Race Director Diaries | 001 | How Heart & Soul Racing Started (or how two idiots turned a gym chat into a business)

If you’d told me a couple of years ago I’d be co-running a race company, I’d have laughed, finished my run, and gone home for a Greggs.

But here we are.

It all started in the gym, where I met Logan. Younger than me, full of energy, and fully bought into the HYROX lifestyle. A proper hybrid rockstar. At the time, the gym was shifting away from CrossFit and heading down that route, so I thought… alright, I’ll give this HYROX thing a go.

On one condition.
Logan had to come and do an ultra with me.

Now, this lad hadn’t even run a half marathon. Not even flirted with the idea. But somehow, he agreed. Poor bloke.

So off I went and did HYROX. And to be fair, I enjoyed it. It’s well run, good atmosphere, tests you in a different way. But I couldn’t shake this feeling…

I’d spent about £400 all in with tickets, travel, the lot…
…to be done in just over an hour.

An hour.

Running around in circles like a caged hamster, getting barged out the way by topless sweaty blokes chasing PBs, all inside a roasting hot, overpriced conference centre.

And I just thought…
this isn’t me.

I like being outside. I like space. I like views. I like suffering in a scenic location, not next to a protein shake stand and a DJ screaming at me to do wall balls faster.

I remember thinking at the time, especially being up in Scotland for one of them, this could be so much better.

Anyway, fast forward to Logan paying the price for his earlier decision…
Ultra X England. Two days. 100km+. Proper elevation. Proper suffering.

And this is where it all clicked.

Two days out in the Peak District, proper “type 2 fun” – the kind where you question every life choice mid-race but somehow sign up for another one at the finish line.

And the best part?
It cost less than HYROX. Under £300 all in.

Better experience. Better environment. Better value.

And somewhere on those trails, between the climbs, the moaning, and smashing elite-tier nutrition (Nerd Clusters), we started chatting.

I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer. Loads of ideas over the years… just never actually done anything with them.

True story, I once came up with the idea for a touch-free soap dispenser…
…just didn’t bother doing anything about it. Cheers for that.

But this time felt different.

We started talking about building something of our own. Not corporate. Not about squeezing every penny out of people. Not run by people who couldn’t jog to the bathroom after a vindaloo.

Something fun.
Something inclusive.
Something that actually gives a bit back.
Something that showcases the North East properly.

Logan, probably delirious at this point, just turned around and said:
“Why don’t we just do it then?”

And obviously, my first response was all the usual excuses…
Too much work.
Might fail.
We’ll probably lose money.

But after another 50km of running, we somehow had a business plan.

Not quite on the back of a fag packet…
More like the back of a pack of Nerd Clusters. Same thing really.

We got home, spoke it through properly, and decided to go for it. Investor search lasted about 10 minutes before we realised no one was daft enough to back us.

So we put £500 in each. All in. Big time.

Then came the hardest part…
Naming it.

Honestly, that took longer than building the actual business.

We eventually landed on Heart & Soul Racing (HSR).

Only later did I realise Logan was pushing that very hard because his surname is Soulsby.

Convenient that, isn’t it.

Anyway, a month later we had a company, a bank account, and absolutely no idea what we were doing.

We started with free run clubs. Just trying to build something. Build a community. See if anyone actually cared.

We didn’t make any money.
But importantly… we didn’t lose any either.

Fast forward to now, and not loads has changed on that front…

But what we have got is unreal.

A proper community.
Incredible people.
Events we’re genuinely proud of.

And we’re only just getting started.

More to come.