Running Dreams And A Warm Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So you're thinking about running, but not sure how to take the first step? My name's Brian Patterson, and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's ROM pod. Belinda Coker is our guest today, an Australian adventurer, writer, and founder of Soul Treeder. She's known for her solo hikes across Australia, her incredible journey across Greenland in the Arctic Circle, and she's all about building confidence through action and helping others do the same. So let's give a

From Scotland To The Gold Coast

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Bryce Rompod welcome to Belinda.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Thank you, Brian. It's lovely to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

How are you today?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I'm good, yes, great.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

But you're not in Australia at the moment, is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

No, I'm not. No. I've been based, I've actually been based in Scotland for the last almost two years. But I'm actually heading home tomorrow. It's a bit of an unexpected trip, but yes. Sort of excited for a little bit of sunshine and you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yeah. So where do you reside in Australia or do you is that your your home here?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yes, um, Queensland, so the Gold Coast. So I'm literally going from Glasgow to the Gold Coast, uh, to totally different climate as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Is it is a few degrees colder or it will be it will be winter, but the winter on the Gold Coast is just you know lovely sunny days. You can usually get by with a t-shirt sometimes, but the the mornings are cold. It gets down to below 10 degrees. Yeah. And it's hilarious. Everybody sort of rugs up like they're like they are really are in Glasgow in the winter. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Great. Well, thank you for being uh agreeing to come up and become a guest on on the show. Yeah. I just like I do with most of my guests to find out a little bit about what your experience of exercise or physical activity was like when you were growing up. Mm-hmm. Like in high school in because I know you you were you were born in New Zealand and then you grew up in Australia, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

I moved to Australia as an e as an early in my early twenties.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

And New Zealand, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yes, yes. So I've spent most of my adult life in Australia. I have dual citizenship. So I actu I I it depends who I'm tick talking to as to which hat I wear.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

But you know, I I do s I do think that um when I when I leave tomorrow I'm going home. But I would also say when I'm going back to New Zealand, I'll say I'm going home. So it's it's yeah, it's fine.

Growing Up Outdoors In New Zealand

SPEAKER_00 3:10

And um so what was that like growing up in New Zealand?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Well, it was great. It is an it it's a great outdoors lifestyle. We went camping a lot, we went hiking a lot, and you know, everyone everyone was in encouraged to do a Duke of Edinburgh. Um we were, you know, in you know, we would do these school trips, and this was not Duke of Edinburgh, but we would do these school trips where we would go to we would go and do sort of outdoor pursuits sort of thing, where we would go on hikes, we would, you know, have a go at ab sailing and and all that sort of thing. And and it was very normal to go for a bushwalk, which is, you know, basically a hike through, you know, through the bush or or through, you know, the the forest or the woods, what you would call here in here in um in Britain. So it I mean, it was very a very outdoorsy um gro um, you know, children. However, saying that, uh also, I mean, I was born in 1965. So, you know, there was no such thing as social media and all the sort of things that young people have now. So growing up was very different in that decade anyway. You know, uh I probably would have, you know, grown up in the but you know, between 1965 and sort of like late late 80s when I left, um, life was different. It was different, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, yeah. And so when did sort of hiking sort of enter into your life and when did you decide to sort of take it really seriously?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Well, I think well during during high school I used to have um I used to have a couple of family members and friends who would often go on hikes, and then um at university I ended up doing, you know, joining a hiking group. And that was probably before it became hiking became trendy. Over the last I'd say decade, hiking

The COVID Mirror Moment

SPEAKER_01 5:05

has definitely become trendy and um sport where you you buy pretty shiny things to accompany your sport, whether that be a super ultralight tant or this sort of thing, was back then it was just, you know, whatever you you had you went with. And I think when I was, I would say it was 2020 and it was actually the year of co it was the year of COVID. And I had been uh I'd sort of had had a bit of a horrible divorce, you know, over the la over the previous decade, I'd had gone through divorce, um, a very stressful sort of corporate uh life, single mother, all that sort of thing. And I just looked in the mirror and I thought, my gosh, where have you gone? Like, what has become of you? I was overweight, unfit, probably drinking way too much wine, and I just looked in the mirror and I just thought, you know, I need to do something. I don't like what I've become. You know, and I know it was during during COVID and everything, and you know, that supposedly does, you know, funny things to people, but I actually really enjoyed the whole COVID um period because I was, you know, putting food on the table for all my children and really enjoying that whole sort of, you know, the this whole scenario. But within myself over the la past decade, I had somewhere some somehow strayed off the path of of you know joy and happiness inside me. And saying that, I, you know, the Gold Coast is full of, you know, yoga studios and Pilate studios and acai bowls on every corner and all that sort of thing. So it's not like I was living in an unhealthy area. It was just I was felt unhealthy in my life. So I I went back to something that I enjoy, which was hiking. And I joined a meetup group and went on a hike. And I was 55 at the time, and I was the youngest on this hike. It was a 12-mile, 17-kilometer hike, and down a deep ravine and up the other side. Everyone else was in their 70s and 80s, and I was the slowest, and I was like coming up behind going. And I just remember just looking at these 70 and 80-year-olds, and I just remember looking at them. They were glowing and they were healthy, and I thought to myself, I want that. You know, I I want that. That's that's what I want. And so that's why I that's how how I started. That that was actually the turning point, not the day that I looked in the mirror, whether that was figuratively or literally, but the day that I joined that hiking group and I decided that I need to start looking after this, you know, the chassis, because I've only got one and I really need to start looking at looking after it. And yeah, so that that would have been the real turning point.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So I mean, because I kind of had this image of you that it was something that when you grew up in either New Zealand or Australia and it was just something gradually you came into. But like you said, the COVID, and like for most people, it's been a lot of kind of self-reflection. Yeah. Um, it's had the opportunity for self-reflection and to sort of go into different directions. And like you said, it was it was a great opportunity for that, you know. So then I know some people would say that COVID was kind of like a car at a very dark period, but at the same time, it was a very good opportunity to reconsider where your life has been to maybe think of new ventures, which is what you've done.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Absolutely. Yes, yeah.

Building Fitness Through Trail Community

SPEAKER_00 8:40

And so from that starting point, that first hike, how did you sort of build on that in terms of building fitness and confidence? I mean, it didn't put you off, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

No, no, it didn't put me off. In fact, I remember coming back from that first hike and I was the endorphins. It was just such an endorphing rush. The hike was uh in the rainforest, which, you know, was almost like looked like the set of a set of avatar. It was just, you know, deep green, emerald, you know, it was just absolutely gorgeous. And I can remember just coming off that and just think and just being almost on a high, on a natural high. And that and that was probably really what fueled me. I then joined, you know, met up with a few other people. I started to meet people, meet uh meet people my own age, younger than me. And I'm still friends with some of that very first hike group of people though. Uh I'm actually still friends with those. And the hiking community is great and it's very, it's also very inclusive. And it doesn't matter if you're slow or you're fast or whatever. It is very easy to sort of sort of slot in and people will take you by the hand and show you the ropes. And it wasn't, I didn't do my first multi-day hike until probably a good nine months after that first day hike. But I would go up to the rainforest or or or go on some, you know, beautiful sort of coastal walks, um, probably two or three times a week. And I really was building my fitness and I was started to sort of just chase any information I could about hiking and especially multi-day hiking. And then I went on my first multi-day hike, which was on the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria, and I can just remember just loving it, absolutely loving it. And uh and the the other people who were on the hike, you know, I mean, everyone was solo, but you would sort of end up at the same campsite every night. I can just remember sitting there and listening and you know, everything that they were talking about and soaking everything up like a giant sponge. And that's what really gave me confidence. And I think the confidence also comes from the confidence also comes from, you know, knowledge, having the knowledge about what you're doing is it gives you confidence.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

So in those early days, what would you tell yourself? Like obviously you've you you are very knowledgeable now, but in those early, you know, if you were to go back to yourself and and say, you know, in right at the beginning, are there any key lessons that you could sort of tell yourself as to about, you know, about this new new journey and this new venture?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Look, if you had said to said to me back then that this is what I'm doing now, I would really wow, that's um, and I think it was just such a gradual sort of organic process that and nothing I've done has really surprised me. I've always liked adventure in my life, and I've uh and I've always and I think my drive to actually change what I was before was just the catalyst to keep moving forward. The more I research these exciting trails I wanted to do, you know, the more I just propelled myself forward. It right from the very start, you know, I was looking at the Pacific Crest Trail and oh my gosh, I really want to do the Pacific Crest Trail. I just don't have six months to, you know, to to stop life and do that, although I have now got it pegged for 2027. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Where where is that? The Pacific Crail?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

The Pacific Crest Trail and goes from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. On the um on the west coast of along the western states of the USA. And so it basically follows the Sierra Mountain range. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think there's a there's a movie in a book called Wild. Cheryl, I can't remember her surname, and it's um Reese with a Spoon was the was the actress.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Renee with a spoon isn't it? Yes, yes, yes, yes, Reese, yeah. I

Why Hiking Trains Body And Mind

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keep meaning to watch that.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, it's a great movie, but yeah. So that that's the hike.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So obviously our audience is predominantly runners or starting off on the running track on the on the on that running journey. What would you or how would you sort of convince people or at least try to tell this, you know, this particular audience, you know, what are kind of the the key benefits of sort of maybe getting into hiking? I know maybe not multi-day hiking, but at least, you know, into hiking itself.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Well, the one thing about hiking is that I consider it as a an endurance sport. But when you're walking on a trail, uh you are literally using almost every muscle, you know, uh you're using so many more muscles. Instead of if you're walking on a pavement or running on a pavement, you're using the same muscles over and over and over and over again. It's very repetitive. Um but if you're hiking, you know, you're negotiating rocks, stones, routes, inclines, declines, uh, you know, or uh constantly. And you are really using all sorts of little uh all sorts of different muscles. But the other thing is is that you you you have to constantly be aware about, you know, what's going on around you, you know, what's the weather like? Is there a thunderstorm happening? If am I looking out for snakes, bears, googas, depending on where you're where where you're hiking. What's the and you know, and and what's the weather? Is it going to be very hot, rainy? How hungry am I? You need to keep sort of keep your keep your food up, your energy levels up as you as you're going. And so you need to sort of eat before you're hungry. How much calories am I going to burn today? How many calories do I need to eat today? And then there's the whole electrolyte thing, like um, how many, you know, what's actually happening in my body? Am I, you know, you don't want to wait until you're dehydrated, which is thirsty, before I start drinking. I need to keep my deh um my hydration up, but you also need to keep your electrolytes up as well. And it's funny, it's right at the very end of a hiking day, you know, you can sort of feel yourself stumble and your spatial awareness kind of goes a little bit. And, you know, that's a that's an electrolyte imbalance. It really is. You you are your body is screaming for those essential elements that um you have sweated out. And so for me, it's that when I'm saying it's an endurance sport, it's not just a physical activity, it's also the mental um the you know, the mental activity that you need to go through for for every hike as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

And also you're you're you're roughly maybe doing the length of a marathon per day.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

If not maybe more.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Probably, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Probably yeah. So, you know, even there, so you can i it is easy to sort of classify it as very much a an endurance sport. Yeah. Plus, you're not, you know, whereas if you're doing a marathon, you're just wearing sports gear shorts.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

But you're carrying maybe, I don't know, another you know, up to 18 kilos if I've got I mean, and my kit my kit is very ultra-light, but if I'm carrying, you know, six to seven days of food, that's you know, that's a very heavy load. And also if there's not a lot of water sources, I might be carrying up to three litres of water, which is three kilos of water. So yes, it it it it really is, and and that puts a lot of pressure on your knees and your ankles and and that sort of thing. So you you actually you learn to walk very mindfully. You you you learn to sort of step and watch where you sort of put your feet and and that sort of thing. And I suppose that's it's slight, slightly different to trail running because trail runners don't have the heavy packs that hikers have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah, yeah. And also at the same time, you you've got to enjoy the experience of being, you know, outdoors. Sometimes I think we just think of runners as sort of like they're always they're they're either listening to the music or they're just looking straight down and they're not really experiencing what's going on around them. Whereas I suppose you can not only um are you thinking about all these other elements, but you all are actually enjoying what's going on around you to wherever, you know, wherever you are in the world.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Correct, correct. You do have time to stop and smell the roses, and that's just the whole thing about it is that, you know, if if if I've got a terrible, you know, a difficult incline, you know, I can I can stop every few minutes and just have a look around me and enjoy the vista, you know, look back and enjoy the vista or whatever. My daughter's

People You Meet On The Trail

SPEAKER_01 17:45

a runner, and uh so yeah, so we've actually had this conversation before. So she does marathons and things, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

All right. A a thing that comes to mind, I don't know if you've seen the program, is there's a program over here called Race Across the World, which is very it's about a race between, let's say, four sick uh four four couples, you know, be it brother and sister or you know, friends, and they're going sort of from point A to B, and that could be like 13,000 miles, and it's they they went. But I'm always intrigued that although it is it's about the experience of the different countries they go to, um, and it may be the same to you, and also the people they meet, the different cultures they come across. I know you've said that you've you know you've you've been to Greenland and obviously you're thinking of doing this trip from Mexico to Canada.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

But it's also about the the types what makes it is the type of people you're meeting along the way.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah, absolutely. And um that's the that's the one thing I do like about uh, you know, about hike uh well, multi-day hiking at least. Or or you can do it on day hikes as well. But you know, if you even even something like the Camino um or you know, the fisherman's trail in Portugal, you you're literally walking from one cute Portuguese village to another. And and that really is but

Greenland Storms Huts And Kindness

SPEAKER_01 19:10

um Greenland was really interesting because the the hike actually the the hike goes from the ice cap, the edge of the ice cap through over to so the the um and that's what's really interesting about uh Greenland. You can go from the ice cap, the edge of the ice cap over to the sea, and the trail follows an Inuit hunting trail. And so there's little little huts along the way, and they're free, by the way, but they're rudimentary. They're literally they're they're basically they'll have a uh they'll have a a stove, uh like a wood heater, and they'll have a a bunk, you know, a platform that you can kind of sleep on. And uh and and I met I met a loads of Greenlandic people on that hike because Greenlandic people, they just, you know, they do they do love to they love the outdoors. And I was given dried seal meat, I was given whale meat, I was given all sorts of things on the trail. The second to last day, uh this storm came in. So we had um, you know, almost it felt like 40 degrees Celsius hot polar sun up until the last day when the storm came in. And so I stopped at the very last hut. And when I woke up in the morning, this little this little wooden hut was on the on the rock platform held down by, you know, k steel cables. And the and all through the night, the little wooden hut was going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And I was in my bunk going, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And I was the only one there. And I kind of thought, well, I've I've got three days for spare food, I can hang here, it's not, it's it's gonna be fine. And uh so I woke up the the next morning to snow, and I was like, oh my gosh, I've got a pass. There's a pass I have to climb over and um, you know, to to finish this hike. I'm not sure I want to do it by myself, but um, I'll look, I'll just wait. I'll just wait and see what happens. I've got time to wait. And anyway, that evening the door flew open and snow came in. And in in March, two Greenlandic ladies with a bottle of Jagermeistus. Yes, I mean, uh this, you know, I I've had the most funny experiences on that on that hike, but it was wonderful. And and they took me over the pass the next day, they didn't have a problem with it at all. I said, you know, are you sure it's safe? Oh yes, not a problem. Just like we do this every day.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah. But yeah, it it's some of the people that I've met on the trail and you know, some of the cultures has been

Adventure As A Way Back Home

SPEAKER_01 21:35

has been wonderful.