Recreational Runners: REDs Can Affect Us Too
Recreational Runners: REDs Can Affect Us Too
By Ambassador, Martha Robinson
I didn’t grow up as a runner. If anything, I never really understood the appeal. Then lockdown hit, I decided to give it a go, and quickly ate my words. I grew to love running.
To skip forward a little, after a few years of gradually running further and faster, I ran my first half marathon in 2023 and my first full marathon in 2024. I managed to bag myself an entry to the London Marathon 2025, and (all too) soon after, charged straight into training for an ultramarathon. It was all going so well, until it very much wasn’t.
Only a few weeks before I first went to the doctors about my relentless fatigue, breathlessness, and poor sleep, I remember saying to a friend “I’ve never been injured, I’m so lucky”. I now realise I was in a state of denial. The weekly volume I was running, combined with poor sleep and inadequate fuelling, wasn’t healthy, sustainable, or, upon reflection, enjoyable. I became consumed by the constant drive to run further and faster and carried an overwhelming sense of guilt if I didn’t hit a certain weekly mileage or squeeze in a session before work. I ignored the many signals my body was desperately trying to send me and pushed through pain without question.
These were clear warning signs that I was at risk of REDs, but I never imagined it could happen to someone like me - a recreational runner who runs purely for enjoyment. I now understand that REDs really can affect anyone. Maybe if I’d understood that earlier, I could have stopped it from happening.
A Different Kind of Training Plan
Eventually, an injury forced me to take time away from running and face the reality of how I was truly feeling. While seeking support for the injury, a specialist explained that my symptoms aligned with REDs and asked whether I’d heard of it. I had, but only through scrolling on Instagram and reading about the experiences of elite athletes. I was far from elite, so assumed it couldn’t happen to me. After doing some digging to understand what I was experiencing, and taking a few weeks to reflect, I decided to commit to REDs recovery and work towards building a healthy and sustainable relationship with running.
In this time, I focused on learning more about REDs to make sense of how I got here, and figuring out the steps I needed to take to return to what I love. As challenging as it has been, and continues to be, I know this season of recovery is all part of my long-term training plan, the one that will keep me running well into the future.
Hurdles Along the Way
One of the hardest aspects of REDs recovery for me, aside from accepting and honouring the changes I needed to make, has been finding the words to explain what’s going on.
How do you explain that your seemingly healthy hobby has turned into something quite the opposite? Sometimes, you can’t, because you may not fully understand it yourself. REDs often creeps up, initially disguised by a spell of improved performance, before it eventually forces you to a sudden stop in the form of an injury or overwhelming exhaustion. It’s confusing, disorientating, and feels very unfair, and as recreational runners, we often don’t have a team of professional around us to explain how this happened, what’s going on, or where to begin with recovery.
This was when I came across Project REDs. The resources helped me make sense of what I was experiencing and gave me the words to explain it to those around me, while also offering much needed reassurance. You might not be an elite athlete, or even consider yourself an athlete at all, but through Project REDs, I learned that REDs is not exclusive to elite sport and, unfortunately, affects so many just like me.
Once I truly accepted this, I started to go a little easier on myself. I realised I wasn’t silly for “getting myself into this situation” or for “taking running too seriously when I only do it for fun”, I just got swept up in doing something I love without the knowledge and support I needed at the time. This understanding helped me make sense of where things went wrong and what I need to do differently moving forward.
Looking to the Finish Line
I naively believed there would be a clear finish line to REDs recovery - a day I’d wake up feeling energised, injury-free, and with a regular menstrual cycle. I’ve since realised recovery often doesn’t work that way. I wish I knew that at the start. REDs recovery is gradual and can feel endless at times, but in these moments, it helps to focus on the bigger picture - you’re doing this for your future self!