''It's a great life and I have learnt to love it. I have learnt to embrace it. I have learnt to stop moaning about what it has given me.''
The words of , during one of the first Gold Run interviews conducted on our travels, and this Sunday - after what seems like a lifetime - it will finally see the light of radio.
It's one of those lines that, when he said it, I knew that I was getting a brutally honest answer from a man who put no time constraints on me. This despite the fact that he’s training or competing during almost every waking hour in the run up to the , and other gruelling competitions.
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By Mark Chapman:
Hansie Cronje: cricketer, captain, Afrikaaner, leader, hero, Christian, wealthy, cheat, manipulator and psychopath. All words that have been used in the past week as I have travelled around South Africa.
His brother, Frans said this: “The whole new South Africa, the fall of apartheid and Nelson Mandela as President makes it a lot easier for people to forgive in South Africa.
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Allan Wells winning Olympic gold in 1980
With ten living British Olympic Gold Medallists down and a mind-boggling, potential 104 still to go, I can only quote the immortal words of Mr Kris Akabusi: ''Good Grief!''.
Of course, I know just how far down the road I have travelled so far, but actually hearing Colin Murray's Gold Run on air for the first time last Sunday on was an interesting experience, made up of equal parts of nerves, exhilaration, excitement and eventual relief.
The story of Bob Braithwaite in Episode 1 has lived with me ever since I met him earlier this year. To have people talk to me, email me and Tweet () about his wonderful attitude and outlook has made every last minute, mile and sleepless night worthwhile.
There are many more outstanding quotes from our conquering men and women to come, but I think Mr Braithwaite will take some beating.
''I think there are more important things than shooting or running. Saving of life, the great experimental work that is going on with health, I think those are the people who should get the rewards. (I am) not a great Olympian, just an Olympian.''
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During this summer’s Olympic Games in LondonÌýyou’ll hear countless pointless statistics, like how the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is using enough cable to stretch to the moon and back five times and how visitors to the Velodrome will have drank enough bottled water to fill the Brent Reservoir. But here are some different kind of figures for you…
Over 7,000 miles travelled, 746 coffees consumed, 3 flat tyres, 47 arguments, 35 budget hotels and 4 broken and/or destroyed sat-navs. These stats relate to Colin Murray's Gold Run:Ìýmy attempt to track down every single living British Olympic Gold Medallist to mark the arrival of the 30th games of the Olympiad. On January 1st I began the biggest broadcasting challenge of my career, and the most ambitious documentary series ever commissioned by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 Live.
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5 live Drive has been following a group of young jobseekers from areas hit hardest in the economic downturn.
They've met Employment Minister Chris Grayling to tell him about their experiences and concerns.
Each of them is facing different barriers to finding and keeping work, but all are determined to find ways to change their lives for the better.
This month, in their final update, the group discuss how their quest for employment is going and their daily battles to have enough money to live on.
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In just ten weeks, it will be the start of an Olympics and Paralympic Games on home soil - for many of us for the first and probably only time in our lives. As you would expect, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ will be undertaking its biggest ever broadcast operation to mark the occasion. Radio has always been able to reflect huge Olympic moments in a legacy stretching right back to Berlin in 1936 and I am proud that 5 live will be adding to that legacy this year.
Our aim is to bring you radio coverage of sport as you've never heard it before. On ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 live you will be able to hear the whole 2012 story unfold across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will cover London 2012 with a new schedule, a brand new digital station and a record 580 broadcast hours across the event.
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It is strange how quickly celebration can turn into devastation. It's not the first time I have said that during my motorsport career and it probably won't be the last but the scenes in Barcelona after this weekend's Grand Prix will live with me for a long time.
After Pastor Maldonado had made history and won the race I waited to interview the Venezuelan. He was overjoyed at taking his first Grand Prix win and having arguably the drive of the day.
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It’s now justÌýtwo weeks until Fighting Talk, our award-winning, Colin Murray-hosted Saturday morning live panel show, travels to Stoke for our largest ever outside broadcast in front of an audience of thousands.
Sometimes we takeÌýFighting TalkÌýon the road to broadcast live in front of an audience. Our biggest shows so far have been in front of 1,700 people in Liverpool’s Empire Theatre (which you can watch here) and 900 people in the Sage Theatre in Gateshead.
On Saturday May 26th we go one step further: we’ll have a crowd in excess of 3,000 at for what we think is the biggest audience ever for any UK radio panel show.
It’s certainly the most ambitious live audience show 5 live has ever done.
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Fernando Alonso will be clicking the heels of his ruby red (racing) shoes and saying 'there's no place like home' as the arrives in Europe. With one win under his belt so far, the fifth round sees the racing come home for the Spaniard as we all head to .
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By Up All Night producer Chris Wands
As a proud Scot living and working in England I've spent a lot of time wondering what independence might mean.
Border controls and a need for Euros when I go back to see the family? A hike in the price of shortbread and porridge? A marked drop in the standard of the team GB football team?
On the plus side it could mean a newly self-sufficient nation keeping the money from North Sea oil, losing the chip on its shoulder and educating its children to eat things other than chips.
The thing is it's just not easy to understand whether it'd be a good thing for Scotland, or indeed for the rest of the UK.
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By 5 live political reporter Matt Cole:
Harlow, Cambridge, and Birmingham. My little tour of places where the English local elections could get tricky for each of the main parties. Sadly I didn't get to Trumpington. I've not made it up - there's a sign to it outside Cambridge.
I'll go back at some point because the name conjures up rather a charming picture. But still, I didn't go - let me know @bbcmattcole if you can recommend it.
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