#whywerun - Lloyd Kempson
Lloyd Kempson | Head Coach & Founder | Team Project Run
Running has been my life since before I can remember. Whether it was on the football pitch or in a National Championship I always loved running, running the fastest and running the most that I could. I always knew that I’d end up with a career built around my own running. I never visualised sitting in an office eight hours a day waiting to finish work so I could go for my run, I always planned to have a job that facilitated my love to run. As a 14:30 5km man myself, I’m training full time to reach that next level of sub 14 minutes so with training volume exceeding 15 hours on a full week, I need a job that not only is my passion but also gives me the best chance to hit my own athletic goals.
I’m very fortunate to have the dream job that I always wanted. I’m the founder and Head Coach of the running community Team Project Run which I began in April 2017. In the space of just over three years, we’ve established ourselves within the running community in the UK, had over 500 members pass through our membership roster and been through over 1000 marathon and half marathon training cycles combined. Whilst living in Sydney, I discovered that run crews and commercial run clubs were becoming more and more popular and the running scene was stepping away from the club grassroots pathway. More everyday commuters were finding a love for running through running with others. I thought about the current set up back home in the UK and how far behind we were. There were a few here and there but they were mainly focussed around the major cities and I felt that thousands of runners out in more remote locations were either without a club, without people to run with and without any idea on how to progress their running.
This kickstarted my idea to nail all three aspects that I feel are essential to get the most from your running journey. The physical aspect, where living a healthier lifestyle and hitting your goals through the assistance of coaching, the social aspect through meeting new people in a shared community and the mental aspect where you can find your potential as a human being through your love for the one thing we all have in common, we love to run! These are our three principles that have remained since day one.
Within TPR we offer 1-2-1 coaching for all of our members across our two coaches. Myself and Ross Murray, a 2012 Olympian and 3:52 mile man. We feel we have experience at every level of the game from grassroots club athletics, to complete beginners to The Olympic Games which enables us to give you the support and guidance you need to progress as a runner.
We mainly focus on the UK running scene for now but we’ve been lucky enough to coach runners from over 10 different countries in our three year existence. With members from all sectors including teachers, nurses, doctors, social care workers, builders, lawyers, accountants and librarians we’ve experienced so many inspirational stories that stick with us forever, these are experiences that not only help the community grow in strength but also help us team coach grow too which I feel is a priceless tool.
In 2020, we’re very excited to announce a third coach joining our team to enable us to coach ultra runners. Tom Evans, Great Britain professional Adidas, Red Bull and Garmin Ultra Runner is joining the TPR coaching staff to help us reach more runners across more disciplines. As we return to normality from Covid-19 we aim to reach more runners than ever in Europe through more coaching, more opportunities to join our community, more group based events when we’re permitted to and more education to those runners out there that don’t have access to what we can bring to some runners’ doorstep.
You can find Lloyd on Instagram HERE & Team Project Run HERE
