Solemate Runners - The Podcast

Episode 4 - Big Bear Events

• Paul Betteridge • Episode 4

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Welcome to Episode 4 of Solemate Runners, The Podcast! Join hosts Paul and Aimee as they share their adventures doing Big Bear Events’ Elephant Challenge. They dive deep into their experiences, including Paul's ill-fated attempt with new carbon fibre trainers, Aimee's determination to beat her previous records, and the fun of volunteering at race events. Listen as they recount running through beautiful Salcey Forest, battling inner demons, and facing unexpected challenges. Whether you're an aspiring ultra runner or just love a good tale of endurance, this episode has it all!

00:00 Welcome to Solemate Runners

01:28 Big Bear Events Overview

01:58 The Elephant Challenge Explained

05:01 Canicross and Other Unique Features

06:55 Training and Nutrition Tips

11:42 Medals and Rewards

15:43 First Big Bear Event Experience

20:11 Unexpected Challenges and Lessons

30:59 Discussing the Pros and Cons of Altra Trainers

31:41 Trying Out Altra Shoes at Events

32:24 Petzl Head Torches: A Game Changer?

33:38 Marshaling at the Petzl Night Trail

34:25 Balancing Training and Events

35:39 The Elephant Challenge: Goals and Strategies

36:29 Overcoming Mental and Physical Challenges

43:54 Aimee's Marathon PB Attempt

48:38 Unexpected Obstacles on the Last Lap

56:52 Volunteering at Big Bear Events

58:45 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

Thanks for listening!
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Paul:

Hello and welcome to Solemate Runners, The Podcast. I'm Paul Betteridge.

Aimee:

And I'm Aimee Tippins. We are a middle aged couple who like to run ultras together,

Paul:

so we decided to start a podcast about our experiences in the ultra running world,

Aimee:

especially as we're embarking on an adventure taking on our biggest race yet at the end of this year.

Paul:

And that race is the Winter Downs 200, a 200 mile ultra marathon in December.

Aimee:

So whatever you are doing, we hope you enjoy us waffling on for an hour or so.

Paul:

Waffling on? I don't waffle on. I'm a professional. Enjoy. Thank you for joining us here once again in our running room. For those who are watching on YouTube, it's our room full of running stuff and those who are listening, it's still a room full of running stuff, trainers, clothes, all that stuff. Right? We are March 2025 and we are on episode

Aimee:

4

Paul:

We are still under 10 at the moment, so yeah, we are, we are a bit mixed up with them, so there you go. But Right. We've gotta do this one because we did this event not so long ago and if we don't do it, Aimee'll forget.

Aimee:

I'll forget?

Paul:

Yes.

Aimee:

Okay.

Paul:

Right. The event we're talking about, obviously again, if you are watching, you can see by the t-shirts we are donning, it is the Big Bear Events that we've done a couple of, and we've recently done one, and I'm gonna pass over to Aimee so she can explain what they are because I would just go, it's a race, but

Aimee:

It's not really a race.

Paul:

Anything with a start and finish.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

To me, to me is a race, but it's not a race. Right, Aimee, what, what is a Big Bear Event?

Aimee:

So, Big Bear Events are events that take place at a number of different locations. The Elephant Challenge that we've done twice now takes place in Salcey Forest near Northampton. It's a six hour event. So it starts at nine o'clock in the morning and in theory you've got till three o'clock in the afternoon. I'm saying in theory it's a three and a half mile loop.

Paul:

Yep. They're all around the same though, aren't they all It's about three to five mile loops.

Aimee:

Yeah, I think so.

Paul:

Different events yeah.

Aimee:

I think so. So you've got six hours to run as many loops. So in this case, three and a half mile loops as you want to in the six hours. But you can technically go over the six hours because the rule is if you've started your last lap before the six hours runs out, you are allowed to complete that lap.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So if you went out at say five to three, started at nine, you've gotta finish by three o'clock. If you started your last lap at five to three, you can finish that lap. So you can run for a bit more than six hours if you want to. Don't have to.

Paul:

No.

Aimee:

But that's the point with these challenges, and it's one of the reasons why we like'em so much, isn't it? They're completely accessible and kind of available to all. It doesn't matter what distance you want to run.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

You can do as few or as many laps as you want. So you could just rock up and do a couple of laps. You could just do a 10k, half marathon, people use it as a gateway to potentially doing, say, a marathon. Or you can use it as a gateway to do your first ultra distance.

Paul:

There's no pressure if you see what I mean. It's not like a race.

Aimee:

You run what distance you want to do for you.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

And I think that's great and they're so welcoming.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And inclusive. They're brilliant. And what Paul, not this Paul, the race director is also called Paul. Paul Albon.

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

What he does is specifically for marathon distance. Obviously the, the mileage of a marathon, 26.2 miles doesn't fit neatly into the three and a half

Paul:

no

Aimee:

mile loops. So what he'll do is he marks on the trail the turn point. So if you are looking to do a marathon, you know, after you've done however many laps it is,

Paul:

I think he tells you, if you're...

Aimee:

He tells you in the race briefing what you need to do if you want to get a marathon. But when you've done however many complete laps you need to do, you then have to do a part lap to get to the marathon distance. And he marks on the loop, the turning point. So, you know, on your final out, you can get to that marker, turn and just come back to the finish.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And you've done your marathon distance. So, I just think it's really good and he clearly says in the race briefing how many laps you need to do to get to certain milestone distances. And obviously within six hours you can do an ultra distance.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

I think you can go over 50K. I think he mentions potentially 50 miles, but I think you'd have to be going pretty fast.

Paul:

Oh.

Aimee:

If it's doable. I guess if you are an elite runner

Paul:

That's going some, that is,

Aimee:

you could get 50 miles. 50K is more

Paul:

50 miles is going some!

Aimee:

much more realistic.

Paul:

That's Zach Bitter territory. That's going 100 miles in 12 hours.

Aimee:

That's what I'm saying, you'd have to be elite, but

Paul:

which I'm close to, but

Aimee:

Not! So very accessible events.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Another thing that's quite cool about Big Bear Events, I'm not sure if this is every single event that he runs, but I know quite a few of them, they're also welcoming to canicross runners as well.

Paul:

Oh, Razzles!

Aimee:

You can enter as Canicross

Paul:

Razzles.

Aimee:

Yeah. Paul calls all dogs Razzle for reasons only known to Paul.

Paul:

No, no. And people of our age group will, if they watched telly when they were a kid,'cause it must have been when, so when was I nipper? Like it's gotta be eighties. There was a program on TV called Johnny Briggs. Now, obviously you probably didn't watch that kind of stuff. I did! Johnny Briggs and it was about a little lad who'd got a dog called Razzle. And I remember the theme tune.

Aimee:

Okay, no, please don't sing

Paul:

No, it's not a singing one. It's not a singing one. It was a trumpet and I think it went...[Paul makes trumpet noises]...and that was Johnny Briggs and people are watching this... well, you Google it and that, you'd think I was the one who did that back in the day.

Aimee:

Okay. I wasn't expecting that.

Paul:

So all dogs are called Razzles and they do the Razzle cross, which I think is cheating.

Aimee:

Canicross. How is it cheating?

Paul:

Look. It's a bit controversial, but it's like bikes. Electric bikes. Electric bikes is cheating. Having a Razzle in front of you that is legging it faster than you, it's pulling you along. It's like battery power bikes.

Aimee:

Okay. That's definitely controversial.

Paul:

Yeah. So, but that's why I don't have a dog,'cause I'd be quicker than you if I had a dog. Yeah. Actually I might be missing summat here! But anyway, you got side tracked then

Aimee:

I got side tracked?

Paul:

So they do, yeah. So six hour events, they do Razzle Cross.

Aimee:

Yeah, some of them you can run as canicross, which is pretty cool. Another thing that we really like about Big Bear Events. I know we've only done the one, the Elephant Challenge for two years, but for us it's great and the reason we signed up this year, it's a great training run.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

You can use it to practice nutrition. So we've said in our intro episode. We did say how important it is

Paul:

Nutrition?

Aimee:

How important it is to practice your nutrition. You need to do training runs using the nutrition that you're planning to use on your race if you're training for an ultra, and these are great.

Paul:

Pork scratchings?

Aimee:

Don't go there. These

Paul:

They are

Aimee:

These are great events because you could take your own nutrition. So if you've got your own fueling plan, take along what you think you're gonna need to run the distance you're planning to run at the event and just use it. And every time you come,'cause it's a loops, you can come back, they provide a table where you can put your stuff on it, your own drink or food or snacks or whatever you've brought. You can put that there at the start and finish.

Paul:

Toilets. Toilets as well there, which is good.

Aimee:

There's toilets by the start and finish. Yep.

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

So you can use it to practice your nutrition and make sure that that nutrition works for you.

Paul:

You just eat whatever's there.

Aimee:

Which is crucial. Or they do put on a really good aid station.

Paul:

Yeah, because

Aimee:

at the start and finish

Paul:

they had electrolytes.

Aimee:

Yep.

Paul:

Coke.

Aimee:

Yep.

Paul:

Water.

Aimee:

Yep.

Paul:

They had quite a lot of, I didn't obviously use that'cause I'm a professional

Aimee:

And there were plenty of, snacks, all sorts of different things. There was little pizza slices, there was different sandwiches. They've got things like jaffa cakes, there was there various sweets, I'm trying to think what else I had.

Paul:

One of everything!

Aimee:

Uh, cheese and crackers.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Yeah, plenty of food put on by the race organizers. So yeah, you don't have to take your own food and drink, but you can, if you want to practice your nutrition, you could also use it to practice with kit. So if you've got, I don't know if you've bought new poles or, dare I say it, new trainers. I wouldn't recommend wearing a brand new pair of trainers to try and run an ultra, but... we'll come onto to that.

Paul:

I don't know what you mean!

Aimee:

But you could use the event to practice for that sort of thing. So

Paul:

Yeah, they're good.

Aimee:

And because there's no pressure, it doesn't matter if you go along and maybe you've tried out a new nutrition or a new gel or something and you don't get on with it.

Paul:

Mm-hmm.

Aimee:

Maybe it gives you a bit of an upset stomach. Doesn't matter. Pull out.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

You know, you don't have to carry on running.

Paul:

Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

Aimee:

You still get a medal!

Paul:

But it is from our point, obviously this is about ultra running. So from our point of view, doing a good six hour run.

Aimee:

Yep.

Paul:

It's, you know what I mean? It's worth, its weight in in gold.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

W hen we say there's no pressure,'cause I know, joking aside at the beginning, I said it was like a race. You know, I take it as a race,

Aimee:

It's not.

Paul:

Well, I'm racing you normally, most of the time.

Aimee:

Oh yeah. We race each other.

Paul:

We, and to be fair. Yeah, you beat me.. Anyway, we'll come on to who won these, who won it outta me and you. I forgot what I was gonna say then'cause I was just thinking about my trainers. They are, they're, they're brilliant. Like I said, there's no pressure'cause isn't a race environment. And if you are going from,'cause there was that girl there who she'd done a half, hadn't she?

Aimee:

Oh yeah.

Paul:

And she wanted to do her first.... marathon.

Aimee:

I was talking to a lady. It was quite funny actually,'cause we, we spoke kind of after she completed the marathon distance. I saw her we said there was a turning point you needed to go back to do a marathon. I saw her after that and we'd both

Paul:

Yeah'cause she was doing well, wasn't she?

Aimee:

We were both really happy. We'd seen each other on various laps and I think each time we'd seen each other, we kind of spurred each other on

Paul:

You were racing each other!

Aimee:

Because we were running at similar pace. And I think with any kind of loop event, you kind of do this with people. You overtake them, they overtake you, and then you overtake. And I think we,

Paul:

You were competing.

Aimee:

We spurred each other on a little bit. We both admitted that when we spoke after

Paul:

Spurred each, you were...

Aimee:

Neither of us knew what the other one's target was or anything, but we were aware of each other on the course and we'd smiled a few times but hadn't actually spoken until afterwards. But I saw her after she'd completed her marathon and I was ecstatic because I'd actually got a marathon PB for me. At that point. And we had this little conversation and yeah, it was her first ever marathon. She'd only ever run a half marathon distance. She'd never attempted a marathon before. And she'd booked this event to run a marathon.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And she absolutely smashed it. She did amazing.

Paul:

Oh, definitely, definitely. But there's no pressure is there? You, you're doing it yourself

Aimee:

These are perfect events for that.

Paul:

Yeah.'Cause some people would get nervous going into, well, like we did when we started doing our first races. When you are at the start line, you are there and you're nervous and you do

Aimee:

Yeah. Yeah,

Paul:

you do. And you cannot help it. But you kind of look around at these start lines and you're sort of going, oh, no, because you compare yourself to loads of other people.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

And you're like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. Oh, he's better than me. Look what he's, and it just, because that can knock you a little bit until you get going. But on these because you are not racing each other. You're just doing, you're just against yourself.

Aimee:

Everybody's doing their own thing.

Paul:

It's so calm.

Aimee:

So I mean,

Paul:

It's brilliant. Brilliant.

Aimee:

I mean there were some people that went out really fast at the start, and normally on an ultra I'd be like, oh, they're gonna blow up. But on this, you just think, well, no. They might be out to get their fastest ever half marathon. And they might be trying to beat their marathon pb and then they'll, they'll run the 26 miles and then they'll stop.

Paul:

I think I was first for about eight seconds, I think I was until that first corner.

Aimee:

Yeah, they're really good events. Really, really good.

Paul:

Yeah. Oh, and they do the night ones as well, don't they? Sorry, I butted in, but what was you gonna say?

Aimee:

Yeah, well we were gonna come onto that. I was gonna talk about the medals.

Paul:

Oh yes.

Aimee:

Another thing that I, I mean a lot of people think that medals aren't that important and

Paul:

Unless you're Aimee!

Aimee:

And I know with a lot of races now you can opt to not have a medal, but I like a medal.

Paul:

You do love a medal, don't ya?

Aimee:

And I really like the Big Bear Events medals.

Paul:

We've gotta try and describe this, so for people listening

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

But obviously people on YouTube, you can see it. It's actually quite good. Look at'em, they're nice. It's a shiny medal and it is, what do you call, what did we?

Aimee:

Enamel?

Paul:

It's enamel, so it's got an enamel picture on it.

Aimee:

Really colorful as well.

Paul:

But one thing you love about

Aimee:

Yeah. What I love about the Big Bear medals

Paul:

Which I find very strange.

Aimee:

I'll try and show it to the camera, but on the ribbon it gives the date. So it actually says on this one Salcey Forest, 7th of March 2024. And that one says 7th of March 2025.

Paul:

2025.

Aimee:

So, and it's a different medal.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Even though it's the same event. I don't really like it if you run the same event year on year and you get identical medals with not even a date on it. I don't like that.

Paul:

We've had a few like that'ent we?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

It's almost like they're trying to get rid of, they brought

Aimee:

They obviously buy a

Paul:

job lot

Aimee:

job lot of them. And I understand that's more cost effective, but

Paul:

Yeah

Aimee:

I dunno. I like it to be unique to the event and for memory purposes, in the future when I'm looking back at what races we've done, I wanna know,'cause I'm gonna forget what years we ran races, but I'll always know that this was the 2024 Elephant Challenge.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

'Cause it says it on the ribbon!

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And we'll know that the other one is the 25 one.

Paul:

You do sing praises for their medals.

Aimee:

I love Big Bear medals.

Paul:

And you can get one of them for just doing one lap, can't you?

Aimee:

Yeah. Yeah.

Paul:

One lap or 10 laps.

Aimee:

Yep. Doesn't matter what you run, you still get the medal

Paul:

and which we may have had these last year, but I don't think I picked'em up.

Aimee:

Yeah. We don't remember whether we got a badge last year.

Paul:

You get little badge and little things like, I think these are quirky and I think they're quite cool. So you get a little badge with either ult... I've just, for people listening, it shot out my hand and

Aimee:

He just flicked it across the room!

Paul:

fell on the floor! But you get a little badge. I think there was like Half Marathon, Marathon, 10 K, 5K, Ultra. You get, you get little badges. It's, it's nice, you know what I mean?

Aimee:

Yeah. So we got a badge each that said Ultra Marathon.'cause we, we did both do the ultra distance...this year.

Paul:

Yes, yes. Oh that was an undercover dig. That was harsh!

Aimee:

Yeah. And also just while we're talking about Big Bear Events,'cause we'll come on to the specific Elephant Challenge in a minute. But the six hour events, they do do it quite a few different locations.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Don't they? But they also do some night runs as well, which are pretty cool.

Paul:

Yes.

Aimee:

So when we did the Salcey Forest one a few weeks back. We actually stayed on, didn't we?

Paul:

It's the Pretzel Challenge, isn't it?

Aimee:

It's not pretzel! Paul always calls it pretzel.

Paul:

Oh yeah, it's

Aimee:

It's not pretzel, it's Petzl

Paul:

Pretzel

Aimee:

As in the head torch brand.

Paul:

Head torch.

Aimee:

So it's called the Petzl Night Trail.

Paul:

That's the one.

Aimee:

And it's a 10K race. So it's in the same location. 10K race, around the same loop, but it's a night race.

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

So they were head torches

Paul:

and the Razzles are out

Aimee:

in the dark. And again, they also allow canicross runners as well.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

For that event. So we marshalled on that one, which was really good fun.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah. We've marshalled on two of them through night.

Aimee:

It's the second time we marshalled yeah,

Paul:

Yeah

Aimee:

for night trail races for Big Bear Events. Really good fun.

Paul:

I think I had the best aid station last year, with all my lights and everything. Christmas flashing lights. Yeah, I was there. Weren't sending anybody the wrong way either.

Aimee:

No, no, no. It was good fun. I like marshaling. It's good fun. Yeah, it's good to give back as well...

Paul:

They are

Aimee:

Help out at events like this.

Paul:

Right, right. So what we're gonna do, we are gonna put all the information for Big Bear Events wherever you put it on YouTube and wherever you put it on the podcast doofer. We are gonna put all the information there so you can have a look at it. But

Aimee:

And we should just clarify, we're not sponsored by Big Bear Events. We're not being paid, we're not being paid to do this.

Paul:

No, no. But obviously

Aimee:

He doesn't even know we're doing this!

Paul:

Obviously Paul, if you're watching, you know, I'm just saying! But no, we're gonna go through, like we said about races and that, but this one, because we've just done it

Aimee:

and because we've done it twice, we just thought it makes sense to do an episode just on the Big Bear Events

Paul:

because they were very, very different um, outcomes.

Aimee:

Yeah, we had two very different experiences, a year apart.

Paul:

Yeah. Right. Where are we gonna start? Obviously we've gotta start with the first race.

Aimee:

So let's go back to March 2024.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

How did we find Big Bear?

Paul:

We've missed something.

Aimee:

Go on.

Paul:

We've missed something. So when you finish, what else did you get?

Aimee:

Oh, yes, yes.

Paul:

Yeah. We forgot this little bit.

Aimee:

You're really bigging it up.

Paul:

It was a drink and so you got a fruit juice if you wanted that, or a non-alcoholic beer, but you also got

Aimee:

a flapjack

Paul:

Which we feel privileged'cause we did the last race. They did these flapjacks that were,

Aimee:

Oh, they're amazing flapjacks

Paul:

Pretty good, pretty good. But geezer's retired, ain't he?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Well, bless him. I think from what the race director was saying, he retired two years ago, but Big Bear kept pestering him for these, um, flapjacks. But they were good. I had to remember, it come to my head, so I had to put that in. Right, don't get sidetracked now. Right. Let's start with the first, the first event, because we didn't know anything about these, to be totally honest with you. And it come about because Aimee very stupidly signed up for it the day before.

Aimee:

No, that's not true.

Paul:

Oh, no. It was me. What happened?

Aimee:

It's always you that does these impulsive things.

Paul:

No, there, there was a reason. Well, we blame a friend of ours, David Smart, because he was signed up to do this, and I think what had happened, he put on,

Aimee:

He put something on Facebook saying that he was gonna be running it the next day.

Paul:

Yeah. And I was like, oh, oh, what's that then? What's that? So he put on, he was doing the six hour event. I think we might might've been training for something anyway, last year? We would've been training for something.

Aimee:

Yeah we were training for The Bridge.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah. So we were training and then this come up and I think I saw it on Facebook of the morning of the day before, but it had closed so you couldn't enter. But then David said, I'll speak to the race director and see what I can do. And one of the reasons I wanted to do this was really because, not through training. I weren't...

Aimee:

You didn't admit this at the time!

Paul:

I weren't that bothered really. But I've got these bad boys, so if you're listening, I've got some Altra. So obviously, you know, we are big fans of the Altra brand. They had brought out their carbon fiber, Lamborghini racing mega, you know, McLaren F1 trainers. I was on a, not a waiting list, you know when you pre-order them?

Aimee:

Yes.

Paul:

I pre-ordered them and they'd come in. So my brain went right, six hour event, I think, I don't even know where, I think I'd seen, I want to say it was the chap off, I may be wrong, but the guy off Tea Trails, what's his name? Oh man, his name's gone. But anyway, the guy of Tea Trails is an Altra fan and he got some of these, I'm sure, well, somebody said they got'em outta the box and did a race in them. And I knew from personal experience that we wear the Altra trainers. So what could go wrong?

Aimee:

Well, one, you've never owned a pair of carbon trainers.

Paul:

No, I have, I have, I've got the road ones.

Aimee:

Did you have those before?

Paul:

Yes. And those I've got on with, but I've only

Aimee:

Okay.

Paul:

The most I've ever done in them is 13 mile,'cause we did a half, we did the Worcester Half.

Aimee:

Okay.

Paul:

So I have got carbons. So anyway, that was, that was one of the reasons,'cause I thought, you know what? I can try these bad boys out. What a mistake that was. Anyway, we signed up for it, didn't we? I gave you loads of time to get ready,'cause obviously you take about as much time as I do. So I said on the day before, we are doing a six hour event tomorrow.

Aimee:

He's saying the day before, it was, the night before that this was actually confirmed.

Paul:

You had a good three hours.

Aimee:

So it was quite late on the night that he said, oh, by the way, we're racing tomorrow. I say racing, we're running. So I like to be prepared, don't I? I like to get everything ready the night before

Paul:

You like to get ready

Aimee:

and charge my watch and that sort of stuff. I dunno, I don't feel I had the usual time to prepare. It was all a bit chaotic and we had to leave early in the morning, didn't we?'Cause it's like an hour and a half drive for us.

Paul:

Wasn't that long

Aimee:

Rush hour traffic. And we needed to get there in good time. So...

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

We left pretty early.

Paul:

I think it was about half six.

Aimee:

So I got up, put my watch on charge and then we were faffing around. I was having my breakfast, trying to work out what to wear, looking at the weather and everything. And then we set off and we were halfway there. And I realized I'd left my watch on charge at home. I could have cried. I remember being devastated.

Paul:

Devastated. No watch.

Aimee:

The idea of running without my watch! That means the run didn't happen effectively.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

That was my view on it at the time. I was gutted. Absolutely gutted.

Paul:

You were not setting off on a good foot, really was ya? You wasn't very happy.

Aimee:

I wasn't very happy about that. So, yeah. So we got there and then, I didn't even know that he was planning to run in brand new trainers outta the box. He'd already put them in the car without me noticing. So when we got there, he produced this box and announced that he was gonna run in them

Paul:

Beauties.

Aimee:

I remember saying, you are crazy and this is not going to end well.

Paul:

But yeah, well could have gone both ways.

Aimee:

We also should point out,'cause we have put footage on Instagram and so it is available for anyone that wants to go look.

Paul:

Oh...

Aimee:

He also did it just as a Roman.

Paul:

As a Roman, yeah. Yeah. With a flag.

Aimee:

I didn't because I didn't have enough time to prepare my costume or anything. We have done Roman runs in the past. That's a whole other story.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

It's because of a connection we've got with the Beyond Recovery Project. We sometimes run as the Running Romans, whole other story. You decided to do that event as a Running Roman, didn't you?

Paul:

Yes.

Aimee:

So not only was he wearing brand new trainers outta the box, but he was also dressed as a Roman, wearing a big helmet

Paul:

and a flag

Aimee:

and carrying a flag on the back.

Paul:

And it was windy.

Aimee:

And it was very windy, yeah.

Paul:

That's what probably did it for me then. That It must have been the wind.

Aimee:

No, you can't blame the flag because you took it off after one lap.

Paul:

Oh yeah. I had to take it off. It was like a sail!

Aimee:

You were gonna take off, weren't you? So yeah. You took that off after one lap.

Paul:

To be honest, it all started all right. I think we went quite well. I think we...

Aimee:

Well, we ran with David, didn't we?

Paul:

Yeah, we set off. You lot set off way too quick.

Aimee:

We ran with our friend David for the first few laps.

Paul:

So we were here for six hours and you lot were trying to go like Mo Farrah pace.

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

You were going quick.

Aimee:

Well, I had no idea what pace I was running at'cause I didn't have a watch on.

Paul:

Oh you didn't mention you didn't take your watch. You didn't mention the whole time.

Aimee:

I had to run entirely on feel because I couldn't see what my pace was or anything. That... it was a weird feeling.

Paul:

It's probably a good feeling. We do...

Aimee:

They call it naked running, don't they?

Paul:

Do we, yeah, we do rely on these a bit too much and it is,

Aimee:

I very heavily rely on my watch, but

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

So yeah, we started running.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

It was okay weather wasn't it? It was a little bit, I remember it being quite chilly to start. Yeah, we had gloves on, but then you warm up, don't you?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

We warmed up. It was dry and it wasn't particularly muddy, was it? There was a couple little muddy patches, but it was good weather for running for March.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

It could have been a lot worse.

Paul:

Could have been a lot worse.

Aimee:

So yeah, then Paul started to moan his feet were hurting. I could tell... when Paul's struggling, he goes quiet and doesn't want to talk anymore.

Paul:

What lap was this? Oh, I think we did two laps,

Aimee:

maybe three.

Paul:

Oh, I think it was a third lap. And I was thinking, hmm. I didn't say anything, but I was thinking,

Aimee:

No, you just went quiet.

Paul:

I was thinking, why are my Achilles hurting? I'm getting some odd, not pain, it was like an ache. It was a feeling around my Achilles that I don't normally get. So I was thinking, don't say anything. I think I kept saying to you though, I think we're going too quick.

Aimee:

You did keep moaning that we were running too fast.

Paul:

Which I was thinking if they slow down, at least hopefully I'll get used to these.'Cause I had bigged up these trainers a lot. I had in my head, I was thinking I was going out there and I was getting 50K, 50K in four hours. That's how quick I was gonna be going. That's, you know, I got these new tires on my feet and I was... they were slicks. I was going...

Aimee:

Okay.

Paul:

Was it after lap 4 I started sulking? Was that when you left me?

Aimee:

I can't remember which lap I left you on, but

Paul:

It was early doors.

Aimee:

I can tell when things are bad with Paul, because that's when he goes, just leave me. Just, just go. Just go. And then I'm like, yeah, he doesn't wanna talk anymore. So, and that, that's another thing when you're running loop races, if you're running it together, it doesn't matter if you...

Paul:

No.

Aimee:

Do separate because you still see each other. Well, actually I don't think I did see you.

Paul:

No, you didn't, no,'cause you just left me stranded.

Aimee:

I didn't see you again...

Paul:

To fend for myself.

Aimee:

Until the finish. So yeah, I carried on running. I remember doing a couple of videos on my phone while I was running. I was like, oh, I'm on my eighth lap, I've no idea where Paul is and haven't seen him. Don't even know if he's still running.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And then I think on my penultimate lap, you were at the finish, weren't you?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Waiting for me. He'd completely changed. He was just in his normal clothes, different pair of trainers. I was like, well, oh, and he was wearing his medal.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Oh, you've stopped then.

Paul:

I had quite a big sense of humor, failure, to be honest.

Aimee:

Yeah. You weren't in a very good place, were you?

Paul:

No, I was very disappointed in my legs.

Aimee:

So Paul ended up running...

Paul:

Oh, got the stats.

Aimee:

We've got the stats here,

Paul:

We've got the stats.

Aimee:

So, you did 24.5 miles.

Paul:

I think they were even saying, because all I had to do, you know, you said earlier about going back to that thing,

Aimee:

You only needed to run to the turning point.

Paul:

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee:

And come back and you'd have got a marathon.

Paul:

Yeah. So I'd got to that point and it was, well, what was it? Two mile, wasn't it? It wasn't even two mile to go out.

Aimee:

Well, you did 24.5. You only, you only needed to do 1.7.

Paul:

One point..yeah. So you were literally going out,

Aimee:

In total, so you needed to run out...

Paul:

Weren't even a mile!

Aimee:

Three quarter of a mile and back again.

Paul:

Yeah. I couldn't, I couldn't. I was struggling to walk. That's how bad... it really did cop me.

Aimee:

So how many laps did you actually done?

Paul:

Not a clue.

Aimee:

You've done 24.5. I think that's seven laps. I think it was seven laps to get to a marathon.

Paul:

Was it seven?

Aimee:

Because you needed to do eight to have been classed as running an ultra?

Paul:

I'll tell you, it probably felt like a lot more than that. It was bad. It was bad. And to see you going off and just smiling and enjoying it and yeah. I think nutrition and what was we doing on nutrition on that? Did we, I think we just used theirs.

Aimee:

I think we were.

Paul:

On that day.

Aimee:

From memory we did have our own water bottles with Tailwind I think. We did have our own water.

Paul:

Was it those carry bottles? I don't using those carry ones. The ones we carry.

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

I don't think we had them then.

Aimee:

No. But I think we did have our water bottles at the table by the

Paul:

Yeah, we might have just had a drink, but,

Aimee:

But I don't think we took our own food.

Paul:

Yeah. So it did...

Aimee:

from memory.

Paul:

I don't think nutrition on that time for me,

Aimee:

No, it wasn't nutrition.

Paul:

Was an issue.

Aimee:

It wasn't nutrition that was the issue. It was your feet.

Paul:

It wasn't my feet. It was my legs. It was my legs. I think what I...

Aimee:

Caused by the new trainers.

Paul:

I dunno.

Aimee:

Oh, 100%. Just admit it.

Paul:

No, because I think'cause it was cold.

Aimee:

Oh my goodness. Here come the excuses.

Paul:

Hear me out. Because it was cold. I think I might have picked up a knee chill. So... this is very serious.

Aimee:

A what?

Paul:

A knee chill. So my knees, you must have heard this.

Aimee:

No!

Paul:

People trekking the North Pole and that get knee chills and what it is. Why are you laughing? I thought you meant to support me on all these?'Cause my knees got really cold,'cause obviously I was wearing shorts and it was cold'cause I had gloves on. I got knee chills, which then my knees went tight, which then affected my calves, which then went down to my Achilles and made them really tight.

Aimee:

Okay.

Paul:

That's what I think I had.

Aimee:

That is the

Paul:

Runner's knee chill.

Aimee:

Biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard.

Paul:

Google runners knee chill! It's all there!| Oh, that's what I think I had. I don't think it was the trainers. Why would it be carbon fiber trainers straight outta the box?

Aimee:

Obviously...

Paul:

When you're not used to them.

Aimee:

It was obviously the trainers straight out the box.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

So Paul did 24.5 miles in four hours 40 minutes. So you ran for four hours, 40 minutes and then you stopped.

Paul:

I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I ran that full four hours, 40 minutes. Oh no.

Aimee:

There was some walking was there?

Paul:

What's it called? Jeffing.

Aimee:

Jeffing, okay.

Paul:

Yeah. But I was doing a lot more F-ing than Jeffing, I tell ya, I was, yeah.

Aimee:

Okay. So I carried on, I just kept running, no idea what pace I was doing'cause I wasn't wearing a watch and I was quite enjoying it.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And I think I'd done nine laps because I remember again, videoing going, this is my ninth lap. I have no idea what pace I'm running or how long I've been running. As I approached the finish. You were waiting for me.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And you and the race director both said to me,

Paul:

Go again.

Aimee:

You might as well go again. I think i'd got about 20 minutes before.

Paul:

Yeah,

Aimee:

the six hours run out. So they both said to me,

Paul:

Yeah,'cause you genuinely hadn't got a clue where you were at really go.

Aimee:

No, I had no clue.

Paul:

No

Aimee:

Whatsoever. So I went out again and at that point there were very few people on the course. I remember running long sections of it, not seeing another runner. So yeah, I ran again.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And I stopped six hours, 12 minutes, 22 seconds. And so that meant I'd run 35 miles. So I definitely did an ultra.

Paul:

Oh, I didn't wanna run 35 miles.

Aimee:

Yes you did.

Paul:

No I didn't.

Aimee:

Yes you did. You did. So that was our first...

Paul:

Yeah. So there isn't a first and second place, but there's a leaderboard for amount of miles.

Aimee:

They do publish a leaderboard. Yes.

Paul:

Come on then. Come on.

Aimee:

What?

Paul:

Tell us where you got, where you come on the leaderboard. We know you want to.

Aimee:

I was second female and fourth overall.

Paul:

It's alright. You did well. Didn't get first though, did you?

Aimee:

Especially considering I didn't wanna do it. And got dragged into it at the last minute.

Paul:

Yeah. Sometimes if you've got too much time to think about stuff, you don't do it. So just, boom, let's go!

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Let's get it done.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

And you did well.

Aimee:

I ended up really enjoying it.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

So it was like I said, brilliant event. So we did that.

Aimee:

And then in the interim, so that was in the March 24. In October 24, we didn't run a Big Bear Event, but we did go along and marshall.

Paul:

Oh yeah, we did the evening pretzel thing.

Aimee:

Yeah. We connected up with... there's a Big Bear Facebook page for people that want to volunteer. And we got onto that page and we saw that they were calling out for help for an event at Cannock Chase Forest.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

It was the Petzl night runner. So we thought, oh, we'll go along and help at that.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So we went along and marshalled at that. That was really good fun. We were manning the water station, weren't we?

Paul:

Mm-hmm.

Aimee:

I shouldn't say manning. That's not politically correct, is it? We were crewing the water station.

Paul:

Manning it.

Aimee:

Yeah. Paul lit up like a Christmas tree made it good fun. And then we hadn't actually booked anything in,

Paul:

But, let's just, I just need to skim back. So joking aside, I know we're joking about carbon fiber and out the box and bits and bobs. Genuinely I do think some of these, I think I got roped along with all the hype with this carbon fiber stuff. But genuinely, if you're gonna get them,'cause these are a trail version, if you're gonna get them, don't go head first. I think now I'll try'em out. You do, I don't know, do a 5K or something. Ease yourself in. I think my legs are relatively strong. I think if I would've done that in the early days, that really would've given me some grief.

Aimee:

Mm-hmm.

Paul:

Like it does,'cause it really does, it chucks you into a completely different, is it gait? The running side of it, because even though that's a zero drop, we're all zero drop.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

It definitely, it puts your leg not in... For me, it felt like it wasn't a zero drop. It felt like I'd got a heel raise. Because they have a bit of a curve on them.

Aimee:

'Cause they're more rocked? They rock more don't,

Paul:

Yeah, because they're trying to fire you forward. It did, it really... when I've looked into it and had some advice off people, I think what it was doing, my big toe,'cause when you've got the neutral shoe, your foot tends to hit the floor.'Cause I'm a heel striker. I'll come onto my shoes at some point, but I do wear the back outta the shoe really quick. And it's been said carbon fibers are not ideal for heel strikers. I love them to bits. But

Aimee:

You can't run in them.

Paul:

I just have to walk in them a bit. You know what? I think I'm good for, I think

Aimee:

Short trail runs.

Paul:

I think I, even now, and I have been, I have been, I can't have used'em a lot'cause I've still got the heel on them. I do use'em a bit, but I think for me, the most I could probably get out of that is 10 mile. I think I could probably, I might a trail half marathon. I could probably do 13 mile, but, and people have said just keep trying them and trying them. But genuine, I don't think they're for me. Because they're expensive as well'ent they?. Don't get wrapped up in all the hype about them all,'cause some people, they just don't work. I love these trainers. Gutted, gutted, but they're not for me I'm afraid. They didn't make me go any quicker.

Aimee:

No, they made you go slower.

Paul:

They made me go really, really slow. But yeah. Joking aside. You know, uh, one good thing they had on here though, didn't they? If you are an Altra trainer wearer, they did have, it was one of the running shops and they had a representative from Altra there, so you could try shoes on, which was quite good.

Aimee:

Yeah. I'm not sure whether they do it at every event, but quite a few Big Bear events.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

They do have what they call a'Try On' event with Altra. So Altra will be there with, not every model they do, but they'll have some of their models with different sizes and they'll allow you to try them on,

Paul:

You know what?

Aimee:

and have like a little run in them. Not, I don't think you can run like a whole loop.

Paul:

No, they were, people got...

Aimee:

Were they allowed to?

Paul:

People were going out in them and doing... there was one woman and I think she had them on for longer than that. I bet if you did contact them, like if there was one coming up in a couple of months, I bet if you said, look, I'm looking at wanting to try, I don't know, the Lone Peaks 9. I bet you could probably let them know and they'd bring them. So that, that was quite good. And on the night one, the pretzel torch geezer was there. Pet... when I say pretzel, I mean the, torch they were there so you could try the head torches.

Aimee:

Yes.

Paul:

I didn't realize how many head torches that company had got.

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

You can't buy them. He wasn't there,'cause I was like, oh

Aimee:

no, they're not selling them. And it's the same with Altra. They're not selling them.

Paul:

No, no.

Aimee:

So there's no pressure. They don't have any available to buy. They just literally have ones for you to try on.

Paul:

But they did,

Aimee:

And with the head torches you could try, run a lap, wearing one of their head torches.

Paul:

20% off on the trainers, wasn't it for week?

Aimee:

But yeah, you got, 20% discount voucher for Altra, obviously to buy from that shop, which is Up and Running, I think it is.

Paul:

Which was quite good. And you did try on one of the head torches because you hate them, don't you?

Aimee:

Yeah, we are gonna look at the Petzyl torches.

Paul:

It did have a very different,'cause obviously, you know, normal head torch is a strap around your head.

Aimee:

I just find doing the really long ultras that we've done where you have to run through the night so you have to wear it for a long time.

Paul:

It could be 12, 13 hours can't it?

Aimee:

They give me a really bad tension headache across here. And also I get like a massive dent in my forehead.

Paul:

It stays over ages

Aimee:

And it, it, they hurt. I don't like them, but this Petzl brand, they, they did a really lightweight one, didn't they?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

I tried it on, not on, tried running with it, but I just tried it on for a few minutes and...

Paul:

It did seem quite good, so...

Aimee:

It seemed a lot lighter. So yeah,

Paul:

So that's another little perk of it.

Aimee:

Sidetracked again!

Paul:

Right, sidetracked! So...

Aimee:

So yeah, we marshaled in October at the Petzl Night Runner, and then we'd got all our other stuff booked in. We hadn't got any plans to necessarily do a Big Bear Event, but then again, we saw, I think it was in February, they were calling out for marshals.

Paul:

Oh, that was it, that was it!

Aimee:

They were calling out for marshals for Salcey Forest. Not for the Elephant Challenge, but for the Petzyl Night Trail that was taking place on the same day but that evening. They needed marshals for that. So again, we had a conversation. It's not that far. It's, it's only, it's like an hour and a half drive for us. We weren't doing anything that day or, or early the next morning or anything. So we thought, yeah, we'll do that. We'll go along. So we volunteered to go and help out for the night run on that day. And then we were just working out, that was on the Friday, wasn't it?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And that weekend we'd got stuff booked in. I was going to London with some girlfriends for overnight on the Saturday.

Paul:

Oh yeah.

Aimee:

And we'd got on our training plan that we were supposed to be doing a really long run on the Saturday and then a long run on the Sunday.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And I was stressing a bit about how I was gonna fit those in'cause with going to London it was gonna be tricky. So I said to you, didn't I? Just a thought, why don't we do the Elephant Challenge again in the day on the Friday and then just stay on and do the marshaling that we've already volunteered to do.

Paul:

Yeah. That was it.

Aimee:

And then we won't need to do our long runs at the weekend. We can just do shorter runs'cause we'll have done the time on our feet that our coach wants us to do, but just on the Friday instead of over the weekend. So that's what we decided to do. And it worked really well, didn't it?

Paul:

Because I've got unfinished business there. Hadn't I really?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Because I've got me...

Aimee:

Yep.

Paul:

Me cold knee issue and I saw the weather and it was gonna be warmer. So I thought, you know what?

Aimee:

Yeah. That, that bit's nonsense.

Paul:

But you know what, let's go back. I didn't have any new trainers at the time.

Aimee:

I know, well, one condition of doing it, I said, you are not wearing new trainers.

Paul:

Oh! You're lucky, I didn't buy them new Timp Boas.

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So yeah, we,

Paul:

Apparently you can wear them out the box? So we, we signed up for it, didn't we?,

Aimee:

So we signed up. Yeah. So we made a day of it effectively.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So we, we turned up again on the Friday morning, so it was the same as last year. It was a nine o'clock start.

Paul:

What was your goal?

Aimee:

I wanted to beat what I did last year.

Paul:

Because you, you got...

Aimee:

I did 10.

Paul:

You got the 50 K didn't you? Last year,

Aimee:

It was more, there's more than 50 K,

Paul:

But yeah, you class it, so you've got the 50.

Aimee:

I did 10 laps. Well, I was thinking in laps. So I did 10 laps last year, so I wanted to do 11.

Paul:

Right.

Aimee:

I just wanted to beat what I did last year. So I was like...

Paul:

I wanted... See, I wanted to get the 50 k, didn't I? And so I took my nutrition. Because I have obviously been having a few issues with nutrition. I think that comes down to the cold. When you got a cold, when you've got a cold belly, maybe my belly...

Aimee:

Oh, you're just trying to blame the weather for everything. That's nonsense!

Paul:

I'm not... You know what I'm have to do in the cold is run with a hot water bottle, because then it keep my belly warm. And then that'll help with food.

Aimee:

Yeah that's what you wanna do. Add more weight. That's a good idea.

Paul:

I'll be like a washing machine. So, well, my key element was try me food out and try and get the 50 K. How did yours go?

Aimee:

Well, really well, really well.

Paul:

Really, really well it went!

Aimee:

I really enjoyed it!

Paul:

Really, really, really well.

Aimee:

Yeah. I, I didn't faff about taking any specific nutrition. I just...

Paul:

no.

Aimee:

I decided to use whatever was on the aid station because I think that's good practice for your belly. And I don't tend to have as many issues as you, do I with my stomach?

Paul:

No, no.

Aimee:

I tend to be able to, most of the time, get away with what's traditionally at aid stations. I mean, I'm not saying I can just try random stuff, but

Paul:

Yeah,

Aimee:

I tend to be okay with the...

Paul:

To be fair, I'm bigger though. I'm...

Aimee:

Stuff you get on aid stations.

Paul:

I'm faster ain't I, so I burn more calories?

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

Huh?

Aimee:

You're not faster. You are bigger. You're not faster.

Paul:

Uh, I was like a whippet on those first three laps. You told me to slow down. You can laugh all you like, but was I go... and I didn't even have my carbon fibres.

Aimee:

No because I knew you were gonna burn out.

Paul:

No, you know what? At that time, I didn't feel that bad.

Aimee:

Well, we set off, didn't we?

Paul:

We set off together.

Aimee:

And we were both feeling really good. We were both feeling really good.

Paul:

Keyword here, together.

Aimee:

And we did run the first... how many laps? Three?

Paul:

Three.

Aimee:

Together, quite fast.

Paul:

Yeah. I think I was feeling good on that third lap and I, you were telling me to slow down. I was like, well, I'll just go off. But you wanted to keep together. So let's just put that out there. So on the third lap, you wanted to stay with me even though I was going quicker and I'm

Aimee:

No, because I knew you were gonna slow down.

Paul:

How did you know? No, no, but

Aimee:

I just knew you.

Paul:

But then you would've caught me up. So being the gentleman, I was like, no problem darling. I will stay with you. That's fine. We will run together. And then what happened?

Aimee:

You really slowed down.

Paul:

I can't, you know what, I'm trying to think. As I was talking, I was thinking what was the issue? Oh, hamstrings.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

I was having, to be fair, it's easing off now, but sometimes I get... and I'd got my trainers, Mont Blancs. So I was wearing trainers that

Aimee:

We both, we were both wearing our Altra Mont Blancs.

Paul:

Yeah. Which these, yeah, the non-carbon version of those.

Aimee:

They're my favorite trail shoes. I love them.

Paul:

Love them. Some people really give them grief'cause they say they don't fit, but we find'em...

Aimee:

Oh, I love them...

Paul:

Fantastic. Love them.

Aimee:

Absolutely love them.

Paul:

But I've been having, I dunno, it's eased off now, but sometimes I get like hamstring pain. So I was getting a little bit of that. And in the past, one of the other key elements for me, in my head, I was like, when you are on that course, don't stop and walk. Don't walk, do not bloody walk.'Cause my head, I get some pain in that and my head suddenly it starts telling me'what you need to do, Paul','cause my head is, you know, obviously the best coach in the world. It says,'what do you wanna do, Paul? You wanna stop and walk for a little bit, which will help your hamstrings and then you can get going again'. But what it's doing, it's been really bloody sneaky and it's trying to make me walk and then I'm like, oh, I like walking, walking don't hurt. So I was determined not to walk and in my head and I'd just listened to, I'd listen to a podcast, I think, Everyday Ultra, Joe Corcione, who happens to be our coach.

Aimee:

He's our coach.

Paul:

And it's, I I think one of the things in there is I, if you're having, if you're having pain. You know, when I say pain, it, it was just, it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. And I think my brain was going, it's hurting now. It's going to get worse. And then it sort of tells you it's gonna get worse. You're gonna get injured, you won't be able to run. It catalogues, it gives you a list of things. It's fake. It's actually making it up. But on this podcast, it was like, it might not get any worse. That just might be the uncomfortable. Look, Courtney Dauwalter says it, don't she? About the pain cave.

Aimee:

Pain cave.

Paul:

You know, you're not gonna run these long distances and not have a few issues. Your body's fatigued, it don't wanna do it. Your body doesn't wanna do it. So you do get niggles. But if you let it get into your head, especially for me, it really does beat me up. And I was like, right, okay, okay. Right. Get some more calories in. The calories this time were going, they were going all right. I did have to swap it around a little bit because... I'll come onto the calories, but it, the calories went well, but I was like, right. Just run, try and run a bit quicker. It's not, and it made no difference. And in fact, after, I think I had two slowish... I think I had two slow laps and then I think my head got into gear,'well he ain't bloody stopping. We tried every angle to get him to stop and he ain't stopping' and it just, it was there. Whether or not it was exactly the same, but I just weren't taking it the same. And I just carried on going. And I did really well, didn't I?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

I beat you. No...

Aimee:

No you didn't.

Paul:

Well, I could have, I could have. I didn't want to. But yeah, it did for me, it did go well. Not as well as Aimee.'cause Aimee was powering through and just even...

Aimee:

Well we ended up separating'cause you slowed...

Paul:

Oh yeah.

Aimee:

You slowed down. And I didn't want to slow down.

Paul:

Uh,, so when I was going quick and you slowed down and I stayed with you.

Aimee:

No, I didn't slow down. I was saying, I was suggesting that we perhaps should both slow down.

Paul:

Oh it was suggesting now? That's a...

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Well, when I was...

Aimee:

Because I was worried you were gonna burn out.

Paul:

Well. When I was having a few hamstring issues, I suggested that we stick together. Oh no. Off she went. Off she went! You left me.

Aimee:

Well, it didn't go like that. You said'just go'!

Paul:

No, that...

Aimee:

In quite an aggressive tone.

Paul:

No, no, because you do the..

Aimee:

Yes, you did.

Paul:

You have this amazing ability to tell me you want to run off without telling me you want to run off. You've just got this amazing ability. You go slightly ahead and inching away and I'm thinking, alright. Inch away. Inch away. And you keep looking behind like'You all right?','You all right?'. I'm like, she's going to leave me. And then I just, in my head I'm, my head goes,'no go, sound, no problem. Go off. I'll meet you at the end'. My mouth for some reason...

Aimee:

Says it more aggressively than that.

Paul:

It comes out different don't it, out me mouth.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Yeah. I think there's that little, I dunno, the translation bit between my brain and me mouth, which has got me in trouble a few times. But I think I said, no problem, Aimee, if you just go off, enjoy yourself for the rest of the day. And then what I'll do, I'll meet up with you at the end'.

Aimee:

No, you went,'just go!'.

Paul:

Yeah. See it's that translation thing again. But then,

Aimee:

So I did!

Paul:

She shot off. She shot off. But then after like, I think I had two issues with my brain on two laps. And then I got me arse into gear and it went all right kind of thing. I got to the 50 K.

Aimee:

So you did the nine laps?

Paul:

I did the nine laps. I could have gone,'cause that was on five hours, 23 minutes.

Aimee:

So you could have gone again.

Paul:

I could have, uh, it was one of them.

Aimee:

You had time.

Paul:

I had time, but I thought to myself, you know what, I've done the 50 k

Aimee:

And that was your goal.

Paul:

Yeah. And I knew you were going quite well and I thought, you know, I'm not just saying this... I thought, look, I could go again, but I did want to...'cause I knew you were going well.'Cause I asked Paul and said, where are you at? So I knew you'd got past your 10 or anyway, you were doing well. So I thought I might as well get a bit of footage of you coming in. So, yeah. It did, it went well for me. The biggest thing I found on that one, for me, how would you, what would I say? The biggest, oh, what's it when

Aimee:

Win?

Paul:

Yeah. I suppose the biggest win for me was me winning over my head.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Because I did not, I didn't walk on any of them. Just, just,

Aimee:

Yeah, I...

Paul:

I'm just stating that. No, that was my biggest thing was I didn't want to walk on any. And I did it, which that was the biggest win for me. It weren't doing the 50 K or doing it at the time, that wasn't, you know, I don't wanna sound like it's bigheaded or anything, but it's 30 miles, it is a training run for us. But it was, it was beating my brain'cause that negativity once you let it in,

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

It's, once you let that negativity, I call that negativity in the back of my mind. Aimee.

Aimee:

Oh!

Paul:

Joke, joke. But you were smashing it so you...

Aimee:

Yeah, I was going really well.

Paul:

Did you have any dodgy laps?

Aimee:

No.

Paul:

No?

Aimee:

No. It was going really, really well and I had my watch on this occasion, so, I could see... I think you had to do seven and a bit laps to get to a marathon. And I could see, I think around lap five, you do that mental arithmetic in your head, don't you? When you've got a goal in mind and a time or whatever, and I'm always like working things outta my head and I suddenly realized that I could potentially get a marathon pb.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Because we've never done an official road marathon, but we've done marathon distance in training and obviously every time you do an ultra, you do a marathon'cause you go over it, don't you?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So our watches tell us what our fastest marathon is.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And I think mine was five hours something. I mean, we are not fast runners.

Paul:

No.

Aimee:

But I was looking at my watch thinking I could actually potentially get under four hours here for a marathon, which would blow my mind to be honest. For me that's fast. And I know, that's not fast at all that, I mean, elite runners do it ridiculously fast.

Paul:

It's good.

Aimee:

I was like, wow, because that's kind of always been a goal of mine. It's like a little bucket list thing. I would like to do a marathon in under four hours. Like an official marathon. I wanna do it in under four hours, at some point train and do it properly. Maybe even do quicker than that. I dunno. But I'd got under four hours in my head and I thought that was like a long way off and I'd never be able to do it without training specifically for that. But I was thinking I could potentially get this. So that really pushed me on. So I was really, really push, push, push, push. And then I, I'd done the seven, so I only needed to do a part, but I wasn't gonna turn and come back because obviously I was gonna carry on and do an ultra. So I was just gonna keep going until my watch told me I'd done 26, 26.2. And I did, according to my watch, I did take a picture of it as well. I did pause, this is what I shouldn't have done. I paused my watch to get my phone out and video. I did stop after I'd gone past what I thought was the 26.2 miles. I paused my watch and stopped and got my phone out'cause I wanted a video that it... What it showed on my watch, my watch was counting down the time. Because our,

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Because Joe, our coach had put it into our training plan as a six hour training run.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And so that's what I'd started on my watch on the start line. So it was counting down from the six hours and I still had something like two hours, one minute, and 56 seconds left, which to me meant I'd done the marathon in under four hours.

Paul:

Yeah,

Aimee:

Because I'd still got over two hours left and I was absolutely ecstatic. Oh my God, I've just done a marathon in under four hours! So I videoed just for a few seconds my watch, and then I unpaused it and carried on. But that kind of took the pressure off me a little bit at that point'cause I was, oh wow, I've got a Marathon PB. I'd still got loads of time left. I'd got two hours left.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

I was like, I'm just gonna carry on and do whatever I do. I still wanted to get 11 laps, but I've got plenty of time to do the 11 laps. It's like, yeah, this is going really well. So on that seventh lap, there was one hill, wasn't there? There's one, it's not particularly...

Paul:

Is that the long hill with the logs on?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aimee:

It's not particularly steep, but it goes on for a long time.

Paul:

You know you're on it.

Aimee:

And when, when you are on like your eighth, ninth lap, whatever, you can really feel it in your legs. So on my seventh flap, I'd already hit the marathon distance a bit further back, and then I hit the bottom of that hill and I was running up it, and I did walk a small section of that hill. It was only for a couple of minutes. But I did walk, because I'd pushed myself that hard to get that marathon PB...

Paul:

Still walking.

Aimee:

I was feeling a bit like on that hill, I'm exhausted. So I did walk just for a couple of minutes, but then I ran, I probably walked, I wanna say maybe 20% of it.

Paul:

All of it.

Aimee:

No, I didn't honestly hand on heart. I didn't. But then I carried on running and then after that I didn't walk again. So that was the only time I walked and the only time I stopped was when I stopped at the marathon to video my watch.

Paul:

I wouldn't know'cause you ran off and left me.

Aimee:

That's the genuine truth. So yeah. Carried on. And then you saw me when I was just, when I was approaching the finish on lap 10. You were waiting for me.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And you videoed me for a few seconds and said, come on. You were taking the mickey, saying come on, hurry up, I wanna have a coffee, hurry up and do another one. I wanna have a coffee. So yeah.

Paul:

Yeah'cause I was waiting for you to come, so I was like, there was a cafe. There's a cafe there on site as well. Cafe, toilets, so yeah. That's the brilliant thing.

Aimee:

Yeah. Yeah.

Paul:

I was, I was like, oh man, I so want a coffee. And I was thinking, right...'Cause I asked Paul when you'd gone out and he was like, oh,'cause he could see,'cause obviously, you got the little chip thing on your foot and I was thinking, well do I have... she's gonna be... guarantee I'm going to go into that coffee shop, walk out with my coffee and I'm gonna see your back end of you running back off out. So I thought, I can't, I'm thinking, hurry up Aimee! Come on, pull your finger out. So you did, I copped you coming in, didn't I? And that was number 10.

Aimee:

That was lap 10.

Paul:

And you'd still got loads, you had got quite a bit time.

Aimee:

No, I, no, I think it was about, it was about quarter to, I think I've got about 15 minutes left on the six hours. But I could go back out.

Paul:

I dunno.

Aimee:

Because my finish time... I stopped running...

Paul:

Ah, yeah.

Aimee:

At 6 21. So,

Paul:

But you, yeah.

Aimee:

I'd got time to go out again. So I went out and did my 11th, didn't I?

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

And then Paul came and met me. You, you,

Paul:

There was a little funny bit in that. What happened on your last lap by the logs?

Aimee:

Oh, I completely forgot. Yes.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Um, yes. I had forgotten about that. I was running one section just before you start that... we say it was a section of the lap where there was some logs at the bottom and it was that hill that I was just talking about. Before that there was a long, straight bit and then there was a bit of downhill and on that bit of downhill before you got to that hill. I could see in front of me, there was very few runners left on the course at this point, but in the distance I could see this person lying on the floor and he was moving very strangely. And I just think, what is going on? As I was like running closer. When I got to him, it was a runner literally lying on the floor in what looked like a very awkward position. So of course I stopped and I said,'are you okay? What, what's happening?' And basically he'd got really severe cramp, like really bad. He couldn't move and he couldn't get up. And I said,'oh my goodness, what can I do to help you?' Because, one thing with an event like this, I mean you can choose to carry nutrition if you want to.

Paul:

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee:

But we weren't carrying anything. We didn't have water with us or... oh no, we did carry...

Paul:

No I carried, I had me water bottle.

Aimee:

Sorry. No, we did, we both carried a hand held water bottle.

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

That was another thing we did as a training'cause it makes you keep drinking as you go round rather than have to gulp a load down between each lap. So we did have little carry bottles, but that's all I had. Like I didn't have any salt tablets or anything that you might wanna give someone that's cramping and like I didn't have, not that the first aid kit would've helped him.

Paul:

No.

Aimee:

But I didn't have anything on me like that. All I had was my mobile, my mobile phone. But I was like,'are you okay?' And he was lying on his front basically, like face in like almost in a ditch but across the track. But I said,'what can I do? What can I do?' And he said, my wife's gonna come and get me.' And I said,'well, does your wife know you are here?' And he said,'well, once I can get my phone out of my pocket.''Cause he couldn't get to his pocket'cause of the way he was lying to get his phone out. He said,'I'm gonna phone her'. I said, look, let me ring my partner because he's at the start and finish. Let me ring him'cause I've got my phone here. And then he can tell the race director who can then tell your wife.'

Paul:

I was with the race director.

Aimee:

So...

Paul:

Having me coffee!

Aimee:

That's what I did. I rang Paul.

Paul:

I was like, why is Aimee ringing me? I was thinking because the first thing I thought was like. Oh shit.'cause you do think something's gone wrong or you've gone that quick. And I was thinking, no way is she coming around the corner now. But you rang me, didn't you?

Aimee:

Yeah, I was like,'we've got a fallen runner. Can you tell Paul we've got a fallen runner'. In the meantime, the guy had actually managed to just about wrestle his phone out of his pocket. So he then started phoning his wife as well.

Paul:

But Paul knew.'Cause we gave the numb... So you gave me the bib number.

Aimee:

Yes.

Paul:

I said to Paul, it's his bib number and he said, oh, it's so, because obviously this geezer must do quite a few. So he said, oh, that's so and so, and I think I said,'oh, he, he's trying to get a hold of his wife' and Paul the race director said'oh yeah, that's her over there'. And I turned, I could see she was on the phone, so I was on the phone to you. He was on the phone to his wife. It was like a bloody four way conversation! And I can remember going. Well tell him. Yeah. He's on his phone to his wife. She ain't exactly, moving very bloody quick'! And she doesn't..., you know what I mean? He was on the floor in bits, ringing his wife up to come and rescue him and she was just tootling off down the path. I was like, what? Oh, but that slowed you down.

Aimee:

So yeah, I did stop for a few minutes.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

But then I said to him, look, unless there's anything you want me to do, I don't really know what I can do to help you now. And your wife's on the way. And he's like,'no, no, it's fine. Leave me. I'll be okay. I'll be okay.' So I carried on. Yeah, I'd completely forgotten about that!

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So yeah, then I carried on and finished my lap. You were waiting a little bit along the track. That was quite funny actually,'cause I could see in the distance Paul waiting for me and then he started sort of hobbling towards me,

Paul:

Because my legs had seized up a bit

Aimee:

And he decided to run into the finish with me. But that was quite funny'cause you were really hobbling.

Paul:

It was, yeah. Because your legs, even though, look, if we do these, after 30 miles. Once you stop, your legs do go a little bit stiff, so to try and get going again. And I was like, oh man. Yeah.

Aimee:

But you managed it. You ran in with me, didn't you? You ran in on my last lap. Yeah. So yeah, I did my 11 laps, which I was absolutely chuffed with.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Really, really pleased. So I did the 38 and a half miles in six hours, 21. Which on the leaderboard here, leaderboard.

Paul:

Leaderboard

Aimee:

That meant I was first overall. So I know it's not a race, but I was first overall and Paul was fifth overall.

Paul:

Thank you.

Aimee:

And fourth male.

Paul:

Thank you. For me...

Aimee:

You did very well as well.

Paul:

For me in the scheme of this results, that's quite good for me.

Aimee:

It's very good.

Paul:

But

Aimee:

The only thing that annoyed me a little bit was when I uploaded the run to my watch and looked at all my stats. It turned out I...

Paul:

You got fleeced.

Aimee:

According to my watch, I didn't do a marathon under four hours.

Paul:

You got fleeced didn't ya.

Aimee:

I did it in four hours, one minute and so many seconds. I can't remember.

Paul:

Was it even one minute? I thought it was only a few seconds.

Aimee:

No, no. It was, it was four hours, one minute and something seconds.

Paul:

Well...

Aimee:

So I did go over the four hours according to the official...

Paul:

Well, it...

Aimee:

Stats. although I've got video of my watch saying otherwise.

Paul:

It's irrelevant. It's not in your watch.

Aimee:

But, that was still a significant marathon PB.

Paul:

Mm-hmm.

Aimee:

Because my previous time was five hours and something.

Paul:

It's not four though, is it?

Aimee:

So I smashed my marathon PB.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Which...

Paul:

Fair play to ya. Fair play.

Aimee:

I'm still really happy about that.

Paul:

I don't even know what my marathon would've been on that then? I wouldn't,

Aimee:

Did it not tell you? Your watch should have told you. Well, I suppose it would only have signaled it if it was a PB.

Paul:

I wonder if I can go in there and see where I was at on the 20...

Aimee:

Yeah, you could probably work it out.

Paul:

Six mile? Oh god, just think if I beat you! That'd be horrible, wouldn't it?

Aimee:

You might have, we'll have to have a look. We'll have a look.

Paul:

Oh...

Aimee:

We'll do an update.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah. I, you know what? Not a chance. Not a chance.

Aimee:

So yeah, we finished.

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

That was great. We got our flapjack, which was the last ever flapjack. It was, well, not, not week, got the last flapjack, literally. But that's the last event at which he's going to hand out those..

Paul:

Good flapjack.

Aimee:

Absolutely delicious flapjacks. And we had a bottle of apple juice.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Got our medals and our badges and then we went off for a bit, didn't we? We changed out of our running gear and went off and found a McDonald's. Because we were trying to find somewhere to eat locally'cause we didn't have a lot of time because we needed to be back for half five, didn't we?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

To help out'cause we were volunteering on the Petzyl Night Run.

Paul:

The night run.

Aimee:

So yeah, that was interesting. Hadn't really thought that through had we? Obviously marshaling you are standing up, aren't you?

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

So I mean, I know we've done much longer ultras, but as Paul said, any ultra distance, you do feel sore on the day. Once you stop, your brain goes,'oh, that was a long run'.

Paul:

Your legs seize up a bit.

Aimee:

You're gonna seize up. So we were a bit stiff and sore, weren't we? So we had to walk out to Paul the race director had very kindly given us checkpoint... we were both at a corner on the course where we could see each other.'Cause it was a lap, this particular loop. That this,

Paul:

It's like a figure of eight.

Aimee:

These two junctions were quite close together, weren't they?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So we could see each other, but we were on a different part of the course effectively and we had to make sure that our runners, when they got to us, went in the right direction.'Cause there was like a junction. So we, I was basically saying'go left'. That's confusing as well, isn't it? When you are facing them. I was having to say turn left, but point with my right hand, cause they were coming towards me and then turning. That was well confusing.

Paul:

Ah, yeah. You were weren't you?

Aimee:

Yeah, yeah.

Paul:

Lucky I dunno the left from right. So I was going...

Aimee:

Yeah, you're awful with lefts and rights!

Paul:

'Yeah let's go left!' I was getting told off saying go left'cause of the razzles.

Aimee:

Yeah, I, I had to keep saying mentally you've gotta say left, even though I'm pointing with my right hand. But yeah. Just basically had to stand on this corner with torches and everything and cheer them...

Paul:

We had flashing lights.

Aimee:

Yeah. We had flash lights to signal where we were, cheer them on and then make sure they went the right direction.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

But that meant we were stood... well it was a little bit of a walk to that point. It was probably only half a mile, but it was a...

Paul:

That was nice'cause that had loosened us up.

Aimee:

Yeah. And then we had to stand for a couple of hours.

Paul:

Yeah. Weren't even, weren't even... hour and a half?

Aimee:

Which, which one you are a bit sore. I found myself, I was sort of jigging and dancing because I didn't wanna stand still'cause that was making me stiffen up even more. So I was just basically jigging around. Like, and I put some like cowbell noises on my mobile phone and I was like,

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

Jiggling around, like, cheering on these runners. It was good fun, but...

Paul:

It was.

Aimee:

But it was interesting for our legs. So we ended up doing a lot more steps, didn't we?

Paul:

Yep.

Aimee:

In the evening. But enjoyed it.

Paul:

And fair play to the people doing it.

Aimee:

It was good fun.

Paul:

There was some people motoring around there.

Aimee:

Oh yeah.

Paul:

Was it 10 K?

Aimee:

Oh, fast. It was 10 K yeah.

Paul:

Yeah. Super. Some of them people do those 10 Ks some super fast.

Aimee:

Super fast. Yeah.

Paul:

Ooh.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

Yeah. They're rapid. Rapid.

Aimee:

I like seeing the dogs as well.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

The dogs are funny.

Paul:

What tends to happen with the dogs, water, they see a puddle of water.

Aimee:

Yeah, my corner, there was a massive puddle.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And nearly every dog just dove straight into the puddle.

Paul:

Yeah. I had a little like swamp thing and they were in there and, yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

It's funny. Yeah. Then when obviously the tail runner had come through, and then the other marshals who'd already seen the tail runner, they walked to where we were and then we all walked into the finish together. And then we helped.

Paul:

Yeah. Helped pack up.

Aimee:

Helped pack everything away.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

It's amazing how much goes into putting these events on. There's a lot to pack away.

Paul:

I don't, yeah, I don't think people realize,'cause you just, you rock up at these things, don't you? And you kind of see a few tables. You've got where they put the food on. You've got some gazebos. I think, in your head, you kind of look at it. Oh, it'ent a lot. But...

Aimee:

It is.

Paul:

It is. There's a lot going on. When you've got, you think you've gotta pack it down at night and it, I hold my hat off to them. There is a lot of work that goes into them.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

There really is. And for the... you know, it's 30, 35 quid or whatever it was, or even not for that. You're getting a lot, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. I, you know, I hold my hat off to anybody who puts on a race. But it is, yeah. It's really worth doing. It is, I dunno, you feel like you are giving something back.'Cause when we are out running and we've done quite a lot of runs and when you're down on your luck on some of these runs and you've got a nice,

Aimee:

Oh, the marshalls.

Paul:

Aid station or...

Aimee:

Can make all the difference.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

I think if they're really like trying to gee you up, cheer you on and

Paul:

It really, I dunno, it does help. It does help.

Aimee:

Well we've done it a few times now, haven't we? Yeah, we've done a couple now for Big Bear. We've done another.

Paul:

Yeah. And I'm a bit lively so it probably, it probably does nark some people off'cause I'm well lively. But yeah, I think sometimes, you know, if you're happy messing around and that, but

Aimee:

I would encourage you, any, anyone watching this, if you've not volunteered on a race, do it because it's, it helps keep races going. I mean, a lot of these events wouldn't be able to run without volunteers, so

Paul:

Oh you wouldn't be able to staff it, not with the costs.

Aimee:

And it just feels good to give back, doesn't it?

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And it's good fun.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And we don't do it for this reason, but a lot of events, they'll give you something in return for volunteering.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

So it's different with different events, but you might get a free place on another race or discounts or stuff.

Paul:

Yeah.

Aimee:

So yeah, volunteering. It's good fun.

Paul:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee:

And I will encourage anyone to do it.

Paul:

Do it, but, right. So rounding it off. Definitely an event, so if you are thinking of dabbling into ultra distance, say you're on your marathon and you do want to go into summat 30, 35 mile or summat but you're a bit like... an A to B or something, dunno. Because what happens if someone happens? I've not done that extra 10 mile or whatever you are going for, these are brilliant.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

They are brilliant.

Aimee:

Just try it.

Paul:

Yeah, just try it, try it.'cause you you'll know, I dunno. Like we've said, numerous occasions. You can try stuff and there's no pressure. There's no pressure. If you're having a bad time, you're not gonna DNF on one of these.

Aimee:

No, you can't DNF

Paul:

You're not gonna DNF. So definitely...

Aimee:

Do one lap! If you're not feeling it, stop. You still get a medal. They're really, really good events.

Paul:

A hundred percent. Hundred percent. So they are the Big Bear Events, aren't they?

Aimee:

Yeah.

Paul:

So they're all on the social medias, good website, loads of races. He does a lot of races.

Aimee:

Oh, and also we didn't mention he does a podcast now.

Paul:

Yeah, he's doing a podcast, probably a lot more...

Aimee:

Big Bear Trail Times, I think it's called.

Paul:

Probably a lot more professional than this one.

Aimee:

Yeah. Give him a listen.

Paul:

Yeah, well, I think he's on number eight, so he's got a few in front of us,'ent he really, I don't even know what number we're on! But yeah, that's it. So we've had to get this one in because we've just done it. Other than that, we'd forget it. I don't even know which one we're gonna do next.

Aimee:

No!

Paul:

Who knows. Who knows. We're just gonna put another one on! Yeah. So I think when we originally said we're gonna go back, it's probably gonna go...

Aimee:

We're jumping all over the place!

Paul:

Jumping all over the place, but it's just a chat about what we've got up to. So this one then, Aimee beat me on this one. Right. Even though it was a race. So Aimee beat me on this one. So, we'll, uh. We'll have a look and see what happens on the next one. I dare say I can probably predict the future! Right! Let's round it up. We're gonna put all the information in wherever it goes, and yes, hopefully we will see you on the next one, which is about we don't know. We don't know! But it will be us having a chat. So thank you again if you've got this far. Thank you so much don't forget to follow us

Aimee:

Social media. Yeah, we're on Instagram and Facebook as Solemate Runners. Give us a like and a follow.

Paul:

What do they say on YouTube? Subscribe on YouTube. Subscribe. But yeah. Right. We're going!. Right. Bye!

Aimee:

Thanks for listening!