Business of Endurance

Part 3: Season 6 Wrap Up

• Charlie Reading • Season 6 • Episode 14

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In the final episode of season six of The Business of Endurance, hosts Charlie Redding and Claire Fudge reflect on the standout moments and key takeaways from a memorable season. They discuss inspiring interviews with guests like Nick Kershaw of Impact Marathons, Olympic swimmer Steve Parry, and world record holder Nick Butter. Each guest's unique stories, from community-focused marathon events to pivotal life lessons from sports, offer deep insights into endurance, business, and life. Looking forward, the hosts hint at exciting guests for season seven, including renowned figures in endurance sports and nutrition.

Highlights:

  • Nick Kershaw's Impact Marathons.
  • Steve Parry's swimming and business lessons.
  • Nick Butter running a marathon in every country.

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This episode was sponsored by The Trusted Team and 4th Discipline

This episode was sponsored by The Trusted Team and 4th Discipline

Speaker 2:

I'm Charlie Redding and I'm Claire Fudge.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Business of Endurance. We have come to the end of season six of the podcast and I think it's been a brilliant, brilliant season of episodes. We've had some incredible guests on there, and what I'd love to do is spend a bit of time just going through and looking at the sound bites and the key takeaways from each of those episodes. Ok, so let's have a catch up on the Nick Kershaw episode, who the creator of Impact Marathons. Claire, what did you make of that interview with Nick?

Speaker 2:

I want to go and do an Impact Marathon, as many of our guests make us feel. We probably have now a massive bucket list of things to do. I loved his story, but I particularly really love the idea of what he's doing so what the business does, of what he's doing so what the what the business does and to be able for you know, for you to be able to go out to different areas of the world and places that you really wouldn't think about traveling to. I think that really hit home in terms of going to Korea, wasn't he? In terms of doing some, doing some marathons. So, if you haven't looked, go and have a look and see where they do some of these marathons.

Speaker 2:

But you know, helping the local communities it's not just about chasing a time. In fact, it wasn't anything about chasing a time. You know the fact it was actually going out and helping communities and then going, having fun and running after all that's. You know, that's also what it's about. So, um, for me it was. It was, yeah, it was an exciting way to be able to give back but also enjoy running and meet a new group of people as well yeah, I agree, I thought it was, uh, it sounded inspiring.

Speaker 1:

It's definitely one for my bucket list. I I particularly like the idea of the guatemala one, where you're where you're, you know you're doing your work for the community, but then you go off and run around the volcano and also the one in Nepal. I mean, just what amazing places to go to, but also to really sort of become part of the community, help the community, but build a community within the group of runners as well, and then finish off the work with a run that is never going to be a fast run, but just a really brilliant emotional journey. So, yeah, let's listen to a snippet from Nick Kershaw of Impact Marathons.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I don't know something about. It Just felt like everyone's going to donate tonight and we're going to hit a good total but no one's going to really remember that they did that. When you donate to a friend running London Marathon or whatever, you usually forget a few weeks later. It's that, and then you never see that the journey, that money goes on, the impact and the good it does. So I just told everyone that night I, you know, donate and come out to Uganda and see the work you've done, because I think it adds so much value in one's life to actually understand that the impact that we've made. And then I just quit to the you know. In that same line and I don't remember making the script and the video shows that I did like when you do, we're going to run a marathon. And then at the end people came up to me like what's the marathon plan? There was no marathon plan and six weeks later at the uganda embassy launching the uganda marathon, that was 2014, 2015, so the arriving country we've built a pop-up athletes village.

Speaker 3:

We call it sort of I don't want to call it glamping, because that gives you connotations of bell tents and inflatable beds and generally disappointing and a bit more, just sort of yeah, we'll use safari tents, we'll put beds in there, it's nice and comfortable, but it's not wow, it's not amazing, but the views are always spectacular. So it's got to have that element of wow where am I? And then it's got to have that element of really engaging the community on a high level. It's very easy to put on simple volunteer projects where we pat ourselves on the back and go cool, we've done great and you move on. But where I've always been obsessed is like how do you genuinely engage all of the participants and the community around a single project? So the first event we did as impact marathon in nepal was building the five kilometer water pipeline. We had 120 runners, you had 120 villages, almost as many pickaxes, and we built a five kilometer water pipeline that brought waters to the village all year round. And that element of that single big project was almost too perfect, almost too amazing. It was such a powerful and amazing project that I always felt, like every new location, we can do the same thing, we can do that, but it's actually so hard to find a project that's fully community-led, truly impactful and that can engage everybody for two or three days in a remote location. So now we spend a bit more time with the community, learning and listening and understanding and engaging on a different level, and we found that that actually creates a more powerful impact on both sides.

Speaker 3:

So we always eat together. That's an important part and I think it's really special because sitting down and eating together and eating local produce all of that is such an important part of I think it's really special because they're sitting down and eating together and eating local produce. All of that is such an important part, the narrative around this community. And so we did, and it was really special to have, you know, 150 people all eating together. It's really like that bars and energy. So, as with before, every race is slightly different.

Speaker 3:

Nepal it's all community members that are making the food. I think this year it was sort of 70 percent of the food was from the village itself and about 30% we brought up from Kathmandu, but nothing was imported. There's a story around that as well. In terms of eating local produce. Jordan, very similar. I mean the Green in the Desert project was one of the best meals I've ever had in my entire life. I mean it's extraordinary because all of it has grown and they're just mind-blowingly good food. So that's a narrative.

Speaker 3:

There's always a narrative, and last year in Jordan, the year before, some of the work we were doing was in a Palestinian refugee camp, and there's obviously right now especially, there's a huge amount of narratives and anger and emotions around those stories.

Speaker 3:

And actually one of the most powerful ways you can ever tell a story is by sitting down and eating the food of that culture. And it's a bit like when you do those multi-days the mountain bits arms and he's got a tent and you've got, but you've got some food there, so you're not carrying everything, but we are looking. We're literally discussing it just before I came over that's why I was sprinting across london bridge to get here of whether we do a almost a raw package where it's like cool, you're carrying everything and you're setting up, but you just got a guide with you, or if you actually want to arrive into you know, if you look at Annapurna Circus a good example where there's tea houses, no point camping, you've got tea houses. Let's not be silly about this, have a bed, but then there will be more remote locations where that's going to be the only option.

Speaker 1:

So again, an amazing episode from season six featured Steve Parry, who was the incredible Olympic swimmer. What did you make of the conversation with Steve Parry, claire?

Speaker 2:

It was a really great story that he told right at the very beginning, but I'll leave you to delve into that a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

But you know, one of the things I really felt very passionate about from what he was talking about is that you know children learning to swim shouldn't be just something that you know some of us are able to be able to do, that it should actually be open to everybody that you know you should learn to swim, and I think that was really highlighted in his story and how he got, how he got into swimming as well.

Speaker 2:

But also, you know it did really make me think and has made me think how many pools are closing. You know how many facilities you know in a, in a local town or in a city are available for children to be able to swim. So I think him being able to create a company that is teaching people to swim. And also, you know, from a nutrition perspective and having worked in childhood obesity, you know the rise of, you know, not only adults but children being really, you know, overweight and having lots of metabolic diseases and problems really early on in their years and to be able to get into some sort of sport and be active, I think, is really, really important. So I absolutely love what he's doing, as well as his story.

Speaker 1:

I love this story, so obviously I know Steve through some business coaching that we do together.

Speaker 1:

It was brilliant to be able to sit and listen to him tell that story.

Speaker 1:

It's just a phenomenal story in terms of where he fell in the swimming journey and swimming cycle and being the first medalist for ages, but also to be racing with that young Michael Phelps I think it's just brilliant.

Speaker 1:

There's so much inspiration there and also his learnings from previous failures was a brilliant piece. The final thing I loved about the conversation with Steve, which kind of summarizes the whole Business of Endurance podcast, is the fact that there's so many business takeaways and business lessons and I know we talked about it with Steve in particular but there's so many life and business lessons from the world of sport and we took some brilliant ones there. Whether it's goal setting, whether it's habits, whether it's growth mindset, whether it's marginal gains, all of these different things are brilliant takeaways from what sport do and how we can improve our business, and I think that that was a fascinating part of that conversation and, particularly if you run your own business, I'd go back and listen to the episode that we did with Steve Parry Now. For now, let's just listen to a snippet and a bit of a catch-up of that episode.

Speaker 4:

My best opportunity of winning a medal at the Olympics should have been when I was 23 years of age, four years earlier in Sydney. And we not only myself but the whole team we had an absolute disaster. We came home in shame really the British team, swimming team from Sydney because we got no medals. That was the first time that had happened in a long time. So there was a lot of pain that came with that experience being being part of that team. But then it was doubly so personally because I'd actually traveled to America earlier in the year because I knew that the favorite to win in Sydney was a guy called Tom Marchant. I actually targeted him. I went over to Minneapolis to race them in the US Open and little did I know that a 15-year-old, michael Phelps, would be there just emerging. I actually spoke to him in the swim down pool. He had a teeth full of metal. He looked like he was. He just looked like the local school nerd. You know, that's what I would have called him back back in the day.

Speaker 4:

So maybe slightly controversial, charlie, but I don't believe that a goal is a goal unless it's written down. It's just a dream. Otherwise it's just something that you think about often and I'll give you some examples. To the day to today, 20 years after going to the Olympic Games, my pin code on my credit cards and debit cards is the exact time that I wanted to go at the Olympics. I've had had the same pin code for 25 years, five years prior to the Olympics and then, cause I'm lazy, 20 years after, so the my pin code every time I would go and get money out the cash point. We don't do that so much anymore, but over any time we buy something I would have in there and I've changed it, by the way, but I don't mind telling you the number. It was about five to two, 35 seconds, 2200 to a second. So I'm pre-programming my mind to the exact time that I want to be able to do.

Speaker 4:

Torval and Dean they're still famous from winning a gold medal 40 years ago. That's because they were the only ones. Now we produce 19 or 20 Olympic gold medalists every time. You can't. You'd be lucky if you could name six of them. Do you think that's set to continue? No, because, like all things in life, we get bored and we don't know how good we've had it and people just move on to the next thing. They feel like they've done their bit and my fear is we in the next couple of Olympic cycles. And it's been very good. Don't get me wrong. It's been nearly 30 years since we started investing in sport, but you can feel the mood changing okay, and then, to finish off season six, we had the brilliant interview with nick butter.

Speaker 1:

What an inspirational guy. Just, uh, like bonkers runner, but lovely, lovely guy with an amazing heart. So what did you get out of the interview with Nick Butterclay?

Speaker 2:

Every adventure starts with a marathon to sub. That's what I'm learning, and why have we not done the marathon to sub Charlie? Because that is what needs to be on the list. Seriously, we interview quite a few people who do ultra running, but I think his story is incredible as 11 times world times world record holder. You know he's an author, he runs running camps, but I think the story that he, you know, gave us a little bit of insight into of running. Was it a run in every country across the world? Is that correct?

Speaker 1:

A marathon in every country.

Speaker 2:

Which is just mind boggling, isn't it Like, how do you even start to organise something like that? And I think that came out in his interview with us like, well, how do you actually do that and what happens? And I think he found out a lot of this along the way, didn't he Of? Actually, how do you do it? So you know, absolutely amazing to hear his stories and you know some stories that were kind of near near death stories of being held at gunpoint and attacked by dogs and all sorts. What did you take away from his interview?

Speaker 1:

firstly, it's inspiring as to what got him into it, isn't it? Obviously the um, the prostate cancer of his friend that he met at marathon des sabres, the kind of the, the, what ignited his passion and drive to do things, uh, to raise money for, for that amazing cause, uh. So that was an inspiring story and I suppose, gave him his why, which is you know why he's gone off and done all of this incredible stuff. I think it was inspirational in terms of what he did, from running a marathon in every country of the world. But what also really made me think was, uh, you know, when we've chatted to people like mark beaumont, who's cycled around the world, if there's a difficult country, a difficult visa problem, you most countries you can go around it. If you really don't want to go through that country, you go through a different one, but every country in the world.

Speaker 1:

And thinking, how on earth would you? I mean like, let's think, if we were doing that today, how would you do a marathon in the ukraine, feel safe? How would you do a marathon in, you know, like some of the South America countries, some of the Middle East countries? It's just like, how would you do that? That to me the logistics of that not just getting there, but the logistics of getting visas and everything else and doing it to a specific deadline was incredible. And I think another thing to add to the bucket list is to do one of his run weekends. I think the run weekends whether it's in the kind of crazy far-flung places like I'm sure it was a Yemen island that he was talking about doing one on, what a brilliant like adventure to do, uh, we just the problem is we need more weekends or you need more weeks, more more than 24 hours in the day.

Speaker 1:

I think is is what we need for all of the things that we've added to our bucket list this season, but it was a brilliant episode to close out season six on uh. So let's have a listen to a snippet from Nick Butter.

Speaker 5:

I decided to google has anybody run a marathon in every country in the world? And that was the moment. And I think, as soon as you realize, nobody has. And then everybody that knows me will know I'm very much all or nothing beyond belief. I'm all or nothing in every way. And I just said at that moment I thought, yeah, I'm going to do that. And I sat my parents down and said my brother as well, actually, and so I think I'm going to do this. I'm a brother as well, actually, and so I'm going to. I think I'm going to do this. I'm going to run a marathon in every country in the world. And they said, well, how many countries are there? I said, I don't know, but I'm going to go do it.

Speaker 5:

And it was that moment they knew I was deadly serious and they also knew that I had no idea how to do it, but it would be achieved. And I think I genuinely think in that moment they knew it would happen. We just knew that it was a long road to get there. And that was the start of two years of planning to try and set this record. Do something that nobody had done. Raise a load of money for charity, of which we're up to around £2 million overall for various different causes, and it sparked my own running business, my own charity, numerous other world records and obviously I had an absolute blast in the meantime. It wasn't without its struggles, but it was that conversation with Kath that started it all.

Speaker 1:

It's an absolutely brilliant story. So I can liken this to one of the stories I've told a bit, since I had Mark Bowman on the podcast when he stuck around the world yeah, when he did it unsupported, and then he went back and did it supported Absolutely brilliant stories. What was amazing was the fact that both times he said I'm going to come in at this time and finish it at this time. You know, when that was 80 days and he came in in 78 and a half days, you think, well, okay, there was more planning, there was more precision with that, but when it was unsupported he still came in unbelievably close to the number of days he set out at the outset on average just over 12 hours a day running.

Speaker 5:

The weather was brutal. I went deaf at one point because of apart from all the other other injuries I had, I went deaf because of the wind. We had horrendous wind on the east coast and my very good friend andy who needs as much credit and as his name up in lights he made everything possible. He was driving in my support van, he cooked my meals, he woke me up in the morning, he tucked me in at night. Literally he did everything for me on the road and he managed to fashion. We tried earplugs, we tried everything because this wind noise.

Speaker 5:

Two and a half weeks on the east coast, horrendously strong winds. I had a news article pop up on that day that he made these these things to go over my ears. That popped up that said it was the biggest day in british history for wind energy and I was like, yeah, it was absolutely horrendous anyway. Yeah, he made me these. He cut some brillo pads in two and then cut his exercise bands in two and strapped these brillo pads with ear buds, everything, just so I can. And I went. I was fully, you know, fully, fully deaf for about, I'll say 80, 85% deaf for about a day it was horrible, and then obviously my hearing came back. I think my brain had just shut off the noise.

Speaker 1:

So, as we look towards season seven of the business of endurance podcast, we have got some absolute treats in store for you. We're still working behind the scenes to put it all together, but I can already tell you we have some incredible guests lined up for this season. Without naming any names, let's keep the intrigue running. But without naming any names, give me somebody that we've got lined up for season seven of the business of endurance podcast that you're really looking forward to uh, interviewing, and why oh well, where to start?

Speaker 2:

because this is going to be awesome, building on awesome. But it's going to be awesome and I'm really excited like personally really excited about a couple of these, because these are people that talk, live and breathe nutrition. So not to give too much away, certainly, one of our guests that's coming on is an author of very, very well known books around nutrition and racing. He's a coach, he runs camps, training camps, so I am super excited to talk to him about sort of you know where he's come from, how he got into what he's doing and kind of how his thoughts may have changed over those years around nutrition as science moves on.

Speaker 1:

that reminds me of another guest that we've got lined up, which is again another incredible author an author of one of my favorite endurance books of all time and it's somebody I've wanted to get onto this podcast for a while, and I'm delighted that we've now got this lined up because I think the takeaways from this particular guest are going to be absolutely incredible. Certainly, when I read the book that this person wrote, it totally changed my thinking around the world of endurance sport and particularly the psychology around endurance sport, so I know for a fact that that is going to be an awesome episode. Who else are you excited about?

Speaker 2:

I am excited about somebody that I actually have been lucky enough to work with and know about some new technology and really sort of forward thinking engineering when it comes to the world of triathlon and bikes. So I think that's going to be a really exciting interview and I think really is going to draw on the world of endurance and business. So I think that's going to be definitely an episode for us to to listen in and we all know that the right number of bikes is n plus one.

Speaker 1:

So therefore, that is going to be an exciting episode for sure. I am also really excited about one of the uh one of the guests we got lined up, which is one of the most iconic names from the world of ultra running, and just I don't know that there's that many ultra running names that are more well recognized than this particular one. So I have no doubt that that is going to be an incredible episode that we can learn loads from, so I'm really excited about that. What about any others that spring to mind for you, claire? Any any more?

Speaker 2:

oh, there are just so many who do. Who do we choose from? Somebody who definitely has? Again, we're really lucky to get them on the podcast because they are a rising star in the world of uh 70.3 triathlon, so I would absolutely love to interview this person. I can't wait for us to interview him and find out about where has he come from, because he has just sprung to the forefront of triathlon, so that is going to be super exciting brilliant, and the last ones I'm going to keep leave people where there's actually, I think there's two that particularly stand out for me.

Speaker 1:

One is a couple, a couple of triathlon. I always think it's really interesting when you talk to couples, where they've both got that same dynamic around understanding the world of triathlon but also understanding the world of professional sport in triathlon. So that, to me, is going to be a fascinating conversation. And then we've got a brilliant coach, a really well-respected coach that not only is hugely respected in the world of triathlon but also in the world of business coaching as well. So there will be loads to take away from that episode, I have no doubt and there's others. That's just a few to get the taste buds tingling, but I have zero doubt that this is going to be a fantastic series of the Business of Endurance podcast. So watch this space, keep listening.

Speaker 1:

If you don't already follow or subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform it is that you listen to it on normally, then please do so that you don't miss one of these incredible episodes. It also helps us get better and better guests, as hopefully you can see we've achieved in season six. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears at the ready for season seven of the business of endurance podcast. If you want us to keep getting amazing guests onto the business of endurance podcast, we don't ask for you to pay for us, we don't ask for patronage. All we ask for is that you subscribe to the podcast, ideally on apple. Give us a five star rating because it shows us you care and if you've got time, leave us a comment. One word is fine, something like inspiring or amazing or something like that, but we really do appreciate it and it will help us to continue to deliver amazing guests on what we hope you find to be an amazing podcast. Thanks very much.