Episode 36 in the Beginning podcast Courtney Arkanson How
are you I'm. Good, Liam, I'm good.
It's been a big week. Back down and back down.
Hey, I was back down in Sydney. Yeah.
You thought we had bad weather up here in QLD?
For the last few weeks, about the weather, it was.
Shocking. I went down.
I actually got out for a little trot on Coogee.
Yeah, it was so windy. You know when you're running and
someone ankle taps you? You didn't fall over.
And I did fall over, but I actually a few times my one of
my legs kind of like clipped over onto the other leg just
because of the wind. Spare thought for my dad and my
brother who just through bad timing, have spent the last
couple of days down at Bonneville Golf Course just near
Coffs Harbour, just South of Coffs Harbour.
OK, now Bonneville Golf Course, for anybody out there who knows,
is one of Australia's nicest courses and consequently one of
Australia's more expensive courses.
You have to stay on the resort out there and it's not cheap to
play on there. They got nine holes in before
essentially the place turned into a swimming pool and so much
so that everybody else cleared out of the resort and my dad and
my brother were basically stuck there hanging out in Coffs
Harbour at pubs because I couldn't play any golf.
Well, that's not too bad, but I suppose that's what you get when
you go and play golf, right? Now we got, we got some running
stuff to get to. We have.
I just want to, I've got a little surprise for you.
You've been gifting me things left front and centre.
OK, this isn't actually a tangible thing I can give you
yet, but it's it's what I'd call giving you some hope.
I have sent out a couple of, I've reached out to some people,
right? And what I'll tell you now is
that we and the podcast are currently on a list, on a list.
We're on a list. On the cutting cutting book.
No, we are. Well, we're in.
We're in a queue of sorts. OK.
We are currently in a queue. A hopeful queue.
Not a guaranteed queue, but a hopeful queue for an interview
with a very, very big name that's coming to town in a
couple of months time. Do you want?
Do you want anything more? Well, I'll just assume you're
not gonna tell. Me.
Well, I can, I can. I mean are.
You gonna name drop it there? I think we should leave it there
'cause you can't name drop, OK. I'll leave it there.
We'll probably learnt learnt from this.
Don't name drop unless we got. We'll leave it there.
That is the how's, how's that
start? Not with a big story, but with a
big tease. But this podcast is on a short
list, a hopeful list for a very significant interview.
Yep, and we'll leave it. There talk about significant Roy
games. Royd.
Olympics. The enhanced games players.
It's not the ROYD Olympics. Howdy.
James Magnuson, what you you're across this.
This is in your news, in your wheelhouse.
So if you haven't now, if if you're running along or whatever
in your car and you can't Google things at the moment, when you
get a chance, jump on Google and Google James Magnuson Enhanced
games. He's huge at the moment.
He's enormous. So I think, and, and I might be
paraphrasing, I might get some of the details wrong here, but
James Magnuson, when he was swimming at the Olympic Games,
was weighing in at 95 kilos. So he's a big guy, right, But a
powerful sprinter. I think he said that during his
peptide period where he was taking all this to get ready for
the enhanced Games, he got up to 115.
Yeah. Wow.
That's heavy for a swimmer, right?
Peptide coupled with some steroids.
Testosterone. There you go.
Testosterone and peptide cocktails.
Every, every, everything that you as an Olympian would never
have been allowed to you. Would never touch.
I see him even try and pull. He's pulling Cam Mcevoy's name
in here saying you should do this.
Like that's a big slack. I don't like that at all.
Why do you like that? Hey, each of their own if he
wants to play this game, that's fine, but don't don't be saying
other names around this space. You know, that's for everyone to
make their own decision because as soon as you get, as soon as
you're talking about drugs and then talking about athletes and
just, you know, even the, the, you know, the correlation
between that, you know, I'm not a big fan of that at all.
What I am, what is funny 'cause like I saw peptides, I was like,
because obviously this is about not testing.
If you go back to that, all the AFL saga of you know, how long
ago would have that been 6? Years.
The ASADA stuff, that would have been intense.
Yeah. No, I think the the Sharks, the
Cronulla Sharks got wrapped up in the ASADA stuff in 2013.
Oh. That long ago now. 2013. 14 not
new, but the whole around that is is there was no testing for
it. They just got caught out like
they just got with the they got caught with their pants down.
So it's kind of funny in a way. I think you know the test
Australians one thing, but the peptide side of it is and it's
not gonna probably get picked up to in in I'm not across drug
testing at the moment and how far they can go.
But like, it's one of those, yeah, one of those topics where
you're kind of like. Jeez, quick back story this The
reason I remember the year is 'cause I started in radio as a
producer in 2013 and I remember the day that it sort of broke.
The news broke that the Sharks were being investigated.
I was working on a sports show in Sydney and I remember my boss
then going, well, what are you doing with on the show?
And I was like, I don't know, like I was, I was literally just
learning how to be a radio producer and this story broke
early 2013 and the boss going So what are you doing about it on
the show? And I was like, I don't, I don't
know what I meant to do. Thankfully, I was working with
an incredible broadcaster and come to Danganine, who people
would know potentially from his voice on Fox Sports and Triple M
awesome commentator and very smart radio guy.
And he's like, don't worry, I'm gonna go down to the Sharks
headquarters live. I'll, I'll, you just have the
line set up in the studio. I'll take care of everything
else. I'll.
Say oh, how times change though. Did I see you down with the
Queensland Origin team? Oh.
Yeah, I've learnt the games. I was out making a nuisance of
myself. Any.
Any good grabs I should have got
the audio? Well, I, well, we'll get back to
the enhanced games in a SEC if we're gonna go down.
Yeah, No, listen, I, I explored and I'll get, we'll get this up
on the Instagram page. What's your pillow policy at
night? Courtney Atkinson.
Pill pillow, pillow policy. I wanted, I want to invest in a
new pillow right now. Oh, here we go.
See I've got we've got a bed full of I reckon there's
probably 6 to 8 pillows on their beds too many and none of them
are and there's no conformity there.
Some are probably 12 years old, some are, some are way too big.
Some will probably bought at Kmart for 12 bucks and then
there could be a few good ones in there.
And then I see these the ads, you know, it's 120 bucks or
whatever it is for these pillows if you sleep on your side a
little bit about oh. Yes, yes.
So your head slots. In there and I have all good
intentions just to I should just jump on Amazon or and I should
go down to Myers and just buy one do.
You go the memory foam or do you like the the down well?
No, this is my problem. I just got you.
Don't know you're a mixed. Bag of all sorts depending on
the night. So pillow policy in my house is
a very stringent thing. My wife needs the firm pillow
behind the head, then needs the softer pillows, the cuddle
pillow. Anyway, because I'm not a
serious journalist, I took these questions into Queensland State
of Origin camp and when I prep to do those fun videos in camp
with the guys, I'd never really know what's going to work.
Like 12 months ago when I went in camp with the State of
Origin, I have a list of silly questions I'm going to ask and
it's sort of it emerges once I start asking them, oh, this is
working. Like last year it was the I
asked questions about 'cause around State of Origin, there's
always questions about eligibility or who's eligible to
play for Queensland, who's eligible for play for NSW.
And I thought it would be fun to ask the question about
eligibility, but everybody knows, oh, I'm eligible for
Queensland. Yeah, but where were you
conceived? Now let's just say anybody out
there doesn't understand. I'm asking where their parents
conceived them right now. Some of the Queensland players
last year didn't know what conceived meant, so the joy of
getting to our Xavier Coates of the Melbourne Storm.
Where were you conceived? And he looked at your blank.
And he looked at me and said Port Moresby Hospital because he
was born in PNG in Port Moresby. And I said no, no, that's where
you were born. Where were you conceived?
And he said Port Moresby. And I had to explain to Xavier
that conceived means anyway, so that was fine, my follow.
So anyway, that's what I did last year.
This idea I had this year, I had a bunch of other.
Questions Which was the main hook?
What? What was the one that the?
Hook was the pillow policy, right Because you when you go
into camp as a kid, it's like you sometimes you take your
pillow. Yeah, Yeah.
So I said to them, asked all the boys who in the Origin team
would be most likely to have brought their pillow to camp.
Now, no one brought their pillow to camp.
But what I unearthed with Tom Dearden, the North Queensland
Cowboys half, was he is a three pillow operator.
He rolls 3 pillows. He goes one behind the head, one
between the knees, one to cuddle.
So he's got a three pillow set up.
So if he cops a hotel room with two pillows, he's going looking.
Well, and I said to Pat Carrigan, I'm like, that should
be his new nickname in the Queensland team, his pillows,
because if he's rolling 3 pillows.
But then Pat explained that he wouldn't mind giving one of
those pregnancy pillows a try, one of the long body ones.
And then I asked Dally Cherry Evans if he ever tried one
because Dally's got three kids and he said, oh, his wife had
one of those. I'm like, did you ever give it a
try? And Dally said, yeah, he said it
wasn't, wasn't for me. But the point is, we're standing
in Origin camp, everyone's asking serious questions about
the pride of playing for Queensland, and I'm there asking
them about their pillow poles. Yep, it was a lot of fun.
So who do you go for in origin? Because you're like a, you're a
pizza. I'm a, I'm a swing voter.
I'm a swing voter. No, I I started doing these very
silly videos all the way back in 2018 with NSW when I was working
down there on the show with MG got to know some of those Blues
players really well and felt compelled to support them.
There's none of those players left in this NSW Blues team.
Now I've started to get to know some of these Queensland players
a bit. You're on the Queensland bat, I
think I'm. Certainly more of that side of
the. Fire.
We can continue then, Liam. Yes.
Now back to the Enhanced Games. So James Magnuson got real
swole. Really, really heavy.
I've actually interviewed the the creator of the Enhanced
Games, Doctor Aaron D'souza is his name.
He's an Aussie, but he works over in London and, and I'll
tell you what, when you speak to him about the concept, it's
really interesting. It's like I can see why he came
up with it. I can see why he's pushed head
with it. I can see why people invested
money into it because it is fascinating to explore the
limits of human capabilities. Do you think it's like, I mean,
it's, it's obviously happening. I didn't realise there was an
event on where this other guy who you want to pronounce for
me. Yeah, Greek swimmer, Christian
Golomive. So basically James Magnuson came
out on the Halosport podcast a few years ago and said off they
were going to pay me $1,000,000 to try and break the record.
I'd do it. That was enough to then to
dangle the $1,000,000 carrot to say, well, the first person that
breaks the 50 metre world record, we'll give him
$1,000,000. James Magnuson been training
went through this series of peptides all the towards the end
of last year and then these Greeks when a Christian has
broken the record. Taking his money by.
Point O2 of a second now he's not only been on the the
peptides and all the other performance enhancing drugs, but
he's also competing in the band swimsuit.
That's that's the other part of he he raced in that full, now
banned swimsuit. So get let me get this right.
Has he broken just? 50 metre world record.
I think it's Caesar, Caesar Chella or Caesar Chella.
Done under legal, legal conditions.
He's with all of this help. Yeah, he's just beat it.
He's just beat it so. That that, that doesn't talk
really great for this whole process.
No, you know, you would hope if they went to this extent they
would absolutely smash it, even just a suit alone.
Well, and this is the thing, Christian, it's not like
suddenly Christian Golomev, who's who's broken this world
record is a long time retired swimmer.
I think he competed at the, he was in, He competed at the
European Championships in last year.
Yeah, 'cause I was expecting to see what was his.
I just saw this before. What did he break it?
What was the time he did? He he swam a 20.0 as 20.89.
The previous record was 20.91. Yeah, I mean, I was expecting to
see 90s. And this is I think this is
where the the concept of the enhanced games falls down a
little bit is that when people see a novelty like this, when
people, there's something new comes into our world, which is,
whoa, this has never been done before.
It's illegal, it's X rated, it's naughty, it's against the rules.
I think that what they're hoping for and expecting to see is a
massive shock, you know, But the reality is.
I'm just going to call it. It is one big flop.
Yeah, I think I am with a massive flop.
I think it's now it's go, it's still going.
So there's other, there's track and field's going to be a part
of it. Weightlifting's going to be a
part of combat sports and gymnastics.
The track and field I think will have a similar problem.
Like unless these, unless someone goes and runs sub 8
seconds in the 100 metres, I don't know if anyone's going to
be very impressed. Now, if someone breaks 9
seconds, that's a massive jump forward in the sport, but it's
kind of like, yeah, you know, yeah, anyway, but I'm.
I'm with you. The more we talk about it, then
the more I'm just going, oh, yeah, you kind of.
When I saw the picture of James, I was like, oh, he's big.
Like, this is interesting. Yeah, like around that, that
part. But when you start to look at
the actual performances, it's like, yeah, MMM, yeah.
So back to running. Yeah, let's go back to running.
Yeah. On the weekend, lots and lots of
that's going on. Yeah, I dropped down to see
Bronte at the Gold Coast 30. So we won't go to in depth
because next Wednesday we'll talk to her with Benita about
it. But she absolutely killed it.
She was cruising. Give her a big shout out because
she's a not only running well, but she's also keeping our
marathon series yes, podcast alive.
Yes, I'll give you more of an update a bit later on in today's
Bob, but awesome event. I really love that event.
I think it's AI love seeing the video you put together.
I also just think 30 KS are really fun distance for people
to run like it's a really for all the reasons we spoke about
with Bronte and Beneter in the other episode.
I think it's a great distance. Yeah, the idea of doing half
trail, half Rd, it's great. Is that's an event better like
in a sense of it's something different.
You don't it's you don't have to focus 100% on your time.
So I think it's actually a great.
I know Benita was talking about, you know, doing, if you're
leading up to the marathon, she likes to do like a flat run
where you can watch your pace and you know, get into that real
Rd kind of point of view. But if you're going to do a 30K
before it, I like this sense that you don't know everything.
It leaves a little bit to the imagination.
I was down there watching some of my brothers mates kind of
have a bit of a, a race against each other.
And that's the thing you don't know, it's not a road race.
So you know, you can take a bit of form out of it, but you can
still be foxing at the. Same time.
And it's also just a nice way to get to know trail running a bit.
Yeah, If you're all you've done is run along the flats of the
beaches or whatever, yeah. Well, I was positioned in the
spot where there was a big bog hole in the bottom trailers,
thinking everyone's gonna have to bomb through here in the mud
and I don't reckon one person got their foot dirty.
That just went straight to the edge.
So it's very, very disappointing.
The other thing that happened over the weekend and I this is
what I was engrossed in, was UTA Ultra Child Australia happening
in the Blue Mountains. Now I've done the 50 a couple of
times. You've raced it once.
I've run the 22. I've placed in the 22 a few
times here. OK.
I love this event and it it makes me I want to go again next
year. Like I've I've run the 50 twice,
but watching all a lot of people I know compete in the various
distances, it made me want to be there.
I was really, I was quite envious that I wasn't down there
racing because it's such a great event.
It's such a great. Course.
Yep, it's. Brutal.
It's hard, but I yeah, it's fantastic.
Do you get more envious that you're not at that trail event
or you'd be more envious that you're not at a marathon where
all your mates are? I think I'd be more envious
about the trail. I think I'd I'd the marathon is
kind of you could run out and like if you really wanted to
experience 42 K, you could go out and run it tomorrow.
But I don't think you could go and replicate what UTA gives
you. Because if you went out and did
those trails by yourself, Yep, you get it all.
But you never have those moments of the aid stations and the
fellow runners that this the the vibe on a trail, I think is very
different to the vibe you get in the mainstream marathon sort of
stuff. It's popular.
One thing I did here, like obviously great conditions down
there on the weekend, like amazing conditions for running.
So they've had a few bad years of weather.
They were queues. Have you ever, have you
experienced this when you've raced this?
I've I had someone tell me they waited nearly three hours just
to start descending or ascending one of the the latter sections,
Yeah. So this is I yeah, I said lots
of friends were doing various distances.
I actually a mate of mine was attempt it was running the 100K
race and they award belt buckles based on the time you finish and
he missed his time. I think he missed his sub
fourteen time by a couple of minutes, but the UTA organisers
actually came out and said due to the hour long hold UPS at
this section of the course, they were adjusting the belt buckle
delivery times, right? And yeah, that is something that
I think that all these courses, UTA in particular is going to
have to navigate as these things become more and more popular.
Is, you know, we spoke to old mate from the Gold Coast
Marathon last on the episode just gone on Wednesday about
they have an algorithm, they have a guy sitting over at a
computer in Germany wherever it was managing the course flow.
Of yeah, well, Ron, yeah, Ron McDonald said that 100%.
So what makes you think is, you know, why isn't that a factor in
these types of trail runs? Because it's it it, it hasn't
just happened this year, but this year sounds like it was.
It was, yeah. I think someone sent me a photo
of it and described it as, you know how there's been those
famous photos of people lined up at the summit of Everest?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They described as that looks
like people waiting for Everest. Well, we talked about that, how
they've got about that. Now you've got to go and prove
yourself somewhere else before you get to run in the big show,
which I would never want to see because I think trails about
everyone getting out there and having a go.
But it sounds like, hey, not our problem.
But I would. I would hate to be the event
organisers this week. Can I read you a bit of a
message that Yep. So a friend of mine, Ben ran the
benefits, ran the Mila, the 160, ran the 100 mile.
And I think this is the first time they've offered the Mila at
UTA. I'm pretty sure it's the first
time they've ever offered the 100 mile race.
Yep. And Ben took it on.
Now I'm part of this is Ben's part of the running group that
I'm involved with down in Sydney when I can be down there.
And one of another one of the runners in the dark crew, Tim
who did coast to coast in New Zealand was gonna pace Ben for
some of it and he was gonna pace Ben through the night section.
So through that when they're running at 1:00 AM today.
They allow that for the hundreds, the mile as yes.
So and Tim sent out a message saying, Hey, can someone, hey,
anybody with stories to tell anything, anyone who want to
send voice notes, send them through and I'll play them to
Ben through the night. And so I sent him some stuff,
but I asked Ben, I said, mate, can you, would you mind sending
me your thoughts on that race and how it was?
And so I just want to read you a little bit of what he sent me.
He said that was without question the hardest thing I've
ever done. I honestly can't fathom how
you'd train for something like that without stepping back from
full time work and temporarily handing over most of your
physical responsibilities as a dad.
So that's the one he's like. That's just 'cause he ended up
hobbling over the line with a knee bandaged up.
He was in all sorts. Said physically I felt the
fittest I've ever been Thanks to a running programme from his Who
He had running coaching and a specific strength training
programme. The 1st 50 KS through the Gross
Valley was breathtaking. Starting in pitch black was
surreal. Running into the darkness with
just your headlamp and your thoughts as oddly thrilling it
went on, describes more of the course.
But then he said, where's this next line?
He says about he got, he was getting gentle shoves along the
way. And then he came into the
checkpoint at 90, at the 90K mark.
And he said the first face he saw was someone else from the
running group. And the, the, the spirits just
lifted. And the other idea of he's like,
I've just spent 90 KS basically running by myself.
And the feeling of walking into the checkpoint and seeing people
in there was. Just him.
Amazing. Scary.
Yep. So yeah, it it was an amazing
read. I got quite emotional reading
what he went through, but I was like, this is a.
Long way. So how long did he?
End up taking, I don't I don't even know what his time was.
I think the fact that he said he said he wouldn't have, he said
he absolutely would have DNF Ed without the support.
Oh, but there's no way he finishes that race without his
support grew without the paces. His partner paced him for the
final section of it as well. You.
Feel some accountability. If everyone's trying to help you
too, you kind of just don't want to, you know, that's always the
case. You know, like with a coach or
whatever it is, you don't want to, you know, pull the RIP cord
too early. But yeah, so shout out to Ben
for for getting that done. It was an amazing and to see the
updates and everything, it was well.
Congrats to everyone who you know completing all these long
long races at the moment. Both UTA Gold Coast 30 was a
great lead up for Gold Coast Marathon and what are you going
on? Yeah.
Now we've got some, we've got lots of messages coming through
and I think the big talking point.
Yeah, we have. And I haven't been able to get
to all of them, so we will try to always reply to everyone.
There's a few people that have sent specific marathon prep
questions, which we'll hit in the next episode with Benita and
Bronte. So if you have sent in specific
questions about training for the marathons or marathon related
questions, we are going to hit those.
We want to make sure Benita's around to answer that stuff
specifically these Saturday apps and more.
Me and just talking rubbish. William Googe, Can we get to
him? We can get to him.
Ben, Ben Tennant has has hit us with a couple of questions.
He's got a question about shoes, which we'll get to in a SEC.
But this is the big story if you're following the world of
running at the morning at the moment, William Googe is this
English fella who officially now well or unofficially holds the
record for the fastest run across Australia.
MMM, so. Adam Oh, I've got the quick
breakdown, Angus, Chris added on the run across Australia 4 days
quicker than the previous record and he asked actually is this a
new thing? And now you know how many people
are going to keep doing this. Well, I think, well, let's let's
talk to backtrack before we answer that question.
Do you? Because there's there's
questions about the the run. There's people.
Oh, really? There's yeah, yeah, there's, so
there is, there are people questioning and there have been
people questioning whether or not he because of the data.
It's the data, right. So basically the there's been
people looking at his heart rate, people looking at this GPS
location, people analysing all this stuff and saying it doesn't
match up. It doesn't, this doesn't
actually match up with what he's doing.
People saying his heart rate didn't make sense based on the
elevation that he was running. People analysing his per K
speed. Some people suggesting he might
have been. I can't remember the phrase for
it, but they are essentially handing his watch to someone
else to run. Sounds like people have got too
much time on their hands, yeah? I, I, I believe it.
I believe that he ran it. I believe that he ran the whole
thing. I believe that he set the
record. I think the old Occam's Razor,
which is that the most likely answer is the, the most probable
answer is probably the true one. I think there's maybe his watch
or the GPS was just a bit off, but I believe that he's broken
the record. But it's a question of why he
did it, which I think is the more interesting one.
Yeah, You know, you know, we've been at, what, nearly six months
or so at this. And if this, if we were talking
about this when we started talking on this podcast, I would
have had a lot more opinions on it.
And you know, what I've come to is, you know what?
Good on him. Yeah.
As simple as that. Yeah, I, I agree.
I this is happening it, it's not just about the run across
Australia now, you know, everyone's making up feats to do
left, right, centre. And the reality is it doesn't
matter how much effort you put into like you just got to take
it on face value. Yeah, the fact he's beaten the
old previous record by four days makes me start to think, OK,
four days is a long time, long time.
I like the fact and I'm looking at it more on a novelty value
because I still will always say the reason they're going out to
do this type of let's say, self fulfilling.
Look, I'm making up my own thing to.
Go and do. My own challenge is again, for
their own benefits, so it doesn't matter how you know,
often they're done for good causes and everything else but
the. Which they almost always are.
Always are. The big ones are almost always
have a benevolent money raising charitable cause behind.
The end outcome is though, the individual makes something out
of it for themselves and then goes on to then corporatize,
monetize that. To me, there's no getting around
that as the end goal. So what I like about William is
William. Yeah.
Williams like the did you see the cigarette and the beer?
So you talk about theatre and I don't know that's real or not,
but the the ciggy and the beer each night.
To me when you when you first showed me that that they keep
sitting there doing that, I laughed.
I thought, this is great you bought into him.
I I actually at that point went to the you like I'm, I'm bought
in a little bit because this is something different.
And it's actually nearly quite piss taking because if you were
at the if you were an elite athlete and you were taking.
Yourself, two seats. If you're trying to go to the
Olympics, I can guarantee you as a runner, you ain't smoke.
Yeah, like, come on. So I, I and I'm, I agree with
you. I'm, I'm with you.
Good on you. I think should be the first face
value response to anybody who goes and sets out there whether
they achieve it or not. Good on you.
Yeah, right to what you said then about the the charitable
cause or and I know that Ned when he went out to do his we
are mobilised raised over $2,000,000 for this charity.
Awesome. Which is amazing.
But that's not why Ned did it. That's not why he set out to do
that. He set out because he wanted to
test himself. He set it out for selfish
reasons, really. There was a benevolent, selfless
thing that that occurred as a result, but he set it out to do
it for his own reasons. Now, William, I think you could
argue is the same thing. Yep.
He's raised money for, I believe he lost his mum to cancer, so
he's raising money for that. But that's not why he did it.
He set out because he wanted to do challenge himself.
So it's an inherently selfish mission that they're all these
and same as those two Lambros brothers who go to raise money
for cancer on their runs, they're not doing it for
selfless reasons. It's an inherently selfish thing
that everybody embarked. When they go to do these things,
they want to challenge themselves, they want to test
themselves. They are doing it for themselves
and they are aware and I would think it would be naive to
suggest otherwise that they that they won't.
There won't be something waiting for them at the end of this.
Yeah, OK. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I I mean. And that's not to take away from
any of the fundraising. Both things can be true.
True. At the same time, both things
can be true, right? He looked like he was doing it
easy. He did.
He looked, he looked like a good like I really like the way he
runs. He he just looked like he was
cruiser. He looked the whole time.
So like when you've seen this style of, you know, I think
there's someone was telling me there's a guy running a length
of South length of Africa at the moment as well or something.
And they always look ragged and and I wonder if that's part of
so like, just let's talk about the theatre for a moment.
Let's just pivot the theatre of doing this.
It's to create attention as well.
So you're doing like, let's take the feed of it and the great
running feeds out of the moment. Just look at the theatre of the
marketing of it. So he's taken the approach.
I look easy. I'm doing it on beers and
siggies. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And this is this is this is me. Then you get, you know, other
one other, you know, people that have seen doing around the
world. Like literally I've grown a
freaking run forest. Run beer that I've been because.
I've been going for so long I haven't shaved and I've been
doing it off baked beans. And you know, everyone's got
their niche of how they present themselves in a marketing sense
of then do it. I'm not sure which one works
best. Like it's bloody super hard.
Or in this case it's, you know, I did it as a piece of cake and
I'm having a Ziggy doing it. But that's interesting.
Do you know the name Sean Bell? Have you heard of Sean Bell?
No. Well then this is interesting
because we're here talking about guys running across Australia
and everything else. Sean, from my understanding, ran
the circumference, broke the record for running the
circumference of Australia. OK, so forget running around the
edge, yes? So forget running the straight
line, he's gone one step further and gone around the thing.
And a mate of mine went and saw him the other day.
He was. He's now gone and telling his
story in the corporate speaking world.
OK. So making a buck out of doing
that. Something at the end.
So I don't even know where I want to go with this, Liam, but
it comes back. I'm going to come bring it back
to that conversation of you've got one style of let's say
insurance runners out there at the moment doing this style of
fee and off the back of that, just like someone who went and
did a record up Everest or whatever else.
Coming back, getting on the corporate speaking circuit,
making a good money good buck out of doing that verse again.
Our top athletes who choose the rate of I am trying to be the
best, fastest runner in the world, win the Olympic Games.
And by doing that, I struggle to have the time to be able to do
all these other things that actually create an income for
me. It's a really interesting fork
in the road that you play where 11 scenario is actually bringing
the people at the top of that game are bringing in probably
I'm, I'm assuming like bringing in some really good money.
And then, and not to say some of our top athletes aren't either,
but the general factor of of there's a lot of athletes there
who are very close to the top and are struggling to make a
buck. 22 points I want to make here or two little tangents I
want to go off on. I'll get back to the concept of
the gig economy in a second. Yep.
Have you heard of the idea or the question sort of in business
management, the idea of where does value flow?
So if you, if you were to sit back and have a look at what you
might do next in your life, Yep. Or in your professional world,
the idea of sometimes you can sit back and go, OK, so where
does the value flow? Where is value flowing in my
business in, in the world of running or in the world of
athletics right now? You could argue that value is
flowing to these influences, whether that's deserve it or
not, that's where value's flowing.
Now, if you're an Olympian or you're if someone who's going
down that path where value is not flowing down there, that's
OK. You can still, but you can't get
frustrated or angry because the market has decided that we're
going to send value down here. This is what is valuable.
This is what is important. This is where we're going to
direct our money. And you can't, you can't then
pursue the Olympic path or that non value based path and get
angry about it because you can see it.
And you've got a choice. You've got a choice to make.
Go and do that as. Well, it might not be what we
all want. It might not be our oh, but
that's not where it should flow. Maybe, but it's where it is
flowing. So if you choose to try and
fight against the tide, that's fine, but you've made that
decision. When majority talks, so in a way
that's what if you're out corporate speaking or whatever
it is, sure the audience is wanting to hear that and that
seems to be more valuable. That's where the value is
trying. Here, here's a second point
around. What's interesting then is you
actually would appear the nature of going out and doing like a, a
self discovery challenge should be in one sense, the most purest
way you're going out to do that. And it's actually, it's actually
flipped. You'd nearly say now, you know,
sacrificing everything and having, you know, very little.
That's like the self sacrifice that's trying to become a what
maybe in the past was seen as like the the the highest level
you could get to. It would be like if suddenly in
in the surfing world, and I know we've went on surfing a little
bit less than purpose, but if suddenly free surfers, suddenly
that's where value started flowing.
Well, it did. It did at at one point, and it
probably still does to a degree. Yeah, exactly.
So it's like suddenly the WSL was no longer the profitable
area for these surfers to exist. Suddenly all the money was going
off into the free surfers. And why would you pursue the
tour when you can make more money?
You know, the other part about that I wanted to explore with
these people that are essentially going out and
whether they're elite athletes or not, they're having a crack
at this sort of stuff is the, and I wonder whether you agree,
but it's the idea of the gig economy, right?
The world is changing. The 9:00 to 5:00 is not what it
once was. And some would say it's never
going to get back to that again. The horse has bolted.
Now everybody's got a side hustle, a second job, works from
home three days a week, all that sort of stuff.
In a way, these runners, William Ned, the Lambros brothers,
anybody who's going off and setting these challenges for
themselves is kind of embracing the gig economy because they're
saying, well, instead of going to uni or instead of going to
TAFE, or instead of doing a course and instead of working my
way up a corporate letter, I'm going to go out and run the
length of a continent or I'm going to go out and set this
challenge for myself. And that's going to be my 10,000
hours. That's going to be my
qualification to get into this gig economy world.
And here's my CV. It's not a piece of paper that I
hang on the wall that says I did 4 years of study.
It is. Follow us on Instagram.
It is stories that I can tell and it now has a dollar value in
the market. Yep.
Well, you know, you know what the good thing is, Well, there's
something for everyone out there.
You know, you can, you can choose your own path.
I would say for every one of those, we probably just, you
just mentioned there'd be a lot of people trying to do that as
well that we don't hear about as right.
Absolutely the cream or the ones who are the best at marketing
themselves will come to the top as well.
So I'm sure there's a lot of others out there.
But look, let's leave it there. Yeah, that like.
I enjoyed. That chat there is a place, you
know there's all different ways and that's what the world is
opening up to now. There's not one way to go about
things and runnings running means a lot of things to a lot
of different. People, there's a lot more jobs
in running than they're used to. That's true.
There's a lot more money in
running than there ever has been, yeah.
Now it's all about quirky running.
I forgot who sent this to me, but this is a have you ever seen
this running? And we sent it in basketball.
Two different running shoes, two different brands of running
shoes. So we've got an ASICS meta speed
sky and an Adidas Boston 10. And did they win the race?
So it was a Kenyan got second at the Geneva half marathon in one
O 5. So he's run one O 4.
Him or her Brian. Brian.
So him Brian Kiptrim. Yep, he has run a 6517 in two
different shoes. Yeah.
What do you reckon? What did?
Did you see the explanation? No, he made he packed the wrong
shoes. Oh, this wasn't a talent.
Let's be I was about to go right in depth into how maybe he had a
short, you know, a shorter leg than the other or he rolled,
rolled differently. Maybe he did, but the
explanation that's given on the post is that a mistake was made
when packing his bag where he accidentally took his right
training pair and his left competition pair that.
Would be a bit embarrassing if he was actually sponsored by
ASICS. Yeah, and then he had a pair.
Of well, the IT would it says to him that he's he races for
ASICS. Oh, he does.
But he can. He trains in in Adidas.
Oh, this is a conversation we can have.
Those who are sponsored, how many, how many runners out there
do you reckon are sponsored? And then you know.
Compete in a in their sponsored shoe and and train in something
else. I mean, and with the breadth of
shoes that's coming into the market and and the differences
in so much of ranges, yeah. Like how many out there would be
doing that? That's a question.
What about answer No, but it'd be a hypothetical question for
you more than me because I think the reality.
Is don't throw me on the. Boss Well, no, but how likely
would it be? How important is the dollar
versus the performance? You're a professional athlete.
Like if someone said to you, hey Courtney, can you ride this
bike? We'll pay you $100,000.
But the reality is you were faster on.
I don't know the different bike brands.
I actually wouldn't be able to answer the dollar value, but
there is a there is a threshold. There's a threshold.
There's a threshold where you'd go.
I like, I would be like, I'm not wearing them.
You you're not going to pay me to wear them because they're not
up to scratch and they're going to affect performance.
I'm not sure exactly if you had kind of two mid range ones where
that threshold would be. Bikes is a great one though,
because bikes like bike frames are very individual.
Think of a pro cyclist in a world tour team.
They don't have any been signed, just like you've been signed a
Red Bull, Bora Hansgrove. Yeah.
And you have to ride specialised.
And you've, when you were a young kid, you know, you had a,
you know, these things happened. You had a specialised bike that
just didn't work for you. You've always had this mental
block around A-frame and then you've just got to ride it.
Tough stuff. Yeah, running shoes could be the
dollar threshold is the thing. But I wonder if if anyone else
knows anyone who runs because what?
The way that article, when I saw it, I was thinking maybe left
like a left leg difference to a right leg difference or even the
way the foot rolls or something and they've actually found
running into different shoes is optimal to perform better.
Maybe, but this was just a packing mistake.
Yeah, few, few loose ends to tie again before we get into some
more listener stuff. We were talking about Strava
last week and I was explaining to you about, you know, Pro and
the ticks. Yes, yes, they must have been
listening. We've must have Strava
listening. They've changed this week.
Can you see my one? Yeah, they've changed.
Look how now they've actually gone beyond just showing a
little the double arrows or something.
It's now saying pro. I'm not.
I'm not sure how I feel about. This so does that mean you are a
pro or you've got premium they're.
No, that's they're, they're considering I'm still competing
like a professional athlete. Let's not get hung up on me.
Let's not get hung up on me for the moment.
But what that means is they're calling out.
It's no longer just a little logo to do this.
They're actually calling out. Hey, are you a subscriber?
Are you a premium subscriber? Are you a pro?
I'm wondering and if someone can let us know, are you seeing in
your feed that someone else is a is a premium member?
OK. Verse do do you understand where
I'm going with this? Yeah, so I'm going to quickly go
into my feed. Who have I got here?
Brett Robertson, pro Kai wild pros are just coming at the top.
Glenn Jacobs, who's head of Build World Trail Lanes World
Trail, Nothing. OK.
Alex Hunt one Alex Hunt won coast to coast this year.
Think he deserves to be he's not a pro, he's not a pro.
He just OK Alex send in to Strava and give himself on as a.
Pro. Please, no.
So they're not shouting out, but yeah, they've done that.
Really made it evident. Mm Hmm.
So they're listening. Nice.
That's my point. All right.
Thank you, Strava. Feel free to throw me a free
premium account if you want. I still don't have it hopefully.
When your birthday's coming. Yeah, it's not far away, yeah.
So let's get into some of the listener stuff.
There's been some interesting ones this week.
So Gordon Moffett over in he's one of our UK listeners.
Shout out Gordy. Agrees with what I was talking
about, about, you know, walk running.
Yeah, Yeah, as I'm getting back into running and and recovery
and all those things. A great thing, as you know, he's
in the UK. Yep, he's a couch.
Ah, so in the UK we talk about park run a lot.
They go one step further, they've got a free 5K.
So what do they call it? It's a free 5K programme,
essentially a 12 week run walk programme for those in the
country. So I don't know if this is tied
into into park run as well, but that's a great initiative.
Do we have that here in Australia?
If we don't, we should, I think. You can do, I think it's pretty
easy. I think I've had friends do the
couch to 5K programme. I think it's just an online
thing. But that's someone online have
created up. I'm thinking our government
because this is a government programme.
That'll be an amazing initiative.
Why don't they spend money on instead of getting Matt Hauser
to tell us how to turn left and right?
I think a better investment would be into a couch to couch
to 5K programme, whatever it is I.
Agree, and you've got the you've got the infrastructure built in
in with your park run already. That's an easy thing that the
state federal government should be looking to.
Partner with So He's Saying I love that 12 weeks ago started a
Couch 5K programme here in Scotland.
Some of the groups finished their first 5K looking at times
between 29 minutes to 42 minutes.
And now they're all he's got them all listening to the pod.
So thanks, Gordon Gordy. Spreading the international
love. Absolutely.
So thanks for that. And then he sent us a picture of
them, some of his mob as well, out and about.
Well, to Gordy and his crew, thank you for getting on board
and getting behind the podcast. If for those of you getting into
that Couch to 5K programme, well done because I reckon that
again, there's still that percentage of the population
which here the idea of running 5K's and think that's too hard.
And I reckon the catch to 5K programme, especially when it's
supported by the government like that is an awesome initiative.
So well done to everybody who's jumping into it.
We got an anonymous message. Yes, Hello friends.
Well, I heard about this podcast when the GC Marathon promoted
you in an email. So well done the GC Marathon
sharing the love. This meant I had around 28
weeks, sorry, 28 episodes to catch up on.
He's a police officer or he or she, we don't know.
And he travels 50 minutes to work.
So he's been religiously listening to the podcast daily.
He says. To say I'm invested in the
podcast and you're running journeys and advice is an
understatement. He finished at 34 and he finds
himself at a loss. So, well, I'm glad that we've
been managed to deliver another one for you.
He's patiently waiting for the next episode to talk about plans
for the marathon. Where I'm at with my training
and the advice that Courtney and Benita are giving.
And he's really finding all the advice that Courtney, you,
Benita and all the other experts we're having.
I'm very insightful. Thank you for taking the time to
do the podcast. He can't wait for the next
episode. He uses the runner app and he
loves it. 24 KS this weekend. Well done and you peace out.
Keep up the good work. If you sue this message, please
have me as a non. Oh, I think that means if you
read this message, please have me on as a non.
Which we've done, so we know that.
Thank you. Thank you for the message.
Good feedback. You know what, always good to
know a police. Officer, what's that?
Always good to know a police. Officer.
Yeah, but not if I don't know his name.
Can you tell me his name off? Here I can tell you.
OK, tell me his name off here. Just just when you think about,
like I always say, it's good to have a doctor.
Yeah, it's a few doctors, you know, like, what are the things
in life that you're gonna face? That's good to have some good
connections. True, it's a good point.
I'm more police officers listening in.
If I ever get in trouble, the better.
So from police officers to Tom Boswell, who is in your area?
Tommy Boswell, the sports editor for the Goldie Bulletin.
Yep, loving the surf chats lad. He's in the surf and on the on
the ticketing talk. Oh, so this?
Is so this is off the bat. We talked about the idea of
ticketed for the Olympics Snapper V Burley, the dilemma
you talked about last week. Yeah, so.
So he's got some info on the last Olympics, the Paris
Olympics, where they surfed in Tahiti.
It was ticketed. The locals weren't allowed to
drive to their boat. They weren't allowed to drive
the boats into the Channel as instructions from the local
government, so only official boats and photographers could go
out into their home break. OK, because that was the idea we
talked about whether you could ticket the surfing if it was
held at Snapper or Berlin next year.
Yep. And if people couldn't just walk
down onto the beach. And and he's literally saying
people had to buy a ticket to enter the fan zone where the
road ends before they got out to the Tahitian.
Very anti surfing. Yep, very, very they.
Had to watch it on so the locals had to watch it on the big
screen. Love your workloads.
Thank you TomTom Gold Coast Bullets and thanks for the
support in the pod and also Lucy who just in a pod and said she's
listening to the latest episode where I threatened to stop the
podcast because it was getting out of hand.
She said don't stop the podcast from really enjoying it would be
sad if it's. Stopped Lucy.
We're not stopping. We're not stopping, we're only
going from strength to strength. Now I have some audio for you,
Courtney. So are they still in?
That that's probably enough. Just to be clear, I'm OK, That
is audio of me. I recorded it as I was lying
down on the table at Gold Coast Physio in Pearly I.
Was worried you were down at Mermaid Beach on the highway
somewhere at a special special massage.
I was. I was face down on the table at
Gold Coast Physio with Trent shoving needles into my calves
because my calves suck. They're still this.
Is no good. This is, and I'll talk with
Benita in the next EP about this from the marathon perspective,
but basically where I'm at is everything was kind of going
well. I ran for an hour last weekend
SO12K felt fine. Sunday, nothing felt fine.
Was meant to go out and run for 40 minutes on Monday.
Slow half an hour and I was like, this is hurting, my calf
is hurting again. I stopped and then I had an
appointment with Trent on the day after I went any shoved
needles in my legs, which I I he had to he had to towel the table
like I just he laughed because as soon as he even not with the
needle, but just touched the back of my leg, I just break out
into a sweat because I know the needles are coming and I hate
needles and the psychology of it in my mind is Oh my God, Oh my
God, Oh my God. So I was just a damp sweat as
you. Don't watch him put them in.
Though no, I don't watch him, but the knowledge that they're
going into the back of my calves is what killed me.
Anyway. Needles went in.
Helpful. I had kind of heavy legs for the
rest of the afternoon. I was meant to try and run
another hour the day after I got a kilometre in and.
Oh, so you're you're this is really gone.
This is in trouble, so I am back to cross training for now.
Benita and I are talking. Yeah, it's what are we 6 tweaks
out from Goldie. Yeah, that's not good at all.
No. How you, how you feeling?
Oh. My look, you know Alana, my wife
said to me you should channel Courtney.
Courtney seems to be dealing with, not me, how to run really
well. I am running it.
Yeah, no, I said to Alana, I'm like Courtney be back running
before I am. Yes, really frustrated, really,
really frustrated. I'm having difficulty in
reconciling the fact that at this stage I might not be able
to even do the marathon I'm going to.
The goal is to get to the start line.
Now that's the goal. I'm fine with just jogging
through it, but I really want to be able to get there.
But the leg, the body's just not happy with me at the moment.
So it's it's A to be. I didn't want to say that, but
like, we're now in that fight, we.
Are we are in, we are in, we are serious threat of having to
withdraw from this whole bloody thing.
You know, the thing someone said to this who listens to the
podcast the other day said to me, you know it, it doesn't
matter in the end. No, regardless, because other
people are going to be going through the same thing and have
to handle the same thing. We've got Bronie.
She's she's a Bronie. She's a golden.
Yeah, she's the golden egg at the moment, right.
But The thing is, we're still going over.
We're talking about of things that people need to know about
the marathon. Hey, look, if you're going out
there to run a 240, we may have not given you too much
information that's going to help you.
But for majority of people who are out there doing their first
marathon, we've got all the information coming in.
And from anyone I've spoken to, they've been, you know, they're
really happy with that information.
Yeah, look, from a personal perspective I am.
I'm annoyed, but I keep having those, that message of what
Benita said a couple of EPS back, the idea that not every
race and not every prep, if you run for long enough, you'll have
your day. It's not every race and it's not
every prep. This just ain't going to be my
race and it's not going to be my prep and that's OK.
I'm still learning. I know I've learnt more about
running training marathon than I've ever known before in the
lead up to this and I'm probably not.
I might not be able to run the race, but never.
Have you gone through? Have you had this before?
In the sense of have you stopped running before?
That's what. I'm saying I've had problems
with my like 2 years ago so I ran the golden marathon last
year and the year prior to that I had to pull out of the
marathon for the same thing. Calf problem.
And the lessons are probably around because I was thinking,
because I remember having a very similar feeling about just like,
I'll be honest with you, I've thought maybe I just need to
take a break from running like as in and not just like a short
break. Maybe I just need to go do
something else that well. That's where I was leading.
Maybe I need to go do something like as in I was looking at
like, you know, my kids are doing surfing lessons at the
moment. I'm like, man, I just need to go
surfing for a while. Maybe I just need to go play
golf for a while. Maybe I need to do something
else. The the difficulty for me is
that I know running is the exercise that makes my brain
happiest. Yeah, there's, there's also the
challenge when yes, it can also be good to go away and have a
break completely. But the strength challenge is
still going to exist when you come back.
Yeah. Exactly.
So there's one one part of letting it heal and, and getting
over it in that way, but there's a fine line around.
Well, then if I leave it too long, I'm going to come back and
then I'm going to be exposed to other issues, which may, you
know, like, well, we talked about knees, you know,
hamstring, whatever. So yeah, I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know what advice to give
you on this. No, and look on my I'm OK.
It's it's frustrating, it's disappointing.
I'm I'm a little I've been disheartened, but I'm actually
I'm OK with it because I know that it's not my passion for
running hasn't dulled my frustration with my own personal
running. Yes is high, but my passion for
and my enjoyment of running, the running boom talking running
with you, everything around running is still there.
So I know that means that, yeah, go for a Circa, have a hit, a
golf, but I'll probably want to come back to running.
And come back to chasing the marathon again or is, is this
kind of maybe opened you up to a little bit more of like you said
this morning in UTA, you kind of miss that, are you?
So the direct question is, would you be more interested in coming
back to chase interesting kind of different things or ACE?
Or no, no, the the sub three that that that fire hadn't gone
out. There you go.
Every no, that fire hasn't gone out.
It might. Take us a while, but we'll we'll
both be there. That fire is still burning
bright. I will become part of the sub
three club. It's just not going to happen at
Gold Coast Marathon this year. OK, what about you mate?
I've got a question for you, Liam, because your livelihood is
talking. Yeah, you talk a lot.
Like if I think about like I've been listening, you know, you're
on the right. Like today as we're sitting
here, you've probably what, you're probably good into your
5th hour today of using that for talking.
So I was in Sydney earlier, but my last, let's say actually my
last three days, I was in Sydney Monday, Tuesday, yesterday,
Wednesday, I was speaking to a lot of people on Zoom.
I have been talking for three days straight and I'm exhausted.
I'm absolutely exhausted. How the hell do you just keep?
How do you have a strategy? We're not all running now, but
this is my my other livelihood. How the hell do you just keep
being able to talk to people? Well, if my calf muscles were as
strong as my vocal cords I'd be, I'd have the I'd be running sub
two hours and 30 minutes. Ask questions of other people.
Take the burden off yourself. No, no, no.
It's, it's not the actual talking.
I'm just physically. Oh.
Physically. Exhausted by exhausted by
talking like I'm like you said, vocal cords.
Is it a trainable? Is it a trainable thing?
Like I'm hoping this doesn't become a like a habit this week.
There. So what?
Hold on, is your throat hurting or are you mentally tired?
Both. Both.
I love the talking to people. Yeah, I'm just mentally fatigued
from. Oh yeah, having no, I get that.
All the time and, and my voice and all I wanted to do, which I
did this morning, yeah, is just go out in the Bush for an hour
and a half on my own and not have to worry about it.
So no, it's mentally fatiguing, but just.
But over time, does it train or do you actually have more
problems with it? Nah, it's probably a muscle I've
never really had. I've never, I've never found got
found my job fatiguing in the doing sense.
The planning can become fatiguing, the hours can become
fatiguing, but the doing I've never found tiring with radio
because a because I love doing it and also because I I've been
like this since I was a kid. Like I've liked the idea of
talking and presenting and and giving uneducated opinions.
I've been I've been doing it since I was a kid, mate.
Yeah. So no, I, I, I, I understand
what the mental fatigue is real. The mental like, yeah, at the
end of a footy game, at the end of a big exciting footy game
that I've been commentating, I can sometimes fall in a heap.
Yeah. Because it's just a it's like it
stops and your brain stops firing and you suddenly go, oh,
that was tiring. Here's one I I am way more
fatigued after a full day of doing that than I would be if I
did a full day adventure race. Yeah.
Easy. Yeah, my mental fatigue is.
But that but it comes back to, right, because everybody like,
it's a bit like the marathon talk, right?
Everybody is different. Everybody's physical makeup is
different. Everybody what people, you know,
strengths and weakness, all that sort of stuff.
And it's not a wine. It was an honest question.
No. Do you have?
Strategies around this because it's been it's been a full on a
full on three days and I was stoked to get out in the Bush
today. I was out there for an hour and
a half this morning on the mountain bike.
Had to it it. We've had a few sunny days but
every single time I've got back riding in the last few weeks is
being wet. There's that much water on the
ground up. I see a lot, I've gone through a
pair of brake pads just in those two weeks, just getting, just
grind, just absolutely grinding in the, you know, the clay and
the gravel. How's the body feeling?
Well, here's I sent a session. I should be showing people this,
shouldn't I? What I've been doing, I've been
keeping everything private a little bit.
I talk about it. I feel like, you know, when you
talk about Strava, I don't share it with people on Strava.
I should share it. I should share it.
I have been running. I sent this, I sent what I did
yesterday to Doctor Ben and he said damn, too quick, way too
quick. So what I'm up to at the moment,
I'm did a 35 minute run. I was down at down along Karawa
and I'm up to 3 minutes of running and then walking for 30
seconds. I am feeling fantastic.
Right. Eight weeks of freshness.
You don't, you don't know. I, I know I'm now I'm getting so
excited and you're, you're, you're in the other side like I
was a few weeks back. But no, you don't know.
You're like, it's amazing what a brake can do and how fresh you
can feel And then suddenly how bouncy you can be running.
That's the phase. I mean, because I'm only running
every, you know, every other day, every other day.
And I'm still like, that was the longest run I've done.
So it was what I'd do, 7 1/2 K. So I'm up to there.
We're building, I'm still moving, I'm riding.
That's exciting though. So that's exciting.
I would say I'm back. Would you consider that a run?
Absolutely. Should I share that?
Sure, absolutely. I think you should.
Can I ask you this then? The freshness, the attitude, the
Jack in the Box mentality. Have you started to look at a
marathon yet? I have, but I'm not going to
tell you because I'm not. I'm not at the stage of being
able to commit, but I am looking at 1:00.
But here's a hint, it's not going to be a fast 1.
So I've gone away from You'd have what I wanted.
To do on Gold Coast, because I've always said.
If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do a PB.
So I still want to. I'm still going to.
That's still on the cards. Just like you, I still want to
get to the marathon and the quick one.
But Gold Coast is a long way. Again, it's 12 months away, but
yeah, I'm looking at what might, may not be a fast marathon, but
it's a marathon I'd like to do. Southern Hemisphere.
I'm not going to tell you.
So stop guessing, comrades. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. No.
OK, so I can rule that one out. I don't.
So you will to travel that to. Travel that far.
Will you have to get on a plane? I would have to get on a plane,
so here we go. It's not Noosa.
There are a few other things like, yeah, no, it's not Noosa.
No, it's definitely not Noosa. OK.
We're going to do Gold Coast 12 months I'm.
Just I'm just checking things out.
Anyway, I'm a Jack in the box. Things are happening.
Talking about a race I do want to do.
So we were we were going to spook local races.
This ain't so local. OK, But this is a race I want to
do. I can't believe I missed it.
I wouldn't have been able to run it this year.
Anyway. That race that I hurt you at the
Sullivan Golden Trail down in Tassie.
Yeah. As part of that series, there's
a race on the Great Wall of China.
Now these books, freaking amazing.
Not only do they use the Great Wall, so they're running, they
go into sections of the Great Wall and then go off into some
good trial. Chinese.
Have you been to the Great Wall? I have been to the Great Wall
when around when we did some dinners out there around the
Olympic campaign. Oh cool, Beijing, you just go
out there as a tourist. Went as a tourist with family in
2012. Yep with mum and dad and my
brother and. And yeah, got to experience some
of it and yeah, that would be incredible.
So this is 24K, so it's not like you got to go and run, you know,
50K100K shorter race, but. Brutal though, those stairs on
that the. Videos I've seen of it, I was
like, how did I miss this? So next year that is one that
you know. Putting it on the list.
Well, well, it depends, but like you talk about races, I want to
do and like interesting things, that is.
That's cool way to the top put. It on the Great Wall.
All right, very nice. All right.
Well, there we go. We're back.
One of us is running a bit, the other one's not running at all,
which is not what you want for a running pay.
If you haven't, you're listening to this and you haven't listened
to the last Wednesday's episode we had Ryan MacDonald on.
So anyone running Gold Coast Marathon go back and have a
listen. Really interesting.
Yeah. All about the course and
changes, you know, and and the reasoning, giving you a bit of
information about why decisions are made.
Yeah, well, we can all guess, but we've got some hard truths.
I haven't got to like letting you over know about that episode
too much, but go back and have a listen.
Alright, until then, we'll see you next week.