Faisal Abdullah - #36

0:007 out of 10. Faisal Abdullah, how are we doing? Yes, I'm here. I'm buzzing. I didn't actually think I'd ever get on this podcast because, you know, you're Jake Dearden and all your hosts, all your guests are amazing. So I'm privileged, I'm honoured, I'm ready to get into it. For the people that may not know who you are, would you just be able to explain yourself? Sure. My name's Faisal, a.k.a. Mr. PMA. That title was kind of given to me when I was teaching a lot of group classes. So that's positive mental attitude for those who don't know.

0:36And I'm a global MC for High Rocks and I absolutely love my job. I love my role. um i am a dad of two amazing children and i try to balance my best between being a working dad a stay-at-home dad and a part-time athlete and you are all on things yeah do you remember the first time that we met um i'm gonna test you here well you don't olympia the first olympia not when you're in a wheelchair that might be the first time i spoke to you but the First time I actually saw you, it was my first ever High Rocks, Birmingham 2022. Birmingham. Okay, yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And I was just, I remembered you and I followed you that day because I was like, this guy's smooth.

1:24You must get thousands of women. That's what I was thinking. He's gone straight in there. I have gone straight in there. No, I actually get more men. You get more men? I get way more men slipping into the DMs. Yeah, for sure. My gay following is very good. I should definitely do it OnlyFans for the gays yeah that could be like a future career that could be if Hyrox doesn't or if they kick me out I'll just start selling pictures of my feet yeah nice I love that but nah it just in all seriousness I don't think I've met anyone that's literally more uplifting than you appreciate it man and like you say running around that Hyrox track yeah it was just insane listening to you even like on the wall walls like you just get everyone hyped up no matter who they are no whether no matter whether it's the the fastest people or the slowest people like you're hyping everyone up and you're making their day yeah it's uh i appreciate it mate thanks i try my best to like balance you can't have consistent energy so you gotta have waves of energy but the the way that it's done at high rocks like the wall balls has different waves of people coming through so i do my best and i try not to like show any kind of favoritism even though I've got my favourite athletes and people that I might know of and people that I don't.

2:41But it's something that I try to do from that very first day up until now, five years on. I try to be the best I can and it's something in my mind. I never turn up to an event where I'm working going, easy. I'm like, no, I've got to try and do something that's going to set me apart from the rest. Yeah, you come across as super confident. in like a good way that is by the way if that is your compliment where did it all start like um let's take it back let's take it back so my mom so my mom had a great childhood um but my mom she chucked me into every single activity possible every summer camp possible dancing i've done ballet i've done sailing i've done um i've done ballroom dancing i've done acting pretty much everything that involves you to be confident and to speak to an adult when you're a little kid and stuff so it was from a very early age through my mum who basically instilled this level of just being comfortable within my own skin and then it kind of stepped up when I had this stupid idea that I was going to be this actor so I was like why is that stupid by the way?

3:56because I didn't put any energy into it I just thought it was going to happen. All right, okay. I just thought, I'm going to be seen by Steven Spielberg and I'll be a famous actor. I didn't put any thought or I didn't put anything into place. But I did a lot of extra work and I was on a lot of movie sets with proper famous actors. And I don't know, it just got me into this mindset of how to be professional on camera as well. So all of this was subconscious knowledge that I was kind of absorbing. being how do you even first of all name a few what what oh um i was on edge of tomorrow with tom cruise where i was like a part of the special action extras where i was with tom cruise for like six days which is pretty cool um i've been in inception for like 30 seconds but i met leonardo caprio and michael cain no way uh yeah it was unreal um what other ones i've been in parts of the caribbean um the caribbean yeah i play like spanish a spanish pirate you'd never ever notice Spanish pirate.

4:54Spanish pirate, yeah. Listen, you just put a little goatee on me. Easy. Where else I've been in? You can see me really clearly in Forgetting About Sarah Marshall. So I met, I've forgotten his name. Jonah Hill. Yeah. Yes, I met Jonah Hill. Clash of the Titans, which was an absolute flop of a movie, but I was on it for three months. It was wicked. With any of these people that you met, by the way, you know how they say, like, never meet your heroes. Yeah. I tell you what, the only person that I was starstruck with was Leonardo DiCaprio. When he walked in on set, I was just like, that's fucking Leonardo da Capp, bro.

5:27Everyone else, I was just like, oh, it's a celebrity. But him, I understood what starstruck actually meant. I was like, action. Okay, cool. All right, you've got to pretend to. I was pretending to be a French student. Also, I've seen one of the best movies of all time, Inception. So I'm in Inception. It's pretty cool. Yeah, that is pretty cool. How would you even get into that? I don't know. You just sign up to all these weird little acting agencies, but then it's all about who you know. But what's the rehearsal? No, nothing. So you just get booked onto a film, and it wouldn't be... So, for instance, I wouldn't have known it was Inception.

6:05They would call it something else, so it's hidden from social media, and you just turn up on the day. And I remember, turn up on the day, and the second AD, assistant director, he was like, right, guys, he addressed this group of 50, 60 extras, going you're about to witness and work with one of the best directors on the planet blah blah blah who's chris nolan um we have two phenomenal actors on today and the scene is this and he told us the scene and he goes you've all been assigned your roles i was literally french student that was me and uh so you've known the movie right i love this so you know um where michael cain introduced leonardo caprio to the architect the girl i can't remember her her name she's an actress that scene where she's walking out of the lecture I'm literally right behind her and as she peels off to go meet Leonardo DiCaprio I peel off and exit that way so that was the scene and it was like two days filming and it was a one second feature in the movie we made it but it was amazing it was so cool so um but then like I realized very quickly that I can't be doing extra work for the rest of my life because it's good money but it's not like livable and then I got a phone call from a good friend of mine saying I've just done this class in LA it's Barry's boot camp and the instructor's got a head mic on and they're singing and dancing and I was like I'll give that a go and it only literally just opened in London so I messaged them and I said hey look I'm looking for some part-time work I've got my qualification but I never really used it and I would come on down and um yeah I was basically one of the first um instructors at Barry's Bootcamp and there was no other fitness studio in London at the time doing what Barry's was doing and it was such a golden era of fitness and boutique um workout classes and stuff so and that basically opened every single door to where I am now yeah that's insane so uh Barry's Bootcamp did you just I assume you kind of built that culture and built the whole yeah that the high energy culture of training yeah because that's who you are that's who like that's you suit that role better than anyone I think with any with any like uh place of work you know you build your own community your own tribe for instance so we got told the parameters of what to teach like it's 30 minutes total treadmill 30 minutes dumbbell and then then you just kind of like set free um to to teach and stuff so when I introduced myself saying the nickname Mr.

8:36PMA it was my clients at Barry's Bootcamp who gave me that because at the end of every class I'd say reach up clench your fists and pull down your positive mental attitude which was really American really cheesy but it was something that I signed off every single class with and they were like you're Mr. PMA and I was like all right and I rolled with it and I changed my Instagram account again with no actual plan of where to go and you know nowadays all these young guns are like oh so i'm gonna do this in you know the first year then the second year i'm gonna get that i'm gonna do this course i'm gonna have whereas i was just trailblazing i was just like you know just loving life law of attraction type kind of vibe um so yeah i've got a lot to owe to to that time but like i say you know having a door open for you is an amazing opportunity but it takes the certain person in the x factor to fucking walk through it and make something of that opportunity which is what i did so yeah so with barriers how long did you i was there for six years um so they say uh a master of their craft is 10 000 hours right i tried to average it out after six years i only got like something like 7 000 hours of teaching uh classes i was teaching like on average 15 to 17 classes a week and i was doing it solidly like i'm a very good workaholic and when I when I love what I do now that is pretty impressive like say being that high energy anyone that's been to a barrage boot camp knows like yeah yeah yeah how intense you guys work it's almost like every hour is a workout for you yeah I was sweating not doing an actual workout but you're there just you give everything you know um so but it's something I don't know being able to control a room or control a group of people to make them better is amazing and I've been comments I've been complimented with so many nice things but which is lovely and it can go to a lot of people's heads and in the beginning I probably did get carried away with it a bit where I thought oh fuck I'm the man here I'd walk into Barry's and be like this is my house and it never was and now I'm older and I've like learned more you know life um issues and things in life I'm like okay cool it's lovely when people say and message you nice stuff that's made a difference to their world but you just have to say you're welcome and just carry on with who you are as a person I feel you know when you mentioned that you said that maybe you let it go to your head a little bit yeah is there anything that came to bite you um people used to think I was cocky when it was when all I was was just really confident but I didn't see I didn't see their side of you know because I don't know like if you're a person who's kind of getting everything thrown at you and you're not so i.e like i was one of the first lululemon ambassadors in the covent garden store which is around the corner from where we're filming right now i was uh assigned the men's health fittest uh you know they did a men's health um race i forgot what it's called survivor of the fittest i was one of their ambassadors and so i was doing loads of like stuff in the men's health magazine then women's health and then I started training Ellie Gould in and I was going to all these different amazing you know um you know what it's like you get invited here and there and premieres and all this type of stuff so it was I was assigned by L 'Oreal for a little bit and I got flown in a helicopter to Silverstone and I was standing next to Lewis Hamilton like it was mad it was madness so I probably was acting cocky but I was just like yo I'm I'm deserving all this because I'm working really hard the law of attraction I'm being positive um so but I was also young do you know I mean I was really young and I probably came across cocky to other people I still to this day don't think I was but it was probably a fine line of it yeah but you learn from what other people eventually tell you and you can filter out who your friends are quite quickly you mentioned it a couple of times now the law of attraction yeah yeah how much do you believe in it yeah it was all about the kind of manifestation as well isn't it it's like um if you truly believe in something you can make it happen um and when i say law of attraction i just mean like um good people doing good things yeah um so kind of like karma yeah 100 so like i i so we talk about positive mental attitude like people mistake that with kind of like being perfect i'm far from perfect i'm moody quite A lot of the time I'm, you know, I don't want to talk sometimes, you know, so but in certain scenarios, I choose to be positive.

13:12So it's when I choose to be positive, my I'm imposing my will on all the people around me in a positive way. I want people to be happy. I want people to smile. So that attracts the same, in my opinion. So that's how I've lived my life. No, I completely agree. I couldn't agree more with what you're saying. and every single high rocks I've done where you've been there, let's be honest, there's been quite a few that have not gone my way. Yeah. And whether I've come last in a race or I've DNF'd or whatever it is, and there's not one time where you've been negative at all. And you've always been the first to come over and to be like, it's okay, we go again.

13:57Have people been negative to you when you've had DNF'd? Not really, but you notice the people that are there. yeah i feel like there's people that go silent and then there's people that are like there for you when times are tough and i think you always remember the people that are there for you and you've always been there you've been always been the first person that because you're out on the course obviously you're probably the first person to come over and say are you all right or it's okay we go again tomorrow or whenever it is i feel i feel i've got a real like uh privileged privileged position because I don't think people realize what you guys actually go through like the build up to it all the media you got to do and then when it comes there's a change in the air like 20 minutes for the race all the smiles are gone all the you know everyone's a bit more race focused so I feel people don't experience that because they're not there so I've got this like real privileged position and I think the freshest and obviously I know there's so many new names now new people obviously it's the growth of the sport but like I know most of the elite athletes and I feel it makes them I don't know in some tiny little way like it's a part of the race where the same voice is there the same person which is great and if it isn't then it doesn't matter but my freshest memory is obviously Chicago last year it was on the sled push right yeah and I just noticed you um and it's like my obviously I've I've got a little you know bit of money on every UK athlete I'm like right let's get the UK back up there um like when when Michael Sandbach almost won Nice I was just like oh it's so annoying I wanted a UK athlete so when you're there on the sled push um I I don't know correct me if I'm wrong but I could see you negotiating with yourself in your mind going should I carry on I'm not gonna I'm gonna come last but at least I'll finish and I remember saying to you like you're doing a doubles race tomorrow or the day after was that right yeah yeah and i just said there's i remember just saying there's no point in actually causing any more injury because you had a bad back anyway right yeah going into it and again it's all these things that people don't know and i kind of just i'll do my best to put myself in your shoes like what would i want to hear if hearing anything at all what would it what would it be um and nine times out of ten it's just giving someone a positive like you're doing great like whatever you decide to do but and i've i just said to you as a mate i would probably just stop and i think the the words that you said like you said you said i just stopped you got double race tomorrow let's focus on that yeah and you just said it'll be all right yeah that's that's literally all that i needed and then like it's almost like a it was almost like a relief yeah rather than like obviously you feel like shit but like it's like a relief that someone outside can see that and i'm glad that it was you cheers mate but no it's difficult now in the in the elite because they've evolved so much like the elite races and i'm told like where to stand and like what not to say now and stuff so because obviously there's so much more production involved but um if anyone's in that spot i i don't really care i'll definitely go over and but i've also seen you do it with like people like you've you don't even know and you go over to the crowd there's big people struggling with wall balls and there'll be someone behind them cheering for them yeah and you'll go over to them yeah and i've seen you physically do this you you picked up the child you brought them onto the wall wall and you was like yeah let them finish finish together yeah that's lying together that's amazing which you now cannot do yeah you're not allowed to do that's a rule but like that's probably that's probably my fault so some form of health and safety but it was but so because like it's we were talking about different bubbles and stuff before we were filming like for for you like you're a professional athlete like you live and breathe it uh you depend on it so it's it's a serious job whereas with those everyday athletes like you know they've got a nine to five job and they look up to certain people and they've got role models and stuff and in that moment when they're when they're experiencing probably something they've never physically or mentally experienced before like they never put themselves in that state you know i mean it's it's such a big moment you know i mean like it could be they could be training for half a year to have one race um so I'm always wary of people who are really struggling um and if they have got family behind them now I can't bring the kids over but I I what I try to do is this I'm like who's your daddy or who's your mummy and then oh it's so and so I'm like what's your name and they tell me their name and I'll go over to the person who's really struggling I'd be like right listen you know Caitlin's watching you right now yeah and it's just like boom goosebumps and they like and they sometimes the dads especially like dad to dad they don't even look at me they give me like the side I go oh okay you fucker I know you've done there and they pick the wall but and they and they start they start again and then they come up to me afterwards when all the adrenaline's kind of like settled and like thanks so much I couldn't have got through that without you so for me being having that small part in someone's like journey of their hyrox race it's it's the extra mile that i'm willing to go yeah yeah no that's uh that's sick and like i said that's why i feel like everyone will remember you and that's like the maddest thing because like people i don't think you realize that how much of an impact you have because like people have trained literally like six months for this thing yeah yeah and then their whole memory their last memory of like them achieving whatever whether it's a good time bad time whatever yeah is you getting up getting them across that finish line like you're the last person that they see before getting across that finish line yeah nice don't find that pretty mad uh that's like it could be like 20 000 people a weekend sometimes yeah uh yes and like it's it's lovely to think that and obviously get a lot of messages like saying are you going to be in barcelona you're going to be in malaga you're going to be in warsaw and this and that so they they're they're almost asking like are you going to be a part of the race which is a lovely thing to be asked and obviously it's 50 50 whether i'm there or not because it's so big now and then obviously now we do like shift work because before it was like a one day two day event where I would literally work from start for the first start wave to the last start wave whereas now it's like you're doing eight hour blocks over four days so you do miss a lot of people and I get now I get people going where were you you weren't there um I really needed to hear you you didn't call my name out I wanted a selfie and I'm well I was either in the hotel sleeping or my shift hadn't started yet so it's evolved now where where people have started asking me what shift are you doing this weekend and I'm telling them my my shifts for you know day one two and three and um so yeah again it's just evolving it's lovely so I just whenever I'm on the microphone at High Rocks I will always try to do my absolute best to to bring that extra energy so after going back to after barriers yeah what did was it straight to kind of like high rocks and doing no so i what happened so kind of kind of like the pandemic kicked in really after then and i did loads of like online training did the youtube subscription thing and then a couple of one-on-ones i was kind of just figuring out what to do next and then I emceed um for turf games um one of their first ones back in London and then I went to Dubai for them and that was like my first proper like fitness MC gig um and I realized I'm good at this like I'm I'm better than just announcing when the next workout is and I'm better at the time even though people weren't really telling me or whatever so i did that and then um yeah christian was just in a gym we used to train at in london uh whatever it takes and he was with gus and he said i need another mc and gus was like well faisal's the the man for it and i was like okay never heard of hyrox never heard of hyrox um and then we did the first london excel uh event which was in 2021 or something um and the rest is history literally five years on and it's turned into something that was just a bit of a hobby like a weekend gig to like probably my main my main job and my main source of income so yeah yeah that's pretty mad that's uh that's impressive you i assume that you're self-employed at the moment so you take on like other jobs as well yep have you have ever had kind of like any like crazy opportunities on like other emceeing gigs um not other emceeing gigs no not i mean like they they put did i see you at funnels funnels yeah so so that's through like puma isn't it yeah puma sponsored ambassador i don't think i'm an athlete i'm an ambassador for them so i've done loads of like public speaking um for other brands and stuff like i've i've worked with mns as well so i do a lot of internal stuff with them questions you get uh free food not free food but i get discounted food discounted i get a lot of percy pigs right okay which would probably explain why i'm always 100 kg but that must be one of the best uh no it is it's the best sponsors you can get mns it's it's a it's a home nation favorite isn't it so um but yeah i but again they they asked me to come on board as like this they they created a role of a pma ambassador and i was like okay so what do you want me to do and they're like look i do a lot more internal than external stuff i do a couple of things on the instagram account but it's more about coming in and when they have their big like either monthly or quarterly meetings i'm like the icebreaker dude who comes in and talks to them about uh pma and everything and I get some really very deep questions sometimes about mental health and stuff so yeah okay what's your what's your icebreaker question then my icebreaker no it's not my icebreaker question you must have a go to though no when you're kicking off a room well what I normally do is I get everyone to stand up and I do the Sally Up Sally Down challenge you know the Moby song bring Sally up bring Sally down the squat and yeah pretty much yeah so I don't do the whole song I say right we're going to do something real quick just to get everyone's blood flowing because they've been sitting down the whole time um so that's what i normally do um but nine times out of ten um i would just come in and just bring energy straight away like even even even more so because they've just been sitting down the whole time listening to you know what's kind of boring like numbers and business and strategy and all this type of stuff so um and i just go straight into q a's i like getting them involved as quickly as possible and q a is always at the end of a talk i'm like right who's got a question for me that's why i'm here you want to ask me a question about fitness nutrition mental health physical fitness go hands up come on someone and i don't i don't stop until someone does it and then it's like this domino effect as soon as you want that first one's fucking hard to get so hard and then it's like ding ding ding ding and then you just evolve this talk and everything that i'd written down and rehearsed kind of just goes out the window and it just turns into a big old q a what's the deepest question you've been asked oh uh the the deepest it's about grief like i the one recently when i was i did a nat west talk and it was just about how you can bring they wanted me to say basically how you can bring pma into like the office work life anyway we got to this q a and um it was interesting because in this room she obviously this lady hadn't she doesn't know every single person in that room like they work in different departments right and she was just like I'm going through a bit of grief at the moment and she's like how do you actually stay positive and I and I said to her I think I asked her what was the grief because I said I need to know the source and she said oh my mum passed away last year and I was like okay cool and like the room just went and I was like right okay cool um how do I go about this and I was like I was just trying to be as honest and as real as possible with her and I could tell that she was putting on a real brave face and I said to her first of all I said thank you for that question like super brave it takes balls to do that yeah I said you must be in a really good place um to be able to admit that you're having you know grieving issues and so forth and I was just like everyone there's there's no book when it comes to grieving um you know me and Louise we've had a miscarriage uh my dad passed away in December so so with grief everyone deals with it in their own way so there's no book um and then and then the talks just turn into something and then someone else goes oh i've got a bit of a drinking problem and how do i stop like drinking and not so much and i'm like right okay cool well you know and i just try to think of things that i would i don't drink so it's like um so that's probably one of the deepest questions i've possibly had snowballed and you just yeah i mean i was put on the spot i was like i mean i don't know if I'm the best person I don't know why you would want to ask me that question yeah um but they did and I was like I tried to answer it as truthfully and as honest as I could that's just it's nice to know that people look up to you like that as well yeah I think by that point as well when I do certain talks or if people know me for a little while I hope that and this is something I say to a lot of my friends especially male friends recently I go you know like if you want to chat i'm here for a chat you know and i would say that to you i'd be like yo if you actually want an actual chat not just uh yo what's happening what's your vo2 max an actual conversation like why are you doing a salt bike in a sauna i would i would i you know i've been doing it recently with a lot of friends going yo if you want to chat do it and everyone goes yeah yeah and i'm like no no if but i can tell you're going for a bit of shit so if you want to have a conversation we can do it and one of my mates messaged me going mate I am it was like a month ago he goes uh he opened the conversation so hey mate how's it going how's Rafi blah blah guys mate not gonna lie I'm having a shit time at the moment like give me a call when you can straight what's happening bro tell me everything I love you like what's going on and we had a lovely conversation tell me everything I gave him my opinion and this is one thing I try not to do which I do all the time with my wife I try and give solutions so what I try and do is just give my opinion instead of a solution because sometimes they're not they don't need a solution they don't need a solution they just need to be heard yeah just have your opinion on it yeah I feel like especially I'm gonna say it because I'm gonna sit there especially I feel like especially females sometimes they just want to just want to be there man they just want to talk about it just want to be heard they don't need a solution yeah they just want to have an actual conversation as well whereas I'm such a fixer I'm like right we can do this we can do that and I'll have like a list of things we could do and she's like i don't need any of that i just want you to talk about it and i'm it's quite hard agree with them as well yeah oh bro happy wife happy life bro just say yes yes yeah there we go there we go she's laughing so i can't be offending anyone out there exactly yeah you're agreeing emily it's good but that that touches upon what pma is all about like you know it's not it's not just a physical thing and like back in the day like when i started off in instagram and everything it was just all about workouts and physical stuff whereas you know you you get older and you know life hits you with certain things and and then you actually understand that everyone's got their own shit behind closed doors no one's living the perfect life um I would say a few percent of the people in the world are um and it's just about your your mental fitness um which is invisible no one can see it and that's that's why it's so hard to talk about it's why it's so hard to make it seen because you can't you don't know what's going on in someone's head as you know and nine times out of ten it's the people who are whatever so I'm fine by the way it's the people who are the most happiest the loudest in the room blah blah blah they're the ones who actually are struggling the most um my one of my best mates he he took his life uh nine years ago now because raffi wasn't born so it was nine years ago and um he hung himself and he had a beautiful wife he had a beautiful boy and she was pregnant at the time and he was making bank he was a banker he was making loads of money he just bought like everything on paper he's smashing life and then yo fight him hey what are you all right crying what's happening oh joey's just i'm like huh broke down I was like you could never have imagined it so the mental aspect of what what you know PMA is all about is very very important I mean you can bridge your physical fitness and your mental fitness to have some sort of it's one's never going to stay the same do you know I mean one's always going to be a little bit better and then you know it'll kind of like seesaw but again the the solution is just to choose the positives in any of those situations how do you manage that like you say there you've got your your physical fitness which is pretty easy like pretty straightforward yeah no it is yeah yeah you know you apply progressive overload in whatever way you give the rest needed and you get fitter but with the mental side yeah like how what are your like top tips for someone who's like struggling is there is there things that you can do like day to day that just like make it a little bit better yeah 100 and i'm i'm no expert in this but i obviously i i preach it a little bit but um number one would be communication like especially for guys like talk women are so much more um uh able to talk freely amongst themselves about any single topic um in my experience whereas guys we just we just like close up and so communication is key i heard i heard with that as well apparently males like they're better off talking side by side rather than straight on oh is it like if you go and meet someone for a coffee no way sit on the same bench yeah so that's why that people talk in the sauna like men talking in the sauna because you're side by side or a bike ride or a walk all right whereas like women like to like talk face on i don't know it was just a study that i read no i see i i would be on the woman i i like it i like have eye contact and speak and but then i have loads of conversations sat sat by the side so yeah it's true um but then so communication with how do you communicate I think you have to trust the person that you're speaking to I think it works both ways you need that person to be a little bit like oi tell me what's going on I know you I need you need someone to you need to have good friends basically and if you don't have good friends you need to have good family members around you um and other other real simple things is like just terminology I've said this a thousand times just switching the word have with get um you don't have to go for an ultra run up Snowdonia you know you get to go on a run over Snowdonia even though you may not have wanted to do that for your birthday um but if you switch off camera joke there big up Tom um but like if you switch any scenario where you have to say oh I have to do this if you switch with get it's just a straight positive spin um and that should start a positive chain reaction and even I have to say it sometimes you know I'm just like oh I'm so tired it's like oh yeah but you get to do this you don't have to do it you get to do it it's an opportunity it's a blessing um so that's one thing and then social media which is the one I fail at the most like I am addicted to my phone and I just I'm always drawn back to it so I do a little thing where I try to at home the second I'm at home especially because the kids I put my phone in another room and I try not to go near it.

34:03Just so I'm more present as a dad, present as a husband at home and just present as a person, really. I feel like the phone is, screen time is mad and we limit the screen time for our kids and I should be practicing that myself because it is a drug and it's weird because in Cleo, Cleo especially now, we've stopped it, but she'd be like, can I watch YouTube? And I'm like, yeah, you give her kids YouTube or whatever but she knows how to operate, she knows how to swipe, click on it, scroll through. What's the cold this year? She's three and a half. Three and a half. Yeah. Pretty clever. And I'm like, well, clever, but also it's scary as well.

34:44So staying off social media as well is a real big one and just going for a walk, getting out in some fresh air, doing something that you probably wouldn't want to do, you know, like a high rocks race. A lot of people do high rocks races for such um personal reasons as well it's not just about getting a time and getting a score you know they do it for lost lost love loved ones and you know they're getting over certain illnesses and everything and they're racing on someone else's behalf of their amazing cause and um i've had loads of moments where i'm almost teared up and jerked because as soon as there's a kid involved i will i will think of my kids and it's just like oh hold it together okay come on over the line you know so um yeah those have i waffled on too much there it's those those three things communication uh terminology with the having get word and number three would be uh social media just try and stuff your phone for a bit oh definitely definitely no i i completely agree with them um do you think it's important to have like a friend in your circle and do you have a friend in your circle that like will call you out on your when you're doing things like not necessarily the right way more so now than ever uh yes so i think you only ever have like two or three best mates and that's all you ever actually really need um so yeah where i i'm the one who's calling them out on their shit to be honest at the moment so um but yeah no you do you do need it and i think having a best friend where you can take the piss out of each other you can have that dark humor and have a giggle on the other person's expense but know that you're still mates and you'll you'll get each other back or whatever I think that's one of the best relationships where you can be that honest that brutal um but I've I've had a few conversations recently where I'm just like yo mate like I wouldn't have said that I wouldn't have done that I've noticed you're a bit tired and you need to you know everyone's kind of noticing there and they're speaking to me about it and everything so and you if that's coming from someone in which you trust and you love and so forth then it will probably be absorbed better and you'll be able to switch it so but yeah only recently mate have I actually been doing that and receiving that I'd say in the last three or four years yeah how do you receive that when it's about yourself mate I well when it comes to personal life when it comes to work um I will take everything on on the head and I'll absorb it I started um so this uh online digital app uh was in partnership with Sky TV we launched it four five years ago and it was supposed to be like the next Peloton the next um you know Apple Fitness Plus it was partnership with Sky TV like huge and I went in and I auditioned for it and there was like eight other trainers and even then I thought I don't really need to do much more to develop my skill set wow was I wrong I needed to learn so much more and these trainers who on paper you could probably say haven't done as much as I have done not that they're any less of a trainer that someone probably better than me but that on paper you'd be like oh Faisal was the best whereas I wasn't I had to learn stuff and so that was a big moment of me right to kind of swallow my pride a little bit and I'd had to just be humble keep my feet in the floor be like okay cool give me that feedback give me that constructive feedback Like, how do I adapt?

38:08You know, that's the sign of someone who's willing to always be better rather than just be stubborn and be like, oh, no, I'm good at this. And that's what I do at High Rocks because now there are so many more MCs and I've said this time and time again, we're all on the same team, but I want to be the Ronaldo. I want to be the Christian Ronaldo on the team. I want to be the one, you know, scoring the last time goal in whatever way that looks like. Pulling you out for the Elite 15, like being there. Yeah, I want to be at every Elite 15 race. Because to me, that's like the pinnacle of emceeing High Rocks, in my opinion.

38:44So when it's in other countries and I'm not there, yeah, I've got huge FOMO, huge FOMO. But I just make sure that when I do have an opportunity to emcee in an Elite race, I will do my absolute best. And you said as well, people calling you out on your shit. But it's also very, very important to call people out on the good stuff. so after Warsaw Gustavo caught up on the both live streams and he left me quite an out of the blue voice note like it's very rare we joke about it you know he's amazing I'm amazing we love each other blah blah blah but he left me a voice note saying bro you were phenomenal that was the best I've ever heard you because we're listening to the when I hear like Benny or Tommy or Gus or you know I'm listening to the MC I'm not really I'm watching the race but I'm also listening to the MC so he was analysing me whilst he was watching it and I was like oh sorry Tom and I was like really close microphone not used to it I was really taken back by his compliments because I wasn't I didn't ask for it it came out of nowhere and it was just a nice nice pat on the back you know you're getting told you're doing a good job and I think I think everyone wants to be told that you're doing a good job I'm like wow thanks especially of someone that you respect so highly yeah yeah and in the same field as you you know like doing the same thing so um it's sick it's sick that you can get along like that as well yeah like you said there's healthy competition but like you're not hating each other no not at all not at all yeah i want to talk about like your fitness journey yeah okay it's a bit of a short story well talk to us about it because i know that you double in quite a bit yeah yeah uh i i would say i like to do everything chuck me into any so when i was a kid i just did every single sport and i i was that above average kid where like the coach or the instructor be like oh he's good at this he's got potential and i never kind of really excelled i never really focused in on that one sport or modality so chuck me into any sport and I've got good movement I've got good hand-eye coordination I've done everything from boxing to jiu-jitsu to sailing like I said before rugby football and then obviously you come into the era of hybrid training which that word wasn't getting thrown around in 2012 2013 it was just called HIIT training where people would do high intensity interval training but like yeah you would do a bit of running you do a bit of dumbbell work and I just kind of, I just enjoy movement.

41:25I enjoy pushing my body to the limit. I also enjoy that I am good at most things. You know, like I'd be lying to you saying like, oh no, I'm not like, I like being good at most things. Who doesn't like being good at stuff? I know, but it's having, just be able to admit that. A lot of people don't think would admit that, do you know what I mean? Because they would say, oh, you come across too cocky. It's like, nah man, own your shit. But also knowing your lane as well. It's like, I know I'll never get a sub 60 high rocks unless I focused completely and probably end up getting a divorce and not seeing my children like you would need to.

42:05So I know it's possible, but I'm happy where I am. So, yeah, I'm strong. I can move quick. and obviously you know I like to look good and feel good so that's a huge part of it as well and then more so as well which my son's teaching me now so Raffi's into park runs he's into swimming and I'm having to go on these runs with him and I'm going swimming with him and stuff and you know I want to be that dad where I can keep up with him and I want to be that dad where he looks at me and he's like okay cool that's what my dad's doing so I'll do that I've never once said to him I've never pushed anything on him he's seen me do it and he's asked so he asked to do Young Stars can I do Young Stars I'm like yeah of course you can I've never once said to him do you want to do a High Rocks ever and he saw me I'm seeing it at London Olympia and I was just showing him videos and he was like oh I can do that and I was like yeah I know you can you'll smash this so yeah that's kind of and obviously at high rocks i've i recently achieved my goal so long story short i always do um uh pro races at the end of my shift so the pro race is normally at seven eight stupid o 'clock at night uh and my shift was finished by then and i would then race i've been on my feet for eight eleven hours given all this energy and then i'd go and race and my first one was like one hour 16 then it was 1 15 and I got into the one hour 12s one hour 10s and I kept getting better and better but I just then I got stuck I was like one hour 10 one hour 10 one hour 10 and it wasn't sub 70 and I was like oh I just really want to get a sub 70 um and uh everything fell into place in Warsaw because I was only um uh working the elite races and a lot of people go oh why don't you just fly to and do an event that you're not working at and I'm like, well, one, that's money, and two, that's time away from my family.

44:02And I already have so much time away from my family, so that would be the most selfish thing to do. So I only race at events that I'm at because it's like two birds, one stone. But, yeah, so the Elite Race was on the Friday night. It was the doubles on the Friday night. But the Mempro was at 10 a.m. on Friday, and I looked at the start, and I was like, oh, my God, I can race. I could wake up, have breakfast, do a poo, and race. Brilliant. so I trained super hard for it I focused a bit more on my running because I never really pay attention too much to my runner I just rely on my base fitness to get me there and uh mate Warsaw the temperature was perfect there's a little bit of sunlight coming through and I I got 107 107 yeah I remember getting to the time off yeah like you said that's the first one that you've probably done that that's fresh like fresh yeah like I you know so that I was like oh this is what it feels like you know to turn up to a race where you feel pretty good but um i don't i don't time my race like i obviously i press my start what stop watch at the beginning of the race and i never look at it until i get to like lunges uh i don't know why it's just something i do because i can i'm very in tune my body i can feel it but i got i got to the lunges and i had about like 18 minutes left and i was like oh i've done it like i knew i knew knew I'd got sub 70 with ease and I remember getting to the wall balls and I maybe took my time on it a little bit but I did four sets of 25 but I probably could have taken less rest I took probably probably about 20 30 seconds between each set but I probably could have sped up a little bit but yeah it's just just an amazing moment crossing the line and doing that and then I did a half Ironman last year to celebrate my 40th birthday I was 40 last year 41 now and that was a that was amazing like just swimming cycling running and what I loved about that it just got you the training just got you out of the gym like you can't you can't when you're in the water there's no distractions like it's silence and you just hear your breathing and you hear your hands in the water and I love it and then cycling you can't be in your phone when you're cycling you're doing two hours three hours cycling it's amazing and then running when you get to that stage of the race you're you know you're tired and whatever and it's just so i just i loved it so i probably do a few more triathlons like that uh but that involves i have to wait till cleo starts school because then i have then i have a five full five days of her being at school at the moment she does three days so it's a little bit hard to like get all the sessions in yeah i suppose i suppose you're a busy guy like say two kids two kids multiple sources of income and jobs and everyone you know people texting you the day before saying, can you do a podcast tomorrow at 5pm?

46:45Fucking hell, mate. Yeah, sorry about that. It's so funny, right? He texted me yesterday saying, can you do this at 5pm? And I was like, oh, I really want to do it. But it's like Rafi got swimming at half six and I might not make it. And I said to Louise, I was like, I asked her, I said, Louise, can I do a podcast tomorrow? And she was like, who's it for? I was like, it's Jake Dillon. She was like, fine. I was like, okay. Your name had power. you'll make that power so but it's things like that you know you're always juggling to be to be here there and everywhere so it's a constant balance and you do the best every single one that you you do you're not being a dad oh appreciate it being a husband being mr pma yeah like uh nah it's pretty sick i think it's like really inspiring thanks bro appreciate and well likewise bro like seeing your journey from when we first met and everything and that's what I love as well about being with High Rocks for so many years like I've seen athletes like you just go and now I can see like the youngsters coming and going oh you're gonna smash it in three or four years like so it's just really exciting as well uh almost like a sense of being proud for you do you know what I mean like like what you've done and you know social media presence and all the all the brands that are wanting to latch onto and everything like it's amazing mate like you've got your own law of attraction do you know i mean it's great so yeah likewise bro thank you man thank you in regards to kind of like high rocks like yeah i want to ask this who do you think are them upcoming people it's obviously like you say you see a lot of races yeah a lot of people if you could place your bets on say three years time who's gonna be world champion uh i really do think charlie bottrell will get will get it and it's been amazing to see him and I think he's got his head screwed on and he's so young.

48:38You could probably say the likes of people like Luke Ennis, you know what I mean? The little Scottish lad up north. I really think Sinead Benk could do it as well. I think the women's field is just as hard as the men's field. It's getting stacked at the moment. It's getting stacked. The amount of people going through. I feel Holly Archer and Saskia, they can do some. damage I would be shitting myself in the doubles woman category knowing that they're they're ready to dominate next season I think they need to fine-tune a few couple of things but I've never seen speed like it on the race course like they are like speed they are quick so those girls will smash it but I also want to see some of the OGs like still do well I'd love to see a guy called Jake Deard and get up there.

49:34Time's going well. Well, hopefully, I think myself and Charlie are going to race together next season. Yeah, why do you say hopefully? Is it not being secured yet? No, no, well, we've secured kind of like the points and stuff like that. So, yeah, I think that's the plan. We raced in Barcelona the other week. We actually got the fastest time on like a normal course. So the time set before that was Tim and Alex on the London course. Okay. Which is pretty nippy. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's quick, yeah. And it was an Elite 15 track. Yeah. I think we were like 15 seconds off them Was that Cardiff? Where did you go?

50:04No, we did that Barcelona Oh yeah, yeah So hopefully we can give them next year We can give They're not even together either No, they're not together This is why I love this new system You've got to be the same country You and Charlie will smash it in my opinion and I it would it would give me so much joy for you boys to win a world championship title next year I reckon you could do it Hopefully I feel like we're going to nail that and really focus and try and qualify like on the cruise. Yeah. If it is the cruise that the first major of the season is. I know they're not called major of the season.

50:40They call it elite series. Elite series, yeah. So the number one on the cruise. Hopefully we can qualify on there with the time trial and stuff. And then, next question, where do you see Harrods going? I know so many people are interested in this question. Yeah, yeah. Two, for me, there are two simple pathways that it's going to go um so obviously we have the olympics and we'll chat about this where it's they're aiming for 2032 and if not they'll definitely get in 2036 and um we googled when they're going to announce the sports for 32 so end of this year we'll know whether it's 32 or not but they will definitely definitely get there um so that's that's the long that's the end game for me i think for them to get into the olympic sport and then stay there because so many sports have made it, but then the Olympic Committee kicked them out the next four years or whatever.

51:30So I think High Rocks has got a potential to be a concreted sport in the Olympics. So that would be phenomenal. And then what links off of that is the young stars. So for me, all these young kids have got an opportunity, yes, to move, yes, to train, yes, to feel good about themselves, He has to understand how you can cross mental fitness and physical fitness. But if they really wanted to, there's a pathway for them to become an Olympic athlete. And I've said this at an Everlast conversation where it's like, to be an Olympic athlete, you need to be at the top of your game and you need to be at the 1 % within the world.

52:17Whereas a high rocks athlete, no disrespect, anyone can do it with the right setup with the right mindset with the right place things in place so if my son eight years old said I want to be an Olympic and if Olympics was was confirmed I want to be an athlete I'm like okay cool let's get you into a few young star races and then you can once you're 16 you can start doing your actual high rocks races and then you can start getting your points whatever getting into elite races and then whatever the system is to them get into the olympics though so for me the future of high rocks is getting into the olympics but more importantly having a grassroot level which has a direct path to becoming a professional athlete so i think it's going to do wonders for the whole world and community and it's really exciting yeah it seems to be popping off at the moment i know um i have a couple of friends that i've got kids that have been doing yeah mate it's the cutest thing because you get some kids who are like to know what they're doing you get some kids who haven't got a clue but it's just which is like most adults as well but um it's the cutest thing in the world it really is um and I think it's just so important to just get them moving and understand that you know physical fitness is is something that's really really important um and also because it's a solo sport for them at the moment like it's it teaches them so many disciplines you know what's going through their mind when they're racing do you know what I mean you're getting your mum and dad going keep going keep going you get some some mum and dad's maybe going a bit too much where it's like go unbroken and they've got to do like 50 warbles unbroken like but what's going through their mind like it's they're building character they're finding out things about themselves and so it's really amazing to watch I love the young Rafi's doing it in December that'd be sick I can't wait to watch yeah has he started training mate he has yeah mate he's savage on the ski his movement on the ski is amazing the road we need to work on his technique running's easy because he's so good at that like say park run um uh maybe he did a 5k he did a 27 minute 15 58 second 5k I was like oh my god this is amazing um so yeah he's like I said he just watches me so he watches me he wants to do it um that's class that must be a good feeling for you like him looking up to you like that yeah it's it's it's it's phenomenal um i had like a a weird moment the other it was quite recent but now i can't remember it which is annoying but he he did something he said something where i was just like oh my god this is like this is my little he's like my mate he's like my flesh and blood but he's also my friend as well so um yeah being a dad is like just a huge privilege and it's a constant learning process there's different eras and levels to it but yeah i love it and then going back to the olympics yeah if harrocks did make it into the 2032 olympic yes how would you like feel about that whole thing like would you uh would that be like a dream come true yeah someone said to me how long are you going to work at rx for and i was like until it gets the Olympics if if they need an MC at the Olympic High Rocks because I don't know whether they'll need one or not I think they would because they would do the walk-ins and you'd want someone to hype the crowd up or whatever um I want to be that MC and that's the competitiveness in me like I want to I still want to be around in you know six seven eight years time where I'm like uh and to say I got to work at the Olympics for High Rocks like I probably that's when I'd drop up the mic and they'd be like done that is the pinnacle that is a pinnacle for me it'll be it'll be amazing imagine wherever it is like it would be phenomenal so i would absolutely love that it'd be an absolute honor they'll probably bring out a couple of mcs to be fair but that would be a huge huge honor and a privilege to do that so yeah no i think uh i think that's something that and to call your name out as well well we'll try we'll try um that's the plan like let's say like I think that's everyone's dream that's in and around the Elite 15 at the moment.

56:32Like, I want to be in that space for as long as possible, but until it gets to the Olympics, hopefully. Got a little bit of time yet, so, yeah. How, realistically, how long do you think you still have, like, competing in the level you're at? 27 now. Yeah. Well, the average age of people in the Elite 15 is 32. It came out the other day. Yeah, that's right. So that gives me enough time. Yeah, loads. but uh obviously it was hunter now 36 37 yeah yeah and he's still at the top of his game he's smashing it so uh yeah he's absolutely killing it i'm uh i'm excited to watch him in in stockholm brah i can't wait yeah i can't wait for that that solo race it is the most stacked race yeah have you and and let's do this so you're gonna be at stockholm yeah you're gonna be mc and yeah right Yep.

57:26Who's your bets on? For the solos. For the ladies, it's Joanna Wettrick. I think you can't, I think something would have to go terribly wrong for her not to get that fifth win. She's won all four majors. I think you'd come into it, obviously not being too confident, but knowing that you've done enough, like the work has been done, like it's only be down to her to lose the race. So I think she will do it. It's called the Golden Slam. I'd love that. So, Joanna Metric and then for the men's, oh mate, for the men's, it's Matt, I would love Hunter to come back because he has, he has proven that he can beat Tim but he just had time penalties that has kept him, like because he's beaten Tim in the war balls but then he's had to stand in that box which must be horrible.

58:15So, Hunter, to get a double back-to-back champion would be great so if Tim could do it, amazing. Alex Roncovich looks phenomenal. There are some outsiders who could come out of nowhere. Like Luke Greer on his day, if he really wanted to, like, send it, yeah, possibly he could. Like, I don't know. So I think it would be out of those three, in my opinion. JK could do something as well. Like a cold learn? Yeah, cold learn. I've never seen him race, like, physically. I've only seen him on the catch-up. So, yeah, a cold learn, 100%. Sean Noble I've got a lot of love for Sean I really think he can do it but again I think for him everything do you know what after what race was it after what did you say Phoenix no did he do solos in no it was London Olympia sorry it was London Olympia after his race I remember him saying to me like he was going like I felt good I've got more like it was almost he was testing that race um so he speaks very confidently about himself there's no there's no negativity whatsoever um but yeah that that race is gonna be insane to watch i cannot wait and there's there's a there is a shift as well like no disrespect like the women's race is amazing um but the the the natural testosterone in the men you can feel it in the air you can feel it and you're like oh shit okay this is fucking game time now.

59:51And don't get me wrong, the women still have that as well, but it's just heightened even more when the men come in and they're standing in that line to go onto the stage, get your name called out. When you guys actually line up, it's like, whoa, there's 15 monsters who are about to put themselves through 55 odd minutes of pain from start to finish. It's mad. yeah it's gonna it's gonna be exciting yeah it's gonna be uh who do you think who do i think yeah you know what it's hard to say because i get on with them all so i wouldn't want to like to to say but i feel like there's there's probably like five people that could win it like you say yeah uh hunter tim alex um jk like feeling confident he was only 10 seconds off tim the other day yeah in berlin they both raced big boost yeah big boost for him um i think i think if I'm being honest like your Charlie's your Sean's I think like another year yeah I think like Luke Gray another year yeah but I think it's definitely kind of like out of them four yeah I think yeah but let's say the rate that Cole earns been like progressing if he progresses from how he did last race to the next one yeah there's no stopping him Dylan Scott as well there's so many like there's so many people there is it's so stacked but yeah it's gonna And then you've got Hiddy.

1:01:17Yeah. Hiddy's got the world record and we've not even mentioned him. No, that's not anymore. Alex beat him, didn't he? Oh, Alex beat him. But when he did it, we were like, how did you just do that? Where did you come from? Yeah. And then Alex beat him literally the next race after that and was just doing that to the crowd. That's what I don't understand. Before, everyone was rolling on the floor, whereas now none of you are. You cross the line and you're standing up and you're fucking, so sociable now like even more so like you're high-fiving everyone like before you do you know what I mean like you would just go off and you know sit down and you know recover whatever but now you're like you're right mate you're right fast to come out for a photograph like I've noticed these things where you're even more like well I've just me personally like I've just tried to make it a thing where like at the end of the day like High Rocks we were talking about it before like within our space High Rocks is everything to us but like to other people yeah it's people have never even heard of irocs like a lot of people have never even heard of irocs so i think it's crazy that we're traveling around the world together the elite 15 or the elite 30 or whatever you you want to call it yeah and we're traveling around as this group of people running around in circles doing our sport but everyone doesn't speak to each other yeah yeah it's just fucking like do you really like when this is all over yeah like do you really want to remember it like do you want to like actually chat to people yeah talk to people and have good times and even if it's just like meet up for dinner yeah so like after phoenix remember we went out with cold learn like just competed uh against him and then we go out and you know we're celebrating together and i've seen it and noticed it like you're you're being way more um involved and engaging and with everyone's like sound though everyone's like really that's it though isn't it Yeah, it's lovely.

1:03:07There's nobody that's an Obed. Yeah. Yeah, it just is what it is. What about Jeremy and Hunter? Are they going to have another fight? What do you call it a fight? What do you call it a fight? What do you call it a fight? Are they going to have another little... Yeah, a little cuddle. Yeah. I don't know. But there is no beef with anyone really, is there, in the elites? Not really, no. No. And if it is, it's very petty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not... Yeah. It'd be interesting if there was a proper fight started, wouldn't that that would be great like who would put your money on yeah I'll probably put on Hunter yeah well have you seen have you seen him on his like prior TV shows and stuff like that like no what his podcast no no he used to be like on TV didn't he oh yeah yeah yeah all those Takeshi's Castle that's it yeah and he's like wrestling people yeah he's a big boy he's the biggest one there definitely I wouldn't want to mess with him size matters size matters yeah 10kg heavier than everyone else but I don't know what about him a punch up with Cole Lerner he's quite big as well is he?

1:04:12yeah I would put my money on or like Graham what about Graham Hall I know he's not in the Elite 50 no the Northerners you can't but they fight dirty though he'll be biting and everything and I love Graham I love Graham I think he's amazing he's another one as well like you said next year if he really wanted to like you can like um i like graham halliday like you said there's no one that you can't really not not love everyone's got their own little amazing glow and um aura about them so yeah once you get to know everyone it's great no it's good it's good do uh do you follow emotional intelligence the podcast with callum goddard no it's like a running podcast okay yeah he put together like a fight card of all the running influencers.

1:05:04Excellent. I feel like we should do that within Hirox. Yeah, we should, yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Okay, we can come up with that. That's the next bit of contact. We could have just a big boxing match instead of an Elite 15. Maybe we could do it on the cruise. Let's do it on the cruise. Yeah, we could just have a big boxing match. That would get a lot of bums on seats. Yeah, exactly. There we go. Hirox, we can sell you cruise for you.

1:05:27First match, Faisal versus Jake Dearden. there we go we've started oh thanks Emily said I'd be dead oh nah I doubt it I doubt it I doubt it but I just want to finish with a couple of quick fire questions okay I like to do it what's your worst habit being on my phone okay yep incredible that was quick you said it was quick fire no no it was it was definitely favourite meal Five Guys Five Guys yeah man what are you getting from Five Guys it'll be two double beef patties with chips and a salted caramel milkshake okay and I would smash all of it as well when I'm hungry that's a lot what are you saying money over there money bags yes come on man come on man favourite High Rocks venue that you've ever emceed up Grand Palais and Warsaw yeah Grand Palais because of its history and just iconicness and Warsaw because the crowd was probably the best crowd ever when I go make some noise nine times out of ten people don't make noise but in warsaw they made noise like it was the polish people were unreal yeah yeah yeah oh it was just like a load of brits that went over no it wasn't it was it was definitely polish it was definitely not polish because they weren't really listening to what they couldn't really hear what i was saying but they understood that at least so yeah that's class uh dream like harox venue that could be anywhere in the world oh wow great that's a great question um anywhere in the world i would want to go to that place uh maybe i you know i'd love to go somewhere south of new zealand i've gone i've gone to the other side of the planet in front of anything like just if on on a mountain somewhere yeah like just put on a mountain somewhere in new zealand you know like those epic shots of lord of the rings where they're like running on the mountain that yeah let's have it let and and tom would be great at that because he's now uh an experienced ultra snowdonian runner so what we're doing are we having are we having like the 1k run like up and down it'd be nice if it was a flat like we want flat yeah do you know what i mean so you you could you could do like the moon you know like yeah you could go out there you could do like let's do in the moon um you could do like maybe uh the pyramids like yeah you're not feeling any of that you just think of new zealand i just thought no because i've gone because i've never been to new zealand okay so i'm using it as a i've heard it's just like wales as a word nah surely not we could go we could just do snowdonia yeah um no i i would like to let's just yeah new zealand i can't really think of any other places yeah and the final one um what do you see yourself doing after this is all over so after like your amazing career do you want mceing yeah do you feel like you can do it forever or do you have like a passion i feel like there's longevity in in me being an mc but then I would love to consult for the entertainment team where I would consult you know new MCs coming in giving them all the the knowledge that I've had and making you know High Rocks even because they're always trying to find tweak it like how do we do this how do we do that um so I would want to consult on the entertainment side of things so I think there's a a role for me somewhere there when I'm not MCM so that's I definitely won't leave High Rocks because I actually is so passionate about it i think it's amazing so um but uh i do realize that you know i will have to drop the mic at some point that's it you could go to like commentating yeah i could i just i don't think i've got the um the the knowledge for it really do you know what i mean like it's it's so different commentating into hyping is is so different like um but i have said a few times that i could do that yeah I could do that yeah nah nah I love that if there was one person that you feel I feel like Greg's amazing I could definitely replace Greg

1:09:26I could definitely replace him I was thinking it'd be fucking great like Hunter imagine Hunter it would be but you know what like that though is really when they had Meg Jacoby at Chicago it's good because it's giving you someone who's got character personality likeability and the experience like been there done that like they know not done that but been there and waiting to do it again but like having Hunter on that panel would be phenomenal I don't think they could control him though yeah I don't think it should be uncensored version yeah it should be it should be like a red button that you press and you get like the uncensored version or just like an after hours show like you know you know when they do like the you watch the show and then there's a show after the show he should be in that and everyone will watch it yeah it'd be great it'd be great that would be good yeah get Greg out put Hunter in job done yeah sorry greg if you're watching we are abusing you greg right now yeah i think he's good i don't know where he pulls out all the knowledge that he's got knowledge mate like he sends me over the athlete cards so it gives me something to say during the race and i'm just like wow he's how does he know all this stuff literally just pulls it out of his brain yeah stalker you've said even the positive thing yes we said about him you've turned into he's a stalker this is what I'm saying I know that he can take it and if he says something about me I'll be like yeah it's good so I love Greg he's brilliant so yeah thank you for today Faisal no mate it's an absolute honour like when you messaged me yesterday I was like yes I've made it this is a tick for me so the next podcast I do I'll be like do you know I did the Jake Dearden podcast that's me so I appreciate it this is not going to be the last time either oh alright okay cool you know what I mean I want us to continue this maybe after world champs something like that in New Zealand in New Zealand on the cruise maybe on the cruise we can do a cruise special let's do a cruise special alright okay cool alright let's do that alright done incredible we can hold we can hold the camera yeah we'll hold the camera yeah not paying six grand for you have you seen how badly placed this microphone is that's all down to him it's shocking thank you Faisal I appreciate it lots of love guys peace