The Debrief - Born To Run ft. These Girls Run

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Welcome back to The Debrief!We had the absolute pleasure of being joined by the amazing Molly, who is the founder of These Girls Run. The UK's leading all female running and wellness club designed to empower women in a safe and supportive running experience. We discuss common worries and obstacles when it comes to starting our running journeys as well as tips and tricks to help those starting out! These Girls Run offers runs every week in different cities across the UK. Give their website a visit down below to book onto a run, you won't regret it!https://www.thesegirlsrun.co.ukBe sure to follow us and TGR on insta @[e-mail] a great week!Love, K+K x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I got a rebel soul Yeah, I've got a rebel soul I got a rebel soul Hey, we're back We're bleeding back I'm better than ever Oh yeah Oh, you know it

Oh yes We have had a jammy day, haven't we? We've had a bloody jammy day Happy Monday, guys How are we feeling on the Mondays? Do you know what? I felt tried and tested this Monday. Did you?

I felt all over the bloody shop. But do you know what? Now I'm sat. But now she's better. And I'm zen. Yeah, she's... But although you had a fabulous weekend. Guys, I did.

2024 is in the swimming. I had a fabulous weekend. you know the 12 grapes everyone they're coming to us 12 grapes yeah did i find my true love maybe well well do you know well actually we we think that you might have found your true love but not the one we're referring to right now so katie yes i've rolled into the new year on fire on fire yeah no underestimating it no this is the peaches you know like Chinese new year it's year of the peach year of the peach okay so should we crack on because we've got a really nice episode we have we've got a cheeky guest oh don't worry yeah we've got a guest but we're not gonna tell you We're going to do our mantras. Yeah, exactly. Tell me what your mantra is. I'll go, I'll go.

You go, bitch. Let me tell you, let me tell you. Are you ready? I'm ready. Your only limit is your mind. Fuck. How nice is this? Real.

And do you know what? I was genuinely thinking to myself, the other day I was like, God, I've got so much on. I was like, I've got to do the pod stuff and all this going on. And then I was like, but do the pod stuff and all this going on and then i was like but darling you can do this i was like the only thing stopping you here is that little nelly in your head saying yeah yeah you know it's saying you've got a big old brain girl oh thank you darling thank you darling thank you darling but saying to me like you know you can't do this and then when i'm like do you know what piss off get out my face I'm like I absolutely can do this the

policeman on your shoulder yeah yeah so I'm just like only limit what was it the only limit is your mind yes so go into the week thinking okay got so much fitness to do I can do it I can do it I can do if your mind is telling yourself that you can do it you can remember remember what l said if you think you can you can okay love it go on peach what's yours we must be on some fucking wavelength because mine is i can do anything if i believe it oh i love that yeah and i'll tell you why i could do anything if i believe it yeah yeah you love it you know i ran six oh my god yes she did yes she did yes she did right guys guys guys may not sound like a lot however i am shin splints number one fan shin splints love me and i can never and i've always seen seen 5K as like the unachievable distance. The ultimate goal.

The ultimate distance. Ran fucking six and I was like, light work. Yeah. Light work. I was, do you know what? I was so proud of you because. I nearly cried. When we started off, I thought, okay, here we go.

Here we go. I was like. I was. I'd actually call like Nightingale at the end, like to bandage up your feet. Because I thought she won't be able to. You know, that red face, did it? She was at the end living a best life oh yeah yeah you know at the end you were like i was rude i was rude

you're like breakfast club you're like you're like i fucking did it and i was like i felt like i was in a movie guys and i kept asking... And I kept asking you, because you... We tried to talk. So I was like, oh, isn't this so nice? And you're like, yeah. We were doing really well for, like, the first 4K. And the last two, I was like... And I didn't know you were just like,

look, I want my own time. Or if you were like, I need to breathe. So then I literally aimlessly looked over, like, the London isn't this lovely no but I am so proud of you I genuinely yeah I was like I can't believe it and you know what guys next you'll be doing a half marathon with me yeah yeah you know genuinely hats off to anyone who can even run a fucking 10k the thought of doing 4k after that run i was like and so let's do songs so my song is um what's this supposed to be about just in case anyone doesn't which i I'm sure they did, because that was genuine perfection. Well, this is what I saw Katie getting absolutely pegged to. No, honestly, it was only a gap.

No, only. A tender moment shared on the dance floor. I genuinely do feel like sometimes, like Katie and I were in the club for New Year's, and I was so embarrassing. Like, I just genuinely like... You were genuinely like no but something came over me and i was like no i'm 16 again i was like sometimes it was the first time i like it was almost like i just thought do you know what this is the first time i've ever seen a man yeah and i was just like on one i was like what am i doing everyone has that friend of ours that was the first time he'd seen a man yeah and i was just like on one i was like what am i doing everyone has that that was the first time you'd seen a woman clearly

yeah genuinely everyone has those moments we were all just on it we were honestly i know i felt like an absolute princess it's like finally got one pube and off i go like i was i didn't understand what i was going to do but anyway what's your song darling you're not ready okay it's yes and say that shit with your chest you're not telling me you haven't heard this uh ariana grande's new song oh what's it called yes and the pauses don't feel as good when there's no music behind yeah yeah i was just like and i thought you were gonna go yes sir that would have been a great yeah do you know what change it change it change it recommendation yeah suspense there wasn't it yeah in the air okay so our recommendation this week

is all to do with our really special guest that we okay so our recommendation this week is all to do with our really special guests that we've got on and it's to do with Katie's triumph of being my Usain Bolt moment honestly we're gonna just be calling you like you know who's the one that shat on the road well who was that woman I was thinking more like Jessica Ennis in reference to our run that we did this week yes and we're going to have a really special guest on it's all to do the run we did this week and the run we did was with a running club yes and called these girls run these girls run and it was absolutely amazing it's a running club that's like a wellness and fitness club they do runs through nine different cities

in the uk yeah um and we did the one in obviously in london but we did it in battersea and we did a nice station in the power station we all met at sweaty betty there are about 25 girls yeah it was such a little girly vibe it was so nice and we all met and dropped our stuff off so don't worry about like bringing things it was amazing so fun. And it's so empowering girls. Like this is what Katie found that she was thinking, I don't think I'll be able to do a 5k. You also had a pretty shit day before you arrived. Yes,

I did. So you weren't really in the mood and you were like, Oh God, Kit, like I'm not really feeling this. Yeah. Afterwards you felt invincible. See,

it was amazing. And I think if you want to get into running, like a running club, a girl friendly running club is amazing because you have that, and like that shared womanhood and that power and yeah it was amazing no one was left behind there were paces yes the whole time there were three different paces yeah and no one was left behind we stopped at certain points to make sure everyone had caught up and then we kept running yeah so true so don't worry about that i believe you also get a little cheeky sweaty betty discount yeah you do because they're in partnership with sweaty you do you absolutely do so girlies give it an absolute try yeah we give

it a 10 out of 10 it was amazing i would love to do it once a week genuinely we went obviously it's the dead of winter now and it was baltic when we went like yeah it was very cold but we were saying in the summer you would want to go all the time oh my god you'd want to go i would do that weekly now but i would genuinely do that like three times it was amazing that we did it at the coldest possible time yeah i felt such reward i was like this is amazing i would definitely do it and you get to see the sights of london as well depends where you are but we saw the gorgeous sights of london yeah so girls give it a girls, give it a go.

Yeah, give it a go. So, Katie, we've got a really exciting episode, don't we? Yes, we do. We've recently done the run, and it was our recommendation, These Girls Run. Absolutely, yeah. Katie's first 6K ever. First 6K ever. Yeah, she's made it.

I made it. And we'd love to welcome the founder of these girls run molly molly hi it's so nice to have you on the podcast thank you for having me oh of course we've been talking about it for ages i know i feel like we've been planning this for a while i know sorry i don't know i feel like we're online buddies what's it called when you've got like what's really up to no honestly we've had a fabulous time on wednesday so much fun yeah it was absolutely brilliant how do you feel being here how are you today yeah i'm good i'm um just finished my day at work so it was actually a really nice excuse to leave the house on a monday night because i'm a morning girl i'm not an evening

girl so i run in the morning, and then I stay in the house for the rest of the day, and don't leave unless I have to, so it's quite good to have a reason to come outside, get some pressure. Yeah, I know, it was actually interesting, because we obviously did the evening run on Wednesdays, and oh my god, it was so empowering, I've never run in the dark ever on my own, you know, because it's just's just you know your parents say don't do it your boyfriend your friends say do not do it and running 25 girls we felt so powerful men were moving out of the way for us we were just like here we go you know it was amazing it was absolutely brilliant we had a fantastic time let's do brave brilliant Katie take us away you were the founder of these girls run I am you founded it in 2021 yes and it

is a running group for and a wellness club all over the UK so if you could tell the listeners what these girls run is and what you've been dedicating the last few years to and building of course so um yeah I started in 2021 I was living in York at the time um worked in York worked in Nestle so worked full-time and I had been working full-time since I was 18 and I just was like quite I don't know career focused but I was like 21 so I don't know whether I should I can say that at that age yeah anyway you can always just like thought you had to do just like a nine to five job and that was kind of it yeah but then I'd been running on the side for years I then moved to London for six months and

loved it amazing like loved running around London felt like I was in a movie every time I left the house yeah and it was summer so it was really really light even if I went out at like six in the morning it was light and I felt safe yeah even though I was in London I felt relatively safe which was not what I was expecting really oh interesting um and then I moved back to York in October 2021 and I was out on a run on my own and it was really dark and I didn't really feel safe and I think on reflection during Covid and actually when I first started running when I was 15 16 I was 100% going through an eating disorder I've had counselling for it since I was about 18 yeah and I'm kind of on the other side now I'm a lot better than I was but I think Covid triggered that again for me that kind of running

for the wrong reasons and then I moved back to York and it was really dark and I didn't feel safe yeah and I just thought I don't want to stop running because it's really accessible it's something I love I get really good headspace for it from it um and actually I was running for the right reasons at that point so I did not want to stop um so I just thought I'll pop a little message in a Facebook group and see if there's any girls in York who fancy a run and I think we had 50 likes on the post oh my god and I was expecting like two yeah yeah so I was super excited and I work in marketing so I gave a little name which was these girls run um just to make it official yeah and then made a group chat and we went on our first run on a Sunday and it kind of just went from there so we ran every Sunday morning always

went for coffee as well to chat because I think yeah when you're like in your 20s or any age really your friends are quite far apart like lots of my friends have either moved away from home back in Nottingham moved away from home to go to uni yeah or they lived in York but they maybe lived with boyfriends yeah see them as much so it was a big way for me to like meet people as well yeah it's just grown from there really it's so nice to hear about the history as well, because you're giving so much to other people at the moment. You know, you had like 300 turn up at your event for the new year. I mean, how incredible was that?

But it's so nice to hear that it actually came from something that you wanted from yourself. And I think the love you have it then shows in other people. Yeah, exactly. It really does. I think that's what's helped because I genuinely didn't start it to make a business and I feel like a lot of people who work in business would probably be like oh you shouldn't say that but I didn't start it for it to be a business I literally just started it to feel safe to run for the right reasons and carry on running for the

right reasons and to kind of help other girls run for the right reasons and yeah figure out that running actually can be something that you do for yourself and to get to get outside it doesn't need to be something to burn loads of calories and you don't need to be running really fast or running really fast so I think that's really helped because even like now I've got a full-time job and I do these girls run on the side and don't get me wrong it's chaotic yes oh my god I bet yeah but every time I'm like stressed I just come back to like we're just we're just trying to help in whatever way we can yes um and that's I guess why it exists and I'm just very grateful and lucky that it's got to the kind of stage where it is where we've got so many different locations yeah I mean you are doing so well and you're lucky that in London there is such a running culture exactly yeah it's definitely benefited from that completely

I feel like when I started it in York I I kind of started it I mean there's loads of reasons why I started it but I was trying to find a running club to solve this feeling of being unsafe and not feeling supported yeah but all the running clubs I found were like middle-aged men in lycra I didn't feel like I was gonna you know make friends there or necessarily feel comfortable there's no hate on middle-aged men in lycra but I just didn't feel like it was a space where I wanted to kind of spend my weekend yeah yes on my evening so um there wasn't really anything like that in York at the time and even like i feel like in 2021 running was a thing but it wasn't a thing like it is now no it's so done now isn't it all over tiktok all of it instagram what have you what have you got the

running vest have you got you know all this kind of stuff um but but i think it was almost ahead of its time because now people are creating different groups with all these kind of things yeah you know we came to understand your uh business through Elle from Truly 20s and yeah I was telling her about my half marathon and she said oh oh my god you should look into Molly and then we found your account and yeah like honestly and it's so interesting how you know you just hear from word of mouth through people and so many so many people know the community yeah yeah yeah it's lovely yeah it's crazy I am really interested to know why you set this community up you spoke of um what you've

been through personally and what you have experienced you have um a background in brand management yeah and you are currently the senior brand manager at Sipsmith yeah so you have experience in that and you're well known you did six years prior and now you've done a year and a half yeah you've gotten a lot of knowledge yeah um but so we know where all that kind of uh drive came from but the running you spoke of earlier why the running came into it but has that always been something you've enjoyed just fitness wise or how did you bring those two things together yeah good question um so when I was a kid my granddad is uh well he was still alive but he was the fastest one of the fastest runners in the UK he can't he can't run that fast anymore bless him come on let's get him on my

grandma literally rang me today on her birthday like your granddad won't go for a walk with me anymore but he used to run like marathons ultra marathons i think he's done well he has done over 100 marathons wow and i remember as a kid like so i'd always like i always like knew that but as a kid you don't really care you're not really that interested i remember like going into that bedroom and there was pictures of my granddad like running on the walls and stuff um so i think that was maybe why i got into running initially but then like i said like i think as a woman as a woman as a woman when you're growing up you you're exposed to the media and to

people telling you what you should do with your body what you should put in your body how you should behave and how you should look at everything and I think I really really took that in mentally and that was kind of running was a chance for me to almost feed that habit like try to achieve that yeah yeah exactly and to kind of burn calories and stuff whereas as I've grown up thankfully I've had support but I've got away from that mindset okay I think bringing like bringing running with my kind of marketing background has been perfect again I never really thought about it at the time but now when I think back like I even remember when I when I had this idea of starting the club up I was like googling on google to look for look for

like run club names and be like oh what could I call it what could I call it what's not already taken and like doing all of that stuff because I okay once I get an idea in my head I often like just jump on it and sometimes it can be a bad thing because I end up like just doing stuff that's not not useful but at that time I think I just got this idea and I was like right I'm gonna google it see what I could do just give it a go here we go so that like that was kind of the merging of the two and I just I love like I can't I remember when I first started it and we'd like get one dm a week or something and I'd be so excited about that yeah I'd be like oh my god yeah because I'd always spent all my life not all my life but all my working life working on brands for other people like I worked yeah loads of massive brands like round trees and

milky bar I loved it yeah but when people dm'd us or like when we got feedback and stuff I wasn't like that excited about it I wasn't as excited as I am people it was well yeah yeah so I just like I got such a buzz from people finding out about it and like having a chat with them and I try I made sure I always went back to dms and always tagged the girls stories from the brands and like I've always tried to keep that even now like when we get loads of dms we always go back to them it might take a week or so sometimes yeah I think it's really important from a marketing point of view if you're building a brand that is like community focused you need to keep that community

focus however big you get like don't get me wrong we're not we're not like a hundred thousand followers but I would like to think when we are we're still like going back to dms and like fostering that community and that's what I love so I think it's just been like the perfect merging of my passion in my career for marketing and like my genuine I love so I think it's just been like the perfect merging of my passion in my career for marketing and like my genuine I just love running and I know it benefits me so much yeah I want to share that with other people and I think it shows like we always say how much um nothing will good will come if you don't think it's good yeah you know and you know we've got to say to each other all the time it's the best fucking podcast in the world you know and we're like yeah but it is you know and we've only been

doing it for seven eight months now and and seeing us from seven eight months ago being like hey guys yeah you know and it's amazing how far we've come but also the love that we have and when we do get one or two or three messages we think yeah it's so true and i think you can definitely see that in the community you've made all the feedback and the girls that we post and even when we were there you know there were some girls there were some newbies like us yes yeah and she's so funny oh my god oh my god no no no i'm more i embarrass myself one of your colleagues is like are there any newbies here and we put our hands up and and everyone's like yeah

and but there were newbies like us and there were some others that just said oh no i've come like for ages now like i absolutely love and i thought gosh you know and everyone's getting so many different things out of it because i love running myself like I'm doing another half marathon in February and I absolutely love it but you know it's for me yes it's about physical it's a great way but it's all mental as well in my head I find it's you know if I've had a bad day when we did the run on Wednesday you had a pretty shitty day I was really like not in the right headspace and I will say because we're coming from two different planes completely because Kit's a very experienced runner like you've grown up running yeah I am I would not class myself as a runner so I was so nervous when we signed up for the 5k because I

was literally like I've never run 5k yeah yeah and I was like oh my god I'm like so nervous I can't believe it I've tried couch to 5k like 20 different times yeah so I'm like oh my god I'm like so nervous I can't believe it I've tried couch 5k like 20 different times yeah so I'm like oh my god I'm literally like oh my god like I'm not gonna get it around 6k the route on a Wednesday night is slightly longer than it was yeah I said to Katie at some point I said I think we're doing a 10k she went no honestly i think the group like yeah push me through and like the leaders as well everyone's like you've got this girls i was like yeah yeah it was just it was so much fun it was just such an uplifting environment and how much it affected you mentally afterwards like before you came to me yeah but we said to each other we should do it

every Wednesday you know yeah and how it was fucking freezing yeah we were both shivering honestly we were doing our own little dance we were so cold yeah did the thing and afterwards we were like woohoo like had the best night like it's the the whole um bubble around running is addictive because it just affects you so mentally. Yeah exactly. You feel what's the word you feel invincible. Yeah you do. So you've built a community for women to increase their fitness and their running so you've got nine locations around the UK. Yeah. In London, Manchester, Nottingham, York. Was York the first one yeah i love it love york yeah it's gorgeous leeds edinburgh newcastle liverpool and bristol and you've made it such an accessible space as well

where i've seen that you also offer pay what you can runs free runs but then the base is four pounds yeah which is amazing yeah um so a lot of the listeners have set new year's resolutions to be running including myself i'm on like my 21st time of the couch so they would like to know how do you get into running as a beginner yeah very good question so my advice would be don't go too drastic I think a lot of people think if you start a new sport or if you start something you have to go from like waking up at half seven in the morning and like having a little walk and then like starting your work yeah so all of a sudden waking up at five in the morning doing a 5k doing a 10k and then starting work yeah and I think the jump from the jump from waking up and

not running to waking up and running is a lot yeah and your body needs to get used to even regardless of the running piece your body needs to get used to waking up early or like or like exercising after work so what I always say to people is have a think about your current routine what works in your routine do you think you want to start running in the morning or the evening yeah and then think about how can I like carve out that time in my existing waking hours or how can I wake up an hour earlier if I'm willing to do that yeah so think about how you can build it into your existing routine because if you go from zero to 100 it's not going to be sustainable and it needs to be interesting for it to be sustainable it needs to be something that

you can do consistently every single not every single day but you know part of your training plan so I would have before you even put your trainers on just have a think about when when is it going to fit in with your lifestyle yeah and what might you need to change um about that and are you willing to change that but hopefully not something too drastic um yeah that was that is like my number one piece of advice because that's how you can stay consistent and then if you've never run before start from the basics like there's loads of amazing training plans out there runner is a great program yeah um there's loads of training plans online yes um so have a think about that and whether you want to use a training plan but I so I when I started running it was

what like when I was 15 yeah so training I didn't really I didn't know what training plan yeah no face yeah so I just kind of went outside and kind of saw how I feel which I think is a really good way of doing it because I I I think and it kind of this all comes back to overthinking it when I overthink something I either don't end up doing it or I end up doing it wrong and that's why I was saying at the beginning like I if I've got an idea in my head I just kind of do it I try not to overthink it so try and think of running as the same thing yeah go outside have a little jog see how you feel yeah and then go from there figure out what your base is and then go from there is those those would be my two things that's quite

a long-winded way yeah no I think it's so good official routine and um the second thing is figure out the base of where you are now okay great because I think you're so right with seeing how it feels yeah and and I think that can always be the scariest thing with a beginner for runners we had a lot of the debriefers say to us like I want to start running in the new year but like how and I'm scared and and that is like it can so put you off by thinking I won't be good at it so I'm not gonna yeah like exactly so mindset is everything yeah i feel like even running that 6k i found because i was distracted by like having conversations and seeing london i feel like i wasn't thinking oh my shins hurt exactly yeah yeah that's why i

run by myself i did your shins hurt by the way they actually were okay that's amazing which is wild i'm feeling like it's psychosomatic at this point but like if I run by myself I'm literally like I don't have as much motivation I know what I mean and I do feel like don't get me wrong again training plans are amazing but I think if you at least go outside for the or on a treadmill the first time see what your base is and you've not got you're not thinking oh my gosh I need to do x amount of distance today I need to do x amount of time yeah I think it just helps to remove that yeah it's so true yeah um and just and then you can use a training plan once you know where you work what you're working with yeah um but yeah it's really important to kind of know yourself yeah absolutely yeah figure out what what works for

your mind yeah and trust the process you know and trust your body like I was saying so much to you over the half marathon training like I was like I can't believe how much the body can do yeah it's amazing like not only can we run girls but we can actually produce things inside of us like yeah I'm like how much can we actually do and even when I was doing the half marathon there was this pregnant lady running next to me and I was just like you're doing it all I was like you know I was like you're smashing it but like there's actually so much that we can do that we don't even realize and and I was like so but I was so inspired when I saw you do the 6k and how much like you had benefited from it you were just like I yeah you

turned to me and you were like I did it you know and she's like I never thought I could do that but I did um so I think try trust the process but it's so it's so hard to to say that if if those first few k's feel terrifying yeah yeah they will do and that's like yeah they will be normal yeah yeah um like I remember when I first when I ran my first 10k and I hated it I hated it so much and I was like I'm not doing this again but that was and that was like a few years ago but now now I'm I love like 10k is probably one of my favorite distances yeah you get into a nice rhythm and you can go a bit further go to your favorite park and then come home yeah the first time I did it I hated it like my first half marathon I thought I was going to die at the end of that so your first time of doing anything is always going to be

difficult yeah even if even if you do like crossfit and you're super super fit in that yeah if you then go and try and run a 10k and you've not ran before it's going to feel difficult yeah 5k like yeah it's always going to feel tough mentally or physically so give yourself some slack for that as well but you smashed your six oh she did she did yeah honestly the cool down stretches as well i was like oh god i needed that oh yeah it was so good yeah it's so good it's also normalizing that you know just because you can do 10k or six six k now yeah six k now and the girls that haven't done the uh a long distance before want to get into running yeah sometimes we can't be asked or sometimes we're like i don't want to do a 2k exactly you know everyone has their limits and everyone has their days and um you know you did your 6k and you smashed it i know

and i find it it's very easy to get in your head about pace oh my god yes 100 so i feel like the key difference this time is i've been like just take it at your own pace i feel like when i run like i try to sprint to try and get like yeah five minute kilometers yeah and just to get it done yeah yeah get to the end now especially when it's cold you're like yeah yeah exactly just get me to snorkel so we're gonna play a little game so um for the girls that just getting started on their running yeah and we want to get some insight from the professionals. And were you now, Katie? You're one of them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're one of them. Got my compression socks. And we want to know, so loads of the girls wrote in about starting running and all this kind of stuff. So we had an idea. We're going to play a little game of run towards or run away. What is it?

Run towards or run away. Oh, that's lovely. That'd be nice. There we are. Smash date. Smash or run away so we're gonna do a few trends yeah that we've even think ourselves or we've seen online we've heard a lot that just kind of going around media at the moment and we want to get your opinion on it now it's going to be fast okay yeah so we're going to be like boom say the thing you have to be like run towards okay run away girls run away run away run away yeah you can have it if it's a big one yeah but we're not gonna say there are two big ones okay do you want to take us away with your first one yes i'll go after you yeah pure sport roll on run away oh why why why i think you can buy cheaper alternatives on the market and also personally

I've never I've never worn it I've never kind of I don't know maybe I see a lot about it but I've done an ultra marathon I did all my training in the whole room without any kind of um balm and stuff but tiger balm I've heard from the girls the girls tell me that Tiger Balm is just as good, if not better, and it's cheaper. Love that. Oh, okay, great. Next one, evening running. Run away. Run away. I'm a morning girlie.

Even though we have teacher events in the evening, I don't really go to them. She's like, see you. Because I have work, and then by the time you finish work, I just want to go home. You've got to be honest, the girls run, have a lovely one on Saturday, and there's a brunch after home you've got to be honest the girls run have a lovely one on Saturday there's a brunch after oh my god yeah yeah there's a nice one on Saturday so yeah that's the ideal go on Katie take us away treadmill running oh so I'm I'm kind of you know if you'd asked me this time last week I would have said run away oh it's changed I did my this has been a major big week um high rocks run a high rocks run cast on friday morning oh wow and it was like sprinting for x amount of minutes

then wait okay and i loved it because i loved like sprinting a lot i felt so powerful yes um i've really enjoyed it so i'm gonna say run towards okay cool yeah how about um what should i give you don't focus on how long it takes run towards run towards lovely yeah i'm the same i'm not saying yeah katie hocker clifton eights run away do you want to explain what they are just in case someone they might not know so i i see them everywhere on tiktok everyone's like if you're running you need to try them so when i went to go get fitted for running shoes i literally was like mad i don't need a gay analysis i just need he was like but i didn't like them when i tried them on yeah i've heard that so i've i mean i I mean, I have not run in them personally. I'm an ASICS girl. Me too! I love ASICS.

Yeah. Or ASICS, I don't know what to say. Yeah. But I love my ASICS. And I've not heard great things about those. Oh, interesting. Just because, I don't know, lots of the girls have said they've had blisters from them. Oh, interesting.

And I always think, I do think when a certain trainer is trending on social media, like, go and get your gait analysis first exactly what you do go and do your gait analysis then figure out what trainers are good and then if it's there it's great but if it's not don't buy them don't buy them it's not it's not going to do for you yeah okay how about what do you think about still run either even if the weather is shit run towards oh nice okay you can have your notebook moment if it's raining main character moment although once so where contacts and i was like running in there

contact fell out i was actually like where am i going so yeah girls it's good but it's challenging if you want a challenge yeah exactly yeah and you do get that main character you do you so do as well and on holiday have you done it in the hot heat and you're like yeah it's like a sauna it's great yeah katie you got one so mine is it's kind of a two for one but it's a winter run versus a summer run oh okay which run are you running towards which one will you run away from i'm gonna run towards a swimmer run yeah yeah lovely yeah and how about running more than four times a week I'm gonna say run towards for that okay and this is just me personally yeah because I um I've been running for years and years and for like probably about three years I was just running it was my only form of not my

only form of movement but it was my main fitness yes and then maybe did some yoga and stuff on the side okay you are you know you're meant to build weights and stuff into it but I think if you can't afford a gym membership yeah and you want to exercise it's cheap it's cheap and it's accessible yeah so true absolutely but just don't ever don't over exercise no don't overdo it girls yeah treat yourself with a brunch afterwards yeah have you got any others mine is couch to 5k slash running plans run towards yeah yeah i see the nike guy what's his name coach bennett i see him all over my for you page he's like you've got this guys i'm like thanks little guided runs how about protein bar or shake before a run oh run away me too I'm a big run away from that yeah I'm not being funny so my boyfriend will have a huge protein shake before he goes on a run

I'm like I would trip myself yeah I would do a Paula Radcliffe like I would wouldn't I yeah I was like I would vomit the whole way I most a banana and then I'm off like yeah I can't do that I can't do it what do you do so if I'm on a long run I like rice cakes with peanut butter and banana oh lovely yeah and then if I do a really long run um I normally take pizza with me for the way around oh great pizza and tinfoil oh amazing yeah what do you think about smiling at other runners while you do it run to war yeah absolutely it was amazing when we were doing it on wednesday and we were like running as a pack yeah like hunger games and other people it was mad though seeing the group of us girls like 30 of us girls and only men like running at night and then yeah and i thought

you know what i'd never even experienced this because I would never do it. You know, my dad would, no, don't do that. And being in a group of girls, I was just like, I can't run at night. Nothing fucking stops me here. I was like, yeah, it was great. But definitely smiling at other runners. Yeah, it's lovely. We asked the debrief for dilemmas.

Usually, and these are all running related so they usually um message in and then we have our little segment on the debrief dilemmas but as we have you here we can ask you personally we asked for running dilemmas so we have two the first one is hey girls this running episode has come at the perfect time so basically i've recently gotten to running and more regularly and i'm loving it however i always get stitches when i run and find my legs always tend to cramp towards the end of the run even if it's only a 3k would love to know if you had any tips or tricks to help me on my running journey okay so first of all i'm not a running coach i'm doing my qualification but oh oh congratulations that's so exciting yes i'm just gonna say that before okay that's okay

i'm not a medical professional yeah but i would say in terms of advice for that i'd probably have a think about what you're doing outside of your run that might be bringing that on like are you hydrated enough maybe do you need to have some electrolytes um i've started having electrolytes most days now little fizz tablets yes yeah um and even if i'm not running just because they give you more give your vitamins keep you hydrated yeah and that kind of stuff can make cramps worse if you're dehydrated and not taking enough salts in oh interesting so I would definitely recommend maybe having a few electrolytes yeah okay um and yeah just think about what you're doing outside of your run that might be causing that um and if you think actually

I'm drinking enough water I'm eating enough food um then and it's I've got enough of a break between eating my food and going on my run yeah then if it's carrying on, I would go and see a doctor just to find out. Something like that. If that was happening on a long distance, like if you were doing a half marathon and it happened, I'd say that's your body's response. That's natural, yeah. The terror.

What you're doing to yourself. If it's happening on shorter distances, I would say, yeah, just sit down and have a think, maybe for a week. Write a little diary. When are you eating? What are you eating? what's your break between eating and going out what are you drinking do you feel hydrated when you go to the toilet what colour is your wee yeah think about all of that kind of stuff and um if you notice any kind of patterns then try and build in what you can whether it's food or drink related okay and maybe try again another week with those

improvements and see if it helps but if not I would go and see a doctor could it be to do with stretching as well with stretching yeah or not really maybe yeah if you're not warming up enough okay i'm not warming up properly um your so your warm-up is it stands so when i learned how to do warm-ups yeah um because i've got a leadership and running qualification and when you to do warm-ups, because I've got a leadership and running qualification, and when you do your warm-ups, it's ramp, which is R-A-M-P. So you want to raise your heart rate. You want to activate key muscles. You want to give movement to your legs and your limbs.

Mobilise, not movement. You want to mobilise, so do some hip stretches and stuff. Same thing, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's right. And then you want to mobilize so do some like stretches and stuff same thing yeah yeah and then you want to potentiate so that's like increasing the kind of um the just not the distance the speed or the kind of effort yeah so think about that when you're doing your warm-up as well so i don't really i'm not great at doing that's great advice yeah yeah think of ramp raise heart rate activate cue muscles mobilize and potentiate amazing oh that's brilliant okay so the next someone wrote in to us hey girlies so glad you've got these girls run on how sweet i've actually followed her account for a while oh that's sweet that's too yeah um my dilemma is that I love to get into running routine and

running club however I've never done further than 2k before and to be honest I'm a bit nervous I feel worried that I wouldn't keep up and because of my fitness I'd have to stop I don't want to annoy others oh but having to stop I don't want to annoy others by having to stop but I really want to go what should I do p.s i also love the running gear so i want to be a running girl oh my god i relate to that oh thanks kitty and katie love you both oh bless her yeah i know i know bless her um so i'll come at this from like a tgr angle okay um i i mean you guys you girls went last week and the whole reason or massive part the reason why i set it up was to help girls get into running and one of the ways in which we kind of make that happen is every run has these girls were an ambassador at the front and back and most

runs will have an ambassador at the front back and middle as well yeah that's what we had yeah it's brilliant yeah so you're like thank god yeah so i would have got fired then so you know that whichever these girls run you go on there will be an ambassador at the front and back and usually the middle and it's purely their job to make sure that you are having a good time obviously i want them to have a good time as well and i always say to them if you're having fun they will have fun yeah and their job is to make sure that you're safe you're getting sweaty and you're being supported so yeah if you want to stop that is fine it's normal when you're doing anything to want to kind of have a break for a bit and even like when I was doing that high rocks thing last week you're not sprinting continuously you stop for two minutes and have a break yeah yeah because your body is like what the hell is

going on yeah so it's absolutely fine to stop and walk and if you go to a TGR club then there will be an ambassador there with you um to make sure that you're okay and to walk with you and to just stop and breathe with you and yeah look look and look at london or whichever yeah yeah so um i know it's really easy for me to sit here and say don't be nervous or don't be scared yeah um but we we make like a massive conscious effort to make sure that every single one has enough ambassadors to look after the girls yeah because we don't want anybody leaving feeling left out or they hated it like when i was a kid I was not sporty and every PE class for me was a nightmare I hated it I was so self-conscious I didn't feel confident

and I always remember being last in PE and just being like this isn't for me yeah so I want to make sure nobody feels that way when they come to TGR it's easy to say don't be nervous but hopefully if you do come to a TGR run please DM us on instagram we'll reply to you yeah make sure that you're looked after oh that's lovely and i'm also going to reassure you that the first thing uh the tgr these girls run girls said when we arrived yes was no one gets left behind yeah and you were having an emotional day so they were like oh my god we're gonna cry it really puts you at ease though because i remember panicking because i was like i know i'm not gonna be quick and i feel like as well with run clubs um which i've seen what i've heard from other places is that it because some people are like athletes and they're

yeah and there's one vet like one pace and that's the pace so i remember being so nervous i was like oh my god everyone's gonna be running at like 100 miles an hour I'm going to be like flailing behind but the fact that there's that variation yeah and the the um chaperones that you had that were the pacers were just so good at putting you at ease they were literally like well like if you want to walk we'll walk because you're not going to like we're not going anywhere without you yeah yeah exactly that was just so nice yeah yeah oh i'm so glad and i also found the ambassadors the ambassadors were great at regrouping yeah so we had a great time of doing a 3k then we'd all stop and i can't remember her name but she was lovely and she said are we all good girls are we all having a good time you know some of us were like no yeah and others like yeah

you know but it was really nice that that it wasn't like oh god she's taking ages or okay there was actually a really high morale and to that girl be reassured that if you do book on these girls run like we felt so safe yeah we felt really look up looked after and that oh god there was no competition it was all yeah it's just such an important thing and that's why we don't have set paces like as in timed paces club as well because if you've never run before and we're like okay girls go with this ambassador if you want to run a six minute kilometer yeah you'd be like i have no idea what a six minute kilometer yeah and you would and i don't want to help my hold myself to that pace so the ambassadors they will go with whatever

distance you're going sorry whatever pace you're going yeah yeah that's we kind of remove the numbers from the situation because I'm not a numbers girl yeah yeah and I found that as well though because it was like you know um some of the girls who are the ambassadors were like leading the front bit but there was a few that were a bit faster so they said just run but where we can see you you know it was just such a support of everyone's need and want from what was yeah what they wanted out of that session yeah um and I think there was no of course you can have a fear about going and thinking oh my gosh I'm gonna be the slowest but no one cared yeah everyone was looking at London or talking to their friends so So no one cares. No one actually cares.

No one deeps it. So don't stress. Before we finish the debriefing part, we're going to play Snog, Marry, Avoid with running gear. Yeah, okay. Okay, so when I give you these three options, the marry you can have every single time that you go on your run. The snog you can have maybe a few times.

Like how much do you run a week? Like five times, six times snog you can have maybe a few times like how much do you run a week like five times six times so you can have it like twice you can't have it every time but you can have a few times and avoid you can never have it ever again okay so the three options i'm going to give you the first one is headphones oh okay oh you've made it hard okay the second one trainers oh I know I know yeah what am I gonna do third one sports bra okay okay so take time you can think so I'm so I'm gonna my initial reaction because I'm so flat-chested is to be like avoid the sports bra I don't need it I don't think I even have a bra on now but on a on a professional level I should say uh to marry the no marry the trainers and the trainers snog the sports bra avoid the headphones because I I

actually don't even though my face was shocked when he said headphones i there's a lot of times when i've not run with headphones i did an ultra marathon last year and i didn't listen to what you're joking how long was that for that was it was 36 miles so i was running for about seven hours what the actual fuck no i'm telling you you've got to have that strong mindset i was too exhausted to even think about putting headphones in to be fair there's seven hours worth of stuff to listen to is quite a lot exactly i don't know i think i just mentally switched off so i can go without headphones now as much as i love taking well if you did seven hours yeah you

you probably could yeah yeah yeah it's mad i'm gonna marry the sports bra otherwise i'd have a black eye so 100 like i'd never be able to run again but then i'm thinking my trainers i'm like if i can't run in trainers like what the fuck am i gonna flip actually so katie and i my boyfriend and our friend did a marathon in barcelona and we went to go watch yes and we saw this guy who was doing the um marathon with no shoes on oh my god so i feel maybe i could like you know my inner zen and maybe i could do no shoes yeah i yeah so i might do like uh the snob that snog the trainer so maybe I can have him a few times when I treat myself but then I'm gonna avoid the headphones as well which will freak me out because I have my headphones yeah yeah do you remember when I went through that period of no headphones

but on my phone so I'd run like oh my gosh the first time we ever went for a run like you're a lot faster than me so you're like right i'm just gonna set off and you just hit play with running like with the phone i found myself getting into a routine where my i felt like um i was underwater with my earphones i was like oh god i'm so like yeah so i was like let me be free so i like had my phone i was like running oh god but when i was like listening to things and then even i was like cackling on the podcast i was like ah whoops i was like turning it down like hey how about you what would you pick i think i would have to i think i'd have to marry the shoes yeah yeah my little shinnies oh yeah those little darlings they can't go without yeah yeah poor shoes yeah you need your shoes um

i'm gonna have to marry no done that yeah i'm gonna have to divorce marry the sports bra but that would be mighty uncomfortable yeah unless unless you get just laid a tit tape maybe yeah just get a towel and get yourself in there yeah yeah that'd have to be your only option yeah and then i'd have to avoid the headphones but again like that would be a bit of an existential for me yeah i feel like i'm like that with like yoga and so when it requires a lot of stillness and like observing your surroundings i get a bit like i'm like oh god yeah yeah put something in my ears yeah so we want to know your ics yeah when it comes to running and that can be anything but mostly opinions and stereotypes that people have when it comes to running yeah so i had to think about this earlier yeah um i think big ick for me is people thinking that you have to be fast to be a

runner because um like i know you said earlier you're not like a runner but you did 6k last week so you are a runner yeah if you put your trainers on and you've like gone outside and gone for a run or like a walk not a walk like a fast walk yeah then you're a runner you've given it a go yeah i think i think people who think that you need to be fast to be a runner should be cancelled yeah yes yeah so true yeah because it's demoralizing as well you know i was i remember when i was doing marathon training and i was putting my like full force into it i was like and then people would go speeding bars and i'd be like oh you know yeah if that's all you can give that's all you can give like truly yeah and so when

they're like you're not a runner i'm like well i'm trying you know i'm giving a good go yeah that's nice one that's good isn't it mad that there's only like a percentage of people in the world that do like half marathons and marathons yeah so it doesn't really matter what time you do it yeah because you still you're still yeah you've done it haven't you yeah you're still one of them yeah yeah yeah one of my itch to do with running as well well the stereotype and all of that is that you have to either be a certain shape or a certain look to be a runner yeah i think that grinds on me we used to do one rebel all the time and we do what was the class we like to do the reshapes the reshapes oh yeah like yeah like the running in the weights as you spoke earlier

and i remember all different shapes yeah and i'm not being funny some of the best runners were you know we're not the same shape as everyone else and you don't have to be a certain and even fitness in general I did for the first time hot pod yoga like it was great it was so good I did last week and I was like oh my god this is amazing and all different complete body shapes and sizes and everything yeah whereas some people were absolutely you know and they all would say I was the worst everyone was a great level but they looked completely different yeah and I thought you don't have to be one look to be exactly the best you know and I think that's what can sometimes put people off from running yeah I won't look good in the outfit or i would you know it's like no you do it for you yeah yeah completely absolutely yeah should we go on to questions

or do you have any more um i have another yeah tell us so it's more it's kind of similar to what you've just said about um like all the running gear so people thinking that you need to have all of the running gear to go on a run yeah yes you don't need all of that you don't need like yes it can help but you don't need like the sunglasses the bbl jacket yes the latest trainers the longer socks like yeah yeah running is one of the reasons why i love running is that it's so accessible and it's like it is free or very cheap you just have trainers and some yeah sweat working clothes so if you want to go to a charity shop and get some legging second hand or to Primark and get their stuff that's pretty decent yeah so as long

as you can put that on and head out then you're fine you don't need all the all the glasses and all the other bits like yes they might help but i i feel like on tiktok and instagram everybody looks like so professional when they're out running yeah i mean when i wake up in the morning jesus if i wake up i shove my hair back i leave the house and i don't look like i don't like any of those amazing people do on instagram or tiktok and that is fine yeah yeah yeah all the gear no it doesn't need to be a fashion show no exactly yeah honestly sometimes when i'm running around clapping common or wanting oh my god no one's seen me no one's seen me such a fashion show yeah yeah such a fashion show where we are like it's like there's just such an active running community yeah i've spoken about like and everyone's running and they all

look 10 out of 10 like yeah put together outfit yeah wow yeah and it's and it can be off-putting because then you think oh well i haven't got the sunglasses and then i haven't got the vest and i haven't got the lulus and yeah well i haven't got the money for that yeah exactly you need all that like yeah yeah completely just get on with it and you've got it yeah yeah all you really need is trainers sports bra yeah yeah yeah you'll be fine yeah okay so we're gonna go just before we finish we always finish with our questions amazing and always do a serious one to do with what we've been talking about yeah and a silly one to just keep the moon light-hearted good flow and all that kind of stuff

um so i'm serious for this week i wanted to know how has these girls run um influenced and affected your life where you are now and how do you feel that it's affected others that's such a good question okay um so I think from where where I am now if I think back to when I started these girls run I feel like I was a different person in the sense that not in a bad way but just in the sense that the confidence this has brought me. And the kind of, like, belief in myself. Like, every day I have to make a decision that I don't really know what I'm doing. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. I've set my own business up.

I need to sort my tax returns out. You're so scary. I've got, like, an assistant that I love managing. And, like, I've got all these ambassadors. And I feel like I've got all this ambassadors and I I feel like I've got all this responsibility and that comes with a lot of decisions that need to be made and at first don't get me wrong like there's some days where I'm like oh my god what the hell am I doing this is like changed my life too much and it's too busy and I feel like I put the world the weight of the

world on my shoulders but I feel like it's made me so much more confident and actually like prove to myself that I can do something outside of like your classic nine to five and I can try and do something for myself and I like I get so much joy out of it oh that's so lovely so yeah I mean it's that's how it's kind of changed me but I like I do really struggle with the workload and stuff yeah I'm sure well if you're working full-time yeah yeah I mean it is impressive that you are full-time working and you are also doing this yes and not only giving it a shot you are smashing it yeah you know and you should be really proud of yourself because you know we didn't just go to get you on the pod we went because we wanted to go and yeah we had a fabulous time and we'd want to go again yeah and that's shown through social media but also the

girls when we went yeah yeah so you have affected a lot of people you know the 300 girls that were there on the first 2024 run i was like holy shit molly like that's such a big deal though like i'd literally be crying i'd be like i think it was yesterday i was in manchester for the day for tgr and i had a bit of a moment on the way home like after the weekend i was like yeah oh this is this is this is a thing now and i think like i know you asked about how the the community have benefited and it's the same thing it's it's benefited me it's the confidence yeah and like the fact that all these girls now have like made so many friends and they yeah can run and they're like all of our ambassadors are just normal girls who like running and want to help people you don't need like a 500 pounds qualification to be able to be

an ambassador yeah because you just need to be a nice person know how to run have a little bit of experience of running and are willing to like help people so yeah it's yeah it's touched all and you've also saved a lot of people a lot of money because i tell you london is all have you joined one rebel have you done this have you have you done barry's boot camp you know to pay four pounds for a run is pretty decent and then also to make friends and you know all that so yeah that's amazing well done yeah honestly I was saying because I used to work for Sweaty Betty and obviously we're in partnership with them and the amount of people that look forward customers we would have coming in being like I can't wait to sign on to these runs and it was always so nice yeah that people would come in

actively looking forward to it each week and I'm sure you get like the repeat people coming every week and it is just such a nice community yeah i think when london feels so vast having like a group to go to yeah it's just a constant is just such a nice thing oh thanks guys got we got yeah all about the girls there amazing so my silly question this is a good one actually my question is would you rather forget your sports bra or your socks before a run um I would rather forget my sports bra but only because I am 32 double a I don't really know don't get me wrong I still wear one but yeah I would and my socks I get blisters I don't get blisters all the time but i need

now i've like been running for a while i need very specific socks what are they um they're hilly i think it's i've got them yeah yeah they're hilly yeah they got me through my ultra without a single blister oh wow on my feet for seven hours running through the sea no music with no music crying so they did it so I need they stayed with you yeah I've still got them I'm never

getting rid of them yeah I'm gonna do that yeah you should do yeah when you have like your own like big warehouse

of all these stuff just put them be like guys this is where it starts you see these these got me through seven hours no music yeah

where did you do it the sea and the sand? It was in Northumbria on the Cape. Sand? Oh my God. It was literally running across sand dunes. No, no. When I say through the sea,

I mean it wasn't up to my knees, but it was enough to make me feel like I was in a James Bond film. Oh. Delightful. You were like a Bond girl moment. Yeah. Yeah.

I was the same. Yeah. Hobbling. Yeah. With your feet. That's why I'm a Bond girl. I imagine my feet are doing the tinfoil crying. Yeah. Help me. yeah hobbling i can't believe though seven hours and you didn't get one yeah no wonder you're keeping those socks yeah yeah no no blisters so honestly socks socks all the way important investment yes

you would say hilly ones are the best for yeah they're the best that i've used they're just they're so thick yeah i don't know the technical are they like twin are they like double layered yeah i think so um so yeah i love i love my hillies my hilly socks but they are expensive so i've only got two pairs yeah yeah yeah i'll stick by you for life won't yeah yeah oh two pairs yeah yeah yeah I'll stick by you for life won't yeah yeah oh I tried and true yeah I'll wear them until they're broken yeah well Molly thank you so much for coming on the podcast we've had an absolutely amazing time and we're so proud of everything you're doing and like you should feel so proud thank you

yeah next time we'll invite you on and we'll talk about ourselves yeah yeah yeah yeah I'll interview you. Yeah. I'll be like, well, I'm really proud of the podcast because I'm in the woods. Yeah. No, but we always should support girls. Yes. At this time, we've, like, had three guests on and they've all been girls. Yeah.

And it's just been so nice to support businesses growing like ours, like yours. Yeah. And, yeah, we just love being here and um you know doing all of this so thank you so much so i hope you have a great week yeah absolutely yeah this has been a very good start to my week oh good give you a little positive yeah thank you so much thank you listeners see you later bye Bye.