Stuart McLeod and Cesare Saguato (Run:Zen)

Stuart took up triathlon in 2005, before specializing in duathlon (run/bike/run). He went on to represent Great Britain as an age-group athlete at several international Championships. He holds a UK Athletics Leadership in Running Fitness coach’s licence and is a founder member of MedwayTri. His final competitive season in 2016 focussed on long distance racing, including ultra-marathons and the 290km Dragon Duathlon, running and cycling from Anglesey to Cardiff Bay. Nowadays he can usually be found running the trails of his North Kent home. Stuart has been practicing meditation in the Chan (Chinese Zen) Buddhist tradition for over two decades and holds a postgraduate certificate in Buddhist Studies. He has participated in a variety of mindfulness programmes and is currently studying under the Teacher Training Pathway at Bangor University’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice. He is also a Level Three teacher of Tai Chi Movements for Wellbeing (TMW) and is training as an instructor with Long White Cloud Qigong. For the last 20 years he has been teaching meditation at a local group of the Western Chan Fellowship in the Medway Towns. In more recent years, Stuart has deepened the connection between his sporting and mindfulness practices. He has a particular interest in the application of mindfulness techniques and skills as a means to help us re-inhabit our bodies. Cesare is a registered teacher on the UK Mindfulness Network and has completed a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Teacher Training Retreat with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre of the University of Oxford. He has completed further training with the Mindfulness in Schools Project and in Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre (NHS). He has been delivering mindfulness retreats, courses, training and workshops for the general public and a range of organisations since 2015. Cesare is also qualified as a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor (BACP) with Inter-Psyche (NHS), as a Teacher with a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the Institute of Education, UCL and holds a Degree in Western Philosophy from King’s College, London. Cesare’s personal meditation practice has been developing since 2007, mainly within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and he continues to receive meditation instruction and guidance from internationally recognised meditation teachers and their senior students, while endeavouring to put them into practice on retreat and his everyday life. He has been teaching meditation within that context to his local community since 2013 through a non-profit community group, Bodhicharya Kent, that he helped create under the guidance of his main teacher, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. Cesare always had a personal interest in health, fitness and nutrition, including martial arts, weight training and running. He recognises both personally and professionally the importance of skilfully integrating the mind and body for a greater sense of wholeness in experience, embodied presence and well-being in life. Through his own running he sees how the addition of mindful awareness provides an opportunity for this to naturally unfold and is passionate about sharing the benefits with others.