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Jess Stenson: Australia's Fastest Ever Female Marathoner · Easy Double podcast

• 0:34
  Hello and welcome back to the Easy Double podcast.
• 0:37
  Today Ryan and I are joined by someone who really needs no
• 0:40
  introduction, but I'll do my best.
• 0:43
  They are the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, the
• 0:45
  current Australian women's marathon record holder and all
• 0:48
  around super mom and lovely person, Jess Stenson.
• 0:51
  Jess, welcome. Thanks for having me, really
• 0:55
  excited to chat. I we normally kick off our
• 1:01
  podcast just with a bit of quick fire Q&A in terms of guest.
• 1:05
  But before we do, I think it would be, it wouldn't be right
• 1:10
  if I didn't start by just touching on and we spoke just
• 1:13
  briefly a little bit off air just about your recent Instagram
• 1:17
  post and recent baby news. So congratulations on behalf of
• 1:20
  us and all the listeners for baby #3.
• 1:24
  Thank you. Yeah, I need to get some tips
• 1:25
  from you. By the sounds on three, it's a
• 1:28
  breeze, right? Yes, look, I, I, I need to be
• 1:33
  very careful here. My, my, my, my wife's a listener
• 1:37
  and, and does a lot of the heavy lifting.
• 1:39
  I'm, I must admit, but as all great mums do out there, but,
• 1:45
  and I know you played team sport growing up, but my, a good
• 1:48
  analogy for me going from, I went from 1:00 to 3:00, but two
• 1:52
  to three was like in basketball, you know, like the difference
• 1:55
  between man on man versus zone defence.
• 1:57
  So you basically just, and it's like if your partner's there,
• 2:00
  you just guard the most offensive threat.
• 2:03
  So whoever's most likely to injure themselves becomes a
• 2:05
  problem. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:08
  No, we're in that phase with a 2 year old at the moment.
• 2:11
  It's just yeah, generally she's turning on ovens, climbing up on
• 2:15
  tables. She's the 1:00 you got to hover
• 2:17
  around the most. A figure and that it's normally
• 2:21
  the it's often the boys that are up to a bit of mischief.
• 2:25
  But yeah, good to good to hear it goes both ways.
• 2:31
  And I guess yeah, how, how are you?
• 2:33
  How are you feeling? And like, yeah, is it 13 weeks?
• 2:38
  Yeah. Yeah, and I was feeling pretty
• 2:42
  rough for a while there. I mean, basically it was 2 or so
• 2:47
  weeks after the race and I hadn't run much at all.
• 2:51
  I was just giving myself a really good recovery.
• 2:54
  And it's that time when everyone's starting to thinking
• 2:56
  about Christmas and. And we were heading to the coast
• 2:59
  and, you know, a couple more weeks into it, I was starting to
• 3:02
  jog again. And I was looking down at my
• 3:04
  heart rate. And I'm like, oh, it's pretty
• 3:06
  warm, but my heart rate's pretty high.
• 3:09
  And I was like, I reckon I'm pregnant.
• 3:12
  And then, yeah, I had the test and obviously I was over the
• 3:16
  moon. But at that point I was like,
• 3:18
  running is only going to get harder from here.
• 3:21
  I just just kept on jogging. So I haven't really got back
• 3:24
  into formal training since the race.
• 3:27
  I've just been doing what I've been up for on the day, which in
• 3:30
  the early days I was so fatigued, like getting to three,
• 3:35
  4:00. And for the beginning it was
• 3:38
  school holidays. So that was pretty tough.
• 3:40
  And then, yeah, when school started again, it's right on
• 3:43
  pick pick up time. I just felt like going to bed
• 3:45
  basically. And I haven't, you know, been up
• 3:47
  much past 8:00 for quite a while.
• 3:50
  But that's all starting to ease now.
• 3:52
  The nausea is starting to lift. But yeah, it's it's pretty tough
• 3:55
  going. Certainly the pregnancy symptoms
• 3:57
  don't get better easier with the experience And so it's been
• 4:02
  quite nice actually just training to feel and I'm feeling
• 4:05
  now like I can do more and I can actually add a little bit of
• 4:08
  intensity in again and and join my squad a bit more easily.
• 4:13
  It was kind of tricky there when it wasn't public yet and I
• 4:17
  joined them for the warm up and people are like, oh, So what are
• 4:21
  you doing? Like you want to come and do
• 4:22
  Ballarat and, and I was just having to be quite vague.
• 4:26
  It's nice just being able to talk openly now.
• 4:29
  And. Funny, isn't it, when when you
• 4:32
  ask people who hold records about like, how it feels and
• 4:35
  stuff like that, they often try and set say, like, Oh yeah,
• 4:39
  well, you try and not get too attached to it because, you
• 4:41
  know, a record's never going to last forever, but the legacy of
• 4:44
  a child will always last forever.
• 4:47
  So it's nice to attach that. That is how I feel about the
• 4:51
  record. Like it's a huge honour.
• 4:53
  And yeah, I'm really excited to have achieved that time.
• 4:57
  But I know that records are there to be broken and
• 5:00
  ultimately they serve as kind of a carrot to to push people out
• 5:04
  of their comfort zones. And hopefully, you know, it'll
• 5:08
  lift, you know, the women's distance running even more going
• 5:12
  for that next time. So you sort of know it is just a
• 5:15
  temporary thing and you enjoy it while you have it.
• 5:17
  But yeah, it's sort of exciting thinking about what Aussie
• 5:21
  distance runners are going to be doing over the next couple of
• 5:25
  years. And right now I'm sitting
• 5:26
  watching, you know, Japanese marathons taking place.
• 5:30
  And to be honest, I'm just really excited.
• 5:32
  I'm, I just, yeah, I love what we've got in Australia at the
• 5:37
  moment. Whenever, whenever I hear you
• 5:41
  speak on other podcasts and stuff, you can always hear so
• 5:44
  clearly and straight through the mic, almost like how passionate
• 5:48
  you are, not just about running for you, but running for like
• 5:51
  Australia in general and particularly women.
• 5:54
  So it seems like naturally you've almost got a career after
• 5:58
  your career in some sort of like strategical role or there's,
• 6:02
  there's definitely something waiting for you there.
• 6:04
  You're not going to just walk away from running, I don't
• 6:06
  think, are you? No, and I don't really know what
• 6:10
  I want to do after competitive running.
• 6:13
  I think we've got Brisbane 2032 sort of around the corner and
• 6:18
  perhaps there would be opportunities in that space to
• 6:21
  be able to support athletes if I wasn't still, you know, trying
• 6:27
  to compete. I think by that stage it that
• 6:29
  might be a bit of a tough ask. But yeah, I my physio background
• 6:33
  I think has really helped me in many ways, but I don't actually
• 6:37
  see myself probably getting back into physio practice.
• 6:40
  I hope to be able to support that women's running space in
• 6:44
  some some other way and I don't know what it will look like yet.
• 6:52
  Well, yeah, thankfully there's a few years down the line yet and
• 6:55
  I don't think you have to start thinking that way yet.
• 6:57
  I was going to ask maybe towards the end is obviously the
• 7:02
  priority now is to get through the pregnancy safely.
• 7:06
  Would LA still be at the forefront of your mind at the
• 7:09
  minute? It is, and you never know what's
• 7:12
  going to excite you. But I know to get the most out
• 7:15
  of myself, I have to really feel hungry for a particular goal.
• 7:20
  And coming off Valencia, I wasn't feeling that motivated to
• 7:24
  chase any particular running goal.
• 7:26
  I think I was mentally exhausted from probably 2 years since
• 7:31
  giving birth to Ellie. It was kind of this pretty
• 7:35
  intense period to get fit to try and qualify for Paris, throw
• 7:39
  everything into the Paris prep. Came off that with aspirations
• 7:43
  to do. Valencia got injured, came back
• 7:46
  and did Tokyo early last year instead and then it was sort of
• 7:50
  Sydney Valencia and I just knew I needed a proper break
• 7:54
  physically and mentally. I was just nursing a couple of
• 7:58
  tendon niggles last year. So when you're not really
• 8:02
  feeling attached to a particular goal, I know it's the the prep's
• 8:07
  going to be a real grind if I'm not that excited about whatever
• 8:11
  I'm preparing for. So I think this period will just
• 8:13
  give me a good chance to step away from the heavy, just the
• 8:20
  logistical element of training more than anything, juggling so
• 8:23
  many things like I'm really enjoying just doing 11 exercise,
• 8:29
  whether it be an elliptical or running, sort of work out each
• 8:34
  day rather than the double s. And I think at this point I'm
• 8:38
  feeling really excited about the prospect of getting back to
• 8:42
  racing next year, hopefully getting back to my best and
• 8:45
  aiming to qualify for LA. So that is a goal that really
• 8:49
  excites me. And I think if we go back to
• 8:51
  women's running, I remember London 2012 Olympics, lying on
• 8:56
  my bed the day before the race and a girl who was in our squad,
• 9:00
  Emma Craft, had sent me ACD, which I could play in my laptop
• 9:04
  at the time, and it was to motivate me.
• 9:07
  And it was Joan in the 1984 LA Olympics winning the gold for
• 9:13
  the US and that legacy and the fact that that was the first
• 9:17
  time the women's marathon was in the Olympics.
• 9:20
  I think going to LA and running a marathon there at the Olympics
• 9:23
  would just be such a a full circle moment.
• 9:26
  So I think that's why that one particularly excites me.
• 9:30
  So cool. Just a quick question before we
• 9:33
  do the quick fire Q&A. But falling pregnant around the
• 9:37
  time you're in the arguably the shape of your life in terms of
• 9:41
  your overall health must have been very good.
• 9:44
  Like I know for us as a household, like my wife, like we
• 9:49
  had to, to do certain things in terms of Women's Health.
• 9:51
  Like there's so much that you need to do to maintain good
• 9:54
  hormonal balance to fall pregnant.
• 9:56
  So there must have been something that you're you're
• 10:00
  doing very well in order to stay on top of that and to be so
• 10:02
  healthy around a marathon. Yeah, look, I think diet
• 10:06
  probably is a big part of it. I've always loved food and had a
• 10:11
  passion for nutrition. My dad, he's a vet and like a
• 10:14
  large animal vet that has a real interest in animal nutrition.
• 10:18
  And I think over the years he's just taught me so much about
• 10:21
  nutrition and just that really balanced diet.
• 10:24
  I think that's part of it. I actually have to stop breast
• 10:28
  stopping breastfeeding early. Our 2 1/2 year old, My hormones
• 10:34
  did seem a little bit out of whack for a while and I was a
• 10:37
  bit concerned about that and and saw one of the sports doctors
• 10:40
  and she just said, no, it's you. Within months of finishing
• 10:43
  breastfeeding, it will all kind of return to normal.
• 10:46
  And, and it sort of did and, and I feel really, you know,
• 10:49
  fortunate for that. But it is, yeah, it is a good
• 10:53
  sign when you're getting that as a female, you have that cycle as
• 10:58
  a reinforcer that your hormones are all sort of working well and
• 11:02
  and you're obviously getting the energy you need to sustain your
• 11:05
  training. Cool.
• 11:08
  All right. I'll, I'll jump into a few quick
• 11:10
  fire Q&A. Which AFL team do you do you
• 11:14
  support? Who do you follow?
• 11:16
  That's a hard one to start with. So we started as Crow
• 11:19
  supporters. We became hardcore Dee's fans
• 11:23
  and then semi port fans, but I think we'll always have a soft
• 11:26
  spot for the days. And I sort of speak on behalf of
• 11:28
  my whole family there. But to be honest, it's my
• 11:31
  brothers stopped playing. I haven't followed it nearly as
• 11:35
  closely. I think I just have a bit of
• 11:37
  fatigue from how yeah into it I was when he was playing.
• 11:42
  There's nothing like having a family member out on the field
• 11:45
  and just wanting them to do well.
• 11:47
  And so, yeah, I was pretty exhausted from those years of
• 11:52
  supporting the days. They didn't have much success
• 11:53
  when he was. There no he he he unfortunately
• 11:57
  was just before their their turn.
• 11:59
  Really. Was yeah.
• 12:01
  Yeah. In WA.
• 12:03
  Yeah, and the your go to coffee order.
• 12:06
  Do you have a? Do you owe you a?
• 12:07
  Coffee. Well, actually that's a funny
• 12:10
  one. I'd say I've always gone
• 12:11
  cappuccino, but in pregnancy I've been feeling like an iced
• 12:15
  latte so I've converted to an iced coffee person lately.
• 12:21
  Good over summer, yeah. No ice cream though.
• 12:24
  No, just the coffee on ice. It's yeah, nice and refreshing.
• 12:29
  Favorite running shoes? Be it a jogger or or a race day
• 12:33
  shoe. Or both.
• 12:35
  Well, I've actually got a Lululemon prototype that I'm
• 12:38
  really enjoying at the moment and it's supposed to be just a
• 12:41
  jogging shoe, but I'm finding it quite like bouncy and I can get
• 12:45
  going in it a bit more. So I think that will be mid year
• 12:52
  or or so. So yeah, that's been fun to test
• 12:56
  out. Yeah.
• 12:58
  And and linked it might be linked to that, but I have been
• 13:02
  asked by my wife in terms of favorite like running shorts or
• 13:07
  or tights and or top crop top. Well, if we're talking like a
• 13:11
  supportive sports bra, the and light wave back one is my go to
• 13:15
  and then shorts probably just the the fast and freeze.
• 13:18
  They're supportive. They've got pockets for gels or
• 13:22
  a phone really handy. Do you listen to music or a
• 13:25
  podcast when you go for a jog and if so any recommendations?
• 13:30
  Yeah, I do, and it depends on the mood I'm in, whether I
• 13:34
  listen to something running related or just general like the
• 13:41
  Imperfects. You know, there might be someone
• 13:43
  I've heard of. Learn more about their story.
• 13:46
  There's Beyond the Bump. He's like a motherhood
• 13:49
  pregnancy. When I listen to sometimes audio
• 13:52
  books as well. So a real mixture.
• 13:54
  But I love just cycling through different running podcasts.
• 13:57
  So yes, I do listen to The Easy Devil as well.
• 14:01
  Dean, was it Cam Levens when you asked him and he said he listens
• 14:04
  to like history podcasts whilst he's doing like a steady run or
• 14:07
  something and. He does three runs a day, so
• 14:10
  he'd get through a few. Yeah, he's, he's pretty
• 14:14
  different. But, and, and it was cool
• 14:16
  actually, because I always wondered about his three runs
• 14:18
  and he explained something I didn't know, which was that he
• 14:21
  split them up more just he felt like he could recover a bit
• 14:24
  easier from three shorter runs than two longer ones, given that
• 14:27
  he was running to 300 KS a week. So go figure.
• 14:32
  But yeah. It's a lot, isn't it?
• 14:37
  So the way we now like move through the rest of the chat is
• 14:43
  normally a bit of a walk through memory lane.
• 14:44
  I know Jess, I'm conscious of time and I'm conscious that you
• 14:48
  have such a rich history of running.
• 14:50
  But maybe in terms of just a first memory of of running to
• 14:55
  start, do you remember where you where you were or what you did
• 14:58
  where you sort of fell into running?
• 15:00
  But like, I think we were pretty active kids and mum and dad
• 15:02
  played tennis in the summer and footy and netball in the winter.
• 15:06
  And so we were always just running around with our friends
• 15:08
  in the country town. I grew up in Naracoorte and so
• 15:14
  that was sort of, yeah, obviously from a very young age,
• 15:17
  but structured sport might have been probably reception.
• 15:22
  Cross country would have been my first real running memory.
• 15:26
  And that was we'd start between the footy goal posts, we'd run
• 15:29
  across the Oval, up this dirt hill, through the pine forest
• 15:33
  and then come back out. And I just remember being so
• 15:37
  nervous to the point where I actually bailed out of the first
• 15:42
  race and that incorrectly put out some cones.
• 15:46
  And so the kids took off. There were some missed turns and
• 15:49
  whatever. And they said, all right, we're
• 15:51
  we're rescheduling, doing that race for the reception kids
• 15:54
  again in the afternoon. And so I was like, oh, I'll,
• 15:58
  I'll give it a go. Yeah, I ended up winning the
• 16:02
  race, but I was the freshest one out there.
• 16:06
  So I actually got given like a proper medal back then.
• 16:12
  Yeah, They didn't sort of just give everyone a ribbon.
• 16:14
  Like, I remember getting this medal that I've still got.
• 16:17
  And we had a little photo for the paper.
• 16:18
  And I was so proud. And I have to admit, I continued
• 16:23
  to be really nervous throughout all of my races at school.
• 16:27
  I just, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself.
• 16:30
  I knew it was going to hurt and I didn't want to give up, but
• 16:34
  that meant that when I did cross the line, I was just so pumped
• 16:38
  and found it really rewarding. So yeah, it was definitely those
• 16:42
  finishing feelings that got me to each start line with a lot of
• 16:46
  nerves. But in my, you know, more recent
• 16:50
  years or the last probably 8 years of running, I just, I feel
• 16:55
  so much less nervous when I arrive at the start line just
• 16:59
  because I've had a lot more experience and I've done the
• 17:01
  prep. But as a kid, I, I didn't think
• 17:04
  I had prepared well. So I just, I think I, I found
• 17:07
  that really daunting. Can very much relate to similar
• 17:13
  feelings. I've I've felt like when I
• 17:15
  became a dad and I finished a couple of races and I realised
• 17:19
  my kids didn't necessarily care what I did, that maybe like it
• 17:22
  contextualised running a bit more for me.
• 17:24
  So I've yeah, relaxed a bit more.
• 17:27
  But yeah, I mean, even like the Olympics, I was really proud,
• 17:31
  but really like it wasn't first. So it's sort of like whatever if
• 17:35
  if you're not crossing the line first, you could be 80th or you
• 17:39
  could be 12, but it doesn't matter.
• 17:42
  So cool. And then you, you did still
• 17:47
  like, you were quite talented though, like you represented SA
• 17:51
  in like WA all schools and cross country through high school.
• 17:54
  So you ran through that time, but did you also compete in team
• 17:57
  sports? So what?
• 17:58
  What did that look like during that time?
• 18:01
  I'd say my favorite sport was netball and I did hope to play
• 18:05
  for the Adelaide Thunderbirds, or there was the Ravens at the
• 18:08
  time too. And when it came to like cutting
• 18:10
  clippings out of newspapers, it was generally the the netball
• 18:15
  pictures. I had a little scrapbook and my
• 18:18
  brother had his AFL scrapbook. And I think basketball, we
• 18:22
  trained a lot for my mum. Well, mum and dad had an indoor
• 18:26
  pool built in our backyard and that was my mum's business was
• 18:29
  running a swim school for the town.
• 18:31
  So all of my friends would basically come over after school
• 18:34
  for swimming lessons. So we just always had people at
• 18:37
  our house swimming and which meant we did a lot of swimming.
• 18:40
  But I was terrible when it came to competition swimming and and
• 18:44
  lap swimming. I tried a few times and just it
• 18:47
  didn't come naturally to me. So yeah, very active.
• 18:51
  And and when I when it came to racing and representing SAII
• 18:56
  think it was the fitness from other sports that that generally
• 19:00
  helped. I'd I'd try to get out for the
• 19:02
  odd training run. I remember we had some great
• 19:06
  runners from Narrow Court, Brenton Row, Nikki Donnelly and
• 19:10
  and we would get together and go for the odd run but it was
• 19:12
  nothing structured. So I think I really saw
• 19:15
  improvement once I got a coach and started formally training.
• 19:21
  When, When was that? At what?
• 19:22
  When did you first? Get.
• 19:24
  Structured. So I moved to Adelaide as a
• 19:26
  border when I was 16 in year 10 and I had a coach, Roger
• 19:31
  Pedrick, who'd pick me up from the boarding house twice a week.
• 19:34
  He'd have to sign, I'd have to fax a form home to mum and dad
• 19:39
  for them to sign so that he could pick me up every single
• 19:41
  time. So it was a bit of a run around
• 19:43
  but he was so dedicated and got me out to training.
• 19:47
  And then it was in 2008 when I was 2021, Adam Didik took over
• 19:54
  coaching me and that's when I started training more.
• 19:58
  So we're like 5 to 6 days a week.
• 20:01
  And I remember him telling me on the non session days, I want you
• 20:04
  to get out for a 20 minute jog. And I got back to him after the
• 20:08
  first week. I was like, no chance.
• 20:09
  Like I have to walk after 10 minutes.
• 20:11
  He's like I've said, jog like I want you to go really slowly.
• 20:14
  And I just, yeah, I was pretty reluctant early on.
• 20:19
  Adam really had to push me to just get those jog days done.
• 20:25
  And once I did find that routine, that's when I really
• 20:28
  started to improve. And was it, I remember hearing
• 20:32
  this on another podcast, but it was it around the time of your
• 20:35
  21st that you drew a bit of a line in the sand and decided to
• 20:38
  go a bit all in on or take running a bit more seriously.
• 20:41
  And at that was a similar time that Adam was also wanting to
• 20:45
  pursue coaching. Yeah, for sure.
• 20:48
  So it was yeah. August the 15th, 2008, I had my
• 20:54
  21st as an Olympic theme party. It was the Beijing Olympics.
• 20:59
  My party was on the night of Usain Bolt's final.
• 21:02
  And yeah, it was, it was a really fun night.
• 21:05
  And it was sort of after that I was like, alright, I'm going to
• 21:08
  stop playing netball because netball training twice a week in
• 21:12
  a game on Saturday did sort of hinder my ability to really
• 21:17
  throw everything into running. So at that point just said let's
• 21:20
  throw everything into running and see how we go.
• 21:23
  And yeah, I think I went to National Cross maybe the next
• 21:29
  year and was pretty happy with my result. 2010 was a bit of a
• 21:33
  breakthrough. I think I might have won City
• 21:35
  Bay Fun Run that year. And then 2011 was a big one that
• 21:39
  was got to go to World Cross with some of my heroes like
• 21:44
  Benita and like Craig Mottram. When that team we went to Spain.
• 21:48
  Oh no, sorry, Benita. She was in my team at the World
• 21:52
  Half Marathon Champs in 2010 and that was a really special
• 21:56
  moment. And yeah, winning city to surf.
• 22:00
  I sort of thought, oh, this is I sort of hit my peak, this is as
• 22:04
  good as it gets. And then the following year did
• 22:06
  my first marathon and that really just opened new doors and
• 22:10
  took me to places I never thought I'd get to.
• 22:13
  Gotcha. So even when you started
• 22:16
  training properly then at 21, was it apparent that you had a a
• 22:20
  natural bias towards the distance events or were you
• 22:23
  fully in on the shorter stuff early on?
• 22:26
  I don't think I was ever fully in on the shorter stuff.
• 22:29
  The cross country was where I had my success.
• 22:31
  It was 8 KS at the time. I guess that was because it's
• 22:34
  the longest distance I was running.
• 22:36
  And it was Adam who said look, you're so comfortable on the
• 22:40
  long runs. I think naturally you're going
• 22:43
  to be a marathon runner one day. And I wasn't so keen on the
• 22:47
  idea. It's just it looked like a tough
• 22:50
  event. It is.
• 22:52
  But when I did my first half marathon in 2010 on the Gold
• 22:57
  Coast, I was like, oh, this is, this is it.
• 23:00
  Like I just felt so relaxed and found my rhythm out there.
• 23:04
  And so naturally after that, I thought, yeah, I'll, I'll try a
• 23:07
  marathon one day. And I'm so glad, Adam.
• 23:11
  And it was actually Rob D Castella, too, who planted the
• 23:14
  seed to do 1 before the London Olympics to see if I could get a
• 23:18
  qualifier at that stage. Benita and Lisa had both
• 23:23
  qualified and there was sort of that extra spot up for grabs.
• 23:27
  And so, yeah, they inspired me to put the work in and head to
• 23:31
  Nagoya in March of 2012 to see if it was possible.
• 23:35
  And did you know going into the Nagoya Women's marathon if you
• 23:39
  needed to run a particular time or.
• 23:42
  So the the A standard was 2 hours and 32 minutes that I knew
• 23:48
  Kate Smythe was running a marathon in April as well.
• 23:54
  For me, the target was just to get that time knowing that Yep,
• 23:57
  she might go and run faster again.
• 23:59
  But I think I ran 231 O two or two, 3112 or something, and I
• 24:06
  was just over the moon. Like I'd gone over thinking I'd
• 24:11
  had a pretty good training block.
• 24:12
  Like I was getting up to 150 KS some weeks and I really felt
• 24:16
  like I was redlining at that point in my career.
• 24:19
  That felt like a lot of training.
• 24:21
  And yeah, the latest stages, the race were tough.
• 24:24
  I remember my hamstrings twinging.
• 24:26
  But I was just I, I allowed myself to start dreaming.
• 24:31
  And in those final case, I just remember thinking what, like I
• 24:35
  might get to go to the Olympics and I just got myself really
• 24:39
  excited and got into that stadium and saw the clock and
• 24:42
  yeah, it was a dream come true. And how was 2012?
• 24:46
  How was the experience at the London Olympics?
• 24:50
  It was amazing. I remember it being a real
• 24:52
  adrenaline rush preparing for the Olympics.
• 24:55
  I was still working quite a bit as a physio at the time and you
• 24:58
  have all the administration and there was media.
• 25:02
  It just there's a lot going on in the lead up.
• 25:04
  When I finally caught that plane to London, we were doing a, we
• 25:08
  had a holding camp in Tonbridge outside of London.
• 25:11
  It was such a relief and I really enjoyed that camp
• 25:14
  beforehand and just soaked it all up.
• 25:16
  If anything, the challenging part was when I got home because
• 25:21
  it had been such a big build up and anticipation.
• 25:25
  I raced and then it was like, oh, OK, like that.
• 25:28
  Was it like that? That's the Olympics and and you
• 25:32
  see the devastation in the village too.
• 25:34
  Not everyone achieves what they want to.
• 25:36
  And seeing that was pretty confronting.
• 25:39
  So when I came home, I was like, what next?
• 25:43
  And it took me a little while to get out of that.
• 25:46
  Actually. It was a proper post
• 25:48
  championship Blues for a while there.
• 25:50
  And I've yeah, I haven't suffered it like that since.
• 25:55
  I think it was just the rapidness of it all and and then
• 26:01
  suddenly your home and your life is like you've been through this
• 26:04
  huge experience, which sort of changes you.
• 26:07
  But everything at home is just as as it was beforehand, and
• 26:11
  you've got to try and slot back into this world with all these
• 26:13
  different perspectives and ideas about what your future might
• 26:18
  look like. Do you think with the way that
• 26:22
  kind of like running has grown and evolved so much in recent
• 26:26
  history, that may have changed slightly or do you think that's
• 26:29
  still very much similar with like Olympic cycles and World
• 26:33
  Championships now? Well, I think there are more
• 26:38
  opportunities now for marathon runners with the Olympics is
• 26:43
  obviously really special and unique in that it's a multi
• 26:46
  sport event. And that's why I'm devastated
• 26:48
  that the Commonwealth Games have cut the marathon this year
• 26:51
  because that almost mimics that where you've got all of these
• 26:54
  sports coming together. And it's a really nice thing to
• 26:57
  have in those, you know, two years between Olympic cycles to
• 27:01
  work towards. But with all the majors now and
• 27:05
  just the enormity of them, you've got so many big events
• 27:08
  that you can build towards, which gives you shorter term
• 27:12
  goals. I think social media has changed
• 27:17
  the world, too. Like, in 2012, I didn't have
• 27:20
  Instagram. Or actually, I think I might
• 27:22
  have just got it. And if I went back to my first
• 27:25
  post, it would be some really bad, blurry photo that I took
• 27:30
  out of my window on one of the days of like, the.
• 27:33
  It's. Yeah.
• 27:34
  So now people can see so much more and really get it behind
• 27:40
  the scenes look. So perhaps athletes who go to
• 27:42
  the Olympics have a much better idea of what they're stepping
• 27:46
  into and mental health, everything sort of talked about
• 27:49
  more. So I think we probably just went
• 27:52
  into it a little bit with, like, less understanding back then.
• 27:56
  Amber Holiday, a rower and then turned to cyclists.
• 27:59
  I remember she sat down with me with her laptop at a cafe before
• 28:04
  I went to the Olympics to show me some of her photos.
• 28:06
  She had to just give me a little bit of an idea of what it's
• 28:10
  like. And like it.
• 28:12
  That was a really eye opening moment for me, where as you
• 28:14
  think now, someone going to their first Olympics would feel
• 28:18
  like they'd lived it through someone else's eyes at some
• 28:21
  point. And you spoke, sorry, you spoke
• 28:26
  about the variety of races that are available to athletes now.
• 28:31
  Is that almost like, can that be quite confronting and
• 28:34
  overwhelming, having to plan so far in advance, but also having
• 28:40
  like just so much to choose from and this person's going here,
• 28:44
  that person's going there? Like how do you kind of manage
• 28:47
  the scheduling of it? I do find the pre planning hard.
• 28:52
  I like to commit to a marathon and just focus on that race.
• 28:56
  I don't like to know what I'm doing another three months down
• 28:59
  the track after that race. I feel like in the moment when
• 29:02
  the going gets tough, I just want to go all in.
• 29:05
  I don't want to think, oh, but I've got this thing coming up.
• 29:08
  So that's frustrating. But also it's really hard to get
• 29:12
  into these races. Like I yeah, it's it's not like
• 29:17
  you have a smorgas board of choices.
• 29:19
  Sometimes it's like we'll be this race here, there's an
• 29:23
  opportunity for you to run this one.
• 29:26
  You could go, but they're just going to cover accommodation.
• 29:28
  So you've got to pay your way over.
• 29:30
  And so you've got to work out what's financially viable, which
• 29:35
  race is actually going to have some people maybe around your
• 29:37
  standard. Because obviously there are
• 29:39
  plenty of women out there now running to 14 to 18.
• 29:43
  Jumping in a race with that sort of field might not end up
• 29:47
  actually being conducive to a good result if you're aiming for
• 29:51
  more the 220 to 22. So there's a lot to still
• 29:54
  consider, and often that narrows it right down to one or two
• 29:57
  races. And then obviously as like a
• 30:00
  professional, you've also got to trade off the fact that you need
• 30:04
  to earn a living off running these races.
• 30:07
  But then sometimes you might have to compromise where you may
• 30:10
  have earned some more money at one race to go to a faster race
• 30:13
  to get a time on the board to then think about the next major
• 30:16
  championships. For sure.
• 30:18
  And like now with Sydney Marathon being a major on home
• 30:23
  soil, that can be a really good opportunity for local athletes.
• 30:26
  They've got good prize money for the Australians and and that can
• 30:30
  perhaps be one that you look at as well.
• 30:32
  One, it's a really amazing race to be a part of and they, they
• 30:37
  look after the athletes really well, but there is that income
• 30:39
  earning opportunity, whereas something like Valencia that
• 30:44
  ended up, I think being an expense like it was.
• 30:47
  I really want a race where I can go for, you know, a fast time
• 30:53
  and, and it was really hard to get into the race.
• 30:57
  And then you sort of, yeah, making your way over there and
• 31:01
  whatever, but came away with a result that I'm proud of and the
• 31:05
  the financial side of things didn't really matter.
• 31:07
  And you hope that those opportunities, in turn, can help
• 31:12
  to create other opportunities that help you to earn a living.
• 31:15
  But yeah, certainly when you're planning out your year, you have
• 31:18
  to weigh all of those things up. Continuing so 2013 though, post
• 31:23
  the 2012 Olympic Blues I've got here, you're 11th at the World
• 31:30
  Championships, so just on the cusp of the top ten at a world
• 31:34
  champs in the marathon. That's obviously a pretty that
• 31:38
  must have been felt. I'm guessing maybe a bit of a
• 31:41
  breakthrough in terms of 1 competing at one of those
• 31:44
  championships, but then also being on the cusp of top ten
• 31:46
  might feel totally different. It did, and that was a really
• 31:50
  warm race. So that was my first experience
• 31:53
  of really having to prepare for the conditions and just having
• 31:58
  carnage all around me and sort of finishing.
• 32:03
  Yeah, being a bit like in shock with the result, but really,
• 32:07
  really proud. And then that qualified me for
• 32:10
  the Commonwealth Games the following year, which I'd say
• 32:13
  that ended up feeling like a really big breakthrough.
• 32:16
  I think just winning a medal at A championship.
• 32:20
  I just absolutely loved that experience.
• 32:23
  It had been a challenging build up with my first bone stress
• 32:27
  injury, so I remember having quite a bit of doubt leading up
• 32:31
  to it. And when that result sort of
• 32:33
  unfolded, I just remember thinking like, oh this is like I
• 32:37
  am so happy I found this sport. Like I I really just was loving
• 32:43
  what I was doing and excited about the future after that one.
• 32:47
  And then was it 2015? So you on a cycle I suppose of
• 32:52
  Olympics or World Championships? But then did you elect not to do
• 32:56
  1 and focus on the Melbourne Marathon instead?
• 32:59
  Yeah, so that was Beijing in 2015, and it was going to be
• 33:03
  another Hot 1. And yes, I threw all of my eggs
• 33:07
  into the Melbourne marathon basket, hoping I'd be able to
• 33:10
  post a fast time to qualify for Rio the next year.
• 33:14
  And that was a cool experience. Like I moved to Melbourne for
• 33:17
  the year. I was training with Craig
• 33:20
  Mottram squad, Adam was still riding my training, but just a
• 33:24
  bit of a change of scenery, different runs.
• 33:27
  I was heading to Ferny Creek and you just, yeah, it was, it was a
• 33:31
  great year of development and Melbourne Marathon was was a
• 33:37
  really cool experience. I think that might have been my
• 33:39
  first marathon on home soil at the time.
• 33:43
  So it was a special one. And was that maybe was that like
• 33:47
  a 3 minute PB? Like was that your first time
• 33:49
  under 230? Would that be right?
• 33:52
  Did you run 227? Yeah, yeah.
• 33:56
  And then the Rio Olympics, was that so you would have had
• 34:01
  higher expectations, but did you get injured in the lead up to
• 34:05
  the Rio Olympics? Yeah.
• 34:07
  So I had a bone stress injury in my second metatarsal, which it
• 34:13
  was a a tough prep, but I'd done it before in 2014.
• 34:17
  So I remember being a lot more confident in my ability to get
• 34:21
  to the start line fit through a lot of cross training.
• 34:25
  And I was using a bit of like the altar G treadmill.
• 34:29
  I still went to Flagstaff for a, an altitude training camp, but
• 34:33
  just cross trained the whole time.
• 34:35
  And I remember getting to the start line still thinking like,
• 34:38
  let's see what's possible. I was, I'm still hopeful for a
• 34:42
  good result, but I remember it was so hard out there and yeah,
• 34:46
  I was proud when I crossed the line in was it 22nd or 21st?
• 34:52
  Retrospectively, I think someone got taken out in the one of the
• 34:57
  was it the gold medalist even was done?
• 34:59
  But yeah, it was a big learning experience.
• 35:03
  And I think prior to Rio, I'd always thought like, that's when
• 35:07
  I might want to start a family after that Olympics.
• 35:10
  But I came away from that Olympics feeling hungry for
• 35:13
  more. And at that point in my career,
• 35:15
  I thought if I were to have children, that might be the end
• 35:18
  of my running career. I didn't think I'd perhaps be
• 35:21
  able to get back to my best. So I really wanted to make sure
• 35:24
  I'd done some things I was proud of before starting that part of
• 35:29
  life. And then and so then and you
• 35:33
  knew at that time, I suppose two years away was the Gold Coast
• 35:37
  like com games on the Gold Coast.
• 35:39
  And so it was at the the main focus.
• 35:41
  But then you also ran the 2017 World Champs in London as well
• 35:46
  and ran really well. Yeah, so I went to the London
• 35:50
  Marathon in April of that year and just I loved the city.
• 35:54
  I was like, world champs are here in August, like, I want to
• 35:57
  come back here. And then I'd heard there was a
• 35:59
  group going to Saint Moritz, three world champs, and that was
• 36:04
  a place that I really wanted to visit.
• 36:06
  So I did a training camp there, fell in love with the place.
• 36:09
  So really I just couldn't get enough of running in the lead up
• 36:13
  to that world champs because I just felt like I was in the
• 36:16
  running Mecca. And so got to the start line
• 36:19
  probably having logged the biggest block of training I'd
• 36:23
  ever logged. And I felt strong out there on
• 36:26
  that day. And so I guess that gave me
• 36:30
  confidence going into the 2018 COM Games.
• 36:33
  But then I actually was, I, I, yeah, had a pretty tough day at
• 36:37
  the 2018 COM Games. I I finished the race still and
• 36:41
  was able to come away with a bronze medal, but I I fell short
• 36:45
  of my hopes for that race for sure.
• 36:48
  Yeah, that was particularly hot. I remember the Yeah, the
• 36:53
  controversy or the result in the men's race with.
• 36:56
  Yeah, oh, that was tough to watch yeah for me, I felt like I
• 37:01
  just didn't nail my hydration and fuelling and and maybe I
• 37:05
  overdid the training a bit in the heat leading up, but that's
• 37:08
  still to this day the the hardest race I've I've done like
• 37:11
  I just really struggled to to get to the finish line that day
• 37:15
  at. What point did you know you're
• 37:18
  in trouble? 35 to 37, it was this feeling of
• 37:24
  emptiness that I haven't felt before, like it wasn't
• 37:27
  necessarily a particular part of my body.
• 37:30
  I just felt like I had no energy.
• 37:33
  And the crowds were so thick. There were obviously Australians
• 37:36
  everywhere and people cheering for the Aussies.
• 37:39
  So without that, yeah, I don't know that I would have got to
• 37:42
  the finish line and. Were you sitting third at the
• 37:46
  time? Were you in metal contention?
• 37:49
  I think for a little while I was 4th and then got into third and
• 37:55
  so that was obviously a real motivator as well.
• 37:58
  Just hold on. What would like the the fuel and
• 38:02
  have looked like in a race back then, which is almost 10 years?
• 38:06
  Ago now. Super shoes too.
• 38:07
  Oh no, super shoes. No, no, super shoes.
• 38:10
  The first time for me wearing super shoes was after giving
• 38:13
  birth to Billy in late 2019 because I wasn't sponsored by
• 38:18
  the company that brought them out for the first time.
• 38:23
  Yeah, fuelling. I can tolerate a lot more now
• 38:27
  than I could back then. I used to have these torque
• 38:32
  gels, TORQI, don't even know if they're available now, but it
• 38:36
  would be like Raspberry ripple, banoffee pie, apple crumble.
• 38:40
  And so I remember each gel I had was like a different dessert
• 38:44
  flavour and I used to get excited about that.
• 38:48
  These days it's, yeah, I have a real plan that I sort of stick
• 38:52
  to, and I know, but back then I was still dabbling with a few
• 38:55
  different strategies. And that day I just didn't
• 38:58
  hydrate enough. I took my gels and didn't focus
• 39:01
  as much on the fluids. For some reason.
• 39:03
  I think I focus so much on the training, I forgot, yeah, the
• 39:07
  importance of that. So I've learned a lot from that
• 39:09
  race for sure. And then 2018 was a pretty big
• 39:13
  year because then did you come back shortly thereafter and run
• 39:16
  at the Gold Coast Marathon in July?
• 39:21
  Was that a pretty good there was a good financial incentive that
• 39:24
  day? Yeah, yeah.
• 39:25
  So they'd put up this incentive for Australians.
• 39:29
  If you were to beat 228, you won.
• 39:35
  Gee, I can't even remember how much it was.
• 39:37
  It might have been like somewhere between 20 and
• 39:40
  $30,000. Like I remember it being a
• 39:42
  really good opportunity and I went into that one trying to run
• 39:47
  a PV and I blew up a bit at the end.
• 39:51
  But yeah, it was a PV at the time.
• 39:53
  I was happy. And then my husband and I will.
• 39:57
  We weren't married then, but we went overseas for like nearly
• 40:01
  three months just to. I don't know.
• 40:04
  He explore the world a bit based ourselves in the Netherlands.
• 40:06
  It was, yeah, it was great. I was recovering from that race
• 40:09
  and while I was over there, I got asked whether I'd like to do
• 40:12
  the Toronto Marathon. And I was like, oh, tack it on
• 40:15
  to the end of the holiday, why not?
• 40:18
  And so ended up heading to Canada to round out the truth.
• 40:22
  And that ended up actually being a personal best there.
• 40:26
  And at that point I was like, I'm done.
• 40:28
  Like I'm just I'm so ready to have a rest.
• 40:31
  And that's when we were like, well, let's you know, try and
• 40:33
  start a family. I was like, I'm happy with what
• 40:35
  I've done in running. I don't feel like running
• 40:38
  another marathon for a while. I've just been doing kind of
• 40:40
  back-to-back marathons and felt exhausted.
• 40:43
  So that was sort of the end of the non super shoot era and the
• 40:49
  start of mum life. Yeah, that's right.
• 40:54
  I remember reading about UK, you donated some of your prize money
• 40:58
  as well from the Gold Coast Marathon.
• 40:59
  I remember thinking like runners, it's so not well
• 41:03
  financially remunerated and like a note like your brother would
• 41:07
  have been like compared to say the AFL.
• 41:09
  And so I remember thinking how how are you?
• 41:12
  So I'm an accountant. I'm like, how are you so
• 41:14
  generous when like that would be such a rare opportunity, but you
• 41:17
  still. Yeah, I think it just seemed
• 41:20
  like such a bonus amount of money.
• 41:22
  Like it to me just seemed like so much.
• 41:25
  And I've got a couple of charities that I'm an ambassador
• 41:28
  for. And I remember there was a a fun
• 41:30
  running Adelaide and just being able to like put up some prize
• 41:34
  money for that was was fun. But yeah, it's it's a, it's a
• 41:40
  funny one. Our sport you sort of, you look
• 41:43
  at amounts of money differently to what perhaps an AFL player or
• 41:47
  a tennis player, Mike, that's for sure.
• 41:53
  And then we and then I think so 2019 is you, you, you spend some
• 42:01
  time out. Is it like being pregnant and
• 42:05
  giving birth to your son Billy? And then 2020 is early 2020
• 42:09
  COVID hits. So it's a bit of a mixed up
• 42:13
  here, but then and did you did you get injured trying to to
• 42:18
  make a make a shot that there was a race I remember like in
• 42:22
  Sydney and is it para see in Parramatta?
• 42:26
  I can't remember. Where it was, Yeah, the first
• 42:28
  race I was aiming for was the Hamburg Marathon in April of
• 42:32
  2020, and then that got cancelled because of COVID, and
• 42:37
  then obviously the Olympics were postponed.
• 42:41
  And so then it was, yeah, the following or something I was
• 42:45
  hoping to do that Sydney race and got ephemeral stressy and
• 42:49
  and couldn't. And I actually think it was the
• 42:52
  best thing in retrospect. Like that was just a a tough
• 42:55
  year for our family in general. My dad was going through some
• 42:59
  health. And I just remember when the
• 43:01
  Olympics actually took place, I was like, I'm just so glad I'm
• 43:03
  home. And I loved watching it.
• 43:05
  And I got so inspired watching everyone on TV.
• 43:08
  It's really different experiencing it from home when
• 43:11
  you can hear everyone talking about the athletes you're seeing
• 43:15
  the newspaper articles, you're watching all the stories behind
• 43:19
  the athlete on TV. And that just made me so hungry
• 43:22
  to, to try and get back there one day.
• 43:25
  So I I sort of look at that as being a real yeah time when I
• 43:30
  just felt that motivation and hungered us to put the work in
• 43:34
  to try and get back there. And then you chose to come to to
• 43:38
  Perth and do the Perth Marathon in October.
• 43:41
  Yeah, 2021. And I think so.
• 43:44
  I remember that. Race, I see, with the borders
• 43:46
  still, like there was a chance WA could still shut the border.
• 43:50
  So I sort of came, went over on my own.
• 43:52
  Mum came, but Dylan stayed home with Billy because they didn't
• 43:57
  want to potentially get stuck and it was such a cool race
• 44:01
  experience. Matt Clark came over, helped
• 44:03
  with the pace. Everyone in Perth was just so
• 44:07
  supportive and it, yeah, I still think back on that race is just
• 44:12
  such a sort of magical day. I loved it.
• 44:16
  That's cool. Yeah.
• 44:17
  I mean, like, yeah, so we a lot of us in Perth ended up training
• 44:21
  up for that race because I think a few of us had trained up for
• 44:25
  the Gold Coast Marathon, but then that got cancelled with
• 44:27
  COVID. And then I think we had this WA
• 44:31
  had like a mini border bubble with SA.
• 44:34
  So there was an opportunity, wasn't there?
• 44:36
  And then that was just our local non for profit WA Marathon club
• 44:40
  putting on an event through COVID.
• 44:42
  And credit to them, like a lot of the for profit companies
• 44:45
  weren't able to operate during that time because of the
• 44:48
  uncertainty, whereas there was very much a volunteer based
• 44:53
  organization that managed to. And it's just footpaths.
• 44:56
  And so I remember to see, you know, 2 Olympians out there and
• 45:00
  I think you, you ran an Australian all comers record,
• 45:03
  right? So the fastest Aussie women's
• 45:06
  marathon in it by an Australian in, in Australia, I think.
• 45:09
  And it was like 225 low. Yeah.
• 45:13
  But that potentially or yeah, because Sinead would have.
• 45:20
  I'm trying to remember what her time was in 2018 in Melbourne.
• 45:23
  Yeah, but yeah, it was. Who was the male athlete?
• 45:28
  He did really well too. He was a local.
• 45:30
  Yeah, Nick Crank. Yeah, damp ran 214.
• 45:33
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:35
  No, it was a great and I just loved.
• 45:38
  We got ready sort of in the club rooms.
• 45:40
  You know, you, you put your racing flats on and then you
• 45:42
  just walk 20 meters out and hop on the start line.
• 45:46
  Yeah, it was just a very relaxed start.
• 45:50
  I loved it. So would you have been somewhere
• 45:53
  in between Nick and Justine? Yeah, so I was around 2:18.
• 45:58
  So yeah, between the two, I think Jess might have been, you
• 46:01
  might have been third. I think a few of my mates, you
• 46:03
  caught them between 20 and 25 Ki think you judged it a bit better
• 46:10
  so. I remember that being a hard
• 46:12
  point in the race. I got to 25, I was hurting and
• 46:16
  then, yeah, after 30 sort of found my feet, legs again.
• 46:22
  Yeah, no, Yeah. That was cool.
• 46:23
  It was, yeah, very cool. And then that qualified you
• 46:26
  obviously for the COM games in Birmingham in 2022.
• 46:30
  Yeah. And that was, again, like we
• 46:33
  went back to Saint Moritz in this time.
• 46:35
  It was with Dylan, my husband and Billy.
• 46:37
  He was 2 1/2, and he just absolutely loved it.
• 46:41
  We got him a little bike up there and he was just tearing
• 46:44
  around and really good group to train with Sade and Elsie for
• 46:48
  the other women on the team, and Andy Buchanan and Liam.
• 46:53
  So Andy got a late call up. I can't remember why, but he
• 47:00
  sort of ended up in Saint Moritz and that's when I met him for
• 47:03
  the first time. And we just, we had so much fun
• 47:06
  as a marathon group leading up to that event.
• 47:09
  And then the race itself just was one of those days where you
• 47:12
  have a plan and you can just execute it.
• 47:16
  And yeah, crossing that finish line was was very, it was a bit
• 47:22
  surreal, to be honest. And I've never been able to find
• 47:25
  the words to describe it, but I was just so happy.
• 47:31
  Sorry, Ron, I was just going to say, is that do you think still
• 47:35
  the highlight in terms of running achievements,
• 47:37
  Commonwealth Games gold? Yeah, look, that day was
• 47:41
  awesome. To be honest, Paris is probably
• 47:44
  the real highlight because my whole family was there in Paris,
• 47:48
  my sister, my brother, mum and dad, Dylan, my mother-in-law,
• 47:53
  the two kids and just having them all there afterwards, we
• 47:56
  just went to this like be a whole kind of place and, and
• 48:01
  just hung out all afternoon. And those memories like the
• 48:06
  crossing the finish line is obviously special.
• 48:09
  But when you sort of think of the whole day and who you shared
• 48:11
  it with and Paris, there was just so much to that and sort of
• 48:16
  the pressure and, and then, yeah, achieving something I was
• 48:21
  proud of on the day. I still look at that one as a as
• 48:23
  a real highlight as well. Fair enough.
• 48:27
  Sorry. I've got 2 questions because I
• 48:30
  was going to ask about COM games, but then I guess we can
• 48:32
  speak about Paris again, this with the COM games, one was
• 48:36
  winning in like was it an objective?
• 48:40
  Was it in the plan going into that?
• 48:41
  Or did like you just have an absolute stellar day?
• 48:45
  Well, certainly going for gold was my sort of aspiration at the
• 48:50
  Gold Coast in 2018. And so Birmingham, that was the
• 48:55
  ultimate goal. Like I'd had it written down in
• 48:58
  my diary for quite a few years, like a Commonwealth Games gold
• 49:02
  one day was something I really meant a lot to me, like I really
• 49:05
  wanted to achieve. And so you obviously on the day
• 49:09
  don't know what form the others are in, but the girl who'd won
• 49:12
  the gold on the Gold Coast was in the race and I knew she'd be
• 49:17
  tough. The Namibian athlete and then
• 49:19
  the Kenyan athletes. There was a bit of drama on the
• 49:23
  morning of and two of the athletes actually got pulled
• 49:27
  from the race. I think they had a positive test
• 49:30
  only like in the days leading up.
• 49:32
  And so, yeah, I guess all of that, you just have to try and
• 49:38
  put that to the side and think like, OK, what, what can I
• 49:40
  control here? And I think if anything, Sinead,
• 49:44
  Elsie and I really went in feeling like a A-Team into that
• 49:47
  race. And so it was sort of that team
• 49:50
  sport mentality of like, let's all just try and put ourselves
• 49:54
  up there for as long as possible.
• 49:56
  And we were working together and sharing the lead a bit,
• 50:00
  particularly on some of the hills when the other girls would
• 50:02
  stall the pace. And so then, yeah, by 30 KS, I
• 50:07
  just remember thinking this is, this is a good day.
• 50:09
  Like I know it's really hilly in the final five KS.
• 50:13
  And I've been preparing, you know, in the hills in Saint
• 50:17
  Moritz that it was at that point I was quite confident because
• 50:21
  there were rises in the early stages of the race and I could
• 50:24
  just tell the the two main players, the Namibian and the
• 50:27
  Kenyan athletes were, were struggling a bit on the hills.
• 50:30
  So I think that fuelling my confidence just helped me to
• 50:33
  have the motivation in the later stages to really dig date.
• 50:38
  So did you have to put them away on the hills or were you already
• 50:43
  solo on the front by that point? No, it was the hill.
• 50:46
  It was like it was the final five to seven KS.
• 50:51
  There were some really steep hills and and that's when I sort
• 50:55
  of took the lead at that point in the race.
• 50:57
  I remember the first sort of steep hill, Yeah, they fell back
• 51:01
  and I was like, OK, this is exactly what I want.
• 51:03
  And that, yeah, gave me confidence because I knew we had
• 51:06
  a lot more to come. Did you?
• 51:08
  I remember it's taking me back and remembering because the only
• 51:12
  thing that can happen then is if you have that feeling that you
• 51:15
  had, say, in 2018 where you just run out of gas.
• 51:18
  Did you have any feelings of Oh no, I could be in trouble or you
• 51:23
  felt on top? Of your energy I knew I'd paced
• 51:25
  the race pretty well like the first half had been really
• 51:28
  relaxed and so I felt like that thirty KS I was ready to start
• 51:32
  pushing the pace whereas in 2018 I remember a halfway thinking Oh
• 51:37
  no like I'm already slowing I didn't have that reserve yeah
• 51:41
  and. Then I guess to draw comparison
• 51:44
  to Paris, correct me if I'm wrong, but the narrative there
• 51:47
  as well seemed to be very much about like the team spirits,
• 51:51
  like the the three of you kind of running the race together,
• 51:54
  Team Australia. And especially with was it you
• 51:57
  and Jan who were on the front together at a point?
• 52:00
  And I guess that just propels you both, doesn't it?
• 52:03
  And then there becomes a point where it's like, OK, it was nice
• 52:06
  knowing you, but now we're racing.
• 52:09
  Well, it's the social side of the sport and the relationships
• 52:12
  that I I love the most. Like one of the reasons I love
• 52:16
  running for Australia is because you have those, so there's a
• 52:19
  camp beforehand and the time in the village where you're with
• 52:22
  your teammates. And that's just, I think that's
• 52:25
  what sport's all about. So when you kind of can take
• 52:28
  that into the race and think we're all allies here, like
• 52:30
  let's just try and help each other to get the best result for
• 52:36
  Australia, it almost takes the pressure off.
• 52:38
  Like you're out there with your friends just you've got, yeah,
• 52:42
  it feels like you've got extra strength when in numbers.
• 52:48
  So certainly when we were doing our cooling strategy beforehand,
• 52:52
  we had the ice towels and few staff members working like
• 52:56
  crazy, dunking these towels in the ice and draping them over
• 53:00
  us. And then we went out to the
• 53:01
  start line together and, and exchanged a few words.
• 53:05
  Like you could really feel that we all just wanted, wanted each
• 53:10
  other to, to have a good day. And, you know, I, I didn't know
• 53:14
  in the race that Sinead was struggling.
• 53:17
  That would have stressed me out. I didn't find out until quite a
• 53:21
  long time after crossing the finish line what she'd been
• 53:25
  through. So that that was really tough to
• 53:27
  to find out after the race. I remember like kind of the
• 53:32
  narrative was about the hills and the heat that like it was
• 53:36
  the kind of equalize the race somewhat.
• 53:39
  And then when you see you 2 go to the front of it, you're like,
• 53:41
  Oh my God, this like this is crazy.
• 53:44
  You're like fully buying into it.
• 53:45
  Like let's go. What's going on?
• 53:48
  Like, how did that feel when you're on the front?
• 53:51
  Yeah, the hills were just coming comfortably.
• 53:55
  And I had the choice to either slow my momentum and join the
• 54:02
  pack or just keep, keep moving. And I was like, I'm just going
• 54:07
  to keep my rhythm. And then when I sort of felt
• 54:10
  myself ahead of the pack and there was a French girl out the
• 54:13
  front and I was like, so she's ahead.
• 54:15
  And then when she sort of started going backwards, I was
• 54:18
  like, oh, this is pretty embarrassing.
• 54:21
  I what what do I do now? And I just remember having to
• 54:24
  try and take my way myself away from the fact that it was the
• 54:27
  Olympics. I was like, oh, I don't think of
• 54:30
  the people at home watching TV, you know, saying what a clown.
• 54:34
  Like, I just had to, it would have been silly to then just
• 54:38
  like drop back to snail's pace. And yeah, I just had to keep
• 54:41
  going knowing they'd catch me at some point and it would all
• 54:44
  balance out. And then it happened obviously
• 54:46
  again because that was it around 13 KS.
• 54:49
  And then again at around 21, they slowed again on another
• 54:55
  hill. And I thought, there's obviously
• 54:59
  you've some really challenging parts coming up.
• 55:02
  They're going to absolutely fly in the last 10 KS.
• 55:06
  Like I knew who I was off against, fun and the like.
• 55:09
  And I just, I knew that absolutely kick home and I was
• 55:14
  like, let's just bake some time here.
• 55:16
  And then Jen came up beside me and I was like, oh, Jen.
• 55:19
  I was like, I don't know. They're like chopping and
• 55:22
  changing the pace. And she was like, don't worry
• 55:24
  about it, I'm here now. Like just just tuck in behind me
• 55:27
  for a bit. It was funny, kind of.
• 55:31
  Yeah. It takes you away from the
• 55:33
  enormity of the moment. And it was a nice sort of
• 55:35
  distraction. Just time passes quicker when,
• 55:40
  yeah, you're not thinking about how much you're hurting you.
• 55:43
  And it really did start to hurt. There was a massive heal at 27
• 55:48
  or 28 KS, which that's when the race started to split up and the
• 55:53
  the lead girls sort of took off from that point onwards.
• 55:56
  But I still wouldn't run the race any other way.
• 55:59
  Like when I saw that it was a pretty even split, I'm like,
• 56:03
  well I'm, I'm happy that I just kept with my rhythm because I
• 56:06
  don't think I would have been able to make that time up later
• 56:09
  on anyway. Just to talk about training a
• 56:14
  little bit in relationship to that, because there was like so
• 56:17
  much talk around how like special the Paris course was in
• 56:21
  comparison to like almost any other marathon, wasn't there?
• 56:24
  How did you prepare so differently for that?
• 56:27
  Or did you not? I did some sauna work to prepare
• 56:31
  for the heat. I remember in Saint Moritz in
• 56:34
  particular doing half an hour ish sauna sessions maybe twice a
• 56:41
  week and then just all of my jogs and and my long runs were
• 56:47
  on heels. I wasn't doing heels in my
• 56:48
  sessions, just every other run. And you're at altitude as well.
• 56:53
  So I'd say that one particular climb at 2728 K's.
• 57:01
  Susan Craman's one of my friends.
• 57:03
  She was actually working for the Dutch team.
• 57:06
  She was saying, like, this hill here in Saint Moritz, like,
• 57:09
  that's the same gradient as the climb.
• 57:11
  And I didn't actually run up it, but we drove up it a few times.
• 57:14
  And I was like, yeah, I don't actually want to run on that.
• 57:16
  Like, I don't want to know what it feels like.
• 57:18
  And when we drove over the course a couple of days before
• 57:22
  the race, yeah, everyone in the car, we got to the top and
• 57:27
  turned back and it seriously looked like a roller coaster.
• 57:29
  We were like, oh, should we have seen this?
• 57:32
  I don't know if it was a good idea.
• 57:34
  Everyone still ran so fast given the elevation it's.
• 57:38
  Yeah, on that particular hill, like I would have been 4 minutes
• 57:43
  or something like it. It got the the pace slowed a
• 57:47
  fair bit and I almost got to the point where it's like I think I
• 57:50
  might have to walk and then just got to the, you know, got over
• 57:53
  it. So it was short enough that you
• 57:55
  could just tough it out. But yeah, I it was a unique
• 57:59
  course for sure and I actually loved it and fortunately I had
• 58:02
  the legs to be able to belt down the downhill on the other side.
• 58:05
  It would have been if I'd felt like how I did in Sydney last
• 58:10
  year, it would have been a brutal experience because my
• 58:13
  quads are gone and you just can't run downhill.
• 58:15
  But fortunately that day I had the leg strength.
• 58:20
  There was a lot spoken about like in the lead up around
• 58:24
  lights of the selection policy and like, not that there's
• 58:28
  anything that's inside your control as an athlete, but I
• 58:32
  know like when you go into running, like you often want
• 58:36
  things to be some some of the beauty about running is the how
• 58:40
  it's a bit more binary sometimes.
• 58:43
  And so it feels a bit unfair sometimes in terms of when
• 58:48
  you're trying to qualify for these teams that you don't get
• 58:50
  to, you don't have much control as an, as an athlete in terms of
• 58:55
  Contra qualifying and you don't have any immediate elation for
• 59:00
  qualifying even when you you run a result.
• 59:03
  Do you have any, any thoughts around, like I know say for the
• 59:06
  US, they have quite a different policy where it's a trials race
• 59:10
  and it's as a spectator, it's quite the IT creates quite a
• 59:14
  degree of excitement and it doesn't always get this get the
• 59:18
  best selection with teams. But yeah, did you have any any
• 59:21
  thoughts on if you you know the future, if it could be made any
• 59:24
  better I. Think at the time, some things
• 59:28
  that were sort of highlighted during the appeals process was
• 59:33
  wording around not necessarily just the Australian Athletics
• 59:39
  policy, but maybe it was the the World Athletics policy as well.
• 59:46
  But it was about quota play and it was just it could be
• 59:50
  interpreted different ways. So I think tightening up the
• 59:53
  wording and the selection criteria is really important and
• 59:57
  that's something that hopefully happened off the back of that.
• 1:00:01
  As for the selectors using their discretion versus having just
• 1:00:08
  the three fastest or having a trial, yeah, it's it's a tricky
• 1:00:12
  one because the trial I think. You know, we were talking before
• 1:00:20
  about career opportunity, like financial opportunities and if
• 1:00:23
  you're doing maybe 2 marathons in a year and one of them's a
• 1:00:26
  trial. And if there isn't an
• 1:00:28
  opportunity to earn some money from that, it can, can be hard
• 1:00:32
  for athletes. And particularly if we we don't
• 1:00:35
  have the the depth either. So you end up running a lot of
• 1:00:38
  it on your own and you could put it within another race perhaps
• 1:00:43
  like, yeah, if the trial was within say a Sydney marathon or
• 1:00:47
  something. I guess the beauty of a trial,
• 1:00:50
  you could mock the conditions and the course of the the
• 1:00:54
  upcoming championship and that's probably the downfall of just
• 1:00:57
  the three fastest. If it is, say it's going to be a
• 1:01:01
  hot and a hilly course, well that context isn't taken into
• 1:01:05
  account. So it is a tough one and that's
• 1:01:09
  why I think we have this this issue each time, you know,
• 1:01:13
  selection comes up. Yeah, because even if you just
• 1:01:18
  even if it was three fastest, three fastest doesn't
• 1:01:21
  necessarily feel fair or it encourages everyone to go to
• 1:01:25
  let's say Valencia, which again like you mentioned in terms of
• 1:01:28
  financial means isn't the most sensible thing for people always
• 1:01:31
  so. Or you might not be able to get
• 1:01:33
  into it, like if you've got an up and coming marathon runner
• 1:01:36
  and they actually can't get into the fast course races.
• 1:01:40
  Well that seems really unfair too.
• 1:01:44
  Very imperfect. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 1:01:47
  And it was a really stressful time for everyone.
• 1:01:49
  It was so unfortunate that anyone had to go through that.
• 1:01:53
  And you sort of think, oh, hopefully there were lessons
• 1:01:57
  learnt. But yeah, I, I don't, I haven't
• 1:02:00
  sort of heard of the immediate changes that were the made to
• 1:02:03
  selection criteria or anything. It will be interesting come LA
• 1:02:07
  to see if anything's different. And then post 20, so 2024, I
• 1:02:14
  think you went to after the Olympics, went to have a go at
• 1:02:18
  Valencia, but maybe did you, yeah, succumb to another injury
• 1:02:22
  again? Yeah, that was a tibial bone
• 1:02:26
  stress injury, which, yeah, I basically, after the Melbourne
• 1:02:32
  Half marathon had had time off for that and then decided to put
• 1:02:37
  Tokyo Marathon in the calendar and it felt like quite a quick
• 1:02:42
  turn around in the end. But that was a great race to be
• 1:02:45
  a part of and it's happening again this weekend, so we'll be
• 1:02:48
  watching keenly. Is is Sinead running?
• 1:02:52
  I saw on the start. List racing and maybe Vanessa as
• 1:02:57
  well who ran at the world champs.
• 1:03:01
  So yeah, it'll be. It'll be fun to follow along.
• 1:03:05
  And do you, because you've run a few of the majors is is is, do
• 1:03:09
  you have an eye to hopefully getting to run each one?
• 1:03:12
  Is that part of the? Yeah, Boston's one that I'd
• 1:03:16
  certainly love to tug. And Berlin, I love Germany.
• 1:03:21
  Yeah, it's hard because I've loved all of the majors I've
• 1:03:24
  run, so there's that temptation to go back to them because you
• 1:03:27
  love them so much, you know, London, New York and certainly
• 1:03:31
  Sydney. Like I hope to run Sydney a lot
• 1:03:34
  more. I loved that event last year,
• 1:03:36
  even though it was a brutal one, like physically on the day, just
• 1:03:41
  everything about it was was cool.
• 1:03:44
  So yeah, I hope I can tick off all of the majors one day and
• 1:03:50
  when I'm still in a position to really have a crack.
• 1:03:53
  Sure, no doubt after this April you'll be fired up to go to
• 1:03:57
  Boston, given that there's plenty of Aussies heading there
• 1:03:59
  this year, so you'll be like, got FOMO?
• 1:04:04
  Yeah, by then I think I'll, I will have FOMO.
• 1:04:09
  When I was in the thick of nausea, I had no FOMO.
• 1:04:11
  Watching people running outside. I just can't even imagine.
• 1:04:17
  I had a couple more questions, if you don't mind.
• 1:04:20
  Jess, if I fire. Them all go for it.
• 1:04:25
  The like because I know particularly like with a young
• 1:04:30
  family, like the role of Dylan in in terms of like being like,
• 1:04:34
  how do you any tips or hacks in terms of making what makes a
• 1:04:38
  good partnership and how you juggle it all?
• 1:04:40
  Something about Dylan, he's very logical.
• 1:04:46
  And I really, when he says something, I really believe it.
• 1:04:50
  He's very sincere. And so when he believes in me
• 1:04:53
  and that I can do something just it really hits home.
• 1:04:58
  And so when he believes that I could aim for that sort of 322
• 1:05:04
  average in Valencia and he was the one in Tokyo, he said when I
• 1:05:09
  said there's a pacemaker going out at three 20s, he's like,
• 1:05:12
  just go for it. Have a swing.
• 1:05:13
  He's like, I think you'll feel better than you, you think you
• 1:05:16
  will. And so I did and I learnt so
• 1:05:18
  much from that and I think it really helped me to get the most
• 1:05:21
  out of myself at Valencia so that it's not something you can
• 1:05:26
  fake. There's just this sincerity
• 1:05:28
  about what he says and his way of justifying it that shows me
• 1:05:33
  he believes in me and that he's really just on this like excited
• 1:05:39
  to be on this sort of adventure as well.
• 1:05:42
  And so when you feel like your partner's getting excited about
• 1:05:46
  it, that helps a lot. There's no resistance to my
• 1:05:52
  training or sort of saying, oh, he went out for that run, so I,
• 1:05:57
  I deserve to go out for this one.
• 1:05:58
  That's where there's no tit for tat.
• 1:06:00
  That's sort of like we both just invested in each other's running
• 1:06:04
  because we know what it means to one another.
• 1:06:07
  And I've seen him as a coach this year.
• 1:06:10
  He started in a coaching role for some of the middle distance
• 1:06:13
  runners and he just cares so much about his athletes.
• 1:06:16
  So I think just that passion that we both have makes a big
• 1:06:21
  difference. Because for those listeners who
• 1:06:25
  don't know, he's a very talented runner himself, isn't he?
• 1:06:28
  Were you you were watching him? Was it in Perth at nationals
• 1:06:31
  last year? He was competing.
• 1:06:32
  Yeah, he did the 15 there. He thought that was a bit long.
• 1:06:37
  So he's gone back down in distance this year.
• 1:06:39
  He's like, Nah, I'm a four 8 runner.
• 1:06:42
  So, you know, even though he's what is he, 36 or 3737 maybe
• 1:06:50
  he's still wanting to go back down in distance.
• 1:06:52
  And I love that. He just loves the real lactic
• 1:06:56
  stuff. It's something I can't really
• 1:06:58
  relate to there. You go, Dean.
• 1:07:00
  He left us. Get on the 8 hundreds.
• 1:07:02
  No excuse. Yeah, we've, well we've only
• 1:07:05
  recently discovered bicarb over here, so we might and maybe that
• 1:07:09
  will help get close the gap with the lactic burn.
• 1:07:13
  Yeah, yeah. And some big these days, the
• 1:07:16
  bicarb. The just to get sort of
• 1:07:20
  connected to that, but just in terms another like family
• 1:07:23
  related question, like running, we're quite lucky like running
• 1:07:26
  in terms of pursuing it doesn't take up too many hours of a
• 1:07:29
  week. But when you factor in like meal
• 1:07:33
  prep, like massage, stretching, gym, the importance of sleep and
• 1:07:38
  recovery, like there's a lot that goes into it and it's.
• 1:07:41
  And so how in terms of being able to prioritize that, but
• 1:07:46
  also prioritize family and the opportunity cost of both, like
• 1:07:50
  how, how, how do you go balancing that well, the.
• 1:07:53
  Things I put sort of at the top in terms of running performance
• 1:07:58
  is the, the training itself, the sleep and then nutrition.
• 1:08:03
  So the massage and the the gym and everything else.
• 1:08:08
  Kind of I'd like to actually be more diligent with that.
• 1:08:11
  Like I get up 10 minutes before I have to be out the door.
• 1:08:15
  Generally if it's a session day, might be 20 minutes because I
• 1:08:19
  want to make a coffee as well. But like I don't do any sort of
• 1:08:22
  activation or stretches or whatever.
• 1:08:25
  I just like get myself dressed, eat something, head out and
• 1:08:28
  that's me prioritizing sleep. Like I, I really try to get 8
• 1:08:33
  plus hours because if I'm not consistently getting that, I
• 1:08:37
  lose motivation. I start to get, you know, the
• 1:08:40
  tickly throats and just feel more susceptible to things.
• 1:08:44
  So really I just say, yeah, getting the running.
• 1:08:49
  I'm more likely these days to swap out something for a cross
• 1:08:54
  training session if for whatever reason I just can't get out for
• 1:08:57
  the run with family things. I'm not too fazed about jumping
• 1:09:01
  on the elliptical in our shed now.
• 1:09:04
  So I think all the years of running training has helped to
• 1:09:09
  make that just more possible. But yeah, I'd say in terms of
• 1:09:13
  recovery and all the extra little things you can do and as
• 1:09:16
  a physio, I feel bad saying it, but I, I probably fall off a
• 1:09:22
  little bit in those areas to spend more time with family.
• 1:09:25
  And then just to prioritise the the sleep and the yeah,
• 1:09:30
  nutrition is an easy one to do. You get home, you eat a good
• 1:09:33
  quality meal and then you just obviously eating a lot and
• 1:09:37
  having to plan ahead a bit to make nutritious meals.
• 1:09:40
  But I think that's a a really big and important factor.
• 1:09:46
  Can I ask you something about Valencia as well?
• 1:09:49
  My missus sometimes has these like strange thoughts where she
• 1:09:52
  thinks about like how many people are like in the city and
• 1:09:55
  what they're all doing or how many people are in the world.
• 1:09:57
  And all these like crazy thoughts actually get she gets
• 1:10:01
  kind of mind blown by like the numbers of people that are like
• 1:10:04
  in a certain space or something like this.
• 1:10:07
  Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is how that relates to you
• 1:10:11
  when you properly deeper that you are like literally the
• 1:10:14
  fastest woman. Who's?
• 1:10:16
  Who's ever come from Australia to run a marathon?
• 1:10:19
  Like I don't know if you've, I'm sure you have tried to process
• 1:10:23
  it and thought about it really deeply like that.
• 1:10:25
  How do you actually come to terms with that?
• 1:10:28
  Don't think I have processed it properly.
• 1:10:31
  Like, you know, when you I remember as like a teenager
• 1:10:34
  lying down and looking up at the sky with friends and you're
• 1:10:37
  talking about how like space never ends and you're trying to
• 1:10:40
  wrap your head around that. And yeah, going into those
• 1:10:43
  philosophic, like, I haven't really sat down and and actually
• 1:10:47
  thought about, yeah, all the female marathon runners in
• 1:10:50
  Australia and how, but probably because you got back from
• 1:10:54
  Valencia and then it's like end of school term Christmas
• 1:10:57
  holidays. And then, yeah, there was just a
• 1:11:00
  lot happening. But it'll probably be me when
• 1:11:03
  I'm, you know, a lot older looking back on life One day and
• 1:11:07
  it will sink in. It's because it's kind, not that
• 1:11:12
  it's overlooked, but there's just so many different records,
• 1:11:16
  so many different disciplines, and they're often being.
• 1:11:19
  Broken all the time. So like the word.
• 1:11:21
  Yeah, in the. Last.
• 1:11:23
  The last two years, if you think of the number of Australian
• 1:11:26
  records that have been broken, you probably feel like you're
• 1:11:29
  almost reporting on it weekly sometimes.
• 1:11:33
  Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.
• 1:11:36
  See, that's what men used to say.
• 1:11:38
  I don't know if that applies for the women.
• 1:11:40
  I haven't sort. Of double +3.
• 1:11:43
  Yeah, I haven't looked at enough women's results to see what the
• 1:11:46
  average sort of add on is for them, but I imagine given that
• 1:11:50
  we're supposedly more biased towards the endurance events, it
• 1:11:54
  might be a a lower add on number.
• 1:11:57
  Certainly mine's almost just like Double I.
• 1:12:00
  I need to get my half marathon time down.
• 1:12:04
  Dean, remember when I was saying that?
• 1:12:06
  Like women convert better and it's because they're like, they
• 1:12:09
  regulate their emotions better and men are more like
• 1:12:12
  egotistical and stuff. I was listening to a FIRE
• 1:12:15
  Finance podcast and the guy was talking about investing and he
• 1:12:19
  had all this data from Vanguard and they were talking about how
• 1:12:22
  men will play with their investment so much more than
• 1:12:25
  women. Whereas they just like set and
• 1:12:27
  forget because men genuinely like think they know better and
• 1:12:30
  they've got this big ego attached to them.
• 1:12:32
  So I think it might crossover. It's a marathon runner.
• 1:12:37
  It definitely applies so far in to giving away financial advice
• 1:12:42
  is very off pace. But yeah in our household house
• 1:12:45
  does. My wife does all of the buy sell
• 1:12:48
  orders because I get too emotionally involved in the
• 1:12:51
  price. So you wouldn't be the one at an
• 1:12:53
  auction with the paddle, Yeah. That'd be terrible.
• 1:13:00
  One or two more this social media like I know, safest like
• 1:13:04
  Strava. You're quite quiet on on Strava,
• 1:13:07
  but you are active on social media.
• 1:13:09
  Do you have any any thoughts or or or things that you do to make
• 1:13:14
  sure that you strike the right right balance?
• 1:13:16
  Because you know, I know. It's equal to be active in
• 1:13:18
  marketing. Yeah, though my husband and I
• 1:13:22
  talk about it a bit because we both, yeah, I think a lot of
• 1:13:28
  parents want to be more present and be on social media less.
• 1:13:34
  But if you are posting on social media like that, that it sucks
• 1:13:39
  you into it and actually puts you on your phone more.
• 1:13:41
  And that's one of the reasons Strava, I sort of have tried to
• 1:13:44
  do enough to, to keep a little like the odd update, but I'd
• 1:13:49
  actually don't want to open that up too often because then it
• 1:13:52
  just sucks you into the the vortex.
• 1:13:54
  And so I haven't had Twitter or X or whatever for ages, have
• 1:13:57
  never had TikTok or yeah, Instagram and probably just a
• 1:14:06
  Facebook page have been the two where I feel like I can offer
• 1:14:09
  sponsors something and can sort of share enough that you feel
• 1:14:14
  like you've got a bit of a team of people around you.
• 1:14:17
  And, and I think that support you can feel from social media
• 1:14:22
  is, is really powerful. And then obviously, you know,
• 1:14:25
  we're talking about the Paris selection before and you can see
• 1:14:29
  the, the scary side of it as well.
• 1:14:31
  And I really had to stay away from social media during that
• 1:14:34
  time. If I'd read into things, I
• 1:14:35
  probably wouldn't have lined up on race day.
• 1:14:37
  Like people were saying to me, are you OK?
• 1:14:41
  And, you know, I've read what's going on.
• 1:14:43
  And I was like, oh, Gee, because it must be bad.
• 1:14:45
  Like half the time I didn't even know what was out there.
• 1:14:48
  But the fact that people were asking if I was OK, I knew it
• 1:14:50
  must have been bad. And so, yeah, it's, it's hard
• 1:14:54
  when you've got kids and you start to think about how you'd
• 1:14:58
  like it to fit in to their worlds and even how much you
• 1:15:02
  feel comfortable sharing them. And I go through phases where
• 1:15:06
  I'm like, I shouldn't have the kids at all.
• 1:15:09
  And then I'm like, but they're such a big part of my life and
• 1:15:13
  sharing everything we do sort of brings context.
• 1:15:17
  It's, yeah, it's a really tricky 1.
• 1:15:20
  And I'm glad that Dylan and I can have those conversations.
• 1:15:22
  And just when you feel like it's swaying too much one way, you
• 1:15:27
  generally go the other way completely for a bit, and then
• 1:15:30
  you find middle ground again. So I think it's good sometimes
• 1:15:33
  to just completely take yourself off it to then like ease back
• 1:15:37
  in. Yes, I'm sure you are perhaps
• 1:15:42
  aware of like kind of how much of A role model you are and
• 1:15:45
  stuff, but maybe you don't get to feel the gravity of it
• 1:15:48
  sometimes other than like pulling on the jersey.
• 1:15:51
  And you know that that's being a role model to everyone who's
• 1:15:53
  watching you. But one niche example I have is
• 1:15:56
  that was it 24 Gold Coast Marathon at the You on the Stage
• 1:16:02
  at the Inside Running live show? Yeah.
• 1:16:06
  I was in the audience with my missus and she has nothing to do
• 1:16:11
  with running at all. Like I dragged her along and
• 1:16:13
  then she was like really quite captivated by you.
• 1:16:16
  And ever since she's like, oh, is that the one from the from
• 1:16:18
  the show? So yeah, I think I got asked all
• 1:16:24
  the hard questions on stage that day.
• 1:16:26
  I remember just having to like front up for it, about to head
• 1:16:30
  over for the Olympics and I just had a rough race.
• 1:16:33
  But and you know, they're never going to go easy on you, but
• 1:16:37
  you've just got to have a bit of fun with it.
• 1:16:42
  No thank you. That that means a lot.
• 1:16:45
  And did Dean, I think you had a special request as well, didn't
• 1:16:48
  you, in terms of a question? Which you mean in terms of the
• 1:16:53
  skin care question is that was, yeah.
• 1:16:55
  Because it came from my side as well.
• 1:16:57
  They were both wanting to know. Yeah, when you talk about like
• 1:17:00
  social media, like they both our wives, they're curious.
• 1:17:04
  I I deleted off my show notes, but it's skin care routine.
• 1:17:08
  They're they're that's where they're my mind is that
• 1:17:11
  obviously in terms of active wear and skin care.
• 1:17:14
  So did you have any suggestions or or?
• 1:17:17
  Hats, well, I didn't used to wear.
• 1:17:20
  I mean, back when I started marathon running, people weren't
• 1:17:23
  really wearing Sonny's. And like, that's such a big
• 1:17:26
  thing now, you know, wearing like eyewear and protective,
• 1:17:29
  like a cap and everything. So I'd like to have looked after
• 1:17:33
  my skin better in my younger running years.
• 1:17:36
  But yeah, I just, I like to use the real natural products.
• 1:17:40
  And particularly when you're pregnant, you you freak out
• 1:17:43
  about everything you're putting on your skin.
• 1:17:44
  So right now I'm trying some like Nordic botanicals, like
• 1:17:50
  organic one. If it's any good, I'll let them
• 1:17:52
  know. But yeah, I think I've always
• 1:17:56
  been a pretty basic in in that regard.
• 1:18:00
  Like I live in active wear, so fortunately not having to wear
• 1:18:03
  makeup and those things too often, which I think can clog
• 1:18:07
  your skin a bit. So yeah, active wear, it's like
• 1:18:12
  obviously all Lululemon these days and I love their running
• 1:18:15
  gear, but just their everyday wear is is so nice.
• 1:18:19
  So yes. Cool feedback will be passed on.
• 1:18:27
  If they've got ideas for me, I'd love to hear them.
• 1:18:32
  Well, we really need, we really need some more gender equality
• 1:18:35
  on the show. We're very conscious that as 3
• 1:18:37
  males, like we, we can't do women justice enough.
• 1:18:40
  So it's, it's like really, it's been an honour for us to speak
• 1:18:44
  to you and I'm glad that you've helped us kind of like balance
• 1:18:47
  the equation ever so slightly. Now, thanks for having me on.
• 1:18:53
  It's been really fun. Like you've delved into, yeah,
• 1:18:57
  parts of running and and life that hadn't really thought about
• 1:19:02
  for a while. So it's it's fun.
• 1:19:05
  Thanks so much for sharing with us.
• 1:19:08
  Yeah, no worries. All the best.
• 1:19:09
  I haven't asked what you 2 are building up towards.
• 1:19:12
  Just running at the minute. Yeah, we've been injured, Jess.
• 1:19:16
  So we've been in Lycra more than we've been in running shorts,
• 1:19:19
  unfortunately lately. Yeah, so.
• 1:19:20
  No Ballarat this year. No Ballarat, unfortunately so.
• 1:19:25
  Because I heard your name come up a lot when I was running with
• 1:19:27
  Fraser Darcy on Wednesday mornings.
• 1:19:30
  Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we write.
• 1:19:32
  I mean, he beat me unfortunately, but.
• 1:19:35
  But you were pretty close, weren't you, for a while there
• 1:19:37
  in Ballarat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:39
  We ran a lot of it together. Yeah.
• 1:19:41
  Yeah, I think he might be a little bit injured too.
• 1:19:44
  Is that? Yeah, yeah, he is.
• 1:19:46
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:19:48
  So yeah. We're trying to what is it?
• 1:19:50
  You can't land on the moon if you don't try and, you know,
• 1:19:53
  sing to the stars, so maybe. 2027, the year of the comeback.
• 1:19:58
  I hope so. That's it.
• 1:20:00
  All right. Thanks.
• 1:21:09
  The. The.