The Women's Running Podcast

In this episode we speak to Denise Stephenson. We had a chat at the end of 2020, just before the third lockdown came in. We discovered Denise by chance as the founder of the Emancipated Run Crew in South London, and fell in love with her passion for inclusivity and her joyous approach to running. Denise is, as we discover, busy . She is a solicitor by day, a profession that she only realised might...

Welcome to episode 24 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our fourth Women’s Running Workshop. In this I speak to Holly Taylor, Women’s Running digital editor, about how her training for her half marathon is going. We’re both signed up to do a virtual half marathon in the middle of March, and we’re working together to make her feel confident and strong ahead of that. If you’d like to train alongsi...

In this very special extra episode we speak to Eddie Izzard. Eddie is a big runner and a trans woman. She made headlines recently when her decision to use she/her pronouns came to light. We wanted to talk to her about her running experiences, and to demonstrate the inclusivity and support of our community. Last year, Eddie decided it was time to do something big, and she wanted to use running to a...

Welcome to episode 22 of The Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to relentlessly positive ultrarunner Holly Rush. Holly is the co-host of the Marathon Talk podcast with lovely Martin Yelling, she’s the Asics Frontrunner manager, an ASICS studio coach, and an online coach and mentor.  As an ex-GB runner, she has represented Britain at the European Championships and the Commonwealth Ga...

It’s episode 10, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast! This is our third Women’s Running Workshop. In this episode, Esther chats with Holly, the Women’s Running digital editor about her running, as she builds towards running a virtual half marathon in March 2021. If you’d like to do this with us, it would be great to hear from you – do please email Esther with any questions you have – address b...

In this episode, we speak to the very lovely Jenni Falconer, TV presenter, radio broadcaster and avid London marathoner. We had a chat last October, just before Halloween and the second lockdown kicked in. She was as charming as she sounds on the radio and on her podcast: enthusiastically talking about her great love of running while brushing away her recent stress fracture. We chatted about her v...

Welcome to episode 8, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to Leanne Davies, the founder of Run Mummy Run. Run Mummy Run have just reached their 8-birthday milestone, and we spoke to Leanne just beforehand, and her passion for women’s health and wellbeing is extraordinary. From an initial group of just three runners, Run Mummy Run has grown into a unique community that...

This is the second podcast in our series for beginner runners, or for those getting back into it, or just if you’re interested in unbefuddling some of the weirder running lingo. In this episode, Esther and Holly have a chat about how Holly's running has been over the past couple of weeks. We also talk about her current warm -up routine, and the sort of moves she can do to warm her muscles and...

In this episode we speak to Gabby Logan. Gabby is a mainstay on our TV, presenting Match of the Day and Question of Sport, as well as reporting on the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the London Marathon. Coming from a very sporty family, it’s perhaps not surprising that Gabby excelled at sport as a child, becoming an accomplished gymnast in her teens. Injury put an end to her gymnastic caree...

Welcome to the Women’s Running Workshop. This is the first in a new series of podcasts for beginner runners. In our first episode I have a chat with Holly, our Women’s Running digital editor. She’s eyeing up the virtual Bath Half in spring 2021, and I want to help her get there. So we got together to talk about her training, to figure out where she thinks she is running-wise, and to chat about wha...

Welcome to episode 4, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to Sabrina Pace-Humphreys. We weren’t sure what to expect by the time we spoke to her: at that time she had garnered quite a bit of interest partially because she’s one of the founders of Black Trail Runners, and had already been a cover star on a <cough> different running magazine. What we didn’t expect...

It’s episode 3 series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast! And in this episode we speak to Jess Piasecki, the winner of the Florence Marathon in 2019. We like to talk about journeys at Women’s Running – we’re much like Strictly Come Dancing in that respect – and Jess’s journey in particular is compelling. She came to our attention when she won that marathon in 2019, in so doing becoming the third fas...

In this episode, we talk to Tasha Thompson, the founder of the online community and running group Black Girls Do Run. She set her group up a year ago to inspire black women to run for their fitness, their health and their mental wellbeing. Tasha’s always been a runner, but she had noticed that very few other black women were joining her at the start line of races, and she quickly realised that the...

In episode one of season two of the Women’s Running podcast, we talk to Susie Chan. Susie is a hugely inspirational ultrarunner, having taken on dozens of endurance challenges across the globe. She’s a popular woman in the running industry, and you might have seen her popping up on your TVs or at the National Running Show interviewing other runners and commenting on races. We talked to her about e...

This is the special Marathon Edition of the Women’s Running podcast. On Sunday 4th October Esther, along with 43,000 others, ran the virtual London Marathon. Two women who also ran it were Deborah James and Emma Campbell, both of whom have been on the podcast before. This time we wanted to talk to them both about our experiences running our virtual races. They ran together, supporting each other e...

In episode 10, we speak to the very aptly-named Sophie Power. Ultrarunning star, Women’s Running cover star, and ardent campaigner on women’s health, Sophie is a hugely inspiring woman. She found sudden fame two years ago when she was photographed breastfeeding at a checkpoint at the UTMB. She allowed this beautiful picture of her to be taken, hoping that it would in some way influence event direc...

In episode 9 of the Women’s Running podcast we talk to Deborah James, who you might know better as Bowelbabe. If someone can be the ‘face’ of bowel cancer, Deborah is that person. She is vivacious, uncompromising, witty and incredibly honest about life with cancer. She’s been documenting her experiences publicly for the past four years, but really came to our attention last year when she ran the V...

In this episode, Esther Newman, editor of Women’s Running, speaks to Anna Harding, the founder of the Running Channel. Anna has gone from non-runner to running expert in a ludicrously quick time. Just a few years ago, she made the leap from couch to marathon, and hasn’t stopped running since. She talks to us here about starting the Running Channel, and supporting a community that she truly loves,...

In episode 7 of the Women’s Running podcast, editor Esther Newman chats to Jemma Lewis, better known as This Girl Can Run Far. She’s a runner we can all relate to, having taken up running as an antidote to gym-going after the birth of her daughter. But the thing is with Jemma is that a) she’s really *really* good, and b) she’s incredibly down to earth. Here, she talked to me about taking on her fi...

Emma knows everything there is to know about running shoes: she's a total running shoe nerd and has put in the hours: she's worked in the running industry for over 10 years and is a sports scientist to boot. But where many of you will know her from is Instagram as @emmakirkyo, where her brilliant videos on shoe lacing had me hooked from the start. And that's not to mention the drill...

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 beaut...

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...

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 clo...

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 Run...

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 centurio...