Christmas Gift Guide For Runners and Other Fit People

Another fantastically helpful guest contribution by arguably the fastest girls in Leeds and London – Veggie Runners

Runners are the easiest people in the world to buy presents for. Really. We love running gear and we use a lot of it. Some of it is expensive and best left to the experts – the runners themselves – to buy. There are lots of inexpensive gifts that will make your runner’s eyes light up with delight though. Of course, it means they’ll disappear for an hour or two to try them out on Boxing Day but, hey, at least they’ll be hungry and enjoy the leftovers when they get back.

Here’s our Veggie Runners quick and easy gift guide. Most of these goodies can be bought in local specialist running shops (or from their online stores). These are:

Up and Running – Leeds (2 stores), Harrogate and York. They have a 3 for 2 deal on up until Christmas, cheapest item free. They also have some freebie deals when you buy gift vouchers and a £10 gift voucher with ANY purchase, to use when you (or your runner chum) spends over £50 in store.

The Complete Runner – Ilkley. Currently has free postage on all mainland UK orders.

Sweatshop – York. They have a Christmas gift store online.

There’s also the independent but not at all local Sport Pursuit, the current go-to, hipster online store for serious sportswear. You need to register but all it takes is an email address to get you through to pop-up sales for seriously stylish, pro sports brands at knock down prices.

Right, on to specifics:

Socks – Runners are among the few people who actually like getting socks for Christmas. We go through a lot of them, you see; as a rule, our drawers and our laundry baskets will both be full of them. Socks that wick away sweat are best – Hilly, Groundhog and Thorlo are popular brands. To show you’re really on the ball, check out Run Breeze, a UK independent that specializes in running socks. As they say, their socks rock…

Gloves – All runners need gloves in the bleak midwinter and, to be honest, we’re always mislaying them or dropping them en route so another pair never goes amiss. Our favourites are Ron Hill gloves – founded by one of Britain’s best middle-distance runners in 1970, this a company that really knows their glove stuff (and other great running gear too). There are lots of other brands too – look for thin, lightweight ones. Runners’ hands get very hot so we’re not talking ski gloves here.

Books – We asked our followers to recommend their favourite running and fitness books to help Santa get it right for a change. Here’s the list we compiled of tried, tested and thoroughly recommended reads for runners and other fit people: The Veggie Runners Guide to Running and Fitness Books.

Headlamps – You need extra light on winter nights, which is when running headlamps come in to their own. They’re hugely popular this year for some reason and kind of cool (i.e. if you want to buy us a present, this is what we’d like). In fact, they’re so down with the kids that Runners World hasn’t got round to reviewing them yet (and they review everything). Brands to look out for are Ring Cyba-Lite (cheap), Silva (quite expensive), Petzl (off the scale costly!)

Bio:

Veggie Runners is a food and fitness blog packed with gourmet recipes, training tips and running chat. Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook or, even better, come and run with us! Outlaw Runners meets at Outlaws Yacht Club in Leeds city centre every Monday at 7pm. All levels welcome.