Running on Joy

Joy is...Your Own Speed.

James Poole is a North Face Explorer Team ultra runner and all round enthusiast for the outdoors, who have been a long-time voice for connection and inclusivity within the running community. He has run some of the most prestigious ultra-races around the world, including the iconic Western States and UTMB, as well as epic adventures such as an unsupported, 430km journey across the Gobi Desert. He holds the fastest known time for crossing the Balearic island of Mallorca on the GR221 and has just returned from a second solo, self-supported attempt to run 340 miles from Santa Monica to Las Vegas as part of The Speed Project. Historically a relay, TSP lives and dies by the motto: No Rules, No Spectators, and, in 2021, offered the chance for individual runners to make the crossing from LA to Sin City, surviving the blazing heat of Death Valley to finish at the famous Welcome to Vegas sign.

James leans into a conversation with the same open curiosity as he approaches his running: he is on the journey with you and happy to enjoy the flow, without expectation or agenda. We explored meeting each other and ourselves in the common language of movement and how enlightenment is not a place we arrive at but the person we accept along the way.

Instagram: @jamesdpoole

Mentioned:

SOLIS

The Speed Project

Run As You Are

Trash Free Trails

Tenzing Clean Air Tracker

Image: Ben Read

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Joy is...Liberation.

Pola Rapaport is a writer, director, and editor of many award-winning films, as well as the producer of art-related video content, and a university instructor. I came across her work with the premiere of her new documentary Addicted to Life, a paradoxical, intimate, vulnerable and, ultimately, inspirational documentary about the Belgian Paralympic champion Marieke Vervoort who takes control of her ailing health to request medical aid-in-dying. The film charts the dramatic events of Vervoot’s final inspirational three years, during which her acceptance of death becomes an affirmation of life. It is an extraordinary piece of storytelling that demystifies one of the most controversial issues of our time and captures the willpower, strength and spirit of Marieke as she fights for her right, not to die, but to truly live. 

This is a conversation about paradox. It's about how we die but, more than that, about how we live, indeed, how we choose to die and therefore how we choose to live. It is about how our first greeting can be our farewell, about how we come together and how we part. It is about pain and about grace. It is about the importance of conversation and the power of the pause, about the places that words cannot go. It is about witnessing and about participation, about what it is to pay attention in a world that would rather look away. It is a conversation about integrity and holding fast but also, ultimately, about what it is to let go.

www.polarapaport.com

Instagram: @addictedtolife_film

Facebook: @pola.rapaport.7 @Addictedtolifefilm

Twitter: @Marieke_theFilm   

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Joy is...Making an Impact

Justin Pugliese is a runner, podcast host and community leader. I was delighted to welcome him to join me on the podcast, as a fellow content creator, to reflect on why and how we do what we do and to provide a space to reflect on what is a period of change and transformation for him.

This was a diverse and, at times, emotional conversation that revolves around energy: how movement gives us the grace to be open to being moved and how we, in turn, hope to move others. I

Listen: @justinstridepod

Follow: @jpugs84

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Tom Reynolds is a writer, a documentary producer, a run club leader and, most recently, the co-founder of an inclusive trail running adventure across the Peak District. He’s told the stories of some of the world’s most decorated athletes, from heptathlete, Jessica Ennis-Hill; to free skier, James Woods; to Eliud Kipchoge, to the Lionesses, drawing out the nuances of their experiences into insightful portraits that capture the voice and personality behind the media face.

Tom is someone who is consistently curious about the world. He is a thinker, a craftsman, a scene-setter: someone who is not afraid to be constantly learning and evolving. Our conversation started and ended with a hot cross bun; something incidental but, perhaps, in fact, what it was all about.

Insta: @tomreynoldswriter

@peak.divide

Lionesses: Champions of Europe

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Joy is...Making Memories.

Scott Jenkins could be called ‘200-mile man’ but it is the messaging behind the miles that perhaps most distinguishes him, as well as the actual feats of endurance. The attentive amongst you might recall a previous episode with Scott's brother Rhys, and this was a super opportunity to share an alternative perspective on some of those stories, as well as telling new ones. Like his brother, Scott is an ultra distance runner, originally from Wales, and is the current British record holder for the Moab 240 race in Utah. He is also the first Welshman to complete this race, Bigfoot 200 and Cocodona 250, as well as being the 2nd ever Welshman to complete Badwater 135. He started his ultramarathon journey running from Boston to Austin: a total of 2000 miles or 75 marathons in 75 days. Through these challenges, Scott has raised over £87,000 for a variety of different charities and, in 2015, he completed an Operation Smile mission in Mekele, where he assisted in screening and in theatre for the repair of Cleft Lips and Palates. Since then, he has been selected as one of three UK Ambassadors for the charity.

Scott is a gracious man, who speaks thoughtfully and with great humility. His physical strength belies a story of a shy boy who found his voice through running and whose ultimate wish is to bring hope to faces that have never experienced the simple joy of a smile. We thought a lot about what gives life purpose; the benefits of a more instinctual and grounded way of being; holding ourselves accountable, and what we can learn from reaching beyond what might be possible.

Instagram: @scotjjenkins

Operation Smile

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Joy is...Staying Alive.

At any moment, life could change in an instant. When that happens, what do you do? Anson Mackay is someone who inspires me on a pretty much daily basis. Up until their retirement in April 2022, they were a Professor at University College London, specialising in paleoecology, and have worked for over 30 years on assessing human and climatic impacts on some of the world’s most important freshwater ecosystems, including Lake Baikal and the Aral Sea in central Asia, and the Okavango Delta in Southern Africa. Having come out in the 1980s, when the AIDS crisis was in full flow and marches and protests were rallying against Section 28, a piece of homophobic legislation in the UK, they are a passionate advocate for the queer community and pushing for a more equitable and compassionate society. They like running a lot. So much so that they have completed several 100-miler races, most recently the gruelling Arc of Attrition: a perilous winter traverse of the Southwest Coat Path. For many, that would be challenge enough for one life; however, Anson's vibrant light shines all the brighter against the shade of the reality of existing with Stage 4-HPV related cancer. 

Anson carries themself with grace, humility and dignity, and it is with great generosity that they share their potent story. In essence, it's a very real conversation about death. More than that, however, it's an affirmative celebration of the gorgeous, fragile fluidity of the human spirit. Anson is the kind of person who makes you realise what it is to love and that gratitude, positivity and compassion are what life is about. Each day is a miracle and that is an incredibly exciting thing.

About: about.me/ansonmackay

Blog: www.ansonmackay.com/blog

Insta: @ansonmackay

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Joy is...Commitment.

Peter Bromka is something of a philosopher of movement. He is an astonishingly fast marathoner and writer about running, whose ability to push the boundaries of what is physiologically possible is coupled with a curious mind that can riff from the micro details of split times to the macro questioning of why we do what we do when we run.  

I spent a long time immersing myself in Peter's thoughts across various media platforms in the weeks before we spoke: a veritable labyrinthine roller coaster that leaves you gasping for breath from the honesty and necessity of what he has to say. It was perhaps appropriate therefore, that our conversation revolved, not so much around the further breathless pursuit of answers, as having the grace to allow space for Peter's thoughts to percolate and unfurl.

It is a rumination on paradox. The paradox of authenticity and of experience; of competition and of success; of grief; of awareness; of revelation; of searching for meaning; of going the distance; of faith and of sacrifice; of fear and of pain. Then there's the final paradox: of heartbreak. Of how breaking apart, breaking down, breaking open, let's the light in again.

www.peterbromka.com

Medium: bromka.medium.com

Insta: @bromka

Mentioned: I'm Not Alright; The Marathon Doesn't Owe You Anything

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Joy is...Time.

Nick Triolo is a runner, a writer, a writer about running. With a background in Environmental Studies, he is now senior editor for Outside Run and Trail Runner Magazine, whilst constantly exploring the boundaries of what it means to tell significant stories and how to use those narratives to advocate for the landscape that means so much to him.

In attempting to compile the usual list of show notes, the more I typed, the more it felt like too blunt an instrument to distil the essence of the time that we shared. Ultimately, it was a conversation about conversation: how we can be present and co-create beauty in the world. I hope, perhaps, that this exchange is some small embodiment of that, and I now invite you to share it with much joy and gratitude in my heart.

nicholastriolo.net

Mandorla 200

The Crossing film: running 70 miles across Baja to stop a gold mine (Patagonia's Dirtbag Diaries episode on it) 

Bylines at Trail Runner and Outside Online

Mentioned: 

Agony and Endurance

Let's Get Promiscuous with our Running

Four Directions of Standing Rock

Talk Easy with Ke Huy Quan

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Joy is...Waking Up.

Dr Kate Rawles is giving the world a wake up call. She is an outdoor philosopher, with multiple degrees to their name, a writer, cyclist and activist who is passionate about the need to find urgent, intelligent and effective responses to our multiple environmental challenges. With a love for endurance, she uses what she terms ‘Adventure Plus’ journeys to communicate on environmental issues and inspire positive change. Her book, The Carbon Cycle, Crossing the Great Divide, based on a bike ride from Texas to Alaska exploring climate change, was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Award, 2013 and her upcoming book, The Life Cycle, sets our focus on Biodiversity as she cycles over 8,000 miles from Costa Rica to the southern tip of South American on a bamboo bike she built herself. Having left academia, she now lives in Cumbria and works freelance running courses that harness the power of wild places to support personal and professional positive action on environmental sustainability, alongside her activism and writing.

I spoke to Kate as she emerged from the tornado that finishing a book project entails, and I was increasingly struck, as we spoke, of the urgency of the stories that she is platforming through her writing and speaking. She is a passionate and knowledgeable communicator and, though peppered with Kate's chuckles and wry humour, many of the themes that we touched on are both shocking and vital. We discussed why statistics are not enough to wake people up; bikes as magicians and how to start conversations; the problems with a conquering mentality and being one animal amongst many; adventure as a means and metaphor for raising awareness and inspiring action; the hidden catastrophe of biodiversity loss and paying witness to both the tragedy and beauty of our relationship with the earth; the big 'Cs' of activism, and not having to be an expert.

Kate's book The Life Cycle; 8000 miles in the Andes by bamboo bike, is out with Icon Books on June 1st 2023.

Web: www.outdoorphilosophy.co.uk

FB:    www.facebook.com/biodiversitybikeride

TW:  @CarbonCycleKate

Inst:  @CarbonCycleKate

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Joy is...Inspiration.

There are many ways in which Beth French could be described: an ultra-marathon open-sea ocean swimmer who was once a Buddhist nun, a single mother who home schools her autistic son and an adventurer who suffered from a crippling chronic illness in her youth. From being confined to a wheelchair with ME at 17, in 2016 she set out to become the first person to swim across the seven most dangerous sea channels in the world, known as ‘Oceans Seven’, in a 12-month period.

Beth really does epitomise being your ‘own hero’ and showing that we are not defined or determined by our circumstances and it was honour to share space with her and hear about her incredible resilience and determination, told with warmth, humour and sincerity.

Beth was keen that this be a two-way conversation and we share some deep reflections on the perceptions of and misunderstandings around the triggers, symptoms, abilities and lived experience of chronic health conditions; re-discovering trust in our bodies; the strength in setting boundaries and why 'bigger, better, faster, more' is not the answer; how sickness can be a superpower; bucket lists and owning your future; the freedom of finding our edge; making the world ok for every body; what it means to endure; being your own uncool, and the perils of allowing your creative son to plan your adventures!

www.bethfrench.co.uk

Watch: Against the Tides

Facebook: /bethfrenchlives

Insta: @bethfrenchlives

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