> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # EP 74 - FROZEN MOUNTAIN DEW & SUB-60 HALF MARATHONS - URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep-74-frozen-mountain-dew-sub-60-half-marathons/ - Published: 2026-02-20T06:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T11:46:40.000Z - Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Olympics & 2032, T100, Strava culture — recorded on the Gold Coast. - Author: Courtney Atkinson - Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Olympics, Triathlon, Strava, Trail Running, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58 *Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Olympics & 2032, T100, Strava culture — recorded on the Gold Coast.* ## Listen Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP-74---FROZEN-MOUNTAIN-DEW--SUB-60-HALF-MARATHONS-e3faam3?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-74-frozen-mountain-dew-sub-60-half-marathons/id1772010786?i=1000750698462&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 74, we are back. Courtney, take it away. I know you've got something you want to jump into. I do, Liam. I do, Liam. If you've got to go to a fast food drive-through, which is your choice? I'm Macca's. You're Macca's. Yeah, McDonald's. I get discounted coffees because of my work situation. Are you like a police officer, do they get freebies? I'm not like — let's be clear, I'm not — they have an important job, but I do get a little discount on my coffee. \[00:33\] Oh my God, McDonald's, hey. Well, McDonald's is gonna be happy where I'm going with this. So the other night I went and did a quick call-in for a bit of takeaway, you know how it is when the family and you're coming home late on a Friday night and you're like, oh, we need dinner. Rang my son, what do we want? KFC. Yeah, KFC, what's the price, the Dirty Bird. Over here at Robina I waited 25 minutes in the drive-through for KFC on a Friday night. \[01:03\] It was jam packed, traffic jams next door, Mackers could have just flown through. I don't want to interrupt your flow with KFC because I know there's a point to this, we'll get at McDonald's. Have you ever done McHappy Day? No, you're kidding, I would have thought you would have got a crack at McHappy Day over the years. I've eaten plenty of McHappy Day. Yeah, I did it this year for the first time and I went into McDonald's, and for those that don't know, basically their drive-through system, the reason they're so efficient is because it's a competition. \[01:35\] It's gamified up on the screen at McDonald's, a timer that you can see, they have a benchmark, and you can see every other McDonald's in Australia — there's a leaderboard showing you your local area and all the leaders nationally of the countries that are best performing in terms of moving the cars through at the desired pace. So if you're underperforming it starts to go red, and green if you're going well. They are an amazing drive-through operator, McDonald's. \[02:05\] But KFC at the moment, it's like a resurgence, they are jam packed, what's going on? Well I don't know, but this is what brings me to today — KFC are starting to use fitness creators to push protein. Stop. I'm not — stop, have a — let's just have a listen to this, this is off their socials. "Everyone loved our protein hack, KFC now have even more in the works, and we have time with their food innovation expert to..." \[02:35\] "...find out more. You're going through a cutting stage, what would you order to save calories? Have you tried a Zinger, no mayo?" I have — twice. Is there such a thing as too many Zinger fillets? I think what you're ordering on your own time is not up to me, give me — shut up. I won't go through the whole thing, but I'm looking at this, some of the advertisers around new PBs, let's go. But what they have done — now I'm interested in this, OK, because I love a bit of KFC, sure, who doesn't love a bit of KFC — and they've got this new protein \[03:07\] bowl, right, and they're pitching it as a healthy option, which it probably is. Chicken on salad, 44 grams of protein, right. The protein pack, 40 grams of protein. The protein bowl, 44 grams of protein. OK, but more interesting — yeah, they're actually targeting fitness, bulking, whatever. They're actually — have a look at this, I've got it up in \[03:38\] front of me. First reaction is I think fitness-focused people aren't going to be fooled by this, aren't going to be convinced that, oh yeah, I've been avoiding fast food options because I wanted to live a healthy lifestyle, but now they're telling me it can be part of my healthy lifestyle. Of course I'll come back — you're not, it's — you're not flicking the switch there. What, you're putting your marketing hat on. \[04:10\] I would imagine they're going — it's more retention than it is bringing new customers in, you're looking at ways to retain your existing customer base. So for those that might be, maybe at the beginning of the new year, thinking about exploring healthier options in their life, they're going, oh no, you can get them here, don't worry about it. I think food prep's good — I drove through the drive-through the other day just getting the usual chicken and saw this bowl and I didn't. \[04:41\] Did you have it? No, I didn't get the bowl. OK, so it didn't work. No, because I just go for the chicken anyway. But I saw the bowl and I thought, actually I could do that as a quick lunch if I needed to and I was on the fly, sure. But so where I'm going with this — remember when fat was like what sugar is now? Yeah, to the world was once fat, and that's — you just don't hear anyone talking about fat really anymore, do you? Well, we've talked about \[05:12\] this — hey, it became a thing with Jelly Roll. Yeah, it starts and finishes at the fridge, for anybody out there — and I am going through it right now as well with my Miler training. I'm running — I'm in running shape, fitness-wise, aerobic capacity, uphills, we'll talk about it a bit more later on, I'm running really well. For me to lose weight I need to change how I'm eating. For me to lay off the cake, not lay off the Macca's. For me to be lighter come this \[05:42\] Miler race, yep, I need — it's not about running more. I'm running more than I ever have and I have been for a good six-week block now, it's the food, it's the diet. To this point about KFC, great, I love that you are genuinely — and I'll take you at face value that this is a healthier option than other things on your menu. People don't have to keep Maccas or KFC or any of those fast food options out of your life if you're training and doing everything in moderation. But that's the point. \[06:13\] It's moderation, and I would say personally I'm not going to go to KFC for a healthier option. If I'm going to KFC, load me up a three-piece feed, put the potato and gravy — you want the whole hog, give me a Mountain Dew and let me let my brain explode with the effects of all that stuff. Do you do the frozen upgrade? I've never done the frozen upgrade. Oh mate, you sound like you're a real Dirty Bird aficionado. I don't mind the three-piece chicken. \[06:44\] Yes, the three-piece, always upgrade to a frozen — a frozen Mountain Dew, all the Zinger, the whole Zinger meal with the frozen Mountain Dew. I want a frozen Mountain Dew so badly now, I've never had one. If you have to go out running in the heat, yes — three-hour portacall on the way home, right, actually three because Maccas is an option as well. Yeah, that always — every food vendor, or restaurant, always makes the frozen drinks cheap to get you to buy something else. \[07:15\] You can go through 7-Eleven, get the Slurpee. Macca's frozen coke is what, 2 bucks? Yep, and 7-Eleven, KFC — the other week I went out and did a 17K, just a flat cruisy run, got about 11K in and I was just feeling a bit — but that 7-Eleven at Kirra, yeah, stopped off, grabbed himself a Kit Kat chunky and a large Slurpee. It's the greatest mid-run snack of all time. Slurpees are the best value drink going, hands down. \[07:45\] It's literally like they're doing more with the drink but charging you less. I haven't — Gatorade or Powerade or Maximus ever done a Slurpee? Well, Maximus were the original ones, who did the frozen Maximus, you can still get those in servos. Yes, they still have the frozen. What I've noticed is 7-Eleven lately have been throwing some Gatorade in, like they're not doing their own Maximus fridge where they block competition out, so I've seen Gatorade and Powerade — they've got some of their larger ones in there. Would a Gatorade Slurpee be good, or a Powerade Slurpee be \[08:15\] good? We used to do it, so when we were — our dietitian, Craig Cox, was our dietitian at the time, he used to take a Slurpee machine with us when we'd go and race in Asia. So if we were in Singapore leading up to the Beijing Olympics, we were trialling Slurpee machines to bring down that body temperature as quick as possible, pre-race and post-race. He'd have his Slurpee machine, I'm pretty sure it was Gatorade at the time that were our sponsors, filling up the old Slurpee machine and you'd get a \[08:46\] Gatorade slurpy or just a Slurpee after. Was it good? Bloody oath. Oh hey, I'm here advocating for Slurpees, whatever you want to call them. Yeah, why don't we — what about the old Slush Puppies? Slush Puppies are still going too, by the way, we had them come into the radio station. They solved their issue though, right? Because Slush Puppies in the early days you used to get all the sugar and syrup out of it and then you're just left with ice — the mixers are better now. Why haven't we seen — I'm trying to think of marathon activation — why are we not seeing slush, \[09:19\] slushy machines at these marathon things? Yeah, a hot one halfway through the run would go down a treat. Oh, imagine — this is an improv, Liam, scam — imagine an aid station, a slushy aid station. Imagine that. Anyway, we can agree, one of the best inventions. Outstanding. My kids, whenever they \[09:49\] say, can we get a slushy, I'm like, yes you can, and Dad's having one too. 100% undeniable, 100% good start, great value. Where are we going next, court? We said we wouldn't go there — Apex athletes. Hey, this is on you, I've abided by your wishes to stop talking about this, but — I like the direction this is going. So Tim Rigby and Ella, who I used to swim with, does a fair bit of trail — seen her out in the Nerang trail running — but she used to swim with me, or I used to \[10:20\] swim with her, I should rephrase that, at Bond swimming, and this was at the time when Cam McEvoy was also swimming out of Bond University, so I was doing some sprint training out there with them. Now when you talk about — we've been discussing this apex athlete thing with the bench press and then them trying to run under 2:50, and you know, we've joked about mediocrity, that's the aim — this is the true apex. This is what Cam's doing at the moment. \[10:50\] He's dropped it, it's a new sub-60-second run: he does two pull-ups at 70kg, which with his bodyweight means he's lifting 157 kilos, he runs up the other end of the pool, jumps in for a 25m sprint and does a sub-10-second 25 metre sprint. Two pull-ups at 70 kilos, so that's so much — you're going to attach me to your — yeah, basically your pull-ups. I kind of want to try it. OK, keep going, and then jump in \[11:23\] the pool and swim a sub-10-second — so that's under, you know, for a 25 metre speed, sub — well, I mean he's the fastest in the world, right. Here's the drama: I fundamentally can't do that second bit, and this is where I wanted to go with this — no one can understand the eliteness of this. This is not celebrated like — everyone online is talking about apex athletes running under 2:50 for that bench-press number. \[11:56\] This is what elite looks like, and that's the challenge — let's not call it a problem — the challenge with elite athletes and what they have to face in the new world of social media is no one can comprehend it, so the ability to explain just how high-end this is gets lost, and what we talk about instead is things the masses can aspire to. \[12:26\] Here's the clip, here's the reel for this episode — say that again with the passion and venom, Courtney, that was great. I love it because you can't — if you can't comprehend it, it's hard to celebrate, but you put something average out there that everyone can comprehend, you get the masses chasing it and then suddenly there's celebration over something. What you've just said should ultimately destroy the apex athlete conversation online. \[12:57\] It really should, you've put it beautifully, it should. That statement — this guy's using his lifting ability to transfer directly to becoming the best person in the world. All right, I've looked it up — yeah, because really, I'm happy for this conversation to continue but it needs a rebrand. Because when you look up the definition of apex, the highest point of achievement or the top \[13:29\] or highest part of something — a sub-2:50 marathon isn't the highest point, and that bench-press mark isn't the highest point. No, Cam McEvoy, he's starting to play around with things at the highest point. And look, I can't comprehend lifting 70 kilos, but I can comprehend what a sub-10-second 25m swim looks like, and just how fast that is. But I think that in context, when you put it like \[14:01\] that, you have to strap me to you, Liam, and try and pull me up in a pull-up. I'm trying to think of a better name for it, because I still don't mind this whole social media experiment, this idea of the sub-2:50 marathon and the bench-press mark, I don't mind it as an exploration. But now that you've put it so beautifully I do have a problem with it being called apex, the apex athletes, because they're not \[14:32\] incredible hybrid — you're a hybrid athlete, so it needs a new title. Your hybrid — your Jack-of-all-hybrids, because they're jacks of a couple of trades but masters of none, really. Yeah, it's the Jack athletes — I'm not going to get into the fighter side of that. What you've summed up there is the appreciation of what is absolutely elite. The challenge is we just can't — the reason it's so elite is \[15:02\] you can't understand it. Let's keep celebrating elite — Jack Rayner, bloody new half marathon Australian record, breaking 60 minutes, only the second ever Aussie to go sub-one-hour for the half marathon. He's broken the record that was held by Brett Robinson, took six seconds off it too — it's a good run, he ran it in Barcelona last weekend. How much of a flex is it to go, what's your half like? \[15:32\] Sub-60, like you're in single figures? Well yeah, it's — you're talking double digits, not triple digits, it's putting it into a whole — you don't have to put the hour mark in, it's like, well we kind of say, what's your half like, oh, a 69 or an 80 or something, we all try and do it, but this is actually legit, he actually runs it so it's not in the hours. Talk to me a bit about it, do you know Jack? Well, do you know Jack at all? \[16:03\] I know, I've spent a bit of time with Jack, out — was he up at Falls Creek when you were up there on a couple of occasions? Round the F1, anyway things, yeah. The reason I ask — 30 years of age, Jack's 30, where's he at with his running career do you think, given that we've just seen this performance, we've got an Olympic Games two years away in America — where do you think he's — I don't know a lot about it, I think he competed in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. \[16:37\] Where's he at with his running, where do you think he's capable of, do you know much about what his ceiling could be if he's getting to this point now? Oh, I'm not gonna pretend to talk for anyone, but I mean, we know — I'll talk from a more commercial point, road-wise. I mean, Jack's been a mate, he's raced for us at all the Games and everything, he's an amazing road runner but always goes back to the track, that's kind of where he's been putting his \[17:08\] efforts. I mean, where running is and where the masses are and where commercial is, you'd have to think it's on the road. OK, and I mean, now with this performance, the next question would have to be, what's his marathon look like? So let's just remind everybody playing along: Andy Buchanan, friend of the podcast, 2:06:22 is his Australian record marathon time according to Wikipedia. Jack's current PB is a 2:11 which he set six years ago in London. \[17:40\] He hasn't run a PB according to Wikipedia for a while, but that new half marathon Australian record would suggest that whatever he's been doing, the speed is now improving, it's there, it's better than it's ever been for him over the distance. Yeah, I don't know, maybe we've got to get him on to have a chat at some stage, because I find Jack — most people, you look at Jack and it's like Steve \[18:12\] Prefontaine, well, he's got the big moustache, he's got a big flowy moustache. Yeah, I mean it'd be great, let's say, just like Andy's gone out now with his YouTube series and runners are becoming more accessible, we're seeing behind the scenes what they do and all that type of thing — I reckon Jack would be a really interesting one to see more of and understand more of. Let's get him on. I mean, not necessarily just — no, general, like, \[18:42\] let's get him on, let's get him on. He won Melbourne Marathon last year, obviously he's got his own podcast. Well, hey, why don't we — he'll come on this, you know, rising — what is it, rising tide lifts all ships. Don't worry, he doesn't have to worry about me threatening his marathon potential, he'll be fine. Great to see Aussie running continuing, the bar continuing to be lowered for Aussie records on that front. Yeah, running, both male and female, they just continue to keep kicking goals. While we're talking Olympics, can I deviate ever so quickly? \[19:13\] Yep. Have you seen the story of Benoît Richard? No. Benoît Richard — were you always coached by Australians at the Olympic level? I was, OK, but right at the moment in triathlon our juniors are being coached by a German and a Brit, and how do you feel about that? I don't think they're a pretty good crew, so I know that's about \[19:43\] it. But do you subscribe to the idea that at an international level — I think now, in today's world, it's moot, it's just what happens, OK. Just like in swimming, someone like Denis Cotterell went up to help the Chinese, I think lately there's been another Australian swim coach up with the Chinese, and cross-pollination that all really kicked off around the British — around when they went and poached all our swim coaches. So I think that's the days \[20:14\] of even having a discussion about it are long gone. However, when I was racing there was still at least a little bit of a patriotic feeling of, it should be in-house. Nearly, from a competitive point of view, I think this whole idea of Olympics and country versus country — do you think there's some type of notion of, like, it should all have to come from your country? \[20:44\] You're fighting against other countries for their medals, it should kind of come from your country, the expertise and the fight. That's interesting, I hadn't thought about the idea that if you're fighting for medals as a country, the IP at the coaching level should also be from your country. That's really interesting, that's what I imagine — that's how I felt internally when I was young, OK, but then it became so normalised. Let me finish off this and get back to that, because that's a really interesting point you've just \[21:15\] hit on. Benoît Richard, for those not aware, is a figure skating coach, and at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics at the moment, he is the coach or trainer for 16 athletes. These 16 athletes are from 13 different countries. And the reason he's become known is because one of his athletes or pairs leaves the ice — let's say he's from the country of Georgia, and here \[21:47\] he's wearing the Georgian uniform, next thing you know another one of his athletes from a different country enters the ice and he changes jackets. So he's being spotted doing these Taylor Swift-style wardrobe changes ringside to reflect the athletes on the ice. Conflict of interest? Absolutely, undeniably. Obviously he wants all of his athletes to succeed, so you can say he's able to separate those things but \[22:17\] imagine if he was suddenly told — I mean, he's French, right — so you cannot coach Italians or Georgians or whoever. I reckon he has 16 rooms at the Olympic Village. That's a good question, where does he sleep? It's a really good question, they probably bunk him in each of the countries — I reckon whichever athlete, whichever country's got the best digs is probably where he's laying his head at night. Going back to that idea, I think this is something the Olympics should be implementing. \[22:49\] You should have to hold a passport for the country you're coaching, just like competing at the international level. Yeah, because the other sport where this plays into it — I think you hear about it in Australia anyway because rugby union is typically the most international football code, and there was that whole conversation, remember when they first appointed Robbie Deans and there was this big conversation about a Kiwi coaching the Wallabies. It was, I feel like it was a \[23:19\] huge sticking point. I'm just looking it up now in front of me — he took over from John Connolly, so Robbie Deans was in charge from 2008 for a five-year stretch, and we were at about a 50% win rate. Yeah, and then all the same stuff with Eddie Jones — we've not been good since Robbie Deans left, and then the Eddie Jones stuff when he went and coached everyone. Yeah, anyone, and I'm not interviewing for that, but if Triathlon Australia came and said to you, Courtney, we're \[23:50\] thinking about going back to Australian-only coaching at an international level, what would you say? I'd say we're not going to go very well. Bang, no, look, it's — like I said, it's well and truly a multinational effort on multiple things. It used to be that, when I was in the early days of triathlon, international athletes would come in to swim with Denis Cotterell, because that's where the best triathletes in Australia were \[24:21\] swimming, and again, that Australian IP would slowly seep out into other countries, right, so you'd be improving other athletes. I don't think it's one of those things people call gatekeeping now, in running and stuff like that — that was the thing. But if you think about it on the most basic terms, if representing your country at the Olympics is, you know, the pinnacle, and that's what you're \[24:51\] doing, it is an interesting notion, having different countries helping other countries. And also it would be a bit rich of Australia to suddenly go, no, no, we can't have overseas coaches, when over the years we could not get the immigration form signed quick enough for people like Kostya Tszyu, or Tatiana Grigorieva, or any of these athletes with a chance of winning things — Dale Begg-Smith at the Winter Olympics, Aussie Dale who's as Canadian as maple syrup. But if there's a chance to put on our uniform and cross the \[25:22\] line first, we sign them up in a heartbeat, and same with coaches. So yeah, it's a good conversation and chat, but it flows well truly both ways. Where are we going next? This one I picked up because we've been chatting about Jelly Roll since we chatted to him up at the Entertainment Centre. Do you remember, we talked about him, I saw him on the weekend, how's this — this is amazing, you saw it at \[25:53\] the start of the thing — he's literally, he's a bow hunter, I mean that's where he made his name in the — I suppose public space — Supercross in America, the motocross-style indoor stadium event, got him up to start the event, they got him to literally shoot his bow at — and explode the ground, effectively shot a kerosene bottle that created a massive start-event \[26:28\] fire of their logo in the middle of the stadium. Only in America — this is only-in-America type stuff, like the fact — because, I mean, he's a professional, right, don't get me wrong, but a bow, even just the notion of a bow and arrow being shot out in the middle of a stadium would be — here in Australia, what — go back to Barcelona, that's right, the '92 Barcelona Olympics with the archer. Yeah, but they only had to — if you actually looked at where they were \[27:00\] shooting, they had a pretty wide range. Yeah, the cauldron the flame lit was quite loud — I'm actually not sure whether that's still a conspiracy theory, isn't it, that he missed? I think they were gonna light it regardless of what happened. That could have gone on TV — it was like when you tee off in golf, expected Australia to get past the — the lady said, I'm bringing it up in front of me right now, so this is the Paralympic archer who took the hold, \[27:30\] got his flame lit, it gets to the cauldron that you can sort of maybe see — I think I remember seeing this video slowed down once and there's a suggestion you can see it fly past. All the conspiracy — I mean, it does go up, there could have been a lot of gas just in that whole area. This was — very quickly, this wasn't that far either, let's just say since it was in America it probably might have been 200 yards or something, and he's hit bang on the spot \[28:00\] and it's all — I just thought, you know, this is what we need more of. You think about the idea because, look, one of the recurring themes on this podcast is event activation — more and more events aren't struggling to sell out, they're not struggling for participation, it's not about ticket sales, it's about experience, it's about activation, it's about how do you provide maximum value for the people and the sponsors around these things. \[28:30\] I think the Gold Coast Marathon's tradition of Rob de Castella's pump-up speech on the start line is brilliant. He's an icon of Australian, not just running but sport — everyone knows Deeks, everyone remembers Deeks from the ads early morning on the weekends when he was on the commercials, he's such an icon, he's an ambassador of the event, and genuinely I got to stand next to him for that pump-up speech last year. People still talk to me about you telling your calf story with him, and they believe it works — oh, the toothbrush, yeah, \[29:00\] yeah, stand on one calf in the morning, stand on the other calf, there you go, two minutes. But I love that as a tradition and I think it's really unique, it's specific, and it's kind of locked in now, and people are reverential about hearing Deeks on the start line. I don't know about Sydney or Melbourne, I can't speak to them because I haven't run them — I think if they don't have a start-line tradition, they should get one. Yeah, and hey, fireworks — I don't think you can go past \[29:31\] fire — no, keep going, so keep going, set the Harbour Bridge on fire, at least put fireworks across the Harbour Bridge as the leaders go across. Fireworks during the daytime, worth it? Yes, the feeling you get when you're in a stadium, or somewhere, and they all of a sudden just start whacking out some fireworks, it changes the event. OK, or you don't call it fire, but you know, \[30:04\] stationary flames, you know, like if you're watching guys do backflips on motorbikes or some type of monster truck thing, they're literally — you feel the heat, what — flame throwers, people know what we're talking about. If you were running down the finish line of a marathon and you were just copping actual flames on the sides as you're coming down there — here's a thought, Sydney Harbour \[30:38\] Bridge major marathon this year, I would shoot off a specific flare firework when the final runner goes over the bridge, so everyone's like, oh, the last runner's over the bridge, flares — I agree, flares. Why wouldn't you start a race with a flare? It's good, it's good. It's probably not great for the helicopters, and it's probably not great for the TV coverage, but the reason I say fire is that's what impresses me most at those big events in the stadium. I remember when we had our one and only AFL grand final up \[31:12\] here at the Gabba, I went — mm-hmm — and I was sitting there and I remember, at the time I was kind of like, yeah, AFL then, we're running out, whatever, and then the stadium lit up with fireworks and flames and that suddenly was like, this is an event now. Yeah, a stadium without fireworks and flames isn't an event, and I think we should be able to transfer that to running. I agree, love it, there you go — opportunity, that's mine, that's my idea. No, I think you're joining in on the schemes. \[31:43\] I like it. A little bit of fun with this one — you know we see the shoe stuff, what shoes tell you about, but this one I've come across from Plug In Rehab, it's a few sayings about sports at the moment and it's in jest. Good, I'm gonna run through them quickly. So the first one is: Hyrox athletes wearing a nasal strip then breathing out of their ass for 60 minutes. That's a low blow, easy one. It gets better — hold, stay with me: athletes obsessing over their Garmin data but ignoring how \[32:16\] they actually feel. This one I love, and I'll tell you what, I've got a Garmin and I love it, right, I genuinely do — you get the chirp that says your fitness has improved plus-one today and you go, what does that mean? Not just that but I also get every morning now, my alarm goes off very early and the watch wakes up and kicks into gear at 4am and I get my update based on — it monitors my sleep overnight to whatever extent. Now, the thing about the watch is it clearly can't tell when \[32:50\] I go to sleep, because some mornings it'll tell me I've had four hours' sleep based on the fact it for some reason thinks I only got off to sleep at 11pm, but that's not the case — well, I got into bed at 8pm some nights. So I do laugh when it tells me that, and I feel like the watch gets offended as well, because — listen, for anybody, people, AI watches now — no, no, no, people will know this, right, if you have a Garmin you will know this. \[33:20\] I'll do it live on the podcast, right, when you go into your Garmin and go into 'run,' right, I'll show you, ready — I've clicked into run, it's given me a suggested run. Oh, this is kind of like Strava's take on it. Wait, do this — watch what happens, it's like Strava now, suggesting workouts for you. My watch here says today's suggestion: base, 5.35Ks at whatever pace, for 42 minutes, right, that's its suggestion for me today. \[33:50\] If I say — if I click through and say, instead of do workout, if I dismiss — watch how offended my watch gets. No, it hasn't done it this time, but normally it says, do you want any future workouts, it's like passive-aggressively saying, well, if you're not going to listen to my workout, then piss off, should I even bother to give these to you in future. Anyway, I completely agree with you, I think this is a good — yeah, this is a good little — I like that one. Good little saying, keep going. Next one: athletes copying pro athletes' training plans and trying to fit it around having \[34:22\] family, work, and having a life. I like this one, I like this one. And I would also add — can I adjust that to include influencers who are at a different stage of their lives, without full-time jobs or families or anything, maybe still living at home, or perhaps — I'm not begrudging you, but I'm just saying, your audience, the people who might be following you and listening to \[34:53\] you, have a whole world of other problems you might not be aware of. So let's just pump the brakes on the preachy-preachy. Yeah, since the information age has been so — you know, we can chat to an Andy Buchanan and he can tell us exactly what he does and he's open about it, I believe it's great because information is being shared, but it's also being really detrimental to a lot of people, because you look at what could be — great for physios, it's \[35:26\] been great for physios, but yeah, it just gives you a real warped sense. You've got to remember, when athletes are doing that, they've — I shouldn't say I've got nothing else to do — but they're doing everything, everything in their time to be able to, and that includes recovery, doing nothing, their job to be able to. I look, I think about that when I see people at gyms and I go, look at that person, I'm like, wait, it's their job, this is their place of work. I would hope that somebody who's at a gym telling people how to professionally get in shape can do it themselves to show you. \[35:58\] Anyway, yep — athletes adding another five hours of training to their training week because everyone keeps saying they need to do 20 hours. I mean, it's kind of the same vein, isn't it, it's a comparison of, you know — it was the old thing about comparison being the thief of joy. But this is the good one, OK, this is the good one: athletes asking what supplements they need to be taking and then scrolling on Instagram till 1am. Guilty of this — talk about not the first half, but absolutely guilty of getting caught on my phone before bed. \[36:29\] Are you on — do you take any supplements? A little bit of vitamin D, OK, I'm pretty bad at being consistent, I've been doing creatine lately, OK, finding much of a difference? No, OK, that's another whole conversation right around placebo and what you believe. And I would say, in general, on any training supplement, any of this, I always \[37:02\] take the pessimistic side of things. Doesn't sound like you. No, I'm going to question everything, right, and I'm not going to believe something just because someone either told me to believe it, or two, because everyone's doing it, so that makes sense that it must be right. Because I've seen enough cycles of both supplements, and I've seen enough cycles of training, or cycles of just people being interested in sports come and go, that not much sticks around. \[37:32\] It's probably why you're so good at your actual job in the marketing space, because you have a cynical outlook, but you've been through so much and seen so much in the elite athlete space and in the consumer product space that it takes a lot to impress you, but a lot to convince you. Do you know the best one — I still remember this so plainly because I was younger at the time — coenzyme Q10, do you know it? \[38:02\] Talking — I mean, you're talking Mandarin to me. You'll still see this in some products out there, pre-workouts and a whole range of things, and obviously at the time there must have been some evidence to back up that this has some positive effect on something, you'd think. But at the time I remember, I must have been in my late teens or early 20s, and it was the creatine of what's now different, a different effect. But just think of how everyone's on creatine right now. \[38:32\] And there's some really good evidence for creatine, by the way, hence why I'm actually taking it from an evidence-based point of view. But this, yeah, everyone was taking it — 60 tablets used to cost you about 60 bucks, so it wasn't inexpensive, and you're taking, I can't remember, maybe two a day, one a day, whatever, but it was an expensive exercise if you wanted to go and take this stuff. It lasted a couple of years, OK. You haven't heard of this product, have you? No. I mean, if you were an endurance athlete around that 2000, early 2000s \[39:05\] period, right, this was a product you would have been on. Colostrum was another one — that's what they give to babies, it's like breast milk, isn't it. Colostrum was another big one, we lost — yeah, it's literally a precursor of mother's milk. The only reason I've heard of colostrum is because I'm fairly \[39:35\] certain that in my prenatal classes before my kids were born — so it's an antibody-rich first milk produced by mammals, including humans, it's breast milk, during late pregnancy — you were taking this? Not just me, hey, let's be clear. Wait, oh, hey, hang on, hang on, hang on, I mean, we've all taken it at some point. Yeah, it was a trending product, just like we hear about different things, branched-chain amino acids, \[40:07\] bunch of grubs, yeah. There's — anyone who would go back, you'll remember some of these products, they come and they go. Look, I'm not saying certain things don't work, but just do your research. Here's a question for you about the placebo effect — to go back to the start of this — do you think even if there's no definitive change in biomarkers or anything like that, but mentally, yes, \[40:39\] something is working for you — should you still take it, or there's benefits, should you still take it? I mean, if it's benefiting you and you can see a difference. But even if you can't see a difference, if you believe in it, yeah, if you believe in it, this is half the battle. I don't — I'm not a scientist, I don't understand it, but if you believe and it seems to be making a difference, then \[41:09\] that's half the battle. We talk about this all the time — half the battle of these endurance sports is a mental outlook, so that makes you feel better when you get up in the morning because you believe it's helping you feel fresher in the day. There's got to be a benefit. I'm not versed enough to give you an answer on whether it actually makes you, but I am a believer in the placebo effect. Well, arguably some of the recovery stuff that we've talked about, there's data \[41:39\] — there's data to suggest that — you know, there's data if you want data to support whatever you're feeling, you'll find data to suggest that hot and cold plunges are the greatest recovery you can do, and there's data to suggest they do nothing. I guess it comes back to the thing but — that's the interesting bit, so there — you've just presented what is the most interesting point for me in this whole area of sports: if the data shows \[42:15\] some type of benefit and everyone jumps on the bandwagon and does that, but you don't physically — you can't put your finger on saying, this is helping me, I haven't seen any improvement, I don't feel like my muscles are feeling any better, I can't see, unless I can go to the lab and test it and it shows a difference. That, for me, is the biggest question in this whole area — should you be doing that? \[42:45\] Because at that point — is the evidence you're being shown definitive enough that even if you're not feeling anything, you know it's making a difference? So a good example would be caffeine for me — OK, so there's absolutely no doubt there's evidence in endurance sports that caffeine, beyond the stimulant effect, has physiological effects that will help in endurance sports, right. I'm not going to — someone else, you don't need to \[43:16\] explain the science, but the evidence — the data is there, the evidence proves it, it's proven, it's science, right. When I'm racing an endurance event, can I physically feel that it made a difference? No, but I'm still gonna do it because I know the evidence is there, without doubt. Yeah, look, we're talking about things at an elite level versus the everyday level — this comes back to the idea of taking supplements, but also not \[43:47\] doing the simple things that don't require money. You should probably question it more than, you know, going to bed at night and getting a good night's sleep — the free recovery stuff that's available to all of us without needing to go to a provider of supplements or anything like that. Yeah, look, this is a circular argument, because those that believe in it are going to be hard to convince otherwise, and those that don't believe in it, sceptics, are going to be hard to convince the other way. But I think, to go back to where this all started — prioritise your sleep. \[44:18\] That is one thing where the data is undeniable. Prioritise your sleep, and if you want to wake up with a mocktail of supplements, fill your boots. This conversation is gonna stir a little hornet's nest with our listeners — good, I've got strong views on it, yeah, everyone will have their view on this. There's no one right or wrong. I would love — no one's right or wrong, I guarantee you there's some people that are wrong. Well, they're gonna tell us who's wrong — I would love to hear if there are advocates for particular supplements, or you have a strict \[44:50\] regime or whatever it is, please comment, share, like, promote this conversation — I find it fascinating to hear other people's opinions on this stuff. Yeah, I'm going to flip our script a little bit because I want to hear about your running. Go, go. What's happening — I've got a bit quiet from everyone this week on my — we've got some other things to chat about, but on your Miler, I think everyone's giving up on you, Liam, what do you mean, why is everyone giving up on me? They're happy with the way you're going, I haven't got much — no one, after last week everyone berating me — and I've got nothing much going on, no. \[45:22\] Look, running — where are we, people listening to this, survey the 21st, or this is the day it's coming out — running's really good, big breakthrough for me, very specific, but for the Gold Coast run community, people that have ever run the 17K loop at Nerang — an absolute revelation for me: it's much faster if you go clockwise. Why do you think that is? If you run that loop clockwise, you miss the real steep pinch. \[45:52\] I ran anticlockwise around that loop maybe two weeks ago, admittedly on a relatively hot day, 1:49\. I ran clockwise this week, 1:49 — minutes faster. Now you get a lot more of a gradual climb, yeah, you get that big downhill too, which if there's a kilometre and a bit uphill after the steep pinch — and then there's one steep pinch out of that creek bed. \[46:23\] To anyone who's never run this, they're thinking these guys are just talking about a steep pinch, yeah — but I've actually got you thinking a little bit later, OK, because anyone who's local to the Gold Coast knows the ring, the goat loop — yeah — and they've got a bit of a — when people come to Nerang to visit, they're like, the goat loop, yeah, I can't remember, and I tried to find it on my Strava today, but people have — I've had a few people start calling it Courtney's 17K loop, yes. \[46:54\] And I'm like, Liam's helped me with that, for sure. So thanks for a better name. No, it's just a better loop, hang on, I don't really care about the name, it's — it's a better loop. Great, it's a better loop, yeah, great. The 17K loop, for those playing along at home — I ran it the other day, and I gave a — oh, here you go, so I did a 1:42:27\. I actually think I stopped to take a work call for a couple of minutes, there was something going on, but looking at the all-time record, yes, \[47:26\] do you know where you are? You're second all-time, 2nd. You're in — 2017, the record is held by Jack Gill. Yeah, you know Jack. Yeah, I do, Jack runs very well. Jack ran it in 2022 at 1:09:34\. Matt Hauser, yeah, 5th — yeah, he's probably jogged around, needs to sharpen. Friend of the pod, Anderson, sitting in 7th. So there's some big names in that top 10 on that loop. But no, I look, to go back to my Miler stuff at the moment. \[47:56\] We are currently in the process of working out a time for Holly Ranson, who's a 4th-place finisher — she's a recent golden ticket winner for Western States. Holly has said she's going to make her way down from the Sunshine Coast, come for a run, talk on the pod, that is on the way. I feel great, my body feels really good. I think, as much as I talk about clockwise being faster on that loop, the revelation for me is \[48:26\] that — and I think it's a good learning for anybody that's out there training for anything — it's that old thing of you go and do one set of weights at the gym, and you kind of stand and look in the mirror and go, where's the difference. The difference comes — like, this is all stacked up, probably my biggest running block, consistently. So I'm going back — I'm just jumping on my Strava here — so you're saying every time you do this loop, you're able to benchmark, I'm \[48:56\] seeing some type of — I'm saying I'm seven weeks into this Miler prep, right, and it's a gradual build. The first week of this Miler prep was 56Ks, just shy of six hours, with 1,200 elevation, that was week one when I went out and ran this loop. I've got six weeks of that behind me now and it felt easier, yes, I wasn't pushing harder, but the same run with the same \[49:28\] elevation, same distance, felt easier. And I get back to the bottom and I'm — as opposed to being absolutely knackered and needing to sit down and looking at my watch going, that felt so hard — yeah, I got to the bottom of this run and felt, oh yeah, that was OK. That's what I mean, that's what I've always talked about here, about you don't want to be too repetitive on things because then it gets boring. But benchmarking, if you've got a goal, benchmarking is an amazing way to manage yourself, \[49:59\] really is, as long as you don't go over chasing week in, week out, and that's the thing, because that idea of benchmarking versus chasing PBs — that's why parkrun, I think, is a really great thing to be doing on occasion and not chasing your PB every week. It's interesting though with the 17K loop, because if you do the 17K loop at Nerang it gives you about 650 metres elevation, which is roughly about a tenth of what I need to do. And so the thought I have post those runs is I go, OK, \[50:31\] could you go out and do nine more of those? Yes, and it's probably — yeah, a tenth of the distance. It's well, it's a tenth of the distance and just shy of a tenth of the elevation, yeah, right. So it's — and there's some good, long climbs in there that test you out. But no, mate, honestly, I feel great. Here's a takeaway though, and this is a good one for anybody that's interested in doing a bit of trail running and hasn't jumped off the path a lot — there is a real difference between trail shoes and road shoes. OK, I ran the Super \[51:01\] blast — I ran the ASICS Superblast 2s, now the ASICS Superblast 3s have just come out, the road shoes — I only had the Superblast 2s when I got out there to Nerang the other day, and normally I've been running that loop in either the Salomon Ultra Glides or the Salomon — what do they call it — Genesis, S/Lab Genesis. So it's either the S/Lab Genesis or the Ultra Glides. You go out and run a trail in your road shoes, wouldn't recommend it. What did you feel \[51:31\] — what's the difference? Explain to me. Stack height on the Superblast, I don't know exactly, just — less stable, far less stable, far more ankle uncertainty for me running around there. Now, again, I ran a PB, I ran faster than I ever have, I think that's the training, not the shoes. The shoes are great though, by the way, I really like running on the roads in these, but the stability — it's not there for trail. And I saw somebody on that border trail run a couple of weeks back take a pair of their standard road shoes out onto the trail. \[52:02\] I'm not saying you can't do it, but I think I felt much less confident in my ankles and my foot placement in these Superblast 2s than I did running in either the Genesis or the Ultra Glides. OK, that's good feedback. It was, yeah, yeah. Now again, I've thrown out — I've run through the Puma Nitros, had a really good run in them. I picked those up towards the \[52:32\] end of last year, going into these ASICS Superblast 2s, back on the road now — they're such a good shoe, yeah, they're such a good everyday trainer shoe, they're just reliable for me as a pretty neutral runner, it's a rock-solid shoe, the bounce, the foam, it's a great shoe to just run in. That's good to hear, because this is the thing, right, everyone's gait and the way they run is a little bit different, and the fact that the ASICS for you are obviously working really well as an everyday trainer along the road — I will not run on the trails in them again. \[53:02\] Not because I can't, but because I don't want to risk it. When it comes to trail shoes, and this isn't about brand or type or anything, I just always come back to feeling secure — my trail shoe still has more importance than the softness of them, but the softness of them actually can contribute in a positive or negative way to that stability. But the biggest contributor to \[53:32\] that, to me, is actually the surface area of the shoe. So you don't want to be running around in flippers either, but there is a correlation between surface area of landing rubber and how stable you are. You can't get away from that. So when shoes start trying to shortchange you on surface area on the trail to do other things, to me, it never ends well. It's like the base level of the food pyramid. And this is when I talk about running on trail, I mean some \[54:03\] type of element on the trail — it's technique, it could be rocky, it could have roots, that loop, the fire trail, is kind of rough in some areas. If you're going out on the spit trails, different things — running, whatever you want — but if you're going up into some fire trails that present surface-area challenges, it matters. Quickly, speaking on injury, yep, I'm fine — I almost broke my toe, my left foot. \[54:33\] Almost — in your shoes? No, I was in thongs, and I was down at Nippers with the kids, I had the e-bike with the stand, and I pulled the bike back and the stand basically ground into my second toe. It's been — I was almost going to the doctor's to get it checked. Karma for riding an e-bike? Yeah, that's true, I apologise. Hey, what's going on with you and your running, what have I done this week since we chatted? \[55:06\] Because how are you feeling, because whilst there's a lot of attention on my Miler, which is coming up in May, we're still — whatever, 12 weeks away from that — you've got a 10K that's creeping up. It's coming quick, isn't it, the T100 10K event, by the way, less than four weeks now. There's this idea, there's a term for it, I wish I could remember what it is, but it's like when you start talking about something — it's like when you go to buy a car, and you buy a new car, and suddenly that's the only car you see on the road, or when you start talking about a TV show and then suddenly you're seeing billboards for it \[55:36\] everywhere. I don't know if it's because we're talking about the T100 a lot, but it's everywhere at the moment, I'm having people — I was at a Titans media lunch earlier this week and I had one of the journos from the Courier Mail come up to me and say, oh yeah, I'm running the T100\. I bumped into Anderson from Wild Earth down at the playground the other day, he said T100\. The noise is really building as we get down \[56:08\] to this event. Yep, well, we promised last week — shoes, yes. Oh, I haven't made a decision, but I have bought a pair. Can you actually — do you think you'll run in it, or are you going to try it out? I haven't bought — I mean, you know my history, mate, I probably haven't bought shoes in a good decade. How does it feel doing it? Because I have a similar feeling — the privilege of radio, I'm aware when I have to buy tickets to sport or music events now, there's a part of me that \[56:39\] goes — and again, privilege — there's a part of me that goes, I don't feel like I should have to be paying for this, and that just comes from a decade working in radio when I'm normally getting things for free. So the beauty is, I'm able to try everything, yes, and I've got — so normally choice is limited to a brand, now the world — it's too much, they've taken \[57:11\] the blinkers off it. And I'll tell you, I've, like everyone else, been talking to people and then I've been on the web looking at reviews and everything, and different sizes, and I bought two pairs of shoes last week. Wow. So I've upgraded my Bostons, OK, a new — the new model, the 13, because I was running — I had the 12s, and the only reason I didn't run that much in the 12s, when I got Strava telling me I had, I think, 400, not even 400K on them, but when I looked \[57:41\] at the sole, I could — there was wear. Yeah, yeah, they're probably fine, but let's have a look, OK. So you've got the 13s, I would have been happy to buy the 12s again at a cheap price, just couldn't find them, so 13 it was. Now, I haven't settled on these for my T100 breaks, but they're in the mix. I've also bought a pair of Vaporflys on sale — of course. So I'll be able to give — once sponsorship goes away, welcome to the real world, mate — I'll be able to give a \[58:11\] complete, honest — Vaporfly 4s are on sale around the place at the moment, so Vaporfly 4s is what I'm going to trial in some sessions, and if I'm happy with them we'll probably go with them. What colour have you gone with, if you don't mind me asking, what's the colourway? Don't know, black, yeah, something definitely not fluoro. OK, I think it was black and purple, or something like that. Yeah, so that's my shoe update. OK, I can't actually tell — I mean, we — you need to — like, we can't — actually, it might be a really fun thing to do on the Saturday \[58:43\] before the T100, for you, then that be the episode you release the shoe reveal — it's like tomorrow. We'll be putting that out, exciting. It is exciting for people, Courtney. It's certainly — Tim will be paying attention to it. You want to know what — well, I was giving him — I was saying I was gonna get — I had some secret illegal Chinese ones coming in. Oh, did you? No, I don't, I still — no, I still do, keep — everything, the running, I'm loving the \[59:13\] conversation ever since we started talking about the Chinese shoes a bit more again. I feel like those are starting to pop off — well, there's a lot more brands than I realised, that's what I learned. Last weekend I was sitting on the couch — where I ended up buying these shoes, as you do when you start looking too much at things on the web — and I was going through the China stuff and looking at a couple of YouTubes, and the brand — I don't know the brand names — but the brand we had talked about, ONEMIX, actually don't really come up too often. So the one that we have been \[59:44\] kind of going, this is a really good shoe, yeah, it's fallen out of — the crew we know — no, some of the crew we know love it, but they're not the Chinese shoe that when you go on YouTube and online to the shoe reviewers, they're not the ones they're talking about, they're talking about other ones. OK, so that's got me even — maybe I've got some more presents coming for you, Liam. There are so many comments, there's still so much that we — these episodes, there's so much we could still be getting to, we've got a lot of questions and \[01:00:15\] comments coming through from the In The Beginning family, so we want to say thank you for that. OK, quickly, want to hit you with some — we've gotten with the comments, the involvement, the conversations that keep going around these episodes are great. You've been mentioning your shoes — Jordan McGaw said, firstly, Armidale Running Festival, are you guys there? Sadly we're not going to be at the Armidale Running Festival, massive shout-out to Ryan, the event he's put on, to everybody who's getting down there — please tell us how it goes, it's fantastic. We love what Ryan's doing for running, particularly in \[01:00:47\] Armidale, he's one of the good ones, he's been here from the beginning. Yeah, the other thing Jordan mentioned was that he wanted to shout out some shoes your way — all right, I got shoes after I went through what — well, Nike Vaporfly Force was one of them, what else has he got — the Puma Deviate Elite Force, which is that performance Puma with the very aggressive — I read that one, from all the reading I did, that one's like a heel — if you're heel-striking, yeah, I don't actually — OK, \[01:01:17\] the Mizuno Hyper Wave Neo, which I haven't seen before, posting about Mizuno — but Jordan said all those are gutsy, punchy shoes, brilliant speed for the shorter sharp stuff without the excess mints. OK, well, I went with one of your suggestions. So thanks, John — Kaylee, I love this from Kaylee. Boys, great work, love the content, new listener, I've just finished listening to your Noosa Clydesdale episode. So Kaylee's gone all the way back and started listening through, which is brilliant, and I agree with Liam, 90 kilos is not a true Clydesdale — 106 kilos in my first ever tri, Raby Bay, this past December, and I \[01:01:50\] claimed glory with a silver medal. I happily remind my missus and kids that I'm the second-fastest 100kg sprint-distance triathlete in Queensland. Yes, that's great — I love that the essence of the Clydesdale continues to live on. Damn right it continues, yes. Tanya, I want to give a shout-out to Tanya, Tanya commented on the episode, she said, my habit since you started has been listening to your podcast on my Saturday morning run — with the Tarawera Miler this weekend, \[01:02:21\] I wasn't able to download it before the 5am New Zealand start time, listening to it now — this is heartbreaking, excuse me, for Tanya listening to it now after a DNF with a rolled ankle, which also resulted in her crashing hard around 80Ks, and she's been nodding madly at the rolled-ankle conversation we had last week. That moment between the start of the roll and the crash was like full slow motion, and that split second seems to have taken hours before the splash. I had a few of those moments on the weekend running around, \[01:02:53\] it was muddy and crappy out there. I can't understand — we're sorry, Tanya, sorry to hear, but Tanya, hey, there's more races in you, we know you're coming through. Want me to tell you this one? Yeah, you take this one, I'll tell you this one, because I've got a question for you, yeah, go — would you pay $570 for a hoodie? No. So this came — this was a question from Ryan Tags, he's catching up on some \[01:03:24\] episodes, he said, you two are the absolute forefront running trends, I don't know — nah, I like that, Ryan, it's good. Anyway, he said there's an item sold in an Australian running store that's $570 for a plain black hoodie, and the thing here is there is zero branding on this hoodie — I've looked at the hoodie, the brand — we might as well say the brand, it's literally Literary Sport, Literary Sport, like the reading? \[01:03:57\] OK, it's an interesting — yeah, yeah, OK, no branding on it at all, 100% cotton. OK, so nothing — cool, yeah, I can understand if they had a scientific base of how it all mixed up, some rubber trims, double-layered hood, I mean there's nothing, it's a hoodie, right, yep, this to me is — I can see what \[01:04:30\] Literary Sport are doing here, this is a fashion brand that's dipping its toe into the exercise-wear world just because they can — if you go and look at the rest of their catalogue, their men's shorts are $350 bucks, a women's sleeveless tee is $270 bucks, this is high-end stuff. Yeah, it's when it's Apex and stuff — I mean, there are other brands we've talked about that are expensive running brands. \[01:05:00\] This is next level. But if you run out in this hoodie versus running out in — what's the kind of the blank — I want to know who's buying it. Fruit of the Loom? If anyone knows anyone who is purchasing this let us know. The other thing was, a Fruit of the Loom black hoodie sweatshirt you can get for 25 bucks. Yeah, but it's just going back to the idea of, we all understand high-fashion brands, right, that's why handbags and shoes — there's a reason behind it. \[01:05:31\] Definitely not having a dig here, what I'm interested in is, one, who's buying it, and two, is a company like this just pricing their product at that, selling low volume and trying to change the market? Exactly what they're doing, yeah, it's exactly what they have to be, right, they're looking at — I mean, why would a company like that bother to try and compete on price with your budget, Lululemon-style brands, why would they \[01:06:03\] even not — not even budget, but mid-tier — why would they bother to get into that dogfight that is the mid-tier athletic wear game when they can just exist there? I really kind of want to try those running shorts to see if they're worth $370, but I'm not paying 300\. I can tell you they're not. Quickly, I just want to know — $350 for the running shorts, and it's a bit like, how do they feel? It's a bit like the $22 smoothies that are being sold here on the Gold Coast, you can make a business out of curiosity. \[01:06:33\] If everybody here on the Gold Coast walks in and buys a $22 smoothie out of curiosity and never goes back again, that's a pretty good business model. Quickly, I want to wrap it up with something we don't talk about — we're a Gold Coast-based show, we talk a bit about running in Queensland, we talk a little bit about running down south, yes, Melbourne as well, they've answered — we do have the Melbourne listeners, shout out Melbourne, we love that you listen, you said the best thing, they weren't even pissed we had to go — no, they weren't, they were just happy to be a part of the conversation. So now welcome, Melbourne, welcome Melbourne runners. Quickly, I want to touch on \[01:07:05\] Adelaide, my hometown, for just a moment — motorsport, have you seen that the Moto GP is leaving Phillip Island? I didn't, this is news — this is a little bit of news, and I'm getting to it now, just at the end, because it happened yesterday. It makes sense though, because I saw a post from Casey Stoner showing an old pic of him, not happy — the redheads, they're not happy that the Moto GP is leaving Victoria. SA, Adelaide in particular, what their premier is doing in making it the event state — they've brought in Live Golf, they've got the Gather Round, they've got the Tour Down Under, the V8 Supercars are back. \[01:07:35\] That was an election promise. Now he's brought the Moto GP, which is going to be a street circuit at the same place the V8s are raced out of as well. I can't wait to see how it goes. Yeah, that's cool. Adelaide, pull your finger out on the marathon front — I think we're going to get the same feedback here that we got from Melbourne last week, there are a lot of runners down there, I know them — that marathon, and I'm looking it up, it's the Brooks Adelaide Marathon Festival. \[01:08:07\] It's sold out, it's happening in May, it's sold out — what more do they need to do? It ain't noisy enough, get noisy, this race needs to get noisier. But they might be noisy in South Australia and we just don't see it, that's fine — no, get noisier. This — I'm trying to — look, is Brooks the brand? I had a bit of a beef with a couple of — like last year when we were talking, I thought Brooks was kind of the old person's runner. Yeah, it makes sense because this needs it, it's \[01:08:40\] — it screams Adelaide of ten years ago, I don't think that's what Adelaide is now, Adelaide has changed, and we talked about the Moto GP, the Supercars are back, Adelaide is a genuinely exciting city. Bunnings Adelaide Marathon — there you go, get around it, pull your finger out, Adelaide Marathon Fest. Alright, we'll see you next week. We'll see you next week.