Running To The Beat of His Own Drums and Pulling Them 100 Miles Behind Him with Bob Thomas

What started out as a joke ended up being a walk or charity. Can you even imagine walking 100 miles? Now visualize walking those 100 miles towing a drum kit on a trailer. This is exactly what professional drummer Bob Thomas set out to do.

About Bob

I'm Bob, a 23-year-old full-time drummer who also loves ultra-endurance. I'm an Ironman Wales finisher and have become obsessed with ultra running. I have come up with a challenge to combine music and running which is to run a 100-mile ultramarathon towing my drum kit, I will then set it up and play a gig with my band directly after the run.

Donation page: virginmoneygiving.com/100miledrumkittow
Instagram: @bobthomasdrums
Facebook: bob thomas drums
YouTube: Bob Thomas

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Full Transcript Below

Running To The Beat of His Own Drums and Pulling Them 100 Miles Behind Him with Bob Thomas

Sun, 6/27 11:31AM • 47:59

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

drum kit, running, gig, drummer, people, training, bit, trailer, miles, started, eat, minutes, good, iron man, play, couple, marathon, hill, music, problem

SPEAKERS

Bob, Terry, Roy Barker

Roy Barker 00:10

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Feeding Fatty This is Roy.

Terry 00:14

Terry.

Roy Barker 00:14

So we're podcasts that journaling or chronicling our journey through wellness. And no, we've begun to figure out at first we talked a lot about diet, not being on a diet, but just you know what we eat, consume, exercise, but we've made a, you know, we've also kind of shifted into that mindset realm that we have to, you know, be able to change our mindset to to make sustainable changes. And so on Tuesdays, we usually release an episode with the guest either a professional in the industry, or somebody telling us their story. And then on Thursdays, we release more of a personal episode. And we've been talking a lot about diabetes. That's one thing I struggle with, keep in mind under control. So anyway, I want to thank you for being a listener. And if you're new Welcome to the show. And we've got a great guest today. This has been exciting. We've been waiting a couple of weeks to get Bob on here. So Terry, I'll let you introduce Bob.

Terry 01:11

Bob Thomas is a 23 year old ultra runner and professional drummer from West Wales. He's been playing drums since the age of seven, and performing full time at 17. All over the UK. He started his fitness journey in early 2018, when he ran his first marathon and progressed to an Iron Man in 2019. After the lockdown hit in 2020, he saw it as an opportunity to push his limits further and is training to take on 100 miles while towing his drum kit behind him. Bob, thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the show.

Bob 01:49

Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Roy Barker 01:51

Yeah, and you're quite the you're quite the contrast. Because typically, you know, we think of musicians and drummers, they they live kind of an ultimate lifestyle up on that. And then, you know, probably, I would say not the best, you know, they're surrounded by probably a lot of liquor, a lot of good food. And a lot of Yeah, so it's like, it's just, it's an interesting concept. So kind of tell us a little bit, you know, about what kind of music that you play first, you know, how you got into music into the band. And then tell us a little bit of you know, about your focus on fitness.

Bob 02:29

Yeah, it's funny you say about that. That's, that's a lot of the reason why I ended up getting into fitness is because I was like out most nights playing gigs, and then having to drive home drive horrendous miles and just eating the worst fast food all the time. And that's where the fitness really came from. But yeah, so I started from a really young age plan. And I learned through school, basically. And I used to get a 15 minute lesson once a week, and then sort of give me a book and say, right, go and go practice, come back. And that progressed up and and then just decided it was sort of what I wanted to do. So I went to bed. Basically, when I was 16. I left school, and did a little bit of work helping out my parents and sort of thought, right, okay, well, let's try and make something of music. And there's like the local city to me is Cardiff, which is about two hours away. And I sort of just went up there on the site, right, let's try and meet some musicians. So I sort of put my head around once this in venues and sort of try to be friendly with some guitarist and bass players and things and eventually just sort of gotten a couple of bands and started playing and then yeah, just just kept progressing, which which is good fun. And it got Yeah, yeah, very good to the point of playing multiple nights a week or so doing lots of teaching. You can see behind me that there's this kicks up that they should be one there. But I had a gig last night so that that was gone. He sat in my car at the moment. So yeah, it was great. And then just just lots of gigs all over the place and learn to read music. So I play for, like theater shows and things. So I didn't get booked for sort of like four to six weeks on, like small theaters or around the UK, where we do sort of like three to five days in a in a venue just multiple shows. But again, it's just it's lots of it's always it's always very intense in a very short amount of time. So usually like my Monday to Thursday is usually fairly quiet. But then it's sort of like Thursday night it's like right okay, well let's pack up the gear and get ready to go then Friday I'm off and it's Friday night gig Saturday to gigs, Sunday to gigs and then hope

Terry 04:47

to be tired. Well as a as a drummer, you don't have a choice. You have to be fit if you want to be successful as a drummer. So I'm sure

Bob 04:57

yeah, just just to get your drum kit from the cost The venue.

Roy Barker 05:02

And, you know, when when we go to concerts a lot, you know, like more smaller venues, especially outdoors and stuff. It's like, you know, you see the guitar guy, he puts his guitar, in his case, and, you know, he walks away. And the bass says the same thing. And, you know, there's this poor drummer back there. He's got this whole big old drum kit, you know, he's trying to move on and offline. So I know I'm always thinking the same thing. I just played the flute that actually

Terry 05:33

led to having stuff. You asked for it, you got it.

Roy Barker 05:36

So tell us about this challenge where you're gonna, you're gonna is it 100 kilometers, and you're gonna tow your drum kit behind you.

Bob 05:44

gnosis is 100 miles, 100 miles. Okay. I think that's about 180 kilometers.

Roy Barker 05:49

Okay. Okay.

Bob 05:51

That's a that's a best guess. But yeah, so it all it was a bit of a weird joke at the start. And because I live right on the west coast of Wales, and it's very rural, I live in political Pembrokeshire. And there's, there's like, there's more cows and people down here. So for me to go, like all my work, I have to basically go to the closest place I can do it is a city called swanzey, which is about sort of an hour and a half drive away, but more of it is done in Cardiff, which is about two hours just over. So I spend a lot of my time driving, but Cardiff is basically exactly 100 miles from my house. So that's where the majority of my gigs up. So when we hit lockdown, obviously, at the start, everyone thought it was going to be like two, three weeks. And I've done quite a bit of training then because about three or four months before that I've done my first Ironman, so relatively fit, close point. And I said to my mate, who's also a drummer, I said, I think I might train, loads of running really focused. And then when I when gigs, come back, I'll get someone I was thinking, like, I'll get my parents to take my drum get to the gig or something. And I'll run and, and then I'll do the gig and it's about 100 miles a bit like it'd be an ultramarathon, so it'd be great. And he sat there and listened to me say all that and he just went, yeah, but it doesn't really count unless you tow the drum kit. And my stupid brain went that's a brilliant idea. He's off the Christmas list now. Yeah. He's, uh, yeah, he is, is a good friend, but also a bad friend.

Terry 07:37

Well, you're actually gonna be calling I mean, you're actually gonna be telling it yourself. Your body. Yeah, yeah. So I, I am the horse to the car. Yeah,

Bob 07:47

it's a bit a bit mad. So it was kind of it was it was great. And it was like, I had no way I could actually do that. Like that would be, it'd be mental. So the first thing I do is start googling. Like, Has anyone done something like this? And there's been a few people who have like pulled cars from marathons and things like that, that looks pretty brutal. And I was like, Okay, well, no one's no one's really done this. So, so what I do, and then the the extra condition is that I that the challenge isn't finished when I end the run, because I have also hired my band to come to the end of the run and play a gig with me. So run 100 mile with the drum kit, then set it up, then play an hour's gig with them, and then set it down. And then and then I don't know, I'll probably just meet face down

Terry 08:36

in the grass leap, or at least two weeks after that. Yeah, I hope so.

Roy Barker 08:42

Are you going to push through and do like the 100? all at the same time? Are you going to like take a couple breaks in between?

Bob 08:49

Yes, the plan is to do it. Pretty much all as one. So I allowing myself 48 hours to do it. Wow. And that's gonna involve I'm, I've got a, I've got a crew of five guys coming along to help me and they're gonna have a couple of cars and beat leapfrogging and there's a couple of spots where they have to sit behind me with a hazard zone. Because some of the roads quite quick. So I'm yeah, the idea is I start at 8pm on Thursday, the 22nd of July. And the idea is to go all the way through that night. And then when I get to the morning, I'll probably have a bit of a break for breakfast. But when I say a break, I mean less than less than 30 minutes. Yeah. Ideally, if we can keep all the breaks under 20 minutes, that would be great. We're pretty much just going to like, like plot all the labels on the way and I'll just keep stopping and then there'll be other things I need to do. Like, I need to change shoes at some point because my feet will swell. Probably change clothes. I imagine I'll need a change of clothes for night running than I will day running. Because of the heat difference, because we're we're in summer here, and not the world's as the hottest country in the world, but it can get slightly warm. And when I say slightly, I mean, not not very, but enough. So yeah, I'll probably have to get changed and things like that. And then I talked to a few people who've done like, really setting challenges like this before. A friend of mine, she did 200 miles recently. And it took her about 51 hours. And she said on on day two, she had to stop and she slept for 15 minutes. And in Canada. So I look forward to my 15 minute nap on days.

Terry 10:42

Well, and how do you even start to figure out how to train for that? I mean, what's your what's your typical day as far as your training going?

Bob 10:50

Yeah, but yeah, that that's, that's a, that's a weird one. Because it started off with just increasing the miles running. Which came to a point where I was running sort of like, like eight or nine hours a day. And then it just just get I'm just trying to get as many miles as possible. And then it got to the point where I got the trailer. And that that was weird, because the difficult thing with trailers is very hilly around here. So one is heavy and getting it up the hill is awful. But then the other problem is getting it down the hill. ilmi. And it's, it's, it's quite scary. Because when I first did it, I was like, Oh, well, we I got a friend to help out. And he got a break on it. And I was like, yeah, that's a really good idea. So we got this break that was on a rope. And the idea was like a rubber rubber on the hand pulled the brake should be absolutely fine. Well, we didn't take into account is actually, when I get to a steep hill, I have to really pull the brake. I took the first hill that I went down, and I got to the end of it. And I looked at my hand and it was like completely blew off circulation with the rope. I'd like to rope across my hand. I was like that was one Hill. Yeah, so I run because I'm on my last like training block now. Which is which basically involves me every other day running as many miles as I can trailer. So I did a marathon with it on Wednesday, just gone. And that took about eight hours to do. Which was which was fun. And it's just lots of hills. And I'm training with like twice the amount of Hill. So I'm, I cover 80 feet of climbing per mile on my training runs. But when I do the actual run, I only cover 50 feet of climbing per mile. Okay, I'm training a little bit harder than what it will actually be. But I'm not training the same distance because I just want to recover. That's the that's the thing I found hardest is trying to get enough training in, but also recover afterwards. And then and nutrition and things like that it's really hard because I track calories. And it's funny because some days I need to track calories to make sure I don't eat too much. But then other days, I have to track calories to make sure eight is enough. Because I think on Wednesday I burned an extra like 7000 calories or something is like well I don't know how to eat that

Terry 13:42

much. It's many calories Do you need how many calories are trying to strive for

Bob 13:48

so so it's really weird. So when when I'm when I'm moving I can I can basically take on about 160 calories an hour without feeling unwell. Because it's quite a common thing because because when you run your body sends more blood to your muscles and your extremities and it takes it away from some of your normal so your digestive system doesn't work as efficiently. So if you take on too many calories, you can end up being sick, which is a bit of a problem. And it's not nice being sick when you're running. I have accidentally so I have to limit the amount but then afterwards like I sort of got this calorie deficit of like a few 1000 calories and I'm like well I could I could eat a bowl of ice cream and still have cash to spare

Terry 14:46

as trying to join in here.

Roy Barker 14:50

Man I wish I could wish I had that problem of having to try to eat and write that in before we get too far long I was gonna at your do it or isn't there Charity component involved in this as well.

Bob 15:03

Yes, there is. So yeah, so this was where the idea really sort of came to life is because he was like, right, it's a great idea. But like, what was the point in doing it? So yeah, I am, I decided to do it for cardiac risk in the young, which are a really good charity here. And they basically they they set up and they do screening and research into undiagnosed heart conditions, okay? Because it can be found in in young people between ages of 14 and 34. And they can have a heart condition that's completely undiagnosed, no symptoms whatsoever, and unfortunately, just suddenly dropped out. It can be really awful there was we've got a competition in in football over here going on with the euros at the moment. And there was a player, I think he's from Denmark. But he about I think it was about 20 minutes into the game just dropped, dropped on the field. And fortunately, he recovered. And they, they got into hospital, and he's fine. But that was a cardiac problem. And it's really strange, because it doesn't really matter how fit people seem to be. It can really affect them. Unfortunately, we lost my my older sister. And she was 16 at the time, but she played hot ball, hot ball hockey, and netball. That's the mix, apparently hot ball. So he actually played netball and hockey to a really high standard, and was always used to run track and things. And they are unfortunately, where she had a heart condition that we didn't know about no symptoms whatsoever. Gosh,

Roy Barker 16:42

that's terrible. So do you.

Terry 16:43

So do you because of that? Do you get screened annually? How does?

Bob 16:50

Yes, so so i i don't get screened annually. So I have I have been screened, and they they believe it's hereditary. And they've looked into cases in my family. And they believe it's only the women that are affected in my family interests. Other I've had a look into that. And and how I know that I don't specifically know, but it's all through the screening that they do. And they work a lot with schools over here. So they'll they'll go into schools, and they'll screen an entire year of school and figure out and they can they can give pacemakers. I know that there was a girl in a school near me. And she was screened. And they found that she had something and they they did an operation she had had a pacemaker button on the heart. And she had to I think she had to keep it for about two years. And then they got removed, and she was absolutely fine. And yeah,

Roy Barker 17:47

yeah, and we have seen that here too. You know, athletes football is our, you know, American football, and then you know, some in basketball to that. Yeah, younger kids that are you would think in perfect health, because they're so athletic. And then, you know, it's unfortunate, they have this underlying condition. So, you know, we're definitely, you know, express our sorrow for your family's loss, for sure. But I think it's really great that you're stepping up and doing this. And the reality is just so many people don't know about it. So the awareness is a good component as well.

Bob 18:22

Yeah, I think massively it and that's the things but when it's someone that of that age that's so young, it affects so many people around them, because, right, if there's some if it affects someone who's sort of under the age of 18, they've probably got brothers and sisters and effects their family and all their school friends. I know that my sister's friends. for them. It was horrendous, because they had a friend who was there there one day, and then the next school and they're like, hold on. Where's where Sarah, while actually not in school today? Yeah. And yeah, it's horrific.

Terry 18:55

And you were How old? were you when you lost your sister?

Bob 18:59

I was 11 at the time. Wow. Five years younger than Oh, well,

Roy Barker 19:05

we appreciate you sharing that with us. I know. That's a you know, it's very personal. But thanks for thanks for sharing, I think it makes a big difference to, you know, get that message out that it can be devastating. It is devastating to the families that happens to you. But then, like you said, At that age, it affects people around them. And then if they're young, it's like a lifelong thing that they have to deal with. So,

Terry 19:30

and the fact that they're so young, you know, you just don't know, at any age, what's going to happen, anything can creep up, but the fact that they're younger, and this happens, you know, doesn't mean it's not gonna

Roy Barker 19:43

end their screening. That's the other thing. I don't know how preventable but if people were more aware of it, get the screening probably could avoid. Avoid a lot of the unnecessary deaths as well.

Bob 19:55

Yeah, a lot. A lot of it can can be avoided through through things like pacemakers. and things like that. And if they if they do find them earlier, and I don't I don't even think they have to find super early, I think as long as it's found some, that's all they need, and then they can they can actively work against it.

Roy Barker 20:15

Well, so let's get back to so you, what made you make this decision to be healthy to be the healthy drummer? I mean, because like we said, it's very contrary, did you just, you know, just I guess, feeling bad, or you just saw the path that you're on, you know, doing eating the fast food on the way home from a bad I have to be going down?

Bob 20:40

Yeah, it was, um, it was a case of, so I'm I'm asthmatic. And I've always had like, like, fairly Bad, bad asthma, but it isn't, it's not terrible. I remember doing a couple of gigs where I had to carry the kit in, and sort of like carry half the kit, and then almost be having an asthma attack, taking it in and just being like, this is terrible. But on the scale of things, my asthma is not that you can have way worse asthma. I just remember thinking at this one gig, I think we have to carry it up a flight of stairs to get to the stage. And I carried about two pieces my drum kit up and it wasn't even the heaviest bit. I got to the top. I was sweating. And I was like hearing, like, I couldn't breathe. And I was like, I think this might be a problem. If I want to carry on doing this, and I can't keep up this lifestyle. Right. And so yeah, so the idea was like, right, okay, well, let's, let's start doing a little bit of running. So this was back in early 2018. It must have been awful February, started doing a little bit of running wasn't very good. didn't really enjoy it. But sort of kept going. And then I mentioned to my my girlfriend at the time, I was like, I think I might I might train for a marathon. I think it was just a really off the cuff sort of said it didn't really mean it. Yeah. And I think about 10 minutes later, she went, Oh, there's one in six weeks, I've signed you up.

Roy Barker 22:20

Yeah, that's the second time now you've got yourself in trouble you have built in a little better.

Bob 22:26

Yeah, I know. I should just keep my mouth shut. So. So I went and did that marathon and hated it. But what what I remember mainly from America is I ran the first 16 miles. And then basically fell off a cliff just felt horrendous walked had my head in the sand, like just did not want to be there at all. And then I got to the end, and then about 200 meters from the end, all the crowds go. And I was like sprinting, I was absolute for like full out as fast as I could run. I don't think I've ever run that fast before in my life. And finish the race and then fell around this again. But but it's saying in me then when I did that was like, hold on, like, an hour ago. I wanted to quit give up and I felt awful. And I thought I couldn't even run 10 seconds ago, I was sprinting full pelt, what, what's going on? And then I sort of realized that actually a lot of mental, right? So it was like, Okay, and then all my training just just sort of went straight off. After that marathon, there was nothing really to look forward to. And it was kind of like right back to back to work. And it started going back the other way again, and I was like, Oh no, this isn't good. I need to sign up for something. And my dad had started doing iron that where I realized sake of I thought we're a bit we're a bit just stupid. We just say we're going to do things and then end up doing them. So because of that, so that year my dad signed up to do an iron man. And he, he just like he just spoke to me one day, I think he spoke to me and my brother and he was like, I've signed this deal and I'm on a really like, Okay. She know what it is? And he was like, yeah, it's like a triathlon, we like, is a really hard track. He was like, yeah, it's fine. We're like dead, you can't even run. And he's like, yeah, we fine. He had when he signed up, he had an issue with his knee where he had injured it, like a couple years before and hadn't been able to run as well. And it was really struggling and but somehow he fixed it gotten through it and he's done like for now. So, so the I because my training was completely in a slump and I was like, right I need something to look forward to. I was like, Okay, well, I am man it is. So I decided to sign up and day one So then in 2019, I did an Iron Man, which is really good. And for 2019, for me, music wise was probably the year that we're it really took off quite quite well. So I was doing a lot more around the UK traveling a lot further. We were sort of breaking into, like north and south of England, which is much more populated areas than Wales. So we're doing a lot better. But then the journeys they're getting up to sort of we're traveling sort of eight hours, to places.

Roy Barker 25:33

So let me just say for the record back what you said that there is no easy Iron Man or triathalon. person as you are your red was like that question like, yeah, there is no, there is no Yeah, yeah, this is gonna be an easy one here.

Bob 25:51

Yes, yeah. It's a little bit different to the local and stamp London, the leisure centre. It's like 10 laps of the pole and a quick jog around the block. But yeah, yeah. So like, my, my work got massively increased. So I didn't really have much time to train. So I ended up sort of scraping through the Iron Man and completing, I sort of did it but I wasn't very happy with my time because I The training was not not wonderful. So I entered again, for 2020. And that's when I really started with it. And so I sort of, I had a couple of mates at the time. And I was like, right, I know, this makes one's a lot. So he's really good at that, I'm going to start swim with him, and my other mate runs a lot and start running with him. And I really sort of, like changed a lot of my focus to go fully into into the fitness and my, my idea was that if I could do Ironman in under 12 hours, I'd be really happy. So I was had, like, straight into that as much as I could. And then that's when lockdown happened. So that's when this sort of idea of like, right, well, now I've got a big opportunity. Like, at the time, I thought, right, I've got four to six weeks now where I can go mad training. And then but I've done just carried on forever and ever and ever. And and so that second I'm on I still haven't done. I'm Fingers crossed should be doing it this September. But But yeah, but that sort of leads us to where we are now. Because that's when that conversation happened about running with the drum kit. And then it was like, right, well, yeah, let's do that. And I, it all got invented. Because I was I thought it was a great idea. And I sort of looked into it a bit and figured out and thought, yeah, I think I can do this. So I made a video saying that I was going to do it and put it on Facebook. And that was the point where I could not go back because that video got about 5000 views in the day. Everyone I knew. And people had already people were donating money. And I hadn't even set up the donation page. I had people just sending me money. I raised like 200 pounds in like, a day. And I was like, Wait, hold on, I've got to do this. I was like there's no Undo button so that I'm well and truly in. So that it was a scramble to set up like a donation page. And that was it. Once I put that video out, it was like, Okay, I am I am fully committed. And then it was just trying to figure out a date and the idea. At the time, I was like, Okay, well, I definitely need to do it next year. So 2021 because I don't think if it was just running 100 miles, I said just running 100 miles is silly. But if Yeah, if I was only running 100 miles without turning the drum kit, I probably could have done it towards the end of last year. But we've turned the drunk yet. It was like right, no, that's that's probably I probably bitten off more than I can chew here. So I'm gonna make sure that this takes a long time until after dinner. So yeah, the idea was to do it in August this year. And then as things started lining up, we were looking at dates and night, the weekend of the 24th of July. This was like the perfect weekend. Right again, that book in and go for it. And then I had to figure out how to tow the trailer. And I had to get a trailer made and all of that and that was great fun and a bit mad cuz I'm phoning up companies who sell trailers and be like, do you have any that are built for running? Like, Oh, no, no,

Roy Barker 29:35

we don't really. It's not really a thing. Okay. Even if you you know, get one like, people run you know, when they have kids and stuff that's smaller. I mean, that's the other challenge is getting something big enough to hold the whole drum kit.

Bob 29:53

That was the thing. So that was I got offers from people of saying like, Oh, well I've got like a baby running thing. Um, I was like, Okay. Like, yeah, I was like it by any chance. Did you have triplets? really helpful? Unfortunately, they didn't. So yeah, I can, I can use it. But yeah, that's the problem because the drum kit is annoyingly shaped and really bulky. And even with packing it down to the smallest I can possibly get it, I still have to have it on like a flatbed trailer, which itself is really heavy and cumbersome and annoying. I haven't sworn at it.

Roy Barker 30:33

When you brought up a good point, I guess when we first started talking, I was thinking about you know, it's gonna be the challenge is getting up the hill, but I never actually thought about once you start down the hill that, you know, that trailer is gonna want to try to run over you if you don't have a pretty good braking system in place.

Bob 30:50

Yeah, the trailer is coming from my head on is

Terry 30:55

like a cartoon, you know, just a flat near right out. I mean, I think about Frankie, or one of our dogs dragging us down a hill that we have on the side of the house where we take him outside. And I mean, she does she is strong. And she pulls me down that I can't even oh my gosh, I can't even imagine that part of it. But I you know, I just it that is something that you posted on Facebook and accountability really can be such a factor. Yeah, peer pressure is the worst, isn't it really it is that in the mindset, and then all the support that you have from your, from your community, your friends, your family, all of that is, is awesome.

Bob 31:41

Yeah, that's being massive, because alongside everyone watching and donating, I also just got like, hundreds of messages from people being like, Oh, I can help with this. And I can do this. And I'm still getting them today. I got a message like I think yesterday from my mate Connor. And he was like, oh, God didn't want to do anything like filming or anything. Because like, I've got a camera and I can do this. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, those great. People are just so helpful, but it is amazing.

Roy Barker 32:06

So what how is the challenge? You know? And I think that's awesome that you put it out there because that's what they always say is, you know, if you have goals in your mind, it's one thing but once you speak them to somebody else that you know you become accountable. But the other part of this is that the difficulty even if you want to do this the difficulty of your situation of being around, you know, the things that aren't as healthy for you to consume. And then I'm sure your bandmates are like, Hey, why don't you come out, you know, come have a drink with us or I don't know what you know, y'all favorite junk food is but over here be like, Hey, we need to go get some nachos and beer after this gig. And, you know, how do you how do you handle that? And how supportive are they of you and your efforts? Not necessarily for the challenge but just for the daily being healthy.

Bob 33:00

I actually incredibly supportive because I I think a lot of it actually with the the eating and beer bad because we don't necessarily get the situation that often. Well, we all stay around and have like a beer after a gig. unfortunate because it's so much traveling. It's always like, Oh, I work but I've got a drive. So like and it's like you can't you never really get the situation where you can stay afterwards. But the problem was is mainly just actually myself and overcoming the big shiny by the side of the motorway. right for you are in an order and enough food to feed a family of thought.

Roy Barker 33:48

Like a magnet. Especially when and I'm the worst so I can attest to that is driving. I just feel like I always have to have something to eat or drink and it's like hard to go by the drive thru without popping in and getting something so I mean, it's a challenge. Yeah, it's just boring, isn't it? Yeah. So what have you have you done anything to make to help yourself to drive past it without making that exit?

Bob 34:16

To try and try take a different route? That's what Yeah, how ice cream machine doesn't work. Yeah, I mean, the one thing that's massively been is that I haven't actually been able to work because of COVID Yeah, so I've I've not been going to the gigs. A lot of my work has been I've been doing much more teaching and things like that, which is from home and over Skype, and things like this. So it's been lots of online so I've actually been making my own food. And when you're training a lot, the the food you eat and how you feel makes a massive difference, because I'm I'm sure you know when you go to McDonald's and you eat loads, and then you get up the next morning. You feel horrendous. Yeah. And but it's even worse when you do that. And then you've got a run 20 miles the next day. Because then you feel like doubly horrendous. So you quite quickly get into the headspace of like, Oh, actually, yeah, I need to sort of do that do this right. And I think I think even even before I said all the fitness stuff, I don't think it was necessarily my bandmates, or a bad influence. I think, especially the way we do things where we're not so much the rock and roll lifestyle musicians, we're very much that sort of quiet, go in and get the job done. Might have a Yeah, have a chat with people and then come home and sit with it, sit on your feet up and get get as early night as you can. So I haven't really had massive bad influences, which is quite good, other than my own sort of bad influence of just genuinely not being able to beat my cravings.

Terry 36:05

I think we all think about, you know, in the 60s and 70s, well, 60s 70s 80s, you know, just our music, our music, the rock and roll and all you know, we just think of that lifestyle, they're all they're all out there drinking out all hours, I have all these dates, dates, you know, all that stuff. So it's, it's, it's very refreshing to see that

Roy Barker 36:29

I could think of this group that I was listening to a song interviewers listened to one with the group. And they were kind of like, you know, it's kind of like their, their nine to five, just in a different time slot. But they were like, you know, they became big in popularity, and they were opening for some other bigger groups, and the other groups were like, Hey, come on, we're gonna go, you know, party and do this or like, and, you know, it's time for us to go home. And so they were that way as well. They just like, you know, we never really got into the life, we just, you know, we did our GIG and then we went home. And yeah, that everybody else.

Bob 37:03

I think some of it comes with, it depends how big the band gets. If you if you get a lot of money. And you're doing really well out of it, I think, yeah, there's it that lends itself to it as well. But sometimes it's like, like I've especially early on, I think that's probably where it's at. Because, early on, I was doing gigs where I would barely make any money by just doing lots and lots and lots of them. So you're sort of thinking you go like, Oh, yeah, well, I could have like a couple of beers afterwards with some of the crowd. But certainly, if you spend 20 pound on on beer afterwards, and then you take in your fuel, and then you eat and big McDonald's, suddenly, you spent your entire paycheck. Can you laugh? I don't have any money. I think yeah, I think I think when I first started, I probably felt like the first like two months, I was like, terrible, had no money. And then I was like, Oh, I can't get this gig because I can't put any fuel in my car. I should sort this out.

Terry 37:59

You learned quick. I mean, it takes some people a lifetime to figure that out.

Bob 38:04

Yeah, and, and also, just where I live sort of lends itself because I play it when I'm playing card, if I've got one band where three of the members live in Cardiff. So they they can like walk to the gig. So it typically takes them like 10 minutes to get there. So they they can have a drink of things and walk home. And it's really easy for them and a lot of their friends around there. Whereas for me, it's always that situation of like, right to if we finish up, sort of like 11 o'clock. We've then got 45 minutes to pack down and get out. We have a 15 minute chat, say goodbye. And then I get home and then I've got to drive. I still got two hour drive. So I don't get home till two in the morning still. So then if I stay around for drinks and food then it's like suddenly like I'm getting hungry. like four in the morning. Yeah. And yeah, so and especially if it's on a Sunday I want to I want to get get back to work to watch football.

Roy Barker 38:56

Yeah. So already on the on the actual running part. Have you just done all of this on your