Everything Endurance

Steve Hill is a teacher first and foremost, but he's also an adventurer and endurance athlete who has won multiple awards for his inspirational work with youngsters and an MBE for his charity work too.

Each year he takes on another epic endurance challenge to inspire his next class of pupils. He shares the whole journey with them teaching them along the way that if they aim high, dream big and never give up they can achieve anything.

We chat to Steve about the message he delivers to his pupils and about being an ultra-runner who 'gets his money's worth' out of his adventures. In a change to our speedier, record-breaking guests of late, this is a chance to hear from a runner more likely to be toward the back of the pack enjoying every inch of the trail.

You can learn more about the Team Hill Charitable Trust at www.stevehillmbe.com/team-hill-charitable-trust/

Damian Hall is a Runner, Coach and Journalist with a stunning CV, including podiums and top-10 positions at the Spine Race, the Dragon's Back and the UTMB. He also holds a number of FKTs already including the 630 mile South West Coast Path.

On Friday 24th of July he grabbed himself another record in the shape of a Pennine Way FKT, a record which had stood for little more than a week after John Kelly's incredible performance (see episode 42).

In this episode we talk through his preparation for the record attempt, his time out on the trail and the work he has put in to making sure that the challenge was carbon neutral.

Adam Kimble is an American Ultra-Runner and Coach with an impressive and growing CV. He is also a Race Director with Beyond the Ultimate, a motivational speaker, and a serious contender for friendliest human on earth.

This Lake Tahoe resident recently set a new Fastest Known Time for the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 171-mile route through alpine terrain in California with over 8000 metres of climbing. This was Adam's 2nd attempt to take the record from it's previous owner, one Kilian Jornet. You may have heard of him.

In this episode Will and Adam chat about his first attempt last October, his training and preparation since, and the amazing 37hrs and 12 minutes he spent on the trail breaking the record last weekend.

Since the planets ultra-runners have been unleashed from easing lockdowns around the world, they've been channeling their pent up energy into record-breaking feats of running.

In this special midweek episode, we chat to one of those runners, John Kelly, for the 2nd time this year. What earns him his exalted status as the only person ever to appear on this show twice in the same year? Breaking the Pennine Way FKT, that's what. A record which had stood for 31 years before he came along.

John covered the 268 mile long Pennine Way, the national trail running from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm across the border in Scotland, in just 2 days, 16 hours and 40 minutes, beating the previous record by a margin of just over 30 minutes.

We chat through John's data-driven approach to his epic challenges and talk about how this latest achievement fits into his plan to run the Hartley Slam in 2020.

John Kelly is fundraising throughout the Hartley Slam for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. Read all about their work and donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hartleyslam

At 3am on Saturday 11th July, Kim Collison set off from the quiet darkness of a small Lake District village with a running record in his sights that had stood for more than 20 years. 24hrs later he had returned to the start of his challenge having reached the top of 78 Lakeland peaks. In all, he covered 175km (109 miles) with 11,890m (39,000ft) of ascent.

Kim Collison has been a prominent figure in British ultra-running for some years now, who's accolades including being British Trail Running Champion in 2014, wins at the Lakeland 50, Lakes in a Day and Arc of Attrition races among others, and a Winter Bob Graham record which he bagged in December last year.

In this episode, Kim talks us through his journey into running, the things that keep him motivated, and the highs and lows of 24hrs of running through some of the UK's lumpiest terrain!

After a pandemic imposed hiatus from the show, Kris King returns with the second part of his enlightening series on training for endurance events. This time we tackle the topic of basic nutrition.

Whether you're looking to healthily lose a little lockdown weight, or you're building the foundations ready to train for an epic adventure of your own, there is plenty to learn as Kris gives us an overview of how to build a healthy attitude towards food and make changes to our habits which can help you achieve your goals.

After nearly 4 months without recording together, expect the co-hosts to bait each other about their hair and exchange a little colourful language as we get into the basics of healthy diet.

Finding reasons not to train is rarely a problem for most of us. Nothing stops today's guest from achieving ultra-running excellence though.

Not the fact that she works an extremely challenging role as a human rights lawyer in conflict zones, not the fact that she also gives her time to the charity she founded, not even the fact that much of her training has to take place in small concrete compounds surrounded by security.

Today we chat to Stephanie Case about her running journey, her unusual training regime and about Free to Run, a charity which supports women in conflict zones through adventure sports, helping to improve their physical, emotional and social wellbeing. A charity of which she is founder and president.

When Kasia Orzechowska made the decision to follow her dream of running a multi-stage ultra-marathon in the Desert, she was 7 months pregnant and resettling in a new country. 13 months later she arrived in Namibia having trained hard, researched her kit, but having never run further than a marathon.

Faced with 5 days and 250km of hard running in temperatures of 50°c and above, Kasia rose to the challenge and was not only the first woman to reach the finish line, she also broke the previous course record set by Kristina Madsen, a world record-breaking runner we've featured on this show in the past.

In this episode, we talk through her training journey, her experience in the Namib desert, and what the future holds for this exceptional runner who is now entering races as a sponsored athlete.

In this episode we talk to the winner of the Ice Ultra, Beyond the Ultimate's 5-day multistage run across Arctic Sweden, a runner who faced down 5 days of running in temperatures as low as -35c with a grin on his face throughout.

A runner who not long ago decided to take a leap of faith and work towards making a career out of the thing he loves most.

When Dicksy took on the Jungle Ultra (the same format but much hotter, much wetter, and with infinitely more mosquitos) there was a lightbulb moment somewhere out among the trees where he decided to change his life.

If you're planning a cold race or adventure, we have some tips for you. If you're looking for inspiration to take your own passion and make it a livelihood then Simon's story and his massive enthusiasm is just what you need.

Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake, is the man behind the Barkley Marathons, a race with a powerful air of mystery and a reputation for insane levels of toughness. A race that strips it's runners to the bone, pitting them against the wilderness in a fight that heavily favours the hills.

Since it's 1986 inception, only 15 runners have ever reached the finish and yet runners all over the world muddle through the obscure application process each year in the hope that it might be their time.

In this episode, we chat to Laz about Gary Cantrell's early ultra-running days, about how a lack of races led to him setting up his own, about his recent trans-continental trek across the US, and about how the now world-famous Barkley Marathons came to be the race that it is.