EP. 65: Rise of the Fighter: Paul Holborn Winner of the 2025 World Marathon Challenge

A conversation with Paul Holborn. He is a former boxer and winner of the 2025 World Marathon Challenge which is running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. Paul Holborn didn’t go into the event to win, but after about 5 days Paul emerged as the men’s winner, completing the 777 in an average time of 3:22:36.  

We talk about his background as a boxer and the inspiring story of what eventually drove him to consider attempting the World Marathon Challenge, and the support he received from his family after taking the physical and financial leap.  

We discuss Paul’s training approaching leading up to the 777 and the amount of training volume he peaked at to prepare, including his level of confidence going into Antarctica.  

We talk about Paul’s fueling and sleep protocol going into the event and how well it worked. Paul discusses what he believes it was that helped him in the end.  

Paul talks through each leg of the event, some of the high points and lower points and where along the way did the possibility he could win come into mind.  

Finally Paul talks about what the future holds for his athletic pursuits.    

Paul Holborn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauly_holborn  

Paul Holborn BBC Article 
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgp43emvd0o.amp  

Paul Holborn NYT Article
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6164653/2025/03/01/seven-marathons-seven-days-seven-continents/  

About the World Marathon Challenge
https://www.worldmarathonchallenge.com/  


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The intersection of endurance, sport, health, fitness, and life, following
the evidence where it leads with the science of self
propelled motion. This is the Endurance Experience.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Podcast, powered by Event Horizon dot TV and hosted by
Tony Rich. The World Marathon Challenge the endeavor to run
seven marathons on all seven continents in seven days. It's

(00:35):
a physical challenge, it's a mental challenge, it's a logistical challenge.
It might be one of the greatest physical challenges ever
contrived in certainly in the running world. I've been looking
at the seven seven seven since twenty fifteen. It's put
on by run Book, and finally it happened on January thirty. First,

(01:01):
I set off with about sixty plus other runners from
around the world to complete the seven seven seven and
running a marathon on Antarctica, then going to Cape down
South Africa, then to Perth, Australia, then Dubai, then Madrid,

(01:25):
then Fortulesa, South America, and then back home in North
America down in Miami. We accomplished that goal. Not only
did we accomplish that goal, we did it in five days,

(01:46):
nineteen hours and seventeen minutes. That average is out I
did the math that averages out to something like a
marathon every twenty hours on average, right, and the time
distance between something more even less than that. And I

(02:12):
met some great people and forged some relationships with people
around the world. One of the people that you're going
to hear from today is the male winner of the
twenty twenty five World Marathon Challenge. His name is Paul Holborn,

(02:38):
originally from the UK. I didn't get a chance to
talk to Paul a lot on the trip, because, you know,
I'm so focused in everything, the mental overhead that you
have to put in to do this event. But I
get back home after we finish and I start reading

(02:59):
the BBC article that they wrote on Paul. And by
the way, I will link that article in the show
notes along with the New York Times article, as well
as Paul's Instagram. I encourage you to go follow him.
So I'm reading the BBC article and I was very

(03:20):
blown away. I thought it was very interesting. I said, Wow,
he has a very interesting story. It's a very interesting
story because by his own admission, he's not a runner
and he doesn't like running. Paul Holborn is a boxer.
At least he was a boxer for many years fighting

(03:44):
in the lightweight boxing category and then retired from boxing.
And you'll hear from Paul in his own words on
what it was that drove him to the World Marathon Challenge,
and you'll find that very interesting. And without significant training volume,

(04:07):
peak peak training volume, and with a fueling strategy of
bananas and mars bars, Paul goes in and wins the
twenty twenty five World Marathon Challenge with an average marathon
time of three twenty two thirty six. So we also

(04:29):
talk about his family and what his family thought when
he decided he was going to spend a lot of
money on a very big endeavor in how they supported him,
and you'll even hear a cameo from Paul's dog in
this conversation. And so we spend the time talking a

(04:53):
lot about that, his background, his athletic background as a boxer.
We talk about his confidence going in to the seven
seven seven, his training going into the seven seven seven,
and we talk about his fuel link strategy and sleep

(05:14):
strategy and his protocol for this very logistical challenge. And
then Paul walks me through his strategy for Antarctica and
for those that are interested in the seven seven seven event.
You'll get a lot out of this because we then
walk through each of the other six legs and some

(05:38):
of the detail on how Paul was failing throughout each
of the legs and at what point did he realize, Wow,
I think I'm in a position to actually win this thing.
So I'm glad I could bring you this story, and
I did learn quite a bit for myself that I

(05:59):
can incorporate not only into my training, but the training
and coaching process that I have for athletes. More to
say in my afterward. So without further delay, I give
you the twenty twenty five World Marathon Challenge winner in
the male category, Paul Holborn. I am on with Paul Hoborn.

(06:28):
Thanks for joining me.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Johnny.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Okay, so we're about a little over two weeks out
of the last stage of the World Marathon Challenged seven
seven seven and the organizers put together a pretty awesome event.
I thought it was excellently organized and so Paul here.

(06:56):
There was an article and published on BBC about Paul
who was the male winner for the World Marathon Challenge.
What was your average time? By the way, two that's
incredible for seven straight marathons, and as you guys know,

(07:16):
I also finished, not competing, just completing. But it was
a great event and we had some you know, lasting experiences.
But I wanted to talk with Paul because when I
read the BBC article, I said, wow, Paul really has
a very interesting story. And we didn't get, you know,

(07:39):
to talk much during the event and given that, you know,
we're all trying to prepare for this extraordinary thing across
a week. But Paul, if you can talk about your background,
your athletic background, and you know, maybe talk about what
led you to do the seven seven to seven and

(08:02):
you know, were there any specific causes, yeah, that you
were competing for.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, so's start with the background. Growing up in the UK,
like every other child, you start playing football or you
might you might call it soccer. You start playing football
in England at the number one sport, so like everyone
else were playing football, every opportunity would get and then
at ten years old, it just happened to be invited

(08:33):
by my brother to a boxing show at the local
pub and I fell in love with with it that night.
I so much wanted to be in that boxing ring
and never boxing my life, never knew anything about it,
but when I sing the boxing that night, I wanted
to be a part of it. So I joined my
local boxing club, which I didn't realize we had. I

(08:55):
joined my local boxing club and I started boxing. Right
about that time, there was a famous, well it still
is famous singer in England called Cliff Richard, and he
did a tennis foundation of about ten thousand people and
I got picked out of my school for that because
I was better at keeping the tennis ball up and

(09:16):
then I actually won that. So got to a point
where I was playing football, tennis boxing for quite a
few years and then run about when I got to fifteen,
I already had to decide pick one of them, and
I picked the boxing. You know, I picked the hardest
one with the legs amount of money, but so yeah,

(09:39):
I picked boxing, and I start, you know, putting my
full time into boxing. And when I got to about eighteen,
my dad and my brother the ex military, the Rex
British Parachute Regiment soldiers, and I always wanted to prove
I could do that, so I did that and then
I come out with the Army. Around about twenty the
term professional boxing and a box all worked till I

(10:02):
was twenty seven, and that's where it ends. I quit
boxing and I moved to Canada. Job opportunity to come up.
I moved to Canada and I never looked back. But
I was trailing like a little bit here and there,
a bit of boxing at a local boxing gym or
wherever I was working at the time. I'd run a

(10:24):
couple of times here and there. But then after a
two years of that, I pretty much never trained for
like ten years. Maybe once or twice a year i'd
get a jog in or maybe see a boxing bag,
and just like everyone else, you think, oh, this is it,
I'm coming back. I'm going to keep fak shit. Remember
how good it feels and how good you feel after

(10:45):
the training session. But I never did, and I start drinking.
I started drinking around about nine years ago, and one
of me in drinking, I mean like seven days a week,
every single day of the year without Phil and a
lot as well. I mean I wasn't drinking during the
day or urt work, but I'd finished work and I'd

(11:07):
start drinking, go to sleep, get up for work. The
next year and I got in such a bad state
where I was just unhappy, very unhappy, and I can
never figure out what it was. You know, alcohol was
a mask and a lot of my unhappiness, and also
the fact that I was down in the I moved

(11:28):
down to the US, and I had goals which I
had to achieve with work in my business, et cetera.
And I finally got to a point where I achieved
all those and then I just had no more goals
and I start getting really unhappy, and I couldn't figure
out what it was. And I was thinking, oh, well,
I'll get another goal, or I go back to school

(11:49):
or learn something, or never once even clicked that, Hey,
it's your fitness. You're not doing anything. You're lazier, your
mind's lazy, right, you know, I couldn't remember the last
time I was truly happy with myself, and uh, I
was off. I was on the way to work one
day and I was walking through Dollars Airport and I thought, Hey,

(12:13):
I'm gonna google the hardest challenge, and that could have
been anything. I mean, I think I just google hardest challenge.
I didn't realize it was going to be Fitness World
Marathon challenge was top of the list, and uh, you know,
for anyone who even though I would even say I
run it like some people who run a lot, it
seems impossible. So, wow, seven marathons in seven days and

(12:35):
seven continents. I mean at this point, even when I
was younger, I didn't used to run marathons. I'd run
like four or five miles from a boxing maybe it's
like a seven or eight every now and again. So
it seemed like, wow, this is like impossible. But it's
so impossible, and it's so much money. As you know

(12:56):
that if I sign up for this, I cannot pull
out right now, there's no going back. This was crazy
the thought of it, and I was talking to my
wife about it, and I could not get out of
my mind. And I signed up and I started running
pretty much that week. And yeah, nineteen months later, that

(13:17):
was the nineteen month training for that challenge. So wow, there.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Was how many fights did you have as a boxer
did you? Did you have many fights?

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah? I had fifty six some of the fights and
fifteen professional fights.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, wow, and yeah, so you're you're married, So your
your family is Nikki, We know you have a dog,
any kids?

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah? I have one daughter of Paris. Okay, two dogs,
which the bark so on outside had two cats.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Wow. Now what did your family say when you decided
that you were going to try to do the seven
seven seven?

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Well, I spoke to my wife about it. And my wife,
she she does she follows a lot of sports and
reads a lot of books and stuff like that. And
you know that Darvid Goggins whatever. She's read a lot
of his books. And she was she's trying to push
that on me and said she realized how much it cost,

(14:32):
and we're not in that position to be spending money
like that. But she realized, like I need this, and
she said, I'll tell you, well, if if you read
his book, you know, we'll pay for it. Anyway, I
didn't last long. I think I lasted like forty fifty pages.
I'm not a reader, and so that was it. But anyway,

(14:54):
I convinced that allow me to pay for it. And
but that's how that come about. So you know, no
one else really knew about it. It was just made my wife. Uh.
I just told my wife about it. The thing is
about moving around the world like I have, you start
lose friends, you know, and I work on the road
all the time, so I don't know many people to
talk to it about you know, I'm a bit of
a loner and no social media at that time. So yeah,

(15:19):
my wife was convinced this is going to make the
better me and I did.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, and she's on board with you. So that's great.
That's a great story. And you know, one of the
things that resonated with me, it's right, it's it's not
cheap to do. Right. You push that button, then you go, oh,
my goodness, what did I just do? And I had
that feeling as well, a little bit of panic, right,

(15:46):
you know, because you know, you know how well I
know how I feel after a marathon, right, you feel
destroyed and then to think of doing you know, lacing
them up and doing it again week, day after day
for seven days. And so but you let's talk about

(16:11):
the training, right, because there's no rulebook for this. There's
no there's no standard protocol training program to prepare yourself
to run one hundred and eighty three hundred and eighty
four miles in a week. So what was your your

(16:32):
training for? So you went out and you said, okay,
I'm going to start running. You just ran what was
your training process? Like how many how many weekly miles
did you peek at for instance, or you know, what
was your process for this race?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
You mean leaving up to this race. Yeah, So my
longest week, I remember it was fifty nine or sixty one,
and that was my longest. I did three weeks around
about that, like fifty five to sixty and and that
was only because I've seen what other people were doing
and I was like, I'm just not running enough. I'm

(17:10):
not running enough. I need to run more. I need
to run more, and start worrying that I just had
all this time to build up for this and I
hadn't run enough because but you do not know this
because I don't talk about it. But I don't like running.
I don't running. I wish I was one of those

(17:30):
people who liked it. You see people that talk about, oh,
I kind of wait to run. I don't want to
go running. I don't like running, and when I'm out there,
I kind of wait to get back, so it's hard
for me to get out the door. But I, uh, yeah,
I picked run about sixty and I felt the benefits
from my average week for the last year and monthinety

(17:51):
month was like forty thirty five to forty That was
always enough for me. But when I stepped it up
to sixty, like, I really started feeling better once once
I was out running, and like about two weeks before
I set off for South Africa, I remember that. I
remember exactly where I was. I said, Wow, I'm starting

(18:11):
to feel like a run. I'm starting to feel really good.
Things are getting a lot easier. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
That speaks to your your physical ability, right, because I run.
I've run probably one hundred marathons by the age of fifty.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
And you know, usually what we call two x two
times a marathon in a week to two X is
about you know, fifty two miles in a week. You know,
pro marathoners will do three x right, three times the
marathon in a week. And usually we'll even run one

(18:56):
hundred mile weeks, one hundred and twenty mile weeks.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
You know the fact that you were able to have
that performance and you were basically doing you know about
two x two and a half x, that's incredible. That
shows that you you have, you know, some pretty innate
physical ability. What class did you fight in?

Speaker 1 (19:23):
It?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
When you were a fighter?

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Would you were you lightweight one hundred and thirty five pounds?

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Okay, one thirty five, and would you say that that's
your you know, typical running weight.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
No, I'm won fifty four.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Now, okay, wow, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, that was pretty impressive.
So were you were you confident going into January?

Speaker 1 (19:47):
No? No, I wasn't. I doubted myself a lot, you know,
I did. I just didn't didn't feel like I was
doing enough, you know. And for the first time in
my life, I was going into a sport where I
knew I wasn't gonna win. Like you know, when I

(20:07):
am marathons, I know I'm not gonna win, where when
I was boxing, I was kind of like I had
to win. It was there's there's no there's no second
best that you have to win. And I was confident
in that. But with books, with running, I knew I
wasn't gonna win, and I really, uh. I went from
having a really good few weeks those few weeks, you know,
I stepped. I stepped from forty mile a week to
them sixty miles a week, and I started feeling the

(20:29):
benefit and of the start. I've left this too late.
I should have done this in the past. And I've
ran two marathon races this last year. And a half
and then I did one marathon in training about six
weeks before the race itself. But when I got to
South Africa, I mean all my all, my starts were
looking good on the garment watching now, my VO two

(20:50):
was up to fifty nine, My sleeping was great, my
heart rate was down to like forty four forty six
during the night, things weren't great. And then I got
to South Africa and I had such a hard time
adjusting to the hours. There was two days where I
was up for like forty eight hours nearly trying to

(21:11):
adjust to the time change. And I went out running
done a six mile and I got four mile in
and I was burnt out. Yeah, I started looking myself
like what's going on? Yeah, like absolutely, what's going on?
Going on? Twenty six mile? How am I going to
run twenty six mile when I'm burned out? Off the fall?
And it was it was obviously just the sleep had

(21:33):
to be the sleep.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, well let's talk about let's hit on that because
listeners may not know the fueling and the sleep strategy
that you have to come up with. Right, so, you know,
we're on a plane, we have to sleep on a plane.
We have to eat on the plane. Right, So usually

(21:56):
for one marathon your car blowed. Yeah, usually you need
you know, four and a half grams of carbohydrate per
pound of body weight. Now you have to, you know,
get to the airport, consume whatever you can consume, Get
on the plane, consume whatever you can consume. Get sleep right.
And different people sleep differently on planes. Some people sleep well,

(22:22):
some people don't really sleep well. So did you have
a particular fueling and sleep strategy going in.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
No. I had ideas which I didn't use, but uh no,
I just got I picked them up on the way.
I decided myself thought, I'm not that a race. I'm
not there, I'm not going away, and like that was
never in my mind. So I'm like, I'm not that
of a room fail Marthans, like flail was flocked where
I'd feel terrible the next year and not be able

(22:51):
to risk. You know, I knew I was gonna kind
of take it easy, because you gotta you gotta take
right a long week. So I actually just turned up
with Mars bars in my pocket. That was it. And
at the start line, lucky enough, there was some tables
that were food on I eat the bananas, and mars
bars and I didn't have and I picked up some
protein powder in South Africa. I don't even know the name.

(23:13):
I just picked it off the shelf, but that's all
I had. And then but so I was quite lucky
that they have food there. But what I should have done,
I saying, a few guys bringing those like dehydrated meals,
and they just had the water that would have been
perfect for the plane because I didn't realize how bad
the food was going to be on the plane. I
thought they might have like said, oh there's like a

(23:35):
ball of pasta or bowl of rice or something, but
that plain food it was. It was very disappointing. And
then you have to juggle do you want to sleep
or do you want to eat? Right? So, I mean,
and as you know, like you're straight out under the
bus to the racetrack. I remember coming out of coming

(23:55):
out of Brazil and you were standing there as well.
One little restaurant was open and the guy was taking
like forty minutes to serve one sandwich. You know, it
was so hard to fuel up. And I'm a bit
I'm are a picky eater, but I don't eat crap.
And but I got to a point where whatever they
were giving me on the plane, I just ate it all.

(24:16):
If it was like the jams or the cross ons
or whatever, just get as much down as I can.
But I made sure at the start line i'd have
about two bananas and a couple of two bananas and
a couple of miles bars. And luckily enough it didn't
blow me. I picked something up, but pretty much nearly
every station the first two races, I didn't and I
found it hard. I didn't drink anything. I didn't like

(24:39):
eat anything. And I realized later that when I was
eating and drink and throw the races, I was feeling
a lot better in the train. And I never eat
a drink when I go out train and running. I'll
just run the whole way and eat a drink when
I get back. And you know, it's a bit of
a lagger experience and running and riscing.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
It's pretty incredible. As a non runner, you just figured
out a lot on the fly, and that's just more
impressive that you're able to pull off a win. And
now what about the sleep? Did did you sleep on average?
Did you sleep well?

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Or no? Very well? Like if I had to thank
anyone for that whole week. It was my body for
showing up. My body did what it needed to do.
I'm not a good sleep I never have been. But
when I lay down, I must have slept, because I
remember like waking up hours later and thinking I should
get some aid. I slept really well. There wasn't one

(25:40):
time well we have to get to get that plan
where I thought I haven't enough sleep. Yeah, so I
was really happy with that.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Good for you. Yeah, like I said here, people have mixed.
I mean we we were on a plane for the
listeners where the seats fully reclined horizontally so you could,
you know, completely stretch out. But you know, some people
like me, for instance, I had probably a couple of
good nights, but a couple of nights I was in

(26:11):
that limbo stage where you're half sleep but you could
still hear things around you. I had a couple of those.
But I think doing it again, i'd have I'd have
a more sound fueling and sleep strategy. I think that
would have helped a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah. I took the plugs and then I've never used
them in the pasta home anyway, really, and I knew
all off lying in the every week and I kind
of sleep sitting hope, but I managed to sleep lying down, Yeah,
and so much so I was in a position whether
the crews couldn't see me. So even when we're taxiing,

(26:49):
I put that seat straight down, right we were taking off,
My legs were in the air.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, and I had that, you know the same Okay,
should I wait for food or should I go to sleep?
And then you have to you know that again and
you can have a strategy with that if I were
to do it again. So, so talk me through your
strategy for Antarctica. So you live in Texas, I'm assuming
that you don't see a lot of snow there, really

(27:16):
cold weather. Did you have a strategy for Antarctica?

Speaker 1 (27:22):
No, not like Trandon. You know, I didn't get any
cold weather I was. I work in Memphis, so it
got down to like minus four or five one dear
a couple of days in January before we set off.
So I go, I go a little bit of reminder
of like cold weather what it was like. But as

(27:42):
it turned out, it was warm.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Now right right, it was pretty warm for Antarctica, and
it felt like it felt like a regular winter New
England day.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, So I didn't get a chance to like run
on snow here or anywhere. But you know, I took
a lot of clothes. I probably yourself, I, well, will
I wear this because it's going to be too cold.
But to be honest with you, I just had two
thin T shirts on, and after the first loop, I
was wanting to take one off, but I ended up

(28:15):
leaving it on because, as you know, one side of
the track you were getting wind burning your face. I
actually thought it was going to ruin me for the
week because I could feel my face burning. Yeah, and
it a little tip for anyone doing it, carry a
little chopstick and your glove or something, because I needed
that so much on that race. But yeah, and then
you go up the other side and you're sweating. My

(28:35):
goggles were for the steaming up and I had to
keep wiping them down. And I get on the other side,
I'm freezing and I'm sweating.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
So yeah, that was very interesting. Yeah two point I
think it's a two point six mile loop. Ten times.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was one of my tough races because I just
didn't I didn't loosen up like it. I don't know
if my uh if my going into that risk that
I did you know my tape room was what good
or not? I don't know, but I just didn't lose snow.
And there was a point where I had to walk
for like, yeah, I don't know, I twenty seconds or
for me. But I'm like, why am I this tired?

(29:12):
I felt I was putting in like seven minute mile
flot pace, but I was getting eight minutes even on
the first mile, which was slightly as all hill. I
think I said seven fifty six, and I'm like, it's
going on here?

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, why is it.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Seven fifty six? I'm going at seven pace?

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right?

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Ye?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Right? I think it's because of the snow. I can
still hear the crunch of the snow. I could still
hear it. And I think, you know, because that it
was the question I had as well, you know, to me,
it was like I do it? Do I need spikes?
And people say, well, you don't need spikes. All you
need is a good trail shoe. I had a good

(29:47):
trail shoe. But yeah, it seems like your your effort
is not translating to the pace. And when you come
around around the two point six miles loop, your your
cold going down. And then when you come back around,
you're facing the sun and then you're you're hot. And

(30:09):
this is the whole challenge with Antarctica. Right, So for
the listeners, right, there's there's no there's no Antarctic Antarctica
International Airport. The you know, you're you get into a
cargo plane and you you go to Antarctica five plus
hours and then you you land on a on an

(30:30):
ice and snow sheet and you get out, you get
out and walk to the base and you know, so
the trip over from Cape Town in the in the
cargo plane again you have to figure out eat, sleep
because as soon as you get out, you gotta you know,

(30:53):
you're you're getting ready to start as soon as you
get out, and maybe you know, I think we had
the most time in an Arctica, but yeah, you're you're
pretty much starting soon. So you have to Everything is
thinking about did I do this? Did I do that?
Did I pack this? Did I packed that? How am
I going to do this? How am I going to
do that? So it's a lot of mental overhead that

(31:17):
you're spending to try to figure things out.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
So but there was a lot of kid foff, a
lot of kid forough for me, like in and out
of my bag, you know, because you have to leave
it in the ten. So I was on constantly in
and out like oh I need this, and if I'm
half around the loop and I want something and want
to run back up here, let's put this at the
top of the bag. There was a lot of kid
fuff and stressed me out a lot. Yeah, and and yeah,

(31:41):
the gear like an hour. I think we had like
an hour for the race, and put some great food
on board. You only want to eat so much because
you're going to be running right right.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, now was Antarctica, you're slower?

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, it was actually really slow for me. Three three
thirty Yeah, three thirty.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, so that was three thirty and then and then
from their Cape Town. So my understanding Cape Town was
your fastest, right, No, no, it was Which one was
The faster of Cape Town.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Was three seventeen. Then I had three three fifteens in
a row, so I guess the next three after that
was all Okay.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
What did you think about Cape Town? I thought that
was a pretty Yeah, I liked it.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Some people said like the stuff were with the heat.
I didn't think it was hot. I didn't think it
was cool out, but I think it was. I think
it was pretty good. It was it was challenging running
around people. You know, I was running pretty pretty quick,
and some people didn't want to move out of the
wear and so you're moving out of the way for them.
But there were so many people. Uh that was that

(32:51):
was tough. And I liked that race. I mean still
I went as you know, I went into the first
one and I didn't think I was gonna be competitive,
and I realized I was. And then I was remember
standing at start line really nervous, where I shouldn't have been.
The first day, I wasn't nervous, but the second day,
I was like, oh wow, I did all right yesterday,

(33:12):
So maybe I've run myself out. Maybe these other people
And when look at that idiot, he's running too quick.
He's going to burn himself out. So a few people
set off and they set off pretty quick, and I'm like,
oh wow, okay, I'm starting to realize that I'm not
one of the better ones here. These guys are going
to leave me in the day until about eight or

(33:32):
nine miles when I caught up, and I wasn't feeling
very good. Like most risks, it takes me about fourteen mile,
a worm up and around up I remember taking over tomorrow.
We around about seven miles in right, and then then
then I caught up with Alan around about I don't know,
fourteen fifteen mile, and I just started to get stronger

(33:54):
as the rest goes on. So I actually felt really good.
I was up before my wife was as well, which
was great, and she rode the bicycle on the last
mile with me, which once again I think looking back,
could have been a big mistake because I got that
I was starting up and you know, you get that

(34:15):
bulls and you're talking to someone and you know, I
was running like six minute flost piss and it wasn't
until I finished I think, oh wow, I should have
done that. That might have burned me out for tomorrow.
But that was a great risk for me. I think
I was leading after that risk. Going into Dear three,
I was two minutes ahead of everybody, so that was

(34:36):
a really good risk for me.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah. I mean I was watching when I again I
wasn't there to to compete, but I was watching some
of the people on the top end, and you know,
running in heat is always a concern, but it's interesting
that it's almost like your body reboots after the second hour,

(34:58):
and I I was watching a couple of Alan You
Toomomi and that Stefani and just watching the top the
top end runners, seeing if if people were breaking down
in the heat, and it was almost like, you know,
people were doing really well in the heat, and it

(35:21):
was just beautiful. It wasn't it wasn't too humid. It
was hot, but it wasn't too humid, and the obviously
the scenery was just beautiful. I was just being, you know,
mesmerized by the beaches, the water, the scenery in Cape Town.
It was it was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yeah, And another tipto to anyone listening. It's common sense.
But even though it's common sense, it doesn't mean you're
going to do it. I don't like sun cream putting
stuff on my skin, so I didn't put anything on.
And the last lub, I thought, you know what, I
want to take my shirt off. And I remember thinking, oh,
it's only twenty minutes, but it's not twenty minutes to
say fifty minutes or something. You burned. I got burnt

(36:01):
pretty bad. And I woke up the next day off
the plane and I stood up and I thought, ah,
while my legs are so so off running. It wasn't
it was some burn, okay, my whole body with chest
but back, and that could have that could have led
to like a really bad week. So you know, keep
covered up, even if it's within layer, keep covering up

(36:24):
all the while. A lot of sun green.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah. When then we go from there to Perth, which
was a nighttime run, and I think that was probably
the first time I ever run in marathon in the nighttime.
How did that adjustment hit you? You know, was that an
adjustment for you?

Speaker 1 (36:45):
That was my best rest of them all?

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Wow, I like that one. I preferred that one. I
thought the weather was perfect. It was rainy, it was cool,
and me Alan and Tomorrow we run together for quite
a few miles, so even though there was no conversation,
it was it was just the right right environment. It

(37:09):
was a little bit windy, but I was I was
sticking behind all and trying to have him face then
the wind, and I think it might have worked. But
that that rice went pretty quick for me, And you know,
I think Tomorrow we fell off around about twelve miles
and then me and Alan were running together. But on
the last loop, I thought I'm going to go for

(37:30):
this and uh and I did, and I was running
by myself for the last loop, and like I said,
it just kind of went quick. I was enjoying that rice.
I enjoyed it from the start to the finish.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah. Now was it Perth or Dubai where you started
to realize, you know, what I might I might be
able to win this thing? Or did you did that
pop into your mind at all?

Speaker 1 (37:51):
It was round about person Dubai? Yeah, the you know,
I put it. Like I said, I put a little
pressure on myself on the second deer, but I still
was unsure. Then I after Perth, when I when I
won that one, I was now a few moments ahead
and starting to think I might be out again the
top three. Even though I was ahead, I was thinking

(38:12):
I might be again the top three because I was
still waiting for people just to start running a lot quicker.
And that's when it started start becoming less enjoyable, because
now I was starting nervous and feeling sick about it
and just thinking this is crile. I've got a taste
of what winning is going to look like. But because
kind of get stripped away, I didn't I doubted myself

(38:32):
a lot, and yeah, going and then and then I
was like twenty a few minutes. Someone can pick that
up really quick, you know, want race is all it takes.
And when I started in Dubai, I was a pretty
good environment. But around my aland a lot that week,
and he sets a great pace, quicker than I want

(38:52):
to start off at. So I had to keep up
with him, and I found that quite difficult.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Yeah, and the fourth leg was particularly worrisome to me,
just because that's that's one hundred miles. Yeah, that's one
hundred miles in four days. And that is because again,
I mean run many marathons. I never ran one hundred

(39:21):
mile a week. I tried to hit one hundred miles
in training. I think I hit somewhere near ninety something.
Ninety something miles in my body did not feel good
after hitting that. So you know, pro marathoners run one
hundred miles in a week, you know, And so and

(39:46):
that just weighed on me. I'm like, have I built
up enough resiliency after you know, after that fourth leg. So,
but Dubai, it was it was fun. It was flat right.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
What I I done a little video off of it,
and the thant that the buying people. You see all
the little cats running around and there stations.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Foods that I love the cats.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I put a smile on my face, like I just
wanted to pick them up and rover with them. So,
you know, I'm a bit of an a lover. So
when I say that, it was really it was really.
It was nice, nice, failing, you.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Know, and it's beautiful again. It's it's like you if
you went into a time machine and went into the future.
That's what you Bai looked like. To me was that
dome where we you know, we always came back into
this dome, and that really just was incredible to me.
It was majestic.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
It was literally the noise I had. I listened to
music on that one. I had appos in Okay, it
was so loud in that dome. I couldn't eat my
music when I run through it.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was just amazing. Now, okay, from
from Dubai, we go to Madrid Formula one track, which
was really hilly. Now, how did you take those hills?

(41:14):
Did you run all those hills?

Speaker 1 (41:16):
I ran every one of them. I stopped to walk,
actually stopped to walk twice on that race. For about
about eight seconds, I was feeling sorry. If any race,
I felt sorry for myself. That was it. I was.
I was ahead on minutes and I thought I was
going to lose it all that dear. I couldn't even

(41:36):
see Alan at one point, so far ahead, and I
wasn't feeling just nothing was working. I was feeling really tight,
really like it was hard to run. It was hard
and quick. And then when I say in the hills,
I mean I had no idea formuly one tracks were
like that, So I was like, why have they done

(41:56):
this right? Marsons are going to be flat? Why have
they done this to us? And then you had the
wind at the start, then the hills, and I live
in the hilly area here in Texas, so that is
just like my neighborhood. So I thought, oh, this is
going to be great, but you know we've already done
one hundred miles whatever, so I found it pretty difficult.
But once again, after the last ten miles, I I

(42:20):
I start loosening enough, feeling a lot better. But when
I when I walked, Allen was a few minutes ahead
of me, and every loop, but every lop, I'll come
around because it was eleven lops. I could see him
in the distance at a certain point, and I was
getting closer and closer, and I'm like, and I got
to about ten ten feet from him, and I thought,
I just need to keep him in my sights. I

(42:40):
don't need to beat him and waste any energy. Now.
It's strategic for me. No that it's not a racist
it's a strategic run now. And I slowed down and
walked like ten seconds just to give him a little
lead back, because I was like, as long as I
can say him, that's good enough to me. Don't get
any more energy than you have to. You're gonna win
this if you play the game right now. And that's
when I started running tactical and said that just trying

(43:03):
to win everything.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Right, okay, And yeah, so yeah, I think everyone felt
the same way at that point in Madrid. You know,
we just ran one hundred plus miles and everyone is,
you know, still confident, but uh cautiously optimistic. No one,

(43:26):
no one ran that much for and that's probably what
you felt in the beginning. But I think your strategy
was bought on at that point. Preservation was the key,
and you know, so for Fortulisa how did you feel there?

Speaker 1 (43:48):
That was the world I was. I run myself. I
could have lost the whole risk. I had a game plan,
and looking back, if I stuck to it, I would
have took twenty minutes off that race. I thought I
would have been all right because of the heat, because
I'm used to the heat. I run in the heat.
I prefer to running the heat for that humidity is different, right, Yeah,
And I started running and and like I said, like,

(44:11):
I was fourteen minutes ahead of all and I just
needed to keep him in my sight. I didn't have
to beat him, but I stuck with him. He was
running quick, and I stuck with him, and I thought,
I saying, like and slip. I thought I seen him
like pull back a second, and I thought, you know what,
I want to show him I made a win this
and I want to let him know, like, if he

(44:33):
takes his fourth of the gas, I'm want to leave him.
And I did, and he called back up. And this
is around about seven mile and I just burnt myself
out with that humidity and heat. Luckily enough he did
as well. Yeah, we're both just like shuffling along and
every water stop got that little bit longer, a little
bit longer, a little bit longer, and I actually believed

(44:56):
I was going to find or pass out on that run.
I thought, twenty seven mile in, I'm struggling and it's
so hot, and I just thought, there's gonna there's gonna
cool a point in this risk well like I might
actually fall over or something. But yeah, I'm gonna just
steal my faith. And but yeah, I should have stuck

(45:17):
to my game plan and just let him run me
do half slow half and then you know, hit a
negative split on the way about.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, that was about eighty plus percent humidity, yeah, and
nineties and that was just intrusive. My body started doing
things that I'd never seen it do before. And so
what was your final time in Brazil?

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Three two?

Speaker 2 (45:47):
I think, okay, all right, and then you know, going
into Miami another night start. What was your strategy there?
So you must have known, listen, I got this in
the in the bag if I can maintain some consistency.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
So I talked to Alan, who you know, we've been
running together now pretty much the whole week. He's I've
been chasing him, he's been chasing me, and so we
build up a little bit of a friendship, you know,
and he in the last few miles of that Voter
Lisa race, we we talked. We talked because even though
we're running together for three hours each year, we never talked.

(46:23):
I'm not already to talker anywhere, and I'll I'll sit
behind people. I don't on solid shoulders. I'll always start
running behind someone. Uh, it's just how I prefer to
do it. So we decided. He's like pretty much conceded.
He's like, he's not going to beat me. He's not
going to beat the time. Now we're going into the
last race. So he decided like we'll run together. But

(46:45):
and I was like, Okay, all I need now is
to get through that racing. Now, I don't know need
to run it. He decided to run together. But even
still when I got there my family and friends with her,
I couldn't even have told him. I kin'd of talk him.
Too nervous because now I'm nervous about getting injured. In
my last race before that, I got injured and I
had it was my first DNF, and I could feel

(47:06):
a part of my leg where I was. I was like,
please don't come on, please just allow me to get
through this, and uh we set off running and we
decided to run around about you know, just a kind
of slow seven forty piers. But he was actually running
a bit quicker and I stuck with him and he's
running quicker than I wanted. Then I wanted to run,

(47:27):
but you know, I was just I'll try and keeping
it up. But he was suffering. I mean, I had
a stomach book from uh uh self, I forget, but
he got one and like he was letting out big
like ones. He was like really suffering. I'm like, and
he was like just just after about the second loop,
He's like, just lave me run And I was like, no,
I told you, I give my word. I don't need

(47:47):
to prove anything. Now I've kind of won, so I'll run.
I'll run with you on two on two conditions. One
you don't walk. If you walk, I'm living the two
to morey even though it's a man and a woman's race.
If she catches close to my time, because she's running
pretty quick, I'm going to have to leave because I
think I was like twenty one minutes ahead of her,
but I got to a point on the third loop

(48:08):
she was pretty far ahead. That kind of time to
come in this way, and I thought, and Alan was
like stopping a lot because his stomach to use the
toilet and stuff, and I was like, Alin, I've got
to go, and I just I think I put it
down to like six fifteen minute miles for the last
three or four miles, just to get to the end

(48:29):
and make sure she doesn't close my gap. Yeah, and
so yeah, that race was difficult. I was just begging
to get through it and not get injured. You know that.
I said. The wind was already there, so.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Yeah, good runner can really open it up. Yeah, in
that ocean drive back and forth, it's flat, it's it's
you know, it's night.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah. It fell like a long. It was like six
mile like three mile out three. It felt like even
the first loop was like have they timed this correct?
Like have this measured? This is a long three miles.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
For four lapse Yeah, six six something each. And at
that point I was I I basically walk around the
last two because of achilles tendon issue I was having.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Wow, and then you crossed the finish line. Who was
waiting there for you?

Speaker 1 (49:34):
I had my wife, my daughter, my friend from next door,
my friend from England, my other friend from Eland losing
Floyd lives in Florida, and then a guy I worked
with here in the US, he flew in. Uh so
it was good to see him. So yeah, I had
about seven seven people. Now my friend out, he's girlfriend

(49:55):
there as well. Uh so it was about seven or
eight people, U who I knew. That was good to
see them.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
And the article said you are the first British British
person to finish this and to win.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, so the first British first and to win. So
I went in there on flying two flags. You know,
I'm also a Canadian as well, so I went in
there British Canadian, but uh, you know, I'll take the
British at the end because I think some Canadian must
have won it. So yeah, yeah, British. So yeah, the

(50:31):
first person, the first British person to win it. I
don't know if that's just in the mills, I don't
know what. Yeah, so that's a pretty good, pretty good
title to hold. I didn't know that going into this.
I don't think I even knew that till the end.
So that's good.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, it's always great to be to be a first
into something. So what did you do? Immediately after me personally.
I remember I couldn't wait to check into the hotel
and I ate and I slept. I think I might
have slept for ten hours. Oh what did you do? Immediately?

Speaker 1 (51:09):
This is where I made the biggest mistake of my week.
I didn't have a drink of water. I didn't have
any protein, I didn't have any food. My friend handed
me a stella. I drank the stella, went back to
the house. All I wanted was Guinness. I knew my
body would just accept guinness, and I didn't have any Guinness.
I was drinking coronas and stellas till about seven in

(51:31):
the morning, and I thought it was going to steal.
I was feeling pretty good. I thought it was going
to steal that dear where Anyway, I started to get
tired around about seven in the morning, and I had
three hours sleep. But when I woke up, my stomach
felt like even worse. I felt really sick, my stomach
like so tight. I had that stomach book from South Africa,

(51:53):
which I was had all week. It kind of got worse,
and I think it was the fact that I just
put b straight in me, no water, no food, like
the biggest mistake, really big mistake, was stupid of me.
And for the next three days, these people have come
in to my friends have come to visit me. I
was pretty much in bed and I try. I made

(52:14):
it to that restaurant, which was hell for me. The noise,
I was for you, the noise in that restaurant, the
music asked them. I turned it down three or four times,
one toilet in the whole place, like I needed to
leave that pretty quick. And then I just pretty much
slept till Sunday. But physically I felt good. I felt
I have no idea how but as the week went on,

(52:37):
I got I felt fit stronger, and I felt like
I could just continue to running marthons, like that's even possible.
Doing it might have been different, but I felt like
I could just pay I could just fly to another
country now and run another one.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah, And I think this is one of the things
that I learned. I learned about myself, and then I
learned about as many marathons as I did over the years.
Your body is really resilient, right You can you can,
you know, run twenty six point two miles and then
lace them up and do it again the next day

(53:14):
and do it again the next day. I just never
tried that before. Yeah, so what did you learn about yourself?

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Oh? Well, ruin's new to me, and so everything's learning.
But I learned my body remind me of when I
was younger. When things get hard for the people, my
body starts waking up. I've always took a long time
to get warmed up all my life in exercise, and
I learned I've still got it, you know, I still
got the reserves, the muscle memory, and so I and

(53:49):
also I learned for future ruins like that, I wouldn't
run any more miles. The small muscles which really start
to kind of break down at the end of the
probably in the last two days was kind of like
my groin and my hip flexes. So I learned, I
want to have to work on those if I want
to continue doing this type of running or long distance running.

(54:10):
And everything else was fine. I don't know how I
explained this, but all my long runs leading up to
that date, my hamstrings would be the ones what's getting
really sore. Didn't fail them once. I felt my quodes
and my my coughs, but I didn't feel my hamstrings,
so I don't know if I changed my running style.
I don't know like what was going on, but I

(54:32):
just learned, like, you know, if you treat your body well, listen.
And when I told you I drank, I drank pretty much, well,
not pretty much. I drank every day up until about
six weeks before that race, and I started cutting it
down and madam and like, I felt the benefit. And
that's why my that's why I know my body showed up.

(54:54):
It was I tread it well leading up to that race,
and uh, you know it peered off. So yeah, I'll
just learned. You know, just because you're forty doesn't mean
it's over. I mean a lot of people say I'm forty,
it's over. It's like no, you're like I might peak
when I'm forty five, yet, right, you know, your body
will your body will show up. If if you're going

(55:16):
to tell your body you're gonna do this and you're
gonna train for it in your mindset, it will show up.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Yeah. Well, what you've done was just incredible. I mean,
like you said, you're you're not a runner, and you
you know you you trained on your own self trained
and you know ran sixty miles peak volume and did this.
That just shows that you have some incredible innate sickness

(55:45):
and congratulations. This this is a story that I'll have
to tell people, you know, the day we all got
our ass kicked by a boxer. It's incredible. I read
this and I was like, I just sort of beat
myself up. I was like, because I didn't get a
chance to talk to him several people.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
But so I'm kind of like an online coach. I
named how she works for the New University of New Mexico.
She from D one. She wrote me like a plan,
and I would I'd call it down again if I
troubles or I had pains or whatever. She's very knowledgeable
and in the in that world, and so she would
send me like an online plan. I'll try and stick
with as much as I could because I'm always flying

(56:29):
around for work, but changing up a lot. Boy. Yeah,
I was just running, like running forty miles a week
and uh peloton bike and peloton kind of like strength
sessions on the legs.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
I consumes like I had to get some hundred miles
weeks here. So you know, after four days, that's over
one hundred miles. So the fact that you did that
with you know, a lot of the training. That's just
it's pressive, right, So what do you think you're going

(57:02):
to do next?

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I have one race already paid for h and I'm
not sure if I'm going to continue running after that.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with in
my in my fitness life if I want to do anything. Actually,
but I'm signed up for the Isle of Sky in Scotland.
It's a seventy five mile kind of mountain race in May.

(57:26):
So I'm going to start training for that tomorrow, about
two weeks off and I'm going to start training for that.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
So yeah, okay, that's maybe maybe go back to boxing
or you're done with boxing.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
No, I'm one percent done. There's nothing unless you want
to offer a million dollars or a couple of million dollars.
But I ha face for nobody.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Yeah all right, well you've been generous. At the time,
when I make my way down to Texas, I'll have
to h you know, meet you buy your Guinness for
this because this was just one of the most impressive
things I've seen.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Yeah. Yeah, keep in touch. I travel a lot and
if I'm ever up your area and I'll reach out
but I'm always you know, half my time's at homes
and the halfs on the road working.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
So yeah, yeah, we'll bring you up to Boston. Maybe
we'll get you, you know, do some get you to
do a sub three on the Boston Marathon course. Have
you ever done sub three?

Speaker 1 (58:23):
No? My first marathon was three or one. Wow, and
I've never had a chance to do it. I've seen
like a lot of a lot of people on that
race were saying like, oh, you could do this, you
could do that, and I started blaying like maybe as
I can now, I've just never had the opportunity because
I've been training for different risks, etcetera.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Never to do up to Boston. Then you'll do S
three it's a net down hill. Well we'll get you
do sub three at the Boston Marathon course. All right, Paul,
this was great. Thanks again. Where can people find you online?

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Now? So my wife set up by an Instagram for me,
which I'm going to start putting some videos out there,
and you know, it might be good for some people
to see how I train or might work for them.
It's going to work for everyone, but it might work
for those it's poorly slash holebone and I am on
Facebook also, but that's you know, I'm really small following.

(59:17):
I'm just trying to build that up now with the
help of yourself and the podcasts, and that'd be great.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
You got to tell your story because like you said,
you're not a runner. You just did this and you
know you're you know, the background, the challenges that you
had with drinking coming out of that. People need to
hear that story. People need to hear this story.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
It's and yeah, every time I speak, I mean, I've
been on a few TV stations now and articles, and
I really want to get that across. I try to
get across to my old box and friends. You know,
just because you're forty, it's not over. I see people
fifty year old, fifty five year old smash my personal bests.
I know I'm going to get and quicker if I

(01:00:01):
continue on this. So I want people to know that
you know, it's not over, and just because you're forty,
you can get back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
To maybe get this in front of sliced a loan,
maybe do get a movie deal going this is a
good one, or.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
You're a book deal.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
You definitely got a book that you can write for sure,
maybe even a movie. Yeah, all right, Paul, thanks again.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Yeah, thank you, Tony. It was great, Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Thanks again to Paul Olborn. I look forward to seeing
what he's going to do next. I highly recommend you
go out to the show notes and go follow Paul.
You'll get some information about what he will be doing
next and even some of his training protocols. If you've
been inspired by this podcast and you want to learn

(01:00:55):
more about the event or to do this event, I
encourage you to go to World Marathon Challenge dot com
and a couple podcasts with some former finishers of the
seven seven seven Dave mcgilvy episode forty four, Michael Wardion
episode thirty one, and Becca Peasey episode nineteen. She is

(01:01:17):
now the race director of the event, and if there's
someone out there that wants my help with the training
and logistics of the event, you can reach out to
me at contact at event Horizon dot tv. I hope
one of the lessons that you got out of this
conversation with Paul Holborn is that it's important to push

(01:01:42):
your limits, and every once in a while you have
to do something that tears you out of your frame,
stretches you to a point of not only physical suffering,
but mental suffering challenges you physiologically. Even when you start

(01:02:05):
to question yourself, how did I get into this?

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
How did I?

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
How am I going to do this? And you start
to doubt yourself. I don't know what's going to happen.
Did I get enough training in? Can I still do this?
Am I too old for this? What happens is when
you come out of the other side, you come out
of it in a stage of growth, physical mental, psychological growth,

(01:02:33):
as you have no choice but to face and resolve
all of the questions and doubts that you may have,
whether they be athletically or personally. And as Paul described,
when he had that situation where he felt he was
in a depressive state and started to get into excessive

(01:02:55):
drinking and not happy with himself, something inside of him
and that said, now there's something else that I need
to do. That is the rise of the fighter, and
everyone has that fighter inside of them. I previously talked
about the forge in that going through such processes and

(01:03:20):
enduring through them, you forge a new human being. If
you're curious about me personally, I went in really with
a goal of preservation and learning and not to compete,
but to complete, and from a training and coaching perspective,

(01:03:42):
I think if I were to coach someone through to
complete this event, I know exactly now what I would
coach them to do, and that's you know, logistically as
well as from a training and fueling perspective. And so

(01:04:03):
that was one goal that I had to gain more
information and knowledge. I didn't go in with lofty expectations.
Probably over a decade ago I was running close to
the paces that Paul is running, and in this year
seven seven seven, my average marathon time was somewhere around
five forty eight. After being endurance enthusiasts for twenty years,

(01:04:28):
I been telling people that I'm solidly in the end
game and I wanted this going in. At least I
wanted this to be the sort of one of my
achievements in the end game of being an endurance enthusiast.
Like I said, I've been eyeing this event ever since

(01:04:50):
it started in twenty fifteen. And then when I ran
into Becca, she said, I knew you were going to
do this at some point to that end mission accomplished.
I don't think I could ever really completely quote unquote
retire from endurance sport. I think I will always as

(01:05:10):
long as I can do something, even if it's at
a recreational level. So, after two decades of doing endurance sports,
one hundred marathons, I had the most euphoric feeling and
feeling of satisfaction running one hundred and eighty three point

(01:05:32):
four miles in a week with time in between each
one of about twenty hours. What a feeling that was
crossing that finish line in Miami. Although I can't help
to think, Wow, with the experience of doing this and

(01:05:56):
the knowledge of how to do this better, how to
do that better? In having a little bit more time
to prepare for this, I could probably well, let's just say,
the wheels are already turning to be continued. Follow event

(01:06:21):
Horizon Endurance Sport on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and x for
training and nutrition programs and on demand learning. To become
a member of our Endurance Institute, or for complete archive
of podcasts, log on to our website event Horizon dot tv.