I'm Gareth, an England Athletics Level 3 coach based in Royal Tunbridge Wells and a Tunbridge Wells Harrier. I coach runners here and further afield, all online, so the training fits around real life. Everything from a first 5K to a marathon PB. And being based here, I know the roads and races you'll be running.
I'm based in Royal Tunbridge Wells and I run here: the commons, the hills, the local parkruns and races. So when I write your plan I'm not guessing at the ground you'll be on. I know what the drag up out of Dunorlan does to tired legs, and where to find a flat mile when you need one. Small thing, maybe. It still shows up in the plan.
Tunbridge Wells sits in the High Weald, and the running shows it: short sharp climbs, wooded commons, not a lot that's flat. Which is a gift, if you train for it. I put the hills in your plan on purpose, so that on race day, flat feels like a day off.
Some sessions just want flat, even ground. Round here that's the Forest Way, ten traffic-free miles along an old railway line, or a lap of Barden Lake over at Haysden. I'll point you at the right one for the session in hand.
Two very different parkruns bookend the area: Tunbridge Wells at Dunorlan Park, with a finish cruel enough that locals named the last hill, and Tonbridge, flat and fast by the Medway. A free 5K to sharpen on whenever your plan wants one.
A plan is only as good as the ground you run it on. These are the local spots I'll send you to, and why.
256 acres of hilly, wooded common land right in the middle of town. Sandstone outcrops, gill streams, and enough trails you'll never run the same loop twice.
The 78-acre Victorian park that hosts Tunbridge Wells parkrun. Undulating tarmac and grass, a boating lake, and the uphill finish everyone loves to hate.
Flat, low-lying riverside trails along the Medway. Where to head when the plan says steady and you want your legs, not the hills, setting the pace.
The biggest reservoir in the South East, with a trail right the way round it, near enough 12.5 miles. A cracking long-run loop, and home to the Bewl 15 every summer.
Waymarked forest routes from 2k to 10k on firm, compact trails near Goudhurst. Soft underfoot, kind to tired legs, and it has its own Saturday parkrun.
Ten flat, traffic-free miles on a disused railway through the High Weald. The obvious pick for a long tempo or a chunk of marathon-pace work.
Half the battle is picking the right race and working back from it. Here's the local calendar, most of which I've run myself.
Every February. A single-lap tour of the villages with a stiff climb at Fordcombe, and the race my own club, the Harriers, has put on for over forty years. A great first half, or a fast one.
March, flat and fast, and traditionally the spring-marathon tune-up around here. If a half PB is the goal, this is where I'll aim you.
July. Fifteen miles round the reservoir on trail and quiet lanes. Long and honest, and a good stepping stone from a half towards your first marathon.
October, from the Judd School on a countryside loop. Three distances, so whatever shape your autumn's in, there's a number to aim at.
And if your goal race is nowhere near Kent, that's no problem at all. A spring marathon up in Manchester, an autumn one abroad, makes no difference. Most of the runners I coach race all over the place. We just work back from your date, wherever it lands.
It's all online, and that's on purpose. Your plan lives on your own platform, your runs sync straight in, and I read them and adjust week to week. So your training works around your job, your family and the odd week away, rather than being one more thing to juggle. Southborough or Sydney, it runs the same. And being local was never about meeting up. It's that I know the ground you'll be covering, the hills and the parkruns and the races, because I run them myself.
Tell me where you're at and what you're chasing. The first call's free, twenty minutes, no hard sell. And if I'm not the right coach for you, I'll say so.
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