950 Conversations: The Run That's Bringing People Together.

950 Conversations: The Run That's Bringing People Together.

Welcome to Runner's Sole, a podcast hosted by Sharon Miller, who has 20 years of running experience and unapologetic foot nerd. Today’s guest, Neil Mills, discusses his extensive charity work, particularly a recent initiative inspired by his own transformation from a bodybuilder to a runner. 

Mills ran 950 miles across the UK in 21 days, with this challenge linked to supporting young people affected by cancer. His running journey, which began after a poor performance at a military mile race, has since evolved into a mission to promote fitness and charity, illustrating his commitment to making a personal impact.

🎧 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:

✔️ How to Transform from a Bodybilder into a Runner.

✔️ Strategy for running 950 miles.

✔️ The importance of running for maintaining fitness.

🔗 LINKS

🌐 All Episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2545750 (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?even...)

Neil Mills IG:

https://www.instagram.com/neilmills950/

👟 Online Foot Consultation: [www.runnerssole.co.uk](http://www.runnerssole.co.uk (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?even...) )

👥 Join Our Running Community:   / 17oz7x3jfe   (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?even...)

🏃 ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Runner's Sole Podcast is where running meets science, stride by stride.

Hosted by podiatrist and runner Sharon Miller, this podcast helps runners prevent injuries, improve performance, and better understand foot health through practical, evidence-based advice.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Runner Soul. This is the podcast where running meet signs, stride by stride. And who am I? I am Sharon Miller, a resident podiatrist of 20 years and runner and unapologetic but nerd. So we're here today at the Runner Soul, and we've got our guest today is Neil Mills. So how are you today?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I'm very good, thank you. And yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Very good, yes. So we're going to be talking today about your something that's really close to your heart, and that is all your charity work that you've been doing.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yes. Um it's never ending, never ending.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Oh tell us a bit about it. You were telling us a little bit about it earlier, but the connection wasn't good.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah, so I don't know where we got. Um we were talking about the next one coming up, which is well, my next one coming up after skydive, but we'll skip that one. The next bit is um 950 conversations, and it's the it's the it's the spring off of uh 950 mile run that I did in April. So I ran 950 miles in 21 days.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Um, yeah, from London to Nottingham, Nottingham to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Glasgow, Glasgow to Belfast, Belfast back down to Manchester, Manchester to Bristol, Bristol to Southampton, back to London.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Um wow, and so what inspired what inspired this crazy mission of yours?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

So if I can, I'm gonna try and cut a long story short. Um, I come from a bodybuilder background. Um, I'm ADHD, so at a very young. Oh, I love it. Honestly, I you'll see I do lots of write-ups about the superpowers of ADHD. I've actually set my own podcast up to talk about it. Um but so very young, I was into drinking drugs, and at the age of 25, I left the party and I said, right, I'm gonna go to the gym tomorrow and I'm never gonna look back. And that's exactly what I did. So I went into bodybuilding, and at the age of 44, um, I entered Who Dares Wins because it'd be the last year that I could enter it. And I'm thinking, big fit. I didn't really need to train. And it was during COVID. I got through every single round, flew through all the rounds, and the last round was running. And my wife said, Are you gonna train for this? I went, No, no, no, it's just a military mile and a half, uh it'd be easy, and I failed really badly. No way, so it hit me hard, and someone made a comment on the back of it, and it said, See, bodybuilders can't run. So you just wait and see. Well, I went from I remember saying, Okay, I'm gonna run the bright marathon then. So I literally in eight months I ran the bright marathon. Um, and it it it got really addictive. And in this time, somebody had mentioned Land Zen to John O'Groats. So I had it in my head I was gonna do Land Zen to John O'Groats. So I had this 900-mile run in my mind. Um, I started doing charity work for Young Lives versus Cancer. All their home from homes is 950 miles. So I thought, well, to make it a bit more personal, I'm gonna visit all their homes. Um and that was it. But running's like a I don't like it, but I love it. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Like it's yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Everyone thinks, you know, when they look at you, they go, yeah, but it's all right for you because you've got and I'm like, no, no, no. I get up every morning and I'm like, I run sometimes 20 miles before I go to work, and it's like I don't want to do that. I don't even want to run. In fact, I actually enjoy 20 miles more than three miles because I think three miles, especially I hold a lot of muscle still, I'm still 105 kilo, but quite solid frame. So it takes three miles to get my breathing good. So I'm people used to say you're not a long distance runner, but I am a long distance runner because the further I go out, the stronger I get. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I don't there is no superpower, but the fact that I hate it because it's the it's the hardest thing I've ever done um by far.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Of the best things by the sounds of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Oh, that for mental health, um, I've always said so from running, and obviously ADHD and like superpowers anyway, but I say there's two things they should teach at school, um, English language, well, language, whatever language it might be, wherever you come from, but language so that people can express their feelings and running so that they can digest their feelings because it's such a good place to be.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Absolutely, and it's so good for your mental health, isn't it? You know, you can be feeling, you know, down and feeling like nobody cares, and then you get out there in the fresh air, in nature, and you just keep keep on running, keep on going, and you get all those endorphins just you know, run about in the bloodstream, and then suddenly you feel, whoo, I'm feeling good.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I had my best days. People can't I can't express enough how, like you say, you get up in the morning, we all feel down by everyone, there's no one different. Yeah, no one's exempt from depression, no one's exempt from anything, it's how you deal with it. So I always we have a debate, me and my friends, and it's like physical, physical movement or motivational, like a motivational mind. And I'm like, physical movement, because if you don't move, you can't overthink your way out of overthinking, but you can move into existence. So if you move into it, you'll keep moving. But if you just stand and again, I need to move, I need to move, I need to move, you're not gonna move. So you you need both, but I think the first has to be the movement.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

And the wonderful thing about the movement is it can change you from one state to a more positive state in a very, very short time.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, oh, a hundred percent, million percent.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And so have you had any injuries? Have you been lucky to you know keep on going? Have you had any injuries you want to tell us about? And how you tell us that it was really weird, actually.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Funny enough, because when I come across and what you do, so most of my injuries have been around stress fractures. Um, they've all been around overtraining, um, ego. So I say I've got I've got a typical runner's ego, which is I just want to keep running. It took me so I got it right for my 950, but prior to that, I overtrained so much. Um, I didn't understand what recovery run meant. I didn't understand what an easy run meant. I used to go out with the same pace, week in, week out, another stress fracture, another stress fracture, another stress fracture.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Sounded like you just push yourself to the limit.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Way past. I remember I ran my my best marathon time should have been a 350, 340. And I ended up with a 420, but I had a run three weeks prior that if I'd have carried on to the 26 miles, I'd have probably got a 330. That was my marathon run because I just kept over-training, over-training, and then stress fracture, just literally before.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

But and it's like everything, like you don't want to peek too early because I think the reason why people get injuries is because, you know, physically they know that they can do a certain amount, but the body takes a while to catch up, you know, like the bones, the the ligaments, the muscles, they are sort of like a couple of steps behind.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, and I made a couple of fatal mistakes as well because because I went from, and it's really weird to go from bodybuilding to running and make this mistake. But my mistake was I went from bodybuilding to running. My instant natural reaction was I don't need to train my legs as hard anymore because I'm running. And that, so I started journaling when I was running and I couldn't work out. So what I did is I started journaling it, and of course, I worked out that my legs wasn't strong enough anymore because I've got this big frame and I'm relying on running to keep them strong. But actually, they need to be strong to keep running, so I got it the wrong way around. So then I then I started going back into squats, deadlifting, and all the big compound exercises, and it made a massive difference towards the end of my run. But my most recent run would be familiar to you guys, which is my most recent injury, is I've got an Achilles injury and it I couldn't work it out. It felt it felt like it was on the bottom of my foot. So it felt like something that I'd overworked the bottom of my feet, basically. And and it was only that I went to physio and he said, As soon as I walked in, he went, That's your Achilles. And I was like, had I not felt my Achilles feel weak prior to the colour.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

You could probably see the tightness, could he? Could you see the full?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, and I'm like, if so three weeks prior to getting this injury, I kept when I was running, I started doing a lot of trial running. Um for some reason, another mental health thing, I just got it in my head. I didn't like the roads at the minute. I just wanted to be, you know, the trials are quiet, you feel like you're on your own. So I've done a lot of trials, so I kept feeling my Achilles getting weak. And I thought, I think as much as the trial's soft, it's I think treading on the uneven ground starting to play havoc with my ankles. But then, of course, the injury switched to the bottom of my foot. So I've automatically thought it was a different injury. And as soon as he said it, it made sense, rested up. I actually I've started getting sensible. When someone says rest, I show compromise because I have to run mental state of mind. Because when you create something, you have to maintain it. So obviously, I've created all the indoor things where I like so much exercise. I love to run every day, but I come to a compromise, which is he says slowed down. So okay, slow down's not actually stop. It's still progression, walking is still movement, and resting is what's best for me. So yeah, I've been resting up a little bit, um, taking the advice of like you guys. I mean, podiatrists, they was my life savior on my 950 run, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Oh, are they?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Oh, because we reached out to so many people on my run. Um, and at first we were just getting lots of physios because everyone thought that my legs would go, and it wasn't my legs that went, it was my feet. My feet went after two days. Um, and we, I think one, two, a guy in Scotland, he was absolutely amazing. He said, he done some amazing work on my feet. A lady in Nottingham, um, a lady in Bristol, and all different, I think one, two, three, yeah, four all together. So there was two in Scotland, one in yeah, one in Nottingham and one in Bristol. But yeah, they was like the saviour because literally just at the right time, just as my feet got really bad, and it was like one came forward and reached out on Facebook and said, Look, we're willing to help.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, so it's so they kept you on your feet, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Literally.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Literally. Um, even acupuncture saved me a little bit. It took the pressure off, took brought the swelling down.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Um I do a lot of dry needling, mainly for like plant fasciitis um and tight um tight calf muscles and stuff, and it's it's brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yeah, even though it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

So tell us tell us a bit more about the charity in case anyone wants to support you and you know, obviously send money.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

So the next charity, so at the moment I've only just set a page up. So there's two charities I'm gonna run for. The main one is the Ollie Foundation, and that stands for One Life Lost Is Enough. Um, it was set up by three parents whose children had committed suicide. Um, I've become very friendly. So our quick story is there's a guy in my gym named Chris. Um, he won't mind me talking. And he I talked to him all the time, you know, but you don't know him, and he's smiling and he's always happy. And then one day I had this jumper on. I love this jumper, it's really quirky. And it says on the back of it, so the person behind me, the world is a better place with you in it. Love the person in front of you. Well, this Chris had the same jumper on, so it sparked off a little bit of a connection and a conversation. A broma, yeah, big time. And he started telling me about his story with his son and the charity and what they do. And I was just like, I've got five children, and I'm like, oh my god, how does this guy yeah, yeah, how have you lost your son and you've managed to turn this thing into a positive? Um, and I was blown away by him. So I said, once I've done my run, I'm gonna come back for you, and my next charity work is gonna be for you. So, like I say, I've set the page up. My Instagram is at Neil Mills950, I believe. I'm gonna put the link in my bio there, and that's where everyone will be able to donate. I'll put more up as the year goes on. Like I say, this is the date set for this is the 23rd of September next year. 23rd and it's gonna run to the 7th of October.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Um Well, we'll be we'll be right behind you, Neil. We'll be charting your progress.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah, that'll be amazing. That'll be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Oh, that's brilliant. And uh what advice would you have for like say somebody who you know, somebody who is maybe just going through a very hard time where they feel a bit overwhelmed and you know, they just kind of feel you know, they feel alone basically. You know, what advice would you give them about um, you know, how to start how to get into the running?

SPEAKER_00 14:05

I would so the biggest thing I would say is quite funny enough, the biggest run I've done is the biggest breakdown for mental health for me because everyone said, How did you do it? Like, so my advice is don't think about the long haul, think about what you're doing now. If you get if you don't feel confident with running, if you can get 100 meters today and push to 150 meters by the end of the month, that's progress. Be happy with what you've got. I to say that I can run 950 miles now, four and a half years ago when I first started, I couldn't run a mile.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Um that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

And I remember the breakdown of how I got that mile, which was I had to run walk, run, walk. It took me, it took me a month to get to a continuous mile where I could go out and run a mile in eight months to run the bright marathon. So my advice is keep at it, keep going. Walk a lot, run a lot, talk a lot. And if you're just running for your mental state of mind, find something that suits. Because I actually like interval running because I find it more enjoyable, which is to sprint, walk, sprint. It breaks it up, it makes it more enjoyable. Um, but it's whatever's enjoyable for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Um and then, of course, there's lots of park runs. Do you have park runs where you are?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah, we have loads.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Um that's a great way to get started, isn't it? And you know, you can do it with the family, all the family can get involved.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah, there's plenty of park runs. There's there's a lot of people doing walk and talks now. Um, and keep your eye out for anyone that's local to you. From Scott, if anyone's local from Scotland to Bedford, keep their eye out. Because part of what we're gonna do, I'll put it up in my bio, is we're gonna do walks and talks, we're gonna invite people to join in as we go down the country. So we'll slow the paces down, we'll have people just to sit there and talk. And another bit of advice for some people is on the days that you feel like talking, talk as much as you can because it's good to share your problems with everyone. Um, and maybe sometimes the walk and talk because the movement gets the endorphins, which gets and it gets the mind flowing, and then you find that you naturally talk. But don't keep it in.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I think males as well, you know, when you're walking side to side, you know, when you're doing something, it's much easier to talk, isn't it? And to bring up you know, situations rather than be looking at each other and you're sort of like, you know, you've got a bit intimidating.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Well, you are a big inspiration to us, so we'll be definitely following your journey. And we'll also leave all your links so that our listeners can um get access to your story and follow, and hopefully they will um make a contribution.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

And is there anything you want, anything else you would like to tell the public?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Gosh, I'd you shouldn't ask me to do that. I'd probably never stop. Um I would never stop. I would I'd I mean, my advice to everyone is um one thing I learned on doing the big run is if you ever want to find out how much love is in the world, how many kind people are in the world, um find something that's big to you, but do it for someone else. And it what comes up is just it's amazing. The people that came together when I did my run, the the amount of love that I felt from people that I don't know, you know, people that I didn't expect to. I had an epiphany moment in it was in Scotland actually, and when I reached Scotland, my feet were in a bad way. I was in such a such a weird, strange, happy but focused, like all over the place place. And prior to my run, there was points where I felt because it was a real hard thing, the organising it was probably harder than doing it. And there was times where I felt so lonely, and I just felt that you know what, no one really cares what I'm doing, no one's this, no one's that. And when I was going through Scotland, I was just looking at restaurants and people getting on with their lives and people just sitting, and I'm thinking, no one knows what I'm even doing. I'm marching the streets and no one's got a clue. And it made me realize that you know what, sometimes we feel alone, but we're never alone because what it is is we've all we've all got our own life going on, we've all got our own well. This is my life, that's your life. But when we need people, they're all they everyone comes together when you need them. So just because sometimes it feels like everyone's got their own stuff going on, it doesn't mean no one doesn't care, it just means that they've got their own stuff going together. But when you need people the most, that run it just made me realize that all of a sudden that it got overwhelming because there was actually too many people.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

It's like there's too much love.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, I didn't know. Like I wanted to thank everyone, and I wanted to feel I'm like, so it's like so overwhelming. But yeah, you do something, find something big and do it for someone else and watch what comes.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

That's really, really good advice. Well, thank you for all that you do and all that you're doing for all these charities. It's so good to have someone like you, and it's great for the public to know and maybe you know, get in touch and try and get involved in some way. Maybe they could even do something in their own little, you know, neck of the woods. Yeah, yeah, we can all get out there and get some fresh air and run and yeah, do some good.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, we can, we can. That's what I say. I it's everything I do is just to be an advert for human potential and human kindness because we've got plenty of it.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

And not just that, but you've got five kids, you know, you're inspiring those kids every single day.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah, 100%. Lead by example.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I'm sure they're very, very proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

So if you need an appodiatrist in Scotland, uh, you want me to run alongside you, just give me a shout.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

I'll be in contact. So prior to it, what I will contact you, and I'll stay in contact through all the things anyway, and I'll follow you guys.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Um absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

I'll let you know. Well, there's one thing is if I say I'm doing something, I'm doing something. So those dates I've put on that's happening.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Um you're a man of your words.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Well, I'm looking forward to following and seeing your journey.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Okay, thanks, Neil.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Thank you. You take care.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Talking to you and you. Thank you for striding through this episode of our podcast. If you've enjoyed today's episode and you'd love to hear more, please join our Facebook community and you can share your stories, you can ask us questions, and we'll be happy to answer them. And you can continue learning. The link is in the show notes. And if you would like one of our consultations, please do get in touch and we can book that for you. We only have a small amount of consultations every week. So please do give us notice and we will try to do our best to fit you in. So if you've got any questions, if you're a diabetic runner, you want to run safely with diabetes, you want to know what kind of shoes you should wear, if the shoes that you are currently wearing need to be replaced, then please do give us some notice and we'll book you in for that. And we do have a free runner's guide, especially for you. And there's lots of hints and tips and folk care health checks in there. So please do download for your reference and information. And remember, guys, how your physical and mental health are deeply connected, and these will impact every aspect of your life, from your relationships to your children, your relationships with your partner, how you see yourself, your self-esteem, your confidence, your mindset. It's all connected. So please do spend some time, take time out for yourself because it will definitely impact your life on a positive level. So when you move better, you feel stronger, you take care of yourself, then you're more able to take care of others, and it can also impact your confidence, your mindset, and your overall happiness.