Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
950 Miles to Stability: Neil Mills on Addiction, ADHD & Endurance
0 Plays2 seconds ago
At 48, Neil Mills is taking on one of the biggest challenges of his life: running and walking 950 miles in just 21 days.
But this isn’t just about covering 45 miles a day.
Neil is visiting every Young Lives vs Cancer Home from Home across the UK, raising funds for families facing childhood cancer. Behind the distance lies a deeply personal story of addiction, late-diagnosed ADHD, rebuilding identity, and discovering that endurance running offers him stability.
In this episode of the UKRunChat Podcast, Neil shares how discipline became a lifeline, how long miles quiet a noisy mind, and why giving back is now central to who he is.
This is an honest, powerful conversation about running as structure, recovery and purpose.
Neil is raising money for Young Lives vs Cancer to support families staying close to their children during cancer treatment: https://www.justgiving.com/page/neil-mills-1729538959475
Text NEIL to 70490 to donate £2. Texts cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message.
Neil's Facebook page
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Neil's Challenge
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK Run Chat Podcast. I'm Michelle and today's conversation is with Neil. He's 48, a builder by trade, and this April he's committed to running and walking 950 miles in days visiting every young lives versus cancer home from home across the UK. Now on paper, it's an enormous endurance challenge around 45 miles a day.
00:00:27
Speaker
But behind the distance is something
Neil's Personal Journey to Endurance Sports
00:00:29
Speaker
deeper. Neil was diagnosed later in life with ADHD. He's navigated addiction, rebuilt his identity and discovered endurance sport. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today, Neil. and Just take us back, first of all, before we get into your your mammoth challenge that's coming up in April. So who were you before endurance running entered your life? and When did that all begin for you?
00:00:54
Speaker
So mid-20s.
00:00:58
Speaker
At the age of 23, coming on 24, I was at a big, massive session, drink, drugs. And I said to all my friends, tomorrow i'm going to get up in the morning. and I'm not going to drink anymore. I'm going to go to the gym and I'm going to start bodybuilding. um Everyone laughed at me, but that's exactly what I did. got up in the morning, still hung over, went to the gym, signed up a membership. and Then my addiction became different. I got addicted taking steroids, trying to get the old man that way.
00:01:28
Speaker
I got through to my late 30s. I'm trying to cut a long story short. I got screw through to my late 30s. Eventually, steroids had got the better of me. My head went, everything went. So I stopped taking steroids all the way through this. I used to smoke and I carried on smoking. and As healthy as I was, as fit as I was, I smoked.
00:01:51
Speaker
I went to do a run with my son in my early 40s and i couldn't run. So that was the moment I went, oh my God, I need to sort this out.
From Bodybuilding to Marathon Running
00:02:00
Speaker
So everything sort of fell into place at once. So long story short was entered Who Dares Wins at the age of 44.
00:02:10
Speaker
and The last year I could enter it just well. i was 43. You could only enter out to 44. I was convinced that I'd pass every challenge, which I did. So it was during COVID. So during that time, everything was done on calls and Zoom and you would record certain things. Well, I did.
00:02:25
Speaker
My wife entered me and I cleared every round easy, the push-ups, the military press-ups, the chin-ups, at all sorts. And I was convinced that I had this run, think it was nine and a half minutes. You have to do a mile and a half. Yeah.
00:02:37
Speaker
In my head, this is easy. I could do this, no problem. So I didn't train for it. And then my wife kept saying, you're going to this run? going to do this run? I went, yeah, yeah, that's right. We're going record it. So she had to record me on, had to record myself on Strava. She had to cycle behind me and record me.
00:02:51
Speaker
um I got 200 yards down the road and I knew I'd failed. So it became a standing joke where everyone sort of made a joke and everyone was going to me, oh, you're, you know, you're this big fit guy, but you couldn't run a marathon.
00:03:05
Speaker
So I literally just went, okay, so that day I signed up for Brighton Marathon. Right. And I stripped from an 18 stone bodybuilder to 14 stone, still really muscly guy. I remember mile 23, the people that were saying to me, like they was clapping me because it was like, what's he doing at mile 23?
00:03:22
Speaker
So September that was because they held the Brighton Marathon just after COVID in September. So I did, I stripped down. But while I was training for this, some guy, David Brown said to me, why don't you do Land's End to Jono Groats? Because everyone knows my personality.
00:03:39
Speaker
And, you know, if you say something, come like a dog with a bow and I get it and I do it. So I was like, yeah, but I didn't know he meant on bike. I thought he meant on foot. So I had this plan in my head all the time I'm training. and I remember my first run, actually, the first time I went out when I signed up for the marathon. And then that's the day I realised I couldn't actually run a mile.
00:03:59
Speaker
Like, I literally, you my first ever mile, i was like, but stop, start, stop, start. And it's like that achievement, even the achievement after three weeks to get to your first mile, it was like a milestone.
00:04:12
Speaker
So in my head, I'm cycling this thing, lands into John O'Groats, lands into John O'Groats, training for the marathon. I run the marathon, completed it, and broke down afterwards. It was like that challenge, deeply and everyone's like, you okay? And I'm like, yeah, it's just like, it's all gone. It's just like, I don't know if anyone understands, but it's not about the marathon. It was everything that went into that marathon. um Anyone that's a runner would know that.
Neil's Complex Relationship with Running
00:04:38
Speaker
So I'm like... Oh my God, it's like, it was just an insane feeling. But of course I got down, depressed and realised I was down and depressed about it. So this lands into Jono Brooks, it's ticking down my head. So then I thought, right, I'm going to go for it. So I've never actually provisionally booked it.
00:04:57
Speaker
and but i carried on training for it. So the following year i upped it and I ran three marathons back to back. So we did Brighton, London, or Brighton, Manchester, then London, back to back.
00:05:07
Speaker
All three of them, and stress fractures. I mean, the things that I've learned about running in four, this is my fifth year, I'm guessing. it's Yeah, it's unreal. And I have a relationship with running. No one believes me. I don't like it. hate it. I hate every minute of it. like I literally... I ran... So I did my first 10-hour run two weeks ago.
00:05:29
Speaker
um I can't stand it It's horrible. But I love what it does for me, like internally, the feeling. So this love-hate relationship that I've had with running for the last five years...
00:05:41
Speaker
It sort of made sense to me. There's been a standing joke since I was a kid, more so as an adult. People saying, you've got ADHD, you've got ADHD. And I'm like, yeah, whatever, of course, just blowing it over. But making a joke and playing with it, because my interpretation of ADHD is the naughty child. So how would an adult, you know, that's quite in control of everything have ADHD?
00:06:02
Speaker
and So just thought I'd get diagnosed. And when I got diagnosed, actually everything came up and it all makes sense now what my relationship with running is. it's the It's what it gives you mentally in a way that the achievement of it, because as bodybuilders, bodybuilders hate me at the minute because I'm still a big guy. i'm still fit I still go to the gym every day, by the way, and I push heavy weights. I'll still be...
00:06:28
Speaker
i do a I run a marathon, so 26-mile run on a Saturday morning, and I'll go to the gym and I'll be squatting 150 kilos, 130 kilos for reps. That's my thing is if going to finish your legs off, you might well go and finish your legs off. So that's that's the thing I do. Yeah.
00:06:45
Speaker
But yeah, bodybuilders don't like me because I say the hardest thing I've ever done is running. when When bodybuilders, because I've been part of the crew that would sit there and go, oh, the runners, we know you just look at them, skinny little guys that run around and women, they're just nothing. It's just a bit of running. But it's not the pain levels that... you know I explain it like that. If I run, I went to the gym and I could bench press 100 kilo, every time I go to the gym, that 100 kilo would be so easy and so simple. I just press it. If you can run seven miles plus, that seven mile run is never the same. Some days it's different. Some days it's more, more painful. Some days your legs hurt more. Some days your breathing's harder. Some it's always different. There's no pattern to it. um
00:07:29
Speaker
I think that's the love, hate relationship right there is the fact that it's unpredictable. Every time I go out, you're just going to push to different levels all the time. Your your achievements are never consistent. Like and it
Training and Motivation for the 950-Mile Challenge
00:07:43
Speaker
took me, funnily enough, it took me till this year to realise. So I've i actually hired running coach for this journey.
00:07:50
Speaker
And he's constantly trying to keep my paces down, keep them dropped. And I couldn't understand. I thought, I'm training for a marathon. So obviously, I just want to train to get the quickest time. So I just, last year, the amount of stress fractures that I ran through was unreal.
00:08:06
Speaker
and Not healthy, but I ran through them. And the reason I'm getting them is eventually, I think that's an ADHD thing. And if you don't experience it, you don't understand it. So, of course, I'm getting told it, but I'm not listening because I can't work out the sciences in my head.
00:08:20
Speaker
I couldn't work out how you run for a marathon and don't get your speed up by getting your speed up. But because I'm slowly working out that you run, you so you go for, a i'll go for a run, it'll be like four mile easy, seven mile marathon pace, four mile easy.
00:08:37
Speaker
And at the same time, the time it takes me to do that is the time on my feet and the run is in the middle. And it took me ages to comprehend that. And had go through loads of trauma and loads of pain and X, Y, Z to get to it.
00:08:49
Speaker
But yeah, Yeah, so that's the story of where I'm going and where I've got in my head. Challenge is going to be easy, i think. You think? what So what's prompted this challenge then? why Why that distance and why the charity? so the Land's End to John O'Brokes thing stuck. And then it was funny, actually, because there was two people was going to run with me.
00:09:10
Speaker
And I said, so I was going to do this one last year. It was going to be last April. And the two guys that was going to run with me, I said to them last year, I said, I've postponed this for a year, but I don't see a lot of training going on. So lot I'm constantly training for it in my head. I know what I'm doing. I'm i'm running back to back marathons, picking as many half marathons, doing as many miles as I can.
00:09:34
Speaker
and And he didn't see no training. So i just said, look, I'm not being horrible, but this journey is not waiting for anyone. If we're going, I don't know if you know logistics of it. In the end, I've gone for a camper van. But if you know the logistics of it, I'm not waiting for you. like I've got a 21 day challenge in my head. I'm going to complete this at 45 miles a day.
00:09:54
Speaker
And I'm not waiting for you. So you need to make your mind up now. Are we doing it or am I doing it? um And I was happy because it's me. It was my journey and it was my thing. And I generally didn't want anyone. Like running is your safe place. It's like a sacred place where you go Lots happens. It goes really quickly. you know You think about loads, but nothing holds in. It's just a nice place to go.
00:10:14
Speaker
I didn't really want anyone with me on the run. wanted necessarily, I want a support team and people to come with me. So I picked him for this year and maybe there was a blessing in that because we do a lot of work for Young Lives vs. Cancer and they put my name up. So I've got my name put up in one of their houses in Paul's house. in So as a company, they've put SD Carpentry's name with my name in a little plaque in Paul's house just near Great not greg Ormond Street Hospital. It's the hospital in New Houston. can't remember the name of it now.
00:10:47
Speaker
but they put my name up in there. While I was in there, somebody produced this map, which is on my jumper, actually. yeah This is the map that I'm doing. And on that map, it showed all the different houses of Young Lives versus Cancer. And they do a virtual virtual event where someone might cycle from London to Nottingham.
00:11:06
Speaker
Somebody might run from... And that's how it went. And I went... Has anyone ever run that before? And they went, no. I said, what's the mileage? So the mileage is 1,233 miles, but 950 on foot and then part it's on boat.
00:11:20
Speaker
I said, OK, it's 100 more than Land's Enterjono Gross is on foot. I said, ah ah'll I'll do that then. But that makes it more personal, more in-house. The idea is, I said,
00:11:32
Speaker
I want the event, I want the money raised and the awareness raised to be bigger than what I'm doing and bigger than me. And that, just that in-house personal bit where I'm visiting all the home from homes makes it now personal, which means there'll be more awareness. As I go around the country, there'll be more people expecting me to come, more people donating, more people and so forth.
00:11:54
Speaker
I didn't want to it' like it's hard to say it's not about me because it is about me, but at the same time, Like I say, I want that to be ah bigger than me. So the funds raised needs to outweigh the effort gone in. The three weeks I'm giving up is probably the minimal. my last like I'm injured at the minute. I've got something to happen to my hip. So at best, I'm walking at the minute. I've got five weeks on Wednesday. So I'm trying to play as safe as I can. i know the miles in my legs is probably important, but not getting totally injured is more important.
00:12:29
Speaker
So I'm trying to play that safe. And now that's an ADHD man because now I lost my train of thought. Well, yeah, I've well got a few questions from that anyway. So you mentioned that you're not running with with anybody now. So you're doing it with just a support crew. How are you going to be structuring your days then in terms of, because you're obviously been walking lots of it as well.
00:12:51
Speaker
have Have you kind of thought about how that'll look practically like your sleep strategy and So as we stand, hired a and I've hired the camper van for four weeks just in case, but I don't think I'll go over.
Logistics and Support Team for the Challenge
00:13:07
Speaker
And we've booked 11 hotels along route. So I've planned my journey every 15 miles. So i know where I'm going to be. So my support team know where I'm going to be. So I carry minimal.
00:13:19
Speaker
At best, I need to carry probably... So I can't do gels and things like that. I do protein flapjacks and protein bars and glucose sweets and things. So at best, that's what I need to carry in water.
00:13:31
Speaker
um And I've got my 15-mile stops planned out. I've got my hotels booked if I make it on time. If not, we have a camper van. Because I always said the camper van was the best idea because...
00:13:46
Speaker
I might be strong one day. I might be weak the next day. think I touched on it before. i want to I generally want to be done in 20 days if I can. and My mum's birthday would have been on the 20th of April.
00:13:59
Speaker
I'm a little bit ADHD and I don't think about things. Where's my brother's celebrated? My mum died in her early 40s. I've never really dealt with that, but I've said once I'd done, I'd like to...
00:14:13
Speaker
Like say, running's opened a lot up for me and it helps me think things and I deal with things a lot better. So I've learned to deal with a lot of my emotions where I couldn't deal with them before. So I'd like to do something on that day, the 20th. If I got back, that'd be a good day. It's only actually an extra two and a half miles a day. So it's not that bad. Someone said, if you're doing 45, it's bad. I went...
00:14:35
Speaker
if you're doing 45 and your legs are dead even if i waddled like i've got nothing else to do with my day apart from sleep i don't i actually function the more sleep i have the worse i feel so i actually function better on just two and a half sorry five and a half hours top wax sleep so that two and a half miles is nothing so if you have you done anything like this before because it it's a three week challenge where you'll be doing a significant amount of mileage every day have you done anything that compares to it before no no so i've not even touched close like i could say the closest i've done my trainings took me my training took me and then i got injured slightly just after but that was the peak of my training that was as bad as it got which is to mimic 45 miles yeah so my whole training the last that's why i said someone said why don't you postpone it now you're injured that's where i was going earlier and i went
00:15:30
Speaker
I don't even want to explain like how in in new like that sounds easy. I just postponed it. We do it two months down the line. Firstly, obviously, all the logistics have been arranged.
00:15:42
Speaker
Secondly, i don't want to repeat my last three months. like If there was ever a time that... I thought I was going to break. And again, it wasn't the training. So I'd get up. So I'd go to the gym seven days a week. Never stopped that since the day that I gave up drinking drugs. That's been, that was my, i call it my savior. That's what originally rescued me. That was my thought process. That's what stopped me from drinking and changed my life. Absolutely changed my life. Everything I've got now is probably to that one night going out drinking and getting drunk and clicking a button.
00:16:11
Speaker
So I'd never stopped the gym. So I'm in the gym seven days. I run six days, but in that six days, I double run four days. And then I have a something between a six-hour and a 10-hour run on a Saturday um and a gentle run on a Sunday.
00:16:27
Speaker
But that, we're trying organise the logistics. We're running a business. We're having five children. We're teaching them to drive. We're taking them off. It all just takes a toll on it. And I went, that that's the hard bit. So when I say...
00:16:41
Speaker
21 days. That's all I've got to think about for 21 days is one foot in front of the other. The pain, if there's going to be pain, I don't know what that feels like but I'm sure I can deal with it. Like i say, I've run through stress fractures. I run three marathons on the spin with stress fractures and then went and run the Berlin marathon a few couple of months later with the same stress fractures in my legs. um Again, that wasn't a clever thing, but I got good pain for itself. So dealing with the 21 miles a day is nothing compared to the last three months.
00:17:14
Speaker
But that is generally in my in my mind, that's the hard part. I know it's the hard part. Yeah. so So just talk us through like the organisation it takes to get a project like this off the ground and get it to work. What what have you had to be dealing with in the background?
00:17:29
Speaker
um Yeah, I thought that was going to be the easy part, actually. when I didn't think that through. That's another ADHD trait. You just like go straight in, and then once you're thinking, you're like, oh God, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. So i started the first thing I started doing is trying to organise hotels, and then I realised that I might not get there, or I might be further than that. I might want to do more. So we got to the point, here then I started emailing different companies to see Not to get anything for free, but to explain what I'm doing to see who would help me out in the way of maybe be a bit lenient with how long they lend me. it So I only want it for three weeks, but I might need it for four.
00:18:08
Speaker
So to see if they would give me some sort of discount. And be fair, the camper van company is really good. I think I got it for £1,300 for the three weeks, which is I couldn't even get it for a week at that point because it starts in the Easter holidays.
00:18:21
Speaker
So in part of my runs in the Easter holidays. So that was a massive no-no. So then you get that part done you think, okay, that's the one of the hard parts done. Then you get to the point where actually, like, what's my route?
00:18:33
Speaker
Like, what way am I going? Where am I going? And I know I'm going to, I've got my watch will follow I'll just put a destination in and follow my watch. That's easy enough. But how does everyone else know where I'm going and where am I going to be and what am I going to do? What gyms, like someone said, oh, gym. Oh yeah, I want a shower. So I've got gym membership to Anytime Fitness. So,
00:18:54
Speaker
And I'm going to take a month. There's another 24-hour gym. going take a month's subscription with them. I need to know where they are. So i need to know where my route is, where all these places are. We've got to plan this and plan that. Then I need to know my support team. So I've actually only got one main driver. Everyone else is going to dip in and out. and He's took, so Sasha took three weeks off work.
00:19:15
Speaker
But he's like a freelance, a BT. So one of the people they do wouldn't give him one day off. So we actually get to... we actually get to, I'll be on my way to Edinburgh and he's got to nip off, drop the camper. So my friend Daniel's going to come over, take over and swap over. So then you get the logistic size of that.
00:19:35
Speaker
and then you Then you think you've done it again and it's food, what you eat and what calories. And then I've done no research on what calories I need for that. And we actually come up with 9,000 calories a day. that's a lot. Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker
And I believe you're a runner. So you would know that, A big run and in in eating is probably one of the hardest things you'll ever do. like um uji um i run When I ran my first eight-hour run, completed 36 miles in eight hours with an hour break.
00:20:07
Speaker
and I couldn't eat. I got home and was like, my God, I'm so not hungry. So I sat... Actually, again, that's where you learn. I'm constantly learning on room. So it's it's... Everything's a blessing when it happens. So I literally didn't eat, went for a five-mile run in the morning, and I had no energy. i was, like, so drained. And I... Oh, my God, this is why it's so important to eat. And and I should know that because of the bodybuilding background. And I also...
00:20:36
Speaker
Another mistake I made, actually, when I went from bodybuilding to running, I instantly made the schoolboy error of thinking, actually, I'm now running. I don't have to train my legs as hard. um And that's where I learned where all my stress fractures came from. So touch wood.
00:20:51
Speaker
For the last year, I've literally gone back to all compound exercises. I do squats, deadlifts, remaining squats, split squats, everything. And I haven't had one single stress fracture. And it took me three years of training and realizing. And so me and my running coach, Kelvin, when we started to date or everything.
00:21:09
Speaker
And I thought, I worked out the one thing that's actually missing is I'm not strengthening my legs. And if you're a 15 stone man with loads of load and muscle, running distances that, you know, are not built for me, and apparently,
00:21:25
Speaker
you're like, you're putting so much pressure on your legs. I need that strength and that muscle around my legs. So everything that my head was saying was the opposite. um My head was saying, oh no, you're running now. You don't need to, you don't. And then I got quite obsessed with trying to lose weight because that was my next thing. I just lose the weight, lose the weight. But then to lose the weight, you're dropping the calories because if you go to the gym seven days and you're running between 60 and a hundred miles every week,
00:21:51
Speaker
you actually need to eat a lot of food. So you're never going to lose the weight without sacrificing the energy. so So many lessons have been learned. And I think, touch wood, as much as it might slightly affect my fitness, this little injury I've got going on at the minute is probably the reason I'm sitting in front of you today. Right.
00:22:10
Speaker
Me and my eldest son contacted you, actually. Me and my eldest son sat down. i haven't been able to run for, this is the second week now. um I'm slowly, actually, slowly getting, basically, i had an inflammation. My hip was inflamed.
00:22:22
Speaker
I've had two back operations. I had L4 and L5 disectomy. and There's a few things actually that says I shouldn't be running. One is I only actually got one lung as well. So I've had l four and disectomy. So what happens is my right side hip overworked because it compensates for what this side doesn't want to do.
00:22:40
Speaker
So my hips inflamed, it trapped a nerve and I couldn't literally physically walk for couple of days and it's slowly easing off and easing off so but I think that happened to allow me to then do this side of it which is I really wanted to promote it as much as I could again to earn as much money as I could not about me but more about the more people that know the more people that might go actually so if I said the route I go from London to Nottingham Nottingham to Edinburgh Edinburgh to Glasgow Glasgow over to Belfast Belfast
00:23:13
Speaker
over to Manchester, back to Bristol, to Southampton, and then back to London.
Family Support and Personal Reflections
00:23:18
Speaker
So the more people that know I'm doing that, the more awareness, the more money, the more people that might join me because that's the dream. Like like I say, I want to be on my own for a bit, but i also there's going to parts of me that want like that little lift of like, sometimes it's good to have that bit of pressure. So I love pressure way out.
00:23:36
Speaker
like the marathon, you you you can't, you can't, you can't. So them things you can't, but there's also a good bit of pressure and actually look at all these people that are backing you. Like when you realise how many people are backing you. It's funny, I said to someone recently that I got i got injured and I got really down.
00:23:54
Speaker
and so I get down as soon as, i I was meant to do a load of promotional stuff actually two weeks ago and my wife said, you're not doing that. when I just feel like an imposter at the minute. And as much as I know in my mind, I'm still going to run I just felt in that moment that but I'm not 100% of the minute doing what I've set out to do. So I sort pulled back a little bit. And then then you realise the one person that probably suffers the most is my wife because I have these impulsive dreams and these things that i want to do, like taking on these big challenges, and she's the one that has to deal with the, well, I'm doing it right, i'm and I'm gone. And then when she says things to you and you think, shit, you actually realise that,
00:24:36
Speaker
She's the one person that could quite easily go, why don't you pull out? But she didn't. But she didn't.
00:24:48
Speaker
She's like, but you're going to do it anyway, aren't you? And I went, yeah, you're right. But it's that moment there where you realise that actually in my head, she should want me to not do it, but she actually doesn't. Like as much as I know it's a big, massive pain to her, like how I am and how, how my brain works differently. Um, and that's why I say it's all unwrapped backwards now. So to get diagnosed of ADHD, it all makes sense why I am what I am. yeah Um,
00:25:19
Speaker
I did a whole write-up about it. So I wrote down all the superpowers because I see a lot of negativity around ADHD and I'm like, what? You're not mental. Like, this there's so many better things, like the the energy you get with it, the, that you know, if you push through it. So there's a, so there's a mental side to it It's quite hard to, so I say to my wife, we used when I used to go on holiday, today I would not go unless there was a gym.
00:25:44
Speaker
And she's like, really? And I go, yeah, really? And she went, It took her ages to work out that what happens to my mood if I don't go.
00:25:55
Speaker
Right. um Which some people might say that's a negative, but that's a positive because that's the mood that pushes me to do it. and ah And it's the same now with running because we now got a new thing. oh We haven't anymore, but we did. my wife went So if I can't run, we go, well I've got to take my trainers. I've got work out. Is there any decent running routes where we are? Is there a running machine? is there Am i going to be able to? And she's like, but you didn't have running before. and i go, no.
00:26:18
Speaker
no, but I've got it now. like i need to and need to channel it out and do something with it. and Is it depressing? Maybe it is in the moment, but like I say, the long haul is the fact that because I want to do that so badly that I don't want to feel so bad, that's why I'm so healthy. Like I say, I i smoked up until the first year. The biggest thing that got me to stop smoking was Charlie George. Couldn't do activities with him. It all fell in place with running the marathons.
00:26:47
Speaker
But the running was probably, so I've tried to give up smoking so many times. Never, ever could I give up smoking. But I valued running so much that I couldn't start smoking.
00:26:59
Speaker
So as much as I wanted to smoke, it was like, no way. You've just like you've just got your first half marathon. like I mean, my first half marathon, actually, in between running for marathon, which I didn't add, I ran.
00:27:13
Speaker
While I was training, a charity event came up. There was three of us meant to do it. I turned up on a day. I was meant to run
00:27:22
Speaker
10K. so so It worked out a marathon split into three. It might have been 7K each. We was all meant to run seven k each with a 20-kilo vest on our backs and for a little boy. with he had leukemia.
00:27:37
Speaker
So we turned up on a day to do it, but we didn't. It was just me. and But there was a thing on the charity that three people had to complete to release the money. So I actually did it three times. So I ran my first half marathon, was split into three 7K runs with this vest on. I think the last time i actually just wobbled around.
00:27:59
Speaker
alllan yeah That was my first half marathon. But I could say that's... <unk> that's the magic that keeps you healthy and stops you from doing those things that you know that you know you get addicted to and you create a habit around smoking and I'll say it's the biggest if I was to ever say anything drink drugs Yeah, I had a little relationship where it was hard to get away from them. But i think when I made that initial click, it was really easy. I never looked back once.
00:28:28
Speaker
Smoking, I've had this battle of it since I was a young kid and I've always been healthy. My mum to curse me going, used to play rugby, used to play football, used to boxing. Why do you smoke? And my answer used to be, but you smoke, everyone around you smokes. And that's why I was brought up around and peer pressure from my friends and I smoke. And before you know it, it's too late, you smoke.
00:28:50
Speaker
and So when i defeated that, because the years that you have, it's just the biggest victory ever. Yeah. And I owe that, like I say, I owe that to running because if it wasn't for running, I don't think, like I say, I always say to people, so i do a bit of coaching on the side, life coaching. I've trained, I'm ready to be a life coach.
00:29:10
Speaker
And one of the things i always say, people say, how do you stop stop doing something? I said, you find something that's bigger and better that you hold more value to. If you want to, that's why if you look at,
00:29:23
Speaker
smoking if i ah I value the fitness and the health and how my body's feeling and how how I mean if you run ah a big achievement's a mile i mean to run anything it's a massive achievement but you know yourself the further you go the more you push yourself the bigger the reward the better you feel it's like And it doesn't have to be for anything. So I'm not massively, I don't actually like running marathons and running things. I like to just run, just to go out and be on my own and run. I get anxiety around running. i get doubt when I run marathons. It's like all that training. And and I could run 35 miles in a run and get to a marathon and think, I can't do this. I can't do this. It's...
00:30:05
Speaker
i it but So you don't need medals and you don't need anything to get reward from running. You just get reward from running. And that could just be, that could just be I'm going to get up at 4.30 tomorrow and I'm going to go for a run. And just to complete that five-mile run, it's just yeah it's just magic.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you, Neil. We're we're running a bit short on time So I just wanted to finish off by getting you to tell us where people can can find you and support your fundraising.
Fundraising and Social Media Engagement Plans
00:30:36
Speaker
You've got a fundraising page, haven't you? got a fundraising page, which is on JustGiving.com.
00:30:42
Speaker
um we'll share the link in our show notes for those who want yeah i've also got a text code so i set up a text code um with the charity so you can i can't remember the number i think it's 70940 text nil but i'll share that with you after as well yeah we'll we'll share that with our followers are you on social media anywhere can people follow you on facebook and i'm on linkedin so And then I'm going to, it's funny enough, on my notes to do, because when we talk about organising, the one thing haven't organised is how people follow my route. Now, I know my driver's sass is probably going to put a few videos up and we're going to do it that way, but there must be a better ah way of putting my route and people can see where i am. and
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, maybe maybe have a look on Instagram or TikTok or something so people can can follow that way. Yeah. Yeah. It's a shame, really, actually, because in my impulsive behaviour, I used to have a massive TikTok account. So during lockdown, i'll tell you this one quickly, my daughter got me to set up a TikTok account to keep her friends entertained because I've got quite a playful builder's humour.
00:31:46
Speaker
This account blew up and I took it to all levels that people ADHD would take it. It got so much. I was getting paid for it at one point. wow now I had to shut it down. Yeah. because I looked at my phone one day, oh my God, I'm running a business and I've got like eight hours screen time on my phone at the same time. This is not healthy. This is like done. yeah, again, running, helping with that. So that was, it was all around the same time because we got out of lockdown. I realized that this little thing that was keeping all my daughters and her friends happy was actually creating so many problems for me because it was just like insane.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah. oh Well, Neil, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing having me so openly today. We wish you all the best with your run. Do keep us posted with how you get on. Yeah, we'll do.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah. And if people listening out there would like to support Neil in his 950 mile challenge and help him raise funds for young lives versus cancer, then you can find the link in the show notes. and If this episode resonated with you, and please do get in touch. And as always, you can find us on Instagram and X and Facebook at UKWinChat. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.