170: The Sacrifices Required to Build Something That Lasts | Bailey O'Brien

**Nick Bare** (0:06)
Ladies and gentlemen, today on the podcast, BPN athlete coming from Australia, Bailey O'Brien. What's up, brother?

**Bailey O'Brien** (0:16)
What's up, mate? Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited, a little nervous, but I'm keen to jump in.

**Nick Bare** (0:22)
Why are we nervous?

**Bailey O'Brien** (0:23)
I don't know. I feel like there's a couple people listening. I do a couple of podcasts back home, but none with the same audience size of yours, but no, I'm more excited than anything else.

**Nick Bare** (0:33)
So we'll start with some ice breakers.

**Bailey O'Brien** (0:36)
Okay, ease me in.

**Nick Bare** (0:37)
So you've been in Austin for how many weeks now?

**Bailey O'Brien** (0:41)
Nearly three.

**Nick Bare** (0:43)
And your wife is running the Go One More Ultra, G1M Ultra, in two days. How are you guys feeling about that?

**Bailey O'Brien** (0:51)
We're feeling, I feel excited. She feels excited. She's a little bit nervous. She's never ran anything longer than a marathon. I was initially meant to do the race, been a little bit injured, so probably wasn't the best idea to do my longest running event ever. But one of her goals for the year was to do her first ultra marathon, so she kind of jumped in to replace me. And yeah, she's going to kill it. I'm excited for it.

**Nick Bare** (1:13)
It's going to be awesome.

**Bailey O'Brien** (1:13)
It's going to be so good.

**Nick Bare** (1:15)
It's going to be a completely different experience this year compared to last year. I think, you know, we're 48 hours away from knowing, but there's more eyeballs on the race this year. There is some real elite talent coming in to throw down. Last year, the race went 235 miles between Kim and Kendall.
This year, depending on how these runners are feeling and the weather, I mean, he'd go 450 plus miles.

**Bailey O'Brien** (1:49)
It's hard to fathom, isn't it?

**Nick Bare** (1:51)
It is. I mean, it's days and days and days of running. Something that makes this year's race different from last year's. Last year was the first year we put on the last man standing style, ultra.
This year, we are now a qualifier for Bigg's Backyard, which is the world championship of backyard racing. So, the people who perform very well here will go perform on the world stage months later.

**Bailey O'Brien** (2:19)
I hope Mattie's listening. This could be you, girl. He's got to lock in.

**Nick Bare** (2:24)
It's anyone's win. You know, like, I think a lot of times with these races, people try to predict the top three to five runners, and you never know who's going to show up and who's going to have a good day and who's going to have a bad day.

**Bailey O'Brien** (2:36)
What's the weather looking like?

**Nick Bare** (2:38)
Straight rain. Straight rain.

**Bailey O'Brien** (2:40)
Battle throw with Bigg's back in the works, do you think?

**Nick Bare** (2:43)
I mean, I think it's going to...
This style of race is so unpredictable on its own. The weather is just like another curve ball. Of deciding and determining who really wants the win. But being in Austin the last two weeks, what do you love about it?

**Bailey O'Brien** (3:04)
I see a lot of parallels between Austin and Australia. It's very fitness oriented, very high energy. People go get as... It's been as good food, which Australia, I would say, has some of the best food in the world as well. The fitness scene is great.
But I think for me, just being around the BPN team has probably been the highlight. I feel like I've got really good connections and relationships here, and it's hard living across the other side of the globe to have many touch points throughout the year. But having nearly a month here all up has just been... And having where you're not necessarily on a tight schedule the whole time, where you're having to go from event to meeting to whatever, has just allowed for some really good connection to come through. So, yeah, it's been a fun couple of weeks, but yeah, I feel like the pinnacle of our trip here is yet to come.

**Nick Bare** (3:56)
Yeah. I'm always fascinated by other countries and cultures. I haven't done as much international travel as I would have hoped up until the 35 years of life that I've lived so far. But much of my life has been dedicated to building this business. And Steph and I always talk about how in the future we want to do more international travel.
I spent nine months in South Korea with the military and that was a great experience. Just being submerged into a completely different culture and people and way of living.