Marathon Talk

Five years ago London cabbie Bob Groves turned his life around swapping drink and drugs for running and fitness, Martin found out all about his amazing journey. Tom reached the top of the podium for the first time ever, Martin celebrated his birthday and Tony couldn't decide what to talk about!

Legends don't come any more legendary that Dr Ron Hill... we hope you enjoy the second part of our interview with the great man. Martin's not been running long, neither has Tom... and Tony's gone all showbiz.

Jantastic went crazy and we launched Febulous, Tom pulled a great performance out of the bag, Martin looked toward a three and a half hour run, Tony dressed up as a smurf and we spoke to British running legend and one time marathon World record holder Ron Hill.

Tom's been podcasting American Style, Martin's been running long with the Rubinator, Tony's had an up and down week and Scottish running legend Liz McColgan talked big city victories!

It's our 1st Birthday! What an amazing year.  On this weeks show we talk to BBC Sport presenter and all round action man Mike Bushell about his plans for his first ever Virgin London Marathon in 2011.  Tony tells us about his Birthday Olympics. There's news of our super cool running challenge 'Jantastic' and some race results and we talk intervals for marathon running. 

As the last British winner of the London Marathon and 1995 Chicago Marathon champion Eamonn Martin was the perfect person to motivate us towards our spring marathon campaigns, Tony kicked off the New Year in true Tony style, Jantastic went crazy and Tom & Martin talked all about running.

What an amazing year! Over the last 12 months the Marathon Talk community has gone from strength to strength with the show being downloaded 252,000 times to 108 countries around the World. In this show we talked all about ours and your favourite bits from the first 50 shows... from Tim Noakes, Ryan Hall and Liz Yelling to Tony's Trials, Rant & Rave and Training Talk. Thanks for supporting the show through 2010... here's to an amazing 2011.

Earlier this year Toby ran from the Kenyan coast straight to the top of mount Kilimanjaro... Martin caught up with him to talk all about his amazing adventure. Tom moaned about sore legs, Martin climbed back to the top of the Spouse Smackdown podium and Tony was feeling rather festive.

Earlier this year Tom Lowe broke the British Ironman record when he finished 3rd overall at Ironman Arizona in the amazing time of eight hours and 11 minutes, largely thanks to a stunning 2:48 marathon... his first run ever over that distance! Martin caught up with Tom and they talked all about his amazing race, Tony delivered yet another brilliant race report and we asked you to name your all time marathon Great!

Martin speaks to one of the UK's top endurance runners, Andi Jones has competed in the World Half Marathon Champsionships as well as the World Cross Country Championships, this year he was selected to run The Commonwealth Games Marathon and the European Championships Marathon for Great Britain. Tony runs through his race week check list, Tom has a roller coaster run in Geneva and we hear all about the World's fastest marathon running wig!

Legendary running Prof Tim Noakes gives a brilliant interview about central governor theory. Tom and Martin talk about coughs and colds.  There's plenty of news from the world of running.  We hear from superstar Tony in his trials and there's a great winner of the week for Movember. 

Ben Limo takes the lead in our Magic Mile league table, Tony takes on the press-up challenge and Chrissie Wellington takes down the WTC Ironman World Record. Martin's hitting the intervals, Tom's hanging with the kids and we introduce a great new Facebook concept.

Physio to the stars Tim Cruse Drew shares a few of his tips for staying injury free.  Tom and Martin talk hills and doing something different for better 10k performance.  There's plenty of marathon news including the return of the great one from retirement.  Tony sings us through his trials and rate your run has a new home.

Elite American marathon runner and Ironman athlete Desiree Ficker joined us just four days before she took to the start line of this year's New York City Marathon, Tom and Martin both worked on their guns, Tony popped in with some more Trials and we talked all about running!

Freelance sports writer, columnist for Athletics Weekly, author of the brilliant book 'The 50 Greatest Marathon Races of All Time' and 2:27 marathon runner Will Cockerell caught up with Martin to talk about his favourite five marathons. Tony did things American style, Tom suffered some rather unfortunate chaffing and Martin got sent to the back of the queue!

On Christmas Day 2008 Ben weighed in at 360 pounds... since then he's lost 120 pounds and become not only a marathon runner but an Ironman finisher, Martin spoke with Ben about his amazing journey over the last two years. Also in 2008, Hywel Davies won the first ever Double Ironman UK, an achievement which required a 52 mile run through a forest & through the night, Tom talked to Hywel about running in the dark. To top all of that... Tony received a phone call from the greatest marathon runner of all time!

Seven marathons in seven continents in seven days presents pretty much every challenge that a runner could hope to face, find out all about Mike Stroud's adventure... Friend of the show and amazing author Matt Rogan has just finished his brilliant book 'Britain and the Olympic Games', we spoke to Matt and he offered Marathon Talk listeners a pre-launch offer. We also talked about races from all around the world and caught up with the crazy world of Tony's Trials.

This year's winner of the UTMB Lizzy Hawker joins us to talk running... long. Tony and Liz check in, Martin's been legging it round Chicago and Tom's back on his feet :)

What a show! Bruce Fordyce is back in part two of his interview, Martin and Liz are in Chicago, Tom's happy despite being sick AND not in Kona, Tony's getting a bit OCD and... there's a special 'out take' to make you laugh just after the closing jingle ;)  

Known across South Africa as The Comrades King, Bruce Fordyce won the iconic ultra marathon nine times between 1981 and 1990. During this time he also set the world 50 mile road record, won the London to Brighton ultra marathon three times and became world 100km champion, setting the then world record of 6:25 in the process. This week we also catch up with Tony, hear from Liz, answer questions, talk racing and moan about being ill!