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# EP 43 - LOST VOICES, MOORING WARS & OLYMPIC MARATHON SHOWDOWNS
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep-43-lost-voices-mooring-wars-olympic-marathon-showdowns/
- Published: 2025-07-18T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T10:38:57.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Olympics & 2032, Gold Coast Marathon, Noosa Triathlon — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Olympics, Gold Coast Marathon, Triathlon, Running Training, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

*Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Olympics & 2032, Gold Coast Marathon, Noosa Triathlon — recorded on the Gold Coast.*

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP-43---LOST-VOICES--MOORING-WARS--OLYMPIC-MARATHON-SHOWDOWNS-e35lp10?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-43-lost-voices-mooring-wars-olympic-marathon-showdowns/id1772010786?i=1000717989495&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 43 — Courtney, we are back. This feels like almost the resumption of normal programming. Yeah, in a weird way. I thought we'd get to a year of doing it every week, but it doesn't matter — we missed a week, and I've got to hand up accountability here. That's on me, on my vocal cords. I greatly underestimated the toll that working the Gold Coast Marathon would take.

\[00:30\] Maybe it was worth it — the amount of people, both in person at the Gold Coast Marathon and online, who said to me what an amazing job I did. And also all the people who've written to us on the podcast, DMing us saying it's been really cool to get that feedback. Honestly, the feeling of meeting strangers who have a level of familiarity with you because of this podcast, in person, smiles on faces —

\[01:01\] — again, I said it on the Wednesday episode with Bronte, that was the greatest weekend with a microphone, 24 or 48 hours, that I've ever had. And the funniest part — quick story about my voice. I messaged you on the Monday and said, I'm cooked, my voice is gone. I still had to do a radio show, so I had to front up. I actually had Monday off because we had a day off from the show, but I had to do

\[01:31\] the radio show Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday — and on top of that, Friday, I had the opportunity to call the Suns-Collingwood Friday night game. Blockbuster, a good game — the first ever Friday night home game in Gold Coast Suns history. Really, first? Why is that? Because Friday night games are typically the big Melbourne games, that's the big audience game. And also the Suns have never really been good enough to warrant one, especially at home. Yep. So that was the first.

\[02:01\] That's a historical moment for AFL on the Gold Coast. I knew I was going to get to call it. I'm coming off the back of that Gold Coast Marathon weekend, my voice is cooked, and yet I've still got to front up and do the radio show in the mornings. I couldn't reasonably say, 'hey guys, I've got to take a couple of days off the show to get my voice right for the football game on Friday night' — it just doesn't work like that. Wasn't going to fly. So all week I'm minimising

\[02:32\] how much I can talk outside of the show, sucking down soothers, doing everything. Then I get to Friday morning — now this is where it gets intense. I wake up Friday morning and my voice is okay. We do the show, down doing an outside broadcast for one of the clients, out and about in the cold — probably not great for the voice, but it's okay, I got through it. Then I had to drive up to Brisbane to host the lunch I'd said I would do.

\[03:03\] Oh, Jesus — yeah, two weeks prior I'd committed to that. So then I have to get through a lunch at the QLD Cricketers Club at the Gabba as the host, and again, can't really fudge out of it — you've got to present properly. So I do the lunch, and at that point I've chewed through my complete resources of soothers and everything else I had, and I get back down to the Gold Coast at People First Stadium. To add to the pressure of all this, I'm calling Friday Night Football with Brian Taylor —

\[03:34\] — now for people who don't follow AFL, he's the Ray Warren of AFL. BT has a presence about him, he's a former Coleman Medallist, a big guy who carries himself with presence in the box. The last thing I want to do is sound bad. Now the voice sounds okay — I've run through all my streps, I'm asking bars for chopped-up lemon, I'm asking cafes for free hot water, doing everything to try and get my voice through.

\[04:05\] Then we get to go on air, and we've got to do an hour pre-game before we start calling the game. BT's in town, and I figured he'd run it, but he said, no, no, you do it. So Tom Rockliff and I — former Brisbane Lions player — are talking for like 40 minutes. Then we had to call the game, and I got through it. For those who didn't see

\[04:35\] the game — amazing game, thrilling game, exciting game, full of big moments — when my voice needed to hold, it got through. Then it gets to the final quarter, and Josh Dacos, who had a blinder of a final quarter, is about to kick his third goal of the term, having a snap at it, and I'm calling the passage of play — and then the voice gave out. I got through it, just — it just went. My voice just stopped. I was moving my lips, the voice just stopped, and I went back and listened to

\[05:07\] it after — I should've got the audio of it — but I hear Rocky and BT go, 'oh, Finesy, his voice has just stopped,' and then BT calls the next couple of minutes. Then you hear him go, 'you right to rejoin us, Finesy?' and I'm like, yep, good to go. For the most part I got through it, but in short, that's why there was no podcast last week. So you've called two days of the Gold Coast Marathon, luckily got a day off, you're already in trouble, you've got your radio show, then a function,

\[05:38\] then you throw in the function, then you call a footy game. Mate, you deserve the rest now. While you're doing all that — I know, and this is the other thing — my voice was no good, but also you were up in the bloody Whitsundays on a boat. Where were you? I was up at the Whitsundays. One of my best mates who I raced with, Bryce Quirk, had somehow bought a yacht type thing and

\[06:08\] asked if I wanted to come along as a family and do it together. I've been up there a few times for work with tourism — I can't even speak, Queensland, doing different things. So you kind of know the ropes, but you forget, after two years, exactly how to sail a 42 or 44 foot catamaran, and they just throw you on there and expect you to go out. Hold on, there's no captain or anything with you out there? No — this is the beauty of the Whitsundays, you can hire

\[06:38\] a bare boat for the week — when I say bare boat, a 42 to 44 foot catamaran or motorboat, whatever you want. They give you a half a day, a few hours, teach you how to pick up a mooring, teach you how to anchor, show you around the boat, and off you go. I'd crash that. Off you go — it's stressful. Hey, here's one for you, because we had this on the last night. We were out there for six nights, and on the last night there's a bit of a race each day, 'cause you've got the mooring

\[07:08\] boys, so you don't have to anchor. At different locations, different bays around the Whitsundays, they've got mooring buoys. For those who don't know what a mooring buoy is, it's literally a plastic buoy that sits there, and next to that comes a bit of rope you can just tie onto instead of having to put your anchor out and dig into the sand. Much less stressful in the sense that you don't have to worry about the anchor dragging during the night if it's windy. So you want the mooring, sure.

\[07:39\] We're running a bit late — we'd been over at Hayman Island, come round, and we're coming into Stone Haven Bay running a bit late. There's plenty of moorings, but it's a Sunday night, busy, and I reckon there were probably two or three left. The two that were left were up in the wind, and one out of the wind I spotted going up to it had a dinghy on it. There's a guy and his son sitting there attached to this mooring, everyone else around them on 40

\[08:09\] foot yachts. We've just started motoring towards him because I'm sure they can't — well, if you turn up to a car park at Pacific Fair and someone's standing in the car park saying 'I'm just holding it for someone' — is that what they were doing? What do you reckon, how does that fly? I thought the comparison you were going to make was if you pulled up to a full car park and there's a push bike in one of the spots. No, worse than that — you're entitled to lift the push bike out of the way, 100%, but you're saying this is someone standing there —

\[08:39\] I don't know what the protocol is on the water. I mean if you're at Pacific Fair or a shopping centre and you turn up and there's someone standing in the car park, and it's Christmas and there's no car park, and someone goes 'sorry mate, I'm just saving it for someone coming' — is that okay? I don't know the boaty code, I'm not a boaty.

\[09:09\] I believe that's the point — they put you out there and you just don't know. But it's the battle of the boat, right? If you're standing there in a dinghy versus a big 40 foot catamaran, I don't think you can try and hold that spot. Well, you can't save spots, but — you can't run over them either. No, of course you can't, that's a given. So what did you do? Well, we tried to play a little bit of big boat, small boat —

\[09:42\] and got them off. What did you say? I just held his ground, mate — 'I'm waiting for my boat that went away.' And I'm like, we've got a few people on board, you can't do that. We had a bit of a back and forth, and then anyway we ended up backing off and going up into the windier spot for the night. So because you're a nice guy, a good guy, ultimately? Nah — I wouldn't have had the stones to sit there in my dinghy and try to hold the spot. I would have —

\[10:12\] as soon as I saw the big boat roll in, I would have gone, 'oh, we tried,' you know. My mum would have held the spot. I don't have that in me, I'm anti-confrontation, so I would have cowered, I would have failed, and gone and set up in the windy spot. Other than that it was a brilliant week — bit of fishing with the kids, a nice holiday to get away, no mobile reception most of the time, beautiful. But back to reality today. We're going to

\[10:43\] touch on some Goldie Marathon stuff, because there are plenty of messages of support and thanks, and by now you'll have listened to the episode with Bronte recapping — and sorry that took another week as well, but as I said, I was in no state to. If you haven't listened, that would have come out Wednesday. Can I ask you something, going back to your high days as a pro athlete — how do you tune out the noise? Because the reason I bring this

\[11:14\] up is Gout Gout, someone we've talked about on the show — he's 17 years of age. If you missed it, over the last weekend he won the under-23 200 metre final at the Diamond League. I love reading about him, I love watching him, I love the whole story, and I love where Australian sprinting is at. We talk a lot of long distance and middle distance stuff here, but I also love where sprinting is going. Lachie Kennedy's another one, Bree Masters obviously in the women's, and the other exciting

\[11:44\] kids coming through. I can already see the hate coming for Gout Gout — I can already see the negative comments, and there's a lot of comparative stuff with Lachie Kennedy, people already picking sides in this battle. I understand it's a natural sporting thing to do, choosing a side when there are two people who are seemingly peers. If you can avoid it, celebrate both these guys

\[12:15\] for as long as you can. If you've got to pick a side, fine, but pick a side to support, don't pick one to criticise the other. The Gout Gout hate I can already see coming — give me an example. There's a lot of people — I've been on a boat, I mean, you've been on a boat — I don't know, a lot of people saying, well what's this guy done, why are we celebrating him? This is Gout Gout — what's he achieved yet? He's not — he lost to Lachie Kennedy in the 100\. Why isn't Lachie Kennedy getting more celebration, more praise? Why are we going overboard celebrating this 17 year

\[12:48\] old who hasn't really done anything yet? To those people I'd say, well, he broke the Australian record, he's the fastest ever Australian — so he has done something, he hasn't done nothing, significant for an Australian. Significant, absolutely. And then I went on to read some more of the comments, and quite astutely a lot of people are on there saying, yeah, but it's about ceiling and potential. I think it's easy to see that the ceiling and potential of Gout Gout is potentially higher than that of Lachie — not knocking Lachie, not making it a versus one another,

\[13:18\] but coming back to it, because you're never going to silence the internet — how do you, as an elite athlete, tune out the noise and keep that external stuff to a minimum? It's different now because of social media, you can't hide from it. I think you used to get that noise from media, but it was never personal — it was always, how would you say it, mainstream media used to control

\[13:49\] the message. They'd beat down on bad performances and put it out there, but there was still some type of journalistic intent to it. Whereas now, everyone can say what they want without reprisal — you can be anonymous and just say whatever you want. Do you think this is a bit of tall poppy syndrome, or is it actually a comparison thing?

\[14:20\] I think it's — I wouldn't be able to put a percentage on it, but I'd say yeah, tall poppy syndrome, definitely. I'm surprised this has come up so early — I expected it down the track, once we'd seen more results from Gout, but it's surprised me it's happened this early. I think the Maurie Plant meet earlier in the year

\[14:51\] in Melbourne was a bit of a turning point, put a few noses out of joint. If there are people predetermined to be grumpy, sour, bitter and negative about athletes and the world, that meet would have been the moment where they decided, nah, I'm not going to get behind this kid, I'm going to go after him — because he came out with fanfare, all the bells and whistles, and he carries himself like a good sprinter does, with

\[15:21\] confidence, with the belief that he's the best in the world, because that's part of the game. But that's also part of the appeal — that's why all the kids at the track want a photo with him, that's why they're all following him, there's appeal in his personality, the way he carries himself, who he is, what he looks like — it's a package, and we've talked about this, it's a package, and yes, it's going to put some people's noses out of joint. So, I mean, but —

\[15:53\] you asked about the noise — the only solution is not to look at the comments. You can take yourself away, go on a boat to Hamilton Island, you can do that too, but everyone's got a choice. Go away from sport — it's when a commentator online starts whinging about being attacked online. Remove yourself from the source, walk away from it, and it's a solved issue,

\[16:23\] right? You see it all the time, but they want to double down and stay online where they're getting the hatred. It's like the Ricky Gervais joke about the pub noticeboard in the public square — someone puts up a notice saying guitar lessons available, someone grabs the tab off it and goes 'but I don't want guitar lessons,' well, it's not for you then, ignore it, leave it alone. Exactly, walk away from it. But the answer is, as an athlete, you

\[16:53\] hear this from the swim team and certain athletes at the Olympics — they just stop looking at social media for that period, finish competing, and then go back and look at it. That's the way to do it, you just remove yourself. I'll be interested to see how he plays it, because did you notice — I don't know if you saw it — there was a shot of him during the week after his meet in Monaco with Oscar Piastri. You look at it, Gout is 17, and it's nothing but blue skies ahead of

\[17:25\] him, potential yet not yet realised. Oscar Piastri, very similar boat, only seven years older, and yet this is a guy not far off being crowned the F1 champion of the world. That will put Oscar Piastri into another stratosphere — a global stratosphere. Any of those F1 drivers competing at that level are already there, but that will make him bigger than —

\[17:57\] well, who's Sir Jack Brabham? Is that the last F1 champion we had? I don't know, but he's bigger than Webber, bigger than Ricciardo. Here's one for you then — what about Daniel Ricciardo? You'd say he was a global superstar, never won a championship, won grands prix but never a title, but because of his package, his personality — not that package, but his brand, his personality — everything that went with it, he arguably was a bigger superstar

\[18:29\] than some of them who did win world championships. If you ask people who was the bigger driver, the more successful driver, out of Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo, people would say Ricciardo, and yet Mark Webber was a lot closer to winning a world championship — he finished runner-up or third one year, back in his heyday with Red Bull. So yeah, you know, look — you answered the question

\[18:59\] about silencing the noise — it's a choice. It's a choice. It's a choice, and that's not just for athletes, that's for anyone — if that's causing you issues, and no one's immune to it, because there are so many different factors that go into the whole ecosystem of social media, sharing stuff, whatever it is, whether you're a young kid, an adult, or an athlete. But there is a very simple solution — remove yourself from it for a

\[19:30\] time. Get out. Yeah, I don't care about the haters, I'm all in. I'm such a fan. Look, it's going to be a long road, in the sense we're looking at the Brisbane Olympics — or as we call them, the Gold Coast — well the Gold Coast will get some events, but it's a long road, and we're going to go through a lot between here and there. There will be times when he gets

\[20:00\] hate, of course, and other times too — but seeing where he's come from, you've got to remember he's a western Brisbane kid, Ipswich, Ipswich Grammar, going through the system, obviously amazing genetics, a great team around him. I wish him success — get behind this kid, and Lachie Kennedy too. Again, Aussie sprinting, it's a bit like what I was having this conversation about with Andy Buchanan over the Gold Coast Marathon

\[20:31\] weekend, mate. Andy Buchanan — for those who don't know, if you don't follow our socials, Liam hosted the AG1 shakeout Friday, they had a shakeout run and then a Q&A session with Andy Buchanan. What a great talker he was. I was at the back just minding my own business with a camera, and I sat there listening the whole time, he spoke so well, answered the questions — I walked away going, what an interesting

\[21:04\] mindset he has — you can sense the fierce competitiveness that lives within him about racing. But I really found it fascinating how he hasn't come from the normal runner's mould — his parents used to drag him as a kid, his only holidays were going to marathons with his parents, watching marathons, and the fact that he's got to the top of the tree in Australia is quite a story. This is a guy who's the only ever Aussie under 2:07 in the marathon, he's just won the Gold Coast Marathon half back to back now.

\[21:36\] Back to back, and that's normal to him, he thought it was normal, that everyone had that as a holiday. But what he talked about with men's marathon running in Australia right now is a bit like what sprinting's going through, in that for a stretch there we've really celebrated the story of the women's marathon field and the depth of Australian women's marathon running, with Jess Stenson, Genevieve Gregson and Sinead Diver and the other elite women coming through. And now suddenly the men's quality is being recognised in

\[22:07\] the Aussie depth too. Similarly in sprinting, it feels like we've got this amazing crop — I don't want to call it the golden generation because they haven't gone on to achieve anything yet, but the Aussie sprinting talent base is deep, which is really exciting. So get behind all of it. Do you know what I found interesting about Andy — he broke the all-comers record for Australians, Pat Carroll's all-comers record. Pat Carroll is part of the ambassador family for the Gold Coast

\[22:39\] Marathon, and he was there. But let's call Pat out for what an amazing run that was — was it 26 years, that record? No super shoes, nothing. Well, those guys, Pat and Deeks and all that, mate, they could run. Congratulations to Andy for breaking it, but I was bloody impressed the record was 25 years old.

\[23:10\] I got to have a chat with Pat Carroll as well over the weekend, what a ripper bloke. I'd never met Mona, Deeks or Pat before, got to talk to all three of them across the weekend — unbelievable. Run a podcast, and you know what — embarrassingly, I think I told Deeks that I did a podcast with you, and he said, who? No, he knew exactly who you were, but I did have a little bit of that imposter syndrome,

\[23:40\] floating around like, wow, these are literally the best of the best of Australian marathon running, and it was unbelievable to be in their presence. Even though I mentioned it on Wednesday, one of the highlights of my whole weekend — I mean you were in the thick of it the whole weekend, I only just got to get in for a little bit here and there — but at the function on that Friday night, I'll never forget, we love shoes, standing there with you kind of at the function

\[24:13\] looking around, and let's be honest about this — an email went out because ASICS are the major sponsor of the Gold Coast Marathon, and for this function celebrating 30 years of partnership, it was nicely asked that you wear your best ASICS or a non-branded shoe. I wore a pair of brown shoes because you do the right thing, I don't have a pair of ASICS — no, I didn't have a pair either

\[24:43\] and I didn't want to do the wrong thing wearing a pair of muddy Salomons or whatever, so I did the right thing. But we're standing there looking around at everyone's shoes — the ones wearing ASICS, you could tell the ones who'd just got them out of the box, they were all the bureaucrats in there. But this guy had 'CEO' on his shoes, and I said to you, whatever you reckon, this guy was wearing 'CEO,' and he turned out to be the big dog, ASICS globally — Herodosan, the boss. So cool.

\[25:15\] We were pointing it out to everybody we saw in the room, like, look, he's got 'CEO.' I made the joke that he put it on to Bali and got it done. No, there's all these little things you get to witness and experience over that weekend, seeing Herodosan with 'CEO' embroidered on his pair of ASICS. And mate, on the weekend I want to give you some kudos here, because we both had people tell us how well their job was done, but also the

\[25:45\] messages we got through from our crew, our In The Beginning podcast family, saying, you know, they saw you cross the finish line. There's a couple, like Trent Dwyer said, great job on the mic Liam, and this morning, you won't remember, but it was cool to say hi at the finish line. Do you remember how many? I reckon over the course of the weekend I had at least 30 different interactions with people, whether it was a high five from someone who came and sought me out, or a lean-over-the-fence chat.

\[26:17\] Yeah, it was great, plenty of them. Quick message, this one's from O2 SR21 — nice name — 'just want to shoot you a quick message to say thanks, I've been listening to the pod for about 6 months, it's helped me prepare for the day, in my humble opinion the best running pod.' Well, we think so too, thank you, Sammy, thank you. What else have we got — 'harder, not further,' there were a few of those shirts out there, right? Yeah, that was a good T-shirt call. 'Harder, not further' is all I could spit out when seeing Liam

\[26:49\] at the finish line today at the Gold Coast Half — this is David Wilson. At first I don't think he knew what was going to happen, but as he stumbled over to me and delivered the message, the excitement on his face was awesome to see, he got a fist pump — topped off a massive PB as well, so congrats David. There were so many people there, and yeah, when a few people came over and said 'harder, not further,' that for me was like, oh, you've really been listening. Do you remember Nick, he said, 'I mean you crushed him mate, left every bit of it,' and just FYI, I was the guy who yelled out to be careful of your calf when

\[27:22\] you were getting the crowd going for the half. I did get a few calf comments, yes, so I appreciate everybody. I can't stress how much fun I had — I said it on Wednesday's episode. Genuinely, thank you to ASICS and the Gold Coast Marathon for letting me do that, because it's a responsibility I take quite seriously. I have a lot of fun, but I also know all the hard work that gets done around that on the day, and you're kind of like in the

\[27:55\] same way — think about it like this. Your plane crew, your hosties, they're the people that's the experience your passengers remember. Whether the flight goes smoothly or the plane's working smoothly, they'll never know, but if you have a great experience with your hostie, you walk off the plane going, what a legend — first and last thing you see. To get to be that person at the Gold Coast Marathon who sends you on your

\[28:25\] way, and then welcomes you across that blue carpet — that's a responsibility I take very seriously, I want everyone to have the best possible time they can. Was there one finisher out of all of them — not the collapses and that type of thing, but was there something that just stood out to you? Everybody that hits the blue carpet, by the time you hit it you've literally got about 50 metres left, 20

\[28:56\] metres left. I really sympathise with people who started crying when they hit that carpet, because I've been there, I know what that feeling is like when the emotions just hit and it all comes out. I probably saw over the marathon half a dozen people where I said on the microphone to them, 'hey, let it out, you've earned this, whatever you're feeling, let it out.' There was a Triple M listener who had me feeling emotional scaling him over the line of the half marathon.

\[29:28\] Had some fun with a Gold Coast local, Luke Bradnam, because he took forever to turn up and the Channel 9 crew was waiting for him at the line. Bronte was a really special finish for me as well, just because we'd obviously followed her journey, being able to find her and spot her there. That's the thing I mentioned on Wednesday and I'll reiterate — I've probably never, we do a running podcast and I run, and I've been part of running groups, but I think over the weekend at

\[30:00\] the marathon I realised just how embedded in the running community I am now, by how many people I knew finishing the marathon, whether from Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, here or Brisbane, or people who listen to the podcast. That's what I mean, my running world now generally feels really broad, and that's really cool. Now we're just going to talk about running — no, I'm back running, I'm back running, in fact, let's jump into it. I've got a question for you —

\[30:32\] how long do you think it'll take me to break 40 minutes for a 10K? How many Ks did you run this week, the week just gone? I ran 30Ks — not too much. And what's your quickest ever 10K? It's about 41 minutes. Okay, so we're talking PB, we're going for a PB — I've never run sub-40\. So the new goal, is that what we're saying, is a 10K focus? Yeah, okay.

\[31:02\] I think because I looked at it — Melbourne, Sydney's obviously at the end of August, Melbourne's only like 8 and a half weeks away. Nah, too short, not long enough — and that's the other thing, the maturing of my running perspective, that's Benita's influence, it's not long enough. Is that what you'd say? It's the hangover of Lakes-Up running. Don't be silly about it. Right, so it's too short a timeframe, I'm doing Noosa instead. Okay,

\[31:34\] I'd love to be running really strong in the run leg at Noosa, and to set myself a bit of a training goal around that. I'd love to go into Noosa knowing I can run a sub-40 minute 10K — whether I do it in the race is another thing, because I've got to swim and ride first, but I'd love to go into that weekend knowing I'm a sub-40 10K runner. I was going to say they're two very different — no, no, because

\[32:04\] to get to that 40, in whatever, 8, 9, 12 weeks, how far away is Noosa? Noosa's at the start of — four months away. Yeah, but you're going off trying to make a running goal — I'm not trying to run sub-40 at Noosa, I'd like to be going into Noosa knowing I can run a sub-40 10K. Well, I think parkrun is the first step in that — we've got to get consistent running some parkruns over 5K and just start getting quicker,

\[32:36\] progressively consistent. So for you, what should — what was the original question — what should a sub-40 10K runner be running a parkrun in? Geez, I don't know off the top of my head, there'd be some formula for it, but I'd like to be a bit under 19 minutes. Okay, so it's a PB-5K game, yeah. I think I've run an 18:46\. I think it also depends on

\[33:10\] your makeup — do you gather speed easily and then find holding it in the endurance harder, or do you find it challenging to get the speed base but you actually hold pace reasonably well? There's two different types of runners. Explain that more to me. I'm probably more in the camp of a runner whose speed base isn't necessarily — and when you say speed base you mean top end? Well, not only top end speed,

\[33:40\] but my ability to run over, say, three and five kilometres — I can probably run out to 10K at a similar pace, whereas some people are able to run their 3K and 5K a lot quicker, they've got a better speed base, but might struggle more to hold that pace over distance. And I'm not talking about training ability here, natural ability — you'd find that out through training. It's just something you'd find, some people have a better ability to kind of not

\[34:11\] even-split, because you're not going to do that in a 10K, are you? Well, you could, but it's more unlikely. It's not as big a factor as in a marathon — you're not coming back in the marathon, whereas in the 10K you can go out a little bit quicker and drop off a bit at the end, but the overall time can even out better. I don't think it's as important — that's my sure personal experience in that area.

\[34:42\] But what I do believe is parkrun is a great way to start getting yourself ready to do that — if you pick a course like down your way, went each weekend and just progressively, not overdoing it, did the same thing every Saturday, ran the 5K, got a guide and got a bit better each time, you should see progression. Okay, all right, well put it in your notebook, I might come along for some of that. It begins today — I want to, by the end of the year, be able to

\[35:17\] put up in the same way that I've had those very universal running goals, things I'd be proud to put up — I wanted to break 90 minutes for a half, I did that last year. I want to break 3 hours for a full, and that will come. I'd like to be a sub-40 10K runner, 5K — I don't quite know what the number is there, because I've run under 19 before, so I feel fine about that,

\[35:48\] it's not a round number, but again I'd love to be able to put up, like the sub-40 10K, as another number for me that's kind of a bucket-list number to tick off. Okay, so that's on the cards, FYI. Okay, parkrun, I'll set that out — great. And it's great to know Noosa — we've managed to not talk about Noosa for six months, but you know, it's coming around when we talk about local South-East Queensland events, big ones, and it's coming, we'll be talking about it again,

\[36:18\] and if you're going to be doing it, we'll definitely be talking about it. Yeah, I'll be back there. What about you, have you been running? Oh, I've been on a boat. So what do you do? I did get off the boat once — I ran up in the Whitsundays, there's limited running once you're out on the islands. I saw you got off and did like a 1.6K — Whitsunday Peak, right, 17% gradient — it goes up 390 metres in 2.2K, right.

\[36:52\] We had to get moving that morning too, so I jumped off, took a dinghy — this is a question I had on the boat, do you say 'dinghy' or 'dinky'? Dinghy, I say dinghy, not dinky. I think that might be you turning into a bit more of a Queenslander than you think. No — you have dengue fever,

\[37:25\] which is what mosquitoes give you, not dinghy. Anyway, I got off and we did that quick run, but the thing was, I'd literally just got out of bed, went over and thought, do I warm up or do I just go straight up, having not run in seven days? I'll tell you what, I got about halfway up that 17% grade and everything started — no warm-up. Do you want to know — I'm just having a look at that run you did, you've cracked the travel leaderboard. Now this is the thing,

\[37:56\] I ran it — I ran it back maybe five years ago or something, but I ran up there with a backpack, a drone and a camera, and I went 4 minutes slower with nothing this time. So you're third all-time on that run you did just recently — third all-time, yeah, I don't think too many people get off a boat and do that. You're a long way off the record though, you're like 6 and a half minutes behind — Christian Truta has the record, you ran a 48:20.

\[38:26\] Must have been uphill, because you're going at 10:40 per K — yeah, I did say it's a 17% grade. And Christian's done it at 9:30, he's flying up. I wonder if he warmed up before. Look, it wasn't quick, but your body — from a return-to-running perspective, you're basically back. Well I'm running, I just didn't run last week, so probably, but the body's feeling good, everything seems all right for the moment. Okay, all right, yeah, we'll have to just get back slow, but that

\[38:58\] was — I knew that was coming. So in full disclosure, part of the reason I was on a boat was because I'd had all expectations of running a marathon. So you'd booked that in, correct? This leads perfectly into a message we got — on Instagram from Ollie Harvey, who said, 'just went for my first run since JC Marathon and I'm being dead serious when I say 10Ks felt harder than the marathon a week ago. In fairness I've been drinking wine in Victoria all week, but

\[39:31\] genuinely wanted to know if there's anything to post-marathon running being hard. Thought it might be a good question for anyone in the same boat. Cheers gents.' Gee, that's a good question, and a massive pause too. It's going to be hard for someone — everyone's going to go through it differently. I'm only talking from listening to other people here, not just that, but any long run people do, everyone's going to be individual in how they pull up. Well, we talked to Bronte on Wednesday, and she feels fine.

\[40:03\] It sounded like she hadn't even been for a run — she sounded like she could have gone out running the next day, finished so fresh. I think the thing is, I'd always say listen to your body, that's the best indicator to know when it's ready to go, and if it's feeling hard running around 10K and you're forcing it, that's probably not the right thing to do. There you go — you've just got to wait for your body to recover. As far as we don't give advice, but the advice would be, you've got to listen to your body.

\[40:34\] If people ask us questions, we can throw out a suggestion. There's another one I like — Matt has messaged us and said, 'hey team, on the weekend I ran the Run Melbourne half marathon and got a PB, first sub-90 half.' Please, welcome to the club Matt, in Liam's club. But talking with my tri club afterwards, we were all 300 to 400 metres short —

\[41:05\] 'can I still say I ran a sub-90 half?' Now for context, what run was this? Run Melbourne half marathon — he sent through his certificate of participation. Matt's run a net time of 1:29:31, so he's 29 or 28 seconds under sub-90, but everybody on their watches ran

\[41:37\] 3 to 400 metres short. Oh, geez, I'm looking at the map — that's a nightmare, give us a little — oh, that's a horrible course, I'm just seeing this now, I'm assuming this is like a footbridge — like why is it, remember you used to do the dot-to-dots as a kid that connected dots? That's Marvel Stadium, so that's down near the casino there, and is that Albert —

\[42:07\] where's that? So that's the Tan — oh, he's running around, that's shocking. So they've gone down, and I don't know Melbourne that well, but I've run around the Tan enough — they've done dog-loops in the Tan and crisscrossed it. The thing is, looking at that map, there are a few U-turns where GPS could go haywire as well — not that it would go haywire exactly, but if it's picking you up at certain intervals, it does have a

\[42:39\] degree of inaccuracy, and if you're doubling back on yourself, it's like running on trails — the inaccuracy of the watch increases as you take the hard corners. 300 metres is a lot. So in this circumstance, is it a case of trusting the course director, trusting the race organisers that they've measured it out well? I have no idea. Can Matt call himself a sub-90 half runner?

\[43:10\] He ran a half marathon in sub-90\. Matt, you've been given the green light, welcome to the club, it's great to have you. It's a running problem that happens all the time. Are you in that club? Have you ever run a straight-up half marathon? Yes. Oh okay, what — accuracy? What time did you do? I can't even recall — you did 69th in a triathlon. All right, fair enough. No, not as part of a triathlon, a straight-up half. No, I've run

\[43:40\] Gold Coast before — oh, really? Half — I didn't know that. Yeah, you'd be at the pointy end of that, I imagine. All right, fine, fair enough, glad I brought it up. Hey, I haven't run it, but honestly, of the proper runs I've done when I was prepping — I can name times — City2Surf, Bridge to Brisbane, all those mid-range city runs, that's where I'd always be running. Okay,

\[44:10\] speaking of Brisbane, that's a very nice segue you've just served up on a plate for me there. Let's set up this Friday night before the Gold Coast Marathon — you and I are at the welcome function, all the big dogs in the room, this is where we saw the CEO of ASICS with his branded shoes. Benita is there as an ambassador, Deeks, Mona, all the crew, and Michael Shelley, friend of the podcast. We start having a conversation about the marathon, because there's a lot of people getting

\[44:41\] up on stage at this event, pushing the idea that the Gold Coast should host the 2032 marathon. Yep, I said it to him on the night — maybe I'm just a pushover, but Michael Shelley has completely changed my mind about the Olympic marathon, because prior to this chat I was very much 'the Gold Coast has got to have it, look at this world-class ASICS Gold Coast Marathon they host every year, such an incredible event, why would you try and take it to the Sunshine Coast?' And then Michael Shelley dropped the marathon bombshell on me

\[45:13\] that has me 100% in the camp that the Olympic marathon must — can I guess — be held in Brisbane. Because there's a stadium there, it must be held in Brisbane. I'm about to regurgitate basically word for word what Michael Shelley said that night. Just before you do that — I want it on the Gold Coast. You want it on the Gold Coast? I think, for selfish reasons, I think it should be on the

\[45:44\] Gold Coast, it shows off the most amazing — can you imagine the Olympic marathon running along the Gold Coast Esplanade, the beaches — give us the visual, we're going to have the triathlon too, are we? Of course we are, of course we are, we've got to be on the show. I'll let you keep going with Mike's argument — let me present what Mike said, let me present the Michael Shelley/Liam Flanagan argument for the Olympic marathon —

\[46:14\] you're going to lose your gold, you be careful. It's okay, it's fine. Hey, Gold Coast, you did that good a job — there's no way. I hear you, but the case — and literally Michael Shelley had me that pumped up after presenting the argument — the Olympic city should host the Olympic marathon. There's going to be a brand new stadium at Victoria Park, costing God knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars, and the marathon runner should have that moment of running into the stadium,

\[46:44\] the last day of the Olympics — the last day, that celebrated moment, arguably the most celebrated moment of any Olympic Games is the marathon finish, and to get them running into a packed-out brand new stadium in the host city, having run throughout the host city and highlighting and selling that city, couldn't be more on board. Then Michael Shelley went one step further and started plotting out a course — if you can incorporate the Story Bridge, yep, you can

\[47:16\] incorporate South Bank, yep, you can incorporate New Farm Park, all these picturesque, beautiful spots of Brisbane. I can already visualise it in my head. Can you remember one of the most iconic Australian marathon moments ever? Has something come to mind? Not a marathon, ironically — the moment that comes to mind, the most heartbreaking Olympic moment I can remember, is Jane Saville being red-carded as she attempted to walk into the stadium leading the women's walk in Sydney.

\[47:48\] She was walking down the ramp into the Olympic Stadium at the Sydney 2000 Games, and she gets hit with that red card, disqualifying her — she's about to win gold as she enters the stadium, and gets disqualified. But that's the vibe — I mean, not that sad vibe for poor old Jane, but that vibe of it being — it's basically the only free spectator event at any Olympic Games, the marathon.

\[48:20\] Well, what were you thinking of? Rob de Castella, 1982 Brisbane — sorry, Commonwealth Games. That wasn't — hey, so how — yeah, you wouldn't be old enough to have watched it live. I would not have been. I remember well because I've obviously seen it — he must have broken away, and he's winning the 1982 Commonwealth Games, running up Riverside Drive, or was it up to Turbot Street —

\[48:50\] what's that — oh, this is the Commonwealth Games, sorry, yeah, sorry, Commonwealth Games, I thought for some reason in my head I was thinking Olympics. I hope I said Commonwealth Games, but I thought you were saying — the 1982 Commonwealth Brisbane Games, yep, Rob de Castella running up the expressway. Clearest day, I remember it. Yeah, right — 82 Commonwealth Games, there — so it's been done, there's a course, the city hasn't changed much, there's a few more footbridges across and back from South Bank. Hang on, 82 —

\[49:22\] when was World Expo? 88? Yeah, South Bank wouldn't have even — wonder what — Expo was '88\. But to that point, what you're saying about that moment etched in history in your mind — you hand the reins of this to the mob that had just done the Gold Coast Marathon, hand them the reins to this race, let them bring their expertise to activate a marathon within Brisbane, get Michael Shelley on board as the course designer because he's got it mapped out

\[49:54\] in his head, and then broadcast Brisbane to the world. Because here's the other thing, and here's my Gold Coast love — the Gold Coast doesn't need the global tourism attraction, it's already the number one tourism drawcard, it's already known, people already know about the Gold Coast. Brisbane needs it, Brisbane needs the eyeballs, Brisbane needs a reason for people to go there, because right now I think it's a stopover between going up to the Sunshine Coast or coming down to the Gold Coast, right?

\[50:26\] It's a waystation. Create the marathon course, broadcast those incredible parts of Brisbane — Howard Smith Wharves, the Story Bridge, South Bank, New Farm, Fortitude Valley — broadcast them to the world and give those athletes that moment of running into a stadium and crossing the line in the Olympic Stadium to finish the marathon. It does make sense — as much as I'm still for Goldie, it does make sense, it nearly

\[50:56\] makes so much sense you wonder why there's even been a conversation. Crazy. I'd be interested — is it always the last event, running into the stadium on the last day? Well no, because Paris last year didn't finish in the stadium, remember they had that memorable finish at — did they finish at the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower? I can't remember, might have been the Arc de Triomphe. But again, I don't mind the idea if you've got an iconic

\[51:30\] location for them to finish at. You think of the Berlin Marathon, they have the Brandenburg Gate, you think of the London Marathon, running down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. Brisbane doesn't have that, and I'd argue the Gold Coast doesn't really have that iconic finish line either — no, the Southport pool doesn't quite cut it. So if you can't give them the iconic finish line, give them the stadium, and we can give them the stadium. And the Sunshine Coast doesn't have

\[52:00\] the iconic finish line either. And that's coming from an athlete's perspective — yeah, and one who's been to a few of these and run them. Exactly, and we talk about the Olympics — no, that wasn't me, that was Michael Shelley's point, an Olympic marathoner's point of view. Exactly. And that's the hard thing about the Olympics — we talked about this with the surfing, if you remember, with the conversation around Burleigh versus Snapper — your attitude is very much, well, the Olympics is for the athletes,

\[52:31\] you want them to have the best possible way to compete. Well, if you want the athletes to have the best possible experience in the marathon, I think they have the right to finish in the stadium. I'm also thinking about the spectacle — not the spectacle for the spectators at the event, no, for the spectators around the globe, because that's the key, that's why you host the Olympics. But again, as much as I think it's the Gold Coast Games, Brisbane is the city, and

\[53:01\] Brisbane needs it, Brisbane needs to kick its tourism into gear. Yep. Well, watch this space, because over the next few years this is all going to have to get locked away. Seriously, so the Olympic organisers — this conversation that just took place here, get this in behind closed doors, this is the reason we're not being hired as consultants for these Olympics, I don't know, because we're tapped into not only the average Joe, like me, we're

\[53:33\] tapped into the elites too, like Mr. Atkinson and Michael Shelley. This is what the Olympics is about — the elites of the elite competing, and the average punters who want to get around this event. Get us on board, son. What's coming up for you, mate, what have we got before we touch base next week? What have you got planned now that you're back on dry land? Mate, I was going to head straight back away, but that's been canned, so I'm just cruising. A bit of work here and there. Here's the exciting thing for me —

\[54:03\] the day people will be listening to this, I'm on a break — I've got a three week break from the radio show. Not only do I have a three week break, but in a way it's inconvenient, because the school holidays have just finished, so my kids and my wife have just come off two weeks and they're all back to work and back to school, so —

\[54:35\] what are you going to do with yourself? Run. No, actually — here we go, a bit of a pull-the-curtain-back moment for Courtney Atkinson, for everybody here. When I went for a run with David Rhodes, or another Olympian, Rosie, we went for a bit of a jog — you got a little bit salty you didn't get an invitation? Yeah, I did — so I'm putting it out there now, Rosie has hit me up about going and doing some trail in northern NSW, a 42K relatively newly opened trail, I believe. Is it the rail trail? No, it's not the rail trail, something else — Rosie hit me up the other day and said, 42K, will you come and

\[55:07\] run this with me? And I said, yeah, I've actually got three weeks off coming up, I might take it up. I'm going to bring it up for you right now — and I said, well, we have to make sure we invite Courtney, otherwise he'll get shirty again. The Gidgham and Galangie walk — can you give me a location? Yeah, it's in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service — here you go, 42 kilometre grade for bushwalking.

\[55:37\] I've got a feeling I might know what track they're — yeah, where they're — Man's Road Track, head to Sand Ridge Campground. Have a look at that one, I'll pass it over to you. Anyway, the point is, there's a 42K track, Rosie wants to take it on, right, you're officially — this is me sending you the invite, live on the podcast — and I'm probably declining the invite at this stage, I don't think I'm ready to run that far at the moment, I'm definitely not ready to run that far.

\[56:07\] Yeah, but for different reasons. I'm just trying to — I kind of recognise that spot, going down there. Anyway, I'll have a look at it, sounds interesting. Well, look, they're setting up new trails down near Mullumbimby, so it's not a huge trek for us. No, I was actually thinking you meant the rail trail — no, I want to do that too, down there. But the point is, I think I've got three weeks off, I've got some time. I can't really just jump on a plane to Bali for a week, because

\[56:38\] I'd be leaving my wife solo with two kids. But yeah, I'll be doing some running, doing some training. If we have some fun, I'll be around the place, you'll be refreshed and have plenty of time to come in and chat on the podcast, tell us what it's all about. Yeah, all right — it's great to be back, thank you for the patience everybody, you missed out last week. Keep sending us your messages, your questions, any thoughts. The running boom continues, we're excited to be part of it, more adventures, we've got more in store, we've got more planned —

\[57:09\] we can't wait to share it with you. Yeah, see you next week. See you next week.