Why We Endure Podcast

Hatty Carder was never picked for the first team at school. Her nickname at university hockey was Apple Crumble because she used to crumble under pressure when the ball came towards her. She was not a sporty person and never claimed to be.

In 2023, she rowed across the Atlantic Ocean with two other women and set the world record for the fastest female trio to complete the crossing.

40 days, 10 hours and 51 minutes. 3,000 miles. Three hours on, three hours off, the whole way.

In this episode we get into all of it. How she went from organising the challenge for her employer at Vodafone to being talked into putting her own name in the hat by a coach who saw something she could not see in herself. The two years of preparation. Capsizing on day five in 20-foot waves with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun playing on the speaker. Getting a black eye from inside a cabin. Blisters on her lips so bad she lost nine kilos because eating was too painful. The headwinds that forced them into two-hour shifts with barely 20 minutes of sleep at a time. Going from 21st place to 10th in three days of pure suffering. The moment the coach told them they were on for a world record, and the decision not to tell anyone in case they did not make it.

We also talk about why she moved to Cornwall straight after, quit her corporate job, and is now working for disaster relief charity Shelterbox. And why there might be something big coming next, probably on a bike.

One of the most extraordinary stories we have had on Why We Endure, told by someone who genuinely never thought she was capable of any of it.

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Cain Christoforou grew up in Spain with three younger brothers, played football and tennis, moved to London, got caught up in the marathon rat race, ran a 2:40 London Marathon, and then had a few drinks at a friend's birthday party and decided to run home.

Home being Barcelona.

1,670 kilometres. 33 days. An ultra marathon every single day. With his parents driving ahead to book Airbnbs and his mum making sandwiches at the two-thirds mark.

In this episode we get into all of it. Growing up the eldest of four competitive boys just outside Barcelona. Working as a sports instructor at Club La Santa in Lanzarote alongside Olympic athletes including Lucy Charles. Moving through Spain, the Canary Islands, the Netherlands and London before deciding his gardening leave between jobs was the perfect window to do something completely mad. Planning the route over the Pyrenees and up through France to the South Downs and into Battersea Park. The darkest moment on day ten, when his knees were screaming at him to stop. Stopping at a boulangerie every morning two hours in for a pastry because you have to have something to look forward to. And the moment 30 or 40 friends met him at Blackfriars Bridge to run the final six kilometres with him to the finish.

We also talk about the difference between chasing success and running from failure, why the most comfortable life is often the least meaningful one, why he is almost certainly going to do something even bigger within the next two years, and why A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay is the perfect anthem for running through a mountain range you never want to leave.

One of the most joyful and adventurous conversations we have had on Why We Endure. Cain did not run 1,670 kilometres because he had to. He ran them because he needed to know what he was capable of

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📲 Follow Cain on Instagram @cainofromspaino

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Edwin Mooney grew up in Durban, South Africa, got sponsored by Mr Price Cycling as a teenager, missed qualifying for the Commonwealth Games by one place, moved to London at 26, put on ten kilos, joined a local running club, and then ran a 2:39 marathon.

That is the short version.

In this episode we get into all of it. Growing up cycling before school in the dark, hitting the wall in a 240-kilometre mountain bike race on almost no training, going from swearing he would never run a marathon to standing at the side of the London Marathon in 2017 and being so moved by the crowd that he signed up the following week. He ran the Paris Marathon in 2:52 on his first attempt, with a peak training week of 55 kilometres. Then going sub 2:40 in London with proper preparation and bursting into tears at the finish line. The Poznan Half Ironman on his eighth ever swim session in three years. The coast-to-coast cycling race across England. An Everest attempt on a bike in South Africa. And the meditation state he enters during hard intervals, where he ran past the Eiffel Tower during the Paris Marathon and did not notice.

We also talk about running as active therapy, why a long slow run turns scattered thoughts into neat organised files, the progressive tempo session that none of his friends will do, why suffering in training is the only way to unlock what you are capable of on race day, and Lose Yourself by Eminem getting stuck in his head at kilometre 30 of the London Marathon.

One of the most genuinely joyful and honest conversations we have had on Why We Endure. Edwin does not do things perfectly. He just does them anyway and figures it out as he goes.

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📲 Follow Edwin on Instagram @edwin_mooney and on Strava
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Ed Stephens works for Chelsea Football Club, has run nine marathons, a 70.3 Ironman, and last week ran a marathon every single day for seven days

On Monday he started at 5:00 am, went to work, started running at 4:30 pm, finished at 8.30 pm, went to bed, and did it again on Tuesday. Then again on Wednesday. Then four more times after that

In this episode we get into all of it. How a Liverpool fan ended up working for Chelsea and had to sit in the Chelsea end while Liverpool won a cup final at Wembley. Selling out Stamford Bridge for the first time in the history of the women's team. Nine marathons in eleven years and why he is now chasing qualifying times for the World Majors. Seven marathons in seven days for the Huntsman Trust, the manageable pain of the first six days, and the moment on Sunday when his body finally released everything it had been holding back all week

We also talk about why he spent years using physical achievement as armour to prove he did not need support, and the moment he realised that leaning on the people around him made him stronger, not weaker. Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech that hangs on his bedroom wall and the two sentences that have driven everything he has done. And why the worst feeling you can ever have is asking yourself what if

This is one of the most grounded and genuinely moving conversations we have had on Why We Endure. Ed does not just run. He runs with a reason

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📲 Follow Ed on Instagram and check his Just Giving page via the link below
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Alec Coombs grew up in Hong Kong, struggled at school, and found rugby at six years old because it was the only place he could tackle someone without getting told off.

Seventeen years later, he was standing in an Olympic village next to the USA basketball team, wondering what on earth he had done to deserve to be there.

In this episode, we get into all of it. Eight years on the Scotland and GB Sevens circuit, four shoulder surgeries, a hamstring that nearly came clean off the bone, and a stress fracture in his foot three weeks before Olympic selection that nearly ended it all before it began. The moment he took his moon boot off, he went out and had the session of his life on pure adrenaline, and got told by his coach he was going to Tokyo. His debut try for Scotland in Sydney in front of his dad after scoring 80 meters out on his first touch of the ball. The Olympic village and queuing for site security behind the USA basketball team. Kit day with Team GB. Sitting at lunch with James Guy & Adam Peaty and wondering how any of it was real.

We also talk about what happens after sport ends, finding purpose in a corporate environment after years of being surrounded by your best mates every single day, the very real pull of going back to play for Hong Kong ahead of the next Olympics, and why, if you are not failing at something, you are probably not doing it right.

One of the most honest and compelling conversations we have had on Why We Endure. This is what it actually looks like to go all the way to the top of your sport and figure out what comes next.

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📲 Follow Alec on Instagram @alec_coombs
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Molly Savill works full-time as a software developer, trains two to three times a day, qualified for the 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand, came second, and then went to Lanzarote for her first-ever full Ironman and got burn blisters on the bottom of her feet before she even started the marathon.

She is also a professional triathlete.

Six years ago, she had never raced a triathlon in her life

In this episode, we get into all of it. How she went from buying her first bike with her first paycheck to racing as a pro alongside Olympic medallists. The 70.3 World Champs in Taupo, and the moment her uncle appeared on the side of the course, having flown from Australia to surprise her. The Lanzarote Ironman, widely considered the hardest on the circuit, was where she went to places she had never been before and was not sure she was going to finish. Training through a UK winter in the dark and rain, while everyone around her was in off season. And the question she uses to drive everything, not how fast can I go, but how good can I actually get.

We also talk about losing a race by one second because of a pair of shoes, changing her entire bike setup the week before her first Ironman, swimming with Olympic bronze medallists before breakfast, and why The Climb by Miley Cyrus is the song that gets her through the darkest moments.

This is one of the most quietly remarkable stories we have had on Why We Endure, and proof that extraordinary things happen when ordinary curiosity meets a serious work ethic.

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📲 Follow Molly on Instagram @molly.savill
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Briar Whaitiri is an operations manager, a self-taught swimmer, a Coast to Coast finisher, and someone who was told by her neurologist that her condition was chronic and lifelong.

Her response? She did a 243-kilometre multi-sport race across New Zealand two years later.

In this episode, we get into all of it. The Coast to Coast, a sport she had never done, was a 70-kilometre kayak down rapids she had never seen before, falling out of her boat twice, and stopping for lunch on the riverbank while the rescue crew looked on in disbelief. A Half Ironman in Sydney was completed on seven weeks of barely any training, a broken wrist, and zero support crew. And the two and a half years before all of that, where a severe reaction left her unable to walk, unable to work, and fighting to get her life back.

We also talk about teaching herself to swim in four sessions, running up mountains in torrential rain, what it actually feels like to go down grade two rapids in a kayak, and how eliminating sugar, alcohol, and just about everything else for years became the foundation for everything that followed.

This is one of the most remarkable stories we have had on Why We Endure. Briar did not just complete these challenges. She used them to prove something that a medical professional told her was impossible.

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📲 Follow Briar on Instagram @briarfightery
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💪 Training for something big and need a plan to get you there? Reach out to ENDURE Coaching and book a free consultation, link below. Let's get you to that finish line

John Radford had never run further than a half-marathon

Then he signed up for a 100k ultra across Hadrian's Wall

In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to go from zero ultra experience to 19 and a half hours on your feet, the fear of failure as a driving force, the kindness of strangers along the route, and why eating real food matters more than gels when you are out there for that long

We also get into life after the big event, post-race comedown, comparison as the thief of joy, and what John calls his next chapter, an ultra wedding and a backyard ultra somewhere down the line

Honest, funny, and packed with practical lessons for anyone considering their first long-distance event

🎧 New episodes of Why We Endure drop regularly wherever you get your podcasts
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📲 Follow John on Instagram @radford_john
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Tom Whiteley has spent 12 years as a professional rugby player. From signing at Saracens at 18 with no Plan B and no fallback, to playing European rugby in some of the most intimidating arenas on the planet, to becoming one of Leicester Tigers' most experienced players.

In this episode, we get into everything. The OCD and perfectionism that defined his early career. The pre-match notepad ritual he uses to control his controllables and let go of everything else. How a season of barely playing paradoxically turned him into a better player. What it feels like to walk into the Bordeaux stadium tunnel alongside 29 huge men in complete silence. And why, somewhere along the way, he went from banging his head against walls to get pumped up to choosing Finest Wine by six60 as his white-collar boxing walkout song.

Because relaxed beats pumped up. And it took 12 years to figure that out.

This is Why We Endure's first special episode. Highly recommend.

🎧 Episode 4 | Tom Whiteley - Control the Controllables

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Jake Taylor is not a professional athlete. He's a 32-year-old sales professional from South West London who one day just kept running and couldn't stop.

365 days. Minimum 5k every single one of them. Including the day after he ran into a car. Including the day after a reverse London Marathon at 2 am on a rolled ankle. Including every early morning call with Asia and every late night call with the US in between.

At the end of it all, he's running 365 kilometres from Liverpool to London in four days with a crew of equally unhinged mates.

But this episode isn't really about any of that. It's about a kid who spent years chasing selfish goals that never made him happy, and the moment he realised that putting other people first was the only thing that ever would.

ADHD, identity, purpose, running into cars. This one's got it all.

🎧 Episode 3 | Jake Taylor - Run Every Day

👟 Got a finish line you're working towards? Book a free consultation with ENDURE Coaching and let's build a plan that actually gets you there. Link in the show notes.

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