TOM BEDFORD

RUN-FEST | RIVER THAMES RUNNING race director | ❤️ athletics & road running | These are my views so please get your own!

[Richmond RUN-FEST @RichmondRunFest]

2 WEEKS TO GO: RICHMOND RUN-FEST! 🌳🏃‍♂️

The main race start lines are officially SOLD OUT for the Richmond 10K, Half Marathon, and Full Marathon on the 12th & 13th of September 2026 but there are still entries in our family mile.

https://t.co/gaqSqgxXXO

[Worthing RUNFEST @worthingrunfest]

1 week to go until the Littlehampton 10K on the 6th September. Fully road closed. Join us! https://t.co/IB7MOpebt8

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

@ClaytonBannon1 Great for the sport though! Love this public trolling!

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

@RoyalWilks @Jason_AW What makes it even worse is that it’s an off year in terms of major champs so this could have been getting all the headlines. I’m not clued up enough to understand why they went with TNT. Money my guess.

[AW @AthleticsWeekly]

“It’s difficult to think London could not have an athletics facility of around 20,000 people.”

Three years ago we spoke to Dave Bedford at Crystal Palace on what it would mean to have athletics back at the historic venue 🏟️

Bedford, who set a world 10,000m record of 27:30.80 at Crystal Palace in 1973, described the stadium as fast and pretty well situated 🏃

🎙️ @TimAdams76

[Sir Mo Farah @Mo_Farah]

Sport has the power to change lives 👊🏿

The new PM and I discuss how every young person deserves the opportunity to experience sport through school and their local community. It’s about confidence, belonging, mental health and giving young people the best possible start.

[Jason Henderson @Jason_AW]

Immense kudos to Josh Kerr as he runs a world mile record of 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League 💥

He promised to bring the world mile record home – and lived up to his word in front of a 60,000 home crowd.

Finally, Hicham El Guerrouj's 1999 world record of 3:43.13 falls 👏

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

@RogerBreuer I thought it was flat though?

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

@sumsECFC @AkaPaulHoward FYI- I just spat out my tea seeing this.

[Richmond RUN-FEST @RichmondRunFest]

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER RICHMOND 10K IS NOW 99% FULL!

The window is officially closing! The Richmond 10K on Saturday, 12th September 2026 has just hit 99% SOLD OUT.

SECURE YOUR FINAL SPOT: https://t.co/SMz9GCfetl

[Richmond RUN-FEST @RichmondRunFest]

THE RICHMOND 10K IS NOW 95% FULL! 🚨🏃‍♂️💨

The window is officially closing! The Richmond 10K on Saturday, 12th September 2026 has just hit 95% SOLD OUT.

SECURE YOUR FINAL SPOT TODAY:
🔗 https://t.co/SMz9GCfetl

[BBC Sport @BBCSport]

A London Marathon like no other!

[Worthing RUNFEST @worthingrunfest]

Up next is the Littlehampton 10K! The event sold in record time last year so get in early. 6th September https://t.co/IB7MOpebt8

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

“The more we normalize crazy, the more it pushes the incentives to make crazy normal.” @stevemagness 👏👏👏

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

The enhanced games are a marketing gimmick.

It’s not for “science” or “hypocrisy."

It’s to market drugs to old guys in the bro world.

They don't care about the athletes. They aren't offering anything new or intriguing. It's a sales pitch for peptides, TRT, and sketchy supplements.

The athletes are to sell the product. And they've roped in people desperate enough to participate...mostly people who got busted and banned from actual sport...or need $$$.

The whole thing is based on a false premise.

First, they try to say, it's controlled/monitored so its safer. BS. The east German doping was controlled and monitored.

When the incentive is to go as fast as you can to win a million dollars, it doesn't matter what some doctor on your staff warns to these athletes, they will push the freaking limit.

And with that, any "science" you try to do is null and void. Because you have no clue what they're actually pushing...especially with a 1 million dollar prize.

Which gets me to point 2...

Second, anti doping works...not perfectly. But look at track, we've had world record holders and world champions who got busted and banned. Some of which are now in the enhanced games...

But more so what it does...it prevents people from going way overboard. With testing, you can't be the East Germans anymore... You'll get busted. So even if there is doping, it's scaled down, which reduces long-term consequences a bit.

Think of it like this, cyclists would turn their blood into sludge to get a boost...but they'd also risk dying by doing so. Anti doping prevents them from going that far.

It's not anywhere perfect, but it works much better than the naysayers think. And at worst it minimizes a no-holds bar drug escapade.

3. Transparency and Choice

When you make PEDS the baseline, you take away the choice. It's either risk longtime health or you have NO shot at the prize.

Yes, some will argue that it's either take them or not in normal sport, but in most sports that's not the case. You can still win a track and field world title clean. I know folks who I feel very strongly have. You can still be top 10 in the world, I've coached folks who have done so clean.

But when cheating is the default, there's no hope. You take away that choice.

4. The trickle down effect is real

Youth sports are insane. You normalize folks taking HGH, testosterone, etc. for the shot at millions...and crazy parent will do that with no supervision. They'll get the drugs for themselves from the enhanced games then dose up their children.

The more we normalize crazy, the more it pushes the incentives to make crazy normal.

I get that's where all of our society seems to be headed. But we have a choice. We get to say what matters, what do we value.

And the enhanced games is not it. The marketers don't have to win everything. We don't have to turn sport into a spectacle where you either have to take drugs that you potentially have to stay on for years or life just to compete.

I've been in sport at the highest levels. I've seen the dirty underbelly in person. But this is not the way.

It's not science. It's marketing. They've admitted the plan is to sell you peptides off this.

It's the latest way for some tech bros who think they own the world to market and sell false hopes and dreams to the guy who feels a bit inadequate because he peaked at scoring 4 touchdowns in a game at Polk High.

We're better than this nonsense.

[David Monti 🥑 @d9monti]

This will be my only post on the #EnhancedGames.

The Enhanced Games are an abomination. I will not watch them, cover them, or even do any social media posts about them. They fly in the face of everything I have worked for in sports.

The results are meaningless.

[Matt Graveling @mattgraveling]

🥇History made live on the BBC!🥇

The favourite moment of my broadcasting career - Kenya's Sabastian Sawe broke the 'impossible' sub 2 hour barrier at @LondonMarathon.

I was live with @MartineBBC on @BBCNews & @BBCWorld talking about Tigst Assefa's record when Sawe flew past!🇰🇪

[Chris Chavez @ChrisChavez]

OMG.

🇰🇪 Sabastian Sawe becomes the first man ever to break 2 hours in a marathon (legal conditions) in 1:59:30 at the London Marathon!

Yomif Kejelcha 🇪🇹 runs 1:59:41 in his DEBUT.

Jacob Kiplimo 🇺🇬 takes third in 2:00:28

All under the previous WR.

[World Athletics @WorldAthletics]

HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE 🫨

Sabastian Sawe becomes the first person ever to break the 2-hour barrier in official race conditions, storming to a historic 1:59:30‼️

@KejelchaYomif, on his marathon debut, also breaks 2 hours with a stunning 1:59:41 and @jacobkiplimo2 clocks 2:00:28, also faster than the previous world record 😤

[TOM BEDFORD @Tom_Bedford]

@TimAdams76 This is just a “sideshow”?