The Women's Running Podcast

Emma Campbell has a list of labels as long as your arm: author, writer, speaker, three times cancer thriver, mum of four, Women’s Running columnist, runner. There are more, too, but for now let’s concentrate on these ones. She’s such an incredible woman that when I first spoke to her at the end of last year, I’d signed her up to be a columnist within half an hour. She talks here honestly and beautifully about her experiences with cancer, and how she has dealt with those diagnoses while simultaneously bringing up her triplets and older son. She also discusses the gift of running, and how her friend Bryony Gordon helped her to view it as a way to embrace her mental wellbeing rather than a way to punish her body. From running a 10K in her Primark pants to signing up to the London Marathon, Emma will have you lacing up your trainers in no time.This episode of the Women’s Running podcast is sponsored by Lucy Locket Loves. For gorgeous prints – Rainbows! Stars! Leopard print! – in luxe fabrics, Lucy Locket will put the fun in your run. And they’re offering you, our lovely podcast listeners, an exclusive 10% discount on EVERYTHING. Just enter WRPOD10 at the checkout.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ah Lisa Jackson. If you ever wanted to be inspired to run anything – but particularly a marathon – Lisa is your woman. I met her first last year at Run Fest, and then again at the start of this year, and both those times, I left feeling energised, inspired and pretty invincible, to be honest. She has run over a hundred marathons, and one of the many wonderful things about her is that she is fully proud of coming last in 25 of those marathons. She’s a back-of-the-pack runner, and she loves it there: she loves to chat to the runners and hear their stories. She loves the feeling of inclusivity, and she loves hearing about the journeys that all these runners have been on. To that end, she’s written a couple of brilliant books, that I would recommend for all runners: there’s Running Made Easy, the sort of running manual that you need next to your bed, and Your Pace Or Mine – now available on audiobook as well as paperback. In this she details her journey from committed fitness-phobe to committed marathoner, and all the extraordinary people she’s met along the way. It’s joyous. When I met her back in January, we talked about how she used to skive off running as a kid, how she got into running in her 30s, how she discovered walk-running, and the advice she has for all of us who are terrified about taking on a marathon. She’s a force of nature – you will want to run! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talked to Mel Bound back in September 2019. She's incredible. After undergoing life-changing back surgery and having kids, she tentatively put out a post on Facebook for some running buddies, and from there This Mum Runs was born. These days, it's gone from a local free weekly running group to an organisation with a truly global reach, with TMR running groups all over the world, a clothing range, and a manifesto to inspire women to move that will bring tears to your eyes. Mel has recently launched an app, too, which helps runners everywhere go from zero to 30 minutes with the help of her gentle coaching. In this episode, we talk kids, asthma, back problems, girls and sport, inspiring women to run, and dishwashers. Hers makes a beeping noise, but we professionally talked over it.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talked to Susannah back in November 2019. She's a force of nature, emphasised by her win at the World Marathon Challenge in January 2019. In this, she ran seven marathons, on seven continents in seven days. It's exhausting just typing it. The thing that makes it even more incredible than the feat itself is that we've been shown videos of Susannah before she was coached at the Running School. She went there just months before taking on the challenge, and her coach and mentor, Mike Antoniades, took one look at her running and asked her if she tripped over her feet a lot. It turns out she did. She thought that tripping over was a fact of running, but under Mike's guidance her form dramatically improved, and he helped shape her training so she was ready to take on the Challenge. The story of her adventure back then had me on the edge of my seat - at times, there were just seconds between her and the next contender, as she rounded the final lap before the finish. Find out how her sheer determination (and several Toffee Crisps) powered her through.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talked to Anna McNuff back in January 2020. Anna is the stuff of legend: most recently she has run over 2300 miles across the UK barefoot, fundraising and raising awareness for GirlGuiding as she went. She also amassed a whole raft of admirers and fellow runners along the way. But this wasn't Anna's first adventure: from clambering over Hadrian's wall (dressed as a Roman centurion - obviously) to cycling through every single state in North American, Anna loves a bit of a challenge. We talk to her about all of that, about adopting the westcountry as her home turf, and about the next adventures she has up her sleeve. She's funny, she's brilliant, she runs like the wind, and she's got the Best Hair In Running (TM).Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.