Wednesday, January 26, 2022 - 09:40

I’M PLODDING along a muddy path on Wandsworth Common, glancing over my shoulder as a pair of mothers exchange bemused glances. 'Where are you going?', laughs a passing dog-walker, whose labradoodle thinks I’m playing a game.

'You’re going the wrong way!'
How little my fellow park-users know.
I’m not taking part in some mad team-building exercise or the victim of a sad prank. The real reason I find myself running backwards (yes, really) through my local stomping ground? I’m attempting 2022’s hottest new fitness trend: reverse running, or backwards running, known professionally as retro running (it’s a legitimate sport).