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EDP10: Ballarat marathon · Easy Double podcast

• 0:18
  Music. Hello everybody, and welcome to
• 0:23
  the Easy Double Podcast episode 10.
• 0:25
  I'm joined today just by Dean because unfortunately we're
• 0:29
  we're minus so in this week, just with some logistical issues
• 0:32
  between the three of us in terms of making it all work for
• 0:35
  everyone. But Dean and I were just
• 0:37
  conscious. We obviously wanted to speak
• 0:40
  about the race and then get the episode out as quickly as
• 0:43
  possible in case anyone is interested.
• 0:45
  So welcome Dean, spoiler alert, but congratulations on your
• 0:49
  third place finish at Ballarat. Thanks mate, yeah fun weekend.
• 0:54
  Congrats to yourself as well on a on APB.
• 0:57
  Bit of a spoiler too, but yeah, it was a fun weekend and look
• 1:01
  forward to talking to you about it.
• 1:03
  So you made it back OK. When did you fly back?
• 1:06
  Yeah, got back yesterday afternoon.
• 1:09
  So yeah, back to reality, sort of.
• 1:12
  Kids are a bit unwell, which is par for the course this time of
• 1:15
  year, but yeah, back back to work today.
• 1:19
  And then, yeah, switch from the marathon running related brain
• 1:23
  straight back to the corporate brain.
• 1:26
  I when we were, I was carrying a novelty.
• 1:29
  He got given novelty checks as part of your prizes yesterday or
• 1:34
  Sunday. And someone asked me if I was a
• 1:36
  full time athlete and I was quick to explain to them that
• 1:40
  I'm a I'm an accountant by trade, not not a, not a runner.
• 1:45
  I was actually gonna ask you to be fair.
• 1:47
  Did you have any any difficulty getting that check on the plane
• 1:50
  or anything? I left it with the we stayed at
• 1:53
  this really nice. We were just outside of
• 1:55
  Ballarat, maybe 10 to 15 minute drive and we stayed with this on
• 1:58
  this really nice property. And the, the the owner was a,
• 2:04
  like the local who had a who was AGP practicing GP since retired,
• 2:09
  who built this like eco friendly IB and B on his property.
• 2:15
  And yeah, we finally asked if he could dispose of that or keep
• 2:19
  that as a souvenir for his troubles.
• 2:21
  So it didn't make the, the, the gold pan did the panning utensil
• 2:28
  made it back, but not the, not the novelty check.
• 2:31
  Oh. Yeah.
• 2:31
  So you got that through security, OK.
• 2:34
  Yeah, I, I took check in. So I, I, I always try and pack
• 2:39
  my Norma tech boots whenever I go now.
• 2:42
  It's a little bit like superstitious, but yeah.
• 2:44
  So they that that made it back. Didn't get into the river, but I
• 2:48
  didn't actually pan with it. There was some talk early Sunday
• 2:51
  afternoon about what I could do with that pan, but yeah, didn't
• 2:55
  it still fresh? It's the the check caught a few
• 2:58
  people's eyes, just like walking back from the Finnish area and
• 3:02
  stuff on Sunday afternoon. Didn't know people were keen to
• 3:05
  ask if you'd one and stuff. Yeah, no second loser,
• 3:08
  unfortunately or not, didn't get the dub well.
• 3:12
  Still walked away with a check at least that's it.
• 3:14
  Podium finishing a check to the The theme of this episode is
• 3:18
  going to be about finding positives and maybe what what we
• 3:24
  might otherwise struggle to so better.
• 3:26
  Than mine that's. Right.
• 3:29
  So well, we'll, we'll unpack the race properly.
• 3:31
  But one thing I don't get is because I was looking at your
• 3:35
  the official time they gave you before to 1859, isn't it?
• 3:40
  And I noticed that no one has the same gun time and chip time.
• 3:45
  But like a lot of people were obviously stood on the front
• 3:48
  row. So that I don't understand where
• 3:50
  the discrepancies came from. And I heard Brady was talking
• 3:54
  about it as well. Like on his finishing photo,
• 3:57
  he's actually like through the line and you can see the clock
• 4:00
  and like it doesn't kind of align, if that makes sense.
• 4:03
  So he's he's saying he's taken a few steps through the line.
• 4:06
  I mean, we're talking a matter of seconds.
• 4:08
  And for me it doesn't really matter.
• 4:10
  But for others who may have been on the cusp of like breaking a
• 4:14
  minute barrier or not, it might matter.
• 4:17
  But it's the same with mine. Yeah, I noticed it as well.
• 4:20
  Like I, I could see the time flashing above and I thought or
• 4:23
  I'll at least pick it up to get under whatever the minute was.
• 4:28
  And so I picked it up, but I thought I was comfortably under,
• 4:31
  or at least I was per the per that time that sort of flashed
• 4:35
  above our heads as we crossed through it.
• 4:38
  So yeah, I don't know if we were just, I was, I didn't think I
• 4:41
  was that slow over the line. Like I literally was stood right
• 4:43
  on the front of the start line and I think I went when the
• 4:46
  shotgun went. So, but but yeah, we're talking
• 4:50
  a few seconds. Yeah.
• 4:51
  I mean, if you look at everyone in the top 10, the minimum
• 4:55
  discrepancy between the gun and the chip time is 2 seconds.
• 4:58
  So like no one has it from the off.
• 5:01
  But yeah, it's a minor, minor issue.
• 5:05
  So we have coming up this week, we've got the race week and the
• 5:09
  race recap. I'm sure we'll spend plenty of
• 5:12
  time here. We've got London results, we've
• 5:14
  got Diamond League season kicked off in China and there is a
• 5:19
  couple of noticeable results that Addi 0 Road to Records
• 5:22
  event. But I don't know about you,
• 5:25
  Dean, but I just wasn't really indulged in as much as I was
• 5:29
  looking forward to London and everything else that was going
• 5:31
  on. It just kind of passed me by.
• 5:33
  So I don't think we'll have too much to speak about besides the
• 5:36
  actual results themselves. Yeah, I think once you got
• 5:39
  immersed in the sort of Ballarat atmosphere and then once you've
• 5:42
  sort of, I think before that I had these visions of us sort of,
• 5:46
  you know, running the marathon, big PBS, going to the pub,
• 5:50
  having a big screen of the London race and watching it all
• 5:53
  unfold. And this sort of the reality is
• 5:55
  a little bit different. You're wrecked, you're catching
• 5:57
  glimpses of it, and by that stage you're sort of pretty
• 6:01
  runned out. Yeah.
• 6:02
  I mean, we, we managed, I think there's like eight of us in that
• 6:07
  little booth in the in the pub. And we had Harry's phone with
• 6:11
  the stream on, Sat about 5 meters away from anyone because
• 6:15
  we're trying to make sure everyone can see it.
• 6:17
  But that coincidentally means that no one can see it because
• 6:20
  it's a small iPhone. And then I'm just staring at
• 6:23
  this pint of Heineken, getting warmer and warmer, thinking
• 6:26
  about how much you don't even want to drink it.
• 6:29
  Yeah, wasn't quite how we planned that out, but it was
• 6:31
  good fun nevertheless. That's that's.
• 6:34
  Right. That's right.
• 6:35
  We were optimistic. So do you want to take us
• 6:38
  through? How do you want to do it?
• 6:39
  Do you want to do the the week leading up and then through the
• 6:42
  race? Yeah, yeah.
• 6:44
  Do you, do you, Do you want to run our weights in parallel or
• 6:47
  would you want to run them separate?
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  How did you? I reckon we split it and just
• 6:51
  you take full ownership and then I'll go.
• 6:53
  Sounds good. So I just ran an easy double.
• 7:00
  Pardon the fun. That's on Monday.
• 7:03
  Yeah, worked from home, just too easy, sort of 40 minute runs as
• 7:07
  per per normal Tuesday, just an easy 30 minutes in the morning.
• 7:16
  And then was down at the track just for a bit of a shorter
• 7:20
  workout, sort of just we're just sort of spinning the legs,
• 7:24
  nothing too strenuous. So we ended up doing 4 laps at
• 7:29
  threshold jog lap and then it was 200 on 200 float.
• 7:34
  We did that together and I think the, I think the two hundreds
• 7:39
  were around that, maybe 34 sort of seconds.
• 7:43
  So nothing, nothing too spicy. We're sort of continuous and the
• 7:46
  floats, we sort of backed off. Remember you're.
• 7:49
  Feeling. Yeah, See, you're still full of
• 7:53
  like the chest stuff going on here.
• 7:56
  Yeah, sort of back at that back end of whatever I had.
• 8:00
  So, yeah, so I'm still I think coughing quite a bit, but sort
• 8:03
  of optimistic that it sort of close to clearing up.
• 8:05
  Like I certainly felt better than I did the week before,
• 8:09
  which was good. And then Wednesday I just had
• 8:13
  one run. So it's just an hour and yeah,
• 8:17
  sorry, I wasn't working from home.
• 8:19
  I ended up having, it was a public holiday and I ended up
• 8:21
  having the week off. That's why all these no commutes
• 8:23
  this week. So which was nice Thursday was
• 8:28
  because you're so close to the race.
• 8:29
  It's just a easy 20 minute warm up, 10 minute cooldown, and then
• 8:36
  it's a bit of a steady run with a few surges towards the end.
• 8:41
  And I saw that Rafford prescribed something a bit
• 8:43
  quicker than what I'd normally run steady at, which was only 20
• 8:46
  minutes. And by this stage, because I've
• 8:48
  been a bit on, well, I'd sort of back off the last couple like
• 8:53
  last week and a half to try and get well.
• 8:55
  And as a result was getting quite fresh.
• 8:57
  But the problem is the fresher you get, the, you know, you feel
• 9:00
  like your fitness starts to come off a little bit.
• 9:02
  And so I was feeling super fresh.
• 9:03
  So I was happy to run that steady run a bit quicker.
• 9:07
  So yeah, which which felt OK, just did my surges.
• 9:11
  You sort of, it's the Thursday before you're running.
• 9:13
  So you're just trying not to overdo it more than anything
• 9:16
  else. So yeah, ticked it off, did it
• 9:19
  in the morning just so it was out of the way knowing that we
• 9:22
  were flying out the next day and we sort of had packing and the
• 9:25
  kids to sort out. And then Friday, Friday was the
• 9:29
  travel day. So flew out of Perth Friday
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  morning. It's sort of 3 1/2 hours to
• 9:35
  Melbourne, plus the time delay. And then it's, you know, now an
• 9:39
  hour and a half to get into Ballarat.
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  So got into Ballarat, unpacked and got out for just a a lap of
• 9:45
  the lake with Dan and Raff and Hales at about 5:00.
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  Just an easy loop which. Was what was the wind like
• 9:55
  around the lake at that point? I don't think it was too bad.
• 10:00
  It wasn't, yeah, yeah, I was sort of trying to keep a bit of
• 10:03
  a try and get a bit of a sense or Orient myself, but it wasn't,
• 10:08
  I think it sort of was picking up over the weekend.
• 10:11
  So it wasn't, it didn't feel like, it didn't feel
• 10:13
  particularly blustery. I think it was a little bit
• 10:15
  drizzly, but yeah, not not horribly windy or anything, but
• 10:20
  yeah, nice to nice to do a loop. You sort of hear so much about
• 10:23
  Lake Winderree, so it was really nice to experience it.
• 10:26
  And that the like you can there's like bike path and road,
• 10:31
  but inside of that is that nice sort of like it's not like pea
• 10:34
  gravel, but that real like like, you know, sandy gravel sort of
• 10:39
  path. It's just really nice under
• 10:40
  foot. So just feels a bit easier under
• 10:44
  foot them running on bitumen, which was really nice.
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  Be nice to do like nice if around Perth.
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  I think the closest you get is parts of herdsman, like the
• 10:52
  limestone parts of the path. But yeah, that was that was
• 10:54
  nice. And just sort of settled in.
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  Grab some grab some dinner with a few of the front runner crew
• 10:59
  which was good. But did you start carb load on
• 11:03
  Friday or? Yeah, to a degree.
• 11:05
  I normally only do it the day before but I know quite a few
• 11:08
  people do. But I didn't like we had like a
• 11:12
  pasta for dinner and I think I got home and smashed a heap of
• 11:15
  cookies and just started leaning into eating shite really which
• 11:20
  was nice. And then Saturday was a just a
• 11:26
  small shakeout run. I ended up just doing 20 minutes
• 11:29
  I think we had AI slept in again.
• 11:31
  Still not 100%. I think my sinuses were pretty
• 11:34
  blocked. Not it sounds like making a lot
• 11:36
  of excuses, but it's just I just sort of try and get a bit of
• 11:38
  extra sleep, try and get well. And then rolled straight over to
• 11:41
  the briefing that was in the middle of the mid morning.
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  Went to that, came home, watched a bit of footy and then, yeah,
• 11:50
  went out for a oh, got in the booties, then went for a 20
• 11:54
  minute shakeout. Just did a few strides just to
• 11:56
  loosen up ahead of Sunday and just in and around that, just
• 12:00
  eating a heap of food really, which was fun.
• 12:03
  It's always fun just eating whatever you can.
• 12:06
  It's not even like guilt free, is it?
• 12:08
  It's like you're encouraged to do so.
• 12:10
  So you just you just go wild. Well, yeah, maybe I'm I'm in too
• 12:14
  wild. No, I'm a bit, yeah.
• 12:16
  I feel like I'm a bit of a natural at that part of the the
• 12:19
  marathon prep. Like if I could eat like that
• 12:21
  every day and not suffer the consequences, I would.
• 12:23
  But I reckon I would suffer. And I think the only issue and
• 12:28
  we've sort of spoken about this is like when you ingest that
• 12:31
  much like sugar and like during the day, like it's the stuff
• 12:36
  that I tend to eat, it's pretty sugary.
• 12:38
  I do find like I get like a sugar sweat or I just get, I
• 12:42
  feel that disgusting that it's sometimes hard to go to sleep.
• 12:44
  Like I think you sort of, I don't think your body's super
• 12:47
  happy with what you've just put through it, But you meant, or I
• 12:50
  say you're meant to, I don't know, maybe it's meant to be a
• 12:52
  bit cleaner than that, but that's what I do.
• 12:54
  And do you know, I didn't have too much trouble going to sleep?
• 12:57
  Like it helps going forward time.
• 13:00
  Like, oh, sorry, no, it would make it more difficult, wouldn't
• 13:04
  it? Our time to their time.
• 13:05
  But yeah, I didn't have any real trouble going to sleep.
• 13:09
  I think I was just pretty tired and got a decent night's sleep
• 13:13
  and then up it. I think I was just after five
• 13:16
  3540I sort of got up for the race.
• 13:18
  So yeah, happy for me to run through race morning and the
• 13:21
  race itself. I think so.
• 13:24
  What was what was breakfast race morning?
• 13:27
  Toast. It was some toast with banana
• 13:32
  and I don't know if I could find honey.
• 13:35
  I normally have honey, but I can't remember.
• 13:37
  We're at a bed and breakfast, so I can't remember what I put on
• 13:39
  it, but I definitely put something on.
• 13:40
  It might have just been butter, actually.
• 13:42
  Butter on toast and, and, and and a banana.
• 13:47
  Yeah, there was that. I don't know if I snuck in
• 13:49
  another one of the cookies. The at the Bed and breakfast.
• 13:52
  I had a tub of like communal, those Woolworths Anzac cookies,
• 13:57
  which I could just devour and which I did.
• 14:00
  I ate more than my fair share of them.
• 14:02
  Might have had a couple of those on the way around.
• 14:05
  And then yeah, rolled down to. Oh, and then I was just super
• 14:09
  keen to grab a coffee. So tried to get out of the house
• 14:12
  and get down to the start line because there was a in that like
• 14:16
  elite athlete area. They had a barista.
• 14:21
  But yeah, so anyway, grabbed A, grabbed a coffee.
• 14:24
  So yourself went for I just went into the athlete area.
• 14:27
  We were sort of in pretty good time, I think.
• 14:29
  So the the part where you I sort of like feel like you need to
• 14:33
  manufacture some nerves because you want to be nervous enough
• 14:37
  that your bowels empty in time. So that's always the most
• 14:40
  stressful part, I find before the marathon, particularly
• 14:42
  because I think in theory you should wake up at least three
• 14:45
  hours before to give your time, you know, self plenty of time
• 14:48
  for all of that. But I always just love my sleep,
• 14:50
  so I didn't. And then you obviously running
• 14:54
  around or trying to do it can and regretting your what you've
• 14:58
  the decision you've just made. And so, yeah, we went for a
• 15:02
  short warm up. It's just a kilometer or 5
• 15:05
  minutes came back and then, yeah, fortunately was able to go
• 15:08
  to the toilet, which was good. And then, yeah, it was sort of
• 15:13
  just a bit of a stretch. Listen to a few songs that I
• 15:16
  like to listen to before a race, Bit of small talk with a few
• 15:19
  guys around what their expectations are and what their
• 15:23
  plans might be. So had a loose idea of what
• 15:26
  might happen. Yeah.
• 15:27
  So before, before you know it, we're sort of getting called
• 15:30
  downstairs. So they had like inside the
• 15:35
  elite area or the warm up rooms. They sort of had a timeline of
• 15:39
  all the things to expect, which had when we would sort of get
• 15:42
  called out to the start line. It was very well organized.
• 15:45
  Like there was a lady by the name of June that was sort of
• 15:50
  facilitating the the morning for everyone, which I think just
• 15:55
  really helps. Like, I think the simpler you
• 15:58
  can make it and the more obvious everything is, the more at ease
• 16:03
  everyone is and everyone's quite anxious.
• 16:04
  So it sort of took a lot of the guesswork out of when to go
• 16:08
  down. Like even like layers of
• 16:11
  clothes, like a lot of us, you know, you'll wear extra layers
• 16:14
  and you'll discard them on the side of the road right before or
• 16:17
  if you haven't, then you're going to be cold.
• 16:18
  And yeah, it was sort of just really well run.
• 16:21
  And so I think that took a lot of the the nervousness out.
• 16:24
  We all sort of went down as a group and then started to do a
• 16:27
  few strides and then all got called to the start line for for
• 16:31
  an 8:00 kick off. So, yeah, so.
• 16:35
  You know, you know, when you said you, you'd maybe spoken to
• 16:39
  a few people upstairs and had like a bit of an expectation of
• 16:43
  how it was going to go. As I understood that you're the
• 16:48
  main goal was to just race the race essentially.
• 16:51
  But what sort of plan did you have in mind for that?
• 16:54
  Or how did it look like for you, if you could paint a perfect
• 16:57
  picture of how the race will pan out?
• 16:59
  Yeah. So in my mind there was sort of,
• 17:03
  so I think I'd heard that. I hadn't seen the post, but I
• 17:06
  think Alex Harvey had maybe posted that he was going to run
• 17:11
  Target 211 and then sort of, and then Reese Edwards, it was sort
• 17:16
  of a bit of a like late addition was doing it.
• 17:19
  And I've sort of seen his training and sort of knowing
• 17:21
  that he's sort of say run 2:13 to 2:15 a number of times.
• 17:26
  So I sort of anticipated that those guys would go out and
• 17:30
  Reese tends to go out fairly quickly as well.
• 17:33
  So I sort of anticipated that those guys would be ahead.
• 17:36
  And then I thought I would either find myself, because the
• 17:39
  half marathon and marathon started together.
• 17:42
  I'd either optimistically, I'd find myself running with some
• 17:45
  half marathoners and sit behind them.
• 17:47
  Or I'd heard that perhaps Brady and Toby and a few guys were
• 17:53
  looking to target by 6845 to 6915 as a halfway split.
• 17:58
  So I thought that might be as an alternative something.
• 18:01
  So when I ran my PDI went through halfway, I think in
• 18:04
  somewhere around say 69 minutes flat, maybe just under.
• 18:09
  And so I was optimistic that maybe I could go a bit quicker
• 18:13
  than that if I felt good otherwise.
• 18:16
  But that group might be another an option.
• 18:20
  Noting that you sort of, I'm pretty keen to the most
• 18:22
  enjoyable experiences I've had with the marathon.
• 18:24
  And when the back part of the marathon is when I'm running on
• 18:27
  and running well and fully engaged and engaged in a race
• 18:31
  and, you know, leaning into the race and feeling like I've got
• 18:34
  like a another gear to go to. So it's conscious of, of all
• 18:38
  that. And so, yeah, so that was sort
• 18:40
  of my mindset of how things might start.
• 18:44
  Gun goes off and I didn't realize, but that first
• 18:47
  kilometer, kilometer and a half is sort of uphill.
• 18:50
  And I was like, oh gosh, this is this is different.
• 18:54
  Like this is I'm feel like I'm working harder than what I
• 18:57
  necessarily would have liked to, particularly at the start of a
• 18:59
  marathon. Like this feels pretty tough,
• 19:02
  but I'm like, that's OK. Just it's a long way to go.
• 19:04
  Just try and settle in and find some people, you know, just
• 19:07
  because the last marathon I did, I I really sent it in that first
• 19:11
  KK and 1/2 or wanted to get out assertively to find the right
• 19:14
  group. This is in Japan, but I think I
• 19:16
  maybe went a bit too the other way.
• 19:18
  So I was trying to strike a balance of getting out and being
• 19:21
  smooth and relaxed, but finding the right people to run with and
• 19:25
  just sort of the way it played out.
• 19:28
  A group that I fell into was sort of the where where Brady
• 19:31
  and Toby and those guys were. And I thought, look, maybe that
• 19:35
  sort of 69 minute halfway group might be the the right group.
• 19:38
  And for the first time in a marathon, or maybe did it in
• 19:42
  Sydney, just because Sydney had so many variables where it's
• 19:45
  sort of hard to determine race effort objectively.
• 19:49
  I wore my heart rate monitor. And so I was trying.
• 19:52
  So I was, I was pretty conscious of not going above a heart rate
• 19:57
  of 175 because like say my threshold heart rates say 184 or
• 20:02
  95% of that's like one is 175. And I just thought if I'm
• 20:06
  getting close to sort of my threshold effort in the first
• 20:08
  half an hour, I'm really running a risk of it getting ugly late.
• 20:11
  So I was like just so I so I keyed off that quite a bit and I
• 20:16
  sort of knew I'd not been. Completely well, and I did that
• 20:20
  10K sort of work a week out and it wasn't anything super special
• 20:24
  around like munga. So I sort of thought 315 watch
• 20:27
  pace, which is more like 317 pace race pace is maybe sort of
• 20:32
  where I'm at, you know, not super optimistic like if if
• 20:36
  that's just where I'm at, it's where I'm at.
• 20:38
  So when I started, got over that hill, settled into that bigger
• 20:43
  group and my heart rate sort of settled into a round of what was
• 20:46
  I think was where I wanted it to be like I was.
• 20:50
  I was sort of hoping that I'd settle into like low one 70s or
• 20:53
  high one 60s and I'd be like, this is too easy.
• 20:56
  And if it felt too easy, I just would have taken off because
• 20:59
  particularly in the early parts of the race, it wasn't.
• 21:02
  So it didn't feel super windy, like there was some cross wind,
• 21:05
  but it wasn't a headwind either out or back.
• 21:07
  So the way the course went is you more or less went out and
• 21:10
  back a long stretch of road and the wind, the prevailing wind
• 21:14
  was like a cross wind, either slightly favourable or slightly
• 21:17
  unfavourable. And then it wasn't until you
• 21:19
  went around later in the loop, there's two loops, but it wasn't
• 21:22
  until, say, 15 to 20 K you went around this lake, lake Windry.
• 21:26
  And there was parts of that where it was particularly windy.
• 21:29
  So yeah, so I sort of settled in, checked my heart rate,
• 21:32
  checked where I was at, and I'm like, ah, damn it.
• 21:34
  Like I think this is sort of the right effort for me is running
• 21:37
  with this group. And so I'm like, all right, so
• 21:39
  that's might be 69 minutes through halfway.
• 21:42
  But then it ended up being the pacemaker for the sub 220 group
• 21:46
  was in that group and sort of came to the front and I was
• 21:48
  like, well, either they're going comfortably ahead of 220 pace or
• 21:53
  this is going to sort of settle down to 220 pace.
• 21:55
  And so we went through 5 KS and that was, I think I split like
• 22:01
  1628, which like 220 pace is 1635.
• 22:06
  So we're sort of seven seconds ahead of that.
• 22:07
  But like 7 * 4, you're sort of like it's about 6930 pace.
• 22:13
  And I'm like, if I go through halfway and 6930, that's going
• 22:15
  to make it pretty tough to run a PB.
• 22:17
  But then at the same time, you're like, you're also not
• 22:19
  just here to run a focus entirely on just shooting.
• 22:22
  Like if I was just shooting for a PB like I would in a Japanese
• 22:26
  race, I'd probably just be more careless.
• 22:29
  But I was like, you're sort of also here to race as well.
• 22:31
  So I was happy just to sit in. And so I sat in, we went through
• 22:36
  10K and I don't know if I, I don't know if I, I don't think I
• 22:40
  took my next 5 kilometer split, but it just felt like it was
• 22:43
  getting a bit too easy in the pace.
• 22:45
  Not that my heart rate was super low, but it was dipping and it
• 22:48
  was a bit surgery like you'd occasionally feel like a very
• 22:51
  comfortable kilometer and my heart rate would start dropping
• 22:54
  and it'd feel too easy. And then and we'd feel this
• 22:55
  quicker came a heart rate at spike And I'm like, God, I can't
• 22:58
  go quicker than this. And there's a bit of a strange
• 23:00
  feeling. And I sort of knew that the
• 23:03
  person initiating a lot of the pace was just trying to run 220.
• 23:07
  And that was sort of not in keeping with what I thought
• 23:09
  where my fitness was at and what I wanted to sort of get out of
• 23:13
  it. So sort of getting a bit grumpy.
• 23:15
  I was like, I'm not as not going as well as what I wanted to go,
• 23:18
  but I want to make a race of it. But I haven't got much in terms
• 23:23
  of gears. What do I do?
• 23:24
  And then we got through 15 K's and I was sort of told, I think
• 23:30
  Bradford had a coffee with Modern the day before and he
• 23:32
  sort of said that maybe through 15 to 20 K, it'd be quite windy
• 23:35
  around the lake. And we ran 5th through say 15 to
• 23:38
  17 KS and it wasn't that windy. And I'm like, oh, this doesn't
• 23:41
  feel that bad. Like I've had enough.
• 23:43
  So I took off and maybe ran for about 500 meters, maybe a
• 23:47
  kilometer. And then you really hit that
• 23:49
  headwind and I was like, oh, what have I done?
• 23:53
  And like, I've done this. I did a similar thing at Gold
• 23:56
  Coast. I was like, I'll run with the
• 23:57
  group to like this, turn around that was into a headwind.
• 24:00
  And as soon as they hit this tailwind, I'll take off.
• 24:01
  And I did that at Gold Coast. And then within about a
• 24:04
  kilometre, the same group caught me and I hopped back in sort of
• 24:07
  tail between my legs and ran with them.
• 24:08
  And I'm like, fuck, this is gonna happen again.
• 24:10
  So I was like, so yeah, so I got around.
• 24:15
  So I got to just after 1517 K and it's getting windy and I was
• 24:20
  starting to regret my decision of sort of breaking away.
• 24:23
  But fortunately, yeah, as I broke away, Fraser Darcy joined
• 24:28
  me. And then as I sort of sort of
• 24:32
  sort of fell off my effort, he sort of continued it, which was
• 24:35
  good. So ran alongside him for a short
• 24:37
  bit and then hopped in behind him.
• 24:39
  And then we sort of worked our way through that sort of
• 24:42
  headwind and then you sort of loop back through the town
• 24:45
  centre. And then as you sort of do your
• 24:47
  first finish your first loop, you then head back up to the,
• 24:50
  you do the uphill section again. And at that point, Fraser ended
• 24:54
  up getting a bit of a, a gap. And I think perhaps we were
• 24:58
  maybe say 10 to 15 seconds ahead of the loosely, loosely referred
• 25:03
  to AS220 group. And so, and I heard Riley.
• 25:09
  So phrases from SA and I heard Riley Cox are not sure if he's
• 25:15
  if he coaches phrase, but they're certainly part of the
• 25:17
  same training group sort of say steady on Fraser like still a
• 25:21
  long way to go. And I sort of like, that's
• 25:22
  right, Fraser, slow down like please.
• 25:25
  So but he sort of he sort of looked and turned and he's still
• 25:28
  looking pretty comfortable. He was sweating a lot.
• 25:31
  And I was like, man, if you're you're operating at a decent
• 25:33
  intensity here because you're aspiring a hate.
• 25:36
  But you could hear in his breathing aerobically he sounded
• 25:38
  pretty good. So I was like, oh, I think he's
• 25:41
  OK. But if I work really hard up
• 25:44
  this hill to the point where I'm running sort of my threshold
• 25:47
  effort, like I'm not, I've not felt great all day.
• 25:49
  This is potentially a risk. So I just sort of let him go and
• 25:52
  then got over the hill, kept running.
• 25:54
  And at that point, I'm having some pretty negative thoughts,
• 25:57
  but, you know, wanting to stop or just this is all just not a
• 26:01
  lot of fun. Rah, rah, rah.
• 26:02
  And then Matthew Schaumburg from from Melbourne, I think, I don't
• 26:10
  know Matt super well, but he sort of came up alongside me and
• 26:13
  he's like, hop on. And I was like, oh, that's
• 26:16
  awesome. That's really kind of you.
• 26:17
  So I jumped on the back of him and I sort of like just sit in
• 26:20
  and see how long that lasts for. And he ended up running he he
• 26:25
  ran really, really strong. We sort of knocked off some some
• 26:29
  really solid splits from about to say that 23 K marker.
• 26:36
  We were just yeah, we, we, I think we were just really
• 26:38
  consistent, which was really nice.
• 26:40
  And so we. He's not that he saved your
• 26:45
  race, but you think the outcome could have been different had he
• 26:48
  not have gone past and let you kind of draft on him for a bit
• 26:51
  or? Yeah, I think I probably would
• 26:53
  have just settled into the next pack.
• 26:55
  I think I was struggling to sort of find that right level of
• 26:57
  effort and it just felt too far out to sort of fully commit.
• 27:01
  Like I couldn't lean into it yet.
• 27:03
  I sort of had too much racing. Like I'm, if it was 32 KS, I'd
• 27:06
  probably, you know, but I'll try and lift.
• 27:09
  But like, it was just too far out that I was like, oh, I
• 27:12
  can't, can't sort of go here. But if I can just switch off and
• 27:16
  see how far down I can get with him without sort of completely
• 27:19
  rinsing myself, then let's go. And so yeah, sort of held on,
• 27:24
  held on to him until about 30 KS.
• 27:28
  And then I think at that point he started to to find it a bit
• 27:32
  tricky. You sort of go through that, you
• 27:34
  know, that large arch before you then sort of heading back
• 27:36
  towards the towards Lake Winderig And, and as well sort
• 27:41
  of we came through an aid station, collected a bottle.
• 27:43
  And just before then I could feel him sort of fall off a bit.
• 27:46
  And so I was like 00. And by this stage we'd overtaken
• 27:50
  Alex Harvey, who'd gone out very hard.
• 27:53
  Reese was pretty well clear a couple of times the course
• 27:55
  double S back on itself. So Reese looked quite clear and
• 27:58
  looked pretty comfortable, looked like, and, and then so
• 28:02
  then Fraser was now second and then Matt and I were sort of 3rd
• 28:05
  and 4th. And so I was like keen to try
• 28:08
  and be on the podium really. It was sort of a bit of a
• 28:11
  thought, like you're sort of in a race.
• 28:13
  And so I sort of stopped thinking about time.
• 28:15
  I sort of disconnected from time and I was really just focusing
• 28:17
  on racing and finishing as well as I could.
• 28:20
  And so when I felt Matt sort of fall off a bit, I was like, oh,
• 28:23
  you know, how are you feeling? And I was like, not too bad.
• 28:24
  So I sort of, you know, decided to press on myself at that point
• 28:28
  and was running. OK, OK, yeah, but, and I thought
• 28:33
  was still running on decently, but at some point and it all
• 28:37
  gets a bit foggy, you know, like the back end of a marathon, it's
• 28:40
  sort of a bit blurry. But I felt like I think Fraser
• 28:44
  was still putting in in a bit of time.
• 28:46
  Like I could see the gap opening rather than completely closing
• 28:48
  it, albeit that it wasn't moving a lot like when Matt and I were
• 28:53
  running. Well, we were definitely closing
• 28:55
  in on him. And then it started to stretch
• 28:56
  out a bit. And so we get around Lake
• 28:58
  Winderay. I think I've grabbed a bit of a
• 29:00
  drink bottle, which was on the left hand side of the road.
• 29:03
  I remember having to run wide for that 35K drink.
• 29:06
  But also, I need to sip on something.
• 29:09
  And then you hit the like, harder section of Lake Winderi
• 29:13
  and I could hear footsteps. And I was like, shit, like I, by
• 29:16
  this stage, I thought maybe I was going to come third.
• 29:18
  I was like, and I was like, can I catch 2nd?
• 29:20
  And I was, oh, I tried to throw a few efforts at trying to catch
• 29:24
  up to Fraser. It's like had a couple of, you
• 29:27
  know, when you have, you feel good, then you feel like crap,
• 29:29
  you feel good. And every time I felt good, I
• 29:31
  threw in a bit of an effort, picked up my cadence a bit and
• 29:34
  lent into it and felt like I was getting rolling.
• 29:36
  I'd catch him a bit, then I'd feel like, oh, God, am I going
• 29:39
  to finish sort of a bit of a roller coaster like that.
• 29:42
  Still thought I was running all right.
• 29:43
  And then I heard footsteps and I was like, oh, what's going on
• 29:45
  here? I didn't realize, but Brady and
• 29:50
  Steve McKenna, who was the 220 pacer, they were catching me and
• 29:55
  I didn't realize. But it wasn't until I heard
• 29:57
  these footsteps and like, that's somewhat I'm racing and I turned
• 30:00
  around and I sort of got quite the shock because it was the
• 30:02
  pacemaker and I'm like, what's going on here?
• 30:04
  Like I don't reckon, like I'm like, I reckon I'm running
• 30:07
  quicker than the first lap. Like how is this?
• 30:10
  What is going on? And then I was like in my head,
• 30:12
  I'm like, I don't want to, I don't want to lose to the
• 30:15
  pacemaker. Like that's not how it's sort of
• 30:17
  meant to go. So I was oh shit, what do I do?
• 30:19
  So I jumped on to the back of him, but he wasn't really
• 30:24
  slowing down. Like it was still, it was like
• 30:26
  he was surging, like he had a, you know, had a date with
• 30:30
  someone. So you're sort of still going
• 30:31
  past. I sort of held on the back and.
• 30:34
  He was essentially like running through you rather than trying
• 30:39
  to get you on the back of him. Or yeah, yeah, he didn't.
• 30:42
  He didn't slow down, didn't say anything.
• 30:44
  And it was at 38 KS. We sort of had four KS to go.
• 30:47
  So maybe he was trying to see if he could catch Fraser, who was
• 30:50
  sort of a bit up the road, but not completely, you know, not
• 30:54
  beyond us, not like say, Reese was.
• 30:55
  Reese was completely gone. So he was sort of.
• 30:58
  Running, looking at and thinking where you go and mates.
• 31:01
  Well, yeah, like particularly because he's not far behind us.
• 31:05
  I didn't, I didn't realize because I didn't dare look back,
• 31:08
  but he's sort of not far behind us.
• 31:09
  So the race is sort of all sort of like we'd sort of clustered
• 31:13
  up a little bit, which was cool, which would have been fun for
• 31:15
  them in terms of chasing us down as sort of a good dynamic.
• 31:19
  And we're sort of running into that wind 38 to 40 KS.
• 31:22
  And so I'm just like, that's it just sit in which I was grateful
• 31:24
  for like running into that headwind in that last couple of
• 31:27
  KS to have some feet. But I was sort of pretty fired
• 31:30
  up by this stage, which was good, sort of given me a new
• 31:32
  reason to sort of keep pushing. So I've held on to, held on to
• 31:37
  Steve and then we've sort of rounded about 40 KS and then I'm
• 31:41
  just trying to work out when to sort of press on.
• 31:45
  And then just the way it played out, sort of turned and said,
• 31:49
  look, if you're, I'm just going to sort of run through.
• 31:52
  So sort of don't worry. Like, you know, sort of, I got
• 31:56
  you. And I was sort of like, oh,
• 31:58
  like, I don't know, I sort of want to beat you, you know, sort
• 32:01
  of thing. So, so I think I, I might have
• 32:04
  said like, why don't you sort of see if you can pick up the pace
• 32:07
  a little bit? And then by that stage my heart
• 32:10
  rate was through the roof, but I was trying to pretend like I was
• 32:13
  really comfortable. So I was just sort of just
• 32:15
  trying to bluff him and then we got to the top with about a K
• 32:20
  and a half to go. You sort of hit the hill and
• 32:22
  then for the next kilometer, maybe 1.2 K.
• 32:25
  So it's sort of all downhill. So I sort of just took off down
• 32:28
  that hill. I think split what was
• 32:31
  definitely my quickest K at that next K.
• 32:33
  And then I had a look back when it sort of does this little
• 32:35
  U-turn and I couldn't see him. So I was like, oh, this is
• 32:39
  that's OK. And then Fraser was 20 seconds
• 32:41
  ahead or 30 seconds ahead. So I sort of sort of, I couldn't
• 32:45
  catch him. So I just sort of enjoyed that
• 32:47
  last little bit. And then as you're running up
• 32:49
  the little hill to finish, you sort of there's 218 high and I
• 32:51
  thought just do enough to sort of sneak under 219.
• 32:54
  And that was that. That was the race.
• 32:56
  Well, sounds like you you had fun and there was enough things
• 32:59
  going on out there to keep you engaged throughout different
• 33:02
  little battles and stuff. What was your first thoughts as
• 33:05
  you crossed the line? Look, I was happy.
• 33:08
  I think I was just happy with, I was happy with the the race
• 33:12
  itself. So putting aside the time, like
• 33:14
  you always get so excited for the opportunity to race a
• 33:17
  marathon and optimistic about what time you can run.
• 33:21
  So putting aside the fact that I was sort of emitted off my PB,
• 33:25
  the fact that I raced and felt like I raced hard and thoroughly
• 33:31
  enjoyed the competitive side of the race.
• 33:33
  Yeah, I was happy. I came across the line pretty
• 33:35
  happy. You sort of would have had, you
• 33:38
  know, if I was finished second run a PB that might, you know,
• 33:42
  would have probably been happier again.
• 33:43
  But you're sort of getting a bit greedy.
• 33:45
  I sort of just really enjoyed racing and yeah, I felt I was
• 33:49
  yeah, just happy and excited when I crossed the line.
• 33:53
  Exhausted as you tend to be a little bit emotional but not not
• 33:59
  like I have been before. What was the point where you
• 34:02
  were putting the breathing on or something?
• 34:05
  I remember we were running into the wind around Lake Winderay.
• 34:09
  I'd heard this. I don't know, see what the see
• 34:12
  what our viewers might think of this.
• 34:13
  But there's a guy used to race triathlete and you sort of hear
• 34:18
  of all these like tactics over time and you sort of like store
• 34:22
  them. Like there's a few that I'm
• 34:23
  like, I'll never do that. But but but Macca used to.
• 34:27
  He reckons he was in this half marathon.
• 34:30
  One time they were running into a headwind and he sort of
• 34:32
  started handing up his breathing just and so that the guys in
• 34:35
  front would sort of do a big turn into the wind.
• 34:37
  So I was sort of struggling a bit with Fraser and I thought if
• 34:39
  I had my breathing up you might be willing to do a lot of the
• 34:41
  work into the wind. But look might have worked for
• 34:44
  AK or two. But that breathing sort of stuck
• 34:46
  and he ran away from me, so I don't feel so bad.
• 34:50
  You've got to try it. You do whatever you can.
• 34:52
  I I probably needed to run closer tangents on some of that
• 34:56
  course. I think I left a few meters.
• 34:57
  I ran a few extra meters, that's for sure.
• 35:00
  But it's hard. So then in terms of how, how
• 35:03
  many marathons have you done now?
• 35:05
  What was that, 9th or? Yeah, it'd be about that,
• 35:09
  probably about ninth if I was. I can't, I can't think off the
• 35:12
  top. But yeah, somewhere between say
• 35:13
  7 and 10 and. Where?
• 35:15
  Where would it sit in amongst them in terms of like enjoyment
• 35:19
  factor or? Yeah, it has to be right up
• 35:21
  there. Like, I mean, I've had a lot of
• 35:24
  really positive experiences with the marathon.
• 35:26
  Like I think the first five I did, I ran a PB and a negative
• 35:30
  split for each one. So I sort of only got faster as
• 35:35
  my introduction into the marathon, but then that was up
• 35:38
  until that was a continuous streak up until my last PB in
• 35:41
  2023. And then since then I've not run
• 35:43
  a PB. And a lot of them have, yeah,
• 35:46
  like I think I positive split by like 3 seconds or something.
• 35:50
  But I still sort of, it still sort of sits right up there like
• 35:53
  just competition racing people. Yeah.
• 35:57
  Just the buzz of the marathon, like, I mean, they're all, I
• 36:00
  don't know, I've sort of been very lucky.
• 36:01
  I've had, I've only really had fairly positive experiences when
• 36:05
  I run marathons. And this was another one.
• 36:08
  Like it was positive for different reasons.
• 36:10
  Like I, you know, as if I'm sort of wasn't super competitive.
• 36:14
  Like I've done like fun running for a long time.
• 36:16
  And for a lot of it, you're sort of just time trialing behind the
• 36:19
  race. You know, this time, for the
• 36:21
  most part, I know there were people ahead of me, but for a
• 36:24
  lot of it, I was still sort of competitive as far as a race
• 36:27
  goes. And to be able to do that was
• 36:29
  like is is still quite the thrill.
• 36:31
  Like it was just so much fun. And so that was sort of a
• 36:34
  motivation of picking it. And I got that out of it.
• 36:36
  So yeah, I just had AI had a really good, good time.
• 36:39
  This is how I've been one of the ways I've been looking at it as
• 36:43
  well. Like although you haven't
• 36:45
  perhaps run the time you would have liked to run, there's still
• 36:48
  people who were ahead of you in the race at times and have ended
• 36:52
  up not finishing or have blown up to finish behind you.
• 36:56
  So like there's always people who've had a lot worse days.
• 36:59
  Aren't no kind of contextualizes when you think you've had maybe
• 37:03
  not the best day or not what you wanted, but it could have been
• 37:06
  worse as well. Yeah, I think it's so hard.
• 37:08
  Like the marathon, there's so many variables and it's sort of
• 37:14
  the marathon still feels like there's a bit more.
• 37:16
  There's a high degree of the mix of art and science.
• 37:20
  You know, there's sort of, there's still a lot of unknowns.
• 37:22
  And when you're talking 2 minutes in a marathon, it sounds
• 37:25
  like a lot of time, but it's sort of three seconds a
• 37:27
  kilometer and three seconds a kilometer is not a lot.
• 37:30
  And you're talking a few heart rate beats that you're going
• 37:32
  higher or lower. How you talk your, your
• 37:35
  nutrition, how you feel on the morning.
• 37:37
  Like there's so many different elements like we're, you know,
• 37:43
  to so, so to get it right, it's not easy and to get, you know,
• 37:47
  so if you, if you have a decent day, it's probably actually
• 37:50
  quite a good day because it's not yeah, you can very easily
• 37:53
  have a very bad one. So.
• 37:56
  When you're involved in the race like you were there as well,
• 37:59
  there's so much more mental capacity being spent on thinking
• 38:03
  about like positioning and how you're feeling versus how
• 38:07
  someone else is looking. Rather than say like if you're
• 38:10
  in a Valencia type Raceway just in a pack 20 deep and all you're
• 38:14
  doing is checking off your splits every 5K and just
• 38:18
  switching off it's. So true.
• 38:19
  You're literally like counting people.
• 38:22
  Yeah. Like when when I was in that
• 38:23
  group, I was looking around like, like Brady was in that
• 38:27
  group and he was having like, like full sentence, like Q&A
• 38:31
  with people. And I was like, man, he must be
• 38:33
  feeling so good. And then like Toby Mende was in
• 38:37
  there and he's like in the new. Is it the new Puma shoes?
• 38:41
  And I'm like, oh, they're that I'm like, that's the new, you
• 38:43
  know, most innovative shoe. Like he's, you know, that's it.
• 38:47
  He's, he's going to absolutely like tear it up.
• 38:50
  Like, yeah, you're having all these different thoughts in your
• 38:52
  head. Rather than just saying, hey,
• 38:54
  just stay relaxed, get in your nutrition, chill out.
• 38:56
  You sort of, yeah. You spend, you can preoccupy
• 38:59
  yourself quite a bit with what everyone else is doing or how
• 39:03
  you think everyone else is feeling rather than just yeah.
• 39:07
  But then at the same time, I think the first part of the
• 39:09
  marathon, you don't want to get too carried away with that, but
• 39:12
  you also don't want to just be completely inside yourself and
• 39:15
  just being really fired up. Like you can sort of burn all
• 39:17
  your matches just getting so wanting to sort of send it and
• 39:23
  you're not allowed to yet. You're sort of having to hold
• 39:26
  some tickets back. Another question, how was the
• 39:30
  fueling throughout the race as you would have hoped it?
• 39:33
  Was really good. I was sort of truthfully, I was
• 39:35
  a bit like, what are they doing? Like so the for most marathons
• 39:39
  they will do if they offer drink support, it's every 5K's and you
• 39:42
  sort of have a timing mat and it's an owner around of like 5K
• 39:46
  timing mat. And it's a nice interval to
• 39:47
  ingest some, you know, gel or a drink, Whereas this feels like
• 39:51
  13 drinks tables. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm
• 39:53
  going to burn through that much, you know, Bix material.
• 39:57
  I'm like going to have to put out 13 drink bottles and have to
• 40:00
  get. And so I'm not going to spend
• 40:02
  half my morning just putting together all these drink
• 40:04
  bottles. I was sort of like, I don't know
• 40:05
  why I was so cranky about it. But anyway, I was like and then.
• 40:08
  You're going to spend your time or or your wife.
• 40:15
  Well, I had to. I Well, yeah, look, I half mixed
• 40:19
  them up. House didn't.
• 40:20
  House helped me a lot and all right, and Ryan knows because I
• 40:24
  didn't go to drop them off, I might have been laying down
• 40:28
  watching a bit of footy. I needed to absorb as much
• 40:30
  energy as I could for race day. So I highly, very, very much
• 40:35
  appreciate the fact that she dealt with a lot of my rubbish.
• 40:38
  But also, yes, took my drinks, drinks over to the drinks room,
• 40:43
  wrapped most of them up, actually stuck the gels on as
• 40:45
  well for me. So, yeah, so I did, did a fair
• 40:48
  bit as she tends to do for me always.
• 40:51
  But yeah, I was, I then sort of was trying to get my head around
• 40:56
  how often I'd have something and I, so I just decided that if I
• 41:02
  took in 40 grams on average every 20 minutes, that's 120
• 41:05
  grams an hour. And that's quite a bit.
• 41:08
  But I sort of, my stomach can generally tolerate quite a bit
• 41:12
  and I took down the 1st 2 bottles within the 1st 10 KS and
• 41:16
  they went down really easily. So I was like, oh, this is
• 41:19
  pretty good. But then I started stitching
• 41:20
  maybe around 13 KS and I was like, ah, crap.
• 41:22
  Like I can sort of feel when my stomach gets really full, I
• 41:26
  start to cramp a bit, like it gets some abdominal cramps.
• 41:29
  So that's when I tend to know that I'm going to back it off a
• 41:32
  little bit. So I switched to a gel.
• 41:36
  So I had a couple of the the gels until they settled back
• 41:39
  down. And then after that, because
• 41:41
  because you had an aid station like every three or so
• 41:44
  kilometers, it was actually super handy.
• 41:47
  Like I'd, I'd have maybe half my Morton drink, toss it aside, get
• 41:50
  the next one. And so I, I ended up ingesting
• 41:54
  smaller amounts more frequently and I found that super
• 41:57
  beneficial. So I have got to the end of the
• 41:59
  marathon before where I'm sort of not getting the staggers.
• 42:02
  But yeah, but maybe a little bit like losing my, I'm losing my
• 42:06
  way, particularly in say the last 7 or so minutes.
• 42:09
  Whereas I felt fine, I was sort of running on at the back end,
• 42:11
  which was a really good sign. So I think the nutrition was was
• 42:15
  good. And you like so all the way felt
• 42:18
  OK. No, not really like or like I
• 42:22
  didn't get severe cramps, but they just didn't feel, they felt
• 42:25
  pretty heavy, like pretty heavy pretty early, not like lactate
• 42:30
  heavy. But just so you know, when you
• 42:31
  go to try and drive and you just sort of you can just feel that
• 42:34
  I've lost quite a bit of pop. I think I need to, I didn't do
• 42:38
  any gym in the last 8 weeks and I sort of regret that a little
• 42:41
  bit. Might that might be something to
• 42:43
  work on for the next one. But yeah, they sort of felt a
• 42:46
  little bit heavy. But again, nothing that sort of
• 42:48
  was completely hindering my, my running.
• 42:51
  It just felt like I just didn't have, I just wasn't fit enough
• 42:54
  to go any faster basically. I think I ran what I could run
• 42:58
  on the day and that was that. So, key takeaways, happy with
• 43:01
  the result overall on the podium and where's that leave you now
• 43:05
  motivated to chase a fast race or?
• 43:08
  Yeah, I'm not sure. I, I don't know.
• 43:11
  Yeah, I think, I think so. Maybe I'm sort of.
• 43:15
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 43:17
  To be completely truthful, I'm not entirely sure what Yeah,
• 43:21
  100% what I'll do. I think I'll just let the dust
• 43:26
  settle on this jog, get back into training, start to find
• 43:30
  some fitness again and then sort of as I feel fitter again, start
• 43:34
  reconnecting with race goals. The options are there's so many
• 43:38
  awesome races like later in the year.
• 43:39
  So like Sydney Marathon in the end of August.
• 43:43
  We've, we've obviously got our home like Perth Marathon,
• 43:46
  October, Melbourne Marathon is around that time and then
• 43:49
  potentially Valencia and in December if I want to chase the
• 43:53
  time or Oka WOKA or something like that.
• 43:56
  But I don't know. Yeah, I'm to be honest, I'm
• 43:58
  really not sure other than I'm still motivated to train and I'm
• 44:03
  sort of so close to some of those 10K and half marathon like
• 44:07
  minute intervals that I would really love to try and have a
• 44:10
  crack at them too. Not that I don't think you can't
• 44:14
  target those while you're doing marathon training as well.
• 44:16
  So I think part of me thinks that I might just keep my long
• 44:19
  runs longer and try and increase my volume and try and get a bit
• 44:24
  aerobically fitter, but still keep my sort of regular Tuesday,
• 44:28
  Thursday, Saturday training and a Wednesday long run.
• 44:30
  And just get back on the get back on the horse and see where
• 44:33
  my fitness gets to in the next 6 or so weeks and go from there.
• 44:37
  Yeah, sounds fair. So you're happy to be unsure for
• 44:40
  the minute and just disconnect from it a little bit and get
• 44:42
  back into the routine before making the next commitment?
• 44:46
  Yeah, I just feel like there's so many.
• 44:48
  Great races that I'll I'll find something I just want to yeah.
• 44:52
  I think I'll just find some fitness 1st and just chill out
• 44:55
  for now rather than completely. Yeah wet myself to A to
• 44:59
  anything. It is a bit like that, isn't it?
• 45:02
  Like you almost feel spoiled for choice.
• 45:03
  It's a It's a hard choice to make.
• 45:05
  Yeah, yeah. Now there's so many good races
• 45:07
  and there's an opportunity cost to everyone you choose because
• 45:11
  there's a heap. There's more that you can't do
• 45:13
  by choosing 1 and I sort of, yeah, part of me, if I had my
• 45:17
  time, again, I don't know, do it.
• 45:18
  Should I have done those couple of races in the lead up to this
• 45:21
  or should I have just been completely cherry ripe and have
• 45:23
  been a bit more conservative? I mean, a whole house has has
• 45:26
  been unwell for the past few weeks, so potentially it's just
• 45:29
  unavoidable. It's that time of year when
• 45:31
  you've got young kids and you get illness and stuff.
• 45:33
  But yeah, you sort of can't be greedy either because it sort of
• 45:36
  carries risk. Last question.
• 45:38
  And your body feels pretty good on the back of it.
• 45:42
  Yeah, everything's fine, just like dead quads, but I mean for
• 45:45
  a jog with Hal's yesterday and yeah, my quads are pretty
• 45:49
  wrecked, but that should be fine and by the end of the week I
• 45:52
  would imagine. And yeah, I'll get out for
• 45:54
  another run today, I think. I did see that at first I was
• 45:57
  thinking, what on earth is he doing?
• 45:59
  Like how? How is he even managing that?
• 46:01
  And then I clicked into it and with the first K it was like 650
• 46:05
  or something. Yeah, it wasn't pretty.
• 46:11
  It got better. Anything else you feel like I've
• 46:15
  missed that you want to touch on about the race?
• 46:18
  No, I mean, I just think it was a really well run event.
• 46:24
  I thought I'd mention like a couple of performances of like
• 46:28
  just a couple of notable performances, just that it's
• 46:30
  sort of motivating and I, I don't know, general comment that
• 46:33
  the the race and the event itself, like you can see how
• 46:36
  much effort that they put into hosting it.
• 46:38
  And I just think, you know, we run a lot of fun runs around
• 46:42
  Perth, but you can see why it's worth the travel to an event
• 46:46
  like that where they sort of, you know, they've, they've
• 46:49
  really gone over and above to make the athlete experience a
• 46:51
  really +1. And I don't, you know, and I,
• 46:55
  and I couldn't think of a, of a, of a local race that sort of
• 46:58
  could rival that, to be honest, other than maybe how they did
• 47:01
  for nationals. But I think nationals is
• 47:03
  slightly different. So I just think, yeah, in terms
• 47:06
  of making it a fun experience for us and and trying and doing
• 47:10
  their best to put on a fast race all like all, all on road.
• 47:15
  You know, they've improved the course.
• 47:18
  The like the weather, it was a bit windy, but they they can't
• 47:21
  account for that. But what they could control,
• 47:23
  they did. And there were even the fuelling
• 47:27
  zones and all that sort of stuff, like they were taking on
• 47:29
  feedback on the fly in terms of how to make that better.
• 47:31
  And so it just, it just both well, for it just being a good
• 47:34
  event and them just trying to make it, I think it's only going
• 47:37
  to get better and better. And the the the add in of all
• 47:40
  the other events like like the depth of like the Australian Rd.
• 47:43
  Mile and the 5K sort of before our like the afternoon before
• 47:47
  our races, like what a great festival of running.
• 47:49
  And it really did have such a vibe to it.
• 47:51
  And it was just a great reason to travel to like regional
• 47:53
  Victoria. So yeah, yeah, I just thought it
• 47:55
  was a really cool event, really loved it.
• 47:57
  And then I just thought I'd mention like, like one of the
• 48:01
  listeners and lady that we trained with.
• 48:02
  Suzanne, did you talk to Suzanne McMahon?
• 48:06
  Yes. I don't know if you've got to
• 48:08
  chat to her on Sunday, but, And I don't think she'd mind me
• 48:10
  saying, but she's 56 and she ran like a lifetime PB yesterday.
• 48:16
  And it's not like she's just new to running.
• 48:18
  She's been running for a long time, and so pardon I.
• 48:22
  Think she might be 50? 40 sorry, yes, that's it because
• 48:26
  she's due to turn because she's in a different age group.
• 48:29
  Sorry, Suzanne. I've, I've, I've, I've yeah, I
• 48:33
  knew I should have written this down, but but but the fact
• 48:38
  remains is that she's she's running into her 50s and she's
• 48:41
  still able to find a way to improve herself when like it's,
• 48:46
  you know, I, I feel myself now sort of approaching 40 that it's
• 48:51
  harder to recover compared to particularly if I was running,
• 48:53
  say in my 20s. And so the fact that she's sort
• 48:56
  of still improving. And again, it was like a matter
• 48:59
  of seconds that she ran her PB by, but she nonetheless, it was
• 49:02
  the PB over the half marathon. And I just think, you know, I
• 49:06
  just, I just think that sort of stuff, it's just really, really
• 49:09
  cool. Like it's just nice to see
• 49:11
  people get reward for effort. And I think although I didn't
• 49:13
  run a PB yesterday, people, there's certainly like a lot of
• 49:16
  people, people did. Like, I don't know what you
• 49:19
  think, but I think that course was conducive to to PBS.
• 49:24
  Like it was good enough for us. I think Susie's run with an age
• 49:29
  group record for WA as well potentially.
• 49:32
  Yeah. Yeah, it was.
• 49:33
  Yeah. With well, it would be because
• 49:35
  maybe it was her own record that she broke.
• 49:38
  Yeah. But yeah, I, I, yeah.
• 49:41
  So I just wanted to sort of, yeah.
• 49:44
  So I don't know, I just found that and yeah.
• 49:47
  And yeah, that's right. So in terms of the quality of
• 49:49
  the run, like it was an hour 23. And so it's not like it's, you
• 49:53
  know, she's moving really well. So I just thought that was
• 49:55
  really inspiring. And then I don't know if you saw
• 49:59
  Connor come up to us, another light listener.
• 50:02
  He ran, I think it was like a 14 minute PB and I met Connor,
• 50:11
  Connor Dylan. I met him in Osaka last year and
• 50:17
  he because he, he, he ran over there and had a, a bit of AI
• 50:21
  think a harder day. But yeah, he yeah, 9 1/2 minute
• 50:25
  PB. He ran 236 and like if you've
• 50:28
  seen him, he's built like a like a brick shit house, but but he
• 50:34
  like super strong and just the training he did for it.
• 50:37
  You saw his Strava in terms of the like, so he he's got these
• 50:41
  Strava bars for about 8:00 or so weeks between 220 and 250 KS.
• 50:46
  And I don't know, I just find that sort of stuff, you know, we
• 50:48
  talk about rent to Japan and just how inspiring we see people
• 50:51
  that put in all this work. So I just felt like, you know,
• 50:55
  Suzanne and Connor, just examples of people just putting
• 50:57
  in so much hard work and getting good results for it.
• 51:00
  It's just, I just find that stuff really motivating.
• 51:03
  And then same for Dan. We're chatting to Dan Yaxley,
• 51:05
  who, who I think might have written in a question for us,
• 51:08
  listens to the pod. He's sort of, I think that's his
• 51:10
  like fourth attempt at trying to crack three hours.
• 51:12
  And he did. And it's sort of, you know, I
• 51:14
  don't know, it's just really nice.
• 51:15
  It was just a really fun day. And it was nice to see a lot of
• 51:18
  people that put in so much hard work over the purse summer and
• 51:21
  over or over the Australian summer sort of get get their
• 51:26
  desserts on the weekend. Yeah.
• 51:27
  And two comments on that. So for Connor, I remember seeing
• 51:31
  when he posted like some stats of his build and it was like, I
• 51:34
  can't remember how many weeks, but say for example, 12 weeks,
• 51:37
  it was like 12 track sessions, 12 threshold sessions, 12 long
• 51:42
  runs. And obviously this is ahead of
• 51:44
  the race. So I remember seeing it and
• 51:46
  thinking like, wow, the perfect build.
• 51:49
  And then he's he's gone out and executed like the perfect race
• 51:53
  as well. So he's wrapped it all up, which
• 51:56
  is what we all dream of doing, isn't it?
• 51:58
  Having the perfect build and then the perfect execution.
• 52:01
  Yeah, and there's so many. Like it's not as simple as just
• 52:04
  run lots and you run fast. Like it's definitely more
• 52:08
  complicated than that. But if you put in, if you put
• 52:10
  your body under a high amount of training stress and are able to
• 52:13
  absorb it and stack it all together and then train at those
• 52:16
  training zones, you just give yourself a great chance of
• 52:19
  running something special. And that's what he did.
• 52:20
  And so it's just really inspiring to see because
• 52:23
  everyone's sort of looking for that breakthrough, right?
• 52:25
  Everyone's sort of wanting that next level up.
• 52:28
  And, and so when you see someone levelling up like that, it's
• 52:31
  very cool. And then for for Dan in the pub
• 52:34
  afterwards, I said to him, I'd obviously congratulated him
• 52:38
  prior to this, but separate conversation.
• 52:40
  I was like, how are you feeling Dan?
• 52:42
  Like one word or something. What, what do you feel like
• 52:45
  right now? And he just said satisfied.
• 52:47
  And although I wasn't feeling like that, it just took me back
• 52:52
  to the times where you have had those like really good runs and
• 52:55
  that that feeling of just being so, so like comfortable and
• 53:00
  happy with what you've done. And it stays for a while as
• 53:03
  well, doesn't it? Like the next week or two weeks,
• 53:05
  you're just so, so happy. Yeah, yeah.
• 53:08
  You sort of just on that cloud, you just keep riding that like
• 53:11
  life feels easy. Yeah, all that's good stuff.
• 53:16
  I guess that'll take us through my week and race and I'm happy
• 53:20
  to just continue speaking, but also feel free to interrupt me
• 53:25
  as and when. So I was on the plane back
• 53:28
  yesterday and thought I've got some time to kill here.
• 53:30
  I'm going to do some prep for this week's pod, but I didn't
• 53:34
  actually do the reflection that I wanted to do.
• 53:37
  But anyway, Monday of the taper week, I had 48 minutes, 429 just
• 53:44
  around the river, which is quicker than a usual Monday run
• 53:47
  would be. But I guess that's just a
• 53:49
  reflection of it being only a week out and I was starting to
• 53:53
  feel a little bit fresh. And I remember I could end up
• 53:57
  speaking for about half an hour here.
• 53:59
  But anyway, I remember listening to Reese Edwards on Road to Gold
• 54:05
  Coast last year to and like listener questions were coming
• 54:09
  in about tapers because it was just getting to that time ahead
• 54:13
  of the race. And then one of Reese's tips was
• 54:17
  like, as you start to freshen up, allow yourself to just don't
• 54:21
  be like consumed by what pace. You usually run an easy run or
• 54:25
  whatever. Just just go with it.
• 54:27
  Run whatever feels easy on that day.
• 54:30
  So, yeah, I mean, and this is just a reflection of that.
• 54:34
  Anyway, that was Monday. Tuesday, as Dean said, we went
• 54:37
  to the track and done a bit of a primer.
• 54:40
  So that was a mile in will be around 455 four laps, around 75
• 54:47
  seconds a lap and then the 8 by 200 on, 200 off, which as Dean
• 54:53
  said was around 3435 seconds for the twos on.
• 54:56
  And then whatever the flips where we just kind of got
• 55:00
  ourselves around to the to the start point again without paying
• 55:04
  too much attention to it. One take away from that is but
• 55:09
  Dean is 10 quick, 10 minutes quicker than me over the
• 55:12
  marathon, so why on earth? And we're running a session in a
• 55:15
  tape a week side by side with him.
• 55:17
  Get here you go and check and do your own training, not someone
• 55:20
  else's. There we go, this first take
• 55:22
  away and the reflections. Did you feel like though?
• 55:30
  Because I think with that workout, we're not looking to,
• 55:34
  we're not looking to necessarily build fitness from that workout.
• 55:37
  What we're looking to do is basically not lose fitness and
• 55:43
  also feel good. And so that's part of it.
• 55:47
  So it's sort of moved quickly, like like RAF sort of guide to
• 55:51
  us and it's RAF said the same messages to me a lot of time.
• 55:54
  So sort of very familiar with what he's going to say before he
• 55:58
  says it. But basically, like when on that
• 56:00
  Tuesday before, we'll still roll down to the track, try and keep
• 56:03
  the try and keep everything as normal as possible.
• 56:06
  But the, the whole idea for those two hundreds, it's just
• 56:09
  leg turnover. Like it's not, we're not trying
• 56:11
  to accumulate a heap of lactate. We're not trying to hit a
• 56:13
  particular split. It's just trying to try and feel
• 56:15
  nice. So how did how did the session,
• 56:19
  how did the two hundreds feel for you?
• 56:20
  Did you feel like you're reaching?
• 56:21
  Did you did the form feel uncomfortable?
• 56:23
  And therefore, perhaps maybe what you should have done is
• 56:26
  just gone. Hey, I'll you go, you go, you do
• 56:29
  yours and I'll do mine so that I run it in the way that feels
• 56:32
  nice for me. No, I mean, yeah, I'm, I'm
• 56:35
  feeling good and it felt fine. Not that I was reaching to hit
• 56:40
  these 34 second splits or anything, but, you know, just
• 56:44
  like that last workout essentially before the race.
• 56:47
  You just, I don't know, it seems to be one of those things where
• 56:50
  people are quite critical over what you do in that week leading
• 56:54
  up to it. So not that anyone has told me
• 56:57
  this but just in myself looking at why am I doing the exact same
• 57:02
  where workout as you but maybe I'm just being overly critical.
• 57:07
  Yeah. I mean, in my mind, in the week
• 57:10
  of the race, you generally can do more harm than good in the
• 57:14
  sense of you're not going to get much, you're not going to get
• 57:18
  any fitter. You just want to keep, you just
• 57:21
  want to delay getting too fresh too quickly.
• 57:24
  And you just want to get mechanically like your body
• 57:26
  everything like that's stiff. You want to be ironed out like
• 57:29
  you want to the perp. Yeah, you're not and so but
• 57:32
  there. But there are your ability to
• 57:34
  self like you have all these thoughts that are self sabotage
• 57:37
  type thoughts which you need to avoid.
• 57:40
  And you get more and more, you're very quick to want to
• 57:45
  just send it because you're so excited.
• 57:47
  Everyone wants to go hard. So you sort of want to avoid
• 57:51
  that too because it's not going to serve you well until later in
• 57:55
  the race really. So you sort of just want to do
• 57:57
  it as effortlessly as you can, but but know that you as long as
• 58:01
  you're ticking it off, that's all you need to do.
• 58:02
  You don't need to. If the session felt fine, it was
• 58:05
  probably fine like it was. It's probably not shifting the
• 58:07
  dialcome race day, in my in my opinion anyway.
• 58:10
  It's probably just a case of me being in general at that point
• 58:14
  still a little bit unsure of where I was at.
• 58:17
  So it's still probably chasing. I mean, it sounds so shallow
• 58:21
  that I was chasing confidence from a where out of a mile and
• 58:24
  some 2 hundreds, but just to move fast would have given me
• 58:28
  the confidence. And obviously you've got a
• 58:31
  little bit of freshness anyway, so you are able to to move
• 58:34
  quicker. So perhaps like 36 seconds to
• 58:38
  hundreds would have been more feasible for me.
• 58:41
  But I'm just wanting to get that slight bit of positive
• 58:44
  reinforcement, which I mean it did do.
• 58:47
  After the session I was like, shit, yeah, we're ready to go.
• 58:51
  Like that felt good. But yeah, anyway, Wednesday,
• 58:57
  where am I at? Was 52 minutes at 459's and I
• 59:02
  guess that kind of says it all. I've run to field on this
• 59:06
  Wednesday run and it's come out rather slow because my quads
• 59:10
  were a little bit sore from running a little bit too fast
• 59:13
  perhaps on Tuesday. So yeah, then and again, at the
• 59:18
  same time, I'm trying to manage this heel thing.
• 59:22
  So Tuesday, on Tuesday at the time it feels good, but then
• 59:27
  because I've put quite a bit of intensity into it to run fast,
• 59:31
  it then feels sore on Wednesday and I'm having to run really
• 59:34
  slow. And then the confidence that
• 59:36
  I've got from Tuesdays, maybe like there's doubts again on
• 59:39
  Wednesday and I'm thinking about tomorrow I need to do the last
• 59:44
  little bit of steady and I'm thinking how's it going to feel
• 59:47
  for that? I don't want to run steady on
• 59:49
  Thursday and then be feeling really bad on Friday and only
• 59:52
  having like 48 hours or so to we feel amazing.
• 59:57
  Stood on the start line of a marathon.
• 1:00:00
  So tax raft because the scene in Training Peaks Thursday was
• 1:00:04
  supposed to be 20 minutes steady and because my quads were a
• 1:00:07
  little bit heavy, I was like maybe we just cut that to 15.
• 1:00:12
  But anyway, on Thursday I did 9.5 K in total, which was 3 1/2
• 1:00:17
  K of a warm up, some drills and strides.
• 1:00:21
  And one lap around Lake Munga, which is about 3 1/2 K steady
• 1:00:26
  effort, which I did feel good. It was three 40s.
• 1:00:29
  My heart rate was like 150 flat and I felt like I was running
• 1:00:34
  with the handbrake on. So thankfully like all that
• 1:00:37
  stuff with the heel the day prior, I've disappeared just in
• 1:00:40
  time for me to go OK Tuesday around fast.
• 1:00:44
  I've got confidence from that. Thursday I've ran steady and
• 1:00:47
  felt like that was running with the handbrake on and the heart
• 1:00:50
  rate is also like giving me positive reinforcement.
• 1:00:54
  So after Thursday I was like, OK, we've like fully made it.
• 1:00:58
  And but in hindsight, the fact that I'm clinging on to the
• 1:01:02
  Thursday, just 48 cents 2 hours before the race to kind of feel
• 1:01:07
  satisfied with the shape that I'm in doesn't really bode too
• 1:01:10
  well. And then Friday, a slight
• 1:01:14
  regret. I probably should have just
• 1:01:16
  taken the full day off, but because you're feeling so fresh
• 1:01:20
  and stuff like that, I've run half an hour thinking that it
• 1:01:24
  would help me. It was due to fly Friday
• 1:01:27
  afternoon and I've run half 27 minutes Friday morning 425 so
• 1:01:32
  clearly legs were feeling good but obviously it wasn't going to
• 1:01:36
  give me anything and I didn't. I was doing the shakeout
• 1:01:39
  Saturday morning. So running on Friday is
• 1:01:42
  definitely silly in hindsight because it's meant that I
• 1:01:45
  haven't had a complete rest day, which for some people is fine.
• 1:01:50
  But for me, as I know that every so often, every couple of weeks
• 1:01:54
  at least, I should be taking a full rest day.
• 1:01:57
  And again, it's probably a reflection of I've been trying
• 1:02:00
  to chase training load in the past couple of weeks.
• 1:02:02
  When I've looked back, even though the I obviously switched
• 1:02:07
  to a bit of cross training in the final month, when I've
• 1:02:10
  literally looked at the days, my last rest day was like mid to
• 1:02:15
  late March. So full day off in over a month.
• 1:02:21
  And yeah, that's just because I was trying to chase keeping that
• 1:02:24
  training load high to try and in my head keep fitness.
• 1:02:28
  But I think I've just been a bit short sighted with it and maybe
• 1:02:31
  taking a little bit of the wrong approach.
• 1:02:34
  But then anyway, flu Friday afternoon and there's a little
• 1:02:40
  bit of drama involved on Friday. So I think I see in my emails
• 1:02:43
  that morning that my accommodation had cancelled on
• 1:02:46
  me. So I had had the accommodation
• 1:02:48
  booked for Friday night somewhere and then I was due to
• 1:02:51
  move accommodation for Saturday and Sunday night and that
• 1:02:55
  accommodation for Saturday and Sunday cancelled because since I
• 1:03:00
  booked it my card had changed. So when they tried to take
• 1:03:03
  payment, the payment never went through and they cancelled it.
• 1:03:06
  And by the time I'd seen it and contacted the hotel, they'd
• 1:03:09
  resold the room to someone else. So that wasn't ideal for Friday
• 1:03:15
  morning and in recognizing the potential mental stability that
• 1:03:20
  this could do, I've just went on to booking and booked the first
• 1:03:24
  room I could see for over twice the price that my original
• 1:03:28
  booking was for. But just thought I don't need
• 1:03:31
  that stress and stuff going into the last day.
• 1:03:35
  Let's just get a room sorted and then forget about it for now.
• 1:03:38
  So booked it and then emailed Keith Buzz the is he like a
• 1:03:44
  elite athlete coordinator? Was that his title?
• 1:03:47
  Just do you have any of the Fed uni rooms left?
• 1:03:52
  And fair play to him. He's ends up being amazing.
• 1:03:55
  He's put me in touch with another guy called well straight
• 1:03:58
  away he run with me and he was like Ryan, don't worry, we've
• 1:04:02
  we'll sort you out, give us until the end of the day.
• 1:04:05
  And he's ended up putting me in touch with a guy called Simon,
• 1:04:07
  who's then the next day sent me the name of a guy, Rob, and his
• 1:04:12
  number and just said he's got you covered, give him a ring.
• 1:04:16
  I feel like, I feel like that's such a good example of the how
• 1:04:21
  generous the event was and maybe and a bit reflective of the town
• 1:04:25
  as well. Like we only spoke to a few
• 1:04:27
  local people. Even there's a, there's some
• 1:04:30
  running friends that are originally from Perth, like
• 1:04:35
  Claire Broadway. She reached out as well and just
• 1:04:38
  said, you know, well done. And I mentioned we were sort of
• 1:04:42
  having a difficult time Sunday night.
• 1:04:43
  And she's like, well, if you want to come over, have a glass
• 1:04:46
  of wine, just just let us know. Like, I don't know, just just
• 1:04:49
  everyone we spoke to there just just so many nice people it felt
• 1:04:53
  like. So when I've, when I've rung
• 1:04:55
  this Rob, he's basically explained that he and his wife
• 1:04:59
  just live in Ballarat and they have nothing to do with the race
• 1:05:02
  or Keith up through mutual friends or whatever.
• 1:05:08
  Someone has contacted him and said, do you have a spare room?
• 1:05:11
  Like do you fancy housing one of the athletes?
• 1:05:13
  Like his accommodations cancelled on him and he's just
• 1:05:16
  turned around and been like, yeah, like going to get in touch
• 1:05:20
  with me. So when I've contacted him, he's
• 1:05:23
  just literally handed over the keys to his house without he was
• 1:05:28
  out at where he's left me a key. He's never met me and said,
• 1:05:32
  like, there's your beds on the left, the bathrooms there, help
• 1:05:36
  yourself to tea and coffee. So I just thought it was
• 1:05:39
  incredible what he and his wife Alessandra done for us, like
• 1:05:43
  made, we saved our asses for a lot of money and they just made
• 1:05:47
  us feel so welcome and comfortable.
• 1:05:49
  So very grateful for that and also for Keith and Simon for
• 1:05:53
  sorting it out. So that took away those worries.
• 1:05:58
  The travel went smoothly, like we've done the same as you guys.
• 1:06:02
  Just picked up a car when we landed in Melbourne, drove up to
• 1:06:04
  Ballarat and then that was Saturday morning when went for a
• 1:06:09
  shake out round the lake with RAF set up like a bit of a squad
• 1:06:14
  shake out front runner one because we had maybe a node
• 1:06:17
  11:50 front runner people over for it.
• 1:06:20
  And there's a couple of guys I knew from when I lived in
• 1:06:23
  Melbourne who went up for it. So I invited them along.
• 1:06:26
  And yeah, we've just done an easy lap around the lake, some
• 1:06:29
  drills and strides and then had the bonus of sitting down next
• 1:06:34
  to Mona for a coffee. And RAF asked him if you could
• 1:06:38
  give one piece of advice to the guys for tomorrow, what would it
• 1:06:41
  be? And that would be, that's where
• 1:06:43
  you've said about the part of the lake getting incredibly
• 1:06:47
  tough. Exactly what I didn't do.
• 1:06:50
  And you told me the advice as well and I was like, I don't
• 1:06:54
  know well and I literally ran for about 3 minutes and I'm
• 1:06:58
  like, you're a fucking idiot, what are you doing?
• 1:07:03
  Well, he also said about going for a 2 minute positive split,
• 1:07:07
  so that's the bit that I've went for, he.
• 1:07:10
  Did say that actually. I remember you relaying that to
• 1:07:12
  me that it could be a day for a positive split.
• 1:07:15
  So mine was 2 seconds, yours was 2 minutes.
• 1:07:20
  But yeah, that was, that was amazing experience anyway, just
• 1:07:23
  to hear that from Mona and get to thank him for putting the
• 1:07:26
  events on. So then, I mean, that wrapped up
• 1:07:31
  around 10:00 AM and by this point on Friday, I had started
• 1:07:35
  to carb load properly, to be fair.
• 1:07:37
  Well, eating just what I'd normally, but just more volume
• 1:07:41
  of it because I was conscious. I didn't want to feel like I was
• 1:07:45
  stuck in my face with shit from Friday morning all the way
• 1:07:47
  through. So we kept it pretty healthy on
• 1:07:50
  Friday but just ate a lot. And then by this point Saturday
• 1:07:54
  morning after the run, it was 10 AM rolled into the briefing with
• 1:07:59
  you, which was went on for 45 or so.
• 1:08:02
  Wasn't it just kind of went through rules and regulations
• 1:08:06
  which give me the shits a bit like made me scared all the
• 1:08:10
  reasons for which I could potentially be disqualified.
• 1:08:13
  And I was thinking back to going the wrong way just two weeks
• 1:08:16
  prior. So there's no chance of getting
• 1:08:18
  away with anything here because the the rule book was out and
• 1:08:23
  they went through all the stuff around bottles, drink stations,
• 1:08:27
  timings, essentially everything you could need to know.
• 1:08:32
  But at that point, you just kind of zoned in on the race anyway.
• 1:08:36
  So this is just probably going over a lot of people's heads
• 1:08:39
  really. But it's useful that and it's
• 1:08:42
  good that they set it up for those people that do like to
• 1:08:45
  kind of consume every single detail.
• 1:08:47
  And then after that, yeah, we grabbed our bibs, didn't we?
• 1:08:51
  And I'm like, shit, it's, it's almost, it's pretty much midday
• 1:08:54
  here. And I've only had powerades and
• 1:08:56
  the croissants. I need to kind of get to work on
• 1:08:59
  this car blurt. I could feel you're getting
• 1:09:01
  nervous about having not like no sugar in hand.
• 1:09:04
  I could see you being like I need to get out of here and eat
• 1:09:07
  something like I could. I could feel the the lack of
• 1:09:11
  carb you know you're giving was. Was it looking looking thin as
• 1:09:15
  well? You were just look, you were
• 1:09:17
  just, you're looking hangry. You were just like I should be.
• 1:09:21
  Why am I talking to these people when I there's carbs to be
• 1:09:23
  eaten? Get me into Woolworths for the
• 1:09:26
  with the troll. Yeah.
• 1:09:28
  Is that what you did? Eventually, yeah, but I went
• 1:09:30
  back home, well hadn't even been and checked into the
• 1:09:34
  accommodation with Robin Alessandra at this point.
• 1:09:37
  So we went round and got sorted there, and I also.
• 1:09:42
  This is perhaps a little bit poor planning, but I hadn't
• 1:09:45
  sorted my bottles either so as it went, didn't end up doing
• 1:09:50
  that until around 4:00 PM, which I don't know.
• 1:09:54
  These are minor details, but just leaving things to the last
• 1:09:57
  minute doesn't really help with your preparation, does it?
• 1:10:00
  Yeah, I think you want the the day and a couple of days before
• 1:10:03
  to be as chill as possible, yeah.
• 1:10:06
  So eventually got to Woolworth, sorted out a lot of food and
• 1:10:12
  went and dropped my bottles off. And something else to say with
• 1:10:16
  that. Oh yeah.
• 1:10:17
  So then just after the bottle drop, because that was in town,
• 1:10:21
  managed to catch a little bit of the miles.
• 1:10:23
  So that was really good from a spectator's point of view.
• 1:10:27
  Not that that's what you should be doing, running around the
• 1:10:30
  town the day before you run the marathon.
• 1:10:31
  But from the start line there, you could watch them start and
• 1:10:35
  run 50 or so meters up the hill. And then if you literally
• 1:10:39
  crossed over the road, which is like walk 10 meters behind you
• 1:10:42
  because you're kind of on that island in the middle of the
• 1:10:44
  road, you can see them. Then they climb up the hill for
• 1:10:48
  a couple of meters, 100 meters. Do we use it?
• 1:10:51
  Come back down? Maybe They're about 600 meters
• 1:10:54
  into the race by this point. So the race is kind of sorted
• 1:10:57
  itself out by that point. And there's all these elite
• 1:11:01
  athletes absolutely sending it down the hill.
• 1:11:02
  Like it's, it's mad to see how fast they're coming down that
• 1:11:05
  hill, but they just look so smooth.
• 1:11:09
  And then you just step back over the other side of the road and
• 1:11:13
  you see them 2 minutes later as they come round and drive up
• 1:11:16
  that hill to the finish. So that was actually really good
• 1:11:19
  fun watching that to be fair. But then and.
• 1:11:22
  It was just the mile you it was just the mile you caught.
• 1:11:24
  You didn't catch the mile in the 5K.
• 1:11:26
  Yeah, I didn't see the 5K, but then as we were trying to get
• 1:11:30
  pizza in in one of the restaurants there nearby,
• 1:11:33
  afterwards walked into Izzy, who'd just won the 5K with her,
• 1:11:39
  a big check under her arm as she's she's walking into the
• 1:11:43
  pizzeria. And I was like, bloody hell, How
• 1:11:45
  many how many pizzas you plan on buying with that?
• 1:11:48
  And she she proceeded to tell us.
• 1:11:50
  So shout out to Izzy that she is she's a regular listener and she
• 1:11:54
  enjoys it. So thanks very much for that,
• 1:11:57
  Izzy. I mean, I took great pleasure in
• 1:11:59
  relaying that to Dean and Owen. Fanboys so appreciate it.
• 1:12:05
  And then the next day, yeah, around the presentations, Raff
• 1:12:10
  was trying his hardest to hook us up for an interview with
• 1:12:13
  Riley and Izzy. So we did.
• 1:12:15
  I did say that once we've got our confidence, so if they would
• 1:12:19
  like, we'd obviously love to interview both of them, but
• 1:12:24
  we'll get to that one day. And then, yeah, just grabbed the
• 1:12:29
  pizza and a pasta and went back and had an early night, I think.
• 1:12:33
  Didn't ask you about if you've done this.
• 1:12:35
  Did you take any of that beetroot juice?
• 1:12:37
  No, I've forgotten. Actually, no, I took a ketone
• 1:12:41
  shot. Yeah, I Googled to make sure it
• 1:12:45
  was because remember that as part of that race briefing,
• 1:12:48
  they're talking about drug testing and all that sort of
• 1:12:50
  stuff. And it's not something you
• 1:12:51
  normally have to worry about, but I was super conscious of it
• 1:12:54
  all during the week. So then you're like whatever you
• 1:12:56
  take, if it's a Panadol or, you know, whatever you want to, I'm
• 1:13:00
  like a throat lozenger because I had a cold.
• 1:13:02
  I'm like, oh gosh, better not better, not better not.
• 1:13:05
  So I googled that and it seemed like it was, you know, batch
• 1:13:09
  tested and approved. But other than that, no, I
• 1:13:11
  didn't take no beetroot juice or or anything like that.
• 1:13:15
  Was funny. So on that Saturday night, just
• 1:13:17
  I had, I bought 2 and I was going to have one on Saturday
• 1:13:21
  night going to bed and then because it's you're supposed to
• 1:13:24
  take it like around 3 hours supposedly before exercise for
• 1:13:29
  the pee in your bloods. But because I had two of them, I
• 1:13:34
  just took one the night before to make sure it was in there.
• 1:13:37
  And then the other one the morning off was like a top up.
• 1:13:41
  And after I'd had the first one on Saturday night, went and
• 1:13:44
  brushed my teeth in bed and I was like, oh, something stinks.
• 1:13:49
  And Becky told me it was my breath And I was like, what?
• 1:13:54
  I was literally just brush my teeth and we somehow managed to
• 1:13:58
  test it and it literally smelt like actual garbage and the only
• 1:14:03
  conclusion I can draw is this nitrate thing.
• 1:14:05
  So I'd literally just brush my teeth but it's stung and then
• 1:14:09
  the next morning was the same after I took the next one.
• 1:14:12
  So there must be something in that.
• 1:14:14
  Maybe the like the nitrate reacting with the what is it,
• 1:14:18
  the fluoride in the toothpaste or something is what I'm going
• 1:14:22
  to go with. But anyway, So Sunday morning, I
• 1:14:28
  think alarm was like 6:00 AM because we were literally around
• 1:14:32
  the corner ourselves. Couple of pieces of toast myself
• 1:14:35
  and then ran into you at the coffee shop.
• 1:14:38
  Same experience. I won't go through it all again,
• 1:14:40
  but in that elite athlete room was very handy.
• 1:14:43
  I don't know if it calmed the nerves or it got them.
• 1:14:47
  I was. So you'd mentioned in the lead
• 1:14:50
  up that you were calm and maybe too calm, but then walking up
• 1:14:56
  the flight of stairs and into that athlete like warm up room.
• 1:14:59
  Did that start to and you sort of and like in that room are
• 1:15:03
  like a lot of like top Australian distance runners.
• 1:15:07
  Did that start to get you a bit like get the heart racing a bit
• 1:15:10
  I. Think so, yeah.
• 1:15:11
  But I think even before that as well.
• 1:15:13
  Remember when I met you outside the coffee shop?
• 1:15:15
  I was like, I'm a bit, I'm a bit on edge now.
• 1:15:18
  Like, yeah, I don't know. But yeah, something that
• 1:15:21
  definitely clicked from going to bed on Saturday and waking up
• 1:15:25
  and I had a bit of a disturbed sleep as well, which is just, I
• 1:15:28
  mean, everyone does, it's natural, isn't it?
• 1:15:31
  But yeah, for sure Sunday morning, the the nerves were
• 1:15:34
  going so much so that when we went for that little 55 minute
• 1:15:38
  jog, I looked at my heart rate once.
• 1:15:40
  I don't even know why. And the number that I saw said
• 1:15:45
  151 at the time. I ignore it as much.
• 1:15:51
  Yeah. I'm like, I haven't got many
• 1:15:52
  beats left before. I'm already at marathon pace.
• 1:15:55
  I'm like, oh, this sucks, but I sort of put it down to a bit of
• 1:16:00
  adrenaline. I think we're just a bit fired
• 1:16:02
  up. So I was trying to I to change
• 1:16:05
  the what the data screen to get away from a heart rate.
• 1:16:08
  Yeah, I was telling myself that it wasn't.
• 1:16:11
  It must have been my my watch heart rate rather than my actual
• 1:16:15
  heart rate monitor region. Well, I'd I'd already turned
• 1:16:19
  wrist heart rate off because I wasn't happy with what I was
• 1:16:21
  saying from that. So I knew for mine at least that
• 1:16:24
  it wasn't that. So yeah.
• 1:16:27
  So then I guess on to the race. So I had spoken to a couple of
• 1:16:31
  people in the day or so prior and we'd there's maybe three or
• 1:16:36
  four of us who were going to be happy to run through halfway in
• 1:16:40
  around 72 minutes flat, which would have set us up for 224.
• 1:16:45
  And that meant 5K splits of like 17 O 5 or 324 per kilometer.
• 1:16:53
  Now in my head this seemed like a realistic goal and that could
• 1:16:58
  even split it, if not slightly negative, split it even and have
• 1:17:02
  a 223422350 something that was genuinely what I was thinking on
• 1:17:08
  the warning of. So then as it goes, 1st 5K
• 1:17:13
  obviously starts up that hill feeling OK, but then I almost
• 1:17:18
  felt like it wasn't long enough into the race to even feel
• 1:17:21
  anything. I was just making sure I got
• 1:17:24
  through the 5K split in around the 17 minutes and then it
• 1:17:29
  didn't feel hard or anything. I was just like, I can't take
• 1:17:32
  anything from how I feel right now.
• 1:17:34
  Just need to kind of get on this pace and see in another 5 case
• 1:17:38
  time how it feels. And it's a little bit hard kind
• 1:17:41
  of getting position going up that hill because where I'd
• 1:17:44
  started it was maybe 5 or 60. So naturally has just come off
• 1:17:50
  the start line. People sometimes position
• 1:17:53
  themselves further up then they're actually going to run.
• 1:17:56
  So as kind of weaving up this hill because people are running
• 1:17:59
  slowly because it's uphill and I'm trying to make sure that the
• 1:18:03
  group that I want to run with doesn't end up running off up
• 1:18:05
  the hill and I have to do. I had a bit of work early just
• 1:18:08
  to get on the back of the group. But anyway, that was fine.
• 1:18:11
  Got through 5K and was seemingly with the right group of people.
• 1:18:14
  There was probably 8 or 10 of us and there was one guy in
• 1:18:19
  particular. I don't know who it was, but we
• 1:18:20
  had there. And did you split your watch
• 1:18:23
  then? Did you know what you'd gone
• 1:18:24
  through 5K in? Yeah, I was splitting manually.
• 1:18:27
  So my first 5K split because I don't like it when you you just
• 1:18:33
  using the GPS split and you see in the number, but you know, it
• 1:18:37
  could be a couple of seconds either side.
• 1:18:39
  I just like to manually do it at the marker.
• 1:18:41
  So it was in reference to the 1705 patient plan was 1704.
• 1:18:49
  So I mean we were dead on. And again, I didn't feel
• 1:18:52
  amazing. I didn't feel awful.
• 1:18:54
  I just, I didn't know what I felt at that point did.
• 1:18:58
  You get your heart right then. Yeah, yeah, I did.
• 1:19:01
  And I was like shit this is just too high.
• 1:19:05
  But at that point I was still telling myself it was inaccurate
• 1:19:09
  because it's seeing 150 in the warm up so it said it was 168
• 1:19:14
  for that first 5K split which. Is wow.
• 1:19:17
  Which is over the average of what I ran my half marathon in.
• 1:19:22
  Yeah, sorry. That was the average for the
• 1:19:24
  split. That was the average for the 5K
• 1:19:27
  split. Yeah, OK, 168.
• 1:19:31
  Yeah, because it goes, it's quite deceptive that first
• 1:19:34
  couple of KS, right. So like if you run 1705, it's
• 1:19:38
  probably closer to, I mean it would be under 17 minutes if
• 1:19:41
  that was not without that uphill start, I would have thought and.
• 1:19:46
  If you're a. Little bit behind the start
• 1:19:48
  line. You're probably a few seconds
• 1:19:50
  before you cross as well, right? Yeah, well, I I started my watch
• 1:19:54
  as the gun went because I knew that we'd be on gun time anyway.
• 1:19:58
  So it's probably closer to like a 1655, perhaps on a.
• 1:20:03
  You know, with what was 30 meters or so of elevate
• 1:20:07
  elevation probably up that little bit, yeah.
• 1:20:10
  Yeah. Yeah, no wonder it's red 168.
• 1:20:13
  Yeah, yes. But, and I think I was kind of
• 1:20:16
  driving the pace a little bit at this point because the packs
• 1:20:21
  hadn't really formed because there was obviously the half
• 1:20:23
  marathoners as well. It was just kind of like a
• 1:20:26
  constant stream of people. So I was just wanting to keep
• 1:20:30
  driving forward and make sure that I was honest enough to get
• 1:20:33
  through in the 17 minutes split, which I don't know why I was so
• 1:20:36
  obsessed with like hitting the first split exactly.
• 1:20:41
  But anyway, that was that. And then the next 5K up to 10 Ki
• 1:20:46
  think I start. I started to settle a little bit
• 1:20:48
  here and kind of a group of eight or ten, it was formed and
• 1:20:53
  there was a guy in a precision vest and a precision snap back.
• 1:20:57
  Who's him? Another guy, and I know the
• 1:21:01
  other fellas name is Dane. I don't know the other two.
• 1:21:05
  But anyway, it seemed like yeah, yeah, it seemed like he was
• 1:21:09
  almost getting personal patient from the guy in the precision
• 1:21:13
  vest because the guy in the precision was just selflessly at
• 1:21:16
  the front constantly. I think he maybe was.
• 1:21:19
  I think that might have been was it?
• 1:21:21
  It wasn't, is it John Dutton? Did you think I might?
• 1:21:26
  I think is a friend. They have their they had, they
• 1:21:30
  did their own. Dane had his own Road to
• 1:21:33
  Ballarat series. I don't know if you caught any
• 1:21:35
  of it, but I sort of ran my first ever marathon with Dane.
• 1:21:39
  When I ran the Adelaide Marathon.
• 1:21:41
  I finished second to him there. And so he's sort of he's from
• 1:21:45
  Victoria, but he's been running for for a long time and he's
• 1:21:47
  sort of in his podcast was talking about hoping to get back
• 1:21:50
  into that sort of 224 shape. And so I think I saw a couple of
• 1:21:54
  Instagram reels where I think it was John Dutton was a friend of
• 1:21:59
  his, I think was on the on it was John or Pete.
• 1:22:01
  I think they're brothers, but I think that one of them was sort
• 1:22:04
  of setting tempo, at least on this footage that I saw.
• 1:22:08
  And I could see Dane sitting in there, so.
• 1:22:10
  And I think I saw you a couple of people back in that group, if
• 1:22:14
  that's right. Yeah.
• 1:22:15
  Yeah, that sounds about right then, because I noticed pretty
• 1:22:19
  quickly that they must have been going for this 17 minute 05 ish
• 1:22:24
  72 halfway split because they were literally like metronomic.
• 1:22:29
  Every time I was clicking my watch at these 5K splits, we
• 1:22:32
  were pretty much bang on. I was like, right, this is
• 1:22:34
  perfect. Just going to stay on these and
• 1:22:38
  seemingly I don't have to do much work because they're the
• 1:22:40
  ones driving the page. So I can just kind of be a
• 1:22:43
  pretender in the back, like they don't know what I want or what I
• 1:22:47
  don't want. So the second 5K was 1710.
• 1:22:52
  Yeah, so that was Pete, Pete Dutton.
• 1:22:54
  And looks like he's from his Instagram Reel that he was doing
• 1:22:57
  a pacing job ahead of his targeting Gold Coast Marathon.
• 1:23:00
  So I was grateful for the work that they were doing.
• 1:23:02
  And then my heart rate on that second 5K split.
• 1:23:07
  So we've gone through and 717 and 10 was 167.
• 1:23:10
  So, I mean, I hadn't gone up, but I hadn't really come down
• 1:23:13
  either. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:23:15
  And what were you? Can you remind me what you were
• 1:23:18
  like? What's 95%?
• 1:23:19
  What's threshold do you recall roughly?
• 1:23:21
  So I mean, if we use the half marathon, then it's 165, but
• 1:23:27
  that's. Where you average for the half.
• 1:23:29
  That's why average for the half, yeah.
• 1:23:31
  But I'm not sure that that is exactly right because they know
• 1:23:35
  I just, I felt so amazing the whole way that run.
• 1:23:38
  I'm not sure I was even at threshold for like most of it.
• 1:23:43
  And then in training ever since when we've been doing these like
• 1:23:48
  longer threshold reps, it can it can get into the low one 70s for
• 1:23:54
  the longer Rep. So I think that 165, maybe I
• 1:23:58
  shouldn't take too much focus on it.
• 1:24:00
  Sure. But even if you were to say 175,
• 1:24:04
  like if you say 175 would if would be would be right?
• 1:24:08
  Like not yeah, 95% of that is 166.
• 1:24:13
  So let's say that's the top end of where you want to be, right?
• 1:24:17
  Yeah. So it's still probably pretty
• 1:24:20
  too high too early, but. Smidge, Smidge.
• 1:24:23
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do remember thinking after
• 1:24:29
  10K because I wasn't sure how I felt up until this point, and
• 1:24:33
  I'm thinking at 10 Ki feel like I've settled now, like we're
• 1:24:37
  into a nice rhythm. These guys are setting a good
• 1:24:39
  pace and I feel, I feel OK here. I've got my first bit of fuel
• 1:24:44
  down like kind of let's see how we get on with this like we
• 1:24:48
  could be on now and. What did you take in fuel wise
• 1:24:52
  up until 10K? So I put 4 bottles out which had
• 1:24:56
  40 grams in each and each bottle had a gel attached to it.
• 1:25:02
  So basically split the bottles from the first one was 6K, then
• 1:25:08
  the next one was 15, the next one was 24, the next one was 33.
• 1:25:12
  And every time I picked the bottle up, it had 40 grams of
• 1:25:15
  fluid in. And I would drink that, toss the
• 1:25:17
  bottle and carry the gel for another 15 minutes, and then I
• 1:25:21
  would crack the gel. So essentially every 15 minutes
• 1:25:25
  or so, I had the option to consume whether it be 25 to 40
• 1:25:29
  grams of carbs, either from a gel or from a liquid.
• 1:25:33
  And for, I think all the way up until halfway, I pretty much
• 1:25:36
  took everything that I had. That's great.
• 1:25:39
  Yeah. Well, we'll see AT30K how great
• 1:25:42
  it is. Well, and did you?
• 1:25:45
  Did you? Did you?
• 1:25:50
  How did you go collecting your bottles from the table?
• 1:25:53
  Yeah, fine. I just had normal Power Aid
• 1:25:56
  bottles and I ripped the label off and like kind of strapped a
• 1:25:59
  big tape around them so they because they're a bit quite.
• 1:26:03
  Tall. Yeah, they're tall because a lot
• 1:26:05
  of people I saw had pop tops. So that standing out, that
• 1:26:08
  taller, it's like you relative to the pack sort of stood out.
• 1:26:12
  Yeah, I got, I got them pretty easily.
• 1:26:14
  I sited them from 5 meters or so away, which was handy.
• 1:26:18
  I was just going. To say we had a few like
• 1:26:22
  collisions on our tables, I think a lot of people either
• 1:26:25
  they didn't put any sort of decor decoration or anything
• 1:26:29
  sort of no distinguishing feature on their bottles.
• 1:26:31
  And so consequently I think a lot of people were sort of
• 1:26:34
  there's confusion, you know, like a lot of people not easily
• 1:26:37
  able to snap grab and keep moving through.
• 1:26:40
  So yeah, but that yours was, you know, easily sighted.
• 1:26:44
  So you can just grab it without causing a mix up.
• 1:26:47
  Remember after the first one the the lithosome was like
• 1:26:51
  immediately and I was like jeez, I haven't even had a chance to
• 1:26:55
  like get it open yet, never mind have a swig of it.
• 1:26:58
  Yeah, unless you're, unless you're, unless you're walking,
• 1:27:01
  that's not going to get used. But I did, I did pass a couple
• 1:27:06
  of mine around as well. I think a guy who was running
• 1:27:09
  with Azolli, he's a front runner athlete as well.
• 1:27:12
  He, he benefited from at least one of my bottles, but I didn't
• 1:27:16
  want all of it anyway. So yeah, we're 10K and three
• 1:27:21
  stones feel pretty good and those guys were setting the pace
• 1:27:24
  so I knew that I could kind of switch off from focusing on any
• 1:27:28
  splits and just kind of get my head down.
• 1:27:30
  So up to the 15K split well, the 5K there was 17 O 7.
• 1:27:35
  So again we've hit that heart rate.
• 1:27:38
  This one was 169, but again all. Right.
• 1:27:47
  I did this out. You have to edit it out, I
• 1:27:54
  think, just because you know what's coming, you know?
• 1:28:00
  Then 15 to 20. So this was, we've come onto the
• 1:28:04
  lake for this bit and the first part, there's not really any
• 1:28:07
  wind, is there? Nothing.
• 1:28:09
  It's. Not until go on.
• 1:28:11
  Oh, just it's like I fully anticipated based on sort of
• 1:28:15
  some of the feedback we got that that that a lot of that lake
• 1:28:18
  would be windy. But it really wasn't until
• 1:28:20
  you're probably 2/3 of the way around did you run into the
• 1:28:24
  window. So yeah, so I sort of was
• 1:28:27
  enjoying that, which is why I stupidly run, run ahead.
• 1:28:31
  Yeah, it was, it was like the last mile or 2K of the lake,
• 1:28:34
  wasn't it, where it got pretty heavy.
• 1:28:36
  And then our groups kind of just formed a single file line
• 1:28:40
  through that bit. So I've just slotted in about 3
• 1:28:43
  or 4 back. But then I do remember thinking
• 1:28:46
  like when we came off the lake, which was maybe 1819 K at that
• 1:28:50
  point, isn't it? Like shit I'm I'm not looking
• 1:28:54
  forward to doing that again in 20 KS time.
• 1:28:57
  Yeah, yeah. So then we've came started to
• 1:29:02
  come down the hill and the what was the 1520 K split was 1713.
• 1:29:10
  So started to slip off the pace a little bit.
• 1:29:13
  But what I did remember is that that group who were kind of
• 1:29:17
  setting the pace, they picked it up here.
• 1:29:20
  I mean, it looks like we've slipped a little bit as well.
• 1:29:23
  But it felt like they were making a move forwards.
• 1:29:26
  And at this point, I wasn't sure if they were perhaps doing the
• 1:29:29
  half marathon. And I was conscious that if they
• 1:29:32
  were, maybe they were like making a kick for home.
• 1:29:35
  So I deliberately kind of didn't go with it because it felt like
• 1:29:38
  an aggressive move. And myself, Ollie and Lucky
• 1:29:42
  Edwards, who was the three of us have kind of spoken about this
• 1:29:46
  72 split. We stayed together.
• 1:29:49
  So I was fine with the fact that even though they'd run off, they
• 1:29:53
  would still be the three of us and and.
• 1:29:55
  Where was Dane and Pete at this point?
• 1:29:58
  That's what I mean. They were the ones who'd kind of
• 1:30:00
  moved forward off the front of us.
• 1:30:02
  Oh, but I bet Dane was doing the marathon.
• 1:30:04
  But he'd still moved away. Yeah, yeah, so, so they that's
• 1:30:08
  what I mean. I thought perhaps they were
• 1:30:10
  going to be doing sorry. And then when we actually came
• 1:30:13
  came through the to finishing shoots and seeing them carry on
• 1:30:19
  that they're potentially going after a decent negative split
• 1:30:23
  here the way they're moving. Yeah.
• 1:30:26
  But we we kind of spoke and all he said like, oh, we're going to
• 1:30:29
  have to make a decision. Do we like go off the back of
• 1:30:32
  them? Do we try and get on the back of
• 1:30:33
  them again? Or do we just stay us free?
• 1:30:36
  And I was like, to be honest with you, this, it doesn't feel
• 1:30:39
  as easy as I'd like it to. So I'm happy to kind of stay
• 1:30:43
  with this effort. And if we catch them, we catch
• 1:30:46
  them. If we don't, we don't.
• 1:30:47
  But I don't want to deliberately chase them.
• 1:30:50
  If you do. I mean, it wasn't in this much
• 1:30:52
  depth, but if you do, like go for it.
• 1:30:55
  And then it was during that next 5K split, 20 to 25 K where we've
• 1:31:00
  got up the hill seemingly OK. And then Ollie started to move
• 1:31:05
  away from me and Lackey a little bit.
• 1:31:08
  And he was notably moving better than us because he kept he was
• 1:31:12
  kept engaging conversation. And I was like, shit, I don't
• 1:31:16
  really want to be speaking here like I'm not feeling amazing.
• 1:31:18
  I just want to kind of pass these KS by.
• 1:31:22
  And I was almost like going to say to him, you like push on if
• 1:31:27
  you want because you seem like you're holding back to stay with
• 1:31:30
  us. But I didn't want to get
• 1:31:31
  involved in this race plan anyway.
• 1:31:33
  He eventually made the decision to move forward himself.
• 1:31:37
  So then up to 25 Ki think that split we'd run 1727.
• 1:31:44
  So again, it's come off a little bit slower again.
• 1:31:47
  I mean, bear in mind we had come up that hill for the second
• 1:31:50
  time. So although it is slower,
• 1:31:53
  probably it wasn't a massive blow up there and the heart rate
• 1:31:58
  was 167, so it hadn't gone any higher.
• 1:32:03
  And then 25 to 30 K. This is where me and Lackey were
• 1:32:09
  kind of working pretty hard to keep the pace as it was.
• 1:32:12
  Well, I know I was and I got the impression that he was too.
• 1:32:15
  It sounded like he was struggling with like kind of
• 1:32:18
  being all congested. He was like constantly clearing
• 1:32:21
  his throat and stuff. And to be honest, I was
• 1:32:23
  expecting him to drop off the back of me because it just
• 1:32:27
  sounded like he was really struggling.
• 1:32:29
  But he stayed in there and then we've came through 30K and I
• 1:32:35
  wasn't desperate that I don't know what I've done here because
• 1:32:39
  I wasn't desperate for the toilet.
• 1:32:40
  I've needed, I've needed wait for a while and then I don't
• 1:32:43
  know if it was like I was just starting to hurt quite a bit and
• 1:32:47
  I've just darted into the toilet.
• 1:32:49
  So like almost what's the out of it?
• 1:32:51
  And then I've gone. To the toilet, Did you, would
• 1:32:54
  you say, darted into the toilet or?
• 1:32:56
  Well, I've gone in there and started booking.
• 1:33:00
  I've taken my time, I've spent 63 seconds in there, which is
• 1:33:04
  more than enough time. And I still can't quite put my
• 1:33:11
  finger on like what I was thinking.
• 1:33:13
  I obviously needed to go, but I don't think I was desperate
• 1:33:17
  enough to go. Like maybe. 63 seconds.
• 1:33:21
  I'm assuming you're you're a folder, not a scruncher.
• 1:33:24
  If it was 63 seconds in the toilet during a marathon.
• 1:33:27
  I was making sure I was nice and clean and stuff, yeah.
• 1:33:33
  But I think maybe had had I have been still on to run 223 or 224
• 1:33:40
  at that point, maybe I would have run past the toilet.
• 1:33:43
  But maybe. And maybe I've been like, oh
• 1:33:46
  shit, this, this is like falling apart already.
• 1:33:49
  I might as well like make myself feel comfortable and try and
• 1:33:52
  enjoy the last 12 Ki. Don't really know what I've done
• 1:33:55
  but I've done it anyway and when I came out I've said OK, I'm
• 1:33:58
  going to try and like finish off strongly.
• 1:34:01
  And then whilst I was in there three people who had spent the
• 1:34:04
  last 5K catching, I've obviously ran through.
• 1:34:07
  So then I can see them up the road and I thought OK, I'll try
• 1:34:09
  and wind them back in. But the way I went about it
• 1:34:13
  wasn't winding them back in. It was like I was starting a 2K
• 1:34:17
  Rep or something because when I looked at my watch after 500
• 1:34:21
  meters of this, I was running like 315 pace, which is
• 1:34:25
  ridiculous because 500 meters later it said like 332.
• 1:34:31
  So so just put this massive surgeon and then completely
• 1:34:35
  settled back into like the one pace that I was able to run.
• 1:34:41
  So my heart rate, this is the weird thing.
• 1:34:43
  My heart rate starts to come back down after this.
• 1:34:45
  So it's once 167 through the 25 to 30 K split and then the 30 to
• 1:34:51
  35 K split if you take the toilet break out of it.
• 1:34:55
  The actual time that I'd run was 1742.
• 1:34:59
  So I mean, it was slower again, but not crazy, not like a
• 1:35:02
  complete blow up. Heart rates down to 161.
• 1:35:05
  But I mean, the fact that sat in the toilet for a minute could
• 1:35:08
  play apart in that. And then it was like around this
• 1:35:12
  point where I was like realizing that my legs, I wouldn't say
• 1:35:15
  they've gone, but they were probably why I was feeling not
• 1:35:19
  confident coming through halfway was because my legs didn't feel
• 1:35:22
  completely fresh at that point. And I know you should be feeling
• 1:35:26
  pretty brand new jogging through halfway and thinking, right, OK,
• 1:35:29
  let's get this, get this marathon underway with them.
• 1:35:32
  Whereas I was just, I was too engaged, too involved early on
• 1:35:36
  and by fair he came my leg too rarely struggling.
• 1:35:39
  And then during this 30 to 35 K split, I've noticed that like
• 1:35:45
  markedly noticed as well that my stride had shortened.
• 1:35:48
  So usually when I run faster, the faster I get, the longer my
• 1:35:53
  stride gets. Obviously my cadence increases
• 1:35:56
  as well, but my stride lengthens more so than my cadence
• 1:36:00
  increases, if that makes sense. So that's how I kind of run
• 1:36:03
  faster, and I just couldn't stride out the way I usually do.
• 1:36:08
  It felt like I was taking really small steps.
• 1:36:11
  So I started really focusing on keeping my cadence up because I
• 1:36:14
  knew that if I want to keep any sort of pace in me, I wasn't
• 1:36:18
  able to run a long stride. So I had to just drive rapid
• 1:36:23
  short steps. And it's actually interesting
• 1:36:25
  when I've looked back through the numbers, the same as stride
• 1:36:29
  in the 1st 5 and 10K, even 15K is like 100 and 67168
• 1:36:35
  centimeters. And then by this point in the
• 1:36:38
  race it's down to 100 and 58157. And I've done like a little bit
• 1:36:44
  of maths on it before. It's like that's a 5%
• 1:36:48
  difference. So logically, you apply that 5%
• 1:36:52
  to pace and there's no getting away from the fact that you're
• 1:36:55
  going to slow. And I think that's just fatigue.
• 1:36:59
  That's perhaps why I'm thinking about the taper and not taking a
• 1:37:02
  rest day or maybe pushing the Tuesday too much.
• 1:37:05
  Because for the rest of the race, from 30K here, my heart
• 1:37:09
  rate doesn't go above 160. And that's because I wasn't able
• 1:37:14
  to move my legs fast enough or hard enough to generate the
• 1:37:17
  effort required to do so. So I feel like that's what's let
• 1:37:21
  me down more so well, probably going out too hard a little bit
• 1:37:24
  in hindsight as well, but more so than actual fitness.
• 1:37:28
  It's I probably didn't have my legs as fresh as they feel.
• 1:37:32
  The wood Coulda SO35 to 40K was 1751, which I'm starting and
• 1:37:40
  continually slow and still hasn't gone off a Cliff.
• 1:37:43
  Heart rate 159 but that was coming round the lake the second
• 1:37:47
  time and I've started to run into back markers on here and
• 1:37:51
  usually that would be a hindrance.
• 1:37:54
  But by this point I'm solo because I've let the group go
• 1:37:57
  when I went in the toilet. And I think it's actually almost
• 1:38:00
  saved me the fact that there was a constant stream of people and
• 1:38:05
  I was able to just like kinda work my way through them.
• 1:38:08
  Because if if I had been like entirely solo, there wasn't
• 1:38:11
  really many spectators around the lake.
• 1:38:13
  There was it was pretty isolated.
• 1:38:16
  And I was having pretty next thoughts around this point about
• 1:38:19
  finishing it off. And and yeah, if there wasn't
• 1:38:22
  like continually people there, somebody stepped off.
• 1:38:25
  I mean, I'd like to think I wouldn't have, but it was good
• 1:38:28
  that they were there. It made like it didn't make your
• 1:38:33
  decision to commit to the effort so much easier.
• 1:38:36
  Like when you've got that, it was, you can feel, you can even
• 1:38:40
  feel, you know that stretch when you're coming onto Lake
• 1:38:43
  Winderay, that that street, I don't know the name of the
• 1:38:45
  street, but the buzz there, like how could you not just run
• 1:38:49
  quicker through there? And it was the same.
• 1:38:51
  It's like it's the last part of the race.
• 1:38:53
  You're feeling the finish line. You feel absolutely wrecked, but
• 1:38:56
  you can't do anything other than sort of commit to the finish,
• 1:38:59
  which is, like you say, a nice feeling, like no matter what had
• 1:39:02
  just happened around the lake, you're sort of ready to sort of
• 1:39:06
  empty the clip, which is, which is good.
• 1:39:08
  Nice, nice way to finish. Yeah, I remember when we first
• 1:39:11
  came through that little cross section coming onto the lake
• 1:39:14
  where all the a lot of the support was and like my body
• 1:39:18
  kind of felt this like buzz and like goes a bit norm.
• 1:39:21
  So then you, you just drive and you kind of you don't know how
• 1:39:25
  fast you're running. And I remember thinking they're
• 1:39:27
  like shit need to be careful because could overcook it
• 1:39:31
  through that. And I made a mental note of that
• 1:39:35
  for the second lap. Like not to go too hard there
• 1:39:38
  around 30 K, but I needed the bus to lift me not to.
• 1:39:43
  There was no kind of making sure it didn't go too fast, that I
• 1:39:47
  was taking anything I could get on that second lap.
• 1:39:50
  And yeah, I kept saying RAF a couple of times and he told me
• 1:39:54
  earlier on when I seen him maybe around halfway shouted like
• 1:39:58
  fueling, positioning and patience.
• 1:40:01
  So that I kept that in my mind for a while, make sure I was
• 1:40:05
  getting my fuel down, positioning.
• 1:40:07
  I was just thinking about staying on the back of those
• 1:40:10
  guys who was setting the pace and.
• 1:40:13
  Patience was probably to not run too hard too early, but in
• 1:40:17
  hindsight I did. But I thought that what I was
• 1:40:19
  doing was being patient. But that would kind of unfold
• 1:40:23
  towards the back, back end of the race and show itself.
• 1:40:27
  And he kept telling me later on when I seen him, because I seen
• 1:40:31
  him just after I'd been in the toilet and he was, I could tell
• 1:40:34
  he was a bit confused as to why the group that I was in had been
• 1:40:37
  blown apart. And I was like 90 seconds off
• 1:40:40
  the back of it. So I shouted I'd just gone the
• 1:40:42
  toilet. And then he was like giving me
• 1:40:45
  encouragement, saying there's four or five up the road, like
• 1:40:47
  you'll catch them. And he was also telling me like,
• 1:40:51
  you look good. You look good.
• 1:40:53
  And I was just thinking, I feel absolutely shite.
• 1:40:55
  Like, I don't know how I can possibly look good right now,
• 1:40:58
  but do you? Find like, there's a lot of
• 1:41:03
  positive and negative thoughts that run through your mind
• 1:41:06
  during the marathon. And like, particularly as you
• 1:41:07
  get more tired, there's some really like dark negative
• 1:41:11
  thoughts in there and they're sometimes hard to shake.
• 1:41:15
  But did you notice you were just sitting with some of those those
• 1:41:18
  those thoughts? Yeah, so like in previous, well,
• 1:41:21
  like Gold Coast, it all just like everything went my way and
• 1:41:25
  I ran it evenly or slightly negatively and just felt like, I
• 1:41:31
  mean, obviously it's hard towards the end, but felt pretty
• 1:41:33
  good the whole way. Like I was in control.
• 1:41:36
  But as soon as on Sunday when you know that kind of you
• 1:41:40
  clinging on a little bit or you're not in control anymore,
• 1:41:43
  it's hard to like reframe those negative thoughts, isn't it?
• 1:41:46
  And to like give yourself encouragement.
• 1:41:48
  You kind of almost spiral in allowing yourself to be negative
• 1:41:52
  and it's just like the worst headspace to be in.
• 1:41:57
  So that's when I stopped kind of doing this 5K split on my watch
• 1:42:03
  because I knew that the pace was kind of draining a bit and I
• 1:42:05
  started to split it more frequently to kind of keep
• 1:42:09
  myself honest. So I could see basically how
• 1:42:12
  slow I was running more often to kind of keep me accountable.
• 1:42:17
  Because I remember doing some maths around 38 K would have
• 1:42:22
  been like about 4K to go. And I remember trying to figure
• 1:42:26
  out how fast I needed to get home to ensure that I'd still
• 1:42:30
  run a PB. And that 38 K was about the most
• 1:42:34
  difficult point of the headwind. And I was just like, at that
• 1:42:37
  point, almost laughing to myself, like shaking my head,
• 1:42:40
  like how has it got to the point where I'm now figuring out if
• 1:42:44
  I'm going to make a PB or not? And I'm actually debating
• 1:42:47
  whether or not I'll make it. And I was just like fuck sake
• 1:42:51
  like how's it ended up here. But I managed to get off the
• 1:42:57
  lake in the end, I think around 335 twice on 38 and 39 K and
• 1:43:05
  then managed to get down the hill in what felt like an
• 1:43:11
  absolute Sprint. I was driving with everything.
• 1:43:13
  I had those grimacing. I remember thinking all these
• 1:43:16
  people, because there's the street, that street coming down
• 1:43:19
  the hill was quite lined, wasn't it was pretty deep and there's
• 1:43:22
  good atmosphere and stuff. And it was apparent that there's
• 1:43:26
  a lot of people doing their first lap coming down the hill
• 1:43:30
  and then I was kind of obviously overtaking them.
• 1:43:33
  So it would have been obvious that I was kind of on my second
• 1:43:36
  lap and about to finish. And I just remember thinking
• 1:43:39
  like, I look so ugly right now. Like there's so much pain on my
• 1:43:43
  face and I just can't get rid of it.
• 1:43:46
  And my quads were smashed coming down that hill.
• 1:43:49
  I couldn't strive, but I was just kind of shuffle as fast as
• 1:43:53
  I could remember looking at my watch to think I must be running
• 1:43:58
  like 3-10 or something that like down this hill because I was
• 1:44:02
  giving her everything. It was like 325.
• 1:44:05
  Hey, summer watchers. Fuck me, I'm absolutely cook.
• 1:44:10
  And then you have to swing left of that little climb, don't you?
• 1:44:16
  Yeah. And that's that, that's that
• 1:44:18
  every single bit of momentum that had.
• 1:44:20
  And then you do EU turn and then you just drive up that hill
• 1:44:24
  towards the finish line. And.
• 1:44:26
  Yeah, I remember round in that corner seeing the clock and
• 1:44:30
  thinking like, thank God I'm going to snatch a PB, but also
• 1:44:34
  this is ridiculous. Like, what the fuck have I done?
• 1:44:39
  I just remember seeing you stood there on the fence with Haley
• 1:44:42
  and I was just like shaking my head, laughing at you.
• 1:44:44
  Yeah. Probably says it all so that and
• 1:44:49
  that is how how it went down. And your reflections now in
• 1:44:53
  terms of the the races, the race performance and yeah, you know
• 1:44:59
  your feeling towards the marathon and, and all that.
• 1:45:02
  Is one of them is that so I've tried to be disappointed and
• 1:45:08
  like everyone tells you like, oh, you can't, you shouldn't be
• 1:45:10
  disappointed. You shouldn't be so hard on
• 1:45:12
  yourself and like you've still run a PB blah, blah, blah.
• 1:45:15
  You can never be disappointed with a PB.
• 1:45:18
  But I think that's because people are trying to like almost
• 1:45:21
  protect you and be like a bit concerned that you might be down
• 1:45:24
  about it. But I'm not, I'm not gutted.
• 1:45:26
  I'm not upset. I think it's, it's fine.
• 1:45:29
  And it's natural to be disappointed if you didn't
• 1:45:31
  achieve what you want to achieve.
• 1:45:33
  So I'm disappointed with it, but I'm fine with that because it
• 1:45:37
  leaves me in a place of being motivated to get after it again
• 1:45:41
  next time and have having a point to prove.
• 1:45:44
  Yeah. And I also feel a little bit
• 1:45:47
  humbled by it. So it's taught me a lesson in
• 1:45:50
  potentially like being able to adjust your goals and not being
• 1:45:53
  so rigid and focused on like one time or defining success by such
• 1:45:59
  a small margin. So like if you had a said to me
• 1:46:03
  on Sunday morning, you'll run 22540 or 2/26/20, I would have
• 1:46:09
  said that's crap. I don't want to do that.
• 1:46:12
  Whereas now I'd love to say that I'd run 226 or 225 or 226.
• 1:46:19
  And it's only hindsight that shows you that.
• 1:46:21
  So I think you need to be more flexible.
• 1:46:25
  It shows that you can't fake a marathon.
• 1:46:27
  In the end, I think I come a little bit unstuck with the
• 1:46:31
  interruptions and the last month not being as like consistent as
• 1:46:36
  I would have liked it to be and kind of scraping towards the
• 1:46:39
  start line. But I do need to give myself a
• 1:46:44
  cut myself a little bit of slack because on Sunday and yesterday,
• 1:46:49
  maybe until I thought about it properly, I was thinking it was
• 1:46:52
  like a complete blow up and stuff.
• 1:46:53
  But it's only a 3 1/2 minute positive split, which isn't,
• 1:46:58
  isn't massive. And then when I've sat in the
• 1:47:01
  bathroom for a minute of that, it's, it's only 2 1/2 minute
• 1:47:06
  positive split. So it's not even that bad.
• 1:47:08
  But when I'm yeah, I'm yeah. And I think as well, like 2 1/2
• 1:47:14
  minutes, don't forget in that first half, you're getting a
• 1:47:16
  nice sit in a group of people like in terms of distribution of
• 1:47:20
  effort, 2 1/2 minutes. If you had someone to follow for
• 1:47:24
  that last part of the race in terms of effort, you're probably
• 1:47:27
  able to mirror a slightly quicker effort as well.
• 1:47:29
  And then if you're able and then if you're closer again in terms
• 1:47:32
  of an all out complete empty of the clip, if it's a pleasant
• 1:47:36
  race, like I don't know if you heard, yeah, the Inside Running
• 1:47:40
  podcast sort of comment just on how tough it is in that last
• 1:47:43
  five KS running into that wind. Like when you if you haven't got
• 1:47:46
  the reserve there, you're going to leave time.
• 1:47:49
  Like just naturally it's like versus somewhere like Valencia
• 1:47:53
  where you've got that nice small downhill at that same part in
• 1:47:56
  the race, which is when you really need it, when you're
• 1:47:57
  really struggling to get some positive feedback from your
• 1:48:00
  watch, you're really looking for that.
• 1:48:02
  And when you're getting the opposite, it's just gross.
• 1:48:04
  So like you say, you probably nailed one as race strategy
• 1:48:08
  really. So then there is there's two
• 1:48:14
  more takeaways that I am proud of myself for the fact that I
• 1:48:19
  finished it off because it did get they did get pretty shit And
• 1:48:23
  my the one way in which I define success was out the window by
• 1:48:28
  probably like the first 5K, the second-half.
• 1:48:31
  So it was a long second-half of the race, just thinking about
• 1:48:34
  not hitting my goal basically, and obviously started to
• 1:48:38
  struggle and could have gave up, but managed to be pretty gritty.
• 1:48:44
  And because like when you look at the results, there were
• 1:48:47
  plenty of people who didn't finish or who this is one thing
• 1:48:52
  somehow I managed to figure out if we, if I looked at anyone who
• 1:48:56
  finished higher up than me, there was no one who went
• 1:48:59
  through halfway slower than me, which is bizarre.
• 1:49:02
  So like no one ran through me in the second-half besides the two
• 1:49:06
  lads who was running with Ollie and Lackey, but they were
• 1:49:10
  obviously with me. They just finished off better
• 1:49:13
  than me. And then there's at least five
• 1:49:16
  people who are managed to still with my innovator commas massive
• 1:49:21
  blow up I managed to catch and run through in the second-half.
• 1:49:26
  So yeah, it's just contacts like that.
• 1:49:29
  But one thing what will stay with me for a while until I can
• 1:49:32
  put it right. And I know he was only joking,
• 1:49:35
  but when afterwards when Jordan said anyone can run a good half
• 1:49:39
  marathon and like give me a nudge, I.
• 1:49:41
  Was like. Shit, you little bastard, you've
• 1:49:43
  got me there. Is your Is your half marathon
• 1:49:47
  quicker than Jordan's? I think so.
• 1:49:49
  Maybe that's why he might be being a bit spiteful about it.
• 1:49:52
  He's he's quite a he's very. So we were lucky enough to have
• 1:49:56
  a beer with him after the race. And man, I could sit there all
• 1:49:59
  day and listen to his stories and his knowledge of running is
• 1:50:03
  ridiculous. But he knows numbers as well as
• 1:50:07
  he's no shoot, so maybe, maybe there's a bit in that.
• 1:50:10
  Exactly, And that when he said because he was talking about
• 1:50:13
  like how he's tried to prepare Chriso for London and he was
• 1:50:18
  saying like, you know, it doesn't matter what you split
• 1:50:21
  that halfway is like anyone can get to halfway and whatever time
• 1:50:25
  they think. But that does not mean that
• 1:50:27
  you're going to get to the full time in that time that you need
• 1:50:31
  to get to 30K or 35K on pace and being somewhat respectable
• 1:50:37
  position in terms of how you're feeling.
• 1:50:39
  So I think it made me think about having a goal of splitting
• 1:50:44
  halfway in 72 and all this. It literally doesn't matter.
• 1:50:47
  Like I've run a 67 minute half marathon, Obviously I can run
• 1:50:51
  through halfway in 72. You need to be thinking about
• 1:50:54
  getting a lot deeper into the race on that pace and feeling
• 1:50:58
  pretty OK about it, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, I think
• 1:51:01
  connected to that in terms of because when I was sort of
• 1:51:04
  reflecting on my race and how I felt about it compared to
• 1:51:07
  Maragami, like I was quite disappointed with Maragami and
• 1:51:11
  some similar, some really similar themes to you.
• 1:51:13
  So I was, so I went into that race so wedded to an arbitrary
• 1:51:20
  time and I just, and I just, I ignored signs that I was
• 1:51:25
  overreaching because I just wanted, because I was so
• 1:51:28
  committed mentally to holding that effort and pace.
• 1:51:33
  And I sort of disregarded. I'm pretty sure I could feel
• 1:51:35
  like lactate in my arms at about 8K, which you should definitely
• 1:51:38
  not be feeling, but I'm just like, oh, it just must be really
• 1:51:41
  cold like that. It's my arms feel like that.
• 1:51:44
  But I was clearly just overworking.
• 1:51:46
  But I was so hell bent on, I was in really good shape and I
• 1:51:49
  wanted it to be reflected in the time I ran that I sort of
• 1:51:52
  ignored the signs that I clearly was not racing the effort that
• 1:51:56
  was appropriate. And so so then on Sunday, even
• 1:51:59
  though when I was off pace, I was, I was not wedded to a pace.
• 1:52:04
  I was wedded to an effort and I was wedded to what I thought I
• 1:52:08
  was capable of, what I was capable of running for the
• 1:52:11
  duration. And so when I finished the race,
• 1:52:13
  even though I didn't run the time, like I was much closer to
• 1:52:16
  my half marathon PB, but I was really disappointed with
• 1:52:20
  Maragami versus on Sunday. I was a bit off, but I was
• 1:52:23
  really happy with my race because of how it how it went
• 1:52:26
  for me. I felt like I gave the effort I
• 1:52:28
  could on the day. So yeah, so I was sort of, yeah,
• 1:52:32
  just in terms of the goal I set. The goal was I connected with a
• 1:52:36
  goal that was, you know, like a process theme, I guess, rather
• 1:52:40
  than a time theme. And I mean, that's not always
• 1:52:43
  the way like, you know, you sort of do have time and, and, and
• 1:52:47
  things like that. But certainly, you know, I, I
• 1:52:50
  felt like connecting more to that helped me to sort of, yeah,
• 1:52:54
  run my potential for the day, albeit and maybe not quite what
• 1:52:58
  I hoped it would be, if that makes sense.
• 1:53:00
  That's fair enough. And now when you explain it like
• 1:53:03
  that, I can't see the similarities between my run and
• 1:53:07
  my goals yesterday and how you got on in Maragami.
• 1:53:11
  And it's almost as though you're like, you're setting yourself up
• 1:53:14
  to fail in a way, aren't you? Well, not to fail, but it's
• 1:53:18
  success or failure and that's it.
• 1:53:20
  Yeah, unless you're on one like for like even for the bridges.
• 1:53:23
  I had in the back of my mind, like the reason why I picked to
• 1:53:26
  do the bridges a couple weeks ago was because I thought I
• 1:53:28
  might be able to get myself into 30 minute shape and maybe have a
• 1:53:31
  crack at beating it. But the race itself, I didn't
• 1:53:34
  even care to look at my split at halfway.
• 1:53:36
  Like I wasn't like clock watching every kilometer.
• 1:53:39
  I mean, I looked at my clock at 8 KS and was like oh fuck, I'm
• 1:53:41
  going to miss it again. But like it was a secondary
• 1:53:43
  thing rather than the primary motivation for my race effort.
• 1:53:47
  And I think that was helpful because I think if I got too
• 1:53:50
  wedded to my time, I just, I'd force the time at parts in the
• 1:53:54
  race where maybe I wasn't meant to.
• 1:53:56
  With that being said, I mean, who doesn't when you're it's
• 1:53:59
  sensible to go into a marathon block with a sort of pacing
• 1:54:02
  window. Otherwise, how do you And that's
• 1:54:04
  the whole point of us doing those workouts and stuff is to
• 1:54:07
  try and dial into that pace window.
• 1:54:08
  So, you know, it's not, it's never that simple.
• 1:54:11
  But yeah, it's probably trying to attach to those things, but
• 1:54:15
  not over attached to them. We.
• 1:54:16
  Go now will be to recover mentally and physically.
• 1:54:22
  No no I'm fine mentally. I mean, my, my heel was pretty
• 1:54:28
  fucking beat up yesterday. Like I was the 1st couple of
• 1:54:32
  hours I had to walk solely through my toes.
• 1:54:35
  I couldn't put any pressure through the heel because it was
• 1:54:37
  just so like inflamed. It feels a lot better today, but
• 1:54:41
  I'm still going to try and remember how it felt yesterday
• 1:54:44
  because I don't just want to drift back into training and
• 1:54:47
  then be trying to manage this re caring problem.
• 1:54:50
  Like I want to know that I'm good and then like train
• 1:54:54
  properly on the back of that basically.
• 1:54:56
  And and yeah, like goals similar to you, I don't know if
• 1:55:00
  something back off of the air, but I don't know what.
• 1:55:02
  Probably Sydney comes a bit too soon for me, Maybe Melbourne,
• 1:55:07
  maybe Fukuoka, something like that.
• 1:55:10
  Awesome. Yeah, Hopefully we can line
• 1:55:11
  those up together. I'm just thinking, I know we've
• 1:55:15
  been talking for a while. Do we, do we do some of the
• 1:55:18
  recaps of some of the races? Do we merge them next week?
• 1:55:21
  Because dare I say our running week will be fairly light on,
• 1:55:25
  but I know there's some listener questions that are related to
• 1:55:28
  Ballarat. Yeah, true.
• 1:55:30
  But I think that just about concludes the Ballarat recap.
• 1:55:34
  Doesn't it draw a line under it now?
• 1:55:37
  Yeah, it was great. I mean, I had a had a fun time.
• 1:55:39
  I think, I don't know if you had this reflection, but it was a
• 1:55:42
  pretty short build up. I think we only did 7 or 8 weeks
• 1:55:44
  of sort of marathon training. So it's not like we banked A
• 1:55:47
  heap a long run. So look, at the very least,
• 1:55:49
  maybe it puts us in a good position to sort of attack a a
• 1:55:52
  marathon or marathons later in the year, right.
• 1:55:54
  So that had a lot of fun. And yeah, look forward to the
• 1:55:58
  next one. I feel like where we are now, we
• 1:56:01
  don't need to go back to to scratch and like go do all like
• 1:56:05
  the heavy VO2 work and build right back up again.
• 1:56:08
  We can almost just use this one and move forwards from it, can't
• 1:56:11
  we? Yeah, I feel just the same,
• 1:56:13
  Yeah. So we do have a few listener
• 1:56:15
  questions come in on the back of that.
• 1:56:18
  So we've got What are your thoughts on Brady describing
• 1:56:22
  Ballarat as Valencia of the South?
• 1:56:24
  From Harry. Yeah, and a shout out to Harry,
• 1:56:30
  he was. So Harry was like a fallen
• 1:56:33
  soldier in terms of the, you know, one of the victims of the
• 1:56:36
  Canova style big workouts we were doing in the lead up.
• 1:56:40
  But credit to Harry, I think he had a moon boot on and he still
• 1:56:43
  managed to get around and ride around and came over to Ballarat
• 1:56:45
  and cheer us on. So which was really appreciated.
• 1:56:49
  Loved his support on course and catching up with him while we
• 1:56:52
  were over there. But yeah, I think, look, I think
• 1:56:56
  it was great. I think the event was really
• 1:56:57
  well run. You know, on roads there were
• 1:57:01
  just, I think the wind was just the major challenge.
• 1:57:04
  I don't know whether or not the fact that it's for 500 meters
• 1:57:07
  above sea level, whether or not that plays a role.
• 1:57:10
  I'm not sure if it's quite as quick as Valencia.
• 1:57:12
  I mean, I, I don't think it is, but it's still a, an opportunity
• 1:57:16
  to sort of get close to your potential and for, for a
• 1:57:19
  domestic brace to offer that in April.
• 1:57:21
  Like there's really nothing else coming that close to it.
• 1:57:24
  So I still really rate it, whether or not it's quite
• 1:57:27
  Valencia, but 3 1/2 hours from Perth versus 21 or whatever it
• 1:57:31
  would be to Valencia. I think, yeah, I still still
• 1:57:34
  thought it was great, albeit that maybe it's a like to
• 1:57:37
  optimistically think maybe we've got a couple of minutes if we
• 1:57:39
  head over to Valencia in December.
• 1:57:41
  Yeah, similar for when it's positioned in the calendar.
• 1:57:45
  I guess it's it's ideal if you're looking to attack a
• 1:57:48
  marathon without travelling too far at that time of the year.
• 1:57:53
  But yeah, potentially whether it stacks up to Valencia, I'm not
• 1:57:56
  so sure. And I did say to Brady
• 1:57:58
  afterwards, please tell me that like last year was a lot quicker
• 1:58:03
  than that for you to give it like the Valencia tight only it
• 1:58:06
  was like, Oh yeah, I think it wasn't raised.
• 1:58:08
  Comes on the back of slightly more favourable conditions last
• 1:58:12
  year. But that's what you're going to
• 1:58:14
  get with Ballarat. It's a bit of a roulette.
• 1:58:18
  Yeah, I had AI had a look at sort of rains on average
• 1:58:21
  something like 170 odd days of the year in Ballarat, which is
• 1:58:25
  almost every second day. So perhaps the weather's not as
• 1:58:30
  pleasant as what they got last year, albeit that it was still
• 1:58:33
  pretty nice on Sunday. Passage from Being a Simon asks,
• 1:58:38
  how do you fellas feel about the podcast adding pressure to your
• 1:58:41
  running journey? It's a good question.
• 1:58:43
  Listen. Yeah, I'm not sure.
• 1:58:46
  I think he, I think if you compartmentalize it pretty well,
• 1:58:50
  then perhaps it doesn't. I think the difficulty is not
• 1:58:54
  necessarily about the podcast and it adding pressure for me
• 1:58:59
  day-to-day or towards a race, but it's probably just the added
• 1:59:02
  stress of needing to record and needing to find time to fit it
• 1:59:05
  in. You know, it's sort of, it's
• 1:59:07
  sort of hard to carve out 10 hours a week for running and
• 1:59:09
  then you've got to carve out another say two or three for the
• 1:59:11
  podcast or things connected to the podcast.
• 1:59:14
  And so it's just sort of having enough energy available to be
• 1:59:17
  able to do that without it sort of coming at a cost, you know,
• 1:59:20
  to your, to yourself, your family and to your running.
• 1:59:23
  So I think it's trying to find the available effort to do it.
• 1:59:28
  I wouldn't say I, I wouldn't say I'm running necessarily any
• 1:59:32
  different this time around than I am six months ago or anything
• 1:59:35
  like that. Yeah, I'm very glad that I'm
• 1:59:39
  able to say not once on Sunday. As hard as it got and as
• 1:59:43
  negative as maybe my thoughts got, I didn't think about having
• 1:59:48
  to explain it or talk about it on the podcast, which is a good
• 1:59:52
  sign because it shows that it's not kind of one of the first
• 1:59:56
  thoughts that come to mind. Yeah, the only, the only thought
• 1:59:59
  I had prior to the race was if this goes poorly, people are
• 2:00:04
  going to make potentially connect the podcast with my poor
• 2:00:07
  performance and I'm like, oh, that's going to annoy me, but
• 2:00:09
  that was about it. Mara said.
• 2:00:12
  I think we have. We've answered that where you
• 2:00:14
  answered it and you think about when did you decide to go with
• 2:00:17
  the 220 group and about going off the front of the mid race.
• 2:00:23
  Yeah, there is gone. Yeah, I was only going to say
• 2:00:27
  there was this one point. Like Caleb Laker and Reece were
• 2:00:32
  only hoot Reece who eventually won.
• 2:00:35
  They were sort of only 5 seconds ahead of us after about 7 K's.
• 2:00:39
  Like they were really close, like in touching.
• 2:00:40
  And I could feel them sort of setting a better tempo and I
• 2:00:42
  could feel us settling into our tempo.
• 2:00:45
  And that was the time where I was like, if I felt good, I
• 2:00:48
  would have run up onto them and tried to run behind them.
• 2:00:51
  But I just, I looked at my heart rate and it was right at the top
• 2:00:54
  of what I was allowed allowing myself.
• 2:00:56
  So I was like, oh God, I'll just stay where I am.
• 2:00:59
  And then I waited until, yeah, when I made that move, right
• 2:01:01
  into the headwind around the lake.
• 2:01:03
  Done Yaxley and Andy Lane and asking questions around the
• 2:01:10
  pacer. I think you've talked about some
• 2:01:15
  parts of it in your recap, but Dan says about honest thoughts
• 2:01:18
  of them racing a race and not sticking to the time goal.
• 2:01:23
  I think with this one you can't be the judge, can you?
• 2:01:29
  Because he's clearly defending pleading his innocence in his
• 2:01:33
  straw post by saying like he's run within 30 seconds of it or
• 2:01:37
  whatever. And that was always the plan.
• 2:01:39
  And then there's the flip side where people are saying, well,
• 2:01:42
  he said he was going to run 220 dad, and then he's trying to
• 2:01:47
  pull up on you during the race and stuff.
• 2:01:50
  I mean, I'm just sick of the debate over him to be honest.
• 2:01:56
  Yeah, I think, I think it's difficult.
• 2:01:58
  You sort of like, I mean, if you offering your services to pace
• 2:02:03
  like at that fair effort, like you have to do a lot of training
• 2:02:06
  just to be fit enough to offer that.
• 2:02:07
  So it's very nice of him to go to that, you know, to even offer
• 2:02:11
  it to begin with. And then there was probably some
• 2:02:15
  suspicion that, you know, how's, how's it going to play out.
• 2:02:20
  And then it was sort of by and large through the pace, right?
• 2:02:23
  Like if you go through 6940 something, whatever that group
• 2:02:26
  went through halfway, I think that's job done.
• 2:02:29
  Plus what -15 seconds. I think you're sort of doing
• 2:02:31
  your job. Maybe you maybe where it gets a
• 2:02:34
  bit questionable is towards the back end where, you know, he's
• 2:02:38
  sort of dropped Brady and then he's running up after us.
• 2:02:40
  I think you probably just feeling how we're all feeling,
• 2:02:43
  which is excited about being at the back end of the marathon.
• 2:02:47
  But look, I for me, it was an opportunity to sort of race the
• 2:02:50
  back part of the race and get a bit more excited.
• 2:02:52
  And credit to him. He sort of towed me along and
• 2:02:55
  was kind enough to say, hey, you keep running.
• 2:02:59
  So I, the fact his presence in the race made it more engaging
• 2:03:02
  and him sort of driving at pace was, was helpful.
• 2:03:05
  So I I appreciated it. You, you managed to answer these
• 2:03:09
  things so diplomatically. It's very, very good skill that
• 2:03:13
  you've got. And then I think lastly, Liam
• 2:03:21
  Stocky. Oh shit.
• 2:03:22
  There's one last thing I want to say.
• 2:03:24
  Well, now I've seen Liam Stocky's name, he asks, are we
• 2:03:28
  at the point of considering gastro stock?
• 2:03:30
  Also, Congrats, boys. I think that's a reference to
• 2:03:35
  me. Yeah, answer that.
• 2:03:38
  Unfortunately it seems to be a common theme on this bloody
• 2:03:40
  podcast, but usually like Embrace Embraces, it's not a
• 2:03:45
  common theme. And I think, hopefully I've
• 2:03:47
  answered it in my recap, that it wasn't to the point when I like,
• 2:03:53
  I was literally going to shit myself.
• 2:03:56
  I don't really know why I've ended up in there, maybe it was
• 2:03:59
  just needed. To do a.
• 2:04:02
  Job. A bit of a wobble somewhere
• 2:04:03
  along the way, but no, I think I'm OK for now.
• 2:04:07
  Then we'll we'll see with the next one.
• 2:04:10
  But yeah, seeing Liam Stocky's name there in the in one of the
• 2:04:14
  first case, he was running the half marathon and he was near
• 2:04:17
  me. And at this point I'd actually
• 2:04:20
  almost ran into Jordan. I didn't even know he was that
• 2:04:23
  well. I knew he was in Ballarat, but I
• 2:04:25
  didn't know he was there in the race.
• 2:04:26
  And he's like, oh, hello, how are we, blah, blah.
• 2:04:29
  And then Stocky's wearing a pair of arms and his lace comes
• 2:04:33
  undone. Just ask us.
• 2:04:36
  He gives them some helpful advice.
• 2:04:39
  He's like, you want to step off and tie that up now, mate?
• 2:04:43
  Because that's going to be like a problem later.
• 2:04:45
  And I think Stocky like was dismissed them.
• 2:04:49
  And then Jordan starts laughing to himself and we're in a pack
• 2:04:52
  of like Stacey at this point and he's shouting, who's the fuck?
• 2:04:55
  Design them shoes. That's so good.
• 2:05:01
  His problem anymore? Yeah, yeah, that was his former
• 2:05:05
  employer and he very well may have had a hand in them.
• 2:05:08
  I think that is pretty much us. I'm sure I did have another
• 2:05:13
  little we wanted to go through gone.
• 2:05:16
  Yeah, the the competition, yeah, yeah.
• 2:05:19
  So thanks everyone that had a cracker trying to guess, predict
• 2:05:23
  my race time. Thanks everyone.
• 2:05:26
  That was there's a lot of optimism and I appreciated it.
• 2:05:29
  And I was one of you. If I was to guess a time, I was
• 2:05:31
  hoping to run a bit quicker. But yes, I ended up running
• 2:05:36
  21859 and the closest to the pin was 2/19/12 by a three under
• 2:05:46
  score legged under score cat. That's the Instagram handle.
• 2:05:51
  So I think Vlad will be in touch with you regarding getting your
• 2:05:57
  mailing address to send out the kilo of Bix gels, which went
• 2:06:02
  down well, which might I add, is what I ingested and I didn't
• 2:06:05
  need to go to the bathroom. So yeah, no good product.
• 2:06:09
  And then just on the follow on from that with Owen's
• 2:06:14
  announcements of the special competition to guest my time as
• 2:06:17
  well. Unfortunately, it was one of the
• 2:06:19
  slower gases, which kills me to congratulate this person in
• 2:06:24
  predicting. I think Carlos Aquino said
• 2:06:28
  22659. So I was actually even slower
• 2:06:31
  than his guests. But congratulations, Carlos, one
• 2:06:35
  of us owes you almond croissants or a croissant of your choice
• 2:06:39
  and a coffee. And I guess it's the the duty of
• 2:06:43
  that probably falls to me, seeing as I've ran so slowly and
• 2:06:46
  allowed you to win with that guess.
• 2:06:47
  So I'll pay you out next time. See you call us.
• 2:06:50
  Congrats. All right then I think that that
• 2:06:53
  is us done. So thanks everyone.
• 2:06:55
  If you've managed to stick along for this amount of time, I hope
• 2:06:58
  you enjoyed the honest recap that Dean and I have provided.
• 2:07:03
  And if you have any thoughts on our performances or any
• 2:07:07
  comments, then please do get in touch.
• 2:07:09
  We'd love to hear your thoughts. And we'll be back next week with
• 2:07:13
  The Irishman for some more content where we'll cover off.
• 2:07:17
  Should probably just note that we've deliberately omitted some
• 2:07:20
  running news and stuff this week because training might be a bit
• 2:07:23
  late next week, so it'll give us something to talk about there
• 2:07:27
  and we've talked for long enough already.
• 2:07:29
  Any final words, Dean? And I just Congrats on the on
• 2:07:33
  the PB and yeah, look forward to getting back into training in
• 2:07:38
  due course. All right.
• 2:07:39
  Thanks, mate. Thanks listeners.
• 2:07:41
  See you. Mate, bye.