Running

Every Run Counts

By Every Run Counts

Published on April 28, 2023 8 min read

Reward your time outside

Every Run Counts rewards all exercise in the great outdoors no matter how big or small. Co-founder, Jeff Hunt, explains how the platform can help you stay motivated and improve your wellbeing.

Every Run Counts was created because walking and running changes lives. It’s here to celebrate your accomplishments, not to highlight where you’ve fallen short, what you could have done or even compare yourself to others. It doesn’t matter how far or how fast you go, every time you exercise it makes a difference to your wellbeing – so it’s all good!

Every run counts

The philosophy of Every Run Counts is very simple. If you recognise your successes, you’ll be encouraged to do more activity. The reality is, you probably don’t give yourself credit for the daily activity you do. The simple tasks of walking the dog, mowing the lawn, or volunteering at an event.

With Every Run Counts, everything you do is rewarded and you can use these rewards to donate to one of our partner charities, support your own fundraising campaign or help other members raise money for charity. We’re on a mission to create positive change, making our platform accessible and inclusive, with no strings attached – this is why we’ve made it free to join.

Supporting you to improve your wellbeing

Every Run Counts enables you to record all your activities on our platform. You can connect your mobile phone or wearable device, so you don’t miss a step or simply enter your daily mileage directly.

RunCoin® and virtual journeys

The clever bit is you can track how far you’ve travelled, visualised by our virtual journeys around the UK. You can even unlock virtual medals as you go to mark specific milestones achieved.

To enhance your enjoyment and keep you motivated, we’ve invented RunCoin®, our in-platform virtual currency (no it’s not a cryptocurrency, it’s just a bit of fun). RunCoin® can be earned and used in several ways:
• Collect RunCoin® simply by recording your activity on the platform.
• Earn RunCoin® by answering our daily poll aimed at improving the platform.
• Encourage other members by giving them RunCoin®.
• Donate to charity where we turn RunCoin® into real money.

Support for event organisers and promoting the great outdoors

Taking part in running and walking events is something we love to encourage. Since the pandemic, like most events, these have been in decline due to a lack of participants. Through Every Run Counts, we want to motivate our members to get involved. In most cases, great events get poor attendance because people simply don’t know about them – we want to change that.

There are so many local events that need extra promotion and thanks to our approach this is now happening. Even though we only launched the platform in January 2023, our peer-to-peer event listing is already on the verge of being the largest single source of events for the UK.

Thousands of local walking and running events are listed, with all the details for each event that you need and a useful search function. This has been achieved through the power of our membership community. Everyone who lists an event is supporting our members to get involved and they earn RunCoin®.

Volunteering or taking part in any of these events also means you can earn RunCoin®. This is a great way for us to recognise your efforts and encourage you to go to more events. You can even enter games to win prizes such as event entries, merchandise, and more from our fantastic partners like the Ordnance Survey.

Get involved and donate to charity

Our charity partners are carefully selected because of their connection to being active and the great outdoors. Our first four charity partners are the Running Charity, GoodGym, Campaign for National Parks and the Woodland Trust.

There is an option on Every Run Counts where you can donate RunCoin® to one of these charities. We then turn these into real money to help support the work they do.

We also have the Every Run Counts Community Charity Fund where you can support your own fundraising campaign or help fellow members raise money for charity by gifting RunCoin® to them.

The feeling of achievement you get from exercising can be massively amplified by donating your RunCoin® to charity. In just 7 weeks, members of Every Run Counts have already raised over £25,000 for charities by donating their RunCoin® at no cost to them.

A great way to give to charity

How Every Run Counts started

One of our founding members suffered a nervous breakdown while working in the corporate world. Jeff explains in his own words:

“It was during those dark days I rediscovered my passion for running and walking. The simple act of being outside and taking exercise was both a release and uplifting. The difference in my mental wellbeing encouraged me to seek like-minded individuals.

It became clear to me, there is often too much focus on how much you should walk or run, when and how you should do it. If you simply recognise the fact any exercise is good, it takes away the pressure and you can just enjoy the experience.

In this way, the benefits to your wellbeing can be transformational as well as your growing desire to exercise because you love it and it makes you feel good, not because you think you should.

We all know how valuable exercise is for our physical and mental health. The problem is that too many of us see it as a chore and a source of additional pressure.

Co-founder of Every Run Counts, Jeff

We want to change this mindset and help you see exercise as something you do for yourself. Every Run Counts celebrates all movement – fast or slow, long or short – it’s all good! By finding pleasure in exercise, you will end up doing more and not feel guilty when you have a “bad” day, week, or month. As a result, exercise will help alleviate life’s stresses and you might find yourself moving more than you expect.

As a member of Every Run Counts, you are part of a large supportive community. Some are just getting started and others are already passionate about walking and running, but we all have the shared ambition of looking after our collective wellbeing and raising vast amounts of money for charity.

There are a number of ways you can interact with members of the community – on the platform, via our social media channels and in real life. If you are interested in meeting others and getting real-life support, look no further. We have thousands of events listed for walkers and runners, so you can be sure to find something that suits you!”

Member encouragement and support

Connecting exercise with your wellbeing

In keeping with the self-help approach adopted by the NHS, there are five key areas you can focus on to improve your mental wellbeing.

1. Connect more with people to build a sense of belonging, share positive experiences and support others. Every Run Counts is all about building a like-minded community sharing their enjoyment of exercise.
2. Being physically active will improve your mental wellbeing by raising your self-esteem and help to positively change your mood. We give you the tools to record your activity and visualise how far you’ve travelled.
3. Learn new skills to boost your self-confidence and build a sense of purpose. This is a perfect opportunity to try our new motivational platform and connect with others.
4. Giving to others is an act of kindness creating positive feelings that increase your self-worth. With RunCoin® you can give to others or donate to charity at no cost to you.
5. Live in the present and be aware of your thoughts and feelings to improve your mental wellbeing. This is what we stand for, just walk or run for the pleasure it brings, the people you meet and the immediate benefits to your wellbeing.

Every Run Counts has created a platform that makes a positive connection between exercise and your wellbeing.

Ready to give it a go?

We hope you now have a flavour of what lies behind Every Run Counts and can see how it’s a great resource to keep you moving happily. There’s no doubt you would be in good company whether you already love walking or running or just wish you could find some way to enjoy exercise – we are there for you, for everyone, for free.

You can start today and benefit from everything on offer. Simply set up your account and away you go. You can redeem this reward code 65T7SE6T when you join and get an extra 100 RunCoin® to start you on your journey.

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By Every Run Counts