In the beginning podcast episode 59, Courtney Atkinson just knocking off some jam on toast. You just tells me you got out and for a run this morning. No run. No run. I was in the, I was in the water, I was down at Tully Creek and all that rain we got this week. Early week. Yeah, I was. I was wondering whether it was brown poo or just brown. 'Cause that was your happy place a couple of weeks ago, wasn't? It wasn't. It wasn't so happy. This morning it was. It was. Cold and cold and dirty.
Cold and dirty, it's still good to. Get out for a swim. Let's call this what it is. It is the Jelly Roll Reacts podcast. It is the podcast after Jelly Roll, the wrap, the wrap up, the the biggest moment in the in the history, the short history of our podcast. I'll hear you call it history. The weird, wonderful journey we went on to arrive at sitting down and speaking with this global star.
Ineffectively, his green room. In his green room, 2 hours before he goes out, performs his first ever concert on Australian soil to a sold out Brisbane crowd. We sit down with him and talk running. We've had some time to reflect on it. Obviously the podcast is up and the feedbacks been fantastic. How have you looked back on it? Well, this is fangirling, wasn't I? That's how I look back on it. No, but it's just surreal because it just came out of the
blue, right? That, I mean, I think that's the best thing, you know, that there's that notion of laws of attraction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know that. Yeah, yeah, you. Put it out there into the universe. Vision board stuff. Yeah. But I mean, it wasn't like that. It wasn't quite that. It wasn't quite that. But in the sense of, you know, we we organically, we just talked about him because it was an interesting subject to us. And then all of a sudden put
that out in the world. And then on the flip side, you know, a few things align. And then we're getting a call from his team going, hey, we want to talk about this. It wasn't like we said we want to. Get a big superstar on the show. So let's find a way to talk about one of them in relation to running so that we can hopefully get them on as an interview guest. Yeah, we're open to that. We're open to. That. But that's not what he said.
We're horse. We're horse to whatever you want to throw at us. But this wasn't It definitely wasn't planned. And four hours is not a lot of notice either. We, yeah, I don't know if that came across, but we, we got about four hours notice that we needed to get ourselves together, find someone and share that to Josh who came on board to film for us for the day and get up to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, which is 90 minutes away at the best of times on a Friday afternoon.
Peak peak M1 Brisbane traffic, right? Nothing can go. Wrong and Courtney did not unclench until we arrived in the parking lot at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. And then from there it was just we were in, we were standing a lot of standing around for a bit until they sorted us A room. Yeah, I don't think the Roadies were too happy. Yeah, no, we we might have put a few noses out of joint. They wanted out as pretty good.
But as a whole experience. And again, shout out to Daryl Bailey from Universal to Jelly Roll and his whole team for making that happen. Incredible experience. And I think, I hope it's not the only legacy, but Courtney, the legacy that we will leave forever. This podcast, in the Beginning We'll Leave Forever, is that we have lit the fire under Jelly Rolls AFL fandom in that he is now, with the support of Fox Footy and KO, actively being courted by all 18 teams in the AFL.
That was us. It was it was good too when Daryl T tapped us on the shoulder when Jelly roll in the middle of his show goes all the Brisbane Lions fans. Did you tell him to say that? Yeah. No, no, it's it's it's all been it was all pretty sorry. You know that. One of my favourite parts was he, he made a quote. Well, you asked him about running and is he one of those guys now that just tells everyone about running? And he made the quote. I know nothing. So I know everything.
How good a quote is that? Like I know nothing about it. So I know everything because I'm just gonna just be a sponge. And it it's it made that one really made me think because I was like, it's so right. If you don't know, just sit back, take it all in, but don't go telling people what you don't what what's not your expertise, right. You're going to take music advice from Jelly Roll.
Yeah, if Jelly Roll's going to give you some advice on how to sing, I'll take Legend or perform an incredible live show. Listen. But I love. Yeah, you're right. It was. I didn't expect him to be, you know, giving people running programmes, but just that you could see how humble he was about his running. Yeah, and. I mean, he just genuinely seemed stoked that we were stoked he was running. That was the the for me, the line in the podcast where he says for, for, and I'll put
myself in his voice right now. He's like, for y'all to have me on your running podcast and to welcome me into your world. I'm like, that's so cool. That's so cool. I love that interaction where you talked about the fact that the runners were the nerds back in high school and. You know, everyone wants to, everyone wants to be a runner. It was very, very. If you haven't got your, your tats and your, you know, satisfied clothing, you're not a runner. But like, it doesn't matter.
You're a runner, whether like he's Jelly Roll talked about, you know, in a weight loss journey of running or whether you're an elite runner, whether you're, you know, an urban runner, whether you run in the coffee shop, like it's all
running. I will say there's all running from from the perspective of someone I've been in radio, you get the opportunity to interview a lot of people and they're always usually pushing something, was usually promoting something, whether it be a tour, whether it be a product, a book, whatever it is, then you not, not often do you do I get the sense of a connection being made that could possibly lead to
further communication? I got a real sense, and it's not to say that Jelly Rolls subscribe to the podcast, but I got a real sense that. No. Well, he he did. He's I got a sense that if we reached out to his team about doing something down the track, they'd be open to it. Yeah, well, that's, that's the, that's the vibe and connection I felt like we established. Well, the beauty of it is he's, I mean, shout out to all his team, you know, every one of them.
They were super. I felt like what I imagined, like a Joe Rogan, Yeah, feel like when he goes in, like they treated us like we, they treated us like we were, you know, a big American podcast. And it was. Well, and yeah, that was the line.
I don't know if it gets picked up in the podcast, but at the end Jellyroll apologised because he's like I'm used to doing 3 hour chats now and this is kind of like he could have kept talking to us. I. Could have kept well man, I could have kept listening. I wasn't doing much talking. And his whole team, everyone who we met there on the the night and we said, Oh yeah, we're here to talk to Jelly Roll about running. The reaction from all of them was the same, which was oh,
cool. Like you could see how important and unique and different this was to them. So it was an amazing. And look, if you haven't heard it, go back. Go listen, we won't, we won't. It's so cool. Keep going over everything here. But one of the other things I wanted to bring up was because I've copped a bit of Flack for this already, Liam, in the short time it's been up, is we have given Brooks a pretty hard run. Yep, Jelly Roll just hit us with I weren't in. Brooks. I run in Brooks.
I run in Brooks. Shout out. Shout out. Look and this is like. That what were they? Go Ghosts. Ghosts, 1617. It probably reinforces what we talk about when anybody mentions shoes on the shoes that are up for you. Don't follow brands, don't influencers, don't follow trends. Go and try them all on and find the shoes that are right for you as a person. But that, that's also like, it was, it's not so much interesting, but it was I just
like, I'm observing everything. And, you know, I've noticed when we've gone back and seen, you know, some of the clips of the videos now we're doing. He's wearing a Reebok trackie. Yeah. Yeah, he's wearing, you know, he's, he's calling it his ears. I I wear Brooks, but when I'm on the trails or this. Yeah. And then and then he threw in there the like the ASICS. ASICS. ASICS. Kayanos. You know, he's leaning towards that now. So like.
Recommended hawkers for any fatties out there A. 100% like we always say here, that's been a pretty consistent line, but you know, he encompassing just everyone and he's just out there to do, you know, to find what's best for him and and go about
his his thing. So he was like the best way I can explain it when I walked away and after seeing him also up on the show, because that was the other part, right, is the fact that that was that was quite funny when he said when when I was him or the team said, look, just go out to the front of the house and I'm like front of the house. Does that mean like we can go up near the stage or and then we ended up walking out into the middle of, you know, 12,000
strong crowd at the arena. And we got like shuffled into this little pen right in the middle, like we're probably, what, 40 metres back from the mainstage? Yeah, a little bit further. But I was, I was thinking to you like, hmm, OK, ohh, that's alright. We're back with the producers and everything else. And then, as it turned out, his first song, he lit a house frame on fire in front of us. And that's the scene you can see
in some of those rules there. So front of house, to bring your technical term, OK, sorry, the front of house, front of house doesn't mean front of stage. It mean the house is kind of where the audio and the lighting and all the texts. Oh, so you were you were across this and just didn't convey it? I know, I know where front of house is, I've been on enough gigs. To I'm just telling people now it's front of house because he literally lit a house frame on
fire. Go to the front of the house. It's really simple. Liam Yeah, no, what? Technically the that front of house is the area where all the texts of the lighting and the guru sit. But yeah, now we can think of it as if there's a massive stage house that's on fire. Go to the front of go.
To the front of the house. Overall, an unforgettable moment for both of us. And I'm, I look forward to, I'm really excited because the other thing that it'll do for us in the podcast is not that we want to make a habit of. We don't want to turn this into a let's go find a reason to talk to musicians, actors, all that sort of stuff. That's not what we want to do. But there are other people of no
celebrities that run. And I would love to think that we can now use Jelly roll and that conversation with a demonstration of the podcast and how we want to talk to people about that. We don't want to bring hot, you know, smuggle you in under the guise of talking to you about running and then make it all about the same conversation you have with every other interviewer, every other TV show. We don't want to do that.
When we get you in to talk about running, whoever you are, we want to talk to you about running. And that's what we did with Jelly so. We did. We did. Anyway. Rolling on from Jelly. Let's keep rolling. He apologised about treadmills and I kind of found that a little bit like, oh, no need to apologise, like interesting, wasn't it?
Run because he said I, I asked him the question about, you know, do you when you run outside, do you get heck like not hassled, I suppose just more people just go in this Jelly roll, like can I get a photo? Does an interrupt your run? And he went on to say, like, sometimes I just run on the treadmill in the corner and that's what I enjoy. I enjoy the same thing. I used to love doing treadmill
when I was racing. It was this time you can just like you said, just you just lock in, you knuckle down, you lock in. It's just you and the mat. You fall. If you, if you can't keep up, you fall off. Like it's a brilliant predictor of how you're going. So like I, I, I love the idea of the treadmill, but where I'm going with this is there's been an announcement that there is now gonna be a treadmill world championship. They're gonna do this over.
But then I thought, OK, treadmill World Championships. So it's like marathons or whatever else? No, no, this is being focused. So it's Techno Gym, which is a World Athletics have partnered with Techno Gym, so one of the larger kind of treadmill companies around the globe for a new run event called Run X. It's gonna debate debut in 2026,
but it's a 5K distance. So it's that exact distance we were talking about with Jelly Roll, like around, you know, if you're a beginner runner, 5K is that great. Target Park Run, all that type of stuff. But for the top guys, there's going to be AI. Think $100,000 prize pool. You can get on the treadmill and see how quick you can bust out 5K as an elite as well. What do you reckon? I have one major flag. I've just learned about this from you, but I already I have
one major flag. What is it? Are you a member of a gym? Pseudo member. Yeah. OK, so in my mind you're not right. Yes, I'm not. You're not a paid member to Yeah Fitness First, whatever. I don't think you should be allowed to compete because if you're because what's to stop Andy Buchanan? Yeah, OK. Going in. Just rocking up. Just rocking up to this and pumping out an unbeatable time on the 5K and we're all kind of like, well, what was the point of that?
You've just allowed the best runners in the world to go and win something else in a different format. I like it, but I think if you want to make it a genuine treadmill championship, you need to create the hurdle, which is that you need to be a member of a gym. You need to be a gym goer, a gym rat who uses the treadmill as the way you run. Yeah, but so it's.
Celebrates. A lot of the treadmill, there's elite runners, not all of them, but a lot of them do use treadmill as part of their training. I mean, it's great for turnover, it's great for efficiency. It takes a little bit of the, it can take a little bit of the load off your legs as instead of running on concrete or a track. So there is advantages of running on it and they do run on it. But I do agree they don't run in a gym. And my questions are, does it
have to be done on a techno gym? Treadmill #1 Good point #2 Treadmills are notoriously. Inaccurate. Inaccurate. So can, can I get an engineer around to my gym and just, and just, you know, like play with the clock a little bit? Yeah, play with the engine a little bit. Look, so many questions, but I think it's actually like it's quite. AI love the idea. Do you know what I would? I would rather say and I don't know. I don't know what techno gyms are really.
No, no, Techno Gym is the brand. The brand of the treadmill. Sorry. What I would like to see is a race. Rather than a time trial type thing where you hop on a treadmill. I would much rather a big room with 20 treadmills and it's a race and you can see the leaderboard up on the screen. OK. I thought it's just showing. I think that's kind of the concept. It to me is more interesting and more entertaining then you jumping on and punching out. I'll court court.
Here's Courtney's dropped a 16 for 5K. No, I've got a feeling this would be and look, we're just talking out of our body and like we don't really know. I'm looking at an article, but it looks like you get in your gym, there's lined up, you run, there's a leaderboard now that's make it to the next final, the semi, the semi semi and then you finally. Get so in this way that on Swift you can see where you are on the bike. They did that for a running. That would be interesting.
I mean, because like if you had a, if you even if it was like a a, you know, like Mario Kart map, like the Mario Kart map where you could see where you are on the Mario Kart track, That would be a cool way to do. It I'm sure this is already exists in the gym world, but so we're not gatekeeping, we get called out about gatekeeping fitness, so open to all. The underlying policy of this podcast is all fitness is good fitness. I think we just.
We should have just we if we haven't demonstrated that in the last episode with Jelly Roll. Yeah, all fitness is good fitness. That doesn't mean I'm not gonna make fun of some fitness. I still think it's good. I'm still allowed to laugh at it, though. I laughed. I've copped grief about giving those the tights the. Running. Shorts, the half tights, whatever they're called. I've got people saying the only reason you're you're bagging them is because you haven't tried them.
Try them and then you'll fall in. There's a. Lot of half tight lovers. Half tight lovers, I will make, I choose. I reserve the right to make fun of all forms of fitness because I love all forms of fitness. OK, well while you're doing that, let's move on to our favourite high rocks. Great, let's make fun of fitness. Yeah, I will do high rocks at some point, I can guarantee. Well, maybe this might change your mind then, because the but it's the brand that doesn't work for you.
So down at Wollongong World Triathlon Championships on the weekend, the news out of there is they obviously have their World Triathlon Congress, which layers up into the Olympic movement. And there's always, we know sports out there wanting to get into the Olympic movement. We know ultra running are fighting hard for this. We we know. Lawn bowls are having a meeting about it this weekend. Lawn bowls? My brother's up in Brisbane participating in the lawn bowls.
Oh really? BPL sports lobbyists. Everywhere, as soon as the cycle comes around. So down at the World Triathlon Championships at the Congress meeting, World Triathlon have approved some new disciplines underneath the World Triathlon umbrella. Have you read this? Can you guess what 2 disciplines they've approved triathlon? So this will now fall so the way, and this is a very layman's term.
I've explained it because I don't know the technical side of it, but to be an Olympic sport, you can't be a brand. So Iron Man can't be CrossFit, CrossFit, Iron Man, these are brands, right? You can't be an Olympic sport, you need to be a sport and that has to sit under a governing like a governing body. So breakdance. So the story around break dancing. This is why anyhow we ended up with Ray Gun at the Olympics.
I'm. Not going to go into that, sure, but the way break dancing work, they actually sat under I believe the ballroom. Ballroom. Association So you can see how this works right? Sure, what 2 sports is triathlon the world governing body of New World triathlon? What have they rather will put under them? I'm going to assume I'll assume high Roxy is 1. Well, all all, all fitness
racing. It's called fitness racing, so OK, even though they yeah, so even though they it's pioneered by the international fitness brand High Rocks, it is now known under their platform as fitness racing. So the brand is High Rocks. The format is fitness racing. So they're taking the style of high rocks. It's now fitness racing. So that would be interesting to see where that goes, because that means, you know, to be in that format, it's going to have to be called.
Fitness racing. Yeah, it's it's effectively the fitness racing. If everyone can't quite wrap their brains around it, it's like The thing is not an esky. That's a brand. It's a cool. It's a cooler. Correct, it's not a Breville. It's not a Breville, it's a Toasty. Machine we're gonna rule we're. On the right, what's the second
one? And then we'll come back to I wouldn't get it. You know what it's, I'm guessing it's if it's, if it's got to be under that it's got to be involving some sort of the elements. Is it like duathlon? Close, close. So it's it's the long form of swim rum racing, which is. Ohhh yeah big shit out bacon it. It literally. Bondi Bondi lifeguard pronounce this Swedish, originated otilo otilo otilo. So the one Bailey races in is the one where he goes across, like from island to island to
island. In Swedes, up in Sweden. Yeah, so a long race. You, you paddle, you swim with paddles, pool boys, everything goes in the swim. You do it. In as long as you run with the equipment as well a. 100%, so that has been the other one. So it's under the swim run format now. I did a swim run format like that under the Brekka Brekka, I think Brekka Brekka brand, Yeah. Over in Wanica, yeah. With Braden, not Braden Mercer, I was about to say. Braden Mercer. Braden Mercer, Braden Curry.
Curry. I'm into athletes. So we went like we swam through the Wanica Lake and then ran up the mountain I imagine. This to be brought up your alley. It was, it was amazing. It's just that it was. And they do one in Sydney, Yeah, it's very popular in Sydney through the Brady's, yeah, through the eastern bait and coves. Yep. Yeah. So that's the sport, the other sport they've brought in island to island racing in in that format.
So let's see where they both go. But what do you reckon on this fitness one if? One of those was good to get to the Olympics. I'd prefer it to be fitness racing, I think. Yeah, I think I'd prefer it to be fitness racing. That being said, I don't know. See there was a comment because modern pentathlon. Remember, they've changed their sport to include an obstacle course racing. I would rather fitness racing than modern pentathlon with obstacle racing I think. I. Agree with you there.
And I'm, this is I, I, and I want to be careful because I know you're a triathlete who's a, a Jack of all trades, master of nuts. I own it. Those multidisciplined things, Meh. I, I, yeah, I'm happy for you to call me out on that. Yeah, I think triathlon's a bit different, but when you ride a horse and you do some shooting and you, it's kind of like.
No, no, no. But you're right, there's a, a unique element of putting it all together and you're a triathlete, but you're, you're not the pinnacle of swimming. You're not the pinnacle of riding a bike and you're not the pinnacle of running. Yeah, that's true, Liam. I'm, I'm, I mean, from day dot I've been, yeah, always been very conscious of that. Whereas it feels like.
But but modern Pentathlon's the same in the sense of why I why I don't like they're trying to modernise it to be, you know, with the ties by adding obstacle horse racing. But the one thing I think modern pentathlon had going for it at the Olympics, it was the history of that event. Yes, take the history out of. It then what's the point in doing so? Decathlon. I actually prefer to pentathlon because decathlon for those that don't know you're you're always in the athletic arena.
It's kind of like you've been dropped into the athletic arena and you gotta run, jump, throw. It's. The triathlon of of of of of the track of track and triathlon's a bitumen. Whereas pentathlon is fencing, shooting, swimming, riding, cross country, running. It's it's kind of like an adventure camp. It's kind of like the stuff when you go out camp in Year 5. Yeah, but it's it's it's like it's so James Bond. Yeah, it's. That's a great description.
It's the it's the training ground for James Bond 100%. You need to. You need to fulfil that is Yeah. So if you're if you, if you, yeah. Anyway, you know where I'm going with. It that is the perfect description of what the modern pentathlon is. It is the training ground to find the next James Bond. If you're casting for James. Bond. Yeah, put him in the mud Pentathlon. British accent the the the the everlasting looks as you are good and Olympic.
And you gotta, you gotta do it all in a suit that's excellent or like. And and you gotta be able to wear Lycra come out and did you try it's? It's pretty standard. I I like the fitness racing I like and I like the fact that World Triathlon is adapting. I like that it's finding a way to broaden the church and and include. But what do you? What? What do you so the reason I brought it up, what do you think about it coming under the
triathlon governance? Well. Where else is that going to live? Is that not going to? Live so so it makes triathlon a world triathlon suddenly start to become just like the ultra where multi running no we let's get back to running so ultra running is pushing hard to get or trail running let's call it trail running is. To get the Olympics. Pushing really hard, you know, good. They have their lobbyists out there as well. Good. But they'll try and push in.
I'm assuming under. Their own governance. No, no, under athletics, under track and you know, whatever track or. Running what is the I double AF? Yes. Yep. Correct, because that makes sense, right? It's a it's a pure running running event. Sure, but would they be better off actually trying to push in under the triathlon of the new age of multi sport and. Well, no, because I wouldn't classify it as a multi sport.
That's true. And I think if, if, if triathlon goes world triathlon goes that way and starts to embrace those other multi discipline formats, maybe they need to actually adjust the name of the governing body so it's not World Triathlon Federation, but it's multi sport federation or whatever, something like that. Yeah. So yeah. Oh, look, I, I, if they've got to find their way into the world under that banner, I'm happy. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it.
I look. Forward to seeing, I mean, the biggest challenge, and I've seen a few people write this, the biggest challenge they have is consistency of a sport. So to, to be able to go forward in, in that environment of, you know, Olympic Games, you need to have consistency across events in your sport. The challenge high rocks have still had. I see nothing, but I see nothing but reels of people cheating on the burpees.
Well, not only cheating, but it's like the when the events in Philadelphia compared to when it's in Germany and they're trying to compare times, but you can't compare times, but they do. That's the whole purpose of it. You qualify to the World Championships on your times no matter where you are, so it's not as. Time based? Surely no. Maybe they just got to go to place based. It I think it should be anyway. Yeah. Look, good luck to you. Yep. Good luck to you. Hey, good news.
Strava walked away from the Garmin legal challenge. Did they walk away or were they was there, was there perhaps a an out of court type situation where an agreement was made use? Read or heard? No, I haven't. I'm speculating. I always look at these situations ago. Strava went in deep enough, pushed their chips in the middle such that they haven't just changed their mind. They haven't gone the the odds are against us. They will.
They will. They're big enough and ugly enough now to they've got their hands dirty on this. Something must have. It must be some sort of agreement behind the scenes such that Garmin is agreeing to some requests. Yep. Yeah, a compromise has been reached would be my prediction. Anyway, I I saw you down at Super Cars. I was down at the GC 500 last weekend. Fantastic. Good crashes.
That chicane, for those that didn't watch it, there is essentially A rocker section, a chicane section where the cars just all decided, the drivers all decided, yeah, we're just going to drive over this. But with the price being paid of the car does kind of like a a like your your dad dancing at the corner. Like a side to side type movement where it gets airborne on either side. I couldn't believe that they were consistently navigating at
the speeds they were. Brody Castecki was the one that came off worse when he just couldn't catch the car. Will Brown did it. Will Brown did it, but Castecki was the one that hit the barricades and injured. 4 photographers I I've heard that some metal. 4 photographers were injured, One his arm got punctured by a piece of metal or
something like that I think. But we were laughing because they got injured despite the safety that was in place in the form of the tyres and the wall and the barricades and everything else. It used to be hay bales. And not a not an indie. Apparently it used to be hay bales back in the day. They used to guard these courses with hay bales. On the Gold Coast. Apparently this is what someone tells me.
I reckon that's like, you know, they used to say everyone on the Gold Coast just wore white shoes and white slacks are I think this is. But it was, do you know what was fun was I met through the supercar stuff. I went and did something with Total Tools here in Burleigh and Anton de Pasquale one of the drivers came down and great
fella never met him before. At a great chat from Melbourne, chatting away and I mentioned that I did a bit of running on the coast here or I had run on occasions with Will Davison and Tim Slade and Anton said are you 1 of Adzi's athletes? Like instantly just knew Adzi Gordon where which is the running group that I met these guys through. And then we had a conversation about just what a weapon like
Tim Slade is as an athlete. Just one of the, you know, and obviously all those Viet Supergard drivers have to have have to be fit to endure what they do. But I wonder if have I got a race on this weekend or will some of them be? Up at Noosa they no no race this weekend. No race this weekend. I think you're fine Will. Will Davison is at Noosa this weekend. Yep. So if you see the great man running around with his wife Rick say g'day. But he's had a shocker of it.
He had a shocker of a weekend at the GC 5 for the best not to talk about. It but no. Well, good, good, good, good. So I think it may have been two years ago I walked out of the Red Bull pits and saw Will and I'd only just seen him. I think it running on the Saturday. I had a great old chat and then I ran into him and I just contacted him on the shoulder thing and he just gave me the OR.
Like, not the day. It wasn't the day no, and like it's it's funny, like it doesn't matter who, how well you know someone it he didn't have a day and he just said and then he. Just said it's not the time. It's not the time. But, you know, at that time, I felt like one of those, you know, like, literally just a fan, like. Oh, can you sign my shirt please? Oh. Yeah, but no we'll. Stand down. So sand down, sand Down's in two
weekends time. They've got two weeks off, so I'm presuming we'll's gonna be up at Noosa. But here's a question for you on that front, because we've talked a bit about different sports and formats and all the rest of it. The V Eights have got a new final series for the first time ever. I love it. You love it. I love. It So for those that don't know, I. Don't love it for Brock and that at the moment because you know they're in box seed and they can lose a lot, but I love it.
It's a spectacle, I know, and off the back of Bathurst. Yeah, which was. An amazing. Race Yeah, yeah, yeah. V8 Supercars, for those that don't know, has always typically been a first past the post. As in once you win enough points like the F1 is, you are crowned the drivers champion. This year they've introduced a finals format, so play. Playoffs. Kind of. It's a playoff, so there were
only 10 drivers. All the drivers keep racing all the races but Gold Coast there was only 10 drivers left in the hunt for the championship. At Sandown it's down to 7, so I think it was Anton De Pasquale, Brody Kasakini. And one more it's, I mean, it's NASCAR. Is that what NASCAR does? Is it OK? I wasn't across NASCAR? OK. And you like it, Love it. I mean, I love it as a spectator because it it it, it adds to the, I mean, that's why there's
crash. That's why the crashes are, you know, everyone's on the line because you have to push all your days over. So it's not just waiting it out to the end of the series to do that. Like I said, though, for the actual athletes, I think it's oh wow, it's like super 1 stressful, but 2 when you've like if you're Brock who's gone the whole year and is sitting, you know, with a few of the guys up in box seed and literally
crash out. Well, if he ends up losing the championship to someone like Chaz Mostert, who's hitting form at the right time of the year, but who's never won a Super Cars Drivers Championship. And well, I mean, if you bring it back to the running and the triathlon element of it, it's, oh, triathlon actually isn't like that. Now they run. It through a series.
As well. But it's, it's so I suppose it's that debate around is a single world championship or championship each year better than rewarding the person who's the most consistent for the year? It's it's the old age question and there's no, there's no answer. There's no right answer. Everything went that way, too. Yeah, with the players. And now they're going back. They're going back.
It's in the eye of the beholder. Ultimately, I come from the attitude of all of these sports have been created for entertainment purposes, so I think you got to put the fan, the spectator in front of mind. Which means the playoffs. That's my belief anyway. Hey, so you're at Supercars. What else has been happening? Busy right Friday to today is being. I need to, I need to wrap up my Ned's uncomfortable challenge. I talked about this last week
and I, I jumped in with Ned's uncomfortable challenge. 10 day block doing something uncomfortable every day. I decided on stairs and I went with the Miami stairs, the famous rainbow stairs here on the Gold Coast. I was going to do the number of stairs, sets of stairs based on the Max forecast temperature for the day. I'm laughing because I know what happened 2 days ago. Yeah, we got, we got hit with the 38° day, so it was fine.
Look, life got in the way. Like as we know with our Friday with the Jelly roll thing that happened, Matt Hauser was in there as well. My wife went away for work. I and I've got two kids. Life gets in the way. So I actually, I, I went into debt on the stairs front. So I missed, I fell seven sets short last Friday and then I couldn't run on the Saturday or the Sunday because I had my kids all day and I couldn't just say that someone take them for an hour. I was really busy.
So basically Monday, Tuesday and then Wednesday of this week just gone. I've been repaying my stair debt. So I've been, I've been grinding out. I went 5052 and 49 to finish to get through the deficit that I went into of owing sets of stairs for Ned's uncomfortable. It's meant to be uncomfortable. Yeah. The actual because I know so how many steps you would have counted the steps? How many steps? I haven't counted the steps you
haven't. Counted. So I've, I've been looking at the elevations. So you've done 40. What was your Max? The biggest day I had was 52 and you didn't count the steps at all. Once I didn't tell you what the elevation I got up in 52. What is it? Just over 835 metres of elevation.
It's solid 52. So over the course of the the challenge, over the 10 days, I've done over 5000 metres of elevation Nintendos. But this is the interesting part from a running perspective for everybody out there, because if you've got a garment and even Strava Premium does this, it will talk to you about your predicted time as you train. And this, we all love this when when your watch starts telling you you're improving or you're declining the stairs. And I have literally all I've done.
I haven't done a single flat run in the last kind of two weeks. Are you running these stairs or walking? I'm running, I'm touch every stair and I'm running them right and I'm getting slow. Like I think my average when I did the 52 day, my average pace was about 12:30 per K because I'm going up and down and up and down. But my this is fascinating because my predicted, my race predicted the Garmin will do for you for 5-10, half and marathon. The predicted time has all come down.
Yeah, the the algorithm must really like elevation the. Algorithm loves elevation. My predicted time for my marathon right now is 3/13, which is 8 minutes faster than I've ever run a marathon. What about your 5K my? 5K time is 1759. Courtney, I've run under 19 minutes once in my life. So you're calling I'm I'm calling crap on it. I'm going to try this week.
I'm going to go out and do a I might try and get out the park run or something, but I'm going to see where my actual 5 KS at 'cause I think the algorithm, I think I found a a bug in the algorithm, which is that if you run upstairs enough, it will think. It it, it starts spinning. It's cold. It starts. Going whoa this person must be getting fitter or something. No one programmed me for this. It's saying I can do a 384510K. I've never run under 40 minutes for a 10K and I'm not sure
whether. You may 300 sets. Of you may surprise. Yourself. Well, I'm going. To find out this week but yeah, in short, if you just want on screen improvement, go run stairs the the. Uncomfortable the Wellness of that for me. Mate it's just the 50 repetitions. It's a lot of head noise trying to count. And actually it got especially when people started walking up and down. I was at times because of the stairs, I would inconvenience the same person four times. Oh yeah.
Up, down, up, down. Locals, the normal walking locals down there at Miami. Yeah, Runners. Especially with what's happening with the groups and everyone going not huge fans, not a huge fan. But anyway, that's where I'm at. Running wise, I do have. I won't say what it is yet I do have another. Announcement, but we're just we're gonna get to. It We've got too much going on. There's been a lot going on, There's been a lot going on. You're looking at my green
jumper. Over here, let's talk about it's show and tell time. Courtney Atkinson show and tell Place. The only reason it's show and tell is because it was sitting on the couch as you come in here. But it is a, it's, I suppose it's kind of like a baggy green jacket, right? It's my London 2012 jacket now see every single name inside. So this is I, I noticed this now.
If you didn't, if people don't remember, there was the Dan Atkins episode we talked about, he Dan spoke about the new tradition they have in triathlon Australia, the presentation of the race suit and how each athlete knows the number they are of with Australian triathlon and they know that number and they race under that number and all the rest of that. And I laughed at you because you've got no idea what number triathlon triathlete you were for Australia.
And we talked about how you know, for someone that's that is their thing. And you just completely vacated your brain. And then I think you had a function coming up that you got invited to and you got invited to wear your blazer. Yes. So this is this is the story. This is what it is. This is the. Story. So this is the Blazer I grabbed out, but every single in in the blazer, every single name from every single Olympics. Another look. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it.
Every single name of every Olympian is sown and is written in to. But this was your 2012 was your first Olympics second, second Olympics second. So you didn't get one for. I did this is just a really nice place. I had a choice of these. The other one was more like a business suit, but OK, I'm getting off track here because the reason I want to tell the story isn't to bloody, you know, brag about the blazer.
It's have you, if you're listening, have you had this predicament where you got to go to a function but you're just not sure how dressed up or what you got to wear is and you're and you're at home and you're asking people. Every function I go. Exactly. So what happens when you get an invite, the first invite for this function, so I think it was, it was an Olympic lady dysfunction up at Queensland House. So literally think of all we talked about the lobbyists,
bureaucrats, politicians. It was literally a rumour that, but the first invitation was business attire and tie. And I'm like, OK, easy, right? You could grab out the suit, put the tie on, walk up. The next invitation that comes through the week of the function was Olympians attending are not requested, it said invited to wear their Olympic blazer or an Olympic blazer. Now what do you do in that
situation, Liam? Because the chances were, I wasn't sure one How many Olympians were invited 2. How many would wear their Blazers? How many actually read invites, which is a highly on the cards are not many and three do I turn up as the only fella in the room in a green Olympic blazer and look like an absolute tool. What do you what would? You do me. I'd wear the blazer. I would wear the blood. I'd wear the hell out of the blazer. Even Yeah, talking boys. Ashamedly.
So what did I do? You would not have worn the blazer. No, I rang Kenny Wallace, who's who's currently at one of our chief. Yeah. What is he, Deputy chief dimensions for the Olympic Committee. Obviously he's wearing his blazer. Well, no, I said to Kenny, are you going tonight? He said, no, I'm like, Oh my, you're no help to me at all. This is you. You're useless. Would you wear the blazer? He said, oh, wait. Wear it and take your chances and well, I would say 3.
So this is tonight. No, no. This was this. This was. It's been OK. I can tell you the outcome. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No. Did you wear it? I wore it. Good on you and. It was good, good. I reckon 3/4 of The Olympian city. There was probably, maybe you know, 15 of us in the room, right? 3/4 were wearing them, all different ones but the green looked great. Oh mate, I I don't know why this was even a hesitate. Oh, look, I totally, I understand the logic. I totally understand the logic.
But again, we just talked about how I view sport and and how they should structure their final series. And I put it through the fans lens lens because that's all I am from this perspective as well. Again, to put a fans lens on it, mate, you have. And despite the numerous names on the inside of the lining, there's a lot of names and that group only gets bigger as more sports get introduced. Yeah, exactly. You are part of an exclusive group.
Such a small percentage that for everyday Australians that will never experience that level, like the the notion of attending an Olympic Games, whether it's the dreams of achieving ultimate glory or just going into the village and going into that mystical food hall, you are part of an exclusive group that you can't buy your way into. I agree, but the point is we, it doesn't matter what what you are, what you've done.
We also go through that function, that function, let's say scaredness of oh. Yeah. What are people going to turn up wearing? Because you never want to be the worst dressed, but you also never want to be completely, you know that, you know, there's always that one. This is this is generally marketing, but there's always the one guy. You know, everyone in especially in my world, in my normal world, we all broke up in, you know, a small smart casual business
attire these days. But there's always the one guy who'll come up and he's got his vest in the pocket square, Yeah, and everything on. And I do look at it and go come on mate. Yeah, but lifes too. Lifes too short to worry. Lifes too short to dress like shit. I, I, I, I'm. I think you should wear that more often. I'd I'd wear that to get coffee, Frank. Oh, you're just you're. Welcome.
You're welcome to borrow it you. See a bloke in an Olympic green jacket wandering through coals at some point over the weekend. It's me having stolen Courtney's Olympic jacket. Fair, fair. OK, today if you're listening this on the Saturday we release this, it is news weekend, so. Fitness Christmas. We're all there. I'm not Except Liam. Keep your eye out for Courtney Atkinson on Weekend Sunrise. Oh really?
This is news to me. Now, James Tobin, what's of Weekend Sunrise wants to talk to you. He wanted to talk to both of us. He called me and said any chance you and Courtney are around for a little interview on Sunday morning? He does some hard hours. He's I love James Tobin, one of the greats, but it's it's fitness crew Christmas Noosa triathlon weekend on this weekend. I need to give this shout out directly to the Clydesdale crew courtesy of our man Jelly Roll.
Yes, he's in the crew. He's a Clydesdale. He's a part of the Clydesdale crew. Yep, big share. The Clydesdales getting around this weekend and the Athenas we love. You as well and everyone anyone racing. Good luck. Anyone involved in the weekend? How excited are you for what? Have you got any official roles and responsibilities this weekend? Actually, I've got got a bit of a story. So yeah, I do have some official roles. I mean, not too official, but. That's a three time winner.
Yeah, yeah, I've, hey, it's functions, you know, kissing babies, those types of. Things. Exactly. Hey, hey. Got to do what you got to do. No, I've actually got to shoot back to the Gold Co. I've got to go up. I've got a few things to do. Then I'll shoot back to the Gold Coast for another function, which is, you know, beautiful in southeast Queensland. Traffic on a Friday. Yeah, really fun. But what I've got to do on
Saturday, I've got the call. So I think I told the story on here about Richie Port. I was going to ride a road bike, but I didn't elaborate. Realistically, mine wasn't in shape to even ride because I haven't ridden a road bike for six years. And someone had organised me last year to ride a road bike in Garth Proud who who's passed and and invented, You know, he's the founder of Noosa in his morning ride, like he's the Garth Proud Memorial Ride.
And I'm like, yeah, of course I'll do it, but I don't have a bike. So someone lent me a bike. But then Richie flattered, so they took the wheel off my bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went and had a coffee. Yeah, brilliant. Got the call again this year and I said OK, I'm. I'm. I'm doing it. So you're right. I'm riding so terrific. The things I had to do. Had to order 2 new tyres for my bike. I used Dan's knowledge. I've ordered, I've ordered 30s. Good. My frame probably didn't fit.
What do you say? 30 sixes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 30 sixes. Really. What? 3230 sixes? Yes, I got 30s. Yeah. New chain. Yep so all the things that I thought after six years sitting there and only being really used on a wind trainer every so often what would break. Yep and I'm gonna go out there and ride. But we don't get told Remember the the Legends race, relay race? Yeah. That we do each year. We we don't get told until pretty much the last minute. What leg you gonna do Yeah yeah,
yeah. So it's. So you're racing in it though? I am racing terrific. It's Russian roulette. Sam Collins late, late addition, he's gonna jump in or Sue's team he's in took. Took's in there. Took's coming for a race, I feel the Gold Coast sun boys and then we'll see who usual. Suspects will be there as well. You'll have you'll have Jeff Shipper, you'll have Suzie O'Neill. Yep, Kyle will be up there again, I imagine. Kenny. There's a good, consistent crew. That's true. I'll look honestly.
Speaking of James Tobin again. Well, if he's up there. No, he's not going to make it up there in time for that, but he and I were reminiscing because he and I know have gone in the last couple of years and JT and I laughed that we'll always have that moment when we started out the run league.
We're both running for our respective teams and he and I and Beth McKenzie, who's a legend of trail running here in Australia, former professional Highland with the three of us started out running together and James and I made the mistake of trying to keep pace with Beth McKenzie and 400 metres in, he and I both looked at each other and said this is way too fast.
And we both the Lactaid. Lactaid instantly have an incredible weekend to everybody who's up there, whether it be for the first time or for the 50th time. Enjoy what is just one of the greatest weekends on the Australian Fitness I. Felt the stats they released the stats. 3000 first timers so good, 3000 so good.
And then and then I suppose it's those 3000 that because we've got some really good feedback about Dan chatting, you know, like he's from from the elite side right down to, you know, the beginner side. It's the first time as I was even when I was having a swim this morning out down in Telly Creek with the mob and a few people said we've been listening to the podcast, we're heading to the news.
Thanks if anybody's. If anybody's racing it for the first time this weekend and you're listening to this, tell us, give us a race review. Tell us how it went. Tell us what was great. Tell us what sucked. Talk to us about Struggle St Tell us how the surf club we want. I want warts and all. I'm not going to be there this year. So I'm devastated. But I had to drop my wife's bike in because she's lending it to a friend who's racing this year.
And yeah, I said to the guys of the crime and Cycles hasn't been used in 12 months, $196 for a full service needed new bar tape, all the rest. I said money well spent because this thing was not on. An old bike, you know, you just mechanics, you'll get through 90% of it, yeah, really quick. And then there'll be something. There'll be something that's a problem. There'll be something a rusted out bolt, and you'll spend 3 freaking hours trying to work out how to remove it. I look, I do.
There's so much more we wanted to get to. The Jelly roll has put a has thrown our world into chaos. We will resume normal programme to some extent as we move forward in the coming weeks. I want to just give a little tease into next week though, because there's something I want to share with you, Courtney, in the in the beginning family running, we talked about the boom. We're seeing these events. We you've talked about how your favourite thing is to run overseas.
When you go into new places to run around to discover it. There's a brand new thing called travel Runner. In fact, Staffa, let's talk about it now. We've got time. We'll finish off with this travelrunner.com. This is a newly launched website, your go to source for running friendly accommodations, a community created by and for travel runners. So this is essentially it's it's a travel company, it's flight centre for runners. Experience your perfect getaway
in three easy steps. Discover your ideal stays so you can explore reviewed hostels and hotels by travel runners. You book and then you can run. Enjoy. So it's basically finding you accommodation based on running routes running. OK, so if you're travelling for work. That's a great idea, but or even for holidays. So like in the same way people use Strava heat maps. Imagine if you had you went to book a trip somewhere knowing you wanted to run there
anywhere. Well, if you're looking to run, here is where you want to stay. Yeah, right. I just think it's a really interesting service and it's that next evolution of the running boom. Yeah, I suppose then it's like, you know, Click to click, click in the hotel you want, it goes to booking.com or whatever and. Yeah, I haven't used it. Probably get a big Commission on the side of it. That's a that's a business idea. But but then it has the perfect London Marathon hotel.
Where to stay for the Boston Marathon Hotel? Where I thought you were going. Great idea. I love it. Yeah. I mean it's something that if you go into a city, you definitely look at all all regional places. But I thought you were going because I have seen a lot more of businesses now doing the whole, let's say it's a run tour. So you you go away on a tour, but instead of being a wine tasting tour, it is literally
you're on a running tour. So you go to a region, say you're going to visit Spain and there's a host and you're on the tour just like it's like the Kentucky for runners. Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Actually, you mentioned you mentioned that. There's a few businesses there. There's like, I'm sure there's plenty out there, but I'm seeing this pop up more and more across socials trying to get you to go and. Join your conversation about marathons, wineries, running.
Oh, we got some feedback on that, didn't we? Manned W on Spotify said I agree. Running in a wine region is a thumbs down. I did Barossa marathon a couple of years back. Most boring marathon today. Yeah, pretty honest feedback. No, there was a few who wrote in and go. We agree. Like, you know, wine regions don't, which is crazy to me because there's so much dirt. There is so much, there's so much do it, No, do it.
Like there's so many like paths. This was I I mentioned him earlier in the in the pod, but I should give him a shout out. Scott Gibson 2110 on Spotify. The only people that bag out half tights are guys that haven't run in them. Once you try it, you won't go back. 0 chafe. Great for holding gels and doesn't restrict your stride at all like you're wearing nothing at all. I think that's the problem for me, Scott. I think it's too close to. Well, hey, one more, one more.
Because I don't we'll, we'll move on and we forget these. But now I don't know who what his name is, but connection AC was something. And he said I'm a New Mexican follower and listener. 10 years ago I came to the Gold Coast to train and learn from Dan. So he must have trained under Dan Evans. And then he said, I remember swimming in a place from the start and I used to swim to Courtney's place. I can't believe I lived there or
he lived there. Obviously old fellow grew up watching me race on TV and that's we got. Amazing. Obviously, obviously, Dan used to say to the boys, swim to Courtney, swing to Courtneys. House. If you think Dan said, I mean not Dan Matt. Matt said the same thing, right? Your house is the turning boy. It's. My turning boy and I wonder we used to get woken up at 4:30 in the morning from the the dog. Barking brilliant.
All right, on that note, we're going to finish up a little bit of a shorter 1 today than normal. I know. I hope you're enjoying it on your long run Sunday or your regular run Saturday. Again for those of you on news. So first time, 10th time enjoy Fitness Christmas, it is the best weekend of the year. Enjoy and we will see you next. Week. And if you see me up at News, so come and say G'day.