Barbell Shrugged - 147- Shutting Up The Voice In Your Head & Living Life With Purpose w/ Tony The Fridge

Episode Date: October 22, 2014

This 52-yr-old man strapped a 93 pound fridge on his back and traveled across the UK.  He's about to do it again in the United States.  You won't believe why.

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Tony the Fridge, and we learn about his trek across the UK and his soon-to-be trek across the United States with a 93-pound fridge strapped to his back. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellsrugged, I'm Mike Bledsoe. We've got Doug Larson, Chris Moore, and CTP behind the camera. We are up here in Vermont, hanging out with a bunch of crazy people. It's a bunch of crazy people, but we love all of them. It's a really great time. If you get the chance, come up to Pittsfield, Vermont, hang out with the Spartan Race guys.

The community up here is amazing, and the people that it attracts are amazing. Today we've got Tony the Fridge hanging out with us. Hi, guys. How are you doing? Thanks for joining us, man. We're going to be talking about, you do some ultra-end endurance type stuff while carrying a fridge we're going to talk a little bit about that everybody's like whoa whoa what did i hear

correctly yeah and uh yeah it never crossed my mind to carry a fridge that wasn't going into an apartment or in a house but uh yeah make sure you go to barbellshark.com sign for the newsletter before we get uh too far into this just stop what you're doing. Sign up for that. And then we'll let you know when we come places like up here to Vermont or whatever. I'm having some issues. We don't know what they are. Tony. How are you doing? Thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for inviting us, guys.

Yeah, we've been hearing a bunch of cool stories about you. Strapping frges to your back, running a hundred miles at a time. Yeah. I heard you did 40 marathons in 40 days carrying a fridge. Yeah. A fridge like that fridge. Yeah. Big ass fridge. Yeah. It's a, yeah, it's a real fridge. They, um, yeah. On the challenge you're, I ran the length of Great Britain. And what you don't know was that on day five, I broke my left femur. You broke your femur. You broke your leg on day five out of 40. Yes. Tony.

Hardest bone to break. How'd you do that? Well, basically, all day long that day, I'm running down the road in Scotland through the mountains. And so there's hundreds of people, you know, kind of fridge fans in Great Britain and come and say hello to me.

Fridge fans, that's great. Are you more famous there than here? Well, probably, yes. Okay. That's why I'm here. To get more famous here. Yeah. People are going to be looking at it now, man.

Well, you know, the whole thing about the fridge, and seriously, is that, you know, I want people to ask questions on why. Because the why is really, really important. And yes, it is that I've lost my mind a little bit. There's no doubt about that. But I would certainly recommend that. We're in good company.

Sometimes you really need to lose your temper, don't you? You know, I think the world was shaped by unreasonable people and I certainly fit into that category. So why do you carry this fridge? The wife wouldn't let me have the cooker no the truth is that um i needed something really heavy cancer kept coming back knocking on my door and taking another taking another family member so um you know i don't know i hope you guys haven't experienced but i know the listeners there'll be people who've lost people they love to cancer

and this awful disease slowly takes somebody you love and you watch them, you know, disintegrate in front of you. And that burden of that awful disease is on the whole family. So, you know, the first time I ran with the fridge was for a crazy bet yeah I wanted to raise money for cancer charity and I couldn't because I was well known as a good runner and you know it was always the people in the office who didn't run who got the donations you know so um out of frustration I said I'll tell you what, I'm going to run that half marathon, the Great North Run in England. I'll run it carrying a fridge.

What made you think fridge? Is that the first thing you went towards? Well, you know, I did think about it, you know, before I chose a fridge. And it was mainly down to moving parts. You know, a fridge is big and it's heavy. You cook it, things have to be taken off the grills and that come off to moving parts. A fridge is big and it's heavy. A cooker, things have to be taken off. The grills not come off to be cleaned. I needed something big and heavy.

Put it in a harness, stick it on my back. And that's why. And everybody knows how heavy a refrigerator is. They can sympathize. I was wondering how you did it. You have a harness and there's a harness that holds it on you. So you don't have to use your hands or wrap your arms around it or try to balance it. It's strapped to your back is there's a great story about the

harness there's a there's actually a phenomenon which is all america will soon become aware of and the phenomenon is called fridge love fridge love fridge love yeah these like fridge fuckers spreading right now yeah basically what it is if you if you come across a chap who's when you see the magnitude of the task ahead when I'm carrying a fridge it's not easy you know it's a really really brutal thing to do

I wouldn't recommend it I'm not going to take a recommendation when people see what I'm going through and how passionate I am about what I'm doing then it has an effect

because they most likely will know of somebody that's been affected by cancer when they know why you know traffic comes to a halt people are very respectful people help me everywhere I go it is a really wonderful uh sense of community that you get you know I lost I lost a dad when I was 12 and like lots of people lose loved ones and lose parents, I didn't handle it very well at all and in our case the community didn't come to our house

and my mum the widow we were all lost and I really didn't have such a good belief in community anymore. I didn't like the world very much and when I got upset, I would just run away and I ran and ran and ran and ran

and I never looked back. I never knew where I was going, so that wasn't a worry. I just lived in a moment and just kept moving. When I was tired, I slept. When I woke up, I started running again. When my mind wanted to think about my life, I shut it up, clammed it up and locked it in a box. The only thing I thought about was breathing, moving forward,

living, surviving, basic things. How do my feet hurt so bad what can i eat just little things like that no no thoughts whatsoever so when you see me running down a road on a motorway in the middle of nowhere that's pretty much what's going through my head i don't i'm no different you know the the doctors said as a child i was emotionally disturbed. I still am. I'm actually more disturbed. So the fridge is just a great way to grab people's attention and they identify you carrying that fridge with just raising cancer awareness.

Yeah, you know, it's basically, you know, what started out as a fundraising stunt, there was outcomes that you just don't expect. You don't expect that people from all around the world start messaging you on Facebook and Twitter and, you know, sending you letters and photographs and telling you stories about, you know, how their children lasted a little bit longer

because they wanted to see the fridge man in the marathon. Oh, God. You know, some really heavy, sad stories. And these things you just don't expect. And for me, it really took over my life, you know. And for the last few years, I gave up my business, my job. I walked out on everything I was doing I stood up from my desk and I knew I couldn't go back to work until I was finished this this challenge and what I was

going to do I've always been heading to America my uncle lived here for most of his life came back to England um he was like a second father to me because I lost my father when I was young and I was so excited you know 40 odd year old and put my uncle Charles coming back from California

and he's going to settle down with his sisters my mum and my aunt and be close to me I was going to take him to the football match and we're going to have a great time and then mum has to break it to me that I was going to take him to the football match and we're going to have a great time. And then, mum has to break it to me that he's coming home to die.

And, you know, he was like a cross between Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Evel Knievel. Wow. We called him Bumpsy. He was an adventurer,

you know. I kind of got his spirit, I think. Yeah. You know, I'd say to anybody out there, if you ever lose somebody you love, keep them alive by doing something they would do.

Be adventurous if they're adventurous. Read a book if they like to read. Buy a dog if they had a dog. Keep them alive. You know, do things, take some of their beliefs and their moral values and bring them into your life and then you're never going to lose them. And that's basically what I did. So I had this conversation with my Uncle Charles and said,

OK, then you're going to die. What are you going to do? I've got to do something. I'm going to run across America as a tribute to your life. And what can I do? And he said, well, when you get to the other side, if that's what you're going to do, I need you to go to Lake Zaka in California.

I used to swim there with the boys and fish and log cabins. This is whenever I'm in a bad place, I just think about them days, beautiful sunny days. Everything was going great. California was brilliant. Business was brilliant. Everything was great. And me and the boys would be swimming in that lake.

So go for a swim for me. So the first thing we've got to to we need to rewind a little bit yeah I've run across you know countries and done lots of things before I don't know how I survived some of the brutality of and the the magnitude of the challenges I've done are really um hard for me to even look back on at times so pure luck and community got me through most of them I'm not a superman I'm just an ordinary bloke I'm nothing more than that

I'm as ordinary as grass I'm not some crazy ultra athlete with all these support crews and what have you I'm going to come across America and my wife and kids will be in a motorhome and our whole life will come to a halt my wife's going to come across America and my wife and kids will be in a motorhome and our whole life will come to a halt. My wife's going to sell a business and I'm going to take six months of my life paying a tribute

and hopefully giving hope to people fighting cancer. Hopefully all of America will wonder why this crazy guy's running down the highway with a fridge on his back. But I'm going to run a marathon a day. Oh, man. You know, I will slowly be depleted and bashed around by this fridge.

And, you know, it's something I have to consider my own mortality when I'm doing something like this. You know, I've come close to, you know, the dark side a few times. I've been in trouble. I've been found in the middle of motorways unconscious. All kinds of things have happened to me on my adventures. So it's not going to be easy. And I don't for a moment stand here absolutely confident that I'm going to make it to Los Angeles. But, you know, the whole Tony the Fridge story has been about me taking on impossible journeys.

You know, how I got through to Land's End, 1,052 miles from John O'Groats in Scotland all the way through England down the East Coast, popped into London to see the Queen, and then off to Land's End. And, you know, that was 1052 miles I barely made it in fact three or four days

after it had ended I remember turning to my wife and saying babe is it really over so don't think I'm just going to run across America because that's just not how it's going to be I'm running 28 to run across America because that's just not how it's going to be. I'm running 2,811 miles from New York all the way through Los Angeles.

To run across the country without the fridge is a Herculean amazing feat. We were at Princeton, and a guy gave the keynote. Mike and I were there. What was his name? I don't know his first name. Ulrich was his last name?

I can't remember. I forget the name of the book. It's been a long couple days, but it was a Herculean effort for him to get across the country just running, just with people around him, no extra load. So it is quite the challenge. It's extraordinary to hear you say that you're going to just boldly go into the void because this is what you believe in 100%,

and you're going to see your best effort. I guess you've got to have faith that something will summon out of you that you'll rise. You know, I've only one time in all the times I've been doing challenges actually come really, really close to death. And I look back and I call it the rocky moment, you know, where, you know, I'm in the last round and I think I'm beaten.

And, excuse me, because it gets a bit emotional sometimes. So I turn to the wife, who's a supporter and a runner with me, and, you know, when you know when you're finished you know um it's never like you could like you imagine and in a way the weight was lifted off my shoulders because i knew it was over i couldn't go another step you know but the crowd you know in this half marathon the great north won the biggest half marathon in the world um 56 000 runners in it i started the race i've been celebrated by the crowd i had a broken leg i was in a bad way i

just ran the length of the country and i knew i couldn't make it a mile but then i heard that little matthew spurs local lad cystic fibrosis big fan was waiting at the time bridging and that's a mile away so i said to the wife maybe i can make it to matthew and she's like god say you're not going to do it you were supposed to just wave at the start of the race so i'm just going to run to matthew and so everybody's cheering every single step the whole world's going crazy and i get to the bridge and I can't find Matthew. You know, I get lost in the crowd. And so I keep saying to the wife, well, you know, as soon as they stop cheering,

I'll just, you know, a couple of miles down the road is where our business is. When we get to the business, I'll stop. You know, as soon as they stop cheering, I'll just walk off. But people just cheered louder and louder, you know, singing songs about me, chanting my name and, you know, as soon as it stopped cheering, I'll just walk off. But people just cheered louder and louder, you know, singing songs about me, chanting my name and, and,

you know, and cheering me, pat me on the back and saying, well done. And, um, but I was finished. I was finished.

And, you know, a few tears came and I felt happy inside. I knew I couldn't have given any more than I've given. So I just need to go a few more steps and and I know it's over and I wasn't going to make it to the end of the race but people just kept cheering and I just kept going a few more steps oh I learned something that I learned something that day I learned that if you can get three steps you can get pretty much anywhere

as long as you don't think beyond the three steps so that's all i kept doing i just kept taking three more steps and and you know eventually i uh i made it to the end and so but that was after a thousand mile challenge so this is 2811 miles different temperatures different foreign country um you know all kinds of different problems I'm not going to know many people etc and people aren't going to know really what I'm about a lot of the time

so you know the magnitude of the challenge is extraordinary and to be honest it's impossible but then again I think well it is possible

I kind of hold on to that that it is possible maybe not be me that's able to do it but it is possible you know I think it's possible to beat cancer I think you know we could be just

you know a few hundred thousand dollars away from finding the answer because only money can can pay for research and we you know so that's that we have to feed that beast and keep keep taking it on you know you know cancer knocked on my door i didn't start this fight and um you know i think i think if if cancer was a human being assassinating children parents and how many graveyards have got you know einsteins in them people who could have changed the world people who could have found a cure for cancer could have found a cure for many things how many amazing wonderful people are lying in graveyards taken from us by cancer so you know we've got to make a stand as a as a human race against this awful disease everyone's got to

take it on because it's getting worse in the next you know 20 years up to 50 percent of us are going to be affected by cancer you know what what if there's a tipping point? What if it's a plague that's going to wipe us out? So, you know, as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to take it on, and it's this crazy old bloke with a fridge. What I'm doing, all that, you know, I'm not a fundraiser. I believe people go to work, some of them work in mines, some of them work in high buildings, some of them police officers risking their lives on a daily basis. These people go to work, they work really hard,

and then they see this crazy guy with this huge burden taking on this Sisyphus task. Sisyphus was a Greek mythology, wasn't it? With the boat up the hill? Yeah, he just had to keep pushing that stone ball up the hill. So that's me. That's my task. And so all the hardworking people realize what it's about,

and then they make a donation. So we have donators, and then we have people like me. I'm a catalyst. I'm here to cause a fire. I'm here to start an argument. That's so fucking awesome, man. I'm going to, you know, kick your ass with cancer is what I'm here to start an argument and i'm gonna i'm gonna fucking awesome i'm gonna you know kick your ass with cancer that's what i'm gonna do you know picked on the wrong look i'm not going to probe that you're doing hit over the head with a chair i'll still be standing there

and so you know cancer came knocked on my door and and it's time out you know i ended this this fight once and for all wow that is uh crazy inspiring uh i don't think anyone's ever almost brought me to tears or pretty much brought me to tears basically speechless um yeah uh chris has never been left speechless before no i'm using this well you know i mean we've met each other on it. We've met each other in this magical place. Yeah. You know, we've met each other.

You know, I'm in America because I am an amazing man, Joe DeSena. Yeah. Let's take a break real quick. We come back, we'll talk about

what you're doing here and we'll talk about Joe a little bit. Okay. This is Andrea Ager and you're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com.

Barbell Shrug is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrug.com and sign up for the newsletter. And we're back with Tony the Fridge, the only man ever on the podcast to silence Chris Moore. Uh, yeah, that's all, that's all you've gotten back so far. Um, yeah. So, uh, we're up here at Joe

DeSantis place, uh, the founder of Spartan race and, uh, a huge driving force in the community. Uh, and if you were to come up to Pittsfield,field you would see the community and uh how uh intensely great it is um how'd you meet joe and and why are you here this week yeah um it's a crazy world we live in so you know i am i'm this cancer champion you know i don't even know what the news is today because I'm just so passionate about what I've been doing. I don't lift my head up and read books. You know, I'm always getting myself prepared for the next challenge and the last few years of my life has just been completely absorbed

with what I've been doing. So, sorry, Jo, I didn't know who you were. And I've gotten Facebook messages off Joe's lovely friend Dale and she's been tasked with a job of finding inspiring people around the world Joe wants to interview for Spartan up YouTube and what are you and for his podcast yeah for his podcast and so they've been messaging me over and over again but i have to be slow you know and take my time through the facebook messages i get lots of messages from people who are fighting cancer and things like that and i've got to take one

every single one of them seriously whether i think it's a hawks or not i've got right back to everyone so you know um so i take my time i noticed this particular uh message coming over and over again same person messaging me and i was working my way down to him you know i get hundreds of messages every month so and um so anyway i thought i best take a quick look and this lady i didn't know either and um so she's saying look you know we think you're really inspiring we're doing this thing take a look at this YouTube video this is Joe with Richard Branson and you know

we want to talk about what you're doing so obviously that's great for you know like you guys supporting me now it's like just like this it's a great way of getting the word out there and so yeah so yeah I'm in London anyway that weekend and I'll meet up with

you you know so i go to this free box shop to meet them i went to the other side of london one of my sponsors vivo barefoot been uh had my fridge in one of their shops so got the fridge and thought we'd experience a bit of fridge love how to wander through london on the day and then grab the fridge and with the fridge through london with the fridge and went through London for the day? Swat through London with the fridge, you know, as you do. It just causes havoc. So you can't go two or three steps in England if you're the fridge man without getting a photograph of somebody. It just goes mad.

And it's really, really nice that people are touched in that way. I am quite cherished and I appreciate that, I really do. So I walk across London, get rid of Fridge Love, rainy day, and turn up at the Reebok shop, sit the guy, oh yeah, hi, Tony the Fridge, come across, he's the only guy in England I think who doesn't know who I am. And you're, you're who? What's that on your bag? It's a fridge, I'm just going to't know who I am, and, you who? What's that on your back? It's a fridge.

I'm just going to put it here, is that alright? He's like, well, we're not insured in the shop to have fridges, you know. Well,

you invited us here, you know, I'm just coming here to meet Joe, you know, Joe just said, Spartan racer, this is what they said. He went,

I don't know any Joe. Alright, okay. So, I said, look, I believe that they're coming your boss will tell you

in a minute make a phone call I'm putting the fridge down I need to go to the toilet it's hard to go to the toilet with the fridge it's a problem you know

actually disabled toilets in certain miles are really good yes but generally it's a problem when I run marathons it's really good

because you know that big queue to the plastic port-a-loos that you know you're dying for the loo

you've drunk too much water because it's a hot day and you run the marathon and then next thing you need to go to the toilet and then there's a queue

and you're standing wetting yourself thinking oh god I shouldn't have wore grey shorts now I wore grey shorts I've wet myself and everyone can see it

you know I'm going to spill this water down my chest make it look like the water off my chest because I've really wet myself so that doesn't happen to me

because when I'm at the marathon I can just I can sit at the front of the queue and I say hey guys have you ever seen a fridge man fitting in a port-a-loo

do you want to see how it works and they open the door and I have to shuffle in, you know, and I have to have a wee from virtually outside, but it works. It gets me to the front of the queue. So I shouldn't have told anyone my secret, but that's why I wanted to do it. Well, now all I have to do is run marathons with the fridge on my back and I can skip the line. Yeah, you know, at the very least we should be able to go to the toilet

when we need, shouldn't we? So anyway, I put the fridge down and I said the guy can I use the toilet he said no we're not insured for that either I said right ok so I literally stormed out left the fridge trotted down the road to the McDonald's and used the toilet and then I'm on my way back

and now I'm thinking do you know what I'm walking all the way across London I'm carrying this fridge come know what? I've walked all the way across London, I'm carrying this fridge, come to see this Joe DeSena guy and they're not bloody here and nobody knows who I am. Wouldn't let us use the toilet. I thought, right, you know what? I'll get me fridge and I'm going.

I'm out of here. I'll get me fridge, I'm out of here. First man to ever think that. Yeah. I'm taking my fridge, I'm getting the fuck out of here. So I go back to the shop, and I'm just about to get the fridge and go, and Joe and Del come bursting in, really sorry.

They got delayed in traffic, blah, blah. And so I meet the amazing Joe DeSanta. He was late to something? Yeah, yeah. Oh, Joe, we're going to bust your ass. I've heard that was a one-off. He was late to something? Yeah, yeah. Oh, Joe, we're going to bust your ass. Yeah, I've heard that was a one-off. I've heard it was a one-off. Sick that day. Jet lag.

Apparently, it's dead easy to cash on his mobile. You send him an email, he's just there for you. So anyway, that's what happens. Joe turns up and he says, is it okay if I wear your fridge? I love people who put their fridge on because, you know, you can't do things with a fridge on, yeah?

And put it on, people put it on, they go, wow, they go, do you know what I mean? They really feel the magnitude of it. Unless that chap happens to be Joe DeSena.

So he puts the fridge on where most people crumble. He says, is it okay if I do some burpees with it on? What? Yeah, seriously. Seriously. In a Reebok shop in London,

in Covent Garden, he says, can I do some burpees with your fridge? Yeah, go for it. I'd love to see that, actually. Joe loves burpees. I thought, well, I thought, you know,

he's being late. The very least he can do is put a fridge on, do some burpees. I had to use McDonald's toilet. They wouldn't even let us take the fridge off. Yeah, let's do some burpees. We'll have that McDonald's toilet. They wouldn't even let us take the fridge off. You just go, yeah, let's do some burpees. We'll have that.

A good fridge will have it. Yeah, but then again, then he did it. You know, he just blasted off three burpees wearing a 42 kilogram fridge. The man's a, you know, he is a living legend. And so, but I still didn't know who he was at this point. This is actually three weeks ago. Oh.

This is the 1st of September, 2014. He moves quick, man. Yeah. So anyway, Joe says, look, you know, it's all right if I chat to you. And we had a chat similar to what we're having right now. And Joe was moved. And he said, OK, you have to come to America.

So I've got to do some stuff. We're going to have a Spartan race now. I want to show you have to come to America. He said, I've got to do some stuff, we're going to have a Spartan race now, I want to show you around and get you to meet some amazing people and, you know, going to help you run across America. You know,

just come, come over and we'll start there, you know. Yeah. And no plan, no nothing. And anyway,

I never heard from him for a week or so and that was it. He sent me an email saying, you're great, I want a week or so and um that was it he sent me an email saying you're great i want a fridge and um and and that was it and then people are asking me i was going to run another ultra race i've had i've been doing some challenges this month what have you had a busy month and a friend of mine said look will you come and run this 100 mile race it's your first event etc and uh you know

you being there helps the PR and things so I said yeah yeah I look good I was going to I met this guy and I was going to go to America but yeah

he's not been in touch and then I says look I'll give him a couple of days and if you know and if he doesn't get in touch we'll we'll do

I'll do your run you know and then a day or so later I get an email you know flight tickets books don't come to america there was no going back and he booked my tickets he he wanted me here yeah and um so i come across to uh to spartan race not really knowing much about spartan you know when we first came we didn't know either and it's quite a discovery you make here, right? Wow. You know, the Spartan race was probably designed for people like me, you know.

The brutality, the toughness of the obstacles, the hills, you know, the feeling that you can't get through it. Yeah. You know, it was made for someone like me. But I'd never seen the Spartan race. I'd never seen the spartan race i'd never seen the drama the spectacle you know the the fantastic uh camaraderie i'd never seen that you don't see that in marathons you really don't not like not like a spartan race it is a very very unique occasion and so anyway i'm uh i'm at the start. I've been traveling for a long time, 38 hours, two hours sleep, and I'm at the start of the Spartan race.

CNN's doing a video. Did you do it with the fridge on your back? No, no. Well, I'm just watching Joe. I just turned up. I'd literally just arrived from England and jet lag and all that. You know, it's like you you know here's five hours behind to what my time is in england so i've got a lot going on and i'm at the i'm at this

fantastic spectacle first time i've even a lot dies on it and um if you don't know you just can't fly into pittsfield vermont yeah you've got to fly in like two or three hours away from here that's right and drive here that's's right. Beautiful drive. And the shuttle bus had let me down, so I stood for three and a half hours at the airport and then got a $200 cab drive to here in the end. So I'd had a bad old day. I've had two hours sleep, and then next thing I'm at the Spartan race. Fit in here, right?

Yeah. So I'm watching Joe get interviewed and he's CNN's there and what have you Joe says Tony where's your kit

I said what do you mean my kit he says your running gear you know your your race gear I said well I haven't got any of them I was just going to

volunteer and help out the day no no he said you've come here to race go down go down to merchandise you're doing the beast nice the beast is what No, he said, you've come here to race. Go down to merchandise.

You're doing the beast. Nice. And the beast is what, 13 miles? Yeah, 14.9. 14.9. So, you know, they... With like 25 or 30 obstacles. Yeah. Right, right.

Yeah. And, you know, so I'm just thrown into it. And, you know, I've never practiced on an obstacle, never seen any of it. I mean, some of the brutal and you know I've never practiced on an obstacle never seen any of it I mean some of some of the brutal you know

putting huge logs on my shoulders and climbing up a hill well I'm Tony the fridge so it's kind of made for me

you know that one you had down yeah I had them I had them ones you know climbing 10 foot walls going up hills is one thing

but the other thing you see in a Spartan race as well, which is just so unique, I remember running up the hill towards this 10-foot wall and the big guys weren't making it, you know, and they were exhausted. You know, there's 7,000 feet of climbing in this challenge

and these men are genuinely dead on their feet, trying to get up, trying to get up, people trying to help. So I ran and jumped at it, and I thought to myself, I don't have a chance here, but I'm going to have a go. And I managed to get up first time. Now, you know, in most life, you're on a challenge, you're on a race, you're looking at your watch, you're trying to do as quick as you can,

you just jump over the wall anywhere you go. But that's not what happens at Spartan. It's just a magical camaraderie. I'm on the wall, not what happens at spartan it just it's just a magical camaraderie i'm on the wall so what happens next i'm now helping 10 15 other guys over until one guy sits on the wall and he takes over me and you know that's just what spartan's about it's about warriors helping other warriors and you know joe de sena he's a he's a warrior and that makes the dynamic completely different yeah yeah I tell you any other race maybe you've ever done yeah yeah without a

doubt I mean for me being Tony the fridge and you know the the support that I get at marathons is astounding I mean sometimes scary and what a lot of people don't realize when I run in in a marathon like the London Marathon this year, I was actually in a really bad way, sunstroke and what have you. But people come out to see the fridge man, see the crazy fridge guy. So they see me coming and 10, 15 yards down the road, so they hear the cheer for the fridge man. So they start to cheer the fridge man.

So I'm the fridge man. If you're me, if you're running alongside me as my support runner in this environment what we're running into is a Mexican wave a tunnel of noise which stays with you

just ahead of you you're running into it constantly for 26.2 miles jeez wow you know and you know

I'm vomiting I'm ill I've got sunstroke you know I was in hospital five days it messed me up but in the meantime you and I'm vomiting, I'm ill, I've got sunstroke. You know, I was in hospital five days. It messed me up. But in the meantime, you know, I'm waving to the crowd and cheering and thank you.

But my ears are actually crackling. And the greatest thing about finishing the London Marathon this year was the silence of the tent. It wasn't the ice packs on my shoulders and things like that. It was none of that. It wasn't the fact that I'd stopped running it was the fact that the he had gone quiet i could have some peace because that that that euphoria you know he can be quite terrifying you know and then you get the odd one who just jump up and you're having a dream all day long yeah then you get you get a

pumped up you get exhausted you get a pumped up warrior running past you punching the arm you know punching and thumping on the shoulders hey good job man good job my shoulders I'm not muscular that's

that's a swelling you're looking at you know Jesus so yeah it's you know but you know people mean well

and people support me right so I get wherever I go I get that cheer but to join a race as a totally unknown you get amongst it and people support me. So I get, wherever I go, I get that cheer. But to join a race as a totally unknown, you get amongst it. I mean, like for instance,

you're climbing this hill, you know, which is a ski resort, and we're climbing up this hill for, you know, the fourth time of the day or whatever. And there's odd things happen. We become a tribe. for instance you know you've been climbing climbing climbing climbing there's two miles that's so high yeah so you're a mile or so up and you take you take a knee yeah you rest and because you've you know you've done 20 odd obstacles and climbed under barbed wire and up your eyes in mud and dropped logs on your feet and you've got all this going on

and you're climbing this huge hill. You can't walk it. You can't run it. You can't run up this thing. It is virtually vertical. You fall backwards and you're going to be rolling for a long time. Yeah. So you take a knee because you're mentally and physically exhausted

and the group of strangers around you take a knee with you because you taking a knee has given them permission to rest too you see little gaggles of people it was great to watch the ultra beast the following day and uh go on the um go on the in the in the car in the cars and look above and look down on the runners, you know, and you could see that happening,

that, you know, you could see that one guy rests and then watch, look, two or three will rest around him,

don't know each other, just, they'll just share each other's space quietly and then right, he takes a breath he goes again and they follow him and you know this is what goes on through

the day you know I know people I know runners and marathoners have a great community spirit you know running has done so much for the world we have so much money but the Spartan races, we all could learn a lot from how that community behaves when it's in that environment. So if someone wanted to help contribute to your fight and help you specifically, is there something that they could do that,

is there any place that you need help and there's something that they could do to help you? Yeah, yeah, definitely. And if you ask my family, they'll tell you I do need help as well. I'll tell you. Especially as my teenager's this year, dad needs help.

I'm going to run across America. I'm going to set off most probably in June I'm going to run the cannonball run and um we're going to be socially um interacting with with everybody through through Twitter and podcasts and Facebook um I have a website tonythefridge.com and um I carry a GPS a military standard GPS on me at all times so you you can actually click on the page, find the fridge, and that will zoom in. I actually met a great chap this weekend. He introduced me by Joe DeSena, who was one of the top guys at Google. So there's still an opportunity and a possibility that I'm going to have a Google street camera on me. Oh, wow.

So you can log in and actually see what I can see as I run along the road. Oh, yeah. Is that like a Google Glass or something? Yeah. So this is something that really could happen. The Google chat was really excited about it. So, you know, put a bit of pressure there

and see if we can get that going. We have a friend at YouTube that does live streaming stuff. Yeah, yeah. Maybe we could reach out to him and maybe... He's probably listening to this right now. If he is, he should contact you. Yeah, he should, definitely. You know, I think the phenomenon that the fridge can cause...

And I say the fridge, I mean the sight of this chap with a fridge. It's not me. I'm not a superhero or anything like that. It could be one of you guys carrying that fridge. No, no. No, really, no, it could. No, really, it could be one of you guys. It could be all three of us, actually.

But what happens when people see that fridge and they know what it represents, they know it's about fighting cancer and they can see the turmoil that I'm going through. It has an effect upon people and a brilliant effect, a Spartan-like effect. And I'll get to a busy junction where the traffic's moving fast, et cetera,

that traffic will come to a gradual halt. It's like a parting of the waves. And, I mean, the other thing about traffic, when traffic's moving past you and you're running along the side of the highway, you get cheers from the cars. People jump, you know, they'll pump the air, go on the fridge and they shout stuff.

If you're in Scotland, they shout like, what the fuck are you doing? But like the rest of the world, like in England, it's like, go on son, go on son.

But when traffic's parked, it's like those Spartans resting on the hill. And the windows come down and they share your air. And you can see that thought. No doubt they're probably thinking about people they've lost, thinking about the challenges that they've seen cancer put on their families. And there's an eerie feel to the air sometimes,

where you know groups of people are en masse going quiet because you're passing by. So it's not me, it's that demonstration of burden, that demonstration of that cancer. It just takes them back to their loved ones. That's what they're thinking about. I know that's what it is. I get so many messages.

If you ever go on any of my Just Giving pages and Facebook page, watch the videos on my Facebook page on Tony the Fridge. You'll have some great fun. Some of them are a little bit brutal. Apologise for the last one. That's just gone up.

You really need to see sometimes what we're a little bit brutal. Apologise for the last one. That's just gone up. But you really need to see sometimes what we're really going through. But there is some quite tough scenes in there, so sorry about that. But what I would really like people to see is the comments. Look at the comments that people leave and you realise that my sadness and my grief

is the same for lots of other people. I'm not unique. We're being decimated by this awful disease. And we've got to start, you know, demonstrating different habits to our children. And we need to guide the rebellious youth, which, you know, I know when I grow up, I'm going to tell all the adults really what it's like to be young.

You know, I'm 50 years old. I still feel like one of those rebellious youngsters. But, you know, we have to show them that, you know, to eat healthy and what have you, we need to beat cancer in lots of ways. We need to beat cancer by making donations to cancer charities. It doesn't have to be mine. I will not measure my success by the amount of money in the bank for cancer at the end.

How can you do that? I've met mothers of children. I could tell you so many stories. It's not about the money that's an outcome that we can hope for the more the merrier money will help beat cancer but it's about hope

it's a symbol of hope it's a symbol of me saying do you know what let me take a bit of that weight for a bit just for a little bit I'm going to run across America for you and when I'm finished I'm going to disappear into the ether. I'll change my image.

I'll shave off the goatee. I won't look the same. And you'll never hear from me again. Because, you know, just these things, they're whimsical tales. They're only meant to last so long. I've run my last runs in the UK I've got a commitment with London Marathon

next year which will be a bit of PR and what have you promoting the the run across America but you know I'm still being asked every day

come and run in my marathon come and run in my half marathon come and run in my 10k and I really really appreciate all that support but it gets to a point it gets to a point, it gets to a point where, you know,

I have to think, am I going there for the cheer and I'm not. It's, you know, I'm going to see people who know what it's about. They've got the message. I need the drama.

We need to put it on a new audience. We need, we need to shake up America. This is how the whole thing began. My Uncle Charles, he made his home in Santa Barbara, California and several towns around there over the years. I've got family all over the States and in New Mexico. All of my cousins and what have you

are spread all around this beautiful country. So I made a promise to a man which you know he wouldn't mind if I didn't keep it but I would and I made a promise to him that I was gonna run across America as a tribute to his life and I'm gonna go for that swim and I just hope that I just hope that people see it for what it is it's not a demonstration of you know I'm not Joe De Sena I'm an ordinary bloke as ordinary as grass and I'm really just going to take on this impossible challenge because cancer is

an impossible challenge and if if I can get the end of, maybe you could get the end of yours. That's all it's about. It's nothing else. All I'll ask is people follow me on Twitter, Tony the Fridge. Google Tony the Fridge and it'll just take you. You'll see all the crazy stories and daft videos on YouTube and what have you.

You know, there's even me singing on stages with bands behind me after running multiple marathons yeah it's all a little bit nuts and a little bit surreal um but you know we're going to make a whole new story when we run across the states and i think that you know that this is going to be one one hell of a fantastic phenomenon i think that the you that we're going to take our mind off the bad things and we're going to get together and

we're going to instill some belief to those people fighting this disease on a daily basis. To show the world that this can be carried. Yeah. All the way to the finish line. You know, I do a little chat around the primary schools and that. And my chat's always headed, if I can do that, you can do this.

Yeah. That's all it's really about. Wow, that's amazing. So June 2015, expect you to be running across America with a fridge on your back. Yeah, watch out. Just watch out because I might pop up. New York Marathon's still there. I could pop up there.

I would like to do a big shout-out for Titan Tea for getting behind me. Absolutely. Just drank me a bottle of it. I get asked lots of questions when I'm running down the street. People shout out, what's in your fridge? I hope you've got a beer in there. Well, actually, no, it'll be Titan tea. That's what it is.

Ice cold Titan tea. Excellent. Well, thanks for joining us. And this was, I think, I think we, I don't know if I can speak for these guys, but I think I'm going to try to come run with you for at least a day. Yeah, you've got to. I'm not much of an endurance athlete

I'll get a mini fridge going we'll have a full size one for all those wonderful support runners you know the other thing I must tell you after interviewing me guys there is help you can get for this you can get therapy for having had a fridge experience

don't worry you know if you in a few years time you'll be okay oh well thanks for joining us uh immensely enjoyed having you on and and hearing your story uh it's very touching and uh i look forward to running into you more in the future thanks man