Start to finish – marathon essentials for training and racing
We take a look at the latest running gear and accessories to help you with your next marathon.
Oakley – Bisphaera Speed - £168.00
The latest stylish design from sporting eyewear specialists Oakley delivers a twin-lens frame, providing grip and excellent coverage at any pace.
The Unobtainium Earsocks and Nosepad use a patented material to ensure maximum comfort and increase grip with perspiration to keep the frame in place without slipping.
The O-Matter thermoplastic frame makes for improved strength and flexibility, as well as being super-lightweight.
And of course, the lens provides ultra-clear visibility and protection in a wide range of lighting conditions, perfect for changeable weather when on the move.
STRAVA – From £ Free
An essential element of any athlete’s training plan is the ability to record and analyse their routine. Strava and Runna are both powerful tools for marathon runners, offering support in different ways. Strava is a fitness tracking app with a social element, enabling people to share activities, join clubs, and compare efforts with others. Runna is a personal running coach, built to deliver structured, goal-specific training plans with expert guidance.
The two apps are complementary; Runna enables people to train smarter, while Strava offers a place for people to share progress and celebrate with their community.
The constantly evolving software allows you to set goals, whether that be distance, time, elevation, or number of activities, and monitor your progress continually. Seeing how your efforts measure up against friends, other athletes and your previous attempts across segments, portions of roads that you run or adds an added element to daily sessions.
Performance Predictions are designed to estimate finish time and target paces for running races ranging from 5k to a marathon, train with greater clarity and confidence, and see measurable improvement before and after race day.
Notable platform and feature updates from the last six months include:
Runna is designed to deliver professional, structured coaching that adapts to you personally as you build towards your goal. You select a plan based on your marathon date, experience, and weekly availability, and the app builds a calendar of workouts that adapt over time.
Runna’s plans are created by experienced running coaches and offer explanations for each workout, tips on pacing, recovery advice, and training theory. This transforms it into a true training companion.
If you miss a workout or go on holiday, Runna allows you to adjust your plan on the fly. Training preferences can be updated throughout your plan at any point, and features such as ‘Not Feeling 100%’ enable runners to adapt their training when they are unwell, managing an ache, or when life just gets in the way.
Beyond running, Runna includes sessions for strength training, mobility, and Pilates, all built specifically to support runners with injury prevention, recovery, and performance in mind.
Both apps can sync with GPS watches and fitness platforms. You can also sync workouts between Runna and Strava. The platforms also give subscribers estimated completion times for key running race distances, including the marathon, based on their historical activity data. Both apps also show historical logs, personal records, and training data. You can review your performance, pace, and trends over time in both apps.
AG1 – Supplement – From £79.00
AG1 has become one of the most recognisable names in daily nutrition supplements, providing a convenient all-in-one solution. At its core, AG1 is a powdered greens drink designed to replace multiple supplements, combining over 75 ingredients including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, and plant extracts in a single daily serving.
One of the key strengths of AG1 is its convenience. Rather than managing a complex range of tablets and capsules, simply mix one scoop with water to deliver a broad spectrum of nutrients. This makes it particularly appealing for busy individuals and athletes who want a streamlined approach to daily supplementation. It effectively functions as a multivitamin, probiotic, and greens powder in one.
Nutritionally, AG1 is comprehensive. A single serving provides over 100% of the recommended daily intake for several key vitamins, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and the full range of B vitamins, which play a critical role in energy production and overall metabolic function. The inclusion of probiotics also supports gut health, potentially aiding digestion and microbiome balance.
Another benefit is its broad-spectrum wellness focus. Alongside essential nutrients, AG1 includes adaptogens and plant compounds aimed at supporting stress management, immune function, and recovery.
Importantly, AG1 is NSF Certified for Sport, meaning it has been independently tested for banned substances and contaminants, an important consideration for competitive athletes. It is also suitable for a wide range of dietary preferences, being vegan, gluten-free, and free from artificial additives.
Sunski – Paldino Sunglasses - £67.95
With a larger, wraparound coverage design, these glasses provided dependable protection with a stylish appeal.The dual-bridge design helps with ventilation, and the lightweight construction means extended comfort when on the move.
The Helio PC lens is polarised and blocks 100% of UVA, UVB and UV400 harmful wavelength rays for the best protection in the sun and gets a lifetime durability warranty for extra peace of mind.
Superfeet – Run Pacer Elite - £85.00
Featuring a Carbitex carbon fibre plate and a SuperRev responsive foam base, these insoles aim to add that super-shoe feel to your everyday trainers.
The combination of the two materials often found in the latest race day models allows you to experience a similar effect in training shoes as well as the ability to take that added propulsion from shoe to shoe.
The insoles feel soft and springy, and the added propulsion from the plate really does give an extra level of toe-off spring to your everyday shoes.
Les Mills – Sculpt Bands - £49.99
Perfect for strength and conditioning, these high-quality resistance bands help tone muscle, feel strong and improve balance and coordination. A simple to use App provides easy-to-follow instructions to new users, and the varying resistance of the bands makes progressive training easy.
Versatile and portable, the lightweight yet durable bands come with a carry pouch and are easy to use for added resistance and stretching at home or when travelling.
Truefuels – Fuel, Hydrate, Regulate
Truefuels is a new but credible entrant into the performance nutrition space, co-founded by Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee. Built around elite-level insight and sports science, the brand focuses on clean, functional products designed specifically for endurance athletes. One of its most innovative offerings is CoreCtrl, a supplement aimed at improving performance in challenging environmental conditions.
Unlike traditional sports nutrition products that focus primarily on energy delivery or hydration, Truefuels takes a more physiological approach. CoreCtrl is designed to support the body’s natural thermoregulation processes, essentially helping athletes better manage internal heat during exercise.
The formulation combines key electrolytes with ingredients such as taurine and piperine, targeting improved fluid balance, muscle function, and heat dissipation. The intended effect is an enhanced sweat response and more efficient evaporative cooling, helping to reduce internal heat build-up during prolonged or high-intensity efforts.
From a performance perspective, this translates into greater stability under stress. By supporting cardiovascular function and reducing thermal strain, the supplement aims to allow athletes to sustain effort for longer.
Another benefit is its integration into a broader fuelling strategy. Truefuels products are designed to work together, combining hydration, electrolyte balance, and energy delivery with this newer focus on heat management.
Importantly, the brand emphasises clean, minimal ingredients, avoiding unnecessary additives and focusing on functional outcomes.
Claymore – Heady3 - £49.95
While it may be getting lighter in the evening, for some runners, their schedule means training at night. This lightweight and versatile wearable light features 6 light modes and 4 LED colours that suit any environment.
With an adjustable headband and tilting angle, the unit can light your footsteps as well as the path ahead of you. It’s easy to charge via USB and provides between 4 and 60 hours of light depending on power output.
Tracksmith – Spring Marathon Range – From £70.00
This range of spring ,arathon-inspired apparel is perfect for training and race day. Celebrate your run in Tokyo, Boston or London with the stylish Tracksmith collection, with shorts, singlets and t-shirts available.
Everything has that stylish New-England inspired Tracksmith look and uses the latest fabrics to provide moisture-wicking and breathable pieces for comfort and performance.
SunGod – Ultras Air - £160.00
The brand’s lightest frame yet, the Ultras Air feature a streamlined, 8KO spherical lens for the ultimate combination of clarity and protection.
At just 24.5grams in weight, the glasses are some of the very lightest around, yet are flexible and durable with a neat and secure, no-bounce fit. The lens offers 100% UV protection and remains distortion-free regardless of weather and light conditions.
Available in a range of frame and lens colours and combinations, including a photochromatic lens for changeable conditions.
Holy – Energy & Hydration - From £19.99
Holy is a new energy and hydration drink brand with a no-sugar, natural ingredients ethos, offering great flavours for every occasion. A great alternative to canned drinks, the brand’s great flavours are their highlight, making the easy-to-mix drinks feel like a treat rather than simply rehydrating.
The Holy Energy range is designed as a cleaner alternative to traditional energy drinks. It combines natural caffeine sources with a proprietary “NewCaff” system, which uses microencapsulation to deliver both an immediate and sustained caffeine release. The result is intended to provide a smoother energy curve with fewer spikes and crashes compared to standard high-caffeine beverages.
Alongside this, the drinks are zero sugar, using alternative sweeteners to maintain flavour without the calories usually associated with energy drinks.
Holy Hydration focuses on electrolyte replenishment without unnecessary additives. These formulas include minerals and ingredients such as coconut water powder and goji berry extracts, aimed at supporting fluid balance and recovery. They are caffeine-free, making them suitable for everyday use as well as during or after exercise.
The brand’s products are vegan, sugar-free, and flavoured with natural ingredients, perfect for health-conscious athletes and users who want performance benefits without the sugar and artificial flavours often associated with soft drinks.
