Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - The lady who ran across Africa!

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Guinness World Record holder Emma Timmis discusses what it takes to achieve one and her new record for 2024.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This John or Ben podcast brought to you by HelloFresh, the experts and tastes that Kiwis love. Emma, you're mad. You're a mad monkey. You're back at it. Oh, jeez. Well, I see that you guys do lots of crazy things as well, so I'm not the only one. Well, 24 hours of handball, I mean, yes, it was a little wild, but you know, for a good cause, which is exactly what you're doing for a great cause as well. But something, trying to break a world record talk us through it so i'm going to be attempting to set a new female world record for the greatest

distance on a treadmill in one week wow so what is that how long has someone in the past run on a treadmill over a week uh females 833 kilometers. Now, Megan, you did two hours on the treadmill last week. You said that felt like... Two hours. That was impressive. I wanted to die afterwards. Are you going to be on a treadmill non-stop? I will be getting off to eat and sleep.

Good. So what does that average? Over 100 k's a day, something like that? Yeah. So if you average out the current world record it's 119 119 so obviously i need to do about 120 or more per day how do you feel like because you know we've spoken to you in the past i mean you ran across africa which was what the equivalent of like 90 marathons or something over 89 days so how are you feeling about this is this

a realistic thing that you could potentially do? Oh, I'm pretty confident in my abilities, yeah. Physically, I don't think there's a problem. It's just, it's going to be such a mental challenge. Mate, she ran across the continent of Africa. I think she can go on a treadmill for a few days. Are you listening to podcasts? Are you watching series?

Do you do anything like that? Because I find, you know, you go to the gym, you're on the elliptical or whatever it is, and like 10 minutes you're like all right come on bro I feel like I need to do something else but you're going to be there all day every day for a week what are you doing yeah so I will be listening to some podcasts although when I did the 48 hour record on the treadmill I actually found that after a few hours my brain couldn't even focus on the words they were saying in the podcast so I'll have some kind of repetitive non-wordy dance music that I'll listen to and then also there's just gonna be loads of people around me so I think the energy from other people will keep

me going and I'll be able to chat to people when I've got the energy to do that because you do hit a wall when you're running what do runners like yourself ultra marathon runners or ultra long distance runners what do you think about like how do runners like yourself, ultra marathon runners or ultra long distance runners, what do you think about? How do you keep yourself going mentally? Oh, well, in terms of the question of what do I think about, there's a lot inside this brain of mine. So there's never any limit to what I'm thinking about. I think of all kind of weird and wonderful things.

I suppose you'd solve a lot of the world's problems, wouldn't you? Oh, absolutely. I'm in control of everything in my own little space, in my head. It's incredible what you're doing. So you're raising money for the Speed Freaks Trust. Is that right? Tell us about that. Yeah.

So the Speed Freaks is an amazing charity. It's a very young charity. They'll be celebrating their third birthday while I'm on the treadmill. And they use running and walking alongside connection and community to aid recovery from addiction. And it's just so successful. So they started in Christchurch, but now they are set up in Auckland and in Whangarei. And there's demand all over the country.

But unfortunately, they're at their limit financially. So they really need help and support. So that's what this is all about, raising money for them. Speed Freaks, great name for the organisation too. Yeah, the participants chose that name. Yeah, it's brilliant. I mean, they'd probably go a lot quicker and a lot organisation too Yeah, the participants chose that name Yeah, that's brilliant I mean they'd probably go a lot quicker and a lot longer too if they were still on it

But let's see, a fantastic cause and can we just go back to your African journey when you ran across Africa I know I've spoken to you about it before are you running into lions and you know, giraffes Oh we saw lots of giraffes, saw lots of elephants lots of warthogs but no lions thankfully Any animals come, you know, drafts and... Oh, we saw lots of drafts, saw lots of elephants, lots of warthogs, but no lions, thankfully.

Any animals come, you know, trying to attack you or come near you? There was a rhino pushing the vehicle in the middle of the night. So we slept in a rooftop tent. We were on the top of the vehicle. And a rhino came up and was pushing it because probably quite intimidated by it.

You could hear elephants. So the male, the young male elephants, in the middle of the night, they walk around snapping branches and making noises because they're trying to attract females. And you could hear them snapping branches, getting closer and closer and closer to the vehicle. And that was quite scary, but thankfully nothing happened with them. Now, Larsa, you don't want to encounter a bloody randy elephant

in the middle of the night, do you? What about like 89 days, I think, across Africa? It was incredible. Like, what about safety for you? Because I imagine some places where you're out there on your own, not just wild animals, but, you know, did you encounter anything like that? We were generally safe. So I had a support crew.

There was four other people, one on a bike and three in a vehicle. So the vehicle was always relatively close and the bike was next to me all the time. And yeah, generally the people in Africa just wanted to help us as much as they could. Awesome. Did you ever find out, does it rain down in Africa? There was a lot of rain at the end. Oh, you did?

I ran into the rainy season. It's a photo of your feet on your website from you. Or is this your only fans? I'm not sure what I'm looking at right now. But it's a photo of your feet on your website from you i was just your only fans i'm not sure what i'm looking at right now but um but yeah this is running across africa look very swollen are you imagine 89 days very blistery as well yeah yeah well they they've been a lot worse things i've done since i probably thought it was bad at the time but now i know what it's like to have really really bad feet well how do you run through a blister like once i've got one i'm like okay well i'm out there that's me for three weeks yeah oh a lot of

pain management and mental control what about the stitch you're worried about the stitch and getting through that this is every time i go to run it since you're my kids i go around my kids and i've got the stitches and you're like oh yeah yeah what do my kids and I'm like, I've got the stitches. And you're like, oh, yeah. Power on through it, kids. Yeah, what do you do? If you get the stitch, what's your advice? My advice from when I was younger would be to push your fingers onto it. Doesn't it feel like a younger person? When you were younger, you always felt like you got the stitch. Painful, too, really.

Maybe it's to do with age. Maybe as you get older, you don't get it anymore. Well, good luck if you do get the stitch. Push through it. Some people say grunting, don't you? Like when you get older, you don't get it anymore. Well, good luck if you do get the stitch. Push through it. Some people say grunting, don't you? Like when you get the stitch, you're like, ugh, ugh. I mean, whatever works for you.

Yeah. You don't want to be doing that in the middle of Snap Fitness. Well, good luck, Emma. And we'd love to talk to you again. I don't know if you're taking phone calls through your thing. You're probably managing that. But we'd love to talk to you even throughout the thing or at the end of it.

That would be great. Oh, yeah. My crew have got a a phone and they can point it towards my mouth and i'll i'll grunt to you oh great have you got the stitch yet ever amazing thank you thanks see ya