I ate my weight in porridge that summer and I had a whale of time. Running was going well and everything was going well. I had a great job, friends, and not a care in the world.
Then on one of the sleepless, post-long-run nights I came up with the idea of making instant, but still 100% natural porridge for runners. We were going very creative with our porridge back then - not the usual way; we had it with honey and raisins, lemon curd and even... tomato concentrate (no, not all at once though!) It seemed like a great (and easy) idea to make a mark in the world (I was self-employed and really wanted to have my own business I could grow from zero to hero - and if it could be running-related, that would be all my dreams come true).
1. The very, very beginnings - August 2014
What seems like an eternity ago, I scribbled some recipes on a single sheet of paper one night and called it endearingly 'Runner's Delight'. It was a private joke, since my then runner-friend invented banana-and-peanut-butter porridge recipe (which has become the first of our flavours) and I laughed at how he has his own 'Runner's Delight' and a lightbulb went off in my head...I immediately started first taste trials (which were all absolutely awful)
September - October 2014
Marathon, another half and weeks of research
In the summer of 2014 everything revolved around my first marathon in Warsaw. After I finished it on the 28th of September (the time was rubbish, 5:02, but all I wanted then was to finish and not let my knee stop me) it was clear a rapid come-down was imminent. I tried to offset it by running another half in Gdansk to celebrate my 25th, but that was it. I approached designing flavours very dilligently and spent the next 6 or 8 (I can't remember) weeks scoring the internet for evidence that beetroots and sour cherries are the best combo ever for endurance athletes.
November - December 2014
First successful taste trials!
After weeks of researching and designing recipes, we (that is me and my business-partner, Adam - yes, he actually exists outside my head...) decided to put them to a test...which was, this time, rather successful. Rather, but not quite, as adding any supplements to the original recipes would invariably turn a Runner's Delight into a Runner's Nightmare. After writing the original recipes (in hand, on porridge-stained paper) immediately started searching for a private label company that will do all the hard work for us, while we sit back, relax and admire the fruits of our genious...
January - March 2015
The film, website, brand identity and failed crowdfunding campaigns
WE-WERE-SO-WRONG. First lessons learnt - the idea is impossible, and if possible, than probably not profitable enough to outsource at this point. We make up our minds not to give up and decide to run a crowdfunding campaign instead. Adam is apprehensive. We've done it once already (and raised a spectacular amount of 5 (five!) pounds) and it was a spectacular disaster. I maintain this time will be different. It wasn't. We still failed to work on the campaign and flopped like we did before. But this time, we spent a good bazilion of hours filming and editing the epic BEAT THE WALL movie (see the link
BEAT THE WALL - Runner's Delight film - role of a lifetime ). My artistic concept -as the title suggests - involved beating the proverbial 'wall' faced by long-distance runners, which in turn involved building one of cardboard boxes and brick-print wallpaper. After 14 hours of putting the boxes together, filling them with the contents of my desk for better grip, and painstaikingly wrapping them in the said wallpaper (which cost us a small fortune and required a 1,5 hour drive to the other end of the town) we already began to hate each other, but unbeknownst to us, the worst was yet to come...
The film itself was a bit of a nightmare - while the winter was certainly mild, we picked the worst day in the year to film - insanely cold and windy. I spent about 5 hours on 15-second runs in a hoodie, jumping into the trunk of my car, from which Karol, our tireless cameraman, was shooting the whole thing, with Adam behind the wheel. We were briefly joined by Ewa, who - as if braving the first trimester of her first pregnancy was not enough - was now casted to run into the pile of wallpaper-wrapped cardboard boxes...madness.
Watching myself run in the film was a horror in it's own right. I thought I must have clearly overindulged over Christmas. So bring on the most common New Year's resolution, bring on the high-protein, low-carb diet, which will damage my kidneys and two months later regale me to severe haematuria after my next half-marathon...
Meanwhile, we have been working hard on our website http://www.runnersdelight.eu/ (that is, mostly Adam has - I was just standing by criticising every minute detail), the visual identity of RD - logos, colours etc. (with endless fights over fifty shades of...beetroot) and the packaging
March 29th; Warsaw Half. Reunion
A bit apprehensive about my general state of health (still no connection made between how I felt and the bloody diet - well done me!), I went for the Warsaw marathon with my brand-new RD t-shirt and a bag full of porridge (rather than hope). I was about to meet the friend of mine who first inspired Runner's Delight, but doubted I'd ever bring the project to a successful completion. Well, another one bites the dust. We met in a small deserted cafe on Nowy Swiat and I handed him a small box with a few Runner's Delight packages that cost me a hell lot of time to make. He opened them with real astonishment and cracked a big smile. Win. The finish time (2:18) did not matter for me that much.
April 2015
The injury. London Marathon. Putting things into perspective.
Back in October, I got a special b-day present form a close friend - a race pack for the impending Lodz Marathon in my home city. Meanwhile, with everything on my plate and my private life and career coming to a little stall all the same time, my running went a bit downhill...not totally out of the window, but downhill. I had a conversation with an elderly man in the forest (I know how it sounds) I usually went to for a long run. He ran all the Lodz marathons and was about to run another one again. I told him how scared I was, as I was feeling totally unprepared. 'Just wing it' - he said. And I didn't. Days before the event, I pulled a tendon in my foot, which practically immobilized me for 6 weeks.
Instead of running a marathon, I went to watch one - the London Marathon 2015
I booked my and my tireless best mate's (Stefania's) tickets for London a month before and decided this would be our deadline to launch the Indiegogo campaign. We struggled madly in the run-up, up to the point that I almost missed my last train to Warsaw and Adam had to defect from a party to print the leaflets I wanted to hand out after the big event. We met on the train and then I realised the leaflets had a spelling mistake...in the company name. We were clearly off to a good start. The campaign was launched without Cava and even we did not believe it had a chance to succeed... but Runner's Delight was on its way anyway.
After London, I went to Portugal with Stefania (one of the best people on the planet) for a week to limp around and put things into perspective (perspective pictured)
May 2015
The false start
Since I was to start my summer job in Southampton soon, the days we could work together were counted. From now on, every weekend looked the same for us - working hard to make RD happen. We sent requests to send samples to all UK parkruns and got a positive response. The same with bloggers. And as it quickly turned out, we couldn't quite handle the demand...Finishing work at 4 a.m. on Saturday night became a standard. I remember the bank holidays, when we went to sleep at 2 a.m. packing parcels and got up at 8 a.m. to pack some more... we needed systems. Systems and strategy...
June 2015
Southampton
I cannot lie - I wanted this to end. I was happy to leave. We divided our duties and I left for Southampton. The first few weeks went on smoothly, ordering and sending ingredients, dealing with emails from out keen future customers ... and wallowing in mud... for charity (yes!)
July-August 2015
Ready to ship, hoping it's not another Titanic
Launching the venture in Southampton has a little irony to it - but I really wouldn't want this ship to sink. Last year was so ridiculously long ago we don't even I feel like I was a different person when I first started off. And I probably was. It has been the longest and most exhausting run in my life so far and bless me I did endurance running before foolishly embarking on this apparently innocuous but totally mad journey. Starting a business in an industry in which you have no background, no experience and no connections, is like running a marathon without training. In other words: don't do it. I did it and I haven't died (yet) but it's certainly hurt more than made me tick so far.
Having said that, I baked a little porridge cake today to celebrate Runner's Delight first birthday (and make you think I'm totally deranged, yes. And yes, that's supposed to be a candle on top. Please stop laughing now.) Apparently having a baby can make you more depressed than a divorce (I know I'm not allowed to use the porridge-baby analogy, Trevor, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want ;p ) - so it looks like we're gonna be just fine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/08/11/the-most-depressing-statistic-imaginable-about-being-a-new-parent/
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