#16 - Interview with Cas Kopmels - On College Athletics and US style training

This episode features an interview with Cas Kopmels a Leiden athlete who is just finishing up his time in the States where he has been on an athletics scholarship at Wingate in North Carolina. 

 

That will be my last reading from The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. I have featured it because I feel it captures so much about running and what this podcast is trying to explore. Part of what Sillitoe does is describe vividly the tensions of running and racing: when does one shift from running to racing and how does one use geographical markers as a means of shaping one’s level of effort. I love how the narrative puts so much emphasis on the surroundings, the smells, the changes in terrain, the temperature, and the sounds the body makes as it moves along the various paths. 

 

Of course this is also the story of a working class teenager who is being disciplined through his running as a means of becoming a ‘decent’ and ‘honest’ citizen. He has no time for this. He rejects the civilizing mission that his act of running will supposedly create in him. Thus, he deliberately loses the race to the chagrin of his school masters. I love how in this long-short-story, it also carries such pearls of running wisdom: ‘don’t be in a hurry’ ; when you are in a hurry, don’t let others know about it and that ‘you can always over take in a long-distance race’. 

 

Anyway, for the moment, that’s all from me. If you’re enjoying these episodes, drop me a line on Strava or elsewhere or of course share the podcast amongst your friends. 

 

I want to give a big shout-out to the Casco Crew in Utrecht for mentioning the podcast in their newsletter: specifically Aline Hernandez and Marianna Takou. 

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Cas Kopmels: World Athletics Profile

Instagram: @caskopmels

 

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Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press

Strava: Andy Fuller

Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden

Twitter/X: @readingsideways

Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com 

 

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I recorded the music featured in this episode on 9th June 2024, just near the Albert Heijn on Hooigracht in Leiden. If anyone knows who the band is, please let me know so that I can credit them properly. :)