Ep 41: Underneath The Kilt Of A Marathon World Record Holder | Nick Ghamgosar

Just two years after deciding to take marathon running "seriously", Nick Ghamgosar (a.k.a the kiltedrunnerdownunder) lined up at the Gold Coast Marathon wearing a full Scottish kilt in pursuit of a Guinness World Record.

But behind the novelty was months of disciplined training, growing public pressure, and one of the toughest races of his life.

And you won't believe his HR data my goodness!

Follow Nick's journey: https://www.instagram.com/kiltedrunnerdownunder/

In this episode:

• Why he decided to chase a Guinness World Record 
• Training for a marathon wearing alllll that gear
• Managing pressure after announcing his intentions publicly 
• Revising his goal just weeks before race day 
• The reality of running 42.2km in full Scottish attire 
• Why community has become his greatest reward 

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Runbelievable is the podcast for every runner. From your first parkrun to your 100th marathon, from walk-run intervals to dabbling in trail running, every runner has a story worth telling. Through honest conversations with runners from all walks of life, Runbelievable explores the challenges, achievements, setbacks, and experiences that connect us through running and shape who we become.

Transcript

Nick 0:06

I need to share this with with people. I spent 95% of my run in uh in zone five. 95% of the goal cost marathon in zone five.

Joshie 0:22

Nutstack, nuts, nutstack. Today I'm sitting here with yet another slice nutsack. A truly painful reminder of the laughs and strange lessons that running teaches us. Marathons suck. Hello everybody and welcome back to Run Believable. I'm your host, Josh Richmond, and each week we chat with runners from all walks of life to explore how running has changed who they've become. Joining me today is Nick Gangossa, who two years ago had a crack at a marathon for a laugh. Today he's a newly crowned world record holder. Nick, welcome to Run Believable. Thanks for having me. What an intro. Now look, Nick, before we remove the kilt, I'm just going to share a couple of quick moments from our amazing Run Believable community. And sincerely thanks to everyone who submitted their Run Believable Moments Gold Coast Marathon Edition. I was truly blown away by the diverse nature of responses, but there were just a couple of uh just a couple of that stood out to me. Firstly, to previous guest, Belle, who didn't quite achieve her marathon goal time, but she gritted her teeth and got to the finish line in ever-challenging conditions. And all this came off the back of the Yandina 5-0, which she participated in three weeks earlier. Now, Belle hadn't planned to run that event, but won a competition with the Trail Snails, so I thought, why the bloody hell not? And in relentless rain with burning quads and the cutoff time looming, she dug deep, crossing the finish line with just 30 minutes to spare. Now, it wasn't her fastest race, but one that she is by far the most proud of. And secondly, to one half of the Stride sisters, Keena. Now, get this, Nick, she was diagnosed with two holes in the heart only two months before the race, yet smashed her half marathon with the knowledge of open heart surgery looming, which is just incredible. And how proud Keena must be of what her body is capable of. Sincerely, best of luck with your upcoming surgery and recovery. Now, Nick, how proud are you for being one of the newest entrants yet to be ratified into the Guinness Book of World Records?

Nick 2:31

Yeah, I'm um pretty I'm pretty stoked. Um I'm mainly I'm mainly happy and a little bit relieved is probably how how I'd describe it. Um and this is this is of course pending official validation. Uh I need to upload all of the evidence, but um stoked and relieved, I'd say.

Joshie 2:51

How much of the relief is, I guess because there was this huge anticipation. I mean, you were very much out there on social media and mainstream media, I might add. So how much of that relief do you think was just the coming down from such a high?

Nick 3:05

Yeah, I think I think that's that's exactly it. I um through entirely my own fault, um, built up a lot of hype for this and was very public for many months about the goal and and the aspiration. And I think I was very surprised the the the two days before the marathon, just how nervous and and stressed, and I'd say tad anxious actually, um with a small A, anxious, um just about the upcoming race, which I've not had in any of my previous four marathons before. And I think a big part of that was I've set up this goal.

Joshie 3:52

I feel I feel like I need to hit it. Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, what about when you you did that trial run, didn't you? Was the Brisbane half that you ran four weeks earlier?

Nick 4:03

Yeah, and and that probably that probably added to some of the the the worry because the the point of doing the Brisbane half was to be in the full kilt, and that was you know a good simulation four weeks before, you know, a good test of fitness generally for anybody, you know, and as a ramp up for the marathon and and to test it in the kilt. And after a couple of maybe four kilometers of the half marathon, I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to hold the pace that I was hoping for because of just how how warm it was with the jackets. I think that race, that half marathon not going so well, I think put a little bit of doubt in my mind for for indeed how hard it was gonna be for the full marathon at the Gold Coast.

Joshie 4:53

And so you and I caught up maybe two or three weeks ago, and you sort of spoke to me about having these three different goals, I think. You sort of had these layered goals. Um so can you sort of talk us through? I think initially you you really wanted to run a sub two hour 45 um marathon, which I think would have been both a PB and also well and truly like a ha almost a half hour world record. Um can you talk me through your revised goals?

Nick 5:18

Yeah, it went through some some serious revision and and some um so yeah, you you're right. So I I ran, I guess the starting point is last year I ran Sydney marathon just in normal clothes, um, two hours fifty-five. That was a 30-minute PB on a year before that, where I ran 327 Itazy. Yep. And that was a 30-minute PB on a marathon that I did 10 years ago. So I I've as I've taken running more seriously in the last couple of years, my kind of trajectory of improvement has been pretty steep, I think, um, in terms of in terms of 30 minutes off and another 30 minutes off. And I think I came off. And so I I came off Sydney, I think, with this real and genuine belief, naive in hindsight, um, but this genuine belief that I could still kind of continue at a rate of knots in terms of shaving time off. And so that's where the the 245 aim started. Um and I think over the course of the the four or five months of training, um, through a combination of of actual core fitness, uh realizing where that was, and a realization of how hard it was actually going to be in the kilt, um, I revised that down to uh let's try to beat the record at 317. And if I get anywhere below a sub-three, that would be phenomenal.

Joshie 7:00

Yep. We'll um we'll talk about your race in a moment. Um now I first stumbled across your uh profile through Instagram, and you know, my curiosity went into overdrive, and I sort of thought, you know, there's a lot of little snippets that you get on socials and even sort of mainstream media, but I um I know that there's a deeper story, and we like to go deep, super deep in it. So um let's go back to um your sort of uh early life growing up in Scotland. Um from what you told me, running was never really part of your upbringing. I think you sort of did it incidentally as part of playing soccer. Um you you played table tennis as well. Is it true that you represented Scotland as well?

Nick 7:39

And that's true. That's uh that's one of my big claims of him, actually. Yep. I um represented them once. I played against a guy from Japan and got very badly beaten. So that's that was my that was my high and low of table tennis.

Joshie 7:57

And talk to me about soccer, sort of what what um your was your involvement? I mean, were you were you much good at soccer? I I I would say I would say I was alright.

Nick 8:07

Um I I was never it was never a realistic ambition that I would go professional or anything like that. I would say I played competitively um kind of with within Scotland. So yeah, I grew up playing playing football, that was definitely my main sports. Uh I played for five or six different clubs around Edinburgh in Scotland. Yep. Um and I played with uh Edinburgh University as well. Um uh I never quite made it to the first team uh of Edinburgh University, but I played in their fourth team, their third team, and their second team. Um and and loved it. That was one of my favourite kind of moments in life um playing with the the football team at uni. So um the running part of it, as you say, it was kind of an ancillary thing. It was kind of incidentally through playing football that I I would do that um until I think it was 2013 where I ran the the Edinburgh Marathon. Um and I ran I ran it and uh finished it in about three hours fifty-six, but that was not a pleasant experience.

Joshie 9:20

Tell you what, not bad for a first marathon that you hadn't really trained for. Yeah, I and I I don't quite understand how it happened to be on. It was somebody say that it was a terrible experience. I mean, what can you remember about it?

Nick 9:36

I remember I remember being in the pub five days before the race, um speaking to my mate James, who had run it last year or the the year before, and saying, How should I run it? What sort of pace should I do? Should I take any nutrition or any fueling? What should I eat before the race? All the sort of what I consider now fundamental and kind of basic questions that I was asking uh whilst drinking a couple of pints of tenant, the local, the local Scottish beer a few days before the race. You should never make a big decision whilst a few bees in, but yeah, yeah, exactly. And um and so the race was pretty grim. Um I remember running with a friend for the first half of the marathon. Um it got to about halfway. This was friend Scott, and he said, You're going a bit slow, I'm gonna speed up, and he just ran away from me. And that was the start of the end for me. And it was the it was the classic like last 7k, completely ran out of energy, was frantically grabbing sweeties and lollies from children to try from kids. You know, they they stand, they're they're super happy and cheery, and they're like holding out snakes and lollies for you. And I just in my mind, I must have been like this animal to give me the sweets to try to get as much fueling to get rid of the finish lane as possible.

Joshie 11:12

Little do you know you actually like gate crash some five-year-old's birthday party. True. Um, so okay, so at some point, I think it was 2021, you moved to Brisbane, you had your first child, was it 2022? Um so your life priorities shifted a fair bit around then, and then in gosh, only what two years ago, you thought, why the hell not run the Hobart Marathon, which I think you mentioned just before? Now, you didn't take it over overly seriously from what you and I spoke about, still ran a was it a 327, something crazy like that?

Nick 11:46

327, yeah.

Joshie 11:48

So did that unlock something in you? Was it that marathon that you just went, you know what, maybe I can actually take this a bit further that that was exactly the way the way to describe it.

Nick 11:59

Um it really unlocked this uh passion and competitive drive to see where my my ceiling was, you know, how how how far and how fast I could get with with the marathon training. Because the six months prior to Tassie was the first time I would describe myself as kind of taking running seriously, meaning doing something other than just a 5k at the same old pace. You know, I actually kind of trained, I came up with a plan, um, you know, I increased the distances um as part of the build for the Hobart Marathon and achieved a spectacular result that I was absolutely over the the moon with. So that really unlocked a let's see how far I can take it.

Joshie 12:51

Yeah. And it sounds like you really then applied yourself to running after that. You focused a lot more on training, on nutrition. Can you sort of talk me through what adjustments you made?

Nick 13:02

Yeah, I would say the the biggest differences then between the Hobart Marathon and the Sydney Marathon, there was a about a year and a bit in between those. I didn't train fully for the year. Well, I kind of did. So there's a year and a half between Hobart and in Sydney. I think one of the differences was even outside of the training block, I just continued building my aerobic base, you know, 30, 40k a week or something. So that made a difference over that period of time. Um I think the other big difference was incorporating a bit of strength training, which everyone says is important, but I'd never done. Um and then probably was thinking more tactically around my different long runs. When I did my long run training for Hobart, it was just kind of it was just at the same pace all of the time. Whereas for Sydney, I would mix that up. I would maybe do one long run on one week that would be easy. The next week I would do a kind of fart-like kind of style. And then the following week do a long run progression. Um and I think just testing the legs in a different way for those long runs were probably one of the big levers that that made me go into Sydney feeling really strong.

Joshie 14:25

So can I ask? I mean, you ran a 255 for Sydney. Were you targeting a sub three, or did you just see how you felt on the day? I mean, can you talk me through what your sort of race strategy was? Yeah, I was targeting sub three.

Nick 14:40

Um I I started kind of I started my kilteed runner down under social media uh profile a couple of months before Sydney. And I was pretty vocal then, albeit with a smaller audience of my mum and you know, family and friends. Um but nonetheless it was pretty vocal on kind of sub three was was my target, and the training block was it was amazing. Like I just felt so good throughout the entire block. I went into Sydney thinking so certain I was gonna get sub three hours and and uh ended up doing 255. Um I came up with the race day strategy which was to to negative split, which I did. Um the last wave key of the Sydney Marathon was was faster than any any other part of the race. So it just went Wow beautifully, really, really well.

Joshie 15:41

Wow. That's incredible. Can I ask then? I mean, at that point, like I say, it started the kilter runner down under social media profile, and then obviously there then became this uh vision of looking to set a world record attempt. But were you at all in two minds about whether to sort of chase this world record versus just exclusively focus on your own running pursuits and see how fast you could run in just conventional running gear?

Nick 16:06

Yeah, it's it's something that I have debated. I think I think I disappointed a lot of people at the Sydney Marathon because I got many, many messages of congratulations, but probably half a dozen messages of why didn't you run in the kilt? I'm disappointed that you didn't run in the kilt. You've misled us as the kilted runner down under. And so there was probably there was probably a little bit of of that where I felt inclined in a nice way. Um I felt inclined to live up to the namesake and and run as the kilted runner down under. And there was probably a bit of naivety of I can do it n in a novel way, running in a kill, but still run even faster and get a PB.

Joshie 16:59

And that was naive. The thing is, though, I mean, on the on the surface, it might look like um you're being a little bit naive and it even there being an element of it being a piss take, but you trained bloody hard. Like I was following your training regime uh leading up to the Gold Coast marathon, and you know, you you weren't doing this half-hearted at all.

Nick 17:23

Yeah, and it was it felt like a pretty good training block. I I it didn't feel as good as my my Sydney training block, um, which in part was one of the mental battles I think I had, you know, going into to Go Coach Race Day. Um but but nonetheless, yeah, you're right. You know, I I I trained for about 18 weeks. I got up to uh 110k a week or 115k a week was my my peak. I did five weeks where my long run was a 36k long run. And I I was super consistent. Like I hit I hit my um my my weekly target every every single week. So from that point of view, it was a really a really good blank. Um I hesitate because there's probably some of my key long runs or speed workouts I didn't execute um exactly how I wanted to, which is I think uh a reflection I've had in terms of uh I maybe tried to push the distance more than I was able to do in that kind of that was at the sacrifice of real quality and some of those key runs.

Joshie 18:37

Yeah. Good on. I mean, so you're obviously very smart. I mean, to be able to reflect and then make those adjustments. I mean, you didn't just give up on your attempt, you thought, it's okay, I can actually work with this and revise my my goals. Um, when when you and I caught up uh a few weeks ago, one question I asked you, which I hope you've got an answer to, because I think you've said it you've had dozens of people ask you what the weight of the full kilt is. Yes, it's about uh five or six kills.

Nick 19:03

Oh it's just shy at 10% in my body weight, so that's material.

Joshie 19:12

That's quite something.

Nick 19:14

I'm just a wee gay. Like that that's a lot of weight for a wee guy like me.

Joshie 19:19

Actually, I've got to say, um, I won't ask what's under the kill because I know you get sick of being asked that question. But we did that on your behalf about a week or two ago. We asked the running community what we uh thought. We got some brilliant responses. We we had uh you know, race gels was a very common theory that you'd stashed at least six um uh white gels, uh sorry, um running gels there. What about uh what's scran? We had someone s suggest that scran was was being stashed there. You know what scrans? No. That's a Scottish word for food. Scrum. Food. Okay. So we had um we had deep fried haggis being another why deep fried? Um haggis gels, is there such a thing?

Nick 20:01

Oh, that if not, I think there's a market for it. That sounds delicious.

Joshie 20:05

Well um and someone's yeah, I think very aptly suggested lots of Vaseline. And that's one thing I actually am curious to explore. I mean, in all seriousness, is chafing much of a problem with um with the kilt?

Nick 20:20

So you may be surprised to hear chafing wasn't a problem with the kilt. And um I guess I guess this is my opportunity. I I've sort of ignored this is my opportunity to dispel the rumors because there have been a lot of rumors per per your audience's answers in terms of what I wore under the kilt. What I won wore under the kilt were a really comfy pair of half-tights race day shorts that had lots of pockets for my gels. So so that that definitely helped to subdue the chafing. Um even even around the the neck, you know, I had a dress shirt on with a bow tie. You know, I put the the I put the cream on and you looked apart, yeah. Yeah, I did. I was ready for a wedding, you know? Um the chafing chafing wasn't the issue. It was the it was the heat of the the jacket, I would say, was the the central problem.

Joshie 21:15

Hmm. And I guess I mean it wasn't the coolest morning, it wasn't the warmest either, but I guess by the time you're getting to what close to nine o'clock in the morning, I mean, did the did the sun become much of a problem?

Nick 21:28

Yeah, it was it was pretty tough, to be honest. I you know, if your heart rate's anything to go by, it was it was pretty high after 1k, which was Really. Which was a bit of a a slog mentally. Um because uh I know from doing Sydney and other marathons, I have a pretty good understanding of where my heart rate should be. And uh after 1k of Gold Coast Marathon in the kilt, it was up at about 167, 168 beats per minute. If I can compare that to the end of my Sydney marathon, that That's where my heart was at at the end of Sydney Marathon, you know, the tail end of the race. Wow.

Joshie 22:10

So at the start. That's up there. Cause that's almost zone five. I mean, that's threshold pace, really, isn't it?

Nick 22:16

I um I've got a brilliant stat that I need or I need to share this with with people. I spent 95% of my run in uh in zone five. 95% of the goal goals marathon in zone five.

Joshie 22:31

That's that's almost hard to believe. I mean, you'd expect that for a 5k, um, but for a marathon, it's it's actually quite incredible that you're able to sustain that.

Nick 22:41

Yeah, yeah. And it's a bit it's a bit worrying. And and that was I was realizing all of this within the first K of the race, you know, a race that I was excited and nervous for, and that I wanted to kind of deliver on the result. And so that I spent a lot of the race just I guess a little bit worried, frankly, and strategizing or adjusting, you know, how I do the race so that I actually finished it. Because and and it basically resulted in me just the pace dropping off stress steadily um throughout the entire 42k in order to try to keep the heart rate no higher than than 167, 168.

Joshie 23:31

Wow. I mean can you talk me through I guess your your your prep? I mean, did you did you sleep well the night before? I mean did you turn up at the start line feeling fresh and ready? I think so.

Nick 23:41

I think so. I I I I I think sleep was fine. I think my taper was fine. So I c I can't really kind of point to those as as the issues um or the challenges. I think the challenge was not doing enough training um with the jacket on and kind of kind of acclimatizing myself to that and and just being in a bit of a negative mindset um because I was just feeling a bit of pressure and a bit of worry. And and so I kind of arrived at arrived at the start line with with those worries and with with those concerns. And I think what I found doubly hard about that is I consider one of my strengths in general and in running is is like a positive mind frame. And I was super positive and super confident going into Sydney. So it was this kind of double thing of not only the pressure of feeling pressure, but then I was annoyed at myself about feeling negative, and it was just this like weird spiral. So it was um that was tough.

Joshie 24:59

That was tough. You know, I guess you you put yourself out there, and that's quite a big deal. I mean, when you chase a world record, on the surface it sounds like fun, but it it's serious business. Like you you obviously end up getting a lot of attention, not just on social media, but as I mentioned before, on mainstream media. Um, was there any point as that attention grew that you sort of found yourself feeling a sense of trepidation at all?

Nick 25:25

Yes, and probably not until a couple of a couple of days before the race, actually. But say up until then I was very much basking and enjoying the attention. I um I consider myself an extrovert. A lot of my close friends would say that I love being in front of a camera and all those kind of things. Um so from that point of view, most of the time it was it was great. And that was obviously self-inflicted in terms of putting myself out there. And um I think it just all kind of came to heads suddenly of like it race days here. I feel like I need to go and deliver it.

Joshie 26:06

That's something I am keen to explore. I mean, we'll um we'll talk about your time and how you went shortly, but was there a point during the race where you were conscious of this sort of pressure or expectation to deliver?

Nick 26:22

Yeah, throughout I I was probably battling with that. I think what what was in my favour was I had a pretty big buffer in terms of the the pace that I set out at and the time that I was aiming for, you know, at the start of the race, um, versus what the world record was. So even though I knew I was slowing down over the course of the marathon, I I I realized that I did have a big buffer. So it never quite got to the point where I was worried about breaking the record, but I had to I had to kind of dig in and just manage it, manage my pace so I didn't just pet a wall completely.

Joshie 27:15

Uh can you remember uh how you were feeling? Were you on track? I mean what uh what time can I ask did you pass through the halfway point at?

Nick 27:22

I passed halfway at about one hour thirty-two.

Joshie 27:27

Yep. So So that would have you at what uh 3.04 pace if you sustained it. Did you feel at that point that it it was a sustainable pace, or did you sort of sense that yeah, you might be having a bit of trouble?

Nick 27:41

I sense that I was having a bit of trouble. Um it was a pretty if you look at my pace per kilometre, it was a pretty like gradual decline every K, pretty much. It wasn't it wasn't like suddenly I got to half or suddenly I got to three quarters where I hit a wall. Um it was pretty steady throughout. So it was a constant kind of manage from as early as 4-5k, I was I was I was constantly managing what pace can I keep up and just kind of slowly, slowly drop so I can still hit a 317 world record goal.

Joshie 28:23

Yeah. I mean, was there any point where you felt like the goal might be out of reach, or did you feel as though you were adjusting your pace enough that you'd get there pretty comfortably in the end?

Nick 28:33

Yeah, I I honestly I thought I had enough buffer that I'd be able to adjust my pace and be sensible and still get and still get the record. So from that point of view, that that definitely helped. Um although I was in real time, I think, coming to terms with not hitting that secondary goal of sub-three hours, which I ended up being miles away from. So that was probably the the battle I had in my head. So that was coming to terms with in in in real time during the during the race.

Joshie 29:08

So what can you tell me, Nick, about some of the I guess euphoria and uh attentions?

Nick 29:14

Yeah, I talked I talked a lot about how difficult the the race was. Um if you were to look at any of the photos or the videos of me running, you probably wouldn't think that because I had a big great smile on my face. Yeah. And that's that's a direct reflection of the the crowd. Um, not only family and friends that were were there, um, but uh everyone else as well. As you can imagine, I got a lot of attention because I looked a bit ridiculous in the kilt, but it was um yep, it was amazing, and I really channelled that all the way through. I was getting all kinds of shouts of go Scotty, go Jimmy, go Angus. Um, I had lots of people shout, oh, you must be hot in there, hot with that on. Yes, I am, I don't need to be reminded of that. Um lots of really good encouragement, and and there's probably my probably my single favorite reaction. Um I was probably, I don't know, 30k into the race, and there was this uh I don't know, 10-year-old girl that was standing outside. She didn't say anything, but I just happened to clock her as she was watching me, and uh and her face was like this as I ran past like sheer of awe and amazement, and it was just I saw her seeing me and it was uh it was lovely. And it was just you know, moments like this uh I think helped me to to smile all the way through, pretty much all the way through the race. Um, even though on the the inside I was kind of battling with a lot, and that was uh that was awesome. It was a really, really good race from from that perspective. So I'm really grateful for everyone during the race, all of the messages before the race, all the congratulations after the race. It's uh it's all part of the the high and the euphoria of it.

Joshie 31:12

So can I ask, I mean, now that you've had a few, a few days, uh more than a few days to reflect on the result, I mean, are you happy with what you achieved?

Nick 31:22

Um I'm delighted with what I achieved. I think, especially given everything I I know now about how hard it was. Um I'm I'm delighted. It's it's something that is just really fun and silly, and something that I'll be able to say hopefully for a long time that I am a a world, a world record holder. So and it was probably it was certainly in like a physical or a mental kind of context, it was probably one of the hardest things that I've done. I can't think of anything else that was that that I've done that was harder than that in terms of the management and um you know the amount of effort that went into the build and then just kind of and just just the exhaustion as as part of the race.

Joshie 32:09

I think what you've achieved is quite um quite incredible. Like I say, just putting your intentions out there. Um I really liked a post that you did where you sort of talked about having to revise your goals. I mean, that takes a lot of courage to do that. Um can you sort of talk to me about, I guess, some of the attention that you've received uh sort of in the in the lead up to the race and also since?

Nick 32:32

Yeah. I uh yeah, that that post would have been maybe three weeks or so before before the race, and uh that was me kind of publicly stating that the two hour forty-five in a kilt was um way too ambitious, and that's when I set the, you know, the the three the three goals of beating the record or trying to go sub three. And yeah, I was a little bit surprised by how many people commented saying that's really brave of you, you know, to to to be able to come out and say that. And um it was it was nice to hear. It was also a bit funny because I I I didn't think twice about doing it. Uh uh, you know, in in my mind, in my mind I love just putting out a goal because it gives me something to to to to work towards. And um one of my favorite phrases is uh or one of my favorite quotes is um if you don't if if you never muck around, you'll never find out. And I think that's what drives me through through a lot of this. If I don't muck around and put out a funny goal or crazy goal, then then who knows how far I can go. And so this gives me a way of giving a bit of a reality check of if I ever wanted to get a two hour 45, you know, I tried to do that. There are some major things that I'd need to do differently to achieve that. And um, if anybody wants to sit there and say that's a bit embarrassing, you had a goal um that you didn't hit or that you had to readjust, to me it doesn't bother me because I'm I'm being my authentic self. I'm trying to do something positive in terms of running and achieving and putting my mindset through something hard and putting my body through something hard. I'm I'm quite happy. I'm quite comfortable.

Joshie 34:27

So then what's next for you? I asked that for a few reasons. Firstly, coming down from such a high and you sort of built your profile around this one goal, um, that could be a very difficult thing to sort of come down from and then sort of recalibrate your expectations about what's next. But did I also saw that you've cheekly set up a new Instagram handle for possibly something else? No. Oh my, you know something I didn't know. There someone connected with me on Instagram in the days after you and I chatted, and it it looked very similar to something that you would aspire to. It was like the fastest marathon in a kangaroo suit or something like that. I thought, oh yeah, this is this is clearly Nick setting his sights on something else, it's not you.

Nick 35:17

I'm curious who that is because because there's a good friend of of mine, Guillaume, who is known as the frozen runner. Um he has attempted to do the fastest marathon in a kangaroo outfit, and in fact, he he attempted it as a kangaroo at Sydney last year. He didn't quite make it. Um the record, unfortunately. But I'm wondering if that was him or some other mysterious character. So what do you have your sights sit on next? Oh, it's a bit of a boring answer, which is I'm not I'm not really sure. As you say, it's um I'm sure this resonates with a lot of people listening that it is the it is a bit of a come down after the marathon. You know, you put we all put so much effort and focus and training into it, and and then it's kind of over after after all of that. So I'm I'm not really sure. I think I I want to give myself probably a couple of weeks to um to just come down and have a a clear, a clear head on on it. Um I found the training really hard towards the end, um, in terms of motivating myself to to get out and doing it. So I think I'm looking forward to running shorter distances for a while. Um I did high rocks with my wife uh a couple of months ago. That was really fun. Um maybe I venture into that. Um I say jokingly that I've burnt the kilt and I'll never wear a kilt again. Um I'm not sure if I fully mean that. I I want to reserve the I want to reserve the right to to maybe do something again in the kilt. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But I I'm open to ideas, whether you have any. And I'm gonna be asking the same question for others to see and latch onto something ridiculous or something fun.

Joshie 37:11

Nick, thanks so much for sharing your journey. Before we finish up, I do like to ask one final question to all of our amazing guests. Um reflecting on your recent journey and even just your running journey more generally, what would you say is the biggest lesson that running has taught you about yourself?

Nick 37:27

There's a really big community out there, and when you're running, you don't need to run alone. And that sounds maybe a bit, a bit sappy, but it's my my honest thoughts. I mean, that from the point of view of been running more seriously for the last couple of years, but it's probably only been in the last six months where I've started to make some real friendships from running and groups that I train with regularly that are really they're great people and fun and encouraging. Um and I think that's one part of it. And also on the, you know, all the social media stuff, the amount of people that I've connected with that are going through a similar journey of like, you know, dad, young kids, full-time work that are also trying to train and run and achieve marathon goals or running goals. I think that's another part that I've really learnt about running and about myself is that that importance of community and and doing it with others, which is not something I expected to get out of all of all of this in the last kind of six months, twelve months, and it's been over the next part of it.

Joshie 38:43

Nick, I truly do admire your commitment to a goal. It takes a huge amount of courage to put yourself out there the way that you have. There's no way that I would ever promote the idea of something like that. So sincerely congratulations on your achievement, and I can't wait to see what you tackle next. Thanks so much. Thanks.