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Tim Lloyd, Always AimHigh Events.
59 Plays3 years ago
Tim is one of the founders of always Aim High a fantastic events company based in North Wales that organise events like the Snowdon Trail Marathon.
Tim is a former Olympic Skier, he is a full time firefighter and we chat all about his journey and how he came to be putting on the wonderful events at Always Aim High.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to episode 47 of the UK sports chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams and in today's episode, I speak with Tim Lloyd. Tim is one of the founders of Always Aim High, a fantastic events company that are based in North Wales. They organize events like the Snowden Trail Marathon.
Tim's Background and Personal Journey
00:00:18
Speaker
Tim is a former Olympic skier. He's a full-time firefighter and we chat all about his journey and how he came to be putting on the wonderful events that they do at Always Aim High.
00:00:28
Speaker
If you've got any comments or questions, please ask them via our social media channels, or you can email us on info at ukrunchat.co.uk. In the meantime, have a fantastic week and enjoy this chat with Tim. Welcome, Tim. How are you? And very well, thanks, Joe. How are you? Yeah, very good. Thank you. Very good. It's Friday morning just for our listeners. So we're back to you at the moment.
00:00:59
Speaker
Well, we're over in North Wales, so we're actually based in Plan Gevgeny in Anglesey, but my home is actually in Snowdonia. I was born, grew up, raised, educated, the whole lot here in the heart of the Snowdonia National Park, and this is home for me, and it's a beautiful place to live. Yeah, certainly
Snowdonia's Appeal and Family Heritage
00:01:19
Speaker
is. So I'm in Shrewsbury, so we're not too far away, but
00:01:23
Speaker
spent many a holiday in North Wales and we were in Abersoch recently actually and my fiancee took my son into Snowdonia last week to go on the roller coaster there during the summer holidays.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, I know where you are. Yeah, it's beautiful. We're very privileged to live in such a lovely spot, and of course, that's why we do what we do. Snowdonia has become a really popular place to visit, especially it seems to be during the last 18 months or so where we haven't been able to travel so much abroad. We have seen a huge increase in numbers of people come in here, and it's great to see. There's a very, very warm welcome in North Wales, and it's fantastic to see.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, cool. So do you want to, I've given a little intro at the beginning of the podcast, but do you want to give us an introduction to you and your background and before we dig into always aim high?
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'll try to keep it reasonably brief. So, as I say, I was sort of raised here in the heart of Snowdon Gasser Park. I was actually raised at the Pena Pass at the Youth Hostel. My parents ran the Youth Hostel for many years at the Pena Pass, which is literally halfway up Snowdon. And it was an odd place to grow up in many ways, but also an incredible privilege to grow up there and something which
00:02:47
Speaker
which is not something which many people are able to enjoy. So he grew up there and actually that my sort of route into sport, my dad was a mountaineer. He was very heavily involved in mount rescue. He's been awarded through the Queen's, he was awarded a British Empire medal for his services to mountaineering and to mount rescue in the last couple
Legacy of Fell Running and Snowden Race
00:03:11
Speaker
of years.
00:03:11
Speaker
But he was one of the founders. My dad was actually one of the founders of the Riri Harriers Running Club, which was the first fell running club in North Wales. So his name is Harvey Lloyd. And he founded the club with a couple of old friends, which was Ken Jones. I think my dad was the treasurer. Ken Jones was the chairman. And David Ellis was the secretary. And the three of them formed the club. And of course, myself and my brother, we were just young children. I was about six or seven years old.
00:03:41
Speaker
And they formed a club and on the back of that, my dad was involved initially with the organizing of the Snowden race. In fact, he remains the president of the international Snowden race. Ken was the main organizer and through the club. Ken was the main organizer of the first ever Snowden race.
00:04:01
Speaker
My dad was also involved with the organization, the first ever Snowdonia Marathon. And of course, these races now are, you know, sort of, I think Snowden's probably in its 45th year by now. My dad also, he was the organizer. This year he stepped down from organizing the Welsh 1000 meter peaks race. He's done it for 50 years. And this was his 50th anniversary this year. So he did stand down. We had a bit of a celebratory.
00:04:27
Speaker
sort of meal to recognize that. So, you know, so, so sort of, I guess, you know, the sport was in my blood. I ran the first ever Snowden race when I was six years old. And back then, you know, it was, you know, at Shamberry's was my home school and primary school. And at six years old, we had to run up to Halfway House, which is actually quite a long way of snow for a six year old. We were set off, you know, from it was I remember it. I remember it. Well, it was we started outside the Midland Bank in Shamberry's and ran all the way down the high street.
00:04:57
Speaker
Which makes the race probably about two or three, a couple of miles longer than it is these days. And I want to Snowden, and me and a couple of schoolmates ran all the way up to Halfway House and all the way back again. And I'll never forget that running onto the field, because it's Carnival Day in San Berries. The Snowden race used to be a part of the Carnival.
00:05:19
Speaker
And I'm running onto that field, you know, with so many people lining the, you know, the finish line of the Snowden race, the first ever Snowden race, it literally was, it was, it was unforgettable.
Transition from Running to Ski Racing
00:05:31
Speaker
And it's probably, and so that sounds a little bit dramatic, but probably a little bit life, life changing for me as well, because
00:05:37
Speaker
you know it's always stayed with me that and actually you know i went on you know obviously i continued to run for you know i've ran all my life mainly in fell running that was that was the only sport that i'd done a bit cross country and a bit of road as everybody does but but fell running was that was the big thing for me and i you know i ran i won a few local races you know as i got older and
00:06:00
Speaker
And I was never a very good runner, but I was a decent club runner. That's probably where I felt. But my sport was ski racing. And down the road from Penn and Pass is Placer Brennan, which is the National Mountain Center. And it's been there for many years, Placer Brennan. And it's been the National Mountain Center for many years. And Placer Brennan, there was a dry ski slope.
00:06:22
Speaker
And my parents took me down there when I was seven years old and we learnt to ski, myself and my brother and again a few school mates all learnt to ski there on the dry slope. And there was a chap there at the time, his name was Mike Keating and he was one of the staff at Placer Brennan.
00:06:41
Speaker
He was a little bit of a rogue, but he was a really decent guy. And he would, as we got a little bit older, probably I was about, I would have been nine or 10. Mike would take us away in one of the class of running minibuses at the weekend. And he'd take us to a dry slope. There was a dry slope race series.
00:06:59
Speaker
And he would sort of, he would help himself to one of the vans, you know, in the early hours of a Saturday morning. And he'd pick us up, you know, at 4am and drive us down to Gloucester or to Poncepool, there's a slope in Poncepool. And we'd do these dry slope races and
00:07:17
Speaker
And it was brilliant, not just the fact that we were travelling to a young age to go and compete in sport, but it was the social camaraderie that we developed. And so a club was created, the North Wales Ski Club was created, and it was based at Placer Brennan, and the club grew and the numbers of members grew.
00:07:41
Speaker
And me, as young kids, absolutely thrived on that environment of being surrounded by sort of like-minded people who loved doing thought and doing the same thing. So that's what we did. And one thing led to another. For one reason or another, I don't know why, but I just happened to be sort of
00:08:02
Speaker
reasonably good at skiing. I had a little bit of natural talent, I guess. And I got selected off the British children's ski team when I was probably about 13. And that gave me the opportunity to travel overseas with some sort of higher qualified coaches and to mix with people from
00:08:24
Speaker
from all over the UK. And actually, back then it was really interesting. I was the son of a youth hostel warden from Snowdonia. We really weren't a wealthy family at all. And I was the only one on that team at the time who was not public school educated. And it never even dawned on me at the time. We were all just there in it together, traveling together, doing stuff together, and having a great time together.
00:08:55
Speaker
And so I progressed through the children's team into the junior team, and ultimately I was selected into the British senior ski team, and I competed internationally for three years on the senior team. I did give up ski racing at 20 years old, and that was literally because I couldn't afford it. It became so expensive, and this is all pre-national lottery. I'm 54 years old now, so this is before the lottery existed.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yes, when was this? This was back in the 80s.
00:09:30
Speaker
It should have been mid-80s. So where did you compete in your skiing? We competed in Europe
Challenges and Transition to Coaching
00:09:38
Speaker
and the US, basically. We were based most of the time in France because at the time the British ski team was sponsored by a French ski resort called Les Arc, which is high up in the Alps. So we spent all of our training, certainly in the winter, in Les Arc.
00:09:59
Speaker
We would travel then, you know, there was a race, basically a race circuit that we would follow. In the summer, we would travel to Théin, Val-des-Arts, and train on the glaciers, which is higher up. But there's year-round skiing in some of those high resorts in the Alps, because you can ski on glaciers in the summer. So we'd train on the glaciers in the summer, and we would train in Lazar from November onwards.
00:10:23
Speaker
and then follow the race series. The race series basically ran from early December through to sort of early April, really late March, early April. Towards the end of the year we would go over to the US and race in America.
00:10:38
Speaker
And it was brilliant. I mean, again, it was a very privileged opportunity and upbringing. My parents made quite significant sacrifices in order to be able to pay for it. When I was home, for short periods in between training camps, I would have to work in order to try and raise as much money as I could in order to pay for my e-racing. But it got to the point where
00:11:06
Speaker
Sorry. I was just going to say it sounds like growing up in that environment and your description of that race when you were six just naturally put you into this lifestyle of competing and taking part in sport.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, it really did. And actually that, you know, coming back to the Snowden race, that first ever Snowden race, I mean, I ran every the Snowden race every year for years and years. But that first one is what and, you know, it sounds cliche, but it really isn't. You know, that is what stuck in my mind. So so important, this is for and for now, especially when there's for children, there's all the distraction of iPads and Xboxes and PlayStation. This if we can if we can just get
00:11:59
Speaker
the children who wouldn't usually put their hand up to take part in sport to do something like you described where they're actually in an event and they have all that applause and they experience what you described. How many more children could that influence at the moment to lead a healthier lifestyle? It's so important.
00:12:19
Speaker
It really is, it really is and that's why, you know, those thousands and thousands of volunteers who are out there, you know, in the rain and the cold, you know, during the winter months in the dark, volunteering at local clubs to get kids out and get involved, you know, it is so important and you can't underestimate, you know, what a difference.
00:12:40
Speaker
that those people make to people's lives. And I know mostly it goes unnoticed. But actually, you know, the experience I had and, you know, came back to, you know, the things I experienced at that age, it really didn't go unnoticed. And it's, you know, it stayed with me for my whole life. And, you know, ultimately, it led led me to a lifelong
00:13:02
Speaker
sort of love of sport in many different many different guises these days you know I organize events but that but you know that's only been in in recent years you know I've all sorts of stuff I mean you know I'll continue to let you know with my sort of story about things yeah
00:13:20
Speaker
At 20 I had to give up ski racing, it was because it became unaffordable, I just couldn't do it. So what I did was I went to Edinburgh and I was successful in getting myself on a sports coaching diploma course at Harriet Watt University now. Back then it was Moray House, it was the old Dunfermline College, it was a PE College up in Edinburgh.
00:13:45
Speaker
And they did this one, it was the only sports, the full-time sports diploma, sports coaching diploma, sorry, that you could do in the UK at the time. And I attended a course with six other people, sort of like-minded people. Dave Morgan was with us. Dave Morgan is Britain's most successful weightlifter. I'm still in touch with a good mate of mine. And we studied coaching full-time for a year.
00:14:12
Speaker
And at the end of that year, I received a phone call from the British Ski Federation, as it was known back then, basically saying, would I like to rejoin the team but on the coaching staff? And I was 21 years old. So, so it was, you know, it was, again, it was, it was a fantastic opportunity. And I snapped the hand off and said, yes, of course, I would need to come back.
00:14:37
Speaker
It was a little bit unusual because the first year I spent with the men's technical team like the slalom ski racers and that's the team that I'd been on 12 months earlier. And I was an assistant coach so I didn't start as a
00:14:53
Speaker
as a sort of lead head coach. I was an assistant coach. I spent 12 months sort of learning my trade, if you like, with the team in a coaching capacity. And at the
Firefighting Career and Coaching Contributions
00:15:04
Speaker
end of that... Who you were in the team with then? Well, I mean, the guys that you'll know about is Martin and Graham Bell. They're the two who are most...
00:15:12
Speaker
who are most well known. Martin and Graham Bell were both speed racers so they raced downhill and Super G and actually when I was 18 in Super G, in the discipline of Super G, I was ranked third in Britain behind Martin and Graham Bell.
00:15:29
Speaker
So it was the same time. Graham is a year older than me. Martin, I think he's probably two or three years older than me. And there was a team probably of about, in total I'd say, probably about 12.
00:15:49
Speaker
12 men and probably slightly fewer, maybe 10, 8 or 10 women on different, we were on what was called the development team, those guys, Martin and Graham Bell were racing World Cup, we never raced World Cup, but we raced sort of the level down from that.
00:16:08
Speaker
And yeah, so it was, it was just, I can't, I can't say enough how, you know, what an amazing experience it really was. And how, you know, looking back at the time, again, you take it all in stride, don't you, at that age, you know, you, you know, I'd ski race from, you know, from an early age and, and it kind of worked my way up through the, through the governing body sort of structure through the teams. And so you kind of didn't really,
00:16:36
Speaker
appreciate it at the time as much as maybe I should have, but looking back and the things that you learn from those experiences as you work your way through your life. It's really difficult of most people when we're young, isn't it? The things that we're doing and then appreciating in life.
00:16:58
Speaker
So then after 12 months of coaching with the men's team as an assistant coach, I was offered the opportunity to be the lead coach of the women's development squad, which was like the sort of the girls who were sort of progressing from the junior team through into the senior team. Yeah.
00:17:16
Speaker
So I took that job, and I did that job for two years, which culminated in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, which I attended as coach of the women's team. And at the end of the 92 season, we were at the time, the British ski team was sponsored by Dranbuie. This is all still pre national lottery.
00:17:35
Speaker
We were sponsored by Drambuie. The Drambuie sponsorship dried up at the end of that 92 season. And we were all laid off. The coaching staff, the whole of the coaching staff of the team were laid off.
00:17:47
Speaker
And so I came home back home to North Wales. I was engaged and married at the time. And I basically was without work and I needed to find a job. So I applied for a job in the newspaper to join what was back then the Queen Ed Fire Service to become a firefighter.
00:18:09
Speaker
And I was successful. I took the job. I remember it. The first week of July, I got made a job offer. I accepted the job. On the second week of July, I got a phone call from the chair of the British Ski Federation saying,
00:18:27
Speaker
Great news, we've secured some funding for next year and we'd like to offer you a promotion with us. We want you to take on the men's technical team at a higher level than the way I've been working with the women.
00:18:43
Speaker
And I had a real sort of deliberation. What do I do? Because I knew this is a sort of turning point in my life. And the thing that sort of swung it for me really at the time was, you know, that I was engaged to be married and I thought, you know, is that a life for somebody who wants to start a family and blah, blah, blah and all the rest of it? I made the decision actually to stay back in North Wales.
00:19:03
Speaker
Stayed in North Wales. I joined the fire service. This is in 92 now. So I'm actually approaching the retirement in the fire service. I'll retire next year. You're still in now, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still a serving firefighter. I work at Decide Fire Station now, which is outside Chester.
00:19:20
Speaker
And so I've done nearly 30 years in sizes. But what I did do, I stayed on as a coach to the British children's ski team in a voluntary role. So I continued to do that for quite a few years, probably for about five or six years. I would travel away with the kids, with the young kids, take them away and do like the sort of children's Olympics and that kind of thing, you know, that I did for a number of years.
00:19:48
Speaker
And it was actually, it was all of this that ultimately led to where I am now because in about 99 or 98, 99, I got asked if I would help out. I'm a well speaker. I'm a fluent well speaker. I was educated in Wales since I'm ever since.
00:20:02
Speaker
and an S4C, the Welsh TV channel, they were making a TV show where they were following some Welsh athletes, a team of Welsh athletes around the world. They basically got money to take these athletes to these exotic races around the world. And the athletes that they had on their team weren't performing as well as they'd hoped.
00:20:25
Speaker
So being a fluent Welsh speaker and being somebody who was coached at the Olympic Games and had a background in sports coaching, they said, would I come on board as part of this TV series to help the athletes, to try and see if we could increase their performance and their results, improve the results.
00:20:49
Speaker
So I did that for probably two or three years and actually achieved some really good success. We went from finishing at the bottom of the leaderboard to getting on the podium. It was brilliant the results that we achieved.
00:21:06
Speaker
just through a bit of sort of careful sort of planning, training, scheduling, focusing on the weaknesses and looking at what work those athletes needed to do because they had an athletic ability but they lacked some technical skills. So it just took a little bit of structure really. We worked on
00:21:33
Speaker
on those weaknesses and we got to a point where they were finished on the podium at really high level international races. This is summer stuff now, nothing to do with skiing. This was running, cycling, multi-sport, adventure racing primarily, fail running, trail running, stuff I'd done my whole life anyway.
00:21:55
Speaker
So it was brilliant. And that actually led to me taking on a job with Salomon back in the year
Founding Always Aim High Events
00:22:03
Speaker
2000. I was offered the job with Salomon as being their team manager and coach to the Saab Salomon adventure racing team, which was, again, another... I was still working as a firefighter. So this is all just hobbies kind of stuff now, but amazing as well. So I took the job on with Salomon and I did that job for 12 years.
00:22:29
Speaker
So on that team, some people you'll know from fellow running. So we had, Rob Jebb was on the team, Rob won the World Sky Running Championship. We had Angela Mudge, Angela won the World Mountain Running Championship. Anna Frost, so I introduced Anna Frost to Salomon back in the day. This was even before Killian Johnay was doing stuff. Really, Killian was a young kid and I remember Killian well. Back then he was, you know, he was just coming through. He was always an incredible athlete, but he was a young chap back then.
00:22:48
Speaker
And in that role, we won
00:22:58
Speaker
Tom Owens, I introduced Tom to Salomon, Ricky Lightfoot, I got Ricky involved with Salomon. Ricky went on to win the World Ultra Trail Run Championships. We won the World Adventure Racing Championships, Anna won the Commonwealth Games. The success was tremendous. It was brilliant. We did it on a relatively small budget, but these were super talented athletes.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yes. You know, who were sort of fairly unknown, really, because the sport was foul running, it was adventure racing, it was not high profile sports. But at the time, also, I got Andy Walling involved as he became our team physio. Andy was, I don't know if you know Andy or not. Andy's been the lead physio at UK Athletics for the last few years with the endurance group.
00:23:50
Speaker
So Andy was studying at Bangor University and he was a physiotherapy, he studied physiotherapy in Salford and then he came over to Bangor to post-grad stuff and he was
00:24:05
Speaker
He was coaching young kids at the track in Bangor in Treborz. And so I got to know Andy really well. He was a really good mate of mine. In fact, two weeks ago, Andy Walling has become the top physio at Manchester United Football Club. So he's probably at the very top of his game right now. But a lot of what he learned was probably with us on those Saab Salomon trips. We literally traveled all over the world. It was worldwide.
00:24:33
Speaker
You mentioned in channel four which funnily enough while I was preparing I was thinking about when I first came across always aim high. I can remember and I can't remember the year Tim but it must have been a good six maybe seven years ago. I can remember getting up early one Sunday morning with my two kids at the time when they've got you up at six o'clock in the morning.
00:24:55
Speaker
And I was channel flicking and on channel four, I think it was, I think it was the slate man triathlon and like, you know, the kids want their cartoons on. So I went and sat in the kitchen and put the kitchen TV on and watch the slate man. And that was when I first came across always aim high. So where did, where did you, obviously,
00:25:18
Speaker
And I've been rambling on overnight for a while, but the curtains are chasing me. That's where I always came from, because, you know, I right through my sort of when I came back to North Wales after I finished my ski coaching and I settled down, I started to organize, you know, event organizing was in my blood, really. My dad had done it for years. Yes. I started to organize. I took on the Moylalio Fell Race in Clamberis. It was just a local fell race. I took on the organization of that event. And I did that for probably, I don't know, probably 15,
00:25:48
Speaker
15 years, maybe more. And we, you know, we delivered a British Championship there. We delivered, you know, the British Interrelays Championship. It was great. And again, you know, I sort of learned how to organise events, I guess, you know, from grassroots level.
00:26:05
Speaker
But alongside that, I was traveling with the Saab Salomon team. We're going to all these incredible events all over the world. And what struck me was how different the continental events were to the local British ones. We were very traditional, fell running especially, you know, and it still is. And, you know, I take nothing away from that because the traditional element and style of fell running is unique and it is amazing. And
00:26:30
Speaker
And you know i really really love it but you know what i what i saw from these events i was doing with with the salomon team is how an event can be like a celebration you know like a festival style of sport and so that's where the idea came from.
00:26:50
Speaker
And a friend of mine who worked and lived in fanbaris at the time, Phil Nelson, he actually, Slate Man was his idea. He said to me, knowing all the work that I was doing, because he'd done some work with Saab Salomon, said, you know what we need in fanbaris is a triathlon, he said, and you could call it the Slate Man. And of course, that got me thinking, yeah, that would be amazing.
00:27:15
Speaker
So then, so probably a few months later, I was traveling, I was traveling on a plane to go skiing in France with an old mate of mine, Nigel Kendrick, who Kenny we call him. And Kenny was, he'd also been involved in ski racing, but he was the performance director of the British disabled ski team. And had been at the Paralympics in, I think it was 96. He went, oh, probably, or maybe 98. It was Turin that he went to, I think it might've been 98.
00:27:46
Speaker
Anyway, so I said to Kenny, you know, I've got this idea of putting on The Slate Man and another event. I'd said, what I'd love to do is do three. I'd like to do a race series called The Slate Man, The Sandman, and The Snowman Triathlon. And I said, what we could do is we could do one in Gwinnett County, one on Anglesey, and one in Conway County, which is like Northwest Wales, which is where we live. Covers all of Snowdonia, basically.
00:28:11
Speaker
And it was very much along the same line. I was thinking, let's have a go at doing it like a festival. We'll give it that continental feel. But Kenny and I were doing it. It was going to be just a hobby, something to do. Kenny, he'd actually been offered voluntary redundancy from his job. He was working for the environment agency. So he said, yeah, I'll have time. He said, I'll have time on my hands because I've just taken redundancy from work.
00:28:37
Speaker
So yeah, I'll be looking for something to do. So we said, right, then let's do it. Let's give it a go. And that was in 2010. So we set up always him high in 2010. We delivered the first slate man in 2011. And in the first slate man, I'm trying to remember, I think, I think we had something like 350 people in the first ever slate man. And, you know, I'd been putting on the Moylalio fell race with like 80 people turning up. Yeah. What was that like?
00:29:03
Speaker
And we were shocked, I mean, I was shocked, it was like, I did not expect to have 350 people to a triathlon in San Berrios. And this was in the May, and then later in that year, in September, we delivered the Sandman triathlon in Nuba Beach on Anglesey, which I don't know if you know about Nuba, but it's absolutely stunning, it's one of the most beautiful beaches. Well, wait, that's why I was in that shock. You were there, isn't it? And it's somewhere that I'd been...
00:29:31
Speaker
Where about says that? Newburgh is on the southwest corner of Anglesey and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's like a big forest park and so we delivered the same at Newburgh and we had a similar number of people turn up for the first ever Sandman.
00:29:50
Speaker
And it just kind of blew us away really, even though it doesn't sound a great deal now, 350 people. But back then it was much more than what we'd expected. So we thought, Blimey, this has gone well. So for the following year, we decided we'll add the snowman.
00:30:07
Speaker
And we'll do the slow one at Placer Brennan, because Placer Brennan, which is obviously where I learned to ski all them years ago, Placer Brennan is in Conway County, so it's not in Gwynn, it's in Conway, and it became sort of the obvious choice. And actually, Placer Brennan did have their own triathlon many, many years ago, and I raced in it myself back in my ski racing days when I was young and fit.
00:30:27
Speaker
I did that race just because it was there and it was local. So that became the third race in our adventure triathlon championship. The reason we call them adventure triathlons is because it's an off-road run element to the triathlon.
00:30:44
Speaker
So there's a lake swim or a sea swim as it is at the Sandman, and then a bike, a road bike, but an off-road run, and the run at the Snowman goes up and down while Shabbod, so it's a proper fell run. The Flanders race, the Snakeman goes through the quarries, it's absolutely amazing that the landscape there is incredible.
00:31:06
Speaker
and the Nuba race, the Sandman, that one runs through this beautiful forest park around Nuba. It's an area of outstanding natural beauty. So all three events, you know, we very carefully chose the location. We wanted to showcase what basically the idea was. We would put these events on to showcase North Wales and to try to sort of sell North Wales
Economic and Community Impact
00:31:32
Speaker
to people from outside the area, to bring those people in to support the local economy and to support local communities. That was the core idea of Always Aim High and why we would do what we wanted to do. Well, that was going to be one of my comments, is that it didn't matter. People that you've brought in, because we see that with this, we organise the Shrewsby Half Marathon team and we see that. You actually have people who come to the event and they bring their partner
00:32:01
Speaker
and their partner has such a lovely time because they didn't really appreciate you know what there was to see and do in the area and then they end up coming back when the event isn't on and then the kind of knock-on effect you've probably had in the local area will be way beyond just the events I'd imagine oh yeah it's it's incredible isn't it you know we've we've invited I'd say
00:32:23
Speaker
Probably, well, not invited, but welcomed, well, certainly hundreds of thousands of people. Not only to North Wales now, we also deliver the Cardiff Triathlon. That's one of our events. And we've raised, I think we've done, I don't know the figures off the top of my head. Kenny, Kenny, he's the sort of figures man. But certainly it's well over 50 million pounds that we've generated for the local economies over the 10 years that we've been operating.
00:32:53
Speaker
We've created lots and lots of jobs. By now we have 10 full-time staff at always in high. We've got much more than that part-time staff. We've got hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. We've raised ourselves. We've raised about
00:33:09
Speaker
quarter of a million pound to local community projects. That's money that we have spent ourselves through the events, through putting the events on. So we've written checks for well over a quarter of a million. And that's gone back into local community projects. You could be a gardening group or a local primary school or a sports club. We put lots of money back into sports clubs. And this is all on the back of the success of the events.
00:33:36
Speaker
We do also own a social enterprise company now, so Always in My has got two strands to it. One small business called Always in My Community Events, which is where we put all of our youth and children's activity through because that's a not-for-profit.
00:33:51
Speaker
part of the business and we think it's only right that you know any of that sort of junior development you know sort of sort of kids kind of kind of events also some of our some of the small events we do that we organize the Harliff Triathlon for example which is a not-for-profit event and any money that's raised by the Harliff Triathlon goes back into the Harliff community
00:34:13
Speaker
So we do all that good stuff as well alongside the bigger events. So our biggest events now would be the Slate Man Triathlon. Next year we expect to have about 2,000 triathletes in that in Sambury in June. We do the Snowdonia Trail Marathon which is probably
00:34:30
Speaker
We think it's probably still the biggest trail race in the UK, I don't know, maybe some of the parks in London might cast that, but this is a proper, a real proper trail race around a 50-part. We have about 3,000 people in, that's not only a trail marathon now, that's at capacity. And then of course the Cardiff triathlon, which we'll attract again, around about 2,000 triathletes, but we've delivered the British Championship on a number of occasions now down in Cardiff.
00:34:56
Speaker
and it's going to be the British Championships again in 2022, which is very exciting, but it's a great venue, a brilliant location and fantastic routes that we've got down there. Tim, let me ask you a question about the Snowdonia Trail. Yeah, sure. This is my interest as a road race organiser. What's it like organising a race up Snowdon? Because the variables, I mean, just with weather, what's it like?
00:35:24
Speaker
It is really tough. The easiest events to put on without doubt are road races and that's taking nothing away from road race organizers. But we organize some road races too and we always look forward to road races because it's almost like it's a sigh of relief to the team because they are quite straightforward.
00:35:47
Speaker
The trail marathon, so we also do an ultra distance at the Snowdon trail marathon. So we have to marshal around about 35 miles, maybe just a little bit more than 35 miles of off-road trails. So we basically, we have to signpost it all because it's a trail race, so there's no navigation involved.
00:36:05
Speaker
So we have to signpost it all, then we've got to arrange the marshals. Where we go up onto higher ground, we employ mountain leaders to do our marshalling for us because those guys are all mountains first qualified. We have to work with obviously all the local stakeholders, including mountain rescue teams.
00:36:26
Speaker
and that kind of stuff you know so it's a huge undertaking and not only that but we we are one of my proudest things i think is the fact is that we have always since we first set off had a very very strict littering policy it's one of my it's one of my real big bugbears is people dropping litter you know having grown up where i did
00:36:46
Speaker
and seen the things I've seen over the years. Right from the outset we would disqualify people for dropping litter. So we take it very seriously and I'm very proud of it and that's led on to lots of other, we believe that we're sort of market leading.
00:37:04
Speaker
with a lot of environmental issues. Kenny's background with the Environmental Agency has helped massively. And so, you know, we've got all sorts of exciting things. We're doing couple of races this year and in 2022. All of our trial races completely couple us. You know, we do tease for trees. We kicked that off long before anybody else did, you know, where we plant trees instead of, you know, for those people who choose to, as opposed to having a free race t-shirt.
00:37:29
Speaker
all sorts of things but the littering why I'm talking about this is because for the trial marathon you can imagine 36 miles of trails on Snowdon you know unfortunately no matter how how strictly and seriously you take it
00:37:44
Speaker
people very sadly do drop litter. And so just the litter pick following that race is a huge undertaking. You know, taking down all the signs at the end of the race is a huge undertaking. You know, liaising with all the local communities, the farmers, you know, the number of landowners that we have to consult to put on 36 miles of trail racing across Snowdonia is a huge undertaking. So, you know, it's brilliant, but it's very hard work, yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
It is, but we've learned how to do it. We have a good formula. We got an amazing team at Always Aim High. So, you know, our staff, they're absolutely brilliant. And that's what makes it all happen, isn't it? It's having that team of people, the right people that you can trust and you know are going to do a good job. Yeah. And it's fantastic to where you're describing, you know, how you approach sustainability.
00:38:37
Speaker
and your whole team's attitude towards that is really great. It is really important. We've never had a single plastic bottle at our races, ever. I can say that, from when we first delivered a race in 2011 to now, going into 2022, that's what we're preparing for now. There's never been a single plastic water bottle.
Pandemic Challenges and Future Plans
00:38:57
Speaker
and always in a high race. And it's, you know, there's probably not many race organizers could... No, there isn't. There wouldn't be any, I wouldn't have thought. Maybe a couple of niche ultras, maybe. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's something that rightfully, you know, we should be proud of. Yeah, definitely, definitely.
00:39:17
Speaker
How's the... We've been working with you on your Conway event, haven't we? Yeah. Yesterday, unfortunately, you've had to cancel that. And we mentioned it before we press record. Yeah, yeah. What's the... Tell me your take on the last 12 to 18 months, you know, and not only in Conway as well. How's it been? Well, Conway, I mean, yeah, so Conway, we did... Sadly, we had to call the Conway marathon off. So the last... Two weeks from now or two and a half weeks from now, we are supposed to be delivering
00:39:46
Speaker
Conway marathon and we put on a 10 and a 20 mile race to run, you know, in conjunction with the marathon because we thought, well, but normally, you know, the Snowdonia marathon, which is a really big popular race, it happens at the end of October. So we thought, well, we'll put in a 20, a 10 and a 20 mile option because it would be a nice, you know, it'd be a nice sort of pre Snowdonia marathon test. Unfortunately, the Snowdonia marathon this year has been canceled. So, so that's not even happening. So, so those runners are not.
00:40:16
Speaker
and not looking to do that, that running preparation for that. But also, September's has become so busy, it's become so crowded. We did the Anglesey Half three weeks ago or two weeks ago. Anglesey Half, normally we'd attract about 3,000 runners and we just about scraped 1,000. So I mean, that gives you an indication of how much the numbers are down. I think there's probably about 10 events on that weekend.
00:40:44
Speaker
Locally was probably within about 25 mile radius. So so the common marathon unfortunately we We just weren't you know, we've been through 18 the most difficult 18 months that you know that any any business could go through yes events is probably was probably hit harder than anyone even hospitality we think because we were closed down completely and
00:41:07
Speaker
So what we couldn't do, unfortunately what we're not able to do at this point in time is to put an event on and make a huge loss mentally because we just can't carry those losses because of what we've experienced over the last 18 months. So that's why we've had to cancel the common marathon. There's no other reason. It was purely because we hadn't achieved the numbers that we'd anticipated in order to be able to pay for the cost to deliver the event. It's as simple as that.
00:41:36
Speaker
And like you said, every event that can go ahead from the entire race calendar for the entire year is happening in September and October. So, I mean, we've fallen victims of that and I know we're not the only ones and it's tough. And I suppose what I really should say is a huge thank you to the runners because
00:42:01
Speaker
You know, it's those guys who are going to, you know, those guys will share our disappointment. You know, we, we don't want to cancel the race. It's the last thing that we want to do. But, you know, you can't, you can't thank those people enough for, for being, you know, understanding and, and understanding that COVID and the effects of COVID are still not over. You know, I think we're going to be carrying, you know, the, the, the damage, you know, that COVID has, has caused probably to the next two or three years.
00:42:29
Speaker
There's a lot of people out there who still don't want to race. We maintain a regular contact with our customers and we know there's lots of people out there who are still not feeling confident enough to go out and race in groups with large numbers of people and that's totally understandable. So it's going to take us a while to recover.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah, I've even seen, I forget which race it was, I think it was one of the ones near Oxford where they had to actually cancel. They did have the numbers, but they just didn't have the volunteers because again, it's that claim, it's the confidence and we're reliant, aren't we, on the goodwill of volunteers and they just couldn't get enough to make it viable. So there's lots of challenges. That'll be why London next year has been sort of pushed back to the autumn because
00:43:20
Speaker
London Marathon needs to give itself the best opportunity to be successful. As a race organizer, I totally get it why they've done that. It's the right thing to do because we all want the London Marathon to be here for many, many years, don't we? We have to protect those national assets that we have on the race calendar.
00:43:44
Speaker
And so we've got to give them the best opportunity that we can. And Conway marathon, you know, it's only a small race, but it's just fallen foul and fallen victim of the current climate. And we're really sorry, but we literally had no choice. We can't take a loss on these races because of the difficult position that we find ourselves in. Thankfully, all of our staff are still in work. We haven't had to lay any staff off, which is a great relief.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yes, I think people understand, you know, any possible, you know, those people understand at the moment. I did notice you, you've got an event just up the road from us next year, a new one.
00:44:24
Speaker
So some of the work that we did during COVID was to get out there and try and find new venues, new potential, new race venues. And I probably would say that it always aimed high. Triathlon is our sort of key activity. We've done so much work with the British Triathlon Federation for many years and with Wells Triathlon here in Wales.
00:44:47
Speaker
And so we've delivered events outside of Wales before and Shropshire for us is local. It's just down the road, just over the border. And so I started to look around at what potential venues there might be. This is during the last 18 months when we were all locked down. And Weston Park,
00:45:08
Speaker
is, you know, it's home to many events, but not. It's a, you know, the V festival happens there. They have a historic rally festival there. It's, it's an absolutely beautiful play. You'll know it being from, from Twitter.
00:45:23
Speaker
It was gorgeous. So we went down, I went down, did a site visit, had to look around. All the ingredients were there for a fantastic sprint triathlon. So there's a beautiful sort of body of water that we can swim in. The roads around the park are gorgeous. There's like a deer park there. So you ride your bike through this beautiful deer park.
00:45:43
Speaker
you know, past the main house there and it's a beautiful, really smooth, fast, smooth tarmac for biking. It'll be closed roads, which is amazing. And then we've got this, we put on a 2.5K trail run loop, which takes you through these sort of beautiful hidden gardens at Western Park.
00:45:59
Speaker
It's really nice. If you want to come along then let me know, Joe. We'll invite you along and you can come and have a go yourself. Tim, it's a funny story to that actually. I saw the event on your website and I clicked the link and I copied it and I WhatsApped it to my fiancée Lucy. She said, oh look, we should have a go at this one, just down the road.
Event Information and Closing Remarks
00:46:20
Speaker
Anyway, I had an angry emoji back to me on WhatsApp because it's on May the 7th and I hadn't checked the date. We're at a wedding that day, Tim. Oh dear. Our wedding. So I was in the doggo. So maybe we'll let you off the stand. Next year. Now you can celebrate your anniversary, can't you, with us at Weston Park?
00:46:43
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So once my Western Park is happening, it's, you know, it was, it fits our, you know, our USP, it's a beautiful, you know, location is our number one sort of consideration when we're looking for events. And Western Park certainly ticks that box. You know, it is a beautiful location. And we're super excited for it really. It's another great event that we'll add to our
00:47:12
Speaker
That's our calendar.
00:47:14
Speaker
Tim, where can our listeners give us your website address and all that good stuff so that people can go and have a look at all your events? Yeah, so alwaysaimhievents.com is the website. Yeah. It's very easy to navigate. It's not so nice pictures and stuff there for people to look at. We're on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. You can search alwaysaimhievents, or I think on Twitter and Instagram we are at AAHE. Yep.
00:47:42
Speaker
I hate your vents. I'm going to get told off now by Emma, our our markets, the head of marketing for not knowing what the what the what the correct information is. But just search your eyes and how you'll find us there. And yeah, and all the information that you need is out there. Yeah, we'll share. We'll share all your social links as well on the show notes. And thanks. We had a fantastic competition with you last weekend that was really popular. And thanks for coming on the podcast. It's been great.
00:48:11
Speaker
It's been a pleasure. I hope I haven't rattled on too long. Thank you so much. It's been great talking to you. Really interesting. Cheers, Tim. Thank you. Thank you.