It’s International Women’s Day, and we’ll have a special article for paid subscribers later looking at five women who have changed the world of running.
Below are some cool tweets from runners and running groups around the world, who are celebrating IWD 2023 today, but we wanted to remind anyone who needs to know that women should feel safe running every day of the year - not just on the symbolic ones.
Men, don’t harass women or find an excuse to justify sliding into their DMs or into unwanted conversation when they are running close to you.
It’s not funny or attractive to catcall women, or deliberately stand in someone’s way if they run towards you because you mistakenly think it makes you powerful. It doesn’t.
Running Tales: Women and running
And men, speak to your friends and families - male and female - about how you can be a better ally. It would be great to start that conversation here.
This is a subject we’ll be coming back to in much more detail soon, but we’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so please leave us a comment in the section at the end of this article or by clicking the button below.
This week on…
The podcast:
This week on the Running Tales Podcast, we spoke to Gary Shaughnessy - a runner who’s many hats include being Chair of the Board of Trustees at Parkinson’s UK and Chair of the Board at England Athletics.
Gary has completed 40 marathons, raising thousands of pounds for charity along the way. But perhaps his greatest achievement came in finishing the Arch to Arc Triathlon, dubbed the hardest triathlon in the world.
Starting at Marble Arch in London and heading to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the event features an 87-mile run, swimming the English Channel (Gary swapped in a gruelling row for the swim) and 181-miles of cycling.
What makes Gary's success even more remarkable is that it came after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2015.
Gary is now planning a series of events in 2023, including the Newport, Paris and Madrid marathons and a cycle ride from Liverpool to Ukraine.
People can sponsor him at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gary-shaughnessy2
We also have some exciting guests lined up in the coming weeks, including adventure swimmer Rachel Heley and Mike Harley, who has run a marathon in every one of the 27 countries in the European Union.
Substack:
Earlier this week, we took an in-depth look at the world of the ‘Mega Marathoners’.
Brit Steve Edwards, a recent podcast guest, may have an incredible 954 marathons to his name, but his numbers pale when compared to those at the top of the Mega Marathon List.
The list ranks those runners who have completed a combination of at least 300 marathons and ultra marathons.
Top of the list is Christian Hottas, who has finished a mind-blowing 3,162 marathons/ultras - but is everything as simple as it seems?
Different rules and criteria across the world mean not every marathon or ultra is the same - and make it easier for those in some countries to stack up incredible numbers.
You can read the story in full here by becoming a paid subscriber for just £5 per month - and we won’t make you run a single marathon!
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