Everything a journalist, podcaster, or race-report writer needs to cover Bield: logos, brand colours, founder bio, three lift-able paragraphs of boilerplate, and a direct contact email.
Press contact: press@bield.run · We answer in under 24 hours, including weekends during race season.
Bield is a UK marketplace that introduces ultra-runners to verified pacers, crewers, and guide runners — without taking a cut or holding payment. Built by Olive Wood IT, a UK consultancy, it launches in summer 2026 with a founding cohort of 500 runners. The model is Checkatrade for the trail: Bield does the vetting (Strava verification, REC 3 First Aid, Mountain Leader, DBS sponsorship for guide runners) and gets out of the way. Runners pay £4.99/mo for Premium; pacers, crewers, and race organisers are free at launch and intended to stay free.
The founder, Richard Woods, ran Spine 2024 and watched the pacer-finding scene in the UK — Facebook groups, WhatsApp threads, and word of mouth — fail people repeatedly. Bield's wager is that the supply side (pacers and organisers) deserves the platform free, because they're why the network exists. Trust is enforced by structural choices: Strava-overlap verified reviews mean you can't get a five-star review from a mate; the share-pack staircase means a Pacer doesn't see your medical info until race week and PII auto-purges race + 14 days; gender-blind discovery and no profile photos in browse mean credentials matter, not faces.
Three SVG variants, drawn for screens at any size. Right-click and "Save Link As" — or pull them straight from the URLs below for hotlinking from a CMS.
The daylight mountain circle. Use as a profile / favicon / sole-mark.
Badge + wordmark on one line. Use in article headers and footers.
Simplified for small sizes (16 / 32 / 64 px). Use only where the master badge loses detail.
Usage rules: don't recolour the badge, don't crop the circle, don't stretch the wordmark. Keep clear-space around the badge equal to ~25% of the badge diameter. If you need a high-resolution PNG or EPS, email press@bield.run and we'll send within the day.
Bield's palette is "Dawn Patrol" — the colours of a UK fell at first light, in November. Use these hex codes anywhere you reproduce Bield content.
Typography: Inter for body and UI, Source Serif 4 for display headings. Both are open-source on Google Fonts.
Richard Woods is the founder of Bield and the director of Olive Wood IT Limited, a UK consultancy specialising in enterprise software for finance, manufacturing, and field services. He has personal time on the Spine Challenger, multiple UK 100-mile events, and a long career inside ERP rollouts — which is where the "boring infrastructure done well" approach to a marketplace comes from. Bield is his first consumer-facing product. He's based in Wiltshire, runs out of the Wessex Downs most weekends, and is happy to be quoted on safety, verification, or marketplace design.
For interviews, email press@bield.run. He'll do video, phone, in-person in London or Bristol, or written-Q&A.
Bield is a UK marketplace that connects ultra-runners with verified pacers, crewers, and guide runners. Built by Olive Wood IT, it launches summer 2026 with a founding cohort of 500. Bield doesn't take payment between users — it does the vetting and steps out of the way.
Bield is a UK marketplace for ultra-running's longest hours. Runners use it to find verified pacers, crewers, and guide runners; pacers use it to be discovered by runners who match their distance, terrain, and time-of-day comfort. Bield never holds money or sets prices — compensation is agreed directly between users, including non-cash options like a "Service Swap" (pacer-to-pacer trade) or volunteer arrangement. Reviews unlock only when both parties' Strava activities overlap, killing the fake-five-stars-from-a-mate problem. Built by Olive Wood IT, a UK consultancy run by Richard Woods, Bield launches with a 500-strong founding cohort in summer 2026, with the supply side (pacers, crewers, organisers) free at launch and intended to stay free.
Bield — Scots for shelter — is a UK marketplace built for the sharper end of ultra-running, where finding the right pacer for an 80-mile night leg currently relies on Facebook groups, WhatsApp, and luck. Founded by Richard Woods of Olive Wood IT and launching summer 2026 with a 500-runner founding cohort, Bield's bet is structural: do the boring, expensive parts of trust well — Strava verification, ID, REC 3 First Aid, Mountain Leader, DBS sponsorship for the first hundred guide-running specialists — then get out of the way of the people doing the running. The platform never holds money or takes a commission; runners and pacers agree compensation directly, including non-cash Service Swap and volunteer arrangements. A four-rung verification ladder matches the distance: a 5K pacer needs photo ID and Strava; a 100-miler pacer needs DBS and Mountain Leader. Reviews unlock only when both Strava activities overlap, which kills the "five-stars-from-my-mate" failure mode of other marketplaces. The share-pack staircase reveals personal data progressively and auto-purges it 14 days after race day. Runners pay £4.99/mo for premium features; pacers, crewers, and race organisers are free at launch — and meant to stay free.
Email press@bield.run for interview requests, quote checks, embargoed announcements, high-resolution media, and review-app access.
For investor / partner enquiries (not press), email hello@bield.run.
