“I don’t really enjoy running. I hated it at school. I think my first ever ‘run-run’ was probably on holiday as a kid. Dad would force us to do like a 2 or 3k run before breakfast every morning. None of our family holidays were holidays, it was always a big adventure somewhere, camping and hiking. We’d always come off a holiday needing another holiday. Dad was very active and quite a serious rower. My mum and my sister as well. So it was kind of just the norm to be active. I’m not the smartest, so I was very sporty – sport was my outlet.
Rugby was my main thing, and cricket in the summer. I did that all the way up until the age of 18 and then it got very serious very quickly, as rugby does… and there was the drinking culture. So I actually started playing ultimate frisbee, if you’ve heard of that? And I represented Great Britain.
Running, if you call it that, was just to stay fit for my main sport. I wouldn’t go far, I would never go out for like 5ks. I just never really understood the goals of it, or why you’d want to do the same thing over and over again. Especially around a track. There are people who run 1500 metres and like 10km races on track! Actually it’s not even kilometres, it’s ‘ten thousand metres’ which sounds even worse because it doesn’t even sound that far, but it is. So yeah, I was never a track guy. I always did the field events like Javelin or something you can measure and improve your distance. Running is still the same distance – only the time is changing… and in my mind, it’s really hard to be competitive about that. I’m quite competitive, maybe too much. And in my day-to-day life I have to make sure that I’m not being competitive about everything. It’s quite hard to control.
Around the age of 20 my dad retired from rowing and got into road cycling, so on the weekends I used to go join him. I started cycling pretty seriously, even though I also hated it, because it’s like running – you’re just going out for four hours and not seeing much. I didn’t understand the enjoyment of that. But then I learned about Strava segments and hilltop finishes, so started getting a bit more competitive and that kind of made me enjoy enduro sports a bit more.
Later in university, I started doing parkrun with some friends who did like running, and I started to enjoy the social aspect of it. We never pushed for PB’s, we’d always just run it as a group. It was just a nice way to tick the activity box while also being outside and sociable. I still hated running. Then at age 25 I lived with my three best friends and they all wanted to do a marathon. I was like, I’ll never do a marathon, where’s the fun in that?
Almost a year ago, maybe to the day, I ran my first marathon. I just ran around Bristol to see how hard it was. I did it unsupported. I just had a day where I wasn’t doing anything so I ran to Bath and back. It was pretty tough. I ended up walking a bit from mile 20, but I finished it.
Two years ago my sister tried to do an Ironman and she unfortunately failed. She was umming and ahhing about doing another one and I just said, you know what, I’ll do one with you! So the year after, in August this year, we did Kalmar in Sweden. I’m not much of a swimmer, the swim was just about staying afloat and moving forward. The start was pretty awful, not gonna lie. Everyone’s climbing all over everyone. But the swim itself was a really nice route. Kalmar is known as one of the nicest Ironman’s because the swim is around the harbour next to supporters. It’s really easy to see where you’re going and there’s a lot of changes. Then you do a really nice flat cycle ride, 180 kilometres with only about 600 metres of elevation, which is ridiculous. Then just the marathon at the end. I stand by the fact, that will be the easiest marathon I’ll ever run because it’s 3km to every food stop. You just run for 3k, walk, have a bit of drink, have a bit of coke, have a bit of snack, and then run another 3k. The Coca-Cola at the food stops was the best thing. Just a little cup every 3k got me through. Then I was like, well, what’s next?
So I’m actually hoping to do Taupō Ironman here in March. That’s a horrible swim because that’s just a straight line for 2k and then a straight line back. And I have a real issue with having to one up myself so I may have also signed up to do an Ultra running event, the 160 kilometre one. I guess I just want to see how far I can push myself. I haven’t found the limit yet, which I think is the worrying aspect. But that’s the main reason I run to be honest.”
Adam @apvaslet
(Fiordland)
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