Running Things

We head across the ditch this week to speak with New Zealand's 11-time national champion, Camille Buscomb.

We’re rolling out a massive summer preview today on Running Things with one of the finest athletics minds in Australia: Sean Whipp. Sean joins us to run through all the must-see events on the calendar over the next couple of months – there’s a stack of events in Australia and a few notable races overseas.

Riley is joined on the show today by Paralympic star Jaryd Clifford. Jaryd competes in the T12 (vision impaired) classification in the 1500m and 5000m – where he is the world champion in both (oh, and he holds the world record in the 1500m).

Jaryd chats with us from Canberra, where he relocated as lockdowns came into effect in Melbourne in July. In Canberra Jaryd has the opportunity to train with his coach, Dr Philo Saunders and his squad – including his guide Tim Logan. The athlete-guide relationship is critically important to Jaryd, and he speaks at length about the elements that have to go right for the partnership to work – in a race the athlete and guide are connected by a 30cm long tether – which is a lot shorter than it sounds!

Jaryd also talks about his plans for 2021 and beyond – including a potential 1500m, 5000m, and marathon triple in the 2024 games. Mind blowing.

In an absolute treat for the show, we have legitimate superstar of Australian athletics Stewy McSweyn joining us this week. Stewy is coming to us from his hotel quarantine in Brisbane, where he has had a chance to (finally) reflect on an incredible season in Europe – a season where he broke the long held Australian 1500m record in the Doha Diamond League (his first Diamond League win). Stewy also broke the Aussie record in the 3,000m, to go with his 10,000m national record from December 2019.

The biggest takeaway for Stewy from this season was confidence that he can compete on the world stage, and the knowledge that he has made another significant improvement from where he was in 2019 – and he says that’s the key for 2021 as well, to find another 10% improvement in his development.

Stewy also says he doesn’t necessarily have a preferred distance to race – his preference is whatever he’s doing best in – something that changes throughout the season. He credits his Melbourne Track Club team for helping him develop that range from the 1,500m to the 10,000m – the squad has talented athletes at all distances, meaning Stewy can always be pushed and tested in training.

Finally, we get a bit of a look into Stewy’s plans for the summer – including potentially opening up his season at the Christmas Carnivals in Tasmania.

This episode of Running Things we chat with one of Australia’s most accomplished distance runners: the incredible Jess Stenson.

Jess is based in Adelaide as part of Team Tempo, under the tutelage of Adam Didyk. Jess has been to two Olympics, competing in the marathon. We talk about Jess’s return to competition in 2020 after giving birth to her first child, a son named Billy, in late 2019.

Jess has been racing in Adelaide for the last few months across cross country, a 10k road race, and a recent half marathon victory. Jess talks about the road back to training and racing from having her son, and where she went for advice.

Of particular interest is Jess’s marathon PB – 2:25:59 set in the Toronto Marathon in late 2018. Jess ran this race in a traditional racing shoe – without a carbon plate. With the indisputable benefit marathoners are now seeing in carbon shoes, how does Jess’ PR stack up in ‘modern times’?

Jess also talks about trying to make her third Olympics team and her plans to race a marathon in the first half of 2021.

Jess Hull joins the show from hotel quarantine in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. Jess is fresh back in Australia after an incredible 2020 season that saw her break three national records – she now holds the 1500m, 3000m, and 5000m national records at the age of just 23.

A fun episode today as Riley interviews US 1500m national champion Craig Engels. Craig is in his new home in Portland, Oregon - a home he’s in the middle of renovating.

On this episode, Riley chats with sprint phenom Sha’Carri Richardson. Sha’Carri made world headlines in June 2019 when she ran a 10.75 100m as a freshman at LSU, smashing the collegiate record and paving the way for her to turn professional shortly after.

Riley speaks with Sha’Carri about her transition from college into the pros, and the higher stakes involved with being a professional athlete in a professional training environment. Sha’Carri talks about the Olympics postponement to 2021 and how that might benefit her as a new professional - another year in the system and another year with her new coach, Dennis Mitchell.

Riley also asks Sha’Carri about her source of energy – she’s known for her high intensity in practices and has a contagious exuberance.

We're joined on the show by Aussie marathon star Ellie Pashley. She’s one of three Australians taking on the London Marathon this week – Ellie talks about her training build up, noting that while she had some injury niggles in the middle of the year she has strung six weeks of quality together recently. Ellie also outlines the changes she and her coach have made to her program and the shorter taper she will take into London. Speaking of London, it's no easy task just getting to the race this year and Ellie walks us through all of the precautions the athletes have to take.

This episode is a special London Marathon edition brought to you by Nike Running featuring Australian stars Brett Robinson and Sinéad Diver.