Pod recording (2024-05-06 19_54 GMT+1) (1)

The speakers are discussing their plans for a podcast episode and the upcoming Highland Sling race. They mention the number of participants and the lack of support and aid stations on the route. They also discuss other races and events they plan to cover in the episode. Overall, they seem excited about the podcast and the topics they will be discussing. record and especially after 7pm. Why don't we make a rule then for future episodes, bang on 8 o'clock we start and even if you're late, you just come in late and if you're no there, you're no there and we just crack on. Aye, that's fair it is. Do you know what I mean, in case we're kind of hanging on. I know that's the thought one, so we can wait for the first one and make sure everybody's there, but just meeting in future, just so we crack on. If somebody's late, they just jump in. Aye, definitely. Aye, I'm comfy, I'm good, I'm there, I'm good. Right, so I've just got a wee intro, talking about how the podcast got started, introduce you guys, then I'll say what we're going to cover. I was going to throw in the Belfast Marathon as well. Aye, I've seen Shane done that actually now. I've got a few, what's the lassie's name, she runs, she bakes, what's her name? I know the handle, I can't remember her name. Jason, do you know that? Nah, I can, I can, she runs, she bakes, I don't think I know her name as well. Doesn't know whatever she does. No. What's she like? She can tell you stuff. Who? Him. Who's him? You. She can tell you stuff. Who? Him. Who's him? You. You enough? You've been mentioning things. Me not at all. I don't believe you. Not really. Mike's face says otherwise. In fact, he can actually. I know that. You've probably told me yourself you've done that. Forgot about that, aye. No, no, no. Sitting in the fucking morning. That's a boast. That's what I said, that's what I is. They all need love. You going to be working today, aye? I was working. I was working, aye? Aye. One day holiday. Obviously he's done a shot in a minute. Obviously he's done a shot. Going to the supermarket, never a shot. My boss told me about 3 o'clock, I thought I'd have been off today. Cheers. Good one, aye. It wasn't too busy, though, to be fair. I hate taking days off when you don't have to. Really? I love it. Aye, I love it. If I'm not doing anything else, it's fine. Not this one, Davey, but... Cannae get myself sorted. See, we all see that background, Jason, I had that as well. It goes blurry. It makes you go blurry as well. I know. It's better than seeing it in my kitchen. It's the only place I can sit. My bloody wee... My phone keeps on turning off. I'm trying my wee notes there, so I can... What times do you put them in? Ah, fuck off. Stupid phone. How are we all? Have a nice weekend. What did you say? Long run. How far does it go? It's just 15. It's four times two mile at my supposed marathon pace, which felt very cruisy. The easy miles I was dropping to, I wasn't dropping them that much. The easy and just bouncing back and forth every couple of miles. And it was fine, so I'm feeling quite good. For the marathon, I might just hold that pace to about 20 miles, and if I'm feeling good, then I'll get it in my head to try and hit, if I want to get under the C30. If not, I'll just stay where I am, but... Yeah. So if I can do that just now, that's far into the block. Imagine if I taper off and then just be feeling quite fresh. After 20 miles is what gives me the fear, like, that gives me the absolute fear, just every single time. No matter how many times you do it, it's just like, what's going to happen? I think you've got to be prepared. Aye, I must do it. All the rest of my times are fucking blown up. It's that endurance, it's that. Past the 20, isn't it? A lot of folk, you know. That's right. I'm trying to think if I can feel fresh coming out of that Gosford house and heading back. See, once I get to Vampire, I know, right, I'm on the way home now. Let's just keep the heat until we get past that, and then... Kevin spoke about it the other day, that it's that long road, man, honestly, to Gosford South, but just... I don't usually race with music, but I've bought headphones. Oh, really? I'm in two minds, yeah, I'm in two minds. Last year, somebody phoned me mid-run. They knew I was running a marathon, and they phoned me, I had my headphones on, and they phoned me. And I was like, no, it's been off for about 10 minutes, because I was trying to get the phone off to put my music back on and stuff like that. Then, like, my earphone dropped, too. I had to run up with my earphone, and I was just like, nah, sack it. Ended up taking them out. And then I just ended up being anabolic, and then it was actually lost. I put the earphones in... On that ultra, I put the earphones in, and within about 30 seconds, heart rate shot to, like, 150. So I just took them straight back out, and that was it, and I put them in for the full run. Get too excited listening to fucking Skrillex or something. Westlife. Westlife. It was my playlist. Uptown girl. I'm just going to put the .99 on. Or the .99 fucker. Welcome to... Welcome to... Where did you finish? 120. Nicely co-starred. If you start at that Gosford House door, the day Nitro finishes, you'll be done. To be fair, he does pick people up, though. People that go on his show. He's good, he's good. Are you good yet? Who? You. Have they actually given you a date yet? He said they'd probably give me a shoot on next week or so, but... He's missed me twice today. I've been busy. Has Lee Campbell been in it, sir? What was that? Lee Campbell, that. Lee Campbell's coming on Friday, aye? Lee's already been on it. I'm looking forward to Stuart's one. Is he not? No. I totally adore him. I thought he would have been, but he's not. I reckon he could do... Oh, that's Serena. Lee gave him info on that Serena. That's what that was. I reckon Stuart's one, he could get that on a reel. He'd be in... He'd be a foreigner. He'd be lasting about 40 minutes in character, by the way, on Saturday at the run, then eventually gave up and started talking normally. I don't mean it like you did. Would you be a partisan for this? That's it. I'm just trying to compose myself. That was good, though. I started it as well. I'm looking forward to your chat about it. I'll jump in at any point, by the way, if you've got anything to add, Jason. Obviously, it's something we're all new to, so if there's any... Let us know. If you've got something to say, just pitch in and say it as well. I'm sure we'll pick it up in the coming weeks. Nah, we'll be fine, mate. Everybody's there to jump in and ask questions anyway. It's not just up to Bob. If anybody's got any questions about the flight, Mike, or Jimmy, or Kenneth, about what happened on Saturday as well, I'll jump in and ask the question to get a bit more information out for what other people might want to hear. Hi. Cool. Right, I'll just get started then. I'm going to have to... I'm looking to the side. I know this is going to be on YouTube. I'm sure... I'm not going to memorise this, but anyway. Hello, and welcome to the InstaRunners Roundup podcast. My name is Bob Burrow, better known to some as the Concise Runner. The idea of this podcast was born, like so many things, during a long-run chat back in November. Jace had an idea for a podcast to round up the achievements of the running community that we all love so much. He also had an idea to get someone else to organise it. After a few format tweaks and a few rescues from the podcast bin in the sky, I have been tasked with chairing a roundtable podcast to keep everyone on topic and under control. No easy job, I'm sure you'll agree. Joining me on this week's episode is a very excited and thankfully not-so-sleepy today, Jason Wood, the Edinburgh Runner. We've got AB McCracken, who thankfully isn't sitting in his dirty pyjamas today. We've got Mike running beyond the limits of pole dancing. And everyone's favourite man in the dark, James Gower. Everyone, welcome to the roundup. Hi, guys. Hello. How are you, everybody? So on this episode, we are aiming to cover the Highland Sling. We'll touch on the New Haven Lighthouse 10K, which I keep calling the Newhouse Lighthouse 10K. We've got the Newcastle Half Marathon. We have got Belfast Full Marathon. I know people hate people saying full and half, but it is what it is. The Scottish 5K Champs. We have got a bit of Park Run Tourism. And we have the Press Play and Run Edinburgh Meetup. So if we like to start at the sling, Mike and Jimmy, for those of us like myself who aren't clued up on the ultra scene, what the hell is a Highland Sling? This is not the kind of Highland you might introduce to a person. No, it's not Jason's usual weekend. Do you want to go, Jimmy? Aye. The Highland Sling is basically a 53-mile race that starts at Mulgai, finishes at Tindrum, takes in the first 53 miles of the west hill away, and comes to a group. What do you say about it? It was unbelievable, I would say. I didn't know. For me, it was probably the best ultra I've done so far, in terms of organisation. The thing that stood out for me was the sheer amount of people. The amount of folk on the route was just like nothing I've ever seen before. It was just ludicrous. Do you know how many done it? A total of... 700. It's usually 1,000, but they capped it at 750 for this one. I think they're trying to reduce the numbers. They didn't hold it last year, either. They're trying to stop wear and tear on the route. Obviously, it's a very popular hiking route, one of the most popular in Scotland, so they're trying to cut down damage. It's still 700 odd people. How did you find it? I think the course is great. I think it's one of the best courses I've had. I was dubious going in. I think myself and Jimmy spoke just about how some of the things came down from the organisers and emails and various groups. There was no support crews, no food on route. There weren't really any closed roads, so why are we paying £100? On the day, we couldn't really complain. The route was amazing. Conditions were amazing. I think at the start, like you said, we kind of scoffed because we're like, £100, usually for £100, you've got an aid station, fill your boots with food and whatever you want, but this was not, you provided your own food, so you're like another, depending on what you have, another £50 out of your own pocket for your own food. So we were a bit dubious there, but that's the rate of someone else. Sorry? Did you have people on the course then to give you food? I see what they are. There's a drop bag zone. Sorry. The only issue with that though is you could obviously put food in there, but if you were putting ham rolls in there that were sitting out in the sun for however many hours, they weren't good by the time you got there. So you kind of got your own drop bags and they were at 19 miles, 27 miles, 34 miles, then 40 miles, and you could pick whatever you had in your bag, whatever you didn't want to carry, you left for what they call a scavenger's table, which was just... I had that on the blades. Apart from sandwiches and that, everything was gels and ashes and tailwind everywhere. I had sandwiches in. That would have been... The course was nice. It's a typical trail, but to see the amount of people on the route, even supporting and stuff, that was absolute mental. That's what I thought was the best thing about it. You've got folk up the top of Connock Hill with bells. Oh, really? And then you've got... Mike, where was it? It was up a bit Bobble Glen, which is up... No, middle of nowhere. Folk up there sitting playing musical instruments and music for everybody going by. There was Pipers. I think there was a post saying that the Pipers played for like, was it 10 hours solid? Yeah, Pipers near the end. I think, what, 200? 10 hours solid just for all the runners. It was just... It was absolutely mental. There was people. They're the wee touches that make the events kind of the memory to them for me. The things like that, the Pipers playing when you're going past. You know where to get that. And you can't argue with a red carpet finish line either. Oh, that finish line looked amazing. Because I was told by a woman when I was running there. So that was the only thing as well. This event was more like... So I'd have my mic at the start and then he'd need the toilet in the apartment. And then... Do you know Glenven? Do you know Glenven? No. Is it a team? So it was like... Usually, like Michael said, something like... Usually all that, like the John Muir, it was kind of like head down, get the run done. Whereas this felt like totally different, eh? Everybody was chatting, everybody was talking to you on the route. I felt that anyway. I've probably spoke to more people on this run than I've ever spoke to any other runs combined, eh? I think I'd say to a few people about the conditions that you've got for the thing. If John Muir had the conditions, it would have been a completely different race for me. It was purely because it was that bad that I was... I was keeping on saying I'm not going to do it and then I got another order. I probably ain't that well, actually. But I would love to do one in good conditions because I've never done one yet where it's been like what you've got. I think that would change the whole position. Conditioning would change everything, especially with those miles. It's well and good doing a half marathon and some of the shorter distances in bad conditions you can get through it. But when you're past the marathon point and then right on halfway and if the conditions aren't good it's very demoralising. It must be a good feeling. It must be a good feeling to see, like, having the paper and that on course. Like we were saying, with the John Muir, even though he didn't go last year, there was no-one that he'd seen. I've actually seen nobody in the bathroom. It was a bit... It's good to give you a bit of a lift. I may be able to get to that, to be fair. You were saying, Jason, that I was doing a lot of ultra again. But you get something like that on route, it picks you up a little bit. You need to do more John Muir and also you're focused on it. What was good as well, was that we spoke, like, obviously, Nicky was at Balmorha, Lee was at, like, Dean Glass. So when you spoke, you'd seen them and they gave you a wee buzz. Lee came in and gave everybody a wee cuddle and got a photo with you. You went away. Plus it was like, there was obviously all the other people doing it. Rachel, Caley, Amy, who else there was, John Cassidy was doing it. So it was like, quite a few folk that we know were all at the start line as well, eh? They were in, I think, a different pen, but there was quite a lot of faces that you know doing it and managed to do it, eh? And did you two meet your time goals in terms of what you'd like to do as well? I don't think we really set time goals, but we were saying at the start, oh, I think we could hit 10 hours. We're nowhere close to 10 hours. What was your time? 10.50, I go. Yeah, I was 11.25. See the bit that kills it? The bit that... The winner was six or seven, I think. Wow. Which is just absolutely ridiculous. And there was a bit between getting a sort of... Is it Ingersnade and Beanglass is the bit? Yeah. Which, like, the terrain is just... That's the best bit. It is the main spun bit. You're not running at any speed. You're just shuffling and then climbing with your hands up rocks and then shuffling and climbing, doing tree trunks and climbing and... I felt better going along that bit than I did on the flat road. Just going down a flat road. Do you think if somebody had actually ran along that at, like, however many minute miles they've done to get a 6.30, it's just... That is on a different level, eh? What are we talking? 85k in 6 hours 30? Is that what it was? I'm sure that's what they've done. And 6.37? 6.37 or something like that. That's... That's ridiculous. The female record got broken as well. Was it... What's the name? 7 hours 20, was it? Yeah, GBRunner, aye. 7 hours 20. I think she took 40 minutes off the record. Because I said to you at the start, Mike, the weather that's meant to be today, somebody's going to break a record just because of the way it is, eh? Well, it was minus 2 when we started. It wasn't warm. But you knew it was going to heat up, eh? So if you just go through that first couple of hours, then you knew it was going to heat up, eh? And it was going to be absolutely perfect. And it wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, it was just, like, absolutely amazing, eh? When's the next one for you two, then? June. Aye, same. What's that one? Soltarn. Soltarn. Ultra-sporting, 56 miles along the Soltarn. Soltarn has 24 hours. How do you guys train for that? How do you train? What's the plan? Do you guys just keep the miles up through the year, then? Are you jumping from, like, the Fling to... My training's been shocking this year. My training's been shite. I've had no structure, just due to life and everything else. It was only five weeks before the Fling that I did the 100k in Perth. And then two weeks before that was John Muir. So I'm just going from event to event and papering in between. If you actually look at my squad, I'm the same. I literally think the longest run I've done before John Muir was, like, 15 miles. I think two weeks before that, I didn't even get a run. Because I just... I was going to say that to you, Jimmy, because I never see you doing, like, 30, 40k runs or anything like that on Strava or anything. No, I didn't. I just... Lucky if I do it three times a week, you know, eh? That's all I do. I'll just do big runs if it helps. If it works. I used to be strict, but, like Mike said, it's hard, eh, with kids and work and stuff going on, eh? It's hard to get out. Obviously, with the lighter nights, I'll try and go a bit more, but... I'm glad I didn't go last year, I trained like mad, but, eh, this year, I generally have a run, eh? Like, if you actually look at Strava, it's... I just turn it on. Just turn it on, eh? Just see how it goes. I'll try and help you. I have to do some training. I am wanting to try and hit 100 miles at Saltire in June, so I'll probably need to get something in for that, but that's... That'll be the next big... big target. You boys... You boys could go there, eh, on Ultra. Well, you've done it, but you don't go and manage 50 miles, neither do I. I reckon you could. I'll buy the 20 in Edinburgh, never mind Ultras. It's a different vibe, eh? You don't run at a pace. Like, for a pace. On Ultra, you can go and do it as chilled and relaxed as you want, eh? More relaxed. I think it's difficult, though, when you're that conditioned, to run for a time, or as fast as possible for a distance, to then go, oh, you know, I need to pull it back 30 seconds or a minute per kilometre, and then not feel like you're putting the effort in that you would usually put in a road race. That's my problem. Anyway, that's why I always look at the Ultras, because I'd float far too quick for the distance. Or think how quick I should be able to run that, where it's just not going to happen over the longer distance. You two are the speedy boys. You two are the speedy boys, and you used to ask the Ultra boys what their time was, and it's like, Ultra boys don't talk like that. I know, that's the thing. See, with me, it'd be like, John, I set out, like, I was just going to have a chill day, enjoy it, but I just hate people passing me, eh? I hate somebody passing, and if somebody passes me, I'm like, I need to chase them down. I just go like that about me, I can't control it. It's worse, see, if you get in at least 50 miles and stuff, you'll be running, and you'll be like 40 miles, and there'll be some old guy like twice your weight will pass you, and he's twice your age will pass you, and you're like, what's going on? And you're like, how has he done that? And you're like, dying a death, and some old guy or some old wife of that will come flying past you, it's just like, hi guys, and just away they go, and you're like, just destroyed, and you're like, humbled, it's mental. See, funny you say that, right, I was with Jason, remember, I was at the perf 10k with me and you, so I'd finished, right, and I was sitting with Tara, and we were sitting with Jason coming across the finish line, and just in front of him was this guy, he must have been 85 years old, he was running like Phoebe out of his friends, in front of Jason, I was like, how is that possible? Like, literally, I thought the boy was going to kill over, but it's just obviously me and Jason were sitting on the floor, running all of these. Just differently. I think it's experience as well though, like, because it's not that you don't run some of these fast, obviously I managed to get PBs at the 100k in Perth, that was a mistake, but... You meant that. You kind of caught a mistake when you meant to do it. Yeah, okay, it wasn't a mistake, it was a stupid thing to do. Yes, there we go. I didn't die, so fuck it. It was fine, I got PBs. But... But that's humbling, as you say, when you see the older people going past you, when you're doing 42 laps around Northinch Park, and you see these people go past you from like lap 7, that's humbling. As long as there's not a photographer, it's fine. As long as there's a photographer there, you need to put it down and get away from certain folk. It's like when Davey finished Manchester and there was a guy in front of him with a big pair of scissors. Have you seen that picture? A big massive guy dressed as a pair of scissors. Oh my! He's been at a couple of races so far, I've seen the last few weeks, like, he did in London as well, I'm sure they've seen the picture. That was an argument we just had. There was photographers everywhere, eh? Much like everywhere in the world. Well, good luck trying to find the pictures on the Facebook group. It's carnage. Trying to find them was an absolute hassle but there's photographers everywhere, so it was quite good. Mr Phelps. That man of course, eh? Yeah. He's been at every event that I've done this year. A good lad. That's a good boy. You need to generally get a goal just like Mike said, just for the red carpet at the end. That lead in the race, you've already clicked your tag at that point, so that's your final time. And then you get to go and run like, I don't know, whatever it is, 50, 60 metres of the red carpet, just fully people cheering and bells and flags. The barriers are close enough as well, if you put your arms out, you can have people on both sides, the whole way down. I'm not paying the hills in a race for anybody. Not a chance. Not for a coaster, anyway. Just one hill. I've no chance. It wasn't a coaster, it was a wooden meadow. With a bit of rope. You've got to follow the cycle. It's not like Crizo as well. You've got to follow the cycle. Everybody did. And a bear. And a bear. You've still got it. There you go, lads. Ding, ding indeed. All good, but the meadow never scored very highly, that's what we're saying. All chosen wooden meadows. Sort it out. That was fun, that. Wooden meadows generally need to be emptied. Nothing will beat the GB Ultras medals. They are for some proper weighty weighty medal. These boys don't sign up for that. I can't even take that one. I'll be the last ultra, I think. We'll stick to this. It needs to be gold, though. You'll be up there anyway, but it needs to be gold. That was worse than I'm getting clipped up saying I was slow. Aw, come on. It needs to be gold, top 100. You never worded it any better than you said you did. That's exactly how you said it to me. Was I saying it in a posh accent? Aye. Mike, do you want to hold one? Yeah. Aye, I'm not on silver. It does get there. It has to be gold. Need to speak to anybody else who's got silver. It'll be the first and last time that I'll be doing that, so you want the gold medal, eh? I didn't know what you were saying. You see the trophy for the New Haven Lighthouse 10k? The actual lighthouse trophy you get? Aye. I think that was just for the winner, though, Bob. The medal was a wee... It might have been a wooden one as well, but the actual winner got a wee lighthouse trophy. Is that the Blast Running? That was the Blast Running one. So it starts down by the water at New Haven, heads up to Old Cannon Mills, which I believe that's a bit of an uphill, and then you're looking round, and then you've got a fast finish on the way back down to the lighthouse. I don't... Have I had my head of you doing that before, Jase? I don't know if you've done that one. No, never done that one before me. I would have wanted to do it this year, but childcare, obviously. Put that to bed. I think you go through the three of the parks that are up towards Cannon Mills, so it would be a nice route. It's not one I've done, but going from what I've seen on Strava and stuff like that, it does look like it would be a brilliant wee race to do. The Blast Running, they're a pretty good route. They used to run 20 along the forth and all the severe routes. I guess we've got... That one there, I smell Karen, Gies, Jim Boyle. I don't know if you guys picked up on anyone else that had done the 10k. Big Alan's the team Alexis Rose. He'd done it as well. He ties in the cat a lot, I think, and gets entries for the guys in the team for volunteering roles and stuff like that as well, so I think he's quite the forefront of the cat now in terms of all the races they're doing. I don't know how many he's done this year so far. I think he's done about 15 races. He's getting them in. Just Blast Running, I've got the Vera Leaf, the Sundowner 5k series. I don't know if there's three or four 5k races. It's tea time or something, aren't they, on the Wednesdays? Wednesday, 15th May I've got one. Then, obviously, I do the Meadows 5k. That's every month. You've done them before, haven't you? I've done a fair like going through there. I'm in the mindset for going for a fast one. To be fair, that's a hard one, to be honest, even though it's a bit of a travel for me. Do they close the footpath to the public, or are the public still wandering about? It's 20 minutes, 10 seconds, and I'm sure it was a Just Eat guy who cost me my 10 seconds and was throwing me over on his bike. A dirty person that he is. I would have got him in 10 seconds, but it's still open, but mostly people are interested. They can see people are running. Because you wear a number and stuff like that, it's quite obvious it's a race. It's nice that it's the same year as well. I think you called the last one the Cherry Blossom 5k because all the blossoms and the peas are there. It's a lovely place to be. I've never been before. It doesn't feel flat when you're running it. There's a few wee inclines on it. Well, it's not really, but when you're running hard even the slightest incline feels like a mountain. It's good. We have the sunset festival. That's in July. I'm doing that one. I'm doing the marathon. I think that's a 6 or 7k fast marathon, full marathon, there's a really and there's also a 6 hour ultra on the go as well. How about us is that one? That's the Crammond. We're basically Edinburgh Park runners or the race on Friday night. It's the same place. It's a 6k like Bob said. It's flat. It's as flat as you'd never get anything to be. If it's a nice night with no wind then you're in for a good one. It can be a bit windy down there obviously because it's beside the water on the coast. I'm looking forward to that marathon because if all goes to plan and conditions are well then you should be looking for a fast time there. It's quite well supported as well. People pitch up tents in the deck chairs and all that. It's good, especially when it's night. They've got pizza tents and everything like that beer tents and everything so if you're even going down just to support for the night then you can go down and have a good wee night. There was stuff there for the kids in that last year if I remember rightly like a couple of stalls and things. I took Georgie down. I'll be looking forward to it if it's a nice night, it'll be good. Absolutely. Other notable events that we've had. This weekend we had the Belfast Marathon which is one I've eyed up in the past but I think it's got a few humps and bumps in it so I've always stayed away from it. I've seen Fiona she runs, she bakes, she's done it. Seemed to have a good time. She'd travelled up quite late on in the race but yeah it's one definitely need to look in. I love Belfast but I've never been running out there. I know Craig Lawton from Newton, he's done it as well. I've not really looked in the Strava or anything yet to see. I'd have seen the middle Monday picture earlier on that he'd put up. You must bump into him walking about Newton, would you not? I do, aye, all the time. We'd go for a pint. Local club? Aye, my local club. We'd go for a pint all the time. I was actually going to wear my new Newton jacket today by the way but I thought it would be overkill. Was that rather steepie? No, it was not. It was £45 and I got it for £15. It's a £45 postage package. Aldo, can I say that's a very nice jacket? Thank you. I was going to wear it, honestly, but after our missing last night's recording I couldn't come home and wear my new jacket and just get absolutely troned. I'm just glad you're aware of that. Since you are awake, do you fancy talking us through the breathing in you had at the 5k champs? The 5k champs? If anyone doesn't know what the 5k champs are, they're 5k race, obviously, down at Crammond, which is where the park run takes place. It's a slightly different route to the Inverpark run and one that I found to be much better than the park run route, to be honest. There was 514 people racing and the winner was 1417. Just to put the context, David Wright of Runwright on Instagram, he ran 1514 and only finished in 44th place. I managed to get a wee PB, got a wee sub-19, 1858, and I finished, for that, 340 out of 500. You owe me a chance. For anybody watching on YouTube, I've got a nice wee wooden medal that I'm proudly wearing today. There we go. It was a great wee night. Conditions were superb. I had a wee bit of a tailwind for 5k when you come back off the straight. I managed to keep my legs moving fairly well at that point. In the last corner, you did a sharp turn back and I lost maybe 5 or 6 seconds on that corner. That was tough. It was a bit of a struggle at the end, but I managed to get it done. Les Graham was doing it. Les was obviously coming back to Boston, where she had a bit of an injury towards the end. In Boston, she ran 2040, so she was over the moon with that. Her split was nice and consistent. I think that's what she set out to do, just be nice and consistent. I mentioned David, and Jack Malloy, who runs for Motherwell. Jack was there as well. There was a couple of mine and Avery's pals, Gordon Pride and Darren Pride, both doing it as well. I think Gordon got a 5-second PB 1720 or something, and Darren was 1540 or something. It was a great wee night, as I said. The conditions were amazing, and then we went and got pizza on that after it, so it was good. The big question is the trainers. Do you think they are faster than the Nikes? Obviously, you'll get a PB in them, but that could be how you're feeling. In terms of what Nikes? You're talking about the Vaporflys in particular, not me. The Profees are better than the Vaporflys. The Vaporflys are probably less stable than the Profees, I think. When your form is going towards the end of it, when you're tired, the Profees will keep you, for me anyway, ticking over better. I also think the recovery on your legs is better with the Profees than the Vaporflys. The Vaporfly 3s aren't anything compared to the Vaporfly 2s. The 2s are superb. I don't know about the Alphas. I've not got my hands on a pair of the Alpha 3s yet, because I just brought the Profees, obviously. What about running records? They're all broken, aren't they? That's what started smashing all the records in the night. There wasn't really any breaking records in the night. It all seems to be on the Adios. We have a month's period on Adios that everyone has been smashing them. I have worn Vaporflys for my half-marathon PB. They're a brilliant shoe, don't get me wrong, but I just think if I had to pick the one shoe that was going to be doing the most events effectively, then it would be the Profees at the moment. If you were fit just now, if you wore more Vaporflys on that race, would you have stilled the race really well? I have no doubt about that, but taking into the case the recovery aspect of it as well, the day after, in terms of your legs, I think that plays in it massively for me anyway. I can tell the difference if I wore a pair of super shoes or even a training run. I can tell the difference massively the next game day on keeping my legs fresh. I could talk about shoes all day, though. See, talk to me about the Alphas. Have you got the Alpha 3s? No. See, go on. I wore them in Manchester. I'm not the biggest fan, to be honest. Honestly. See if you can see and the 1s, 2s or 3s, I go back to the 1s every time. I think a lot of people do say that and I've seen a lot of people saying that the 3s need about 100 miles to kind of properly break them in and they get better and better, but that's just from videos I've seen on YouTube. I don't know anybody personally that I've spoken to. Everybody has them on in Manchester, honestly, but the juries still work with me. I need to get used to them before Edinburgh, but... I agree with you. I've still got my 1s in there. I've put so much mileage in them. I don't have a mile on these. I think they're the best you can see them. Bob's showing off his Alpha 5s for anybody that's listening to the video, by the way. Bob sees them, Bob sees the shoes. But I'm getting into those orange ones. I just use them for training now. I've had a few bad races in them, but they're not exactly the same shoe. They're much better. How sure are you, Jase? I'm assuming that there wasn't many people there for funsies. It was all just club runners. I'd re-look at the results. It would have been all club runners. I think you need to be a member of Scottish Athletics to actually get into the race. I might be wrong on that, but I'm fairly certain that everybody was. I would say club runners. Are you a member of Scottish Athletics? Maybe I'm wrong then. Generally, everybody had a club vest on, me and I. I think the people towards the back end of the race were still 25 minutes, so it was still a fairly quick 5k. I think there were a couple of guys towards the back that were maybe a wee bit longer than that. The point that this last was 47 minutes or something, so I think it's just been out for the event, which is obviously fine. No, it was predominantly club runners. It was good the way that it was set up. I've never had a set-up like this for a 5k. They were soft pens. They weren't gated off or anything like that. It was a sub-17, a sub-18, a sub-19. I put myself in the sub-19 one, bang in the middle. I tried to memorise four or five people that were in my pen to start with, to keep a wee visual check, constantly make sure I was round about them. I wasn't going off too hot or anything like that. I did go out far too hot because it worked. My first kilometre was 3.38, but that was because, obviously, there were 500 people, and I was bang in the middle. You have probably less perception of the actual speed that you're going to travel on because it feels that easy because you're within the group. Honestly, I'd run a race like that again next year, 100 per cent. To me, it might be one of those races that you can look at as your marker each year to see where you've come and what you've done, because the crowd that you're running with will automatically make you run faster, 100 per cent. I would recommend it to anybody as well, to be honest. There's the same organisers that did the 50 and the 100 in March as well. You boys at that 50k would do some damage. I think I would do that one that I chummed you to. I think I would do that next year, actually. In terms of even pocket ultras, I didn't want to be running up hills or anything like that. But I would do something like that, Mike, definitely. What's your target now in terms of that 5k time? You've got designs on the 18 minute? 18.30? I don't know, Ken. I think everybody's got a limit as such. I cannae see me running much faster than that any time soon. My PB was 19.11. That was for a year. It was 19.11. I don't think 5k is a distance that I'm going to be able to take off, to be honest. Unless I train for it. If I put a block in for a 5k, I need to stop signing up to every event that comes along to do that. This is 100 per cent true, but that's the way that we live. It's very rare that Jason is sensible, but you were sensible this weekend by not going out in Newcastle. Thank you. My hamstrings were actually asleep last night. We won't mention that much. Imagine if that had gone down. That would have been even more knackered. I'm glad that my hamstring is feeling a lot better. It's probably given it a bit of rest. Even Saturday, I behaved on Saturday at the press play run with a 15k. That was because I was getting a bit tight and sore. I was sensible there as well. I'm learning. From what I've heard, I don't think you missed too much in that Newcastle race. I know we had a joke in the group chat beforehand a few months ago didn't we, with the route. You were trying to sell us the route so we all go down and it was a bit loopy. It wasn't inspiring us. You were on your own for that one I think. Evie was feeling the same. You wasn't the only one for heading down for. Is that the one that had four switchbacks in it? No, thank you. I've got visions of just a cone out. You need to run round the cone. I see a lot of events down in Newcastle. They all seem to be in the same place. I see the same pictures of the same things in every event down there. I heard there were people who wanted to run through the organisation. Yeah, there was. They're generally really good at setting up their events. The route's the route. You can't do what you've got. I think Natalie and Thomas went down. I think Natalie was on patient duties when she did the 10km. Natalie did 10km, so she was doing 60 minute patient. I think she came in at 59.40 or 59.50. She's done her job well. I think Thomas said he went off a bit too hot and paid the price a bit later on. I think he came in about two hours for his half. I think he was going for two hours anyway. He was just going to sit at the pacer and try and kick. I think he went off maybe three or four minutes too early. That was it. Big Al, big personal best as well. I think he was doing a bit of work with run through though. Al got a wee PB. I'm just looking at his travel now. He's on cloud nine. 60 minute PB by the way. Game is good. Well done. Good progress. Keep it up. That was Sunday. You guys were doing a press play in Lund. Not a retreat, a meet up. Over on the east side of the country. Great turnout as well by the way. There was Steve, the Newton girls, Charlotte, Fiona and Tasha and Big Dan and myself. We all went to the Portobello putt run. We done that first. I didn't even realise they were all doing that. We met up at the putt run. It was good to be done out there. Jase, you were there as well. I came and watched a bit of support. It was good. That was the first time I'd done Portobello. It was not the best course but it was a good putt run. We all battered that. Then we had a wee hop, skip and jump over to Portobello where we met Emily. Emily Jackson. That's a credit to her and Jase for what they've done on the day. Great turnout. What was Jase, about 23 or 24? 23, I think. Yeah, sure. No, that's just what comes to mind. Ignore me. Just keep talking. 23 or 24, I was all the way up at the prom at Portobello. I don't know how many. I think it was about 5 or 6 groups that set off. I think 3 or 4 maybe. I think it ended up people just bunched together and done it from there. You kind of set off first, didn't you? It was kind of steery and dairy towards the back. I think we managed that well. What highlights for us, you look at it Saturday, you had people up at Fife, the Borders, Glasgow and Edinburgh all coming together for a social run. It just shows you how big it's getting now. It was a really good day. I really enjoyed it. Also, I like taking it home. I've been on a couple with most of that wild art running because they get a lot of children. It's the one kind of chance that I think Bob you spoke about it on Steve's podcast where you're maybe a bit nervous to go places or see folk but when you go to these things it's a good opportunity for you to speak to folk and network. Just about anything, just as you're jogging along and you chat to them and you get to know them. I've done it on Instagram but I've never met them. You just have a wee chat along the way and that's what I think they're really good for. Getting people to meet each other. I ran a bit with Steve McKenna 100 kms to 100 miles. I've been speaking to Steve on Instagram for a few months now and that was the first time I met him. We ran a wee bit together. One of my mates, Dale, his wife is running the marathon so we ran a wee bit as well. It was good to get a wee chat with her. I think we were all planning to take some of the Edinburgh Marathon route in but like I was saying, me, Calvin and Dara, we settled first and we got lost. That was three guys that ran the marathon last year and all got lost. We weren't really supposed to be honest with each other. He went on the coastal road at the lagoons at Musselburgh despite knowing. We've run that route a few times training and I think he ended up going down there just by habit. Do you want to know what it is? I think because me, Dara and Calvin were just having a chat and we just got lost in the moment. We could have been that adjacent but it was a bit of a red face afterwards when people were going a bit slower and I was not as spicy should we say. Maybe you shouldn't have done Ultrather Mountains. The less spicy of runners actually beat us to Copenzie so that was a bit of a red face when we got there. It was a really good day and I really enjoyed it. On the way back to the run, me, Calvin bumped into Emily and we just took the rest of the course. It was good, we enjoyed it. Maybe this is a good time for you to clarify what your name actually is. I think in the introduction Bob covered that but yes it's definitely not Abbie. Calvin's been called about six times on the course to correct him. I'm sorry about that, Abbie. To be fair, when I first met Jase at the Willow Forest 15 we were talking, I think you'd just done the race and I was like, Abbie's a speedster, and you were like did he call him that? It's when he's running over the finish line and they're like, here comes Abbie! You can just tell that he's like PB but he's pissed off at that. I can get used to that though. Going back towards Portobello, Jase, I'll let you cover because we might go back and have a wee bit of chat afterwards. There was a few years, Jase, did you have a bit of a dip? It was actually really good. It was really nice that everybody kind of waited in and everybody coming back I think as well. I've been to some of these things sometimes, but sometimes you'd have these things that you'd go back and people would just start getting pizza because we'd organised the discount with Severino's. Everybody waited on everybody until everybody was back and finished. Then we'd see who was going for a wee jump in the sea and I think maybe Ken Ayers or something went in the sea, jumped in, got a nice wee dip, sorted the legs out, were in there for five or six minutes and then we got pizza and mozzarella dip bars and chips and everything and we all just sat at the top of benches and we had a chat for maybe about an hour. It was a good day. It was good weather with everybody and then we got up the road I think. That was about nine o'clock we met everybody and then we left at half two. It was a full day kind of thing, but it was really good. I think we'll probably touch on it more with Emily when she's on eventually, but I think there's an early chat about the end of July having a wee event. You're going to be through Emily and then we run maybe 10k or something and some pizza and things afterwards so we'll cover that more when we have a guaranteed definitive date. I was going to ask Steve, when it comes to that whole thing, Donald, you just, and Emily, does that take a lot of your time to organise that? People just turn up, you just run and you think oh I've just turned up and I've just run but obviously behind the scenes there's obviously a lot of... I think because in that instance there, because it's set out like it's just on a public space, it's a beach and the route's the route, that doesn't take much time other than making your posts, trying to get visible to people. I came out of that group and organised a couple of teams for years and tech people, book pitches, stuff like that so to me it's no that bigger thing. If you start doing like Ryan's on the route, that would be an effort. You have to communicate, you have to organise people, you have to organise the venues and things like that. Get money for people for tickets and things then that would be difficult but something like a Saturday where you've already got a good model in place for what Ryan's been in Glasgow anyway, then it does kind of just transfer over because all the people are doing the same thing and they know how it works. It's worth anything that I've done in the last couple of weeks to organise that. It was worth what I got out on Saturday anyway in terms of meeting a few new people that I hadn't met, getting a wee run in with people and a wee dip in the sea because I like a wee dip in the sea but it's hard to get people to come down and chum you down and it's difficult at times to go in by yourself because it's like you're in for five minutes and you went all the way down there for that. But nah, 100 per cent, I had a great wee day and going by everybody else, they had a good day as well. Chances are as well, because those people have been to that, if there's another one they'll maybe say to a couple of their pals. Do you see what happened with Ryan when he's done his Glasgow runs it was like a wee group and then they said to their pals to their pals and then the last one that just like... That's how it went. Jason, what's Alex's run club? This Girl Runs Club. So Alex, she came up with the boarders and she was in the next time we come up she'll bring a couple of girls and then you had the wee Emily over at the United Milds over in Fife. Same thing with Fife, she was like next time you have something last year I'm going to bring the group over so it'll be growing going forward like you definitely could do it again. Don't wait because those clubs as well, if they ever have one, do you fancy anybody coming down or does anybody fancy coming over? I think the thing that me and Aby find in Edinburgh especially there's not much an appetite for the social runs. We've done the Brewdog Run Club and we were struggling to get maybe five, six people some weeks. Whereas through West there seemed to be much more of a thing for people to run together and enjoy it. So I was also grateful for everybody coming through like 100%. As Aby said there were people that came from different sections, Fife, Glasgow, whatever. It was brilliant and I did have a really good day. Edinburgh runners said West is best. I think it was Peter Jones There was a young laddy, I think his name was Jay, Jason. He came through and he wrote to Niles with Emily. He had a policy that everyone in his life was 10k last week and he barred the half marathon. That just shows you when you're running with people having a chat and you forget any resistance you're doing. It was brilliant. The laddy was chuffed when he came back. I like hearing that. Jason, is there not a big club in Edinburgh that that social run at? Sorry, you've got EH3 who are very well organised and established. They have runs on the majority of the nights of the week, I think. It's difficult for anybody starting to get that. The numbers at EH3 that I always get are fairly decent. You're talking about the 40k runs, the Wednesday runs and the Sunday runs. It's more than anything special. I don't think out in the Navy's friendship group with Instagram and running, I don't think anybody really runs to an extent, either. That's why we gravitate towards the west side more so. For our personalities, in terms of the people we want to be involved and run with, we're more suited to Newton. I've had a conversation with a few people about this in terms of the afters of a race, but you'll be okay on your own. I went all the way to the fourth, before it. If I was in Newton, that would have been a different experience for me, that whole race. Because of the before bit, meeting up with everybody, meeting up with you, before it as well. It's not something I would see us being able to have in Edinburgh. Have you joined any of the actual running clubs here? No. I joined a running club in Edinburgh before, for a good few weeks. You finished your run and nobody spoke to you. There was no chat whatsoever. It was the most awkward I've ever felt in my life. That's why we gravitate to the guys through the west, because it's not the same to be away playing. I might get a chance to travel through, if you guys like a bit of tourism and parkrun tourism. Me and Jason have mentioned this, I think we'll go through on Monday night. We're going to come through on Monday, Tuesday night in the training sessions, but in terms of parkrun tourism, definitely want to get that organised. What have we got coming up? Well, recently they had Troon. Ryan and Alison had them all organised, about 20 people. I went through with the yellow, but it's mostly pink t-shirts you see with that crowd just now. Everyone's got the pink one. I've not got one yet. I need to get one. What a hard commodity to get. I think this will do it again. In terms of parkrun, I'm not a massive parkrun guy. I think mostly out of guilt, because I can't really commit to the parkrun time. I feel guilty if I can't commit to an hour or whatever to hang about for, whether it's tail walking or marshalling and that kind of thing. I feel guilty if I'm going every week, so I just dip in and out sometimes. I know, Jason, you like a good parkrun. I like a wee parkrun, mate, aye. I don't know if you guys do much of the parkruns. I've never done a parkrun, ever. I've got one about a mile down the road. It actually starts a mile down the parkrun, and I just never done it, eh. I usually have a bit of time for them running when I'm out in my other one just to run beside them and just run a bit. There are actually a few around this area, even though it's also further out up north of Dundee, but just with work and having my son and dad with him, just time-wise it doesn't really work. I've done a few of these, guys. I think for me, parkrun, going back to what we were saying about the Scottish 5K Challenge being a measurement every year, your progress on it. When I first started running, that was how I got into it, by going to parkrun. I think just the way that I'm wired, in terms of seeing the progress with the numbers, that was an easy chance to go over the second weekend and see, this is where I am, and keep on going from there. It also lets you meet new people, and I think, again, the aspect of running in a group, because as much as you're not in an actual group yourself, you're running with people, not a race. It's a run, but I treat it as a race, obviously, because that's who I am. I would say to anybody that's trying to get into running, I would always say to them to go to parkrun. I think the quicker you go to one, sometimes people can build up and go, oh, I'm not fast enough or I'm not a good enough runner to go to parkrun. That's obviously not the case. Parkrun is for everybody, as much as they say it is. I think I'm going to try and get to one of the press play or two, maybe the press play, two of them. I'll do one on my birthday in August, so I'll see if I can get that one. I can't remember who the next one is. We've got one on the 25th of May in Greenock, which would be quite a good one for an EMS shakeout run. Which would tie us up nicely to our next episode if we don't get cancelled on this one. You should definitely look around the upper seat, Jason. It's going to be good if you go through there. I've not got to run around the upper seat, mate. I think the fall part of it is meant to be quite tough. It's got a heartbreak hill. It's basically you run up a hill, then you obviously get to run down it but then you run back up a big speedpill as well. Heartbreak hill. Yesterday that was a bit of a buggy. It's meant to be quite a challenging one. I think Tourism on the 25th would be good, especially for us trying to, well for me anyway, to do a wee shakeout because I'll be rammed with the 5k and the 10k going on on the Saturday morning. Although I did go down there and watch them last year, it was actually good just to get into the swing of it and enjoy the environment. So the plan for the next episode, I think we're going for the 19th of May for an EMF preview. 19th of May with a special guest, our first special guest. Yes. Emily Jackson is going to come on and chat the ears off us. I'm looking forward to that. It's an indeed episode. I will be. She's great. So far this is the first time I've met Emily, she's crazy. Crazy in person. What a laugh. It seems like that. Sorry? It seems like that. I didn't get that through her social media. I thought she was going to be this wee chilled thing. She is bonkers. But one thing I'll say about her the amount of people that recognised her in Edinburgh on Saturday was many people recognised her between me and Jason. There's no half Edinburgh. Took my line away. So we're going to talk about all things Edinburgh half, Edinburgh full marathon. We'll talk about our experiences of running it before. We'll talk about what our plans are for running it this year and what we think of the course and how it's run. Here's all your predicted times. I was going to say, are we doing our predicted times yet there? Are we making our Are we doing our predicted times yet there? Are we making our What's your predicted times? We're here for good times, not good times guys. It's a lot of things. What can you say? I think we'll have to be realistic and all say what times we think we want to go for. That's it. What have you got there? Maybe run slow? Maybe C20 or something? C20, right? Maybe cheaper for them but I think I could run comfortably at C20. Well, if I achieve around 250, I would hope so. But now that I know I'm in the right pen and it's getting closer to it, obviously my feet are getting itchy, I'm not going to lie. Mate, there's no more chance in hell that you're going to start running and you're going to see somebody that's running at your pace that you think is capable of and go, right, I'll just run 440 before the GACE. There's no chance. You'll be up there. I'll tackle it there though. I'll tackle it there though. I'm going to show you my body shields over the next couple of days. We've heard all this before. You said exactly the same thing at Manchester and then you fucking win. I know, but I blew up mate. I've obviously come over all my chest infections and things like that. So we'll see how it goes over the next week. I've got a feeling I can do it. I've obviously got to do it. I went every race. I was on a parking lot Saturday. I came 5th and I was gutted that I came 5th. Do you know what I mean? Are you planning on a sunbed ban the week before EMF? I've got a 60 minute bloat booking yesterday so that should save me towels. Just make sure we're using stand-ups. Then I won't have to pee. Stand-ups, hold on. That was embarrassing, eh? That's shocking. Can we get a bit of context on that for anybody who doesn't know what we're actually speaking about? Was anyone in jokes? On what happened? What happened prior to Manchester? I went for a wee 9 minute holiday. I chose to go for a wee lie-down one instead of a stand-up one. As I was closing the lid door of the sunbed, something huffed in my ribs. What happened after that? There was a little bit of scream, a little bit of noise. You're holding back. What's that? I'm looking forward to a silver phone marathon. I think it'll be good. We'll do it. We need timers and targets for the next one. Sorry? Target. Zone 2 is the only target we need now. So spicy, run. What's your favourite spice? Cumin. Cumin. Mine's paprika. This chat, I think, is taking us towards the end of this, I think. So I would like to thank Jimmy, Aby, Mike and Jase for joining me and also the three people that will be listening to this. Thanks for that. If you have enjoyed it, like, subscribe, share, all that good stuff and you will see us again on the 19th of May for our BMS preview show. Any guys got anything else to add to it? I don't know why Jimmy's name's spelt wrong. He's a schoolteacher, they think that's a ruse when you use your username like that. Rob, just a quick one before we go by. You're going to give somebody a bit of a bug here, right? I had a t-shirt on last night ready for a Dare to Change at a West Lothian company. They've got Royal Airborne and stuff coming out. They've got a competition going on their page just now, so guys, if you want to have a look at it, it's honestly top tier stuff, so I'd be sure to share and follow, guys. So actually, to follow on from that, is it the Dare to Challenge one? Yeah, to change. Aye, so it's actually quite a cool idea, so you link it to your Strava, link your exercise and a crew miles through walking, running or cycling. You go on a leaderboard and the higher up the points you accrue, the bigger the discount you get for purchasing stuff for the site. You'd be the champ. I'm talking about that just now, and they kindly sent me a t-shirt. Honestly, I'm not just saying that, it's top tier. The quality is unbelievable. It's top tier when you're in insurance and resting up at the top of the leaderboard. Which is why you wouldn't be resting up. I said that in the chat, that's why you wouldn't be resting up because there was a girl, I think, three miles behind you. Aye, yeah. She was tracking our walks, and I started tracking my walks through the station in the morning. Oh, is that why you were doing that? Of course it was. I thought you were recording your walks through the train station. Exactly, because I clocked that she was there. I said, you know, that's every day a couple of miles a week for me. He's walking his mobile dog and everything. It's quite a cool idea. Aye, it's brilliant. Fair play to the guy on the team over there doing that. They were sending me as well, obviously getting me up to the boys and that and heating the marathon as well. We'll see how it goes. So that's dare to change. Dare to change on Instagram, aye. Don't bother. We'll put a link in the description for them, as they say. So, yeah, thanks everyone. Thanks guys for joining us on this first episode. We've finally got through it. I don't know what it says here. I don't know what it says here. Thank you, Jess, for turning up. Thank you. Thanks, Jimmy, for turning his lights on. Thanks for being here on the open place. Where were you in Turkey? Sorry? Did you go to Turkey? The best thing is not to brush your teeth, eh, but that's what happens when you do. There we go. Look after yourselves, guys. Right. See you later. Thank you. Cheers, boys.