Today I'm joined by a fellow Bridge contestant, veteran of
the Mark Cobain events, Carl Baxter, and we're sitting in the
back of the van hiding from the rain.
This in about 3 hours time we both start the bridge and so
Carol, before we got onto the bridge, tell me, how did you get
into running? Well, a long time ago when I was
13, I used to. I was quite a naughty kid at
school and at school I used to get chased by the police and
they couldn't catch me. And I I got expelled and I went
to an approved school in the Lake District and that was a lot
of outdoor pursuits. And they knew, they saw I was
good at running. So they put me in orienteering
team and I fell in love with running then up in the lakes and
that's how I got into running. How did how did that lead on to
what you do now? Well, Oh yeah.
Well, then I joined the Army and I was out in Germany.
I wasn't really that fit in Germany because a lot of
drinking and other side of that, that lifestyle, women, etcetera.
And then when I came back to London and I saw an
advertisement for the London Marathon in 96 and I thought to
myself, I'm going to do that. And that's where it started.
I did my first London Marathon in 96, second one in 97, but I
collapsed at a 21 mile point because I'd been out drinking
the night before and I was hungover.
So I did that and I've been doing it ever since.
Not falling over getting drunk, by the way, but just yeah,
running ever since, really. OK.
Marks obviously an influence on both of our running.
What was the first one I has eventually did?
The first one I did, it was really in lockdown and it was
all the the challenges that you set like the the backyard ultra.
So I said to myself, I've seen it on the Internet on the way
home I thought, right, I'm going to do that.
So I live in a communal garden and one lap was 42 meters.
So I said to myself, just in the garden I'm going to run 60 miles
and that's the first event that I did of his.
So I ran over 3 1/2 thousand laps in my garden and did 60
miles. So the kind of events like the
tunnel and the bridge and you're doing 42 meter repeats, yeah,
then doing a four mile, that's easy.
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's.
And I don't worry because it doesn't matter where you run,
you've just got to run. And so it doesn't.
If it's a lap or just out and back, I don't worry.
I don't think about, oh God, is that another lap.
I just think I've got to get to there and back and just keep
going. Well, you're saying about what
you think about. I'll go on to the questions that
everybody asks me. So what do you think about when
you're doing 200 miles? I think, I think about what I've
done in my life. How can I, how can I improve it?
How can I be a better person? Also, why am I doing it?
Why am I doing it? I always come back to the
question or the answer. Why shouldn't I do it?
Or because you know, we're not here for a long time, I just see
how far you can go. As I'm getting older I'm getting
slower, but I can see how far I can go.
When when the times get tough, you're 150 miles in, what keeps
you going? Well, I've done the end, the
end, because you can see it's the light at the end of the
tunnel of, you know, why stop there when you've only got in
theory a small, small distance to go, you've covered majority
of it. So just you've got to get to the
end. I think once you get to the
halfway, you think right, it's all downhill.
Technically it isn't, but it's the hardest part.
But you, you just have to keep going.
Right. What kind of shoes do you wear?
Or or for the tunnel or for the bridge.
Or the bridge today I've got some New Balance fuel cells on
and I've also if I if I'm going to go into another pair I've got
some of the the trail ones because they're like they're
really spongy and I'm going to use that on my neck.
Mark's next event for the tunnel I I had some Nike Alpha flies
and then I went back into me ultras because I think they were
getting 2 spongy here at my Achilles.
So yeah, so really New Balance Nike and Ultra.
What do you eat during a run like this?
Oh, I just this for the next two days.
It's Tesco Meal Deals and chocolate flavoured popcorn
orange. Oh, it's delightful and it's
light and you can stuff loads in your mouth and it's not heavy on
your stomach. Yeah, that's what I like at the
moment. Oh, and salt?
Vinegar. Pringles.
The I noticed on social media that you were doing something
that you thought of a charity event doing 4 races.
Yeah, I did the tunnel. I had to pull out 110.
I'm doing this. I'm doing Mark's the line.
That's from Sandlin Moore down to Peace Haven.
He's he's worked it out. It's 328 miles and I was going
to do Long Lass 4 marks races all for Combat Stress military
veterans, charity. But so I was fortunate enough to
get into the the Spartathlon in Greece in September.
So I'll have to forego the long last because I really want to do
the Spartathlon. Tell me what for for listeners
that don't know what is Spartathlon?
Spartathlon's a race. It's 158 miles, starts at the
accomplice in Greece and finishes off at Sparta and
you've got 36 hours to do the distance end of September.
And last year I think it was about 28° heat, so that's going
to be really tough, especially for me.
How do you that that kind of temperature?
Yes, you're from further South in the UK than what I am, so
temperatures possibly less in effect, but it's still not 28°.
No, no it's not. I live in in East Anglia so it
does get quite warm. But again, it's only for the odd
data, so I don't know how I'm going to train for it.
Just several layers on when I'm going out and running and
hopefully on my days off or as soon as I get hot day get out
there running, just hopefully to acclimatize as best.
As you can sauna steam room. Yeah, yeah.
And I was jogging the other day in the in the in a sauna and the
guy just looked at me and said what the hell are you doing?
You know, just to give it a a test out.
But yeah, it's going to be hard. I'm going to speak to a couple
of people who have done this for tap on last year and just pick
their brands. The another event that you've
done is the National Three Peaks.
That was last year. Yeah, last June.
Yeah. Yeah, that, that.
Would be the Thunder lining on. That's what we're expecting
during this race. But now back to the Three Peaks.
Yeah, What did that involve? Well, that was obviously another
Mark Cockburn event and it was doing the National Three Peaks
Challenge on foot staff at obviously up and down Ben Nevis,
run to the lakes up and down Scarfeld Park then have a little
chop down to Snowdon and finish up the bottom of Snowdon.
Best thing I've ever done. Best thing I've ever done and
one of the funniest things I've ever done as well.
And I did it from start to finish with a friend of ours,
Alan Cormac. Funny, funny as hell.
Couldn't stop laughing and and it was one of the best things
I've ever done. One of the best experiences I've
ever done. Yeah, good.
So what's the the biggest running achievement that you've
had? I think finishing the tunnel,
that was hard. That was, Yeah, that was hard.
It was the hallucinations for me.
It really got to me. It was the year that you did.
You you, you came third. But yeah, that was for me.
So that was, you know, I got to a level thinking I always used
to. I always, I still think now am I
good enough to be in these people's company.
And I generally, I think that. So when I completed my first 100
mile, I think, oh, yeah, I'm all right.
But then I think, right, OK, I did 150 miles of marks, one of
these lockdown challenges. And then obviously I went to the
tunnel and I completed that and I thought, well, yeah, I'm, I'm,
I'm belong here. So now I feel so that was the
biggest challenge the the achievement I feel personally
doing his 1st 200 Miller. They definitely belong, and
you're selling yourself short because you came third and I was
second. Oh, oh, yeah, that's what I do.
Sorry you had no, but you were. I don't want to demote you.
No, no. You thought you were 4th, but
you know you were higher than that.
You. Were third, yeah.
Yeah, it was. Man, yeah.
She was the only other finisher. Yeah, she was the only and the
first female to finish the tunnel.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's what I
generally did. That was my biggest achievement.
So you said about hallucinations.
What did you hallucinate? Well, I saw a family of
abandonable snowmen attached to the wall and I think about OK,
and then a bit further on in the race, a big slug coming towards
me with a cigarette in his mouth and that really I'm like that
what's going on here? And I just, I just thought I'll
just run past it and just carried on.
I was calling people by their other names.
I've seen waterfalls. I was thinking and actually
thought when I was going out from the start they were saying,
oh, you're going really slow out.
When you're coming out, you're coming back really quick.
I said yeah, because I'm running uphill.
I actually thought I was running uphill, going out, but coming
back I was running downhill. Yeah, it was just.
There was a ever so slight hill that you couldn't really.
No, with sound mind you couldn't notice that hill but it.
Was. I thought I was generally going
up a steep gradient. Yeah.
What's? Going back to your history, what
was your first race that you ever did?
It was the 96 London Marathon, yeah.
Straight into marathon. Yeah, I didn't do, I didn't do a
half marathon. I just thought I saw the sign
and I went home to Fleetwood near Blackpool and I said to him
in the local pub, I've just signed up for a London Marathon.
I'm going to, I'm going to sign up for a London Marathon and my
friend said you'll never do that.
And that was it then. So I did it.
It was 4 hours 11 minutes but I only did it in training.
I was like I ran with a yellow T-shirt and yellow shorts.
I look like a fat banana. But then I got and then I got
hooked. I will do it again but I said
the following year I collapsed being drunk but then by the end
of it, my 4th one. I did 3 hours 7 minutes.
There is the tunnel, London Marathon, the Bridge.
They're all relatively flat. Do you prefer flats or hills?
I like hills. I do, I do.
But where I live in Norfolk we haven't got any.
There's there's a there's a small incline well compared to
where you live and obviously other runners.
It's it's a back of Sherman, it's called Roman camp and the
steepest part is 115 feet. So I just go running up and down
there until like last week I did 4 1/2 thousand feet of elevation
just kept running up and down because I think it becomes makes
you a better runner. But yeah, I would have and it's
more interesting, but unfortunately where I live I'm a
little bit. Restricted races that you're
saying that you're doing, at some point you're going to bonk.
You're possibly even lead to DNF.
What's your your biggest bonk that you've had?
I think the first time I did the tunnel again, I just went and it
really affected me. I didn't want.
I didn't speak to people for days because I thought I was fit
enough to do it. But I I went in with a brand new
pair of trainers. I only run 6 miles and it it
killed my knocking, my Achilles and yeah, that I'm really
affected by that. This one that I've the tunnel
this year, that I've stopped 110.
I wasn't too concerned because it was a genuine injury.
It was so. But the first tunnel, yeah, I
thought it was. I was really angry with myself.
I didn't want to speak to anyone.
Right. Well, leading on to the race
that we're both doing today, which is Wales to England, 2
miles out, two miles back. Are you nervous about the race?
No, I'm not. No.
I don't get nervous about races. I get more nervous doing the
park run then I do these because I think I've signed up for that.
So I want to enjoy it. And I don't get nervous.
No, I'm not nervous about this. I'll say that now.
I may be at the start. Yeah.
Well, I think since you're not
nervous yet yet, I'm going to let you go and wrap it up there,
but best of luck. Yeah, you too, man.
Yeah.