Hello Julie, can you quickly introduce yourself?
Hello Distance, I’ll try to be quick. I am 29 years old (Yyyyiiikes), and have been running on and off since i was 22. In 2014 I started Voltwomen, with my two good friends, because we felt women were being overseen in sport. I mainly run, but I love to move and use my body in any way. So besides running, I also bike and I train with a group called @ratscph. I love being outside and being active in any way, and probably could be addicted to almost any sport... Maybe not chess.
I worked at Nike in their running department in Portland, and now I’m back in Copenhagen pretending to be an adult, I work in communications and marketing as the head of creative at Patriksson Group.
My New Years resolution this year was to go to more concerts and learn to tattoo. Corona killed the first one, but I’ve started the hobby as a tattoo-artist from my apartment at home.
How did you start running?
I come from a very active family, and have actually been active most of my life (i guess it helps when you have a tendency to ADHD).. but running came right after my highschool years, when i only ran for beers and boys, and i was just unhealthy. Running was the easiest sport, i only needed shoes and my mind, so I started to run to become more healthy and balanced. I realised much later, that the “shoes” weren’t really good for running after all, since it was Converse.
Is running influencing your work as creative director?
Running is influencing everything i do.
Running has taught me discipline, balance and ease. Discipline from when I don’t always wanted to run, or couldn’t comprehend the idea of track workout, but knowing that months ahead it would make me reach a goal. Balance because work isn’t everything, like running isn’t everything - I take everything with a little distance, knowing that things don’t get solved if I stress about it... And balance because, you need to prioritise sleep, water, greens, activity, but also let go and go out.
I use running not to think things over, but to forget my thoughts. I rarely think of anything when I run, its really down to the basics of “there is a stone, this is warm, turn left”. So when I return from a run, I can see things with fresh eyes.
What about Volt Women? What does it stand for?
Inclusivity. We created Voltwomen because we felt a lack of women in sport, this was back in 2014.
We also felt that brands were portraying women in a wrong way, there was none of the women in the campaigns talking to us, no power, no sweat, no attitude. For women it was always the idea of “as long as you get out there, you did great”, and we wanted to women to think of progression, to challenge themselves, to dare to fail and set crazy goals.
We feel like we are almost there. Brands are doing great.
But there is still a lot missing, we still see that the tv-channels ex don’t show the womens field in the London marathon. We still see running clubs and crews that forget women, and it’s a shame. Honestly we just want women and men to be treated equally, well knowing, that womens times will never be as fast as the men's.
Who's your role model? Is she an athlete or just an everyday hero?
I guess it’s everyone from he or she, but anyone who challenges themselves and that trust to their own: Kipchoge, Serena Williams, my mom, random people...
Copenhagen looks like a cool city to run and race, what can you tell about your city?
It's a very small city, having the nature very close. We don’t have majestic nature like France, we have no mountains and so, but the nature is very close to us. The water goes through he city, and generally the city is green. To get out and into bigger forrest and parks, it's only like 5km out of the city. It's also a very fast city (because it's flat).
What's your favorite distance? Your best race memory?
My favourite distance is by far half marathon. I can keep the same pace almost for a 5km and 10km as a half marathon, which makes NO sense! But it always seems like my body just adapt to the pain around 3km haha.
I think my favourite race memory can be divided in a social memory and a PR memory. My social memory was Hood 2 Coast with Voltwomen in Portland. And my PR memory was setting 1.25.25 at Copenhagen half after being injured the two months leading up to the race.
Any great sport challenge out there you would like to achieve one day?
I am a simple girl, let me just get around 1.25.00 some day.
What are your favorite running shoes at the moment? Any other accessories you can't run without?
I have a rotation of Adidas Adizero Adios Pro, Adidas Adizero Pro, Hoka Carbon X, Nike Zoom Fly 3 and if I really need to jog jog, I wear something flat and heavy… Other accessories: my friends or Beats by Dre headphone.
Thanks a lot for your words! Which Volt Women would you love to see in this series of interviews?
I mean this literally is impossible. There are sooo many inspiring women in the world: Alexis Pappas, Selma & Elodie, Najla Fratella, Serena Williams hehe, Dibaba heheh, Sarah Attar, Nanna Munnecken, Manal Rostom… more. Many many more.
