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Episode 58: The Peak Pursuits UTA Breakfast Show!
410 Plays8 days ago
Welcome to a very different episode of the Peak Pursuits podcast as for the first time all five team members are together in person amongst the UTA chaos! Sim Brick, Jess Jason, Brodie Nankervis, Vlad Ixel and James Sieber all sit down to talk through the weekend that was, including recapping each race, sharing stories from the trail, and celebrating some HUGE performances.
We will be back to regular programming next week and apologies for not quite getting the audio right for our first in person show, but we really hope you enjoy listening and keep watch for all of our post race interviews with winners/place getters dropping soon!
Full results: https://live.utmb.world/uta/2025
***Don’t forget, use code PPP at https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/en-au for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners!***
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter
License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
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Transcript
Introduction & Hosts Introduction
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to a very special episode 58 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. We are live, all five of us, well Jess is joining soon, she needed a refill, but all five of us are coming to you live at yeah UTA breakfast show essentially is what this podcast is going to be but I'll quickly introduce all of us hosts that you're going to be hearing from
Casual Conversations & 50K Race Introduction
00:00:30
Speaker
today.
00:00:30
Speaker
My name is Simone Brick and i am joined by Brody Nankervis. How are we doing Brody? Good morning everyone. Yep, pretty good. Pretty good. We're the least tired I reckon. Well maybe James can join us on the not too tired front considering we didn't race too much but James Sieber, welcome.
00:00:47
Speaker
Thanks for having me on the main show. It's always nice to be here. um I was up until three crewing somebody coach. Okay, no, no, no. You're more tired. There's still a bit of tiredness going on there. You're more tired, for sure.
00:00:58
Speaker
And an also joined by Vlad Iqbal, who raced the 50K yesterday. How are we Vlad?
Weekend Highlights & Social Media Silence
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, not too bad. I guess I had the most rest. I didn't crew anybody, so I'm feeling pretty fresh. True, actually.
00:01:08
Speaker
Out of the weekend, you and Jess might have actually done the least activity on the whole over the last... three days of mayhem, but fun. And Jess will be joining, so she's going to get some yummy food and coffee and we are on a tight timeline when it comes to getting to presentations on what has been, i must say, the most chaotic but awesome weekend in the Blue Mountains.
00:01:30
Speaker
um We had very grand schemes and ideas of what we were going to do and me and James were chatting very early on. When was it, James? Just after the eleventh Yeah, I think we realized pretty quickly that all our grand plans with the chaotic nature of this weekend and just how much is happening is a bit too ambitious, should we say?
00:01:50
Speaker
Very much so. We decided, okay, we're a podcast, not a media people. So also it's when you're crewing people, when you're helping other people. And when you're racing, they have to become the priority. You can't let that shift at all. So that was why socials were actually quite quiet over the weekend because every single one of us was out either getting rid of the race, like Vlad and Jess, or myself, Brody and James, on the crew front supporting people as they made their way through the Blue Mountains. and We got wild ah differences in weather throughout the days and all sorts of things to –
00:02:24
Speaker
to chat about, but where maybe we'll start from the beginning.
UTA 11 Race Experience
00:02:29
Speaker
And the beginning of the weekend was the UTA 11, which myself and Brodie jumped in. Brodie, how'd you like it?
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was so much fun. It was actually... um It was actually probably one of the most enjoyable trail races I've done for a while. I think maybe because I haven't done one for a while. But, um yeah, no, it was very, very cool um to try and tackle these trails at very, very high speeds.
00:02:54
Speaker
um And it was a nice little consolation to not being able to run 50. And I think it made the rest of the weekend for me a lot more enjoyable because I wasn't having too much fun because I'd had a chance to get out there and enjoy it. So yeah, it was really good. it was a and was a I'm glad I did it. So yeah it was fun. How about you?
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, you and me both. I feel like we kind of hacked how to have the best weekend at UTA because you do the 11 at the very, very beginning. It's like the race expo even only opens like an hour before the race or or two hours.
00:03:26
Speaker
But do the 11, you get the finish line feeling for me. I got that wonderful feeling of running through tape. and then just get to observe and be out on course for all the other bigger races with the main hitters,
Unexpected Distractions During 11K Race
00:03:40
Speaker
I'm going to say. But we um the 11k course, I will say, was a bit brutal.
00:03:46
Speaker
It was, what, 700 up and down, 13k, not 11k. And so I knew it was going to be hard, but at the same time, the beauty of it but this i just maybe didn't expect that many stairs in 11k like i know everyone says uta has a lot of stairs but here's me thinking i hadn't seen these trails i hadn't been across the top of the cliffs i hadn't seen lura is it lura gordon falls which waterfall did we see learning okay lura falls i hadn't seen any of those trails um and yeah i realized pretty early on that yeah people aren't joking when they say every trail here is stairs um
00:04:23
Speaker
to begin with. So yeah, I'm the same as you though, Brodie. One of the most fun trail races I've ever done, um I'm going to just because I was purely here to enjoy it, have a good time.
Notable 11K Performances
00:04:34
Speaker
There was a lot of kids on that start line, which was really cool to see. But for the most wild thing that happened on the weekend, fun little story, for the start of the eleven We run off and we have, what was it, 500 out and back on the road?
00:04:50
Speaker
We have 500 out and back on the road and we're running around the first corner and we are on the way back. Brodie, you had just passed this driveway and I was a bit behind you already at this point because you guys took off real bloody quick with the kids.
00:05:03
Speaker
um Not all kids, but ah at least 17 years of age. Yeah. It's just really showing our age now that we're calling 16-year-olds kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:14
Speaker
It feels like they're so young and you're like, I'm double your age. So, you know, it's something. But still, running along the road and I just noticed on the right side of the road as I'm running down, a lady's coming out of her driveway.
00:05:29
Speaker
This is at the very front of the race in an 11K. The road is packed. mostly with younger people and she's trying to barge her way onto the race course and she is not stopping. This woman is, is she's driving, she's getting on this road and she's got her window down, screaming out the window and i have to dodge around the car and I get in front of it and then ah few people
22K Race Conditions & Highlights
00:05:54
Speaker
are like getting out of her way because she's clearly very angry.
00:05:57
Speaker
She's a local. um But the road's closed. Like there are people everywhere running. There's kids everywhere. There's cones everywhere that she has to try and get around. And she then does manage to get her way onto the road, onto the course.
00:06:10
Speaker
And a few people are getting out of their way and I'm just they're like, I'm stuck the middle of the road because you can't A, be here, but also if she got up any speed, I'd be worried for the people ahead of me. So that was a bit of a distraction for about a K, or not a K, but until we hit the trail, because she just followed us the whole way and she was yelling the whole way her window at us to get out of the way.
00:06:32
Speaker
And I'm like, honestly, never seen it before. But also the timing of it was kind of wild because we were on that road for like eight minutes. Like we needed such a short period of time for that road to be fully shut where she couldn't drive on it.
00:06:46
Speaker
And it was but like not long at all. So anyways, don't know if I've ever seen that happen before. You missed it entirely, didn't you, Ray? I was oblivious to that happening. I was just watching the...
00:06:57
Speaker
17-year-olds, because I know what they said. They were 17, not 16. They were sprinting away from me. The guy who won, I reckon, before we even hit the trail, we had like 100 metres at least on me. They were flying. Wow.
00:07:11
Speaker
That was a short stretch. They already have that much. Yeah, they were absolutely flying. By time we got around to Echo Point, which is I was like, oh, these guys just went out really hard and they were going to come back to me pretty quickly. I was still in like sixth.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah. not They were not coming back quickly. they I think they made it, they dropped off a little bit in the end, but they made it like six, seven Ks before they started slowing down. Yeah, damn. I really had to fight to catch up. So, yeah, it was, um yeah, I didn't see that. i didn't see the car.
00:07:41
Speaker
I had other things on my mind. Well, yeah, that was just my fun little thing at the start. I did have a few of the young ones taking an absolute gun, but I was in the lead by the time we hit the trail and then just really enjoyed running as hard as I could.
00:07:55
Speaker
on very tired body but the
Logistical Issues & Women's 22K Recap
00:07:57
Speaker
course was gorgeous and it was really quick. I found it really fast running through those trails where it was before it had been churned up down the bend.
00:08:08
Speaker
And then up further, definitely we did get to go the whole way up further and I was um as a wet week on that thing, it felt like. Yeah, I got the fun experience of going up further with someone um just behind me. So I got the real true UTA experience of having to race up further steps.
00:08:25
Speaker
think you're going to hear more about that later from Vlad too. Yeah, i think Vlad had a similar experience. He was just in the opposite position. but here is There is more of that coming. But yes, it was very, very fun. Highly recommend.
00:08:37
Speaker
see a few people that just drove up for the Thursday, did the 11 and left, um which I think is pretty cool because it's a brutal little race that gets a lot of yeah the trails without too much of what we then experienced watching miles go be through the next day.
00:08:55
Speaker
So to recap the full results of the 11K, the winner, which there is a story here too on the men's side, was Elijah Gosby. This was his fifth?
00:09:06
Speaker
Fifth, yeah. Fifth go to the 11th. Done the 11th last five years in a row and he's just been training to this one race. And he's... Well, think he trains for other things. No, this is his main priority. In the in the recent times, was like, I just wanted to win this race because of second last year.
00:09:22
Speaker
It's his fifth go. He's a local. All his family were here. And i would have actually been quite upset if he beat him, Brodie, but thankfully he was the better man on the day. Yeah, I did not let him win. He won fair and square.
00:09:35
Speaker
He had a ripper run. What was it? 104.09 for and in second in 104.57. And Freeman was 105.09. He was the best. and one ah four fifty seven and alton freeman was one o five on night one chasing you up the stairs. Yeah, I know Alton. He's an oriental and he's only 16.
00:09:56
Speaker
and I'd got away from him but then he caught back up by the bottom of Ferber and I thought he was going to beat me. So I was running pretty scared up Ferber but I managed to sprint away from him at the end. I didn't want to give it away to him. I did give him the option. I did say, Alton, if going to
Men's 22K Race Highlights
00:10:11
Speaker
beat me, you've got to go now. and he And he didn't go. So then I was like, okay, well, I'll beat you then. You gave him the beta to it. That's fine. Yeah, I was pumping him up. I don't know maybe he was taking that as shit talking though.
00:10:22
Speaker
He might have. He very much might have. ah Fine. Well, yeah, on the women's side, I was very, very thankful to get the win um and have a good time doing it one 17th.
00:10:32
Speaker
hour seventeen And then Rosie Boyne, um she's in the 16 to 17 age category as well, and she was one of the ones that took off like a gun at the start and she held on very strongly for second.
00:10:44
Speaker
I think she won it last year. um Yeah, she's won it at some point anyway. She's definitely won it before. um She ran one hour 22 and then in third... is someone who I know, which is Jamie Delaney.
00:10:57
Speaker
ah She ran one hour 23.37, so she was a bit over a minute behind Rosie. And she's, this I think is her first trail race back. a very good runner, just overall trail track, um but has just come back from three kids.
00:11:13
Speaker
So had a very long break. She's now got, I think, three-year-old, a one-and-a-half-year-old and five-month-old, I believe. she had quite few years of not doing too much. This is her first response back after that.
00:11:25
Speaker
So welcome back, Jamie, if you're listening. um yeah
Jess's 50K Race Experience
00:11:29
Speaker
So it was really nice for her getting back to it. And, yeah, I think that recap of 11. We've got so much else to talk about, so we're going to move on pretty quickly.
00:11:38
Speaker
That's the most comms that has ever got, I think. ah And Rosie did come first last year. She came fourth in 2023 as well. so Yeah, she's done it a few years, yeah. So this is her race too. i love it I love it. I love seeing them like stick to this distance and just sort of have fun and run fast with it.
00:11:55
Speaker
It's great. But the very next day, the mile was underway before the 22 started, but the next finishes were the 22K. Were you in the You would have been at the start, James?
00:12:08
Speaker
Well, you couldn't get to the start, so they wouldn't let you go they wouldn't go to Queen Victoria Hospital. I dropped my wife, Siobhan, and James Barnett off a couple of beforehand. But yeah, it's not a course for spectating because you essentially can't. You could access the course, guess, down the giant staircase or some point a bit further down, but really it's just send them off at the start, see them at the finish, and just watch the carnage that happens on the dock tracking, essentially.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, I will also quickly say we've been joined by Jess. Hi Jess. Hey guys. You got your goodies? Yeah. Awesome. We need to refuel the woman that blitzed the 50k yesterday. So Jess is in the room.
00:12:48
Speaker
and We're all finally live, all five of us. It's going to be good. ah But yeah, for the 22, Siobhan, your wife, who's running, James? Yeah, so Sean was running, which was really nice to see. As I mentioned in the previous show, she unfortunately had been training really well um and then got sick last weekend, which is just how it happens, I guess. yeah So that made her day a little bit trickier than we would say want, but the 22 or so had, and the milers, but Friday was probably the weather wasn't particularly friendly. So
00:13:23
Speaker
No, it was a weird one because everyone was still quite sweaty and almost warm because it was muggy. Yeah. But it was super foggy and wet. Yeah, it was very, very moody.
00:13:35
Speaker
It was wet but not raining heavy. i don't even know if it was raining. It was just sort of moisture in the air. But it was, yeah. There were no no views for the 22K runners. I know that they were saying that they also definitely did not feel cold down the bottom.
00:13:47
Speaker
They were feeling that that humidity and moisture being trapped down there. Yeah, yeah. And they had quite a but a muggy course. we're gonna We're going to speak of the women first here. um And yeah, as Liam said, all we saw, all we could see was what came across the finish, but at the same time, where i was everyone's on the trackers seeing who gets to emergency first. I think there's a storage treatment works where we also get a time check.
00:14:11
Speaker
um And you from chatting to the women as well, i think it was Bethany Garland who took the downhill out hard. I was talking to Bridie Temple after the finish and she said that she was running down about 320k's and Bethany was just disappearing off into the distance, which, yeah, if you're going down the hill at 3-minute pace, that's 310. That's pretty close to what the league guys are doing, which was – I like the tactic. Just go for it.
00:14:34
Speaker
She did. She definitely just went for it. I did and see her come across the line and her first words were, I went out too hard, pretty much. So, yeah, from the race from there, I think Jessie Speedy, best of her name in trail running, I will say.
00:14:51
Speaker
Like, absolutely the best. She came'd come through for the win, but it looks like she kind of
Women's 50K Race Recap & Results
00:14:56
Speaker
took the lead not long after the descent race. Yeah, I think it was in the UTA video of her talking afterwards that she just said she loves the climbs.
00:15:05
Speaker
And I know speaking to my friend New Zealand, James, beforehand that she's on the uphill team for New Zealand this year. So yeah that makes sense. Yeah. And she just did. um she she was chatting to her a little bit after and she um this is her break after she just did the uphill champs, I think two weeks ago New Zealand.
00:15:25
Speaker
So was like, let's go have some fun and just comes and absolutely blitzes UTA. So, yeah, he wasn't in the lead at all down the descent, but then just – ate away at that time um and came through for a very fast time because she broke two hours, one hour 57.27 for the win.
00:15:44
Speaker
um And Bridie Temple then came through for second. And this I love to see because this is our first first time seeing Bridie do the shorter distances.
00:15:55
Speaker
What's her shortest before this? Actual racing, ah i don't know, I think the first thing you kind of see on UTMB is 100K. So she's she's done, I'll just bring up her awards here.
00:16:06
Speaker
UTMB has Javelani 45 and Buffalo Stampede this year 100. know she did Alpine Challenge 100K as well a couple of years ago. so I think this was this was her stepping out of her comfort zone, which don't know for a lot of us it would be going longer to be out of our comfort zone, at least earlier on in our career. But yeah, for her it was racing very hard. And then she went on to crew her coach, sorry, pace her coach for a cumulative about 45k later that day in 100 miles. So she stepped back into her comfort zone there.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yep, sounds about right. Well, she certainly showed that she's got speed because 201.17 on that course is fast and many years would actually win outright on this course anyway. So, Bridie, you do have a home in the short distance too when you want it.
Men's 50K Race Experience & Strategy
00:16:51
Speaker
um And in third place, um coming across the line only minute or so, 20 behind Bridie was Sarah Leavitt, who was stoked. That was such a good run by her.
00:17:03
Speaker
i know she'd been doing a lot of training out on course before the race and, yeah, came through for third with Jess Ronan in fourth, not far behind her. So she's got some strength right behind her there with Bethany Campbell also,
00:17:21
Speaker
um coming through for fifth so she held a one but this being leading to the bottom and then 10 minutes behind at the top that must have been a tough climb yeah that's gonna hurt it's um yeah it that's a tough way to go about it but that's also how you learn what your capacities are as well and i know it's talking to sarah and henry hugman after yes on saturday about the 22 and that they have been wrecking this course quite a lot you said in the preview that henry's run it at least five times whoa and sarah was pretty much the same they they're trained together a lot up here so She, yeah, knew the course, knew what to And that got her two and a half-ish minutes faster than last year as well in some pretty sloppy conditions.
00:17:59
Speaker
Yeah, nice. That's good. half minutes before been on that course. Also want to just give a shout out to Georgiana Campbell. She hasn't been on the start lines that much recently, battling some hip stuff. And it's just been really cool to see her get back out there and coming in in seventh place for your first start line since December is pretty, pretty epic.
00:18:20
Speaker
And I wanted to give a shout out to Janna Marsh in 8th because um her bus was 40 minutes late. So she missed the elite start line. No way. And still came 8th. Actually, this is this is something that when I dropped Siobhan and James off, I drove back in and we have a bus stop quite near our place.
00:18:38
Speaker
I drove past that bus stop at 6.24. say twenty four I think the start time was 6.40. I'm pretty sure that's right. Anyway, massive queue of people still. Apparently, the buses were just missing it left, right and center. So there was a few people sprinting down to the start line. Nigel Preston was one of them.
50K Race Finishes & Future Speculations
00:18:55
Speaker
just had to kind of his His warm-up was trying to meet the start line the time, which is yeah a shame.
00:19:01
Speaker
But there's a lot of logistics, as we've seen up here, with 7,000-odd runners. Yeah, wow. That's wild. Great channel. That would be hard. So would she just have you to start later and then still run that line and sort of had to come through the field?
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. She said she was stuck behind thousands of people. Like, damn. Lucky the trail was wide, but it's still a bit hard. it is But that's still... that's a run and a half and go Channa.
00:19:28
Speaker
And I'll then shout out Siobhan in 10th because she wasn't, which is James' wife because he's in the room and also Siobhan has also had similar hip problems and all sorts of things going on. And then Jamie, she got sick because I reckon she would have been up there as well, but.
00:19:42
Speaker
um Yeah, coming through for 10th on a day that wasn't yours is bloody cool. But the men, the men was tight, I'm going to say, the whole way.
00:19:53
Speaker
So at the front, um getting the win just was Leo Peterson in one hour 40, 47. But right behind him was Benjamin Duffus in one hour 40, 59 in the fifty nine in the end But they were neck and neck.
00:20:09
Speaker
I'm pretty sure just together all day. um Did you get a chance to chat to them, James? I haven't had chance to chat to them, but following the tracking, it was literally just those two together. I think Ben caught back up to Leo on the downhill. pretty sure that's what he said in the post-race with UTA. or yeah And then they would just climbed together. but They were just checkpoint after checkpoint together.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, we'll hear more from them. But I did hear little snippets as they came across the line in there. chatting, Leo, I believe, just stuck to the back of Ben until about a K to and let Ben lead him up the climb before then making his move up the stairs to try and get away. But there were still moments in the stairs where they were just a couple of stairs apart the whole way up.
00:20:51
Speaker
And then chatting to Ben, he said he was in a position he really didn't want to be in because there's a sprint off the top. And if there's a person you don't want to sprint off against, it's Leo. Definitely not. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that entire...
00:21:06
Speaker
11 second time gap was done from the top of the stairs to the finish line which is a couple hundred meters so which explains why when Leo came around the corner I was waiting just to see who's going to come around this corner first it was really cool spectating as someone who had been following the race and then just waiting to see who comes around the corner he was flying oh they were moving so he was definitely running away and then um I reckon most dramatic finish of the weekend goes to Nathan Pierce Brody yeah he um he um Worked his calves a bit hard going up the um up the steps. He's coming off a calf injury earlier in the year, um so maybe still getting some conditioning back and and sprinting, trying to sprint up the finish. He got a cramped, I can't remember which calf, it was left or his right, but then he's like running with a cramped calf.
00:21:54
Speaker
across the finish line, big dramatic dive. And then everyone, well, I guess everyone thought he was injured injured rather than just a cramp. So everyone was hushed. And then the medic came over and was like trying to help him but just couldn't get rid of his cramp. So I was having a little giggle.
00:22:07
Speaker
and
UTA Significance: Prize Money & Standards
00:22:08
Speaker
Sorry, Nath. But it was it was quite funny. spec Once I realised he wasn't injured, I was like, this is quite funny actually. Yeah. Yes, he was fine. We got the calf stretched out eventually.
00:22:20
Speaker
um But, yeah, it was very dramatic. Just a full head on the ground, face plant over the finish time, Matt. um But, yes, still came through with the third. And he needed to do that because, like, had he fully had to stop, there was only a minute gap.
00:22:35
Speaker
Back to Ian Best, who was coming through and Ian being the climber, I'm sure Nathan just didn't know quite how much of a gap he had um and he could have been even closer. So, yeah, Nathan was one hour 44.52, so about four minutes back off Leo and Ben. And then it was Ian Best in fourth and James Barnett in fifth.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think James tried to go with the pace early, wanted to see if he could hang on to the front guys. So he was out the front, from no talking to Nath, I think it was Leo, Ben and James out the front on the descent down Kadumba, and Nath was a little bit back.
00:23:13
Speaker
um But then, yeah, maybe a bit too much for James and found the second half a bit harder. Yeah. But, yeah, still a fantastic run for James. We know if he ran really well at Buffalo a few weeks ago. so um And I think from talking to a few people, that was his focus rather than this race. And he just came here to sort of have a swing. And sometimes swings don't land, but still came fifth. So good on him.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, I reckon reckon um we still coming fifth is ah still a landing something. Yeah, I think he would have wanted to be up like he wanted to. He was having a swing for the win. and Yeah, yeah. He had to be at the front to to do that, and so he did what he had to do.
00:23:51
Speaker
But, yeah, just wasn't wasn't able to hang on in the end, but still
100K Race Dynamics & Highlights
00:23:54
Speaker
running across in fifth in that field was still a very impressive run. Yeah, good on you, James. And that must have been a very painful climb. Oh, yeah, it's always going to be hard if you've gone out slightly too hard. yeah I think the climb, you suffer a lot more than you need it to.
00:24:09
Speaker
Nice. Well, that's the 22 covered off, unless anyone's any more stories from... seeing them journalist across the line. But on to what is the big one for us, I'm going to say, for our podcast, the 50K, because we had Jess and Vlad out there. um And I'm going to throw it to Jess first, if that's all right, Jess.
00:24:32
Speaker
you've got You've got a voice the day after? Yep. Oh, good. um And in the women's race, it was, I think, in some ways tighter than i at the finish line especially than it looked like it might have been at some of the timing checkpoints throughout the day.
00:24:50
Speaker
um But Jess, we'll hear how your day went first, I reckon. Um, yeah, a bit up and down. i yeah i'm mr dramatic bit of a at the start. Um, forgot my bottles.
00:25:05
Speaker
So luckily had to grab some off someone else so that I could actually start the race. And, um, yeah, it was fine. Like I, yeah, I didn't drink that much in the first couple of hours anyway, which I don't know that's good or bad, but. It is what it is. um Got through the race. I found the first half pretty hard. Like um still kind of like similar to Buffalo, like battling with um anxiety, kind of like physical symptoms um where just my heart rate's like...
00:25:35
Speaker
super high and I already have like lactic acid in my legs pretty early on um but I was super happy with like the second half um I feel like I got through that kind of like mental battle that I was having like after feeling not great in the first half um and like I think seeing you guys at the second aid station And you were like, okay, this is like where you can use your speed. And i was like, yeah, like trying to be positive.
00:26:00
Speaker
um Actually used music for the first time in the race, which helped a lot um just to like sort of drown out like the but negative thoughts. um And I think like once I started getting like positive feedback where I was like sort of pulling away from a girl that was running right behind me um and like overtook another girl,
00:26:21
Speaker
I started feeling amazing and, like, at forty k my body felt the best. It, like, had the whole day. So i was like, oh, cool, I've only got 10K left. But that last 10K is, like, the hardest, like, probably 10K of the race just all uphill and then the stairs at the very end. um But I felt super strong and then only really started to cramp on, like, the further stairs.
00:26:45
Speaker
um That was so hard. When I saw you, my calf was, like, sort of going but then I just stretched it out and it was fine um so yeah I don't know pretty happy like it was definitely an improvement from Buffalo in terms of like just feeling myself in the second half of the race but definitely like some learnings and work to do for the next one um Yeah, I think when ah when me and Brodie heard that, because we didn't get to see you before the start, when we heard that you had i your bottles, we didn't know what what you'd managed to grab, what had happened, anything like that. But you coming in through, even the first aid station, you at least outwardly looked quite calm and you were in a good spot.
00:27:24
Speaker
So I was a bit like, okay, we might be on, we might be good. Yeah. And then the coming through the second aid station, you were moving so well. You were looking strong. i just felt for you having... um Annabelle was doing an incredible job as well and she was right on your back. How long had she been there for?
00:27:42
Speaker
Um, she pretty much like caught up to me just as we were finishing like the, um, technical staring kind of section. And then come, as we come up to the road, um, she was kind of like right behind me, but then I was like gapping her a bit up the hill.
00:27:57
Speaker
Um, and then, um, I think she was like a better technical runner than me because like when we're running on the side of the road, she was sort of like, yeah, she kept up with me over that bit because it was a bit like washed out with the rain and stuff. i But then i think I actually run really well down that.
00:28:15
Speaker
Yeah, you put a three minutes in. i put a 3.45k down there, which I was like, oh, that's pretty good. Like given was Yeah. um and my legs were like I was I was feeling on that downhill and I was kind of like worried about how I'd feel when I got to the climbs was like oh whatever like I might as well give it a shot try and turn this race around and actually ended up feeling fine on the climbs so sometimes running a bit faster and freer down I just had can actually beat you up a little less I was just trying to like not put the brakes on yeah so that my muscles weren't like overworking good idea
00:28:49
Speaker
Very good idea. Well, yeah, it was it was nice seeing an emergency aid station when that tracker knew. It was nice seeing that three-minute lap appear. um But then at the bottom of Ferber, that was back down to, I think, a minute 45 or so.
00:29:01
Speaker
um And I was doing the whole, like, running up and down Ferber, trying to see all the people that I was following along for the race. um And, yeah, just making sure everyone made it into the finish, essentially, because I know how hard those stairs can be. Yeah.
00:29:18
Speaker
you know in their good spot. But um yeah, when I saw you, oh my gosh, your calf, look, that looks so painful. um Just a cramp on fervor is not what you want. But you pushed, and you actually put a bit of more time in. It was a bit over two minutes at the end at the top.
00:29:35
Speaker
So you put a bit of time in on the stairs. I think, yeah, I was happy with it. Like first 50K and like, yes, I've done like 40K races, but it's still kind of like that unknown. Was this your first 50?
00:29:46
Speaker
Oh, wow. I did not realize that. That's awesome. Well done. Yeah. And um just like first big race, like I did COSI 30, which is probably the biggest race I've done. So a big step up from that um in terms of like just having numbers around you and yeah like depths of field, um like racing against international players.
00:30:05
Speaker
Runners and, like the run like, the field was pretty deep. um So, yeah, I'm happy with it. It was very deep. Over-road deep. Well, five hours 24 for fourth place in the end, in the money.
00:30:18
Speaker
Happy days. Very happy days there with the prize money that UTA have going for being a major. But for the overall women's results, Caitlin Fielder, Predictably got the win, but it was it was it was somewhat close in the end. Yeah. um It was Caitlin getting the win in five hours and two minutes and 27 seconds.
00:30:40
Speaker
And she had a good day um off the niggles and training she'd been nice to put in between Tarawara and now. um So I know she was coming here trying to gauge.
00:30:53
Speaker
her fitness and see where she was at actually not quite knowing I think um she wouldn't mind me saying her longest run between Taraura and now but because of uh some footniggles that she's had is 30k so she's not been and she's not been she'd she's always on the bike um but yeah she she just came here wanting to see what she could do now uh with a lot coming up later in the year and yeah she held on really bloody well um and still ran very fast time on what is the, like, I'm pretty sure this is the most original sort to of course.
00:31:28
Speaker
I think that's right. Yeah, that's my understanding. Okay. It was a bit different last year. This course was different to last year's course. It was a bit longer. We had Definitely at least one session where it was a lot more brutal than when they went down Giant up Lura. Yeah. So something that Brodie and I missed in the preview was that last year it stayed higher and on a nice road.
00:31:51
Speaker
Whereas this year they dropped down Giant up Lura. And it sounds like that was for the front of the field, ah probably a 20, 15, 20 minute odd difference. And then they also came up further rather than coming up Giant, which is why didn't do that last year. So Yeah, it definitely made a difference. And as we'll talk about the times later, it's why stuff is late. It's bit slower, but some very impressive times when you take that differential off. Yeah, yeah.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah, particularly the first, like, I think it's all the, it's just the the split to Femme. to the finish and that is comparative to last year's but the but split to Fairmont was quite a bit different. We were standing there like waiting because we were basing it off Charlie's time of when Dan would come through and therefore the rest of the men. That was when we realised. And then we realised, oh, wait, I don't think it's going to happen. They don't think it's going to be that quick and and the UTMB predicted was also, I think, like the times was maybe based off last year so it was ah was a bit off as well to start with.
00:32:54
Speaker
So, yeah, it was – I think that first bit would be a bit – definitely be a bit harder, especially probably affects the second half of the course as well cause there's that big downhill down giant stairs and then a big climb up through Laura that's quite hard. So, yeah, it's hard to know exactly how much difference it makes. But, um yeah, I think with – so One of the few of the people who'd done it both years, Tom Banks had, and he was about 14 minutes slower than he was last year, but felt like he had a better race. So yeah, we assume somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, I guess, depending on where you are in the field.
00:33:30
Speaker
um slower than last year yeah well dan was 20 minutes behind where charlie was to firmly yeah yeah right means it it was a big difference because i know caitlin you can actually see in the video here in the video from her where she's running through going am i running that slow because she was looking at last year i've seen lot of people fell into that trap of doing their splits based off last year or looking at their finish time based on yeah because you look at the map and it doesn't look too different. No, and that's the thing is that especially not knowing this course intricately and you look at the map, even if you zoom in on the maps, it still follows. It it doesn't look that different. And like the because the road, essentially, it's just following in the same contours as that path, the cliff face, it looks very similar. So you can very easily look at this and go, yeah, it's the same course or it's going to run very much the same. It wasn't until going through it with Tyler Winden the night before that I realized how different this was.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, very big difference. Yeah, I i felt I had to explain to him like no, it's a different course, ignore all the splits you've looked at as she was running through because yeah, she thought she was just running really slow. i'm like no, you were not 20 minutes behind where you thought you were going to be. So was fine but yeah, that was a bit of a mid-race surprise for us but in the end also for Caitlin as I was crewing her at that first one. but um Yeah, so she ended up for five hours and two minutes, which on this course is bloody fast.
00:34:52
Speaker
And then Alison Wilson, who was catching her on a climb and putting quite a bit of time in because there was a seven-minute gap at one point. I just looked at the emergency aid station, which is ah about a six K to six, seven K to There was about six and half-minute gap.
00:35:10
Speaker
And then there's a four-minute and eight-second gap by the finish. So it was closing. It was even closer at the bottom of the stairs. It was only three and a half, I think, at the bottom of Ferber. um Like, I'd been looking at differences and stuff because even from sewage treatment works to emergency sewage treatment works, I think she made up a bit of time. Like, there was – Alison was just climbing really, really well.
00:35:33
Speaker
um Like, Caitlin was surprised when she found out that she had that much time put into her up the climb because she thought she was moving decently. Yeah. So Alison and Demi in the end. Demi came really strong up the climb because it was Alison in second with five hours and six minutes, 35 seconds, and then Demi coming through with five hours, 747. Do you know what the gap was back to the Demi?
00:35:56
Speaker
The bottom? I know that Demi and Alison were pretty much a minute apart like for most of that race. okay Okay. Just status quo the whole time because it was always – I'm pretty sure Alison was always in second and Demi was always in third.
00:36:09
Speaker
um But, yeah, every aid station, they'd come through close. Yeah. um And then it was the same at the finish with and our very own, Jason, coming through for fourth with another close finish with Annabelle Bramwell. it went.
00:36:24
Speaker
Oh, geez, it's all Kiwi. Kiwi, Kiwi, Aussie, Aussie, Kiwi. And then Kiwi again, Hannah Wall. Hannah was um ahead of you, Jess, earlier on in the race? Yeah, um she took off she took off down the giant stairs just like...
00:36:38
Speaker
but Yeah, like bombing it down past me and some guys. um And then I didn't see her until the start of the climbs after the descent into Kidamba. um She got her poles out.
00:36:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah, because she was ahead of you at Queen Vic, of course, and so all the way down that descent. Okay, nice. You put some time in on the climb. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like it was my strongest part of the race. Yeah, good.
00:37:03
Speaker
Good, good. Well, that was, yeah, that was our women's top five. And then on the men's side, Vlad, you snuck in for fifth. yeah yeah um Yeah, just pretty happy to make it to the finish line after, guess, a disappointing Asia-Pacific and done a double.
00:37:21
Speaker
but manco My ankle wasn't strong enough like to make it to the finish. On a wet, slippery course, really muddy, I think that after the 22. 22 of the 100 milers.
00:37:33
Speaker
um It was really muddy yesterday, so I was just, yeah, was better play it safe than just make it to the finish line. A little bit disappointing not to finish um fourth as I was running um with Toby Moss of could have pushed, but I thought that we had 2K of like flutter stuff at the top.
00:37:56
Speaker
So was holding back to that. you thought it was last year's too? Yes. Oh no. So that's the finish that I had eight years ago. And then Tyler was telling know, you got like 2K of runnable stuff at the end.
00:38:07
Speaker
um Just never listen to Tyler. That's takeaway. No, I did realize that we finished right on top of my of the stairs when I was scrolling down my watch a about a K till the end because I was like, this is too steep. That's not what I did when I was here last time. Yeah, damn.
00:38:25
Speaker
So yeah, a little bit disappointing. But yeah, overall, really happy. to yeah make i guess make it to the finish line with both ankles feeling strong and, yeah, running quite well.
00:38:37
Speaker
um Still far fuck from Dan, 23 minutes. Yeah, crazy to think about that. but Yeah, it was interesting. i didn't quite realise how much time you and Toby spent together until we re-watched the video I took of you at the very at the first aid station when we saw you.
00:38:56
Speaker
And it's you you're like metres apart there. And then was it just like that the whole time? Pretty much the whole time. Yeah, it started with a really big group. think the first 7K out and back was, yeah, like a lot of guys us. We were told. It was like a group of like 10 of you. Yeah. To stream along. Yeah, it was, Siobhan and I were watching about eight k or so, and it was great. Like you came through first, Vlad, and maybe 10, 12 guys, and there was Tyler and Billy and Billy, and and like everyone was there, and it was just such a cool sight to watch. There everyone in their element.
00:39:30
Speaker
Was it similar in the women or no? we Was there pack ever? um Probably only like in the first kind of 7K, like out and back. Yeah. We were all sort of like together.
00:39:41
Speaker
um Even Caitlin was like close and then the stairs just like separated everyone. Yeah, yeah. And then were the stairs that separated guys as well, Vlad? Yeah, a little bit.
00:39:52
Speaker
Sam kind of ran just in front of me when we got to the stairs and I just ran behind him for a bit and then it took off and that's when I was thinking, still a long race to go, better just play it safe a bit.
00:40:05
Speaker
um Saying it was fairly slippery, so it's like, yeah, just play it safe. But yeah He ran really well and finished third. um Not that far from us, only like four minutes but in front of us.
00:40:18
Speaker
um But yeah, otherwise it was me and Toby most of the way. then um Thomas Banks caught up to you guys a bit? was there for a little bit and David was with us in the middle section for a bit. He did kind of surge a bit on the downhill and we stayed with him.
00:40:35
Speaker
then dropped him just before the aid station at the hospital. And then that big downhill, It's probably what got me in the end.
00:40:47
Speaker
Obviously, living in Perth, that downhill was not something that I could do on regular basis. I could have went with Toby, but then I thought if I do, um my legs might be smashed to pieces by the time we make it to that to the end of this sound downhill.
00:41:03
Speaker
And yeah, he just kind of disappeared. And I caught up to him as we started climbing and we ran together for a bit. And then... and another slide downhill about 1km till the end where he made a little gap.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, yep. And that's when I kind of looked at my watch realising that you've got to start pushing. And then I saw you and I saw you at the stairs together um and I was thinking, yeah, shit, this is right.
00:41:31
Speaker
It's the finish line. You're right there. Yep. So me and Brodie went down the stairs to cheer Vlad through because we saw that there was a 10-second gap. at the bottom between Vlad and Bobie.
00:41:44
Speaker
And so we knew that was going to be tight, but also just cool to watch. um And I will say when we got there, Toby comes past and he was smiling still. So was smiling. He saw us and he kind of went, oh, crap, you guys are here for Vlad. And you could see in his face that he knew we were here to cheer you through. was there for two. I was going to say. was there for both of you. We, of course, did cheer him through. What a legend. But also then we see Vlad and it's like he's right there.
00:42:13
Speaker
um and But in some ways, it's like we know that screaming for you is also then going to spur him to go as well. So it's like as soon as we start screaming for Vlad to go catch him.
00:42:23
Speaker
um Because he did say he was, as he, as Toby comes up the stairs past half, he's like, Vlad's right there. It's scary. Yeah, I mean, big shout out to Toby because I think that he's a very talented runner. He's an all-around um talented runner that will do really well in the years to come. He's still fairly young. and I guess he's not even fully committed into running just yet. So when he gets like 100% into running, he will do really, really well. So i was yeah, it was a good result for him. And I obviously raced him five weeks ago in South Australia.
00:42:57
Speaker
And I think without the heat, it would have been a lot closer between us there as well. Probably the heat affected him maybe be a little bit more. Yeah, I was talking to him afterwards. He said the heat in that race made it very difficult, but also he started to really dial in his nutrition quite a bit, particularly his hydration. He's found that he did a sweat test and he's very heavy sweater. So he's significantly increased his intake of salt and whatnot, electrolytes, during and before, um and he thinks that made a big difference.
00:43:29
Speaker
um So, yeah, he's starting to dial things in a little bit, which is a bit scary. That's scary. He's getting very good. yeah But, um yeah, I also think this was the big goal for him as well. So he'd been sort of doing all the races in preparation for this, and now he's going to have some time off and...
00:43:46
Speaker
and recover so yeah yeah and i think like is is the kind of runner that could do well in shorter races and longer races like i won't be surprised if he does 100k races in a me year or two um and does really well in those distances as well because yeah he's just strong on the uphills the downhills the runnable stuff um really good runner and um yeah he'll be doing well for the next couple of years for sure the all-rounder you got to have a good battle with all day spend four and a half hours with you just
00:44:17
Speaker
You know I'm quite well now. um Awesome, awesome. Well, yeah, that was incredible to follow. And being at the eight stations, the guys, it was just streaming through. i think seeing everyone come through Fairmont was so much fun because they were moving so quick. But at the front, to well, at the front at Fairmont, which how many Ks in 18 plays in at Fairmont?
00:44:40
Speaker
um Daniel Jones and Miguel Benitez were together, um which we did and it was a heartbreaking moment of realising Dan had crew and Miguel didn't um coming through Fairmont. So it looks like there was a bigger gap than there was because they came in side by side and then it shows a 15-second gap but that was just because Miguel stopped to fill up his bottles because he must just be here by himself.
00:45:04
Speaker
um And, yeah, we were all there going, we need to help him. This is a not where you want the gaps to form, I suppose, on these sorts of races. But yeah um he was, I think everyone everyone before the race was wondering who was going to go out with Dan and will anyone, like, follow him.
00:45:21
Speaker
And Miguel was the only one that did. And did Dan just take beginning with miguel go with him or yeah they're both kind of running together i didn't think like the start was that quick um obviously obviously it was very very quick but um i kind of thought maybe they're not going to that quick on the stairs and i could catch up with them on the stairs but definitely not i'm curious for both and jess how did you go down the stairs and did anyone like take risks at that point and just sort of sending it So I had Sam right in front of me and a few times I got really close to him and like, you know, also when you get, like I'm talking about like, you know, I was literally like a few inches away from him and I was like, this is pretty dangerous, not just for him but for me as well.
00:46:03
Speaker
So kind of had that gap so I could see where i'm kind of going. um And then also like talking with, highlight the end of the race, he said that some of his friends were waiting up there for like 50 minutes yeah um at those stairs.
00:46:16
Speaker
I don't know if they'll keep the same course for next year. I'm sure there'll be a lot of complaints from people. um It happens every year. They're used to it. Yeah, it's but it does seem like given the last year course,
00:46:29
Speaker
It could because, yeah, I was talking to a friend of mine, Kerry, who she came 15th in the women's and won her age of 50 to 54. But she was started in the second wave and she got stuck for 15 minutes or so in the stairs. And then the next wave was like about 45 minutes, which I then taught. Tyler was just mentioning how you were once you were down the stairs and you ran running across that bottom track.
00:46:51
Speaker
There were some miles trying to go the opposite way there was a crossover period. So obviously we don't know behind the scenes of what's going on and why I chose chose that. There's probably very logical reasons, but it does seem like staying up, making it a bit faster, but avoiding that down and that up, especially early on when there's congestion and stairs are wet.
00:47:08
Speaker
Yeah. I think it it's trying to give people the trail because then they would get the complaints of not being on the trail. um which is the right there. But at the same time, it's it's in the 100K as well. There's some ladders in the 100K. People can get stuck for over an hour.
00:47:21
Speaker
thought yes Oh, yeah. I had one of my guys get stuck for two hours. Yeah, um because it's just a ladder. People are trying to get up and it's it's a massive pinch point. So this course... i think it's different though getting stuck in 9k into 50k race compared to like 30 40 50k where you're like yeah obviously this is not fun um but you know this is the middle of the race i wouldn't mind like a bit of a break but you're pretty fresh you just did the road out and back and then you're stuck for you know 50 minutes um yeah wouldn't be fun and people like
00:47:55
Speaker
Once you're stuck, you can get frustrated and it's easier to then take a risk, follow somebody too close, to slip, or there's just too many people on that staircase. I know for the 100K, it's coming down into the Megalong Valley and the ah the only option for the race directors is to just remove that whole section, which is not worth it.
00:48:11
Speaker
So yeah, like I said, having, having known the backside of, of race racing mode as well, like there's always reasons why you choose these things and it could just be that you want that trail access, but it is a shame when that early on it is close and it does, it does sound a little bit risky. Yeah.
00:48:30
Speaker
Yeah, I just think like you could start the waves a little bit further apart. i mean I mean, the start felt a bit messy for me, like the 100K starting at 6.20, the 50K starts at 6.25.
00:48:41
Speaker
Like I literally just made it to the start line like 30 seconds before the start because I wasn't sure exactly where we're starting from. from So felt a little bit messy to start. So I think that could be spaced out little bit more and an extra 10, 15 minutes here and there um would make a bit of a difference.
00:48:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think without without trying to solve problems that nobody's asked us to try and solve, it does like it it did strike me of um I would be curious to know why they're trying to start the 100k and the 50k at the same time. Why not start the 100k a little bit earlier? They've already got to have head torches, so let them go, or 50k a little bit later, because the cutoff, I understand the cutoff for the 100k, I think, is around 11 o'clock Sunday.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah. But the cutoff for the 50k is in the evening, so the is still running. So run the 50k a little bit later, or 100k a little bit earlier, but Yeah, yeah. We'll see. We will always see what happens going on. But thankfully, yeah. ye Thankfully, um obviously, at the front, no one's getting stuck. So, no. But, I mean, we did run through, like, a lot of 100-milers.
00:49:42
Speaker
And obviously, like, you know. Coming back towards you. No, from the beginning, you're, like, you know. 100-milers are going down that same staircase. Are they? Yeah. Well, that's exactly the same. They've got the 50K course. They do the 50K course. Oh, yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
The 100-milers pretty much finish. The last 50K is the 50K course. Yeah, okay. So we were running behind them the whole time. It was the back of the 100-milers, and you know thank you to all the 100-milers who actually let us go. But it's still like you know you're running and like, sorry, excuse me, excuse me, sorry.
00:50:12
Speaker
It kind of adds a bit to the race. Yeah. Well, this is the first year that had that. yeah So this is the first time trying to deal with the the logistics of those things. Anytime you're putting in a new distance like this, especially 100 mile, like no one is getting this first year perfect. um I think when if I was 100 miler 24 hours in, and no matter how kind I was, I might be completely out of it.
00:50:34
Speaker
So trying to let some 50k runners come past and not not accidentally step off the trail a bit too far and those kind of things, it's always going to be a bit of a challenge. um But yeah, a new distance 100 miles especially is going to be the challenge. So, yes, I'm sure they'll have things they can work on next year that make it even better.
00:50:51
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see. And it didn't didn't seem to slow Dan down at all because getting back to Dan was, yep, um all the way the lead, but ah with Miguel to begin with, he must have put his gap on Miguel in between...
00:51:07
Speaker
Fairmont and um that started too where he started to put a gap on Miguel between Fairmont and Queen Victoria Hospital because there was maybe, we're still quite close there, I'm going to say a couple of minutes, between Dan and Miguel.
00:51:22
Speaker
at Queen Vic and then by the end, a 10-minute gap. um But I think, Brody, you said you smoked it down a little bit and he said you put the burners on? No, it was just in his interview. it in his internet He said that he it was still running a little bit scared, I think. He wanted to so obviously get the win and he didn't want to go down Kadamba too hard, I think that's what he was saying. So he went down at a sort of conservative pace but then he really put the burners on at the bottom.
00:51:46
Speaker
um And, he yeah, if you look at the... Strava segments. He's running faster than you in the 11. Faster than people in the 11 and the 22. Yeah, he was faster through Lura Forest than Leo and Ben in the 22.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty impressive. And me in the 11 because I did the same bit. It's so cool. This is what I love about... like to Dan and Caitlin coming onto to this field and as we will speak about more people as well but just getting to see what that level actually is and I mean I think we should mention that Miguel who came of second 10 minutes behind is a 214 marathon runner yeah like 214 is quick yeah it's and I think that's why kind of I wasn't surprised to see Miguel with Dan at Fairmont because we knew his speed. And also he's coming from sky running this year. So the stairs and the rocks and the mud, like that's not going to bother him. He's going to be pretty comfortable there. yeah
00:52:35
Speaker
and And probably probably kept Dan a bit more honest because he has those wheels. Dan came through Queen Vic looking behind him. Yeah. And I was yelling at him, you can't see him, you're good man, like you got this. Which must be like, it'd be exciting for Dan as well that is to be racing at that point. um But yeah, I think it also just puts into perspective, even if Miguel isn't in 2.14 shape right now, how fast Dan is, which going into States is cool to see.
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah. It wasn't until we were, yeah, looking at some of the Strava splits um through the, like, it was like because it was like a 4K section and through the, on an uphill through the forest that he was faster than 22K runners.
00:53:13
Speaker
And it's like, okay, he really is just wildly, wildly good then. And, I was at the finish line just kind of looking at the times going, oh, he's going to be damn close to four hours.
00:53:26
Speaker
um And he I did have a quick chat to him at the end and he said he thought four hours was well gone and he wasn't going to get anywhere near it. And then he realized a little bit that it was actually somewhat close, um but it was only on the stairs. He realized that it was close. um So it ah't it didn't matter too much to him, but he did have the thought of going, it's gone and then, well, it's coming back a little bit. but
00:53:52
Speaker
And then when it's hard to talk of course records with this course, that's the thing. can't. You just we call can't do it because we don't we can't verify that the other courses were the same. Like we know that I think you predicted like 3 hours 45 for him based on last year's time and last year's course, which I'm going to say it's the equivalent of.
00:54:11
Speaker
um Potentially even faster. Potentially faster, um given how much slower that first section was. So, yeah, I reckon you were pretty close to the money there, James. I'll take it. um And then Miguel Benitez, he slowly lost time from Queen Vic to the end, but still very much had it strong.
00:54:32
Speaker
crazily strong race for second in four hours 11 minutes 38 seconds sam rout who is he aussie as a new zealander he pretty much ran the whole day by himself i guess after that first section i thought he's new personality every time we saw him he was by himself and there was like two three minutes on either side of him yeah he had a lone solid day out there by himself not running with anyone really i guess except for the very start yeah i guess kind of 9k yeah yeah we got into um a bit more technical stairs and slippery rocks that you kind of hop from and yeah just left yeah yeah and but he wasn't close enough to be running with dan or miguel so yeah good on him he sort of time-throwed it by himself hard hard way to do it it's definitely hard way to do it well yeah they've got him in the results as Oz so uh yeah think all his results on UTMB on his profile there in New Zealand so I'm pretty sure he's can be I thought he was but at the same time I'm looking at the results and I'm like okay his parents were um
00:55:36
Speaker
His parents were crewing him and I had a chat to them. pretty sure. they Yeah, no, they were. They were. thought you were going to go into the parents' backstory then. Yeah, they were born in. No. They were trying to figure out where to crew him at the start. It was very funny. I love watching when like it's parents crewing a runner because my parents do it for me and I find it can turn hilarious at times.
00:55:59
Speaker
um But, Sam in third, four hours, 19. And then our close battle between Toby Sparks coming fourth in four hours, 24, 37. And Vlad in four hours, 25, 08.
00:56:10
Speaker
eight um And then going back down the field a little bit, we had David Hanschmidt in sixth. Thomas Banks had a great run in seventh. um And he looked pretty stoked with it. Did you chat to him, Brody?
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah, he was pretty happy. He said he'd run a lot better than last year. And in this field, I think he had yeah he's a very solid run from him. um Both him and David ran through Andrew Gadenby, who wasn't far behind Vlad and Toby at Queen Vic. I think he was just off the back of them there.
00:56:40
Speaker
um and I was talking to Andrew afterwards and he got passed by those two on the stairs. So he said he had a rough last 4K and unfortunately lost a couple of places on the steps. Wait, wait, wait, on the Ferber stairs.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's what Andrew was saying. Because David was three minutes ahead. Yeah, okay. By the end. But Thomas was only one minute up. Yeah, maybe it was just before that. Yeah, on the way out. He definitely said he got passed by those two in the last part. Yeah, damn.
00:57:05
Speaker
Ouch. Well, yeah, David forced four hours 26, which did you chat to him at all? No. And then four hours 28 for Thomas, four hours 29 for Andrew. And then another bit of a gap, but there was a Chilean-less – in Nicholas Bolle, Benavidez Bolle ninth, and Luke Wilson from Great Britain in tenth.
00:57:28
Speaker
On – did I go down – I didn't get the the sixth or tenth in The Women, did I? Hannah Wall – yeah, so Hannah Wall was sixth in The Women and Jessica Claydon.
00:57:39
Speaker
Gillian Turnbull, which I'm – that was a bloody strong run for Gill. So it was – it was We were crewing her and it was great to watch. So Jillian had no clue she was in the top 10 and she's one that fell into the trap of pacing herself off last year's spits. So she thought she was doing pretty appallingly and came through Queen Vic and we were like, no, you're doing great.
00:58:04
Speaker
Keep at it. There was a lady just ahead of her. ah There was one kind of pretty close behind her. And then she, She stays in ninth pretty much the entire way, coming up further stairs and then comes on the boardwalk.
00:58:15
Speaker
Five seconds. Yeah, and I see Jillian come around the corner with another lady, that letter who's the lady in ninth. She then cramps. Jillian checks, are you okay? And then realizes, oh, hang on a minute.
00:58:29
Speaker
starts running that that lady comes and then lady it came in 10th but the name's right in front of me she was right behind them as well so it was it was intense like obviously it's great because all these ladies got acc we're not talking about the battle for 11th maybe yeah like 10 11 but it was yeah that's why was great to watch and i'm stoked for jenny because that's ah ah backing up after a great result in tara where she did the same thing kind of came through a bit yeah This is showing another step for her on a very challenging course. Like the conditions, is people were pretty hot coming through, especially once you started going back five hours or so.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 18 seconds between 8th and 10th. I love that. That's some close racing. Awesome. Awesome. Well, and anything else to add on the 50, Vlad or Jess?
00:59:14
Speaker
No, i mean, I'm excited to see if we're going to change the course for next year. Because the course that I did in 2017 was way different. Really? Way different. Yeah, okay. So different. I was looking at it on the map two days ago and it was different. I think they can't help managing this course quite a lot just because a lot of it depends on track conditions, which tracks are open when we are in a national park.
00:59:37
Speaker
And so it's like, yeah, the course is just going to change. um But, yeah, so when we talk about maybe this is not the most original course considering you run it in 2017 and you might have got the off year, like you just never know yeah um yeah exactly what's happening. There's been times it's been crazy fast, even the hundred gay like roads,
00:59:56
Speaker
right lot more road because the trail condition's not good. And yeah, it's just part and parcel of UTA and running through this area. I think the thing that strikes me is that this is obviously the first year that has had the world major thing back and already the depth It's deeper.
01:00:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It was really nice to see how many names are up there. And okay, yeah, we have Dan Jones. little bit an anomaly in there. But even if if you go from Miguel backwards, in the men's side, it's close. In the women's side, it's very close from Caitlin even dropping back into sort of 10th,
01:00:29
Speaker
yeah And that is something that we just don't see in Australia very often. And that excites me and excites me for what year two and year three will bring, especially if they keep doing the prize money, um which is ah very significant amount, especially when you think about, okay, I've just booked my ticket to OCC.
01:00:47
Speaker
traveling across to europe is not cheap and if you're coming even fifth and you're netting 1600 bucks it contributes maybe you won't save it for a year and a half but it does contribute a lot to what you can do with that so it's yeah i'm excited to see what next year year after will be with this but it was great to see both the men's and the women's fields even 22k and 11k but once you start going into the tickets for for occ definitely it's cool Yeah, and I think we were quite critical last year of this being such a big race on the calendar. I think it's still the biggest in the southern hemisphere, as they're saying, or second biggest in the world. like there's
01:01:22
Speaker
And we were quite critical of that not then rewarding the athletes at the front, and they've gone and fixed that problem it but in a big way. um with Yeah, I did just quickly to remind people of the prize money. It was €5,000 for the win, and this is across the 50, 100, and the 100 mile, those three distances. €5,000 for the win.
01:01:42
Speaker
3,000 per second, 2,000 for third, 1,250 for fourth and 1,000 euros per fifth. Those 13 seconds cost you like 250 euros. I think we should also mention that they also had drug testing.
01:01:57
Speaker
They did, top three. I would like to say that's the first time in a trail race in Australia. Quite possibly, but I can't verify. I can't think of any other race that would have done it in the past. The only other one has been Cosi, and that's definitely never done it. so i think Yeah, I mean, without price money, I doubt it.
01:02:13
Speaker
So, yeah, that was really cool to see. and And I just hope that next year, they're not just going to do the top three, but maybe do a random two or three places in the top ten just to, yeah. And I think it's probably good thing to say, was having a conversation yesterday, is that if you are a late that you think you might finish up there, and you should obviously make sure your supplements are safe for sport. Please check that. Water has resources there that you can learn off because it is coming and it is so easy to make a mistake without realizing it.
01:02:46
Speaker
So just make sure your everything is safe for sport. Yeah, when it's like one of those accidental because it's a brand new athlete and they don't actually know what they're doing. Like, yes, they're still 1,000% in the wrong, but it's it's hard to watch. yeah Yeah, 100%.
01:02:57
Speaker
When it's, yeah, just they had no idea. So, yeah, um that was, I will say, that thanks for bringing that up because that was really see. That was great I loved it. And I didn't realize until the finish line of the 50 when I heard them say, we need a chaperone for Dan, and I'm like, damn, we're doing it.
01:03:13
Speaker
Yes, um this is great. And yeah, I think I can't, I wasn't around, but I'm pretty sure it was all three races, fifty the 50, the 100 and the miler that they did the top three, which. As far as I'm aware, that's correct.
01:03:26
Speaker
As far as I'm aware. We're not a hundred percent sure. And I will try and ask around, but the, I feel for any milers just for trying to pay. um the back end, but still, still, I'm glad it's there.
01:03:39
Speaker
So moving on to those longer distances, though, we've got two more races to quickly recap. um And we're going to try and hear from as many the top finishers as we can. um Just give us a week or so to try and get in contact with everyone because, as we said, this week's been mayhem. But 100k, we watched a bit of the live stream at the start Jiaxing Chen was flying.
01:04:05
Speaker
at the beginning um across Marronek. Like it just looked like he could have been in the 50K. Yeah, he was running quick. I think at one point I was looking at it, I think he was 5K in and he was running. He'd been running for 21 minutes or something.
01:04:20
Speaker
so He was running four tens, I guess. And that's not flat. but Yeah, it's not flat. Naranek looks flat, but c he went further her around your say he's not flat. He tells me he's taken me for a flat run 400 metres of gain later.
01:04:32
Speaker
oh But, um yeah, he just took off and I don't think anyone was with him all day. No, he ran by himself. Yeah, I going to say. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong there. But Jiaxing Chen, now is 26 for this course. And again, haven't even looked at the 100K course, so I can't compare times at all.
01:04:54
Speaker
I think it would be the same thing as the 50K courses last year, the deviation where they – They needed to, because Ferber was closed, they had to go up giant stairs, which meant they couldn't go down giant stairs. So that's why the the deep that bit was different. So I'm pretty sure it would be the same case for the 100K. So I don't know about anywhere else on the course, but that bit, I guess, would be the same. Yeah. yeah yeah So, yeah. But the, yeah, 9 hours, 26 right out in front.
01:05:21
Speaker
Mike Carroll. First Ozzy, let's give him that. I'm so happy to see this from Mike. Mike's such a nice guy. He trains so well. Every time I talk to Charlie, he's telling me how good Mike is.
01:05:36
Speaker
And and it Mike's on for this race. and And I think the same, like, I'm like, oh, yeah, Mike's on this time. And he's just had a few races where things hasn't gone his way and he hasn't sort of performed as high as he would have wanted. But I think this one is really good and he's sort of shown that's the sort of race I've been waiting for from Mike Carroll. And I was really happy to see him come in second there. Yeah, nice. He was 22 minutes back in nine hours, 48.
01:06:00
Speaker
So bloody quick times. Yeah, and he was in second for most of the day. Apart from Jiaxing and Chen, the rest of the pack were together at the start maybe for the first 30, 40K. But then Mike, I think, moved into second around six foot roughly, if I remember correctly. Yeah, correct.
01:06:18
Speaker
And then um from there, he was in second for the rest of the day. So, yeah, he ran he ran a really good race. Yeah, and then Rhett Gibson in third was another 14, 15 minutes back with a 10.02.
01:06:32
Speaker
But here it got a little bit closer ah because Rhett Gibson in third and Matt Prihan coming through for fourth with a great run in 10.08. eight And George Murray then in fifth in 10.18.
01:06:47
Speaker
And we should mention that second, third and fourth are all 40 plus. They are. So, yeah. Yeah, the second time. We're quite used to running together, most of them. They're quite good friends, I think, as well. They all know each other. Me too.
01:07:01
Speaker
And, yeah, I was talking to Matt last night. He was saying that he got a away from Rhett on the descent down Kadamba, but then when they got to the climb, Rhett was moving really strong and got away from him. And Matt actually thought that he'd got heaps far away. So I think he he lost the mental battle there. And then when he got to the finish, I think he was surprised that he was Actually, not that far behind Rhett. Yeah, what was it, five, six minutes, but still putting that time in in the last 10K is moving away. Yeah, yeah, so Rhett finished really strongly. um And, yeah, it looks like a that is solid so i run for me. And I saw Benji Patterson, who was in sixth. He was not far behind off fifth. He was around at the finish line around the same time. Yeah, um and then I'll just quickly give a shout-out. Dan Stein was in seventh.
01:07:48
Speaker
um Eighth was actually our first female, which we'll get to in a second, which was even more eighth overall. But eighth male was Thomas Savaitre. Oh, that's French. Yeah, Armator.
01:08:02
Speaker
Savaitre. I'm saying that so wrong, I apologise. But ah from France, which is cool to see someone coming in. yeah And Kristen Smith was in ninth male and 10th male was Lachlan Jamison from Oz. So just over 11 hours for our 10th male.
01:08:22
Speaker
And then and on the women's side, this one was... a much closer battle while also being a similar story and that Eve I think was in front all day. Yeah. Yeah, cool.
01:08:34
Speaker
um So but then there was times where Eve and Beth were only like a couple minutes apart, a good portion, and then slowly the time went out but didn't really have ah a decent gap until Queen Vic from memory.
01:08:50
Speaker
You'll have a look. Thanks, James. some of the Get some of those timing things because I remember looking at it going, yeah, this could go either way most of the day um and then seeing the gap appear a bit later on.
01:09:02
Speaker
But even then, still not a huge gap at the end because Eve comes through for the win, breaking 11 hours um on this course, which... Yeah, I reckon that's but going to be a bloody fast time for this one.
01:09:14
Speaker
And she's from Great Britain, ah so 10 hours 55. ah Beth McKenzie, the reigning champ who is here to try and hold that title, um came through for second in 11 hours 14.
01:09:28
Speaker
fourteen I love seeing her two little girls crew her, by the way. It's so fun to watch all the aid stations. like I can just imagine being her running into the aid station and it's like, there's my two girls. um helping me out with the whatever they could do. It was great.
01:09:41
Speaker
You got some of the time splits, James?
Exciting 100K Finishes & Surprises
01:09:43
Speaker
Yeah. So it looks like you've actually got a bit of a lead pretty early on. She had about eight minutes by six foot track outbound. Outbound, yep. And then that was still only, it will take 10 minutes at Queen Vic.
01:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So that has held that really well. And then it just sort of opened up in that last section to 18 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's like eight minutes when there's so long to go left in 100K. You never know if that person's just gone out a bit too quick and they're going to really come back. From seeing videos of eve running, I saw all one of her coming into um six foot track.
01:10:16
Speaker
And she looked so strong. And then a couple more later on in the day and she hadn't really visibly fatigued that much. even coming to the finish line, I was surprised how quick she was moving. Yeah, so I think she had a great day, super, super strong. But I'm also really happy to see, like I didn't, i given Beth's injuries over the last couple of months, I did not think she was going to hold this, to be honest. Like that's why I didn't pick her in my top three in the preview.
01:10:40
Speaker
um So seeing her actually make it to the finish like that, it was great to see. Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah, damn strong. And it was like close for 100K, but the third place finisher, Emily Brunt, who correct me if I'm wrong, Emily Gilmore Welsh, and she's now Emily Brunt. Yep.
01:10:57
Speaker
So she's won. She here find 2023. 2023, awesome. she was 11.25 for third. Fourth, Julia Grant, again, only another 10 minutes back, 11.36. Meg Sinclair really strong run. fourth julia grant again only the another ten minutes back eleven thirty six fifth meg sinclair had a really strong run um for 11.56 and then sixth female Nicole Patton, seventh was Emma Gray, ah eighth was Anna Pillinger, who's a name I haven't seen a while um but came through for eighth.
01:11:26
Speaker
Ninth, Amy Lamprecht, so fun to see Amy up there in the top ten and the tenth was Tia Bull. I reckon that's a brilliant run for Tia too. She'd be stoked with the top ten.
01:11:37
Speaker
um so Yeah, really strong running from the women there in the 100K. And we will... No, I just think it's it's really cool the fact that we're going down to the tent because these people have all got tickets to the UTMB World Final. So it's yeah it's really nice to see some of these names getting the tickets across.
01:11:58
Speaker
ah Quite a few of these names have already been over there for an event and some have gone well, some haven't. But it's obviously is's pretty hard to get to get into one of the UTMB distances. So it's lovely to see.
Miler Event Challenges & Wins
01:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, they're all they're all at least have their ticket should they want it for next year, 2026. And then goes for the miler.
01:12:15
Speaker
And to be fair, for the 50K, you two have both got OCC spots. But same goes for the miler. Now, this one being the first time they're doing a miler, as someone who was crewing the miler all day, it made it really hard with the splits because no one knows how fast they're going to run in a miler. Like you can look at the terrain and you can look at everything, but it's quite hard to then go, okay, but how does that translate to miler pace?
01:12:37
Speaker
um But for someone who it translated very well for, and again, I'm not sure how to pronounce his surname, but Eric Concey? think it's just Concey. Concey? Concey. Okay, cool. Eric Concey was the winner in 1855, which having seen what they had to go through, honestly, that is mind boggling. um But then he won by almost an hour, 55 minutes from Quinton Gill,
01:13:05
Speaker
In second, Gilly. And then in third, Chris McAuliffe coming through 20 hours 22. Grant Brisbane was fourth, Akito Nageo from Japan. This is cool. This is probably the most international podium I've seen, like top 10 I've seen.
01:13:25
Speaker
um But Akito Nageo from Japan in fifth. Ronan McNally from Ireland in sixth. Luke Nichols was in seventh. Chris Stevens in eighth. Our ninth overall was our first female, Megan Coffey, who we'll get to. Ninth male was Vlad Shatrov.
01:13:42
Speaker
And then tenth male was Ashley Haringe. So, and then even then, like that was on the whole front between, for a mile or at least, between um fourth was about 21 hours and then 10th was what, 23?
01:13:57
Speaker
So 22, 47. So it was like there was moves and packs and things happening all day because obviously I was tracking Vlad all day. He was up front early on um and they had almost a pack for quite a while.
01:14:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, mean, I was speaking to Quinton after the race. Him and Eric ran quite a bit of that together and the gap was only 12 minutes at Queen Vic. Yeah. And Quinton essentially said he had a great hundred and forty k race then it got really quite hard. Really hard.
01:14:25
Speaker
Which I'm sure is what a lot of people in a mile would remark and that's his first one as well. So that's a pretty epic result. How you found Conumbra at 140? But he said that Eric was just so strong the whole day, just locked in, and he could just kind of tell that he had yeah he he had that engine there to just push to the end.
01:14:43
Speaker
That's cool. That's cool. And I think the same goes for our lead woman because she was motoring all day, and it was so cool to see. So Megan Coffey, who a few people might have known her in the past, her previous name, Megan Baleen, she came through for the win – in twitter which Claire O'Brien-Smith, who I was crewing for, she gave us warning the day before if Meg's going to go well.
01:15:09
Speaker
So she called it. But Megan Coffey, 21.52, so it's just up 22 hours, came in first. And she honestly, like you said, for our lead 100K woman, Eve Moore, she just looked like she didn't fatigue.
01:15:23
Speaker
um Brody, you saw her more at aid stations than I did. but at least at six foot. But I was just in reports all day that she was coming through like it was- Yeah, and you saw her at six foot because we were waiting for Claire and you were pacing at that stage out on that loop. So when she came back in a six foot to head out towards Katoomba, she looked really good.
01:15:44
Speaker
um So, yeah, i was when I saw her at that point, and that's what I think there were about 107 Ks in at that point. Yeah. um I was like, yeah, I think she's going to be hard to to chase down. It was funny actually we were watching there. They had a bit of a ah quick pacer change because the pacer who was currently running with her was going to go through to Katoomba, but it started to feel unwell and couldn't couldn't keep up anymore. Yeah.
01:16:11
Speaker
they gave them about two minutes of warning to the other pacer who had to quickly get changed and get ready to go and had a quick changeover. So they had another pace was planned to start later on. So they were there, which was which was great. So that person got changed very fast. So that was quite ah quite a bit of a action to watch.
01:16:30
Speaker
Love that. Love those little stories. And the thing is, there would be so many of them that happened out there. but um And Cecilia Mattis. Oh, I should have also said Eve Moore won on her birthday in the that's pretty cool. And another, for saying a happy birthday across the finish line, it was great.
01:16:45
Speaker
um But another birthday girl was Cecilia Mattis, who came second in the My Life um And as Cecilia always does, just look like she had the best, longest birthday imaginable yeah out there on the trails. They had parties for her at aid stations and all sorts of things going on. So um super strong run there for Cecilia. And then Kelly Angel in third, who she had...
01:17:08
Speaker
She rallied. She had a really low point and a long, low stretch. She was back in fourth. I'm not sure if she ever dropped back to fifth at any point, but she was... I think she dropped back. I saw her come through fourth just after the Aquatic Centre. Jazz was just ahead of her at that point, Jazz Wilmer. Yeah.
01:17:22
Speaker
And... Kelly shouted back at me that she's not having any gut troubles, but there's not a lot of energy in the tank. Yeah, yeah, because she was nauseous, but struggling to get stuff in, but she hadn't chucked up yet. It was going better from that perspective than how I say Buffalo finished for her. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I saw her at Fairmont.
01:17:41
Speaker
um and she was still in fourth at that point and it was kind of a come on let's rally you got this slack and she did she rallied um came through for third in she rallied well damn she came to third in 23 hours and 14 minutes with jasmine fulmer coming through in fourth in 23 48 she was so strong all day um she just did it solo as far as we could see she had no crew From what I saw, um ah gave her hand filling up some bottles at six foot that she was just into the aid station, pulled out the bottles she had in her pack that had mix already in, filled them up.
01:18:16
Speaker
ah She didn't have a drop bag at six foot track. She may have had drop bags later on, I assume, but she had all her bottles prepared in her bag, got them out, filled them up, headed off again. It was very different to what we were seeing from all of the other lead females. yeah yeah It is an interesting question because like given that they had what eight or so a stations across this crewable a station probably only four or five like ah you can curl it no you can curl it everyone just a lot so like i guess soon yeah okay well
01:18:48
Speaker
family but how much time that potentially could be and also just the the mental boost, the morale boost that you get from seeing your crew. um So, no, I'm i've stoked for Jazz. I think that this is a really, really good run from her and I'm guessing that there's probably give her some crew and a bit of support.
01:19:03
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe. but we but know I think some people really want to do it without crew. Yeah. It's part of the part of the
Trail Running Growth & International Scope
01:19:09
Speaker
journey. And then we even saw that in some of the 50K runners as well. They just wanted to crew themselves. Yeah. yeah um and Including some very good runners like Demi Corbel and,
01:19:17
Speaker
And Billy Curtis, who didn't have the greatest day, but he was just crewing himself. so Yeah, yeah. no Fair enough. There was a few. um In fifth, behind behind Jazz was Emma Timmis, who I will say we were calling the ghost all day because she wasn't appearing on the tracker.
01:19:33
Speaker
So we were looking at the position crewing Claire and going. She's one behind her because there's Emma there, who would see come through the aid station and then wasn't appearing on our trackers. So well done, Emma, for coming through fifth.
01:19:45
Speaker
Charlotte Lomas. was in sixth. Lou Clifton coming through seventh with Claire O'Brien still eighth. Ruth Eagles in ninth and Olivia Hulbert in tenth.
01:19:59
Speaker
um And they there was movements all day between Charlotte back to at least Ruth um because there was times where, like, paced Claire for a bit and we passed Lou, then Lou passed back, and there was quite a bit of movement going on all day between them. There was gaps appearing towards the end, um but even then,
01:20:21
Speaker
like Time-wise, I think a lot of those gaps appeared and kind of in the back forty k um So, yeah, it was a cool movement. um And, yeah, cool to see the first 100-mile-off go off. As we said, think they always change the logistics of the event.
01:20:37
Speaker
But they've all got their spots now, the UTMB next year, which I'm assuming most of them, if not all, will be very stoked with to take on. um And, yeah, I'm someone that got almost asleep trying to crew, race, race, race. Just seeing it all go down was insane.
01:20:53
Speaker
Like it was really cool to watch. So, yeah. um Yeah, what a weekend. five I think we should mention that there was four UTMB races on this weekend, a golden trail and a sky running race. Oh, my gosh. So even though we were so focused on UTMB the whole weekend, so much happened in the world of trail running this weekend.
01:21:12
Speaker
um Four UTMB races with four good fields and then obviously a golden trail race and a good sky running race out in Italy. east Oh, yeah. They had Montespo. Yeah, honestly. Yeah.
01:21:23
Speaker
This weekend in trail, I reckon, is one of the busiest I've ever seen on the calendar, um which we're not going to extend this episode. No, we have we about 10 minutes until we've got to be out of this accommodation. so We're in accommodation where the checkout is in 10 minutes, but, and presentation's about to happen. But yeah, yeah just touching on the fact that we are very aware that UTA was not the only race on this weekend.
01:21:45
Speaker
I guess that is as as the sport grows, ah that's how it would be. And there'll be these big regional focus where this is a massive event in this region and it is still a really big deal. But it's not like there's only one race on the calendar every weekend, which is just going to happen like with how the sport's skyrocketing.
01:22:01
Speaker
Yeah. You can't expect that UTA is going to have its weekend. too No, it never has in the past anyway, but yeah. probably it was one of the biggest events on this weekend in the past, and now it's just one of many. oh I mean, I remember the years where Killian and Ryan Sands used to come down and Dylan Bowman. It was a big 100K race.
01:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. it It does feel like, and I would say it differently, but Old Trails not only seems to have a bit more of the elite focus potentially now, like Luke Grenfell Shaw, who was meant to be here, raced the 50K over there. Granted, he's in the UK as well. so it's But yeah. Yeah.
01:22:33
Speaker
Yeah, I imagine a lot of Europeans are going to do that race, whereas as we hopefully in future we'll see more Asian athletes here as well, although they had their own utility race in China. yeah China had one too. yeah but But that's just the thing, like ah and hopefully the trail running in Australia grows to the point where we don't need to rely on internationals to come to have performances like Dan Jones running and that sort of stuff. like We have a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders and maybe a few more internationals coming in, but the Australians and New Zealanders are such a high level that...
01:23:02
Speaker
there's still, we still sort of stand up on the world stage. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And it's going that way. It was so already headed that way with some performances this week, so. Oh, for sure. For sure. Well, I think ah with my brain can't go anywhere other than UTA at this point. I need another sleep before that's going to happen. So this has been a bit of a different episode.
01:23:21
Speaker
um just because of the chaos that this weekend is. So we're going to just call this the UTA Breakfast Show and you'll get a much more normal episode, but we might read we'll try to recap some of the other big results that have happened both in Oz, there were some other races going down for sure, and around the world um in the next main episode you'll hear. But keep your eyes and ears peeled for all of our recap chats as we we will try and just release them as we do them with the athletes.
01:23:51
Speaker
um that we can get on and try and hear some new stories from some of the people that we haven't heard from before as well ah in the coming week. But hopefully you guys have enjoyed our first live podcast with all five of us in the room.
01:24:04
Speaker
um And, yeah, thank you so much. for Also, massive shout shout-out to everyone. I don't know if you guys got much better. Massive shout-out to everyone that came up saying they listened to the pod, asking questions. Like just I even had someone run past yelling, go peak.
01:24:18
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, guys, we got this. That was the moment I'm like, we made it. We made it. then you Someone's in a hundred k Just yeah go on past Goat Peak Pursuits. I loved it. um So thank you to absolutely everyone that is listening and has come and said hi.
01:24:32
Speaker
um Feel free to do so at any event that you see us all. It's a lot of fun and it's really cool to hear from the people that this is actually going out to. So we hope everyone has had an awesome UTA weekend. What do whatever weekend you've had of racing, wherever you've been. And thank you so much for listening. Thanks guys for chatting to us all. That was very fun. See you next week.
01:24:54
Speaker
See you next week. See ya. See ya.