Don't harass women: Our regular reminder to leave women alone when they're running
Plus our usual round-up including podcasting with 'Once Around the Planet' author Doug Richards and our Chat community
And so here we are again. A woman attacked while out running. Grabbed from behind and left with injuries to her neck and with bruising.
It happened in Sunderland on Friday, June 30. I was stupidly going to start that sentence with the phrase ‘latest incident’ but I’m pretty sure, sadly, there will have been many more such attacks up and down the UK, and throughout the world.
Thankfully, the lady in question managed to get away. That’s not always the case.
People need only look back at the tragic cases of Eliza Fletcher in America or Ashling Murphy in Ireland.
And the horrible murders of those women are just the high-profile tips of a very large iceberg.
Earlier this year, a survey commissioned by Adidas and taking in 9,000 people from the US, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, United Arab Emirates, China, Japan and South Korea, found nine in 10 women are concerned about their safety while running.
It listed issues women face, ranging from cat calling, body shaming, wolf whistles, verbal abuse and heckling to indecent exposure, sexual attention and physical contact.
Also on Running Tales:
Such incidents need to stop. Men need to take responsibility for their actions. We can no longer simply stand around warning women not to run in the dark or suggesting female runners only go out with a male friend.
It’s not good enough.
Back in March, Running Tales produced a special podcast looking at women’s safety when running and hearing first hand stories from women who had been abused while out for a run.
Below is a list of the stories we produced as a result of the podcast, featuring insight from those women. Women who can talk about this problem far better than I can and from the vantage point of personal experience.
But that won’t stop me saying this: DON’T HARASS WOMEN.
That’s it. Nothing else to say really.
This week on…
The podcast:
This week’s Running Tales Podcast guest, Doug Richards, has just published his third book about running, charting an incredible journey that has seen him run a lifetime total of 24,902 miles.
It's a distance equivalent to the circumference of the Earth’s equator.
In 'Once Around the Planet,' Doug shares his latest running adventures including running a marathon in Venice and taking on a host of island runs including among ancient Moai statues on Easter Island, across volcanic rim trails in the Azores and even into the mysterious confines of the Bermuda Triangle.
Doug's amazing running total was achieved despite the fact he only started running in his 30s, when he found himself out of breath having run up the stairs to see his son.
It was then he decided to get fit - and start running. It's a habit he's found hard to shift and has seen him run across all seven continents, including in Antarctica and across the Sahara and Gobi Deserts.
Substack:
We introduced a new regular feature on Monday, looking at ‘five of the best’ running stories, articles, podcasts or videos we’ve read over the past week.
You can check it out here: From miscarriages and marathons to running for CALM
It’s good to talk:
Our podcasts try to create a chatty atmosphere, but they’re only ever one person at a time - and we’d like to hear from more of you about your running, what you think of our articles and, if the mood hits you that way, life in general.
That’s why we also run the ‘Running Tales: After all is said and run’ subscriber chat.
This is a conversation space in the Substack app set up exclusively for subscribers — kind of like a group chat or live hangout.
We’ll post short prompts, thoughts, and updates and you can jump into the discussion.
To join our chat, you’ll need to download the Substack app, now available for both iOS and Android.
Chats are sent via the app, not email, so turn on push notifications to avoid missing the conversation as it happens.
How to get started:
Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Substack Chat is now available on both iOS and Android.
Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.
That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.
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