EP24 - JELLY ROLL'S RUN CLUB

In the beginning at 24. Have you heard of Jelly Roll? Do you know Jelly Roll? You're in radio. He's a singer, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rapper now does country. But who's got the tattoos all over his face? Bloody cool. What's the song? What's his big? I'm thinking of Teddy Swims Teddy. Swims is that he looks similar though. Similar. Yeah, right. I think Sinner Sinner boy might have been his first single mate. You're the radio guy. You should be telling me this.

Unless. Anyway, unless ACDC covers him, I'm not he's. On fire, right? We we see him everywhere. We know we, you know, we're no longer the runners who are the geeks in the forest. No way. When I see this, I know we've, we're, we've made it. And have a listen to Jelly Roll, y'all. It's been a long time since I came back and just had a straight look at y'all to talk to y'all moment. We were training for our second five KA little bit over a year ago.

I was I literally struggled to walk down my hill to the mailbox, Y'all. I mean, it was, it was really bad. And I had let myself get to a point of just being absolutely disgusted with myself. I was just sick and tired of it. And I was like, man, I'm gonna figure this out. And about the time I was trying to find something to motivate me, I seen that Burt and Tom Segura had teased doing a 5K by May, 5K by May.

And I knew right then that if there was ever a place that I was gonna feel safe trying to do 1st 5K, it was going to be at the Two Bears 5K. And I was lucky along the path that I had guys like Ian Laurios, like Gary Brecker, like Cam Haynes push me and try to help me get across this finish line for the first time. And I thought I would like to provide that similar opportunity for people going into this 5K. So we're going to start our own thing.

I know it's been a lot of talking, but it's what all this is about is this right here? We're going to start our own thing. We have partnered with Strava. It's a free app on your phone. And we're going to start a Facebook group. It's going to be called Jelly Roll Losers Run Club. I want to join. I want to join. I want to join the Jelly Roll Losers Run Club. He talked about two bears big podcast. You know, so these guys are all in. Yeah, Ronnie is it's here.

It's been here, but it's really here. It's been here and I think this is I love this. I love this so much. We've talked about it across every yet we've done that. If it's good, bad or otherwise, if it's bringing people to running, let's let's give it the benefit of the doubt, right. I don't love him calling it the losers run club because inherently I kind of go. It's not these aren't you're not losers. You're not that's that's I think you start.

Off on owning it, right? Yeah, I'm I'm fine with him calling it whatever he wants to if he's he's what, what he is going to do. And the I suppose these public figures, let's call them getting involved now, it's just going to it's just going to create more, more hype, more availability for people to just feel comfortable running right. And that's the key. When you see this kind of, you know, person, I suppose, or like celebrity out there doing this, it's going to make it really accessible.

This is. Clearly a guy who is not coming from a running background, who as he said, he was disgusted in himself and he's overweight and he's now I think and I look, I'm not going to try and speak to what that is like because I've never been in that situation. I, for the most part have always been pretty healthy and pretty active. And at my most unhealthy and most inactive, I was probably still fitter than the average person.

But so I'm not going to try and understand what it is like to come like not come back, but try and motivate yourself when you get to at that stage that Jelly Roll has got to with his fitness and health. Start. It's yeah, I don't I the mental fortitude it must actually take to look yourself in the mirror and have that conversation. At that point. I don't understand. So I'm not going to try to, but I can only admire and commend it because it must be really hard, really, really difficult.

I won't share her name, but I had a conversation with somebody as I was heading out for a trail run on Sunday at Narang. I was about to start. She was just finishing and she stopped me and she said I I've literally just finished listening to. She's listening. Yeah, she's been listening since the start. And we had about a 10 minute conversation and she spoke about how much she was a she was enjoying the podcast and I, and then she started telling me about how she was not one of

these athletes at school. She wasn't a runner at school. She didn't really have an athletic background. And she's come to running really late. She just finished listening to last week's episode where you went through some of that Strava data and the average pace and all that sort of stuff. And, and we talked about the idea of slow runners. And she said, that's me.

That's, that's who I am. I'm coming to this running world light SH. I'm slower than the average time is on Strava. She explained how she's does she does some stuff up in the trails now for with various challenges. Again, I'm trying to respect her privacy, but I'm not giving away

too much about her identity. But she talked about but the the joy that I saw on her face as she explained she's come to running late and she's loving the beginner process like talking about she doesn't have an aerobic base. She's building that now. She doesn't have a history of athletic stuff to draw on. She's building all that now and

going through all these things. So when you and I can, you know, sometimes casually talk about, you know, us, you know, the average running pace or you're 430 times and all the rest of that, that's. She said she loves seeing what that top end looks like. But for her, that's. Yeah, that's IOI stuff almost. That's, you know, completely incomprehensible, But when you look at someone like Jelly rolling to bring it back to this losers run club, I love again.

I can't understand it because it's at the other end of the scale from where I am, but I love that you've now got this person who is going to open up the world of running even more. Even more. I think this is going to create problems for five for fun runs and park runs and to another extent, marathons and half marathons, because the entries are going to go nuts. Yes, if he targets a marathon or a half marathon or a 10K race in the near future, the entries for

these things will go bananas. Yep, which is amazing. It's only going to continue to grow. Now what I will say just quickly, if you're at the pointy end of running, don't get frustrated, don't I? I'd hate to see it, you know, the I'd hate to see the worm turn and your elites start to, you know, because sometimes when you've got a thing and it's your thing and the, and the community's not massive around there. I get, I get where you're going, do.

You know what I mean? I think there's a I'm going to talk pretty openly. I think there's a big difference. You know, we talked a lot about influences on here. There's a big difference where between having someone who's like he's successful in his, in his own area. He's he's a musician, He's got a

massive following. I think when we looked at the YouTube, you know, he's got 4 million people following on YouTube. He's coming to running with pure intentions because he just, he's found it and he loves running. Yes. That's very, very different to, I think what a lot of the elites get upset about when it's someone who is just I'm going to make running my thing, create content on running because I want to be famous or I want to be a celebrity in running. You see the difference?

Absolutely. You've nailed it. So I think be, let's be very, very clear and that's why I've just shared that and I'm so excited about. It you've nailed it. I I. Anyone who's successful in their own area and has gone through, you know, I'm assuming to get to where he is in music, he's had to face all those challenges in gaol. For a quite a. Long stint, yeah. And he's of, you know, he's of a talented voice, talented

musician, all these things. He's succeeded at the highest level and now he's coming to join and and be part and it'll be a fruitful, you know, combination in sport. He's. Walked through the running door and said yeah this looks. Fun that's very, very different to someone walking into running going I see this this is trending. I'm I'm going to now take on board this. Hey last week I was in the gym but oh this is bigger now so I'm going to jump over here and do this. Yeah, and.

That's what elites have a problem. With, you can't trust that if something else pops up that becomes interesting, I might not leave. One step further also, then giving professional advice as if you'd been doing it for 30 years. Jelly roll isn't coming and going. Hey, I'm going to tell you how to run a sub three hour marathon, right? He's just asked everyone, anyone who wants to try and make 5 pay for the first time. Yeah, come and join us. I I don't know how to do it, but

I'm going to try. I'm going to get down to the letterbox and make it. But now I'm going to be there struggling with. That's very, very, very different. Scenario that so. That's why I'll always get behind and I'm excited about this type of thing that's so good, but also I'll always be critical of someone coming in with wrong information. Boom. A lot We're we're we're off to a good start here today. We're off to a really good start here. Let's keep going.

Let's keep going. OK, let's let's have a listen to something else. And I only show you a small part of this and I want your opinion on on these says about you. Please don't get mad at me. New Balance. Your idea of a temple run is a brisk walk and the only type of running you do is errands. ASICS. You've been running since before Strava was invented. And you think a super shoe is a sneaker with little Cape on the back. Brooks, this is straight up.

All right, This is good. So it's what what running shoes say about say about you. We talked a little bit about like if you turn up to a run club, you know, you look at what shoes they're running. I reckon you can tell. So I'm going to throw a few brands at you. OK, go. And then I want you to think what that says. Let's start with the big one, Nike. So as you do this, I'm going to close my eyes and imagine somebody at a running group in a pair of Nikes. All right.

Are you just going to give me the brand or a specific type of shoe? Within that, no, no, I'm just going to give you just brands. I've got a few brands to throw at you and I just. I want you to come back. Yeah, we're, we're playing a game. We're joking. We're joking. I'm having. Some fun. So don't cancel, don't cancel us. OK? Go brand Nike somebody that is relatively new to running and has always been a Nike athlete likes to look good when they're training.

That's my take on Nike shoe wearers. OK, OK, that's my take. Zuccone alternative like the bit of a deep cut on on the what they run in I I see see Zirconi's is almost the hipster shoe of the running world. Do you know what I mean? I. Don't know, I've never seen a Zirconi. That's right, because they're alternative and their hips are in their underground. Yeah, yeah. I did see one, I think in 1998. I did run in Zirconi for about a year I think. Did you way way back?

Actually, my friend who I met on the trail, who's the new to running, building her aerobic base, she was running in Zirconi. Oh, right, yeah. There you go, you've seen one in the wild. There you go. OK on on running. They're the cloud ones, yeah. The the the. Roger Federer's. Crossfitters who want to take up run. Crossfitters Now you mustn't have looked it on enough. I I. Don't know much about them. It's like to me, it's like the Prada of running. Usually.

Oh, OK, so I don't know enough. About the Prada high heels, it's like the Prada of of running shoes. OK, good like that. You've got to be if I see, if I see on, I'm like thinking you're coined up. Oh, OK. Expensive. OK, very expensive. Swiss Salomon. Trails. Trail runner? Yep. ASICS. Serious runner like or or Dedicated runner. Not serious runner necessarily. I don't want to think.

I don't want you to assume. Don't look at you if you're in a pair of ASICS and assume you are really, really good at running. But if you run in ASICS, my inclination is that you do a lot. You love your running. Your running is your exercise of choice. OK, that's what I go with. ASICS, yeah, I always think of, yeah, ASICS is like, it's a bit like the Footlocker when we said like ASICS is the one that kind of just says always seem to be

around running from day dot. Do you, Because you remember I floated the idea a couple of weeks ago about doing a mystery shop and going into a a store and actually having a conversation. I do with the staff and I wanted you to record it. I didn't record it. It was a bit. Well, give it to us now. Do you want it? Yeah. Well, let's keep doing the rest of these shoes. No, no, no. Give it to us now. Well, it's interesting you message message mention ASICS.

Yeah, let's do it now. I went into a rebel sport. OK. I won't tell you which one. And I walked in and I was perusing the walls of the running shoes. Young fella came up, says hey mate, get off your hand. I said yeah, mate, I'm just looking to get into some running. I want to do some more running. And I just want to get a sense of what shoe I should be using. So no, I tried to limit how much. I told him as much as possible. I will take my hat off to this young man.

He did all the right, all the not all the right things, but everything I would want a sales assistant to do when helping somebody who's just said I'm trying to get into running right. He said OK, how far are you going to run? I said alright mate, it could be anything from couple of K to 1/2 marathon. Is that OK? How often you going to run? I'm like trying to figure that out a little bit too. Might be two, three times a week.

Is that OK? You're mainly going to be running on the road, do you think, on grass, on what are you going to be running on? He was asking all the right questions and I was, again, trying to keep it kind of general and vague. And he said OK. And then he said, look, went straight to the ASICS, though, because that's what was in front of us at the time. He said this is if you're doing sort of general running, this is

a great everyday trainer. He pointed at the gel cumulus or the ASICS Cumulus, which is kind of the lot of foam in it really a bit like a hocker boat type version that ASICS have a real soft, big, big soft shoe. So this is a a really good all rounder running shoe. And I said, oh, OK.

And he said, alternatively, if you wanted something a bit more running specific, he showed me the Nova Blast and the Dynablast. And he said, and he said, like I said, and what's the main difference between, he said, oh, look, it's a price point thing. The Nova Blast is slightly more expensive, The Dynablast is slightly cheaper. But they're both going to be able to get you through the, you know, varying types of running. So I didn't try and upsell,

yeah. No, no, no, did not try and upsell me, which I thought was great as well and showed me, you know, interestingly showed ME3 shoes of the one brand. So I didn't actually, but he said, and then if you want, you can have a like there's the Nikes and there's the and so it's interesting. He did focus in on the ASICS, but this was the key point at the end of it, he said, but mate, the best way is to try a bunch on and see what feels

good. Wow. And I was and I walked away and I just went, mate, you've been either listening to the podcast or they are training you really well because that is exactly the experience that anybody going in to buy a pair of shoes because they're about to get into running should be having. Not getting forced into buying the high end stuff, not getting forced into buying something with carbons, not getting talked a whole lot of rubbish. Just try them on just. Try them on and you.

Bet he gave you a good guide he. Gave me a great guide. Yep, and if I ever need to buy some shoes I'll probably go back to him. Yeah. I wonder in those shops, not just Rebel, but any of those types of kind of shoe shops that have a big range of shoes, if they're getting kickbacks on certain brands like. I'm sure they're. I'm sure they would be the. Sales assistant's gonna have a a bias depending on margins and a whole range of things, probably Commission and yeah.

Well, the assets shoes were far more prominently displayed than some of the other brands in that in that particular 1. So I don't know. But what I will say is I'm going to do it again. Yep, I'm going to go do some other shops because I would like to try and record the experience, although I don't know how legal that is recording someone without their knowledge or concerns. Probably. I might take mental notes.

Yeah, it's getting anyway. Well, I mean, there's plenty of people who record people these days, but we're not like that. So yeah, just let's let's just give the information you get. OK, back to you. Sorry. Great. No, no, no, no. I was interested in that and that's really good to hear that someone's giving. Yeah, not over. I love the fact they're not trying to upsell you too because you don't need to go for the top of the range. Absolutely not. Brooks. Safety running shoe. Dad shoe.

Dad shoe. Yeah. It feels like it feels like the sort of shoe that you would be running in if you've had problems with your feet. I did find out you know last week were they are American brand OK owned by Warren Buffett's parent company. So it's a part of the can't. Remember this investment mob call? Yeah. Don't mean they own a it's going to annoy me. Hundreds of companies obviously bought it sometime, but yeah, they're Berkshire. Hathaway.

Yep, they're American brand from Day Dots so that makes sense. Why probably. What's the name? Have you heard that name? What do you call when you wear sneakers with jeans? Sneaking. Sneaking. Yeah, Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah, I mean Brooks are the probably the. #1 Cobra. Where the case of. Sneaking brand of choice. OK. And then finally one mix. The Chinese carbon shoe. Yeah, what do you? Think it's a new Frontier, that's for sure. I've got, I ran in them. I've run in them since we last

spoke. I'll give you the review a bit later on, but yeah, New Frontier go for. It we're not, we're not going to give an opinion on that one just. Oh, no, I look, I'll give you a full review later on, but I think if that's your true, true of choice, it's kind of, I don't know. It'd be kind of like I'm trying to think of a, a fashion comparison, you know, like it'd be like if somebody walked in these days wearing like flared colourful jeans. You'd be like, whoa, it's a brave choice.

Good luck to you. When when a grade first told me about like told me them like I I'm around it now, Yeah, but when he first said I was like, Jesus, that's gonna be. Hey, I'll give you my that's. Going to be that's going to be ordinary. OK, now let's keep on the shoe stuff. This is an article, but that I've got information. I thought it was really interesting. Do you know your foot strike? No. Oh, is hold on is foot strike

cadence or is that something? Different, no, no. So foot strike, I'd say you've got a four foot strike, a mid foot strike or a heel strike I think. Do you know how you run? Sort of.

I'd, I'd probably have to double check, but I'm fairly certain I'm a mid to four foot striker because when I had calf injuries previously and I went and saw a physio and they were checking my cadence and my foot strike basically that's when I got told you need to do a lot of calf strength training because of the way you strike your feet, because you put a lot of pressure through your calves because of the way you run.

OK, very generalised, yeah, like mid, mid, mid foot strike and not too toe Y, but midfoot strikes like well, majorly the faster. No, well, the faster runners like to move, move faster and that's a very generous, I'm I'd say a mid, quite mid. But there's a study done. This was I found this ontherun.com or Run outside online and it was published in the Frontiers in Sports and Active Living journal. Irrelevant, but there is some background data. It was 710 runners from various

backgrounds. After asking each runner if they were a heel striker, non heel striker or front foot striker or they didn't know, the researchers then explained they then look, sorry. They then looked at their

running gate. So they worked out what they did, they asked them what they are, they worked out what they did to correlate it. And the results were very clear that the runners who didn't know their foot strike pattern or their running gate pattern were the greatest likely had the greatest likelihood of sustaining injuries. So. There's a correlation between not knowing how you run and getting injured, being injured, Yeah. So the awareness of how you run.

Now, where I'm going with this is we've talked about shoes at the moment and having shoes that we can, you know, you feel a little bit of ground contact versus shoes are just becoming like when you call them boats before, but more rubber, bigger and you're just losing complete ground contact. So what they were saying is there is some correlation there between if you've got so much rubber and you, you start to not be able to feel what's happening on the ground.

You know, longer term is this short term gain of, you know, having all of this, you know, cushioning comfort and everything else, is it actually going to be long term pain for a lot of people? Because you're not, you know, I, I, and this is me now talking, I'm, I'm just guessing like you're not using, you're not being able to understand or use those stabilising muscles in the feet. Your feet are, your foot isn't actually working as hard.

It's not doing all those natural things that it was meant to do running. Have you and can we just say Courtney and I are going to disappear down the barefoot running path? We're not going to become disciples of the bare feet, if that's where you think this might end up. But have you watched on Netflix starting five, the basketball series? It's a basketball doco last year that follows LeBron James, Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler through their NBA season.

And there's obviously one more, which is why it's called starting five. Just can't remember who it is. But Jimmy Butler, there's a point in there and you talk about your foot and the feeling of your your foot feel in shoes when you're running. There's a bit in one of the episodes where he talks about how important his feet are, his and his trainer. And he then the sheer amount of using the spaces. Spaces. Well, that's LeBron actually. That's it.

But they talk about the sheer amount of focus that they put on their feet and the, and having their feet working as they should and having just how for them as basketball players, how important their feet are to make sure that they are activating and working the way they should. And hearing you then talk about that running, slightly different use of the foot compared to basketball players because there's a lot more lateral movement and jumping and all the rest of that.

But I can only imagine that actually having your feet activating in the correct way when you're running is is enormous. And and to again we This Is Us thinking and. Allows us here talking out loud, yeah. Rather than any science, what we always said, check with your doctor, check with your medical profession. If you got a podiatrist, check with him too. But I know I put a lot of thought and time and consideration into my legs.

Yes, with strength training because of running, but I don't pay much attention to my feet if any. So that's really interesting to know that the people that aren't aware of how they fit hit the ground when they run are more likely to suffer an injury. Yes, it's, I think it's got to do with the awareness of landing and then using that like I said, using those stabilising that. So I'm in a bit of a dilemma at the moment because I've always been someone who likes quite a a

low, you like foot feel. Yeah, I like to feel myself hitting the ground. I like to be able to activate and I feel my feet feel. My planters make sure, you know, I like that feel, but I also love the feel of putting on those. You know, like at the moment we both have just been trying those Salomon Ultra Glide 3 Trail shoes. Super comfy shoe. They are. There's so much rubber in, like it's nearly to the point where I'm so comfortable in them, my foot's not working anymore. Which?

Is great for a long, easy run, but I just wonder over time whether that's going to also. And it's not just that shoe like this is a lot of the shoes coming out across all the brands now. They're so soft and so rubbery.

You're just losing complete ground feel and I just don't know what the happy medium is. Just to go back to my friend, my unnamed friend who I met on the trails the other way, because it was running in Zorkone. She used to run in Hawkers and I don't think she it was because of the foot fill stuff, but she said she because they were just, it was just too much fun for her to run around in and now she's got the Sorconis on the trails

and she really likes them. Well, I took I took away the the Ultra Glide threes and ran in various all the new range of shoes, generation of shoes last week. And so I was away for 10 days or so. This morning I went back out in those Thundercross, which are like a lot more like the Centroid 5 that you've worn a lot harder, got a bit of trail feel, and I just wanted to go out and run in something different. Talking about the things I have hanging around here. Also Liam. What's that?

Are you toe? Separators, I ordered some off Timo or somewhere one time and I think it may use them. No, Well, I actually think I ordered them after watching that starting five talk about marketing material and I did. I sat around with them to, you know, toe separators on and then they've sat in that drawer. But do you use them? Not anymore. OK, but I did try them for a bit. So that's the they haven't, they

haven't stuck. With me, the the, the look after your feet, people, your feet are your feet are important. Now, I don't know what you do, look after them, but look at, you know what is a great feeling if no one's ever done this before, If you're sitting out there and just roll your foot over the top of a golf ball, you just put some golf ball and I, you probably know what it means. I don't know what it does but it feels amazing. Well, it's just a massage for

your foot. Oh, this is loosening up all those muscle suppliant Michael Shelley was always massive advocate of that rolling out his feet. Never never got a lot of they never got a lot of massage, but used to do, you know, some specific stuff. Now let's move on. Let's move on because that that's a bit, you know, up in the air. All that stuff We're just talking out loud. I want to make cross country great again. I saw this. I saw the English cross country

champs. If you have a look at that reel I've got on the on the notes here, the start of the English cross country champs on the weekend and it looks like about 2000 people in one race on grass all just running off into the mud. This is is it? What is this this? All in it's. In black and white. It's in black and white so it looks like it's in an old video, but that's this the most recent English national cross country champs. Anyone can enter, it's all in winner take all.

It's just a mass start. It got me thinking because the one thing I love doing as a kid was running cross country when I was cross. Country was one of the great if you've got kids out there, I don't. Kids got to be kids. Kids got to want to do things making me do cross country. Cross country's such a great event as a kid. He's running around paddocks and

parks and and it's. Not like you thought, you know, when you're an adult, we've talked about how running, how hard running can be to get started. But when you're a kid, running is just part of life. You're around the playground, whatever, putting into a bit of a, you know, fun and competitive environment outdoors. What a what a place to be. We don't run cross country enough as adults. That's what I'm saying. I'm not against trail. I mean, we're all in on trail.

Yeah, I'm just saying I, I, I want to make cross country great again. How? Far OK, so just for people out there listening and going, what would cross country look like in the Olympics? I love the idea of building a bespoke course and hey, look, if Brisbane 2032 Cindy Hook, if you're listening, you got a couple of race consultants right here. How far is the distance? 12K12K12 kilometres 12 K so. You're taking a little bit out of that 10K.

Mask So you're taking the the 10,000 metres because I assume in my head you go, well, it's probably the best 10,000 metre runners in the world and some of the best half marathon runners in the world. 5 KS, 5 KS in the world and you're putting them over. The the problem with the the only problem with this when talking out the Olympic thing here, I think one thing going for it is you can, you don't have to increase the number of runners going to the Olympics

because they can double. You're not extra qualifying people. But someone's going to call me out because the problem is athletics is in the second week of the Olympics, so it's going to be in the marathons on the last day. So it's going to be very hard to back up. It's very, it's going to be very hard to get someone to do a cross country in the first week and then back up for them. Life is about choices.

Life is about choice. How many races did Michael Phelps win swim in when he was at Olympic Games? Yeah. Running's a bit different to swimming. Backing up recovery wise, here we go. We've. Had to call out. Swimmers. Oh, we've had to call out swimmers. I'm just saying there's no gravity. There's no gravity involved in swimming. Oh, did you think I was saying running running's better? Says Michael Phelps. A myth? No, no, no. Oh man, I'm no, you just can't.

I love. Backup like swimmers can back up because there's no obviously the the muscle of course getting hammered. By the on with you, I think cross country is elite and if you want to try and organise a cross country race I'm I'm there. I'll share this start though, because this I've looked at it, it doesn't I I want to. Be the.

Have you seen the? I think it's the the a friend of mine, Luke O'Shea shout out Luke amazing photographer, great marketing brain used to work for two times you has taken some photos. I think, I don't want to say it's the African cross country championships, but he has taken photos at a cross country event in Africa and it looks unbelievable. The cross country starts, They're similar to this. The racing is just you're talking about some of the great distance athletes of the world.

Yes, and they are. It just looks like such an amazing. Race down, down South still like in, you know, more Victoria and that have a good club cross country system going where they, you know, some of the elite runners will get out on weekends. And the whole idea I suppose around cross country too, is that you're not, yeah, it's not a timed event, so you're not on show each weekend, you know, and you can use it as a great training session, like a race specific training session.

It's on softer ground so it's not knocking your legs around as much. I really, you know, something in Queensland. I don't, well I don't see it. I don't have visibility on it that we do enough, but I'd really love to see, you know, especially with run clubs and this type of thing, Booty, I think, I think cross country can be a real fun way and you don't have to be a 12K cross country be a real fun way to get people involved. You don't have to shut down roads.

You can do it in parks, you can do it in forests, whatever it is. That's a no. That's a really great idea. If you're a run club out there listening to this, a bit of a sit down, have a bit of a brainstorm with some people in the club and see if you can't find a way to introduce a cross country run into your your schedule. Even if it's once a month, it's a great idea. It's a great idea.

Last week we were talking about I was sharing all that Strava information and I was sharing the average pace of a Strava running being when I say 622 minutes per kilometre. I have more data. You've been. Get ready. People, because I'm bringing the data we've got. Crowdsourcing here and we love it when that's it this has. Come from a name that is familiar to people on the podcast. This has come from the great Eddie Gordon. It's about the average marathon times.

Now we know marathons are booming. What do you think the average marathon race time is as of last year? I'm going to say 420. That is such a bang on guess it makes me think you've seen this. I haven't seen it. You withheld this from me. I didn't. As of 2024, the global average marathon finish time for recreational runners is approximately 4 hours and 25 minutes. Really this represents a slight improvement from the 2018 average, which was 4 hours and 29 minutes.

Breaking it down by gender, men the average finish time is around 4 hours and 14 minutes. Women, the average finish time is around 4 hours and 41 minutes. It goes on to explain some of the data about, you know, age of runners, training, regional participation, etcetera. But it's important to note that this these statistics focus on recreational runners and excludes elite athletes. So that is not taking into account you're a late.

Field, yeah, but most if I took a marathon I'd I'd only consider probably the 1st 20 people surely yeah. So I don't think it's taking out too. Many no, it's not taking out acute, but it is taking out probably some of those outliers times the the fast outliers. Right now, the reason I said that because I was thinking I knew it would. Be Yeah. What made you? Guess that well after last week I knew it would be where probably slower.

No, no. But I just thought when I've watched, when I've gone down to watch the Gold Coast Marathon, for example, and I'm my friends, I suppose a lot of people I'm watching are trying to break that three hour mark, give or take. But if you watch the bulk of where people are coming through, it's a long. It's in that that the. Bulk of the field, when I see the thick field coming through are definitely more towards that

4 hour mark. And then obviously, you know, you've got a whole range of people participating, you've got the walkers at the back. And I just knew that would skew towards it. In saying that, like 4-4 I I took a stab, but 420 that's actually. Pretty damn good. 425 ain't no joke. I should have worked this out in advance, but four hours? What's that? As a per K pace, you wouldn't have a clue, would you? Idea. What was it, 4 hours, 25 minutes? I wonder if it's 6 minutes 22 seconds.

What was the average Strava pace? 6/22 Talk amongst yourself. Now here you go. To run a marathon in four hours and 25 minutes, you need to average a pace of 541 per K. That's good running for a marathon that is, and that's the average pace of last year marathon finishes. So shout out to everybody running marathons, but also, again, anybody that's running that, we salute you. Yeah, that's good running. But yeah, a little bit of data for you. You're normally the one bringing the data.

Yeah, that's that's super interesting. Speak on that. Speaking of data. I did. We had Dylan Bradshaw dropped a note or dropped a message in our Spotify comments. Yep. So please, if you're on Spotify, if you if you don't want to comment, you don't have to comment, but give us a rating and and a like, if you can't help, it helps. Yeah, it helps build us up. But a few people wrote this back to us saying, and I'm not advocating this mate, but they will fan in my journal.

Oh yeah, and they want to see more of the journals. Oh yeah, and I'm shutting that down. What do you mean? Well, I've given you the last journal. I think this is the last one before. So I've given you, we'll do it for one more week. We'll give random page. This is my 2008 journal. So this is Beijing Olympic years. OK. So, and just for context, where were you at in your career in 28

two, 1008? So I would say the year before the Olympics, I raised in Beijing at the test event and came in second to qualify for the Olympics. So you'd arguably probably say I was, you know, a pretty decent chance you're a medal, you're a medal chance, if not win, right? So you're a medal chance going into the Olympic year 100% and you have very considerately handed me your two. 1008.

Dollar for the Olympic year, I'm going to jump to a page and then for from a context, the triathlon race happened on August 18th. Monday, the 18th of August is when the triathlon race happened in Beijing. OK, let's jump to let's jump to May 18th. So what are you? June, July. Oh, you're three months out here. Yeah, that weekend, the weekend of the 17th and the 18th of May, Saturday, 17th AM. Ride 3 hours, 40 minutes. Oh, sorry. Ride 340 hours. Tom. What's Tom from?

800 climb. Would that be Tom Owen? So that's a mountain here on the Gold Coast. 280 watts at a heart rate of 130. Yep. Flat tempo, 18 minutes, 311 watts at a heart rate of 135. You're riding at 91 Revs per minute RPM I assume, and then the back of Tomlin. Sixteen, 43139 watts at a heart rate of 141. You've said strong, controlled resting. So decipher that it would have

been. So we've done a 100K loop in three hours 40 and with three effort like 3 tempo efforts within it, two of them uphill and one on the flat. So I remember what was the uphill if it were about 329 watts. Yep. Then you've said strong, controlled and then bonkers, bonkers and a BLT on way home. Probably a bonk, I reckon. Oh. Bonk. And then you've had a BLT on the way home, apparently. Would that be a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich? Is that what you've had on the way home?

Could. Quite possibly be Lt. And then in the afternoon you've said swim 2 1/2 K and then you've written a note saying very tired, need rest. Sunday was a rest day. You did I rest. You did, you said Sunday. Stretching. Rest day stretching. So you've obviously caught me on a day that I've. You've actually rest. I just want to find a run session that I can share with people because that's what people like hearing about here. Geez, you take some detailed notes as I flick through all

this. All right, here's a run. Here's a run session. This was on Tuesday the 20th, so we're still about 3 months out from the triathlon here. 7:00 AM Run 140 hours. What? It can't be 40 hours? Oh, run 1.4 hours. Would that be right? Yeah, probably. You could run for an hour. 40 I mean, you're a long run only. Path. I guess this is on a Tuesday morning Flats. So you're running on flats, you said 3 by 20 minutes. A2.

Yep. So that would be, you know what, that's probably like the old way we would say zone. Two. OK, so you've run it 3. It would be aerobic 2, so no it wouldn't. It wouldn't. It wouldn't be zone 2. It would be like just sub threshold. So you've run 3 by 20 minutes A2 and then 10 minutes A1. Yeah. So that would be, I think I'd probably got paces down there. I'm gonna guess I was probably like doing a 20 minute at 310 to 320 minutes per kilometre and

then backing off. To you haven't said your pace, but you've written as a note, good controlled pace. Last 20 minutes started to fatigue OK, and then you've had an ice bath and then you've had a swim in the afternoon. Yeah. So 320 minute efforts within a run and tapping through at A1 would mean like no proper recovery. I mean this is relentless. I'm flicking through this is this is the notes in here are

relentless. Can I ask why you seem to be drawing what appears to be either Elmo or Oscar the Grouch on some of these pages? Really. Yeah. There's a drawing of it looks like a. It is. It's Elmo. You've written Elmo underneath one of them. Why are you drawing Elmo on these pages? No one ever said athletes the same. No, we don't. This is why there's a lot of problems after your. Well, I mean, look. But the telling point? Here's a serious question, though.

You look at that, you keep saying how detailed it is and I, I haven't looked at these for years. Sure, you can probably see why athletes like when you don't have anything to do. Spiral, spiral. Oh yeah, there is. Like it's making me think now. Like I can't recall doing this, but you can see. There is a bloke teetering on the edge in these pages. This is there, it is. It is intense data. I'll take a photo of one page that doesn't have any. See, in 2008 I was married already.

So you're not going to find anything from like last week you had. A couple of rest days in Cran Cove here too. OK, but the telling point here is on the 14th of August, you've flown to Singapore. You spent two days in transit on the 14th and 15th of August. Now bear in mind the race day was on the 18th of August. Yep. Tell us about how that race went in in 2008. Well, it was good. Oh, race good. Just didn't get to plan.

I didn't didn't get in the top three, didn't get on the podium at the Olympics. Where'd you finish? It's a good question, Liam, you. Can't even remember where you finished at the Olympics? Your memory is. I can. Do you know why I can't? I think I'm only going to say 8th or 11th. OK, 8th or 11th? 8th. Or 11th? I don't. I don't have any. Problem. It doesn't matter. The point was I didn't win, no. And the point was I didn't get a medal and that and that was the

goal to go there. So anything less than that really. And so what's the matter? Do you remember how you processed that? Yeah, like before the race we talked a lot. I did everything right going up to that Games I raced actually on the day I raced well, the time improved slightly from the year before. The whole field just moved. There was a step up in the level on that day and that's often

happens at the Olympics as well. What I can tell you, which is probably more and more of an interesting story, is how maybe some of the behind the scenes that you wouldn't realise going to the Olympics. So for Beijing Olympics, I was at home. We raced in the second week, I think the third, last day of the Olympics, 4th, 4th or 3rd last day of the Olympics. I spent, you know, everyone would think, oh you made the Olympic Games, you know, this will be what an amazing experience.

I spent the first week and 1/2 of the Olympics here in the room behind you at home watching the Olympics on TV. You weren't even there. I wasn't even there. Yeah. I was still back here training at home just like any other day, didn't go to the opening ceremony. And this wasn't just me, this was the whole the whole team. We flew out two or three days before the race via Singapore so we could have a night's sleep. So we had the best rest possible.

It was the one time I can recall that the Australian team flying this business for London Olympics, I was lucky because I was, I was on board with Qantas by that time, so I was, I was getting looked after. But for Beijing, we we rarely got flown in business, but for that one we did. So we did everything possible to get there in the right shape.

But when we arrived at Olympics, we dropped into the village, got our uniforms, we shipped an hour out of the village into the country where we're going to race. It did actually feel like any other race I would have went to around the world. Did you? What did you so well? The reason I say the date matters and your your how you mentally process the result. The reason I ask is because after the 15th of August, where you write in this diary, fly to Beijing, that's it.

Oh, the diary finishes. You don't make another note in this entire diary. That's it. So basically it's like Olympics happens and then you stop writing and. That's it. Yeah. Did you? That's probably how I processed. It What did you train like? Yeah, yeah. When did you get back into training? Because I raced. I remember racing the Noosa triathlon off the Beijing Olympics. Still, I always talk. I've told that story about ice baths before you. Why do you think you're abandoned the.

Dark. I reckon it was just, I mean, when you're in a four year cycle, when the Olympics is your life and then it's over, there's certain things that you know, how particular you are at probably Diaries, eating, training, whatever else. You just after four years want to get away from it. You just need a break. And I'd say that's a mental break for me of not needing to worry about like how structured I needed to be.

I probably at that point didn't have a plan after that in the sense of I trained, I went to race, but it wouldn't have been a structured plan. So, you know, we've talked a lot about periodization over years leading up to an Olympics. You, you four years of periodization, qualification races and all of that. Or probably the last thing once that all was over. Yeah. And I think that would have been the same result if I would have won a race. If you'd won, yeah.

The same result. Would have been you did come 11th kind of those games and for what it's worth, you did win noose of that year. I did win noose of that year, yeah, Yeah. And I did an ice bath before noose, but I ice bath every day during winter before Beijing. Yeah, but so there's that's great. So that's, I think that was probably the last.

I think after that we probably went to digital training Peaks and whole Rangers. I do want you to try and figure out and remember why you drew Elmo so much. I'm going to talk about Elmo if we get time later on. Is there a story? Elmo has popped up in my notes this week and I'm going to get your thoughts. Where are we up to? We, we are, I mean, God, we've got. So how long we've been rolling here at the moment? If someone's running long this week, maybe this is our long run.

Week go, let's keep going, all right? OK, where we up to? Oh, we've got too much to talk about. Why don't we talk? Can we talk about the big running story of the moment if you're if you're following on in the running news is that the Sydney 2024 So Sydney is a major this year for the first time it is qualified. It is officially one of the major marathons of the world and they have banned or the the winner of last year's marathon. So Stephen Millard shared this

with me directly. That's how I found it. Brimham keep keep Courier. Yep, keep Courier, give or take. Apologies if I'm saying his name incorrectly, but he has failed an out of competition drugs test. So essentially he's tested positive. So he is suspended. It's a big, big story or a big new though I suppose the the second part of that news is that he's now adding there's 123 banned Kenyan athletes. Oh, I hadn't seen that, Pete. I hadn't seen that at edition.

And what was it was APO. What do you what do you think when you say that? I think you surprised. No disappointed. Oh, I think you. Oh, man, now I'm out of now I'm out of racing at that elite level. I'm here nor there. I mean, to a degree, it's to be expected, isn't it? Yeah, it's sport. I mean, it's not just running.

Yeah, We've seen over time and time and time again, you know, whether it's cycling, running, insurance, sports, there's obviously certain things that you can take that are illegal that that help you. And when money's involved, I think you're going to find people like it's, but that's to A, to a degree, it's going to be human nature that some people are going to try and cheat the system when money's involved.

But this doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like it's necessarily like that's 123 Kenyans that have banned, which would suggest that there is a programme happening well. Yeah, he might even go as far as calling that systematic. You would? Yep. That's that's that's not a fluke. That's a pattern. Yeah. 123 banned Kenyan athletes. What I will say is the only the the shame of all this is not, let's not get into the drug like the drug debate because yeah, even I don't understand it well

enough. But what the shame is, is that then it taints every performance. That's. Right, that's the problem with all this. It doesn't matter. There's always going to be a question and and if it if there's the one out there, that one lot outlier out there like there is in everything, the immediate response is to then question it. Yeah, it's a bit like when I made. It's a bit like and and, and, and it went through cycling, right?

So when you go through a like, it happens a lot in that sport. It's going to take time to recover. So I think it to be honest in running if I didn't get sent that I wouldn't have. You wouldn't have known about it. Probably not. Fair enough. It depends. The people I'm running with now, we're running for different reasons and trying to break world records. Interesting you mentioned the people you're run with now. Yep, because I bumped into one of them.

OK, on a run, who did you bump into? During Do you want to get to our run weeks? Yeah. You, you. Why didn't you jump into it, Doctor? Ben Doctor Ben part of your run group. Ben Moulders Yep, shout out to Ben because I was what was I in the middle of? I was think I was in the middle of doing, I'd done a like a sort of a, an easy 10 and then I was trying to put in some 1K efforts trying to get where were you get out at Chugen. Oh, OK. Oh, down at. Chugen yeah, yeah.

And And as I was running on my warm up, headphones were in. I wasn't really paying that much attention, but I saw someone point and shout Liam and I thought, no worries, keep going. And as I turned around doing these 1K efforts, suddenly I got the end of one of the efforts. And this Angel in a very loud shirt appeared and handed me a Red Bull, really, and an energy gel and said, you look like you'd need these. And it was Doctor Ben. Yeah, yeah.

He was a Red Bull. And his wife were, I think they were just looking at a few apartments and, you know, contemplating maybe a move one day and they were down the South end of the coast. And he popped off and gave me a Red Bull. It was an absolute lifesaver. I wonder where he I wonder where he got a Red Bull. He kept him in his. Car well, like yeah, I mean I've given him yeah when we finished running as most people who run with me, they they get a few Red Bulls in the car on, you know.

Here and there. But yeah, he, no, he stopped off. We had a nice little chat. It was great to see him. Well, now you know who I'm talking about all the time as well. Yeah, and he, I said you're looking great. And he said I'm, he said he was, he's losing some weight at the moment because he's on a diet, because he let himself go a bit. But he said it was funny because he's, he looks great. But he said I'm not eating right to be running.

Well, I'm not eating enough to be, you know, out running. Like I want he hasn't got the fuel on he. Doesn't have the fuel on board, which was that interesting. I was like, it's really interesting that he's a good runner, but who's losing weight from because of health reasons. But as a result of losing weight, he's eating a certain way, which means he's not actually fueled up to run like. How how he would normally? Feel like he would not want to,

yeah. Ben, Ben's deep, deep in our, you know, in the run group challenge, the marathon challenge, there's a group of six including my brother and a few others. Few other doctors have a few people there and they're all, put it this way, the mates. Mates are more competitive than trying to win races. Absolutely all Beating your mates matters more, yeah.

And he's there in the thick of it at the moment, getting ready for Gold Coast. I want to hear about your Mauritius running so I'm going to quickly just give you 2 more bits from my week. I I had a double Mona Fartlett fail. I got caught up. I fell into the old trap of seeing somebody run something on Strava. Shout out to Ned, Ned and Gus they did a session on Strava. They called it their double Mona Fartlett session. Double Mona.

So you went through it twice? They went through it twice. I failed, that was silly of me. I got caught up, I tried to do it, it was a mistake anyway, learnt my lesson. So to to all those people out there, if you see some of your mates run something on Strava, don't just do it blindly, right? Run to your level. We say this all the time anyway. The web's not a good place to go looking for your inspiration. Do you want the review? I want the review because I, I,

I do have, I did. I haven't been online a lot. Sure for travelling, but I did get a few people go to me. We watched Liam's review on Instagram. Oh yes, and they have questions. Did you actually like them or not? And you didn't? You didn't. I wanted to save. It give us a. Conclusion Well, I wanted to save it for the podcast. OK, right. I did put up if you're not following in the beginning podcast on Instagram, go and jump on board.

I did give something a review on there, but I wanted to save it for the podcast. So because this is what it's all about. You gave me these shoes last week. They're the Chinese carbon plates that cost 115 bucks. And this was the question is, is can something like these compete against the big boy carbon plates at the price point that they are and are they worth people looking into? I went out and did AI think I ended up doing about 1314 K in these.

Fast fast running in before. I did 6 KS at 350, pace 350. 5 which is moving. For me, which is moving right that is that's that's quick going for me yes, these are really fun to run in These are really bouncy really you've you've there is no question about whether or not there's a carbon plate in these These are bouncy. They are responsive and at 115 bucks value for money. Value for money. That's the conclusion.

That is my conclusion that $115.00 cheaper than any other carbon show on the market substantially value for money, but. There's a but. There is a but, and I talked about this something as I lift the soul up to you and I talked a bit about this on the Instagram, but you're not getting much out of these long term. Like if you are looking for it.

I honestly, if you think if you want to go out, if you've done the training, you put in the hard yards, but for whatever reason you can't, you don't want to justify. You don't think you can justify going out and buying a pair of alpha flies or better speeds or whatever it is. You can have a plate of choice. Grab these, go grab them, but know that they might not survive, maybe more than a

couple of race hit outs. But I suppose the top of the range real expensive shoes are designed either to last more than a few race hit. Outs, aren't they? No, I don't really know because I haven't really raced those either. Yeah, well, me neither, But no, from my like understanding a lot of the rubber, you know, you don't want to run the rubber dry and then a pair of really good race shoes, right. So and then there's those few isn't the Adidas one like A1A1 shoe racer?

Yeah, the the top end one. Yeah, and they like so the more expensive they are sometimes they're like because of the rubber being used. They are A1 racer. So depending on what you want to use them for, but I mean, if you're going through a lot of running shoes, I suppose the only the benefit I probably can see is if you don't want to keep buying very expensive shoes and you go through a lot of them as a training option, yeah, maybe that's where they could be used.

What I will say is that you chose the worst. Colour. Yeah, I did that on. Purchase. Yeah, I know. I can tell. They're horrible design of a shoe stylistically. But you know, I like you, Liam. But when I went to buy them on on Timo, I think it was Timo I bought them off. You chose the worst colour. They were last year's colour model, so they were cheaper. You're going to run in them though. 2025, I'm going to have a run in them because I'm real. I'm just purely interested.

I did walk down the hall in them and the first thing I said was they are springy, they are super, they are really. You get a lot of return from them. Yeah, I look, I think, yeah. I mean, if you just to jump back in the episode a little bit, we talked a bit about the average marathon time. Yes, Right. If you're running 425, you don't need a carbon plate shoe. You don't if you want to get one for fun.

Go for it, say you don't need them, but if you reckon if you're running, they've still got to help you. Well, I don't know what these do to your feet after a marathon. I don't know what state your foot would be in after. I did 14K's and my feet felt fine. Yeah, but I'm also somewhat used to running in a carbon plate shoe. But I like if you were going to do a marathon and you jump new, I don't know what this would do to your feet and your calves and everything. I. Wonder what?

Yeah, I wonder what the data is on the carbon plates around, you know, if different, different parts that return at different paces. Yeah, I don't know. But I mean at some pace, I would suggest that if there's a benefit and it's a stiff issue, even if you're running 5 minute K pace and you're gonna feel better and up, you know, it's still of a benefit to run in them. I would say if you're a heel striker there's no point getting

these either. I don't see what the carbon plate for you does if you're landing on the back of your foot. This feels very much like a kangaroo's. They're definitely they they these have down when I walked down the hall, at least they were 4 foot spring, yeah. Yeah, yeah. If you're a four foot striker like you and I are, then yeah. I want to, I want to try, I want to try a lot more when this weekend in, I want to try a lot more Rd shoes.

I want to understand these better and be able to talk from not so much experience in them, but just from feel. Yeah. Yeah, these are these feel fun to run in. Look, if I was running a 10K race tomorrow, I'd happily race in because. You could argue anyway with, you know, take brands out of it right now. You could have, you know, 10 shoes in front of you. In the end, it's like you said, go into the store, try them, and what feels good is going to be

right for you. Yeah, probably can't try these ones in store. But the point is different shoes are going to work for different people regardless. There's probably 10 brands out there that have got carbon plates in them, not all of them. There is going to be no one answer for each runner. No, but look, if you got 150, a $115.00 to to throw out or throw, throw at a pair of these shoes, go for it. And if you think you want to have a crack at a race too, go for it.

Yeah. Anyway, I look forward to getting your thoughts on them. Yep. But to all those people going, well, did he like the shoe or not? Yeah, I did. That's it. Shush. The conclusion was. Yes, I like these shoes. I like these shoes, will I buy them the next time? Would you buy the? Shoes. Would I buy them the next time I need a pair? No. No. Why? Do you did you, is it still Matt? Here's my here's a really upfront question, OK, because I can answer this.

Sure would do you trust is this a brand thing? If that shoe? Yes, if that shoe had Zirconi on it. Would it change my opinion? Would it change your opinion on it? Absolutely. Yeah, me too. Yep, 100%. Unfortunately, in this world, I trust brand. Brand matters. Brand matters. It's exactly like when we talk about why do you pick the run group you pick, or why do you pick the run coach you pick because people have recommended it to you and people you trust that have recommended it to you.

It's the same thing, but. Brand matters. It's not for me. The brand's not about like I feel like I'm running in in a Chinese pair of shoes. The brand matters for me for quality. Like I want. I want to be able to trust that, you know, the rubber's not going to break apart. They've done the research. It's not going to hurt me. All of those things feels one thing, but yeah, for some reason and I still will trust. That's what I mean.

I don't know if these are going to how long these are going to last because I had never heard of one mix until you gave these to me a week ago. Exactly. OK, So brand does matter. That's that's part of it. So my where have I? Well, you've been in Mauritius. Been in Mauritius so going back to what what I got up to over there. I'll tell you one thing, I didn't bring you back a fridge magnet. Oh, not a very, not a not a very good friend, mate. Sorry. I brought back no presents.

I had dinner of time. Yes, you did. There's always time. Did not. There's always time. No, I did forget and I just remembered it then. One thing I can tell you about Mauritius is hot, hot. It is hot like you think running here in Queensland's been bad. It I the only time I can recall being as hot as I was last week is in Thailand racing and doing things around Thailand. Like it's the kind of hot that when you're sticky hot that when you're sitting at breakfast, the

back of your legs are sweating. Heavy, sticky. You just sweat. You walk outside and you sweat. So my running week, I still threw 94K last week, even with the travel and everything else. Yeah, yeah. So I still got through a bit, but it was it, it hurt. It's been a real challenge to run over there. OK, So what I did get up to, but well, I found out a little bit bit more of why I ended up in Mauritius. Red Bull are preparing to run an event over there.

It's called Red Bull triple Thrill and it's a, it's a little bit of a spin, I suppose on a triathlon or, or an off road triathlon. So it starts with a downhill mountain bike. So Mauritius just built a new downhill mountain bike park. Cool downhill mountain bike. So Rachel Atherton was there. She's the, you know, multiple world champion in downhill mountain bike for women. Like really impressive to watch. Also like really cool to meet her and and hang out. She pretty much on the first

day. So we were there checking out the course for a bill Mauritius and giving advice on the course. But also we're filming a teaser. So the main job we were doing day to day is we had a film crew, a production crew around us. Yeah, we're doing all this. So so she's like, hasn't seen this black run and we're standing down the halfway down and she's just bombing it unseen. I'm like, you know, I can ride a mountain bike, but I can't ride a mountain bike.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I can see why. You know, there's always that eliteness and you just see how how far that goes above. So she downhill mountain bike to begin with then they've just chosen a trail run now. I was just told it's 22K. OK. I wanted to see it. So it's up in a hunting reserve right in. Well, it's pretty hilly. I think they let. The hunters know you'd be running through well. This is the story, right? So for four months of the year, and when I say hunting, it's

deer hunting. OK. So they, if you can imagine, like, you know, tall fences to keep deers in. So all the kind of areas have got these big deer fences around it. And four months of the year they open up the park to cull. Yeah, the deers population management stuff. And the rest of the year they they breed them, let them run free. And it's pretty much African jungle. Sure. So no lines. There are monkeys and there's lots of deers. OK, I got dropped one day.

So I said I want to, I want to be able to run the course without the film crew. I just want to get in there and feel what it's like to run the course. So I can give you a proper, you know, I can give you some advice on what I think it needs to be. How did I get to the course that day? I went to the the safari tours.

They dropped me off at the Safari tour and with just the public and there's quads, 4 quads lined up in some can Am's and the guy's like I'll just give you a lift up to the gate where we don't go past. So I've got on the back of a quad, everyone else has got helmets on. I said do I need a helmet? Nah, no you'll be right mate. Jump on going up with this crew up on the quads. He's handed me a key and said that gate there will get you to where you need to go running. Jeez.

Drop the key back at reception when you're finished. So I it was Was it a loop? It wasn't out and. Back it was out and back so I had to run 7K out to the start which is at the back end of the mountain bike park because all of these properties are locked by keys and gates and barbed wire to keep I'm assuming to keep hunters out and you know whatever else keep the deer in. I had to run out to it and then run back. So the day turned into a 30K run fee. What cause of the tour though?

I didn't start till 12 in the middle of the day. I'm carrying, I'm carrying in my I'm carrying a Red Bull, my flask with a philtre on it and a banana. I was out there for three hours mate. It was one of the hardest runs I've done, one of the most enjoyable runs I've done. Can I imagine I was in the middle of? It's an unbelievable.

I mean the middle of Africa, like an African island by myself in a like deers running around and I'm just thinking, wow, well, the place is running takes you hey. That's so cool. Yeah, but it sounds horrible. And all I could think was I'm hoping my philtre works because every time I got to the dirtiest Creek I'm just filling up like getting as much water in as I could. So I was, I would have chugged, I reckon, about 3 litres of water through that philtre. How did you feel?

Like no, my stomach was good. So I can advocate for the philtres that the Solomon use OK, on, you know, if you have out running in the forest, I guess one of the things I'd probably use most trail running, especially up here in Queensland where we have a lot of access to water, you're often going across creeks and other things. So I don't have to carry in

litres and litres of water. It is take of, you know, a 500 mil flask that you put in your running vest in it has a screw top like a philtre screw in. I think it's meant to be 99.9% effective against. That's whatever so far. Touch wood. I've never had a problem with it. Yeah. I might have to invest in one of those because I think that yeah, I often I was running around Nerang the other week and just with a non philtre one of those things. Yeah, once you drink it, it's done well.

Nerang's a hard one because you cross that little Creek down the bottom and I'm always like, do I bother carrying it for that one Creek? But if it's a really hot day, I do, I take the filtering. So the finish of that event, yes, is a kite surf. Now, is this event meant to be done by the? Is it a team event or an individual event? You can do it individually, but it's going to be few and far between.

I can't quite surf so I couldn't do the event right, but it's more so a team event where you'll get a downhill mountain bike a a trail runner and then to finish off with a quiet event. Now there's a bit of a problem. Brazil event you did in Rio. It is a little bit like, yeah, that was Giants of Rio finished on the on the sand. However, the the issue is there's no win that day. The events on in August when the trade winds are blowing, but

there's a lot of butts. There's a lot of butts in this. But the young guy from Red Bull, Luca who I met is an absolute legend. So he's the only Mauritian athlete, Red Bull athlete, because I suppose kite surfing is a bit of a national sport. There obviously being Coral Island with the winds and all of that. Super cool dude and there's been built around him obviously in his sport so. What? But the caveat is the caveat. Is the run's way too. Hard. Oh, really?

Well, you think that a downhill mountain bike takes you 6 minutes? Oh, and that run if the. Run's gonna be two, two hours at least. It's a hard run and and it it gets cooler that time of year, but it's still gonna be hot. And then they race out of this. So do you. Was that your feedback? My feedback was we, we, we need to be able to reduce the run of it yeah, I didn't even run the whole run in that 30K the first

day. By the time I got out and back, I ran back on the road because I was I was absolutely rude. The. Idea You get back to the office and I'm like, So what do you think? You're like, that's too hard. Yeah, even even for even for this event, it was too hard. But yeah, man, it was amazing. We were busy because then we were out filming with a crew. We had safari vehicles going. Like, it was definitely a unique experience, but we worked like behind the scenes.

People think, oh, he's on a holiday all the time. No, I was, I was. I was Breakfast out and about filming out on the heat all day, back to bed, jet lagged, get back home. So cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Oh mate, that sounds like you had an amazing time over there, but it's easy nevertheless. So I've been running, but yeah, missed a few days this week trying to get back with travel at the moment. You're still getting new cars in. Yeah. You'll be OK. Yeah. Yeah, he'll be OK.

A quick shout out to Jack Rayner, too. Yes, new new Aussie indoor 5000 record. We're running good. We're the Australians, we've got the running. Running is deep right now, as well as the recreational level, but at the elite level too, we've got some. Our elites are doing their thing. There's a lot going on. It's Jack Rainer Jelly Roll. That's at two different ends of the spectrum and both equally important. Courtney, that's what we're saying now you've got we haven't done. What?

What the fuck? Well, we. Haven't done the WTF events for a while but I think it's time to win the segment officially because I think I've found the winner OK. Forever. What have you? What have you got? This I can't even remember where it came across. But talk about AY and B, what's the point? Shristi Dhamendra Shristi Dhamendra Sharma is her full name. In fact, she's broken the world record for the fastest limbo skating under poles. See, there's a bit in that isn't.

There, if I was to describe this to you, she's basically in a Cathy Freeman style race suit. She's taking a speed, and this is not ice skating by the way, though this is roller skating she's taking. She looks like an ice skater, a speed skater at the Olympics. Traditional rollerblade. Roller skate traditionally roller skates the fours, not rollerblades. She looks to be on like a car

race track. She looks like she's on AV8 Supercar straight and she's taken a big old long run up where she goes as flat as she can and then when she approaches these limbo poles, which could be no more than maybe. A foot. Oh, she's on the ground. She's basically touching pavement the whole way as she skates. Oh, she didn't need to go that low, though. Oh, but mate, it's she's so she's. Her chin is on.

Her chin is skimming the ground. Yeah, and she she's basically doing the splits on the roller skates. She's managed to get her entire body no higher than the height of the roller skates themselves, and she rolls for probably 100 odd metres. I'm not sure if I like this one.

Do you know why? Because it's a, it's a little bit like all these runs people are doing and you know, across America or Australia, wherever they're running, Like where do you draw the line of what's different and what's. Not hold on, I've been saying this to you since you started this segment. I'm saying we don't need a bloke cooking an omelette or a cake while he runs a marathon. We don't need a person juggling chainsaws.

All of these events are stupid. Like it's a it's a world record, but she could just change the height of someone can just come along and I'm going to do it at a different height and cracked a new world record. You know what it's like people catching M&M's in their mouths. What? What's the point? She looks. There is no point. She is dressed to impress and it is impressive she can. Actually have an Austin Powers full. Shin to the ground.

But yeah, I think unless we have something really. So you still send them to us, You've got something. But we've we've had to up the level on this because it started getting out of hand. Yeah, yeah, running a marathon backwards ain't going to cut it anymore. Do we get some? We got some message from New Zealand. Yeah, we did. Josh Joshua from New Zealand has been he's been catching up on the podcast, he said. Hi lads, been listening to the podcast up to episode 13 and. Oh no, this is WTF.

This is another WTF. Well, this is the last one this. Is the last one, but this one's kind of. It's like there's been people running the Tarawera Myla in gumboots. See why? Why do that to yourself? Why do that to yourself? More impressive than Crocs though. Mate, Can you imagine running like Crocs still have speed, they're still like cushioning, you know. And that that is to me, just trying to create this is to do it in gumboots. But why was it? Was it? Was it Cliffie Young who turned

up in gumboots? To the start line. That's the. It's the falsehood. Of the falsehood. He didn't actually run the race in gumboots. He turned up in gumboots and then someone gave him a pair of runners. Oh, I agree. Why? But just why Josh? Thanks for listening though, Josh, Do you know what I will say? I'm loving there are a lot of people coming to the podcast now who are listening from air point, Yes. And then they're starting it in the beginning.

They're starting in the beginning, at the beginning, at the beginning and they're rolling through. And then it's funny because I did get a couple of messages of people saying I found you guys late. I've jumped on from the beginning and now I've caught up and now I'm disappointed that I don't have a backlog to work through, which is really nice. It's it's nice nice to be hearing that people have come through and gone through the whole journey with us. We.

Appreciate all every, everyone's feedback too good, good and good and bad. We want to make it better. So we appreciate you want to hear us talking about hey, I don't want to leave everyone hanging on Elmo because I did mention Elmo. So do. You want to talk about it now? Yeah, let's let's talk about. Finish. Well, how long have we been going? Probably don't want to finish on Elmo. Yeah. What are we up to? We've been going a while today. If you're running, I reckon we're up around.

You've probably been running for an hour 20. OK. Yeah. All right, let's finish. We're going, we're going. We've got more to get. To but we will we'll obviously be better it's. Not just Elmo. So I've got a few things that have come on. Remember I was talking with ASICS here in Australia. Did the I I was calling them out on the IP for the clouds. Yes, yes, yes. And they ran. They went and did the marathon in the hot air balloon. Hot air balloon running on clouds was the for the Nimbus.

So I'm seeing, I'm seeing a pattern. Nike just took all their runners up in the London Eye on treadmills. Yeah. God. And then when I mean, they're runners, like the key runners, they're main athletes. The London Eye's going round and they've got they're they're feeling them doing on treadmills in the London Eye. I wonder whether they saw the hot air balloon. I think it is trying to one up things.

Now so well here's what I'll say this video because it's in Ingebritton the the Norwegian fella there's a few Pharaohs in it. This looks sick. This video looks. The video looks sick, but the idea is no different to the hot air. Balloon well, but no but. Every air balloon's more impressive, actually. No, no way. Why this looks better? Why this looks better? You're up in a hot air balloon. It's kind of.

I think it's tacky, the hot air I. Don't think it's, I don't think it's tacky, but I don't think it had the impact that ASICS. Well, for me, it didn't impact me the way I think. ASICS probably. I'm, I'm, I'm guessing there's the runners that have impacted. You. No, no, no. If you just had randoms in there doing if you just had some randoms in the eye running on treadmills, I won't say random. It's like just run as you don't Maybe, maybe not the best in the world. That's a big.

Measure, maybe, but the orange aesthetic, the running at night, the way the carriages in the London Eye lit up, the fact that they've lit up all of the screens in and around on the riverbank of the Thames there, it's an iconic location and it looks OK. So you this one, you go Nike of nail. Nike of nailed it. Shout out Nike. Now this one is on running OK Have a listen to their latest campaign Clouds Your Clouds. Hey friends. Hard. Wins Alma. I'm gonna make soft for that

win. Feel any good for that win? Ready for fun? Is that a win? Don't be so hard on yourself. Yeah. What do you guys? Think. Running is fun with Elmo. I. This is weird. I can see how this idea came about in a boardroom. I can see how they land. I can totally see how they got to where they did, but it doesn't work for me. It doesn't work. It doesn't. How do you think they got? There oh because all right, I what Elmo's saying in there

about running is for everyone. Don't be so hard on yourself. They're going down there, but also I love the messaging they're like they want to be the every person shoe they want to be accessible. It's about the softness of the shoe, but it's also about the softness of of you as a person and being OK with running. However, you I can see how they go and then they go, Oh, we need what's almost a retro type of character that'll appeal to that middle aged people these days.

Oh, who did everyone grow up with? Elmo? Oh, yeah. Cool. Elmo's soft. Like our shoes are soft. I can see how they get there. I can see how you get there. Doesn't work. Nah, doesn't work. No, no, no, no, no. Didn't work. No, didn't work. Nice try, though. I'd my the I'm my the F. Can you remember what was the? Was it Don Draper? Who was the advertising? Marketing Don Don Draper in Mad Men. Mad Men Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This, when I, when I saw this, I that's, that's what I kind of thought about like a bad, bad agency pitch. It this is an agency pitch and I would say that there's been at least six or seven people involved in this pitch and that's why it's confusing. And probably because it's 6 or $7,000,000. There's not one clear thought in this pitch. Yeah, which is where we're by comparison. Comparison with Nike.

Yeah, Nike have just gone. Let's just get our best runners running in in an awesome spot and make it look sick. The athletes work, so it does work. Because I reckon that's why you liked Nike. I really like with marketing brain on. I'm thinking the reason the Nike one works is because yes, it's an idea, but but it's got the runners to follow through with it. That's. What so? But I only recognising the Britson and Mo Farah in that video I didn't recognise.

That, but that's all you need to recognise. But it's also it's a marquee runners. Yeah, but then there's also it the runners aren't. I would say the location and the lighting of it is the more aesthetically appealing. Honestly, the runners that that play a bigger part in OK anyway. OK, a quick one. Hawker on this same thing. Yeah, Hawker. The third space, they called it the corner store and it's pretty

much going. It's actually like a corner deli store, like a deli the way they've made it. So like it's all made cool somewhere. Obviously in America out the back, you've got the treadmills to try the shoes and everything else. So they've had a go, They've had a go at it. It's you. Know we're going to see more and more of this. We are and I'm just now starting to wonder like, you know, at what point is it? What, what at what point does something that's on trend then

start to become cringe? That's that's my call on it. I'm like. Well, it's, it's all about execution. And this, we're seeing this a little bit with the way that these different brands are executing their run campaigns. It's all about execution. The idea is a sound one. The idea is a good one. The third space is a smart notion, as long as you can execute it well. Yeah, and that's, and we'll finish on this one because this is what I wanted to have a chat

about. I had it here for a few weeks around if you like, if you scroll Instagram at the moment with running content, have you noticed a pattern? Probably more it is in both like the moving image, like the video content. But if you notice the stills that kind of washed out, like there's a, you know, lowest shutter speeds, everything looks the same. Trends are trends. Every run brand at the moment is

doing the same thing. It's just the photographers of run brands or even the photographers who aren't for like photographing for run brands. They're all trying to follow this same style and same trend. And I get it. This is what Instagram and social media does. It brings it. Everyone becomes a sheep. What what I'm waiting for is the brand to break out of this like. I'm way too cool trend. Everything I'm doing has to be, you know.

Why does it have to be a brand? Why can't it be an individual? Well, it could be an individual and I'm sure there are. There's obviously gonna be outliers and individuals out there. I'm not seeing a lot of it if I scroll through especially the in beginning, the in beginning Instagram we got because that's very run focus. So like when you, the algorithm is. Just Oh yeah, what it feeds you when you're in the.

Speaking, that's running, yeah, like on my other account, on my personal account, I'm getting expensive, most of my motocross and a whole range of stuff on there. I don't see much running on that account. When I go in, it's literally just run, run, run, run. And to me it I, it's very hard to differentiate. That's what I'm saying. Interesting. Do you know what I I because what are we 4 weeks out from

Kinani? Yes, Salomon, Golden Trail, Kanani race down in Tassie, yes, which I'm really excited about. I'm genuinely I'm starting to get quite excited about. That so we're going to do a podcast, yes, down there. What I want after the race is you. We're going down there and can't wait to podcast. I'm really excited about getting to experience seeing because I don't think I've ever done a Salomon Trail race before.

You wouldn't have. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how they run their events, being able to talk about it with you and some of the other competitors. I'm looking forward to the whole the whole experience. But going back to what you're talking about with the way run branding or is being presented on Instagram, I've never done what you do, which is filming and and editing up sort of run stuff. But I want to do it for

settlement. I want to set myself up so that I can film my race experience and then share it after after the fact because obviously going to share it on with you on the podcast, but I also want to be able to share it visually. So I've got to talk to you about this away from the microphones. Get get some get some cameras. Well, not, but not even

whatever. I just like as simplistically as possible because I think the other thing is often, yeah, for me, simple is good and simple is authentic, manageable and simple is authentic. I think if I get caught up with too many things, I'll I won't do it, Yeah. But if I can keep it simple, that will be the best way for me to convey my experience. We can, we can sort that out, but. I'll talk about that later. Four weeks we next week let's talk about that.

Let's talk about how we're going for training and what the courses. Like I'm excited because. You know what? I still really haven't looked at the course. That's probably something we should do. Yeah. And if you and if you come back and if you give it a review like you gave the one in Mauritius of that's too hard, how do you think I'm going to go? The well, the one thing I do know, it's not going to be that hot. Yeah, it's true. It is, Tazzy. I'm excited. All right.

Hey, so good. Look, we're 24 EPS in. I'm still loving talking running. I'm not going to get sick. This is amazing. I'm having so much fun talking about this. It the more and more people I keep meeting and interacting with the tell me they're listening to this. This is great, Courtney. I hope you're still enjoying it, mate. Oh, absolutely, because it's a lot of fun. And for those of you interested, we're only 18 weeks out from the Golden Marathon.

It's coming up quick, mate. It is coming up. Quick, we better get our ducks in a row and have some news soon. Yeah. All right. See you next week. See you next week.