Sydney Marathon Vs UTMB: Who Actually Won The Weekend | EP 103

[00:00] In the beginning, episode 103, Courtney Atkinson. How are you? I'm actually good. You know, this morning I pulled up the best I have from a run in the last five years. Just gonna process that. This morning's run, you pulled up the best you have from a run in five years. Tell me what the session was first. So the session was a 20-minute build. We were down at Pizzey, I was with Gold Coast Run Co. Session was taken by Louis. So what do we do? 20-minute build and then it was meant to be a mile on the track — run the straights fast, jog the bend, straight into it. I only did three laps because I kind of jumped in on the back of it. However, I never planned to do a hard session today. I actually went there with the purpose of being controlled, because — also another first — I've run, what's that, five days in a row. Oh. Yeah. Experiment out the door. But this is interesting, you're onto another experiment. Yeah, I'll go through my running in full. Actually, we'll jump in off a week while we're here. Just come out the top, drop a big statement like "I've pulled up the best I ever have in five years," and then say we'll talk about it later. Hit me with it. Let's work it out. We'll go off the top. So next week I'm gonna jump into Bridge to Brisbane. You're going in it. Yep. Doing the 10k. I'm gonna jump in. Is it on the Sunday? It's on the Sunday, yes. Next Sunday. As we're talking. Yep. Next Sunday. Okay. So I just want to be in a race.

[01:32] Yeah, great. So I've got this idea, we're gonna run another marathon. Okay. Okay. Well, I did hear this morning short courses. For the 5k. Maybe not the 10k. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Yeah, so — this is the difference. I'm 12 weeks out from running possibly another marathon. Right. And as of today, or even the last week or two, I'm in the shape I ran the Gold Coast Marathon. So if you compare apples with apples, I was 12 weeks — well, 12 to 16 weeks — out from the Gold Coast Marathon, I was walk-jogging. I couldn't run. Yes. And I got myself into — okay, people are gonna call me out — 2:43 pace. And now, literally with let's say another 12 to 14 weeks away, I'm in that pace. So it's like all that groundwork that you kind of not rushed, but you had to — you, as we've talked about, you experimented. You essentially did an experiment heading into the Gold Coast Marathon. And now your body's in a position where that groundwork is done. So whatever you decide to choose in 12 weeks' time, now you can actually train that block. Yeah. The thing was, a few weeks back — and I think I mentioned it on here — I got a bit excited and went and did some hard hills again and a few things, and I did pull up a bit like, this doesn't feel right.

[03:04] So I've gone back to just doing the good running, like, in the sweet spot, you know, just enough running at a good pace. And then this morning, I've been out every day this week, and then this morning, mate, I'd run really conservative and walked away from the session and went, legs feel good. I was gonna ask, when you say you walk away feeling better than you have for five years? No pain. Okay. And when I say pain, it's not pain, I mean tightness. There's gonna be a lot of people listening — you know, when you get up in the morning and you're stiff, and you finish a run and often you're stiffer. Yep. Well, for the first time in a long time, I ran a run and actually pulled up better than I went into the run. So, mate. Awesome. We're on our way. So, Brisbane — you say Bridge to Brisbane is next weekend. Yep. Goals, aspirations, hopes, dreams, what are we thinking? No injuries. Number one. Okay. So don't rip anything. Yep, number one. Number two is, it's like running it to find out where I'm at, but also just don't be a dick. Genuinely great road run. I like Bridge to Brisbane. I think you get — the start, for those that haven't done it, is this incredible pinch straight up the Gateway Bridge. Yeah. Then you get to roll down the other side and you get the tunnel section as well. You get along the river there at the start and then you kind of finish in and around the showgrounds. So it's a good run. Great run. I like it. It's a great run. And I think it's one of the only runs too where — normally, if you run uphill, you never really make it back on the downhill.

[04:37] The uphill's at a gradient, you can probably run the uphill fine early enough in the race. But I actually think you can get more pace off the back of it going on the downhill. I nearly actually think it's a good run where you can nearly pick up more time going downhill than uphill. Goal time. No? What time will you be sad with? Let's talk about that. Like, if you ran slower than 30 — I'd hope I can go under — no, I'm thinking like 35. See, there's always a time. I just have to pull it out of you. Well, realistically, if I'm gonna run a marathon quicker — Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna have to start to run a little bit. Look forward to hearing about what your time is next week on the pod. The week after that. I also have — just quickly, I have an event the same weekend as Bridge to Brisbane. I'm swim running. This is on the Saturday. I will be swim running. I was talking to Alex Rigby about this yesterday, and I didn't even realise I was running Bridge to Brisbane. So, Alex, no, I can't do it. Rigby is doing the swim run. Possibly. Yes. Maybe. I'm doing the 12k of the swim run, so I'm looking forward to that. Quick story — and we've got so much running, we're gonna get to the Sydney Marathon, we want to talk UTMB, we've got stuff we want to get to, but we're here where we are now. I'm gonna give a big shout out to Craig Pitchers, Scat, who people in the surfing world on the Gold Coast will know. Legend.

[06:12] Trains with the Whippets crew, the Alley Cats. Last Saturday morning, we just did a bit of a swim run session. And I'm in pretty good shape right now. I'm starting to run a bit better. I'm back on the bike, doing some cycling. I'm swimming. I'm feeling good. The issue, as I've talked about on here, for me in the ocean is a mental game. It's a head noise thing. And we did a bit of swim run stuff and we went out around Vikings — for those that know it, the Currumbin Vikings surf club — you swim out off the beach and you come back in on the other side. I've never swum that before. Scat came. Scat knows I'm not super confident out in the ocean. And we're swimming in shoes as well, which is the other factor to it. It was just a weird sensation. And I'll be honest, I started to have a mild freak out out around the back. Just because of everything. Yeah. It wasn't particularly — there wasn't, you know — and Scat was amazing, because he's a guy who's grown up surfing, very comfortable out in the ocean. Basically, I just said, "Scat, I'm starting to freak out a little bit because we're swimming and —" It wasn't rough conditions. And he's like — he treads water with me — "What are you freaking out about?" I said, "Oh." He's like, "Is it the rocks?" I'm like, "It's not the rocks." He's like, "Is it you thinking about sharks?" I'm like, "No, it's not." "So what are you nervous about?" I'm like, "I feel like a wave's gonna break on my head." And he's like, "Mate, the waves aren't breaking here. Just look." And he showed me, he's like, "The waves aren't breaking here. You're fine. Take some deep breaths." He kind of held me by the upside, take some deep breaths and we'll go.

[07:46] And I'm like, I have to. And I swam, and we were maybe 150 metres offshore. Maybe, if that. And I put my head down and swam for maybe a minute. And I could see I'm within — you know, I'm basically just at the shore. And it's such a — if you don't have that part of, if your brain doesn't do it, you'll never understand. It doesn't make sense. I understand that the logic is insane. I'm not gonna drown out there. I've got my nice, floaty, puffy shorts on. I'm not gonna drown. But my brain doesn't allow me to think that logically when I'm out there. Water's scary. Like, I get it, especially when you're isolated in water. Yeah. And you start thinking about a multitude of things. It's scary. And this is why — I don't have the exact data, but I believe the data is a lot of the problems in triathlon happen in the swim. Of course it would. And the reason it happens is exactly what you just explained there. It's not that people are unfit or anything going in, because you're going in expecting to race a half Ironman, an Ironman, a Noosa, whatever it is. You should be relatively comfortable that you can do two hours. But it's that anxiety in the water, mate. And I am the poster child for all the anxiety that comes with ocean swimming. Yeah, exactly. And this is why it's so important, if you are going to race Noosa or do a triathlon and, you know, you're just getting into it, or you haven't done it for a few years, whatever it is — you gotta get in the open water again.

[09:17] No, you've got to get out there. 'Cause once you do — exactly what you had happen — and imagine then you've got 50 people all pushing your head down and jumping around ya. Yeah, 50 people who've got no interest in helping me get to shore like Scat did on the weekend. Yeah. But the irony, of course, is Scat — again, shout out, good swimmer, helped me out out there. This hasn't happened yet, but I'll probably beat him in the race, because of the 12k race, there's only 1.5, 1.7km worth of swimming. And the rest of it is running. Yeah, right. Okay. And Scat is a much slower runner than — Is there only one distance? Is it just one? No, there's three distances. There's a 5, sort of a bit of a tester. There's the 12, which we're doing, and then there's a 20 enduro. Which I think you can do in teams as well. So we'll start at Currumbin and finish just on the other side of the North Burleigh headland there. So looking forward to it. It's gonna be a good race. Let's talk about the running that happened. There's a lot of road running and running running. It's all happening, isn't it? I mean, I wasn't really tuned in on both over the weekend. I was out on a motorbike. Okay. Yeah. But I did come back and I was obviously across it, I got back to like a heap of messages around Sydney, especially about mates and times and everything else. But where I want to start, 'cause I mean, there's gonna be a hundred running podcasts out there talking about who won Sydney and everything else, you know, like go and listen

[10:52] to someone who's, you know, in that space. If you're interested in that info, it's out there for you. Yeah, like there's plenty of running podcasts who are focused on, you know, the elite side of what the runs. But what I want to talk about is more — Sydney Marathon falls in a real, like, as our major, and we're celebrating it as our major, right? We've come to agree, amazing finish, best place, has to be in Sydney as a major, all of that. We don't disagree with that. But the timing of Sydney is quite unique. Unique in the calendar of marathons. And the fact — so all of the early marathons we go to watch have already been done. You know, your London's your early season. Yep. Winter marathon season normally starts with Berlin in September. Mm-hmm. So Sydney, all the way down under, kind of just falls in a little bit of no man's land. And to double with that, UTMB — Yes. Trail running is just — look, it's boom. I mean, it's the fashion capital of the world at the moment. Diesel has pressed go on the NOS in the car and trail running is — So on a weekend where both landed, if you're looking beyond, and if you're not just in Sydney and you're looking beyond that, I'm actually interested in, you know, how does this one become — it's not gonna become a challenger for Sydney, but what did you watch? Like, you watched both, but if you're a global audience —

[12:26] So you're asking, if it's a head-to-head battle of Sydney and UTMB for eyeballs and attention, who won? Who — where was the vacuum? What actually won out of this weekend? Hm. I'm gonna give it to UTMB. If we're talking global. Now, are you? Ah, we're just having a conversation. This is licking the finger, sticking it in the air, judging where the wind's blowing, sort of testing. We don't have any metrics to judge this. I think Sydney was an incredible success. I think it was a great way to follow on first year as a major last year. Without the Kipchoge effect and without the Hassan effect, they still did a really good job of making it a big race. And from everything I've been told — I wasn't there — the on-course experience was better. The bigger crowds. Randwick, which last year was a bit of a dead zone on the course, was pumping. Congratulations to the organisers. It sounds like they did a really great job of activating the course. Yeah. Heard the same thing from runners. Yeah. Undeniably, locally, Sydney Marathon won. I don't think it's got — it's too early for it, it's an infant in terms of it being a major marathon. It doesn't have the presence to captivate the global audience yet. Like London, like Berlin, like New York.

[13:56] It's not there yet. And as a result, UTMB, being the behemoth of the trail world, probably globally won that battle. Yeah, so from a brand perspective — because this was the other, I suppose, topic that came up — where did the brands actually, if you're looking globally, where did the brands show up? I can't speak to UTMB. Well, sorry, I lie. I can speak to it a little bit, because a friend went and did it. Asics, obviously — again, talking about Sydney — Asics was amazing, did an incredible job. A friend of mine from the radio station went down and ran it, came back with some great personalised LSKD merch. I think all of the brands that were present did a really good job at Sydney. I got sent a message about UTMB and I'm just gonna try and find it in one of my WhatsApp chats here. This is the trail running crew that all came up and did UTA this year with us. One of the fellas from that group actually did UTMB this year, and he described the village, the expo, as being like a Christmas market. He said it was just absolutely unbelievable. Everything was so bespoke and specific and bigger than any exhibition he'd ever been to before for any race. From what I saw, I mean, the brands just went all in. Very similar to — I mean, and this isn't — this isn't at major marathons around the world either, but all the houses. But it's a bit different, right?

[15:33] Because it's a point of difference where they can have an athlete house, whichever brand it is, and that can be so unique up in the mountains. The chalet, you know, down in the snow. Well, not the snow necessarily, but you know what I mean. It's just a whole different experience up there. So this is — and I'll share this, this message is from a fella, Jacob, who's part of that trail running crew. He said, "Got into Chamonix last night" — this is before he started his race — "It is epic here. Never seen anything like it. Hundreds of people out running and brand activations everywhere. The exhibition is literally the Christmas markets." And I'm holding this up to you, Courtney, but, you know, these are — that's the expo there that he's having a look through. Look at the purpose-built — yeah. I suppose it's also like we talked about when I came back from Innsbruck earlier in the year. You have the ability to build a proper village around an event. You wonder if Chamonix had one big convention centre like we have in Sydney and on the Gold Coast here, where you go, well, we'll just hold the expo there. Would they do it? Would they still make these bespoke, unique village-type atmospheres? Or would they just go, well, we've got something we can use there? But attention-wise, it sounds like — I think — but you look again, Sydney Marathon's brand new. As a major, it's brand new. Yeah. The reputation will build. I thought we heard more noise about it in the lead-up. From overseas audiences than we heard last year. Okay. I think the preview of the course, I think the mistake with the medal, really helped.

[17:05] I think it's starting to make noise, and I expect next year — Here's the other thing I want to fix. Someone was smart enough to do that on purpose. Look, if they did do it on purpose, genius. If they didn't do it on purpose, start claiming it. Is the way I would phrase it. I want to make a commitment here to you and to the In The Beginning family. I'm there next year. We were lucky enough to go down last year with AG1, do a bit of work. I loved it. We didn't run, but I loved being — sitting there on the Sunday with all the messages flying through of all the people doing it. I'm not committing to running it, but I wanna be there. I'd like to run it, but at the minimum, I'm gonna be there. Okay. Because it's just — I just had the greatest FOMO of, you know, that incredible atmosphere that comes with running events. But you're a — I lived in Sydney, I've got friends — I've got a theory on all of this. Like, take the major out of it. And just talking Australia here — each city's marathon is most important to the local people there. So when Gold Coast is on, here, we — I mean, we do a whole series on it with Gold Coast. Yes. So we — it's best in the world. You know, like, that's it. For Sydneysiders, that is your marathon. So you go for Melbourne — when Melbourne Marathon's on, for them, you know, Victorians, that's your marathon. So everything's focused on there for you at that time. I think the battle

[18:36] of the marathons is actually then exactly what you talked about — who from interstate is drawn to which one's more appealing. That's the measure of the true marathon. To everyone, I'm like, of course we barrack for your local. If Adelaide ever pulls their finger out and makes their marathon good, I'll get right behind it. Well, about just events on the weekend — I believe over in WA, Perth, they had their City — Yes, yes. Will Davison and Rihanna Crane on my fiddling. Really? Forty-five. Thirty-five maybe. It's on my other phone. Chevron City to Surf for Activ, the Perth City to Surf. I'm just having a look to see if I can see any — No, no, no, you might not — I— that just seems enormous. It seems enormous. Let me double check on the number, but my point is, we forget — you focus so much on what we see in your area and your mates, no one thought to think, "while that's going on over here, in Sydney, yeah, there was a race going on." 'Cause what is 35 — how many does Sydney get? At the City to Surf? No, no, no, not City to Surf. At the marathon on the weekend. Well, it has to be 40,000 finishers to call it — it had to reach the mark of —

[20:09] But they hadn't got there last year, maybe. But I mean, the point is there's a race going on in WA. Sydney — last year's marathon, so this year would have been bigger, but at last year's marathon they had 33,000 finishers at the marathon. So, but to your — I guess the point you're making is that on one weekend in Australia alone — Everyone in Perth — the majority of runners in Perth aren't really caring about the Sydney Marathon. They've got their big event on the same day. So this is — I mean, the winner is, right? Running. Let's stay with the marathon, because I've got two other things I wanted to share with you about this. Firstly, let's do the voicemail first. I want to set this up before you press play. Okay. I want people, before you listen to this — I want to keep in mind, if you've run a lot, if you're not new to running but you've run a lot, or maybe you've been competitive in certain sports for your whole life. Maybe you started sport at school and you competed at good levels and you kept competing after school and whatever. This is a voicemail from my mate Gus. Gus is part of the Runners in the Dark crew in Sydney. Gus is a weapon of a swimmer. He's also a sub-3 marathon runner. He's a great athlete. I reckon Gus is probably about 35 these days. For context, he pulled out, I think he was about 30k in, of the Sydney Marathon on the weekend.

[21:39] And he recorded this voicemail just after he'd pulled out, and he sent it to our running group. And I've checked with Gus — yeah, I have checked with Gus if I'm allowed to play this, and he said go for it. So this is the voicemail. So I love training, I love fitness, but I've been fucking pushing my body since I was about 16 years old, doing various sports, and really loving training and everything, and competing and stuff. And I think it's actually just hit me that I don't wanna do it anymore — the competing side of it. And I was running pretty well. About 5k into it I was running well, and I was just like, I fucking hate this. I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna do this again. But I'll dig in. And I was going well, and I started to fade about 28k, and I think I could have dug in and got like a 2:58-ish or 2:59, or potentially just a 3:10. And I just thought to myself, ugh, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. And just decided to walk home. And I don't feel disappointed. I'm happy with my life. You know, swim the beach every day, got a great life, live in a good spot, life's good, love my job. So all good, mate. So that's Gus straight after having pulled out from the marathon, 30k in.

[23:12] And as you said — and again, I don't want people to listen to that and think he's a quitter. Gus, he's a weapon, right? This is a bloke that I think has a PB somewhere around 2:50 for a marathon. He's a great 2:55 or thereabouts. Great runner. He's a pointy-end swimmer kind of guy, like across Bondi and all the rest of it. But it was a really interesting perspective on competing. As you said, he's been doing this since 16 — 20 years of this competition. And when I heard that, I immediately thought, I want to ask Courtney about this. And the idea of where your fuel tank is from a competitive standpoint. And if you've ever had moments like that where you just went, I've got nothing left to give from a competitive standpoint anymore. The first thing I thought is that's what trail running's for. No, seriously. Because the trail running is, you can go out and still love running and do all the things you love and test yourself, but time's irrelevant. Yeah. So to a degree there's still competition if you want it to be, or it's just run. It's a good day out. I mean, that's why I've always believed trail running's been a little bit of an out. It's definitely one of the reasons I love it a lot. I do still love it and loved it so much. Because there's no doubt that's exactly what he just experienced. And the other reason we love road running is there is no hiding.

[24:45] The result is the result. You know, whether you're either trying to win the race or whether you're trying to beat a time. Yeah. You can't fake it. Unless you stop your watch short, but, you know, you can't fake it. And then that brings about so many other things, like if you can't put the amount of time into training that you want. I mean, I don't really know where to go with it, 'cause — yeah, I mean, I can understand it. That's what I'm saying. I think a lot of people will understand it as well. And I think probably the thing I liked — when Gus sent that to everybody, I heard it and I instantly went, this is what I— I wish more people looked at running like Gus, because he's someone that for 20 years has been competitive and has been fuelled by it. But he's found his own point of going, no, don't want to do it anymore. And I think we always talk about Strava and social media and run clubs and further and faster and all that sort of stuff. There's that constant buzzing in your ear in the running world of, who are you beating? Are you going faster than you've ever been before? That's always there. And I think if we can be a bit more like Gus and all just silence, and be comfortable with ourselves and what our own running journey is, and be okay with that, you'll just enjoy it more. Like, I've got no doubt Gus will— Gus will keep running, Gus will

[26:23] probably might take to the trails, or he might just go back to just running with Runners In The Dark as regularly as he does. But I love the fact that he's found his point of going, no, I don't want to race marathons anymore. Yeah, I really liked it. I love it. I really like it. And the fact that you can be so honest about it too. Yes. Because I mean that's half the battle, right? Is being honest. If you're not enjoying it, you probably are doing it for the wrong reasons. And then you've got to somehow be honest with yourself to say— And look, I put myself— not comparing at all to Gus's story, but I would say to a degree, that's why I probably didn't run on the road for so long. I was avoiding it, because I didn't want to— I wasn't in the shape I was as an Olympian, for sure, and I didn't want to put myself out there. That was me. I'm like, I'm not ready to go and chase times and all that. But when you're comfortable with what you need to go out and do, then it all— then you start to enjoy it. Then it works. Okay. And in the end, I agree, you've got to be running for the right reasons. Staying with Sydney Marathon for one more point — can we? Yep. Andy Buchanan. Huge shout out. Yep. Ninth overall, I believe. First Aussie over the line. $30,000 prize money for being the first Aussie. Our mate Andy — well done. Congratulations. I want to talk about the bloke that came ninth. Oh, ninth? The ninth Australian over the line.

[27:55] Okay. Who's that? Ned Brockman. Yeah, of course you were gonna bring him up. You just split our audience and— Hey, this is— I'm gonna say off the bat, this is way more— I think a satire account actually said this. This is way more impressive than anything else he's done. Hands down. But do you agree? Do you think a 2:21:48, which is what he ran, is more impressive than the run across Australia? A hundred percent. Great. Of course. Don't get angry. Okay. I think we might see Ned at the 2032 Olympics in the marathon. I think Ned Brockman is gonna qualify for the Brisbane Olympics in the marathon. That's a— I'm not gonna stipulate any— just bear with me for a moment. The athletic entry standards approved by the World Athletics Council for the Paris 2024 Games— Yes. —was a 2:08 in the men. Now he's 13 minutes off that, 13 and a half minutes off that. That's a long way to go. I guess while you're here, I'm gonna jump in and defend my audience. Like I said, this is— I believe this is the most impressive thing Ned has done. But good. Now I think he's got to a place where — where you're going — he's a full-time pro athlete.

[29:31] So then you've got to go, and this is what my mates would say to me, you gotta start comparing apples with apples then. Yep. And why 2:20 isn't— for a full-time pro athlete, isn't good enough. But you're saying you think he's got the improvement to make the Olympics? This isn't all head, I'll acknowledge that. This is a little bit of heart here. It's probably more heart than head. I'm probably saying it's probably 40% head, 60% heart in my take here. I think the single-mindedness of this fella — he's 27 years of age, so he'll be 33 when Brisbane rolls around. So he is entering a good patch from an athletic profile. Yeah. I think the single-mindedness, there's no questioning that determination within him. He is in a privileged position that he's created for himself, where he is able to train as a professional athlete. Andy Buchanan just won that Australian race and pocketed $30,000. Ned doesn't need it. Because of everything he's done prior to this, because of the position he's put himself in, he doesn't need to win that prize money to continue to fund his professional athlete pure journey. He's kind of coming through another door. I'm not saying it's definite, but I'm saying there is a chance I think we see Ned at the 2032 Olympic Games in the marathon.

[31:04] Okay, Liam Flanagan, I'm gonna let that resonate with you. Yeah, yeah. And I get there are people that will be furious with that take. I get it. We have a— you know, there's two audiences in this space, right? There really is. And I think to the audience who will say, to a degree, why are you giving it air— Yeah. —the reason is because he's got a shitload of reach. Right? Ned's also a mate. I'm also talking in the same way I shared that message from Gus. Ned's also a friend who is doing things in the running space that I'm going to talk about. Yep. That's my personal take on all this. I totally understand why the people on the other side of the fence of the Ned Brockman argument get infuriated by any mention of his athletic efforts. I get it. I do get it. But no, I think this time everyone is sitting there going, that is super impressive. He's finished top ten Aussies at the Sydney major marathon. Especially from the improvement, from what I'm told, from London. Yep. Yeah. It's something to watch. It's a wait and see. It's a long, long day. Leave your— yeah, that would— Quick prediction. I just want to see: who do you think ran a faster Sydney Marathon time out of Ash Barty and Emma McKeon? I saw the Olympic Committee put these up. I don't— actually, I'll throw another one into the mix. Paul Gallen. All three of these former elite athletes.

[32:36] Ash Barty with the fastest time, 4:16. Emma McKeon ran a 4:41. I believe Paul Gallen took over five hours. So poor old Gallen, a beast in his heyday. I think the marathon took it out of him. It's interesting how many people are going out there doing it, isn't it? Oh, Harry Garside, friend of the pod, had a great run. 2:36, yeah. He had a great race. Harry ran a great time, so well done. Well quicker than me, that's for sure. Yeah, okay. Sydney — shoes quickly. Yes, go. Actually, I'm gonna be honest, I didn't think you were gonna bring Ned up today. You've rattled me a little bit. Okay. Because— I apologise. You know how much our audience is split on this. And I am gonna cop emails for the rest of the week now. So if you wanna talk about runners out there, there was a— Matt Fox is another guy. That's who I thought you were gonna bring up to me, because you wrote in here "world record". I've got a— yeah, I've got something. We can talk about that later. So I didn't think you were gonna go there, Liam. I thought you were going to the world record, and I believe Matt ran in a pair of jeans. Oh god. So talk about that world— Yeah. Shrewett, who we'd talked about before, he had the world record. Yes. Matt's gone and run in jeans. Ugh. How fast did he go?

[34:07] 2:33 or so. Don't quote me on the time, but I believe he broke the world record. Horrible. That was where I thought you were going. And I was also gonna jump down and go, do you want to talk about the world record I want to talk about? Mm, depends. So we love running. I think we've made that very clear, and as much as we love the fun of people trying to break world records, I think we probably agree that it's reached a tipping point where — stop, right? Enough's enough. We get it. You can run whilst carrying a tray as a waiter, and people are running whilst cooking breakfast. Yeah, it's done. I found a world record I kinda wanna beat. You personally? Yeah. Okay. Right. There's a fellow by the name of Sam Bodoano — I hope I'm pronouncing his surname correctly. Sam Bodoano from Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey, set a world record for the longest cricket run-up. Okay. So the longest run-up to go and then deliver a ball for a cricket game. How far? 32k? 100k. Okay. He ran 100k starting at Lord's Cricket Ground in North London on Saturday. And he finished by bowling the game's opening ball to his father at Valley End Cricket Club in Woking on Sunday.

[35:40] It took 14 hours. He raised £6,000 for charity as well. But I really like it. I really like it. Do you know what I'm gonna say, Liam? The world was just such a simpler place when we had a race, celebrated who actually won the race— I know. —and they were a champion and we moved on. Kinda feel like, with the summer of cricket approaching, I can beat this. There is so much out there that you could— I mean, even our discussion just on Sydney Marathon then and everything. Yeah. The world was such a simpler place before it was democratised in media. Just give me the winner of the race and tell me they're the best and let's move on. I like the idea of us, an Australian, taking back this record from the English. A cricket record, it should be with Australia. Not cricket— And I feel like maybe I should talk to the people at Triple— Cricket, I'm nearly gonna say. It sounds like you work on a radio show, Liam. So stand by, because you might see me, in a really petty fashion, take this record off this English fella by a kilometre. I'm looking into it. I'll leave it there, but I'm looking into it, Courtney. The full weight of Triple M behind you. Yes. Hey, I really want to move on from Sydney Marathon, but I can't just yet, because I want to talk quickly about the shoes. Yes. Females — we've talked about everyone. Asics— sorry, Adidas.

[37:13] Yes. Nike prototype. Yes. Adidas. That's in the women's race. Male: Nike prototype. Yep. Adidas. Chinese shoe. Sean Asher. Yep, Xtep. Okay. So before I go into the Aussies, let's just — 'cause they're— let's go to the fastest end of the race. Yeah, yeah. Interesting, right? So Nike back— back in the result. The prototype. Yep. And so it's kinda gone back to, from this race anyway, a bit of status quo with a good bit of Chinese thrown in there. Yeah, so the Xtep 160X 8.0 Pro, which I've gotta be honest, I don't know much about Xtep. They're not a Chinese brand that I'm familiar with. Just having a bit of a look at— So then, why I wanted to not skip over it, because then you go to the top Aussie females and you go New Balance, Nike, Asics. You go to the top Aussie males, all prototypes, but in Asics. Right. All MetaSpeed prototypes in Asics. What does that say to— There's a lot of good shoes out there, obviously. That all works. But yeah, if you get some prototype. Does it go with Australia with the Olympics? Because the rule was brought in place where these shoes that they ran in at the Olympic level needed to be available for retail purchase.

[38:50] I believe it was like six months prior to the race. So would these prototype shoes that the winner was running in be eligible? These pro— I'm not sure on the Olympic rule, I'll be completely— trying to— however, these have obviously been put forward to the World Athletics Association. They have ratified them as a prototype to be worn in the— in the shoes. Yes. But I'm not sure on the— be interesting to know whether that's eligible at an Olympics. Can you run in a prototype at the Olympics? That's probably a question chat can answer for you really quick. Nike would be stoked to sort of be back on the podium at the elite end. And then that's the next question, like, when do they drop? Good question. Also, when will we see an athlete in one of these Chinese shoes take the tape at one of these big races? I don't know. Another thing to look into. It was a good race. I really enjoyed watching it. Again, I watched it, I noticed the coverage for the Sydney Marathon was on SBS, and my only critique: would love to have an Australian accent on the coverage. Really? It sounded English. Yeah, it looked like a world— Mate Luke Towell also just wrote in around— he's a Gold Coaster, local, loves the GC Marathon, he'll be 100% sign up next year, but he said the Sydney— his

[40:21] feedback was, again, the Sydney Marathon best in Australia. Sure, Gold Coast might be faster, but you can't beat Sydney for the landmarks. I'm gonna disagree. Not that I've done Sydney. Well hey, turn our attention to Sydney— Melbourne now. Good luck. Good luck, Melbourne. It's all on you now, the stage is yours. Gold Coast, fast. Sydney, big. Melbourne, what are you gonna be? What do you say? I'm gonna be in Melbourne. Running it? Running it. Have you— wait, what are we, 40 minutes in, and you're running Melbourne? I'm gonna run the half at Melbourne. So my friends at Nike are— I'm gonna run around and try and refine some speed. This is big. Yes. I got very— I thought you were just casually dropping your next marathon on it. No, no. So I'm gonna jump in the half, so I'll be able to report instead of us just guessing. When are you— when's— what weekend? Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival. Fantastic. You're running the Nike half marathon, which is great. I'm just bringing it up in front of me so I've got all the information. What are we, 37 days out? So what weekend does that put it on? What's the date? I mean, it'd be great if the bloke running it— It's okay, you've got me a month. Thanks, boy. Yeah, peanut. Eleventh of October. Do you know what? Eleventh of October. No, you know what? I'm coming down. I gotta— oh, I wanna watch this.

[41:51] I wanna come and hang around. I wanna come and watch you race this. October the eleventh. Let me just check the calendar live here. Saturday. I got nothing on. I'm gonna come down. I'm gonna come and watch you race. What are we shooting for? No, you gotta have an idea. It's all to build— it's all to build to another marathon. It's about, like I said, it's about finding, refining some speed. Okay. So that's 10k Bridge to Brisbane, half marathon into— And for those that have been listening the whole way through, if you just caught up, he did this to me at Bridge to Brisbane as well. I have to drag it out of him the hard way. You said you're around 35 minutes at Bridge to Brisbane. Yep. Then 1:15? Yes, it'd have to be 1:15. Good. So you want to be under 1:15? That makes sense, if— yeah, moving in a better direction. What are you gonna run in? The same Alphaflys that you ran in at Goldie? Well, I suppose that's my question as well. Is there something— 'cause I don't know when they're dropping these. Is there a prototype? Hello, friends at Nike. Is there a prototype? Geez, it would be good to see Courtney Atkinson running in a prototype. I highly doubt I'll be in a prototype. Is Andy gonna be running Melbourne? Not sure. I doubt it. Okay. But he might run a half, hey. Good question. Can you— He'll get back to you by the end of the episode. Oh, ask him who's running the half.

[43:22] Tell him — I'll say, "Andy, Courtney's running the half marathon." He did message me the other day, he laughed at my story because I'm a psychologist. Why are you looking that up? I can't — but you can't get off this Sydney. We've got so much. We've got batteries today, because we might go a bit longer than usual. Get this one. Why would the Sydney Marathon — you go in, put your— and they give you your finisher shirt. Yeah. You get your finisher shirt. Is this the biggest scam? I won't use the words my mate sent to me, but is this a joke? That you are handed your finisher shirt when you register. Yes. It's not a good look. It's not a good look, right? Is that encouraging— I don't know. I don't know, because— Right. So I won't say who, I won't throw them under the bus, but this person got injured and wasn't running, went in to actually ask, "Can I change my entry over for someone else? Can I transfer it?" The answer was no, but here's your bib and your finisher shirt. I mean, in that case I'm like, this is— I think someone messaged in to the pod, and apologies for not having your name to hand.

[44:52] They saw someone running in their finisher shirt the day before. They saw someone doing laps of Centennial Park in a finisher shirt for the marathon on the Saturday before the race. I don't know. Talk about efficiencies. Yeah, and it's at that point — this is another thing that leans into what we like here. At that point, what's the point? Like, if you're just buying the t-shirt, you're literally buying the t-shirt. There's no— But this isn't the fault of the runner. No, I agree. No, no, no. It's not the fault of the runner. It's the race. I'd like a question if you ran in Sydney: we've talked about merch and things on here and it means so much to runners. Is this a little bit of a slap in the face at— well, the person who didn't finish or didn't start and they're still running around in the same shirt, didn't even have to run it. Anyway, moving on. Lo— what were you doing while I was doing that? You're messaging Andy. I've sent Andy a message. I'll let you know if he comes back. Locally. One of the best events on the Gold Coast, Coastal High 50, was on over the weekend. So Linz took it out. Yeah, yeah. Smashed it. Didn't even know he was on here. But yeah, absolutely smashed it. And he was telling me — I was on the phone with him — he said, "I was listening to your pod talk about the crowns

[46:23] as I was, and then I finished and I literally got given a part of the—" given the part of the crown. Yeah. The Coastal High, I was there. You talk about FOMO and me wanting to be in Sydney next year, UTMB, all that sort of stuff. I've got to embrace the trail running scene here and the trail trips and events, the series that Steve runs, and I saw that Coastal High. I looked it up on the map because I've never been out there before, I didn't know Numinbah Valley. And I'm like, I've got to get out. Yeah, they ship sterns to begin with. It's an amazing— Scott George sent me a picture. He had a run there, and if you want to know how hard the event is or what type of trail it is, he actually tried to run it in — they look like Vaporflys. Ooh. I'll show you — have you seen them? Yeah, I'll put them up on the video if anyone's watching along. Been absolutely murdered. Let's just say you're not getting through a 50k trail run out the back of the Gold Coast in Vaporflys. Like a dog has absolutely ripped— It does, it does. They look like the shoes you've left out the front and the untrained dog has got a hold of them, and you're gonna go back to the Nike store for more because these are no good anymore. So that's just come from running the race. He started in the Vaporflys, and that's what they look like after. Can we talk about this next shoe you've got loaded up? You can. Is this a joke? These are legit shoes. Is it legit? It came out around— well, the reason I threw it on there is Pickle Juice.

[47:56] It's an ACG Nike shoe. They released it around UTMB, at the same time. So it's not out. It's obviously a prototype, it's coming. Yeah, no, I think it's beyond a prototype. But it's called Pickle Juice. And Pickle Juice. The reason I put the pictures in there for ya is, have a look at the sole. Yeah. Because we remember the Salomon golf dimple? Yes. The dimple? As soon as I saw this, it reminded me — not because it looks like the golf dimples, but the similar situation of, are they pickles? Is it meant— do you reckon they're meant to be pickles? I think they're meant to be inspired by pickles, absolutely. I think this whole— I mean, Nike don't do things by accident. I found the page, the website, and it says, "ACG's latest trail running innovation started with a single question. How do you help athletes navigate the long and demanding big mountain trails found around Mont Blanc?" So it is specific: "conserving energy while climbing, descending with more load protection, and maintaining confidence over 100-plus miles in the mountains. The answer? Pickle Juice. ACG's pinnacle expression of big mountain running innovation, featuring Goat Tech, the brand's proprietary—" context. Yeah. Goat Tech. They're a great looking shoe. And it's hilarious that we're talking about this today, because on the radio station, on the radio show earlier this week, we were talking all things pickle, because there's pickleball clubs left, right and centre here on the Gold Coast. Pickles are trending. Pickles have never been bigger. Pickle juice. Now we've got pickle shoes. KFC's just introduced a pickle range.

[49:27] There's pickled beer, there's pickled chips. Pickles are having a moment. Right. And I'm here for it. I didn't connect the dots until you just said— I'm all in for this. Because, some context here: like I just said, we're going down to Melbourne running in a pair of Nikes. When I was in tri's, I was running the back end of my half Ironmans at one stage, when I was between shoe sponsors, in a pair of Nike Kigers at the time, some of the original ones. The issue Nike used to have with their trail shoes was they were amazing in the sense that they had forefoot Air, they were a brilliant shoe, all great. But the traction on them, the actual grip, was dog shit. Yeah. No, there's no better way to say it. Yeah. Like, you could run across, you know, the front of someone's driveway and you'd flip up. Yeah, yeah. Where they improved it was then they went with Vibram. So they solved it by just going, we obviously make great shoes, we haven't got this tread right yet. Went to Vibram, solved the issue straight away. But now it looks like they're actually — I'd be interested to know what it is, but it looks like they're innovating themselves again. We'll see where that one goes. I like it. Do you want to— we've gone, geez, what are we— let's just keep— are you good to keep rolling? I'm good to keep rolling. I wanted to know if you wanted to dip your toe into a bit of non-running for a moment.

[51:05] Yeah, like, let's just— Well, like you just talked about, you've got a reason to talk about Ned, you're a mate. Yes. We can say we've had a fleeting experience with Scott. Yeah, we have. I forgot about that. I wouldn't call him a mate, but we've had a fleeting experience. If anybody listening to this is a diehard runner who does not follow the world of AFL at all: Scott Pendlebury is the games record holder in the AFL. He has played 242 games, I believe it is. He's currently 38, and he signed a four-year deal to come up and join the Gold Coast Suns, leave Collingwood, where he's played all his games. Two-year playing contract, two-year coaching deal. So, the Noosa story of Scott Pendlebury. For those that don't know, Noosa Triathlon weekend, there's a legends race, aka a celebrity race, on the Saturday before the triathlon on the Sunday. Now, this celebrity race, you get to see the likes of Courtney Atkinson and the likes of Beth McKenzie and proper elites in the world of triathlon. Then you get to see other elite athletes, aka Ben Hannant, who was at the top of his game as an NRL player and loves the world of triathlon. Noosa is not an AFL stronghold. No. It's growing. It's growing. And two years ago, I was in the legends race, myself and James Tobin. Shout out to people not qualified as athletes to be in that race.

[52:39] We were in that race, and when they were doing the introductions of all the people running, when the announcer introduced Scott Pendlebury, they might as well have been introducing Liam Flanagan for the amount of applause he got. Nobody on that course— By the wrong name. That was— "Ben Pendle—", it wasn't— And you said to me, "Oh my god." Only in Noosa would they mistake the great Scott Pendlebury. They said his name wrong. It was like "Scott Pendleford" or something. You were disgusted. I was horrified, because this is Scott Pendlebury. And I was horrified. They're like "Scott Pendleford", and everyone's like— Well, no wonder they didn't clap. They didn't know who it was. He's coming to town though. He is coming to town. What do you think? 38 years of age. The Coast is a great place to come and live. It is. I'll give my footy take. I love it. I think he'll probably only play eight to ten games a year. I think what the Suns are buying is not so much on-field output as much as it is off-field contribution from a leadership capacity. They've got an incredible bunch of kids. Zeke Uwland, Leo Lombard, Beau Addinsall, John Murray — they've got these great local academy products.

[54:09] And aside from Wittsy and David Swallow, who's just recently retired, there's not a lot of football experience on their list. There's not a lot of big stage footy experience on their list right now. Scott Pendlebury has that in spades. Why the big pause? I just don't have that knowledge to be able to make a call on whether that's right or wrong. But what I do have is, him coming to the Gold Coast has created some great media. Heard this one? Have you seen this going around? This is probably one of the best. We'll play it and see how it goes. Grave concerns are growing for AFL legend Scott Pendlebury, who appears to have undergone a rapid and irreversible gold coastification within hours of relocating north. SP10 has since completely overhauled his Instagram page, rebranding himself as a life coach and offering unsolicited advice on fitness and cryptocurrency. "I believe Confucius said, man without crypto has no currency. Let me explain the second sunrise theory." Pendlebury was intercepted outside the Burleigh Pav this afternoon by concerned coach Damien Hardwick. A search of the vehicle allegedly uncovered a three-park super pass, a podcast microphone, 12 loose veneers, a flexible one-way ticket to Dubai, designs for a full sleeve, a

[55:41] provisional jet ski licence, and a signed contract to reopen Sizzler. Yeah. There's levels to this. We're locking in. Yeah, it's sharp. It's sharp. That's the Channel Nine — as in, spelt N-E-I-N — Nein Oz. I have seen that one. It's good stuff. It's good fun. It's a bit of a local, in Gold Coast. But to start with the news. News, exactly. I liked— I saw Buddy Franklin off the back of the announcement — Buddy's here on the Coast as well — came out and said to Tassie, "let's put a four-year contract in front of me," because he looked amazing when he played in the legends game the other week. It'll also be great for the young guys to have this guy around the club. With the dip they had this year on field as well, it can only help having someone of his calibre and quality of character around the club. The other thing that I love is that he only needs, I think, five or eight more, maybe eight more games to reach 450. And he'll do that as a Gold Coast Sun. And there's a part of me that just loves that this Collingwood legend will play his 450th, maybe in the pink jumper of the Gold Coast. I'm tipping that Collingwood supporters aren't as happy about that as you may— If they're smart, they'll line that up for that. Scott Pendlebury plays his 450th against Collingwood at the Friday night game here on the Gold Coast. I've got one question for you. Yeah, go. If he turns up to swimming, does that make you turn up more?

[57:15] I want to be mates. I'll say it right now: hey Scott, come. The door is open to Courtney's home studio here if you need to— I mean, I think he'll be okay. But I imagine he'll be down in the creek with you and Wittsy and the salty swimmers. I reckon— I'll put it this way, I reckon you're a better chance to become mates with Scott than I am. Early days. Early days. All right. I've got one here. This was interesting. Jen Davies sent this to me and it was called City Strava Maps. And it makes sense to me. So what it does — people are realising that when they move to a major city around the world, like New York or wherever, if they're a runner or if they're that way inclined into fitness, you can now use Strava to see where the hotspots are of people doing activities. What it also has done on the flip side is, when you start looking at these city maps, it actually really shows where people don't. So the flip side of, where do people run, but where do people actually avoid, or aren't runners, or all of those things. It is interesting. So I jumped into heat maps in our three East Coast cities at least. Brisbane, a little bit of Gold Coast. Now Brisbane was an interesting one. I mean, as you'd expect in Queensland, it's pretty much all over the place.

[58:47] Yep. It is driven by population, I can see that. However, we do have a real spot where people avoid running. In Queensland? In Brisbane. Oh really? Now, I looked a bit deeper into this one. It has got a little bit to do— now, this is another— industrial areas aren't high run-frequency zones. Obviously, people don't live there so they don't run out of their house. But it also made me think, if you're running early in the morning and you want to get away from traffic — maybe I'm going, like, not thinking how early trades start. Yeah. It's early in the morning, isn't it? You probably want to avoid an industrial area. On the weekend an industrial area would be empty, right? That's where we used to do crit bike races, through industrial areas. No, Courtney, you've missed this one. This is a miss from you. Because if you're going for a run, do you really want to run through industrial areas? If it's quiet, I'd way prefer to run through an industrial area than down the main street of someone's— like, down the main street. Of course. But you can see by these heat maps, people generally look like they run out of their door. So Brisbane was fine. Can I make a prediction — and I'm not sure if you'd be able to see this — I'm assuming Brisbane South Bank. You mean hot spots? The hottest of hot spots. I'm guessing it's South Bank slash around — what's the brewery called?

[1:00:18] Felons Brewery, kind of round there, through the river, yeah. The river. I mean, the city in general in all three states, where it makes sense, like the harbour in central Sydney — and Sydney of course is the same. It's harder maybe when you go around the globe, it's a little bit different how cities are, but we've only got really three, four, five big cities, right? So they're pretty populated where they are. But it's where they don't run. The other one I had — and so maybe someone from Victoria. So Sydney was pretty much what you'd expect. Yep. There is, I think we've talked about it before, the Birkenstock line. Yeah. I think other people call it the Hungry Jack's— Yes. The Hungry Jack's line, or the KFC line. That effect is in running as well. So if you come south of Parramatta, sparse. South of Parramatta. So I don't know these suburbs. Where was it? Let's zoom right out. Sefton, Ber—, um, Auburn. Auburn, Auburn Hills, yep. Well, yeah. Limited. Yeah, very limited. If they are running, that's because they're being chased by the police. Melbourne, however. Melbourne though. Here's— it is a little bit industrial. Can I make a prediction about where you're gonna say no one runs?

[1:01:49] Sure. Docklands. Tell me — in Marvel Stadium. Like, right in the streets around Docklands, no one runs. Yeah. No. It's a bit— Docklands has got to be one of the great "why didn't this work"s of all time. So you're meaning, like, if I'm looking at a map, left, so what is that? West Coast. So west— West Melbourne. Kind of west of the city, Docklands. Yeah, basically. This is— they've never been able to— Yeah, exactly where I'm— pocket is, yeah, I was looking even more specifically around here. And look, I know it's industrial and all the rest of it, but the truth of it is, when the AFL tried to build Docklands and built Marvel Stadium down there back in the day, they were like, "this is gonna be huge, it's gonna be great." They thought they were Sydney for a moment, and they thought, well, we can build a harbour atmosphere — and you're just not. You're a sporting city that's got great facilities. It was a miss, and they've never been able to bring that precinct to life. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, if you're ever travelling, like we've talked about here in the past, just jump on heat maps. It's amazing, amazing to get out there. I like that one. What else have we got? Old school. Yeah, you've shared a post of old school runners versus Instagram runners, like these where we compare. Have you got that one? I've got it up. So this has come from an account called Gary B Runs. It's old school runners versus Instagram runners.

[1:03:20] It says, "I'm from the old school. I started running when you just went for a run. No filming, no kit check, no tripod, no reel. Put your shoes on, you press start, and you disappeared. So naturally I look at modern running Instagram and think, what happened to running? Except there's a slight problem." And I like this honesty. This is the honesty episode. Gary said, "I post my runs, I photograph my shoes, I upload Garmin and Strava, I make reels, I even create entire bloody Ladybird books about running. So perhaps I'm actually an old school runner who became an Instagram runner while complaining about Instagram runners, which may be the most Instagram thing of all." And you know what? I think I'm a little bit guilty of this. I am too. And this is the honesty episode. It started with that great voicemail from Gus. You've admitted now that you're running the Melbourne half marathon. I like cycling. That is being very honest. Bike cycling. I found myself — because we've got Noosa about seven weeks away or whatever it is, and I'm doing my usual cram training on the bike. And I went, I've got a great 40, 45k from my joint out the valley and back. Perfect ride, right? And I've done that three times, and it was the most recent one, and I suddenly went, this is really fun. I was really enjoying it. I don't know. But I think I'm ready to try. The only downside to this was, because again, I rode out there and I'd done this, and I got out halfway at my turnaround point.

[1:04:51] I'm like, God, this is fun. I'm gonna film something. And I posted it and it was fun, it's got good engagement like I'd hoped. And then at that point I took my glasses off and I put them in the back bit of the vest, cycling thing. I then rode back down, and when I stopped off to grab a drink, I went, where are my glasses? Gone. So you're blaming that on the filming. Yeah. I'm just thinking, if I hadn't been so— if I hadn't been worried about creating content. Absolutely the cycling gods saying, hey, if you're gonna get into this with us and you love us, you need to love cycling first, content second, okay? Because if you make it about content, we're gonna take things from you. So it was a good lesson. But I'm enjoying cycling. I need to buy some new kit though, I need to get some new cycling kit. Have you seen— what about our man Matt Hauser with his new fancy dancing? You've seen this? He's, um, Salir. Is that a brand? Yeah, by an ex-Olympian, yeah. Matt's done a collection. It looks really good, I like the colour scheme, but he's dancing. He's doing the— he's reenacting the scene from Love Actually. Okay. In the ad for the whatever, the branding thing. I've got to show you this because you'll giggle at this. Because I— when I watch— while we're talking about old school, new school runners, and you having karma on content, here's the best triathlete in the world dancing.

[1:06:25] Yeah. Yeah, watch this. Here you go, I'm showing this to you. We'll try and get this up. Filming, thank you. This is— it's taking a leaf out of Scotty James's book. Now, I really like it. I think it's great production, the kit is sharp. But I only met Matt not that long ago, and I did not see this coming for him. I love it, but I did not see that coming. And I'm just thinking, would Courtney Atkinson have ever done something like that? Very good. It's a new world, Liam. It's a new world. I mean, look, good — because we're saying it's transparent, it's not like I've never done content. I mean, half my job has been content. Yeah. But personal branding of content, and then the way some people— the way it goes, is interesting to me. But I'm in a different— Is it reflective of your environment? Your content, I feel — even the ones you still film now when you run and do these things with Subaru and your other partners — you're always showing off where you are. Yeah, I'm gonna do something different this way, but I'd like to say that I'm always doing something.

[1:07:56] You are, for the sake of doing it. In the new world I think the challenge that a lot of people face is that they need to make the content about who they are. And I don't know if that's ever been— I don't know if that's who you are, to make yourself the big hero of these content pieces. Yeah. Are you saying there's something on the way? No. No, definitely not. I've just always looked— I've always tried, at least. And look, there's different times, brands — let's all agree here, money talks sometimes and brands want you to do something and you've got to toe the line. But in general, I'm always like, go and experience it first. Yeah. And do what you do, and if that then creates good content, great. But the notion of actually doing the content for the sake of the content, which is what has to happen — that's just the way the world's gone these days. It comes back to what we're talking about here: old school runner versus Instagram runner. It's like, what do you get most enjoyment out of? Is it actually creating content, or is it actually going and doing the bloody stuff you love doing? Which, you just said, on a bike — I love the ride. I'm enjoying the riding, I'll make the content secondary. I'm enjoying the bike. I'm the first one to admit, sometimes I pull out a camera. Sometimes I love pulling out a camera if I've got a new toy as well. But I still love the run more. Get a drone. I was at a thing the other day and someone flew a drone up, I'm like, that looks fun. You know what I appreciate? A cotton t-shirt running.

[1:09:28] Like, just a solid— just a solid old cotton. Yes. Like when I see someone running in cotton, I go: respect. Respect. Yes. You don't care. You don't care. You're running 'cause you just run. You want to show the sweat, you're happy for that. Yep. Respect. You're not gonna take it off, because you're happy. Just to— grey cotton, even better. I can't wear grey, I'm black. But grey cotton is like, mate, respect. Where are we? I mean, we're running a bit long today, but that's okay, because there's lots to get to. I've got one which is a big no thank you. Okay. So this is great coming off the back of this, it's a segue. It's called Share Aura. Share Aura. And you're saying no to this? I am. I am saying a big no thank you. So Jake Haydn was where I found— saw it, and he was talking about it. But: Strava finally has a new social competitor. Yes. And it feels like Instagram. I mean, this was red flag straight away. So the app's called Share Aura, started as a tool to turn your workouts into graphics, but effectively it looks like they're showing now it's Instagram, to show all your running gear. And they're obviously trying to promote it to become, you know, a social media thing. So effectively what they're trying to do is, you know, people run for different reasons, which we all agree. Yep. This is the app if you just want to show what you look like or what you're wearing.

[1:11:01] Your gear. And so this app lets you show off what that is, instead of just logging the workouts. So it's more of a— I mean, I don't know why you just wouldn't do this on Instagram. It's a fit— sorry, it's a fashion. It's a specific— sounds like it's a specific one. So, "training is an art, artists need to—" ooh. I'm just having a bit of a play, a look around for the Share Aura stuff. So yeah, look. I don't think this is— I think this is unnecessary. Yeah, I mean, God. I'm not fit at the best— sorry, fashionable at the best of times. Sure. I'm just reading, I found their page. Share Aura marketing principles. "Just share. These with no advertising: Aura will spend zero dollars on marketing. This means no words on Instagram, TikTok or anywhere else. Our product is our only marketing." Yeah, but every social media site started off— "No influencer. Aura will never pay or sponsor an influencer or creator to use the product. If you see someone share with Aura, it is because they wanted to. No run clubs. Aura will never host a run club—" Hold on— Let me finish. "Instead we'll partner with and support the incredible run clubs, brands and events around the world. We want to amplify you." Okay. So they're going to park those records. And lastly, "no watermark. Aura will never have a watermark."

[1:12:31] "Sharing is human. Sharing is personal. Sharing is self-expression. Sharing should never have a watermark." I like that last bit. I like that. There you go. I wonder— if you like your clothes and running. Something to keep an eye on. I wonder whether that's something that's rebranded, because there's only three posts on the page. Those principles I just read out have come from 2025. It's got 22,000 followers, but there's nothing apparently there. I wonder whether that was something else previously. Yeah, I mean, anyway, who knows what to believe these days. It could just be someone doing some AI design and seeing how it goes. Yeah. All right, how are we travelling? We're travelling. We're travelling. What have we got? Did you see the stuff on the robots in China? Yeah, the robot Olympics. Yeah. They broke the 100 metre world record. Yeah, they ran faster than Usain Bolt. That kind of doesn't impress me that much, because cars go faster than Usain Bolt and the car's a machine. What I will say though, I'd rather watch the robot Olympics than Enhanced Games. I'd way rather watch robot Olympics than Enhanced Games. It's super interesting. The whole idea, the whole conversation though around the back end of— well, like us, we're sitting here talking about it. I had this video up we were gonna upload. It's not really good sound, but it's literally the robot at the end of the 100 hitting the thing and then blowing up, like the robot after going too fast.

[1:14:06] But this whole idea of the backstory of, like, we're all going, this is great entertainment, great innovation, everything else, but literally it's a military being trained. Well, don't make it sad. I mean, I know, but I'm kind of like— let me live in my bubble. Let me live in my bubble. I don't want— But it's super impressive, right? What they've got, these robots. It's terrifying, I guess, when you realise what they're probably gonna do with the technology they're developing there. Just quickly on that, to circle back to the Sydney Marathon for a moment. And we might finish — this might be a nice way to tie a bow around this episode. Uh, official unofficial? The marathon gatekeeper. They're the people that keep people honest about their times. I'm sorry, I was thinking of the run club that does the big Sydney Marathon. No, it's— sorry, I've still got Matt Hauser's video up. I'm trying to— what are they called? The people that monitor times. Official Unofficial Time. Yeah, that account that we thought is nice and fun. I came across a reel the other day — 'cause they did their thing with the Sydney Marathon. I came across a reel the other day and Official Unofficial Time had set their sights on the Lambros brothers. The twins that run, or the brothers that raise money for cancer, doing all this.

[1:15:39] You know, that you can— and they did this big reel about trying to break 4 hours at the Sydney Marathon. Okay. And did they break it? And then, according to their account, they broke it. Official unofficial put them through the filter — they didn't break it. Okay. And that's— Lambros do what they do, official unofficial do what they do. Then I saw a reel pop up from a guy, and I can't remember who it was, basically criticising official unofficial for scrutinising the Lambros brothers — or the Lambros, whatever they're called. The Lambros. Criticising official unofficial for targeting them and putting them through their filter, because it highlighted the work that these brothers do in raising money for cancer. And they did a special thing on the day with a young person who's sick and was going through some stuff. And that's great, and I don't think anyone's taking away from that. But this guy was being very critical of official unofficial. And this is where, when I talked just before about, let me live in my bubble for a moment — I just want running to stay fun. I don't think official unofficial are doing anything nasty. I think Lambros, with what they're doing, raising money for charity and cancer and everything, is great. If you don't like— don't follow— if you don't like what official unofficial are doing, don't follow them.

[1:17:17] But can we all just— just keep enjoying running. Just keep it a nice posit— a nice space where everyone does their thing. And I don't think we need to start just firing off at one another over the type of content we're creating around running. And it's inevitable, because running is getting so damn popular. But I just found myself going, oh, I don't want my running world to be invaded with this, what are you doing? Yeah, it's interesting, 'cause you mention it — you don't have to follow them, you don't have to follow them. You're only affected by this if you're in the running bubble. If we talk about our grey cotton friend running, respect — he couldn't give a stuff. Like, yeah. I mean, even the Lambros guys, whatever, how many followers they've got, the reality is if you asked 9 out of 10 runners, they'll have no idea. Probably not, none of that. So it's— well done to them for going and creating their world that they can now operate in. I think what's important is there's a commercial reality out there that drives on socials, and that's where the friction of everyone comes, because everyone who's talking about it, or even us talking about— yeah, but we're talking about it in this world. Everyone talks about it because it affects your environment. But you know what, the other 95% of people, they don't know ya and they don't care either.

[1:18:47] That's something that was a massive learning curve for me, coming out of— like, triathlon is such a niche sport. If you put triathlon in the pedestal of all the different sports you can do and how many people actually participate in it, you're talking minimal percentages of niche. It's a niche sport. But I used to go round in that sport when you're in the fishbowl. Like, you walk down the street thinking— a great example is if you were at Sydney Marathon on the weekend and you're the best runner in the Sydney Marathon, you're walking around Sydney thinking, everyone knows who I am. Yeah, the reality is, there's some runners. The other 14, or how many— how many people live in Sydney these days, I don't know, 6, 7 million. They have no idea who runs on. I don't care. The amount of people I know who've left radio— the radio bubble is a perfect example of this. Living in the radio bubble, working in the radio bubble, and I have to remind myself every day: people don't listen to the radio the way I listen to the radio, because I am on the radio, and I assume— I'm like, if I said something at 6:15, someone will remember that at 8:30. The people that are in the car at 6:15 aren't in the car at 8:30 anymore. They ain't listening to me anymore. I think that's— I mean, I do this to myself, but remind— if you're getting either frustrated or whatever it is around something, you can choose not to engage.

[1:20:18] Hey, we've been running a long time. I'm gonna— this one I did want to play today because it will get us off. 'Cause this is everything we've talked about today, I think this is a great one to sum it up. Have a listen to this. At some point in your 30s, you gotta pick your crisis. Everybody gets one. Some guys start golfing. Some guys get really into bourbon — all of a sudden they've got a library of the shit. Can't just have a drink anymore. "No, no, no, no, no, dude, try this one, it's a single barrel wine cask aged 12 years." Pal, didn't I see you drink a Bud Light out of a shoe at a wedding last year? Now you're swirling bourbon in a crystal glass, talking about notes of oak. I don't smell oak, pal. You know what I smell? Fear. Your parents are getting old. So are you. Some guys get really into cooking meat — in the backyard, smoking a brisket for 14 hours, avoiding your family. "Meat's at 187 internally." Okay, Mike, how are you internally? Not good. Some guys start getting up at 4 in the morning, posting a picture of a dark room with weights in it, with the caption "time to work." You sell insurance. Go back to bed. I picked the worst one: running. Apparently I just woke up one day and thought, you know what would fix everything? What if I just ran away. Like, can you get more symbolic than that? Literally trying to outrun mortality. And for what, too? It's not like I'm in this insane level of shape or anything, I'm just in pain all the time now. Like, ultimately there's really no reason to be doing this. For thousands of years, if you saw a grown man running, that meant something had happened. A bear. A fire. The British. Whatever. Now you drive through a suburban neighbourhood on any given morning and you'll see at least five 36-year-old men with a wife and kids voluntarily running 8 miles. Why? You don't just wake up at 35 and download Strava because everything's going great.

[1:21:50] There was an incident. Maybe you hurt your back putting on your socks. Maybe you went up the stairs and realised you're, like, way too out of breath. And suddenly you're buying a $280 pair of shoes that come in highlighter yellow or neon pink. The worst part about running is it becomes your personality a little bit. "No, I can't drink tonight, I got 5 miles in the morning." Runners love telling people how much they gotta run or how much they ran. "Got 5 in before work." But I get it now. It's proof. Heart works, lungs work, legs work, death remains somewhere behind me. And you know, one day he's gonna catch ya. But not if you can maintain a sub-9-minute pace for 5 miles, bitch. So pick your costume for existential crisis. Me, I'll be running. No emergency, no destination. Just a grown man in $280 shoes trying to outrun the linear passage of time. Yeah. Perfect. Pick your crisis. And the only thing he didn't have in there was: make sure you turn your crisis into a podcast. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week.