1
00:00:21,130 --> 00:00:25,290
Hello and welcome to another 
episode of Run Till You're Done.

2
00:00:25,490 --> 00:00:29,210
This week's guest is someone who
has gave me the privilege to 

3
00:00:29,210 --> 00:00:33,210
spend an entire weekend crew 
forum on the West Highland Way 

4
00:00:33,210 --> 00:00:36,280
Race this year. 
As well as chatting about that, 

5
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,720
we will dive into how we got 
started with running and the 

6
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:42,680
events that led him up to 
participate in in the West 

7
00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,360
Highland Way Race this year and 
what other things will lead on 

8
00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,240
from that. 
Welcome to the podcast, Stevie 

9
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:52,440
McKenna. 
Thanks guys. 

10
00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,320
Thanks for having me. 
We'll, we'll start off with the 

11
00:00:56,360 --> 00:01:00,080
the question that we ask 
everybody is how did you first 

12
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:04,519
get into running? 
Probably not the way that 

13
00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:07,360
everybody else seems to have got
into running via COVID. 

14
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:16,160
I, I actually started back in 
2000 and end of 2012 two 1013. 

15
00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:20,440
I mean, I was never into running
when I was younger. 

16
00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:22,680
That was my brother's thing. 
He used, he done it at school. 

17
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,880
We went on to represent Scottish
schools that kind of close 

18
00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:27,440
country and middle distance. 
That was his thing. 

19
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,760
I just met him, got on with it 
and and I I came to fail and 

20
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:39,680
television sports and then back 
in maybe God to late 2000s, I 

21
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,440
blew my ACL. 
Didn't realize it at the time, 

22
00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:46,440
just continue snowboarding 
because I was able to snowboard 

23
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,240
fine with it. 
But eventually over the years, 

24
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:51,640
it started when he started to 
give away from the twisting on 

25
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:53,920
it. 
And it turns out that I had no 

26
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,640
ACL left, so I had to get 
reconstruction on it. 

27
00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,280
And as part of that the, the 
physiotherapy afterwards, the 

28
00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:04,400
goal was ultimately to get back 
snowboarding. 

29
00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:09,600
And so I went through a kind of 
10/10/11 week physio program 

30
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:11,120
period. 
It was just all really basic 

31
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:12,920
movements. 
And then after, after that 

32
00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:15,720
point, they said what we want 
you to do now is we want you to 

33
00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,640
start putting some motion into 
it, putting some running into 

34
00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:20,120
it, but we don't want you doing 
anything. 

35
00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:23,320
Nothing can get like no cutting 
movements, no change in 

36
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,480
direction, just forwards and 
backs, forwards and back, nice 

37
00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,280
and easy. 
And it was weekly appointments. 

38
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:30,840
I was getting at the at the 
hospital. 

39
00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:32,920
And what they said to me was 
like, go off. 

40
00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:36,840
And by next week we want you to 
come back here and see if you 

41
00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,080
can see if you can get an Uptown
meal. 

42
00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,160
So maybe me, I went off and I'd 
been feeling made. 

43
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,000
I've been doing gym work, had 
been doing like work on the bike

44
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,480
and things like that just to 
keep my cardio going. 

45
00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:51,960
But me being me, I went off and 
on the first day I was like, 

46
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,000
right, OK, they said I've got to
run a mail by next week. 

47
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,760
So I went out that night and I 
ran a meal and then the 

48
00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:01,280
following day I thought, well, 
if I've done one meal last night

49
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,840
and I got no reaction from it, 
can I do 2 miles the following 

50
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,600
following night? 
And by the time I went back to 

51
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,640
physio the next week, I'd done 
10K. 

52
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:13,840
So at that point I needed, I 
needed some sort of goal to to 

53
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,960
keep me going. 
And God, this would have been 

54
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:22,080
probably this late summer, maybe
early autumn of 2012. 

55
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:24,120
And I thought, well, what can I 
do? 

56
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,080
I'd never, I'd never ran like 10
keys eventually got, but I'd 

57
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,320
just done A10 key as as part of 
that, that physio. 

58
00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:31,720
So I thought, well, let's give 
myself a go. 

59
00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:33,640
Let's, let's look at the 
Edinburgh Marathon. 

60
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:39,280
And I entered myself into the 
2013 Edinburgh Marathon and I 

61
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,120
just just focused on that. 
At that point, I had zero 

62
00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,800
friends who I would consider 
runners. 

63
00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,640
I had, I knew a couple of people
that had done marathons before 

64
00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,880
and they'd said to me, you know,
4 hours, that's the make and 

65
00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,320
that's what you want to aim for.
If you can do 4 hours, that's 

66
00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:57,440
amazing. 
But ultimately for me that the 

67
00:03:57,440 --> 00:03:58,840
goal was just to get back on the
snowboard. 

68
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,080
That wasn't to start running or 
anything like that. 

69
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:08,920
And in April, May, May, between 
May, rolled down in 2013, turned

70
00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:14,600
up in Edinburgh, went out and I 
finished in three, three hours, 

71
00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,240
4956. 
So for me that was like box tech

72
00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:19,920
never have to do another 
marathon again. 

73
00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,320
You know, running is done after 
that. 

74
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,680
Just from a kind of at this 
point of view, I would go off 

75
00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:31,880
and do the occasional kinky here
or a half marathon like the, 

76
00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:34,160
the, the Glasgow half, the the 
great Scottish Run. 

77
00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,080
That's something that I would 
always came to do every year. 

78
00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,560
But you know, let's be honest, 
it was a day out with the boys. 

79
00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:43,360
You would go in, you would 
either do the 10K first thing in

80
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,440
the morning or you'd be going to
the half marathon and then you 

81
00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:47,760
would go to the pub and then the
day would just get me from you. 

82
00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:50,080
And it was just, it was a day 
out. 

83
00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:56,280
But yeah, there was no kind of 
concept of me considering myself

84
00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:59,520
as being a runner or anything. 
It was just that, just something

85
00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:01,040
I've done to keep keep fit at 
that point. 

86
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,120
So was Edinburgh Morrison your 
first running event? 

87
00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:07,240
Yeah, yeah. 
So I mean, I mean, to have got 

88
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:09,640
all my medals on on the wall 
over here and I went through 

89
00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:11,200
thinking there might have been 
one. 

90
00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:15,680
I lived in Edinburgh, God, mid 
2000s. 

91
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,520
I've lived through there and I, 
I think there was potentially 

92
00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:20,640
one that I'd done round 
tomatoes, but I don't, I don't 

93
00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,880
have a medal for it. 
So 2013 I'm going to put that 

94
00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,120
down as my, my first one. 
And then I've also got a great 

95
00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,760
Scottish run one for 2013. 
So obviously I thought at that 

96
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:32,480
point, but I'll just, I'll start
doing that. 

97
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:34,720
And I think, I think with the 
great Scottish run, it was just 

98
00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,240
that unique selling point of 
running over the Kingston 

99
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:38,640
Bridge. 
I was like, that would be cool 

100
00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,160
to do that. 
Yeah. 

101
00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,240
Like I say, since then it was 
just kind of like a little runs 

102
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:50,320
here and there to to keep fit. 
Edinburgh was my first as well, 

103
00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,960
but I was four years before you.
Right. 

104
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:58,120
I I hate it. 
I it was the wind. 

105
00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,840
It was hot that day. 
I think it was the first year 

106
00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:05,280
that they run out of water. 
But right, that's a hot topic. 

107
00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:07,600
Yeah, I was. 
I mean, I was quite fortunate, I

108
00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:10,760
think it was. 
It was maybe only the last or 

109
00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:13,600
that the sun that the, the kind 
of the hard boat bumped off and 

110
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,880
it got hot and but we didn't 
really get any, any wind as 

111
00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,760
such. 
But I came back for a minute and

112
00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:21,400
I was like, well, that's that 
box text. 

113
00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,360
I'm not rushing back to do that 
at all. 

114
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,480
But I say I hear that. 
I crossed the finish line and 

115
00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:33,840
said I'm never running again. 
And aside from the running you'd

116
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:37,320
built up to Edinburgh Madison, 
did you get back on the 

117
00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:40,120
snowboarding pretty quickly? 
Oh, yeah, yeah, No, So I mean, 

118
00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,360
like, like I say, the marathon 
was just a complete, that was a 

119
00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,280
that was a bonus. 
That was a kind of, oh, I've got

120
00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:47,200
this fitness. 
So, you know, I've got that goal

121
00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:48,760
to work too. 
But no, I was, I was back 

122
00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,520
snowboarding by the December of 
that year. 

123
00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:56,240
So they, they reckoned to, to 
have an ACL reconstruction, you 

124
00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:59,080
reckon there were about nine 
months, maybe 10 months to, to 

125
00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:02,480
get back to that level of, of 
fitness to be able to do that. 

126
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:05,680
And I was back doing it within 
seven and a half, eight months 

127
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,520
and. 
Did you feel the running then 

128
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,160
complimented the your 
snowboarding skills like with 

129
00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,120
code and fitness and things like
that it. 

130
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:14,920
Definitely, definitely helped 
fitness wise. 

131
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,160
I mean, definitely I, I lost a 
bit of weight when I was doing 

132
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:23,240
that and that, you know, 
anything, any sort of mask that 

133
00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:25,280
you can take off your knees when
you're, you're doing any sort of

134
00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:27,880
snow sports was, was definitely 
beneficial. 

135
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:33,680
A lot of people say that running
is bad for your knees, but I 

136
00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:36,680
think what you're saying is 
what? 

137
00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:40,200
What the scientific evidence? 
It's not proof. 

138
00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:45,720
Evidence says that. 
It tends to be people that don't

139
00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,240
run that say that because that's
an excuse not to run. 

140
00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:53,400
But running actually builds up 
your cartilage and make it like 

141
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:59,280
regenerates it because you're 
constantly wearing it down to 

142
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,600
build it back up again. 
And that's how your body reacts 

143
00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,080
to it. 
So I would say that you getting 

144
00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,120
back to it is evidence towards 
that. 

145
00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:15,360
Yeah, no, I definitely see that.
My knees are you compare them to

146
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,320
even 20 years ago, they're in 
much better condition than than 

147
00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:22,440
there were then. 
So obviously you're on the 

148
00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:24,560
Edinburgh Marathon. 
Yeah. 

149
00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,040
There's big gap between then and
sitting with us today. 

150
00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:32,320
Now where did that lead to then?
You ticked that box. 

151
00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:37,039
We'll never do it then. 
Ticked that, ticked that box, 

152
00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:39,720
ticked the marathon box. 
I went off and done 10 keys and 

153
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,720
21 keys. 
I did go back to Edinburgh, so I

154
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:49,880
did go back in 2017. 
I also went to Sterling in 2017 

155
00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:52,480
as well. 
That was the, the kind of 

156
00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,440
inaugural year that they brought
the Sterling Marathon in. 

157
00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:58,000
So I originally signed up for 
the Sterling Marathon thinking, 

158
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,960
well it's been 4 years since 
I've run one, let's let's go and

159
00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:05,080
do that. 
Ran the Sterling Marathon and 

160
00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:07,840
then the lead up to that, one of
my friends had a place for 

161
00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,240
Edinburgh and he that he was 
injured the he was going to pull

162
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:13,640
out of it and he asked me if I 
knew anybody that would take 

163
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,760
that place from him. 
So I asked about nobody was keen

164
00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:20,080
for that. 
But then the seed was planted in

165
00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,400
my head. 
It's like, could I run 

166
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:24,440
Edinburgh? 
Could I run Sterling one 

167
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,240
weekends and then just have a 
complete recovery week and then 

168
00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:29,640
go and run Edinburgh the next 
weekend. 

169
00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,240
They're working back on it. 
The signings were there. 

170
00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,360
The signings were there before I
was going to go on and do in the

171
00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,800
later years. 
But yeah, I took Eddie's place 

172
00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:44,080
off home, turned up at 
Edinburgh, ran it again, had a 

173
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,240
horrific run due to sweating and
nipple tape coming off and all 

174
00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,480
the rest of it. 
So my plans went out the window.

175
00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,480
But yeah, but it was, it was 
good to do that and just do them

176
00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:57,520
back-to-back and think, no, I 
can actually do things that are,

177
00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,000
are hard here and then off the 
back of that. 

178
00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,720
So that that was 2017. 
So that would have been what, 

179
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:09,920
again the end of May. 
And then I, I caught wind of the

180
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:15,040
run the Blades 50K, which 
happens, you know, like 5 miles 

181
00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,680
from my mom and dad's house. 
Like in my old bedroom, you can 

182
00:10:18,680 --> 00:10:22,120
actually see the, all the 
turbines from White White Lee's 

183
00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:24,640
wind farm. 
And I just had that little seat 

184
00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:28,120
in the back of my head of all I 
need to do is run like what, 4 

185
00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:30,880
point something miles more. 
And then suddenly I can call 

186
00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,720
myself a, a ultra marathon. 
You know, I've, I've done ultra 

187
00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,520
marathons and at that point 
that's, I don't need to run 

188
00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:39,200
again. 
I've done every sort of distance

189
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,680
you can do so. 
So yeah, that that July I found 

190
00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:49,600
myself up in Whiteley's doing 
the 50K and that was ultimately 

191
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:51,920
the gateway that went to to 
everything else. 

192
00:10:54,480 --> 00:11:00,480
Your Edinburgh sterling double, 
did your times improve compared 

193
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:02,200
to when you did it at Edinburgh 
before? 

194
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,280
No, no. 
So I was, I was still under. 

195
00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:10,600
I can't remember my exact time. 
I was, I was a couple of minutes

196
00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,600
under 4 hours for Sterling, 
which was a horrible, horrible 

197
00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,280
event. 
Like they, they started you, 

198
00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:21,120
they started you Blair Drummond.
So you went out, went through 

199
00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:25,360
like Dune and Dunblane and that 
came back into Sterling. 

200
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:27,640
But then when you got to 
Sterling you were only about 17 

201
00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:30,320
miles into the course. 
So they made you do multiple 

202
00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,480
laps of the city centre. 
So someday like me that was 

203
00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:38,160
aiming for sub four, I was 
coming into 17 miles, you know, 

204
00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:42,240
I can't remember off the top of 
my head, but I was like maybe 

205
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,760
two, 2 1/2 hours or two 245 or 
something like that. 

206
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:49,040
Meanwhile, I'm then getting 
caught up with the guys that are

207
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,080
going for sub three that are on 
their last lap. 

208
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:53,840
So it was horrible. 
You're running along your pace 

209
00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:55,760
and suddenly everybody's flying 
past you. 

210
00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,480
But then as you progressed, 
ground your laps, you suddenly 

211
00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,040
became the first person as 
everybody else was was feeding. 

212
00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:06,480
And so yeah, that was that was 
just shy you forever for that 

213
00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:08,280
one. 
And then Edinburgh I think was 

214
00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:11,880
like 4/15, 4:20 because I was 
stopping at medical tents to try

215
00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:16,120
and find Vaseline from people 
and welding lessons for future 

216
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,360
events. 
And then you. 

217
00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,560
Got involved with Run the Blades
as you say you've done your 

218
00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:29,760
first Ultra Run the Blade 50K. 
That then led on to other things

219
00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,720
to do with Breaking Strain who 
had done that, didn't they? 

220
00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:37,800
So I again, for at that point, 
my experience in running was 

221
00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,000
road running events, you know, 
and you'll know yourself, you 

222
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,000
turn up at some of these events 
and nobody will, nobody will say

223
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,920
hello to you. 
Nobody especially, especially I 

224
00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:51,080
find as you get higher up in 
these events or you get faster 

225
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,000
than these events, it's 
everybody's in their own zone. 

226
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,080
Everybody's in their own world. 
And God forbid you cut in front 

227
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,400
of someday or, or get in their 
way or, or, you know, take your 

228
00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,080
time around the corner. 
We was, I went along to breaking

229
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:08,000
strains and instantly you were 
just made to feel you were part 

230
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,040
of the entire event. 
And I, I came away from that 

231
00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:12,760
event with friends that I've 
still got today. 

232
00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,600
And it was just people that we 
were people that I was union 

233
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:19,640
with or we ended up teaming up 
and we were both run walk in 

234
00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:24,000
certain parts of it. 
But it just, you know, again, it

235
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,200
was, it was just a sign of, of 
things that come in the ultra 

236
00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,200
community that just that 
inclusiveness that everybody's 

237
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:34,560
in it together. 
See, after after doing that 

238
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,800
again, for me, that box was 
tacked. 

239
00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:40,120
I had done all the distances. 
But I then realized that they 

240
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:44,680
would do the, the offer like a 
10K one on, on the Friday night 

241
00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:47,720
of the event. 
They offer A201K version on the,

242
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,240
the Sunday of the event. 
And then they also waiting on in

243
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:54,560
the year do a 10K night one 
where it's the exact same 10K 

244
00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:56,240
group. 
Everybody's got head torches on.

245
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,720
So just over over the next few 
years, I then got involved at 

246
00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:04,920
like for the main run, the 
Blades weekend, I would pick one

247
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:08,040
of the events and go and do it. 
And then whatever event I wasn't

248
00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,360
doing, I would go along and 
Marshall at the other ones just 

249
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,240
so I could be just be part of 
it. 

250
00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:17,760
And you said that that was you 
could see it from your bedroom 

251
00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:20,520
window at your parents house. 
Is that where you went to 

252
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:23,960
school? 
Yes, so I I went to school and 

253
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,960
and you school right here. 
And was there anybody involved 

254
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,520
with that, races that you used 
to go to school with, that 

255
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:32,000
people would turn around and go 
what? 

256
00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:38,920
Not now, but but the well, not 
not back then, but whereas now 

257
00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:43,520
there, there actually is. 
So I know like we'll come on to 

258
00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,040
it later, but I know that Run 
the Blaze is happening this 

259
00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:47,360
weekend. 
And there's actually a couple of

260
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,200
guys that I went to school with 
that are turning up to do their 

261
00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:55,280
first 50K and they are, they're 
absolutely buzzing about it. 

262
00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,040
But I'm, I'm excited to see them
as well because some of them 

263
00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:02,920
have not seen for years. 
And yeah, it'll just, it'll just

264
00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,320
be nice to, to catch up with 
them. 

265
00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,320
And I think not so much when I 
was at school, when I was at 

266
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,080
school, I used to play rugby. 
So I was kind of in a decent 

267
00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,080
shape. 
But let's just say during my 20s

268
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,160
and 30s, I wasn't in such a 
decent shape. 

269
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,440
And it's, yeah, I think, I think
if people that knew me from 20 

270
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:23,680
years ago realized what I was 
doing now, they would they 

271
00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:29,120
wouldn't recognize me. 
And I think that I'm going to 

272
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:34,160
interrupt you there, Nikki. 
I think that that leads on to 

273
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,680
Nikki. 
Why did you on the show? 

274
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,920
Because she was involved in the 
the race that we're going to 

275
00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:42,920
talk about. 
But the thing that I wanted to 

276
00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:47,840
talk about was your Instagram 
name, which which is. 

277
00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:53,160
Is 100 KGS to 100 kilometers. 
And tell us a story about that. 

278
00:15:54,600 --> 00:16:00,840
So God, this 18 months ago 
maybe, yeah, this the the 

279
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,640
beginning of last year. 
Up up until that point, I was 

280
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:09,120
just I was a soul runner. 
I would say, you know, I would, 

281
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:11,800
I would turn up at these events 
like run the blades would be 

282
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:13,720
different because I would turn 
up and I would volunteer there 

283
00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:16,040
and I would get to know faces. 
But any other event I would go 

284
00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:20,680
to, I would just turn up, run 
the event, get my medal, go back

285
00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:22,480
to the car, go home. 
That that was it. 

286
00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:27,800
I knew a few faces from events, 
but I wouldn't turn up at events

287
00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,640
and feel like I was partly 
anything like that. 

288
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,640
So for 18 months ago, I decided,
no, I'm going to be, I'm going 

289
00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,160
to try and be a bit more social 
here when it comes to running. 

290
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,200
So rather than bore my friends 
and family, I set up a separate,

291
00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:44,040
separate Instagram account and I
thought I'm just going to 

292
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,480
document what I do more for 
myself just to keep myself 

293
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,760
honest and accountable. 
And at the time I was 100 plus 

294
00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,760
kilograms and I thought right, 
what what goal can I do now? 

295
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,520
I had already, I had already ran
Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra. 

296
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:04,119
So that was about 5758 miles. 
And I thought the next logical 

297
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:09,880
step from there is 100K race. 
So 100 kilograms, 100K, put it 

298
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:12,520
together and that was my, that 
was my Instagram account. 

299
00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,200
And I remember you're setting 
that account up because you 

300
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:22,599
first came on to my radar when 
you done the run the Blades 

301
00:17:22,599 --> 00:17:28,560
Treble where you do all three 
events on the same weekend with 

302
00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:33,320
Melbara and I knew Mel and Mel 
says, oh, you need to friend 

303
00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:34,680
Stevie. 
He's such a great guy. 

304
00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:37,240
And that's how we made the 
connection through your old 

305
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:39,280
account. 
And I think that was just like 

306
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:41,760
the natural progression. 
As you say, you don't want to 

307
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,840
buy your friends and family with
running chat and then just ended

308
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:49,480
up it was perfect that you'd 
made the account because it was 

309
00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:51,680
such a great way to document 
your done there. 

310
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,720
Yeah. 
I mean, it's like you say, first

311
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,840
and foremost, it was for me, it 
was for me to keep, keep myself 

312
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,880
honest. 
So whatever event I was training

313
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,160
for every day, I would go out 
and the whole thinking behind it

314
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,720
was just go out, do your run, 
take some photos. 

315
00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:11,760
You know, I'm, I Monday to 
Friday, I'm a software 

316
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:16,720
developer, but I do a lot of 
freelance photography for, from 

317
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,720
various things for mainly snow 
sports. 

318
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,240
And that's why it was important 
for me to, to be able to get 

319
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,720
back on the snowboard and, and 
be able to do some work over the

320
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,480
winter. 
But, you know, I also do events 

321
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:28,960
and music festivals and things 
like that. 

322
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:33,080
But for me, with my account, I 
wanted to just go out, have a 

323
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,320
run, take some photos. 
You know, I'm a trail runner. 

324
00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,200
I'm going to stop and take 
photos as I go. 

325
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:42,680
But then just be honest about 
how that run was. 

326
00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:44,280
You know, don't, don't sugarcoat
it. 

327
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:46,240
Now, if it wasn't perfect, it 
wasn't perfect. 

328
00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,440
You know, the likes of this 
morning I went out for a run 

329
00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,960
with the dog. 
I was too busy looking. 

330
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,480
I went down a section of the 
Clyde walkway that's kind of 

331
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:56,240
disused. 
I know better. 

332
00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,040
I shouldn't go down here during 
the summer because it all gets 

333
00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:00,280
overdrawn. 
So I'm too busy looking for 

334
00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,200
giant hawkweed that I don't want
to get bumped on. 

335
00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,600
And I ran straight through a 
bunch of nettles without even 

336
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,120
realizing. 
So, you know, there's no point 

337
00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:09,360
in sugar coating that. 
I'm just going to update my my 

338
00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:11,520
post for today and say, yeah, 
I'm an idiot. 

339
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,920
I ran through that. 
Yeah. 

340
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:18,080
I just wanted to to almost have 
something for myself to, to see 

341
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,520
the progress that I was making 
as, as time went on. 

342
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,400
And then over time, more people 
got interested in it, more 

343
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,040
people started following me. 
And then the thing that really 

344
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,880
started blowing my mind was you,
you would get just random 

345
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,080
messages from people saying, you
know, I'm, I'm in the same 

346
00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,720
situation as you. 
You know, I've, I've let things 

347
00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:41,040
go over the years. 
I'm now 100 and something kilos.

348
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,840
How do I get from where I am 
just now to what you're doing? 

349
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,560
And any, anybody that takes the 
time to send me a message, I 

350
00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:50,520
will sit down and, and take time
to send a message back to them. 

351
00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:55,280
But yeah, like I said, that's 
that blows my mind that people 

352
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:57,920
can be inspired by that and and 
want to go off and do something 

353
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:01,680
yourself. 
So you had 100 kilometre event 

354
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,400
in mind. 
Did you know which one you 

355
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,600
wanted to do? 
I didn't at the time. 

356
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,040
And then we the race direct to 
the breaking strain. 

357
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,480
He actually send me a message 
and he was like, well, funnily 

358
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,760
enough, we were going to be 
organizing the inaugural run the

359
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:20,360
Borders event last August, which
was 190. 

360
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:22,720
So straight away I was like, 
well, that's that's perfect. 

361
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:26,720
It's, it's meant to be and I 
signed up for that last year, 

362
00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:31,520
but unfortunately I then 
developed plantar fasciitis and 

363
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:37,440
one of my feet and I finally 
finished one of my, finished my 

364
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,960
kind of B race last year in 
June. 

365
00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,560
And I thought, right, give 
myself a couple of weeks ease 

366
00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:46,000
back into it. 
And it was just obvious it 

367
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,640
wasn't going to happen. 
You know, I still had another 

368
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,320
6-7 weeks of training that I 
would have to do to then get to 

369
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:55,680
that E race. 
And I went out one day to do a 

370
00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,200
50K into Glasgow and back out. 
And by the time I got back, like

371
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,920
I could have squeezed another 20
K out of it maybe. 

372
00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:06,200
But there was no way I was 
squeezing another 50K out 

373
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,040
without properly hurting myself.
So I had to be sensible. 

374
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,560
I had to pull out of it. 
And you know, rather than just 

375
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:14,320
completely miss the event, I 
pulled out of it and said, 

376
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,280
right, OK, I've got that weekend
booked off anyway, what do you 

377
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:18,880
need me to do? 
When I went down and I 

378
00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,280
volunteered that. 
So I still felt like it was part

379
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,160
in the event, but obviously my 
goal then went out the window 

380
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:27,440
and it took a little bit longer 
to get to the 100K. 

381
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:35,040
And out of all the races you've 
done, you just said, you 

382
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:38,200
mentioned Glasgow, Edinburgh, 
run the Blades. 

383
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,400
Have you got a favorite? 
It has to be the one I've just 

384
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:42,840
finished. 
It has to be. 

385
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,560
And I'm not just saying that 
because it's it's the one that. 

386
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,080
Bias. 
It's, it's the most recent one. 

387
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:50,880
Yeah. 
No, it's, it's the West Highland

388
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,480
Bay without a doubt. 
I, you know, I've already talked

389
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,480
about the, the community within 
the, within ultras and trail 

390
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,160
running. 
But all the way through my 

391
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:05,840
training for the, the West 
Highland Bay, I had, you know, I

392
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,800
had everybody talk about the, 
the West Highland Bay family, 

393
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:13,920
whether that was Ian Beatty or 
whether it was Keith Hughes or 

394
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,520
Adrian or people like that. 
Everybody talked about this 

395
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:19,240
family. 
And I didn't really get it. 

396
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,560
I didn't fully get it until the 
weekend of the race. 

397
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:30,320
I just, it's just that, yeah, 
it's not just the, it's not just

398
00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:32,760
the the other races that you're 
in it with, you're in it with 

399
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,480
all the other supporters, you 
know, point case. 

400
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,000
And Nikki won't mind me saying 
this. 

401
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:44,040
When I got to Ron Dennen, Nikki 
was sleeping in the car and so 

402
00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:48,080
was Karen quite right too. 
They had been up since God knows

403
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:53,080
when on Friday. 
So we, we had agreed that Nikki 

404
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,040
was going to come up to the the 
entrance of whatever car park, 

405
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:58,520
whatever checkpoint, meet me 
there and then take me to the 

406
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:00,920
car. 
So I got there, Nikki wasn't 

407
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,320
near and I, I pulled my phone. 
I wasn't panicking. 

408
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,520
I knew I knew they would be 
there. 

409
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,440
But I pulled my phone out, went 
to message them and within the 

410
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,680
space of 60 seconds, I had three
other cues come up to me and 

411
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,360
say, is your support to here? 
What's happened? 

412
00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:15,720
What do you need? 
We've got XY and Z in the car, 

413
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,120
come with us. 
And that was the moment where I 

414
00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:21,920
fully got it. 
I fully understood that it's 

415
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,760
everybody is there to make 
everybody get to that finish 

416
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,120
line in Fort William. 
Right. 

417
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:29,960
There is any consolation to 
Nikki. 

418
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:34,480
On my first West Island way I 
got into Glencoe and my crew 

419
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,360
were in the cafe having lunch. 
So it it happens. 

420
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:42,760
It's just one of those things, 
isn't it? 

421
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:48,840
But before we do go on and chat 
about that weekend, I just want 

422
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,400
to touch on as well throughout 
your Instagram account as well. 

423
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:54,640
You do quite a few park runs, 
don't you? 

424
00:23:54,920 --> 00:24:00,040
Do you have a favorite? 
So I, I, I'm going to say I do 

425
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,280
quite a few have, I think I've 
probably only done about four in

426
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,760
my entire life. 
But you're probably thinking, 

427
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:08,680
oh, he's down in Strathclyde 
Park running again. 

428
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,000
So he's doing a park run 
sometimes like Strathclyde parks

429
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,000
only God, what, 3-3 about miles 
from here if I jump on the 

430
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,200
trails. 
So I'm down there. 

431
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:19,560
That's the kind of default for 
me. 

432
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:24,200
If I want an ACZ run ahead down 
there in terms of attending 

433
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,440
them, I don't get as many as I 
would like to get to, mainly 

434
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:32,920
because just for family reasons.
If I'm doing back-to-back long 

435
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,400
runs, Friday's a guaranteed day 
that my wife doesn't work. 

436
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,880
So I can get up at whatever time
in the morning, get out and get 

437
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,160
however many miles I need to do.
And then if I'm doing it 

438
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:44,560
back-to-back then it's normally 
Saturday morning that I'm I'm 

439
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,080
out. 
Yeah, it's, it's something that 

440
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,920
I would like to get down and do.
But in terms of I think I've 

441
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,040
only done, I've done a couple of
Stratified park, done one up at 

442
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:59,400
Landmoore and I've randomly done
one in Worcester down in 

443
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:03,120
England. 
But yes, I'd like to do some 

444
00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:04,640
more. 
I would like to do some more. 

445
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,000
What was Worcester like? 
Was that hilly? 

446
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,040
No, it's flat. 
So it's on the racecourse, it's 

447
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:14,480
on the racecourse drowned by the
the River Severn. 

448
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:20,040
It's, I was actually down for a 
mate's wedding and we went down 

449
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:23,200
on the Friday. 
Everybody was in the pub on the 

450
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,680
on the Friday night. 
And Ellie, the bride, she 

451
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,000
normally goes along on the 
Saturday to do park run. 

452
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,920
So at half eleven that night she
announces to everybody, right, 

453
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:35,720
I'm doing park run in the 
morning, who's coming? 

454
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,480
And everybody was I'm coming, 
I'm coming, I'm coming. 

455
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,640
I genuinely had my my shoes with
me because I was going to go out

456
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:42,920
for a run on the Saturday 
morning. 

457
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,880
So yeah, I dragged myself out of
bed the following morning, went 

458
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,400
down to the park run and it was 
me and Ellie. 

459
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,680
That was it. 
Nobody else from the wedding 

460
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,880
party turned up So but yeah, it 
was it was a was wasn't the 

461
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:56,520
fastest 5K, let's put it that 
way all. 

462
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,440
Right, we'll we'll get back on 
topic the the West Highland Way.

463
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,760
You've already mentioned about 
the West Highland Way family, 

464
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:14,200
Yeah, but go back to would be 
November the December last year.

465
00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:20,160
You've just been drawn out of 
the ballot and how did that 

466
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,960
start? 
I I guess you must have had the 

467
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:24,800
idea you wanted to do it, 
because that's why. 

468
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:29,760
Yeah, so we probably go back to 
the weekend of the West Highland

469
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:35,400
Way in 2024. 
So I, I, obviously I knew about 

470
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:40,360
the West Highland Way, but for 
me it was always like, you know,

471
00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:44,200
that's like the panic or it's, 
it's up there as one of the, the

472
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:49,560
big ones. 
I, I'd kind of been dabbling the

473
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:54,160
year before and trail runs with 
a bit more elevation and 

474
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,240
obviously Glasgow Eden does flat
as a pancake. 

475
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,200
But after doing that, I thought,
well, what can I do that's got a

476
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,160
bit more elevation. 
So I done the Tweed Valley. 

477
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:05,720
There's been about 5000 foot 
elevation in it. 

478
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,880
And then went and tipped off 
Glen Ogle. 

479
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:13,240
And then last year I'd done the 
GB Ultra Scotland 50, so that 

480
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,800
had about 10,000 foot elevation.
So at that point I was like, you

481
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:17,800
know what? 
I'm, I'm not the fastest, but I 

482
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:23,440
can cope with hills. 
And then completely as a, it was

483
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,880
just a complete coincidence. 
I had decided myself I was going

484
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,120
to do one of these 4448 
challenges and I thought the 

485
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:32,520
best weekend to do that. 
But summer's weekend that we 

486
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,720
only have to deal with one run 
in the dark. 

487
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,920
And I didn't realize that that 
was the weekend that the West 

488
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,040
Highland, maybe this happens. 
But what that meant for me was I

489
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,480
was going out, you know, I was 
starting at 8:00 on the Friday 

490
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:45,960
night and then back out at 
midnight. 

491
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,720
But then when I came back it 
back in from that run at 

492
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:50,360
midnight, it was like, oh, the 
race is starting. 

493
00:27:50,360 --> 00:27:52,680
So I'm seeing a lot of chat on 
social media about it. 

494
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,960
Went off to my bed, got up for 
the run at 4:00 in the morning. 

495
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,960
And at that point, I knew, I 
knew a few folks that were doing

496
00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:05,880
that, you know, Kevin Kage, Gary
Dempsey, Kaylee Webster, people 

497
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:11,960
that I worked up to wake up to 
in the way of these are everyday

498
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,040
runners that have stepped up and
really started pushing herself. 

499
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,440
And I mean, you look at what you
look at what they're doing now, 

500
00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:22,240
it's not speaking and often do 
in the Cape Brass Ultra. 

501
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,600
And you look at the the Kelly's 
hands up until she got injured. 

502
00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:31,280
But it just gave me a little bit
of interest because I knew the 

503
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:32,880
people that were tuned with him 
as well. 

504
00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:36,200
So when I got up from a 4:00 
run, I would go out and do that,

505
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:39,880
come back in at, you know, 4:45 
and I can start looking at 

506
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,080
tracking and be like, all right,
OK, they're here. 

507
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,280
So as that weekend went on, 
obviously I'm getting my sleeps 

508
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:48,600
in between all my runs. 
And then I'm getting to like a 

509
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,160
4:00 run on the Sunday morning 
and I'm looking at tracking. 

510
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:53,400
I'm like, these guys are 
starting and I'm like, that is 

511
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,280
that is amazing. 
Like that is absolutely 

512
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,240
phenomenal. 
And then I'm out doing my run at

513
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:04,240
8:00 thinking, could I do that? 
And, and it was just that seed 

514
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:09,440
of, you know, could I, could I 
take that step up? 

515
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,800
And it was a massive step to go 
from like 58 miles to go up to 

516
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:15,320
to 95 miles. 
You know, it's not even just 

517
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,600
like a comfortable step, you 
know, you're almost a double 

518
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,680
marathon in there. 
But I think that was probably 

519
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:27,320
what planted the seed. 
I got to September time when the

520
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,160
the entries were coming out for 
the the devil and for the 

521
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:32,680
flying. 
And I spoke to my wife at the 

522
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:33,760
time. 
There was like, I'm going to 

523
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:35,560
these ones I can definitely get 
into. 

524
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:36,920
I'm going to put my name down 
for both of them. 

525
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,240
And then that way at least it's 
a better experience. 

526
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:41,080
I can get to run on the West 
Highland Way and see what it's 

527
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,920
like. 
And then I said, I'm just, I'm 

528
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:45,160
going to throw my name in at the
ballot. 

529
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,280
You know, I've put my name into 
the London Marathon ballot for 

530
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,360
the last 10 years, never even 
get a sniff. 

531
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:52,880
So I was like, it'll be the same
as London. 

532
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:54,480
I'll put my name in. 
That'll be fine. 

533
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,760
And then of course, I'll listen 
to you guys speaking with Keith 

534
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,040
about the ballot process. 
And I was like, oh, wait a 

535
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,800
minute, There's there's maybe a 
chance here that I might get 

536
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:09,040
into this. 
So yeah, I think at that point, 

537
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,400
I knew my name was in a mutual 
friend, Kevin Keg. 

538
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:16,680
He'd also said he was putting 
his name in. 

539
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,560
But we'd also at that point 
decided, well, if I don't get in

540
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,720
and Kev gets in, then Kev's 
gonna then I'll chew for Kev and

541
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,320
and vice versa. 
And Nicky was the same. 

542
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,320
Nicky was like, I'm there, I'm 
there to help out, however you 

543
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:32,080
you just need to. 
And then the emails arrived in 

544
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,040
December and it suddenly became 
very, very real at that point. 

545
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,120
We're going before, yeah, we 
know what the outcome is of the 

546
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:44,240
ballot, but before you go into 
that, you're 4 by 4 by 48. 

547
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:49,280
Yeah, the West Island way, the 
time limit is 34 hours I think, 

548
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:54,200
or 35 hours. 3535 hours. 
But you were still running 

549
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,160
afterwards. 
Did you ever feel I want to stop

550
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:02,280
now? 
No, not really, because again, 

551
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,120
my my goal for that was to get 
those 12 runs done and that, 

552
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,200
like I say, I was getting I was 
getting sleep in between it and 

553
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,080
I was getting to to the axe in 
between it. 

554
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,480
But yeah, that that that goal, 
it was, it was just the same as 

555
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,520
any ultra. 
It was just like, just tick them

556
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,040
off as you go. 
Just get run one, run two, run 3

557
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:27,760
and so on and so on. 
But it was a good, it was a good

558
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,160
kind of insight of how I coped 
when I was tired. 

559
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,400
And I think that's, that's 
ultimately why I was doing it. 

560
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,360
Because earlier on in that month
when I was doing Scotland 50, 

561
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:39,920
you've got the Scotland 100 
going at the same time. 

562
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,960
And I got to the one thing I 
quickly, quickly land on that 

563
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:46,280
race. 
See, everybody had the same 

564
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,560
number. 
So there was no distinction 

565
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:50,520
between who was doing the 50 and
who was doing the hundred that 

566
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:51,520
year. 
They've changed that now. 

567
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,040
But I quickly realized you 
couldn't judge a book when it's 

568
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,040
cover. 
So you're chatting to people and

569
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,320
the most unassuming people would
be there to do the hundreds and 

570
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,520
it would be like their 10s 
hundreds they were doing or 

571
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,520
something like that. 
But it was great to run along 

572
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:09,000
with these people and almost 
like minimum for information of 

573
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,680
how do I go from where I am just
now doing a 50 this year to 

574
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,600
doing 100 next year? 
How do I cope with running 

575
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:18,360
through the night? 
How do I cope with running when 

576
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:20,800
I'm tired? 
And the obvious answer was you 

577
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,760
just get up and you do it. 
You you go out at night and you 

578
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:27,120
run during the night when you're
you're tired and you run during 

579
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,840
the winter with your head touch 
on when it's it's dark for five 

580
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:31,400
months. 
So anyway, if you're running in 

581
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,440
the the evenings or you're 
running in the morning. 

582
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:37,360
So, so yeah, that that was that 
was good to do that. 

583
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:41,120
And then also go on and then do 
the 4448 and realize, no, I 

584
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,200
can't drag myself out of bed. 
I can get up and and just get 

585
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,000
that for smile done when I'm 
higher than before. 

586
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,400
You know it, you just ease into 
it again. 

587
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:54,680
Well, 4x4, 4 by 4 by 48, a lot 
of people do that as training 

588
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,800
for backyard altars. 
And what you just said there is 

589
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:02,600
you, you just get on with it, 
just planting the seed. 

590
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:07,080
Oh, don't worry, the seeds 
already there to the point that 

591
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:11,320
I have said I'm going to go and 
volunteer at Bee Craig's next 

592
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,400
year because that means I can't 
actually run it. 

593
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,080
See, I'm being smart here. 
I'm being smart. 

594
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,920
I'm sure Kayleigh will sort that
one out. 

595
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,480
Yeah, yeah. 
So your name gets drawn out of 

596
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,240
the hat and you'd ask me if I 
could crew for you. 

597
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,680
But even before, because you 
were, you were getting really 

598
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,040
prepared actually. 
Which is great because I don't 

599
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:37,720
think a lot of people realize 
when they do enter the ballot, 

600
00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:39,480
one, that they will actually get
drawn. 

601
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,000
And two, you do have to have two
mandatory crews. 

602
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,920
So already you were fairly 
organized with that. 

603
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:51,640
What happened? 
As soon as the name got drawn, 

604
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:57,440
it must have lit some sort of 
fire in you to get training. 

605
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,720
It did and it came. 
It came at, it came at the 

606
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,560
perfect time. 
It was the biggest proverbial 

607
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,520
boot up the backside I've had in
a long time for various reasons.

608
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:11,159
You know, first, first and 
foremost, at that point my mum 

609
00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:12,960
was in hospital and not in a 
good way. 

610
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,440
Now she's absolutely fine. 
Now you wouldn't, you wouldn't 

611
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:19,960
even know that she was in 
hospital, but I thank God the 

612
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,800
day before the draw was made, 
like myself and my brother were 

613
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:26,560
sitting in a room in the 
hospital having a very frank 

614
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,080
conversation with the consultant
about ADNR getting put in place 

615
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,400
for my mum. 
So I was all over the place. 

616
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,480
And also because I had had 
plantar fasciitis, I wasn't 

617
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,679
doing as many meals as I had 
been doing at the start of the 

618
00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:44,719
year. 
So my weight was keeping back up

619
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,639
and I just genuinely just wasn't
happy with where I was. 

620
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:53,400
So my name came out the hat and 
straight away, like you say, it 

621
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:58,240
was just that that fire got wet 
instantly because I knew if I 

622
00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:01,840
was to turn up at the start line
in six months time, you know, 

623
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:06,720
being 102 kilograms, I got away 
with that when I was running a 

624
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,000
50 Miller. 
I got away and it was getting 

625
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,240
away with it. 
There was no danger. 

626
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:13,320
I was getting away with that 
over 95 miles. 

627
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,160
So it was just a case of what 
what I actually done. 

628
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,800
And again, I say it was, it was 
a bit up the backside at the 

629
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:20,960
perfect time because it was 
right. 

630
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,800
It started December. 
And normally, rightly or 

631
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,440
wrongly, I have a thing. 
That's that's how you swear. 

632
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,160
We get to December and we just 
say, I won't swear, but we just 

633
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:32,040
say it's Christmas. 
Who cares? 

634
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,480
You know, eat what you want, 
drink what you want, enjoy 

635
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,400
yourself, be merry. 
But for me it was the complete 

636
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,200
opposite. 
It was know what I'm going to do

637
00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,520
is I'm going to give myself a 
wee mini four week block through

638
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:46,520
December and just shock myself 
back into doing 50 miles a week 

639
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,400
and just just step back up to to
do that. 

640
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,960
That's the sort of destiny I was
doing from a training at the 

641
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,080
start of the year. 
So I knew it was capable of it, 

642
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,800
but I just wanted to get my body
shocked back into right, let's 

643
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:03,120
just do this and at the same 
token, get my diet back under 

644
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,680
control. 
I thought that meant was I 

645
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,600
actually came out of December 
for the first time and God knows

646
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,920
how long waiting less than what 
I went into. 

647
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,640
And normally it's the other way 
about when I come in January and

648
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:16,960
I'm like, oh, right, OK, I put a
stone on over Christmas. 

649
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:21,040
So I had that we many four week 
training block and then I sat 

650
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:24,120
down at the end of December and 
I was like right 24 weeks from 

651
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:28,120
the year to race day and I just 
sat down and and planned out 

652
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,200
what I wanted to do over over 
that time period. 

653
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:39,080
You lost weight, did you? 
Was that through running or 

654
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,000
diet? 
Or was diet because you were 

655
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:43,840
running? 
It was it was both. 

656
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,880
It was both so obviously with 
with with just the amount of 

657
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,800
meals I was doing. 
You know, I'm I'm bundling 

658
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:54,040
through calories doing that 
anyway, But there was that 

659
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:59,720
switch got flaked where it was 
food wasn't near for pleasure. 

660
00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:02,120
It wasn't near for I'm the 
world's worst. 

661
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,120
I like you say, I'm a software 
developer. 

662
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:08,520
I work remotely. 
If I get stressed through the 

663
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,520
work day, the fridge is just 
downstairs. 

664
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:12,480
The kids snacks are just 
downstairs. 

665
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,080
It's so easy to get down and 
just and just grab something. 

666
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:19,880
But what I was taking approach 
of well, if I'm getting up, I do

667
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:22,080
I do most of my training in the 
mornings if I can. 

668
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:26,320
So if I'm getting up and running
for, you know, 8 miles in the 

669
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,080
morning, I really want to go and
grab that mouse bar just because

670
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,760
I'm having a bad day. 
You know, I really want to start

671
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,720
undoing that. 
And then that kind of weighed 

672
00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:37,600
into you don't have a good 
week's training. 

673
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:41,200
I would jump on the scales and I
really lost a couple of pounds 

674
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:44,800
and I'm like, OK, well, you 
know, that's that's vindicated 

675
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,200
all that hard work. 
So then the following week, do 

676
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,080
the same again. 
And it was just that slow, you 

677
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:52,760
know, seeing the, the weight 
come off. 

678
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:56,560
But then the flip side to that 
was I was my, my runs, you know,

679
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,200
my easy runs were getting 
faster. 

680
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:03,040
You know, instead of, instead of
being a, I'm trying to think 

681
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,760
said to be like 9 1/2 minutes 
mile, 9 1/2 minute miles when I 

682
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,440
was starting off, that's 
suddenly dropping down to like 

683
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,000
915 one week and then it's 9 
minutes the next week. 

684
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,800
And you know, I was, I was 
really noticing a big difference

685
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,880
in that was because the way it 
was coming off at the same time.

686
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,560
And did you follow a certain 
diet plan? 

687
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:22,720
Stevie, where did you get your 
dietary advice? 

688
00:38:22,720 --> 00:38:31,000
So years ago, years ago I had an
online PT and it was a a friend 

689
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,480
of a friend who was who who has 
APT but it was during COVID he 

690
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,400
was doing like online plans. 
So I, I just basically took what

691
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:44,760
he gave me back then and adapted
it and it, do you know, I wasn't

692
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,200
counting calories as such. 
I wasn't sitting down and 

693
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:51,120
saying, OK, well, I need to make
sure I'm normally taking in 2000

694
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,280
or 18 or 1800 calories. 
I was just thinking, OK, well, 

695
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:56,160
this is what I used to do when I
was training. 

696
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:58,160
So I just kind of stuck with 
that. 

697
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,320
Obviously if, you know, if I had
a big run the next day, I would 

698
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,360
make sure I was getting extra 
carbs on me the night before. 

699
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:08,520
But it was just cutting out the 
cutting out the junk basically. 

700
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,040
And you know like it might sound
really bloven but my kind of go 

701
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:15,280
to would be like chicken, rice 
and veg or mince and rice and 

702
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,240
veg and my body just got used to
that. 

703
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:24,000
And you shocked your body back 
into the 50 mile weeks. 

704
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:29,200
As you say for people that don't
know Stevie, you have got 2 very

705
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,880
young children the to the point 
they're still needing a get 

706
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:35,400
help, get dressed and things 
like that. 

707
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:40,240
You know, they're that young. 
How do you get the discipline? 

708
00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:42,400
It's not even about motivation 
at that point. 

709
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:46,360
How do you get discipline to go 
and do those runs or fit the 

710
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:50,480
time in? 
Well, first and foremost, the 

711
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:54,040
one, the one golden rule, 
whenever I sign up to any sort 

712
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,080
of event and I speak to my wife 
Debbie about it, the one golden 

713
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,200
rule we've got is it's family 
1st and training 2nd. 

714
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:03,560
And it's got to be that 
occasionally, occasionally 

715
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:06,520
there's a bigger run. 
So occasionally, you know, 

716
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,960
there's a. 
In your peak weeks, there's 

717
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,960
maybe like a 35 mile or a 40 
mile run that you know, like the

718
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,040
one you look down your training 
plan, you're like, that one's 

719
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,400
going to suck when I get to that
one. 

720
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:20,280
But occasionally those ones, 
like I've got to do them on a 

721
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,600
Saturday during the day. 
It's just not practical to fit 

722
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:24,880
it in. 
But aside from that, it's just a

723
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,920
case of getting up early in the 
morning and getting out and 

724
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:28,400
doing it. 
Now. 

725
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:33,200
I was, I was really fortunate 
with this, this training walk 

726
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:37,520
for the West Highland Way baby 
had to have some pretty major 

727
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:39,480
surgery back in January, which 
we knew about and it was 

728
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:41,280
elective and we knew it was 
happening. 

729
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:45,360
So I kind of fitted my training 
and roundabout that for the 

730
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,120
first month or so until she was 
fully mobile again. 

731
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,120
But then she was off pretty much
for the rest of my training 

732
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:58,320
block to the cover, which for me
it meant I could, I could always

733
00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,920
guarantee time in the morning. 
It was just a case of how early 

734
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,400
did I want to get up, You know, 
my base runs were about 8 miles.

735
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,440
So I needed just over an hour to
do that. 

736
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,240
So it's, it's not actually that 
bad. 

737
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,840
And in my longer runs, I would 
just get up early in the 

738
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:13,720
morning. 
And if that meant getting up at,

739
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:18,560
you know, 5:00 to be or half 
four to be able to do it at 5:00

740
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,440
to give me 3 hours to go for a 
run and then be back, get 

741
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,960
Sherwood, get the dog, get get 
the dog out, get Sherwood and 

742
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,160
then sit down at my desk for 
work, then that's just what you 

743
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:32,160
have to do. 
A mindset wise, what got you out

744
00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:34,720
of bed? 
There must have been mornings 

745
00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:37,960
that as you say, it sucks. 
The training's not. 

746
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,160
It is not easy. 
What? 

747
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:42,400
That's what I think. 
That's what people would be 

748
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,560
wondering at. 
Something I wonder. 

749
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:49,000
Partly, partly just the 
accountability side of it. 

750
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,160
You know, every day I was 
posting up. 

751
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:55,520
So all the way through the block
I would have, I was, I was doing

752
00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:59,840
six days a week for my runs. 
And so I would start on, you 

753
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,960
know, let's say week 1, I would 
put up a post West Highland way 

754
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:08,040
week one, day one and then next 
day, week, day, week one, day 2 

755
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,880
and so on and so on. 
So there was that kind of 

756
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,520
accountability of if I don't go 
up and do this, I'm not, you 

757
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:15,200
know, there's going to be 
nothing there. 

758
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:18,920
But then I guess the, the 
biggest thing for me was it 

759
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,640
scared me like the West Highland
Way genuinely scared me because 

760
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:28,440
it was just so far into the what
unknown that I didn't want to. 

761
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,760
I don't want to turn up at that 
start line and get found out. 

762
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,640
You know, I wanted to get to 
that start line. 

763
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:38,080
And I know that, yeah, it's 95 
miles. 

764
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:40,200
It's a long, long time on your 
feet. 

765
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:42,760
The stuff out, out with your 
control that could happen. 

766
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,760
But I wanted to get there 
knowing that I deserve to be 

767
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,240
there at that start line with 
everybody else and I deserve to 

768
00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:53,000
have a fighting translator. 
I think a lot of people say that

769
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,640
social media is bad, doom 
scrolling and all that, but I, I

770
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,520
think if you use it correctly 
and you're an example of that, 

771
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,200
using it for accountability, 
making people aware of what 

772
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,600
you're doing, and then you've 
got to answer for it even. 

773
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,560
Nobody probably cares if you 
failed, but you care that you 

774
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:13,720
don't want to show that on your 
Instagram. 

775
00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:15,120
Yeah, and that and that's, 
that's what I say. 

776
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,800
If people, if people message me 
and say, oh, I'm thinking about 

777
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,120
doing it. 
The one thing I say is, you 

778
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:22,240
know, document what you're 
doing. 

779
00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:25,040
It doesn't have to be public. 
It doesn't have to be like I do 

780
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,040
where you're posting stuff every
day, but document it somewhere 

781
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,800
so you can look back and you can
be like, well, that day, that 

782
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,560
day was hard that, you know, 
that was the rain was coming 

783
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,200
sideways. 
But I still got up and I still 

784
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,160
got out there and done it. 
And if you are, you know, if you

785
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,120
are doing it publicly, then the 
only people that are going to 

786
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,280
judge you are the people sitting
at home doing way less than what

787
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:46,400
you're doing. 
Nobody's going to criticize you 

788
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:48,360
for getting up and going for a 
run. 

789
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:54,520
And then one of the biggest 
transformations, I was gobsmart 

790
00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:58,280
when I seen you posted a real 
days before the West Highland 

791
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:03,360
where they start. 
Your physical results of that 

792
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:06,800
entire training block were 
absolutely phenomenal. 

793
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:11,600
And people come up to me and say
how wet, like they recognize you

794
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,120
from that real now of the 
transformation. 

795
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,440
What was that like for you 
putting that together? 

796
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,600
So that that and again that that
was that was something that 

797
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:24,960
before. 
So that video was taken just 

798
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:28,240
before it was the end of 
November and I was just out for 

799
00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:32,440
a run one morning and I think I 
was recording some footage to do

800
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:36,680
a kind of end of month summary. 
And I put the drone out beside 

801
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,600
me and just started running. 
And then I seen it afterwards. 

802
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,800
And that's the point where I was
like, I need to do something 

803
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:45,800
here because I was, you know, in
the nicest possible terms, I 

804
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,760
turned back into a big unit 
again and I was just bouncing 

805
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:53,560
along the road. 
But I had that video, and I 

806
00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:56,040
would watch that video on a 
regular basis throughout my 

807
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:57,520
training because I would look at
it. 

808
00:44:57,520 --> 00:44:59,600
And I was like, I don't want to 
be like that anymore. 

809
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,520
And then as I got towards the 
end of my training, I thought, 

810
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,160
I've still got those shoes. 
I've still got that T-shirt. 

811
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:06,760
I'd thrown out a lot of 
T-shirts, but I was like, I've 

812
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:09,280
still got that one. 
I'm going to go back and just 

813
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:11,920
put the drone in the exact same 
position and run down the exact 

814
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,760
same bit of road. 
And then just like between it. 

815
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:17,920
Because, yeah, I mean, for for 
me, like I would, I would notice

816
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:19,320
all the differences. 
Like I say, I was getting 

817
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:21,400
faster, I was getting lighter on
the scales. 

818
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:25,480
But I think for me, when I seen 
that transition between the two 

819
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:29,280
of them, it was like, you know, 
you, you've put the work in 

820
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,120
here. 
You deserve to to go and have a 

821
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:35,400
track at this now. 
And going back to your training,

822
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:41,440
you were obviously restricting 
calories to lose weight. 

823
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:46,800
Yeah, but during your training, 
you have to eat more. 

824
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:48,760
So what? 
What kind of things were you 

825
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:50,400
eating during your training 
runs? 

826
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:52,880
And how did you balance the 
calories? 

827
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:54,720
Yeah. 
So, so like during the training,

828
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:58,200
I, I always take approach of 
when it comes to an actual run, 

829
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:02,160
I don't care about, I care in 
terms of making sure I'm getting

830
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,760
enough, but I'm not counting 
that towards what I'm eating 

831
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:08,360
that day, if that makes sense, 
that that is fuel for them. 

832
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:10,720
And then I'm going to bone 
through doing, doing that 

833
00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:14,720
activity. 
So for me, my go to as Tailwind,

834
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:19,320
that's I'll pop that in bottles.
I spoke to a friend that was 

835
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,440
doing an Ironman years ago and 
that's, and this was before I 

836
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,240
done Glasgow to Edinburgh. 
And I was like, how do you fuel 

837
00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:27,720
for an Ironman? 
Because the thought of having 

838
00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:32,360
gels for like, you know, having 
12 hours, I was like, that's, 

839
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,000
that's not going to work for me.
And they put me on the kale when

840
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:36,400
so I thought, well, I'm drinking
fluids. 

841
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:38,920
I might as well get some carbs 
out of that as well. 

842
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:43,280
I do still have gels. 
So, you know, if I'm going out 

843
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:47,560
on a, a shorter run, maybe I'll,
I'll just whack a gel in and, 

844
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:50,320
and take that. 
And then I've dug these out. 

845
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:55,440
I'm really on board with these 
for for fuel loading though, 

846
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:59,080
which for anybody not watching 
as nailed scummy clusters. 

847
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:02,680
I am a complete convert to them 
though. 

848
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:07,480
And again, it was another 
another friend who runs my I 

849
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:11,800
think she's done the kind of 6 
weather majors and she, she was 

850
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,760
talking about them on a training
run Monday and she pointed out 

851
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:20,560
that a bag that size with 113g 
bag has got 90 grams of carbs in

852
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:23,960
it. 
So yeah, you didn't get to my 

853
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:25,280
size without having a sweet 
tooth. 

854
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:27,080
So for me that was that was 
perfect. 

855
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,440
I got to run and I got to eat 
sweeties as I was running. 

856
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:32,920
So try them on the training run.
Haven't looked back. 

857
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:38,440
Well, I'm I'm sure the question 
that everybody's dying to ask is

858
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:43,720
what's your favorite flavour? 
Oh, the berries one, the blue 

859
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,640
one, the berries one. 
And it's The thing is, I'll go, 

860
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:49,760
I won't, I won't take them all. 
I'll only take them on bigger 

861
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,720
runs. 
So if I'm going out for a couple

862
00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,200
of hours, I'll just take a 
bottle of Tailwind and maybe a 

863
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:55,640
gel and some salt tablets with 
me. 

864
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,440
But if I'm going out for maybe 
anything over 3 hours, I'll take

865
00:47:58,440 --> 00:47:59,240
some. 
You know it's going to be 

866
00:47:59,240 --> 00:48:02,760
clusters with me. 
And you only realize that if I 

867
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,680
don't finish them, as soon as I 
walk back into the house, 

868
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:10,200
material comes bounding up to me
asking for the candies because 

869
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,200
he, he loves them. 
And if he sees me like I had to 

870
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:16,640
go and sneak these out in the 
Cobb, he doesn't know where I 

871
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,040
keep all my tail wind. 
And he doesn't know that at the 

872
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:21,120
back of it there's a whole pile 
of nerds in there. 

873
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:23,280
Because if he finds that out, 
they're gone. 

874
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:27,360
Well, the collective noun a pile
of nerds. 

875
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,560
Yes, yes. 
Sorry, Mike, what gels is it 

876
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:33,080
that you take out with you, 
Stevie? 

877
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:36,360
SIS gels. 
So SIS beta gels, you get about 

878
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:40,280
40 grams of carbs out of there 
and it's, it's like quite it's 

879
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:44,160
it's palatable, you know, it's, 
it's not too, it's not too 

880
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,080
thick. 
Yeah, it's quite, quite easy 

881
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,480
just to stick one of them in 
your mouth and get on with it. 

882
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,200
A lot of people were having them
or not having them on the Great 

883
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,040
Glen when I did it a few weeks 
ago. 

884
00:48:58,240 --> 00:49:01,720
So I I got to try them for the 
first time and yeah, I would. 

885
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:05,800
Do do them. 
I I tried some vumbas during my 

886
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:08,040
training and then I decided I 
wasn't going to go with them 

887
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,040
just because I had I had nailed.
So I think the good thing about 

888
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:16,200
having an nails is you know, you
can eat that over the space of 

889
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:17,560
an hour. 
So it's just keeping your 

890
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:20,840
stomach switched on over that. 
And also normally, normally what

891
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:23,880
I would do is I would go, you 
know, everyone would be 

892
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,760
tailwinds and then our two would
be something that I was eating, 

893
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:29,280
whether that's nails or whether 
that's going into a checkpoint 

894
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:31,320
and picking up almond fingers or
something like that. 

895
00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:36,160
But it just, I felt that as long
as I was alternating, then you 

896
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:38,320
basically you're giving your, 
your stomach something to do. 

897
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:39,880
If you're never, then you're 
giving it a break, then you're 

898
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:41,600
giving it something to do for an
hour and then you're giving it a

899
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:43,800
break. 
And it just keeps keeps any GI 

900
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:47,720
issues away from me. 
So were you quite confident that

901
00:49:47,720 --> 00:49:50,680
your stomach was adequately 
trained by the time you got to 

902
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:54,440
the start line? 
Yeah, yeah, I knew. 

903
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,560
I knew I had a bunch of bunch of
things I could eat. 

904
00:49:56,560 --> 00:50:00,440
Like I say, I had almond fingers
that I was going to have them at

905
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:02,520
checkpoints. 
I actually had them on the devil

906
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:05,640
and one of my my drop bags 
started running with them and I 

907
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:07,240
thought I'll get, I'll get to 
the bottom of the devil's 

908
00:50:07,240 --> 00:50:09,160
staircase and I'll leave my 
almond fingers going up there as

909
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,080
I'm hiking. 
That all makes sense, but on the

910
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:15,200
day they were so dry that I 
thought I'm actually drinking 

911
00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:18,920
too much food here to to swallow
these and that's going to 

912
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,160
compromise the best of my 
rundown and it can walk leaving.

913
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,280
So at that point I decided no, 
almond fingers are definitely a 

914
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:27,560
checkpoint thing where I don't 
have to worry about using water 

915
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,640
that I'm going to take out on 
the on the course with me. 

916
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:35,240
Keith Russell, well respected 
backyard runner. 

917
00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:37,360
Yeah, that. 
That's his secret sauce. 

918
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:38,520
Apartment Keith. 
It was Keith. 

919
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:40,160
It was Keith that put them, put 
me onto them. 

920
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:43,920
It was Keith that had them at 
the Wild Heart runs. 

921
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:45,880
Wild Heart Runners Run in 
Glencoe. 

922
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:52,560
So you get to the start line of 
the West Highland Way, the rest 

923
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,800
that you'd planned for for such 
a long time. 

924
00:50:55,160 --> 00:51:00,520
How did you feel? 
Nervous to start off with like 

925
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:02,880
you, you, you would see me 
driving in the car. 

926
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,040
I was kind of at that point, it 
was very real. 

927
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,360
It was, I'd seen all the photos 
from previous years and the 

928
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:11,640
videos from previous years. 
But, and I'd been there, I'd 

929
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:15,520
actually been to the being at 
the start a couple of times just

930
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:18,000
to do like outbacks or even 2 
weeks beforehand. 

931
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,360
I'd I'd actually went over at 
1:00 in the morning and I'd run 

932
00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:24,800
with a friend from there over to
Balmaha just to simulate what 

933
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:26,840
that's going to feel like at 
that time in the morning. 

934
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:30,160
But when you get there and 
everybody else is melting about 

935
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:32,440
and the banners are up and the 
startups is there. 

936
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,880
Yeah, that was that was a bit 
different. 

937
00:51:36,720 --> 00:51:43,400
What was it what you expected? 
Yeah, well, I would say it was. 

938
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:47,560
And I think the nice thing was 
because of the, because of the, 

939
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:51,640
the online community, you, you 
kind of made friends with people

940
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:55,440
that either people you, you knew
or names you knew you'd been in.

941
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,200
I've been in touch with him 
through a training block. 

942
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:02,080
So when I got there, there was 
friendly faces that, you know, 

943
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:04,840
we were all in this together and
we'd all been through training 

944
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:06,920
together and we'd all been 
sending each other messages. 

945
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,640
So that kind of just settled the
nerves a little bit. 

946
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:13,360
I went off to the car to try and
get some sleep, but it didn't 

947
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:15,800
happen. 
Like I think in future for us to

948
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:17,960
do it, I would definitely take 
earplugs with me because 

949
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:21,280
everybody's mopping about and 
it's just just that hustle and 

950
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:26,680
bustle about about the car park.
I think if I was to advise 

951
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:28,480
anybody I would park somewhere 
else. 

952
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:31,200
There's plenty of car parked 
throughout my guy. 

953
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:35,440
There's only 10 minutes walk 
away and getting that peace and 

954
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:39,800
quiet is probably worth it. 
Yeah, you know, I'll lay there 

955
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:41,920
in my shop, but I didn't get any
sleep. 

956
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:47,880
And then we get you to the start
line, give you a hug, say good 

957
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:51,560
luck, Stevie, Away we go to go 
and watch world run off. 

958
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:56,080
What was that moment like when 
you're in the pen, so to speak, 

959
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,760
just about to go? 
Again, it was, it was, it was 

960
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:03,880
good because I was there with my
mate Kevin Craig, who again, we,

961
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:06,280
we'd shared a lot of training 
meals and Kevin had done it last

962
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:07,240
year. 
And Kevin was one of those 

963
00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:09,440
people that had inspired me to, 
to go and do it this year. 

964
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:14,680
So it was nice just having Kev 
there and I just kind of calm 

965
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:16,080
things down. 
And then before you know it, it 

966
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:17,760
was just like, it's 1:00, let's 
go. 

967
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:21,880
And then running up through the 
the Main Street and, well, guy, 

968
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:25,720
that was unbelievable. 
Just the amount of people there 

969
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:30,920
and the carpet and the cheating 
and and yeah, like, like I said,

970
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:34,480
I'd done training runs in the 
dark on that section and I grant

971
00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:37,480
it in the day. 
But suddenly you're there with 

972
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:40,680
what, 250 other torches all over
the place. 

973
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,600
It's just that it's hard to hard
to explain what that feels like.

974
00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:51,560
And when I was there, it's 
probably first time in about 

975
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:58,320
maybe six years and that there 
seem to be a lot more people now

976
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:02,640
or this year than back then. 
It's it's especially compared to

977
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:04,240
like the first time that I did W
Southern Lake. 

978
00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:07,240
It's just I guess like running 
in general. 

979
00:54:07,240 --> 00:54:11,720
It's just exploded, so that's 
what the atmosphere was like 

980
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:13,080
there. 
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was 

981
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:16,880
easily lined 2 or 3 deep the 
entire length of the the Main 

982
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:19,720
Street until you you turned off 
onto the actual start point of 

983
00:54:19,720 --> 00:54:23,320
the West Island way. 
And and you get the impression 

984
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,360
that wasn't just support those 
that were there, it was people 

985
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:28,440
from the town that came down. 
It was people that came out from

986
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:31,520
the pubs to see or people that 
came out and then hung about to 

987
00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:33,960
see what was happening. 
It was just a really, really 

988
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:37,720
nice atmosphere. 
So you get to the start point, 

989
00:54:37,720 --> 00:54:41,280
the official start, you all turn
off, you go down the rewind a 

990
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,600
bit and then you're on your way 
up to Mug Dock. 

991
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:46,680
Is that when you can all then 
just kind of sort of settle 

992
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:48,840
down? 
That's the excitement of the 

993
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:52,320
start, it's done and you're just
getting into your groove at that

994
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:53,480
point. 
Is that right? 

995
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:55,400
Yeah. 
You see you're just trying to 

996
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:57,520
settle into it. 
I was running with with Kev at 

997
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:01,160
that point. 
So we kind of we both had a 

998
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:04,440
rough time of when we were going
to get to to Balmahar and we 

999
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:07,000
were both in kind and rough 
ballpark each other. 

1000
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:08,920
So we said, let's just let's 
just go and run this section. 

1001
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:12,360
I'd actually, I'd run that 
section. 

1002
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:17,760
McCabe back in January, complete
freezing conditions, 7:00 in the

1003
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:20,800
morning, head torches on MEST 
and fog everywhere. 

1004
00:55:21,240 --> 00:55:25,000
So to share that again with him 
when there was head torches 

1005
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:30,520
everywhere, like it was just it 
was severe, like you were almost

1006
00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:33,960
having to be super carefully 
where you where you were putting

1007
00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:36,040
your feet because there were 
just so many shadows and so many

1008
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:39,360
lights all over the place. 
But yeah, it was just settling 

1009
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:41,600
into a groove and just try not 
to get. 

1010
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:44,200
I was determined it wasn't when 
you get sucked along at somebody

1011
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:46,320
else's pace. 
And I'd said that to Kevin as 

1012
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:48,360
well, obviously, like if you're,
if you're going a little bit 

1013
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:50,120
fast, and I feel this is a 
little bit fast, I'm just going 

1014
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:52,160
to let you go because I've made 
that mistake on the devil this 

1015
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:56,720
year and bumped into your 
friends between maybe like a 

1016
00:55:56,720 --> 00:55:59,680
mile and 1/2 hour side of Taint 
Drum. 

1017
00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:03,360
And I got sucked along to Bridge
of Archie doing like 8 minute 

1018
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:06,600
miles, which almost wrecked my 
race before it even started. 

1019
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:09,400
So I'd I was very determined 
that I was running my own race. 

1020
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:12,600
But yeah, just, I think you 
could just feel the excitement 

1021
00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:15,280
and, and everybody, even though 
it was a massive destiny still 

1022
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:19,040
to go, everybody was, yeah, just
really excited about it. 

1023
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:26,320
So you get to there's a road 
section, yeah. 

1024
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:31,480
And then you get to Drummond. 
No, no, no major events during 

1025
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:32,000
that. 
Just. 

1026
00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:36,440
No, no, just just being 
sensible, just just taking my 

1027
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:39,680
time on the hills up through, 
after, after darkness and then 

1028
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:44,760
through, through drumming fine 
and then up into the forestry in

1029
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,880
the back of drumming. 
And I was actually feeling good 

1030
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:50,920
at that point. 
And I, I think myself and Nikki 

1031
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,920
had been near God for about a 
month ago, maybe before the 

1032
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:58,320
race. 
And we'd, we'd hate a fair bit 

1033
00:56:58,320 --> 00:56:59,440
of those hills. 
But I was feeling fine. 

1034
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:01,240
And I thought, you know what, 
I'm just going to crack on here.

1035
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:02,920
And it was actually going up 
through there. 

1036
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:07,120
I remember it, it was half three
in the morning was it was, it 

1037
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:08,600
was about half three in the 
morning. 

1038
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,000
And at one point I turned my 
head torch off and I'm like, you

1039
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,480
don't need your head torch 
anymore, but you could, you 

1040
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:15,760
could comfortably run with that.
I put it back on just in case, 

1041
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,840
but you're just running along. 
It was just one of those 

1042
00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:20,920
mornings where you could see a 
little bit mist hanging about 

1043
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:24,600
and it just, it felt good. 
And did you clock the creepy 

1044
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:26,560
figure that you and I had seen 
it? 

1045
00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:28,240
Was it? 
Wasn't there? 

1046
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:32,520
So on on the day that myself and
Nikki had run from Gartness over

1047
00:57:32,520 --> 00:57:37,440
to Balmaha, one of the baggage 
companies for the West Highland,

1048
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:42,280
we had dragged this baggage cart
out into the forest and set up 

1049
00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:44,960
with a high vis vest on it and 
some zombie mask on it. 

1050
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,000
Now fortunately when we got 
there, it was for maybe half 

1051
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,560
seven in the morning, 8:00 in 
the morning, so it was light. 

1052
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:56,800
There was also a group from the 
West Highland B Facebook group. 

1053
00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:59,360
There was also a group who had 
been out at one O clock that 

1054
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:03,760
that morning and had ran from 
the start over to Balmahasadiki 

1055
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:07,000
Mitchell start at like you know,
3 in the morning when it was 

1056
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:09,640
pitched black. 
I think their reaction was a 

1057
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:11,320
little bit stronger to her 
reaction to it. 

1058
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:19,800
So you're coming up over at 
CONIC, how was the the new steps

1059
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:23,680
down from CONIC? 
It was, it was OK, Like I, I 

1060
00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:25,760
knew I wasn't going to be 
running down them. 

1061
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:30,480
Maybe the maybe the top third 
until you get down to like that 

1062
00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:35,240
reviewing platform that sits out
on the on the right hand side of

1063
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:37,440
the path if you're coming down. 
I kind of ran to the air, but 

1064
00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:40,000
then the bottom 2/3 of it, I 
just took my time. 

1065
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:43,880
You know, I was, I wasn't here 
to compete. 

1066
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:47,160
I was here to complete it. 
I wasn't going to win my race by

1067
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:49,160
running down there, but I 
couldn't indeed my race. 

1068
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:53,240
So I just took my time and then 
got off that and got down to the

1069
00:58:53,240 --> 00:58:57,200
checkpoint. 
And what wasn't the key waiting 

1070
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,760
for you? 
She was, she was there captain 

1071
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:05,000
and then went down and got 
covered in magic spray because 

1072
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,160
they were out and baiting. 
But it was a relatively quick 

1073
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:10,960
checkpoint. 
I was just, I was just picking 

1074
00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:13,280
up some stuff from there and 
then heading off. 

1075
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:16,320
So it's pretty, pretty clean 
sailing. 

1076
00:59:17,560 --> 00:59:20,320
Up the Robert Dennen, which 
we've already talked about 

1077
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:22,840
because something significant 
happened there. 

1078
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:24,400
But as I said, we'll, we'll move
on. 

1079
00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:27,040
We want. 
The the most significant thing 

1080
00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:29,400
that happened there was my 
breakfast roll that the girls 

1081
00:59:29,400 --> 00:59:33,000
had brought me. 
So they've got a roll, A roll 

1082
00:59:33,000 --> 00:59:36,000
rolling sausage with potato 
scone and it was amazing. 

1083
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:40,280
It was something I wanted to do,
just try and reset my skinny and

1084
00:59:40,280 --> 00:59:42,920
Riddle and convince myself that 
it was more than time. 

1085
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:46,600
So had that brush my teeth 
afterwards and I was like right,

1086
00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:49,320
OK, now it's now it's time to go
out from a morning run. 

1087
00:59:49,640 --> 00:59:53,600
And I was just trying to get 
that reset and and forget that I

1088
00:59:53,600 --> 00:59:56,600
just ran through the night. 
And for us, it's true, it was 

1089
00:59:56,600 --> 01:00:00,640
important for us to get you 
ready because we were well aware

1090
01:00:00,640 --> 01:00:04,440
that from river then and. 
To Octa Tire, you had a 

1091
01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:07,560
checkpoint in the middle of that
at Inversnade as well, did you 

1092
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:08,160
not? 
Yeah, it. 

1093
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:12,000
Was inversnade in been glass? 
That was going to be the longest

1094
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:15,560
stretch that you had of the 
whole race where you weren't 

1095
01:00:15,560 --> 01:00:19,240
going to have a crew last year, 
so we really wanted to get you 

1096
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:23,600
set up and off you go and that 
would have been your longest 

1097
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:26,320
section. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1098
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:29,320
No, it was, it was definitely. 
I know it can be a pain for 

1099
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,480
tours to go along that single 
track Rd. to get there, but it 

1100
01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:35,440
definitely made a difference 
having having somebody there and

1101
01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:38,680
rather than just picking up a 
drop bag because, you know, 

1102
01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:42,280
especially at the, the kind of 
the middle of the Pike when I 

1103
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:45,840
was running, you know, it 
doesn't really make a difference

1104
01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:48,960
to me taking some time to to set
to have that breakfast roll. 

1105
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:52,480
But it made a massive difference
to me to have that breakfast 

1106
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:54,960
roll, if you know what I mean. 
It just reset me and got me 

1107
01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:57,560
going again. 
People have asked us as well 

1108
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,960
since like if you had like crew 
and advice, I would actually say

1109
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:04,880
to them if you were really 
really bothered, you probably 

1110
01:01:04,880 --> 01:01:07,440
actually don't need need crew at
Balmaha. 

1111
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:10,760
But I would say it's probably 
more important as you're saying 

1112
01:01:10,760 --> 01:01:13,320
if you're mid pack or near the 
back, I would say it's more 

1113
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:16,360
mentally important rather than 
to get. 

1114
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:19,120
I mean, you can come through 
Balmaha, you've got the water 

1115
01:01:19,120 --> 01:01:21,080
tap, yeah, just at the bottom of
the car park. 

1116
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:23,080
So if you know, if you do need 
to top up your Floyds, it's 

1117
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:25,160
something you could do yourself.
You wouldn't absolutely need 

1118
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:28,600
somebody there. 
But then like you say, it's a, 

1119
01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:32,200
it's a, it's not so much 
distance wise that it's a big, 

1120
01:01:32,200 --> 01:01:35,880
it's a big section, but it's 
time wise because of the TV that

1121
01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:39,240
you're then running over once 
you leave, leave there. 

1122
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:44,240
I don't know where the mandatory
checkpoints are. 

1123
01:01:44,240 --> 01:01:46,840
It used to be Balmaha was a 
mandatory checkpoint. 

1124
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:48,440
That could, that could actually 
be a point. 

1125
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:50,640
That could be a point that you 
might have to have somebody 

1126
01:01:50,640 --> 01:01:55,480
there. 
And I think Robert Dennon, 

1127
01:01:55,480 --> 01:01:58,160
you've got the option or used to
have the option of drop bags. 

1128
01:01:58,200 --> 01:02:00,200
There, I think, I think you're 
right on that one, Mike. 

1129
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:04,360
I think you're right. 
So yeah, don't listen. 

1130
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:09,640
Don't listen to Nikki's advice. 
Yeah, best advice is to Jerry's 

1131
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:13,920
pack. 
Always follow the rules that are

1132
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:16,360
written down, not the ones that 
Nick here telling you. 

1133
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:18,440
Yeah, don't do the ones that 
make up. 

1134
01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:24,040
So we, I'm sure you were fine at
River Denon, it said. 

1135
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:26,760
Off you go, Stevie, where you 
go. 

1136
01:02:27,640 --> 01:02:32,720
What happens then? 
Yeah, headed off towards the the

1137
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:38,200
Wool Road and actually bumped 
into another runner, Blair from 

1138
01:02:38,200 --> 01:02:41,760
Edinburgh, and we pretty much 
buddied up for the next 30 odd 

1139
01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:44,560
miles at that point. 
So he'd never been through the 

1140
01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:49,880
Wool Road or through Lockside. 
So as it was, we just, we just, 

1141
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:51,640
we were just running within each
other's vicinity. 

1142
01:02:51,640 --> 01:02:55,040
And then he turned around and he
asked if I knew somebody from 

1143
01:02:55,040 --> 01:02:56,800
Edinburgh that was running on 
the devil when I did. 

1144
01:02:56,800 --> 01:02:59,400
So at that point we realized 
with the mutual friend and we 

1145
01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:01,960
just, we just ran with each 
other, just just chatting away 

1146
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:04,040
and we were keeping, keeping a 
good pace. 

1147
01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:06,720
I didn't feel like I was getting
dragged along and I didn't feel 

1148
01:03:06,720 --> 01:03:10,960
like I was losing time. 
And it was just nice to have 

1149
01:03:11,080 --> 01:03:13,200
somebody else there to get 
through that section. 

1150
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:16,480
Just take your mind off what you
were, what you were running 

1151
01:03:16,480 --> 01:03:20,080
through and must need, must need
was fine. 

1152
01:03:20,080 --> 01:03:23,400
I had a change of socks there, 
not that my feet were wet, but 

1153
01:03:23,400 --> 01:03:25,760
they were a bit sweaty. 
So just changed my socks and 

1154
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:28,440
then off we went to to be in 
Glass. 

1155
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,240
And yeah, I think what walks 
either. 

1156
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:33,520
I had been through it 
beforehand. 

1157
01:03:33,600 --> 01:03:36,680
I'd been through it before the 
race, but it was just 

1158
01:03:37,160 --> 01:03:40,120
oppressively warm and muggy. 
But that point the sun was up 

1159
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:42,800
and I'd been quite fortunate 
because of the because of being 

1160
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:45,920
warmed and being on the East 
East bike, The sun had to, if 

1161
01:03:45,920 --> 01:03:48,480
you imagine the sun had to get 
right up in the sky before it 

1162
01:03:48,480 --> 01:03:52,160
was actually getting onto us. 
But by that point it kind of 

1163
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:54,720
clouded over a little bit. 
But then the flap sink and that 

1164
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:56,320
was, it was just sealing all the
heat. 

1165
01:03:56,320 --> 01:04:00,600
And so, yeah, it was muggy as 
hell going through that section.

1166
01:04:02,640 --> 01:04:07,400
And we, we had the discussion 
beforehand about lock side. 

1167
01:04:08,520 --> 01:04:10,640
Yeah. 
How, how much of it have you 

1168
01:04:10,880 --> 01:04:13,800
been on before or was it a 
surprise on race? 

1169
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:17,760
Day No, no, so, so, so the one 
thing I I've made the mistake 

1170
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:21,000
and that this is going to sound 
crazy compared to what we're 

1171
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:23,200
talking about just now, but I 
made the mistake on Glasgow, 

1172
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,400
Edinburgh of not raking the 
whole route. 

1173
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:29,800
And I know that sounds crazy 
because it's a it's a canal. 

1174
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:33,760
It's perfectly flat, but I hated
I hadn't wrecked the section 

1175
01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:38,240
from on left go to the finish 
and I hated coming round the 

1176
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:41,480
corner and not knowing what was 
next, just not knowing where I 

1177
01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:43,920
was in relation to where the 
next checkpoint was and things 

1178
01:04:43,920 --> 01:04:45,880
like that. 
So ever since then I've always 

1179
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:49,800
said if ever I'm doing a race 
and I can get to the course 

1180
01:04:49,800 --> 01:04:51,440
beforehand and I'm going to go 
out and wreck it. 

1181
01:04:51,760 --> 01:04:54,240
So I made a point of covering 
the entire West Highland way 

1182
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:59,080
before race day. 
And for for that section of the 

1183
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:01,120
walk side, what I actually done 
was I went to bean glass one 

1184
01:05:01,120 --> 01:05:04,280
moment, ran S to end the state 
and then turned around and ran 

1185
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:06,320
N. 
So I actually got to see it from

1186
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:09,320
both sides, which was beneficial
because there's certain sections

1187
01:05:09,320 --> 01:05:14,480
where when you're going north, 
the obvious route, you know, 

1188
01:05:14,480 --> 01:05:17,680
you'll maybe get to that way. 
That kind of the path splats 

1189
01:05:17,760 --> 01:05:20,800
between some rocks and you 
you'll maybe go north. 

1190
01:05:20,800 --> 01:05:22,840
You look at and think, well, the
obvious route here is to take 

1191
01:05:22,840 --> 01:05:24,840
the left hand side and go round.
But then what that would 

1192
01:05:24,840 --> 01:05:28,640
ultimately mean was you're maybe
stepping up like half a meter or

1193
01:05:28,760 --> 01:05:31,720
75 centimeters at the five ends 
and you know your knees are 

1194
01:05:31,720 --> 01:05:33,880
coming up above your hips to get
to get up and over that. 

1195
01:05:34,520 --> 01:05:37,160
Whereas running S we could 
actually see that the obvious, 

1196
01:05:37,200 --> 01:05:40,440
the running S, the obvious pass 
with them to take the other 

1197
01:05:40,440 --> 01:05:42,000
side. 
So if we just try to take these 

1198
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:44,760
notes off all right, when I get 
here, I actually want to take 

1199
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:48,080
this little step up here. 
That doesn't seem doesn't seem 

1200
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:50,320
like the obvious way to go, but 
what that's going to do is then 

1201
01:05:50,320 --> 01:05:53,400
save me scrambling up rocks at 
the at the far end of this path.

1202
01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:57,680
Yeah, it was it was definitely 
beneficial to to go and do that.

1203
01:05:57,680 --> 01:06:01,640
And then just kind of knowing 
like once, once we got up to 

1204
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:05,040
Dario's post, knowing what was 
still to come and where you 

1205
01:06:05,040 --> 01:06:07,480
could run to then get down into 
being Glass, that that 

1206
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:12,560
definitely helped. 
So being last, probably Midge 

1207
01:06:12,560 --> 01:06:17,680
fest again. 
It it was, but I tried not to 

1208
01:06:17,680 --> 01:06:21,640
hang about too long there. 
I did did take advantage of the,

1209
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:24,600
the glorious toilets they've got
there and then just grabbed my 

1210
01:06:24,600 --> 01:06:27,400
stuff and got up. 
And you I knew that once you get

1211
01:06:27,400 --> 01:06:33,600
what couple of miles out of out 
of in glass, you then take that 

1212
01:06:33,600 --> 01:06:38,040
out on open, open farm lands. 
And then that point, the 

1213
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:40,400
breezing then kicked in. 
So the midges weren't really an 

1214
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:43,720
issue at that point. 
And then you didn't, you didn't 

1215
01:06:43,720 --> 01:06:45,400
have your support crew along 
that way. 

1216
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:49,160
But how were the volunteers? 
Volunteers were brilliant, like 

1217
01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:52,400
you, you, you walked into any 
checkpoint and straight away 

1218
01:06:52,400 --> 01:06:54,560
they were getting you to to tap 
in. 

1219
01:06:55,840 --> 01:06:57,560
If you were grabbing a seat, 
they were straight over and 

1220
01:06:57,560 --> 01:07:00,240
asking what they could do in 
terms of filling things up for 

1221
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:03,080
you. 
Yeah, they were just, they were 

1222
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:05,120
brilliant. 
But again, now having 

1223
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:07,760
experienced the whole thing, I 
would expect nothing less 

1224
01:07:07,760 --> 01:07:12,680
because without even knowing the
volunteers, I know in my head 

1225
01:07:12,680 --> 01:07:16,080
that some of them will have done
it or some of them will have 

1226
01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:18,920
cured or some of them will want 
to do it next year. 

1227
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:20,920
And that's what we're doing this
year, helping out everybody. 

1228
01:07:22,160 --> 01:07:26,080
I think most of the volunteers, 
they've run it before and 

1229
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:30,200
they're doing what they want to 
be done to them. 

1230
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:32,600
If they were running, yeah. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1231
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:35,240
No, that's that, that definitely
shown through. 

1232
01:07:35,640 --> 01:07:38,120
I mean the likes of those 
checkpoints where it had drop 

1233
01:07:38,120 --> 01:07:39,560
bags. 
I would have to get my tail 

1234
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:43,640
window to then fill my, put my 
Tailwind into my bottles to then

1235
01:07:43,640 --> 01:07:46,000
get my bottles filled up. 
And straight away, as soon as 

1236
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:47,680
people seem that I had to be 
funnel to do that, they were 

1237
01:07:47,680 --> 01:07:49,640
like, oh, I'll do that for you. 
And they would just try to take 

1238
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:50,960
my bottles off and be like, 
right, there you go. 

1239
01:07:51,040 --> 01:07:53,720
That's it. 
So just just not even having to 

1240
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:56,440
do that made a massive 
difference. 

1241
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:02,400
And then you're up there, the 
next midge fest of Oxford Tower 

1242
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:03,760
Farm. 
Yes. 

1243
01:08:04,320 --> 01:08:05,960
And there are glorious toilets 
there. 

1244
01:08:06,680 --> 01:08:09,720
I didn't fortunately, I didn't 
need to go to to those toilets 

1245
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:11,920
at that point. 
But no, that that was nice. 

1246
01:08:13,800 --> 01:08:16,439
You know, just just to get to 
your to and know that you've 

1247
01:08:16,439 --> 01:08:20,600
then got at that point in my 
head, it then became a series of

1248
01:08:22,240 --> 01:08:25,720
smaller, smaller social grounds.
I won't try to explain it like 

1249
01:08:25,720 --> 01:08:28,800
Nikki tried to explain it on the
previous episode, but we had, we

1250
01:08:28,800 --> 01:08:33,160
had a plan laid out. 
And the, the one thing that I 

1251
01:08:33,200 --> 01:08:37,880
was advised beforehand was take,
take two runners with you 

1252
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:41,640
between each, each checkpoint, 
at least two runners with you. 

1253
01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:45,319
Because then that way if you 
get, if I get myself into, you 

1254
01:08:45,319 --> 01:08:47,640
know, into the pain caver, get 
myself in a dark place. 

1255
01:08:48,319 --> 01:08:51,359
I've not then got a support 
runner who's talking to me and 

1256
01:08:51,359 --> 01:08:54,240
getting 0 back from me. 
Because like, I've been there. 

1257
01:08:54,240 --> 01:08:58,160
I've, I've been out with, with 
friends that I'm trying to pace 

1258
01:08:58,160 --> 01:09:02,840
to a 10K time or a half marathon
time and they're struggling and 

1259
01:09:02,840 --> 01:09:05,760
I'm talking away. 
And you just feel like, am I 

1260
01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:07,399
saying, am I saying too much 
here? 

1261
01:09:07,399 --> 01:09:09,920
Should it be quiet? 
Am I going to, you know, so the 

1262
01:09:09,960 --> 01:09:13,600
idea was if we had at least two 
other people with me, then we 

1263
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:15,359
can all chat with you. 
But if I didn't want to say 

1264
01:09:15,359 --> 01:09:17,920
much, they could just chat and 
the conversation could go 

1265
01:09:17,920 --> 01:09:20,600
between them and I could jump in
and jump out of it as as I 

1266
01:09:20,600 --> 01:09:23,399
pleased. 
So yeah, that at that point it 

1267
01:09:23,399 --> 01:09:27,800
was just a bunch of a bunch of 
small social runs with my mates.

1268
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:39,800
And then there's the the crew 
can park at Hindrum, but I don't

1269
01:09:39,800 --> 01:09:43,040
know if it's a checkpoint there.
It goes a different way. 

1270
01:09:43,040 --> 01:09:46,760
It used to go past the by the 
Way campsite, but it goes the 

1271
01:09:46,760 --> 01:09:48,600
other way now. 
So you're not doing the river 

1272
01:09:48,600 --> 01:09:55,480
crossing, you're actually going 
through the village has Brodie 

1273
01:09:55,480 --> 01:10:00,080
store, which back in the day you
used to always go and get an ice

1274
01:10:00,080 --> 01:10:02,840
cream from there or your crew 
wood and they would have your 

1275
01:10:03,080 --> 01:10:04,960
your ice pole or something ready
for you. 

1276
01:10:05,240 --> 01:10:07,240
I think it was a day that you 
needed that. 

1277
01:10:08,040 --> 01:10:12,240
Did Nikki provide one? 
Well, there was ice poles. 

1278
01:10:12,240 --> 01:10:14,320
I don't know if it was Nikki 
that provided them but there was

1279
01:10:14,320 --> 01:10:16,600
ice poles when we got to Bridge 
of Orki. 

1280
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:21,360
But what I had said at that 
point, obviously the rest of the

1281
01:10:21,360 --> 01:10:25,440
crew were joining us. 
So what I said to my mate Stuart

1282
01:10:25,440 --> 01:10:28,920
was he, he was driving up in the
afternoon and I'd said to him on

1283
01:10:28,920 --> 01:10:32,040
the Friday when when we seen the
temperatures, I said look could 

1284
01:10:32,040 --> 01:10:37,680
you go to the shops and get me 6
bottles of 500 mil, just 500 mil

1285
01:10:37,680 --> 01:10:40,520
plastic bottles of water and 
freeze them for me overnight. 

1286
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:43,040
And I said I don't care, he's 
got refresh in his car. 

1287
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:44,400
And I said I don't care if they 
melt. 

1288
01:10:44,760 --> 01:10:50,920
The plan is when I get to to 
your car at a time drum, what 

1289
01:10:50,920 --> 01:10:53,760
we'll do is we'll take that 
bottle, we'll slash it opened 

1290
01:10:54,120 --> 01:10:57,600
well, we'll pour the water into 
my hydration pack and then we'll

1291
01:10:57,600 --> 01:10:59,720
slash it open. 
We'll just take that frozen core

1292
01:10:59,880 --> 01:11:02,080
of ice and we'll pop it into my 
hydration pack. 

1293
01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:05,640
And I think that was the best 
call I made all weekend. 

1294
01:11:07,840 --> 01:11:10,840
At that point, every checkpoint 
I got to, we just went through 

1295
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:13,480
the same routine into the 
whatever water had melted and 

1296
01:11:13,480 --> 01:11:15,600
then popped the the frozen cloth
into the back. 

1297
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:19,960
It served 2 purposes. 1, it 
froze the water, kept the water 

1298
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:21,760
cool in the back as I was 
running. 

1299
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:24,800
So you know, you would take the 
first, first drink of water that

1300
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:26,960
would be in the tube that was 
exposed to the sun that was a 

1301
01:11:26,960 --> 01:11:29,680
bit warm, but then it was proper
ice cold water you were getting.

1302
01:11:29,680 --> 01:11:32,520
And then the second advantage 
was it was sitting on the back. 

1303
01:11:32,520 --> 01:11:36,320
So it was killing my temperature
down as I was running being that

1304
01:11:36,320 --> 01:11:39,560
that made a massive difference, 
especially at that point before 

1305
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:42,320
2-2 in the afternoon, half, two 
in the afternoon. 

1306
01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:44,480
So the temperatures really 
starting to build. 

1307
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:51,040
And then through bridge of our 
key and up to the your 100K, 

1308
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:56,480
your big Yep, your Instagram 
name and of course the the the 

1309
01:11:56,480 --> 01:11:59,720
best unofficial checkpoint of 
the whole race. 

1310
01:12:00,160 --> 01:12:04,840
Yep, 100K. 
What did that mean to you? 

1311
01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:08,840
It meant everything to me 
because regardless of what 

1312
01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:12,080
happened at that point, 
regardless of how far I got on 

1313
01:12:12,080 --> 01:12:14,640
the rest of the course, I had 
hit the goal that I had set 18 

1314
01:12:14,640 --> 01:12:18,360
months ago. 
I did leave me with a dilemma 

1315
01:12:18,360 --> 01:12:21,240
and I've still got it that I'm 
no longer 100 kilograms and I've

1316
01:12:21,240 --> 01:12:23,760
ran more than 100 kilometers. 
So I now need to come up with 

1317
01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:26,120
some sort of new Instagram 
handle. 

1318
01:12:27,200 --> 01:12:29,080
But yeah, no, just just getting 
to that point. 

1319
01:12:29,280 --> 01:12:30,600
I mean, the Jelly Baby wasn't 
reason. 

1320
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:33,280
It was a purple vamp to Jelly 
baby, before you ask. 

1321
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:35,640
And it's I've seen the packs 
since then and I'm like, no, 

1322
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:37,120
they're sacred. 
I'm not buying them. 

1323
01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:39,640
I'm just going to keep the 
memory of that. 

1324
01:12:40,480 --> 01:12:45,160
But yeah, no, from that point 
onwards, it was like I said, in 

1325
01:12:45,160 --> 01:12:47,120
my head, I'm like, I'm getting 
to the finish line. 

1326
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:51,960
But something had happened over 
the, you know, the next 60 KR or

1327
01:12:51,960 --> 01:12:56,840
50 KR, however far it was. 
Then I had, I had, I had, I had 

1328
01:12:56,840 --> 01:13:00,800
went as far as as I, I'd not 
wanted to, but I'd, I'd take 

1329
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:03,680
that goal that I'd set last 
year. 

1330
01:13:03,680 --> 01:13:05,520
So yeah, it was good. 
And. 

1331
01:13:06,480 --> 01:13:10,440
At that point, still moving at a
really good pace as well along 

1332
01:13:10,440 --> 01:13:14,080
the the. 
That's because I hadn't got into

1333
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:16,600
Ranakamura yet, and I think it 
was Ranakamura that then 

1334
01:13:16,600 --> 01:13:20,680
destroyed my my heels over the 
next kind of 7-8 miles. 

1335
01:13:23,680 --> 01:13:27,920
So was that just the the 
terrain, the constant boulder 

1336
01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:29,960
field as you're going? 
To yeah, so I think it was just 

1337
01:13:29,960 --> 01:13:34,040
the terrain where I was, you 
know, just with just with the 

1338
01:13:34,040 --> 01:13:36,920
boulders, I was maybe putting my
foot down and my heel was just 

1339
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:39,800
kind of landing on the edge of a
boulder and then slipping off as

1340
01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:42,160
I was what, as I was then 
planting it down. 

1341
01:13:42,160 --> 01:13:44,880
And I think it was just that 
rubbing on the on the kind of 

1342
01:13:44,880 --> 01:13:47,960
outside of both heels. 
By the time I got to Glencoe, I 

1343
01:13:47,960 --> 01:13:51,160
had always planned to change my 
socks save anyway, and my socks 

1344
01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:55,960
came off and Nikki and Donna 
both kind of went, oh, and at 

1345
01:13:55,960 --> 01:13:58,000
that point I thought, well 
that's, that's not good. 

1346
01:13:58,520 --> 01:14:03,240
So so yeah, we had some running 
repairs at Glencoe to get me 

1347
01:14:03,240 --> 01:14:04,840
patched up and get me back out 
again. 

1348
01:14:05,600 --> 01:14:09,600
It was quite good 'cause we fed 
you at that point as well at 

1349
01:14:09,640 --> 01:14:12,800
Bridgewater went before you'd 
got there. 

1350
01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:15,200
We had a mini crew meeting to 
the side, right. 

1351
01:14:15,800 --> 01:14:19,320
Glencoe does a cafe there. 
I wonder what we can buy you 

1352
01:14:19,320 --> 01:14:21,560
because at that point it's going
to be dinner time. 

1353
01:14:21,560 --> 01:14:24,960
You'd said about pedian rhythm, 
so right, we'll try and get you 

1354
01:14:24,960 --> 01:14:27,600
something to eat. 
At which point I then phoned 

1355
01:14:27,600 --> 01:14:30,400
Stevies wife to say right, we 
are going to deviate slightly 

1356
01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:31,280
here. 
What would do? 

1357
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:35,960
Would they like to do Bug girls 
going to be too heavy and Debbie

1358
01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:40,080
had to say absolutely not one or
you know it won't go off the 

1359
01:14:40,080 --> 01:14:43,800
plan and we ended up giving you 
silver noodles. 

1360
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:44,760
Noodles. 
Yeah. 

1361
01:14:45,120 --> 01:14:47,760
And I'm glad you did because the
combination of just having some 

1362
01:14:47,760 --> 01:14:53,160
hot foods and just getting the 
salt from the the noodles into 

1363
01:14:53,160 --> 01:14:54,720
my system, that that really 
helped. 

1364
01:14:54,720 --> 01:14:58,800
And again, as as Casey as it may
sound, I knew that when I 

1365
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:01,080
stopped at going home, my 
temperature was just going to 

1366
01:15:01,080 --> 01:15:04,960
plummet. 
The sun was still there, but 

1367
01:15:04,960 --> 01:15:09,040
there was quite a basic Glencoe.
So, yeah, I'd already thought 

1368
01:15:09,040 --> 01:15:10,680
about that. 
I had a wee puffer jacket for 

1369
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,400
me. 
But one of the things I said to 

1370
01:15:13,400 --> 01:15:16,520
all the cure beforehand was, you
know, nothing's out of bounds 

1371
01:15:16,520 --> 01:15:19,240
here when it comes to 
checkpoints or whatever I want, 

1372
01:15:19,320 --> 01:15:21,760
you know, take, take the photos.
If I look in a bad way, still 

1373
01:15:21,760 --> 01:15:23,080
take the photos, take the 
videos. 

1374
01:15:23,560 --> 01:15:26,120
And I'm looking at a photo of me
at Glencoe and I look like I'm 

1375
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:28,160
broken. 
At that point I'm just sitting 

1376
01:15:28,160 --> 01:15:32,000
there with my hood up my my 
jacket on, just trying to get 

1377
01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:35,520
these noodles into me. 
But it was exactly what I 

1378
01:15:35,520 --> 01:15:37,480
needed. 
I'm glad. 

1379
01:15:37,480 --> 01:15:39,680
I'm glad he's all bullied me 
into eating food from that point

1380
01:15:39,680 --> 01:15:42,360
onwards. 
What's fabulous about that photo

1381
01:15:42,440 --> 01:15:45,960
is, depending on who you show 
within the running community, 

1382
01:15:46,400 --> 01:15:50,640
one person says, oh wow, that 
looks very Barkley Marathons, 

1383
01:15:50,640 --> 01:15:53,400
and another person says, my God,
he looks homeless. 

1384
01:15:55,920 --> 01:16:01,320
A little bit of a a little. 
Bit of B, but going back to, 

1385
01:16:01,840 --> 01:16:07,120
well, I guess it's Glencoe, but 
Runic, you said that you had 

1386
01:16:07,600 --> 01:16:12,200
heel troubles. 
Was it blisters or do you think 

1387
01:16:12,200 --> 01:16:13,880
it was to do with your plantar 
fascias? 

1388
01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:15,600
No. 
It was definitely blasters. 

1389
01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:18,560
It was definitely, definitely 
blasters because when I had 

1390
01:16:18,560 --> 01:16:21,640
planter, it was on the inside of
my arch where this was on the 

1391
01:16:21,720 --> 01:16:29,000
outside of my heels. 
And yeah, I mean, it just, it's 

1392
01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:32,040
just, it was just from that 
movement every time I was 

1393
01:16:32,040 --> 01:16:35,720
putting my foot down. 
And then we put we put some 

1394
01:16:35,720 --> 01:16:40,360
competing, some bandages on it. 
And I think from that point on, 

1395
01:16:40,360 --> 01:16:42,680
once I was just very careful 
about where I was planting my 

1396
01:16:42,680 --> 01:16:47,080
feet, which meant that some 
sections were slower than than 

1397
01:16:47,080 --> 01:16:49,640
nobody like them to be, 
especially in the last stages 

1398
01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:52,400
going to pull over by like more,
you know, it's just a border 

1399
01:16:52,400 --> 01:16:54,280
field going through some of some
of those bits. 

1400
01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:57,760
And I was just trying to pick my
waist all the way through it. 

1401
01:16:57,760 --> 01:17:01,280
But yeah, it was definitely 
Tibbing that caused the issue 

1402
01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:06,800
rather than any existing issues.
And then we got you all patched 

1403
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:11,880
up, good to go, got your back on
your feet and you had three 

1404
01:17:12,080 --> 01:17:14,800
support runners. 
I think we gave you a bonus 

1405
01:17:14,840 --> 01:17:16,000
runner. 
And yeah. 

1406
01:17:16,720 --> 01:17:19,320
Yeah, so at that point, Sketch 
was he was all in. 

1407
01:17:19,320 --> 01:17:21,360
He was in from Otter Tire to the
end. 

1408
01:17:21,360 --> 01:17:25,640
He wanted to do that and he's 
the sort of me that in previous 

1409
01:17:25,640 --> 01:17:27,880
events when I've been going on 
record and he's the sort of guy 

1410
01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:31,040
that can send a WhatsApp message
to say I'm thinking about going 

1411
01:17:31,040 --> 01:17:34,000
for a long training run and he's
in before he even knows where it

1412
01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:36,280
is or how far it is or how long 
it's going to take. 

1413
01:17:36,440 --> 01:17:39,600
So when he said he was doing the
full thing, it was like that. 

1414
01:17:39,600 --> 01:17:41,920
That's fine. 
And then we had Donna Duncan 

1415
01:17:41,920 --> 01:17:45,880
came and joined me at that 
point, which is amazing because 

1416
01:17:45,880 --> 01:17:47,840
Donna's, she's completed it 
twice. 

1417
01:17:47,840 --> 01:17:50,040
She's got that experience. 
She knows what I was going to 

1418
01:17:50,040 --> 01:17:53,680
feel like at that point. 
And then the bonus was Gemma, 

1419
01:17:53,760 --> 01:17:57,920
Gemma Holloway, who had already 
ran with me from bridge of Orca 

1420
01:17:57,920 --> 01:18:01,800
over to Glencoe. 
But then on your way over was 

1421
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:04,480
think she was asking is it OK if
I join you on this next bit? 

1422
01:18:04,760 --> 01:18:08,320
And the whole, the whole point 
for me of, of getting everybody 

1423
01:18:08,320 --> 01:18:13,120
involved was these are all all 
friends who have apart from 

1424
01:18:13,120 --> 01:18:16,280
sketch, these are all friends 
who have ran ultras in 11 shape 

1425
01:18:16,280 --> 01:18:17,800
for another one distance of 
another. 

1426
01:18:19,640 --> 01:18:23,600
And at some point, whether 
you'll want to admit it or not, 

1427
01:18:23,600 --> 01:18:25,320
they're going to think about 
doing the West Highland way. 

1428
01:18:25,680 --> 01:18:27,600
They're going to think about 
stepping up to that distance. 

1429
01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:29,280
So I wanted them to experience 
it. 

1430
01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:33,680
I wanted them to be part of it. 
And for Gemma, we, we, the last 

1431
01:18:33,680 --> 01:18:37,160
time we'd been running together 
was at the wild heart runners 

1432
01:18:37,680 --> 01:18:41,480
running Glencoe back in March. 
And the weather was atrocious. 

1433
01:18:41,480 --> 01:18:44,760
I think it rained for five out 
in the six hours we were out 

1434
01:18:44,760 --> 01:18:46,440
there. 
And we'd actually ran over to 

1435
01:18:46,440 --> 01:18:49,360
Ken walk even turn around, came 
back up the hill from Ken walk 

1436
01:18:49,400 --> 01:18:51,280
even. 
And it was getting to the point 

1437
01:18:51,280 --> 01:18:54,800
where I was thinking, depending 
how high we go, we go back up 

1438
01:18:54,800 --> 01:18:57,560
here, we may end up in the snow 
lane because the the weather had

1439
01:18:57,560 --> 01:18:59,720
really set and Gemma was 
freezing. 

1440
01:18:59,720 --> 01:19:01,480
I was freezing. 
It wasn't nice. 

1441
01:19:01,480 --> 01:19:04,800
Had had there been a, a car at 
the bottom of the Devil's 

1442
01:19:04,800 --> 01:19:07,000
staircase that day? 
We really jumped in it and and 

1443
01:19:07,120 --> 01:19:09,280
drove back up to Glencoe Ski 
Centre. 

1444
01:19:10,400 --> 01:19:13,120
So when Gemma suggested that she
might want to run that next, but

1445
01:19:13,120 --> 01:19:16,080
I was like, absolutely, because 
I want you to have a positive 

1446
01:19:16,080 --> 01:19:19,280
experience of going over that 
section again rather than her 

1447
01:19:19,280 --> 01:19:22,880
lasting memory being it's cold, 
it's rubbish, I really want to 

1448
01:19:22,880 --> 01:19:24,040
do that. 
So yeah. 

1449
01:19:24,040 --> 01:19:26,400
So Gemma joined us going up, up 
and over the staircase. 

1450
01:19:26,400 --> 01:19:29,080
And at that point, it was like 
11:00 at night. 

1451
01:19:29,080 --> 01:19:31,320
So it was something that dark 
and the head torches were on. 

1452
01:19:31,320 --> 01:19:35,240
It was just, we just got around.
It's one of my favorite views on

1453
01:19:35,240 --> 01:19:37,840
the West Highland Bay. 
As you're dropping down the 

1454
01:19:37,920 --> 01:19:40,120
other side of the staircase. 
Was Kenwalg leaving you come 

1455
01:19:40,120 --> 01:19:42,080
round? 
I don't know. 

1456
01:19:42,080 --> 01:19:44,240
I don't know what the lock's 
called, but it's a lock off to 

1457
01:19:44,240 --> 01:19:47,680
your. 
The reservoir kind. 

1458
01:19:48,040 --> 01:19:50,440
Of reservoir, but it's off to 
your right hand side and then 

1459
01:19:50,440 --> 01:19:54,320
you've got the I'm guessing what
must be part of the mountains 

1460
01:19:54,320 --> 01:19:56,320
that make up the ring of steel 
in front of us. 

1461
01:19:56,720 --> 01:19:59,760
And at that time of night, it 
was just all these layers of 

1462
01:19:59,760 --> 01:20:02,040
mountains appearing in front of 
us because the light was just 

1463
01:20:02,040 --> 01:20:03,280
starting to go. 
It's. 

1464
01:20:03,480 --> 01:20:05,120
Yeah. 
I love that section. 

1465
01:20:05,440 --> 01:20:08,840
Absolutely I. 
Think it's Black Water Reservoir

1466
01:20:08,840 --> 01:20:11,040
and the pipes that you see going
down to Kinloch. 

1467
01:20:11,120 --> 01:20:12,520
Right. 
So that's where that feeds in 

1468
01:20:12,520 --> 01:20:14,520
from. 
OK, OK. 

1469
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:18,160
So did you get the chip shop and
Kinlochleven? 

1470
01:20:18,680 --> 01:20:20,240
No, no, we were too late for 
that. 

1471
01:20:20,480 --> 01:20:22,160
We were too late for that. 
But that was that was never on 

1472
01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:23,320
the plan. 
But I think we get into 

1473
01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:27,640
Kinlochleven, must have been 
close to midnight because I 

1474
01:20:27,640 --> 01:20:30,480
remember my brother sending me a
text message saying if you hurry

1475
01:20:30,480 --> 01:20:32,560
up you'll get lost all those at 
the pub. 

1476
01:20:32,840 --> 01:20:35,600
So it must have been coming up 
on midnight by the time we were 

1477
01:20:35,600 --> 01:20:39,920
getting down there. 
And yeah, got got in there, got 

1478
01:20:39,920 --> 01:20:45,040
myself sorted and yeah, it was 
just a case of getting back out 

1479
01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:47,320
and trying to get up on to Lavik
more. 

1480
01:20:49,120 --> 01:20:51,800
And how does Lavik compared to 
Ranek? 

1481
01:20:54,720 --> 01:20:57,960
It was different in the dark. 
So I I've been through a couple 

1482
01:20:57,960 --> 01:21:01,080
of times in daylight on record 
runs or in the devil. 

1483
01:21:02,800 --> 01:21:05,520
I knew that I just had to get up
the zigzags. 

1484
01:21:05,520 --> 01:21:08,040
And then I also knew there was 
another couple of kilometers to 

1485
01:21:08,040 --> 01:21:12,360
get up and get over the kind of 
the the top of that claim. 

1486
01:21:13,960 --> 01:21:16,240
But yeah, the, the hard thing 
there was just the under foot 

1487
01:21:16,240 --> 01:21:19,560
conditions, just the rocks and 
obviously it's, it's always wet 

1488
01:21:19,560 --> 01:21:21,360
up there. 
It doesn't seem to be, doesn't 

1489
01:21:21,360 --> 01:21:25,080
seem to be matter how many weeks
ago it was, it last rained. 

1490
01:21:25,240 --> 01:21:27,600
It's always, there's always 
water flowing, flowing through 

1491
01:21:27,600 --> 01:21:30,520
there. 
So yeah, that that was good. 

1492
01:21:31,600 --> 01:21:35,840
We got through the air, got to 
the final checkpoint that went, 

1493
01:21:35,840 --> 01:21:37,640
I'd already said like we're just
going to, we're just going to 

1494
01:21:37,640 --> 01:21:39,680
keep on going. 
Just tap in, tap out, push 

1495
01:21:39,680 --> 01:21:41,720
through this and let's just try 
and get this done. 

1496
01:21:42,760 --> 01:21:49,280
And for most of the race so far,
it'd been but 20 something 

1497
01:21:49,280 --> 01:21:51,040
degrees. 
It was. 

1498
01:21:51,120 --> 01:21:54,960
It was spot 19° at start and I 
don't think it dropped below 

1499
01:21:54,960 --> 01:21:57,320
that after that. 
And how? 

1500
01:21:57,320 --> 01:21:58,920
How was it for your last 
section? 

1501
01:22:00,800 --> 01:22:05,200
So for the when we were in the 
checkpoint at Kenwalk leaving, 

1502
01:22:05,400 --> 01:22:08,080
the staff had came over to us. 
The volunteers came over and 

1503
01:22:08,080 --> 01:22:10,400
said, look, have you got wet 
weather kit with you? 

1504
01:22:10,880 --> 01:22:12,880
Well, yeah, got a jacket. 
And you're like, have you got 

1505
01:22:12,880 --> 01:22:16,040
full wet weather kept with you? 
And I, I remember saying that 

1506
01:22:16,200 --> 01:22:19,160
I've got it in the car, but I'm 
not taking trousers with me. 

1507
01:22:19,160 --> 01:22:21,880
Like, you know, I'm not going to
run in trousers. 

1508
01:22:22,320 --> 01:22:26,520
And you're like, you might need 
them because at 4:00 you're 

1509
01:22:26,520 --> 01:22:29,800
going to get torrential rain. 
And I did kick in my head. 

1510
01:22:29,800 --> 01:22:33,320
I'd made the decision that had 
they been telling us that about 

1511
01:22:33,320 --> 01:22:35,080
Omaha, it would have been 
completely different. 

1512
01:22:35,080 --> 01:22:38,080
Of course I would have taken it.
But I thought we're so close to 

1513
01:22:38,080 --> 01:22:39,920
the finish. 
We'll just we'll just crack on. 

1514
01:22:39,920 --> 01:22:42,720
So we got up to the Atlantic 
more and we're just coming 

1515
01:22:42,720 --> 01:22:45,160
through Windavra and it started 
to get light at like half three 

1516
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:48,240
in the morning and we're like I 
remembered actually, Donna said,

1517
01:22:48,240 --> 01:22:49,960
well, that's it. 
We've you know, we're broken the

1518
01:22:49,960 --> 01:22:51,720
back of the second night. 
That's us through it. 

1519
01:22:52,240 --> 01:22:54,200
We're going to this will be good
going forward. 

1520
01:22:54,200 --> 01:22:58,200
So we get through Windavra, get 
up towards the Navis forest. 

1521
01:22:58,200 --> 01:23:02,240
So kind of up about what is it 
about 1000 foot or something 

1522
01:23:02,240 --> 01:23:05,680
like that 1100 foot. 
So you, you're fairly high up 

1523
01:23:05,880 --> 01:23:11,200
and then it starts getting dark 
again and we're we're looking 

1524
01:23:11,200 --> 01:23:14,160
about and we're like, OK, but we
keep on running. 

1525
01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:16,520
And then I caught something that
called me my eye and I thought, 

1526
01:23:17,280 --> 01:23:19,320
you know, I'd already had 
hallucinations, but that point. 

1527
01:23:19,320 --> 01:23:22,520
So I didn't really, I didn't 
really think much about it. 

1528
01:23:22,520 --> 01:23:23,840
I was just like, now just keep 
running. 

1529
01:23:24,680 --> 01:23:28,440
And then about 1520 seconds 
later, there was just this 

1530
01:23:28,440 --> 01:23:33,120
rumble that filled the Glen. 
And I thought I just had that 

1531
01:23:33,120 --> 01:23:35,840
moment in my heart sinking 
thinking, Oh no, here we go. 

1532
01:23:36,560 --> 01:23:39,080
But we just kept going. 
And then a couple of minutes 

1533
01:23:39,080 --> 01:23:41,600
later there's another flash and 
we all stopped and wicked each 

1534
01:23:41,600 --> 01:23:43,160
other. 
And instantly I started going 

1535
01:23:43,160 --> 01:23:46,880
1234. 
And I'm counting to see how far 

1536
01:23:46,880 --> 01:23:48,560
away this was. 
And it was 15 seconds away. 

1537
01:23:49,480 --> 01:23:50,960
It's all right, let's just keep 
going. 

1538
01:23:51,040 --> 01:23:53,800
And within the space of 5 
minutes, it went from being like

1539
01:23:53,800 --> 01:23:56,440
15 seconds away to being like 6 
seconds away. 

1540
01:23:57,000 --> 01:23:59,120
And at that point we decided, 
no, let's stop. 

1541
01:23:59,120 --> 01:24:01,400
Let's get a wet weather kettle 
and let's got jackets on because

1542
01:24:01,400 --> 01:24:04,200
this is coming. 
And we still had, we had what, 

1543
01:24:04,200 --> 01:24:10,040
910, nine or 10K to go. 
And again, within the space of a

1544
01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:11,880
couple of minutes, the rain 
started. 

1545
01:24:11,880 --> 01:24:13,680
And I have never seen rain like 
it. 

1546
01:24:14,080 --> 01:24:17,880
We went from having a bone dry 
trail in front of us to not 

1547
01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:20,080
having a trail, just having a 
river that we could run through.

1548
01:24:22,520 --> 01:24:25,520
On the plus side, it meant I 
picked up the pace like nothing 

1549
01:24:25,520 --> 01:24:27,920
at all because I did not want to
be there. 

1550
01:24:27,920 --> 01:24:32,280
I I I'm perfectly fine with 
Thunder and lightning in a safe 

1551
01:24:32,280 --> 01:24:37,160
environment, but I don't like it
when there's exposure. 

1552
01:24:37,280 --> 01:24:40,840
And for all that being nervous 
was not nearby and the hills 

1553
01:24:40,840 --> 01:24:43,080
roundabout is where we're 
higher. 

1554
01:24:43,720 --> 01:24:46,320
All I'm thinking is I'm running 
along with a stupid selfie stick

1555
01:24:46,320 --> 01:24:52,480
stuck onto my, my pack here. 
And yeah, I, I just wanted to 

1556
01:24:52,520 --> 01:24:55,720
get, I just wanted to, I, I knew
I had to get through the forest,

1557
01:24:55,920 --> 01:24:58,360
drop down, come up water mail 
and hell onto the fire road. 

1558
01:24:58,360 --> 01:25:00,840
And then at that point it would 
start losing height 

1559
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:02,680
significantly as we as we got 
down it. 

1560
01:25:02,680 --> 01:25:05,760
And it was just a case of get to
the fire Rd. get over the chest 

1561
01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:07,400
of that. 
And then I'll feel a lot safer 

1562
01:25:07,400 --> 01:25:10,120
once we're starting to go down. 
But yeah, at one point you're 

1563
01:25:10,120 --> 01:25:13,160
you're running along and you can
actually see the lightning 

1564
01:25:13,160 --> 01:25:16,480
strike and the the hell that 
we've got to run up on the fire 

1565
01:25:16,480 --> 01:25:21,560
Rd. on there was a yeah, several
words screamed that I won't 

1566
01:25:21,560 --> 01:25:23,920
repeat on a family friendly 
podcast. 

1567
01:25:23,920 --> 01:25:27,440
But yeah, it wasn't, wasn't, 
wasn't the most enjoyable 

1568
01:25:28,080 --> 01:25:30,560
sectional section of the course.
But on the plus side, I think 

1569
01:25:30,560 --> 01:25:36,080
with the with the water running 
through all the puddles, I just 

1570
01:25:36,120 --> 01:25:37,720
at that point, I didn't care 
about my blisters. 

1571
01:25:37,720 --> 01:25:42,160
I just wanted to get down off. 
That hill and you, you just 

1572
01:25:42,160 --> 01:25:44,680
brushed over that you had 
hallucinations. 

1573
01:25:45,000 --> 01:25:47,480
Yes, go back. 
What were they? 

1574
01:25:48,280 --> 01:25:52,760
So coming out of the Vendavra 
checkpoint, you kind of come up 

1575
01:25:52,760 --> 01:25:54,800
here, there's a wheel that goes 
up, you go through a couple of 

1576
01:25:54,800 --> 01:25:56,880
gates. 
Now again, I know this, I've ran

1577
01:25:56,880 --> 01:26:00,120
it three times this year. 
So through one gate, through the

1578
01:26:00,120 --> 01:26:02,640
next gate. 
And then you go up on one side 

1579
01:26:02,640 --> 01:26:06,920
of the hill and I looked over to
the other sides of of the hill 

1580
01:26:06,920 --> 01:26:11,160
that's only like 100 foot away. 
And I said to sketching and I 

1581
01:26:11,160 --> 01:26:15,200
was like, lick all those sheep. 
And they were like, what do you 

1582
01:26:15,200 --> 01:26:17,000
mean, Steven? 
I said, look at that line. 

1583
01:26:17,000 --> 01:26:18,200
The sheep. 
That's amazing. 

1584
01:26:18,400 --> 01:26:22,920
How are they doing that? 
And in my head, I could see 300 

1585
01:26:22,920 --> 01:26:26,400
or 400 sheep that were moving 
down the side of the hill in the

1586
01:26:26,400 --> 01:26:28,000
opposite direction to where we 
were going. 

1587
01:26:28,000 --> 01:26:29,880
So I'm moving one way, they're 
moving the other way. 

1588
01:26:30,320 --> 01:26:32,920
I can hear them. 
You know, they're all bleeding 

1589
01:26:33,760 --> 01:26:36,720
away and sketching down. 
I say, wherever you seen these 

1590
01:26:36,720 --> 01:26:37,800
sheep. 
And I'm like there. 

1591
01:26:38,240 --> 01:26:40,440
And they're like, Steven, that's
a stone date wall. 

1592
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:42,840
And I'm like, no, but I can hear
them. 

1593
01:26:43,280 --> 01:26:46,160
And I said, you know, look, 
look, 50 yards in front of us, 

1594
01:26:46,160 --> 01:26:49,280
the six sheep by the side of the
the side of the trail. 

1595
01:26:49,520 --> 01:26:53,640
But in my head, this was 300 or 
400 sheep, all perfectly in a 

1596
01:26:53,640 --> 01:26:55,960
lane moving down the hill 
towards the checkpoint. 

1597
01:26:58,240 --> 01:27:01,120
So, so yeah, at that point, I 
then didn't start to trust 

1598
01:27:01,120 --> 01:27:02,440
things. 
So when that first flash of 

1599
01:27:02,440 --> 01:27:04,640
lightning went off, I was like, 
no, I'm just imagining that. 

1600
01:27:04,640 --> 01:27:05,680
That's fine. 
Just keep going. 

1601
01:27:06,520 --> 01:27:09,720
I think Skecher called in a 
video and sending it to the crew

1602
01:27:09,720 --> 01:27:13,400
chat screaming we're all going 
to die didn't help either. 

1603
01:27:13,520 --> 01:27:16,560
Yeah, I, I actually tried. 
I tried to get my phone out. 

1604
01:27:16,600 --> 01:27:19,040
I tried to get my phone out. 
I wasn't keen to get my, my 

1605
01:27:19,080 --> 01:27:21,200
selfie camera out. 
I didn't really fancy running 

1606
01:27:21,200 --> 01:27:24,160
along holding something in front
of me that that was definitely 

1607
01:27:24,160 --> 01:27:25,560
not going to happen. 
But I tried to get my phone out 

1608
01:27:25,560 --> 01:27:32,000
just to record how wild it was 
because at one point, even with 

1609
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:34,720
my head torch showing, I 
couldn't see more than 10 foot 

1610
01:27:34,720 --> 01:27:37,040
in front of me. 
The rain was coming down that 

1611
01:27:37,040 --> 01:27:39,760
that hard and the phone, the 
phone wouldn't unlock in that 

1612
01:27:39,760 --> 01:27:43,120
those conditions. 
But it was wild, absolutely 

1613
01:27:43,120 --> 01:27:43,600
wild. 
And. 

1614
01:27:44,160 --> 01:27:46,760
You must have felt safe for 
having Donna and Sketch there, 

1615
01:27:46,760 --> 01:27:47,880
because that would have been 
scary. 

1616
01:27:48,040 --> 01:27:50,040
Yeah, yeah. 
So the boy, we, we actually 

1617
01:27:50,920 --> 01:27:57,120
overtook a runner who was on her
own just going up through Lavick

1618
01:27:57,120 --> 01:27:58,680
Moor. 
And we said to her, we're like, 

1619
01:27:58,680 --> 01:27:59,960
are you OK? 
Like, have you got a couch? 

1620
01:28:00,000 --> 01:28:01,800
She said, oh, no, no, I don't. 
I want to do this myself. 

1621
01:28:01,800 --> 01:28:04,600
And you know what? 
I've got the absolute respect 

1622
01:28:04,600 --> 01:28:08,720
for her for doing that, but I 
would not have wanted to be in 

1623
01:28:08,720 --> 01:28:11,440
those conditions when that storm
rolled in if I was online. 

1624
01:28:14,560 --> 01:28:24,800
And yeah, down Glen Nevis, along
the road, yeah, to the the Nevis

1625
01:28:24,800 --> 01:28:26,600
Centre. 
Yes. 

1626
01:28:27,880 --> 01:28:31,960
Back, back in, back in the olden
days, when I did it, you stopped

1627
01:28:31,960 --> 01:28:34,560
at the leisure centre. 
Did you even? 

1628
01:28:34,880 --> 01:28:38,120
Do you even know about that? 
Do you give it a passing glance?

1629
01:28:38,160 --> 01:28:40,280
Do you even care? 
I I knew about it. 

1630
01:28:41,320 --> 01:28:43,120
I knew about it and obviously 
it's now the finish. 

1631
01:28:43,200 --> 01:28:44,760
It's the finish for the Devil in
the Highlands. 

1632
01:28:44,760 --> 01:28:49,760
So I must say I was glad when I 
got to the bottom of the 

1633
01:28:49,760 --> 01:28:53,680
Braveheart car park and I didn't
have to go up to hell at the end

1634
01:28:53,680 --> 01:28:57,440
of it. 
But yeah, no, we'd we'd said to 

1635
01:28:57,440 --> 01:29:00,920
everybody on the queue, we were 
like, if you want to come and 

1636
01:29:00,920 --> 01:29:04,480
meet me at Braveheart car Park. 
And then as a coup, we'll run 

1637
01:29:04,480 --> 01:29:05,960
that last minute and a half 
together. 

1638
01:29:06,080 --> 01:29:09,920
And again, that was me wanting 
to these guys had gave up their 

1639
01:29:10,000 --> 01:29:14,480
their entire weekend for me. 
I wanted them to feel part of 

1640
01:29:14,480 --> 01:29:18,880
that, that final, final minute 
and a half, you know, for the 

1641
01:29:18,880 --> 01:29:24,840
likes of Nikki and Donna, not 
Nikki, Nikki and Gemma and 

1642
01:29:25,040 --> 01:29:26,800
Sketch. 
I wanted them to experience that

1643
01:29:26,920 --> 01:29:30,760
and plant that seed of them, 
them being the runners when they

1644
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:34,120
get to that point and how that 
how that's going to feel, you 

1645
01:29:34,120 --> 01:29:37,200
know, run by the run by the 
leisure center. 

1646
01:29:37,200 --> 01:29:39,280
And at that point, I'm not going
to lie, I was more interested in

1647
01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:42,640
how we were going to get across 
the road because I had worked at

1648
01:29:42,640 --> 01:29:44,560
the traffic lights. 
And I swear to God, there was a 

1649
01:29:44,560 --> 01:29:48,040
swimming pool of water either 
side of those traffic lights. 

1650
01:29:49,400 --> 01:29:52,480
So we ended up jumping over the 
roads just a little bit further 

1651
01:29:52,560 --> 01:29:56,000
further up from there and then 
drowned towards the towards the 

1652
01:29:56,000 --> 01:29:58,480
finish. 
Line I can tell you that wasn't 

1653
01:29:58,480 --> 01:30:00,720
a hallucination. 
There was actually swimming pool

1654
01:30:00,720 --> 01:30:03,680
of water. 
No, there was because as we were

1655
01:30:03,680 --> 01:30:09,440
running along, there was a car. 
We, we go, God, maybe just just 

1656
01:30:09,440 --> 01:30:14,240
about a couple of 100 meter, 100
yards shy of the hospital and 

1657
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:17,040
there was a car coming the other
way and I was like, Oh no, 

1658
01:30:17,040 --> 01:30:18,560
they're going to completely soak
us here. 

1659
01:30:18,840 --> 01:30:21,400
Turns out it was my my friend 
Kev that was in that car. 

1660
01:30:21,400 --> 01:30:23,960
So they gave us away bath and 
tooted the horn. 

1661
01:30:23,960 --> 01:30:27,240
But yeah, it was just nuts. 
The amount of water that had 

1662
01:30:27,240 --> 01:30:31,040
came down onto the on the roads 
and onto the hills and and that 

1663
01:30:31,040 --> 01:30:37,720
short space of time. 
So next next step is you are in 

1664
01:30:38,040 --> 01:30:41,800
the never centre through that 
archway. 

1665
01:30:42,560 --> 01:30:45,880
How does that feel? 
Job done. 

1666
01:30:46,600 --> 01:30:50,480
Job, job done. 
But also just trying to keep my 

1667
01:30:50,480 --> 01:30:54,360
emotions in check. 
So on on one of my record runs, 

1668
01:30:54,680 --> 01:31:00,600
I had deliberately, I ran over 
from Glencoe and I had AI had 

1669
01:31:00,600 --> 01:31:03,320
Nicky and KFC and I'll go up Co 
hell, go up Co hell, go and do 

1670
01:31:03,320 --> 01:31:04,360
that. 
And I was like, no, I want to 

1671
01:31:04,360 --> 01:31:08,040
experience, I want to run this 
whole thing right up to the back

1672
01:31:08,040 --> 01:31:11,120
door of the Navy Centre because 
then for the rest of my training

1673
01:31:11,120 --> 01:31:13,120
block, I'm going to have that, 
I'm going to have that memory 

1674
01:31:13,120 --> 01:31:14,920
and I'm going to visualize 
what's it going to feel like 

1675
01:31:14,920 --> 01:31:16,360
when I get to do this Andres 
day. 

1676
01:31:17,280 --> 01:31:21,200
So to come round and see those 
doors open and then suddenly go 

1677
01:31:21,200 --> 01:31:23,240
through those doors and that 
that's it, it's over. 

1678
01:31:23,400 --> 01:31:26,560
I'm there. 
I've done it all the four FS and

1679
01:31:26,560 --> 01:31:29,240
the butts and the maybes that 
could have happened over the 

1680
01:31:29,240 --> 01:31:32,440
last 95 miles they've gone. 
I've, I've got there and I've 

1681
01:31:32,440 --> 01:31:35,680
done it. 
And I went up to the the 

1682
01:31:35,680 --> 01:31:38,080
finisher board to get my photo 
taken and sketched, whips out 

1683
01:31:38,080 --> 01:31:39,480
his camera and starts taking the
video. 

1684
01:31:40,280 --> 01:31:43,520
And I look back at it now, I can
see the moment where it could 

1685
01:31:43,520 --> 01:31:47,400
have went either way for me. 
There was 1 moment where it 

1686
01:31:47,400 --> 01:31:49,520
could have all came pointed out 
and I could have broke down just

1687
01:31:49,520 --> 01:31:51,200
in just in sheer happiness of 
it. 

1688
01:31:53,240 --> 01:31:55,480
But yeah, I managed. 
I managed just to to suck that 

1689
01:31:55,480 --> 01:32:00,560
back down and just just kind of 
take it all in and and realize I

1690
01:32:00,600 --> 01:32:07,160
got there. 
And then next day is another get

1691
01:32:07,160 --> 01:32:10,000
the crew involved. 
Everybody's there when you go up

1692
01:32:10,000 --> 01:32:13,040
and get your your little crystal
goblet. 

1693
01:32:13,920 --> 01:32:15,880
Yeah, yeah. 
Have you used it? 

1694
01:32:15,960 --> 01:32:18,760
Yet. 
No, no, it is. 

1695
01:32:18,960 --> 01:32:22,440
It's still sitting right here in
my office where each of the 

1696
01:32:22,440 --> 01:32:25,760
kids, may I add, but I've not 
used it yet. 

1697
01:32:25,920 --> 01:32:29,360
And I, I think it's going to be,
I don't know, it's going to be a

1698
01:32:29,360 --> 01:32:31,280
special occasion that I, I get 
to use it. 

1699
01:32:33,480 --> 01:32:38,240
But yeah, just, I think, I think
for the, you know, for me, it 

1700
01:32:38,240 --> 01:32:42,360
was the last 20 hours. 
All anybody had talked about on 

1701
01:32:42,360 --> 01:32:44,560
that course was getting your God
what? 

1702
01:32:44,840 --> 01:32:46,400
Get to the end and get the God 
what? 

1703
01:32:46,800 --> 01:32:51,560
So, yeah, to get called up in 
front of everybody again, that 

1704
01:32:51,920 --> 01:32:54,840
that was just kind of it, that 
the icing on the cake. 

1705
01:32:54,920 --> 01:32:57,560
And it comes back to what I was 
saying about I didn't get the 

1706
01:32:57,920 --> 01:33:01,160
the whole concept of the West 
Highland Bay family, but going 

1707
01:33:01,160 --> 01:33:05,880
up and and doing that and having
the entire hall going mental for

1708
01:33:05,880 --> 01:33:08,280
you and everybody cheating and 
clapping. 

1709
01:33:08,320 --> 01:33:11,920
But it's just, yeah, it makes 
you feel so, so special. 

1710
01:33:12,360 --> 01:33:14,840
And I love the fact that the way
they do it, where it doesn't 

1711
01:33:14,840 --> 01:33:17,960
matter if you are the first 
person to get your goblet or the

1712
01:33:17,960 --> 01:33:21,560
last person to get your goblet, 
everybody gives as much 

1713
01:33:21,560 --> 01:33:23,840
enthusiasm for every single 
person that goes up there. 

1714
01:33:26,280 --> 01:33:32,240
So same again next year. 
I have, I haven't decided what 

1715
01:33:32,240 --> 01:33:35,080
I'm doing next year. 
I'm going to get the, I've still

1716
01:33:35,080 --> 01:33:38,680
got the, the fine to do. 
So ultimately the, you know, the

1717
01:33:38,680 --> 01:33:41,000
goal for me this year, once I 
get into all three, the goal was

1718
01:33:41,000 --> 01:33:43,640
the Triple Crown. 
So I'll get that out of the way.

1719
01:33:44,040 --> 01:33:48,000
And I have gone back and looked 
through my Strava activity and 

1720
01:33:48,000 --> 01:33:50,560
I've looked at bits where I'm 
like, I wasted too much time in 

1721
01:33:50,560 --> 01:33:52,200
that checkpoint. 
I wasted too much time here. 

1722
01:33:52,200 --> 01:33:56,480
So that tells me all I need to 
know and I will be involved 

1723
01:33:56,480 --> 01:33:59,240
somehow next year. 
And if it's not running it, if 

1724
01:33:59,240 --> 01:34:02,720
it's not curing it for a friend,
then it'll be volunteering 

1725
01:34:02,880 --> 01:34:07,480
because I owe that to everybody 
that helped me out this year. 

1726
01:34:09,360 --> 01:34:11,840
So yeah, I I'll definitely be 
involved one way or another next

1727
01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:15,560
year. 
And I, I think that the next 

1728
01:34:15,560 --> 01:34:18,000
question that Nikki's got down 
now that we're back on the 

1729
01:34:18,000 --> 01:34:21,680
question set is what is your 
biggest running achievement? 

1730
01:34:21,920 --> 01:34:25,480
But I, I think, I don't even 
think we need to ask. 

1731
01:34:25,480 --> 01:34:31,320
That no, no, same as same as my 
favorite niece. 

1732
01:34:31,440 --> 01:34:36,320
It's the West Highland Bay, you 
know, in terms of, you know, if 

1733
01:34:36,320 --> 01:34:38,240
you want to take it back to to 
basics. 

1734
01:34:38,240 --> 01:34:40,760
It's the furthest I've ever run.
It's the longest I've ever I've 

1735
01:34:40,760 --> 01:34:43,800
ever been on my feet. 
It's the longest training block 

1736
01:34:43,800 --> 01:34:47,840
I've ever done, is the hardest 
thing I've ever done. 

1737
01:34:49,160 --> 01:34:55,240
So yeah, 100% W Highland Bay. 
And post event, just going 

1738
01:34:55,240 --> 01:34:59,840
slightly off the question set, 
Sorry Mike, have you had any 

1739
01:35:01,200 --> 01:35:05,160
post race Blues from this? 
I, I've not, and I think I've 

1740
01:35:05,160 --> 01:35:08,480
been quite fortunate about that.
I see, I see a bunch of folk 

1741
01:35:08,480 --> 01:35:10,440
online and then the West 
Highland Way group saying it's, 

1742
01:35:10,440 --> 01:35:14,120
it's hitting them hard. 
But again, for me, because I'm 

1743
01:35:14,120 --> 01:35:19,720
doing the the Triple Crown, then
I gave myself like a probably a 

1744
01:35:19,720 --> 01:35:22,320
week of just not doing anything,
just maybe went to the gym, 

1745
01:35:22,320 --> 01:35:26,760
jumped on a bike and spun my 
legs once and then slowly came 

1746
01:35:26,760 --> 01:35:28,880
to ease. 
Once my my heels had recovered, 

1747
01:35:28,880 --> 01:35:31,200
the bristles had recovered. 
The slowly started easing back 

1748
01:35:31,200 --> 01:35:33,560
into things The week after that,
just getting some males and my 

1749
01:35:33,560 --> 01:35:36,800
legs again. 
And then last week I started my 

1750
01:35:36,800 --> 01:35:39,600
training plan for the fighting. 
So I've just, you know, I've 

1751
01:35:39,600 --> 01:35:42,560
just kind of shifted to that 
push has been good. 

1752
01:35:42,600 --> 01:35:45,520
God knows what's going to happen
come the end of September once 

1753
01:35:45,520 --> 01:35:47,160
the thing's out. 
I mean, I think at that point it

1754
01:35:47,160 --> 01:35:51,120
will just be, you know, there 
will be a massive hole there. 

1755
01:35:52,760 --> 01:35:58,240
But yeah, it's been nice not to 
have have those Blues because I 

1756
01:35:58,240 --> 01:36:00,960
could totally understand how 
that would feel if, you know, 

1757
01:36:00,960 --> 01:36:02,960
you're building that big thing 
and then it's done and it's 

1758
01:36:02,960 --> 01:36:07,080
like, what do I do now? 
And you? 

1759
01:36:07,080 --> 01:36:09,040
Had your week off? 
Yeah. 

1760
01:36:09,560 --> 01:36:14,120
Did the weight go up? 
No, no, my weight's continued 

1761
01:36:14,120 --> 01:36:16,200
to, to go down, which has been 
good. 

1762
01:36:16,200 --> 01:36:18,760
And I think that's just the, the
habits that I've, I've formed 

1763
01:36:18,760 --> 01:36:24,240
over the last six months. 
But yeah, I just, I'm, I'm back 

1764
01:36:24,240 --> 01:36:26,960
into it now and just back into 
that kind of mindset of you're 

1765
01:36:27,520 --> 01:36:28,960
getting up to do the meals in 
the morning. 

1766
01:36:28,960 --> 01:36:31,160
So don't be wasting it 
throughout the day. 

1767
01:36:33,240 --> 01:36:37,240
And the next question that we 
have on the formal set is why do

1768
01:36:37,240 --> 01:36:39,360
you run? 
Why do I run? 

1769
01:36:39,600 --> 01:36:47,400
I run because of my daughter. 
So my daughter was this. 

1770
01:36:47,400 --> 01:36:49,760
This is I say I don't run 
because of COVID. 

1771
01:36:49,760 --> 01:36:52,840
Like a lot of people started 
running, but I actually got back

1772
01:36:52,840 --> 01:36:56,120
into running properly because of
something that happened during 

1773
01:36:56,120 --> 01:36:59,720
COVID. 
My daughter turned up 1212 about

1774
01:36:59,720 --> 01:37:01,960
weeks early, right at the start 
of COVID. 

1775
01:37:02,200 --> 01:37:06,760
So she was born at 27 weeks and 
60s and she was a wee tiny 

1776
01:37:07,400 --> 01:37:10,800
bundle of skin and bones. 
She was 2 lbs six oz. 

1777
01:37:11,120 --> 01:37:14,320
She spent what the best part of 
three months in the local 

1778
01:37:14,320 --> 01:37:19,280
neonatal unit and without even 
knowing that she smashed every 

1779
01:37:19,280 --> 01:37:20,800
single challenge. 
It was put in front of her. 

1780
01:37:21,160 --> 01:37:23,120
Everything that she had to 
overcome, she's overcame. 

1781
01:37:23,120 --> 01:37:26,440
If she she came busting in this 
door behind me just now, she's 

1782
01:37:26,440 --> 01:37:31,120
just a normal B5 year old. 
But at the time, it made me 

1783
01:37:31,120 --> 01:37:35,040
think, well, if she can do that 
without even trying, what can I 

1784
01:37:35,040 --> 01:37:38,000
do if I start trying? 
And again, I was, you know, I 

1785
01:37:38,000 --> 01:37:39,880
was way overweight. 
I was out of shape. 

1786
01:37:39,880 --> 01:37:43,000
And I thought, let's, let's, 
let's do something here. 

1787
01:37:43,120 --> 01:37:45,560
First and foremost, it was to 
raise money for the neonatal 

1788
01:37:45,560 --> 01:37:47,600
unit. 
It was to raise funds for them 

1789
01:37:47,600 --> 01:37:51,600
because they got us through what
could have been a traumatic time

1790
01:37:51,720 --> 01:37:52,880
in our lives. 
And it wasn't just us. 

1791
01:37:52,920 --> 01:37:54,720
It wasn't just Nova they were 
looking after. 

1792
01:37:54,720 --> 01:37:56,920
It was us as well. 
We would got to visit them and 

1793
01:37:57,160 --> 01:37:59,640
the staff would pick up on what 
we how we were feeling. 

1794
01:38:00,200 --> 01:38:02,520
And before you know it, they'd 
be like, I think you should go 

1795
01:38:02,520 --> 01:38:05,040
and have a word with Jess, who 
is the unit psychologist. 

1796
01:38:05,280 --> 01:38:07,680
And he'd be in speak speaking to
the psychologist who'd be 

1797
01:38:07,680 --> 01:38:10,760
saying, OK, staff have noticed 
that you're doing XY and Z or 

1798
01:38:10,760 --> 01:38:13,520
you're saying this and that, you
know, are you feeling this or 

1799
01:38:13,520 --> 01:38:15,800
you're feeling that. 
So they were looking after us as

1800
01:38:15,800 --> 01:38:17,440
well as looking after a 
daughter. 

1801
01:38:17,840 --> 01:38:21,120
And so yeah, raise money for the
unit. 

1802
01:38:21,120 --> 01:38:23,560
In fact it was run the Blades. 
I went back to do at the time of

1803
01:38:23,560 --> 01:38:25,920
afternoon, joked it was going to
cost me 26 miles. 

1804
01:38:25,920 --> 01:38:28,640
But he's not going back and 
doing Run the Blades and raised 

1805
01:38:28,720 --> 01:38:32,200
£1600 for the unit. 
And at that point I'd got myself

1806
01:38:32,200 --> 01:38:34,240
back into some sort of 
reasonable shape. 

1807
01:38:34,240 --> 01:38:36,720
So I was like, well, do you know
what I was? 

1808
01:38:36,720 --> 01:38:40,360
I was an older dad, Nova was 
when Nova was born, I was 40. 

1809
01:38:41,880 --> 01:38:45,920
So I wanted to think, well, what
happens when she's 10 or when 

1810
01:38:45,920 --> 01:38:50,400
she's 15, when she's wanting to,
you know, when she's she's 10 

1811
01:38:50,400 --> 01:38:52,480
and I'm 50 and she's saying, 
right, come on, dad, all my 

1812
01:38:52,480 --> 01:38:54,880
friends are going to go wait, 
can I go go wait with her? 

1813
01:38:54,880 --> 01:38:57,280
Well, in the shape I was in, I 
probably couldn't do that 

1814
01:38:57,720 --> 01:39:00,320
because now it's like, why I 
want to be in that condition 

1815
01:39:00,320 --> 01:39:03,720
that no matter what she wants to
do or a younger brother wants to

1816
01:39:03,720 --> 01:39:05,720
do, I can go and do these things
with her. 

1817
01:39:06,840 --> 01:39:10,520
So yeah, that's that's my why 
for reason my why for for 

1818
01:39:10,520 --> 01:39:13,920
running. 
And the the next questions 

1819
01:39:14,120 --> 01:39:21,240
probably related and I think 
between your 100 KGS and your 

1820
01:39:21,240 --> 01:39:24,680
daughter and might answer the 
question, what do you think 

1821
01:39:24,680 --> 01:39:31,600
about when you're running? 
It's, yeah, it's, it's a mix of 

1822
01:39:31,600 --> 01:39:33,200
things. 
Sometimes I go out and I just 

1823
01:39:33,200 --> 01:39:35,200
don't think. 
Sometimes I, I go out and I'm 

1824
01:39:35,200 --> 01:39:39,560
just, I just run to get away 
from, let's say get away from 

1825
01:39:39,560 --> 01:39:41,160
daily life, but just to switch 
off. 

1826
01:39:41,160 --> 01:39:44,040
Like running is my time that 
nobody can interrupt. 

1827
01:39:44,520 --> 01:39:46,920
If I want to go out and switch 
my phone onto silent and I can 

1828
01:39:46,920 --> 01:39:50,000
just run you for two or three 
hours, then it's, it's my time 

1829
01:39:50,000 --> 01:39:53,800
to do that. 
And it can be the exact 

1830
01:39:53,800 --> 01:39:56,760
opposite. 
Sometimes I can be, you know, 

1831
01:39:57,000 --> 01:39:59,480
dealing with an issue at work, 
dealing with a problem, and I'll

1832
01:39:59,480 --> 01:40:02,840
give them at work and I can't 
figure it out And I'll, I'll 

1833
01:40:02,840 --> 01:40:05,920
finish at 5:00, go off, not 
really think about it. 

1834
01:40:05,920 --> 01:40:08,120
And then the following morning 
I'm out running and suddenly it 

1835
01:40:08,120 --> 01:40:10,600
just, it just comes to me. 
It's like, why have I not tried 

1836
01:40:10,600 --> 01:40:11,720
this or why have I not tried 
that? 

1837
01:40:11,720 --> 01:40:14,280
So. 
It can be a mix of things, but 

1838
01:40:14,280 --> 01:40:16,840
it's, it's not so much what I 
think about, it's more just 

1839
01:40:16,840 --> 01:40:21,160
it's, it's my time to to process
whatever I need to process at 

1840
01:40:21,360 --> 01:40:26,200
that moment in time. 
And you mentioned that you have 

1841
01:40:26,200 --> 01:40:29,000
got Fling coming up to complete 
your Triple Crown have. 

1842
01:40:29,440 --> 01:40:31,760
You. 
Thought any other events that 

1843
01:40:31,760 --> 01:40:34,600
you are either running or 
volunteering that we're going to

1844
01:40:34,680 --> 01:40:36,680
see? 
Well, I've got run the Blades 

1845
01:40:36,680 --> 01:40:41,520
this weekend, so Friday night 
I'll be over at Whiteley 

1846
01:40:41,640 --> 01:40:44,280
Marshall in at the 10K and then 
I'm back over. 

1847
01:40:44,280 --> 01:40:48,440
It's their 10th anniversary. 
So I'm back over on Saturday to 

1848
01:40:48,440 --> 01:40:51,160
do the 50K. 
And I'd put, I'd put my name in 

1849
01:40:51,160 --> 01:40:53,640
for that on the basis of I'll 
see how I was doing after the 

1850
01:40:53,640 --> 01:40:56,920
West Highland Way. 
And if I wasn't doing great, I 

1851
01:40:56,920 --> 01:40:58,640
would drop out and let somebody 
else come in from the waiting 

1852
01:40:58,640 --> 01:41:01,040
list and I would just volunteer 
all weekend. 

1853
01:41:01,040 --> 01:41:04,120
So yeah, I'm going to be doing 
doing the 50K there and then 

1854
01:41:04,120 --> 01:41:07,080
popping back over on the Sunday 
with the kids to see some of my 

1855
01:41:07,080 --> 01:41:10,920
crew who are doing their half 
marathon, namely Nikki and Stu. 

1856
01:41:12,760 --> 01:41:17,760
It'll be good to see you and 
definitely yeah. 

1857
01:41:18,840 --> 01:41:24,480
And following on from that, have
you got a dream race or a race 

1858
01:41:24,480 --> 01:41:30,560
on the bucket list? 
For all that I have talked about

1859
01:41:31,080 --> 01:41:34,680
trail running and ultra running 
for God the last ever in a bit, 

1860
01:41:35,840 --> 01:41:38,440
I would love to take off one of 
the World Majors marathons just 

1861
01:41:38,440 --> 01:41:40,680
for the experience of doing it. 
I don't, I don't know. 

1862
01:41:40,680 --> 01:41:42,600
I mean people say it's too busy 
and all the rest of it. 

1863
01:41:42,600 --> 01:41:45,080
I'd like I said I put my name in
for London 10 years in a row and

1864
01:41:45,080 --> 01:41:48,600
never get in. 
I'd like to do one of them in 

1865
01:41:48,600 --> 01:41:52,920
terms of ultras, you know, 
something like the marathon, the

1866
01:41:52,920 --> 01:41:56,520
Saba or or something like that, 
like a, a multi day event. 

1867
01:41:57,040 --> 01:42:01,440
And again, it's just that next 
thing of I know I can go and run

1868
01:42:01,440 --> 01:42:04,360
for 28 hours. 
I've proved that to myself, but 

1869
01:42:04,360 --> 01:42:08,440
how could I cope with running 
for five or six hours day after 

1870
01:42:08,440 --> 01:42:11,160
day after day with that built up
fatigue? 

1871
01:42:11,480 --> 01:42:15,280
I'd like to experience something
like that, but with the cost 

1872
01:42:15,280 --> 01:42:17,080
involved in some of these 
events, that would be bucket 

1873
01:42:17,080 --> 01:42:19,200
list stuff. 
You know, it's it's hard to go 

1874
01:42:19,200 --> 01:42:22,520
and justify that when I've got a
young family and that money can 

1875
01:42:22,520 --> 01:42:24,360
be spent on memories for them 
instead. 

1876
01:42:25,280 --> 01:42:27,680
Well, you did joke about Kate 
Brath the other day. 

1877
01:42:28,280 --> 01:42:31,520
I know, I know, I know. 
But I think Gary Dempsey hit the

1878
01:42:31,520 --> 01:42:33,720
nail on the head with that one. 
Go and volunteer at it for a 

1879
01:42:33,720 --> 01:42:36,000
year and basically earned your 
credits to then go and run it 

1880
01:42:36,000 --> 01:42:38,800
the following year. 
But the kids are way too young 

1881
01:42:38,800 --> 01:42:41,800
to do something like that. 
It's, you know, you're away for 

1882
01:42:42,040 --> 01:42:44,280
what, an 8 day event plus a day 
either side of it. 

1883
01:42:44,360 --> 01:42:46,680
It's yeah, it's too long to be 
away from. 

1884
01:42:48,120 --> 01:42:52,360
Them and the next question it it
can be a a hard one to ask 

1885
01:42:52,360 --> 01:42:56,960
depending on the answer. 
Who would you like to run with? 

1886
01:42:57,200 --> 01:42:59,440
A live? 
Not fictional. 

1887
01:42:59,440 --> 01:43:01,640
Not. 
That this one's easy. 

1888
01:43:01,640 --> 01:43:03,200
There's, there's nothing hard 
about it. 

1889
01:43:03,200 --> 01:43:08,000
I want Nova to get to 
everything's birthday and go and

1890
01:43:08,000 --> 01:43:11,080
do a marathon with her. 
So what we do just now is it's 

1891
01:43:11,080 --> 01:43:13,960
completely her choice. 
But what we normally do Fridays 

1892
01:43:13,960 --> 01:43:15,640
or the day that I always get to 
do my long run. 

1893
01:43:16,120 --> 01:43:19,600
And whenever I get back from 
that, I always make sure I've 

1894
01:43:19,600 --> 01:43:23,040
got time for her to pull on a 
rerunning shoes and a rerunning 

1895
01:43:23,040 --> 01:43:24,400
top. 
And we just go just now we're 

1896
01:43:24,400 --> 01:43:26,960
just going for a real lap around
the street and we just go out 

1897
01:43:26,960 --> 01:43:30,360
and we do that. 
Hopefully that's a bug that 

1898
01:43:30,360 --> 01:43:33,440
bites with her. 
And I think the next stage is to

1899
01:43:33,440 --> 01:43:35,760
get her along to one of the 
junior partners and see how she 

1900
01:43:35,760 --> 01:43:38,000
gets on there. 
And hopefully that's something 

1901
01:43:38,000 --> 01:43:39,920
that she'll get involved with 
other brother as well. 

1902
01:43:39,920 --> 01:43:41,800
Her brother's three years behind
her. 

1903
01:43:41,800 --> 01:43:47,600
But yeah, it would be my dream 
to go out and me be fit enough 

1904
01:43:47,600 --> 01:43:52,400
to, to go and do a marathon when
for I'll be 58 at that point 

1905
01:43:52,400 --> 01:43:56,680
when she's 18 and hopefully she 
gets the bug that she wants to 

1906
01:43:56,680 --> 01:43:59,240
go and do it. 
I mean, she's she's just so 

1907
01:43:59,240 --> 01:44:00,800
supportive of everything I do 
just now. 

1908
01:44:01,760 --> 01:44:03,040
She's always asking questions 
about it. 

1909
01:44:03,040 --> 01:44:04,680
She she knew I was running the 
West Highland Way. 

1910
01:44:04,680 --> 01:44:08,080
She was telling all our nursery 
teachers that her daddy was off 

1911
01:44:08,080 --> 01:44:10,920
to run the West Highland Way. 
And I actually had to clarify 

1912
01:44:10,920 --> 01:44:12,400
with them that, you know, I was 
running. 

1913
01:44:12,400 --> 01:44:14,440
That wasn't just walking over 
the space of five days. 

1914
01:44:16,000 --> 01:44:18,920
She had no concept how far it 
is, but she she knew all the 

1915
01:44:18,920 --> 01:44:22,280
points on it. 
So I'm hoping that, yeah, by the

1916
01:44:22,280 --> 01:44:24,960
time she's 18, we can go and 
share 26 miles somewhere. 

1917
01:44:26,280 --> 01:44:29,400
Well I think by the time it gets
to her 18th birthday save and 

1918
01:44:29,400 --> 01:44:32,800
the way your training is going, 
you'll probably still be PB and 

1919
01:44:32,840 --> 01:44:36,840
by that point. 
Oh, yeah, no, I'm going like if,

1920
01:44:37,320 --> 01:44:38,960
if, if both of them get involved
in running, I'm going to 

1921
01:44:38,960 --> 01:44:41,800
physically dominate them for as 
much as, for as long as I can. 

1922
01:44:41,800 --> 01:44:43,440
That's, that's the ultimate goal
with my training. 

1923
01:44:43,440 --> 01:44:48,560
Let's not lie about it, but 
yeah, no, if, if I can pass this

1924
01:44:48,560 --> 01:44:51,280
on to them and get them involved
in it, that would be my dream. 

1925
01:44:51,960 --> 01:44:56,200
And I think your daughter's 
obviously inspired by what 

1926
01:44:56,200 --> 01:44:59,440
you're doing at the moment. 
So hopefully she'll keep a hold 

1927
01:44:59,440 --> 01:45:02,360
of that until she's old enough 
to appreciate it. 

1928
01:45:03,800 --> 01:45:09,800
But the the trick that I find 
with my daughter is make them 

1929
01:45:09,800 --> 01:45:13,200
think that is their idea that 
they want to run, even though 

1930
01:45:13,440 --> 01:45:15,720
you know, find that you're 
wanting them to do it. 

1931
01:45:16,280 --> 01:45:19,760
Yeah, no, that's that. 
I mean, that's that's what what 

1932
01:45:19,760 --> 01:45:23,360
I do just now with her Friday 
morning run and you'll be always

1933
01:45:23,360 --> 01:45:25,400
be. 
I come back from, you know, 

1934
01:45:25,560 --> 01:45:28,800
Friday morning there it was 2020
miles and she's ready to come 

1935
01:45:28,800 --> 01:45:30,240
out and then just plant that 
seed of right. 

1936
01:45:30,240 --> 01:45:32,120
We're not racing here. 
We're just going for a wee run. 

1937
01:45:32,120 --> 01:45:34,720
And then they go off and off she
goes flying away. 

1938
01:45:35,320 --> 01:45:38,840
And then we've got some trees, 
just the trees, and we play park

1939
01:45:38,840 --> 01:45:41,560
in front of us. 
And we came round on Friday 

1940
01:45:41,560 --> 01:45:42,840
morning. 
We finished the road run and I 

1941
01:45:42,840 --> 01:45:45,800
was like, you know what, Nova 
Daddy normally runs on trails. 

1942
01:45:45,800 --> 01:45:48,040
And straight away she was like, 
I know some trails and she took 

1943
01:45:48,040 --> 01:45:49,600
me into the woods round ground 
it. 

1944
01:45:49,600 --> 01:45:53,640
So yeah, it's just planting that
seed and letting the hard right 

1945
01:45:53,640 --> 01:45:55,240
the hard way. 
To me, that's definitely the way

1946
01:45:55,240 --> 01:45:58,120
to do it. 
And I think that by the time 

1947
01:45:58,120 --> 01:46:02,360
Nova's 18 and the way your 
training is going, you will 

1948
01:46:02,560 --> 01:46:05,960
still probably be P being high 
that point because you're 

1949
01:46:05,960 --> 01:46:09,040
absolutely smashing the 
training, the fitness that 

1950
01:46:09,040 --> 01:46:12,080
races. 
So they're you're doing amazing.

1951
01:46:12,520 --> 01:46:14,560
Yeah, well, well, that's not 
like the only reason I'm doing 

1952
01:46:14,560 --> 01:46:17,120
this is so I can physically 
dominate them out running for as

1953
01:46:17,200 --> 01:46:20,200
long as possible because it will
the road come a day for they're 

1954
01:46:20,200 --> 01:46:23,160
going to start beating me and I 
will happily pass that torch 

1955
01:46:23,160 --> 01:46:29,640
over to them. 
So unless one no when you go 

1956
01:46:29,640 --> 01:46:31,440
Nikki. 
I was going to say, unless Mike 

1957
01:46:31,440 --> 01:46:35,600
has any more questions, I think 
that wraps up our question set. 

1958
01:46:37,280 --> 01:46:41,400
Brilliant. 
I think it is and it just says 

1959
01:46:42,040 --> 01:46:44,640
thank you Steve B for joining 
us. 

1960
01:46:44,720 --> 01:46:47,440
Thank you Nikki for being Nikki 
and it's goodbye for me. 

1961
01:46:49,000 --> 01:46:51,760
Thanks Stevie for coming on. 
Thanks for having me on guys, I 

1962
01:46:51,880 --> 01:46:52,240
loved that.