Running Tales

From deciding to try parkrun once - and then getting hooked on it - to completing a 35-mile ultra despite contracting Covid, Peter Vickers has fully embraced the world of running.  At 55, he saw people running parkrun around Northampton’s Racecourse and decided to take part the next week - not long later he was running the London Marathon.  In all, Peter has had to come back from three bouts of Co...

Isaac Kenyon is a runner, cyclist, triathlete and extreme adventurer who uses the power of the challenges he takes on to both inspire others and raise awareness of mental health and climate change causes. His most recent challenge - completed as recently as September 10 (World Suicide Prevention Day) - saw him finish a full Ironman while wearing a 15kg weighted vest. The vest represented the unsee...

Launched in 2019, The Monarch Ultra is an epic environmental run and conservation project which aims to raise awareness of the at-risk Monarch Butterfly. That year, a team of ultra runners and environmentalists followed the 4,300km (2,670 mile) migratory route of the Monarchs from Ontario in Canada to central Mexico. They did so as a relay team as part of an incredible 47-day adventure. The co-fou...

At school, Jake Fedorowski always felt they weren't the sort of person who played sport. Indeed, if you'd have told them they would end up running marathons, they would have laughed. But as a non-binary person, Jake's love of running grew after they discovered the Seattle Frontrunners, a running and walking club for the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies. These days they are both a committed runner...

This week, Michelle and Craig are enjoying a (well deserved?) holiday in Split, Croatia so instead of our usual interview style podcast we bring you the story of one of that country’s finest runners. Franjo Mihalić was a Yugoslav and Croatian long-distance runner best known for his 1958 win at the Boston Marathon and for a silver medal performance at the 1956 Olympic Games. Those successes were th...

When his father, Pete, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) last August, Joe Thomas decided it was time to take on a major challenge. Despite only being an occasional runner, Joe had listened to David Goggins' story and hit on the target of running a 100-mile race. He signed up for the 103-mile North Downs Way 100, which runs from Farnham in Surrey to Ashford in Kent - only discoverin...

Running Tales first caught up with trail runner Kim Levinsky back in April as she prepared to take on the 358-mile Long Path. Starting from the 175th Street Subway Station in New York City, crossing George Washington Bridge and running across the Catskills all the way to Albany, the Long Path combines woods, a series of 2,900 foot peaks, and trails that pass over lakes and streams. Kim, who has al...

When Martinus Evans went to get some hip pain checked out 10 years ago, he was shocked when his doctor ignored the fact he was on his feet for eight hours a day at work and instead concentrated on his weight. As a larger man, Martinus weighed in at 300 pounds (21 stone), but he was living an active life combining his busy work days with playing basketball at weekends. But the doctor dismissed him...

Georgia Francis' granddad William, or Bill, McKim represented Great Britain in the 1,500m at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. But his fourth placed finish in the heats - narrowly missing out on a place in the finals despite suffering from an illness which should have prevented him competing - doesn't tell his full story. Not long after the event he beat eventual winner Peter Snell of New Zealand, and a...

Mary McNerney is the brains behind a new running programme for schools in Chicago - and hopefully beyond. The former school teacher is the founder of Run Like A Cheetah, which has the ambitious mission of teaching social-emotional learning to children through the power of running. Run Like A Cheetah aims to teach running in a fun, inclusive, non-competitive way to improve children's physical and m...

At the end of May, the man behind a satirical Twitter account outed himself. That account was the Secret Tory - a topical and sometime controversial lampooning of the Conservative government. And the man behind it is Henry Morris. a fitness instructor and - as it turns out - ultra runner. The Secret Tory Twitter account, which has close to 200,000 followers, started life as a parody of Tory MP Mar...

When Tom Mulchinock left school with little more than an addiction for video games and a 'class clown' nature, he found himself numbing real world pressures with increasingly heavy drinking. Nights out turned to day drinking - to avoid hangovers it was better to just not stop. It wasn't until he reached 30 that Tom realised he needed to get help. After seeking therapy and moving to Iceland, Tom st...

Grayson Murphy is a running chameleon. From two-time world mountain running champion to a track star who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics, the 28-year-old has made a career out of taking on different challenges and distances. And what a career. Despite only starting running aged 20, Grayson was soon ripping up records at the University of Utah, setting new standards in the steepl...

Doug Richards has just published his third book about running, charting an incredible journey that has seen him run a lifetime total of 24,902 miles. It's a distance equivalent of the circumference of the Earth’s equator. In 'Once Around the Planet,' Doug shares his latest running adventures including running a marathon in Venice and taking on a host of island runs including among ancient Moai sta...

This week ultra runner and environmentalist, Rebecca Leek, will be taking part in a climate relay to raise awareness of climate change. On Wednesday, June 29, Rebecca is coming to Northampton - the home of the Running Tales Podcast! - to run a leg of the Running Out of Time relay. The event is the biggest sporting celebration of climate action and nature ever attempted across Britain. Taking place...

According to his own Twitter bio - @singhcredible - Jeremy Singh went from overweight dad to ultra marathoner. He now has a 100-mile race set in his sights, having ticked off a 75 mile run last year. Along the way he has built a strong social media brand, with more than 40,000 people following him his Twitter hints and advice on everything from strength training and nutrition to running plans. Run...

Hannah Phillips first experiences in running had an element of a comedy sketch about them. She was first prompted to run after seeing a "fat girl" wearing the same top she had on - a girl who turned out to be her reflection. Spurred on, she set out to run round her home town of Merthyr Tydfil, only to be stopped by the police for wearing a balaclava she had donned to hide her identity. Since then,...

On this week's Running Tales Podcast, we broke down what it takes to run an extreme endurance race - with the help of two ultra runners who know how to do exactly that. At the end of May, Ben Davies and Richard Wilcox completed the 145-mile Grand Union Canal Race. The pair, who finished the event in 42 hours and 22 minutes, are taking part in the three race, 400-mile Canal Slam, which will see the...

David Abbott only started running seven years ago, aged 35, but within a year he had qualified for the Boston Marathon and he's gone on to complete several sub-three hour marathons. The American, who now lives in Japan, has also become a coach - not least through the prism of Twitter where under the moniker Mr Slow Easy Comfortable (search for @runliftrunlift) he offers reams of advice on everythi...

We've got something different for you this week on Running Tales. On Saturday, in association with Michelle's Step Forward With Lewis fitness business, we held our inaugural 16:15 Charity Fun Run in aid of Northampton rough sleeper charity, Project 16:15. The event lasted six hours but participants could run for as far or as little as they like, with the only requirement being that they either rai...

In little over a week, Neil Russell is set to start an awe-inspiring 970-mile run from London to Barcelona, aiming to complete his journey in just over five weeks. What makes Neil's challenge even more notable is that the 65-year-old will be doing it despite having been diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2018. In fact, Neil's final destination is the World Parkinson's Congress, and along the way he is...

As one half, alongside wife Louise, of Phoenix Running, Rik Vercoe has created a hugely popular and inclusive race organiser. Phoenix offers a wide-range of races and was a pioneer in the creation of lapped events, encouraging runners of all abilities to feel comfortable at organised runs and achieve goals they often never even set out to do. Rik's own running career has certainly seen plenty of i...

Damon Fox ran to take part in this week's Running Tales Podcast - after all, he can't afford to miss any runs right now. The business development manager for Northampton Town FC Community Trust is currently in the midst of a challenge that will see him run 750km (466 miles) in 12 weeks. There are 7,500 children in poverty across Northampton (hence the number of kilometres), and Damon is fundraisin...

By the time this episode goes live on Tuesday, April 25, Colin McCord will hopefully have completed the London Marathon on Sunday - what will have been his fourth out of five marathons in as many weeks. With the Great Welsh, Magna Carta and Manchester Marathons also behind him, Colin will complete his challenge next week by taking on the 26.2 mile distance for one final time in April - only his op...

Pete Moor is a stalwart of the local running scene in Northamptonshire. With approaching 250 parkruns to his name, the Northampton Road Runner is a regular at events up and down the county - as well as in neighbouring Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes. Pete is a real all-rounder, taking on races from 5k to ultras with 15 marathons to his name. But it's not just local events that attract Pete, who com...