NEON is a nasal strip, but most people meet it at an event: a track session, a Saturday social, a stand at a HYROX with a pull-up bar and a stopwatch. That's deliberate. Breathing is hard to explain on a product page and easy to understand after a 5 km with your mouth shut. So here's where we've been this year, and where you'll find us next.

Run clubs

Pulse Preston is home. We've supported their track sessions through the year and sponsored their socials: a 5 km at a comfortable pace from The Hunters in Preston, then fitness challenges, a beer or a brew and a BBQ. All ages, all abilities, nobody left at the back.

Across the water, the NEON x Huns and Sons Run Club meets in Wexford, Ireland, every Tuesday at 6:30 pm. If you're anywhere near, go. It's one of the friendliest runs we've been part of.

We wrote about why clubs like these have taken off in the rise of run club culture. The short version: the run is the excuse, the people are the point.

The Grip Challenge

Our favourite thing to bring to an event is a bar. The NEON Grip Challenge is a timed dead hang: step up, hang on, and the clock runs until you drop. There are prize tiers for every minute you last and a bonus for the day's best. At one Pulse Preston social, Olga held on for 3 minutes 2 seconds and took home £200. A minute is further than it sounds. Everyone finds out how they breathe when their forearms are on fire.

Look for the bar at our HYROX stands this season.

Pink runs for CoppaFeel

When we launched the pink NEON strip we partnered with CoppaFeel, the breast cancer awareness charity, and donated £4,000 to their work. Then we took it outside.

First, a pink-themed run with Slow Run Club in Manchester: 70-plus runners in pink through the city streets. Then, on Saturday 26 September, the Pink Social. A 5 km from Earl's in Bolton with WeMovin and Not Just A Girl, pink everything, and a message that mattered more than the pace: check yourself, and get your mates to check themselves too.

If your club wants to host one, tell us.

Race weekends

Wherever Team NEON races, we're on the floor. This year that has meant HYROX Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester, Tenerife and the World Championships in Stockholm, then HYROX Birmingham, where the weekend brought a World Championship qualification for Jakub and Daisy, a Women's Relay win and a stack of PBs.

Away from the arenas, a group of our athletes ran the full perimeter of Lanzarote, 189.25 km in 23 hours and 18 minutes, and we backed Jacko through his attempt at 100 consecutive ultramarathons for Headway UK and Head for Change.

What's next

Hong Kong, for a start. Beyond that: more run club nights over the winter and the Grip Challenge wherever we have a stand. Follow @neon_perform for dates, and if you run a club, a gym or an event and want NEON there, our affiliate programme is the quickest way to make it happen. Our athletes will tell you we don't need much persuading.