Ep 28: The Day I Caught Coolio... and a Rare Moth

In 2015, Dan Creeber was truly out of shape.

A holiday in Majorca became a turning point...and what started with a weekly parkrun soon turned into something much bigger. Fast forward to today, and Dan has logged over 10,000 kilometres, built a routine around running, and committed to completing a marathon every year “until he can’t.”

But his story isn’t just about miles.

In this uplifting episode of Runbelievable, Joshie sits down with Dan to talk about fatherhood, mental health, and the moments that change how you see everything. From the traumatic birth of his second child, to stepping away from work to reset, to quietly redefining his relationship with running... Dan’s journey shows how running can evolve from a habit into something far more meaningful.

This is a story about consistency, perspective, and learning when to push… and when to pause.

Dan and his wife Kim run a super cool boutique clothing brand called Rest Day:

Check out their gear -> https://restday.online/

In this episode:

• A turning point in Majorca
• Why parkrun means so much
• Committing to a marathon every year 
• The impact of fatherhood and life challenges 
• Processing trauma and mental health 
• Redefining balance between fitness and wellbeing 
• Why the finish line is enough 

Runbelievable — real runners, unreal stories.

Interested in being a guest on the show? Hit us up!

👉 Everything Runbelievable:

http://runbelievable.au

🎧 New episodes drop weekly; hit follow so you don’t miss a lap!

Transcript

Intro

Dan 0:07

And it's it was in those two newspapers. And I think someone stole Coolio's shoe and necklace and watch and something as well. Yeah. Yeah. I don't imagine there was um I can't imagine there was an encore. But yeah, genuinely, um I I I I always refer to it as I caught Coolio. Not in the sense of uh uh uh a really bad disease, but I've literally caught Coolio.

Surprise Guest Quiz: Bushy Park parkrun

Joshie 0:33

Hello everybody and welcome to Run Believable, the podcast that celebrates Why We Run. I'm your host, Josh Richard, and I'm here to bring you stories about what first got people running and what keeps them lacing up day after day. From the last in the lessons to be abandoned by a co-host. This is why we run, and how it shapes who we become. Yep, sorry folks, it's just me today, uh well-layed out guest. So daily there won't be a quiz as usual, but let me assure you that today's guest has a journey that's far more entertaining than any kind of novelty game. Um actually, Dan, unless of course you want to do a quiz, what's your appetite like for a quiz? I am always up for a quiz. Really? Can you just give me a minute? I'm gonna open up something. Um hang on. Have you done um I mean you live in the UK?

Dan 1:24

Have you done Bushy Park Park Run by any chance? Haven't. No. Um it's uh it's one of the ones on the on the bucket list, the pilgrimage ones. Um yeah, no, not done that one yet.

Joshie 1:35

Well, let's uh hang on. Let's see how we go. The very first park run, as you know, Bushy Park's the site of the very first park run. Did it take place in 2002, 2003, or 2004? Uh 2004. You are correct. Brilliant. Um question number two. How many participants attended the very first park run? Was it 11, 13, or 15?

Dan 2:14

It wasn't a lot. I'm just um because I've I've seen the picture. Um darn not having a photographic memory. Uh 11.

Joshie 2:22

It's actually 13.

Dan 2:25

Okay.

Guest Spotlight: Dan Creeber

Joshie 2:26

Uh third and final question. Let's see how this goes. What was the original name given? Was it Bushy Park Parkrun? Bushy Park Time Trial or Bushy Park Run Fest. Wow. Um I don't know. Bushy uh Bushy Park Parkrun? It was actually called Bushy Park Time Trial. Was it really? Yes, and the name, having a look here, I'm I'm researching on the fly. It looks as though the name Parkrun was only adopted in 2008 as they sought to expand globally. How about that? Um Well done. Thanks so much. By the way, spoiler alert, today's guest is called Dan, and he's from the UK. He's a runner, a business owner, and an avid lepidopterist. Can we please welcome Dan Krieber? Welcome, Dan. Hi, thanks for having me on. Dan, long before you were chasing Yilly marathons, you were chasing the rare dotted chestnut moth around your backyard. Can you take us back to the life of 14-year-old Dan?

Dan 3:41

Oh, this is so funny. And this has followed me around for so long. Um, essentially, my dad and his friend Bob the Moth, I assume his name was Bob. That's all I know him as. Uh, my dad and his friend Bob the Moth would go uh and would catch moths. They had an upside-down lap shade and a bucket and a light underneath it. It was nothing more, nothing more technical than that. And they'd catch moths and they'd catalog if they catalogue them. Um, I guess to save my dad, Bob was the the orchestrator of it. And he used to have he'd have drawers of moths in his loft, uh sort of like they've been pinned and catalogued them. And once they found a uh they found a moth that hadn't been found in England since the late 1800s or early 1900s, and it was quite a big deal. So uh, and they they they you could sell them, believe it or not, there's a market for moths, and you could sell them for quite a lot of money to collectors. Um deceased. No, no, no, no, no, no, deceased. So you'd have like pin boards and like beautifully organized pin boards and stuff. Like it's it's there's a there's a there's a cult for everything, there's a group for everything, and there's apparently there's a moth moth group. So yeah, um, and the local paper asked and said, Wow, yeah, this is this is this is interesting. Let's run a story of it. And dad and Bob were like, no, we're we we'd really rather not um have that attached to us. And me as a 14-year-old, I thought, yeah, why not? That's fine. Um so they came around, took the picture of me doing a really cheesy grin, um, holding, holding this moth. Um, and a few days later, paper came through the letterbox, landed on the landed on the mat, and opened it up, expecting to just be buried in the middle. And no, it was half of the front page.

Joshie 5:26

Oh, slow news day.

Dan 5:30

And it was it was just one of those where it just but because it circulates. See, this wasn't like a uh like a tiny little village paper, it was the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, which would have hundreds of thousands of people in its circulation. Um, and the name just followed me, Muff Boy just followed me around for ages.

Joshie 5:46

Is it is it true that it followed you internationally and that you actually appeared on a segment of Hamish and Andy?

Dan 5:54

This is it, yeah. So when they did their newspaper segment, um, I mean, this must have been 30, 10, 12, 13 years ago. Um, yeah, and I appeared on on the Hamish and Andy segment. I've clipped it and put it on YouTube. Uh, and I've I think the exact phrase which I've not included in my CV, it might be what I'm thinking about, is the Obama of the moth world, as Hamish referred to me as. I love it. But it genuinely has followed me around. I was at the gym and someone came up to him and went, Are you the guy that found the moth? Like, it's it's it's it's ridiculous. I didn't even find it, and I've been loved as this moth boy.

Joshie 6:31

So you're going to have to set the record straight on something, and you seem like you know quite a lot about the moth world. Uh you a closet moth, by the way, a lepidopteress. I only recently researched that is the name of a moth enthusiast. Uh deep down, are you a closet enthusiast yourself, or are you is this something that the old man put you up to?

Dan 6:50

Yeah, like so we used to go to we used to go to uh this place called Oversley Wood, and and and they would go off and um and put the moth catches up. And we'd just go and make dens and things like that. Um I the fact that you said the name at the beginning, what was the name of the moth?

Joshie 7:08

It was the dotted chestnut.

Dan 7:11

Yeah, I don't remember that. I don't know at the time I knew what the name of the moth was, let alone let alone all these years later.

Joshie 7:19

So is that where your love for running started up and you sort of run away from home after that experience?

Dan 7:25

Yeah, it's hard to uh it's hard after that. But yeah, and and and that and that's followed me, followed me around. Um, but it's one of it's it's a fun story, uh, but I I never thought it would end up on the front page of the paper.

Joshie 7:40

Well, let's move on somewhat. You're gonna have to take us back to a holiday that you were on, I think in Mallorca about 10 years ago, and I think you said that you described yourself as horrendously out of shape, and there was something, there was a spark that was lit in you that changed your life. Can you tell us about that?

Dan 7:58

Yeah, absolutely. So um my girlfriend, my now wife, uh Kim, we went on on holiday to Mallorca in what would have been 2014, so about twelve 2015 is about 11 years ago now. Um and they had these this inflatable water park, maybe 50 metres out in the sea. You'd swim out to it, go on the course, have fun, swim back. So I put the life fist on, I swam out. Oh my god, I was in, I was, I was dying, I was swimming, I was absolutely exhausted. I got to the got to the the the the actual the the actual exerting bit, and that was just uh that was just the relief getting to that bit. And I kind of I went round and I I got back to the got back to the beach and I just collapsed on the beach. I just said to Kim, I was like, I need to get in better shape. If I want if we want to have kids, which we've now got two wonderful kids, if we if I have kids, I want to be able to keep up with them and I need to get in shape. So I I genuinely became home and bought some running shoes and that's where it started.

Joshie 8:56

Do you know what amazes me about that? I mean, you and I have only been connected on Instagram for a few months, and I've seen the photos and the videos of you running, and I think you recently got into high rocks as well, and it's hard to actually picture a previous version of you. I mean, do you ever stop and look back at your life, let's say 11 years ago, and I guess just pause and go, wow, look at the journey that I've been on.

Dan 9:21

Yeah, absolutely, oh, absolutely. And I'm such a I'm such a reflector. I've got my um all my running medals up here, I've got my Alpha Flies um ready for the next race, and I'm I'm I'm willing them to listen this time and and bring that PB. Um and I've just got I've got all of kind of mementos and things around. And I it is so important to stop and stop and and put in perspective. So for for one really good example of that is when I started, I set myself some time goals for different races. So I wanted to do a sub-20-minute 5k, and I did that, and I was really proud of that. But the goal wasn't then to go, okay, now let's do 19 and let's do 18. And I think it's really important to set yourself a goal and not keep moving that goal. It's obviously important to look at and then keep improving, but always remembering what actually initially you set out to do.

Joshie 10:16

So, what do you mean by that? When you say that you know you achieve a goal and you need to be careful not to keep chasing further goals, um, is that because of the risk of resenting running, or what are your thoughts?

Dan 10:32

Yeah, so so how I see that is so when I started running, I said I want to do a one at the I want to do a sub um sub-20-minute 5k, a sub-four-hour marathon. I think the important thing is that when you do hit that that goal, the sub-four-hour marathon, is to take a step back and think, wow, I've achieved what I set out originally to do. And it's really difficult to keep chasing that dream if you go, okay, well, but now I want to do this, but forget that actually you have ticked the box that you initially set out to do, and always frame the things um relative to when you started. So I'm when I did my first park run, I think it was 26 minutes. Um, this is when I was in my most out of shape. And I just wanted to do under 25 minutes, and I was like, okay, now I've done under 25 minutes. But you I think it's just always making sure that you're happy rather than just chasing something because I'm not gonna set the world record. So as long as my goal isn't to win a marathon, which I've I'm absolutely happy with. That's that's sort of how I framed that.

Joshie 11:35

Yeah. And there's plenty of other reasons that you run, and we'll come to that shortly. But you mentioned when you and I caught up a few weeks ago that uh parkrun is a really important part of your routine. What is it about parkrun in particular that keeps you coming back week after week?

Dan 11:51

What I love about it is nobody looks at anybody else with a particular sense of competition. Everyone is going there for their own reasons. I love that there's a community of people that get up early on a Saturday morning, you all go to the park, you run, you go off and you carry on the rest of your lives. I I don't look at anyone and go, I need to finish ahead of that person. Um, and everybody there is faster than the people that aren't doing it. So everyone there is a winner. Um and and I I I just yeah, I love that that is, and also I love that there's there's so many of them you can go and try different, different ones. Some of them are easier, some of them are on the beach, um, some of them in kind of in more of an urban environment. Um, so yeah, I just uh yeah. And and the this is the funny thing is I I said to Kim when I properly got into running, I said, that's it. 5k, I'm just gonna do park friends up, not gonna get carried away. And then the local 10K came up. I'm going, well, that's fine. I can walk to that, it's fine, I'll do that. And then a half marathon. And I said, Well, I'm gonna do half of something, I'll do the full thing. And then an ultra marathon after with a 13-week-old daughter, and then and then um, and then a triflon, and now high rocks and and basically to try to just do all of the things.

Joshie 13:11

Well, the runner's evolution, I love it. I think you said that you've logged over, is it 10,000 kilometers now of running? I know that that's sort of a big milestone, it's quite important to you. Can you talk us talk to us about that?

Dan 13:24

Yeah, um, yeah, 10,000, 10,000 kilometers, a thousand runs. Um, every run, there's a story behind every run. Um, but yeah, to get to 10,000 kilometers is just incredible. And sometimes I to try and actually quantify that in a distance is just, I mean, it'd be coast to coast in America a couple of times. It's just incredible to think how far. And actually what your body is pop but what your body can achieve. I remember I grew up watching the London Marathon every year on the telly and go, wow, isn't that amazing? And it was only really when I started running that I remember I remember thinking, okay, oh, I actually can do that. I can try, I mean, I can't run as fast as that, but I actually can do that. And then I remember my first my first marathon, and I've still got the the mug, the rock and roll marathon in Liverpool, and trying to quantify how far it was. So I'd only done a half marathon this time, and I remember the second half, I'm like, oh, this is this is so far. I mean, just not thinking it was ever going to end. Um, yeah.

Joshie 14:31

Now you've built your running identity around consistency. And I think you even said that you'll you have a goal to run a marathon a year until you can't anymore. Um when did that start?

Dan 14:45

I think after after doing a couple, a couple in a row, um, so running for me is is about longevity, mental health, as much as it is collecting medals and other things like that. And you do there are still so many studies that show the link, the positive link between running, longevity, and just living a better quality of life for long for the longest period of time. So it was just this anecdotally, I said, I'm gonna run one marathon every year until I physically just I'm just can't do it anymore. Um and I'm about to I'm trading for my 13th marathon. Um, but I think what are we eight years in a row now? So got a lot more to go. Wow, that's awesome.

Joshie 15:32

I love that. So you started running marathons how many years ago now?

Dan 15:40

Uh 2019 was my first.

Joshie 15:45

Yeah, okay. So let's fast forward then a couple of years to 2021. By the way, if I've got any of these details incorrect, please set the record straight. But by 2021, you've achieved your goal of getting into shape, more than achieved your goal. Your first child, Poppy, I think, is four, and you introduce your second child, Florence, into the world, but that doesn't quite go according to plan. Do you feel comfortable talking to us about that period of your life?

Dan 16:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so so 2020, so yeah, 2022, um, Florence was born. Um, so it was her birthday on Saturday, it's her fourth birthday. Um it was quite a quite a troublesome pregnancy with things like preoclampsia. We all got COVID on my birthday, uh, and that that really flawed us. And I remember Kim was was in and at hospital with preoclampsia. And then it comes to Florence's uh Florence's actual birth. And I remember the the the the in the hospital Kim saying, I I think, I think, I think baby's ready to come now. And they said, No, I think, I think probably not maybe not yet. And I I remember finding one of the one of the junior nurses, and I just said, could you just could you just just just have a look? And they looked and they went, Wow, okay, we really, really need to go. It was just such a rush. We get to the delivery suite, um, and Florence is is is born. Uh, midwife picks her up, absolute silence. Florence is blue, I mean she's she's she's drained of all colour, and she's just limp, lifeless. Um goodness. And yeah, and and then the the nurse, she she dives across the room and she pulls the emergency cord, uh, alarm goes off around the hospital, doctors come flooding. I suppose it'd be about 12, 15 doctors come flooding in the room, uh, and they move her on to this ventilation resuscitation table. Um, everyone is in the room focused on her, rightfully so. Um, Kim is sort of uh is she's saying to me, she's saying, um, she's dead, she's dead. I know it she's dead, and I'm trying to try to comfort, comfort her. And I look over, I mean, doctors are they're it's they're very they're very difficult to read, very difficult to get a reading on on how things are going. And I I catch one of the doctors and when we we make eye contact, and I and then she she breaks eye contact and looks away. And I remember thinking, I don't think this is going very well. And a minute or two went by, and five minutes go by, and then there's just no sign of anything, and we get to we we eventually get to 11 minutes before she takes her her first breath, and then she's passed back to us, everyone disappears. Um, midwife leaves the room, new one comes in, there hasn't been a handover, and we go what what what happened?

Joshie 18:41

I I'm stunned. So let me get this right. So Florence is born and doesn't breathe for the first, did you say, eleven minutes of her life?

Dan 18:51

Yeah, so she was born, I I think it's referred to as a mermaid birth, so she's born in the sack. Um which so that so that's why she didn't take her first breath, it needed to be artificially done.

Joshie 19:05

Whatever phrase. Yeah. But that happened to coincide with a change of staff, like a this is this is it, yeah, absolutely.

Dan 19:15

And we've we've we've we've talked to the hospital since uh and sort of gone through the notes of things. Um and they we they've they've said that from now on the new policies that if there's a if this is this this sort of thing happens, there needs to be um uh a a detailed handover because we'd and then we were we were home we were home uh the next the next afternoon and we did we just really didn't really know what happened. And I remember I don't really I don't think at the time I really thought I the the the the the trauma and the PTSD from from it kind of manifested itself a lot later. Um I just felt numb for about 18 months, two years, and I got to the point where it just affected my mental health so badly that I had to had to properly address it. Um so I took a period of uh as as did Kim. Um we took a period of six weeks away from from work. Um my my manager at the time, Caroline, was just just incredible, incommodating and I owe her so much for how she was during that period of time. And I was able just to step back um and properly process things and come back uh with a clearer mind and a and a better mental health.

Joshie 20:26

In terms of I guess ongoing health uh complications, I mean, is Florence okay? I mean, do those first 11 minutes have affected her um cognitive function or anything along those lines?

Dan 20:39

No, uh she's absolutely fine. Um if anything, she's too energetic and lively, and uh she can be a bit of a uh cheeky, a cheeky monkey, but um yeah, she's she's left with absolutely no, there's no complications from that. I think the the the sad thing is is and again I I talked to I talked to my friends this weekend when we went on a run, obviously being Florida's birthday, and I said I I do feel sad because it I I've I I I'm not and I won't ever be the same person again because of that. I feel like um parts of my brain, um kind of the neuron pathways and things um have it's it's broken, broken in lots of ways. And I I am a different person, and I do, I do look back and I think of that our event that happened. Um and I it is sad. I think if somebody had listened to Kim and had looked, they would have seen that Florence was still in the sack and the sack hadn't burst. And that's why, and if we had seen that, it wouldn't have been we wouldn't have been on the back foot and we could have proactively made things. And I look back and I think I am a more resilient person. Um, I am I'm a different person, but I am a I'm I'm stronger in lots of ways. But my mental health has to be a consideration day to day, hour by hour, in a way that it just never was before.

Joshie 22:05

How much of that was because Of I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in Australia, there is still a s a stigma attached to especially men talking openly about their mental health. Was there an element of that that sort of kept you quiet for what'd you say a year and a half or two years?

Dan 22:21

I don't know if it's so much that. It's I think there's an element of I just didn't know what was going on. Um and I went to so work kindly paid for me to to have some counselling sessions and we talked about it and really understood that how much it I don't I don't think I really knew how much it affected me. And I think that's that's classic on a lot of a lot of trauma events.

Joshie 22:42

Yeah.

Dan 22:42

Yeah. Did the hospital offer any support? No, this this was the I mean the the the NHS is fantastic. Um but I think when you kind of when you when you go down to a macro level and you you you scrutinize these events, being a doctor and nurse and midwife is is is such an impossible job to get every you must be making thousands of decisions a day. Um but I think at that macro level, there were decisions that on reflection should have been, should or shouldn't have been made or made differently. Um and I look back with a bit of sadness that had someone gone, okay, Kim, you're saying the baby's on its way, let me let me have a look, um, they would have spotted this at a point where we could have, they could have intervened and none of this would have happened. Um that's yeah. I didn't need we we didn't need to go through that that trauma, that journey. But what was sad is as the midwife changed, there was no notes. The midwife was off for the rest of the week, the rest of the weekend. Um, we were discharged from the hospital. Uh, and it was only about two years later that we contacted the hospital and we we explained the to them. We went through their patient, the Aison T, went through the notes um and and just had that chat.

Joshie 23:52

I think it's fantastic that you had such a supportive manager. I think I don't know if it was your manager or you that's used the expression that you can't change the tyres on a moving car, which I think is fantastic. That sometimes you just need that circuit breaker to seek clarity. Um so good.

Dan 24:09

She said to me, um she said with the greatest of respect, and and I'm still good friends with her now, she said, if if something was to happen to you um with your with your mental health, like you are replaceable. You are as sad as it sounds, you are replaceable at work, but you're not replaceable at home. Um and that that is the most important thing. And it's just it's stuff like that. I mean, having somebody that that puts your mental health such a priority in the workplace um just meant just meant a lot.

Joshie 24:39

And it sounds as though running played a really important role during that time. Um, can you talk us through what life looked like whilst you were sort of navigating a post-sort of traumatic experience? Um you've now got two kids, um, work. How did life look for you during that period of time?

Dan 24:59

I think um, I think broadly, um, if we it just kind of expanding on the time frame, I think during during lockdown is is really where the the running ramped up um just again in 2020 and 2021, just more out of necessity. And that's where my love for the trail running started, um, just purely to stay away from people um and be a bit more isolated rather than running through through sort of let's say busy streets. Um but running has always been more of a more of um a mental health benefit than it has been chasing time goals.

Joshie 25:36

Yeah.

Dan 25:37

Whenever I've gone for if you you're having a stressful day, you go out for you, whether you go out in the morning or you go out at lunchtime, you leave on, I don't know, busy day, you leave on a seven, you're always going to come back on a three or a four. I've never come back from a run and gone, God, I wish I hadn't done that. Um every run has has mostly left me, every run has left me with a positive sentiment after. And the the one thing I the one thing that probably on reflection wasn't a great idea is my ultramarathon in 2022. So uh Florence born um 21st of March, and I did an ultramarathon the 24th of June. Um, so yeah, 13, 14 weeks after she was born. And I did uh what a race called the race of the tower. Um it was a double marathon along the Cotswold Way, 53 miles or 85 kilometres, um, nine two and a half thousand feet of elevation, two and a half thousand meters of elevation. Oh, meters. Oh, that's crazy. Must two and a half thousand feet.

Joshie 26:41

I'm not too sure of. I don't like either of those numbers.

Dan 26:46

Yeah, it's it was just it was and I was on my own. It took me took me 14 hours in the end, and I knew nothing at the time really of nutrition. Doing my training runs, and I mean, bless her, Kim puts up with a lot. Kim didn't sign up for any of this stuff. She signed up for um someone who just said they're gonna do park run, and now um we've got a five-week-old baby, and I'm saying, hey, do you mind if I go and spend six hours running around the cotswolds? And my nutritional, my nutrition at that time was just okay, I'm gonna take, I'll take a water bladder, great. Um, but I'm just gonna take a banana and two energy gels, and that's it for a six-hour run. And I wonder why I struggled so much on Race to Tower. And I remember there's probably like a three-hour period. So I had a GoPro and I I vlogged it. Uh I don't even remember. There were probably three hours where I don't know if I even knew I had the GoPro. Not sure I could have told you my name. And I remember sitting at sitting in the last checkpoint with five kilometres to go, and I could see Broadway Tower. So you finish at the top of this 500 meter elevation. So it must have been 200, 2,500 metres, top of this tower, and we're thinking, yeah, I don't know if I can do it. And I'm 80 kilometers into this run, and I think I've got 5k to go. I'm gonna hurt tomorrow anyway, but I can't finish with these five kilometres. And I I get myself to the top of this tower. And even to this day, I don't know how I did it. And it running any event for it, it could be a 5k, or it can be a marathon or ultramarathon or anything in between. But the mental hurdles and barriers and the depths you have to dig to, and that's what one of the things that running's given me. I don't know how I got to the finish line of Racer Tower. I had to dig deeper than I ever thought I possibly could do, and it showed me a part of me that nothing else has been able to.

Joshie 28:36

I love that. That is such a cool experience, and I just looked it up. It is indeed about two and a half or over two thousand metres, so uh 8,000 feet. I what an amazing story, Dan. I mean, what did you take away from that um as an experience?

Dan 28:54

Um so I've I've now got a really good uh friend group that I go out running with, um, which is something that I didn't have until a few years ago. Until the girls, um until oh until Poppy um started school, um, most of my runs were on my own, and now very rarely am I ever running on my own. So to do it with other people. I ran an ultra marathon with a friend a few years ago, just for a laugh. It wasn't an event. Um, we we we we drove to Stratford upon Avon, we got the train to Birmingham, and then we ran 30 odd miles back along the canal, one long canal path the whole way. And we just did it for a laugh. But I remember that there were times where I was really struggling and I needed her emotional support, and then also then there were times where she was thankfully not at the same time, which is good. Yeah, um, but I think that if we did race to the tower again, doing it as a group would have made life so much easier because I was just on my own for so long.

Joshie 29:52

Yeah, yeah.

Dan 29:53

I do remember that my motivation for doing Race of the Tower was having two daughters, was to show them that they can do anything, anything is possible. And I remember there's a there's a clip um in the YouTube video as I'm coming up to the tower, and I'm saying to the camera, my motivation was to show the girls that you could do anything. But actually, I would like to just change that to just because you could do anything does not mean it's a good idea.

Joshie 30:21

I love it. Oh, look, honestly, Jen, I think they'll draw inspiration from that experience no matter what. Um they're probably not quite old enough yet to, I guess, fully appreciate what it takes to do what you've done. Um, I'm sure in time, I mean, at least you've chronicled the experience, and yeah, as time goes on, I'm sure they'll appreciate the experience for um as amazing as it is. Now, look, in May, I think it was it May 2025, so we're talking only a year ago or so. Your love for running took on a whole new meaning. Can you talk us through what happened that day that you were on? Just a casual run, I think, with a friend or two.

Dan 31:00

Uh yeah, so um it was an evening run, mid-May-ish, just on the back of uh doing Manchester marathon with some friends and Silverstone marathon around the racetrack. I'm just on an evening run. Um, and then there were there were three things that happened on this run, and we anyone listening will will understand the brain waves and and and and the ideas and the thought processes that go on with a run. Yeah. And there were three things that happened. So in the in the weeks leading up to that, uh, we went to this, um, we went to this um this this place near us called Water's Edge, fantastic, sauna, spa, wild, wild swimming. Um, and I remember looking at their clothing, it's very mental health focused. I remember thinking, like, the designs are fine, like they're good designs, but I really like the idea of what it stands for. I was like, oh, that's interesting. And then my wife, who is incredibly creative, was gonna make us make my running group personalised t-shirts. Well, that's interesting. Um, and before that, I remember thinking, I've got a box of running t-shirts of this synthetic fabric, but I have nothing I can wear in the other 23 hours that I'm running. Like every other group or or or following has their own, their own identity outside of what they're doing, whether it be a band or something like that. And I put all these three things together and I thought, I want to start a clothing brand. And I played this in my mind um throughout the rest of the run, and I came home to Kim, who had just finished doing the girls' bedtime, and I said to her, um, I really think I want to start a clothing brand. And and just like many ideas I'd had over in the past, but this was the one that actually stuck. So by the end of that evening, we'd had, we'd been, we'd we'd played around with with we'd had a name. I think I'd probably registered the Instagram, the domain, um, and just ran at it with pace.

Joshie 32:57

I love it. And so, what's the name of your um clothing brand? We'll make sure we put a link in the show notes.

Dan 33:05

Sure. No, that'd be great. Uh, so it's called Rest Day. Um uh so the website is restday.online, same as the Instagram. And the whole purpose of Rest Day was that we wanted to promote that um things are around running, doesn't have to be running's based on how much time and energy you want to give to running. And just become I I remember seeing on I see on Instagram, everyone was getting faster and faster. So when I grew up, the phrase was it's a it's it's a marathon, not a sprint. But then it was everyone wanted to do a four-hour marathon, great. And then suddenly everyone's qualifying for Boston and doing sub three hour marathons. And I remember thinking, I have to balance a lot of things in life: family, friends, work. And I don't if if I want, if I want to keep up the pack, I have to sacrifice in lots of ways. I'm just not prepared to sacrifice the family time um to suddenly go and run 100k weeks, 120k weeks and miss all of that time. But the whole idea was that I want it's all about it's it's all about balance and and and your your garment is is always telling you you have a day off and it's sort of slap on the wrist, no, no, keep going, keep going. And actually, I remember thinking your your nervous is you do need to sleep, you do need rest. Sometimes when you're you're really tired, instead of going on going for a run in the morning, just sit down and read a book. So, what's the point of your your fitness level being an eight or nine out of ten, but your nervous systems are three? If we're running for longevity, it's a bit more of a holistic approach than just it's not quite as easy as the more you do, the healthier you are.

Joshie 34:58

So you're going to have to talk to us a bit about finding a balance between a fit body and a fit mind or fit nervous system. I mean, is that something do you are there's certain signals that you have to know when you're getting to that stage where they're uh out of equilibrium?

Dan 35:17

Yeah, I mean I think I think it's it's it's it's the right runs at the right time. So when I'm training for a for a race, I will do long runs, I will do faster runs, but generally I try and sit in that um enjoyment enjoyment space and and not and I look at people on Instagram and I go, that's fantastic, because you've achieved that time based on the amount of time you're willing to spend spending spending running. See those people, and that's their full-time job, and that's fantastic. Um and and that would that would be great fun. But as somebody that is working a full-time job, has got two kids, um, uh a wife and and all of the the kind of the the everything that comes with that, I I love waking up and spending time with the kids and to sacrifice if I want to hit those times, I I do have to sacrifice a lot of things. And rest day was it was around the the the balance that rest is okay, um rest is earn. Um rest is um rest is okay. It's okay to not push yourself to the absolute limit. And people constantly push themselves to get faster and faster and faster and faster. And it is absolutely fine to just uh live the life based on what you want to do and the way that you've set it up to be.

Joshie 36:41

I love the way that you speak so openly about mental health and the importance of recognising when, like you say, you need to have a rest. Um not a lot of people have that mindset. This sort of achieve at all costs mentality is still seems to be quite prevalent, and I'm concerned that sometimes what we see on social media just per further perpetuates that um that culture. One thing that I mean, you're not just um talking the talk, um uh Dan, it was, I think, late last year, I mean, you're sort of 12 months in, or not even 12 months into sort of building a a business, and you suddenly had to make a very difficult decision to take an extended period of time off um and put your mental health first. Are you happy to talk us through what was happening um towards the end of last year?

Dan 37:33

Yeah, so um so so Restay started in um we started in May and we we ran at it with pace and we we we had accumulated all the equipment to build it and we had a really I mean the launch was incredible. Um we had I mean we had our first order in two minutes. How someone got onto the website, found what they wanted, the colours, the size, the design, and transacted in less than two minutes is absolutely beyond me. Um I spoke to this, I've spoken to this person before, um, and it was just incredible seeing immediately how we we haven't got we had to learn all of this stuff at the same time. I had to learn how to build a website, we had to learn how like how all of these these payment systems work. And it's just incredible. Like with the the amount of work we had to do, and during our during our summer, so the room we're in now, so you've got the the the t-shirt right behind me and the printing press is the hottest room of the house. And we launched right before a heat wave. So Kim Blesso is making these t-shirts, and the the printing press presses at 203 degrees Celsius.

Joshie 38:40

Oh my gosh.

Dan 38:40

In the hot floor to ceiling windows behind me, it was relentlessly hot. But we had to teach ourselves all of these skills, and we ran at it with pace. I think we just got to the point where it was a full-time job on top of a full-time job. Um, and then um sadly, uh one uh one of my good friends, um uh partners passed away before Christmas, and it it really stopped us in our tracks. And I I think we we just we just prioritized lots of other things over rest day, uh, and that took a bit of a back seat. And I there was, I don't know, maybe two, three months that went by, and it was so hard to to make that first post. And I remember thinking, I need a I like like a in the new year, like I need a post strategy and and how do we bring that back to life? I remember thinking, I was sat here and I thought, I'm just gonna find a picture and I'm just gonna post it. And once I'd done that, it almost kind of just opened the door and the floodgates came back again. Um, and people messaged me and went, Yeah, you're back, you're back. Because we just went months, we just didn't post anything over sort of the whole of December and January. And then and then we were back. Um and yeah, we just we just love it. And I love that, I mean, there's a few thousand people that follow the brands, people that interact with it, and I'm constantly getting messages from people that go, Yeah, this this idea really resonates with me. Partly the idea that people can have clothing for something that they're so passionate about. I mean, we spend so much money on our on our ratios, what we wear on the race day, but we do a couple of races a year, but we can proudly now show off our rest day run club or our rest day and coming up with some of the our first design had tired legs, clear head. And I just like that, I love that. I don't know how this is really bad because I I came up with it, but I just I love that. Um, and then the other one we've got uh is lace up zone out, and it's all of these sort of things that like not every run has to be fast, and people get so and I'm I'm bad for it as well. You look at your Strava average pace and you go, oh, it's above five minutes, or it's it's above six minutes, or whatever it might be. That's fine. That's absolutely fine. Um and people talk about oh, the average marathon runner. There isn't an average, average marathon runner. Like we are all doing an amazing thing, and it's it's so bad that we talk about the average marathon time. If you really want, you should do an average marathon time and include all the people that haven't run a marathon. Exactly. And um, but and and and that's where it came from. People can proudly wear this stuff. Um, and I and I love I love when we get tagged in Instagram posts of people that are out with their family, that have gone to the beach, have gone to the pub with their mates, um, and they're wearing this rest day, this rest day clothing.

Joshie 41:31

I love it. I mean, obviously the you know, the slogans and the messages that you put on your gear really resonate with the um everyday runner. And I know that you're incredibly passionate as well about mental health. I think there's a certain proceeds of sales that you donate to is it mind as well. Um looking looking ahead to um I think you said the 2027 London Marathon. I think you said that you've you're in a bit of an interesting predicament at the moment for you know what that event looks like to you and what you'll run for.

Dan 42:05

Yeah, so um I've I've I've I've I've run a lot of events in the UK. I can't not ever do London. And London is impossible, it's so difficult to get into through through a ballot. And I know that eventually I'll do a charity um and uh do it for a charity place. Um and and is it is a lot of money to to be to raise. It's all a good cause, but it is it is it is a lot of money um to commit to. And through the years of having the children are older now um and and having that headspace to really commit to it. So my friends and I, we said, after everything that happened last year, now feels like the right time. Let's do London 2027. So once the charity place is open, we'll look at what what is the right, the right charity, all things considered. I love it.

Joshie 42:55

Um and uh finally, Dan, through all the challenges that you've been confronted with, and you've spoken about quite a few, um, what has running meant to you in terms of shaping your identity and who you are today?

Dan 43:10

I think it's taught me that I'm so like mentally, I'm so much stronger than I even remotely thought possible. And until you're put in that, until you're put in that high pressure situation and whether that and marathons don't get easier. And it's difficult, it's hard to say what's the hardest type of event. Because I've my sub-20-minute 5k was so tough. And it was only 20 minutes long, and so was a 14-hour ultra marathon, but they're tough in different ways. But I just remember the resilience it, the resilience it's taught me, the coping mechanisms, and the community of people that it's introduced me to. Um, I remember the first time I did our local 10K, I was shocked. I couldn't believe there were this many people that would come out on a Sunday, like thousands of people on a Sunday morning that would come from nowhere, run this event. And go off and live their lives. So it's it's introduced me to community, a mindset, coping mechanisms as well. Like I said, if if if you're having a stressful day or things are kind of getting away from you, um the the the way that it kind of it really does clear your head. Running has taught me so many things. Um and then branching out into into other other things like like strength training, like high rocks that I'm doing this weekend in London. Um I guess it's just finding your identity and running's definitely mine.

Joshie 44:36

Um actually, Dan, there is one other thing that I'd like to briefly explore with you if that's okay. Sure. Those 2026 running legs of yours should have come in handy in 2009 when you were at university. Can you tell us what happened that day?

Dan 44:53

Yeah, so so we're so I went to um so I went to Stafford University, um, but uh on on the other campus in Stoke, Coolio, off of Gangsters Paradise, uh who I think passed away last year. But yeah, Coolio formed Student Union. I mean, we I didn't think it was actually gonna be Coolio, but he comes on the stage. Um and there's not that many, I mean, we can't name many more songs than Gangsters Paradise. But anyway, he comes on the stage and he goes to stage dive, and he was really dark, but I remember thinking there's not that many people, and it is just me here. And he dived and he he lands underneath um lands in these uh a couple of the people that I was with there. And camera phones, I suppose, were like or cameras were sort of in their infancy there, but there were pictures being taken. But all my friends that I was there with were on a sports journalism degree, so their instinct was write it, sell it to the papers. So I think it was the Daily Star, which is a bit more of a laddy newspaper, because it was right next to a topless lady in the newspaper, um, and then Loaded Magazine, which is a bit more of a lad's a lad's magazine, and it's it was in those two newspapers, and I think someone stole Coolio's shoe and necklace. Yeah, he's watching something as well. Yeah, yeah. I don't imagine there was um, I can't imagine there was an encore, but yeah, genuinely um uh I I I always refer to it as I caught Coolio, not in the sense of uh uh uh a really bad disease, but I've literally caught Julio.

Joshie 46:27

Honestly, Dan, you've had quite the life. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you. Thanks so much for choosing to share your journey with us today.

Dan 46:35

No, thanks very much for having for having me on. It's been great to talk to you and explore. I think it's always good to look back and sort of stop and reflect on everything that you that you've achieved rather than be on that conveyor about. So yeah, it's been great to sort of go back and live some of those memories again with you.

Joshie 46:51

I sincerely hope you enjoyed listening to Dan's incredible story. There's not many people that can boast to live at the intersection of running moths and core. If you have a run believable story of your own, we would truly love to hear it. And if you'd like to be a guest on the show, hit us up. Finally, this podcast relies on your continued support. So if you can please take just a couple of moments to follow Ray and share it with your running mates, we'd really appreciate it, and we'll see you for the next Run Believable Adventure.