Latest / 12 Months to Marathon / Episode 117 — She Started Running at 44. Now She's Inspiring Women Over 40 | Nicola Williams

Transcript

Episode 117 — She Started Running at 44. Now She's Inspiring Women Over 40 | Nicola Williams · 12 Months to Marathon

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, welcome to the Talmuds to Marathon Podcast with me, John Hill, the running podcast for the Over 35s with Marathon Dreams, episode 117.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined by a very special guest today.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined by Nicola Williams of the Over 40 Running Club.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: How are you, Nicola?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm really well, thank you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very well, thank you for asking.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for joining me.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess two reasons why I wanted to get Nicola on.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: First, I'll let Nicola do the whole introduction and go through everything.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: One of the main reasons was just when I saw the name of the Instagram page, really, Over 40s Running Club.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, being an over 40s runner myself and working with a lot of people over 40, I thought, well, let's um let's get Nicola on.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, was the thing that stuck out to me was the fact of when Nicola actually started her running journey as well.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because something that I'm personally very big on is helping people to achieve their potential at any age, really, but also realising that it's never too late to start as long as you're physically able to, and then on top of that, really, is the community aspect of it because obviously I'm very big on communities in terms of what I do and what I try and do in all the different things that I that I do.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think community is very, very important, particularly when sort of social media, whilst it connects us to a lot of people virtually, sometimes I think it does take us away from that natural community feel.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: First question, thank you, Welcome.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: First question from me is you say very openly that you started running at 44.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was your relationship with exercise and running before 44?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when I was a child, uh going right the way back, I did gymnastics from the age of about four till about 14.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then at school, at secondary school, I played netball and primary school, I played netball, hockey.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I didn't ever do athletics.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: If I did anything, it was throwing the foam, javelins.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's kind of my limit, and I never did anything over 200 metres.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: That was that was kind of my my remit.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um I left school um obviously at 16 and just I I don't know, I think life I had a I got pregnant at 17, I had my first daughter at 18.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Right, um, and I think then life took over.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I bought a house when I was six months pregnant.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I worked full time, I've always worked full-time.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think life just took over.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and just I I put I I've yo-yo dieted my whole life, right?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, and it just got to the stage that I thought I need to do something.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've tried Couch to 5K a couple of times over the years, yeah.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and done it for a very short period, but then oh just this kind of it wasn't me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't my love.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I didn't I just didn't enjoy running.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I I don't know what happened.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: I I had a bit of a I suppose a bit of a health scare, is then I started having issues um with my heart, I started to have like symptoms.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I was classed as morbidly obese.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, when was that?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: How long ago was that?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Three years ago.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Three years ago, okay.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so and I just thought, I don't know, I think I think as you get a bit older, and with my kids getting a bit older, my kids are now sort of 16, 24, and 28, right, um, you just sort of you start to you start to think about your own mortality a little bit.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you lose people around you as well.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you just realise that you you're not gonna keep going forever.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just keep, you know, you're not gonna go forever, you've got to make the most while you're here.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I decided I'd had enough.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I needed to get healthy.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, everything came back with my heart.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: There's a couple of anomalies, but they were within the range of normal.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I just thought there's something I need to do.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: So me and my best friend said we'd do couch to 5k.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and as I started it, I then found out that my best friend from secondary school, my eldest daughter's godmother, that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um and she needed money um and was doing a lot of fundraising to go and have treatment in Germany.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I kind of we we'd lost touch a bit over the years, and we'd kept in touch through social media, but she'd gone off to Cyprus because her husband was in the forces, and you know, your life goes in different directions.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: She had her children later than I did.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um but we've kept always kept in touch through social media.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was I suppose it was a bit of a shock because it was like, my gosh, you know, this this is someone big in in my past, in my life.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I just felt like I needed to do something.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I decided to put in for the Great North Run.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I got a ballot place.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um but then because she was quite unwell, I wasn't we weren't sure whether she would be whether that would be too far away.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I then put in for the Birmingham Half Marathon.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I started August 24 um and I did the Birmingham Half Marathon in Mar.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's May November.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's May November, it's May.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, May 25.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um and yeah, and I've never done a 10k.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: I've not done a 5k, I've not done a park run.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: I literally went from K to 5k, it's a half marathon.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And uh just ultimately obviously I naturally got fitter, I naturally lost weight.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I just felt like I was doing something um for somebody else, doing something really good.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then unfortunately she passed away in November last year.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I've kept running really because I can.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um no other reason really than just because I can.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not fast.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not I've only really started enjoying it, I'd probably say the last few months.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I never feel bad after a run.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, I suppose that that's my story really, and it's um I carry on because I I love the feeling after I've done a run, and I carry on because yeah, just because I can, well, and while I can, I will.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sorry to hear about that news.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So one question I haven't asked you because I I'm just getting the accent now.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where actually are you?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um Telford.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're in Telford, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: See not okay.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I was, yeah, I used to, yeah, I used to work in Wolverhampton.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, our accent's uh we're in the same region, aren't we?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're not far enough.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I used to work in Wolverhampton actually, and there was a few people that used to come from Telford.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um okay, so let's unpack that for starters.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you've you jumped you answered a few of my next questions, actually, funny enough.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were 44, that was three years.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is that three years ago?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that the same thing?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're talking the same thing.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So was the one you mentioned a few things there.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Was the one singular thing that was the spark that said I need to do something at 44?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Was that was there anything in particular that happened?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: You said about the obesity, was there anything in particular that went right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's the thing now that makes me I think it was the the feeling that you you're not gonna it was a mortality feeling, I suppose, and thinking, yeah, you know, I I drink too much wine, I eat too much bad food, I don't exercise at all.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: If I don't start looking after myself, I'll never forgive myself if anything happened to me and I'm not there for my kids.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: I know that sounds quite severe, but you know, it's no well.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was I think it's um we're not you're 47 now, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously doing just doing the math, sorry, God.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well that's uh anyway, that's the end of the episode and me.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um 47 December, so 47 December, okay, good, good.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get myself off the hook for that one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, I mean we're not far off.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 49 now, 50 next year.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't actually think, Nick, it's some I don't think that's a bad way to think because I remember what I'll always remember my dad I think I was about 11, right?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember thinking to myself, that's really old.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think now the stuff that I do, and I think, well, actually, it's not that old, I feel, you know, I feel okay.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think it's actually a bad way to think that you at this age that even though you feel okay, I I just had somebody I know die at 44, bowel cancer, 44, you know.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and relative was a I mean I haven't spoken to him for a while, I won't go off on a tangent here, but relatively fit guy as well.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think it's I don't think it's you shouldn't obviously I don't think you should um dwell on it too much, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to think.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And do you know what the thing is, and and uh I I try not to sound too morbid with it, but the month before Elaine, my friend, died, another one of my friends died suddenly.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she'd had she died in October, um, and we've been friends obviously later because our sons played football together, right?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And we became really good friends, and she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and five weeks and three days later she'd gone, so she literally passed away the month before Elaine did.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it's and I think do you know what as well?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure whether it's my kids had all sort of I had my kids very young, or I had my eldest, my youngest, sorry, when I was the week before my 30th birthday.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think as well at that age, not only was I feeling unfit, I was feeling not the greatest.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't really like how I looked, didn't like how I felt.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think I kind of had I've had children since I was 18.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think I also felt a bit lost on what do I like?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: What what do I want to do?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Who who am I?
• 9:37
  unknown: Who are you?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean I've lost weight myself.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean 28 when I lost weight, uh five stone, um 70 odd pounds, 30 odd kilos, depending depending on where you're listening to this in the world.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um when you say you've got to be careful because we get quite a few listeners from the US.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say five stone, they'll be like, what?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, and but you're right, it it's one of those where you you don't I guess you you do lose a bit of yourself because you I mean for me I it became who I was.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was the fat kid, yeah.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was who I was, and and and the and there are elements of that that stay with you, you know, it's it goes deep, you know.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's yeah, it does it it you people have to understand that when you've been that way, when you've been big, a lot bigger than you are.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean like you know, we need to lose a bit of middle-aged bread and all that business.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking when you've been a lot bigger than you are.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it does create as many psychological problems, arguably, as physiological problems.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: I look back now, I mean, I've lost about just over three stone.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I've lost.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I weigh now what to be honest, what I weighed the week before I gave birth to my youngest child, even now.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant, even now, I'm still heavier than I want to be.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: But for me now, it's not so much about the weight because I think because I feel healthier now, I'm still classed as obese.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but because I feel healthier now, and because I I put so much effort into what I eat, what I do, you know, and the running has become part of who I am.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: I can't, and you know, I can't I I can't believe I'm actually saying that.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: When you I used to sit there and people at work would go to the gym and they'd be like, if you really wanted to do it, you'd find the time, and I'm thinking, Oh, just shut up.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because you want to go to the gym and you've got the time, you obviously don't do anything else.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: They are so right.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: I am that person now who says, if you want to do it, you will find the time.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Believe me.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: I do all my running before work because that's the only time I have.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but like one of my friends who is 62, and she said to me, I will never be able to run, I've got bad knees.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Look, you might have bad knees, but why don't you try doing a bit of strength training?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: See if you can build up the muscle around your knee.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, I'm not professional, go and speak to somebody and see.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Then maybe you can if you want to run, run if you don't, don't.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: She ran her first 5k um about a month and a half ago, and she messaged me and she said she she goes to her local gym now, she does strength training.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she's now, I think she's now around 10k at the gym.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she's 62.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: She said she walks up the stairs now without her knee hurting.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, she said, I can't believe and she is now becoming the person that she was moaning at me about by saying, if you want to find time, you'll go.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: And she's 62.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: So if you if if as long as you're able to there's no the age is not is not the issue.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what your first run looked like?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god, yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: You do know because me and my best friend went out and we thought we did the free couch to 5K, and we thought it was a a 30-second run and a uh a one-minute walk, a one and a half minute walk or something, and it was a 60-second run, and I could barely breathe.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I got to 30 seconds and it carried on, and we were like, you know, struggling to get our breath.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I worried about what people thought, about me, you know, if they saw me and thought, um, what's she doing running?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you realize people don't really care.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the people who do aren't the ones that you really give monkeys what they think anyway.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: But no, it was it was horrendous.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Horrendous.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea of running for five minutes at that point was a million miles away.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've already touched on this briefly, but a lot of people come to me and say, I'm too old, or you know, I want to start running, but I'm too old.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess um it's quite a common thing, it's quite a common thing that I hear.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have any of that in your head at 44 or did any of that creep into you?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, not the first because I still feel to be honest, I as far as I'm concerned, I'm I've only recently moved from 32 to 36.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Right, okay.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because my daughter's got 28, so I can't be 32 anymore.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to move.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So now in my head, I've never really felt older.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I but I think my body did.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I I don't know, I s and I suppose I saw people on social media um who were running, and there was people like friends of my my daughters at Netball, their mums were running and doing marathons and things, and they were older than me.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so age wasn't really something that I thought about.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: It was more my fitness and my weight that I wanted about.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I know for for my friend who's 62 that for her it was her age.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: She was like, I'm not gonna be able to run again.
• 14:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Hers was, but no, not not really the age.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was more yeah, it was more um I just I I felt older in my body than I did in my mind.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that starting later in inverted commas gave you some advantages?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Probably because I've not had injuries, because I was all these people who are running.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: My son's 24 and he's had to have his ACL like reconstructed.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch, yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, and he's only 24.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think because I never did anything for all those years, I've got no injuries that I'm taking into any of this.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: So as far as that's concerned, yes.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think as well, probably and I'm not saying I'm I'm not saying this is for everybody, but I I think there's a level of determination as you get older and you realise different things about life and understand different things, um, and the limitations of things, you kind of want to push yourself further, if that makes sense.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I do think, I'm not saying that younger people haven't got that because of course they have, but there's I think there's just different things that push you on um as you get older.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd say, yeah, definitely running later, you know, definitely in advance.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm only 36, so yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you okay?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So have do you see the the cla another classic?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we get the I'm not a real runner, you know, or you know, all that sort of business we get when people run a lot, but they still don't see themselves as a runner.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself as a runner?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: You don't okay, you don't I'm I'm I'm a 46-year-old woman who runs.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, okay.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, I do not see myself as a runner at all.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that people recreational runners, obviously, why why do you think they struggle to just say I'm a runner?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know whether it's that we feel like we don't hit the stereotype of it or whether we see runners as people who who do it for their job.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't run for my job, so I don't feel like I'm a a runner, you know.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a mom.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a worker, I'm a wife, but no, I'm not I'm not a runner.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I get that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel like a runner?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, well, it's good question.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: God means Christ will be here for ages if you start tapping inside the dark, but the dusty parts of my soul.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but well, I think for me, I still have it's a lot better than it was, but the voice in my head was always this is the awful, it's gonna sound awful because I I do okay, alright.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I do alright when I do events, like I'm I'm alright.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not obviously an elite athlete or anything like that, but I do okay for my age.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I always think that I'm the fattest one there because I I'm I I'm not tall and thin.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't I've still got a little bit of that.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's much, I mean it used to scream at me, you know what I mean?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like five, six, seven years ago, scream at me when I was like trying to do all these quicker marathons.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not so bad now, but it's still there, it's still there.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I still so I still I don't I I I don't give myself enough credit for what I can do because some part of me thinks that's like because there's always somebody better.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got that comparison thing that most people have got.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um do I see myself as a runner?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't want to say yes for some reason.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Say yes if you feel yes though, you know.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well I do alright.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I can do I do alright.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do all right.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting I know I'm getting older, but I don't like to restrict myself too much.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, I think I I do what I do all right.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just what the the problem is, and I think links into what you were saying, I don't want to go off on a tangent for me, but I think what happens is this might be a tip for everybody else, and I've done I've done podcasts on this before, is when you keep going up, you always look up, you never look down, and I don't mean look down on people, I mean look down to where you come from.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there's that thing about compar there's that thing about, you know, I think Jordan Peterson said, you know, compare yourself to the person you were yesterday, not somebody else today.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we all do that.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll do like um I'll do something, and I'll be like, I'll do an event or whatever, and I'll be like, oh but yeah, but I didn't do that, versus you know, wow, look at look at you know, I was I was at a breath de machine sub 28.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: I get that because I my fastest um half marathon was the first one I did, and I've not hit that time since.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: And um I had a really bad half marathon in February.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: I did the Napoli half marathon in February because near my best time decided we'd do one abroad every year, yeah, just to kind of get my husband record as an excuse to go away.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it is.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I don't think because I've done the great, because I'd done Birmingham last year okay.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: I did it in two hours thirty-two.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: I did the Great North Run in two hours thirty-three.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, okay.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I hadn't really thought too much of it.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'd done the training, done it all.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of think I don't r I didn't respect the distance.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: So going over Christmas and everything, I probably didn't train as much.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: And going into Napoli, um, probably wasn't really mindset-wise where I had been for the other two races.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I did it and it was horrific.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: I literally had to shoot into a pizzeria at mile two for a number two.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that was already at mile two, it already started, and then at mile three, my calf cramped.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I've when I finished, I've never felt so ill.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't feel like I was gonna finish because at Napoli as well, you've got a time restriction on it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I finished it in three hours, I think it was.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was you know, which it's some people be really happy with three hours, but me, it wasn't I wasn't happy with the time because I wasn't, it was more that I wasn't happy with I mean, I felt ill, really ill after.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so that really got into my head.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Now I did Great North Run this year in 244.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I still haven't got back to that time um at all.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: And and I've kind of stopped thinking a bit about the time.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to get under the 230 and start to get quicker.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um and but like you said about you know, you feel like the fattest person there.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: My husband, who did run when he was younger and ran for the county, and he did the London triathlon before we met, you know, he he naturally can just go out and do three miles, you know what I mean?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: He did the Birmingham Half-Marathon with me this year and didn't really train for it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: He trained up to about seven miles, wasn't you know, didn't really do much.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: He did that.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: We got there and he said, Oh my god, look at all these people, they look so fit.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: And they look at oh my god, that person.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: I said to him, I've been there, do not judge anyone by how they look, because you can look at someone who you don't think looks like a runner, and they'll probably be the one who goes quicker than the one who looks like a runner.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: So don't even judge what anybody looks like because you cannot tell in those events.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now he finished half an hour before me with minimal training, he couldn't move for about two weeks and he's not ran again and doesn't want to do it again.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I think sometimes you can't compare yourself to other people because just because he can go out and run half a marathon in, I think he did it in like 217 or something like that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um I still say he's got muscle memory from when he ran all through his like teens and got all that there.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think you do have an element of that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm naturally quite well, not so much now because running's tightened me up, but I used to be quite flexible because of all the years of gymnastics.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm I mean, now I'm running, I'm like, I need to start doing more stretching because it's it's getting worse.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, he did that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I all I'd say to anybody who runs is don't compare yourself to anybody.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: You'll see all these people on social media who are hitting phenomenal times, and that is great for them.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely great for them.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'd never be jealous of anybody, about be envious, but not jealous of anybody.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: But you can only run your own race and you can only do what you can do.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: And every time you do a 5k or a 10k or a half marathon, your body has just done something fantastic for you.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it don't judge yourself on anybody else and just go out and do it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: And because you never ever feel bad afterwards, and other than Napoli.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: And that's because I didn't train.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: So make sure you train.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I'd say.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think you can just go out and do half a marathon or a marathon off the cuff, because unless you're my husband, you can't.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can't.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've hit you've hit some important points there, which which you know it it's reassuring because you know I've I've talked about this a lot.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think in the sense of I you don't want I would never want anybody to hate running.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you start chasing times, you're gonna it's the quickest way, pun intended to hate running.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think running, I think for me, I and I'm I'm happy to debate this point.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I always say I don't think distance is too bad.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you start trying to get quicker, that's that's when you start hating it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you start trying to run faster than you're able to, which is you know, if you want to, it's fine.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the quickest way, again, pun intended to hate it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I, you know, distance at a slow pace, whatever that looks like for you.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, most decent runners can cope with when you start trying to do intervals and thresholds and all this business, 400s and all that mark, it gets to a place where people start to hate it because they feel obliged to do it, and that's where injuries happen.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I get I totally get it.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you something interesting, and and and this goes back to the age thing again.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about I want to talk about your page and your community in a second, um, because we could be here for weeks with this tangent.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I've I finished 15th at my local 10k last year, 14th this year, 15th last year.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why I said that, yeah, not to impress you up.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll I'll tell you why.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm impressed though.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, you can be.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the what really impressed me was when I looked at the the people above me, and at it was at like 280 last year, 250 this year, um, there was only one person younger than 30.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, how interesting is that?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this year, the guy who won this year's was in the 40 to 44 category.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm saying there is you don't have to run fast.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like doing I do what I do because I enjoy that a lot to push myself and whatever else.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I just like to, you know, you know, like I said, out of breath when I do my shoe last up when I'm 28.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just I that's my reminder to say, wow, you know.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I just think it shows that actually you can still do amazing things, even if you're whether that's your first 5k or whether that's whatever it is, even with expected age, because we all think they're going to be young kids and they're not.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and half the people I see round here when I go for my runs are people my age, a little bit younger or older.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: There's not many, I don't see many 20-year-olds out running when I'm running if I'm being honest.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they might run after in the morning.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they might have been out the night before, they're probably more energetic than I am.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: But um the I think oh I don't know, point, but when we're at our age going running, I think any any distance we do, I heard something recently where someone was saying that their husband likes to run fast for short distances, but they'd rather they'd rather be uncomfortable for longer distance than really in pain for shorter distances.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: And my thing is I like I do the interval training and I'll do like the 400 repeats and all that sort of stuff.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um I and I actually really enjoy that because it's short burst pain.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it, you know, and after you've done it, you do feel good.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if I had to push myself at my 400 metre interval training for 800 metres or a mile and had to hold that for 5k even, um, I'd that that I would not enjoy that.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: I would much rather be uncomfortable for longer um and enjoy it.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I I do want I would like to get quicker.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but at the moment I'm really I am really enjoying running at the minute.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what people say to me a lot, Nick, and it's it's uh it's funny actually, because when I like obviously I'm a running coach and people are messaging me back if I'm sort of following up with people who've inquired, and they'll say, Oh, I'm just enjoying my running at the moment.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, well, you you can enjoy your running and still push yourself.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's no like you don't have to the there's not like a line in the sand where it says, you know, yeah, you either enjoy your running or try and run faster.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually no, you can, you know, you can it you can do both.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes that I've talked about numerous times on this podcast before and on my on my Instagram, it's like you've got to be careful that you don't go too far the other way, which is like this slow running snobbery thing, which is like people feel bad for trying to get faster.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, no, that's okay as well.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's no problem.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's what you project out that's the issue and why you're doing it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I get to a point where I'm going to hurt myself point, I've I've let myself I've done something wrong there.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: If but what I do is, and this this and this is the beauty of this, because this doesn't matter whatever pace or distance that you run.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you get to the end of a race, I'll I'll call them races or organized events, whatever you want to call them.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I always say, is there more there?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I do that in a balanced way.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that in a neurotic or an idiot way.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do that in a I think there's I don't know how much, but I think there's a bit more there.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what's pushed me to do 16 marathons and whatever else I've done, is just because I always think and I'll find and you'll get to your point where you'll go, do you know what?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I can't I can't do much more than that.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: But just find out.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you if you if you stop, but if you my advice is if you start to hate it, and I mean hate it, I don't mean 400s, they're a bit uncomfortable, but I can do them.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean if you start hating it, that's the time to say okay.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: See, I don't because I'm I'm very competitive, but again, see, I don't call them races because a a race to me is something I can win.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: I can't win.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm not gonna win.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I do you know what?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm quite fine with that, but I'm very, very competitive against myself and I'm very hard on myself in all aspects of life.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: So if I like I beat myself up for so long after Napoli, um, not because of the time, but because I hadn't respected the distance and I hadn't put the training in, I'd let myself down.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um the Great North Run was feeling great until mile eight.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was thinking, my god, I'm on target for like under two and a half hours here.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it didn't go right.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: I had to stop, I ended up with carbonation, my calf again, and you know, I then had to walk run towards the end.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um yet my my best friend and his sister walked, ran it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: They did five minutes run, one minute walk, and they finished in two hours twenty-one.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's good run walk, that is.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's great Great North.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because that that ain't that ain't an easy course, that you know.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a little that's a sneaky little course that is the Great North.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit undulating.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: That bit, yeah, that 11 mile thing.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a bit that'll catch you out, that will.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I think if I'd have started the run walk with them, I'd have gone on two and a half hours because I think I'd have I would have been fine with them.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I've and then this could be controversial, I don't know, but I've already decided I'm doing the London marathon next year in a walk-run.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: You would be in by now, I'm sure you do.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm in on the Saturday.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: People have done people have done sub threes, Jeffing, Nick.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I just know any anything four miles or under when I'm training, I I run.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I've only just started doing the Jeffin thing.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I had tried it before I did it before my when I had really bad issues with my calf after Napoli, I had to build up back again.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: One minute run, one minute walk, and then I had to build back up to running again.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I did a seven miler on Saturday, oh sorry, Sunday, and I did five one and I forced myself because my friend said to me when they started it at the Great North, and they did that first five minutes, and then they started walking, and they were feeling really good.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: She said no, we were like, No, we're sticking to this.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I stuck to it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: I did seven miles on Sunday, I did it probably at the same pace I do it when I run it.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: I enjoyed it so much more.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's the first time I finished something thought I had more in me for that, and that was it, it's up here, it's all psychological.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, nobody cares, like you already said.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's the bit beauty of this, nobody really cares.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, the beauty of this is like, and this might be controversial for the listeners out there, but when you finish a particular event, it doesn't say uh next to your time, yeah, but you're unwalked, it just says your time.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So like nobody cares.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like these people that say, like, you know, you have to walk during who cares, doesn't matter.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you've got a goal and you have you don't you only have to complete it, you know.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you something interesting about this.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that a lot of this, there's two things.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of it comes from the the the the the snapping at slower runners, whatever you want to call them.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I think comes from people who are just jealous that they haven't got a place in a particular run and somebody else has, so they vent that frustration at the internet like everybody does, and people lose their minds.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the second problem, I think a lot of old school runners, marathons, for example, or half marathons, were always running events.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, anyone walking is is I would say is a fairly recent phenomenon, and recency can be however long you want.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you look at the 80s and the first ever London marathon, all these stuff, no one was walking, everyone ran it.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think a lot of people have got that embedded belief that this is a running event or it's an athlete's event.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't walk during these events.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's no right and wrong there, it's what people think.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I think individually, if you're gonna that's gonna get you round and get your time, if you walk the first half and then spank the second half and did the time, who cares?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, there's no asterisk.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: And do you know what I'd say to those people as well?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's probably because I haven't run for all those years, is that those people who are run walking, like me, like other people who do it, they're not competing against you, they're not doing it for you, or to win the race, or to beat you at something to qualify for anything.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's your race, focus on you.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are you looking at?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Who's this is what I said when I do my I do my rants about this.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you looking why why why would I care what you if I'm in the same race, why would I care what you're doing?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's hard.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard enough, especially marathon, it's hard enough.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do running your own race.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you bothered about what what are you bothered about what that person's doing?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then and you know what, the only time I think I'd be annoyed if someone and that would be my own issue, will be if someone run walked it and beat me, which they did.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also, as well, I think you've done Birmingham half in the past.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously I'm I'm from Birmingham myself.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think there is a safety issue.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody puts themselves in the wrong wave and has to walk after a kilometre and and they put themselves in a faster wave, there are especially if the root if the root's bottlenecking and all that, there are safety issues there to concern.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Of course there are, yeah.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't, um excuse me, you can't um but you can't pre-empt that though.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: You could be the most like look at the Eilish McColden.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, she did the Great North Run and had to pull out because of a a really nasty blister.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so I imagine she had to she had to s to stop, took herself to one side and had to stop.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, it it's things happen, even if you're the most fittest runner, you can be running and still have to stop for whatever reason.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's um I don't think people should put themselves necessarily in the wrong waves and be stopping in front of people at the middle.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: There should be a a space that they should go to the side and move to the side.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's rare, by the way.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's I mean, that's just a rare example of when that potentially could be.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've I have seen that right very rarely.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is mind your own business, you know, it's just like we should uh it's like other and I think people people just like to vent their anger.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm gonna do a podcast on this about people just going mad about things, but like just going just losing their minds about stuff that doesn't concern them.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to have an opinion on something, but like getting really angry about like someone that someone did the Boston Marathon, like someone charity walked the Boston Marathon dressed as a fairy and they live in Lincoln.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like what you get, why are you getting so angry?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are you getting so angry for?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think it is.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's like the do they see themselves as elitist?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do they see themselves because they've done the London Marathon, they've ran it, that they are better than somebody who didn't run it or who run walked it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, if that's what matters to you, you're sad.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: But also, um, look at your time.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: People be able to tell if you ran the London Marathon in two and a half hours and I do it in five and a half hours, then not being funny, your time itself gives you that accolade.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to care about what I did it in, and there's that many thousands of runners.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: And also, it's the people like the everyday Joes, like me and the other people who start running late, that make these events the big things they are as well.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you only had your elite runners running it, how many people will be running the London Marathon?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: You wouldn't have the people running with fridges on their backs and the people running with you know, for the charities, you wouldn't have the crowds and the phenomenal event it is if you didn't have the people you people, everyday people thinking, I want to do that.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's something I want to do.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is as well, which I and I'll come on, I want to talk about your community in a second.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is as well, is like you can you teach your algorithm on social media to show you what you want to show it.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: So like these posts, and again, uh people say, Oh, social media's lying to you.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not, it's showing you what you engage with.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you engage with a lot of starter runners, plus size runners, people starting the journey, older runners, you're gonna see more of that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's who I want to see.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see people who need support.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to great Mr.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: 220, 225 marathon, and brilliant, brilliant, but you don't need to help.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: You just need help to get to that next next level.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna get help from a wider community, and the wider community is gonna support people because what you bear in mind is I've been in the fitness industry now for 17 years, started my own journey 20 years ago.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need to help the people who are doing nothing, and there's a lot of them.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: For every one person doing a 220 marathon, there are millions who are sedentary who could, with the right structure and support and community and whatever it might be, start a journey.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you put that person off, if you go online and criticize that plus size person, because they're obviously easy targets because all the names and the school kid stuff comes out, you could stop them.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: People tried to stop me when I started.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had all sorts of nonsense said to me.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was£70 overweight.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, and you're trying to stop me changing that because it makes you uncomfortable.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the problem is, and I'm just gonna think oh, careful because I'll rant you you'll get me ranting, but probably the problem is, and this is this is an awful thing to say, and this might make me sound elitist.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: The people digging people out are never the fast runners, it's not the super duper fast, but honestly, Nick, it's not the super duper fast people, and I'm talking super duper fast.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had a guy on my page giving it all this, and he was like, his marathon time was alright.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it wasn't it was it was nowhere near as fast as mine, but he was acting like he was some sort of elite who could judge everybody else.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, What's your marathon?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the comments.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's your marathon time then?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: You keep chirping, what's your marathon?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us your marathon, and he told us, I was like, Oh, okay.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what you're so it's it's good, but it's nothing to it's nothing to insult people with.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, and do you know what I think as well?
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have we've got such over the years had such an obesity crisis that has put such a a strain on the NHS.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: And now you've got more people than ever trying to, you know, get into running, getting into exercise, you know, through we should encourage people because also, as well, my thing is, you know, that person who is having those comments on your on your page and what have you, how would they feel if their child was in that position, their child was overweight, their child wanted to get into something, and somebody like them made those comments to their child, you know.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's I'm quite lucky, my algorithms are quite positive.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think because when I've had a couple of negative things said, and actually I've gone back to the people and asked them if they're okay, because I think it is a lot more good for them than it is, and this one person put something quite mean on, and I actually went back to them and I was like, Are you okay?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because what you've put is is something quite you know, mean and trying to be hurtful.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not feeling hurt or feeling offended.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: I actually want to make sure you're okay.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they didn't come back to me, but you know what?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Genuinely, I was thinking to have those sorts of thoughts and those sorts of feelings about somebody you don't even know that you could quite easily just scroll past, you know.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: I I think that says more about you, and I think sometimes people need to stop look deep inside them and think why they're making these comments about other people.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think well, and would they and actually do you know what?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Would they say it to their own child?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say it to people's face.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because no matter what you think it wouldn't no matter what you think of the man, Mike Tarrison said social media's made everybody soft, because if you'd have said that to somebody's face 25 years ago, you'd got punched in the face.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, you would have.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so community then, your over 40s running club.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: What made you say, Oh, I need to create something for people like me?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what it's probably quite it's probably quite sad really?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people do say this about social media, and this is not um a slight on any of my friends or family or anything like that.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: But I started putting my running journey on my personal social media, yeah.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: And um most majority of my friends and family were really, really good about it.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, some people would have which would I call them friends necessarily, probably more associates than friends, used to obviously have the little dig, oh, you're running again, or you're doing this, or you're doing that.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then but then my me and my husband, because he doesn't do social media, I've actually got some of his friends used to connect with me to speak to him.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got the same social, we've got the same Facebook.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I had some of his work colleagues and some of his old friends contact me asking me me for advice on how I got into running.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, set and actually people at work who are younger than me saying that my that I inspired them because they'd seen me go from being, you know, sort of 15, 15 on our stone, to where I was now.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they it inspired them to run.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think so to move it away from my personal social media and to put make me not feel like I was kind of going, look at me, I'm running.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I set up a an Instagram and then I started to connect with people who were like-minded, and then the people from my quite a few people from my actual personal Facebook came onto my Instagram.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um and having that when people turn around, and I don't see, I find it quite cringy if someone says you are inspirational, because I don't think I'm inspirational.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think if I can inspire you to want to do it, but I'm not inspirational.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: But having people reach out to me saying that they had a bad day, they went for a run, they started exercising because of me, because I'm not that um I'm not, you know, you and I'm not this is not a stereotype to anybody, but I'm not your atypical um gorgeous, glamorous, smooth-skinned young runner who, you know, could put your your running top on and your shorts on and look like they could then step into it onto the front page of Vogue magazine, you know.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: I could dress up and still be nowhere near Vogue magazine.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like a Rogue magazine, do you know what I mean?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think they saw somebody, and I work full-time, you know, I've got a family, I've I've got the usual stuff that people have, it's not my entire life.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I have come from, and I don't mean in the financial sense, but I've come from nothing.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that was and that was what really inspired me.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then ultimately, I think my well unfortunately, my my Instagram took off because I think I also struggled a bit hormonally as well.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I was diagnosed with PMDD about three years ago, which is pre premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the most it's basically what I describe it to people as the most extreme form of PMT.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um and when it hit its worst, um, I'm quite a I'm quite an obediological person, but when it hit its worst, I became suicidal.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm quite open about it now, I wasn't at the time, obviously, and with my kids they're aware of everything now.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I actually went private, I was looking to go private through work, um, and I didn't even know that's what it was, I just didn't feel right.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I got diagnosed with PMDD, and I think that I realized I'd probably had that my whole life as well.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then doing the run-in and feeling like you're inspiring people, it felt really good, but then I had this meltdown, and I don't know why, because I don't cry very often, but I just I for some reason and I I think I was definitely you know in a very bad hormonal place, and I went to my personal trainer at six o'clock in the morning.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: I he was not very nice over a certain situation I went into, it's on my social media.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that, yeah.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: I did see that one.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I used to be a personal trainer myself, so I did I did see that one, so I was yes.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it was and I and I didn't do it to be, but I don't know even do you know what?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know what possessed me to do it.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: I've got no idea.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: I I cringe every time it comes up, but that is ultimately what took off my social media and through that video I've connected to so many people.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think I think it brought people to my Instagram, and then the people who stayed are the ones who were the who are the runners.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'd say probably it was nine like 97% of my Instagram is women, um the majority between the ages of 35 and 54.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and yeah, so ultimately that's what took.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm grateful for doing that video.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: I would delete it if I thought I could.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I need to leave it there.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Now it happened, it's there.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um but that's kind of what took off my Instagram.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: But it's the it's been the community, and now like I said, I I called it my Instagram over for it's running close.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: At the moment, you know, I we haven't got a physical club, but that's my plan for the future now.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: I want one day to have a physical club, whether it is a load of over 40s women, and not necessarily over 40s, young younger women could come if they want to, you know, it's not gonna be that's just what it's aimed at.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um and whether it just gets women out, gets us out talking, gets us out together, gets us out getting exercise, a safe place for women to be together and run.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, anybody don't I don't care what shape or size you are, and I don't care if you want to crawl, there's no judgment from me.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's that that is ultimately I haven't got the time at the minute, I've got a full-time job and I'm trying to like you know, sort of navigate everything.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: But my my dream would be if I had my A and I won the lorry tomorrow, I would set up a community and I'd have regular runs with women over 40, and I would create that community at the moment.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: Majority of it is online.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some of the women I have met in person, um, because either they're local or I've met them at a run.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm going to the running show in January.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I've already arranged to meet a few people there.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it is coming offline, but that would be ultimately my aim would be to, yeah, would be to create that.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: And even if it's not physically here, because a lot of my my sort of followers are elsewhere.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but even if I create a community where they go there together, I just set where they're going to and they meet together there.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: But that would that would be that for me would be lovely.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not for me to win races, that's not what I'm about.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm never going to win a race unless I'm the only one entering.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to win.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's about getting women who are later on who are feeling perimenopausal or are they are having challenges or they are, you know, kids have left home, gone to university, or whatever that whether you haven't got kids, you know, whether you just got to that age, um, and feeling like there's there's there's more.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you've you've answered loads of my questions already.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's good, now's good.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's good.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: I always I I often say I've got always got an affinity for people who um who can talk more than me.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's rare.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no, my husband said to me, because I've always said I've not got a talent, I've not got a talent, I'm not creative, I've not got a talent.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: And he actually said to me, he said, Nicola, your talent is talking.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can talk to anybody.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: We're getting a lift, he said.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: And by the bottom of that lift, you know their entire life story.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think um I was gonna talk about one question I was gonna ask you was I think it shows that you care, I think sometimes, which you're good, and sometimes you like we the problem is, and I'm very similar, is we nowadays because we've got all this information telling us we're good and we're bad, and you shouldn't say this when you say hello, and all this nonsense that we you know sell you stuff like you we're all bad and terrible and we need to improve on everything area.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes it's just that you care and you want to get everything out.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a lot of the challenges that you've talked about today I've faced, you know, and and you know, we we sometimes it's hard just to go, well, actually, I perhaps should listen a bit more here, but I think it shares your passion for what you're trying to do, and how I think sometimes you know, and so and as a there's a pro as as somebody who's a coach, the biggest problem that I have is I've nearly done it today.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Funnily enough, as I you want people to do well, but you can't make them do well, and yet sometimes you force it because you really like and there's a wonderful expression which I heard when I first became a trainer.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: My best friend said it to me, he says, Never want more for somebody than they want for themselves.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it's the quickest way to get frustrated.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I just think it shows that you care, Nick, and that's that's alright.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's alright.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I think when it's the same as your kids, though, isn't it?
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: You yeah, when you're when you're nagging at them to do their do their revision for their GSEs and things, you you it's not it it's a and I imagine it's the same with your runners, you care so much and you know they can do better, and you know if they do better, how much better they'll feel and how much happier with themselves they'll be.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's where it comes from.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: What have the women in your community?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you mentioned it's mostly women, so let's let's let's let's explore what of the women in your community, what are the key things they've taught you about barriers when it comes to getting into running?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what other people think?
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's a big thing about what other people think.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, time.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of the time, you know, I mean, I think it's very different now.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't again, I don't want to be dashed down for stereotyping because I'm certainly not, but I think it's very different now as far as the man-woman relationship in in marriages and families.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that that dynamic is very different now, but I do think that women to a degree do still take on the vast majority of that role.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes, and it's not even the fact that I mean my husband's phenomenal, you know, he's very hands-on, very 50-50.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I think I naturally take that on myself.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's my issue, not his.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I naturally organise those things.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that he doesn't want to, it's just that I'm a control freak and I take over.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think as women, that's probably our issue.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: We we take over and then moan.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know what you're I don't know what you mean.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: We're not talking to our own husbands, we will admit it, but we talk to our own husbands, we're perfect.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: But no, we do, we we naturally we I think it's naturally in us to take over that role.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: So we take on all this stuff that we feel we need to take on, and actually we probably don't, you know, but I think that's a definitely been a barrier for people is finding the time.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it's just having the belief in themselves as well.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's that people people have got all sorts of different stories um of where they've come from.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's people, there's one girl I follow particularly who's based in Australia, and I speak to her regularly, and she's lost a lot of weight through running, and she's very emotional with it.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the emotion comes from the belief now that she's doing things she never thought were possible to do.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and her barrier was that she didn't think she could do it, and and just little things like some people, men and women, think they're not good enough themselves, so they don't try because they think they're not good enough.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just you don't know unless you try.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: I would rather try and fail and go, okay, gave that a shot.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: Not not that really that good at that than not believe myself, but but I think that's me and my mindset, and not everyone's got that.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I just think the first thing you should do is you know what, believe that you can do it, yeah, because you'll surprise yourself.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, the more you believe in yourself and the more you do, the more confidence you'll get in yourself.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a tattoo across my side here when I got really low and things were really bad.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: And the tattoo says love yourself first.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you don't love yourself and if you don't put that time into yourself, away from your family, away from your commitments, then you're not going to fulfil yourself.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: So love yourself first, and then everything else will come together, hopefully.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_02: And life's not perfect, you know.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: I know that.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I'll I'll caveat that and saying that we've been taught a pro a negative programme of society is that loving yourself is arrogant, and that's not what it is, because arrogance is you you you are trying to obtain something from others by that.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an attempt to gain power over others, whereas true power, which empowers another one that's been made out to be this negative thing.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's only if you use it to exact over others, having power as a human being is very attractive because you feel powerful like you can achieve anything, but that also includes the greater good and also includes win-win for everybody, yeah, because you can you can love yourself and still and if but if you can never truly love another person if you don't love yourself, because what most people think love is is actually attachment.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I don't think you can ever truly be loved until you love yourself.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, no, no, of course.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've been with my husband 20 years, and I'd say, and again, and this is probably going really deep, but we probably I probably we probably got the best relationship we've had now, but I'd say, and again, I he better not ever listen to this podcast, is I'd say it's because of me, because of my insecurities about how I felt about me, yeah, and how I'd lost me, and I kind of projected that onto him.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying everyone does that, but that's what I did, and I almost sought that um sorry that validation from him, yeah.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you should never seek validation from somebody else, you should only seek validation from yourself.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that if you love yourself, it makes it so much easier for people around you to love you.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, it's it's I ain't so deep, and I think it's without going into too much depth, it's it's when you've been through things in your life, and I think and you come out the other side, you have different perspectives.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think some people will disagree with what I say, and do you know what?
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's absolutely fine, you know.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: Please do, you know, that's okay.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't mind.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if you all thought the same, what a boring world it would be.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god, yeah, don't get me started on it.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: And if there's a load of me's my husband, well, God, he wouldn't be here still.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: He'd have been like, get me off this planet.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think it's um you know, if people don't then it's fine, no one's walked in my shoes, no one's walked in your shoes, no one's walked in their shoes, and I think all you've got to do is long as you're not offending anybody, yeah.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I hate when people say, Well, I'm in titles my opinion.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, you are, but if it hurts somebody, why have it?
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, have your opinion, but do it in the right way.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, I just think there's no there's no real need to don't agree or disagree with what anybody says, just get on with your life and just do what's right for you and go in the direction you want to go in.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: But there's there's different things that happen in your life that make you reassess things and that make you probably read into things a bit deeper than you ever did used to before.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely, most definitely, and so you know what, no, no, no.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's great because what you've done there is you basically covered everything and more um in a way that you know I I I didn't realise how deep this went.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's only be a good thing, so I thank you for that.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: No worries.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: Final two questions from me.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: My first question is there is somebody listening to this woman, 44, 45, maybe is thinking about starting a fitness journey, running journey, or maybe pushing it to the next level.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say to them?
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: Do it.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: Just get out and do it.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_02: Don't overthink what you're wearing, don't over just get and do you know what?
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: Don't even think about the trainers on that first run.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: Just get a pair of trainers on, get a pair of leggings on, get a top on, and get out.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, simple as that.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: What and my final question, which is my philosophical question, which I ask everybody, which you've kind of touched on, but uh, you know, to bring it home is how has this experience running particularly the whole experience changed you, Nick?
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's made me for the first I'd probably say for the first time in my in and it sounds really sad, but the first time in my life being older and understanding more about me, it's made me like me.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: I actually I actually really like me, and that sounds really pompous, but I do, and I feel strong.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: I really for me I I do feel really strong.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: I remember going to like go ape, and you know, and you jump, you jump, you put that thing around the harness.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: The harness and you go over, you go jump from tree to tree and stuff like that, yeah.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: You don't get you to jump off at the end and like almost just drop to the bottom.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I had like a real anxiety about that because I felt so and I was overweight then and I wasn't really doing anything.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: I felt so uncomfortable and so like my legs aren't gonna stop me, they're not gonna stop me.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was so scared, and I it sticks in my head that feeling because I think do you know what I'm gonna we're gonna need to go back to go ape because I need to jump off there because I trust my body now that my legs are gonna hold me up at the bottom of there when we jump off.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_02: I can stand up still.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I just it's like it, I just feel I just feel that I just feel happier.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant, thank you very much.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: And again, how do you feel about your made you feel?
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't ever I think sometimes I don't ever sit there and put it into perspective in the in the way it should be because physically you know, at 28 I was a mess.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: And to do a sub-three marathon at 45 which I guess was a very symbolic thing for me.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't ever see is nothing short of a miracle.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: If I see where I started from like what I did a couple of Sundays ago at that 10k when I finished like second in my age group, it's like again, it's not to impress me for me.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's a miracle.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I can tell though, when you're saying that, you're almost embarrassed to be proud of yourself.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird, it's hard.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, God, we won't go into this because quite get the leather couch, get the leather couch and whatever else.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, if you ever start a podcast, you can interview me and we'll be here for three weeks talking.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, it it is a bit like I don't uh what I what I never want to do, if I'm honest, is when I I don't talk about my own athletic endeavours because I do what I do because I enjoy it.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I would never want anybody to think that a sub three marathon or a whatever 10k or whatever is the prerequisite.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: I do that because I enjoy it.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing HIROX in a few weeks, I enjoy it.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous, it's hard, but it it's what it gives me something.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy it.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm always a bit conscious because I don't want people to go, oh, I don't want to run a sub three, but you don't have to, I'm not saying you have to do that.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a little bit of me holds back, but I think if I when I it gives me the faith to know that I can overcome anything.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't think you because from from me, somebody who does it who who barely runs a sub three half marathon, let's be honest.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my thing is, and I will probably feel think differently for the people, but my thing is I want to know how you do that.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: Not because I ever think I'll run a sub three marathon, but I want to know what do you eat, how do you feel?
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: I won't go into it.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: But that and that's that's inspirational.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know what's the thing is sub three, it's inspirational.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell everybody listen to this.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about sub three.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you this.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll go way back to the start.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: When I started in 2014, my first marathon, nine weeks after my mum died of cancer in 64, it was horrendous.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: London, hot, didn't train properly, thought I was uh because I was a fitness professional, thought I could do it, couldn't promise my mum I'm gonna death, but I'd do it in four hours, did it in 359-21, had to sprint at the end because I didn't know what I was doing, no watch, no literally no nothing, right?
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was grabbing stuff from the side of the road, no gels, mess compared to now context mess.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sub four's quick for some people for me.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was 12 years, 13 years younger, whatever.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: I finished it and I went, I can do that better.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how it started.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't start with I can do sub three, it started with I think I can do that better, and then I just kept going and and up in it limits 1%, 2%, you know, where's where's my 1%?
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then it eventually got to that point.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, you know what?
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: I did a 320.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've got it on my if you go to my Instagram and look at my pin posts, I tell my story.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: 2017 Manchester, I did 325.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: I went, ooh, hmm, maybe.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now I might have got to 315 and gone, no chance, but I I I just kept chipping, and it it always stayed within my physical ability, I think, and I always enjoyed the challenge.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: If any of that had stopped, I'd have gone, I'm out.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because like, I will I PB am out.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is a PB in there?
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, but it's it's whether or not I'm willing to, you know what I mean?
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: So all you've got to do, folks, because she's Nicola's asked me, it's her interview, but she's asked me, so I'm gonna answer the question, is just say, is there something could do I want more?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then do that in increments.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go silly, and I see silly on Instagram.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I did a four hour, my target sub three.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hang on a minute, mate.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: You've got yeah, you've got some steps here.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: It took me 10 years, it you know, it took me five years to go sub three of you know, I went 303, 302, hang on, no, yeah, 303, 302, COVID.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, COVID, and then eventually got there.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, that's what I would say.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: So just just just just just explore and be curious and see where it takes you, but never hate the process.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'll get my sub two and a half hour, half hour.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: Never hate the process, and then see, and just always be cute.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: The key word is curiosity.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you start hating it, stop.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for me, I know that my goal for high rocks in a few weeks, whether I do it or not, I don't know.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: On the day, you never know.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_00: Grace of God, whatever expressions you want to use, what will be will be.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that what I want to do, I physically can do.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just whether or not the duck's lying off on the day, and I'll keep going until I can't do any more.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: So no, that's not thank you.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: Anything I want to say, thank you.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're welcome, and thank you for asking, and thank you for everybody listening.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you go back, anyone who is brand new to this podcast, please subscribe as you normally do, and always just go back over the episodes because I do talk a little bit about my own journey in there as well.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, where can people find you online, Nick?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm on Instagram at Over40s Running Club.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, I'm on TikTok, I'm not as busy on TikTok, but it's 40s running club on TikTok and over and over 40s running club on Facebook as well.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm literally everywhere.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: Good, that's good, that's what we want.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: We want people to share in that.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if that has resonated with it, please go and follow uh Nick over on Instagram.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, particularly that's where I follow Nick, and yeah, you'll you'll get that sort of inspirational story and you'll get a community, particularly if you're a you're a woman.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I in another life I do run a women-only group fitness programme for over 40s as well.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's an age group that does, I I do believe is needs a little bit of TLC, because I think if you go in gyms and stuff nowadays, it's not necessarily the best environment for that particular demographic.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I did that thing, and I think that's why it's good that you're doing that as well.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: So please follow Nick, please follow Nick's journey.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to follow me while you're there at 12 months tomorrow.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can follow me over there.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to join my free running community for the other 35s, that's an online one.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can join that as well.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just click the link in my bio and you can do that there.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you are brand new to the podcast, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast from, Apple or Spotify.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to drop a like or a comment on particularly Spotify if you're a regular listener.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this will be a really inspirational episode for a lot of people who perhaps want to start, want to build confidence, want to move away from the confidence uh comparison trap online.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: So please make sure you share this with your friends as well.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, Nick, thank you for being so generous with your time uh and thank you for being so open.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with that, um, I think that episode will inspire uh a lot of people.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for asking me.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_02: You're very welcome.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks very much, and I will uh speak to you all very soon indeed.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:02:42
  unknown: Thank you.