Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Doug Richards | Once Around The Planet
108 Plays1 year ago
Doug Richards, the renowned author behind the books "Running Hot & Cold" and "Can We Run With You, Grandfather?," embarks on an extraordinary adventures as he sets his sights on running destinations all over the world. His next endeavor? Conquering a staggering distance of 24,902 miles, symbolizing the remarkable circumference of the Earth's equator.
You can follow Doug on:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Doug's Running Origin Story
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, welcome to this edition of the UK Run Chat podcast. Today, I'm joined by Doug Richards, who is the author of three books. His latest book, Once Around the Planet, is now out, and I'm looking forward to chatting to him about it. Hi, Doug, thank you so much for joining us. Hi, Michelle, no problem at all. How are you today? Yeah, pretty good, thank you. Not too bad at all. Yeah, brilliant.
00:00:29
Speaker
So do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, first of all? OK. Yeah, well, I'm I'm 75 now, 75 years old now. I didn't start running until I was in my sort of early to mid 30s. I hated running at school. But since then, I've had an amazing life through running. I've traveled all around the world to lots of exotic places.
00:01:00
Speaker
I've run on every continent and I continue to enjoy it albeit a lot slower these days as I grow older and maybe the distances I can run on quite as long as I used to be able to. But that basically is a little bit about me.
00:01:20
Speaker
So what prompted you to start running, Doug? If you disliked it at school, what kind of, what was that light bulb moment that made you think yes? It was indeed a light bulb moment. My son, Chris, was four at the time. And I was at home watching television one evening when he had a nightmare upstairs. And I ran up the stairs to pacify him. And by the time I got to the top of the stairs, I was out of breath.
00:01:50
Speaker
Right. Okay. Breathe. And it was actually the year of the very first London marathon. And it was it was a light bulb moment. I just thought, look, I need to do something about my fitness. And so I decided that the following morning, I will get up and go out and run one mile round the block. And I did, I got up next morning, I ran the mile, it nearly killed me. I went back to bed afterwards.
00:02:18
Speaker
Um, and that was just the beginning. Yeah. So what was, um, what was your first race you
First Races and Global Running Adventures
00:02:27
Speaker
did then? Did you get into racing early or did you just kind of do some running? For about 18 months, I just gradually increased the distances. I didn't actually sort of enter any races. I mean, around that it was 1981. It was first year, the first London marathon.
00:02:46
Speaker
And really that there weren't really that many races around it. You know, the running boom had really, was only just beginning to take off. So my first race, which was about 18 months after that first one mile, was actually a trail marathon. And that was in, I lived in Sussex at the time. So it was called the Seven Sisters Marathon. It's now called the Beachy Head Marathon.
00:03:12
Speaker
Well, that's a very tough one, I believe. It is indeed. I mean, at the time I ran it, it was held in February. So we had snow and ice to contend with. It is now running October. So that was quite a hard one for my first ever race. But as I say, there weren't many road races around at that time anyway. No. Oh, you certainly know how to challenge yourself, Doug.
00:03:40
Speaker
Just thinking, picking that as your first race. Wow. And so, yeah, I've just I'm almost finished reading your first book. I'm really sorry, a third book once around the planet. I'm really, really enjoying it. I mean, running has taken you to some very, very special and exotic places, hasn't it? Yeah, it has indeed. I mean, I've been lucky in that I've traveled all around the world, really. I've run at least a half marathon
00:04:10
Speaker
on all seven continents and running has just given me the most amazing life really. So I've had some great experiences. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your, your newest book then.
The Making of 'Once Around the Planet'
00:04:24
Speaker
Okay. Well, once around the planet, um, I, from the very first day from that very first one mile run, um, I suppose I'm a bit of a geek, um, but I've always kept a record of,
00:04:40
Speaker
my runs. I kept a record how far I've run, how long it took me, et cetera. Now, initially back in 1981, that was all done in an exercise book, pen on paper. But eventually that sort of became transposed onto an Excel spreadsheet. And I've kept that spreadsheet going over all these years. And so I knew
00:05:10
Speaker
about a year ago that I was fast approaching 24,902 miles in total, which is the distance around the equator of the planet. So that's where the actual title of the book comes from because I completed that in October of last year at my local park run. So I have achieved the running distance of once around the planet. Yeah, that's fantastic.
00:05:39
Speaker
So the book itself, sort of the end of the second book, which was called, Can We Run With You Grandfather? I can maybe talk to you about that later, about where that title came from. The end of that second book culminated in a half marathon in Antarctica and that completed my seven continents challenge. So
00:06:04
Speaker
always looking, what can I do next? I decided I would do a series of races on islands, on various islands. And so once around the planet describes the races in the Azores, on Cyprus, even in Venice, which the city itself is on an island, and where I ran the full marathon distance.
Island Running Experiences
00:06:34
Speaker
And I also went out to a really exotic island, which is Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific and ran a half marathon on there. So a lot of the stories in Once Around the Planet relate to running on islands. Also Bermuda was another one. There are a number of events, multi-day events on these islands where you run on consecutive days for maybe three or four days. So a lot of these events were multi-day.
00:07:04
Speaker
runs some on road some on trail also a huge variety of different running surfaces and places to visit. Yeah that's got to be tough there was one instance in the book where you were talking about running up the side of was it the side of a volcano crater that sounded very tough. That's right that was one of the races in the Azores and that quite possibly was the toughest half mountain I've ever done. It really was tough work but
00:07:35
Speaker
The view from the top was just incredible. The crater itself is filled with a lake. I don't know who decided to, but somebody's actually decided that inside the crater would be a good place to put a village. And there's a little village that lives in this huge crater. And there's a road that crosses the center of it. And one side of the water is
00:08:02
Speaker
bright blue and the other side is green. And it's incredible sight. It's probably due to different sediments, volcanic sediments underneath the water. Yeah. Wow. It sounds, it sounds an amazing place to run. I mean, the idea of doing multiple races on consecutive days as well, I mean, that's tough in itself, but I guess when you're traveling out somewhere far away, like that, you want to make the most of your time there, don't you?
00:08:31
Speaker
Well, that's right. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if I travel a long way to do a race, I don't just want to run a race and come home again. Part of the fun I've had during all my running travels is actually not only the running itself, but all the associated sightseeing, meeting the local people, you know,
00:08:55
Speaker
enjoying their customs and everything. Yeah, it's just all part of the run and experience. The race is just sort of part of each one. Yeah, it sounds incredible where you were talking about visiting Easter Island and they put on like an opening ceremony, didn't they, for the race where you got to see a lot of the dancing that they would do. Absolutely.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Easter Island was a totally fascinating place. It's just about one of the most remote islands in the whole world. And there's so much controversy over... It's famous for its huge stone statues, the Moai, which are like gigantic rock heads, which are carved out of volcanic rock. But yeah, even the experts, even today, still disagree
00:09:51
Speaker
about who actually made them and why they made and what they represent. And even more, you know, how they actually managed to move them around the island because, you know, each one weighs about 90 tonnes. And we're talking about sort of 400 or 500 years ago. Yeah, wow. So I mean, how difficult is it to to get to these places? Do you
00:10:17
Speaker
I take it you don't organize a lot of the trips yourself. You use a tour organizer, don't you? Yeah, tour organizers for the vast majority of them. The Venice Marathon was different. We just, a group of us just have made their own arrangements and met out there. But these sort of other island races, I use tour organizers to actually get out there.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah. And is that a relatively simple process? I'm speaking as somebody who's never done a race abroad and the thought of going abroad and having all the logistics to sort out just scares me a little bit, to be honest.
Challenges and Logistics of Racing
00:10:53
Speaker
I mean, there are a number of UK companies. 209 Events is one which is run by Mike Gratton, who was a former winner of the London Marathon.
00:11:05
Speaker
And there are a number of companies, sports, tours, international. And then there are also, there's an American company called Marathon Tours, which I've used extensively, who now have a sort of UK agent. And they will sort of book all the hotels and things for you. You just have to sort of sort your flight out to get to the start line, basically.
00:11:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Although they're not always without mishap, are they? There were a few that you mentioned mixed up hotels and things in your book. Yes, indeed. No, things have a perfect is it? Yeah. Up until then, everything was going according to plan, but certainly
00:11:53
Speaker
Easter Island and the Azores that were sort of mixed up at the last minutes. But hey, you know, this happens. This happens. And it didn't affect any of the, you know, it didn't affect the running at all or with the enjoyment of the trip at all.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, so where did the idea to run on islands come from? Because you'd obviously completed races in all seven continents. Was islands just the next natural step? Do you like having a kind of theme to your challenges?
Adapting to Age and Health
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, I suppose I just like having a theme and I had run previously, this Cyprus event is held over four days and I'd run it a few years ago.
00:12:34
Speaker
And to be honest, it's very unusual for me to go back. I like to do a run somewhere, but then find somewhere different next time. But I did enjoy that the Cyprus event is in November and it's nice to have a bit of warm sunshine to run in in November. I really enjoyed it a few years ago. And one of my running friends at home was quite keen to actually have a go at it himself. So in the end, we decided we'd go out there together
00:13:03
Speaker
and run it together. So yes, so that was Cyprus and having done that and knowing that Venice is on an island and I was
00:13:15
Speaker
intending to run a marathon. I wanted to run a full marathon after I reached the age of 70. And Venice was a good place to do it. So the year before I had to abandon it because of a bit of an injury, but the following year I went out there and ran the Venice marathon. So yes, Ireland just sort of gradually built up and then the Azores came up and then Bermuda
00:13:44
Speaker
So Island became a theme. Yeah, let's go back to Venice Marathon for a moment then. So you were originally intending to run it the year it flooded, weren't you? Venice had a huge flood that year, didn't it? That's right. I had to go out there. I went out there the year before I'd entered the marathon, but I picked up a late calf injury.
00:14:11
Speaker
So I went out there with my son and his family and my son actually ran the 10K. I just did the one, not local, nearby park run while I was out there. But while we were there on that year, Venice had the worst floods it's had in decades. And so
00:14:32
Speaker
We spent a very interesting few days wading around everywhere in water and sitting in restaurants with water lapping around their knees. It's amazing how they just carry on regardless. Yeah, I guess that's not the first time it's happened, is it? No, indeed, indeed, but this was just particularly bad. But then I went out there with a group of friends the following year and happily the water's remained
00:15:02
Speaker
a more reasonable level and then I did manage to finish the marathon that I wanted to do after I reached the age of 70. So how was that experience? How different is it running a marathon in your 70s? Obviously slower. I ran with a good friend of mine, a lady called Julie, a close running friend of mine.
00:15:30
Speaker
who's considerably younger but is very, very supportive and she sort of kept pointing out photographers to me and other sites because I tend to just look at the road in front of me and just plough on. But together we agreed at the start, we'd run it together and we did, we finished it together.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yes, it was slower and there were a few walking breaks and everything, but then, you know, I've walked during most of my marathons at some stage or other. And it was just good to be out there with a good lot of friends around us. Yeah, I'm sure. It's still, it's an incredible achievement at any age, isn't it? A marathon. Yes, yeah. And I, being realistic, I think probably that was gonna, that will be the last full marathon I do.
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'll struggle a bit more these days with the endurance side of things. I still love running, but shorter distances, I think. Yeah, yeah. We'll come on to that in a little bit. I just wanted to ask briefly, because you've run, in your book, you talk about running a marathon distance of parkrun courses as well. And I just wanted
00:16:45
Speaker
to ask what's your experience of covering the marathon distance in a day with multiple breaks as opposed to doing a marathon in one go? Is it very different? It's incredibly different. This was something organised by a local friend of ours which involved running
00:17:05
Speaker
eight and a half or eight adult part run courses and a junior part run course all in one day. Now obviously we did it on a Saturday but obviously only one of those could be official. So we selected eight different part run courses and happily the volunteers at each of those part run courses agreed to sort of stay behind and mark out the course for us.
00:17:32
Speaker
So we ran eight different 5k races which made the 40k and then at one of the races we ran their junior part 1 route which made up the 42k. You have to travel in between each one on a coach.
00:17:50
Speaker
And obviously, the seating conditions are quite cramped. So although each individual run was not too long in distance, you tend to seize up quite a lot in between. And so to actually cover the whole lot within one day, within one Saturday, we started at 7.30 in the morning for the first one and finished about 7.30 in the evening for the final one.
00:18:18
Speaker
I think actually it felt harder to me than running a marathon in one go. Yeah, I think stopping and starting, like you say, when you seize up must be tough. Yeah, particularly once you've got to about four or five and you start to stiffen up and you sit on the coach and you're trying to sort of stretch out a little bit to ease the aches and pains, it gets progressively harder. So it was a very interesting challenge.
00:18:48
Speaker
one I enjoyed doing. Yeah.
Pandemic's Impact on Running
00:18:53
Speaker
So you were talking obviously about endurance getting more difficult as you age. Yeah. So you're sticking to half marathons now, is that your maximum distance? I think half marathon would be the maximum. I mean, I've, we could talk about, I think
00:19:12
Speaker
COVID and lockdown has had quite an impact on me personally. And so endurance is more difficult for me these days. I'm pretty sure I can get around a half marathon, but I don't think I'd be doing any further marathons. No, they do take a lot out of you, don't they? Yes. I think it's the training as much as anything. I mean, the event itself, you know,
00:19:40
Speaker
with something like the Venice Marathon. I mean, the crowds, the scenery, et cetera, carries you through it, but it's the sort of hours and hours of training you need to put in beforehand to give yourself the best chance of completing it. Yeah, yeah. And those long runs, they always feel tough, don't they? They do indeed, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, apart from endurance, have you had to make any other adaptations to your running as you've aged or, you know,
00:20:10
Speaker
you know it's clear to see that you're still running at the age of 75 so it is possible is age just a number or are there things that we need to change and be more mindful? I mean obviously you slow down
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah, various things happen. I tend to get more cramps as I've grown older. So I always have to, even for short runs, I wear sort of compression socks to sort of try and reduce the cramps. But apart from the loss of speed, my eyesight deteriorated.
00:20:51
Speaker
I'll talk about it in the book. It's quite an interesting story really because I ran for many years wearing very focal lenses and around 2018-19, around the time leading up to the Venice Marathon, I had a number of falls while I was running.
00:21:14
Speaker
that I think it happened about eight times in a year. Most of them were just cuts and grazes to the elbows and knees and you just get up, brush yourself off and carry on again. But then I had what was, I was running with a group of friends on a trail run and I had quite a big fall and really hit my head very hard. And
00:21:41
Speaker
that this sort of ended up in the back of an ambulance and in the A&E. But one of the things that came out of that was that I stopped wearing glasses for my running. I reason that, you know, with a very focal length is because one minute you're looking towards what's in the distance and then you're looking at where your feet are going to land.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, my eyesight was just not adjusting properly. And so because my distance vision was okay, I decided to stop wearing very focal lenses. And that was about three years ago and I haven't tripped over since. Oh wow, that's incredible. So that's helped. So that's really helped me. So yeah, so now I don't, you know, I've just rely on my distance vision. Yeah. Oh, well, that's, that's good that you've not had any more falls.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yes, no, I'm doing much better these days. Yeah, I actually fell over this week running for the first time ever, I think. I've never fallen over. Oh, really? It's quite a shock, isn't it, when you suddenly find yourself on the floor? Yes, it is. Yeah, that's the same. Most of them, you just, you know, stop your garment watch and crush yourself down and then carry on again.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what about injuries? You mentioned you had a calf injury that stopped you doing Venice. Have you noticed more injuries as you've been aged or have you had many over the years? Over the years, I've been incredibly lucky. I had a bit of knee problem at a time, but then I went to see a podiatrist and he put some inserts into my running shoes and the knee problems never recurred. I must say that
00:23:32
Speaker
Just recently, the last six or seven weeks, I haven't been able to run because of an Achilles tendonitis problem. And this is the first time I've ever suffered from it. Happily, I'm working with my physio and happily, I'm just beginning to get back into a little bit of rum walking now. And it certainly seems to be going.
00:23:57
Speaker
It certainly made me, you know, not being able to run for six or seven weeks makes you realise how important it is for, you know, your mental wellbeing. I mean, it is for me, it's been awful not being able to run. Oh, I'm sure someone who's run for that, you know, for most of the life, I guess that is very tough to deal with. I think that brings us on quite nicely to something else I wanted to chat about, really, about mental health and running.
00:24:24
Speaker
You write quite candidly in your book about the anxiety that you've suffered throughout your life. I mean, just tell us a little bit about that and how running fits in there.
Running for Mental Health
00:24:35
Speaker
Yes, for most of my adult life, I've had periods of quite bad anxiety and at times depression. And on occasions, it's become so bad that I've had to sort of take medication for it.
00:24:56
Speaker
I've had various sort of therapies to help me cope with it. But the one thing that helps more than anything else is just going for a run. And sometimes when your mind is really cluttered and all sorts of things are going on through your head, just getting outside into the fresh air and just going for a run and listening to the birds singing, it just sort of seems to clarify your thoughts
00:25:25
Speaker
what seemed like an insurmountable problem when you were sat indoors, you can suddenly find solutions as you go out. So I've sort of occasionally have relapses of this anxiety and depression. As I said earlier, I think the COVID pandemic and the isolation, because I live on my own,
00:25:52
Speaker
hit me quite hard. The last couple of years have been quite difficult for me, but the one thing that I know will actually help me get through a bad day is just to go out, even for a 20 or 30 minute run. I know that will sort of help me immensely.
00:26:13
Speaker
Yeah, running is incredible like that, isn't it? I don't know how it works, but it does, I think, just getting yourself out of an environment and moving, it does seem to just... Yeah, in my working life, I did a lot of work within medicine and medical research.
00:26:33
Speaker
And certainly running is known to increase some of the brain chemicals, the endorphins, which sort of give you a more peaceful outlook. So it certainly helps me.
00:26:48
Speaker
As I say, I'm very sort of quite open about talking about my anxiety problems. And I know that that has helped a lot of other people who also suffer from the same problems. And if you know someone else is going for it, it's so much easier to relate to. So running has been fantastic for me.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, what about doing the racing, especially the racing abroad? I do have a bit of anxiety around racing, especially in big groups. And it's more to do. I think it's more to do with getting there and, you know, just the thought of being around a lot of people and where do I go? Where do I park? And there's all these thoughts rushing through your head. Oh, absolutely. Does anxiety come into play when you're planning these big trips? How do you deal with that? Yeah, a lot of the trips I get really quite anxious before.
00:27:39
Speaker
I know I did a race in Greenland on the polar ice cap and I got really, I had really bad anxiety leading up to it. So it is quite difficult, but I suppose I'm just a sort of quite an anxious person anyway. I'm gonna even get a few butterflies in my tummy when I turn up at park run. I've done hundreds of those. But yes, usually I'll get over it. I mean, I don't know,
00:28:07
Speaker
In the latter chapters of the new book, a couple of events didn't go according to plan because of the anxiety issues, which I say I think are really related to the lockdown and everything. So there are times when things didn't go where the anxiety won in the end. But even then, when you might feel a failure at the time,
00:28:34
Speaker
but then you learn from each of those experiences and each of what seemed like a failure can actually open up another opportunity that you didn't know was there, if you know what I mean. Yeah, that's an interesting way of looking at it actually. So, I mean, what, so your last running trip was, was it Bermuda, wasn't it? Yes, the last one, I did three races in Bermuda.
00:29:03
Speaker
But then I went to Prague to run a half marathon there. And because of anxiety issues, I basically didn't make it to the start line. And then there was another race in Iceland, another one of my islands that I planned to do. But again, the anxiety got the better of me, but it's still on my agenda. I'm planning to go out there and do it next year.
00:29:35
Speaker
So what's happened instead then? You talked about it opening other opportunities. Where has that led you, that decision not to do those two races? It's just other opportunities in running. I mean, I was lucky enough to be nominated to carry the Queen's bat on during the Commonwealth Games in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games. Oh, wow.
00:30:03
Speaker
an absolutely amazing experience had actually been able to, you know, to carry a baton around. And then of course, you know, I do a lot of talks about my runs. I've given talks, anything from sort of primary school children,
00:30:27
Speaker
senior school, colleges, running clubs, I've even given a talk in an open prison to the prisoners. Oh, okay. So all of these things sort of open up, you know, new avenues, you know, it's not just about putting the shoes on and running that there are lots of other ways that I can use my experiences to, if you like, inspire other people. So, you know, all of these things,
00:30:58
Speaker
not only help me, but help other people as well. And yeah, I've recently, I run a lot of Couch to 5K courses for our local council. And I recently had a lovely lady who was over 80 years old, who's never run before and she completed the Couch to 5K. And it was just fantastic to see her face at the end of it. Oh, that is lovely. It just shows that you're never too old to start, doesn't it?
00:31:26
Speaker
Absolutely yes. Yeah and it's really great that you're inspiring people it made me chuckle in the book you said I think you said the when you give talks to the children that the most frequently asked question is what animals have you seen on your travels? That's right the animals I had this was documented in my first book called Running Hot and Cold but I did
00:31:51
Speaker
a half marathon race in a game reserve in South Africa, which was a fantastic experience. But a couple of days before the race itself, a group of us were out on foot with some rangers looking for animal footprints, and we were ambushed by six elephants. Oh, wow. We were chased down into a ravine.
00:32:18
Speaker
but by six elephants, so that was an animal encounter that I will never forget, I must say. Happily, it all ended okay for both us and the elephants. The rangers did carry a rifle and they sort of fired it into the air and that was enough to put the elephants off, but they got to within about 20 yards of us, so. Wow, that heart-stopping moment, I can imagine. Absolutely.
00:32:49
Speaker
And another amazing animal experience I had was in Antarctica. Again, not during the race, but we were actually in a dinghy, which is maybe 10 or 12 feet long. And two humpback whales, which each 40 feet long, literally came alongside us and just entertained us for about 20 minutes.
00:33:17
Speaker
just rolling over and blowing out of their spouts and making all sorts of noise. It was just incredible. I mean, they could so easily have just tipped us into the icy water, but they didn't. They just... That must have been incredible. It's just, yeah, I should never forget moments like that. Yeah. I mean, what do you think has been your favourite moment from all the places?
Memorable Runs and Emotional Journeys
00:33:43
Speaker
you've been to and the races you've done. Oh, so many, so many of them. I mean, a lot of them are the animal moments. I think one of the one that always tugs a bit of my heartstrings, I must say, is I mentioned earlier the title of my second book, which was Can We Run With You, Grandfather. And that came from an experience I had in Sri Lanka. I did a series
00:34:12
Speaker
This was a series of 11 races on consecutive days in different parts of Sri Lanka. And it took place in 2005. And if you remember, in 2004 on Boxing Day, there was this terrible tsunami in that part of the world and thousands of people lost their lives. And at first, yeah, we just thought that the
00:34:39
Speaker
The trip to Sri Lanka would have to be canceled, but that's not what the local people wanted. They wanted us to come out there. So in the end, we did go out to Sri Lanka just a few weeks after the tsunami. And of course it was a very emotional trip, but one of the stages was a half marathon. The first half of which was entirely uphill, going up the side of this tea plantation on the side of a mountain.
00:35:08
Speaker
And when I got to the top of this hill at the halfway point, there were six children there standing by the roadside. And one of them called out to me, can we run with you, grandfather? And I said, yes, of course. And so they joined me and we started, obviously this was at the top of the hill. So we started to run down the other side.
00:35:34
Speaker
And the road was sort of winding backwards and forwards down through these tea plantations. And at every bend there were more children and they all gradually joined in with me. And by the time I got down to the village, the first village, I had about 40 children and we were singing run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm a gingerbread man. And it was just such a magical moment that I'll never forget.
00:36:02
Speaker
you know, particularly at a time which was, you know, so emotional for the country as a whole. It was just wonderful to hear those children laughing and singing. Yeah, how wonderful. That's just given me goosebumps, Douglas. You've recounted that. That you felt a bit like the Pied Piper. That's exactly how I felt. And I must say, I've got goosebumps to even talking about it.
00:36:29
Speaker
It still brings that memory back. It was a fantastic moment. Yeah. I mean, is there anywhere that you'd like to go back and visit that you feel you've not seen enough of? Or, you know, is there anywhere new? As I say, mostly when I do overseas races, I tend to try and do a different one each time. I mean, if I did go back somewhere, I'd love to go back to Antarctic.
00:36:57
Speaker
Antarctica, because that was just an incredible, it's almost like visiting a different planet. Yeah, it's just so different to anywhere else in the world. And it was just such a magical time with not only that, you know, the whales that came and entertained us, but all the other wildlife, the seals and the thousands of penguins and everything. It was just an amazing experience.
00:37:25
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, describe for us what it's like in Antarctica. I think most of us will never really get that opportunity to visit. How did you ride at the same boat, wasn't it? Yes, it's quite a journey to get out there. I mean, I ran the half marathon then. The half marathon takes place on King George Island, which is just off the Antarctic Peninsula.
00:37:51
Speaker
So to get there I had to first of all fly to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Then another flight down to Ushaya which is the southernmost city in the world and it's right on the very tip of South America. And then we went on this Russian boat which took us across the southern ocean and the Drake Passage which are actually the roughest seas in the world because it's the only part of the planet where
00:38:21
Speaker
It's completely sea encircling it. There's no land masses there to actually break the waves up. So it's very, very rough. And we traveled on this Russian research ship, which held about a hundred people on board. It wasn't like a big liner or anything, a big cruise ship. It was quite a small boat. So the sea journeys themselves were an adventure both there and back.
00:38:50
Speaker
And then of course, once you get off King George Island and once you get to Antarctica, there aren't any harbors or anything where the ship can tie up. It just has to drop anchor in the middle of the water. And then we, as I mentioned earlier with the whale experience, we climb into these dinghies without board motors and that is where they can actually take you ashore.
00:39:18
Speaker
And once you're sure, that's when we ran the half marathon. So where did you stay on Antarctica? What was the accommodation? Oh, the accommodation was on board the ship. We just slept on board. So you literally just went on to... Yeah, you just go on to the land just to do the run and to do a few sort of experiences of walking on there and visiting various coves.
00:39:47
Speaker
etc but but you actually stay you know you sleep on on the ship itself and just go backwards and forwards on the dinghies we're in Antarctica for about four days but just absolute yeah it is a wonderful experience yeah so that's that's one you'd like to repeat then you must have better sea legs than i do
00:40:13
Speaker
I was quite worried about the CGN, as I must say, but a lot of people were very ill, but I was quite lucky. I went to my doctor's to ask for advice and he gave me some patches to put behind my ears. And they worked really well, so I actually wasn't too bad at all. There were one or two days when it was really, really rough when, you know,
00:40:41
Speaker
you couldn't necessarily eat your dinner. Oh dear. And they certainly wouldn't serve soup up in the can scene. Yeah, I believe, I believe, sorry, that's my dog. That's all right. I believe that's where the saying three square meals a day comes from, isn't it?
00:41:07
Speaker
It's from needing square plates. Yes, I believe so. Stormy seas. Right. I mean, the food on board the ship was actually very good. I mean, the ship had a Russian crew and the cooks tended to be the sort of female partners of the Russian crew. And they looked after us very, very well. And it was just an amazing experience. Yeah, that sounds really just truly incredible.
00:41:36
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about the running friends you've made over the years because, sorry, I'm just going to pause there a minute and I'm just going to sort the document and I'll tell Jo to edit this bit out. Just one second. Okay, no worries.
00:42:13
Speaker
Sorry, Doug. I'm back. I apologize. Right. Where were we? Running Friends. That's right. So in the book, you describe a lot of the people that you've met on your travels that you've made some really good friendships with. Tell us a little bit about that. You know, running really brings us together, doesn't it? It absolutely does. I mean, if we
00:42:40
Speaker
trip I've made I think I'm still in touch with at least a few people on that trip and of course on occasions you meet them at subsequent events as well because you know once you get hooked onto this running travel you know people tend to book lots of future events together again. I think in particular
00:43:06
Speaker
The group of us who were chased by the elephants in South Africa, many of those are in New Zealand, were from New Zealand and some from America and I've certainly kept in very close contact with them and a few years ago I went to Australia
00:43:30
Speaker
to run a race in the Australian Outback. And as part of that visit, I made the trip over to New Zealand and have a reunion. We even managed to find a 10K to run together with some of the friends who would run away from the elephants with me.
00:43:50
Speaker
I've also remained very close to the people I traveled to Antarctica with because obviously because you're sort of all confined together on board of what is a small ship, you spend an awful lot of time together. So that's another sort of group of friends who I've been particularly close to. But as I say, you know, I think every event I've ever run, I'm still in touch with somebody. And of course, social media these days just makes it
00:44:20
Speaker
so easy to keep in touch with people and to share each of our, you know, what we're up to at any one time. Yeah, it does, doesn't it? I think there's just something about running and when you find somebody that enjoys it as much as you, you just want to kind of hang on to them, don't you? Oh, absolutely. Somebody truly understands our passion for it. No, no, I mean, yeah, maybe non-runners don't understand, but
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah, it is a shared experience and so many friends, I've made some fabulous friends when I went out to Easter Island and we still meet up and hopefully we'll be meeting up again next year. So it's great to have friends from all around the world. Yeah. So what have you got planned next? Anything exciting coming up for you?
00:45:14
Speaker
Well I'd say at the moment I'm being a little bit cautious because this Achilles problem has sort of set me back a bit but hopefully that's now slowly beginning to resolve. I think for the remainder of this year I'm sort of targeting just a few local races.
00:45:33
Speaker
I won't do anything but I would certainly like to go back to the Iceland trip, another one of my island trips that I wasn't able to do last year. So that's sort of a long-term goal. I'm quite eager to get to my 500 park runs as well and I should be able to do that in about a year's time.
00:46:02
Speaker
That's a lot of part runs. Where are you up to at the moment? I think it's 444. Yeah, that's incredible. So yeah, that probably will take about a year, won't it? Yeah. So yeah, yeah. Hopefully in about a year's time, I'll be able to get that blue 500 part run best. Fantastic. Do you tend to do the same one or do you like moving about doing a bit of tourism? I mostly do the same one. Um,
00:46:30
Speaker
I do the Arrow Valley one, which is the one in Reddit. So I mostly do that, but I've done quite a lot of tourist in and
00:46:39
Speaker
I've done it when I went to Australia. I did park runs in Sydney and in Brisbane. And indeed both times I went to Venice the first time when it flooded and the second time when I ran the marathon. There's a park run in Padua, which is, it's quite a trip out of Venice, but it's just a wonderful little park run because there's only about 30 people do it.
00:47:09
Speaker
And at the end of it, the sort of marshals open up the little cafe in the park. It's called Butterfly Park in the English translation of it. And it's just so typical of what Park Run is all about, you know, just such a friendly little group of people. So I enjoyed that twice.
00:47:33
Speaker
For a short period of time, I actually held the age category record for it, but that's since been taken off me. Oh, and sadly, it's a bit far away to go and get it back quickly. No, I can't, yes, yes. Well, well done, though. Oh, thank you. Well, it's been lovely chatting to you today, Doug. And your book, I'm really enjoying it.
00:48:00
Speaker
I've got about a third of it left to read, but it's brilliant. Do you want to tell our listeners where they can get hold of it? Yeah, well, it's actually published officially on Monday, this coming Monday. So it can be pre-ordered from Amazon or any good bookshops, waterstones or whatever will have it in stock.
00:48:25
Speaker
So it's called Once Around the Planet and it's, as you say, it's the final part of my running trilogy. But hopefully not the end of your running. Not at all, no. I should definitely keep on for as long as I possibly can because it is just so good for me and just, you know, gives me the boost that I need at times.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's clear that you are very passionate about running and that comes through strongly in your book. So with your coming adventures. Thank you very much, Michelle. Yeah, thank you.