Only been lazy for a few months!

Good evening all!

Wow wow wow. I promised myself at the beginning of this venture that I wouldn’t let the blogs slide into obscurity and go from 1 every week or so, to 1 every year or so. However, I have somehow fallen towards the latter and as I sit a write this, I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since my last blog. As a result, I am just going to do a short review from a previous event but focus a little more on what has really been happening.

Right, where to begin. The girls, (the kids and Liz) have been badgering me to hear my talk, and so I organised, in the school holidays, to put an event on in Bulahdelah. It was always a risky one, it’s a small rural town and I wasn’t sure if any body would turn up. Problem number one, its was a stinking hot and steamy day. Problem number two, I organised it on a day when the was a fitness class going on, and as a town, they are very committed to their exercise. But, with the help of the venue, the Scout Hall, Facebook and posters around town, it was such a relief when the punters rolled in, and I found myself talking to about 25 people. It was great.  I jumped around a little, but it went well, I talked for an hour, and I believe it was enjoyed by all.

I recorded my first podcast. Incredible lives with Micheal Caine. 1hr 54mins of my chatting along, talking, all about…..me. I loved every minute of it. It was a rush to get too after work, but we made it, it was recorded and went down very well. More than anything, it gives me a great platform to show my face and my voice to perspective booking. The link to the “short” is: Richard Hume went from being told that he would be unable to play sport for a long time as a child. The podcast can be found wherever you get your podcasts from.

Soon after Bulahdelah, I replied to an ad for a speaker position at a fundraiser in Canberra. 2 days later I found myself talking in front of about 85 people, not only about myself but also to help support a young and up and coming Moto GP rider. It was a very fulfilling and enjoyable gig to do as it was the first talk, I had generated myself, without Tony’s input, organised the whole thing and went with it. As it turned out, I wasn’t only talking, I was also MC-ing the event, a whole new dimension to my skill set. It went down well, I was paid and it was just more and more experience.

Last week I then ventured down to the big smoke. There was a business show in Darling Harbour and decided it was worth going down to try and meet as many people as possible to promote myself and, effectively, sell myself. It was very AI based which I do struggle to understand, but there was at least a dozen, very positive conversations that I had with some quite big companies, so fingers crossed that progresses somewhere.

This leads me onto today. When I was first planning doing these talks, I needed as much practise as I could get. Today I talked at the Probus Club of Fingle Bay, Nelsons bay. I had an absolute blast. They were so nice to me, have asked me back and were very engaging. I spoke for 45mins about the triple, the rowing and 30 marathons in 30 days. If I go back, I might have to re-design the whole thing and talk about some of the other events out there! Or of course, do some more. My only concern, I need to look thinner in my shirt! Hahahaha.

As always, goes without saying, Tony has been by my side all this time, except today where he was talking elsewhere. A massive thank you to him.

I promise it won’t be so long before my next blog. As short review of an event I have done before. I hope you enjoy it. Tempted to say happy Christmas, but if I don’t, there is a chance I might write another blog before then, at least I better!

Be safe everyone. R

September 2006 – Endurance life Coast to Coast Finishing time – Unkown

The Coast to Coast was the event that Endurancelife encouraged me to do after the cancellation of the 6 marathons in 6 days. The event itself ran from the northern tip of Devon to the most southern tip and consisted of a 7mile run, 60mile off road bike, 6mile run (night stop), 20mile bike, 10mile kayak, 17mile run. So, as it was, on the Saturday evening I was down at the finish and jumped on a bus that took us to the start. When we got there, we set up camp and rested over night.

As morning arrived, we packed up our tents and headed for the start. We actually had to begin the race by running north, around the lighthouse and then back to the start where our bikes were at. From there we then cycled. The opening run was great. It was fairly hilly but basically it was off road but on hard paths and the lead down to the lighthouse was lovely. As we rounded the point, we were then at the most northern tip of Devon. Back up the hill and down to the campsite. It took me an hour and 5 minutes to do the run which I thought was fairly slow. However, the standard of people competing wasn’t that great and I was well up in the field. We then jumped onto the bike and it suddenly became apparent just how few solo races there were. Many people had come as part of a team and it wasn’t until mid way through the bike that I kind of wished I was part of a team. As my legs begun to bomb out, I really wanted some company but it wasn’t there. I wasn’t lost, but with the lack of people I saw, I probably should have been. Fortunately, my map skills were good enough to continue. Every corner we went around, we were confronted with a new hill. They just never stopped. On top of this, I was on a mountain bike which was new to me. I have done a lot of cycling on a road bike but not on a mountain bike and with the bigger tires, it is definitely harder to move the thing at speed. Finally upon finally the road ahead cleared, I saw the end of this stage and, like normal, it was a relief to see the finish. As I jumped off the bike it was time to run but the muscle fatigue that had built up in my legs had begun to take its toll. I slowly left transition for the final 6 miles of the day and even with it being down hill, I took longer than the morning. Again, like the bike, I was a relief to see the finish and I ran up to the desk and got my card stamped. It had been a successful day.

I pitched the tent up, had a warm shower with the little amount of warm water that was left and then headed for bed. As I did, the heavens opened and yet people were still coming in 5/6 hours after me. I was very relieved as the thought of having a cold shower and having to put my tent up in the driving rain just didn’t seem like fun at all. I managed some sleep and then as morning broke was woken up by the hive of activity around the camp site. Packing up, I was ready to go. 

Day two begun with a short down hill bike ride of around 20 miles but it was both road and off road cycling. As we started, another down poor occurred and it washed away all the road markings. It became a matter of follow the leader, or whoever had done the race in previous years. After a lot of too-ing and froo-ing we finally made our way to the end of the bike section. When we got there, it appeared that we had missed a few markers out as we failed to have our card stamped in the correct order. This is why my time is unknown, as it is with half the field. We all missed a checkpoint and hadn’t even realized. It was now time for the lifejackets on and into the kayak. I had 10 miles in front of me and what’s more it was all into the wind and against the current. 4 man and 2 man teams were struggling but I was let into the water and allowed to go. I paddled and paddle and paddled and it was tough, very tough. I found myself in the company of a few pairs boats who were also struggling and so we all formed a line and took turns at the front. Amazingly it worked and about 4 hours after we set off we finished. At the finish, there were a whole lot of other racers I hadn’t seen were ahead of me. I later learned that they had cycled round as the kayaking had been called off due to conditions.

I got changed and got ready for the run. I had been warned of how heavy your legs were after kayaking but hadn’t taken the advice seriously. And oh boy, my legs were heavy. The run saw us head into town, out the other side and then along the coastal path for 17 miles. I ran the first few miles on my own before I caught up with a team of three who happened to be from Hammersmith.  Their tactic was to walk the uphill’s and run the downhill’s. It was a very slow way to do it, but I was bored with being on my own so I decided to stick with them and we had a lot of fun. Walk/run/walk and run so more, that’s all we did and 5 hours later having navigated through short grass, long grass, no grass, sand, more sand, yet more sand, rocks and sheer cliff faces, we rounded the corner to see what lay ahead of us. Amazingly, it wasn’t another hill, it was the finish flags in the distance. We took the speed up and continued on our way arriving at the finish 15 minutes later. Tired limbs and aching feet, I got signed in and then had a massage. It had been quite an adventure.

This was my first adventure race and not my last. It was great fun and a lot of work but I’m hoping there will be a few more in the coming years. It is also a great way to see some of England’s most stunning countryside. I don’t think I would do this particular event again, but I would certainly consider doing the series that Endurancelife put on up and down the country.