Sport / ZE Run at 10 – ‘youth club for runners’ celebrates decade of fitness and fun
ON THE first night of Shetland winter’s return, I stand with my hands in my jacket pockets and steel myself against the wind, the sleet and even the hail.
And yet – no more than 20 feet away – 40 runners in shorts and T-shirts are thundering around Clickimin running track in chase of fitness, personal bests or … maybe just to get it over with.
This is running group ZE Run’s weekly session, which regularly draws anywhere from 30-40 people – everyone from Island Games athletes to those looking to keep fit.
Organisers Linda and Russell Gair have been telling me that runners will come out whatever the weather – and here is my proof.
ZE Run is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, having started in 2015 as a way for Russell to invite friends out for a run rather than pounding the pavements alone.
How that has – literally – snowballed into 40 people traversing the track at Clickimin in the hail is a decade-long story. But first, to even get track-side, I had to prove I was able to hack the pace.
“This is Ryan Nicolson from Shetland News. He’s going to be doing a peerie article on wis, but he said he wanted to come along and run this 5K first.”
Russell Gair’s eyes glint with mischief. I am indeed here to run ZE Run’s monthly 5K – on a much warmer Saturday morning at the Clickimin several days earlier – but not through my own free-will.
In fact, Russell only agreed to offer up a feature on ZE Run’s anniversary if I first did a session with them.
And so to seize this sporting scoop, I have to put myself through 3.1 miles of moderate torture first.
Twenty seven agonising minutes later, accompanied by the sounds of my puffing and wheezing, I’m cheered across the finish line by most of the rest of the field – because they’ve already long finished.
I’m one of 11 personal bests on the day – mostly because it’s my first race – but the mere mention of an achievement like that gives me the appetite to return and try better it.
I can see why people keeping coming back.
At the wintery track days later, Linda Gair explains to me the origins of ZE Run – and how it has “evolved” to this point.
“We always thought there was room in the market for a good running group, for folk to get together, have a good social and do a bit of exercise at the same time,” she says.
“10 years ago, Russell phoned up a few of his pals and said ‘do you want to come up to the Gibby [Gilbertson Park] and do a running session?’
“Folk turned up week after week, and then we ended up booking the track here. It just seemed to grow arms and legs.”
Linda has a more succinct way of explaining the group – she calls it “youth club for runners”.
Russell says there were 12 people at the first unofficial ZE Run at the Gilbertson Park a decade ago, which grew to 30 within the first two months.
Running – and particularly longer distances – have become increasingly popular, but four-times Island Games athlete Russell says that wasn’t always the case.
“When I first came home to Shetland in the late ‘90s I stayed in Quarff, so I would run to Cunningsburgh and back and folk would draw ower in their cars asking if I was needing a lift.
Linda, on the other hand, said she “couldna run the length of myself” when ZE Run started, but has also grown to love it.
The evolution of the group came through word of mouth, with Russell’s friends telling their friends about it.
“We’re had this track booking for about 10 years now, and they turn up week after week, horrible weather or not,” she says, motioning to those circling the track in the hail.
“Sometimes when we’re making them do 200m sprints they’re not enjoying it, but they feel good afterwards!”
“I would run to Cunningsburgh … folk would draw ower in their cars asking if I was needing a lift.” – Russell Gair
Russell agrees that, although it can occasionally be less than easy, there is a real feelgood factor to ZE Run.
“You see tonight, very few folk drew up in their cars and thought ‘oh God it’s snowing, let’s go home’. They just got out and got on wi it.”
There’s the social side of it too. After Saturday’s 5K many of the runners beelined to the Clickimin café for a coffee and a catch-up.
And Fiona Shearer – a member for almost all 10 years – says the group also often congregated in the Clickimin sauna after a Thursday night session.
Fiona had been running before joining ZE Run, but decided she needed “more structure” from “folk that kent what they were spiking about”.
“I was just doing my own thing, going out for a long run and if I was feeling fine, I would just run a bit further, which is really no what you should do,” she says.
Here, there was something for everybody – “from the beginner to the elite” – instead of “just winging it and going out and running for two hours”.
And Fiona says the group mentality was what spurred her on to turn up every week.
“If you were going home after work and it was a night like this you wouldn’t go out the door,” she says.
“If it was just you and the poor weather you would just think, ‘ah I’ll just stay inside’. It gives you that push out the door because you’ve committed to something.”
‘You push yourself more’
Veteran runner Karl Simpson agrees. He’s been in ZE Run from the very start, having trained extensively with Russell before the 2009 and 2011 Island Games.
Despite his years of training, having the group around him still encourages Karl to get out and put the hard yards in.
“On a night like this, I know even the top runners will go out and think, ‘yun’s enough’, or ‘after this hill I’ll call it quits’,” he says.
“Here because you’re in a group environment, you dinna want to let the side down so you keep at it. You push yourself more than you would on your own.”
He’s watched the evolution of distance running in Shetland first-hand and says it was very different even 20 years ago.
“Distance running was really just two or three folk,” he says.
“A lot of my training was done on my own, it was a very solitary battle 20 years ago.”
With a lot more people conscious of their health, Karl says its “no surprise its [ZE Run] tain off as it has”.
“Aabody’s on a healthier plain and this very much ties into that,” he adds.
ZE Run members often compete in races across the world, with as many as seven ZE Run members representing Shetland at the 2025 Island Games – including Russell himself.
Linda says there’s no pressure from them for any of the group to go and race away from home.
“It’s very up to the individual. If you want to go and race on the mainland that’s good, if you don’t that’s fine,” she says.
Russell says they do try to push their members to take part in local races – to ensure they continue to happen.
“There’s been loads of folk doing marathons [south] in the last few years, which is brilliant.
“Marathons were almost unheard of 20 years ago, of someone going away to do it, but now you’re having to enter a ballot to get in.
“Which is crazy to put yourself through that kind of pain!”
The group pay membership fees to cover the costs of the track hire, but Russell says these are “very reasonable”.
“We have six sessions every month, but the membership really only charges for three so if folk miss one don’t feel like they’re missing out.
With 10 years behind them, the next milestone for ZE Run is to crack the 50 runner barrier, with Russell joking they are planning a party for that occasion.
And the group’s popular Run Fest event, organised this year to mark the anniversary, is set to return bigger and better next year.
You can get involved by emailing gymgair@outlook.com, or by contacting Gym Gair through Instagram or Facebook.
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