As the excitement mounts and runners make room in their sock drawers for more of the same, we asked our Christmas specialist reporter Alan Newman – who last year proved that Santa is real – to fire up the runABC crystal ball and predict the top presents for runners in 50 years time...

It's 2072 and running is the most popular sport since almost all contact sport was banned due to pressures on the 102-year-old NHS. Britain once again leads the world in distance running and the home nation's international cross-country draws a bigger TV audience than the FA Cup Final! 

Fortunately, some things stay the same and 1,800-year-old Santa Claus is still flying around the globe, delivering presents at Christmas. So what can runners look forward to receiving...?

The BIG present in 2072 is the Asi-Das-Ke Magna-Fly 96% racing shoe – the result of many years of research by the merged companies of Asics, Adidas and Nike, with their catchy joint slogan: "A sound mind and sound body mean impossible is nothing, so just do it". 

The Magna-Fly 96% is the ultimate progression from the once ground-breaking Nike VaporFly 4%, which provided a mere 4% boost to performance with its carbon plate. Running shoes are now carbon zero (no carbon plate) but the Magna-Fly utilises the Earth's geomagnetic field with magnetic repulsion to provide propulsion similar to the old-fashioned Japanese MagLev superconducting magnetic train developed in the 1970s that achieved speeds of 375mph in 2015 in test runs. 

Magna-Fly 96% requires only 4% effort from the wearer and the shoe does the rest, just as soon as magnetic equilibrium has been reached, which is why each pair comes with a guaranteed sub-two-hour marathon or your money back!

Also high on every runner's wish list is the Wrist-Phone Swerve with its superb built-in avoidance technology – now a legal requirement for all mobile communication devices in public places. This enables runners to move freely in busy areas, while being simultaneously entertained and informed by their personal head-up display, without colliding with anyone else. 

Each Wrist-Phone Swerve communicates with other devices and instantly calculates the safest route to avoid others by providing a gentle tug of the wrist for the runner to follow without having to look where they are going – amazing! 

Have you tried Skin-Tek athletic apparel yet? Years of dedicated scientific research have found that the only material that fits us all perfectly is human skin. Skin-Tek clothing is a fusion of human skin and highly technical fibres – one size fits all body shapes – and is waterproof and brilliant at heat regulation. Simply plug into your Wrist-Phone Swerve to download your club strip or favourite colour scheme, which you can change daily, and off you go!

Of course, the best gift of all is the runABC website and weekly enewsletter (sign up here) – still free and still the best source of information, races, and results for all runners. Remember, it's the thought that counts, so let your runner friends in on the runABC secret – don't keep it to yourselves!

Merry Christmas to all our fantastic followers. Time for a little break here at runABC Towers but we'll be back next week.

Image by Rosy on Pixabay