A Nation that Runs

England Athletics have the ambition of making athletics, including running, the single most popular individual sport by 2017 with 500,000 new weekly participants.

Our sport is fortunate to have been served by a range of passionate, dedicated and talented individuals and organisations over many years with the growth of the sport during 2009-13 achieved through creating and working through partnerships.

A Nation that Runs is England Athletics' new recreational running and athletics plan. It outlines ways in which we will continue to work with partners to bring athletics to new people, welcome back those who have been away for a while, help people progress in the sport and support those currently involved.

You will see we will continue to use a range of methods to achieve our objectives, ranging from activators creating new opportunities in local communities through to providing support and sharing insight with national level organisations. The contributions and support of our partners remains vital.

Through a group of running stakeholders (the Run Group) we are already gaining new insights into our sport, including why people do and don’t get involved in running and athletics. This insight will help us, and our partners to be more effective in identifying ways in we can work together to grow our sport and ensure as many people as possible can share the enjoyment and benefits it brings.

The document contains information on:

• How we aim to achieve our ambition to have 2.4 million active participants by 2017.
• Interpreting trends in participation and assess the current market.
• How we will invest in both direct and indirect delivery mechanisms to achieve our growth targets, including details via Case Studies.
• Our programmes (Run England, 3-2-1 Routes, City Activation, AthleFIT).
• How our success will be measured. 

Click here to download 'A Nation that Runs'.