Why Running Became Popular | Inside The London Marathon 2026

0:01I would say that there is an absolute lie in our industry led by you and the Hugo Fries and the Russkicks of this world, which claims that like you guys are actually like amazing amateurs when you guys are rubbish pros. Like you are like your entire life revolves around the fact that you run like you've got like coaches, nutritionists, basically have nothing else to do. Are you talking about me? Yeah. I don't have a nutritionist. You've got all of this infrastructure around you. whereas like the real the real here like the people who have jobs who actually have to go nine to five into the office and run that's like that's where it's at so i'm not a good runner but i think i genuinely as somebody works very hard enjoy the running i wouldn't mind just just tidying up a couple of points okay just just off the off off the right right out of the gates i don't consider myself an exceptional runner obviously hugo fry is a good runner he is just in passing you lumped Hugo Fry with me which has made my day Hugo Fry is someone we should get on the show by the way he was like a just a normal dude bit of a Rose Harvey and he's not an Olympian but he runs a he runs a 217 I think yeah he ran a 217 out of nowhere out of nowhere and the week before he was like yeah I'm not in very good shape and I was like you soundbagger yeah and he runs a sub 30 minute 10k and all kinds of stuff he's a beast so thanks for putting me in the same category as him he's furious he's so upset me and Spencer you're joking no I don't consider myself an exceptional runner I think I'm alright over kind of very long distance stuff you know like mindset stuff but no I'm not a I mean distance is just about demons isn't it like you literally like how far you run is just how many demons you have internally it's such a segue but like I think you should feasibly be able to run forever because there's just sort of like this demon fire that exists so you can just keep exercising them and just keep going the demon fire is a good source of fuel.

1:57It's strong. It's a really potent weapon. Tell us a bit about yourself, just for those that don't know who Sam Brown is. You're the founder of Let's Do This. You're an incredible businessman. I've had the pleasure of knowing you for a couple of years now. Tell us a little bit about how you came to be who you are. Thanks, yeah. In the same way as you don't associate with being an incredible runner, I definitely don't associate with being an incredible businessman. But yeah, I'm very, very lucky and privileged to get to lead a company called Let's Do This. we are trying to be the online company that gets everyone together offline and we started sort of providing all the technology for all of the core races in the UK we now do the vast majority of race across the UK big week for us next week we do all of the ballots and everything for London Marathon so there's always a bad day of the year I have to email well not personally but we email over a million people saying sorry you didn't get in which always leads to a lot of my whatsapps of my friends thinking that I'm personally trying to be vindictive towards them, which I'm not.

2:55But then we started growing out in the last couple of years into the US. Very exciting, we just started doing the Chicago Marathon. We do about 30 of the top 100 races in the US now. Now do races across the world. Just launched with Nike and the Nike After Dark Tour across lots of different countries across the world there. And yeah, the real mission and the goal is to try and build this world that we want to see where it's as easy to go and have an experience in the real world with people that you love and you care about, as it is to watch Netflix or doom scroll through Instagram or any of those other things.

3:31I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company.

4:10This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash tickets. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets.

4:42How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly! Inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Mod.com is changing the way people battle excessive fatigue. Ever hit a wall in the middle of the day, and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore? Here's what's actually happening. Coffee only briefly blocks adenosine, the chemical that tires you out. When it stops working, your system is flooded and you crash.

5:23Modafinil is a prescription treatment that works in a completely different way. Modafinil works by stimulating multiple receptors in the brain associated with wakefulness, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, histamine, glutamate, and orexin. it's a more complete solution that gives you 10 to 12 hours of steady focus and energy to learn more go to mod.com fill out your intake form meet with a licensed provider and if approved mod alert ships straight to your door go to mod.com to get started that's mod.com

6:05just coming back to what you said uh before that you've had to let over a million people down yeah for the 2026 london marathon um why is running culture exploding in the way that it is and when did you first notice that yeah for sure so i think i'm gonna split that into two things like one is the like specifics around the london marathon that ballot which i think is is slightly different connected but different and then one is like the wider running culture i think on the running culture thing is i think like humanity's just kind of woken up like i think we were so life was so bad for such a long period of time like there's an amazing book factfulness around like as much as we think and there is terrible things going on in the world as much as we think there's never any progress like there is so much progress but life was so challenging for such a long time that I think like we kind of numbed ourselves out of it like the bottle of wine at the end of every day or whatever which was like a complete standard thing for our parents generation to kind of do whereas like now there's so much that is wonderful and that is beautiful and it is that is like that actually I mean you've gone through it yourself the idea of tomorrow morning being something I want to invest in I want to go running I want to get out there I want to go and have those experiences rather than just like numbing myself out tonight has changed a lot as life's fundamentally got better and things have improved and things have moved in the right direction and so i think the running scene that we're seeing now is this very life affirming life positive let's all go and like actually meet up and have a 10k tomorrow morning and have an incredible experience together rather than let's just go and get binned tonight and do whatever or not necessarily that's not also quite fun sometimes but like it is like not not necessarily every day and it is such like life affirming part of of existence i think we're seeing this in other areas and community like I got through what I got through because I had an amazing family around me like that was that was and they were brilliant they sacrificed so much for me um and I think in the same way like running there is this sort of like cultural moment where people are inspiring each other to be like actually you know what like don't have that extra like double vodka coke or whatever it is like tonight let's go for a 5k tomorrow morning and that changes things I mean London Marathon now has more applications for it than every other world marathon major put together and it has grown yeah sort of like 4x roughly in the period of time that the rest of the world marathon majors have grown like 50 % kind of thing so it's like 6x the growth that anyone else has and that's been quite unique so it's benefited the same thing but that has obviously grown like crazy is it the hardest one to get into yeah yeah it's the hardest it definitely is the hardest one to get into I mean it's one of the most hard experience to get into in the world I mean it's about 116 115 to one oasis was like 10 to one so as far as like it is a factorial one of the most popular experiences in the planet but it should be like the finish line we're going to be there next week and oh my god how lucky are we to be in this situation where we both get to run next week like it is my favorite place on the whole planet like the finish line of the london marathon like it's just the best experience you could possibly imagine like if aliens came down and I wanted to show them like, this is like us at our best, like our species, this is us at our best.

9:09I wouldn't show them like a large language model or Chatterjee or whatever, as amazing as those are. Like I would take them to the finish line of the London Marathon and just see, like it is life defining for every single person there. I've been so privileged to run it a bunch of times and they're still, of my 10 favourite dates ever, five of them are London Marathon dates. Like it is unreal. It is an extraordinary experience. Mate, it's ridiculous. What do you think, what what what makes the london marathon more special obviously we've we've both had the privilege of running quite a few marathons yeah and it is a completely different experience yeah is that the the people is it the city is it is it you guys like what what is it it's not so like we've definitely helped grow the ballot like as far as that and the team's done an unbelievable job there and if we want to go and we can we can sort of like dive into some of the things which there but like no the experience is all on the london marathon team like that team is just exceptional what it is i mean i think you're always going to have a nostalgia about your home marathon like running the streets that we're used to biking around it's obviously always going to be a special thing but i think it is the community and the people of london in the way that you i was out with you running tokyo this year when you're doing that and and sort of like p being there i ran new york last year i'm like mega excited to go i've never run chicago yet and I'm so excited to do that.

10:26And I did see Kelvin break the world record in the finish line in Chicago. And that was unbelievable. But with London, every single stride, it's five deep. Like everywhere. Like, this is why the only people who like kind of wind me up a little bit during London Marathon Day, the people wearing headphones, I'm like, dude, like, I love the music. That's great. Wicked. All good if you're going through a Sufferfest. But like, this is like, you are in the world. A Sufferfest. But it is like, but I like when I get abused about sort of like, I love my dance music, but like I will hammer myself with dance music when I'm like bored going through whatever.

11:02But London Marathon Day, you are at the moment in time across the world that everyone wants to be at. And like, don't drown any of it out. Like get your headphones out, like live it. And the crowd the entire way around is just the most infectious thing in the world. it is uh it is remarkable support and that is what led me and apologies if this is boring to listeners who've heard this before that is what led me to my massive mistake in berlin because i took music yeah to the london marathon last year it was my first ever attempt at a fast marathon uh off the back of a big holiday where i wasn't training much and you know what but but still ran an all right time didn't listen to the music in the end because the crowd drowned it out like I thought I'm going to have to listen to music to Rome because it will be a sufferfest, which I love, by the way.

11:53I've not heard that before. And it wasn't, right? It was just this extraordinary experience where the crowd literally carry you the whole way. Didn't listen to my music, so I didn't really need my phone or my headphones, so it felt like I was carrying it. So in Berlin, didn't take them. And I can remember thinking after the first 10K, I have 32K of hell here with no music. There was a bloke passed out on the side of the road I nearly nicked his headphones like literally because I didn't have mine that says so much about you as a person it's like I'm so I didn't know in the end I didn't know and I want the credit for that ideally looking for the credit for the fact that I didn't date headphones of a guy who was genuinely dying on the side of the show yeah yeah it's like the Good Samaritan story of our age like it's really uplifting that you didn't do that I know well I have to say I considered it strongly and then nearly moved back actually I took kind of 20 steps and I was like you heard it was Kanye and you're like nah you're right it's fine Don't bother.

12:48Not my vibe. But yeah, I mean, but obviously Berlin is amazing and a load away as well. But I think London is completely unique there. I think what's been mad about that ballot and they're looking at... What, the double day? There has been efforts to put on two London marathons. And we can talk more, but I think there should be a London marathon every weekend. I think it's sort of one of these things that we are going to have more time as a result of AI to do all these things. I think there should be a London marathon, a Glastonbury. I think these things should be happening the whole time. Why as a result of AI?

13:15I think like we've seen the power of these models I am I can't see any world where like people don't have more free time and so I think there's this opportunity for us to build to make everywhere feel like the most engaged most brilliant village where like there's fates every weekend there's experience every weekend and there's like like everyone has their own little businesses putting on these different aspects and like that is why I love what we do I love coming to work and getting to try and work with the greatest experience operators on the planet. And so I think there's this big opportunity for us to drive towards a future where all of these experiences happen the entire time.

13:56And we use the time we get back from AI for the best possible things rather than the worst. It sounds like there are two routes with it, though. So kind of, you know, AI can either replace you, at which point you have no job. so going out and being healthy is a way of spending time but you may choose to spend your time trying to seek employment yeah or you use ai as a tool to free up time to do your job and help you with your job which is obviously the healthier of the two yeah um so you do see a world where people turn and you know to running more and get you know healthy in the spare time that they have yeah 100 because i think like and we all see it like the whole like dad bod concept like the whole idea of dad boys like is like my mates have gone and ended up getting dad boys if you're listening you'll know who you are uh well like that is a result of the fact they don't have time like and like they're going to the office they're grabbing a sort of snack lunch whatever and they're doing those things like whereas you don't see that in the same way as like these we're so privileged and blessed we get to travel loads like you don't see that around the world where people are living that like outdoors lifestyle like in the same way to like the same extent and so the office is bad for your health like it is and look I actually really do believe that like this whole phenomenon of like the one person like billion dollar companies and that kind of stuff which technically sort of we crossed a couple of weeks ago but I don't think that's going to be pervasive because people love people like and when you're building something like I get to I got to build a company with one of my best friends called Alex and like I wouldn't change that for the world like because it's it's all about shared experiences like everything in the world is like is about the experience you share even the challenges you've done on your own it's about the team that's around you and like it's about that that like if you if you didn't have anyone to share those stories with it'd be waste of time so there's still going to be those shared experiences and those elements to try and like drive towards that but yeah the the office is bad for your health like it just is you you always seem quite um kind with your time like you've offered to pace me before uh you you you have sorted me out uh with all three of my fast marathon kind of tickets and entries um you paced russ cook last year uh in in new york when he wanted to run a 245 um his his desire to run a 229 is interesting is that like no i mean it's literally well like like literally zero danger i mean like russ i absolutely love you you're and you're incredible and you've inspired so many millions of people but I will give up pretty much everything I have if that happens no I mean like Russ is like so the reason I do it and the reason why I would say everyone should do it is that actually like pacing someone is way more fun than running your own race and so like what always happens is I always like get to six months out from a marathon I'm like oh I'm going to do a proper block this time I'm going to go for something really hot and then three months later I haven't done any training have you done that before have you pushed yourself in a serious block and run a kind of proper time yourself no because I don't think I have enough of a sort of desire to like and I think this is where things are going which is this sort of I think the I think there's this sort of like desire to be like holistically fit and holistically healthy being able to do things but like me going and like burying myself for a specific time like I don't I'm never going to sort of prioritize that in the same way as like if I go and do an experience like my favorite running experience ever was like the uh it was hackney half my sister who's not a runner and she wanted to go and run and break like two hours and she was like oh can you come and support me and do this it was ages ago i thought she meant two hours for the marathon i was like yeah yeah yeah she's not a runner but she can't break two hours no but she's like but she was trying to do sub two hour half marathon and like i like and she was like will you come and help me i was like yeah yeah this was ages ago and i was like yeah it would be awesome and i was like going around with her and like pushing her And like my mum was furious because like she broke two hours and then was in the medical tent for like an hour and a half.

17:53But my mum was like, Sam, what are you doing? Where's your sister? She's in the medical tent, but she broke two hours. I don't care. Why are you in the medical tent? But she's like, that was just this experience of like sharing it with someone that you love. It's just like beyond incredible. Like getting to run, I mean, New York with Russ was like hilarious. Because I was like, what are you going to run? He was like, I'm going to do 245. I was like, what's your PB? I can't remember exactly. But it was like 315. I was like where did you do a PB he was like a couple of months ago I was like okay so we're not doing 245 but what I find amazing is say Russ was in shape to run 245 you could run 245 with him I mean I don't know I mean that was one of those like happy days where the wheels came off for him I think a couple of Ks before the wheels were going to come off for me which is one of the world's great experiences when you're dying and you're just like playing someone else yeah yeah yeah and then you abuse them squarely like he said in the edit for New York he was like I was basically just having to like cut out you calling me a name that I'm not going to mention on a podcast.

18:50But it was literally... And if he had held it for another 2K, I was in bits. That's so funny. I was gone. I love that feeling, specifically at the track, when you're with people and you're doing 800s or whatever. And you are dead and then all of a sudden your mate pulls over. It's like, I'm done. It's like, oh, come on, mate. I genuinely think it might be the best thing in the world. I think it's the best experience in running. Like someone else dying just before you die. Because it's just sort of like... Because they don't know that you were there either. They don't know. And then you don't have to tell them.

19:19And then you get to do that like really nice bloat stuff where you're like, it's all right, mate. And George is like everything. Next time. Yeah, yeah, next time. You'll be all right. Just focus. Yeah, a bit more fueling. Yeah, yeah. A couple more gels. Get it right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't ruin my session. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. It's like I've sacrificed my race. But it's fine. I love you. Which running brands in the world, because you have an incredible relationship with Nike, obviously you work with them. Adidas, you work with them as well. Which running brands get the running culture right?

19:47I said yeah great question I think the reality is that like the big guys have sort of by their own admission been on the wrong side of this for like sort of like five six years I think what happened was like in running you had this whole like seven eight probably five six years ago there was a big movement amongst the big brands from we're going to focus on sport we're going to focus on the athletes we're going to we're going to focus on the sort of like categories they call them to we're just going to go mega onto e-com so all of them moved away from local running stores, like those sort of relationships.

20:17And they just focused on how they can do e-commerce. Nike brought in a new CEO just to exactly do that. And like they lost the runner and like by their own admission, like they had these amazing shoes. Like obviously they came out with Nike, obviously came out with the plates and then Adidas Pro 4s obviously and that whole line were incredible. But they lost all of the culture around the runner and you had these people coming in and eating their lunch. Like obviously I think Tracksmith did a great job. Hoka came in and did a good job, particularly around the trail side. You had a lot of the other, like A6 came through, Brooks came through, and really they lost the runner and they lost that sort of share of market.

20:52And I think in the last year, I mean, what Elliot is doing, the new CEO's come back in at Nike, what he's doing at Nike is mega exciting. Because there's obviously a big story at the moment around Nike share price being in a difficult spot. But running at Nike is growing 20 % quarter over quarter. It is the part of, I think Nike is one of the greatest brands on the planet. and like running is the part of that business which is going to be used as the example of how the rest of the business evolves. It's kind of great because it's where it started, right? Yeah, I mean, 100%. Phil Knight was a runner, like all about Oregon track, like all about developing a shoe that allowed him to run better.

21:25Totally. You know, like that is the brand. Yeah, I mean, I've got to send you, so I wrote this thing for them. I went out to their HQ in like August last year and I wrote this whole thing for them around sort of saying like, basically we miss you. Like we need you back. Like, you are, this is the greatest trend which is happening right now, and the greatest brand is not part of it. Like, you're not here. And, like, we don't need you doing all of these, whatever, like, random activations and billboards around the place. Like, we need you with us. We need you on the start lines. And Tanya, who's the global head of running now, who's sort of, like, been in there for the last three, four months, is doing just, like, a phenomenal job with, like, a couple of, like, really, there's a woman called Isabel and a woman called Beth who are doing an amazing job around the Nike After Dark Tour.

22:06and I think they're like doing what Nike does best which is to like go counter-cultural like their Nike After Dark Tour the whole point of that was that like it used to be the way that women were spoken about running was all about like inclusivity accessibility it was like softness it was sort of like ah to include women like you can't compete you can't be here like I know I'm in like the same chair that like Lucy Charles Barkley's been and that kind of stuff you're like no no no like the hardest like the hardest athletes we've got at the company are like sort of like some of the women are just going to absolutely smash it and Nike were like no we like let a race let a run like let like like this isn't about participating it's not about taking part it's about like let's go like let's send it and i think like the popularity there so so last year so we launched the first race for them that last week in sydney that race last year which sort of started different positioning it took it didn't sell out it like was open for three months didn't sell out we sold out four hours um next one like la coming out i think or shut out in like yeah a couple of hours or whatever like and last year was like two three months so i think there's this sort of attention now from the big guys and what you're going to see over the next two years is these big guys like sending it back in like adidas is led by amazing amazing women across uh their running cycle jenna thomas and she's i mean i'll be with her in boston obviously a big race day support this week or flying there tomorrow and like again they're going to be going hard and so i think you want to be seeing this like there were all of these sort of like kind of startup brands coming through doing stuff and i think like 26 27 will be the years of the big boys like they're they're going to be coming back in and sending it

23:46mod.com is changing the way people battle excessive fatigue ever hit a wall in the middle of the day and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore here's what's actually happening Coffee only briefly blocks adenosine, the chemical that tires you out. When it stops working, your system is flooded and you crash. Modafinil is a prescription treatment that works in a completely different way. Modafinil works by stimulating multiple receptors in the brain associated with wakefulness, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, histamine, glutamate, and orexin. it's a more complete solution that gives you 10 to 12 hours of steady focus and energy to learn more go to mod.com fill out your intake form meet with a licensed provider and if approved mod alert ships straight to your door go to mod.com to get started that's mod.com 75 of women who seek menopause care don't receive it the lying awake at 3 a.m wondering what's happening to your body ends now.

24:54Midi is virtual care built for women in perimenopause and menopause with clinicians who specialize in women's health. Plus, it's covered by most major insurances. Getting started is easy. You can book your first visit with a clinician right away. Midlife needs Midi. Visit joinmidi.com to book your first visit today. That's joinmidi.com. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage. Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place.

25:32Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night, they're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com.

25:47What are the marathon majors now? Because obviously there were six, so there are now eight. Yeah, so they've got the rights for nine. So they've got the rights for three more. There's two that have been elected and one that's sort of like been in discussion. So the two that's been elected are Sydney and Cape Town. And then there's one in discussion, which is Shanghai, which I'm not sure whether we can talk about or not, but let's discuss and then we can... I'll check whether we can... Exclusive right here with Sam Brown. Lovely. Everything that shouldn't be discussed in the world of running is in this episode.

26:14Way for me to get abused. And then, yeah, and then there's definitely sort of like constant discussions and thinking about like where it goes next. now it does next and we're seeing a lot of these growth of new series that we're sort of working on so European Marathon Classics we launched like three weeks ago so that's yeah a bunch of the biggest marathons across Europe that we're doing yeah working on something in the US as well and South America so yeah Are you still doing the kind of famous run clubs?

26:41Way to try and get you in there only because we were talking about it and then somebody went quiet it's almost like I didn't think you could sell enough tickets mate No, no, no, it actually wasn't. I genuinely, we had some other things going on. I think Chicago kicked off or something. But no, so yeah, so Diplo, we did this like run club with Diplo and their team, Todd, who leads that up, was Wasserman, now the team, is awesome. And I think like, and it's been, that is a crazy success story. Like Diplo's now selling more tickets for his run club than he would for his shows, which is kind of wild, like as a, And you see the mix and the blend of demographics from who would go to a major laser concert, which would probably be like, oh, bastards like us.

27:27And then you see who's turning up for the Run Club and it is like full Gen Z. It is really like, yeah, teenagers, young, 20s. It is an amazing next generation of people coming through. We're just launching Travis Barker's, so we're doing that with them. So again, much more famous than you are. And so... and so like at some point in what 2030 2031 we'll probably launch yours that'd be great yeah so so i was about to say it doesn't it doesn't sound like you're getting any less busy uh so i'll just continue waiting and we're seeing this creator space and we're seeing these like really big influencers runners people as as a way of like going into that because as a creator i think you have you have a threat which is that like you have this online following but like how do you turn it how do you not get zucked like how do you turn it into this thing which is like actually in the real world space there is an audience in it and a group that you can own and we talk to big creators a lot and we say like that i would swap a million likes on instagram for two people who actually turned up to go and do this 5k with me that's like incredible and so we really are scaling out that and excited about where that where that goes um but also we're not going to lose lose sort of sight of we still got we still want to be like doubling in size consistently every year and we're not going to lose sight on the global running running corbett first and i think what we're seeing there is that this kind of um quite grounds up quite community driven sport which running has always been i think it's the most accessible sport on the planet in loads of ways like you just need a pair of trainers and get out the door you don't even need a pair of trainers is now really like bringing in the big bucks like as far as like the big guys are piling back on back in you've got like the biggest celebrities in the world you've got the biggest brands piling back in like nike and adidas are moving hard like they're coming in like in a big way big investment dollars flying in and i think there is this and i think that's exciting for the sport i think more infrastructure more capital is going to mean there's like in this whole war of are you going to watch netflix or are you going to go out for a run we're more likely to win because like the netflix guys have got loads of money so like the more money we can get into running anyone who ever sits there and says like oh like we don't want money in our space and that kind of stuff like no like we want all the investment we can get every single dollar like anyone who wants to come in and try and contribute, try and compete, try and drive up standards, it's brilliant.

29:44Because ultimately, we're all trying to get the same thing, which is to get people offline and get people out in the real world. I mean, it was always the ambition of this podcast to be more than a podcast. Yeah. To be a physical thing as well. Like, you know, we're going to do some stuff with retreats. We're going to do some events, some running stuff, hopefully. Like, we'd love to, even if it's, you know... We'll announce it here. We're going to do it. We'll launch the Untapped Run Club. There we go. Thank you. I was actually going to say, even if it's too small for you guys we'd love some advice we'd love some advice on how to get it going um but we would we would love to do something with let's do this even if it's just small you know some 5k's some 10k's you know like a few people you know it'd be great to get a few hundred people out you know once a month or something just just running with us um because we'd love to also be there in a physical capacity for our listeners 100 and i and i think what you guys have done and what you've done is like so brilliantly inspiring i mean i've kind of i've had this sort of thing for the last nine years where i've been like never doing podcasts never doing any of this kind of stuff and and like the reason that i changed my attitude towards that and doing that is like the number of people that we met who have been inspired by something you've done or something that rusted or whatever like it's hard to be inspired by hugo because the pace that he runs at but but but definitely people loads of people have been inspired by by that or like we've been fortunate to have some incredible investors from early doors so like Paula Ratcliffe backed us from the start Serena Williams backed us from the start Usain Bolt backed us from the start and like you look at the impact there you go I put you in Hugo Fright and Usain Bolt same sentence as in the same episode absolutely but like the amount that these people with massive profiles can do and can like inspire people on a like individual day-to-day level is just phenomenal.

31:28So like we want to do this at scale and like we'll 100 % do it. It'll be great. I'll be there. I'll be there for the first one. It'll be epic. That's very kind of you. So London Marathon this weekend. Yeah. What are your tips for anyone running? And then I've got one final question for you. Okay. So I think the useful tips, because I think that all the tips that are normally given are just like the ones that sort of come from people who are really into running and that kind of stuff. But like the useful tips of things are going in. I think carb loading and fueling is more important than training, which is a controversial thing and a load of proper athletes will be like yelling at this TV or whatever.

32:05But in my experience, yeah, yeah, old school. But something has gone really wrong if this ends up on the TV. Like that is bad. It's fine. But like, so the first thing is you have to fuel. Like you have to fuel way more than you think you need to. I start carb loading on like the Monday. so like from Monday I'll be taking like I'll buy like Morton are in my view the best brand but whatever like I will be taking probably like three to four bars of Morton like throughout the day on top of my meals gels drinks basically all of it don't go completely mad but people just under fuel savagely like you want your glycogen stores to be completely full by the time you come to the race Do you ever feel like a big jelly on the start line when you do that?

32:51So so the the key meal is not the night before. It's the night before the night before. So it's like the key meal is not the Saturday night. It's the Friday night. It's like get your proper like meal in on the Friday night. Get your ice and get your carbs on the Friday night. And then by Saturday lunchtime, then I'm going off like the bars and gels and like holding it back a little bit and not sort of like absolutely hammering myself from that side. But I mean, look, I'm trying to, I'm trying to pace my childhood hero to sub three hours on the day. I'll take eight gels, six normal, two caffeine, like we'll make sure i take all of those comfortably probably pick one up on the course like just fuel really heavily the second thing is like the things that ruin the thing that will ruin most people's london marathon days is their stomach will go and like that is just like the only like yes getting injured is horrible and that kind of stuff or whatever but like that's kind of there's not many things that you can yeah like if you if that happens it happens like it can happen to everyone but like if your stomach goes it's just miserable it takes all the joy out of just like a completely joyful experience and the reason that is is because they just change their feeling on the way in like start eating now start building up to it you won't feel like a jelly if you're not trying to just like mash it in on the saturday night like that's when you hammer it um so i think like just really trying to be conscientious about like your stomach and trying to be as like kind to it as possibly can and start that load up earlier um i think then the the the big the big thing on the day i think is just is just to try as hard as you possibly can to focus on presence like by the time that you hit the start line like there's all the like try it stuff don't go out too hard the first couple of miles are downhill don't go and send it don't go and get carried away everyone else will be getting carried away don't you get carried away try and stay to the racing line try and make sure you take on enough water when you're taking off water don't go down a load of air all of the like standard stuff don't try new trainers on day one all of these someone somewhere is going to be furiously writing down on their notepad, like everything going through.

34:48Like, there's all this standard stuff that you do. To be fair, before you arrived, Spencer did say he was going to send it straight off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I am. I feel like you're going to be dobbling water, flying through new trainers, having had a pizza that I'm going to do. I mean, if anyone is listening to this podcast and hasn't worked out, just like, don't listen to Spencer. Like, you are serious. You're already going to be done. I'm quite balanced, actually. No, you're not. you are even for me you are the least balanced person listen because Tokyo went well despite having an hour's sleep and whatever you were Whatsapp-ing me laughing you're like I'm freaking out I think I was in no I was on my way to Tokyo and you were like it's two o 'clock in the morning you're like I'm freaking out I called quite a few people because I was trying to just get my mind off like not being able to sleep so you called me yeah yeah yeah well I knew you were coming to Tokyo obviously and I yeah I couldn't see I fell asleep I think at 4.30 and we were getting up at like 5.45.

35:46And yeah, so I in my mind was like, oh my God, I can't believe I've like done all of this like quite good prep. I only had seven weeks to prepare. But in that seven weeks, I put myself in a really like strong position. Like I didn't have any alcohol, ate perfect food, like literally like ran six times a week, two speed, three long, you know, I was really like really focused about it. Like really focused on sleep. Night before the marathon, no sleep. And I was just like, this is so frustrating. I did a whole LinkedIn post about it. But then you realize that actually, you know, consistency, which is something we talk about a lot on the show and hard work really will carry you through if it's just, you know, the odd night.

36:20So, you know, the one bad night won't be the defining reason for a poor performance. You know, if you have had consistency and you've worked really hard. So thankfully, look, got there and it was amazing. Like Tokyo Marathon was super. I did take music, thank God, just because of Berlin. And I listened to a one hour long. Do you know what Fit Radio is? this is not an ad but do you know what Fit Radio is? do you? I love it I love it for me you're like yeah yeah yeah was I? well anyway I don't remember talking about it there's this like playlist that's exactly an hour long that is just absolutely like full of bangers I just thought if I get to the end of the marathon before the third time this loops and that would be great and the second time it loops I was like oh I'm ahead let's go and the whole thing was amazing I had the most amazing day it was fantastic it's such a good point because of that I'm kind of less bothered about London because obviously if I hadn't sub 3'd I'd be desperate to sub 3 I'm not that desperate but to be honest I ran a 3.06 at London last year and I hardly prepared for it so quietly I'd love to go sub 3 again so part of me wants to go out at like 4's instead of 4.06 and just cling on for as long as possible because that would be a 2.50 I'm not going to run a 2.50 but I might run a 2.55 you know you never know yeah and I think I think your point on the night before Tokyo is such a it's such a brilliant one for for everyone who's going into this for the first time which is that like you will feel horrific for the next 10 days like as far as I went for our team run this morning and just every part of my legs felt awful and every time I've ever done a marathon in the last 10 days like you just you're so hyper aware of everything isn't it so funny though no it's ridiculous no but it is so odd like going into Tokyo I couldn't have felt better really fit really strong like really fast and then the week before yeah just like i reckon in my mind i would have struggled to run like a 20 minute 5k i just didn't have any pace in my body felt knackered immediately yeah loads of niggles really shit shins like having had fine shins for the whole block like it was just just really weird and and like psychologically i'm getting it now like i ran to the gym yesterday having just got off a plane which is my excuse like it's it's three and a half k yeah literally like i thought oh i'll just like plod to the gym lift heavy and plod back and uh and like i was running 455s or five and honestly i thought like i can't really go any faster than this like i thought like heart rate was really high yeah like i think i weighed 88 kilos yesterday getting off the plane and i was just like if i had to run the marathon now forget it like i'd be everyone feels like that and it's sort of funny like one of my one of the most intimidating experiences that I ever have is getting the flight from Heathrow out to Boston for the Boston Marathon weekend because I go over a year.

39:06And it's like just, obviously, the selection of the most elite people you've ever seen. Everyone's in their gears. Everyone has like 0 % body fat. And everyone's like sort of like psyching themselves out as like, dude, you're coming like 11 ,000th and you're coming 12 ,000th. It doesn't really matter if you get like scores and points mentally on each other. But there's like, there is like a part of it which everyone has this universal experience which is like, and from being around, like we've been lucky to be around a load of like pro athletes. Like my kind of sport was cricket and you look at some of the greatest performers in the world and they're like Joe Root the greatest batsman we've ever had never sleeps a time before an ennix Steve Smith one of the greatest batsmen in the world doesn't sleep during an entire test match and like we're just going out and running those guys are facing bumpers at like 90 miles an hour just like being directed to their head like I think there is a big thing of just sort of it will be amazing like don't freak out too much you'll feel terrible your stomach will feel awful you'll be knackered like that is a feature not a bug like that is just like how it's gonna feel it is probably the best advice and that is what you said to me the night before Tokyo you messaged me and you were just like dude like this is completely normal nobody sleeps the night before a race like everyone feels shit everyone feels heavy everyone feels like they can't run it's almost like you feel like you've forgotten how to run and it's just and you like you turn up to the start line you're like am I gonna be all right to run or am I gonna fall over yeah it's fine and that's what you get from experience as far as I've done a load of marathons and load of races now and like I'm saying all this and I'm going to blow up next weekend.

40:33I'm going out hard. We're chatting about this. The good thing is, though, being famous and running marathons is terrible. Because when I DNF, it's just like my mum being disappointed by me. But that's a 32-year thing anyway, so it's not anything new. Whereas when you DNF, you're just like, everyone on the sidelines is loving it. Oh, Spencer's blown up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That knee stuff didn't work, did it? At halfway in Berlin, the only reason, the only reason that I didn't just pull the plug and walk back to the hotel was because I knew I would have to mention it like everyone would go how was my list I DNF'd I was just I have to run with no music in place why I nearly need the headphones it is tough though because I think there is I think it's the other thing you just experience like during the race is that like it's trying to work out like when you're actually not okay and when you are okay because like the brutal reality about our sport is that like there will be some people after sunday that do end up in a in a really bad way like every year there are people that very very very sadly do end up in in a and e or whatever and so like all of the like i think where it can become dangerous and where i think it's really important for people to like be aware of going in it's like it isn't like mary wittenberg who i get to work with um who runs our u.s operations she's amazing she was the ceo of new york road runners for 15 years she served the new york city marathon she invented world marathon majors she's incredible it's this sort of wild thing that like my mentor has become someone i get to work with on a day-to-day basis we'll often be like watching the finish line of a major together or whatever and she'll be able to point and like it is very often men in their it's people at us like it's men in your early 30s that probably haven't done enough training that are pushing themselves too hard and you can just see they're going to drop and like anyone who says like oh there isn't a limit is is lying like any like good experienced marathon runner will tell you they're like no no there is a level to which you should you should stop and like and you should actually like genuinely dnf because like you've got people who love you you've got families who love you like ultimately it's an amazing day and it's an amazing experience but like if you end up putting yourself in in an ambulance like that isn't good for anyone so i think it is important to have the whole like yeah it's gonna hurt it's gonna be savage it's gonna be difficult but also like try and be present in your body and try and like literally think to yourself as like am i okay because there is a line to which you shouldn't push through like and and anyone who's sort of like and and the pros the pros dnf all the time like actually if you look at the pros that are running they dnf all the time and so anything which is like there is nothing wrong with like ending up with with joe wicks and daddy pig who i think are doing a sort of like doing it doing a run walk um and like if you end up i mean it's probably going to be you joe everyone's going to be like spencer matthews and daddy pig let's go that's what's gonna happen i'm pbing mate i've just come back two and a half weeks away where it was 30 degrees yeah kind of every day really really hilly so i've not done just sunbeds i've not done any yeah no no sunbeds i wouldn't do a sunbed um fake tan sure but actually this is this is the real deal just in case anyone was wondering i'm sure your wife really needs you to plug her she loves it man i do i do it i do it free of charge um but no so all of my training's been uh pretty like slow and hilly and and and you know in in the heat.

43:52So I suppose that could be a good thing, but I haven't done any speed work in like two and a half, three weeks.

44:01During Lowe's Pro Savings Days, my Lowe's Pro Rewards members can save up to 20 % when they buy more job site materials. Save 20 % when you buy 30 or more select bats and rolls of fiberglass insulation, 24 more cartons or pails of joint compound, tape and bead, or when you spend$200 or more on 3M painting and job site essentials. Members give More at Lowe's. Valid through 925. While supplies last. Selection varies by location. Program subject to terms and conditions. See Lowe's.com slash terms for details. Subject to change. I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down.

44:37Onboarding, password resets, access to applications. My laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work. And that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English and it's built. No drag and drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot.

45:18Go to serval.com slash tickets. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets.

45:47and contains three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. It's an easy addition to your daily routine and helps support hydration when you need it most. Shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you.

46:06Have you seen the weather for next weekend? I haven't actually checked it yet. Apparently it's not as hot as last year. It's like 16 or something, which I think is great. It's a niche one. It's a niche one. If you're running quick, drafting makes a big difference. Oh, yeah. It really, really does. Find an 88-kilo Spencer Matthews and just hang on off your shoulder. Draft the pig. Yeah, yeah, draft the pig. Draft the pig. Daddy pig should just have a line of people behind him. That's what Joe is going to be doing. If he's knackered, he's just going to draft Daddy Pig. I saw a comment on social media that was absolutely hilarious after Tokyo.

46:39It literally was this dude who commented under my finishers post. that was like, it was like, thank God for Spencer Matthews and all his mates who literally just pushed people out the way for the first 5k. Because we started, it's like the biggest bottleneck ever. And it's like, we were literally like stuck behind groups of people. And obviously we were all looking to sub three. And so I was with some pals and we were literally just like trying not to push people because obviously it's not really, it's not great. But we were like putting hands like that and going, I'm glad, I'm glad there was, yeah, I was going to say, it's not as bad as the guy that you just abandoned on the street, but it's still, like the fact that there was one guy who appreciated it, there were at least like 500 who were like, you're a huge prick.

47:22But that's kind of your ratio. That's kind of the ratios you work off. I think that that's, as long as there is that one that appreciates it, that's fine. That's your mantra. Similarly to you, I don't mind how many people are upset. One person joins us. Similarly to you sacking off a million likes for two runners. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, because that's, Yeah, exactly the same. Really good. Really good equitable version. I'm delighted with you coming in. Thanks so much for giving us your time. It was a real pleasure to talk to you and get an insight into what you guys are doing because it's really impressive and really inspiring and amazing.

47:57And thanks so much for everything you've done for running. I benefit from it personally, but I'm sure that our listeners do as well. And I think it's really amazing. So thanks a lot. Thanks so much for having me. And yeah, it is amazing, just the amount that you will do for getting people moving, getting people offline, getting people out there. So thank you so much for all the work you do and it's been great to be here.