S2 Episode 1 - Anything's Possible with Richard Whitehead MBE

In this conversation, Richard Whitehead MBE shares his inspiring journey as a double amputee and Paralympic champion. He discusses the challenges he faced, the importance of mentorship, and how he empowers others through sport. Richard emphasizes the need for inclusivity and representation in society, particularly for people with disabilities. He also highlights the significance of family, community, and the role of technology in the lives of young people. As he prepares to complete his challenge of running 100 marathons, Richard reflects on the importance of mindset, goal setting, and the sacrifices required for success.

Richard Whitehead MBE was born with a double through-knee congenital amputation and developed a passion for sport at an early age. His parents encouraged him and taught him to live a life without limits…a philosophy which has defined his life.

He’s won gold and silver medals in the Paralympics GB team, including gold in the T42 200 metres at London 2012. 

This year Richard is undertaking a 20 marathon challenge around the world bringing him to an incredible total of 100 marathons.

In 2021, he launched The Richard Whitehead Foundation, a charity enabling disabled people's ambitions through sport and activity.

Richard is a diversity and inclusion champion and his strong belief is that anything is possible, and whatever age or ability you are, everyone has a gift and potential.

https://richardwhiteheadmbe.com/

Takeaways

Richard's journey to success is marked by resilience and determination.

Empowerment through sport can transcend disabilities and inspire others.

Barriers for people with disabilities often include cost and time.

Family support is crucial in nurturing young people's potential.

Technology can isolate youth; outdoor activities are essential.

Celebrating differences fosters a more inclusive society.

Mentorship plays a vital role in guiding the next generation.

Building a diverse and supportive team is key to success.

Success requires hard work and overcoming numerous challenges.

Running 100 marathons is a personal challenge aimed at leaving a legacy.

Listen now to be inspired by Richard's incredible story and learn how you can make a difference in your community. Don't forget to subscribe for more empowering stories!

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Transcript

Hear Me Roar (00:32)

Hello. I'm here with Shirley Temple on steroids today. There's always something wrong with my hair and that's what I look like. I've got flipping curly ear muffs. Polyana. Polyana? Yeah. Crystal tips and Alistair. Pop a couple of hair bands in there. You'd be dead cute. the boys would fancy you. They'd all be after you. At least the curly ear muffs are on my head. I know.

Let's talk about what an utter pain in the arse I've been recently. You could never be a pain in the arse, darling. You're a delight as you frequently remind us. I've been an absolute drama queen, haven't I? No, not really. Justified. Yeah, I know, I know. I'd entered one of my books for the Comedy Women in Print Prize and I was... They said, you'll hear by the 30th of June.

We're recording these podcasts in July. And I hadn't heard anything by the 30th of June, but I would, I'd already come up with a whole strategy to brace myself for disappointment. And what was I like on the texts on the WhatsApp? put me out of my misery. And then I never heard anything.

And 30th of June. And it came and went. it came and went. I was like, well, that's it. I said, it's obviously gone nowhere and that's it. And I just, I was all right about it. I think I'd sort of brainwashed myself into believing, which is really bad, isn't it? Brainwashing yourself into believing that you failed. But it was the only way that I could cope with the disappointment.

Imagine failure. And in my image of failure, it wasn't kind of like, ⁓ this is the end. My image of failure was, right, okay, well, I'm gonna fail upwards. I'm gonna do better next time. I'm gonna do it better.

get to today. Anyway. Yeah, sorry. I'm blethering on. So got to today and we're busy. We've been recording podcasts today with various people. And while we're recording one of the podcasts, a message flashed up on my screen from the comedy women in print thing. There's an email and I was like, what? I don't know how.

you managed to not squeal and I don't know how you managed to remain professional at all points. Recording the rest of that podcast, you must have been squealing inside. She was certainly squealing on the outside once we turned it off. I know, I kind of, I sat there and all I was thinking about was read the email, read the email, read the email. I was so excited, but excited even if I hadn't got anywhere with it because...

It just meant that my misery was over. And I was just like, oh, this'll be, at least I'll know. the not knowing was the hard part. So tell them what it said. Well, what it said was, ah! Oh my God, you've just pierced me eardrum again, woman. I hope nobody was listening to that through headphones. You'll be responsible for pierced eardrums all over the country.

I'm gonna have to turn my own volume down when I edit Anyway, what it said was, it said, you've been long listed. my book, Game of Trust has been long listed in one of the categories for the Comedy Women in Print prize. And I was just like, Winner, winner, chicken dinner! So, and we're gonna have another winner, winner, chicken dinner on our...

on our podcast today. I feel quite honored to have to have had this guest. Yeah, this is this is an amazing guy. Richard Whitehead, MBE. Can't forget that because that's a real recognition of his contribution, which is massive. So he was born with a double through knee congenital amputation and developed a passion for sport at an early age.

And his parents encouraged him. And they taught him to live a life without limits. And that's a philosophy which has defined his whole life. He's won gold and silver medals in the Paralympics GB team, including gold in the...

T42 200 meters at London 2012. And this year, he's undertaking a 20 marathon challenge around the world, which is going to bring him to an incredible total of 100 marathons. And you'll hear all about that in a moment. So in 2021, Richard launched the Richard Whitehead Foundation, which is a charity enabling disabled people's ambitions.

through sport and activity. And so Richard's a diversity and inclusion champion and his strong belief is that anything is possible. So that's the name of this episode, Anything's Possible. And whatever age or ability you are, everyone has a gift and potential.

So let's go and meet this absolutely amazing guy who's done so much and continues to do so much for other people.

Hear Me Roar (05:31)

Hello, Richard Whitehead, MBE, very impressive. Hi. So we know a little bit about you. We know that you have broken records. You have won gold medals at the Paralympics. yeah. But tell us a little bit about how what got you there? What got you started?

Richard Whitehead MBE (05:33)

Hello ladies.

Lots of running.

Yeah, I'm 48 years old as well, so like story wise, it's massive amounts of things that I've been through challenged obstacles, but also some real great successes. And a lot of people know me and recognise me from my Paralympic success, whether that's my vestibule of 2012 and my gold medal and that kind of moment.

Apart from that, there's so many other things I've been involved with, whether that's humanitarian work, whether that's my foundation and charity that I've really kind of worked hard at getting the right people around me to have that impact or whether it's some of the other fantastic things I've done within my career. I think my career has been a real kind of...

learning curve of having some great memories, great opportunities that have really given me the tools to be successful at this moment. I'm a double leg amputee for those that don't know, so I was born with my disability and I was empowered by sport and my parents saw swimming, gymnastics as really kind of an opportunity to start the wheels in motion regarding sport.

being something that utilises my skills to a wider audience and then my parents also thought well he's actually quite good at this and they were like the real drivers for a lot of my success. yes, sports has something that's been great for me obviously commercially, also physically, emotionally but now's the time when I really want to kind of push on and really

set that legacy piece, that sustainability piece. And I think for not only people with disabilities or men or people that associate with me, but just the wider audience and sustainable impacts about relatability. And hopefully through some of the challenges, obstacles that I have to overcome on a daily basis, my disability doesn't go away, that it really relates to somebody, somebody's challenges, that that's out there. And a lot of people that reach out to me.

Hear Me Roar (07:58)

No.

Richard Whitehead MBE (08:04)

on social media and through other means, haven't got a disability, aren't male, and maybe they've just got their challenge obstacles and they want to have some tools that enable them to be successful and have those golden moments that I've been fortunate enough to have in my life.

Hear Me Roar (08:22)

So not just sport, you're helping people across the board.

Richard Whitehead MBE (08:23)

No, no, for sure not.

Yeah, for sure not. And I've utilised like sport as a real platform of success, but it could have been anything. It could have been entertainment, it could have been my professional career, it could have been within teaching, which I was involved as a PE teacher for five years, and whether it was in any other part of life. And it's about engaging with people to make people understand that everybody's got a gift in life.

and then nurturing that gift to support the legacy of humanity and obviously young people are the leaders of tomorrow and it's about how you unlock that potential and for me it's always been about painting that positive picture about hope and possibility and then giving people that mentorship, giving people that opportunity of enrichment with listening to my story and various other stories.

and letting young people or people gain those skills from that chat and then understand there's some real possibilities within life.

Hear Me Roar (09:22)

through your foundation you work really closely with some young people and you have a group of young people that receive sort of close I'm going to call it mentorship is would that be the yeah

Richard Whitehead MBE (09:27)

Cheers.

Yeah, we've got beneficiaries that ⁓

have gained not only physical technology, but also the expertise through practitioners. And again, a lot of the support donations that we get as a foundation, Richard Whitehead Foundation, it enables us to get the expertise for these young people to break down some of those barriers.

that is in front of young people these days. Getting people away from their technology at home, outside, being physically active and understanding that not all these barriers and obstacles are something that you need to have money to break down. Some of it's just giving people these experiences. The problem with the disability community is there's two major kind of real barriers and blockers. One is cost.

Hear Me Roar (10:02)

Yeah. ⁓

Richard Whitehead MBE (10:21)

for a person with a disability, cost of living is a lot higher, so obviously the technology that these young people need to be successful is also higher. So for instance, as a person with a disability, you've got a cost of things like prosthetics and then that expertise, whereas an able-bodied person to go out running or to go for a walk or a jog, you might just need to have trainers from your local sports shop, which is a cost of maybe, I don't know, 50 to 100 pounds where...

an amputee, the cost might be £5,000 to £10,000, so it's a massive disparity there. And these are the kind of barriers that we're having to overcome. So one's cost and then the other thing's time. As a person with a disability, every disability is different and then it takes time for you to navigate some of those challenges and obstacles and that's something that we're passionate about, giving people that time, saying that you might

Hear Me Roar (10:53)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (11:16)

want aspirations and goals within your life that are here but then you have got these slow incremental goals and targets to overcome before you get to your target and that's what's really important to me, it's really important that we support these young people but then also I'm somebody that, like I say, 48 years old and sometimes when we talk about sport, physical activity, people put like numbers or ages before that and

I don't want to be a person that is ageist at all and I think if you're 6 or 69 or 79, if you've got that appetite to invest in yourself and the surrounding community and you want to be physically active, then why not? And that's what's really important and I won my first Paralympic gold medal when I was 38 years old. So it just shows that anything is possible.

Hear Me Roar (12:00)

Wow.

Does it get more difficult though? Cause you're 48 now and I imagine that as you get older, not just at 48, but 58, 68 however long you keep going, ⁓ an injury can potentially be take longer to heal and things like that. So does it get more challenging as you get older?

Richard Whitehead MBE (12:13)

Yeah.

That's a great question and for me it's about again about perspective. I think as older people we're wiser, we understand our bodies more. I think young people and I've been a young athlete, I've been a young person that's been very gung ho kind of go everything at 100 miles an hour and then you take the consequences after and that has an impact on lifestyle and physical activity etc.

Hear Me Roar (12:42)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (12:47)

where last year I broke my own world record in the marathon so it's like after 20 years of running marathons I'm pretty strong than I've ever been and that's because I've put a team around me that enables me to do that. I also invest more time in things like rest and recovery, my own mental and physical health and it's also about understanding that yes, I am 48 years old and there's some allowances to do it.

Hear Me Roar (12:57)

amazing.

Richard Whitehead MBE (13:14)

for that but why not? Why not be better every day? And we're told and we're kind of coached into this mentality about retirement. When are you going to retire? Like the last 10 years people have said when are you going to retire? And I'm like I'm never going to be governed by what anybody else says about retirement. It's going to be down to kind of my own physical health and my own kind of mental health status going to say actually I've done enough or I'm going to do something slightly different but I think sport.

or physical health is a real responsibility to yourself. And whether you're running marathons or running the park run, that is investing in your own future and you're investing in the time that you have with your kids and your family,

Hear Me Roar (13:55)

Yeah, you mentioned earlier about young people and screens and technology and social media and all of that and doing sport absolutely gets them away from all that. I know you've got two young children, Zara and AJ. Are you very conscious of the social media and tech side and are you trying to keep them away from it? Make them go outdoors. Make them go outdoors and put the screen down.

Richard Whitehead MBE (14:19)

Yeah, yeah, I think again it's like you've got to think about kind of what's promoted by things like the media and the internet around... They encourage you to utilize screen time and they encourage you to use technology. And for me it's about kind of breaking that down into the real kind of

core values that you've got as a person and go actually it's really important to have that family time really important to have physical activity within that family network and just getting yourself and your family out enjoying your local environment. I think COVID was a real driver for that. We spent more time together as a family unit and then because of that walked more, spent that social time with each other and got to know what

what the family really needed and that's about kind of enjoying life, enjoying the benefits of that and physical activity, physical well-being is so important.

and for me it's really important to get young people out just experiencing like...

the local environment, the smells, the sounds and talking through some of the insecurities of young people because you can really kind of remove some of those barriers and obstacles in life when you do so. I think young people are less equipped now because of that and technology has replaced a lot of those relationships that maybe we would have had like 30 years ago.

Hear Me Roar (15:51)

Yeah. So have you passed on your love of sport to your two children?

Richard Whitehead MBE (15:56)

They were swimming yesterday.

I think they love just kind of climbing trees and being out in the countryside and running around on the scooters and swimming. Again, I was kind of, my parents saw the power sports as massive opportunity for me. Well, I kind of just want my kids to experience as many different sports as possible. And through that...

Hear Me Roar (16:10)

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (16:22)

find their own niche, like I said about gifts, really find your own gift and kind of go with it. One thing I do say to parents and guardians about when they're supporting their young family is that why would you spend like 10 years standing on the the sidelines watching your kid playing football or at the side of a swimming pool when you could actually be doing the activities with the kids themselves. I think it's those physical, yeah those...

Hear Me Roar (16:26)

Mm-mm.

Do you know that's so true? That is so

true.

Richard Whitehead MBE (16:51)

Those behaviours are so important. Young people are the leaders of tomorrow and the sponges. They want to see their parents being physically active.

Hear Me Roar (17:01)

And children also learn the art of conversation from the adults in their lives.

Richard Whitehead MBE (17:05)

yeah, for sure. it's quite nice to kind of just sit down and have a meal and just talk Making a real...

real conscious effort to ask your children about certain opinions. The thing with myself is I've got a disability that you can see, I wear shorts, you can see my prosthetics, so when I meet random people, sometimes children have those conversations and questions like why has he got those legs, etc etc. I try and have those conversations with my kids, obviously in different contexts.

Hear Me Roar (17:17)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (17:38)

that really kind of are informative because those barriers, obstacles, also that discrimination that people have, it's learned from obviously experiences and if you can remove those at an early age, it then creates a more inclusive world.

Hear Me Roar (17:53)

It's hard not to let it hold you back. I mean, you must have struggled through some things yourself, particularly, I think as a teenager, you're particularly vulnerable it must have been hard for you and your parents as well to keep that drive going through those teenage years.

Richard Whitehead MBE (17:56)

For sure, yeah.

Yeah for sure and there's always going to be those dark times where you really struggle to self motivate. But I think that's the same for anybody. You look at, for instance if you're going from junior school to secondary school then any kind of difference is always highlighted. So whether you're taller, whether you're maybe a plus size, whether you're a different skin colour, maybe you have...

Hear Me Roar (18:25)

I will.

Richard Whitehead MBE (18:33)

some some like marks on your face or you've got anything with different language, different religion, disability ability. I think you're always highlighted for that and children can be terrible for kind of picking up on that. And I think when you are different we all need to celebrate those differences because a more diverse world is a more inclusive world for sure and

still to this day there's still lack of representation within employment there's still things like teachers for instance 0.5 % of teachers in the UK have a disability and obviously if you're aspiring to be a teacher in the future if you're not seeing that it's possible how do you know that it is actually possible? Yeah, yeah for sure so if you're somebody like myself growing up I didn't see people like myself that were successful

Hear Me Roar (19:19)

Yeah, you're not seeing those role models.

Richard Whitehead MBE (19:29)

And then obviously, even nowadays, you see people that are on television or social media and it's very tokenistic with the approach. For me, we need to have that representation just organically happening and then that educates people that it is okay to be different.

Hear Me Roar (19:37)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (19:46)

and what is normal. The word normal, I hear people talk about normal, or for me it's not about normal, it's about treating people with the same respect and understanding that everybody deserves the same opportunity.

and I think obviously when I was growing up there were so many barriers and obstacles, especially at junior school that I really struggled with. I went to secondary school and I had a headmaster that was more on the front foot, he was more of a kind of old school disciplinarian so my parents saw the headmaster in it, they were like, oh yeah, Richard's very sporty and he was like, well...

Richard needs to be good at education before we allow him to do his sport and that's fantastic. That was what I really needed. I really needed somebody that actually pushed education because I think without that forcefulness at that age I could have easily just been like an athlete that kind of was very in my own lane where now I think, back to some of those kind of relationships and conversations being so important even at an early age.

Hear Me Roar (20:49)

Yeah, so you had quite a few influences then at an early age, which kind of made you into not just a very rounded person, but also gave you that determination that anything's possible, I think, is what you say to people.

Richard Whitehead MBE (20:52)

Yeah, for sure.

No

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and also, also that that kind of moulds the relationships I had further down the line. So for instance, I'll probably say like my headmaster at secondary school, Mr. Scott was very much kind of a disciplinarian. My gymnastics coach, again was from an ex-army kind of PE.

format where it's all about respect and discipline and kind of self-worth which is fantastic and then my tutor at secondary school Mrs Griffiths was more like more nurturing and really kind of yes you've got a disability Richard but to get on in life you need to be you need to tick all these other boxes and you need to work doubly hard to be successful and then when I've had

those opportunities to build my own team. I've looked back at my own personal experiences to then pick these people that then fit into my team for value's sake and not if I like them. So for instance, my athletics coach, Keith, 35 years experience, coached people like Catherine Mary who won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics. He is somebody that I like, a really close friend now, is somebody that I massively respect.

Initially when we first started working together, it wasn't somebody that I initially liked, but I see it as a real value in his experience, but also that we could both grow together as people and that we could develop that partnership that could not only support those successes, but also get through some of those real challenging moments.

Hear Me Roar (22:43)

which goes back to what you were saying earlier about how important it is to surround yourself with the right people, the people who are on your side and are for you.

Richard Whitehead MBE (22:50)

Yeah.

Yeah, but also that are honest

and give you that feedback that you need

Hear Me Roar (22:59)

So you set yourself the challenge of running 100 marathons and you're finishing this year with 20 around the world. What spurred you on to start this challenge, which I believe you started in 2004?

Richard Whitehead MBE (23:03)

Yeah, that's right. There you are,

Yeah,

so I, before that I worked in America for years. I worked on the Camp America scheme in 1998 and it kind of, when I wanted to start running it was always like, well,

went up for my first marathon, where would it be? I knew that the American community were a very diverse community and there's so many massive events in America. Because I travelled America a lot in that year, I understood that there was maybe a massive opportunity for somebody like myself to have a real impact. So in 2004 when I started my running journey, I did my first marathon in New York and...

that kind of set the seed for me starting my marathon journey and 92 marathons later I'm still obviously going strong but yeah so I started with my first marathon and did that 5 hours 19 minutes it was the toughest thing I've ever done most challenging I was unprepared anybody that's done a marathon before knows how hard it is 5 hours 19 minutes it's like

Hear Me Roar (24:06)

you

Richard Whitehead MBE (24:23)

you're taking your child to school, doing registration and then running the whole day until you pick them up. That's about five hours. So it's a lot of time on your feet. So it's really tough. And then I got home and then realized the impact that had was massive. I realized that I'd achieved something that I never thought was possible. And I said that I'd never run another marathon after. And then all these other marathons since. then last year,

Hear Me Roar (24:48)

as we say, pants on fire.

Richard Whitehead MBE (24:50)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,

they're all quite addictive. I'm not, I'm not, I won't say I'm fanatical with running, but I'm just quite good at it.

Hear Me Roar (24:57)

But you're not gonna just stop at 100, presumably never do another one again.

Richard Whitehead MBE (25:00)

I don't I

don't know. We'll see because I've done quite a few this year. But last year I broke my marathon world record like I told you earlier. So at the age of 48 I ran 2 hours 41 minutes in Chicago which is the fastest marathon that anybody's done on prosthetics whether it's single leg or double leg amputee and I got to 80 marathons there and then said to myself well obviously how do we use this platform now?

Hear Me Roar (25:09)

Mm.

That's amazing.

Richard Whitehead MBE (25:29)

for next year what I want to do to be able to celebrate the success that I've had over the last 20 years of running and obviously try and spread the word across the whole marathon community and so decided to not only go from 80 marathons to 100 this year but also go to some of those venues and cities that I've actually competed at before so for instance my first marathon of the year was in

Dubai which I'd won one of my world titles in. The second one was in Miami which was my first international competition ever and that was as a swimmer in Miami in 1989. So very specific to some of the cities that I'm competing or running in, I've got a real kind of close connection to that country and that setting.

And then what I want to do is not only kind of go run those marathons, but really turn up. So show a good performance and then leave a lasting legacy, work with local communities around the importance of inclusion, disability-wide, work with some young people within that community setting and leave that legacy for the next generation. yeah, it's been incredible. I've done 11 so far.

my next one's in Zimbabwe this weekend which is my 12th. Yeah, so it's literally been all over the world. I'm going as far east as Sydney, as far west as Vancouver where I've been already. yeah, ⁓ my passport's got more stamps than the post office for sure.

Hear Me Roar (26:50)

Wow.

How knackered are you with all that travel? never mind the running ⁓

Sorry kids, we're

not going on holiday this year, daddy's too busy going on ...

Richard Whitehead MBE (27:15)

That's there.

I've done, in April I did five back-to-back marathons every weekend. did a marathon all over the world. it's been crazy, but so, so good, so enriching And I met people that have started their journey at the age of 70 or I've met.

like a young amputee I met in Boston when I was there and she's just got her first prosthetic limb so it's really, really kind of positive messages of how sport and the power of sport can really touch people.

Hear Me Roar (27:43)

it. are you going to carry on competing? Are you aiming for the next Paralympics? I'm thinking about the next marathon. It's just one foot in front of the next line.

Richard Whitehead MBE (27:48)

All I'm thinking about is my next marathon. It's just one foot in front of the other. I've

still got nine marathons to do this year and every marathon has got its challenges. Yes, 26 miles but they're not all flat. They're not all in the same climate like you alluded to. I'm tired because of my travel, the jet lag in some respect.

Hear Me Roar (27:59)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (28:16)

and then I'm having to run as well. I'm not sure, I think I'm always open to new challenges and new opportunities. I'd love to have a platform where I engage with a wider audience and also kind of help as many people as possible,

Whether I'm going to go to another Paralympics and compete I don't know.

Hear Me Roar (28:35)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're very open to new experiences and new challenges.

Richard Whitehead MBE (28:40)

For sure, for sure. think also,

I think it's really important that in those learning opportunities that you're learning yourself as well as giving your time to other people.

Hear Me Roar (28:49)

Mm-hmm.

Richard Whitehead MBE (28:50)

there's some great opportunities out there in life and again going back to this ageist approach I think as somebody within my 40s I still feel  I can grow as a person I encourage people of my age group and older that if you want something enough just go and get it just have those experiences.

it can not only enrich your own life but also support a wider community.

Hear Me Roar (29:11)

Yeah.

So Richard, let's talk about my couch to 5K. I bought the trainers. You have to actually put them on your feet though. Well, yeah. My husband says I'm too old. I'm 55. He says I'm going to, says my body wise, I'll just probably kill my knees and all the rest of it. And I'm like, well.

Richard Whitehead MBE (29:19)

What's that?

Okay, nice.

Yeah, that's it.

You're never too old. You're never too old.

Yeah.

Hear Me Roar (29:38)

I walk loads, mind. do walk. She walks up steep hills all the time. I walk ridiculous amounts and I swim. So I'm not completely unfit. I do about eight hours exercise a week.

Richard Whitehead MBE (29:40)

Awesome. Yeah.

No, no,

And running is a perspective as well. It's like running is either putting one foot in front of the other or pushing or doing something just slightly faster than you normally would do. that can be like walking faster or one run jog or walk jog. And for me, again, it's about having that goal setting. So if you put on those trainers.

Hear Me Roar (29:58)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (30:12)

made a commitment to yourself and step outside the door that's obviously the first tick in box before you actually do anything physically active and i encourage people to do physical activity or well-being exercises with friends or or or people with the same perspective sometimes i hear those individuals that would go out with people that are a lot better than themselves or have a complete negative outlook on life and that's not really that's not really good to be honest i think you need to have people that

Hear Me Roar (30:27)

cool.

Richard Whitehead MBE (30:38)

that very much in the same mind frame as yourself and they're wanting to be better. Ideally you want to be doing it for yourself and not anybody else but then prove to other people that you can do. It's fantastic but it's about proving to yourself that you can be better and fitter.

Hear Me Roar (30:55)

the thing I wanted to do it because I kind of have in my head I'd like to someday be able to run 10k.

Richard Whitehead MBE (31:01)

Yeah, and you can run 10k, there's no reason why running 10k. Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. And also, again, it's a number, isn't it? 10k, six miles, whatever. It's a number that sometimes we put in front of us to actually stop us from doing the actual activity of itself And running is a very, very kind of masculine kind of...

Hear Me Roar (31:03)

Yeah, it's not that far I can walk it. I can't run it. I just need to walk it faster.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Whitehead MBE (31:27)

action-based word where I think it's movement or physical activity means that you kind of just get out there and do it and don't be afraid to have your own targets. don't feel that you have to do it within a certain framework or time. It might take you

eight weeks, might take you 18 weeks, it might take you two years, but that's fantastic. It's about that real commitment to yourself and that should be celebrated. I think goal setting is really important. in what I have even as an elite athlete, I'll have like five non-negotiables while I wake up in the morning and maybe make my bed and then say to myself, This is what I'm going to do today and this is how I'm going to do it. These are my real actions and anybody can have those actions, especially around

whether it's movement and it can be put those trainers on, say something positive to yourself, maybe have like some positive podcast maybe or some music, go out there, do a bit of power walking, maybe power walk to your favourite park or maybe to your friend's house and then power walk back and make it more of an action based process instead of going I have to do it and this is like I'm not...

because sometimes we put those pressures on ourselves that make the experience not a positive one. Try and make it a fun experience where it doesn't have to be about I have to run 5k by November. It could be I want to enjoy just being better in myself and then when you feel better in yourself, you will see the benefits. One also thing I would say about goal setting and

Hear Me Roar (32:45)

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (33:04)

people make this mistake around December, January time around New Year's resolutions that they'll make this New Year's resolution of going, yeah, so my New Year's resolution is I'm gonna start running. And then by the time you get to the first of February, they're like, I've not seen any benefit, I'm putting on weight, I'm gonna stop. Well, any kind of behavior, especially running or physical activity, takes about eight weeks to make a difference.

So you need to at least do eight weeks of positive behavior before you see the benefits. And then it be that it's more of a mindset change before a physical change. And so that's why I would say that New Year's resolutions are something that are really hard to keep because you've got no real focus. It's more about everybody else is doing it, giving up.

Hear Me Roar (33:41)

You're right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Whitehead MBE (33:57)

Like drink for January or not eating like chocolate for January. That's fine. But then I love

Hear Me Roar (34:03)

People don't eat chocolate?! I'm sorry, this is the most shocking revelation in the whole podcast. Is

this going to be the big shock of series two?

Richard Whitehead MBE (34:13)

I've

got a real sweet tooth as well and I think that's one of the things that I really struggle with, obviously those kind of sweet treats and getting rid of those but

Hear Me Roar (34:23)

But you did it and you've like overall you've probably had to do it many times but at the end of the day you've come out the winner in it all.

Richard Whitehead MBE (34:31)

Yeah,

and winnings are again, it's something that I'd advocate to anybody or your viewers and listeners that winning isn't about being first because obviously if you're first, you're the only person out of that event race or that has that enrichment. It's about you having your own kind of golden moments and that's really important and then celebrating those when you do that.

Hear Me Roar (34:51)

Yeah.

And you've had loads.

You've had loads. I mean, it's people, anyone who's who is looking for you on the internet, social media search for Richard Whitehead, MBE. Yeah. ⁓

Richard Whitehead MBE (34:57)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

them all over. Exactly, yeah, whether that's Instagram or my website or yeah and the

thing is that it's great to have those connections and people sometimes reach out for just like real simple like can you help with signposting me in this direction and I myself and my team are really happy to do that and I think that's a real responsibility somebody that has the platform to be able to answer those questions.

Hear Me Roar (35:29)

That's brilliant.

Yeah, that's fantastic. You just send so much positivity out to the world, but we are going to move you on to something even more important than a gold medal, which is your cocktail.

Richard Whitehead MBE (35:36)

Thank you.

Right, let's go, what's up?

I want to know what kind of cocktails you two like as well. I'm not sure if there's anybody actually had that before. is there? Okay.

Hear Me Roar (35:49)

Oh, porn star Martini. I'm a porn star girl all the way. She is.

I'm rather partial to an espresso Martini.

Richard Whitehead MBE (35:57)

Okay, nice. They're pretty strong cocktails, aren't they? I, so drink-wise, I do love a rum. I do love a dark rum. Also, I quite like a real punchy drink. So something like a tequila sunrise or something like that's quite punchy. So I like a bit of tequila.

Hear Me Roar (36:06)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay. So if you were the cocktail,

what would you call your tequila sunrise then?

Richard Whitehead MBE (36:19)

flaming glory or something like that

Hear Me Roar (36:21)

that's nice, actually. Would you

add any special ingredient to it that might represent you?

Richard Whitehead MBE (36:27)

uh... i think it maybe something that make it like yellow and orange, quite like yellow and orange colours yellow orange and red colours i quite like those and maybe just like something a little bit spicy as well to kind of so a bit tequila obviously maybe just a little

Hear Me Roar (36:32)

bit of spice.

Richard Whitehead MBE (36:51)

maybe shot of vodka as well in there or something like that so maybe just make it a bit spicy. Yeah, yeah you do, yeah. Yeah, so maybe a bit of chilli vodka. But yeah, I like the concept of having like a cocktail named after you but then also a version for those people that aren't drinking as well

Hear Me Roar (36:54)

What about some, do you get chilli vodka? I chilli vodka.

Yeah, we always ask our guests, cocktails, mocktails, and we had one lady who doesn't do either. She only drinks water. So we asked her for a cake.

Richard Whitehead MBE (37:24)

Okay,

yeah, and if mine was a cake as well it'd have to be like chocolate. I love chocolate. I love chocolate. Well one quick story about chocolate so before 2012, London 2012 Cadbury's was sponsoring of the Olympics and Paralympics and I was a Cadbury's ambassador.

Hear Me Roar (37:30)

you

Richard Whitehead MBE (37:42)

And so myself and Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, who we're all from the same agency, we're sponsored by Cadbury's. And every month they sent you a massive box of any Cadbury's that you wanted. The problem was obviously I was racing the Paralympics, so I got all this chocolate and I was just passing it through to my friends all the time. Anyway, so my coach, my marathon coach Liz Yelling, her husband Martin, loved giant buttons.

So anyway, so I sent him my month's worth of Cadbury's giant buttons and he literally, I think he got 21 massive bags of these giant buttons and he said he's never touched Cadbury's chocolate since because he was that sick of it. So, if you really like chocolate, just eat enough of it so that you'll never eat it again. That's my message.

Hear Me Roar (38:28)

to put yourself off, yeah. Is that

possible? Well, you've just proved it's possible along with many other things that you've proved is possible. Thank you so much, Richard. We have loved talking to you. A truly, truly inspirational person. Great, great person. So thanks for coming on and- We wish you all success in everything you're going on to do. When's your last marathon?

Richard Whitehead MBE (38:38)

Listen. And it's on.

Thank you. Thank you for support.

So the last marathon on the 2nd of November in New York, which is exactly 21 days when I started. So I started in 2004 on the 2nd of November and I finished my 100 on the 20... on 2025, 2nd of November in New York.

Hear Me Roar (38:57)

The big 100.

Mm-mm.

Amazing, Well, we'll be tuning in to cheer you on. Thanks very Drinking your cocktail. Thanks, Richard. Thanks again, Richard. Thanks. Bye.

Richard Whitehead MBE (39:15)

Awesome, thank you. Yeah, yeah, that's it.

And it's on.