Podcast Review - What the Runner Saw

I stumbled into the podcast What the Runner Saw  while looking for another podcast on the running podcasts website.  The statement that caught my eye was “It’s great to welcome another female running podcaster in to the ranks of a rather male-dominated area.” Cool. The description went on to say” Carrie talks about: “…things I see on my runs, since I have a knack for ‘discovering’ weirdness on the run (see: gas station holdups, drunk people cat-calling, dogs off-leash, mysterious signs on telephone poles, etc.)”” Double cool.

Carrie already has two epidodes out and immediately after turning on episode one, my interest was caught and I was hooked. I love her easy going style and I related to her as she explained that running helps her keep her sanity. (Me too! ) Carrie says she started the podcast because " I love listening to other running podcasts so much!  I've been writing online in one form or another since 1998, and as things tend to evolve over time, podcasting seemed a natural growth from what I'm currently doing, which is mostly blogging about my life and family.  I do have a lot of readers who aren't runners or athletes at all, and having a separate podcast to encapsulate a bunch of the running-related thoughts and stories in my head seemed like one good way to keep themes organized and let folks read or hear the topics that interest them."


Carrie picked the name of her podcast "What the Runner Saw" because of the bizarre things she sees while out on a run.  She explained to me that she stopped to use a gas station restroom one day and the gas station had just been robbed.  Had she been there 5 minutes earlier she would have gotten more than she bargained for. One of interesting things she talked about in her podcast was running by ice fisherman. Ice fisherman! I thought that was only for cartoons. There are real ice fisherman out there?

Sometimes on new podcasts the podcaster has to work out sound quality issues. I have turned off podcasts and unsubscribed when I can't listen past the poor sound quality.  Carrie has managed to come out leap and bounds ahead of other newby podcasters with her sound quality both in her studio and while out on a run.

The good sound quality showed during the second episode and picked up the background noise appropriately. Unlike Carrie, I enjoy birds, especially geese. Maybe because Phoenix isn't known as geese central, when I hear geese I stop running and gaze up into the sky searching for them. Even if I just hear the geese, calm instantly floats over me and I feel peaceful. To see them actually fly overhead is even more rewarding. Hearing the geese in the background of her podcast made me smile and laugh.  You'll have to listen to the episode to understand just how different Carrie and I are in the geese topic.

Carrie says that having a podcast encourages her to pay attention to the world around her. If she's going to record and tell other people about the weird, wonderful things on her runs, she needs to keep her head up and focus on something other than how her hamstrings might be aching!  The topic of interesting things on a run got me thinking about what I’ve seen while out running. I find myself much more aware of my surroundings after listening to her podcast.  Watch for a future Running Question Challenge on the question of interesting things on a run. If you have your own interesting things you’ve seen on a run Carrie has a voicemail box set up at 206-350-9501 for you to leave your stories.

I am looking forward to hearing new episodes of What the Runner Saw and hearing what Carrie discovers on her runs.  Check out the podcast...you won't be disappointed.