On The Road, There's Nowhere To Hide: Kobe, Blackall And Bimberi | EP 110

[00:00] In The Beginning, episode 110. Courtney, how are you? I'm good, Liam Flanagan, but more importantly, how are your legs? Big run on the weekend. I owe you an apology. You don't owe me anything. I forgot. Well, before we get to my run, we didn't talk about it at all last week, Blackall, but we had Eliud Kipchoge to talk about, we had things to discuss. We'll get to Blackall in a moment, but let me start by saying people care. Importantly, people care about your running. Last week you essentially shushed

[00:34] me on the podcast. You tried to shush me, because I was talking about how your Melbourne Marathon broke down from an age group perspective, from where you sat in the race, and you shushed me. You said no one cares. Lucy commented on Spotify. I was going to wait till the end of the pod in case I had more comments, but I need to address it now. "We do care. We are so invested in your running journey, Courtney. I'm sure all In The Beginning listeners are proud as punch hearing your results. I was hoping to see you run past whilst I was doing the marathon, but then I

[01:05] think I was in the zone for the last 8K," blah blah. Lucy, thank you. Mads: "I agree with Lucy's comment, we do care about you, Courtney." There's more in here. Mel: "Definitely care about you and your results, Courtney." Mate, people care. I am touched. Thank you, people care. Thank you, I am touched people care. But I'm not going to let this go, Liam. So Tim Rigby sent me a podcast, okay, that I was listening to this morning. Now, I don't put myself in the league of this fella, okay, by any means, although I have raced him a fair bit. However, Jan Frodeno

[01:40] can explain this better than I can, okay. Have a listen. "As we started running through the Brandenburg Gate, this is the Berlin Marathon, and it's like two or three hundred metres and there's people everywhere and there's a vibe, and these people started sprinting, and they were really full out going for it. And I'm like, dude, you're sprinting for position 125, 126, 127. You know, for me, I was quite happy to just let go. And it was the same thing in Chamonix, where I'm just like,

[02:13] it's not about the achievement. I didn't know where I was placed. I didn't know, you know, certainly age group racing is something that doesn't really come into my sphere. Of course, I've raced as a pro the whole time. You know, I don't measure myself by the age group spot. I measure myself by the experience that I had out there. And, you know, it was two pretty awesome days at events that I have never done." Okay.

[02:43] I see what you're saying. I see what Jan is saying. You're just going to have to live with the fact that for as long as you and I sit across from one another and talk about running, and talk about the things that we're running and our running, you're just going to have to endure a little bit more detail than you would normally put on your own runs. You know what's in my favour, Liam? What? That I edit this every week. Never again. Yeah, it's true. Never again. That's true. That's true. Yes, we didn't talk about it at all last week.

[03:15] Truthfully, the other reason we didn't talk about it last week is because I wasn't 100% sure I was going to be able to get there. But Wild Earth Blackall last weekend, as of when people listen to this. I was lucky enough that Simo from Wild Earth and Run Queensland reached out and said, "Mate, do you want to come up and have a run?" I said, "Sure." So I opted to sign up for the 21, and this is where my

[03:45] radio world and my running world got inconvenient. I was at the Beechmont Hotel, for people that don't know it, sort of up towards Springbrook, out the back of Tallai there on the Gold Coast, for Birds of Tokyo on Friday night last week. Another one, I can't believe I forgot. You left here, you literally left here last week, and I said, "Oh, grab your wife, come out." Yeah, good, Birds of Tokyo are playing. And it was amazing. And then I saw the post and I went, "Ah, I forgot about it." Yeah, it was amazing. So I was out at the Beechmont Hotel. We were hosting Birds of Tokyo, a cracking event.

[04:19] They left stage at 8.30. I got out of the Beechmont about 9 o'clock and then chose to drive the two and a half hours up to Mapleton. Straight up? Straight up. My first question is, where did you park? Straight out the front of the QCCC. Okay. Which is where the start line is. Put the seats down in the back of the Isuzu, rolled out a little swag mat, and off to sleep I went. So I got about four hours of sleep. And look, for

[04:50] some people this might be a bit too much information, but I feel like our audience of runners will be okay with it. Being on the early morning radio routine, I have my body clock adjusted, so my bathroom visit is pretty regular at a certain time. What time do you wake up normally? My alarm goes off at about 3.35. Okay. Normally at 3.45 I'll go and pay a visit to the bathroom. Yep. All right.

[05:21] Unfortunately, my body clock's not so sophisticated that it can adjust that schedule for weekends. So it's about 3.45. You're lying in the car. I'm lying in the car and I'm thinking, I need to find a portaloo. Again, because the race set-up was there, I managed to find a portaloo. Anyway. But yeah, so basically I had a pretty average sleep, but I wasn't planning on breaking any records. No breakfast either, probably a slight issue. But let me start by saying I cannot speak highly enough of this event.

[05:54] Okay. Before we get in, that's great. So there's going to be a lot of Southeast Queensland trail runners who know the name. Okay. But I'm going to guarantee you most have never heard of this. Okay. So even to me, when people say Blackall, I'm like, where the hell? Like, where, why? So for people that have never heard of Blackall, stay tuned. If you've heard of Blackall, just sit through these next bits.

[06:24] Basically, Noosa. Think Noosa, if you're out of Southeast Queensland and you don't understand. Inland from Noosa. Yeah, think of Noosa and the Sunshine Coast, then you're going to come inland a little bit, to a town called Nambour. Nambour. Nambour is probably the closest town to Mapleton, which is where this race starts from. Blackall has three distances. It's got a 100, a 50 and a 21, and this was my first time I'd ever been up there.

[06:58] But I loved every second of it. So I can't speak to the 50 and the 100, just because I didn't do them, but for the 21, over the 21Ks you had about 600 metres of elevation. Yep. Very, very runnable. And I think my big takeaway from this is 21K trail runs are so much fun. So much fun. There's no drop bags required. There's no crewing needed. You can just go out there and burn it.

[07:31] Just turn up and go. You can just go, bang. I rolled up, and that's my first time back on a trail since the miler. I have not run a trail since the miler, and I was genuinely a little bit apprehensive about it, just because of the war wounds from the miler. But I had so much fun. Went out with zero expectation. No, I did not know the course at all. Well, someone wrote in. Sorry. Yeah, I've got it in front of me. When I was talking about when I'd done it, the course has changed since then. Has it? Okay. And the back end that you would have gone through apparently is super

[08:02] runnable and fun now. Yeah. Well, yeah, more open and runnable. Well, I had a moment on the course at about 12Ks. There was a little bit of power hiking in the first 10K, but in the back half, I think I was about 12K in, and again, no idea of the course, I found myself running the downhills quite well, and I found myself sort of going back and forth with this woman. And I said to her as I went past her on the downhill, "Oh well, I'll see you as you go past on the next uphill." And she said, "No, it's super runnable from here."

[08:33] And she's like, "The race is on from here. You should be able to run the rest of this." And I was like, "Oh, thank you for letting me know." And I kind of just then went, oh, sweet, handbrake's off, and just rolled through the rest of it. Did not worry about pace at all. Didn't really look at my watch at all. Disappointing, because I reckon I was about 35 seconds off having the average pace start with a five. Okay. You know, it's trail, but take a leaf out of Jan's book, it's about the experience. But honestly, that

[09:05] event, the 21K, it was just, I was thinking about it on the drive home, it was just the perfect meal. It completely satisfied me from a running perspective. It was challenging enough so that I could push myself a little bit. It wasn't so daunting and unmanageable that I felt defeated or conquered, those darker moments you have on those longer trail runs. There were no moments of, oh, I'm just going to have to put my head down and bite through this. So it satisfied the

[09:38] challenging aspect, it satisfied the manageable aspect. I didn't have to bring up extra gear and put together drop bags and all the rest. Did you end up wearing the Zegamas? I'll get to those shoes in a moment. I'm jumping ahead. But all in all, and I got my little bell. I got the little cowbell. I got the finish line moment. That's actually something I do remember from there. Yeah. Do you ring the big bell when you cross the line? You ring the big bell and then... Even in the 21? Even in the 21. Everyone who finishes rings the bell, and then you get a little key ring cowbell, sized based on the race you did.

[10:10] So the 21 is the smallest, the 100 the biggest. Absolutely loved it. Thank you to Simo and the crew for letting me come up and be a part of that, because I had so much fun and I will definitely go back. Definitely go back. I'd love, I don't, again... To go and do the 50? I don't think so. No, I want to go back, and I was talking to Mick Kelly, friend of the pod, I want to go back and have a real crack at the 21, because I felt... 29th, by the way. I know you don't care about age group results. 29th overall. You can claim it.

[10:41] I just don't want you to be throwing it at me. 29th overall for the 21K race, so a top 30 finish. But I was thinking about it, and I reckon if I set myself and trained up for it, I could go and have a real crack at a time. So where'd you come in your age group, Liam? I think I came eighth. Yeah, I don't care. But do you want to talk about the Zegamas? Because I did run in your conditions gear. Well, before we get into the Zegamas, because I haven't actually been to a trail...

[11:11] I'm just trying to think when the last time was that I rocked up to that style of trail race. Did you notice shoes in general? Was there a pattern in the shoes that people were wearing, or not really? I didn't really notice the shoes. The one brand, obviously it's a Wild Earth race, so they were activating there. The other tent of note, Altra. Oh, the heavy trail. They were the only real kind of brand activating there, which I thought was

[11:43] interesting. But let me talk about the shoes for a second, because I do have some other comments. Because I've done a lot of miles in these shoes, so I'd be interested to hear what you think. So the ACG Zegama Trails, thank you to our friends at Nike. These were straight out of the box. I hadn't put them on yet. I had never put them on. I had not even put them on my feet. Zegama, yes. Unbelievable. Yeah, they're good. They were so good. They are soft, but often with shoes that are so soft, you talk

[12:17] about the loss of foot feel. Yeah. No, it's not there. They're an amazing shoe to run in. The colourway was an interesting one. White. White on a muddy weekend. Yeah, they were black by the time I finished. Yeah, that proves you've been out. But I threw them in the washing machine. They're fine. I don't know about that. What do you mean? I'm not a big fan of throwing shoes in the washing machine. Well, okay, why not? Genuine question. Not a load of water? With heat or cold or? I don't know. They just get belted.

[12:47] Daily wash. Like, what temperature? I don't know. Hot water going through them and getting belted around, I don't think that can be too good for the materials. I don't think it can be too bad for my other... Just get a hose. Anyway, I loved them. They were so good to run in, and yeah, now it's actually made me, again, the 50 and 100 are probably not in my mind right now, but a 21K trail or a 15K trail or something in that zone in these shoes, with no

[13:20] need to get crew and no need to do drop bags, I'm enthusiastic about this sort of running again. On those shoes, because I've run, I reckon I've probably done a good 300K. It's not a competition. No, no, no. 300K in the trails, like the Nerang trails, in them, give or take. I wouldn't race in them. Why not? Myself, there are lighter and more responsive race shoes that I would choose to go to. However, for my long runs in the

[13:54] bush that are a bit technical, I'm like... So if you're running, and then this comes to pace as well. Yeah. If you're going out there for a 50, or, you know, 21 to 50, where it is in the trail and it's a bit longer, they're a really good shoe. If you were going to go and blaze, there are some other shoes, from a shorter, you know, these days with plates and a whole range of things in them. I would just say, and I'm having a look here, the black looks sick. I'm just having a look at some colourways on the Nike website. And at $250, that's pretty reasonable.

[14:27] Oh, $250? They're $250 for these shoes. You can get cheap ones, of course, but you can get a lot more expensive ones, if you're after a decent bit of kit. Anyway, going back to the race itself, and again, I'm reminded why, I'll say it, the trail community is better than the road community in the running space. Not all. Yep. Not everyone. I'm saying that. I'm saying that. Now I'm a part of both communities.

[14:58] It's different, right? It's different. No, I'm not going to bag either. I'm not trying to. The vibe you get at a trail race, the energy that's there. I had a lot of people shouting out the podcast too. Oh, did you? I had heaps of people running past and giving a big shout out, and I got some grief early on, I must have been running too quick, because someone said, "You should have done the 50. Too easy, too easy." Yeah, it looked like I must be. I wonder, because it's a large event, but it's still quite a

[15:33] localised event. Yeah, it is. So I think it's got that real grassroots feel up in the back hills. I wonder if you compared that to, say, going to UTA. Oh, you did UTA. I did UTA this year. What am I talking about here? Again, that only reinforces it. So just going back to comparing communities. Yes. Your experience of UTA versus Blackall, which is more of a localised event. Yeah. What comes to mind is same same.

[16:04] Grand final day of the AFL versus a country footy grand final day. Still the same energy, just a different scale. Yeah, yeah. Just a different scale, just the sheer amount of people. Both still have that excitement, enthusiastic togetherness. Everyone's there for the same reason, and you look around and there is that feeling of, hey, we're all here to do something. We're all here to do different stuff, but that feeling is tangible. The difference is just scale. UTA, enormous.

[16:35] Blackall, not as big. You still get the trail vibe. You still get that trail vibe. And again, I don't want to make this trail versus road. I love running. We've talked about this. I don't want to make this trail versus road. But hey, at the moment, I'm heavy on the roads. Trail volunteers are the best. Trail volunteers are the best. And I think back to UTA, the people that make the effort to get out there however many kilometres deep on course, to be there to fill up your water bottle. The people that were out, I really only had a

[17:09] little refill at the 10K mark, but it felt like I'd just run into a bunch of my mates from school out on the trail. The way they're like, "Water's over here, electrolytes here." I'm like, "Oh, can I grab some?" "Absolutely you can, sir. Let me fill that up." There's just a familiarness to it all. Yeah, but also, you're at a drink station. I'm not trying to make this trail versus road. No, no, no. All right. You're at a drink station on the trail and you're hanging out in the bush with people, versus a drink station at a marathon.

[17:42] Yeah. It's chaos, you know. Yeah, especially at Melbourne. So yeah, the atmosphere is very, very different. Yes, it was. I do miss it. Now you want to go run a trail, don't you? You want a trail race. Well, I got out on the trails last week. Oh, did you? I had half an hour. You know, I said I'd go up and run Shipstern with you. I had Friday pretty relaxed and I thought, I'm just going to drive up. Right. Just went out, just cruised around. Not Shipstern, because it was

[18:16] a bit further than what I wanted to do, but it was up at Binna Burra. I hadn't been up there for years. Just had a spin around. There's still nothing that compares to going running in the bush. No headphones again? No headphones. Ran the whole of Blackall, no headphones. No headphones. And I'm so glad I did. I had them with me and I had my phone with me, and I was like, let's just start without them. I didn't really run with anyone, I lie, I ran with one fellow by the name of Ash for probably three, four

[18:47] Ks. We had a bit of a chat. He's training for a backyard ultra. We were having a bit of a chat about that, he's got training going on for that at the moment. But yeah, no headphones is the way to go on the trails. Just take them out. Think, listen. It's brilliant. And the other thing, just quickly, it's the first time I've worn these shorts as well, the Nike ACG Trail Short, the one with the belt-type thing, the belt clip thing. The belt clip? It's got a little fastener belt type situation.

[19:22] Great to run in. Yeah. Biggest takeaway, and for any manufacturers listening: deep pockets. Deep pockets. The pockets on these shorts were so deep and good. Oh, they were deep. I thought you were going there. Yeah, no, no, they were brilliant. I had my phone in it the whole time. Yeah, right. And different to the Salomon shorts that we've talked about, which kind of almost disappear into the waistline a bit. Yeah, slip them in there and fold them over. These ones almost went down to the hem of the short, and they were brilliant.

[19:52] Oh, so more pocket, not holding pockets? No, not holding pockets, more pockets pockets. Well, what did I do? Oh, at the half marathon last week, but I did a long run on the weekend, the same thing, and I actually took gels with me for the first time in ages. And the thing that happened to me there is I wanted to put the gels in, and in the back pocket I wanted to have something else, and then I went to put the gels in the pocket of my shorts and I thought, ah nah, they're going to pop out there.

[20:22] So what I'm liking at the moment is actually having zips on my outside pockets, to be able to stash something secure, but also on the front, you know, be able to put something decent like a gel in my pocket. Don't know about a phone. That's too far to run with it. I'm non-phone in shorts. Okay. Well, the intention was to try and film some stuff. I'm not really great at filming. But quickly, because this leads into a nice message from Jono. Jono sent us a message off the back of Blackall.

[20:57] "Was listening to the latest pod, where Liam mentioned how great the running scene in Melbourne is. I'm from Melbourne and tend to agree, but I recently spent a week on the Goldie and was a bit disappointed. I thought I'd see a lot more runners out on the beachfront around Coolangatta, Kirra and Currumbin, where I was running. There was the odd person out for a jog, but way more walkers. Admittedly, I was on holiday time and running about 5 to 5.30pm most days, and maybe everyone runs at stupid o'clock, like 5am." Jono, first bit of feedback: Gold Coasters run early. Yep. You've missed the running. But he asked the question. You've got to go to a track if you want to see someone in

[21:28] the afternoon. "Where's Australia's running capital, road and trail? What do you consider Australia's running capital?" Jono said, "As a trail runner, I usually think maybe Katoomba, New South Wales, or Bright, Victoria, would be the trail capital of Australia, but I'm interested in your thoughts." Nerang. You mean that's the running capital of Australia? The trail capital of Australia. Where do you think the running capital is? It's the most important place in the world, in my world, when it comes

[21:59] to trail. Yeah, it's true. No, I mean, I think people default to Katoomba just because of UTA. Yep. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but you're defaulting to that because of an event rather than because of the history. But there is some great... I literally just got a message, I've been going back and forth with Lindsay Laurie. Yes. Who's been heading out there to run every weekend, and he's moved. He loves running in the Blue Mountains so much, he's out there.

[22:30] Yeah. He's moved to the Blue Mountains? I believe so. Wow. I don't know if he's joking with me or not. "Have you moved to Katoomba?" "Yeah, Blackheath." Oh, wow. Okay. Fair enough. Talk about committed. I have asked ChatGPT, where is the running capital of Australia? It fed me back the Gold Coast and then gave me a host of things based on questions I'd already asked it. And then I've had to say, forget me, answer without me in mind. Yep.

[23:01] If the question is about national and international profile, ChatGPT says Sydney. If the question is about the best destination for recreational runners and marathon participation, Gold Coast. If it's about grassroots running culture and athletic tradition... Melbourne. Melbourne. Hmm. Yeah, I'm not sure. It's a good question. And if you ask it to specify trail, it says Blue Mountains.

[23:32] And then it has Thredbo and the Snowy Mountains as second, the Grampians in Victoria third, the Dandenong Ranges fourth. Yeah, I don't think... I think population comes in. Of course. It's heavily biased in this situation. Where my mind's going is, where do I go, where do I wake up and just go, this is guaranteed, runners are just going to be there. And cities are easy, because if you went down to the Tan on a

[24:03] morning in Melbourne, how many million people are in Melbourne, you're going to get, you know... It's going to feel like a running city. Yeah, but on a per capita basis... But then if I think about the population, you could go to Bendigo. Well, that's what I was going to mention. And then I wonder whether on a per capita basis you'd go, holy hell, this is huge. Or, we're going to mention Armidale later on. Is Armidale, on a per capita basis, twice as fit as any

[24:35] other town? I don't know. Really, I think it's a tough one. It's a great question and it's a great debate to have, Jono, but I think ultimately the only way to judge it is to actually spend an extended amount of time in all these different cities to get a sense of the running culture within these places. And you and I can't necessarily do that. I can say what I believe. This is a hard one, because what are my favourite places to run when I think about the best trails?

[25:08] Where would I go today if I went to run trails? Alice Springs. Alice Springs. From left field. Alice Springs. Welcome to the chat. No one else gets it, except maybe a few who know. Yep. Who understand and know that the variety of trail in Alice Springs and surrounds is second to none. By the way, you sound like such a run wanker right now. "You guys don't get it. You guys don't know.

[25:39] You don't get it. You've never been." You've never been. Perfect. Keep going. Finish your Alice Springs rant, because I do have a trail question about places that people have never been, that has come from somebody on Instagram for you. Okay. Mike. Mike Bell, or Mike Bell-Feltman, to give him his full title, was trying to find some more trails not too far from his home in Canberra for some big long runs coming up, when he stumbled upon a Strava segment where the King of the Mountain is

[26:12] one Courtney Atkinson. Around Canberra? Bimberi Peak, ACT. Oh, Bimberi. It's the tallest mountain in the ACT. In the ACT. And you hold the Strava record. There you go. He said he would love to hear more about the run. Yeah, okay, okay. So I did that in 2017. Actually, I'm going to say I did that in my influencer phase.

[26:42] Jeez, it's a nasty peak. When I finished up, arguably, when I finished up professional triathlon and went out into, let's call it the outdoor world, and started going over and racing Coast to Coast and a whole range of things. At the time, and I'm going to put an asterisk on this, because there were hikers doing it and things like that, but this was before we literally had run influencers or people going out doing these running things. Pre-boom. Yeah. We came up with a marketing initiative, effectively, to

[27:20] go around Australia and run all the highest peaks. It's a hiking thing people go and do over time, you know, you hike each peak in every state and territory in Australia. It became a thing where blokes were trying to set the record for that too. Effectively. And my interest wasn't so much in, again, how... We can get up there quick, right? Sure. It's not about how you travel, I mean, you can jump on a plane or whatever. I was like, well, let's go and see how many of the records we can break, but do it consecutively.

[27:51] Okay. So jump day to day. Let's go there, there. We drove down, and they were great adventures. That's when I did that, so that was probably on the third or fourth day of pretty much running every peak. And that's how I know a lot of these trails and where it's great to run. For example, Mount Bartle Frere, up south of Cairns, it's probably one of my favourite trail runs in Australia, as one trail run. It's literally the jungle, rainforest. You're slapping

[28:26] up a mile high mountain, over roots, up rocks, climbing, all of that. I mean, that's very different to running. So Bimberi is a good climb. Well, I'm just having a look at it. I don't know how to pronounce Bimberi. Yeah. Your time was one hour 11.24, 885 metres of elevation. So it is as sharp... 880. I mean, it's not... Over 11Ks. Yeah, that's not as sharp as some. Not as sharp as some.

[28:56] So Bartle Frere is 1,600 metres in 7K, but the first 3K are dead flat. State 8. "Seven days, seven states, seven mountains." Oh. Yeah. Look at this, I've just stumbled upon your website. Oh, there's a website? courtneyatkinson.com.au, and there's lifestyle, running stories, travel. What? "In May 2017, Red Bull endurance athlete and dual Olympian Courtney Atkinson set out to complete one of the craziest running adventures around Australia." That must be an archived website.

[29:28] This is very cool, Courtney. I might have to... Oh, there's some good ones. We're going to have to get this up. That's a very serious... You look like an animal that's been startled in the wild in this photo. Like I said, I was in my influencer phase. Look. Hanging on the waterfall. This is cool. We might have to unpack this a bit more on another episode. Anyway, so that was a question from Mike. That answers the question, yes. I do remember. There you go. That's the only time I've been through that part of Canberra. And I mean, every part of Australia has got great trails and

[30:01] great access if you get near the national parks. Of course. Here's the one spot I haven't got to: down around the Stirling Range in WA. Okay. It's the one I still really want to go and have a run at before I'm... Stirling Range. Stirling Range. So my understanding is it's pretty rough, off track, but it's where the SAS, I believe, do a lot of their training. So intense stuff. Yeah. Cool. While we are talking about... We got off track there.

[30:32] We did get off track. Where were we? Alice Springs. Alice Springs. Sorry, go back to Alice Springs and how we'll never understand because we haven't run there enough. Alice Springs: you stay in the town itself, go around there, mountain bike trails through the deserty type foothills, as much as you want to run. Then you've got the Larapinta Trail, 240K, unique terrain. Then you get over to Kings Canyon. Off the back of Kings Canyon there's other runs over there. And then you can go and finish out at the Rock and the Olgas as well.

[31:02] Okay. So there's lots to see. Hands down. Can I change tack slightly? Yeah. Because whilst we are in running season, we're also coming up to the biggest triathlon, the second biggest triathlon participation-wise in the world. Well, I wrote it down. That was my question. Next event for you, right? Noosa. Noosa. It is my next event. You're not going to slot anything in before then? No. Next weekend, as people listen to this, will be Noosa Triathlon weekend.

[31:32] There's allegations of theft. Allegations? I haven't heard of this. Noosa organisers have been accused... Oscar Bichard has messaged the pod. Shout out Oscar. Oscar says he's a long time listener, from the episode one era. So Oscar's been with us from the get-go, so thank you, Oscar. He did Noosa Tri last year and again this year, so he's jumping into his triathlete phase. Lives on the Sunshine Coast. "Now, I have never heard or seen anybody use the term triathlon Christmas,

[32:07] or fitness Christmas as you called it, Christmas for triathletes, until you boys termed it in the lead-up to last year's event." Yep. "I think Noosa Tri have used the, let's call it a term and not a scheme, or however we would spell it." They stole the trademark. Noosa Triathlon post. Oh, that's a rip-off. "Christmas for triathletes." In promoting next year's event, Noosa Triathlon are posting "Christmas

[32:40] for triathletes returns, 31st of October 2027." Now, I'm not going to take this, this was your... I have been calling it fitness Christmas. It was a fitness Christmas for a long, long time. So then I stole it. Yes. And on the beach, morning of the race, with James Tobin, on national TV with Tobin, I said, "It's Christmas. Christmas for triathletes." Fitness Christmas. Whatever it was.

[33:11] That's what it is. I'm sorry, Liam. Thank you. No, do not apologise, Courtney. You have nothing to apologise for. Thank you, Oscar, for bringing this to light. To the Noosa Triathlon team, I think that we have a great relationship. All I'll say is, when I sign up for this race every year, it ain't cheap. All right? I'll leave it there. But thank you, Oscar, for bringing this potential copyright infringement to our attention. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

[33:42] Noosa, I am not... I've actually been pretty consistent on the bike, not crazy. I'm feeling probably more confident about the swim than I ever have, because of the swim run event as well. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it like I do every year. Interestingly, my wife thinks it's her last. Alana has kind of said she hasn't felt the excitement, the juice, the zip. But that's until you get there, and then it all kind of cycles again.

[34:12] Yeah, so we're going back up again this year, but I'm pumped. What are you involved in? You're obviously racing the full event. Full event. Any other plans over the weekend? No invitations from our friends at Noosa Tri. Maybe that's because they've been pinching catchphrases from me that they didn't want me to know about. No, I am... Are you up? I am up. What are you doing? I'm going to swim on the Friday, in the 1K race on the Friday. Yeah, great. What time is that? Storm time, normally.

[34:44] Afternoon storms. Oh, I'm not... Five-ish. I think it's normally five-ish. If I can get up, I'll jump in. So I'm going to do that, and then I'm going to run with the family in the Pink Run. In the Pink Run on the Saturday morning? And then have a hit out in the little thing. In the Look at me Courtney Atkinson race. Will you swim, run or ride, do you think? I don't know. I mean, that's up to the powers that be. Okay. I will put it out there, and I'll probably cop it.

[35:15] The one I don't like doing is the bike. Yeah, don't do the bike. But last year I did the bike. That was where I took out my old... That's right, my old nostalgic... Yeah, not really. I think maybe they didn't invite me because they assumed I was the one that knocked Rihanna Crean off her bike. I kind of felt a little bit responsible for that. But that wasn't last year, that was the year before. Oh, that's right. I didn't go last year, that's why I got on the bike last year. Anyway, Noosa's on the way. If you're up there, give us a shout out,

[35:46] because it is such a great event. It's Fitness Christmas. Copyright. Let's move on. Let's do this week's local legend. Oh, let's go. I mentioned Armidale a little bit earlier, and this one came in from Kelso, Ryan Kelso: Peter Hancock. Now, this is a bit of a different local legend this week. Pete is more of an all-round legend, but get this, he's got a 12-year daily swim streak.

[36:17] Yes, you heard right. A 12-year daily swim streak in Armidale. I found this article on him. Armidale is one of the locations up in this area, it's in New South Wales, but up in the Queensland-New South Wales border area, where they get snow. Yes. In his speedos, he goes in the dam even when there's snow. Oh, Pete. Armidale gets freezing, mate. It's like Stanthorpe or Tenterfield, where we finish Red Bull Race the Sun.

[36:47] You get snow, you get frost, all of that out there. So 12 years. Good on you, Pete. That's incredible. And then on top of that, a monthly marathon streak since January 2019. Wait, he's been doing a marathon, or he's run the total of a marathon distance? No, a marathon, just once a month. Yeah, yeah. Since 2019. Oh, yeah.

[37:19] Do you know what I'm going to say about Pete? What? He's a lot more motivated than I am. A lot more motivated than I am. It's so interesting to see that kind of discipline and consistency play out in a different setting, in a quieter setting, I guess. It feels like in the world we are in at the moment, that sort of achievement or feat... And I know we're talking about it now, and I've just had a quick Google, and clearly he's written some stuff for

[37:52] some magazines and all the rest of it. But I feel like that's the sort of thing now where we'd see reels: "Day one of me swimming in the Armidale lake despite freezing cold temperatures." "Day two of me running a marathon once a month." In 2012, that didn't exist. Yeah, there was no... I'm just trying to think, 2012, Instagram. Okay, 2012 I can remember quite clearly, because the London Olympics was at that time. Instagram was just starting to

[38:25] Yes, starting to catch on a little bit. I'm pretty sure you weren't on it at that time. And I remember just posting a photo or something with a filter on. It wasn't telling everyone in the world you were swimming in the lake every morning either. Yeah. Hey, we're on the Gold Coast. Yep. We're well into spring. Yeah, crap weather. No, but I wore a wetsuit in the ocean this morning. A lot of bluebottles around. There were some big old bluebottles around at the moment.

[38:56] We were out the back and there was a whole crew of us. It was shit. The northerlies were blowing. It was hard. We were doing some ins and outs, trying to get some waves, doing world champs. For those who aren't in the surf or swimmers, world champs is effectively, we all line up and see who can catch the wave furthest and hold the wave furthest. Yeah. Then you win, effectively. We were trying to do that, but we couldn't even do it because it was blowing around so much this morning. But as we're swimming and we're out the back, you can start to see there were some handful-sized bluebottles floating, and then some of the bluebottles

[39:29] are swimming back out, and we're like, oh, here we go, here we go. Just waiting for it, waiting for the tail to whip you. Oh, they were at the kids' nippers on the weekend. Oh, were they? Yeah. The big ones? The big ones. The big ones. Quickly, I did write this down and I forgot to bring it up a bit earlier on when we were talking about trail running. Altra: I mentioned the fact that they were activating on course, and the shoes. Yep. I tried to think of this, and I'm preparing a little bit on the fly at the moment, but I'm

[40:01] going to give you... What I want to do is give you some taglines of adventure brands, and I won't tell you the brand. You might recognise them. Okay. And I've got to try and guess the brand? I just want you to guess the brand if you can, but also tell me what you think of the catchphrase. Okay. Or the tagline. Some catchphrases, taglines. Hit us. "Christmas for triathletes." No, I'm kidding. Liam Flanagan. "Gives you wings." Oh geez, you've caught me out on that one. You've caught me out on that one. That was a little softball for you.

[40:32] Yeah, softball. Anyway, that was more of a joke. Okay, here's one. "Never Stop Exploring." The North Face. Do you think it's a good tagline? Yeah, it's great. Sums it up? Problem is, it's now "never stop exploring your city." All right, "We're Out There." Ooh, "We're Out There." I don't know that one. It's Kathmandu. I probably should know that. I reckon I'm going to take a stab that Kathmandu have changed that.

[41:03] These might be old ones. No, no, I reckon that's probably new. Oh, okay. If you put in Kathmandu slogan, I'm just going to put in... What time was I around? Because I did do a bit of stuff with Kathmandu at one stage. Okay. Yeah, so in 2018 their tagline was "World Ready." "World Ready." Yep. I think I like "We're Out There" more. It's interesting. So you mentioned Red Bull's one, "gives you wings," at the beginning.

[41:37] Some brands continually change their slogans. Yeah. Some... And it's not to say you can't have other, let's say, activations and wording, but some have just got, like, "Just Do It." Some have got such a strong one, and it never changes. I think that's a good thing, because you want the recollection of the same thing over time. What about "Engineered for Whatever"? "Engineered for Whatever."

[42:10] Do you know what it makes me think of? More of a workwear brand than a running brand. It's Columbia Sportswear. Columbia did that. Remember that ad they did last year that I brought up here on the pod? They did the one where they just threw out all the... it was nearly like a horror ad. I don't. It's not coming to mind. I've got one more for you. You know, I'm not doing real well, am I? That's okay, I sprung this on you late. "Stay out there."

[42:40] "Stay out there." No idea. And this is what prompted me to think about this: that is Altra's tagline. So they had it out on the things at the activation at Blackall. Altra's there with the big tents, and the tagline says "Stay out there." And I just kind of looked at it and thought, I like it. I really liked the tagline, because to me it drove home the message of getting outside, for a start, but

[43:14] it also kind of felt like not a parent or a coach so much, but like a mate going, "No, no, no." You have those moments going, "Oh, I think I'll just bail, I think I'll just sit down," and it's like, "No, no, no, stay out there." I liked the messaging, I liked the mentality. It wasn't too complicated, it's just three words, and I thought, hey, there's a good tagline. I wonder if that's new. Yeah, because what this exercise has done for me is just cemented how

[43:44] important consistency is. You know, that old rule of you see something 11 times and then you'll finally remember. Consistency matters, because if you're switching that tagline all the time to meet that year's, let's say, activation or shoe range or whatever it is, internally, in the company doing it, you'll know. But outside, there's so much saturation in this stuff. Can you think of any other really strong ones? Doesn't have to be running brands. Well, Nike obviously is the king of it. Interesting,

[44:18] what's Adidas's tagline? No idea. I don't think they've got one right now. I've just had a quick look. It says Adidas's current global tagline is "You Got This," which was introduced in early 2025. They had "Impossible is Nothing" before that. They had "Adidas is All In" in 2011. But Adidas doesn't really seem to have been a slogan brand, whereas Nike is obviously famous for its logo, famous for its slogan.

[44:51] Yeah, I'm just looking at a couple here. It's a big thing to be able to connect a brand to that, to be able to hear that and then just connect it to a brand. I don't think there's too many. Red Bull's is one of the best. Apple? Apple, "Think Different," only because I've got it in front of me. Okay, but you test me with some of these, because I'm pretty good at these. Oh, this is a good one, Mastercard. "For everything else, there's Mastercard." Or is that Visa?

[45:21] I think that's the other one. No, Mastercard is "There are some things money can't buy." Some things money can't buy. I like that. And then I'm thinking of the ad where it used to be "for everything else." "For everything else, there's Mastercard." Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it. There's Mastercard. Off the top: BMW. I remember hearing this at one stage. Is it something to do with the fact it's German? "The Ultimate Driving Machine." No. Give me another one. Give me some more.

[45:51] Hit me with a couple. Oh, M&M's. "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands." Yep. So now that's... Mars: "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play." Yep. KFC, "Finger lickin' good." Disneyland. "The happiest place on earth." Yep. Yep. So when they're done well... When they're done well, they're done well. Yeah, yeah. What's ours? What's that? What's ours? "Christmas for triathletes." Christmas. I love you, Noosa. I swear I do. I just don't like it when things get pinched. It's a lesson for me.

[46:22] I should have copyrighted it. Oh, Gillette's a good one. "The best a man can get." 100%. Bang. Maccas? Oh, see, you should know this one. "It's Mac time"? No. "I'm lovin' it." Oh, that's disappointing. That's disappointing by me. I apologise. It's easy when you've got them in front of you, right? But if you can't think of it instantly when it's brought to... Oh, Gatorade, I wouldn't know. "It's in you." Nah, that's wrong.

[46:53] "It's in you." That's wrong. Okay. Fast food do this better than anyone. KFC. "Finger lickin' good"? Yep, bang. Subway? Ooh, I don't really eat Subway. "Think fresh"? Or is it "Eat fresh"? "Eat Fresh." Woolworths, "The fresh food people." Woolworths do it. Woolworths do it better than Coles. Yeah, Coles, I don't know if Coles has a tagline. KitKat? Something about sharing? "Have a break." Oh, I'm so disappointed in myself. Okay, we've

[47:28] gone... Anyway, hey, so I've got Noosa coming up. You're going to be up there. We are. I've had a few people ask me, what's Courtney's marathon? Because we've asked that. You've passed the 10K, Bridge to Brisbane. You've hit the Nike Melbourne Marathon for your half. We are now at marathon time. I'm happy to talk about it. Full disclosure, it was Kobe in Japan. It was Kobe in Japan. Yep. What's happened? I'm 80-20 that I'm not doing it.

[47:59] Why? Because the outcome of going up there is not going to be significantly different to the Gold Coast. This is really interesting. Yep. So I look at it: you've never run the Kobe Marathon before. No. You've obviously got an opportunity to go and run the Kobe Marathon. Yes. For me, if someone presents me with the opportunity to go and run a brand new marathon in a country, I know you've spent a bit of time in Japan, but go and race a brand new race...

[48:32] Even if my performance output isn't going to be a PB or something I'm necessarily aiming for, I'm still going for the experience. It sounds like your main motivation for not going is because you don't think you can excel performance-wise. Yeah, I don't think I would have improved where I would have liked. The reason I was going to go and quickly run another, you know, 12 weeks later... Your base was there. Yeah, my base, and I thought I'd be able to build off that

[49:03] a lot quicker than I have. Yep. So this is still that elite mindset you have, which is that of continued improvement. Well, it's continued improvement, but it's not so much the elite mindset, because we talked about it earlier, I'm not worried about where I come or anything else. But if I'm going to do it, I need to do it properly. Otherwise, where would I go, Liam, to run? What's more exciting for me? The trails. Yeah. Yeah. But isn't there a part of you that goes, oh cool, let's

[49:33] go run the Kobe Marathon? No. Really? Oh, yes and no. It's a no. The reason I was purposely going to that one, or ideally entered to run that one, was that it was flat. Right. Yep. It's cool. Yep. Which would give me a significant chance to improve on my time.

[50:03] And we've talked a bit about cities that have running culture and all the rest of it. Japan as a country has an amazing running culture. Cool experience from that perspective. But all I'm saying is, I'm not saying I'm not going to do it. I'm just saying I need some more time, and then I'll look for one in there. Because you can't just run... Or you can. Yeah, you can. You can. Yeah, you can. But, well, for me, the way I pulled up after Gold Coast, I'm not going to be able to run one every two months or something.

[50:34] Okay. So when I go for it... Okay. I know. So it's not a no, but that is full transparency. Thank you for being transparent. And that's why I haven't talked about it, because I was making decisions. I ran 30K. Yes, I saw that. It's not like I'm not... For everyone out there running along thinking, why does Courtney always hold his cards so close to his chest? He's only just revealed the marathon that he probably isn't going to run.

[51:06] So I've got no chance of getting him to tell us which marathon he will run, presumably at the beginning of next year. No, I haven't thought of another one. Because he hasn't thought about it. No. But what I did instantly think is, is there something on the trail I can kind of go off the back of? Yeah. And I'll be really transparent with everyone. The reason with trail is you're not dictated by the clock. Yeah. Yeah. It was a cool feeling at Blackall. Yeah. To not be worried about the time.

[51:36] The weekend in Melbourne just cemented to me, when it comes back to the road, and this is what I mean is so great about the road: if you're going to go and run on the road, you can't hide. No, it's full exposure. Like, we've done what? We've done the marathon and now the half. Yep. And Bridge to Brisbane. Yep. I've been within 30 seconds of my predicted time in all of them. Yeah.

[52:08] Without a disaster happening, or something happening with your food or whatever else, I can tell you nearly exactly what I could go. Where's the mystery? Where's the mystery? Because the reality is, here's my limiting factor of aerobicness at the moment. The trail gives you the mystery. I can't go any quicker than that on the road. The outcome is going to be this. Yeah. It'd be a bit different if there was a whole mob going up and there was an atmosphere and family and we were doing it as more than that. But for me to fly all the way to Kobe to run what effectively

[52:39] I know I'll run... Yeah. But never say never. I'll see. All right. Let's go. Okay. All right. Disappointing. No, I'm not disappointed in you. I'm disappointed for everybody that is enjoying seeing you chase times and all that. I am still chasing. Trust me. I am still chasing. And the other thing that everyone will understand is, between now and then, there's a little bit more falling on my plate than I had. Yeah, yeah, life.

[53:10] Life gets in the way. I had planned as well, so... Life gets in the way. You make decisions. Life gets in the way, exactly right. Have you got anything else for us to hear? What else have I got? There was something I wanted to touch on. Just give me one second. While Courtney scrolls down, a quick shout out to all those people that continue to message in questions. As you can see, we try and get to as many of them as we can. And I'd give another little push: we had a nice little bump in the subscribers this week, so a lot of people getting behind the pod,

[53:43] which is great to see. The more people that subscribe, the better it does for the podcast, and the more opportunity it gives us to go away and keep doing this and create more stuff. So thank you for your ongoing support. But if you're a listener who isn't subscribed, just go and click that subscribe button for us. It's great. We appreciate it. That's it. I just did some amazing filling work. And I'm not going to edit that out, because everyone's going to be hanging on that.

[54:14] All right. But yeah, do share the love. Noosa, feel free to reach out and apologise for stealing the trademark. That's fine, we can address that later. Good luck for your last two weeks of training for Noosa, everyone. Well, it'll be one week by the time you hear this, so you'll be in your taper. I've got one more shout-out to give, I apologise. Ironman Australia, and I realise they are the organisers of Noosa Triathlon, well done, because on the weekend at Port Mac, obviously Pete, my man Pete, doing his thing at the finish line, they brought in as part of the commentary team friend of the pod, Clydesdale

[54:47] extraordinaire Bo Jones. Oh, awesome. Bo was a part of the commentary set-up for Port Mac over the weekend. I love it. I love that they've gone and found a bloke who is so passionate about the sport of triathlon, does so many great things in the community, has the gift of the gab, and they've given him a chance to do this. So well done to Bo. Well done to Ironman Australia for giving Bo a crack. I don't think they run a Clydesdale category in Ironman, though. Well, they should. They should. I had a Clydesdale bloke shout me out on the trail at Blackall, actually.

[55:17] He was running along, he was out there in the 50, like a Clydesdale, and I went, good. I turned around and said, "Real one?" He's like, "Yep." I'm like, good. So well done Ironman, well done Bo. That's so nice. That's all from us. Yeah, we'll see you next week.