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Brian Wood | The Ultimate Sacrifice
60 Plays3 years ago
In episode 52 we have guest host Stuart Gordon from All About Balance speaking with Brian Wood.
Stuart is our second guest host following Prof Andy Lanes conversation recently with Greg Whyte.
Stuart, Sports Therapist of 30 years in this interview is giving Brian treatment on day 23 of his 25 marathons in 25 days, part of his “The Ultimate Sacrifice Challenge”.
Brian was awarded the military cross, one of Britains highest military awards for gallantry, his real-life story "Danny Boy" is available now on BBC iPlayer.
You can read all about this challenge on the links below and you can connect with both Brian and Stuart on the following:
Brian
If you would like to donate to Brians challenge you can do so on this link
Stuart
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
So good evening and welcome to the latest in the UK run chat podcast series. My name is Stuart Gordon, standing in tonight for Joe Williams. And some of you may have come across me as all about balance. I've done a few podcasts with Joe. I'm a sports therapist and a distributor of Beth at Science Insoles. And I've got a very special guest
Marathon Challenge: Honoring Fallen Soldiers
00:00:23
Speaker
with me tonight.
00:00:24
Speaker
One of the joys of being a sports therapist is you get to meet some really interesting people and do some really interesting things. And, well, quite honestly, you're not going to find somebody who's doing something a bit more special than this gentleman I have as my guest tonight. So I've got a guy here called Brian Wood. Brian's a former soldier.
00:00:43
Speaker
older than military cross, best-selling author, got a TV drama about his life and most relevantly for what we're gonna talk about tonight, he's turned into a multi-marathon runner. So he's day 23 today completed his 23rd marathon this month with two more to go to finish a particular challenge. So I'm gonna introduce Brian and first question I'm gonna ask you Brian is,
00:01:12
Speaker
Why are you doing it? Well, it's a very good question. And the reason I suppose I chose the challenge was I wanted to remember and represent the fallen from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign. I want it to be personal to me, but also relatable
00:01:38
Speaker
And I just come up with a name called The Ultimate Sacrifice because it's those who have given us so much. And I then went and done some research and due diligence on the amount of soldiers lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign because it's the two campaigns that I was heavily involved in myself. And I've seen the realities of war. I've seen the devastation of war.
00:02:08
Speaker
the ultimate sacrifice. So yeah, I decided that I wanted to run for the fallen and it was 635 lives that were lost during both conflicts.
Physical and Mental Challenges
00:02:20
Speaker
And I pledged that I would run no less than 26 miles per day for 25 days. And yeah, I committed. I'm not a runner. And I say this often, you know, I only run a few miles each day to look after
00:02:41
Speaker
to get me sort of stimulated in the morning and get the endorphins going and it just sets the conditions from the rest of my day but I wanted to do something like I said to make a difference and yeah and we're now 23 days in. It's been emotional. So how's your body held up? I think it's been remarkable if I'm honest you know I'm still running
00:03:12
Speaker
minutes. I did a sub four hours on marathon 19 last Friday. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll be broken as well. I mean, I've got real problems with both of my Achilles at the moment. My tendons, which joined the sort of half to the hamstrings have been give me a bit of. Gip, um, central stress fracture on my left sort of ankle, which has been flaring up now and again.
00:03:43
Speaker
But, and my right knee, I think I'm going to have to get it x-rayed. So, but apart from that, yeah, I mean, cheerfulness and adversity. Let's go back and say, in preparation, because we're all runners, this podcast about people, listened to by people who run. People might be training for a 5K, might be training for a 10K or the first half marathon or their first marathon. So what was your approach? How did you go about?
00:04:11
Speaker
And how do you train for 25 marathons in 25 days? What was your sort of the outset? What did you think, right? This is what I'm going to do. I mean, I don't think you can sort of train or plan for such consecutive distances. I mean, we can do for ultra running for sure and a marathon. We know people train each year for marathons. But this was a little bit different.
00:04:38
Speaker
because it was so many days on the bounce and I didn't know how to get my training right because I'd never done anything like this before. So I just kind of swagged it a little bit. Yeah. Did it wrong because I ended up getting a great run tear in my left calf, which I went into a bit of a panic stations. So how long ago was that before the event? A month. A month before? Yeah. Okay. So which dummy in favor if I'm honest, because
00:05:07
Speaker
it then I had to, it was forced rest. So then I just went back to being fully recovered and then it never really gave me a lot of time to sort of gradually build up on the miles. I was pretty much 10 days fully fit and then to run in again before I sort of set off on this challenge. So I think that was a blessing in disguise. Um, but yeah, like I don't know, I don't know how you train for something like it. I just,
00:05:38
Speaker
got injured. I had some brilliant help from, you know, I was going to say you've been helped by a number of people.
Nutrition and Recovery Strategies
00:05:44
Speaker
So I'm actually, as, as we're talking here, I'm actually working on Brian. Um, and the only reason I got involved was because Brian's, uh, usual therapist is a lovely lady called Rosie, I believe, um, has been doing an amazing job, keeping me going in all the training leading up to the event, but was away for a few days.
00:06:05
Speaker
when Brian first started, and then a mutual friend contacted me and said, look, if he gets in trouble during that period, can you help out? And it was a complete no-brainer in order to do that. And I know Rosie still, well, I don't know, she's seeing you every day at the moment. Yeah, pretty much every day, yeah. Getting Brian sorted out and ready to roll. And then on a few occasions, come in to see me just as a top-up if she's not available. So it's been an absolute pleasure. But Rosie's clearly done a fantastic job, so hats off to her.
00:06:33
Speaker
But what else did you know in terms of nutrition and any any special preparation for that? Yeah, be honest. No, I'm always I'm always very honest. And I also got that wrong as well. But I say I got it wrong, but.
00:06:47
Speaker
I might have even got it right because I'll tell you what I was doing. I had a craving for pork pies, pickled pork pies, and that's what I was stopping. I would basically refuel with pork pies, chocolate bars, maybe a protein bar, and then get a hold of some water, drink it, and then I'll again run it. And I honestly can put my hand on my heart
00:07:17
Speaker
I have never had an issue with my energy during these runs. Never had an issue. It's been the pain, which has been my problem because I spoke to many people saying you're doing your nutrition wrong and you should be, you know, having these like resilient nutrition and the wet foods and the high fats. And, and I was kind of agreed to an extent, but then I thought for
00:07:43
Speaker
I feel absolutely fine. I was chatting with Brian on, I think the first time we met was day seven marathon seven. And I just said, you know, it was about 10 days in and we had a bad day that day and we talked about that aspect of it. And I said, well, maybe you need to just double check, but you're now on day 23. As you say, your energy is phenomenal. It's still going.
00:08:10
Speaker
I feel good. You know, it's the crippling has been my knee. I've got a real problem with my knee at the moment. And it's, it's, that's the, I've not experienced pain like it. It's like stabbing behind my knee and it's brought me to tears. If I'm honest, like physical tears and yeah, my chilies has been playing me up a little bit. But like I said, as a whole,
00:08:37
Speaker
managed to get out of these real dark spaces. And I've been in a few, you know, I've had to really ask myself some big questions and remind myself why I'm doing this and what I'm representing. Yeah. So I mean that to me, when we talk about the training, the preparation, there is a very limited amount you can do more than you would normally for a marathon or an ultramatic.
00:08:58
Speaker
What we're talking about here is mental. I think 17%, yeah, is mental toughness and the ability to have that resilience to get up in the morning when I haven't wanted to, honestly, I've been in, but do you know what?
Emotional Reflections and Fundraising Success
00:09:11
Speaker
On some occasions, I've had to slide more bum down the stairs, especially the earlier. Oh. Especially the earlier. This is going on. I'm going to grab more trains. Switch off.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah so it's actually I was in so much pain I would just get my bum and this is the the medial compartment of Brian's lower right leg that we're working on it's a genuine sound effects we haven't had to use anything off the internet real sound effects horribly painful yeah so I would come down on my bum just
00:09:51
Speaker
because my legs and my kitties are so tight, I just didn't want to rest until I stretched them. So I would just slide down on my bum. But like I said, I've had
00:10:10
Speaker
to kind of get out the other end, which is a testament to not only just my mental visiting, it's all my capability, but it's a team around me as well. It makes a huge difference. And I've obviously been following this with your Twitter posts and tweets and all the rest of it and watching some of the running. There's the same people there on a lot of these runs you've been doing. I know, particularly with one guy just recently who couldn't run today.
00:10:41
Speaker
having run a few with you. And he went out. This morning, 0300. Yeah. Wow. So this morning out, he went, did a marathon, put a post up or treat out saying why he was doing it. I mean, that's just unbelievable. Ash. He's a phenomenal man himself. You know, he was an officer in the wall, go to regiment. Then he went on special forces selection for two take that to two special air service bash. So he actually got in and ended up spending 17 years in that organization. So he's,
00:11:11
Speaker
remarkable man. And yeah, he's been on three with me personally. And then he's just done one and he did one more. Yeah, he'll do one more to come on Thursday for the last one. No, because of work, but he will do another one in London because I know exactly what he's like. But I mean, this is just really grown arms and legs. And as we sit here now, you know, raised
00:11:38
Speaker
with a wounded, which is, walking with a wounded is the charity that you run into.
Community Support and Future Plans
00:11:43
Speaker
Now I remember when you first kept receiving it, you said your target was 20,000. Yeah, and I thought that wasn't achievable. If I'm honest, I thought that was a huge target. And I don't know, people say you've just captured the nation's heart and maybe it has. I don't know. Are you getting
00:12:04
Speaker
Do you know where the money's coming from? Is it all over the country? All over the place. I don't have a clue who some of these people are. And it just goes to show, you know, we are a very humble nation. We do support our armed forces and it's just so much gratitude from me. Very poignant because of course it's very fresh off the back of the withdrawal from
00:12:30
Speaker
Afghanistan and there's been a lot of stuff with families. Absolutely. And also I've done it through the month of November, which is very poignant for the build up to Remembrance Day. Again, because most of your runs have been relatively local to you in Hampshire. But Remembrance Day, you did something different. So what was that all about? I left early in the morning.
00:12:51
Speaker
I think it was at like three in the morning and then I headed down to just outside of London to meet a good friend of mine who is root leader for that day. And then I wanted to be at the Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial just off the centre-half at 11 o'clock or just before 11. So, yeah, we went in the pitch black and actually met Susannah Reed from Good Morning Britain. She was waiting for me in Chilazon.
00:13:19
Speaker
as we come up to the memorial and there was just loads of people there and the support was unreal. It was emotional really because it brings everything back. I have my own moments when I think about certain things throughout my own career and being on operations and seeing the devastation and
00:13:44
Speaker
You know, this stuff sticks. You can't just erase it or repurge it. It's something I have to deal with and live with. But then poignant days are my time to reflect, my time to say thank you, and also to, it's so important to remember. So yeah, that was a pretty emotional day. But we did it. We got it done and it sort of,
00:14:16
Speaker
again, you know, I've been in and out of cold baths and I've also been in sort of my hot tub and trying to figure out what makes me feel better. And I think the cold was definitely a little bit better for me. I know people have their own analysis on what works and what doesn't work for them. But for me, I think the cold allowed me to, I think recover quicker.
00:14:45
Speaker
This was immediate as soon as possible. Yeah, I was in just a cold bath, one bag of ice, but in there, so it wasn't like a uber ice bath. It was just because I was in so much pain for the day. I just didn't want to put myself into more excruciating.
00:15:13
Speaker
in there for like 12 minutes and then um then i'll get out it's got these i've got donated some normal tech boots which are like full size from toe to grind level boots that's a full less compression but honestly what an amazing bit of kit for recovery is they're very expensive and i was very fortunate that comfy donated me um
00:15:40
Speaker
they aid them to me, but game changer. There's a lot of stuff that I've tried before, especially as a footballer, that I just thought, nah, that's nice. It's just a myth that these, uh, IT band, you can gauge the quality of the squeals from Brian, based on which bit of body I want. Oh dear. Yeah. So they are,
00:16:04
Speaker
a phenomenal bit of kit. Well, for me, it really worked and helped me out. That's a post. So you have the bath or a cold bath and then wrap your legs into those. In between that, I have food straight away. I don't know what it's like for anyone else, but when I finish in the marathons, I'm not hungry. I don't have to put no appetite straight after. So it's about half an hour, it's 45 minutes, then I start to get really hungry. And that's when I'll have my foods and
00:16:51
Speaker
anyway, trying to eat, you know, good foods as well. Yeah, this is a running community. What you've talked about is a fantastic community that's supported you through this. But the other one, let's just touch quickly on family. So presumably you've been supported massively by your family with this. Yeah, I mean, my wife has been under so much pressure like running the business and having to cook and not
00:17:39
Speaker
been there for me from start to finish and you know I've got two left and I definitely have her a lot because she has been stressed, anxiety, worried and yeah she's asked me not to do anything like this again for a while but as I said I can't promise. I was going to say is this the ultimate challenge or the ultimate sacrifice? Is this a one-off or are you thinking that it might become a thing? I think so but I think we're going to
00:18:10
Speaker
My next ultimate sacrifice will be paying share. I'm going to make it community based. So I'll reach out to, you know, my followers and a community that we've built, which are very loyal. So you can run chat followers. Yeah. Absolutely. To remember in their way, whether it's running throughout the month of November or, you know, whatever they want to do.
00:18:41
Speaker
Um, on the bike, in the pool, to the 11th, you know, it's just that the number of 635 can be represented on whatever means the absolutley. So yeah, I think so. I think it's done. It's super exceeded my expectations that everyone is like fully. They're just fully involved and they've invested in it now.
00:19:09
Speaker
So I would like to grab it and do just one big every year in November and then run up to Remembrance. We do, but I can't, I don't think I can keep putting my own body through such pain while I'm getting, I'm 41 now, so I'm not getting any younger. Yeah, but I'm also, I love the community side of it as well. So it's exciting. I knew Brian was,
00:19:36
Speaker
doing a run on Sunday, which was the 21st run, wasn't it? Yeah. Local to here. So I trotted over and managed to time it right to watch him coming over a bridge over the A3 at about halfway stage, I think. Yeah. But there must have been 30 people running with you. Honestly, even today, there was 15 to 20 runners, which ran with me a long way as well. And you said,
00:20:06
Speaker
on Sunday, someone said, where's so-and-so, and you had discovered there was a 13-year-old guy. Yeah, 13-year-old boy, yeah. Just done a half marathon. Did a half marathon, yeah. Because I remember you suddenly told me, where is he, and said, oh, we dropped out a half marathon. Yeah. And you always had a chance to... That was Charlie Keat. Right. Unbelievable effort. You know, it was by my side, all the way to the 13-mile point. Fantastic.
00:20:32
Speaker
So the people that ran there, they're running on Sunday, for instance. Any idea where they come from? Or are they all local? I mean, do you know what? I've had people traveling down from RAF Lossymouth on a 12-hour car journey. I've had people come down from Cardiff, stay over in the Morrisons, and then come out and meet me and run with me. I've had people flying from Cyprus to run with me. It's just been overwhelming, honestly. It's been incredible. Huddersfield today. Someone met me from Huddersfield. Where were you today? You were in all shop. Yeah.
00:21:02
Speaker
It's been incredible, honestly. That is astonishing, isn't it? I had no idea. It's quite emotional today because I had a lady come up to me and said, he reran for my son two days ago. And I just want to say thank you. And if I can join you for a few miles today, and she actually run like seven miles in a
Recognition and Continued Charitable Work
00:21:24
Speaker
row. So that's that
00:21:29
Speaker
it that's why I'm doing that for um to keeping these remarkable memories alive for those who you know sacrifice everything that's amazing wow now I was gonna ask you know you mentioned a couple of times about being a footballer rather than a runner in the past you did you did actually run I think you said you've only run was it three marathons prior to doing this yeah I actually did three marathons on the bounce um for a good friend of mine who was
00:22:02
Speaker
So, and he was paying, he was struggling to pay like his utility bills while he was going for chemo and hospital car parking. Hospital car parking spaces was really expensive. So off the cuff, I said, right, this is what I'm going to do. I set up a GoFundMe page, but I managed to raise like 14,000.
00:22:29
Speaker
forward for Jay to help him with some of the fields and stuff, which, but other than that, yeah, I've not done anything this intense before. So the football thing, I know on Saturday, you finished your run, you ran down in Portsmouth and you were invited to finish the run doing a lap of the pitch at Fratton Park. Yeah. Tell me about that. Come on. Yeah. I mean, when I was injured,
00:22:56
Speaker
the Football Club are very good to me. They brought me in, offered me the Cairo Chamber, did and three phys-es were working on me to get my calf back up to where it needed to be in an advanced state really. So we just really invested in me and really helped me
00:23:31
Speaker
That's about a 20,000. Yeah, it's 20,000 to see you. And I started, yeah, they played the video on the journey so far, which is quite a powerful video. And then that was it. I was off on my lap of honor. And it was like mad. And I was because I went around part of the away fans. Right. And there was about 5000 away fans. And I thought they were going to give me a bit of stick. But actually, they were just. So they were brilliant. Yeah, they were brilliant with me. Games community, isn't it? Yeah. Goodness.
00:24:01
Speaker
they put their rivalry aside when they know, you know, what. I know you said you've done a couple of runs down in Portsmouth and that's an area that you've really enjoyed. I love it. One, it's flat and there's so much, it's so scenic and it's the sea breeze, sea air. I've been so blessed with the weather. Like November, I thought I'm just going to be in for it. I don't think it's rain once, has it? Once. Okay, bad weather once.
00:24:33
Speaker
So on a treatment basis for me, Brian's come in, first time he came in, he'd run along the canal toe path, basically on the same camber of both directions and really got a swollen ankle. That was a bit nice. He had to start work on that, did a bit of work on the rest of his legs. Then it was Achilles on that same leg, wasn't it? And then the knees were playing up and
00:24:59
Speaker
It's kind of gone on and then you had a purple patch. This is really interesting. We were talking about this. You, you struggled with the injuries and the strains and the aches and pains for the first what 10, 10, 12, 15 days. And then suddenly you had a real purple patch. Yeah. It was massive role. I started to then feel the fittest. I felt, you know, my knee, I was managing because there's some damage I think in there, but I was actually managing it, but I was getting quicker and then,
00:25:27
Speaker
on run 19, I felt really good at the start. So I thought, do you know what? I'm going to try and get under sub four. And then yeah, I pushed myself and I managed to do it. I've got three hours, 53 minutes, which, um, which I was really proud of myself for doing. So now we talked about, but when on the front part, they plastered the, on the big screen and blasted the details of your ultimate sacrifice. Um,
00:25:57
Speaker
giving page. So yeah, go ahead, tell everybody what the page is, what the details are. It's called the ultimate sacrifice, give Penny. So if anyone was interested, they would just type in give Penny the ultimate sacrifice and all the details about the challenge and why I chose to do this challenge and what it's all about and what it's representing. And yeah, we can go on.
00:26:26
Speaker
www.theoffsuitsacrifice.co.uk. And then there's a link with everything what's happening so far, the routes and the locations and what I'm being up to. So two days ago, you're finishing off locally again, aren't you? Yeah, two runs locally now. And then I don't know what I'm going to do after it's finished. Someone said to me I'm going to have a real like, yeah, someone said to me I'll have a real sort of, yeah, dip and
00:26:57
Speaker
And I think it will, because when I cycled across America, 2014, when I finished that big challenge, because it was such a big build up, achieving that whole ride was incredible. And then all of a sudden, hang on a bit, hang on a second. This is just, just for the record, I know nothing about this cycle. I see you cycled because you just dropped into conversation. Yeah, no, I didn't see 2014 yet to raise money for my Regimental Benevolent Fund.
00:27:26
Speaker
I've done it with a group of servant and ex servant soldiers who I've got visually impact injuries. So I've got lots of limbs and then lads and girls who are suffering from trauma. So we just got two incredible groups of people and we did a relay
00:28:08
Speaker
14 days until we hit Santa Monica pit. This is one of the things we've found that each time he's been able to see. So just to finish off, the charity you're running for now just gives a little bit more information because it's really important. Walking with the wounded have been an incredible charity that I've been part of for a while now and
00:28:38
Speaker
Prince Harry before you went over to the States, he was involved in one of the expeditions.
00:28:49
Speaker
really achieved, a lot of people thought was unachievable. And I was an invite to the headquarters where they see where their money's been spent on the rehabilitation tools, the costumes for treatment for trauma, and the accredited doctors and nurses for the traumas. And just how much that costs, the employment schemes that they help support.
00:29:19
Speaker
wounded soldiers and veterans. And it's just, they're just a really, really good organization. I kind of fell in love with them really, because I seen where all of the money was getting spent. And yeah, and ever since then, I've did, you know, piston bobs, which, you know, I thought, I can make a small difference. That's absolutely fantastic. I'm going to wrap up on there, because obviously that's, that's what we're doing it for.
00:29:47
Speaker
What you're doing, in my opinion, is astonishing. I'm absolutely thrilled to have done a tiny little bit of help. I'm sure Rosie feels the same way. The guys at Portsmouth, the physios, they're all the people that run with you. They're just obviously completely and utterly taken with what you're doing. So just to finish off, two races, two months to go tomorrow. Tomorrow, yep, local from board in Hampshire. Yeah, Thursday. Thursday is going to be huge. And that's also from my hometown. Right.
00:30:15
Speaker
I'm really hacked off because I'm going to be away somewhere else on Thursday. But any parties afterwards? You know, yeah, everyone online online. We're actually going to live in Perth. Do you want to welcome to Kumbow and have a pint? Brilliant stuff. OK, well, good luck for the last two runs. No worries. Actually, no question about you going to do it. I will do it. There's been no question about right the way through from when I first met you. So mentally strong physically together. OK, thank you so much and good luck in the last couple of days.