'The problem is men who want to attack women' - Running Punks 'Doc' on why runners shouldn't be scared of the dark
'The problem is men who want to attack women' - Running Punks 'Doc' on why runners shouldn't be scared of the dark
Dr Ashley Morgan told Running Tales women should be able to run whenever and wherever they want
“A lot of the reactions to women who have been harassed or killed outside is that they shouldn’t go out in the dark.
“That it is the dark that is the problem. And I think that obfuscates the issue, which is the problem is men who want to attack women.”
Dr Ashley Morgan has something to say as loudly and as often as possible.
As a runner of 34 years, currently most often seen representing the increasingly large and popular Running Punks group where she is known simply as ‘The Doc’, Dr Ashley is in no doubt who is to blame when it comes to incidences of women - and women runners - being attacked.
Recent high-profile cases including the murder of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy while out for an afternoon run in Tullamore, County Offaly in Ireland, or Memphis runner Eliza Fletcher, who was kidnapped and killed while out on her regular 4am run, have highlighted the issue of women’s safety while out exercising.
Some commentators have encouraged women not to run alone or in the dark - or even blamed them for doing so.
Dr Ashley, who works as a Sociologist in the Cardiff School of Art and Design specialising in topics including masculinity, sex and identity, and feminism, called such views “unhelpful thinking”.
“There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the dark, but people fear the dark because you can’t see very well,” she told the Running Tales Podcast.
“Lighting will make no difference to a man who wants to attack you. I’ve only been attacked myself in the daylight, in public, in front of people.
“What makes women afraid is being attacked, but we are also afraid of being attacked in the dark and then being told it is our fault.
“It makes no sense to me whatsoever that I shouldn’t be somewhere I want to be, just in case I’m attacked.”
She said the cases of Ashling Murphy, killed while running in the daylight, and of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry - murdered despite walking home together - demonstrated the misguided nature of advice insisting women avoid the dark or ‘couple-up’ when out at night.
“I find myself thinking about what was on Ashling Murphy’s mind,” Dr Ashley said. “Maybe it was raining in the morning, and she thought ‘do you know what, I’ll just go for a run when I come home because it will be light’.”
Dr Ashley, who said she started running in “some really rough parts” of London when she about 20, told Running Tales it has never occurred to her not to run “whatever time of the day I want to.
“I have run a lot in the dark, after work - in the winter that’s your time. Or very early in the morning.
“I’ve experienced abuse - sexual, physical, harassment - at any time of the day or night, so in my mind it makes no difference where I am.
“I could be assaulted. I could be subject to harassment, I could be made to feel unsafe, anywhere at any time.”
‘Wherever I am in the world, I go for a run’
In fact, she has become a “compulsive runner,” unable to leave the sport behind even when travelling abroad.
Holidays and days out are often based on what she finds when out running, while cities are discovered and explored during a run.
On one memorable occasion in Toronto, Dr Ashley even ran past a coffee shop only for an old school friend to tap on the window and wave as she zipped by.
“Wherever I am, or wherever I have been in the world, I always have my running shoes and my bra with me,” she said.
“If I’m holiday, I will always go for a run. If I’m at a conference for work, whatever country, I take my running shoes with me, and go for a run.”
Dr Ashley isn’t going to stop running any time soon. Day or night.
‘No punk left behind’
Google - define ‘punk’.
A ‘loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music’ characterised by “the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles or makeup”.
But what is a Running Punk? BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne called the music and running group, “A lovely online community.”
The presenter added: “There’s something hilarious, brilliant and life-affirming about it.”
There’s certainly something popular about it. With more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, 11,000 on Instagram and closing in on 6,000 on Facebook, Running Punks has gone global.
Running Punks was started by friends Jimmy Watkins and Rhodri Morgan as an alternative to the unwelcoming, time orientated running groups they came across all too often.
Dr Ashley Morgan, aka ‘The Doc’ to friends and followers within the group, said Jimmy - a former international athlete who had given up running to tour the world in a rock band - and Rhodri “hadn’t seen each other for years and years, but they met again while they were both running.
“They started talking about doing something together and how they - Rhod in particular - didn’t like other running clubs.
“He said he found them too peacocky, it was all about PBs and speeds. He said he just really wanted to rock up in a Metallica t-shirt and have a laugh.”
Dr Ashley first became aware of Running Punks after friending Jimmy on social media.
“He said ‘who wants to come for a run in Cardiff on Sunday at 8.30am’.
“I was, like, ok. I don’t like running with people - I don’t like people very much, and I like running with people even less. I think that was my quote, but I went along.
“And I really didn’t like what I saw. Just a bunch of blokes standing around.
“There were about 15 people, only three women. I thought, ‘do I want to run with a load of blokes? I’m not keen’.
“But I put my prejudices aside and I kept turning up.
“From that start, I now have an incredible support network of people that I can call on at any time if I need to.”
Also on Running Tales:
Dr Ashley, who now leads Running Punks’ Sunday run clubs, said the group grew due to its inclusive nature.
“Jimmy said there are no subs, no money to pay. You just come along because you want to come along.
“And you talk to us, and we talk to you, and hopefully you have a nice time.
“The idea was that people would run a slow 10k. If you can run a bit - five or six kilometres - you can probably run 10k, and indeed we have helped people who have been lacking in confidence to reach 10k.
“One of the things we have a lot of is that people think we are too fast, and that we are too cool to run with, which I just have to throw in the water.
“The idea that any of us are remotely cool or that we are stand-offish - it’s not that. We might want to run faster on days that aren’t Sunday, but on Sunday it is run club and we run slower.”
She said the most important mantra in the club is ‘No punk left behind’.
“If I think the pace is too fast and people are hanging behind, then I make the group go slower,” she said.
“And everybody is ‘fine, let’s get an easy pace going as we want to talk’.”
Music reviews and #poshbogselfies
The popularity of Running Punks has gone way beyond Sunday mornings in Cardiff, with its global following not only posting their runs to social media, but showing off their Hawaiian shirts, taking pictures of themselves in smart looking toilets and helping each other through life’s ups and downs.
Dr Ashley said a lot of that has come from the personality of Jimmy Watkins, who she described as “an out-there person”.
Jimmy’s running music reviews in particular have garnered huge attention. These social clips will see him running while listening to and commenting - sometimes hilariously - on an album.
He will then cut what he records down to social media length, tag in Running Punks and post it online.
“People, particularly bands, started hearing about Running Punks through being interested in either having their music reviewed or being interested in other people’s music, so a lot of bands joined us,” Dr Ashley said.
“When he reviewed Tom Jones’ new LP, Tom Jones friended him. Once you have that kind of social media footprint, it does seem to grow like Topsy.”
Dr Ashley said the groups striking merchandise, featuring a logo of two safety pins, also attracted attention.
“They got a designer to design this pretty cool logo, which has two safety pins - it has punk iconography, but also this idea of you’re safe if you come and run with us.
“We are a safe space, all welcome. I’ve never had to tell anybody off, but I would do if I saw something saying something or being inappropriate in the group.
“The idea is we attract people who are fairly laid-back and easy going, and quite a lot of people who lack confidence.”
The group’s laid-back attitude comes through in many of its members online messages, not least Dr Ashley’s own creation: The #poshbogselfie.
This hashtag sees Running Punks take photographs of themselves in toilets - some more posh than others - and post them online.
Dr Ashley said: “We don’t take ourselves too seriously.
“I started the posh bog selfies in lockdown. Lockdown has been this incredible thing, particularly for me.
“I didn’t go on social media until January 2019. I was worried about being on it. Particularly as a woman, I had heard such negative things.
“But what I found was like-minded people.
“In lockdown, we weren’t going out, so I used to curate my clothes. Every week I would wear something different.
“That’s where the idea of the posh bog selfie came from, and now people take their own photos and send them to me, and then Running Punks is probably re-sending them.
“What it is, is community. It is really about creating friendships. Most of us have very little in common, we are from all walks of life.
“But it has brought people together. It’s pretty incredible really.”