Adharanand Finn's Blog, page 7

Why we love to run

It's tough, it hurts and yet more than two million of us in the UK run at least once a week. Why? To launch our new running blog, Adharanand Finn explains the enormous pleasure it brings and how we're actually hardwired to do it

"Daddy, where are you going?" my son asked me recently as I was lacing up my running shoes on a cold, wet Sunday morning. "Running," I said. "Why?" he asked.

He's only three. But it was a good question, and one I couldn't readily answer. I...

Japhet Koech's Edinburgh adventure: the next chapter

Kenyan athlete Japhet Koech will be back in Edinburgh to run the 2014 marathon – if his Crowdfunder project is another success

When I first met Japhet Koech, grinning outside a tiny wooden kiosk in a backstreet in Iten, Kenya, I didn't realise quite how far we'd go together. After we trained for and ran the Lewa marathon in Kenya in 2011, I said goodbye and headed back to London. Our adventure was over, I thought. In fact, it was just beginning.

After I wrote the book Running with the Kenyans,...

Hakone Ekiden: the greatest race on Earth?

This long-distance relay race, contested by teams of students, is Japan's biggest sporting event. What makes the Hakone Ekiden so compelling?

In pictures: the Hakone Ekiden relay race

The streets of central Tokyo are crammed five deep on both sides for miles, helicopters churn in the sky above, and trumpets and drums beat out a rhythm for squads of cheerleaders on every block. All this at 7am on a bank holiday.

Meanwhile, in homes across the country, millions are tuning in for the start of two d...

The Hakone Ekiden relay race in Japan - in pictures

With a 30% TV audience share in Japan this long-distance relay race is Japan's biggest sporting event of the year

Adharanand Finn

How the world's longest relay race ran out of road

Japan's Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden, set up after the Nagasaki atom bomb and contested by teams of 25 over seven days, fell victim this year to dropping TV revenues. I went along to the last

Nine runners stand in a line on the spot where the world's second and last atomic bomb landed 68 years ago, on a hill in the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The TV cameras are pointed on them, while a small crowd of spectators wave flags in the bright early-morning sunshine. A gun fires and they're off, racing dow...

Christopher McDougall: 'Every step I run, I'm focusing on form'

The author of Born to Run on running with the Amish, going barefoot and why Geronimo was the greatest runner ever

Hi Chris. Hi. Good morning. Man, it's too bad you couldn't be over here this past weekend to join us for a really spectacular trail run with some Amish friends.

Sounds great. Do you run with the Amish a lot? Increasingly, yeah. There's a group out here that has just started becoming really passionate about running. Passionate in a way I think most of us forget about. They're not onl...

Why are Kenyans the best distance runners? - video

Adharanand Finn: why Kenya has produced so many great runners

Adharanand FinnEkaterina OchagaviaMichael TaitAlex Healey

Running blog: how was your weekend running?

It was another wet and windy weekend in England. Did you go running anyway – or perhaps you ran in sunnier climes?

Even in the English Riviera, British summer is a fairly fragile affair. And so it proved when on Sunday I took part in the Torbay half marathon. It's a lovely race along the seafront, with donkey rides on the green, fun fairs and holidaymakers stopping to cheer the runners. But with winds of over 20mph, the racing was tough going.

Add in a few hills, and overall I was pleased to f...

Running blog: how was your weekend running?

Did you enjoy running in the sunshine this weekend – and did anyone take part in South Africa's legendary ultra marathon?

The recent days of shivering, wind-blown runs now seem but a distant memory. This weekend I found myself lolloping through picture-postcard land on a sunny, eight-mile run along the coast path in Devon.

Elsewhere, our own Kate Carter was racing to yet another personal best in the Poole 10K in Dorset, while in nearby Dartmoor they were battling through a hilly 32 miles in the...

Japhet Koech's Edinburgh Marathon adventure

Kenyan runner Japhet Koech was able to take part in the Edinburgh Marathon this year thanks to crowdfunding – and despite a disappointing race, it was a remarkable experience

As we walked along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh the day after the marathon, people kept stopping my Kenyan friend, Japhet, and asking to take a picture with him. "Japhet," they said, "we watched you run yesterday. You were amazing!"

He was constantly taken aback at being addressed by name. "I am famous," he said, delighted....