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Today's clip is from episode 31 of the podcast with sports reporter, author and endurance runner Vasos Alexander. In this clip, Vassos shares his inspirational journey from being unfit and out of shape to to running ultra marathons. And he believes it doesn't matter how far you run or how fast, just giving it a try could benefit your life in so many positive ways. And he shares some of his best tips on how to get started.
I've been very interested in seeing what's been in the media about your story, in particular your story as a runner. And you said your story is pretty simple really. And I think it was something like you're sitting in a pub eating a packet of crisps, realizing you're a little unhealthy so you decided to run. I want you to expand on that a little bit.
I shall see the moment. The moment was, I mean I was sitting in a pub a lot in those days, but the moment was a set of traffic lights on my way to read the sports news, I think, at Radio 5 live. And my shirt, unusually for me, because I've been playing golf, was tucked into my trousers and I just noticed a little kind of a flop of fat, quite a spare tire wrapped in a yellow golf shirt flopping over my belt. And I thought, oh my goodness, you know, I Was in my early 30s at this stage.
And I thought, okay, so here's the deal. You're no longer in your 20s. You either stop eating what you like or you start exercising or you get fat. And I remembered a late night drive back from Oxford to London with Steve Bunce.
I mean, he's a boxing expert, he's kind, he's a well known sports commentator. And in his kind of North London bark of a voice, he said, you know, Vass, let me tell you something. I'm getting older, I'm getting fatter, I'm getting happier. And I thought, well, we're going the Bunsey route, you know, I'll just get older and fatter and happier.
But something kind of just didn't ring true. Some. I just, that's all sort of like giving up. I was about to become a father.
I didn't like the idea of being unhealthy. So I thought, well, let me try a gym. And the same day, on the way to the bar, television centre, the bar is right next to the gym in the old BBC club. And so I went into the gym on the way to the bar and I booked a personal training appointment with a guy called Andrew.
Great guy. The next morning, through a mild fog of hangover, I was slightly scared to cancel it. And so I turned up and I hate it. I absolutely hated it.
You know, when you first do exercise, having not done exercise, it's not an easy thing. But I sort of stuck with it for a little bit. And then I went for my first outside run after about a couple of weeks. And suddenly it was as if a kind of a fog had been lifted.
So. Oh, okay, this is what, this is what exercise can be. It just seemed to tick so many boxes. Yes, it was hard and yes, actually I started running and I didn't get to the end of my street because I came out of my front door and I thought, all my neighbors are going to see me here.
They're not gonna see me go slowly because I'm too proud. So I steamed off down the street, got to the end of the street, realized I actually had run out of puff. So landed I sort of hung over a wall of a neighbor of ours, came up, at which point that neighbour with a few other friends came out of her house, said, what are you doing? I went, oh, I'm going for a run.
She said, you just got this far, like 200 yards down the street. And I went, no, no, I'm actually finishing my run and I'm down. Yes, I'm a warm bow. So I was finished here by your wall and I walk home.
So having announced to my wife that I was going for my first run, kind of two minutes previously, I'd got to the wall and then Sophie said, well, we're walking that way as well. We'll walk home with you. So I had no choice, but I had to then walk back, back through the front door. So a kind of merciless taunts from Caroline, my wife said, what?
Your first run lasted how long? A minute and a half. And yeah, I thought it would happen, but I sort of. I stuck with it.
I realized that, you know, it was getting myself not just outside, which is great. One of the key things I think about running is just doing it outside, but also outside of my own comfort zone. And whether that meant running for. Sorry, it's a very long answer.
But whether that meant running for a minute and then walking for 30 seconds and then expanding that to two minutes before you walk, and then three minutes and four minutes and then suddenly realizing, I don't need any walking breaks anymore. I can just slow down the run a little bit and then just go. And then, you know, you went. It just sort of.
It just snowballed, but snowballed in a good way. And I sort of realized that this had been the thing, funnily enough, because I'd never run before, that it'd been missing from my life. And that's incredible fast. And there's so many things that I think people will resonate with on that, you know, on your story.
You run ultra events now, which is remarkable because you're saying you're early 30s, you can actually run for more than a minute and a half, two minutes, if that. I don't really like the term ultra running because it sounds exclusive. It sounds like only ultra fit, ultra honed athletes need apply. And, you know, I make my living as a sports reporter and I've been and witnessed and been around an awful lot of sports.
And actually exactly the opposite of exclusivity is true of. I prefer the term endurance running because you go to the start line of an event like a 50 mile race, which sounds kind of so ridiculous to run that from a distance, but it's the most welcoming and all inclusive and all sorts of sizes and shapes around the start line and everyone will be pleased to see you. And it's not really about, you know, the time, it's about the mindfulness aspect. Do you learn things about yourself on those long events that you can't learn or it's hard to learn in the minutiae of daily life.
Absolutely, absolutely. I think you've almost hit the nail on the head. I wish we had this chat before I wrote my second book. Because you've encapsulated it beautifully.
You do, you strip away the layers and you work stuff through and it's just that the you that emerges from the discomfort because that's not my stuff here, it's not all a great big smile, it does hurt. And the you that emerges from the discomfort of an endurance run like that is a better version of the you that went in. Somehow it's like stripping down an engine and putting it back together slightly better. Our lives are so comfortable but sometimes getting out of that and stripping it back and getting uncomfortable is the best thing for us.
What would you say to those people to say I'm never going to do in ultra events? I'm pleased you ask because I get caught up in myself because I love these long distance races so much and it's because for me the journey was, you know, every step was a small step. I didn't just choose to become an ultra runner and people who hear me sometimes on the radio to breakfast show think, well, you know, but you're the guy that runs 100 miles and yes I am now. I'm doing it again next week but you know, but I really wasn't always and I'm absolutely evangelical that you A it doesn't matter how far and B, it doesn't matter how fast but it does matter that you just give running a try.
However unfit you are, however bad at it you think you might be, however overweight you might be, however worried you are that other people will look at you and judge you when you go running. None of that actually matters when you're out running. What are those non running benefits that running has given to you? How does that affect your day to day life?
I realise that it ticks a lot of boxes in. It doesn't tick every box for everybody. I think you might tick every box for me to be honest. But so some people see it as like a form of therapy and you can absolutely see why it is.
And it's not that you're actively working through your problems like you would on a therapist's couch, it's that your brain seems to do a sort of a control alt delete and a kind of refresh and you just, you know, you're just, you're better after a run. And in this technological era that we're living where everything is so Comfortable. Ultimately, running is still the same. You put on a pair of shoes and, you know, and you're out.
There's very low barriers to actually running and I'm wondering, does. Is there something about the beast war simplicity in running? Absolutely. Just on a practical level, you have to put a shoe, pair of shoes on and back in the day, not even that, and go for a.
Just start, just start with anything. You know, it could be a walk. You don't need running shoes, you don't need equipment. Just start and see where it takes you.
One of my favourite stories, actually, is a guy who. I was running home from work, from here, and I was on for a pd, I think, and I was pegging it down or up Hammersmith Bridge and it's got these two buttresses, Hammersmith Bridge. And I come around the corner and there's another guy pegging it the other way and we clash heads really badly and we both sort of get knocked a little bit silly and we're both on the floor and this guy has. He's got tattoos all up his neck, on his face, he's got biceps the size of most oak trees, definitely bigger than my thighs.
And he starts going for me and I was petrified. Hang on, hang on, that's nobody's fall. And he sort of stops. I mean, you're right, sorry.
And we sat down, we looked at the river and we're both feeling a little. And we were. And we started chatting and I said, look, I probably should have been looking when I was going for pp. And he said, oh, do you know what?
I was doing the same. I was doing a PB round from Putney Bridge down to here. And then I said, how he didn't look like a runner. He's now proper running shoes, really.
He left running shorts. And his story was, you know, he was. I was at school, I was one of the problem kids. I was one fight too many.
I was excluded from school and there's only one place I was heading and that's prison, you know, he was brought up on that stage to north of Hamlets Mid Bridge. He said, you know, there was shouting, I'd hear gunshots occasionally. Said, you know, he was just. He was just going on a downward spiral.
And his uncle said to him, just try and go for a run. And he doesn't know why he did that first time. And it wasn't. He wasn't fit, but he did.
He went for a run in jeans, he said. And he said. And then that was the first time I got back from the run. He said I was just proud of myself for the first time, for a little bit, a little bit proud.
And then. And I thought I want a bit more of that, a bit more of that. And now I run and now I'm trying to get a job. I'm sorry myself out, I'm down at the job centre.
I'm not on that downward spiral. It sort of, it stopped a vicious circle becoming worse and started a virtuous circle which he was on the foothills of which I love how, you know, it's incredible, you know, you know, it's building up his self esteem even. I think it goes back to what you said which is, you know, start small because you know, just, just push yourself a little bit outside your comfort zone and when you do that, you know, you feel that self worth that oh, I've done that, I've managed to do that and it feels good. It doesn't matter where you are on the journey, it doesn't matter where the journey's going to but just get on it because you really, I promise you, I honestly, you can see my kind of my body language.
I honestly promise anyone who's listening, try it just. You will not regret it. Yeah, park run is a great place to start. You know I mentioned that there are on the start line of an endurance race that you can have all shapes and sizes and everyone's pleased to see you times that by 100 at every single park around the UK on 9 o' clock on a Saturday morning you won't feel out of place.
But yes, it's the small steps, it's just getting a little bit outside your comfort zone and you honestly. So if you're, if you're listening to this and thinking running's just not for me, maybe yeah, you're the guy on radio show who keeps on talking about these stupid distances you run. Yes, obviously running for you but it's not for me. Please, I would say just give it a go.
Don't feel like you have to actually run much when you first start walk. I maybe take 10 running paces during your walk and next I make it 12. But every time you go out and you come out through your front door, you will not regret having been out and you will think slightly better about yourself and you'll, you know, you'll sort of give yourself a metaphorical pat on the back of having even done it and then just see where the journey takes you. Hope you enjoyed that bite sized clip.
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