Bob – The Comrades Ultra Marathon Man

Time for another interview! Here’s to those out there who think you are too young or too old to run 😉 Let me introduce you to Bob Wells… an amazing 65 year-old teacher who is about to embark on one of the biggest races of his life – the 2012 Comrades Marathon!! For those who don’t know what this is or what distance, just brace yourself as I tell you that it is a gruelling 89.28km run in the town of Durban in South Africa! Certainly not for the feint-hearted! You can read more about Comrades on the above link and be sure to check out the course map. It’s enough to scare me! 🙂 If you thought we were crazy, Bob certainly takes that to another level 🙂

I first met Bob when I started running with the Lismore Runner’s crew that meet every Saturday morning down at Lismore’s Luv-A-Coffee cafe. The group comprises of people from all walks of life including a doctor, a priest, teachers and physios to name a few. I will endeavour to bring you a post on them later down the track as there are some great personalities and people who have accomplished amazing feats that need to be shared… but for now I personally want to say that  Bob is inspirational. I caught up with him after one of our chilliest Monday hill-repeat runs – here’s his story…

Q: How long have you been running and what’s the main reason you started running these distances?

Well I started running when I was in England in 1980. I had a young family and I got a bit bored waking up so early one day so I went for a run. It was right in the middle of London actually. There was a funny incident then. I had been running for about half an hour, still in the main city and this car pulled up beside me. It was following me down the footpath and I thought ‘this is a bit dodgy’ so I turned around and it was a police car. Anyway I thought I’d better stop. They wound the window down and said ‘What are you doin?’ so I said ‘I’m just going for a run’ and they said ‘Aw Bloody Aussies!! On you go.’ <mutual laughter> I ended up going up past Pimlico, over a several bridges and up past the House of Parliaments. I’ll be back there again in a few weeks actually.

<So you were just bored and wanted to go for a run? 🙂 >

Yeah I just wanted to run. Actually I was a scout leader and my son was in the scouts. The town had a local Jacaranda fun run, which was only 5.3k so I thought it would be a good idea to get all the scouts in it. So we used to run around the block in our scouts uniform and our leather shoes … <laughter> and anyway, one thing led to another – I did the fun runs and then I did some ‘City to Surfs’ .

Q: So how old were you when you first started running?

1980 makes it 32. ‘Cause before that I really wasn’t an athlete at all. At school I was known as little chubby Bobby Wells. <laughter> I played a bit of tennis but I never got fit that way. I was the second rower in footy and got hurt so I gave that up. <laughter> … so yeah running was something you could do on your own so that was alright.

Q: So what motivated you to want to run Comrades?

Aww a friend of mine named Charlie <mutual laughter … good ol Charlie> 🙂 I heard about Comrades actually back in 1984. I did my first marathon in 1986 and I read about this marathon and I went ‘that’s not a marathon! That’s 2 marathons!! … and some more!’ I said ‘That’s insane!! Why would you do that??!!’ I thought ‘You travel all the way to South Africa …aawww crazy’ and I just put it away as one of those crazy things. When Charlie said he wanted to do it, I thought ‘Aw he’s a good mate’, I’ll say I’ll do it with him and then see how it goes. We got to Christmas and I bought my tickets and everything and he said ‘I’m not quite ready. I don’t think I’m ready’ and pulled OUT!! So I’m doing it by myself. That’s a bit ordinary. <mutual laughter>

Q: Do you feel prepared now?

Oh yeah. I’m alright now. He and a couple of mates organised a 70k run for me a few weeks ago, which you were going to come up but you were sick … <yeah unfortunately. I really wanted to be there> but Craig was there and it was great. So we knocked the 70k over in under 9 hours. There were some fairly rough roads and conditions were drizzly rain, cold – really good conditions. I’ve done a lot of appropriate training too. Forest runs and mountain runs – so yeah it will be right.

Q: What do you enjoy most about running those distances?

I think it’s the mental challenge. You know like you really get bored  – or you could get bored <mutual laughter> You could really start to worry about the aches and pains . You’ve got lots of time to think about it. I guess it’s turning your mind off the aches and pains and thinking about other things. You could really work out your life … about 10 times over. <lots of mutual laughter>. In twelve hours you could really sort out all the problems then go and find some more problems to solve.

<Hahahaha – 10 times over. I like that.> Yeah at least!

Q: So with these types of distances, how much of it would you say is mental and how much of it is physical?

Oh you’ve got to have the physical I guess, but it’s the mental that makes you draw on the physical. You’ve really got to have a lot of training to look back on to go ‘well I did the 70k, I did the 50k and the forest … I think also with these big events, there’s so many people in it – I mean there’s 18, 000 in this event that you’re a bit like a twig in the river. You just sort of get dragged along. You could always look around and see someone fatter than you or some nice looking girl that’s worth running up having a talk to <laughter> or interesting t-shirts you could talk about … you know, in these runs, the longer they get, the more you’ve got to come up with techniques of distracting yourself. You’re also constantly thinking about the next water stop and  how far you’ve already gone. Although if you’ve only done 13 and there’s still 76 to go… <lots of mutual laughter>, but once you get over half way you talk to yourself about being down hill – cause in Comrades there’s lots of big uphills. Yeah I think I am a bit of an event runner. I always seem to do better than I think I can on the day. I guess I’m a bit competitive on the inside and I’ve got people around me that I can be competitive with.

Q: How many marathons have you run in the last 12 months?

7 now I think. <WOW, that is absolutely amazing!> Yeah well I said to myself if I was going to do the double marathon, I was going to do every available capital city marathon so I travelled all around the country last year doing marathons. But I’m lucky I’ve got a daughter in Melbourne, so I visit her. Sue (my wife) has got friends in Brisbane, family in Sydney and Gold Coast so I do all that.

Q: Do you have a favourite distance?

<Laughter> A half marathon’s quite good, cause you can go fairly fast and it still requires mental toughness. When I was in Europe they also had quarter marathons, so I sort of set this plan that maybe I’ll run half marathons till I’m 70 (although maybe now I’ll run marathons till I’m 70) and then half marathons maybe till I’m 75 and quarter marthons till I’m 90 – something like that. <mutual laughter> They call them 10ks over here, but they tack on some extra and call it a quarter marathon. <Yeah marathon just makes it sound better too hahaha> Yeah so you can say ‘I’m doing a 1/50th of a marathon today and I’m going to the shops…’ <lots of mutual laughter>

Q: In wrapping up, if there are people out there around your age who don’t think they could run or want to start running, what would you say to them?

<Chuckles> Yeah well, it’s a bit late to start if they haven’t already <LOL> but ah the important thing about being old and running is that you do need to have a group to run with, I think – because you watch the age groups and you like to encourage the young ones that are just getting started. They think the 10ks a long way and then you get the older ones, who do their first half marathon – like you <LOL> and then people do a few half marathons and it’s time to talk about a marathon. It’s just the comradery of running, I suppose. Even though it can be a lonely thing and most people do half their training by themselves. To be running marathons at 65, is a bit unusual, so I’ve been pretty lucky. I haven’t had any major issues. I live a fairly healthy lifestyle. I’m a bit of a ‘wowser’ and a ‘tea-totler’ and all that sort of thing. So that probably helps me. But other than that, I’ve also got a very low cancellation tolerance. If I do something, I do it!

Well Bob, you are an amazing inspiration! Since running within the group with you and the others, I’m just totally amazed and forever overwhelmed by the number of marathons and ultra marathons that you and others have done. Especially for your age, because I hear all around me from young ones and old ones saying ‘I couldn’t even run a km’ yet here you are at the age of 65 about to run a 90km race in South Africa. I take my hat off to you Bob. You are an inspiration and I think you’re going to do really really well.

Oh thank you. I guess it’s nice to think you can run further than your age. <LOL> It’s probably a good start. I wonder when I get to 100, whether I’ll be able to do it or not. 🙂

Thanks for your time Bob and we wish you all the best with Comrades!!! We can’t wait to hear how you go and will be thinking of you on Sunday the 3rd June. Bring it home strong!! Proud of you Bob!

– Diana