Hello and welcome to a special episode of Run Till You're Done
with myself, Nikki Sheridan and Mike Raffan.
This episode we have no guests. We are just going to be talking
about the West Highland Way race and the roles within it, Mike's
upcoming Highlander Backyard Ultra and my flame training.
How you doing, Mike? I'm pretty good just to say to
everybody, this is the first time we've done this.
I am not 100% convinced that people want to hear about us,
but if it works and you like it, please give us feedback because
the only way we know is if you talk to us.
Absolutely, and we do get great feedback on all of the episodes.
Whenever Mike and I are at events, it's really nice that
people come up and say they're enjoying the podcast, so thank
you very much for that. We'll just jump right and make
and West Highland Way race. What were you doing at?
At the start I was wondering about in the car park, like a
lot of people, they were getting ready for the race.
I was getting ready to go and get some sleep.
Lucky you. I think I was that excited that
definitely there was no way I was sleeping until it was a
while before the tiredness kicked in for myself.
I was there crewing Stevie McKenna and had committed to the
entire weekend. I think everybody and the
running circles knew how excited I was about this event, but it
was good to see you at registration.
And then just walking into the registration hall, meeting
Sandra for the first time and getting a big hug from her.
Sandra Beatty, who is she's brilliant on the West Highland
Way Socials account. And I got quite starstruck when
I seen Jarliff McKenna in a high vis vest.
That was quite cool. Well, Speaking of Jarlath, one
one of our Jarlath said previous guest and the winner of the West
Island way of the female race was Rebecca Horman, who is our
just our last guest. So I helped Rebecca set up her
her timing, give her some motivation.
I I had the key role. Don't let her tell you
otherwise. And she clearly so, yeah.
I anything that I've done for her, I enjoyed doing it.
I can see that she was committed.
She was, she was there to win, even if she didn't know it.
So I, I like to think that I can identify talent and she's got
it. So I, I was happy to help her.
So I came down, met her, met yourself.
I wandered around and Jarleth, who was, as you said, on
registration, was also in her crew.
And that was really, really nice because as, as we've found out
from the last episode that as I found out, you probably would
have known beforehand that Rebecca had a bit of a struggle
with her crew. And as if, you know, the West
Highland way race, the it's mandatory to have two crew.
So that was really, really good that he stepped up and was just
willing to help out. Yeah, I think as part of the the
ethos of that race and a lot of races are the same as people are
there to help each other. So it's great for him to do
that. And that's what I love about
that side of the London as, as you're saying, the ethos.
I think road running because the events seem to be road running
in general. The longest event I feel as
marathon, is it not? That are 100K.
I've done 253 mile more or less road race from the north of
Wales to South of Wales. So no, it's that's what, 10
marathons? And that sounds absolutely
disgusting. Was that a conveying event
perchance? Well, I'll let you guess that
one. So did you manage to get a sleep
on the Friday night once you had left the finish line, even
though you said you weren't staying?
You ended up staying to see them all off.
I didn't leave the finish line, I left the start line.
Start line of. Course The race started at 1:00
AM then I drove up to Quinlarich and stayed there and got a
possibly 3 or 4 hours sleep. Woke up and went to see George
Reed and Karen and Robin Womble etcetera at the Octo Tire
checkpoint. So I waited around there until
the 1st 1st 2 runners I think it was came through and I I know
from experience when they come through that's my queue to go up
to Bridge of Orky around Victoria Bridge.
Start walking up the hill. Once I'm up the hill they are
Jelly baby hill that is get everything set up and I'll be
ready for the the first runner coming through.
Oh. Well, that sounds cool.
And then does it take a lot to because you've got a tent up
there and all those Jelly babies does it is it is the pack heavy?
Does it take you long to get up to that bat?
It's just over a mile and uphill.
They I've got a big tent and this year one of my tent pole
snapped, so I had to do the. The last few runners may have
seen that there wasn't a tent there because I had an emergency
take the tent down and do my baby Jelly baby hill job at the
same time. But I think I managed to cope.
I usually take about 7 packets of Jelly babies and for all you
support crew out there that have not earned a Jelly baby, some of
them are really demanding and they they think that they can
get it. For your reference, that Jelly
baby, I've just paid for it in my pocket.
The race does not pay for it, so the the runners, they earn it.
So I'm happy to give them one. But support crew, unless you're
nice to me, you're not getting one.
I think get 1 and I was support crew but I had only started my
leg at bridge of OK so there was no way I was even asking for.
But with weather wise you'd really lucked out on it.
How did that compare to previous years?
Was it the best year weather wise you had?
I think it was, yeah, it's pretty good.
There was a little bit of wind. Everybody down at the bottom was
saying it was absolutely rushed and I didn't get that.
I don't know why, because you got the same cloud.
It just seemed to be clouded over the whole time, but warm.
So I was not uncomfortable, not too hot, not too cold, wasn't
too windy and no midges. So I was keeping there was there
was some biting Cleggs, but not not that many.
It was. It was probably one of the tamer
years. Well, that's good because down
at Balmaha and River Denon they were pretty bad at that point.
I don't think there was many runners hanging about at those
checkpoints for that reason. With the mid G's, I mean, with
us, we, myself and Karen, Stevie's other crew, one of the
six of us were there over the weekend.
She and I had like mudgy spray, mudgy Nets, everything, you
know, that you could do. But again, we didn't hang about
outside too long. We just waited in the car and
then got Stevie's role until he's gone.
And sausage. We headed up to the river then
and once we'd seen that he was OK, gave him his bits and bobs
and fell asleep in the car and I almost missed him.
Like the good crew member that you do, because by that point,
as somebody as high as a kid, the way I was at the start line,
I'm going to crash at some point so.
Like a toddler with being filled with sugar and then suddenly go
to your bed, Nikki. I don't even need one then.
And I'm just I've got Karen and said I've got myself into such a
conflict. I must have just adapted in the
car to such a good position in the dry robe and just cosied up.
And the next thing I've shot my eyes and I was in a really nice
rest and the next thing I heard was Stevie and said an expletive
and got up and out the car. I was like where is he and
thankfully we hadn't missed them.
He was just walking up to the car.
So thank God we didn't gave him his role.
Sorted them out, socks and everything like that and managed
to get them sorted out and headed on our way up to and
managed to acquire a runner that had sadly DNF.
They had real bad stomach issues so we'd offered to take them up
to Tain Drum because that's where they were meeting the crew
and we were heading up there anyway.
So as per the ethos of the race, we're not going to say no.
We're not taking your phone there anyway and Trap couldn't
have been more thankful. But there was a lot of DNFS this
year, wasn't there? I think it's just there's so hot
to begin with. It was, it was hot at the start.
It was hotter than most days at 1:00 in the morning.
So it was, I'm not surprised. I don't know whether dehydration
or just heat. It was just, no, I, I I was
standing about at the top of the jail, baby hill.
And I wish it was hotter than it was, even though it wasn't cold.
Yeah, just comfortable. So.
But for it being, for it being my first crew in my first entire
weekend on the West Highland where I absolutely loved it, I
just, I can't wait to go again next year and see what happens
and. The fact that you're wanting to
go back says it all. So, but part of the if you're
wanting to do the West Island way, and I don't mean you, I
mean everybody out there, get involved, get be part of some of
the support crew because you get the experience of knowing it
from that side. Oh, definitely.
When I volunteered at flying for the first time last year when it
was in the April, honestly. And from me starting running and
doing volunteering things like I've volunteered a park run a
couple of times, I've not done, I hadn't done any huge
volunteering roles. That was my first big one.
But that in all honesty, was one of the best weekends that I've
ever had running and I didn't even run and I was exhausted at
the end of it that day. That weekend, myself and Lee
Campbell, we'd actually planned, Lee was volunteering as well and
we were staying by the way, that evening.
So the Sunday morning the plan was going to be because I was
doing the devil to do an out and back to Bridge of all came back
again as a long run. No way that happened.
We were absolutely knackered the next day but it promised me.
It got me really excited for The Devil because it was the same
team or similar, same race director and organisers.
But it just gave me a feel for the event and I couldn't wait to
be involved either way through the running of volunteer and
either way I was going to be there.
But subsequently I've entered and have that coming up in
September when the dates have changed.
So you said that you were Robert Dennen.
There was lots of midges. Bamaha.
There was lots of midges after tire.
Where did you say you almost missed them?
Robert Dennen? Robert Dennen.
So you get sleep after that as you drove all the way round to
wait wait time drum. Yeah, that actually didn't.
That was one thing I had learned over the weekend because I don't
know why, but I was so like I've had a really nice sleep after
hour then and the by the time I was like even like nodding off
on the way up there. But as it turned out, sadly, A
tanker had went off the road on a 2 And straight away that put
us on high alert because I was on the social pages everything
because we were on my way up there.
And it's thinking as that's another repeat of what happened
at Glencoe last year, are we going to get diverted?
Thankfully the driver came out unscathed but and the road was
open. But having news like that, it's
like, oh, and then just like for the whole rest of the day, it
was just, it was kind of like sitting waiting for Stevie.
And I don't know why I didn't take the opportunity to go back
and have a sleep, which I really should have done.
I think it's because I didn't really want to leave Karen on
their own as well because it was just the two of us at that
point. And then Donna, Gemma, Stu and
Sketch all joined us later on, who was the rest of Stevie's
crew. So it was.
Yeah, it was good. So you left Doctor Tyre?
How many? I think it's only two.
No, it's one car. That's the thing at Oxford Tyre,
isn't it? It's one car at Octa Tyre, so
the plan for us. Stevie had a really good as a
crew and a team. We did have a good plan.
So Stu was running from Octotyre to Tandrum and Sketch was
running from Octotyre to Fort William, which was Sketch's
longest ever run, which was absolutely phenomenal in the end
up. And then myself, Donna, and
Gemma all headed up to Bridge of Orky while Karen took Sketch and
Stu to Octotyre, if that makes sense.
And then Karen headed back up to Tainedrum to pick Stu up.
And the plan there was. They met us at Bridge of Orkie.
And then once we'd left Bridge of Orkie, myself, Karen, no, not
Karen, myself, Gemma and Sketch, we all headed up to Glencoe and
Karen and Stu did in the car. I'm sure that made perfect sense
to every listener out there, but to me it was just a load of
words. So.
Oh, I'm so. Sorry.
No, I'm I'm sure you had the plan and to.
Achieve put it this way, the plan worked, we all had were
roles and it it walked out really really well.
Yeah, as long as you knew what you were doing and that as it
counts, being there for Stevie. So I.
Was yeah. And that's what it's about.
I was really worried about support running Stevie because
he had had such a phenomenal training block that he was PB in
a 50K weeks out before this event.
And I did think to myself, I'm going to be slowing this guy
down. And I was really, really
worried. And everybody told me like all
the experienced West Highland Way runners crews, like he's got
60 miles in his legs. There's no way.
But it's slowing down. And I'm thinking, I don't know.
Because then I had in my mind drop Sinclair and I'm like,
well, Rob, negative splat. Well, I somebody who I when I
was at the finish, I ran to Braveheart and as I say, run
back with them. I MM Gennetta from my running
club. I abused them to get back, get
move on. He, he was getting a bit slow at
the point. We, we got to next to the, the
train station in Fort William. So you, you probably got 400
meters to go. Yeah.
And I told them he would go and overtake the person in front of
him. He he was doing 6 minute miles.
That's brilliant. He had 95 miles in his legs.
He couldn't move once. He once he had a reason because
he could finish, he could just crawl to the finish and finish.
Once he has some of the A target to go for he there's a mentality
changed and it was just six minute miles to the finish.
And did Mike have? Was he blessed with the storm on
the hills as well? Oh, he was, yes.
So I'm not sure he had the same enthusiasm about it as you guys
did, which I'm sure you'll you'll talk about.
Well, sketch that. Send us a video of how far away
away and Donna shouts 9 kilometres and sketch then ends
the video saying we're all going to die, which I think Stevie
took literally because it's thundering and lightning and
pouring on these hills and Stevie speed up.
But it turned out that Donna was quite competitive as well
because after they'd left, I think it was Lindavra.
I'm sure one of them will correct me.
I may have even been Ken Luck leaving or something.
Probably Ken Luck leaving. Donald looked behind and seen 9
head torches and she said to Stevie.
We're not letting them overtake us.
Quite right? Which Stevie was saying.
I'm just here to finish. She's like, no, you're not,
we're going to move which? He was there to finish, but it's
not just about him, it's about the whole crew.
Yeah, so. They they had their motives so.
But they the everybody in our support team and the crew had
the role as I'm sure with everybody on that start lines,
Cruz, everybody. You know, if it's one thing that
I did learn from Stevie and that weekend, the crew is so, so
important even for mindset. I got the chance, obviously to
run from Bridge of Orchid to Glencoe and running with Sketch
even who it was the first time I've met him, he's he was a
phenomenal runner. I don't think he's actually
taking part in to if he has taken part in any ultras, I
don't I'm not aware of them, but I don't think he has sketched
those other sports. But man, that guy is fat and he
was just bouncing along that Anak Murray, even keeping me
going because the way we worked it when we were running, because
there was four of us, including Stevie, we would take tons
about. To talk to Stevie.
So a couple of us would run ahead pacing as such and one
would kind of go back and chat to Stevie and run with Stevie.
But we were keeping on going and just do it on a rotation and
that works really, really well. So if anybody is considering
doing this in the future, although to as the mandatory
number, I would definitely recommend having more than that
because if you have crew members that have life events and have
to drop out at the last minute, you're not completely stuck.
Yeah, I think it it depends on the person because my first West
Island way I had people join me and people who I wasn't
expecting join me. And at one point I think I, I
had three or four runners and it was great having them there and
I, I outrun some of them. So that was, that was one thing.
But the following, I think my goal that year was to finish
within the, the day or the, the 24 hours.
And I, I think it was 23 1/2 hours.
I finished the first one, but that I was allowed support crew.
The next year I said to myself that I wasn't having running
crew and my crew was made-up of people that could come and run
and get me. That that was the requirement of
the the race. They came and get me.
But even if I was going slow, I was doing this on my own steam.
I was doing it for me, so they had their role to play, but that
was driving the car, feeding me, keeping me going at the
checkpoints. But I wanted to do the the race,
do the running part on my own steam.
So it just depends what you're wanting at that time.
Yeah. And I think if you're at the
shop, it ends sub 24 river. And I think, you know, as you
say, it depends on the person. I was aware of her Honor that
was going for sub 24 hours. And they did have running crew
as Pacers with them, which I think really helped them because
by the time he had got to Brad Javarki, he wanted to sit down.
And his crew member, who is a good friend of mine, said, why
do you want to sit down? And he says, because I'm tired.
He's like, yeah, you're tired. You've ran 60 miles, now get up
and get out of the check pocket, which I found quite harsh.
But upon speaking to the other crew members, I was like, no,
there was a tactic in that. We were just being mean.
And it's like, right, OK, well, if you've got a set goal, then
fair enough. I completely appreciate that.
Yeah, there was one female that came past Jelly Baby Hill and
she must have been on for about 28 to 30 hours and she was on
her own. She didn't have any crew or
anything like that. And I actually told her that it
was quite refreshing to see somebody doing it on their own
steam. It's like there there is a place
for having a crew to help you, but she was doing it on her own
merit. Yeah, definitely.
So I think it just depends as you say on the person.
If it was me, I will people with me.
That's 'cause you like to talk. What gives that so we've if we
move on from West Highland Way, the two of us have since been on
holiday, hence recording this episode tonight and we can we
move on to your upcoming event next weekend.
Yeah, but some of us were on holiday.
Some of us were racing, just not running.
So what did you get up to on your holiday hike?
I was taking part in the World Skiffy, which is a type of
rowing boat championship in Stranraer.
The the exotic climes of Stranraer because the it's been
held in Holland, Ireland and various other places and I get
to go to it when it's in Stranraer in Scotland.
So, but it was 29° we I had four races to take part in, three for
my club and one other club was short a person for a certain
race. So I I took part in that because
the, the type of ruin that we do, it's all about sort of
community. You help each other out just
like what we're talking about with the we're running.
Yeah. So if if they needed a an extra
roar, I was happy to do it because it meant that I got the
row so. And that's quite a cool fact
about you because I'm sure that quite a lot of people don't even
know that, you know, like anybody that sends into this
podcast a bit and obviously run until you're done, you know,
they don't realise you do that as well, which is pretty cool.
So that I would say it's taken away from my training, is
running for the last however long, but it hasn't, it's cross
training, it just adds to it. Yeah, absolutely.
Not as much as when you had to go for an air operation during
this block as well. Which how long did that take you
out for? Well, going going back even
further, last October I took part in the World backyard team
event and I had to stop after 133 miles because I, I, I
thought my quad was hurting but it turns out that my Achilles
was hurting and I was compensating by going to the
other side and the pain was just deferred.
So I, I stopped to prevent me causing permanent damage and I'm
glad I did. I made the right choice because
I had been sore in my Achilles pretty much every day for the
last eight months. Yes, it's getting better now.
I can manage it. It doesn't hurt when it runs, so
that's OK. And did you go and see?
Imagine you went to see a physio and they would have gave you
exercises to be good. Yeah, I've been to see physio at
least eight times and yeah, it it does help.
But as I said, the taught me how to manage it.
I wouldn't say it's fixed, but it's manageable.
So, well, that's good, but. Yeah, and then I just said the I
burst my eardrum in February, I think it was, and went to see
the doctor and told them to. It's not the first time I've
done it. I just wanted it fixed.
I keep getting hearing problems. My left ear I've I think it's
possibly since birth, definitely since I was a teenager.
I it comes and goes. I can't hear properly in my left
ear. I put up with it.
I think I my my hearing's fine in the right ear and I
compensate for it so I don't notice it as much.
But it's when I told the doctor this time just get sorted out.
I'm fed up of it coming back. They did an MRI scan and I had a
clue stoma, which for those that don't know, because I didn't
know, is the only stoma that isn't cancerous.
So it was a growth on the inside of my eardrum, but it wasn't
cancer. So thumbs up for that.
So I two or three months ago, no two months ago, I had a
operation. They basically cut my ear off,
drains the extra fluid, cut out the extra skin growth.
It was damaging the mastoid bone and they stopped it.
Hopefully ever since then my I wake up every morning and my ear
is leaking brown gunk. Whether that's blood or ear wax
or whatever it is, it happens. My hearing isn't isn't back to,
it's not 100%. It's I think it's better than it
was, but only ever so slightly. But when I wear bone conductive
headphones, my hearing is fine. So the actual mechanical part of
your ear works. It's just the sound doesn't get
into me here. So yeah, that's taken me out of
training for a while. I I.
And what the listeners are dying to know as the busting of the
eardrum is February has nothing to do with me joining this
podcast, is it? I can't confirm or deny that,
but yeah, that's, that's how my training's been going.
Achilles problems, hearing problems.
I would say that my training, it's not as good as it was for
the October race, but that was probably I was in the best shape
I've ever been in my life. It is as good as it's been for
previous races which I've won. So I'm not.
I think I'm in a big, pretty good place.
And that's all you can ask for because aside from when you've
been recovering from those things, you haven't actually
stopped Like you did take a rest and you did tell me that you'd
bust your 10,000 step streak that you'd had for however long,
which must have been really frustrating.
But you've still been doing something, whether it be
strength training or. Yeah, well, it's let me
concentrate on the rowing. So yeah, it's you got to do
something. And that has surely got to have
a benefit as well with your core strength and upper body which
can it can only help with the running.
Yeah, I, I, I think everything complements it.
So that's as I say, I, I'm in a comfortable place.
But yes, the, the race coming up next weekend, Yep, is Highlander
and I have been selected for the Scotland squad.
I am the team captain, we don't normally have one, but because
the team manager is the race director, he's not going to have
time to deal with everything. So the people in the team, if
they've got any questions that come to me, I've been in the
team before, I know what it's about.
So yeah, if go Scotland the best.
And Team Scotland, what a what a strong team it is this year.
Yeah, for for those that don't know, it is part of the Four
Nations Championship, which is teams of 10 from Scotland,
England, Ireland and Wales. I have been lucky enough to be
selected five times previously and we have not won the
championship, unfortunately. Is that me?
I don't know. No, it's not but.
They not won last year as well though and you weren't on the
team. They won it when I was not in
the team so this year they have got to work extra hard and win
it for me, if not for themselves, if not for Scotland.
And as part of Team Scotland, for people that don't know, is
there anyone on the team from last year rejoining again?
Ross Beveridge is. I'm not sure who else was in the
team last year. Right.
So I can't, I know who's in it this year, but I don't know who
was in it last year. So I'm not not 100% sure.
I think anyone that springs to mind for me that I would know
through speaking to. I don't.
I'm not aware of people that were on the team last year
either. We could be wrong, but yeah.
Well, what happened last year is it was supposed to be a race in
April, March time and I was going to be in.
It had been selected for the team but the there was flash
flooding and the race got postponed until I think
September, which was too close to the team championship in
October. So a lot of the people like
myself, the Bethune's and I'm not sure who else was selected.
Was Karen on that as well? I can't remember if Karen was
selected, but I'm not sure that she would have wanted to do
Cowshed because that's quite a rough course and she doesn't
like sort of rough terrain, right.
So, but anyway, the we decided to pull out of the team and let
others go in because we had the, the world, the GB event, well
the GB team for the world event in October, so.
And with your competition, are you aware of anyone out with
Team Scotland that are going to give you all a decent number of
yards this year at Highlander? We don't need them.
Team Scotland are going to. We're going to have 10 runners
completing at least 40 yards. It doesn't matter what anybody
else is doing, we're all going to work together and we're going
to win. That's that's the speed up,
that's the way the Belgians do it, is it not?
Yeah, 1 mentality. We are a team and we're going to
stick to it. Yeah, I think that's that's a
great way. It's a great mindset to have and
you all keep each other going, like I'm going up to support for
a couple of yards minimum hopefully.
So I can't wait to see you all and I really hope that it's
going to be decent weather for you all as well.
I think it's going to be a hot 1.
Yeah. It's maybe not as hot as it is
right now. I'm sitting here and it is 28°
in my office. I've got 2 fans open, the doors
open, 2 windows open. It is roasted toasty.
If I, if I had a choice, I probably would be joining you on
the Sunday. But unfortunately,
unfortunately, fortunately for me, unfortunately for you guys,
I have run the Blades half marathon because Run the Blades
weekend is next weekend as well. So how does that you're doing
that? Is that the start of your fling
training? No, no, no, no.
I've been flying, training for a wee while now I think tomorrow
in fact, I know tomorrow we are on week 12 mentally and for me
because at the start of the year there's a few people all know
that follow me. I've changed jobs and was in the
middle of doing the module at uni and the balance to try and
include the running as well as the family and all that.
It was really, really really difficult to the point that
March and April, I think April I had totalled 53 kilometres for
the entire month. March wasn't much better and I
looked at the stats and thought right once this essay is done
May that's it. I'm throwing myself back into it
and managed to clock up 155 K for me and about 130 K for June.
So consistency has been really, really good apart from being in
Spain for like 10 days the last couple of weeks.
Spain when we landed two weeks ago today was 40°, so training
definitely had to be adapted. I had a couple of swims in the
pool where I could because it's a communal pool for the complex,
so I had to get up a bit earlier.
While I had to pull to myself, do a few laps up and down that.
I did manage a couple of runs. I managed an interval session
which then ended up like a coach to 5K so to speak, and ended up
pretty much walking and then jogging.
The jogging, the efforts because it was just too hot.
And then what I ended up doing as well for Spain was I included
a lot of the walks that I would go from place to place and
managed to get quite a lot of walking done.
So I done what I could. Well, I, I guess heat training
because, well, the, the, the fling has now moved to dates,
but he used to be able to guarantee that that was going to
be a nice weekend because the fling's on, it's going to be
roasting hot. But maybe when it's moved, what
day is it moved to now? 20th of September, so the
weekend before September weekend, which I always think is
always roasting. We always seem to get a really
nice September weekend every year so we'll just wait and see
what happens as what it is. But yesterday I managed to get
out with a couple of friends and Recky, the notorious lock side,
that was that was fun. It was not.
I've heard a lot of stories about it and I was a bit anxious
about going on to it, but I really, really enjoyed that
section. See the scrambling and the just
there are runnable parts and that it's just you just have to
be really careful. So where where did you go from
we? Went from Ben Glass to
Inversnade and back again. So you didn't go past inversnade
or the the worst bit is about a mile after I went inversnade.
So you you missed out. Am I afraid you'll just have to
go back and do it again? Well, I'm definitely doing from.
I've got the bet just before River Denon to Recky and River
Denon to and that will have been me and just a tiny bit before
darkness. But aside from that, that will
have been me covered the entire West Highland Way and fling
route. So I'm really happy that I've
managed to do that and get Saints on the whole route
because I think that's half of the battle.
If you can go and wreck it, go and do it.
Of course. Well, I I think particularly
later on in the race, if you know what is coming then you
know what to expect. Well, just before I went on
holiday I wrecked it from being glass to Tandrum and that took
me by surprise because I did not expect that to be as hilly as
what it was. Yeah.
Like, I understand now, that's why the caller, a few people
have said, Oh no, that's the roller coaster part.
And I'm like, yeah, I get that now, but I'll just need to wait
and see how how we go on event day.
And having that in my mind, knowing the course and mentally
for me, I'm just going to keep trying to go down to Milguide
train station and just keep running from there just for the
familiarity of it. Yeah, well, if you think about
it, going through Mud Rock Park, Rob Sinclair was chatting to, I
think it was Lee Camp and they they got lost.
He ended up having to overtake the whole race.
And the one. And still won by a significant
margin. So if you can get through that
park without getting lost, you've got an advantage.
Oh, for sure. I just need, I just need Rob's
legs. That would that would be
marvelous. You know, on that record as
well. Yesterday I did think to myself,
how did, like, I think everyone that's done the West Highland
Way race and fling has said to themselves, how did he get that
course record navigating that? And upon speaking to his partner
Joe, she's obviously been out with him multiple times.
She says it just skips rocks. Yeah, never seen anything like
it. No Fear, that's.
Yeah, if I had that, I would definitely either snap an ankle
or end up on the lock. One way or another.
I'd end up in a speedboat back on the A 82.
Well, we don't want that. Absolutely not.
But it'll be, yeah, it'll be good.
I'm really looking forward to doing the event.
I'm still pretty terrified about doing it, but I do have a
strategy and my strategy for the day will be when I get to that
start line, I'm not going to taint room.
I'm going for a run to the Beech tree.
And then when I get to the Beech tree, I'm going for a run to
Drummond and I'm just going to keep doing that.
And I think I probably will segment my watch for that so
that I walk in kilometres. Obviously you're walking miles,
but it'll be however many K to the beach tree.
It'll countdown on my watch. I go, all right, OK, that's
good. That's that section done.
Yeah. The one thing I remember doing
was not on the West sideway, on the space sideway, on the
original space sideway before Kyle and that and Debbie took it
over. It used to only be, Sarah said
that it was a 36 1/2 mile race, but it was never that
measurement. It always seemed to be.
I think. I think it was slightly more
than that. I can't remember, but I remember
you run a marathon and then after you did the marathon, it's
10 miles to go. And that's what I used to do
every Friday without fail. That was that was.
So I just had a Friday run to do.
Yeah, it was easy. You just did a Friday run, so
chunking it like that is it does break it down.
I think I'm going to need to have that because if I do have
that main set on the start lane, I'm running stage room and it's
54 my I won't cope. It'll just be you.
Just you have to do it because even now like speaking to people
that don't run. I was having this chat with
someone else the other day, people that obviously 10K is a
big distance, 5K is a big distance for even a mile for
people that don't run like 54 miles.
It still blows my mind. Like I don't think I've quite
normalized that yet. So obviously there's people out
there that oh, it's 54 miles, it'll be fine.
But no, for me that's it's like, Oh my God, that's like too mad
at things pretty much. Well.
Put it into perspective what you're just saying there.
The T-shirt that I'm wearing right now, and yes it is a
Copain events, it was for finishing the hill.
The race was 160 miles, but rather than 160 miles is too
much. So I was counting in double
marathons. How many double marathons have
you done? Do you remember the first event
that you thought, Oh my God, that's a huge distance?
Because mine's obvious. It was like a marathon, 1/2
marathon was huge. And then it was a marathon and
then the, I don't know, it spirals out of control, doesn't
it? So when was do you remember
thinking, Oh my God, that's a big distance?
I my first ultra was the D33, my second one was the Fling and I
remember going to Mugai car park and being not scared but
excited, nervous about it. I think that was at the time
that that was a big thing. I'd never done anything that big
before. It was almost double the D33.
It's not quite. And then, well, it is AA
marathon. So that was what I'd done
before. So yes, I think I was excited
about it. Yeah, I think that's the way I
feel for the flag as well, because definitely completing
the devil was a huge confidence booster.
I mean, I think I think had I not completed the devil, I'll be
totally that wouldn't be doing this.
There's no way. But no learning so much from the
devil. And my race time was very much
reflective of my mental state that day because it was
shocking. I had an absolutely terrible
race like got asked. I don't know to this day how I
finished that race, but I did. And that was me probably one of
my worst. So I'll just go into the event
and hope that I can feel well, have a better mindset, and just
as I say, chunk up. Yeah, well, I the the Fling as
well. I've been in that race and I
think it was some point after Balmaha and I was getting cramp.
There's various reasons why you get cramp.
It's like a salt, dehydration, not moving the muscle enough,
moving it too much, whatever it is.
I, I have cramp. But rather than saying right,
I'm going to give up, I just sort of changed the mindset and
said I'm going to finish and I'm going to enjoy it.
So I ended up like running along with somebody else who was, they
knew that they were slower than me and they were appreciative of
the company. I was appreciative if they were
pulling me along. So just sort of do what you need
to do to get to the finish. Yeah, for sure.
And I've said that to a lot of people have actually changed my
world into when I finish the fling.
It's not if I finish and and that's not through arrogance and
the slightest, that's just I'm trying to be positive.
So if I'm speaking to people in the future, I'll say when I
finish flying, it's not like, Oh well, I'm not good, I'm going to
finish. It's not that at all.
It's I need that in my head. Yeah, I know you're.
Determined. Yeah, absolutely.
And Bahuka, Bahuka, I will be getting and also back to myself
because we had the opportunity to have the 5:00 start, which
has caused a bit of conversation throughout the community, which
is great because I love a debate.
But, and it did say on the entry form if you completed the Devil
and 11 hours or longer, you are strongly advised to do this 5:00
start time. My time for the devil was 12
hours and 20 minutes. So naturally I signed up to the
6:00 start because I'm backing myself.
Yeah, well, you, you will have improved since you did the
devil. So it's I can understand why you
won't do that. And in a way, you're forcing
yourself to be better. Yeah, definitely.
There's no way and fair play to people that do do the 5:00
start. That is not a slight against
them at all. You know more respect to
everybody that toes that flying line.
But for me and probably people listening will be thinking
Christ, why is she not starting at 5:00?
She should because she's dead slow.
But you know what? See if be.
Gone with you. We we don't want any of your
negative round here. You you need to improve and be
like Nikki. You know what they'll see if I
do get signed out at any checkpoints or what have you.
That's me. I've got to push.
I'm not going to quit running or anything like that.
That's I'm pushing myself. So we'll just wait and see what
happens and we'll see me on that red carpet and have my moment,
hopefully. If you don't have any races or
family commitments, will you be there?
I you're saying it's the. 20th of September to Saturday.
I am doing a backyard one week before and I have every
intentions of still be running on that Saturday.
Fantastic. There you go.
Well that'll be something to keep me updated along the way
then. Take my mind off the pancake
when I get to the other day then.
But like, how's mate doing? So yeah, I, well, I might be, I
might head up that way on the way up the road because I'll
have just finished when the other people all give up.
There we go then. So that's something to look
forward to. So I think we've had a chat,
we've had a just a random blur about things.
If there is anything that people want us to chat about, I'm open
to telling people all my secrets.
Apparently it's I've got a food strategy that Nikki was going to
ask about. She hasn't yet.
Yes, we've not got on to that. So yeah, amidst the injury and
the cross training and what have you, you have been more
prevalent on the socials with your absolutely disgustingly
weird cold can of soup. Why?
The way the way I see it is I I don't have a problem with
drinking cold soup. I've absolutely no problem at
all. But for me, if I can pull the
lid off a tin of soup and down, it has 250 calories right there.
I need about 300, three, 150 calories per hour to keep going.
So that's 2/3 of them. If I can do that, then perfect.
And if somebody else in the race thinks that's disgusting, well
mentally that's an advantage for me as well.
So I've got no problem with doing it.
And it also, it's part of the training.
If that trains my stomach. You think it's disgusting, but I
think I can eat it. I can eat pretty much anything
within reason. So if I can do that then I've
got no problem doing that and then sort of running straight
away. So it's all part of the
training. And you mentioned calories
rather than calves though. Yes, my belief and it might not
go with common not very common because ultras are not common
convention. I think carbohydrates are your
fuel for your your muscles. But when they say that you can
take in 120 carbs, 90 or 60 or whichever the number is, because
I don't know, most of my races in the past we've been, I can
tell you when Rob set the West Alleyway record, he was going
for 60 grams of carbs an hour. So if he was on 120, just to
think of how much better it would have been.
But anyway, when you're doing a backyard, you're going at at
least 12 minute miles. I'm not sure what that is in
kilometers. Was that 8 minute kilometers,
something like that. You're not burning as much carbs
as you would be if you were doing a threshold run and that
running a marathon, you're burning your glycogen stores and
you're carbs are topping that up.
When you're doing was a zone 2 heart rate, you're you're
burning your fat stores and not necessarily your glycogen
stores. So you just need to concentrate
more on calories rather than carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates make up a massive chunk of it, but fats and
protein have also got a role to play.
And that's a really, that's a really good piece of advice.
That is something that I'll definitely look to take forward.
I'm still 10 weeks out and still desperately need them to train
my cuts. So I don't know if I will carry
a can of soup on my training runs but never say that.
But just think, at a checkpoint, you could look forward to your
favorite flavour and you don't need to take it with you.
You drink it at the checkpoint and then leave the can.
There are bins there. I know that Johnny Fling has his
Fling bins as he used to call them.
I don't know whether he still does or not.
They're usually sets them just after the checkpoint.
So you can, you can drink your soup and then when you're about
20 meters down the road, you can put them in the Fling bin.
So there you go. What's your favorite?
Well, I thought it was going to be tomato, but tomato is too
acidic. And that's exactly why you need
to train because you find out these things.
So I can, I can drink a can of tomato soup, but I can't imagine
running afterwards. But my favorite, I've got a few
actually. No, I've just thought of my
favorite one. There's a few good ones, Scotch
broth, minestrone, chicken noodle.
But you might find this weird, but French onion soup is my
favorite and I wouldn't say that's I wouldn't say that's my
favorite tennis soup, but for Downing, that is the favorite.
Has it got chunks in it? It's got sort of, yeah, chunks,
chunks of onion. I can actually imagine someone
listening to this. So apologies if I've made you
walk into a Bush there. If you're suffering during your
run, apologies. But I'm hoping that this chat,
if you have put it on on your long run or in the car or
whatever, I hope it's entertained you somewhat because
as Mike says, it's the first time that we've done it.
It's not something we tend to do when we do have the guest on,
but I thought it would be quite a nice change just because Mike
has a significant event coming up, you know, pulling on a Team
Scotland vest and being the captain, it's not a small thing
to do. So good luck for next weekend.
And for myself, I'm about to take on for the civil distance
that I've ever run and through this podcast and Instagram I've
had the opportunity to chat about the training, which is
good. So thanks for agreeing to do it,
Mike. That's no problem.
And like like I said at the start, if there's anything that
anybody wants to know about, we'll probably give you the
wrong information, but we'll we'll give our opinion on it and
that's what counts I would experience.
So hopefully that counts for something.
And we are also open to if there's any guests people would
like to hear to come on. We always like chatting to new
people so. And, and as I said to Nikki
before, and I was reluctant to do just us chatting because to
me, the, the podcast is about the guests and everybody's got a
story to tell. Even if they think that they
don't, they, they do. So anybody that a listener
thinks that we should get on, please let us know.
And we do have a good couple of guests lined up.
We've got one this week which we're really looking forward to
speaking to, and we do have a couple more than the pipeline
which we're excited to chat to and get arranged and add to your
podcast playlist. Right.
I would say that's it from me. Thank you for Nikki, for being
Nikki. Thank you.
Goodbye from both of us.