In this episode, I am talking to Nikki Love about her amazing athletic journey including her 50th birthday celebration of 63 marathons in 63 days throughout the U.K. and her next adventure of a treadmill run across ‘Oz’; 2500 miles in 63 days.
We discuss:
- The Road To Running
- Perseverance Is The Key To Success
- What It Means To Be Chasing Extraordinary
- Learning To Be Adaptable With Running And In Life
...and more!
Listen to the full episode:
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Here are some highlights:
How Running Became A Part Of Nikki Love’s Life
“Running wasn't my focus at first. So I ran the first, really sort of what we call long distance run in cross country at school. It was at high school and we were told to go for a run,” said Nikki Love. “It was three kilometers and it nearly killed me. But what I also experienced was, since I lived in Australia, and it was sort of like out in the paddocks, it was areas that I'd never seen before. It was exciting and it was an adventure. I thoroughly loved it. I came back sweaty, dirty and I realized I’m not too bad at it.”
Nikki Love’s First Marathon Attempt
“I attempted my first marathon in 2001, so I was 34. I'd just given birth to my son, he was six months old. For some strange reason, I decided I'm gonna go and do a marathon,” said Nikki. “Honestly, I didn't train. And yeah, I didn't finish. I got those three letters, the DNF, “did not finish.” I got to 19 miles, stopped and went home. But I thought, this isn't the story that I want to tell my child, and it's not the finish of what I want to do. I want to be a marathon runner, and I want to tell that story to my kid. So I entered another marathon when I got home and I trained properly for another six months, and six months later, I actually finished one. So that was the start of my marathon running.”
Deciding To Beat A Guinness Book Of World Records In Marathon Running For Women
“I had this thing in my head. I read these books and it was these people doing these amazing adventures. It was actually an American guy, Dean Karnazes. He does 50 marathons in 50 days. That was sort of the driver for the first 7 in 7,” said Nikki Love. “I was turning 50 and that book was there, and I was thinking what am I gonna do. I put everything on hold. I'm not used to being this sort of adventurous, ambitious, brave person. So why not just give it a go. So what if it doesn't work? And that was sort of the thought processes. Ultimately it came down to, if I don't do it now, when am I gonna do it? Let's go for it. And at that point, when I decided that I was gonna put the 50 Americans in a row, back on the table, I looked at the Guinness Book of World Records, and found an article about a British woman, who had run 60 marathons in 60 days and her record was the most consecutive marathon distances by a woman. At that point it was just like, well, if I'm gonna do 50, I might as well do 60, and if I'm gonna do 60, then I might as well try and beat it. And then it was that math equation: nine times seven, so if I'm gonna be out on the road for seven days a week... Seven days a week, yeah. 9 times 7, or 63. And that was how the number popped into my head. It was time to give it a go.”
Success Is About Being Adaptive And Flexible
“I've got to run a marathon a day and I've got a broken van. It was electric. So we ended up coming up with a plan where I ran in Scotland on my day seven. The van broke down on the way back to Nottingham, which is a seven hour drive, and so we stayed nearby. I woke up the next morning, got a jump start, got the van home, and got back at midday. Then at 1 o'clock I had a little snooze on the couch, I went back out again and ran my marathon number 8. Then hung around Nottingham to get the van fixed. I learned what it is to have a goal. You have this idea and you know what the success looks like. But to get there, you have to be quite adaptive and flexible and be willing for it not to look the way that you said it was going to look.”
Toughest Part Of Running 63 Marathons In 63 Days
“The mood swings were really extreme during the two months. I had three periods, really heavy, which was not my normal cycle. The mood swings that came with it were quite intense,” said Nikki Love. “But there was also a bit of brain fog, so there was a difference between being tired and being brain foggy. In that couple of times, I just didn't feel like I was there. And that again, looking back, is a symptom of peri-menopause. It's now more obvious, and I've gone through a lot more of those experiences. But this is another reason for doing it, which is to find out, can I still do this stuff while being in a peri-menopausal phase of my life. And how do I improve it? Or how do I deal with this situation and not let it become an obstacle?”
Running Across Australia
“So the next big thing was to run across Australia. That was the goal, but the next year I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to run across Australia. So I thought I better throw in a training or another training adventure, and I ran around Ireland instead. It was a little bit cheaper to do a little training run around there.” said Nikki Love. “Yeah, so I planned it for 2019 and that didn't happen either. So 2019 was setting up and unfortunately, these things do cost a lot of money. And I just didn't raise enough money to be able to do it, so I had to say that it's gonna be 2020. I had my flights booked for April, and subsequently, the world turned upside down and Australia just closed its borders. Left me in the U.K. and after two years of planning, I had to put it on hold again.”
The Birth Of The ‘Treadmill To Oz’ Idea
“I actually did a charity event for the month of May, which was called the Indoor relay, and I borrowed a treadmill for that so that I could run inside and talk to people. Get them to come and join us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” said Nikki Love. “The whole month of May, there was me and about 20 other captains that kept it going, but in the process I spent a lot of time on the treadmill. This sort of idea just popped into my head and said, ‘Well, you know what, if you can't get to Australia, why not do a lockdown edition of it and actually run the whole distance on a treadmill in Nottingham and call it Treadmill To Oz.”
Nikki’s Lucky Number And Plans For Running Treadmill To Oz
“Okay, so the sweet thing, this is quite serendipitous, and if things line up like this, there's no way you can ignore them. I did the measurements from Perth to Sydney, and I thought, how far is it? If I divide that distance by 63, how many kilometers do I have to run to 63? Because I ran 63 marathons and 63 is my lucky number,” said Nikki Love. “And it turns out that if I run from Perth to Sydney it’s 63 kilometers a day in 63 days. Can't ignore that! So that is the goal. 63 kilometers converts to about 40 or 41 miles a day. So that is the goal, to run that per day. I start at 9 o'clock in the morning. I run at six miles an hour. And I run five miles in the hour, I come off the machine for a 10 minute break every hour, and after the 15 mile mark, I come off a half hour break to get more food in. Then another 15 miles, half an hour break and then finish off the day. So then I'm running from 9 am to 6 pm every day, seven days a week. Like a job.”
“So at one point, I used to say that age doesn't matter, but I've kind of had to tweak that a little bit because there’s no way around it. I am going through menopause, and that's an age thing. It's a process I have to go through, so I have to accept that. But I don't have to let it define me or stop me. So that's the other thing, is that I know I will come out of it,” said Nikki Love. “I want to be the person at 93 that you interviewed. Doing my thing. And I know that I will age and I will probably get slower, but what I term extraordinary, would be extraordinary for that time of my life and that phase in my life. When I talk to other people about their extraordinary, it's whatever they're at, if they are trying to push themselves a little bit further. So it's just that whole thing of understanding that you’re a continual work in progress, that you are going to age and accept it. I'm still going to do what I can do and see what I'm capable of doing.”
What Does Chasing Extraordinary Mean For Nikki Love
“I want to see what I'm capable of. So I sort of set the bar here and I worked hard to get it there. Once I'm there, I'm like, Am I capable of more? What if I set it up here? Can I do the work to get to that point? And I use it in my running, I use it in my business, I use it everywhere. It's just giving yourself just that little bit of a, ‘Okay, I wanna try and get to that. I'm gonna do my best to do that.’ So it's leveling up, but always believing that you're capable of more.”
Nikki Love’s Advice To Other People Chasing Extraordinary
“We all start somewhere, and don't be afraid to kinda use this word ‘fail’. But it's not the right word, don't be afraid to give it a go, and it might not work the first time around, but if you want it, then you'll keep learning from what you did. And make it better the next time or the next time,” said Nikki Love.
Robin responded, “Which you proved. That was the very first marathon. Look what has happened since. If you let that stop you, your whole life would have looked a lot different. I actually like to steer people away from fearing the word failure because failure is a part of life. We all experience failure, but don't let that stop you. That's a part of the experience.”
Update: Turns out that running on a treadmill is VERY different than running outside, and Nikki had to take pause.
Listen to the FULL episode to hear the update and what Nikki is up to now!
If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!
Connect with Nikki Love:
Website: nikkilove.co.uk
Instagram/Twitter: @nikkiloveruns
Facebook.com/nikkijlove
If you want to stop feeling old and start living BOLD, register for ‘Age Like an Athlete’ webinar on October 15, 2020. Click here to sign up.
You will learn...
Why exploring your athletic potential at any age can be life-changing in every way
What messages and stereotypes about age you need to let go of right NOW
What's the first step you need to take to set you on a new athletic journey at any age or fitness background
What key mental, emotional and physical shifts to take to age like an athlete!