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Andy Hodgson, Falklands Ultra.
52 Plays4 years ago
In this episode I speak with Andy Hodgson who is one of the Founders of the Falklands Ultra which is due for its inaugural event in March 2022.
Listen to hear all about the mammoth logistics about the organising of a race which is thousands of miles away! This does sound like an incredible event to both organise and to take part in.
You can connect with the team from the Falklands Ultra on the following.
https://www.falklandsultra.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to the UK Sports Chat Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to the UK Sports Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams and in this episode I speak with Andy Hodgson who is one of the founders of the Falklands Ultra which is due for its inaugural event in March 2022.
Challenges of Organizing the Falklands Ultra
00:00:16
Speaker
This was a really interesting chat Andy explains about the logistics of organising a race in the Falklands from the UK which has taken a number of years to get to this point and the logistics involved are quite incredible as
00:00:30
Speaker
Andy talks about. There is an offer on of a £250 discount for anyone who uses the code UKrunchat which lasts until the end of February. I enjoy my chat with Andy. I hope you're all keeping well. Have a great weekend and see you on next week's episode.
Guest Gratitude and Personal Background
00:00:49
Speaker
Welcome Andy. Thank you very much Joe. Thank you for having me. How are you?
00:00:55
Speaker
I am good right now because it's half term. So no homeschooling. The joys, yeah, the joys of homeschooling. It's been there. Yeah, it's been tricky. I must admit we were happy for half time.
00:01:12
Speaker
So thanks for coming on. It's great to have you come on and have a chat to us and tell us about the event that you're organizing. Just before we dig into the actual event, just tell us a little bit more about yourself and your running as well.
00:01:29
Speaker
Me and my running, well I never stood a chance really, I had to become a runner, because both my parents were runners, so I was taken out on the fells for fell running, orienteering, in a purpose from when I was a baby, so I grew up
00:01:47
Speaker
being immersed in the running scene. So I was in the Lake District or in Scotland or not Thumberland, out in the fells, the hills, the woods, every weekend from when I was born. And so I did a lot of orienteering and then got into mountain marathons, some of the longer distance stuff. I used to find road running was a little bit dull for me, but as I've got older, I've gone into that a little bit more as well as my joints have got a bit creakier.
00:02:17
Speaker
And then what
Military Influence on Running Philosophy
00:02:20
Speaker
happened then? Oh, join the army. That was probably an epiphany moment when all of a sudden they've become aware of just how far and just how hard an activity your body is actually really capable of doing. So I feel a lot of long distance stuff with these massive packs, massive burgers, you know, the size of refrigerators going over mountains.
00:02:46
Speaker
And yeah, it was an epiphany. It was just amazing to like, you know, get to the end of the day and think, oh my goodness, I've covered 30, 40, 50, 70 miles carrying this massive weight in your back. Wow. I mean, I used to think that a 10K run was a long run, but then, then yes, I discovered what the body, human body is capable of. And that's when I first got into the ultra scene.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we could do a whole podcast just on that, in terms of what you think the people will love versus what your body can do. The whole mental side to it's fascinating as well, isn't it? Yeah. And it's just the feeling of your body at the end. That's the good bit, isn't it? It starts always a bit of a struggle and you get that
00:03:34
Speaker
A bit in the middle where you're in the zone and then a bit at the end where you think, oh, where's the finish? The finish is going to be around here somewhere. And you finish. Did it. Did it.
00:03:47
Speaker
Cool. So tell us about the event then.
Inception of the Falklands Ultra
00:03:50
Speaker
First of all, who's involved and why the Falklands? Right. Well, so this is a story. It's been going on for what year are we now? 2021 now. The race is going to be next year, 2022, the inaugural race. And it started
00:04:08
Speaker
in 2012 so by the time the runners set off on the start line it would have been working on it for 10 years. So back in 2012 one of my best mates was stationed down there with the British military and I was due to go out and visit him but I just started a new business and couldn't justify the time away and he kept sending me the photos and videos of the most amazing places, the most amazing scenery
00:04:38
Speaker
the remote dramatic scenery with penguins and seals and it's like oh my goodness I've got to get there I've got to get there and then before I knew it 12 months was up he was back in back in the UK
00:04:53
Speaker
I haven't been down there. I need an excuse. What's a good excuse? What's the big international events that are down in the Falklands that I can experience this adventure playground for an athlete? What's the big ultramarathans or adventure races? What are the big ones? And they said, well, there isn't anything.
00:05:16
Speaker
there's no international event. How can a country not have any international event? And it's just a real challenge to hold an event there, because the logistics of getting there. There's a military flight every week from Vise Norton, and there's a handful of seats available to civilians. But you're only talking about a handful of seats there. And you can be bumped off at quite short notice. And there's a Latam flight. There's a commercial scheduled flight through Chile.
00:05:44
Speaker
um each week uh but uh it's not 100% reliable um and so you can't you can't justify holding holding a big international event there when you don't know how that you don't know that your audience your competitors are actually going to be able to make it there it's like oh my god there's no there's no big events i said right well let's let's do it let's let's give the people
Logistics of Hosting an International Race
00:06:10
Speaker
Give the people what they want, give the people an event in this amazing place. Now, you know, we started off thinking, well, let's organise an ultramouth and let's organise an event there. But I mean, 98% of it is not really about organising an event, it's in organising all the logistics and infrastructure.
00:06:33
Speaker
to get everyone there and to be able to support them when they are there. If somebody gets lost 40 miles from Stanley, the capital of the Falcons, that's a problem. It's not a problem like getting lost in the Yorkshire Dales or in the Lake District. Bear in mind the population of this country is about a couple of thousand people. It's like a small English village.
00:07:00
Speaker
So we have to take a lot more, a lot of precautions and we're talking to airlines about chartering planes. So they're not the normal things that necessarily you'd have to have to think about when organizing a race. But it all adds to it. It's a race in this
00:07:24
Speaker
untouched corner of the globe. Do you ever use the Strava global heat map? I've seen it, yes. I'm not sure about advertising and whether I'm allowed to mention it, but I use it all the time. It's fascinating. You can see where people run, where people cycle around the world, and you can look in deepest darkest Africa and you can see tracks of where people go running. And if you have a look at that in the Falklands,
00:07:54
Speaker
And apart from around Stanley, in the hills around immediately around Stanley, and around the military base, the vast majority of the Falklands, it's just black, deepest, darkest black, because nobody goes back.
00:08:10
Speaker
No. So, I mean, there is a tourist industry in the Falklands, but a lot of the most vast majority of the tourists, they don't leave Stanley. They don't leave the town, the capital city in the Falklands. And where we go, where the route is, is it's properly remote, properly untouched part of the world. So. OK, so let me let me come back to the logistics that you've talked about there, then, because I
00:08:40
Speaker
I organize a race, I organize our local half-mouth in the Shrewsbury. And yeah, it's a big job. It can be stressful at times. I'm just thinking.
00:08:56
Speaker
I'm local, I know people around here, there's motorways, there's roads, it's well connected obviously because it's in England. I know if I run out of cable ties that there's being queued up the road. I can easily build relationships quickly, locally for volunteers and all that kind of thing.
00:09:18
Speaker
looked at the challenge of even getting there, you know, flights like you've just described, you don't know if people can get there. Just talk me through some of those logistics that you've started with the organizing. Well, I mean, probably the biggest factor, the biggest single factor really is population. You've got about 2000 people that live there. Now, if we're having 16 checkpoints that can be open for up to 40 hours,
00:09:47
Speaker
I think how many people are at a checkpoint? Just on manning checkpoints, you know, we've got to make sure, you know, it could be that we run out of people in the country. Yeah, the problems, there are challenges like that, that you can't just throw money at or, you know, you have to do all that working out and planning and make sure that you know, you know, who you've got. So that's the biggest number one factor. And the other thing is, I mean,
00:10:17
Speaker
It's taken nine years to get to this point. So, you know, you can nip around the corner to be in queue. Definitely can't do that on the Falcons, which is one of the reasons why it takes so long to prepare for it. There is a ship, so the Falcons are supplied by a ship from the UK, from Southampton, every six weeks. So we'll be able to ship stuff out there, but we are talking about a six-week cycle there.
00:10:46
Speaker
we have to we've got a river crossing so we cross the San Carlos river at one point after about 50 kilometers into the course so we'll probably have to build a river crossing and there's no point in us arriving there and finding we've got to build the river crossing
00:11:04
Speaker
because we've got to get the materials, scaffolding poles and boards and whatever it is that we need. So that all needs to be planned significantly far enough in advance. It's not like we could even chop trees down and go down to build a bridge from basics, trees and logs because there are no indigenous trees on the island.
00:11:28
Speaker
Really? So, you know, it's very exposed. Is there no trees at all? There were no indigenous trees. So there's a few trees that have been planted. There's been a memorial woodland planted in Stanley and a few of the farms have planted some trees, provide a bit of shelter and the like. But naturally on the islands there's no trees, which does mean that
00:11:53
Speaker
when we're doing the race, if you're up on the high points, you'll see the course and the people stretching out in front of you, or behind you, depending on which end of the course you are. So, you know, if you're one of the slower guys and you get to the top of Mount Asbol, which is the top, the highest point on the whole of the islands, the people at the back, they'll be able to see a thread of people stretching out in front of them for,
00:12:19
Speaker
20 miles, 30 miles and of course if it's during the night time then you'll see this.
00:12:27
Speaker
this twinkling trail of lights going off into the distance over the rolling hills. So no trees. But as a consequence of that, they're exposed. There's no natural shelter. There's rock formations where you can get shelter. But if the wind gets up and the rain comes down or the snow comes in, then you need to be ready to change quickly because you're not just going to be able to hunker down under a bush
00:12:57
Speaker
get changed or what have you. I mean you're properly exposed there so it's going to be super important that everyone's carrying them under three safety kit and warm kit because even if it's sunny and warm when you set off it will change and it will change rapidly.
00:13:17
Speaker
So I was going to ask you about the weather. Before I do that, just what distances are you doing out there for the event?
Historical Significance of the Race Route
00:13:23
Speaker
So we've got three distances. The two main ones are 100 kilometres and 100 miles. They're actually both a little bit further than that because what we
00:13:32
Speaker
definitely don't want to do is to have anybody crossing the finish line of the 100 miler and find that their GPS is only recorded as 99.9 miles how frustrating would that be so there'll be about 105 kilometers 105 miles and then there's also a marathon distance as well and so
00:13:54
Speaker
They're all along the same course effectively. So the 100 mile course covers the whole distance and then the first marathon distance of it is the marathon and then from 60 kilometers in, so the last 100 kilometers or 105 kilometers is the 100k course.
00:14:15
Speaker
And the course is it's been broadly inspired by the routes that British forces took in 1982 in their operation to liberate the islands. So a lot of the place names I'll be very familiar to anybody.
00:14:31
Speaker
probably in Britain who's of a certain age from mid-40s and upwards a little bit. There'll be names that people heard on the six o'clock news each evening in April, May, June of 1982. So the course, it starts in Goose Green.
00:14:47
Speaker
and then it heads up to the highest point on the islands Mount Osborne before dropping down to San Carlos Bay where the task force landed so that bit that bit of the course is kind of back to front because the task force landed in San Carlos and one group set off down to Goose Green we're doing that bit back to front
00:15:05
Speaker
but then from San Carlos we then head east over the islands and through the hills to Stanley we go via Mount Kent, Mount Longden, Wireless Ridge, Tumble Down, so all these scenes of some really famous battles and you end up in the finish lines in the middle of Stanley so the last
00:15:29
Speaker
few kilometers you'll see Stanley in the distance as he's coming down off the hills and it'll be the the march into Stanley and there's a really famous photo of the Falklands conflict I think was taken after after the surrender of some Royal Marines
00:15:46
Speaker
heading into Stanley and one of them had a Union flag flying off the back of his burger. It's a really famous picture. We'll be running down that or walking or crawling down that trail into Stanley. So hopefully we'll be able to get some like-for-like photos. But I know some of the guys will probably be going down that point in the middle of the night. So the photo will quite be like-for-like.
00:16:16
Speaker
When you set out to do the route, was that one of your ideas or was that quite a natural path to follow, I suppose, through the Vulpans? No, so we had a few different ideas because
00:16:32
Speaker
One of the big early decisions that we've had to make, or we did have to make quite a number of years ago, we had to go through this process, was are we creating a multi-day event, or are we creating a single stage event, multi-stage or single stage? And in the end we decided to go for a single stage event, but it might take more than one day for a lot of people, I think 40 hours is the cutoff.
00:17:00
Speaker
And it was a multi-day event. There's so many different terrains that we could have had. It would be easy to have had a beach day, a rocky day, a mountain day, a foggy day, and so on. And we thought about that. So we can have one day where you're winning from a beach full of penguins to a beach full of seals to a beach full of sea lions and so on. And we thought about doing that.
00:17:29
Speaker
but we were somewhat limited by the logistics on the islands and that's a lot of movement of lots of people every day and then we toyed with this idea of having this single stage event and the logistics play into it a lot more and then but also the theme it does actually tie in a lot of
00:17:54
Speaker
quite nicely, I think. I mean, to be able to recreate the steps that the soldiers took back then, it tells a story. And obviously, people aren't getting, you know, it's not going to be the same as it was in 1982. But it's, I feel, it's quite my story. And you do get to see a lot of the islands this way. You go from one side of the country to the other. Okay.
00:18:23
Speaker
Is there, are there any, to excuse my knowledge of the war, but are there any,
00:18:31
Speaker
visual you know kind of reminders yeah there are there are so there's a lot of i'm not sure whether to say a lot there are certain relics that have been left behind as reminders okay and and we'll be running past those people will see those on the course so for example one of our one of our last checkpoints is a wrecked Chinook helicopter
00:18:58
Speaker
So it's still there, recognisable as a Chinook helicopter. So that was one that was destroyed by, I think it was by Harry Adjets in the 82 conflict. And that's, I think it's about 20 kilometres from home. So when you see the helicopter, you haven't got far to go by that point. So there's a helicopter. So what else? You see some, I think you're going to pass some gun emplacements, mortars.
00:19:25
Speaker
and on the top of several of the hills there's memorials as well that that does remind us. Will you see any penguins? I like to spend many a day sat in front of the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet and that sounds very appealing.
00:19:45
Speaker
So the penguins, the Falklands is probably the best, or one of the best, I'm not sure I can say the best, probably the best place in the world to see penguins. So they've got, if you're a penguin lover and who doesn't love penguins, they've got six or seven different types of penguins that make their home in the Falklands. And the time we're going, which is March next year, that's the time for penguin chicks to be fledgling.
00:20:15
Speaker
So it's a great time to say it. And the other fantastic thing about the Foltons, because there aren't many people there. It's the second least densely populated country in the world. The wildlife, it hasn't learned to be afraid of humans. So it allows for some real close-up encounters with these creatures. So yeah, you'll get to see a lot of penguins if you want to.
00:20:43
Speaker
When you're in the middle of the country or on top of one of the mountains on the ultra, I'd be surprised if you see any penguins there. If there are, then they're lost. But there's plenty of opportunities because we're there for a full week. So it's 10 days the whole trip from leaving the UK to returning back into the UK.
00:21:04
Speaker
Give me a bit more on those logistics, Andy, because you spoke about the challenge of getting there. Will the numbers be made up in one of the military flights that you mentioned then? How are you getting people there and where are they coming from?
Travel and Participation Details
00:21:18
Speaker
So most people are coming from the UK but we do have runners coming from North America, from Germany, from the UAE. Mainly we're focusing on the UK market but people are have been buying tickets from elsewhere and we're using scheduled flights into South America and then either scheduled or charter flight depending on numbers from South America into the Falklands. On the way
00:21:48
Speaker
So on the way there, it's probably the best part of 24 hours to get there. I think it's 16 hours, 16 to 18 hours of flying time.
00:21:58
Speaker
And then on the way back, we'll probably be overnighting in Santiago before flying back from Santiago back to the UK. So it takes a little longer to come back. How far is it in a mile? Just for a little midnight. It's further than Shrewsbury is. It is 7,800 miles from the UK. Well, 7,800 miles from Winchester, which is where I live. Maybe a little bit further for you.
00:22:28
Speaker
So yeah, it is a long way away. There's a lot of additional challenges to that thing. But we've got a fantastic team that are out there in the fall. There's a lot of locals that have run the team that are doing a lot of operational prep work as we speak and have been for a couple of years. And they will be during the time that we're there.
00:22:52
Speaker
We'll be heading out. We'll be spending a few weeks out in the Falklands this year, doing our operational preparation as soon as the governments allow us to travel. Yes, of course. I'm just envisioning building this chip for myself.
00:23:15
Speaker
Do you see, is everyone going from the UK on the same flights? Is that we're organizing? You've got this community, if you like, of runners going at it together, right? How do you see that? That's the intention. So in the perfect world, we'll have as many people as possible on the flight from Heathrow out to Santiago, same scheduled flight.
00:23:36
Speaker
In reality, there will be, it depends on people, book, of course, there may be a collection of flights into Santiago, but the more, the earlier you book, the more chance there is of being with the main group. And then Santiago serving as a collecting point, and then everyone will be on the same flight from Santiago in. So if you're coming from elsewhere in the world, then you'd
00:24:02
Speaker
You can sort your own flights out into Santiago and then join the trip either on the chart or the schedule flight, depending on numbers, or it turns into from Santiago. And then for the flight in from Santiago, everyone's going to be part of the Falklands altar trip. And in fact, while we're there, I mean, we're pretty much taking over the islands because
00:24:23
Speaker
you know, if we're fully sold out and there's 200 people on our trip, then that's our 10% of the population of the country. So we're at risk of abstaining parts of the infrastructure. So we do have to be very careful. How does that work? Sorry to interrupt. I was just thinking if that's, I was going to ask how many people are going to take part. If you're going over, I mean, how much food are you taking?
00:24:51
Speaker
So we'll be taking some food and we'll be shipping some food out on the container in advance because obviously we've got stock of all the checkpoints because what we don't want is anybody having run 60, 70, 80 miles to get to a checkpoint find they don't have their Mars bars or flat coke or bananas.
00:25:14
Speaker
So a lot of stuff we're shipping out. What we can't do is we can't have 200 people arriving in Stanley, going down to the supermarket in Stanley and then buying the shop out and not leaving any of the islanders any food for the rest of the week. So everything has got to be done in close cooperation with the Falkland Island government to make sure that it all runs smoothly.
00:25:39
Speaker
So you touched on the weather earlier on. What will it be like? Because people will be out for a long time and I've described it, you know, the views and things that sounds very open. So what will the weather be like?
00:25:53
Speaker
So the weather will be changeable. So the weather is undoubtedly going to be a little bit of everything. Now, there is something of a common misconception in the UK about the climate down in the Falklands. Overall, it's actually pretty similar to southern England, the weather. It's a similar latitude, except south, of course. So March next year, it's at the end of the summer. It's summer autumn time.
00:26:22
Speaker
And it'll certainly be, I can't say, the only certain thing we can say is it's volatile. Typically, we would expect it to be a lot warmer in March there than it would be here.
00:26:36
Speaker
and it's a warmer and drier, but it could be snowing. It could easily be snowing, so it is likely to be windy, rainy, sunny, misty, haly, foggy, everything, all before breakfast. There's very little landmass down at that latitude, so
00:26:55
Speaker
the wind does get up and the wind and the weather changes very quickly. So it's going to be an all weather and all weather ultra. The only thing we can really guarantee is it's not going to be hot. I think the expected typical temperatures at that time are maybe between 5 and 15 degrees.
00:27:18
Speaker
centigrade. But a lot of people's perceptions were formed during the Falklands conflict when that was wintertime, so that was going into May-June time when the Falklands conflict, and that was a particularly vicious cold winter that they were hovering.
00:27:33
Speaker
And it was a hot summer in the UK as well. So there was a funny juxtaposition of climates right there. So a lot of people think of the Falklands as icy and snowy. It's not like that. We were expecting a lot of sunshine, a lot of blue skies, and the expectation is a bit of rain as well. Lots of wind. Honestly, mine,
00:28:02
Speaker
My knowledge of the problem was ice, snow, penguins. That was what I thought. It wouldn't be surprising if you have a warm day on the beach with the penguins. Why, really? That is cool. I'm not expecting much sunbathing. It's unlikely to be sunbathing weather.
00:28:27
Speaker
Back with my race director head on, I'm thinking, how does that impact your planning? Thanks. If your people are going to be out for over 30 hours and there's all this changeable weather. How do you plan for that in terms of your, I suppose,
00:28:49
Speaker
You medically volunteers, all that kind of stuff.
Emergency Planning and Local Support
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the whole emergency response plan and yeah, I mean, the significant challenges. So what we have is a network of farm buildings that are going to be a really critical part of that emergency infrastructure. So most of the course is run on private land.
00:29:12
Speaker
and there's I think it runs through 27 different farm holdings so each of those farms has buildings and we've arranged with a lot of them to have access to buildings that we can use to have access to users collecting points either for individuals if
00:29:35
Speaker
an individual is suffering but then all says collecting points if if the worst happens and a storm comes in and we have to uh fingers crossed it doesn't happen but if we have to cancel halfway through well while you've got 100 people or 200 people out on the hills um
00:29:52
Speaker
So they're the main, they're the critical point. And then there is, you mentioned in Shrewsbury, you've got motorways and roads. There is a road in the Falcons too. It's not tarmac. Well, there's tarmac roads in the capital in Stanley and a couple of other places, but the main road is a big circular road.
00:30:20
Speaker
colloquial call the M25. It's not not a termite but we've had to make sure that the course is within reach of that road at all times. So for casualty evacuation etc mostly it can be based around routing around this main road rather than having to rely on four by fours going cross-country and
00:30:48
Speaker
this can getting stuck in bugs etc. Yeah I'm guessing you'll be tracking everyone then. Yes that's the other really important point we've got everyone will be carrying a GPS tracker and one of one of the
00:31:04
Speaker
One of the tasks we've got to do this year is make sure that there's sufficient mobile phone reception for the GPS records. We have a satellite, we've got a satellite option, we've got a mobile phone option. On paper, the whole course is covered by a mobile signal, but I've got a feeling we'll probably end up going for the satellite option as
00:31:30
Speaker
as a more robust solution. You've had to bring that in yourself, the satellite mobile. The satellite GPS tracker, it's a standalone GPS tracker unit. Everyone will be issued with those and it'll be a really important thing for the whole of the race management so we can see where all the competitors are and with regards to opening and closing checkpoints, but also
00:31:57
Speaker
What we've seen is quite a lot of competitors are taking supporters. So we've had quite a few husband and wife teams where one of the couple is going to race and another one is going to be supporting them. So the trackers are going to be really important to enable them to know where to go to meet up with them and give them a cheer and feed them a sandwich.
00:32:25
Speaker
I didn't even think of that, so you could potentially have more than 10% of the population doing all that. Well, no, the 200 would be including supporters. In theory, it could be 100 and 100 supporters.
00:32:42
Speaker
We haven't had that much of an uptake of the supported place. There's a handful that have gone so far. So you've mentioned some amazing challenges like the bridge and connecting, so that's with 27 different farm holdings.
00:33:02
Speaker
How have the locals received the event? It's been brilliant. It really has been brilliant. The locals have got so engaged with it. And we've had all sorts of offers of help. Lots of people want to be involved. It's certainly during the week we'll be there. I mean, we'll be touching everyone's lives. I think all the islanders lives that are there. They'll definitely know
00:33:27
Speaker
And quite a few of the Islanders also, they're going to be joining in the race as well.
00:33:33
Speaker
But also, I mean, part of our mission is to support two sorts of charities and causes. So we're supporting a lot of UK military veteran charities, like Walking with the Wounded, Combat Stress and Saffa. But also, we're trying to make a positive impact on as many causes, domestic causes in the Falklands as well.
00:34:03
Speaker
All the various local charities and courses, they'll all be getting direct benefit out of the event. So we've got a lot of great buy-in from the people there.
00:34:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's great. Are there any military entries or military? There are. So there's two groups really, if you like, because of course the UK has a big military base down there in the Falklands at Mount Pleasant. So there's quite a few people who have already contacted saying, I'm already going to be based down at Mount Pleasant. Can I join in? Absolutely, they can do that.
00:34:48
Speaker
very much welcome their participation, but then also there's a load of veterans ex-military from the UK that are flying out with our party. We've got some people with some amazing stories, veterans from the conflict itself, so some people who
00:35:07
Speaker
were fighting in the 82 Falklands war are going to be going back with us in our party and racing. We've had already so many great stories and of course part of what a lot of people
00:35:26
Speaker
part of a lot of people's experience down there is battlefield tours and that's on offense included in our package but what you'll be able to get with us is
00:35:42
Speaker
get the stories from actually people, there'll be people with you there that are actually fighting, either fighting there themselves or have close relatives as well who are involved. So one of the guys who's joining us is this is a
00:36:05
Speaker
There's a famous guy called Colonel H. Jones who posthumously won the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Goose Green and his grandson Henry Jones is coming along with us in the party as well. Because of his grandfather's connection to the conflict he's become something of an expert
00:36:24
Speaker
on the various battles, not just the Battle of Goose Green, but the whole Falklands conflict. He's going to be there with us and he's going to be able to share his stories as well, his knowledge. While we go up, you'll be able to go up and on to Tumble Down, on to Wireless Ridge, on to Two Sisters, where these actual, these battles were actually taking place.
00:36:43
Speaker
and you're going to get first-hand stories from people who are actually there. So, yeah. It feels like an experience where there'll be lots of stories told. I mean, I was just, when you were speaking about the aeroplane flying now, just imagining all these runners geeking out, telling each other their running stories, you know. Lord, help anyone who's not a runner on that plane. Yeah, well, I'm hoping the plane trip is going to be
00:37:12
Speaker
Part of the whole experience. If the whole plane is just full of us, it's going to be great. The holiday starts on the trip. It's not going to be a boring trip where everyone's asleep just watching movies, hopefully. Hopefully there'll be a lot of interaction.
00:37:29
Speaker
the various people, we ought to introduce various people. We've got a few guys with some great stories. We've got some real elite guys that have already signed up. Mike Wardian is one of the world's top ultra-athletes. He's coming along with us. He'll be there on the plane from Santiago. He'll be able to share his tips, hopefully, before the race.
00:37:57
Speaker
You mentioned that you're there for a week then, so what else will people get up to whilst they're over there? So we've got a whole load of activities that are included in the experience. We're not forcing anybody to do anything. If you just want to go and do your own thing, you can. But there's a whole bunch of things that you can
00:38:21
Speaker
go and have a look at a penguin well you'll have a look at more than a penguin you know to immerse yourself in penguins see the penguin chicks and and the seals and go out whale watching um do the battlefield tours that we've already uh talked about um there's um oh one of the things that i'm really keen on on doing is going kayaking so um
00:38:48
Speaker
organizing some kayak trips where if you're lucky you'll be able to go out kayaking being surrounded by penguins and dolphins because there's a lot of dolphins in the waters as well I mean that will be I mean to me that sounds like heaven if it's a sunny day with penguins kayaking in and out of the inlets
00:39:10
Speaker
fantastic. There's also rock climbing, trout fishing, if you read it, doesn't do it for me, but apparently it's one of the best places in the world for trout fishing. And there's when we've got acclimatization races and acclimatization race in the hills around Stanley beforehand. You can probably even take in the world's most southerly park run, assuming that the
00:39:38
Speaker
Really? I'm hoping that the timings work but on the Saturday mornings we're flying back hopefully early afternoon on Saturday, back by just Stanley and the Stanley Parkland is the world's most southerly parkland so if you want for ticking off these kind of... There's a lot of people who'd like to tick those off. Well so the Stanley one, yeah so we'll hopefully go try and include that one as well.
00:40:05
Speaker
If the timings work out, I'm sure, I'm sure they will. I'm just thinking what else is there's the museums, there's, there's not a lot. If you're like photography, you're going to be in paradise there. And then there's, well, what you need is you need to have a look at the brochure and, and that gives you a real taste of all the different things that they were going to be to do when you're out there.
00:40:31
Speaker
Great. My last question is, what's the future of this event for you?
Vision for the Future of the Falklands Ultra
00:40:40
Speaker
Is this an event that's going to be for everyone? Is it going to be an annual event? I don't imagine it's going to stay a niche event, if you like. Well, I'm really keen that it establishes itself as one of the top endurance challenges
00:40:59
Speaker
in the world. It's got all the right ingredients. It is expensive. It's the other side of the planet. From the UK, it's five and a half times as far away as the MDS. Five and a half times as far away as Morocco. It makes Morocco seem almost like a domestic location, a domestic place.
00:41:21
Speaker
But, you know, the dramatic history, the scenery, the wildlife, I mean, it's got all the ingredients to be an absolutely epic trip. We're really keen that it becomes an annual event. So to say this one next March, that's March 2022. That's the inaugural event. And it's really going to be a barometer for how things are likely to go. We're really keen for it to become
00:41:50
Speaker
regular feature and the intent is to make it annual. We'll be clear on that later on this year when we see how many tickets were sold. We started selling tickets a couple of months ago and they've been steadily selling. We've got plenty left at the moment which is, if you're listening to a recorded version of this, it's sometime in the middle of February right now 2021.
00:42:16
Speaker
But yeah, it absolutely has got all the ingredients. It's got such unique features, the battlefield experience, it's got baby penguins. So, you know, it's got everything. It really does.
00:42:35
Speaker
Great. So finally then tell us where everyone can connect with you and find out
Where to Find More Information
00:42:41
Speaker
more. It's your website. And I know you've been getting more active on social, but since you're interacting. Yeah, we're trying. I'm learning. I'm something of a dinosaur when it comes to social media, but I'm slowly, slowly getting the hang of it and getting the message out. But, you know, Google Falcon's Ultra and you'll go, it'll, it'll take you straight to our webpage. If it doesn't, we're doing something wrong there, but
00:43:05
Speaker
web pages. Google is www.falconsolder.com but we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
00:43:14
Speaker
So follow us there, like us, and you can sign up to join the mailing list so you can get told, kept up to date with how we're progressing, if we're running out of entries. But all I can say is if you're interested, get your entry in as soon as possible. It makes our life so much easier. It must be the same for you with the Shrewsbury. Is it Shrewsbury or Shrewsbury?
00:43:41
Speaker
Depends which side of the river you're going on. All kind of worms you've just opened there. Yeah, well it makes life so much easier the earlier we know numbers and we can plan against, especially for us when it's on the other side of the planet in this remote little corner of the South Atlantic.
00:44:00
Speaker
and also we are very open to input. We have a forum which you can join and already we've made a couple of significant operational changes to how we're running the event because people are telling us that actually this is what will make it really good for, we think this will make it better so we'll be changing the start times. That was a really significant change so the 100 miler
00:44:26
Speaker
the 100 mile course now is starting at an hour before sunrise and that means that when you're climbing Mount Osbourne out of Goose Green you'll be halfway climbing halfway up this mountain when the sun rises which will be a magical experience on its own and that also enables the 100k starters to the faster ones will be able to get the whole course done in in daylight certainly in in one day
00:44:52
Speaker
which will make a big difference to their whole experience. Although, actually, I'm really, I've got my fingers crossed for a clear night because, you know, the people that are going to be running through the night, which will be most people on the 100 miler and actually probably most people on the 100 kilometer one as well. Now, if it's a clear night, I mean, just remember, this is a country with no pollution, you know, the whole latitudes, there's no built up areas. So there's no pollution, no light pollution either.
00:45:20
Speaker
and a really thin ozone layer as well, but it makes for the clearest skies in the world. So if you're running through the night, and if it's a cloudless sky, that would be a magical experience in itself. So yes, to answer your question, FalklandsUltra.com, or just stick Falklands Ultra into Google and it'll point you straight to the website.
00:45:42
Speaker
Brilliant, Andy. Thank you very much for going on and chatting with me. I've really, really enjoyed it and I hope the events are, you know, a resounding success. Awesome. Thank you very much, Joe. Thank you. Cheers, Andy.