Best Running Gear for Beginners

The three things worth spending on, and the eight things you can safely ignore for a year.

Spend on shoes, spend on socks, spend on a bra if you need one. That is the list.

Shoes first: go to a shop that lets you run in them, buy a half size up from your street shoe, and replace them somewhere between 600 and 800 kilometres. A shoe that suits the person next to you on the Saturday bus tells you nothing about what suits you.

Socks are the cheapest injury prevention there is. Anything with a seam across the toes will find you at kilometre 15 of a Domboshava trail run.

What you can ignore for a year: carbon plates, a watch with maps, compression anything, gels in six flavours, a heart-rate strap, a foam roller shaped like a hedgehog, sunglasses that cost more than the shoes, and any app that promises a plan without knowing your week.