Britains Oldest Running Team Has A Combined Age Of 321 And Rankin Shot Their Portraits

Creative Boom: Britain's oldest running team has a combined age of 321, and Rankin shot their portraits Altra and Brandnation have cast four runners aged 75 to 85 as the heroes of a new campaign aimed at people half a century younger. The average British runner hangs up their trainers at 39. That's according to new research commissioned by running brand Altra. Injury does most of the damage. Of those who've given up the sport, one in three quit because of it. More than half have had a setback serious enough to keep them from pounding the pavements for months. Alas, one in six say they've never fully recovered.

(For the record, it was Censuswide who surveyed 1,000 runners aged over 30 for the study.) As you'd expect, this isn't great news for a shoe brand built on the idea of running for life. So what do you do for your next advertising campaign? You find the people who kept running and photograph them, bringing in none other than Rankin for the job. Meet The Legacy Team, billed as the UK's oldest running team, four runners aged 75 to 85. That's a combined age of 321. The campaign was created by London agency Brandnation, and the whole point is that the four runners pass on what they know to those in their 20s and 30s.

I'm interested myself because I abandoned running at age 35 due to ongoing injuries. But I'd love to take it up again. Peter Giles is the oldest. At 85, he is the country's fastest octogenarian over 5km. Rajinder Singh MBE, 79, has been running since his childhood in India, has completed marathons around the world and is recognised as one of the oldest runners in the Sikh community. Laurence Cummings, 85, holds 204 age-category parkrun records across England and Scotland. Wow. And Pritpal Kaur, 75, was the oldest British Asian woman to compete in this year's London Marathon, which she ran while living with blood cancer.

She was one of only 35 women aged over 75 to cross that finish line. People are just amazing, aren't they? How did Brandnation find such living legends? "Good, old-fashioned desk research," says Joe Murgatroyd, Brandnation's partner and creative director. "We spent time digging through running club news, race results, local press and community stories to find older athletes who were still competing and achieving remarkable things." "Every runner needed a genuine story, and each one needed to have achieved something significant with their running later in life," he continues.

"We were lucky to find athletes who were interesting beyond their trophy cabinets." Selling hope and longevity Sportswear almost always sells youth. Toned, lean young models, captured mid-sprint with perfect hair and make-up, seemingly without breaking a sweat. So casting octogenarians as the heroes of an ad campaign is a pleasant surprise. But it makes sense for Altra, given it's known for things like zero-drop shoes and wider toe boxes, designed around more natural movement and foot health.

Its brand platform is even called Stay Out There. "When you follow the thread, longevity becomes the truest marker of success a runner can have," Joe explains. "And the people who embody it best are the ones still lacing up in their seventies and eighties." Thank God for modern times. In my day, we were sold "beach body ready" and ridiculous diet plans.

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The campaign highlights an innovative approach to inclusivity in sports marketing, which is significant for brand strategists, though similar themes have been explored in other contexts.