Running on Joy

Joy is... Realising What Matters. Darren Evans is someone who epitomises what it means to run for a ‘why’. He is the co-founder of the Green Runners, a running community making changes for a fitter planet; the co-founder of Pair-Ups, a process and kit to help runners extend the life of the trainers, and race director of the Longbridge Backyard Ultra, a running event with sustainability at its core...

Joy is... Experiencing. Ivan Kashdan is an interdisciplinary artist with a passion for the environment and a drive to use his skills to change how we perceive and interact with nature. He is one of the three founders of Hermit House Games (previously known as, and referred to in this episode, as Kash & Germ), a family studio based in London who are on a mission to change how nature is portraye...

Joy is... Running! Dan Thompson is a life-long runner and the co-founder of the Running Out of Time Climate Relay. Dan has a background as a successful executive, investor and adviser in the music, computer games, and internet sectors. His involvement in running relay races dates back more than a decade; however, it was in 2022 that he first came on my radar with the world’s first and longest clim...

Joy is... Surrender. Jon Bilbrough (aka Wilderthorn) is known for secret gigs in disused and abandoned spaces, turning forgotten places of history and atmosphere into wild and magical ‘Wilderthorn-experiences’. Having begun his musical journey in Asia, touring his earliest gigs in Sri Lanka, Malasia, Singapore and India, he then returned to Chennai, India, to create demo recordings with local Boll...

Joy is... Being Heard. Immy Sykes is not sure if she qualifies as a cyclist, but she certainly does a lot of it. Immy, who is based in the North-West of England and goes by the handle of Immy Cycles on Instagram, talks a lot online about her experiences on the bike and the way that it connects her to the people and world around her. She is a passionate environmentalist, with an MSc in Environmenta...

Service update: It's been a little while since the last episode due to life, work and other projects requiring energy. The podcast is a labour of love, and I am giving myself the grace that I would grant others to produce content in a way that is sustainable and uplifting for them. The things we love should be a pleasure, not a chore. I am so grateful to the podcast for the amazing connections, fr...

Joy is...Feeling Known. Lindsey Freeman is a writer and sociologist interested in endurance, hapticality, atomic and nuclear cultures, and poetics. Her most recent book, Running, is about practice, love, queerness, and long-distance running, published by Duke University Press. Although described as a feminist and queer handbook of running, it’s a book for all runners.  It’s a book that celebr...

Joy is...Shared Humanity. Christine Yu is a New York-based, life-long athlete and award-winning journalist, who writes about sports, science and health. Her interest in the intersection between sports science and women athletes led her to her first book UP TO SPEED: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes , which disentangles myth and gender bias from real science in order to address the huge...

Joy is...Watching Football (with a Dog). Stef Mcloughlin is the Commercial Manager for Lewes FC, a football club that is not only committed to gender equality but is really showcasing how, with the right approach, sport can be a catalyst for societal change. There are infinite creative ways that the 100% fan owned club is doing this, but perhaps the most remarkable achievement is that Lewes FC bec...

Joy is...Consistency. Running on Joy is back, after an extended break, to bring you a series focussing on women doing important work to uplift others, build communities, and connect and protect the world around them. We begin with Alyssa Ages, a Toronto-based, New York-born author, freelance writer, and copywriter. Alyssa is also a mother, strongman competitor, endurance athlete (including six mar...

Joy is...Real. Mauricio (Mau) Díaz is a runner and storyteller whose zeal for adventure and exploration is epitomised in his creation, along with co-founders,Manuel and Daniel, of Aire Libre, a Mexico City-based creative project that hosts immersive running experiences in exotic corners of the world. Rather than seeing running as a purely athletic pursuit, Aire Libre uses movement to explore...

Joy is...Inspiration. Patrick Stangbye might best be described as a visionary. He is a competitive ultra runner, creative director, and an advocate for a life of essentialism, of focussing on what really matters. It’s a concept that drives his running, life aesthetic and creative projects: moving is to living is to communication. In essence, Patrick's is an existence driven by perspective and enri...

Joy is...Omnipresence. Simone Salvatici is a London-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound artist, and qualified sound therapist. One might say that he is a person on a constantly evolving, shifting journey, grounded in a deep and authentic commitment to sound. As a composer of instrumental music, Simone has released both solo and collaborative projects and has performed at venues, incl...

Joy is...An Afternoon Walk. Jim Leary is an archaeologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of York. They previously held posts at Reading University and English Heritage. Formerly also a Field Archaeologist in Residence at Cambridge University, he has directed major excavations across Britain, including Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, the largest Neolithic monument in Europe. A passionate walker,...

This is the second post-journey interview of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, our core team of four set out on a 2...

Joy is...Good Stuff with Good People. Jacob Martin is a maker of things: of photography, of films, of podcasts, of adventures and, through the adventures, both micro and epic, of stories. One such adventure, of the epic variety, last summer, was to cycle 4,722 miles along the European Divide Trail from Arctic Norway to the Atlantic Coast of Portugal, a feat that only twelve people had ever underta...

The first post-journey interview of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, our core team of four set out on a 200-mile a...

Joy is...one foot in front of the other. Annabel Abbs is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction whose most recent offering, 52 Ways to Walk, is full of clearly presented science; snippets of fascinating history, and an enthusiasm for how walking and being out in the world can help us tackle many of life’s challenges. Another recent offering, and Annabel's first foray into memoir, Winds...

Joy is...Curiosity. George Bauer is a Melbourne-raised trail runner, currently living in the Highlands of Scotland. Having run marathons and informal events across four continents, he now partners with brands to co-host holistic retreats, using yoga, trail running and profound connection to the food we eat as ways to re-connect with ourselves and those around us. Most recently, his work has l...

The third in-the-field episode of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, our core team of four set out on a 200-mile adv...

This is the second in-the-field episode of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, our core team of four set out on a 200...

Running on Joy brings you the first in-the-field episode of a series following the FareWays project. A collaboration between the Big Hoof and the British Pilgrimage Trust, FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, a core team of four set out on a 200-...

Joy is...Passing the Baton. What does running sound like to you? For Jimmy Watkins it’s cackling with laughter, pounding the trails to punk rock whilst waving around a GoPro and shouting like he's being pursued by a mad pack of hyenas. It’s certainly a far cry from the Kansas of treadmill running, but not out of character for someone who has formed a community for the people that ‘don’t fit in’ to...

Joy is...Your Heart Bursting. This is the second episode of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and The British Pilgrimage Trust, which aims to connect people to the outdoors through long distance journeys on foot and horse along the old pilgrims' routes of the UK, for the benefits of their mental and physical health. This July, our core te...

Joy is...A Noun. There are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings when it comes to running and pregnancy. From the time a woman finds out she is pregnant to the postpartum period and beyond, her body goes through an intense array of changes and there is both limited and conflicting information about what activities are appropriate for her and when. It’s only really been the past few ye...