Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Cargoton woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the twentieth of October. I'm Zara, I'm Sam Sam. Welcome
Speaker 2: back to the part. Thanks nice to be here here
Speaker 2: for a short time. Not a good time because you're
Speaker 2: off to the US.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm headed off to Washington, d C. Over the weekend.
Speaker 3: Anthony Albanezi is landing in Washington early next week for
Speaker 3: the state visit with President Joe Biden and I'm going
Speaker 3: to go and see what's going on.
Speaker 2: But for today's podcast, we are casting your minds back
Speaker 2: a year ago this week to the moment that a
Speaker 2: little known Sparky finished Erase the gripped Australia.
Speaker 3: An electrician who had a big light bulb moment.
Speaker 1: My idea of running from Perth to Bondie seems insurmountable.
Speaker 4: Thousand kilometer journey across the stret.
Speaker 3: Please welcome Ned Brockman. We wanted to sit down with
Speaker 3: Ned Brockman to understand what happens to people who are
Speaker 3: in the news a year later when the dust settles
Speaker 3: and the headlines slow down, how they feel about their
Speaker 3: time in the sun.
Speaker 2: Before we get to our editor, Billy's chat with Ned Brockman,
Speaker 2: Sam what's making headlines.
Speaker 3: The government has requested Australia's consumer watchdog to monitor domestic
Speaker 3: airlines in an attempt to improve competition in the sector,
Speaker 3: currently dominated, of course by quantas. Over the next three years,
Speaker 3: the AH Triple C will investigate the cost of airfares,
Speaker 3: passenger demand, the frequency of cancelations and delays, and profits
Speaker 3: reported by carriers. Findings will be included in reports to
Speaker 3: be released every three months.
Speaker 2: Unemployment fell slightly from three point seven to three point
Speaker 2: six percent in September. That's according to the Australian Bureau
Speaker 2: of Detistics. The youth unemployment rate remained at eight point
Speaker 2: one percent. The rate of underemployment, which is those who
Speaker 2: worked for less hours than they wanted to, also fell
Speaker 2: last month.
Speaker 3: AFL player Joel Smith has been suspended after failing a
Speaker 3: doping test. Smith, who plays for the Melbourne Demons, tested
Speaker 3: positive for cocaine after the Demons played Hawthorne in August.
Speaker 3: Sports Integrity Australia is now investigating the matter.
Speaker 2: And the good news Scotland's largest offshore wind farm is
Speaker 2: now operating full capacity. The project could generate enough electricity
Speaker 2: for two thirds of all Scottish homes and make a
Speaker 2: significant contribution to the country's net zero goal by twenty
Speaker 2: forty five. The milestone has been hailed as an important
Speaker 2: achievement for clean energy in the UK.
Speaker 4: Let's get started. St ned Brockman, thank you so much
Speaker 4: for joining.
Speaker 5: The Daily OS Billy, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: I don't know how else to start this interview other
Speaker 4: than to ask, how the hell did you do that?
Speaker 5: It took me a lot of training the lead up,
Speaker 5: and a lot of mindset and a lot of yeah, sacrificing.
Speaker 5: I think you know the price I had to pay.
Speaker 5: I was completely willing to pay that, whether that be
Speaker 5: in a physical, mental, whatever sense, but yeah, I was
Speaker 5: willing to put it all on the line to get
Speaker 5: it done. And that's why I'm probably here talking me today.
Speaker 4: I want to understand what it's like to be at
Speaker 4: the center of a massive media storm. For weeks, you
Speaker 4: were all anyone could talk about. You're on the front
Speaker 4: page of every newspaper.
Speaker 5: What is that like? Yeah, it's weird. I think while
Speaker 5: I was in it. While I was in the run,
Speaker 5: I didn't really take much notice of it. I saw
Speaker 5: like social media starting to kick off and things were
Speaker 5: starting to blow up a bit, but to what I
Speaker 5: was doing, Like, you know, I was doing the run
Speaker 5: because I wanted to do the run, and I was
Speaker 5: doing because I want to inspire, I want to motivate,
Speaker 5: also want to raise money, and all the other stuff
Speaker 5: comes from that, and so for me, it was all
Speaker 5: about just getting the run done and so whatever was
Speaker 5: happening outside it kind of I didn't really asked how
Speaker 5: large it was until I got to Bonday and fully
Speaker 5: realized what actually went down.
Speaker 4: And then when you're out Bond die, and then the
Speaker 4: days after there must have been a moment where you
Speaker 4: realized how big it had gotten. What was it like
Speaker 4: to like to be that person at the center when
Speaker 4: everyone's talking about you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's weird, and like you have this, I
Speaker 5: would call it like imposter syndrome, like a why me
Speaker 5: and I think I'm just an average dude going out
Speaker 5: doing something extraordinary. But yeah, when I when I was
Speaker 5: running down Bondi Road, probably like as I come down
Speaker 5: and I saw saw the beach, that's when I realized
Speaker 5: like the enormity of it all. Like up until that point,
Speaker 5: you know, there was helicopters above me and like everyone
Speaker 5: hunky on the street, but I didn't really grasp like
Speaker 5: the size and the sheer scale of it. And then
Speaker 5: I saw the beach and I was just like, oh
Speaker 5: my god, Like this isn't fucking real, is it? This
Speaker 5: is not real? And then yeah, ran down. It was
Speaker 5: just like yeah, if you can bottle that up and
Speaker 5: everyone could take a sip at it, it would be
Speaker 5: the most rewarding thing for people. Because that moment is
Speaker 5: what I think Livin's all about.
Speaker 4: After the media storm ends, the media cycle inevitably moves
Speaker 4: on what happened next for you.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of the Olympic people have this,
Speaker 5: Like you have the competition, you finish it, you're running
Speaker 5: off the high you know, whether you get the gold
Speaker 5: medal or whatever it is, and then you have the
Speaker 5: post Olympic blues. I feel like I had my post
Speaker 5: event blues pretty well about two weeks after. I was
Speaker 5: still caught up in it. I was getting going to
Speaker 5: events that all the people go to and it's like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, this is so cool, and then it all,
Speaker 5: you know, the clock ran out and I crashed pretty hard.
Speaker 5: But I can say that like I was low, and
Speaker 5: I think we all need to be able to acknowledge
Speaker 5: that I've done something pretty epic like run across the country.
Speaker 5: But I can also go, you know, I'm not feeling
Speaker 5: great right now. I'm quite depressed. I damaged my body
Speaker 5: big time on the run, so I had to spend
Speaker 5: time sitting out, and someone like me, Billy doesn't like
Speaker 5: sitting down a lot, so I had to find peace
Speaker 5: in that as well, which taught me a lot too,
Speaker 5: just sitting out and being okay with it. And I
Speaker 5: had to put twelve kilos back on. So I hate
Speaker 5: my body weight and probably be an extra, but I've
Speaker 5: dialed that back in there, so real good.
Speaker 4: What did that low look like?
Speaker 5: It got a bit better this time around, because in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty I did the fifty marathons where I kind
Speaker 5: of had this rush and I felt invincible, and then
Speaker 5: I got injured and I kin'd had this crash and
Speaker 5: I was a proper crash, like I was not well
Speaker 5: and I'd been through it all. So when I got
Speaker 5: to the run, and I knew this would happen, so
Speaker 5: I was kind of like waiting for it to happen.
Speaker 5: It happened at two weeks, but when I was in
Speaker 5: it, it was just like acknowledging it, journaling, writing down that
Speaker 5: all the thoughts and feelings, you know, I'm feeling, and
Speaker 5: just accepting it and doing things you could do. So
Speaker 5: I started doing things that got me out, but not
Speaker 5: physically out, you know, not punishing my body every day.
Speaker 5: And yeah, like there's always light at the end of
Speaker 5: the tunnel. You always find something to do.
Speaker 4: You've said a lot already that you're just this average person,
Speaker 4: but you simply can't be to achieve what you've achieved.
Speaker 4: And I'm really interested in this idea of mental resilience
Speaker 4: and whether you're born with it or whether you can
Speaker 4: develop it. Do you think that anyone could just get
Speaker 4: up tomorrow and train to run across the country or
Speaker 4: is your brain why differently to ours?
Speaker 5: You can absolutely train mental resilience, mental toughness, you know,
Speaker 5: getting up and getting up. That is something you teach yourself.
Speaker 5: That is something we can be taught. However, I don't
Speaker 5: think everyone can go wake up and go right today,
Speaker 5: I'm going to start training for a run across the
Speaker 5: country because I just don't think, like, you know, physically
Speaker 5: a genetic makeup, I probably can run a bit better
Speaker 5: than a lot of people. But in saying that, like,
Speaker 5: if that was your goal, I think anyone can. You know,
Speaker 5: every day from my last three years, I've chosen the
Speaker 5: more uncomfortable option of everything I do. So whether it
Speaker 5: be like I'm standing in the shower this morning and
Speaker 5: I'm looking at the hot water tap and the cold
Speaker 5: water tap, and I go, the easy option here is
Speaker 5: to turn the hot water on and have a shower.
Speaker 5: That would be comfortable. That is the nice thing to do.
Speaker 5: And then I look at the cold water tap and go,
Speaker 5: that will be uncomfortable, and this will make my day
Speaker 5: better because I've won this shower, and that's what I do.
Speaker 5: We're so inclined to pick the easy option these days,
Speaker 5: and if it doesn't come to us quickly, we'll go
Speaker 5: for the other easy option, the next easy option. If
Speaker 5: it's too hard to you know, get We'll just go
Speaker 5: for something else. If you can intentionally put yourself in
Speaker 5: uncomfortable scenarios daily, it puts things in perspective, so things
Speaker 5: aren't that bad and that hard. And then you also
Speaker 5: start to go, oh, what else can I do? What
Speaker 5: else can I do?
Speaker 4: You talk a lot about wanting to be uncomfortable or
Speaker 4: choosing the uncomfortable option. Do you like pain?
Speaker 5: I like what it gives me. I don't love being
Speaker 5: in it, but I love knowing that when I'm in it,
Speaker 5: I'm going to get so much out of it. I
Speaker 5: think we all need to evolve as people, and we
Speaker 5: really If you're not evolving, you're just wasting your time.
Speaker 5: We're here for a very short period of time. Growth
Speaker 5: comes from uncomfortable scenarios, not necessarily physical, like it can
Speaker 5: be in anything uncomfortable. But if you're not learning from that,
Speaker 5: then you're wasting your time.
Speaker 4: We've talked a lot about your mental journey, but what
Speaker 4: did running across the country do to your physical body?
Speaker 5: Pretty well, from about day three I was starting to
Speaker 5: show signs of wear and tear. Basically, when I got
Speaker 5: back I had. I had pretty pretty bad gluten meat
Speaker 5: tendons and when I got back to BONDI we kind of,
Speaker 5: you know, I took the two weeks off and then
Speaker 5: I went right out. Now I've got to start looking
Speaker 5: at this. I had ten MR eyes from the belly
Speaker 5: button down on different parts of my body. Basically burstis
Speaker 5: in every joint.
Speaker 4: What does that mean?
Speaker 5: My burses, which like the sack around the joints and
Speaker 5: the tendons were just so inflamed from repetitive overuse. But
Speaker 5: but I'm not a runner, Like I'm not I started
Speaker 5: a runner. No, I'm not. I started three years ago.
Speaker 5: Like this is people A lot of people, do you
Speaker 5: know think this is like a big dream and this
Speaker 5: is this is what this is how I start all
Speaker 5: my conversations is like, I'm not a runner. I'm just
Speaker 5: a guy who started running to lose weight three years ago.
Speaker 5: Who's gone, how do I make the most of my
Speaker 5: every day? This is where it ended.
Speaker 4: You just said that you started running to lose weight,
Speaker 4: and I've heard you talk before about having body image issues.
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's a funny thing that that only
Speaker 5: that comes from. And when I'm not doing the things
Speaker 5: I go and talk about. So probably in the times
Speaker 5: where I'm injured and I'm struggling to get out motivation
Speaker 5: wise because I can't because of an injury. Usually it's
Speaker 5: only rare occasions that I go, oh, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: not happy with this, I'm happy with that. But I'm
Speaker 5: pretty good at it now. What my body has done
Speaker 5: for me, It's allowed me to get up and go
Speaker 5: again and go again. It's like he can do it
Speaker 5: at once.
Speaker 4: It's twelve months on since you're finished. Has your body recovered?
Speaker 5: I don't think my body will ever recover fully like
Speaker 5: I think if I I think if you speak to
Speaker 5: a lot of athletes, they are always borderline injury performance
Speaker 5: and it's just a balance dealing with those niggles. But
Speaker 5: I was probably like seventy percent going into the run,
Speaker 5: so when I got the end, I was probably about twenty.
Speaker 5: But in saying that, if I had to run another
Speaker 5: thousand and k after I would have been I would
Speaker 5: have absolutely done that.
Speaker 4: No worries, You'll basically put your body through a form
Speaker 4: of torture. What is you scared of? Like, do you
Speaker 4: have any fears?
Speaker 5: Yeah, just not reach my potential the opportunities. That's my
Speaker 5: only fear. I don't. I don't fear like injuring myself.
Speaker 5: I don't fear you know, what people think of me.
Speaker 5: I don't fear much on like that side of things.
Speaker 5: But I fear not ever reaching what I was probably
Speaker 5: put here to do.
Speaker 4: I've heard you say that you don't think that you've
Speaker 4: reached your limit yet. Are you going to keep going
Speaker 4: until you reach that limit?
Speaker 5: I don't think you ever do. I don't think as
Speaker 5: humans we ever do. I think again, I'm touching on
Speaker 5: the evolving thing. But like what my limit was four
Speaker 5: years ago, I've surpassed that ten times already. So now
Speaker 5: it's like, well, where does this? Where is the limit?
Speaker 5: I think the limit is death. I don't think you
Speaker 5: actually get to you'll. There will always be something else
Speaker 5: you can give. There'll always be another pricing and pay,
Speaker 5: And I think, yeah, I don't think i'll I'll ever
Speaker 5: reach it.
Speaker 4: Lastly, in your book, you do say that you have
Speaker 4: a new challenge coming up that you're planning that you
Speaker 4: say will be even tougher than running across Australia. What
Speaker 4: can you tell us about that?
Speaker 5: I can say for me if I every year, every
Speaker 5: second year, for five more years, can live that moment
Speaker 5: I felt in BONDI then I've ticked off what I
Speaker 5: need to do in my life because that moment and
Speaker 5: that that feeling I got was just like I can't
Speaker 5: even explain it to people because unless you've been there,
Speaker 5: you can't. You will never understand. And so for me,
Speaker 5: even in the book, I tried to explain, but it's
Speaker 5: nearly impossible because I can only associate with people who've
Speaker 5: done things like it, and it's very few.
Speaker 4: Do you think now that you've experienced that extreme high,
Speaker 4: you're going to be constantly trying to get to that
Speaker 4: high again?
Speaker 5: I want to say, is very carefully what it's like
Speaker 5: with like going to war and you go, you come
Speaker 5: back into society, you try and assimilate, but nothing's the same.
Speaker 5: So for so long I was out there just like
Speaker 5: grinding away at this thing, grinding away, and there's no
Speaker 5: normality to what we're doing. It's all just freaking psychotic
Speaker 5: out there, like every day was just a struggle. And
Speaker 5: then you get there and then you try and associate
Speaker 5: back and you're in this whole new world in your life.
Speaker 5: Like I've ran from being relatively unknown to being you know,
Speaker 5: one of the most prominent mullets in Australia. And then
Speaker 5: you're like, now this whole life's completely different. It's like
Speaker 5: you just want to be back in there when you're
Speaker 5: in it. You just want to be out of it
Speaker 5: when you're out of it, or you want to be
Speaker 5: is back in it. You want to be back in
Speaker 5: that because that is the most alive and most joyous
Speaker 5: things you'll ever feel.
Speaker 4: So do you think you'll feel that extreme, extreme high again?
Speaker 5: Absolutely? The high wasn't getting the Bondai. The high was
Speaker 5: achieving what we had to to get there, like that
Speaker 5: whole journey of across Australia, knowing what we went through.
Speaker 5: That's what made Bondi so special. You know, whether there
Speaker 5: was two people in Bondai or the however many were there,
Speaker 5: it was the same. It was the exact same special moment.
Speaker 4: So there is something that you're planning that will be
Speaker 4: even tougher than running across Australia. That will be in
Speaker 4: the next few years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it'll be. It'll be next year. September.
Speaker 4: Ned Bruckman, thank you so much for joining the DAS.
Speaker 2: Good thank you, thanks for listening. To today's episode of
Speaker 2: The Daily Os. I've always thought it was interesting to
Speaker 2: think about what happens after you are at the center
Speaker 2: of a news cycle. And I guess now.
Speaker 3: I know, And there's other stories like that out there.
Speaker 2: Let us know who you want us to chat to
Speaker 2: about this, but until then, have a great weekend and
Speaker 2: we'll be back on Monday.