Everyday Runners

What is running? How and when do we run in our everyday lives? What feelings does running give us when we run through different spaces? What is the relationship of running with the city? These are some of the questions I explore with human geographer, Simon Cook, of Birmingham City University. 
This conversation is based around one of Simon's recent articles, Geographies of Running Cultures and Practices, co-authored with Jonas Larsen and published in Geography Compass. 
The episode opens with an excerpt from the work of highly influential sports studies figure and geographer, John Bale, whose work has informed and stimulated aspects of Cook's work. 
Before the interview there is also a conversation with fellow Leiden Atletiek athletes who participated in a 5000m race in Amsterdam Oost on Friday 21st June at Atletiek Vereniging 1923, where a new 55plus age category was set for the 5000m. 
Links: 
Simon Cook: BCU
Blog: Jographies
 
**Music by Cahaya Sofia playing a fragment of My Head, My Heart by Ava Max. 
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Twitter/X: @readingsideways
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com 

This episode features an interview with Anne Luijten, one of the representatives for the Netherlands in the upcoming Paris Olympics. 
Anne qualified for the Olympics with a time of 2:26 in the 2023 Amsterdam Marathon. So, naturally, we speak about that race during the conversation. 
I have been in a few races with Anne, and I have admired her racing for her incredibly precise pacing. She doesn’t seem to hit the wall. Since her first marathon, in 2022, she has brought her time down from 2:36 to 2:26 within the space of two years. 
I’m very thankful that Anne was willing to make herself available for this conversation in amongst her other running and work commitments. 
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Before I switch over to the interview, just a few house keeping matters. 
Firstly: a couple of shoutouts: Brad W., Kellie M., Rene W. Thank you for listening and sharing your thoughts with me about the show. 
Secondly: I will soon be starting a Patreon page as a means to cover some of the time-costs. I love producing this podcast, but, as you can imagine, it does take a certain amount of time. 
Finally: the easiest way to support the show and what I’m doing in the meantime is to share the podcast with your friends and running cohorts.
So, that’s enough from me. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Anne Luijten. 
**
**Music by Cahaya Sofia playing a fragment of My Head, My Heart by Ava Max. 
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Twitter/X: @readingsideways
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com 

This episode is in two parts: the first is my conversation with fellow Leiden Atletiek runner, Tom de Heiden and the second part, is my interview with Dr Niki Koutrou of the University of Sunderland. She has done a heap of work on volunteering cultures around mega sporting events such as the Olympics and city-marathons. I interviewed her out of my realisation that our sport cannot happen without volunteers and I wanted to know more about the context of the Athens Olympics in 2004 and what volunteering meant in Athens. I’m also curious about legacies of Olympics, and what they leave behind or create; particularly because this is an Olympic year and also there is always so much hype for the Olympics and afterwards there can be a kind of massive ‘let down’, so to speak. 
 
If this podcast is something you enjoy listening to, please share it with friends and give it a review on the Spotify. This is a lot of fun for me to produce, so I’m hoping that others are also getting value out of it. I’ve got some nice episodes coming up in the next couple of weeks. If you have any suggestions, comments or criticisms, please get in touch via the addresses in the show notes. 
*Interview with Niki Koutrou starts approximately 25:10. 
Relevant Links:
Niki Koutrou, Staff profile
Koutrou and Kohe: Volunteering at the Olympics
Royal Ten
**Music by Cahaya Sofia playing a fragment of My Head, My Heart by Ava Max. 
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Twitter/X: @readingsideways
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com 

Hello and welcome to episode number 10 of Everyday Runners. 
Thank you to everyone who has been listening to the latest episodes. It’s always nice to see different countries popping up in the statistics. 
This episode is in two parts: the first of which is a conversation between Joao Seixas and myself in which we share our thoughts on various running matters. The second part is my interview with Campbell Maffett, who runs a running group in Melbourne, called Love the Run. Campbell was my first running coach; and he is one of the persons who has remained important to me throughout my running journey so to speak. The lessons he taught me during my very early stages of running have always remained with me. 
I hope you enjoy this episode. 
*Interview with Campbell Maffett starts at 16:55.
Link: 
Love the Run
**Music by Cahaya Sofia playing a fragment of My Head, My Heart by Ava Max. 
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Twitter/X: @readingsideways
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com 

This is the first Thursday Bonus episode. I'm not sure if this is going to become a habit. 
In this episode I talk with one of my running buddies, Leon Huiszoon. We talk about being 'talented', 'racing' and 'coaching'. And a little more besides. 
This is not a running manual podcast. No expert advice is given about how to do running better.
Literary fragment: 
Afrizal Malna, Morning Slanting to the Right, trans. Hannah Ekin, Jorgen Doyle & Andy Fuller, Richmond: Reading Sideways Press, 2021.  

In this episode I talk with Maaike van Gelder, an athlete based at Phoenix Athletics Club in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Maaike recently earned a time of 2:35 in the 2024 Rotterdam Marathon, where she finished as the third Dutch woman. 
I talk with Maaike about her race (of course) and how she has recently changed to a new coach who uses the Verheul method. 
This was a very enjoyable conversation and I appreciate very much Maaike's willingness to share her stories about the race and her running trajectory. I like her relaxed, yet structured approach to her training. Maaike also mentions how she improvised, at times, for her long-runs. 
Towards the end of the episode, there is some brief talk about our shoe preferences. I decided not to delete it because, we are not 'reviewing' the shoes, but more so talking about how they make us feel. 
Good times. 
Relevant Links: 
Maaike van Gelder: Instagram
Verheul Method
AV Phoenix
#nojingle #noadvertisements

Welcome to Episode #7 of Everyday Runners. 
This episode is in two parts: the first is a segment I'm calling 'Random Running Questions', in which Joao and I ask each other some questions about our experiences as runners. 
The second part is an interview with Dr Ciarán Ryan of the Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland. During this interview we discuss the attraction to mountain or fell running, ideas related to post-sport and how vloggers (YouTubers) recreate the sensations of mountain running. Moreover, Ryan also tells how they use storytelling tropes to capture audiences and draw them into their narratives. We also discuss the tensions between the communitarian aspect of mountain/trail running and the competitive nature of vlogging and racing. 
Relevant links: 
Dr Ciarán Ryan, profile page
Mud, sweat and Cameras, article
Dave Barry's YouTube channel, Film My Trail Run 
Irish Mountain Running Association 

"If it didn't happen on Strava, it didn't happen", some runners say. Some others though are opting out of wearable technologies. GPS and trackable devices have become normal for so many of us dedicated runners. On the other hand, some folks are using running as a means to separate themselves from yet another layering of technology in their everyday lives. Thus, I was curious to speak with Lauri Palsa (University of Jyvaskyla in Finland) about his co-authored article (with Pekka Mertala) titled 'Free Running'. 
 
Relevant Links: 
Lauri Palsa, personal website
Mertala & Palsa, "Running Free: recreational runners' reasons for non-use of digital sports technology", Sport and Society (2023)
Lasse Viren, 1972, 10,000m, Munich Olympics
on Instagram: @everydayrunnersleiden

This episode is an interview with Dr Geoffery Z Kohe of the University of Kent in the UK. We discuss the sustainability of city-based marathons through drawing on Kohe’s recent article - co-authored with Niki Koutrou - on the Athens marathon. I also asked him about the ideas of ‘legacy’ in regards to mass sporting events and what role they can play in fostering an ‘urban commons’. 
Relevant Links:
Engso
Global Sustainable Sport – Driving sustainability through sport
About Us (sportpositivesummit.com)
Environmental sustainability - I Trust Sport
BASIS | The British Association for Sustainable Sport
Full article: Sustainability, the Athens Marathon and Greece’s sport event sector: lessons of resilience, social innovation and the urban commons (tandfonline.com)

This episode is a conversation with Dani O’Sullivan, a Leiden-based runner and friend of mine. I was curious to talk with Dani about her running practice, because of the sheer pleasure she finds in running: she’s always exuding positive vibes. 
In this conversation, she talks about one of her favourite places for running, the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen. It is a bit of a mouthful, but it is an incredibly pleasant place. It is a reserve roughly near the city of Haarlem which helps to purify the water that is used for the surrounding areas. The area is closed off to both cyclists and dogs. Birds and animals are abundant. It feels ‘natural’: but, of course, it is not really ‘natural’; it is a highly man-managed landscape. Nonetheless, running in this landscape is a great contrast with running through residential areas and along bike paths in heavily urbanised areas of the province of South Holland. 
One of the things that really struck me about this conversation with Dani was how she talks about how her running is important for her in ‘getting to know a place’. Running is a means to explore a new territory: it provides a means for ‘being with’ new landscapes and with the non-human: animals, birds or plants. She describes beautifully the sensations of being away from others and experiencing changing moments in the day and, of course, the weather. 
I welcome your feedback on this podcast. What are some issues or ideas related to running that you think I could explore? Who do you think I could interview? Please feel free to get in touch via readingsidewayspress@gmail.com