Robbie wants to freeze Gold Coast foes out
Robbie Simpson may no longer have his Secret Millionaire-type sponsor but he’s still chasing a Gold Coast jackpot after swapping the mountains for the marathon.
The runner returned to Scotland in the summer after living a basic lifestyle in the hills on the AustrianGerman border for three years – even going without a fridge for the final 12 months.
Only the support of a Banchory-based businessman helped him get by as a bronze medal at the World Mountain Running Championships in 2015 stirred his interest in taking up marathons.
And the 26-year-old is now out to make his Commonwealth Games debut a profitable one.
He said: “A local business owner, Bert McIntosh, had followed my career for a number of years.
“I said I was planning on moving away – I was planning on self funding it because I can live pretty cheaply although I was pretty poor and it was going to be a bit of a struggle to make things work.
“But he called me up one day and said he would be prepared to sponsor me for a certain amount of time and see how I got on. He’s just a really nice, modest guy and for a good while didn’t want anyone knowing he was helping me.
“He wasn’t doing it so people could see what he was doing – he wanted to see me do well and knew how hard it is to get funding. He didn’t want anything in return.
“Without his help I would’ve been really struggling to get the results I got. Before he stepped in I was in races thinking, ‘If I don’t do well I’ll be living off a very, very small amount of money for the next little while’.”
The sponsorship ended earlier this year but Simpson is eternally grateful with the pair still in touch.
He said: “It’s nice being home again – back in familiar scenery. Although I did get used to the lifestyle, waking up to big, sharp mountain peaks.
“It was a fairly basic set-up over there because I was on my own. I didn’t have a TV but that’s how I liked it.
“I did have running water but for the last year I was there I didn’t even have a fridge. It broke and I was going to have to pay to get a new one so I decided to just live without one.”
A calf injury forced him to out of the World Championships in August after being the second-fastest Brit in the London marathon.
Now injury free, he said: “I still feel I have a lot more to give.
“It will be hot and the marathon is always really difficult but if everything goes well on the day I can run faster than I ran before in London. If you can run a fast time and you’re in that sort of shape then anything can happen.”
Simpson will look to finish his year in style today with a 10kilometre outing at the Corrida de Houilles race in Paris.
Callum Hawkins, who will join him Down Under in the marathon, makes the trip as well.