All right. Today I'm joined by Mark Cobain
of the Hard Stuff Race Director. I've just run one of his races,
200 miles, probably a world exclusive.
The first time that the interviewer has ever is the race
winner, run 200 miles and interviewing the race director.
So if I'm not 100% encompassmentess, I'm not going
to apologize because I won the race anyway.
Let's get down to business. The thing that everybody's
talking about, Mark, how do you pronounce your surname?
Corbyn. So the but.
I don't mind. The Cock Slam is always a a good
thing to go with anyway and I I think that confuses people as it
is Cobain. It's actually a Scottish name.
Yeah, as, as I would say, Cobain as well, but all right.
Mark, can you tell me how you started running?
How I started running, but I just, it just progressed from
marathons really. And then you get your fastest
marathon time and then decide to go on to going the other way and
trying to go longer instead of going faster.
Well, for me that was the best option.
And then we got into ultras. And then at the time, and I was
a lot younger than I am now, there wasn't that many ultras
around in the UK. So I've heard about ultras
abroad. So you've heard about races like
Bad Waters, Sport offline and MD's, those kind of races.
You know, you've read it, you've read about them in magazines
because there wasn't any real online information about
anything. So I thought that looks
interesting, sounds interesting. And then I think I've started
training for MD's that was the first thing and gradually built
up to 50 miles and 100 miles and then went out and did that and
then completed that, enjoyed the adventure.
And then you looked at the next thing and the next thing and
then the next thing and it's just a just a progression.
So you I wanted to take off a list of races I had in my head
which were like the big races around the world, and I've
eventually managed to do that. Yeah, just continue to.
Is there any races that you'd still want to do?
Well, I mean, the last race I tried to do was the last race
that actually ended was Trans USA.
But then I was injured a few months before the race and that
was it. Just knee, knees completely.
Well, right knee completely went.
I don't have any College in your right knee, so that was the end
of it for me. So then to kind of keep in with
the running scene and the people like you that, you know, I would
meet adulterers in the extreme kind of area of ultras.
Then I thought, well I'll I'll try and organize some races in
the UK and from all the races that I've done around the world,
I'll try and add in some of those elements that made those
races difficult and try and add like an X Factor.
So that's why I came up with some difficult races which the
races are more about actual fewer running, so they're low on
frills but mainly focused on running ability.
So because that's what what interests me is I set set a
challenge and then see if anybody can complete it and then
it makes it interesting for me as well.
So that's that's why I really got into organizing the races.
If you were in full fitness now, out of all your races, which one
would you like to do most? Oh, I'd like to do them all.
I mean that's. Yeah.
I think as a general rule in my head, I think back when I was
reasonably fit, I wouldn't organize something that I didn't
think I would have had a good go at, you know.
So I try not to make it completely impossible and it
would have to be something that I think I'd have a good go at
and I would enjoy. So I think all the ones that
I've come up with would have interested me.
As I said, they've got a bit of that X Factor and it's the
really difficult challenges. And for me, if you go away from
something and you've spilt your guts to finish, you're going to
remember it for the rest of your life.
And that's that was the aim with this series of races that I came
up with. I don't want a lot of people
turning up and going home with the medal.
I want a certain few that have gone through that, you know,
pain, pain, zone and push beyond the limits to go away with an
achievement that they, you know, they'll never forget.
And hopefully you've done that. You've got something out of it,
yeah. Out of all the either organizing
an event or running an event, what's your biggest running
achievement? It's hard to say really because
you go into each one as a challenge and at that point in
time it's the next biggest thing.
So achieving that, you know you feel that and then you go, you
go for the next one and the next 1.
So it's hard to say because you're at a certain level
throughout your running career and it's kind of progresses on a
on a on a scale going upwards exponential scale and so each
one in its own sense is an achievement.
So I wouldn't really single one out, but I'm quite proud with
the like the Bad Waters, Sparta, Athlons, the Himalayas, Yukon
articles. Through that kind of stuff.
I've been across numerous deserts but they're all
completely different and all have that different element so
it's really hard to pick one out.
Well, I've been awake for three days, run 200 miles.
I'm sitting here feeling a bit spaced out, so I'm going to let
you go. And thank you very much.
Yeah. Well done, Mike.
I just want to say that Mike has completed all of the challenges
that I've put in front of him and I think it's phenomenal for
somebody to do that. So hats, Hats off the mic.