wrexham lager tour

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Wrexham Lager

Wrexham export, wrexham pilsener.

ESTABLISHED 1882

In 1882, two German Immigrants, Ivan Levinstein and Otto Isler, set forth to brew lager beer in the UK. Their idea was unlike most of the attempts by other breweries at the time, which was to use the new paler malt, brew it with top-fermenting ale yeasts and store the beer for longer to imitate the keeping properties of traditionally-made continental lagers.

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Wrexham AFC

With Wrexham AFC we stand!

We are proud partners with Wrexham AFC as sponsors of the Wrexham Lager Stand.

Our ethos fits perfectly with their own – a local company, with a proud and storied history and an international reputation. COME ON WREXHAM!

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Wrexham usa tour 2024: schedule, tickets, stadiums and more, share this article.

Wrexham is heading back to the United States this summer.

Boosted by the popularity of the hit series “Welcome to Wrexham,” the Welsh side played four matches in the U.S. last summer.

Now, Wrexham will return for a three-game tour as it prepares for the 2024-25 season, which will take place in League One after the Red Dragons clinched a second straight promotion.

Wrexham will begin its tour with a match against Bournemouth at Harder Stadium on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

It will then face Chelsea on July 24 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The two sides met last year in Chapel Hill, N.C., with Chelsea winning 5-0.

Finally, Wrexham will face the Vancouver Whitecaps in a homecoming for owner Ryan Reynolds, a Vancouver native.

Here are Wrexham’s fixtures for its 2024 summer tour of the United States, along with information on purchasing tickets.

Wrexham USA tour 2024

July 20: Wrexham vs. Bournemouth — Harder Stadium, Santa Barbara, CA. TICKETS .

July 24: Wrexham vs. Chelsea — Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif. TICKETS .

July 27: Wrexham vs. Vancouver Whitecaps — BC Place, Vancouver, BC. TICKETS .

Manchester United USA tour 2024: Schedule, tickets, stadiums and more

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BRYAN'S TRAVEL

Welcome To Wrexham Tours

Expert Guided Tours of Wrexham & Surrounding areas!

Discover the hidden gems and captivating stories of Wrexham, North Wales in luxury transport. You will be joined by a passionate and knowledgeable local guide who will accompany you on an unforgettable journey, offering insights into the area's vibrant past, present, and exciting future.

Wrexham is home to the famous AFC Wrexham owned by Hollywood pair Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Our guide is a true local expert, born and raised in Wrexham, with a deep-rooted love for the region and the football team. Expect plenty of anecdotes related to the Hollywood celebrity's connection to Wrexham and the story of the ownership to date.

As part of the tour, you will visit Wrexham lager, one of the main sponsors of Wrexham AFC. Visit the shop and sample the famous Wrexham lager, with the potential of a sneak preview into how the beer is made.

You will be able to visit the club shop and purchase some AFC Wrexham items, while viewing the outside of the legendary ground. Afterward, enjoy a drink in the Turf pub where you get to meet the landlord Wayne Jones - well known from the Welcome To Wrexham documentary.

Visit  Pontcysyllte and walk along the famous aqueduct.

(Not for the faint-hearted!) You may also enjoy lunch at the famous Corn mill Llangollen overlooking the river.

https://www.visitwales.com/things-do/attractions/pontcysyllte-aqueduct

Finish your day in Wrexham by going for a guided tour around the  city of Wrexham and the surrounding area, including the famous Parish church, as well as many other hidden gems and beautiful locations.

If you're looking for a place to stay, we've partnered with the local luxury hotel Carden Park. A large countryside resort featuring multiple dining options, a multi-award-winning spa, 2 golf courses and many other extraordinary facilities. https://www.cardenpark.co.uk/

Please send an email with any questions and we can give you a quote.

See The Places

The Racecourse

Wrexham AFC

The Turf Hotel

The Place of choice for a celebrity pint

Parish Church

Wrexham City Centre

The Corn mill, Llangollen

Overlooking the River Dee

Wrexham Lager

Oldest Lager in the WORLD Established 1888

Pontyscyllte Aqueduct

One of the 7 WONDERS of Wales

Emergency Contact 07872900282

 Phone for info 07840749161

Saturday - 18+ 

Sunday - Family day where kids under 16 come free with a paying adult.

The Wrexham Lager Festival at Commonwood Leisure is the perfect mix of live music, great food, great beer and great times in the heart of Wrexhams countryside. 

Set amidst woodlands and lush greenery, this stunning camping ground is perfect to soak in the atmosphere and enjoy those summer vibes. Food and drinks stalls, entertainment and a line up that speaks for itself - a mix of talent that will leave you singing all the way home (and probably all night)

Saturday is an 18+ event and it’s a day to celebrate, to drink, to dance, and to enjoy everything that’s good about life. With friends and music enthusiasts alike, we’ve got a line up we know Wrexham can be proud of (and plenty of beer + plenty of other frothy bevs).  

Sunday - Family day (kids under 16 come free with a paying adult) 

Sundays but done better. Didn’t get enough yesterday? Don’t blame you! It’s day two of the festival and why stop at one. 

Bringing the family? Great! Paying adults can bring their children under 16 for free. There will be a range of activities & entertainment on offer for everyone whilst the live music plays all day. The fun doesn’t stop and neither does the beer or food! Soak up the laid back festival atmosphere with the Declan Swans - Do they need an intro? to give it the see off it deserves. Wrexham Lager Festival - for everyone to enjoy.

Taxi's and coaches available from sight to escort you home 

There will be parking available on sight 

2024 ON SALE SOON!

Wrexham Lager

Wrexham Lager Brewery 1944

Brewing in Wrexham boasts a rich history, significantly influenced by the geological features of the region. The sands and gravels in the Wrexham area play a crucial role in filtering water that accumulates on the impermeable rock beneath. Contrary to the common belief that river Gwenfro water was used, it is, in fact, this naturally filtered water that has been and continues to be utilized for brewing.

The now-defunct Wrexham Lager Brewery, which halted production in 2000, holds the distinction of being the first successful lager brewery in the United Kingdom. This pioneering venture was conceived by German immigrants Ivan Levinstein and Otto Isler. In 1882, they selected the brewery’s location due to the resemblance of the local waters to those of Plzen (Pilsen) in the Czech Republic, coupled with the ideal topography for the subterranean cellars essential for lager maturation.

The brewing commenced in 1883, but the cellars initially lacked the necessary coolness to produce the desired clear golden lager. The Wrexham Lager Brewery faced potential failure until a fortuitous encounter between Ivan Levinstein and Robert Graesser on a train to Liverpool. Graesser, an industrialist with a chemical works in Acrefair, possessed his own mechanical refrigerator. Recognizing its potential, he joined the brewery, and the Graesser family managed the operation until 1949.

Despite being an award-winning brand, Wrexham Lager became economically unsustainable, leading to the brewery’s closure in 2000. Nevertheless, Wrexham Lager has experienced a successful revival on a smaller scale, now operating in premises on St. Georges Crescent in the town.

Wrexham Lager Brewery 1890s

Taken from a Wrexham Lager Brewery price list from the 1890s

Special train leaving the Wrexham Brewery for London with 1700 Casks of Wxm lager for Cunard Line. June 27th 1931

Workers at Wrexham Lager Company circa 1910

Wrexham Lager Brewery

Wrexham Lager Chimney with Cobden Mill at the back 1944

Wrexham Lager Brewery, Date unknown

Wrexham Lager buildings

Wrexham Lager Brewery 1960

Workers at Wrexham Lager Company

Wrexham Lager Brewery price list from the 1890s

Wrexham Lager delivery fleet

Wrexham Lager lorry

Wrexham Lager van

Wrexham Lager Brewery 1969

New Wrexham Lager Brewery fermentation tanks, 1976

Wrexham Lager brewery 1979

View east from Wrexham Lager Brewery

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Social event: Tour of Wrexham Lager and a sample of their beer

16 november 2012, wrexham, united kingdom.

Wrexham Larger, 42 St Georges Crescent, Wrexham, LL13 8DB, United Kingdom

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Welcome to Wrexham Lager Club

Experience the heart of Wrexham at the historic Lager Club, formerly the Lager Sports and Social Club. Two bars serve a quality selection of beers alongside friendly banter, sports on Sky, darts, and pool.

Conveniently located near to the Racecourse, Wrexham’s iconic Football Ground and home to Wrexham AFC, our spacious venue also accommodates up to 120 guests for any event.

Join us at the Lager Club, where community, heritage, and a good pint are always on the menu. 

About Our Club

Immerse yourself in local culture and history at the Wrexham Lager Club, an iconic hub steeped in tradition. Previously known as the Wrexham Lager Sports and Social Club, this venue, associated with the renowned Wrexham Lager Brewery, is the perfect blend of social interaction and sporty spirit.

Boasting two unique bars serving an excellent range of beers, including the historic Wrexham Lager, this social spot guarantees a friendly atmosphere and plenty of entertainment. Challenge friends to a game of darts or pool, or simply sit back and enjoy a drink while catching the latest match on Sky Sports.

Our expansive function room caters up to 150 people, ideal for gatherings, celebrations, or corporate events, set against the backdrop of our vibrant heritage. Conveniently located near Wrexham Football Ground, it’s the ideal pit-stop for a pre or post-match pint, a place where the community spirit thrives.

At the Wrexham Lager Club, we celebrate our past while welcoming the future, ensuring an unforgettable experience for all our guests. Come join us for a pint, and become part of the ongoing Wrexham Lager story.

Enjoy the Warmth of Welsh Hospitality

Great Beers

Discover a world of flavour at the Wrexham Lager Club, where our diverse selection of top-notch beers, including the historic Wrexham Lager, promises a memorable experience for every palate.

Friendly Banter

Experience the camaraderie at Wrexham Lager Club, where friendly banter flows as freely as the beer. Here, everyone is part of the family - come, join the conversation!

Function Room

Host your event at Wrexham Lager Club's expansive function room, accommodating up to 120 guests. A blend of heritage and comfort creates an ideal backdrop for any celebration or gathering.

Step into a slice of Wrexham's rich history at the Lager Club, where every pint tells a tale. Immerse yourself in our heritage - it's more than just a drink, it's a tradition.

Don't Forget Ceri's Sunday Roast Dinner

Enjoy a traditional Welsh Sunday Dinner at the Wrexham Lager Club

Main Course – only £8.95

Starters / Sweets – only £2.95

12 Noon until 3pm

Some of Our Products

An Unforgettable Experience: Wrexham Lager Club, Where Tradition Meets Enjoyment!

Wrexham Tours of Wales

Wrexham Tours

Hello and welcome to Wrexham Tours. Our aim is to show you the best sites in Wrexham, the surrounding areas and North Wales. This includes the famous Wrexham AFC , the world heritage site of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Wrexham City Centre itself, not to mention the outstanding beauty of Snowdonia and the fantastic medieval castles of North Wales .

St.Giles, Wrexham Parish Church

At the heart of Wrexham is the St.Giles Wrexham Parish Church . It is just off the High Street and is an ideal place to start any tour of Wrexham. St.Giles offers the longest aisle of any church in Wales. It has the tomb of Elihu Yale (a benefactor of Yale University in America); a pair of high quality, wrought iron gates made at the foundry of the Davies Brothers and it is one of the seven wonders of Wales. Visiting the church is free but tower tours have limited availability. ///steps.learn.shovel

Wrexham High Street

Wrexham High Street is a pedestrian area. It gives access to one of Wrexham’s historic indoor markets, an arcade and St.Giles Parish Church. A very short walk from the High Street is the Wrexham Visitor Centre which is situated at Ty Pawb ///manliness.afford.acid. The High Street is overlooked by the iconic Wynnstay Arms Hotel which has been present since 1780. The hotel is where the governing body the ‘ Football Association of Wales ‘ was formed in 1876.

Wrexham Lager Brewery

Any visit to Wrexham would not be complete without popping to the Wrexham Lager Brewery. Its history began in 1882 with two German immigrants who eventually passed the business to Robert Graesser. He exported the lager around the world (as it travelled so well). It lays claim to some big titles including being the only lager available on the infamous Titanic. The original Wrexham Lager brewery closed but the brand was revived and it is enjoying ongoing success again. ///handed.foil.best

The Horse & Jockey

Situated in the centre of Wrexham on Hope Street, is the distinctive Horse and Jockey public house (///soils.struck.dice). The building was originally constructed in the 16th century and features an extremely rare thatched roof. Opposite the pub is an inconspicuous archway. On the wall inside the arch is a plaque to commemorate William Low who was a Channel Tunnel pioneer as early as the 1860s.

Wrexham Museum

Located on Regent Street is Wrexham County Borough Museum . The building was built in 1857 for the Denbighshire Militia but soon became a police station. It also housed the Magistrates Court in 1879. The signs for court No1 and No2 are still inscribed above the doors. It later became an art college and then a museum in 1996. Today it tells historic stories from the local community and is transitioning to become the Football Museum for Wales. ///gasp.deny.dined

Wrexham Football Club

On the outskirts of Wrexham (along Mold Road), is the world famous Wrexham Football Club or Wrexham AFC . Star of the TV documentary, the club is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity on a major scale! Known locally as the Racecourse, it was originally used for Horse Racing (and cricket) but has since become one of the oldest football grounds in the world. Predating the Football Club is The Turf pub – originally known as the Turf Tavern, it hosted the Cricket Club members who met to start a football club in 1864. The pub welcomes visitors and serves a great pint. ///dawn.dating.deep

Posted: Thu 7th Mar 2024

Wrexham Lager gives ‘clarification’ after The Captain posts viral video of visit to brewery

Wrexham Lager have said they are ‘looking forward’ to catching up with The Bootlegger personally after a highly critical video has gone viral this afternoon.

“Bootlegger” Karl Phillips, also known as ‘The Captain’, trailed a video to his 360,000 plus followers asking them to share it far and wide once published.

At lunchtime the video dropped and since had half a million views inside four hours on Twitter, and thousands more on other websites.

The four minute video was filmed on the Wrexham Lager brewery site, and shows Bootleggers’s face on branding. A clearly upset Captain detailed the history of his relationship with the brewery from his point of view, and made claims he is owed money.

Wrexham Lager issued a statement in response saying, “Just as you all do, we appreciate Karl and the collaboration with him on the Bootlegger product. But we’d like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things. Karl was fully paid up to date before the making of this video.

“Bootlegger is still sold in our shop and on the pumps in several bars in Wrexham. The Wrexham Lager Co is still run by the same family that Karl has always dealt with and will continue to be run by them for many years to come.”

“There have been several attempts to contact Karl and sit down with him and we look forward to catching up with him properly in person.”

The video has prompted hundreds of comments in direct response, with a social media kick back also being seen in a number of one star Google reviews that reference the Bootlegger video content, along with similar feedback on Tripadvisor where people are asking for “Justice for the Captain”.

The video published by Twitter.com is embedded below:

Big always ducks small lads or so they say pic.twitter.com/4dBsLPfvPV — Bootlegger (@bootlegger1974) March 7, 2024

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History of the Racecourse Ground

Welcome to the home stadium of Wrexham AFC, the Racecourse Ground – currently known as the SToK Racecourse for sponsorship reasons. Its history dates back as far as 1807 and has also served as the Red Dragons’ home ever since the football club was formed in 1864.

The Racecourse Ground holds a piece of Welsh footballing history, as well. It was the site of Wales’ first-ever home international football match on March 5, 1877. The fixture makes the ground the oldest international football venue still in continuous use anywhere in the world.

Wrexham AFC are the sole permanent resident of the Racecourse Ground now as the owner of the stadium. The Red Dragons bought the venue back from Wrexham Glyndwr University in June 2022. It had earlier bought the ground off the club in August 2011 and leased it back.

Wrexham AFC bought the Racecourse Ground back in 2022

Former Wrexham owners Geoff Moss and Ian Roberts sold the Racecourse Ground following the club hitting financial difficulties. But they secured the right to remain co-residents, while the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust also later took control of the operation of the venue in 2016.

Wrexham Glyndwr University gave the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust operational control after Wrexham AFC signed a 99-year lease agreement. But it felt the Racecourse Ground should belong to Wrexham again after Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds became their owners .

As part of the Hollywood duo’s ambitions for the club, Wrexham now plan to redevelop the Racecourse Ground. The Red Dragons also got £25m in government funding in April 2023 after councillors voted to back a grant for several works, including a 5,500-capacity stand.

The Kop is set for major changes ahead of the 2024/25 season

Plans to redevelop the Racecourse Ground also feature a new hotel, further office space and conference facilities. While the 5,500-capacity stand will replace the current Kop stand and take the stadium’s capacity to 15,000. The club expect to open the stand for the 24/25 term.

The Kop stand is the oldest part of the current Racecourse Ground and is also the only non-seated area. In contrast, the Wrexham Lager Stand is the main all-seated area with a 4,200 capacity. It is a two-tier fully-roofed structure with hospitality facilities in the Centenary Club.

Wrexham can also host corporate sponsors in the Macron Stand, which opened in 1999. The stand also features a television and commentary gantry with modern facilities. Fans can also sit in the 3,000-capacity all-seated and fully-roofed University End situated behind one goal.

The Racecourse Ground has come a long way since it opened in 1807 and it is set for further alternations with Wrexham AFC’s intended changes. It was initially built as a cricket site and, occasionally, for horse racing. The site was also used for flying before the outbreak of WWI.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney change the name of the Racecourse Ground

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny as the owners of Wrexham AFC also announced changes to the Racecourse Ground’s name in May 2023 as SToK Cold Brew Coffee became the club’s first stadium sponsor. The deal saw the Red Dragons’ site be renamed the SToK Racecourse.

Wrexham AFC’s stadium naming rights deal came into effect on July 1, 2023 ahead of their return to League Two. It saw one of the largest and fastest-growing cold brew coffee brands in the US join forces with the Red Dragons with the full backing of the Club Advisory Board.

SToK Cold Brew Coffee also sponsored Wrexham AFC’s debut pre-season tour in the United States in 2023. The tour was the first time that Wrexham AFC’s first-team squad have gone across the pond. SToK does not sell its cold brew coffee products in the UK as of May 2023.

How to get to the Racecourse Ground

Fans can get to the Racecourse Ground via numerous forms of private and public transport when visiting Wrexham AFC’s stadium. It is easily accessible by train with Wrexham General station next to the ground. While Wrexham bus station is a 15-minute walk to the stadium.

Supporters wishing to use private vehicles to get to the Racecourse Ground should take the A483 from Chester or Oswestry to Wrexham. They will then see a signposted route following the Mold junction directing traffic to the town centre and the Racecourse Ground soon after.

Stadium tour information

Wrexham AFC began holding tours of their stadium, the Racecourse Ground, in July 2023. The tours give Red Dragons supporters and visitors a chance to see behind the scenes at the world’s oldest football ground. Tours also offer a chance to learn about the site’s history.

Racecourse Ground: Mold Road, Wrexham, LL11 2AH

Wrexham Brewery Tour

Brewery Tour of Wrexham

This small PDF document, produced by Wrexham County Borough Council, gives a short walking tour of the brewery sites in the town (no map included, unfortunately, and no date on the document).

http://www.breweryhistory.com/BreweryTourOfWrexham.pdf

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Three weeks before the sternest physical challenge of my life, I was outside the Lululemon flagship store in Tokyo. A team running shirt, emblazoned with corporate logos and freighted with an expectation of sweat and speed, was waiting for me back at Financial Times HQ in London. I was shopping, on an eddy of team spirit, for shorts in traditional FT pink.

Next door, from the sales hatch of the Oscar Wilde doughnut shop, the smell was extraordinary, as was the temptation. ¥10,800 (nearly £55) is a preposterous price for a pair of shorts; ¥420 is a steal for a sugar-dusted pistachio cream. On June 24, I will be running in the FT Nikkei UK ekiden , a long-distance relay race along 72 miles of the Thames between Oxford and Windsor. How’s the training going, you ask? Deliciously.

My five-month road to the starting line has been wiggly and revelatory. On the plus side, some weight has been lost, some posture gained. I now enjoy a weekly tryst with a Balanced Body Allegro Pilates Reformer machine. I have, according to my new smartwatch, taken more exercise in three months than the World Health Organization recommends for a full year. Leandra, my disembodied running coach on Fitbit, bubbles that I’m amazing just for showing up. Aww.

On the other hand, I’m still slow, sweet-toothed, and have rarely been so consumed with mental anguish. I came to this race with tenacious Covid-19, underlying asthma and a roaring pain where limber extensibility should ideally be. But these are cringing, unworthy excuses. Normally, long- distance running thrusts the individual into a personal battle with time, terrain and twinges. An ekiden makes the runner part of a chain and threatens them with exposure as the weakest link. Tricky, when you already have a strong hunch that link is you.

I knew, well before all this started, what an ekiden was. How could I not? Japan’s cherished take on long-distance running is as deeply rooted in its home territory as green tea and Gundam. A very fine 2015 book, Adharanand Finn’s The Way of the Runner , sets out the cultural shoe prints that ekiden has embedded in Japanese society. The book is as powerful and perceptive an insight into Japanese culture as any you could find.

The sport of ekiden , which emerged in Japan over a century ago, played on the concept of the old courier networks ( eki = station and den = convey), with each runner covering significant distances before passing the duty on to the next. The idea of relays is hardly unique to Japan. But what fitted neatly into the country’s cradle-to-grave, group-centric organisational credo was turning the individual sport of long-distance running into the teamiest of team sports.

It does so in a way that messes with the psychology of incentive. The need to win is there, of course, but it is overwhelmed by the need not to let everyone in the team down or be the one responsible for losing overall momentum. One runner retires, the whole team is out. If golf, according to the old saying, is a good walk, spoiled, then ekiden is a hard test, with baggage.

The relatively small number of teams in each ekiden means that, over the course of the race, the field is thinned. There is rarely much chance (as in other long-distance runs) to take pace from a leader before making a break for leadership oneself. There is the lonely feeling in an ekiden of being the hunter, and the hunted. But often, given the large distances between runners, there is no visual clue as to which one currently defines you.

At the heart of the ekiden is the tasuki — a coloured sash passed between runners at each station. The sash is imbued with the weight of team expectations and of individual responsibility for and to the whole. As a vessel of hope and fear, the tasuki is totemic; its passing between runners is a sacrament. And critically, it is around the tasuki that the greatest drama and jeopardy lies. At every station, each team’s runners have to hand over their tasuki within a set time after the leader. Miss the margin by seconds, and a different coloured (and visibly othering) new tasuki must be taken on.

The ekiden as a genre is conveniently malleable. Depending on who is organising the race, where it is happening and who is running in it, the total distance is variable, as are the distances between stations, the number of teams and the number of members in each. With flexibility has come ubiquity. Ekiden races ranging from 12km to 1,064km abound across Japan, with schools, clubs, companies and towns organising events year round.

Towering over all these is the Hakone Ekiden, an event held annually on January 2 and 3, televised to the nation and contested between the elite athletes of 21 of Japan’s top universities. The two-day race involves teams of 10 runners, with five relaying between Tokyo and Hakone on one day, and five running back the following day, a distance of around 108km each way.

Hakone Ekiden, which has been run since 1920, also has a fair claim to being the first competition in modern sports history to understand that the drama of sport seethes away at a distance from the action itself. Decades before Drive to Survive , Welcome to Wrexham and the whole addictive circus of sports-adjacent reality TV, Hakone Ekiden was spawning an off-track emotional feeding frenzy, gorging on the personalities of the student runners, their coaches and families. Japanese TV knows its audience and how to draw out their tears, sympathy and affinities. And where, inevitably, are the tastiest morsels of drama to be found? Slap bang in the individual’s fear of letting their team down.

For some years now, Anna Dingley has wanted to bring all this intensity and fizz to the UK. I first met her in 2008 when she was in Japan working in a joint venture between the London Aim market and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. She is big on building links between Japan and the UK. She also became an ekiden addict and this continued long after she resettled in Britain. I bumped into her again in January in the transit lounge of Helsinki airport, where she used the two-hour layover to show me a fully formed plan for an ekiden along the Thames Path in June. She needed sponsorship, but nobody in London or Tokyo was biting. Did I know anyone?

I did. Some years before, I had been at dinner in Tokyo with the FT’s chief executive John Ridding, a former journalist who has spent the past eight and a half years steering the FT under the ownership of Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun (aka “Nikkei”).

Unfortunately, I shower at a ‘runners’ station’ where, upon handing back your key, staff present you with a can of Asahi Dry Crystal. Or lager, as it better known

For all the wrong reasons, one of his stories stuck in my head: the revelation that, whenever he runs the circuit around Tokyo’s Imperial Palace , he counts the number of runners he has overtaken on one hand, and those who have overtaken him on the other. It was memorable not only for its adherence to the conventions of double-entry bookkeeping, but for being uncompromisingly CEO-ish in its need to find a KPI. Of course someone like this would want the FT and Nikkei to jointly sponsor an ekiden . And so it proved. Since then other sponsors have piled in, including the sportswear maker Mizuno, and the event has been endorsed by Susumu Hara, the coach of the persistently victorious Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden team and a huge celebrity in Japan.

The only snag was this. As some sort of twisted reward for making the introductions, I was told I would be running in the joint FT-Nikkei team. The UK Ekiden , which will involve 20 teams from universities, companies and running clubs, will divide the route into 10 segments, giving me an 11.1km stretch and, crucially, a run that ends at a key cut-off point for the team. Worse, our team would be populated with gazelles and captained by a chief commercial officer whose running rule of thumb is that, within reason and beyond the age of 40, a 10km distance should be completed in as many minutes as you are years old. I did a test run in March to establish how far off that deranged target I was. Three months is not long for a bon vivant with a desk job to shave a 10km pace down by 13 minutes.

In the initial weeks of what I optimistically called “training”, I plodded many regular 5 kms and 10 kms around the palace. Unfortunately, I always changed and took a shower at a “runners’ station” where, upon handing back your locker key, staff present you with a cold can of Asahi Dry Crystal. Or “lager” as it is better known.

Sundays were for longer runs with a gang of friends that organises itself via a WhatsApp group chat called “Weekend Croissant Club”. Its interests are defined by routes that end in at a butter-glutted French bakery, and its members include a business owner who would rather be cycling, a fund manager who runs to amass credit in an imaginary market for claret offsets and a school English teacher who sees every kilometre as a chance to discuss Philip Larkin and online dating.

This was fun, but proof I was not built for the rigours of ekiden . Everything ached, creaked or wheezed. I was still tubby, still spending my days in an office where biscuits mysteriously appear in the pantry, still easily lured to a post-work pint and still making only modest increments of improvement on my time. As the race loomed, the lack of progress became more psychologically onerous, and the fear of letting the side down began to prey. My team, bedecked in our specially made FT-Nikkei running vests, would be humiliated, and it would be all my fault.

It was then that a revelation struck me. I had been ekiden ing it all wrong. The necessary mental leap, in a sport designed by Japanese for Japanese, is not to focus on the result but on the process. For it is process, ultimately, that matters most. So long as you can tell yourself honestly that you tried your best in the run-up, Japan has a hidden clause that liberates you from the outcome of that effort.

So the past eight weeks have been devoted to that job of self-persuasion, a cause which, coincidentally, can turn you into a better runner. Interval training, Pilates, a (nearly total) booze moratorium. Enough to allow me to respond, when asked how training is going, that I am a zealot. I set myself a weekly goal of 40km running and 100km cycling, culminating in a run, one week before the big day, with a younger, lither companion. He forced me into a pace that brought me to the end of 10km at a time six minutes off my age, and to a state where I believe I have mastered ekiden : the Japanese art of letting everyone down gracefully. Wish me luck.

Leo Lewis is the FT’s Asia business editor

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