Love Trails Festival

The A-Team

On Friday 1st July at around 9:30am, three friends "Jason, Sofie, and Sha set out in an A-Team esque van, travelling from London to the Gower Peninsula in Wales via Bristol, for the Love Trails Festival weekend, the music festival for trail runners and adventure seekers. It took us 9 and a half hours to get there, we could of chosen a better time to travel (never again) - lols!

We arrived early evening and did a reccie on the guided trail run we were hosting in the morning, but we had to have a cheese and branston pickle sandwich and beer after that journey before we were going anywhere - so we did (some would say we had more than just a beer)!

After the reccie and some more beer, oh and an Espresso Martini, we headed off to join the music festival with the blustery wind in full flow and some rain drops falling, but David Rodigan was out there playing some of his bangers and taking us down the rabbit hole with him - so, everything was gonna be alright!

We got back to the camper van quite late, and had a couple more drinks and some snacks before settling down for the night. Jason took the top bunk and I took the bottom, with Sofie pitching up her tent outside, in that windswept rain overnight (YIKES). She survived and all was well in the morning, with the sun starting to make an appearance.

We got up around 8:00am, had some hot coffee and brekkie, before scooting to the start point for our guided 5K wellbeing run!

We only had 8 people signed up for the run but somehow that turned into 18. We started off with a mindful minute, and everyone introduced themselves and shared their pronouns, we then set off for the castle, which was not the route we planned.

I was parched after the drinking from last night and decided that we would make a slight detour to the route we mapped out the night before, so that we could pick up some water from the camper prior to heading off - Jason was bemused about that, I just needed some water otherwise I was going to struggle to get through the 5K.

We got the water, I was hydrated and we did a wellbeing check-in next to the castle with the beautiful backdrop of the Gower Peninsula (see above image), we then headed down the trail and across the coastal path for 2.5K to the top of a hill, which gave us another great view to look at.

Here we introduced the Rose, Rose, Thorn, Bud 🌹 🌹 🔨 🌸 exercise.

This is how it works:

Reflect on the past week and try out this gratitude exercise for a boost in wellbeing and contentment (and perhaps try it with friends, colleagues or your family too):

🌹 Roses: what two things have gone well in the past week?

🔨 Thorn: what is the one thing that has been niggling away at you this week (something that has not gone well)?

🌸 Bud: what is the seed you planted and are now looking forward to seeing it bloom (a holiday, meeting up with a friend or something else?)

When we share how we are doing, whether negative or positive, we are unconsciously giving others permission to do the same.

After the exercise we headed back to the start point and congratulated one another on a great experience.

Jason and Sofie then decided to casually enter a 10K trail race together with a drink in one hand and sushi wrap in the other - I don’t know how they do it!

While they were taking part in the race, I delivered a wellbeing workshop to circa 30 runners.

I shared my mental health journey, and the back story of how Be More You came about in 2018, followed by a wellbeing check-in, gratitude exercise and a task on community.

I split the main group up into little sub groups of 3 and 4, giving everyone the opportunity to speak about their experiences and share their thoughts on the topics.

There was some great energy in the room and everyone played their part in the experience of sharing and listening.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine and delights of the festival, including the beer mile race, music, food, drinks and reunions with friends et al.

And in the evening I joined the run to table banquet for a 4 course meal over looking the Gower Peninsula, made some new friends and then joined Jason and Sofie for a night of revelling down by the main stage, where we met other runners and friends from the London running community - it was great to spend time catching up with people we had not seen in a while.

Sunday was a chilled out affair, where we enjoyed some runs, rounders and Sofie playing some amazing sounds in the final hours before we jumped back into our van and headed home. This time it only took four hours, thanks to the dutiful driving by Jason!

We will be back next year and hope you will too!

Written by Sha Hussain