10. Something new inside
Running, reading, reflecting - and what's coming soon on this space
Is it just me or May flew by? It’s been full of running, friendships, joy, and nature over here, pretty special! Let’s dive into this past month, I’m sharing books on my TBR list, things that have moved me recently along with some big news for what’s coming on this space. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts - so, don’t hesitate to hit reply!
With love,
Julia
What we see
Earlier this month, I listened to an episode of the Slow Down podcast, with Marine Tanguy, that stayed with me. She explains that we are visually driven as humans, and we are also shaped by our images consumptions that averages 10 000 images a day (wild). She challenges the dominance of commercial billboards in public spaces for example, describing it as visual pollution. Ultimately, we carry images within us, images that can influence how we move through the world, and we need to be more aware of that.
I can think of great ones in the ultra-running world that are still in my mind, such as this one of Jasmin Paris first women finisher of the Barkley Marathons for example, and more recently this one of Stephanie Case on her latest awesome 100k win, starting in the last wave and breastfeeding her daughter at the aid stations.
I’ve been dreaming up something for a long time, to explore different point of views in the sport with this project too, starting with the perspective of the creatives capturing these moments. So…
Coming This Sunday: Framed Outside, a new Substack Limited Serie.
Meeting women behind the lens in the outdoor world .
A limited written interview series where I chat with women photographers and filmmakers, working in the outdoors and sport industry. Through written conversations and portrait features, we’ll talk about the passion, their journeys, and explore important questions: Has the diversity behind the lens evolved alongside the subjects being photographed ? How do women navigate and shape creative careers in spaces still largely led by men? And - how do we learn to trust and believe in our creativity and voice ?
Each story will drop here on Sundays, I can’t wait for you to meet the women capturing our sports, and our wild spaces.
Reading plans:
Some books (thank you so much for your recommendations on instagram!), now on my TBR pile for this summer:
Bedtime adventure stories for grown up
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage
I also spoke to Lily Canter on her latest book Ultra Women co-written with Emma Wilkinson, and asked her a few questions:
Was there a guiding question/intention that shaped the direction of the book ? How did the collaboration with your co-author came to life ?
Yes, the guiding question was ‘Do women have an advantage have an advantage in ultra endurance sport and if so why do we never hear about this ?’ We wanted to do a deep dive into the science but also tell the untold stories of women all over the world that were achieving amazing feats and world’s first that no one really knew about.
We wanted to look at endurance through a female lense, because it’s all so often shown through a male one. We wanted to show the barriers that women come up against in sport throughout history and even today. So it is both a celebration of their endurance and looking at the science of wether women are better at longer distances than men.
Our collaboration as co-authors for this book came to life on the trails, while getting to know each other, and doing ultras together. We noticed that at the latest stages of races women were plodding along, not seeming as exhausted, and we became interested as why women seemed to be doing well, but why they were so few of them as well. We have a similar writing style, and split the 20 chapters. We would write them and look at each other’s to make sure we had the same tone throughout the book and we set each other deadlines.
How do you think story telling can create structural change in sport ?
These narratives can really bring awareness, as we are telling these stories that a lot of people haven’t heard of. People that are not interested in sport, are reading the book, men are reading the book and realising the barriers that women face that they never even considered. We hoping we are kind of lifting the lid in sport, barriers and the particular challenges that women face. It’s also for women to feel like they can speak up and fight for change as well. Things are starting to change, and collectively, the more narratives there are around these topics, the more gradual change will take place.
Did your own perspective on sport, endurance and women evolved while writing this book and why ?
it really opened my eyes to the sexism that still prevails in sport. We perhaps didn’t notice it as much before. I started playing football, and started to see it straight away. They had changing rooms, we didn’t . The kit we got was male sizes and there wasn’t a lot of willingness from the club to improve things. I notice running website for races so much more, are their imagery showing diverse people ? It made me notice inequality in sports, which is something I also talk about in my newsletter. It’s also amazing to notice the race, organisations, that are doing great. It’s made me much more aware of what the challenges are, and campaigning, trying to speak out for change.
What do you hope people take away from reading your book ?
We want women to understand that they are physically and mentally capable of so much more that they think. We need to shift that balance of only being care takers and help women’s confidence, putting aside time for themselves every week for example. We hope people gain a better understanding that there are still work to be done, and that men can help this change. Would also want the Sport science community to really push research for women that is hugely lacking. We hope it will spark debate and start a conversation about how sport can be more inclusive and how women can be given the support and the confidence to push themselves to the limit in the same way than men do all the time.
Finishing on an awesome news:
