Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / George Sales: A Vegan's Journey in the Atlas Mountain Race

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George Sales: A Vegan's Journey in the Atlas Mountain Race · Zone2Speak Podcast

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Now, let's get into the episode.
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Alright, on this episode of Zone to Speak, I sit down with George Sayles,
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an ultra-endurance cyclist who took on the brutal Atlas Mountain Race,
2:54
a 1,300 kilometers self-supported race across Morocco, all while feeling entirely on a vegan diet.
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George isn't just a racer, he's an athlete who thrives in the extremes,
3:07
pushing his body and mind to the limit while proving that plant-based endurance
3:12
performance is more than possible.
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His journey through the Atlas Mountain Race was a true test of resilience,
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strategy and survival, navigating rent-less climbs, harsh conditions and the
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mental battles that come with ultra-distance racing.
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From his dedication to being a vegan, to the lessons learned on Morocco's rugged
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trails, this conversation is about passion, endurance and redefining limits.
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Welcome to Zone to Speak, George. Thank you for having me on and thank you for the intro.
3:43
That was uh that was amazing well you are
3:46
amazing and i can't wait to hear all about
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because i am a vegetarian and i find it
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so hard to be on endurance race
3:55
and be a vegetarian i'm just like whatever whatever
3:59
whatever and i throw
4:02
that out my diet out the window and
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just eat whatever i can find on the way so very curious
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to know more about how
4:12
how did you do it but first i know
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i looked into a little bit what you did and i know you did
4:18
hellenic mountain race as well twice so atlas mountain is now your first rodeo
4:24
what inspired you to sign up for atlas mountain are you doing all the nelson
4:28
races yeah i mean personally well i signed with hellenic i think the first Stuart
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Hellenic ran, which was, yeah, two years ago.
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And Nelson kind of advertised it, that it would be the best way to get into
4:39
the mountain races, which is funny because, as little people know,
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it didn't end up being that way, and it was a really tough race.
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The weather was really difficult.
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And, yeah, it was a thing. Yeah, I'm surprised they're finished,
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you know, but it was a really great race, and it kind of, there were tastes
4:55
as to what Nelson's events were like.
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So after I'd ridden that, I was always looking towards what I would do next,
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and I think Atlas was an obvious choice.
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And also I've recently been to Morocco with Albion for a bikepacking trip in November last year.
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I think as soon as I came home from that trip, I was like 100% decided I wanted
5:15
to do Atlas just because, you know, Morocco is just an incredible country.
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I want to see more of it really.
5:20
Yeah, I haven't been, but I really want to go bikepack. Definitely not doing Atlas Mountain.
5:26
I'm not a mountain biker, and it sounds very, very tough.
5:31
Yeah, to be honest, I think I'm going to go back and do more bikepacking.
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Just have less pressure and be able to take my time and look at the views a little bit more.
5:42
Yeah, yeah. Any moments that stand out that made the suffering worth it?
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Yeah i mean i think that i'll say compared to hellenic hellenic is beautiful
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the whole time and also you have a lot more daylight because it's later in the year whereas in morocco
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that a lot of the race is spent you know a night in the
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dark it's the night can be 12 hours long so there is
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a lot of um i wouldn't call it suffering but there's a lot of time where you
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don't have like beautiful views things like that to keep you going but every
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every morning without fail was like the most incredible sunrise i've ever seen
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uh rumbling particularly stands out i think there's i don't know what kind of
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words but just before the cronial road
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which i did later in that afternoon i had this incredible sunrise on a on a big plateau,
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and yeah it was just the most breathtaking thing i've ever seen so.
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Moments while they were staced out along the road there was a lot of moments
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that made it all you know all the hard parts so wow i saw sherry cardona's youtube video about her race,
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and i was just thinking how some of the racers went through those spots at night
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time because it looked dangerous at night you know you don't see you can't see
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everything perfectly yeah it's yeah there's some really technical sections yeah,
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having done I mean my best reference is doing having done Hellenic twice there's
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some sections in the first year
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that I draw because also Hellenic was my third year of my first sector.
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I remember thinking the same thing, like, how? Imagine if I was playing for a good section at night.
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Oh, I'd have done it. And then the next year, I went through those sections at night.
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Things had changed, and it was kind of just fine. I think in the dark,
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you just... At least some people must get kind of scared in the dark,
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but I think, for me, you can't really see the scary parts, because it's dark.
7:32
So, but yeah, there were some technical sections in the race, for sure.
7:35
Yeah, that's very true. I was in the BikingMan Brazil, and we had very little daylight.
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Sunset was at 6 p.m and i
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was going through some really tough section but i couldn't see anything so
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i kept going because i had no idea like when
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is this going to stand no clue so kept going
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and there were actually a few deep apps at that section
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like people were like oh that was so hard and i'm like and that's
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the other thing about tracing you know something you might have been scared of you're
8:04
kind of you're proof to boo sometimes without realizing because it
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might be dark but you kind of have to do it all and you end up discovering new
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limits yourself because you know there's only ways to go forward so i think
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that's what makes the racing so amazing that's true absolutely or sometimes
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you want to stop but you're in the middle of nowhere and you're like yeah you
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gotta keep going i mean it's just the stuff to stop or the logistics and.
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And so you talked all beyond which they also support me and i love them how
8:34
did you gear up like bike toys anything that impact you on the race anything
8:40
that you would change Yeah, it's a good question.
8:43
I think this rail, I would say, I packed pretty safely.
8:48
Some people, I think, compared to some setups, mine was quite light,
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and then compared to other setups, mine was fairly heavy.
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As far as my preferences are, I'd say I packed quite heavy.
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So I had a full sleeping kit with an emergency bubby sleeping bag and a half-length
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mat, which is really good because I wanted to sleep.
9:09
Just because... yeah it's i've never
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done the race before i want to make sure i can finish so and
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also it was on the the kit list you
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had to take it so there's no option and clothing
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wise yeah all my gear is from albolin which is great because
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it's just incredible it packs down light
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and it means you're ready for kind of any
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weather because in the race we did have some really
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really hot dreams yeah yeah and
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then some really cold nights so you kind of it was
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like that's where i don't know if you can pack much lighter
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really because you need to be ready for everything so yeah i
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was i've really been with doing but i didn't leave a lot of my food
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at home so i think the main thing was i just
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took a lot of food because i was part of my challenge for the race was you know
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getting around on a vegan diet so i think most of the way on the bike was food
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okay i don't know if i can do anything next time so well that's a good feeling
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that's a good feeling to have so how How long have you been a vegan and what
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led you to adopt a plant-based diet?
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Really? It's this month. I'm pretty sure it's been 10 years now. Wow.
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I'm 25 and I've been vegan since I was 15. Wow.
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And it's totally important to note that I've always been vegetarian.
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My parents, my family are vegetarian.
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So it was probably an easy switch for me just because there's only a couple of things to take out.
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However, yes, I mean, I've been vegan just because I kind of discovered that
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it was a great way to minimize your impact on the environment.
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And for all the reasons that you know i
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stayed vegetarian you know it's just fair to not eat animals and i could cause
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unnecessary harm where possible in my life so pretty simple really yeah yeah
10:55
likewise same principles yeah i i did grew up in brazil and people are carnivores there.
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But i never found it difficult because i'm just happy
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to eat all the sides but i
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do love eggs so i think making the switch would
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be hard for me but it is something that
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it's heavy on my mind lately because it's also
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a terrible industry but now where
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i am in gerona i can find good options local
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options that it's a little bit more what's
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the word less cruel yeah absolutely
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yeah i mean you know like i think
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a lot of people you don't know nothing you know you don't
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know how to be perfect and it's it's always my
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my kind of morals it's just as long
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as you can then i do you know like i'm always
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well i wouldn't do a race if i didn't think i could do
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it vegan so but it's you know there's a lot of
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places in the road where people don't have the luxury to choose what they and
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that's completely fine and for a lot of people you know it's
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it's not that simple and it's taking steps you know
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reach a point that they're happy with but yeah it
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works for me and yeah so tell me
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how to do how are you able to do all these races being
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a vegan you said you you pack a lot of your food but can you carry enough how
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does it work it's a good question and i would say it's not that scientific i
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think i'm glad for the answer that i planned it all out and I had a list of
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everything I had and how much I needed to eat.
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So a Hellenic mountain race, if you're a vegetarian or vegan,
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it's a really good race because...
12:34
In in greece they quite a lot
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of they're not completely vegetarian but they they're due
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to their religion they're often fasting on certain days of the
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week and on those days they're not like 100 fasting they just eat predominantly
12:46
plants so if you kind of go to most restaurants they often have some options
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that cater towards cater towards being vegan and also i mean my often often
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my rural farm is like most places will have like french fries or something you
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know there's always something to eat.
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So Hellenic is a good one, and I didn't have to pack that much for that race.
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Alice is a different story, and I took... But firstly, I packed in Morocco.
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It was fine. You know, I had those vegetables, tajine, couscous,
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all those sort of things.
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But that was kind of because it was the middle of the day.
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There was plenty of time to kind of talk to someone that worked in a restaurant
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and kind of work out what I could eat.
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Whereas in the race, you know, it might be the middle of the night,
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there's not really any options it's very remote and so to kind of deal with that i packed,
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60 hydrated meals and that was my solution
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i just took six meals because i was aiming to do the
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race in between four and five days so kind
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of had a couple meals a day and then i went
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to race nutrition as well so i took lots of bars and gels which i
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would i always do anyway and then
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i did find some meals in the race so i had some
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tajine some couscous at the checkpoint three
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and checkpoint 2 there was vegan food oh
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wow so yeah so really you know my most
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places in the rare you know how do you have access to vegetables and do eat
14:08
dishes with vegetables it's just yeah i think atlas mountain race specifically
14:13
is known for omelets and i was really yes i didn't you know i didn't get stuck
14:19
and have to eat an omelet because more than anything i'd probably get quite
14:22
sick because it's been so long. Yeah, that's true.
14:26
Yeah, so if you have those meals, there's that over there. And do they have
14:31
like hummus or baba ganoush or any of those things?
14:35
No, no. Okay. Not on the race route. Okay.
14:42
You know, the races you go over are just on the home. They're so remote.
14:47
I think they just mostly have things that, you know, the long shelf life,
14:52
things that they can, you know, that they can sit their page until someone eats
14:56
it or they just, yeah, it's some really, really fresh stuff or stuff that,
15:01
you know, lasts for ages.
15:02
So there's not a, that's why eggs are so popular. So it's not a very wide,
15:06
there's not much of a wide variety of food.
15:08
Yeah. Good point. Yeah. It is very remote. Yeah.
15:13
And I like to lean. To lean is amazing, but they
15:16
typically you know they'll have them already cooked and they
15:19
usually have to have meat meat to jean so if you want to jean
15:22
you'd have to wait they're always happy to make one with vegetables
15:25
but you'd have to wait for like 45 minutes or
15:28
something to which in the version i for me wasn't
15:31
really wasn't really doable so yeah yeah
15:35
it was an interesting problem to try and solve for
15:38
sure and did were there any
15:41
concerns on proper feeling
15:44
like that you're getting all your nutrition especially like
15:48
you're you know putting a lot of hours during the
15:51
day you need all those calories you can get yeah
15:55
well yeah i mean there's definitely concerns
15:58
and i mean realistically it's never gonna be epic especially atlas mountain
16:04
race i think people that any you know people that eat meat or whatever you know
16:09
they most people still lose weight you know through the race and there's it's
16:14
already a challenge nutritionally so,
16:16
i was never chasing you know i was never chasing perfection i've never i've
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never kind of get a certain amount of like carbs calories or protein i mean
16:25
the the meals i had were like 800 calories each so i mean it's kind of a lot
16:30
but in the in the context of the rage there's not a lot of calories.
16:34
But between yeah i think yeah
16:38
you just got to be okay with the fact that it's not going to be perfect and
16:41
you're going to lose a bit of weight you know the race is yeah i think especially
16:44
towards the front of the race they're never yeah it's not particularly i wouldn't
16:48
say it's particularly a healthy thing to be doing in that sense like it's going
16:51
to be fire days probably terrible nutrition it's just about playing just about
16:55
enough to push you around and that's what i did so,
16:59
Yeah, but I don't think this is just for being a vegan.
17:02
I think even if you are a carnivore, you are always a little bit,
17:06
I think, on a calorie deficit and most likely not getting all the nutrition
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because you're just getting as much carbs as possible,
17:15
not eating your vegetables.
17:17
Yeah, that's the feeling. It's still, I think within a couple of days,
17:23
I mean, obviously I'm not a nutritionist, but health change is super important.
17:26
But I think it's still that sort of duration where, I mean, calories are really
17:31
the most important thing.
17:31
It doesn't, but like kayaks are still, kayaks are still king over that sort of distance.
17:36
So they're definitely missing out on a lot of things, but you can kind of replenish
17:41
after the race, which is always fun.
17:43
Which brings me to the next question. How do you approach recovery as a vegan athlete?
17:48
Like once you're done with this race, how do you replenish all the nutrition?
17:52
Yeah, it's a good question. you know i think
17:55
again it's probably the same as everyone else you know you just directly after
17:59
the race you know i just eat as much as i can i look
18:02
back to my body any any injuries to try and deal with slow
18:05
down as much as i can eat as much you know i mean
18:08
you can kind of eat anything and everything you know luckily we you
18:11
know we finished in a big town so i ate a
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lot of tajunes every different kind of some some
18:18
pizza less of these things you know just you can't
18:21
eat you can't eat too much after the race so i mean that
18:24
is the main thing just catch up on less sweet and get
18:28
as many calories in as possible because yeah there's a
18:30
big deficit at the end and you said pizza you
18:33
usually do what pizza without cheese or with vegan cheese yeah yeah
18:37
so i mean if i can i get vegan cheese but in
18:40
molaco i mean i never even there's no point even
18:43
asking for vegan cheese obviously it's yeah it's not it's quite a neat thing
18:47
so yeah i just had pizza without cheese and have as many vegetables whatever
18:51
they have on top of the pizza which worked really well for me i had that yeah
18:55
that's a good option yeah actually at that point for that two pizzas without
18:59
cheese and two bottles of pasta like tomato sauce pasta so.
19:04
Yeah the cheese-free pizza is always a good option if you're kind of in a small
19:08
town that can do pizza so nice well i'm inspired i'm gonna try on my next one
19:14
to stick to my vegetarian,
19:19
lifestyle i'm gonna try yeah and i mean it's great like if you can i mean the
19:25
main thing for me like being vegan is super important but like my biggest concern
19:29
wasn't that if i accidentally ate me or I accidentally ate something.
19:33
You know, it was not that, like, I'd be, you know, upset or that I'd compromise
19:38
my morals. The first concern was just sickness.
19:40
So, like, as much as, like, even if I went to take a bit of a break from being
19:45
vegan, like, I've just been vegan for so long now that I 100%,
19:49
you know, would get stomach issues and you know, that's already an issue in the race.
19:53
So it's, you know, there's multiple layers as to why, you know,
19:57
I remain vegan in the races.
20:00
And Yeah, absolutely.
20:04
Yeah, I don't think I ever ate a steak or anything like that.
20:07
But sometimes, I remember in Rwanda, we got some, I don't know,
20:11
kind of like a savory pastry.
20:14
And they said there was meat inside, but I guess it was just very little.
20:19
Because I think also the chewing of meat is something that I can do,
20:24
and it really bothers my teeth.
20:26
Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't like that. but
20:30
yeah in a hurry i'm like whatever whatever you have
20:32
i'll take it yeah the biggest challenge is
20:35
this thing you know is the speed of resupply you
20:39
know like if you're checking ingredients on things and all this sort of
20:42
stuff that that is probably the biggest like thing
20:45
to shovel with biggest disadvantage i would say it's
20:49
just like it takes longer to resupply because you have to check things
20:52
it's a free yeah but it yeah you
20:55
are an inspiration because for me i think it would be much
20:58
easier yeah yeah i think for me it would be easier because i don't have to be
21:03
checking as much because everything has eggs for almost a lot of things have
21:08
eggs or milk yeah it's um it is tricky like i know i would say we was hoping
21:14
to have been to mob code first,
21:16
for like add some time to kind of look in some shots and see what things like any.
21:21
I mean, luckily, Oreos are vegan, so that's a nice way of wide snack during a race.
21:27
I've always eaten loads of Oreos. I know that it's usually centered around glasses
21:32
of milk, but the actual biscuits themselves are vegan. Yeah.
21:36
I ate a lot of Oreos, like a lot of Oreos. And that's kind of what I ate the most of.
21:42
And the only other thing that was sweet I found to eat was these little wakers.
21:47
As long as you get in there, they're really, really dry, but they are usually vegan.
21:52
I still have to check to make sure it's different flavors. Some of them have
21:55
milk, so I have to be careful.
21:56
But yeah, oil, air, and waiters, those are kind of what I'd buy.
22:01
Yeah, so you have much more logistics to think about than usually the rest of all the racers.
22:09
What would you say to people who think they need animal product to perform at high level?
22:16
Yeah it's uh trying to and i'll try
22:19
to keep it simple like i'm not a nutritionist so and you can
22:22
go into like all these debates about specific nutrients
22:25
but like you know in my opinion from things i've read the science is there to
22:30
suggest it's okay it's silly and if anything it can be beneficial if it's done
22:35
correctly and not only that there's athletes performing at the highest level
22:39
that not only vegan but they're openly vegan and happy to talk about it you
22:43
know like Lewis Hamilton.
22:46
In the cycling scene you've got riders like Simon Getker Anna Henderson, Brody Chapman,
22:53
you know there's so many athletes that perform at
22:56
the very highest level on a vegan diet and
23:00
I think aside from that whether it's you're vegan and plant based I think there's
23:04
a great deal of athletes and riders especially that well they probably are eating
23:08
meat I would suggest they're plant based like you know Soak isn't really going
23:15
to help you win the Tour de France. Yep. Agree.
23:20
Yeah. I mean, I'm lucky in my circles, I'm thinking cycling and sport,
23:24
I don't have to argue that often.
23:27
But I think as time goes on, it does get easier and easier as people start being
23:31
more open and there's more riders kind of standing example.
23:34
So yeah, that's probably my short answer to that.
23:39
No, it's a good answer. I like that because, like you said, And I'm very happy
23:45
there's more and more strong performance in athletes that are vegan.
23:49
I even have seen a few weightlifters because a lot of people think,
23:54
okay, maybe healthy, but you're not going to be building muscle.
23:57
Well, guess what? There are weightlifters winning competitions out there.
24:00
So you can build muscle. Yeah, that's the thing.
24:05
And there's a long list of athletes in every sport, whether it's tennis,
24:11
cycling, or you said weightlifting.
24:13
And obviously there's no magic,
24:16
there's no magic diet that's going to make you the best athlete in
24:18
the world but you know it's the same but it's the same way in that
24:21
you know just there's no like superfood there's like eating a
24:24
steak isn't going to eat the best athlete in the world or eating eggs isn't going to make
24:27
you the best athlete in the world but yeah you
24:30
can definitely perform you know at an equally high level on
24:33
either you know either diet so yeah it's
24:36
it's cool it's a good time to be vegan i think i
24:40
agree it's getting easier and easier like you said we don't
24:43
have to defend ourselves anymore you know i think people are more like oh you're
24:46
vegetarian okay it's nobody's trying to be like why or trying to convince you
24:51
otherwise and you know and i'm also okay with like you said with whichever is
24:55
your choice not i joke but it's true i'm not a vegetarian preacher not.
25:02
Preaching if you ask happy to talk about but i'm not going to be preaching if you order a steak,
25:08
yeah no absolutely and i think yeah i
25:11
mean sometimes it's good like throughout like life yeah
25:15
throughout life there's a certain yeah it's great to speak out against things
25:18
you disagree with or when something's wrong but sometimes you've
25:22
got to admit that you've got to realize if it's working or
25:25
not and i think preaching or kind of outwardly speaking
25:28
about veganism in that way doesn't you know it just
25:31
causes people to to shut off and be angry with you i agree from my perspective
25:35
the best the best way is just to lead by example and you know be the healthiest
25:39
person and best athlete that i can be and that will be healthy enough to kind
25:44
of at least push the world towards a more sustainable yeah sustainable existence really well said,
25:51
absolutely always lead by example so people can see your lifestyle how great
25:56
you're doing how great you feel and then hopefully you know they might try and
25:59
help impact the world positively.
26:03
Absolutely and yeah again i think it's always important to emphasize
26:06
it's not it's never about perfection and it's
26:09
just about like well in idea where there's normal changes
26:12
i mean in the in all of our lives whether it's carbs or yeah
26:16
or diet you know there's there's a lot of changes that can be made absolutely and
26:21
you have tackled quite a
26:24
few tough races like hellenic mountain race and
26:27
now the atlas mountain race and those
26:30
races are as much as a mental battle
26:33
as physical battle how do you stay mentally
26:36
strong throughout those races yeah i
26:40
mean personally i think the mental the mental side is the
26:43
most difficult and that's why i always find so inspirational about
26:47
i mean every rider that i meet during the
26:49
race it's you know how how
26:52
much how strong everyone is and how you know
26:55
how positive their mindsets can be and i think if you look.
26:58
You know if you look at riders like justinas or
27:02
you know any of these top riders they're just at least when
27:04
you see them i don't know on camera they're always so positive and
27:07
i think it's really important to remain positive but the
27:10
reality is that there are a lot of times when you you know you don't
27:13
feel super positive it might you know yeah so i think
27:16
in those moments i just look you know i look
27:19
to the sale and look at the view and see this incredible
27:22
place that i and remind myself just how privileged i am to be here and that's
27:27
kind of it pretty much it like i think i'm lucky just to love love nature and
27:32
i mean yeah i love the scenery i think the natural beauty is is definitely one
27:37
thing that keeps me going throughout the race and also just think of all the people that.
27:42
Can't be there or you know friends and family that i've
27:45
lost or you know that they you know
27:48
i'm just so lucky to be here on this planet and doing all this stuff you know
27:51
i think that's probably the strongest thing that pushes me forward yeah gratitude
27:55
100 it does sound cliche i know but it's definitely no you know it's true it's
28:03
true i also think about that a lot of times like how lucky am I,
28:07
you know, like you're exploring the world, doing your hobby.
28:12
It's not many people that have that opportunity.
28:15
Absolutely. Yeah, it's a very, yeah, I think you're very lucky.
28:20
Any lessons from Atlas Mountain Race that has taught you something that you
28:25
would carry forward in life or in your next adventure?
28:29
I mean, yeah, personally, first time, how important it is just to have a lot
28:35
of food like if you were debating whether to take a bunch of food or just have
28:39
you know have your bike feel a little bit lighter and,
28:42
well set for the food like you're always going to eat it at some point
28:45
you're never gonna you're never gonna be in the race and be like
28:48
oh i just got too much food like that's in your head that's never
28:52
really at all you know the way after you realize that you wish you had more food
28:55
you wish you had something to eat you wish you had more energy so it
28:58
doesn't matter how much the bike weighs i just hate enough food
29:01
that's the you know that's the biggest thing and then
29:04
at a race i really put my limits on sleep.
29:07
During the race which is not something i would advise and you
29:11
know obviously you know it's not something everyone should follow
29:14
and do but like i managed to reduce my
29:17
sleep a little bit and sleep a little bit less than
29:19
i have done in previous races and still you know still push the
29:22
pace a little bit which was kind of discovered an accident
29:25
but it worked pretty well so it's nice to
29:28
find find just what my limit is on the sleeve and how
29:32
much is that how much is sleepy are you getting well yeah
29:36
so the first night i started ambitiously as a night like
29:38
i really i really i try and sleep it's not cool
29:41
to not sleep you know it's best to do what works for you so yeah
29:44
so i slept i slept in afro which is
29:47
quite a popular town to sleep in and i slept for i think three
29:50
and a half hours which okay on at
29:53
the side the race is quite a lot and a lot of people slept for
29:57
less and then carried on going but then after that i
30:00
probably did i didn't know more than two hours a night for the rest of the race
30:04
wow and i think on the last couple days it was it was more just really short
30:10
naps which you know like i said it's not it's not something for others to try
30:15
and aim for like the best thing to do is sleep loads and ride as fast as you can,
30:20
but i did find i was just trying to make up some places at the end of the race
30:24
so i thought let's just try and keep riding and it was okay so i think that
30:30
was all i learned about the sleep is I can reduce it a little bit.
30:35
Yeah, it's something I think everyone plays with it. Everyone that is doing
30:39
endurance cycling, they play with.
30:42
I think that no sleep is usually, in my opinion, just for the people that finish
30:48
in two days and some hours because obviously you can't go without sleep for three days or so.
30:56
But yeah i guess a lot
30:58
of people try to stop as at least just
31:01
for the essentials and the extreme necessary and then
31:04
sleep you know three four hours and
31:07
keep going but for you you also you pushed
31:10
yourself so you slept about two hours and then just feel
31:13
naps yeah yeah like yeah
31:17
and it's and that was something that i should you know have more of a plan but
31:21
i mean it's worth mentioning like I said I started the race with the ambition
31:24
of sleeping more and then towards the end I kind of that went out the window
31:28
and I thought I just want to make up places so my plan kind of changed and I
31:32
slept a bit less so like I did aim to sleep more but I slept less so.
31:38
Yeah it it just yeah it just worked it's uh
31:41
that's the thing about ultras right we always have usually
31:44
you have a plan but that plan is always
31:47
changing yeah and and also sometimes
31:50
it wasn't intentional and that like i really wanted
31:53
to sleep but i was just in a terrible spot to sleep so and
31:56
i there's one night it was probably the first night that i
31:59
started cutting sleep it was kind of accidental i just it was
32:02
just before checkpoint three and there was just nowhere yeah i
32:05
tried to it was really high up and it was higher the
32:08
wind was high and i ended up riding all at 7.3
32:11
because yeah there was just nowhere to sleep
32:14
wow so sometimes it's not true sometimes it's
32:16
just knowing that if i lay down right here it's really
32:19
cold it's windy i'm just gonna feel worse when i when i get up so sometimes
32:25
it's not my choice yeah you have to go with the elements and how long did it
32:29
take you i know you finished really well on top 20 right yeah it was just over
32:35
4 days I think that's when you say but it was just over 5 days so,
32:39
and I wanted to go on the 5 days so maybe I had to come back but yeah it was
32:44
it was tough to get that finish time but I think I had to go a little bit quicker
32:49
well congratulations I think it's,
32:52
incredible achievement just to line up and on the start line.
32:58
I mean I think I do believe that anyone
33:00
can be these racers like no matter how you know
33:03
personally it's not that technical and secondly yeah just take
33:07
it if anyone took their time like i mean obviously someone that kind
33:09
of knows how to ride a bike and you know into cycling of course but i think
33:13
motorcyclists if you just take that you know if they took their time i think
33:17
anyone could you know ride and finish the race and i would encourage anyone
33:21
to to just give it a go so that'll be next year maybe i need a mountain bike first Yeah,
33:29
I would say I'll definitely take another ride. Yeah.
33:32
Yeah. And what's next for you? Any upcoming races, big adventures on the horizon?
33:38
So my next race is in a month's time. It's called Bears Divide,
33:43
which is a little smaller race in the UK.
33:45
Yeah. Yeah, 600 kilometers, coast to coast.
33:49
Nice. Yeah, so it's in the north of the country.
33:53
The weather could be good or bad, or heavy boats. So I think it's going to be
33:59
an interesting one to try and push my limits while I write out.
34:02
That's just still a question in my mind to just kind of go all out and see how fast I can go.
34:09
And then after that, I don't know. I've got a few choices for longer races later
34:12
in the year, but I haven't yet decided on what I'm going to do.
34:17
So we'll have to wait and see for those. But I do want to do something similar
34:21
to Alice or maybe longer. So we'll have to see.
34:24
Wow. Well, the Dales Divide just announced the Triple Crown for the UK.
34:29
I don't know if you've seen it.
34:31
So maybe you can take up another two races and do the Triple Crown.
34:36
Yeah, we'll bring that. as soon as I saw that announcement I was like yeah Highland
34:40
Trail it's the North Road to Hong Kong but I actually don't know too much about
34:43
but yeah I'd see Highland Trail 550 is a you know a big race that I'd love to I'd love to do.
34:50
I don't know if it happened this year but I think next year you know maybe it
34:53
may well be the one and then yeah next year the new mountain race in Turkey
34:59
is one I really want to hope some.
35:02
Yeah I put a shout out to Justinas because he just did the Triple Crown in the US.
35:09
So I'm like, hey, there is another Triple Crown here up for grabs.
35:14
Yeah, same chance as Justinas. No one has seen my other chance.
35:20
I mean, it's kind of real. I think the UK has some amazing scenery and amazing
35:24
places to ride. So I think it's...
35:28
It's great to see the UK scene kind of coming on a little bit because there's all new races in Europe.
35:33
And while these aren't new races, it's cool to see them be promoted and kind
35:38
of be in the center of everyone's attention, really.
35:41
Yeah, I love it. I'm going to do my first race in the UK in June.
35:45
It's called Stone Circle.
35:48
It's a day race. It's a day race. Yeah.
35:52
Yeah. By Stonehenge. Yeah. Yeah.
35:55
I think it'll be fun. amazing yeah that looks
35:58
like a really fun event maybe maybe i found the l.a entry and
36:01
can be yeah come join us
36:04
you'll be fun we'll be camping a bunch of friends my husband's
36:07
coming you'll be nice all right anything oh it sounds really cool yeah yeah
36:11
it's yes i've lived around there there's some gravel around there if it's dry
36:14
um yeah if it's right i actually think i did my first camping trip and it went
36:21
it went very close to the stonehenge so yeah cool yeah i'm excited,
36:27
well george i am super inspired by you i'm gonna i do try to keep my vegetarian
36:34
diet i know i said this like three times already but i'm truly inspired and
36:38
hopefully inspire others as well.
36:42
It's pretty amazing you know taking on ultra
36:45
challenge it's not easy it's not easy logistics and you know being vegetarian
36:50
i know it's not easy and being a vegan even more logistics so So hats off to
36:57
you and looking forward to see what comes up next on your adventures.
37:03
Thank you. Yeah. Likewise, I look real to some more episodes coming up. Cool.
37:09
Well, thank you. And chat with you soon. Yeah. Thank you very much.
37:14
And that's all for today's episode. I want to thank the listeners for tuning in.
37:19
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Music.