We Need Lungs (2019) - full transcript

I guess I've always had this urge,
this drive to get out and explore,

to really see the life beyond
the things that are in front of us.

You'll find that when you do that,

and you're also performing
at the peak of your abilities,

you enter this zen-like clarity

where you feel like
you're being absorbed into the universe.

You blend into your surroundings
and you start to feel everything.

You take energy from everything
that is around you,

and you have complete freedom.

And in your mind,
an absolute control of your body.

It's quite a magical place.



It sounds very philosophical,

but it's this magical pursuit,
and it can be sought,

but it can never be held for very long.

So it's something that you'll keep doing

and you'll keep looking to reach

when you get out
in the mountains, in the nature.

And so this is essentially why
I do these challenges,

I push myself, I push the line,

is to explore, discover,

and reach the zone where your mind is free

and you have complete control
of your body.

And so this is, I guess,
the reason why I do it in general.

And then there's a reason why
we're here now, why we're here today.

We're here today
because I wanted to do this challenge,



which is crossing the Pyrenees.

We're going from north to south.

We're looking at 900 kilometers,
60,000 meters of quality climbing,

so 60,000 meters up,
60,000 meters down,

and it's in the fastest time possible.

Hopefully, in under 10 days.

It's going to be mainly me running
and then there's a group of friends

along the way, supporting and guiding me.

And there's another side of the story
why we're here today,

and why we're doing this challenge,

and it's to bring awareness
to cystic fibrosis,

which is a particular disease
which impairs the way you breathe,

and it's a genetic disease,
and there's no cure for it.

The other thing is to help this foundation
that I'm very close to

which helps children, teens,
and young adults

that are underprivileged,
socially disadvantaged.

Both will give me the strength
to put one foot in front of the other

and really push myself
when the challenge gets tough.

I'm Bill O'Connor.

I'm a UIAGM mountain guide.

Now I live in Switzerland,
where I work as a mountain guide,

and previously worked both
as a mountain guide

and as a teacher
at a school called Aiglon College,

which is an international school.

And in fact, it's the place
where I first met Seba.

Sallie O'Connor is my wife, my partner.

We've been married for 35 years.

We've known each other
for more than 40 years,

and we climb together.

She's a very good climber.
She's very good in the mountains.

And spectacularly good at adventure.

Okay, on a trip like this,

Seba is very fortunate
to have with him a group of friends.

So Ambre is a girl that he knew
when he was at school at Aiglon College,

and they were good friends then,
and they remain good friends.

And Martin is a friend of Ambre,

and he was her friend since childhood.

They've known each other
since they were this big,

and they are both very sympathetic
to this kind of thing.

But more importantly,
he's a physiotherapist,

somebody that deals with sport injury

through massage, through chiropractic,

through all the sort of
alternative techniques

that help athletes recover
from extreme and hard work,

so whether it's through massage,
whether it's through manipulation.

Granite is a mad dog, alright.

That's all I can say.

It's a mad dog
that chases anything that moves.

And if you sit still, it licks you.

If you run, it barks and chases.

If you're riding by on a bicycle,

it will come and eat the tires
off your bike.

That to Seba and what's great about this
is that we've come together.

I taught Seba.

When I first knew him,
he was 14 years of age.

And so really there's
a harmony in the group.

We've all known each other,
one way or another,

either through school or friendship,

but that's how we've come together,

because it's a group of people
and a team of people

that like the whole idea
of this extreme adventure.

Our involvement, Sallie and I,

it came about when Seba came to visit us
earlier in the year in Switzerland,

and he said he was going to do
this adventure and was asking my opinion,

and asking advice,

and also asked whether or not
we would get involved

to help him plan the trip,
in terms of logistics,

i.e. to plan the actual route,

to look at the kind of stages
that he might be able to deal with,

and at the same time,
to support him along the way

so that Sallie and I
would make sure that, from A to B,

there was enough
and the necessary provisions,

whether it was some water
because there was no water en route,

or whether there was a need
to resupply his food,

because some of the days
are quite extreme, quite prodigious.

And the idea was to try and cover
the 900 kilometers in nine days,

so that we would do
100 kilometers of running every day,

plus whatever the vertical ascent
and descent is.

The problem with the classic route
is that if you do that,

there are days when you will do
100 or maybe 98 kilometers,

but you'll also go up 8,000 meters,

down 8,000 meters,

which is just an enormous asking
for anyone to do day after day after day.

And maybe on some of the days,

you have to run for maybe 15 hours,

you may be on the move.

You start at 5 o'clock in the morning,

working in the dark, using a head torch,

and you won't finish until after dark.

For me, one of the descriptions
of an adventure,

is that the outcome is unknown.

Unlike a holiday where you say,
"Oh, yes, we leave on Friday.

On Tuesday, we're here, then we're there.

We'll have dinner there, we'll go there."

Everything is known
on a well-planned trip.

But the difference between a trip

and an adventure
is that with an adventure,

the outcome is unknown.

We don't know if this is possible.

We don't know if it's possible physically,

whether it's possible for Seba.

And there are lots of factors.

Factors like bad weather.

Already, we've had colossal storms
on the way.

You never quite know
on something like this

what impact that's going to have
on your body,

not only physically but also mentally.

Do you see that blue line?

It will come up very clearly.
See this?--

Ah, okay, okay.

Perfect.

Yeah, perfect.

[inaudible]

Yeah, [inaudible].

Yeah.

[inaudible]

(speaking Italian).

He's [our] conditioned,

and now it's the trail.

Yeah, just I...

I went up and I looked at you guys

like fuck, and it was not, come back down.

Twice--

- Oh no.
- Did you?

So now it's this way.

Right, what you'll do is
you'll go down the hill to the roundabout,

you'll turn a left,

and then there's a park that rises,

and it goes up there, I think.

- I think that is it.
- Okay.

Doing that, okay?

I'll go down and stop on the path.

Okay.

- So that you can see it, okay?
- Super.

There are days when Seba is totally alone

on sections of the journey.

And I know from my experience,

having spent my whole lifetime
in the mountains,

more than 50 years climbing in the Alps,

more than 50 years
climbing mountains elsewhere,

the psychological effect of days
when you don't feel good,

or when small things can get in the way,

and this is when you really
need to have resilience.

That's something I know Seba has.

If you're going to cover 900 kilometers
and all those ups and downs

in a nine-day trip, you can't do that
carrying a huge backpack.

You have to travel light.

And ultra running, ultra-distance running
is about traveling light

through difficult landscapes,

and going with the absolute minimum.

But not just the minimum,
you also have to draw a fine line

for safety reasons,
with the essential minimum,

the sort of things
that if things go wrong,

you can still support yourself enough.

Ay ay ay. Did you fall over?

No, no, just [stopped.]

- He's had a bit of a fall in the bush.
- Oh, Seba!

[inaudible]

Sallie and I can support
the in-between moments.

We can meet him at roadheads.

We can get into position,
en route, to support that,

go ahead and book accommodation,
or whatever it is,

which means
you don't have to carry a tent,

you don't have to use a bivouac
or whatever,

if the huts are not on part of your route.

And there are mountain huts all the way
along this and gîte d'étapes,

and things like that.

I'm just trying to work out
how best to rearrange the route.

Alright, there's an interesting
thing here.

There is a very famous bridge
crossing a gorge,

a suspension bridge, in here.

They wanted it to access
the big forests here,

so it's in the Gorge of Holzarte,

and they brought in
Italian engineers in 1913 here,

to make this big suspension bridge.

My responsibility, really,
is in route planning.

And as the days go on,
and having done an initial plan,

what you're then trying to do
is to look at each day and say,

"Hang on, we've made
another 10 kilometers.

We can push on."

Or, we haven't quite made the day.

We're now 15 kilometers short.

Which means, either we add on
or we have to look for the possibility

of making some deviation,
some variation in the GR10

to allow us to get to
our final destination, our objective,

which is the Mediterranean at Banyuls.

If he's on the route
and he left the bridge,

he can only be there, Sallie.

I'll see if I can get in touch,
see if I can find out if Seba's anywhere.

No, he's not picking up.

He'll be alright.

Okay.

We'll need to just change
today's plan slightly

because we've lost a couple of hours here.

Ah, phone!

Hi, Seba.

Bill, yeah, hi.

How are you?

Good. I'm making my way down.

Down? Or are you going down
to the river now?

Yeah.

And then you'll climb up the other side
where there should be the road

where you can meet us, okay?

Okay.

Are you alright?
Do you need me to come down?

No, no. It's fine.

Alright.

It's raining now.
I have to put a jacket on.

It's raining? Oh, it's dry,
it's not raining here.

Okay?

I would be okay to do another leg

but it depends on how the leg is.

You go along the road--

Or you could get to here
but you won't do another leg,

a proper leg from here.

Okay.

I'll explain it to you.

The next stage is 12 Ks,
1200 meters of ascent.

Mm-hm.

Small descent.

Four hours forty is the normal time,

and I think now, we'll have a problem
if we don't have accommodation,

we don't have-- it's very unwise.

I think if we were to continue now,
it's just too late.

It'll be-- it's still a climb,
but it's not like this.

It's up this road.

- But it's still uphill.
- We'll keep it for tomorrow.

I think it makes sense to me

but I actually think you would benefit

from getting some food,

getting some-- we can easily do this,
but you need--

No, it's fine.
We'll keep this for tomorrow.

You'll blister the backs of your feet.

You know, we'd be there
and back, 8:30, I think.

Do we know? 8:30 at least.

By the time you eat and get everything,

for me I would prefer to spend that time

making tomorrow good, okay?

Because otherwise all you do,

you make a mistake, a small mistake now--

And you pay.

Along the way,
I also have the responsibility

because...

lots of reasons and one,
I'm a mountain guide,

and have a lot of experience
through my own expeditions

in the Himalayas
and various mountains of the world,

I will make decisions for general safety.

If I think it's not going to be safe
to do a particular leg

because of weather conditions,

or because of time,
or because of Seba's physical condition,

then I'll draw a line there,

and say to him,
"We need to hold it here."

And he understands that

because we spoke about that
before we ever set out on this adventure,

that if I'm engaged
to be part of the team,

then that's a responsibility
I feel I have to take on.

Some of the times
were slightly slower than I expected.

But it's a hard day, very hard day,
and the temperature and the humidity

is being quite difficult.

He was going very well this morning
in the cool of the morning,

but this last section down to Borce,

the distance was reasonable,
the ascent was 1200 meters.

And then it was a long descent,
quite complicated [technically].

But then he had a little fall

and the--

Yeah.

He went...

on a rock.

So now nothing.

He took off and we met him again
at the start of the difficulty.

We gave him some more drink
and some more food.

He was in good spirit.

There are a couple of possibilities
to get over the Coll,

and one is a very difficult but very fast.

And if everything is alright,
what time he should finish?

I would expect, with a bit of luck...

Nine?

Nine, ten.

This terrain in the dark, for him,
I'm unhappy with him alone.

But it's a beautiful place, huh.

Look at this.

Beautiful, yeah.

When I first met him,
he was quite a mischievous teenager.

He was 14 years of age.

He was very, very strong,
and was full of energy.

But it wasn't very well channeled.

And one of the things
that Seba could do as a schoolboy

was to get into mischief.

Both Sallie and I were able,
through teaching

and through the things
that we did at Aiglon,

were able to channel his energy
into training, into adventure,

into having realistic
but challenging objectives in your life.

What kind of student he was?

Not a very good one,
and he was always in trouble.

Yeah?

Almost had to be expelled from school.

Okay.

He was very physical with people,

and he was very strong for a boy.

But he was always a bit rough with others.

- With the others?
- A bit bullying.

So he was a bit naughty.

But very quickly, within a while,
it really changed,

and he had focus
and then was made house captain.

Oh, he was? The house captain?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

And was very good in just competing
hard in sport and training.

- And encouraging--
- And running?

- Yeah.
- Just a bit?

But encouraging the others,
and that's what made the house successful.

We made a house motto which was:
"to serve, to strive, and not to yield."

To strive for something important,

and be the best you can be.

And to say to them,
there's more in you than you know.

Okay?

There is more in you than you know,

and you must strive to be
the best you can [inaudible].

And then you have
real satisfaction in your life,

because at the end,
if you look back and you think,

"Oh, I could have done this,
I could have done that,

but I did nothing."

When you live in a house together,
you are a family.

They were my family.

I woke them up in the morning,
put them to bed at night,

Ate three meals a day with them.

How many students you had in your house?

To begin, 52 boys.

- In your house?
- Yeah, 52.

So that's huge.

Yeah, big house.

A lot of children.

A lot of problems.

Teenage boys,
teenagers, generally, do silly things.

But that's what schools are for.

Schools are to allow you
to make mistakes and learn,

whatever it is.

Whether it's mathematical mistakes
or just behavioral mistakes,

school is about making them
and learning from your mistakes.

Seba did that, absolutely.

And one of the great things
from our point of view as his teachers

is that he responded incredibly
to challenge,

and has come back now,
after having left school many years ago

to do this challenge.

And I think that no matter
what the outcome is at the end,

it's been, so far, a fantastic success.

There's still a long way to go
to get to the coast at Banyuls,

but we're well into that adventure.

What's against us is perhaps the weather,

perhaps the unknown,
but we'll deal with that tomorrow.

And that's the great thing
about adventures

because it gives you an opportunity
every day, every day,

to use your initiative,
use your self-reliance,

all the camaraderie
and the support of a good team.

I'm so happy, but you were so positive.

Had you, when we got to Borce,

I was getting a different vibe,
then the plan would have changed.

But you made the plan, not me.

You were so strong.
That was great.

Made for it.

Made for it.

Okay?

More in you than you think, huh?

Exactly.

All it takes is all you got.

Yeah.

Wow. Catchphrase.

That's it.

And that to me is what expeditions,

the best of expeditions,
bring out of humans--

the best of human qualities.

Any person that wants to run
900 kilometers and has the oomph,

the sort of motivation to do it,

is pretty independent and strong-willed.

They don't have minds that change easily.

They can put one foot
in front of the other

and just keep doing it when most of us

would quite like to go off
for a cup of coffee and a hot lunch.

So you always have to understand

not just the technical thing
but also the person you're dealing with,

the psychology of that person,

the sort of mindset.

And one of the great things about
having spent your life in the mountains

is that I've come across a lot of people

with some very focused ideas

about achieving an objective,

people that are willing to go to the limit
to achieve the outcome.

Seba's one of those people.

He's a very strong-minded,
very strong person.

He's willing to put up
with a lot of discomfort,

a lot of physical pain,
to put one foot in front of the other.

It's not broken, though.

It's just gone back through,

but it's not broken and not bleeding.

He's got-- look at his feet.
They look like they--

I can see here.

But the skin is not broken, which is good.

Just so that we can spend some time
in repairing and looking after.

When I look at the state of his feet
after 600 kilometers,

I know a lot of people,
probably myself included,

who would have stopped 200 kilometers ago.

So that's quite impressive.

Being the sort of-- the role I have,
it's trying to marry all the things--

the route, the safety, the person,

the psychology of the person
engaged in the actual task.

So I think when I was climbing up
in the snow and I was sliding,

so like... do like...

I don't know what it's called in English,

but it's in Italian
it's (speaking Italian).

- (speaking Italian)?
- Yeah.

Because their motivation
is absolutely essential

to achieving the outcome.

If this opens, I'm fucked.

[inaudible] the blister?

- And between the--
- It's not open.

No, but if it does, you're fucked.

Let's have a look.

It's not going to [stay there].

Oh!

You alright?

It's stinging now.

That was just painful.

I just put it on the heels then.
I don't want to hurt you.

If they're not motivated,

if they're not willing to put up
with the pain and the discomfort,

they're never going to do it.

They'll give up long before
the pain and the discomfort

gets to a point most of us would.

So people that do these things
are people that I think

have a very special psychology,
very special physiology.

Simply to be able to run 100 kilometers
is pretty amazing, basic fitness,

but also that stoic thing

of just putting one foot
in front of the other.

A very famous mountaineer
called Bill Tilman,

one of the greatest moutaineers,
with Eric Shipton,

used to say that he's noticed
that a lot of climbers on big mountains

suffered from mountaineer's foot.

And I asked him what he meant by that

and he said it was the inability
to put one foot in front of the other.

It's a terrible disease
when you catch it in the mountains.

You just don't want to go on.

And Tilman, he was making a joke,

but he called it mountaineer's foot,

and it was simply, I said,
"I've never heard of that disease."

He said, "Yeah, I think you might have.
It's when you can't put one foot

in front of the other anymore."

Seba is the sort of person

that can put one foot
in front of the other

when the rest of us, perhaps,
would not want to.

One of the big problems
with a journey like this--

an expedition, an adventure--
is that the person doing it

is, for most of the time, alone.

And for a lot of people
that's really difficult.

Most of us quite like company.

Most of us like to have someone
to share the decision-making.

That's quite hard.

Now, Seba has got a team of us around him,

but when he starts running
early in the morning,

he's essentially alone.

Once he's set off up into the mountains,

he has to make his own decisions.

He has to make his own route now.

You can use a GPS, or whatever,

but new technology like the GPS
isn't going to help you if it's broken,

and then you're on your own.

So doing an adventure like this,
you've got to balance all sorts of things.

One, you're on your own

so even once you're up and away
in the mountains,

in the more remote areas,

a simple slip, a twisted ankle,

a knee that has been twisted,
becomes a serious thing.

So Seba does carry bivouac protections--

have down jackets and fleece clothing.

He's essentially in specialist
mountain running shoes,

he's wearing shorts,

he carries water, he carries food,

and he also carries a simple device

which will allow us
to pinpoint his position.

And we insisted on that for safety reasons

because we are cutting very fine,
the sort of equipment.

And ultra-distance runners,

solo mountaineers, people that go alone,

are breaking one of the old rules
in mountaineering, if you like,

of not going alone, of having partners,
of having someone to--

part of a team on the mountain
to help you in times of adversity.

Well, when you do a solo thing like this,
you don't have that.

So you're called upon yourself,

and that's where I said, time and again,

you need a special kind of a person

to be able to deal with that situation,

to be able to make decisions
under pressure.

Decision-making, when you have
all the time in the world,

when you're sitting down in a chair
and you say-- it's easy.

But when the pressure's on,
all of us know that decision-making

becomes difficult.

And when you're running

and making decisions
about where your footing's going,

whether it goes here or there,

that's pressurized activity.

Maybe it's not the same as running
a multinational banking organization,

but the outcome could be very serious
if you get things wrong.

Serious because
you don't complete the task.

Serious because you don't arrive
where you're supposed to sleep,

or you get lost.

Serious because you could be injured.

So I see that as really,
one of the characteristics

that people that do this kind of activity
really need to have--

they need that special personality,
that special factors.

There are plenty of people
who are very fit,

plenty of people that can run,

but to marry those qualities

with the ability to be in
a wild environment,

that's a different person altogether.

Martin.

Martin!

No, we can't go here.

No, no, no.

No, no, no.

We have to find shelter.

No.

We have to spend the night here.

We'll sleep in the hut.

Okay, yeah.

The greatest mountaineers
go to climb a mountain like Everest or K2,

or whatever,

and they fail, or they have a problem.

It's not the climbing,
it'll be the things you can't control.

Always.

But that's the nature of adventure.

If you knew perfect outcome every time,

that's not an adventure,

that's a certainty, it's like--

A walk in the park.

Backing on a one-horse race--
it's going to win.

Couldn't have to walk, it can still win.

If you had to sleep out last night,
it would have been--

We're lucky because,
I was telling them before,

we went back and forth a few times.

And then when we came back to the hut,

I looked if there was any doors open,

and the only one was the bathroom.

So I said, well, worst case scenario,
we sleep in the bathroom-- it's inside.

And because Martin was like,
"The door is shut."

And because he was pulling the door,

then I pushed the door and it opened,
and we're like, "Yes!"

So we were wet,
we just took everything off

and said go look if there's any space

and there were a few beds
and we just took everything off.

Didn't eat anything, just...

There's a kind of rule in the mountains

that is you have to prepare early
for the night,

because if you don't, you get caught out.

So that, I think, is the thing to do,
is to be sensible.

There's also a bit of me that,
how much benefit you will get

from not pounding your feet
along some roads today.

It's something we need to think
and talk about.

That's something that
it's difficult to talk to you

because I know you're in go mode.

Okay?

And I don't want to affect
your psychological go, go, go,

which I know you're in.

But as a-- I can only give you
my thinking on it

as someone that's often done go, go, go.

For most people, this journey
is a minimum of 60 days.

Most people do this journey
over their holidays over several years,

maybe taking three or more years
to do this journey.

So here we're just trying to do it
in nine days.

One of the things that I remember
talking to Seba about a long time ago

was this idea of
if you remember something,

it's six letter Ps,
and what do they stand for?

Practice, preparation, and planning

prevent poor performances.

And those six things,
if you remember your preparation,

you do your planning and you practice,

you prevent a poor performance.

And that's what I'm seeing in action
with Seba now.

This is not a poor--
this is a fantastic performance.

One I would've been proud,
in my youth, to have done.

In doing a journey like this,
you're trying to marry the fact

that you've got an athlete
who has got to prepare

for something that is really hard
to prepare the body for,

without doing it.

So Seba does that-- he trains, he runs.

But it's really hard to prepare the body
for the absolute pounding, day after day,

of 100 kilometers,
plus 6,000 meters of up,

6,000 meters of down.

It's really hard to prepare for that.

And Seba trains twice a day.

And in that training,
he has pushed himself.

He pushed himself on things like
the Marathon des Sables.

He's pushed himself at runs
around his home in Italy.

But no matter how much you prepare,
how much you physically put into it,

the psychological factors are the things
that it's very difficult to prepare for.

Some days, after six, seven hours,

you may only have pulled
for two kilometers.

So you would be putting
huge amounts of energy

simply to go a few kilometers.

And what you realize
is that you can do that

on pretty low level of fuel, of calories,

but only for a day or two,

because after that,
you get diminishing returns.

Your body no longer recovers from fatigue,

from tiredness, from small injuries.

Your body no longer is able to sustain
the kind of effort that you demand of it.

So one of the things
that we spoke about with Seba

was how are we going to make sure
that you get enough fuel on board.

And one of the problems
with running 100 kilometers

is that you often don't feel like eating
during the day.

It's easy to get an upset stomach.

You do need to take on a lot of liquid
because we're in temperatures

of 30, 31 degrees,
at one point, when we set off.

And when you're running, hour after hour,

your body, your core temperature
goes very high and it's then

that you really need to have
the fuel on board.

It's then that you need to make sure

that you're getting
the right kind of calories.

Without it,
you get the diminishing returns.

So you put in the same hours
but you really cannot maintain the effort

required to cross these mountains
in the time available.

We discussed it,
and we think we've come up

with the right solution.

And on top of which,
it's got to be food that you want to eat,

it's got to be food--
because as you get tired,

physically tired, you often get
what are called taste reversals.

And what you really enjoyed eating
when you were sitting at home,

watching television or reading a book,
no longer appeals to you.

All of a sudden, you want something
that's really salty,

or something that's got a strong taste.

Or maybe you can't stand strong tastes,

and you want something
that is just bland--

a piece of bread--
because your stomach feels too fragile.

So all of these things,
the complex things,

dealing on a challenge like this,

and it's something
that you have to be responsive to

during the challenge.

The other thing is that you have to be
in top physical form.

You've really got to have
the right kind of muscle structure,

you've got to have the right kind of build
to do this work.

Not everyone can do it.

Seba, as you see,
he's got a light body, long limbs,

he can cover the ground pretty easily.

And he's got the right kind of
psychological response.

The other thing
is that he's got a great set of lungs

and he's lucky to have those
because he can pound out mile after mile,

and has the cardiovascular
and the cardiorespiratory fitness

to be able to do that kind of thing,

where most of us would be sucking air,
particularly at altitudes.

Two and a half thousand meters
may not be that high,

but when you're running hard,

2,500 meters puts a huge demand
on your lungs.

Before we came on this,

I was speaking to people
that knew Seba at school,

some of his teachers, and he said,
"He must be absolutely crazy!

Even thinking about running
900 kilometers across mountains,

I mean, what is he thinking about.
Has he gone really mad?"

I said, "You know,
it's a wonderful kind of madness, this,

that you have something that inspires you,

that there is something
in your life that is really...

you're passionate about."

And I think that all of us
need a passion in life,

whether it's painting, or writing,
or doing service, whatever it is.

And the wonderful thing here is
that Seba is able to combine a passion,

a passion for ultra-distance running,

a passion for mountains,

with a desire to do something
very good for charity.

For me, this is a wonderful
kind of madness

because it combines all the best things
that I would expect of a fellow,

another human being.

It combines somebody with a passion,

a passion for something
they're willing to work hard for,

something they're willing
to put time and energy into,

with focus, with a love of the outdoors,
a love of nature,

but at the same time, they're willing
to do it in the service of others,

in terms of trying to help other people,
less fortunate than themselves.

And that, to me,
is the very best of people,

the very best of humanity,

and I think that's what
something like this

can inspire, can achieve.

And so for me, Seba's madness
is a beautiful madness

because I wish more people
had that kind of lunacy.

[inaudible]

I got the...

Here?

Like a-- what happened?

Nothing.

[inaudible]

- Just, I started climbing.
- Okay.

Came back.

This [inaudible].

It doesn't hurt as much
when you climb, that.

It's more just
because you're lifting this.

[inaudible]

Okay.

Can you finish the day with this,
or do you want me to have a look at it?

I can definitely finish the day,

but I think [inaudible].

Yeah.

For me, that came from this.

This came from that, and this from that,

so it's like linked here.

I think there's no point
between that and that.

It's like--

- Separate.
- Different.

One of the problems
with any journey like this,

you can plan for most things,

you can plan for problems with the route,

problems with difficulty with food,
difficulties with almost anything.

It's always a problem, of course,
in the mountains, dealing with weather.

You have to do that.

But one of the real unknowns
of a journey like this,

a journey that's really physically
hugely demanding,

is how the body is going to deal
with the immense effort

of day after day,
pounding out the kilometers,

trying to knock up 70, 80,
100 kilometers a day.

And unfortunately, for Seba,

he's taken a pounding,

and his shins and his
calf have literally splintered

with the effort of pounding the roads,
and pounding the rocky footpaths,

and pounding the mountains.

We got up this morning
and Seba put on a brave face.

I went to see him at about 5:30
and he said, "Oh, yup, I'm ready to go."

But it was pretty obvious
when I looked at his legs,

that they were full of swelling

and that the legs themselves

were absolutely rock hard and tight,

and it was very, very hot.

And we were a bit worried.

We were worried because we knew

that he was beginning to show
the signs of what are called shin splints

where little tears,
micro tears occur in the muscles,

and even in the bone sheath itself.

But more than that, we were worried
that there was perhaps a stress fracture

in his lower leg.

My feeling is that the consequences

of this fantastic adventure

have resulted in an injury
that Seba can do nothing about.

He did another 25 Ks this morning,

but there was far too much pain.

And I quite literally said,
"It's time to stop.

This can't go on, it's ridiculous.

You're going to do
more damage to yourself.

And what's the point?"
There is this...

I had to remind him

that sometimes
it's not about the destination

when you undertake a great journey,

it's often more about the journey itself.

And you learn a lot more about yourself
than outright success.

Again, I had to remind him
of a quote that Ed Hillary once said.

After he climbed Everest--

he made the first ascent of Everest
with Tenzing Norgay--

he was asked about what it felt like
to conquer a mountain,

and Ed turned around and with all humility

said that you never conquer mountains,

you only conquer yourself.

And I think that
that's very true for Seba.

Seba finds it very difficult to give up.

It's why he was able to push on
through the pain barrier.

And I think that it will
take him some time.

I know right now
he's feeling pretty depressed

about the possibility
that he can't continue.

In fact, I don't even think
he's accepted that fact yet,

but I think that's the reality
and it will dawn fairly soon.

Once the doctor's had a word with him,
once we've had a chat,

I think he'll come to the realization

that the adventure may be ending

but the journey's still
carrying on for him.

The priority is not to do something stupid
that spoils the rest of the year,

the summer, your running career, alright?

Sometimes, the mountains...

win the day.

And the right decision, the best decision
is to pull the plug, stop,

early rather than late.

You can push it too late.

And right now, what I want you to do
is to go and see a doctor, okay?

I can give you my advice.

My best advice is, at this point,
we stop doing what we're doing.

And what I don't know
is whether it's shin splints,

whether it's a stress fracture.

I can't tell you that
and that's where you need a doctor.

Yep.

But I can tell you it's time
to stop doing what we're doing.

You know, we've covered
over 600 kilometers,

we've gone a stack of ups and downs,

and the mountains are now telling you,

giving you a really strong
and clear message, Seba.

What we do, adventures
are never funny enjoyable,

but they've got to be enjoyable.

You've got to look forward to the next day

and the next challenge.

And when that runs out,

it's time to pull the plug
and say, enough.

Yeah.

I've said about-- Seba
will have to come to terms with stopping.

It's not easy for him.

But I remember when I was a boy
and my father gave me a copy of a poem

by Rudyard Kipling.

It's a poem called "If,"

and I think it's a good lesson
by which to lead our lives.

"If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs

and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait
and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good,
nor talk too wise:

If you can dream
and not make dreams your master;

If you can think
and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters
just the same;

If you can bear to hear
the truth you've spoken,

Twisted by knaves
to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things
you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up
with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap
of all your winnings,

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again
at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart
and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn
long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there's nothing in you

Except the Will
which says to them, 'Hold on!'

And if you can talk with crowds
and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings,
nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends
can hurt you,

If all men count with you,
but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth
and everything that's in it,

And-- which is more--
you'll be a Man, my son!"

It's a little hard right now
to process every thought

that is going through my head,

as I see it as a little bit of a failure
that I didn't get to the end

how I wanted to get to the end.

The lesson you take home in this case

is that there's things you can plan,
prepare, program,

end up the way you wanted them to end up.

Life doesn't come
the way you want it sometimes to come.

So what you have to do
is take the unexpected, adapt,

and turn it into something positive.

Before I started the challenge,

I sent an email
to a group of friends and family,

and the subject was
"All it takes is all you've got"

and I held true to it
because I gave it all I could.

I tried to walk it
when I couldn't run anymore.

I was going to walk
the remaining kilometers,

but now, even walking
has proved impossible.

But because quitting
was never really an option,

and all it takes is really all you've got,

sometimes when life throws you lemons,

you just have to keep pressing through,

pushing through, and moving through,

just in a slightly different way.