Hellooo runner, here’s your weekly dose of running inspiration, motivation, and news. A bit for everyone today. From wrapper-free oat bars to a (half) marathon in Spain, a runner in Japan, an ultra running documentary, and the Backyard Ultra team world championships.

Before we start…

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I started this week watching this documentary about Luuk van der Jagt, a Dutch ultrarunner taking on the TOR450 (a 450km race in the Italian Alps).

Even though I’m Dutch myself, I usually am quite skeptical about anything produced by my countrymates. Truth is, often it’s just not that good.

But this doc? I loved it. Here’s why:

I guess the beauty of this documentary is how raw it is. It’s absolutely beautifully produced, but the content feels so real and honest. I know it’s in Dutch, but there are subtitles and I think it’s worth watching.

Kenshin started running about two years ago (and a bit more seriously about a year and a half). And he got good at it… quickly.

So much so that he packed up his bags and moved from Australia to Japan, one of the best long-distance running countries in the world.

In Japan, there’s no shortage of great-quality races or competition. Kenshin’s goal? Running a sub-2:25 marathon at the Tokyo Marathon 2027. His current PB is 2.44, so he’s got quite a bit to shave off (though he recently ran a 1:14 PB in the half marathon).

After this intro, he hasn’t put much out on YouTube, but you can follow his journey on Instagram. What I enjoy about his account? The way he takes us behind the scenes, showing us what it’s like to train this hard while living in Japan. Kenshin is a bit of an underdog. He hasn’t been running for all that long, but he’s committed and not afraid to set big goals.

Madrid is one of Europe's best cities. I may be biased, but I’ve been more than 20 times, and it always has something new to offer. Especially in its top-notch culinary scene.

Madrid is also home to two really big races. The famous San Silvestre Vallecana (a massive 10k on New Year’s Eve), and… Rock ‘n Roll Madrid.

The latter offers 2 distances: the half and the full marathon. As shown in the table below, this isn’t the cheapest race in Europe, and it’s not a flat course. However, the reviews are very positive, and the routes take you all across the city.

The course features more than 30 entertainment stages (the half gets about half of that), and the crowd support is a 10/10.

Combine it with a weekend in Madrid, and you’ve got yourself an incredible city trip. Send me a message in case you want to know my favourite restaurants! ;)

A while ago I came across One Good Thing on Instagram: a company making wrapper-free oat bars.

I was super intrigued and reached out, but unfortunately, they didn’t ship outside of the UK. Sad!

But… a few months later, I received a message. They now do international shipping, and if I’d like to try out the bars. Say no more.

I’ve taken these bars on a bunch of runs so far, stacked into my shorts. From a long run, to a trail race, to post-race and pre-surf. They’ve held up great. You’d think the bars would go soft, but they’ve got a beeswax coating that basically works like the skin on an apple.

100% natural, no artificial ingredients, and 30g of carbs per bar. They’re a little dry, but if you’re not running fast or have some water with you, that’s no problem.

Personally, I’m sold. Less waste, less crap in your body 🙏

This week, the Big’s Backyard Ultra took place. Basically, the team world championships of backyard ultras. Here’s how it worked:

Everything could be followed via https://wtc2026.bigsbackyardultra.com/. A total of 990 runners from 67 countries participated. The max number of runners per team was 15 (9 teams were short on runners).

It’s a very cool format, where every runner on the team matters and they really have to work together, cheering each other on to keep going.

The competition ended yesterday. The US ran the most cumulative miles as a team and therefore won the competition. However, two Belgian guys each ran 124 laps, breaking the standing world record of 119 (by Phil Gore). A pretty epic accomplishment!!

I’m sure plenty of cool documentaries will follow on YouTube. For now, you can rewatch the livestreams, or dive deep into an Instagram rabbit hole.

That’s it for another edition of RunLetters ✅

Here’s to a great weekend ahead ☀️

Caroline