Incredible running achievements, world records... and dogs!
Time to catch up with our latest content on everything from canicross to the scourge of victim blaming, plus we speak to ultra runner Ali Hall on the podcast.
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Before we tell you what we’ve been up to in the last week we thought we’d share some of the stories from the running world that we’ve spotted.
First up, we enjoyed Jasmin Paris’ blog on her (latest!) Barkley Marathons experience - particularly her story of finding a sleepy and somewhat confused Damian Hall - “We proceeded to discuss the location of the final book, which Damian had been unable to find in his tired state, and he explained to me that he’d brought back a leaf, and a small rock, to prove he’d been there”.
You can read her account in full here.
We also enjoyed following Camille Herron’s astounding - and successful - world record attempt.
The American ran 435.336 kilometers (270.5 miles) around a 400-meter track in Bruce, Australia to break the record for the furthest distance covered by a woman in 48-hours of running.
Runner’s World covered the result here.
But perhaps most of all, we loved the story of Alex Roca.
The Spanish runner has 76% cerebral palsy, but that didn’t stop him finishing the Barcelona Marathon.
Have a great week’s running, whatever your goals may be - here is our quick round-up of our podcast and news content from the last week.
The podcast:
On this week’s Running Tales Podcast we spoke to Ali Hall, who has embraced the joy of running ever since she discovered the sport at boarding school.
While there, she used running to escape mental health challenges and loneliness, but it is a passion she has never left behind.
In later life she competed in everything from adventure racing to ultra marathons, and has now moved into the world of coaching with Pyllon.
Along the way, Ali created a number of running communities, including setting up a group putting on city running tours and the hugely successful Cani-Sport Edinburgh.
We spoke to Ali about everything from sports psychology and the mental health benefits of running to her dream of finishing a 100-mile race.
With the London Marathon approaching, we thought we’d also remind everyone of our conversation with wheelchair athletes, Steve Montgomery and Gerry McCrory.
Steve and Gerry are stars of Northampton Saints’ successful wheelchair rugby side, while Steve is also an avid wheelchair racer.
He competed in last year’s London Marathon as one of the elite athletes, and is set to do so again this time round.
Running Tales spoke to Steve and Gerry about wheelchair sport, how accessible it is, and being 'different ability' rather than disabled athletes...
Substack:
In our latest article looking at women’s safety when running, we looked at victim blaming in the light of attacks on female runners.
Every time a woman is harassed, attacked or even murdered while running, they are questioned about what they wear and when they run - but is it time to change the discourse?
The article is the latest in a series looking at a host of aspects to women’s safety when running.
It is based on our podcast on the subject with runners Dr Ashley Morgan, Angie Skinner and Michele Heller.
You can also discover how Tennessee resident Angie doesn't feel safe going out alone without her "arsenal" of self-defence weapons - read the story here.
Yesterday we covered the story of podcast guest Ali Hall’s love of canicross - and how it helped her smash her 5km time!
Of course, as the founder of Cani-Sports Edinburgh and a lifelong lover of running, Ali is keen to stress dog assisted and non-dog assisted times must always remain separate - but that hasn’t stopped our own Craig Lewis checking out which super speedy hounds might take him under that elusive sub-21 minute parkrun time!
Our article on canicross looks at why the sport has become so popular and how people can get involved.
We’d love to know what you think about any of our articles and podcast - or just how your running journey is going. You can add a comment below.
Thanks as ever for reading and listening to Running Tales. We couldn’t do this without your support - please back us to keep going by…