Running Together: Run Club Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe joining a run club or walking group, often after years of believing running was not for them. Some came after a heart attack, a new knee, chemotherapy, a prediabetes warning or a blood pressure reading that alarmed a doctor; others came for company after moving to a new city, after a son's death, through burnout or new fatherhood, or for the free bread rolls. A night-shift nurse in Columbus, a taxi driver in Birmingham, a paramedic in Melbourne, a carer whose husband has dementia, a bartender whose club meets at ten at night and a pharmacist who started one in her Mexico City park are among them, with voices from Lagos to Stockholm. Writers take part with asthma, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis; one rolls alongside in a wheelchair and one runs on the end of a guide's cord as his sight fades. Pram runners, a woman in a hijab, a father with his autistic son and a refugee learning German at running pace all find a place. Not every story is tidy: a former marathon runner with long COVID counts two minutes as progress, an accountant learns that pain was not progress, and a woman recovering from an eating disorder explains why some clubs were not safe for her.

Who it's for

For anyone standing at the edge of a car park wondering whether a club would have them, and for people returning to movement after illness, loss or a long break.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 231 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.