> ## 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.

# EP67 — NEW YEAR’S SPECIAL | A YEAR OF 'IN THE BEGINNING'
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/ep67-new-years-special-a-year-of-in-the-beginning/
- Published: 2026-01-02T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T11:25:08.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on nutrition, Olympics & 2032, Gold Coast Marathon — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Main Feed, Sports Science, Olympics, Gold Coast Marathon, Strava, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

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

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/EP67--NEW-YEARS-SPECIAL--A-YEAR-OF-IN-THE-BEGINNING-e3cvfcb?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep67-new-years-special-a-year-of-in-the-beginning/id1772010786?i=1000743542288&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 67\. Now before we kick off this episode, I just want to pause for a second because if you're listening to this, you've all been part of the year that we've had. You're all part of the in the beginning family now. We want to wish you a happy new year and hope you've had a great Christmas. We're into that holiday point of year. Hope you've had plenty of good running as well. It's a great time of the year to be out training and you're probably then wondering why is Courtney here doing the intro by

\[00:30\] himself. Well, Liam's over in Japan at the moment holidaying with his family, having the ball of his life. We're still waiting Liam on that video of you being able to snowball jump. I still don't know whether that's gonna happen, but I want to do a bit of a wrap up while Liam's away. So we've had plenty of content this year. We've only missed the one actually. No I lie, we've missed 2 Saturdays. The other time was when I was on holidays out on a boat at the Whitsundays. But we haven't missed too many and we've had plenty more with all the different episodes

\[01:00\] during the year. So when I actually think about what defined in the beginning podcast year, it's pretty clear that the Gold Coast Marathon series, and more specifically Bronte's journey to the start line of the Gold Coast Marathon had to be the highlight. Not because it was flashy, not because by any means it was elite, but because it was real. We didn't just sit here talking about running. We lived it week by week with all of you out there listening. The doubt, the getting sick, the missing the sessions, wondering

\[01:32\] if the body was going to hold up. I mean, me and Liam didn't even make it, you know, close to the start line. And then all of a sudden it's time there for you guys and Bronte to be standing there on the start line ready to go. That's what made us different. It wasn't a theory. It definitely wasn't perfect, but it was honest. So from a podcast point of view, it turned into a proper journey. People, we, we saw this, we heard, we listened, we heard from you people weren't just dipping in for an episode here and there.

\[02:03\] You followed it, you listened. And I've still got people I'm running into the forest into at the forest who are saying to me when they meet someone else and they hear they're running their first marathon, they tell them to go and have a listen to our Gold Coast Marathon series. And that's going to be coming back in 2026 as well. So this all didn't happen by accident by any means. Obviously having Benita involved grounded everything. So Benita being, you know, the one of the best ever, if not the best ever female runner coming

\[02:36\] out of Australia and now coaching a range of people across all, you know, all running abilities, it's just not hot. No panic, just calm experience, advice when it actually matters. And Bronte really kind of became, I don't know, I'm kind of saying she became like a bit of an avatar for the listeners. So anyone else who out there who thought I'm ready, you know, do I belong here on the start line, probably saw themselves and was able to follow along as part of

\[03:07\] that journey. And if there's one thing that I believe the series summed up and what you know, I hope the podcast with me and Liam is all about is no fake motivation, no influence or noise, no chasing distance just because of the sake of it. I also no taking your Strava time if you're running a proper measured marathon course. It's just effort over ego. And that's the line we keep coming back to. Don't go longer, just go harder,

\[03:39\] and that's lived right throughout the series. And while we're here, I want to give you a quick give Ryan Kelso, our #1 fan, a quick thank you. The hat I'm wearing you can see at the moment reads if you I'm not sure I can get a close up, but it reads make cross country great again. So that was my Chrissy present from Ryan and it's a cracker of A1 and mate, we of course here are going to always, always be championing, championing the cross country because we we absolutely love it. So before we wrap up for the year, actually, we're not

\[04:09\] wrapping up, don't go anywhere. We've got plenty of the highlights and and some of our most funny parts from the year to come. But I just want to hand over to Liam because he's got a quick message for everyone listening as we roll into the new year. So over to you mate. Happy new Year in the beginning family. Liam here. Just wanted to say that I hope 2025 has been filled with PBS and adventures and lots of running. And I hope you've all gotten everything out of the year that you wanted to from a running and

\[04:40\] excise perspective. And if you didn't, that's OK 'cause there's always next year 2026, bring it on. I'm setting myself a massive ambitious goal, which we're going to be filling you all in on the podcast for next year. The 100 Mile UTA Blue Mountains. I can't wait to get stuck into that in 2026\. The podcast is coming back. Courtney and I pumped to to be back next year doing more of the podcast, talking more running, hearing your stories, sharing our stories and just celebrating this run boom that seems to keep

\[05:12\] on keeping on. Happy new year 2025\. It's done 2026\. Bring it on. See you out on the trails or the roads next year. All right, well, let's get into this. So first up, we're not gonna just let Liam get off easy. Let's go straight into one of his blunders from the year. We've got a special enough guest in you, Liam, because I had a note this week he'd been back in the news. Back in the. News Jacobs sent me this in and

\[05:42\] he said, I'm sorry Liam, but we, we, we have to talk about this. Hello, Liam Flanagan. Speaking of Caleb Stiff, Bailey Humphrey, he's just described that you don't want to do this to Bailey Humphrey. Big contest. Bailey Humphrey. Stan, this is a young man who the Giants will not want to start feeling himself because when he does, he's capable of anything. Jude Bolton when he feels himself, he feels good. Wow, wow, that's got true wow. Dealing with.

\[06:12\] I don't know what is going on there, Liam Flanagan, but again. You knew what he messed up, did you? Yeah. Not really. Actually, Speaking of not knowing what he meant, your mate again, Stevie J Bill on then yeah, then we. Yeah, this is Bernie. Bernie, Vince, this you're. Not more about this podcast than I do. There's your family mate. This from Triple M. This is Triple M footy. It's the Saturday rub, Bernie Vince, former Adelaide crow, Melbourne Demon ripping bloke. He's on breaking radio down in Adelaide and he does a basically, I can't remember what the segment's called, but every

\[06:42\] Saturday he goes through and basically takes the absolute piss out of his fellow Triple M. It's. Bernie's not for the week. Not for the week, sorry. Not for the. Week. Not for the week, I don't think. I was not for the week. But yeah, enough of the week is when he basically goes and takes audio from mostly radio, but TV or basically when people stuff things up. What that was in reference. I was down in Sydney. It was the GWS Gold Coast game. Now, I thought cards on the table, nothing if not honest

\[07:14\] with the in the beginning family. I thought I was being cool. I thought I was using the slang that the kids use when they refer to feeling themselves, as in like feeling confident in themselves. That's the terminology right now. I used it on a station whose target demographic is 40 year olds plus, so I probably didn't pick the audience. Right, Right. And fair to say, Jude Bolton and Brad Seymour, who were calling the game with me, did not support me whatsoever. I was you. You were called out on the spot. I was.

\[07:44\] Jude and Brad both turned and looked at me and said, what are you talking about? And I actually played that to Bailey Humphrey. Bailey Humphrey came in studio after that game and I played that audio to him and even he reacted. He even even he even reacted with I don't think you can say that on the radio. So look, the the part of being a footy commentator is you're always updating your phrase book. You're always learning new words, adding new words, finding new ways to describe things that. Is now gone is the lead. Don't say that to your kids.

\[08:16\] Don't say that's a. That has been deleted from my from my phrase book, so thank you. Yes, let's leave that one. Thank. You Bernie, thank you. To who? Who sent that in? Keenan Jacobs. Thank you, Keenan, you've. Made your point, you're not going to get away with any. No, you've made your point. So there's no going past. One of the other highlights of the year, obviously was sitting down with Jelly Roll before his show at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. But a lot of people were like, well, how the hell did you get to sit down with Jelly Roll before that?

\[08:46\] Well, I found the original messaging or the original series episode way back in the beginning of the year where we started talking about Jelly Roll. And they must have heard us because we did get that call in the end to go and have a chat to him. But this is how it all began. Have you heard of Jelly Roll? Do you know Jelly Roll? You're in radio. He's a. Singer, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rapper now does country. But who's got the tattoos all over his face? Bloody cool. What's the song? What's his big? I'm thinking of Teddy Swims.

\[09:16\] Teddy Swims is that? He looks similar, though. Similar. Yeah, right. I think Sina Sina Boy might have been his first single mate. You're the radio guy. You should be telling me this. Unless. Anyway, unless ACDC covers him, I'm not her. He's on fire, right? We we see him everywhere. Mm. Hmm. We know. Yeah. We're no longer the runners who are the geeks in the forest. No way. When I see this, I know we've we're we've made it. OK. And have a listen to Jelly Roll.

\[09:47\] Y'all, it's been a long time since I came back and just had a straight look at y'all and talk to y'all moment. We were training for our second five KA little bit over a year ago. I was I literally struggled to walk down my hill to the mailbox, y'all. I mean, it was it was really bad and I had let myself get to a point of just being absolutely disgusted with myself. I was just sick and tired of it. And I was like, man, I'm going to figure this out. And about the time I was trying to find something to motivate me, I seen that Burt and Tom Segura had teased doing a 5K by May, 5K by May. And I knew right then that if there was ever a place I was going to feel safe trying to do my first 5K, it was going to be

\[10:19\] at the Two Bears 5K. And I was lucky along the path that I had guys like Ian Laurios, like Gary Brecker, like Cam Haynes pushed me and try to help me get across this finish line for the first time. And I thought I would like to provide that similar opportunity for people going into this 5K. So we're going to start our own thing. I know it's been a lot of talking, but it's what all this is about is this right here. We're going to start our own thing. We have partnered with Strava. It's a free app on your phone. And we're going to start a Facebook group. It's going to be called Jelly Roll Losers run club. I want to join. I want to join. I want to join the Jelly roll

\[10:50\] losers run club. He talked about two bears big podcast, you know, so these guys are all in. Yeah, Ronnie is it's here. It's been here, but it's really. It's been here and I think this is I love this. I love this so much. We've talked about it across every We've done that. If it's good, bad or otherwise, if it's bringing people to running, let's let's give it the benefit of the doubt, right? I don't love him calling it the losers run club because inherently I kind of go, it's

\[11:23\] not these aren't you're not losers. You're not that's, that's, I think, he started. Off owning it right, yeah, I'm I'm fine with him calling it whatever he wants to if he's he's what what he is going to do and the I suppose these public figures, let's call them getting involved now it's just going to it's just going to create more more hype. Yep, more availability for people to just feel comfortable running right. And that's the key. I love, again, I can't understand it because it's at the other end of the scale from

\[11:54\] where I am, but I love that you've now got this person who is going to open up the world of running even more. Even more. I think this is going to create problems for five for fun runs and park runs and to another extent, marathons and half marathons, because the entries are going to go nuts. Yes, if he targets a marathon or a half marathon or a 10K race in the near future, the entries for these things will go bananas. Yep, which is amazing.

\[12:27\] It's only going to continue to grow. Now what I will say just quickly, if you're at the pointy end of running, don't get frustrated, don't I? I'd hate to see it, you know, the I'd hate to see the worm turn and your elites start to, you know, because sometimes when you've got a thing and it's your thing and the, and the community's not massive around it. I get, I get where you're going. Do you know what I mean? I think there's a I'm going to talk pretty openly.

\[12:57\] I think there's a big difference. You know, we talked a lot about influences on here. There's a big difference where between having someone who's like he's successful in his, in his own area. He's he's a musician, He's got a massive following. I think when we looked at the YouTube, you know, he's got 4 million people following on YouTube. He's coming to running with pure intentions because he just, he's found it and he loves running. Yes, that's very, very different

\[13:27\] to, I think what a lot of the elites get upset about when it's someone who is just I'm going to make running my thing, create content on running because I want to be famous or I want to be a celebrity in running. Do you see the difference? Absolutely. You've nailed it. So I think be let's be very, very clear and that's why I've just shared that and I'm so excited about it you've. Nailed it. I I. Anyone who's successful in their own area and has gone through, you know, I'm assuming to get to where he is in music, he's had

\[13:59\] to face all those challenges in gaol. For a quite a. Long stint, yeah. And he's of, you know, he's of a talented voice, talented musician, all these things. He's succeeded at the highest level and now he's coming to join and and be part and it'll be a fruitful, you know, combination in sport. He's walked. Through the running door and said, yeah, this looks fun. That's. Very, very different to someone walking into running going, I see this, this is trending. I'm I'm going to now take on board this. Hey, last week I was in the gym, but, oh, this is bigger now. So I'm going to jump over here

\[14:29\] and do this. Yeah. And that's what elites have a problem with. You can't trust that if something else pops up that becomes interesting, I might not leave. One step further also, then giving professional advice as if you'd been doing it for 30 years. Jelly roll isn't coming and going. Hey, I'm going to tell you how to run a sub three hour marathon, right? He's just asked everyone, anyone who wants to try and make 5 pay for the first time. Yeah, come and join us. I I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to try. I'm going to get down to the letterbox and make it. But no, I'm going to be there

\[14:59\] struggling with. That's very, very, very different scenario that called. So that's the beginning. That was the catalyst I suppose of us chatting about Jelly Roll. And then this is where I suppose it ended. We were sitting down here one day having a chat to Matt Hauser as the newly crowned world triathlon champion and we got a call from Jelly Roll's crew. They said if you can get yourself up to Brisbane tonight, we want to have a chat. You can you can sit down and have a chat with Jelly Roll before he goes out on his first ever Australian show.

\[15:30\] So his Brisbane show up at the Entertainment centre and I'll tell you what, he was more than happy to tell us about everything he went through in his whole journey and he's that's still continuing after we've had a chat to him. But also the guy was just a bloody legend. Here, have a listen to a little bit of it. What I love about you is that the openness with which you talk about what life was before all this. Do you ever worry that you're replacing your running addiction like just another addiction for you? Yeah, no, for sure. But it was probably the food,

\[16:02\] right? Became the running. But I think it's deeper than running for me. Is that my addiction's not running. I realised that when I tore my meniscus and couldn't run for two weeks, was like, my addiction is just feeling good now because I spent so many years feeling bad, you know what I mean? So now it's like my addiction is sometimes I'll even take my fast too far. Are you fast? Yeah, yeah, 'cause. I'll be feeling so good in a fast, like I'll go into a 24 hour fast and be at the 24 and be like, I mean, I might as well knock 36\. I'm here.

\[16:33\] I feel great. You know what I mean? You know, like I'm, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm chasing that high to a degree of like just knowing how the bodies, but I'm just so fascinated with how my body's like recompositioning itself and like. Yeah. How do you, how do you find like being a father as well, like with the kids? Do you find now that you've improved yourself or you've found a healthier way and you're chasing that high? Oh, dude, I like I can be a good present father. Like I got a nine year old that I can go out and throw football

\[17:04\] with for an hour, hour and a half. And it not like hurt my lower back just because I'm fat and old, but not because I'm like super fat. Like, you know, I used to be able to. I couldn't throw. I'd have to sit in a chair or something like pitch balls at them. Like, you know, it was horrible, you know what I mean? Like do y'all do a lot of drug addiction out here or more alcoholism right And. It's a big drinking culture in this country. Big yeah, no big party culture back home too. But like there's a there's like that drug addict mindset of, and I never realised this, but they say that the family will by default cater to an addict

\[17:39\] because it fills a void in a family system. So they have to work around it. So like anytime somebody has an addiction or an even an ailment in a family, the rest of the family has to kind of find their way around it. And I didn't realise that my food addiction had done that to my family. Like we were having to think about, you know, how much energy I had to go do stuff. Could I do this? Could I do that? Could I fit in this? Could I fit in that, you know what I mean? Like all these variables that my entire family was having to I was imprisoning my family to making decisions around on my behalf.

\[18:09\] Because of, Yeah. Because of my weight, because I was, because of my obesity. So to get out of that, it'd be able to be like, now I can go like we, I rented the trampoline park for my sons. They play flag, foot flag American football where you grab the flag instead of tackle. And I took him to the trampoline park and I could jump with them all night. You know what I mean? And it was cool because that was the first time I was not the dad sitting out. That couldn't do you know it's. An amazing feeling, yeah. It's it's why we all run.

\[18:39\] It doesn't matter what level you're running at or who you are. That's why we all run right. It just feels bloody good. Feels good. What's it like compared to like, you know, you're out on stage. What's the music and being out on stage like compared to running? How do they which one? Which one? Like really gets you goat. Now it's. Both the same. Are we going to get a shoe tattoo somewhere? I'll be honest, I I don't. I've never said this publicly, but it's not even close. It's the stage. It's not even, it's not even comparable.

\[19:09\] It's not even pretending to be able. You know what I'm saying? It's like. It's a hurtful question. But it's like, dude, that feeling is man, it's magical in your world. It's like the feeling of when you accomplish something like and you've, you've had that same feeling in your career. You know what I mean? Well, once if I mean as an athlete and the people say it like once you've we never get back that feeling of winning races. There's nothing like now in life, you know, beyond, beyond

\[19:42\] that high performance of Olympics or whatever it is. There's nothing. It's hard to find now what's what so. I think that might have been, I think that might be our signal to say you gotta go on stage, you gotta go to a show. Yeah, we'll, we'll wrap things up. Jelly roll these not done. Apologise me too much, I'm the one that came here. We. Came to talk to you. Though back in America we do long form podcasts. Yeah, so I have this horrible habit now of sitting down with people to do interviews and just talking like we're going to be here for three hours, like it's a friendly.

\[20:13\] It's the best form. It's the best way. To get just a friendly chin wag. Chin. Wag very good way very good. The Aussie slang going. Well, Jelly is. It right? I'm trying. I'm trying man. Do you do you go for a trot instead of a run? Go for a trot. Go for a trot. I'm learning some stuff, man. Yeah, man, I like the chin wag. Chin wag makes it. Chin wag's good Jelly. Honestly, this is Courtney can now accept that this is real. The whole drive up here is like, I don't think this is going to happen. No start. The whole drive metal, like I've been around sport my whole life

\[20:44\] and like really high end sport and this was, you know, today. It was exciting. We just, we, we're the fact you're part of the running world. Our running world. The soffer accepted me dude and accepting the Clydesdales just all the classes. They might not be Clydesdales if you accept. Them we need to Barrick, we need more marathons, Yeah, to have a Clydesdale class. I'm telling you, I'd have, I would. I mean, I'm, I'm obviously Classdale. I'm 280 right now, right? Started at 5:40\. Yeah, but I got like 25 lbs of

\[21:14\] loose skin is what the surgeon thinks. So they can just detect, stitch that off, take it off eventually. Yeah, I'm gonna eventually have to go under the because it's like mad messy under here right now. It's it's like weird. I'm in the mirror all the time. Like look at this, you know what I'm saying? It's like it's it's wild, dude. It's crazy. Your absolute pleasure to chat to you. Congratulations on everything this is. Really cool Jelly. Amazing, amazing. Thank you so much man. Have fun out there tonight. Yeah. So we're pretty much a year in to me and Liam sitting down

\[21:46\] talking about this in a podcast. And there we are, one of the biggest stars in the world Jelly Roll got, you know, we got to sit down with him and have a yarn and talking about stars. When you talk about 2025 in endurance sports in Australia, 1 of the biggest was Matt Hauser. So we were lucky enough to have Dan Atkins, Matt Hauser's coach, along for the Noosa Triathlon series. They'd given us all the inside information as everyone LED up to Noosa this year, and then we actually got to sat down with Matt after he brought home to

\[22:18\] Australia for the first time in a long time, the Triathlon World Championship. So here's a little bit of Matt's chat on that. We're going to stay with the race for a moment because we've just talked us through it beautifully and it sounds like it's a close to perfection as you could find making all those tweaks and those little decisions in the lead up and then the race plays out. If you could have drawn it up, it couldn't have been any better. Do you remember? Crossing the line I, yes, I do I, I, I remember them for the

\[22:50\] most part. I remember the last like 20 to 30 metres the most because that's where I really like switched off and, and was able to celebrate and, and the pressure was off and it was almost like that release of pressure was so overwhelming that like I broke down crying at the end. I hugged my girlfriend, but her parents, my parents, my, my old coach, Brian Harrington up from, they all drove down from Hervey Bay to, to come and support me and, you know, a host of other friends and family that came down from the Gold Coast as well. And I embraced him and then kind of walked off to the side a bit

\[23:21\] and kind of just like looked back at the crowd and, and everyone's so hyped and so animated to, to watch this event and to watch this triathlon go down. And I, I just had this moment where I was like, how good is this? Like this is, this is bigger than me. Like I'm, I'm so happy that I could stand on top of the dice on this like historic day for triathlon in Australia. But it's, it's, it's much more bigger than me. It's, it's the seeing the emotions on, you know, my support crews faces, the QAS guys, Tim Rigby, Josh Mayer, you know, Alyssa, my dietitian, like

\[23:54\] to seeing those guys like embracing and hugging and shedding a tear after the race. It's like this is much more bigger than just my world championship. It's, it's everyone's journey together. And I, I really do feel like that was what made Sunday so special, was that like, it means a lot more for the triathlon community in Australia moving forward. And I hope we can continue to cultivate this success moving forward. That team, that team you talk about, how's that evolved over the years? And is it like even since the last Olympics, how has that

\[24:25\] changed and what you are now? Was it the same for the last Olympics or that teams got stronger? Because I mean, we spoke about this the other day with Dan, like they just all seem to have so much respect, but yourself as an athlete, but for each other as well and what their jobs are day to day. What's that look like? For sure. I mean the, the teams have changed like over the years I mean I've, I've been on the Gold Coast for like 9 years, almost 10 years now, working with so many staff members through the QAS, through Oz triathlon, a lot of moving pieces yeah, but probably this core team has been

\[24:56\] constant for about the last year or so. So it's been, yeah, it's been a little journey, but it's been a really meaningful one because they're like their energy and just like the way, you know, they support me and just love the process of just like the day in, day out, like Katie Kelly puts it. Well, Well, I apparently I said this to Katie Kelly a while ago, our Paralympic gold medalist from, from Rio, She said one day I rocked up to a training session when we were there on the Gold Coast, you know, a few

\[25:26\] years back. And I just said feel the dreams, Katie, feel the dreams have exists like this is a Field of Dreams. This is where dreams are are made and cultivated and happened. So I think just that feel the dreams mindset that that they are, that the daily processes are just as special as the end result. Do you ever feel the weight like, and this is probably a question a bit for you is according from over your years, but Matt, at the moment, you just mentioned that whole team, coach, nutritionist, physio, the Qas, everybody. But do you ever feel the weight of responsibility in that? To some extent, these people's

\[26:01\] jobs, livelihoods depend on you, the athlete performing. They all have roles and responsibilities to play. It's a team effort. But at the end of the day, if you're not switched on with the music in your head on that start line, or if you slip over in transition and hurt yourself, you know, theoretically their jobs are at risk. Their careers are at risk if they can't get you their product to that perfect point to compete on that race day in Wollongong. Do you ever feel that responsibility? Yeah, I do. But it's, it's coming from a, a

\[26:33\] place of inspiration. I think like those guys inspire me to, to be better and I, I remind myself on the daily that I'm doing it for, for much more than just myself, you know, for my partner, Georgia, who's been with me for, for five years now and just having a support, my family support, like I'm doing it for, for more than just myself and my my accolades. So yeah, it is, it is, I guess I do feel the weight of it, but I, I managed to, to push it in a positive light, I think for sure. And I, and I've made that like my mission over the next few years to try and like carry the

\[27:05\] weight of Oz triathlon a little bit. And I really want to take that upon myself because guys, you know, previously like Courtney and, and Jake and like Jake Birtwhistle, who did it for so many years, you know, I think I'm really inspired by those guys. And just for me to be able to carry the torch moving forward is, is pretty special. And it, and it comes from a, a privileged position. So I'm, I'm really, really grateful. Because unlike like team sports, Locky, who you mentioned, I mean, Locky has a bad calf, misses the prelim, final, his teammates all their weight and get Brisbane line into a grand

\[27:38\] final and Locky comes in and performs like he did. Now, Locky's reputation is unquestionable, but he's able to essentially miss a game, two games, some games throughout the season and rely on teammates. You can't afford to miss a meet, a world championship, a race because it is you. It's an individual effort, this sport. And so that's what makes it truly unique. And that's why I ask about that weight of expectation. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm in awe of those guys. Like they certainly they do have a good life.

\[28:09\] The Aussie footballers like don't get me wrong, they get paid a shit tonne to. And. Hang out with them, they're amazing. Go to Bali. And. And Las Vegas every year. But it is it's pretty cool, like the amount of weight they have on their shoulders, like they've got 100,000 people, you know, cheering for the OR cheering and against them, you know, on the day. And just to be able to stand up under pressure. Like I'm I'm inspired by performances like that on the grand final day, just having all that weight and pressure and knowing that like, yeah, OK, you do get to share the pressure and

\[28:41\] expectation with 2324 other guys, but your one slip up could cost the rest of their glory and and the rest of the team's success. So I think there is so many like finite details about that, that that makes it much more, much more than just yeah, yeah, exactly right. The. Footy players have got a pretty good life, mate. You as a triathlete living here on the Gold Coast, that's your full time job. I can tell you now, because I'm on the other side of it, what I'd give to be back exactly what you're doing right now at the

\[29:11\] level you're doing it too, of course. But give us give the people who are listening what, what's a few days look like in your life here at the Gold Coast? Like beautiful place to train, beautiful place to be, like run us through bit of training for us. Yeah, it is. It is beautiful. I think growing up in a in a place like Hervey Bay, always being next to the beach, I think the Gold Coast is really special to me. Felt like a bit of a big city type of situation coming from Hervey Bay. But lucky enough I had Dan and and the friendly culture that he

\[29:41\] kind of brings to the team and having so many mates here as well really makes it special. I think it's just got such a good life balance. I think life sport balance is, is really important. And just having the ability just to go down to Currumbin Beach in the morning and walk the dog and, and go for like a really nice cup of coffee and breaky or whatnot, and then then hit training straight afterwards. I think those are the really, yeah, the really key things that I kind of attribute my longevity in the sport too. Like I I couldn't be like a Kristian Blummenfelt living in

\[30:11\] the mountains for for 9-10 months of the year, like just training my ass off being a robot. Like that's just not who I am and not who I was raised to be. So I feel like the the off field stuff, no really does complement the on field stuff because because when the off field stuff is going really well and it's really fluid, I can push a lot more in training. It's a lot easier. Things are more, things come more naturally. So but but yeah, on the Gold Coast, I think we swim about 5 \* a week, 4 in the pool and one open mortar, usually riding four

\[30:44\] times a week with a brick session in there. So probably about 300 and 23130 KS a week average across a year. And then the runs, I found that sweet spot for me is about 80 KA week and running. Yeah. So a little bit over that. I'm, I'm kind of struggling to to pull up from sessions and, and can't get that second session in during the week. But yeah, I guess you just got to find your sweet spot for sure. And then obviously gym sessions, 22 by 1 hour gym sessions a week with with Tim Rigby. So that was Matt Hauser, the newly crowned World Triathlon Championship for 2025.

\[31:17\] He had a massive year. So congratulations again, Matt. And while I was going back through some of these old, I suppose older episodes and looking for clips to clip up, got back to a conversation. Me and Liam had one really early in the year, maybe one of the first episodes of the year, about the three athletes that I had personally trained with over my Olympic career that I believed were the toughest athletes out there and the reasons why. So here's that conversation. And it got me thinking, who

\[31:49\] about people I had trained with in the past and kind of who were the hardest, hardest trainers that I've come across. Yeah, because in triathlon, the unique, when I was training around the Olympic Games, in triathlon, the uniqueness of that is you're swimming, biking and running. So you're getting to mix in a lot of different sports. So the three guys that I reckon I've been exposed to, which were the hardest. And it's no coincidence that then their results, they got the results because of their

\[32:19\] training, right? The first guy I'm going to say is Ken Wallace. So Ken Wallace, gold medal, Olympic gold medalist in the K, I'm gonna say 1000\. I'm pretty sure it's 1000\. Yeah. Now Kenny I never could paddle with because I can't sit in a K1 to say myself, right? I can paddle an intermediate boat all right, but I'd fall out of a K1 and into the shark infested canal, so it's not a good idea. Okay, Kenny, I, I never saw him in his actual training environment in the kayak, but what I did get to do is 1 I had

\[32:50\] a chance to race across Tasmania in an adventure race and it was a Mark Webber adventure race with Kenny. So we got put together as a team. He'd never run more than 10 kilometres in one go in his life. He, I mean, he'd ridden some bikes, but we literally just went and got a mountain bike for him, you know, the week before this race. For people who don't know Ken Wallace, he looks like an upside down triangle, like he's got shoulders that just do that. He's a big fella, big guy. I mean, so I'm not.

\[33:20\] Surprised he'd never run more than 10 cars because he's a big unit. I took him. So we went down to race this five day adventure race. You know, each day we're doing, we're out there for 8 hours or so. So long endurance and one particular and he was just an animal. Never go, Never, never whinge. Never gave up. I was dragging him around on a bungee cord. Yeah, half the time, yeah. But there's this one particular day I remember we went up, we had to climb up. We're in Cradle Mountain around that area and we've got ridden up this climb and it's probably a good hour and he's at the

\[33:52\] front of the pack with all these like elites just giving it some talking, you know. And then it was a 16 K trail loop. So he's never run 16 K. I've got him on the bungee and I'm running him hard because we're like trying to still keep up and we're doing all right. At one stage he tripped while he was on the bungee and just went flat down and he sink and when I rolled him over there was a little stick out of the ground. So they've gone through with them like a machete cutting the trees on the side of the path, but as they've cut them, they've left them staked up.

\[34:22\] I thought I'd kill Kenny. I know, I'm not joking. I was waiting to see the blood and kill Kenny. It's not funny, but. Well, it was. You know the bit, you know the famous line from South Park is, Oh my God, they killed Kenny. So that's just what jumped in my head. There. Well, yeah, yeah, I thought I'd kill Kenny. Anyway, he got up. Didn't miss a beat. You know, once we worked out it hadn't gone through his. He'd gone through his gut. He got up and, you know, on we went to. He was just. And he'd been at it. You know, when you talk about

\[34:52\] sport and how long he'd been at it. He'd been a surf life. He just grinded for years. So he. That's number. One OK Ken Wallace. Ken Wallace, welcome. #2 this is good by the way, and these people I've trained, yeah, I like this. It's a little tough man podium or tough woman podium. Yep, Yep. We don't know yet. Well, mostly it was men I got to train with, so apologies to the ladies on this one. There will be 3 guys. Michael Shelley So Mike went on to win the Commonwealth. Games Games Gold medalist in the marathon. Mike did all his training on his

\[35:23\] own pretty much in when he got into his marathon days. Obviously hard training, long training, did most of it on the Gold Coast hot. I'd been running through Nerang with him and look, I could never keep up with Mike for the whole time. I was always like, hang on as long as you can. But I was, I, I believe I was at least company for him on a lot of his longer stuff. And it worked for me as well. I'd seen him in the ring, like most weeks he'd just be barrelling me. And then on a bad day, he'd be chucking up in the trails and he'd just keep going. Like just keep going. He was just, he just, he was relentless on the particulars.

\[35:56\] It's so much. So I was telling someone else this the other day when we'd finished, like we'd run out, say if we were going to do a 28K run in the forest through the hills, we'd get to the turn and I'd always need a piece. I'd always need to go to the toilet. I had to time my toilet stop before the turn because Mike wouldn't stop. That's probably why. No compromises. No compromises, right? And he and it finally paid off. No compromises. He was just an animal. That is number 2.

\[36:27\] OK, And then #3 which I'd never got to try. I grew up with Grant Hackett in the pool, never got really to like when he was obviously at his peak in the pool. I never was training with him, but I'd be training a few lanes over at Denis Cotterell squad and he was relentless as well. The sessions and what they were pumping out in that time, like post Kieran Perkins era, pre the New age of Suits era and all of that, you know, like, and the benchmark was kind of like to swim a one minute 100 in repetition because you know,

\[37:01\] that would obviously break the 5th if you could do, you know, 21 hundreds on a cycle and under one minute that would set you up to swing under 15 minutes in 1500\. And he has just watched him distil and he was in the pool for years. We started, you know, like his eight year olds down there and, you know, he obviously went on to create great things, but he was the third guy. Like I didn't, yeah, didn't get to. I was never quick enough to actually be in lane one. Yeah. Every so often Dennis would let me like jump in the back of the four hundreds and that, but it

\[37:31\] was mainly just watching them. Yeah. There you go, 3\. Guys, I like, I could sit here and listen, you talk about these guys for days because you know when I go running with you and I talk to people about the fact that I go for trial runs with Courtney Atkinson and you very patiently wait for me. You know you don't have the Michael Shelley attitude towards our runs otherwise I'd be stuffed. But I love hearing about and you just mentioned 3 blokes that all achieved they. Achieved that leads, that's why. Success, but it's that attitude

\[38:03\] towards training. See, I'm too compassionate mate. They'll wait up for you. And this is the reason I never won gold. I am not taking responsibility for your performances in Beijing and London, mate. I didn't know you then. Yeah, true. So from three of the most elite athletes that I've ever come across to you really coming back to what the essence of In the Beginning podcast for the year was. And that's about having information for everyone out there. So we like always to have a bit of fun and a bit of comedy, but we like to get you the right running information as well. So part of the Gold Coast

\[38:35\] Marathon series. Obviously having Benita and Bronte on board was amazing teasing to follow that journey through. However some of the guests we had on board also were some of the most listened to episodes of our years. So Brit, the physio from my Gold Coast physio gave us plenty of information. Just day to day stuff you can do to help your running. And here's some of the best bits that are pulled out of that conversation. Got a million questions going on in my head? I'll start with this one.

\[39:05\] You said you'd be rich if you knew what to tell us to do every week. But for those new runners and and and people out there running, if you had three things to activate or do before you run that could help prevent the chance of injury, what would those core three things be? I. Mean. Because every and and and. I'll say to everyone, everyone's going to have different. It depends on your strengths and weaknesses. But as a full generalisation, I'm a complete newbie. It's a great idea to go out and

\[39:37\] activate before you run to get yourself ready to run what what would be 3 areas or three exercises? Here's the. High Welcome to running video as presented by Brick Kaling. Yeah. So I guess the three things I'd educate someone around is the biggest one is sleep. And I know that's not what you do directly before you go out and run, but our three pillars, I guess of, of helping you reduce that risk would be sleep. Are you getting adequate sleep for what you need? And only you can kind of work that out. And some of that is if I'm a current, a current person who

\[40:08\] gets just repeat injury after repeat injury and I'm always tired. You have to be looking at your sleep and how you get the better volume, better amount of sleep or better quality of sleep. Haven't heard of it like that before, but. Yeah. So sleep is one of them, because sleep is the foundation of a recovery. Yep. So, you know, the idea of getting a better performance is you have to go and train to give your body a stimuli, that stimuli causes positive adaptations that should make you better. But the positive adaptations only occur when you have the recovery in your tissues to allow them to repair. So Liam, you go out and you do

\[40:40\] an intensity run right or off the back of Kani. Your body, if it's not fully repaired, remains potentially in a hypotonic, a high tense, a high tone state. You then try and continue training on top of that when you're not fully recovered. And that could be sleep. It could have been nutrition, it could have been a whole lot of different things. And So what happens is your body's not fully repaired, it's not back to its normal state of tonal tension, and suddenly your calf is tight and sore. Well, that was, I mean the example off the back of kunanyi

\[41:12\] there to make it more specific. I went straight back off that into breakfast radio and I was probably getting that week in particular, I was probably getting about 5 hours sleep a night. So I wasn't rested. And that makes sense, yeah. So sleep would be one of them. The second one would be nutrition. So again, nutrition. So what I think often happens in the world of, I guess new to sport or if you've never been exposed to elite is people might come to me and they say, I feel

\[41:44\] like I'm really clean in my nutrition. I eat really healthy. I don't eat much sugar. And then we have a conversation. We kind of say, well, does your nutrition vary from day to day or week to week? And I might say, no, I'm really good every day. And I'm like, does your training vary every day? And they say, yeah, absolutely it does. I'm like, well, your nutrition has to vary the same as your training does. So if you have a high training day, you have to fuel yourself to cope with that high training day beforehand. And similarly, if you have a really high volume week or you've got a week where your

\[42:16\] training is going up, your nutrition has to fuel you leading into that. Because if you don't have those pillars of nutrition, it exposes your body to not also being able to repair itself. So one of the conversations I'm actually regularly having in, I'm not a sports dietitian, but I send people, again, probably along the lines of Bonita saying she uses health professionals around her. I am really used to working in a team environment where I will send an athlete if I think they're a little bit under fuelled, not eating enough. So you can be super clean, not

\[42:48\] eating any sugar, being really healthy, but maybe you're not getting enough volume of food and energy in to fuel your sessions, right? And so then I'll send someone to a sports dietitian to have usually the volume that they have that they are eating reviewed, right? So that would be a second biggest risk and particularly with bone stress injuries. It was interesting because the first thing once my scan came back positive for a stress reaction was I got bloods done on all my bone minerals. So not nutrition direct, but just checking that everything it

\[43:19\] wasn't actually a nutrition problem. That was, you know, right to the bone. So 100% get this OK this idea. Yeah. And because if you're not fueling enough, if you're not putting enough total energy in, but expecting your body to go and use energy, well, where's it coming from? It's going to come from your tissues. It's simple. That's when you say it like that, it sounds. It's one of those things where of course I think, and I do want to talk to you a little bit more once we get your third thing about the idea of Benita isn't,

\[43:50\] is an expert lace up, run, lace up running, which we're doing this programme with. They are running coaches. They know what they're doing, the expertise, but the, with the influence of running, the boomerang running, we're seeing these, let's call them less expert running programmes being put out into the world. And then there's the influencer thing. And then there's this, this focus on how you look while you're running. And so that nutrition aspect of it I find really interesting because I know you only have to jump on Instagram to see there are all these runners who are very well, probably more

\[44:22\] concerned with how they look while they're running than actually what they're achieving in their running. And that nutrition aspect of it, I think would be, it would be we don't have the time today, probably don't have the information, but to explore the idea of what they're telling, what these people are eating and actually to fuel they're running, but they're also wanting to look a certain way. So sorry. And I would also add to that, like it also depends your age and your training status. And you know, for me as a slightly older, well, it's not old, but let's say more mature, mature female running now.

\[44:55\] Like realistically, I've hit a perimenopause stage and my nutritional needs have changed significantly from what I think back to 8 years ago. Do you know what I mean? And so the needs that I have now are different again compared to say a 24 year old male who's going to go out there. So you kind of have to have your nutrition individualised to what you're trying to achieve, who you are, what your background is and what stage of life you're also in. OK, my my third thing actually I'm going to add 4\. That's OK. That's OK. My third thing would be like ideally having a coach and a

\[45:26\] programme that's supervising you, right? Because it's really easy these days to also get an AI programme. It's not individualised to what you do. And as you found Liam, it's really hard to be able to listen to yourself and trust your own instincts. It's probably something I think Courtney's always been a bit better. Better act in the past is upholding his own kind of value and going something doesn't feel right. Today. I'm going to change what I do. In the past, you heard that. In the past, not. Currently in my head, as you said there, I'll say you've met Courtney, haven't. You, but do you know what I mean? It's really hard, isn't it?

\[45:57\] Like if you're having a good week to go, I'll just add a bit extra here, or I'll just be add a bit more onto this run, or let's like, let's put in that extra run because I'm feeling good, or I'll add an extra tempo to it because I'm having a good week. But if you've got a coach and I really love Benita's approach of being a little bit more conservative to it all and listening and doing it almost week to week. Yeah. So that she can go, how are you going? And if you're not going good, she can modify what the programme looks like. Because we wouldn't, most of us wouldn't uphold that to ourselves. No, we would push through no matter. What the ego shouts out to us middle of the week you're flying

\[46:29\] you going so great Benita that week to week thing you're talking about because when we plan this whole thing and right 12 week programme Benita Willis lace up running and then I was expecting to get a spreadsheet that showed me the 12 weeks and at some stages like Benita, I don't know like what I'm doing 3 days from now because many as like well, I want to see how that session goes before I tell you what you're doing that that's that's coaching that's a coach that's. A coach that's actually a true coach. Yeah, that's a coach. That's being coach so. There's a coach versus trainer on coach versus session centre.

\[47:02\] And I mean, we shouldn't take away from the fact that there's the, you know, online programmes that are coached to five KS sure that people can access easily. And that's great. But if, if you're trying to achieve a bit more of a, a goal or you, you've had AI guess, particularly a history of, of problems and having someone supervise you and make decisions for you and, you know, ask how you're going, I, I think that's really important. Plus taking away the accountability of the stress of trying to think. I think that's the that's the, that's the main one with me as a coach is that you make dumb decisions on your own.

\[47:32\] It's like, what's that saying when they always say do what I say? Do as I say, not as I do. Exactly that's me to AT like exactly. I don't do what I tell everyone else to do because I know I try but I still go and do dumb things. Don't. Don't do as I say or as I do. Don't do either of those things. Yeah. And the fourth thing I would say is I love having what I call a pre training routine, right? So this is what we use in elite sport. How does how does an elite athlete get themselves up and know how they're going to perform on a day is you can't just do something different

\[48:03\] leading into your race competition all the time. You can't do something different every morning because you then don't know what to expect out of your body. So we should have this little routine of a pre training routine or pre certainly pre race routine that is ideally a sequence of whether it's stretches or drills or other exercises that gets your body and your brain prepared for the stimuli you're about to give it. And So what that might look like is so say, let's take that example of that swimmer that's decided they're going to go and do their first marathon, if

\[48:34\] that. So if the swimmer is a bit more mobile in their body structure, they've got generally, you know, floppy joints, they're not used to that gravity feel against ground. They don't really know where to put their body as well. So they probably don't need to do any stretching to get more flexibility. What they need to do is they need to learn to, it's what I call strengthening their Wi-Fi signal. So brain needs to connect to body a bit better to know where they are in space so that when they then go and run, they're prepared for those gravity forces. So they might need to do a sequence of calf raises or some

\[49:04\] hip stability or some AB stability or some little drills that prepare them so that when they go out and run, they're going to have a better run for that. Or it might look like, so say, for Courtney, if he's running really well, he might just have a sequence of a couple of little, I don't know, activation exercises through his glutes or his carbs or just a couple of like mini drills. Or if he's a bit tight and he's hip flexes, he might go, yeah, bit tight and hip flexes. I'll do a little stretch through them today. That again prepares him. So when he goes out and run, he's going to feel better and find better positions when he runs straight away.

\[49:34\] And that's individual to everybody. I love that. So Brit was amazing in taking us through a lot of what you can do, I suppose, outside of the running to help in your marathon preparations. But one of their favourite conversations of the year and he rarely does podcasts or rarely talks. He's a quiet guy, but Michael Shelley, so Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the marathon, came in to have a chat and some of the information he gave on how to run a marathon and the thinking behind a marathon was some of the most valuable, I

\[50:05\] suppose, advice that was given all year. So here's some of the best parts that I was able to pull out of that conversation we had with Mike. No, I just, I just, as you said, the time of 1500, I was like, so this is like we've got to basically got a sub 4 minute mile. Amazing. Let's go back to the marathon because that's what we're here to talk about. But I just, I really liked the way you simplified that first marathon with Dick Koch saying, well, you'll get tired. I love that because I think we can over complicate and the boom in marathon and running has come

\[50:39\] with a whole bunch of people trying to tell you how to run and how to race and all the rest of that. But when someone at your calibre, at the pointy end of the sport, their coach is literally telling them before their first marathon, you'll just get tired. I think that for everyday runners like myself and average people who might be about to run their first one, that is a great mantra to have on the start line. You'll just get tied. We've all been tied at some point in our lives, whether it's through running or whatever else or partying, you'll have that feeling. You just get tied. What do you feel? Do you remember how you felt after you finished that first marathon? Yeah, because it was very

\[51:11\] interesting, because I felt great till about 36 kilometres, which is probably what everyone will go feel on race day. Felt amazing but 2K later I didn't feel so great. So. It it hit me pretty quickly, but at the same time like it, it didn't go so well the back end, but I was able to still just tough it out and finish. I think I ran 2:13 in my first marathon. So yeah, I was going a little bit better than that. When I started, the wheels started falling off. But yeah, it just was like quiz. I started to fall to pieces.

\[51:42\] I was like, I can do better because I wasn't. And so that sort of got into me sort of straight away. You can do better, recover, enjoy yourself, you know, enjoy Rotterdam, go have a little look around Europe and then come back and get back into it. And fortunately enough, I was like enough to go to Delhi, the Commonwealth Games afterwards and ended up coming second there. So I was able to sort of write some of those issues that I might have had in that preparation into into a Commonwealth Games. So cool, so cool. It's I really love hearing the

\[52:13\] fact that again, we're talking to Michael Shelley 2 times. Commonwealth game gold medalist. What's your PB over the Mara 211? Yep, you. Gotta remember this is all pre super. We'll talk shoes a bit later. Pre super shoes all these times we're talking about. But the fact that pre race nerves coach telling you you're going to get tired, you hit a wall or you found the wall like all marathon runners will maybe do in this Gold Coast marathon in a couple of weeks time around that 36K mark. And then at the end of the race it's the same feeling I have had first time I've around the Gold

\[52:44\] Coast Marathon which is Oh my God that was horrible. Never again. 5 minutes later. Oh I can do better than that. I now wanna focus on the next race. It's a mental thing, mental approach it is. And that's the the big thing I tried to do within. Just keep it as simple as possible. Don't overstress it because if you start over thinking, oh, I need this, I need this. You just change little things between each but not have a massive change. I think it's, it's the more you think about it, you start stressing about it and you're not keeping it as simple. It's just going out there and running.

\[53:14\] Yeah, on on the location. So we've talked, I've I've told your story. Yeah, I hope that was OK about, you know, like you spent the, you know, for the 1st 3236K, I think it was a London Marathon you went to run when you first told me the story about, look, I'm just going to take in, I want to just take in the sights for that first 32K and then the race starts then and if I get there, easy. So when, when did that for how did that come about? Was it Dick or did you come up with that? When was it? Oh, it's just a little bit of through racing itself and then just obviously conversation with

\[53:47\] Dick and understanding a lot more about the actual marathon distance because it's always going to be a challenge no matter, you know, 42 K like it's going to be a challenge. And you sort of even just talking between other athletes like Benita and just if you're always going to find that just in Deke and Mona, you actually, and Lisa Weightman, I always find that, you know, just finding that sort of through that first 30K, they were always used to say that you'll feel quite good. And then it's, and then you really start thinking about that last 12, you switch on your focus and then you start using that energy in in your mind to get to the finish line that bit

\[54:20\] quicker. Whereas if you're relaxed, as most relaxed as possible, you're not stressing, not using extra energy and you can have use that energy later on in the race. Did you did you felt so in that non stress thing? Did you use any Like were you going by feel or by how did you pace then? A lot of it was by feel and sort of Dick was in that regard as well, like through, you know, just trying to be easy, relaxed and being able to not overly like breathe too heavy. That was probably my other

\[54:51\] thing. If not breathing too heavy, you're not using too much energy and then you can actually then use that for later on. So that was the, I think even just practising it and training, just trying to be as relaxed as possible. And that was basically what what I just tried to keep it as simple as possible. But you had a goal pace because you'd often go, OK, well, I'm this is my goal time and I might went out too hard or too easy. How did you how did you think about the pacing? Were you just going off purely times or did you have Agps watch at that stage? Or I never really raced in a

\[55:22\] watch, so I tried to run to feel. That was probably my main thing that I tried to do because of there was always with a pace group that was supposed to run a lot of the time as we're saying to that 25 to 30 K, they would have their watch or that sort of thing. So you're just trying once again, stay relaxed, just enjoy the city. And then, you know, once they've sort of pulled out around that 28K mark, their new start, start switching on a little bit and then push on from there. That is just, again, the notion probably, there's probably

\[55:54\] people listening to this who are much more in my camp than they are in your two, but the notion of running without a watch, just that you can control your pace by feel. Well, you use the watch is a perfect training tool, one of the best things that have ever been made. I remember when I first sort of, I think Marty Dent introduced me to the to Garmin. Yeah. And like the watches these days are a lot smaller than what the original ones were. Because what was it that one of those big old was it? 305, I think it was, Yeah. Like it was big, orange, big. There was a big watch on your

\[56:24\] wrist and I don't have the biggest risk going around so. Heavier. But yeah, it just was able to then use that pace and use it looking at training graphs and that sort of thing. And that really helped because Dick lives in Canberra and I was living on the Gold Coast. So for training purposes it was great. I'd just download my, my heart rate and he was able to interpret it because he was a science guru and physiologist gurus and he was able to interpret how hard the training was and that sort of thing by comments or by heart rate in

\[56:54\] that regard as well. So we basically did that my whole marathon career and he sort of come to a couple of sessions a week like every now and then, but that was generally most of the time how we communicated through everything. You said you ran my C base. It was running by yourself during these training was out of choice or because of lack of people capable of running with you. A. Lot of choice to be honest, OK, obviously having coordinates to do some hard sessions and some other people to do some hard sessions, you know, every now and then was was I was grateful for. But also at the same time, you don't want to put yourself into

\[57:26\] a hole. If I train all the time for me that I I felt like I'd I'd race too much, probably have that little. Bit of a. Switch go on every now and then in a session, then put you into a hole and I put myself into a hole a couple of times training wise, just doing it myself, just pushing myself hard. But sometimes you just need to. It is what it is like that session was was was how it was and just accept it, move on to the next one. There was times I was out the back in the rainforest and had to walk home like it was a 2

\[57:57\] hour walk home and I just, I completely bumped and yeah, I was supposed to do a 30K run and probably was out to run 20 of it and then had to walk back and it's just it happens, move on to the next time. So Mike was definitely one of the more popular podcasts of the year, and I've still got people asking for him to come back. They want to hear, especially marathon runners on the Gold Coast wanting to hear more, you know, And I'm sure he's got plenty more knowledge to impart as well. But changing gears a little bit here and getting into some of the more fun stuff we get to

\[58:27\] chat about. Earlier in the year you would have remembered I broke Liam. I took him down and made him run the kunanyi Trail race, which will forget the elevation, but it was pretty much going up Mount Wellington on the trails. I think there might have been 1000 give or take elevation in this. And Salomon were nice enough to take us down. And we had a chat to Pete from Salomon who heads up the marketing at Salomon here in Australia. And what we were really diving into more than the running was just the boom in not not just

\[58:59\] running itself, but all of the all of the the equipment that goes with running and this idea around sports style. So shoes worn by, you know, running shoes, I suppose, and vintage running shoes now that you would pay more money for, but they're being sold out by everyday people to wear to the office, to wear around to the gym, work and whatever else. So we had a great conversation after kunanyi with Pete and here's here's some of the information around sport style shoes. Thanks.

\[59:29\] And it's always a conversation that comes up and it's, we're seeing it on the streets, we're seeing it in different style executions. These, these shoes that we're, that we're, what we have in sports style have are all throwbacks. And, and the technology and the actual construction is exactly the same as it was when you or I would have been running a hill in TAS 10 years ago, right. So the the, the credibility and, and I suppose that back to Courtney's point with Grip, our contour group hasn't, hasn't

\[59:59\] changed, you know, it's evolved from a performance standpoint always. But when you see it on on style and sports style executions, it's exactly the same as it was. That's what's wild to me. It's the actual grip. When you see someone walking around in a pair of you know, like speed cross or something, you know, like that's aggressive grip. We'd only run in speed cross for snow and thick mud. I mean these Tasmanian conditions like it is a shoe that suits. That was kind of was that the first sports style that really

\[01:00:30\] kicked off? Yeah, absolutely. Sports speed cross executions of though of that style, but also XT 6 is something that you see all over the place and that's had 10 plus year anniversary. To break it, just to just break it down because you guys are using words like sports style and XTC and all this sort of stuff. We're talking about fashion shoes. That's what we're talking about, right? Now talking. Sneakers. We're talking sneakers. That's what we're that's that's because I think Courtney and I've talked about this on the

\[01:01:02\] podcast before, this idea of fashion sneakers and this Salomon seems to be the shoe. It's like, you know, I don't Nike obviously has these other brands have kind of the shoes that they target and create as the not a perf, not an athletic or a performance shoe, but they're just kind of a street style shoe. But it's literally Salomon, something about the brand, something about the style. Did that come? Did you guys create that notion

\[01:01:32\] or did you react to people picking it up? Yeah, good question. So we've had fashion houses wanna collaborate and this has all come now for the past 10:10 or so years in terms of, you know, fashion houses going to Annecy designing their version or their iteration. Just to go back to the fashion piece. We, we have tiered sports style or sneakers, which caters to the technical fashion. Then you've got technical subculture and then the technical athletic is, is the

\[01:02:02\] way that the the sneakers are all classified. So that means that a certain product will end up in a certain door in a certain part of our website, and then also the other product will end up in a the area. So what does that do? It protects. It protects you're wearing something cool, you think it's cool, you're proud of it and you start to see it everywhere. And then you're like, well. So yeah. Essentially what we're doing is making sure that this product is ending up in the community in an authentic way. So we've got artists, we've got chefs, we've got not chefs

\[01:02:33\] cooking with our shoes, but in terms of the real creative types that are out there and photography musicians all wanting to align to what we do in in that creative. Space. How do you protect that? Because because the moment like when something is authentically cool, the moment you try and commercialise it, it almost stops being cool. So how do you protect? Because you you seem to have done it. Yeah. So that that's what we keep doing locally and also globally, making sure the partnerships are

\[01:03:06\] right. Pardon me, you get emotional talking about it. That's where the partnerships that we have with these fashion houses is at a point that when we've got them all knocking at our door, which we're really, really grateful for. But it's the right, the right collaborations at the right time, connecting with the right audience through different what we call energy marketing. So you'll see us pop up at a Paris Fashion Week or you'll see us pop up at an underground club that that execution is very, very different. And the focus that we have as

\[01:03:36\] an, as a collective brand is, is heightened just to detect that. So even ambassadors, artists that we that we work with are all handpicked. Can you pinpoint, does the global organisation pinpoint like what was the one thing that transferred it from sport to fashion? Is there like a moment or is there a person or is it a like how did it happen or you just it was so organic you just don't even know? Yeah, so having it in Paris Fashion Week way back when, you know, having the first Boris

\[01:04:06\] Bidjan Saberi fashion house from in in France. OK, You know that one. Yeah. Yeah, cross that. Honestly, when he said Boris, I thought he was gonna say Boris Becker. That's where my mind goes. Sure, we were OK. Tennis shoes back back to. Fashion, but I imagine he would have been cool to work with. Sorry Boris. Bejan. OK. Boris Bidjan Saberi and then you're seeing this product on the on the on the runways in Paris and arguably or the biggest Fashion Week that's out there. And so all of a sudden press are like, hang on a minute. What's this thing with really, back to your point, really aggressive grip pattern and then

\[01:04:38\] it's marked interest from there And then there were so many different iterations and executions of traditionally trail product. So still from his French heritage? Yeah, it still trended out of France first. Yeah, I think that's a part of it, too. Looking from the outside, the fact that it has a French origin, it's kind of like, yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Inherently cool. That sounds so cool. Yeah. But they do things with their own style. There's a we don't care what you think sense about that place. What's the wildest one in this sport? We'll get back to trail and a tick, but what's the wildest one

\[01:05:10\] in sports style or sneakers that you've in here in Australia that you've just gone? Wow, like I saw that on that person or what celebrity like organically if you just gone. So we we've made it. Yeah, we were going to present to a retailers managers conference. This was 2 Super Bowls ago and so we were preparing. That's how most normal people measure things, based on Super Bowls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were rehearsing our different presentations as audio, right? And then all of a sudden, it's

\[01:05:40\] like, hang on a second, Salomon have just had this massive moment with Rihanna wearing and that generation, the re. Yeah, an iteration of Speed Cross with MM6 Maison Margiela. There you go. OK, keep going and. So that that execution was top secret, not even us, no, we had no idea. And Salomon's staff globally, this was kept really, really tight lipped because the the the partnership that that Salomon kicked off was all held in New York.

\[01:06:12\] And so this was a stylist going, hey, we need this particular size. It may, you may see this in the next 24 hours. And then all of a sudden, bang Rihanna's wearing. So there it is. I mean, anyone who's walked through an airport at the moment and see how many young crew are wearing Salomon around, you'll, you'll know this all just happened organically. It's not something you can manufacture. Obviously having a pretty decent product and having the right people wear it at the right time. And I always say timing and opportunity are way more

\[01:06:42\] powerful than any other marketing you can pay for. And in this case with Salomon, that's been the thing. But let's get to some of the real fun we had Now this has been a reel we put up. It's around high rocks. And at the time I was having a lot of fun with Liam because we as we do, we're just taking the piss out of each other, right? So don't take this seriously as us to having good band or on the conversation. But I put this up also on IG and

\[01:07:13\] at the moment this reel that we, this chat we had is sitting, I think around 3.4 million people have seen it. So and I think they've taken it the wrong way. But anyway, have a little bit of a listen to this. Yeah. Now a little bit of let's go for a little bit of fun. Let's go. We're gonna, we're gonna bring back first. It's gonna be on you. OK. And then I'll let you have a go at me. Mirada, here we go. Does anybody actually know what Hyrox is short for? Because I've just found out.

\[01:07:46\] And don't get me wrong, like I don't want to do a high rocks. They look really hard. Hats off to you if you've done one right, but this makes you want to do uneven less. It's High Rocks is short for Hybrid Rock Star Oh. No. I've got the ick. Literally any video of high rocks I see from now on I'm just going to cringe Jack. Oh no. You have been called out, Liam. Hybrid Rockstar?

\[01:08:18\] Is that what it really? Stands for Australia's first water sommelier. It also said high high rock rockers don't. Sorry, what? What? What was that? This came from a comment. Who? Yeah, I know the name is Australia's first water Some. I love when you try what do you what is it some Yeah, it's like a like a French. Is it somebody? Yeah. Is somebody who tells you through that walks you through the wine This at a restaurant all right so if they're a water summer. They're a connoisseur of water, yeah. Anyway, keep going. Swimming, that's what it's, he said. Don't. Yeah, her or him don't do it. Maddie also chimed in, jumping

\[01:08:51\] on the Hydrox because it's the new play toy. All the shirts off and the pretty girls, Liam, they got, yeah. I'm not in the shirt. I can't take my shirt off. I'm not in shirt off shape. Yeah, I'm not in shirt. I just wanted to like, we're going to wrap that wrap this up now, but just to put the nail in the coffin for you, I'm. Not doing horrors. You're not doing now. I feel attacked. So Jen. Oh, here we go. This to me. Shout out Jen. It was a post on it's called. I haven't. I hadn't heard of this, but it's called Trust Fund TNS.

\[01:09:23\] Yes, so. What's the urban Dictionary of a trust fund? TNS? OK, so noun pair of Salomon sneakers, Also known as a Ford Ranger. Yeah, sneakers. Expensive, worn by the inner city wankers that have never gone off road in their life, a trendy A trendy shoe worn by the March latte drinkers, Strava stress trail runners, and private school kids that went to arts college. Well, I didn't go to arts college then the final nail in

\[01:09:56\] the coffin for me was see also Fitzroy steel caps or Shubaroos. So not only was I getting attacked on Salomon am IA walking billboard for. That is you all. Over am IA walking billboard for the inner city wanker that's never gone off road in their life. No, that's not what you are. That's not really that's good. That's what I'm genuine and to use it in a sentence. So they've even needed to buy a new pair of Airpods. So he put on his trust fund, TNS, and went hiking to Mount

\[01:10:27\] Westfield. That's not you. That's not you. That was the Subaru. Well, it. Was funny I was I was giving it to you so I thought I'd get some back That's good. All right. Well, that's proof that both me and Liam give it to each other just as much as we get. And it's always in good fun. We know we're never really trying to put anyone down. We're just trying to put ourselves down. So, you know, take it as you want. But look, it was a huge year. We also had the, we were down in Sydney before the Sydney Marathon with AG 1\. You know, we've talked to some

\[01:11:00\] of the best in the business. We've talked about the Clydesdales with massive thank you to you, everyone who's all written in during the year, giving us ideas to chat about because it makes our lives one so much easier. But we love to be chatting on things that you want to hear about. So keep that feedback coming. We're going to be back to normal episodes, our normal Saturdays as of next week. We've been on a bit of a holidays. We still, we thought we'd take a little bit of a holiday for the year just like everyone else. But we hope you're enjoying your holidays again, Happy New year.

\[01:11:32\] Thank you for being part of the in beginning family and making this all a success. And we'll be back in 2026 with some new stuff, but also a lot of the old. We're back with the Gold Coast Marathon Series 100%, so happy New Year.