Latest / The R4R Podcast: Road to Zero / Lili Mooney and the Sunday Sippers John Veloudos & James Butz

Transcript

Lili Mooney and the Sunday Sippers John Veloudos & James Butz · The R4R Podcast: Road to Zero

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At Lonsdale St Studio, we believe in the power of
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storytelling to connect people and create change.
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That's why we're proud to be the production partner for this
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Running for Resilience podcast. Hey.
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Welcome to the Running for Resilience podcast.
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My name is Lily and this is my first time hosting.
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I've been assured that I have full creative control over
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today's episode, which I don't know.
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We'll see how that goes, but very excited to be here today.
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For the listeners who listen regularly, you may recall that a
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few months ago I did my own podcast with Matt.
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And when he asked me who I could, who I'd like to interview
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on this podcast, I was very quick to say Kim Kardashian.
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So when I got the call up to host, you can imagine my
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excitement. I started preparing questions on
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SKIMS, Met Gala, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
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Anyway, it's safe to say that all those questions are probably
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very irrelevant 'cause our guests today are none other than
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the Sunday Super Boys. John and James, welcome to the
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podcast. Thank you very much.
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Thank you. You can't get any happiness than
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Kim. Kardashian and us to ask those.
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Best things that's, I think better than Kim Kardashian,
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really. Hopefully.
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Hope so, yeah. And I'm.
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Very, very honoured to be on the podcast.
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Yeah, thank you for choosing us. Yeah.
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So for the listeners who don't know who you are, would you like
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to introduce yourself and explain a bit about what the
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Sunday Super is? It is.
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Well, my name is James firstly. I'm John John Validos, and yeah,
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we're the Sunday Sippers, apparently.
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Yeah, we are the Sunday Sippers. James was not too happy with
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dinner and wear any Sunday sippers.
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He's full, full reptile. Ambassador role here mate I.
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Have the I have the colours on. You got the colours right at.
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Least yeah but yeah, the Sunday sippers we I guess we are a
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podcast slash community LED brand is the best way yeah it's
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a we're we're laughing because we don't really know what we are
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honestly, but. But what inspired you to start
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it? And how long ago was that?
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Yeah, well, I guess like back stories like John and I have
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known each other for a little bit.
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We went to school together in different grades, but, you know,
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we probably didn't like each other for a long time there.
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That's how all good friendships start, though.
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Yeah, we're in sort of two different friendship groups.
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Like my mates had younger brothers in his years, so we
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sort of always knew of each other.
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And, yeah, never really got along, never really liked each
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other. And for some reason, I guess we
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start. We had a lot of the same
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interests. We followed a brand called YKTR
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who created content, and we really liked that idea of, you
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know, creating content. We weren't really sure, like how
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to do that. But yeah, something, something
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clicked between US. And I actually remember it was
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at a house party. I pulled John aside.
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It was a New Year's Eve house party.
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And when you, you know, you're going around to your friends,
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you're saying that you love them and good luck for next year.
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I said to John, I said, look, I don't know what you're going to
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be doing, mate, but I know you've got something big in
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store for you. So yeah, really RIP in and take
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it with both hands and I don't know.
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Yeah, from that point, I guess we sort of started talking more
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and yeah, diving into different stuff.
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And yeah, we just had this idea to create a podcast called The
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Sunday Sippers. Yeah, I, I remember it was, I
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think it was a Sunday afternoon and James was actually driving
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back from Victoria. He's got family there.
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And he just sent me a long voice message just saying, look, I, I
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don't know what what's clicked with me right now, but it's a
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Sunday morning. I'm having my coffee and I'm
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driving back home. And I thought, why don't we just
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start a podcast named Sunday Sippers?
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You know, we, we can get together on a Sunday.
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We can be sipping our coffees and, you know, get together and
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talk about whatever we want to talk about.
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So that's essentially the idea of how it was created.
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We at the time had no idea what we're going to, I guess, talk
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about or what we're going to do. But it was, yeah, the similar
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interest of, I guess we always wanted to document our journey
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with that journey. I caught, I guess kind of being
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fit. It's turned into fitness and
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endurance now. But at the time, it was just
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kind of whatever. Anything and everything bacon
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and egg roller reviews we went through so.
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Yeah, it's, it's a pretty funny beginning.
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And we I think the best thing about it was that we always had
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good intentions behind it. We just wanted to do it because
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it was fun and it's always been fun.
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It's never been a chore. So that's kind of how it started
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and now we've ended up here. I was saying to James that on
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the way here, I was thinking we started Sunday Sippers when we
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were 23 and 21, and now James is 26/20/27 and I'm 25.
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So yeah, I feel like there's been a lot of growth in that
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time. And yeah, a lot of time is also.
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Yeah, absolutely. And do you think because now
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you're obviously both quite into the fitness and that's what the
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Sunday Cyprus has sort of evolved into, but how do you
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think that transition, you know, came from the bacon and egg roll
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to to doing iron, Iron Man or Iron Man?
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Yeah, yeah, it actually I was, I was looking back on my Instagram
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in preparation for this and I looked through all the the
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things that we saw. It's it's pretty good to have a
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look back on the growth of us still as individuals and the
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podcast. But I think like the, the thing
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for me is I started running because I had a shoulder Rico
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and like that's basically got out of footy, got into running
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and that was my transition there.
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And then one of the first things that I did, it was just before
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we started Sunday Sippers, as I did the 4 by 4 by 48 the day you
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got the challenge. Yeah.
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And that sort of like really clicked something in me.
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I was like, yeah, there's something more to, you know,
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just going about your training, like just really trying to push
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yourself. And I think George John
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resonates with that a lot as well.
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And then when we started Sunday Sippers, you know, there was a
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lot of, you know, different stuff going on in the first few
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years, but there was always sort of that pillar of having
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something. We did the 4 by 4 by 48 as well
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together. Yeah.
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And we found a lot of just getting out of, you know,
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setting these challenges and achieving them.
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And I think that's been a massive sort of catalyst of like
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who the Sunday Sippers are. Yeah, yeah.
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And like when you did that first challenge you, you did raise
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money. Was it for brain cancer?
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No, I think the first one was the Cancer Council.
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That's what I. Meant before yeah.
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And that was definitely our first introduction into kind of,
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you know, doing something hard but also doing something a bit
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bigger than yourself. And then so when we did it
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together, we also raised money. Lifeline.
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Lifeline, yeah. So I guess we always just kind
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of band those two things together, like doing something
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difficult because we think it's like a good thing to do for
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ourselves. But then also using that like as
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a bit of a platform to, you know, raise funds or awareness
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for some sort of cause, which we've continued on with.
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But yeah, the, I guess Sunday Sippers has always had that kind
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of foundation of always doing, doing something difficult or
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pushing yourself for the betterment of yourself and
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others. And then, yeah, we did that
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challenge. And I think a big year for us
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was 2023, which would have been probably the second year of
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Sunday Sippers and the start of that year.
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I, I, I was thinking we just signed up to a bunch of events,
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you know, James and I James had done, maybe you did your first
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marathon on your birthday, just randomly loved that.
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Just like in a room or. Just around the lake or.
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Something Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Just ran from my house down to the lake, had dad following me
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on a bike and met my brothers were there for a little bit as
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well. It was quite funny.
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Yeah. And to be fair, when when you
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did that first 4 by 4 by 48 challenge, I I think I joined in
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for maybe like 6 of the runs and like I found it quite difficult.
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So when, you know, James had had to get up at 4:00 and 8:00 and
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like, these, you know, crazy times are kind of just, as you
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said, like clicked for me that, you know, this is something that
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I don't know we really enjoy doing.
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But yeah, we signed up to a lot of events at the start of 23.
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I think James did a few triathlons.
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We did the camera marathon. And you know, stupidly enough, I
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think a week after the Canberra Marathon, James and I decided to
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do like a we make created our own Three Peaks Marathon where
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we run out Mount Endura, Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.
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Yeah, across the nights, for some reason even.
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Tougher. Anzac Day Eve was the thing, and
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the idea is we wanted to, yeah, roll into the dawn, Sir.
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We did, which we did do that. It was probably the hardest
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thing I've ever done. I just like so underprepared and
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like, yeah, your body wasn't really up for it, but it was
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just kind of that I guess momentum we're building.
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And then we actually, we went on a Europe trip together that that
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year for about four months. And I think we both had like a
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good feeling that we, we started the year off really well.
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We're building something with Sunday slippers and we wanted to
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come back from Europe and really like catapulted and I guess just
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grow. No, it wasn't even really
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thinking about growth. It was more just like building,
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building on the momentum we had created.
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So we we got back from Europe and then we both did the Iron
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Man for the first time and then the 100K and so on.
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So it's kind of yeah. I feel like it's just always
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been a massive ball of momentum. Yeah, there's always been
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something more like we complete something and then we go what's
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next, which is just great that we both have that sort of
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mindset. And then, yeah, that's probably
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the pillar behind how we've built it into, you know, now
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doing a few Iron Man's and stuff like that.
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And do you think because I was just saying before, if you run
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around the lake on a weekend, there are a lot of Sunday super
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hats and shirts getting around. So the community has obviously
9:15
grown heaps. Did you do you think it's
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because of that momentum that you just keep building that
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other people want to get involved in that and, and push
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themselves and, and realise that you know, they're stronger than
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they think and they can achieve things?
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Yeah, I think like it's a great point that, yeah, I was down
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there this morning. I saw, I think I saw six or
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seven hats. They would have been very
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excited to see. The yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Founding father there that. Was good I was in hurt locker so
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that probably weren't good to see.
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But like that's been huge. Even those first early
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challenges, you know, like we did set we did the fundraisers
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and everyone just jumped on the back of us and that was huge.
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Like our family and friends and you know, people that we know
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but sort of don't like don't really know.
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We're just jumping on the back of us and getting behind us.
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And I think it's probably like comes down to we're probably
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pretty open and honest. And if you you go through all
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the podcasts, we're yeah, very true to ourselves.
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And I think people just resonate with that and the fact that, you
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know, we're, you know, 22 foot a very average footy players, one
10:18
average footy player above every.
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But it just that like all, you know, started with a 5K and just
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sort of slowly chipped away. And that's something that like I
10:28
really hang my hat on is just like, I haven't set, I haven't
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just gone, I'm going to go do the hardest thing.
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It's always just been slowly chipping away.
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And I think people get, yeah, get a lot from that that they
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can say, Oh, it's just a slow build and to what it is now, I
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guess. Absolutely.
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I think as well, like, it's very similar to Al Farah.
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Probably why we have like such a strong connection with Al Farah
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is like the foundation of just good people, attract good
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people. And like, as Bart said, all our
10:56
friends and family, who I think both of us find ourselves very
11:00
lucky to have the friends and family that we do, because when
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we've gone out and do these things that, you know, have been
11:06
with sippers, everyone's always got behind us.
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And, you know, like a lot of our closest friends might think that
11:12
some of the things we're doing is like a little bit silly and I
11:14
don't really understand. But regardless, they get behind
11:16
us and they really support us. And that's a really special
11:19
thing because I know that like not every personal group will
11:23
have that. And as I think Bart said, just
11:26
the, the broader camera community of kind of saying what
11:30
we're trying to, not even trying to build, but just like what
11:32
we're doing. And we're, we're never trying
11:34
to, I guess, you know, do anything that's not ourselves.
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We're just trying to kind of like do things that we enjoy and
11:40
we, we believe in. And we are, we're just like, I
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don't know, I guess quite thankful that the, the people
11:45
around Canberra have really like got behind it.
11:47
And it's been such a such an awesome thing because we've made
11:50
so many more like friendships and connections with people that
11:53
you probably wouldn't have if you if we didn't start this.
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And yeah, we're actually only doing our first ever social run
11:59
tomorrow where we probably should have done that in the
12:01
past. But it's just, you know, like
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the events we've done together or we've done with sippers, it's
12:06
just been such a good opportunity to connect with new
12:08
people. And I think the people who
12:10
believe in, you know, community and ensuring that, you know,
12:14
it's just good to get behind people, they're doing good
12:16
things like that really attracts people.
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So yeah, I think it's just kind of that similar vibe to our for
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our. That's it.
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Because running like running in Canberra.
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I know that you both don't live in Canberra now, but the running
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community in Canberra is full of so many groups that are quite
12:30
like minded and that it's just about the real community sense.
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And that's obviously what running for resilience is all
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about, about just coming together, getting a bit of
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exercising. But it's mainly about that
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connection that you can make with people either, you know,
12:42
during or afterwards. And yeah, it's, it's amazing to
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see how the communities can sort of help each other and build and
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there's really something for everyone.
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Yeah, and like, we'll just, that's right.
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There's never too many communities or groups doing
12:56
things like everyone can kind of like the rising tide raises all
12:59
shifts, as they like to say. But no, in all honesty, it's
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just, you know, it's good seeing other people doing other things
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if it's Afra, like growing like exponentially.
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Like when Butts and I started first going Afra, I was maybe
13:11
like 50 people coming on a Wednesday.
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I'm not exactly sure but. Yeah, it's crazy how that group
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on like a Wednesday night has just grown and grown.
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Yeah. Exponentially.
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And then, yeah, I just feel like it's it's just like a bit of a
13:23
snowball effect. And obviously, you know, like
13:26
the offer our mission of making ACT Suicide Free by 2033 is like
13:32
just kind of, I guess built on banding together and making sure
13:35
like the message is known and like there's more kind of people
13:38
and groups that you can kind of rely on and connect with.
13:40
So yeah, I know I think it's a really, it's a really nice
13:43
thing. And I think what James and I
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love most about Sippers is that we're part of that and like
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we've created our own community that people can be a part of.
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And you know, like there's just so many little sub sub kind of
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subgroups and people that have got connected because of it.
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And it's not directly caused because of Sunday Sippers or
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AFARA, but it's just like the the good community feels so.
14:03
Yeah, I feel like that's the same in Sippers.
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Yeah, we have these little subgroups, but even you look at
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AFARA, it's just so many little communities, different little
14:11
running groups as well, just coming together for your AFARA
14:14
on a Wednesday and all the other runs banding together for that.
14:18
Yeah. It's like, you know, the same
14:19
purpose, I guess, just to get out there and be active and have
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a, you know. Positive mental health, feel
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connected to people and yeah, because moving your body, I
14:28
think that's something that I only recently sort of clicked,
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which sounds silly because I've run pretty much my whole life,
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but I sort of, I guess did it for physical health.
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You know, you think that like running is good to keep you fit
14:39
and healthy, but it's, it's so good for your mind.
14:42
It doesn't have to be running, but any kind of movement it it
14:46
does really can clear that mind if you're going through a tough,
14:50
tough patch. And that's what I guess running
14:51
for resilience is trying to, you know, what they're breaking out
14:53
to yoga and boot camps and racket, you know, does
14:58
everything. Yeah.
14:59
Paddle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:01
So because it doesn't have to be running.
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It's just the sense of like moving your body is good for
15:06
your mind as well as your physical health.
15:09
Yeah, definitely found that even like since we've started
15:11
obviously training more in the triathlon spaces, soon as I
15:16
start like finish an event and there's a couple of weeks of
15:18
just having it off when I'm not trying to do as much.
15:20
You get a bit itchy. Yeah, you do you just yeah,
15:22
yeah. You get a bit down and it's
15:24
like, it's a bit, it's a bit confusing and it's like, oh,
15:27
like you completed something. So.
15:30
But yeah, just not being active all the time.
15:32
Yeah. It definitely weighs down on
15:33
you. So just getting there.
15:34
And that's what yeah. That's why I think I love like
15:37
the, the, the toughness of Iron Man training and stuff like that
15:42
is just always having something to do.
15:44
Like every afternoon, you know, you can get out and go for a
15:47
swim or a ride or a run and it's just getting you taking your
15:50
mind off other things and just worth thinking about, like each
15:52
session. Yeah.
15:53
I. Was just going to say like, you
15:56
know, obviously in your 20s you, you create so many good memories
15:59
with your friends doing a whole bunch of different stuff.
16:01
But one of the, the probably best memories I have is when
16:05
James and I were doing our first ever Iron Man prep, every Sunday
16:09
morning we would do a like our long ride.
16:13
Usually you like in an Iron Man prep, you do it on a Saturday
16:15
and then do the run on the Sunday, just because I think
16:18
that's how the training programmes work.
16:20
But James would always work on a Saturday as a Sparky.
16:22
So like all of all of us would change out.
16:25
We'll swap the days around and we'll do the long ride Sunday.
16:27
And it was just always, you know, there's probably always a
16:30
group from three to six of us depending on who is coming.
16:34
And you wake up on a Sunday morning, James.
16:37
James has to wake up at 5:00 AM every day because throughout the
16:40
week he's working as a trainee, but then he has to get off and
16:42
train. And just those like Sunday
16:45
morning long rides we would have with all our mates, you know, we
16:48
would have, we were working really hard and it was really
16:51
tough. But it was also probably the
16:52
best memories I have of like training because, you know, you
16:56
just connected with people for like, you know, over 5 hours at
16:59
at some point. So I don't know, just I think
17:01
with exercise, it's good for your mind, it's good for your
17:03
body. But the the social aspect, which
17:05
after I was obviously massive on, it's like that's a really
17:08
key component of movement and exercise.
17:11
Absolutely. I thought I had an injury a few
17:13
weeks ago and so I couldn't well, I didn't run for a few
17:16
mornings and I normally like running with friends is just
17:19
like the absolute best way to start the day for me.
17:21
And if I sleep in, like I mean you like to sleep in, but you
17:24
always don't feel as good as if you got up and, and seen some
17:27
mates. And that week where I had, I
17:29
think I mean I'm being dramatic because it was 3 days, but it
17:32
was, it just really showed me like how much better my mood is
17:36
and my day is set up so much better if I have got out with
17:40
some friends and had a chat, had a laugh and then carried on with
17:43
the day. Yeah, well, I was just thinking,
17:46
yeah, thinking about ah, for our in that sense as well as like I
17:49
used to think about like footy training.
17:50
I used to hate on it. I think Benny's talk about
17:53
Benny's talked about this as well, never wanting to go to
17:55
footy training or it was like really hard, you know, in,
17:58
especially in a Canberra winter, but you'd always come home and
18:01
you'd feel really good because you've had that social, social
18:04
aspect as well. But like you've worked really
18:06
hard with like like minded people doing something like
18:09
footy training and after hours that exact same thing, like not
18:12
always want to go, but you just come back from it and it's it's
18:15
really the highlight of your week.
18:17
That's it. Like I, you know, you always do
18:18
want to go, but sometimes, you know, you finish work and if you
18:21
don't work near Kingston or wherever, like driving there,
18:24
you think, oh, I could just run at home, it'd be so much
18:25
quicker. Yeah.
18:26
But yeah, you're right. You'd always leave so much in a
18:29
much better mood than when you started.
18:32
I just want to ask like how do you because you usually run like
18:35
nearly every morning, right? How do you, are you pretty good
18:37
like not sleeping in? Because I've been in such a rut
18:40
of like waking up so tired and just sleeping in.
18:43
I'm just regretting it all day. Yeah, well, we were sort of
18:47
laughing some friends the other day because, you know, you set
18:51
the alarm and the alarm will go off, but then you send the
18:53
message being like, sorry, not coming.
18:54
And then you just lie in bed not sleeping for an hour, regretting
18:58
that you have now not got to sleep in and you also haven't
19:01
got out. So I'm, I'm a lot better when
19:05
I'm going to meet someone because it's like sort of that
19:07
accountability. Having said that, people do
19:10
receive messages from me at like 545 and sorry, God's not coming,
19:14
but I, I try. I just remember how I feel when
19:17
I do get up and the fact that I'm probably not going to go
19:19
back to sleep anyway so I may as well yeah, that's a good point.
19:22
Just hard in the Canberra winters like yeah, it's been
19:25
particularly cold this year. I.
19:26
Think tomorrow it's meant to be -5 or something, so that's good.
19:30
For the social bring it on for a purpose.
19:32
So yeah. Yeah.
19:34
Well, just on you sort of have mentioned that you guys do the
19:37
really long endurance events and for the listeners who don't know
19:41
John was it it was last year, yeah, yeah.
19:44
John ran 100 KS around the lake and he raised money for running
19:48
for his alliance. So first of all, thank you.
19:51
That was incredible. And also, I mean, I, I love
19:54
running, but the thought of 100K, I don't know.
19:57
I don't know about that. What inspired you to do 100K And
20:02
then also to, you know, link up with running for his lens?
20:06
Well, I guess the bloke next to me inspired me to run 100K.
20:10
Yeah, because he actually did that the year beforehand, which,
20:14
you know, I'll probably ask him quickly, but in the.
20:18
Yeah, December 2023. Yeah, just side note, you picked
20:22
a bad time of year to do it because it's really hot.
20:24
Yeah, it was a tough. Yeah, it was 23rd of December
20:27
like. I did.
20:28
I did a little bit of looking at Instagram yesterday and I
20:30
thought what I mean good on you but. 23rd of December Heavy
20:34
cotton T shirts. Well, you really had no.
20:38
Idea, that's what yeah, that's what I love about sniffers is
20:40
it's very cowboy it's very cowboy.
20:42
We never, we never have the best plan, but we make it work.
20:46
Yeah, we just make it work. So.
20:47
As I was saying before, like that 2023 was a big year for us
20:51
and we, we had that, you know, first half of the year was
20:54
really busy. I think we had that Europe trip
20:57
planned as well. James actually had a world tour.
20:59
He had a self proclaimed world tour where he basically
21:01
travelled nearly every. Yeah, honestly, very.
21:05
And I think you did A70K run before you left, right?
21:09
Yeah. What was the point of that?
21:11
Was just. Sleep on the plane.
21:14
Yeah, I think the running for me, it's like, yeah, slowly just
21:18
built up and like I did my first marathon and then I went and did
21:21
a 50K and then I knew I was going to Europe and I was like,
21:24
oh, probably not ready for 100 yet.
21:26
Let's just go to a 70 So see how we just see how we got.
21:29
And I ticked it off. And then so when I was coming
21:32
back, I, we got in touch with our coach and to start the Iron
21:38
Man prep. But I was like, I want to take
21:39
off the 100 before I start doing the Iron Man prep.
21:42
And I think it was 8 weeks, you know, you come back from Europe.
21:44
It was a little bit sloppy and yeah, I was just ready for.
21:48
But yeah, like I wanted to raise the money for the Mark Hughes
21:51
Foundation. So I said I lost my uncle to
21:54
brain cancer. So that was something close to
21:56
my heart. And like, like we said, with all
21:58
the other challenges we've done, the Sippers communities really,
22:02
really got behind us. And they did so like 10 folds
22:05
with this announcement as well and got behind me.
22:08
And yeah, it was, it was about pushing myself, but it was also
22:11
a big thing to sort of show, show like other people in like
22:15
my family and like my friends and my close community, our
22:18
close community that yeah, if you actually just set out to do
22:21
something, you can achieve it. And running the 100 KS would
22:24
have felt like so far fetched a few years ago.
22:27
But it's just the fact of just slowly chipping away.
22:30
And once you actually set a task and say you're going to do
22:32
something, following that through, yeah, it takes a lot
22:35
onto the next challenge as well. So yeah, it was good.
22:38
It was awesome that we're able to achieve that.
22:40
And I'm glad that it sort of ticked to tick something in
22:44
Johnny's brain as well, to take it on.
22:46
You've almost ticked something in my brain.
22:47
Not quite, but maybe. Do you think giving like
22:51
announcing it and not that it would matter if you didn't
22:53
complete the 100K, but do you think announcing and saying, you
22:56
know publicly that you're going to do it?
22:58
That level of accountability then is like, I'm, I'm going to
23:01
do it. I'm going to do the work to make
23:02
sure I can do it. Yeah, I think that's the hardest
23:05
part, is it? And I think the, the biggest
23:07
part, I actually remember in Ned Brockman's book, he talked about
23:10
the human announcing he was going to do the 50 marrows.
23:13
That was, that was like the hardest or not the hardest part.
23:16
But like that's the biggest step.
23:18
Because as soon as you announce it, and I guess it's a lot on
23:20
your character, but you're going to go out there and try to
23:23
achieve it. Like no, no buzz hold.
23:25
Like you're going to, you're going to do everything in your
23:27
power to get it done, especially when you're you're fundraising
23:29
and stuff like that. People are backing you to get it
23:32
done and you just want to show them that you are capable of it
23:35
as well. So.
23:36
It's it's, I think it's the biggest step because once you
23:40
say you're going to do it, I think Ned is like this and we've
23:43
probably adopted it from him a little bit.
23:45
He's like, you're just going to do it regardless.
23:47
Like there's no kind of way out. And I definitely felt that when
23:50
I committed to doing The Hundred with Al Farah because, hey,
23:54
there was, I guess a massive focus for me to not just spread
23:58
funds, sorry, raise funds for Al Farah, but more just like spread
24:01
awareness about what Al Ferrar is.
24:03
And yeah, I think once you, once you put it out there, it's kind
24:07
of just there was in my mind, there was like, no way it wasn't
24:10
getting done. You just had to do it.
24:12
And yeah, so once Butzi kind of did it in December, we did the
24:17
Iron Man halfway through the year in May, which was really
24:19
awesome. Had a bit of time off.
24:21
And then I, yeah, always in the back of my mind I thought, OK, I
24:23
really want to do this. And I wasn't sure how it'd work
24:28
with, you know, like raising money for AFRA because I knew, I
24:32
think I maybe inquired about it the same time, but he was doing
24:35
it as I knew I was kind of going to do it the year after.
24:38
And I think Brainy said all, we're not a charity.
24:41
So yeah, we can't like, take funds.
24:43
We'll take on money. And I kind of thought, oh, I
24:46
could still maybe do it for AFRA.
24:47
But then I think at the start of 2024, AFRA became a formal
24:51
charity. And yeah, it just worked out
24:53
really well. So I think I, I reached out to
24:56
Brainy and Benny and Shooter. And so like, this is what I kind
24:58
of want to do in November, you know, I'd love to, you know,
25:02
raise funds and just like make it a, you know, a big hour for
25:05
our event because obviously the community has like grown so
25:09
much. And Butts and I had kind of been
25:11
a part of it for a few years now.
25:13
And then, yeah, we just decided 100K basically just because it
25:17
was this the same thing that Buttsy did.
25:19
It was like the, my running journey has been very similar to
25:22
Butts is in the sense that, you know, I, I stopped playing footy
25:26
and I just wanted something to like keep myself fit, you know,
25:28
And the first time I ever ran a 5K, it's a funny story.
25:33
First time I ever ran a 5K, it would have been my first run.
25:37
And I'm I'm real OCD with my Strava.
25:40
Like you don't want to finish on like a point.
25:42
Nine, yeah, all that type of stuff.
25:43
I love having all my stats on there and I think I just like
25:47
luckily enough someone told me about Strava to track your run.
25:50
So I, I think it was pretty much my first ever run because
25:55
anytime before that was just like footy conditioning.
25:57
Like on our Oval, my first ever run a hat on Strava and my first
26:02
kilometre was like a 355 or something for a 5K pretty.
26:06
Impressive. I'll tell you what I was I was
26:08
blocked hot. I wasn't that.
26:10
Fit coming out of the box hot I. Wasn't that fit?
26:11
And then after that I was like 536 minutes, 630.
26:15
That's a long. Way home and and Oh yeah, it was
26:18
a classic like like bridge to bridge run.
26:20
And my ankles were actually like swollen after running because I
26:24
had these massive like ASICS that were probably not even
26:26
built for running. You know, it was like a much
26:29
different build back then as well.
26:30
I had come from playing footy and I found it.
26:34
I found it really. Yeah, it was just very
26:36
difficult. But there was just a part of me
26:38
that loved the, the kind of the challenge of it.
26:41
And so I just kept that. I do like 3-5 KS a week just
26:45
slowly building building and did a half marathon and yeah, did a
26:49
marathon just the same as Buttsy and then pretty much locked into
26:53
the 100K and I think I had a good maybe like 16 week slow
26:57
build for that after the Yeah. So you do.
26:59
It like. Properly.
27:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, like luckily enough, we
27:02
had our coach Gav by that point. Shout out Gav.
27:05
Shout out Gav. Yeah, it's one of the greats.
27:08
And yeah, like I'm, I'm not a very naturally gifted runner at
27:12
all. So like I've always, I'm always
27:14
like make sure I have to really work for like, you know, my
27:16
time. So I wanted to make sure I
27:19
really gave it like enough respect.
27:21
You know, Butts and I are quite different in a way.
27:24
Like Butts is very, very much cowboy and he just, he kind of
27:27
just gets things done no matter what.
27:29
I'm a bit more like precious. You could say I have to have the
27:32
perfect plan to do everything. But yeah, we, we did that.
27:36
And then, yeah, I just think the, the whole, the whole, the
27:40
whole 8 weeks prior, I think we announced it 8 weeks out.
27:43
Just the whole experience was really good, you know like
27:46
working with a Farrar and you know, promoted on like our
27:50
channels and our for ours and creating like the contents and
27:53
production of it was just awesome.
27:55
And you had a massive like community that came out on the
27:58
day and I know you did for your run as well the year before,
28:00
like, which is amazing that people wanted to support you.
28:03
And like, no doubt they obviously they wanted to support
28:05
you guys, but it's it's so cool that so many people came out and
28:09
and we're there with you. Did that help?
28:11
Like because I've, I've never done 100 Ki don't know.
28:14
And I think I, I don't know if having the people around you,
28:17
but surely that helps you sort of just keep going when because
28:20
it would get tough I imagine at several points.
28:23
Like I think it's incredibly special, like the yeah, the
28:26
community we have because most of it is just like our really
28:29
good friends alongside the people who've joined along and
28:32
we've made connection with with as I said earlier, but 100% like
28:36
if I was doing that by myself, I don't even know if I would
28:38
finish it honestly. But it just it and like Matthew
28:41
Brain and I have spoken about it, it, it really, I just felt
28:45
like on that day, I was kind of just getting lifted by everyone
28:47
as well. Like it was, I wasn't really
28:49
giving anyone much. I wasn't.
28:50
I wasn't actually. That's all right.
28:51
You're you're allowed to not give people much when you're
28:53
doing 100K. Blinkers on, yeah, but I
28:56
definitely felt it and I definitely like felt the yeah,
29:00
there was, there was something definitely a bit more like a bit
29:04
more spiritual about it or just like the energy.
29:06
It was just, you know, definitely felt lifted by
29:08
everyone. Yeah.
29:09
It was probably one of the most special things I've been a part
29:12
of. Even just witnessing it.
29:13
I was riding around on the bike most of the day.
29:15
But like the last, I think it was the last 10K when we had
29:18
like lots of people from Alfred come down and join in and get it
29:22
done. And there's just, you know,
29:23
Johnny's trotting at the front and there's a massive line.
29:27
You know, I was going back 50 to 100 metres of people.
29:31
Yeah. It was just a very special day.
29:33
And it's those moments where you really like to get to take it in
29:35
and go, how cool is this community that, you know, this
29:38
many people will come out and support, you know, one
29:40
individual trying to sort of make a change and make a
29:43
difference. So.
29:44
Yeah, Yeah, very. Special we I think we we both
29:47
find as I was very lucky that we have AI guess started sippers to
29:52
be able to do things like that. I guess we, we don't, we haven't
29:55
set it set out to do it because of those moments.
29:57
But the fact that we've had those moments of butts is 100K,
30:00
my 100K and then everything else in between, like it's, you know,
30:04
just things you probably hold with you for the rest of your
30:07
life. So we just feel very lucky.
30:08
And yeah, it was just, it was an amazing day.
30:11
And even just the whole experience, the 8 weeks leading
30:13
up was, was really good. And then running 100 KS, like
30:16
completing that or any kind of endurance event like it.
30:19
It is, it's something to be really proud of.
30:22
And you have to dig deep to actually get it done, not only
30:25
just with the training, but on the day.
30:27
Do you think now that you've done quite a few of those big
30:31
events that in other areas of your life, you sort of can look
30:35
back and be like, well, I can get through this because I've
30:38
done, you know, I've run for, I don't know, 14.
30:41
How long did it take you? Oh. 10.
30:43
Hours. Oh, sorry, 30 minutes.
30:47
Yeah. Well, it's funny because like I
30:49
think we've, when we say we've done an Iron Man to people, you
30:54
know, it's probably, it probably sounds better if it took longer,
30:57
like, you know, yeah, it took me 16 hours.
30:58
People think, oh, that's amazing, like 16 hours of
31:00
moving. But just sorry to answer the
31:03
question. Yeah, I think so, for sure.
31:05
I think so, for sure. I think, yeah.
31:08
It's just been that slowly chipping away, becoming more
31:11
resilient. I found like, I always still
31:14
look back and it's funny, like it.
31:16
I used to like, you know, I used to set out to try to run a, a 20
31:20
minute 5K. That was my one goal in running
31:22
like back in the day, like 5-6 years ago.
31:25
And there was like 5 or 6 attempts in a row where I would
31:28
stop at 3K and have to just walk home.
31:32
And it's just like to look back, look back on that now and go,
31:35
you know, it's all just about just that, like slowly just
31:38
chipping away, chipping away and building that resilience.
31:41
And there's like so many parts of my life where work wise, like
31:46
I've just started a business now and an electrical business and
31:50
you just need to be resilient. Like you need to be a resilient
31:53
person and not, I guess not like not just crumble, but not let
31:57
things get to you in a way. And like the art of like our
32:01
Farrar and many other like training for endurance events,
32:04
it's about showing up. It's just about, you know, far,
32:07
far it's once a week. But for your training for other
32:10
endurance events, most of the time it's just getting, you
32:12
know, getting to the pool. As soon as you get at the pool,
32:14
you're going to get in, you're going to do your session.
32:16
And I think that's a like that transfers into life a lot as
32:19
well. You just got to be willing to
32:20
show up and then you'll either get things done or you'll work
32:23
out a way. So I think that's massive.
32:26
It it's, it's funny because I guess like running and endurance
32:31
in general has become a lot more popular over like the last.
32:33
Few years I know because I I've been a running nerd from.
32:36
OJ. Yeah, forever.
32:38
And I remember when I was a teenager, like having to sort of
32:40
like sneak into Rebel Sport because that's where I got my
32:42
shoes from. And I didn't want anyone to see
32:44
me going into that store because it wasn't cool.
32:47
But it's so fun now how like it is so popular and and you know,
32:51
everyone can see how beneficial it is.
32:53
I think just like maybe COVID like kicks out a lot of people,
32:57
but the, the kind of value in your health and like making sure
33:01
that we are resilient and we can take on life challenges.
33:04
I think like a lot more people are getting on board with it.
33:06
And that's it sounds a little bit cheesy or cliche, but
33:09
running in a sense, like if you just go, if you know a marathon,
33:12
right, like it's such a good metaphor for life because you,
33:16
you know, you start off, you feel amazing, you know, you feel
33:18
really fit, like you've just done a marathon prep, so
33:20
obviously prepared. And then you kind of like go
33:23
halfway. You have a few little doubts
33:24
because you're feeling a bit worse than what you would think.
33:26
And then kind of hit the wall AT30K.
33:28
You're really struggling, but then you're only like 3K out and
33:31
you can see the ends. It's just like such a roller
33:33
coaster, like no matter how fit you are, like any level, if it's
33:36
your first one or it's your 10th, like you're always
33:39
experiencing that roller coaster.
33:40
And I think it's, it's just such a representation of life.
33:43
Like so much is out of our control.
33:45
So you can really only control your like, you know, response
33:48
and how you feel. So that's truly like why I like
33:51
doing endurance. It's, you know, having a good
33:53
time is great and improving is great, but it's more just like
33:56
the the kind of roller coaster that you go on and it can allow
34:00
you to take on life's challenges as you as you go.
34:02
So. It's very important to do hard
34:04
things. I think in life, yeah, we
34:07
always, if we always took the easy route, and I'd probably
34:09
never be as sweet, you know, doing a hard, hard prep first,
34:14
you know, something, running a marathon or doing an Iron Man,
34:18
it's obviously very difficult at the time, but when you cross the
34:21
finish line, it's very rewarding.
34:22
So yeah. I'm only just kind of laughing
34:25
because pretty much every time James of I have had like an
34:30
event like the four by 4 by 48 events we've done, you know, the
34:35
the marathons or like the 100 KS, It always seems that the
34:38
week before is like the most chaotic week of our lives.
34:40
Like James is moving house. I have like my final uni exams.
34:45
It's like, you know, we have so many different things going on
34:47
and we always like laugh to each other because we're like, what?
34:50
Why are we doing this? It's almost like getting to the
34:53
start of the race is like the relaxing, yeah.
34:55
Yeah, well. The chaos has done.
34:56
Honestly, that is what we've spoken about.
34:58
It's like there's been a lot of voice messages between us just
35:01
saying I just can't wait till I'm. 60 KB and I'm.
35:04
In that much pain and I'm. Like that sentence in itself is
35:08
quite unique. Isn't it?
35:11
Yeah. No, but that's it.
35:12
It's like, well, we do all these endurance events and it's like,
35:15
yeah, I mean, we're not professional athletes.
35:17
So at the end of the day, it's like we're doing it for
35:19
ourselves, really. And it's how it teaches us and
35:22
helps us go forward in life. And that's, yeah, that's the
35:24
main thing. How many marathons have you
35:26
done? I think this will be my 8th 1
35:30
coming up for Sydney Marathon in a few weeks so yeah but.
35:34
Always been like an event. No, Well, I did a couple in
35:37
COVID just because there's nothing else to do.
35:39
But yeah, the it's a tough, tough one, the marathon.
35:42
I've had some stinkers like where you just think, why am I
35:45
doing this? But you keep coming back so.
35:48
It's very addictive. It is.
35:49
It's a weird, a weird, addictive thing to keep.
35:52
Doing Yeah, it's just the greatest, greatest distance, the
35:55
marathon, because it's so hard, like it's depend no matter what
35:59
level you're on, if it's your first marathon, it's the hardest
36:01
thing you've ever done probably. But even like as you get
36:04
progressed and you start getting quicker, like it's just that
36:07
distance where you're sitting right on a decently hard level
36:10
for, you know, yeah, three hours, 3-4 hours, so.
36:13
Are you guys doing Sydney? I'm not like.
36:16
No, there's actually I, I, there's a chance there's a
36:18
potential ticket. Oh yeah, If I could get my hands
36:21
on a ticket, I would do it because that's what I did last
36:23
year. But yeah, we don't have tickets,
36:24
no. All right, well, even though I
36:26
was told that I had to time this and has given one very clear
36:29
job, I haven't done it. I'm not sure how long we've been
36:32
going, but I think we might be ready to wrap it up.
36:34
So I just want to finish by asking you.
36:37
Obviously, I put it out into the into the world that I would like
36:40
to interview Kim Kardashian hasn't happened yet, but who
36:42
would you like to see on this podcast?
36:44
Oh. It's a great question.
36:47
Sydney. Sydney in two weeks.
36:50
Probably keep Chogi I reckon. We That would be a huge grab
36:52
probably. Him around, get him on the bars
36:55
bus. Yeah, let's see what we can do.
36:59
It'd be cool if get rocky. Yeah, I was gonna say that.
37:01
Yeah, Ned Brockman. Yeah.
37:02
We've we've liked. Yeah, that would be really cool.
37:04
Yeah, we've been lucky enough to have him on ours twice, so yeah.
37:08
Oh, well, we might. Yeah, man, we might go through
37:10
you. Yeah, we won't have to do that.
37:11
But yeah, feel like Brocky's a yeah.
37:13
It's been such a massive inspiration to both of us, so
37:16
it'd be cool. Yeah, it'd.
37:17
Be. Really sure that around the
37:19
very. Cool story, yeah.
37:20
But no, thank you very much for having us on.
37:22
We're, we're, we're both very honoured to be on the Alpha
37:25
podcast. It's a much more professional
37:26
setup than what we have. He's gonna say, you know, we've
37:29
160 episodes I think we've done and this is the most serious
37:32
we've ever had. So very grateful for the
37:34
opportunity. Now, massive thanks and thanks
37:36
for making the time this weekend.
37:37
And yeah, we might see you at the start line in Sydney.
37:39
Yeah, of course. Yeah, thank.
37:42
You. Thank you.