This week is Global Running Day (3rd June) and the Pilates for Runners membership at Studio44 Pilates is celebrating it the best way we know how. Not just with a race result. With a real return to running after injury story.
Meet Rachel. She’s one of our members, and this May (2026) she lined up at the Manchester 10k having not run a race since the Great North Run in 2022.
She’d had gluteal tendonitis. She’d only started building her running back up four weeks before race day. The longest she’d run in years was nine kilometres.
Oh, and she’d just turned 50.
Sound familiar?
“I just wanted that race day feeling back”
It started, like so many things do, by watching someone else do something brilliant.
Fellow Studio44 Pilates member Maxine had just run the London Marathon, and she’d done it injury free. You can read her full story here. The short version is this: Pilates was her foundation, and it changed everything.
That story landed with Rachel.
She’d been watching the London Marathon buzz seeing runners crossing the finish line, emotional and exhausted and absolutely buzzing and Maxine’s experience made something click. If Pilates could get Maxine to a marathon start line healthy and strong, what could it do for her?
She hadn’t done an organised race in years. She wanted a challenge. So, she signed up for the Manchester 10k.
What she didn’t do was pretend she was ready for it.
“I went in with realistic expectations. I knew where I was physically. I just gave myself permission to take my time.”
The return to running after injury that almost didn’t happen
Here’s the bit that matters for every runner reading this.
Rachel didn’t just rock up and run 10k on fitness alone. She’d been dealing with a hip injury, gluteal tendonitis that had stopped her running properly for months. Getting to that start line required rebuilding carefully, intentionally, with the right kind of support.
Just like Maxine, that support was Pilates.
“There is absolutely no way I would have made it to that start line without Pilates. Without the strength work, I’d still have been dealing with injuries and wouldn’t have been able to run to the end of the road, never mind 10k.”
This is what we talk about in the Pilates for Runners membership at Studio44 Pilates all the time. Pilates isn’t the soft option. It’s the thing that keeps you in the game.
Race day: honest, gritty, and a surprise PB
The first 5k went well. The second 5k? She’ll tell you herself it was hard. It was hot. She was tired.
But she kept going.
And when she checked her 5k split? 29:29. A personal best in recent years.
She finished in 1:04. Her target had been sub-1:05.
“I was really happy with that.”
(Understatement of the year, if you ask me.)
What she wants you to know
If you’re a runner who thinks Pilates is a bit… optional. A nice extra. Something you’ll get round to eventually.
Rachel has something to say to you:
“When you’re over 40, there’s no hiding from it, you have to do the work. And you will be so grateful that you did.”
She’s already setting her next target: sub-60 minutes for a 10k. And she knows exactly what’s going to get her there.
This Global Running Day, what are you building towards?
Maxine ran a marathon injury free. Rachel came back from injury and ran a 10k PB at 50. Both of them will tell you the same thing – Pilates was the foundation that made it possible.
Running well, running consistently, returning to running after injury without breaking down again that takes more than just miles.
It takes strength. It takes mobility. It takes the kind of support you’ll find in the Pilates for Runners membership at Studio44 Pilates.
Whether you’re coming back from injury, training for your first race, or just trying to keep running as the years tick by you’re in the right place.