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# Six Weeks Out: Courtney's Marathon Panic Begins & Liam's 100-Miler Recovery | EP 87
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep-87-gold-coast-marathon-experiment-update-six-weeks-out-the-marathon-panic-beg/
- Published: 2026-05-22T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T01:22:12.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on Gold Coast Marathon, shoe tech, UTA & ultras — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Gold Coast Marathon, Running Shoes, Ultra Running, Triathlon, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

Liam is fresh off finishing the UTA Miler and deliberately not thinking about what's next, leaning into recovery — Riggs Recovery sessions, compression boots, and a nagging left ITB. Courtney, six weeks out from the Gold Coast Marathon, is deep into his self-imposed "experiment": run every second day, strength work in the gym, no ego running with faster training partners. His weekly volume is climbing into the sixties, but his aerobic pace at a set heart rate still isn't quite where he wants it — the pair land on a twenty-five-minute finish-time window (comfortably sub-three, exact number TBD) and flag bringing coach Benita Willis back in as the marathon-build "NOS button."

Elsewhere: Allie Lyndon's GC30 win and Olympic ambitions, Nedd Brockman's comeback 10K PB, whether Nike has a genuine new carbon-plate shoe before race day, Courtney's early verdict on the Nike ACG Zoom Gama trail shoe, a swipe at Adidas x Satisfy's pump-track running event, Liam's ongoing campaign for a London Marathon two-day split, and a pitch for colour-coded race bibs to recognise first-timers and Gold Coast Marathon veterans on course. Listener mail covers a 46-year-old first-time "Clydesdale" marathoner, New Zealand's overlooked Te Araroa trail, GoPro vs Insta360 for race footage, and the growing problem of runners racing under fake bib numbers.

## In this episode

- Liam's post-Miler recovery routine, and why he's deliberately not planning his next race yet
- Courtney's six-week marathon experiment: a heart-rate reality check and a 25-minute finish-time window
- Should the Gold Coast Marathon use colour-coded bibs to recognise first-timers and veterans?
- Is Nike releasing a new carbon-plate marathon shoe before race day?
- Allie Lyndon's GC30 win, Nedd Brockman's comeback 10K, and a throwback Courtney race photo
- Listener mail: a first-time "Clydesdale" marathoner, New Zealand's Te Araroa trail, and racing under fake bib numbers

## Timestamps

- **\[00:00\]** Liam's post-Miler recovery: Riggs Recovery, compression boots, and a nagging ITB
- **\[03:41\]** Six weeks out: Courtney's marathon "experiment" rules and heart-rate reality check
- **\[10:26\]** Setting Courtney's Gold Coast target: a 25-minute finish-time window
- **\[17:48\]** First verdict on the Nike ACG Zoom Gama trail shoe
- **\[25:19\]** Is a new Nike carbon-plate marathon shoe landing before race day?
- **\[40:24\]** Liam's pitch for colour-coded race bibs to recognise first-timers and veterans
- **\[49:51\]** Listener mail: a 46-year-old "Clydesdale" runner's first marathon
- **\[55:02\]** The growing problem of runners racing under fake bib numbers

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP-87---GOLD-COAST-MARATHON-EXPERIMENT-UPDATE-SIX-WEEKS-OUT--THE-MARATHON-PANIC-BEGINS-e3jnkkt?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com).

## Related In The Beginning episodes

- [Special Ep: Liam Flanagan — UTA Miler, No Sleep & He Finished The Damn Thing](https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/special-ep-liam-flanagan-uta-miler-no-sleep-he-finished-the-damn-thing/) — the race Liam is recovering from throughout this episode
- [Gold Coast Marathon Series — Allie Lyndon: The Road From SLSC Queen To Marathons](https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/gold-coast-marathon-series-allie-lyndon-the-road-from-slsc-queen-to-marathons/) — the GC30 winner discussed at length here
- [Andy Buchanan — The Aussie Marathon Record Holder Is Coming Back To Defend His Goldie Half Marathon Crown](https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/andy-buchanan-the-aussie-marathon-record-holder-is-coming-back-to-defend-his-gol/)
- [The Gold Coast Marathon guide](https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/gold-coast-marathon/)

## Full transcript

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

**Read the full transcript** 

\[00:00\] In the beginning, episode 87\. Courtney — we're back for our regular Saturday episode, and yes, we are going to get stuck into some marathon chat, because we abandoned it slightly midweek. I know we had something more important to get to — and that's yourself, Liam. Just on that: a hundred miles done and dusted in the rearview mirror. But I will say, The Proclaimers can get in the bin — "I would walk five hundred miles." Nonsense. I've done a hundred miles, and I love my wife, but if she said she was five hundred miles away and needed me to come get her—

\[00:31\] —I'd be like, oh, no way. Maybe I'll meet you halfway. A hundred miles, five hundred miles — that's insanity. How are the legs? Recovering really well. Big shout out to Riggs Recovery — I went and spent a couple of hours there, a couple of times this week. The compression, the NormaTec boots at the Grumman clinic — I apologise to anyone who was in there with me, because I probably snored. I whacked on the full-length hip-to-feet boots,

\[01:04\] lay back and probably fell asleep for an hour while they went to town. Then I've been in and out of the hot-cold magnesium pools and sauna. The one thing I do need to get checked with the crew at Gold Coast Physio is the left knee — the ITB. Do you think it was ITB? Yeah, it's just flicking. So there's some bursitis going on at the bottom of that left kneecap, and it's crunching up into the top too. I haven't asked you — I know we talked about you not

\[01:37\] having thought yet about getting back into exercise or running, since you've been in recovery. No, look, I'm just leaving it for the moment. That's still too far down the road right now — I'm really trying to embrace rest, because I feel like the last time I did the Miler. Well, mate, it might not even have been the Miler, but I have a very distinct feeling — you know what it was?

\[02:08\] Kanangra — the last time I did an event that knocked me around like this, and I tried to go again, then tried to jump into that training block with Benita, and I injured myself. I love running, and I do — I joked about maybe never wanting to run again after the Miler, but I still love running. I'm excited. I know everyone's saying don't jump ahead and think about what's next, but in my head I'm already disappearing into what might be next. The truth is, though, I'm going to be diligent about allowing

\[02:40\] my body to recover, because I'm 41 and I've got a predisposition to certain injuries anyway. I want to do the strength work, I want to get right, I want to get healthy so I can get back to enjoying running again. It'll be interesting to follow that journey too, because I think a lot of listeners will learn a lot from it. Yeah, no — I'm going to go catch up with the physio team very soon, see Trent, get him to throw some needles in me and see if he can't fix everything. Let's talk Gold Coast Marathon.

\[03:11\] Yes — because it's coming around way too fast. We're racing around, what are we, seven weeks out? I'm trying not to think about it. OK, let's jump straight into it — I am not thinking about it, and that's the point, because for me, putting a week-number on it right now is just going to cause pressure — "oh, well, I want to be here by then, I want to be running this pace by this date, or I need to get this

\[03:41\] kilometres done, or a long run done, by this point." Do you want to know how far out we are? OK, tell me. Six weeks out. Six weeks — where are you at? It's interesting. So for those who've been listening from the beginning, this is a bit of an experiment. Three rules: running every second day, strength work in the gym, and not

\[04:12\] letting the ego get the best of you by running with the big dogs. I haven't run with anyone since I said this — good, so I've stuck with that. Haven't run fast, and you know what, I've been aware of my body, I'm managing it, and it feels great. Nothing — touch wood. Yeah, definitely touch wood. However, what isn't really where I'd like it to be is my effort compared to my heart rate. I discussed this — yeah, you talked about it the other week. I discussed it last week, where

\[04:42\] I said I want to get my more aerobic running up to speed, to be able to cruise along comfortably with good rhythm at a set heart rate, before I move into the next phases. With six weeks to go, I'm starting to think, well, at some point you're going to have to — even if you want to run, say, three-forty-five kilometre pace, you've got to go and run that at some point.

\[05:14\] At the moment, the session I did this morning was what I usually do — I ran just over an hour and a half, three by twelve minutes with a two-minute float. I was still moving along OK, and I was expecting to run that at a heart rate around a hundred and forty, maybe floating a bit over, but expecting to run four-minute-K pace. Didn't happen. So it's not moving along at that aerobic pace the way I'd

\[05:48\] imagined it would, as quickly. But then, and this is something I've learned over twenty-five years of doing this, it doesn't always progress in a straight line. What happens quite often is you can actually feel like you're going slightly backwards. But then your body compensates — over-compensates — and you come back, and suddenly one week it's like, bang, you're at the next level. So that's what

\[06:18\] I'm hoping for at the moment, because last week I ran — what are your weekly totals looking like at the moment? So, coming back to it, I was only running three times a week, every second day, and last week I ran four times. I broke the rule once. Well, I have to — you can't not break the rule. Three runs a week is really short-changing yourself. So what am I doing? I was cruising along, did multiple weeks around the forty-five, forty-kilometre mark, and I built up from there.

\[06:51\] I got up to about sixty kilometres with a bit of elevation, then had a back week. Tim Rigby, who I train with in the gym, is the one who keeps on me about that — come back a week and give yourself some time. Last week was sixty-eight K. Good — so six hours of running. I did do two of those runs in the trails as well.

\[07:22\] What I'd say at the moment is I'm doing a longer run — no junk. There's zero jogging around, no recovery runs or anything like that. I go out and run at aerobic pace, and then every other day I'm getting on the Wattbike for about an hour, give or take, but at an intensity where I get off feeling better for it.

\[07:54\] There's absolutely zero fatigue coming out of that, plus two to three gym sessions. Look, I don't have the elite experience or the competitive experience you do, but I'm really excited about what you're doing right now, because for as long as I've known you, it's never been a question of whether you can run the pace or do the training — but you're attacking this programme with real purpose, and these rules are huge for you.

\[08:24\] Seeing you stick to them is really encouraging. I think the thing worth reminding everybody, as Benita said at the start of this series, is that this isn't necessarily your pinnacle marathon — the one you're about to run in six weeks. This is your gateway marathon. This is what the marathon was for Bronte last year — let's just get you there. Everyone asks about times, right? Actually, first we need to get — let's get Benita back in soon.

\[08:54\] Because, like I said, let's get her back next week. I didn't want to throw her under the bus for training me, because I didn't want to give her the short-changing I've been giving myself. But I think her input would be good now. Perfect — you know, "you're six weeks out, you need to be doing this," or "think about that." So let's try and get Benita back — and, sorry, what I forgot to say — the time is what everyone's asking

\[09:24\] you about. The time — yeah. So what did I run this morning? Strava's saying that's my best half-marathon effort of 2026, because the only half-marathon-distance run I've done in 2026 was twenty-one-point-one K in one hour, thirty-five minutes, twenty-one seconds. So double that, or take off a little bit — say double that, and I've probably just gone out and run three-hour pace this morning, give or take.

\[09:56\] Now, I can go a bit quicker than that for the half, a hundred percent — but for forty-two K, this is the exciting thing, Courtney: I should be able to hold those heart rates for the full forty-two K. However, who knows what the legs do regardless of pace, but that felt quite comfortable. But if you said go half an hour quicker, there's no way. So right now — and this is just me reading into it — you're not

\[10:26\] committed to any of it. I'm expecting a sub-three-hour marathon here, and how far under three hours is TBD. Look, I know this is going to sound egotistical — and that's fine — but if I couldn't run a sub-three marathon, there'd be a big issue.

\[10:58\] You're a two-time Olympian, one of the best, an outstanding runner — I'd hope there's nothing egotistical about that at all. I'd hope you could run well. Let's check in with a new friend of the podcast, Allie Lyndon — winner of the GC30, by the way, she's conquering everything right now. She's aiming for a two-thirty-five. Will you be running with Allie at the Gold Coast Marathon? As of today, no — so now we have a window. You'll be disappointed if it's not sub-three, but you don't expect to be anywhere near Allie.

\[11:28\] We've now got a twenty-five-minute window — you're going to sit somewhere in there. What time did she average at the GC30? I don't want to speak out of turn, but I think it was three-forties. Though you've got to remember, you run up and down the Spit trail for half of that race, so it's not the perfect flat marathon course — if you can run that pace there, you'll run quicker on a proper road marathon.

\[12:00\] Her coach, Carl Weiss, also ran a big one — a second behind David Byron, who trains with them — so the whole group was at the lead of that race. What a cool feeling for the run group to be in. Does she have first female, fourth overall? Let me find her time — Allie Lyndon, Alexandra Lyndon, ran one-thirty-oh-seven for

\[12:31\] thirty K. It doesn't show the average pace — someone out there do the maths for us. I think it was about three-forty pace, given they do a few laps through there, and that Spit trail costs you a bit of grip through the shingle and sand, so you lose a bit of time there.

\[13:01\] Plus you've got those rolling hills, which are a pain. She's not here, so I can be silly and bullish — for someone at thirty-four to be doing what she's doing, in the fashion she's doing it, and with the rate of improvement she's showing — she was coy but confident enough to mention the Olympics. It's so exciting.

\[13:31\] It's such a thrilling watch to follow her. And then after the race on the weekend — thank you to GC30, because they reposted a story I put up, and people who saw Allie win went and listened to the podcast. The feedback we got about Allie — and everyone behind her — she's going to have a few people

\[14:02\] cheering for her at the Gold Coast Marathon for sure. Can I throw out a name we haven't mentioned for a while — when we're talking about running improvement heading into marathon season, our old mate Nedd Brockman. What's he up to? Nedd went out to a Sydney 10K last weekend, May 17th, and ran 32:38 for 10K — a 33-second PB.

\[14:39\] That lines up — he ran 2:30 in London, I think, I can't quite remember. He's come back from a bit of injury and a bit of sickness, and I messaged him — he's starting to stack the sessions back together. For the OG run influencer — and, is he running the Gold Coast? I don't think he's running the Gold Coast, but for those on the Nedd train, keep an eye out

\[15:11\] because I reckon he might drop something that really impresses people. At the pointy end of running — who else, Drewitt Haynes? Yeah, I reckon they'd go head to head — that's the battle. Great race. Hey, so you're feeling good, you're probably acknowledging you're a bit shy of where you'd be in a perfect world. We've created a twenty-five-minute window for you to live in.

\[15:43\] We're six weeks out, we're going to drag Benita in next week — or the week after — but you know how in the Fast and the Furious the cars hit the NOS button to supercharge the car? We're going to bring Benita in as your NOS button with six weeks to go. Do you have a planned tune-up race? Because we're only six weeks out — are you planning on doing the GC30, which is a classic lead-up race for a lot of people tackling a marathon?

\[16:14\] No, I haven't entered anything. Noosa Half is often — when's Noosa Half coming up? Not far away — it's often a lead-up race for my brother and a few of the crew. Twenty-third of May, so that's next weekend. So I'm guessing you're not doing that. No, I think I need another long run before I start

\[16:46\] charging through a half. I'll probably just get out and run on my own — there's actually a few of the crew around I'll run with, which might not be race conditions but will have people I can pace off around that pace, doing some sessions together. The other thing — do I have a plan? I wish I had more of one, but at the moment it's just week to week. As of this week, we have

\[17:16\] Red Bull Race The Sun, which I'm not running but helping put together, and we've literally just had flooding on the Gold Coast. There's so much going on, and I'm away travelling again next week. So it's a case of managing it, planning day by day — how do you feel today, let's see if we can get a run out. If I get a long run out, that's fine, next session, let's not do too much. But I did want to say I

\[17:48\] bought — I'm not going to say "got my hands on," because then everyone will assume I got it for free — in this case, no, I actually bought a pair of the ACG Zoom Gamas. We've talked about running previous models, and I wanted to know how this shoe has progressed now that Nike has this dedicated trail division. I had a run,

\[18:18\] did two hours in it on the trails over the weekend. It's possibly the best trail-running shoe I've tried. Really? Possibly the best trail shoe you've run in? Trained in, not raced in — it's not a racer, they've got a carbon-plated trail racer separately. It's thicker, definitely wider and

\[18:50\] flatter than a lot of the current trail-racing shoes. But as a long-run shoe on the trails, on clay or anything like that, the lugs are pretty solid — not shallow at all, good grip. It's a shoe that, model to model, has met expectations —

\[19:21\] I might even say it exceeded them, because I had such high hopes for it. Hey, let me ask you this — we touched on it a bit on Saturday's episode, the Adidas–Nike battle — but with Adidas and the marathon-winning shoe Sebastian Sawe wore, the sub-hundred-gram marathon shoe, the Evo SL, and now the Nike Vaporfly and Alphafly — that's

\[19:56\] their carbon-plate line — do you expect something new out of Nike? A shoe, yes. Do you know what it is? No. But you just expect something. I think it's likely — there's always going to be something in the pipeline. Let me rephrase that —

\[20:27\] sometimes when Apple releases a new iPhone, it's just a newer iPhone, they change the camera, there's no real technology jump. Let me rephrase the question: do you expect Nike to deliver a genuine technology jump in their next shoe? I think they have to — you don't want to go backwards. I was listening to someone the other week, I forget who —

\[21:00\] I know Salomon do this with their trials, the global trial team, a lot of prototypes, trialling, going back to the drawing board. But model to model — like the Zoom Gama I mentioned — all you hope for is that it's an improvement. The worst outcome is being on the fence about whether the new model or the old model is better. With a super shoe, they can't afford that. Speaking of, we were giving Adidas a lot of credit last

\[21:35\] week for that soccer campaign — what was it called — the big World Cup campaign, yes. Just as quick as we were to give them props, this week — oh no, they're the loser. What have they done? So two brands — like I said last week, I love what they're doing — Satisfy, the cool-kid trail brand. Oh, I haven't seen this — have a look

\[22:09\] at the Instagram, I'll put it up if someone's watching on video — a reel of it. It's Adidas and Satisfy's joint collab for clothing. I'm not sure if there's a shoe too, I'm not across it that much. But what got spammed across my socials was this run event they put on, around a pump track — the circle pit,

\[22:40\] around and around. I'm putting the loser tag this week on this event, not the collab itself, but the event — I think it just hit cringe. I agree, running around a pump track with a punk-rock band going off. Do you know, when you go to message someone —

\[23:10\] one of the messages I got was from Ryan Kelso, not a fan — but you know when you go to message someone back about a reel they sent you, and you accidentally reply publicly on the reel instead? Oh no, I did that — quickly had to figure out how to delete the message.

\[23:42\] Can I be honest — I'm not familiar with Satisfy Running, I'll expose myself here, someone asked me about all the brands and I don't know half of them. These strike me as the kind of brand where it's "would you like to spend $380 on a T-shirt?" No, I wouldn't. Or $530 on a pair of half-tights? No. They could well be even more expensive. To be clear, the collaboration itself — I love brands combining —

\[24:17\] I'm talking about this as an activation, an event. In a saturated environment where activations are happening every week — people running in Ferris wheels, running around bathtubs, everything else — these two are usually the ones who do it well. I just think this one missed the mark, it's a misstep. Hopefully they come back with something different, fun and exciting, and we're talking about them for the right reasons.

\[24:49\] Just going back to Nike for a moment — we're six weeks out from the marathon. Are you asking if there'll be a shoe before Gold Coast? I am — I think six weeks out, people entered for the half and the full might still be undecided on their race-day shoe. They might be thinking

\[25:19\] about whether to invest in a pair of carbon plates for this race, and despite the rise of Chinese super shoes, some people still love the Nike brand and might want a pair of Alphaflys or Vaporflys. What I'd say to those people — let me ask you, Courtney, how late is too late to buy your race-day carbon plates?

\[25:50\] Well, you need at least one long run in them. So you could probably buy them two, three weeks out — it depends on when that long run is, or when you do a race-condition session. I don't know if Nike will get a shoe out before the race, but here's a logical trick: if you see the Alphafly 3 go on sale, know that it's because they're clearing

\[26:21\] stock ahead of something new. My memory's terrible, but I'm sure I've seen a teaser for the next Alphafly — whether it's called the Alphafly 4\. There's a teaser out there, we should really do our research better on this — here we go, 1st of May, a teaser dropped. What do you reckon —

\[26:51\] you might be onto something, because after Pogačar broke the Tour de France climb record, logic would tell you, if you're getting ready for the Gold Coast right now, especially the elite end of the field or people chasing a PB, they'll be looking at Adidas right now. The Nike Alphafly 4 — August 2026,

\[27:21\] so it's coming, but right now that's what I think — it ebbs and flows with what's going on. Do you know the other thing — what brand do we associate with the Gold Coast Marathon? Asics — that's their home ground, so many people running Asics on the Gold Coast right now. The Gold Coast Marathon does

\[27:55\] a great job with weekly email updates, involved in all the run clubs, and Asics is the naming-rights sponsor — the Metaspeed, the Sky Paris, whatever it's called. Have you ever seen a shoe count from the Gold Coast Marathon? No — Asics, we talked about this with Matty Hauser — Gold Coast Marathon colourway. He needs one now.

\[28:25\] He won again on the weekend, out of nowhere — became the first back-to-back Yokohama Triathlon winner. What a king. And the Aussie boys were the ones at the front of the swim — Brayden Mercer — and they just took the race to the field. Matty Hauser's in his prime,

\[28:56\] really, when you think about it — twenty-eight years old, just entering his prime as a triathlete. Two-time world champion, it's great — I'm pumped for him, he's a great fella. Asics, if you're not already making Matty Hauser a shoe, what's going on — get those two little world-champ icons on the back, let's get behind this fella. I did a quick search, there isn't a public shoe count.

\[29:29\] So for anyone holding their breath for a new Nike carbon plate before the Gold Coast Marathon or half — unlikely to get it in time. But there are plenty of other great options, and the Adidas is what it is, locked in with time to get a long run into it. The rule with these shoes stands: find something you're comfortable with and stick with

\[30:00\] it. Did I tell you about when I was down at the F1 in Melbourne and ended up in DFO? That's actually a great way to try shoes if anyone's looking for one — all the different shoe brands are there at the same time, forget the sales part, they've still got their top-of-the-range shoes in store, so I just walked through and tried a bunch on. Everyone can have a go at me for this, but the Sauconys —

\[30:31\] I tried them on, and I understand why Bronte ran in them — you try them on and they feel good, instantly supportive, like a super shoe on your foot. I've never run in them, but I get the appeal from trying them on in a shop. DFO's a great spot to go try on shoes. OK, let's stay with the marathon —

\[31:01\] I've got some ideas. Liam schemes — you can call them Liam schemes. I quickly want to reinforce something I chatted about on the Miler with a few people, because I want it utterly understood: the idea of a London Marathon double-header race next year started here. So I want to reinforce — if they split the race into an

\[31:32\] international and a local edition without crediting us, there will be legal action. I discussed this with an Englishman during the Miler and he loved it — do you reckon he'd back an argument? No, I don't think so, but he said it was a great idea, made complete sense. I've thought more about it — if you run the international race on Saturday and the locals' event on Sunday, you keep the elite

\[32:04\] race on Sunday for tradition and TV purposes, but split the rest of the field so international visitors run Saturday with locals coming out to support, and you can theme the whole course with instructions in different languages, then on Sunday you Union Jack the place. They had a trial run on the weekend — the big march across the bridge —

\[32:36\] maybe that's dividing all the Union Jacks going across the bridge, and actually, thinking about where the world's at, maybe that's a bad idea right now. No, come back — I want to give a shout-out, I'm just trying to find it. Our listeners are out there fighting for you, Liam — I'm pretty sure it's Jess Trengove, she's joined up with the brand

\[33:07\] Shokz headphones, and they're giving away a trip to London. Someone must have put us in the draw — our listeners shouting us out, putting the show in the draw. I'd happily give it to you if it's only one prize, but thank you to whoever threw us in there — I saw it come up this morning. Good — but it shouldn't be up to Shokz

\[33:37\] to send that our way — it should be the London Marathon, who's stolen our ideas and continues to. What do you think was the biggest represented demographic in the London Marathon ballot? I don't know if you're leading me down a path here — genuine curiosity, it was one-point-three, one-point-seven million entries.

\[34:07\] Talking demographic, age, gender — give me an age range and a gender. Interestingly, the overall ballot entries were split 49/51, basically fifty-fifty between men and women. That gives me some guidance — my gut, from history, would say thirty-five to forty-five men, or maybe

\[34:42\] thirty to forty men. But given how you've asked the question, I'll guess twenty-to-thirty-year-old women. Bang — women aged 20 to 29 led the London Marathon ballot, the largest group of UK applicants. That's so good to see, isn't it? I'll tell you, when I was running the trails around Innsbruck

\[35:15\] in Europe a couple of weeks back, that's what surprised me too — right up at the top of the mountain, that twenty-to-thirty-year-old female group, running in groups together. This is exactly what I wanted to talk about — the running boom hasn't peaked yet, there's more boom to come, because if

\[35:45\] that's the dominant demographic heading into a major marathon, it's not unreasonable to extrapolate that across other races — running is growing, the momentum's continuing to build, and you're going to see more and more cool stuff happen in the space — not just races, run groups, brands, but creativity generally. You're going to see this

\[36:16\] generational movement come through running across the board, so I'm really excited. A couple of other things — Shanghai and Cape Town are apparently both in the mix to become a major marathon. Makes sense — who would you give it to? Cape Town. Why? Commercially they should give it to Shanghai, of course, but Asia's already got Tokyo as its major.

\[36:49\] That's why Cape Town should get it — it'd be the first African-nation major. If you want a proper global spread, that's really the only option, though commercially you'd probably lean China. I'd question that — at the end of the day it's a business, sure, but I'd go Cape Town too, find a way to embrace that continent, which has a serious distance-running history.

\[37:19\] Embrace Africa, is what I'd say. What have you got there? This is the next thing — Gold Coast Marathon, Liam scheme — a couple of things came out of the Miler I wanted to talk about. Firstly, we always talk about running souvenirs — medals, photos — but this is the souvenir I got as a Miler finisher at UTA: these Indigenous clapping sticks. I don't think I'm allowed to clap

\[37:49\] them, am I? My kids have already had a clap, so I think it's fine. They're painted by a local Gundungurra artist for the UTA Miler athletes, and when you finish, you get the medal, the towel, and then walked over to a table as a Miler finisher — just the Milers get this. It's a special one — I didn't show you this on Wednesday, but I wanted to share it, it's really cool.

\[38:20\] That's different — different in a great way. I think about international competitors coming here and being able to take that home. There were so many Asian runners at UTA, a really strong presence — did I tell you about the video I saw, the big backup of people on the trail, some of the Asian community were the ones filming it —

\[38:50\] and some of the Asian community were backing up on the trail trying to get around. Got it. But getting to see them at the finish line was a very cool experience. What I wanted to talk about more specifically for the Gold Coast Marathon, though — I think there's an opportunity, now these races are becoming such good experiences, that the question of whether they'll get enough entrants is redundant. One experience I had during the

\[39:21\] race was people's reaction when they saw I was doing the Miler as they went past — it pumped me up. The 50K runners, the 100K runners going past and seeing the Miler tag on my race belt — it was like I'd invented sliced bread. "Oh my god, good on you,"

\[39:52\] that kind of thing. At one point I spun my bib around so people couldn't see it, because I was getting sick of talking to people, but it was a great feeling. What I didn't appreciate at the time was the different colouration on the bibs, and on the medals at the end too, and the little tweaks. In the marathon, everyone's just doing the marathon, in the half everyone's doing the half, but I feel like there might be an opportunity — in the same way Noosa Triathlon gives you legend status and a gold bib after ten

\[40:24\] marathons — could there be recognition for how many Gold Coast Marathons someone's done? There is — I don't know if it's a bib number, but they do have coloured — I'm not sure if it's colour exactly, worth doing the research, but they do recognise people who've run a certain number. I'd love it to be

\[40:56\] recognisable out on the course — for your fellow runners to see it. It'd get you coming back. I'd love it if, say, for first-time marathon runners — because that's just as significant — you get something that shows it. That would mean the EMQ team has already thought about it. Congratulations, I'm in the ten-year club, so they do already recognise that. But what I'm saying is, if it's someone's

\[41:26\] first marathon, here's a green bib, a green race number, and every time your fellow runners or spectators see it on course, they know — "green, this is your first time here, awesome, enjoy it, good luck, you've still got this ahead of you, keep going, your turnaround's not far away." It becomes a little welcome — "this is your first time." Then if it's not your first, if you've done at least four, it's a yellow bib —

\[41:56\] "you know what's up, good job, keep going." Then five-plus is red, ten-plus is black. I love the idea — I think it's got to be tuned to get the right reaction from the crowd, you'd need to set the bar high enough. I think you need to get to twenty for a special bib.

\[42:26\] And equally, I think you want to recognise special people, but I also love that first-timer bib specifically. If you start having too many tiers, though — what if it's just first-timer, ten, twenty? I need three levels — first-timer, others, and then someone who's earned real respect —

\[42:59\] that's where I'm going. You can't give everyone everything. OK, fair — what if we go with three colours: first-timer, others, and twenty-plus? I'd be interested to see, might need to be twenty-five. And I don't think they've incorporated this — you, the Clydesdale Bib.

\[43:30\] Well of course — why aren't we doing a Clydesdale bib, make it a horse shape, make it brown? I don't think they've created a Clydesdale one yet. You know there's some bloke on Instagram trying to claim credit for the Heavy Runners Club? What do you mean? It's on us — we talked about it enough and it

\[44:01\] caught fire, and now someone's trying to become the influencer off the back of it. Good on him, honestly — if he's in the club and running, fair enough. Neither of us can start a club we're ineligible to be part of, Liam — we were just championing it, we can't run it ourselves. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. Now, back to the Gold Coast Marathon — I'm excited, it's fast approaching, six weeks out. I was thinking the other day,

\[44:36\] I'm not racing it, obviously, and the body's recovering, but do you know what I am going to be doing in the lead-up? Training my voice — you can talk for two days straight? The full two days, and I checked my footy calendar, and I may have a Suns game to call in between — Saturday twilight, after the half marathon. Rough day — I'll call the Gold Coast Suns game, then come back and do the marathon commentary. Geez, you're in demand. Better get training. Hey, before we leave ultra trail for a moment —

\[45:08\] when we were following along on the race, did anyone get in your way? I'll rephrase — there was a post Ultra-Trail Australia put up during the race, saying supporters are welcome to capture race day from anywhere on the course, but please don't cross onto private property, don't go into inaccessible places, don't enter

\[45:40\] the field of play — meaning don't get onto the track or road where the runners are — and don't use drones in the National Park. So they'd obviously had issues before. Did anything happen to you? No, I never saw any of it. I wonder what prompted them to say it — this isn't a dig at UTA, this could just as easily be the Gold Coast Marathon, or GC

\[46:11\] 30 on the weekend — inevitably, as content and running attract more people, this is becoming an issue. The fact they called it out suggests something had happened before, not just a pre-emptive warning. Did you see anything? Nothing, apart from rabbits in the bush. I also think the Miler is a distance where content-capture just isn't the point —

\[46:41\] the harder the distance gets, the less it's about the Instagram reel. I didn't have my phone out for video the whole way — just photos from other people. It wasn't about getting the shot for a great end-of-week video, I realised that because I got nothing from it. Nothing — no, I didn't have any trouble with that. Look, I don't want to discourage it, because I think one of the reasons running's

\[47:13\] booming is social media, and everyone's ability to edit a video these days — I'm all for that. I look forward to seeing what people create at the Gold Coast Marathon. I'd hate for us to end up like that guy in New York who had someone ride a bike alongside him filming the whole way — get the shot you want, create what you want to create,

\[47:43\] but remember it's a community. It's an individual sport but a team event — the marathon is a team event, and your team is every other runner out there with you. Be conscious of the people around you. Run with a camera, a phone, a GoPro, whatever — do your thing, but remember it's not just your day, you're sharing it with tens of thousands of other people, so find a way to embrace that.

\[48:16\] Don't be the person that means someone walks away from the day thinking, "I didn't enjoy that because of the person with the camera." Like the woman who stepped in front of me and tripped me because she wanted a shot. Right — I just wondered whether it was worse than usual. Honestly, I was in such a haze, I couldn't say. Do you know an interesting thing, going back to that colour-coding idea —

\[48:48\] if there's a fun way to do it for a marathon, why wouldn't you? When I ran the 50K races, I remember noting people's bibs — "oh, that's a 50K runner, that's a 100K runner, that's a Miler." When I was doing the Miler, I had blinkers on, didn't know what anyone else was doing — someone actually said "Liam" to you? Even then, it wasn't

\[49:18\] that I noticed colour differences, I wasn't clocking who was a 50K or 100K runner as they went past. You weren't concerned with who was passing anyway. A couple of listener things to finish up. Simon Taylor wrote in — great content, lads, love the banner. 46-year-old, a hundred kegs — talk about Clydesdales — doing his first marathon, goal-post-locked, doing it for the kids, 14 and 11, on a 13-week training block.

\[49:51\] That's more than me, Simon. He hadn't run more than 10K previously — Simon, come find me at the finish line, I'll keep an eye out for you, I'll remember the name. He says he'll be listening to the pod on the day. Here's what I'll say — think about your kids as you hit the blue carpet, or round that final turn, I guarantee they'll make you cry. His kids are 14 and 11, I hope they're down there,

\[50:24\] probably not officially allowed, but if they sneak onto the blue carpet — would you make them run? Yeah. Next one — I can't see the rest of the name, I'm assuming it's Luke Longfellow. Hey lads, super excited to hear how Liam's Miler went, couldn't agree more with the Stairmaster prep going well. With the rise of FKTs — fastest known times — people running challenges out there, do you think

\[50:54\] Te Araroa in New Zealand is overlooked? Is that the trail that runs the length of the country? New Zealand's long-distance tramping route, three thousand kilometres, both islands, Cape Reinga to Bluff. People do it and post the whole thing on social media — do you think it's overlooked, with some of the best trails in the world and genuinely challenging conditions? People see the Instagram

\[51:25\] photos and the beauty but not the struggle. I think it could be Courtney's next one. Not after listening to Liam for the last couple of episodes! Honestly, Luke, I hadn't heard of the trail — I'll say that plainly, and I'll agree with you, unfortunately for us Aussies, New Zealand's trails put ours to shame. If you're picking somewhere to go run mountains and chase an FKT, go to New Zealand.

\[51:55\] It's a lot better — some of the most magical country you'll find, wherever you're running over there. So yes, I do think it's overlooked. Three thousand K, seventy-seven thousand metres of vertical gain — did you say seventy-seven thousand? That's what it says. You've got to get down the other side too. The male FKT, supported, is Cole Sabe —

\[52:26\] thirty-one days is the supported FKT for men. Self-supported is Billy Hawk Meredith, fifty-two days. The fastest FKT for a woman, self-supported, is Pauline Zak at fifty-four days, and supported is Brooke Thomas at fifty-seven days. From the sounds of it, it's a month-long trip, since the fastest anyone's done it is over a month. I'm going to back you up here in a different way, Luke —

\[52:59\] if I had the choice between running across Australia or running the length of New Zealand, it's New Zealand, hands down, not even a question. So there's your answer, thanks for the message, to anyone listening over the ditch — New Zealand, I'm coming for you, there are some races over there I've been looking up, I've got to go do some running there. A long-time

\[53:29\] listener — sorry to spam you guys, but I'm sure Courtney's used GoPros extensively, would love to know his opinion on the new Insta360 product launch. Not running-specific necessarily, but still interesting. I haven't tried it, but I've seen it, and my thoughts are — let a little secret out of the bag — the way we usually film with GoPros while running is

\[53:59\] holding it in your mouth. So this new camera looks amazing, interchangeable lenses, nearly bringing GoPro into DSLR territory with interchangeable-lens-style setups — I can't remember the exact specs, might be a Four Thirds sensor, I'd have to check. The footage looks amazing, but footage often does when it's shot from a tripod or

\[54:30\] a drone. My take is, I still don't think it'll be the everyday person's go-to running camera, because for how you actually want to run with a camera, it'd be too heavy. That's why, honestly, for a long time — if I'm after the best possible quality, GoPros are still number one, but for ease of use, the Insta range is probably the easiest to use right now. He also asked — I know Liam's a big fan of race

\[55:02\] photos, would love his take on the rise of people running Boston under false bib numbers — a lot of race photos are full of runners wearing numbers that aren't theirs. Loved the Courtney interview episode too. This is an inevitable hurdle marathons are going to have to deal with — I'll put some thought into a future Liam scheme on ways marathons around the world could avoid, discourage, or disincentivise people running under fake names and numbers.

\[55:36\] Give me some time, I'll come back next episode with possible fixes race organisers could consider. At the end of the day, this is the running version of people jumping fences at concerts — if the fence isn't high enough, people are going to jump it. When you've got tens of thousands lining up, some are always going to sneak through the cracks. Here's a half-thought-out idea — if somebody gets in under a fake number and gets

\[56:09\] caught at the finish line — because that's usually when they do, when people notice the number doesn't match — make them run back. Have a lane of shame for people who've cheated —

\[56:39\] give them a colour, put a real bib on them, and say "get back to the finish line," patrolled by security, and if they're caught running under a false number, they go into the lane of shame. Public shame, Game of Thrones style, everyone lining up to shame them — and they have to maintain 4:30 pace the whole way. We'll leave Joel's question for Benita, but I'll take this one because it's about me — this is from Mike Bell, my coach. Crokes is running the Sydney Ten this weekend — well, last weekend now — and threw up a flashback of when he came fourth in 2015\. I had a look at the results, and I

\[57:10\] see Courtney there running 30:51 at age 36, alongside the likes of Stewy McSweyn, Andy Buchanan, Tommy Do Canto, Jack Rayner — looks like a bunch of triathletes were in that race too. Great throwback — this is a photo of Courtney Atkinson just throwing down a 30:51, only about eight years ago. Do you remember that race? I remember being there, I don't remember exactly where I came, if you ask me.

\[57:40\] No — but what interests me more, and thanks for sending it, Mike, is I didn't think Andy was running at that point. There he is — Andy Buchanan, and I knew Tommy Do Canto and Jack Rayner, but I definitely wouldn't have thought Stewy was in that field yet — they must have been young, Stewy's up the back behind Andy, look at him, just pups. What year was this — 2015?

\[58:12\] How old is Andy now? He's — I'll put the photo up if I can find it — he's 35 now, so back then he'd have been 24\. And Stewy — I'm just looking at the corner there, and there's a wet-behind-the-ears look about him — he'd have been 19\. There you go, a baby. What a race, though —

\[58:42\] what a race. Good field. Pity about the triathletes stealing some of the shine, but it was a good field. Hey, quick one — did you see the 100-metre Australian record? When? The all-conditions record — all conditions, meaning they can have a tailwind. Is this the one where they

\[59:13\] can have the tailwind? Yeah, it must be Eddie — the Australian sprinter smashed the all-conditions 100-metre record for the second time, running a blistering 9.74 seconds at a college meet in the US. He runs for the University of Southern California. My question for you is about Eddie — how Australian do you think

\[59:45\] he is, given he switched allegiances from New Zealand about four months ago? He's at college in the US — I'm on board with it, I love this, our 100-metre relay team just got even stronger. He transferred his allegiance on the 4th of December last year. I wonder, if anyone knows the story of why

\[01:00:16\] he switched, I'd be interested. He initially represented Australia — under all-conditions rules, aided by the tailwind. He represented Australia, then in 2019, after winning the national 100-metre title at 18, switched his allegiance to New Zealand, then was left out of their Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams in 2021 and 2022, and switched back.

\[01:00:47\] We'll take him — mate, how good is that, and another sprinter stepping up too, starting to put together a genuinely strong team for the men. All right, good to be back talking marathons — the recovery from the Miler continues. I've got an appointment booked with Britt at Gold Coast Physio, so I'll bring back some genuine recovery advice from that, for anyone out there

\[01:01:17\] recovering from a similar kind of race. We'll keep going — Benita needs to get in here, we need to hit the NOS button on your marathon campaign, keep sending your questions in, we'll keep updating this as much as possible. Half-marathoners, we're still with you — if you've got specific half-marathon questions, let us know, I think we probably need a few dedicated sessions on that too. Some advice next week — Courtney, let us know how you're travelling. Six weeks, mate — geez, six weeks, and you'll be toeing the start line. Six weeks isn't long.

\[01:01:48\] And to the Gold Coast Marathon team — I want those coloured bibs, because I want our man Courtney in a baby-blue bib to show it's his first marathon. He needs a special bib so everyone knows to look after him. I just need one for when I'm dribbling, mate. All right, we'll see you next week. See you next week.