> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# EP 33 - TINDER RUNS, NOSE STRIPS & BAD MOTELS
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep-33-tinder-runs-nose-strips-bad-motels/
- Published: 2025-05-02T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T10:19:43.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Strava culture, nutrition, Gold Coast Marathon — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Strava, Sports Science, Gold Coast Marathon, Running Training, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

*Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Strava culture, nutrition, Gold Coast Marathon — recorded on the Gold Coast.*

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP-33---TINDER-RUNS--NOSE-STRIPS--BAD-MOTELS-e32824h?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-33-tinder-runs-nose-strips-bad-motels/id1772010786?i=1000705877132&uo=4&ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com).

## Full transcript

Auto-generated transcript. Timestamps approximate. Hosts: Courtney Atkinson & Liam Flanagan.

**Read the full transcript** 

\[00:00\] In the beginning, episode 33 — don't call it a comeback, Courtney's back. How are you, mate? I'm back, you're back. It feels good to be in person, I hate when we have to do it online. You weren't here for the midweek episode with Bronte and Benita, and then the week before that we did Saturday remote because you were out in absolute bum-fuck nowhere — sorry, dropped an F-bomb early — Lightning Ridge. But I did listen to your Gold Coast Marathon Series podcast, it was great, it was a good episode.

\[00:30\] Maybe I should just stay away, no? No, no, no, I want you involved. It was good — if you haven't heard it, go and give it a listen, Bronte flying in her marathon prep. Mine's been a little bit stalled, but the calf's good, the calf's coming good. I was excited to hear that at the end, I'll tell you a bit more about that when we talk running weeks. Quickly, question for you as a professional triathlete — was there any rite of passage you went through with the older triathletes?

\[01:00\] Not necessarily an official ceremony, but was there an indication or a moment where you realised you'd been accepted as a professional? While you think about it, I'll give you a bit of context from my day. Yesterday I got to host a charity lunch for Variety, the kids' charity, an amazing opportunity to host that in Brisbane. As part of that I hosted a panel with Trevor Gillmeister — QLD might know him as ‘the Axe.’

\[01:30\] Queensland, the man. He was brilliant. Alex Glenn, former Broncos captain and an international for New Zealand who played 280-odd games for the Broncos, and Corey Parker. We all know who Corey Parker is — I've had a good day on the juice with him, the V8s, he loves his V8 racing. Corey won't mind me saying this, Corey is a proper bogan. He loves his big cars, he loves his big houses

\[02:00\] and he loves his footy. But he's brilliant — amazing panel, a lot of fun. People always ask what it's like doing those things when you get three people who can talk like Gilly, Alex and Corey. It's not work at all, it's genuinely easy. But it was interesting because Alex and Corey talked about a similar experience in their first three years at the Broncos — they didn't have a locker, they lived on what was called ‘the island,’ in the middle of the change room. That's just where they got

\[02:31\] changed, and they kept their stuff there. They had to earn the locker, earn the Broncos. Gilly told a story about when he first joined the Roosters and walked into the change rooms — there were three grades using the rooms at that point. He walked in as a 21-year-old, walked to the end of the room, put his bag down, and an older bloke went, ‘what are you doing down that end?’ Gilly had to walk back down the other end of the change rooms.

\[03:01\] Literally the second round of the season he'd been promoted into first grade. So he went and sat at the other end, and the same bloke said, ‘come on, come down here’ — they gave him the nod to join the big boys, as it were. I just thought that story about the Broncos change rooms — Corey Parker wasn't struggling, neither was Alex Glenn, but they still had to spend that first three years on the island, starting at the bottom before they got given their locker. Do you reckon that'd happen today, or is that considered bullying? Well, that's part of the conversation we had — there's no

\[03:33\] way you could do that to an athlete these days in the locker room. I imagine there's still some sort of rookie work, a bit of hazing, probably a bit too far, but you know what I mean. Wasn't there anything like that in triathlon? Not really, because we're not a team-based sport — team sports get a lot more of that. As far as acceptance in triathlon, I think it was performance. If you could hold your own in training and were tough around the best athletes, you kind of got accepted.

\[04:06\] If you were a little bit soft, not quite up to scratch, you were never really going to be accepted as part of that crew. So I think that's the first part of it. The first time I ever felt like I'd finally made it, like I was one of the guys, was the first time I actually won a properly televised race against the best. And it was only short-course racing.

\[04:37\] So it more suited a younger guy, but once I'd won a couple of races I could then start to throw a bit of weight around — not so much throwing your weight around, but give a little back in the group. In triathlon, and I think cycling's the same, it's all about holding position on the bike. If you can get to the front of the pack on the bike, it's nearly like giving yourself a head start, because if you get off three lengths behind, you're automatically already

\[05:09\] five minutes back through transition to start the run. That's where I noticed it, because everyone's got every right to get to the front of the pack, but there's a bit of respect and jockeying there — if you're an absolute hack at the back getting in the way of the big fellas, you're going to know about it. So in triathlon growing up, that's where I'd say the hazing — hazing's the wrong word — that's where the etiquette was, off the back. You'd know about it if you

\[05:40\] weren't up to scratch and tried to get in the way of the big boys up the front while the race was happening. So your locker was the bike transition — the locker was the end of the bike. It's pretty crazy, travelling along at 40, 50 K an hour, Lycra, shoes off the pedals, because at that stage you've got your feet out of the shoes and you're trying to jump off your bike at 25K an

\[06:10\] hour in between everyone else. It's pretty hectic at that point — throwing in a bit of slick roads, a corner before the transition, or Astroturf, there's some fun times to be had. Anyway, I love nothing more than what we do every week when we start talking about careers and stories from that. I got to do that yesterday with Alex Glenn, Corey Parker and Trevor Gillmeister. When the guy put out the run sheet for the event,

\[06:41\] he'd given us 45 minutes for the panel, and I said to him, mate, 45 minutes is a long time — people probably don't want to sit around and listen, they want drinks, lunch and all the rest of it. With those three I could have done two hours, I had to wind it up. I'm thinking, I'm not getting paid for any longer than this, I'm out of here — sorry fellas, it was an amazing event. I need some tips though, because today, when everyone's listening, I'm actually heading

\[07:13\] up to Magic Round in Brisbane. I'm jumping on the Level Up podcast with Willie Mason and the boys — and you've got Kieran Foran on with you as well, correct? So a few Gold Coasters. My NRL knowledge at the moment — I watch Origin and I'm into it, but I'm not really into it, you know what I mean. But they're not getting you on to ask about NRL, mate, you should know a bit about

\[07:43\] NRL — so if you want advice on how to handle that chat, I'll give you advice: don't pretend to know about what you don't know. I never do that, so you'll be fine. Justin Hodges and Willie are exceptional at what they do — I hope they see this, boys. Actually Justin's a bit of a runner, so he might. They're exceptional at what they do because both of them, Willie in particular, are just themselves. That's why they're succeeding in this non-traditional media format — I

\[08:15\] think Justin could do traditional media and Willie's tried his hand at it too, they could both probably do it, but they're better suited to this non-traditional setup. That's why they're going so well, because Willie swears and cusses and says inappropriate stuff, but he gets away with it because he knows the sport, he's done it at the highest level. Justin has too. So you're in great hands, you'll have a great time, and Kieran Foran — if you get the opportunity to pick his brain about elite-level sport and getting the most out of

\[08:46\] yourself, what he's put his body through — I think he's out with a ruptured bicep at the moment and the Titans are missing him, you can tell because the halves are where they're struggling, and what he brings in leadership and guidance on field. Make the most of it, because Kieran Foran's an incredible character. Sounds like a good time to get him in an arm wrestle, hey. He'd probably go non-preferred arm and still beat you. Mate, he'd beat you 100 percent. Here's my advice: you shouldn't try to arm wrestle anybody around as a crowd. OK?

\[09:17\] Anybody. Well, we'll make sure we get a plug out of it, they'll be runners by the time they're finished — convert as many people as you can. Alright, what are we looking at to start today, mate, what have you got for us? Let's start with a bit of Strava — it's the talk of the town with runners at the moment. Tinder's getting in on the action. What's Tinder done here? There's a Tinder challenge, run with the types of companies advertising on Strava at the moment — the Tinder Soulmates Challenge:

\[09:47\] move with your soulmate for a chance to win a date prize worth 375 quid. I love it, I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened already — if anything they're late to the party. The Tinder Soulmates run club is just the natural extension of this, and the chance to win — it's an English thing — a 200-quid run limited voucher for you and your soulmate, plus a year of Tinder Gold, which

\[10:19\] is trying to get these people — the irony of it is counterproductive, because they're saying they're giving you a chance to meet your soulmate, but then giving you a year of the premium subscription to Tinder. If you meet your soulmate, you shouldn't need Tinder anymore, right? Whatever gets them going. If this is successful and you do meet your soulmate, you should get off Tinder.

\[10:49\] You don't want Tinder Gold, so they should probably rebrand this from Tinder Soulmates to Tinder's One-Nighter Challenge — one-night stand going on here, plus ten sessions of the community sauna baths, it's all happening. Anyway, I thought this was just the scope of brands jumping on the running bandwagon at the moment — it's absolutely great. And talking about the scope of brands, this one's more running-orientated — it's Clif Bar, hopefully

\[11:22\] this audio works, have a listen to this one. ‘Hey, so I clocked 22 miles on Strava this week.’ ‘You're in, this is the club.’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Twenty-one — enter.’ ‘Eighteen is not 21, is this a fake? I can confiscate this. No miles, no entry, next.’ ‘I just hit 21 miles today.’

\[11:57\] ‘Respect, go ahead.’ So this is playing on the idea of needing to be 21 to get in — obviously American, done with Clif Bar, playing on the age you can go into nightclubs. It's a bouncer at the front of a nightclub saying if you've done 21 miles you can come in — they're literally showing their Strava. It's clever, it's good. What do you reckon — the workplace, exactly what you've talked about, talking about your

\[12:28\] Strava and re-running. Just walk in with your Strava on your phone, there you go. In my head I imagine if people start getting T-shirts made up with their Strava workouts — their best run of the year or something, there's a branding opportunity there. This is a continuing example of brands trying to find ways to integrate with Strava, to keep creating content and promoting their brand.

\[12:58\] We talked last week about what the Runna acquisition will mean for Strava, what Strava will continue to look like. The sky's the limit for Strava — it would have to be the most exciting social media platform on the planet right now. And they do a good job, at least at the moment, of not spamming you with posts or random photos — or maybe my algorithm's different, I'll be honest, that's because I'm not on premium Strava.

\[13:29\] I'm getting hit with that a lot now, right, whenever I post or edit an activity — constantly being reminded of what's available if I subscribe to premium Strava. So I think, you're not saying it because you're premium, but for the average person, the layperson, there's a lot of push to subscribe right now. So here's a prediction

\[13:59\] for you — by the end of the year, if you're not a paid subscriber to Strava, I wonder just how much you'll be able to do. I don't think they'll ever take away too much of the core function. Think about Spotify — do you have Spotify Premium? I have Spotify Premium, right, because you don't want your songs interrupted by ads every 30 seconds. I wonder if Strava hits a functionality point for the non-

\[14:30\] paid user where you can't post a run more than 30 minutes, or more than 5Ks — they start limiting usage. Never say never, but that's a big step, because they're not just a social media site, they're a running site and they've got to keep the function that keeps the people. You reckon it's a social media site? Well, let's see, in a year's time we'll revisit. I disagree, I think they'll stay strong.

\[15:00\] This is good, this is a prediction moment for the podcast — by the end of the year let's reassess. You think they'll limit the function for free users? I think by the end of the year, with everything going on with Strava, the natural next step is to start limiting functionality for non-paid users. Well, you could argue that already happens — so you agree with me? No — the function gets limited to the point it's pointless to have Strava unless you make some type of

\[15:33\] payment, I think that's the thing. But look, this Clif Bar one doesn't work great just with audio because they're at a nightclub, but it gives you the idea of the scope of both Tinder and where things are going — it's an exciting space at the moment. Major marathon watch: London is done, so now we turn our attention to Sydney — is that the next on the major calendar? Hold on, when's Berlin? Major marathons die down quickly. Sydney's not the next marathon, but

\[16:04\] it's the next major, isn't it? Hold on, I've got the list in front of me — Tokyo's done, Boston's done, London's done, Sydney is next, Berlin's September and Chicago's October. So yes, Sydney Marathon, August 31st, that's the next major on the calendar, and from a major perspective everyone's attention turns there now London is done. I want to run through some things off the back of London if I can, because I'm a marathon nerd. You don't actually care, but a lot of this will be new to me from the weekend, so go for it. Quickly, London by the numbers —

\[16:37\] it's by far the most popular marathon on the planet, over 840,000 entries to participate. That's almost a million people — here's another prediction for you: next year, a million people try to get into the London Marathon. Think about that — a million people wanting to run this race, that's a big number. Yep, they set a new record for the most finishes ever at a marathon: 56,640.

\[17:08\] Which is interesting, because if you look at City2Surf, it's a bigger run — how many people do City2Surf? They have 90,000 entries, but I think they lose about 10 to 15,000 on the day — that many don't finish, or have too big a night and don't show up in the morning. City2Surf's got 90,000 entries and celebrated a record turnout of nearly 80,000 participants last year. Isn't that interesting — so from a marathon perspective it's big, but

\[17:40\] there are some other runs bigger — Comrades Marathon in South Africa, I think that's the same, massive numbers. I want to hit you with some more numbers on the runners specifically. The men's winner, Sabastian Sawe from Kenya, ran a 2:02\. He was running in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2\. Adidas had a good weekend. The women's winner, Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia, ran a new women's world record — 2:15.

\[18:10\] Incredible run. Eliud Kipchoge, for those interested, ran a 2:05 and finished sixth overall but won the Masters category. I did see that coming — he's the only guy in the 40-to-45 age group, the rest are all in their 30s. Alex Yee — we talked about him last week, triathlon gold medallist from the last Olympics — ran a 2:11\. Solid, hey?

\[18:42\] Really solid. He was aiming for between 2:08 and 2:10, but when you put it in the context of Andy Buchanan running 2:09 for 11th, he's only two minutes behind that — Australia's fastest marathon finisher in this race, and the record holder as well. Andy Buchanan with the 2:09 came 11th overall, sounded like it was a really tough day out there, it was hot. He's obviously a quicker runner than 2:09, so to put it in context, when you actually look

\[19:12\] at the list, he's in the top 20 marathon runners in the world. It did surprise me how quickly the times drop off — once you start talking these elite marathon times, you get into the 2:18s, 2:20s pretty quickly down the list. What does that say? I would have thought there'd be more depth of sub-elite runners at that pace. I'm talking completely

\[19:42\] out of my backside here, but I'm thinking it may be that if you're in that next level down, you'd probably go to one of the quicker marathons like Berlin, where they're chasing the times — or actually get paid to go to this event, rather than this just being the biggest event you want to be at. Alex finished at 2:11, and the other time I wanted to throw out there — Nedd Brockman at 2:30\. I have a problem, why did you put Nedd Brockman in

\[20:12\] here? Because I think he's a runner of note, and we've talked about him — no, I'm saying this because there are listeners going, why are we talking about — you just mentioned some of the best runners in the world. We talked about a rite of passage at the beginning of this episode, and there'd be other runners we'd be interested in too. Sure, but you know what you can say to your mates who ask you,

\[20:42\] you can say Liam put it in there, right, that's what you can say. Because all those names — Alex Yee, Sabastian Sawe, Assefa — they're the pointy end of the scale, they're the Courtney Atkinsons. Nedd Brockman is the everyman. Don't throw me in there, I'm not that — I mean, I'm no Alex Yee. But this podcast talks about both the elite and the everyman, and for

\[21:12\] the everyman runner, Nedd Brockman is a name of interest. Yes, agreed, he's a noisy runner, hey. I agree, Liam, I'll frustrate your mates, but you just say to them, Liam put it on there, Liam put it on there, go at him, troll him. It's actually a really solid time, so well done to everybody who ran London. If anybody listening did London, send us a DM on Instagram, tell us how the race was, because I heard it was really hot, a tough day out for the

\[21:42\] locals, for the local English people who aren't used to that sort of weather. It was a tough run — we had a couple of people write in about London. I think it was Frey who sent in something — he was on course, didn't run, but showed... that's one race where the whole city is packed, lots going on, I don't know if it's got more packed since the running boom, but doesn't have to be.

\[22:13\] He was showing me a few corners of it. We've spoken with the Gold Coast Marathon organisers, and that's the model, that's what they're targeting, what they want the Gold Coast Marathon to become. Now, you had a bit of homework from last week — I did my homework. We were talking about that photo of me in 2000 running with Iván Raña, the Spaniard who went on to become world champion multiple times, and I said let's have a look at how, over the decades, what you wore

\[22:47\] in triathlon and then moving into running. The reason was the sunglasses you were wearing in those photos, almost like the Oakley Frog Skins — I think I had one of the original speed dealers, that's right, they were a weird pair of glasses. We were saying they've come back into fashion now among the cool kids, the unofficial run club down in Sydney under the bridge — I follow a few of the crew from there and that's like a staple,

\[23:17\] a quarter of their runners are wearing the same thing. So what we're trying to do now is get ahead of the curve and figure out what's cool next, using your historical race photos to figure it out. So, 2000, which was that photo from last week that we shared, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 — trying to look at the shoes too, which was a bit hard because these are images on a screen for those who watch on Spotify, we'll put them up so you can check

\[23:49\] them out as we're talking. So, 2005, I'm racing for New Balance Japan, I'm in a black skin suit — you're already on board with Red Bull there, you're wearing a Red Bull baseball cap

\[24:20\] backwards, rocking a pair of the original Oakley Radars. Your head must have been getting hot in that, surely that thing wasn't breathing. Well, they probably didn't have many triathletes on that. Best guess, what are you wearing on your feet? A pair of like 5-millimetre style rubber New Balance racing shoes — I was racing for New Balance. How'd you go in 2000? I reckon in that race I'm having a win — I won a lot of racing back then, which sounds arrogant, but

\[24:53\] I'll follow that up — in Japan I'd race really well because it was in my time zone, I could fly up there, race, always hot, similar conditions to Queensland, fly home, done. When I had to travel to Europe and America that was different, you have to pack up, go away, three weeks of preparing, get over the jet lag. I'd always race well first up in Madrid each year, fly in three days before, race good, and then my season would slowly regress after that.

\[25:24\] Then we go to 2010, and here I'm racing for Sartrouville, a French club, in lime green. If you look at that, the suit I was wearing for New Balance was quite a thick Lycra suit — this suit I'm telling you about was paper thin, on the Kalenji for triathletes, they'll remember that French brand, that was the suit.

\[25:54\] Now I can see in one of those shots down there, that's me finishing with Brownlee — what's going on there? French racing is team racing, so it doesn't matter about the individual, you get paid for the team, they'll pay you an appearance fee to turn up and race for them. Sartrouville is like a suburb of Paris — I'd go with Alistair Brownlee and Maik Petzold, a German fella, we'd go and race for that suburb, get paid, and then get a bonus on how the team

\[26:27\] went. So no one really cared who won individually — they'd wait for me at the finish line to cross together as a three, come first, second or third, and win the team day, get our bonuses in cash. There's things I want to ask — was Sartrouville a rich club, a rich suburb? Well, having Alistair Brownlee on the team, they paid well. Can I ask what an appearance fee

\[26:58\] would have been? I think it was €5,000 to race, plus bonuses — I can't remember the bonuses, would they have been better than the appearance fee or less? No — to race for French clubs at that point, this was 20 years ago, so in today's money, well back then the exchange rate was even worse, so probably about 10,000 K just to start racing for that club, plus maybe a few more grand if you win. In that photo, we're

\[27:28\] seeing that your team have basically finished, but they're waiting for you at the line — did you guys seriously finish first, second, third that day? Yeah, that's why they're waiting, and I can see David Hauss in the background racing for a different team. So moving on — I was in a pair of Newton shoes, you can see the colours at the bottom of that shot. So from New Balance to Newton, to 2015 here —

\[27:58\] is this Noosa? No, this is the Gold Coast, actually — this is my final race ever, my final triathlon ever. I was on the Gold Coast for a World Cup in 2015 and I wasn't sponsored, I'm in Australian kit. The uniforms haven't changed much, and they still haven't really changed to today — the materials have probably changed a bit, but after we wore the paper-thin suits, it went to skin suits, and it's been skin suits since. You've reached the ceiling of where they can go.

\[28:28\] In Ironman they've moved on to more full suits with arms, but that's to do with aerodynamics on the bike, because they spend so much time on it. In ITU or Olympic-distance racing, or Olympic Games racing, you don't have the time, you just wear that suit. Now I wasn't sponsored for shoes — I can tell because I've gone back to wearing a pair of nearly waffle-sole Nikes, I've got a feeling it's a pink Nike, which would have been a Nike Zoom Racer, super flat

\[28:59\] still, so this is pre all the big rubbers coming out. I reckon they're a 2010 shoe I'd gone back and got out of the cupboard as a favourite to wear in 2015\. Off the back of all that, what's coming next in fashion? Because it looks like it's heading toward lime-green onesies — I'm trying to figure out where fashion's going to go and I can't figure it out, because triathlon we're — we're a running podcast talking about running fashion.

\[29:29\] Triathlon's always been Lycra, you can't get away from it, it's the fastest thing you're going to find doing those three sports. The materials change, but what more can you do, they've gotten better. Go to the next shot — this is when I've moved on to running and Salomon, and what's interesting I want to talk about quickly is shorts. This is where you went through a period where you'd never

\[30:01\] wear really short run shorts, but they're back, right — if you go down to run clubs now you're seeing that original 1980s style, the PE-teacher short. That's back in vogue, I can't go there — I'd say my everyday shorts have shortened up a bit, not my running shorts. You got me into a pair of the Salomon Sense Aero shorts, they're baggier and

\[30:31\] you love them, don't you? They're the greatest shorts I've run in. But the thing for me is, seven inches, if we're talking aesthetics — not that I really care about it, but we all care about it to some extent. Everything about me is quite short, so when I wear those Salomon shorts I almost look like a kid running out to play soccer in his uniform for the first time. I feel stumpy, I feel so

\[31:02\] stumpy in those shorts, I love running in them, but I don't look as athletic as I feel when I'm running in them. So you'd prefer to wear the PE shorts? I don't think I could get away with those. Do you reckon you'd look like you're striding out like a gazelle? No, I'll never look like a gazelle, I've got thick thighs and thick calves, my skinny-jeans days are long gone. Five inches might be your spot, mate, maybe — seven's

\[31:34\] too long, three's too short, three's definitely too short. People who wear three-inch shorts can get stuffed, frankly, that's rat's nuts. But the one thing I've found since running with you in particular is my running fashion has gone black, black on black. You're black today — I'm just settling into black as my colour, I think. When you're in Queensland everyone thinks black's bad because of the heat, but you end up over-sweating anyway, there aren't too many colours you

\[32:06\] can wear in Queensland in a tee that's light, a good running material that doesn't leave you looking like you're — give me a good analogy — sweaty, like Liam Flanagan out for a run. Alright, let's leave this, got a bit of audio sent in you'll like, Liam. ‘That's my son, Liam.’ ‘Oh my gosh, lads, I'm just listening to EP32 and I've just heard Liam say he's tanked his second week of marathon training, saying I had three

\[32:39\] years off because of a back injury, because I had a baby, and I got back into it in November, and I'm a recent listener of the pod, but it's my long-run podcast now, as it is everyone's. I set myself a sub-four-hour goal, so I've run a couple of black-marathon distances just as an adventure, along the coast and stuff, so I know I can run the distance, but based on my current running that was always an ambitious goal. I've ended up really unwell and I haven't been able to run for three days, my doctor reckons another three days at least.

\[33:09\] And I was beating myself up.’ I'm sorry, Bianca, it's so relatable that you've come on here and been like, it's not going well — thank you for sharing that, because sometimes that's how training goes, it's not always ideal, and it's nice to know someone else is in the trenches, someone I follow on Strava and think is a great, above-average runner — you're a good runner, Bianca, by global standards, maybe not elite standards, but certainly

\[33:39\] you're both people I look up to in the running stakes, my training's going shit, it's nice to not feel so alone, and I look forward to listening to the episode with Benita to hear what she has to say and whether I should be reassessing my goal — and I should also be doing that, thanks for sharing.’ Bianca, I love that, that made me smile — I got a little bit emotional listening to it. I hope you've

\[34:09\] just listened to Wednesday's episode, because Benita delivers an incredible line — if you haven't heard it, go back and listen, because at the end of Wednesday's episode Benita says something that's stayed with me, that the longer you stay in running, your day will come. It's not going to be every race, not every prep, but you will have your moment, your day in running. Bianca, thank you for sharing — I'm glad my suffering is helping you, glad you're going through it because I guarantee, Bianca,

\[34:39\] there's more of us in the doldrums with our running prep and training. But Courtney's the one who's not talking about it — I'm not talking about it much, but you're in the same boat right now, 100 percent, with your injury — you're handling it remarkably well, by the way, it's the stuff you don't see. It's actually been a nice change not to have to — stress is the wrong word, but I can see how people, or ‘people's’ the wrong word too —

\[35:10\] I can see how runners, or those interested in fitness, if you're out of it a little bit, how easy it is to take the easy road and go, it's nice not to have to get up at 5am and go running. I miss it, but at the same time, if you let it go too long, I can see how you get comfortable with that. I'll give you a comparison, and I'm sure he won't mind me telling this — Merrick Watts, the famous radio and comedy identity, continues to be a

\[35:41\] very successful comedian. I worked with Merrick in Sydney when I started out in radio, I owe him a lot, and he's still something of a mentor for me when it comes to the radio stuff. He finished up — I think he was on breakfast radio, Australian commercial radio, for 21 years, which is a lifetime, a lot longer than the average radio career. He finished up while we were working together, and he said it's going to be my last year, and he finished up, we had a great time, and then 12 months on we were just having a chat and I said, mate, how's

\[36:12\] everything, and he said, it's amazing. He said the funny thing about radio is when you're in it, it's all-consuming, it's a bubble, and you think everything matters, and the world outside radio, everybody cares as much about radio as you do, it's the only thing that's important. The moment you step out you go, oh, it actually doesn't matter that much, and there's a whole other world full of other people with their own bubbles and their own priorities. That's a bit like the running stuff you're going through at the moment.

\[36:44\] And that's not to say it's unimportant, but if you take a step back, running is just a part of your life, not all of it. Taking some time away doesn't mean you've given up or stopped caring — but there's other stuff. You've hit the nail on the head — I went through 20 years believing people knew exactly where I was, what I was racing, what was going on, because you make the assumption that everyone's as invested in

\[37:18\] that area as you are. And as you said, if you're at the pointy end too. Exactly, but you really quickly start to realise, I think that's the best thing — getting out of a small fish pond and into the wild world, the big fish pond, and going, most people, even walking into an organisation, have got so many different interests, they really aren't that concerned with what's going on in someone's specific area on the weekend. The other part is you'll find people's biggest interest is

\[37:48\] themselves — everybody cares most about their own lives and what they're doing. Which is great to have a conversation with someone about what they're interested in, find mutual ground. There's also nothing worse when there's no personal ground — if anyone struggles to have conversations or meet new people, ask them about themselves, that's all people really want to ever talk about. Just ask questions about themselves and they'll fill the space, they'll fill the time. So true.

\[38:20\] Thank you, Bianca, that was genuinely lovely, I loved hearing that. What do you think, elite or sub-elite? I think you might be looking at the wrong Strava — no, look, I'll take that, that's genuinely pumped me up, I'm actually going for a run after we finish recording today. Thank you, Bianca. We've got some more messages coming through, which we love. Michael's sent this one through, he's loving the pod, he's currently running in the Clydesdale category, definitely keen to see a few marathon directors get on board

\[38:51\] with adding this category, he says. Speaking of categories, I was in the age group category under Courtney back in the Bribie Tri junior days, I've got a good photo of my retro tri suit from back then. I think the photo was from about 1996 at a junior swim/run the day before the Forster Ironman. I disappeared out of the sport shortly after this photo due to a work accident, but 20-odd years later got back into it, just a little slower these days. Love the marathon lead-up prep talk, keep up the great work.’ Michael Grey — do you remember the name?

\[39:22\] I don't, but looking at the photo I would have been in the water racing against him. Michael's rocking the budgie-smuggler era with the singlet on top as well — that was the uniform, you didn't have a choice, no one had even thought of a skin suit at that time. Now, this next message from Beck Cole — she sent this, and before I start reading it, this is becoming a thing, isn't it — Saucony, Saucony,

\[39:55\] you're not going to change me, it's Saucony, it's OK. I got bailed up at the post-game press conference of the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns, sorry, Sydney Swans game on the weekend about the pronunciation of Saucony — I got bailed up in the corridor by Michael Whiting the AFL runner, and some people up in Brisbane said you and Courtney need to show some respect to the brand and pronounce it correctly. Well, it looks like we do,

\[40:25\] because this week it's the only shoe brand we've been sent pictures of. Beck Cole, read this out — some nice new shoes she's got, take a look. Saucony Endorphin Speeds, during a release ahead of marathon season, looking good, very sharp. I see what they're doing, releasing specific models — a bit like how ASICS releases the Noosa specific triathlon shoes, these are the New York version of that. Saucony Endorphin Speeds, and they do look very sharp.

\[40:57\] Lucky pair of those, feel free to send them to me. Saucony, Saucony — their support base is solid and passionate. And then we got another message from Rob Candy, who asked, what pace do you need to be running for carbon-plated shoes to actually make a difference? He's just bought a pair of the Saucony Endorphin Pros, been on a couple of long runs and is happy with them. This is one for you — probably one we could ask Benita, actually. Well, Benita's the same, because we really haven't had

\[41:27\] someone who really knows carbon running shoes, someone into the science of it, explain this properly. So Rob, we won't try and do that here because I'll just be talking out of my backside. But I'll tell you what I think — he's a radio host, so he's going to give you an opinion regardless — and that's, run in them, mate. Hey Rob, if they make you run faster, run in them. We'll jump in with a couple more messages from some friends here.

\[42:00\] Ready — friend of the pod. Did this come from Bacon? This came from Bacon, yeah — sent this off the back of the London Marathon, I think he was saying how well he ran it, the negative split. So Reedy — people might know Reedy from Bondi Rescue, he's a friend of both of ours, I was actually running with Reedy in Sydney when I blew up my calf, so Reedy's partly to blame. He spent that whole run — by the

\[42:31\] way, I'm throwing him under the bus here — talking about my sub-three-hour goal, saying, mate, if you want to run under three hours you need to lose five kilos. I've got a confession, I feel bad too — I put you into kunanyi. No, I know I put you into kunanyi, no one else, and I probably knew full well you were under-

\[43:01\] prepared. It was a solid event and you were under-prepared for it, but I just didn't see it having that much effect. This is where you learn. I feel bad, but I'm glad you put me into it, because kunanyi will stay in my highlights of 2025, so don't feel bad. Just getting back to Reedy for a moment — he went and ran Boston, ran a sub-three at Boston, a tough course, around a 2:58 at Boston, and then literally seven days later flies over and paces the 3:20 bus at the London Marathon. Bacon sent this through, another one of the Bondi Rescue fellas, because we've talked a

\[43:33\] bit on previous episodes about the role of pacers and the responsibility of pacers to run an even race so that everybody can get involved. Reedy ran the 3:20 bus for people trying to break 3:20 — at the halfway point he had them 15 seconds under goal time, and by the finish, by the end of the marathon, he had them 67 seconds under goal time. So he negative-split the race, ran the back end faster than the front — from a pacer's perspective and responsibility,

\[44:03\] I think he nailed it — nailed it, ticked it, first time running with the big flag out the back. He said it actually wasn't too difficult, he had to run with it on a belt, with the big flag sticking up the back doing 3:20\. Did you see the triathlete guy doing that before at Ballarat Marathon, went out and ran two-something-twenty with a flag? That's solid, very solid. Before we move on to run weeks — nose strips, mate, I'm sick of nasal breathers, advocates of nose-breathing hassling me

\[44:39\] about how good it is, I've deliberately ignored those comments on Instagram. There's been a few, and I've finally had enough, so I jumped on Amazon — I've got some. This is a gift for you, Liam, I want you to go and try these bloody things and tell me if there's any difference, because the only way to find out is to test things in the real world. I don't want to run with these on —

\[45:10\] do it at night, I think these ones are black, you won't even notice. I don't want to run in broad daylight with these on my face, run at night. I just need to know — I feel like such a — that's cost me good money, so make sure you do it. To anyone who's written in over the past few months about nose-breathing and the science and everything else, alright, Kipchoge disagrees, and now Liam's going to test out the

\[45:41\] agreement — right, and we want this on the record. I will try these, I'll report on them next step, next Saturday, next full episode. And then no more, regardless of what happens — if you try them and you're like, oh my God, I'll use them and review them, no bias going into this — but the point is, I'm not going to talk about them anymore, even if I start using them for every run, we're done, we're not talking about them anymore. OK, let's move on. Hey Can — Cam, what's going on with you? I know you're not running at the moment, but you've been out on an adventure.

\[46:12\] Yeah, I've been — well, I'd say I'm exercising, I'm back, been pushing a light sled, been spinning on the bike. So we're getting there, next week I'll get my scan and hopefully we're away, so we're getting close to me coming back and talking about running. But I'll give you a story — I was out with Subaru out west, we started in Newcastle, we talked about going up with Matt Hall on the flight, I was out on some bikes at Stockton Sand Dunes and then we headed out to Lightning Ridge. About 8 hours from

\[46:42\] there out to Lightning Ridge up near the Queensland border. My — I won't say it's a — well, I kind of half expected that. It's the home of the black diamond, the black opal, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. It's the home of the black opal, one of the only places you'll find this inclusion black opal, but the whole town is riddled with these

\[47:13\] mine shafts everywhere — you can just walk out of town into the bush and there's these shafts everywhere, mostly covered now. But my story — I travelled with a convoy, we're filming a TV show for Subaru called The Great Australian Detour, Andrew Datto — you know, been around TV a long time, he's the co-host on it with me, I'm his sidekick, let's make that clear — he's Batman, you're Robin. Pretty much, yeah. We had, I think,

\[47:43\] filmers and technical guys — this time our technical rep was Cody from Subaru, drives like an Australian rally champion, cool guy, did a bit of stunt driving to make me look good in one of the cars as well, so don't believe what you see on film. Have you seen me sliding around a corner on loose rock? Not you, no, right, OK, they don't trust me that much with the cars. But when we got out to Lightning Ridge, there

\[48:14\] wasn't enough accommodation for us all to stay in one place. Half stayed down at the Big4 caravan park in cabins, and I got sent down to the Lightning Ridge Resort. I was thinking, and Cody and a few of the other Subaru reps, mate, how good are we going, see you later, mate, I'm going down to the resort. Turned out to be literally miniature cottages — oh, hold on, these are the photos you sent me of that bathroom, yes, yes.

\[48:45\] So I've gone down there, thinking we're getting the premium accommodation and they were doing the right thing by us. I walked into the first room, got the key, and about two minutes in I could smell something, couldn't work out what — smelled like a dead rat in the wall or something. After about an hour I said, I can't stick here, I reckon there was old vomit on the floor near the bar. So I walked over to reception and said to the lady behind it, hey, I've tried but

\[49:19\] this is awful, do you have a spare room? She said, I can sort you out, I'll fix you up — everywhere in Australia is non-smoking, but there's an area over there, anyone smoking, we lump them over there. So I've walked in between — I was in room 35, walked past room 34, literally an old lady out there with a cut-off Coke can, chain-smoking out the front, like one of those old westerns, someone out the front, she's clearly

\[49:49\] living there full-time. The next room, two guys on the beers, chain-smoking, and I walk in — this room's at least a little bit better, but it's the kind of room where you don't want to put your bags on the ground. I camp, I'm happy to sleep anywhere, but the cleanliness — not wanting to touch, even the door handles are sticky. That's the standard. Now the irony is I travelled the whole week with a Subaru

\[50:20\] Forester with a genuine accessory Subaru swag mattress in it — why didn't you just sleep in the car? I was thinking that the whole time, why didn't you sleep in the car back at the Big4? I would have, I would have, but that's showbiz for you, mate, it's all a bit of an illusion. We need a new word, because that place can't be classified as a resort. It can't be. As a result I reckon it's in the top two worst places I've

\[50:52\] stayed in my whole life — this is racing in France, shitty Ibis motels, everything. Well, let's go — I don't know what question I'm going to ask, but which is the shittiest? A place called Chillagoe, about 3 or 400 K out of Cairns, in the west, Chillagoe Caves, again an old mining-type place. Chillagoe — I'm looking it up, and I don't actually think they have a motel in town, I'm not sure, but we stayed at an Airbnb there, I had the kids and my wife with me, and that place — it was like,

\[51:22\] imagine a rocking chair still there, and it still had, not the shadow, but it looked like someone who died was still sitting in that rocking chair. Chillagoe is in the middle of nothing, up north Queensland. There were some characters in Lightning Ridge that we met, some of the other places were fine, but that was my raw deal for the week — long story, but that's where I'll be, mate. Quickly, before I tell you about my week — because this weekend, tomorrow in fact, Wings for Life.

\[51:54\] Yes, so as we're talking today, tomorrow, this is for Sunday the 4th of May. Wings for Life World Run, that unique event where you can run with your phone or an app, some events are in person, but everywhere around the globe everyone starts at the same time. Now it's called that because you're — some are in Austria, LA, Miami — we start at 9pm here. Anyone interested in coming and checking it out, making a donation to have a run, I think it's only about

\[52:25\] 28 bucks or something, that's what it costs to enter. Sunday night I'm going to go down — I can't run, but I'll have a walk, and we'll be at the Burleigh Surf Life Saving Club. Why that's important — that's where WSL surfing is on this week, so anyone into surfing, we'll have — I can't say exactly which Red Bull surfing athletes will be down there, but Sierra Kerr will definitely be along, Java Searl, the young junior champion. And then depending on who gets

\[52:55\] knocked out of the surfing, you might see some more, they'll be around, so there'll be a bit of a crew down there if anyone wants to join, we'll put that in the notes. Sadly I won't be there, I'd love to come down and get involved, but I'll be up in Brisbane doing the Q Clash, the Brisbane Lions v Gold Coast Suns game, second versus third on the ladder, the biggest game of the round, huge, that'll be a massive game — Magic Round in Brisbane at the same time, big weekend. I'm back — if you listened to Wednesday's episode where I was bemoaning the fact

\[53:27\] that last Saturday, that's great news — where I was whinging, asking Benita to reassess and all the rest of it, I am back. Not back-back — Benita hasn't given me the green light to be back-back just yet. I'm actually off to do an actual session after we record today. On Tuesday I ran 70 minutes uninterrupted, the calf pulled up great, I even went to the gym after in

\[53:57\] the afternoon — ran in the morning, gym in the afternoon, did some heavy stuff, and the calf was fine. That's good news, good news — still, yesterday was rest, today after we finish recording I'm off to do some tempo efforts, start getting a bit of speed back in the legs, because the easy runs I've been doing — that 70-minute run was at five-minute pace, so there's no real effort there from a heart rate perspective. But today I'm off to do some tempo stuff. Interesting that Bianca sent that message through earlier about

\[54:28\] the mindset, the feeling, the sadness of it all — not feeling that pain in my calf and feeling positive about running, you kind of wish you could bottle the feeling now and have a shot of it when you're feeling like you were when injured. If you could take the good times and have a little sip of them when you're feeling crap, it would make a lot of that running-headspace stuff go away. 100 percent,

\[55:00\] like Bianca said, that's life, mate, that is life, it's life and everything. But the point is, I'm back, I'm feeling great. That's good, mate, I am stoked to hear that, and 70 minutes is a good run to be doing now — don't want to undercut Captain Benita, though — oh, here we go, maybe I'll just back her up, take it easy. No, no, this is tempo, but err on the side of caution — can I tell you what the session is? I'll tell you, this is for everybody: I've run a 70-minute easy

\[55:31\] run, had a day off, and now today's session is easy 10-15 minutes, then three sets of six-minute tempo, aiming for the first three minutes at 4:45 pace. For what I want to run at Gold Coast, this is still a really light session — three sets of six-minute tempo, first three minutes at 4:45 pace, no faster, the next three minutes slightly faster as I feel.

\[56:02\] These are Benita's notes I'm reading directly — not supposed to be anywhere near as hard as you can go, even 4:30 pace would be fine, with a 90-second jog after. So essentially I'm doing three sets of six minutes where the six minutes is 4:45 into 4:30, 90-second jog after each, nowhere near as fast as I could go. She said it's just a light session to test a few things out, we'll progress if it's all OK, paces are just a guide, shouldn't feel hard, just get

\[56:33\] you doing something a bit faster than a jog, as long as it's all feeling good, easy jog cool-down 5 to 10 minutes. On Benita's training tips, as she's been getting me back from this calf injury, there've been runs where she's said 45 minutes to an hour depending on how you feel, or 30 to 40 minutes depending on how you feel. Do you get the obvious question — do you go high or

\[57:06\] low? Old me, without Benita, would have gone, well, I've got to run the hour, got to run the upper limit of the scope. The most recent one, not last week, Benita gave me 40 minutes to an hour, only run the hour if you're feeling great. I got through 40 minutes, got to 47 minutes, and my calf didn't hurt, but it suddenly — I just had a sensation that felt tired,

\[57:38\] tired to a good degree, and I was so proud of myself because I stopped running. Benita basically applauded me, she was like, good, that's what you're meant to do — the subtext was probably her thinking idiot, but no, she wasn't, she's been amazing. I was proud of myself because I probably still felt OK, and I stopped, walked, got home, checked the calf, and it was almost fine. So two weeks — well, it's only two or three weeks we've been talking to Benita — and you haven't obviously had the best run in that time, but just initial thoughts on having someone in your corner like that, coaching you.

\[58:12\] Because I haven't been able to actually utilise Benita's expertise from a weekly planning perspective — I saw what that first week looked like and then I got hurt, so I can't say too much about the structured weeks, although I know that's coming. What I've found is the reassurance of it, it's taken away decision-making. That's the biggest difference I've found with having Benita involved — it's taken the load off. I was going to catch up, I've had

\[58:45\] a couple of people message me going, hey, do you want to go for a run, do you want to go for a run, and I've just said to them all, here's what I'm doing, if you want to come do this run, come, if not we won't run together. I've even had a mate say, do you want to go for a run, and I said I've got to do this, and he goes, oh no, I don't want to do that, mate, great, we won't run together — it's really simplified life in that sense. Do you think, you just mentioned decision-making — do you think if you didn't have her in your corner, like this

\[59:15\] is talking to anyone with a coach or captain or someone helping you — do you think your mood would even be worse, do you think you'd be even further down, because you've also got to come to terms with the injury. You said you're — you know why you're injured, but would you have heard it again? Yeah, I would have heard it again, because despite following the physio programme, I would have been trying the runs that — Liam, my physio's been prescribing the rehab and

\[59:45\] the strength training and all that, but I know from previous injuries I haven't stuck to the return-to-running sessions, I've gone too hard or too fast, done too much too soon. So I probably would have heard it again. Is that because you feel accountable to the people helping you, so you want to make sure you do it right for them? That's it — previously it was an ego thing, when I was doing it wrong and hurting myself, it was, well, I can do this,

\[01:00:15\] it's me just saying no, I can do more than what the experts are telling me to do. Now with Benita it's that sense of not having to worry about making the decision myself, there's somebody I'm just putting my trust in to tell me the best way to do this because of their expertise. And it's almost a sense of, I'm not responsible — it's all about me, but

\[01:00:46\] in a weird way it gives you a bit of an out. Hey Benita, if I get to the end of the marathon and it's gone badly, it's on you — and I don't mean that, talking as someone who's injured themselves before she even got to look at me, hey, disclaimer, you did give yourself to her in a pretty bad state. Benita's been sold an absolute lemon — she's been handed a lemon off the lot and having to take responsibility as she prepares for Bathurst.

\[01:01:16\] She's also sounds like she's been given the golden egg in Bronte. Yeah, Benita walked onto the lot and bought two cars — one's an absolute bargain that's going to run forever, the other's an absolute lemon that thinks it's a race car. So yeah, in short, I'm back, I'm enjoying it, I'm happy running again, it's great. What have we got — some listener questions to hit up, let's go. Starting off with Nick Baker — ‘Hi gents, loving the podcast.

\[01:01:46\] Any chance you can shed some light on the best nutrition and gels that are gluten-free for the coeliac running community? Reckon there's a few of us around who'd be keen to find out.’ You know what, I was going to handball this and go ask someone, and I was like, jeez, this is out of my ballpark — so I did a quick Google, and pretty much every gel is gluten-free, really. So we're not caught out here — GU gels, gluten-free, majority, majority of them, more or less every gel brand claims gluten-free. If you go and

\[01:02:19\] Google any gel brand, whether it's gluten-free, majority of them will come back yes, all the ones I quickly googled seemed to be gluten-free and say so on the label. So that's that information, but please check for yourself as well. The next bit of that question is a bit more general — probably talk a bit quickly about gels. Eventually, with the Gold Coast Marathon, because there's fixed nutrition on the marathon course, we're going to have a discussion about nutrition in a race, what's possible to use and how to get

\[01:02:51\] used to it. But taking that out for the moment — what gel do you use? I use GU — is that because you can buy them easily at Rebel? No, I buy them online on Amazon, you can buy a box in bulk and it makes a better price, I think. I use them because I'm familiar with them, I started when I first tried Noosa Triathlon 10 years ago, and I think GU might have been one of the race sponsors then, I bought some at the expo

\[01:03:21\] and just kind of stuck with them. When I got back into marathon prep I actually asked Ashleigh Gentle what she's using, and she sent me the link — she said, I use these — so now I buy a bulk box of the GU gels, one flavour with caffeine and one without, and split them. GU's been around for, I don't know exactly the history, but I remember it back when I was racing young, they've been around, interestingly —

\[01:03:51\] well, interestingly, unless that's changed just recently, if you walk through Rebel Sport, where most people go to buy their gear, the main sports store in Australia, that's the only kind of consumable product you can buy there. It makes sense for gels, you grab them and they're all GU. I've tended to be sold on the whole elite thing around Maurten, though — when it

\[01:04:24\] comes to sports drinks and gels, SIS, I'm a big fan of. I'll just quickly share, while we're talking gels — the other thing I like, because GU can become a bit much after a while, is Clif Bloks. I really like that just as something different, because I know some people run with lollies, but I find a Clif Blok gives you that energy in a lolly format essentially, because it's coming from a nutrition company. Do you find, if you took that Clif Blok, do you kind of

\[01:04:54\] think, well that's better energy than if I had a snake? Yeah — I don't know if it's true, I think it's probably complete bollocks, but it's interesting because it comes back to that notion of it being a brand you're taking, or the way it's kind of sold to you, placebo-wise. Agreed, you're probably thinking you're going to get better from it. And the other thing I've been using a little of, because we got sent some, is Pillar — I've just been using it as a post-training thing, the magnesium recovery flavour, and I liked it.

\[01:05:26\] I thought — Pillar sent some of the stuff to us, I've been giving it a try, and as I've recovered from this injury I've really enjoyed using it. So there you go, Nick — those are the gels I prefer and Liam prefers, but it seems like most of them are gluten-free. And speaking of, we're going down this nutrition road because Brett Quayle also sent us a question saying loving the pod, loving the marathon talk, it's so good. ‘I have a question for both of you — how do you deal with cramps when

\[01:05:56\] running? I was cramping at a half the other weekend, snuck in at the back end. Any advice? Someone wanting to start trail running, keep it up, guys.’ And I think Liam needs to have a go at the Panorama Punish at Bathurst — what's that? Sounds like it's a lap of the track. We looked at this earlier in a few episodes, I think Brett actually sent this through to us. Did you ever have a cramp during your races? I used to have some stitch-like issues,

\[01:06:27\] sort of under that rib — I'd consider cramp versus stitch differently. Stitching's probably more to do with the diaphragm and breathing, cramp's probably more to do with a muscular thing. Now, the first thing some crew out there will think is salt — but we're talking a half marathon here, so I don't think salt or electrolyte concentration is going to make too

\[01:06:58\] much of a difference if you've had a reasonable diet leading into it. Cramping in this case is more likely down to weakness in the muscle — you've gone too hard, or your muscle isn't ready for the challenge you're putting it through. That'd be my opinion on the first case. I haven't had too much experience with cramp fixes like pickle juice or whatever, because I haven't had this issue myself.

\[01:07:29\] But I know from footy, or cricket, or anywhere people cramp, it's the first thing they'll reach for. I can't really shed light on this — I reckon in my whole life I've cramped maybe six times, my wife will get cramps at night while she's asleep, but cramping's not really something that hits me either. Taking the cramping out of it for a moment, that notion of putting your body through something it's not used to, it's probably not going to respond well —

\[01:08:00\] it's the same theory. If you're going out to run a half marathon and haven't prepared your body for it, and you try to do the first 10K too quick, the likelihood, whether it's cramping or slowing down or whatever, is it's going to happen in the second half of that race. Some people might just have more of a weakness toward cramping, others will just slow down, others will bonk — it just depends what it is. Just quickly, I'm looking at the Panorama Punish, and it looks like — yeah, run one hot lap,

\[01:08:30\] so basically you're racing a 6.2K, 174 metres of elevation. The winner last year — what do you reckon the winner did that in, 6.2 kilometres, 174 metres elevation, the winner was 15 to 18? Fifteen to 18 year old — I'm guessing probably 20 minutes, 21 minutes, yep, yep, so it's a sprint. Long way to go for a sprint, long way for me to get to Bathurst just to run 6.2K, guys, righto.

\[01:09:00\] We got anything else to finish, Courtney? I reckon let's finish on a bit of light-heartedness — here we go, a bit of Matt Lyon, we always love him. ‘What's up, man, I noticed you're wearing a ridiculous amount of moisture-wicking materials, you must be here for Local Locomotion, our twice-weekly club for people with running shoes brighter than the solar eclipse. My name's Skedaddle. First thing we do when everybody shows up is set the daily mileage and pace — that can be done several ways, but primarily it's dictated by the median length of our shorts. If you can see

\[01:09:30\] 95 percent of your thigh, we're running six-minute miles. Inversely, if you show up in a pair of capris, we're going for a brisk walk like a couple of suburban mums. What's your VO2 max, by the way? Now, I know this is a way to socialise with other runners, but until I've saved the stats on my watch post-run, I don't want to hear a word out of your mouth — otherwise, what's the point of coming out here? We all knocked out 12 miles last Saturday. You want to know the first thing we did when we finished? That's right, guzzled down 12 beers and traded our Strava usernames like Pokémon cards. Welcome to the big leagues, kids.

\[01:10:00\] This didn't always come easy to me. You know how demoralising it is coughing up a lung in a public space, it's terrible — that's why I prefer to run in a horde of 25 to 30 other people, takes the eyes off you. Can I give you a quick tip — wear an adult diaper. Next time the porta-potty at mile 6 hasn't seen a Clorox wipe since the Fartlek 5K back in ’09, it's a war zone. Do me a favour, send me a pic of all your participation medals, that'll determine whether or not you're worth talking to. And not to be rude, but I just don't normally chat to somebody

\[01:10:30\] without a seal hat and a hydration vest.’ He's got the parody of running down. Oh, wait, he's my favourite, that's why you're going to keep hearing from him — he's got it, he's absolutely figured it out. On that note, make sure everyone subscribes, that'll help us out, and we'll continue to build — keep subscribing, and like Bianca did, send through audio messages, we love them, they're easy for us to respond to and get involved with. Feel free to send through audio messages, and yep, subscribe, comment, send through your comments as well.

\[01:11:02\] We want to keep growing, we want to keep building. We'll see you next week — see you next week.