We recently had a coffee with Simon Cook, one of the founders of a fantastic new programme of events that make up Running Dialogues which starts with seminars looking into the social impacts of running. We are really excited to play a part in this and to help promote it in any ways that we can.

The idea behind Running Dialogues is to celebrate and investigate running by bringing together people involved and interested in the sport to discuss ideas about running, using academic research as a starting point.

Simon and his colleagues who have set up Running Dialogues recognise that to date the vast majority of  academic research in running has focused on the physiology of the athletes and how to improve performance. But now there are new areas of research emerging from across the social sciences, arts, and humanities. The people conducting this sort of research are asking different questions about running. This research is more concerned with the social and cultural aspects of running – asking what it means to run, what is it like to run and why. Exactly the same questions that we created Like the Wind magazine to ask.

Running Dialogues kicks off with a series of four events in London that look into different aspects of the new areas of running research. These events are free and open to everyone – we will certainly be at all of the events and would encourage as many other people, interested in the social aspects of running, to come along as well.

You can download a PDF with more details here: Running Dialogues Seminars Summary