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Scott Hill - The route to Kona
56 Plays4 years ago
In this episode Joe speaks with Triathlete Scott Hill.
Scott is currently serving in the RAF and has competed at World Level in Half and Full Ironman distances.
Scott is also a Triathlon Coach and competed at Kona twice in 2015 and 2018.
You can connect with Scott on: Twitter @Scotthill1983
Instagram @triwolfcoach
Website triwolf.co.uk
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK Sports Chat Podcast. I'm Joe Williams and in today's episode, I am chatting with Scott Hill. Scott is a triathlete. He currently serves in the RAF and he has competed at world level in half and full Ironman distances. Scott's also a triathlon coach. He competed at Kona twice in 2015 and 2018.
00:00:31
Speaker
Evening, Scott, how are you? Hi, good evening, Joe. Yeah, I'm really good, thanks. Brilliant, thank you for joining us. Thanks for coming on. It's a pleasure. Something I've been quite interested in what to do for a while, so glad to finally be here for you. Yeah, brilliant. We've chatted about this before, haven't we? So for everyone who's listening, Scott and I, we met last year. Scott was, you were the 90 minute pacer at the Shrewsgraph Marathon, weren't you? That's correct, yeah.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yes, we were introduced by Jenny, so one of our partners on the Schubert's behalf marathon is the local Poppy Appeal, the West Midlands, and you know Jenny, don't you?
Scott's Military and Athletic Roles
00:01:08
Speaker
Yes, I met Jenny purely because I'm an ambassador for the Royal British Legion, the first military serving ambassador in their 98-year history at the time, and next year will be their 100th year anniversary. So yeah, it's quite an honour to be part of the RBL and sort of celebrate and promote what they do and be involved as much as they can.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, brilliant. And, yeah, and Jenny put you forward and you were our payster and we've chatted since, haven't we? And you came on an hour, I think it was about a month ago now. Yeah. So the half marathon was the first time I'd done the series be half marathon pace for, you know, the 130.
00:01:43
Speaker
and pays quite a few people to PB's on that and we came in just under so it was perfect. Obviously took quite a bit of my training myself just to balance out that and make sure that I was running the pace to suit others and I get a bit comfortable sometimes and maybe go a little bit quicker. It was a good day.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's a tricky one as well because it's not hilly, but it's, you know, it's not extremely hilly, but there are some hills that kind of throw you sometimes as well. Yeah. So I was quite, the athletes that were with me on the day, I was giving them a few coaching points and stuff like that as well on how to tackle hills and stuff. So it worked quite well for them. And they were quite grateful afterwards, to be honest, after they spoke and speaking to them once they obviously came in with their predicted time. Yeah, cool.
00:02:29
Speaker
So tell us, give us a bit of an introduction about yourself, Scott. Tell us what you do and about your background. Yeah, certainly.
Scott's Early Life and Sports Involvement
00:02:37
Speaker
So I'm serving Royal Air Force, have been for 18 years now. I predominantly work in a ground trade and currently work in Yorkshire.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah. Sporting wise, very early on in my teenage years and sort of before that as well, I grew up in the Highlands of Scotland and sort of the only sport I ever really played was shinty. Not many people really know what it is. So you would have seen some Guinness adverts, which historically advertised their version, which is called hurling. And it's almost
00:03:12
Speaker
a leather ball and a big wooden stick, easy way to describe it, it's like a hockey stick. However, the rules are slightly different, full swing, it can be pretty dangerous. And at the age of, I think I was eight or nine, I got hit across the head, how much optional and that burst of blood vessel, because it hit me around the temple. So it's a full on contact sport and some things are optional, but it was a good sport as a kid, I loved it. And that was really much my sport at an early age.
00:03:40
Speaker
It sounds quite brutal. Yeah, it is. It's worth looking up and just have a look at what it is, but it can be brutal, but it's good fun. And it's obviously a team sport and it's really good in Ireland. It's gotten us to do it and it's been going on for years. Okay. And so that was when you ate all nine. Did you get into any other sports at school then?
00:03:59
Speaker
Probably a little bit across country. That was mainly it really. I didn't really delve into much else. Growing up at an early age, in the middle of nowhere, I was kind of offended for myself. We were all as Aaron about and a little push bike and that was how I got about to the local little villages and seeing my friends and stuff. So nowadays my strength in triathlon is the bike strength and I'm under no illusion that it comes from them early years of just having that little mountain bike and that was my method of transport back then.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, so just to give everyone a bit of an overview, so you've competed at world level in triathlon, haven't you?
Transition to Triathlons and Ironman Events
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah, so Ironman age group level in half distance and the full distance, so 70.3 and 140.6. I was quite fortunate to go to Kona, Hawaii on the world champs after my second ever triathlon and Ironman delved straight in at the deep end.
00:04:57
Speaker
here, which is amazing. We'll come on to that. So let's go back then. Do you finish school? Did you go straight in the RAF? Did you after school?
00:05:07
Speaker
No, I finished school living in Stafford, Western Road High School. I grew up with a military background on fifth generation and ended up in Stafford. Having my stepfather at the time was working there and I started off working in a car body shop repairing and painting cars until the age of 18 when I joined the RAF.
00:05:30
Speaker
OK, cool. And so going in the military, I mean, you've got to have a good level of physical fitness anyway. So is that where your interest for triathlon came in? Or was it much later? When did that happen? Much later. Initially, joining the service, I was fortunate, through my basic training, to be awarded a fitness trophy for most improved fitness through that period. And that was the second period.
00:05:59
Speaker
Then sport wise, I was pretty much running for fitness. I qualified early on. I went and did pre parachute selection, which is a three weeks arduous course. So I trained a lot for that. So that was strength work, swimming pool, stuff in the gym, running and running my weight.
00:06:18
Speaker
At the time I lived, or the accommodation I was in was about six miles away from the station we were actually working on, so occasionally I was cycling to and from work and never actually put them all together. I just did the amount of trying to stay fit and active and get as fit and prepared as I could do for the pre-powershoot selection course, which I later went on to as well.
00:06:41
Speaker
There wasn't anything really sports specific other than your games when you were young, prior to going in the raft. But growing up in the Highlands then and doing, like you say, journeys on bike and that kind of stuff, you naturally had this probably inbuilt strength, especially in your legs and your core and that, if you were in the Highlands playing where you grew up. I think so. I mean, that sport was in early age, you know, the shinty there and the traveling to and from French on a bike. I mean, we were living in the little villages, some of them were five miles apart.
00:07:12
Speaker
You know, recycling that from, from an early age. And back then, we never really had, it was kind of, house doors were open and people used to come and go and everyone knew everyone. So it was, it was very safe for children to sort of be out and about up there. And again, walking up into the hills and, you know, we all had fishing rods. So we'd climb the hills and there were locks and, you know, the lakes and things and go fishing and stuff. So I guess the hill strength and stuff just came from just little things like that at such an early age.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds fantastic, that does. Way to grow up. It was a good way to grow up and I did enjoy it and it's something that not many people get these days. It's not the same world, is it? No. So how did you get into triathlon then? Again, this was an accident. In 2012, there was a team of us from a camp, an RAF station, I was working at in Suffolk. Yahoo!
00:08:09
Speaker
We decided to put a team together and we thought we would do a challenge called the Rock Hard Challenge. Never been done before. We would cycle from Land's End to John Groats. On the way, we would climb with three peaks and swim across three lakes, being Lake Balor, Lake Windermere and Loch Ness. Over a period, we did it over two weeks. We obviously raised money for charity doing it, but over that period, a couple of the other guys that were doing it with us
00:08:33
Speaker
had done triathlons, they had done ironmans, and the general military banter at the time, I got quite a lot of it, having not done one, and that was kind of their little thing. And during that period I thought, okay, I'm going to give one of these a go afterwards. So I entered.
00:08:51
Speaker
2014, Ironman,
Challenges and Achievements in Triathlons
00:08:53
Speaker
UK and Bolton and seven weeks later Ironman Wales. I've never done a triathlon before which is something that everyone goes against, you know jumping in on Ironman but I did and I did reason to be okay to be honest. Learned a lot and I still do but it was good fun yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
Okay so you didn't mess about then obviously you were nice and fit for going for them two straight away and I know that Wales isn't an easy one but just to go back to you swam Lake Ballet which I absolutely love Lake Ballet it's about an hour away from our home and I love going there and I'm going to walk around it's beautiful Lake Ness and Windermere. That's correct yeah but it was the width of not the length the width would have been a bit more challenging sorry the length would have been a bit more challenging but we did the widths of them all
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, the wet is all, and he climbed. So, Snowden, Garfield Pike and Ben Nevins. So, Ben Nevins through the three peaks there. Yeah, and obviously he was cycled from London to John and Groats between each point as well. Yeah, and how many of you did that? I think it was, I think 12 started. We did have a couple of injuries along the way, so they obviously didn't complete, but yeah, I think it was 12 that started. Yeah, brilliant. That's it.
00:10:07
Speaker
You spend on the three peaks, isn't it? Yeah, it was good. You know, it's something that we're still talking about today. You know, we look over pictures and you see all these memories pop up into social media and stuff. Yeah, it was somewhat quite special and, you know, memories that will stay there forever. Even the bad ones.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, so how did you prepare for that one then in terms of your fitness? For that itself, to start a general open water swimming, I was reasonably be fit anyway. I was a lot heavier than what I am now because I spent a lot of time in the gym, you know, lifting metal and stuff.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. Just general running and cycling, but tried to do it more socially in training than being specific. Yeah. And just building up the endurance, really. And we'd set a target of cycling around about 100 miles a day anyway. So that was perfectly doable. And we had all pretty much all day to do that during that event itself. And then the three peaks, we just all stayed together. And the same with the swimming. Until we got to Loch Ness, that was a bit more challenging because it was pretty cold.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I'm just trying to build up a picture here. So you're in the RAAF and you used to lift a lot of metal then compared to doing the more long distance CV stuff. Yeah, very early on. Yeah. So you were naturally, I mean, obviously you're in the mittory, so you've got this natural fitness level. So when you had a go at 2012, you did that brilliant challenge. You thought, well, I'm going to actually have a go at
00:11:40
Speaker
at an Ironman, you know, the UK in Bolton and in Tempe. How did you then, how did you get sport specific with your training? And, you know, I did, I did that evolve, like you said, you just, you lost a lot of weight. You lost weight. Yeah. So Tempe was obvious to do that kind of distance, didn't you?
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, so I think being military and doing what I had done previously with arduous courses and stuff, I found mental strength the biggest one.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I've found this ever since in certain events as well. The mental strength was there and it was always a case of whenever I knew something hurt or it was painful, you kind of just have to laugh your way through it rather than let it win that old mental strength inside and just think this is ridiculous. You're out psyching or running or whatever it may be in the pouring rain, it's cold, it's hurting and you've just got to laugh about it and you just kind of just get the job done.
00:12:41
Speaker
Fortunately with the military and especially my sort of job role is that's the kind of attitude that's put into people at a very early stage of their career. Jobs still need to be done whether you like it or not and the sooner we get it done the sooner it is done and the sooner you can move on to something else. And that's something that has stuck I'll probably say since since day one of my military career and something that you know I still abide by now
00:13:08
Speaker
You know, let's just get it done. It's going to hurt sometimes. And you've just got to laugh it off and think. And afterwards you just think, you know what, that was ridiculous. And I remember when we did the Rock Art Challenge, Landon Johnna grows three peaks and the three lakes. It was the same time that the Olympic torch was actually traveling the country. Each floor is round about Lancaster.
00:13:27
Speaker
We got up that way and it just, I think we had like two months worth of rain in a 48 hour period. It was ridiculous. And it was, it was one of them, you know, we just kept going for the day and you got wet, but it was, you know, this is going to end. And just persevered. Yeah, it's interesting to hear how you deal with the mental game.
00:13:51
Speaker
Compared to, you know, I do my times tables when I'm on a long run, if it hurts. Okay, so how do, how much additional training, and I'd like, I'd like to talk about, you know, Bolton and 10B and A, that was for you when you first.
00:14:07
Speaker
when you first entered them. You've got your standard amount of fitness, I presume, that you do, being in the military. How much on top of that were you doing that was specific for triathlon? Pretty a lot more. Military fitness, I don't think, is
00:14:26
Speaker
as tough in some cases as it should be. It's changed over the last 18 years of my service and I'm sure those before me would say how much it changed over their period as well.
00:14:40
Speaker
The standard is there. It's a line. It changes with age. The older people get, the less sort of bleep test is a common fitness test we have to do. They don't have to get to a higher standard. I personally don't think it's that challenging. I don't know if that's just because I do a lot of exercise anyway. Obviously it will help. I never really have found it that difficult stepping into the triathlon world.
00:15:07
Speaker
I mean I've learnt more over the years and I'm more inclined to train in certain ways to what I did initially but initially it was a case of building endurance and that was my thought process at the time.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not a natural swimmer. Swimming is something that I've always found difficult. What I have found with that is, although I've increased endurance, I know I've now just swim at a set speed over a longer period of time. My overall speed hasn't really increased, but I've come out of the swimming discipline less fatigued and able to perform better in the other elements, which is a good thing about triathlon. It's three elements. So where your weakness lies, someone else's weakness may lie in another discipline where your swimmer could prevail.
00:15:52
Speaker
So that's one thing I found is just increased endurance to start with, especially going towards Ironman Bolton, my first triathlon in 2014. That was pretty much what I worked a lot on, especially the bike side of it. I mean, I love cycling. I love getting out and I can spend all day out there doing that. And I spent a lot of time doing that. At that period, I was living in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
00:16:16
Speaker
So the train was pretty undulating and rolling down there and we had some good little valleys that we could go running in and you know, it'd be pretty much traffic free and stuff like that. So I could really get some good endurance in down there. It was good fun and it paid dividends in the end. Yeah. Okay. So who, did you enter Bolton and their Wales on your own or was that with, again, with military friends or who took part in that? Yeah, I just had a demo on my own and off I went.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. Is that representing the RAF? Yes, so I've always represented the RAF. I have a friend of mine who I used to travel with quite a lot of events. He is ex-army, he's a doctor, currently where he lives in Norwich.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I tend to travel around with him quite a lot in the early stages and we did, you know, we would share accommodation or whatever it may be and did events and stuff like that. So yeah, but always since day one represented the Royal Air Force and I wear triathlon suits with all Royal Air Force all over them. So it's pretty good and it's great to be part of the Royal Air Force Triathlon Club as well, which I'm quite heavily involved in.
00:17:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay. Did you have a coach then as you were going into this? Not at that point I didn't. I pretty much went into that blind. I think I've changed them. So you did your 2012 challenge.
00:17:46
Speaker
But you thought, right, I fancy this. I'm going to have a go at the Iron Man stuff. So 2014. Did you book them both knowing you were going to do Wales six weeks later? Or did you do Bolton? And then you booked them both. You knew you were going to do both. OK, so how did you get on in them then? So Bolton.
00:18:07
Speaker
was the swim felt like it went on for absolutely ages even longer than it actually is however I finished that and I got on the bike and I remember now those that have done the event you know when you come out of the car park lakeside there's a series of speed bumps my water bottles fell out of my rear bottle cage at the time so I left there with no liquid having getting to the first feed station I then took two bowls from them and carried on
00:18:36
Speaker
My bike strength was very good at the time and I did very well there and made up a lot of time to the point I didn't really know much about the sport I didn't really know anything about you know the pros the age group side of it or nothing like that it was kind of totally blind and I remember cycling up next to a professional athlete at the time I couldn't remember his name
00:18:56
Speaker
And I was just admiring his bike and I remember chatting to him, telling him I was a really nice bike and things like that, you know, I'm a genuine chat. Next thing, you know, I'm like, okay, I'll see you later, mate, have a good race. And I cycled off. And I didn't have a clue who he was, you know. And then it wasn't until later on in obviously the 10 afterwards where you get some food and you get your t-shirt and you sit down at your medal and there's sports massage and the stuff like that happened. He actually came up to me and was chatting away.
00:19:24
Speaker
Um, and he was like, you know, I'll wash your background in sport and stuff. And I was like, I haven't really got a background. It's my first ever triathlon. Um, you know, at that point he was absolutely amazed and was like, well, you know, maybe you should take this up a bit more seriously. Um, the run, the run was, I found that run that day tough. And I remember halfway through it thinking, what, what am I doing? This is absolutely ridiculous. Um, I never run a marathon either. So that was my first marathon.
00:19:55
Speaker
So yeah, and I finished that thinking, Christ, I've got, I'm at Wales in like seven weeks. What have I done? So what was your finishing time then in Bolton if you remember? I think it was 10 hours 20. So yeah, that's a good time. Yeah, it is very good time. So just for those who
00:20:18
Speaker
and they don't know who are listening. So the real elite level people, is that about eight hours? Yeah, eight hours nowadays. They're really, really efficient at what they're doing and really good athletes. Yeah, eight hours is ridiculous.
00:20:34
Speaker
And there's lots of everyday people, everyday hobby triathletes and there's a whole range and they'll be getting through in 17 hours. Yeah, so up to 17 hours, predominantly, depending on the course. Some of them dropped down in actually 16 hours.
00:20:51
Speaker
It is a lot of time to complete it, but I think anyone that can go and achieve it at whatever time, I think it's absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, it is. It shouldn't be grumbled whether they're finishing in that 16 hours plus or they're finishing within eight, nine, 10 hours. It's phenomenal. The good thing about the sport in general is that everyone's quite welcoming and friendly. It doesn't matter if they're finishing in 10 hours or they're finishing in 15 hours.
00:21:20
Speaker
They're working really hard to their own ability, and it's absolutely fantastic to see. Yeah, couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. It's a huge, huge challenge. So you've done Bolton in 10 hours 20.
00:21:36
Speaker
And you've got ten to seven weeks later, you've spoken with the athlete who said perhaps you should take this more seriously. Where was your head at then then? How did you prepare for Fryman Wales? I was on an actual high after that first one. It was a big achievement, having never done one before. I was a bit apprehensive about Wales. Obviously, people do get that way.
00:22:03
Speaker
But I know I was prepared to go and do it. And it wasn't about it was never about trying to reach for podiums. It was never about trying to reach for to go and race the World Championships. It was purely just about completing them. And I did it both. And, you know, I'm absolutely loved it. And there's one of the reasons why I've just continued and I haven't looked back.
00:22:24
Speaker
It's absolutely beautiful down there, isn't it? Oh, Tempe's lovely. It's never been, it's an absolutely beautiful place. The town is just, it's quite medieval. They've got the old castle walls there, the scenery. I mean, even the way they paint the buildings down there, it's just stunning. It's a lovely place. Yeah, it is very, very beautiful. So tell us about that event then. How did you get on in there? So Wales, I can't actually remember the time I got when I was there, but it was
00:22:53
Speaker
I can remember the swim. I'm sure many listeners have seen whales on the adverts and obviously you get the weather, Welsh national anthem at the start on the beach there on North Beach. Back in to that one there, that one's around 14 as well. The sea was pretty rough. It wasn't the worst sea they'd have, but it was pretty bad. A friend of mine, who I mentioned before,
00:23:20
Speaker
We traveled around and we stayed together and we actually stayed in the youth hostel because I struggled to get accommodation. It just turned out that all the lifeguards, panel boarders and everything else for the event all stayed in the youth hostel as well. But the night before they all went out on the town and got actually wasted. So then they all came back at stupid hours in the morning where we're trying to get to sleep, but you can't sleep because you're really nervous about the event.
00:23:45
Speaker
You can hear them talking or whatever else. So we didn't really sleep, but North Beach the next day, the waves, I mean, you look at Google images for that year, the waves were pretty brutal. And this has now gone from the lakes from the previous one. I'm now in the sea. Never really swum in the sea.
00:24:05
Speaker
and sort of got my way around that pretty unscathed really. I'm quite fortunate that I've never come into contact with the jellyfish that seem to be there whenever Ironman Wales is there. Yeah, I went to Tempe on holiday this year with the family and some of the jellyfish, I forget their name, they were huge. They were absolutely huge.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah, they have quite a few. I think occasionally they have the old Portuguese Man O' War pitch up there, and they're the nasty ones. Yes, yeah. But yeah, I'm quite fortunate. I've never come into contact with jellyfish touch wood. I've seen them, but they've never been close enough. But yeah, Ironman Whale Swim was pretty brutal on that day. A lot of people were rescued. Bike again was just, it's a challenge. It is a challenging bike course. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. It's not, a lot of people,
00:24:56
Speaker
sort of get themselves, they put themselves off with the actual terrain and think it's Wales, it's really, really hilly and everything else. But going back to how we spoke about earlier on, it's that having that mental strength and that mentality of thinking that, do you know what, this doesn't last forever. The hill is a hill, you know, use that mental strength, laugh about it, think, yeah, you just got to get over it. Once I'm over it, you know, you're good to go again. And what goes up comes back down as well.
00:25:22
Speaker
which is good, but you do feel it on the second lap, I'm not going to lie, covering up our swan, just put on that second lap of the hills. But that's the last little bit and you get into the town and I mean, even on the bike course, the crowds through the villages and even on the farmer's fields, I mean, you'll see a tractor sat on the edge of a field. It's got a sofa in the bucket and the whole family sat there having barbecues cheering you on. And that's one thing that keeps me back to Wales. I think I've done it three or four times now.
00:25:52
Speaker
And it's, I mean, it's the best event I've ever done in, I'd say all the years I've been competing. I still think of myself as quite a movie compared to most. But yeah, it's phenomenal. And then the run in the town of Tembi itself, you know, crowd there, it's, it's just electric. And you just forget about the pain and the hurt and the crowd just get you around. And even the other athletes, to be honest, you know, they're all really friendly, as you mentioned earlier as well.
00:26:20
Speaker
And they'll be a port and they'll try and get you along. And it's just great. It's a great event. And yes, Tembe's Ironman Wales is my favorite one. Brilliant. Okay. So that was the event that meant you qualified for Kona, is that right? Yeah. So that was, this is an accident again. I actually took the first roll down slot for that. So I mean, depending on how many people enter Ironman,
00:26:47
Speaker
her age group they'll allocate slots for the world championships. It's done on a percentage so for instance you might get five slots allocated to a age group because there's so many people there. If say for instance at the time there was five slots in my age group if any one of them five decided they don't want to take the world championship slots it would roll down to the next one so if
00:27:11
Speaker
if the first four took it and the fifth one decided, no, I don't want to go and do the World Champs, it would roll, that one slot would then roll down to number six. If that one didn't take it, it would go to number seven and it keeps going like that until actually they run out. So I was fortunate at that point to take the first roll down slot to the World Championships, but I thought it's my second ever triathlon, second ever marathon. There's a roll down opportunity to go to the World Championships. This opportunity may never happen again,
00:27:40
Speaker
So at that point, I was like, do you know what? I've got to take it. How did you find out? You find out there. So you know how many slots there is per age group when you do the race. For the full distance, they normally do slot allocation the day after the race. So then I obviously had to go to that new and there could be an opportunity. And if you're lucky enough to get a slot within your age group or a roll down, you have to accept it and pay for it on the day.
00:28:09
Speaker
Wow, no messing. And you were there ready with your card. Yeah, credit card. Yeah, exactly. Expensive holiday, but it's, you know, it's like I said, it was one that might never ever happen again. So I thought I had to take the opportunity. Yeah, why not?
00:28:26
Speaker
Why not? So when you went into that though, did you have an idea that you'd be there or there about? Not at all. Again, I was there to complete, not compete, as they say, and enjoy it. And I did just that. And yeah, accidentally it happens.
00:28:45
Speaker
That's not to say that one of the other competitors out there who may have been a better athlete than me, he may have had a mechanical issue behind the race course, which could have been the reason why I was lucky enough to get it. That's what people have got to remember in this sport is things can change at any point. You could be the last person out of the water, but every single person in front of you on a bike may all have mechanicals. You don't know. You've just got to race your own race and keep going.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So then, and then it was 2015, then you went to Kona? Yeah, but before that I decided to go to Ironman Austria. Oh, okay. For a tune up. Yeah, that was a road trip with another friend of mine. I decided to drive there in literally one go as well, just swapping over the driving, one slept by one drove. Yeah. Yeah, so that was a road trip for a week in Austria and completed that one as a build up, yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
How much time do you, so going to someone like Austria, I was going to ask you this for Kona as well, but how much time do you give yourself? I imagine it's very different for these two places as well to actually go there and acclimatize and prepare yourself. For Kona, I've been to Kona twice now and I tried to get there two weeks before the race.
Kona Experience
00:30:02
Speaker
I would like to go before it's
00:30:05
Speaker
it's a money thing, it's cost, it's not a cheap place to get to. And it's not cheap there, even if I'm honest. But it's purely to get there and have sufficient time to try and acclimatize the best I can. The problem we have, or the problem you have when you go to places like that, what a lot of people forget is when they start living in air conditioned hotels and Airbnb's or whatever type of accommodation they've got. When you take yourself out of the natural environment outside into aircon,
00:30:33
Speaker
you don't acclimatise, you're not acclimatising to the weather because you're not in that sort of climate.
00:30:40
Speaker
And people don't realize that. So a lot of them think they get there early to acclimatize, but then they go and put themselves in air cons, you know, restaurants and stuff like that. They don't, not properly anyway. Yeah. And that's, you know, something I know through my military career of being on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and stuff. We do go out early for them to also we can acclimatize before we actually work. So again, that preparation side of it and knowledge comes from that. And there's something that I've evolved and learned over time as well.
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So tell us about that first corner experience then. So you got there a couple of weeks before. Yeah. And was that on your own or did anyone else you know qualify or did you meet anyone out there? I traveled on my own. I think like Facebook and stuff like that have all these little social groups per eye making that you join like the Iron Man journey. We can join Iron Man Wales and you can see what people are chatting about and stuff. And they have the similar sort of thing right there. But I traveled on my own. I stayed in
00:31:37
Speaker
accommodation I got, which was, it was out of the main town because it was cheaper, but I had to hire a little car while I was there. And actually it was quite glad that I was away from the hustle and bustle. I stayed on a, an organic coffee farm, which was pretty good. It was run by a local family and every morning it was a bed and breakfast. I'd sit down, I'd sit down with the family and have breakfast, whatever they would cook and what they would eat. So I was eating local produce off their farm, fresh, fresh organic coffee, you know, I sat down with
00:32:06
Speaker
husband and wife and their daughter who's very young at the time, in fact it's probably about the same age as my daughter, and actually had breakfast as a family, it was quite a surreal thing for a bed and breakfast as such. But it made that experience on the island that bit more of an experience because I wasn't in the cafes and the restaurants, I was living like the locals and eating what they were eating and it gave me that better understanding of how they live really, so being at one with
00:32:36
Speaker
see nature and how they feel. And they're very, they're people that are very conscious of the surroundings and they look after it and things like that. So it was really nice. Yeah. Okay. So how did you prepare over that first two weeks? You know, do you go out and recce the route and do you get in the sea and have a bit of a swim or what do you get up to in that time?
00:33:01
Speaker
where the swim start is. They've got a swim route set up there and you can swim out and they've got a coffee boat out in the water so you can swim and have little shots of coffee and stuff like that. Yeah, that's cool. It's really, it's a part of the experience, it's good. So yeah, let's get out in the sea. That's the swim that's non-wetsuit because the water temperature is above wetsuit limit. Yeah.
00:33:25
Speaker
But obviously you've got the hot water, you have the buoyancy from the salt, which helps in the water, the swimming and stuff as well. And, you know, swimming with sea turtles and just like a tropical fish tank is absolutely amazing. And, you know, just just loved it. It was fantastic. So, yeah, getting out there and swimming and stuff like that. They do have swimming pools out there, which you'll see a lot of the pro athletes and some of the top age groupers who all make an effort to go and swim in the pools and stuff as well.
00:33:53
Speaker
But yeah, most people get out in the sea and sort of acclimatize the best they can to that and see their surroundings, but also social as well and see other athletes. Now, this is a global phenomenon and there's people from all over the world there. Yeah, so I traveled on my own. I did make some friends there. I saw some other Brits there through some of the events that they put on. And I met even Brits on the actual race itself that
00:34:21
Speaker
I've been really good friends with Nara and do quite a lot of work and speak with them all the time. But at the time it was, yeah, sea swim, I was on my own. I went out on the bike on my own, predominantly, and just cycled up and down the actual Quinca Highway, got used to the route. And then running just in certain areas. So everyone knows about, or everyone's heard about the energy lab, which is where the run goes out to. And it's renowned for being quite barren and really hot because it's lava rock on either side of the road. So it obviously absorbs all the heat.
00:34:51
Speaker
But I found both times now that's not been the worst place for me. The worst place is where this humidity sits down the seafront as you run along. There's quite a lot of vegetation, so the trees and bushes and things. And obviously that type of stuff holds on to the water type. So the humidity zaps me there rather than it does out on the highway or down in the energy lab. But it's different for everyone and it's how their body adapts to it.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So how did the actual event go then? My time there was, I did sub 10 hours there. I think it was 9.47 or 9.49. And was that your first time sub 10 then? My first time sub 10, yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't, you know, it's a different beast. The course itself is not, you know, it's not like terrain of Wales, but it's, you've got the winds, you've got the humidity and the heat. So it's a different beast and it's, you know, with long distance stuff, you've got to get your nutrition strategy right. And however you've adapted to the heat as well makes a difference.
00:36:00
Speaker
So that was my next question. You went into those first couple, like you said yourself, just to complete, not compete. Had you got more serious now that you were going out to Kona, were you on
00:36:16
Speaker
Were you on your nutrition? Had you got a coach by then? Yeah, so I had a coach for that one there, for training for that. And yeah, nutrition was something we worked on and incorporated more brick sessions in and trying to acclimatize to what it would be like more so out there early on in the UK. We never actually acclimatize in the UK because the weather changes all the time and you just have to see that from this year.
00:36:40
Speaker
you need a good solid couple of weeks of the same weather to actually acclimatize to it and our weather just changes all the time so it's difficult which is why you'll see you know the big names and the big athletes they'll head out there you know really early or they may go to a neighboring country quite close and train there as well so the climate is pretty similar yeah sometimes it's good quite commonplace for people to go that tends to be one of the airport stop ops for then moving on to
00:37:08
Speaker
to Hawaii itself. So a lot of athletes tend to go to that side of America. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So how did you finish up that first time then? So you went sub 10 and then where was your head at? Had you done a bit? Or how did you feel at the end of that? So I actually, I bought my first GoPro when I was out there from a GoPro stand before the race. Yeah. And they'd advertised it if you were
00:37:38
Speaker
I think it was one of the first 10 people to buy this GoPro. They then had their stall on the last mile. The last mile of the actual run. And they would turn it on for you. They'd track you. They'd turn it on for you and let you run the last mile with your GoPro. I've still got that video footage. It was quite emotional, to be honest, because of where I'd come from and got to there in the way I did. I mean, I was pretty much welling up on the last little bit, going through the finish there.
00:38:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I'm not surprised. It's an amazing story, really, that you say you've, I mean, you've, you had no plan to be doing that. And then. No, not at all. Not, not, not for someone that was, I mean, I had way back in my younger year, I had issues when I was, you know, very
Overcoming Health Challenges
00:38:24
Speaker
small. I was born with a hole in my heart and collapsed for long as well. So something like this was something that was never thought of. So yeah, I had issues very early on in my, you know, I was born about three months, three weeks premature.
00:38:35
Speaker
So back then, that was quite difficult times for hospitals and for children to survive that. So yeah, I had a collapse lung in a hole in my heart back then. So to actually go through all of that through childhood, after that military career, then obviously do that, it was one of them times. That's insane. That really is insane. You were born with a hole in your heart and a collapse lung. Yeah. Wow.
00:39:04
Speaker
How did your parents feel about you competing and going in the military? The military side of it was, it was one of them that was, it was always inevitable as long as I could, you know, obviously achieve that. Because of anything on whose background, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, as I said earlier on at the beginning, I'm like fifth generation and I've got the families that have been through, through tri-service from, you know, Second World War into the Falklands War. My father was a war marine at the time in the Falklands War.
00:39:34
Speaker
So, yeah, it's been that journey and it was inevitable, even through high school, I was like, yeah, I'm going to join the military. So it was, yeah, it was inevitable what's going to happen. But, yeah, to keep ticking these things off and happening. And I think that's kind of my drive as well, is I want to keep achieving. Yeah.
00:39:49
Speaker
So when you were young and you were hitting people in the face with that stick, would you? How was your heart by then? So half of all in the heart at that point, they closed up pretty quick. I think with collapsed lung is something that I still probably deal with now.
00:40:13
Speaker
I breathe quite deeply anyway. A lot of people when I'm running, I run on running tracks and stuff, and people say, I can hear you coming from your breathing. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. We get there, we push through, and we do what we can. Yeah, wow, that's... It's no surprise you've got that kind of mental strength then, in fact. You just kind of drop that in at the end. That's fascinating.
00:40:42
Speaker
So, and then you ended up going, you've been to Kona twice, haven't you? When was the second time you went? Second time would have been 2018. Again, qualified at Wales, but officially qualified this time, didn't take a role down. It was an official age group qualification. Yeah. Cool.
00:41:02
Speaker
Great. I went again in 2018. Race did not go to planned. I was better prepared, but my feet were swollen during the bike section. I had sore feet and I remember thinking, I need new bikes. Usually these are really sore. I realized it was just the heat. It's one of them things. But then when I put my running trainers on and chopped some cold water over me and stuff, my feet shrunk. But then I had to
00:41:30
Speaker
a little bit of excess skin where it expanded on the solvus of my feet, which created blisters. So the run was just, I hope to do about two or three hour, 20 marathon at the time, which would have brought me in and around nine hours, 15. I think it was, uh, I suffered quite badly on the run because of that. And, um, yeah, I didn't come in at that time. Um, but it wasn't, it wasn't that bad. It could have been worse, but I ran a slow marathon for me.
00:41:59
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So, so I know that now you're, you're kind of, you're going off in a bit of a different route, aren't you? Tell us what you're, what you're up to now. And are you still, are you still competing now as well as doing your new thing, but you can tell us away. Um, yes.
Future Plans and Coaching Role
00:42:15
Speaker
So I still compete. Um, I was meant to do, I'm on Wales this year actually. Um, but I'm, that's now been delayed to next year.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah. Other races, I'm not sure about. In a minute, I've got Slate Man in North Wales. Yeah, they're good events, aren't they? They always aim high. Yeah, so last year, I broke the sprint course record. Okay. And I won the Slate Man Savage. So basically, they're sprint and then the next day, they're classic event. I think I'm the first athlete to
00:42:51
Speaker
win both of them outright. Normally, going into the second day, people that turn up for that one don't tend to, because you've got the fatigue from the day before, you don't tend to win, but if you're a good athlete, you still end up quite high up, but then you take the overall slot for the savage for doing two events in two days. For the last two years, I've won that. I was meant to do it again this year, but obviously, that's now been moved to next year because of the COVID situation we've been dealt with this year.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, as it stands, 2021, I'm on Wales and Slate Man Savage for me. And then I'm looking to see what else is about. Cool. And is there aspirations to do Kona again? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Um, I don't know when it's kind of just one of them little candles that keeps burning. You know, you could have done better last time. Um, but we'll see, we'll see. It's an expensive hobby. It's expensive, um, trip.
00:43:52
Speaker
Yes. That's only a dead downside to it. You and I coaching. Yeah, sorry to cough in there. Yeah, so I'm quite heavily involved in Royal Air Force Triathlon Club. I currently sit as the Deputy Head Coach.
00:44:16
Speaker
for the club. I've done for a while now. The whole of the RAF is it? We're a big club. We're about just under 700 members. The difference we have is we are global, so we're not a club that sits in one location and does weekly sessions here and there. We've got athletes that are spaced all out of the UK, different military establishments, but also worldwide as well if they're away on operations or
00:44:45
Speaker
on detachments, working with, you know, other NATO forces. So we spend all over the place. We do try to come together a couple of times a year and do events or training weekends. We also try to run an annual training camps. Historically, they've been in Mallorca. Obviously, again, this year has been affected. Yeah. We do interservice races all different distances. So duathlon and triathlon.
00:45:14
Speaker
So that's racing against the other services. So you can be racing against the army, the Navy, the fire brigade, the police force, stuff like that. Do they get competitive? Yeah. Yeah. So it always is. I mean, the army are very strong. They've got strength in numbers. Yeah. So they tend to be quite dominant a lot of the time. So, but yeah, it's, it's, it's really good, you know, and, and it's, it's good to, to be part of that organization and sort of race against each other.
00:45:43
Speaker
and it's promoting sport, it's promoting inclusivity. So it's really good to see and it's good to be a part of and it's something that hopefully carries on. So do you do a lot of remote programming? The structure of it and, you know, using online tools and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, so online wise, probably more so this year we've delved into that sort of era.
00:46:09
Speaker
and using the online platforms most popular on people have probably heard of is Swift. Yeah. So we can cycle and run on that. So we do stuff like that. We've had the head coach who's done quite a few like yoga sessions and strength and conditioning sessions and stuff as well. So we have the facility and capabilities for doing stuff. Yeah. But it's just trying to get that audience. And again, you know, people are working abroad and things and their time zones are different. So it does pose issues sometimes.
00:46:40
Speaker
not getting the participation that you would hope for. Yeah and I know that you help out with the local triathlon club as well. Yeah so that's right local club is where I am currently. They've had issues with regulations that have come through COVID and the British Triathlon Federation have brought out some new rules and regulations so they don't hold the qualifications that allow them to deliver stuff on their own.
00:47:09
Speaker
So I've kind of been asked to help and so I volunteer and help them with their coaching, developing a mentor and their coaches and their athletes. And that's pretty much a weak thing at the minute. And I'm quite heavily involved in obviously pushing them forward. Yeah, great. And so what does the future hold now? Because you've been in the RF for 18 years now. Yeah, so 18 years.
00:47:38
Speaker
I've signed on for 30. Whether I do that, I don't know. I've always said I would always do 22. After that, I've got no idea. It depends what's there and what's there and the opportunity's there. Would you like to carry on your coaching? I know you're working on coaching as well, so would you like to do more of that?
00:48:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I also coach, I'm qualified to coach one-to-one. So I do coach myself as well. Athletes on a one-to-one basis using other platforms to do that. So that can be, obviously, locally, but it can also be remotely as well. I have the facility to do that. And I pretty much do that via my own website.
Engagement and Coaching Services
00:48:27
Speaker
And I've got an Instagram account, so that's another website. It's obviously trywolf.co.uk.
00:48:35
Speaker
but then on Instagram, at trywolfcoaching. Yeah, give us all of them then so that people can, because I know you're open to people getting in touch with you, aren't you? Yeah, quite often, helping people out and stuff. So Instagram-wise, I have at trywolfcoach. At trywolfcoach, yep. Yeah, that's kind of my coaching platform. Yeah. My own personal one is ironhill83.
00:49:05
Speaker
I know it. Okay. And, and you, and you take on people and you coach them remotely. Yeah. Coach people, coach people want to bond. Um, quite a few people know that, you know, um, the racing, uh, predominantly I'd probably say more people are interested in that half Ironman full Ironman distance. Doesn't have to be that brand, but I'm tempted to be the draw that people are going to. So I don't really coach people around them distances. Um,
00:49:32
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, people get in touch with me all the time on those platforms. And then obviously I have a website as well, which is trywolf.co.uk. Cool. So, everyone, Jeff Banks, Scott's website. Yeah, have a look there. You can see some stuff going on in that there. And I'm quite active on Instagram and stuff and sharing what I'm doing and what athletes are doing and things like that as well.
00:49:55
Speaker
Great. And I know that you've offered to help us out on our social channels as well and do some more chats and answer some questions on there as well. So we look forward to doing more of that with you as well. Definitely. It's the hobby that I've grown quite fond of and got a big passion for. I really enjoy it. I'm quite active myself in the sport and plan to continue to be active, but also help other people achieve what they want to achieve, which is pretty good as well.
00:50:25
Speaker
Yeah. Scott, it's been brilliant talking to you and hearing that journey through to Kona. Thank you very much for coming on and chatting with us. Thanks very much for having me. It'll be, you know, if anyone's got any questions later on in the future and want to do a bit more, then I'm more than happy. It's been good fun. Brilliant. Thank you. Cheers Scott. Thank you.