He talks about extraordinary things in a matter-of-fact way. Only when talking of Formula One does he betray a whiff of arrogance: "Record breaking is more interesting than driving round in circles on a Sunday afternoon."
Andy Green is not just mentally sharp, he's also phenomenally fit. In Thrust, he endured cockpit temperatures of 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees F) and trained for the JCB land speed record attempt (look for it in an upcoming issue) by running for an hour in the heat of the midday sun. Green has the lean, hungry look of the genuinely athletic.
So too does Ellen MacArthur. Two weeks after my lunch with Green, I found myself on B&Q, the trimaran yacht MacArthur sailed single-handedly around the globe in just 71 days. Nobody has ever done it quicker.
Thirty years old, MacArthur is tiny-just over 5 feet tall-peppered with muscle and much prettier in real life than she appears in photographs. Just as Green had talked casually of drifting at the speed of sound, so MacArthur took me on to the so-called "trampoline" that links the hulls. Even on the flat, calm English Channel I found it almost impossible to stand up, but MacArthur refuses to wear a harness, even in the fearsome Southern Ocean. "If you're strapped on and the boat capsizes, you drown," she casually explains. B&Q has no means of righting itself should it overturn. MacArthur's only hope would be to cling on, scramble into the tiny cabin through one of the escape hatches and wait up to five days for a possible rescue. Even the lady herself admits that living at such intensity for 71 days is not good for the soul.
MacArthur and Green are extraordinary people. Just as my college days were characterized by a mix of awe and bewilderment, so I found myself, in the space of a fortnight, confronted by two people who appeared quantifiably better than me in every department. Muhammad Ali once told a British interviewer that he was both mentally and physically stronger, but Green and MacArthur needn't make such blatant boasts. Their achievements are still writ large in the history books and in every sinew of their finely-honed physiques.