Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

Dr. Tom Lawton Ran 22 Miles in a Mask To Prove A Point Does wearing a mask really impair your oxygen levels as some people claim? Recent internet sensation Dr. Tom Lawton went to extremes to find out. After a prolonged period of not running, he ran 22 miles in a homemade triple-layer mask, testing his oxygen levels along the way. His goal was twofold: to prove it’s safe to wear a mask while walking about and to raise money for charity.    In this episode, Coach Claire delves into the details of Tom’s mask experiment, finds out if he thinks runners should wear masks, what his experience as a critical care doctor has been like in the UK with the coronavirus, and also what he thought about recent controversial RTTT guest Matthew Hammersmith who has been putting on in-person races during the pandemic. Spoiler alert: Tom is not fully for or against what Matt is doing. Check out his opinion and see if you agree.   Tom Lawton is an intensive care doctor with the Bradford Royal Infirmary in Yorkshire, England, a healthcare researcher, and triathlete.  After being fat and wheezy through childhood, he took up rowing at his university, and hated running with a passion. Unable to run more than about a quarter of a mile without knee pain and a loud “slap” accompanying each foot strike, he foolishly ran (well, mostly walked while sobbing in pain) the London Marathon to raise money for charity. He then vowed never to run again. A decade later and unfit once more, a drunken wedding bet saw Tom enter the first Ironman Wales. He started running under protest and arrived at the race having managed training runs of no longer than 10 miles. Undeterred, he excitedly scarfed down everything he’d picked up from the expo during the bike section. Alas, at least one of those things did not agree with him and he spent most of the run being sick. Nevertheless, he still somehow managed to beat his London Marathon time, which prompted him to pick up triathlon training for real. Since then, Tom has continued to improve and has finished each of his last six iron-distance races in under 10 hours. However, the pandemic has put a stop to all that and he has been unable to train much since January due to a combination of work and the stress of caring for sick patients.  Tom desperately wants to get back to training, so he wants everyone to do whatever they can to keep this virus under control, and he has become a keen mask advocate. In order to prove they were safe to wear around the shops, he pushed a bit more oxygen through one by running to the ICU and back, and has spent the last few weeks exposed to the Internet’s underbelly in the aftermath with his aforementioned 22-mile run.  Questions Tom is asked:          5:03 You are a critical care doctor in the UK who has recently gotten quite a bit of attention for running 22 miles wearing a triple layer mask to prove that wearing a mask does not cause a drop in oxygen levels.  Before we get into that story, can you tell me a bit about what life is like with the pandemic where you are?   6:56 Can you talk a little bit about what the hospital you were working at was like in April with all the cases coming in?   8:20 Was your hospital overwhelmed with COVID patients?   8:50 In the United States, a big part of the decision to wear a mask or not seems to be a very political one.  We Americans prize our freedom and individualism and some people just don't like being told what to do, so they don’t want to wear a mask.  Are you seeing that in the UK as well, that kind of attitude?   10:54 Let's have you tell the story of the run that got shared around the world.  How did you set it up and what’s the story?     14:47 Tell me about the mask you were wearing on your run?   15:49 How did you measure your oxygen levels on the run?   17:02 What kind of feedback are you getting from people? Are people saying that, “Well, you’re an athlete. Of course your oxygen levels are going to be great,” or “I have asthma. This isn’t going to work for me.” Did people say that you’re some kind of exception? Have you gotten any feedback like that?   18:49 You ran to work in a mask, and then presumably you wore a mask all day at work, and then you turned around and wore a mask and ran home. Is that right?   19:43 What you said before is you ran in a mask just to show that you could do it, but I’m gathering that you wouldn’t recommend it and it probably wasn’t great for performance. Is that correct?   22:05 I certainly know a lot of athletes who do live in big cities and run on crowded paths and they wear the neck gaiter or the buff because it’s easy to pull up and down. And you mentioned that Duke University study that came out, and it said that the buffs are actually worse than no mask at all because they break up the droplets and make them easier to spread. I’d love to get your thoughts on that.   25:01 A lot of people say, “Well, hey, if I’m healthy enough to go running or I’m healthy enough to go run a race, then I probably don’t have corona.” What do you say to people who say that?   26:06 We recently had a race director on this show and he was putting on smaller races, 200-to-300 people at the events, and with very minimal pre-race, post-race contact, but still, in a race, and there’s pictures of these races that you’re not six feet apart, you’re passing people, there’s crowds at the starts, so what do you say about holding races during the pandemic?   28:17 Part of the race director’s argument was there’s a mental health risk of not going out and seeing other people, and that’s hard to deny as well. People are kind of going a little stir crazy, but also some serious mental issues are happening because we are all stuck inside. Are you seeing that as well?   30:03 And on a personal note, how is your training going?   Questions I ask everyone:   31:37 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   32:10 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   32;59 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Tom:   “There have been a lot of people, especially with this mask-run context, they need to complain and say they don’t want to wear masks, and various forms of abuse. And a lot of them are American, but I’ve had Canadian abuse, I’ve had French abuse, I’ve had UK abuse, so it’s not just an American thing.”   “The purpose of doing this wasn’t to show that you should run in masks. It was to show that you could walk around the shops quietly in one, and the running was just to make it kind of more extreme and make it really obvious that if anything was going to make my oxygen levels drop, then running for 22 miles should have made it happen, and it didn’t.”   “This disease is about people thinking of others. Most of us involved in running are relatively young, we’re fit, we’re healthy. We are not going to die from coronavirus even if we catch it, but we could spread it to friends, to family, to people we don’t know who are more at risk, and those are the people we’ve got to really think about.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:  USA Today Article abc News Article Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Tom on:   Twitter We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

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Are You Tough Enough to Race the World’s Harshest Deserts? Samantha Fanshawe   Imagine running 250km (about 155) miles in 6 stages across the most inhospitable deserts in the world while carrying everything you need for the entire race on your back.  Whether you think that sounds incredible or miserable, you’ll probably agree the idea is fascinating. Samantha Fanshawe, president of the 4 Deserts Race Series at RacingThePlanet, manages ultra stage races all over the world in some of the harshest conditions from the Atacama Desert in Chile to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to the Namib Desert in Africa to the coldest desert in the world, Antarctica. Sam tells Coach Claire what it’s like to race these events, what you need to do to train and prepare, and who should (and should not) sign up for an event like this. It’s a fascinating dive into the world of some of the toughest races on the planet, and you can enjoy it from the comfort of home!   Sam has always been a citizen of the planet. She is a Brit, born in Peru and schooled in Pakistan for a few of her early years. She graduated from the University of Leeds with a joint honors degree in Maths and Biology, then went off to explore parts of the world such as Sydney, Australia, before returning to the United Kingdom to work in business development of corporate clients in the recruitment industry. After a couple of years, her company transferred her to Singapore, followed by stints in Penang, Malaysia and Hong Kong.  Sam has mastered the art of dragon boat racing, competing in the Dragon Boat World Championships. She also plays squash, hikes, rides horses, and mountain bikes. She fell in love with running while living in Asia, starting with half marathons before running the Singapore Marathon, sprint triathlons, adventure races, and ultimately ultramarathons including the Hong Kong Oxfam Trailwalker, the Gobi March, Vibram HK 100, and Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset.  In 2005, Sam volunteered at the hottest race on record, the Gobi March, a seven-day, 250km footrace. She fell in love with the spirit of RacingThePlanet and became a staff member, and has since worked over 20 RacingThePlanet/4 Desert events.   Questions Samantha is asked:          5:18 You have a very interesting background, living all over the world. How did you first get involved with RacingThePlanet?   6:23 Can you describe what these events are like? I’d love to hear what they are and what kind of people sign up for them?   9:12 How many people actually really run every single day and how many people do more of a walk/hiking?   9:46 The participants pretty much have to bring everything as far as food. They don’t have to bring a tent I understand, but pretty much everything else?   11:02 How has the pandemic affected RacingThePlanet?   12:47 Let’s talk about training for the race. Let’s fast forward to 2021 when everything is perfectly healthy. How would you recommend training for something like this? Is it similar to marathon training?   14:05 Training for the race with a backpack is super important, right?   15:01 I imagine you have a lot of repeat athletes who do this over and over again, but I would love to hear about the first timers. What challenges do the first-time racers tend to face?   16:44 What kind of food do people eat on something like this? I imagine it would be different if you’re running or walking because you can chew a lot better when you are walking, but what kind of foods are most people bringing in their backpack every day?   19:23 You’ve got all of your food for all six stages in your backpack the whole time. Is that what you’re saying? No one takes it for you to the next stage.   19:43 I imagine not everybody makes it to the finish line. What are the reasons that you see that most people have to stop the race?   21:52 What kind of people should NOT sign up for a race like this?   23:03 I bet you have a whole collection of amazing stories from races as epic as this. Can you share a few of the more memorable stories of things that have happened in some of these races?   25:19 I noticed that registration for Antarctica is by invite only.  Can you explain?   26:57 I imagine you’re not dealing with heat in Antarctica, but there’s probably some other challenges like dealing with the cold and maybe frostbite. What are the other challenges in Antarctica?   27:56 How many times have you gone to Antarctica now?   28:29 What is the future for RacingThePlanet? Is there anything new in the works? Questions I ask everyone:   30:09 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   31:11 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   32:35 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Samantha:   “The whole ethos of the race was not only to take people to amazing places and to achieve things that maybe they didn’t think was possible like covering 250km on foot across a desert, but also to make people realize that you can survive for seven days in a desert without the internet, without your phone, without a comfortable bed, without a shower, and just with everything you can carry on your back.”   “Our goal is to encourage people to finish, but within the cutoff times and safely and when they’re in the right position to do so.”   “When you think you’re done, you think what you’re going through is nothing compared to what some other people are going through, not just in the race, but in life as well.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:  RacingThePlanet info@racingtheplanet.com Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Samantha on:   Facebook - RacingThePlanet Instagram - RacingThePlanet LinkedIn - RacingThePlanet Twitter - RacingThePlanet YouTube - RacingThePlanet We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!  

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