Brendan Leonard Hates Running and You Can Too!
Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running
RunnersConnect: Coaching Community, Running Experts, Inspiring Runners, No Fluff Blog
4.5 • 936 Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2021
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you've run long enough or are just starting your journey, you probably have a Iove/hate relationship with running. Running long distances is wonderful and completely irrational at the same time.
To help me explore the delightful and nonsensical sport that we all love to hate, I invited author and ultrarunner Brendan Leonard on the Run to the Top.
Brendan is a freelance writer and illustrator whose new book, I Hate Running and You Can Too, is a hilarious and relatable trip into the mind of a runner that's not going to top any podiums or win any races, but still regularly runs irrationally long distances.
Brendan started his popular website Semi-Rad.com in 2011 as a channel for active, yet not elite athletes, who love to get out there, but don't take themselves too seriously.
He's a contributing editor at Adventure Journal and a columnist at Outside. His stories have appeared in Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal, Sierra, Adventure Cyclist, and more.
He's bicycled across America, runs hundred milers, and he is continually amazed at the things that regular people can do.
His work is funny and insightful and he might just inspire you to love (or hate?) your running too.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Brendan Leonard and you're listening to the Run to the Top |
| 0:10.4 | podcast. Hi there my running friend, this is Coach Claire Bartholic, the Planted |
| 0:21.2 | runner and this is the run to the Top Podcast, one of the first and only running |
| 0:25.8 | podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. |
| 0:30.8 | We are created and produced by the expert team of running coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the internet as well as running coaching plans to fit every runner and every budget. |
| 0:44.0 | If you're listening to this show, you're probably a runner. |
| 0:52.0 | You're probably on a run right now. Or maybe you are a runner but |
| 0:56.0 | you're mowing the lawn right now. Like Kurt who wrote to me and told me he never listens on the run, but always on the mower. |
| 1:04.0 | Regardless of where you are right now, it's a safe bet that you like running. |
| 1:08.0 | Maybe you even love running. |
| 1:10.0 | A deep down, or maybe not so deep down, I bet you hate it. Yep, you actually hate running and so do I. |
| 1:18.0 | In fact, I hated running for the entire first year after I picked it up again in my 30s. It was a means to an end and I just went out there and did it. I ran in the heat, the cold, the rain, and the snow. And if you asked me when I got home, how my run was, and if you asked me when I got home how my run was and if I was being honest I'd tell you it |
| 1:37.1 | sucked until one day it sucked just a little less. So are we runners just sick mas masochists that inflict torture on ourselves? |
| 1:47.0 | No, that's impossible. |
| 1:49.2 | We love running. |
| 1:50.4 | We love talking about running. |
| 1:51.8 | We love listening to running podcasts, reading running books. We love running. |
| 1:55.8 | Okay, well that first mile there's not really that much to love about that first mile |
| 2:00.6 | That one is usually where everything feels stiff and tight and you're just |
| 2:05.5 | lying to yourself saying everything is fine. And sometimes by mile two things are |
| 2:10.6 | feeling a little bit looser but if you've had a hard day at work or if you've been |
| 2:15.0 | training really hard, yeah, Mile 2 is a toss-up too. |
... |
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