HeadRightOut

A powerful conversation with Tough Girl Challenges founder and Tough Girl Podcast host, Sarah Williams. As friends, we easily cover multiple topics across our conversations. These include how to meet fear head-on and deal with it; why Sarah is inspired by two specific female role models/mentors and the moments in her life that nearly broke her. Interestingly, she elaborates on how those darkest times taught her the most and benefitted her in ways she could never have imagined. There are references to many long-distance trails, in the UK and overseas, with the Appalachian Trail being lauded by Sarah as the most life-changing for her, personally. A female adventure epic.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 00:09

Well, hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen and I am your host. This is a relatively new show, and I hope if you're here for the first time that you will consider hitting that follow button in your podcast app, because we need to get as many subscribers and followers as we possibly can to grow the show.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 00:34

I'm really excited today, because we're going to be talking to Sarah Williams, who is the founder of Tough Girl Challenges, and the host of the amazing Tough Girl Podcast. It's a really powerful episode, and although we're two friends, and we giggle a lot, and we have a little bit of a chatter here and there, we do go into some deeper stuff. Sarah gives some really strong messages of how to look at fear and how to reframe it. We discuss why so many women seem to be hesitant to adventure and where that fear might actually come from. Sarah talks about her passion for wanting to set up Tough Girl Challenges, and the podcast way back six, seven years ago now. I asked her about who her role models are and that was a really fascinating part of the conversation. So I hope you'll stick with us to listen.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 01:29

Today, here is a beautiful, beautiful day. It's September. It's the seventh of September, and we have just got the hottest weather at the moment and the tops of the trees are changing. There's hardly a breeze out there and the canal is still. We've had some dog barking issues. So I will say, you might hear birds tweeting and that probably isn't a problem. But if you get some interruptions partway through the recording, I apologise because there was a bit of a dog pack issue out on the towpath partway through the recording. So yes, without further ado, I'm going to head off into the introduction.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 02:16

Okay, well welcome everybody to another episode of the HeadRightOut Podcast. I am so excited today. I can't begin to tell you I have got a very good friend of mine, an inspirational lady and all round adventurer, challenge inspirer. She is an author. She's an award winner. I'm going to go through her bio in a minute but we have got Sarah Williams, the host of the Tough Girl Podcast and founder of Tough Girl Challenges here. So good morning, Sarah.

Sarah Williams 02:47

Good morning. How you doing?

Zoe Langley-Wathen 02:48

I'm very well thank you. So I am going to introduce you, because I just felt all of the things that you have achieved over the last six or seven years just needs to be acknowledged and I don't want to miss anything out for certain.

Sarah Williams 03:02

I'm getting ready to be embarrassed and ready to cringe. It's a very British thing like oh my god, okay. I'm ready for it.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 03:08

You've got to soak this up and enjoy. So Tough Girl Challenges was started in 2014 as a way of motivating and inspiring women and girls. My mission is to increase the amount of female role models in the media with a focus on women who do adventures and undertake big physical challenges. I am the host of the two times award winning Tough Girl Podcast where I interview inspirational female explorers, adventurers, athletes and everyday women who have overcome great challenges. The podcast is listened to in 174 countries around the world and has passed 1.8 million downloads. Based on monthly downloads. The Tough Girl Podcast is in the top 15% of podcasts globally. I completed the Marathon des Sables in April 2016. That's six marathons in six days across the Sahara Desert. In 2017, I through hiked the Appalachian Trail solo and unsupported. That's 2190 miles in 100 days, which I also daily vlogged. In 2018 I cycled over 4000 kilometers from Vancouver, Canada via the Pacific Coast Highway ...

Ruth shares her passion for the mountains, becoming an international fell running champion, fast marathons and how mountain bike orienteering has captured her interest aged 60. She is the founder of Element, offering active courses for women in Wales.

In 2012, Ruth Pickvance, an adventurous, retired international fell running champion and super-fast marathon runner, left her well-paid head of faculty role at a Sixth Form College, to set up Element. The business offers women the opportunity to find confidence in outdoor pursuits such as Yoga for Runners, Beginning Fell Running and Mountain Biking for Beginners. At sixty years old, Ruth herself has discovered that she enjoys mountain bike orienteering, which marries her love of the outdoors with the joy of moving her body with less impact on her joints than perhaps those marathons of her forties had created.

Living in the beautiful Brecon Beacons, Ruth shares more about her involvement in local environmental projects and conservation, as well as offering some first-hand wisdom regarding facing our fears and stretching those comfort zones.

SHOW LINKS for RUTH PICKVANCE:

Website: https://element-active.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elementactive/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RuthPickvance

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elementactiveuk

***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT IN THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:***

In the Best Urban and Adventure Category

https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18

Where to find HeadRightOut and Zoe on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/

https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/

https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/

[email protected]

Music used in this episode:

This Minimal Technology by Coma-Media from Pixabay

Morning Garden - Acoustic Chill by Olexy from Pixabay

The Cradle of Your Soul by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay -

Simple Piano Melody by ZakharValaha from Pixabay

Intro, outro and transitions - ‘Stay Strong’ by Caffeine Creek Band

SHOW NOTES:

• Welcome to the episode 00:51
• Request for votes in the Sports Podcast Awards - Best Urban and Adventure Category - currently ranked in third place - this is likely to change 01:17
• Different format for episode due to mic problems when recording. Please let me know if you like the format or preferred HeadRightOut’s original style 02:27
• What to expect in our conversation. 03:23
• Where Zoe and Ruth first met and Ruth’s bio: International Mountain Runner, Former British Fell Champion, fast marathon runner, exploring nature and founder of Element 04:06
• How Ruth came into racing, visiting the Lake District one Christmas around 1985 and making a spontaneous decision 06:20
• How quickly Ruth became good at the sport and why it touched a chord with her 08:42
• How old Ruth was when she started racing and where her deep-rooted love of the mountains stemmed from 09:33
• Zoe talks about the Gold Hill 10 race in Shaftesbury, Dorset - the strength needed ru...

How many times have you wanted to try something new, but that mean little voice in your head has held you back? How often do you really step out of your comfort zone? Come on, be honest. Have you even explored what this feels like or is it simply too terrifying for words? I know I've been there.

HeadRightOut is a new podcast looking at exactly this topic. You can expect conversations with resilient women who have stepped, jumped or dived headfirst out of their comfort zone. We'll be sharing HeadRightOut Moments, and you can follow me on my own journey to test and sustain a life to HeadRightOut.

My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen. And at the age of 40, I did just that I headed out of my comfort zone on a solo long-distance walk that I'd avoided for fifteen years because I thought I couldn't do it. But that challenge stretched my capability boundaries beyond belief. And beware the cliche, it changed my life, forever.

Ten years later, I have walked countless trails, long-distance and otherwise, left my job. I'm writing a book about the South West Coast Path. And I've moved from an established home in 2020 to go and live on a narrowboat. Plus, I'm setting up this podcast.

I am SO excited to be able to share my HeadRightOut story with you, and the conversations that will take place with many awesome, resilient women. And whether you're male, female, or non-binary, I want you to know that neither age or gender should ever decide what you can or can't do.

So here it is. This is your invitation to join me for the HeadRightOut Podcast, launching at the end of the summer 2021, it will be available on all the major platforms. If you hop over to headrightout.com you can subscribe to be the first to hear when episodes land, and when I'll be publishing my new book.

Okay, I'll look forward to seeing you there. And in the meantime, please, please share your own HeadRightOut moments with me. You'll find me on socials as, wait for it, 'HeadRightOut' on all platforms. Of course, what else would it be?

I am Zoe Langley-Wathen. And this IS a HeadRightOut Moment, encouraging you to head out of your comfort zone into the outdoors, keeping your head right and healthy. See you there!

Cherry Hamrick exudes positivity and resilience. Her mindset is that of adventure. Every corner of her life, whether work, play, family or vacation is treated as an adventure. At sixty-five, she faced her shyness to travel alone to Antarctica. At seventy-two she was seriously ill in Tanzania, with the sickness known as the 'amoeba'. Yet all she wanted was to climb Kilimanjaro and appreciate running in Africa. At seventy-three, she has now recorded a streak of over 500 consecutive days of walking. A splits extraordinaire, avid runner, kayaker, dancer and traveller with a zest for life, challenges and adventures. You will be reaching for a map and guidebook after listening to Cherry!

Zoe Langley-Wathen 00:14

Hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. If you're here for the very first time, welcome! I hope you're here to stay. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen, and I am your host, and I'm here to help introduce the idea of doing something that scares you. To push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit. Today, in order to take us on this resilience journey a little bit more, I am talking to a very special lady indeed. Her name is Cherry, and she's going to be taking us through her journey of living an adventurous life.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 00:48

Now, I have to just say here, a little bit of a thing that has been going on with my internet connection, I think it's mine, I'm not sure. But please, please make some allowances for the quality here. Our connection was unstable, and we had been completely disconnected at the start of our chat. Once we were reconnected, it was it was a bit better, and although there was some occasional latency there in the audio, we decided to run with it. So I will have edited out a lot of the long pauses that you get when you have a delay in a call. But hopefully it doesn't completely detract from the conversation, because it was a wonderful conversation that we had.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 01:26

Cherry shares some awesome advice with us about keeping a positive mindset through tough times, which we all get and how best to deal with those problems and how best to deal with a crisis when it hits, as well. She's a woman of much wisdom and an absolute joy to talk to. So without further ado, let's get into the interview.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 01:56

Okay, hello, everybody and welcome to the HeadRightOut Podcast. And today I have a very special guest and she is tuning in with us all the way from the United States. Her name is Cherry Hamrick, and I have a wonderful introduction to offer you, before we get right into that interview with Cherry.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 02:15

Cherry Hamrick is based in the United States and was a ballet teacher for twenty years before making a career change into becoming a librarian, for twenty-three years. At fifty. She studied for a master's degree, which enabled her to become a library director, at which point she had the joy and satisfaction of being a major part of building a big new library for her community. She loved the construction part of it so much that she says if she could have had a third career, it would have been to become a construction manager. (I absolutely love that already!)

Zoe Langley-Wathen 02:51

Cherry has run on all of the seven continents. She has been in a boat on six of the seven continents. And in addition to working for that master's degree at fifty, she also ran her first marathon. She wore the mantle of race director for twelve years at the library, putting on the Run for Reading and the Jingle Bell 5K for women. She is the vice chair of the Ingham County Parks Board and she's a founding board member of the Friends of Lansing Regional Trails. Although she didn't start marathons until she was fifty, Cherry has now run seven marathons; Bay Shore, Detroit twice (that's running once and race walking it once), Big Sur, China, Chicago and New York. She describes herself as an avid runner, (I'd say!), walker kayaker and has done yoga since she was twelve years old.

Zoe Langley-Wathen 03:50

Cherry has travelled to Antarctica, despite being shy and not knowing anyone and has undertaken a daily lockdown walk with a friend and never stopped. Current total of those walks is now at over two thousand miles and over five hundred days of walking. She even managed to wear a hole in the bottom of her cast boot that she was wearing for a stress fracture. Cherry's biggest challenge was in 2020. On her final continent, the plan was to Safari for five days, do a partial climb of Mount Kilimanjaro for three days, run a half marathon and then fly home (to rest I assume). That was supposed to be for a total of two weeks with travel time included. Let's say that expedition didn't go quite as planned, despite two years of organizing the trip. And I believe there was another cast boot that became an essential part of Cherry's attire due to another stre...

After the sudden death of her husband, Sue Plastow and her family left their Italian truffle orchard to return to the UK. Less than 12 months later, she is finding her feet again with exciting plans ahead that involves outdoor adventures, good food and a space for women to walk and talk. Her children experienced a wonderfully feral upbringing of travel and freedom. Now it’s Sue’s turn to find adventures to honour her late husband’s memory. Her positivity and zest for life is infectious. While she is aware that she is still grieving, Sue knows that the only way forward is to reach back to old skills, reach out for support, and reach up towards the future.

SHOW LINKS:

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nakedtartufi/

https://www.instagram.com/englishlanguagefoodschool/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nakedtartufi

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/nakedtartufi/

***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT IN THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:***

In the Best Urban and Adventure Category

https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18

https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/

https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/

https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/

You can email Zoe: [email protected]

SHOW NOTES:

• An audio clip from Sue’s conversation [00:00]
• Zoe’s introduction to the guest [00:45]
• Thank you for voting and news about HeadRightOut being a finalist in the Podcasting for Business Awards in the Best Health & Wellbeing category. Request to vote in the Sports Podcast Awards [02:33]
• Sue Plastow’s bio across thirty years of family travelling and living abroad [03:58]
• Sue’s fears and reservations about adventuring with a young family of four children under the age of five [07:37]
• How Sue’s children, now young adults, have benefitted from a childhood of freedom and away from the conventional education system [08:52]
• Children barefoot and feral, roaming anywhere; living in the mountains, and near the Med, snowboarding, skiing and sailing [09:52]
• What her children are doing now and about their healthy emotional wellbeing [11:12]
• Why Sue thinks she’s always been resilient [12:24]
• Sue’s study/travel timeline, into a relationship, marriage and children, normal life attempt and then campervan adventures with the family in Canada [13:09]
• What you learn to live without - living simply on the road [14:36]
• Getting cold in Canada so moving to Dubai, doing desert drumming and sandboarding [15:27]
• Talking through the personal circumstances that’s brought Sue and family back to UK [17:23]
• Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Australia, Malaysia, South of France, Switzerland, Italy and Sue’s husband’s death [17:41]
• Quick thinking prior to travel corridors closing due to the pandemic - rapid move back to UK and how everyone is coping [18:32]
• Not wanting others to think they have to just crack on because Sue did [19:45]
• How Sue and the family have found the things they need to survive and move on; honouring her husband’s life [20:32]
• Sue looking back through her arsenal for skills to draw upon - what could she do? Cookery, social/communication, teaching English, gaining TEFL qualification [21:56]
• The importance of connection with other midlife women [23:57]
• Zoe’s similar experience of grief/loss [24:36]
• A lurching horror vs a transformation - not wanting to be prescriptive about grief [26:44]
• Message to all: You’re not alone and there are glimmers of hope [28:27]
• Zoe’s old saying from someone years ago ‘Out of every adversity...’ [28:42]
• The importance of food and travelling, cookery classes and a bridge between cultures [29:50]
• Travel adventures with food, outside and a podcast about it [30:36]
• New events kitchen - called Naked Tartufi [31:35]
• New concept of outdoor adventure, food and walking along the South West Coast Path - a Moveable Feast [32:23]
• A therapy, communication, tribe, group of women coming full circle from the bonding experiences of bringing up the family tribe [34:38]
• The magic of walking and talking [35:24]
• The impact of travelling so much on Sue and her children. Seeing...