Running on Joy

Joy is...Juxtaposition. Hailey Moore @hailey.m.moore is a freelance writer and copyeditor based in Boulder, Colorado. She writes about the outdoors, people and communities and is herself an endurance cyclist and trail runner. She also takes incredible photographs that, like her writing, foreground the beauty of human interactions and incidental moments. Hailey is a wonderful example of cross-polli...

Joy is...What's Inside. Jacky Hunt-Broersma is the embodiment of never letting anyone tell you that you 'can’t do anything’. 20 years ago, she did not run at all but, earlier this year, she ran 104 marathons in 104 days, setting a new world record. That in itself is quite something but, 20 years ago, at only 26, she also lost her leg to Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer. Now, she is one...

Joy is...Connection. A Friday 'Shining Lights' episode with Paul Powlesland. Paul is a civil barrister, environmental activist and storyteller who is bringing new significance to what it means to be a lawyer in a time of environmental crisis. After practising as a barrister in London for a decade, he founded Lawyers for Nature, as a response to the need to create greater respect, protection and re...

Joy is...The Process. In the last decade, Hillary 'Hilly Goat' Allen has earned a name as one of our most celebrated Sky and Ultra Runners of our times. Her energy, passion and success are undeniable; however, it is the manner in which her unstoppable spirit has emerged from a life-changing, near-death accident, whilst inspiring thousands of others, that has made her accomplishments all the more i...

Joy is...Play. A Friday 'Shing Lights' episode with Rosie Watson, a runner and climate activist, who, in 2019, began an epic journey running self-supported from her doorstep in the Lake District, across Europe, to Bulgaria. The purpose of ‘The New Story Run’ was to use the challenge to contribute towards changing the way we talk and think about the climate crisis. By meeting people on the way who...

Joy is...an undulating path. Helen Mort is an award-winning poet and novelist, with a life-long passion for running, climbing and the outdoors. She has published three poetry collections, the latest of which, The Illustrated Woman , was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She has also been shortlisted for the T.S.Eliot Prize, the Costa Prize and won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize in 2015. She appears r...

Joy is...Sharing Adventures. Another Friday episode in the ‘Shining Lights’ series, platforming lesser-known voices with their own incredible stories of showing up, shooting their shot and putting one foot in front of the other. Emily Wormald is a cyclist based in the Lake District and is the founder of Lakes Gravel Gang, a women’s only cycling group, which has now grown to over 150 members. Havin...

Joy is...When Nothing Else Matters. Alex Staniforth is a record-breaking adventurer, author and charity ambassador, based in the Lake District. As just 27, he is no stranger to challenges, whether they be mental or physical. He is perhaps best known for surviving the two biggest disasters in Mount Everest history, whilst still only a teenager, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Since then, he ha...

Joy is...The Mission. Another episode in the Friday 'Shining Light' series, platforming lesser known voices with incredible stories to tell. Alvaro De La Camaro is an amateur triathlete, cyclist and father who has also happened to have ridden 2,500km from Croydon, London, to his native Cadiz, in Spain, in 10 days, all for a bowl of soup. To give some context, Alvaro is the co-founder of Cycling 4...

Joy is...Learning. Adam Merry is an elite athlete for Saucony, based in Colorado. He started training competitively in 2017 and has since raced in distances up to 100km on the road and trails. As well as being an incredible athlete in his own right, he also uses his expertise to coach others and his background in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to bring light to the issues in the trail and ultra r...

Joy is...A Way of Living. Jean-Baptiste Joly-Lavrieux is a photographer based in the French Alps. He spent over a decade in banking before leaving the profession to pursue his passion for trail running and photography. I was recently drawn to a series of photographs that Like the Wind Magazine shared from Jean-Baptiste's Instagram: images from the UTMB mountain race, all captured on a disposable c...

Joy is...Sharing. Stian Dahl Sommerseth is a promising young mountain runner from Norway, who has placed competitively at the 20 and 50km distances in races across Europe, including a recent 4th place at the Nice Cote D’Azur 50km race as part of the UTMB World series. We first connected on Instagram through a common sense of humour and some poignant post-race posts that Stian wrote regarding the p...

Joy is...Right Now. Markus Torgeby is a Swedish runner, author and lecturer. At age 20, with nothing but an axe, a sleeping bag, and the clothes he was wearing, Markus bought a one-way ticket to Gothenburg train station. There, in the Jämtland forest, where temperatures plummet to -40°C in winter, he lived off-grid for 4 years. Existing in complete solitude and harmony with nature, Markus construc...

Joy is...The Things We Hate. In November 2019, Claire Smith became the first British athlete ever to complete a continuous Double Deca Iron Distance triathlon: 48 miles of swimming, 2,240 miles of cycling and 524 miles of running, in 28 days. The numbers are almost too much to process and, as impressive as they are, the woman behind them is even more so, and for reasons that the numbers don't tell...

Joy is...Simplicity. Mark White is the CEO/founder of Run Grateful, which aims to inspire people to connect through gratitude and the power of movement. Mark is known as a creative, an ideas man, and someone who wants to impact the world in a positive manner. His other current project, MEUS, is an app that encourages men to be more self-aware and reflective. In 2019, Mark was v...

Joy is...What Lies Ahead. The one where I ask one of the greatest endurance athletes of our time his thoughts on white spandex; get into an existential debate on Gandalf vs Gimli, and try to convince him to set up a side hustle in American snack cakes. John Kelly is a US based husband, father and data scientist who has run the Boston marathon dressed as the Zelda character Link. He also happens to...

Joy is...The Unknown. Louis Hall is an actor, writer and founder of The Big Hoof charity. The Big Hoof promotes adventure and wellbeing through their long distance rides. Beginning in 2020, Louis rode down the length of the UK in memory of his friend Leo, raising over £38,00 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Most recently, the charity organised a 2789km ride from Siena, Italy to Cape Finiterre, Spain...

Joy is...Symbiosis. Dan Lawson is a record-breaking ultramarathon runner who’s represented Great Britain and achieved podium finishes in some of the world’s toughest races. He is the current LEJOG (Land's End to John O'Groats) record holder, and founder of the incredible ReRun initiative, which aims to prolong the life of sports clothes and equipment and campaign to reverse the impact th...

Joy is…Imperfection. Damian Hall is a record-breaking ultrarunner, writer and activist, who has represented Great Britain at the Trail World Championships and competed in some of the world's toughest races. His attempt to break into the top ten at the 105-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc was made into an award-winning film,  Underdog ; and the documentary  Totally FKT  follo...

Joy is...Finding Your Strange. Zoë Rom is Editor in Chief at  Trail Runner  magazine and managing editor of  Women's Running. She is currently at work on her first book,  Becoming a Sustainable Runner  which will debut in August 2023. She has recently helped launch  Relay , a premium, collaborative newsletter for runners. You can read her work on  Trail Runner ,&...

Joy is...Burning Bright. Special Episode Alert! Jack Kuenzle is a US based mountain runner, who has just set the trail and mountain running community alight by smashing Kilian Jornet's Bob Graham Round record (66 miles with 28,500 feet of ascent across 42 Lake District fells) by an astonishing thirty minutes. This, however, is just the icing on the cake of a string of incredible feats of endurance...

Joy is...Giving. Paul Minter is currently on the final leg of a 5,000 mile run around the coastline of the entire UK to raise awareness and funds for his charity Head Up. Paul has been running Forrest Gump style since 1st March 2022, housed and joined by members of the public along his way. Head Up intends to promote mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces, and to help forces personnel bu...