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Ian Williams | Fetch Everyone
323 Plays7 months ago
In this episode we catch up with Ian Williams who is founder of the long standing website Fetch Everyone.
Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games and nothing is behind a paywall.
Also listen to hear about Ian's own running and goals to run his first (very unusual) ultra soon.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of FetchEveryone
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi Ian, thank you so much for joining us on the UK Run Chat podcast today. Would you just like to introduce yourself please to our listeners? Hiya, thanks for having me on. My name's Ian Williams and I run fetcheveryone.com which is a free website for
00:00:19
Speaker
runners and we've got a fair few cyclists and swimmers and walkers on there as well. It's a place where you can log your training, you can look for races, read blogs, chat in the forum, play GPS games, tons of different stuff and it's all for free. Yeah, that's really cool. So where did the idea come from to start it all then? How long has it been going in the website? It's been out quite a while, hasn't it?
Origin and Development of FetchEveryone
00:00:44
Speaker
Yeah, I started running in 2004-ish, and I just wanted a place where I could log my running. And I was just using a spreadsheet. And because I was sometimes running at work, sometimes running at home, I was constantly emailing the spreadsheet back and forth to myself in these different places.
00:01:10
Speaker
Because I'm a web developer, I thought, well, why don't I just make the little website that will let me record that information wherever I am? And then it suddenly occurred to me, well, this might be useful for other people as well. So I just invited people that I was chatting to on other forums to come in and sort of let me know what they thought and have a go. And they just suggested a ton of new things, like, oh, can you make it do this? Can you make it do that? And I was so...
00:01:40
Speaker
swept up in excitement that I was adding all these things in. And before I knew it, I had this, you know, monstrosity, if you like. Wow, that's incredible. So how do you like, how do you manage all that? Like, I can just imagine people asking all these questions and you like, where do you start when you're kind of developing something like that? Well, yeah, it's hard to know where you go with it. But I mean, for me,
00:02:05
Speaker
I had a job as a web developer, like I said, and in my quiet moments doing work, I was sneaking off to work on my site. And then in the evenings, I just, you know, I totally didn't bother watching TV or anything like that. I'd go and get my run done and then I'd come back and then I'd start sort of thinking about which of the ideas I wanted to make happen. These days I've got, it's like a feature request system.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, people can put forward ideas and then other people can vote on the ideas that they, you know, which ones they prefer. And there are about 2000 different ideas in there at the moment for different things that people are asked for. But the because the I sort of try and use the power of the people who are using the website to to help me make those sort of decisions. So it's the same with our racist things as well. I don't tend to add any racist things myself.
00:03:03
Speaker
maybe the odd one or two, but I've given that power to the people who use the site. So they add the listings, they look after them, they fix the errors in them when someone's put a typo or a wrong distance or something like that. So yeah, it's harnessing the people who use the site. That's kind of like the core of it, really.
00:03:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. So people are actually getting what they want out of a running site.
Interactive Features and Community Engagement
00:03:29
Speaker
So it started as a way to log running. What else does it do now? What kind of things have you introduced since then? So we've got a forum with probably something like 8,000 different threads in it. And we get, I don't know, about half a million posts on it a year.
00:03:50
Speaker
So people talk about all sorts of stuff on there. Similarly, we've got a place where people can write their blogs and we get dozens of bloggers every day talking about various things in their own lives. There's only so much time you can spend actually talking about runs that you've done. And it sort of spreads out into, you know, we find out a lot about people's lives and their other hobbies and, you know, people form friendships through that kind of thing as well.
00:04:19
Speaker
There's tons. We've got race listings. We've got the GPS games that I mentioned. So there are ones where you have to plan your route to go and hit certain little dots that have been put on the map for you to earn points and collect various different things to complete different challenges. So there's about five or six different games based on where you are running or walking or cycling.
00:04:49
Speaker
And, you know, you can plot routes, you can get training plans, pretty much everything that anybody's thought of in the last 20 years, I've tried my best to make it happen. So then I could just keep going on and on, if I'm honest. I like the sound of the games actually, that really appeals to me. So just, yeah, tell us a bit more about those and how does that work? Is that to kind of keep you motivated while you're out on a run? Is that the idea behind it? Yeah, and also give you something like a
00:05:18
Speaker
a mental challenge to keep your mind off, you know, the constant, you know, sometimes runs can get a bit monotonous, but whereas if you've got a challenge, then it can, you know, take you take your head away from the endless rotation of your feet. So we've got a game called fetch point. And every day there's a little bug icon that appears somewhere within a mile radius of your house. And it
00:05:46
Speaker
The bugs are kind of bad, like fleas, if you're thinking like that. And you've got to go and run to where it is and then run it out of your mile circle. And that just kind of kills it off. And so people like to keep their mile circle free from bugs.
00:06:04
Speaker
Um, so they, they talk about going bug busting or going on a bug run. Um, and there's various other different, uh, things within that game, like there's like jewels that you can collect. Um, there's traffic lights where you can, if you're the person who visits the traffic light, you can take ownership of it. And then anybody else who goes through it has to pay, um, a little penalty to you. So there's like a point system based on all the different things. Um, there's relay markers that are.
00:06:33
Speaker
destined to travel north, south, east or west. And you've got to run to one of those and just keep it going on its direction. And it will jump off you at the point, the furthest point north that you've got to on your run. So there's a ton of different stuff within that game. Have you developed these or have these come from the community suggesting things for you then?
00:07:00
Speaker
Um, yeah, fetch point is probably one of our oldest games. I think it's, um, maybe around sort of 10 or 12 years old. Um, if you do, did you ever hear about Pokemon go? Oh yeah. Yeah. I never played it personally, but yeah, it was, it was big, wasn't it? Yeah. But, um, fetch point predated that as well. So, um, I mean.
00:07:24
Speaker
you know, being a big company who makes Pokemon go, they're going to have done it better than us. But the idea was out there way before it became cool. So, you know, I cling to things like that. Yeah. So tell us how it works on the site. So if I've gone out and done a run, does it kind of record runs or is it something that you kind of import afterwards as a log of your training? How does it work?
00:07:51
Speaker
So if you've got any of the sort of major watches, so Garmin, Coros, Fitbit, not TomTom anymore, they're gone, but most of the big watches, you can set those up to automatically send your training across. So once you've pressed stop on your Garmin, it will then automatically appear in your fetch training log.
Unique Aspects and Community Contributions
00:08:15
Speaker
So you don't have to do anything. If you don't have a watch,
00:08:20
Speaker
There's an app by Wahoo and that does GPS logging so it acts as a watch on your phone and you can sync that up as well to send your data through to Fetch. Okay, so really simple. So tell us, I mean, what makes Fetch everyone different then from other platforms out there? And I'm thinking of, you know, the big ones that people use regularly. What differentiates you from others?
00:08:47
Speaker
The one thing that I'm always proud to say is that we don't have a paywall. There are some sites out there, I'll name no names, but they may or may not have a bright orange color scheme, I don't know. But they give you a certain amount for free. And then if you want the real details stuff, you have to pay a certain amount per month and it's fixed. You can't choose the amount that you pay.
00:09:12
Speaker
you either pay it or you don't, you either get the stuff or you don't. But with Fetch, everything is free because I think that's the way it should be. The internet started as people sharing stuff and collaborating for the benefit of everyone. And I don't see why a running website can't be the same. So we don't have the same sort of
00:09:37
Speaker
level of polish as these big companies that have millions and millions of pounds of money behind them and hundreds of staff. But I'm giving the users the absolute best I can do for free. And if they like what I'm doing, then they can make a voluntary donation. And a lot of people do a monthly amount. And there's no fixed figure. The average is about three or four quid.
00:10:07
Speaker
a month that people will chuck in the pot. But there are people who give less than that. There are people who give much more than that as well. And collectively, they give me enough that I can keep doing this as a full time job and pay for servers and software and occasional pen. Yeah. Yeah, that's really fantastic. I get the sense that the community is the biggest kind of asset of fetch everyone is it I get this
00:10:35
Speaker
You know, is there like a big community feel on there? And then other people's runs and things and, you know, do people get involved in meetup, et cetera? Yeah. I mean, we've had various meetups over the years. There's a relay called the Round Norfolk relay. Oh, yeah. And it's every September. And I remember one year going to that and we had three fetch teams.
00:11:04
Speaker
in that event. So I walked into a room and there were about 50 people all with Fetch Everyone tops on and it scared me to be honest. Although bigger websites have come in and flex their marketing budgets. So it's maybe not as big as it once was before those sites came along.
00:11:29
Speaker
But there are still lots of lovely people meeting up around the country and, you know, if you go to any park run, there'll probably be at least a couple of fetches there for you to run into. And like I was saying earlier, beyond the running, people sort of get involved in
00:11:48
Speaker
each other's hobbies as well. So we've got a forum thread that's to do with knitting and craft. We've got another one for people who want to talk about their teenagers and the issues that they're facing raising their teenagers, all sorts. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? Running kind of, it does seem to bring people together and
00:12:13
Speaker
I always find when you're, when you find somebody who's a runner, you can generally find something else you've got in common with them, can't you? I love the sense of community amongst runners. I think it's fantastic. I love that you've got them talking about knitting on your site. We've got a very heated politics thread as well where they're currently debating
00:12:35
Speaker
everything that's happening today and they never stop those guys. Yeah, that was fantastic. I mean, it must be a lot of work for you to kind of manage it. Or is it just you or have you got a team helping you? I've got a dog, but he's not a lot of use really. He'll keep my toes warm under the desk in the winter. But apart from that, and the occasional stroke on the head.
00:13:01
Speaker
But my wife helps me out as well, not in a, she doesn't do any coding and she doesn't sort of, she doesn't do a hands-on thing with the site. But if I'm ever sort of struggling from, you know, like occasionally you'll get a, someone will disagree with somebody in the forum is rare, but it happens or someone will say something that's controversial or maybe difficult to handle.
00:13:27
Speaker
And I know that I can go and chat to her and get her help to sort of work that out. So yeah, she's kind of like an unpaid assistant in that sense in that she looks after me and makes sure that I'm okay at the end of the day. Yeah, it's good to have that support, isn't it? I'm sure she doesn't mind. Yeah, most of the time.
00:13:53
Speaker
So you've got a route planner on there, haven't you? I was having a look on there yesterday. So what functionalities is that? Does it help you suggest routes in your local area? Or is it for you to map out where you want to route?
00:14:09
Speaker
So the root plotter itself just gives you the tools to create a root and you can get a hold of others and edit them and pull the line around to see exactly where you want to go. But you also have the opportunity to share your roots. So we've got a fairly big database of public roots. So if you're looking for somewhere on, say, Lanzarote or
00:14:36
Speaker
Cornwall, you can go and have a look at our root database and hopefully find some runs that other people have done before. And then you can pull those into the root plotter and adjust them to your own need then. So, yeah, it's another example of where the community has produced something that becomes useful in itself. Yeah, that's really useful, actually. We often get asked questions like that on UK run chart. They'll tag us and ask if anybody
00:15:02
Speaker
is from a certain area, and can they suggest some good routes?
Tools for Goal Setting and Performance Evaluation
00:15:06
Speaker
So there you go. If you're out there listening and looking for routes, you know where to go and have a look now and see if somebody's room one, wherever you're heading to. No, that's really helpful. So how does Fetch Everyone kind of help people achieve their running goals, do you think? Well, another thing I like to do is to sort of analyze the data that we've got on a fairly grand scale.
00:15:32
Speaker
So for example, marathon prediction, a lot of the marathon prediction tools that were out there when I was looking for a prediction were giving me way scary numbers. So like my marathon PBE is something like 415 and my half is 145. And they were predicting like, you know, are you, yeah, 330, 340, no problem, you should be able to do that.
00:16:01
Speaker
And I was thinking, no, what's going on here? And I wondered if it was my, whether I was the weirdo here and everybody else could easily make that conversion from half to full. And so I started looking at what everybody was doing across the board. And so like you find a thousand runners who've done, who've done five half marathons and five marathons, and you just kind of smushed those numbers together and you get an idea of what the actual conversion rate is.
00:16:29
Speaker
So I've built a calculator that gives you a more realistic goal to aim for, because you could aim for that loftier goal, but then you could either burn out in training or you'll burn out in the race and you'll have a rubbish time. So isn't it better to have a goal that you can achieve? And then when you actually manage to do better than it, you feel better. So trying to give people realistic goals
00:16:58
Speaker
And also guidance on stuff like I looked at 1010 Ks and looked at the mileage that people do in the build up to a 10 K and say, right, okay, this is typical. If you want this time, this is typical. These paces and this pace range are typical. These are the sort of longest runs you should do for this. So looking at all that data that people have uploaded is
00:17:27
Speaker
It's pretty helpful, I think. And so there are a few tools to help you with that. Yeah. Wow. I'm so impressed. Does that kind of attention to detail, does that come from kind of your background as a web developer or is that just your passion for running? Tell us about your own running and where that passion's come from. You're obviously clearly very involved in the running community.
00:17:50
Speaker
I've always been a bit of a nerd for numbers, really. I started off playing cricket when I was quite a lot younger. And I used to do the score sheets for the local men's team. And I had this big book of all the test matches that had ever been. And I was regularly looking through those and looking for stats and compiling stats and things like that. So I was always kind of interested in that side of things.
00:18:19
Speaker
But yeah, when I'm out running, like recently I've noticed that my cadence has increased slightly from like 168 to 171-ish. And I thought, is that a trend that I'm seeing for myself? So I built a tool then that looks at my last 12 months of
00:18:37
Speaker
running and what my cadence was looking like over that period and then compared it to the most recent 90 days. And it's true that the cadence recently is a little higher. So immediately I got that tool out so everybody else can have a look at it. So a lot of it is driven by the questions that I have when I'm out running or when I'm back and looking at my data.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's fascinating. So what did you learn from that? Had you been running more or had you been doing different types of running to improve your cadence? I've definitely been running more this year. We've got a challenge. There's a thread called 100 miles a month in 2024. And I'm trying to stay on par for that. So I've managed January and February and I'm on par for hitting that in March.
00:19:29
Speaker
So I think that's a bit of an uptick in the amount of running that I'm doing this year, which I'm sure will help my cadence. I'm maybe doing a few more hills than I was doing, but I haven't quite figured out why my cadence has increased, but I'm just kind of happy that it has because there's another part of that graph where you can see your average pace at each cadence. So I'd say 168 is something like
00:19:59
Speaker
920 per mile, and at 171 it's 905 per mile. I mean, I'm making the numbers up there a little bit, but it gives you a very encouraging sort of line to AMAT and motivation to increase your cadence. Yeah, no, it's something that I think a lot of runners are interested in, isn't it? Kind of how they make those marginal little gains to improve. Yeah. Cadence is certainly one of them.
00:20:26
Speaker
Yeah. And if you can see it on a picture with pretty colors, then it kind of inspires you. Yeah. And we do like the graphs, of course, that show us that we're improving constantly. Heck yeah. What about training plans? The site offers quite a lot of training plans, doesn't it, as well? Yeah. So there's a training planner where you can just throw your own sessions in any way you like.
00:20:50
Speaker
and build sort of a big plan up for, you know, 10 weeks leading up to your marathon or half or whatever. And then there are also a bunch that you can import. So we've got a few of the popular plans like Fitzsinger and Douglas marathon plans for various sort of merges. So you can grab one of those and pull it into the training planner. And then if, for example,
00:21:18
Speaker
you don't want to run on Tuesdays for some reason, or you don't like the way that the long run plan goes, you can pull them about on the planner. So rather than just having something that you print out and stick to your fridge, you've got something that's malleable, really. You can make it work for you. And because it's sort of all built into the training log, you'll get a notification every day that says, right, today, get out and do this, that, or the other.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's, that's fantastic. That's kind of the best of both worlds, isn't it? If you're not quite ready for a coach and you're using a generic plan, you can kind of merge the two really, I guess, can't you and make a plan work for you. Cause that's, that's the issue. I think sometimes with just plans that you can download is that life does get in the way, doesn't it? And then you'll kind of miss a day and it's, it can be hard to fit in a very structured plan to life. Yeah.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yeah, life always gets in the way of these things. Yeah, it does, it does. So what do you think are the most kind of use, because you're obviously, you love data, I could tell. What are the most useful kind of tools that a runner should be looking at to see the kind of progress and to help them improve? I think there's, for a lot of us who aren't at the very sharp end,
00:22:46
Speaker
A lot of it comes down to just getting out there and getting the miles under your belt. I'm sure once you get up into the giddy heights of the 210 marathon runners or whatever, I can't imagine I can speak for them or give them any guidance. They know exactly what they're doing far more than I ever will.
00:23:12
Speaker
But for most of us, I think just getting out and getting the miles done is something that will get you into a good place. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned a hundred miles a month back there. Is there, do you think, in your opinion, like an optimum number of miles we should be aiming for? I mean, everybody's different, aren't they? Yeah. I mean, so I've done
00:23:37
Speaker
Like on my marathon calculator that I mentioned earlier, you put a half marathon in, you get a full marathon prediction out. And later on in that article, it covers various things like the typical mileage that people do in order to get a marathon that's, say, four hours. You know, how many miles would you do in the four months leading up to it?
00:24:03
Speaker
And like you said, though, those are just averages and everybody's different. And there was a thread in our forum just yesterday, I think, where there was someone talking about low mileage ultras. And they're running ultras based on really very little mileage at all. I think they, if I remember right, they were talking about long runs that were any longer than 10 or 15 miles.
00:24:29
Speaker
So it's hard to say for anybody like this is what you should be doing because it varies so much from one person to the other. I think in this case, this person had a job where they were on their feet regularly. So it helps. And then you get a throw in stuff like cross training, cycling, all of this stuff, which gives gives you the ability to keep going when you when you need it. So it's hard to ever come up with sort of definite
00:24:59
Speaker
sort of predictions for what people should be doing. But one of our other tools looks at your own previous performances. So rather than looking at 10Ks for like a thousand people and telling you what you should do, it looks at all your previous 10Ks and the merge you did before all of those. So you can maybe see what works for you.
00:25:25
Speaker
Um, so if there's a standout performance, you can go right. Okay. On, on, on that occasion, I'd done a lot of intervals or I'd done a lot of tempo runs or my long runs were very, very strong. And that's obviously helped me. Um, so yeah, there's, there's no magic answer, but just trying to give people as many different ways of looking at it until they find one that makes them feel happy and confident to go for it. I think.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds a really helpful tool actually. I'm going to have a look at all the tools on your site because I think I'm fascinated just hearing about them. So what have you got planned next? Like what's the next thing coming up? Any ideas?
New Challenges and How to Join FetchEveryone
00:26:04
Speaker
Well, there's various stuff this morning. I've been building a virtual challenge. We hold one of these every year and it starts when the clocks go forward and you've got until the clocks go back.
00:26:17
Speaker
So the runners are trying to complete 700 miles in that time. The swimmers have got a 48-mile swim down a river in Scotland. And the cyclists, nobody knows this yet, but they're going to be doing the east coast of India from Kolkata down to the very southern tip of India. So when you log you're running,
00:26:46
Speaker
Your little dots appear on the route, and you can sort of trace your progress down the coast of India. And the bit I like most about it is there's a street view link as well. So wherever you get to after every run or whatever, you've gone and done three miles or whatever. You come back, you're in a different place on the map, and you can turn on street view and have a look around you. And sometimes if you get lucky, you get a really interesting view.
00:27:14
Speaker
I've just been plotting out the cycling route this morning and some of the views in India are spectacular or they're just mind-blowing really. You go from crowded streets to beautiful green areas to lovely coastal areas and then back into a crazy roundabout where there's a million people all trying to cross in different directions. So that's what I've been knocking up this morning.
00:27:42
Speaker
Oh, you say that like it's such an easy thing to do. I'm sure it's not. Well, I had some help. So there was a lady who did the swimming route and another chap who did the running route. So the running route this year is in memory of someone who we lost quite recently. So he lived around Crosby Beach in Liverpool.
00:28:11
Speaker
And he was always taking photos of the Anthony Gormley sculptures in the sand. So our running route this year takes in as many Anthony Gormley sculptures as we could find and a bunch of places that he held dear or spoke a lot about. So yeah, like with everything, I try and get as much help from the community as I can. So it's not all me.
00:28:39
Speaker
No, what a lovely tribute that is. So how can people get involved then if they want? Because we've obviously got a couple of weeks before the time I recorded before this challenge starts. How do people get involved in that then?
00:28:51
Speaker
So hopefully at the start of next week, so around the middle of March, there'll be some stuff popping up on the homepage or on various other pages around the site where you just go and you sign up for it and your dot appears at the start of the route and then we all wait for the gun to go off then on the 31st of March, I think it is. Yeah, okay.
00:29:20
Speaker
Just tell us the website for anybody listening. It's fetcheveryone.com. Nice and easy. Do they need to register? I know it's free and they can make a voluntary donation. Do people need to register to use it? Yeah, so if you come to the homepage,
00:29:36
Speaker
You can hit the sign up button and you put in some details like, you know, you choose a nickname and an email address and a password that you're going to use. And you can put in stuff like your resting and max heart rates and your typical 5K time and your approximate location in the UK. And that's useful because when
00:30:03
Speaker
When I give you racist things, I can give you racist things that are obviously close to you. And if you want to play one of the games, it'll start you off in the right place. So all the little dots and bugs and things appear near your house not far away. And then you're good to go then. And you can, if you've got a long history of Garmin files, or if you've been on Strava,
00:30:32
Speaker
Um, you, you can export all of your history from there and import it to fetch in a zip file. And then over the course of the next sort of two or three days, it'll get sucked into your training log. So you can quickly get, um, that history up and running. So all of those tools that, you know, look at your previous performances. They start to fill up with useful data because when you just, when you first join, if you don't have any data in your training log,
00:31:01
Speaker
a lot of these graphs are completely empty and completely useless. It's only when you start. But that's a decent way of getting your history in. Oh, that's yeah, that's really good to know. Yeah, so yeah, do get involved if you do like the sound of those virtual challenges. I think I'm going to sign up straight as I get off this call. Actually, it sounds great. Awesome. One at a time.
00:31:24
Speaker
So let's finish off just by chatting a bit about you, Ian, because we've not really asked about you. We've talked about the site for half an hour. Tell us about your running and how you got into that.
Ian's Personal Running Journey
00:31:35
Speaker
I really didn't like running all that much at school. We got made to do the 100 meters and I was sort of second last in my entire year group.
00:31:49
Speaker
and the PE teacher didn't especially take to me very much. I always wanted to go and play cricket and he was trying to get us to do rugby and football and you know quote men's sports unquote and I just wanted to play cricket and and do my own thing. So I didn't really sort of get on with running but there was something in me that
00:32:14
Speaker
must have kind of liked the idea because when the, like I remember watching the Olympics and I think it would have been 86 soul. Um, I forgot the numbers, right? Yeah. 86, I think. And I'm looking at all the track distances that people are running. And then for some reason, just writing down my own times that I thought I could do at each of those distances. I didn't actually go out and do any running at that point, but I know I thought, oh, well, this is what I could do.
00:32:41
Speaker
So I must have liked the idea of trying to better your own performances enough. And then the reason I actually properly started running was I had a gym induction and I was forced to use the treadmill because they wanted to show me all of the machines in the gym and I didn't want to do it. And then within a couple of weeks, then I'd just given up on all the other stuff in the gym. And I was just on the treadmill because I was really enjoying it and I built up to
00:33:11
Speaker
run my first mile and I was very excited about that and then a couple months later then I went outdoors and I never went back on the treadmill again and people from my work were encouraging us to sign up for Great South Run 2004 and then I signed up to a bunch of other stuff. I did my first half marathon the following year, did my first marathon the year after that and just you know
00:33:38
Speaker
You know how it snowballs, right? It does, doesn't it? I don't know how, but yeah, it does. Yeah. So what kind of running do you enjoy now? What kind of road, trail? I like road running. I know some people sort of, you know, would be horrified at the idea that I don't especially like trails, but I just like the idea of not having to think about where my feet are landing from a moment to the next. And you can just sort of, you can almost like tune out or tune into something.
00:34:07
Speaker
that is very kind of balanced in your head, I think, if you're running on roads as long as it's, you know, quite nice quiet roads. So yeah, I like road running the best, but I've got my first ever ultra coming up this November, which is another reason why I've been trying to increase my mileage. So I've got one eye on that at all times. Yeah, also tell us about that. What's the race? It's Escape from Meriden. So
00:34:37
Speaker
yeah okay it's not do you know it i've heard of it yes yeah so it's not necessarily an ultra but i can stop at any point um but it's uh 24 hours get as far as you can away from maryden um in an orange boiler suit um my son is signed up to it with me as well he's never on a step and has i think very little intention of doing any training whatsoever beforehand so i might have to drag him some of the weight
00:35:06
Speaker
So is this the one you do as a pair? You have to do it together. There are some psychopaths who do it chained together, like with an actual chain. But I won't be doing that. We'll just be sort of toddling along together. And if he wants to climb into a car at some point and get a lift home, he can do that. And there's a chance also he'll be in university by the time November comes. So he might have ditched the idea completely.
00:35:33
Speaker
in which case I'll probably have a different experience altogether. So it's really hard to get my head around what it's all gonna look like yet because I don't know whether he's just gonna be gone. As soon as he goes out of the door in September, that'll be it. But I'm quite excited about it. I like the idea of a challenge where you have to go from A to some other B somewhere. It's sort of a bit, sort of Hobbit-based.
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah, because I guess you can kind of make the route up yourself, can't you, in that? You can go wherever you want. Yeah, so there are good and bad routes. Again, I've sort of played around with stats and drawn a route at every
00:36:16
Speaker
every hour on the clock face away from the center point and try to work out which ones are the hilliest, which ones will give me the straightest most efficient route because you have to get a crow's fly distance away from the center point to claim your medal. So there's a medal at 30 miles and another one at 60. So you have to have a nice straight route to make the most of that
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point, actually. So lots of strategy involved there. So how far are you aiming for then, Ian? Well, if my boy comes with me, we are hoping to sort of head back to where he is at the moment, which is in Derbyshire. So that will be around about 40 miles. But if he doesn't come with me, then I really don't know. I need to get into the belly of the summer.
00:37:09
Speaker
and work out what it's going to be like to do these longer ones. So I've got various plans at the moment to jump on a train somewhere and try and find my way home, Hansel and Gretel style. That sounds brilliant. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to hopefully enjoy the build up to it as much as or even more than the actual thing. Yeah, certainly a challenge, isn't it? Yeah, you haven't picked an easy ultra where you know set distance and you've got checkpoints on the way you've probably picked.
00:37:39
Speaker
you know, the biggest challenge, haven't you? Well, I may end up doing something like a 50K at some point in the summer if I can find one. So it may not be my first ultra when we come to it. But for now, I'm just still at the building upstage. So my longest runs at the moment are sort of half marathon distance. But now the weather's getting a little bit warmer and I'm feeling a bit more adventurous. I'm going to start trying to aim to get out to like maybe marathon distance by
00:38:09
Speaker
May or something like that. And, uh, and then see what the summer holds. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, it's been grotty weather hasn't it for going in days out. Yeah. Yeah. If it's not raining, it's been very windy today. It's actually quite bright looking outside. Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps I should be running. Yeah. I've not been out yet today either. So what's your favorite race that you've done so far then? Oh, wow. Um,
00:38:35
Speaker
I always have very fond memories of the round Norfolk relay because seeing all those fetches in one place was quite shocking.
Memorable Races and Running Philosophy
00:38:44
Speaker
I've done London twice. I really liked the first time and really did not like the second time because I don't know whether or not they've just turned the volume up a bit. So 2008 was the first time I did it. I totally loved the whole thing. In 2015, then I was just really hating the caroubles and everything like that.
00:39:05
Speaker
bit of a mixed one there. Yeah, I haven't done a lot of events in the last few years. I just tend to like getting out and hitting the roads and getting into my own thoughts really. So, but yeah, hopefully I will change that all to Escape from Meriden this November. Yeah, maybe you'll get the Ultra Vogue, who knows? Yeah, you clearly enjoy running, so yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
Um, so if you could, if you could run anywhere in the world, where would it be? Do you think what's your dream place to run? Um, having said that I don't like noisy ones, I would like at some point to do the New York marathon, because I think if you're going to go and go and do a big spectacle of a race, then they kind of, they kind of invented spectacle. Um, so something like that, where it's absolutely mad from start to finish.
00:40:04
Speaker
Um, might be good. Um, but I also just like this kind of real quiet A to B kind of. Plot your route, work it all out, be in control of everything. Not necessarily have anybody else around you. Um, I like that style too. So, uh, yeah, yeah, it's nice, isn't it? It's quite meditative running sometimes. I think, I think that's what most of us enjoy about it. Just get out and get lost in your own thoughts. Absolutely.
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah, okay. I'll ask if you could change one thing about your running, if you had a running superpower to enhance it, what would it be, do you think? Oh, wow. I've been pretty lucky with injuries. I went through a year or two when I was getting recurring calf injuries. And then I haven't had one for about two years now.
00:40:59
Speaker
And I'm even in the same pair of shoes. I'm up to sort of like 1300 miles in my current pair of shoes. And then they're not giving me a single problem so far. So I don't wish for no injuries, but I would still like to stop worrying about injuries. Because I just think how much more wonderful running would be if you didn't have that little thing in the back of your head that goes, what was that?
00:41:27
Speaker
Is that something screaming from the back of my car for my hamstring or what my pelvis or whatever? So just take that, just take it out of your mind. That would be my superpower. Yeah. No, that's cool. I like that. Yeah. To enable us just to relax and enjoy it even more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, last one then, is there anything that you wish you'd known when you first started running?
00:41:52
Speaker
And going back to the school teacher who was smoking his fags and watching us all work really hard for 100 meters and then kind of implying that we were not good enough. I'd like to earlier on in my life to have realized that you don't have to run at anybody else's pace. Once you get ownership of your pace, you can actually keep going for a hell of a long time
00:42:21
Speaker
when you just relax and run at your own pace. So I wish I'd had someone to tell me that a little bit sooner in my life, and maybe I would have started running sooner, and who knows? Yeah, that's a really powerful thing to hear, isn't it, I think? And I think we all need to hear that when we're young. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think like doing other sort of bits and bobs of track when I was at school age, all the other kids would just bomb off like that, and I'd be, you know,
00:42:51
Speaker
in the stragglers or last or something like that. And it was so demoralizing, but no one ever said at that point, don't worry about it. Just, you know, you'll get there and you can still enjoy your pace. So, you know, sort of everybody else. Yeah, no. Yeah. I agree. I agree with you. Oh, well, it's been wonderful talking to you, Ian. Is there anything else you wanted to tell us about the site before we say goodbye? Just that, um,
Encouragement and Support for FetchEveryone Users
00:43:18
Speaker
If you come and have a look, please do. But if you're struggling to understand anything or if there's anything you want to ask, there is a help link at the top and bottom of every single page where you can come in and ask questions. And it is me that responds to that. It's not an AI bot or anything like that.
00:43:41
Speaker
And I do try and respond pretty quickly. I'm sat here at my desk sort of nine to five most days. So you will probably get a fairly quick reply if I can. So don't worry about asking what might seem like a stupid question. Just get stuck in, have a look around. You can't break it. If you do, it's my fault and just enjoy it and good luck with your running.
00:44:06
Speaker
UK run chat people. Thank you. So that's fetcheveryone.com. Do go and have a look. Thank you, Ian. It's been great talking to you and all the best. Thank you for having me on. Thank you.