Young Hearts Run Free Podcast

Alison McGill has made history this year, not only did Al win the 2023 Women's West Highland Way Race in 19:02:41, she is also the very first guest to record a full episode with the Young Hearts Run Free hairy toy! There is some background noise to this episode, it's real authentic and quite magnificent. The North Inch in Perth was the setting for our meet-up and chat for over an hour abou...

Taking on a 108 mile challenge on the Pennine Way is no small feat. But then our Yorkshire Correspondent Mel Sykes loves a challenge doesn't she? Mel does most of her training alone and on the hills and moors, perfect preparation for this kinda endeavour...right? Pushing personal boundaries is something we all should do now and again, and this episode may just inspire you to do just that. Did...

This week's guest is winner of the West Highland Way Race 2023 Stuart Johnston. You all know our fondness of the iconic route, that's no surprise, Stuart though brings an altogether different view of his memorable day to the table and deliver he most certainly does. Before Stu rocks up we've some exciting intro chat revealing your chance to get your mitts on our brand spanking new Summ...

Just the two of us.....we can make it if we try. That's right it's one of those delightful week's we know you all, errrm, long for. John and Stevie Boy chewin' the fat. And we've plenty to pore over in this shorter than normal episode. First up, if you can make yourself comfortable for our West Highland Way Race 2023 Race Review. John takes the lead here, filling in Steven on h...

Only 5 weeks until race weekend! How did that happen??!! We’re back with another episode of Access All Areas our Montane Lakeland 50 & 100 collaboration. In this episode we speak to Stuart McNeish who is taking on the 100 for the first time.  It’s a completely different perspective than our previous guests. After getting to know a wee bit about his history we delve right into Stuart’s prep for...

The John Muir Way. A coast-to-coast waymarked path stretching from Dunbar on the east coast of Scotland to Helensburgh on the west. This week’s guest took on the entire route, all 134 miles of it, in a oner last weekend. Say hello to Martin Gray, a man whose mission was powerful. Martin joins us after a thorough intro where we cover this weekends West Highland Way Race, the warm weather, another S...

As you get older you get slower?? This week’s guest Mark Gallacher knows otherwise! Before Mark joins us for a thorough chatter of his astonishing running story we have our customary weekly round up with your hosts big Friday night road trip to the Black Rock 5 in Kinghorn rightly taking centre stage! Mark then joins in the laughs, a well-known face in the Scottish running circuit, Mark’s performa...

This week we are joined by Freya Morgan, she’s better known as her alias Human Disco Ball. She’s doing something quite remarkable at the mo, it’s a serious cause, but she has brought the fun. Lots of shiny mirrored fun. We have some interesting pre guest chatter to get the ball rolling covering the Edinburgh Marathon, a Stevie Boy running rant and Athletics Trust Scotland's National Running We...

We're back with another superb episode of Access All Areas our 2023 collab with the Montane Lakeland 50 and 100. In Episode 4 we're joined by Nick Wishart. Nick has 10 years of history with the event, it's included a fair few highs in amongst a couple of lows. The event has become a huge part of Nick's life, and his family have all got in on the act too. We natter about all things...

We’re ramping up the temperature this week as we get ready for summer!!c We welcome back to the show, oor pal from Yorkshire, Mel Sykes to give us her lowdown on what proved to be a challenging and toasty race in the Welsh mountains at the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 50k (ish). First though we’ve an extended intro featuring your dynamic duo. There are all sorts of funky happenings across the nation and...

Welcome to the Young Hearts Drink Wine Podcast. It’s a change of pace this week as we indulge in combining a few of our fav things. Running & Vino. After a thorough weekly round up in our intro we are joined by runner, author and wine connoisseur Colin Renton for a continental tour that inspired the release of his first ever book, The Wine Runner: My Year of Hard Yards and Vineyards. It’s part...

What does it take to hold the West Highland Way Race course record? In this week’s episode we’re joined by ultra-running royalty and current female WHW record holder Lucy Colquhoun to find out. It’s fair to say that Lucy considers her racing days well behind her and joins us in reflective mood. Her spirit and passion though are evident throughout our chat. Lucy confesses to falling out of love wit...

Ello! it's only our Yorkshire correspondent, Mel Sykes! She's been in the news a bit lately; she's been front page news to us for much much longer. Since we last spoke to Mel a fair bit of water has passed under the bridge. Mainly being that her ultra-marathon standing has flourished. We cover plenty ground, much like Mel does most weekends. We kick off looking back at a memorable day...

Right guys, we’re not even joking, this week we’re joined by John Kelly. That doesn’t stop us having our usual weekly round-up though, even ultra-running royalty doesn’t stop that! John then dials in from Tennessee and we give him the full Young Hearts Run Free going over. John treats us to an hour of chat as we delve into his running story, talk about his time in the UK covering all sorts of runn...

Jump on in, it’s only our season 8 opener. And yip, we’re still bouncing after last weekend’s Manchester success story! So, who better than to invite to the party to get our new season off to a flyer than the fella with the 2nd best mohawk in running, the one and only Damian Hall. After our usual intrepid intro Damo joins us and we cover plenty enough to get yir lugs tingling with glee. From his f...

It’s season finale time! Manchester was the ultimate destination last weekend. The start line to John’s personal quest for a sub 4-Hour marathon awaited. We get a full blow by blow lowdown on the hoedown in this epic episode. Johns on the ceiling, Steven tries his best to scrape him off to dissect what literally just happened. Come find out how your favourite guy rolled the dice as we unearth his...

Hud the bus, what's this? Episode 19.5, wtf? Well, it is a big week for one half of your hosting gang, JC is Manchester bound! We take time out to capture John's final thoughts as he finishes up his taper and gets himself psyched for his big outing this Sunday morning. He's been dedicated to his training plan for 16 weeks, how's he feeling? Greeting, excited, emotional.....all thes...

Welcome back to Access All Areas. Your one stop shop for all things Lakeland 50 and 100! In Episode 3 your hosts, John and Steven, welcome along 13 time Lakeland 100 finisher Matt Neale. Matt takes us on a journey through all of his Lakeland experiences, there are golden nuggets aplenty in here for you whether this is your first trip to Coniston or your umpteenth. An early shout-out and a reminder...

We’re making a good habit lately of speaking with former guests. We do so again in this episode as we welcome back Karen Nicol, she’s been a busy lass since we last caught up. Last time we spoke to Kaz she’d just completed her first Backyard Ultra, she’s done 3 more since and they’ve all been part of a learning experience that’s went much deeper than just running. We hear all about Karen’s race ex...

The Barkley Marathons. From the mind of a genius has spawned a phenomenon. We’ve been lucky to chat to some guests about taking part in Barkley. But what about behind the scenes? We’re joined by Larry Kelley to find out. Larry has the privilege to see the Barkley going-ons through a very different lens than most. He’s part of the extensive event team who together make the Lazarus Lake magic happen...

In this episode we’re joined by returning guest Robbie Britton. We’ve plenty to ask him and, as always, he has plenty to tell us! It’s not every day you break GB records after all! After a chunky opening intro segment covering Twenty Along the Forth, an Anglo Celtic Plate preview and a little bit of empathy for those starting to taper for spring marathons the wee man joins us for high paced run do...

A big welcome back to the Young Hearts, Run Free podcast. We were thrilled to have the pleasure of catching up with the legend that is Jasmin Paris. She needs little introduction, so we dive right in to find out what brought Jasmin to where she is today, her intro to fell-running and how she found a love for ‘the longer stuff’. Still recovering from her very recent outing at the 2023 Barkley Marat...

We love to welcome back former guests for a catch-up. The last time we spoke to Nikki Johnstone was 2 years ago, you might remember him, the quickest Elvis Pressley on the planet, ah ah ah. So, jetting in from Germany, with a freshly baked new Scottish 50k record under his belt and a refreshed lust for racing in tow it was a joyous occasion for us to reconnect with Nikki in this week’s episode. Of...

We have proper running royalty join us in this episode as Liz McColgan dials in from Qatar to talk all things running with John and Steven. From humble beginnings Liz stormed on to the world athletics stage back in 1986 with heroics at Meadowbank Stadium. We find out her story from way back before then as she entertains us with her running story. Memories are recalled from all her major outings bo...

Marco Consani is our guest this week, it was smashing to finally catch up with him after having him in our sights for ages. Marco, who has repped Scotland and GB in a glittering ultra-running career takes us through his running story. We loved this chat with Marco who kicks us off with his introduction to running in the early noughties and takes us right through to his recent foray on the Pennine...