Est. February 2026 · Dorset
Running · Photography · Europe
Volume I · 81 routes logged
West Bay · Dorset · The back garden
More running community than running club. No fitness programme. No lecture about your heart rate zones.
Just people who’ve hit fifty, found that everything got slightly harder at once, and decided the best response was to get outside and talk about it.
Let’s be honest
The weight that used to shift doesn’t. The knees that were absolutely fine have started filing formal complaints. Recovery after a long run is no longer a good night’s sleep — it’s two days, some ibuprofen, and a long conversation with yourself about whether you’re an athlete or just someone who forgot to stop.
And then there’s the other stuff. The career that ate your diary. The health scare that recalibrated everything. The quiet sense that somewhere along the way, you stopped doing things for yourself and started doing them for everybody else.
Sound familiar? Good. You’re in the right place.
WHERE IT STARTED
It began at an Open Flame cooking course in the Dorset countryside. James and John — two blokes in their fifties who both reckoned they had another chapter in them — got talking over something that smelled good and went from there.
The cooking was fine. The conversation was better. By the time they'd finished, Thinking Out Loud Runners was real. Not yet on paper. But real.
THE TWO OF US
James Sayers — the writer, the admin, the more serious runner. Thinks too much, runs it off, writes it all down. The one who turned a feeling into a plan and then built a website about it at 2am.
John Foote — naturally fit in the way only a postie with a football habit can be. All those miles walked before most of us have even laced up. Warm, humorous, open — the one every room gravitates toward. Front of house, full of contacts, and the reason Thinking Out Loud Runners is a club rather than just a very long email thread.
There is an ongoing and entirely healthy debate about who makes the better plate of food. John runs a formidable feast. James works with Ross. Neither will concede. All welcome to adjudicate at the next meetup.
How it works
No pace requirement. No judgement. Headphones off. No one gets left behind. We move at the speed of the slowest person in the group, which on some mornings will be the person who organised it. You’re welcome.
What we actually do
We meet, we pick a route — something with a decent view, because there’s no point being out here if you’re not going to look at anything — and we move through it together at a pace that allows full sentences.
Some people run. Some walk. Some start running and end up walking, which is fine and also extremely relatable. The point isn’t the pace. The point is getting out, moving your body, and having the kind of conversation you don’t quite get around to anywhere else.
We’re based in Dorset — the South West Coast Path is essentially our back garden — but the plan is to take this further eventually. Local first. Then perhaps somewhere with better weather and cheaper wine.
The kind of view that makes getting out of bed worthwhile · Bridport, Dorset
Who this is for
Genuinely. The name has ‘runners’ in it but we are not precious about this. If you walk, you’re in. If you used to run and the knees have vetoed that for now, you’re in. If you’ve never run a step in your life but you want to start doing something and the idea of doing it alone feels grim, you are absolutely in.
We are particularly interested in the people who wouldn’t normally do this. The ones who find organised sport a bit much. The ones who’d never join a running club but might come for a walk with a friendly group of people in a decent location.
The photography is also always welcome. Stopping to take a photo of something is practically mandatory. This is not a race. It is an outing.
Somewhere worth going · Dorset
WHAT'S ON
Bridport 10k — Sunday 13th September. We'll be there — entries are all gone, but Andy Potter will be out on course with a camera. Follow us on socials to watch us suffer in real time. We'll shout when entries open for next year.
First Wednesday meetup — 16th or 23rd September. We're letting the group decide. Get in touch below and help us pick the date. It'll be a gentle intro — we're aiming for 5k but we go as long as the group wants. Coffee or a beer after, depending on the vote on the day. First one's free.
Come and join us
Thinking Out Loud Runners is brand new — which means you get to be in at the beginning, and also means we haven’t made any of the mistakes yet. We’re building this as we go, which feels appropriate for a group about figuring things out in your fifties.
We meet in Dorset. The routes are good, the company is better, and we always find somewhere decent for a coffee at the end. If you’re in the area and this sounds like your kind of thing, drop us a line. No commitment. No kit list. Just show up.
Same boat. Better views. Let’s go.
About
I’m a runner who carries a camera. Every time I visit somewhere new — whether that’s the Dorset coast path, a Spanish city at dawn, or a Swiss lake at an unreasonable hour — I lace up and go. Not to race, not to train, but to see.
Running gives you a place at a pace cars can’t, and a perspective most visitors never find. This journal is where I write it all down.
Thinking Out Loud Runners
A running and walking group with the over-50s spirit — open to everyone who thinks the conversation is the point. No pace requirement, no kit list, headphones off. Just good routes, good company, and somewhere decent for a coffee at the end.
First one’s free. Come along, see if we’re your kind of people. No commitment required.