The Way of the Runner - conversations on running with Adharanand Finn

Last year she broke Zola Budd's 40-year-old European junior 5,000m record, and now she is getting ready to shake things up at the Commonwealth Games and European championships. Innes Fitzgerald talks to Adharanand Finn about how she first discovered running - like many people - during lockdown, what it was like to be dubbed 'the Greta Thunberg of sport' by The Times newspaper, and how she has her...

Stephanie Case is an elite ultra runner and the founder of Free to Run, an organisation empowering women in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. In this episode she talks about running in war zones, the desapir she felt when the Taliban returned to power, and her deeply personal story of going through fertility treatment while competing at the very highest level in trail running. She can be found...

Megan Boxhall set off from Suffolk in October 2025 to run 200 marathons in 200 days around the coast of Great Britain. Around day 150, she stopped mid run to talk to Adharanand Finn to explain why she was doing such an epic run, what it had been like, and what she felt about finishing after so long on the road. Megan can be found on Instagram @megan.runbritain Podcast host  Adharanand Finn  is the...

Ultra runner, author and green campaigner Damian Hall is still competing as an elite athlete at the very top of his sport at the age of 50. In this episode he shares some of the insights from his new book, Run Forever: The Secrets To Becoming An Ageless Athlete. We also get the inside story of his recent attempt to complete the world's most infamous race: the Barkley Marathons. Podcast host  Adhar...

Allie Bailey is an ultrarunner, coach, speaker, podcaster and the author of There is No Wall . She has run in some of the most extreme places in the world, such as running 100 miles across frozen Lake Khövsgöl in Mongolia and the full length of the Panama Canal. She has finished over 200 marathons and ultramarathons all over the world, but the most remarkable thing about all of these achievements...

Alex Hutchinson is an award-winning journalist who writes about the science of endurance, fitness and health. His books include the New York Times  bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance and, most recently, The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map . His Sweat Science column appears in Outside  magazin...

Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell is the author of These Heavy Black Bones , a prize-winning memoir of her brief but stellar swimming career in which she became the first Black woman ever to swim for Great Britain. In this live online author Q&A she talks about her difficult relationship with her coach, the value of mentoring for young athletes, and how she came to be such an accomplished writer. Podcast host...

Richard Askwith is the multi-award-winning author of books such as  Feet in the Clouds ,  Running Free  ("a runner's journey back to nature"),  Today We Die a Little  (a biography of the great Emil Zátopek) and  The Race Against Time  (about running in later life). A keen runner for over 40 years, he claims to have achieved "almost nothing" in the sport apart from "life-changing satisfaction". But...

Michael Crawley is a runner, writer and social anthropologist based in Durham. He has been a runner for over 20 years, and ran a 2:20 marathon in 2018. His first book, Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic from Above the Clouds in Ethiopia , documents his time living and training alongside runners in Ethiopia, while his latest book, To the Limit: The Meaning of Endurance from Mexico to the Him...

Paula Radcliffe is one of the true legends of running, a former marathon world record holder, multiple world champion over the marathon and cross country, winner of the London marathon (3 times), the New York marathon (3 times) and the Chicago marathon. Now 51, Radcliffe discusses her decision to return to the roads to run the Tokyo and Boston marathons. She also discusses her greatest races, how...

Damian Hall is an ultramarathon runner, coach, activist and author. He has represented Great Britain, won the Spine Race and finished fifth at the UTMB, along with breaking several records/FKTs. The Green Runners' co-founder has written two books, the bestselling In It For The Long Run and the award-nominated We Can't Run Away From This. Here he faces questions from a live audience over Zoom. Podc...

Ireland's John Treacy won two world cross country titles and a silver medal in the marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Over breakfast in his house just outside Dublin, he reminisces on a golden era of track and field for Ireland, talks about the state of doping in the sport, and ponders what he would do differently if he was training and competing today. Host Adharanand Finn is the author o...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with the founder of the Sanctuary Runners, Graham Clifford , about the highs and lows of his 10-week run around Ireland, which will form the basis of his next book.  Adharanand Finn is the author of three award-winning books, Running with the Kenyans (2012), The Way of the Runner (2014), and the Rise of the Ultra Runners (2019). Follow The Way of the Runner podcast on...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with She Races founder and record-breaking ultra runner Sophie Power about how jam tortillas fuelled a Guinness World Record run across Ireland, the joy of hallucinations, and how there is still much work to do to make sports such as ultra running more accessible to women.  Adharanand Finn is the author of three award-winning books, Running with the Kenyans (2012), The...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with Running Punks founder and viral video sensation Jimmy Watkins about racing his idols in the final of the World Athletics Championships, giving up the sport to form a band, and then rediscovering the joy of running many years later. Regrets? He's had a few, but he has certainly lived a life too. And he is still adventuring to the limit.  Adharanand Finn is the auth...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with Rose Harvey , who has just been selected to run for Great Britain at the Paris Olympics, despite only taking up running seriously in lockdown four years ago. Rose recounts her incredible rise from decent club runner to Olympian.  Adharanand Finn is the author of three award-winning books, Running with the Kenyans (2012), The Way of the Runner (2014), and the Rise...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with BBC newsreader, Runner's World columnist and marathon runner Sophie Raworth about why she loves running, why a scientist told her she had 'good-looking' knees, and how she made a deal with her dog so it would run with her. Adharanand Finn is the author of three award-winning books, Running with the Kenyans (2012), The Way of the Runner (2014), and the Rise of the...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with Irish ultra runner, coach and form expert Paul Tierney about running extremely long races, once hallucinating that he was running next to himself, finding the best tasting polenta in the world, and why if you want to have good running form, you need to feel it.  Adharanand Finn is the author of three award-winning books, Running with the Kenyans (2012), The Way of...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with world trail running champion, multiple world Skyrunning champion and obstacle racing superstar Jon Albon . Despite hailing from the flatlands of Essex, Albon has won some of the world's biggest mountain races and has his eyes set on even bigger goals. Here he talks about finding a flow state, the benefits of cross training, the joy of Coke, and why he hopes that t...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with Calli Thackery after she ran the second-fastest marathon ever by a British woman, in her first ever marathon. Calli tells us about her unusual route to the top of the running world, via a scholarship to New Mexico in the US, to training with a Kenyan coach in Virginia, a stint back home in Sheffield working full time, to getting locked down in Australia for three...

Author Adharanand Finn chats with Iliass Aouani, who recently broke the Italian marathon record, running 2:07 in only his third marathon. The former Syracuse University standout talks about his Moroccan heritage, running in super shoes, missing his training group and his plans to take on the Kenyans. Ultra runner Damian Hall also joins us to talk about his recent efforts in the 330km Tor des Géant...

Author Adharanand Finn speaks to Nick Tiller, exercise scientist at Harbor-UCLA and author of The Skeptics Guide to Sports Science. They examine the value of scientific consensus, the power of the placebo, and take a deep dive into running trends such as nasal breathing, barefoot running, paleo diets and ice baths. Nick also answers the question: is ultra running bad for you? Music by Starfrosch

Author Adharanand Finn chats with the double World Mountain Running Champion Grayson Murphy about how she learned to trail run by playing football, what it feels like to run away from a world class field, and how she deals with the comedown after a big win. Music by Starfrosch

Author Adharanand Finn shares stories from his recent six-day race around a 1km loop in France, including recordings he made during the race. He also talks to the race winner, Bob Hearn, from the US, to get another perspective on the madness of six-day running. Music by Starfrosch

Author Adharanand Finn talks to three finishers of the world's longest race: the Self-Transcendence 3100. Kobi Oren, William Sichel and Susan Marshall recall the pain and ecstasy of running 3,100 miles around one block in New York City. Music by Starfrosch