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# EP 61 - ATHLETE VS INFLUENCER? PLUS NEW GOLD COAST T100 10KM RUN & BONDI MAYHEM
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep-61-athlete-vs-influencer-plus-new-gold-coast-t100-10km-run-bondi-mayhem/
- Published: 2025-11-14T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T11:25:48.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on run clubs, T100, Gold Coast Marathon — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Running Training, Triathlon, Gold Coast Marathon, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

*Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on run clubs, T100, Gold Coast Marathon — recorded on the Gold Coast.*

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP-61---ATHLETE-VS-INFLUENCER--PLUS-NEW-GOLD-COAST-T100-10KM-RUN--BONDI-MAYHEM-e3aq4i3?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-61-athlete-vs-influencer-plus-new-gold-coast-t100/id1772010786?i=1000736777327&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 61 Courtney, how are you? I'm good, Liam Flanagan. I am good mate. Busy. It's crazy. Start you're a bit under the weather. I have been a little bit under the weather and here's a here's a public service announcement for any of you out there who still think that you're in your early 20s. It gets harder as you get older. Is that is that is that? Is it the booze? I had back to back weekends of treating my body like I was still in my early 20s and I had

\[00:32\] a great time. Like I had a 40th down in Sydney and then had Oasis down in Sydney last weekend. Unbelievable. Don't regret a second of either of them. What were you doing running around as a Teletubby? I don't know. I thought I saw you. Or were you just dressed? Were you dressed as a Ferb? We're. Talking about Halloween, you're going back even that was the Friday before at Halloween. I was I can't keep up with your social life. I wasn't a Teletubby. I was banned the dad dog from Bluey and Alana was chilly.

\[01:02\] We go as Chilly and Bandit from Bluey. You gotta be careful these days. Walk around like that when no. We I had a very big weekend in Sydney for my good friend Ed's 40th, who I've talked a bit on this podcast. He's doing he race Red Bull with me to fight and then I was back down in Sydney for a race Oasis last weekend #1 gig. I've been to my life. Better than Jelly roll best. With all due respect to Jelly Roll, best gig I've been to my life and as a result of travelling down to Sydney, enjoying myself and then not getting enough sleep, I am I

\[01:34\] have hit a bit of a downward trend on the overall I'm fine, it's just a cold, but I'm tired and it's it's kind of. Well, time to perk up, Liam. I know because we've got some big news. Big news. Let's talk about this. is exciting. The T100 people might be familiar with it, but it is coming to the gold. Coast. Most people probably aren't familiar with that. T100 Matt Hauser. You might remember he joined us on a couple of episodes. Guy. The T100 in Wollongong was the same weekend as the Triathlon

\[02:06\] World Championship. This is. T100 Triathlon. This is T100 triathlon. For those that don't know, think Formula One of triathlon on a global scale. This is a worldwide series. This thing goes everywhere and it is coming to the Gold Coast for the very first time. In fact, this is where they're kicking off their new season here. Yep, on the Gold Coast next year but. Before the runners switch off, don't leave us. Don't press stop just yet. Because as well as the triathlon, The reason it's called T100 is because there's a

\[02:36\] 100 kilometre triathlon race as part of this right? Sold out. Sold. So forget that one, yeah? Don't worry about that one. For the moment, you can watch it. For you nooses, you Noosa rights, there is an Olympic distance as part of this T100 event. So if you fancy it, maybe you just ran your first ever Noosa and you enjoyed it and you want to have another crack before that fitness disappears. Or you want to have some motivation to keep training through Christmas in January. T100 has an Olympic distance race which it's going to be on the 22nd of March next year. So the.

\[03:07\] Olympic distance will be on the Saturday, yes, So it's going to be on the 21st. So on the 21st of March to the Olympic distance, but runners. Yeah, let's get to the running. Part runners assemble, runners unite. This is I love that this is happening. There is a fast flat 10K race it. Nearly and he's talking about the course. It nearly is a I'll run for your first 10K at the marathon. If you're thinking you're doing Gold Coast Marathon later in the year or the middle of next year, Yep, this is the perfect way to

\[03:38\] start your preparation. Yes, start at the real close enough to the marathon start run up around towards SeaWorld, up the speed a little bit on the road. This is all flat the bridges, you know, minor, negligible, yeah, but exciting bit here is you're finishing surface. Yeah, let's, Yeah, this is. I love that you've paired it up with the marathon because you're right, it's a great little teaser. It's also a great way to. It's just we talk about marathon training and I think throwing in

\[04:11\] races as part of your marathon training is a good thing. And I think there's a real great opportunity here to throw a 10 KA into your planning just to get a bit of excitement to maybe break the routine, maybe if you're not getting the chance to run with a group or other people. Throwing this 10K in at the T100\. Perfect addition. Perfect addition. I'm on this it's it's given me something to. Surfers Paradise finish. Let's talk about that, because most people normally run away from Surfers Paradise. Normally you're running in the early hours of the morning away

\[04:41\] from Cavill Ave. You are going to finish at Surfers Paradise here. I mean, that's what's unique about this event, right? There's not too many events I can think of at the moment of this scale. Well, in a long time. I'm just trying to think of an event, this scale. Besides schoolies. Yeah, we'd finish in the middle. I don't think there isn't anything this again to get. I think what we learnt a bit this year as well with Sydney Major Marathon, Gold Coast Marathon Sydney to Surf Noosa is it's the it's the atmosphere,

\[05:12\] it's the vibe, it's the feeling around the precinct of these races that 's what gets people coming back. That's what gets people raving about all these races is that it's the finish line vibes. It's the Noosa in the woods there. It's the precinct where you go and check in few races. The atmosphere and all these things is what makes people return or rave about it to their friends. This T100 event, the transition for the elites will be in Surfers Paradise as part of the

\[05:44\] race unique. So you'll see these the best triathletes in the world transitioning right there in Surfers Paradise. And then this 10K run, you are going to be running into this awesome finish precinct at Surfers Paradise. Yeah. so those who listened to us last year and got a load out of the marathon series with Benita and Bronte, good news is we're back, we're going to come back and there is going to be you know towards the Gold Coast Marathon. And I think this is the perfect kind of stepping stone. So if you want to keep yourself moving towards that gold and

\[06:16\] engage and also just testing, we talk a lot about knowing race conditions. So if you actually going out there and you know, looking, I suppose around the marathon to, you know, PB or improve your time for last year and all of that, This is the perfect way to get that 10K at the beginning, understand the course, go through the motions, get a little bit of nutrition on board and, and it's a trial run for the big day a bit later. Can I give you another reason that we think people I should, I think people should get involved with this. We towards the marathon we 

\[06:46\] started coining the phrase faster, not further. Yes. I think 10K is a great distance to race your mates. I think if you're in a run club or if you run with and if you, whether you're new to running or whether you're an established runner, what this would be the perfect race to have a match race to pick a friend that you're of a similar standard to and challenge each other. You've got plenty of time though. Entries are open now, so you've got plenty of time. But what I , you know, you talk

\[07:19\] about punters clubs and you talk about golfing clubs, you're talking about all these clubs that we are a part of. Fun. Things are always more fun when there's that edge of competition to it. Maybe we're going to make it a bit of a handicap between ourselves. Well, we could. Actually this now. And this is so you can win, the day with a bit of a handicap. Well, you and I have talked about having a Courtney V Liam series. Yeah, but with golf. Understandably need to be handicapped if in any sort of running race there's I'm wanting a generous handicap. So maybe we need to look at a Courtney V Liam T110K ride.

\[07:53\] We can work on it. Tell us what you think. Tell here we go. Tell us how much of A head start you think I'd need. Tell us what time handicap that's good you think I would need to beat Courtney over 10K? I'm under the radar, mate. No one's gonna have any idea, because no one. 'S gonna have any idea how my Garmin doesn't know what my Garmin thinks. I can run 10K in 38 minutes. I'll tell you what, I can't get close to that right now. Yeah. This will be fun. I'm Yeah. So Sunday the 22nd, if you jump on the T100 website, yeah,

\[08:23\] that's where you can find all the information and enter. T100 triathlon.com/goldcoast all the information there. We're going to be talking about this a bit because we are based here on the Gold Coast. This is an amazing new global event that is coming into our backyard. So we are going to go, we are going to keep cheering this unapologetically. No qualms, absolutely. We're going to keep cheering this thing on. OK, let's move on to some fun. Hey, here we go talk about our good friend Benita, who ran us through the goal, ran us through the Gold Coast Marathon series last year as coach. She had her track mate on the on

\[08:55\] the weekend. So QLD athletics, it's the Benita Willis Shield, which is the state champion for five kilometres, so named after herself. Now that ran on the that was Saturday night. It's a whole track mate during the day and then layers up into a whole range of 5000 metre races. Cool juniors. I think 5th division, 4th division, you know, it's for everyone, it's for everyone, but is it for everybody? So here's here's the catch.

\[09:26\] Someone we know well ran in the race, won one of the races, but got dequeued. What do you think they would be dequeued for at a track running race? Not calling track as they're coming up on your right. Well presumably they've left the track. I'm I'm guessing the options would be if you leave the track like F1 stars if you've cut a corner. Unsportsmanlike behaviour on the barking up on the track.

\[09:56\] No, you're barking up on illegal shoes. Illegal shoes, yes. What did they wear? Division 5\. No. What did they wear? Vaporflys. And they're illegal. On the track. What do you mean? By Queensland — I'm assuming this is World Athletics rules, but QLD Athletics follows suit and it's illegal. So yeah, the great volunteers and officials, which we always think are pretty strict, you know, on the track.

\[10:29\] Hard, asses. Yeah, no room for movement here. Fellas are rocking up. Not just one, a number of them rocking up in their shoes. And they DQ. So I got told this morning I was down at the speed that it's a 2 1/2 1/2 centimetres so I could be wrong on that but there's a ruling that you can't over have over that stack height on the track. So what do you do then? If you rock up it's kind of alienating runners like you want to include runners and try and get there.

\[11:00\] It's not like we're running for the state championship here by the way. What do you do? You're an official you got a couple of guys rock up at it's an official meet. We want more runners to be involved in athletics but hey mate, you got illegal shoes on, what do you do? For me it's a really simple solution. You let them run, but they can't win. So as in you let them, you allow them to race their race effectively. That's what happened. But they don't. They don't get their time. So, well, they've got a.

\[11:31\] Time in there on there. If it doesn't count, you're right, people want their time. One guy I heard actually just took his shoes off and tried to run barefoot. He was actually honest. You don't want to see that? Well, how well was it? Look, we don't want to get into the weeds too much. Let them run. Understand that they can't get an official time. Yeah, if you if now you know, if you want an official time, you need different shoes anyway. But there's a little bit of fire. I mean, like, yeah, I mean, it's it's it's an interesting one because when you do illegal

\[12:03\] shoes, rules are rules, right? We all agree on that. Yeah, but rules are meant to be broken, Courtney. Yeah, but I'm just thinking. I'm just being in. I'm just. Being no, I know that, I know that, but I'm just thinking like if you want to open up your sport to encourage, maybe have a social wave or something, but like just to be Oh, it's. Like the enhanced games, you have the enhanced race, the illegal. State high race the 6th division just to leave the illegal shoe. Race. Wear what you want. Race. OK well, but hey, shout out to Benita, friend of the podcast Lace Up Running Coaching.

\[12:34\] If anybody is after a coach for a race coming up, we cannot recommend Benita enough. But to have something named in your honour, I think, and not just a piss take sort of thing, but to have an event, a trackmate named in your honour, it speaks to the calibre of athlete that she is was and the legacy she's left for Australia running so. Well done know it was a good one. Well done know I you know, last week you had given me a bit of grief on my Strava. Well, because you lost your grand to Paddy Mac. Yeah, it's, it's, I don't know

\[13:06\] it's happening. Are you being haunted? I do you know where I got haunted this week? Lord Howe Island. Someone. Lord Howe Island's only about 5K from one end to the other. That's a little bit longer than that, but you know where I'm going. Someone has been snaking. It's not easy to get to. It's not. It's not like it's just off the coast. It's not. only is it not easy to get to, it's expensive to get to. Someone's gone over there. That is a, that is a Strava crown.

\[13:37\] You probably could have thought. I'll keep this. For those who don't know where, Lord Howe Island is the most beautiful island in the middle of so it's off. If you went, I think it's probably an hour like 1000 kilometres east of Sydney in the middle of the Pacific. I'm doing. I'm checking directions from We'll go from Gold Coast Airport. It's a 5 hour flight from Gold. That can't be that. Can't be right. It may be in a proper way. It's I'm just. Put it this way, it's not easy to get to. So you're talking about like last week was 1770, I was getting fogged at.

\[14:08\] Yeah. This week it's Lord Howe. Well, it's gonna be next week. Well, I'm getting, oh, I'm getting my trophy cabinet's getting raided at the moment. It's a 2 hour flight from Sydney, so yeah. Where do you have the? Do you know of any other random crowns that you own? I would have some random ones. I reckon some out of the NT would be some good random ones. Here's what I want from the podcast family. Take his crowns Go travel Far and wide podcast family and

\[14:41\] steal the crowns of Courtney. Atkins I don't even know what town I was in one day. It was down on the coast of southern NSW, so it wasn't Eden, but it was a town down that way. And I remember running through this trail on the beach and I wasn't giving it full gas, but I was having a more than an hour, just having a good crack at a run. Anyway, come home. Just like so those runs where runners would never run or turn up and then suddenly you end up with four crowns for the morning. Yeah, they're the type of ones that are getting stolen. I'm just having a look. We could get over to Norfolk

\[15:12\] Island, Norfolk, just go set some it's. Bigger than law, it's a larger. It's a much larger island. That's pretty. I mean that of all islands, it's one. Here we go, Actually another one for the family in the In the Beginning podcast family. Where are your random crowns? Well, let's let's see who listens. Who's got a crown in the most random area possible? But you couldn't. You're not allowed to create it yourself. No, you've got to have, you have to have got someone taken it. Talk about Lord Howe Island. They don't, I don't believe they

\[15:44\] do have the crowns, but such a small island has produced some amazing athletes. So Cam Wurf. grew up. No way. On Lord Howe Island and Tim Reid, the triathlete Ironman triathlete per capita, both grew up as kids on Lord House. That's not a bad training ground for. Per capita. Speaking of elite performance, I do need to give a quick shout out to a new listener of the podcast whose name is Capri. competed for Australia at The World Triathlon Championships recently, is an A

\[16:15\] underage competitor and she's started listening to the podcast. And this was the feedback I got. She can't differentiate between us well enough. She listens. She's like, I can't tell really. And I said, I said and I said, well, when it's someone talking about having one Noosa, that's Courtney. And she's I, didn't know if you'd won Nooser a lot. I'm like, this is you are blowing smoke here because I've probably done more nooses than Courtney, but I certainly have

\[16:45\] never won one. So shout out to Capri. She's a new listener of the podcast. She's a budding triathlete. And yeah. Just one I've got a question coming up later that you'll be able to ask her that I reckon we'd get a good guide on her. She thinks we talk similar as. Well, we sound the same. Oh awesome. Maybe we'll go there now. Let's go. OK. Cody Townsend, most people are not going to know who this is unless you're really into, say, climbing outdoors, mountaineering. So he's a, he's a Salomon athlete.

\[17:16\] He's at the currently he's like on YouTube and doing all that stuff. He's currently doing the 50, so the 50 peaks around America. He goes up, shows him skiing and all of that. He wrote an article last week that caught my attention and I was really interested in. Now I used ChatGPT to help me here because I just wanted to give everyone listening a kind of like condensed version of what this article was. So unfortunately it unpacks an

\[17:50\] elite American climber, Balin Miller, who obviously he's done a lot of that like kind of free soloing style a sense Yep, he was mislabeled as an influencer by the BBC after he's he died on a climb. OK, so very like really sad around here, but this let's just take it in a different direction. It's around long length the influencer. So he was mislabeled as an influencer and this has caused a whole riff in the climbing community because there's obviously a lot of ego.

\[18:23\] There's obviously a lot of ego on some areas. And then obviously in climbing it's about, you know, freedom of life and getting out there and there's no ego involved. So despite being virtually off grid, he's a commercial fisherman, No sponsors, hardly ever used Instagram. He was accidentally streamed on TikTok during his fatal climb on El Capitan. Yeah. So and then from that live stream, most of the media have then said he was live. He they like obviously they

\[18:53\] thought he's live streaming himself to his. Death. Hence in labelling as an influencer. So the question, I suppose, what then Cody's talking about is like in modern outdoor sports, and you can take this to running and triathlon or whatever sport you want to do. The line between athlete and influencer is really becoming blurred. And we talk, we've we talked about this and a lot of our community who listen like us going down these rabbit holes around, you know, debating this, type of topic. So to the mainstream, both are simply people doing cool, 

\[19:25\] stuff on camera. But with the outdoor community, however, that label carries A cultural baggage. So athlete equals good influencer, in this case, chats giving me bad, but like, you know, influencer different, type of thing. So what we're talking about here is what in today's age, what's the crossover, what's good, what's bad? And here's some talking points about this when media start covering different types of

\[20:00\] things. So mainstream media, so major outlets constantly botch stories because they see something now visually first comment on it, but don't have the full information. In this case, he wasn't live streaming his own death. Do we expect too much accuracy from traditional media to know enough about these niche sports? And I'd consider running a niche sport. No, I and I can, I can speak on this from a position of

\[20:33\] authority because I work in mainstream media. I work on a breakfast radio show and regularly, and I've been guilty of it too. Sometimes you read a headline and you think I will talk about that and you never read the rest of the article. We should Media, mainstream media. Your new services should still be held to the highest, and I know this is unreasonable, but they should still be held to journalistic standards. You should be. You should expect to be able to turn on your radio in the morning, or turn on your TV at

\[21:04\] night, or pick up the paper and read an accurate representation of what went on. But do you think those days are now gone? Completely gone completely. It's what I think you should be able to expect it. I think it's also unrealistic to expect it at the same time. Like it's not, it's just now news is not what it once was. That actual reporting of the news is hard to find that unbiased and completely accurate because we now live in a world

\[21:36\] from a news perspective where it's not about being right or accurate, it's about being first. Speed is what matters. Whether the information is correct? Whether? You're right or not. If you get, if you get an article up, a video up, a story up first, you win. That's the attitude I dis apologise later, apologise later, print a retraction later, a acknowledge, put your hand up and say we got that bit wrong later, but be first. How's one in the morning? You're in the you know, for

\[22:06\] people listening, you go into the radio station, obviously, do you read the paper? How do you? How do you? Choose what you're gonna talk about. We have. I work on a Gold Coast breakfast radio show where we are Philtre is, local. We want to represent local. That is the goal. We have three people on the show. We have myself, we have Liesl Jones who's a four time Olympian and we have Peter Everett who's a 300 game AFL plus Spider people would know him that. So you have 3 characters there with different lives that we want to share with the audience every morning. So what's going on in our lives is, Philtre one?

\[22:38\] That's that's Part 1\. Hey, what's going on in your life Lisa? What's going on in your life, Spider Liam then or at the same time we say what's going on here on the Gold Coast? What's going on here in the world we live in? And the way we do that is by Yep, we use the Gold Coast Bulletin, the local paper that's printed and we check the digital version. So front page Backpage, what's going on in the middle? What are people talking about in there? There's other online sources that we use so. You still go to local news? Absolutely. We still use local news because what people care about in

\[23:09\] Sydney, we don't necessarily care about here. I'll give you an example of the day we're recording this. Today we talked about the fact that Burleigh parking, paid parking in Burleigh. The council voted not to keep it from 7:00 AM. They're going to revert back to 9:00 AM around Burleigh. So there had been a trial running for the last couple of months where parking in Burleigh was paid. You had to pay from 7:00 AM in the morning. Oh geez. And that got overturned at council. Now Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, wherever could give two hoots.

\[23:40\] Brisbane could care about that story. But for our audience here on the Gold Coast, that's a really relevant story. So we will talk about that over morning. There are. We also talked about Michael Jackson's new biopic coming out today. Hey, by the way, because. it looks amazing, right? And because it's not a local story, but it's a big story, you should be able to go back to this though, you should be able to expect accuracy from your mainstream media channels, particularly those that present

\[24:12\] themselves as new surfaces. But sadly, we now exist in a world where currency is in what's going to be shared and clicked and go viral. What has the chance? Best chance to grow, and the best chance to grow is being first, and that doesn't First is the enemy of accuracy. Speed is the enemy of accuracy. Yeah, yeah. And then, and then the problem, I suppose is once someone sees a story, they then repeat the story and yeah, it's exactly on. It's a domino effect. They're on.

\[24:42\] And the and the truth gets further and further away from what was first actually reported. Yeah, it's a look that going back to that other conversation though around influencer versus athlete, because that's the other part about this. And we've touched on this quite a bit. I think the lines have never been more blurred because these days athletes are influencers and some of the influencers are proper athletes too. They might not be Olympic level athletes, but they're proper

\[25:12\] athletes. Like they can do amazing things and achieve amazing things. So where who decides what the line is between athlete and influencer now? It's good. It's a good one. It's. It's in the eye, the beholder, I guess, if you view someone as an athlete or as an influencer. Yeah. Because they can be both. Yeah, it's just, I suppose now the mainstream media to a degree has just lost control of the narrative and completely. And that's where I suppose the athletes who were successful

\[25:42\] were more like, obviously they had to reach a certain level to be able to then get in the mainstream media. But what hasn't changed is, in a weird way, it's the athletes who have always had influence or remarkable personality that have been the ones then who have made something out of it. Do you know what I would say then if you're if you're looking for accuracy on a particular subject, go to the niche media, go to the dedicated media on that subject. Which is, I mean, this is coming from climbing. Yeah, this is coming from the heart of climbers, right?

\[26:14\] So it's not running, but so close to what running is. I think it's actually a really good guy. Cousins. Yeah, like what are you doing it for, performance or racing or you're doing it purely because of the, you know, outcome of what you're going to get out of it? Well, I guess the example is this, if you're, if you're somebody who loves running and you listen to this podcast, you're listening to this podcast because you want some accuracy around running conversation. Same way if you read Runners World or Tempo Journal, any of those dedicated publications go there.

\[26:46\] If news.com is reporting on a running story, I wouldn't trust the authenticity or the accuracy of it because that's not what they do well. Here's another way. Here's another way I think to look at it. You could go within your niche circle. You're probably an athlete if you're. Listening to this. Yeah. So if you're a runner, yeah. And this is where I was going earlier on about the question, like what would I be seen as to the outside? It's got holder like to certain people in sport, maybe you're seen as an athlete, but if

\[27:16\] you're not knowing if your sport's niche enough and you're not, people don't know actually what you're doing. Like arguably it could be an influencer, it could be the world champion. To an outsider, they see the content. It could appear exactly the same at that point. Maybe everyone's just it's awful name, but it influencer, right? It's who has influence on certain things. And I think if we drop the stigma that's attached to that name influencer, that word influencer, it would be less of an issue. Yeah. It's just that there are well.

\[27:46\] There's probably everything certain it's. Like everything, right? There's, there's, there's. So what's a better name for it then? What do you reckon? Instead of calling instead of calling people influencers. Yeah, I don't think it's a bad name and I think it's savable. Let's let's, let's bring it. Let's take the word back, Courtney. Let's. No, I'm not in for that. OK, no. Hey, can we stay in this in this territory? We can for and be a bit more running dedicated because the story or the clip that people might have seen hit the news services over the weekend. This is a running story that did make mainstream this Bondi

\[28:18\] Bondi. If you haven't seen this video, I'll. See if I can put it. Up on the video on it is a clip of I'm, I don't know how many, but there's got to be close to 1000 people, There's got to be close to 1000 people running the promenade at Bondi Beach. And the video went up saying point of view every sunrise at Bondi Beach. It's this enormous run club. I think it's the Sydney Run Club is the name of the group and it is a takeover. They have taken over the

\[28:50\] promenade at Bondi Beach there. You've seen it, I've seen it. What do you think? Because we baseline, we love run clubs, we love running, we want it to be as successful as possible, we want people to have fun running, we want everyone to get involved. But what do you think of this? I reckon, I mean, I love the fact that people are going out and running. Yep, that's that's first and foremost. There's a point, there's a point

\[29:21\] where once you get, it's like, it's like Gold Coast went through it in the parks when PT trainers just started getting in groups too large. And now you've actually got to go into the council and put in and get a permit and do all that. And if you tried to do a PT session with 1000 people in the park at Carrara, you'd need an event permit. So there's a, there's a line where if you're affecting community, you have to go through a different process at that point to just a run club of

\[29:52\] eight people that you're not affecting community. So that's where the line has to be drawn, because it's not. We're all for everyone getting out there running, but at some point you're affecting other people using public spaces. I totally. Agree, that's where we draw a line. I just opened up their Instagram account. What's more interesting to me is, and I think there's been a bit of chat about this, not just on run clubs, this is across brands in general. Is the run club themselves obviously a nurturing, a great thing, but then they're also leveraging partners and brands

\[30:24\] out of that. Yep. So everyone's getting their own, you know, kick back out of what something of that scale is. Obviously the people attending are getting their community, being part of something which is great. The organisers also by creating that are getting the great kick back to which then comes back to an event versus social coffee club run. I, agree, I think you're being almost a bit too soft on them. I think the organisers of this need to pull their head out of

\[30:58\] the sand, realise what they're doing and change because, and this is, I'm not hating on them, right? I think this is the problem. Whenever you speak not glowingly about anything, you seem to be criticising it or to be hating on it. I am not hating on this run club. Congratulations to the Sydney run club and the community they have built. Well done. But you, it is selfishness of the highest order to take over the Bondi promenade like that

\[31:30\] twice a week. That is selfishness of the highest order. That is showing complete disregard for the rest of the population that uses that area. If your club has grown to that level, congratulations, I'm genuinely stoked. But guess what? Now you got to move, you got to change it. You cannot continue to do this. It the club. Again, these guys are making money off this. the people behind this. So again, well done.

\[32:00\] I'm not saying you are not entitled to the money you are creating, but you have now put yourself into a category where you're not a coffee club anymore, you're not a casual run club anymore. You are a business. And as a business you need to pay the price for the level you've grown to. And you can't keep doing this down at Bondi Promenade twice a week. Yeah. Do you know anyone in Bondi? I know people who run with this. Yeah, my running club, which is a small running club that runs three times a week down there. And when it's it's 10 people of the morning maybe, and they run

\[32:30\] away from Bondi. They start at Bondi Prom and they run away and they run around the streets. Yeah. I love that Sydney run club. Say they run the streets of Sydney. You don't. You run Bondi and you take up that, coastal walk is not built for this size of group. It's not and it is, you know, I, don't want these people to be lost to running, but you've got it. You've got, you've created this problem. You've got to find a solution to it because you're, it will become a negative very quickly unless it's corrected,

\[33:01\] particularly heading into these summer months. And again, I congratulations to you guys. Well done, but you can't keep doing this. Do you reckon I mean around the negative of it? I mean, cyclists are copped it for years, right? Yeah. Big groups on roads? Yep. Certain elements. There's a lot of population who don't like it. Yep. Hasn't really stopped it. I would say there's a little bit of a difference with cycling because there's also a safety element to that. You create a level of I think as opposed to people feel unsafe

\[33:34\] riding solo on the road. So I think you get a little bit of that safety element to it. You would know better than I have done more Rd cycling, but you never see this many people riding in a pack and blocking roads. Like literally they are blocking well I'm thinking. I mean, this is actually, do you know, the closest thing, and people from Victoria or Melbourne will know better. But I've got a feeling Beach Rd with cyclists is probably like this in a different situation. Yeah, there are massive groups who would ride and I don't know if it still occurs or it's being

\[34:04\] shut down or what it is, but there's massive groups running around Beach Rd in the morning. But yeah, it's interesting. It's just like. Booming isn't it? It's booming. And, yeah, I do really want to stress to the Sydney run club and anybody that is a part of that. Feel free to share your thoughts on it. If you're a part of that run club, I would love to hear how you feel, a part of how you feel being a part of it down there because that vibe, the environment, it's fantastic. And I'm sure it's part of the reason that so many people go down because there's such an

\[34:36\] energy to it. But we live in a society where we have to share the world. We have to share beaches, we have to share parks, we have to share things. And your run club has got to the point now where you're not sharing anymore. They've taken over it and it's not yours to take over. It's not. The Bondi Promenade is not there to be colonised. What else would have taken over Bondi before like that? Has there been other things? Of course, the gyms, the gym down there has they have a Murph club that does kind of the

\[35:08\] that CrossFit type activity. I think that's gotten quite big at times. They've had other event type things, but A1 offs, it seems like this club is this is a twice a week thing. Yeah. And you just, it's you'll you'll turn people into haters and you'll turn everybody who's not a part of that club against you very quickly unless you find a way forward. Yeah. Anyway, we'll move on from that one. But I'd love to come for a run with you next holiday. But the question is, would you

\[35:39\] join the blame? Yeah. Please let me run if I come down for a minute. You're gonna get, if you try and run through the middle of them now, Liam, you're gonna get like elbows, shoulder charged. I know people who've tried to run through that group. And what happened? Because they're like you don't. They're trying to send a very direct message if you don't own this path. Oh, you mean there's been some aggressive Yeah against it? Really. So there's a bit of a. Of course. There is Sydney Siders. If people are down there. What is it? Eastern suburbs? Yeah, Eastern suburbs were throwing pistols at ten paces.

\[36:10\] I won't complain about the dogs on leashes anymore. Then no, don't complain about dogs. Let's move on. Though I was getting I got a bit fired up there. Let's move on. What do we get? What else we got? What else have we got? Hey, this I meant to get the audio for this talking about we talk about Strava, Garmin and all these being sued on running. Yes, getting sued. Who are they being sued by? By consumers, their shoes squeaking. No yes on runners are being sued because their shoes are squeak. Was on.

\[36:41\] This was on. Let me see if I can get the audio and I'll pick it. Up by its customers because the shoes apparently emit a loud and embarrassing squeak. A class action lawsuit was filed in Oregon earlier this month, alleging the company's signature cloud tech design, which was meant to cushion the foot, actually creates A persistent squeak with every step. The suit, which is seeking 5 million U.S. dollars in damages, claims the company is aware of it but won't fix it, leaving customers to come up with their

\[37:14\] own solutions or stop wearing them. So I did some research and figured out if you just take an Emery board and you sand down the last four holes, Oh my gosh. What do you reckon? I realise now, I realise I've just come off a rant about the Sydney Run Club, but what's gone wrong with us, Courtney? Why now do we have to complain

\[37:45\] about everything to the NTH degree? That we sue like this is to me. You bought some shoes at Squeak. Deal with it. If anyone runs in them, let us deal with it. Is this true or not? I'm actually, I'm actually more interested is it? Is it actually true? Don't start a class action because you bought squeaky shoes. Running's just in the news non stop at the moment, isn't? It never we. Did you ever think that we'd get to this point? Did you ever think we'd be here? I was thinking that. I was thinking that just a

\[38:16\] couple of days ago, even off the back of the Sydney Marathon chat, even sitting in the car, I, got down to our Spit run this morning early and I was just watching. So I get there, I'm getting down there at like 520\. Yeah, still finishing off a coffee. There are runners everywhere. I mean, the Gold Coast is pretty early and to exercise and people getting out. But compared to even a year ago, if I would have sat there at the same time, I would have seen the group, a couple of groups we know running out of that area. But now it's not about just

\[38:47\] groups. It's just like groups of 5-6 runners going. I don't. I can't keep up. I'm out the door. I'm out the door for work before just before 4:00 AM or just after 4:00 AM. And I often double take my how well there's so many runners around. People are up and running so early these days as well. It's crazy. We've got a few listeners is written in so Jen Davies shared a quick one around. You know, we were talking about the deepest marathon. Yes, 250 runners took, but there was a subway tunnel run in

\[39:20\] Barcelona on the metro line. It's a good. One. So they ran. They've run the subway on the tracks, obviously. Yeah, like in between the tracks because. You wouldn't be able to run that far on just a just a station platform or anything. Yeah, but maybe they're tracks you 're probably just in your head thinking train traffic. Yeah, I don't. Think I don't think the metro has like planks of wood through it. I'm assuming there's a. Wow, an actual path, That's cool. It's like the underground nature. Imagine as long as there's no like, loose trains. Crying around. Anyway, they'd be. Amazing. Presumably they stopped the trains for the marathon.

\[39:52\] What an amazing place to you talk about, you know, Strava roots. Oh no, Sydney making problems on Bono. Just go to the subway. I got AI got a follow up message from and I won't mention his name. Yeah, I received a message in regards to our Tinder episode from last week. Yeah, I've got a few too. I, got a message from somebody who was one of the matches. Yeah, right. One of the matches conversations and he said, I'll bring up the

\[40:22\] Yeah, he was one of the conversations. I'll bring up the message. It said. I'm funny. It said just had the just heard the latest episode while driving back from a wedding. Almost lost control of the car when I heard the Tinder story. I may or may not be currently in the back and forth stages with the amazing Annie. We've had a good giggle about this. Hopefully it wasn't his wedding. I don't think. It's I don't think it's. Ready but yeah, so the Tinder finding love it's it's going well The Tinder with the podcast is trending on Tinder.

\[40:52\] Hey, I got a question for you from Lee Tippo. Don't know if you saw this one, don't know if you're prepared for. This one? I haven't seen this. Prepare as I read it to you. Hey guys, 51 year old who started running at 50, so relatively new into his running journey. Raised and trained only on road and and in the Clydesdale category so Lee's a bigger fella. IN2025I raced the GC5 kilometre, 10 kilometre bridge to Brisbane, GC 50, the half, the 2025 GC Marathon and the GC50 Ultra.

\[41:25\] He's done some running so. He's done some running. The GC Ultra, which wouldn't. Which was the 50K racing on the front there and thinking about going into the trails? Oh, good move. But I'm worried as I'm a big guy. I'm worried about my footing. You suggest flatter trails like Coombabah and the Spit? Thanks for any advice and loving the podcast with the road 2 episodes as well. So this is a big guy, older, who's clearly got some endurance about him on the flats, but he wants to make transition into running. Go for it, I reckon. Be Yeah. Go to the trails. You anyone running on the road?

\[41:58\] It feels great going to the trails. It feels better. Yeah. Not all the time, but you know, to expose yourself to the trails. Good choice on Coombabah. Yeah, Flat. Just watch out for the brown snakes, summer coming and the spit, you know good, great transition. I'd call them gravel. You know, in the new age of gravel running they've got a gravel. But if you want to get in the trails, I'd suggest Merrimac's a great place to start, but just staying in the. Fire trail. Well, just start. No, no, not on the fire trail, even just in the valley, the front valley in front of the

\[42:30\] velodrome, which you'd call. I'm pretty sure it's the Carrara arena track. Yeah. So you can run like 3K loops, few 4 KS, a few different loops in there and that's probably the next, you know, the next step to go in there. And once you're comfortable in there, you can start to explore, you know, some of the wider tracks and with a phone on you. Yeah, you're not going to get lost you. Know people who might be like but not based on the Gold Coast that transition into trails is, you know, is it is there any right way to do or is it just a case of getting out? There, I think it's just getting

\[43:00\] out there. I think I think the main thing because most people worry about knees, ankles, like the injure, like falling and that's the probably the main thing I believe people are like maybe scared off a little bit about like hurting themselves. And all I'd say to that is don't go on where your Alphaflys in there. Don't go on where like a good example is go and find a shoe. If you're going to go and run in the trails, go and find a shoe that's got a little bit flatter and it's got no roll on it. When I say roll, it's not too high stacked so that you'll be

\[43:31\] you're rolling off it. So and then sometimes you'll find the actual trail shoes themselves, the good ones. Now, even if they are hot, like stacked a little bit higher, they're working out how to put a little bit and then don't have the technical terms for this, but they're kind of cutting the sole in a way that even if you do roll on the higher stacks, it's kind of got a little bit of a triangle cut out in so it compresses. Interesting. It just compresses down, so in that instead of actually coming to a tipping point. So if you think about it like a hard 90° angle on a stack, once you roll over on that, you're

\[44:05\] going to go completely. This allows it to actually have a bit of flex and I'm finding that's a little better. So a good example would be the Nike, the first Nike Zegamas that came out, a few people I knew had them and I tried a pair and I was like, I ran about 20 metres in them. I thought someone's gonna break an ankle in these. Their second version though, you could run all day in any type of trail and all they've done is done that, cut out small change. Perfect. Do you know what's interesting? Just doing a bit of Googling as you were talking

\[44:36\] there about trail shoes and recommended trail shoes. This particular site, runrepeat.com, has recommended the Nike Zegama 2 exactly as the best trail running show overall. Really. Yeah. No, I kid you not as you were just saying that Model 1, Model 2\. Big important. Model 1 was like, you know, disaster. There's the Zegama 2 is their most recommended, isn't it? Good when it's great when yeah, a company obviously listen and

\[45:06\] understand shit. This, wasn't right, and they've gone and actually fixed it into a really like comfortable running shoe. But what I would say just on that Lee, again, like Rd shoe recommendations, go try a bunch and this is interesting. We're talking about expertise with our media, expertise in your trail shoes. If you can get along to where's our mate Anderson, Wild Earth, Wild earth, get along to a place

\[45:38\] like that. There's a few in Brizzy Trail specific shops. Get along to trail specific shops because if you're a bigger guy who's used to running potentially with a Hoka, I don't know, get into one of those type of shit Wild Earth in Burleigh, try them and talk to the people in there know about these shoes and the terrain, but. That's the main thing forget like everyone's going to choose different shoes. My advice on the shoe is just if you're going to go into the trail and you haven't been in there before, even if you're going to go into a bit more technical trail, just make sure like just roll, over a bit on the shoe.

\[46:09\] And it feels like if you were to do that fast and it's going to keep going, probably not the shoot around in the trail. If it's got to be to give in the side wall, it's going to be a lot safer. Yeah, there you go. Hey, a couple of docs. Some of my close friends are starting to ride in as well. It's weird when he just could have text me so ducky he could have just text me. So one of the one of our local docs actually my GP, yes, yeah g'day lads. Just a quick one on one of Liam's light bulb moments. So this is your double

\[46:40\] marathons. Yeah. How would you go as a race caller? You or Pete Murray? You got to back up the next day. Well, I'll tell you a double invoice. That's the great. That's the thing. You're all in it. You're happy to lose your voice. There you go, mate. Please give me. No, I've actually as long as he gets the money, he doesn't care. I've called on that idea and this is, and this is the light bulb moments. It's not a bad name for them actually. Doc, I've called on the idea. I've actually, I've sort of, I've thrown this one out to a few different people and I think the what you lose far outweighs

\[47:15\] the benefits you would get out of it. I think, you know, scarcity is the real value with a lot of these races, so. Few people rode in. I've too didn't. I've called on the idea. Plenty of feedback. And just like Nike with the Zagamas, I take on feedback and I adjust my model so hey, we can throw that light bulb moment out. They 're gone. And then my other doc, well, you must have mentioned, so this is this is Benny, he Benny Wilders, he said. What has he got?

\[47:45\] I'm just listening to the pod and it's making me laugh. I could add another category to the reasons why people text you out of the blue. This was off the back of meets the we finished last episode. Me going I got a random message that I haven't heard from someone for. Eight years, yes, and they wanted something. Exactly. Well, Ben's saying Courtney. Usually the reason Courtney really calls me out of the blue is he's fallen off some type of bicycle on a Sunday. I'd never call him where I'd never call unless.

\[48:16\] Unless you're injured. He never gets a call on a Sunday. He knows what's coming. Can we keep responding to a few more listener questions because we've got so many coming in and. We needed to catch up because we haven't. Done it for a while, Scotty. George has hit us up and said, hey, Liam, I would love to see you put down a time for the GOAT loop in Nerang and famous names on the leaderboard including Matt Hauser, Courtney and UTMB winner Tom Evans. No pressure. Yes, Scott, if I put down a time on the GOAT loop in Nerang, you wouldn't see me near the leaderboard, as you say, that

\[48:46\] is, Yeah. But no, he's saying he wants you to put a time down because then like anyone listening like. All our I'll do that. All our trail runners who might be listening in the forest with their earphones in. I'll tell you what. That one ear 1 earphone. One earphone in, of course, because you wanna keep an ear open. Scott, I will get out there and put down the time. I will try it because Matt Hauser has got the record at 24:17\. You're sitting third. FYI, Courtney with a 26:10, I will Tom Evans and Tom Evans, the winner of UTMB, he's got a

\[49:18\] 25:28\. So there's some serious pace on that GOAT loop, but I'll get out there and try and put a an average athlete time out there for everybody. Oh, listen with the question around at the start, like if you want to go and start on a loop, that's not a technique, it's a hilly loop, it's hilly, it's not technical. So if you wanted to get introde into Trail or get introde into Nerang, I mean that's when most people run around there. Here's an interesting one. This one's coming from BJ. Great pod lads, very insightful as always. Got a question. Partner and I are doing the Perth marathon which so he sent this in a little while ago so

\[49:50\] it's already been and gone but he said they have no Expo. I was looking forward to seeing all the stores and everything running but they have nothing which is disappointing. Expos are what makes the marathon great. What are your thoughts? People love and experience. Yeah, Expo. You get it. Well, it's why Sydney, it's everyone talks about Sydney Marathon being so great this year and it's because of all the extra yeah. Things around it, I would say to the Perth Marathon organisers, there's a free kick right there. Just find what you know.

\[50:22\] Perth is. I don't know what the participation numbers are for. I don't know. How long they've been running? Them, but I would have thought that Perth is from a city size perspective. The Perth City Council would be able to get involved here and help coordinate an exhibition for the Perth Marathon 4000\. They had Oh no, 4000 entrants, 3000 starters. So that might be there's no reason you still can't have a small Expo, but it might be do do with numbers as well. Should be going at Best of the West. There's A tag line for the Perth Marathon.

\[50:52\] I wonder. If you haven't already used that what I thought the Perth Marathon course would be fairly flat and quick. It's got some great running court, like, you know, out towards Freo, that road that's dead flat the whole way out. You had a brand up. A great marathon, actually. Maybe we obviously don't know a lot about Perth running here or Western Australian running, but I wonder where they're at. They've got another event that gets the biggest. Numbers. OK, that might be a. Perth Marathon Biggest Perth marathon run. I reckon it'll be a city run. OK. How's your running going?

\[51:24\] I wanted to check because it's been a, it's been a little bit since we touched in with your running. How are you running? Good. You running? Well, I'm just running. You just running? Just running. Not thinking too much about it at all. Not thinking too much about it. So running, gym. And then what I have been loving at the moment is I've been swimming, got back into swimming in a big way. Probably more from a social, point of view. Yeah, but just getting out in the water, you know, what are we? We're in November now. Yep, the water temperature. We swim down at Burleigh on Monday

\[51:55\] with Ty Dalka's group, so salt water swimmers on Wednesday would be. Barely swim run entries are open by the way. Get involved, support that great event that Ty runs. Yeah, so we were down there swimming, jumping in the water. I reckon it was about 17°. It was ice in ice cream. Ice cream headache cold in November. I don't know what's what's going on with it this year, but I'm having a great. The change will come. But around the running, no, it's, it's going, it's going fine. Yep, I'm completely what I'm what I'm doing at the moment.

\[52:26\] So if anyone's going well, he's not really given this much information. I'm just laying a foundation at the moment, just putting the base. I am just putting down a base and there's not a lot of, not any intensity happening. But what I am coupling that with is a very dedicated gym programme at the moment. Yeah, all I'm gonna be able to do. And then like, you know what I'm like, I don't like to predict or I don't like to talk out of my ass of what's going to happen. Yep. So give me about two to three

\[52:57\] months down the track and I'll be able to give a really good, I suppose idea of like a different perspective of attacking the running base. This is you, people might not have realised this, but you've got in this podcast with Courtney and I, you've got somebody that he will like. You know, Courtney will wait until his first child turned 1 year old before he announced it to the world. We've got a happy, healthy baby. I'll say it six months before the baby's born, we've got someone who is very much just say it and it'll happen. It's a good balance later.

\[53:30\] With that in mind, I'm going to say something today that I haven't actually done yet, but it's going to motivate me to get it done before next week I will have an announcement this time next week on the podcast. I will I will have a make sure you subscribed and make sure you're following us on Instagram because I will I have a running announcement to make. I'm saying it now the. Fact. You've announced it now. I'm saying it now means that I

\[54:03\] have to get my SHIT together and make a little video. I'm going to get a little teaser video, a little announcement video ready for people. So make sure you're following the Instagram account. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast because I'm going to make the official announcement next. Week and thank you to those who did subscribe last week because we gave it a bit of a call we. Gave it a bit of a shout. The response came yes, and the numbers continue to grow. So announcement coming next week about where I'm at with all my running stuff, which is very,

\[54:35\] very exciting. And what are you up to running while I was in? Better ask the question back. Gym stuff, doing some, doing some really good. No, no, I'm, I'm getting these legs, getting these legs strong, getting these legs. I'm really focusing on calves and the glutes and the hammies I want and my quads. I'm, I'm, I'm literally trying to build the base around my legs at the moment. Just trotting. I went for run. I was down in Sydney. I went for a bit of run through Centennial Park. Still one of the great places to run well. It is that time of the year, there isn't a lot more on offer.

\[55:07\] I mean, you've got the Kosci trail run. Yep. Got some friends doing that. But other than that, there's not a lot on offer for, I mean, summer's not, there's not a lot running on. It does quieten enough, but unless you. Want to go to the track? Track season. Track, season, track. The Kosci event is something to look forward to. I'm excited. If anybody out there who listened to the podcast is running Kosci, feel free to write in and tell us all about it because that is an event I would love to do. But yeah, no, at the moment I'm just kind of, I'm a bit similar to you, just laying a bit of a base.

\[55:37\] And next week's announcement you'll hear why the base is so important. But anyway, well, it's great to be back. Thank you again to everybody that jumped on as a subscriber. If you've got some friends who you're trying to drag down to your run club, please get them around the podcast. It'll help them get into running. We love running here, even despite what I said about the Sydney Run Club. I love you Sydney Run Club. I just think you need to be a bit more aware of what you're. Doing and we've got plenty coming with the. You know that run, we're talking about 10K run at the. T100.

\[56:07\] And rolling straight off that into the Gold Coast Marathon. T100 I want to know what time head start you think I need on Courtney Atkinson to beat him over the 10K. OK, go and register, sign up. It's going to be a fantastic event finishing in the heart of Surfers Paradise. We'll see you next week. See you next week.