TRIBEathlon Podcast
Season 4, Episode 5: Sabrina Pace-Humphreys is an award-winning businesswoman, an ultra-runner, a social justice activist, a mother of four and grandmother of three. She is co-founder and trustee of the fast-growing community and campaigning charity, Black Trail Runners, and is also a well-known ultra-marathon runner.
Sabrina took up running in 2009 as a tool to manage her post-natal depression and, nine years later, completed the Marathon des Sables – a 250km multi-stage ultra-marathon across the Sahara Desert. She has run many ultras since, including perhaps Britain’s most brutal, The Spine Race – a 268-mile race along the length of The Pennine Way. She is also now the author of the book, Black Sheep: a story of Rural Racism, Identity & hope.
Claire and I wanted to chat to her about her running ‘why’, running for mental health, experiencing ‘rural racism’ and The Spine vs Marathon Des Sables!
What I’ve Been Reading
James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones has been on my reading list since seeing him speak at a conference. For some reason, it only recently made it to the top of that list, but I wish it had been sooner as it is possibly the best book I’ve read in 2022.
I have long believed that it is not the big things we do occasionally that shapes us and the results we achieve, but the small things that we do regularly. Clear explains in fascinating detail why this is the case, but more importantly the tactics we can use to improve and embed good habits whilst avoiding and eliminating bad ones. If you want to get fit, improve your productivity, or in fact make any improvement in your life, I’d really recommend what can only be described as the most compressive guide to mastering your habits.
What I’ve Been Watching
In the late 90s and early 00s, I was a fan of Adam Sandler movies, especially the all-time classic golf comedy that is Happy Gilmore. If you’re a golf fan, and you’ve not seen it, where have you been? Anyway, I digress, I must have missed the 2006 release of ‘Click’ through ‘Sandler exhaustion’, and was recommended it by a friend. Whilst it is the usual laugh packed family friendly film you’d expect from Adam Sandler, it has 2 much deeper and meaningful messages embedded within it. I’d recommend it to all, but especially anyone that is working too many long hours, or is rushing through today in the hope that the future will be fun. Trust me, it will ask you some deeper questions as well as making you laugh.
TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting
Have you ever wondered, how do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist, Adam Grant, author of a previous Friday Footnotes recommendation, Think Again, studies “originals”: thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world.
In his TED talk The surprising habits of original thinkers, learn three unexpected habits of originals — including embracing failure. “The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most,” Grant says. “You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.”
Quote of the Week
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits
Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering
I am writing this prior to today’s budget; slightly nervous as to what will have been unleashed from our new chancellor. By the time you read this, you’ll know the structure of the inevitable bad news. Ultimately, we all know we need to pay more tax, but with inflation running at over 11%, it is a fine line between repaying debt and driving the country into a deep recession. You won’t need the FFN to tell you the news, as it will be on every news source. The questions that remain are how much, by whom and when!