Flamingo Diaries

Lisa feels that gear should be spelt GEAR!!

Iget so much free running kit that I can insulate my loft with it,’ a fellow journalist told me at the 2014 Warsaw Marathon. I imagined his attic ankle-deep in trainers, with a faint waft of box-fresh running shoes about it (anyone who says they don’t sniff their new trainers is a liar – either that, or they don’t seek deep joy in the right places). ‘Funnily enough, I’ve hardly ever got free kit,’ I admitted. We continued chatting and eventually the talk turned to marathon times; I informed the gear-burdened journalist that I’d come last in five marathons (a number that, I’m proud to say, now stands at 25). ‘Perhaps sportswear companies should sponsor you not to run in their gear!’ he said.

I was tickled pink at the thought of planning a PR campaign targeting major sports brands with this ‘proposal’: ‘Pay me £10,000 and I promise never to run in your kit.’ I found this idea so funny that I put it in my book Your Pace or Mine?.

Then I received a Facebook message inviting me to be an ambassador for Flanci, an activewear brand on a mission to ‘put the fun into functional’ with their blindingly bright, funkily patterned kit. I was hooked the moment I opened the parcel I’d been sent, revealing a striking pair of floral skorts (a very flattering skirt/ shorts combo) that lit up my entire bedroom like a desert sunset.

‘Sign me up,’ I emailed, as I pranced about in them in front of my stand-up desk. And so I added yet another item to my ever-growing list of things I’d never thought I’d ever be: runner, triathlete, ultrarunner, 100 Marathon Club member,

Runner’s World columnist and, now, sportswear ambassador.

My new role didn’t get off to a good start: it took me several weeks to find the ‘secret pocket’ that’s designed to stash your mobile phone in the shorts part of the skorts. And I will confess I’ve struggled to post social media pictures of me in my fancy-pants kit, as I don’t much like being photographed at my sweaty best. But I was chuffed when ‘my’ brand won five running awards. So I’m now an ambassador for an award-winning brand, Mr Sports Journo, though, sadly, I still only have Rockwool insulating my loft, not snazzy shoes.

But the biggest gift has been the smiles my new gear has brought me. Granted, it takes some courage to wear my eye-scorching peacock pants, as they’re louder than howler monkeys (whose call can be heard clearly for three miles, since you ask, so you can imagine my gear), but the smiles I get from fellow runners and park users makes it all worthwhile. My flamingo hat hasn’t seen much flapping action of late, with parkrun and races banned, but the action has moved further south.

As someone who used to run in a bottle-green tracksuit that looked as if I’d washed the car while wearing it – and then used it to buff, too – the difference that colourful new kit makes has been a revelation. I was already aware of the superpowers silly hats can give you – they’re an instant ice-breaker, make toddlers and their parents grin and get you the loudest crowd support – but now I’m a convert to killer eye-catching kit, too. I’m writing this in my dandelion fireworks pants, smiling because I’m expecting a parcel and so the delivery guy is in for a big surprise. And, of course, when it’s time for my run,

I’m ready to shoot out the door and dazzle the unsuspecting citizens of Croydon, too. Fancy that!

Lisa is the author of two bestselling

running books, Running Made Easy and Your Pace or Mine? Her latest books,

Travel Seekness and Travel Agents, both

contain chapters about running.