 Felly mae'n gwneud i mi i gael i gael o'r platformers oedd gweithio'n gwahanol mewn gwirio'n gwneud i'ch gwaith i'w gwneud i gael i'r gwneud i gael i'ch gweithio'r button sy'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gwneud i'r podcas ymlaen nhw. 422 o dda, un o'r cyffredinau sydd yn ymlaen i America. Gweithio'n gwneudio'n gweithio'r newid o'r dŵr. Gweithio. Dwi'n wneud i chi i'n gweithio'n gweithio. Dwi'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio. Ha ha ha and I had to carry on with just pushing all my stuff in the jogging pram and I had like a like an old hold all with all my clothes and food underneath, spare trainers underneath, a little bag on the back without me like you know sort of phoen and wallet and so forth went into a shop I'd just leave the pram there and if any nutritionist followed me on that, got any weapons on ya and I'm like oh no mate I'm British just just me raise a sharp with Fy gyd gan eich gwasanaeth gwrth, mae'n siŵn. Fy angen i gyd because I've got plenty and just pulls out this 10 inch carving knife from ban. But I knew you'd seen before this, did you ever fear for your life? And I just thought, oh my god, this is it the first night on my own. And the team was probably still going to be on the air. If anyone hurt somebody or the girl and hurt them real bad. I just thought, don't worry about it, I just wanted to camp in your yard. But I've been with these guys so we've got Rob Pope. How've been with you? I'm really good man, really good. It's really good to see you. You've just done one of the first things ever. Be coming for us, we'll plug that straight away which is your book. You've ran 15,621 miles in 422 days. One man's epic run across America. The first ever, congratulations, phenomenal achievement. Cheers lah. What made you do it? I just felt like running. Classed by a lot. Unbelievable, it's a pleasure to sit across from you like these kind of things is inspirational and it shows that what can be done when you put your mind to something. First and foremost, how are you brother? I'm doing alright man, it took me a good while to not sort of walk like a nine. You know, see when you see the 90 year old fellas doing the London Manor and stuff like that, I can stand up straight these days which is nice. You know, I've finally been rolled out and sort of psychologically I think I've got over the struggle of not being on the road, something I thought I'd never get. You know, I remember seeing it in a Facebook group and they said, how does everybody deal with it after you finish your trip across? Cos a lot of people have done it once, you know, a couple of nutters have done it twice. It's just the club that have done it more than that's pretty small. And I was reading, this course wasn't going to comment and saying, oh wow, be fine. But I have been pretty bomb proof before in my life and then I come back from this and I'm just a bit like there was something just huge that was missing because like even though I had to run every day, there was this ultimate freedom that I'd probably never had and never will have ever again and like, you know, sort of struggling to adjust to that, you know. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. When did the book come out? So it was only last week, yeah. And so it's early doors, you know, sort of I'm still getting photos of all my mates just going, look what I've got. I'm just like glad someone's getting it. It's unbelievable. Before we go through all me, all your rounds, let's go. I always go back to the start of my guess, brother. Where you grew up and how it all began. Cool. So I grew up in Crocksteth in Liverpool, went to the same junior school as Everton Llewman and he's Wayne Rooney and Frannie Jeffers. I actually I played in the school B team with Frannie Jeffers. And like he was the best runner in the school by the mile. And he was a rubbish footballer. Right. You obviously people can say with the world now, but he's in England international Arsenal, Everton. And we had a tournament where we got beat 6-0, 5-0 and 4-1. You scored the goal. Yeah. Easy peasy. But yeah, like I was never going to make it as a footballer. I wasn't in the league of those lads and they started across country. Team sort of at school and me mum was a good runner. She would have gone to like the world juniors in the hurdles, but she fell down and fell down the stairs on a bus coming home from school and that was a running career over with and stuff. So she's dead supportive of me. And it was just me mum was there and me dad's bit up when I was like six months old and I'd been together like when they were dead young and then got married. I came along and you know, I actually don't know too much about the break up really, but you know, sort of things happened, don't they? And so she brought me up on her own like sort of a single parent family. Obviously, a single parent family is responsible for all the ills of the of the planet and nobody not good can ever come at that. Well, that's what somebody said to her when she was on Kilroy. And I don't think that MP ever took a beast in like that. Like he did off my mum and she was just like, I'm a single parent family and my lads going to university and just this is happening all up and down the country. And, you know, she was like she was my warrior queen. Like she she proper stuck up for me. You know, she wouldn't necessarily come in and fight me battles, but she certainly maybe know which ones I needed to fight. Did you start running? What is the start running? Properly, it probably was just when when I went to seniors. And then I said we were at school unusual for Liverpool because we didn't play footy. It was in the winter. It was rugby in cross country. And in the summer it was it was cricket and athletics. And, you know, I wasn't a very good scrum off and I certainly wasn't going to play anywhere else. So it's cross country for me in a train three times a week. And we actually had a really good team. Sometimes I was the best in the school. Sometimes me make Pete was and we'd like sort of spare each other on. And then we couldn't really be bothered training that much. I remember one race is a big massive school called Stonia. She's the sort of place that's got the mile long drive way up to it. And we've both been out on the town the night before. And I think Pete had about eight pints of Guinness and he was better than me at this time. But about like five miles in, I run past him and I see him nicer to buckled over bringing all the Guinness back from the night before and just tapped him on the back and told him he should have stuck to the new key brown like me. And but yeah, we didn't really take it that serious and go to uni and sort of it's much more fun to be like a thought in the team environment. And so I just went back to footy and played loads of footy. But I would do the London marathon every year. I mean, mum would always go and always support me at all of the three places or so around London. And I was always fairly decent. Never going to be like an international or anything like that. The running sort of changed the well me life sort of really changed, sort of would have been around sort of 2002 when me mam sort of died, she had cancer. And then it's one of these sort of things. We're like now I'm I just like bringing it up because I feel that when I talk about her, I'm talking to her, you know, and so you can just sort of have that conversation. And so I sort of didn't really lose my way on the run and but I didn't have the didn't have the focus there anymore. And so I sort of when I could have been maybe entering sort of peak stuff, I was just busy having the time of my life or be it like I joined a band sort of at uni and playing footy, you know, chasing the girls or stuff like that. And everything settled down after that. And so I meet like now my wife and my girlfriend at the time. And so as luck would have it, we ended up emigrating to Australia and then we're there for like three years and I thought, right, I need to get a circle of mates when I'm out. I don't just want to sort of, you know, be super homesick. So I thought about joining a footy team. But then I thought Mouthy mid 30s, Gausser who fancies himself as a bit of a player turns up in Australia. That's a journey for a broken leg if ever I saw it. You know, I even had to look at AFL and then I found out that you pretty much have to be 644 to play. And that's definitely a journey to a broken leg. So joined an athletics club and then just started running with them and who thought that joining a place where everybody was sound and you could get on with it and they were faster than you would make you fast. And I got my marathon down, time down quite a lot. And I ended up, I think it was 2015. I ran the Liverpool Rock and Roll marathon and I was standing at the start line and said to the lads around me, a lad to say I'm from here and it's my birthday today. Do you mind if I win for the first mile? Of course, everyone was dead serious and just looked at me like I had two heads. And so the end of the first mile, I am winning because I've gone all out. And go past my girlfriend. She's just like clapping, unbelievable because she's just like, what's happening here? I got overtuck, I end up catching this lad up about mile 15 just as my girlfriend was there again. And I said, I said, thanks, mate, you just made me look really good in front of my birthday. And he just turns around at me and just like you said that you had with that fella the other week. So to be was gone. And I was just like, and the fella on the bike in front of me was just like, mate, you've lost him. He's gone. You're going to win this. And I was just like, oh, mate, this is going to be the best thing. It's my birthday today as well. And so then he was on this pace bike, saying to me in the crowd. I said, he's strong, Liverpool, he's round here. Your miserable kids give him a cheer and it is your birthday. And then go down the finish line, win. And so, you know, everybody sings happy birthday on the way afterwards and stuff like that. I win the next year. But in between, in Australia, I do the Sydney marathon. And I had the most surreal moments of all time. I'm running over the Sydney Arby Bridge and I've been I've been dropped by all these Kenyans at the front. And I would drop the main pack and there's a point where it just peaks. And I couldn't see them in front of me and I couldn't hear anyone behind me. And it felt like the end of the world. Just literally me alone on the Sydney Arby Bridge. So that sort of euphoria gets me through to the end and then I go over the line and the further goes, congratulations, Rob, you're Australian champion. And I'm like, I'll tell you, I'm not Australian. And he just goes, it doesn't matter, mate. You've been here long enough. And I get this, so you're going up to this, get your medal and stuff like that. I didn't say another word. Like if someone just said congratulations to me, I was just like. And when up there got me medal, instantly got down off the podium, you know, put it in my poche. Just, no, we could just go. There's been a terrible mistake, mate. And so just when I was walking down Sydney High Street, looking at this gold medal saying Australian champion and then we get this phone call from a fellow called Chris Mewden and he was head of athletics Australia. He's like, congratulations, Rob. And I was just like, cheers, man. And he goes, you know today, I said, I double out of gold rice. And I'm like, yeah. He goes, do you know what that means? And I'm like, no. And he goes, well, because you came in the top 10, you've automatically qualified for the Olympics. So congratulations, mate. You qualify for Rio. And I was just like, what do you mean? I might go into Rio. And he goes, no, mate. So we've got a few people are going for the time. And if they get the time, we'll pick them because they're Australian. But I think they don't get the time. Would you consider switching nationality? And I was just like, yes, mate, absolutely no question about it. You know, so I think I probably would have got a tattoo of the Australian flag if they've had the opportunity. But look sort of went that way. They did get the time. Of course, they were going to be the professional athletes and I was still just a joker. And I start getting these ideas a grandeur and just thinking I should I should do something big here. I should, you know, try and train properly. And I didn't because I came back to England and I just started this job that just beasted me. It's like five, 13 hour days. And they promised loads of time off the train and it just never happened. What were you doing? I was working as a vet. Yeah. And so he said like, is that where you went to uni for? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's why I went to Australia as well and stuff like that. It sort of felt that I was over in. I was going now at my job. I wasn't doing it. I wasn't enjoying it. And then I just got the opportunities to go out there. It's like sort of like a mad sort of machum who ran like the University Hospital and he remembered me from playing footy at my old uni. And he just said, I just come out here, I'll give you a job. And it's like one of the madest, the best decisions I've ever made in my life. And but yeah, I came back in this new reality. I was just like, this job is doing my thing. And then I needed an ease of the vent and ease of the release. And we all know where that led. Is that what the idea to come up for when across America? I think it's a idea for years. I actually wrote this. Well, I read this fellow's book. I think it was just called Running Across America and a fellow called Nick Baldor. And just the way he described everything, it was just like, you know, it was just saying like moving through somewhere at a slow pace and stuff. And like, you know, there was some scary things, but mostly just sounded boss. And I was like, right, I'm going to do that one day. And I even wrote him an email as like early as I think it was about 2006. And I said, and I entitled it Forrest Gump 2. Add no intention to doing anything relating to Forrest Gump. But if somebody says I've run across America almost to guaranteed next line is like Forrest Gump, he's going to go, yeah. And he gave me some advice. Most of it was like to get sponsors and, you know, I work hard at doing that. This is by far the hardest thing to do. And then life got in the way. I didn't do it. I was originally thinking about going from Long Beach, California to Long Beach, New York, and I was going to call the long run home because every every good adventure needs a little tag lined on it. And that never happened. And then I thought about doing something else. I'm Francis go to Boston and I think I brought it up and he made just said, mate, are you actually going to do this or just talk about it? And then it was only when I came back and I brought it up again and think he just raised his eyebrows and I just went, no, mate, I'm doing it this time, you know? What's the planning goes to go behind that then to be away from your home for a hundred and four hundred and twenty two days then just constantly on the road. That's a big sacrifice as well, especially you've got a girlfriend. So you've also got that's a good job as well to eventually give it all up to then go on. I'm going to just go and run here for over 15,000 miles. What's the planning to behind that to then achieve something like that without injury and then you get your food and then you've got overnight stay. Like there's fucking so much we're going to touch on. But how what's the planning for the first step to get the ball rolling to do something like this? The first bit that helped was just that there was two things, actually. One was the fact that my job was doing me a dinner. I knew I couldn't stay there because I was just heading for a breakdown. I could just massively overworked. And so, you know, that wasn't a thing where I was just like, I can't leave this because I was going to leave it anyway. The second one was just like sort of the cute to get the kick up the arse to actually do it. And so at this point in time, I sort of had started to get ideas of what I would want to do and my biggest motivation of all was me more. And like she said before she died, like to do one thing in your life that makes a difference. And I had no clue what that was going to be. Like I go on to uni to sort of say, I got a good job even when I did a PhD like sort of in sort of a like vaccine development in tropical disease, but I didn't I just missed the day today being a vet. So that wasn't going to be. And I actually thought at the time that was going to be where me difference was going to get made. And I was a bit disappointed when I quit it because I just thought it's like a forest company walks through the crowd at the end and the crowd go, no, what are we going to do? And that's what I just thought. I thought, Jesus Christ, there's potentially my option to do something. And I didn't think right. What's next? I just got put aside and I just had the regret of like sort of maybe balls in it up making the wrong decision. And so I thought, right, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to make it big. And I could make a difference here if I do it for charity and make it sort of, you know, sufficient, you know. So who am I going to run for? And I thought, well, massively into conservation and stuff. And when I was 21, my mum adopted a tiger. It's sort of there with the WWF. And I thought, well, there we go. That's WWF. And what am I going to do? I'll do something like massive like who's done what roots I'm going to do fair than they've done. But you can't get, you know, America is almost a square. So you can't really say, oh, I've done the fair that's crossing. And then people just go like, well, you're going to run across America like Forrest Gump. And then just thinking, you know. And you start looking up his roots and I actually like was I'd done it before in the past and I knew roughly what he did. And they say he ran 15,248 miles and like he crosses the country and everything like that. There's actually a bit of a math in here of the roots. It's like a wheel. Yeah. Well, it works well at WWF, don't it? You know, and then that's where it started in Mobile, Alabama. And he heads over to Santa Monica, goes up into Death Valley down all the way up the East Coast to Maine and goes all the way across the top down to San Francisco, back to South Carolina. And then, of course, he finishes at that place in the desert. And then so I knew what the root was. And but every now and again, I would like because I'm an arch-procrastinate and not necessarily a good planner. So I would basically spend a lot of the time planning just looking up cool places to go. You know, not like sort of how am I physically going to manage it. I'm just going to go, oh, my God. And so I'm going to do that. I only needed 20 mile detour to go to Vegas. You know, I'll do that. I'll alter it. And so I'm googling Forrest Gump roots and I just see this headline man completes Forrest Gump root. And I'm just like, yeah. And I was just like, read the sort of thing. And what he's done is he goes from Santa Monica to Maine. So he's done leg two. And then so that was the motivation because I just turned around, said to Nadine, said, we've got to go now. That's it. We've just got to go now because otherwise somebody else is reading this article with the same bloody else. Someone's going to do this. And like, as I said, is anybody going to do it again? Because I don't know what to the point once someone's done it. Like, you know, like obviously Forrest Gump did it, but we all know it's not a documentary. And yeah. So then that was in March and there was six months of actual organization going in to get us to the start points on September the 15th. And, you know, it's that's when he started because when he runs past that barbershop in Greenbow, Alabama, they're talking on the news about President Carter's collapsed in a 10k race that day. And so you're just like, OK, well, that's when he starts and when does he finish? Well, he says he runs for three days, two months. I was getting this wrong, 16 hours, 16 days and 14 hours or something like that. And I was just like, I don't really, I don't really fancy that. So I'm going to have to go a lot quicker. And then what you're saying before that, where do you stay? What do you do? How many miles were you running a day? Thirty-seven was the average. So over a marathon a day? Yeah. So you had to have 36 or more each day? Yeah, it varied because I was sort of started off like and so I think my first two days I ran down to the ocean to buy you a battery where bubbles from Forrest Gump mate. Forrest Gump? Yeah, Greenbow doesn't exist, but buy a battery does and it's a shrimp and port. And when I went there, I was just getting a little photo, you know, sort of a stand and bar, the dock of the bay. And this shrimp and boat just come passed into the shop and I was just like, did you get that? Otherwise I wouldn't have to run after it, but... And I gradually built up my mileage, but like some days it would be the case that you just go, if we can get here, that's where the campsite is. And it means I don't have to stop here tonight, drive there, we drive back in the morning. It means I can get out of where we stay and just go. Because we looked at options of what to do and you can hire an RV, but we were like self-funding this, you know, and so that's basically money down the gagle as soon as you spend it and they're so expensive. If you're doing it all day in a month for America, you hire an RV, but we thought we could be here for like sort of, you know, almost two years. So that was gone. We talked about hire car and motels, keep it a bit cheaper, but then you're still throwing the money away. So then we gambled on buying this old RV. So we went to this big huge dealie. I was looking online, it's another way of procrastinating. RVs had no intention of buying, just going, ooh, look at this one, it's dead nice. It's only two undergrads and I don't know if we can never afford that. And so yeah, we landed in Houston, picked one, went to the start and we ended up running back towards Houston where we ended up picking the RV up and on the road we were. How many calories have you eaten? I did about six, seven foes, didn't I? Yeah, about that. And so yeah, it was different to whether I was supported when the Dean was there with the RV because like sort of, you know, she'd be looking after me. Although I did have like ham salad sandwiches with Catalina dressing. I'd never had it before I went to America, but I was drinking this stuff like it was wine, you know. Every single day I had that for me lunch apart from the odd time if we were at like a waffle house or something like that, you know, I'd go in there. In the morning I'd have like a protein shake and a couple of bars, get off. I'd have like a second breakfast about like sort of 10, 11, which usually just consists of the donuts. Donuts and like sort of chocolate and everything like that. Yeah, exactly. Here was a case of what you felt that your body was crying out for and then I'd have me lunch loads of crisps and stuff like that and then a third breakfast after lunch, you know, and then a huge dinner. And we'd always have like a beer every night as well. Like it was just the sort of thing I'd look forward to at the end. I was just going to just want a cold one. And then, and that was great. It was, it wasn't like a holiday. It certainly wasn't for Nads because she was like on the, on the sort of the job all the time. Like, you know, and whereas I was like on this hard, but still sightseeing. So, but when I was on my own and because basically we just ran out of money and I had to carry on with just pushing all my stuff in a jogging plan. And I had like a, like an old hall door with all my clothes and food underneath, spare trainers underneath, a little bag on the back would have me like, you know, sort of thrown and wallet and so forth went into a shop. I'd just leave the, the pram there. And if any nutritionist followed me on that, they literally would have been going, mate, don't do this to yourself. But, you know, like sometimes it was just so bloody hot. I'd have to go from one fast food place to another, you know. So it started the morning in sort of a, have a mac and breakfast at 11 o'clock. I'd be in Burger King after that. I'd be somewhere else, you know, just for the air con and I'd be in there just chucking all this like so the coke down me neck and everything. What week did you start? What week did you finish? Started at 10 stone one and finished at 10 stone three. That's that. So you put weight on. Yeah, no. But um. You judge that wheel then? Well, yeah, well over that length of time, but like when I come back, like so, you know, you've interviewed some great fighters and stuff and you know, they have their ups and downs. So every now and again, when I have to come back, I've had the older, damn tall, Paddy, Paddy, they're fucking up and down, man. Well, if you've got a good answer that way. I think it's a scoose, isn't it? He's must fucking, you're running 15,000 miles and they're fucking put on weight. Must be the scoose, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. Oh, fucking fat bastards on disguise. He's looking back to the gym. I might invite them all out for dinner, you know. We'll just have one blowout at sort of before we all go into a training camp and then we'll see each other after whatever we've done, That's like some sort of torture to yourself. Like how you can just eat that shit and then okay, I need to focus and then actually lose it all to get in the shape that damn tall the shape he gets in, Paddy, the shape they actually get in. Yeah, just let the hair down and go fuck it. There's the mental strength though because they'll be, once they're in training camp, they're usually eating good gear. Like sort of, you know, they'll be on like sort of, you know, the whole wheat and like the high quality protein and stuff. But like, I call it gas station nutrition. So I would just literally, you know, you go, what does breakfast sound like for you? It goes like, ding! And that's the noise of me going through the petrol station door, you know. And I'll just go in and pick up a couple of Twix's, like sort of obviously with sort of forest and stuff like that. I would drink a shedload of Dr Pepper because you've got to stay in character and stuff like that. If it was in a bad way, I'd go for the kind of decent stuff, you know. And what else would get microwavable burritos? Hot dogs. I had so many hot dogs. It was unbelievable. And as you can imagine, if you're playing hot dog roulette, eventually it'll come and literally bite you on the arse. What about when you're running? Was there any, were you ever in any danger? Yeah, like most of the time you're thinking about traffic and stuff. And then there's the first time across the Mississippi, and that was a huge moment. Like cause obviously, you know, talking about the charity thing before, you see forest in it. And it's when he's running across the Mississippi for the fourth time, that's the first time the press hear him and they say, why are you running? And of course he says, what I was at the start, you know, it just felt like running. But they say you're running for women's rights, world peace, the homeless, the environment and animals. And of course, WWF take care of the last two. And then I found another sort of charity called Peace Direct that basically sort of, you know, massive women's empowerment. They'll like rescue child soldiers will give them homes and jobs. Of course, with the ultimate aim of world peace. And so it was the whole thing where I was just like, this Mississippi represents everything. And it took me back to what my mum said, you know? And so when I got there, I was just like, even like, you're in the middle of the country and your goal is to get to an ocean, always just aim for the Mississippi. And then once you get to the Mississippi you can aim for the ocean. So I was running across the first time in Baton Rouge. And I just run with this like Olympian round the track. He's like sort of went to two Olympics and we just done like sort of a little 400 meters and he went easy on me. And then it's a four lane highway with no pavements or hard shoulder or anything like that. The 200 foot drop down to the Mississippi. And I'd seen it on the street view, you know, from the satellite. And I just thought, God, you see the shoulder just disappear into this point. And then after that, you're like fully in the path of the Loddys. And so I got to the start of it. And I thought, if I'm going out, I'm going out in the blaze of glory. And then pressed play on Guns N' Roses. Welcome to the jungle. And it's got the line in it. Just goes, you know where you are, baby. You're going to die in the jungle. And I went, he's a mile long this bridge. And then I did that mile in 530. You know, and I was GoProing it as well because I at least wanted somebody to find the memory card and just going, oh, he's so close to getting across that bridge. That was like, and that happened like a fair bit, not to that extent. But like, you know, if you're running at night, you'd be you'd be shitting yourself the whole time. Like I'd have like the hives on it. I'd have the lights and stuff. But at the same time I was over there, a Kiwi guy was running across and he got taken out by, and he think it was maliciously by a hit and run driver in Ohio and stuff. And he was on the phone to his missus at the time. It's the only reason he found him alive because it just basically happened. And then the police just, she knew where he was and he found him on the road. And of course after I knew about the baby, it became a completely different mindset because at the start I'm just thinking here, I am on an adventure, bulletproof, invincible, not bad's ever going to happen to me. I'm a scouter, I can talk my way out of any trouble. And then suddenly like sort of if a car was even like, you know, six inches close to me that didn't like it, it would just send me into like a proper like, Jesus Christ, dude, you know, sort of, and it stopped running at night. And then fortunately I didn't get like, well, I actually did get it by a car, but it was just at some traffic lights. And then this fella likes it because he can turn right on a red light over there. So I'm just watching this fella and he's inching up towards the junction, but he's, you know, we stopped pretty much. And I go in front of him as soon as I go in front of him because he's not looking right. He just guns it and goes right into me and hit the wheel of the stroller. Then that like bites into the rubber, comes up, then is like, card, it's my hip. And like I go down and he's bugged the, like the wheels on both of this. And I just push it to the side and he's literally in his car punching himself in the head. And I just go over and I'm like, mate, what the fuck, you know? And he just goes, the baby, the baby. And I'm just like, mate, there is no baby, but you've got to fix these wheels. And so he got this like big likes to lump a metal out. He's banging that. And I'm just thinking one of these times he's going to be, someone's going to be doing 50 mile an hour if they hit me. I had a truck jack knife in front of me in Tennessee, fell on his phone and a huge 18 wheeler. And he finishes 30 foot in front of me, screeching and I'm just there with a pram. I'm thinking, I'm not even thinking. I'm not thinking I need to get out of the way. I'm not that don't get to see me life flash before me or anything like that. I was just sort of paralysed and I just thought this is it. What kind of days did you have off? Did you ever have a day off from running? I didn't have a, well, the only time I chose to have a day off was when it just happened to be in Vegas, but we needed to get the RV serviced. And so we just basically whacked it in that day and then they said it's going to take a lot longer. And so that was the only, so we just thought we may as well just stay for the day because we've got no other way of getting back. And so that was it. But the only other days I had off a path from that were in Memphis, I tore me left quad. And so I woke up the next morning. Didn't know I tore me quad, but it was just when I woke up in the morning. It's like someone stuffed a grapefruit under the skin and put me finger in it and it just went. And I thought, oh my God, that's proper. That's a tear and I tried to like walk on it and I couldn't get 30 meters. It's the same the next day. And then the third day I said to like Dean, said if this is the same today, we've just got to go home. She was going home in a week anyway. She got a flight from Nashville and I said I'll just come back with it and say, you know, fair dude, we gave it a good go and I could walk and so I said, we'll tell you what, take us back to where we started yesterday. Well, two days before I walked 27 miles that day and I walked 33 the next day. And then after that, I started to bring a little bit more running in and got just so jammy like, so you don't run a car after a quad tear off. I just must have sticky muscles or something. What about like Christmas new year and bofties were just same routine? Yeah, like sort of actually I do say that the only day I never chose to have a day off. I was in Lewis and some mates of mine. I was way ahead of schedule and they said come down to Thanksgiving. And so the first Thanksgiving I had was in a Walmart carpark where we just basically got like all the takeaway food from Walmart while everybody was literally having fights over tellies and teddies, you know, for like Black Friday, even though it was still Thursday. And I went down to Atlanta and did sort of a, I ran around Atlanta instead of actually being on the loose. But like Christmas sort of, I was lucky because that was when I was home for V's and stuff. And so the only birthday I had, that was not long before I made Baby Bee. So your message fell pregnant well just before the run of that, but during that? Right in the middle of it, yeah. And so obviously, which Oh, that's for the wicked brother of it, you've got to go. It's a bit, I mean. Well, you know, the thing is, people who didn't realise that I'd come on from Chicago would then hear about the baby and they'd just be like, dude, how do you feel about that? And I was just like, oh, it is mine. People were thinking it was happening when you were a week or so. Yeah, but we only found out about the baby when she came back out to join me, you know, and stuff. And then obviously everything was changing. But yeah, other injuries, I was in Alabama. And I had this problem with my hip. It had been an ongoing thing pretty much since North Dakota down to San Francisco across to South Carolina and back. And then it got to the point where all these tiny little muscles that sort of, you know, you'd never work out in a gym. And we're now basically bearing the brunt of all this loading because I was taking like 60,000 steps every day, you know. And there's so much pain always on me left, but sometimes on both. And it's basically I'd wake up in the morning and find out whether I was going to get 30,000 jolts of pain that day or 60,000. And then it started pinching my sciatic nerve. And so I'd be running along and my leg would just give way from under me. Like literally as if somebody had just like legs wrapped me. And the family that I actually met the dad of the family called Rhaimi who's like a huge hunter never thought he'd be the type of fella that I'd get on with, but he was just a diamond. And he said, if you're ever through Alabama, you know, look me up and come and stay at mine. And so I knew I was roughly where he lived and I called him up and I said, Rhaimi mate, can you come and pick me up? Cos I can't walk. And he goes where are you? And I say I'm here and here. And he goes, you literally right outside my house. Just literally right outside it. And he takes me to this doctor and I get like two shots of steroid and I left bum cheek and a non steroidal in me rice. And I had two days of recovery there and then I was off. And then the only other time I had the rest was five days at the exact midpoint of Route 66. So, I don't know, 1200 miles to San Francisco, Santa Monica, same to Chicago. And there's a motel, a cafe which was shut and a gas station. So, I obviously had the ding and I had the hot dog and then I had the wild shits. The shits, right, yeah? Five days literally could not get out of bed without sort of, you know, I couldn't eat anything, couldn't keep anything down. And yeah, I lost thinking, so this is the best I had to go on man, six kilos in five days. It was a peach. Did anybody ever try and run with you? Like they done in Forrest Gump for them? Did you have any news reporters or that as well? Do you have any media around you? Yeah, it was pretty cool actually, especially like sometimes it was tough to get the press in, like, you know, the likes of, sort of, you know, New York and San Francisco. But the end of me first, sort of, like I had like the proper life, sort of, you know, she's like the head of the weather, but also one of the like the anchor people come out and like, you know, cover me at the end. The one I was in like Washington, this mad CBS anchor called Adam Longo. He's just almost like a Ron Bergensy, but without the cock ups, you know, and he comes out and runs with me and he just got to go. He's instead of saying like, you know, why you're running like some people just doing and he was just went, what the hell are you thinking? He ran with me for a bit. Nobody ever did a full day apart from the very last day. And then I had two fellas, one with both Navajo because we were running on the Navajo reservation. One of them was a proper altar run and he said he ran like 25 miles a day even in the summer and that day he'd run 40 miles looking for me because he knew I was out on the road somewhere. And then the other fella was a dude who I met in McDonald's and he was probably about my height but probably weighed about five, six stone more. And he said, can I run with you tomorrow? Can I run like all the way? And I was just like, not sure like it's quite a long way. Man, I've got like a tight schedule and he just went, oh, that's fine. I did 50 miles last weekend and he was a power lifter. And yeah, and he ran along with me and we got joined by loads of people at the end, you know? And they had Navajo fire trucks like a mate from school had come out. We'd gone out sort of bevian, sort of in flagstaff a few days previously, just when I arrived back with the baby, you know, stuff like you do. I just said, right, this is going to be a fairly hectic first month of your life. And they came out all the way and it was just like it was great. It was representative of like everybody I sort of met out there, you know? Was Tom Hanks and anyone that I've reached out? Not yet. The weekend I finished, it was his 30th wedding anniversary and I've got a feeling that Tom Hanks is probably a little bit sick of Forrest Gump now, you know? Like, you know, he doesn't need the ticket. And I can imagine him taking all his agents out for dinner and just going, I love you guys. But if any of you has ever sent me a thing about Forrest Gump again, you're sacked and everybody would laugh about it. But everyone just goes, never send him a thing about Forrest Gump. When did you start growing the hair and the beard? So the very first day I was in Mobile, Alabama. You actually look like fucking Forrest Gump, mate. You do? I think my Mrs is sick of me looking at Forrest Gump now. And so the plan is to look more like Rob in March or something the next year. But I might have a bit more running to do before then. And so I go into a barbershop in Mobile, Alabama called Flux. And it was a little bit like the barbershop and coming to America. And everyone was in there going about the business, like sort of, you know, talking about what was going on. Cos, of course, it was a mad time in America, really looking about two months away from President Trump. And so I go and sit in his chair and he goes, what do you want? And I show him a picture of Tom Ang sitting on that bench. And he's just like, and I point then at a photo on the wall of it and he goes, you want high and tight? And I'm just like, yeah, and he goes, are you kidding me, man? You ain't got no hidden camera shit here, have you? And so we did actually have a video camera. I said, yeah, but we're not, we're not like taking a mic or anything. And so he's just like, if you want it, man, you know? And so basically gets the clippers out and, you know, literally, you know, number one around the side, a four on top, cutthroat shave. I basically would have looked like someone who's not like as hairy as this, but maybe like sort of modern Kingsley, unlike but without the good looks, you know, as he did it, but then everything comes off. And it was 38 degrees when I left the barbershop and I walked out and my ears were cold. I was just like, how does that work? And then I didn't touch anything, not my hair or anything like that. Apart from, of course, if you're eating a lot of burgers, you soon realise that you can have your moustache going over your top lip because it doesn't it doesn't go well or chicken wings, man, they're the worst chicken wings, the worst. And so I would like trim all that away. And but everything just went and, you know, this is pretty much as long as it gets. I did get it because obviously I got ended up getting married and I got smart for that, you know. But like, yeah, this is roughly as long as it gets. And I'm just waiting for the hair to catch up now because potentially going to find myself on the same stretch of road next year. How good is your wife and that sailor to do that? Because it's a sacrifice for her as well. Obviously you're travelling. It's something different. But to have that kind of support is unbelievable that all the people about that will be OK. No, no, seriously, thanks to them. And to be honest, I don't think either of us imagined how hard it was going to be. We knew it was going to be hard in running, but I've run races before and now I've had races like. What was the hardest part? Oh, God, you know, coming back from some of the injuries was really rough. Like there was this point in, we'd only done 400 miles and I was in Houston and I'd met, you know, literally I said like self-supported, didn't have anybody doing like PR or anything for me. So I just write on these like sort of, you know, cards, social media, run, roblad, run and like, you know, run across America like Forrest, Gunford, WDF, Pistadeth. And I passed that over to somebody and then like sort of this was proper injured. I had tendonitis in the outside of my shin and it felt like every time I put my foot down, someone was stabbing me in that shin. And I was in there thinking, this is this is this is game over. And I get myself a Twix and I get it just like I always did. And she goes like, what are you doing? And I said, oh, well, I'm running across America. I feel myself going already. So I'm running across America, but I think I think it's over. I think I've stopped. And I just said, here you go when I can't do the card. And it was the last one I had in my little waist pack. And I thought that's the last one I ever write out and it just broke down, sobbing in tears. Not like sort of a little, this was a proper, you know, so, you know, everything I've gone into this, you know, and maybe even like 10 years have gone into it, all the talking, all the planning and then suddenly cocked it up, you know, less than, you know, I don't even know the maths on that, but you know, probably like 5% into it. And then she just comes around from the, from the, from like the tail and gives us a huge hug. And I said, oh, don't hug me. So I'm so sweaty. She went, don't worry. So we're all sweaty down here. And then a mate comes out and she was like, what's happening? Then she tells him, then she's already crying. I'm crying. I go out of the road to stop myself with his twix in a gatorade. In the meantime, I said, and that's just gone. I found you a physio. Well, we've got to go to the doctor first and spend 250 quid for something to say you need to go to a physio. Even though we go, we knew that. And then I've got a little, little game for you here. So we're in Houston. It's female physio. What you reckon her name was? The clues where we are. Give us a first letter. W. Singer. She wants to dance with somebody. It was Whitney Houston, man. Whitney, Whitney, Whitney from Houston sorted me out. And then so that was the sort of thing where I thought it was game up. So that was awful. Stick in me card into like a hotel thing when I was on my own in the middle of nowhere and they just got it's been declined. And I just got no, no, no, that's absolutely fine. And then like go on to me online banking and just goes like, you're over, you're over draft limit. And I just like, oh my God. One of the hardest bits though was saying to that and the Dean because like she supported all the way from Mobile to Santa Monica to Jackson, Tennessee. She was leaving me when I was injured. She was going because we had had money and she was going to be, you know, similarly skinned when she got home. But I don't think if I had not had a support at the start, I wouldn't have turned around at Santa Monica had just gone. If I had been pushing me strolled at the start, I'd have just gone. I've had a good run and there's no way I can go across America another four times. But she was just like, you can, we started the trip. So when she went off into a cab, you know, like she was crying in the car and stuff. I held it together until I got on the grounds and I just thought, you know, I'm in big trouble here. Just like start pushing this stroller down the road. And then this fella just outside, like you could tell that sort of, you know, sort of he'd had a hard life. And then he said, what are you doing? I told him what he was doing. And he said, do you mind if I have a photo of you? And of me. And I said, took a photo of him. And he said, I used to have a photo of me. Well, so I should have had a photo of me, but somebody took one once and then they never sent me it. And I went, I'm sending you this. And I did send him it. And that was like sort of, you know, the first interaction I had on my own. And I just thought, God, people want to talk. And when you want to talk, you know, sort of, you know, that means that things could be all right. And so I got dead sort of cocky on the first night. I thought, right, I'm going to run as far as I can. I'm going to follow this fella's advice. Who'd also walked across America and he said, just knock on someone's door and say, can I camp in your garden? Well, he said yard. And so I knock on this first house and fella answers the door and I'm just like, hey mate, I'm doing this. Can I stay in your garden? And he's just like, no. And I'm just like, cool. Because there's no argument. You can't just say, oh mate, don't be an asshole. You know, say, no, come on. Or just go, I know you're only joking. Just start getting me tense out. Because, you know, as a copulator said to me, said, you went onto somebody's porch in Carroll County after dark. Said, you're going to get shot doing that mate. And then, but I carried on. And then I went past this fella who had a caravan up his drive on a trailer, as they call it, knocked on the door. And, yeah, no answer. But like, there's a little twitch of the blinds and this fella just goes, who is it? And I make a rob from England. And like, what do you say in that sort of things? You know, I wasn't going to give him the spiel through a window. And then, so he doesn't come out and I'm just walking down his pathway and he's like, what do you want? Comes to the door, what do you want? And I'm like, oh well, this is what I'm doing. Kind of stay in your garden and he goes, got any weapons on you? And I'm like, oh no mate, I'm British. Just me razor sharp with. Think that I'm dead funny and he goes, good. Cos I got plenty. And just pulls out this 10 inch caravan knife from Banners. But you know, you've seen before, as you ever fear for your life. And I just thought, oh my God, this is it, the first night on my own. You know, and the Dean was probably just still going to be in the air. You know, and he goes, if anyone hurts my little girl, I'm going to hurt them real bad. And I just thought, mate, don't worry about it. I just wanted to camp in your yard. I'll get off down the road and he goes, hang on. So I'll call my wife, see if you can camp round back at a local store. And he goes in and he comes out like about 15, 20 seconds later. No way he's made that call. Not a check, he wouldn't have been able to. And he goes, so okay, I trust you. Come in. And I'm like, oh. Yeah, that was the noise, didn't it mate? Is that hot dog I've ever seen? Yeah, I know, yeah. Oh my God, I was worried I was actually going to see me stomach contents, but not coming out my mouth, just holding them in my hands, you know. And if I hadn't seen his little daughter sort of by his leg, I thought, he's not going to, he's not going to got me in front of her. And so I just went in because I figured if I leg it, and he's in all cases, he's going to come after me anyway. And so I go in there and he's just like, you're hungry. He's like, oh yeah mate, he's thirsty. And so he cooks me this chilli, gives me a can of coke. And then I'm chatting for ages, he's just a local builder, he's going to build out for his family and like, so it's just like, this is so normal. You know, he's just like kids toys on the floor and literally 20 minutes previously, I thought I was going to die. And then I go to, I say, I'm going to have to go and put my tent up in him because I don't worry about that staying me trailer. Goes into the trailer, pulls his massive high caliber deer rifle out because he clearly still didn't trust me that much. He's just like, oh great, thanks to the hunting rifle. And then as soon as he'd gone, I was just like, lock that, lock that, lock that. And then lived to tell the tale. So the only other sort of thing where I genuinely thought someone was going to kill me because I'd run through anywhere like I'm from Liverpool and I'm not afraid of areas because I know that people would be afraid of where I grew up but there's no reason to be because they're just people. And if you talk to people and treat everyone with respect, you're going to, fair enough, if you walk around like somewhere big city in the middle of the night with massive like sort of beaded phones on and looking at your new iPhone. Yeah, you're going to get it, Rob, but that's just you being an idiot. And so I'd just go on Google Maps, wherever it take me, I'd say, right, I'm in Nashville tonight. I need to be in Knoxville in three days time. That's the route. And so it take me through all these like sort of so-called bad areas. Like I went to East Cleveland, South Chicago and everybody we met there was just so sound. But I was like right out in the sticks and I was just sort of getting to Pennsylvania, like Upstate Pen. And this fella comes out and if you were going to stereotype him from what he looked like, you'd say scary neo-nazzi guy, like sort of, you know, skinhead, tattoos everywhere. Like sort of all over his body, shirtless, like sort of, you know, huge. And he throws what looks like a bin bag across his garden. And I'm just like, that's a bit weird. Why would you do that? You know, he's not towards his bin or anything. Then his bin bag gets to the floor and it rolls over and it's got legs. I thought it's a dog. And I just sort of, I was trying to think what to do. And like, you know, when your brain thinks about 20 things in one go and it analyzes all these possibilities and throws about two out. And it was like, came back to say something or not say something. I was thinking, if I say something here, I could be a dead man. But then he walks over and just full ball kicks it in the belly. Like sort of, you know, here it like sort of yelp and it lifts off the deck. He kicks the dog this hard. And then obviously my brain just overrides. I'm like, oh, are you? You know, he said, don't kick your fucking dog. And he's just like, what did you say? And I just thought, oh my God, he sounds like he's literally the scariest man in the world. And like, but my brain was loving this now. And he's went, you try to engage full scary scouts, you know, like scary scouts actions have got me out of trouble in a number of places because people just go, I don't like what that sounds like. And I've just gone, you head, don't kick your fucking dog. And he starts walking over towards me and now he's starting to get the little squeaky bum again. And I get me phono out of a take a photo of him. Or I didn't actually do it, but I said, mate, just took a photo of you, take one more step. I'm calling the police. But he basically just starts, he just gets on his toes and sprints towards me. I'm just like, oh my God, I've got the pram. So I'm so grateful I'm on the flat. And I'm going like that. And he legs me for about 300 meters. And I turn, I don't need his feet anymore. I turn round and he's like, you know, gasping and stuff like that. And I just sort of what's going on here. So I sort of stopped to see what he's doing. He turns around and he runs back towards his house. Now this is a fellow who's just like, had an asthma attack or whatever because he couldn't run. And now he's decided to run back to his house. And I thought, he's getting the gun. He's getting in his truck. And I literally just went, bang, just ran so fast. And every time a car comes past me on my right because I know he's not going to come across and nail me that way because somebody would see him swerve. So he's going to go up there and he's going to come back towards me every truck on my right. I'm just like, is it a massive skinner? Is it a massive skinner? And I was just like, and like my heart rate was up there and I eventually find this sort of place. And I've took a screenshot of the map and send it to sort of Nadine. I just go, if you don't hear anything from me in the next 24 hours, you've got to direct police to this location because there probably is going to be a body. You know, or you know, some remnants of it. And yeah, like, you know. What does she say then? Your message when you send stuff like that? Yeah, well, that's the sort of thing, isn't it? You know, and she was just like, I said, listen, I'll update you as much as you can. I said, I can't talk. Now I've just literally got to go. And I said, you know, it is what it is. There's nothing we can do about it. And so I was off. But of course she'd have like all these sleepless nights and stuff like knowing because you'd see me tracker. You know, sometimes, you know, she would see up the stuff that I'd uploaded. She was just like, I'm gone. Like he's in the middle of nowhere and it's night now. Where's he going to stay? And of course, like sometimes I'd be in like this cheap motel. Sometimes I would be like sort of a, me mum's got a rule with hotels as long as it's got a lock on the door and clean sheets, it doesn't matter what it's like. And so that was what kept me going there. So I was in all these mom and pop motels of varying quality. Like some of them had like holes punched in the wall, graffiti on the mirrors, flickering lights above the shower and stuff. And you'd be thinking it's like, you know, it's like something from Seoul. And sometimes it just be this place where it's somebody's labour I love and they put you up. And that be when I'd always, I'd always call her when I was in like a nice place and say, oh no, don't worry you're looking in this or I'm staying with somebody tonight and they're looking after me. And I've never actually spoke with her about how much she worried apart from that obviously huge incident. Like, you know, and whether she changed, you know, sort of when I was out there. But she never let any of that feed through to me. And like even when I was in San Francisco and she, you know, she was pregnant at this point, she had to fly back. And so the last bit ended up pretty much being all on my own because my mate took over the driving and we'd literally just gone to Nevada when somebody crashed into the RV and wrote it off. So then I was running through Wyoming in winter and all this dangerous sort of, you know, territory. But she was always just like, you've got to finish it. And I was just like, I'll just come home. I'll just come home. We can just knock it on the edge here. And she's just like, no, we finish it, finish it. How many, was that many wanted posters up in these places? Is that a massive problem? The more scary posters you would see would be when you'd be putting your tents up and you would see like sort of the science and like posted chestbases will be shot and then shot again. And you'd be just like, hopefully you ain't coming out tonight mate. And but like there was one moment where I was in, I was in Winona, which is just over the border into Minnesota. And I picked up the front page of the paper and I was on it. And it looked like a proper mug shot. And that day I had been bitten on the eye by a mozzi. So I had like a huge swollen left eye. And then there was this in the paper and I felt like a proper, you know, like outlaw and I just, you know, put the paper down, got me snacks and then left. I've done nothing wrong, like when I felt like guilty and like this man is out on the road, you know. How was it like then coming up to the end of it? Were you happy or were you sad? Is that because I know people ask the question that you're running towards something or you're running away to something and that's such a normal question when people do these kind of things. Like, how was it for you? Were you relieved or happy? Or were you thinking, fuck man, like do you feel as if then something becomes missing because you've not done that extreme kind of stuff? I'd read this fella. A fella had run across called Paul Wheeler and he said he spent like the first, like sort of, you know, 98% of it wishing every day would end because it was hard. And then suddenly with 2% left, he wished he could get every day back again. Like definitely anality there for getting old, isn't it? You know, and you just think, oh God, I want this day to work over but instead of actually making your day to work nice for yourself, you know. And I always thought the fifth leg, I thought if I get to the end of the fourth leg, then it's all, you know, it's awful. I didn't touch the credit cards. You know, I was happy to go into overdraft but I didn't want to start getting heavily in debt for this sort of thing. But I thought if I get to the fifth leg, I'll throw credit cards at it, whatever or sell me car, I'll get to the end. And I imagined it as this glorious lap of honour, you know, sort of running through the southern states, which I loved, you know, stuff as it was coming into spring but I was just so depressed and down even as I was approaching the fourth leg. And now there was money worries, there was injury worries. The mental side of things I thought was fine because I was just like, I'm going to have to be carried off this or, you know, can't afford to go on. And I go home from my last visa, recheck and my mate sort of, actually ladded up the photos on the front of that thing. He just went, you don't want to go back, do you? And I went, no. And even though I had all these motivations, then they had not changed. And he said, why? And I said, I don't know. I said, it might be something obvious. It might just be all these lights of the, you know, like I called it death by 25 million cuts because, you know, roughly the amount of steps it was taking. And I just thought, well, I've got to go out there to fight but let's just go and, you know, do it as it is. And then I got injured on the first day because it snowed for the first time in this part of South Carolina for 28 years. And then I used to very member, I used to just like running along and I was listening to the Liverpool Everton and matching stuff like that. And then, and Virgil van Dijk scored his first goal as the first sight of the Tonyans listening and they were bringing that up. You just lost half your big suit. Well, no, no, no. No, but the thing is they'll be made up because it says me right. Because I slipped on some ice and literally tore me groin apart so there's some sort of karma there, you know. And so, here we go, the Evertonians replaced the buffers, you know. And, yeah, and so I was just like, this is cursed, I need to go home. And so I'd been running along and I actually managed to limp my way through Alabama. And I thought, for us, if for us knew we had a kid, he would have stopped and he would have gone home. And I'm sat there thinking this is why I'm so depressed because I know that Nadine and B, like our little and aren't going to be able to be there because obviously he's not even born yet. And I just thought there's so often in life where we just make up these excuses why we can't do something. And do you want to see my made up excuses? Like one could be, I've got a good job. And so if I was just being devil's advocate, I'd say quit your job. And so I didn't have a good job on the road. And so my problem was I haven't got B and Nadine at the end. So devil's advocate just goes get them there at the end. Well, how do I do that? You know, because I couldn't expect them to fly out on their own. So I plough on through and I get to this point in Arizona called the Twin Arrows and it's where forests get splashed with the mud and it does have a nice day. And I thought, right, that is beyond the distance of forest ram. It's about, there's about 15,400 miles. And so I had a little ceremony when I went past the distance where forests didn't have just rose on a gada sticking out the ground. I don't know if I'll ever see it again. You know, 15,248 miles, Rob Pope was here in the footsteps of forest gump for WWF and Peace Direct. All you need is love. And then the date. And I was flying at this point because I knew I had about 150 miles to go. Then I was going to go home, see me daughter getting born. And I'd floated this idea and I just said, this sounds mad. But if I came back and we got beer passport, would you come out to the end? And the end of the day, she made everything so easy for me the whole way along. She just said, if it can be done, then we'll be up for it. And so I'll go back. I do a few marathons, including the London one, where I set the world record for the fastest marathon dressed as a film character. That's an easier quiz question. You can probably guess who that was. I actually got the record off a fellow dressed as Elsa from Frozen, you know? And so maybe my costume is a little bit more of a cop out, but it doesn't matter. It's for charity in it. And the very next day, of course it's self-funded, we're in an economy like, and I'm just in there going, I would post like, you know, sort of hard marathon legs. But this time I've got a three and a half week or baby next to me. And we go out and the RV that had been written off had miraculously took over a year to get it fixed, but we thought that was it. We never going to see it again. And our mate who was driving it when it crashed Olivia went up to Salt Lake City, came down to flag stuff with it. And it felt just like the ending of a film. Everything was coming together, you know? We saw the girl, I had the baby. So the RV was there, friends coming from everywhere. And then those last five days were the lap of honour. And that was the only real point where I just thought, I'm definitely going to do this. And it just basically was a five day running party. That's mad on that, bro. That experience is an experience of a lifetime. How much does your mum play a part in your mindset going through that every day? Yeah, like she was always there. The thing is like she was sort of replaced for the bit because by the charities, the charities became my mum because they were the difference. And as a result, you know, that's what she put forward. But like I had loads of memories. Like I did the New York marathon twice. And it's a funny story about this. Actually sort of I did it in 97 and 98 while mum was still alive. She comes out with us and she's trying to raise a load of money. Now this is before the age of the internet and everything like that. Somehow she gets through to Richard Branson on the phone. Calls up Virgin says going to speak to Richard, get up or through. And so he thinks she's someone else, obviously. And she just goes, my son's running this marathon. Can you, can you sponsor him? And he's like, obviously we can't sponsor individuals because then we'll have loads of people like you calling me up every day saying, can you sponsor me lad? And so, but like are you going out to see him? And she was like, no. And just goes, there you go. Like so the business class flight returned to New York. And if you need anything else, I'll put you in touch with me PA. So she calls off about a week to go. Couldn't find any hotels because there's no like booken.com or anything like that then. And then they said, OK, we'll sort it out for you. And this fella calls her up and goes, hey man, we've got your place in the St Regis. And she just goes, that's great. And he goes, is that OK for you, ma'am? She goes, delivers that line as long as there's a lot on the door. Including cheats on the bed. And he goes, excuse me, ma'am, this is the Sheraton St Regis to find this hotel in New York and possibly the world, you know. And so I ran past that hotel when I was actually in New York. And like that was a real wobbly moment, especially because I then headed to Central Park and I was listening to John Lennon and saw the Imagine mosaic. And I thought, Jesus, God. And then I started thinking if my mum was here now, we'd have talked about sort of, you know, because it would have been, yeah, probably 20 years since we were last in New York. And there were always lovely moments like that. And certainly when I went down the final straight, I just thought, God, what would she have made of this? That's class. What's the most miles you've run in one day? So I've gone further than that now. Like I said, I've not, like so, you know when you see some people doing some like real crazy things like 100 miles, the most I've done in the day is 80. The most I did that day was 63 miles. Sorry, that trip was 63 miles. And I was desperate to get to this cafe and by eight o'clock cos it shut. And then I got there about 8.40 and I was just like, you're kidding me. And I knew I was going to have to stay in the lobby of this post office overnight. I just got, I'm just going to try it just in case. And I go there and it turns out it wasn't that just a cafe, it was a bar. And I go in through the door of this bar. His fellow just goes, oh my sweet lord, far has come to you. I didn't know I was coming. And then the amount of drinks I got both that night. Like so let's just say the day after the 63 miles was not anywhere near as far as that, you know? That's unbelievable though. What's going forward for the future brother? You don't want any more extraordinary things planned? Well, I like, as you can see with the hair and stuff, I like doing the doing the job well. And so around like distance wise, probably as five times across America. But if you look at the map, it looks about four and three quarters. And so I want to go out to the point where I finished and just go to one more ocean. I did like the time on that Santa Monica pier and there's a bubblegum put the end, you know? So I reckon if I ever end up having a nice shrimp gumbo at the end, that'll do the job. But there's unfinished business with Australia. And I think that'd be a nice place to run across. Yeah, you've got more plans for it then. Just go over there and set something up. Just fucking smack it out of the park. Def, oh man. If you fancy doing some support, cro-crossing, shall we find some interesting guests on the way? I'm not funny, any get me content brother, I'll do it. But for anybody that's maybe like thinking about doing something like this, what advice would you give for them? Like this is an unbelievable achievement to be the first person to do anything on this planet. That is unbelievable. But for anybody that's thinking, do you know what? Did you have any doubt at the start? I had a reasonable doubt. I never thought I'd do the whole five thing. You know, it's all well and good saying it. I was just talking, there was an article saying like is it actually even physically possible? You know, and people were just sort of saying like, oh, with the right support and you know, like elite level nutrition, I thought there's no way I'm going to be able to do that. And so, you know, there's quite often a reason why someone hasn't done it before. And it's either means it's just too stupid or it's too hard. And this possibly crossed the line into both of them. And so, my athletic goal was to just, if I got to Santa Monica, and then I said, you know, whatever happened after that, I could say I'd run across America and people were just going to go, oh no, but he didn't do what you wanted to do. I just go, I'd run across America and you can't take that away from me. But then after that, when I turned round, everything was for the charity. And so people say, did you ever want to like jib it off? And I was just like most mornings because I'd be like, you know, I'd have to run 40, 45, 50 miles that day and I'd be knackered in my legs with it. And I go, well, I can't do it. And then you just say, well, you can, you know, you can do whatever you want, you know, but you're going to have to do it as well. Like I actually sort of had to invoke this like internal tough boss. And basically if I didn't turn off for work, I would get actually bollocked or I'd get sacked. And you know, the equivalent of sacking is just going on. We could tail between your legs and someone just goes, why did you stop in Bowley, Arkansas? I should go, oh, because I was knackered or I was too much of a shit I was to continue, you know. And so I had that, then I had the positive reminders and at the end of the day, I just, I just know that if my man was there, she would have just said, why don't you just crack on and see what you feel like at lunch? And quite often that's what I did. I just get up and crack on. And then at lunch sort of, I would have a real nice feed or meet someone's sound. And then I'd look all around me and I just go, look at this, it's incredible. You know, and I had this rule that if I had seven bad days in a row because I was writing about it and posting on the social, I'd go on because nobody wants to hear somebody who was in a really privileged position going, oh, my life's so shit, my life's so rubbish. And then, but take a look at this amazing horizon of a cityscape or the mountains and then they just go, you're doing me, I didn't make you know, because this, you know, you can't moan about stuff like that. So yeah, it's ridiculous, but it was doable. And that's the sort of thing I said, people put these obstacles in front of yourself just like, you might not be able to just drop everything, a drop of a hat. You know, people just go, oh, yeah, by all the said circumstances fell into place. Well, if something changes, that means you're a step closer to your dream. Don't put something else in that space where the bricks just fell out, just leave it there. And then something will change again. And then I said, you surround yourself with the right people. You know, I sort of did Nadine think she'd be able to support me like she did. You know, maybe her achievement's even bigger because I said that she could have just gone, I'm having none of this. And if she'd had doubted me, she was the only one who ever thought I'd do the whole thing. Yeah, she's the only one who really knew that I wanted to do it so bad. And like she just actually, I just remember the quote, she just goes, you'll do it, I just know you will. And then I'd be like, I'm glad somebody else believes it. So it's not somebody else somebody believes it. Yeah, it's important that somebody believes in you but your mum would be proud, man, let us unbelievable achievement, working people by your book, Rob. It's available everywhere. Like so, you know, all years of the big shops, like your smiths, your waterstones, but you'll leave the link in the description for people to buy it. That'd be amazing, yeah. And I love like little indie book shops as well. So if you've got one there, you're going to support them, so get yourself a cup of coffee and sit down. I've apparently said to even my mates who thought, like they've been messaging me just going, I'm actually really surprised. I thought it was going to be a load of shit, but it's really good. And like, you know, some people have like, it's only been out less than a week and it's like a decent sized book and people have got through it already, you know. And it's still talking to me, so it's great. Would you like to finish up on anything, Rob? God, man, I'd just say carry on doing what you're doing because I think you are going to, especially in your sporting field, man. It looks like you're on a little bit of a journey yourself. And like to have, you know, you need to keep sitting down yourself with people who tell you can do it. And from what I've heard on the pods, you're on, man, like to have a, I just, I just absolutely look, I've listened to Jimmy White one about 10 times. It's just so good. Listen, mate, you're an inspiration, man. Absolutely on it. Have you on to then? I look forward to seeing what you do for the future, brother. Cheers, man. Thank you very much. Thank you. Cheers.