Brian's Run Pod
Welcome to Brian's Run Pod, the podcast where we lace up our running shoes and explore the exhilarating world of running. Whether you're a seasoned marathoner, a casual jogger, or just thinking about taking your first stride, this podcast is your ultimate companion on your running journey.
Join us as we dive deep into the sport of running, covering everything from training tips and race strategies to personal stories and inspiring interviews with runners from all walks of life. Whether you're looking to improve your race times, stay motivated, or simply enjoy the therapeutic rhythm of running, Brian's Run Pod has something for every runner.
Brian's Run Pod
Overcoming Addiction: Travis Ireland's Journey from Gambling to Running Success
Travis Ireland's incredible journey from gambling addiction to becoming an ultramarathoner and the creator of the Run the World app demonstrates the transformative power of running and perseverance. His story inspires listeners to confront their challenges and discover the impact of community support and personal passion.
• Travis's early love for sports and how he engaged in multiple activities
• The camaraderie among friends that drove his competitive running ambition
• The impact of gambling addiction on his life and relationships
• The turning point that led him to seek help for his addiction
• How the creation of Run the World app symbolises his recovery and commitment to running
• The ongoing significance of running as a therapeutic outlet in his life
• A teaser for the next episode, focusing on the evolution of his running journey
Plus, we have a new feature on the podcast you can now send me a message. Yep you heard it right- Brian's Run Pod has become interactive with the audience. If you look at the top of the Episode description tap on "Send us a Text Message". You can tell me what you think of the episode or alternatively what you would like covered. If your lucky I might even read them out on the podcast.
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So you're thinking about running but not sure how to take the first step. My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's Rompod. Hey there folks. Welcome to Brian's Rompod. Today we're diving into the story of Travis Ireland, an ultramarathoner and the brain behind the Run the World app. A mutual friend, andrew O'Doany, got us together, but Travis has been passionate about running for years and is participating in various ultra marathons. Notably, he finished 86th in the Black Hall 100's 21k event in 2023.
Speaker 1:In 2014, travis launched the Run the World, an app designed to keep runners motivated by tracking their progress on interactive maps across different countries. You can choose a virtual run around the places, like Australia, new Zealand, the UK, ireland, the USA, europe or Canada. The app offers a unique way to set goals and stay engaged with your running journey. Beyond running, travis has been open about his personal challenges, including overcoming gambling addiction. He credits running and the creation of run the world as pivotal in his journey towards a healthier lifestyle. Travis story is a testament to how passion and perseverance can lead to the personal transformation transformation and inspire others in the running community. Reflecting on his journey, travis shared running has been my therapy, helping me overcome personal challenges and connecting to with the community with that shares my passion, so, without further ado, let's welcome Travis to the podcast. Everyone gets that, so I thought you might like that.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, I feel very special. Thank you, brian.
Speaker 1:Thank you. What I like to do with most people is just like to go right to the beginning, maybe back at school, and seeing whether you were a natural athlete, someone who took to running, or were you kind of into your books, or did you kind of shy away from exercise.
Speaker 2:No, I was a self-confessed exercise addict from an early age, so I played every sport that I could. I'm from a small country town in the south coast of New South Wales and there wasn't much else to do, to be honest, back in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid. So sport was my go-to Cricket, soccer, tennis, afl, rugby league. When I was a young kid, I tried everything, and running was definitely part of that as well. It was seasonal, so I'd surf in the summer, run in the winters, and always been a part of my life. As far as I can remember, I've run right across country at school um races around my friends.
Speaker 2:I've always run all right, okay.
Speaker 1:So I remember when I was in Australia in 88, which was the Expo, and I remember being rugby league and I suppose rugby league is still very much a big thing in Australia. Was that something that you participate a lot in when you were at school?
Speaker 2:So rugby league for me was a very short-lived All right. My parents were both from Victoria. Yeah, and Victoria is AFL.
Speaker 1:AFL, that's right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, being from Victoria, even though I lived in New South Wales, they were AFL related, so they created AFL Club and that's pretty much the sport I played from a young kid, and also soccer. Yeah, and I have a funny story about the rugby league. My dad put me in to play rugby league in under eights and I was only five and I apparently got rather beaten up being a small kid and cried and said I didn't want to play that game anymore. All right, so I went to soccer and tennis and other things, so my rugby league was short-lived.
Speaker 1:All right soccer and tennis and other things. My rugby league was short-lived, all right.
Speaker 2:So when you got into your teens, was running and exercise still very much a part of your life? Yeah, yeah, I think as I got older running became more constant. So sports came and went seasonally but running became constant. And I vividly remember every year looking forward to cross country and that was our school-based event where I was rather competitive and I tried to get as far as I could. So over here we have a school cross country and if you come in the top five or ten you move to regionals, then districts and then state and then national right. I never made it to national, um, but I did make it to state once, yeah, and that was always my, my passion. I used to wait for cross country. I never had a coach, I didn't have a training program, but I do remember running, train for it, yeah, and looking for it every year. And it got a bit more competitive the older I got and I guess I got a bit better as well.
Speaker 1:All right, okay, what was the attraction to cross-country compared to, let's say, road running or doing marathons, that kind of thing?
Speaker 2:Yep. So back in those days, particularly where I was from, there wasn't even a fun run in my town. I didn't even know what a fun run was really until I hit my probably 20. So cross country was pretty much. It A bit of track and field. So we had that at school as well, but I didn't even know what a marathon was, to be honest.
Speaker 2:Oh right, and the cross country, what appealed to me was I had a core bunch of really good mates and we were all semi-competitive runners and our goal as a bunch of five friends was to be see if we could make it as far as we could together, and the camaraderie is what I love. So we'd come first, second, third, fourth, fifth at school. Then we go to the next level and we try and all make the team to go to the next level and then to the next level. And I remember one year, year, year 10, so I was maybe 16, all five of us made it to the state. So that's what was probably appealed to me more than my own personal fact, that the five of us made it there and we did it together and that's what I loved about the cross-country scene and running scene yeah, the cross-country scene and running scene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so were you quite competitive between the five of you in terms of your friends.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So one of the guys, Lee Tracy. He was the best. He made it to nationals. He came second in Australia. All right, and the rest of us were very similar, but we were competitive and we yeah, I wanted to beat them. There's no question about that, and that was what drove me. I am competitive and that shone early on in my younger days so, did you go to after school?
Speaker 1:did you? Did you go to university or, you know, did you go straight into the workplace?
Speaker 2:I went to university. I did three years in university. I moved interstate so I moved from where I was in New South Wales. I moved back to Victoria to go to university and continued to play a bit of footy but took up triathlon still ran. But I'm going to say my university years were probably the least active I was for those three years I was in uni and that was me being an 18 to 20 year old moving out of home.
Speaker 1:Yes, my priorities weren't always running yes, I assume, yeah, I know, you mean yeah, yeah, so do you think I mean I mean australia and big places like you know, south Africa and you know because you've got, you know pretty much the weather and also there's kind of this big push isn't there for being outdoors and kind of that attraction of doing exercise and sporting excellence. When you were growing up was that quite resonant. Were you caught up in that, or do you think that came later on?
Speaker 2:No, you're 100% right. Most definitely it was encouraged for us to get out every day, not just at school, but family friends. It was very much encouraged, and you are right, Even though I was down the southern part of Australia where it does get not UK cold, but it gets cold we were still encouraged to go out and be active every day.
Speaker 2:I don't remember a day where I was not encouraged to get out the door and I still remember my PE teacher and my English teacher and my science teacher were also on my soccer team. One was my cricket coach and the entire population, unless you were into music or something else, but most people were encouraged to get out every day and I'm a 70s and 80s kid, so obviously we didn't have the computers and the other options, and riding my bike to see a mate, running to see a mate, was part of that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Part of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I know I think I was talking to this with my wife the other day is that sometimes you know, then like even go to the shops when you were young and then sort of thing you'd run to the shops or something you know, but it was just you were always there to be quite active. Was there anyone at school, like a teacher, who kind of inspired you to do exercise? I know there was someone for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely Mr Fogg. I remember his name, oh right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mr Fogg, he was probably the one person not just and me physically and personally, he also was my careers advisor. So I did at university a course called Human Movement or Exercise Science, right, and he worked really hard with me individually to get me into that course, which is why I moved into state. I didn't quite have the brainpower for the course at a lot of universities, but he found one that accepted me and got me there and he was also on my soccer team. So, as I said, I was from a small town. So we played soccer when I got older in Open and we were playing with our teachers for a lot of them and Foggy was pretty prominent in my school getting me out and I just remember him being really positive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there was also I almost forgot about it a gentleman called Mr Percival. He would come down. He wasn't a teacher, he wasn't anyone. He would come down to our school and we had a Percival cup for soccer and he used to pull me aside at times and a guy I didn't even really know and just encouraged me. Mum and Dad kicked me out and encouraged me as well. So it came from a lot of angles. But, to answer your question. It's definitely Mr Foggy. He was the one who played soccer at Mr Foggy's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean for me it was a basketball teacher, because we were and he really encouraged the school to um because he played basketball at a national level and he played for england at under 16. But he, I think because I don't know if it was the same for you uh, mr foggy, he was quite passionate about his sport and that helps to kind of come across um to to the kids, you know, and you know he would, you know, do uh, basketball training at lunchtime and that kind of thing. I mean, I mean we became really good, I mean, at you know different levels. So, um, and I think that that always really helps, definitely. Yeah, yeah, I know you've talked openly about your gambling addiction, if you're happy to talk about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know, in listening to sort of previous podcasts, was that something that I mean? Obviously you said you were very good at you know you took to running and took to exercise at an early age and even through to your, you know, to university. But did that happen? That addiction happened sort of after you left university or wasn't it not until later on?
Speaker 2:it wasn't until later on. It wasn't until I was an adult. Yeah, okay, I know why. I know how. I know everything as to what caused it, and there's no coincidence that running wasn't a part of my life when it was gambling.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was completely gone and no coincidence that I was the unhappiest. I formed an addiction, so I was. I think I probably made it clear in the podcast I'm a bit competitive and, without flying my own trumpet, I had luck and success throughout most of my life. So I was successful in running. I'm successful in getting to uni. I moved, I got a job straight away. I became successful. I set up a company, a corporate team building company, and everything was successful. I was a lucky man and things were going well.
Speaker 2:And then I had a $1,000 bet on my 30th birthday and I was a casual hunter on my 30th birthday and I distinctly remember losing and if I fast forward to when I wanted to rehab for my gambling, that was the one point that I discovered that I became a gambler because I had this vision of everyone laughing at me and everyone saying, loser, you've lost $1,000, you're hopeless. And I've done a lot of delving into this and had some therapy on it and it was that moment that I thought I'm successful at everything else. I'm going to prove everyone wrong and I show them I can gamble. And that was the start of my viral visit. And if anyone's listening, I don't know anyone that wins on the gambling.
Speaker 2:I don't know who I was trying to kid, but I thought I could beat the system. I thought I could do it and I then created an addiction which stemmed from me being competitive and me showing people that I could do it. I had Excel spreadsheets, I had plans for becoming a millionaire out of it, et cetera. And then, as I lost and spiraled more, it then became not about that. It became about addiction and the rush of losing and the chasing of it and the thrill of winning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:Combined with that, and it was all at a period in my life where I just met my wife. I started a young family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see, so you had that going on as well, yeah.
Speaker 2:At the beginning. Yeah, so that was my 30th birthday, I think. I got married when I was 32, had my first kid when I was 33. So I was gambling. Then, right, I had two more kids when I was 35 or 36. Yeah, and I gambled. Through all of that, I had a successful company and, yeah, I had a lot going on. And all of that going on, I didn't run and, no coincidence, that was a perfect storm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so do you think it was that you had this kind of streak of you know I can anything I I touch basically can turn to gold sort of thing, and then you thought that you know, you know gambling, although you had this minor blip that you lost a thousand dollars in a race or something like that, then you, you thought you could be successful at that 100%.
Speaker 2:I had no doubt in my mind that I could win this. I had my future planned based around the money I was going to make from it. I was that confident in my ability and, going back to it without it's cocky, I'd just been successful and things hadn't gone wrong for me. I'd never been sacked. I'd never. Yeah, yeah, things were just going well and I just thought I could.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It just went out of control, and the more I lost, the more I believed I could win again. Yeah, and then the bets became a lot bigger, a lot larger the stakes became. I was starting to bet mortgages and houses.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I spent my entire super fund. I delved into savings and hid all of this from my ex-wife now my wife at the time. Right, okay, it went from $1,000 dollars, which back then was a lot of money, to a lot, lot more than that, where a thousand dollars was a notion, you know, wow. So that was.
Speaker 1:That was pretty serious yeah, so, um, uh, I was going to ask that the kind of the secrecy about that, because obviously it's not just about the gambling, but also you hiding it from other people. Was that difficult?
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't know how I did it now, but it was really easy. Not one person knew. I mean, I'm talking. I had bank accounts with a wife that I'd been married to for 15 years and I hid it from her. I hid it from my mum and dad. None of my mates knew I would go to the pub and have a few beers and have a casual bet with friends putting twenty dollars, and we'd all laugh and that was great, yeah, and at the same time look down at my phone and put a ten thousand dollar bet on.
Speaker 2:oh my god racing in narrow at the same time and then, if it won, I was the life of the party. I was this guy. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, if I lost, the guys just thought I was having a bad day and and the same with my ex-wife. I'd come home and, depending on what happened, right, I was either a good, happy guy or I was a grumpy old man, depending on what happened and yeah and I could just hide that with excuses.
Speaker 2:Work was tough today, leave me, or work was great today, or whatever. So gambling's different. There's obviously no effects like drugs and alcohol. I just had mood swings.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't know how I did it. So I sit here now and think, how the hell did I do that? Yeah, so it's like someone else, you know, Yep.
Speaker 1:And I don't know how I did it. So I sit here now and think, how the hell did I do that? Yeah, so it's like someone else, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep, I don't know how.
Speaker 1:I did it.
Speaker 2:Like right now. I can't imagine how I could hide the hundreds and thousands of dollars I lost and houses and mortgages. The one person that did get onto me was a tax man, so I actually illegally took my super fund out and so they found out about it.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, everyone else I hid it from and I don't know how I did it, but I managed and I never once worried about it. I never thought someone was going to catch me again. I thought I was invincible yeah, wasn't until I came clean that people found out.
Speaker 1:Oh right, and talking to other, I mean, I'm assuming you have talked to other addicts and do they have a kind of very similar story in terms of how you know hiding it, you know, be it not just gambling, but you know, drugs, alcohol, that kind of thing. Is it a very similar type of story?
Speaker 2:No, no, I found it quite different. So I went to Gamblers Anonymous immediately. So the day I ran clean, I went to Gamblers Anonymous immediately and I did that for a long time with just Gamblers and our stories were exactly the same. We had the ability to cheat and buy and we could compare our stories how we did it with separate bank accounts to cheat and buy and we could compare our stories how we did it with separate bank accounts.
Speaker 2:My rehab I went to I was in with drug and alcohol addicts as well and theirs was a completely different story. They had so much more support and people that knew about it. So I went into rehab telling my story of doing this alone. No one knew I gambled, whereas a drug and alcohol addict people knew because they would fax on their arms or they were drunk or they could smell it. They had people constantly saying, hey, you need help, you need this and a support network. They brushed away and they fought off. There was really different stories when I went to rehab with drug and alcohol addicts. We had different paths. I had no support and no one to put away because I did it all myself. I was secretly doing it and I don't know what's worse, to be honest. So I felt that they had it worse, because they lost a lot of friends and tried to help them, whereas mine, no one knew. I didn't break off and clean and what made you stop?
Speaker 2:um, I physically had no more money left. Really I remember the day it was. It's it's clear to me as any day of my life. Here is me as an hour ago I was at the gold coast marathon and it was a morning of the gold coast marathon and I was in a vip tent.
Speaker 2:So I sponsored a bit of the event and I'm there and I went to put a bet on. I was betting 24 hours a day. I went to put a bet on and my betting account had a red line and it said no more funds. And then I I just knew at that point that I'd exhausted. I had investment properties that had gone, mortgage had gone, super had gone, bank balances were out and I physically had no more money left. I had no option. And I looked at the drinks till in the marathon, oh I see, and my head said you could rob that and get some money. And that was the pipe bomb. But I'm not that, I'm not a thief, I'm not that. And it really hit me hard that I thought about robbing that till to fund a bet. So I walked away and that's the moment I knew that I had to stop. I had not gambled since that moment.
Speaker 1:So was it the next day that I need help, or did you that night? That night really?
Speaker 2:That night, yeah, oh wow, I went out and I'm proud to say this, but I went out and got drunk.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember my friend buying me drinks because I had no money left and I went home thinking that if I was drunk I could tell my wife at the time it'd be easier. I went home and told her everything a small story just prior to this, back in october. Yeah, seven or eight months earlier I had come clean and said I had a problem, but not to the extent the problem was, and we brushed over that back in October. So then I came July 2013. I came and said this is a lot more serious than you think. This is the situation. I remember waking her up. She was asleep and I came home drunk and I told her and pretty much the hardest conversation I've ever had- yeah.
Speaker 2:Gamble Anonymous the next day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Gamble Anonymous. It took me a little while to go to rehab.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I did Gamble Anonymous for a while. I realized that I needed more, so I went from rehab a bit later. But yeah, it was that night. Same claim I'm a little bit lucky that we still had a roof over our head.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I didn't lose our house. I lost other houses, but not our house. So whilst it was bad, I used to wake up in the morning knowing that if I did some more work next week, I could pay the mortgage and be okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. I mean, that's an amazing, inspiring story and I know you've kind of talked about it in other podcasts.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you'll agree that this is an incredibly inspiring story. From his success in high school cross-country running to how a thousand dollar bet led him to gambling, travis's journey is truly remarkable. And guess what? We're not done with him yet. Next week, we'll be sharing the second part of his story, as this is a running podcast. We'll dive deep into his running journey and explore how he created the incredible virtual running app called Run the World. Trust me, it's worth listening to. So until next week, take care and stay tuned.
