Beyond the splits

In this episode, we talk to Natasha Wilson (née Cockram), 2:24 marathoner, about the highs, lows and breakthroughs of her journey so far - from breaking the Welsh marathon record multiple times, to narrowly missing out on the Tokyo Olympics, running a huge 2:24:21 PB in Valencia in 2025 and backing that up with a fifth place finish in the European Championships earlier this month.

We also get into the realities of elite marathon training, whether that's 3am alarms each week in order to practice the Birmingham route or running 120 miles a week mostly solo. We discuss what it takes to keep improving when you're already one of Britain's best marathoners.

And with Natasha fresh from a fifth-place finish at the 2026 European Championships in Birmingham - and a European team gold medal with Great Britain - we ask what's next, and just how fast she thinks she can go.

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of Beyond the Splits, we're talking:

💆 Physios, sports massages & why they hurt so much

🏃 Our favourite marathon training sessions

🍝 How we fuel for a marathon

⚡ Kejelcha's new half marathon world record (ratification pending...)

💎 Lausanne & Silesia Diamond League debriefs

🇨🇭 What we're looking forward to at Zurich

🎵 Mondo Duplantis' latest banger

👀 The latest in the Josh and Jakob saga

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode:

• 🏃Russel smashes his parkrun PB and continues to knock out 100 mile weeks
• 🦶Elle is still managing an achilles issue - we chat about the physical and psychological impacts of dealing with injuries and niggles
• 🎟️Why do some races still not allow entry transfers?
• 👟 New York marathon fields have been released! Including one HUGE debut from the newly crowned European 10k champ
• ⏱️We're in for a treat with two STACKED diamond leagues this week in Lausanne and Silesia. Will Jakob come back as king of the1500?
• 🇪🇺 We debrief the biggest moments of the European champs, including the best races, most iconic moments and biggest surprises. How did our predictions go from last week? Safe to say, neither of us could predict the men's 1500!

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A deep‑dive conversation with Lisa Hart, the first female finisher in the 2026 London Marathon mass race, and one of the most compelling breakthrough stories in British distance running at the moment.

We debrief her fantastic 2.30 performance in London. From there, we rewind to Lisa’s running origins and rapid progression - including her leap from a first sub‑3 marathon in 2024 to becoming one of the fastest amateur women in the UK just two years later.

We talk about the mindset shifts, training changes, and decisions that fuelled her improvement, and the motivation to chase truly elite times in her thirties.

Lisa also shares a more detailed look at her training and racing: typical mileage, her favourite sessions, how she approaches race strategy, and what she’s learned from competing across distances from 5K to the marathon.

Finally, we look ahead to her future goals - the races she’s targeting next, the times she believes she can run, and what excites her about the next stage in her running journey.

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Beyond the Splits, we’re riding the highs and lows of training. Russel is cruising through big mileage and brunch‑fuelled long runs, while Elle nails two huge sessions… before disaster strikes with a surprise Achilles niggle. We talk shoe rotations, injuries, and why running friendships are basically built on talking about running.

We also get hyped for the European Championships which run this week. We break down Jakob’s much anticipated return, and lock in our podium picks for the distance events.

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Beyond the Splits, Elle and Russel catch up on a packed seven days of running — from double‑days to mile relays and getting competitive at parkrun. 

Then it’s onto the Commonwealth Games athletics, where we unpack the standout performances of the Commonwealth Games (from a British perpective) - including Josh Kerr's statement win, Elise Thorner's surprise silver and Georgia Hunter-Bell's tactical brilliance. We also reflect on British highs, lows, injuries, and what the results mean heading into the European Championships (full preview to come next week!).

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We sit down with 800m runner Lucy Armitage, who just achieved a bronze medal behind Georgia Hunter-Bell at the UK Championships. We chat about her background, development over the last few years and breakthrough in the last 12 months. We also discuss her comeback from injury, mindset and her goals in the sport.

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elle and Russel preview the Commonwealth Games ahead of the athletics kicking off on Monday 27th. Highlights include the men's mile, where we expect Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman and Cameron Myers' to be the main contenders, and the women's 800m battle between Georgia Hunter Bell and Lilian Odera.

We also cover the growing list of withdrawals (Eilish McColgan, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Matt Hudson-Smith and more) and why the Euros seem to be the priority for most people this year.

Away from the track, we have some thoughts on the Boston Marathon's questionable new lottery-style entry system for athletes who hit the qualifying time but missed the cut-off, plus a look at innovations coming to September's World Ultimate Championships.

Before all that, the usual check in on our own marathon builds 12 weeks out from Amsterdam, including how not to fuel a long run session, and the "rule of thirds" for making peace with a bad session.

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the second episode of the Beyond the Splits podcast, in conjunction with the Positive Split media platform.

This week we react to Josh Kerr's mile world record at the Diamond League — including the pacing strategy, the spike technology, and other standout performances such as those from Brits Jake Heyward and Arlo Ludewick. We also get into some controversial results from short 10kms and downhill 5kms, and what should or shouldn't count. Later, we get into our own upcoming marathon block: how we structure long runs, when to add marathon pace, and why we're using upcoming races as training sessions.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split: @_positivesplit on Instagram and @ThePositiveSplit on YouTube.

Russel: @therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle: @elle_warren on Instagram

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the very first episode of the Beyond the Splits podcast, in conjunction with the Positive Split media platform.

UK marathon runners Elle (@elle_warren) and Russel (@therunningmanc) join forces to discuss all things running. On this episode, we discuss our running backgrounds and what is lined up this year, the London marathon ballot and double day, plus what we expect to see at London Diamond League on the 18th July.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split: @_positivesplit on Instagram and @ThePositiveSplit on YouTube.

Russel: @therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle: @elle_warren on Instagram

This podcast is in association with the Positive Split - check out our athlete videos on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow our socials:

Positive Split

@_positivesplit on Instagram

@ThePositiveSplit on YouTube

Russel:

@therunningmanc on Instagram

Elle:

@elle_warren on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.