Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Run Till
You're Done. If you're listening to this, you
won't actually see that Mike and I are sitting next to each other
in person. We can actually see and touch
each other. That is so really weird.
And yeah, that should probably get emptied out, but yeah,
that's what happens when we're recording the live episode.
We've also got a cat as well that's joining us for a little
bit, I think. So welcome to Glasgow Mike,
because we are recording in my house and Mike has drove up from
where? Sherwood Pines near Nottingham.
And he's taking a little break on his way back up to where he
lives in the north of Scotland. So it just made sense for us to
record this episode tonight. So how are you feeling?
I am pretty exhausted. It's I don't even know what day
it is. I think it's Monday.
I've had about say 3 hours sleep since Friday.
OK. So like Ross in his previous
episodes, I think they've got a thing about sleep deprivation.
And for those with most listeners will know what you've
just done, but for those who are tuning them for the first time,
what race have you just done and how does it work?
I was doing a backyard Oprah down in Sherwood Pines.
Russell Bock. Zoning out a bit, bit sleep
deprived. Yeah, it it was my intentions
were to get on the GB team. I think 5055 yards would have
done that. I went into it thinking I wasn't
fussed about winning the race. If that happened, that's a
byproduct. No intentions of stopping, but
55 yards, that's what I wanted to get to.
Anything else that happened after that, then good and.
For those that don't know, what is the concept of a backyard?
You say you've done yards. How far is a yard?
How long have you got to do it? That's.
Probably true. We've talked about backyards on
previous episodes, but what is the backyard?
Backyard Ultra is a last one standing event, but it's a
particular you, you get other last one standings that they're
not as interesting. There's various different the
the official Backyard Ultra is you run 4.167 miles on the hour
every hour until there's nobody left.
And in previous episodes, as you say, you mentioned we had James
Stewart on as a previous guest and you happened to drop in that
you were aiming for 80 yards. And did you take enough food
down to accommodate those 80? Yards I had enough food for.
I think my plan was 82 and there was a reason why it was 82.
I can't think right now what it is.
There definitely was. Oh, 82 was at one point what was
required to get to Biggs last time round.
OK. So you went down.
What time did the race start and what is the logistics about
getting down there? How long did you have beforehand
and talk us through that? So I left home on Thursday
night, the drove to Dundee, stayed in the hotel on Thursday
night and then drove the rest of the way down to Sherwood Pines,
which was 430 miles. Got there.
We were allowed to check in at 5:00 on the Friday.
So we got there, managed to get one of the best spots.
I, I couldn't have got a better spot because everybody's got to
be on the start line every hour. You set a tent up hopefully as
close to the start line as possible.
And my one was on the corral. The corral's where the, the
space that you need to be in at the start.
If you're not in that corral, you're out of the race.
So if you happen to have went to the toilet and you didn't get
out the time, then that's your own fault.
If you didn't get out of your chair, again, it's your own
fault. There's zero tolerance.
That is pretty neat to be. You're not allowed any
assistance to be in that corral. They can help you until the the
point of being in there and that's it.
There have been cases of well, I, I almost had a near miss in
the last race that I did. We were sitting chatting,
meeting the crew. Thank you Rebecca.
And we heard over the, the TANI 15 seconds to go and I was about
20-30 metres away. That was the fastest I moved all
race. I had to be in that Corel,
otherwise it was race over. I did a long jump into Corel.
You've got a certain amount of time you have to be moving
forward in the corral when the the bell goes on the arrow to
show that you're making progress.
If you're you've got to be in the corral moving.
If you're not moving, then it's assumed that you're not going.
So you can't like if you go into the corral, but you've if you're
stocking your jacket on and stuff, that's OK, but you have
to take that with you. If you are swapping your shoes,
you're only allowed the shoes that you're taking with you
there. So if you've got, if you're
taking one pair of shoes off, put another pair of shoes on,
you've still got to take the other ones with you because
otherwise it counts as littering basically because you've left
something on the corpse. And bonus, during one of the
laps, it must have been about quite late on the race.
I want to tell you where I found a pound on the the course.
So little victories, somebody dropped that pound.
Whether it was, I don't think it was deliberate because nobody's
throwing pounds around, but they could have got this qualified
for a littering on the course. Yeah, but yeah, nobody's.
It's a shame it wasn't a penny and we might have had met a lot,
but we will come to that later on in the episode.
So the Friday night, where did you stay at the site or did you
sleep at a hotel? What happened on the Friday
night and did you get a good feet and sleep before?
Some people went, got there on the Friday, put up their tent
like I did, and then they went and stayed in a hotel or Airbnb
or wherever nearby. I've got a camper van.
So on the site I stayed in the van and I was perfectly OK in
that. I wouldn't say slept the whole
time, but I was in bed for over 10 hours.
Yeah. So I was fully rested, fully
ready to go, I think half seven the next morning.
I don't lie in because I'm normally up for that.
So I got half seven, had something to eat and was fully
rested, ready to go. And your crew was already there
waiting for you because they posted a very flattering photo
of you on the start line in your jammies.
Yes, probably. I don't know if you've seen that
yet. I don't think I have.
I just for those, for those of you that don't know that haven't
been following, former guest Ross Beveridge went down to
Crewe for Mike this year. And one of the first photos that
Ross posted was Mike carrying something in his pajamas.
And I messaged him saying, is that Mike in pajamas?
He's like, yes, he's got changed since though.
And I'm like, good. Because I thought you were
making a bold statement on the start line.
You know, I know you're relaxed, but that's my page.
Just a bit too relaxed. There some some of the things
that was happening in the race. They had certain laps, had
certain themes and the first night lap, call it lap loop yard
Rep, however you want to call it.
Yeah, officially it's a yard because the original race was in
Lazarus Lake's backyard. But all those names, I don't
care. If you've got something that you
want to call it, you've sent it to me.
I don't care. It's it's all the same thing.
Some people might have issues with it, but it doesn't matter.
I can't remember what I was saying there.
And This is why this is going to call that no, because you're
that tired. No, please continue.
What was I saying? So start like what time did the
what time did the race start? And you were saying about
different themes as well. So I would imagine one of the
themes was tutus on Yard 22. Yes, the first night in first
yard in the dark was pajamas. Ah.
OK. That's not, These are unofficial
things started in America with the Tutu for Yard 22.
Eleanor Gallon had one of the competitors had talked to the
race director for this and she had came up with a list of
things to do for this race. And I think it was as a backyard
author catalog in Australia. And they do, I can't remember
what they call it, but it's the the fragrant 4th.
That's what it is. So you're supposed to go into
the 4th yard fragrant, whether that means you stink or whether
you smell nice, that's open to interpretation.
There was 1 yard that was flat caps.
Yeah. But the way that I see it, and
there have been times, should I buy a Tutu?
Because that seems to be the big thing, the the yard way to use
the Tutu. But the way that I see it is
anything like that is wasted energy.
You've got to think about it. And if I don't have to think
about it, that's one calorie of energy that I don't have to
think about it, so I can concentrate on racing instead.
So if I ever do a backyard ultra with you and when I say that
I'll be your crew who will be wedding a tour too, because I'll
be thinking about it and I'll put it on you.
So that's that's fine. And the flat cap.
I love that because I've seen Alice Town and another former
guest. She wore her traffic coat and so
anything far from from flat is what Alice chose.
But the people seem to get into the themes of the like of the
race. You know like each yard and that
is a the majority partake and that.
I wouldn't say it's a majority, but this race in particular,
there's quite a few. I think it's 250 people on the
start list and 233, I'm going to say actually started.
So it had a higher number than a normal previous races that I've
done. Yeah.
So there was a higher number of people taking part and.
Well, there are quite a lot of people like faces that either
recognise from the backyard scene or.
Yes. Just from races.
What Eric wanted to do for this was he, he wanted the race to be
a popular race. He, he knew it was going to be
Eric's the race director of Russellburg Running.
He wanted to attract the the, the best field, particularly
from the UK, to try and get the UK team as best as possible.
Yeah, he's taken over this cycle of being the team manager for
the UK and he he was just trying to get it.
It was various reasons 1 He wanted his race to be the best.
He wanted the UK team to be the best and he wanted it to be if
these were the people that were going to be in the team, he
wanted it to be a team bonding exercise.
He wanted the people that were going to go far to all know each
other so. And do you feel he created that?
Yeah, I think so. We'll get on to it later.
But I I certainly talk to a lot more people, even people that
were in the team coming up for two years ago.
I know them better from this race than I had in like the
previous World Team Championship.
And I think that's good that Eric has taken over because the
vibe, I've not actually been down to any of the events, but
even just seeing, hearing from yourself and looking at it on
the social media, even the fact that he does these race places
that you can donate money to for people that don't have the money
for, let's face it, we say it's a free spot.
And really as far from it, it just gives you an idea of the
vibe and you know, the community that turns up to these races and
it does the appeal. It is there for me to go down
and maybe do. They don't just do backyards, do
they? They do marathons and they do
half marathons as well. They they've got a stupid amount
of races there. It's basically every two weeks
they've got a different race on. Yeah.
So if you're not familiar with Russell Bock running, you can
find them on social media and check them out because they seem
a really good team. And each year I've followed them
the last couple of years since I started following yourself and
getting to know you, watching them grow, like they're just
getting bigger and bigger. And they seem to be doing so
well. Yeah, of it all.
Although Eric was attracting the the best in the UK to be in this
race, there was 200 and I'm going to say 233 people.
It was open to everybody. You wanted everybody to be
involved. It is a great event.
His company is a great company to be involved in.
And the fact as well that he's got Twitch and the young ones
will know that. So I'm not as familiar about it,
but the fact that he does the live streams as well.
We've got Time and Monkey as well.
That's where I was keeping an eye on you all when I wasn't
pestering Ross for updates throughout the weekend.
But we'll talk about the Saturday 1st.
How, How was the weather for you on the Saturday and going into
the Saturday night? How What conditions for you all?
The well before we went down, I talked to Eric.
Well, cast your mind back. Was it September last year, hard
recall. I went down to do Eric's other
or Russell box, other backyard. There's a new one for last year.
It was hard recall and we got to 29 yards and the National Trust
had decided, well decided there and then.
It wasn't a spur of the moment thing.
There was a weather warning out for a named storm.
The winds were going to be over 43 mile an hour and they've got
policy, it's a nationwide policy.
It wasn't particular for that site that if the winds get over
43 mile an hour, the site closes and you must evacuate.
So we got to 29 yards and we got told at 40 yards we're
evacuating the site. OK, so back then I there, there
was no point in me continuing because for UK qualification it
it was going to need to be a lot higher than what we were going
to be allowed to continue to. So whether this time around
there wasn't a named storm, all the forecasts were saying about
10 to 15 mile an hour for the whole however long the race
lasts, apart from if you Scroll down the page, it had the gust
warning. Where I stay, we don't bother
looking at the wind forecast. We look at the gust forecast
because that's what we get. And the gust forecast was for 39
mile an hour, right? OK, on the Sunday afternoon and
people on Facebook were going, oh, it's only saying 15 mile an
hour. It's like, yes, that's on the
Saturday we're talking about deep into the race and it's not
the the site owners this time around it was forced to
Commission, not National Trust, but they've got similar policy
and they they have to make the decision in advance.
But it was OK. It was 39 mile an hour that was
going to be below. Hopefully they're exaggerating
it because I think now that we started getting a lot more named
storms. Thank you, climate change
deniers. I think my office are on the
side of caution. They, they don't, they, they
don't take any chances if they're going to, if there's any
chance of anybody getting injured, they will close the
site. Yeah.
So on the Saturday you checked all that and I when looking on
social media, the weather looked quite nice actually.
Like was it cold? So is it.
It looked sunny. It was sunny, there was a couple
of bands of rain but nothing. I think I started off in a a
windbreaker paper thin thing. I think I did a couple of laps
and just a T-shirt I think once I put on.
A waterproof. It was the thinnest waterproof
I've got and it was more a precaution rather than a
necessity. And did you have your bucket
hat? I think it was in the bag but I
didn't wear the whole brace. Oh, because I know Ian, Ian
Bethune, he wore his because that's what he is starting to
get known for, is this famous bucket hat.
Especially after Barclay now. So with crew as well.
We've already mentioned Ross. Ross wasn't your only crew, so
let's talk about them as well. Who else did you have?
I had I had asked Rebecca who had previously crewed for me,
but she was going to be in Madeira doing a recce for a race
student later on in the year, so she couldn't make it.
So I put a a post on Facebook saying is there anybody local
wants to do it? Previous to that I'd asked Ross
I'd chew for him and I said I called him the favour and he
said he would love to come down. OK.
I don't want him. It was going to be a 5 hour
drive for him. I don't want to put that
pressure on him. 5 hour each way yeah.
And I didn't want him to have to do it the whole time by himself.
So I put a post on social media saying is there anybody local
wants the crew? And the the post was flooded
straight away. I actually took the post down so
that it would stop people replying to it because I didn't
I didn't feel comfortable saying no to people.
But the people that did get in there were Rich Transwick, who
I've previously known from racist marked being a racist.
I didn't know him that well, but he's been involved in them ages
ago. And as it turns out, I had a
sneaking suspicion in the after the World teams last year, there
was somebody that I I was staying in the tent and it was
freezing cold. It was shivering because I just
been running. Somebody that gave me a sleeping
bag. Turns out it was rich.
Yeah. So all these little things come
together. And then somebody who I've known
for I I I first met him on the first run that I ever did on the
West Island way. Ian Minty and his wife, Julia,
They, they stayed local, ish. So they got to come along.
So I left it in Rich's capable hands of making up a timetable.
It's going to be him and Ross. And then Ian said just fill me
in when whenever you need me, I'll be there to support give
you guys a break. So it's basically Rich and Ross
for the Saturday, Sunday. And then Minty had the
unfortunate a graveyard shift starting at midnight until 6:00
in the morning, and then he was going to go and do a full base
work after that. But the way that the car parks
worked, it was easier for him to turn up at 6:00, I think it was.
So he was able to get into the event car park, which was free,
as opposed to the Fercher Commission car park that was
something like 11 lbs for four hours.
So he did a He had planned to do about a 12 hour shift which gave
people tight sleep. And did they have everything
ready for you at the end of each yard?
And did you tell them what you would want before you left for
the next one? I think I can't even remember
when this list started and it has adapted.
I've got a list every hour's worth of food that I want ready
for when I come in and I'm going to eat it before the next yard
starts. And the plan was up to 82 hours,
I think it was, so they knew what I wanted.
And I've also got a list of demands, but not really the
helpful things for them. Like if it gets a certain point,
I might not like this thing anymore.
You get fed up of things. I had ambitions that I was going
to eat. I was actually surprised myself.
I had it down every 3 or 4 hours and it was just got to the
point. So I'm fed up with this now.
I'm not having it. So we changed it to we swapped
things around. So yeah, it happens.
But they they knew that I was adaptable to it.
And how do you manage to fit it in?
Like I would imagine because you can or can you predict when
you're going to need the loo and things like that?
Like have you got a rough idea of Oh well I'll go X number of
yards as likely I'll need a pea or other at this point?
No, you might be able to predict that, but I made sure that I
went for a #2 before the race. Yeah, and.
As we all do. Yeah.
And then I think the first time I needed it was probably about
10 hours in and. Was that in your like, do you
accommodate for that? Like, because obviously all of
that impacts on your time. So if you feel as though you do
need a toilet break, will you run that yard faster so you've
got a bit of time extra at the other side?
No, no reason for that. Well, I don't have.
I don't accommodate for it. I just know when we're all
adults and we know when we need to go to the toilet.
And if you need to go, sometimes you need to go.
Yeah, I didn't have it on the plan.
It was, I would do a lap if I needed a toilet to go to the
toilet. I didn't think I was drinking
that much. But thinking back on it, a lot
of the stuff that I was eating had quite a lot of liquid in it.
I was needing to pee almost every lap that there was.
So I knew I was drinking enough because I was needing to pee.
Yeah, number twos. If you're eating the right spot
on right amount of food, then you shouldn't be wasting
anything. So you shouldn't need to go to
the toilet. How?
Much. Yeah.
Nobody ever does that. It's an impossible thing to do.
So I would have said that probably every 12 hours or
something like that. Then I needed to go.
So I was comfortable with that. But in terms of can you do a
faster lap, I tend to if I run faster, I need to go to the
toilet quicker so I didn't want to.
DV. DV off the course didn't need to
go because it was public land. Plenty of people, males and
females, went for pee breaks at the side of the trail.
I don't know anybody. I certainly didn't.
That went for a poo break on the side of the trail.
Felt there's so we've talked about food, we've talked about
your crew sleep. That's going to be another thing
that people are really interested in.
How How do you get sleeping? So race started at 10 AM since
we didn't don't think we've got to that part first yard 10 AMI.
First thing I do is do I need the toilet?
Go do the toilet. Get that out of the way with
first, then eat. Then if I've got any spare time,
I will lie down even if it's two minutes, get the eye shut
because the way that I see it is that is resting might not be
sleeping, but at least it's resting.
Get your feet up in the air and rest.
Yeah. In terms of sleep IA lot of the
the yards that I did, I was, I was trying to actively run with
other people and one of the earlier yards and I say earlier
it was probably actually I think it was about yard 5 or something
like that. I did a 36 minute yard.
Wow. And the weird thing was I was
just chatting to the I was running at their pace.
I was chatting to somebody and it felt normal.
Yeah, another yard I was running with.
I think I ran quite a few yards with Frank Mcgaffney.
Yeah. And we were doing slower yards.
I can't even remember how what we're going to pace to work, but
a fast yard and a slow yard, it didn't seem much different.
But the difference was when you get back, you've got that spare
time. Yeah, but I wasn't actively
going, deliberately doing faster yards to get sleep.
I know I have in the past I've there have been racist that I
was doing 43 minute yards and I had I'll get back, go to the
toilet has something to eat and then that gives me 10 minutes.
Restless. This time it wasn't and I know
that I definitely a lot of them were just rest, but there was at
least once that had a 10 minute proper sleep and I think Ross
took a picture for us. But the other I had an I mask on
so I could sleep while it was still light.
And noise cancelling headphones as well.
They had a generator on and the noise cancelling headphones
helped. And when he took that picture,
he got a message from me, as you can imagine, saying baby in
India, that's not creepy in the slightest.
He one of the first things or last things he asked before the
race starts is are you planning on getting rest?
Do you want us to watch you sleep?
And what was your answer? Will it make a difference if I
say no? Obviously thing I don't care.
I think his intentions were. What a real question do you?
Like when do you want to wake up?
When do you want us to wake you up?
Was probably the right way to ask.
Yes, definitely. And if and if Ross, you have a
crew me for the backyard and if I ever get to that stage, that
will always be no, please don't watch me sleep.
That's just weird. So you mentioned Frank Mcgaffney
and you enjoyed his company on the course.
Who was there? Anyone else?
There's probably going to be two people, too many people.
You'll be worried to like leave people out, I would imagine.
But are there is there anyone like mentioned Ian as well as
seeing you're on with Ian. Alice managed to get a picture
with you. Yeah.
In, in terms of previous guests, again, I don't want to miss
anybody out. No, I'm not going to.
I enjoy talking to everybody that was out there.
Lizzie who was on previously, she was one of the people that
was out there. Tried her.
Yeah, there was plenty of people and guests or future guests,
yeah, but yeah, there's loads of people, 232 other people.
So yeah, plenty of people's chat.
Here and we mentioned Eric as the race director.
Jonathan is Jonathan Eric's brother?
Yes, Yep, he's also involved. Can.
No parents as well. And we can leave out the
Marshalls and the volunteers, like need to give them a
mention. How were they on the course?
They were, there were certain points that there was Marshalls
throughout the whole race. Yeah.
So I, I don't think once, once you got to a certain time, you
probably didn't need the Marshalls there because we'd
done it 24 times already that you didn't need them there.
But it, it was, Oh, right. I know.
I don't. I don't need to bother looking
at the sign which was a Marshall here too.
Guide you. Yeah.
I think it's a good idea,
though, because you're really well experienced at doing these
things. I mean, if you get someone
that's new, that's hitting these big distances and, you know,
they're not really used to dealing with sleep deprivation,
it would be easy for them to wander off, I would imagine.
Funny, somebody else who is fine was Alec Sweet and the World
Team Championships last time round.
He was the assist to see the Perry at yard 58.
He took a wrong turning and went down one of the side trails and
realised I'm not where I'm supposed to be.
Went back on, found the trail, did the loop and it just took
such a mental hit that he 58 hours in, you've done the same
thing over and over again. You should know, but it was just
sleep deprivation meant that he didn't continue.
But that that course, I think it had that this is the one in
threat for the world teams is that it had a lot of signage and
a good amount of signage, but it needed it because the course was
very convoluted. The one at Russell Bock, I
personally prefer it. Yeah.
There, it had a lot of signage as well there.
They didn't necessarily need it all.
Some of it was when you're getting sleep that arrived.
They had like glow sticks on the ground where there was roots
sticking up. Yeah.
But that I, I knew the root was there, but it meant that from
like 10 meters away you could see, oh, I'm still going the
right way. And thinking about it right now,
you think, oh, I don't need to know that.
But when you've been awake for probably say, 24 hours then and
it pits black, you just want this reassurance that you're
going, you're in the right place.
And how is the? How is the elevation on this
route? Pretty flat.
Not not completely flat, but pretty flat.
Enough hills to keep your legs interested, but not.
Not like Highlander. Not too many to tire you out.
Yeah, so don't have any big huge hills like the old the
Highlander. Route No.
The hills that it did have didn't go on for too long or
weren't too steep, so there was a bit of elevation, but it was
more gradual. And before we move on to the
Sunday of when things took a turn, did you get any videos or
photos with the Ruffalo this time round?
No, I did. Can't even remember who I was
talking to at the time. I did quote whatever I, I did
say the Ruffalo to whoever was running with her at the time and
they've got a kid and they couldn't remember how it went,
so they were amused by it. It was just that sort of thing
that you that you talk about that it's like nobody would talk
about that sort of thing. And two adults having a
conversation about a little brown mouse went for a walk and
a little Russell Bob Woods. You don't have that conversation
in normal life, but it's just that sort of little things that
get you by. Yeah, it's funny.
To be fair, if you do have kids, I mean, you probably do remember
it and can recite. I can't remember it.
Like there was a mouse down in the deep dark woods.
The little brown mouse took a walk in the deep dark woods, and
the mouse saw a nut in the night.
They not look good. There you go.
And I also a mouse in the can't remember.
Yeah, that will last a mouse to go for a tree topped house.
But anyway I. Will ice cream.
As well his favorite cruise. I was actually something that
I've don't regret. But before it started to get
dark, there were statues of the Gruffalo.
That's why I was quoting the Gruffalo last night round.
And there was what I assume was the little brown mouse, but I
honestly thought it was a squirrel.
And I was like, what, Why I I didn't think it was a real
squirrel. I thought it was a statue of a
squirrel. It's like a squirrel took a walk
in the deep dark woods. But no, the, the other thing
that was near the Gruffalo was a monkey or a chimpanzee or a
chimpanzee monkey or whatever. And I was trying to think in my
head. The mouse took a walk in the
deep, dark woods, and the mouse saw a monkey.
And no, I'm going to have tea with the Gruffalo.
And his favorite food is monkey brains.
I couldn't work it. I didn't get ready for the
carpet. But now you're going.
There we go then. So apart from like the light
heartedness of the race, obviously last night, Sunday
night, I'm getting settled into my bed and just have a wee look
at the timing, Monkey. And you and Ian didn't finish
the loop, OK? So send you a message.
Are you OK? What's going on?
And then shortly after that, eight others decided not to
continue. And then there was 2 left and it
was like, right, something has happened here.
Now, my first thought was because let's face it, with
people that know me, you know me, I am one of the biggest
overthinkers. I'm thinking, Oh my God, Mike's
had a heart attack or something on the course and Ian's dragged
them back and that's why they were late.
And they've all decided not to continue because they're so
upset. And there's been this medical
emergency text four other people.
I think I'd text Kayleigh Webster, who was down there.
I text Alice, I text Ross. Ian was almost getting a text.
And then and then so on WhatsApp you were typing.
I was like, oh, OK, he's alive. So and then so tell us what
happened, what was, what was actually going on when Time and
Monkey wiped you all out? Well, yeah.
So on yard, is it 30, yard 35, it was 34 hours in and something
that we haven't talked about, I'll go on to that one in a
second, was it was the time when the clocks changed?
Oh yes, of course. And I did wonder.
I wonder if you would all get an extra yard a bonus.
Yard. Well, I I deliberately on my
watch, People set it up in different ways.
I had nothing on it. Mileage didn't matter.
I had one screen for battery life and the other screen was
race time. So when the clocks changed,
didn't matter. Yeah, it was race time, but they
started at 10 AM Yeah, 24 hours in when people got to the 100
miles because that's why it's 4.167 miles.
Oh. It's 11. 24 * 4.167 is 100
miles, yeah. So that's the reason for it.
But yeah, it wasn't 10:00, it was 11:00.
And that messes with people. Yeah.
But anyway, get back to the question about yard 34 or we're
on 35 and I'll let you work out what time of night that was.
It was near midnight. I've been.
It was, it was deaf, it was about, it wasn't actually.
This is where you have timings are skewed.
It was actually only about 9:00 because I was in my jammies
getting settled. And then it was after 10 that
I've seen it all go a bit wrong. And I'm like, oh, right, what's
happened here? Because I was genuinely getting
settled. And This is why, children, you
don't take your, your phone to bed with you because I was
actually quite sleepy. And I thought, right, I'll just
do one last check and see how they're all getting on.
And that happened. And as I said there, my brain
went into OverDrive and went, Oh, my God, what's happened?
And I think the last I do remember, like waking up this
morning because you text and you said you were all OK.
And then I could relax at that point.
And that was a the last message you sent me last night was the
photo, which you'll get on to at 21 minutes past 10.
Yeah. The reason why I thought it was
midnight or midnight in my head is once everything was sorted
out, that was kind of the time that we, yeah, settled down.
I think that's what it was. But when for all us at home
watching, not seeing, and, you know, furiously trying to get
Russell Bock to see if there was anything on Instagram to tell us
all what happened, what was happening down there when you
guys were out on the course. So we left.
Left camp. It was strangely windier than
normal. Unforecast weren't supposed to
be getting wind at that time of night.
Wind was supposed to be at 2:00 in the afternoon, but continuing
anyway. You run down the long straight,
turn the corner to another long straight, and me and Alex Sweet
and don't know who else had, We'd mean that that was a wind
tunnel because you turn in and it's always windy down there.
You turn off a bit and there's no wind.
It was strange. Good.
Then that wind tunnel because it was windier than normal, but it
had been on camp. And then you turn up past mock
World War 2 bunker and one of the early yards.
I'd been talking to somebody and we couldn't remember what, what
they were. What, what's that thing called?
It was called a bunker. And that was always the point.
I was, I was mile one, the bunker marked mile one because I
always set out my my markers and that was when I took my buff off
every lap, every single lap. That was when I came off.
And then mile 2 had the zigzags in it.
There was basically you came off the normal Land Rover tracks on
a bit the IT was a lot of the the forestry trails have got
bike tracks in it. And this was obviously a bike
track that went back and forth, back and forth.
And that was the zigzags at this near near the start of the
zigzags went down. I was like, this is the point to
turn. This is what we normally turn,
but there's a tree down the tree across the course.
I can't be. And then I saw the sign, the
other side of the tree. That was when Lizzie came along.
She'd been running behind me. I was like, no, you're going the
right way. Something not right.
So we climbed over the tree and we continued.
And then I saw another tree down to the side, another tree, and
we could hear another tree falling.
I was like, right, I'm going to phone Eric.
So I phoned Eric said there's trees down in the zigzags and
the reply was OK, there's five tents on camp that are down,
we're gathering everybody and they had a a rendezvous point at
the visitor centre which was next to the Gruffalo which was
pretty much at the end of the yard.
So we had to go through the forest with the shrapnel coming
to get one person got hit by a pine cone and that was the only
injury. Nobody got hurt.
Nobody got hurt at all. Craig McQueen was running with
us and Alex Sweet was around us. So we all the other stuck
together. There was absolutely no rush to
get back because as far as I was concerned, they weren't going to
be able to continue the raid. It it wasn't, it wasn't even a
choice that Eric could make. I think I, I don't know whether
the Forestry Commission even knew that it was happening, but
they wouldn't have allowed it to continue.
So we all got gathered in the, the one place at the end,
there's a, a picture of us all. I think there's 12 people left
at the end and we're all waiting just to see.
At that point, we hadn't been back to camp to make sure that
was was my tent one of the five that's down?
How was my stuff? They didn't know because it was
to them it was just tents. They didn't know whose crew was
with what. Are my crew OK?
By that time, Ross had left to go home.
Ian was there. Rich was still there.
I was like, we don't know what's happening, so think about that.
I could have looked at my phone and there probably would have
been messages making sure I was OK I couldn't reply to them.
But in the heat of the moment, it was just like, you're in this
confined space and you're staying there.
Yeah, eventually they said you can go back to camp, get your
essentials. And then I think the original
plan was everybody, crew as well, were going back to the
visitor centre and we were staying there until the wind
came down. While we were back at camp, the
wind just disappeared. It's gone.
There's no no wind at all. It was if it came in, did its
damage and left. But as you say, they couldn't
have allowed it to continue because you can't predict that
you and not only that debate you stopped like I would like the
clocks by there was the old clock has passed.
The race is done. Like as soon as that happens,
that yard's done. Nobody was on the start line, so
we're all. DNF D Exactly.
So now going forward, I would imagine we're recording this on
the Monday night. This all only happened last
night and I would imagine Eric, Jonathan, all the other base
organisers are getting their own heads around it.
I did see Eric had put a post on today saying there'll be more to
come but what have you 12 been told for now?
Is just that's it done or are you offered a place in a future
event or has no one been told anything yet?
I think in terms of runners, it's it's too early to decide
what I'm doing. I I've deliberately said to
myself even if I was offered a race next week, I'm not thinking
about it. I'm not making any draft
decisions for a few days. Doesn't matter what it is
offered unless somebody wants to offer me £1,000,000 to go and
run a backyard tomorrow. Sorry I've not got I'm I'm a bit
strapped. But no, I, I saw Eric this
morning. We, we went back to camp because
the wind had disappeared. We were able to get to our cars.
I had the the van, I moved that into the centre of camp, so it
was away from any trees. If there was trees that fallen
over, they wouldn't have landed anywhere near me.
The the other thing about the, the race being called off,
although the windows stopped, we don't know what state that there
could have been a tree waiting to fall that was popped up on
branches. If somebody walked past it, then
it could have fallen on them. So there's absolutely 100% the
right choice to. Make absolutely, and it's always
got to be safety first for everyone because it just
wouldn't have been worth it to continue if you're worried like
you can. So how was Eric when you last
left him? Because I would imagine he,
along with you guys will be absolutely gutted because this
is now the second Russell Bock event that's been totally out
with his control. You know, it's he's got to be
pretty gutted about I would imagine.
I think he's feeling pretty stressed.
Yeah. So if anybody sees Eric, give
him a hug. I want to give you a hug and I
can have not many yet. So travelled up the road today.
How? And I seen you get out of the
van. You, you were hobbling a bit.
How are you? Well, during the race I come
back to strategies. I'd I didn't have a caffeine
strategy, just keep me awake. I was willing to don't be afraid
to take caffeine and take it when I need it, not necessarily
before it at it got dark overnight.
The first night I didn't feel tired until the last hour of it
being dark. So that was what 6 in the
morning? So I took some caffeine and I
don't drink tea or coffee just because I don't like flavour of
it. I don't drink fizzy juice
because I don't when I take caffeine it it works for I don't
know how long it was. I've got it written down between
the first lot of caffeine and then the second lot of caffeine,
but it got to the point that I was taking caffeine every two
hours, 1 Pro plus, so a caffeine tablet and the the doctor's
guidance is you shouldn't take more than 400 milligrams of
caffeine a day. So obviously a runner's guidance
is no more than 600. So I worked out that that is
every two hours I would, it would, it seemed to take 3/4 of
a yard to kick in, then I had a full yard and then I would take
it for the next 1. So I'd start getting tired and
it would kick in again and then it'd be OK.
So I think I had about 600 milligrams of caffeine.
And when you don't take caffeine, I was prepared to be
continuing for a long time. I didn't know the vase was going
to get stopped. So I was, I was taking caffeine
as if I was continuing. When we eventually got to go to
bed, as it were, I've got a bed in the van.
So yes, it was bed. I basically sat on my phone most
of the time. I was dozing but I didn't sleep.
I may have got say 2 hours sleep.
I was interrupted to sleep because I was so high in
caffeine. Got up at I think 7:00 in the
morning. I felt wide awake, but at the
same time I felt like I hadn't slept.
Yeah, just wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then Rich had taken down the tent.
He'd packed away most of the stuff, but he'd left outside the
van because he didn't know that I was awake in the van.
And then he went and got his bus home because he had travelled up
on the bus, but he had booked his bus last minute to get home
because he didn't know what time it's going to spend.
So he'd went home and I was sitting there.
I could sit on my phone or I could start driving.
I was, I was wide awake. So drove.
I went into Mansfield, which is the nearest town.
Oh, that I have a diesel and we're going to get home, right.
Go to the next pedal station or that I have diesel.
OK, go to the next one. And luckily I managed to fill
up, so I've got plenty of fuel to get home.
I drove up the road. I started to get tired.
It's just like the the mundane traffic going up the motorway.
So proven the services and set an alarm and slept and I don't
know how long my alarm had been going off.
You get 2 hours free in the motorway services.
I was up before the two hours, but it was cutting it fine.
Yeah, I slept through my alarm. Well, must as he did that.
I think I got about an hour and a half there.
I knew I had to leave the services car park before I got a
£60 parking fine so I did and I took more propose to be able to
drive up. I only took one, so I've only
had 50 milligrams today, but got off the road and I felt fine all
the way. So I'm here now.
I've survived and I could still drive.
I feel conscious enough, although zoning out sometimes.
That is because I have to think. The mundane motorway driving is
different type of thinking I think.
But you're not because you're going to get a decent rest here.
Hopefully the bed will be comfortable enough and mass snow
room won't be too loud in the next room.
So how's your feet? We were talking about that
before we started recording. It says your left one looks a
bit battled. How?
How are they? Is the roofing gel still working
or are they getting sore yet? I have got cantles 1 foot left,
one is rather swollen. It's kind of bruised looking at
it. It's, yeah, probably.
Honestly, and I don't know how people do Podiatry, I just
couldn't. Well, all all I can say is when
you hurt your ankle whenever it was six months ago, but that
looks. Worse, I actually feel as though
I really dramatize right now looking at that.
OK, yeah. And you're still like, actually
it does look pretty battered. If you're watching the YouTube,
you'll I don't know how well you'll be able to see that, but
looking at it in reality, you should be getting a good few
pictures of that and just seeing how you go with it.
But you're quite right not to think the next few days about
races and what you're going to be doing going forwards.
I mean, you want, the one thing you have said to me is you
definitely will race again because we're runners and let's
be realistic. We all say I'm never doing that
again. And then three days, like, oh,
there's a race. Yeah, well, I've, I know that
I'm not making any drastic decision about what race I'm
going to do, but of course I'm going to race.
There's never been a thought that I'm not going to race
again. Of course I'm going to if my
uncle let me. That will be fine.
It always says, always says you've been through us.
I've been through a lot worse and no sympathy is
self-inflicted. A little bit.
You did go an awful long way. How far in total did we manage
then? For those of us that can't do
maths in 34 yards, did you do 34 or 35?
We were on 35I. Think so?
We basically complete, so let's count that like just for
counting sake. How?
35, 35. So you got 24. 3036 is 150, so
you're talking 145 lbs. That's pretty impressive.
But. It's about 100 short of what was
aiming for. Yeah.
So these things. Happened.
And the one thing we did have a wee joke about as well before
we. Went and recorded this tonight.
Was yourself and Lizzie Gavin. I'm not doing the backyard
together ever again. We did agree, whether it was
jokingly or. Not We were both at Highlander
and I got called off. We were both at Harvard Hall and
I got called off. And this is the third time we
are going to consult each other's race Diaries and never
race at the same time. Well, I think it is.
Just a full coincidence because I think you would make a really
good team. The field, as I said to you,
it's such a shame and I'm genuinely, I'm gutted for
everyone and not even just the runners, but for the race
organisers, for everything, you know, because what a strong
field it was and what a shame it was.
But I've absolutely no doubt that Russell Bock will come back
from it and they'll have the strong runners and you know, who
knows, get the UK record. Yeah, at some point soon,
hopefully. What what I said to Eric this
morning is. These things happen with the
race but the only, it's not even a worry, it's thought that I've
got is my intention was or so is to qualify for the UK team and
how am I going to do that? What do I need, what race do I
need to do to be able to get to do that and recover?
And it's just something I've got to think about.
I don't want to think about it at the moment.
No, no, that's definitely for the future.
And I've no doubt, and the listeners will have no doubt
that you will get there. Yeah.
So I think that wraps us up for. Mike's special episode of
Rehashing Raslbach. Mike probably can't remember
what we spoke about for the last wee while, so it'll be
interesting. And I think, as I said, that's
all from me. Thank you, Mike for being Mike
and good night and it's good night for me.