Ever wondered how the roar of a crowd or a cheerleader's chant could coax your weary legs across a marathon finish line? I'm living proof of that force, powered through the London Marathon by the electrifying support from Macmillan and St John Ambulance's cheering squads. This episode is a testament to the incredible strength we find in the kindness of strangers and the shared human spirit that propels us forward. My co-host Valerio, whom I fondly call the accidental half-marathoner, chimes in with his own tale of transition from Peloton pedals to pavement pounding—sparked by a fortuitous discussion at an Indian wedding no less!
Lacing up their running shoes, Valerio and I guide you through the intricate dance of discipline and resilience, both of which crisscross the paths of marathon running and entrepreneurship. While I recount the myriad of challenges faced during marathon training—from injury management to the psychological warfare on race day—Valerio reflects on his own journey of habit formation and the surprising allure (and expenses!) of running. It's a conversation that goes beyond the miles, touching on the parallels between the grueling and often solitary miles of marathon prep and the equally relentless journey of building a business from the ground up.
We wrap up the episode with a deeper look at the power of discipline. Valerio shares an inspiring story about facing and overcoming the hurdles thrown our way, whether it’s the financial pinch of running gear or the unexpected extra mile that tests our mental fortitude. Our dialogues weave through personal anecdotes and advice, offering a blend of laughter, encouragement, and raw insight into the transformative journey of marathon running and the relentless pursuit of one's passions. So hit play and join us on this marathon of an episode—because whether you're running a race or chasing a dream, it's the discipline that takes you across the finish line.
Ever wondered how the roar of a crowd or a cheerleader's chant could coax your weary legs across a marathon finish line? I'm living proof of that force, powered through the London Marathon by the electrifying support from Macmillan and St John Ambulance's cheering squads. This episode is a testament to the incredible strength we find in the kindness of strangers and the shared human spirit that propels us forward. My co-host Valerio, whom I fondly call the accidental half-marathoner, chimes in with his own tale of transition from Peloton pedals to pavement pounding—sparked by a fortuitous discussion at an Indian wedding no less!
Lacing up their running shoes, Valerio and I guide you through the intricate dance of discipline and resilience, both of which crisscross the paths of marathon running and entrepreneurship. While I recount the myriad of challenges faced during marathon training—from injury management to the psychological warfare on race day—Valerio reflects on his own journey of habit formation and the surprising allure (and expenses!) of running. It's a conversation that goes beyond the miles, touching on the parallels between the grueling and often solitary miles of marathon prep and the equally relentless journey of building a business from the ground up.
We wrap up the episode with a deeper look at the power of discipline. Valerio shares an inspiring story about facing and overcoming the hurdles thrown our way, whether it’s the financial pinch of running gear or the unexpected extra mile that tests our mental fortitude. Our dialogues weave through personal anecdotes and advice, offering a blend of laughter, encouragement, and raw insight into the transformative journey of marathon running and the relentless pursuit of one's passions. So hit play and join us on this marathon of an episode—because whether you're running a race or chasing a dream, it's the discipline that takes you across the finish line.
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Speaker 1:
It's really funny, right? Because my legs are recovered and I feel like I was fine, but every day there was a different part of my body that aches. So the day after the marathon I was kind of fine. I felt like I'd gone for a long run, but nothing like too bad. The day after that there was like a whole new, different set of muscles that started hurting. I was like, ok, that's weird muscles that started hurting. I was like, okay, that's weird. Yesterday I was okay, ish, but I felt like my achilles was a little bit tight. And today, again like my achilles feels tight, but it's like I wasn't feeling. It wasn't feeling tight after the marathon or during the marathon. So it's a bit like what's this delayed feeling of the body?
Speaker 2:
I've no, I got no idea are you scared of what's next because you're like, wait what isn't fine, but pretending to be fine while it's not? Is that like the adrenaline wearing off over a long slow burn or something? Or oh, I'll tell you what right.
Speaker 1:
So this was interesting. So I was. I was running for charity, right. So what happens at the marathon is that if you run for charity, if you're lucky, there'll be two, three, four points across the marathon where there'll be a cheering group of volunteers. Now, macmillan, they are incredible at doing it because you know they are bright, green and they must have had about four or five different cheering points and it's not just like a couple of people, they've got like 20, 30 people per cheering point, like really outstanding. And then there was St St John Ambulance. Uh, the cheering. I think there was like two, three cheering points maybe.
Speaker 1:
But because I was wearing I was wearing the t-shirt, but on top of the t-shirt I had a what they call a hydration pack. So it's a little bit like a bag that kind of covers up your t-shirt. And I mean the St John's T-shirt is not quite like the other charities. You know, some of them are really bright color, like I mentioned, macmillan, some of them were like bright orange. The St John one is nice, but it's like a white background and then it's got like this textured yellow and green stripes which is like part of the corporate theme. And because I had my bag on top of it.
Speaker 1:
I reckon it was a little bit hard to see who I was running for. So, the first couple of um, of, uh, checkpoints or not checkpoints, the first couple of cheering points, I kind of went and no one really noticed me and I was like, oh man, that sucks, like I'm running and like no one is cheering for me. But when I got to the last one I think it must have been mile 22, 23 it was basically like the part that was leading on to um westminster. So ahead of me there was westminster. On my left hand side it was like the river thames, so you know it was.
Speaker 1:
It was not quite a nice location and I've noticed that that there was another cheering point. Because I saw the big banners I was like, okay, this time they're not going to miss me. So I start running and as I get closer to them with my hand, I'm waving up as to say I want to hear you, I want to hear you Take off my headphone properly and, honest to God, like I had the biggest cheer ever. But the really bizarre thing is, at that point in time I was really struggling. So my legs were feeling tired, the sole of my feet were hurting from the impact of the previous 22 miles and I was really feeling like my body was getting battered at that point. But at that point, as they started cheering and uh and screaming, I felt this rush of adrenaline go from my head to my toes and, honest to god, all the pain had gone. Wow, it was the weirdest thing ever.
Speaker 2:
Wow hello and welcome to the needle movers podcast, the podcast that brings to you the lessons, books and concepts we wish we'd known earlier on in our lives. This season season four, of course myself, mark satans and my co-host valeria tomasa have been talking about how we've been, oh well, our story of starting a company and all the failures and and lessons learned from that. On this episode, however, uh, valeria recently has completed the london marathon, so give him his kudos. Just give him some applause and for people that can't see me.
Speaker 2:
I am pumping my hands in there so what we're gonna do on this one is be a bit different and actually just see what the, the takeaways, the lessons, the, the journey he took to get there, but also the things he had to do and the mindset it took to like, achieve. So if you heard us talking earlier, you'd have heard how, just having at the last, what, the 22nd mile, having people cheer him on, the difference in the boost of adrenaline, and we're going to unpackage more of that. So, val, weirdly, because what you said was very interesting but I want to go back because I know this whole story of the. Okay, valerio, if you've heard our previous episodes, was a peloton cycle conifer, like this was his whole thing, but somewhere along the line he um had this. Well, did you tell us the story? You had this ambition to run right.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, it all started off at somebody's wedding, yeah.
Speaker 1:
I was talking to a relative and we're having a little chit chat during the wedding because, you know, it's an Indian wedding, so it's like a long ceremony and we started chit chatting a little bit. Then he turns around to me and says, oh, I'm running a half marathon in oxford now. This was, uh, the year before last, so maybe 2022. Um, I'm actually checking up, like whether to see it's 2022, because I've got the medal, uh, on the top left corner and, um, it was 2022. I can confirm that. And uh, I remember thinking that's kind of cool, I want to do that.
Speaker 1:
You know, I had probably run a most 10K up to that point. That was a long, long, long time ago. It's what they call a quarter marathon, but I never ran a half marathon. And he was running it and there was another relative as well, an uncle, that was running it. I was like this is kind of cool, like I want to be part of this. So I go off after the wedding and, uh, and I sent up to this half marathon. But it was kind of like random conversation sparked off the interest and I thought, why not, let me give it a try I love that.
Speaker 2:
Why not? Because, uh, what was just the inside? Like when valerio used to eat meat. We go to radizio Rico, which is a Brazilian, like all you can eat in terms of meat, and they go around serving food and this man, no matter what came, no matter how full we were, they'd be like would you like a slice of this? And this man would just be like why not? And the first time they said for the 28th time.
Speaker 1:
And we're like he's like, hey, why not? And it's funny because now they're exactly the same. When we have pizza at Gordon Ramsay's, they come around. Would you like another slice of pizza? No, why not?
Speaker 2:
So the fact that you chose to choose a half marathon and be like yeah, you know what? Why not? Makes so much sense to me.
Speaker 1:
It works, it works. But yeah, that's how Kamla started off and at that point in time I was very much on the Peloton High. I was following certain classes which I found useful because they allowed me to test how much I was improving over time on my fitness. So to me, having that numerical feedback mechanism was incredible. But now, moving to running half a marathon, it was a whole different ballgame because you're using different muscles, you don't really have that feedback mechanism anymore. You've got different ways of measuring yourself and it's different bag of cats.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but also the way I'm looking at it is you had a goal. So the first thing was you were like my goal is to run this half a marathon. And then the how is something you had to come up with. Funnily enough, after you signed up for it, she's like okay, this is going to take some I'm guessing training and let's not get to where you are now on the position. He's looking up at the medal and I know you have more than one, two, three, I don't know how many now medals this man has signed up for since two years. I'm just looking for them. I got seven for this first journey. This is like the journey that got you here. Then what was your driver like? How did like? How did that motivate you? Was the goal so strong and it was so like something you really wanted that it made sure that you were going to stay on the path to get there, or like, yeah, I think it was a bit of a challenge and, um, I was lacking a way because I wasn't starting from scratch.
Speaker 1:
Yes, running was, uh, using a different level of fitness, different muscles, different cardio level, etc. Running is harder than cycling to some extent, um, so there was. I really had the foundation of the habits. I think that's what really helped me. And because I really had the foundation of the habits, having a goal with a target, because I was actually raising some money for charity Not a lot, I think, it was like 200, 300 pounds or more, I think and having this kind of goal saying, hey, you know, I've got this money to raise.
Speaker 1:
I've got some people that I don't really want to disappoint because I told them that I would run and that kind of like sparked the, the initial uh, the initial interest and the initial um wanting to to stick to what I was doing. And because my foundation was already strong, because my habits were already in place, doing that transition from cycling to running and bearing in mind the objective that I had made that transition very smooth in a way. Uh, so I didn't struggle with uh, um, I know, I know we talked about a lot about habit formations in the past and how, when you are forming a new habit, you know, running in the morning, what you might want to do is, uh, put your kit on in the morning, put your shoes by your bed. You, you know you want to remove all the friction in the world actually. Actually, for me that friction or the level of friction wasn't there, so it made my transition from cycling to running quite easy in a way.
Speaker 2:
That's kind of funny. I forgot about habit formation for a second. But I kicked off gym and the way I made it basically knocking off all the barriers, making sure it's an easy habit was I just started sleeping in the clothes I was going to go to gym in so I'd wake up, brush my teeth. It works, yeah, because it just took away all the back. You don't have to get changed, you're just, I'm already ready that now it's just being there and so it does work and it's nice if you can have, like, not that barrier, because I feel like you. The thing was, from my understanding, you'd already been doing consistent cycling. Then you had to remove that as an option and swap it, but at least you had the consistency. You switched what you were going to work on and so you get into. I guess that's your. How many half marathons have you done now?
Speaker 1:
So I've done one, two, three, four, five half marathons, one 10K and one full marathon.
Speaker 2:
I, oh, fuck me, jesus Christ. And so wait, if it's only been two years, how many? Like what was the distribution? Were you doing one every two months or something, or?
Speaker 1:
one every. I definitely do two to three a year. So yeah, it's been two years. Yeah, that kind of Three years. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Wait, that means you're not done there, you just did the London Marriott.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I've got another 10K event in a couple of months and I've got a half marathon in October.
Speaker 2:
Do you think you're an addict to running?
Speaker 1:
I do think I'm addicted, yeah, and you know what's the worst part, right like it's not even a cheap sport, it's an expensive sport. It's expensive as hell because each event that you sign up to it's like 40 to 60 quid, no joke. And on top of that as well, every two to three months of running, depending on how much you run, you gotta change your shoes, and shoes are not cheap, for you know if, if you're running and you don't want to get injured or you want good shoes, you're looking at like 80 to 140 pounds a pair Not a cheap sport.
Speaker 2:
The funny thing is, I can understand paying for the shoes, but the fact that they charge you to run is hilarious. Hey you running over there? Yeah, you go pay me. What's going on? Hey, are you riding over there? Yeah, you go pay me.
Speaker 1:
What's going on? So there's an interesting story right that if you look at the New York Marathon and one of my friends was telling me over the weekend they run across seven bridges, I think, keep or take, and one of the bridges is a tall bridge. So that means that during the New York Marathon, what happens is that the tall company loses all the revenue from the toll bridge. So to recover this revenue, what the company decided that would be a good idea to do was to try and see whether they could charge the runners a toll in order to cross the bridge, but they can't actually run without paying.
Speaker 2:
How did that go?
Speaker 1:
So I don't actually remember what the outcome was, but I found it quite funny because my first image in my head was a runner that would have to carry, like you know, a few dollars with them and as they approach the bridge, just drop it in a bucket, get a change and go. But actually it turns out that what they had in mind was to increase the fee of the New York Marathon to encompass this loss in revenue. I think it was actually scrapped in part. I'm wrong, but it's just a little bit of a funny story.
Speaker 2:
But I think runners with the addiction they get would pay it regardless. They'd be like I've got my toll money in my pocket, I've got my hydration 100%.
Speaker 1:
And I mean New York, boston, chicago, berlin, london and Tokyo. They're like the six main marathons in the world.
Speaker 2:
So like if you're running.
Speaker 1:
We'll talk about that. If you're running those six, you'll practically pay anything. I mean most people that travel to run these marathons. Right, they're already like one, two thousand pounds like behind in terms of finances.
Speaker 2:
So like tall is nothing but comparison so the reason I thought this topic is like really, uh, interesting and cool is because, of course, there are a lot of runners. People do 5k's, 10k's, whatever. Some people do marathons, and it feels like, depending on who you know, there's a lot of people that do it, but still it's a difference. However, they go from like two years, like in two years, from zero, zero. You did some 10Ks now and then to six, five half marathons, one 10K and then a full marathon and you're just balling, like going.
Speaker 2:
That's the cycle that you're on is a journey, and I think it's so applicable to what people want to do regardless. So, if you want to start a company, or if you want to get some fitness goals, or if you want to do any ambition, you have, and I found like it's key and interesting to break it down. So, when you started talking at the beginning about how, um, you know, during the journey itself because all we see is valerio is running, we don't see or know that, oh, at this point he's in pain, or you know, you can guesstimate, and that, oh, the tears, the tears that are arbitrary, tears that you didn't get for each time, each point, for, like, free checkpoints, and then you only get the last one is a huge adrenaline rush, and that's why I'm like what about there? Cause that's the time where it gets hard. You're in it. So tell me about, like, getting to the London Marathon, being during the round run, and how was your mind, what was it like the experience. I've not done it, so yeah.
Speaker 1:
So it's interesting. You ask that because I recently wrote a LinkedIn article that I talked about the three key lessons that I learned, not even from running it, but for the preparation towards it, because I think, to some large extent, right, okay, my time wasn't amazing. I've got a number of reasons for that. I got injured twice 10 weeks away from the marathon, which I'll talk about in a minute. So because of that, I had to kind of think about okay, my original time that I wanted is not achievable, so I almost need to step back. But in the marathon event itself, I didn't hit a wall. There is this famous wall that everyone talks about. I didn't really hit it. Maybe it's because, like, I was running at a slower pace and perhaps I did actually have more fitness to run faster, but I didn't hit it.
Speaker 1:
Um, weirdly enough, if I look back, there is moments that I remember as a little bit of a movie, like you know, running and seeing the shard in distance or running across the london bridge. Those are moments that I remember, but for the rest of it I feel like I almost spaced out. I don't actually know what happened in between. Uh, but the more difficult part for me it's been the the preparation. The preparation was fucking hard, let me tell you. It was hard because you you are expected to run anywhere between 30 and 50 miles a week, give or take. How you spread, it's up to you, um, whether you've run at a fast pace, you do interval training, whether you do long distance running, it's kind of up to you. But generically speaking, you do two to three days of, let's call it, like five to seven miles worth of runs, which you do a little bit of interval training so you do faster speed and slower speeds, so fast and recovery, in a way to speaking, and then you'll do one run a week which can extend all the way from eight miles up to your longest run, which is 17 to 20 miles. And you don't just do that right away, like on week one. You slowly progress over a period of 16 to 20 weeks to the point where you're running that 20 miles.
Speaker 1:
But because you're running so much in terms of volume, it means that you have to plan your workouts accordingly. So in your week it's not just like planning your week for work and your personal life and your grocery shoppings, whatever you might do during a week, but it's also you have to plan that you're going to be losing at least three hours actually more like three and a half hours by the time you get ready, come back, shower, et cetera, just purely for running during the week, and on the weekend you're definitely going to lose anywhere between two to three hours, even three and a half hours, for doing your long distance running. And this logistical part is hard in itself. But for me what's been even harder was the obstacles that came in the way, and it's not so much the obstacles of work or the obstacles of uh, I don't know the podcast or whatever it might be, but it was more the unexpected injuries that, uh, I thought I had been doing a good job to make sure that I wasn't straining myself, but then ended up with some two to three weeks worth of stoppage time because of injuries. So I remember quite vividly I ran the Warwick half marathon, I think about 10 to 12 weeks ahead of the actual London Marathon, and I was feeling quite good. Maybe it was less than that, maybe it was about eight weeks before London Marathon and I was feeling quite good. Maybe it was less than that, maybe it was about eight weeks before London Marathon and I was feeling quite good at that. As a matter of fact, I actually set my PB, which was just over two hours.
Speaker 1:
Again, I'm not the fastest runner, I'm carrying a lot of weight, but I remember that a couple of days after the half marathon I started feeling a pain under my foot and that pain wouldn't go away. I tried running on it, I tried doing slower running. Pain would get worse. I go to the doctors. Doctors basically tells me look, you've strained some soft tissues. There is clearly some. There's been some sort of internal bleeding and as a consequence of that, you're going to have to like not run for at least for the next two weeks. The once you're that, you're gonna have to like not run for at least for the next two weeks, the two weeks actually became three and a half weeks.
Speaker 1:
That's three and a half weeks not being able to run roughly eight weeks away from the london marathon. That's when you do the majority of your long distance running right, because three weeks before the marathon, that's when you start your tapering. So that's when you reduce your um, your volume, because you want to make sure that you rest your muscles so they're not strained. So that period between being eight weeks away to being three weeks away. That's when you do your majority of the high volume, and I just eaten away three and a half weeks of training just because of the injury before that as well.
Speaker 1:
Looking back, 12 weeks before that, I done my achilles again, that's another. You know, I had to stop for another two, three weeks because of that and I think I was quite lucky that by the point that I did my achilles I already had a really good fitness level. So my vo2 max at that point was 49. 49 is pretty freaking good, especially for my weight um you're talking about, um being quite close to, uh, being excellent, which is like athlete level. So, like, my foundations was very good and I, the best that I could do at that point is, you know, do the cross training. Of course the cross training. Of course the cross training means cycling, swimming, whatever it might be, but it's never really as good as running. And as I went through those injuries, I could see my VO2 decrease with time. So I went from a 49 VO2, which I managed to maintain through the first injury. By the time I hit the second injury, my VO2 max started dropping from 49 to 46.
Speaker 2:
Just for people who aren't aware what's VOT In a very simple explanation.
Speaker 1:
it's the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry effectively to your muscle. It's a good indicator for the foundations of how good your base fitness is Okay.
Speaker 2:
And the higher the number or the lower the number. The higher the number, the better. That's where you said you were at 49,. Right, I was at 49,. Yeah, wow, okay, and it just so happens you were that fit before the injury. It meant that you had time to well, not time to spare, but it did help.
Speaker 1:
Arguably, I probably started my training a little bit too early, because I think most people start their training at about 16 weeks away from the event. I think at 16 weeks I was really running some pretty long distances, so that foundation was really good. But by the time I got to the marathon, um, I could visibly see you know through metrics that my fitness had dropped. Uh. So you know that's, that's a huge hit to your confidence, where you really feel like you're not running enough. On top of that, your numbers of dropping in fitness are being confirmed by your fitness tracker. Uh. So yeah, those those obstacles were not great from, uh, from the preparation perspective, and that's what really got in the, in a way, of my confidence, my ability to feel like I was ready for the marathon, and even the motivation level. You know, you get injured, fitness going down. You wake up some morning thinking is this really worth it? Should I postpone it until next year? So those are the questions that come start coming to your mind I can only imagine.
Speaker 2:
But you didn't like you. You had a bigger. That's what I'm saying. Your bigger goal was overarching and somehow it made you. Well, it clearly made you get to it, and even and one thing that I think is very clear is there were obstacles to like entry. There was obstacles along the way, there was money that had to be expended and then, even during the run that you're training for, there are still, like, the obstacles. Do not stop. It's the mentality that needs to be. I don't know if it, what would you? Fixed, rigid or like, sustained or higher than it? What would you say? I think?
Speaker 1:
I would probably call it the power of discipline, which is, funnily enough, the second lesson that I talked about in LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:
If you're enjoying what you're listening to. That was only part one of our bonus episode. You're enjoying what you're listening to. That was only part one of our bonus episode. Let's say, talking about valerio's uh marathon run. We'll be back next week with part two, where he gives us more tips on the discipline it takes and then more explorations on how we can apply this in our lives, and let alone if you're thinking about entrepreneurship and how it relates to companies and maybe I'll also talk about how I ended up running an extra mile and 1 mile, point 1 in the marathon.