Well Courtney, it is very exciting, the Gold Coast Marathon as we countdown with this, we've got the programmes in place, we're going to be following along with it. But we need someone to steer us through this 12 weeks. And it is an absolute pleasure and privilege to introduce not only the person that is going to guide me through this 12 week programme, but also the very first guest, four in the beginning, the greatest distance runner in the history of this country. What a way to start.
Benita Willis, how are you? Thanks. Yeah, that's pretty good intro though. I'm pumped to be the the 1st guest. I I thought I might have been like, yeah. So, yeah, thank you. Very, very special. But I mean, look off the bat, both born in Mackay, Yep, both went to Olympics and that's where the that's where about Benita over there has a lot more accolades than me. So 4 Olympic Games, we're in London and Beijing together. Yeah. You're running marathons at that
stage. And then the prior to you were 5010 thousand, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, the first Olympics I did was Sydney and I was 5 Ki thought I was going to be in the 1500 and I just missed the team and I was just like so pissed off that I thought I'm just going to try my first 5K and I just did the trials and won the trial. And yeah, was in the Sydney Olympics of 5K and then moved up to 10K in Athens and marathon in the last.
Two sorry, that's crazy. That's how you made your first Olympic team. Yeah. Yeah. Out of frustration. Yeah, I was just, yeah. And in those days you could just show up to the like. These days you've got to qualify to be actually in the trials, but in those days you could just do it. And so I just thought, yeah, I
wanna just. And I knew I was fast, but you know, I'd been training for the 1500s so I just thought I'd give the five KA crack, even though I reckon 7 of the girls had the qualifier and I didn't have a qualifier. So I ran the qualifier in the trials to to make the team. But I was a hockey player before that. So I didn't, you know, I didn't really think that I was that good of a runner. I just sort of, you know, I just, I just trained a lot and just thought, thought see how it
goes. I know we've got so many. I know we've got so much stuff we want to get to here, Bonita, but I just need to stop down here for a second. So hold on. You're a hockey player who could run a bit. You focused on running. You've been training for 1500. You miss out on qualifying for the Olympics. Where was the 5K time trial? Where were the the qualifier held? Or it was like literally I think a day or two after the 1500
final. So it was all in Sydney, yeah, Bush and the 1500 heats were sort of one day, then the final might have been two days later and then the 5K final was a few days after that. So I must have entered it, you know, but. The odd and this. Would be 1920. Yeah. Young. Yeah. 19 or 20. Yeah. And I just thought, look, if I can keep up, I can outsprint all these girls in the last lap, even though I never said I would never have said that to anyone.
But in my mind I knew I was faster than all those girls, 'cause all the fast girls were in the 1500s. They, they I wasn't up against them. Do you? Remember how much you won the trial by. I can't a few seconds, but I remember the girls were pretty annoyed that I beat because like they would have all been expecting to, yeah, to win. There's nothing worse like a little, you know the the little tacker comes along and beats her too. You know when you're in that position.
The 'cause I do a radio show with Liesel Jones, who qualified for that those same games at the age of 14. She was 15 by the time the games run around. But I just love the Gordon. Can you imagine the idea of today and any any athlete anywhere in the world suddenly going. I missed out on qualifying in my discipline 2 days. I'll just have a crack at this. This other event that goes for 2 1/2 times much better. They breed them tough in North Queensland mate, That's right.
That's right, yeah. And look, you know, I was running in bare feet on the track until I was like 14 or 15. So I think for me it wasn't something that, you know, I was worried about just having a go and and I was always good in when I was the underdog in races. So grass track. Oh, you were running the tartan and. Barton Yeah, I used to put it, put tape over my big toe. I told you and then I was. Queensland, you know. What? Yeah. What do you you what?
Why? I just hated shoes, and I didn't even wear shoes to school until high school. But I think I was a bit rough. A bit, yeah. Yeah, I'm not afraid that. We we, we talk 'cause we always talk about making cross country great again. Right. Cause 'cause yeah. What I noticed up in, you know, central QLD, North Queensland, even now, schools still really, you know, put on a pedestal cross country, right. Was that the same when you were in Mackay 'cause I literally left Mackay as a baby.
So I claim I was born in Mackay, but yeah, that's where it ends. But soft, I'm soft. Yeah, I was something, What is it? SE Queensland soft but running running cross country as a kid were you going up to Cairns and racing all the different schools? Yeah, yeah. So we did a lot of racing. I usually clash with the hockey season, so I usually did like districts and then I reckon I did states once for cross country throughout my whole high school.
But I remember particularly this one cross country, we had to run around cane fields and it was poorly marked and everyone got lost and I was winning and I got lost. So then they reran it on the beach, which is not really cross country, but like up and down, like on at low tide. But like, yeah, it was quite funny because yeah, cross country was one thing that I loved. But yeah, it was really, and I was that was really scared of not of like not knowing where to go because they were always
poorly marked. But once you get into world cross and stuff, you know where to go. So it's a bit easy. We haven't even got to why you're the best ever Australian, what distance runner in the world, But we'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, but now what I'm interested in is then when did you actually convert shoes? Yeah, and why? Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I reckon. I had to wear them in high school, so that was one reason. But I hate, I still hated running in them.
I would have wore them. I I've seen photos of me running when I was in year 9/10/11 and 12 in spikes and I reckon old waffles you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those old knives? Did you have those? The green like the green tick waffles. Yeah, I used to wear that everywhere. So Nike were the first usual. Yeah, yeah. And I used to wear that the Air Max for hockey with the with the, you know, the with. The bubble, yeah. What everyone's what everyone's rolling around now?
Just all back in fashion now St style. So do you we are going to get to the more of the accolades and I want to hear about your transition through distances. But I have a theory that certain people are just aliens and born. Who's my cycling mate? Richie Port. Richie Port, you know, one of Australia's greatest service Rd cyclists who went and jumped in the pool the other week and did a hundred, a hundred efforts because he's just a freak.
And did you always have is the endurance in the family work? Like where did the interest in running and this ability come from? Yeah, I don't don't think there's endurance in our family. Like a lot of people talk about family trees of this person's gone to the Olympics of this person. There's not none of that. But my parents, my especially my mum was real competitive at sport, but mainly like things like tennis and jumping and
sprinting and stuff like that. So, yeah, I don't even know where it came from, to be honest. And my sister was, she's been in a few world champs teams in sprinting in four hundreds. Yeah. So she's, you know, she's got she's got those fast twitch fibres that I never had. But yeah, I, I honestly, I don't really know. Yeah, right. And I never grew up thinking I was going to be, you know, a late sports person or, or anything like that. I just thought, oh, I'll just go to uni and get a job.
And yeah, so it was one of those things that I think it's sort of and, and even when I went to the Australian Institute of Sport after year 12, I still did uni full time because I was still like doubting that I'd ever be an athlete, that I'd be good enough. Really. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't, it wasn't that I didn't believe in myself, but I just didn't. Yeah, it was one. It was something that I just didn't think that, yeah, that I'd be good enough to do. This would be a a life or a
career for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was, I was doing uni being to become a teacher, but I've never actually had a real job so. That's a good way to be that's. A nice way to live. Have you had a real job? Liam No, but I had AI, had a brief job, yeah, I had some real jobs for a while.
I went to uni as well, but again, that was more out of not knowing what I wanted to do. So just quickly on that then, at what point did you was it at that first Olympic Games where you go, oh, maybe this could be a thing for me? Yeah, it was funny actually, because in Sydney Olympics I just missed the final. So I did a PB in my heat and I led the heat for probably maybe 8 laps or so.
And it was like the loudest I've ever, you know, that stadium even, you know, the opening ceremony, the loudest noises I've ever heard from people cheering and stuff. But I finished that, almost made the final. I finished that Olympics thinking I'm just not good enough. Like I don't, I don't know if I'm gonna keep going. That's when you walked away. Yeah. Yeah. And I should have, you know, Yeah, I should have been more
positive. I like, I think I just, I just put a lot of pressure on myself and I thought I could, I could be in that final. And as it's turned out, Sydney Olympics was my best Olympics. Like all my other three were rubbish. I never got it right for the other 3 Olympics. Courtney knows. Yeah, yeah. And I've. Yeah. And I've yeah. So. So one of those things that people just think arts and Olympics, you're gonna be at
your best. And I always thought that when I was young, like how can you not do a PB at the Olympics? But as you get older, you realise things happen and, you know, every four years it's so hard to get it all right and the conditions as well. So, yeah, I walked away thinking, I don't know, don't know if I want to keep doing this. And it wasn't until the next year, 2001, that I, I came six at the world indoors. And then I thought, wow, I could actually be, you know, a
challenger at the world level. And it was after that run at the world Indoors that that I thought, jeez, you know, I'm up there and could give a few things a crack. I mean, let's get back one step. So hockey running, like what was the catalyst to go towards running? Because like, like you trained with Nick, with Nick Paddeau, I know you're Motrim, you're with Motrim a lot of that time as well. But like where when you're a kid up in Mackay? And how did it all happen?
Yeah, so with the hockey, I was actually in the Sydney Olympic squad for a few years and I was sort of, I was in Australian teams for hockey. So I was really probably more of, I won a few national titles in athletics in year 1011 and 12 in the 8 and 15. But I was definitely probably going more towards the hockey direction. Like I went to South Africa for a Four Nations tournament for hockey in year 12. And but then they introduced an offside rule and I was a striker.
And so really all that was in hockey was people just smashed the ball at you and you just tried to get a deflection in my position to score. And so I didn't, I don't know, I sort of lost a bit of interest after that thinking that look, I've got a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport for running. I just wanna see how good I can get. But I also do uni full full time. And with the hockey, I think I couldn't have done uni full time.
Like hockey is a lot. You gotta spend a lot more hours a day training. But I would have to go to Perth, so that's when I thought I can just get a uni degree for free and, you know, see if I can be a better runner. So it was sort of at that point in year 12, I thought I just want to try something with the running because I'd never actually trained. I'd only trained 3, three months a year for running up until that point because hockey was the
rest of the year. Yeah. So I just thought I just want to see how good I can get it at running. I love the idea that hockey, This one rule change robbed them of Benita Willis. This offside rule is what robbed them of Benita Willis, a hockey player, and and gave and gave running Benita Willis the runner. But then at the Olympics, I remember the closing ceremony, we won the gold medal at Sydney Olympics in hockey. And I remember one of the girls,
they were all drunk. But she, one of the girls in the team said to me, aren't you know, aren't you disappointed you weren't in this team to get the gold medal? And I said to her, look, I'm glad. I'm glad I've been running. Like, you know, I don't care about the gold medal because I'm glad I'm in this other sport that, you know, that I've really found a passion for. Even though I was a bit pissed off with how I ran, even though I was, looking back, it was my best Olympics.
I'm just, it's always, always so. I love this idea that you've walked away from that first Olympic Games with that not bitter taste in your mouth, but thinking you've underperformed and did maybe thinking I might never get back there again. Yeah, yeah. Like I, I didn't know, yeah, what was going to, what was going to go on. And I'd really spent quite three years training a lot. I went to the World Juniors, I think I went to World University games, but they're like just
drinking really. You don't really miss that much. So yeah. And yeah, I think I still had a lot to learn as far as like, you know, a lot more training to go and a lot more to learn in the sport. So. Yeah. So after that I just thought I just, I didn't know where I was going to go. But it was 2001 really was a big year for me. And yeah, really helped me believe a bit more. You were training out of the AIS at that stage, out of Canberra and who was coaching. Dick Telford. Dick Telford.
Yeah, yeah. And he, he did a fantastic job. And that was sort of, I learned really how to train properly then I'd never run twice a day before. I'd never done warmups that were more than like 5 minute jogs. I didn't know much about sessions. Like there were so many, never had anyone much to train with. And when I went to Canberra I was living with like a few other
runners. There's all these runners living in Group houses and you know, some of the guys were repeating year 12 and they were in our squad and then some people were at uni and like it was all sorts of people from across Australia and they don't have those programmes anymore. But without that, I would never would have sort of focus more on running. And you know, we had nutritionists, we had massage, we had physio.
I never had any treatment or never knew anything about yeah, what to do with with anything really. So. It really helps me. This is all after you'd been to an Olympic Games. Yeah, yeah, oh, and and yeah, and in the lead up to yeah, but like. No, but this idea that you just you know, that you've got you go to an Olympics and then it's almost like, yeah, you you're getting to a grand final and then the next season someone's teaching you how to kick and
drop punt. Like it's just this notion that you've achieved what is a life goal for so many athletes, and then I better learn how to do this properly, I guess, if I'm going to compete on the world stage like this. It's an amazing story. No, thanks. Yeah. And look, it was it was one of those things, but it's just I was always really hard on myself and it was probably why I had the really high highs of my career. But then I had plenty of lows as
well. And it's one of those things that I think to get those brilliant performances, you've got to put that a bit of pressure on yourself and you've got to be willing to risk, risk a fair bit and don't move into Canberra and you know, and take and running a bit more was a fair a fairly big risk, you know, and I was from Mackay. I hated running in tights or any, any sort of clothes. Oh yeah. I hate, I hate running in like extra. I just want to wear like a
singlet and shorts all the time. I never even wore running proper running clothes like bike pants. I always wore these like Woody sort of shorts that my mom used to make, like sort of like they look like running shorts. But yeah, I never, I never looked legit. You don't, you don't even think of these things like moving to Canberra from North Queensland and then just the weather itself. And why did they ever build the I mean, we know why because it's
a government place. But yeah, of all places to build the Australian Institute of Sport in the coldest winter place you can imagine, even like thinking being a rower or something out there. What? Yeah, I still feel sorry for the rowers. Yeah. Out on that lake, Billy Gryphon, whatever it is, they they should move the AIS here just as a as a side point. The Gold Coast is where the AIS should be, surely. Well, I don't. This is my satellite spots. No, but the whole thing should
base be based here. This is if you're an elite athlete, the Gold Coast has got to be the best place in Australia to train on a full time basis. It's it's pretty good, but it's it's too hot in summer. That's yeah, yeah, too humid. For just runners or you think
for everyone? Oh. No, I think for just runners, but I mean, Michael Shelley did it. There's a few people and there's some guys in Brisbane that are like Liam Bowden, like some really guys that are coming up really well training in Brisbane. The Gregsons are living in Brisbane now as well. But yeah, I always found the heat and humidity quite hard in summer, Right. But having said that, I was only usually in Australia a few
months a year. After 2001, I was living in overseas, living in London a lot. So, you know, Yeah. And Forest Creek. Quick segue, why did you move to the Gold Coast in the end then? How did you end up here? Yeah. So I met this guy Anthony, who's legend guy online in 2018. Yeah. And he's, yeah. And he was living here and I was living in Brisbane and yeah, and we sort of thought, I thought I'd love to live on the Gold Coast. Check it out.
So yeah, that's why, yeah, we've been together since 2018 and got a couple of kids and a very young baby now. And now you just figured out you're actually neighbours with Liam. Yeah. We were just talking before we started recording that we actually live very close to each other. Yeah, Not less about me, more about you. Your first Olympics got the sense of makai, you're taking this seriously now you're at the IAS, you're into the can we?
How was life for you as a professional runner like when you fully embrace this life of Yep, I'm doing a degree, but I'm also this. I'm lent into this. I've left hockey behind. Those gold medalists from 2000 can get stuffed. I'm focusing in on on my running career now. How did you, you know, once you took said, yeah, this is my future. How was it? What was it? What did it feel like to be a professional runner in your early 20s? Yeah, look, I mean, it was, it
was pretty good. Yeah. Look, I, I think, you know, the competitions and going to the different places is fantastic, but there's a lot of times where you sort of feel fairly isolated, like at training camps, if you get injured, things like that. When things aren't going well, it's hard, really hard. But when things are going well, it's fantastic. So it's sort of a bit of AI always think it's a bit of a roller coaster, like a lot of elite athletes.
It looks awesome all the time, but behind the scenes it it, it's tough and injuries are are tough. Illness is tough. My father got quite sick during my career and passed away in 2008 and that was really tough. So it's not just physical things that happened to you, but personal things as well. Can be, can be really hard.
So I think to be a professional athlete and have enough money to be able to compete, have a really good contract, very few people in Australia in, in athletics get to do like most people in athletics are doing another job and they're trying to compete, trying to go to Europe, trying to race, and then they've got to get back for work. And, you know, I never had to do that. So I'm, I feel very fortunate to be able to do that.
But yeah, I, you know, and I mostly lived in the UK, in London, probably probably 6 or 8 years. And then I lived in Boulder in Colorado for the last sort of four years. So I always lived overseas and, and coming back to Australia for a few months a year. So, but in those days all the races were in Europe. They were, you know, in America, Gold Coast Marathon wasn't, wasn't as big as it is now. And the focus on the elite athletes wasn't, wasn't there either.
So I didn't do these races in Australia much because I got paid to run in other countries. And when it's your career and your livelihood and you're already living in those countries too, it just makes sense to do them rather than doing Australian. Is that the, and pardon my ignorance on this, Courtney, you can weigh in on this. Is that what it's like still for our track athletes and our endurance athletes? Is it, is it still you got a good move overseas to to have a career?
Oh, it's so many more opportunities now. There's so much more money in in the sport here and you see a lot of our good runners. They're sort of they're they're doing a lot of the road racing seasons they're doing, you know, some of our athletics mates, you know, that are on now. But but still the bigger money is overseas, like the big marathons. That's why I've never run a marathon in Australia, but I've run quite a number of ones overseas and the appearance money and that kind of thing.
It's still bigger over there than than it is here. But I think it's the interest to as well and the TV ratings and and that kind of thing. And also, you know, sometimes in your contract you've got stuff like I was a Nike fleet in my contract. I had to do certain Nike meets that were all overseas. You know, one year I had to go to do a race in, in Spain, in Madrid on New Year's Eve at 10K.
And it was fantastic. But it was in my contract to do it. And it was sort of running up to this football stadium and it was like Tour de France. People are literally if you're a metre of running space and throwing confetti and stuff at you and fireworks at you. And then we had this 12 course theatre. That night and so like they're cool meets.
Like that's amazing. Yeah, and one you had to do Prefontaine when I was training for Chicago Marathon, Prefontaine's had to run a 1500, you know, leading up to when I ran 222, but it was in my contract to run that Nike meet. So, you know, sometimes it's part of a contract.
But I think there is more opportunity in Australia and I, I really wish I had have run more Australian races to have more of a profile in Australia. Looking back, I think it's a good thing that a lot of these Australian athletes, and I'm talking distance runners, yeah, are racing more in Australia to give themselves a really good profile. And I think that's great for the sport.
And I, I, yeah, I wish I had have done more of that, but 20 years ago the opportunities probably weren't as great. That's what they have now did. You get to spend a bit of time at the Nike in a headquarters. Yeah, yeah, get all the shoes stuff and like you get this shopping trolley and they just say OK, get whatever you want and you just go and put it on. Just through the big warehouse. Yeah, yeah. And then you just pile them in, put them all in bags and.
Completely wasted on Bonita 'cause she doesn't like shoes or clothes, but walking through like every, every, you know, average person like me's dream. Having carte blanche through the Nike warehouse. So how long were you for with Nike? I would say probably 1210 years. Years, yeah. So most of my career, yeah. And look, I just used to race everything in the steeplechase spikes. So I don't know if you knew them
but they had all holes in them. I used to do cross country in them and like just strap them on with strapping tape so I didn't wear socks but and like 10K's I used to do steeplechase spikes like everything so. Just 'cause you preferred. It or yeah, yeah. And like I used to race in the smallest racing flats like Courtney would have been the same. And so these days I haven't even tried the Super shoes. I just don't think I'm fit enough to try. Them now you know how I feel.
I've got a pair of alpha he's got. A pair of alpha flies in a box. He hasn't. Taken out. Taken out because I don't feel worthy to run in them well. Yeah, like I just think, I just think, you know, for me to try them, I've got to get fitter than I have, you know, and the fittest I've been is when I've been running with the running pram with my daughter.
I was doing 80 KS a week with the running pram and I almost brought some and then I accidentally got pregnant with my. Son, I don't want to leave. I don't want to. I don't want to leave this part of your career yet. Go kick. No, we've got to get to the main result yet because it's it gets bigger than this, I know, but what was your favourite? I'm interested because like a lot of the people who listen as well are always interested in shoes.
So what was your favourite model of Night Trainer? Yeah, I'm trying to think are the Kintanas I think they're called, They were like a racing flat, like a a Japanese looking one. So you train in. Oh, no, I used to race in them. Yeah, and I used to train. I'm trying to think what I used to train in. Because around that time you would add vomero still structure. Yeah, structure I used to wear a lot. Yeah, yeah. And they actually came, got better models as they went
through. But I didn't really care too much like about exactly what shoes. What I did is always wore different shoes to to cycle sort of the different stresses around. So maybe I might wear structure trikes in the morning and then a different sort in the afternoon, right. If if I was doing 2 easy runs. Yep. And then I used to mainly always do racing flats, 4 sessions and then sometimes spikes, yeah. Just mixing it up, we always helped with the injury prevention.
Yeah. And like Paula Radcliffe designed the Nike Marathon, our shoe, and I used to race in that and wear that a lot too. The only thing with that it was when the the if the roads were a bit wet from rain, it was a bit slippery. So you had to, if it was if I was racing a like a marathon that was going to be wet, I had to change shoe. Yeah, right. Yeah, just especially if it had like he like city marathons with all the white lines. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. But like they were the thinnest
shoes like. Yeah, it's crazy to think where it was and where it's gone to. Yeah, yeah. There's everything you've said, so many things, it's just popping off things in my head of questions I want to ask this so we haven't even Courtney, get to what you want to get to. I know where you want to go. I want to go I. Want to get to cross country, of course, but no before cross country because you mentioned about the the times and then I suppose the the evolution of shoes now.
So you were to recently the Australian marathon record holder, so 22236 and you did that in 2006. Yep, Yep. You're still second on the all time Australian list and Sinead's gone, you know, just what is it? Just around a minute quicker. But that was everything else and I looked at the top ten list. They're all done in super shoes. Yeah, yeah.
What do you think, 'cause like I'm the same, I raced back then without super shoes and I'm comparing you compare now to what's going on with super shoes. Do you have an idea? What do you think about them? Yeah. Look, I, I obviously, I think if I, if that, if I had access to them, you know, I would have obviously raced in them. But I think super shoes really help with like the recovery from training as well. So I reckon, I reckon they help obviously with competing.
But I mean, if yeah, if I could have worn them, I would have. So anyone these days you know? I you can't not wear them right because it's a performance benefit. But I also think like I remember doing some of those longer marathon type sessions in the little tiny paper thin shoes and you know, you could hardly walk for the rest of the day. It took a few days to recover before you could train hard
again. Whereas like with the Super shoes, I think you can sort of just take one day and you're feeling really good. So I think their recovery from training helps with them as well, which is a big thing for a lot of athletes. Like not getting sore between big sessions to pull up. OK for, for the next one I've got to do. But I mean, from what people have told me, they do help and they, they do make you faster. But I, I, I think it's that top elite level.
Like, I don't think, you know, if you're someone that's doing a marathon for the first time and you want every advantage you can get, you know, I'd be looking at, you know, not making sure you train too hard and, you know, pacing and all that stuff before looking at super shoes, if you know what I mean. We're gonna have plenty of, plenty of time and plenty of weeks to get deep in here. We saw, we saw the curtain pull back. I know Benita was the coach for a moment. Just got we'd.
Ahead of us. We don't want to get there just quickly. Yeah, if I if you knew in that Chicago Marathon, hypothetically, because Usain Bolt said before the Tokyo Olympics, if he was allowed to run in the shoes that the sprinters were running in at those games, he would have broken 9 seconds for the 100. Hypothetically, what do you think you could have run in a super shoe? Yeah, look, it's that's a hard
one. I went out in 7010 through halfway, and I ran 22236. I blew up a little bit, but it was really windy. I think the wind chill was like -6 and I had some Russian girls swearing at me because I was trying to like, run behind them. So like, because I didn't want to head the win in the second half of the race. So I don't know if that race was like the best race to run fast, but I, I'm hoping I could have run faster.
But having said that, though, with these girls now, now you've got, you know, Sinead, you've got Izzy, you've got Jess, there's so Jen Greggs and so many, there's so many girls pushing each other. But when I was running, you know, Lisa Rondeke had the record, there was no one pushing each other to, to run faster and faster. So I feel like the competition, like obviously I think the shoes help, but the competition I think these days is, is fantastic in helping them get faster.
So I don't wanna put a number on it. Yeah. And I I I think I underperformed that. I'll put a number on it, I reckon you would have got under 220, but that's just quite completely uneducated opinion. Now we're gonna, we're gonna get onto the marathon now for it. It's audio first, So most people listen to us through audio, but I'm gonna show Benita a photo. And I'm assuming this was world Cross. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Liam, give us a description of what you're looking at. So.
For those that can't see it, you're staring at an image where there is probably a dozen women in this photo and there is one Caucasian and that's Benita Willis out in front of what looks to be Kenyans and Ethiopians behind you. Just a a peloton of them behind you or packed behind you. It's such an iconic show. It's an amazing, amazing image. What is that? I mean, yeah.
I mean, I'm gonna let me let me get my little spin out because you I'm riding thinking you are the only Australian ever to win a gold medal in a distance, like a world championship distance running event. Yeah, male and female. Yeah, yeah, in. Yeah, in cross country. Yeah, in. Cross country. Anything in marathons? Halves. Yeah, I think we've done like Deke, this is 1 Dicks. Yeah, Yeah, a couple kind of thing. One is, yeah. 100% the only one, yeah.
Female tour, Yeah. And in cross country, no ones ever won a medal. We've got team medals. No medals at all. No other medals go this is and this and This is why we're like, I mean, I'm super excited too, just to chat to you about this because it's something that's well for Australians anyway. It's just unheard of, right? And it's just such a unique situation to see you in, in that, in that iconic image as well.
Take us through what you were. I mean, you won, but what you were thinking at that kind of stage. Yeah, no. And I'm the last non African to win as well so it's a long time since. So it's over 20 years. Yeah, yeah. So it's heavily dominated obviously by Africans. So how that's what that's what we. Want to know how? Like, I'll go back to 2003. It was in France and I remember I could see like, And I was in the short course race and I was gonna win a medal.
I thought I was gonna win a medal. And you know, when you're running and there's nothing you can do, you can't run any faster. At the end, I could see these two shadows coming up beside me and it was these two Africans. And I went, you know, from 3rd to 5th like that. And I was just so pissed off that whole year. And I, I had a really good year in 2003. But that that thought in my mind just annoyed me because I almost got a medal and I didn't. And so I had to wait for the next year.
And I think that really psyched me up to, to try to, you know, get a medal the next year. And I remember racing Derata Tulu, who's the top Ethiopian. She won the 10K in Sydney Olympics. I raced her at a cross country in Japan not long before World Cross, and I beat her. But we were warming down afterwards and she was asking me, Benita, what are you doing at World Cross?
And I said, I'm doing the 8K. And she was, like, pumped because she said, I'm doing the 4K, so I don't want to race you. And I was thinking in my head like, these chicks won the Olympics and she doesn't want to race me. And that gave me a lot of confidence going into the World Cross that I was in good shape. And I had these people who were the best in the world not wanting to race me. And for me, too, I never talked about what I was going to do.
So it was always like something I thought what I, I could do, but my plan in that race was just to make sure I kept up. And a lot of other cross countries, I'd sort of lose contact in the third quarter. So you know, it's, it's that sort of between 4:00 to 6:00 K, they would get away from me a bit in an 8K. So, and it was a good course for me. It was 2K laps. It was a massive hill at the start.
It was muddy. It was one of those one of those days where you had to sort of wear like 1314 mule spikes and you get them in with pliers and then I had to strap my shoes on with strapping tape. One of those, one of those sort of races. And the Africans, they weren't, yeah, they weren't happy because it was, you know, not, it was a bit raining a bit and stuff like that.
But, you know, you get out hard. But I just kept, you know, kept in the pack for the first couple of laps and that, that third lap. So between 4:00 and 6:00 K, they were sort of getting away from me, so I had to really bridge the gap. And then in the last lap, that's when I decided to just go for it on the big hill because I felt like in the third lap that weren't very good on the big hill. And so I had a gap.
So I had 1500 to go with a gap and I was like freaking out because I'm like, Gee, I'm winning world. Cross. You know, and I've got all these people trying to chase me down and, and I was just thinking about the year before and I just didn't want that to happen. And it was one of those things too, that I had a plan in my mind. And my coach said to me just, you know, the first 3 laps, just get them done.
And in that last lap when you make your move, it's like, you know, you're hanging from a 20 Storey building. And if he's got to hang on and hang on onto these monkey bars until someone like slides a mattress on the ground and then you can let go and you know, you won't die. And so just think like that in the last lap when you've got a break. And so I was thinking about that too. And I always liked analogies when I was running, like I was never one for splits.
I never looked at split times. I didn't even race with a watch. I was one of those people that just ran on feel like even in all my marathons, never cared about split times. So cross country I love because it's about the terrain and the and the competition. Yeah.
And I was hurting. Like it was like, I remember finishing that race and it was the hardest, you know, that the the sickest I ever felt at the end, as in like it was really hard, even felt way worse than when I finished marathons. But I think it's the emotion of winning. But also when you're leading a race like that and you know, you know, you don't, you just want to get to the finish. But yeah, what? What's up?
What's the I mean, you've said it's you're the last non African to win the race, I imagine before you with that knowing you're probably one of the few non Africans to have won that race anyway, what was the reaction to you winning the race? Oh yeah, at the end they didn't even have the Australian anthem like the SO can they? That's great. So. Unexpected I can. Go straight into the head of the event organisers. There and gone. Oh, alright, well, let's can you.
Yeah, we got it ready to go. Yeah, we got it. Probably don't need Australia now. You can leave that one. So was there. Did they organise it? Well, like, I think in those days they had them on tapes, right? And it's like, yeah. And I think they were just like, oh, no. Like we're, we're gonna, we're gonna get this someone, just. Standing around asking do they all know to sing the Australia Hummer? We'll take a Hummer. Oh my gosh.
OK. And the Ethiopian girls that came second and third were like pretty pissed, like just because they always win and they're probably watching me in the race, probably didn't think I was going to win. And I was. I was also going into the race just hoping to get a medal and not putting pressure on winning. But I knew that if I was in a good spot in the last lap, I could win. So it was one of those things that I'd been so close in quite a number of years before that.
So yeah, I just think that they they just didn't like someone beating them from a country like, and was it? Then the days after and the weeks after, because you are known within the distance running ranks, yeah. Did you then find yourself on another level in terms of, I don't know, offers of opportunities to do stuff or what happened next for your career? Yeah, yeah. Like, and I remember and these were before, you know, you had, you know, smartphones and stuff.
I went into like a like, like a, you know, a place where you get on computers the next day just to look up some emails and stuff and Internet cafe, Yeah. Internet cafe, Yeah. And I saw some like, yeah, some things about, about me online. And then people were recognising me and it was pretty cool. And yeah, it was one of those things that in the UK, in America, especially in the UK and across Europe, across
countries, really big. So people were always recognising me and sort of, you know, saying congratulations. And I remember I had so much support in the crowd, not just from Aussies, obviously it was in Brussels, in Belgium, but from, you know, loads of different people. So yeah, it brought a lot of opportunity. Obviously bigger appearance money with contracts, bigger, bigger race and appearance money for like marathons, for cross countries, for anything like that.
So at the time I thought, oh, it's gold medal, that's great. And you know, you got some money from, I double F at the time, World Athletics for winning. And that's, I didn't think too much of the of what would happen down the track, but it would definitely help set up a a good career. And yeah, it was, yeah, yeah, something that I didn't, didn't expect at the time, but that really helped with, yeah, with future earnings and rest of you, yeah.
Nike gave you a second trolley for the warehouse push. You're allowed to go around and get extra stuff. Yeah. Well, it's yeah, it's one of those things that yeah. And if you're a world champion, they often just give you your own room at like meats and stuff like that. So the. Important. Stuff. You got a room. With randoms meats. Courtney, I know you want to ask more stuff about cross country. Do you want to you want to stay on cross country for a bit longer? That's not a story you hear
everyday. Keep going if you stay there, I keep asking. I there's so many, so many questions. I think I'm actually, I'm interested because obviously cross country, when you're growing up as a kid and you said you love the train, do you think that all came from being growing up out in a bit of like not
growing up in metro? Yeah. Because these days, you know, we're seeing a lot of the runners coming out of metropolitan areas specifically who are doing well, like they're either coming out of Melbourne or Brisbane. I might be wrong, but I'm not seeing a lot of regional runners suddenly popping up as distance runners in Australia now. Do you reckon that was your advantage, like part of the advantage in cross country that you've just grown up, you know, wild up in in Kai?
Yeah, and I think too. So I grew up running on the beach a lot, doing a lot of stuff in bare feet. And I think that really strengthens all your ligaments. And like I, I've never had injuries of like rolling my ankle or never, like different sorts of shoes have never bothered me, never had orthotics, never done biomechanical testing, never changed my style. I'm not in big and stretching or drills or anything like that.
So I feel like growing up and, and just getting a lot of incidental exercise really helped. Like I remember we used to ride to school and it was like 40 minutes or something on this main road in Mackay on the highway. And like, we just loved it. So what not on an E bike? No fat, no fat, no fat fish. No fat fish at all. Yeah, and. You know, backyard sport, you play, do stuff every hour until it gets dark and stuff. And it's like heavily, heavily, like I had two brothers and a sister.
So it's heavily contested and there's always fighting over who's winning and things like that. So I think that competitive aspect of, of who I am, but also so much exercise and but like fun exercise, like not organised stuff. And I think, you know, a lot of kids from some of the metro areas, they get a bit burnt out by, you know, the time they're finished year 12 because they've had a lot of opportunities, have had probably too much
competition. And they sort of get to the stage where they could be, you know, really increasing their training and getting, getting further along in their career if that's what they wanna do. But they just don't have the drive and enthusiasm. And I think sometimes I'm lucky because I sort of came from the aspect of what if I do more? What if, you know, I could be a bit better, but I don't know. So it's about like investigating stuff and, and trying things.
But also it's about risk taking too, I think. And you've got a lot of kids these days. I think they're scared to have a risk, take a risk because it, it might not pay off, you know, and it sucks. Yeah. The bit you just said there, and I know Courtney has told a story on the podcast previously about he'd never thought about the way he ran biomechanically. And then the one time then when when someone unlocked that door in his brain, I tried a training session.
It was an American. But if I recall correctly, American expert. You were never able to close it and you forever. Kind of the idea of once you think about how you're running, you can't get out of your head like, like nearly like a robot thinking, oh, that's how I do it. Before that, I never thought about it. And then I never could run this. I never thought about running the same again.
So it's like, refreshing to hear the fact that, you know, it's like when you're a kid and you start running and you just, it's just natural. Yeah, there's no real need to go and change that necessarily, right? Unless there's an issue or a problem or a challenge, the idea of just going and running like I say, that's a good sign. Doesn't run like you're a kid, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enjoy. That's. That's yeah, that's what I
always did. And you know, you look at a lot of athletes around the world and they don't maybe not necessarily have the best styles, but I don't think like you need to look picture perfect all the time, but spend hours in this in the labs, like working on technique. That's I'm not huge. I mean, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not about technique at all, really.
Would you obviously growing up up there with with your kids now, do you kind of see the, would you like to go and live regionally again at some level that bring them up in that environment or yeah, the metro environment?
Yeah, yeah, like I think you know that like that sort of sort of environment, like we're actually building a house in Blacks Beach on the beach in Mackay, like probably be a rental, but we we think we we might go up there for a year or two just while the before the kids start school. But yeah, it's one of those things that I really think regional areas are fantastic. And you just want to get out of
that, you know? Yeah, like everyone's got E bikes and get out of that fact that, you know, everything's so easy now, too. And I don't, I don't want, you don't want your kids growing up like that. But I'm an old parent too so might be a bit more old school
with my parents. We could sit here and, and continue to just walk through your athletic career and we and we'd never get bored of it. I do want to touch on because you're here to talk to us today, we're about you, but you're also going to be helping us with this marathon thing. Can you talk to me a bit about the marathon, your experience with it, when you first got into it, what it did for your running
career, all the rest of that? When when did you first decide when I'm going to go to marathon running now? Yeah, like it was probably, I probably didn't even decide. So it was after I won the World Cross in 2004 and you know, I got a really good appearance deal to do New York Marathon at the end of that year. And I thought it'd be a good opportunity because it's quite a hard race. It's it's got a lot of heels and be a good course for me.
And so, you know, I, I had a 2004 was a a pretty up and down year. I had some really good runs, terrible Olympics, but won the Great North Run, which is the biggest half marathon in the world. And then New York Marathon came around and I probably overtrained a little bit, probably didn't quite get things right and didn't go as well as I'd hoped.
But I came away from that thinking, you know, the marathon's a pretty cool, pretty cool event, but I don't know if I'm sort of there yet mentally and emotionally to to be good at it, to be world class at it. So I didn't do another marathon for a few years I think after that and I sort of just went back to cross country and, and shorter races. I mean, I think, no, I think I did. I did London Marathon in 2005 and ran a lot better. And then I didn't do many marathons for a little while.
So it's one of those things I think with the marathon, I didn't when, when, when I first did it, I didn't fall in love with it. I was sort of really still loving cross country and the shorter races and, and I just had so much respect for people that had run a lot of marathons and had that experience and were very good marathon runners because, you know, it's so hard to get everything right in a marathon. And I had no idea what to expect. Like I was coming from the
track. You look at a pace of a time you want to do when you come from the track and you say, oh, that pace is so slow compared to what I can do at 10K or half marathon. But when you actually do the marathon, you know, it's so many other factors that can go wrong and it's so much harder. And I didn't have, didn't have that respect and that sort of thought in my mind of, of how I'm gonna go on this roller coaster of emotions. So I'm quite, I'm, I'm hard at keeping my emotions steady.
I'm one of those people that I'm like all or nothing sometimes. And I, I have to really like. And that's good for the track and good for cross country because you get real fired up and they're only short races. But in the marathon you can't be really fired up all the time because it's such a long race. So I have to had to learn a lot of things. So I don't think I fell in love with it straight away. I think I started to enjoy it more after I'd done one or one
or two. But having said that, my best 1 was my third one. Do you know what's funny? Courtney is hearing Bonita talk about the marathons and the way she treated it initially is a bit like how I think some run influencers treat the marathons and they don't show it the appropriate respect that it deserves. Trade in. Yeah, get you ready for a marathon in four weeks. No worries. Sorry. Yeah, we'll get into all of that. We'll get into all of. That, but, yeah. And at the time I didn't.
But when you look back in your career, you know, I definitely didn't didn't give it the respect that it needed. Yeah. And then I suppose a progression, you know, obviously went on to run, you know, Olympic Games, all those marathons when what was the kind of the decision then the tipping point, obviously then give up, but, you know, move on to the next phase of your career and into the coaching. Yeah, yeah.
And like with the coaching, I never thought about coaching, but I've done teaching at uni and I really like helping people. And I was at a London Marathon one year and I can't remember which year it was, but I was injured and I was pretty annoyed because I was obviously injured. I wasn't running, but I was at the finish line and I was watching people finish and I saw all my friends and elite
athletes on you finish. And then I thought, oh, I'm just going to stay and see, you know, people finished that were going to break three hours and like, oh, I'll just stay to see the people that are going to break 4 hours. And it was just so awesome to see people like achieving something that they may never thought they could do or a
lifetime goal. And I think when you're an elite athlete, you don't, you just, you just think about yourself, you're quite selfish and you don't look past what, what, what it means to other people and, and the whole running thing and, and, and you know, something that you could, might do once in your life. And so when I saw this, I was like this. It would be amazing to help some of these people and sort of that's when I start thought, you know, I'd love to do some coaching.
And it was while I was still running a lot. So I did start a coaching business in America, in Boulder, in Colorado and I was doing a lot of coaching there. So it was sort of, I think it was at that race where I, I went, I went to the race and I was feeling pretty down because I wasn't racing and annoyed. But then I sort of came home and I was like, you know, that was awesome seeing these people and seeing the emotion and, you know, and so I just, I, I want
to help some people. And that's when I started thinking about setting up a business and, and doing, doing that and, and my coaching in Colorado was awesome. Like I had a lot of people. We were based at a sports medicine centre, Boulder Centre for Sports medicine. So we had access to Physiology testing and things like that. But it was more about, for me, coaching's about putting the pieces together. So obviously knowing what, what
sessions to give people. I think a lot of coaches know that, but it's about putting the pieces together. But but also knowing people and how people work emotionally as well I think helps. So that's the more the face to face, you know, kind of individualisation I suppose is where I'm going. Really, really matters. You need to. It's more than just providing sessions. Yeah. And I'll. Yeah. And that's right. And I've never done coaching that's not individualised programming.
So I've never done, you know, when you've seen these big groups of people that have 100 people shot for a session, I've never done that sort of coaching. And where and where's the coaching inspiration come from? Because obviously you've Dick, you've got childhood coaching. Dick Telford, Nick Badeau. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just more that it, it's probably probably come from teaching and helping people, but also.
On the go. Yeah, and also probably the coaches that I've had have had a big influence on sort of how I would help people programme in training and and not sort of setting specific workouts and sessions on specific days and being flexible with your week. And I think everyday people that have jobs have families, you know, you can't be sort of oh, you've got to do your long run on Sunday sort of thing.
That's not how I coach. And you've, you've, you just got to have that flexible attitude and that's how people are going to get the best out of their running if it fits in with their lifestyles and, and what they're already doing as well. So you sort of you can't and you can't set training for someone based on something that you've done as an athlete either. But, but as you coach more people, you know what works for more people. So I think having that experience has really helped, yeah.
What do you think of where runnings are in Australia right now? This could because we, I mean, Courtney and I were sitting here on a podcast that we started off the back of a friendship which was born out of running together. And, and the podcast has grown out of this boom that we're seeing here in Australia at the moment around the major marathons and, and other running events. What do you think? Where do you think it's at right now? Oh, it's just in a great spot. Hey, like real.
You know, I, I look at when I first started out running, you know, going to my first Olympics or even running in Mackay, right. I'd run in Mackay on the side of the road, no bike paths. And people would honk their horn at you. Like, what the hell are you doing? You know, so. And it's who's chasing you. Yeah. And so it's gone from that to like, you know, or, you know, you're training on on a grass track and you've got plumbers trying to sweep you all the time and there's no one else out
there. And so it's gone from that to like, you know, people meeting at cafes and doing runs and, and that whole social aspect. So, you know, even seeing how we went at the world indoors. And I know that's, that's not rec running, but Australian athletics and running is just really booming. And it's just great to see people outside and doing stuff and, and socially, I think it's a, a great thing to do. But for what I do, yeah, it's just fantastic to see all these major marathons.
Like it's so hard to even get like a spot in a marathon even. Yeah, you know. And we're, our next one is Ballarat. We're going down there in a month and they're, they're selling out too, so, and they're only a new event. So it's one of those things and a regional town too. So it's one of those things that I, I think the more people out there running and like, it's an easy thing to do. Hey, you just need some shoes
and you don't even need shoes. You can just run on the beach and be. Well, and you, who knows, you might have been up at 4 Olympics as well. And now you've obviously on here on the Gold Coast, you've got lace up running, right? So that's the, that's your coaching business. We are looking at. What are we? We're going to be about 13 weeks out from Gold Coast Marathon. Now, Liam, I told you I'd get you the best coach in the world. That is.
Here we go. Now my story of how I want to tell my story about how I came across well, how, why? When anyone asks me who should I get coached by for the marathon, doesn't matter who it is, always point them to Benita.
Because good friend, mutual friend of ours, Al Stevenson, who I grew up with, running was around Melbourne Track Club I think back in the day, in these Nike days, he stopped running for 10 years or so I think and then came to yourself with a group of his mates and said, oh, you know, I want to go and run. It was actually Gold Coast Marathon a while back, jumped in Benita. Obviously I was across this at
the time. I was listening to all the training that was going on and pretty much Al went from not running, obviously a really good like nearly Commonwealth game standard runner as a as a kid, but he didn't run for years and then went on. Benita coached him and his mates and they all like ran out of this skin at Gold Coast Marathon. I think he might even go second in the Australian championship or something that year and 2:23 give or take from that day on, I was like, hang on Benita.
It's not about, you know, it's not about her running at the elite anymore. Like she knows what she's doing. Then I saw, I suppose, the the breadth of venue coaching everyone from first timers right through to, you know, Alistair to your elites overseas and thought, you know, I want to understand more. And this is where this whole thing was going, right? Because when I was talking to Liam and we we'll introduce our first timer soon.
But when I was talking to Liam, I'm like, if you're going to go and run like Benitas want to do it. The other story was my brother. Obviously I sent him. I sent him to you. Now this is a story where pretty much him and his mates, he didn't tell his mates he was training with you. So it was all behind the scenes really. Yeah. So the. She's. Spoken. I spoken to these about this
before. So he actually, him and his mates always have this competition and behind the scenes he's getting coached by Bonita like day to day. These fellas have no idea. And then he's gone on not only ran quicker than he wanted to, but then also beat all these fellas. Right. So I've only seen positive results up until now, Liam. So no pressure. Yeah, no pressure. But, you know, we we've we've been here.
What we want to do, you know, we want to provide, I suppose, a, a look through your coaching business, through your expertise with Liam trying to you know what, 320, you're A320 marathon runner. 321 last year at Gold Coast. Looking looking towards 3 hours. We'll discuss that in in future episodes. It's optimistic we'll get anyway. Again, it's not about me just
yet. And then we obviously also like those who listen to us. We've figured out that it's not we we don't actually speak to the elite runners. It's we, we've got people listening to us who are a lot more everyday runners. Like the other week, we spoke about the average run pace on Strava, seeing what was it, 625? 25 yeah wow per K. 625 per K, they actually have it. So the runners out there are actually running at this thing and that's where we need your expertise to help.
So should you introduce Bronte at this stage too? Well, yeah, at this point we can. We got a little bit of audio lined up here. This is so obviously I am shooting for. In my mind it's a sub three hour goal which I'd like to aim for, but for a lot of people that number is fanciful, right? There's so many people who are going to be participating in the Gold Coast Marathon who are just trying to finish.
And on that note this for everybody out there listening, this is Bronte Langbroek. If you haven't heard of Bronte before, she's the host of CFM Breakfast, Bronte and Lakey in the morning and she is entered into the Gold Coast Marathon for the very first time. We're staying at my girlfriend's house over the weekend. We had separate rooms, so I was in the spare room and she was in her bedroom.
And I thought for me to be as comfortable as I can be, to feel, you know, like I'm going to get a good night's sleep at the half marathon the next day. I wanted to make sure I got good night's rest. The best way for me to do that is to be as naked as the day I was. Born. So I'm assuming that this is stock standard for you each night? Every night, so to. Give you an introduction. Yeah, there's a little introduction to Bronte. Bronte is going to jump on with us, of course, as we get into
the training programme. But, you know, I'll let Bronte tell more of her running story when she joins us. But she's she's 12 months into falling in love with running, and this is her first marathon. She did a half last year and she's ready to get stuck into the main meal this year.
So you'll be going through with Liam and Bronte and then I suppose the call out is to anyone else jump on lace up running because you know, we're we're at that stage, I suppose now out from the Gold Coast Marathon, where if you want to get serious and you want to get some, you know, proper expertise and some proper help, It's a it's a great time to you know, you don't probably want to leave it any later, right? Yeah, yeah, that's, that's for sure.
And yeah, we've got quite a few coaches that work for us as well and they're absolutely fantastic. But yeah, we just love working for with anyone from elites all the way through to beginners. And every year at Gold Coast Marathon, you know, we have a tent near the finish line and, and we really just look at individualised programming for
people. And so everyone's different and even if you know Liam, I'm coaching Liam, but I might have someone else that's trying to break 3 hours, I might coach them differently. So it's not all about just the time, it's about figuring out what's best for your routine. And, and we aim to get people on the start line healthy and ready to go and excited to run. I always think you want to sort of slightly under train then slightly over train.
And so it's one of those things that it's a really hard, there's a fine line obviously, but you you always want to just go slightly under that, under that line. Slightly under training will not be a problem for me, Vanita. I will be able to hit that mark no problems. Laser up running, this is really exciting. This is as I said, we we're going to be talking to you more because we are at the very beginning of this.
But today to be able to get a little bit of an insight into Benita, the athlete that has led to Benita, the coach has been absolutely incredible. Courtney, I know you've still got other things you want to ask, you want to fall off because you've got more stuff on there quickly. Yeah, more I've got. I know you can be here for that. I've got 1 here. I heard I'm the Grapevine you're not the biggest fan of planes. Planes. Yeah, yeah. Do not like 4. Yeah, don't. Not really.
Yeah, yeah. And it's one of those things that I've flown so much and I but I hate the little ones as well. And I remember flying to a 10K in Estrava in the Czech Republic, and it was really bad turbulence and ohh, and like, people were laughing 'cause they were just like loving it. I think there were some commentators on the plane that worked for Eurosport and they were loving it. And I'm just like trying to pretend that I, I just hate. Yeah. But no, I'd not, not particularly.
And I have done so much flying. I was thinking there was, there was some, there's some reason. What? What was behind? Can I rapid fire some at you as well about your career favourite Olympics?
I'd have to say Sydney. Sydney, yeah, the home Olympics, yeah, and we ran the 5K. Yeah, it was unexpected though, because you kind of think you wanna be in these exotic locations for an Olympics. But that's why I'm so excited about Brisbane because, you know, Sydney was just absolutely fantastic and they did such a good job and it was awesome. Favourite place to race? I'm going to say Spain.
I've raced so many times in Spain, particularly over cross country, but done a lot of track races there as well. I haven't done. I've done a few, yeah, a few Rd races too. But the people are just pumped. And, you know, I was talking about that race where they're throwing firecrackers and confetti at you and they can get really close. And I think that that atmosphere is awesome. Most starstruck moment? Let's call it throughout your career, the opportunity to meet
with somebody. That running open for you that left you going wow, did I just seriously meet that person? Oh well we used to hang out, well not hang out but see a same bolt all the time. So he used to get trade like treatment from where we used to get treatment in London. And that was before he was a big star. Like he was still a a junior then and, you know, running really well. But you know, it's one of those
amazing things. And there was a lot of the top Kenyans that had pay TV, had Sky Sport and we lived in London and we didn't have it. So we used to go to their place and watch it and we used to cook, make pizza for them, like homemade pizza. And they were like absolute legends of the sport. And yeah, I think it's probably those sort of people that were lived in the same area as us in London in those days too. The drug testers loved it because all these elite athletes live together in it.
And the drug testers that work for UK Athletics, they got paid like 30 lbs a test. So they used to be. Yeah. And I don't know how it works these. Days. Dozen for one. Yeah, they used to pick all these people to test and we all got tested and then they used to make all this daily. Back. There while you're eating pizza. Most amazing off field track
opportunity. Off track opportunity that that came about as a result of running something you got to do away from an event because of the career you were having on the track or on the on the cross country track. Yeah, that's a good one. But one year we were training in Saint Moritz and we were, we had a meet on in Lausanne to get to and we flow, we flew via helicopter in these convoy of three helicopters to Lausanne and through like through all the Alps and wow, would have cost a fortune.
Like we didn't, I didn't pay anything, but it was it was awesome. Yeah. And yeah, I didn't remember being too worried about that, but yeah. The helicopter tipped through the Alps. Yeah. And I, I've been on a few helicopter flights. I've been on one in New York. But that, that one was so cool. Yeah. You feel free to jump in with any of your rapid. Fighters, but you may you're, you're just, you're brilliant and Benita hasn't missed a beat.
If I if I was on that side, it would be taking half an hour for. Beniti, you're interested in Co hosting a podcast? Yeah, they've got a bloke who can't. Fire me. Thing from his I. Can run the buttons, that's about it. Any regrets from your running career? I think, I think one of the things that I wished I had of raced in Australia a bit more probably, yeah. And, and supporting Australian events as well. And I think because I lived in Europe, it was always harder to get back.
Like I was always overseas in our winter. Never, never in Australia unless I was injured. But I remember being in Melbourne for a month in August I think. And I felt like Melbourne was the coldest place on earth because I'm just never used to live in in Australia in winter. So I think, yeah, I wish I had have done it more right. I wish I had have done Gold Coast Marathon when I was at my best.
But it's just one of those things that, that your career goes so quickly and I, I, my career, it's spanned for Olympics. But you know, there's a couple of the marathon girls these that are still running very well, Lisa Wightman, Sinead, they're older than me and they're doing fantastic. So I, I feel like I, I wished I had have run like a few more years longer into my career. I think I retired when I was like 32 or something, but I just didn't have the like, passion for it anymore.
I had a passion for coaching and helping people. Yeah, amazing. Quickly, I do have one more because we have, we could sit here and talk about your career forever, but we are going to move into Benita the coach mode. Gout, gout. Yeah, when you see someone like him, because he's on the tip of Aaron's tongue right now, he's hit the mainstream with what he's achieving. How excited do you get for Australia to have a a running
prospect like him? I mean he's brilliant, hey, and I remember seeing him so I worked for QLD athletics is one of my other jobs for Q run. And so we've seen him coming through as a younger athlete and just to see what he's doing and I mean it's it's it's just incredible. But a sprinter as well. You know, so, so often we have, you know, jumpers, throwers, but seeing a sprinter coming through, I mean, he well, like LA Olympics, it's still a few
years away. So, you know, he could even be right up there in LA Like we always think it's going to take longer. Obviously Brisbane 32 is going to be fantastic for him. But yeah, he's brilliant. Hey. And I think people have just got to watch what he does and, and having the right people around him to manage his career is really important. And I think that sort of comes with time as well. But just brilliant and doing it on Australian soil too.
Yeah, fantastic. That's the other exciting part, that as you say, you, you, a lot of people historically have had to move overseas to further their careers. Hopefully we can keep him around as long as possible. Well, the exciting part is we've got Pineda to keep asking these questions for the 12 weeks leading up to the Gold Coast Marathon, so. Full disclaimer if any more questions come up before the next episode, we'll be asking you other things. Yeah, it's exciting, but yeah.
And the next, the next phase is we'll get you to start. The whistle goes round the neck, the whistle goes round the neck, the stopwatch goes in hand. Bonita, it's not about you anymore. Right now it's about me. Well, it's not just about me, but it's about everyone out there as well that's going into the Gold Coast Marathon. And Bronte, as we say, Bronte is going to be coming along for the journey. Bronte is a first time marathon
runner. Who is thrilled, honoured and and genuinely excited that she gets to work with someone of your calibre for I mean, she probably feels a bit under qualified to be. Oh, no. But like, I have so much respect for anyone that I coach. I'm excited to coach Bronte and look after her programme. It's oh, I mean, having two kids now, having, you know, a life that's not just focused on running, it's just so hard.
And so I just love coaching people because of all the other things they've got going on in their life and and how they can still sort of get get their training done and and focus on what they need to do. Amazing. Alright, we'll see you in the next episode of In the Beginning Runs Gold. Coast in the beginning runs Gold Coast. Stay tuned.