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Kevin Seaward - 2:10 Marathon Runner / Olympian and Teacher.
72 Plays4 years ago
In this episode Joe speaks with Kevin Seaward.
Kevin is in his own words a Teacher first and runner second. Kevin has ran for his country in various championships including the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the Commonwealth Games in 2018 where he finished 4th.
You can chat to Kevin on:
Instagram @kevrunning2016
Twitter @kevrunning
Enjoy.
Recommended
Transcript
Meet Kevin Seawood: Teacher and Olympian
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK Sports Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams, and on today's episode, I speak with Kevin Seawood. Kevin is a Northern Irish marathon runner and teacher, and he has represented this country at the Olympics, notably Rio in 2016. He also came forth in the Commonwealth Games marathon in 2018 and is hoping to be selected for Tokyo Olympics next year. Enjoy this interview with Kevin.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us. No, thank you very much for having me. I'm really excited to be here tonight. Yeah, it's great. Great to be talking to you. Cheers. If you can hear the fireworks going off in the background, please excuse them. It is November the 5th. It is. It's brilliant for us. It's not so good for our four-legged furry friends. My boy's not too happy right now. He's hiding under the table. Yeah.
00:00:59
Speaker
We've got a cockapoo penny. She's downstairs cuddled up next to her, next to my fiance. Bless him. Cool. So like I said, brilliant. Thank you for coming on. It's really good to chat
Passion for Running and Teaching
00:01:14
Speaker
to you. Obviously I've done a little bit of an introduction there, but do you want to give us a bit of an introduction into yourself? Yeah. So I'm Kevin Siward. I describe myself as a teacher first and a runner second. I've been running for
00:01:29
Speaker
For all my life, pretty much since secondary school, I got in there quite young and right away through 89. I have to say that every time I go for a run, it feels exactly the same as it did the very first run way back in my semalic these days on the streets of Belfast. I still get the same enjoyment from it. I'm an assistant principal at a large secondary school in Leicestershire. I'm also an Olympian. I represented Ireland in the 2016 Olympic Games.
00:01:55
Speaker
Brilliant. Thank you. It's interesting you say you still feel the same as that, as that first run now. Um, I mean, surely that's, that's a key to, that's a key to everything, not just running, isn't it? I think that, that excitement, that enjoyment. Um, I'm not going to pretend that every time I go for a run, I feel amazing or even the motivation is there all the time, but, but, but I certainly enjoy, uh, every run now exactly the same as I did as a young school boy athlete.
00:02:23
Speaker
But you're absolutely right. I could say the same about my work and my employment every day. I enjoy that as well and kind of makes it much more fun and much more inviting when you do get that enjoyment from both running and from working. Yeah, cool. So are you the cool teacher in school then because you've been in the Olympics?
Olympic Experiences and Student Inspiration
00:02:45
Speaker
I usually get asked did I win? And when I say no, I think the conversation ends quite quickly. No, I'm joking.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, the children are really great at sort of asking questions about the Olympic Games and about sport in general. Quite a few of our students really do aspire to be involved in sport at schoolboy level right through to international level, where we're positioned in Leicester. There's quite a few good athletics clubs and there's an abundance of other sports clubs. We have some children who play academy football, for example. And they like to kind of take away the key messages of
00:03:21
Speaker
what can they do now to be better performers in the future and to still be in the sport in a better kids' time. So you're part of the leadership team in the school then are
Leadership in Education
00:03:34
Speaker
you? Yeah, so I'm an assistant principal. I moved to my PhD in college and so I moved to this school in August actually, switched roles during lockdown, which is a very unusual thing to do.
00:03:49
Speaker
I've really enjoyed it, so it's a much bigger school than I came from, it's two and a half thousand students. I've got a really strong leadership team there. So yeah, I'm involved in a leadership team, and I also look after our special education needs provision within the school. Okay, cool. So do you still teach much then, being in that position? Yeah, so I still teach. I don't know if many teachers are listening right now, and what am I about to say? They'll say that's not much.
00:04:18
Speaker
But I still teach, so I teach around about eight hours a week on average. So it's not a huge amount, but it's enough to really, I get so much from the teaching itself. And being a PE teacher, again, the second gasps from the teachers listening right now, being a PE teacher, I just really enjoy being in the classroom and working with the children every day. Yeah, yeah.
00:04:43
Speaker
And I bet you've, well, I wonder if you've got an eye for spotting talent as well, but I know we haven't dug into what you do yet, but because of your background and because of how much running you do, if you can, you know, if you can just spot somebody with a bit of talent who's coming through in your school. Yeah, definitely.
Balancing Teaching and Training
00:05:04
Speaker
I think, I think if we, if you think of the Mo Farrar story and he says that his, his PE teacher was the kind of catalyst for everything, spotted him in school and said, maybe you're not a footballer, you might be a runner.
00:05:14
Speaker
And I think we can all kind of relate to that in some ways when our PE teachers are kind of directed towards the sports that we're not involved in. But definitely we've got some really talented students and I see them perform. I'm sometimes in awe of their talent and think I didn't have an ounce of what they have of natural ability at their age. And it's kind of nurturing that through to lead performance at a senior level. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
Brilliant. So I've lots of questions myself, but I also put out on Twitter, which I like to do when we have guests on. And one of the questions that we got asked was from, it was how, oh, how, oh, how.
00:05:59
Speaker
Do you... Kev is a VP in a school, isn't he? How can he get all his marking done and find time to train at the level he competes at? I think I might have sneakily answered half of that. So I'm sorry to the chemists and the mathematicians out there, but my main subject is physical education. So I teach mostly core BA and do teach some examination here.
00:06:26
Speaker
The real answer is even when I was teaching much, much more and teaching more examination sessions, therefore more marking, I kind of bought myself out a little bit of extra time in the day by running early. So I'm lucky now that I can run to work. I do my 10 miles to work in the morning. It kind of buys me that extra hour. Yeah, yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker
So how did you get into running then? Have you always ran since you were a kid? Or were you into other sports when you were growing up? What's your story? So I had a good, broad experience. So the school I went to, I went to some college in Belfast and really renowned school for sport and for music, actually, but mostly for sport. And I had a real broad experience of sports as a school kid. So I played a lot of football, played some games and other Irish sports.
00:07:19
Speaker
And I maybe thought I was a lot better at football than I potentially was. And I remember doing really well in the multi-stage fitness test. I know a lot of children read it, but I did quite well in it. And Paddy McKillop, at the time, P.E. Future sort of said, I think you can be a pretty good runner. So I went to the aesthetics club and it was a nightmare. It wasn't the fun that he promised me. I was trailing behind all these
00:07:47
Speaker
guys who've been training for months, years, some of them. So I didn't take to it like it ducked the water. But I think one thing I did have was I was really stubborn. I still am a bit stubborn, but I was really stubborn. So I didn't want to let go. I just kept coming back and kept coming back. And before long, with running being such a straightforward sport, the more I did it, the better I was getting at it. And it was probably around about sixth form.
00:08:17
Speaker
So sort of 16, 17 that I really started to show the sort of talent that others thought they'd seen in me. Yeah. Brilliant. So was there a specific race or something that, you know, really made you feel like you, you know, you had not been caught up with them, but you were perhaps surpassing them then when you were in college. Yeah. Like I can remember going, I can remember going, I can remember going home this summer of
00:08:44
Speaker
sort of what we call fifth year. So it's a year 11. And coming back this week, our schools are three schools. So they're 11 to 18. And coming back is a year 12. And I'm running the Ulster schools cross country. And I won the Ulster schools cross country the previous year as a year 11. And top of that sort of intermediate age group, I was about 52nd in the Ulster schools. So I came back over the summer holidays.
00:09:13
Speaker
And I'd just grown up a little bit in general, so physically and kind of emotionally had grown up a lot and came back and kind of had a good early part of the winter and went to the Ulster schools that year and was our first scorer and won the Ulster school. So I think that was probably the turning point where I started to think maybe there is some truth in this and I do have a little bit of talent for running. So that was probably the real turn point for me.
00:09:37
Speaker
Did you not believe it up to then then? Well, I think it was context and context is always king. And I look back at it and say that the skill I went to had quite a strong tradition of running. There were four by 1500 meter word skills record holders. And so when I was comparing myself to those guys, I was not doing quite as well in training and not doing quite as well in racing.
00:10:01
Speaker
If I was to take myself out of this situation, that context, and compare it maybe to other skills, I'd probably be doing okay. But no is the answer. I didn't really believe it until then. And then I sort of maybe run through a little bit that potentially I could have a bit of a future in athletics.
00:10:20
Speaker
So when you finished college then, where was you at then? Because you clearly had a career that you wanted to go into. So what happened next? Not a good deal, I think. So through sixth form, I had quite a few good races and picked up some Irish medals and some junior cross country vests. And then went off to university and I kind of lost the passion a little bit.
00:10:49
Speaker
And I kind of that stumbled on for quite some time. It took me a while to really find that desire back and to really want to tone a race.
Training Evolution and Achievements
00:10:56
Speaker
I did a lot of running. I think running is great and I enjoyed going for a run and I never lost that. But what I did lose was that kind of passion to want to go and race week on week. For whatever unknown reason, I still can't put my hand on it because it came back.
00:11:11
Speaker
Took time, but I came back with a force, but it just disappeared for a while. And so I kind of rumbled through university doing the odd race here or there at intervarsity type level, but not much to really to shout about until I came to Loughborough for PGCE a bit later on, and I found that fire again. So where were you at uni? I went to university undergraduate at University of Ulster.
00:11:39
Speaker
in Jordan's time, so Northern Ireland, and did my undergrad there and then came across to Loughborough University to do a Masters in Education or PGCA. Okay, so did Loughborough influence you then, obviously being the facility that it is? Did that play any part? I think it did. When I first arrived, I met the late George Gandhi.
00:12:06
Speaker
and he kind of he spoke to me about the history of Loughborough, so Seb Coe and all the great athletes that passed through but also the strength of the alumni that they had here that year and that they really were hoping to win the varsity cross-country and that if I could get myself faith then I might have a role to play in winning that in winning books or books it was then.
00:12:31
Speaker
So he kind of, he showed that little bit of, that little bit of sort of interest and get me back on it. So when Long did some of the training sessions and kind of just showed up for a while, for most of that year, and then got him with a nice, nice bunch of lads and sort of got back into, to, to, to running. It was kind of hard not to when every day there's someone to run with or there's a group to run with. And I needed that. I need that kind of company at that stage to kind of get me going again. Yeah.
00:12:58
Speaker
Okay, yeah, George Gandhi, I think, did he pass recently? Did I read that in Athletics Weekly? Yeah, he did, sadly. So it's about three weeks ago now. Yeah, he sadly passed away. He's a real beacon of athletics in Loughborough, and I think he's world-renowned, isn't he, really? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you, so, sorry, to go back to college then, you want to my, you want to my professor? Pardon?
00:13:28
Speaker
So go back to your college time. You represented Ireland at college, did you? So I represented Irish universities. I represented Ireland at a World Junior Cross country. It was kind of the first. And then there was a gap right the way through until 2014. So some 2003 to 2014 of not representing Ireland. Yeah. And then in 2014, I ran my first marathon and qualified for European athletics championships in Zurich.
00:13:59
Speaker
And you did that in your first marathon? Yeah, so it's kind of a funny story. And a lot of people, when they entered the marathon, they found out it was short. I get a little bit annoyed, but I was delighted. The way I felt it was 26 miles, I had enough. I was glad the finish line was there. So I ran Manchester. And at the time, we didn't know it was short. So I ran Manchester Marathon to help out a friend who was offered to pace him. And he got injured, so I decided, well, I'll start and give it a go. I'll do it myself.
00:14:26
Speaker
I've been running a lot at that stage enough to get me through but maybe not specific marks and stuff so I was good for about 20 miles and then I think the last 10k was something that I learned a lot of lessons there but I got selected as a discretionary pick for the European Athletics Championships that year and that's kind of where my desire to qualify for the games really came from.
00:14:48
Speaker
Okay. So what was the gap between training at Loughborough then and starting getting back into running in 2014? So I was 2009 at Loughborough, sort of getting back into things sort of flow then, but it wasn't really until, so I broke my foot at the start again of 2013 and it was kind of then where I thought, actually I miss not being able to compete and I miss not being able to race.
00:15:17
Speaker
when I want to. So I never promised I want to get back from that. Actually, I really want to try a marathon at some stage. So I'll give one of the lads a hand and pace him to halfway in this one. So it was kind of 2009 and then sort of 2014. I was doing a lot of running, but maybe not marathon specific stuff. And then 2014, I decided that was the year I was going to try to run a marathon.
00:15:44
Speaker
So what distances were you running when you were younger? So I ran a lot of 5K's actually as a schoolboy athlete. So I definitely wasn't a natural 1500m or an 800m guy. I always lean towards the endurance as opposed to being at the sharper end. So I did a lot of 5K's and 10K's and cross country, which is
00:16:04
Speaker
Anyone listening now who knows me will know that cross country is not a word you'll ever hear coming on my lips with a fond memory or find me doing anytime soon. But I did then and it kind of built a lot of the base for me. Yes. Okay.
00:16:20
Speaker
So you get to 2014 and you went to Manchester to pace your mate. Did you have any expectation on what kind of time you could run then? No. So when I did the pace tonight, my friend, he sort of said he wanted to run around 215. So I was thinking, well, I can run. I can definitely run. I can pace you for 10 miles, maybe halfway. And then when he couldn't run, I decided I'll just
00:16:48
Speaker
I'll just run and I'll try and run as close to the front as I can, for as long as I can. And we'll just see what happens. And I remember rightly, one of the, one of the lads went way off the front and it was too quick, but the group kind of running around the bite, sort of five, 20 per mile, there are thereabouts. I said, this feels, this feels okay. So I'll just hang, hang tight in here. So my aim was really just to finish as close to the front of that as I possibly could. I ended up finishing third.
00:17:19
Speaker
in the race in the end. Yeah. What did you come in at? Uh, so, uh, to our 1846 was, was the finished time, but then I think it was, I think they tried to estimate how far short it was. So it was probably around about two 19, uh, two 19 high, maybe two 20 low, somewhere around about there. Yeah. Um, so still like looking back, so considering the work I did for it, then I wasn't being coached at that stage. Uh, I hadn't been able to go to.
00:17:48
Speaker
The work I did for it to run a 220 was actually quite a good runner. Yeah, quite good. So you had no coach, you were running with your mate. What happened after the race then? How did you know that you'd qualified for Europeans? So I got home and a couple of days later, it was Commonwealth Games year as well. So athletics in Northern Ireland called me and said, well, you're not too far outside the 2018 standard for Commonwealth Games.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah. And it works on a ranking system. So depending on other performances in other sports, you might be able to shout out of getting the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. But in the interim, while we were waiting for that to come back, Chris Jones, it was director of endurance athletics, Aaron, then he called me up and said, how would you feel about joining the team to run? We can run six people at your European marketing champs. Do you want to go?
00:18:46
Speaker
I was like, do I want to go? This is brilliant. Delighted. Yeah. Over the moon. Really, really excited. Hung up the phone and thought, oh no, I've got to do this all over again. I couldn't walk downstairs at this stage. So yeah, the excitement was very quickly replaced with sort of a bit of memories of that last 10K and thinking about getting things a little bit better for the next camera.
00:19:11
Speaker
So, so I, there's all sorts of things to ask about that. So what, what did you think in terms of what, one, you work, where were you working then? You, you're in a school. I was, yeah, I was, I was teaching PE full-time at a school just again, just outside Loughborough. So I was teaching full-time then. Okay. So, so did you, because you didn't have a coach then, did, did you then get a coach? Not just then. So I went to Europeans first.
00:19:37
Speaker
And when I was at European Championships, I roomed with another Irish athlete called Paul Pollock. And after the race, Paul said, my coach is pretty good. You might have heard of him. So he tells me he was coaches and who's coach was coaching at that stage. And I was thinking, this chap won't want to coach me, but I'll ask anyway. I said, Paul, would he be looking to coach another Marthner? And Paul said, I'll give him a call and ask him. So it was Andy Hobden.
00:20:04
Speaker
and Andy called me back and said, yep, send me through your training. Let me have a look at what you've been doing and we'll have a chat about it. So I sent it through and I just got a message back, just ha, ha, ha, you're going to run fast when you learn how to train properly. So right away, it would be a good fit.
00:20:24
Speaker
Forgive my ignorance, but is this fairly typical that people go and run at the Euros and they haven't had a coach or They've kind of you've kind of just done it or you're a bit of an anomaly in that case I think it might be a little bit of an anomaly like I was I know that as a young athlete I was quite gifted and took me a while to realize that as you said earlier, but I know I had a little bit of a bit of ability and my ability was that I could run a lot and touch wood and
00:20:52
Speaker
avoid injuries, not get injured too much. So that ability is probably what you need to be a good marathoner. So naturally I could run, I was running 80, 90 miles a week probably. I could do that all year. And it was just kind of turning that mileage that I could handle into something that would be more marathon specific and make me a better marathoner. So how did you prepare yourself for those Europeans if you didn't have a coach? So I used coach Google.
00:21:21
Speaker
And I googled some athletes, chain of logs, and I had a look through and I said, well, what of this stuff looks like it's really important? So I said, well, the long run, that looks really important. So I took that out. So I need to have that. And I had a look and say, well, how many of those did you do in this 12-week block that they have online? And they do the really long ones three times. I said, well, I can do that. So I took that out and planned that in first. And then I said, well, what else did they do that looks important? And they said, well, they were doing some intervals that are a bit shorter.
00:21:51
Speaker
So I'll take those out and I'll put those in. How close to the long run did they put it in that training log? So I essentially built it looking at things online and sort of put an A3 sort of calendar on the wall and just wrote on what it was I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. And the sort of pace that I kind of wanted to do that. So I looked at these guys, said they'd run 212. I was thinking, well, I can't run 212.
00:22:15
Speaker
But I want to try and run quicker than 2.18 at the time. So I don't like it what 2.17 sort of pace was. Well, that was the kind of pace I'd want to use for my long intervals and work out cases from that. So I very much just pieced it together, a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, using what I'd learned from the sport as a young athlete about rest and recovery and the importance of those days, but built everything else around that really. Cool. Okay. So how did you get on at the event?
00:22:43
Speaker
So at Euros that year, I was 34th, so I was second at our score. I showed up, we went for a tour around the course beforehand and they dropped us off at the bottom of this hill and said, oh, you can get the vernicular to the top. This looks great. And as we're going to open the vernicular, they said, oh, by the way, you run up this.
00:23:07
Speaker
So you can imagine the nightmares I was having for three days beforehand. I haven't seen the course. I even got this kind of zigzag of mile of this massive hill. So around 2.20. Was that a loop as well? Was it a loop that year? Pardon? Was the course a loop that year? It was a loop course. Yeah, it was in Zurich. So it was a 10k lapse.
00:23:26
Speaker
So we got that hill four times. And going uphill wasn't so bad because you can adjust your pace and kind of control it and run the effort. So similar sort of effort that you run on the flat. It was coming down. So coming down for the fourth time, I had enough. I was taking a skateboard if I could get one. My quads and everything just had enough of the running downhill section. So I wasn't really conditioned to somewhat downhill. And that was a tough, again, a tough enough last 5K.
00:23:55
Speaker
getting yourself to the finish line. But I was delighted that I finished second and experienced my first trip abroad really to run in Zurich and my first real senior Irish vest. So I was taken back by the full environment and the full situation of really being there. Yeah. Go on, tell us what your big learnings were then then. So I think the first one was to kind of have confidence in the fact that I deserved to be there. So I spent the first couple of, certainly first couple of days in a bit of awe of all these amazing athletes.
00:24:26
Speaker
And the marthons that were there were truly world-class athletes. So I think it was believing in myself a little bit more that I deserved to be there. I'd earned my right to be on the team and to run there. And that was probably the first one. The second one is always check the destination of the train when you get on a train on your own.
00:24:46
Speaker
because you might find out that it's gone the wrong way by quite some distance and if you're really unlucky you're going to leave Switzerland and find yourself in a bit of trouble. It's definitely the second big learning now. Where did you end up? Where did you end up? I know we're too far thankfully because somebody said it must have been an athletics fan so he said where are you going to and I said the hotel and they're like not on this train you're not
00:25:13
Speaker
you're going to end up leaving Switzerland in about half an hour time. So you might want to get off the train the next stop, cross over and head your way back towards Zurich. But it could have been a lot worse than it was. Cool. Okay. And what about if the route was a shock to you, is that something that you
00:25:36
Speaker
that you've took forward and have a look at now. Yeah, definitely. I think I went in with no real prior knowledge. I loved athletics and loved sport, but no real prior knowledge. You could just Google the course profile, for example, and you could find the map online and you could have all this information. So, yes, definitely. Knowing the course is really important. Knowing where challenging bits are, if it's hilly, if it has cobbles, you know, any of those sort of
00:26:04
Speaker
little things that might just be enough to throw you off your pattern a little bit. They're really important at all levels. I think it's important to know that, what the train's like, and do a little bit of research beforehand just to make sure that you are aware of the course that you're running. Yeah. I mean, these things that you're saying, I mean, you're talking about competing at the highest level, really.
00:26:28
Speaker
But these are completely transferable to, you know, across our community. There's people who go out and run their first 5Ks and half marathons, and then they might run for a couple of years and want to run a PB. And the things you're talking about are all, they're the same things, aren't they? They absolutely are. And I think that that idea of being resilient and I'm not expecting instant success is really important. And now I say that I ran my first marathon and things went well, but I didn't start that way when I was a school athlete. Like I very much struggled through things and
00:26:58
Speaker
and really find it hard. And it's just that keep coming back and keep showing up and knowing that the beauty of running, the beauty of athletics is that you tend to get rewarded for what you put in. And those rewards come in different things. So for example, my reward was eventually qualifying for the Olympics. Other rewards could be the sort of
00:27:17
Speaker
the emotional feeling that you get, the wellbeing, the progress, the weight loss, a whole host of things, 5K TVs, running 5K even, and that first time you complete a 5K, and sort of taking those successes with you and remembering that what you put into running into athletics, you'll definitely get back. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So you've come out of that
00:27:40
Speaker
those euros with a coach and a lot of learning. So yeah, you've just touched on the Olympics. What happened next? So I was desperately, I was desperately to run another marathon. And the first thing Andy said is, no, you're not going to do that. You're going to learn to train properly, first of all. So we sat down and he sent me through my next training block and I looked at it. And the first thing I thought was I can't do that.
00:28:07
Speaker
There's no way I can do that. It's so different to what I was doing beforehand. The sessions are faster, the runs are faster. The recovery days were there, and that was the common theme. I was like, I can definitely do the recovery days. But the rest of the training, I just wasn't so sure about. So Andy said, well, let's go day by day, and regular contact, and sort of talk me through it. So there were some changes in, I probably did a lot of running too easy. And I need to get the message quite clear that I'm pretty robust. I'm not suggesting everyone just goes and runs faster, and that's the way to do it.
00:28:36
Speaker
But we gradually increased the pace of our regular maintenance runs. So I was probably doing them as an equivalent, outside seven minute pace. And Andy said, well, if you want to run your marathon at five minute pace, it's a little bit too far away. Let's have a look at going a little bit quicker. So now we've regularly run around about six minute pace for our 10-mileers and our maintenance runs. But that took time. It was nearly two to three years before I got
00:29:05
Speaker
that became as comfortable as it is now. So the first thing really was I learned to train a bit more like an international marathoner. And then I learned to race a little bit like one as well. So my half marathon PB going into Zurich was probably around about, I think it was 67.50, potentially, just inside 68 minutes. So the first thing Andy said was, well, we need to get that quicker. So I ran, in my first season, I ran a half marathon PB, 65,
00:29:34
Speaker
flat, 65-0, something in Reading, and knew then that that was kind of like a quick win. We took big time off a half marathon, and that sort of led to the second big thing, and that was working at my conference, that I actually deserved to be there, and that I worked hard to be there as well.
00:29:54
Speaker
Learning to train right and sort of developing confidence and efficacy in my own ability was probably the two big tasks that Andy had that year. I think he worked quite well in this. And then I ran Berlin marathon the following September to just over a year after Zurich and ran 214. Wow, okay. So you'd taken five minutes off on your own? Yeah, five to six minutes off of he being in that race.
00:30:23
Speaker
And it was a really strange day because, again, my aim was to try to, it's a big city marathon, it was never going to be at the front, but to be as close to the front as I possibly could. And just ran barely out of the splits off the water. I couldn't have told you what 214 PSE even was. And I was just getting into a group and trying to stay in that group for as long as I could. And work well that day. So how did,
00:30:53
Speaker
to mention some of the changes there. How did it compare in terms of the amount of time that you spent training? Was that the same or different? And how did you fit that in at this point around work? So it was broadly similar. If anything, it was a little bit shorter.
00:31:10
Speaker
Um, so if I was doing normally doing 10 miles before work in, in 70 minutes, it was not 10 miles in 60 minutes. And it was, so it was, we're talking normal, but, but actually that's short time and enough time to get to sit down and have your part in those minutes rather than sprint out the door. So with work in 2015, I took up my first assistant principal role. Um, so I made it a really busy year for myself. The targets qualified for Olympic games and take on another new job at school. Um,
00:31:39
Speaker
So I really did have to think about how I managed that time and where I could fit training in. So I did a lot of running before work early and I tried to get the bulk of the running done nice and early. And that gave me that little extra time in the evening. I never panicked about missing an easy run. So I did my morning run and something came up at work and I had an easy five miles.
00:32:02
Speaker
I wouldn't really be panicking about sacrificing that easy five miles. It meant that I was, I had to stay a little bit later and work, but then could come home and have dinner and relax and recover. So I paid real attention to that sort of how I was feeling about things as well. Um, and the maddies didn't get, didn't get crazy. So I think probably a hundred for that mark is a hundred to 110 maximum. Um, so it certainly didn't talk about 10 hours really off training in the week.
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So, and how does it, how does it work in work in terms of, you know, you traveling and going and going to these events like the Europeans did they, did they happen to fall in holidays or how did that work? Yeah, I've been quite lucky. So they, they have fallen during holidays and the, the Olympic games were in August Zurich was in August. The Commonwealth games were probably the only one.
00:32:55
Speaker
in recent memory that I had to take some time off. So it was run by the Easter time. But the marathon would have been the Sunday before we were going back to school on the Monday. So clearly being in Australia, it was going to be quite difficult for me to get back. So the school and the governors have been really supportive. And they said, don't worry, you can have the week. Take the week if you need it. You can have that for the week off.
00:33:24
Speaker
So they were really, really supportive about that. I managed, we flew back on the Wednesday and I think I landed in the Heathrow at 5 a.m. and hopped in the car and was back in school by sort of 8.30 on that day. Well, I was kind of thinking, I'm a little bit tired. I slept on the plane, but I'm okay. And actually, I'd be going home and probably been sat around drinking coffee. My wife was back at work as well. So I thought, well,
00:33:51
Speaker
I'm good and I'm feeling ready to go again. I'm actually excited to get back into the classroom, so I went straight to work. That's great that they supported you with that. They've been absolutely brilliant. So that was the main sort of big time that I needed to go, but they have been even supported now. So I know that potentially if I do need to be a little bit later into work, which isn't often, because I normally run there, but if I'm running a little bit late and I say, well, I'm not going to be there at 7.30, I'm going to be there
00:34:21
Speaker
Can someone cover my gate duty, for example? And there's always someone willing to support and help out with that. So I've got a fantastic team. That's cool. Sorry, I made you jump then as well to 2018. So let's go back. Tell us about qualifying for Rio.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah, so it was quite an early qualification. So I qualified in September and sat kind of as the fastest hours qualifier, waiting, just waiting. I'm hoping that people, I'm a big fan of the marathon, I'm a big fan of running. So anytime somebody's running the marathon, I want to go super well for them. I want them to do really well in it because I know the sacrifices that people go through when they train for a marathon. And I'm kind of thinking, I don't want anyone to run badly. I just don't want them to run as well as I did.
00:35:06
Speaker
so that I can keep my qualification spot. So from September until April really, I'm not really sure as to whether or not that was going to be fast enough to actually go to. What did you run and where? So I ran 2.14 in Berlin. How was your Berlin? Yeah, that was Berlin. So I ran 2.14 in Berlin and I knew that after Berlin you have quite a few sort of autumn marathons and then right through to London in the spring. So every time a marathon was on you were thinking is this the one where
00:35:36
Speaker
and Irish guys going to go quicker. And Irish marathon at that stage had sort of started to gain momentum and gain a little bit of revival. So in Berlin, for example, we had four guys inside 215, 30 in that race. And that was four guys, given that in 2014, our fastest guy run 217. So we're definitely beginning to notice a nice upsurge in marathon running in Ireland.
00:36:06
Speaker
whereby I was delighted. I really am a big fan of athletics, but I was also a bit apprehensive as to whether or not my time was going to be enough to get me there. Yes. That was a long time for you to wait on it as well. It was quite some time.
The Olympic Journey: Rio and Beyond
00:36:19
Speaker
And I can remember, I can remember, I was sat in the coffee shop in, uh, in, in Loughborough when the call came through from the head of athletics, Ireland, basically saying there's an embargo. You can't tell anyone, but the selection had been confirmed.
00:36:32
Speaker
and we'll let you know when you can do like a media thing or when you can tell your family obviously, but just tell them to keep it relatively quiet for a while. So you want to scream it from the rooftops. You didn't jump up in the middle of the coffee shop, man. No, I resisted the urge. I had a cup of coffee in my hand and we all know how precious that is. It certainly wasn't going to spill it.
00:36:58
Speaker
We had a question about coffee actually. Why is this with coffee? Let me just check. How many coffees is too many in one day from Rob Pooley? I don't think there's a right answer to that. I don't think there is too much, is there? Maybe some nutritionists listening right now are going to get on at me and say, you're probably drinking too much. But I'd say on a school morning, my coffee machine flicks on at 5.40am.
00:37:26
Speaker
And I've had two cups before, I'm running at five, just inside six. So I don't know if that's a good start to the day. For me it is. I don't know whether or not that would be everyone's dream start to the day. Yeah. So multiple is the answer to that question. Tell us about Rio. I always look back and think how grateful I am. To go and get the opportunity to go to Brazil in the first place was incredible.
00:37:54
Speaker
The experience is when I was there. So we spent a bit of time in a province called Liberlandia City. It's one of the bigger cities in Brazil at a holding camp. I met some wonderful people there. Great experiences and I felt excited and did everything possible to make us feel comfortable and enjoy it. So we went for a run one day and they took us out in some really nice trails, almost looks like they're trails in Kenya. But the difference was that we had
00:38:24
Speaker
an armed patrol in front of us. So you had a guy in a four by four with three armed men in the back of this four by four escorting us round this run. So he carried our water bottles and we were able to fire the water bottles back through the water bottles back to us and stuff. So it was very surreal being there, but it was an incredible experience. So we went down to Rio, sort of a week out from the marathon. So we were in the village for a roundabout a week.
00:38:53
Speaker
And I know people try and describe it, but it's incredible. The village is just remarkable sort of place. There's more or less nothing that you cannot get in the village. So you need your, I mean, everything from a McDonald's, if that's what you're interested in, through to your amazing coffees and PlayStation rooms and everything. So it was a really great experience overall, not just in terms of sporting experience. And then of course the race itself was just
00:39:22
Speaker
It's hard to describe. I was on the start line, still pinching myself, not believing that here I am, this teacher from Belfast, via Leicester, stood on the start line of the Olympic Games, which is very surreal.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, amazing. But was it like walking out in the ceremony? So we missed the opening ceremony. Yeah, we missed that because we were in the holding camp for that, still during that stage, a couple of thousand kilometers away. It's something that if I'm really fortunate and I'm touching wood right now and I'm lucky enough to be selected for Tokyo, then it's something I would like to be able to do to see that I've done it because all the other experiences were marvelous.
00:40:05
Speaker
Yeah. Any stories from inside the camp? I'm not sure if there's any we can share. Maybe I'll chat afterwards about that. Nothing too scandalous, I promise. Very, very few. And what was your time in Rio? Again, it was another 220. But it was very hot and very humid.
00:40:31
Speaker
Now we were really lucky. Our conditions weren't as harsh as the girls were. The ladies race, sorry, was the week before. But it was still 30 degrees and 100% humidity. So it was really, it was tough, tough conditions. I probably would have liked to go a little bit quicker. And I think I got a few things wrong in my race plan and maybe didn't execute it quite the way I would have liked. But it was still an incredible experience. Yeah. I mean, I do even.
00:41:01
Speaker
We say acclimatise, but how can you acclimatise to 100% humidity? I don't know that you can. I don't know that you can. You can certainly prepare for the conditions and by getting us there nearly a month early, we certainly transferred Ireland, certainly tried to get us used to that. We were training in 36 degrees heat some days and
00:41:23
Speaker
Um, we had all sorts of sports science support from, from hydration tests through to lactate tests and all sorts of stuff going on. So we really get our best to prep for it. But unfortunately the day when you, when you kind of, the temperatures change and the environment changes a little bit for the worse. Um, it's really hard to get used to that. You just kind of, that's where your race plan really needs to be, needs to be spot on.
Commonwealth Games and Mental Resilience
00:41:46
Speaker
Um, and, and even making those last minute adjustments with confidence, make that race plan, um,
00:41:52
Speaker
to execute that respond properly. So that's kind of adaptability of it. Yeah. Cool. But then the next big, the next big games for you was, was that Australia? Yeah. It was like the Commonwealth games in Australia. Um, I was prepping for that when we talk about acclimatization was funny because I spent the full time really prepping in, in, in the UK at Loughborough.
00:42:18
Speaker
And of course we had a lot of snow that year. So one week was doing a 20 miler in the snow and sleet. And then a week later it was in the Gold Coast where it was 30 degrees and shorts and t-shirt. So surreal. So the hop between the two and the conditions between the two. But again, athletics in Northern Ireland were wonderful and they got us out there nice and early.
00:42:45
Speaker
I was there because of school. I couldn't go quite as early as I would have liked, but we broke up on the Friday and we flew out on a Sunday. So it was as quick as we possibly could. It was gave me about two weeks really before the race. Enough time to do one or two key sessions.
00:43:02
Speaker
I get used to the heat, but it certainly felt like it was taking its time. I was, I can remember doing a session on the first sort of week and thinking this is tough. And then getting halfway through the second week and then we're sort of like five or six days out from the race. And I'm thinking I still don't feel quite right. And then the very next day, doing my final session, it just clicked. And I was like, I actually feel like I'm really good to go here. Which was nice conference place three or four days before the race.
00:43:29
Speaker
How did you deal with the mental side of the game? So in the run-up before that final session where things just clicked, how did you handle that in your first night there? I think I was just really grateful in the first instance to be there. So I don't remind myself how privileged I was and how lucky I was to be in the Gold Coast. I never really envisaged myself in that side of the world. And there I was.
00:43:58
Speaker
in Australia about to run a marathon. So about to do something that I really wanted to do and really loved doing. So I think the mental setup becomes a little bit easier when you conceptualize it and put it all in context. Again, I was teaching in Loughborough two weeks before that and here I am about to go on the start line against some of the best athletes in the Commonwealth.
00:44:22
Speaker
And I was remembering that I am really grateful and I'm really privileged and really lucky. There's a lot of people who would love to have this experience, but I have it. So I feel I owe it to them and to myself to really enjoy that. And I think that makes the mental side of it a little bit easier to handle. It doesn't mean I don't get nervous and it doesn't mean that I don't fret a little bit about it. I think everyone does, but it just helps me put it all in a little bit of perspective.
00:44:46
Speaker
Yeah, cool. So, and then tell us about the race thing, because I know that was a good one for you, wasn't it? Yeah, it was, it was. So I had a game plan beforehand. I looked at it as like, it's going to be 30 degrees, maybe slightly warmer. So again, I went back to my, my little Google friend and spoke with Andy and we both sort of looked at
00:45:10
Speaker
What did I think I could run? So if it was in the UK, what sort of time did I think I could run? And we're sort of saying, we think from training somewhere around about 212 to 213. If it was sort of British type weather, 14 degrees and quite a nice day, it wasn't going to be that. So we had a look at what might that mean if the temperatures are really hot.
00:45:34
Speaker
And it was somewhere around about, depending on how hot it got, somewhere around about 220 again. That famous number is popping back up, but somewhere around about 220, 221. So I knew that was around about 520 per mile or 320-ish per kilometer. So I just set off at that pace. And actually on the morning of the race, it was hotter than that. It was well into the mid 30s by the race start time.
00:46:00
Speaker
And it was quite early, so I set out of that kind of pace and that rhythm, and I didn't really pay attention to what everyone else was doing. I was quite lucky because they started out quite slow for them, for the first 5K anyway. So got to 5K, and I was buying on 320 pace, and was just inside 70 minutes at halfway, which again was around about 70 minutes, which is again about 320, so I've been fairly even-splitting.
00:46:27
Speaker
And halfway, I think I was somewhere in the mid 30s, somewhere in the 30s, maybe high 20s, at halfway. But then when I turned and started to come back, it was kind of like the out and back bit of the course. When I turned and started to come back, I suddenly see people getting a little bit closer. So I started passing people. But I was running the same pace. So I was still running around about 320 per day, 520 per mile. So it was still the same sort of rhythm all the way through. And suddenly I was passing big groups of people. And the heat had really started to take its effect on people.
00:46:55
Speaker
So I just kept going at my own little sort of my rhythm that I knew from the start, I was like, I think I can keep this going for the food distance. And kept checking, kept sort of have a look every kilometer just to make sure I wasn't getting carried away. And by about sort of 20 miles, I'd lost track of how many of where I was and I sort of tried to count and I'd lost track of where I was. So in my head, I was probably top 15. It turns out it was probably more like top eight at that stage.
00:47:23
Speaker
And then coming into the final 5K, some people are shouting from the side of the road, you could get a medal, you could get a medal. Just some Australian people watching the race. And that's like, I think I'm probably eighth place maybe. Like I'd have to pass about a few people. And then with about two or three K to go, I kind of realized that the group in front of me were the medals. And they were just a little bit too far and they were still running really well. So they were still going to maintain their pace. So I tried to chase it a little bit and
00:47:53
Speaker
didn't quite get there, so I ended up finishing fourth place, but I think afterwards, I said I won fourth place there, and I think I did, because I was ranked outside top 20, and I come away with a fourth place, and to run the race plan that I knew I could do was really good in its own. Do you feel like it did all just click, like you said in that last training session that day?
00:48:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think my body at that stage had been there long enough and kind of just got used to the conditions and used to the heat. And importantly, I guess at that stage, I'd started to reduce what I was doing. I'd come from the UK where I was running 110 miles a week in the snow. And I'd gone out to Australia where I was down around about sort of 70, 80 miles a week in the sunshine. So I think my body just kind of
00:48:49
Speaker
recovered at the right time, it was part of it. It's meant the taper went quite well, but also it just clicked. I think I just, everything just fell into place in terms of the physiology of it. So we're getting used to the heat and my body coping and dealing with it. And the pace began to feel a little bit smoother. So yeah, I think it just, literally just got lucky it clicked at the right time. And what time did you come in on that? Around 2.19.
00:49:15
Speaker
and a bit 219 high. So I think I was more or less even splits. So I think it was one second or two second difference between my first kilometer and my middle kilometer and my last kilometer. So I got quite a good rhythm there.
00:49:31
Speaker
but then you finished the race, you got on the plane, you were back in work at nine o'clock the next morning. Yeah, flew straight back in, yeah, a long whole flight, it was quite nice. Had a little bit of sleep in some burgers at the airport. And then, yeah, back in work for breakfast. What was that like when you went and sat at your desk, considering, you know, I know it's a long flight from Australia, but with it, you know, the prior 48 hours, you were on the start line of a race like that, and then two days later,
00:50:01
Speaker
Back in work, it was a bit surreal and I think I was still kind of half on cloud nine from it all. So I still had that kind of running on emotions, kind of like the energy that was feeding from the race itself and it
Return to School and Continuous Improvement
00:50:16
Speaker
going well. So I was still fueled by the energy from that, fueled by a lot of strong coffee. And then once you get back into school, the kids are really excited.
00:50:25
Speaker
And they were great. And BBC came in a little bit that day as well. It was really, really nice. But then they kind of put things in the perspective. It's like the excitement drops for them. And then they're like, oh, so what's for homework? And everything's just moved on. So it was quite nice. It was quite refreshing just to enjoy the moment while at the start and then just get on with being back and doing what I love to do in school. Yeah, kids are good at that, aren't they? They're brilliant. Just putting things. If you have a good session and you think everything's great and then the kids
00:50:55
Speaker
put it in the perspective you had a bad day or a bad race and you go into school and you think actually in real life terms it's not that important when you talk to some of the children. Where was your head at then? Then did we immediately on trying to get to Tokyo? That must have been March or April. After that I had
00:51:24
Speaker
a month really to kind of recover, turn around again and get ready to go in the European Championships in Berlin. So European marathon champs were in Berlin, not you? Yep. Hopefully you didn't hear the dog barking in the background. European, yeah, European marathon champs were in Berlin, not you. So I had a little bit of time just to turn things around and try to get ready to go again.
00:52:10
Speaker
No, it's not gone again. No, I can hear you now. Can you hear me okay? Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. I thought it had gone again then. Oh, no, back in, back in. It's always barking away in the background. So yeah, European champs were next on the agenda then in 2018. Yeah. Cool. So, one second, sorry. I'm just going to make a note of where we're up to. No, that's fine. Tell us about the Euros then. Yeah, so.
00:52:41
Speaker
Again, the middle of the summer, which is never particularly nice in any European country. So we got really lucky. Again, the 10K was the week before us. And I think they had at 8pm, 9pm at night, well into the 30 degrees. So it was always going to be a hot championships. And for us, it was probably more like 25. So coming from Australia, three months earlier,
00:53:09
Speaker
I'm racing in 36, 25 was quite refreshing, quite nice. Yeah. But still required a pretty sensible race plan. Cool. And how did you get on in the Euros? Yeah, so I was 15th Euros that summer. So I'd gone from 2014, I was 38 and around 217, 216 in Berlin, European championships in 2018, the finished 15th, 15th place.
00:53:39
Speaker
So a little bit of improvement. Again, it was very much, I was maybe outside the top 50 and halfway and then just picking things off and moving through sensibly in the second half through the 15th. So I think I read, I read one of your interviews, I think it was 2018 and you said in one of them that you didn't do any, you don't do any strength training or you haven't come to that point.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yeah, so I did very little strength training. Certainly didn't do huge amounts before then. And I'm starting to really program it in now. I think it's really important. I can run a lot and wasn't getting injured and was staying relatively robust. So it was kind of got the stage where I'm not at the stage where I can run and I can run all day probably, but to get that a little bit extra, I'm probably not going to get it from from running alone. So
00:54:39
Speaker
I'm trying to build in some strength and condition into the program. But yeah, until 2018, I did zero. Once I went out to Australia, I actually had a few problems with my quads, probably because from the snow here and my glutes doing a lot of the work and kind of just offset things a little bit. So I made a promise to the physios out there that A, I would get more physiotherapy because until 2018, I never had a massage, and B, that I would
00:55:07
Speaker
start to incorporate a little bit of strength and conditioning in the maturing program, just to try to find that little bit of extra, potentially in a lot of stages of marathon.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's amazing. Again, cause you know, a lot, a lot of our community, it's a, it's a common thing that will come up that people, that runners just don't strap frame because they just, they either just don't fit it in or they just, they just love to run. Um, so it's, it's, uh, it's good to hear you say in the, you know, you didn't have a massage until 2018. I hear the struggle. I feel, I feel the struggle is also what we did here in the summer was we, like we had a, we,
00:55:48
Speaker
well I certainly didn't do as much gym last year as I planned to do and I could make all sorts of excuses myself but excuses don't really work when you're at mile 22 and you know you can tell yourself all the excuses you want but it's not going to make your performance any better on that day so I kind of eliminated the excuses by during the summer we converted our garage into a gym I learned how to put up some some plasterboard and
00:56:14
Speaker
And yeah, we converted, put down some nice flooring and converted into a gym. So we've now got the gym at home. So I have literally no excuses now, not to be out there and they really take care of those things. And is that something that your coach encourages you to do as well? Or does he focus specifically on your run? So yeah, Andy focuses on the things that are going to make us better athletes. And for each of his athletes, that could be a different sort of thing. So we've got some of Andy's group where
00:56:44
Speaker
really good at strength and conditioning. And for them, their focus might be a little bit more on their speed work or their endurance. And for me, my endurance is pretty strong. My speed work needs a little bit of work, but my focus on gym and actually getting that routine is important. So yeah, I get reminded to make sure that I am doing my residency and my stretching and routines through it in the week. And more importantly, I might get in the recovery, I might start to help me recover because I'm still
00:57:14
Speaker
maybe a bit more, a bit neglect from that as well. So all of these things combined, I mean, I've looked at your last few tweets and this year has been particularly good, hasn't it, for you? Do you feel all these things combined and just experience now, it's all coming together in terms of your running? I think so. I found the enjoyment again and I think you can track back to where
00:57:43
Speaker
that enjoyment really sort of started the show and that fire was really late because the performance started to improve and it's like we said at the start, if you enjoy doing something, then it's hard not to get better at it. But 2020 has been particularly, it's been a very difficult year for a lot of people and a lot of people have taken to physical activity and running. It's one of those sports that you open up the front door and put on your trainers and you can join, everyone can join in with a little bit of running.
00:58:12
Speaker
But for me, 2020 has been challenging in some ways with school and running really has become a solace in that and it led to some good performances. So I opened up 2020 with a PB in the marathon in Seville and I kind of closed it. I say closed it. I'm not sure what the next sort of four to six weeks might hold, but closed it with a 62 minute half marathon PB in Poland two weekends ago. So it's been a,
00:58:38
Speaker
It's been a challenging year in its own right, but it's also been, I kind of have to look and celebrate the successes that it did happen this year. Yeah, I mean, you must be pleased with that, with those times. I mean, 210 you've took, that's a big PB, isn't it? Yeah, so 210 in Seville and even 62. So 62 was just a little PB. I say 62, I should probably be a bit more fair to low 62 runners and tell everyone it was 62-58.
00:59:06
Speaker
I did just inside it, the 63. So it was a little PB, my 63.05 was my PB before that. So slightly over the half, but you got to celebrate all those every second really. We don't always run PB, so it's nice to celebrate them when you do. Yeah, definitely.
00:59:25
Speaker
So how has this year changed for you? Because obviously Tokyo has been moved back a year. And what does this year look like? And how does the next six months look like for you? So I'm quite lucky. I said I've moved jobs. So I started a new school. And that's been a nice welcome distraction in some ways. So it kind of keeps the year stable. I'd go to school.
00:59:53
Speaker
Monday to Friday and sort of build any training camps that I would have done. We aren't doing it at the minute, but build that around the school holidays. So that framework is still there. And that sort of framework provides me the routines every day. So training is very much focused on getting stronger. Now I will spend a little bit of time getting a little bit quicker, trying to lower the 10K PV and hope that some races return to run that PV. And then sort of
01:00:22
Speaker
once Christmas comes round, just in the new year, we'll start to think about what we can do to add value to performance if we get selected for Tokyo. So for me, that's going to be very much that routine of the strength and condition and adding that into the program while building back in some decent, long mileage and making sure that a road would be quite strong too. So in terms of the year, the structure will very much follow what we'd have done last year. I would have liked to run
01:00:53
Speaker
another marathon, but it's just hard to commit to something and work around it knowing that it might not happen. The marathons may not actually go ahead. So I would have liked to run one, but I'm happy to hopefully save the best performance for Tokyo. Yeah.
01:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Let me check one of the questions we got asked over on Twitter. There was a couple more from the community that wanted to ask you. What's your opinion on the Nike shoes? Do you feel it gives athletes an unfair advantage? An unfair advantage? There's definitely, athletics has been quite slow in some ways to embrace the technology.
01:01:42
Speaker
swimming and other sports have been quite welcoming. And running should be a simple sport and that everyone should be able to access the same shoes and shouldn't be priced out of the market and accessing those shoes. So I can see why there may be a perception of being slightly unfair on other athletes, but they definitely help, but they aren't going to run the marathon for you or run the race for you. Should I say, you may not be talking about marathons.
01:02:09
Speaker
I've run in a few different brands and a few different shoes. I'm not sponsored and not contracted. So I've been able to sort of try different brands and try different shoes. And the market's becoming a lot closer together. So there are other brands that are releasing carbon-plated shoes and sort of shoes with relatively high stack heights. So the market is becoming much more competitive and kind of drawn that any advantage that may have been there is coming a little bit closer together.
01:02:38
Speaker
But it's also, I think it's important that people or athletes, as much as anyone else, realize that you need to do the training and the shoe isn't gonna run the race for you. It's certainly going to help potentially in the latter stages of the marathon, but if you haven't done the training, you'll still find things incredibly difficult later on. Cool. Where's your favourite training pamp destination from Stu Spencer? Oh, I mean, so I've got
01:03:08
Speaker
two sort of favorite places, and they're both very close together. There's a place called the Rio Segura, and that's in Tora Viejo. So I'm really lucky that a good friend of mine owns Casa Carrera, which is a sort of training set of houses. They say houses now, he's got two. Just in Tora Viejo, which is a wonderful place to go. And the trails there are fantastic. So there's one called the Yellow Brick Road, is the second favorite one, which is kind of a short sand trail.
01:03:38
Speaker
runs along the Pink Lakes. It's as nice as it sounds, really. And then, yeah, the Rail Segura, which is incredible. It's 180 kilometers of sort of trail, flat trail and cycle paths. It runs from Mercia City right through to the coast. So probably there'd be my two favorite sort of places to go. Brilliant. What's your favorite non-running hobby? Favorite non-running hobby?
01:04:06
Speaker
I shouldn't say this too loud because Andy will be listening, but I still love playing a bit of football. I should point out that I haven't played in quite some time, but up until 2016, 2017, I was still playing quite a lot of football, five-a-side leagues and things like that, until I could totally know in certain terms that it's probably not the best thing for the lead athlete or international athlete to do. So that's probably my favourite, but I don't get to do it quite as much.
01:04:36
Speaker
Is that as I used to? Who's your team? Who do you follow? I'm an Arsenal fan actually, so it's been a long, hard couple of seasons for us. Yeah, I mean, Arteza has done a good job since he's come in and made some good signings. I think our part-time might be a good signing for Arsenal. Some very good signings, you just need to click a little bit more. I tell you, Arteza looks like he can still play a bit.
01:05:04
Speaker
Yes, very good. Other questions we had was, what's your favourite, have you got a favourite series on Netflix or Prime or anything you'd recommend for people? I've just finished watching The Good Doctor. Very good show. I'm not sure if you've seen it. No, I've got it recorded. I have got it recorded in my Skyplan in a minute, but I am yet to press play. Highly recommended. Really enjoyed that. I'm going to make a sign I go watch a lot on Netflix. I genuinely don't.
01:05:33
Speaker
Blacklist is another one. Another really good show where I definitely recommend it. But I promise I don't watch huge amounts. That was just summer watching. Cool. Favorite film and favorite book at the last two? I'm a big Grisham fan. It's hard to really pick between any of the Grisham books. So I'm not going to commit too much to one, but I'm a huge Grisham fan. I can really recommend
01:06:00
Speaker
picking up a Christian novel if you want something that's not sport-related and something a little different. If you were a film, that's a tough one. That is a tough one. I'm still a big fan of some of the old favorites, so The Green Mile, for example. I'm a big fan of that. I haven't seen a film in recently, so if anybody's got any recommendations of one that I really should go and watch, a bit more recent, then feel free to ping them in to me. But yeah, I wouldn't be a huge movie fan in general,
01:06:30
Speaker
Green Man, probably my still my all-time favourite. Yeah, it's a good one. I've recently been watching a couple of the older films. I watched Saving Private Ryan actually last weekend, which is another great one with Tom Hanks. Cool. Well, I think it's time to wrap it up. Thanks very much for your time this evening. It's been great speaking with you and hearing about your journey.
01:06:55
Speaker
I'm really looking forward to seeing hopefully the events go ahead and seeing how the next 12 months goes for you. Thank you very much for having me and hopefully, like you say, the games and stuff do go ahead and hopefully I get selected as well. So if you want to follow the journey and you know where to find me on social media, then come on in and follow me on it.
01:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, so just give us all your handles again, just so everybody can follow along. Yeah, they're both probably similar, so at Kevrunning2016. And you're more than welcome, that's Instagram and Twitter. I've just started with Instagram, so if anybody's got any tips as well on how to use it, it's quite new to me, so feel free to offer me any advice you have.
01:07:42
Speaker
Cool. Well, I'm sure there'll be a few people following. We'll drop you some messages about that. Thanks ever so much, Kev. It's been great chatting. That's brilliant. Thank you very much for having me. Cheers. Thank you.