Hello everybody, and welcome back Tonight.
I'm joined by a relatively newcomer to at least the Ultra
scene running. We'll start talking about it in
a minute, but I'm joined by Nikki Sheridan.
Welcome. Hi, thanks for having me on no.
Problem at all. First off, question to ask,
every first question I asked everybody is who are you, where
about do you stay and how did you first get in the running?
I am Nikki Sheridan and I live in Glasgow and I got into
running. I suppose you would say I'm a
COVID runner, so to speak. So I got into the Body Coach
series shortly after I got COVID.
That gave me a bit of a fright, having seen the effects of it on
the news and what have you. And then just through meeting
other people through Instagram, through the Body Coach
community, some of them were running and it's snowballed from
there pretty much. What is body coach is not
something I've heard of before. Do you want to?
But the coach is Joe Wex. OK, so he founded PE with Joe.
So he done workouts from your living room during COVID.
He'd done PE lessons and things like that.
He I followed him before COVID. He was, he is a personal
trainer. So I followed him from about
2014 or so, 2015. His niche was he'd done meal
plans like prepping in 15 minutes and you'd have your done
that in 15 minutes and bought his cookbooks and things, done
some of his YouTube workouts and then from 2020, I suppose that's
what that was his big break I suppose because none of us could
go anywhere and there's an awful lot of parents that had young
kids or school kids at the time. The schools were encouraging PE
with Joe as part of the PE lesson because we were in lock
down and not encouraged to go out.
First thing that sticks out there, does 15 minutes meals
work? It actually does if you're
prepared enough. Usually with these things, it's
the preparation. It tells you it's 15 minutes,
but if you're anything like me as a chef, it takes me 15
minutes to peel and chop. What potato?
So, So here's 15 minutes is If you've got everything ready, you
can cook it in 15 minutes I. Would say so, yeah.
Yeah, so how do the kids get on with PE at home?
Were you the the hard instructor?
How did you? At the time the my youngest she
was only 2 so she was just toddling about.
So my older girls, 2 girls I have, she was four or five at
the time. So she just bounced about with
me. You know, she, it was almost
kind of like, you know, monkey see, monkey do.
So you see, she sees me doing squat.
She was joining in. And then the two year old gets
under your feet when you're trying to do a Buffy and it got
interesting. So can they out squat you?
Oh absolutely. They've got better form as well.
Well. They they, they've probably got.
What I find with mine is they haven't learned to do it wrong.
Exactly. So I think a lot of mistakes
that us as adults make is because we've learned to do it
the wrong way and it's difficult.
It's like they don't know fear. It's fear is a learnt thing I
think. Definitely, and then running
that could be really useful to not have that fear for your form
and technique going downhills especially.
Yes, right. So next question is you got in
through into running through your body coaching, How does
that develop into running? It was a couple of female body
cultures that were into the running and they were posting
things and I thought I'd like to give that a try.
So in 2021, when the rules were a little bit more relaxed, I
used to like going out for longer drives and would head up
to Mugdog Country Park, which is about half an hour away from
where I live in the East End of Glasgow.
And getting out among the trails and just, you know, trying to
run, so to speak, and taking in all the sounds, nature, seeing
the locks, the castle, it was just, it was so good for the
mind more than anything. I would try to run, but then
you're like, this is really hard.
It's killing me. And then you would slow down and
just try and get better at that. So suppose in the way I started
trail running before I took it on, I was going to say a bit
more seriously, like started training plans and what have
you. So is trail trailer tarmac.
Trail 100% tarmac's too fast for me.
So I where I live is trail all the time and that is the way
that we chose to live here for that reason, countryside and
stuff. When I go into the tarmac, it's
like this is so much easier because like although you're
saying it's faster, it's easier to go faster because you've been
running on trail. Funnily enough how you're
actually saying that using last night's run that went on as an
example, I was working 9:00 to 5:00 Saturday, Sunday and last
night was like right? I really want to go for a run
just to fund a bit of energy off.
And it was the 1st Rd. run I think I've had in ages because
I've been training on trail as much as I can for the whole
year. And I went out and I thought
this feels really good. It was supposed to be a 40
minute easy, which then for me ended up as tempo because as the
kilometers come onto the watch, I'm like, that's really fast for
me and I don't feel like I'm dying.
Let's see how we get on. And then before I knew it, I was
running up the hills, which my mindset in the past is, oh, it's
a hell. It's just we'll walk that and
then we'll just run the downs. But last night it felt really
quick. I felt good and I'm just putting
it down to as you're saying, because I've been training on
trails, which is an entirely different beast.
The roads just fell so different and not, not as much effort.
Yeah. But it can only be a good thing.
Definitely. Yeah, what a race wise the you
don't have to develop on the races, but I know that you've
done a few what what was your first race?
How did that come about? Funnily enough, after I had my
oldest in 2015, I wanted to get a bit fat.
So throughout my adult life my weight has yo yoed.
So I've went from going to personal training, weights,
running, you know, trying different things.
And after I've had my oldest, I decided, oh, that Glasgow 10K
looks really good. I think I'll give that a go.
It'll be a good challenge. And that was my oldest was born
in the March and that wasn't until October.
So I thought, right, that's a really good time that I can
train. And my training plan at that
point consisted of like three runs between March and
September, done that run. And then I just didn't run again
after that because it was really, really hard.
And then once I've done once I've got more into, back into
the running, so to speak, and being influenced by other people
on Instagram, like, oh, do you think I could do a virtual 10K?
Like, yeah, just make sure you choose somewhere flat because
it's virtual and it'll be better for you.
So I've done the Edinburgh 10K and the May 2021 around
Strathclyde Park and managed to take about 15 to 17 minutes off
my time in 2015 which and then I think from then that's just when
it took off because I was like this feels really good and I
feel dead but I just took off from there.
And race wise, I, I know that you've done a couple of ultras
now because you've told me about it, but how did you sort of go
go from doing what you just described to doing ultras?
How does so the? 10K the 10K was in 2021 and I
just continued. I didn't actually have a coach
or anything at that point or even any running plans.
I was going. I was still doing the dual Wicks
body coach four times a week on YouTube, fitting runs in when I
could and then thought, right, I'm doing longer runs here,
let's see if I can do a half marathon.
Done 2-3 half marathons in 2022 and at that point I'd got myself
a running coach online who mainly specialised in roads.
But it did give me structure and an idea of training plans and
finding out terms like intervals and fart lick and long runs and
all the things that you would get in a training plan.
And once I'd done the three half marathons, I thought, I wonder
if I could progress onto a marathon, which then I did in
2023, had the probably one of the best training blocks that
you could ever have. Because I stuck to everything.
My last long run was setting me on course for four hours, 30 to
five hours in a marathon. And when I got to Edinburgh and
my coach ran with me, my feeling was so off because of the nerves
and everything like that absolutely bombed and it was one
of the hottest Edinburgh marathons that you could have
had I think ever. So then I ended up getting 553.
Took a bit of a dip after that but then I knew him myself
because the training had went so well.
Thankfully I had the foresight and mentality to say you know
what, it was just a bad day. So done a few 10 KS after that
and then signed up for ultras this year.
And I, I've done Edmund marathon, I've done, I'm going
to say 4 Rd. marathons and Edinburgh was one of them and it
was a roast and hot day that day as well.
And other people have said exactly the same thing.
So I think it's just you don't like the heat, don't do
Edinburgh. Well, that's the thing.
I thought because it was downhill and flat, it was an
ideal first marathon. I was like, what?
You go wrong? But with hindsight now and
knowing you learn so much even from the bad one, in fact and
the bad ones, I think you learn more than the good ones.
A lot more because you know what not to do next time.
The year that I did it, I got to the checkpoint, just several
checkpoints, just in time to get a drink of water because they
run out. They they claimed that somebody
had stolen the water. Whether that was true or not,
it's not my place to say. No, I was just happy like that.
My year I got a medal, so I'm just counting myself lucky.
The there's one year if you search for Edmar Marathon medal
and the the shape of the metal is interesting.
It looks like a men's appendage. So what other Rd. marathons have
you done apart from Edinburgh? Edinburgh was my first and I've
done Loch Ness three times. I've done a fair arrest of
marathon, It's a off road trail marathon, done it twice and I
think I've done 60 something ultras.
Wow. So yeah, ultras is the way to
go. So you you've said you signed up
to ultras, which, which ones is it you've done?
So my first one, originally I wanted my very first Ultra to be
the Devil. Which Devil of the Highlands?
Which are wearing the T-shirt. Exactly wet.
Spoiler alert, which on speaking to quite so by this point I've
met quite a lot of views virtually and I'm not shy and
asking questions. As you know, and there was
toying with this idea. I want the devil to be my first
ultra and quite a lot of people says right, do a 50K first and
just let's build up because there's no doubt that you will
be able to do the devil because this was back in November 23.
I've made this decision. They're like, right, you can do
things in between us, you will be able to do the training but
do a different ultra is your first one because you need to
prepare for that ultra distance in an event.
So it ended up it was Ross Beverage that recommended the
John Muir Way Ultra that's on his doorstep and he says it's
flat. It does take him part of the
Edinburgh Marathon course, the very beginning of it, but it's
not on the roads, it's to the side on the trail.
And then once I've done that, it was actually a really good
suggestion because the there was different terrains.
So it was from trail to road to North Berwick Beach, which I
absolutely hated. I can't stand running on sand.
It was horrendous. Anybody that you speak to that
done the John Muir Way ultra this year will all tell you that
it was probably one of the worst headwinds that they've because
it was a, it was 50 kilometres of headwinds, which for me I was
like, it's, I didn't think it was that bad because it was my
first ultra. So I had no reference to
anything else. But everybody else is like, Oh
no, that was terrible. That was a terrible first ultra
for you. Thank you.
And I was like, no, I thought it was OK, it's not put me off.
You know, I'm actually really proud.
I've done an ultra. So then I've done my next one
after that was run the Blades 50K, which was my last long run
before the Devil. I'm coached by Nicola Dawson and
she ran it by her just to make sure because before Nicola
became my coach, I'd signed up to this and says what's your
thoughts? And she's like, well, you can do
it as your last long run, but don't make it competitive like
it's, it's an event, which if you know me, all the events are
an event I don't think I'm at. I actually thought I was more
competitive until I started ultra running.
And now every event is just an event, a goal to see if I can
finish and push myself. And then we've done the Devil in
August. You you say competitive.
Are you competitive against yourself?
Like if you did the same race next year, would you be looking
to better your time? Definitely, I think I would,
yeah. At the minute, I've not got any
plans to do any of the three that I've done this year, but I
definitely would love to go back and do it just because I've got
other challenges, which I'm sure we will come to.
Yeah, later on in the interview. But just at the moment, and also
I'm trying not to fall into the trap of signing up for
everything, which I'm like that, right?
This is my last one. And then something else will
come up and I'll be like, oh, John, who's my husband?
I'm like, what do you think? He says you said this last one
was your last one. I know what that but.
Yeah. You mentioned your coach and how
long have you been with this coach?
And you mentioned the online coach previously.
Is that different people? Have in the time I started
having a coach I've actually had three coaches so my first coach
was Craig Benz who runs under the company RWB Coaching and he
was fabulous for getting me started.
He was really supportive. He came up to Edinburgh Marathon
to run it with me and he he was a good coach.
But I decided it came to a point where I wasn't enjoying roads, I
was more enjoying trail running and trail wasn't Craig's
strength. And I wasn't sure at that point.
This was towards the end of 2023.
I still wasn't sure what direction I was going to go in.
This was before I'd signed up for John Muir.
So we decided to part ways and I didn't have a coach for a couple
of months and then I went under my Houston.
I had to think I was going to say your name there.
I'll make Houston, who is a relatively new coach.
It was kind of mates, one of my really good pals.
So he's like, oh, I'll I'll help you out with the coach and I'll
get you to your first ultra. I was like, oh, terrific.
And that was really good. That worked out well.
But then again, make he has ran quite a few ultras.
But when I seen Nick, Nicola Dawson, who I've been with now
since June, she has, I listened to her interview on Young Hearts
from Three and it just got me thinking.
And she's got so, so much experience, particularly on the
West Highland way, which really intrigued me.
And also as well, she's a female coach.
So I went from to male coaches. I thought actually she's a mum,
she's busy. She's, I don't know, I just feel
as though we had a lot more in common.
Yeah, more relatable to what you are going through.
Yeah, definitely. And when I'd spoken to Mike, I
was, I'm not lie, I was absolutely dreading saying,
look, I'm going to go with a different coach and he was
fantastic and we're still really good friends now, which is good
and which is what I wanted. So I've been with Nick since
June and it's just, she's just fantastic.
Is that in person? Online.
How does that work? About both actually she's she
lives in Mogai and runs a running group, Epic Trails,
which she can go to every Thursday, sign up on entry
Central, it's £3.00 + 50 pence booking fee.
But she doesn't actually gain, like she doesn't personally gain
from it. She goes to a certain charity of
whatever choice. So be it Mountain Rescue, a
trail charity. And the more notable 1 is she's
actually funded the defibrillator at the Saint Malka
at the Kabas. It was all the epic trails money
that paid for that defibrillator.
So it does all go to a good cause and you get to run with a
really lovely group through the trails of Mogai.
At the end of each month they'll go on tour somewhere in
Scotland, I mean central belt. Is that open to anybody to sign
up to? Yeah, yeah.
And you just search entry central for epic trails.
Epic trails and then it will tell you each distance that
she's doing every week. So at the start of the month
she'll do 6K, then 8K, then 10K and then at the end of the month
it will be on tour. So they usually start up Milgai
train station, which I'm still a bit of a geeky fan girl about
because being brand new to this scene, the only times before I'd
went to Epic Trails was I would volunteered at the flank.
And I went to go and see the start of the West Highland Way
with all these amazing runners. And when you go to Mall Guy
train station and see the big sign of the West Highland Way
start, it's it's quite special. Yeah, I, I think I've been
involved with the West Highland Way, well, since I started ultra
running anyway, so that must be about 14 years or something now.
So I've, I've been to the, I've been to Bogai on the longest day
of the year at one O clock in the morning several times.
So it's just I can. It's just an amazing community
just from, you know, looking into it just this year, just
learning who are the core parts of the community and it's just a
really lovely group of people. So that's what's drawn me to the
West Highland Way events. Right.
Sorry for jumping all over the place back to you were saying
about you said something about your job.
I can't remember what you said. What is it you do for a living?
I'm a radiographer. OK.
What does that involve? It involves doing X-rays, CT
scans, MRI scans. I've had a few of them I.
Hope we were all lovely too, yeah?
A surprising amount of altar runners work in places like
cardiology and can't remember the name of the scan that I
can't even remember the name of the person that does it.
It's like an ultrasound but on your heart.
What? Would that be called?
April Cal ECG or E KG, whatever one is.
Yeah, there was an ultra runner that did my scan for that.
It was an ultra runner that did my the one that goes through
your wrist and in your heart. All right, the angiogram.
Angiogram. Yeah, I sat and watched them do
it on the screen while an ultra runner poked my heart with a a
wire. So yeah, they're all over the
place. You can't get rid of them.
I'm discovering that I'm still learning that.
I got quite excited when I found another radiographer that is
going to be doing the same event I'm doing next year.
And she's like, oh, I'm not prepared.
I'm like, Oh my God, we can go together, that's fine.
So does that involve being on your feet or you?
Yeah, so my, my specialty is CT scanning and that has never
ended as a conveyor belt because the service is so, so busy.
It's it's non-stop, which I really, really enjoy.
And you just get a wide range of patients through.
So you get everybody from like the extreme end of traumas to
and like your cancer scans, your follow up cancer scans, people
in remission and sometimes you get to follow patients journeys,
which is really rewarding. So it's lovely to see when they
first get a diagnosis where it's really, really grim and it
doesn't look good. It's lovely to see when they
come back and see I'm in remission and the scans are
starting to look clear. That's that's really rewarding
actually. Yeah.
And for for you with that type of you're on your feet all day,
how do you feel that helps with your running or does it make any
difference at all? I for me personally I sit behind
a desk all day so getting outside.
I think to be honest, it's see because I'm used to it and I've
been doing it for quite a while. It kind of just becomes sort of
like your norm. So you have to push a bit more
for the train. And I would actually say it's
more the mental side than anything that, you know, if
you've had a long day and you have been on your feet all day
and it's been physically and mentally exhausted, it is
actually harder to get out the door.
Because when you when you come home, all you want to do is just
get your dinner and sit in front of Netflix and just put your
feet up and just switch off from the day.
But a lot of the times as well, like see if you've had like
quite a traumatic day that's been mentally challenging more
than physically, a run really helps with that and it helps you
clear your heads. Or it does for me anyway.
Maybe not everyone. But yeah, so that's something
that I heard the other day and you could probably use this.
You're seeing patients that are in pain, suffering, and then you
go out for a run and you think I'm sore.
So well, no, you're not, not compared to somebody that you
saw. So that that makes your pain, I
don't know, disappear. It's it's irrelevant compared to
what some people you've seen. Yeah, definitely one of the best
runs that I had a few years ago, one of my friends, his wife was
diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, which was really quite
advanced. And they've got, they had at the
same 2 very young children and it, it just kind of put a
perspective on life in your way. I'm going out for a run and I'm
just, and actually, not because of their pain or anything like
that, but because I could go out and run and just switch off, you
know, the news was so shocking for everybody that knew the
couple, you know, and they were, they're a lovely couple.
It was just like, you know, I sense, I know it sounds really
cheesy, but like a sense of gratitude of my body can do
this. Yeah.
But then when the when the pain hits and you know mentally and
things like that, it sometimes is hard to push through because
it does really hot like that. A a lot of the times the only
way to get through it is to practice it so you felt it so
the next time it it's easier maybe or not.
Well, that's it. And one of the things I did
worry about when I was doing the 50 KS, I'd spoken to Rachel
McPherson. I speak to her quite a lot about
Ultra. She's fairly new as well to the
scene, but absolutely smashing all of our events.
She's done like lately, 50 and bigger at like one of these 24
hour races. And I was like, Rachel, what's
it like? Like, see, when you get that
pain and your hips and your backside and your low back and
you're really struggling to move, like what worries me is
how bad does that get? And she says, well, actually, it
gets to a point it doesn't get worse, so you just keep moving.
And I learned that that is the case.
You just got to keep going. And it is mental rather than
physical at that point. I think it's Rachel that's she's
involved with the Wild Heart Runners.
Yeah. Yeah.
Have you taken part in any of them?
Karen and Debbie have both been previous guests, so shout out to
them. I've not.
Yeah, I would absolutely love to.
Just when in fact, no, I tell a lie.
That is a really big lie. I went on the Pentland run, but
there was quite a lot of us, so it ended up being the natural
splitting into groups and what have you.
So it was Rachel that arranged the Pentland Skyline run.
I'm trying to think when it was or what to say.
It was June or something like that.
OK, right. Changing subject again, no
offence to Rachel. She's not you.
No, I can imagine that you said that your weight yo yoed.
Do you find that running helps with that?
Or is that is that a reason to run?
It's not a main reason. No, not anymore.
Because it's, it's funny because I wrote a post on Instagram the
other day about this, about I posted a picture of me from 15
years ago to very recently. And then the first picture, I
look unhealthy. You know, I don't even want to
say the word like fat or anything because everybody's
perception of fat is completely different.
But to me, I looked unhealthy. Yeah, if you're talking about
yourself, I think it's a fair point to if you've got a comment
about you, I think it's a fair thing to say.
Yeah, so I looked a bit more unhealthy than what I did now.
And what I did mention in the post was ironically a few hours
to step on the scales then. And now I'm actually not much
later than what you know, between the two pictures.
Like I'm quite happy to say I said I was a little bit like
horrified. But then I thought actually
being daft here, like I've stepped on the scales and then
nearly 70 kilos, which no one believes me, but that's the way
I am. And everybody just says, oh,
well, you're building your leg strength and things like that.
And it's muscle because people say, oh, you certainly don't
look at. But as it's more just, I just
want to be healthy because after getting COVID week 6 into our
lockdowns, that gave me afraid because at that point during the
lockdowns in the pandemic for the UK, Boris was on the TV
telling us if you catch this, she'll die.
Yeah. Well, so getting it was really
quite fright and then shocked me and said right, I need to get
fitter here. I guess your your line of work
exposes you to more. That's a problem area.
I guess I'm I've I've never knowingly had COVID and I don't
particularly want it. No, well it kind of, I was
really fortunate it didn't actually affect me badly.
I got it felt like a cold and I lost my taste and smell for
about 3 weeks, which was the most devastating effect because
when John brought me my morning coffee and it just didn't taste
of anything, it was quite upsetting.
So do you drink lots of coffee? Probably far too much.
That's a common theme in healthcare as well.
Do you when you run ultras, do you what they say?
Caffeine strategy? Do you drink coffee during the
run or I've never? Tried it yet?
I'm still very very much. As you know I'm still really new
to finding my feet in ultras so so far I've only been trying
active route and actual events. And then the longer I was
running the active route was starting to make me feel a
little bit sickly. So I had then had have two 500
mil flasks active route in one water and the other just to.
That was a good bit of advice that make it gave me and trying
real foods. But no, since the devil I've had
a chat with a couple of other ultra runners and people that
happened to coach and one of them said to me, well why would
you neglect your fueling when you're spending so much time
away from your family? As you've said, you said you
feel mum guilt sometimes. You know you're spending all
this time try and get your fueling nailed and you'll do
better. So since then I've tried talking
tailwind gels. Yeah.
For, for me, nutrition is almost as important as training itself.
Yeah. You can't get, can't get your
nutrition right, then you're there's no point.
No, yeah, you're when you're talking about active fruit in
one and water in the other, too much sweet stuff, you get
flavour fatigue. So you don't you don't want to
drink it anymore. And if you're not drinking
again, that's a problem. And especially when somebody
said to me once, when did it get to nutrition and hydration?
It's food and water and why we're mixing them.
Why? Why are you drinking your
calories? Yeah, I think a lot of these
foods, foods, drinks, nutrition products like active fruit are
top UPS. I believe that you still need to
have real food as well. That's good advice definitely.
I think the problem I've been having is definitely not getting
enough calories in and mainly like carbs.
There's more carbs as well that I've not been taken enough of.
So when I discovered that the Tailwind has like 50 grams and
500 mils, I was actually that's really good.
So I'll maybe try and get that on.
But for sure, like you're saying, trying like real foods.
I mean, if you're doing, especially a long trail event,
if you're going up a hill in your walk, in my instance, when
I walk in, there's no excuse not to eat.
You're walking, walk and eat. It's not going to shake in your
stomach or make you feel sick or anything like that.
The, the other thing you've got to think about is if you're say
your race starts at 8:00 in the morning or did you have
breakfast beforehand? Probably.
But if you're still running at midday, are you having lunch?
Are you counting that in your calories?
So your body just needs the fuel just to to to allow you to live,
ignoring the running so. Yeah.
Yeah, I did a a food thing for. I was sweeping the Great Glen
and I basically ate as much as I would normally eat in a race,
but the food was whatever anybody left on the checkpoint.
I enjoyed that video was really good actually.
And that's one thing when see when you volunteer.
When I volunteered at the Fling, that was a massive learning
experience because I've got stationed at Bal Maha checkpoint
and I had never heard of anything like the scavenger
table and things like I was like, Oh well, people can't take
their draw if they don't take their stuff with them, they
leave stuff behind. They leave it on this table in
case other people convince that I'm like, it's amazing.
Well, as the the comments that I got were, oh, I can't believe
you're eating so much. So it's like, no, that's how
much you should be eating. Yes, it seemed like a lot, but
you should have been eating that much so.
I suppose The thing is as well, and not not to be like crass,
I'm probably going to make everybody laugh when I say this
because it's me. But one of the things that
actually used to give me the fear, not so much now, maybe a
wee bit still as see if I ate too much I would need to go to
the toilet. Yeah.
Although I'm determined that this must be a common fear
amongst new runners. It is definitely a fear amongst
Rd. runners. I know that because they don't
want to pull a Radcliffe it, but in the trail circles it seems to
be celebrated in a bit of a rite of initiation if you don't do
it. Yeah, the question is not
whether you do it or not, it's how did you wipe afterwards?
Exactly. So yeah, moving on.
You mentioned Instagram earlier, how we met was you just sent me
a message and I was, I'm quite happy to talk to people.
I don't get many messages. So if anybody wants to send it,
I'll probably reply to you, unless you're not a nice person.
I did reply to you so obviously. I don't know.
It's relentless, though. No, you provided support.
I was actually doing a backyard, I think and you provided remote
support at the time and I was grateful for it.
It's keeps you entertained. I've got that advice from John
Cassidy, actually, from Young Hearts from three Send the
message. Worst case.
Sender. Worst case scenario is you get
ignored. Oh well, nothing to lose so.
Exactly. Or they just don't see it or
what have you. But this is one thing I have
found through Instagram, I've been finding a lot of I would, I
would class you as a front runner because you win things,
you podium things. Any front runner that I have
spoken to has been nothing but lovely.
If they have, if they've seen my messages, the pylon community,
they are absolutely second to none.
Like last year I went on a run with them at Boxing Day and
somebody had put me in touch and I'm like, I can't go on that.
That's a pylon run. They're all elite.
Absolutely no way. And I ended up getting convinced
into the route. I was like right, OK, I'll go
because I've got 16 K on my plan.
I'm like, I'm going to be really slow.
I'm so sorry. Just to the point, I actually
even downloaded their route onto my watch and just in case they
all win, which I was prepared for, I was like, because they're
fast, you know, I will just go and do the route and I'll catch
these all at the end or something.
Not once did any of them leave me, like they stopped, regrouped
and let even let me take a breather.
And that's just what run is all about for me.
You know that inclusivity? Yeah, talking about inclusivity
and you mentioned you've got coach, Are you a member of
running club? I was around with Mount Vernon
runners for a long while, which I've not been to for quite a
long time because again, they are mainly based on roads.
But if I would say that I was like committed to a running
club, it would be Mount Vernon. But as I say, I've not been for
quite a while just because it's not fitted in with the training
plans. But again, they are all so
supportive. I'm still in touch with quite a
lot of them. And again, they have a mixture
of abilities. Week by week, I'm seeing the
Instagram posts. The group's growing, so you
know, it's grown so much. Yeah, it's just the running club
that I'm with, Newburgh Dunes on a Thursday night.
They have basically the the run that you just described where
people go out, everybody waits, nobody gets left behind.
It might be that you split into two groups and one group goes a
bit faster and the other but nobody gets left on their own.
Yes, I, I think a lot of running clubs, if you're not doing that,
then you're not worth joining so.
No, absolutely not. And don't get me wrong, there
are running clubs out there. As you say, the they are elite
and that's just what they are. You know, they compete.
That's that's just the way they are.
They've got their place. And there's nothing wrong with
that at all. If you're joining a running club
for an elite runner then that's fine.
If you're joining it for the social aspect, then that's a
different story. Yeah.
So being supportive, have you, you said that you crude, well
crude, you supported a checkpoint and the fling, Have
you done any other races? Volunteered the Glasgow to
Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago and I went to the start lane
there and then they gave me the job of traffic March Marshall,
which I was so anxious about because it was at a weak
crossroads. And I'm like Oh my God, what if
I had the entire field up the wrong roads?
Which thankfully the front runners, they, they all knew
where they were going. But it's just to make sure no
one doesn't turn off. But once they'd all passed, I'd
relaxed a bit and then I was at checkpoint 3, which is, I can't
remember a dulator I think it's called.
But it's just like on the other side of Croy Hill along that
part of the canal. And it was a really nice
checkpoint actually. It was tiny, but their spreads
of ultra food was like a kids buffet.
It was fantastic. And was that the race putting on
the food for them? Yeah, yeah.
The food was all provided, which I've not actually seen at an
event before because any of the events that I've done that's
been drop bags. Yeah.
Which is fair enough. Majority of the races that I've
done have been drop bags, which I I think I prefer because then
you know what you're getting. Yeah, definitely, for sure.
GB Ultras, I'm on the understanding that any event
they do, they will put that food on.
And the food went fast. The potatoes and cheese went
fast. We ran out of those first.
I guess that's a reason to get to the checkpoint quicker,
because then you get the the choice.
Absolutely. If you're if you're the last
ones in, there might not be so much to choose from, you just
get what's left. Yeah, exactly.
Unfortunately that was the case. But you know, the people that
that come in the latter stages weren't any disheartened as you
say. I think a lot of people would
have thought like myself, You're you're not even expecting
anything apart from water at a checkpoint a lot of the time.
So you're kind of like that. But for Glasgow to Edinburgh,
I'm not sure whether they had drop bags, allowances or
anything like that. I would imagine for a 57 mile
race you probably could because at the Falkirk Wheel, which is
about halfway, there was a lot of supporters there.
At our checkpoint there was no support crews allowed because it
was down a country Rd. and there was hardly any parking even for
us. You know, we all managed to get
in as the volunteers, but there was not a lot of space.
So I could see why there was no support crews there.
Yeah, well, contrast that to one of Mark Cobain's events where
you're running from the north of Wales to the South of Wales,
Anglesey to Cardiff, and the checkpoints are 25 miles apart
every. So on the 25 mile and the 75
mile you get water and that's it, You get nothing else.
On the 50 mile and the 100 mile, you get access to your own bag.
He might provide you with a Pot Noodle, a cup of tea or
something like that, but he might not.
You don't know. Is it Mark Cobain that does the
tunnel and this is 100 miles round the track with no
headphones and no support? Yes, that as a track, is it
track 25 or something like that? Because he does it on the the
day that the clocks change so that you get, it's not 24 hour
race, it's a 25 hour race because you gain an hour because
the clocks have changed during the race.
Yeah. So it's generous.
It's generous. You get an extra hour.
Well, you're getting your money's worth, aren't you?
Yeah, but it's also 100 mile race, so if you're doing it in
13, I don't know what the the record is for 100 mile on the
track, but you might be finished before you get the extra hour
anyway, so there you go. I don't know how I would get on
having no support at all. Yeah, it's a bit Jarred and
isn't. That you haven't been running
that long in the grand scheme of things, but have you had any
injuries during that time? Thankfully not Touch Woods.
I've seen that on the question set.
I did think actually I've been really, really lucky because
whenever I felt a niggle or anything like that, one thing
I'm really quite diligent on is getting on top of it straight
away. So I do actually think I'm quite
not immediately post run, but I'm quite good for stretching.
Last week I'd restarted strength training and the DOMS were
unreal. So I did try and go on the foam
roller. John, my husband is absolutely
amazing at like kind of rubbing out the wee niggles, which you
know, how does I can't thank him enough for that.
Like he's he just puts up with so much and I'll just say, oh,
I've got a bit of this bit is really sore on my leg.
I don't know if he gets a lot of enjoyment out of it though, when
I'm how that's sore. Oh, is it?
I'll just do it a bit harder then.
Yeah, but no, I'm really, really lucky that way.
I don't even know if it's because I do do the stretching
and just try and do things like that that's kind of kept me at
Bay, or if I'm just trying not to push myself too hard, if that
makes sense. Yeah.
So you said you do stretching and strength work.
What do you do for strength work?
I'll do, at the minute I'm doing weights in the house but I'm
hopefully in the very near future looking to join the gym
so nickel provide me with a strength programme twice a week
at the minute. After this interview, it may be
more, but the two strength sessions that she gives me,
one's like half an hour and the other one's about 45 minutes.
And it's just your usual like, you know, press UPS, bicep
cuddles, you know, squats, leg strength exercises pretty much,
which is so, so important. And I think runners, a lot of
runners are guilty of not doing it, myself included.
And I think that prevents you from injury as well.
Yeah, definitely do you. You haven't got injured, but how
do you recover after a long run? You're saying you got DOMS after
weightlifting? How?
How do you get over that? Keep moving because the longer
you sit and then you have to get up, that's that's the worst.
So just kind of keep moving about, keep walking.
Dom's is just one of those things that happens, you know?
And Dom's have only happened for me because I've not done enough
strength work, ironically. So I'm hoping this week when I'm
on it, it will not be quite as bad.
Yeah, but active, Yeah, Active recovery, I fully support that.
I do the same thing. Terms of kit shoes, What kind of
shoes do you wear? I've got Nate Pegasus trail
threes that was a fairly decent purchase.
They are really comforted on and you know they're quite cushions
for my trail events. I've been running in innovate
trail fly ultra GS which I'll ask cushioned but they work for
my feet so I'm kind of of the opinion don't change anything on
race day. The only reason I hadn't used
the Nikes is because when I initially got them I was getting
a bit of cramp in my foot which gave me a bit of the fear and I
thought right, if that happens early doors and you're in a long
event, you just can't be having that.
And then for the roads, I've got Nate Vomeros Fifteens, they seem
to work really well for me. And then I've got alpha fly and
vapour flies which are real. I bought them for on an absolute
steal at the outlet. My alpha flies I managed to get
for about 63 lbs because they were the last size which was
main on the back wall and then I had a student discount on top of
it so you get. Your blue card discount as well.
Yeah, that was it. Was that or the student
discount, because I was back at uni at that point and they I
don't, I didn't quite believe the hype.
And somebody said to me, oh, they're placebo effects, carbon
plates, because obviously I was still new.
I was like, well, you know what? See, if it's placebo, it works
for me because I'm really bad. It it doesn't matter if
something is a political as long as it works.
I find them a lot of fun to run in and to be honest, I've
actually used, I've been starting to use those for
training if I'm on the road as well.
Like if I just, I'll actually use them if I'm really not in
the mood to go out. That will be my treat to myself
because at the moment I don't see me partaking in any more Rd.
events in the immediate future. So why?
Why leave them sitting in a box? I'm not.
I'm not a podium or front runner or anything like that.
So if they make you feel better, why not there?
There are pages online. I've not done it myself but
people get them resold with Vibram soles so they're grippier
so you can have carbon on trails.
Ah, look into that. Whether it's worth it or not, I
don't know. I wanted to have a look at the
Ultrafly Nike ones that they hadn't long brought out, and I'm
like, oh, is that safe? Kind of, you know, probably not
for me because you're asking about injury.
That's probably when I would get injured in Dallas on the trails
and go over and do something spectacular.
Well, for me, whenever I get I can feel something happening,
it's usually cushioning in my shoes are going.
And for carbon shoes, it's not the carbon plate that goes
because breaking carbon in that direction is.
You're not going to do that with your feet.
Yeah. It's the cushioning around it,
so. What's the goal tissue?
At the moment, ultra temp for I've been through, I've run long
enough that I've been through lots of different ones, but I'm
now on pair number six. And will you change those during
your backyard ultra if you get to a certain time?
Will you do a shoe rotation? I've got a race coming up this
weekend and I'm taking 4 pairs of shoes with me.
Yeah, I won't change them on schedule.
I'll change them when I feel I need to.
Yeah. One pair is half a size bigger
than the other ones. I've never worn them, but
they're exactly the same shoe as ones I have worn so I'm not.
Don't try anything new on Rusty, but they're not new because I've
tried them before. And will you change your socks
or is it just one of these? You just don't touch your feet
if they feel fine. I'm.
I think I've got 8 pairs of socks with me, yeah.
So if I if I feel that I need to, I'll change them.
Yeah. I I remember running W Helen way
once and I got to was it Glencoe?
Yeah, about Glencoe and I swapped my socks because I felt
I needed to, but the act of and I put the same shoes back on
again, but my my feet like almost expanded as I opened the
shoe and I was in so much pain. Was it pain?
As we said earlier, it was it was worse having changed my
shoe. So I wish I'd never had taken
them off. Yeah.
You're saying do I rotate them during a backyard ultra?
Well, maybe if I feel I need to, but key key thing for me is have
the option there. Yeah, definitely.
That answers the shoe question, but what about other kit?
Do you have anything like a particular jacket or anything
like that? You will never see me running
without a buff. I absolutely love my buff so I
couldn't tell you how many I've got now.
I've just seemed to be collecting them but they're so
they're just so multi purpose as you say.
Thankfully I've not had to wait my backside with anyone.
I've not had to Chuck any out but funnily enough like one of
my incentives to get into Kenlock.
Leaving on the devil day when I wasn't feeling great at the
start, I'd actually put my two young halts from free bus in my
drop bag. No, you can't get these ones
anymore. So I was like right, I need to
get a lock leaving to get my boss back.
But jacket? Like I've actually started
wearing Flancy shorts and Scots and the pockets in them are
absolutely phenomenal. Like you don't have to wear a
flip belt or anything because the pockets at the side carry a
phone, gels, keys, anything that you would think to take out with
you. So when I do get a bit more
money, eventually it's on my wish list to get more like
leggings and things like that from Flancy.
OK. It's not brand that I've heard
of. If you're talking about Scorch,
probably why. Oh they do it all different and
the designs are wacky as well. Like my go to a design before
that was techie Boo but I find techie Boo leggings really
really thin. So they're they're decent for
summer, but for winter your legs would freeze in them.
Yeah, I I never wear leggings. I would wear shorts.
Doesn't matter with temperature. So there you go.
I mean, it's fun actually. Until the Flancy shots, I was
really paranoid about my legs. That's just kind of stemmed from
being a teenager and having bigger musclier legs kind of
thing. But just recently I've kind of
discovered no one actually cares about how you look.
Everyone's kind of, you know, they're quite insulin.
I don't mean in a selfish way, but no one's actually looking
and going apart from your shoes, people, your shoes, but no one's
actually looking at, you know, the whole thing and going, oh,
look at, look at state of them. You know, I've kind of started
to get away from that. So I've actually like like to
wear more shorts in the future. Makes that wedding them for
winter like yourself and move on from leggings.
Right. Moving back to the food
questions, do you you say you use active route?
Do you use gels? I've tried, I've started to try
torque gels because I've only just recently discovered they've
got more calves than other gels. I've been gifted from one of my
friends an active root gel which are still to try but that's got
30 grams of calves in it as well.
So anything like that. The only thing with the torque
gels as they are insanely sweet. I've got a sweet tooth and even
I find it's like getting sea the ice cream toppings that you get
the as a treat, they're called or something.
And it's the sauce for me, it's getting a bottle of exactly the
syrup. It's like getting a bottle of
that and just going like that down your mouth.
Is that sweet? But I can tolerate that.
Usually if I'm having gels, it's usually torque because they're,
as you say, they've got a decent amount of carbs.
They're compared to most gels, they're probably the cheaper
ones out of for, for the amount of carbs that you get anyway.
So yeah, there's some of their flavours.
There's like rhubarb and custard and stuff like that, which the
the worst gel that I've ever had was in that video that we were
talking about earlier was pink grapefruit flavoured.
I honestly stay away from it. I can't believe it.
No pink grapefruit, sis. So.
I can't believe that somebody put that in their drop bag.
Well, I can't believe that they left it behind because it was
absolutely disgusting. I've actually been like really
tempted to try molten gels but purposefully having on the basis
of their absolutely extortionate and I'm not jogging and getting
sponsored by them. Yeah, well, that's another
reason for helping out with the race, as you said, the scavenger
table as one of the very few sort of benefits of being a
Marshall. Yeah, you get to get back to the
community and stuff like that, but you also get to rummage in
the scavenger table. Yeah.
Robbie Dunlop actually left them all in jail, which I've still
got. So Robbie, if you're watching
this, if you want your jail back, I've genuinely been too
scared to try it in case I really like it.
Yeah, because yeah, if you like it, you have to buy it.
Buy more. Well, that's it.
Yeah, you just have to chum Robbie up.
And and if anyone like from Lawton is watching this, then me
or you would love a sponsorship like.
Yeah. Oh, definitely right.
When, when you're when you're out doing a run and you're with
a group that's left you behind and it's not the group that you
mentioned earlier. What do you think about?
Have I still got my car keys? Genuinely, I'll occasionally I
will go like that on my pack and go it's still there.
You're not the only one. No.
We all do it. It's it's like that sort of you
walk across the bridge and if you're like dropping your car
keys off the side, why would you even do that?
No, it's still there. It's still there.
It's fine. The feed isn't it because if you
get so far then you have to go back and go and try and find
them and it's just the whole right I've still got everything
that's fine we. We were out in a club run once
and it was only probably 3 miles out, three miles back.
Actually it wasn't even that it we we were doing intervals on
and it was like one mile intervals.
So you run out and back and some it was, it was dark, but there
was St. lights. And then somebody lost their
khaki, but they lost it on the path.
No, they never found it. Oh, they never found.
It I had a head torch in my car. I went and got it and went up
and down the trail. We couldn't find it.
The only person I know that's managed to lose something,
unfortunately get it back was Kayleigh Webster.
When she done, I think it was a wrecky and I think it was
organised by the West Highland Way group and she was going from
Balmaha to however far up and then they were going back and
she dropped her phone and I've no idea like how you can because
the phones nowadays are huge. Thankfully somebody had handed
it in to the coffee shop and she managed to get it back.
That's what we were all saying. You were really lucky.
Yeah, yeah. I remember coming over, we were
doing a run on the West Island Way.
I was coming over Conic Hill and I was at the back of the pack
and came over and there was a an OMM waterproof jacket.
They're not cheap. Somebody's dropped this, so
either I've gained or I'll take it down at the bottom and I'll
leave it at the shop. Got down the bottom.
It was one of my mates had dropped it.
So he was just really lucky he had dropped his jacket while he
wasn't wearing it because it was absolutely freezing.
But yeah, his very expensive jacket, he managed to get it
back. But I think most people like on
the trails, like anything like that, if they drop it, most
people would hand it in. Yeah, yeah.
If there's somewhere to hand it in to, yeah, that's the problem.
It's like, do you just leave it on the trail and hope that
somebody else gets it? Yeah.
So you don't know, right?
Having done your was it 3 ultras?
Your marathon? Shorter races than that?
What's your preferred distance? Still try to work that out at
the minute, but I think I'm enjoying the 50K distance just
now because my theory behind that is it's a bit longer than a
marathon and you don't, well, I've personally not felt the
pressure of speeds. You know, like when when you do
a road marathon, any, anybody in the general population will say,
oh, what time did you do it at? And that'll be what is if you go
to somewhere you say, oh, around 31 miles or around 50K, then
we're like, Oh my God, that's insane.
Or that's amazing. Like they won't ask you about
times because I do get a little bit paranoid that I'm one of the
slower runners. So it is about.
But yeah, I am enjoying. How did you get on with your
marathon time during your 50K? Well it's funny because
Edinburgh is always my benchmark and so far during the ultras
I've managed to beat my Edinburgh time.
Yeah. The devil.
I'm not entirely sure how I how I got on with the Devil.
I don't think I beat it then, In fact I'm fairly certain I
wouldn't have beat it then. But during Run the Blades and
Join Me Away, I beat my Edinburgh.
My marathon PB for distance is during the D33 which is
completely flat and so if you're wanting a almost a road
marathon, Rd. ultra even. But it's not it's trails slash
some of it's tarmac, then day 33.
And what was your time for that? Through marathon distance and
2:52. I think that's.
Amazing. See, I'm just kind of like, Oh
my goodness, that wow, that's insane.
You know, like, see when I hear like some people's times, like
it's this is what I love about running, how diverse it is and
how everybody can just have a chat about it.
Like I would eventually in the future like to go for some 5 on
a marathon, which I'm sure I'll get in the future, but it's not
at the top of my priority list at the minute.
I've got certain events that I'll just be happy to complete.
Yeah. And just enjoy it or try and
enjoy it. Enjoying it's a bonus thing is
the main goal. My my official marathon time is
Loch Ness and I think that's three O 9.
So that's what, almost half an hour or 2020 minutes faster?
Is that not more hilly though than D33?
Loch Ness is probably net downhill.
Right. So D33 is net zero because it's
out and back. So anything that you go up, you
have to go down again. Yeah, Glasgow to Edinburgh, I've
held this absolutely palm flat and just with the canal two,
you're right. So I've held that's more
psychological and it's on Talmark the whole way.
So it's quite a tough course that way.
Not for elevation, because it's flat as, but you know you're
doing all that distance flat. Yeah.
All right. Moving on to the next question,
you said you got anxious about certain things.
Do you get nervous before racist?
Before the devil, my anxiety was that bad.
I wasn't answering any more races ever again because as much
as well as the training had gone and I've done the Glencoe to
Fort William Reiki and I've done really well for myself and that
and that gave me a massive confidence boost in the sense of
right, I'm I'm going to finish this.
The week leading up to it, I had hardly ate a thing, which, as
you know yourself on nutrition is terrible.
Like my one of my really good pals, David, he took me up like
he actually took a lot of pressure off by sorting out race
logistics for getting there. And poor baby.
When we got up there, I'd actually taken a bag with me
just in case I was sick and we pulled up the tundrum and I
started being sick and there was nothing there because I hadn't
ate anything. It was just sheer nerves.
And I got to this like was kind of trying to speak to everyone
and everyone's like, you look terrified.
I'm like, I'm but like, why? Because it's like my dream race
and I've never done this distance before.
Like this is, it's kind of a bit like I couldn't believe I was
doing that. But like for the nerves and the
anxiety and the lead up to that, I always like, can I tell myself
I should never have finished that just on fuelling basis?
I can't. I still can't believe to this
day how I managed. I genuinely don't.
But I do get nervous before events and even social runs.
Like as chatty as I can be as you're finding out.
And like before social runs, I get really nervous because I'm
like, I'm going to be the slowest, I'm going to hold
everyone back and I don't know. And I will be sick at times.
I don't know if that's just all for excitement as well.
Well, something for you to think about, and this might be total
rubbish, but when you're nervous, what are your symptoms?
Sickness, usually. And so butterflies in the
stomach, I would say. So.
Raised heart rate, Yeah, so clammy.
And if you're excited, what your symptoms?
They're very similar. They are exactly the same, and
the reason for it is because the chemical reaction in your brain
for nerves and excitement are exactly the same.
So the next time you're feeling nervous, tell yourself you're
not nervous, you're excited. Yeah.
So apparently that's a trick for public speaking.
You're you're not nervous about something, you're excited about
it. And that's how you get over it.
Yeah, I think the devil because the build up was so great and it
was a race that I was really, really, really keen to do and
finish because the course, You can't lie is stunning.
Even in the rain the course is lovely.
It was just, it was an amazing experience and I would love to
go back and do it. I I feel I could do it a lot
better if I'm honest, if I just relaxed a lot more.
So what? What race would make you most
nervous? What is your dream race?
Dream race. I've got quite a list of them
being you, which is I suppose. I mean, I'm enjoying this kind
of the stage in the running because I've had quite a few
seasoned runners, you know, like yourself and other people that
have done quite a lot and it's quite lovely being new to all of
this. So next year I've signed up for
the Fling. That's, I suppose you could call
that a dream race and thinking, oh, if I do the Fling, because
the long term plan was if I do the devil, I'll do the Fling the
next year and then hope and keep everything crossed.
I'll do the West Highland way the year after if I get through
the ballot. Yeah.
But obviously you can't have that as a fixed plan because if
you don't get through the ballot, then what you're going
to do? There are other races.
Greg. Glenn, you're you're going to
struggle not to get into that if you call.
I don't know what the qualification is, but if if you
can't get through the ballot on the West Highland way, Great
Glen is there and I really recommend it.
Yeah, even the Great Glen Short course isn't short. 40 miles is
not a marathon, is not a short race.
Did you sweep the whole race for that last one?
I've swept the short course twice.
I've run the long 1/4 times. Yeah.
So leading on from that, what is next?
Is it the fling? Fling's the a race to close the
euro. I'm hoping and keeping
everything crossed, I'll have one more ultra under my belt
which is John Your way Nocturnal, which is 5K loops in
the dark. And I'm preparing myself
mentally by saying in the rain as well, just in case.
If it doesn't rain it's a bonus, but it's November so anything
can happen. But again, that's a first for
me. I've not done a loop race
before, and I've not done a race in the dark either, so that's
exciting. Do you run with a head torch?
I've started running with a head torch when I've been going out
with Epic Trails crew. I've been out with them twice
since we've started wearing head torches.
I'm getting used to it now. What what type of head torch you
got? I've borrowed a lead lenser.
It's John's work torch, but I don't actually know if I should
actually say in case any of his work sees this, but I'll I'll be
getting a lead lenser of myself of my own.
I put a story out to ask people's advice on what they
would recommend and the recommendations that I got
through was Phoenix. That was really popular and lead
lenser was another one and then Petzel as well.
I just thought every old trail runners wore Petzel head torches
and it turns out that's not the case.
The Phoenix gets a really good name as well.
Yeah, they lead lenser or LED lenser or however you pronounce
it. I don't actually know.
I've got four of them. Right.
So it's a good watch. Do you know which model is?
I don't unfortunately, I just know it makes the trail really
bright in front of. Me, they they do loads.
I've got three of the seven point twos which got like a
square pack at the back and I've recently bought the H10 which
has got a long battery at the back.
It's exactly the same torch, it's just got a different
battery. Yeah.
But yeah, I'd thoroughly recommend them.
As, as you say, as long as it works and it's, you know, safe,
I've been told to go with the lumens.
How many lumens has it got? Is it lumens?
Most, most things do count in lumens, but you got to watch out
for lumens because that I think it's lumens, yeah.
Is it lumens or lux? One of them is how bright it is
on a single point and that's the measurement that they all use
because they can do a higher number and apparently that's not
actually what you want. You want the other one.
It's how much light over a spread distance because you
won't be able to see the sides as well as straight in front of
you on a single pinpoint. Use it.
You've got the advantage of you're borrowing some of these
and you like it. Yeah.
Go with it if you like it. Yeah, I'm really fortunate that
that was the brand because I've never again, like I'm still
learning so many new things, like I've never heard of this
until people. It was actually Mel Sykes that
recommended LED LED lenser to me.
I was like, oh, wow, that must be really good because Mel's a
dead good runner. So I just get I go off the
recommendations of as many people as I can.
And then but as I said, the a lot came back to me with this
Fen. I think it's a phoenix.
In fact, I don't even know, but there was a certain model that
everybody had the same one of. So that seems to be decent.
But as you say, I'm just going to go with what I know.
Yeah. The advantage for me, there's
two advantages for the lensers is the Sevens.
You can put normal AAA batteries in it as well as well as the
rechargeable ones. And also they tend to be a lot
cheaper than the other ones. Yeah.
And seven-year guarantee as well, which I have used after
like six years and no questions asked.
Customer smart. I thoroughly recommend that
company. Well, that's good.
That's good to know. Yeah, right.
Leading on last question, If you had a dream person to run with,
dead or alive, it's up to you, fictional or non fictional, who
would it be? I think it would be a toss up
between either Courtney Dewalter or Sally McRae just because
they're both amazing athletes in their own right and just for
different reasons. Like Courtney doing 3100 mailers
in one season as insane. Probably Jasmine Paris is on
that list as well. Just completing the Barclay, you
know, such inspiring women and just to be able to ask them like
so many questions. Sally McRae with all her
strength work and inspiring others, and you know, she's done
a 200 mile as I mean, it still actually blows my mind that
people do 200 mile events. I can't get my head quite round
that. For many people doing the devil,
they couldn't get their mind round of that.
So it's it's relative. I still can't get my mind
actually Spooks me the thought of 53 miles next September, but
I'm actually quite glad he's moved the dates for a bit longer
of a training periods. But yeah, definitely Courtney
Dewalter. I would say of anyone she just
looks just dead nice. Just really easy, always a just
really laid back. And to finish off, you told me
the answer to the question earlier.
What was your daughter's? Who would she say that she would
run with? Who would I say?
That your daughter would. Oh, and yeah, she didn't quite
understand the question. She's like, what do you mean,
dead or alive? And I'm like, no, it's like a
fictional thing, darling. She's only sick.
So I was like, so who would you run with?
The Queen. Fair enough, I said.
Why the Queen? She's like, just because she's a
queen. Is it?
It's as good a reason as anything else.
Exactly. So we'll wrap it up there and
thank you for joining me tonight.
I've got a race coming up this weekend if anybody's interested.
It is the Backyard World Team Satellite Championship where the
UK team races in Suffolk and there are 60 plus countries
throughout the world all race at home.
We're all racing against each other.
So that's what I'll be up to. And yeah, so thank you for, and
if anybody wants to drop me a message, feel free provide
support just like Nikki did. That's how I that's how we met.
So thank you and thank you for doing the podcast.
Thanks for having me and good luck for the weekend.
You'll smash it. Thank you very much.
Bye bye. Bye.