Episode Description
Pat Farmer the Ultra troubleshooter. Our first guest for the new season of the Troubleshooters Podcast is Pat Farmer. Pat is an Australian Legend – famous for his ultra running feats, including running from the North Pole to the South Pole in 2012. Pat is an inspiration and an Ultra Troubleshooter. Leaving school at 14, Pat became a household name as an ultra-marathon runner in the 1990s, setting a number of Australian and world records. He later became the federal member for Macarthur South, becoming the Junior Minister for Education, Science and Training. At age 60 Pat shows no signs of slowing down. He is about to embark on yet another endurance test – running around the continent to bring attention to the upcoming referendum on The Voice. Starting in April Pat will be running 80km per day for six months in an effort to raise awareness for the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to the Parliament in the Australian Constitution. Check out my conversation with him which talks about how he got started, how important service is to him, and what keeps him going. It is guaranteed to give you a lift.
If you want to become a corporate sponsor to support Pat in his upcoming Event for The Voice-Email: pat.farmer@live.com
The Voice https://voice.niaa.gov.au/#
Pat Farmer https://www.patfarmer.com/
Some points of interest:
Pat Farmer: Influenced by parents’ values (3:58-6:06)
Pat Farmer: The Early days (6:17-8:07)
Inspired by Cliff Young (9:27-15:36)
First run round Australia (37:51-45:01)
The least educated member of Parliament (49:02-54:33)
Dedicating time to yourself (58:12-1:00:29)
The only man to run from the North to the South Pole (1:00:34-1:08:26) & (1:16:43-1:18:43)
Running for a purpose (1:09:53-1:00:12)
The value of family (1:12:39-1:16:42)
The most significant event he will ever do (1:25:45-1:31:16)
Transcript
Note: This has been automatically transcribed so is likely to have errors! It may however help you navigate the points of interests for you.
Mike: Welcome to the troubleshooters podcast with me your host Mike: McGrath. If you’re a regular listener, yes, we do have some. It’s good to have you back. And if this is your first time you are very welcome. Now, I’ve been trying to get today’s guest for a long time, we finally got him. Pat Famer: is a professional Ultra runner. Basically, for the uninitiated, Pat runs extraordinary distances, including running from the North Pole to the South Pole in a little over 10 months back in 2012. Yep, 20,000 kilometers, averaging 80 kilometers a day, some days having to run 120 kilometers, the first man to achieve that particular feat. He raised money for the Red Cross water sanitation program. He owes other world records including the fastest person to cross the Simpson Desert. And if that’s not enough, wait for it. Having left school at 14 without any qualifications. He later became the local member for McKellar southwest, becoming the Minister for Education, Science and training. So sit back and listen to my conversation with Pat, as I try and figure out what drives this man of action, who I think is a national treasure. Pat Famer:, welcome to the troubleshooters podcast.
Pat Famer: My pleasure, it’s great to finally be here. I know, we’ve been trying to set this up for quite a while and everybody’s busy or everybody’s all over the place. And
Mike: then I’m delighted that you made it and it’s a bit of a treat for me to interview you. As I said, I bought your book, way back in 2012. And got inspired by that. I’ve had you on my radar for quite a while. In fact, ever since I started the podcast, I thought we must try and get Pat Famer: on. So here you are. So welcome.
Pat Famer: Thank you. And thanks. It’s nice to see the dog is on the book because it shows that you’ve definitely read the page as a yellow. So you can see it was a little while ago.
Mike: So you are an everyday Australian hero. No question about that. I understand that you left school at age 14.
Pat Famer: Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah. No, it was it was commonplace back in those days. You know, I was born in the 60s. And, you know, I, you know, when I got old enough to get off to school, my you know, my focus was never on school. I was one of seven in my family. And my parents were really struggling to try and just put food on the table and a roof over our heads. We lived out in Western Sydney. We’re in a housing commission home out there. And you know, Dad’s emphasis was, the sooner you can get out and work the better. Yeah, and you know, and so try and bring some money back into the family. Yeah. And that’s what it was all about. But it wasn’t just me. It was a lot of my friends. No, no,
Mike: I totally agree. I mean, I left school at 16. And that I mean, I never went to university. Now my kids have the out of the five of them. For them. I’ve been to university and what I tell them because they used to say to me, Well, you didn’t go to university, and I said, No, only 8% of kids went to university when I left school, and I was not in the top 8%. That’s for sure.
Pat Famer: You know, I’ve had that conversation with my kids as well. But I went back in later years, much, much later years, and I use some of the experience life experience that I had to give me some credits, and they accepted me into university and I now have a master’s in business as well. Isn’t that correct? So that was a chip, a bit of a monkey on my shoulder, I needed to get off that I was, was always concerned, especially in the positions that I held later on in life. Yes, that I, I lacked that education. And I wanted to see what it was all about. Once I got my university degree, I realized that the life experience was far more important than anything I’ve picked up there. Isn’t that
Mike: the truth of it? Yeah. So tell us I know your parents have been a big influence on you. Because I’ve picked that up in some of what you’ve written and what some of what you said. In other words, tell us about what it was like growing up. And what did they instill in you that that really began to light this fire that you’ve got going on inside? Yeah,
Pat Famer: well, I think there’s a number of things. The value of, you know, the value of family was most important, you know, as I said, Yeah, I grew up I was one of seven children grew up in the suburbs of Granville went to school, Irish Catholic background and my mother, my mother’s grandfather came out from Northern Ireland because he couldn’t get work over there because he was Irish Catholic. And so the only reason why I mentioned that was it was my mother was so determined that we had to go to a Catholic school that when we didn’t have the money to afford the schooling over here in Australia, so mum used to work for the nuns and she would clean the convent and cook the meals for the nuns And then she would, she would help the priests out and set up the church for mass six AMS every morning, in return for our school fees being paid, it’s not random, you know, so they didn’t want anything for nothing. But they, but they, they knew what they wanted for their children. And that point there, take away the religious side and all the rest of it, that was most important, because I think a lot of parents are like that a lot of parents know what they want for the kids. And if you can’t afford it, then you find another way to make it happen. Yes. And that and that was the lesson that I took out of that. And that’s the lesson I’ve used all the way through my life ever since. So, you know, if I want something bad enough, I find a way to make it happen. And you know, I have this wonderful saying that if you want to do something, anything with all your heart, you can and you will find a way and if you don’t truly want to, you’ll simply find an excuse. So my mother and father and never made up excuses for anything, they just, they just did what they had to do to make ends meet and to achieve what they need a decent outcome for all of us.
Mike: So was there anything going on back then that would there was a suggestion that you might end up failing as a, as a world class athlete,
Pat Famer: not nothing whatsoever, I was very ordinary I used to play you know, everybody played football and cricket in those days. And then when the tennis came on later on in life, when we when people got TVs and when we had TVs and then when we got to color TV was most amazing thing on earth. But yes, but you know, when that came along, then it was watching the tennis and the kids would get out myself included. And we draw a tennis court on the on the road, didn’t worry about the traffic coming up and down the street. And we were you know, we had four squares and four of us would get there and he’d ever make believe our net there was a line on the road and we played tennis. So I was you know, we played cricket the same way the cricket stumps were garbage bin. Yeah, the cricket bat was a fence paling, and it was a you know, was often a tennis ball that we used, rather than 62, which I was happy about because I often ended up getting crowned by that ball rather than hitting it but and over the fence and out was was a classic, you know, so
Mike: and then did they do cross did you do cross country at school was,
Pat Famer: well, we had a 20 Kilometer walk a THON, and that was that was the closest thing I’d ever got to any sort of athletic progress during the course I was at school and that was all about getting sponsored so we could raise money for the school. Okay, so, you know, look, to be honest with you. Yes. I had no experience in running no showed no progress in that field. was just I was just a regular kid like anybody else by raising the fire leading me later on in life after I’d left school and became a motor mechanic. Yes, I got an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic, and I saw the Sydney to Melbourne race and I saw a Cliff Young run past where I was working.
Mike: That’s a great story that so you’re basically apprentice mechanic? That’s correct. Yeah. The race for an annual race that well known.
Pat Famer: Yeah, it was the biggest thing. It was the biggest thing here in Australia at the time, even bigger than football and cricket. The Westfield run was well known to so many people got huge exposure, because we’re short on Channel 10 at that at that time, and there was cash prize money real cash prize $10,000 write the stories that you came out with the other guys. My boss called me out from underneath the car. He said, Pat, you’ve got to see this. And when I walked out there, I saw all the fanfare the kids from the school across the road were there with balloons clapping and cheering and there was police sirens going off as they went on down the road and the escorts were there for all of the runners and the runners were running past and they all looked like phenomenal athletes with the exception of one Cliff Young at the back of the field who looked like this very simple, ordinary man though it’s had the same uniform on as everybody else the red and white t shirt. And he ran on down the road and I couldn’t believe that somebody his age could contemplate doing something like that, let alone eventually go on to winner.
Mike: You know, it’s well known that kind of Cliff Young story for Australia, but we’ve got a few listeners are overseas. So for the benefit of then, Cliff Young was a was a sheep farmer and a potato farmer.
Pat Famer: That’s correct. Yeah. He lived on 100 acre property down in carlike in Victoria, and he was he was just quite an eccentric sort of guy. His closest friend was the animals on the farm. I’m a nanny he loved he didn’t have a sheepdog. So he used to round up the sheep and the cattle himself and he would be wearing gumboots Of course it rains a lot. down in that part of the world, and he’d be wearing gumboots as he ran around the fields, and then he would head off into town to get some groceries and bits and pieces he didn’t own a car didn’t drive a car. So he would run into town in his gumboots. And that’s where the story came about, with Cliff Young being the gumboot shuffling. And the media latched on to that because they’re always looking for a bit of a quirky angle. And they loved it, and they loved it about cliffie. And of course, he was running a marathon every single day, just into town and back for the groceries. Plus rounding out the cattle and doing everything the cost of finishing that he’s not only did he get to Malmo, but he won the race, and knock spots off the off the previous best time. Well, there why this is interesting thing, the first time he ran it, there was no previous time that that was the first time the race have ever been run. And he, a lot of the runners took him for granted. They saw him as this, this little of fellow that wasn’t going to last the distance. So they were running hard and fast, they would do 160 190 kilometers in 24 hours. And then they’d have a long break, you know, for four or six hours. And cliffy just stayed at a constant pace. It was the typical tortoise and the hare race. And as he pushed on past them, their crews would wake him up, say, hey, there’s another runner coming because in the night, especially around Lake George and summer, some of the country areas where there was a much in the way of lighting, you would see the flashing beacon of the support vehicles coming. And they didn’t know who the runner was until they approached. And then of course, cliffy would come up and go past them at the same old constant pace. The runners would wake up and then they’d realize it was only cliffy and they just go back to bed because I thought he was he was easy pushover and what happened was cliffy got 30 kilometers ahead of the rest of the field by the time he got down around near or Boston, namely Bell, which is down near the New South Wales Victorian border, which approximately halfway point, and the other runners didn’t think he was going to last the distance anyway. So they didn’t bother about him. And so they took him for granted. And that was his that was his surprise. And so, Cliff had the ability to push day and night, night and day to go without sleep. And that was his greatest advantage. And consequently, he got so far ahead of the rest of the field. They couldn’t pull him back anyway, by this stage, they all had their own blisters, bruises, aches and pains they were some of them were urinate and blood because the constant pounding on their kidneys. So it’s it was an incredibly tough event over 1000 kilometers.
Mike:: And he wanted, he wanted Yes. And he got he got he got a 10 grand and apparently he gave he gave most of that away to the other runners.
Pat Famer: He did. He did he did so you know showed he was a simple man. A simple means, you know, he had everything in life that he wanted, but the trophy was enough for him. But the interesting thing about it was the numbers swelled between being two or three people on the side of the road clapping and cheering him on like me as a motor mechanic been two or 3000 people lined up on the streets as he crossed over the Dandenong ranges and on into Melbourne. And the fantastic thing about that was the media were talking about this guy, people coming out and seeing him radio was really playing him up big time. And everybody just wanted a piece of this, just want to see it now you would think an event like that went for approximately 10 days and 1000 kilometers would be pretty boring. But it was a bit like the torch relay, the Olympic torch relay, where everybody just wanted to see it with their own two eyes. And they would come out of their office blocks that come out of the off their farms out of their homes and stand by side of the road, sometimes wait for hours just to see this little old man run past and then later times all the other runs as well.
Mike: What went on what was going through your mind other than the fact you lost your bet, right? But I presume you’re following the race. And well, I did
Pat Famer: you know, I couldn’t believe I was listening to the radio closely. And I couldn’t believe that this little guy was still going. And he was going day after day after day and I’d go to bed. I’d wake up the next morning on Turner radio, and he was still going. And I thought this is incredible. This is really amazing. And I looked at him and he seems so ordinary to me. And I think this was the key because it was somebody ordinary that did something absolutely extraordinary. He was such a motivational point for everybody here in Australia. Whereas if he was just a pedigree athlete that would come from great stock and he he everybody expected him to win anyway. Nobody would try and emulate what he has done. Nobody would would could relate to him at all. And everybody would just say that’s fantastic. He’s a gold medalist he’s Olympian. He’s this he said he’s tremendous, but I can never be like that. So I’m not even going to try with cliffy because he was ordinary put like myself turn around, say, My God, if he can do that, so can I. And that’s what inspired me, you know, just 10 minutes before I walked out on the side of the road to watch him, you know, I tore all the skin off the back of my knuckles, I’d slipped on the spanner and I grease oil through my hair. I looked at myself, and I thought to myself, There’s got to be something better than this in life. And, you know, it was almost like it was it was meant to be. Because through seeing cliffy, I’ve seen the world through been inspired by that and taking that up from that moment, my whole life changed. Okay, so how, what change? When did you start? I presume you didn’t run before that? No. Okay, so what? When did you lace up? And when did you Well, do you think basically, I, you know, watch that race through to the end. And I made up my mind, if he can do that, I can do that. So I contacted the Westfield organizes. And that was an interesting story. Because I rang, I rang up head office, and I said, How do I get into that race? And they said, Well, you know, you just send in your details of what you’ve done before. And then if you’re good enough, then you’re straight in. And if you’re not, then you need to qualify. And they said, so what sort of running have you done before? And I said, I haven’t done? What do you mean, what sort of running and they said ultra marathons, how many of those have you done and I said, Well, what’s an ultra marathon? They said, that’s anything over the distance of the standard marathon, which is 42 kilometers. And I said, No, I haven’t done any of those. And they said, Well, what about marathons that said, I haven’t done any of those? And I said, Well, what about tank that they said, What about 10k runs or triathlons? And I said, No, I haven’t done any of those. And then they hung up on me. I called him back and then they hung up on me again, I call him back, call him back, call him back. Eventually, the girl on the end of the line said, Look, give me your details and then send you out the information on the qualifying events. Go away and stop bothering me. And that’s how it all started
Mike: out. Right. Yeah. So you started going to the qualifying events. You got the list. Yeah,
Pat Famer:
away. And that’s how it went. You say, you know, I went down to Melbourne, I ran from Melbourne to college to try and qualify and, and I finished but I didn’t finish within the time frame. I ran from Sydney to a bath this stuff over the up over the Blue Mountain ranges. And I finished but I didn’t qualify. I was too slow for that. And this was happening all the time. But every time it happened, I was getting better. And I was learning more and I was getting more detail. We
Mike: didn’t do a couple of k’s and five K’s attended case you just went straight for the qualifying events.
Pat Famer: Well, you know, I just I was running around the park down the bottom of the road from where I lived. And I was running through the streets and running what it is whatever distances I could do nothing about nutrition, knew nothing about training knew nothing about anything. And then every time the qualifying races came up, I gave it a shot. So when was it was this in the 70s? Was it? Yes. So that was in the 80s running only
Mike: really got going jogging it really got going in the 70s
Pat Famer: Did I remember for training, I would run We’d lived in Granville at the time, and I’d run into the city into Sydney and back home again. And I would run in there after work late at night. And I’d be running down Parramatta Road and people would be throwing beer bottles at me I’d be running on the footpath and the police would be pulling me up saying what are you doing? Considered a weirdo? I bought a book called running by Sebastian Coe. Okay. And I sat and read it. I was 17. At the time I think I’d left school. And I read it cover to cover in one guy that was kind of me all over. And the first thing I did when I put the book down was get me trainees on and I went for a run. So ran five miles brown the Wrekin and got back in I had no idea how far I had gone. But he told me about an hour or whatever it was. And I felt great. So I jumped in my dad’s car because it just got my license, you get your license 17. And then I actually tracked it and I just done five miles. And that was simply through reading that book. Now. I didn’t go on like you do. But it got me it got me off my backside. And I felt great. And that’s all it takes. You know, all of us just need a moment of inspiration. And then you take it from there. And like you say it felt great. I was speaking with a girl last night she said to me, You know what I get out of running. She said, I free my mind. She said my world is so busy. Yeah. And when I go for a run I can think nothing else but just enjoying the moment that I mean. Yeah. And I solve all the problems that the world she said and yeah, that’s exactly how
Mike: I think it’s one of the one of the misunderstood benefits certainly by the medical profession, I’ve got to adapt to that I I teamed up with a great guy sports touch as well. And I said to him, Well, what about the jogging because, you know, he was talking about my cholesterol, which wasn’t great. And then he said to me, he said look, he said it’s very questionable. He said that the benefits of you jogging. But I said Well, what about the mental benefits because the mental improvement in how I feel when I go for an hour’s run is is just like just like the lady said to you last night. You, I think good thoughts. I feel good I get out of my head into my body. And I think there’s a well known I think why mental health professionals that it’s a very good idea to get to do something physical, I
Pat Famer: think it’s, it’s, it’s the extra forced oxygen intake. That’s one that’s 1.2 at all. And the release of endorphins is the second thing that yes, and that’s the Yeah, that’s the chemical side of it. And it does affect your mind. It does affect your brain helps you to relax and helps you to be calm helps you do appreciate the simple things in life. Yeah.
Mike: So Pat, you begin, let’s go back. So you begin to go to the qualifying events, I presume eventually you speed up a bit and you and you start qualifying. So a year later, were you able to go into that race?
Pat Famer: I finally took a bit longer than a year but I have is that right? So it took you how Yeah, it took me a couple of years did it okay to qualify?
Mike: Basically get that distance under your belt at a time that would that was acceptable to the organizers?
Pat Famer: Exactly. Yeah, I finally qualified in a 24 hour track race up at St. Lucia’s colleague, Queensland. Mike: So how many K’s an hour? Did you have to get under your belt, you know, to
Pat Famer: our will? Kilometers wise I was running close to 300 kilometers a week after work, you know, so that would mean that if I was working, you know, if I was working in the city, I run North Sydney, I would run home from North Sydney, back to Granville, just to try and fit my training in because right. It was the only way otherwise, there’s just not enough hours to do it. Yeah. And yeah, so I so I was backing up when I was tired. And what I didn’t realize that time is that was very good training for me. Because if you run a straight out race, a marathon, you go into it fresh and you run it hard and fast, you feel fatigued around 30 35k Mark, and then you push through that and you finish the event. But with an ultra, especially a multi day Ultra, you have to be able to perform when you’re dead tired when you’re really struggling mentally and physically to stay awake to stay alert and to put one foot in front of the other. Yes, yeah, I was like I trained like that all of my time, because I had no choice. So it was good, like the old day with our footballers, and, and our cricketers, and so many athletes. They weren’t professional athletes. They were people that held down a full time job, and then they would train after work, and then they’d play on the weekend.
Mike: I mean, that’s a good point. I mean, you know, you’re a professional Ultra runner, but way back then there’s no way you’re going to earn a living doing that. But
Pat Famer: I just know Charles initially. So.
Mike: So you, you. We still have an apprentice motor mechanic at that point. When you were doing that running.
Pat Famer: I feel Yeah, I yeah, I was. I was and I continued on, I finished off my apprentice. And my boss became incredibly proud of me and one of my greatest supporters, my boss and his wife as a result of what I what I’d set out to grow what I’d achieved. But I had to make the transition away from being a motor mechanic through to training a lot more and a lot more time because I found that races started to be the races were interstate or they were overseas. And the only way I was going to make it in this field was to was to give away that that security of the job that I had, and risk everything and take on this
Mike: support. What was inspiring you who was inspiring you at that point to say, I can I can do this.
Pat Famer: Well, there was some great there were some great athletes around a Yanis. Chris, of course came on the scene to Sydney to Melbourne race and ended up beating everybody by a day by 24 hours. And he was just absolutely phenomenal. The only man on earth that he had run over 300 kilometers in 24 hours. I think he holds the record still at 305 kilometers in 24 hours. Wow. Jonas had, you know, multiple, multiple, multiple records and won the Greg spar triathlon, which is, which is an enormous race overseas. And so people like he and Tony roughly Tony roughly was famous in the very early days has been really Australia’s first true ultra marathon runner. Tony ran across from Perth to Sydney and held the record for for that going across Australia. There was wrong grant wrong. Grant ran around Australia and he held the record for that. And this interesting story about those two, I’ll never forget. We all know the race in Death Valley called you back on the SAM Ward a classic. And what happened when that race was first kicking off was the organizers were looking For the best ultra runners, they could handle desert conditions right around the world to come and compete in that race. And they contacted the ultra seen in Australia and they said we’re looking for the best runners, blah, blah blah and Tony roughly thought he was the best and Ron grant thought he was the best because runners ran around Australia and held the record tiny run across Australian held that record. So the two of them decided to have a race across the Simpson Desert is started Alka Seltzer bore so it’s just up from Dalhousie springs, and for your overseas listeners that’s near the border between Northern Territory and South Australia. Right smack bang in the center there. It goes through more than 1000 I think there’s 1162, sand dunes from start to finish. The sand is soft, like talcum powder, it’s a red reddish color. And it gets into your lungs gets up to your nose. And it’s, you know, the conditions out there regularly around 4045 degrees Celsius, so scorching hot every single day. And yeah, the two of them got out there, and they raced across. And of course, Tony roughly, was in the lead for the biggest part of that event. And then Ron grant came through to beat him.
Mike: Those guys were the pioneers really. And they were sort of trailblazing they weren’t. And you were looking at that again. Okay.
Pat Famer: Well, I was looking at that. But because I was so young and naive, the whole with that sport, I would ask them the most ridiculous questions about shoes, about food, about nutrition, about training and all the rest of it. And they just, everybody just sort of took me under their wing and they gave me they didn’t see me as a competitor. They saw me as somebody that they would like to mentor. They didn’t think I was ever going to get to that level, I’m sure. And, and they all mentored me. And they all taught me so much. I mean, this I suppose it’s like an apprenticeship, isn’t it? It’s like anything. Yeah, exactly. You had to learn. You had to learn to run a bit quicker than you were naturally you had to build up your stamina you had to get over the mental barriers of of, you know, when’s it sensible? To start running? You’re absolutely right. Well, I learned from I learned from Cliff Young to run like a soccer player, sea cliff, he was known for the cliffy shuffle. And, and by that, I mean, he had a very good economy of movement, he used to keep his arms very low. So he didn’t use a lot of upper body strength, Brian didn’t waste a lot of energy, and he would shuffle his feet along the ground. And so he didn’t have a high Leg Action, which meant he didn’t have the impact on his ankles, his knees, his base of his back or any of his joints. And so consequently, he was able to push on quite well without injury. Now, I tried to run lie down, I couldn’t run exactly like that. But the closest thing to for me was the soccer players. And often soccer players will keep their feet very low to the ground when they’re chasing the ball. And they roll from the heel to the toes. So So I thought, that’s what I’ve got to do. So I practice and practice that. And that’s what, yeah, basically in a rolling fashion, in that book, I read, okay, he was a heel to toe, man. Yeah, he broke down the whole thing, including how to hold my hands. But yeah, because I knew nothing really, other than we done a bit of Cross Country School, which no one was keen on. And so I was really, just like you started from scratch? Yeah. Yeah. And it was it was incredible. That That meant that I’m still running today. I’m in my 60s. Well, I just turned 60 this year or late last year. And I, you know, I’m still running I’m still running Ultras all over the world and it’s still compete. And
Mike: I’m told that that archery ultra runners do well when they’re a bit older that you don’t seem to you know, like a football players kind of done or soccer players kind of done by Tommy’s 3435 If they’re lucky, and they’ve looked after themselves, but running is not like that. It’s all
Pat Famer: you’ll find that with all endurance sports, though, whether it be long, long distance swimming, like ocean swimmers are often are an older demographic, then okay, then the pool swimmers. Yeah, you know, 100 meter runner is a younger demographic than a marathon runner, or then an ultra runner. And the same thing goes for cyclists, et cetera, et cetera. And the reason for that is, the human body actually builds up a lot more stamina as you get older, right? And you you can sustain, you lose your your speed, but you pick up this stamina, so you’re able to go longer distances more consistently. Whereas you will often find with the younger runners, I’ve been in so many races with younger runners, and they’re short, sharp and fast and they get out there and they smash it out. And then they just fall to pieces. You know, because they can’t handle the regular momentum of just pumping it out pumping it out. It’s a diesel engine against a petrol engine.
Mike: So when was it that you did your first culture race where you thought I can do this? I can. I can have a go here. Well, well, when was that?
Pat Famer: Well, I Think I thought that all the way along from when I first started weren’t from when I first started, I have an innate ability do you think I don’t know was just it was just dogged determination and you often find that a bit like a boxer that’s grown up in in the burbs or a boxer that’s, you know, people that have been downtrodden all their life and they’ve got this one shot to try and make something of their life. And they and they grasp it with both hands and they fight like hell, okay, and they get and they get out of that predicament for me. That’s what it was all about. And so it was about changing my life. Okay, my circumstances, my stars, or whatever you want to call it? Yeah. And running provided the opportunity to do that. Now as kids, the furthest we ever went for, for a Christmas holiday was up to the Central Coast, which is about 150 kilometers away from where we lived. And that was a huge trip and a great, great adventure. Yeah, I’ve traveled the world. I’ve been to the four corners of the globe, all through running. And I never would have got these opportunities if it wasn’t for sport knew you can listen to any sports person, they will tell you this is
Mike: when did you get to a point where you began to get some notoriety? What was it? What was the first time where, you know, the public started paying attention to what you were doing?
Pat Famer: When I finally qualified for the Sydney to Melbourne races, I was always the youngest and cliffy was the oldest so okay, there was a great shot and I think was the Sydney Morning Herald and cliffy and I were both on the front page. And he was the oldest and me as a younger guy. And that was a big deal for me, you know, I get my head hidden the papers. So and but what really happened for me was I gave away the Sydney to Melbourne races at the end of the 1990s. And I was looking for more than that. Okay. And there was a race over in America called the trans American foot race. It started California and finished in New York. Okay. And now Australian had competed in that. Right. And so I wanted to have a crack at that. How far is that? So it’s a Yeah, it’s 4700 kilometers. So it’s about approximately same distances across Australia. Wow. And 14 Different states that we ran through, started at Huntington Beach, California, and finished in Central Park. And those 30 The best runners from all over the world in that 30, the best ultra runners, and I want to pit myself against them. And I went over there and I competed in it. And I was in second place. In 60 minutes from Australia flew over in and covered it is I couldn’t believe he was this Australian so set the world on fire with what he was doing. And what year was this? That was in 1990 9093.
Mike: Okay, and how long have you been doing this by that stated?
Pat Famer: I’d be Yeah, well, well, since Yeah, since the ad says since about 1985 running for about eight years. So
Mike: you paid your dues. Matt says you were kind of ready, in a way Yeah,
Pat Famer: I felt I felt that I felt that if I’m going to make a career out of this. There’s no money here in Australia have to go overseas. And you know, and by that stage here, I had a baby on the way I was married and had a baby on the way and I I knew I had to as my wife said, I have to get a real job or I have to make this thing pay one or the other. You are
Mike: second. The news. They sent reporters over Yes. So where did you end up with that race? They
Pat Famer: were just reported? Yeah, I finished second in our team you really out and that was our 30 of the best in the world. And it wasn’t just a news team. It was 60 minutes okay here in Australia back in the early 1990s 60 minutes was the most up to date that was the most investigative it was the most adored that was a Sunday I current affairs program Yes, Sunday nights and the night and day and they used to shoot on 16 millimeter film I’ll never forget they had they had an endless budget. I was running along the road there they showed up in a Mustang convertible and I couldn’t believe it I’m running along the road with the other athletes in the organizers race said came up to me and they said hey there’s an Australian film crew just showed up you know they want to film you. We’ve given them the okay so be alert to it. So I was running along the road. Next thing I know this guy’s hold now their sound boom and there’s a camera and somebody’s driving a Mustang convertible. And then as I went through Colorado as I weave my way up through Vail pass up to the top of the mountains there in Colorado. They were in the film guy was filming in the back of a sidecar on an old Norton. Did he use an old Norton motorbike? They could go at their slow enough pace for him to be able to feel just perfectly and then I’ll just go and pass no Far from Eagle Canyon, so not far from the Grand Canyon near Las Vegas, and this helicopter whizzed up the side of the cliff face and up over the top of us runners. And it was once again, the 60 minutes crew filming from there, they didn’t have drones in those days. And so they use real helicopters. And they’d been able to track down an incredible pilot from Vietnam. And he was doing all sorts of tricks in the air to get him the best shots. And the film footage from now on 60 minutes was incredible, absolutely incredible.
Mike: Okay, and so all of a sudden, that kind of nation wakes up to the fact that we’ve got this guy called Pat Famer: who’s world class. And he’s doing some great stuff.
Pat Famer: And then I started to get sponsored, I will never forget Manchester Unity with my first major sponsor came on board and they said, tell us the events that you’ve got coming up over the next year, we’d like to get behind you. And, and that all worked well for a while. And then I realized after a period of time, that this business had heard a lot, and it was hard work. And I didn’t want to do it just for me, I wanted to, you know, I needed more than a purpose of a gold medal or a prize purse at the end of it all. And so I started really investing a lot of time into charities and supporting people of need, and I would run to raise money for those causes. This is once again back in the days where people, not many people were, were using their sporting abilities to raise funds for other courts. Yeah. And so you know, that’s where it all started. And I loved it.
Mike: That was a movement inside you really that said, Look, you want to go beyond just making a living now you were, you’d figured out how to monetize this running. Yeah. Now it was a case of what who can we help,
Pat Famer: I suppose a bit like cliffy, you know, when cliffy handed over his prize money at the end of the first Sydney to Melbourne race, there’s something very, very earthy, very grounding about a pound and out the miles or kilometers over long periods of time, you come down to the things that really matter in life, rather than the things that are luxuries, you don’t have any luxuries on the road, you’re sleep deprived. A bear morsel of food means the world to you. And if you can get a drink that room temperature, then you’re over the planet about that, let alone a drink with ice in it, you know, so. So it was fair grounding that helped me to be who I am. And the running that suggested to me that I needed to be more than what I was.
Mike: Okay. So this is the mid 90s. Now, right? Yes. Okay. And you made a move into politics. Right? So that was around 2000? Was it?
Pat Famer: Yeah, well, that was the that was the end of the 90s down towards the end of the 90s. And what happened was, there was this buzz about the centenary of Federation got it. And that was coming up in the year 2001. But the people that were trying to put that together felt that there wasn’t any cut through and that they needed something some sort of vehicle that could drive this message out to ordinary people right across the country. And some people were chatting to me about it. And I agree, I did some research and there was a guy by the name of Donald Mackay that rode a bike around Australia. And, and he you know, he would get flat tires and put straw in his tires, and you’d ride on the railway tracks around the country, because it was better than the roads. The roads were in terrible condition back in those days. And that was way back in the early 1900s. Okay, and so I thought, what was this guy doing? He was not only riding his bike around the country, but he was spoken the Federation to everybody in all the states and saying how good it would be if we all came together as one nation instead of individual states, and ended up like Europe. And so, you know, there was the history was already said that. Yeah, so I thought I’ll do exactly the same thing as him but I need on my legs, right. So I got back to these people and they got back to the higher powers to be. Next thing I know, John Howard, the Prime Minister of the day, sending him sending me off from the steps of parliament house in Canberra. And I started running north through Sydney, Brisbane, the Far North Queensland from Townsville across to three ways and up to Darwin and from Darwin across to Broome. There’s two interesting stories about this whole thing I won’t waffle on too much about it, but you know, and I relayed this story last night I’ll never forget I ran into a place called Elliot Yeah. And I was doing this run and like all Archer runners are all runners you come to the point when you’re fatigued when you’re worn out, you’re blister you’re broken. Your hairs or wiry you’ve got sand or through your nostrils your ears and all over your face from sandstorms and you’re out there in the tarmac is sticking to the soles of your shoes and you think to yourself, who cares about what I’m doing? You know when I come into Cities, there was big crowds and everything was great. But out there in the outback, and there’s a lot of it in Australia, I got there was there was nobody to cheer
Mike: me on or whatever and you’re not selling. You’re definitely not selling.
Pat Famer: And I was feeling really bad for myself. And then I was running 80 kilometers a day, every single day in that on that journey. Unbelievable. And I was severely fatigued. I’d done around about 5000 kilometers to this point. And I remember I was coming into Elliott, and a bus pulled up. And this guy got off the bus. And he said to you, Pat Famer:, and I said, Yes. And he said, I’m the principal of the school at Elliot. And I said, really? And he said, Yes. I said, we’re stopping there tonight. And he said, Yes, it’s up the road. I said, it’s about 13, Kay’s away, and he said, Yeah, that’s right. He said, I’ve got the kids from the school. They want to run with you. I looked around, I said, You must be joking. There was a shimmer coming off the road. Like I said, the tar was sticking to the soles of my shoes. So how hot was it? It was 43 degrees. Oh, my goodness was 40. The temperatures around there always hovered between 40 to 45 degrees. And it was it was scorching hot. And the kids want to run with it. And the kids wander around with me. And I reminded him we were third in Cape Town. He said, Don’t worry. He said, I’ve got bottles of water on board. And he said, the kids have been looking forward to this for a long time. They have to run with you. Can they please us? Yeah, of course, per se close. And then, to my surprise, most of the kids were young Aboriginal kids, they got off the bus. They had no shoes on their feet. He was on the best running gi come by, and complaining whining and complaining these poor little kids, often, most of them 789 10 years old. And I could see the stones digging into the bottoms of their feet as they ran across the road. And they were happy. And I was smiling and laughing. And they just kept grabbing my clothes and holding my arms and wanting to touch me all the time and run along with me. They made it all the way through into Elliott. And then when we got there, we got to the school, they sat down underneath a tree. And I spoke to the kids all about what I was doing and all the rest of it. And they told me about you know, they’d been doing projects on me and they showed me some of the projects they done and all the rest of it. And the principal came up to me afterwards and he was crying. And he said to me, he said, You’ll never believe what you’ve done here today. And I said, What do you mean, he said, I was really struggling to get these kids to show up for school said some of these kids are seven years old. And they’re the chief carers in their home. And often they’ll sit outside of the pub or they’ll wait for their parents to come out of the pub so they can help him home and cook a meal at seven years old. He said I’m expecting them to do homework. And they’re not. They’re not able to do it. I’m expecting them to up the shop at school and they say to me, what’s using going to school? Yeah, the best thing around here is the waterhole down the road. And that’s all that we’ve got is nothing. And then what happened was I was on TV and I was on the phone program back then called the Bert Newton show. And I was on the boat Newton show interviewed by Bert. And these, the school principals saw me on the TV. And he showed the kids. And he showed the kids he said See that man, he’s going to run through our town. And he said every day if you come to school every day, we’re going to look at where he is and how close he is to us. This is why the kids were so excited when I got there, okay, and they saw a screen. But that screen was so far removed from their world that it was just like watching a movie. But they didn’t really exist. It was a make believe movie. Yeah. But when I came into town, that’s why they wanted to touch me that when I was a real I was the person that they saw on TV. Wow. So they were so moved by that because I didn’t show up in an airplane or a Ferrari or even a car. Yeah, I showed up on two legs. And because I did that I showed them that there’s a whole world out there waiting for Yeah. And this principal said to me said they used to write, I try and get them to write messages to try and write stories to teach him how to write and how to read and all the rest of it. He said these kids were writing suicide notes. He said it was terrible. Little bits of kids. He said you’ve given them hope. He said this is fantastic. We’re going to follow your journey all the way around you make sure you finish this thing. Yeah, it was that. That made me realize that often just like Cliff Young when he ran past where I worked as a motor mechanic. Yeah. Often people that see you from a distance are inspired by what you do. Yeah. You never know whose lives you’re touching through the good things that you’re doing. Yes, but you are touching people’s lives and changing lives if you do good. Yes, yes. So that’s that gave me a lot of renewed strength. It helped me to not only finish that run, but it helped me to be person that I was Yeah. So I pushed on from there, I finished that run. So it’s
Mike: interesting that you say you got you got an equal amount of boost. I mean, they got a line and it was so. So did you that giving receiving is phenomenal catalyst, isn’t it
Pat Famer: a great speaker, great corporate speaker in an audience will feed off the audience, right. And they get more of their audience than they get because that audience is elevating them to some sort of higher status than just average Joe Blow, the fact that they’re able to stand on stage and, and and they’re appreciated for what they’ve got to say or what they’ve got to do. Yeah, makes that person feel like, you know, my life is worthwhile. And I think that’s what we’re all looking for.
Mike: No, I agree. Let’s come back to that. Because I think that’s a really important subject, particularly that the you know, that that sort of Aboriginal, the tragedy, really, that there has been the sort of Aboriginal story here now for quite
Pat Famer: a tough story for such a long period. It is improving, but slowly, slowly, and even today, we’re seeing we’re still seeing a lot of those ramifications in some of the communities.
Mike: So you, you ran around the continent of Australia. So how far is it in?
Pat Famer: It’s about 14 and a half, 1000 kilometers
Mike:1000 kilometers. And then and so the Prime Minister was pretty pleased. Well, he
Pat Famer: welcome he welcomed me back. It was big fanfare The streets were was just like Cliff Young. When he finished the first Sydney to Melbourne. Everybody came out of the office blocks that were in down in Canberra. And my run from Myron Bateman, which is about 2530 kilometers out of Canberra into Canberra was lined with 1000s and 1000s of people, there was police, motorcycle escorts, there was helicopters in the air, there was it was it was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. And I finished that run and the Prime Minister welcomed me. And it was, it was unbelievable. The sort of fit, it was like an Olympic finish. And the funny thing about all of that was about a month later, I got a call from the Prime Minister. And he said, Pat, I’ve been contacted by the mayors of all the towns that you ran through around Australia, and the stories you told and the people you spoke to and the inspiration that you were. And he said, Look, I don’t know what side of politics you’re, you’re on or you’re interested in. But he said if you would be prepared to run for me at the next federal election, in Cedar MacArthur out where you live, you said I promise you my support and the support of the cabinet ministers to get things done for those people and to change their lives. And I thought, wow, wow, not only not only am I here, talking to the Prime Minister, but you know, I’ve been asked to do something that I never thought I was capable
Mike: of. So you did it. And you ran and you want? Well,
Pat Famer:I ran my mom, which was another miracle because there was I won by the second largest margin in the country that you’re one by 14 and a half percent. So we That’s how far that seat was behind. And a lot of people said to me afterwards, the only reason why they asked you to run was because it was an unwinnable seat and nobody else wanted to. They could have been the case, they could have been the case. But nevertheless, I surprised everybody, including myself and actually won the seat. And I won it because I didn’t know anything about politics. So what happened was he asked me and that was about January, when he asked me the election wasn’t until November later that year, the day after he asked me, I was out door knocking on people’s houses because I thought I’ve got to get through every house 100,000 houses all the way through this electorate that anyway, I’m going to do as if I start now started just I didn’t know what I was doing. I just introduced myself to everyone say, I’m going to be the next, your next member for this area. And I just want to know, what can I do to help you but you
Mike: wouldn’t have thought that ultra running was the right training ground was clearly poor. It was
Pat Famer: really Yeah, well, clearly, stamina.
Mike: The real story for me is that you end up as the as the as the junior Minister for Education.
Pat Famer: I was the least educated in Parliament, I you know, when we, when we would have joined party or in meetings, and I would sit behind a bowl ad in the room because I was embarrassed, anybody would notice that I was in the room. And half and I was sort of called out from behind there for different things. But the point was, I felt so bad about that. And I even said to Peter Costello, who was a great mentor to me down there and a lovely man. And I said to him, what’s the story with this place? Like, how do you how do you become a minister in this place? And not for my own reasons, but I said to him because I thought I saw Julie Bishop and what a great performer she was in debates and talking standing up for the people. And I was very impressed by Julie Bishop and I and I said to her, how come you’re not a minister? And she laughed and she said when you’ve Been here for a while, you’ll know the answer to that. Wow. And so I went ask Peter Costello and I said, How do you get to become minister? And he said, Well, it’s like this. He said, You could be the best person for the job. And you live in New South Wales. And we need a minister for, let’s say, it’s health, we need a Minister for Health. And you could even be a past doctor. So you know a bit about the subject. But you live in New South Wales, and we’ve already got enough ministers in New South Wales. So we need a minister from Queensland, so you don’t get the gig. So then you could be the best person or second best person for the role and you’re in Queensland, but you’re a man and we need to get a gender balance, we need to try and get more women in so you don’t get the gig. And then you could be the best person for the role. You could be a nurse. That was the that was a female nurse that lived in Queensland, and you’re in the House of Reps. We’ve already got enough ministers in the House of Representatives, and we need a minister in the Senate so you don’t get the gig. So when you realize that sense of attrition there, you realize that psychologically, it is a lottery. Yeah. And it’s not I’ll never forget. We had joint party room meetings every Tuesday. And that was a chance for backbenchers like myself to be able to question the minister. Yeah. And I’d been around to all the schools in my electorate, you know, as I loved it, and I love talking to the kids all the time and inspiring them and motivating them. And that it dawned on me that this was such a big job, the education portfolio. So as in joined pyromania my morning and I put my hand up for a question, and it would come my turn, and I asked the question, I said, I stood up in front of everybody. And I said to the Prime Minister, I said, we have a we have a parliamentary secretary and junior minister for defense, though. They said, Yes. And I said, and I went through the list, and I said, we have a minister and a Parliamentary Secretary for this. And they say yes. And they said, Yes. And they said, Yes. And they said, Yes. And I said, everybody here in this room has got a lot of schools in their electorate. And we all know how important schools are. And we all know how important education is the seat, Prime Minister can use tell me how come we don’t have a Parliamentary Secretary of Education, Science a trainee. The whole room just burst out laughing. They started clapping. And I said and and he just looked at me and he said, noted. And I said, and I sat down, I sat down. I never thought another thing about it. Anyway, time went on. We had the elections. And then after the election, I got the call from the prime minister saying it was your suggestions. And then when things went from there, so I learned very quickly about Dole and about I will qualify, every time I showed up at the school, first thing I would say to the teachers or to the university professors, I’d say, Look, you all you guys are far more educated than me. I said, I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m here to help you. And I’m here to listen. And I think that’s why I went so well. In the Roth. It was different, it was different. It was a different approach. They’d say they needed money for this or that. And I’d say can you qualify that and they’d qualify it and I’d go in fighting for it. Simple as that. And that’s what I thought a Member of Parliament is suppose Yes. Did you go over to terms? Yes, I was a member for nine years, nine years, great for nine years. And then when I got out of Parliament, it was time for me to go like I really, I got to tell you, I really struggled in Parliament, okay, I was, I felt I was a good performer and for local for my local constituents, and I fought hard for them. But when it comes to being a showpiece down in Parliament and listening to your voice over and over and over again, I wasn’t for me. And by that I meant there were so many things that were spoken about in Parliament, like bills that were spoken on. And then they were debated and debated and debated. And I’d ask silly questions. Like I said, How can we took we’re all everybody’s lined up to talk about this bill. And they said, because, you know, you need to get your name in a hand side and you need to, you need to get on the record, because then you can send that out to your constituents and tell them all about what a great bloke you are. Yeah. And that didn’t cut through with me. It seemed to me like just showmanship for the sake of it. And I thought Parliament could be a lot more efficient. If we limited the amount of speakers and we got on with voting for the bill. And we got it through and we move on to the next bill. We could get a lot more work done. Yeah,
Mike: yeah. Just on that subject, because I think a lot of our listeners will be interested in that. That whole idea of I’m busy. I’ve got a lot going on, which you would have done as a member of parliament. Did you still run digital? Yeah. You were running all the way through you were doing what? Oh, absolutely.
Pat Famer: Yes. Still, you know, I was still going running races, runs for lifeline. There’s still raising funds on on the weekends doing things like that. When I had time. When I was down in Parliament. I would Run up Red Hill, which was a big hill at the back of where Parliament House was drawn up and down there 10 times every morning before I stopped parliament, I would often go for runs with Greg Hunt and Tony Abbott. And anybody else that wanted to go for a run with me and was around was great. And so I just continued to try and stay fit and healthy.
Mike: Give me some data. So did you run every day? Yeah, I
Pat Famer: did find a way to run every day and was early hours of the morning.
Mike: What’s the run for you? I mean, what was it run for you? Because, you know, I know a run for me is it’s a flat run, from my place to Shelly and to Queensland back six guys. What was it? What did you consider a run?
Pat Famer: Well, when I was when I was a parliament, because I was limited for time, because we had to get in there very early. So I would I’d be out there when it was dark, and I’d be running up and down Red Hill. And Red Hill is a hill that a lot of our Olympic athletes train cycling up and down to get strength. It’s a very, very steep hill, anybody in Canberra would know it. And so I would run up and down there. And I used to take delight, real delight out of beating the cyclists up the hill, they would smash me of course on the downhill. But I every from when I first started doing it, my goal was I’m going to beat this cyclist because they would go past me, and then I’d gradually sawed edge and back and I’d get closer and closer to the top before they got to the top. And then eventually I started beating them and I’d relished it. I loved it. And I’d love really demoralizing sighs
Mike: Nice. beacuse Tony Abbott was a soccer star, presumably. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he’d
Pat Famer: loved Well, Tony loved his Saigon. But I’ll tell you one thing about Tony, Tony did run up and down Sydney, Centrepoint tower with me. I asked him, would he run it? And he did. And the two of us raised $265,000 for ovarian cancer at the time. And that was over. It’s over 3000 stairs from the bottom to the top. And we ran up and down there for 24 hours. Yeah,
Mike: I mean, he really looks after yourself, Tony. There’s a he gets.
Pat Famer: I can’t believe how tough he is. He’s he he’s a tough nut. And you know, you combine that with the Surf Lifesaving and the fire brigade and all that.
Mike: He was a boxer back in the day, was he?
Pat Famer: Yeah, he was a boxer. Yeah, yeah. When he was when he was at uni. So you know, which I think Malcolm Turnbull found out about because you never put somebody like that in a corner. Otherwise, you’re in for a fight. And that’s exactly what happened between those two.
Mike: So so how long would you run an hour? A couple of I mean, what? Yeah, we’d
Pat Famer: run it. Yeah. Let’s say it’s an hour before I started work. And then I’d do another run in the evening as well. Yeah. And that wasn’t training for anything that we were just long days. And but they helped clear my head. As you can imagine. The problem with the problem I found with parliament, and anybody works in public service, well, no, this is this. There’s so much paperwork for the sake of having paperwork, and stuff that is just repeated and over, and it’s overwhelming. So you need to clear your mind that no, I’m a very practical person, if I can get from point A to point B in the fastest possible time. That’s what I want to do. If I can achieve something in the fastest possible time. That’s what I want to do. But there’s so many checks and balances down there in Canberra that it’s very difficult to get anything done.
Mike: So you want the tour there for nine years. So what do you tell a business owner? That’s busy? He’s got a long day, he’s got a lot of stress going on? What do you tell him about how to do what you do, which was to keep going even though you’re busy, and make sure you get some time out? To do some exercise? Yeah, you
Pat Famer: have to dedicate some time to yourself. And by that, I mean, we all feel guilty, because we’re not given the time and our families, because we’re putting in the long hours of work. But you have to give some time to yourself, otherwise, you’re no good to your family. And eventually, you’re no good to work either. So unless you find something that you love and have a passion for and something that challenges you challenges you enough to keep at it, yeah, then then you just kind of fall apart. So I encourage all of your listeners to most especially take up yoga, take a running take up some form of stretching or exercise or something that is just there. It’s it belongs to them. And, and they and every now and then they’ll go off and they might compete in a competitive race, just to be part of part of that and just to see how they go against the mainstream with all of that, you know, I had a great a great friend of mine, John Wiley, he runs Tonara, which is an investment corporation. But John Wiley was actually the chairperson for the Australian Sports Commission, before Justin Sucre came into the role just recently, and John Wiley, not being a runner discovered running and realized that it did all of these things helped him to clear his mind helped him to free himself up and he actually went over his Phil BOD and, and competed in a marathon over there where they have 24 hour sunlight in summer. So he did a 12 o’clock at night, but it was sunlight, just to do something completely different on the other side of the planet, but amazing. And just to say he did a marathon. So often you’ll find that your business people, your business leaders, yeah, they don’t just want to do the same as everybody else. Now they can do something a little bit special, a little bit different. Yeah. And there is those opportunities out there, like the runs that I do. Yeah.
Mike: Now, you leave parliament. And now we’re and talk about a challenge. And then you decide, so what, what was the genesis of the idea to run from the North Pole to the South Pole,
Pat Famer: I wanted to it’s very hard to find something on this earth that hasn’t been done before. Most things have been done. And then you’re just repeating somebody else’s efforts and trying to break their record. So I was really, I’m big on first, you know, I love the story of Hillary and I love all these people as Sebastian Coe, of course, some of his stories. And of course, you know, first time, four minute mile was broken, the first time, so many things have been done. So I was looking for a first and I was thinking about things I could do and where I could paddle to, or where I could ride a bike to or where I might be able to run to. And then I thought, you know, people have run around the world and across the world, and, uh, you know, and around countries and this and that, but nobody sort of linked a whole lot together. And so I thought, yeah, I’d like to do this, but like to do it through the most extremes. And of course, you’ve got some of the hottest, most humid climates as you go down through the Darien jungle. You know, they’re between Panama and Colombia. And you know, you’ve got snow and ice on top of the mountains there in Ecuador, and just amazing scenery, amazing places and some dangerous. Oh, Hekia. Yeah, yeah, no, I have police escorts and even army escorts through Mexico and some of the parts of South America. And
Mike: so you came up with the idea. Okay, that hasn’t been done. Let’s do that. And then what made you think about the Red Cross?
Pat Famer: Well, what happened? What happened was, I realized, if I was going to run through multiple countries, I needed to do a run for a charity that those people in those countries could relate to, but didn’t want to spend all my time trying to explain to everybody in the media or the general public here, what this charity does that have to do foundation, foundation, or that foundation, etc. So everybody knows, I needed the Red Cross a UNICEF, that’s what I came down, right. And so that’s what I ended up doing. They were supportive, or Red Cross couldn’t believe that that I would take it on. And the statue that I had from being next politician sort of gave me some credibility in their eyes, right. So they sort of believed it, and then backed up with my history of running. They knew that I was capable of doing most things I set my mind out to Yes. So with that, in mind, is the credibility test, I passed the credibility test and to this day, one of the things that stands to my credit is every single thing I’ve ever started, I think, I’m going to do something
Mike: that’s a philosophy of yours. That’s a state of mind, isn’t it? It is a state
Pat Famer: of mind it is because it’s not often I questioned myself if I can do it, and I keep reminding myself of that philosophy in the day that I can I go to do something and I can’t complete it. Right. That will be the end. The end of it.
Mike: Yeah. So I did I remember. First of all, I love your book, pole to pole which I read when you first published it. One man 20 million steps. So if anybody wants a good read by Poulter poll by Pat Famer:, did you write that yourself?
Pat Famer: I had a ghostwriter, working with me on that. So I was writing every day when I was on that journey. In fact, I’ll tell you one funny story, I was up the North Pole. And as you can imagine, you’re dragging a sled that weighs 100 kilograms with all your stuff in it your food, your sleeping bags, ice axes, a tent, all the rest of the bits and pieces, dragging that every single day through 100 kilometer an hour winds off and minus 30 minus sometimes minus 35 degrees. Temperatures up there, worrying about polar bears, snowstorms, all that sort of thing. I was completely exhausted at the end of every single day. By the time I’d set up my tent, put snow and ice around it. set up some sort of warning system if a polar bear came near the 10 finally got in there melted some snow to add to my dehydrated food that I could eat, and then got into my sleeping bag to sleep. I was so exhausted, then I’d remind myself after write a page and and I always had a pencil, I use a pencil because they would, they would still work. So think wasn’t going to freeze up. And I could write something. And often, even if it was just a few lines, it would be a reminder of that moment so I could add to it. later on, and this one particular time, I was so tired. I just started to write something and I fell asleep. And there was just this line across the page like this. And I fell asleep. And I realized that that was all I wrote. But I was so exhausted, I couldn’t do anything else. So I left it at that. When I got to Canada, and I had to hand over my paperwork to my crew, and then they had to pass it on to the publishers, Elena naman. Yeah. They said, what’s going on with this page? And I said, Well, that’s how I felt. And they said, You can’t leave it like that. You have to write about their day. So we’ve got changed, and I ended up writing about their day. But realistically, that was I knew the backstory that line would have said more than the whole book.
Mike: I agree. But I loved your book. Because, you know, this is about, you know, this podcast is about troubleshooting. And you were troubleshooting every day? Yeah. I mean, if it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
Pat Famer: Well, there are so many catastrophes, you know, whether it be you know, fear of being taken as a hostage to the down jungle fear, I was chased by people with machetes, I come across a brown bear no more than four meters away from me. I thought he’s going to eat me, and then really must have realized there was not much so much on these bands, whether it’s polar bears, whether it was the temperatures or even just
Mike: that mindset, and I need, we got to keep going when you’re completely exhausted. But you’re, you’re managing a project, because you had to raise about $7 million from memory was
Pat Famer: all the gar was, but you know, in the end, I only ended up raising 1 million and you got it done for me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I did that. And I will, I am bolstered by the fact that lot more money has been has come in since that since I finished because of the notoriety of the run that I did. So. So that’s, that’s great. But I mean, at the end of the day, yeah, it was it was.
Mike: But the job of putting that together is a project that’s like a business project is
Pat Famer: just because I had to I was sitting at home in my kitchen in my lounge room. And I was going through names of places, in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, you know, places like this, that I’d never been to before, didn’t have a clue what the landscape was like, or what the political landscape was like, as well. And I had to try and map out my distance I was going to do on that day. And all of this got submitted in advance so that each of the countries knew who I was when I was coming through those towns where I would be on any specific day. And then I had to stick to that schedule, all the way through. And
Mike: so it was a lot of pressure to do that wasn’t that well, there
Pat Famer: was a lot, a lot of days, I was running 120 130 kilometers to try and make up for the shortfalls a distance I did in the North Pole, just so that I could get to the Mexico City on time, whatever that might be, or whatever it might be, you know, months away. But I would have to be trying claw back this distance I’d stick to schedule
Mike: put, but you average 80 kilometers a day, right? over that. Yeah. 10 month. 13. Yeah, right. I mean, how do you do that? How do you do about math, and every day, I mean, most of us, most of us mere mortals, right? Just can’t fathom that,
Pat Famer: well, there’s got to be this, there’s got to be this belief. And often we don’t, we don’t discover it until we’re in really dark moments in our lives, there’s got to be this belief for everybody, that there is more than the physical being of ourselves, that there is a spiritual side or a mental side, whatever you want to call it. And then there’s the there’s the bones and flesh. And the spiritual side, or the mental side comes from comes from feelings, you know, the wind on your skin, the heat, the heat from the sun on you, the cold, the cold, that you feel all of these things create a mindset of feeling within you. And then your physical body reacts to that feeling. So if you can get in touch without feeling, either spiritually or mentally through running or through whatever it is that you do, if you can get in touch with that, and you start to realize that then you start to realize that it is stronger than the flesh and bones that you wrapped around. And once you realize the strength of that you can achieve anything. And this is why I often say, you know, there is no force on earth and none in hell greater than your will. If you want to do something, anything with all your heart, you can and you will find a way. And there’s so many stories that whether it’s documented people lifting cars, because a loved one is underneath the car, and there’s no other help around, you know, all sorts of things happen,
Mike: but I know that you link what you’re doing to something more. So there’s a meaning and a purpose that we You said earlier that it had to be more for you More than just earning a living by running right yet to be doing something. And that still goes on for you. But tapping that, did you find you have to go to those lengths to tap it to really find out who you are? Well, no,
Pat Famer: you don’t have to, everybody will come to that realization sad thing is that most people only come to a very late in life. And I see so many business people, they’ve worked their whole lives to be successful, and they’ve built an empire. And then for one reason or another often because they haven’t had the balance with that and their family life as well. The kids want to have nothing to do with them or their family life has broken down as a result of that. And then that’s put a strain their lives into turmoil and, and unrest and, and all they’ve achieved so much monetary wise, and so much in that, that sense, in the problem that this world is, often we’re put up on a pedestal because of what we have, and rather than what we’ve done. And so people that are incredibly wealthy got a whole lot of material things around them. They are there, they feel like that’s okay, now I’ve achieved it. And this is why we give Olympic athletes a gold medal. And this is why we give them the nice trophy and all the rest of it. Because that’s symbolic of it all. Yeah, and we do the same thing with a house and we do something with the holiday house and the boat and then a bigger boat, and then the chips overseas, then the extra holidays. But when you’ve done all of that, when you got the trophies, when you’ve got the medals, when you got the house, you had the holiday home, you’ve had the trips around the world half a dozen times, then you start to ponder, well, I’m still alive. And I’ve done all of this. But I feel like I still want to do something more. But there’s nothing What else do I do?
Mike: The sense of me, and it seems to have got worse, really, in my lifetime. There’s an overemphasis on economic I mean, whether it’s politically or whether it’s individually, we seem to put a lot of emphasis on on economic security and economic gain and progress. And there’s so much more beyond that. And it’s the simple stuff, isn’t it that week, you know that there’s the old saying says you’ve got to smell the roses along the way. And often we don’t in often where we’re focused on an objective or a goal and that stuff doesn’t necessarily fulfill us does it? As I was interested in your story, where you went to? Didn’t you go to hospice in the third world you took your kids on a trip? What made you do that?
Pat Famer: Well, that that was incredible. Well, what happened was when I was a member of parliament is non us to come and see me all the time. She always hit me up for donations and for this and for that. Yeah, and I guess you know, I hadn’t done teaching me so I got to a stage where I felt like one of the Blues Brothers right, I got sick and tired of this non showing up and hit me up for my hit me up for for goods and services and trying to give things and she was given all the all this stuff to an orphanage over in Thailand. And orphanage was called a gap a which means loving Greek. And this orphanage was set up by this incredible lady. And she was a nurse and she saw a little child that was been washed in, in a hospital that had AIDS. And because of the sex workers in that country, there’s a lot of kids that were born with AIDS. And this was in the days when they didn’t know how to deal with AIDS, and especially in some of the Third World countries. And so they their idea was you couldn’t touch anybody. You couldn’t go near anybody that had AIDS, if you did, you would get it. They and they treated a bit like us with COVID. Just recently, they threw everything out the window and they treat everybody like a leper. Yeah. And so and so consequently, this nurse was working there. And when she came downstairs, she saw this little just newborn child that was being held on a sheet of plastic underneath, underneath a shower by a two nurses one on either end because they didn’t want to touch the baby’s skin. And they turn the shower on and they were holding the baby under the shower to give it a wash without touching it on the sheet of plastic. And then they would carry the procedure plastic bag on put on the wet bed and put on the bed and throw the throw the sheets and the blankets over to dry it to dry the baby. And that was it and until the baby eventually would die because they had AIDS. And she saw this and she couldn’t believe she ran up. She put her arms around the baby. She grabbed it and they stepped back scared. And she said catch AIDS like that. Don’t be stupid and she held this baby and she was she honestly believes that’s probably the first time that baby had ever been held. And the interesting thing about that is that child is still alive today. Right? She is She is a young, she’s a young, 20 year old and she’s in she’s over in Canada. Now. She’s got immigration to Canada, and she’s been to university and she’s living a great life amazing. And all because of her, but that nun got, you know, that she was raising funds for that charity. And so I made up my mind come Christmas, I was taking my children, we were going over there and we’re going to see with this number Selma church, we’re going to work in this we’re going to work in this charity, and we worked there for two weeks. You did. And and it was it was absolutely amazing. It was absolutely amazing. We weren’t, we weren’t.
Mike: And we and the kids are okay with it. They, they enjoyed it.
Pat Famer: My daughter, my daughter was only a child herself. But she was reading books to the kids. Reading kindergarten stories to them. My son Dylan was helping me repair pushbikes and all the rest of it, we landscaped the place, we transform that place from a dust bowl into a playground for the kids. And then I got committed from there on to raise more money for that charity.
Mike: After a great example for the kids. Yeah, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, there
Pat Famer: was that I did a similar thing in Egypt for another charity over there. And it was just, there’s just so much deed in the world. But what a lot of people don’t realize until they do it is you get more back from that than what you ever give. I’m a better person, I feel better within myself and feel like my life’s more worthwhile because of the things I do for others than anything that I could ever build for myself.
Mike: So Pat, just coming back to your pole to pole. epic adventure, right? which lasted for what 10 and a half months after Yeah. Mustering guys, so what was the what was the big take out of that for you?
Pat Famer: I know it sounds cliche, but really that nothing is impossible. And it’s a bit it sort of brings me back to the whole Cliff Young thing. That because if anybody looks at me, or anybody knows me that though, no, I’m just a very simple, ordinary person. But if I can not only dream to do something that hasn’t done before, but then put all the logistics in place, manage the whole thing, convince other people, everybody in business who you talk to, they would say no, to make something a success. Yeah, we’re all salespeople, you have to be able to convince somebody else that it’s possible to imagine some trying to convince people something is possible. When it’s never been done before. It’s incredibly difficult. And the amount of people that simply wipe the hands of it said it was impossible, was enormous. But what is it like the old Colonel Sanders theory, you know, you go to enough people you get you get somebody that believes
Mike: this is part of being a professional athlete, isn’t it part of a professional athlete is you’ve got to, you know, with a fair amount of humility asked people to back here? Pat Famer: Well, for me, it certainly is, in order to do that. You have to believe in yourself. Because I carry the burden of all those conversations I’ve had with people trying to convince them that I can do this, now I have to do it. And I say that in there’s a short film on my website, about the pole, the pole and I say, you know, now I have to do it. Because I told everybody I was going to take this on, they all said You’re insane. It’s impossible and can’t be done. Yeah. But I had to come to the realization that I was looking down the barrel at my own words, and turning those into reality. And the only way I could do it was by putting one foot in front of the other. So I just hung on to that simple philosophy. I thought to myself, you know, the world’s the conference, you know, to go around the world. It’s like 40,000 K’s. So, at the end of the day, if I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’ve got to get there. I’ve got to get to the other end.
Mike: Well, I mean, it’s the ultimate. It’s the ultimate exercise in persistence. Isn’t it really is it’s so so what were how have you? I mean, clearly over your journey, you have a certain you have a certain mental toughness and strength, but how have you developed it? How have you fought against the desire to give up? I mean, what, and what could you say to others, to help them fortify themselves more perhaps mentally, and maybe do a bit more
Pat Famer: wellness, especially from a business point of view, especially from business point of view, strength is in knowledge. So let me give you an example. I ran across the Simpson Desert, and I still hold the record for that now, when I first ran across there, it nearly killed me. I broke a record that was set by Ron great, but it literally nearly killed me. I I was so close to death wasn’t how long is that for? People have done? That’s 379 kilometers, okay 1162 sand dunes from start to finish, okay. And, and, and one of the things roasting, hot roast and how often it never done in summer so I had to do it in summer month because that’s when the record was set. Okay, and that was the stipulation there. So in summer, you know, it’s often 40 even getting close to 50 degrees Celsius. It was and, and so I completed that, and I did it and it nearly killed me. And then I got challenged about a year later to race across there again. And the guy that challenged me I promised my wife, I would, I would never go back there again because she saw what it did to me. And this guy would just became a real pain in the butt. He thought he was on rock and roll wrestler. And every time I turned on the TV, or there was some media, I’d hear about this challenge that he was throwing out. And in the end, I decided I was I was just going to do it. And that’s all there was to it. But I realized if I was going to do it, I couldn’t do it the same way as I did before. Okay, because if I did it like that would kill me. Okay, but I needed something extra. I played outdoors as good as I could get. Yeah, so that was when I contacted the Institute of Sport. And I got in touch with people like Dick Telford, I got in touch with a number of key sports scientist. Yeah. And they analyze me, they analyze my gait, they analyze the food I ate, they went through everything. And in the end, everything my clothing, my my training, my food intake, my fluid intake, everything was precise. They even did sleep deprivation tests on me so that I could stay awake, the longest amount of time. And to get the furthest distance study in each 24 hour period. Wow. And consequently, consequently, that, you know, I were working in sleep labs, I would was in this room, it was like a squash court, I had just had three walls and a door leading out from there behind the glass wall. And at the end of the fourth wall. And there was a scientist on the other side, they had a treadmill in there, the treadmill would move up and down to simulate the sand dunes that I would run over, they had a fan in there blowing hot air down my throat to simulate the dry air of the Simpson Desert, dead heat is on inside there and they regulate the temperature to around 50 degrees Celsius, I would come out of training in that room, every day I would come out my head was throbbing with pain because I’m so dehydrated, even though I was taking in as much food as I possibly could. And all of this was trained in my body. And what a lot of people don’t realize, which I found out later on is people that live in a hot climate, their veins move to the outer layers of their skin. And as you run or move, you get a cooling effect from the air or the wind moving across that skin and it cools your skin because it’s close to the age. And then that cools your body temperature. And that’s how you survive. In a colder climate. Those veins actually move down below the layers of skin so that it’s an insulation so people can survive that. And that’s why you get some people can survive in subzero conditions other people can survive in incredibly hot conditions. Yes. And it’s all because of that science behind it. Yeah. So any it only takes two weeks for the human body to adapt from one to the other. Is that right? Yeah, which I learned as well. So they did all these tests, I mean, all the rest of it. I went out there and I ran across the Simpsons as second time. And by the way, the guy that challenged me pulled out one week before the race, because he’d come to realization that it might actually kill him. And there was all these write ups in the paper, all these professors at the time we’ll never forget, the telegraph had a write up from some professor from Sydney University, going through step by step, how the human body is going to break down and how we’re going to get muscle melt down and how this is going to happen. And this is going to happen, These things shouldn’t be allowed cetera, et cetera. I went out there. I ran across the Simpson Desert, I took nine hours off my own record, my own record. And not only that, but by time I got the Birdsville hotel at the end, I felt strong enough, I could have easily run back the other way and complete it all because I went to that next level. And so yeah, but I took in that external help. So what I want to say to all of your business leaders out there is that when you get to that plateau, and you feel like you’d beat your head against a brick wall, there’s somebody else out there with the answers, but you have to be humble enough to go looking for those answers and to take on that advice. Yes, and if you do and if you are and you take on that extra expertise, you can excel beyond your beliefs.
Mike: That’s a that’s a great point. And so what about that kind of mental toughness and trying to stay you’re positive, do you? Do you limit the news media? The media can be pretty negative, do you limit yourself? Or what do you do every day to keep to keep motivated to keep moving forward and try new things? Yeah,
Pat Famer: I try not to read about myself. Like if somebody says, Oh, there’s article about you now, I wouldn’t know what it says. Because I just, I just try to stay focused on what I’m doing. So I think, having tunnel vision and focus on on a particular goal, which is, you know, my wife says to me, now, she says, you know, you’re not very good at multitasking. And there’s so true, I’m not, because I am, for me, my life’s all about getting the job done. So in order to do that, I need to block out a lot of the external noise, all of that white noise, and I just need to focus on what I need to achieve. So what’s
Mike: the future? What are you going to do next? What are you? What are you planning? Well, there’ll be something
Pat Famer: Well, there is something and it sort of relates back to my one of the stories I was telling you about earlier on, or the run around Australia, because I was sent off by a prime minister, John Howard, to run around Australia for the centenary of Federation. And my daughter now and that spoke to me, and she said to me, Dad, you know, you’re doing all this run for all these different charities said, why don’t you do a run for the voice? Right? The voice campaign? Yeah. And for your listeners that may not know, the voice campaign is about a referendum that’s going to come up at the end of this year. And it’s about putting into our Constitution, the fact that the Aboriginal people will have a voice directly to Parliament. And so a lot of people will turn around and they’ll say, oh, but they’ve got a voice through Members of Parliament already, and things like that, they’ve only got to go see their local member, etc, etc. But as a, an ex politician myself, I know that you are one of many that is clamoring for attention to try and get your constituents voices heard. Yeah. And it’s not so easy, and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work well. And we’ve seen, you know, we’ve seen for the last couple of 100 years, that things, things haven’t worked the way that they’ve been. So I’m not saying that the voice referendum is going to be a silver bullet that’s going to solve all the problems for the Aboriginal people in the Torres Strait Islander people boat, what I am saying is, it’s a great step in the right direction, it’s saying, isn’t it and to have it actually put into our constitution will mean that the politicians that come and go, they come with public servants come and go, the, the politicians that come and go have to pay attention to it, they have to listen to it. And they have to use it as a consideration point for everything that they’re doing in formulating policy, for education, for jobs, etc. So yeah,
Mike: it’s definitely not a level playing field for indigenous communities. Is it?
Pat Famer: For sure. It’s, it’s definitely not it’s not until you travel to these places, it’s easy for people to sit in the cities and say, Oh, look, you know, they’re, they see those guys, they’re misbehaving and they’re causing trouble and all the rest of it. But the fact of the matter is, they see that because, because they stand out, but that’s that, that, you know, crime and problems. That’s right across the board. That’s, that doesn’t come down to a race or a creed that comes down to a whole social ineffectiveness, it comes down to community problems, it comes down to wants and desires for some things that are basic human rights that they don’t have. And so it’s about time that we stood up and paid attention to that and looked at, you know, there’s more than just a stick approach to be able to solve a problem. And we need to be able to look at it. And it’s more than just throwing cash at a problem to make to solve it as well. I’ve seen a halfway Yeah, yeah. Because we have seen that we saw that before without seeing and a few other few other things that we tried to do that meaning well, but but it didn’t work. So I think this will make a huge difference. So my role is I’m going to be sent off by the Prime Minister of Australia. And this is the first time I’ve reiterated I’ve, I’ve I’ve added this in public, but I will be set off by the Prime Minister of Australia from Ayers Rock in early April. And from there I will run around around Uluru which is its proper name a little route and I will run from now on in Dallas springs. And from there, fly down to a fly down to Tasmania run around Tasmania. And then from there, fly back up to Sydney and continue my journey around the whole of the mainland. I will cover that more than 14,000 kilometers. I will have other runners running with me. I’ll have many in Deaconess runners running with me as well. And Rob digger Stella does a magnificent role with his, his his indigenous runners marathon team. And he’s taken people from places all around the country and shown them the world through marathon running. And so some of those runners will be running with me as well. And I want to encourage your listeners and any other listeners to get out there. And when they see me come anywhere near where they’re going to be to come out and join in and just run a few steps with me, they don’t have to be marathon runners, they don’t have to run the ad ks that I’m going to be doing every day. If they run one kilometer, five kilometers, if they run five steps with us, if they just stand on the side and clap like I did for Cliff Young, then, you know, then they join in, in what this is really all about. And it’s about connecting with with Australia in the simplest possible way. And it’s about seeing a wrong that needs to be right.
Mike: That’s fantastic. And look, you were now in February. So you’ve only got two months. Yeah, exactly. So you’re training now? Well, I yeah, I’ve been training. I’ve been trained all my life for this ride, this will be the most significant event that I that I do. And I say that without any hesitation, I truly believe I’ve been to Horse Creek, I’ve been to numerous places around the Australian scene, Aboriginal communities in some of these places. I know that a lot of people, there’s an argument, political argument at the moment that this is not going to fix things on the ground for people. Let me tell you,
Pat Farmer: when, when I’m done with this run, we’re going to get the message out there, it’s going to go a long way to making the politicians wake up to realize that that that grassroots side of all of this campaign needs to be addressed as well. And I believe that it will be. So I’ll be sent off by the Prime Minister, I’ll be welcomed back by the Prime Minister, when I reach Canberra, and I’m out there and I’m canvassing for sponsors, I’m trying to get sponsors behind this for trying to get Cronus to come up with a flight to get us down to Tassie, and then back up to Sydney, or an or an airline that feels the connection to Australia, and trying to get companies and businesses that feel a connection to this country and want to be proud of who they are and where they stand on this issue, to support me with it and get behind it. Or we need support vehicles. And trying to get these vehicles wrapped in Aboriginal art prints, just like the cornice plane is that wrapping that Aboriginal art so that we make a statement, I will have police escorts in and out of every child speak at Merrill functions every evening, around the country, and I’ll represent whatever country of whatever companies and people get behind me with this event, I’ll represent them well on this journey.
Mike: How, how long you gonna be running a debut? Have you thought at the moment how long you have to cover how far you have to cover each
Pat Farmer: look, I’ll be spending, we’re spending 10 hours a day on the road, from Fiverr, from 5am to around four or 5pm in the afternoon, around 4pm 3pm. That time, I want to try and finish in time to be able to speak to the kids in the schools great. So it will vary depending on the town and what my schedule must
Mike: be exhausting on so many levels that really well
Pat Farmer: knowing that somebody’s expecting you to get to a place when you wake up in the morning you feeling stiff and sore and tired from the 1000s of kilometers you’ve already done. And then knowing that there’s somebody at the end of 80 kilometers waiting for you to get there by four o’clock that afternoon. You It’s a desperate situation to every single day to stay on schedule. But it’s what I do. And it’s that commitment that helps get me through. And a lot of people say how to stay focused through something like this. Well, just like the business leaders that listen to your podcast, we do that because we have a goal in sight. And we’re focused on if there wasn’t a goal in sight, if there wasn’t a sense of media SNESs immediateness, about this whole situation, then it wouldn’t happen. So the fact that it’s a short space of time to make something happen, like I’m speaking to people at the moment that campout we’d love to help you. But we you know, we set our budgets a year before and that’s that, you know, so we can’t do anything about it. And I say, well, that’s fine. But you can’t tell me that things aren’t going to crop up during the course of the year where you just have to find support for you can see advantages to support in it. And you’re not going to seize that opportunity. I mean, look at the stock market, who’s going to who’s going to know what’s going to happen on that on a daily basis between now,
Mike: you know, I mean, you you’re on the right podcast, I mean, our clients bust their budgets all the time. They’re gonna be no problem. There’s gonna be no problem there. Well, look, it’s important, no matter how big the problem or the issue, it’s important that we do, what we can do what we’ve got from where we are. And that’s certainly what you’re doing, isn’t it? You’re doing what you can fit is. So how long will it take you
Pat Farmer: so that will take me the best part of six months. So I’ll be I’ll be on the road advertising for your guys for six months, or anybody that gets behind this event for six months and promoting them for six months.
Mike: I know you’re as you’re as fit as a fiddle, right? But how long are you running, you’re doing morning and evening runs at the minute so
Pat Farmer: so what I’m trying what I’m trying to get done at the moment, my training consists of approximately 40 kilometers a day. So that will involve a morning run in an afternoon run. It’ll and then I’ll try and get in a longer run 50k Run in somewhere during the course of a seven day week. And then I try and do some gym work as well. And I should be stretching I definitely do not stretch enough but I should be doing more stretch work. I’m in the don’t stretch enough. I think as you get older you sorta you sort of avoid this stretch and as much as possible, but I shouldn’t be but I need to do more in that field.
Mike: Look, Pat, it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you that I’m so grateful. You’ve come in, it’s been an honor to meet you. And we wish you all the best with this endeavor. And my two boys and I have we do run the marathon. So we will come and find you somewhere. And we’ll run a few K’s with you. Absolutely
Pat Farmer: love that. And I encourage everybody to get behind this event. And you know, whether they’re a yes vote or a no vote, I just want to encourage people to get out there and to vote for this. And really, and really think about it really think about the fact that we can make a difference. And we can be proud of all of our country and we can we can start to be proud of our history, which doesn’t just date back 200 years. You
Mike: bet. Yep. Pat, thanks a million. And until next time, we’ll have to leave it there.
Pat Farmer: Thanks so much pleasure.
Mike: Wow, what a truly inspirational story. Pat has such a humble guy with a genuine desire to help and serve others. If you want to help Pat and he’s run around Australia and April, to help bring attention to the voice, then jump on Pat’s website, which will be in the show notes. And if you want to become a corporate sponsor, towards a Pat, who will make sure you get some great exposure, Pat needs to raise about $400,000 just to cover his cost to do this. Now a quick shout out to our sponsors, Oasis partners, corporate advice with a practical bias selling if you’re running a business, and you want some good input, try the team at Oasis. Now if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to share it with your friends and colleagues or anybody else that might need a lift for some inspiration. Before I go, I want to dedicate this episode to my own father, John McGrath, who’s not well at the moment and doing it tough. So this one’s for you, dad, and thanks for telling me never to give up. Until next time, stay safe.
Link to previous Episodes: https://www.oasispartners.com.au/troubleshooters-podcast/