kilometres at a pace that allows conversation, stopping at every junction until everyone is back together.

Nobody is dropped, because the whole point is that the group arrives together. If you need to walk a climb, people walk it with you.

The things people worry about, answered

I am too slow

On a social run the pace comes off the back of the group. If you are at the back, you are setting it. This is not a consolation, it is how the format works.

I do not know anyone

Nor does almost anyone else. Running side by side is unusually good for this: there is no eye contact to maintain, conversation can stop without awkwardness, and the group reshuffles constantly so you end up next to most people.

I have never run off-road

Trail running is mostly just running while paying more attention to your feet. Shorten your stride, look a few metres ahead rather than straight down, and walk the steep bits. Everyone walks the steep bits.

What do I wear

Whatever you run in. Trail shoes help in winter mud and are not necessary in summer on most London ground. Nobody will notice or care.

“The group arrives together. That is the entire promise, and it is the only thing that separates a social run from a race you did not enter.”

How to pick one

Go to a free one first. Almost every group runs free sessions, and paying for one before you have been once is a poor bet. Go twice before you decide, because the first time you are too busy being nervous to tell whether you enjoyed it.

And pick on location before anything else. The group you will keep going to is the one you can get to on a Saturday morning without an hour of travel.