Speaker 1Hello and welcome back to the James Kennedy podcast. How have you been doing? I hope you've been having this lovely sunshine that we've been blessed with in South Wales this past week or so. It's been awesome to get a little bit of sunshine and, you know, re-emerge from my darkened lair and get back out into nature and pound some tarmac miles and burn off some of the COVID calories that I've been piling on this past few years. Man, I let myself go big time, honestly, and I've enjoyed every damn second of it. And if I was a professional, I would use that to segue perfectly into introducing today's guest, but I'm not, so I won't. I'm going to nag you instead before we get started to subscribe to the goddamn podcast and give us some stars, man. Hit that rating button. You know, let Apple and Spotify and all the others, let them know what's going down over here, man. And if you want to leave a review, I will love you forever. Now, let's get down to it, because today we've got. not only the second Welshman to be on the podcast in two weeks, but we've got a guy with an insanely interesting story. You are really going to enjoy this one, trust me. This guy's story traverses not only professional athletics, but rock and roll and all the debauchery that comes with it, and then bouncing back and coming out the other side as a running punk. Now, I'm going to let him explain what that is, and trust me, it's awesome. This guy is hilarious. He's a lot of fun. He's got a lot of energy. He's got a lot to say, and we're going to get into all of it, man. We're going to get into rock and roll, health and fitness, and we're going to get into all of it, man. We're going to get into all of it, man. We're going to get into all of it, mental health, sobriety, boozing, all that stuff. So sit tight and strap in, because you're going to enjoy this one, as we welcome on to the podcast from Running Punks, Mr. Jimmy Watkins. How are you,
Speaker 2sir? I'm good, yeah. Thank you for having me. As I was just telling you before you hit record, I haven't had a shower, so I'm feeling. I don't know. I'm feeling like I've been outdoors a lot. I got that kind of wheelbarrow smell. I smell like a wheelbarrow. That's what's happening right now.
Speaker 1I had a shower this morning, or have you done a few days now? Oh, no, just this morning. You're not an absolute animal, then, like me? No, I'm a big shower fan. I'm an avid showerer. Okay, so this is a big deal for you, then, man. We really appreciate you skipping the shower to speak with us today, man.
Speaker 2That's okay. Just send me a bar of soap, yeah? Just make up for it.
Speaker 1I can hear the desperation in his voice here about the shower. I'm almost embarrassed to without a shower, man.
Speaker 2I know that's horrific. I know. No, no, I'm like twice a day. It's like my book covers. If a day is a book for me, my shower is the book covers, like on the front and back end of it.
Speaker 1This is what I love about you, man. Obviously, we're going to get into everything, right? But one thing I want to mention, from watching your album reviews on Running Punks, is your use of wordplay and your use of language is fucking brilliant, man. It's very poetic. Yeah. Yeah. It's brilliant for others.
Speaker 2It's an absolute nightmare for me. I'll try and explain something normally, and then before I know it, I'm in a baker's. You know what I mean? Just comparing bread to ex-girlfriends or shoes I used to wear. It's just like, oh, well. I love it. I just want a loaf of bread. What am I doing?
Speaker 1I love it. So for those people who don't know what the hell we're talking about right now, let's start right at the start and bring everybody up to speed. So- Who are you? What's your story? What's your background? What are you up to today? And what's going on? What's the vibe?
Speaker 2Righty. Okay. So my name is Jimmy Watkins. Real name is James, but I've been a Jimmy since I was a little kid. I used to run. My first thing I did was run. I was a professional athlete. I ran for Great Britain. I did the World Championships, got the final of the World Championships over 800 meters. I was a Welsh record holder. I seemed to have this exciting future. You know, there was a lot of things written about me. There's like a big article in The Independent kind of bigging me up as like the saviour of middle distance running in Great Britain. And then two years after the World Champs, I quit to start a rock band. So I spent a couple of years playing in bands, got a chance to tour quite a bit, make a couple of good albums, you know, like win the Welsh Music Prize and stuff like that. But I kind of. I overdid it with the drinking and stopped looking after myself. I found myself in a pretty bad place physically and mentally. And then out of the blue, kind of in 2019, I started running again. And immediately everything started improving. So me and my friend, Rodri, we set up a thing called Running Punks to kind of encourage people initially, like people in bands to look after themselves. And just to show the benefits of having like a little bit of exercise. You don't have to be crazy. You don't have to run a marathon. And between soundcheck and gig, just, you know, just do a little bit of exercise. And Running Punks has just really taken off. So that's me now. Like I'm running more, probably running as much as I did as a professional athlete, probably. Bloody hell. Yeah. And listening to a lot of music. And like you said, doing the running reviews.
Speaker 1The running reviews you do on YouTube. You're basically doing your daily run whilst listening to the album and screaming the review out at the camera whilst you're doing it. It's fucking hilarious to watch it, man.
Speaker 2That is it. That's it. It's like. I don't know. Yeah, I chuck an album on, listen to it. And I just shout really loud, running around to an athlete, what the album's doing to me. And then I edit it. I think, there's no way I can put this online. This is ridiculous. And then I put it online. And it gets people running. It gets people running and listening to music. So it's good.
Speaker 1And like I say, man, the way you describe the music and stuff. And you're doing this completely off the cuff as well. I mean, I couldn't write that stuff if I sat down and thought about it for days. With a thesaurus, you know. But you're just like, you're talking about, like, you're describing things as being like a glazed topping on a fucking. I can't even do an impression of it. It's so, like, very surreal and very descriptive way of playing. I love it, man.
Speaker 2Thank you. I appreciate that. Because it's kind of like how I've always, like, processed music in my head. Do you know what I mean? Like, I've listened to music and that's how I've always kind of processed, like, what it sounds like, what it does to me. So it's, like, it's really weird. To have lived with a way of describing something in your head for so long and suddenly make it public knowledge. Suddenly let other people into your head and put people reacting to it in a good way. So it's kind of like, ah, I didn't. Not that I was worried anyway, but you definitely think, you know, I'd read music reviews or watch people talk about music. And I'd be impressed, but I'd also be thinking, I have no idea what this person's talking about. Like, this is not how I'm processing listening to that album. So it's kind of. It's kind of good to be able to put my own spin on it and people think, yeah, you know, that's funny. And it's made me go for a run and listen to it. So it's kind of good.
Speaker 1Well, it's made me want to check out albums, man. I listen to it, I think, this sounds fucking bonkers. I've got to check this out. That's wicked. That's great. So it's wicked that you're combining the two. So coming back to the running thing then, because obviously that's where your story began. And that's kind of, you know, the main thing that you're doing now. So it was interesting that you said that that was kind of. It helped you through the mental health and the alcohol, like, overuse that came with the band lifestyle. Because I've had a very similar journey. I released a memoir in 2020 called Noise Damage, which is all about my time in Kishira. And then coming out the other side of my mental health, sort of like meltdown and everything towards the end of that chapter. And I was actually sober for three and a half years. Very recently got back on the whiskey. I'm ashamed to say, but loving it, you know. I saw that. I saw you.
Speaker 2You did a podcast. One of your episodes is about drinking again. Yes. That's interesting how some people go sober and then they decide to drink again. Because I think it's important that you don't have to be so harsh on yourself. Like some people not drinking forever is like a bad decision in a way.
Speaker 1Yeah. For me, I'm weak. It's the famous Oscar Wilde quote. You know, I can resist anything but temptation. So it doesn't matter what it is. If I like it. I want to do it a lot. You know, whether that's eating or drinking or, you know, smoking or even exercise. Because when I got into exercise, very similar to yourself, you know, it kind of helped with a lot of the mental health stuff. And I never really had a history of exercise or eating well. And before I knew it, I was jogging several miles every day before breakfast. I was obsessed with health and fitness and nutrition. And I had a six pack and I was in great shape. So I get very obsessed about things, whether it's, you know, bad things or healthy things. Which I don't know necessarily whether that in itself is healthy to be that obsessed about stuff. So coming back to what you were saying. Yeah, I'm trying to find that kind of that middle ground now whereby I like a drink, but I only really do it, you know, on the weekends or socially rather than, you know, every single night and getting hammered, you know?
Speaker 2Yeah, right. That's me. That's like a good place to be in. Definitely. But you're still, are you still sober now? I'm still sober. Yeah. And I think I'm one of those people who's in it, like just in it for the long run now. Like, like you were saying, though, like is, is an obsession healthy? And I'm like, even like if your obsession is something really good, it's still going to be unhealthy because it's an obsession. Yes. If you're obsessed with celery sticks, it's probably going to kill you. I don't know. So I kind of, I need to be in control of my obsessions. That's like my thing. A big thing I've learned since going sober is like setting myself. Boundaries. And when I'm drunk, those boundaries just go. And I know that I would lose control of everything I've tried to. so hard to like manage so like every obsession would just come out so if i got drunk i'd be down forbidden planet spending like 200 pound on comics got you yeah like everything would just i just know everything would just come out and i just feel like in a better place as a sober person so yeah i'm here at the state and but i definitely think for some people it's like if you can have like a nice whiskey and control yourself then that's cool and i kind of wish i was like that but i just know like it's just once i once i start allowing those things to creep back in i'll just be i'll just be going for it and i'll just be down the pub for breakfast and everything yeah i know
Speaker 1well about you where'd you say there was very important i think it's boundaries i mean i set boundaries for myself now because like in the band lifestyle there aren't any boundaries and you know it's perfectly acceptable and almost expected for you to be like hammered every night and being self-destructive and wild that's you know reckless behavior is kind of like you know it's the norm isn't it you're almost weird if you're not like that so being in that world is very difficult to have those boundaries but now yeah i try to uh i mean these things are the fruits of life aren't they you know good food nice drink you know whatever it is there are the you know it's like we've got to live as well right so i'm trying to like i think what you said there were boundaries it's very important so i've set boundaries for myself like no daytime drinking no no drinking you know during the week things like that and that that seems to be working so far
Speaker 2no drinking in a pub with a carpet if i if i start drinking again that'll be my one rule if there's a carpet in a pub i'm not drinking like carpets carpets and pubs seem to like brexit for those that's what we should have done before brexit we should have laminated every pub in the country right laminate flooring and then we would still be in europe and pubs with the word
Speaker 1spoon in the name as well funnily enough i know i know i know i know that's it that's it and those propaganda magazines as well you know have you seen those the weather spoons magazine it's fucking hilarious oh yeah
Speaker 2those carpets kind of like collect all the hate and then it's like dust mites but a hate and then people walk around in the carpet and all this all this hate is released into the air in a row of
Speaker 1spoons it's like a big hate sponge a big hate sponge on the floor it is it is you're dragging me into your surreal world now man i don't know if i like it so this so happens so how many years have you been sober then uh two and nearly two and a half years i've been sober for two and a half years now awesome awesome i'd like to know what is your experience with that thing because i am like whether it's similar to mine what what are the things that have stood out to you the most about being completely teetotal cool
Speaker 2i like i like questions like that because uh it's nice to talk about it because one of the biggest things right um i should say like my last night out wasn't a particularly heavy one which which makes it even stranger that i decided to quit my last night out was like quite a controlled one for me um and i just woke up the next day and i was working in this factory that made windows right and i got shouted at for something it wasn't my fault by the owner and i started crying and i was like what is wrong with me why am i crying like this guy's shouted at me loads i usually i just take it but it was because i was like a little bit hungover you know and i was just wasn't quite in control of like processing my feelings and like i just got really upset and emotional and then i was like that's it i'm only crying in front of all these people in the factory because i got hungover i'm gonna stop drinking right and when i stopped drinking like quite soon i realized that i was a really sensitive person and i realized i was probably afraid of that and i was using alcohol to kind of block these feelings so i remember quite early on maybe like two months into not drinking i was out running and it was a bit of a sunset and i was like oh my god look at that that's amazing do you know what i mean i became like this different person i was like appreciating the sunset and i was listening to the waves and i was like oh my god i'm gonna oh my god oh the waves sound amazing and and i realized that that side of me had probably been there for a long time and i was kind of afraid because when you get when you become really sensitive it's kind of it can be quite scary quite overpowering sometimes um and i realized like i've been drinking to kind of hide that and then i was realizing that uh even though i'm really like i'm a bit off the wall i'm outgoing i'm actually like really shy in social situations i'm really awkward around people so all these things were like popping up which i never knew about myself you know and i was realizing i thought i always drank because i wanted a good time but i was kind of over time it was becoming clear that i was drinking because i wasn't comfortable in pubs with people i was drinking because maybe like i wanted my brain want to think about things which it wasn't comfortable thinking about i just wanted to like just be like a man do you know what i mean i just want to keep my thoughts simple and just be like a man and do do what i gotta do every day and just go up my mates and it's been a game changer like it's been an absolute game changer like i see the world differently and i understand myself better so yeah that's i didn't expect that i just thought i'd lose my beer barely that's super interesting
Speaker 1man everyone's experience is different but there's so many commonalities as well i mean um for me i noticed that my days were twice as long i was getting more shit done because i was just up feeling fresh i wasn't like lethargic and still getting my shit together by midday um yeah just like mental clarity was better my emotions were more stable i didn't have these crashing depressions and stuff like that you know um yeah yeah like i i honestly like i i really enjoyed my time being sober like i said i i i've maintained most of that stuff now i'm trying to like to have a little bit of um pleasurable drinking back in my life without all of the other shit that came with excessive drinking but as a general when i look back on my three and a half years sober like all the memories are pleasant to be honest you know it's like i would really recommend it i mean the thing is like there was a lot of cultural resistance with me i don't know if you've noticed that as well like people think you know you're weird especially around here you know with the drinking culture being what it is um yeah a little bit of social pressure there like um stigma attached to being completely teetotal but i gotta be honest man i would recommend everybody to to do a stint sober because exactly like you say you know you learn more about yourself and your motivations for doing it and i i gotta be honest like you know a lot of people probably wouldn't go back i think if they stopped
Speaker 2yeah yeah it's kind of like you know like the the cultural pressure at the drink you i had like i had a penny drop moment with that with my friends because i was like you know when they take the piss out of you for being sober it's because they like to feel they go one up on you right you can't you don't drink just flip it around and i used to just say to them i've i fucking
Speaker 1completed it completed the level like
Speaker 2i've done it so i'm like how are you how have you not completed it yet you're still doing it
Speaker 1you need to up your
Speaker 2game boys come
Speaker 1on you're flagging like yeah
Speaker 2because it always is it's always like a one up like one up i got one up on you i can drink 10 pints yeah like you know what i mean i can drink 10 pints and install fucking curtains from my window you're you're a wimp and i just like ah look i've completed it like i seriously i've done it all uh you you still catching up and then people just left me alone people stopped asking me uh but i think alcohol-free beers is a massive one as well because you can stand in a pub now yes with a beer in your hand yeah uh that's like a massive one it's like the invisibility cloak cloak from harry potter
Speaker 1totally totally it's so strange oh that makes it so much more socially acceptable rather than holding you know a fucking like squash or something you know what i mean but yeah yeah i mean i like i drank loads of those alcohol-free beers man because they're they're so much better now than they used to be you actually feel like you're having a beer you feel like you're kind of socializing and doing you know what what you what's socially expected of you but um yeah and then you wake up fucking no hangover baby you know and you're kicking ass and you're like oh the next day whilst everyone else is getting this shit together
Speaker 2you know no no hangover but you
Speaker 1pissed the bird because you're really hydrated yeah yeah you know you you win some you lose some man you know you got to take the rough and smooth you know exactly oh that's amazing man so what about um i'd like to talk to you then about like mental health what was your mental situation like when you were fully immersed in the rock and roll lifestyle making the transition then into like running again and health and fitness what what did you notice about your mental health and your the state of your mental health uh
Speaker 2that it was controlled by the ego it was massively controlled by what i wanted people to think i was um rather than just being who i was so it yeah it was weird there's kind of i didn't it took it took a panic attack for me to realize that something was wrong with my mental health and then i had that and i initially saw the panic attack as a sign of just being physically unhealthy because i didn't know what i was doing i didn't know what i was doing when i had a day i was like struggling to breathe you know i was like i felt weird on my feet so i thought that physically and it made sense because i put a lot of weight on and i did look a bit rough um but as i as i started running i was kind of like all those things were not all of them a lot of it was mental so that panic attack was like a mental thing and i i kind of i was like living living with a lot of anxiety um because i i think looking back and i knew deep down i wasn't doing what i wanted to do with my life so just like all this anxiety was built up i kind of uh hadn't the change from being an athlete to being in a band was so quick that i hadn't kind of uh made peace with the fact that it wasn't a bad decision to quit running so young a lot of people thought were telling me it was and i grew up to believe that was a mistake and you know like i was only The same as realizing I was sensitive. of drank to stop that feeling that i fucked up and uh so yeah a lot of it was like let's just create this rock and roll ego and uh it's weird like my my regrets at the time then when i was drinking and i was in a band was that i quit running but like the regrets i have now was that i didn't enjoy my time in a band more i could have done it yeah in a much healthier way same you know like we toured america and i can't remember it i can't remember you know uh and uh the singer and the band i was in like we had a big falling out after after i left the band but you know we should have just stayed mates you know little things like that and it's just kind of like i would just i let my ego get in the way so much and i would just wanted people to be like even though i was like the rhythm guitarist i wanted people to think he's the fucking front man i've never seen anybody play rhythm guitar like that guy wow what's he doing and it just yeah it's bad and it was nice to like just get rid of that and kind of i'm in a position now where i just do things because like for the first time in my life i kind of got like values right it took getting sober to realize what's important to me what makes my life good what makes me happy so by doing that i've got values and that's how i kind of live my life now and i'm in a better place and i just wish ah you know i wish i'd done that when i was in the band yeah i wish i'd realized you know it was all about writing good music it was all about oh maybe i should try it out different guitars and experiment you know me spend my money on guitars and stuff but yeah it's a weird one yes that's life like and i totally
Speaker 1echo that man it's like you can't you kind of got to go there in order to come back like having you know what i
Speaker 2mean yeah definitely it's yeah it's it's mad and then i think when you when you're kind of living your life properly how it is for you that you i think you're always going to regret something there's always many things you regret but it's interesting how the thing that you regret changes you know like when you just know what's important to you and but you make peace with something else which was maybe causing you to like a all along so you know i made peace to the fact that uh that i quit running i was like no it's fine it's like i've come to realize now that was like a good thing to do that was the right decision for me to do i wasn't the type of person to go into years and years of professional sport it's not it's not for me so i've done the right thing there but now i'm like oh i just wish i'd enjoyed the time in the band more and it's like you're constantly finding this balance so you can just yes live happily i think yeah no
Speaker 1i totally echo that man i mean like on our last tour with kai shira we were like in europe during a heat wave you know we were playing like stage big stages on beaches in you know fucking it's coast of italy and you know having a great fucking time you know playing south of france and barcelona and all these cool places in the sunshine and yeah it was most fucking unhappy i've ever been in my life you know and i know just depressed and pissed off and snapping with people and it's really kind of like pretentious really when i look back and i think dude you could have just enjoyed the ride and played some rock and roll shows you know and just fucking
Speaker 2enjoyed yourself exactly that's that's yeah that's exactly what i'm thinking you know it's like oh this wouldn't this would have been a good story to tell people but now i can't remember it oh it's funny it's funny we learn hopefully like the next generation will make better mistakes well
Speaker 1i thought i suppose that's the key in it like as long as you learn from it and stop making the same mistake over and over again then it wasn't a wasted experience i mean it was a it was a it was a growth experience that was a great experience and i think that's that is clearly giving you the life that you've got now which is much better you know yeah definitely
Speaker 2definitely like it was um i don't know it would have been easy to just stay that person right you know i could i could have done it well into my 60s um and then when i was 60 like oh my god what am i doing and then became like a sober 60 year old so i'm just yeah i'm glad it happened when it did so or you'd be that
Speaker 1like you'd be that bitter 60 year old guy sat in a pub that's got carpet just kind of like hating the world you know like oh fucking shit business uh you know yes voting for like double
Speaker 2brexit that we should just leave the planet yeah that spongy floor
Speaker 1of carpeted hate just seeping up through the soles of your into your soul what makes the chips taste so good it's all i hate on them oh god so what's the crack these days then so what are you what what you're doing a thing running punks tell us what all that is
Speaker 2about so running punk started with me my friend rodri uh we were in a band together in school and we kind of uh just like just didn't keep in touch you know we were in a band but we weren't like really close mates we just didn't keep it we were friends on social media which is sounds weird being nearly 40 and saying that we were friends on facebook um and friends in real life before that and a band and we kind of we did a we did a race so the year i started running again i did the half marathon in school and i did a half marathon in school and i did the half marathon in school and i did the half marathon in school and i did the half marathon in school and i did the half marathon in school and we both had really similar stories that we'd been in bands we got super unhealthy and running came along at the right time kind of helped us sort our shit out and we were like well it was his idea he was kind of like there must be more people like that so we came up with this idea of running punks and i think originally it was just gonna we thought it was just gonna be me and him like the big hair bikers for running like we'd wait we'd wait this running punks kit and we'd be like yeah we're the running punks and uh smash it up or whatever um and yeah we we were like we put like we put a website up we put some like the we did like a twitter thing and stuff you know and we like we noticed a few people are into it oh yeah i'm into like i'm i'm into music and i like running and and then during lockdown i was i was kind of saying to rod like i think i'm gonna i've got this idea i'm gonna i'm gonna run and review music and i started doing that i'm putting the videos up and obviously like the bands were sharing a six music feature day so it just introduced us to a load like a lot more people and then just this community grew around it and we're we're kind of i don't know like from my experience it was people were getting in touch with me after i'd run to something like a dillinger escape plan album or something or you know like some death i'd run to a death metal album and then someone who's always wanted to run is on the internet and they see someone who looks dirty run into one of their favorite death metal bands and it's for them it's like um the first time they got something in common with someone who who looks like a jock or something if it was like an american movie do you know yeah all of a sudden they're like i've always wanted to run and there's this guy who's listening to death metal or experimental rock wherever so they they reach out they give you a shout and they say oh look i i love i love that album i like what you said about it by the way i want to get into running and it's like the first step for a lot of people to to take that to take that first step with running so it just grew and it just grew so quickly and lots of people going to run in for the first time because of it so that's where it is at the moment it's a worldwide community of people who kind of wouldn't wouldn't go to the gym wouldn't join the proper running club but run because they know it's good for them it makes them happy and they know it's a chance to like listen to music you know like for me it's like i can go for a run and sometimes it's like the only time of that day that i can have an hour to myself and listen to music so i think lots of running punks are the same we're all kind of like busy people and yeah it's a chance to exercise and discover some new new sounds that's amazing man
Speaker 1and it's a real sense of community i can imagine as well because you know like for many for many people they may have associated health and fitness with a certain type of lifestyle or a certain type of person that they may not have felt like they would fit in with you know but you guys are attracting everybody you know and you're screaming your listening to yeah so i can see how that would really appeal to a sense of belonging to a real
Speaker 2community exactly like i've seen photos online of people running punks who didn't know each other before going to each other's weddings oh wow meeting up for food uh going out for drinks going to gigs together and i think like one of the really cool things about it is that band like bands are interacting with the videos right and it's encouraging a lot of bands to come out not come out like but just say that they're into running as well and keeping fit and healthy is important for them and for a lot of people that's the first time they've seen that like so their favorite band is talking about running so something like i i don't know like like bob villain at the moment for example at the moment did a bob villain video they're aware of running punks and then they played at focus wales up in wrexham and they they gave a shout out to running punks and talk about the importance of staying healthy and exercising and for a lot of people they're like seeing their favorite bands talking about running yeah you know and it's it's like you don't have to feel like oh because i'm running because i'm a runner i'm not cool uh i'm not cool and left to talk to these musicians or ever it's like nah everyone realizes the importance of looking after themselves and that's why you've got in common with all these all these people you admire and all these people inspire you that
Speaker 1is becoming the new cool now i think i think the old classic cliche of the rock and roll self-destruction and all that stuff i feel like more and more people are realizing now that that's fucking mental and um yeah that era has passed you
Speaker 2know oh it's so like it's so old-fashioned it's just gone is yeah it makes you cringe when you see bands living up to it at the moment you're like what are you doing yeah yeah it's it's cringe isn't it it's like nah that's not that's not how
Speaker 1it's done anymore i'm clearly unhappy as well i think we know too much more now don't we we know that like you know back in the days when you only had the print media and it was like oh wow you know like metallica are living the dream but then now like with the internet we kind of know the personal backstories and you think oh fucking hell these guys are like quite sad not not necessarily metallica but you know these guys are like these guys are quite sad, really, you know? They're like, they've got no life, you know? they're doing this shit because they're depressed yeah sad and they've got no fixed abode and they're skint you know
Speaker 2yeah yeah totally totally it's um yeah it's kind of like um i don't know you can just see the finer details of everything now and you can realize all is not what it seems totally
Speaker 1totally and what are the um what are the benefits of running them would you say i mean for you personally but as well as like uh all the people that are part of this like awesome growing community what what do you find the commonalities that most people talk about with regards to the benefits that they find of running brings
Speaker 2to their life ah cool um i think i think everybody wants to be the best version of themselves i think that's normal i think that's you know i think we all do deep down you might some people not be might not be aware of it but we all strive to be as good as we can and i think running kind of makes you realize that to be good you don't have to act like you're good you just have to be good and you don't have to be good and you don't have to be i kind of like unlock that goodness in you and we've all got it and a lot of that goodness was kind of at its peak when you were in your early 20s kind of before you grew up and got all this baggage and running it's literally like a time machine you can run and feel like a teenager again and i think just the act of going out around the woods going around fields jogging makes you feel young and when you're feeling younger you're in touch with that goodness that's inside you like sometimes a little smell someone cutting the grass will take you back to your summer holidays in school and all these things will happen and you'll be like i remember that from when i was a kid and the most important thing to me was like a watermelon like having a slice of watermelon you remember all these little good things that made you happy yeah back then so it's a case of like remembering that to be good you just have to remember like all that goodness inside you instead of oh i'm good because i i went out and i bought this protein shake from this uh really trendy cafe it's a really trendy cafe it's a really trendy cafe it's a really trendy cafe it's like no you have to do any of that it's all inside you already you just have to unlock it so i think that's the run it does for a lot of people it definitely makes people feel younger um obviously you got the the uh the endorphins and stuff like that you know yeah it's just it makes you feel good but it makes you realize that improvement is is possible um like for me it was it was weird like i when i started running again i was so unhealthy uh i used to go out late at night in a full-on track suit with money in my pocket because i thought if i can't run i'll just go to the shop it looks like i'm out it just looks like i'm going for a walk um and then i started uh i became fascinated with the number three right because for me like a good fast kilometer is anything like if i ran a 350 kilometer or something like that so i started going out now and again and then i'd like let's try a fast kilometer let's try a kilometer starts with three and by like kind of focusing on a really simple thing like that like just anything that begins with three i was kind of solving the biggest problems right you know i was focusing on something small and little and bigger issues were getting solved so like things like going to bed too late that was because i was running so much i was going to bed early and that was solved by my my thing about oh let's go out and try and run a three minute kilometer eating too much drinking it was all i fixed on a little problem and it solved the biggest problems which i thought would never get solved so running running is a really good way to do that
Speaker 1yeah it's so interesting hearing different people's takes on it because for me i found that the mental discipline that came with running affected every aspect of my life because i had unlike yourself who actually had an athletic background i had no interest in health and fitness until i was like in my early 30s i think um when i forced myself to do it because my health was just so bad you know the same as yourself from being in bands and drinking and all that sort of stuff um and i the way i managed to stick with it because i'd failed so many times at um you know trying to get a little bit of exercise going to the gym and then thinking oh fuck that never doing that again um and i think that's a really good way to do it because um so with jogging i said to myself right i'm gonna i'm gonna do as much as i can in the day and then as soon as my like fucking heart is coming out of my my throat i'm gonna stop and i'm gonna go back and that'll be it for that day and i'll just do as much as i can and then before i knew it just doing as much as i could that day meant i was doing several miles you know and by that point i was obsessed and i found that like by giving myself these little milestones like today i'm just gonna go to the bridge or or tomorrow i'm gonna go to the bridge and then i'm gonna go to that um you know that the pub further down the street i'm gonna go to that point and by forcing myself to go those milestones it kind of gave me a mental discipline that i was then able to apply to other stuff in life yeah like when i whenever i felt like giving up on something i was like no no no just finish this and then you could do that you know it kind of it kind of tipped over i found into lots of different areas of my life it gave me a kind of mental strength as
Speaker 2well yeah totally it's like it's a funny one because when i started running again my big thing was like um being able to like foot and taking pleasure from the fact that i guess i could i could go through all this stuff i i'm just i get careful now like when i talk about it because i don't want to encourage people the suffering is good do you know what i mean yes even even though it totally worked for me and it was a bit of like self-punishment for being a dickhead you know running at six in the morning i was like yeah you fucking you've done this yourself you need to do this oh we sound so similar man do you know what i mean and i was like when i got through all that i was like right that's it i'm no longer talking about that because i don't want to encourage other people to punish themselves but you're totally right it makes you kind of it makes you i don't know even know if it's like bravery but it helps you make decisions which on the outside look like bravery but to you you're just thinking what have i got to lose like i've i've been running around for at six in the morning in a jumper from a charity shop literally nothing can hurt me no it's that yeah totally that's it i always felt like it makes you look brave but to you you're just you're just being reckless in a healthy way because you kind of trust you can do
Speaker 1it yeah and like the discipline as well like when you wake up in the morning because i used to do it before breakfast um and when you wake up in the morning you really don't want to go out in the cold jog and you want to stay under the quilt and they're nice and warm and have a cup of coffee and lie in you know but enforcing myself to do that it really strengthened that kind of mental muscle that i had to just discipline myself to push through the things that i found were uncomfortable or unpleasant and that just benefited me in so many other aspects of my life you
Speaker 2know yeah it's weird and like similar to that it was i realized that the daunting things started way before they became daunting right so i like explain so i'd be in bed and i'd be like oh my god i could hear the rain and i'm in bed and my heart i gotta go outside and run in that and for me the daunting thing started when i was outside so the run starts from outside but over time you play these tricks to like fool yourself into it and i was like no technically the run starts as soon as i put my shorts on so what it's not a daunting i'm not scared by going outside in the rain and i'm scared by actually just putting my shorts on in the house right that's when the run starts and then you do these little tricks on you and then before you know where you're like but i can put my shorts on no problem and by the time you got your kit on like going outside isn't scary anymore yeah so it's kind of like i don't know like i took the jump to be self-employed and i was always thinking about how am i going to make money what am i going to do for a living self-employed and i realized no that being self-employed starts by telling where i'm working now that i'm not going back and i was like i want to tell i'm not going back because i hate them so you trick yourself into making all these big decisions by starting them sooner i guess is what i'm trying to say um you start them sooner and then it's like that same thing i was saying it's not it's not bravery it's just like being reckless but knowing you can do it so that's where it taught me big time it wasn't like the act of being i was scared about it was getting started that makes
Speaker 1so much sense i love that man i can relate to that as well because i found that like as soon as i got out there and i was running i was i was good you know i could just keep going all day you know what i mean it was like but it's the you always are it's the simple act of actually just getting up and doing it is the hardest thing once you're out there it's like oh i could turn back now it's like i'm gonna do a bit more fucking i'm gonna go to the edge of the i'm gonna go to the woods and back you know you just it's just that initial thing so that mental trick you play of like actually no i'm just gonna i'm just gonna put my shorts and my trainers on and by the time you've done that well you're meant you know you're ready to go then you know do you know what
Speaker 2i mean it's like you'd be crazy to go back into bed then you'd be crazy to put all your running kit on and then go i'm going back to bed you yeah at that point you're like i may as well go outside and then when you're outside like you say you're loving it yeah this is great yeah oh wow i didn't i didn't know that was my milkman i never met oh yeah and then you just meeting all these early
Speaker 1morning people oh it's great yeah you get the fresh air in your lungs you're looking at nature you know you get to have a bit of clarity and it's and like i say it's that one hour or half an hour in the day when which is your time to just to be away with your thoughts to be away from your responsibilities to be out there in the world wherever you're sort of like your chosen place is whether it's the woods or around the block or you know whatever it is um it just gives you that um it's that time that's yours isn't it you know i mean it's so so beneficial it's such a good way to start your day i think as well yeah it is and you can like piss anywhere
Speaker 2because no one's around
Speaker 1i do that anyway man to be honest
Speaker 2that's always my favorite thing about i'm gonna go piss down here today
Speaker 1and you find and you're always the first person to find the dead bodies as well you know when you're jogging i know hey that that happened to me years ago
Speaker 2i got questions about um yeah it wasn't i didn't sorry i didn't find a dead body there was an attempted murder in cardiff when i was living there and um i was out for a run and the police saw me and i got questioned about it which is like so it's happy it's true you are always the first person on the scene of a crime
Speaker 1I thought you'd actually seen it there. body then jesus christ this is taking a turn
Speaker 2yeah no that would be that would be a hell of a curveball to throw halfway through a podcast yeah i see him every day every day i go running well you do live internetly so you know what i mean you know yeah even even the
Speaker 1people who are alive kind of look dead i didn't say it man i'm not saying nothing well it's such a thing it's like it requires no equipment other than a good you know half decent pair of trainers and somewhere to do it i mean like i've done it in the city i've done it in the countryside you know and the result is the same the effect is the same so i mean it's such a no-brainer i mean like if anyone's listening to this hopefully they've been inspired to at least give it a go and i think uh like jimmy's saying you know you don't have to become this athlete overnight and commit yourself to doing 10 miles a day you just go around the block and back and
Speaker 2get a taste yeah and like a big thing that i started doing was um because i was so intimidated by distance because i grew up as like a proper athlete so i knew what distance meant so i knew like oh if i'm gonna do like a five mile run oh back in the day i used to run five miles in this time so i started just running to time and i i still do that now i i go out the house and i go i'll go for an hour right i'll go for 45 minutes and it's so much easier right because we are like as humans everything is a task whether we're aware of it or not so if you're gonna empty the dishwasher you're gonna do it as quick as you can or if you're gonna put the shopping back in the fridge you'll do as quick as you can and we like that when we run we're like oh it's five kilometers you will deep down your body will be trying to get it done as quickly as possible and that i mean that makes running like that can make it quite hard and unpleasant because you're always pushing yourself but if you just say i'm going for a half hour there's nothing you can do unless you can run at the speed of light there's nothing you can do to change half hour half hour is half hour and kind of like your body just accepts that or your brain accepts it and you just go i just got half hour and you find you run slower and you just go oh i'm going for a half hour and you just go oh i'm you put less pressure on yourself and running becomes much well it does for me and i know a lot of running punks it becomes much more enjoyable once you start running to time so like honestly if you've been putting off that first run because you're seeing everybody doing five k's just just do 20 minutes yeah and don't worry about how far you go just go out for 20 minutes and enjoy it um and like running doesn't have to be hard i i very rarely push myself um the most important thing is that it becomes like a habit part of your lifestyle yeah and you're more likely to do that when you're enjoying it every day so make sure you enjoy every day make it become a habit and you will improve much more than than you ever thought you could really and do um do the running
Speaker 1punks have like groups as well can people like join like newbies and then and go running in groups or is that something that's very much organized you know in in each person's sort of like hometown that's
Speaker 2fine yeah so we've got like a kind of official run club in cardiff we got two two in cardiff one in cardiff and then we've got like a kind of official run club in cardiff and on a wednesday night and one on a sunday morning so that's like the cardiff run club but like people get in touch they they put a shout out on twitter if they like i know someone's working away they say where they are and someone will pop up saying i live there let's go for a run so that's how a lot of like running punks meet each other they just say where they are and they another running punk will reach out and they start running together so that's awesome yeah yeah it's crazy and then every sunday we do like the virtual run club so people all around the world just like tag us and they run let us know where they listen that's awesome yeah and it like it's funny right because it motivates me like some sundays i'm like oh i don't know i quite fancy having a day off today and i see all these running punks running and i'm like oh my god yeah i gotta go i gotta go i gotta go running with all these punks and it's you forget that it's like a community that you help build because you're just part of it now yeah that's so awesome man yeah it's cool it's really good you know you're part of it you know you have to remind people that you are the leader don't forget jimmy is the leader yeah you know i go running in a crown or something yes you have
Speaker 1to give yourself a title man you're not you're not just any old running punk you know what i mean you're the fucking the grand imperial overlord of the people's
Speaker 2republic of yeah someone called me a cult leader that made me shiver i felt a bit sick nothing wrong with that man nothing wrong with that at all oh yeah king of the running punks me and rodri are both king the kings of the running punks but it's like a community which supports
Speaker 1us so which i'm getting worried now i feel like there's a bit of essential information that you've left out at this point so are the running punks female only and you're and they all have to sleep with
Speaker 2you is that how it works oh no god no no no that would that'd be far too much admin i couldn't handle it one
Speaker 1is enough for anybody man
Speaker 2yeah no it's um it's uh do you know what this i think i was definitely worried at the start when we were going to call it running punks me and rodri are both obviously two men rodri like loves a beard um and i thought it was going to put a lot of um female runners off i thought they'd look good and they go there's a bunch of blokes being bloke yeah um but i i'd say it's almost like a 50-50 split between male and female runners and a lot of like the good in fact i'd say all the good things that have come from the running punks community were um started by the female members like suggested by them so things like um the campaign we did for don't harass women that came from dr ashley morgan she's a lecturer in cardiff uni right um and she was posting about uh it was around the time of the sarah evrad murder yes kind of like we need to do something running punks needs to do something as a community so we we did like a don't harass women t-shirt um and then like the the the sales that we donated the charities and stuff um things like hiding the calories on runs came from a running punk called rachel who was like just say look just so you know some people this is bad for some people for people the poor stay runs and say how many calories they burned and that's something i'd never thought about you know never thought about it um the kind of like the run clubs let a lot of them are led by female runners um the suggestions to do like the nighttime runs in a group so like literally honestly right almost all the the the features of running punks i'm most proud of were suggested by our female members which is amazing considering it was something that at the start i thought oh it's just gonna be dudes with tattoos yeah it's it's amazing you know what i mean it's it's gonna be a dude show yeah i'm always scared of that like guys in beards running and it always gives me the ick it's not as bad i'm not
Speaker 1gonna say it man i was gonna say something about guys in spandex running it kind of scares me but you know i may be talking to one so i don't want i'm gonna shut up
Speaker 2but i'm just always on i'll wait where i'll run in there but i'm always aware of how how easy it would be for running punks to just look like what it isn't yes i'll come across like something that's like totally off put into people and yeah it honestly wouldn't be what it is without um the female running punks they they like have changed the way that definitely me and uh think about like the importance of safety when you're running and stuff like that so yes it's amazing yeah it's amazing oh
Speaker 1dude this is such an awesome thing to have done and what a thing to see grow and build as well from such a simple idea that you did for yourself to turn into this global community it must be a real real sense of achievement man and like to know that you're doing so much good for people's health and well-being and sense of uh community and everything i mean do you kind of pinch yourself sometimes that it's
Speaker 2gone as the way that it's gone uh i at the moment like uh there's like something happening at the moment i i'm well we there's a documentary being made about ray um and we've been filming a lot we're filming pretty much all of next week for as well and the documentary is possibly possibly going to be something which is quite big it's certainly looking like it's going that way wow um so that is something that makes me like what is going on here like how has this happened um i did an advert last month for a shoe company for their flagship shoe which is coming out in october november and i did a week of filming to launch this new shoe for a shoe company which is crazy because as a professional athlete i think i had like a free bottle opener once and all of a sudden i'm getting all this stuff is happening and those are things that make me kind of think this is this is actually mad how this has happened um but in terms of the community and the running punks i try not to think about it because uh i don't know i just try not to think about it i like to just enjoy it and like i was saying like i like to just feel like i'm as part we're just still a member of it yeah
Speaker 1you're still involved yeah yeah
Speaker 2do you know what i mean so when when it's like the day-to-day stuff i'm just always like really happy and i'm i i love getting things like a message from someone in a random part of the world because you've run to a band and they like that i went for my first run after seeing that i things like that make me so happy um but yeah the real things like the filming uh the shoe advert and the stuff that comes with it that's when i pinched myself when it's kind of
Speaker 1like amazing yeah yeah stuff like that is mad so amazing and i'm so glad to see that the thing has become such a success and i'm so glad that the success has happened for somebody like yourself as well you know who totally deserving of it such a cool funny nice guy uh who's worked clearly worked really hard you know on on yourself and i'm putting this this amazing thing together uh which is doing so much good for so many people you know oh thank you i
Speaker 2appreciate that i really do appreciate that and um yeah it's kind of like i don't know i don't know it's just i think it's just important to be positive uh and just you know let let people know they can do things they didn't think they could do
Speaker 1before yeah so how can people get involved in so anyone listen to this i know is going to be chomping at the bit now but there's been a lot of welshisms in this conversation as well so people might have to translate what we're talking about a little bit they might be uh how do we rephrase that he might be super excited to get in touch and become a running punk um so how can they do so how can they find you where you at
Speaker 2uh so they can send like money in a post directly to me to the king yeah envelopes full of cash i'll uh i'll take a while to process your application and i'll think about it no um just just find running punks on twitter facebook instagram just just give us a shout like just let us know where you are what where you're at with your running and we'll share it and people will just start interacting with you that is that simple it's that simple um if you want me to run if you're a band and you want to run to your album send it to me i'll have a like i try to do as many as i can every week but yeah send us send your stuff over just get in touch just get in touch that's all all you gotta do is and then obviously buy some merch just buy some
Speaker 1the merchandise is fucking awesome i gotta be honest i got my eye on the on the uh the black t-shirt with the pink logo i got my eye on that bad boy man ah yeah that's a lush one yeah i love that one yeah check out the merch guys so what's the uh what's the website then because all this stuff the info and the um the links and the merch store and everything is on the website what's what's the uh the url for the site i believe oh my god i
Speaker 2have to check do you know what i think it's running normally i'll be more
Speaker 1professionalist and have it in front of me but i'm having trouble with my internet
Speaker 2it's runningpunks.com sweet simple as that nice and easy yeah find us on there and just like just join in just join in and uh i don't know like don't feel like you have to be an amazing runner you just have to be a runner that's all it is you just have to be a runner and you're a running punk i love it i love it
Speaker 1i love it well man thank you so much for everything you're doing uh i wish you all the best with everything coming forward what an amazing thing to see become such a success that it has and i'll see you in the next one bye and thanks so much for giving us your time today as well and speaking so openly and honestly about your journey and it's getting everybody excited about getting out there and hitting the uh hitting the road you know what i mean it's like um i wish you nothing but the best and i hope i'll see you out there one day dude you know
Speaker 2yeah definitely you're not too far from me so um yeah we should
Speaker 1go for a run or something definitely definitely i'd love to do that let's do it let's do it oh let's do it okay yeah i'll take you up on that there we go you heard it here first folks i'll be making excuses now for the next three weeks jimmy watkins from running punks thanks so much man we'll see you again soon
Speaker 2nice one catch you soon bye
Speaker 1ah what a super nice guy man i enjoyed that was a lot of fun you know it's amazing that we've never met before um given that we both live in the same kind of area and you know mingle in the same sort of circles but um before i pressed record jimmy mentioned that he used to come and watch my band kai shira um when we were performing locally so it's possible that we have actually met at some point um but it would have been in both of our previous lives so i'm not sure if we've met in the same kind of area but i'm not sure if we've you know but running punks i fucking love that idea man what a great such a simple brilliant idea and it's so awesome that it's taken off and become such a success that it has and i'm glad that that success has come to someone like jimmy who just seems like such a genuine you know funny nice guy you know so i hope you enjoyed that there was a lot of good stuff in there you know jimmy was very open and honest about his sobriety and um you know his his previous struggles and i think it's really um i think it's really important that men have those conversations and they're open and honest about that you know this idea of toxic masculinity you know or a man has to be a man and can't admit to having any flaws or anything um you know i i think it's really healthy that um people like jimmy come out and speak so openly about those things and i hope it's inspired you to hit the tarmac as well and like you know get in touch with the running punks i mean you know there may be a group near you that's doing a similar thing and if you're in south wales they do a card if one like jimmy mentioned but also do check out the youtube channel and i'll see you in the next one bye where he does these album reviews because they are fucking hilarious they're brilliant honestly i'm gonna see if i can um rope him into doing one of my album and see what bizarre adjectives he's going to use for that thing but check out their website at runningpunks.com links to everything else and all their socials is on there as well as their merch because like like we were just saying the merch is super sexy honestly i'm gonna go and buy myself a t-shirt right away follow them on their socials and jimmy just said you can get in touch as well so drop the guys a like if you're not already a runner getting involved in something like this will change every aspect of your life i can't i can't recommend you highly enough so with that said i hope you enjoyed the episode before i go i'm gonna nag you one more time to subscribe if you haven't subscribed do share the episodes you know spread the word tell your friends to check them out as well and yeah leave a review or put a comment if you're listening to it on youtube and get involved in the conversation and if you could give me some stars that would be awesome all you gotta do is click the subscribe button and i'll see you in the next one bye damn star button man and then you know apple and spotify will think hey people like this shit and then they'll suggest it to other people and then we can make a whole global community of running punks and we can give jimmy that crown that he so clearly craves all right until next week take care of yourselves take care of each other and i shall see you same time same place next wednesday at seven o'clock have a good
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