Hello and welcome to another episode of the Run to You're
Done podcast. Today's guest.
We are very fortunate to have an emerging Scottish endurance
runner from Aberdeen. He is known for his versatility
across the trails, the hills and marathon events.
He races with Metro Aberdeen Running Club and he's very
recently made a name for himself in the Scottish Hill running
soccer. If you don't know who I'm
talking about, welcome Kaden, Tom All.
Right folks, how's it going? Welcome, Kaden.
Thank you for coming on. So the first question that we
ask every guest that joins us as how did you first get into
running? So it started, we'd be probably
around the age of 10. My dad was doing well, running
just to keep fit. Like the odd occasions, 5 KS, 10
KS, nothing mental, you know, back in the times where you
would just press record on your phone and that would be it.
Kind of seen it and thought, oh, I'll just join in and do some
runs with him. So yeah, young, OK, didn't try
to keep up with his dad. I was doing it to keep fit for
football as well. And then after my granddad
passed in 2017, my dad took values.
Either, you know, some folk deal with grief differently, some
folk vote the drinking, some folk vote, you know, whatever
else. But dad said you just kind of
put all the effort into his running, kind of found it that
it cleared his mind and he started doing the ultras.
He started D 33 was his first one.
They jumped from 1/2 marathon and went straight into D33.
So I was like, I've kind of inspired by it.
So I just decided right, no, I'm just going to, you know, give up
your balls spending most of time on the bench anyways.
So I was like I was going to go fool him in the running.
And so I did just kind of built up from there.
Know that just little 5K is 10K is the little races.
And I think my first one was money Muddy Musk.
It was called. It's like a lot of three Ki
Think I came second that. Yeah, I think, you know, I was
probably like 12 at a time I think, and that was kind of just
the start of it. And then I got my little Psalm
and speed cross 4 over the start, red and yellow and me
away starting to the trail community.
So yeah. So your your dad did D33?
I've unfortunately done it 10 times so probably a race against
them. Have you done it?
No, I am. I'm hoping to do it soon.
I would like to do it. I was there this year supporting
Thomas Lindy and also my cousin's boyfriend Reese
Blackwood. He was doing it for the first
time and I just feel like it's such a good community.
Also Rod Wallace and not seeing him there and I was went and
also all the boys from the bomb, they're just, you know, good
group of lads, funny. So yeah, no, I'd like to give
back to them and me, you know, turn up one day and give it a
go, whether that's year or maybe later, but I won't say I.
I I would say it's basically if you can run a marathon, you can
do that. It's a marathon plus a 10K on
the end. Exactly, Yeah.
My my marathon PB is during that race.
I think it's a few. I think Thomas did that this
year so tends to help. But it's not your your chosen
style of racing. You're normally in hills and
trails. What's the appeal of that?
I see. I prefer the mountains and
trails just to how they make me feel.
You know, the roads are great if you want to get the speed, you
know, having fast times is a brilliant thing.
But running for me is more about the feeling.
You know, when you get a quiet, you can't be a quiet trail, you
know, amazing scenery, upper hills, nothing bothering you, no
Rd. noise. No, you know, jumping step to
step. Or if you're running through
Union Street where you're nearly getting taken out by the slabs,
then it's somewhat, you know, it's there's nothing that to
deal with. It's just, yeah, it's more of an
escape. But you know, this has its own
like hard sessions and you can run a road really fast.
That's tough. You can run up a hill really
hard, and that's tough. It has its own, you know, you
can train either or. I tend to train Rd. just to get
the speed up to transfer it into the trail.
But then I train all the trails so that the hill builds the
hills. Build a better engine if you
will. And yeah, that helps me.
But yeah, I don't really like Rd. run to be honest.
I'm more as well. I do the road just so I can get
fast. Sorry get like decent times but
the times are really the big thing for me.
Use it as a tool to get to where you need to be.
Exactly. That's exactly it, yeah.
I love it that you say that you run up the hill as well.
That's took a while to get used to.
There's still times I'll power hacky, but this isn't the
happening today. But no, it's yeah, it takes
somebody, takes somebody a while.
I tell you what, I bet your power hiking face isn't bad
either. I don't know, like as usually
me, hands on my knees, crying because it's got really sore.
You mentioned earlier on that you started running when you're
about 10. How old are you now I'm. 21 Now,
just turned 21 in January. Just a young Weber snapper
compared to some of us. Anyway, next question I've got
here is about hills. It's Monroe's in particular.
For those that don't know, Monroe's are hills over 3000
feet. I'm not sure if Nicky knows
something that I don't, but have you been out bagging them?
How many have you bagged? See, the only thing is being a
hill runner, and this was the question I always get asked, oh,
how many minerals you have? I have no clue.
I have like, I run them and I forget them.
I was like the other weekend, the clean Laric running with
Jacob Adkin, Robbie Simpson and Andy Douglas, and we went up one
of them and already I think I got back to the car and forgot
which one we had done. So yeah, I'm not very good.
If I can name like the top ones I like like probably say I've
done Karen Gorm like the main one and then I've done scar guy
off and Ben Macdewey, Ben Nevis and stick a crying and that's
like the ones off the top of my head.
I could say I've done definitely.
If you're ever, if you're ever down this neck of the woods
again, article's a great place to go as well because there's
four really close to each other that I don't know if it is, it
probably is still a race, but there is a hill race down here
that's probably people are going to be shouting at the phones and
radios and that now like telling me the name of it.
But it's such a good race looking at the course on it, and
then you see the times and you're like, how like is so fast
I. Think is it?
Are they quite joined together? Yeah.
Aye. So you know, once you're up,
you're up. Really.
Is it? I don't know so much though in
Attica, I don't know if there is like you're saying like 1 should
up, but I think there is quite a lot like you know, you go back
down and then it's not well, I don't think any of them are
easy. There is a website called Walk
Highlands that lets you log in and record what ones you've done
so you don't need to remember them.
You just look at them on the map and you like basically tick a
box, say done that one and then forget about it.
I've got one of those maps, so I do fold out ones.
It's just a scrape away thing. Yeah, it's somewhere under my
bed, yeah. Exactly the same idea, but it's
an online version. Yeah.
OK, then you, you've got youth on your side.
You could start again. That's true.
That's it. So, so as we mentioned in the
introduction, you're a part of Aberdeen Metro.
How and when did you join them? I would have joined Metro, I
think when I was 14 as a junior. And then that was right up until
I was about 16 drive. When I started driving 17,
that's where I was thinking I went out the window.
You know, you hit that point where, you know, running like
totally forgotten about, kind of stepped away from all.
And then I returned when I was 18, No 19.
That's when I returned as this then went into the senior.
So if you were to take away the gap, yeah, I've been there for,
well, since I was 14. And as part of the club, do you
have a specific coach? Not well, My personal coach.
We have a couple of coaches at Metro.
Kaylee Jarrett of Jim Toll, Callum Sinclair.
They're going to hate me if I forget anyone else's names, but
that's like, just a quick fire. No, I can't think of anyone
else. But then no, my personal coach
is Robbie Simpson. So yeah, yeah, I've been
training with him quite a few weekends recently as well, going
up to his neck of the woods and going out with him.
So that's very humbling have. You have you been with Robbie
for a while now? You know, Robbie coming up a
year, Yeah, yeah. It's been good, good
progression. He's good at what he does.
And also from where he's been, you kind of you can kind of put
you in the right direction, tell you about his experiences and
you know, it's been really good. And also he's he sounds.
So it's kind of like a pal now and you forget as a coach
sometimes. Yeah.
So yeah, that's great. Robbie being another local to
Aberdeen, I think they've something in the war up here.
Yeah, it's like Robin, Robin, Robbie.
It's the two Rob's from Aberdeen.
They're different. Different gravy.
And you've got an ambassadorship for Highland Fuel and Nutrition.
That's right. Yeah.
So Highland Fuel Nutrition's got 2 separates.
There's actually a athlete like group of us and then there's the
album ambassador. So I guess you class me as an
ambassador as well. But no, I'm one of the athletes.
And all that means is I just kind of wear their kit and I
always like Steve from Highland Fuel.
He's been great. Like he's awesome.
He he once approached me just saying, oh, like see my
Instagram page, would you like to try this stuff?
So I bought like a box of it. It was just before it was
starting up. There's hardly a, even a
website. And so yeah, I bought a box of
it and next week he's thrown in like 3 bags worth and each
flavour. And I was like, all right, yeah,
cheers. And expect that, you know, a
buff and everything just like a thank you.
So I tried it out in quite a few runs and I was like, this was
like awesome because I couldn't do car mix before.
I've done active route, I've done tailwind and it just always
like made my stomach feel awful. And so when I tried this stuff,
it was just, you know, basic and even the tastes like I thought
strawberry that's going to be like, you know, gets back your
throat, you know, too sweet. And, you know, you'll be like 20
miles in, like starting to come back up.
You don't want that for this stuff.
Just it just seems to settle my stomach.
It's been like brilliant. I'm not just saying this is like
a go by that was then, but knowing that it is actually
really good. And after that, when he started
building the business a lot more.
Yeah. Put out a form on the page
saying like everyone you know, apply if you want to be an
ambassador and he messed me afterwards saying I'll put you
in the athlete pool and that's where you belong as appreciate.
And then, you know, one let one thing's led to another and here
I am. You know, you support me through
a lot and with us racing in Aberdeen, myself and Jordan,
we're both the athletes from for Highland Fuel, but we both run
for Metro Aberdeen as well. And because when we race our
club championships, like cross country, you need to wear your
club colours. So, you know, you can turn up in
a Highland Fuel vest and race you get disqualified.
So Steve Bang got some shorts sorted for us and Highland Fuel
printed onto the shorts so we could wear them, you know,
shorts that we like and then we wear them at the races as well
because he knows that, you know, they work for us.
So yeah, no, he's been brilliant.
He's the sound guy. He's a lot for us.
So a lot to thank. A lot to thank you for.
Just to add to that, Hayden as well, I'm not an ambassador, but
I have met Steve and he's a lovely guy.
But I have also ordered a bag of the bare fuel and clear fuel and
I had the clear fuel fuel yesterday when I was out on the
Pentlands and it's fabulous. You've actually just reminded me
to order another bag. So when that's out, Steve,
you're like, maybe you're listening to it.
My older will be sitting there. Yeah, hopefully because once
stop recording, you've just reminded me to go and order some
more. So for those of you that haven't
tried the Highland Fuel Nutrition, do go and try it and
support local because he's it's a great business and you know,
I'm looking forward to seeing it grow for him.
And when you're buying, use code athlete cadence to get 20% off.
There you go. So my Instagram bio.
That's all right people, I'm waiting on my buff in the post
as well. Yes, yes, you get.
Yourself a card as well. I, I think something that we
would say for podcast is we would never and I, I've had
products in the past that not for the podcast, but I, I've
sort of used them and then getting given extra stuff.
But if I don't like the product, I'm not going to endorse it.
So I would speak for Nikki. She's obviously likes it.
She's buying it and yourself, you're being an ambassador or an
athlete for it. It's because you enjoy using the
product. Yeah, that's it.
Also on let's say as well. Sorry mate.
I, Steve was a good well chopped in a couple of those Hammer
barrels for me on my first order.
It was a chocolate chip and coconut ones and at first I was
a little bit dubious at trying them and I had one of them out
on and on and they were really tasty.
So I think he still sells those on the website, so give those a
go as well. Yeah, especially your sodium
tabs for like ultra runners as well.
If you're ever starting to cramp.
He's made-up, you know, little sodium tabs that I think they're
350 milligrams of sodium per capsule.
So, you know, if your weights start cramping and you feel
cramped from wrong neck when I then quickly come in a little
black bag and they're race. They're really good, you know,
handy, cheap as well. You go on, I think them for
pennies. So yeah, Andy, Andy having your
best. Andy having your best.
And do either of you know their their main fuel product?
Do you know what it's made with? Be lying but something Mal
dextrin or something like. That Mal dextrin.
Yeah. Yeah, it's just I'm, I've
recently worked out that I've got an intolerance to oats, so
as long as it's not that, then it's something that I could try.
Yeah, no, it's it's very basic ingredients.
I can go grab a bag at some point, but yeah, I can read it
out. But get yourself a a WE trial
box. I'm sure Steve would easy send
it out. They the clear fuels got lion's
men in it as well which upheld is really good for pre
menopausal people. Yeah, brain function as well.
Yeah, well, I definitely need to get more of that then.
Sounds like an aphrodisiac or something.
To help you the hallucinations when you're 90 miles out by
seven way. Yeah, right.
Moving on from or no, Nikki's got something else to ask you
about this. Do you use anything else if you
deal with? So Steve hasn't made a gel yet.
I don't know what his plans are with that.
So when I'm raising, I need a quick consumption of carbs.
I take in precision Hydration Authority grams.
I feel it's the only stuff that's worked for my stomach as
well. I'm quite, I've got quite a
fragile stomach when it comes to running.
I mean out with running I ever hit in anything but like when I
am running my stomach's very fragile.
So yeah, the precision nitration works for me.
I don't do any caffeine. That does not work, really
doesn't work. And you can kind of guess what
that means. So yeah, I just go for 30 gram
normal precision nitration gels. And then whilst I'm running, I
top up, I just keep drinking away the bottle I don't feel and
that just gives me that extra carb intake.
I go for two scoops, which gives me about 50 grams of carbs per
ball. You you don't take caffeine
while running, but do you drink tea, coffee, fizzy drinks
normally? Yeah, I do drink coffee.
Yeah, some. I don't do any energy drinks
unless I'm, you know, if I was doing like a long run, for
example, the challenge, the last section where you're just, you
know, you're starting to deplete it just taking that little kick.
I would energy drink caffeine, but no, I don't do any monster
red pool. Just coffee there and again.
And we haven't talked about races that you've done, wins,
etcetera. I know your your biggest running
achievement must have been at the Feta Raso marathon a month
or so ago when you you beat me, but what has been your biggest
run of achievement? I think my biggest run
achievement out with like the racing side of things would
probably like raising the money for cancer.
So for that project that started, which isn't complete
and probably won't be complete, it'll be an ongoing thing.
But right now we're setting up Hall of Three Grand, which was a
lot more than I thought originally.
It just keeps coming. There was even more got money
yesterday as well. It's just it's not stopped.
So on the Go Fund Me page, sitting about 2 1/2 and I've got
money like cash and hand, you know, from Gurani's site and
whatever she's goes to like a choir club and all that.
So donating as well, you know, the cash, they can't work their
phones. So yeah, that's probably my
biggest achievement, I think. Do the title remember why you
started, you know, like no one would have come from and knowing
why, you know why I run. It's been more like a, you know,
Grande never run. But seeing dad using that as a
tool to, you know, sorting out the grief and not turn into
alcohol or turn it into bad. He turned it into something
good. And then I took that and it
inspired me and I just, you know, I've started, you know,
that's, that's what made me start and I haven't stopped.
And even when I did go through a rough patch, another achievement
was trying to film, managing to pull myself out of that, you
know, sign up for Ben Nevis Skyline being like, this is my
dream Scottish race. I've always said that.
And then I just, once I signed up, it was just like a switch
where I just, I need to train, I need to get back into it.
So I built up and kept building up and the next minute I was
running seven days a week, sometimes double days.
It was the most consistent I'd ever been disciplined I'd ever
been. And yeah, then you look back and
you think, oh, like that's, you know, that's Grande's mentality
kicking into me now. You know, the stubbornness, not
giving up. And you know, nothing's ever
easy, but if you work for it, you'll get it.
So that'll be my biggest achievement I think.
And the remember why you started project.
I know that you had planned on doing a big event and that was
rearranged. Could you talk about that, what
you originally had planned, what you end up doing and going
forward with the project? Can you tell us about that?
So the original Remember why you started was going to be 60 plus
miles with 20,000 plus feet of elevation and I was across the
great cotties and memoirs that wasn't taken in about 2021
Monroes, including Ben nervous. So it was going to be a long day
out and the whole point in the challenge was, you know, to
suffer a lot of it. You know her the elevation was
going to hurt like 60 miles. I've done 40 miles and I've that
was with very minimal training and then, you know, 60 miles
with the training I'm doing now. That's not a lot.
So I put it in the elevation just to make it that one bit
like extreme. But the weather during the week
leading up to it, the weather totally took a change the
weekend before I was out in the hills and it was like starting
to thaw everything Ace Ben Nevis.
You can see the tops. And then Monday hit and it's
just the whole weather turned ski slope well on the webcams
and it was just mental. And then by Thursday it was just
a full court again. And you know, with the amount is
news, especially this year, seeing all the mountain rescue
teams grab these folks that are just, you know, not prepared,
not listening to the weather and end up in these horrible
situations. Then putting mountain rescue at
risk and other people at risk is, you know, I wasn't going to
be one of those statistics. So I changed it to 55 miles to
the West End away because I always wanted to do the devil,
but I also wanted that little extreme of a little bit more.
So I started from Pendrum and ran from Tindrum to Fort
William. So that was no, that's why
wasn't Tindrum. I'm forgetting names now.
It was about 10 miles back. Trinladic.
Trinladic no. Bridge Markey.
Bridge Markey, Yeah, always forget the names along the
Western way, but I started a bridge of Arkey and then
finishing for with them. So that was 55 miles and that
still took an 8000 feet. But to kind of read like to put
in the suffering aspect, I decided to go out really hard
until, you know, the plan wasn't to run it in an amazing time.
The plan was just to run as hard as possible until I got to this
point where I totally hit a wall.
And then it was the mind game of remember why you started, you
know, Yeah, that's where that's where it actually matters when
you're, you know, lying in the back of the car going in out
consciousness because your body is just so depleted.
And then my girlfriend Marissa, looking over me, crying because
she's never seen, you know, me in a state like this.
And then Dad's at the other side putting his vest on, laughing at
me. Be like, come on, that's what
you wanted. And everyone else is trying.
Granny's crying. Oh, you don't need to do this.
You don't need to do. Is that stone still in complete
just laughing at me as I had. Cheers.
He knows he's been there too. You know, when I was the one
son, there'd be like, oh come on, why is it up?
Get going. Yeah, it's funny.
It also reversed. So yeah, no, it's that was like
this is what it was. So yeah, once it started
hurting, there's no 25 miles to go.
So I think I went through 30 mile point.
I think it was like 3 hours, 33 hours, 40 or something.
So I was just going out really hard and then and then the
weather was brutal. The weather turned into a full
on Blizzard and it was just knocked me for six so.
What you're just saying there, I love the attitude and some of
these that we talked about earlier on was Rob Sinclair.
I think we need to get out in the hills at some point is one
thing that I have grown to love about running is mind games and
even if it's just mind games myself and it is, you're not in
pain, get a move on. I was round at Nikki's house on
the way up the Rd. from my race the other day and six months ago
she went over her ankle and she was complaining about it, saying
no, I can't run and send me pictures and say it was how
horrible it was. And I went past her house.
I was like, yeah, everything's fine.
I've got a little blister and she's like, no, your, your
ankles double the size and she's phoning her physio trying to get
him round and stuff like this. I was like, no, I'll be fine.
And I was running again three days later.
It's, it's a different mindset I think you need to get into.
And what's Nikki's response to that?
My. Ankle was sore.
I think it's well Kaden, you've decided who's definitely not
crewing you in future. Yeah, I know you can be.
You can be a chief blister pauper if you want.
What I'll tell you to keep going perm but not seeing you in that
state. Say no, please stop.
No, no, no. We need more people like your
dad and say right, come on son, out you go.
He just. Laughs at you, makes you feel,
makes you feel little. So then you have to be like, oh,
come on then. Do you go out running often with
your dad? I do, yeah, a bit more now.
Last year he had a bad fall, the vault and Abby Morris dancing
away and then fell and swirl a tendon in his knee from the
impact and it like swole and the next day, you know, to get over
the hangover. We know his knee was double in
size and that's a do you fancy a 10K?
So we went out for a 10K and that's what we think the physios
said that that's probably what threw it from an injury to yeah,
you're out for a good few months.
So yeah, so like we're saying about the mentality, you know,
that's really kind of go out from this, like your fight, get
on me it. But yeah, that actually didn't
work. He actually was unable to walk
on it for a while, run on it for a while and then he's got back
into it now, just building up slowly.
And then he wanted to build up for the challenge because he was
going to do a section, the big one with me, he's got to do a
Ben Nevis, so he was kind of ready for whatever.
So he ran the last 50 miles with me, which was nice to kind of go
across the finish line by him as well.
And my little brother, he met us at the bottom and where they
usually finish the level at the leisure centre, and he ran in
through Fort Rolling with us. So yeah, it's good to have like
this three times running in. And we always ask as well, why
do you run? And we think you have probably
already answered this. It's, you know, remember why you
started? Is that your mantra?
And is that the mantra you go back to when you do find things
really tough, Then if you go can't be bothered, you know,
with running today. That's right.
Remember why you started. That's it.
Yeah, that's generally it. Like the whole, you know,
remember where you started project is built on when times
get tough. It could always be worse, you
know, I mean, like when you're running, you can push on.
Yeah, you might be sore. Get on with your nail, your nail
line in a bed looking at your last moments, you know, I mean,
you're not senior family for the last time.
It's, you know, it's nothing folk could deal with cancer or,
you know, so much stronger than us ultra runners or runners, you
know what I mean? You know, full aspect.
So, yeah, remember when he started through the it's kind
of, it's kind of in memory of how my grandma must have felt in
the last few moments, you know, pushing through pretend, you
pretend that everything's fine and smiling through the pain.
And, you know, that's how that's how I see it.
Running has always been an escape for me, but when it does
get tough, when I'm racing, it could always be worse, you know
what I mean? So that's my kind of mantra, if
you'd say. And for the charity Kaden is
that is there a link online for that for people to donate if
they still want to? It's on.
My Instagram page, if you click on the bio section, it's got a
few links, but it's also, if you search up GoFundMe on like on
Google, just, you know, go fund me.
Remember where you started kid and Tom?
You'll find it. It's the first one that pop up.
So yeah, there's plenty there. And yeah, like with the remember
I started, it's not stopping because it is my mantra.
I'll keep going by it. And the band nervous like the
whole run, the big one that will be done at some point.
It's just when I can fit in with a busy racing season, but also
making sure the Marines are safe and I'm not putting anyone else
at risk. Also my I'll have support
runners as well. So, you know, I need to make
sure everyone else is safe, not just me.
And yeah, it will be done. Even, you know, after that it
could be something else stupid that I do.
It'll just keep doing, you know, it's just a way of remembering
the ground. And I'll keep, I will just keep
doing it. And you say you'll do the big
one at some stage. For those that would love to
join you at any point along the route, will they be welcome?
But is that strictly just to yourself and your support
runners? No, like when I do post about it
and everyone, if you know, you have to be kind of aware of the
moments and you know, you can't just turn up and run up and just
think that everything's fine. But yeah, like I'd love to see
like whoever you know, I mean, it doesn't bother me.
I'd love to see the amount of support.
There'll be plenty. There's only really two
checkpoints in that one because it's only when I come off the
tops and into like, so the first one will be like came off leave
and then they go up the memoirs. Then my next checkpoint there's
down into Ben Evans campsite and then after that and then back
up. So unless you want to get the
gondola from Anak Moore and go up and see me there, it just
means that you've got to pay £30 to go in the gondola and then
run up and see me. But yeah, like it's more,
everyone's more than welcome. Depending on how I'm moving by
that point it could end up being a walk.
But yeah, we'll see what happens.
Don't Take Me Out what there with a cruise Well.
Yeah, that's it. That's it.
Ding Ding. You've probably answered some of
this question already, and I might split it into two parts. 1
is when you're suffering, and 1 is just when you're out in a
normal run. But what do you think about when
you're running I? Don't think I'm right.
When I'm suffering, I'd just be like, does this thing about
Granda and that's where I kind of feel closest to him.
When I'm just on an ordinary run.
I don't know. I kind of go blank sometimes.
We're just going on the whole world.
And you know, like some when you drive into work sometimes, you
know, like how do I get here? That's kind of me.
I just kind of run the next round.
My last time. I right, OK, that's me done.
But then if I am like struggling or doing a session or
something's hurting or not hurting, but you know, your
body's starting to feel it now. It's usually just like you just
think I could be always be worse.
That's it. Was your granddaughter on that
as well, Kaden? No, no I wasn't.
He probably looking at me and dad thinking you should use pair
of pair of idiots like Granda was.
Well, he was on. He worked in the boats and he
was he used to. Don't you call it a rigor?
Maybe, but he hand tied all the fishing Nets and all that for
the fishing boats. And when you did when they did
that boat thing and I already can't remember what it's called.
Remind me? Tall ships.
Tall ships, there's one of them there that my Granda did most of
the ropes on. So yeah, it's quite cool.
I've got a football net out somewhere in the shed that's
actually every bits for like tied by his hand.
So yeah, no, he that's all he did that and drunk beer and he
does well. So I think his lifestyle did
didn't help, but yeah, he is happy enough.
Well, well it might be looking at you and your dad now go and
you're a pair of videos, but I bet you he would be dead proud
as well. Hope so.
I hope so. But if you were looking at you
from the outside, you'd probably think I was a bloody idiot as
well. So that's fair enough if you
thought, I think. I'm an idiot, but when I'm on
the outside, I'm not an idiot. So you mentioned earlier on the
the Ben Nevis Skyline was your dream race and you got to do it.
Have you got other dream races or races on the bucket list that
are up next for you or just that you would given any time for you
to do it, Would you? What's on your list?
My biggest a race when I was younger was like one of them was
Bennett Skyline. That was for Scotland.
Always wanted to do that. Well, originally it was a ring
of steel, but then it will change when I was Skyline, so I
went and did that. But the biggest a goal was Zers
and Al, which I put in my lottery the other weekend and
then I got an e-mail the next day saying we'd like you to
race. So I'm going to Zers now in
August this year. So I'm getting to do my dream
race again. It's through the year that I've
decided to sign up. I just seem to be getting lucky
after that, there's not such a the big a goal is UTMB, Mont
Blanc. That's going to be a couple of
years down the line. That's a lot of miles.
You know, I'm still trying to focus on.
I'll do long ones every so often, but for prolonging the
career probably will just be some faster mounting stuff.
So yeah, here's now the first stop and then we'd like to kind
of work my way through in doing the full golden Chelsea.
And the the Skyline races the Ben Nevis range.
They may not exist anymore because the rear events have
gone bust. That's right.
Yeah, I know. I was glad I didn't pay for my
ticket. Something else that you
mentioned earlier was the Devil of the Highlands and somebody
else that we were talking about was Rob Sinclair, who's got the
record on the the Flying West Island Way and the Devil.
Would it be something you'd be interested in?
In a few years, I think, yeah, it's going to take a lot for
someone to break our records because West in the way one
especially that's, you know, that's world class running.
That's, you know, that's not even just some Scottish guy
running that, you know, that is on the level of world class.
And Rob really wants it to go. I mean, I think mean Nikki spoke
about this. He does want it to go because
he's made his mark. But yeah, he's something else.
Rob's built different, especially like sometimes you
just, he's off Strava now. You won't hear from him.
He's off social media just because he's focused on the
family and stuff, which is totally fair.
And you'll just turn up to race and the next we'll hear.
Always broke the record. You went and did one down South
the other weekend and then broke the record.
You know, I mean, it's just, it's just something else.
But yeah, we'd like to do the fling, the devil in the island,
West End way, probably the fling and the devil.
I do more like coming up, you know, in a couple of years time,
the West and LA I'd like to save for either.
My dad's done the fling, the devil and he's like on the verge
of, oh, I don't want to do West in a way I won't do that.
I'm too old for it now. But I was like, if you do it,
I'll do it. I'll just run away.
So I would like to do it. If Dad said right, I'm doing it
because I would just run it with him.
But for racing it for me, yeah, that's probably a good few years
in one. Well, the the oldest finisher of
the West Island weighs something like 7273, so tell your dad to
get a move on. That's exactly right.
Yeah. He's only got what, 2 years?
No, he's not. He's like 53.
He'll be watching this year from running up the stairs to build
the one or something. Your dad's definitely not too
old if he's only that age, and I'll tell you, tell him this
year, get his name and if he's got a qualifying entry, get his
name in the hat. He might not even get picked.
You got to be in it to win it. Yeah, I think you need to.
You probably do the fling again next year because that's not
something the devil to swap around now.
So yeah, if you was to do Devil, I think I might do it.
I'm not sure. See what Robbie says.
Well, I'm sure Robbie Simpson, Rob Sinclair and I was Rob's
crew for the West well for all three races because you're a
loud crew in the short ones at that point.
So I'll put it out there if you need help, then we'll be there
for you if you need it. That's.
It thank you. Mate, a next question is it It
can be an awkward question to ask or answer.
Is there anybody that you would like to go for a run with?
Alive or not, fictional or real, let's.
See it would have to be killing Journey but I will be laying up
next to him in August so that's another one kicked off.
But I'd also like to run with Jim Walmsley because me and him
should have birthday. So meaning just, you know, go
for a birthday run, I think. So if run the word on reaches
like worldwide, then hopefully Jim sees this and say I'll go
down with his kid. But yeah, I'd like to go with
your mom's, I think. And to us, Hans Toy, I don't
know if you've seen him, the kid.
Yeah, yeah, that's someone else like to run with.
He's kind of just a nut case and he's funny.
So yeah, he just turns up the races, just blathers and then
goes and wins it. So yeah, I quite, I quite like
his kind of run in mentality as well.
Young American, he's got exact bears.
Or Jim Lamsley's sort of attitude of I'm going out there
100% and if I blew up, then I blew up.
So that's what. That that's exactly what that
means. That's also my other quote.
Faffo, You go out, it's fuck around until you fuck around and
find out. That's my running strategy.
You go out hard and then just wait and see what happens.
David, when you line up next to Killian, you want to ask him if
he'll come on the podcast? I'll.
Try, I'll try. I think is once that Bell goes
or Gun goes, yeah, I'm not going to another chance to speak to
him. So yeah, he'll be off.
How's your Catalonian? He doesn't need to speak
Catalonia. We'll just give him a sticker
and he'll say there you go. Just got him one of your mugs.
Yeah. Let's give it to him at start
line. So aside from sales and now that
you is your huge race coming up, have you got anything else in
Scotland, local events or vases? What have you got coming up for
the rest of the year? Well, last night me and the
families sat down, put an A1 calendar in the kitchen wall.
So it's huge and I pretty much filled every weekend and a few
week nights as well. So I'm kind of, I'm currently
going to be working through Scottish hill calendar just to
kind of get my, you know, not like my name out there, but it
is in a way. I'd like to represent Scotland
at some point. If I can keep working towards
that hill, hill racing and get a bit quicker, I'd love to
represent Scotland and whether that be under 23 or you know,
later on, I have, I'm not sure if it's been confirmed yet, but
I should be racing a Scotland northwest in the 1st of May, in
the 3rd of May in elite district.
So that's a good move in the right direction.
But yeah, I'm just working through all the the hill stuff
and quite short, quite fast, you know, lung bursting kind of
stuff. And then every so often I'll go
do something stupid just to just because I've got a assault hire
team in with a few pals. So that'll be good fun things to
12 hours. So it'll just probably end up
being like a 20 mile long run day, so it'll be good fun.
And the the last question that we've got written down, and I'm
not even sure if you've seen this, it came from our previous
guest, Jenny Drew Jenkins. She didn't know who we were
asking the question to and her her question was, I love the
sound of skylarks when I'm running.
What feature of nature makes you smile when you're running?
First of all, hi Jenny. Good balls with Jenny.
I would always pull. I've always believed that Robins
being like a loved ones nearby and I tend to see them quite
often when I'm out and I'll be more.
I always run and I'll be What's my favorite place to go and run?
Karen Gorms, I always see them. And we were just we arrived in
Abby Moore last week for a holiday and there was a Robinson
in the back garden. So yeah, I've always say, I
would say a Robins. Probably what makes me smile
when I see you when I'm running. I don't know if you're
superstitious, but I think Robins are the sign of someone
watching you. Yeah.
So I'm watching over you, and I quite like that.
Anytime I've ever been up on Monroe, I've always see a Robin,
as you're saying, and that's really cool one.
Yeah, that's my, yeah, me and all the families say that the
Robins granda. So yeah, that's what makes me
smile, Yeah. Right, that draws us to close.
It's one thing that you prompted me on, you said about watching
the video earlier, and I just needed to remind everybody that
this is available on YouTube, on Spotify for video and audio and
Apple and all of their podcasts and stuff like that.
It's just that somebody in the past has said that they didn't
know how to view it. So I'm telling everybody is on
various channels. You can just listen to it if you
want to. So there you go.
I think that's the last question for me, unless Nick has got
anything else. No, that's all from me.
Just to say, Kaiden, thank you so much for coming on and
agreeing to join us. And I have absolutely no doubt
you will be pulling on Scotland vest pretty soon, I think.
And we're just delighted that you've agreed to come on the
podcast, that we've got the first interview with you,
because as I say, I've no doubt that you'll be doing way more in
the future. No, not at all.
I've always wanted to do a podcast.
It was usually the first ones to do it, so no.
Thank you very much for having me.
It's been easy. And I'm sure Adrian Stott is one
of the Scotland selectors for various races as a a listener,
so he'll he'll know about your now if he hadn't before.
Really. Cheers back.
Everybody guys, just for me to say thank you Nikki for being
Nikki. Thank you Kaden for being Kaden,
I guess, and it's goodbye for me.
Thanks for coming on, Kaden. No worries, cheers.