Mont Blanc, Neurodiversity, and Avenged Sevenfold

It’s not the start of a bad joke. I promise!

I’m writing this from Heathrow Airport, en route to Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Cham, whatever the old heads call it. It’s my first time, and I’m very excited to see what the fuss is about.

Things I’m looking forward to:

• Hoka very kindly showing me the ropes

• Meeting a lot of friends in an unfamiliar place

• Running on the track with Mont Blanc as a backdrop

• Hosting a wine & cheese event for rabbit. Expect a presentation about creativity and some wine and cheese.

• Joining up with the global majority event put on Sabrina Pace-Humphreys

Camille Herron: Ultra’s Tallest Poppy

I wrote about Camille Herron last week. As a multiple word record-holder with a recent AuDHD diagnosis who has been brought into (mild) controversy time and again during her career, Camille is a fascinating character.

Neurodiversity is a subject that I’ve been diving deep into for the past couple of years, so it was really fun to write. It took an extra couple of weeks to publish because of the deeply tragic hounding of Jason Arday. It was close in topic to this piece, so I was determined to do it justice. Accordingly, it is a 2,000-word piece – the equivalent of a five-page magazine feature – so I hope you can take the time to enjoy that.

Topics

• Why women are less likely to be diagnosed with autism

• Why people with autism feel like the don’t belong

• What extra things neurodiverse individuals need to do

• The curse of being terminally online

• The unregulated nature of trail and ultra

• Camille’s future as an advocate

About community

Last Wednesday, I put on a panel event at Runlimited in Borough Yards, London. We celebrated those building community, and had deep discussion about the best practices of doing that going forward.

Here are some top notes for you

• Build for the right reason (the people)

• Don’t start off thinking about how to get money from brands

• Learn the history of running communities

• Collaborate with other crews

• Support your people

Anything else?

You can see the first batch of photos from the event here on my Instagram:

On The Run with Stuart Pennebaker

New York-based author, Stuart Pennebaker sent over some delightful questions. Go read it.

ON THE RUN with Raziq Rauf

I obviously love talking about myself, so this is never a problem. Let me know if you want to feature me on your podcast or newsletter. I’ll say yes!

The Rise of the Elite Movement Class

I like to recommend the work of Sam Robinson’s Footnotes. I like reading his work, so I assume you will too. That’s how recommendations work, in my opinion.

In this critique of the new Elite Movement Class, Sam writes about how run clubs and sports fashion show are showing up in the sport, and how talking about such things loudly online is affecting culture. We’re bored of being sold stuff, right?

Rise of the Elite Movement Class

L is for Licensed Merchandise

Last week saw a collaboration between British luxury streetwear Represent 247 and annoyingly popular heavy metal band, Avenged Sevenfold. Let’s just say that neither is my cup of tea. The results of the collab looks like an Affliction b-side. An embossed leather jacket for the cursed masses.

Luckily for you, I was in Central London on release day so went and tried the gear on. I even cosplayed as A7X frontman M. Shadows. Just for you. They were literally just t-shirts, and sadly the sleeves were either too long or too short for me.

Raziq Rauf wearing Avenged Sevenfold merch for the first time in his life.

I’m far from against the concept of licensed merch, by the way. Show me any piece of Motörhead merch, and I’ll get my credit card out in a swift moment. A few years ago Californian running brand, Roark launched a series of heavy metal-related capsules, including Black Sabbath and Motörhead. I obviously bought a whole load of Snaggletooth adorned technical running gear.

Running Supply #77 - Sub 2 Was Inevitable, Spiritually Painful Brands, and Spring Updates

But Cole Townsend wrote about “collab fatigue” a few months ago, and this 247xA7X is truly it. I struggle to truly see the point of it. Luxury cotton? I guess… But why not just buy a piece of Avenged licensed merch from H&M or Debenham’s instead? It’ll only cost £25.

SCOOP for those who’ve read to the end: expect Guns N’ Roses to get the luxury running merch treatment in the next couple of weeks. I’m guessing it’ll also look like crap.

Thanks for reading,
Raz x

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