FT Weekend Festival Taps Peloton’s Susie Chan for Travel Stage

The Kenwood House event’s Travel stage will host the Peloton Tread instructor alongside friend and BBC presenter Sophie Raworth for a conversation on starting to run later in life.

The FT Weekend Festival returns to Kenwood House in London on Saturday, September 5, and this year’s lineup includes a familiar face for Peloton members. Tread instructor and ultra-runner Susie Chan will appear on the festival’s Travel stage for a session titled “Why it’s never too late to become a runner,” alongside BBC news presenter and fellow ultra-runner Sophie Raworth… also her running pal.

 

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What the FT Weekend Festival covers

Billed as “a festival for the curious,” the FT Weekend Festival runs across ten stages in the grounds of Kenwood House, closing out the last weekend of summer with a single-ticket day of interviews, debates, tastings, book signings and performances. Sessions span the Big Ideas stage, hosted by FT Weekend editor Janine Gibson, alongside dedicated stages for HTSI, Literature & Life, Food & Drink, Arts, Travel, House & Home, FT Money, Tech and FT Future. Programming ranges from Jancis Robinson’s wine tastings to conversations with authors, chefs, economists and technologists, with the FT’s Tom Robbins curating the Travel stage where Chan’s session sits.

Chan’s appearance places her among speakers examining how and why people travel and move through the world, a fitting home for a session built around distance running and the mindset shift required to start.

Chan’s Running Résumé

Chan’s official FT bio describes her as an “endurance runner and Peloton Instructor” who has taken on races from one mile to 100 miles, including multiple runnings of the Marathon des Sables and unsupported 100-mile races through jungle terrain. She has completed all six World Marathon Majors, and last year became the first European woman to finish all three Badwater ultramarathons in a single year, a feat The Clip Out covered in detail.

That résumé anchors the theme of her FT Weekend Festival session. Chan did not start running competitively until her late thirties, after years working as a museum curator and raising a child as a single parent. Her bio states plainly that she “believes everybody has the ability to become a runner, regardless of your age or ability,” a message that lines up directly with the panel’s premise. Anyone who has read her amazing book, Trails and Tribulations, got a front row seat to this journey.

A Panel with a Pal

Chan’s co-presenter, Sophie Raworth, is a longtime BBC news anchor and marathon and ultra-runner in her own right. The two have a public connection beyond the festival stage. Raworth wrote one of the cover endorsements for Chan’s 2023 memoir, calling it a book that made her “laugh, gulp and cry” while reading about Chan battling through some of the hardest races in the sport. The two are good friends in real life, and having Sophie on the panel will be a special treat for fans of these incredible women.

A Wider Stage for a Peloton Name

Peloton members have followed Chan’s outdoor exploits closely since she joined the platform, from her record-setting treadmill run to the first 90-minute Tread and outdoor classes on the app. Her FT Weekend Festival appearance puts that story in front of a general-interest audience gathered for a day built around ideas across ten stages, not just fitness content specifically.

Chan and Raworth’s session runs from 1:00 to 1:45 p.m. BST (8:00 to 8:45 a.m. ET) and is available both in person at Kenwood House and on demand for festival ticket holders unable to attend live. Want to check it out? Register here.

Have you been inspired to do something new inspired by Susie’s journey?

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