Latest / White Fox Talking / E90: More Than The Miles with Andy North – Endurance, Purpose And Giving Back

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E90: More Than The Miles with Andy North – Endurance, Purpose And Giving Back · White Fox Talking

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to the White Fox Talking Podcast.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Mark Jala Valentine.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Who's at the controls tonight?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Of course it's Seb.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: How are you, Seb?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good, thanks.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm alright.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm alright, yeah.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: I've got I've got a question though.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: How how are your feet?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: My feet are sore.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, the last podcast was before uh we I did the little the little challenge.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're done.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: And to perfect it's a couple of weeks ago, but ooh, yeah.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: I felt I felt alright actually.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Passed the target um on the fundraising, but the feet felt a bit yeah, just a bit hot, I think.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: You passed the target on the time as well.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or on the mileage.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, I seem to do.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: I felt somewhere somehow picked them out picked about six kilometres up.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Was it six K?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, eh, maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where that came from.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well it was a nice walk when I joined you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it was lovely.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for coming.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's all right.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh obviously you distracted my backup team.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: When uh my wife Kirsty turned up with extra supplies and extra socks and then drove past me and spoke to uh was it Lily, the dog?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely ignored me.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: She said, but yeah, she she loves dogs, uh, she loves all animals, and apart from uh this mammal sat at the side trying to attend to my feet, and she just drove past me with supplies and spoke to a dog.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, that's what makes dog was happy.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what makes life interesting with ADHD in the in the household.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh look a dog.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, how's yourself?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Being up to working hard.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Standard, cool, working hard.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Same as you.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent, good.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, mine's winding down, hopefully.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: So let's get on with this evening.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm delighted to welcome Andy North to the podcast.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, Andy.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, how are you?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my fetus off.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: My fetus or yeah, sounds like it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, we've got something in common, but we'll we'll we've got a few things in common actually, so we will get to that in due course.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give us a short introduction for the listeners?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm Andy North.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Brought up in Kiefley, that area around there.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a family person, got four children and three grandkids.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Started school with no expectations, left school with nothing virtually, but I I did leave school with an with a passion for being outdoors.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Built a few businesses up and done reasonably well with them.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um you know it's good to set your dreams.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like setting dreams and goals.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I live in Leeds, support Leeds United.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Good man.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like being outdoors.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well that's lovely, because at least you're outnumbered tonight, mate.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So Seb designs the uh the running shirts and stuff for the podcast, and people keep saying, Are they are they Chelsea tops in being a Chelsea fan?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're not actually, they're based on the the Leeds of Work Calls.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, thank you for coming in, Andy.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um I should say thank you with Chris Salt from Candlelighters actually, because it was Chris that put us on to you with the yeah, with the things that we've we have got in common is I seem to have got myself wrapped up in doing some like marathons and stuff, and then the Leeds Country Way thing that I did uh the other week, and these have been for candlelighters, children's cancer charity in um in Leeds that we've be have been involved with well not involved with but raising money for years in memory of the two pals that were killed.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So back in 2000, and that's where I got my PTS PTSD from, and this is how it's all sort of come together.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: So it's uh it's good to talk to people with a similar interest.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's your involvement with candlelighters?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, around ten years ago, a good friend of um of ours, we had a team, we've got a team, Ultra Six team, we do some quite big endurance records.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one of our team, Jimmy, his little boy, Rory, unfortunately, contracted uh leukemia, and um yeah, candlelighter stepped in and looked after um looked after the family and uh have continued to do that.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, Rory uh did pass, um, which was a really sad occasion.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, candle lighters have just stuck with them ten years on still, you know.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've done a few fundraising, quite a few well, a number of fundraising events now for candle lighters.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I met the team.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've the family of all down there now.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: My family go down as well and have been down to see and understand what it's all about.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So and their team is just oh so great people, full of great people, so positive.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I I got invited to join the development board um about six months ago.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I've been on that and um it's it's that's full of great business people and people who want to help, you know, to raise money.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all positive.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm going in going in again in a couple of weeks to do this check, you know, from the event that I did.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: The presentation and they always say when you go in and everyone's like, Yeah, it's magic.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, lovely people.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: And we did it, we did actually did a podcast.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what your number it was.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Can you remember, Seb?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: You should know this.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: What are you here for?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Apart from pressing them buttons.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, episode 80.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: What was it?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: How did you find that?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: You've been on the internet, haven't you?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was quick though.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you mess about.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's here for a reason.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: He's got it might have a face for radio, but it's uh it's good with the It's good with the tech.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you so the events that you're doing, uh or you started doing, because you told me earlier were you were young man when you started doing these.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was a lot younger than I am now.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, I started doing the uh some big sort of fundraising challenges at age 50.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, you know, I've always been interested in outdoors.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've you know, it all came for me, it all stemmed from reading adventure books as a kid, watching adventure survival films, following Olympic athletes, Seb Koe, Steve Cram.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The format.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mo Yeah, of course.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Mo Farrer, you know, and and just recently just watching Athletics on Telly, so motivating, it's so amazing atmospheres and stuff.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, great runners, amazing cyclists, Tour de France, and then just just following on reading books and then getting pictures and images in your mind and wondering if you could do some of this stuff, you know.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ranulph Fynes, greatest British explorer, Alan Hinks, one of the greatest British mountaineers.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: North Yorkshire.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't I not many people have heard of him when I mention his name, but I've seen him talk as well.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Mark Beaumont, the round the world enduring cyclist, he's as strong as an ox.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've done some bits of stuff with Mark.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the late great Nims Purner, who's just just passed on uh climbing the mountain.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Bradley Wiggins, you know, all the stuff that he did in Chris Froom, Alberto Contador, all famous cyclists, Lance Armstrong, love him or hate him.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's only cheating if no one else is doing it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Someone else told me here.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can get great motivation, I think, from these people.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's more there's a more modern person called Mads Pedersen who rides for Trek.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he he's some video stuff he's done, training and stuff.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: As a younger person, a school age or early teens, were you into athletics and sport?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you said you were into the outdoors, but Yeah, I mean it was it was newspaper around around Keefley area, age eight, nine, carrying two bags, you know, dragging them out at sort of our five, six in the morning, just getting used to that.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it all started there, really, my sort of a sense of this stuff, and then uh just going running a little bit.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Cross country running you did at school, so you just you do that and in your head you think you're Seb co or you think you're Mo Farrah or whatever, and you get the motivation from the way they run and the way they win, you know.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, it was always on and off a bit of jogging here and there, a bit of cross-country running and and just keeping doing that whilst you've got a young family.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just getting out there and keeping fit a bit, you know, while you've got young families.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a question then.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever had a period where you haven't done that?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: Being out of doors?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Lots.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And how and and uh did that affect yourself?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Did you notice that you wanted to get back to it?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a guilty thing in your head that you you need to get back out there and you need to do something.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, as as of with everybody, life takes over.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Your family take over, periods of time at work, you're just committed and dedicated to getting in so early and staying back late and things happen in your life, you know, you get you know, you get knocks and you you you just stop doing it, don't you?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you you just slowly get back into that, you know.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, lots and lots of in and outs all the way through.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: But I think uh like as I as I was saying just before when we're all when we're coming up in lift, you know, it might uh at the minute this summer I'm working for working for one of my pals, Bruce, who owns the impact that sponsors on the white fox talking goes running thing.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of them things where I'm doing long shifts and um it's physical work, it's not super taxing.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Just really enjoy it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Just feel bit because I'm working outside all the time.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Don't mind if it's pissing it down, you know.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: You get away.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is that?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we spoke earlier, you it sounded like you were using it as a bit of a training, almost a bit of a training.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's using me as training, yeah.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But do you have in your mind, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to move these from there to there.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, do you know what?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So are we doing it?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like I say, it's we put these bars in festivals and like yesterday, uh yeah, Monday, Tuesday, they're seven fifteen metres apart and it's four four containers.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I did fifteen and a half kilometres just walking out that and you're like, What?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's bonkers.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I I only decided, it's not like I'm trying to monitor it, but I decided to look on my watch because my feet were sore underneath after that walk.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: How far have I done?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, oh yeah, you've done well you don't get a physique like that just sitting around, do you?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, it's certain drink Guinness as well.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's just Pavlighting folks if you look at the pictures of it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for that, wow.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm just because I know it's I know I know that when I sort of lost my way or when yeah, because I used to do loads of mountain biking and that and my tie boxing and stuff like that, and then when things got really busy and you would you just work, work, work all the time.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: But my work was in a factory, and I just find myself descending with when in mood wise.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then recently, even though I'm working on outdoor uh working in outdoors, because the stress levels in the role that I was working were so high, you'd get up in the morning and just think, I cannot be ass with it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm getting up thinking I'm gonna be working 14, 15 hours in a dust bowl because it's so hot.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I quite enjoy it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm outdoors and I'm just it's practical, so yeah, you're getting it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping you fit as well, you know.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's it is physically hard, so it's keeping you fit.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like, how do you I I I once did a another podcast a number of years ago, and the theme of it was as a business executive and it, as a director of a company, running a company, how the heck did you set some of these because I have done some big challenges, how did you do that?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: How do you achieve that when you've got your family, you've got your kids, you know, and you you you've got to go to work.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I liken it to that paper round when I used to have to get up really early in the morning in winter and just drag, you know, the papers and then the Radio Times, it was double that size, you know.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And s and then occasionally you'd you know, it's like when you go to work really early, you see someone running at the side of the road or someone on a bike or someone coming out of the baths have been swimming, you know, and you think, buddy hell.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's what I worked out was get out early, get out of bed early and go do your training, then go and do whatever you're doing during the day, and then you can have your normal life, but you've got this special period of time where um you get your own motivation, you get different sights and smells and sounds there's no one about hardly, and you can get a buzz from that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I I actually get a buzz from that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's proven, isn't it?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: You you know that endorphins from from exercise, uh and whether that carries through today, I suppose that's it does.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It really does.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it depends how hard you've trained as well, because you can fall off a bit in the afternoon, but absolutely you're you're buzzing in your meetings or you know, you you you you are those endorphins have definitely worked.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: So without going off too much of a tangent in your opinion, because you've successful business and help other people with their businesses.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Would you say that getting out and going training is more important than working a 15, 16 hour day at the do you know what I mean?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because some people will be like, you've got to be in the office at seven, you work till seven, and you just everything is about work, work, work, work, work.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: But my for my mind, and this is after doing all the nature therapy and stuff, that there is a d there's a drop-off, innit?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: It affects you with fatigue and stress, but if you're then doing your exercise, and it's proven uh uh physical exercise, good for body, good for mind.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: So productivity-wise, you're probably better off doing less but doing something else.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I can give you the extreme.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I live in Leeds and I worked for eight year for an eight-year period, up to a couple of years ago, in um in Manchester, on this side of Manchester, Denton.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I would get up in winter and get on my bike at quarter four in the morning, and I would cycle uh over Saddleworth through Halifax and that way out there.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then over Saddleworth and drop down into uh you know into um Ashton and then Denton and I'd be four hours of training.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I've done four hours of training, I feel amazing.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm tired, I've had a shower before I set off, so I just get a quick wash in the toilets and I've got my kit there, min my clothes there ready to put on, and then I'm in an exec meeting at eight o'clock or whatever's going on, you know.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that I would do that once a week probably.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe stay over that night, because it was a a little way away, and then come back the next day on the bike, you know, after work.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got hundred miles of cycling in there in over two days, you know, so that's a bit of an extreme.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I appreciate that, but it's just one way of building, you know, building building that motivation and building your strength whilst still doing a day's work.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think when sort of people talk about things like that, like you just have then somebody listening might think, Well, that's extreme, it's not for me.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't have to be that extreme, does it?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously you've then the caveat with that is you've stayed over that night.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's two days training.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: So you'd I take it you would you wouldn't be getting up at quarter to four the next morning because you're there and so you've saved an hour's drive as well.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the CEO I worked with, you know, he would get up and walk his dog at at the same sort of time.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he'd get up because it on his mind it's you know, it's his business.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he'd be out walking his dog and he'd get a buzz out of that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: He'd be thinking it clarity and through and still getting that same sights and sounds and smells that you get at that time in the morning and different different smells and different sights and different sounds as you go through the year, you know.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So so he he got a buzz from that as well, you know.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, I think well, we were just talking, weren't we, before and uh, you know, that when I did that challenge recently for candlelighters, when I were when the sun was coming up.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I was struggling through the night and it took me to a few places, you know, because it was it was hot and I was I couldn't I was I was struggling to get food down, plenty of water.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: And you just think and then my feet started falling to bits uh just because it was so hot really.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um so what so warm constantly like wet socks and went through like six pairs of socks, and you'd like it you you know, once your body starts when you start hurting, you go to a few places, and when the sun starts coming up and you first get that little bit of sunlight, and like you say, I went over an air horse for that time at countryside around there.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: But what did you do to get through them challenging times in the night?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not in the dark it's it's a different it's not I don't like I don't particularly like the dark in that sense, because it's quite strange, you can't see where you're walking or where you're going on your bike or whatever.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know, I suppose that ties in with what what what I've done with uh with me mountain teaching and mountain learning and teaching because we do a lot of night navigation.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not something that bothers me.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and I was on a footpath rather than walking off off track.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I suppose it's it's this thing that sometimes I'd talk about about moving your parameters, and if you've done already you know, I've spent time off just one wandering around Scotland in winter by myself at night.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know people look at you like daft, but you know, these are sort of skills and techniques.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: You've already pushed them boundaries, haven't you?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And if you've not done that, then it's a big step.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean that's pretty extreme in its own as well, isn't it, really?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: In Scotland at night, you know, in the mountains, you've got to know what you're doing.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, but you learn them things by other people, don't you?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then you do it yourself, and it pushes it, you know what I mean?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: And up for you.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Moving your parameters each time.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's what I try to tell, you know, when I was teaching when I'm working with young people getting them outdoors.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it doesn't have to be you know, everyone's seen like three solar with Alex Honnell climbing L Cap without a rope on.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you don't have to do that first time, do you?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's advisable not to just or um what's that other one called?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Crib Gok.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh Crib Gok, yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I once walked up that.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: I used to do I started off by doing thinking.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was a director in a company that I worked with, and it was his son, and he he, you know, they were obviously quite wealthy and stuff, and he used to talk to me about going mountaineering, and then I met I I saw Alan Hinks and then I got into um Ranald Fines and I was like, Whoa, this is amazing, you know, climbing these big mountains.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I could do it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I I used to go and do a little bit of you know, a little bit of walking up and I went to Snowden a few times.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: One of the times I went up Crib Gok, it was a lovely morning, got up to the pinnacle, you know, the first bit you climb up, and just thought, oh no, I oh no, and I'm sorry everybody, sorry, I'm backing back down.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't do it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to come back down there.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: The down climb something.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that I only got onto the pinnacle bit that pinnacle, but I just I don't know.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: After the ridge.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was too much, and so I I had to go back down.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I just yeah, you sort of know it.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: You learn about you only learn when you do it, don't you?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, have you done it since?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, gosh, no.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, I haven't, no.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: I can take it in a way.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, that'd be good.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: If if you're with somebody that you n you trust, if you know, and you know they know what they're doing, and they're gonna coach you through it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of these things where at the minute there's everyone goes and does it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you know, there were the Britain's top fifty walks and they put Hell Velling with Striding Edge, and next thing there's people just dropping off and mounting rescue are out all the time because everyone's like, Oh, that's a walk, or it's not really.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've done Striding Edge once.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't pretty either, but I did it.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's not as bad as Crib Gok, I don't think, is it?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Er no.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And there is a little route around.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, we're getting Yeah yeah.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Would you say that these the events that you do, that sort of mindset, keeping fit.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Has it been a whole life fitness thing?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or keeping physically I think so, yeah.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Even making it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the motivation from cross-country running in Keithley at school and just keeping that ticking along, and then that with Olympics and athletics, watching it on tele, which everybody seemed to do years ago.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they do now, but you know, as a family we'd sit and watch all that sort of thing, you know.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you keep that motivation there.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it has been bed embedded there really.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's helped in business wise, yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: We were saying you've gone with bit of clarity and freshness to these.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I'd 100% would be an advocate for for me doing your sport and your whatever you do, your fitness.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because it helps your mo your your mental approach.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: You do feel brighter and you know, I think it does set you up for the day.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or the the couple of days.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've got a sense of achievement for yourself.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it comes from that as well.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I said, uh like I was sort of um hearing to earlier on, it's it I always think that we have this um I don't know.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna name and shame you, Seb.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I just have um this thing of Seb's just busy all the time, you see.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And for myself, I've got you know, it you there were this this thing of you you have because you know, you you get up at four in the morning, you just work all day, work, work, work, but but you're not working, you're you're you're tailing off, aren't you?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then because you've just been bang at it all day.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: And your productivity goes down.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: You always probably don't, Seb, because you've got about two hundred projects on the go at any one time.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I also take the dogs out in the morning.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: You do that in the evening.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's good exercise, good air, isn't it?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But some people just want to.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or go for a lunchtime walk.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I do that, you know, get out of the office, just have twenty minutes.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: But but there are Why do you do that?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just to clear my head.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so that would be a bit of fresh in it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Does it work?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: That comes from Unless you ring me.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: I usually ring him just as he's going as a walk.
• 19:42
  unknown: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I suppose what I'm sort of trying to edge round and as as talk about there is this idea that 'cause this, like I say, I said earlier, it falls in with the the the learning and denominator therapy practitioner that you know they did all these tests in Japan where, you know, this productivity, productivity that which this great work ethic, but after so long in uh in a office environment or you know, looking at screens and and administration things, then it start starts tailing off because the attention's gone.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: But if we can look in, you know, so it's there's not is there any point doing it at that stage?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're then looking at something like nature or being out, you know, you've mentioned loving and being outdoors and as well the physical side.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I mean, going back to when I was younger, I know I would stay up till 1-2 in the morning doing work.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Doing work at home while the kids were in bed.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'd come back down at night because it was on my mind and I'd be getting on with it.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'd be going into work early, but one of them phases where I wasn't even bothered about going out jogging.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because just going out jogging can be like I I'm not going out of jogging, it's raining or it's whatever.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you have one of them six month periods or a year period where you're just throwing yourself into it and you get sucked into it.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um But your productivity at one or two in the morning, I wouldn't even dream of it now.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it I mean if I've got I'll work as hard as anybody, I'll I'll I'll commit to a project or commit to you know supporting a business to help it successfully.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be working with the CEO or the business owner, and I'll I'm in as much as they want me in, you know.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you just gotta learn that you you've only got an infinite amount of energy and concentration, and you I think you've got to learn your own self and what you actually can achieve, you know, yourself in a in a twenty-four hour period, you know, it's it's no good going to work and just not eating anything for your breakfast or not having any food, you know, because your mind shuts down because you it's energy, isn't it, that your body needs.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: So a bit of exercise come you know with a lot of hydration and water or you know, you know, liquid fuel um is is is fuel itself for your your cells in your brain, your cells in your body, you know, your skin, everything.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It needs that hydration and and it needs a good bit of nutrition through the day.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I I have done quite a lot of um talks in with young people in school.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and um you know, and I taught I always bring in nutrition and and hydration and energy, fueling your body, fueling your mind.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same at work.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it really is.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's I know it sounds a bit of an old cliche, but it is a balance of everything.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and an extreme of anything is not ideal, I don't think.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think we have I I don't know, is it is it just Britain or we have the societal thing where it's just got you've got to put everything in and but like and it's almost tips into self-arm, doesn't it?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's negative for yourself and negative for probably your employer as well.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're not doing how you're getting paid, but your mind's somewhere else.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean if I'm working with a an exec team or a a a board or anything, I I I will ask them the questions, you know, it's like, okay, so you're still here at seven o'clock, what's going on, what's happening, what what are you hoping to achieve?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And understanding the pressures that they're under and trying to help them think it through and balance it out and and making sure the company's not over expecting of people and allowing them to to do that because it's not good for people's health, well being state of mind.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: If you would this be a situation where you've been brought into advisor company or something.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: So how would you approach if 'cause they're they're paying you and then you go back to these people that are paying you and say, You're flogging your staff to death here.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you would probably not say in them words.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean it is for me, it's about asking some really good questions of the of the people that are, you know, in the team and of the the person who's in charge, you know, the owner or the you know, the MD or the CEO, whatever it's like, you know, what are we hoping to expect out of this?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and again trying to put the right balance.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like in the business it's like putting the strong foundations in the good process, the good procedure, and couple that in with this with the teams and the people that are there and just making sure that people are accountable for what they do, but within reason, it's just that within reason there's no there's no benchmark, every every every entity, every business is is is is unique.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's got its own different things, component parts.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So every everyone's different.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I suppose I mean that's another thing, isn't it?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about you going you cycling earlier.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about you cycling four hours before work and then next day cycling four hours back.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: But that's individual to yourself, and you can do that.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: I sometimes think that people you peep people might be listening to this, and I did say this earlier, didn't I?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: But people might be listening and think, how can you do that?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: But you could do something.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Just somebody could do something if even if it's not that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stuff written at the moment.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of articles and there's a lot of talk about.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was listening to one this morning.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're not stretching yourself, you're not putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation in your life, if you're not going through something uncomfortable, you're not gonna grow, you're not gonna gain, you're not gonna benefit.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I that's not my philosophy, but I'm just saying there's a lot of people saying that.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's building resilience.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it is you know, it's like the first time somebody said to I remember somebody saying, We're going up into the dales near Hawes, we'll be doing 70 miles on the bike and we'll be be climbing 10,000 feet of ascent.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it horrified me listening to this.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, my God, I'll never I I I just in my head it was like I would never be able to do that.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, last year I cycled five days down from Lees Bradford Airport to Nice Airport through the Alps in 150 miles a day, you know, type thing.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: In 38 degree heat, you know.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Was that one of your challenges?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was, yeah, yeah.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was um yeah, it was a a a challenge last year.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and again we raised quite a lot of money for candle lighters, you know, which was amazing.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh to be able to contribute that a a good amount of money to them, you know, from that from sponsorship and stuff.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's pushing your barriers, it's just pushing beyond it's sort of in a way I don't wanna be a controversial, but is there any point in doing the same thing over and over again without raising the barrier without putting yourself in an uncomfortable position, you know?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do think people undersell themselves.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't think that that well, I know there's definitely nothing special about me, but when when you've spoken about and when the people have asked me about the challenge of the week, you know, at sixty-two well how it was sixty-two miles but 108k, I don't know.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I couldn't do that.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, have you tried?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I mean, have you tried something similar?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because I probably couldn't do that at one point.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: When I went back end of my worst years at PTSD when I was just not doing any physical exercise and using, you know, when alcohol was the distraction rather than the outdoors, then I wouldn't have been able to do that.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and it I think it it's it's doing it in teams as well, isn't it, sometimes.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's that still achievement if four of you did whatever miles it would be thirty thirty and four if you didn't want to.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I'd just do it all in big breeder.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Just yeah, Seb wanted to do half of it with you, but you wouldn't let him muddy so Seb knew that if he didn't do something, I'd just be ringing him anyway, asking him if he'd done some editing on podcast.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, uh Seb will probably be speaking you after this to how you get you in to advise how he how we can control control his uh control me, uh trying to make get more productivity out of it.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I was just gonna say we do get motivations from people.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I get motivations from things I see, things I read, and people.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: One of them um big motivations for me in in in in the last 15-20 years is when I was training to do um a big challenge, I came across somebody called Andy Reid, who's uh met Andy Reid, yeah.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's a triple amputee soldier from Afghanistan.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's so resilient and he's so positive and he's so funny as well.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's from Wigan or somewhere.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: He's he is, yeah, he's from um St Helens, yeah, that's right.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: He came and did a chat somewhere and it was you know that proper northern squaddy thing, and you're like, oh that's a bit close to Bone, it's a bit real funny.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: But about himself.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well he's climb he climbed McKillamanjaro.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's an amazing video out of him, and uh, you know, I I I I we keep in touch occasionally.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's done some of the challenges with me in the earlier days, you know.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a picture of him.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: We we've done Lanzanter John of Gross, we're running a marathon in the morning, we're cycling 100 miles in the afternoon every day for seven days on the trot to set a record.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we're up it's 30 odd degrees in Britain.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it was unheard of when we did it in uh whenever it was, 2011, I think.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he's he's there supporting us, he rode a bike with me while I were running, you know.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just was caving in on the last day.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just really I I couldn't stay awake.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I just wanted to cry, I just wanted to go to sleep, I just wanted to finish, you know.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: But and he came and knocked on my dad's van, the support van and said, Hell then lad, what you doing?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, I can't I've had enough.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I just I don't know, I just can't do it.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wait here.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: He comes back with a bottle of Tizer or Coke or something and a minstrels, a big packet of minstrels.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wolfed them down and he just slapped me on my shoulders and hell then lad, get on with it.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's just uh it's moments like that, you just think, right, I'm on.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm on, and you know, you're buzzing and get on with it.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: I suppose uh as a I mean I have said it quite a lot on podcasts, I I don't you know, I could try and keep away, I try and keep a healthy diet, but like on that on the I was saying on that walk, there were two legs where I had a small bottle of old school look as they what it did what it got me set off on the walk.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, even though I felt you know you feel great for the first few hundred metres.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh I've already started this, I've not shit what am I doing now?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Even if you drop off other end, you've started, and that's often that's the hardest bit, isn't it?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: Just starting.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Andy said, I went to see him talk a couple of months, a few months ago now.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've not seen him talk for a number of years now, so and I went to see his latest talk, and it was like the one thing he said, and I c and I always remember it now, is his handy and he said it to the audience, I always try and be the best version of myself, and that's the best advice I could give anybody is just be the best version of yourself.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about that, it's really quite simple, but it's really powerful.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I suppose some often, I mean personal, and what's this a confession.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you think you uh you look if you look in retrospect, was I the best person, was I the best version of myself at that point?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because some often I'm thinking, ah shit, no, I'm not really.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Probably a little bit tired, a little bit grumpy, maybe a little bit emotional, a little bit snappy.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's the cursed.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: But so I've think about alright, yeah, you look and you and can you learn from that?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, you you don't always have to look back, you you know, yeah.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Am I being the best version of myself today, now here?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Could I could I be better now?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: That I think that's in the moment.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's important.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, yeah, alright, want to learn a few things, but it's I think it's more about now and future.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be the best version of myself.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And coming down here to do a podcast to help people, to try and help people, you know.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um I want to be the best version I can be, you know.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's thinking about that, being positive with yourself, giving yourself praise, self-praise.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: I see that so many times with people.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we are right.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've only done this and this today, I've only done that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's bloody brilliant.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: That that is a great step forwards.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself a slap on the back and say, Well done.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do it all the time when I'm running or I'm on the bike.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've had enough.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I just I've had enough, I can't do this.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, right, next lamppost, get to it.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: You've done it well done, mate.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right, next next right, that tree.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's old school, is that innit?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: Next lamppost.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I used to do running on my way home when I'm later.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: When my mum has said being by being by street lamps and being off.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I bet well, I bet you were doing it subconsciously last week when you were doing that walk.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: You must have been looking and thinking, right, alright, I've I've done five miles now again, you know.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, do you know what?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um funny enough we spoke about this on the last podcast with Johnny Payne, um, about people setting them setting targets that they can't sometimes or targets being set by society that you can't reach, so being put off even trying.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: So if you set your own individual targets, and we spoke about the ten thousand steps and stuff, r with that walk, I suppose I got to 50k and I felt great in my body, but my feet had started dropping apart, or blister uh not dropping apart, but bl blisters, they were just socks were bloody sucked all the time.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: I remember being at 50k because I were at Golden Acre Park in the dark, which is a renowned dogging spot, and I'm like, I need to be quick here and that and I won't know about that mate.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: How does it know?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: I got told and I asked him why are them why are them people flashing their lights at me?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they wouldn't come near me because of the state of my feet.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um But yeah, I got there and I was like, right, I've done 50k, so I'm almost walking home now.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: No one's c and I thought I can't ring I can't ring Kirsty to come and get me because she won't wake up.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I might as well carry on.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not bailing out at this point, you know what I mean?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm now walking home rather than walking away.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I suppose if someone had that needed that motivation to get out of the house and get off a sofa and walk 5k or 2k, whatever it is.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it to set yourself a little, get excited about it, that's what I find.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: I went on a networking, a networking event.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody got invited me, and um we'd we did a walk from somewhere into Grassington.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: We got a coach, it dropped us off, we walked down the river, they had a meal at the end, and daddy daddy, I then got another coach back into Leeds, and I'm like, oh that countryside, but I've just been plodding along.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, they're gonna drop me in Leeds and I'm gonna have to get a taxi back up to where I live, north Leeds.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they could drop me off at Golden Acre Park at the other side, and I'll set off walking, it's probably about 10k.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I set off walking, I thought, I'm not bloody walking.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had my suit on, you know, I'd like whatever on.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I set off jogging, you know.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm jogging in the middle of the you know, other end of Golden Acre, going up the road to then go over to um the the reservoir.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can't think of it.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Echo.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Echo, Echo.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: To walk, you know, to go that way.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end I was like, yeah, I'll just keep going.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was getting a bit sweaty with it all, but I you know, I took my suit jacket off and I was still in my not any trainers.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I had some shoes on, you know, so it was a bit uncomfortable, but and um so then so my wife heard I was doing it.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can't I think I messaged her said, you know, how are you getting on?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna set off running, I'll be fine.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: So she phoned someone up and said, you know, can you go pick him up?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So he comes up and I've already set my mind now to do this.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: And my mum's said, I've got to come and pick you up.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on I'm on I'm on way over now to to pick you up.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, don't bother, mate, I've already heck up.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, no, but I've been told I've got to, you know, it's got to pick you up.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no, I'm fine, leave me with it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's my little challenge, and I've done a 10k run now, and I'm it all adds, you know.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds a bit daft on now, but I'm not sure.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, well, it's do you know what I think sometimes it's like the it this difficult as thing is when you're trying to explain to something, someone, some to somebody what you're doing, and they're like, no, you don't want to do that, I'll get I'll Yeah, I I had I got into a habit of I walk home from if I've been in been in Leeds to see my mates on a night out of you and I walk home, which is 17k.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I quite like it, and it gives you that that time of night, you know what I mean?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I'd I'd love that time and mini adventures, isn't it?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um can I ask so these so some of these sort of endurance things that you've done, what?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Can you name some?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can blow your own trumpet, uh so to speak.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's not euphemism.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I I've done these, but I've every one I've done has been a challenge or an expedition multi-day stuff for a charity.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it started off with ABF, the Soldiers Charity, the Army Benevolent Fund from Iraq war.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's what set me off.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I know I can I can do a bit of jogging at school, I can do this.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted to run Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking that would be a great challenge, fundraiser, stuff like that, you know.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what set me going.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then um there were six soldiers killed from the Orcher Regiment in one explosion, IED.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: So and that was like so.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: I started phoning the soldiers' charities and said, right, I want to do a Lanzenta John of Groats.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that they were great with the ABF for Soldiers Charity, and I'm, you know, they did loads to help me get it set up and stuff.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it all started there.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we we did Lanzetta John of Groats, and then we went back and did it again and set a world record on it.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Charity again, you know, for the fundraiser.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because basically, if you're gonna do something, I just think you might as well do it, right?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: You might as well do it.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna spend all that time training to do something, let's make it an event.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's and it's like setting a little business up, you need marketing, you need a budget.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you raise that money on your challenge.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know how much you raise, but it sounds like you'd you know you Just over three grand now.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean that's amazing, that's just fantastic.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I I'm like, you know, if I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna and I'm gonna get people involved, I'm gonna get a t-shirt printed, I'm gonna sell them, I'm gonna do a little launch party, you know, wherever it is in the park or with the f whatever.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're doing a multi-day event and you go in Europe, so I suppose one of the biggest was the Sunshine Challenge where we went from Catrick Garrison to Gibraltar Barracks.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we ran a marathon in the morning and we cycled uh well I did and we cycled, I cycled in an afternoon.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I got loads of different people to come and join me different sections, um, which was amazing.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great community event and um raised about£30,000 with it all.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was great and it it's just an event that that was special, you know.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I had to learn to kayak.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never been in a canoe or a kayak in my life.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So kayaked down the Thames and then kayaked over the English Channel.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it was all human powered, and then carried on marathon running and and cycling through France over the Pyrenees into Spain and through Spain, you know.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: But how long did that take then?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Forty days.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Forty days.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: So joining that, so you ran a marathon every day just about from there?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, most days, yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um ups and downs of that, and I don't mean terrain, right?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean th yeah.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: The ups and downs were well when I've done these challenges, it's people join me and and and you know, that everyone gets something from it.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the you get out what you put in.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've done enough training and you've done enough research and you've got the right kit, you've got this enough support crew.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I did have a camper van that was badged up and my dad drove it and stuff, you know.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the hard parts are just getting up and running again when you don't feel like it.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, not like you said the other day, not wanting to eat, I can't be bothered.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want any food.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't but it and then you don't eat food and then you just go slower and then it's red hot and you're sweating and you're not drinking enough and then you start feeling sick and it can you've gotta get through them days, you've got to keep going, you've gotta eat, you've got to fuel, 'cause you're burning four, five, six thousand calories each day, you know.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well it affects your mind as well, doesn't it?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: You start you start feeling low.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: You do go through them, P hundred percent.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that that thing I did other week, it were 7,000 calories, 140,000 steps that I'd done.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: And but then during the night, I did have a few little down, you know what I mean?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: Little what am I doing it for?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I've I obviously remember remember incident of you know that you know I'm doing it to in memory of people that died.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: I know, yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's like being in that it sort of brings that incident back and sometimes you think, Oh, do I want to do I want to put myself through that?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we're doing it for a good thing and the cause, you know, with candle lighters, it's you know, it's a great thing they do.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um and doing things around.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you do have them ups and downs and I think just You've got to face them, haven't you really?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um You've just got to keep pushing through 'em.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's the it's the aches and the pains as well though, that I liken it to having flu.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: When you're doing multi-day stuff, you I you can get, especially running, you start aching and it it's an aching like when you've got achy flu in bed, you know, when you're a kid.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember it, but you that that is very similar to that.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like so much.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: So easy just to stop and walk or just to sit and rest and stretch.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Which you do need to do from time to time, but um but I mean the adventure, that was the biggest and the most amazing adventure, and everybody who joined it says it now.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: There must have been what, 30, 40 people that joined at various you know, people flew out to France and did half a marathon with me each day sort of thing in the morning, or brought the bike and did the cycling with us that day.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I can remember I recall it all like it were yesterday, and you know, that that was 2011 actually, that one.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, it the tarmac was melting going through a part of France.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we were running that fast.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: You could eat, yeah, yeah, that was it, was burning it off.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no, it was the tires were like sticking like tar, you know, me and Simon um who'd come and cycled with me, you know, for a few days, you know, we were like, bloody hell yeah, I mean, I pedal twice as hard, you know, it was um very strange.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, you see a lot, see a lot of amazing things, a lot of sights, a lot of history and a lot of stuff that you nobody would normally see going through.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: I guess each each challenge brings like good memory from it.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is there like a particular challenge that was your favourite or a challenge that stuck with you the most?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it's a great question.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I mean uh that sunshine challenge for many reasons is is I I'm I'm gonna top it next year actually.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a I've got one that I'm that I've not really spoken about yet, but I've got it well all planned out uh at the moment.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna top it.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: But just to give you a couple more was um race to space.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the biggest uh there's a thing called Everesting on a bike.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going up and down one hill continuously up and down till you accumulate enough twenty-nine, thirty thousand feet of Everest.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: The highest anybody'd done that research was sixty thousand feet, and in twenty fifteen there were six of us did on Mont Vontou in France in Provence.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: We went up and down it twenty times to get to a hundred thousand feet of ascent, so we smashed the world the record by forty thousand feet, raced to space, yeah.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: We we got lucky enough to get on TV for Channel 4 while the Tour de France was on, and uh we yeah, we had some great footage done and stuff.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a pretty male the four and a half days of uh knee swelling.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd have been on Mont Von 2, but it's pretty straight up, there's no switchbacks, it's pretty straight up if you go from Bedouin.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was pretty hot, 40 degrees most days.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was an awesome one to do.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I've done some solo stuff out to Mercia from home.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Tour de France in um set a record in uh 2014 when it set off the Grand Department last time it set off from Britain.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um we worked with um the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, uh Tom and Edna, and we got a load of corporate businesses to sponsor the Leeds charity, which was lofty Leeds Offers Fund for the Young.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we raised quite a lot of money for that, around 50,000, I think, something like that.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um so three of us went from Leeds to Dortmund, took a gift out for the um because it's twinned with Dortmund is Leeds.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we took a a gift for the mayor over there, and then we brought a gift back from the mayor to here, and it's actually still in the cabinet.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was at a wedding the other week.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's still in the cabinet in the Lord Mayor's, you know, the sort of civic offices there.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Not taken from Leeds.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: A Legion Id Scarf, no.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, fair Yeah, no, and then we got a load of corporate people flew out, and then we with a support vehicle, we took them round a few countries, Belgium and Holland and France and back to uh Leeds, you know.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: So so that was a great event as well, you know, good community charity event.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I've done quite a lot of st or stuff in between that and so have you.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: When you look at these events, do you do you consider them extreme?
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Are you you're pushing yourself each time?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, m majorly, yeah.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is it is like um people have often said to me, have you never why have you never done an Iron Man with doing stuff like this? 'Cause I know I can do the biking and the I can't swim.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can do breaststroke on holiday.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're playing with the kids that's about it.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm learning to swim now because I'm the candle lighters.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm running I think you're doing it.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're running the Yorkshire Marathon Marathon, yeah.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna struggle.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: Have you started training yet?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: Not since that well, I did that bloody walk, didn't I?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now I like I say, I did I thought I'd done everything right apart from the it would just sort up with my feet and I'm I did run last weekend at treadmill doing intervals and ascent.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh in intervals and incline, sorry.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went for a run other night after work and my feet were in bits road running.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll I'll do it because I know what I'm like.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you'll push your way through it.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but then I I do have to think, you know, it's actually oh how much damage have I done myself?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: Nah, you'll be fine.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be right.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be fine, tough lad.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's uh so yeah, I'm so I've I've had one swimming lesson, I'm gonna I've made it into an Iron Man challenge for this year's So yeah, so I've got to l I' I've I'm up to 30 lengths, I've got to do 155 lents in a pool, and then I've got to from Harry Get and then transport to do the marathon.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: After then I've got to get on bike and I've done myself 130 mile route.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: I actually said to my wife Kirsty, I said, Well guy, we'll get on a podcast.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: How old do you know on it?
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: Sixty-five.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: Are you?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Bloody hell.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's what f that's what physical fitness does for you.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't know you did all these challenges from uh in uh I'm like, how old is it?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: They're starting when they were fifty anyway.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, but he had good skills.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well we must talk about your skincare uh routine as well.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, yeah.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, I mentioned to I went, this guy that we've got in it's doing uh he's doing an eye, man.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: I went, what's that?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean that's marathon, swim and bike, and she just looks at me like, no.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: Alright.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because it protects a lot out of you, it's gonna protect a lot out of it.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean yeah learning to swim for it.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, I mean I yeah, I mean I can't wait.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I've actually got this challenge next year called Spirit of Rome, and um yeah, it's I I've put some triathlons in it as well on on the coast in Italy, just because I'm thinking, I'm well I'm gonna learn to swim now.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going backwards though then, so I'm only 59.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: Benjamin Barton.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think one of the things that's interesting with this, if you don't mind me, I'll bring it up.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: What could go wrong and what do you do to get over it, you know, before you do a challenge or your own expedition or whatever, you know.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're things that you train for something, you know, an imp Olympia athlete every four years they want to they're going in for the Olympics, and then they pick up an injury, they've been training for three years, and then they pick an injury up.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: Psychologically, how the hell do you get over that?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh devastating.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens, obviously, it happens.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I I think that's always an interesting one.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a lot of things happen before the challenge.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's like some sort of fear thing that then creates an issue, but bit of stress and a bit of You know, whatever, you know.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I've had broken hand, broken collarbones, um verucca that went absolutely stinking rotten in on my foot, you know, just before a challenge.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had to have a skin graft eight weeks before I was doing a big challenge, you know, and things like that.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's working a route out.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's speaking to professionals, getting advice and sort of ignoring it a bit, working your route out to still get to where you want to get to.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: Started Mont Von Two with a big bandage on my hand because I've broke three fingers in my bone when I fell off the bike, just hit a curb and landed and smashed three bone three bones, had to get it pinned.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Still got it in now.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: See, it's like I I've got to still train, I've got sponsorship money that's coming in and people expect you know, a performance if you like, so I'm I'm gonna do it no matter what.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: My physio Mark Fletcher doing it, physio mate, who always helps me out for candlelighters events.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's like his daughter went was with candlelighters, uh who's down there working with him and he's always like, right, what are you doing now?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: What you're doing now?
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: Should you be doing it?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, probably not.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: My my best advice would be you probably shouldn't be doing it because of all the injuries you've had.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: But let's see if we can get you around it, you know what I mean?
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're gonna do it anyway.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna do it.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's let's let's fix you as best we can.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: Let me know when you've done.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Might not be doing it in a world record time, and that doesn't matter, does it?
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your own time's your own time, isn't it really?
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's But I think this thing uh the other thing, uh if you don't mind me talking saying, 'cause I'm I've thought it was a similar age, but you're you're older than me.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: And um what is to stop people taking up something like this?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: And and this thing of what could go wrong?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I could stir up my own injuries.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I might fall off my bike, I might twist my ankle.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: And there's limiting factors of someone being quite anxious about trying something.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: And for myself, I think if you don't try it, then and obviously you, yeah.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it if you don't yeah, I mean it is just I don't know.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I never rode a bike till I was fifty.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had a little bike when I were a kid, it were too big for ten sizes too big for us to fall off it and stuff, you know, as a little kid, but that was it.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I never rode a bike till then.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I just got so passionately interested in the Tour de France and all the sexy kit that everybody wears and the sponsorship and the bikes and the nutrition, all the little one per cents that Dave Brailsford used to talk about, you know, with Team Sky.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Learnt so much from all that, and still do all the time.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's aero socks and whatever.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't wear them, but I you know, I have thought about it for next year to be honest, if it's gonna save a little bit of energy.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: What do your family think about all these events and Yeah, good great question, yeah.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's what it's sort of things define you define you, don't they?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's um you do one, you know, you do a half marathon and then you think, I wonder if I could do a full marathon.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you do a full marathon, and I think, you know, Dean Canasaris is one of the best ultra marathon runners around in the world, you know.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: You see read his book and you think, yeah, the Sparta run.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hundred and whatever miles it is across Greece, you know, in a time.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you could do that.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then i you do the next thing and then y you can't help it but say, What's next?
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: The pain that you go through, you forget about it.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: It it somehow, don't it?
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like ladies when they have a baby, they they say, don't they, I'll never do that again.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and and although I'm not comparing my feet to my foot pain to childbirth for that for unless it's a good thing.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't before we got nicked to bits.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not comparing it to that.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: But it's right what you're saying, it's this you know, when you were sort of thinking about the challenges you've done and the cycling, you know, getting up the next morning and uh doing that run.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: When you look back now, and I suppose when I look back now at that walk of the week, even now it's just like, yeah, my feet are a bit sore.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: But and I had my ups and downs, but it's like it's that two type two fun, you know.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I've mentioned that with type two.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: I can remember it, and would I do it again?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm I'm I'm already thinking I can knock a couple of hours off that if I do it in a different time, but but it's a time committed to it, so we'll see.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: So should I do something else?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you should.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are doing in October, the Yorkshire Marathon.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: What a statement, not question.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you said you're gonna do it in three and a half hours, didn't you?
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: What Yorkshire Marathon?
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what's going on?
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my pal Dave, who's been on the podcast, Dave's Dackow and I told him, you know, because I'd only just broke a five.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: I did a the the Leeds marathon I did this year, and that was the hardest one I've done, I think, because I had a proper Dizzy spell and Chris Salt from Candlelight has helped me up.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: And we were talking, going walking up pull bank.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because I did it in he wasn't running it, it was walking out.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: I passed him there as well.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he must have been in just in front of me, but I walked up at this he's I might spoke to you afterwards.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my done, yeah.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Chris was with somebody and he said, Oh, this is hand it.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, you all hide.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I were having them up.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: They were carrying you in his arm.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: But there were two of us that and he went, You're doing really well.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're looking at and I'm thinking, I've got all this time, I would try to work it out when I couldn't.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: But then you spot speak to people and just go, Yeah, if you were trained properly, you'd better do it and do it in four hours easy.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Fucking hell.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll see.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, did I proper swear I did then?
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, sorry about that, listeners.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um so what yeah, your family.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_02: What the thing is, and is it a limiting for do you think it would that would become a big factor?
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would um I would control that so it doesn't take over.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's another reason why I think I always tr well, I'm not at the moment, but I think I will be for next year, is getting up mega early and going out training early hours so that I can still have my daytime working and my evening family, you know, to keep that balance.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: So still try and do the training early morning.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get a bit tired in the evening, so it can drain you a bit.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: So would you go to bed early?
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you need you need to do that, yeah.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: You still need your seven hours, eight hours sleep in an ideal world, don't you, really?
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't always work out like that.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're doing a lot of events, you do have to train yourself to not have the sleep as well.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because things do go wrong on challenges.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: They really do.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: It only takes one of your team or somebody to have and you have to help them, and then it knocks you back for the next day, and then you're behind.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: Again, that comes back to this resilience, doesn't it?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: And getting over it rather than it just all collapsing around, you know.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: I personally I think that applies to a lot of things in life, doesn't it?
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: It it does yeah.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean you've just got to find a way.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to it is it's hard, isn't it?
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because we all react, you know, in life, you you do react, don't you get somebody that winds you up or something, or somebody says something and you you react.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard not to, I find, in in certain situations.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: I don't get wound up, though I say never.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I know what you're saying, yeah.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to find a you've gotta you've gotta think, right, this has happened.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've still got to go there.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've still got to in business in life, your child's not doing as well at school or whatever, this is happening, what are we gonna do to help them get to that point?
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a family member might not be ri really good, you know, uh they need some support.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna do this.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I need to do this now, so how am I gonna what am I gonna do to still achieve what I'd wanted to do, you know?
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just working out solutions.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I read um our audio book, something listen, about about about stress and it were this m learning to respond rather than react.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: You're taking that little r response is like instant and it's probably driven through emotion, which emotions are just a chemical reaction that's something you don't a mind thought, well if you leave it a couple of seconds then you can probably respond a bit better.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're still fuming, then carry on.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, um it's funny I downloaded something yesterday and that was on uh LinkedIn and that was about that responding.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was a really good bit of stuff.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's there it is.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: Nine ways to disagree without triggering a threat response.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a that was you know, when something happens to stop yourself getting into that threat response, there's a number of things.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a great little great little piece I have to remember to read that.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: So the next challenge, you just said it's an iron man and it's for candlelighters.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: How's that going?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was going alright.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would I'd started the swimming.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd got up to 30 lengths.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: I went to three times, I think, in one week, and then I got a infection, I got a sore throat infection, I think.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've got water infection now.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've not done any swimming for two weeks.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm gonna have to I've But you're gonna do it.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm still yeah, I'm still planning on doing it, but I'm just um yeah, I'll be getting back onto it soon.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh hopefully it's starting to clear a little bit now, but I I've just felt rotten with it.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: So no running, no biking, no but just a bit on the turbo of the bike and just an odd little run here and there, but not felt like it.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that this is one of those situations where I've I'm probably gonna have six weeks to train, but I'm gonna have to put a proper plan, you know, uh which I have got, um but I'm gonna have to amend that plan now, tweak it, yeah, to to get on with it really.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's to be able to achieve it.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it's happened to that timeline.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, oh no, things have things have gone.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_02: I had a 20-week training plan for this next marathon, and now it's like seven weeks and I can't I'm can't run.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_02: That'll be fine.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: So funnily enough, I'm getting my pushback out.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a supporting page on that that you want to advertise while you're here?
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's gonna be for candle lighters.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have got one um from when I did the um Leeds marathon.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking I'm just gonna follow on with that to be honest, and just use that again.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll push it out.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's just giving candle lighters something like that.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I don't really know what it is.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_02: Right, well, I'll take a look at it afterwards and we can stick it on bottom of our colours.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that'd be really great.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: Can I ask something?
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um in terms of um next year, so the spirit of Rome is next year, and this is 2,300 miles.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it is um two hundred thousand feet of ascent through the Alps.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just a little trek out.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 28, 7 days, 27 days.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I've plotted it out, and again, that's gonna be for candlelighters, supporting kids cancer, you know, um children with cancer and the families and everything that we've talked about.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna be uh part of what I'm doing.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm building it as a community event, so I'm looking for uh companies that um want to promote CSR, corporate social responsibility in their in their businesses.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll come and be an ambassador, do some talks, do some events for them, help them build some challenges themselves, let them join some of this uh challenge if they wish.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna go from York, it's all built around Rome, the Romans, all roads lead to Rome, um, you know, and uh it's gonna go from York, which is uh the Roman name for it is Arborium.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going from there, and we're gonna follow I'm following the the ancient Roman roads all the way from through Holland and uh Germany, and then into the Austrian Alps, um the Italian Alps, the Swiss Alps, the French Alps, and then dropping out into northern Italy and then coming down the Italian coast, five triathlons, hopefully, if I can swim.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'm thinking a mile swim, half a marathon run, and then twenty thirty miles on a bike.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that'll get me down then into Rome.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you know, if an if anyone's would like to get involved, anyone would like to become a um an ambassador or a supporter, or if they'd like me to come and talk to them about it in more detail, then you know, I'd I'd um be honoured that really.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's it we've got a year from now to get everything set up.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my granddad was from Italy.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you say, I know.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: I I'll have to go see his birthplace for a shock.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: Valenta between Chir Turin and Malad.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: Alright.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_02: Would there be anything that sh people should maybe be aware of?
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I I ask you this because I know that when I've go on expeditions or used to not so much these days, and even just being out and you know, that challenge, I think, a couple of days later I'm like, oh.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe a bit of a slump afterwards, but because I'm aware of it, I can avoid it rather than being someone new and throwing myself into something, you know, like I've been off to Patagonia, I came back from there and I were devastated.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, what do I do now?
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever experience something like that?
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly that really.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: You get you get into the end and it's um it can be euphoric, it depends.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what I've what I've done on the last few is my wife and and and one of the kids are whatever, as as you know, like I did one to Paris for um for a charity.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: I went from home and joined this challenge that we went to Paris.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: They flew out to Paris and we had fight four days in Paris.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was amazing because you know I was I had something to really look forward to seeing them and then having a a break, you know.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: But when I've done a challenge, a lot of the big challenges, you get to the finish line and then it's like, right, gotta clear up, gotta get travel back home now.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's finished, it's done.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we did it.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: But so you've got to overcome that.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to and and you can only do that, I believe, by looking forwards and giving yourself another goal and thinking about what what you might be but you need to settle back into it a little bit, but you know, it's like highs and lows, isn't it?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, another result good doesn't go your way and it knocks you back down at a couple of places, and it's like that feeling of It's like going on holiday and then coming back and you get a holiday.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I suppose it is, yeah.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're like euphoric, you've been away and you've seen something new, and then you come back, it's like oh two days before you're ready to come back, you start thinking, oh no, oh no.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I suppose with the physical side with the with these challenges, there is that because you have experienced some big highs, haven't you?
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and then you c and then it's back to me at work here, can't we?
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: The highs though come on the ch on the journey.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's more about the journey than the finish.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: If that makes sense.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's nervous building up to the start, and then when you get going and you're on it, you've got your challenges and ups and downs and highs and lows, but the journey's the journey, and that's really the the the motivating part.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you've built up to do.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I suppose it's different if you're winning a gold medal in the Olympics and you win the gold medal, then ultimately that's it, you know, the jo the finish was was actually the winning, wasn't it?
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_00: But so I suppose it depends, the different types of things have different motivations, but yeah, it's preparing your mind for the for what might when you're on a big high, is is you can't stay up there forever, can you?
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to sort of pop back down a little bit, haven't you, to so it's it's maybe thinking ahead and trying to overcome that.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Would you have any advice for anyone that's thinking of maybe challenging themselves or doing a challenge?
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it's probably a little bit over odd because they don't have to be these you know, you've you've just mentioned that challenge you're doing, they don't have to be massive challenges, do they?
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: More mindset.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean my my advice would be find something you're interested in, you're passionate about.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: It might be a crochet, it could be you know, whatever.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's just you know, and and think of that and try and think of how you might want to stretch it a little bit to to make it interesting for for people to be to get involved and, you know, to to maybe donate because it's you and it's your passion and it's a thing that, you know, you're interested in, you know.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: So for me it it's it's mine's around centres around sort of health and fitness and well being and nutrition and and diet and you know that that type of thing.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's t I tend to go towards that sort of thing.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I've got family and friends that have done deaf very different versions of of their own challenges, you know, doesn't have to be linked to to that, it can be anything you that you're interested or passionate about, or it might be something you used to be passionate about when you were younger or as a kid, and you think, actually, yeah, that I really loved that.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm older, I can do other things with it.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna use that as my subject matter.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think that would be the type of motivation I would suggest.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much for coming in and again thanks to Chris for pointing us in your direction.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's been I've loved chatting to you guys, it's a fascinating conversation.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll put chat all bloody night, I'll be honest.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: But um it's it's just one of them.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um good luck on your future challenges.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, keep in touch with them or keep in touch with us about them.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: And let me not do an iron.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, you're not doing an iron.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I was just gonna say I'm gonna struggle I'd I'd struggle to do I'd struggle to do the York one, wasn't I this?
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_02: Let's have a think.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well you say you're going to Italy next year, so that's that.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: Just join on join on your trip and travel to travel through.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_02: Get yourself an e bike.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: An e bike, no.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've refused to get an e bike.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think like you say, it's part of the journey, is the peddling.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: Taking and having a sore bottom.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: On that note.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much, guys.