Beating Sole Issue #2 - The Jungle Ultra, 104 Marathons, Pancakes and Roald Amundsen

Fulfilling content to satisfy your sole. 

Curated running and hiking news, nutritious recipes, big hairy audacious race reports, wholesome articles and exclusive partner specials.

All this, just once a month.

Supported by Creepers Socks, the most comfortable & functional performance socks for hitting the trails.

Baked into this issue

  • A quote to inspire

  • BHAG Race report: We may be faster alone, but we shall go further together.

  • Food to Fuel: Best Banana-Oat Pancakes

  • Awe-inspiring Races: The Jungle Ultra in the Amazon

  • Incredible humans: Jacky Hunt-Broersma. 104 marathons in 104 days

  • The Creepers Flog: Merino vs Coolmax, a deep dive

  • Podcast shoutout: Terry Crews

  • Newsworthy: Circumnavigating Africa's "mountain kingdom", falling into toilets & more

A quote to inspire

BHAG Report

We may be faster alone, but we shall go further together.

Excerpt of a report by Ben McDrury on NZ based Wildthings.club

From a young age, we were often doing bushwalks through beech forests and the occasional overnight tramp. Eventually, we grew a bit, and the tramps we did also grew in size.

However, through growing up, I always managed to keep at least one foot on the ground at a time. That is, until July 2020.

We were fresh out of the first lockdown and wanted to escape our home for a bit. So off our family went to the adventure capital of the South Island: Queenstown. We had arrived at around 5pm, and after being in a car all day squished between too many boxes of food, I spontaneously decided to go for a run around the lakefront.

Who would have imagined that this run would change so many things?

I came back 6km later bubbling with excitement. I had felt free. Running through the trees that night is a feeling I will never forget.

That’s when Dad suggested I run from Queenstown to Frankton and back the next morning. And that is exactly what I did. I ran 16km. It was the furthest I had ever run in my life and I smiled the whole way. A fire deep inside of me was lit that day. 

The mountains don’t really care.

It has only been in the past year that I have found confidence in being myself. You see, the mountains don’t really care, they are going to be there whether I climb them today or tomorrow. They are a constant. People aren’t necessarily going to be there day after day. 

So for me, finding something that I can lose myself in and letting it wash away my insecurities gives me confidence in myself. Confidence that has carried over into normal, everyday life.

I have found that running has really become a coping mechanism for my emotions during the day. I like to say—and am proud of the fact—that I’m a pretty happy chap. I don’t usually lash out at all. However, I think that sometimes an inability to let the emotions go can often build up inside and make things worse down the line. 

So when I run, as much as it dampens my pride to say, sometimes it becomes my way of letting those emotions and feelings out. However, I think it also goes to show that it’s important for us to realise emotions aren’t a bad thing.

Feeling the trails flow blissfully underfoot and finding the rhythm of the body is pure ecstasy for me. It seems the most natural form of being human. The contact of my body against the earth, and the feel of connecting with the environment around me is something I truly cherish.

I am blessed with legs that move, lungs that breathe, with arms, and with eyes that see. So I feel it would be a waste if I didn’t put all these things to good use.

Continued...

For more, check out the entire article by Ben on the Wildthings website (it's a great read and you've only had a taster here sorry!).

You can see more from Ben on Instagram

*Got a story to tell? The Beating Sole newsletter is about you and getting out and active. it's about growing ourselves through challenges, experiences, and community. We want to hear about an audacious goal that you've taken on. Send us an email HERE

Monthly wellness tip: Get strong

"You can't go wrong with getting strong."

When we run and walk, we are landing with a ground reaction force of more than just our body weight. To have the capacity for hiking, running, and more, you need to work on strength, not just endurance. Here are some examples of impact forces:

  • Walking: 1.2 x bodyweight

  • Running: 1.5 x

  • Downhill running 2 x

So don't train for just bodyweight. To help last longer, feel better, move easier, and reduce your risk of injury - do strength training 2 x a week to increase your capacity to handle what life throws at you (or what you throw at life!).

Need inspiration? Check the Instagram of Sally McRae aka Yellowrunner

*Have you got a tip that you want to share? Let me know, contribute to our community and get a shoutout. Email me

Food to Fuel | Travel far. Eat well

A huge bonus of regular exercises and sweating it out in the great outdoors? A great appetite and a need for refueling. We’re here to help hit the sweet spot with tasty, nutritious recipes by yours truly, great blogs or, sent in by you.

Here's one straight from my recipe folder:

It's out. Our family's go-to Sunday breakfast. It's easy, full of great ingredients that will fuel you for the day and, it's easy to mix up in a blender, ready to cook into tasty, soft pancakes! See the tips to make it dairy-free, vegan, or add good fats and protein - it's easy to adapt, wholesome, and nutritious!

Awe Inspiring Race: The Jungle Ultra

You’re standing above the clouds looking down a massive valley along which a single track road winds through a sea of green. The clouds boil and roll across the canopy below and the air around you is thin enough to double the effort required to move. Soon you will descend down into the UNESCO world heritage site below and make your way through 230km of sweltering jungle, choked with mud and humidity, broken by river crossing after crossing.

It's a self-sufficient race, you are responsible for carrying your entire kit, including food, safety equipment and water. It's sounds amazing, until you start reading about the hostile jungle environment...

Not many pre-race briefings need to warm about so much from what to do if bitten by a snake or spider to "everything in the jungle can hurt you".

It looks like an incredible race, if you have the stamina and aren't too scared of A LOT of things that can hurt you.

Incredible Humans: Jacky Hunt-Broaersma

Jacky is one of the most accomplished amputee ultramarathoners around, endurance coach, mom and cancer survivor. She started her running journey in 2016. Jacky lost her leg to cancer (Ewing Sarcoma) and she is proving the nahsayers wrong and building a path for other amputee runners.  

To inspire others to get out of the heir comfort zones and show that you can do hard things, she has just completed a world record, running 104 marathons in 104 days! That's two marathons MORE than she needed to do to beat the record. This is one of her many accomplishments - Jacky is an incredible person and I encourage you to read more of her stories (link to her website below or see her instagram) and share this email on.

"You always got more to give. It doesn't have to be as crazy, it just needs to push you a little out of your comfort zone. Maybe run your first 5km, half/full marathon or even take on your first ultra."

Jacky Hunt-Broersma is an amputee Ultramarathon runner and cancer survivor. She loves pushing the limits of what is possible.

From the Creepers Socks FLOG (Foot Blog)

Is Coolmax or Merino Better for Running Socks? We went deep…

Merino wool has made it into the mainstream for big apparel and footwear brands but we had to ask the question. Is it being used for sustainability, a green look, and a lower carbon footprint, or is it a superior fiber? Should it be used over “high-tech” synthetic fibers such as Coolmax?

Don’t get me wrong, creating athletic wear sustainably is important, but on those long runs in the hills or long days in the office, I want them to perform well too. I’ve got you the answer to that and more and have done the research, whittled it down, and summarized it so that you don’t have to.

I’ve always loved the softness of merino yarn, but is it the BEST?

Merino is now being utilized for a huge range of athletic wear and there’s constantly more entering the market. Allbirds base their shoes solely around merino wool, Mons Royale pile it into their clothes, Icebreaker are now doing merino underwear and bras and here all of our Toe Socks have 50% merino wool.

You can read the entire post through THIS link but here is the

TLDR:

Yes, Merino wool yarn is a super fiber and it’s worth the price tag.

Positives:

  • Draws posture away from your skin, keeping a dry feel

  • Naturally, odor resistance by locking away sweat molecules inside the fibers

  • Lightweight and ultra-fine means they perform well and won’t slow you down

  • Lower friction coefficient that synthetic fibers = fewer hot spots and blisters

  • Environmentally friendly - especially when the merino wool is certified responsible wool 

  • Dries fast than other fibers and synthetics

Negatives

  • The fabric can pill over time

  • Shrinks if accidentally put in hot wash or dryer

  • Doesn't wick moisture as fast as synthetic yarns

Choose socks with blended yarn to get the best of both worlds. Ideally, choose merino toe socks that wrap every toe in a blister-busting, moisture-absorbing membrane and you won’t regret it.

Podcast shoutout

I haven't listened to as many this week, so I've only got one for you which is the fantastic Terry Crews on masculinity, vulnerability and true power.

Actor Terry Crews joins Rich to talk about overcoming obstacles, finding strength in vulnerability, transforming his life wholesale, and his new book "Tough".

If you've got a podcast episode you loved lately that is inspiring, wholesome, or just bloody good, let me know.

Newsworthy

Lithuania's Aleksandr Sorokin sets a new 100-kilometer world record of 6:05:41 on April 23, 2022.

Learn how Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel successfully circumnavigated Lesotho during a gruelling 1,100km journey that took 16 days to complete.

The visitor took a tumble into a latrine while trying to retrieve her cell phone.

Results from the 2022 Madeira Island Ultra-Trail, a 115-kilometer race held on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

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Cheers,

Shaun