Grateful Mile founder Mark White & The Ocado Group CFO talk about running.

I'd say if I broke it down, at school it was all about running. Running was a natural part of teams that I was in. So I, for example, I played football, right? So you're always running around a lot when you're playing football. And then in the summer season, I did athletics at the school I was at, and I ran 800 and 1500. So that was the time, you know, my heroes were obviously Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, and Steve Cram. Yeah, that was a great era for British middle distance running as well. And so I ran a lot. My rival at school was a guy called Andy Booker, and I could never beat him at the 1500, you know. So that was always... I remember that vividly. So that running then was part of competitively within school. And then from university, that was probably a blip. And then once you get into work, um, you know, I realized I was missing it. I was still playing football on Sundays, okay. But running was a good release from the strains of work and the tensions of work and all that sort of stuff as well. And you know, I know that you're a runner, but I know that when I feel when I'm running, you kind of think through a lot of problems in your head, yes, and issues that you might have had the week before, the week ahead, and everything becomes a lot clearer. And more sort of simple, and you solve a lot of stuff on your own, I personally do, yes. So by the time I finish running, I feel completely refreshed and ready for the day ahead. And it's a really good start to the day. So that's where it's been important for me in the work environment.

Yeah, definitely. I'm very conscious of that. I'm very, you know, because I do think, I mean, it works well for me because you know if you feel sort of fit and healthy, immensely you probably feel a bit, you know, good about yourself as well. So do you know what I mean? It's sort of... I think it's pretty important to be conscious about it and know that sort of think to yourself, 'Hang on, I'm putting on a bit too much weight here, yeah, and I need to sort of be a bit,' or 'I'm drinking too much.' I mean, it's easy in the corporate world. It's very easy to get invited to a lot of business dinners, a lot of functions, and so on. Maybe you're going out with friends as well, and it can be pretty sociable across that, either whether it's friends and family, but also from a business perspective as well. And you know, you just being careful, I mean being careful around drinking behaviors and patterns and whatever as well. I mean certainly during the first part of COVID, I don't know, I think it went in a very similar phase for lots of people. The first six months or so, you're probably eating and drinking more than you did previously, and then you go on a health kick, and that was the kind of phases that people went through. But I am very conscious about it about sort of you know weight, but also health. You know when you're fit and you're not and all those sorts of things, and just sort of watch the food that you're eating. Just be, you don't need to go to any extremes, but just be sensible.

Totally. I mean, the work environment these days has got... you know, I started work in 1985. Now you used to know? Another mobile phone? Yeah, you used to get no one had a laptop. No, he used to go home from work, file faxes days? Yeah, do you remember? It was faxes and all that sort of stuff. You'd go home from work on a Friday night, and that was all you, that you didn't hear from work until you got back into work on Monday morning. That was it, yeah. And also you go on holiday, and this is all through the 80s and a lot of the 90s, you go away on holiday, and you'd again, you'd walk out of the office and you'd literally go away and hold the day? And that was it, yeah, not care in the world. And it's a very different world these days, I think. You know, the digital connection, the always on. You know, the fact that you know you'll get emails and WhatsApps over the weekend or whatever, and on holiday often you might join one or two meetings. So I think given that sort of changing work environment, it's more important than ever to make sure you've got a side of you that's thinking, you know, is my health okay? Am I eating properly? Am I exercising properly? Am I not drinking too much? You've got to get all those things right as well to allow you to do the other stuff. It's a lot to manage, eh? Yeah, there really is a lot to manage. And that's where exercise, I think, comes for me, works for me, a release from that sort of work pressure and challenge that's always with you.