0:00

before we start the showed next time on irishman

0:02

running a broad were gonna be talking about

0:04

people who in spite of the biggest

0:07

challenges managed job imaginable

0:09

are still running do you know

0:11

someone who is a runner against all

0:14

the odds we want to hear their

0:16

stories is that you are you someone

0:18

running against all the us to people look at you go how are you

0:20

running after everything you've been through we

0:22

want to hear from you irishman or bro podcast

0:24

at you mother com last week's show

0:27

was all about my day at the dublin city

0:29

marathon i put

0:30

the call a to hear your stories

0:33

from the day a boy did you hear the

0:35

call you florida's the

0:37

inbox with you or tails of triumph and

0:39

disaster emails from all over

0:41

the world flicking move me to tears

0:43

of times of the harvest the ghosts sanyo

0:45

sullivan is on the line so let's go

0:49

testing and bought again he i

0:51

like speaking have day so the best

0:53

way i know is to just after enron running

0:56

wasn't out for me sir i

0:58

guess they'll get a real myself and and take out some

1:00

of the anger

1:00

that were gone on my life sanya

1:06

i'm fresh from watching her ireland fit

1:09

as family on rt holy moly

1:11

what a show that is

1:13

a perfect but the i thought the

1:16

martha has a rollercoaster

1:18

of emotions oh my gosh

1:21

this was the episode of i don't know if you saw the episode

1:23

that was but it was the one where you at somebody in

1:25

the eliminator against a be fit and

1:28

adding take nearly caught yet the and it

1:30

is like is like this every week which

1:33

which family was it oh i don't know the names

1:35

are leno is that paula was the from the

1:37

a member of david fits family couldn't swim

1:39

and was being focused to have to go

1:42

across these lily pads on earth

1:44

goddess or a lifeguard at

1:47

all day befits a shouting

1:48

is go faster got fast are at

1:51

stake we've talked about you or

1:53

coaching strategy you

1:56

very vocal and i was surprised that you

1:58

are just gone lads

1:59

This isn't fast enough. Did

2:02

you have to get more vocal or do you

2:04

just find yourself in it a lot more? Well,

2:07

I don't know. Did you watch last week or this is the first

2:09

week? This is the first week I've got to see for. Yeah, I

2:11

think I might have been quieter last week and then

2:14

I worked out. Yeah, they

2:16

need you. They need you just like the Dublin crowds

2:18

last Sunday. They need you shouting at them, do they?

2:21

You have to actually kind of immerse yourself

2:24

in it and you know, it's like you're actually doing

2:26

it

2:27

to the point where you want to actually

2:29

get up the ramp or push them up the ramp, you know, you have to

2:32

hold yourself back. So

2:35

I don't remember who was in the eliminator then. Was

2:37

it, I thought it was the Burns on this week, but then

2:39

I see I'm following it on Twitter

2:43

and Instagram and what people

2:45

are posting. Now I get a copy of it

2:47

later today and I'll be able to watch it.

2:50

But, um, Oh, it's really well put

2:52

together regardless of what happens. I

2:55

mean, Dona Co Calan is one of the other coaches,

2:58

you know, he's spray tanned up to the hilt as you would

3:01

expect. He has so much

3:03

fun on the show. I think he was just back

3:05

from his holiday. Oh, sure he

3:07

was. He got, I mean, this

3:09

guy is always on holidays. He

3:11

is the most tanned man in Ireland

3:15

and Nina Carbury is there as

3:17

well. It's a fun show. I

3:19

can't wait to see how it breaks down. But,

3:23

uh, you know, I did like

3:25

you were the new kid in the class.

3:28

This is the thing. I bet there's a fitting in part

3:30

of it as well. You were saying that now you feel

3:32

part of either family through. I bet there was a little bit

3:34

of that.

3:35

Yeah. I mean, you have to kind

3:37

of figure out, I suppose, your place

3:40

and how you manage yourself and

3:43

how you react to the other coaches

3:45

as well, because, you know, at the end

3:47

of the day, it's a TV show. Entertainment.

3:51

Yes. So,

3:52

you know, we're not actually out there to kill each other.

3:55

Well, I tell you what else was massive entertainment

3:58

today. We're recording this. On Sunday,

4:01

the New York City Marathon shout

4:03

out to everybody who

4:05

did it in the most perfect conditions.

4:09

50,000 people ran this thing. Not a whisper

4:12

of a win, Sonia. The women's race was

4:14

fascinating for so many reasons. Not least,

4:17

the mad dash for the finish line,

4:19

the winner, Helen Obiri,

4:22

two hours, 27 minutes, 23 seconds.

4:25

Sonia, her final 800 meters was 2 minutes 25 going uphill.

4:33

That's bananas on every level, is it?

4:35

Not really, no. But as soon

4:37

as you say 225, I go, okay, that's 450 mile pace. No,

4:44

I mean, it's what she can do. I'm out here, you're going to say two

4:47

minutes or something. Because she

4:49

really was

4:52

a really good track runner.

4:53

Was she? And about two minutes or 800 at one

4:55

point.

4:58

But yeah, athletes like that, no, 450

5:01

mile pace is fast. Like

5:05

the end of a marathon, yeah. In

5:09

general training terms, that's 72

5:11

seconds and a half, but it's like 448. People

5:16

can do that. And they actually,

5:19

what was really surprising was on such a perfect

5:21

day. And even though there is a

5:23

lot of undulations and hills in the New

5:26

York course, the women, they actually were

5:28

running at what I'm sure Tim

5:30

Hutchings commentating on your

5:33

report would have been called a pedestrian pace.

5:36

It was relative to what they're capable

5:38

of. It was very, very slow for

5:41

the first half. And

5:42

it actually didn't even pick up that much in the second half.

5:44

The second half

5:45

was just one minute quicker. And

5:48

you've run it, of course, you've run the New

5:50

York City Marathon. How did you find that

5:52

as a course? I mean, there's a lot of talk about

5:55

the various different hills on it. What was

5:57

your experience of it?

5:59

Yeah, it's.

5:59

It's a pretty tough course.

6:02

I mean, there's no super big

6:04

hills, but there's a lot of undulations

6:07

and there's a lot of bridges that you have to get over. And you

6:09

know, you go up one hill and down the other hill, the

6:12

other side of the bridge. So

6:15

it's one of these courses that athletes

6:17

they will train for it. They do

6:19

some of their training over hilly undulating

6:21

courses rather than flat stuff.

6:24

And I mean, Helen O'Berry,

6:26

there was a report last week that she was training the house

6:29

down and by all accounts has

6:31

run a hell of a lot faster in training

6:33

than she did today. So it was just

6:36

an easy run for her today.

6:39

But

6:39

I think she was maybe third

6:41

place last year in New York.

6:44

She, I think won the

6:46

Boston Marathon. She's been

6:49

doing really well, since she transferred

6:51

over to the marathon,

6:53

trained super hard. And

6:55

you know, you can even see in her running style,

6:57

like she gives it everything at the end, the arms

6:59

go everywhere. Yeah,

7:03

well, I tell you, there's been a few

7:05

developments in terms of our own marathon here.

7:07

Dublin Marathon is told to find a new

7:10

route for next year over traffic

7:12

disruption and inconvenience to commuters.

7:15

This is a headline from the Irish independence. Exactly.

7:19

Dublin Marathon officials claim that

7:21

local authority told them to find a new

7:23

venue outside the city centre

7:26

for the start and finish of next year's race.

7:29

I couldn't believe this. I wouldn't be the same,

7:31

wouldn't be the same buzz at all. It could

7:34

be a massive change, though, if that took

7:36

place. We may have run the last

7:38

Dublin City Marathon to take place on the old

7:41

course. What do you think the chances are of that actually happening?

7:43

Or is this just one of those ones where a counselor

7:45

is trying to make a name for himself?

7:47

I actually just saw Ian O'Reardon tweeting

7:49

today that Dublin needs to follow the footsteps of New

7:52

York and to include more of the city and

7:55

run through more of the city streets

7:57

and be a proper... Dublin

8:00

City Marathon. What do you

8:02

think of that? Oh, that would be fantastic.

8:04

It's so much better when, I mean, it's

8:07

one of those things that you just have to accept that the

8:09

city is shut down today. That's it. And the story

8:11

and you get everybody involved. I mean,

8:13

in New York, you look at all the reports

8:16

and I, while I was trying to

8:18

find different ways of

8:20

watching it this morning, and I ended up kept

8:22

coming back to the New York News channel.

8:24

So it's getting all the interviews with the

8:27

local police and the

8:30

medical team and, you know, it's like all

8:32

the people on the ground are

8:36

doing a different version of their normal job

8:39

on Marathon Sunday. And

8:41

they just embrace it. And, you

8:43

know, it's part of the city. And I think that's the thing

8:47

that Dublin needs to do is they need to embrace

8:49

the marathon, see it for what it

8:51

is, and see the value

8:53

of it, not just kind of say, oh, yeah,

8:55

we're bringing all these people in, they're going to stay

8:57

in the hotels. Go to the restaurants,

9:00

you know, spend a lot of money, but we're

9:03

not going to make them feel welcome. So this

9:05

is true. I mean, you know, it needs to be embraced

9:08

more and built up more. And, you

9:10

know, even they can probably accept

9:12

more entries, because there's such a fall off

9:15

of entries of people who don't turn

9:17

up, that you should be able

9:19

to account for that in the entry system

9:21

whereby, if the limit is 22,500,

9:23

you should be able to accept at least 25,000.

9:29

Yeah, and there should be a method through

9:31

which you can change

9:34

and move your entry across to other people

9:36

that's a little less cumbersome and

9:38

inconvenient than the one that's there.

9:40

It just, it seems like it's

9:43

lagging behind. If I was to look at it from

9:46

the perspective of somebody who's in events

9:48

and in ticketed events, it

9:51

does look pretty backwards, though,

9:54

that it's stuck in the

9:56

past a little bit, and probably

9:59

if it ain't broke, don't. fix it is the method that's

10:01

been taken in relation to it.

10:03

So we'll see how it develops. But

10:06

a lot of people are not going to feel

10:08

the same way about it if it's run on

10:10

a different course. But I guess when

10:13

change has to happen at some point, doesn't it?

10:15

I mean, as you said, it wasn't always this

10:17

course, the one that you won finished in Smithfield.

10:20

Yeah, but that was because Lewis

10:23

was being made. Mate,

10:26

it was developing.

10:28

The seven of the streets were out of action. But

10:31

it'd be interesting to have, you know, a

10:34

project for people to input their vision

10:37

for a Dublin marathon course. I mean,

10:39

did you feel like you were running in the city or

10:42

just starting and finishing? And I mean,

10:44

it feels like a loop of it, doesn't it? It feels like

10:46

a loop around it. I mean, definitely,

10:48

you could design

10:51

a course that's much more reflective

10:54

of the city itself. Like if you went by Guinness,

10:57

that would be the obvious one to go

10:59

by, right? Dublin

11:01

Castle, obviously, you see

11:03

a little bit of Dublin Castle city walls. There's

11:06

certain landmarks that you'd love to see included.

11:09

It certainly isn't, you

11:12

know, a guided tour around the city.

11:14

And maybe if it is kept a bit more central, you

11:16

could get a better sense of that. And

11:18

maybe we could avoid some of the hills

11:21

that cost us our lives last

11:23

Sunday. Let's get straight into these emails because,

11:27

you know, the power of this event as

11:29

we head into our second week discussing it

11:31

is the people and the community.

11:34

And an email that we received this

11:36

week that reminds us that the marathon

11:38

is a group event and not a solo

11:41

endeavor comes from Jennifer

11:43

Jones. She says, Hi, Jareth and Sonia, first

11:45

of all, well done to you. And thanks once

11:47

again for the inspirational podcast,

11:49

which you both provide and helped me

11:52

go. This is her personally saying this. She

11:55

was unable to run for two minutes

11:58

to completing this event. Thanks to the podcast. podcast,

12:00

you, Sonya and Vinny and others are

12:03

just such a source of motivation. This

12:05

is her story. I had initially hoped to finish

12:07

the marathon in around 4 hours 30 minutes,

12:10

but due to a wee hamstring tear,

12:13

I had to walk and jog after

12:15

the 31st kilometer for some time

12:18

and then something unbelievable

12:20

happened. When I realised there was only 7k

12:23

left, I came up side by side to another

12:25

runner called Tom who was also

12:27

struggling and the two of us started chatting

12:30

and willing each other on and before we knew

12:32

it, we could see the purple carpet. The

12:35

pain was gone and the strained

12:37

face became a smile and the

12:39

feeling was elevated and I knew then

12:41

at that moment I would actually stride

12:44

over the finish line smiling and that was

12:46

what I wanted to achieve, albeit in

12:48

over 5 hours, but at the end of the day I was so

12:50

happy to finish and so proud of the achievement that

12:53

not only for myself but for my

12:55

sons and my partner who were

12:57

there for me every step of the way. This

12:59

was for me the most exceptionally

13:02

human experience of my life. The

13:05

people I met, the power of the

13:07

people and the power of the mind over

13:09

matter will remain with me forever.

13:12

Thanks again Jennifer Jones. I mean

13:14

that was where we left it last week, Sonya, that you've

13:18

kind of built a different muscle Jennifer

13:21

has there and I certainly felt last week that

13:24

when we've done episodes on building

13:28

toughness there is no substitute

13:30

for an experience like this, is there?

13:33

No, I think

13:35

there's so many different aspects

13:38

to running a marathon that go

13:41

beyond just running, that

13:43

you get to the point and you kind of have to question

13:46

why you're even doing it and

13:49

what got you to that point and then once

13:51

you start asking those questions and

13:54

you know you start to think about it I think

13:56

while you're running and then it carries you on

13:58

that little bit further. down

14:01

the road and I

14:03

think

14:04

the big thing is that you realize that there's

14:06

such a big bigger pick

14:08

bigger group of people out there it's not just you it's

14:11

all these other people who are doing it for similar reasons

14:14

who listen to the same podcast who are

14:16

inspired to get out there every day because

14:19

probably because they know that you know

14:22

we're checking up on them occasionally. Yeah,

14:26

I think I gave kudos to somebody there last week and

14:29

it made his day he couldn't believe it. It

14:32

was just unexpected kudos

14:34

from me. It's

14:36

probably very unexpected. It's

14:39

like a piece of club out there who

14:41

get the kudos. Oh, well, you

14:44

definitely need to be delving out a few more. Sonia

14:46

once showed me how many she receives versus

14:48

how many

14:49

she gives away and it makes for

14:51

some startling reading. But you're

14:53

right. The podcast can

14:55

actually help people through. You've written

14:57

articles about this in the Irish Times, even

15:00

through your hardest runs as Mary Ryan

15:02

in Australia tells us. She says, hey, Jonathan,

15:04

again, huge congratulations on the Dublin City Marathon.

15:08

It wasn't what you planned, but you still finished within

15:10

the four hour mark. I have no idea how

15:12

you managed to get all the running done in the first place. She

15:15

says I did my first or

15:17

I did my 80 K Bond

15:20

item manly run. Do you know this run, Sonia?

15:23

How many K? No.

15:26

Certainly puts puts in context

15:28

my measly 42. She

15:30

did this at the weekend and she says I have

15:32

to say thank you to you and Sonia

15:35

because at the 40 K

15:37

mark, I went into a very, very

15:40

dark hole. So I

15:42

stuck on Irishman running abroad. I

15:46

managed to get myself going again around

15:48

the 50 K mark. The last 30

15:51

weren't too bad at all. I just needed

15:53

to hear the sage advice from

15:55

you guys and just a bit of real speak

15:58

from Sonia. So thank you. so

16:00

much and hope your recovery goes well

16:03

and that you're getting a bit more sleep. I'm always struggling

16:05

with this and this is part of her question here. Definitely

16:08

the hardest part of training and recovery. I can't wait

16:10

to listen to the marathon podcast again. She

16:12

says she always listens to them twice so thanks again

16:14

Jarrus and Sonya for marrying Ryan in

16:17

Australia. Sleep

16:19

became a chat there last

16:22

week as we kind of sifted

16:24

through the rubble. Did you have any time

16:26

to think during the week Sonya about maybe

16:29

a top tip for getting in the practice

16:31

of good sleep aside from the obvious stuff

16:33

of phone down two hours beforehand

16:36

phone out of the room. Do

16:38

you believe in any melatonin

16:40

or any supplements like that that can help?

16:43

I do have

16:45

melatonin with me all the time but

16:48

I don't use it every night and I will generally

16:50

only use it if I wake up in the middle of the night. So

16:53

I will use it if I

16:55

can't get back to sleep rather than to put me to

16:58

sleep. And then

17:00

every now and then I will probably decide

17:02

maybe I should have some of this before I go to bed and then

17:04

maybe I won't wake up and have to take

17:07

it. But I don't

17:09

think that always works either. So

17:11

my biggest tip and the thing that I find

17:13

the best is to

17:16

have something to read before you go to bed. A book

17:19

preferably like a physical book rather

17:22

than an e-book with some lights and

17:24

stuff on it. But

17:27

I think reading

17:28

and to get in the habit

17:30

of reading is a really good

17:32

thing before you sleep because it's like a little bit of

17:34

a

17:36

I suppose it's part of the routine of putting

17:38

you to sleep. The problem

17:40

is if you have a really good book and you want to read a lot of

17:43

it. You don't close your eyes.

17:45

But yeah it kind of anchors you. It

17:47

certainly straightens out the constant

17:50

scrolling that is not

17:53

a restful headspace is it? I

17:55

found this year I was just not reading books at all

17:57

that I was just listening to them the whole time but

17:59

yeah.

17:59

I think that's

18:01

that's a top tip right there. I

18:03

want to read out Rachel Lyle's email

18:05

here. Last week, you mentioned

18:08

that maybe I need to talk

18:10

less and focus more on

18:12

running the marathon while running the marathon.

18:16

Not blaming the podcast, but pointing

18:18

out that trying to spin a load

18:20

of plates or type on a typewriter while

18:22

cycling a bike is quite difficult. Well,

18:26

Rachel Lyle flipped that on

18:28

its head. Now, I actually met Rachel. She

18:31

said we met at the expo. She

18:33

said, I have two kids and we were we

18:35

are from Belfast. My husband and I have a bit of competitive

18:37

marathon counting thing going on. He's

18:40

on 21. I'm at 18,

18:42

but I shall win. She says I

18:45

went into Dublin with no expectations,

18:48

given that seven weeks before the race, I

18:50

had surgery under general anesthetic

18:52

just seven weeks before. One

18:54

week later, tragically,

18:57

my best friend took her own life

19:00

violently, leaving behind a

19:02

husband and two young sons. Absolutely

19:04

devastating. Four weeks out,

19:07

I got Covid and then Paul,

19:10

my beloved husband, dropped

19:12

a sofa on my back.

19:16

I mean, there's so much in that paragraph.

19:19

I first of all, I am so

19:21

sorry for your loss. But

19:24

like, I mean, Paul,

19:27

how he told

19:30

me this at the expo that

19:32

she was recuperating

19:34

on the couch and he decided he would try

19:36

and move the couch by himself and

19:39

ended up dropping it on top of her on the

19:41

couch. Like this

19:43

is some dark comedy in here. But she

19:46

says I missed two full

19:48

weeks of training because of the Covid and the

19:50

couch dropping and had three weeks

19:52

of taper. So really only managed two

19:55

out of the last four weeks. And I only did one

19:58

long run and. She

20:00

said I cried during it as my

20:02

friend had died just the day before. I

20:05

mean, this is the most unbelievable email I've ever received.

20:07

As to be said, I wasn't planning on

20:09

running, but the sheer crack

20:12

in the Irishman Running Abroad WhatsApp group, which you're

20:14

all free to join. Just email me Irishmanabroadpodcastatgmail.com.

20:17

Got me going along with

20:20

your podcast stuff going on,

20:22

going wrong on what can go wrong

20:24

and having a bad session of

20:27

I Tried It to Dublin. I decided I would run

20:30

in memory of Vanessa, my friend, and

20:32

I would talk about her. I wanted her

20:35

name to ring out in the streets of Dublin, so

20:37

I did. Every person I

20:39

saw with a shirt that mentioned a loved

20:41

one, I ran up to them and I spoke to them. And

20:44

I learned about their sisters, their godfathers,

20:46

their fathers, all loved and missed.

20:49

I liked to chat in the race, so

20:52

I bored everyone with my tales, but

20:55

it got me round. I knew I'd never

20:57

run a PB given what I had been through,

20:59

but the joy of the streets of Dublin

21:02

got me around in 348, which was an insane

21:05

time. So whilst the second half was pretty

21:07

ugly, as I wasn't fit, I did it. Marathon

21:10

is a peculiar beast. You have to respect

21:12

it or it will eat you up and spit you out. I've

21:14

learned that very, very hard way over the

21:16

years, but I will still be back for

21:18

more, as there is nothing better than

21:20

the sport the runners themselves keep

21:23

for lit. Now on to Belfast 2024. Sonya,

21:26

what can you say to an email like that?

21:30

I know it's amazing really, isn't it? I

21:32

said she probably was just living it

21:34

one thing at a time and you don't

21:36

realize everything that's going on until you actually

21:39

reflect back and write it all down. Yeah,

21:42

get it all on paper. So much going

21:44

on, you know, one after another. And

21:47

then she had the marathon hanging over the whole time.

21:49

Yeah, and a couch on top of her. I

21:52

mean, we need a video of that. How

21:57

did that happen?

23:56

with

24:00

her memory on account of her own health

24:02

issues. And she maintains that's one of the reasons

24:04

why our relationship has lasted, because she just can't remember

24:06

all the shit that I've done wrong in the past. I need to

24:08

get on to Rona Dempsey. Now,

24:12

I will say this, honey, we both know I had

24:14

a bad day in Dublin, and a lot of you did. I

24:16

mean, so many of these emails are from you

24:18

guys going, look, Jar, I lived

24:20

it too. Nobody

24:23

had the day that Rona Dempsey had the

24:25

Dublin City Marathon. Hi Jar, thanks for

24:27

your Account of the Marathon podcast. I

24:30

get heavily related, but

24:32

apart from one aspect she says, which was you

24:34

finished the race. I

24:36

thoroughly enjoyed the first 18 miles, but

24:39

had started to feel unwell by

24:42

around mile 19, and had to walk

24:44

around 20 and 21 in the cold

24:47

pisens of rain. Thankfully,

24:50

some absolute angel at the side of the

24:52

road gave me a rain poncho. What a

24:54

hero, first of all, anybody that is there

24:56

with spare rain ponchos. She

24:58

says, I'm very lean, kind of greyhound

25:01

breed, not designed for the cold. By

25:03

mile 23, I was vomiting so

25:06

much bile, a very kind spectator lady

25:08

walked with me to the first aid

25:10

tent located at mile 24, where

25:13

they discovered I was hypothermic with

25:15

a body temperature of 34 point

25:17

something degrees. And there ended

25:20

my Dublin marathon shivering

25:22

and wet, wrapped in two tinfoil

25:24

blankets, with lovely paramedics who

25:27

couldn't have been nicer. My husband,

25:29

who had earlier got dressed up in a singlet,

25:32

ready to run before deciding 20

25:34

minutes before the start of the

25:36

race, but his leg was too sore

25:38

to run it. So

25:41

he had to circumnavigate the course on

25:43

a Dublin bike to come and collect me

25:45

with warm, dry clothes. A

25:47

cup of Barry's tea with sugars in Marion,

25:49

Tesco was what required for it to trudge

25:52

a half a mile back the wrong way around

25:55

the course to get the bus home. It

25:57

gets worse. You think that's bad. You

26:00

would go, what a tough day. When

26:02

we returned to the apartment, we found that our three-year-olds

26:05

had early been out waiting,

26:08

he'd been out on the course waiting for his mommy to run by. He

26:11

is lying across our friend's lap on the

26:13

sofa with a raging temperature like

26:15

nothing you've seen before, I think trying to compensate

26:18

for his mother's hypothermia. This

26:20

temperature will not go down, Sonya, so they

26:22

end up going to Temple Street.

26:25

Thankfully, they get discharged at 11.30 p.m.

26:28

That's what began as two marathon runners

26:31

and a spectator ended up with

26:33

a did not start, a did not finish, and

26:36

a trip to the hospital. It was so

26:38

bad, she said, it was almost funny.

26:42

She said, I ran Dublin twice before, and the first time

26:44

I ran it, I vomited at around mile 22, but

26:46

because the weather was fine in 2009, I

26:49

was able to finish, the second time it was 2011. Happy

26:51

days, no vomiting, ran all the way home. Anyway,

26:54

really related to the misery you described, except

26:56

I didn't get to say that I finished, I'm sorry,

26:59

it was awful for you too, and I'm genuinely

27:01

glad that you made it to the finish line. There is no gap

27:05

in your equivalent Garmin pick

27:07

that you sent me. I don't feel there's

27:09

much I could have done about

27:12

a body temp of 34, so

27:15

I don't really feel like a quitter. I participated

27:17

in the Dublin City Marathon. Simple as that,

27:20

well done to you, Rona Dempsey.

27:22

Absolutely brilliant, what a, what, what

27:26

an ordeal. Do you have anything

27:28

even close to that, Rona, in terms of bad

27:30

days outside of the Olympics?

27:34

I

27:38

don't know, I mean, there's more stories

27:40

than drama

27:42

when things don't go wrong than when they don't

27:44

go right, than when they do go right.

27:47

Yeah, 100%. Like the story is

27:50

greater, it's inflated more, and

27:52

it's like one thing after another.

27:54

But

27:57

I always look at things like this, and you

27:59

kind of think if something,

29:59

and whether you're having it there or to take away,

30:02

you know, you pay for it. And then they

30:04

spin the screen around.

30:07

And,

30:08

you know, if you, if you kind of think you've paid for

30:10

your coffee and they'll say, Oh, I

30:12

was just going to ask you a question there now. And

30:15

the question on the screen is, you know, you want to, they

30:17

want you to tip them for the coffee, 15%, 20% or 25%.

30:19

And,

30:24

um, so I was having

30:26

a chat about this with Marcus O'Sullivan recently. And

30:28

he gave me this thing. He's like, ah, he said, it

30:31

drives me mad. These things, you know, if you're going for a takeaway

30:33

coffee and they're already charging you $5 for

30:35

the coffee,

30:36

you know, how much more do you need? And what exact

30:39

service that you received? Yeah, go ahead.

30:41

And

30:43

even in the cafe, they give you the coffee and then they expect

30:45

you to bring the coffee cup back and put it into

30:47

the dishwasher thing. They're not serving you at

30:49

all.

30:50

And they want you to tip them before you even taste

30:52

the coffee.

30:52

Um, so I'm like, I'm

30:55

like, I like my coffee. So if it's no good, then I'm

30:57

not paying

30:57

extra. Um, but Marcus's

30:59

tip was to just bring a bunch of

31:02

dollar notes, which you are. And then you

31:04

just put a dollar in.

31:06

So you put a dollar in the jar, you

31:08

know, when you're done and then you're happy with your service

31:10

or whatever, rather than automatically

31:13

adding on the extra tax of, um,

31:16

on the screen. So anyway, so after they alerted

31:18

me to the parking inspector, then

31:20

I had my little dollar notes, so

31:22

put one into the jar. That's

31:26

a tip for the, um, the barista,

31:28

not just making the coffee, but also warning of,

31:31

um, I thought that was, you know,

31:33

where to the other half. Yeah. So

31:36

anyway, it's part two. I'm driving along

31:38

and I'm going through this little village by

31:40

the waterfront. It was a lovely

31:42

place

31:43

and the speed limit was about 25, but

31:46

I didn't even notice this while I was there

31:48

and I'm driving along going,

31:51

it's a bit undulating up and down, panicking

31:53

out is a deer comes

31:55

running out of somebody's garden.

31:56

So I

31:58

had to cross the road. So I just.

32:00

stopped, couldn't please stop, let

32:02

the deer pass and I think two more deer come

32:04

out. They

32:05

were running past the road.

32:07

And then as I kind of get going

32:09

again, in

32:10

on the right hand side there's a police car there,

32:12

a speed check. So I'm thinking

32:15

that's my second thing, I nearly got a speed ticket

32:17

because if the deer hadn't stopped me, I

32:19

definitely

32:19

would have eaten more than 25 miles an

32:22

hour. So I turned up to the racecourse and

32:24

I was thinking what's this third thing

32:26

now that's nearly gonna happen here that's gonna throw

32:28

me today. And then

32:31

I'm kind of thinking, oh I hope something's

32:33

gonna happen with Sophie, she's nearly

32:35

gonna do something or whatever. Sophie turns

32:37

up anyway, she takes her t-shirt

32:39

off and she's going to start line and the number

32:42

that she's got on her is 333. And

32:45

I'm like, oh

32:46

that's the third thing.

32:50

But it's

32:52

so funny because Sophie when she got that number

32:54

she was like, oh this is a great number.

32:56

And I always relate to numbers as well

32:58

like that. So when I reacted like that to

33:01

her she was like, oh that's,

33:03

she's like some people don't even, give

33:06

you shit about numbers. Something like that

33:08

you know. Whereas I'm like, forever if I

33:10

look at my watch and it's 22-22 I'm like, oh that must mean something.

33:14

Oh man. Sophie

33:18

goes, the way you're leaving out is Sophie goes ahead

33:20

and wins the thing.

33:21

The team wins.

33:23

Her team won yes. And yes,

33:25

you know she ran very well but she very nearly lost

33:28

a few spots too because she ran so well that

33:30

she just totally ran out of energy with the finish line

33:33

in sight. And she wasn't able

33:35

to do her normal sprint and get

33:37

past somebody. But

33:39

she was able to hold her position and not

33:41

get passed by another person which probably you

33:44

know saved them since they were

33:46

only, they only won by two points. So

33:48

every point counted

33:50

or every place counted. Well

33:52

we are hearing that the opposite experiences

33:54

today on Irishman Running Abroad,

33:57

your marathon nightmare stories.

34:00

And how Sonia in the second half of the show

34:02

can advise you to go forward. Some

34:05

stories aren't all nightmares. Some people have got

34:07

a pretty good time and are going, well, is that

34:09

it? Is that my maximum? Like, what does a

34:11

person do to evaluate

34:14

their marathon experience to

34:16

go forward and go somewhere else? Is that Neil Armstrong

34:19

feeling, the malaise, the marathon

34:21

dip that's bound to follow a big day like

34:23

that something we need the goats help

34:25

to navigate? Come on over to patreon.com

34:28

forward slash Irishman abroad to

34:30

enjoy full membership and access to the full

34:33

back catalog. If you're enjoying this episode,

34:35

you will love it.

34:37

One of the keys to like maintaining your brain

34:40

mass is pushing past

34:42

that comfortable zone physically, you

34:44

know, exercise wise.

34:46

Even for

34:47

a Scottishman, or

34:49

an Asian one, for the first

34:52

time in his life, the

34:54

champion of the

34:54

world. Imagine in a world

34:56

where everybody could go out the

34:58

door and engage in the kind of exercise

35:01

that's going to make them more

35:02

relaxed, more healthy, burn

35:04

off stress.