HeadRightOut - Trailblazing the Wales Coast Path in 2012 & other adventures - 020: Arry Cain

Trailblazing the Wales Coast Path in 2012 & other adventures - 020: Arry Cain

Explicit content warning

05/05/22 • 56 min

2 Listeners

HeadRightOut

Arry Cain set off in March 2012 to run the equivalent of 40 marathons in 40 days along a brand new trail, the Wales Coast Path. She would become the first person to run around the perimeter of Wales, including the Wales Coast Path. and officially launched the opening of the Path in Cardiff Bay, as she ran her last mile of a gruelling 1027 miles on 5th May. Ten years on, Arry shares her determination, her difficulties and more about the doubters that she could even achieve such an immense challenge. The impact of some of those messages left a deep scar that was hard to heal, but here she talks to Zoe about how she feels ready to reconnect with her running mojo. Arry also retells with enthusiasm and an element of terror, some of the experiences of her other adventures, particularly cycling. Arry really knows the meaning of what it is to HeadRightOut.

SHOW LINKS:

Arry Cain -

Website: Website: https://dragonrun1027.wordpress.com/ (This is currently being updated to reflect on the run, upcoming adventures and everything in between!)

Instagram: @arrycain

Twitter: @arrycain

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dragonrun1027

Illustration -

Website: www.arrycainillustration.com

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:

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

SHOW NOTES:

To follow

FULL TRANSCRIPTION:

To follow

The stretch that should be known as 'Arry's Cliff', Llantwit Major (taken in March 2012).

SHOW LINKS:

Arry Cain -

Website: Website: https://dragonrun1027.wordpress.com/ (This is currently being updated to reflect on the run, upcoming adventures and everything in between!)

Instagram: @arrycain

Twitter: @arrycain

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dragonrun1027

Illustration -

Website: www.arrycainillustration.com

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:

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

SHOW NOTES:

To follow

FULL TRANSCRIPTION:

To follow

The stretch that should be known as 'Arry's Cliff', Llantwit Major (taken in March 2012).

Previous Episode

A Donkey, Children & Slow Ways; inspiring human-powered home travel: Hannah Engelkamp - 019

Hannah Engelkamp talks about walking Wales with a spirited donkey, children, adventures and the pandemic. Her current passion is inspiring others to walk Slow Ways routes, a new network of direct paths, from settlement to settlement, across Great Britain.

Hannah is a writer and editor with a background in adventure magazines and websites. In 2013 she travelled waywardly around the circumference of Wales, 1000 miles, with a characterful donkey called Chico as her companion. In 2015 she published ‘Seaside Donkey’, a book and a feature-length film of the same, detailing her unusual adventure.

In this episode, Zoe talks with Hannah about her adventures with her young children, taking on the position of wardens on Bardsey Island for six months with her partner, and her experience of the pandemic, with no garden and two children to occupy. There are surprising similarities between donkey and toddler, Hannah reveals.

More recently, Hannah was appointed as the Culture, Imagination and Story Lead for Slow Ways, a project working towards creating a trusted network of walking routes that connect settlements and encourage people to walk and engage with the land for their everyday routines in addition to leisure walking. There will be a later episode of HeadRightOut in which full attention is given to Seaside Donkey, as Chico would naturally expect...

SHOW LINKS:

Hannah Engelkamp -

Website: www.seasidedonkey.co.uk (http://seasidedonkey.co.uk/shop-2/ for the book and film)

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hannahengelkamp

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

Slow Ways -

Website: www.slowways.org

Swarm including the link to the Google doc for submitting film clips from your walk.

https://beta.slowways.org/Page/the-swarm-how-far-can-we-walk-in-a-weekend

Map to use for searching for routes needing verification or choosing new walks to pioneer: https://slowways.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/interactivelegend/index.html?appid=7a48a682d41d450b99772f2e25d15d29

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SlowWaysUK

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

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:

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

SHOW NOTES:

To follow

FULL TRANSCRIPTION:

To follow

Next Episode

The Big Swim for IWD and Cold Adventures 021: Nicky Chisholm

Show Notes

The Big Swim: 1,000 Women, One Epic Wild Swim!

In this episode of HeadRightOut, I chat with Nicky Chisholm, adventurer, blogger, and founder of The Big Swim—an empowering International Women’s Day event bringing together 1,000 women for a sea swim in Brighton & Dorset.

We dive into the power of adventure, resilience, and community, plus why Surfers Against Sewage needs our support now more than ever. Whether you're a seasoned swimmer or just wild-swim curious, this conversation will inspire you to take the plunge—literally or figuratively!

🔗 Full show notes below!

The Big Swim for IWD & Cold Adventures 021: Nicky Chisholm

In this episode of HeadRightOut, I chat with Nicky Chisholm, an adventurer, blogger, and founder of The Big Swim—a wild swim event bringing 1,000 women together on International Women’s Day. 🌊🏊‍♀️

We 'dive' into (pun intended):

~ The power of adventure for resilience & mental health ~ How wild swimming creates an uplifting, supportive community ~ The Big Swim—what it’s about & how you can get involved ~ Surfers Against Sewage – Why clean water matters now more than ever ~ Why taking small actions can create huge ripple effects

Resources & Links Mentioned: - The Big Swim – Sign up or learn more: IWD 2025 - #PinkNicky - International Women’s Day – Find events near you: https://www.internationalwomensday.com - Surfers Against Sewage – Help protect our seas: https://www.sas.org.uk - Adventure Stories Exeter – Get tickets: Travel Stories of Adventure Tickets, Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite - HeadRightOut Newsletter – Stay updated & support my book launch: www.headrightout.com

Want to help with my book launch?

Become an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) reviewer
Join my Street Team to help spread the word!
Sign up via my newsletter above on headrightout.com

Correction: I mistakenly said Bantham Sploosh instead of Bantham Swoosh! Sorry ... my bad.

Tag us & share your takeaways!

#TheBigSwim #WildSwimming #HeadRightOut @headrightout @pinknicky1

If you'd like to read through the transcription of this episode, please see below:

Transcription

Nicky Chisholm The Big Swim

[00:00:00] Zoe Langley-Wathen: Well, welcome back everybody to the Head Right Out podcast. This is the podcast where we are trying to encourage as many midlife women as possible to head out of their comfort zone in the outdoors doing things that they wouldn't normally do. Now, it has been a while since I have recorded. My name is Zoe Langley Watson and I have been Caught up, caught up in all sorts of life stuff.

[00:00:39] Zoe Langley-Wathen We moved from our boat and we're now in a house, in Somerset and loving life and yeah, we have been caught up with all sorts of adventures and family things and yeah, personal circumstances with family that [00:01:00] needed more attention than I could possibly give if I was working and podcasting and writing.

[00:01:05] Zoe Langley-Wathen: And yeah. Trying to get a book out into the world as well. So what have I got here to tell you? Yeah, there is lots of exciting news to share with you over the coming weeks. I'm hoping to record another couple of episodes, um, where I will include more stuff about my upcoming book, ways that you can be involved in the launch of that.

[00:01:27] Zoe Langley-Wathen: And my adventure plans for 2025. So today we have a really fascinating guest and. I met Nicky at the Adventure Mind Conference 2023 and met up with her again in 2024 and we knew, in fact at 2023, we knew that we had to do a recording for the podcast but It just didn't eventuate, as I said, because I had all sorts of these family things going on.

[00:01:57] Zoe Langley-Wathen: But, we have finally got it together [00:02:00] and I'm going to not chat anymore now. I'm going to get straight into the interview with Nicky Chisholm.

[00:02:10] Zoe Langley-Wathen: Okay, welcome back everybody, I am so delighted that we have a much long awaited episode of the Head Right Out podcast. And I am here to welcome Nicky Chisholm. Good. Hello,

[00:02:25] Nicky Chisholm: Nicky.

[00:02:25] Nicky Chisholm: Hello, Luffy. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:02:27] Zoe Langley-Wathen: You're very welcome. So Nicky is an experienced project manager. She is a blogger, also in the adventure industry, and she has been exploring si...