Podcast #71: Jo Pavey, Rio Mitcham and Sara Willhoit at the National Running Show
World medallists Jo Pavey, Rio Mitcham and Sara Willhoit join host Alex Seftel at the National Running Show to discuss their passion for the sport as England Athletics launches its new individual membership, RUN:EA.
Recorded at the NEC in Birmingham, the guest trio explain the benefits of being part of the athletics community, rather than solely training alone without access to coaching.
RUN:EA - available for £30 a year - allows you to enjoy membership that has been specially created for run-lovers everywhere. It gives you access to a like-minded sporting community, expert advice, exclusive offers and discounted event entry.
"The message is that it doesn't matter where you are, there's opportunities," says Jo Pavey, who won European 10,000m gold in 2014 as well as two Commonwealth medals with England.
"Just really believe that you can achieve some of the things that you want to achieve and enjoy the camaraderie of being part of a group or a team - or even with England Athletics setting up this new scheme now where you don't have to be part of a team - if you want to use the scheme to gain a bit of confidence. It's absolutely brilliant." she adds.
Rio Mitcham - a world silver medallist and European champion over 4x400m - believes that music and entertainment should be used to bring more runners into the athletics community.
"We're in a running convention here and there seems to be a lot of culture around. In athletics, we don't really have that, we just have the competition," says Mitcham, who makes music with his brother Alex.
"You look at football, there's clothes, there's chants, there's music, there's food. It's about finding pockets where those elements of culture slot in."
World mountain running medallist Sara Willhoit raises the point that there may be others who would thrive at international trail running, who haven't found the right path yet.
"The adventuring, exploring, seeing what's out there, also just the opportunities for you...it's just (about) spreading the word and getting the exposure, getting the footage out there," says Willhoit.
The podcast also features Denise Stephenson and Trojan Gordon from Emancipated Run Crew, a group that describes itself as supporting black and brown runners to meet their fitness goals. Finally, Carmine de Grandis explains why he runs up mountains while playing the accordion.
The episode can be listened to in full on Spotify, as well as Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts.