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# GOLD COAST MARATHON SERIES - START OF A 12-WEEK 42.2KM MAKEOVER
- URL: https://www.inthebeginningpodcast.com/gold-coast-marathon-series-start-of-a-12-week-42-2km-makeover/
- Published: 2025-04-15T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T06:00:37.000Z
- Description: Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on nutrition, Gold Coast Marathon, Strava culture — recorded on the Gold Coast.
- Author: Courtney Atkinson
- Tags: Episodes, Gold Coast Marathon, Sports Science, Strava, #Import 2026-07-28 20:58

*Courtney Atkinson and Liam Flanagan on nutrition, Gold Coast Marathon, Strava culture — recorded on the Gold Coast.*

## Listen

Listen on [Spotify](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inthebeginningpodcast/episodes/GOLD-COAST-MARATHON-SERIES---START-OF-A-12-WEEK-42-2KM-MAKEOVER-e31acos?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/REPLACE?ref=inthebeginningpodcast.com).

## Full transcript

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

**Read the full transcript** 

\[00:00\] Welcome to In The Beginning Runs Gold Coast Marathon. Courtney, we're under way — we've got our legendary coach Benita Willis in the building. For the first time, though, we'd like to welcome our first-time marathon runner, Miss Bronte Langbroek. Hello! Thank you for having me. Welcome, and thank you for being part of this experiment. The plan is for the next twelve weeks, in the lead-up to the Gold Coast Marathon, Benita Willis and all her expertise at Lace Up Running is going to be guiding us along the way.

\[00:31\] Can we just get a quick running background check on you? Sure — never run a marathon before. It's going to be a very quick background check, because running has only been part of my life for about fifteen months. I started in January last year, living in Townsville in far north Queensland. It's a really active town — everyone's running down the Strand every single morning, and I was inspired by that to start running. I'd only ever really done

\[01:01\] sprinting, as a former soccer player, and the idea of running long distance felt so far beyond my capability. I started slow, tried to build every single day, and now it's my biggest passion in life. Well, you started off good — a north Queenslander, they breed them tough. Mackay-born? Actually Mackay, yeah — you lived in Mackay. When did you leave? Seventeen. I'm de facto Mackay — I lived there for about six months, but I claim it.

\[01:32\] I claim it. Absolutely. That's a good start — they breed them tough. Exactly. And you're hooked, line and sinker. Before we get into it — Benita's given you your first week, I don't know if you know what's involved yet, but we'll get to that. Why did you want to sign up for the Goldie Marathon this year? I think if I was ever going to do a marathon, I wanted it to be in my hometown, the Gold Coast. From what I've been told, it's one of the best tracks — it's pretty flat, and having done the 5K and the 10K there, it

\[02:08\] just has such an epic atmosphere on the coast. It's such an awesome weekend — I remember going to watch last weekend, I was only doing the 10K, and just how up and about everybody is. For a community I had no idea existed fifteen months ago to be part of it now, you're just like, oh my God, I love it. There are so many people in exactly your boat, new to running, embracing the community and challenging

\[02:38\] themselves. Benita, you've been looking over Bronte's data — I don't know if you saw the last episode, but Benita absolutely crushed my hopes and dreams with her first sentence last week. I remember you telling me that when I saw you the next day, you were very rattled. But Benita, you've had a look at Bronte's data and her goal is to complete the marathon — what do you make of Bronte's running at the moment? Look, Bronte's a beginner, but she's certainly done the right progression — she's looking at a marathon this year, but she's already done the 5K, the

\[03:09\] 10K, and a half marathon. You're obviously new to running, so we have to be a bit careful with how much we progress things in your programme, but I don't think you're an absolute beginner — I think you're very talented, and someone with huge passion, which counts for a lot in marathon running. I certainly think you'll be able to run the whole way, which is the goal you put down on our form. You think so? Yeah — a lot of beginners back themselves

\[03:39\] more once they see the evidence of the training they've put in through the programme. So as you go through it, I reckon you'll get even more confidence in what you can do in the marathon. I'm glad you said that, because I did a half over the weekend, just around where I live, and it was so hard — I finished it and thought, I don't think I could do that again. The idea of doing exactly what I just did, doubled — right now that's still a foreign concept to me. Is that uncommon? Is that a common way for

\[04:10\] people in their first marathon prep to feel? Yeah, look — a half, the training and the racing for it, is similar to a 5K or 10K. But the marathon is completely different, and that's why we need to do the long runs, to build up that time on feet. But also, when you get to the race itself, not putting too much pressure on yourself is a big thing, because a lot of people, especially beginners who've done a few of the races you've done, look at

\[04:41\] the paces they can hold over a half and think, I could just try that pace in the marathon. We'll obviously be going slower, because you don't want to go too fast at the start — and in the marathon it gets a lot harder once you hit around 30 to 35K, from what I've heard. Yeah, I've heard about the darkness of the 35K mark. Can you expand a bit on why that's so different — why doubling the distance means you have to approach it completely differently? I think it's just experience — from people I've

\[05:11\] coached, and mistakes I've made as an athlete. Certainly when I trained for my first marathon, I was coming off being a good track runner, good over shorter distances, and I completely underestimated how hard the marathon was after halfway, after 25K. So with the way I coach people now, I look at the long runs as more important than any other run you do during the week. Whereas some people training for a marathon don't prioritise that long run — they run too much volume, or too hard all the time. It's really important to

\[05:43\] progress those long runs a bit longer — not every week, usually every second week, so you've got more recovery too. We'll talk a bit about recovery, but recovery in marathon training is actually more important, I think, than even training for shorter races. Let's get into that now, since Liam brought it up. I know Bronte, this is basically a coaching session now, so jump in with any questions. On recovery — I'll be honest, I'm about to start the programme and I thought I'd strained my

\[06:17\] hamstring last week mowing the lawn — I'm of that age now. Off the back of Kunanyi, heavy legs, I mowed the whole yard and woke up the next day thinking, oh, this isn't great. I went for a run yesterday to test it out — first run I'd done after a week off, no running — and it feels great today. That spot's not there any more. It's still there a little bit,

\[06:48\] but how — I know niggles are going to come now, my calves are what's prone for me — can you talk about recovering through a programme and how to best manage that? Training-wise, with how I set programmes, it's really important to have at least one or two easy weeks built in, and around races too — if you're doing a race, say, three to five weeks out, or a hard session, we go a bit easier around then. But if you're sore, especially after that 25K, I had an interval

\[07:18\] session planned for you tomorrow — I'd say we just jog tomorrow instead. That's part of recovery too, not pushing it when you're a bit sore. And having said that, when I wrote the programme I didn't know you'd be quite this sore. No, got to be honest, mate. And to progress, you know — you can have this ideal programme, but if you're a bit sore, you've almost pulled a hammy mowing the lawn, you're carrying DOMS from a race, it'd be silly to do a hard interval

\[07:48\] session tomorrow, especially when you haven't done many interval sessions in the last few months anyway. So I'd have you jogging, and the first harder session is the long run I've set for the weekend. Honesty with your coach is so important, isn't it — because the nature of someone getting into a marathon is you want to do more and more, and I'm always the type who wouldn't tell you until it's too late. The earlier you can get on top of these things, the quicker you can go, okay, just back off now.

\[08:18\] It'll save you a lot in the long run, won't it? Oh, exactly. I've made those mistakes as a runner myself — I've definitely trained too hard for marathons. Maybe I was at my best three or four weeks before the race, and then you get into that hole where you're training a bit too hard, and you just keep digging lower and lower. Then once you're in the race, you feel like rubbish. So we don't want to get into that area at all. Is there anything you'd like to confess?

\[08:49\] Not really, I think — or maybe a little. What I'm finding, and I'd love to ask you two as seasoned runners, is: what am I doing wrong? I'm feeling things in my back, like from yesterday's long run — I'm not looking at power, I'm just weirdly niggly, and I don't know if it's because I'm too tense. I've never really had a coach look at my gait, how I'm actually running, so I don't even know if I'm running correctly. If I'm getting pain in my back, I'm probably not running correctly, right?

\[09:23\] Look, first of all, if anyone's getting pain, I'd say go see a physio or a sports doctor. But sometimes when people get a bit tired, they tense up, and that can give you pain that's not actually in your legs, if that makes sense. So sometimes it's just natural, and it just means we need a bit more longer training to get used to it. But you were fantastic on the weekend — I didn't even know you were doing that little race. Bronte did a PB — we haven't talked about this race yet.

\[09:53\] When you do a PB, that's absolutely fantastic, and you've got to celebrate those runs. With your programme, talking about recovery — I'd given you an interval session earlier this week too, tomorrow, Wednesday — so we'll just see how you feel, and either do that if you feel good, or push it to next week. So already we're making adjustments to the programme. This is amazing, because Benita's laid out the first week for both of us through TrainingPeaks, the

\[10:23\] online platform. I was meant to be doing an interval session tomorrow, but we're adjusting that now because of my old-man hamstring — so it'll be more of a recovery jog instead, shifting the days around. In a perfect world, as a coach, would we be sticking exactly to the week as you lay it out, or — because in my mind, I'm thinking, if the coach lays out the

\[10:53\] session, the week's meant to look like this, that's how I should get it done. But you're saying if the body's feeling a certain way, it's okay to shift things? Do you still want the same amount of hours on feet done that week, ultimately? Yeah — I'd say the same amount of hours, but lower the intensity, because there's a risk of hurting your hamstring more if you run too hard on it while it's already a bit sore. I'm saying that because those trail races can be tough, especially the downhills, and the Gold Coast Marathon is going

\[11:24\] to be a fast, flat course — we're not going to be doing any hard downhill running in our programme, so that eliminates that kind of soreness within the plan. But because you've done that trail race, we just have to be a bit careful. It's just that we wouldn't move that interval session later in the week, because then it'd be too close to the harder long run I've given you on the weekend — you don't want two hard efforts too close together. We're better off moving it to next week and just jogging, especially since last week you barely ran at all except for that one race.

\[11:55\] You're better off moving that to next week and doing it when you feel good. Do you have a rule of thumb — taking Liam and Bronte out of it for a moment — around how many interval sessions to do? If you were coaching an elite-level runner, how many would you put in a week for a marathon prep? And if it's a first-timer, or someone coming in at lower mileage than Bronte, what would you give them?

\[12:26\] Look, I've got a few elite athletes I work with, and they only do one interval session a week — I usually only set two sessions a week total, though for some beginners I might set less. For you, Bronte, I'm going to give you an interval session and an easy long run. Then in the week I give you a harder long run, I'll probably just give you an easy jog instead of an interval session — I'll break the weeks up. With Liam, I'll always give him an interval session, because he needs that. But then some weeks I'll also give him a harder

\[12:57\] long run, or other weeks an easy long run with a tempo run on a separate day. So usually just one interval session — I'm not one of those coaches who gives more than one a week, I think that's too much intensity for a marathon prep, regardless of level. Even with my top elites. Do you know what an interval session actually is, Bronte? I was about to say — tell me about these interval sessions I'm supposedly going to be doing, because I have no idea what you're talking about. I just run. This is where having you here, Benita, is such a gift, because I've been following different

\[13:28\] programmes that include interval sessions, and I've just skipped them — I'll just run the distance instead. There are people out there following a twelve-week block right now who won't know what an interval session actually is. Courtney and I have talked about this on previous episodes of the main show, but it's worth an idiot's guide here too. When you say interval, what do you actually mean?

\[13:58\] Interval sessions are essentially running faster than jogging — faster than your marathon pace too. What I was going to give you on Wednesday, Bronte, was something like a minute a bit harder than jogging, roughly 10K pace, then a minute of walking or resting. Then some thirty-second reps a bit faster again, around 5K pace, then maybe forty-five or sixty seconds' rest, then some fifteen-second efforts. It's really just about breaking up the boredom of a longer run. Having said that, I know

\[14:29\] you haven't done them before, so your session is quite small — a bit of a warm-up, a bit of a cool-down, just to get you into them. We'll probably look at doing them every second week. It's about getting practice running faster than marathon pace, so when you get into the marathon — even though your aim is just to run the whole way, so you're probably not even watching a pace — whatever pace you're jogging at starts to feel easy. If you can run a bit faster over 5K or 10K, that's

\[15:01\] essentially why we do these interval sessions. We generally use fairly short recovery, so at the start of each rep you don't feel amazing — if you're a 400m or 800m runner, you might get a lot of rest between reps, going almost flat out again each time. But interval sessions for marathon training aren't flat out — it's more like 5K to 10K pace. If you don't know that pace exactly, that's fine, but you've done a few races, so I

\[15:33\] said in your programme not to go faster than around 5:25 pace or so, because we know you've run something like 52-something for a 10K, which is a very good 10K for a beginner. I usually cap the pace because a lot of beginners think interval sessions mean going as hard as you possibly can. It's not that — because the marathon isn't about going as fast as you can. These interval sessions are about running faster than marathon pace, but not flat out to the point you're getting lactic — that's not what we're training for.

\[16:05\] How do I learn, on the other side, when we're not doing intervals — the easy runs that are also part of the programme, where it says run at 6:29 pace or even slower? In my brain, because I love running but also just want to go as fast as I can and finish quickly, how do I learn to slow it down, instead of just running fast the whole way? That's a good question.

\[16:36\] If you look at the Gold Coast Marathon, there'll be a lot of people who start too fast. I always think — if you're starting, say your marathon pace is 6:30 or 6:45, and you start at six-minute pace, you could hold that for a while, but you're producing a little bit of lactic acid the whole time. I don't want to go too deep into physiology, but once that lactic acid builds and builds, by the time you hit 30K you

\[17:06\] suddenly just feel crap. You might feel great at the start and then all of a sudden your legs feel really heavy — and look, that's going to happen in the marathon regardless. But if you start a bit too fast, you'll probably end up walking, or hating it. You're better off starting slow, which is hard — we practise this in training. The marathon's one of those races that demands patience, and patience is genuinely hard to train into people, but we'll work on it in the long runs. Starting slow means you'll be good in the

\[17:37\] second half. Look, I was always too aggressive in marathons myself — my best marathon, I positive-split by over two minutes, which is a lot. Something like 1:10-something for the first half and 1:12-something for the second. So I wasn't great at it, but I've learned things through my own running and through coaching. But you'll always run your best marathon when you don't go out way too fast. It's going to be hard, though — because you've got good speed over shorter distances, it'll be hard for you not to start

\[18:07\] too fast. So we'll practise that. I guess what I need — is there a layman's way of knowing when you're going lactic? What's the cue, when you say don't go lactic during your reps — what would you say is the sign you're going too hard? I always feel like, during your reps, if you're getting to the second half and finding you're struggling with your breathing, or your legs are getting heavy, in an interval session — that means you're going too hard.

\[18:37\] You should be able to finish an interval session and feel like you could do a few more reps. You should be able to finish a tempo run, or one of those marathon-effort tempo runs, and feel like you could almost do it again. Interval sessions are a harder effort than a longer run, but you should still be able to do a few more reps. It's hard to describe purely by feel, but it's that sense of your legs going heavy — and look at your watch too. I always say go slower than a certain pace, so if you're looking at your

\[19:07\] watch and you're at five-minute pace, or 4:45, you're probably going a bit too hard — even if you could physically hold that pace for the session, you don't need to within this programme. It's the hardest thing, and I still feel like I'm working on it myself — accepting that running slow is genuinely good for you. I think Strava's partly to blame for that. We've talked about this before too — it's a broader

\[19:39\] conversation about social media we don't need to get into fully here, but Strava's great, though it carries that inherent pressure of showing everyone how you're training. When everyone can see what you've done, there's that little voice going, but I ran so slowly here, I don't want people to think I'm a slow runner, I don't want people to think I can't run faster than this. That's what I used to do — I'd look at people I ran with in Sydney, see their times, and think, they're running 4:

\[20:09\] 15s, I can't go out and run a 10K at 5:15 today, I'm meant to be able to keep up with these people. But that's what I found. Very true. I'm okay with it now, because I've accepted I'm never going to be a professional athlete, Bronte — I've come to that conclusion. So the idea of running slowly, I've made peace with it, but it took me a while to get there. I think that's something I need to realise over this journey, because I don't know if it's

\[20:40\] a leftover competitive spirit — well, not former, current — very competitive, thinking you need to do everything fast for it to be impressive. That's ego, right? It is an ego thing, isn't it, sitting across from two Olympians. I know — oh God, I just talked about my competitive spirit, read the room, Langbroek. Okay, so — do you understand tempos now, a little bit, or intervals? Sorry — tempo's different, isn't it? Tempo's a bit easier. I don't like

\[21:13\] to use too many running terms, but it's a bit faster than marathon pace, slower than 10K pace — maybe half-marathon effort, something like that. It should feel easier. I probably won't give you too many of them, though we'll do more efforts within longer runs, and some interval sessions, just not in the same week. How important do you both find supplements during a run? This is something I tried over the weekend with gels — I only had one out there for a 21K, and I don't know if I

\[21:46\] just had the wrong one. I don't usually drink water during runs either, but I understand that's probably going to be very important once I'm doubling the distance I did. Oh yeah, you'll definitely need to practise that. I always think, and we talked about this a bit with Liam and Courtney, the longer you run for, the more nutrition matters — if you ran a marathon in two hours, I don't think nutrition would matter much, because it's over so quickly. So we'll practise it, and it could be a combination of

\[22:17\] drinking, gels, even some caffeine if that works for your body. It's one of those things we'll go through week by week — today we'll focus a bit more on recovery before we finish up, and we'll do a proper nutrition session down the track and really dig into it. From my perspective, watching you two — one of my big beliefs around training, which I've learned over time through racing at Olympic Games and having different coaches and mentors, is that you have to believe one hundred percent in the captain.

\[22:49\] It's very — and this comes back to social media too — if you start trying to take on every opinion, that's that opinion, he's giving me that opinion, but you don't actually know what's going on. The more trust you've got in the person you're accountable to, the better the outcome tends to be. And sometimes — not with Benita here, but from my own experience — that trust might be right or wrong, but if you believe it, sometimes that's enough to get you across the line. So I'll put my two bob's worth in where I can, but what I'm

\[23:21\] telling you is — the reason I wanted Benita here to talk about this and put her on the spot is because I'm putting my trust in Benita too, so I'll be asking the same questions. I'm very interested — what have you got Bronte doing for the week, what's the structure? Bronte's got three runs — an easy jog today, an interval session on Wednesday, and a long run on Saturday, Sunday off. You've been running three days a week up to now, yes? Yeah, usually Monday, Wednesday and either Saturday or Sunday for the long

\[23:53\] run. And along the way, will that increase to more runs at some stage — is that the plan? Well, because Bronte's a beginner — but a pretty good beginner — we have to be a bit careful, but I think we can probably get to four runs some weeks. You also do PT and Pilates fairly often, which is fantastic, and maybe one week we might swap one of those for a run.

\[24:23\] But it's more about how you're feeling. If three runs feels like enough, we can train for a marathon on three runs, that'll be fine for you. With beginners, the main aim is to get to the Gold Coast Marathon start line feeling good, feeling excited, not overtrained — we don't want to put too much pressure on it, or too much emphasis on running too much. Because if you run the whole way and love it, which I'm sure you will, we might put more

\[24:54\] pressure on the next one, add a bit more volume, a bit more intensity. With beginners, you don't want to do everything in the first prep — you want a really good experience first time round, and then maybe chase a pace goal in the next one, or find you can handle four or five runs a week. So it's about looking at what you're already doing and not changing it too much — we'll adjust a few things as we go, but if I change too much too soon, it could be

\[25:24\] detrimental, too much too soon. But I'm relying on you to let me know how you're feeling. On the topic of recovery — you missed the gel timing on the weekend — what would you suggest each week, with the long run being the focus, to recover well and get through to the next week? What would you use for nutrition on those long runs? I'd have you practise gels probably every 20 minutes or every 5K,

\[25:56\] even if it's just one or two mouthfuls, and a sip of water alongside it if you can. The other option is an electrolyte drink and fewer gels — maybe one every 10K or so. I'd try something with caffeine maybe after about 25K in the marathon, so towards the end of a long run, just to see how your body responds. One thing I always think is worth doing before a long run or a race is a gel within the last ten minutes beforehand — it

\[26:26\] just tops up your glycogen stores and carbohydrate levels, so you're ready to go, because it's going to be depleted in the marathon — you're out there for a long time, and it's a lot harder than a half in terms of how much you're depleting your body. My reaction was the same as yours when I first heard the “one every 5K” rule — like, what? This is why it's so great having Benita here, because I would've just had one halfway through. I didn't know any of this.

\[26:57\] And a lot of beginner runners feel the same way. Like Courtney said, you've got so many sources — TikTok, Instagram, run clubs — and you're left thinking, who do I actually go to for the real answer? And we found the oracle. There's this whole idea of running depleted, does that help — you can listen to all sorts of takes on that, but I think the key is simple: when you're fuelling your body properly, you run better in that session and you recover better. That's it. You don't have to do it for every session or every run — maybe just on the

\[27:27\] long runs, where you're running a bit harder, just making sure you're practising it. Or if you've got someone who can ride a bike alongside you, we might even meet you for a long run down the track. And do a looped course — looped courses are great, we could be your support crew. If anyone's listening to this and thinking this sounds wonderful — Lace Up Running, laceuprunning.com.au, that's Benita's coaching business. She does this as her job, she knows what she's talking

\[27:57\] about. So if you're interested in getting Benita out to meet you on a long run somewhere, go check it out, you can get involved. Just while you were talking about gels and all that — those little things stick in my mind, and Clint Kimmins, who's a good athlete, not quite professional level but a very good triathlete and marathon runner, told me once that the idea is you're not fuelling for right now, for how you're feeling

\[28:29\] right now — you're fuelling for how your body's going to feel in 5K's time, or 7K's time, or 15 to 20 minutes from now. That's what you're actually taking on board for. I used to struggle with the idea of, but I don't feel like a gel, I don't feel like I need anything right now — and when he explained it that way, it clicked, that you're fuelling ahead for how your body's going to be. That makes sense too, because you hear about people running hot marathons who get thirsty but don't start drinking until they're actually thirsty, when they should be

\[28:59\] drinking all the way along. The best thing about the Gold Coast is that it's cool — I always think cool marathons are much less tricky with nutrition than hot, humid ones, where, say, you're running a marathon in Townsville, you'd need a completely different nutrition strategy. I did a half up there once and it was just brutal. You know what I need to learn how to do as well? Pick up cups while running. Can we do a whole training session just on that? I can't figure it out. You can practise it — I do it at the run club too. We're training for marathons, we're not going to the club, mate.

\[29:30\] Right, okay — so Bronte's got three runs this week. My week, Benita and I had already talked about adjusting — it's five sessions. Courtney, want to hear what they are? I'd love to. I'm meant to be doing an interval session tomorrow, which we might adjust, roughly fifty minutes. A medium-length run on Wednesday for an hour ten — an hour ten, yep. A recovery day Thursday for an hour. Rest day Friday. Then Saturday, thirty minutes, that's an optional easy

\[30:01\] jog, thirty to forty minutes. My specific long run is Sunday, 25 to 28K. This is for me, because I'm still a bit like you were with long runs previously — okay, I've got to run 25 to 28K, but I want to walk people through the breakdown, because this is what a specific long run looks like, versus just a plain long run. So my 25 to 28K is 8 to 12K easy jogging, slower than 5:15 pace, then rolling into 8 to 10K of progression

\[30:35\] running — this is the back half of the long run. Three kilometres at 4:34 pace, a stretch at 4:15 pace, and the last one to three kilometres a little faster than 4:15 pace — 4:15 being my goal marathon pace to break three hours. Is that a pretty standard structure for a specific long run? Yeah, that's what I'd normally set right at the start of a marathon prep, because it's really important to practise running a fair bit at the start, so your body starts to get tired. That's why I've built in fairly long jogging, 8 to 12K, which is going to be

\[31:06\] over sixty minutes of running on its own. Then, because in the marathon you've got to practise running while tired and a bit faster, we get into some marathon pace, just for 4K of that run — it's about getting into marathon pace when your body's already a little tired, just a few kilometres of it. As we go through the programme, we'll extend that marathon-pace section longer and longer. Look, it's one of those things — I've set 25 to 28K, 8 to

\[31:40\] 12K jogging — I don't set an exact number always, because it depends how you're feeling, and how hot it is. If it's hot on Sunday — and it's still hot in Queensland right now — I'd have you running more on feel within those paces. I always think at the start of a marathon prep, if you're in Queensland, it can still be a bit hot, but the paces are just a guide — that's ideally what we want to do. How do you feel about that session, Liam? Genuinely excited by it?

\[32:12\] For context, the one run I've done since Kunanyi, I went out and did thirteen-odd at just under five-minute pace, and aerobically my legs felt heavy — I think that's a bit of a hangover from Kunanyi. My quads — everyone, Courtney included, has been telling me how good Kunanyi is going to be for this marathon prep, for the strength in my legs, and it felt that way for the first 10K. Then I hit a hill near the end and it felt like

\[32:43\] Mount Everest. So uphill and downhill still aren't fun, but those paces feel achievable in this weekend's long run — and I know we've already talked about reassessing my goal a couple of weeks in, seeing how I'm travelling. But I look at that session and think, yep, I feel like I can do that. I guess I won't know until I actually get in and run it. On the topic of recovery, we've talked about in-run nutrition — what do you

\[33:14\] suggest around pre-run nutrition, since that's just as important as what you're taking in during the run? It depends on the time of day, but for most people — you'll do a weekend run early in the morning — I'd get up at least an hour before, maybe a bit longer, and make sure you have something. I always think a banana, some oats, or a crumpet with honey, a bagel — something fairly digestible that also gives you a good amount of energy as

\[33:45\] well. And I always have coffee. Speaking of Red Bull, I do drink a bit of Red Bull too, probably not on a Sunday morning, but before races — I do it for races. Just poured the fizz out of it into a cup. Look, this is a safe space here — coffee before a long run scares me a bit, honestly, because I don't want to have to stop mid-run because of it. Is it the coffee itself, or — Courtney swears by it.

\[34:16\] Yeah, I have coffee too. Sorry, I thought this was the same thing — apparently it's not. You know what I use it for? I get up in the morning and I'm like clockwork — it cleans me out before the long run, and I've got no problems after that, you just need to time it right. That's my week then — the easy runs, and from a total kilometre standpoint, what am I looking

\[34:48\] at for the week? Probably around 60, maybe a bit more — that's why I've built in an optional running day too, because if you're feeling like you just want to take Saturday off, take Saturday off. There's no pressure to run five times a week, it's about how you're feeling within the structure of the week. We won't do anything hard tomorrow, so it'll be easy running through to Sunday. But we'll increase volume as we go — I don't like increasing

\[35:19\] volume and intensity in the same week. So next week you won't do a specific long run on the weekend — you'll do an interval session, probably a tempo run, and an easy long run shorter than 25 to 28K, so you're recovering a bit too. I always structure the weeks to go up and down a little. Some coaches make every week harder than the last, but I don't like doing that, because you're both really busy, and sometimes it's just too much.

\[35:49\] So that's why I usually work every second week. It's tough — we don't have real jobs, do we. No, we're here and it's still daytime. I mean, hey, when it suits me, I claim it's a really busy job, if I'm honest. I love the idea that, and this is the beauty of having a coach and being accountable to someone, it takes that stress off — instead of following an online programme where you feel like you've got to hit certain kilometres, the

\[36:19\] fact is you've got Benita to bounce things off, to take that pressure off. You get confidence from Benita saying it. I've told Courtney I've taken my decision-making brain out of it — we're in the hands of the captain. But for everyone listening, it doesn't begin and end with how many kilometres you run. More kilometres can help a marathon, but it's got to fit into

\[36:50\] your whole week. I'm not telling you, Liam, you've got to run 70 or 80 kilometres to hit this time — and I'm not telling you, Bronte, you've got to run 50\. Yours is probably just under 30K for the week. I'm not huge on stats — it's about how you're feeling, how you're recovering, adjusting as we go. I'm not fixed on specific days or specific runs, it's about working with your schedules and building the week around what you're

\[37:21\] already doing, because I think that works best for people. That's how I look at it. I'm terrible with that stuff myself, actually — I've told these two, I never even raced with a watch. Never looked at paces, never counted my kilometres each week, don't look at Strava. Very old-school coaching. That's great, honestly.

\[37:51\] I will say, Benita's already offered to meet you on one of these long runs on a looped course — she's already monitoring me at cafes on the weekend. I sat down thinking I might be in for a big breakfast, and Benita's sitting there with her husband Anthony, watching my dietary choices. That's a full-service coach — that's exactly what you want. I've got a question on the different paces we've mentioned — I think that's something I need to rectify in my own mind, the importance of changing pace on these long runs instead of, as I've probably done before, just getting the kilometres done — get the 20 to 25K done. When, as Liam pointed out, there are these different paces built in, same as I've got.

\[38:24\] Is the point of going faster and slower about building fitness, or is it more mental — knowing you'll be able to run this fast, but having to hold it back on the day? Why is being able to go a bit faster during these long runs so important? Mainly fitness, yeah, good question. With these runs it's really about practising starting slow and finishing fast — in short, that's the idea. Liam's starting

\[38:56\] over a minute a kilometre slower than his marathon pace, but by the end of that run he should be at marathon pace, or a little faster. It's practising that patience of starting conservatively. If you just went out for a 20K and wanted to get it done, you might start at 6:15 pace and finish at 6:30 — we want it the other way, finishing faster than you start, because that's what we've got to practise. That's the mistake a lot of people make — starting too fast and finishing too

\[39:27\] slow. That's literally what I've been doing for fifteen months — out the gate hard, then gassed by the end, which is the opposite of what I should be doing. It's fun doing it this way, honestly — it's no different effort-wise to how you've been running, it's just structured a bit differently, and I think it makes the run go by quicker when you're thinking about doing this section or that section within it. You can stop — Liam can stop after 8 to 12K, have a gel, a sip of water, a few stretches, get back into it. It doesn't have to be

\[39:58\] one continuous effort where you can't stop — it's about practising those paces and practising getting a bit faster when you're tired. On that idea of stopping during the long run — that's another basic-runner-brain thing for me, I feel like I can't stop or I'm not getting the full benefit. Is it fine, in this programme, on the specific long run, at that 8 to 12K slower stretch, to stop and take a gel, have a stretch

\[40:32\] before starting the next 8 to 10K progression section? Yeah, a quick stop's fine — not ten minutes, but say a minute. That's it? Yeah, about a minute — it helps mentally too, you can break the run up better. Sometimes when you run it all straight through, you're not breaking it up in your mind, you're just going straight into the effort. I think you get better quality when you're mentally resetting for what you're about to do. But for the plain long run I'm giving you next weekend, that one's continuous, no stopping.

\[41:04\] That one's all at the same pace though — all around 5:00-per-K or slower. A couple more things on recovery, since Courtney wanted to make a point of covering it in this first episode — food, ice baths, Normatec, massage — what's your overall view on all that? I think sleep is the number-one thing for recovery. Making sure you're getting enough — with a tiny baby and a two-

\[41:35\] year-old, I don't get enough sleep, and it's the first time in my life I've gone, wow, I've never really struggled to sleep before. It's fine to have a big night occasionally, but it's more about trying to keep similar bed and wake times. I think ice baths are good, and you can make your own at home — even cold tap water is cold enough for some people, or a cold creek after a run, though probably not on the Gold Coast, it's not cold enough. Ice baths are good, contrast showers going hot to

\[42:07\] cold are good too. I'd rank deep tissue massage above Normatec boots, and then everything else after that. I never used Normatec myself, they weren't really around when I was competing, but I think all the other recovery stuff, if you've got time — sleep, good nutrition, good hydration, the simple things — I think that's the most important, plus deep tissue massage if you can get it, just generally looking after your body. How often, with massage,

\[42:38\] would you recommend? Once every few weeks if you can afford it, more if you have the time — but go to someone who actually knows what they're doing, that's a really important part of recovery, not one of those neon-sign places. On the ice bath and contrast thing — in a perfect world, is that something you'd do straight after finishing a run? If money or logistics

\[43:08\] weren't an issue, and you could finish your long run and go straight into an ice bath — is there still value doing it the morning after, or that kind of thing? Ideally it'd be on the days you do a hard or long run, even if it's just once a week — straight into an ice bath if you can, at home or wherever's easiest. It's harder in practice — I haven't done that myself since I stopped competing professionally, running around after my two-year-old and everything.

\[43:38\] So it's one of those things that's easier in theory than in practice. I've done contrast showers instead, because it's easier — you might shower after a long run, do a bit of cold, a bit of hot, back and forth — and I think that helps too. Cool. There are levels to how far you want to take it, and it's a choice. That's it, choice. I feel like this is the start — or the end of the start, really the start. Anything from your perspective, Bronte? You've been thrown into the deep end of

\[44:10\] all this — but as Benita said, you sound like one of the more well-prepared beginners she's coached in a while, which is great. Can you lay out your goal for us? On marathon day, I'm not going in with any pace in mind — as I said to Benita, I just want to be able to say I finished it, without stopping, running the entire way, with as little injury along the way as

\[44:45\] possible. I think if I'd told this Bronte sixteen months ago, hey, just so you know, you're going to run the Gold Coast Marathon — she'd be in shock. So I have to remind myself of that a lot when I start getting big ideas — just get it done, just finish it. You told us at the start how you got into running —

\[45:15\] what drives you to run now? The marathon's obviously a motivation and a goal, but what do you love about running itself? I love the mental clarity it gives me. I could be completely overwhelmed by a day, with work, with everything going on, and running — even though those thoughts don't disappear, and I think a lot while I run, listening to music but constantly thinking — it puts things into

\[45:45\] perspective. I'll be re-running conversations, or thinking through things for the radio show, and it's amazing how running just clears out the noise around all of it. I've never experienced anything like that outside of deep meditation — running's become my new meditation, which is so good for the old noggin. Yeah, that's cool, that's exciting. So the goal is to not stop —

\[46:17\] finish with a smile on my face. Might be negotiable on the smile. No — if you're finishing, you'll be smiling, doesn't matter what state you're in, you'll be smiling. Where I run, there's one last street before I get home, and on long-run days, or when I'm not feeling it, I picture that as the last 400 metres of the Gold Coast Marathon, and I picture people I know on the sides of the road. Maybe the old noggin isn't as good

\[46:47\] as I thought — but I just imagine how good this is going to feel on the day. Visualisation. Yeah, big visualisation, that's amazing. Alright, and how are you feeling, Liam, going in? Genuinely apprehensive — not so much out of self-doubt, more just knowing the challenge I've set myself with this time goal, the reality check we had last episode, where you basically said

\[47:17\] it's going to be really tough. I'm okay with that. I've had a bit of a back-and-forth in my mind — on one side, well, we can always reassess. On the competitive side, the flame hasn't quite gone out, the part of me going, nah, stuff that, I've set myself this challenge. I could sidestep and say, maybe sub-three's a 2026 goal instead. But then in my head I'm

\[47:47\] going, no — I've put it out there so I can hold myself accountable, and now I've got you, Benita, setting this out for me. I've got the best possible setup to try and achieve it this year, so why wouldn't I start with the goal of actually achieving it? I guess the week off after Kunanyi has given me a little self-doubt too, because a week off running is as long as I've had off in a long time. So there's a little seed of doubt about whether my body's in as good shape as I thought it

\[48:18\] was — but I guess we'll find out. Yeah, over these first couple of weeks, we'll see how you're travelling, and if we need to reassess, we will, and if we don't, hopefully we push on. I'm excited, but genuinely nervous and apprehensive about trying to break three hours. Don't be too hard on yourself — that was a tough race, Kunanyi, a proper tough mountain race, you were always going to feel like that off the back of it. Why'd you make me do it, then? It was fun.

\[48:51\] It was fun. Can I ask you something? On marathon day, going for this goal, do you think you'll know straight away whether it's going to happen, or are you just manifesting it — telling yourself, I'm going to do it? I'm not quite at the manifesting-confidence stage, no. I guess — not to sidestep your question, but I'll defer it to Benita — do you think I'll

\[49:24\] know on the day whether I can achieve it or not? I think you'll know from the training you've done. With running, I don't think times just happen — it's about the work and the training you've put in, and the performance speaks for itself. If you've done the training and you know in your mind, I've done these runs, I know I can do this, I can break three hours, whatever the goal is — you'll be able to do it. But it's one of those things where you can't cram it in the last

\[49:56\] week before the race, that's not going to help. Even with the best mind coach in the world — I haven't run properly for almost a year since having my second baby, and I couldn't break four hours for a marathon at Gold Coast right now even if I tried, even though it was a twenty-year career for me. So it's about doing the work and having the confidence, but also having the right people around you to advise you. That's a better answer than “manifesting it.” We are so lucky. You can't get lucky

\[50:27\] in a marathon. No, that's true — you can't just go and have a lucky day. But I think that's reassuring, when we're out doing all these runs feeling exhausted — on the day, when we get there at a ridiculous hour on Sunday morning, we'll know we can do it, because we've done the work to get there. You've talked about the race being the victory lap — all the training is the hard part. I think you stole that line from Benita last episode. Did I? That's how we finished it — treat it as a victory

\[50:59\] lap. Check on tape, check. I know we're giving Benita credit for everything else, but I reckon that one's mine. Well, the exciting thing is everyone listening at home can follow along, because we're going to track this whole journey, all the trials and tribulations, and you'll learn a lot along the way, same as I am. So again — Lace Up Running, if you're enjoying the insight from Benita, go check out the coaching business. If you've got something in mind, maybe it's not the Gold Coast Marathon, maybe it is — either way, you'll learn something, you can check it all out there. If you're in your own training

\[51:31\] block for the Gold Coast Marathon, let us know how yours is going, slide into the DMs with any questions, and we can work some through in future episodes. Until then, Bronte — good luck with week one. Thank you, very excited to get through it. We'll be fine, in good hands. That's it, enjoy the process. And we'll see you next week. See you next week.