Hello mate, Hello. How's it going all?
Right. Looking a bit different.
I don't know what this is. I'm not.
I'm just passed. I don't care anymore.
Yeah. Nice T-shirt mate.
I like your T-shirt too. Nice medal mate.
Nice medal. Yes, we did it.
We absolutely did it. I saw people on kind of social
media like going into their work meetings on video call on like
zoom meetings wearing all of their gear.
One guy was like on a on a gel. Just having a little sports gel.
He's like this, just eating this sports gel on a on the Monday
morning I was. Just using this like a pass
trying to get into the building. Why is it not working?
Mate it was the underground bit I liked.
Yes, go. Just.
It was like a free pass on the underground.
Just show it. Wouldn't you show it free
travel? And I could just go anywhere I
like. Awesome, so you recovered.
I think so. I actually went for a run.
Was it yesterday or day before? First run since the marathon.
How'd that go? Didn't it went OK?
Was it? Yeah, 5 1/2 K just to see how
the legs are going. Can we?
I just want to touch this bit which I thought was was fucking
hilarious the day before. I think so.
This was on the Friday you were shopping for trainers.
Yes, that's right. Yeah.
So apparently before you do a
marathon, you're supposed to do some training.
Yeah, that's the first mistake I made.
And you're supposed to run in the trainers that you've been
wearing for that bit of training.
Obviously I realised the trainers I had, these are the
best bit. Yeah, these are the best.
So these are the trainers I walked for the Paris half
Marathon and I was wondering why I had bad knees.
I thought they were running trainers.
And then I was like, looking at everybody else's training game.
Mine are slightly different. Running trainers look different.
Don't they? They do look different yeah.
They look like space age kind of yeah foamy and everything else
like that so mine were very different Took a photo of it put
on ChatGPT so these trainers for like.
Dude, these are slippers. Yeah, these are clogs.
What are clogs? Yeah.
Dutch bastard, what are you doing?
And it just said no, these are like for five KS or like going
to the gym. I was like, you need some proper
trainers. So yeah, Friday had to go to up
and running in. Town up and running St Big Up up
and running St. Thank you very much.
They sorted me out. They recommended some trainers
said size up, size half a size up as well.
Protect your toes and your toenails.
So yeah, Ka Ching bought the trainers and some shorts because
they need those as well. And yeah, do you know what did?
You notice a difference. I know it's a difference.
Yeah, I know. It's a difference.
No pain in the feet? Absolutely fine.
No blisters? No.
Toenails coming in, of course. Yeah, you're.
In Yeah, so yeah, I think last time I had like, I took my shoe
off and there's a horrible bloody sock with half a toenail
stuck to it, which is nice. Yeah.
So no this time, yeah. But yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm not
going to pass on the back too much, but I'm amazed that was 0
training and then just rocking up there.
Yeah. Which isn't recommended, by the
way. No, definitely not.
Definitely not recommended. But the sheer willpower of just
forcing ourselves to get round there.
And I understand what people say about dark times.
Yeah, like it starts off really. I'm convincing myself.
Sun shining. Oh, it's so everyone.
'S getting excited about all the all the support staff are going
you guys are all amazing and. We're like.
Yeah, I know we are. And then like.
And then yeah, you hit this horrible part.
I think mine was about 25 K through, just hit this like
horrible straight bit. Do you know where you can see
the runners coming back from Canary Wharf?
That that did me. That straight bit and.
I because I was looking, because you're looking at the sun, you
could see what mile there or what mile.
There 35K yeah. And then we were like, I think
the start of that bits like 201K or 22K and I'm like, Oh my God,
there's another 13 K before I can loop around and get back to
there. And you're starting to.
And they were hanging as well. You can see them coming back,
that they look in shit state. Yeah.
And they're way ahead of me. Yeah, Oh my God.
I've got that to look forward to in a.
Minute. Yeah, you just, you just, yeah,
you start hitting that dark place, yeah.
And it's difficult to get back out of it, but you just got like
one step in front of another. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I did. I did not give that the respect
it deserved. Personally, this is just me.
I like, yeah, I was humbled about 14 miles in, 1314 miles
in. I was massively humbled.
Oh, yeah. And it wasn't even my heart and
lungs that were given. That wasn't the problem.
It was just the mechanics of my body were going Nah mate, Nah,
Nah. Exactly the same here.
Hamstrings, feet were. Just the lack of training like
the the the hip getting sore on the left hand side and you
obviously you're readjusting your run technique.
So then your right side, your calf starts going and then but
you're breathing absolutely fine.
Yeah, fine. But yeah, you realise that's why
you do the training, Yeah. Yeah, So it was, I think, yeah,
we should probably just talk about it a little bit.
Like, it was a slick event, wasn't it?
I mean, the amount of people that were there, Clockwork, it
was insane. How?
How well? Was it organised just under
60,000 people? Yeah.
And they they've organised in such a way like.
The waves. Is it just a wave to go there
where you drop your your kit off to be collected after the event
and serves massive trucks? Yeah.
Everybody knew what they were doing.
Yeah. It was amazing.
So like first time London Marathon as we turn up image
Park and we're just like walking around and it like there was no
stress was there. I knew exactly what to do just.
Well, I was partly stressed when I needed to go for a for a wee
and I saw the queue and I was like, oh.
My God, the queue. That's the queue.
That must have been over a cool. Luckily, that wasn't for the
urinals. No, the men's and the women's
urinals were much more easy to. Last, they were moving quickly.
But the the standard port cabins.
Was. Insane.
I was a bit stressed when I saw that, but yeah, it was it was
slick and it started well. Atmosphere was amazing.
The people there were just not the supporters.
What, someone else? It's what does someone say?
It's the closest feeling you'll ever get to be in like a
footballer with people just chanting your name.
Chanting it, Yeah, superb. People because obviously I've
had Gaza on there. Everyone kept I've, I've not
been called Gaza since I was like, it's school, go on Gaza,
go on. You've got this, Gaza.
At first it's like, yeah. And then after a while you just
like, stop. Shouting my message, Jesus.
When you get to about 30 kilometres in and you're just
like you're walking, barely walking and the people are
going, you've still got this. You can do this.
No, I haven't. It's just like thumbs up.
Yeah, yeah, I've I've got this. But yeah, it just just what an
effort. Yeah, it was somewhere else
wasn't. It what an effort it was
somewhere else. The support round there is like
hitting cut your sock is a big milestone.
That was cool. Just going around there and the
noise that comes from that section.
I didn't get a chance to actually take too much in of the
actual ship itself. No, neither did I because I was
just like, well, Mish, I knew Mish had been texting me saying
that she was arranged there somewhere.
So a lot of it you don't have missed the people you know,
dear. So a lot of it you kind of just
looking left and right because you don't know where they're
going to be. So you're not really paying any
attention to actually what's going on around you like the
ship, you know, So you just, you're constantly like looking
around. Scanning in the crowd and.
The other thing is everyone's shouting your name, so you you
don't know if it's your, if it's your partner or whatever that's
showing your name or if it's just random.
But yeah, I didn't take much in the Tower Bridge.
That was awesome. That was a struggle.
It was like this long incline. Yeah, but then you see it in the
distance, but then you see everybody else getting like
really pumped up for it. And then that you try and get
pumped up because you know as well the BBC have a camera there
and you don't want to be blowing out your ass.
Well, even though you are blowing out your ass, you don't
want anybody to see you blowing out your ass.
So you fake it and you get a good run on just for the camera.
I looked at some of the folks, there's a lot of photographers
as well, wasn't there? So you can, you can buy the, the
photos online and I, I bought them like £40.
It's amazing how many photos there are of you and how few of
them you want to show to anybody because you just look like
you're hanging. You look miserable on 90% of
those photos. Yeah, apart from the fake one.
We put your hands in the air. Yeah.
I think the best 1 I had was actually near the end, but I was
only happy because I knew I was near the end.
Yeah, like I'd love to do it again, but I want to train.
I I didn't like I said, I didn't give the respect it deserved.
And the other thing is when you when you realise how many people
apply to do it and never get in. And we were fortunate enough to
do it because we were doing it for ambitious about autism,
something about I finished it and I was like, yeah, I need to,
I need to give that the respect it deserves next time around,
just need to train. Do.
You know what I got 2/3 of the way around and I was saying
never again. I am never ever doing a marathon
again. Lots of chance.
And then I finished it and I said something similar.
And then the following morning I said, I know what's going to
happen here you. Could feel it.
I could. I could.
Feel it because I know what we're like.
We would just go that time if we had trained.
Could we get it down considerably?
That's it. That's what you started doing.
It's like, if I could do that without any training, what can I
do with training? And then I message you and
you're like, yeah, we're doing it again, aren't we?
Yeah, we're doing it again. So we're going to try our best
to represent ambitious about autism next year.
Yeah, we should probably thank everybody actually for all their
donations. We should.
We'll come back to that, Yeah. So we're going to try and do it
next year. But because we've done the
London Marathon, we know that's one of the Abbott's majors.
Tick tock. If we signed up for that the day
after, in fact, you sent me a screenshot and I was like, well,
I've got to sign up for it now. Yeah.
So we know there could be a place in Berlin next year.
Yeah, that would be two of the majors Tick.
Tock. So what are what are this?
Is it 7? I think it's there's a, there's
a six star medal, which is the original 1.
So that's London, Berlin. Then we go to Chicago.
Boston, The tough one. Yeah, New York, Tokyo.
Tokyo. Tokyo's probably one of the last
ones people do just because getting.
There, getting there would be hard, yeah.
And Boston's incredibly hard to get into as well.
Is it? Yeah, they're, they're quite
strict on you've got to be able to run under a certain time.
Yeah. So that's us out unless you get
a charity space or a sponsored space or something like that.
But yeah, they're the six original ones.
But Abbott's have extended it now where I think Sydney's now
counted as a A major and they're thinking about introducing Cape
Town and Shanghai in the future. But even if they do, there's
still the six star medal that you get for the original.
Shanghai would be made. All of them would be.
I think Shanghai does have issues with the air quality.
Yeah, I can imagine sometimes. So that's something to bear in
mind. But yeah, to do to do those six
and to do it very ambitious about autism.
Yeah, it'd be so cool. Be something.
Special, Yeah. All of those for the same
charity would be amazing. It's weird how like we've gone a
bit psycho since not wanting to do any running ever again.
Now we want to conquer. It now we want to do all the
running. We want to do it all.
The training is just totally zoned in.
We're all looking at kit to buy. Going out for training runs post
the marathon as well now, because yeah, we, we signed up
to do the Oxford half literally I think 2 days afterwards we're
like, hey, let's go and do the Oxford half are ambitious about
autism. So we've got that in October.
And I think what what's the really fantastic thing as well
is we have somehow convinced or bullied some other dads who have
been on the podcast previously for the first time to get their
shoes out, start training and they've signed up to do the
Oxford half as well. They.
Haven't you know what? It didn't take a lot it.
Didn't take a. Lot it wasn't like and I think I
think for me and I know you're the same.
We've we've talked about the whole.
Being around. What's going to happen, you
know, when we're, when we're no longer here and stuff like that.
And then any of you very quickly, if you think again,
this is just me. I, I know because I didn't put
the effort in to train, didn't give it the respect it deserved.
You then start and me and you talked about it.
We were like, we talked about this whole being around as long
as we can for our kids. But if we're honest with
ourselves, are we doing everything we can?
100% now to. Be around as long as we can for
our kids. We, we.
Me personally, I'll do it when it's convenient, yeah.
Same. And when the days are hard and
it's been particularly tough, I'll take the easy route out and
that's got to stop. Yeah, say it's the same.
I was talking to one of the lads in the in the stem and whistle.
It was James and he said, he said how did it go?
Asked him some questions about it.
And I said the same. I was like, you know, I could, I
could have done, could have done better.
And he said quite comforting. He said, but mate, you know,
apparently I'm an autistic kid. You just don't have the time.
And I went thank you mate, but I find the time to lift weights.
Yeah, So that time for me hasn't been an issue.
I've been managing to go to the gym to lift weights because I
enjoy lifting weights. I don't enjoy running.
Well, I didn't. I'd like and love it now.
But I think it's easy that you give you make excuses for
yourself. If you're really honest with
yourself, like you just said, then make it you kind of go,
yeah. Do you know what I could I could
do? I could do more and I haven't.
Been yeah, yeah, so. Then when I bitch and moan about
not being arraigned I'm like I personally I need to.
Say the problem is that it's a classic, you know, oh, it's
easier not to do it now. But then when the shit does hit
the fan and you are potentially lying there going, oh, shit, if
I'd made some different choices, you look back on time, go, oh, I
wish I had put that 45 minutes in there on that particular day
and just made a routine, then I wouldn't be here now stressing
about what's going to happen to my child if I've maybe you're
not going to go somewhere, but you, you know, you may have, I
don't know, had a heart attack, a stroke, you know, diabetes has
creeped up or something like that and you're going, oh shit,
I should have made some life choices.
We were slightly. Different and you and if if you
were on your deathbed. Yeah.
And somebody said do you wish you'd done anything differently?
Yeah. You wouldn't go.
No, no. Yeah.
Do you know what I wish I could after yourself better?
I wish I could delay this 5-10 years.
Yeah, I wish. I wish.
I wish I'd done more.
Yeah. And you would, wouldn't you?
If you're honest, that's exactly what you'd say.
A. 100% and again, it's not trying to preach to people.
Not at all. We literally are living this.
We do know how difficult it is, but at the same time, if we can
take steps to allow us to live a longer life, live a stronger
life, a healthier life, whatever the case may be, then it's going
to take away a little bit of that pressure that we have
individually as parents, but also allow us to be there for
our children. Yeah, longer or more
effectively. You know, a bit of both.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a good check
actually. It's not just about being alive,
it's about being able to do things while you're alive.
And we've said it before, like obviously this is like signing
up and running a marathon is the most extreme thing you probably
do. We're not.
We're not saying, hey, everybody, you know what you
need to do. You need to, you need to sign up
during marathon because that'll make you live longer because you
know. Probably isn't the case.
It's. Probably not the case and
halfway around it you'll probably be hating us.
So we don't want that. But if, if it's things like, do
you know what, I'm not going to take the lift, I'm going to take
the stairs. I'm going to, you know, I'm
going to walk to the shops rather than jump in the car.
Yes, it will take me 15 minutes rather than, you know, a couple
of minutes. It's, it's little things like
that. And if it, it can help in the
long run or just, you know, break a routine for the better,
then then great. But it's fantastic now that
we've got there's other dads going right like we're doing it.
Weird. They're just, it wasn't.
We didn't even have to say anything really.
It was just like they would just like they would start like
asking about getting trainers. And a couple of the lads, Jason,
Jason and Carl, I think they're like proper runners.
They're proper runners. Jason is like insanely good.
He he, we had Jason on the podcast very early.
On. He did the Birmingham half,
didn't he? On Sunday?
Yeah, in like 1 1/2 hours. Yeah.
So, yeah. And it was what's what's nice,
right? Jason clearly has a lot of
knowledge on running, a lot of experience.
He didn't pile in the group and just spew out, hey, lads,
listen, I know what I'm doing. In fact, it took me saying a
couple of times, listen, no one needs to tell you how to run,
Jason. And then he started sharing some
of his. But yeah, he, that kid can, can
run. But yeah, it didn't.
I think it, I think it just highlights the people.
Do you know what I, I want to do?
That certainly did for me. I I even though I did the
marathon, watching other people doing the marathon, George
Lewis, for example, George Lewis, he he and showed some of
the training he was doing and you're like, should have done
that. Yeah, yeah, I should have done
that because I think I would have enjoyed it more.
I think I would have had a better time.
Yeah, definitely. It was less.
I'd have been even less limping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I did see the videos. They were special.
What did Mish say? I think you went to, there's a
video of you going to the car in the car park.
Yeah, and it took so long, the car locked itself.
It took so long to get the car relocked itself.
It was just a, it was funny. I remember seeing well the next
day, but they were showing like a, was it an elite runner?
Somebody might have dropped it in the group like elite runners
after a marathon and they were just walking normally.
And then it was like the the, the good amateurs, they were
like, you know, looked a little bit stiff.
And then it was like everyone else.
It was just. Struggling to what?
And that's. What everyone was like on the
underground after, everyone was just struggling to get
downstairs and limping and. Like I said afterwards,
obviously Mitch was there for you.
Charlotte came down for me, but they covered some miles just
trying to go from like, hey guys, we'll we'll meet you at,
we'll go to Greenwich with you. Guys.
They were there at Greenwich and they go, we'll meet you at Cutty
Sark. And I didn't even think about
the logistics, but they were like, yeah, the tubes on those
day for spectators and supporters were horrendous.
So they managed to go to Cutty Sark.
I completely missed, missed them.
I must have run past them. Did they see you?
I don't think they did either. Then they went to like another
point and apparently they were like, what?
Did they go after that? Was it Canary Wharf after that?
Maybe. It might have been just before
Canary Wharf and they were shouting, like, apparently
shouting my name and they've just got a video of me, like
completely oblivious, like in a state of complete shock, just
wandering around like what's going on walking.
Backwards. Yeah, and they're like shouting
my name. I completely ignored them, but
then I saw them, I think just as she'd come out of the tunnel.
Yes, yeah, they were right at the end on the.
Left hand side, yeah. Mitch caught Sean as well.
Didn't. She she did she.
Caught Sean at at cuty Sard but he she filmed him then she was
going Sean. Sean, this is Sean that got us
involved in this shit show in the 1st place and apparently he
just woke thumbs up like you didn't know it was them.
You're just so used to people sharing his name.
Exactly what legend? What an absolute legend, even
when he's not running. And then again at was it mile 25
when ambitious about autism had their their space completely.
Oh, I I saw it. That gave me a proper boost.
You have to. Tell them yeah, the photos.
Oh, man, I was smiling so much when I saw them.
Yeah, but there's little checkpoints that keep it going,
isn't there? Like I thought, Oh yeah, I need.
I'll see them here. I'll see them there.
It just gives you a little. Boost when you know where
they're going to be, it gives you that OK, I'm going to get
there. OK, now I've got to get to the
next point. Yeah, it, oh, it was just
incredible, mate. It was just incredible.
And Sean, wow, for somebody that's never run before?
What did he do it in is? It 5 just over 5, like 5 hour,
one minute or something ridiculous like that.
Yeah, he did. I was on my so good.
My phone buzzed. It's like, yeah, Sean's complete
the half marathon. I was looking at the time going
what? Yeah.
How has he done it in that time? Yeah, Garmins.
Garmins are an interesting tool for running, aren't they?
Liars. Absolute liars, in fact.
It's a meme, isn't it? I keep seeing it on Instagram
Reels. Kind of like it tells you you've
done. It tells you you've done 20K,
but then the 20 K point you don't see for another K and 1/2.
It's like it lies to you. Lies.
Don't tell me I've done a distance.
I haven't done well. Actually, I think you have done
it. I think these are probably
accurate and for some reason the point I don't know, I don't
think. You, you like mine was saying,
you've done 20 kilometres. I'll be like, oh thank goodness,
I'm 20 kilometres. And then like 600 metres later,
I'd see the 20 kilometre marker on the road.
And that, that started to piss me off because I was like, is
that happened all the way? You start carrying down, going,
hey, there's only another 22 kilometres to go.
And you think like, I remember it was like 21 kilometres ago.
And then that mark comes up and you go how, how it just starts
really upsetting you. But what a lot of people said is
obviously you're dodging people. You you can be running around
people and that adds distance onto your Garmin as well.
So that. Cumulative, yeah.
So like when I finished the marathon, which is 42
kilometres, I stopped my watch and it said congratulations,
you've done 44 kilometres. I was like, no, I didn't sign up
to do 44. I signed up to do 42.
What's going on here? But yeah, apparently there's a,
there's a blue line that you're supposed to follow, and that's.
Kind of the true. Which is the true measurement of
the 26 point, whatever it is miles to justify it as a as a
marathon. So they always say like stay as
close to that blue line as you can.
I'm just like wandering around. Deliriously, what was just Yeah.
This is it. So having rhinos overtake me.
The rhinos. Having a guy dressed as a RADOC
shower jell overtake me. There's a dinosaur, a
velociraptor. One of the ambitious about
autism guys was running around with a air conditioning air.
Conditioning unit on his back. Fair play to him, yeah?
Yes, things like that. I'm like, yeah, I've got nothing
to moan about, yeah. This is it.
Then I saw, Is it Manny from Wolverhampton?
Yeah, Absolutely. Legend, I think.
Did you see him? I was tracking him for about 3-3
K and then afterwards I heard the story that he'd literally
walked from Wolverhampton. Yeah, to London to do the
marathon. Did the marathon.
Yeah. Did he walk back?
He may have done, he may have done, but I was like, how on
earth have you done that? Yeah, mental.
Yeah, some of the stuff, the feet, I mean, it's just
incredible. Is that?
Yeah. Was that that lad who carried
the fridge? Yeah.
Yeah, obviously raising awareness because of.
Yeah, was it? Genetic.
Yes, what's the word dementia? Yeah, yeah.
He's got the he's, he's got the genes.
And his brother. I believe so, yeah.
So it may start to affect them when they're in their 40s.
Yeah, but wow, what's? But that's one story of how
many? Like everybody you saw had a
story. That day, yeah, everyone was
connected in some way to something.
Some sort of charity, some sort of awareness, people with
pictures of loved ones on them. One guy, I think he ran with the
trainers of his daughter that passed away around his neck.
You're just like, so humbling. There's deaf people, blind
people. Oh my God.
People in wheelchairs, people without limbs.
Yeah. Just incredible, incredible day.
So like when you kind? Of the best of everybody, wasn't
it runners and supporters? Supporters like London like
that. It's the best of London.
Yeah. And I'm usually quite a negative
person about London. It's like, oh, we've got to get
down to London. Yeah.
Londoners are like this, Yeah. They're not as friendly as
Northerners. Yeah.
You know, that kind of stereotype.
But I tell you what, that day there.
Crazy. There was.
Everybody. Everybody supportive, everybody
like afterwards going on the tube, everyone saying
congratulations. One, did you see the one of the
one guy that was on his own on the oh, everyone's girlfriend?
Yeah, all the soldiers full of people just cheering him.
Just all cheering him. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's and then Monday, like coming back, obviously you went,
went home on Sunday. I came back on the on the on the
Monday going to Houston station. Everybody's wearing their
medals. I was like with mine out and
everyone's like congratulations, well done.
And I'm never doing it again. Yeah, I'm never doing it again.
Following day signs. Following everyone.
'S yeah, yeah, this is it. But yeah, it'd be, I think we
can get in next year. I think we know what to expect
now. We know to treat it with a lot
of respect. Respect, yeah.
It's made. It's given me a new lease of
life. Yeah, as far as my health is.
Concerned. But it's a weird thing, isn't
it, afterwards? And I don't know if it's similar
with other people who, who've run it for the first time or if
it's because, you know, there's an element that we didn't train
properly for it. I was like, geez, if I put my
mind to something I can achieve, yeah.
I think that's what the I think that's what the bug is, The bug
if you do something as crazy as a marathon.
And I think we underestimate how mental it is.
No, it's absolutely crazy. It's an insane thing to do and
you, you, you always jump to that.
If you gradually built yourself up to a marathon, it might not
have the same effect. But when you do something as
drastic as going from, especially when you don't run
half marathon and then doing a marathon and you go, I got
around, I, I actually finished. It survived there.
Holy shit, maybe I am not not and it's not a it's not an ego
thing, but maybe humans are more capable of what than than what
they think. They are.
It does make you think that you can, if you really focus on
something, yeah, you can do. It and that's why I recommend
everyone trying it, because everyone will realise they are
all capable of things they don't think they'll ever be capable
of. Then it's like kind of is it
being like an autism parents that you're so resilient anyway
and stubborn that you just won't take no for an answer that you
just go, no, this ain't doing me either.
I'm going to carry on. I'm going to do this.
And it's the same, I guess for, you know, any same parents
always say no, no, I, I, for me, I'd probably count class doing a
marathon as an extreme sport. I know there's like ultras and
Iron Man and everything else like that, but they always say
the individuals that take to those sports seem to have some
sort of trauma in their life and they just, it's just a way of
that's. Their treatment to for that
trauma. But I'm not saying that all you
know, we've got trauma or anything else like that.
But no, you you have a slightly different life to.
Yeah, well, they're technical. Families, don't you they?
Talk about parenting, you know, children with additional needs
as being almost PTSD. Inducing, don't they?
It's amazing. It's.
Kind of a trauma, I suppose, for lack of a better word, Maybe.
But I'm trying to see if the thing, what else was amazing,
the fire service that in front of me was a fireman in full kit.
Full kit carrying the canister on his back mask.
Helmet. Helmet, everything.
And it was a hot day, wasn't it? That's the other thing that did
me. It was a hot day.
The the weather forecast lied, but it was a hot day and he had
he had a team runner with him. I just remember like seeing this
guy just running. I was like, wow.
And there was a serviceman carrying kit bags and there's
all sorts going. On yeah, it was mental.
It was absolutely mental. But I think one of the things
that kept me going was the donations.
Yeah, yeah. That so many people had put
their hand in their pocket and we know times are particularly
hard, even more so recently. That they had taken the time to
go. Do you know what appreciate we
do and we're going to donate to this 'cause.
Right down to the 50 PS The pains that literally like all of
them. From 1000 down to 50 P Everybody
that's gone, do you know what I'm going to?
I'm going to give some of my money to this cause I think that
just like, but there's no, there's no way that we're not
doing this. No, even if like as hard as it
got and it was just yeah, one step in front of.
Another it got, I mean, it did get like that.
It got like that. I got to like, I just need to
pick my foot up one more time. All right now I've got to do it
again with the other. One I got to the stage, I was
looking at my my watch going how many kilometres I do in an hour.
Oh shit this is going to be like another two hours at this pace
but still got to do it every. Time I slow down almost to a
walk. Someone goes and This is why
any, if anyone does it, get your name printed on your T-shirt.
Because without that, I would have found it way harder when
people are personally saying they don't know you, obviously.
But when people are going go on Andy, go on guys.
It gives you that. You're like, yeah, you know
what? I have got to keep going.
And it and it does. And it makes it makes you pick
your feet up again and push on. Yeah, it's it.
Sorry. This is going to say this is
going to get boring as fuck, but there is something about doing
something like that that makes you go like, it's a bit like,
you know, people that do extreme sports, whatever that thing is
that makes them do it. And you, you look at people that
do extreme stuff and you're like, how do they do that?
Actually mostly a mental battle. And I think they all say that,
don't they? Yes, obviously there's a lot of
physical aspects to it, but the physical stuff only gets there
because you've mentally battled to get through it.
I. Mean I did have David Goggins
going through my head. My fucking my headphones around
halfway through as well. Three hours in, I kept going,
OK, I can't hear anything. And I'd I'd click them on and
they'd beep and they'd start playing and they'd run out and
they'd look at my put my phone in my pocket.
Oh, the battery's dead on them. But again, that's partly not a
bad thing because there's loads of music going.
I mean, Apple had their own little stand.
Yeah, yeah, like 23 miles, something like that.
They towards the end, but all these people just shouting.
I mean, there were certain places where there were like
pubs on corners. I was just so tempted.
Just you know what? I'll just have 10 minutes.
I'll have 10 minutes here, have a little drink, the people.
Were wicked it was one point where I had to stop because I
had cramp in my left calf and and I just popped and I leant up
against the fence and this woman came over and said you're OK and
I lifted my leg and I just got just got cramped.
I'm trying and because I'd lifted my leg up it made the
cramp worse because obviously the muscle was working and I
looked at it and it looked like it had gone inside out.
And this one because it just really tensed up and this woman
went Oh my God. Has anyone got any?
Anyone got any crisps? I'm like, what the fuck is she?
Asking. And she got like salty crisps,
you need some salt and she went eat these and like stuff in his
crisp stain. And then she gave me some
electrolyte tablets. She just had tablets like
electrolyte tablets on it and I had those and May it like
instantly popped out and that was right outside the pub and I
carried and going a little bit more and this guy had a bottle
of I think it was like an IPA or something, but in a bottle.
Anyway, I might have some of that.
Fuck it. And I drank you went have it.
Take it with me. I've got to run around with a
bottle of IPA. But thank you, mate.
So it was just that vibe, like people were so like, so cool.
It was just a matter of people that had turned their balconies
into DJ decks. That was pretty cool going
through some of the built up areas.
It was just the smell of barbecues, people just having.
Barbeques, some of the some of the Jamaican areas it is.
It was the smell of marijuana. My God.
It was like, it was like they were all like playing like they
had the like steel drums and stuff like that.
Playing on the steel drums, but basically the coolest people in
London. But it's yeah, it was just such
a mixed vibe, like just so many different cultures and stuff.
It was just like I'll. Tell you what the music when you
got to is it the the gay bit? The rainbow section.
Yes, it got like a right turn, didn't it, you?
Have the right turns. And they've got, like, a old
Dolbert Decker bus as well. And it was like, what was it,
like, Spice Girls music there? Yeah, Yeah.
But the whole place was heaving. Yeah.
And I was like, oh, just got a Canary Wharf.
And then all of a sudden you just hear this noise again, this
music. And everyone's like, really
having a great time. I was like holy shit, this is
awesome. It was like, I think when I went
past there, I think they were playing like I think it was
Spice Girls. Like spice up your life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like they had a stage as
well, didn't they? Banger 90s Banger drag.
Queens on this stage. Spice up your life.
Come on, Gaz. Yeah, played that just for me.
So that was quality, but yeah. And then seeing Big Ben, you
just know, oh, I can see Big Ben well.
They say, don't they? When you see Big Ben you know
you're getting towards the end. But they also say don't be
deceived because just because you've seen it doesn't mean
you're there yet. No, because that is 1 long
straight, isn't it? Until you get to towards
Buckingham Palace. That's a long, long straight,
yeah. But yeah.
Wow. That Buckingham When Buckingham
Palace, you run around Buckingham Palace on your left
and then that's it. The Home straight 3. 185 yards
to go. Yeah, that's it.
Yeah. What did you do when you crossed
the line? Nothing.
Pride it's. Like in shock.
Thank goodness. Get me a medal.
It's I'd like I just I crossed over it like instantly started
welling up. My God.
And I couldn't, I couldn't tell you why it's.
Just emotional. I don't know why though.
I wasn't like running towards the line thinking Oh my God, I'm
nearly done. But I crossed the line and I
think it's because you've got everyone else crossing as well
and everyone's just my name's like a feeling.
It's weird, like an aura of emotion.
And I like, I started fooling myself and I was like, don't
know why, but I'm getting getting a bit emotional.
And then you you go through and because you've got your name on
there, they're like, well done Gaz.
And just so you know, they know your name and they're giving you
your medal and something about someone placing a medal over
your head, like. Takes you back to being at
school. Yeah, I'm an athlete.
Of course I am. Top 1%, but yeah.
Yeah, in it just insane. And obviously it was a it was a
record-breaking. Yeah, yeah, 2 records isn't.
It or was it 15933 or is it 1? Yeah, I think 15930 something
like. That, yeah, something like that.
And then someone else. Never got just after him. 159
doesn't think. I heard like the top 4, the top
four. I think like top three had the
same trainers on as well. How about this?
Because Adidas and they're not even on sale yet, are they?
Pretty sure they're legal. They're legal trainers, but you
can't even buy them yet. But.
I think the guy also who won it, obviously Nike spent a lot of
money trying to get under the two hour mark.
That's all like saying they'd spent almost like 500 million
over a couple of years to get an athlete under the two hour mark.
And I think they they've done the unofficial under 2 hours,
haven't they? With, I forget his name now, but
obviously everything Nike. Nike pumped loads of money in
there and then this guy's done it.
We're in Adidas. Awesome.
You know someone at Nike went. Fuck I I I.
Yeah. Jesus.
Was it, was it Nike that put all those red, all the advertising?
They put loads of advertising up.
That was Nike, wasn't it? Yeah, something.
Like this, but you're tougher. Yeah, that sort of thing.
Didn't they had a bit of a controversial one as well when
they were like walkers tolerated or something like.
That yeah, yeah. You got in hot water for that,
wasn't they? They did, which is why we're
sponsored by well, then, But you know, I think I got emotional
probably before we got too ambitious about autism.
I started going like it started to hit me like, Oh my God,
we're, I'm going to do this literally because you spend that
bit of time walking as well, which seems forever and you
think you're never going to get there because every time you
look at your watch, it hasn't moved.
It's gone backwards if anything. I just got to that stage and I
started, I could just feel the eye starting to go like, oh
shit, this is getting emotional. And I was just like obviously
thinking about because what? Andy in the group sent me a
couple of voice notes during the run and one of the obviously
they're all tracking us going around and sending like messages
in the group. Keep going lads, keep going.
He sent me a really, really nice message.
Because because you've just done half of it, mate.
You've just done half of it because you're doing well.
Think of it like this in the first half, it's going to get me
emotional again. This.
Is Andy Gunning? Yeah, he said the first half
you're running for everybody else's children.
You know, we obviously ambitious about autism because the
second-half you're running for Lydia.
Yeah. Nice.
And I think that got me thinking.
It got me emotional, and I brought it with me.
I think you got one of these as well, didn't you?
But yeah, yeah, there's the school.
Thank you very much to the teachers at Lydia School.
I got handed this to the on the Friday before just wishing us
good luck. So yeah, really appreciate that,
that that did help in it at that moment.
I I had these two things with me, a picture of Lydia as well.
Yeah. So picture of Lydia had both of
those in the pocket. And I remember just reaching
into them and just bringing them out at that moment, just going
right. We've got this, we've got this.
Not long now. It helps, doesn't it?
Yeah, that's why I had I had the double sided picture of Thomas
in one pocket. That's funny.
The school. I'm sorry, I'm telling this
story. Sorry, guys, I'm telling it is
funny. So we had a note in Thomas book
saying that spent the day making Daddy a little good luck present
for the marathon. I was like, oh, that's lovely,
That's really nice. And then looking through the
bag. All right, where's this good
luck present that they've made? And then we had a phone call.
I think it was a phone call or an e-mail from the school going,
Oh my God, we're so sorry we did this thing.
We forgot to pack it, but it was a thought they kated.
It was a thought, but it was really nice that they did.
That yeah, yeah. It was, it was really lovely of
them. I love that school.
I just think they're. Awesome, they're so good.
To take the time to know that we that we're doing that as well
because we've not mentioned it to them.
No. No, God, no.
But we know they obviously. I had friends and family that
didn't know I was doing it till I was in London.
What are you doing in London? Yeah, exactly.
Why on TV? It was, but yeah.
No real nice touch. Really nice touch.
Really nice touch, really. Really nice as you've mentioned
Dandy gunning Yes. And this might be a good thing
to do mate. I think this is he's asked us to
to read something out for him. Shout out a bit of a shout out
because obviously we bit your moan about where the system
fails kids quite a lot. Yeah, especially with all the
white paper and stuff that we've done more recently.
And he asked if we could share this.
And I thought, what a nice touch that yes, the system and and
certain services fail our kids and fail us as parents.
But when they don't and they do something amazing and.
Deliver. Exactly.
It's worth giving a shout out so I thought. 100% worth both ways
I thought. It was on to on with this, so if
anybody ever does want us to read anything mate, just let us
know. Send us a message, send us an
e-mail to hello@alton.cast.com. Hopefully we'll see it.
If we do, we'll read it out. So, so this is this is from Andy
on. A massive thank you to
Shropshire Paediatric Occupational Therapy and to Gay
in particular. After our local authority
decided our son had no sensory or physical needs for his EHCP,
we were lost. Reaching out to Spot Limited for
a private assessment was one of the best decisions we've made.
From day one, Gay saw our saw our son as a child, not a case.
Her assessment was thorough, her report reflected exactly who he
is, and her input during a mediation was invaluable.
The result? The local authority agreed to
every recommended change and asked Gay to continue working
with him as his OT. That tells you everything about
the quality of her work. We'll keep recommending Spot
Limited to every Sen family we meet.
Our children's lives and education matter, and Gay lives
that in everything she does. So thank you, Gay.
Thank you to Spot Limited. That's amazing.
I like that. I like that.
Give people a shout out when
they deserve it. So, so gay.
We've said this before. I know it's like it can sound
like doom and gleam and we always do hear the horror
stories. And we, we've said, you know, a
lot of people who work in the services or work in certain
therapies that they are doing a good job or they're trying to do
the very best they possibly can do under the circumstances or
the finances that, you know, that limit them sometimes.
So no, that's fair play. And you don't really.
I mean, some people will, but the majority of people aren't
going into these jobs. To be a Dick.
For a job, you know, it's not like I need a job.
I'm going to go and be an occupational therapist.
No, you do it because you can. You want to make a difference.
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, anything else mate?
No, I think that's just a short one to say thank you again to,
to everybody donations and again even not just the donations, but
the messages we were receiving on the day.
Yeah. Oh, someone bought us a couple
of coffees as well, didn't they? Yeah, yeah.
During the run yeah thank you to them as well yeah just running
we've got a if you want to support the show because
obviously we actually can probably tell we we don't make
any money from doing this it costs money but we we do have a
buy a coffee link in our profile and Instagram.
You can go into Linked Tree and if you want to buy us a coffee
you can do and bless them. A couple of people did go.
There, you said at the end you went somewhere, a couple of
people. Was it coffee?
I think I bumped into like halfway around the courses after
you had that cramp, wouldn't it? Yeah, I don't have the crab.
I was. All right.
I'll carry on running. And I ran.
And you were there in the middle.
I. Was like, I've got a tap of the
shoulder. It was you.
Hello. Mate and you were like.
What are you doing here? Yeah, I just.
Absolutely. Yeah.
My phone's just gone off. Someone like someone's bought us
a coffee. Yeah.
So it was really cool.
Thank you very much for doing that.
It does help. And yeah, the next thing is,
yeah, keep training. We've got Oxford coming up and
we're. Going to smash.
That we're we're going to absolutely smash that.
We've got some exciting plans as well for the rest of the year.
Really exciting shit coming. So watch the space because this
is going to be big. And then next week we've got.
Oh, is Adam Parkinson OK? Adam Parkinson next week Monday.
You guys all know who he is. You've seen him on Socials 2, Mr
PS2, Mr PS He's one of the Mr PS.
He is one of the Mr PS. So he's on next Monday.
That's a long time coming. We've got a few more guests
lined up. They're exciting.
We've got Oren's coming on to talk about his app.
Yeah, this is going to be, this is going to be good.
This is 1. I would say like TuneIn, it's
going to be very eye opening. Yeah, because that is a piece of
kit I wish we had, you know, early on we were blown away by
it. I won't harp on too much about
it because obviously he could talk about it this year.
But yeah, I'm really excited about this year.
Really excited. Some cool shit happening and for
me, I think for you, for all, for all of us and all the other
dads that are in the in the WhatsApp group, yeah, this is
giving me a kick up the arse to just be be better basically in
everything I do. Trained as once we can, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, exactly as once. We can, yeah, do what we can.
But yeah, definitely. All right, mate.
Well, I don't think we'll find another excuse to wear on
medals. Do we need an excuse because
we're athletes, can we just wear these?
I think you just wear these all the time now you can and then
just collect more of them. I'll tell you what I will say,
they're fucking good medals. They're heavy.
They're good, man. Yeah, yeah, they're proper,
proper heavy metal medals. But no, they're just just
outstanding. I think I've just become a bit
of a metal magpie now. I just want to.
Collect more. Of them, yeah, just put my body
through different things to collect more of them but.
Yeah, and we're like in the in the dad group now.
Everyone's just dropping in their time, their running time,
so the lads aren't getting proper stuck in.
Yeah, this is This is why it's quite nice having a group of
people because they kind of push each other on.
Yeah, but in an in an in a supportive way, as in like,
congratulations, well done. You've been out for a run.
Good stuff, good stuff. And then also in a supportive
way is and why you've been a lazy bastard.
The issues don't get out there. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So it's it's a good support
group. But yeah, it'll be great if we
can in the future just have more mums and dads be part of
something and have the same level of kind of support that
we're experiencing now, but on a larger scale.
Yeah. And we're going to make that
happen. Yeah, 100%.
Also join the Discord because it's full of legends and we just
chat every day and we go in the stem and whistle at weekends and
a lot, a lot of the support we got was from the discord as
well. The discord group, they were
tracking us and what was really nice, maybe my ego like this, I
don't know. But what was really nice is they
were all like helping each other.
Like we weren't there to talk to.
They were talking to each other about how we were getting on and
I thought that was just nice. They were like tracking us and
stuff and they were, oh, should I take to Emma and her husband?
They we, we know them through the discord speak to Emma on the
the video chat most weekends and she was there.
She's they saw you. They in fact, they got you on
video. Oh my.
God. Right past and I just heard Gaz
got like a psycho Gaz like screaming and I was like, well,
people have been encouraging and stuff, but that that's like
something different. But I'd already gone past and I
turned around and she was going go on.
And I was like, it's Anna. You know which is.
Nice. I'd seen her in the the the stem
and whistle and you just see it. I was like, oh sorry.
That was cool. That was really good.
It was really nice. And finally, to everybody else
that ran for ambitious about Autism, like congratulations,
well done. You've raised some amazing funds
for a great charity. I had a pleasure, a few of them
tapping me on the back saying keep going, Andy.
Yeah, you've clearly done no training, which is why we're
running past you, but keep going, which is also very nice
there's. A few National Autistic Society
people as well and they're. Obviously.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're wearing vests, they
say autism. Or autistic.
We're helping each other out, we're giving each other support
and what's nice as well. In June we are going to go down
to London and we're going to meet with ambitious about
autism. We're going to have a meeting
with the chief exec. She's going to come on a
podcast, talk to us about the charity, give us the number of
how much money has been totally raised for Ambitious about
Autism, which we're excited to hear amongst everybody that's
done events with them over the London Marathon and fundraised
and get an indication of what the money does.
That's that's the big one as well, because I think once you
get to see that. It's all very well us doing it
on the front end raising money, but then when we find out, God,
this money's actually helped this, it's helped this family or
it's done, you know, something here in a school or it's, it's
creating an opportunity here. We start to get a better picture
of it's, you know, of where the money goes and how much of a
positive difference it makes to to children and young people who
have autism. So absolutely stoked about that.
Yeah, that will do it. Really looking forward to it.
And we're just going to keep doing as much as we can for
ambitious about autism. Aren't we?
Yeah. You know, it's if it wasn't.
I've said this before, the reason we have such an Infinity
to ambitious about autism is before I even met Gaz, I
messaged him and said, look, there's a place at Paris half
marathon we'd be running for ambitious about autism.
Are you interested? You said go on then, let's do
it. And the first time we met was at
Birmingham Airport and we did the half marathon and we just
kind of said where are the dads in this?
And this is which has led to the autism dad cast and all the
crazy things that we do now if it wasn't.
For them we wouldn't doing this so.
If it wasn't for them, they're the catalysts.
They're that, you know, they were The Big Bang that created
this. So as far as I'm concerned, you
know, we'll, we'll, we'll tear our flag to ambitious about
autism, do as much as we possibly can for for that
charity. 100 percent, 100%. Awesome.
Well, thank you very much. No problem and when when you
running next? There tomorrow.
Tomorrow, yeah, mines on Saturday now like. 7 1/2
tomorrow. Ohh, got cheeky, I know.
But fun and we love it now. We love it.
Yeah, absolutely. So it's all posted.
Alright mate, Thank you very much.
Absolute pleasure. Catch you later.
See, you guys see. You guys take care.
Bye bye.