.jpg)
Business of Endurance
Previously called Tribeathlon, The Business of Endurance is a podcast aimed at connecting endurance sport with personal and business advancement.
Hosted by Charlie Reading and Claire Fudge, the show provides a comprehensive approach to success, drawing inspiration from athletes, coaches, and motivational figures in the endurance sport domain.
With a diverse range of subjects being covered – from fitness strategies to business advice and life lessons – the discussions are designed to inspire not only athletes or entrepreneurs, but anyone pursuing growth in their personal or professional life. 40-minutes every Wednesday is all that's required to gain insights into how the tenets of endurance sport can shepherd success in business and personal development.
Business of Endurance
Part 1 - Self Discovery Through Challenge: Success in Rugby and Ultra Marathons with Lewis Robling
Today, we have an incredibly inspiring guest whose journey from professional rugby to ultrarunning is nothing short of remarkable. Joining us is Lewis Robling, a former professional rugby player who has made a name for himself in the world of endurance sports. Lewis's story is a testament to the power of resilience and the human spirit. After an impressive career in rugby, he transitioned into ultrarunning, where he not only found a new passion but also a new purpose. His ultrarunning journey, which began as an accident during the lockdown, has led him to complete some of the most grueling races imaginable, including a 125km ultra with just four weeks of preparation and five 250km ultras in just 12 months. But Lewis's story is about more than just physical endurance. He is a strong advocate for mental health, supporting the Big Moose charity, and using his platform to raise awareness about the importance of mental well-being. His belief in the transformative power of running for mental health and his personal experiences in this area offer invaluable insights.
Highlights:
- Early Rugby Career and Development
- Inspirational Rugby Moments
- Transition to Ultra Running
- First Ultra Marathon and Lessons Learned
- Using Running for Personal Growth
Links: Click here for additional helpful content.
Connect with Lewis Robling on LinkedIn
Explore The Limitless Life Workshop
We are living in a time of abundance, where entrepreneurs have more opportunities than ever before. With the rise of AI, colossal advancements in technology and the scope to reach millions of people in seconds, it has never been a more exciting or easily accessible time for your business to thrive. But are you riding that wave of exhilaration, or are you crashing and burning in a downhill spiral?
Please Subscribe to Business of Endurance on Apple Podcasts, leave a comment, and give us a 5-Star review.
Launch Your Own Podcast:
ShoRunner is the leading podcast production and strategic content company for brands, organisations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right strategy, equipment, training, guidance and content to ensure you sound amazing while speaking to your niche audience and networking with your perfect clients. Get in touch with Jason on LinkedIn.
This episode was sponsored by The Trusted Team and 4th Discipline
I'm Charlie Redding and I'm Claire Fudge. Welcome to the business of endurance.
Speaker 3:I wasn't managed very well as a youngster, but also I didn't take enough responsibility. And if we're in a state of stress all the time, it's going to be really difficult for us to recover. And if we're in a state of stress all the time, it's going to be really difficult for us to recover.
Speaker 1:Today we have the incredibly inspiring guest whose journey from professional rugby to ultra running is nothing short of remarkable. Joining us is Lewis Roebling, a former professional rugby player who has made a name for himself in the world of endurance sport. So Lewis's story is a testament to the power of resilience and the human spirit. After an incredibly impressive career in rugby, although one that he doesn't think he maximized to his full potential, he transitioned into ultra running, where he not only found a new passion but also a new purpose. His ultra running journey, which began by accident during lockdown, has led him to complete some of the most gruelling races imaginable, including a 125 kilometre ultra with just four weeks of preparation and then going on to complete five 250 kilometre ultras in just 12 months.
Speaker 1:But Lewis's story is about much more than just physical endurance. He's a strong advocate for mental health, and we go into this in quite a lot of detail over the course of the podcast. He has done a huge amount of work supporting the Big Moose charity, who we interviewed on episode one of this season's podcast, jeff and Chloe, but he's also a beneficiary of their work, and he's now using his platform to raise awareness about the importance of mental wellbeing. His belief in the transformative power of running for mental health and his personal experiences in this area offer some incredibly valuable insights. This episode was so good and this interview was so good, with so much value, that we decided to break it into two parts. So this episode is part one and you'll get a huge amount from this, but if you're enjoying it, make sure you come back for part two next week, because there's a huge amount of inspiring stuff in that part two. So I know you're going to love this episode with Lewis Roebling.
Speaker 1:So, lewis, welcome to the Business of Endurance podcast. Really looking forward to chatting to you. I know we're going to have loads to talk about and we've got multiple sports to talk about today, which I love when we can bring in some different sports, and particularly as one of my favorite sports is rugby. So we're going to start with your incredible rugby career. Tell us a little bit about how you became a professional rugby player, but also I'd love to know what your most inspiring or memorable story is from your time playing rugby.
Speaker 3:Well, firstly, thank you so much for having me. It's a very privilege to be speaking to you both today, so thank you. Rugby Okay, so I started playing rugby when I was about eight years old. In school I was a footballer through and through until maybe 14 years old, and at eight years old I remember kicking a rugby ball over the posts from about 20 meters away, and one of the older kids or one of the teachers was like amazed that I could do this at such a young age, which ultimately inspired me. If you're good at something, you're likely to do it. So I started kicking the ball a bit more often and started playing rugby, and that was very, very young.
Speaker 3:I'm a Welshie and I was in junior school and in comprehensive school and, for whatever reason, my school didn't have a rugby team madness, especially in Wales and so I started playing again. When I was 14, my cousin who we all lived in a local village in Cillian he started playing for the local team along with all of the other guys that were playing football. So I started playing club rugby when I was 14 years old and realised very quickly we had a great team. We had a really skilful team. They were amazing From the age of 15 to 16, we didn't lose a game for two years, partly down to the players, but also we had the best coach. It's worth probably mentioning this, but I look back at why I started playing rugby and he was a big ability to manage players, like individually, and he used to give me an imaginary key before every single game. I used to play outside off and he'd come up to me before the game and put his hand in his pocket, open up his hand. There'd be nothing in it but like, right, lou, here's the key to the game because I'm playing outside half the other one. It calls the shots and it's like look, this is your key, whatever you see goes like you call the shots, you do whatever you need and then at the end of the game you give that key back to me and it was like empowering me as a young individual and I never, ever forgot that. But anyway, from 15, 16, we're a winning team and I got picked up by the local region, the Dragons, and because I was good at it and I worked hard and I was committed, I kind of went from step to step throughout the academy system, playing for my first year at senior rugby at 17 years old with Newbridge, and then my next year at Newport RFC and then, finally, I think, I had my first professional appearance when I was 19.
Speaker 3:Well, my most inspiring story is both inspiring for me but also quite a funny story. It was the under 20s. It was the Wales under 20s World Cup and I was I'm the same age of the era of like your George Fords, your Oren Farrell. So when we played against England under 18s and under 20s, it was a star-studded team. Like Oren Farrell, george Ford, christian Wade was on one wing, manu Tualagi was on the other wing, the Vinopola brothers were in the pack. It was unbelievable. And when we're in the World Cup I mean playing for your country in itself is an awe-inspiring moment. It was everything that you wanted to be as a young kid and I was so lucky to have that experience.
Speaker 3:We played our first game against Argentina, so there's kind of two parts to this. Our first game against Argentina was my first time playing for the 20s in the World Cup and I had the best game. I had an amazing game. We won. We beat Argentina 34-12.
Speaker 3:And New Zealand were also in our group, and the next game was against New Zealand and again this team.
Speaker 3:You'll know the names Bowden Barrett, gareth Anscombe, lima Sopawanga, naholo Whitelock, tj Perenara. All of these guys were in the starting lineup who are now like the Kiwi starting 15 and have been for the last five, six years and they wanted to make a statement because they saw we had a good Welsh team and we had some amazing players Liam Williams was in the starting team and stuff like that like we had a fantastic team and uh, and they came out uh, second game of the group stage and I've never been so in awe of a team in my life. We lost 92 mil to this day. That is the greatest defeat in age grade rugby or in in in any world cup competition. Today's day. That is still the greatest to be and the best part of it I had a good game. I actually had a good game, I mean, but anyway, that's probably my most inspirational moment from a just an experienced perspective singing the welsh national anthem, watching the baby blacks do the hacker and ultimately getting beat 9-2-0.
Speaker 1:That's rugby for you. Sticking with your rugby career. Do you think you reached the potential or the level that you wanted to before you exited your rugby career?
Speaker 3:for a long time. This has been a hard thing for me to talk about, because the short answer is no. I don't think I ever really reached the potential that I had as a rugby player, which took a lot of forgiving. From 19 to 22 I was playing. I mean, I have 45 appearances for the dragons, playing on television once a week. We're traveling all over the over Europe, playing in Italy, playing in Scotlandireland, playing against some of the best players in the world, and I was a young 1920, 21 year old and took me a long time to accept that I wasn't managed very well. There's one side of it I wasn't much very well as a youngster, but also I didn't take enough responsibility and that was the the kind of feeling that I had on. I wish I I did this, I wish I did that. Looking back, there's so many things I would have done differently Conversations I should have had, times I should have stood up for myself and training, but ultimately I need to use that as a bit of a fuel to move forward.
Speaker 1:If that was related to partly how you were managed as a youngster. Now that you're a coach, what are you doing, based on that learning, to help the people that you coach?
Speaker 3:this is not really something I've thought about in this context. If I'm totally honest, I think subconsciously, maybe I'm coaching because of that. But ultimately, when I do coach and an athlete comes to me and says that I want to achieve x, everything that I do is in their best interest. Every decision I make, every question I ask them, everything I ask of them, every time I listen to what they're saying, everything is in their best interest and I'm ultimately helping them achieve whatever they set out to achieve and that's important. It's driven by them. It's important that I don't drive that. It has to come from the individual.
Speaker 2:Really interesting and you know the way. Maybe now that you coach, based on that as well, this is interesting. So I guess the big question is why the transition from rugby into ultra running, and how did you get into it? Did you fall into it or was it plans?
Speaker 3:I've never been very good at planning ahead, because I've always ever been used to playing the next game, the next week, the next or the next season, because our contracts were only ever one year, two years, so I never really really allowed myself to think too far ahead as a rugby player, which again, maybe, is something I should have done. How did I fall into it? My last game of rugby was in March 2020, and we lost 40 nil to Newcastle Falcons. The week later, covid happened. So you know, I, the few years leading up to that, I'd kind of been looking for a way out. At this point, I'd had a nasty concussion when I was 26 years old. I couldn't see single vision for two months and it took. It took a while for me to get back and make a full recovery, which I did, and I continued to play after that. But I think that changed me and I think that was the point in my career where I was like, well, actually, no, I need to look at a way out now and understand how I can get out of the sport, because it's not going to last forever and I'm not. I'm not really serving myself because I'm not earning enough money to really save. So I was playing in the championship at that point still professional, but we just the money wasn't there in the sport. So when lockdown came around, that was kind of the sign that was the universe telling me okay, this is your opportunity, this, this is, this is the time to take the leap.
Speaker 3:It's a running theme with so many people's running stories. Everyone started running in covid and the same. It was the same for me at first. I used it because there was nothing else to do. We were allowed to go outside once a day and running was the only thing that I could really do and I was so used to training twice, three times a day anyway, that without that I was getting really stressed and anxious and worked up. So, without having any awareness of what was going on with my mental health at the time because I don't think I ever really I don't think I knew what mental health was at that point and I started enjoying it very, very quickly.
Speaker 3:I think that feeling of progress, that feeling of improving of something, is something that we all crave, that it's getting better and that's something that I've always, always, um, kind of loved, especially as a professional athlete, and it's something I've been conditioned to do, always, always improve, so that that was a really nice feeling which kept me going back to it. And then a friend of mine, who you know very well, who's been on the podcast, Jeff Smith, one of the most incredible human beings just ever and he's has such a huge part to play in who I am today, especially these last four or five years. Um, but he ran, uh, the Goggins 4-4-48 and I took inspiration from him. He told me that I should have a go at it and do it myself, which I did. I planned everything out and I actually bought David Goggins's book as well and that was my first introduction to this world of kind of ultra marathons and what that was, and his idea and his story of suffering and overcoming adversity. And I'm reading these things and I'm thinking I'm feeling these ways a little bit as well. So maybe I can do something like this and I think his story not that I could relate to what he'd actually been through in his own story, but I could relate to the feelings he was feeling and and I could see how he'd overcame these things and it really inspired me. And also that David Goggins challenge.
Speaker 3:It was a sad because Steph, she was meant to run the London Marathon. Steph's my partner and she was meant to run the London Marathon that April and her granddad was suffering from Alzheimer's and she was meant to run the marathon for Alzheimer's research as a way to kind of give back to them and him. Sadly, he died before the marathon even took place and the marathon was obviously postponed for the year after eventually. So she couldn't run it and I thought, well, maybe I can do something here. Maybe I'm living in their house, I'm living with Steph and her parents that we decided to bubble together, so maybe I can do something to give back and the 4-4-48 fit that bill and we ended up raising £10,000 in two days.
Speaker 3:The feeling is hard to describe the way I did.
Speaker 3:It was I went to Alzheimer's directly and asked them for 12 different stories of different people that I could run for.
Speaker 3:In each of these 12 runs each of these 12 four milers and every four mile run, I shared a story on social media. So this runs for this person, shared a video of their story and asked for donations and repeated it. I was very meticulous with the planning for this and it's funny really, it was my first experience at any type of running challenge and, looking back, the way I prepared for it. For the first time in my life it was the most myself I'd ever felt, without even knowing that it was feeling like myself, and so the feeling afterwards I remember it was one of the most rewarding feelings. I've really felt like that sense of accomplishment that I could do more than I thought I could. The fact I was running for something bigger than me. It wasn't just about me, it was for a purpose bigger than myself. That was really the spark. That was the spark that was about to light a fire and that's how it all started.
Speaker 1:And also within that. I mean, there's so many brilliant lessons from what you've just described, particularly around finding that passion, but also the power of you using stories. Those stories would have been what made raising that money a phenomenal amount of money in a short period of time so effective, because the connection to the stories is so powerful. How and why did you then end up in a 125-kilometer ultramarathon with next to no preparation, ultra marathon with next to no preparation? Tell us how that evolved and why you thought it was a good idea and why it was transformational absolute chance.
Speaker 3:I'd put myself out there with the. It's a little bit woo-woo, but have you guys read the secret? Your, your vibe attracts your tribe. It's the law of attraction. Like, the energy that you put into the universe is the energy you get in return.
Speaker 3:And I feel like that's the first time I'd really kind of understood what that really meant, because a couple of months later, I'd obviously done this thing with, and put it out to the universe on social media Steph's friend, hannah, who I didn't know at the time but she worked for a company called Ultra X. And Ultra X are an ultramarathon company and they had multiple races throughout the year all over the world. They were short on a few spaces to ultra x england and hannah had seen that I'd done this 4, 4, 48 for alzheimer's, like for steph's granddad, and she messaged steph hey, steph, does lou fancy a challenge. One of the greatest motivators is for someone to like challenge you to do something. Having four and a half weeks to do it was also that was exciting me even more because it's like no one's going to think and it takes the pressure off. Even if I fail at this point, no one's going to expect me to finish it, so when I do finish it, it might like it's going to make it even better.
Speaker 3:So I had this huge opportunity to go and prove myself wrong and prove the world wrong around me, and not that it should be external, but I think it was for me because I'd always been the eldest of like cousins and I'd always been the high achiever. I was always the best at everything in the kid, so like as a being a 28 year old bloke with like from the outside looking in everything's going well, but really behind the curtain I was struggling. I was in so much debt because of this business I wasn't earning any money. I was really struggling, and this was a facade as well. It was a chance for me to put another layer of protection around me so people wouldn't see me for who I really am, and I went out and I made sure I finished it. Day one was an absolute disaster 75 kilometers, two and a half thousand meters of elevation, even though it was a disaster and I couldn't keep any food down.
Speaker 3:It was not good and I think I lost about five kilos in two days. It was that bad I couldn't take anything in. There was this relentless pursuit that there was almost like a possession within me that I had to. I had to finish. I had to prove to myself that I was good enough, I could finish, I could do hard things. The other part of why this race was so profound for me is that, even though I was in more pain than I ever felt before, I continued to move with that pain. I didn't know we were able to to manage that much pain and keep moving forward. I tore my calf on day one and I ran the second day with a torn calf, but I'd never felt so much kind of joy at the same time. I remember getting to the top of these peaks in the peak district on a beautiful day and looking around and thinking, look at where I am, like I am so lucky that I get to do this. And there was these two contrasting feelings of like managing all this discomfort and then these pockets of elation. I feel like I learned more in those two days about myself than I had done in 10 years as a professional athlete. That was that's the kind of tagline that I've used a few times, and it and it couldn't be more true. The kicker to this is that, yes, I had this incredible experience. I proved so many things to myself. I proved that I was capable.
Speaker 3:Yet when I came back home and I sat at my desk the next day, what a change. Nothing had changed. I'd run a race like well done, you've. You've completed 125 kilometers, but what have you actually done about your life? Nothing, and that I didn't. I didn't know then what to do with these feelings. I didn't know how to to deal with these feelings. I didn't know how to to deal with or like, I just done this amazing thing. Yet I feel even worse about myself. I've just proved I can do these things, yet nothing's changed. What does that say about me? And so the the first time I finished an ultra marathon, I was kind of lost in that period after a race, because I I didn't have the tools to be able to use what I just learned and apply it, and that's where things got a little bit low, to the point where I then needed to reach out for help, and I'm just so grateful that Big Moose, big Moose, the charity that Jeff Smith and Chloe run were there to pick me up. That was probably the hardest thing.
Speaker 2:So Lewis has just been talking about his awful consequences of not being able to keep down any fluids or nutrition during one of his first ultra runs. And, of course, over that distance it's super important that you can keep hydrated and really well fueled. So if you find that you're really struggling with your nutrition over long distances, or perhaps in hot environments or when the environment changes quite a bit and you're suffering with lots of different types of GI distress, then if you click on the link in the show notes below, you can book a free discovery call with me and we can have a chat about how I might be able to best help you with your GI distress so that you can have a great strong race.
Speaker 1:You talk about this euphoria of being towards the end of the ultra and at the end of the ultra, and then the post-race blues of the days afterwards, which anyone that's run an ultra will be probably aware of. How do those highs and lows compare to when you were playing rugby and how have you, now that you've done many more ultras? How have you learned to anticipate the highs and the lows and deal with them better?
Speaker 3:I suppose the easiest way I can describe it is that in a game of rugby, you can can have the best game of your life, but you can still lose. And you could have the worst game and still win. And that's the beauty of playing a team sport. It's a very different feeling. Whereas with ultramarathons, you're the only one responsible as to whether you win or lose, whether you succeed or fail. No one else is going to run for you. You train for so long Rugby you've got a chance to get over it. Next week You've got a chance to play again. If you're lucky to be selected, like, there's always opportunities in the next session. You've always got a chance to prove yourself, whereas with ultra marathons, a minimum six months prep with some of these races.
Speaker 3:And that's six months of hard work, of showing up every day when you don't want to running in the dark, strength training when you don't want to running on tired legs eating when you don't like, there's so much more adversity that you need overcome to even get to the start line that when you win and when you finish and when that race goes well, that feeling is the accumulation of those six months of training so like. The feeling is so much bigger, so much more special. That's kind of the best way I could describe it. And the second part of your question how to deal with it. Every single race you're going to be confronted with different challenges. The terrain is never the same, the weather is never the same, the distances are never the same and from year to year, even if you run in the same race, they can be completely different. Anything can happen Like your gut on one day might be great, the next day might be horrendous, and there's no reason to explain why. To explain why, so what that?
Speaker 3:does is that every race you're going to be learning new lessons, you're going to be acquiring new skills, and those new skills and new lessons that you learn, if you can reflect and think about what you've learned and try to apply those in a way moving forward, not only do you learn in training, but how do they, how do they apply to life situations? So how does how does your ability to sustain that level of effort up a really long Hill not push too hard, but push hard enough that you're being efficient? How does that then apply to working? For example, one of the when, when I, when I ran a 250k race in sri lanka a couple years ago, it was 39 degrees, 100 humidity, it was. It was five days and it was. It was incredible for the, the rawness of it, but there is no way to describe running in that heat, in those temperatures. What can you use from these ultra marathons to to upskill how you live? But that's the, that's the beauty of it, and I think that's what the key message is. Moving forward is, once you've raced and once you've had an amazing experience or or a negative one, there is no negative experience if you can learn from it, because it's experience, if you can use that in a way that can like apply to work, or to apply to life and relationships in any way that you can, then you've won. I think that's the key message that I would try and tell people.
Speaker 2:I love that answer, especially like what can you use from like those lows or those things that the challenges that have faced you and how you bring that into like life and working life and home life, after this very kind of short space, like four week prep for the for these challenges, why then move to doing the five times? Was it 250k that you ended up doing so? So why that kind of next sort of big step?
Speaker 3:the September 2020 was my first experience and that I felt like I'd opened my eyes to a new world and I loved it. So, even though it broke me in every single way, I didn't run for eight weeks afterwards. I knew there and then that I wanted this to be a part of my life because of what I gained from it. And ultimately, after that event, I reached out for help with Big Moose and I realized with that help then helped me reframe how I wanted to use ultra marathons. Moving forward, I knew my life wasn't in a great state, so, with the support of the therapist, graham from Big Moose, I was able to reframe how I saw ultra running and instead of running away because that's ultimately what I was doing with running over that time, I had no awareness as to why I was doing it, but what the therapy helped me do was gain that self-awareness and realize, oh, actually I've been running away from these feelings. So how can I use running something that I love, something that I know that I've always loved and exercise and movement? How can I use it to move towards these challenges? How can I use running as a way to learn more about myself instead of trying to turn down the noise on these voices. So ultimately, 2021 became a year for me.
Speaker 3:I had the opportunity to run another 125 K in Scotland with Ultra X in the May and then I ran my first 250k race in Wales in the August and that was the first time Ultra X were doing a race in Wales and they asked me to be a part of it because I'm a Welshie and whatnot, and that was. That was a really special race as well. That was kind of the first time in in my career quote-unquote as an ultra runner that I no longer felt the need to prove myself to anyone. And also what was happening alongside that with the therapy, with the running, this, this new mindset towards how it can help me opportunities were arising in life. I'd got a job, working for a different company, I was doing my ultra running qualifications and I went to ultra X because they were there for me as well throughout the whole time. And I said to them has anyone ever ran all five of your 250 K races before? And they said, no, that's silly, why would anyone want to do that? And I said something like can I try? I explained I was doing it for Big Moose and it was all going to be for charity and I wanted to raise £25,000, which is probably why they agreed to kindly give me the race entries.
Speaker 3:So the journey started to run all five 250ks, which I had no idea whether I was going to be able to accomplish or not. I mean, I believed in myself, I think, as a as a professional rugby player, I've always had that a deep sense of of self-belief in that I can do these things. A lot of time was just getting out my own way for for for various reasons, and so the first one was in Sri Lanka, second was in Slovenia, august was Wales, times two or mark two. In October, on my birthday, it was Jordan in the desert. And then the last one was going to be in Mexico, in the Copper Canyons. Have you ever read Born to Run? Yes, the Mexico race in the Copper Canyons the year before, in 2021. And ultimately, that's how the five 250s were born was a reason, a way for me to raise money for big moose again, and ultimately it went really well until mexico was cancelled for those that don't know the story, tell us what happened next.
Speaker 1:So you're not the sort of person that's going to go.
Speaker 3:Oh well, it's cancelled, we'll have to settle it for them I wasn't, thankfully no, and I think I'd also at this point, I'd invested so much time, so much money, so much of my life into raising this money and for this challenge, for big moves and for me I'd be dishonest to say that it wasn't for me as well it was so transformative, which is probably too long to explain now. But ultimately, eight weeks before the last race of the year, we just finished Ultra X Wales, which was 34 degrees in Snowdonia for five days, which was absolutely horrendous Finished that, and eight weeks before Mexico, it was cancelled, which is a really hard email to read, because everything was riding on the fact that Mexico was the big one and we had a load of friends running it, like Leon was going to run it A really good friend of mine, leon Bustin, who's a lovely guy You'd love him, very, very accomplished ultra runner as well. And coach Reanie McGreg, who's a lovely guy you'd love him, very, very accomplished ultra runner as well. And coach reeney mcgregor was running it, a sports dietitian who you may know as well. And we were going to all join forces and raise money for big moose together, because everyone's been touched by big moose in a particular way. So when it was cancelled.
Speaker 3:I was like, well, what now? Like what can we do? And I remember making a phone call to steph actually, and I told her I was pretty gutted. On the phone I was explaining what happened. I've got to give the credit because she was the one that said, well, why don't you put on your own? And I don't even think I answered her question. I think I just put the phone straight down and I got on the phone to Rini straight away and I said Rini, what do you think like should we do this? And she agreed straight away.
Speaker 3:I think even if it hadn't worked out, the way it was going to work out was there was never any chance. There wasn't going to run the 250k because at the start of the year I set up to run five 250s, even if it meant running loops around my garden. I was going to do the five 250ks. But learning from the 4-4-48 challenge and learning from how bringing people together when magic happened but with the 4-4-48 it was because I encourage people to run virtually as well I had a few people like I FaceTimed and people were running all over it, which is probably how it raised so much money and awareness as well. So, learning from the 4-4-48, it was like right, let's get people together and try and make this a community challenge, but let's not make it a race, let's just make it 250K.
Speaker 3:Um, so we started doing our research, found uh, really found, uh really had a friend who owned a campsite in bradford and avon, campwell farm brilliant place. Um, they now have saunas and ice baths, so I'd highly recommend going to have a look at it. But we called him up and and he said, oh well, look, it's in no first week of november in the uk the campsite's shut, but we're happy to open it for you if you respect the campsite. Yeah, sure, no problem, could you just pay for the? If you just rented the main cabin, you can have the site. I was like great, okay, just pay for that, get it done.
Speaker 3:And then I, uh, I asked Instagram for help and, after asking for help, 17 runners signed up to do to run the 250k. 40% of them are new, 60%. I had no idea who they were. They just wanted to support and get involved with this challenge for Big Moose. How do we make this as simple as possible? Uh, rini's partner, ewan.
Speaker 3:We went and recce'd two different One was 15 K and one was 18 K, and we decided that day one, three and five we'd run the 15 K loop three times, and day two and four we'd run the 18 K loop three times to make up the distance.
Speaker 3:So runners were just having to run the same loop day after day after day after day, and it was the best decision we could have made, because we started the race as a team and every lap you came back to that same happy, supportive environment where it was safe, and each lap, when you chose to go out, you knew it was coming. You were willing to go out and face that same thing again, which is kind of poetic, because our mental health, it's the same shit that comes up over and over and over again. Like it's the same stuff that I'm having to deal with when I go back to therapy. Now that came up two years ago. Yeah, it just comes up in a slightly different form, but you have to repeatedly go back. So kind of the analogy of or the the, the way I kind of thought about it was like, well, every time that you're in a loop, you get kind of physically weaker and weaker and weaker and less capable of overcoming it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, every time you become stronger, more resilient mentally, because, even though you're weaker physically, you're choosing to go back and overcome that same obstacle from a place of weakness every single time. So you're, you're just getting stronger and stronger, and we ended up raising 22 000 pound that week, which is a crazy number. No one wanted to leave. I've never seen more tape, uh, more people in pain, more blisters. People were sleeping outside, it was pissing down with rain. I mean, it was the first week of November in the UK, yet no one wanted to leave because the environment was just so special. We were there for something bigger than ourselves and we ended up calling the week why we Run. This came to us after the event. The values are kind of decided on. Was it's kind of it's purpose? Beyond yourself, power and human connection, the pursuit past physical and mental limits and together as one and those four ingredients created this.
Speaker 1:This really special environment makes you realize what's important in life this interview with lewis robling was so brilliant, so much inspiration there, so many brilliant stories, but also so many lessons that we can take away from it that we concluded that we'd be better to break this into two parts. So for claire and my kind of post-interview analysis, you need to go and listen to part two, which will release a week after part one, and then you'll have our outro talking about the incredible, inspiring journey and lessons that Lewis can share with us. So go check out part two for the rest of this interview and also for Claire and Mai's kind of post-interview analysis of what we think we could take from the lessons of the incredible Lewis Roebling.
Speaker 1:Jeff and Chloe from Big Moose Charity, who we featured in episode one of season seven, made such a great impact on the both of us, we decided to make them our charity sponsor for season seven. You know they really touched me in the sense that I lost my brother-in-law to suicide in wales and these guys are working their socks off to help prevent situations like that. So, claire, why did jeff and chloe really make an impact on you?
Speaker 2:Coming from a background in clinical nutrition and working in mental health, to me also it hit a spot in terms of the charity and how they are building therapy to help support people with mental health difficulties, and they've saved over 50 lives now and already met their first target of a million and their new target, 15 million, that they're trying to get to.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely incredible and 15 million is a huge target they've set themselves, but they're speeding up help that people in desperately in need get, and this help is needed more than ever and I know how problematic mental health issues are in today's world. So if you think you can help Big Moose Charity and they're particularly looking for corporate partners to help them raise that 15 million, if you think you can help Big Moose Charity and they're particularly looking for corporate partners to help them raise that 15 million, if you think you can help them or link them into a company that can help them, the best place to go to is bigmoosecharityco, or you can find them on Instagram as bigmoosecharity, or you can even email Jeff at jeffatbigmooseco.