Pushing The Boundaries Of Mental Toughness - Nedd Brockman - #875

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Nedd Brockman. He's an Australian ultra marathon runner, motivational speaker, and a philanthropist. Is good mental health the same as strong mental toughness? Nedd has completed some of the most famous endurance feats in all of Australia. So what's driving him? And does the world actually understand his mission? Expect to learn why Nedd ran 1,000 miles around a track, raising over $2.5 million for charity, Nedd's reaction to the accusation that his event was just toxic masculinity rebranded, what Nedd's diet for endurance running looks like, why he hates running but does it anyway, what Nedd is doing to combat homelessness, Nedd's most transformative moments on his journey running across Australia, and much more. Bit of a cool one. This was recorded while I was in Sydney the day after my live show. So very fun to meet Nedd in person. He's a legend. He's doing some unbelievable work and the guy's hard as nails. So yeah, I really hope that you enjoyed this one. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Nedd Brockman.

**Nedd Brockmann** (1:25)
Welcome to the show. How are you, mate?

**Chris Williamson** (1:27)
Good, thank you for coming last night.

**Nedd Brockmann** (1:29)
Thank you for having me. It was a fun night. I didn't know what to expect, as I told you last night, but it was a, I feel like a lot of people felt a lot in that room. When I saw you, it felt like all the energy was on you. Like, it's quite an intense, I think, environment, that stuff, but yeah, it was really cool. I loved to hear all the questions and the answers was great.

**Chris Williamson** (1:48)
Fuck yeah, thank you. Talk to me about what you've just finished doing recently. This is the first time you've actually got to sit down on a podcast and talk about it since you completed everything.

**Nedd Brockmann** (1:57)
Yeah, I'm a bit traumatized, to be honest. So it's a bit, it's good. I'm excited to talk about it. It's been, as you said, I just haven't really chosen to do it because I guess I wanted to process it a bit, but yeah, I ran a thousand miles around the track in what was hoping to be 10 and a half days, but ended up a bit longer than that just due to a few, probably being a bit under ready for it, but still completed it in 12 and a half days. Fastest person ever to do it since I've been alive, which is a pretty cool stat. I've only been alive for 25 years, as a few guys did it before that, but yeah, ended up 130K a day around a 400 meter athletics track for 12 and a half days.

**Chris Williamson** (2:39)
Why decide to do that particular event?

**Nedd Brockmann** (2:43)
A culmination of a few things. I ran across Australia two years ago and kind of felt this desire to want to keep doing these things and push my body, the more discomfort you put yourself through, the better of a person or more of a person you become. And off the back of that, I knew I wanted to do something every one or two years and thought about running across the length of the UK. Was to hear a lot of people have done that. Bit too hilly for me, so I chose stupidly a thousand miles around a track. And yeah, I didn't really think too much about it. I don't really think too much about these things.
I feel like anyone who takes these on are usually a bit older. They're usually 45, 50 have done 25, 30 years of running prior. Only started three and a half, four years ago. So I think my naivety and stubbornness kind of go hand in hand. But yeah, then got to the start of this year and went, well, I'm going to do this, going to lock it in. And I do a lot of stuff with homelessness and wanted to align the two and ended up finishing it in 12 and a half days, which throughout the period, throughout that time, I've, I don't think I've ever felt as much pain as I did in that 12 and a half days.

**Chris Williamson** (3:54)
Talk to me about the training preparation.

**Nedd Brockmann** (3:57)
Yeah, it was, a lot of people ask that like the, what's the physical side of things versus what's the mental preparation? I think, you know, obviously, as I said, I didn't get the record, so I didn't probably wasn't physically prepared enough. But I don't think I will be for another 15, 20 years. And that's why.