A couple of years ago I bought some coaching with Shane Benzie, whose book, The Lost Art of Running, had resonated with me. In two or three visits to his base in Goring-on-Thames, I ran around the village cricket green, and he filmed me, explained in person the things I’d read in his book (essential to do it this way if you want the big changes, I feel - a book alone is not enough) and we worked on every aspect of my running form. With some ongoing online coaching, within 18 months I was running circa three-hour marathons, having been stuck at 3:30 for years. More importantly, I felt my running form had improved forever. I was, and remain, a fan.
So when I told running friend Yael about him on one of our long runs together and she read his book too, and when her husband James treated her to a coaching session with Shane to congratulate her for a 3:20 at Valencia for her first ever marathon, I was really chuffed for her. But what I didn’t expect was an email from Shane: ‘Phil I’m coming to Gibraltar, want to hook up?’
Of course I immediately knew Yael was the reason he was coming, James having figured out that due to availability and logistics it was the best way to get her a session. What’s more, it turned out Shane could squeeze in a couple more coaching sessions while here, and he asked me if I knew anyone else who may like them. I booked Faye in for a session with him as a cheeky little Christmas present, and happened to mention it the next day to our friend Reda - also a fan having read Shane’s book - who immediately grabbed the other one. Job done - now we were all set for his visit…
Wet and windy
We offered to collect Shane from the airport on New Year’s Day, and after the usual Gibraltar drama of a windy, touch-and-go landing, he was straight into a wet coaching session with Faye. As the track was closed, we headed down to a quiet bit of road at the small boats marina. Shane was soon getting her to run, watching her form, videoing her, and helping her to make some crucial changes. I’d taken the campervan down to use as a mobile office, and as we sat out of the rain Shane showed her videos of herself and explained proper foot landing and pushing off, leg cycling, chest positioning, arm movement and many other things, all brought to life by stories, case studies and of course by Faye actually implementing the changes there and then. Her before and after videos showed how much she had improved her running style, and she left the session excited and enthused.
Next day I joined Yael and Shane at the Lathbury track for Yael’s session. I wanted to continue to soak up new tips, and offer support to Yael - I was unexpectedly really enjoying all of this! Over a whole morning (cold and blowy but mercifully dry), Shane went even deeper, diving into multiple aspects of how the best Africans run, how to harness our brains to run better, the data provided by modern watches and how to use it, and much more. Yael got an awful lot from the session, and her running again improved (im)measurably. Shane said she was going to be a running ‘weapon’, which pleased her greatly, and I agree - she’s got so much raw talent and now she knows better than ever how to channel it. She is going on to big things.
Instant improvement
Arguably the biggest immediate difference of all the sessions, though, was in Reda - in her coaching later that day, she leapt from shuffling along (I’m sure she won’t mind me saying that) to literally striding like a pro, and was frankly unrecognisable from the runner we’ve always known, in merely minutes. Unsurpisingly, she too was blown away by what she gained from it. I can see why Shane says it’s addictive doing what he does. Faye, Yael and Reda are all very different runners, but they all got some life-changing stuff out of the sessions.
I had time to take Shane to my ‘day job’ DJ training studio in the World Trade Center and explain how we film, livestream and podcast from our facility - he’s setting up similar for himself and was keen to get the lowdown on our methods. He’s totally rethought his system of doing this and he took a list of new kit to buy, to pivot towards our way of doing things, so it was good to be able to offer something big to him too. As we parted at the airport, we both agreed we should try to get him back to Gibraltar soon, maybe for a more formal group coaching session down at the track - so watch this space!
Overall, a hugely positive and inspiring start to a new year of running.