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Community Member Focus - Katherine Richards
57 Plays5 years ago
In this episode we continue or "Getting to know you " community member interviews. Today's guest isKatherine Richards aka @GirlHucknall.
If you would like to be a part of our Getting to know you, Community Member Interviews then please DM us on our social channels or email us on info@ukrunchat.co.uk
Enjoy getting to know Katherine.
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Transcript
Introduction to Catherine Richards
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK sports chat podcast. In today's episode, we continue our getting to know you interviews with community members. Today's guest is Catherine Richards. Catherine is a member of the UK run chat team who helps on Instagram and Twitter. Please enjoy getting to know Catherine. Hi Catherine. Hi Joe. How are you? I'm all right. Thank you. How are you?
00:00:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm good, thank you. Very good. We've been out and done our dog walk, that's how we're spending our family time, our one piece of exercise for the day. Have you been out and about? I have, I've had a walk today when I finished work. I'm quite lucky because I work eight till four, so it's early start, but it's also early finish. So today was a walk and I live in the air.
00:00:56
Speaker
sort of a nature reserve and some woods so it's nice both running and walking that I can get out and sort of enter countryside which is lovely. Lovely. Very nice. It's been beautiful as well, isn't it? The weather. Yeah, lovely weather. I keep popping out into the back garden on my tea breaks.
00:01:16
Speaker
and there's been a cat sunning itself in the back garden it's just been moving around as the sun's gone round it's moved around the garden every time i've gone out there it's quite funny it's obviously just toasting itself in sunshine not my cat it's just it's just lying there but it's it's quite cute very nice so
00:01:39
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Community Member Focus. Get into Know Community and we've started with our team members who Matt and Shell have been on already. And yeah, thank you for joining us. And we are going to start off with learning more about you in terms of what you do day to day.
The Life of a Diary Manager
00:01:59
Speaker
What is your day job, Catherine? My day job is that I am a diary manager for a senior figure.
00:02:09
Speaker
I can't say too much about it too publicly but it's a really busy job and I've had people say, I mean it does what it says on the tin, I'm a diary manager, I manage his diary but if I say that we have something like 4,000 incoming requests for his time every year
00:02:29
Speaker
that probably tells you a bit about why it ends up being a busy job because you kind of fill the diary and then you get more requests in so it's then I always liken it to a big jigsaw you've got a full diary you then have things you don't have things coming that you've got to fit in somehow
00:02:45
Speaker
How do you make the decisions of what gets shuffled around, what gets moved, and what does go in and what doesn't go in? There's a whole process behind that. I don't work on my own. There's an assistant diameter as well and three others in the team. So it's the whole deciding process. So there's four of you.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah there's five of us in the team, four of us work directly to my boss and then a whole other bigger team behind the scenes working on various other bits but we're the ones that sort of support him personally and getting him to where he needs to be, when he needs to be there
00:03:23
Speaker
and with the information that he needs for his meetings and what he needs to, practical things so that he knows what he needs to wear for each meeting. He has various guises, shall we say. It does sound very cryptic. He's clergy. He's clergy, shall we say. So he needs to know about robes, whether he needs to be in a suit, whether he needs to be in robes, etc.
00:03:50
Speaker
So yeah, it's interesting. It's really interesting. So there's five of you and you manage his time and you manage, what do you help him manage all of his meetings and everything then? Yeah. So we manage the process right from somebody writing in and saying, please, can you come and do this sermon or speech or whatever for us? Write the way through to it going in the diary and then him actually getting there going. How is he going to get there? Who is he going with?
00:04:18
Speaker
Has he got his speech written? Off he goes, in he goes and does it. And then that's kind of the end of the process, which can sometimes be up to a year between it going in the diary and it actually happening. So it's quite crazy and busy and sometimes really weird, but a lot of fun. Do you enjoy it?
00:04:41
Speaker
I do enjoy it. Yeah, I've been there. It'll be five years this summer that I've been there. And it's one of the busiest jobs I've done. But it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Good. Good. So we're back to you. You working from home at the moment? Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I live sort of on the edge of Kent near Bromley. If anybody's heard of Bromley, I'm kind of near Bromley. So yeah, so I'm working from home at the moment. Who knows how long that will go on for? I don't really like working from home, but it is what it is. We've got to make the best of it at the moment. So you did mention the kind of bromley. You get excited about the small things that you never thought you'd get excited about, like the fact that I managed to get a Tesco delivery yesterday.
00:05:36
Speaker
Absolutely gold dust. And I think the poor Tesco man, when I said to him, you've brought me potatoes. I'm so excited. I think he thought I was absolutely bananas. Although I'm sure I'm not the only one that when they've turned up. They've been pretty rare, haven't they? The last few weeks. The deliveries have been rare. And then when they've actually turned up with the stuff that you've ordered as well, because I know a lot of people have struggled with ordering a lot of stuff and then only half of it's turned up.
00:06:03
Speaker
It's quite tough going, but yeah, so it was nice to actually have fresh vegetables yesterday. Novelty. Good to hear that you got your Tesco delivery. I did. Happy days. Tell us about you running then.
Catherine's Running Journey
00:06:20
Speaker
When did you start running?
00:06:22
Speaker
I started running, it will be eight years ago next month, so I was late-ish to running, so I started running 38 and 45 now, and I had been living in New York City for three years, which is amazing and fabulous, and I still can't quite believe I had the opportunity to do that, but in doing that, New York is a very expensive place to live, and especially
00:06:49
Speaker
because I was living, I was living on Manhattan's name dropper. And because I was living on Manhattan, sounds so surreal when I say it now. But because I was living in Manhattan, yeah, that was with work. That was in my previous job. I was in the Foreign Office for eight years. So that was overseas posting with the Foreign Office and their supermarkets aren't really good. People don't really cook.
00:07:16
Speaker
So their supermarkets aren't really good at cooking and certainly not cooking for one person. So it's just big bags of stuff. So it's basically cheaper just to order from the diner down the road every night. So I managed to put on a spectacular two and a half stone while I was there in the three years. Because you start off getting these massive portions and go, oh, we'll never eat all of that. It'll last me two meals. And then within six months, you're eating a lot and dessert.
00:07:44
Speaker
so much weight. We all came back so much faster than we went out there. Easily done there by the time of it. So easily done. I was about six months away from knowing that I was coming back to London for a London job and I just said to a colleague, I really need to lose some weight and I won't be able to afford a gym when I get back to London and I can't stand the gym anyway. What do I do? She said to me,
00:08:11
Speaker
Oh, I've just done this new thing called the Couch 5K podcast, which I'd never heard of. I don't know whether it was new, new back then, but it certainly wasn't a thing now that everybody's heard of it. And I sort of said, oh, I hate running, thinking back to school cross country and all of that.
00:08:29
Speaker
which everybody loathed and she said well give it a try because all you need is your um ipod to put your app on and a pair of running shoes it's that old chest that isn't it running's cheap because all you need is a pair of running shoes
00:08:44
Speaker
until you start racing and then it gets really expensive. So I did, so I got my iPod and I went down and got a pair of running shoes because I think I thought to myself if I get fitted properly and I've spent quite a lot of money on these running shoes, I'll make myself do it then. And I hated it, I absolutely hated it.
00:09:05
Speaker
But I kept going. The first time you went out, you hated it. The first time I went out, the first month I went out, because I was kind of trudging up and down the streets of New York, which sounds glamorous, but it's so busy, so much traffic. I wasn't anywhere near a park or anything nice. I had visions of you running around Central Park and the Christmas tree still out, you know, the huge Christmas tree. Yeah, exactly. You had that thought, yeah, no.
00:09:35
Speaker
No, it's basically just after work, you know, the after work, get home, oh, I've got to go for a run. And at that point, you just can't see that you're ever going to get any better, or that you're going to be able to run without walking. Not there's absolutely anything wrong with running and walking. I run walk most of the time these days, especially when I'm trail running.
00:09:55
Speaker
But it's such early days, I was overweight, you just feel like you're this baby elephant glumping around the streets and everybody's looking at you and everybody's laughing at you, which clearly they're not, nobody cares. And for ages, I didn't enjoy it. And I think it was a good few years before I really would say that I loved running, but it had the desired effect on my weight.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yes. That's good. Yeah. So then when I came back to London, I actually stopped running for about six months because I'd moved back. I had to move house twice within about three months. Christmas in the middle, big life upheaval, you know how it is when there's a big life event and it all gets really stressful. And then it got to, it would have been March 2013 then. And I just thought, you know, if I don't stop running now, I'll never do it. So.
00:10:49
Speaker
I started couch to five K again, knowing it's weird doing a second time round, knowing that you could do it because you'd have a terrible run and think, come on, Catherine, you've done this before, you know, you can do this. So that was when the ear giving myself a stern talking to when I was out running, which still continues.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. What was the, what was the turning point then? Where did you begin to like it? Love it? I don't know. I remember doing, so my first half marathon was, um, autumn 2014, great north one. And I hated that. And I swore I'd never do another half marathon, which if anybody knew me, it was clearly turned out to be a massive lie. Um,
00:11:31
Speaker
But i think it was after that i suspect it was actually cuz i then started part one in twenty thirty. And i am a huge advocate of park run i know some people have tried it and don't get on with it and that's fine it's very much personal preference as with a lot of things.
00:11:50
Speaker
But I love part-run. I've met a lot of very good friends through part-run who we now socialise. We do everything as well as running together. We're a huge support network. We've had various people going through cancer treatments in the last year. And we've all done hospital visiting. And I've had various people getting in touch with me during this period and saying, we've got a car. If you need groceries, we can come over and help you.
00:12:17
Speaker
We've just turned into this really, really lovely social group and support group. And I suspect that it was starting part run and getting into part run and seeing the social side of running that then got me into enjoying running itself and realizing, I think getting to the stage where I took the pressure off myself. I'm not fast and I'm never going to be fast. I may get faster, but
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm never going to be fast. And I'm always quite careful when I'm tweeting about my runs that I don't want to say, Oh, that was really slow. Cause I know that actually there are some people out there who would love to be able to run at the speed that I run to them. I am fast. So I think it's all relative. And as long as you're enjoying what you're doing. And I think when you get to the point that you really can very easily still talk myself out of going for a run.
00:13:16
Speaker
But when you get to the point that you're really not enjoying it and you really, really don't want to go, then there's something wrong with whatever pressure is being put on you, be that by yourself or somebody else, I think. You've got to be enjoying it. There's no point in doing it if you don't enjoy it. Yeah. But to you, this is part of a
00:13:41
Speaker
It's like a package, isn't it? It's social, it's friends, it's running, it's the fitness, it's the health, is that right? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, the good thing for me with having been involved in UK Runcha as well is that I've now got a group of people that I meet up when I go to a mum and dad's in Nottinghamshire, who I met through UK Runcha, and some of them have become very good friends.
00:14:07
Speaker
and there's people in Newcastle where my sister lives that I'll go I'm coming up or we'll meet up at a park run or we'll meet up at a race or whatever. There's people kind of all around the country. I've been and done a race with the same colleague that actually got me running in the first place in Istanbul last year. Never thought I'd be doing something like that.
00:14:30
Speaker
it's just been brilliant. And the fact that I've got sort of this support network through running as well, both on Twitter and in person, there's sort of a good number of people now that I say, oh, I'm coming up to Nottingham, anyone around and we either go, I mean, invariably we go out for a meal and don't run at all, but you know, but we were just saying about easy talking. The whole thing is, oh, I'm coming up, she would go for a run, then invariably it descends into shall we just go for pizza instead. But
00:15:00
Speaker
But I've done, I've done races. Sorry. Go on, sorry.
00:15:10
Speaker
I've done races with some of them. One of the guys that I met through UKruncher, I did Race to Stones with last year, and we did one of the race maverick races the year before, because we've worked out that we are very good, sort of pairing for our speed and stamina. And there's people that I sort of text daily because we've become really good friends. And that's all just happened through being involved in UKruncher on Twitter. Brilliant. And, and Parkrun and
00:15:40
Speaker
All these, yeah, it's brilliant, it's brilliant. It's lovely to hear as well. Yeah, I mean, park runs great because whoever had the initial idea of that you don't have to sign up to say that you're going and you don't need a different barcode if you go into a different park run, you just rock up and go wherever you are with the same barcode, it's the same setup. So you kind of know what you're doing wherever you go. It's kind of perfect really for those of us that do enjoy it.
00:16:09
Speaker
and I'm one of our run directors at our part run now so I'm involved in the core team side bit which has been nice and I know but a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Nice, very good. Do you have goals this year that you're working towards or were they based around events or tell me about that? Sorry, I lost you there.
00:16:33
Speaker
Sorry, do you have any goals set for this year? What goals have you got for
Running During the Pandemic
00:16:38
Speaker
this year? Well, I was supposed to be doing Race to the Castle in June and therefore had... I mean, you know what I was saying earlier about swearing that I would never do another half marathon. When you end up booking yourself in for two marathons as training runs in inverted commas,
00:16:57
Speaker
you know it's all just gone really mad. So I was supposed to be doing Manchester Marathon and Milton Keynes Marathon as training runs for Race to the Castle but Manchester and Milton Keynes have both announced that they have postponed to the autumn and Race to the Castle hasn't announced what they're doing yet but I think the thinking of my running partner and I is that we're probably going to defer to next year.
00:17:27
Speaker
because everybody's training is going to be so affected by all of this and nobody's kind of quite in the right headspace at the moment.
00:17:37
Speaker
It's a bit uncertain, isn't it? It's a bit of an uncertain time really. Yeah, it's really hard and I think we'd rather do it when we've had another good block of training and everybody's kind of in a better headspace next year. So my next race that I'm hoping is going ahead will be the Great North Run again in September. So was your goal based around going further? Is that why you signed up for the race to the
00:18:06
Speaker
Yeah so again when I did Race to Stones last summer in my agony in the week afterwards I swore I would never do it again and then you know when the early bird off opens and you go oh it's an early bird it's really cheap shall we do it again yes let's sign up and then before you know you've signed up for another 100k ultra. I just get sorry for excited I just need to stop it because it's ridiculous.
00:18:31
Speaker
So yes, my goal was basically to get back up to the distance and the stamina of being able to do that again this spring, which was at the beginning of June.
Favorite Running Events and Gear
00:18:43
Speaker
Have you had a favourite event that you've ever done?
00:18:51
Speaker
I loved the race maverick x series that rich and i did in the peak district a couple of years ago that was beautiful and very very hilly it was it was that summer that it was really really hot or summer
00:19:03
Speaker
So it was roasting hot with no shade, but it was just absolutely gorgeous out in the Peak District. And at that point, I was living kind of in the suburbs of London, so there was no trail or anything nearby. And I think Rich just thought I was mad because every time we got to one of the tops or one of the hills, I was just going, it's so pretty, look at it. And then I was going, OK. I was like, this sheep, I can see sheep.
00:19:30
Speaker
So that was lovely. It was just really different. It was the first trail race of that sort of length that I'd done. And it was just really well organised, just a really, really, really nice race. Road wise, I liked Milton Keynes' marathon last year. Yeah. So finishing the stadium that one that way.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yes, yeah. And Shrewsbury Hall obviously is a big favorite. Well, you know. Let's get a little plug in there. The staging finishes are getting popular, aren't they? There's quite a few now with the staging finishes. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. We finished with Utah Saints playing us in, so that was good. They'd got them there playing live, so they were playing us into the stadium, so that was a lot of fun.
00:20:24
Speaker
Very good. Okay, next question. Have you got a go-to product or accessory that has to go on every round?
00:20:36
Speaker
I like my little Garmin watch, but I'd probably say I've got a Salomon Ultra Vest that I run with most runs. There's only really part run that I don't run with that, just because I can keep all of my drinks and snacks and phone and purse a lot will fit in there.
00:20:57
Speaker
And it's just really complex. And having had one accident on a race already, I like to make sure that I've got kicked with me just in case anything happens.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah, tell us about that. I remember this well.
Challenges and Setbacks in Running
00:21:14
Speaker
Yeah, so... When was it? Christmas 2018? Was it? Do you know you lose track? I can't remember. It was Christmas 2018 or Christmas 2017. Yeah. I fell on a race near Guildford and broke my humerus. So basically snapped my left arm in half. So it was in a lot of pain.
00:21:38
Speaker
for four weeks. It was on very strong drugs, which was a lot of fun while they were working, but not such fun while they weren't working. My memory of that is, though, you were just really, really upset that they had to cut your vest off you. Yeah.
00:21:55
Speaker
Absolutely. It was my UK run check vest, wasn't it? Yeah, they had to cut my vest off me. I was quite upset about that. So I was off running for 14 weeks at that point. So yeah, that was a tough period, but I think I came back strong. Did you notice missing it then? Yeah.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, but I don't intend on doing that ever again. So, you know, hopefully fingers crossed no more major accidents.
Quickfire Personal Insights
00:22:33
Speaker
Right, we're going into the quick fire questions. Oh, heck, OK. Road or trail? Trail. Morning or evening runs? Evening. Music, yes or no? Yes.
00:22:52
Speaker
Team Red or Blue? Red. I've got to switch this line. It sounds like Apple Watch. Apple Watch. I knew it was yours. I was coming there when you paused. Watch or app? Watch or app, yeah. Watch. You said you got that. Peanut butter, smooth or crunchy? Never, ever, ever, never, no, no, no, no. Dogs or cats?
00:23:34
Speaker
I'll have to try it. I'll have to try it out. The dog photos on Twitter always get mad. People love the dog photos.
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah, I've got a really nice little gang of kind of cats that live around here, so I'm just hoping one of them might adopt me. The sunbathing cats. Yeah, exactly. Tea or coffee? Coffee. Coffee, Netflix or Amazon Prime? Oh, Netflix. Beer or wine? Ooh, wine, I think. Wine? Is it something else, a gin maybe?
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah. So I've only just discovered that I like gin very recently and it's, it's quite a lot of fun, isn't it? Yeah. I like gin. Yeah. I'm, I'm learning that. It's great. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? Yes, but with pepperoni, not ham. Oh, right. Oh, nice. Nice. Little variation on the theme there.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, why not? And then the topical one, toilet paper. Is it on the holder, over or under? Over. Anybody who does it under should be shut at dawn. There we go. Favourite non-running hobby? Is there such a thing? He paused then. I thought I'd lost you again.
00:25:09
Speaker
Oh, I like to crochet. I like to bake and cook. I haven't really got a functioning kitchen at the moment, but when I do have a functioning kitchen, I'm looking forward to be able to bake again. I've seen you crochet. I've seen your stuff online. You're good at crocheting, aren't you? Yeah, I like making the blankets. Yeah, very nice. And that's the end of our quick fire questions. Thank you very much.
00:25:36
Speaker
That wasn't as high pressured stressful as I thought it was going to be. I knew the answers to those ones. That's very good. Thank you. And thank you for coming on and thank you for brightening up everybody's day with your wonderful leggings that you post all over social media.
00:25:55
Speaker
How many have you got? I'm sure somebody would like to know. How many pairs of these funky leggings have you got? Oh, I dread to think. I'm guessing, I think it's something like 8 long pairs. Or is it 10 long pairs, 6 short pairs and 3 pairs of shorts I think I'm up to now. Something like that. It's bad. It's really bad.
00:26:23
Speaker
for anyone who doesn't know Catherine on Instagram or Twitter, because that's where she helps out on UK run chat. I'll let you share your handles in a moment, but please do check out Catherine's leggings. She doesn't mess around. They're very funky. What are you doing? It's the handles, Catherine. I think they're both the same.
00:26:49
Speaker
That girl hung on, brilliant. Catherine, thank you very much for coming on and taking part in our community member feature and thank you for me for being a part of our team. You are very welcome. Thank you for having me.