The Start Line Podcast

“BRO serves to organise, educate and condition the Black Community on the basis of running as a practical demonstration of unity. #LETSGROW”

This month we are excited to bring you a diverse running group from over the pond! All the way from Baltimore, we introduce you to Black Running Organisation (BRO)!!! TSL Girls speak to Isa Olufemi and his fiancée, Intea Deshields about why and how they set up BRO in 2014; what aims of the organisation; and how BRO is changing the look and feel of running, by increasing the number of black and diverse runners in Baltimore. In the words of BRO, LETSGROW!
We discuss how BRO is helping to shape and strengthen the communities in Baltimore and what the ethos is behind their important clarion cry of “LETSGROW!” We explore with Isa why he considers running to be a cultural principle for black people; the importance running has on the psyche of a black man; how it can be used to teach discipline, commitment and drive; and how the collective family achieves so much more than the pursuit of individualism so prevalent in Western society.
Isa, who worked as a college access program specialist with the CollegeBound Foundation in Baltimore, also speaks about his work setting up the Poet’s Pride Run Club which combines running and fitness with educational attainment. The Club, which secured funding for 4 years, worked to demonstrate the general importance of fitness, taking their students for a scheduled Unity Run every day at 7am, followed by individual and group advice sessions to help prepare students for college. The Club embodied the importance of commitment by requiring students who needed the support of the Club to commit to the running sessions in order to access the advice provided. Isa and his work with the Poet's Pride Rub Club was picked up in a number of media outlets, including a feature in Runners World Magazine.
Isa also explains why attendance at The Race in Atlanta every October must become a rites of passage run for every card carrying Runner of Colour!

This amazing, insightful discussion highlights the importance of forging and maintaining links with running groups of colour across the pond who are looking to change things up exponentially. TSL girls are so happy that we stumbled across BRO during Black October last year, as the group works to emphasise the message of pan-Africanism, focussing on black unity and black pride, making huge waves whilst doing so.
You can follow Black Running Organisation on Instagram: @blkrunorg or on Facebook @blkrunorg.
You can also follow The Race on Instagram: @therace_uc.
We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod and subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast provider or at https://www.thestartlinepod.com!

Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.

In this special bonus episode of The Start Line, recorded prior to the murder of George Floyd on Monday 25 May 2020, we discuss the tragic murder of Ahmaud Arbery. A 25 year old black man who loved running. Ahmaud was out running on the afternoon 23 February 2020 when he was hunted down, trapped, and shot to death around 1.30pm in the afternoon by two white men, father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael in Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia US. The full details of this incident can be found here in this NY TImes article: https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-timeline.html

We bring together a group of runners from the UK and the US to discuss the circumstances around Ahmaud’s death and question how, in 2020, we are still dealing with the fall out from centuries of racism, power imbalance and injustice in our societies. We also raise the question of why, particularly in the running community/publications/brands, there was a deafening silence in relation to Ahmaud’s death. We face head on the issues around the discomfort felt by people discussing openly, with people who are not of colour, the issues around race, privilege and power. Finally, we explore what can we all do to be the change we want to see.

We give thanks to God for this platform and to our contributors, each of whom taught us so much and helped us to look at things in slightly different way:

Trojan Gayle (@thebeardedrunner and @emancipatedruncrew)

Calvin Stovell (@re_cal_ibratingand @emancipatedruncrew)

Matilda Egere-Cooper (@flygirlcollective)

Natasha Thomson (@blackgirlsdorunuk)

William Wesley Walker Jr (@brunchnburn)

Stephen Adjaidoo (@ldnbrunchclub)

Peter Daining (@dainingpeter)

Isa Olufemi (@blkrunorg)

Ari Anisfield

This is an honest, educational discussion which we hope will be used as a catalyst for similar discussions and calls to action across the globe. ITS TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE!
We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod and subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast provider or at https://www.thestartlinepod.com!

Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.

For the last episode of 2019, The Start Line Girls finish with a look back at their best bits of the year. Reflecting on their favourite runs, favourite podcast moments and also their most challenging points during 2019, the Start Line Girls take you on a trip down memory lane as well as looking forward to 2020. Happy New Year!
We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod and subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast provider or at http://thestartlinepodcast.buzzsprout.com! And if you love what we do, please help us reach even more people by giving us a 5-star rating and/or review on Apple Podcasts!

Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.

“The runaways are the silent heroes who created opportunities for future generations of people of colour, and it is important that their existence is acknowledged and celebrated.”

- Morayo Akandé

Actor and screenwriter of 1745

Running. A free sport. An activity where you can lace up and run, not matter what the time, the season or the weather. For those of us who grew up watching the world’s fastest men and women taking part in 100 and 200m sprints, on the edge of our seats, wondering incredulously how Carl Lewis, Florence Griffiths Joyner (“Flo Jo”), Colin Jackson, Linford Christie, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and Eliud Kipchoge ran the incredible times that they did.

Athletes like have these have inspired thousands of youngsters to themselves become the athletes of the future, some kids starting out just running races on the block, hoping to emulate their heroes.
But does running, that feeling of being free, of running away the troubles and doubts, have a deeper resonance for people of colour? And if it does, is this as a result of the invisible thread, from the millions of runaway slaves, stretching over the 400 year period since a ship first docked in the shores of America, starting the transatlantic slave trade, to our lives now?
Whatever the tenuousness of that link, one thing is for sure: without the bravery of the many men, women and children who escaped the brutal institutionalised evil of slavery and who as free people, worked tirelessly for its abolition, we as people of colour would not be living the lives we do today.
In this bonus episode for Black History Month, we celebrate them, we commemorate them and we reflect on what it means today to Run Free!
Special thanks to Simone S-B, @thisistrojan, @arayahfaithkids, @iamjackiornwilliams and @blackgirlsdorunuk for your messages - we are so grateful for your insights on what running free means to each of you!
And we have to mention Rick Holmes “Remember To Remember” - check it out - Black History captured in one song! (A Roy Ayers production).

We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod and subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast provider or at https://www.thestartlinepod.com!

Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.
Episode music: Whimsy Groove, Kumasi Groove and Kumasi Groove (plus flugelhorn) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Most of the people of the time you run to get fit... to get healthy . But how do you cope, mentally and physically, when, after achieving a level of fitness, your health is compromised to such an extent that you can no longer run? Especially when running has always been something that almost comes second nature to you, that you love and defines a part of who you are?

The Start Line Girls delve into the impact that their health issues has had each of them, and share some mechanisms that you can use to cope with these issues and tools you can utilise to get you back to running fitness.

We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod and subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast provider or at https://www.thestartlinepod.com! And don’t forget to rate and review us!

Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.