Hello and welcome back to Run to Run.
It's just us 2 that's here today.
I thought we'd have a bit of a catch up.
We've got news to tell. I've been racing Mickey's got
the Fling coming up this weekend.
So it's all all go or been or tired or stuffed.
So it's going to catch up on what's happening.
So Nikki, you are this is Thursday that we're recording
and The thing is Saturday. Tell us all the news.
Well, those of you that do listen in and follow my
Instagram page will probably be all aware now.
I've not actually made the formal announcement until now
open in the public, but unfortunately I have had to pull
out a fling. And it's taken 5 weeks and five
days to start like to actually not have the lump in my throat
of actually saying that. And even that is it's yeah, it's
gotten. And there's also a reason for
this. You want to go.
I know what the reason is, although I'm I'm shocked to hear
that you're not doing the rest. You want to go back a few weeks
to say what actually what? What's the reason behind it?
So 9th of August, Saturday morning, Lee Campbell had
arranged one of his quarterly Pentlands run his his intention
was to do winter, spring, summer, autumn.
So this was the summer version of the Pentlands so that we're
all getting nice views of them. Different views, different
terrain, and we set off. The weather was wild at the
tops. That was hard work.
I thought I would have been OK actually, and a lot.
I thought I probably was a lot fitter than what I was for the
spring version, but it was tough conditions going up to the top.
Got to the top of Carnefy Hill, which was the second hill we'd
summited. Got a beautiful rainbow.
It's on my Instagram. Took the pictures, everything
like that. Then started running down the
hill because the weather was starting to turn and it was
starting to get something was coming out and everything.
It was lovely. Felt really, really strong at
that point, starting to gain a bit more confidence and stopped
to take a picture of the beautiful hell in front of us.
I can't remember which one Lee would be able to tell us.
And Stevie was behind me and I saw you.
OK. I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm just
taking a picture. I felt really good on that
stretch. Serena, who was an upcoming
guest, was passed by. Ross Beveridge passed by.
So everyone went to the gate that we all were going to meet
at. And me and Steve, we were at the
back. Put my foot down a rabbit hole.
I think it was what it was. And it all happened that fast.
My ankle went snap and I went down like a sack of eyes.
And Steve, all I could hear was, Steve, you go.
And I thought, Oh no, it must be bad because between the snap and
Stevie's reaction, you look, you know, when you're a parent and a
child falls and child instantly looks to the parent for what
should I do? I think that's what I've done
with Stevie and just seeing the horror in his face.
And I was like, and it sounds really stupid, but the first
thought I had was on offline flings in six weeks, so.
Where's the rabbit hole? OK.
Well, I think it was because Stevie and Lee were out the
following week and put the pole in it and says, oh, I think this
was the one you fell down. OK, thanks guys.
Just. Rubbing you in I I like Good job
guys. So I managed, Stevie picked me
up, tried to walk along to the gate to meet everyone and I
couldn't walk. Like I could not put my foot
down. I think it was just the shock
and I was like, Oh no. So thankfully I had layers in my
bag. And see, we said, right, get
your layers on, sit tight here, we'll come up and get you.
So I was like, right, OK. And I was shaking that much.
I couldn't actually like open and get my trousers on.
Took a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself down, which
I did, got my layers on, got my trousers on and got myself back
up and just kind of really slowly, tensively walked to the
group. So I was glad I done that.
And I thought, right, well that's good because it's not
horrifically dislocated, broken, whatever.
Because when you fall, that was the first really huge accident
I've had out on a hill. I've been really lucky and thank
God I was with a group, but it sounds really silly.
I'm like, I really hope mountain rescue don't have to come and
get me. You've got all these thoughts
going through your mind, but this is exactly why I packed
safety kit. I mean, I look at really
experienced advanced trail runners and a lot of them don't
seem to pack, you know, the basic kit, which blows my mind
because it can happen to anyone. Yep, definitely.
So managed to get back down, got to my cafe, SAT tight while
Stevie ran on ahead to the car park where his car was, came up,
got us and then we had coffee and cake afterwards.
Which I wish would have made it all better, but it really
doesn't. Cake always makes it better.
I took that, softened the blow and the sympathetic head tilts
and oh, are you OK? So yeah, it's so dankle.
It will be fine. But when I got home, because
everyone told me don't take your shoe off like if you can avoid
it, don't because it will keep the swell.
And then and when I got home managed to get a shower and the
ankle just blew up. I knew myself.
I had to go A&E and get it X-rayed because the only reason
I think I did do that is because of the audible snap.
I thought, I need to get it checked and make sure I've done
nothing huge because had it been broken, I actually think that
would have made things a bit better because it would have
made the decision then. And then for a flight, it's
like, right, you're not doing it that, you know, on that day
where there's a hat about two or three weeks of, oh, it might be
better, It might be better. But I don't know, with
hindsight, looking back now at probably what the decision
should have been made that day anyway because it completely
screwed my train and I could barely walk for a week after
that and I wasn't a member. So yeah.
If it had been broken, weirdly, a break is actually better
because it breaks and it heals, whereas it's like ligament
damage or whatever it is that that can take a long time.
Yeah. So you're you're better off with
a break. Yeah, so I managed to get to see
Johnny Kilpatrick, former guest, and he I couldn't get to him
sooner because he was on holiday with his family.
So he was away for about two weeks and then you know how it
is, it was the end of the month, you know, I wanted to book the
appointment, waited for payday and it's just getting the
availability and finding when I could get time off work.
So it was another week on top of that.
So you're talking a good 3-4 weeks before I could get to the
physio and Johnny. Thankfully he'd actually seen my
Instagram and what had happened because there was no way I was
messaging him on his holiday. He messaged me and asked when it
happened that it swell straight away in the 1st 30 minutes and I
was like no idea, I was in shock the shoe was on.
I said I don't think so but it was.
I said it all happened that fast, done his assessment and
he's like, yeah, you've had real, you've got real
instability in the ankle, which explains because it points to
that very first week I actually felt like my foot was coming off
my leg. It felt that unstable.
It was a horrible feeling. So when I've Googled, he says it
was a grade 2 sprain, which I had no idea sprains had grade.
And so I thought a sprain was a sprain and that was it.
But it turns out when I've went into Google and seen that it's
been a partial tear of a ligament and I had fluid around
the tendon. Thankfully the tendon's not
snapped, but it's partial tear of a ligament and fluid around
the tendon and tight and strengthening exercises.
And here we are. At this point, I've ugly cried
over it about two of it. It was the weekend just before I
went to see Johnny. I think I went for a run on the
West Highland Way from Mogai to the road crossing at Mug Dock
and then back again because I thought it would be OK.
But after that run it was really swollen, really sore.
Again, with hindsight not the most sensible thing to do, just
going out for a test or run. I've done another test or run
after that, still obviously not right.
So just been doing strength exercises, trying to keep the
fitness up on the tub. Boat trainer.
And yeah, I've been not the easiest person to live with
either. And why would you say that?
Are you normally fine enough? Don't complain at all.
But no, I don't find stuff to complain about.
Mike, I'm female. Come on.
I think what it's been is since changing jobs as well.
I've got quite a lot more responsibility.
I purposefully don't talk about my work on the podcast because I
work in a hospital. It's confidentiality rules.
We have to be very, very careful.
But there's obviously scenarios I deal with that are really,
really stressful. And the last few weeks, I don't
know if it's because I've not been able to run the, that's a
way I do deal with stress and clear my head and just get that
energy out, or if the last few weeks and work have just been
especially stressful just because of certain
circumstances. But it's, it's not been easy.
It's I'm, I'm not going to lie and it's just been rubbish.
Well, think about it. You've got the time that you
would have been running to do other stuff, get your life
sorted out, so take it as an advantage that you're being a
forced having a forced break. It is.
It's, I do try and think positively like that, but when
you're actually in it, you do try and think and you think, oh,
I've got right, OK, I'll do strengths and I'll do it.
I'll go on the tub boat and I have took opportunities to do
that, but it's not the same. It is not the same as getting
out on the hill. So where you want to be doing?
Yeah, exactly. And you, it is OK.
I think, you know when you are injured and I've actually been
comparing my injury to other people's, which has it's a bit
nuts really, because you can't do that.
But I do think I have felt myself.
I've been thinking a lot about Kaylee Webster.
Kaylee, if people don't know, I'm sure she won't make me tell.
Saying this, Kaylee had a stress fracture on her hip and could
literally do nothing for five weeks.
And I do think that's that. And I think stop being so
miserable. You can at least do strength.
He can do the tumble. But Kaylee's been amazing at
being in touch with me as well. And I've said I feel stupid for
feeling the way I feel because all I've done in the grand
scheme of things is roll my ankle.
It's not the end of the world, it's first world problem, but
it's it's just shit. So the most boring thing, How do
you get back out of it? Well, I, I have had big cries.
I went on just before we started recording it says here I ended
up in Balmaha randomly on a walk when I was supposed to be going
to whole Balkans. I think that you just need to
ride the wave. Someone said to me as well,
really good friends when I was speaking to her voice not and
her and really in the pitch she says, well, the good thing is
when you know you're in the dip and you're at the bottom of the
dip, the only way is up. So.
Yeah, it's quite true. I think in the mindset.
Cannot get worse like you're. You're not running.
You're not doing what you want to be doing well.
It can only get better from here.
So exactly. So I'm back at Johnny tomorrow.
The ankle does feel a lot better.
I was thinking about this and the last week has been the first
week I've actually not woke up in the morning and felt that
I've had an ankle there, which is really good.
I've still got twinges in it, but I've not actually done on it
either, which is what is needed. It just needs to take time.
So Saturday morning, I don't even know what the start time.
It used to be 6:00 in the morning.
Will you be in Mogai? I am taking Stevie McKenna to
the start like so. I'll be picking Stevie up
between 4:00 and half past. We'll be heading to the start
and I'm there for the full day, so if you're listening to this
on your run, on the Fling, if you get there, get it finished
because I can. Doing it for Nikki.
Hashtag doing it for Nikki. No, I'm gutted because it's
something I've booked since last October.
The entries opened in October and that was my I'm definitely
doing Fling, it's my big race. Myself and John sat down, had a
big chat about running in general.
And as couples do, I would imagine when you've got a spouse
that doesn't run the we had that chat of right.
Can we rein this back a little bit because it's not all about
running because it's the training as well that comes with
it. So my events folk, our culture
was already booked at the start of the year, which I've done.
I'd also booked Run the Blades because I wanted to finish the
three and the weekends I wanted to do the half marathon.
So I've done the 10K, I've done the 50K and now I've done the
half marathon and flying and the Altarada Chili Trail, which is
just so much fun. That was 4 actual events that
I'd booked. And then on top of that, West
Highland Way weekend was negotiated.
The we could go to that five weekends out of the whole year.
It's not even really full weekends.
Flying in West Highland Way. I would count as full weekends,
but the other events it's like morning things and things like
that because you've got to make time for a family as well.
Yeah, 5 runnings, just a hobby family is what counts.
So you're you're going to the start line.
Have you told them that you're not starting?
I have sent an e-mail to John Duncan and I don't know if I had
emailed the correct address and sent a messenger message to
offer to volunteer, but I've not heard anything back because I
think the final roster is now out.
So I would have loved to have volunteered, but I've got a real
thing about collecting Marie's number, so this is part of why
I've kept this quiet. I've known I've not been
downfalling for the last couple of weeks but I've not wanted to
openly see it because I have never DNS an event before and
for flying it's clearly stated in the rules you can't defer and
there's no refunds. There's only refunds I think
even at start of June, before the start of June if you're
pulling out you get a refund at that point but after that you
don't get any refunds. So if I've paid £120 and I'm VNS
in an event, the bare minimum I want out of that is my printed
number so that I can set something on my wall to say I
had the bottles to sign up for a 50 odd mile event and to spoils
me on for next year because I'm going to be doing it next year.
Yeah. And as much as everybody thinks
that he can't defer, he can't get a refund or whatever, I
totally sympathise with the race organisers and there's a lot of
admin. And if they did offer deferrals,
then we think there's about 700 people do the thing.
Yeah, it seems to vary, say 725% of them would probably want to
defer. So that's a lot of money that
they've already spent out. Yeah, for sure.
I I can totally sympathize with. And it's clearly stated when you
sign up, you know, if you, if you read the race rules when
before you even sign up, it says quite a few.
By the way, you can't defer and stupidity on MAPA was on
naivety. You're actually offered to pay
an extra £10 for insurance or whatever in case you get
injured, which I didn't take because I've never been injured.
Only time that I've seen that is UTNB because it costs back in
the day, I was 11 years ago now, it was about 3:50 just for the
race and then you're all your accommodation and I think you
spent like an extra €10 or something like that and it was a
no brainer. You you do it because if you're
going up in the hills and try and hide in rabbit Burrows then
it's your own fault. You know what, that's played on
my mind as well, because I have sat and thought to myself, why
did I go up the Pentlands or go on the hills, you know, six
weeks out? But it's not stupid really,
because my plan for leading up to that was going to be, I was
to do that. I was doing that run as a social
and naked programmed in an hour and a half of me the next day.
Because the actual social run wasn't a long run really.
It was elevated but she wanted me running on tired or more
tired legs on Sunday for longer, which is fine.
The week after that was to be my longest run, which I I hadn't.
I was actually going to plan to run loops around the block.
Insanity loops. And when I said to people about
that, they said that sounds awful.
It's like, but I actually quite like the thought that the house
is there, I can bail at any time and it's more of a mental thing
than anything. It's actually good 'cause I
would have had my stock there, you know, fueling and stuff like
that. And I've had a toilet there if I
needed that, you know, does that comfort.
But there's also the option to bail, which wouldn't have been
an option and it was on roads. Which?
Well, I, I was, I wait to say, yes, you're getting the miles
and legs. Yes, you've got all the home
comforts if you need them, but you need to be training for the
type of terrain that you're going to be racing on.
If you're wrapping yourself in bubble wrap, then you're not
training for that race. So when the race comes, you're
in for a shock. So.
You need to train for it. Well, the week after that was
going to be the final rekey from rower then to invest need them
back. That was the last big section I
had left to cover. So obviously I've not done that
either. So the training has just it's
absolutely collapsed. And when I spoke to Johnny about
when I was at my first consultation, we had a really
good chat about it. And he said, well, he says even
says you could start if you wanted, says you could
potentially finish, but at what cost?
They says you've not trained to the level that you want to do
this event at. Your ankle isn't strength strong
enough to do it and you've got potential that you could pick
yourself out for longer. So it's just not worth it.
Yeah, totally agree. The other thing I was going to
ask was you were out for a group run in the hills meeting people
socially and you always message me saying I feel sick.
I'm so nervous. Were you nervous for that run?
Yeah, it doesn't go away. And follow on question you,
you've not got the fling, but you're still going to the start
line. Are you nervous?
I'm not nervous. I'm really, really excited.
What means if you're actually going tomorrow night to pick up
the race numbers and so that I can tell them on DNS, which I
would always say to people, let them know if you're not, if
you're intending on not starting the race from from as you said,
from a race organiser's point of view, I had an insight to that
when a time done time keeping it run Llama and done that sunset
ultra thing. I got an insight and to do what
John and Chris had to do and see just keeping track of all the
runners as a safety thing. It's so important.
So I'll be going to tell them I'm not starting and collect my
number. Steve, he'll be picking up his
number today just so so that we don't have that admin to do on
Saturday morning. And it means that when we get to
the start line, you know you have got the social or how you
doing and all that. Because I think everyone's
intentional. A lot of people's intention is
once you start running, that's you.
You're running your own race. It's not a social run.
For some people, it's racing against themselves.
For some people it's pushing themselves.
But I think for the most part, unless people have actually
arranged to run with a friend or what have you, most of my
friends that I know that are doing that, that's not the case.
So I'll see you when I see you. Which is is fair enough, yeah.
Pay the entry, go and do your thing.
Absolutely. If you happen to run with people
during that, then great, that's. Yeah, just just don't get sucked
in because I've had a chat with Stevie about that, about his
race tactics and he's, he's really excited.
It's actually, that's the main reason I'm actually going to
spectate, because I want to see him finish off his chuckle crown
because I was there volunteering at the Devil.
I've obviously crewed them on West Highland Way for the whole
weekend so I feel quite invested in Stevie's done there.
So although I'm not running and I've got quite a lot of friends
that are and I want to be there to show support and I'm OK now.
I'm not going to lie, 2-3 weeks ago if not I wasn't OK about, I
was far from OK and only you knew.
A couple of close friends knew how I actually felt.
But that's why I have been a good bit quieter on the socials
as well, because I've had nothing really to boast about.
That doesn't normally stop you. Nothing to say but say it
anyway. Who knows, maybe I'm growing up.
I don't believe it. Well, I think we both say good
luck to anybody that is taking on the fling and say hello to
Nikki. I won't be there myself, but
Nikki will represent both of us well.
Depends how well she's been. If she's well behaved, she's
representing the podcast, but if she's not, then yeah, it's just
her. Yeah.
Well, we're coming to the end of the year probation period it.
Is was it September now And mid-october was a year since
you've joined the podcast? Yeah.
So big things to come, I'm sure. And how do you feel about that?
Happy that you teamed up. I, I think it's been successful.
That's yeah, we've had guests on that we wouldn't have without
you. So you've, you've done your job.
Keep. Keep it going.
Oh come on mate, we both know I've coined my own nickname as
the booking bitch. I didn't say anything.
You have not said that and I'm saying that while we're being
recorded. Mike has, well, he's not openly
said that, but that has been me that's came up with that so no
one get annoyed at Mike. So aside from fling shenanigans,
which will be happening this weekend, and who knows, we may
get a variety of guests out of that weekend, you have just ran
your own race. What have you been doing last
weekend? Well, last weekend was my third
race of the year. I did great Glenn Short course,
but I was sweeping. So technically it wasn't really
a race I wasn't racing. It was a race I wasn't racing.
See the video. I was doing checkpoint roulette
where I was eating what was ever on the table and it's good.
The nice race. I've done the full 1 four times
so recommend it other race. And could also Fiona Rennie, who
got one of the best race photos I think I've seen all year of
your is it is it the Princess chair?
Yeah, last checkpoint you've you've got to sit down and the
Princess chair, you've not seen the poets.
I've done it previous years as well.
I think, I think that's a post in the making.
Then you'll need to dig those out because your your picture
from this year was fabulous. Jazz hands and everything.
Exactly. Then we went on to Highlander
backyard. My goal was Bill had asked me to
be the team captain because he was busy.
He, he's normally the manager. Well, he, he was the manager,
but he'd, he was busy actually directing the race.
So conflict of interests, he asked me to take over the team
captain thing, which to be honest, it didn't, didn't
involve anything that I wasn't doing anyway.
Motivation, try to get everybody to be a team.
Hopefully they found that helpful because I did I I found
it got me more into the race by encouraging them to be part of
the Team Scotland. Yeah, and I've seen that video
as well where you give it, you gave a really heartfelt
motivational speech to the team at the beginning, and that was
so good. It was lovely.
I, I tried as, yeah, I think it did get to a point where it's
like I mind blank, can't talk anymore.
Somebody said it was emotional. Yeah, it was all of the above.
And I, I think that was sort of put the point across.
We, we were a team, we worked together and unfortunate
circumstances the race got cancelled.
But Scotland were in the lead at the time and it was decided
between the, the teams, the, the managers of the teams, not the
runners that Scotland would take the title because they had a, a
big enough lead. I think it was.
So my, to me that race was a success because Scotland won and
that's why I was going into it for I wasn't actually interested
in winning the race itself. I was wanting the team to win
and we did. So success.
And can you remember at the end of that how many Team Scotland
was still in it at that point at cancellation?
I think there was, don't quote me on this, but I think there
were seven people, 3 from Scotland, 3 from England and one
not on the team and I'm not even sure, possibly Karen something
was the person on their own. Don't quote me on that.
Well done for her for being up there.
I'm sure she, I think she was a Scottish runner and I'm sure we
will see her near Team Scotland, if not in it in the future.
So. Big things to come and then on
to this weekend. Just passed was Hardwick Hall.
It was a race. Russell Bock running Sherwood
Pines as my previous personal best at Backyard 42 yards.
That was March last year and the same organizing team was putting
on a new race in Harvick Hall, and before we went down, well,
it took me 421 miles to drive to get to the start line.
That was going to be my first question, where does Hardwick
Hall in the country? Next in Mansfield, which is
South of Sheffield, right? My geography for that area is
rubbish, but Google got me all the way, got me all the way to
the grounds. And then Jonathan, one of the
assistant race director, Eric's backyard bitch as they were, his
instructions were go, go along here and once you've got this
far, you've gone too far. So you should have turned back.
Like Google managed to get me 420 miles and I got lost in the
last mile. Well, feedback for them.
But the worst thing is I drove past him and he just waved.
It was like, well, go back that way.
Yeah, feedback for them is draw a map and then people will know
where they've got to go. But it was I, I was in, most
people had tents and I was in the campervan.
So there was a limited number of campervan spaces and you had to
book to them in advance. So the, the directions for most
people were going to the normal camping, I was going to the
exception. So it's fair enough that they
weren't 100% correct, but it just added to the why am I not
finding the space? I end up in the normal visitors
to Harvard calls car park and the instruction says, yeah,
don't, don't go there, you've gone too far.
But I I got to meet Eric and Jonathan's mum and dad.
They they pointed me in the right direction, so I was and
they laughed at the instructions as well.
Well trust mom and dads effects things as.
They were very helpful throughout the whole day.
I was talking to their dad and he was saying, oh, I just walk
about and talk to people, make it look like I'm busy.
So that's that's all he needs to do.
He's keeping people happy. Is was his job as far as I was
concerned and he did that a excellent job.
And how close did you get to the starting corral?
We were probably 30 to 40 meters away from the starting corral
because the camper vans were the, the tents were on basically
on the start line. If you were in a tent, you could
be on the start line and the camper vans were behind all the
tents. Yeah, we, I I did have a a clear
path to the Corel from my van, but there were still thirtyish
meters to go. And could you see the start line
from the van? I couldn't see the start line,
but I could see the Corel. Yeah.
So the start area I could see. Yeah.
Because having not done a backyard event myself, I would
imagine that like from going up to Highlander and seeing you
guys, it's quite a key part and how close you do get to it,
doesn't it? And I would imagine that's so
much more important in the latter stages when you're trying
to get that precious time of snoozing and then what you get
and every second counts, literally.
Yeah, well, there was a bit of a story, I'll get on to that in a
minute about the start line. Yeah, The actual race itself
started at 10:00 in the morning. We had been warned in advance
that Storm Amy was coming and that could have cancelled the
race. We didn't know weather Nowadays
you don't know if the wind is coming, it's forecast.
But you, you just don't. Unless it's how far in advance
did you guys get? Was it when you got to the event
that that was announced or did they send you all the emails in
the day before or something? I think they put something on
Facebook or Instagram saying just just be careful it's or be
mindful, not careful because there's nothing you could have
done about it, that it's out with their control and 100% they
can't control the weather. Although I didn't see, I didn't
see Eric doing any dances to the weather gods.
He could have done that. I don't think it would make any
difference, but you never know. He didn't do it and so it's just
one. Of these, it's it's an
uncontrollable, I mean, you can, you can prepare for bad weather,
but when it's something like a storm and winds, it's got to be
safety first for everyone. For back, yeah.
For backyards, I I try and think about the controllables, the
uncontrollables. And although the weather is
uncontrollable, you can't prepare for it.
It was going to be wet, Take waterproofs for you.
It was going to be windy. I had a tent in van that I could
have put up, but because it was forecast to be windy, I didn't
put the tent up. I could have had that on the
start line. I was willing to take the.
Extra time. The risk, the extra time, the
comfort of the van rather than the the tent.
And you see, you talk about the comfort of the van and, you
know, rather not having a tent. You had a crew this time, didn't
you? I did previously like that
Highlander we had the the Scotland crew, Lorna and Marie
who the crew for me before there excellent no qualms whatsoever
apart from this deal, my pistachio butter, but they know
about that. No, it's couldn't complain about
them whatsoever. This time.
I had previous guests, Rebecca Horman and as far as I was
concerned, she she knows what she's doing.
She's PB36 I think it is won the West Highland way this year and
followed. I wouldn't say did what I told
her to do to con. My advice was she's won a
Whitaker backyard earlier on this year.
She knows what she did. I've her resume as a crew
person. Some people say that a runner
might not make the the best crew you need to know about crewing.
But as far as I'm concerned, she knows or when I'm crewing, I
crew like I want to be treated. And I think that's the same
attitude that she had as well. She treated, she treated me how
she wanted to be crude. So yeah, thank you, Rebecca.
It was an experience that I would you're, you're signed up
again, you're not getting the choice.
So. I think, I think that's
important though the people say don't have an honour as crew.
I do disagree with that as well because I think there needs to
be an element of understanding, like you say, of what you want
and also to know, like what you're going through.
I've heard in a podcast or two before, don't have your spouse's
crew. And because the they, they're so
invested in you and so care and that if they see you suffering
or if they see you being sick, the first thing you want to do
is to protect them. Oh no, come on, you know, let's
get you wrapped up. Whereas you know your crew will
say, right, you've been sick. Brilliant.
Out you go again. We'll deal with it on the next
one. I think it can go both ways.
You can have crew that are your spouse.
They might runners. Look at the world backyard
champion Phil Gore. He usually has his wife as the
crew, but she knows what it means to him, so she knows what
to put it through. She knows that if she was too
too loving, too easy on him, he wouldn't like it afterwards.
So as. You're.
Saying. Either way, but maybe next thing
the crew for the crew I'll I'll crew Rebecca while she crews.
But the the advantage we're having the van was that between
the loops, she was able to rest in the van and be there for me
when I needed it. And I I didn't feel that I
needed it but. That was because she, she did
everything that she needed to do.
There wasn't anything that was like, oh, why haven't you got
this ready? And there was sometimes it's
like, oh, I, I didn't tell you in advance.
I needed this and she would go and get it.
So I was. Yeah, that's what I was going to
ask. Did you take your phone out on a
loop? Because I know those you can
have the best laid plans in the world, but when you're actually
out on the event, you think actually, I don't want that
thing that I'd wrote down. I actually fancy a Pot Noodle
instead on the slip. So did you text her or did you
just tell her when you were back at CAB?
Actually, for the next one, I fancy this.
I, I normally, I normally take my phone with me because I'm
listening to music this race and the island early in the year, I
didn't listen to music at all. That as partly because later on
in the race, I, I want it there if I want to use it.
It's a tool. But for the first 11 yards, I
didn't have my phone on me. And the reason why I know that
was that exact time because on yard 11, I sort of teamed up
with Victoria Owen's previous guest and running along, she had
a strategy of she would walk a yard and half walk, run a yard
and then run a yard. But she'd previously walked a
yard and knew exactly her timings, knew exactly she would
get in with 5657 minutes and she knew she could do it that early
on in the race. 1011 hours is still early in terms of
backyard, so she had full confidence that she could do
that yard in that time. And I put my confidence in her
and we'd go back in 57 minutes. The only problem was that before
the yard, I hadn't I didn't even know.
So it wasn't that I didn't tell Rebecca that I was doing a
walking yard. I didn't know until I started
running with Victoria. And right from the start I was
like, all right, I'll just chat to you.
I got to probably mile three out of four and thought I should
probably tell Rebecca that I'm I'm fine, I'm going to be late.
But I didn't have my phone on me, so I couldn't tell her.
And when I got into this, the back to the start, 57 minutes
had passed and I had a the food for the the before the next lap
ready. Rebecca had brought it to the
start line because she was worried.
She was, I think she's messaging yourself.
She was going to the race director, who she knows
personally and saying what's happened, going to send an
ambulance out. He's.
There was there was that panic because she messaged me and I
think was at about 9 O clock at night or something.
It was between half 8:00 and 9:00.
And she messaged and she says Mike's not back from his look
yet. And I looked at the time and I'm
like, baby is just taking it. She's like, no, this is too
long. And I went back on to timing
Monkey and looked at your laps and I was like, ha, OK.
And then I started to panic and facing up and down my living
room, like constantly refreshing.
This time when I was screaming at my phone, come on, mate,
because she's messaged me. And I said, has he not got his
phone on him? And she said yes, because she
thought you did and you hadn't messaged her back.
So there was that panic. But as you say, and she's when
you left on the next one, she says, yeah, he's fine.
He was happier than he's been the whole event.
I was like, yeah, I would kill him.
But I think it was all good. As you say, if you didn't know
at the start, do you know yourself?
You know when you're saying you're out on that lip and
you're at male feet or I should have said something?
Yeah, it's it's just one of these things.
So you knew if you were going to do that again, but you kept
weird head torches at that point.
Then what time did the head torch go on?
Head torch was the 8:00 yard, but the the at the end of that
walking yard I I had been doing ignore the first yard I'd been
doing 39 minute yards felt comfortable.
It was a pretty flat course. Some of it was the work bit was
completely flat grass field, but it had cattle previously on it
so it was quite rutted. Yeah.
So it was. It was hard to run on it.
It could have been easier, but 39 minute yards, they were easy.
It felt comfortable. So that that was kind of why 39
minutes going up to 57 minutes, That was why she she panicked.
But I, I yeah, I had the same food at the end of it.
And I thought, all right, I'll just down it and I can, I just
took it in really quickly. But it was probably too quick
because for the whole of the next lap and possibly even the
lap after that, I was getting, it felt like I had a stitch like
heartburns are almost. I didn't feel like I was going
to be sick because I didn't eat in the food too quickly.
What? Did you have?
I think it was quite a bit, but I had it like quite Milky so
that I could just drink it rather than eat it.
But after the next lap I I'd been prepared and I had antacids
in my kit box, so I had one of them and they instantly sorted
it out. So again, preparation is key.
And you get to yard 11 yard 12. The head torch is on from 8 O
clock, so that's what yard 10 you.
You get to know the course pretty well by that point.
So were you quite happy going into the night time?
Look, you've got the muscle memory of the course.
I would have been the the course it was fantastic course there
was it was great. Apart from the the bit that you
weren't expecting the rutted field, all the rest of the
course was there was perfect. But the Rasbach had planned for
a different course for a night time loop.
That was in the sense but cutting out what they had
thought to be a bit there was had tree roots in it and you had
to think about it more. So they took that section out
and added it in and out and back on tarmac.
And I told Eric so that I think that that was a wrong idea.
There was there was nothing wrong with the original loop.
If you look at the old Suffolk course, no night loop.
The new Suffolk course, no night loop.
Sherwood Pines, no night loop. You get big.
Yeah. Highlander.
Well, the, the three that I mentioned, they've all got big
yards. My PB, the Scottish record is at
Sherwood Pines by a Scottish person, but in England, the
British records are old in New Suffolk.
That's why I mentioned them. They've all got big yardage and
they don't have night loops. So and Sherwood Pines, it had
bits that were tree roots and you didn't need the night night
root. Yeah.
So I, I actually found it annoying that I'd had like I'd
remembered the course and remembered every turning.
And then although they were saying take that thought process
away of having to think about tree roots.
Well, now you've added in a thought process of having to
learn a new course. Yeah.
So the tree roots, yeah, the trade rates were insignificant
compared to having to learn a new course.
Is that the first backyard you've done where they've
changed the course at night, then it?
Is it's quite common, Biggs, the, the main backyard in
America, they, they do it, but they've got a reason to do it
because they, it is a technical day loop.
And so there's justification for it.
I don't feel that there was justification for it in this.
And I think Eric, the race director is going to take that
feedback. It wasn't just me.
It's not just my feedback. There's a lot of people that I
was talking to out on course and that.
Was my next question was, was the general consensus that that
wasn't necessary? I know you can't speak for other
runners, but if you were in conversation, did they agree
with you? Yeah.
And they told Eric the the same thing.
So I think everybody agreed that there was, it wasn't necessary.
So the good thing for the good thing for Eric and Jonathan is
it's something that they've tried.
Yeah, they they didn't know that was The thing is like they they
had no previous, but because they've not done a night and day
loop, they thought other people do it.
It's a good idea. Yeah.
They they've tried it and I don't think they would do it
again. So good.
It's good to know that they are taking feedback on board, so
it's worth telling them. And I think for Russell Bock as
a company in general, I think they are amazing at that.
I've not actually done any of their events yet, but they're
definitely on my radar even more for the point of like, see how
they do that donation of the free entry that you can pay for.
I mean, that is just such a good spirit for the community that
you can do that, you know, just little things like that.
And they they're getting that online platforms so well set up
now for people that can't go down like myself, you have got
twitch that you can watch the start.
And don't get me wrong, it's the backyard.
There's not much watching to be hard apart from 5:00 to, you
know, a minute past on the old clock, but it's there.
Yeah, they said that there was cameras out on course and I
think if the weather had been nicer there might have been, but
I didn't see any. The only cameras I saw were
within like 2 minutes of the start line.
So the way that you keep on running and the weather is
obviously getting kept an eye on what happened with that as the
race progressed. Well, about 24 hours, maybe a
little bit for that. The National Trust who owned the
land had said that they've got a policy, and I believe it's same
policy for all their sites throughout the UK.
If there's forecasted wind for more than 45 mile an hour, they
will. Everybody has to get off site.
And I totally agree with it because there were so many
trees, we had a lot of tree cover and it wouldn't have taken
much for a branch to pull down on a runner.
And imagine the outcry from that if someone, if they hadn't done
anything about it, then there would have been serious, oh, why
were you not taking the safety of runners?
They did. They did, Eric and even the
National Trust did exactly what they need to do.
There was nobody that as a runner, there's nobody that we
could have blamed for this happening apart from everybody
that doesn't look after the environment.
This is climate change. This is I try and stay away from
like political stuff like that During the podcast.
I can easily tell people that they are idiots for supporting
Trump, but not during the podcast.
But environmental stuff. It's it's everybody's problem
and it's there. So don't be a Dick.
So that's all I'm going to say. So how much so they were told
the the forecast was 445 that was going to happen.
How much longer then did you guys get told was it, was it
like right this is your last look and you are done?
Well, no. They kept on saying, oh, we're
going to make a decision, We're going to make a decision.
We're going to make a decision. We all knew that it was going to
be about 5:00 in the morning, that that was when the wind was
forecast. But were they going to say, OK,
race is cancelled in five hours, but the wind is not going to be
here until 10 hours? I honestly thought it was going
to be, I think say 10:00 in the morning, we were going to get to
run until 5:00 because then that's when the site normally
closes and the wind wasn't forecast until 3/4 in the
morning at that point. So that would have given them
time to get everybody off site. They would have needed security
to shut down the site. So that, that was what I was
expecting for them to say. You've got, you'd be, you'd be
allowed to run 30 ish hours. And then after that we're, we're
stopping the race. But they, they were never making
the decision, never making. I wasn't until about, I think it
was two or three in the afternoon that they said, OK,
you've got, yeah, it must have been three and then you've got
11 hours to the race is going to be done.
If you're not finished by then the race is cancelled.
Yeah. So.
What was the feeling amongst you guys at that point?
The there was, I went into the race wanting APB.
My PB is 42 and that would have only allowed me to go to 40.
So it was what's the point? There isn't any point in doing
it. I wasn't there to win, I was
there to get PB. So as far as I was concerned, I
was racing against myself and encouraging the other runners.
We got to the point, but I was getting near sort of PB
territory. I would have been getting them
to come back out, do another lap because I want, I want them to
continue so that I can continue. Yeah.
Exactly. It got to the point where
myself, Richard Thompson and Lizzie Gatherer, we all had PBS
around or above the 40 ish 50. I think per Lizzie we we
couldn't get PBS no. So it was What's the point in
continuing? Exactly.
There's no point in like keeping on going for, you know, another
10 hours like you say. And then, as you say, it's just
pointless. Yeah, so.
I've seen, yeah, I fully like even now, it was the right
decision to make. What was the point in me pushing
myself on damaging myself? I can now go and do a race
quicker. I've seen comments online who
they were directed at. I'm not going to mention saying
that we use the excuse of having to finish early or being able to
finish early, using that cut off as an excuse.
It wasn't an excuse. There was no reason to do it.
Fully support the decision that I made.
And I think we all made a decision independently.
We made the same decision and it was the right decision.
Well done to the other two for making the same decision.
Is the right? It's a totally smart decision
because even if it was an excuse or not, what does it matter?
You could all three of you guys could not get APB on top of what
you have got. So what it does seem senseless,
but there were people that did go back out onto the course,
weren't there? And there was two people that
got to the end of the event, weren't there Or did they finish
a bit earlier? They.
Didn't quite get to the end. There was, I'm going to say four
people that continued when we stopped.
I can't remember most of them. The furthest female.
She stopped I think two or three yards after us.
I think if Lizzie had continued they would have been battling
out and she might have gone longer.
The the argument that Lazarus Lake does is if you're, if you
know that you're going to get a prize for the first female, then
you're going to quit earlier. Did she do that?
I've I've no idea. I'm not not going to comment on
it because I've no idea whether she did that or not.
Could she have continued? No idea, but it's something for
them to think about. I know that Bill Marshall and
Nicholas Coots, I don't know if that's how you pronounce his
name. They continued and Nick stopped
at 38 yards and Phil continued to 39 yards and he won the race.
Yeah, I I'll say to him and say now, if the three of us
continued, I think we would have got to the deadline and we would
have still been going. So yeah, well done to him for
winning. So it's it's what happens.
We we chose to stop so we didn't win.
If I continued and tried to win, then I think the race would have
still been going. So it's everybody's a winner.
And do we know if that was a PB for those two?
It was, yeah, I'm. I'm.
Pretty pretty sure it was. So yeah.
I say, I think that's as as you say, I think for the four that
went back out after you guys had DNF, if that's APB for them or
even like way beyond, I think the mindset I would like to take
if it was me would be how far can I go now?
Yeah, like how? That that was the mindset that I
was then how far can I go? But I couldn't go more than 40
so. So that's no point.
So how did you feel Yard 29? Was it that you stopped
Highlander? How was it 27?
2026 to 27 I and. What was an issue with your
foot, was it not? No, my calf.
My my right calf. I talked to the medic afterwards
and he suspected I'd torn a muscle in my calf and I went to
the physio about two or three days later and he confirmed it.
There's no no doubt that is the Soleus muscle.
I'd torn something and normally after 100 Miller or more I'll
take a week off from it. There's not not going to benefit
me as I took that week off and went for an I think it was
actually 8 days that I took off and everything was fine.
Right, so. That, that eight days it healed
itself there. There was maybe slight twinges
and stuff, but I knew to take it easy and it healed itself.
I, I went for a run, a long run four weeks after that, which is
56 miles and I felt fine for the whole lot.
And actually back in October last year, the World Team
champs, I hurt my Achilles and until about a month before this
race, I was still hurting. And even now it's, and I mean I
was hurting every single day. My Achilles was I, I kind of
learnt to manage it and during this race it wasn't so at all.
The, the, I'll say it, not so at all.
I think there was one point that was starting to get sore and I
put a KT tape and extra. I've got a padded foam thing
that I put on my heel, so a KT tape that on never felt it
again. So I'm happy that between the
the calf injury and the Achilles last year, I think the World
Team champs, it was my Achilles that had actually gone.
But I felt it in my right quad. But I was compensating.
And during this race, none of that was a problem.
After 29 hours, I was like, yeah, I'm a little bit sore, but
I was 29 hours then you would be.
I honestly felt like I could have continued for the same
amount again so. And you asked me earlier how,
how I would like, how do I get out of like pets of, you know,
despair or what have you, like, because I'm only into week 5 of
mine. Like that's quite a significant
injury for you with the Achilles.
And you're saying that's a long time to be hurting for.
How do you deal with that? I don't know.
I I was worried. I was, I, I didn't think I'd be.
I'm surprised that I was even starting Highlander.
It was only because I think the team did it for me.
Being part of the team and being the team captain, that was I
probably, maybe not entirely sure because it didn't happen.
I if I wasn't in the team and I probably wouldn't have started
that race, but I'm glad I did. I'll always stay.
They don't necessarily take my advice, but the best thing that
I can do for a running injury is go for a long run and it seems
to get better afterwards. So if that works for you, if
that's fair enough. So so after this I can go up the
river then and do my own first nature.
I don't know why you're not doing the thing so.
Don't tempt me. I've not pulled the block.
I've not told them yet. I'm not DNS, no, as I say with
the e-mail and that has sent and told them I'm not, but just for
me, as you say, everybody works differently, don't they?
Yeah. And it's, you know, many, many a
physio would be screaming at this podcast saying, no, don't
do that. That's stupid.
Well, the physio that I've talked to, Alvin Spear in
Aberdeen, he, he's seen me a few times and he knows he's always
surprised that in, in his, his words, how quick I recover.
And it's just through years and years of build up.
You, you were saying earlier about doing your laps rounds
that round the streets, but I've been out in the hills, I've
built it up and my body has learnt to deal with that.
And I honestly think that's what's what makes me able to
recover like I do. But on top of that as well, you
do strength as well, don't you? You do cross train.
I, I, I haven't been recently since, since this of October
injury, I've I've been doing a bit of cross training, but
compared to the year before that or the years before that, I've
been cutting it down, right. That's the deal with the injury.
Would they get better? I don't know.
So it's I, I would do it again, as in I would do the I will do
the cross training again. It's not I I found it
beneficial. I haven't been recently, but
yeah, I should have been. It's just because I'm lazy, so.
I don't think you are lazy. You're a parent and you work
full time. And as we said earlier on, it's
a hobby for us. We're not paying athletes.
This is just, and I think it is really easy to forget that.
Like I've been really, really upset that I'm hot, doing fine,
but at the same time, my income doesn't rely on that.
Like if you know, the injury, I'm fortunate enough that I
could even still go to work. Should I have went to work on
like the week after I've done it?
Probably not actually to let it properly recover, but I did
because it's it's my job, you know, I don't, I don't like
being off sick. So but yeah, it's all about
enjoying it really, isn't it? And then when we do get injured,
it's just managing that. So.
Yeah, well, a few other points. I was going to say lap, yard,
lap, whatever you want to call. It doesn't bother me.
It's yard 26. So the the in backyards they
blow the whistle. 3 * 3 minutes to go, 2 * 2 minutes to go.
Once, one minute to go. And some races will say, all
right, you've got 20 seconds to go, let's go.
Just so that everybody knows it's it's not in the rules.
You don't need to say that some, some races are kind to their
runners as they were. So you are 26.
I don't know. Me and Rebecca can't remember
hearing the third whistle and talking to somebody else.
They, they said, no, it wasn't blown.
But every yard I, when I stopped, I'd put on my
windbreaker. Well, I would put on my dry rope
and then when I was ready to go in the corral, I'd take off the
dry rope, put on the windbreaker at the three minute whistle and
go in the corral was probably a minute to go.
Yeah. We can't remember hearing the
the three minute whistle or the two-minute whistle or the one
minute whistle. All the way hard was Eric saying
OK, 20 seconds to go. And remember earlier I said that
we were about 30 to 40 meters away.
I've looked on Garmin and I, I made it to the corral with one
second to go. I jumped as in like long jumped
into the corral one second to spare and I looked on Garmin and
I'd done a 518 minute mile pace, that's about about 310 kilometer
for for 15 seconds. Garmin says that I was at a pace
after 26 yards. That was the probably the
hardest part of the whole race, but.
I would say that's a highlight because Rebecca said she she
when you had went off, as you said earlier on, we were in
contact, you know, pretty regularly and she messaged.
We said, Oh yeah, we nearly missed, nearly missed that loop.
I was like, how did you fall asleep?
Which is the natural response because you're that long into
it. I'm like, did you just both dose
was off? She says.
No, we were just talking. Yeah, but the weird thing is I
put on, I put on my windbreaker at 3 minutes to go every lap.
When I got into the corral, my jacket was on.
Yeah, so. Did I hear it?
And we've forgotten that we heard it.
I think you must have done because I said to Rebecca that I
was like, well, what to do is set alarms on your phone now if
you're tired, if you're whatever, She went.
No, they just need to blow the whistle louder.
Well, normally if I don't have crew, I'll have an alarm with
three minutes to go just to make sure.
If I don't hear that, I've got no option but hear my alarm
because I have to physically turn it off.
Yeah. And lesson learned.
Set the alarm because the worst thing you have to do is turn it
off. So is is that preparation is
key. Yeah.
The the other preparation is my wife was at home.
She she wasn't there on the day because Flora had school, so
Dora had they had things to do. Running wasn't there.
They weren't with me so I told her and I've told her for
previous races. I don't know, I think I actually
told her this time. But she'd remembered from
previous races never tell me negative things while I'm
running or while I'm racing. And she got a puncture and had
to go and replace the the tyre while I was busy racing.
But she knew, don't tell me there was nothing that I could
have done about it because I was 421 miles away.
Exactly what what was what would have been the benefit of her
telling me, yeah, go and deal with it because there's nothing
I can do. So, but is that sort of, I
didn't need the negative sort of her telling me that negative
thing. So I think that's the
preparation. Just tell your it's not just
your crew. If, if there's anything goes
wrong in the background and the crew deals with it, great,
they've dealt with it. You don't need to know about it.
Yeah. Exactly.
So overall, aside from you having to DNF because of weather
conditions and those excuses that the three of you made just
to finish early, it was a positive experience.
It, it was as I said, I got the 29 hours or 29 yards or laps or
whatever you want to call it, and I felt fine.
So much so that I went to a hotel, which is another story
I'll tell you about when I got up in the morning, I knew that I
there was a shower there to use and I didn't have to check out
until 12:00. So I went for a run.
Yeah. I went for seven miles around
Sheffield. It wasn't fast, it was like 11
minute miles but at backyard pace and it felt fine.
It's not that I needed to, I wanted to.
So I normally, as I said earlier, I'd take a week off but
I didn't feel and needed to rest.
I didn't feel I needed to run, but I wanted to, so I.
Think that's a bonus as well. That's something a bit different
for you after running. So in total how many miles did
you run in the end of? I know you got 29 yards but for
those that aren't good at maths like myself I'll ask how.
How far did you get? About 121.
That's amazing. So and and then it must have
been 12 hours later. I did a 7 hour run.
Yeah. So yeah, the, the thing that I
couldn't prepare for was after the race, I, we didn't have to
be off the site for 11 hours. So I got an hour's sleep in the
back of the van. Rebecca went home.
She was only about a couple hours away.
So she went home. I got to sleep in the back of
the van. And then when I got up, I went
and asked Eric, do you know any services like motorway service
stations? They've got showers and they
couldn't think of any. Where I was looking on Google, I
couldn't think of any. So I went on Travelodge and just
there was a Travelodge not that far away for 31 lbs bargain.
I'm doing that on you go. Yeah, absolutely.
When you've got a proper bed to sleep in as well.
Got to the Travelodge and talked to the guy on the reception who,
he wasn't a runner, but he was very interested in the race.
Jeremy, his name was because it said on the reception and I was
so tired. I even, how did I even remember
that? He was talking about what do you
eat during the low GI foods and all this kind of he was very
interested. Oh, have you got your booking
number? Oh, yeah, it's here.
So slight problem. As for next week, in my tired
haste, I I can only assume it was me.
If you want to Travelodge, it defaults to day.
Well no, I think it defaults to today.
So why? Why was it next week that I
booked it for? I don't know.
So, OK, can you give me a, can I change it?
You got, Oh, well, you can phone up central.
We, we don't deal with the things in the actual hotel, the
bookings, but you can phone up the central line.
Here's the number. OK, well, my phone's only got 5%
battery left. I'll, I'll try phoning them.
That's the number we charge, 11 pence a minute and you've got a
15 minute queue. Well, my battery is not going to
last that long. So hung up, told them they went
OK, I'll have a look on the website.
And there's another, it was in Sheffield that I had booked to
Travelodge. There's another Travelodge in
Sheffield. So I managed to get a place
there but that was another 40 quid, £40 plus the 31.
I could have gotten a fancy hotel for that price, but I just
wanted to. The worst thing is, I just
wanted to shower. I was happy to sleep in the van.
I just wanted to shower. So have you still got that room
for next week? Because I've got time off next
week and I happily use that booking.
I'm sure it's got to be close enough to the Pennine Way.
Saturday night, yeah. You have to use it on Saturday
night if you want it, it's yours.
Anybody else out there wants a Travelodge on Saturday night in
Sheffield? Drop my message, but the, the
other Travelodge that I went to, I've managed to get there,
managed to actually book the right one on the right night.
Oh, you've got to pay for your parking outside.
So that was another 3 LB OK, right.
I don't care. I just want a shower.
I'm I'm thinking I've been running for 29 hours.
This is like the most expensive shower I think you're going to
have booked. It is, but it doesn't stop there
because when I left the next day I, I said to Rebecca though,
take her out for dinner to celebrate because it was a
successful race. So went over to hers.
But going through Sheffield, there was signs saying you're
now leaving the low emission zone.
But yeah, what, when did I enter the low emission zone?
And if the low emission zone there is the same as the low
emission zone in Aberdeen, that's like a £60 fine.
So just expecting that. So on the website to find out
how much it was going to be. And it was a tenner, so paid
it's there. And then so yeah, that's what,
£70 for the hotel, 10 lbs for that, 3 LB for parking.
Yeah, that was an expensive shower.
And then the the happiest bit for me was she came up to mine
on the way home to be sitting across from you talking to you
because my cooking hasn't poisoned you.
I you asked if I liked it and there was clean plates twice
because I had seconds. So I think that says it all.
There you go. So to those naysayers that says
I was going to poison you, I never.
Yeah, those naysayers, Ross Beverage, I was told.
So, yeah, I'm home now. In total, it was almost 900
miles, a long trip for what could have been a disaster.
It wasn't. I'm taking it as a positive.
I I got to that I I know that in my head that I can get to that
distance and still have plenty to go.
If you had asked me that 3-4 months ago I probably would have
said Nah I'd be fine. But in my head that I would have
known that I wasn't a. Good confidence, best for you.
Is there any that you've got your eye on then coming up that
you can get a decent? I no, I was deliberately not
doing anything, not even looking at races until after hard recall
had been out of the way with. I don't see the point in even
thinking about it and I'm not making any like, although it's
Thursday now and the race is on Saturday, it's still too early
to think about. I slept for 9 1/2 hours last
night and the only reason I got out of bed is because I had to
walk Florida to the school bus. I could have easily slept for
another probably an hour and a half before we recorded this
podcast and I would have done so.
It's it's too early. I've I've got this the time off
work because I had to use the holidays or lose them.
So I'm happily sitting about doing nothing at the moment.
I'll probably go to the running club tonight but I might not, so
we'll we'll see. Well you've more than deserved
your rest anyway, so definitely enjoy putting your feet up and
if you fancy running club, go. If you don't, just chill.
That's, that's the thing at the moment is just do whatever I
feel like at the time. Exactly.
So I I think unless you've got any questions about the race,
who can travel lodges stupidly? Don't ask your advice on them.
I think what I've taken from that.
So anything else you want to catch up on?
I think that's us wrapped up for now.
People seem to enjoy the last episode that we spoke about what
we were doing. As we said that that episode,
it's not something we intend to do that frequently.
I personally don't have. I've got the Ultera, the Chilli
Trail, as I said earlier, coming up in November.
But aside from that, my running is going to be just keeping base
fitness until the end of April because my intention is to
complete my master's dissertation.
So the focus is very much going to be on that and just taking
over what they're running and the fitness and building on this
ankle. Yeah, well, if anybody's got any
feedback on how much rubbish that we talk or even what guests
you want to be on, drop us a message on Instagram.
That's the best place to There are other platforms, but the
messages go missing. We don't get notifications.
Instagram is the place to do it. Direct message or comment on a
post. Feedback means everything.
I'll it could change it, we could ignore it.
Well, that's what happens. So from me, it's goodbye.
Thank you, Nikki for being Nikki.
If anybody has anything they want to ask, please ask and
we'll answer it. Try and be honest.
Might not be honest with ourselves, but we'll try to be
honest on the podcast. So see you later.
Thanks.