In the beginning podcast here it is the first Road to Noosa triathlon episode. You enjoyed the Road to the Gold Coast Marathon series so much. We have brought it back, Courtney, but in triathlon mode. We're adding cycling and swimming to the agenda. Excited Courtney, because this series gives us an opportunity to dig into your past as well. How many times, Noosa? I'm just looking at the results because my memory is so shit. Yeah, 3. Three time Noosa Triathlon champion.
Well, obviously we're going to tap into your expertise throughout this series as well, but it is a true pleasure to welcome. As we did with the Gold Coast Marathon, we brought Benita Witless in house to provide us her experts. Well, bring the experts. We absolutely do. We welcome in the national triathlon coach the coach of Australia's current #1 male triathlete, Matt Hauser. Dan Atkins, how are you always? Thanks, I'm glad yous are finally talking triathlon.
No the big fan of the pod and really excited to be able to put my spin on what is my sport triathlon and and hopefully pump some athletes up before Noosa. You're on a high because this will come out in a few weeks because you've got to travel overseas with Matt to go to the thing. But he's just come off a massive win yesterday, right? Yeah, yeah. Look, he's he's doing so well and it it's a series now, the World Championships. So post Paris where he got 7th, which was a great result.
But obviously you walk away wanting that little bit more. You wanna get that medal. We haven't we haven't had a male winner. He's. In the box seat now, I mean, with worlds coming up in Australia, so down in Wollongong, Yep, I mean we're gonna it's been a long time since Australia's had a had a world champion and it's it's looking really good. So congratulations. Thanks straight off thank. You we're gonna get into there's lots to talk about.
We do want to unpack Matt as an athlete as well. Braden Mercer is another one of the great Aussie males that you train as well. Let's just jump straight into the Noosa course though, because there'll be people listening to this who be who'll be challenging themselves for PB this year. Maybe they're tackling Noosa Triathlon for the very first time. First thought Noosa Triathlon. How should they be approaching this? I prefer athletes not to just
get through the distance. So the distance 1.5 K swim, 40K ride and a 10K run. You need to break it down to the specifics of the course. Now you've got to understand it's a potentially a surf swim. Well, it is a surf swim. It's in the surf. Now, we don't know yet what the water's going to be like. So there's so many variations in what that could be. It could be maybe swell out the back, it could be tidal assisted, it could be anything
running up the beach. You know, there's nothing worse than standing up the first time out of a swim and having to run across that God awful yellow sand. Straight into the soft noosa noosa sand this. Is heart rate just? Quickly you you would have never raced Noosa. As a surf swim, no. We were over with the sharks and the.
I can't believe I've actually got some expertise over Courtney Atkinson talking about Noosa Triathlon quickly, because I am A and for everybody out there, this isn't just gonna be elite level stuff. I can bring the proper amateur triathlon stuff to this. How many have you done? So I've done 10, I've done 10. So I swam in the canals with the bull sharks and both experiences and I and I Bunny hopped around the edges because I'm not great at swimming.
And then I've also had the experience one year, a couple of years back where they had to shorten the swim because of the current out the back. People just could not get back in or they, the plan was to swim back up the beach. They're like the average swimmer's not going to be able to swim back up the beach. So I have experienced all of it out in the ocean and the canal. So the I can you know, and you talk about running. I almost sorry, I'm unity off
track for a moment. Yeah. There was an event in Sydney called the Splash and Dash Reedy. It was Reedy's event, the Splash and Dash first year he ever held it at Bondi. I. Did this. I did this the first year I possibly could have even won. The one kilometre run along the soft sand of Bondi and then you went out the back and swam A kilometre and then it was
another kilometre. I I was one of the people that almost had to get be saved by the the ski paddlers out the back because US amateur swimmers had no concept of how much the lactic acid would would build up during that 1K soft sand run and then a kilometre swim back up the beach. It was a nightmare trying to get back into that South end of Bondo Beach. The way we're going to run this whole series is we're going to the next episode we do is going to be really focused on the swimming.
So we're going to get really direct. So we want that overview of this, but just on that swimming stuff now, we'll get into this in the next episode. There is the rolling start, which changes it for everything, so we're going to get into that in the next episode. So join in along the whole series. But yeah, back to the course. So we're running across the sand bloody. It's hard. It's 2 minutes. It's 2 minutes from the water's exit. If you're good, that's your
need. For a try, is there any other triathletes around the world? I'm just trying to think, Escape from Alcatraz, you got to run. You know, there's a few that you've probably got big transitions, but most of them, you know, not really 20 seconds, right? No, it's, it makes it iconic. I mean, you're out there in front of Noosa Surf Club. Stunning. OK, sorry, I've got to jump in. OK, we just said Noosa Surf Club running up the beach. Iconic.
Dan, where do you see it? Where should the Olympic triathlon be? Gold Coast, Oh. Good question. Look. Gold Coast or Noosa sunshine you'd have to be. You know what? I love Mooloolaba. Really. That's tough course. That's a very tough course, yeah, Noosa Mooloolaba are my 2 favourite triathlons on the planet, along with Hamburg. But both of them, they're just stunning. But for me, Mooloolaba's got the hills, it's got the surf swim which could be pumping. Gives hopefully the Aussies an
advantage. But Noosa, I think from a collective for for the everyday Joe Blue, I think's a little bit more achievable. OK, there we go. So if we if we're going to give the Sunny Coast the the triathlon, then. We get back the marathon. Gold Coast, Well, no, we've decided Brisbane's going to have the truth. Let's we, we, we're drifting back into running Jack. So the noose, of course it's the surf swim. You've got to incorporate that 2 minute plus run from the ocean back to transition.
Talk to us about the bike league. Well, you've got to be careful the 1st 5 minutes you're going to be so full of adrenaline. You're going to see your friends and family. The the, the crowds are packed, the the club tents are packed. Everyone's pumping you, so you're going to be really mindful not to go too hard. And you got to think I've been in the salt water, so you want to get your hydration in. You got to start that process.
So you got to have a good, good system there in place to be able to get yourself ready for the 40K. But for me, the race doesn't start till the hill. So the first 10K out of town, it's nice and rolling downhill and then you hit the hill. Garmin Hill. Garmin Hill. How long is Garmin hill? I'm just having I was going to look it up. 3K3 Ki. Think. They used to have that split when they used to have the race. Did they still do that? Yeah, they still do. They do.
As in the timing split at the top. Yeah, because they're still sort of king of the Garmin Hill. Queen of the Garmin Hill. But it is it is the point of the race where it kind of if there's still a pack or if you're in the the age group race and there's packs together and there's, you know, everyone trying to stay out of each other's way. It's the one place that it can break everything up 100%. Yep. And I think everyone.
Thinks that the hill is the game changer and and I know that the elite athletes I work with, we obviously focus on having that after 10K in in a training session. So we specifically train for it to be able to go right. The race starts at the base of the hill. Now again, you mentioned we're going to do this with with swimming and we'll do this with cycling in the running as well.
But we so obviously Dan will be able to give us some more specific here's how you could train within your own training to tackle that hill. But that's really interesting to hear that within the elites that that is still you like, hey, you've got to train for this hill. That's going to be 10K deep into this ride. It's it's cool to hear quick story about the hill. Last year my wife, as she entered during the race, not only had did she have the hill to tackle, she also had a snake
come out right. Because you're in Bush. Good. Old Aussie race. So good old Aussie race. So she's starting to think about tackling this Garmin Hill and then all of a sudden the snake just comes across the front of her bike. The other thing that happened last year, because over the last couple of years my friends and I, we would meet on the Saturday pre race and go for a ride out to just check it out.
We were almost at the Crest of Garmin Hill and this poor woman behind me, she's just hit a stick because you're going quite slow by that stage. She's hit a stick, legs, feet obviously clipped into the pedals straight over on the shoulder handlebars of the bike snapped. And I was just like, oh, this woman has looks like she's done a lot of training to get ready for this day and there's a race gone 24 hours out from the start line. It's a hard sport trust it's it's actually we're talking
about bikes. Bikes is the hard part of it right? Well, we. Saw it last year with Ray, yeah in the in the legends race, Rihanna Cran who? Yeah, she was preparing for an Iron Man, and then in the Legends race, she's. Gone down well, I reckon that's the thing that catches everyone out at Noosa 2 is the uphills. You know the part you can train for the downhill. It's all about speed coming back as you we'll get let you go away to the the turn around in a
minute. But coming down there, I mean, I can recall countless times being on a new time troll bike, new disc Wheeler hadn't really ridden a lot and those bloody death wobbles. I and I used to race like sorry. We're going to talk a bit about nostalgia in this series as well, right, and then we've got a got it. Probably the most I think winning male of all ever at Noosa is going to come on in the series as well, which is great.
So Craig and I race Craig a lot down there and like he weighed, he probably weighed what, 8090 at the time I was with used to race around 60 fives, give or take, and there's no way I could keep up with him down that hill. So I would be trying for my life on a new bike. Hadn't ridden it all year and those I had. A lot of stuff was in. Let's just say I was crapping myself down that hill.
Always. And for the average cyclist as well, for the average triathlete, there's nothing less comforting than seeing the ambulance parked at the bottom of the hill and the hay bails just in case someone comes off like that is as equally disconcerting as the speed itself. Do the athletes these days, are the new time trial bikes more stable or less stable do you reckon? They're more stable, OK, but it's how much time they spend on them. Yeah, right. It's it's like Christmas for the
elites. So the short course elite guys, they don't race time trial bikes. So the way that I get them up for it is you get a time trial bike, you get a new. Company's flicking in a new bike, yeah. Absolutely. And I, I try to forget them to focus on working that into their sponsorships because you have to have it. And the speed that these guys ride these bikes at nowadays, they're just phenomenal, like the thirty $40,000 bikes and
getting on those going down. When we speak about iconic parts of the course, the running up the beach, that downhill is, there's not another downhill like it in the world. Straight line, 2K down or 1K down, whatever it is. You know, Waldo one year got clocked at a reckon 120K an hour and I think there was some cream that he had with zip. I reckon. I reckon there's some cream on that too. That's a bit I do too, but even even cruising you cruise AT80K an hour.
We don't want to probably scare. People. No, no. But what just, I mean, it's, it's just to be aware. We're just talking about the course and what to be aware of. I mean, you know, the easy thing is you tap your brakes and you go slower down the hill and it's all safe, right? But it's those who are after all the speed they can get. So we talked just quickly on the bikes there and that downhill and you and you said just how much slippery of the bikes are these days.
Like I'm looking at Hayden Wilde when he did win two years ago and he now has the court record at 141. Most of that time. That is where they're getting the time back now is on the bike, right? They're riding probably well quicker than Waldo did back in those days. And he was, you know, the bike camp. You can buy speed, speed on the bike, you can buy it. You can buy it, You can buy it if you've got a pretty thick bank balance, you can buy the
bike that Hayden Wild rides. You may not have it set up quite the same way, but you can invest into speed. And that's what these guys have and that's what companies want. They want them on the fast bikes. And, and I remember before that race, Hayden and Matt were talking it up, saying this record's going to go, we're going to take it down. And, and those two have a thick rivalry that stems back 10 years now, probably 5-6, seven years.
And, and it's a good one. It's another Australia, New Zealand iconic banter lead and and I'm all for it because keeps the sponsors happy and chase chasing those times is excellent. And some inside information this year for everyone got listening and going up to Noosa because worlds are in here in Australia. There's some chatter, some chatter, Liam, about internationals, like he's probably been a bit light on in internationals for the past few
years. But because they're all gonna be in town, there's a few reaching out kind of, you know, pricks their interest. And I cannot give the Noosa race both in the men and the and the women races, yes. This is and again, look for those we're we're looking forward to news here. But if you look in your rear view just a moment at the Sydney marathon for that.
And I know it was a major, but to have Kipchoge and Safan Hassan come down and the and the energy that that generated the and the interest from Pat potentially your casual running fan. If we start to attract big internationals here, it just changes it slightly, ever so slightly. It brings a bit more energy, it brings a bit more a few more eyeballs and I'm all for it.
So Dan, getting back to it again, we're going to give people specifics around swimming in a later Rep. We're going to give people specifically around cycling in a later Rep. Is there anything unique about the run course? Because to my eye, it's just a pretty flat 10K. Is there anything you see as a coach? It's 4K out, six K back, so that's tricky. So when you get to the 4K, turn around, you think I'm on my way home, I'm on my way home.
Here I go. But then you go in those goddamn cul de sacs and you, you, you're sort of running back and you're along the same path. And then all of a sudden you go in a bloody cul de And then you come out of the cul de SAC and there's no one. Well, there are There's unique characters sitting out the front of their houses with hoses and who are several cans deep by the time I get there anyway, I. Advise Try not to get the water on your feet. Try try not to as hot as you are.
Try not to keep the. Shoes. Light. Keep the shoes light. The blisters come on as soon as you're wet and then it can be a painful last couple of K. Especially when you have little tricks. Where were you 10 years ago mate? I was probably coaching the elite. This is really exciting. Look, this series as we're going to get into more specific coaching stuff with you, really, really exciting. Taking a step back though, you're coaching the pointy end
of the sport. What is your, do you have an overarching coaching philosophy when it comes to dealing with these elite athletes across 3 disciplines? It's not as straightforward as as coaching other sports where it's one thing and one thing only. What's your Do you have an overarching coaching philosophy? Look, I think that there there's two main things for me, it's
consistency and communication. So if you can be consistent and put your plan down every week, and I mean every week, hit every session. Now every session when I say hit it, hit it to the prescription that's given to you from your coach. I'm very fortunate that the people I'm currently coaching are very coachable. So they still want the input. They still want to communicate about what to do, how to do it. And that to me is the type of
athletes I'm looking for. I'm looking for someone that wants to take the input, that wants to take on advice, but also happy to lead themselves when it matters. Because at the end of the day, I'm only as good as the athletes that do what I say to do. So the consistency is the biggest thing. Like it's an endurance sport and for better part it's an hour to two hours for what we do. So you've got to put the work in. There's no, you can't not do this sport well unless you put
in 25 hours plus a week. And that's the relentless pursuit of excellence for us is through consistency. And how did you? I mean, I've known you, Dan. How long now? 30 years what? Would I be when we first met? I probably was 15. Yeah. 1416, yeah, give or take. Yeah. Probably rolling down Noosa Hill in a drunk in a garbage bin, not racing myself. That was pretty getting into the
racing days. We used to have a great time at Noosa. But give us a bit of background into how, you know, because I met you as an athlete, you were racing yourself. And then obviously we've, you know, had different paths throughout our time in triathlon, but how have you got to, you know, where you are now literally coaching the number one Australian male Olympic athlete. And where'd you start? Give us the whole well, I think the Co give it. What is it? What do we say?
The coaching coach school. Yeah, give us your coaching. What was your Yeah? When did you go to coach school? Well, I think I've always been a coach. I started triathlon when I was 14. I swam in Lake Ore at Bon Uni. You wouldn't swim in, which you wouldn't do now. And that was my first ever triathlon. When I was cross training for rugby league. I was a rugby league player and I was obsessed with with training and staying fit.
Even at 14 and I was playing over age at 14 and up to 16 I was playing under nineteens and playing under 20s when I was still under 18. But I was just getting bashed and I loved training and I loved running. I ran to, I was, my parents were broken up so my mum couldn't drive me to training every day. So I'd run to training, I'd ride to training and that's just the way you did it. So I was cross training from a very early age. But I think even back then I found myself wanting to work
with other people a lot. And I was never going to be an Olympic triathlete. I knew that early on. But I loved being around the quality of athletes. Like with Courtney, you know, I remember waking him up in the morning some days and you'll have gone for a ride because he, I, he needed a bit of a bit of motivation to get out of out of bed. And I was probably that guy to help people on their journey. And I've always been that
person. So I think it was a natural evolution for me to go away from being an athlete to myself to when my coach said, Hey, listen, what don't you think about coaching? And I guess the rest is history. 25 years ago I started started doing it and and here I am. Now, and what was what was the, you know, the stages, I suppose because you don't go from, you know, I'm I'm just going to start coaching to suddenly, you know, I'm being with him saying, hey, coach, yeah, I'll give you a crack.
There's there's got a what, what are the key moments, I suppose that change things for you and, and, and who would maybe some of those mentors that helped you in that? Yeah, I think early on I started as a swimming coach and I was fascinated with swimming and the technical aspect of it.
And I coach Learn to Swim. I had two businesses that were based around Learn to Swim and Juniors and all of a sudden through cross training, through my triathlon experience, which was sort of unheard of. We were doing running and doing obstacle courses, you know, we were doing all sorts of things to try and stay fit. And then I had athletes sort of
starting to win pretty quickly. And, and from that I, I'd have some of my mates triathletes, Levi Maxwell's and, and and so on, turning up and riding on the side of the pool while my athletes were swimming and they'd be curious as to what was going on. They knew I was a triathlete and they knew I had a had a history with the sport and, and one by one they got bored with swimming and they just got into
triathlon. So it was just this evolution from coaching at a school to to getting kids into triathlon. And I I still remember getting my first athlete on a a national team, which was Ryan Fischer back in 2009. We then went on to race Rio Olympics Rio. Olympics Yep, that's right. And and I remember him coming to me at 16 saying I need you to help me get there. And I looked at him and he couldn't keep up with our 12
year old. Girls in the pool, which I'm sure he won't mind me saying, but we had a an amazing sort of career and relationship together as coach athlete that stemmed now to me going to his wedding in four weeks, which is just amazing. So, you know, for me, I think it's building relationships and that's how I've evolved as a coach. It's funny you say people were getting into triathlon as swimmers then watching riders on the side of the pool on will probably win trainers, I'm
assuming. So my way into triathlon, they're like, I had a few different mentors that got into triathlon. I'll always say the main one was through my school. But even then when I used to swim down here at Miami swimming pool, Brett Sutton. So he's probably, you know, the most would have coached the most female winners at Hawaii Ironman ever and Olympic champions and
everything else. My first exposure was to him coaching his athletes on wind trains at the pool, him skipping with half a helmet on. And I looked at it and I can remember as a kid, Yeah, the you 'cause you ought to remember triathlon. And this is going back. So Noosa, let's see what Noosa is now 42 years. So 1983, Noosa started with 180 people. It was just, you know, this sport was just being slapstick together. It was an idea. And this is, you know, a little bit on from that.
But these were the early days where I suppose triathlon was really just a Guinea pig because no one really knew how to put the puzzle together, right? So there was all these eccentric characters who were, you know, pushing training to the limits. You know, there's some great stories. I spent my first time overseas under Brett, Brett Sutton as
well. Literally, you know, and you want to talk some training stories, like as a 17 year old, I was turning up to a pool in Germany doing the swim session. You get out of the pool, think you're going for croissants. And we probably didn't drink coffee back then, but some croissants and whatever down the bakery and then suddenly, no,
you got to run the 16 K home. Jeez, put your bag in the car and go for it. You know, So we were learning now and if you come all that time to where you are today coaching, which I'm fascinated to hear more about coaching and at Olympic Games in where we're going to go to Los Angeles next. You know, just what's changed and how much more science has come from the swimming, how much more data is out there and all that driven. You know, we've come a long,
long way. Can we unpack it now while we're here? Because I come from a, a football background and I look at AFL, which I commentate now and there's no secrets like we're we're about, we're talking while it's in finals. You'll hear the coaches say, well, we know what they do and they know what we do. There's nothing hidden. Everyone has seen enough of one another to know exactly what the game plan of the teams is. It just comes down to executing who executes their game plan
best on the day. Courtney's just spoken about the wild, Wild West days of triathlon and and people trying to figure out that jigsaw at the elite level. Now, is the jigsaw complete? Is it just about, you mentioned consistency, Is it just about which coaches can get their athletes to train and perform most consistently or or were they still kind of trade secrets that you keep away from other elite coaches? It's constantly evolving and
it's still a young sport. Like we've only been in the Olympics since 2000 and we're still learning and there's, I'm sure there's things that I do that are unique to what other people are doing. But everyone has their philosophy. And, but I think the, the, the biggest philosophy that we all abide by is consistency. It's still a 2 hour event. You've still got to train 10
times the hour that it takes. So for me personally and what Matt and I do or the rest of the squad does, he puts everything up on Strava. So it is no real, there's no real, well, riding and running anyway. He doesn't necessarily put the swimming up. But certainly for us what we do is it's not a secret. We have an open door policy. If you want to come and see us
train, come down. But the nuance with any kind of training is you can see it, you can even tell the session, but it's how you do the session is going to make all the difference exactly how you prescribe the. Session and it's it's how you communicate. But I think that the trick for me is that I'm a face to face coach. So even though the boys are overseas at the moment, I'll go and catch up with them later this week.
It's it's me understanding how they're operating, how they're moving when they walk through the pool gates, what are they looking like, how they're carrying themselves and having those conversations about how did you think this morning went? How do you think today is going to go? This is what we're doing. And just having that relationship with them that you can talk about how they're feeling. And I think that's something the art of coaching that I hope never dies.
I know there's so much AI going on and all this sort of stuff that's that that worries me for face to face coaching. It's killing off the face to face coach, but I'll live and die by it. Well, I think we've given, I mean, through the running series we've done as well. We've shown there's there's no substitute for in real life coaching, there's no substitute. They can get the best
information for sure. However, not everyone's going to have the ability to have access to that and not everyone's going to have the ability and maybe they don't want to spend the money to have access to that and something's just good enough for them. But if you're sitting here listening and you're the, you're going to Noosa for the first time because we're going to get the stats on this.
But I'm, I'm pretty sure like there's a high number of people who go to Noosa and it's their first Olympic distance race for maybe even their first triathlon. What would you suggest they go and do? Because they're not going to have access straight to an Olympic Games coach. You're getting that access here on the podcast. But where would you actually send them first up? I don't think there's an area in Australia that doesn't have some connection to triathlon.
So whether you're out West, whether you're up north, down South, wherever you are, Australia knows triathlon, Everyone knows Noosa. Like I'd argue that it's probably in the top five endurance sports in Australia that people are aware of and it brings communities together. So there's gonna be someone in your area that has done the event, whether it just as a beginner, as a 10 year veteran like you, Liam, three year, three time winner like you,
Courtney, it doesn't matter. I think there's always going to be someone in your area that's done the event. So just just reach out to those. The local area, the swim club, they might shoot can triathlon a little bit deep in your soul. You know that they respect the sport and what we do. So there's going to be someone, there's, there's, we have websites we have, there's so many avenues you can do to reach out to people and they'll give you some advice.
The the Tri clubs as well. I mean as someone who went through that exact process you're starting about. My wife and I signed up to spot Andersons Tri Club back down in Sydney when he was there. He's up the bit further up the Central Coast these days, but he was running a Tri club. We joined up to his programme with the goal of of Racing Noosa and it was fantastic. And it was that you meet like
minded people. It's a bit like run clubs but without as much dating going on. But it was it was, you know, we jumped in and and we had an amazing time and that's what kept me coming back every year now, because it is for me. Noosa is fit people Christmas more so than more so than marathons because I think the it's smaller than the major Maras, but just the vibe at Noosa try every year it is fit
people Christmas there. The energy is high, the endorphins that you can almost reach out and touch them. They're everywhere. It is just such a look. The location helps so it's not being that's not deny it. Noosa is a beautiful spot, but the vibe from whenever you turn up the Expo, the the fun races that they have, the criterion, the the 5K races they have on the Saturday through the event itself on the Sunday, it cannot be beaten for atmosphere.
What, what do the the male and female elites these days think of news? Because like back when, like go back maybe 15 years ago or so, it was probably the most important race on the calendar for an Australian, not just an Australian triathlete, but it's probably one of the most important races on the calendar for the Australian runners and the cyclists even would come back from the tour and, and the. Surf athletes were giving it a crack, too.
Swimming and I think the swimming's still right up there as that standard. The best over water swimmers still will come to Noosa. But has that changed over time? Is it still as important to them that do you think it still holds in Australian sport? The same type of, you know, kudos I suppose, that it had back then. I do. And it's, you've got to understand that I guess for the World Championship Series that I focus on is it's still going when Noose is on.
So there's still a couple of Asian races, the back end of Noosa, but it's still in everyone's conversation. And the plan generally is get through the year as good as you can so you can go to Noosa so you don't have to do the at races at the end of the year. Because for us it's all about points and, and, and and so on. And this year having Wollongong 2 weeks. Two weeks, everyone's going to be in peak. Everyone already is. I can't wait to see the start list so.
Are those records going down, you reckon? Wollongong is 2 weeks pre or post. Pre Wollongong is 2 weeks free but also the T1 hundreds there so you've got a mix of the longer course guys, you've got everyone doing noose. Sorry Wollongong. There's 13167 Australians selected for the Australian team for Wollongong while. We're staying with this two weeks pre How long does it take to recover from a triathlon at the Elite? Level no nooses 2 weeks after.
Yeah, so that's what I mean. So if they go down and race Wollongong, an athlete like Matt or whoever other athletes you got racing in Wollongong, is 2 weeks enough time for them to go again and be at their pointy end? Plenty. OK, yeah, they've got a full year of training under their belt, but more than that, they're going to get on their time travel bikes. And I said it earlier, it is. It is. You said it too, Liam. It's Christmas.
Yeah, it's so good. I don't think there's an event in Australia that brings together every every part of our community together. You've got kids, you've got Olympic swimmers, you've got, you've got triathletes, runners, cyclists, you've got legends coming in on a junket. You've got, you've got everyone coming to, you've got every club in Australia wanting to put a tent up. It's just huge. It's such a community event that I know for me I missed last year.
It was the first event I haven't been at since 94 really. And. And it was. It was the year that I finally had an athlete I work with win it. So let's talk about that. So Braden Mercer, the defending men's champion, yes, is an athlete that you coach. Yes. And you weren't there. Was not there. So did you expect Braden to win? Did you? No. We can tell the truth, No. No, no, no, I, I didn't. And, and and he didn't either, but he went down there with or up there, sorry, having great
family ties up there. His family felt entrenched in the Noosa Surf Club there as as well as his, you know, mother down here on the coast. And he went there. We were sort of thinking, oh, you know, top five would be good. And I remember watching it and I just felt this sense of I was just so pissed off at myself. I was like, are you kidding me? I'm not there and he's going to win this. And I had Matt out on the
course. Matt was running up and down the course running, trying to give it encouraging and bringing me, God, he's going to bloody win this. This is amazing. And he had two Olympians chasing him who just come off Paris. So it was a proper win. It was a proper, it was a proper we, we spoke about it that week because I was, I mean, I've obviously had a little bit to do with Braden and I was, I was absolutely stoked the kid. But then when we started looking at how fast he ran, it was full
legit like I was. And how's he been going? Give us a bit of an update. How's he been travelling this year? Because we wondered, how will this, Yeah, you know, how will he roll? Off this yeah, well, he's he's kicked on, which is great. I mean, he had a fantastic front end of season. So you've got to understand that Noosa for, for these athletes, the World Championship Series athletes, it's pretty much the
last race of the year. So you then go to the surf club and that's where you rock up, which is, which is part of the event. We've all been there and it's it's wonderful to be there. If you're not there, it's you. You should, you should got to be there. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. And then he kicked on and he got a silver medal in a World Cup in February. So he carried on that that result. And then from there got his
world spot. He he ticked his world spot for under 20 threes early in Devonport, which was which was amazing and and now he's he's getting ready to to do that. So he'll race under 20 threes at Wollongong and then rolling as defending champion and that's. That's the plan and he knows he's going to have some heavy hitters around him and the banter in the squad. Funnily enough, it's not so much about Jalong Wollongong, it's about NUSA. NUSA. Yeah, that's right, the chat is.
Is can we confirm, Dan, will you be there this year? I think without a doubt. This is again, you mentioned just because we look, we're going to wrap this up very shortly because next week the first, I guess real coaching episode of this series is going to drop when we're talking about
swimming. But the event as a whole, I think, I mean, if you if you if you get to the end of this episode and you're not excited about no story, if even if you're not going, if you're not interested in going next year, that surf club part of it. And I look, I gave this away when we did the run the Gold Coast series. I'm going to they need a beach club.
They need to find a way to extend the surf club out onto the sands of Newsome Main beach so that that Sunday post race event can get even bigger because that's the problem they now have. That surf club has reached capacity. They need to find a way Courtney, to extend the celebrations onto the sands of Newsom Main Beach. Some of your ideas go places.
Some of them do. We're I don't want to forget the women too, because we've obviously you're the athletes you're talking about are mostly the men. So in the women's field this year, obviously Ashley Jandal has won the queen, however many, I mean too many now. I think it was 10. I think it was 10. I think it was 10 last year. I've got this in front of me. I. The statue has to go up soon 2. 1012 she won her first one, then Emma Moffett, and then she's won ever since 2014. There you go.
So yeah, she's 10 / 10 so but the statue needs to go up of ash gentle. Has so will there be internationals coming out in the same in the women? Is that I really? Hope so. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not 100% sure, but I don't see why they wouldn't. Why wouldn't you? It's it's at Noosa. You can finish that race and then have a holiday in Noosa Sun beating down on your back. And let's not forget that's what we're shouting out different
categories and everything else. One of our favourite categories, Clyde Sales. Clyde Sales, they call them women Athena or something. Athena Athena, this is a this was a big. Push from from Courtney and I. We want the marathon. We want to see this more in running. We believe there's a space for this in running, but Noosa do this better than anyone.
Couldn't agree more. I was thinking just on the the other week with the Sydney Marathon, in the commentary in the broadcast, Kurt Fernley, Bruce Mcavainey, Thames and Lewis the commentary team referring to the wheelchair races, the wheelies. It's not a derogatory thing. It's a celebration of who they are as athletes. And that is what Noosa does so well with the Athena and the Clydesdale category. They celebrate these people as athletes by allowing them a category to shine.
They. Celebrate and the and the guys and girls in this category it's. You want to be in it, I want to Benny Hannon. It's still every time. This is a man who's won NRL premierships and he still tells me that he's the Noosa Clydesdale champion. We may have to get some inside information from some of these Clydesdales as their tricks and tips. Yeah, yeah. How they make weight or get their weight? And they still do the weigh in coach that the event the the. Wood ceremony, right?
Which is which probably gets the biggest cheer of the lot, I reckon, when you may wait. This is so good, this event, it is fit People Christmas, the Noosa Triathlon. It is so exciting then to have you on board for this Road to
Noosa Triathlon series. We're seriously excited about helping anybody that might be doing their first one, might be doing their 10th one or might be interested in the world of triathlon because with all the run boom, this is another sport that I think it's on the up. I think there's a real excitement with this sport. And, and look, with the T100 coming to the Gold Coast next year event as well, there's so much around that. You mentioned that what's going
on in Wollongong? This is a sport that Australia has such a rich history in and with an Olympics on the horizon as well, it's a sport that we we could be celebrating medals in Brisbane. Yep, I'm looking forward to hearing more about the specifics what we're doing. All right, there it is. The first in the Road to Noosa Triathlon series Episode 1 next week, How to swim.