EP20 In the beginning, we made it out of our teenage years. Courtney. 20 episodes. How you doing? Mate, I am, I'm home, which is good. We're in person again after last week, but I just realised how hard it is training in heat. So you know, I've had a little bit of AI, was down in Forest Creek at the end of last year. I got a little bit of, you know, mountain weather training. Didn't really think too much of it at the time. Come back to Queensland, it was hot.
I've just been in Japan for two weeks. I ran in Kyoto last week. It was 0°. Each morning I went out and ran. I was in a coat, no stress. Got back here 8:00 AM. Run along the beach this morning. Easy. I think it was the hardest run I've done. It's so in the past year right here. It's so steamy on the coast at the moment and it's hot and it's, I mean I'm in pro hours these days and I haven't run for the last two days because it's too hot.
I don't, I don't blame you. It is it it, it takes that to make you realise just how hard it is to train here and probably why a lot of the elites don't train in in in this weather. It's just too hot. It's too hot. It is good to be back in person, though. We had, we had an obviously last week's app. You were in Japan. I was sitting here on the Goldie. It's great to be back. We've got some things cooking. There's some things cooking right in the beginning. I can't say too much.
It's going. To be a big year mate, we. Can't say much but suffice to say if you're on board the in the beginning journey now. Stay on board this year. There's plenty of stuff to come. If you want to bail at the end of the year, fine, stay on board for this year. There's some stuff on the way mate. I'm going to get stuck straight into something that I found really interesting. You know Iron Man?
Well, we won't talk about tattoos, but you know the cars that drive around with Iron Man stickers on there. Yeah. So we're talking Iron Man triathlon here. Have you ever seen a 26.6 mile sticker? Never. Now have a listen to this. How? You doing man this thing? Well I'll put it this way, we've all travelled 26.2 miles in our life. I just so happened to one do it on foot and to complete the whole thing in a span of three to six hours. My name is Pranay. Nice to meet you.
Got pulled over the other day because I had my marathon metal in a resistance band hanging from my rearview mirror. Cop said it would prevent me from being aware of my surroundings. I said if we take them down it'll prevent other people from being aware of my accomplishments. Some other people must have seen it hanging there too because I got honked at. We both jumped out of our cars so fast I was decked in a full tracksuit, challenged to do a 5K straight up.
Once I showed him the 26.2 sticker on my rear bumper, he hopped back in his vehicle so fast I thought he saw a ghost. I want people to look at my car and think, is that the amount of miles he ran in a day or is that the amount of times he tells people that's the amount of miles? At my last job interview, the employer asked what I could bring to the table if hired. I said one word, perseverance, and in lieu of a resume I just left him with a 26.2 sticker and
a wing come my way out the door. Next week I'll be appointed CEO. My wife Sock and he and I have a very. We'll leave it there. This one reminded me of you at work. And this is from our we. We love him. Matt. Matt's lines. Lion. And what do you reckon is the 26? This is obviously happening in America. If he's taking the piss out of it, Yeah. Do you think, can you see this coming to Australia? We'd have to change it to 42. Points we'd have to change.
Yeah. Which is not as fun a sticker, I don't think. No, I hope not. And I don't think it would take off here. I don't think the tall poppy syndrome that exists in Australia would allow people who've run a marathon to get so far ahead of themselves that they start adorning their cars or their bodies with stickers or tattoos. I I reckon they will, mate. No, surely not. You How many cars have you seen driving around?
And probably not so much these days, but when Iron Man first had its, you know, really took how many, how many tattoos? Have Iron Man. I see a lot of Iron Man tattoos, but I think, and I guess it's how you view the athletic achievement and I'm about to, this might be hypocritical. OK, I'm OK with you getting an Iron Man tattoo. I'm OK with anybody that's completed an Iron Man getting that famous tattoo. I don't think a marathon justify is worthy of it. Oh.
I don't. It doesn't only because I put it this way. If you want to walk, run a marathon you can and you'll be done in six hours. If you want to try and walk, run or dog paddle, freestyle or roll your legs over through an Iron Man, that's a day that's that's probably going to take you 24 hours if you try and do it that way. And I think there's maybe more on in my mind. I'm saying the line for me to get a tattoo of. Is how long you've been out there. It may I think it I'm figuring
this out on the. Fly if you ran 100 a hundred kilometre or 100 mile run. Do you think then you can get AI? Don't even know what brand it is. Do you get an ultra trail? What is it? UTMB sticker. Let me let me flip this on you, OK? Do you have the Olympic rings tattooed? I do not, but I'm I'm not a tattoo guy. Why do so it's not a consideration around should I have the Olympic tattoo on me? I'm just. I just don't want a. Tattoos don't like tattoos.
Why? What do you think of the Olympic tattoo and that notion of when people go to the games, they then get the rings? They're super proud they made the Olympics. Good on them. And if you like tattoos, go for it. I mean, the reason I don't like this, I shouldn't say I don't like tattoos. I mean, I love the look of tattoos on sure, but they're not.
For you. They're not for me because I just know throughout life what what I would have got when if I was, if I was to get a tattoo, what I was going to get at 18. Yeah. And it what that would be now I would be thinking, what did I do? You know what? I'm so I couldn't be more with you because and do you want to? This is evidence that's proof to the fact that I'm not a tattoo person either.
Because I imagine if you are a tattoo person who wants to get a tattoo, you just go and get it. You figure out what you want and then you just go and get it. I once toyed around with a tattoo and like, so like drew it on in text her for like a day. And then and then when people what's on your hand, I'm like, Nah, I'm not, I can't be building answering the question of what's on your hand. But I don't want people asking me about it. It's just going to annoy me.
So I. Mean that's probably half the reason a lot of I I would assume a lot of people get tattoos. They want someone to ask them or if you're going to get a tattoo, you want people to. Look at you, are you? Are you saying that people with tattoos are boring people and that don't have anything interesting to say? It's a good conversation, but no, if you think about, you know, this is me personally. I'm like, if what? Hopefully I get to be 7080 years old mate.
What's that sound we're going to look like then? Like I'm a guy rocking around. That is a question that we will get to hopefully know the answer to in 20-30 years time when the generation, the slave generation hits old age. Correct, but to go back to this. It's a bit different. A bumper sticker. No, no. Well, I. I'm saying watch this space. No, because this is a. Trend I can see taking on I I
can see people. I mean, it's just as much as when you're proud and and you wear that medal, whether it's an Iron Man medal, a marathon medal, whatever it is, and you wear that around the day after, like you're proud of do it. No, I like I know more for that. Do you still have do you have a trophy Rd No. Do you have Because I, I mean, I know you've got your shoe museum. I've got your. Shoe Museum? No, I have one Olympic suitcase. Yeah.
And anything I've ever done to do is sport Olympic uniforms or anything is in that suitcase. If it doesn't fit in that suitcase, it, it doesn't get kept. There's a bit of minimalism, right? If it doesn't fit in that suitcase. And how often do I open that suitcase, to be really honest, after, you know, a couple of Olympics and this and this, other medals and whatever's in there. I don't know, the only times I've ever opened that suitcase is kids school fancy dress. This is a case.
This is a case for hoarding hoarding stuff, right? The only time I've ever opened that suitcase is to look for fancy dress. I've got an Australian Jew if you ever, If your kids ever need an Australian judo outfit, I've got a Beijing Australian judo outfit that are flogged from the, the draw in the apartment because I, I spent a night in with the judo team in, in one of the, you know, one of the apartments. So I thought this looks great.
No ones gonna, you know, they probably get 20 for their competition. No one will notice this one. I've got some hosed hogs. So do you ever want to have an Australian Olympic runner there? I'm just imagining one of your kids turning up at a school thing and like just rolling in with the biggest swagger ever because they're like, this is proper Olympic kit. So. My kids never wanted to touch it though. That's why I'm offering it. You know it's for hire.
So yeah, that's going back to the reason I asked. Yep, is because this the notion of running and events and and challenging yourself and all the rest of that. I don't have any medals from and like I never compete at the Olympics or one nurses or anything, but you get medals when you finish races like the I've done some cultures, I've participated participation medals.
I don't know where they are all right, because you, you see some people in create incredible metal walls and they have these awesome things, these racks and all that's.
Gonna make with all of these numbers so all the different races because he travels to do each race right so every number means so everyone's got their thing and I'm I'm like I'm saying I'm all positive for this yeah everyday he can go into his garage and and that all has meaning of where he's travelled and where he's raced around the world or what events and everything. That's a friend of mine. But no, I wanted to ask you, did you? So you talked about you don't keep those medals.
Yeah. But is there one from an event that something you got from an event that sticks out and you're like, that was that was sick. I I want to keep that. Do you know what I do have? Yeah, I've got a I've got the big wet pack or dry pack carry bag from Red Bull. Defines the C Was it C to Summit? Yeah, the big, the big thick grey silver one this yeah, which is awesome. I'm. Not sure if it was the C to summit year or the year before which I can't remember the brand.
But the reason I I keep it a is because I use it because it's great. So usability, a usability, but also because, and to get back to your friend who has the bibs is it's special to me because it's a race I did with my mate Ed Yep, who's my best mate and we did this thing together. And so that inevitably has memories for me and makes me think back to those two days of the race. OK, I don't know the medals. I don't really, I wouldn't.
I don't know if I'd have that same sort of feeling of a of a medal necessarily. In fact, I've got the defiance medal somewhere, but the bag is a much more valuable to me memento of that race than the medal. Well, I suppose when you see it all the time and can use it, it also adds it adds failure. I mean, that was the the purpose of those bags are used in the race, number one. So they have a purpose. It's not just being produced for the sake of it. And then you can use them, you
know, ongoing. And then the third part of that conversation for anyone who runs events is quality matters. So you can produce a lot of crap out of China and a lot of that will just get thrown out if you produce or can collab or do something with a reputable, like really good quality. It's not even about the brand, it's just about the quality. People will keep it and use it. I Yes. Just we're all No, no, I love this because now today that's.
Probably the last time you hear me say that, but it's sustainability. Like you're not just going to throw it out when you get home. I'm jumping straight in my mind now. I'm thinking of events that I've done where what T shirt size are you? What visor or what you know drink but whatever I would rather turn up to an Expo or bid pick up and get less. But imagine getting if a race did a a collab with one of those metal drink bottle manufacturers branded metal drink bottle that
you know. Has to be like, you know it. It's got to be like a Yeti or. Whatever it is, or. Like a free green or whatever. It's got to be quality, yeah. But that for me, I, it's something that I will continue to use and it's tangible, but it also reinforces the quality of the event. It also says this is a good event that's collabing well with other brands and it's fed this fed income like it's a, it's a proper serious event. Look at the quality of the participation thing you.
Get. So would you then be willing to pay more money to enter that event potentially? In fact, you know what? I'd rather get that than a medal at the end. And I know you can't wear a drink bottle, but imagine if. Finish a finisher coffee. Cup. Imagine if Imagine if you cross the line at the City to Surf and instead of being handed a medal, having a medal put around your neck, they handed you a Frank Green coffee cup that said City to Surf 2025.
I'd much prefer that because then you get to show you're not because then the next day when you go into the office, you show them your frank coffee. You drink your coffee and every day you remind people you're better than them because you run the. Every event organisers going and the medals, 90,000 medals cost us once each and and then these guys are talking about coffee. Cups, the economics of it is not my problem. I'm just saying how I feel.
OK, OK. Now you just said you would be willing to wear a bumper sticker. I'm going to if you did the distance, no, So we're talking about bummer stickers. Now that's a good segue into talking about distances because we've talked on this show a lot about let's, we'll call them influencers who are doing charitable runs across, you know, whether it's Australia, whether it's across the UK or whatever's going. On everyone knows who we're talking about.
Plenty of them. Now let's today give a little bit of kudos. Oh, here we go. To the original, the OG to the original, to the man and his name. I like, I like this story of tell the story and when we'll get to it. Three At the start of one of the world's toughest ultra marathons, a 540 mile trek from Sydney to Melbourne, a farmer showed up dressed in overalls and galoshes over his boots.
When reporters asked who he was, he replied that his name was Cliff Young. He was 61 years old and sometimes he ran for three days straight chasing sheep on his farm, so he was confident he could run the five days needed to cover the distance. The other participants were elite runners from all over the world sponsored by major sports brands, most of whom were under 30. Runners typically ran for 18 hours and slept for six to cover
the distance. However, it was discovered the day after the race started that Cliff Young had run through the entire night without sleep. Five days, 15 hours and 4 minutes later, he finished first in this gruelling race, beating his nearest competitor by 10 hours. He admitted that he didn't even know runners were allowed to sleep during the race. Cliff declined the $10,000 prize money and shared it among the next 5 runners who finished
after him. He became an Australian national hero and a true icon of ultra marathon running, exemplifying how determination, perseverance and unconventional thinking can overcome any physical challenge. That is, I've been sent that reel, amazingly, the day before you sent it to me. Yes, I three other people had sent me that reel. Yeah, it just like it is. It's such a cool. Story well, thanks to Ando for sharing that with with me but. It's such a cool story. It's a cool.
Story about three things really stuck out to me in that go a race, I guess competitors, you know, the test wasn't about a a time or anything else. It was a race. A race and he and how do you win? He didn't sleep. You know, like you have to work it out. It's not about, you know, telling everyone doing all that. I thought about that it's a race. OK, right #2 is I, I, I love the idea at the end. He didn't he shared the money with the athletes who rely. He was a sheep farmer.
Yeah, he just went in it, but there was athletes there by the sounds of. And look, this story may have a bit of Mayo, right? It's off the Internet. But the idea of that just that was what made me nearly tear up at the end. I'm like, how good this guy, he's knows these guys at sea are obviously bread and butter and he's gone. You know what? I've just come along and don't know really what's going on, mate. You guys. Here you go. Yeah.
I like that that part of the story is true, by the way. Is it Like, is it? There's no. No much about. There's no, no, no, I did a bit of research into this 'cause I know the, the shuffle, right, General, the Cliffy shuffle, Cliffy shuffle. I know the general story about Cliff Young, but I, and when I saw this reel and you we were gonna talk about today, I did do a bit of digging. Just quickly there, there is a little bit of mail in that. He did sleep on the first night,
right? And what happened was he woke up earlier than he'd planned. His alarm actually went off earlier than that he planned it to, and that's when he kind of went, oh, I've got a lead here, I'll just keep running. That was kind of, and the old thing of he didn't do it in gumboots. He turned up OK in gumboots and someone gave him a pair of runners. So he did the race in runners. But it's the mystique of it, right? It's the SO. Yeah, I mean he it's become a a fable, right?
It has it's. Grown like Chinese whispers have grown it, but it's what I love is it's grown on authenticity of there's no bullshit around this. It's a race he won a race other people turned up because over distances. So I don't know. This obviously doesn't happen anymore of this particular one. Well, I I mean coast, coast to cosy would be the closest thing I can think of if an actual where a number of people start on a start line and run.
I think Coast to Cosy might be 200 and I'm going to get called out on this so I probably won't say it, but it's a it's. A. Well, I know it's from Kosciusko to the coast. To the coast, which ain't short. Yeah. The thing the other part I love about the real and the story is that we took we all these people and we mentioned this that all these people that seek out to achieve something or set out for one of these challenges. You know, there's a level with a lot of them, not all of them.
A lot of them aren't doing it to accomplish the thing. They're doing it because they're hoping that the byproduct of what they're doing results in fame and fortune. I think that might be my cynical take on it, but Cliff young and different era, sure, but he's turned up and it's a bit what you're saying about it's a race. He's turned up not because he thought this is going to make me famous and lead me to a better life or to a different life or to a life of opportunity.
He turned up because, and this is the doing a bit more research on it, he'd run the Melbourne Marathon a couple of times before he competed in this ultra. His best time in the Melbourne Marathon was a 302. Yeah, right. Solid. Good marathon runner without being a great marathon runner. He did that three O 2, by the way, at the age of 58 because he did this run when he was 61. That's.
Right. So, but it's like then he's turned up to compete in this, in this thing that's just, you know, and he competed not because he hoped it would turn into, and I don't know, Cliffie and people out there might disagree, but I think if we, if some of the influencers in our world were a bit more like Cliffie Young, I think the running influencing world would be a bit better off. Yeah, I anyway, I that one, that one went really. Yeah, definitely. He resonated with me.
We should have put him in the poll of best known Australian runners actually. Oh, you know what, I reckon we'll probably we'll leave it a little while, but maybe we can re poll with some different, different runners in the future 'cause you know, Mona Getty, very similar to Cliffie. Cliffie, you know, came really high up. OK, here's a bit of audio for you. Liam, what do you think is going on here? And yes, I mean, you've got the show notes in front of you.
You know what? I deliberately didn't look at this. I it sounded in my head. I heard running of the bulls in Pampliner. That's what it brought back memories of me. OK, well I'm I've decided to throw the running out the door today and and I wanted to give a shout out. You know, we've got the Jillaroos. Jackaroos. What are the Aussie? Socceroos. Socceroos. All these Roos, you know, I want to give a shout out to I think maybe the most authentic Roos we've got as Australians, right?
And it's called the Chopperoos. I know this time. You know, the chopperoos. So Australia. So at the moment, this is the moment that that audio was the moment Australia won their 5th consecutive Timberland World Champ Lumberjack Championship. They're wood choppers. Wood choppers, lumberjacks in the US, Yeah. And they beat the US team in world record time. So you think so that obviously chopping wood. Yeah, there's a bit of salt. Like actual.
Chainsaw in it. The chainsaw's the one I always kind of go that's I know it's hard, but doesn't look that hard. Do you own a chainsaw? No, I've never used a chainsaw so. So you're commenting on it. It's just like, it's just like some of my run shoe reviews mate. But I'm going to go out and break the world record for Chains because it can't be that hard. It can't be that hard. Hey, talk about this. Well, one, beating the lumberjacks of the US, you know
that home. I'd, I'd consider that home. And do you reckon there's how many Tasmanians do you reckon would be in this? Team. Oh lots. It'd be dominated by Tassie. Have to be a Tassie team I'm. Assuming there's a foster in there, the the progeny of Young of the great Dave Foster. I don't know, but I reckon trying to think there's a little little town I remember starting a race at kind of what is it East, no, West of Launceston called Mole Creek.
Mole Creek. And I can imagine that would, if anyone who knows Mole Creek, I can imagine that's like the epicentre of the training centre of the lumberjack. Actually fun. No, here's a high performance. Here's a fact. Remember that race I was telling you about? I did with Kenny Wallace? Yes. Mark Webber's adventure race. Yes. We the very first year I did that, it could have someone would know this. It could have even been Mole Creek.
We started this adventure race by the team happening to cut through a Tasmanian log. Well, that's how it. Started you could not get on your bikes to start the course until A-Team before so I don't know I'm. Assuming Kenny did most of it for you. No, no, because so like here, here, I don't know what you call like this saw, but when you're on either end, but 2 sided, 2 sided saw, yeah. Think of that.
I think they're called a seesaw. A seesaw that's kidding as no OK. Think of a big lump of like a, a big log. Yeah, yeah. And we, every team had a log and you had to cut through that with your team before you could get on your bike. I love that that's. A good that would that that just came back. To I love that as an inclusion of an adventure race. It's something different, it's something unique, it's something out of a skill set for most
athletes. I love that as throwing that in as a way to and you know what would have been better? They could have made the coffee tables out of your nice chopped up clogs. And you finish. And as you finish your product, there's your participation souvenir. They should put us in charge of more stuff. Participation souvenirs we've got. We might have found a niche. Courtney, let's think more on this. Hey, we got some loose ends to tie up from from last week's
episode while we were apart. Can I just start quickly? I want to tie loose end. I know I threw this out last week when we were talking. Jordan Barter sent in the race that his old man used to do where they'd run around horse tracks and get on the train and then get to the next horse track. The third track they ran around was not Randwick. It was in fact Warwick, but the other loose end around that I mentioned a a train station race that took place in Sydney and I had a look at it.
It's not a running event, OK? It's a logistics event. Basically, the way this thing is done is that the fellow by the name of Colin Burnett, last time I checked, has the record and there's 178 train stations in Sydney and the goal is to get to every train station in a day. The record is 15 hours, 54 minutes and 14 seconds, but there is limited running involved. Basically it's about coordinating the timetables of the trains. There's 50 million possible combinations of the order in
which you visit the stations. So basically, I think Collins, well, he's a database consultant, so he knows how to work a, he knows how to work an algorithm. And so we. Could call it a orienteering race. Yeah, it's a with train times. It's a public transport orienteering race. So less about running, more about being able to coordinate train times. I would challenge him to try and do that in Tokyo's train system. Mate, good luck people, you
know, just people. Yeah, well, that was, I mean, I'm, I'm still interested in the horse race and I'm also interested in I love finding new places to be able to run and new trains to be able to run. I would love, you know, with running booming. I'd also like to understand accessibility to to race tracks. To to to places that are normally off limits. 100%, yeah. Or is there any other places we can think of that we can't run, that we'd like to run?
And do we have enough of a population running now that we can sway those judgements? Because that's what it is, is vote with your feet, right? With your feet, you got enough people who put their hand up and say they'll be there. You said like you pay how much to go into a public swimming pool these days. What 777 bucks? 7 bucks for a swim? 10 bucks for a swim? Think every morning you said you had 500 runners show up to run in a place and pay 5 bucks, 10 bucks, make a bit of coin out.
That's interesting. Yeah. All right, so still on those loose ends. Now you have brought up this idea of when we see people or people who listen to the podcast see each other on a trail or on the road or wherever and you know, having a bit of a sign you can say to each other and you we, we kind of went with Dolphin. Well, we. We. Dolphin. Dolphin DO. Is it doffing the cap? Is it? Dolphin. Yeah, unlucky. I'll put the right so it's DOFFING. DOFFING, doffing the cap, OK.
Dolphin, the cap from the English Old English term. I have a bit of a story. I rode when I did get home yesterday. I want to ride my man about out in the in the ring National Park. And as I rode in, I saw a few fellas and I generally don't ride in a Red Bull. My Red Bull cap when I'm out in the forest. Like sure, because I'm not a Red Bull mountain bike racer. Like when I'm adventure racing or we're doing VI VI videoing or whatever, I'll always wear my
Red Bull cap helmet. But yesterday I did put it on. I rode into the forest. I don't know why I was wearing it, but few people kind of looked at me and I I swore I nearly got a bit of a doff. Really. And I was throwing because I actually didn't. I didn't know how to return. It, well, it was more I was like, do they actually, are they really, is this actually a thing or is just someone giving me a wave as I'm going in?
They have no idea who I am. And then I got self conscious about it and I'm like, I didn't return it. They're gonna think we're absolute wankers now. Oh, it's so it's it threw me. Well, I. Had the similar experience because I was running in the rang over the weekend last weekend and I ran past a couple of fellas. 1 great interaction, which is I was descending, I was doing that 17 K loop, I was running counterclockwise. And as I was descending that hill, we talked about power
hiking last weekend. Yes, fellow was coming up. I was going down. We passed and he gave me a big old wave and he said I'm listening to you right now. And I'm like, no way, that's awesome. And then as we passed by this point, he turned and said, I'm listening to you talking about running this hill. And I was like, that's amazing. Then when I got back to the car, another fellow who I'd run past as well came up and said, are you Liam? And I'm like, yeah.
And he goes, I've just been listening to the podcast while I've been doing the loop. I'm like, oh, that's awesome. His name's Matt. Shut up, Matt. But he said, he said, as I, I thought it was you. And as you went past, I thought, oh, I should doff my cap. But he wasn't running with a cap. Oh. So I think doffing the cap, while a nice starting point, presents a problem because if someone's running without a hat, what do they do? Is it the symbol of doing it? But that's a bit I don't know.
So I don't know if it's perfect. OK. We might have jumped ahead a bit here in the run sheet, but. One of my mates, Brett Carter, we've spoken about before, he wrote to me and said, look, I think very similar concept. He said, why not just give each other a finger? Then you'll know. That's a bit that's a bit harsh because if if. It's an all or nothing play. It's an all or nothing. And who would initiate that? That's I'm not going to be initiating running past someone
and giving them anyway. So OK, we know it's not doffer cap because not everyone runs in a hat. Yep, and we know it's not the finger. We don't want to flip people the bird because it's no one's brave enough to initiate it. Let's keep workshopping this. We need to decide on the In the beginning podcast running greeting that you can share with other runners to just give them a little bit. It's just a wink. It's anonymous smile that we know. We know. OK, we'll keep working.
And then the last one, we obviously your fluoro socks made our episode last last week and I have recovered from seeing them. But I got I got a story about well, this is a story. I'm just going to read it because it'll be easier. So here's a story. This one I think came from and but anyway, Henry Coombs is a doctor here on the Gold Coast. My stake story about how to treat snake bites yes has come from having a few runs OK with Henry and going well, he's a doctor I. Trust his.
He's the one who said you should stay. This is what I want to do now. Henry always used to run with one fluoro calf sock and I one day asked him why. And here's the story. If anything happens to you on the trails, it'll be easy for people to to easy for people to find you, especially if you're by yourself. So I'm not sure on that. Maybe it means if you.
Fall off a Cliff so if. You've got a bit of fluoro on, you're not going to be camouflaged as much into the the brush, so that makes a bit of sense. You'd be surprised how much 1 calf sock can do to help you from a broken bone as asleep to a snake bite to A to a snake bite. Yeah. Right. And then the one he didn't say, but obviously toilet paper. And then that way you can keep your two socks if you're in trouble.
So this has changed my like I've, I've, I've recovered a little bit from scene 2 mate, but I trust Henry and I, this is something that kind of we can talk about like maybe one. OK, not for me. I'd still rather carry it somewhere. Else so the valid, so the validity or the usefulness of a single calf. So a, it adds visibility in in need of in in case of genuine danger, genuine danger. BI imagine put the flag up.
But it's also, I guess it's kind of like, I mean, a lot of watches and phones these days have incident detection on them. So if something does happen, they can report it. But if you don't, and then your family knows that you're the guy with the pink 1 pink running calf compression sock. And you can ask people, has anybody seen this guy? Yeah. You become readily identifiable, which is great. And then there's the toilet benefit as well. The tourniquet stuff.
Yeah. Look, it's ticking all boxes for me. Maybe I'll bring the yellow socks out of the cupboard. They're still in there. I don't mind that. All right, enough. And we've talked a lot of a lot of interesting stuff to begin this week, but how's your run week been? What have you been up to, Liam? Since last week, I have I put a real focus on trails. I put a real focus on elevation. Kanani is on the cards. I put a real focus in on getting up in the trails. I did three trial runs last
week. I think for the week I had, it was interesting going back to that kilometres, the intensity discussion we'd had. I did about the same amount of kilometres as the week prior, but I did an hour more running time on feet and I had 1500 metres of elevation in the week. It's really so yeah, really enjoyed getting back up there. Add in the Lerang trail. Interestingly, MY17K loop time was 9 minutes slower than the quickest I've ever done it, but
I actually felt pretty good. So I'm looking forward to doing some more trail running. What I do want to share with you though is the Barely Run swim event or the Swim run event. We spoke about this. Which we spoke about I'd signed up I swim like a rock but and I've been promised by Ty Dalka that it would be pond like conditions in the swim. It was not a pond. That's. Some waves roll. It was raging. No, it probably wasn't raging, but it was certainly rolly.
It was certainly a bit bumpy, bit much better swimmers than me. Surf athletes described it as a bit of a rough swim. OK, so I was internally chuffed that I got through it. There was only a brief flirtation with asking the rubber ducky to come save me in the swim, but I got through a 400 metre swim. 38 athletes in my age group, in the 40 to 49 year old age group. All right. I reckon I would have come out of the swim maybe 30 seconds. There wasn't a lot.
There weren't a lot of people. Behind me. OK, OK. I thought you were gonna go 39th then. Well, you know, I, I think I beat a couple out of the swim but not a lot. But by the time I finished the run, which is a 4K sand run soft sand run. I What is soft sand? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's change. That's changed because. Did you used to run on the path? I've never done the event, never done the event myself, but I'm sure it used to run up the path. No, it used to be on the sand.
And then you run up the path. No, you're on the sand for the whole run. Soft sand too, and well, you're allowed to get down near to the but but on the day there was not a lot of. Yeah, it was high, high tide. High tide so it was a 4K run on the sand and by the time I finished I was smack bang in the middle #19 out of 38. So right The middle wasn't passed on the run which was nice. And from a timing perspective for your info was averaging 420 ones on the same which I was
very pleased with. Felt pretty good. Felt pretty consistent. So All in all though, awesome event. Yep, awesome event. So much fun. My daughter did the wade race as well. She loved it. My wife was laughing because she was looking at Quinn, my daughter, and saying she's nervous, excited. She's nervous because she's never done anything like this, but she's genuinely excited. There's a an energy. Something you to do? I was just nervous.
Nervous. Yeah. She was like, there was no excitement about you. You're just nervous. Nervous because you've got to swim and it's not what you're good at. So what? A What a great place. I mean, in fact, you're out in the ocean swimming, running along a, you know. Burly Beach, one of the great beaches in the world. What a yeah, what a. So well done to be the burly swimming room crew. Do you know who won by any chance? Like the male and females. I don't, I don't.
I do know, I think the, I know the team's event was taken out by the men's team event was taken out by there's an Aussie swimmer called Maximilian Gio Lani, or he's, he was there. He had the Olympic tattoo. He was a massive unit, obviously question And the runner, Luke Sayers, I want to say he's a physio. I think, I think it's Luke Sayers. He's a physio at my Gold Coast physio who actually treats Alana, my wife.
So But yeah, he's a good. Runner Oh well, Congrats to everyone not not not awesome of it yeah awesome of it's good to hear so that's about. And the other thing I want to quickly chime in on here before we get to your running in Japan, I now I blame this podcast. I am now the runners gifting consultant I have received explained.
I reckon in the last month or so, I've received messages from half a dozen partners of friends who have taken up running, going hey, what should I get so and so for their birthday. And I've had direct inquiries about the watch after we discussed watches. Yeah. Question saying hey, I want to get that watch for so and So's birthday. Can you send me all the details on it? Do you think it's the right one? Am I? Do you feel pressure?
Yes, yeah, this is the responsibility I didn't ask for to be Now I'm a I'm not a great gift giver at the best of times, but now I'm responsible for and but I did want to share this because I know that as running booms, right. I know that there's a lot of people out there who either they or their partners are into running and people will now go, oh, well, maybe I can get you something for running. But I think my most recent interaction, I nailed it.
Oh, I won't say that name. Although the Jack who listens to this podcast, this is the message I got from his partner said help, please. What are some good running brands for Jack's birthday? Basically, what do runners like? That was the question I was given by his, by his wife. And I said, I said first thing, what does he need? I said, does he have the shoes he wants or likes? If he's got shoes and a watch, let's move on. And then I said, next question, is there a particular race you
know he'd like to do? Well, that's a good one. An entry into something might be good. And then I said, as far as other gear goes, I've just started running your knees and it was the Salomon shorts you gave me. I said they are expensive, but they're awesome. I assume because this bike's bald. I said assume he's I assume given the head he's got, he's got plenty of hats and then I said new fresh running shirts are always good, which encourages you to throw out the
old stinky ones. I really like these Puma ones as in the length of this they're simple but light Puma ones that I've been running in as well. And she wrote back, awesome thank you. I think the shorts and an entry to a trail run is a good idea. He She said he thinks he feels bad when he. Books and entry into an event that might take time away from the family or time away for
training, that sort of stuff. So I would say to anybody out there that has a partner interested in running, find a race that you think they might like doing and enter them into it for them because a, it'll motivate them to train. But also it shows it's assigned to them, which is you saying it's OK, it's OK. Yeah, we support. You go out and do this, it's great for you.
We like you being happy and healthy and chasing something you're interested in. Maybe don't go as far as running across Australia. That's probably gonna take. Don't run from it. Don't wait to the mid to A7 day event. Yeah, yeah. But you know, just just pick something you think they might like an entry for. Oh, how good alright, I'm I'm we can pretty much just class you in the influencer category now, so. No. Hey, talk to me when we're running in Japan, please.
Yeah, mate. Well, the good news is I was just gonna grab my phone to look at my Strava, but I've done between Fraser Island and being a bit limited, running there and travelling and everything, and then straight into Japan for a couple of weeks, I've been limited. But I noticed I still managed to get about 50 to 60 kilometres of
running done each week. So even though I had 7 full days off at one stage in there, it's somehow the mileage, you know that it it's maintained, Yeah, it's probably not looking that great for a month, a race in one month, but we can manage that. But what I did do, well, the great thing that happened, I was in obviously, yeah, this is the beauty of social, the good side
of socials. I'm putting a couple of runs up in the middle of Tokyo and we spoke about being in Tokyo last week, a mate of mine or I suppose a colleague originally, Billy Curtis, who's a, you know, bloody great trail runner. I think he's won Buffalo Stampede. I raced him at Newcastle at the Solomon Golden Trail race last year. Yeah. So I didn't like I've, I've crossed paths with him, reached out, said you're not coming to Kyota by any chance.
And I'm like, tomorrow I'm in Kyoto for two days. He's living in Kyoto at the moment for the sole purpose of running. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. He's, you know, because in Australia, I suppose what I gathered is in Australia, you know, it's a little bit hard to make some coin to try and be professional. And that's in Asia's got a great trail running scene. You know, Hong Kong. The Japanese are super strong. I mean, half, you know, I think something like 79% of Japan's mountains.
So is that what sort of terrain Kyoto offers up or Japan specific? Yeah, well, Kyoto itself like is a city arguably in a valley with just mountains all around it. So mate, I I got a tour guide of running around first of all up the the mountains or the hills of Kyoto. And then the next day we went on a, you know, we were just yapping away and did AI think we're in? We're running about 17 K along the river up around. That's the flat run, yeah. I could have spent weeks there
just running. So what started off as no running turned into like great experience running into and you know, he was bloody wish him all the best around what he gets up to up there. So I'll keep an eye on him now what he's doing. This is that right there is why I think I sent you this during the week. Kantiki are now offering run holidays. Yes. I don't know if that's, I don't
know if that's on the run. Sheet it is on our run sheet later on so. I'll leave it, but I'll leave it. For the moment. But that's because the what a There is no better way to get to know a new city, town, whatever it is, than by running around it and. And early in the morning, because no one's out, you can like see this was the thing in Tokyo. You by, I reckon, 7:30 in the morning. I couldn't run down the streets, no, because it was just chocolate.
So you go to the park and you could do a few laps and then you just have to dodge the lights and people on the way home. You get out at 5:30. You can run anywhere you want. It's amazing. And Strava and then the beauty and I'm going to give Strava massive like props here because what Strava has done for international running in the sense of you can rock up anywhere and see that Strava
heat map of where people run. And the stronger the line, obviously the more people will run in that area. So you can generally work out where the best running is in a city or in trails like instantly. Do you know what's interesting as you say this is because that is clearly a premium feature. Oh. God no. I've done this to you before. I. Don't have premium Strava and now I'm getting the feeling do you remember when you I don't know how long you held out? Am I being a bit of leaders?
No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. Seriously, I don't know how long you held out on being one of those people without Spotify Premium when if you were, let's say you're a while, yes, shame, but you would. But now you have people come. Yeah, of course. Because if people come around your house and, like, you're having a Barbie or whatever and the playlist suddenly cuts out because there's an ad for Bunnings, Yeah, you don't get,
oh, this is embarrassing. And I wonder if we're going to get to that point in the running community around Strava where people like you start talking about the heat map features and all that sort of stuff, and people like me hanging our heads in shame because we don't have premiums. What? What are you talking about? I don't. I don't know that feature, sorry. Well anyway you can look at segments as well, but it just it doesn't offer the same. But anyway, look. So I work out where up from
whatever city. I mean you're dead right? The best way to see a city. So good. I work out the family plan for the day of where we're going often by, which isn't always great for me because I've already seen it in the morning, but it's always a good way to kind of like avoid. Oh God, why did we come here? That's not good. Yeah, yeah. Let's I'll just quickly go. You're troubleshooting. Yeah, yeah, you're. Troubleshooting the day out. I love that. That's great.
That sounds amazing. Shout out to what was his name, Billy Curtis. Billy Curtis yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah. So 1 of Australias best try runners, but up in Asia now really gonna give it a proper, proper crack. And he made me wanna go and race like I'm like, where are you? Where are you racing? I want to, I want to kind of come and see what you're doing. You've got an itch to scratch now over in over in Japan and elsewhere with some races, don't you?
And then like I said, certainly not much on the mileage front, but the body's feeling OK, fine. And then I just got back and rode my mountain bike last night in the forest, ran along the beach this morning and the heat mate it.
I've, I've said for a while, and this goes back to the days I think we've mentioned training when I was training with Mike Shelley and I said, oh, well, you know, you, you can go to altitude and you get benefits, but there's also benefits to training in the heat around blood, blood plasma. And you know, sinus will tell you a lot more than I can about it, but I've always felt it's helped training in the heat. There is a detrimental side to it as well. It is tough. Running is harder.
You have to. On a day like today, you have to manage what you're doing and understand and listen to your body, and you don't have to finish what you set out to do. I was going to ask, I'm glad you brought this up because I did have this down as, as something I wanted to ask you about running in the heat. Yeah, the, we know there's the the Goggins community, which is grind through grind, just just get it done sort of attitude about running.
Then there's, you know, my mum who says don't, don't. You'll do yourself damage in this sort of heat. Yes. How do you and not get, and this is only for you, but how do you adapt and adjust to the heat That that idea of I wanted to get out and get 20 minutes of threshold done with 1010 minutes on the side, but it's just too hot. I'll adapt and adjust and do something else or. I I adjust 100% you have to
adjust. Sometimes it can just be too hard or if it's not adjusting the session, you still want to achieve something. You've just got to like just tailor it back and go that little bit easier. And that's where heart rate's quite difficult when it's that hot, but it also can provide a little bit of a guide. Like when it's really hot, your heart rate will just, you know, skyrocket and really increase because your body's just trying to do so much more to cool yourself down.
So it's that happy medium of how you, yeah, everyone can have a different way of attacking that. But then I think outside of running, that's where it really becomes important with recovery. So like the difference between running and doing the session and being like your core body temperature's up, everything's hot now. Look, some people might go, well, perfect time for a nice bath.
Hey, it may well be, but I find even just going and jumping in the ocean for 5 minutes just to bring it down, having a cold shower, bring it down. I jump back in the car and feel 1,000,000 bucks compared to if I jumped in the car and hadn't done any of that. Electrolytes like we've talked about, you know, just managing some of those for making sure
the fluids go back in better. But you know, the one thing I could say would be the, the, the main thing I think in that those conditions you can do is get in air conditioning in the day. Yeah. And not everyone. I mean, depending on your job and depending on what you do, you know, that's not available to everyone. But if you want to recover and if you've got to train in heat, get in the air con during the day.
I challenge one part of that, OK, it is available to everyone and let me give you my, let me give you my hack. OK, let me give you my hack. I used to do this when I was doing the run club in Brisbane because we'd finish, we'd start during these summer months we're in right now. It'd be days where it would be 30° and we'd still go out at 11:00 AM and do this 31 minute run club.
A 5 minute stroll through the frozen food section of Coles or Woolworths or ALDI makes your body temperature right back down right. You just go go for a walk that hey, they aren't going to kick you out right? You just peruse that frozen food section. Put a podcast in. Do it at listen to in the beginning podcast as you peruse the frozen food section.
That is a perfect way to bring the if you can't get to the ocean or a pool or you don't have air conditioning or an ice bath if. You're in the city, the frozen for you groceries. The frozen food section of your nearest IGA Coles, whatever it is, is a perfect place to bring that core temperature back. To There you go, Liam. Liam's urban hacks. Yeah, exactly. And I now apologise to the store managers of every fast of every shop that now has to do with sweaty runners in their frozen
foods. Yeah. And slushies. Slushies, $711.50 Slushies, yeah. Can't go wrong and then you can also get get get in the. In the frozen food. In the frozen food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice. All right. You got anything else from your own week? Are we jumping into some strange events? Nah, let's just get into the running. Running. It's gonna get more interesting now, right? Because we've got an event. Yeah, like, I don't know how long that is. I haven't worked it out. Two nanny for two months.
OK 02 months. Two months from Kanani. OK, well that's longer than I thought. 8 weeks. It's the 28th of March, isn't it? Pretty sure it's the last weekend of March. We're in the last weekend of January. So we've got two weeks, two months. Well, that's more more time than I thought I was kind of playing it down already Going 5 weeks is going to be a bit of a challenge. 8 weeks, 8 weeks is OK.
Yeah, all right. So we'll we'll have a lot more, let's say struction running conversation coming in the next few weeks. That's right in the next few months. WTF. Let's go. OK, look at some of these last wonderful things. Last week I just wanted to touch on quickly. Last week I talked about we, you were absolutely hated. Synchronised cycling. Synchronised cycling, I still do. I talked about a Red Bull athlete who does BMX flatland and the fact that he's huge superstar.
His name? Mathis Danos. He's a French guy. D'andois Mathias d'andois. Thank you. You're welcome. Pronunciation check. Hey, it's never going to get old because I love you doing it to. Me so. He, he's been this guy's now it's a little bit like I'm just trying to think of, no, I won't go down the break dancing route, but it's kind of like a sport where he did what you didn't. He does individually what you didn't like. He writes, but he does it on a BMX.
He's stylish. He's, you know, in the street where there are competitions for this. So he's the world champion at it also. But he's starred in French films. He's a, he's a model. He's he takes all these boxes at like, I'm in awe. I'm like, this is the man I used to, I watched him a lot on Instagram, mainly because he's a Red Bull athlete too. And he kept popping up. But he's made a living and a good living out of being one of these BMX flat land guys. I'm just having a look through
some. Can you see what he does right now? Yeah, yeah. So. They take him into museums and film him. Yeah, in the middle of the. I think I even seen him in Rome down in the fatty and don't quote me I think. That's the fatty. You know what, you know what, I think it might be because I'm watching some of his videos now and I love it. Do you know what the difference is?
That synchronised cycling from last week a, there was a bunch from doing at the same time, but also that they're wearing lycra cycling outfits. OK, this guy's wearing St wear. It's, it's a, it's a whole vibe. It's, there's a culture, there's a, there's an artistic element to it. And he's doing it very much in a style with what he's wearing. And on the streets that I go, I, I can sense that so. Is he an artist or an athlete? He's both. Both. OK, I like it.
An artist. No shout out, I like Mateus Dandois, I will continue to look at him. That's a good one, he just followed him. Nice. We will put that one in the notes if anyone's you know wants to have a check him out as well. So my next one, have you heard of stilt racing? No, and I get the sense I don't want to hear about it. No, you probably don't, but I think this comes from our China. Yeah, Chinese friends again. Let me just have a look. Where stilt racing, still racing.
Yeah, definitely. Chinese is an Asian, right? I'm having a look at this video. You 100% Asian. No, just no, just just this is I mean. 01 of the comments This is more of a sport than hobby horsing. Oh, I agree with that. I agree that it's more of a sport than hobby horsing it look, this is yeah, no, just no. There's no need. There is no need for this sport. There's no need for a lot of sports.
But these people doing this stilt racing are more than capable of running, and they're choosing to do it in stilts, which, yeah, this, there's no point in this. Is this one the same coach? So you're not a fast runner? Can't jump, can't throw for shit? Nah, but why don't you throw some stilts on and we'll make an event? Up Nah out on that.
Sorry, we're gone. I'm bringing one to the party here though this year, Courtney, for the first time ever, officially, I believe we will answer the question, can robots beat humans in 1/2 marathon? Apparently in Beijing. When is it due? Later this year in April, 12,000 humans will be racing the half mile course against 20 robots. 20 companies are developing these humanoid robots right to run 1/2 marathon so. It's a bit of a like a company competition that who's it's mate the best.
People like remember when they used to have that sun race thing where people, schools and universities would design those solar powered cars to go from Darwin to Adelaide? They still do this. They were racing it in the rang one day around the Vela, around the crit circuit. So schools, it's a bit like that, except instead of designing solar powered cars, you're designing robots to run a
marathon or half marathon. Do you know where I thought you were going there with the schools for a moment, where they all the the competitions where they build the robots to? Fight each other. Yeah, it's like to destroy it step instead of instead of robots fighting each other, they'll be racing humans over 1/2 marathon. So. We've seen we've seen a few robots run a marathon and make the distance. Have we? Yes. I didn't know that I. Don't know. We haven't put that in one of the weeks.
Yeah. So I have seen they have had robots run the marathon distance. Wow. It looks ugly. Yeah, they can do it. Yeah, but I like this cuz it's a race. Yeah, I mean, that sounds a bit like how I run a marathon. It looks ugly and I can do it, but interesting, the interesting, just looking at some of the data about it and I'll be fascinated.
I'll keep an eye on this. When it actually happens, it's due to happen in April. There's some, there's some specifications about the size of the robots and the they have to be humanoid, right? They can't just be. You can't just build a car. It's got to run. But then there's. Do you reckon they have that same rule? You know, 'cause like, I mean, they flaunt it, race walkers, but you've got to have one to run. You've got to have no contact with one foot. So.
Completely off the ground. That would be the perfect rule, wouldn't? It it says that distance from the hip joint to the sole of foot should be at least 1.47 feet. So they're dictating like, you know, I don't know if there's any. You should be an adult robot. Yes, yeah, anyway, But I think it's interesting to look at. There's one robot that's already sort of participated in this type of race before, and they've got it clocked at running 6.2 mph, which is about 10 KS an
hour. So if it does this thing, it's probably going to come in at about just over 4 hours for a total time for the marathon, OK. So the runners are going to win. Not all of them, Courtney. Not all of us. Think if they do this every year and you see the innovation until the robot can be. And then all of a sudden, remember when Jesse, Jesse Owens famously raced a horse back in the day? They're talking back in the in the 19. Tell me about this. One. Yeah, yeah.
Jesse Owens, the famous American athlete, raced a horse. He needed the money, which is a sad story in itself, but I love the idea that one day we'll see Elliot Kipchogi racing a robot. So it's a match race. Did. You were you telling me about Kipchogi? He's going to. Kipchogi signed up for London. Yeah, right. Which is really exciting. That's a race I would watch. A straight up race, yeah. Kipchoge versus a robot. Yes, I absolutely. I think that that would get more there you go.
That would get more viewers than the what was the sub two hour the breaking the breaking 2 project. I actually go nearly go as far as saying, Oh, if they did a head to head race, that race would. So I think at the moment, if you look at YouTube, the highest watched clip was Felix, the Red Bull guy jumping out of space. Yes, I would go as far as saying, I reckon the robot versus Chip Kogi would nearly outdo that. Do you know what it would be? It would be Jake Paul versus
Mike Tyson of the running world. Because you're so Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson broke all boxing viewing records, right? Yeah. Crap fight, but the build up and the hype and the noise was bigger than anything the boxing world had seen before. So even the boxing purists couldn't help but get involved because of the noise that was made and because Mike Tyson was involved, right? Elliot Kipchoge would bring the purists in, the running purists in. Now the robot.
Brings you is your Jake Paul. That's what brings you novelty. That's what brings you kids. That guy, the guy's racing a robot. I want to watch that. That's what brings the part timers who would never normally sit down and might not know who Elliot Kipchoge is. They're going. This guy's racing. Oh, he's the best. He's racing a robot. He's running. Oh wow, I want to watch this. Can you ask, can you outlast the robot? Like, Can you imagine he's the robot's just like it.
It never falters. It's just one pace. It's a perfect pacer. It's not going to change pace. It's just going to. It's just can it's battery last? I will if if we're going to make this thing happen. What I want the robot to be able to do, though, is to be able to eyeball Kipchoge. I want the robot to be able to pull the Usain Bolt as they enter the final kilometre and be eyeballing Elliot. Kipcho mate, they can make his head spin back with this is you know.
Anyway, but the point is, robots are going to race humans this year in 1/2 marathon. I can't wait to see it and I just hope that if they eventually teach them to run full marathons that they get the 26.2 sticker tattooed on the on the robot's leg. Oh yes, yes. Well, while we're talking about complete and utter just nonsense here, left field one, have you ever thought about building your house with Lego? Yes, I have. You have. OK, I've got kids. I've got Lego. You've.
Thought about it. You've thought about it. So there is a company that is. Where are they from? If it's Lego, it's probably Denmark. Yeah, I'm, I'm tipping this could be a Scandinavian company, but they've literally got kit houses now and they're oversized Lego blocks. You, you can just put, you know, literally buy the kit of the home you want and build it yourself. And it's all, it's not plug and
play, is it? What do you call that when you put a click click and play click and click click? And collect. No, it's, it's, it's the, it's a, it's bricks. It's locking bricks a la Lego. If I this is the perfect like if you've got you know, I consider myself ever done a trade, can tinker with bikes a little bit here and there. But if you asked me to do some carpentry, I'm gonna it's gonna be a bit of a stretch. I like this. Yeah, I, I'll, I'll, it's a nice
idea. I'd be, I'd want to see, I'd want somebody who knows what they're doing to tell me that this is structurally sound. I'd want like, I'd want this to hold up. I don't know that big. This big storm came through the Gold Coast last weekend and I went for a run on that border trail the next day and this storm took down some bloody big gum trees. I don't look at this video and go, yeah, that'll stand up in 70
kilometre an hour winds. This doesn't it doesn't fill me with confidence from a structural. Perspective. I'd be happy to chance it because I'm I'm thinking this is going to save you a lot of money. No, I don't reckon. OK, All right. I value my family. All right, from the from the left field to even more stupidity. Good. Where are we going now? Do you think power tool racing should be an Olympic? Sport. No, I don't. I haven't even seen this. What? What are you talking about?
Power tool racing. Tool racing, so Sanders. So you normally you you have a Sander and it kind of gets away from you sometimes and it's running a bit quick. Put a little makeshift seat on it and plug it in. Just like cockroach races. Yep, sanding races. No, no. This is move on, look, move on though. What I would say is this should be part of the timber sports. That's where this should be, not Olympics, but at the timber sports. That's where you find your way in there and you have your
designated. It's a bit like the cocks in the rowing when you got all the big powerful athletes actually rowing the boat. Then you got the cocks at the front telling them to stroke, stroke, stroke, stroke. That's where you put in the timber sports. There's the big blokes with the chainsaws, the big blokes with the sores and then you have your little whippet. On the Sander. On the Sander. Jeez, you could heard of you make a mistake running across
the ground on that. All right, what do we got? I'm going to ask for your expert translation or like, Oh yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah, the the race or Flambo, Yes, yeah, so race to Flambo. Now this is 1 you got to see in pictures, but it's literally I think it's doing the rounds at the moment on the net. Everyone in the race has a now I'm gonna think what what, what? What do you call it? Flaming torch? It's a torch. It's like Indiana Jones style. It's.
Exactly the perfect description if you think of an Indiana Jones movie. When he goes into any dark space, he picks up a stick and then the end's on fire. That's what these people are running with. 400 people in this race all have one of them to begin the race. It's a nocturnal race, it's an urban trail race over 18K so in the city obviously goes into some trails. 450 metre elevation gain. So it's a serious race.
What I don't know is do they have to keep the stick on fire for the whole race to win this surely? I'm not sure, but I'm all in for this. I love this. The other thing I love that. Would be a challenge to you. Like, you've got to think of it this way, you have to finish the race before the Wick burns out. Yeah, or the fuel, whatever the. Fuel if you've got. Some on the on the your porch. Gasoline, whatever's in there.
I love, the other thing I love about this is in a world where we can no longer in, in Australia, which is a country where I think we've gone too far on making things safe. This is a dangerous race. This is a dangerous There's an element of danger to this. Race. So this is in Belgium. I just saw the back. End of the of the and they're crazy. Yeah, well, have you seen their cyclocross? They're nuts. They they think like we think bike riding, we've got to have a criteria.
The criterium course has got some, you know, bumps in it. They literally just pick out the most muddy trail put put hurdles in the middle of it, whatever their cycle cost. Racing is just another level and no wonder they can handle bikes. So I like the idea that in this race there's a little bit of danger to it. It's still, you still got to be able to run. There's also a danger element because everyone Ranger is carrying a burning stick. Yeah, I'm. I'm on board with that. I like it. Yeah.
Now you touched on Contiki a bit earlier on. Now I'll play the first bit of this clip because I know we're we're getting a bit on on time. But you I think you sent this to me, right. It's around the need for having a third. It's a different way of looking of why run clubs are trending and stuff. So I'll play, I'll play the first bit of the clip. Can we talk about how everyone is obsessed with third spaces
this year? If you're not aware, having a third space is something different than work or home. So like a coffee shop, a gym? I think this is more than a trend. This is that post pandemic collective craving for. Look, that's enough because I don't, I don't want to hear all the rest of the time, but what, what It's just someone saying, right, They're marketing, right? They're putting in a different space.
That's it. Hey, the reason all this is trending is people want a third space outside of their home and their work and everything else. And run clubs represent that I think at the moment for a lot of people. It's what it's what's motivating people to go to the run. Club that's right. And I think we'll start you talk about you think it the trend of the stickers of the half marathon and the the marathon stickers and tattoos might catch on. I think this is something we'll
see. I think this is marketing for brands in the run space, in the athletic space will start to head to this direction where rather than just having a physical bricks and mortar shop front where they sell their product, it then merges into a space where Yep, you can buy stuff, but you can also work, sit and do your work. You can also have a coffee. You can also just be. It's where you'll start your runs from.
I think I could see that sort of a concept store starting in if it doesn't already exist, and it may do, but if it doesn't already exist, I can see one of those starting in Australia this year. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it exists in some shape or form, probably not perfectly like that. I wouldn't want to be the one taking the risk on the investment to start that though. A brand like LSD is the exact sort of brand I could see. Who's already got a business venture and can it's an it's an add on.
Right. It's an add on, but I could see an LSKD store not even store an LSKD space opening up LSKD run space, which is they've got their bricks and mortar stores where you can go and buy their products. But now this is a place where their run clubs will start out of. You can buy their stuff there if you want, but you can also sit down for the day and have a coffee. Some people might work remotely
from there. It's that barley vibe brought to Australia. Well, unfortunately cycling are ahead of the game here because this exists in cycling. Does it? Yep, brick and mortar store from the brand has a cafe, group shop rides, meet there and then you've got the coffee, right? At the same spot. There you go. Well then it's definitely going to happen. There's my prediction for
Australia in this. Year, that's one of your predictions for this year and then that was off the back of earlier on. We're talking about, you know, this whole third space and travel and yeah, Contiki yeah, jumped on the waggon and showing their. Run well, they're partnered, they're partnered and I like this as well. They're partnered with Unfit Running, which is a Brisbane I started up running club. He's an. Australian. OK, yeah, I've didn't do my research on this.
Unfit running I'm pretty sure is a Brisbane. I'm just looking. Born Run Club which I ran with the first time I I moved, when I moved up here, I, I went out and ran with these guys once in Brisbane and I can't remember the apologies because I can't remember the name of the fella
who I met who started this. But what the way this run group started and apologies to any unfit run club members that if I do get some of this wrong, my understanding is they started during COVID and what they did was that they started as a way to support local business. So it was actually a benevolent agenda which was that we are going to finish these runs at a local cafe, a different a changing local cafe to support them. So we will bring you X amount of
business at the end of each run. We'll buy your beer. We'll buy your. Coffee, coffee, whatever it is a Yep, we're getting a run out of it. And they're never it's not an elite run club, it's not a high performance run club, It's a social run club. And now they've continued it. They run on the Gold Coast, they run on Brisbane. Their Instagram tells me they also run in Sydney as well. I can see on their Instagram they were down at your at the burly swim run.
So there and and now they have partnered with Contiki to it's official. We've partnered with the travel agents Kentucky to launch their new run club trips in Europe. So now Kentucky will be running tour packages through Europe that have running components built into the programme. Run and party. Well, I suppose they're probably not. Do you? Do they still party? I I fully imagine they still party. Kentucky by it's very natural.
Yeah, Kentucky by it's very natural as a business is about fun and celebration and partying. Yeah, yeah, whilst travelling. And now they're just adding a run element to it and I I think it'll work. I think it's very popular run the world is what it's called. So good luck to them. How good, how good. Here we go. How long we going? We're going to be done. Yeah, let's let's been a good air. It's been a a lot of a lot of
interesting. Now, as now, please, if you've got more running specific questions, send them in because I will fire them at this man who has that much elite experience. We always love it when the people get involved with questions directly. So send them all in. And as we mentioned a bit earlier on, there's some fun things happening and building around in the beginning. There's some stuff in the works. Courtney's bringing his, all his experience to this and I'm just dancing out the front.
So we're, we're hoping to have some really fun things to announce soon. But until then, stay tuned and we'll see you next. Week. See you next week.