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Diverge SkyRuns Recap with Alice McGushin, Stair Training, Jim Walmsley into WSER | Episode 108
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This episode of Peak Pursuits starts with an interview with Alice McGushin to get to know Alice and recap the first edition of Diverge SkyRuns that happened over the weekend (Start - 53min).
Then Sim and Vlad catch up on where their training is at and cover some of the news of the week, including Jim Walmsley returning to WSER and Dragons Back + Northern Traverse being bought by Ultra X.
Finishing up with some results and some very cool races to look forward to this weekend, we hope you enjoy!
Results:
- Diverge Sky Runs (TAS)
- Ikara Ultra (SA)
- Wilsons Prom Running Festival (VIC)
- Nail Can Hill Run (NSW)
- Forest Trail Run (NSW)
- Hamilton Island Hilly Half Marathon (QLD)
- Hidden Vale Trail Running Festival (QLD)
- OMFG Trail Running Festival (WA)
***Don’t forget, use code PEAK at https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/en-au for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners!***
Join us on Patreon HERE
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!
Follow Alice: Instagram | Strava
Follow Vlad: Instagram | Strava
Follow Sim: Instagram | Strava
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 108 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Simone Brick and I am joined today Vlad Exel. How are we doing, Vlad? Yeah, not doing too bad. um Good weather. So yeah, pretty nice running right now. I've been running with my dog a bit more lately, which is... um Yeah, it's been really, really fun.
00:00:27
Speaker
<unk>s my She's my favorite training partner. So I just enjoy being out on the trails with her now.
Running with a Canine Companion
00:00:33
Speaker
I love that. How many k's a week is she racking up? um Probably around four hours a week now. So maybe only like 40, 45 k, but a lot of elevation. She loves single trails. So I got to take her to like different trails that she can like explore.
00:00:47
Speaker
She hates going to the same trail. So we have that usual trail outside of pretty much outside my door. ah She's like over it. So I just need to drive somewhere for a bit. So she, yeah, gets like new smells to smell.
00:01:00
Speaker
Wait, but hang on. How do you tell that she's over it? Does she just not want to run? like Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. She'll be like like, I'm like, all right, let's go. And she was like walking really slowly out of the front door or like yeah it just doesn't want to go because she knows that usual loop. We've done it like 100 times. and yeah and she But the second we drive somewhere, she's super excited and like jumps in the car straight away because she knows hopefully there'll be a different trail.
00:01:28
Speaker
I love that. I cannot wait to have a dog training partner again. They're the best. They're so, so good. I've been watching. Oh, yeah, Lily's already eight. So, um yeah, I just like it just brings so much joy like running with her now.
00:01:44
Speaker
Because it's been yeah years of running with her and every winter we pick up the amount of running because summer is a bit hard for her now. Yeah. um So, yeah, now it's a bit cooler. So, yeah, I'm just, yeah, really grateful. Yesterday we had a good run together and she was just so happy, like sprinting through the single trails. And yeah, ah so much fun. So good. I've been watching Jess um and her new pup on some runs together too and I'm like, oh, that's living the life. And, yeah, especially right now, like this is the best time of the year for running, so I think at least. um Yeah.
00:02:16
Speaker
In Oz. There'll be so many arguments from people on that one.
Upcoming Interview and Challenges
00:02:19
Speaker
um Now, in today's episode, we do have an interview with Alice McGushin um coming that I'm going to insert in a second. um Technical difficulties, material. So just making us look like the ah noobs we are. I'm trying to figure this whole system out, even though we're far too far in to be doing it. But turns out, yeah, computer browser permissions got in the way today because Alice works in a government job. So yeah, we're going to start with hearing from Alice and a rehash of Diverge over the weekend. And then me and Vlad will be back. Welcome, Alice Magushin, to the Peak Pursuits podcast. It's lovely to have you on.
00:02:59
Speaker
Thank you for having me, Sim. Great to be here. I love what you're doing. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I did just like that you just told me that when you do listen to the pod, my sound is often the best. I'll take it. That's my win.
Coping with Injury: Alice's Story
00:03:12
Speaker
um um But what we're looking for today is getting to know you and your running and where You got started to to then get to where you are now and then we'll end up with the gnarly diverge that we both just tackled on the weekend and what an adventure that was. um i'm ah How are you recovering just quickly? You you feeling all right?
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, I did break my toe. oh you did break it. It was broken. Oh, my gosh. um ah So, yeah I mean, it's it's not hurting too bad. um Which toe?
00:03:52
Speaker
ah Big toe on my left foot. Big one. Oh, damn. Big one's not really. that's That actually does a lot of work for us. Yeah, yeah it is kind of somewhat necessary for running.
00:04:05
Speaker
on i Oh, So it means i'll be I'm out of running for four weeks. um At this stage, I'm feeling quite upbeat about it. I'm like, oh, it's fine. I didn't have anything planned for the next few weeks anyway. I didn't really, i hadn't signed up for anything over winter. Okay.
00:04:24
Speaker
Let's see how I feel in a week. I was going to say, do love that, that when that ability to switch into the immediate optimism. And then, as you said, like week later, it hits.
00:04:36
Speaker
um But at least then you're a week closer to running again. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And four weeks will go past. Yeah. And four weeks, four weeks doesn't sound too bad to me either. As my only bone stress things, I was looking at 16 weeks um each time. so I think fortunately, like,
00:04:54
Speaker
you know, traumatic injuries whilst a more dramatic, like I think yeah because of the nature of them, yeah, recover like fast. If it's if it's something, you know, less important like a toe compared to a bigger bone. Great big burn, yeah, of course. And so was it a just a slightly smaller break than the previous one that you've actually broken a toe before, given that you did manage to complete the run 40 Ks of it afterwards?
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, I
Diverge Race Experience
00:05:23
Speaker
think so. i think also maybe i like was suffering in other ways when I fell as well. And so like the kind of the thing that was causing more pain was my shin. i hit my shin pretty hard on the rock and so that was bleeding and a bit swollen, but it was manageable. wasn't because it wasn't really on your shin either. So I could keep moving on that. um And then as the race got on,
00:05:51
Speaker
um It was more cramping in my legs, especially on the final um switchbacks that were there as we went down in the final couple of Ks. um Yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
That was hurting a lot more. Okay. And yeah it wasn't until I stopped running then then it was my turn. Oh, my gosh. It was very clear that it wasn't a good place. Yeah, fair. And so we've started here now, so I'm going to stay here. Um, we'll start with diverge and work backwards since that we've, uh, yeah, I'm so bummed for you that it was actually broken, but, um, talk to me about, i only got to see you once on one of the out and backs all day. Um, and was that, I'm assuming before the fall, cause you looked like you hadn't fallen at that point, but that being said it was a bit of a flyby. Yeah, was that was probably maybe kilometre or two before the fall, think. Yeah, yeah. Okay, fair. um So talk to me just a bit about, first of all, leading into this race, leading into but Diverge, like how you were feeling, what you were hoping to get out of it and like your reason for tackling what Diverge was. um
00:06:59
Speaker
and then And then we can sort of start from the beginning of of how you felt through the day. But yeah, what was the goals headed in? How were you feeling? Well, so Diverge really meant a lot to me. So I was actually born in Queenstown. I thought that. I love that.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, and I spent my entire childhood there. So I was there up until I turned 17. Yeah. and Link knew this and so kind of hinted at Diverge to me when I saw him at KMR last year. um And then I was really privileged enough to go back um with Link and the team to and and Maggie Lennox as well to shoot the promo for Diverge back in July last year. And so i was so excited about it just from that moment. um
00:07:53
Speaker
and Yeah. he told He told us the the planned dates and I was like, well, I was i was thinking about going um to UTA because i had I was supposed to run the 100K last year and then had to pull out because I was sick. Yeah.
00:08:08
Speaker
But then was like, no, I've got to i've got to do this. yeah's You know, and it's it's parts of Queenstown. It's the place I grew up, um but parts of it that I had never seen before. um i i had climbed the mountain, but up on up the road on the other side of the mountains, I hadn't been um on the on the way that we went up and I'd never been up Mount Lyle in the way that we had gone. yeah i been i think I've been. I'm not sure anyone has.
00:08:38
Speaker
The way we went up Mount Lyles. People have been there before. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. though so it just it it meant so much meat to me to to go um and I just knew that Lincoln team may create amazing events. um yeah So it was going to be excellent. Yeah.
00:08:58
Speaker
and And then, yeah, just the the scenery was just – Oh, it's pretty special. if Yeah. It's so exciting for me. Yeah. I'm jealous you got to grow up in such a beautiful spot.
00:09:12
Speaker
Like you're just surrounded by epic mountains. It was gorgeous. Yeah, it's some it's a pretty ah unique place. um You know, one of the most beautiful areas of the world with – with temperate rainforest, one the largest areas of temperate rainforest and untouched wilderness in the world. um And then you've got ah a town and a few other mining towns as well that have just experienced a hundred years, decades of decades of of mining um and environmental destruction associated with that, which has really created that unique landscape. And and in some ways it means that yeah this it's it's created this perfect event in Diverge because and we have access to this scenery that doesn't really exist in many other places in the world.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. And now I'm going well back. This is just my brain wants all the questions. But did did you run in the area or were you like often getting out and hiking in the area growing up or running at all in the time you were there?
00:10:17
Speaker
So when I was there, i my my dad used to run 10Ks once a week with his friends. and And it was usually just...
00:10:28
Speaker
out to the airport and back but on the road and so just along the highway out um
Early Running Experiences
00:10:35
Speaker
out out of Queenstown up towards the airport turn around come back and so i think um when I maybe once I became a teenager i so I started running with him on that run um and but didn't didn't do any trail running before I left Queenstown which is such a shame um so many good trails I i did do a lot of hiking on the west coast. Oh, that's a good. way so Yeah, which is really nice. So many incredible hikes and and for for all levels of ability as well. Like there's um old railway line tracks like the Kelly Basin, which is just like 10 k's of beautiful rainforest, but very flat and easy. And then you've got
00:11:20
Speaker
yeah huge mountains as well. Yeah, yeah. I can see how it really does. like And everyone listening, like if you haven't been there, you just got to go. um it's it's It's kind of yeah hard to describe how many different landscapes you even feel like you go through on just on the drive to get there, let alone while you're actually there. um was that Was that your first time there, Sim? Yeah, my first time on the west coast of Tassie. I've only ever been sort of Hobart and all the way up to Launceston, like between those two, um which is probably fairly typical mainlander of me. but um
00:11:53
Speaker
But, um yeah, I've always wanted to head out and like even further south, like there's so much of Tassie I want to explore. Yeah. I'll get there eventually, but Diverge was the perfect excuse to finally go down and see some more of it. I did on the way back, on the drive back, go check out where the start of the french Frenchman's Cap Trail is and a few other places. So, um yeah, definitely hope to see more of it. um but um But, yeah, how were you feeling then on the start line, like being back there? You know that this has been coming for a long time. It's sort of like it has that meaning to you of your – sort of your childhood hometown – Yeah, how are you feeling about it? I'm really excited.
00:12:33
Speaker
What struck me though was how unseasonably warm it was. It was really warm. So it's definitely not normally like that in Queenstown, especially not in May.
00:12:46
Speaker
And, yeah, so i think I think that was something that I really noticed when i was when I was on the start line. But, yeah, I think I was just, I didn't have i didn't have many expectations. um Technical terrain like that is not my strong suit.
00:13:03
Speaker
um And i'd I'd just come off the back of running Buffalo five weeks before and so I was just relying on my um training from that and um my my my my strength and my fitness from that and just kind of had had been just been doing recovery since then. So I hadn't really trained for the terrain at all so I was just like okay well we'll see how it goes. Go slow, make sure, try not to get injured. and and um Yeah, just enjoy the day. and And I think I kind of just kind of was repeating my head, you know, like this is my home. this is
00:13:42
Speaker
These are my mountains. Yeah. Just just enjoy it and and have a great time. Yeah, I love that. I love that. And had you run any of the course beforehand? No, i we, we, we, with the footage that we did, you know, we went to a few different spots around the, the course. Um, so you ran like up to about a hundred meters, um, on repeat few times to get the right shots and the right, um, filming, but, um,
00:14:14
Speaker
Not beyond that. um So I had a few previews of different sections, um but hadn't done any of the loops or any particular like sections of it. Yeah, fair, fair. And so on that first climb, we had what, seven-ish K of just nice runnable climbing before you get into the rope and off-trail section um that takes you up to the summit of Mount Owen.
00:14:40
Speaker
um And like, how was, what was your approach to that? And how were you feeling all the way, I suppose, all the way up until the summit? And did you like the wind? I loved the wind, but it
Race Challenges and Strategies
00:14:51
Speaker
was very windy.
00:14:52
Speaker
Well, I think it was, it was a lot better than I expected, the wind, um because we were warned of 50 kilometer winds with 60 kilometer gusts um and when we got up to the top of owen yeah there was a bit of wind it didn't feel that strong and as the day went on on it just felt more like a gentle breeze and sometimes less yeah because it was so warm that was so welcome it was so nice to have that breeze as well Yep. I had, I definitely, there was only one section, but it was like the, you'd kind of been over some of the technical stuff and then it almost opened up into a, not a plateau because you're going uphill, but much more open terrain. um And it felt like the wind was just at your back pushing really hard up the hill. Yeah.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, i there was there was one moment where where I felt that, where it was it did feel like it was just pushing us up the hill. It was it was on a slight angle, so i was kind of pushing us slightly up hill. So I just kind of lent to my left a little bit, but it was great.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah that that first section, well, it's probably the best section for me because it's it's the the the type of terrain that I'm best at, which is like yeah kind of easy runnable uphill. um And, and so um that part, I, um I was running with Emma who, who won and um as well as um Joe Dunn, Joe Nunn. And, and um and, and that was really nice. And I think, I think they, it looks like they probably spent the whole race together. um But yeah,
00:16:31
Speaker
emma was Emma was so lovely um just chatting to us. She's a legend. Yeah, she was so nice and then saying, you know, we could just re run together. It's so nice doing longer races because you get to talk to people and, yeah, talked talked about different things and um then as soon as we got to the the gnarly bit um emma just dropped us and then joe dropped me very soon after that when i tried to lead him and a few others um off off course on where would you find and go of course i found there were so many pinkies there was it was pretty good
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it was very well marked. um I think I just sometimes forget to look for them. True. If your head's down, you can just kind of keep heading straight without realising that there was actually a pink thing pointing you to the left, like go that way kind of thing, yeah. Yeah, and it was it was just after we passed Ryan, um the photographer. ah ye ye And um i was I was just, I think, yeah, it was just, i was clearly it's just going, it's you're just heading straight up. But um then I heard a whistle and Ryan was waving at us and pointing to the left.
00:17:43
Speaker
I think a few people did that because I was going up this sort of open bit um and this is well after you, but I was going up this sort of open bit and I could hear people screaming back down at where the thing was. And I think a few people kept doing what you had done by the sounds of it because I eventually, you could kind of hear, I could eventually kind of hear go back. because I was like oh they're telling us to stop or like what's going on um but yeah that part where we sort of we were meant to skirt around to the right of the ridge and not actually follow the ridge um and um then onto the open part and not wasn't too long after that for the first summit um at what point was the sun like proper proper sunrise for you it was as we were going up the runnable bit um and it was so beautiful um yeah i was with Emma and Joe at that point um I were just chatting and at one point I just looked over to my left um and saw the the beautiful pink sky um yeah it was incredible um uh I can't remember who it was maybe it was Joe who said the red sky in the morning shepherd's warning
00:18:51
Speaker
Oh, no, don't jinx us like that. The weather was pretty good. Yep, yep. And then getting up to the first summit, that's the one spot I got to see you because you were pretty much finishing the out and back as I was heading out on the out and back. um It was just a ah quick one there. um That was then sort of the first start of the descent. Did you you kind of got to see where everyone else was and where Emma was and, like, what was the gaps like at that point? Because I i hadn't seen um Emma, and who was, I think, was she were the only one ahead of you at that point?
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So Emma, um, so yeah, as I said, she, she kind of dropped me, uh, pretty quickly as soon as we got to the, the real scrambly stuff. Um, and I think she, she was almost on her way, almost back from the out and back, um, once I had started. So so I think about halfway, halfway, halfway on the out and back, um, uh, she was on her return. Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker
And, yeah, and ah and I think um Julia, um who was between me and you, was yeah, probably that again um behind me.
00:19:59
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah, because I could still see Julia for the most part across that top part. um So there wasn't that much of a gap between me and her at that point.
00:20:11
Speaker
I lost sight of Emma, I think. I think that was the last time I saw Emma as well was that out and back bit. Yeah, yeah. Well, that yeah, I think that was, I think it was just that mix of being early enough and long enough that you kind of did get to see where you were in the field um as opposed to the other out and backs. and But then talk me through, we then dropped down that. did we Did you fall on the like gnarlier descent that we went on just after that? Or was it up once we were on the smoother terrain? Like where was the fall that you had?
00:20:42
Speaker
um It's hard to remember exactly. I'm i'm trying to place it. it was It was definitely before the first aid station. Okay. but That was a pretty gnarly bomb down ah tech some techy stuff into that aid station. We didn't hit anything smooth until after the aid station.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I think maybe, I think it was after, I remember passing the trig point and I think maybe it was after passing the trig point. Okay. um But, but what happened was, so, so as I mentioned, I'm like the technical terrain is not my strong suit. Um, and I listened to the preview from last week and that kind of mentally prepared me for how tough it was going to be. But I really liked the mantra of, um,
00:21:27
Speaker
slow is smooth, smooth is fast. yeah And so I just like, okay, we'll just take it slow, take it smoothly, um which was working fairly well for me until someone just passed me and and was running so smoothly and so fast. And I just got distracted for a millisecond and was like, wow, you know how come I can't move like that? And that was when I, of course, tripped and got off on a rock. and And, yeah, and then, like, got up fairly quickly and just kept going. And I think i think maybe it was maybe it was just a couple of steep rocks and then and then it was over some more of the the flatter, smooth stuff on the top.
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and just... At that point, like, I felt my leg, I felt my toe a little bit, kept kept running. It didn't didn't feel too bad. and Yeah, yeah.
00:22:22
Speaker
Adrenaline numbs a lot of things. I love it. It seems, yeah. Awesome, awesome. oh say Okay, so then we hit the first aid station and we kind of just had like a...
00:22:33
Speaker
two or three K there was there was an annoying amount of uphill for me at that point um but it was kind of smooth before we then went straight down the spur um on that right hand turn into that first major aid station um with drop bags etc um it was only 5k though so were you able to run that like reasonably normally or was was the was there some pain and that kind of holding you back Yeah, i think I think I was running fairly normally. It's it's hard to say in in hindsight, but at at the time as well, like I didn't i didn't really notice it affecting my like my movements and and perhaps it was. Who knows? Yeah, yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
Unconsciously my body had cold shifted. Yeah. um But anyway, yeah, I was running. Certainly the uphill um was fine. um That downhill down the spur was a bit slippy. it was I was actually at that point running um with ah a friend from high school, um Andy, and he was flying down that.
00:23:39
Speaker
Like we were together at the top of that and he would have been like by the time we got to the bottom like a kilometre or so ahead of me. It was just too much faster. It's definitely that one, for context for anyone listening, you're kind of off trail along a spur, but it was it was kind of gravelly, slippery underfoot. It wasn't the nice grippy rocks that we'd been on previously. It was just super steep, slippery. It was very tough terrain in that way of um you wouldn't, falling would hurt, there would hurt a little bit because there was definitely some sharper rocks and things coming, but it was a super steep I had to I was already reduced to a walk down that hill by that point so I was moving promise you were moving faster than me um but um into the next part which was the uh what it was it called the Comstock Railway was there actually a railway through there at some point yeah so I think
00:24:35
Speaker
the The story is it was built 120 years ago for the com the old Comstock mine, but never actually used. Okay.
00:24:46
Speaker
So i think I think at one point there might have been some sleepers there, but then they were removed. Yeah. And then my understanding is it was once used as a bushwalking track but ah wasn't meant maintained from... for a very long time. Yeah, yeah. Based on what we ran on. a few a few decades on the West Coast and everything is taken back over by the wild. Yeah. That being said, it was like it was very well cleared um in terms of the way that they actually made it quite runnable. um you You lost your feet up to the shin height at times in the bog and there was the little downs and ups of the quite deep like gullies in a way that you had to get um up and over. But i was I was actually quite impressed at how sort of when I look back, I'm like, oh, well, you weren't actually moving that quick. But at the same time, compared to what we'd just been on, it felt quite
00:25:37
Speaker
smooth and runnable. were um Was that how you felt at the time? Yeah, absolutely. And um when I went back with um Lincoln team last year, um Lincoln, Matt and I actually did a bit of the track truthing the day after we did the shooting um And so i had done that initial section with them before it was cleared.
00:26:02
Speaker
and And I think we got maybe two Ks in or something it over the course of a few hours just because it was so dense. Oh, I can imagine. and but But there were parts where where like there was grass um yeah yeah and they just cut it out and you're just kind of pushing your way through. oh yeah. Yeah.
00:26:21
Speaker
now ask um And yeah, and bushes and everything. So yeah, I was i was very happy with how how clear it was. And i I do remember wading through some mud at some point. um But yeah, there was certainly a lot of mud um on that track as well. And you think about it, that's probably like,
00:26:43
Speaker
This May has, this this year so far in Queenstown has probably been one of the driest years. I was thinking that. I was like, geez, if this was raining and a wetter day, this would be a slip and slide for 9Ks.
00:26:55
Speaker
um yeah Yeah. Yeah. Fun time. Thankfully for us, we got about as good as I reckon you're ever going to get on that trail. um And then there was, don't even know what to call it. I've been calling it the bitch. But then there was that left-hand turn up to Mount Lyell, which was just a wall of dirt in your face looking up and it just went as far as your eye could see. And ah yeah I'm so annoyed at like how i was taking videos up this and I'm like, the video just doesn't do this justice, guys. Yeah.
00:27:28
Speaker
um I swear this was steep.
Conquering Mt. Lyell and Supportive Camaraderie
00:27:30
Speaker
um So yeah, that climb, thankfully not that long, realistically, like it was only a K and a bit, I think the actual steep stuff, but um that climb up until sort of the miners lookout and then East Lyell, that whole next technical section. How was that moving?
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, um that was good. The climb, I think was good. Because I think I'm mentally prepared for for it from Dingo Ridge. Like compared Dingo Ridge, like, okay, for for everyone listening, it's probably the the gradients probably double that of Dingo Ridge. um Yeah. But it's But it's much shorter. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was tough, but like yeah we got over it much faster. yeah yeah
00:28:19
Speaker
I actually, because there were all the the trees on either side of the cutout path, I was just using them kind of of me too yeah pulling myself up. yeah i think I think most of the work was actually through my upper body with that. yes I had a full bear crawl going at some points too, just hands on the ground crawling my way up. Yeah.
00:28:41
Speaker
But yeah, then going out to East Lyle to the mine site was really cool because you didn't really see the mine site until you were right on that rock and then taking the selfie and then you look over and there's just like all this open cut area. Yeah. It was so different to what we, everything that we'd seen so far.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah, it was pretty wild. I sat there and ate a packet of lollies because I just enjoyed the view. That was one of my favorite parts of the day, just sitting at that lookout going, ah, this is nice. um But then I found the next section, like for me, it was it was just frustrating because it was very slow going. But then it was, there was a lot more little ups um than I expected up over Mount Lyell and then East Lyell and It was almost like I got to the top of Mount Lyell and went, oh, it's all downhill from here and then you go back down and they're like, last climb. And I'm like, are you kidding?
00:29:32
Speaker
Yeah. well and And even even when you we were told, you know it's only a few kilometres to the aid station and then we start going down and we start going up again. Yeah. I think...
00:29:43
Speaker
that The whole loop, um I think like looking at the the cutoffs that they set for the race, um I think it probably took everyone a lot longer around that loop than expected. i think I can't remember how long it took me, but I think it took me like three and a half hours or something. Yeah.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, it took me over four. But I think um Lincoln, i think ah I don't think they expected people to be under that sort of three hour mark. I think it's more that just um that cut off to get there the first time being more lenient. But if you if you are ah close to cut off the first time, you're not making it back.
00:30:19
Speaker
before cut off um if you're super close um unless you manage to really pick it up but yeah it's it's definitely a slow going loop like it's 17k that yeah whatever it took um I definitely know it took me over four hours um but um then yeah like just because of how the flat isn't that fast but then it's it's a lot of off track um and the climbs just get to you eventually, but how did you find that last, very last descent down into the aid station? It went on forever.
00:30:54
Speaker
i think the only thing that got me through it was, um so Julia had caught up to me at this point. I was wondering when she caught you. Yeah, so I think... um There were, so there was the first out and back, the East Lyle one, um or was there a second one? I forget how many. There was the Miners Lookout first and then there was East Lyle second. Yeah, so i think I think it was the East Lyle one where she was a bit behind me and then it was soon after that as we're doing another climb and then another descent, she caught me. And very kindly
00:31:28
Speaker
kept running with me the whole descent back to the aid station. So I think we ran together probably for about 5Ks or so. um yeah And she was just chatting the whole time. I'm focused on trying to stop myself from falling or rolling my ankles or everything to stop, you know, to go down this steep difficult descent um and but yeah we're both kind of struggling a bit but certainly I was struggling a lot more than she was um but it was it was so nice to to have her there kind of keeping me company and yeah and helping we're helping each other through it we'd both run out of water we're both really feeling oh really bummer
00:32:09
Speaker
watched at this point really looking forward to the aid station how much water did you take out of the aid station first go around like 17 yeah how much sorry just a liter okay yeah i took two and a half i knew i was in for a long one um i think yeah that that's definitely one thing of anyone doing diverge next year that that 17k take lots of water yeah um that would definitely be a tip Cool. So then you ran into that 35k aid station together and like realistically from there, it's not that slow of a race if you've got legs. um So yeah, how did it how did it pan out from there?
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, so so from there, i from the aid station, i kind of took off again. Um, and, and it was a again, like some easy runnable sections. There was bit of, um, fire trail and then some, some roads through Gormonston. Um, yeah so I pushed pretty, pretty hard on that. I mean, I'm sure I was going very slowly, but it felt like it was going fast. Um, and,
00:33:12
Speaker
And then so i think I was maybe a couple of hundred metres ahead of Julia. um We got to the the waterfall and I think she'd caught up a bit again um and then went out to the Iron Blow. i Blow, yeah. That little 4K out and back.
00:33:29
Speaker
Yes, again, some like nice ah just slight incline road which I'm generally reasonable reasonable at running. um And then i like I'd done that and I was pushing fairly hard on that. And then I think like ah my my body was just kind of giving up. And yeah, I think like I should have the endurance, but I guess it was all the kind of the technical challenge of, of the past 42 Ks as well, that really caught up to me. So as i was going back to horsetail falls, I really slowed down. And that was when Julia caught me again. um and she was so nice. She was super encouraging. She was like, come on, Alice, come on. We've got to you push it to the end. And, um, Then we got to those horrible switchbacks yeah going up that that kind of final climb um from Horsetail Falls, which just seemed to take forever. I don't know how long it was. It felt like 10Ks. I think that there were only 2Ks.
00:34:31
Speaker
um Yeah, Julia was like, come on, Alice, this is this is where you shine. You should keep going. and And I was slowing down. She was speeding up. um But, yeah, kept going.
00:34:42
Speaker
kept i ran all of that at least. Nice, nice. But yeah going going very slowly slowly up the switchbacks and then going down again. And then it was all it was all mountain bike trail. and so Yeah, it was beautiful. again yeah But I think yeah my legs, they just started cramping at some point.
00:35:02
Speaker
and Do you think that was the only, like, because if it took three and a half hours for that loop and you only had one litre of water, like, do you think it was that possibly catching up of like... I think so, probably. i did try and kind of re restock my electrolytes. um So like I drunk a lot when we got to the Chamonix aid station at 35Ks. I refilled one of my flasks um with the Moor electrolytes yeah um the second time through the Monument aid station. And so had a lot, had taken a lot of that, but yeah, it probably just was too little, too late. It's hard to play catch up um when you're still trying to push.
00:35:44
Speaker
I think like when you, yeah, I think it's, it's one of those annoying things of um it still becomes a limiting factor when you if you can't, ah you can't catch up and push at the same time.
00:35:56
Speaker
I think, um, or you're especially late in the race early on maybe um but late in the race and yeah that uh was a very long feeling 10k um at least for me um from that last aid station into the finish line um but but yeah at least it was a lot faster moving than what we'd been going previously um so yeah there was only four there was four minutes three minutes between you and julia at the end Yeah. Yeah. I think so.
00:36:23
Speaker
um So yeah, shelly clearly she just pushed a lot harder than I did in that last 10 K section. yeah And she, she had such a good race. um oh yeah It was, it was the first time I'd met Julia and yeah, she was absolutely lovely. Awesome.
00:36:38
Speaker
awesome So were you happy, happy with that at the end? Yeah, absolutely. um Yeah. I mean, Yeah, it's cool cool to like get a place in the race. um you I was excited just to be there. um And I think, you know, running 40, 42 kilometres with a broken toe and getting third seems okay.
00:36:58
Speaker
I reckon, I reckon indeed. Oh, that ah that pain hitting would have been not fun, but at the same time, Yeah, it was it was a great run. um And it's kind of, I love hearing what was going on sort of between you and Julia because it's so nice that like it's a very long race but there was a race there um for for both of you to sort of be pushing each other and all the way until the end. Um, so to rewind a little bit, because this does tie into one of the questions and you've mentioned it a couple of times, you you have just done Buffalo where you came third at the end of March in Buffalo, again, by only like a minute or two, um, i look, I think I have a bit of a like last section curse. Okay, okay. Where like i I think it's like it just kind of, you I guess it defines like, you know, who's a better runner. like Well, it depends. How do you think your fueling and hydration goes over the run?
00:37:56
Speaker
Like could it just be that over for a few of them? Potentially. Like it my my fueling and hydration usually goes well early on in the race and then declines as the race gets on.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So, so perhaps, perhaps it is that. Yes. Yeah. Sometimes I think it's for for a lot of people, it does become that the decline in nutrition and, and hydration like comes with the decline in performance expected, expectedly. And if you can fix that one or like address that one, kind of the performance lifts naturally because you actually have energy to run, um, by the end. um But we did actually have a question come in of which course you prefer.
Comparing Race Courses
00:38:34
Speaker
was it Buffalo 100 or Diverge? um I think they probably got with different meanings. But yeah, which one do you prefer
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i mean i already disclosed my significant conflict of interest here with Diverge. um ah Buffalo is certainly much more suited to my strengths. Yeah, um yeah as I mentioned, like I'm good at running on like – fire trail uphill, um, and, and, and flat. Like I'm, I'm like originally, you know, a road runner. Um, and, and I just haven't spent enough time in really technical trails and in Canberra, like we've got lots of fire trails, so it was good for training for Buffalo. in that, in that sense, like, you know Buffalo is great for me. Um,
00:39:26
Speaker
Diverge offered so something that was just so totally different. Um, and just in terms of scenery, terrain, um, and just like the, the event feel and everything that was going on over the weekend, end I think it's I would say it's unmatched really. Yeah.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah. So I, you know, I love Buffalo. encourage everyone to go along, but also, you know, I think you definitely diverge for me. Yeah. My favorite.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah, they're such different races. And I do always find that conflict of interest where you're like, well, there's the courses that I might do better on, but then there's the courses I enjoy more or like they' have a different meaning or like there they aren't always the same.
00:40:10
Speaker
um Awesome, awesome. Well, I feel like ah ah we're going to have to get you back on for a long form interview with James because this this episode of the pod is going to go on forever if we if we chat too much longer but I do want to just quickly um get at least a little bit of the the backstory because I'm just looking at your itra now and there's there's a lot of uh sort of there's some really cool races by the looks of it like first and seconds at trail coat opal however you say that in France and um if ah even you've done their ultra trail snowdonia 100k mozart uh 83k like And all podiums, which is very cool to see. um
00:40:48
Speaker
So I suppose my question is, where did running actually start in life if you hadn't done it up until 17? And then did you spend some time overseas? And that's why there's so many sort of French yeah and UK racers? Yeah, so i probably started running a bit more um when I started university. um And so the the first real race I did was um ah the Point to Pinnacle in Hobart. Oh, yeah, nice.
00:41:20
Speaker
uh, you know, for, for those who don't know, it's, um, a half marathon, a road, half marathon, but with like 1200 meters of elevation gain. Um, it's just a grind up a mountain. Um, and, um, yeah, so I, so I did that. And then I made, made friends with a couple of guys in med school who were a couple of years below me, actually one of them, Henry,
00:41:44
Speaker
is like actually both of them are really good friends with Alex Hunt. um So that kind of gives an idea of like, you know the kind of runners that they were. They were, you know, super keen runners. And so I started yeah running a little bit more with them. um and And it really just kind of,
00:42:02
Speaker
progressed over time um yeah just signed up to more events um I like was still mostly just doing road stuff but um before I left Tassie I had done a few trail races um I had done I did um The triple tops. Oh, yeah. Another techie one.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. Which like that was it was back in 2014. So I can't I remember was hard, but I can't remember just how hard it was. um yeah and and And then there are a few others. um So I think it was run by Endorphin at the time, but there was like one around Freysinais. But sadly, I didn't really get into trails until after I left.
00:42:47
Speaker
Tassie, like I'd done a few, but not that many. um yeah And then it was, it was really just a way to explore different places. So I spent some time in WA after I finished med school. I did my internship and residency in WA and I signed up to the Perth Trail series with my brother. And so just did all of those events. um And then i moved to the UK. And so i i lived in the UK for six years, which is why I have all these UK and European events. yeah um And again, it was just a way to check out different parts of the UK and different parts of Europe. So the Coastal Trail series um and by Endurance Life, they were just in different parts of the the UK, different national parks all around Europe. the coastline. um And so it just seemed like a really cool way to get out and explore. But that was really just the motivation was to go and check things out. um but But I wasn't really particularly um strategic in what I was signing up for or like training particularly hard or like focused on on those. um
00:44:03
Speaker
And yeah, Ultra Trail Snowdonia um came up and That just looks really cool. um i signed up to it during COVID um ah and i yeah, I wasn't at all like i was I was just training in London. So like wasn't it at all. And and actually, i don't know if you know much about Ultra Trail Snowdonia, but like actually the terrain is pretty similar to Diverge, I would yeah say.
00:44:29
Speaker
No, yeah, i've seen I've seen some of that. Yeah, yeah. it's it's It's pretty technical and like similar elevation profile. It's like 6,700 metres over hundred k yeah um So i went i did that and was just... um not at all prepared for the terrain prepared for the distance but not the terrain um and yeah that gave me severe rhabdomyolysis oh no and um put me in hospital for a few days uh and gave me acute kidney injury so no yeah that that um that yeah made me a bit anxious about uh running the long distances for a little bit um but hang on hang on i have a question then um Because I'm looking at your ITRA now and you say it made you and nervous about running the long distances. So then what's the, it looks like about six months later you did a 255k? that was, yeah, that was Ultra X. um And that was, um so that was in Slovenia. Okay.
00:45:31
Speaker
And that was a staged race. So oh okay it was 250 k's over five days. And I thought that would be easier to tackle because i could stop each day and kind of do a kind of body check and see how I was going. I actually, um, so it's harder, but yep. Go. Well, yeah, I, I, I don't know. It was, uh, like I, so I, I spoke to the, the medic when I, when I got there and I, I gave him, I gave him my history. Um, and I said, look, you know, I want to just keep an eye. And he was like, well, I don't, I'm not quite sure what we can do. Like we can do it. You're in dipstick every day, but like, you know, it's going to show is's going to so show some protein in your urine. It's going to show some yeah blood in your urine because you've just run 50 each day.
00:46:23
Speaker
um But anyway, I did that um and yeah. kept an eye on things and things seem to be okay um but I don't know if you've done any stage races but like by day three like things are feeling good you know no yeah well I've done a five-day stage race but it was the Golden Trail World Series final and we were running the sort of 20 to 30k distance every day but it was like hell for leather every day like full out racing so by day three I was felt like I was half comatose It was shocking. um I've never had been in so much pain in my life. I was kind of fine during the run for me. um But then it was like immediately after it was just like, okay, I can just distinctly remember sitting in the hotel room with an entire loaf of bread, an entire like jar of jam, just trying to down the whole thing so I could actually make it to the start line the next day. So I definitely didn't have that experience.
00:47:18
Speaker
we We camped for Ultra X. So we're sleeping on like hard sleeping mats for for five days. I don't think it's very good for your recovery. um um Yeah, i I don't think I had much sleep between each day. But basically, like we'd just finish each day and just try and get in as many cups as we could.
00:47:39
Speaker
then yeah. yeah Yeah. I think, I think I would, I would love to do it like a longer distance, um, multi-day. Cause like, I think our day three or day four was a 7k sprint. Like it was, it was like, that was the part that got me. Like it was maybe two max three hours in a day and then day three was only 7k. So I found the recovery really hard cause you're running hard the whole time. um But I would love to do sort of that more grindy, longer, like the survival mission kind of ones um where it's just sort of it literally is just an eating mission. If you can keep eating, you can keep moving kind of deal. um
00:48:16
Speaker
But, yeah, what a cool experience before. you That looks like it was just a few years and you you moved back to oz in, was it time based on results? in three, but i three okay i was I was pregnant at the time. so Okay. that's And then had Sophia start of 2024. So, yeah, why there's a bit of a break in my running.
00:48:40
Speaker
Nice, nice. Beautiful, beautiful. Well, yeah, and then since then, you and you live in Hobart or? In Canberra. Canberra, I was going to say I thought for a second, but then i was I was just taking that off. You've got a few of obviously the Hobart races and still going on.
00:48:59
Speaker
But another trail runner in Canberra. There's so many of you up there. Yeah, yeah we've got a bit of a crew. it's Definitely a good crew going on. um Awesome. Awesome. Well, actually, I'm just going to quickly leave it with the last question because this is always one that intrigues me. Of all the races you've done since you have done quite a few around the world, um like take out diverge since it's the fresh one in your mind and it's it's very it was very meaningful
Recalling Ultra Trail Snowdonia
00:49:25
Speaker
which one's your favorite it's a hard question it really is or you can also frame it as like which one do you think you executed and performed the best if that one's an easier one to answer because picking favorites is also hard I'm also not sure about which one I've performed the best at. Fair. I think despite having severe rhabdo and like ending up in hospital for three days, I would say Ultra Trail Snowdonia was probably one of the best races I've done. Just I think similar to Diverge, just absolutely spectacular scenery. Nice. I loved that we started at 4am in the dark and And by the time it was light, like we were running across rich lines and looking across all these mountain ranges and, you know, with like the Welsh scenery, it's just bright green grass with rocky outcrops and beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
00:50:21
Speaker
Beautiful. I love that. that's that's That's a good pick to me. That's one i think I want to run in that area. I'm not sure I want to do Ultra Trail Snowdonia, but I want to run in that area um and see a few of the races there. So um you've made me, you've piqued my interest again, even more so um for going back there. But Yeah, thank you very much for coming on and giving up your time, Alice. This has been longer than I promised I would hold you up for the night.
00:50:48
Speaker
But um it's, yeah, such an intriguing sort of journey you've had so far and I think like James is going to have to get you back on for a longer form because I reckon there's got to be a lot more stories going on in all these races I can see on ITRA. of where where you've been and what you've managed to accomplish. But for for the listeners so they can keep following on, what's the rest of this year look like um if you've got any plans? If you don't, that's fine too. But anything coming up? um Well, probably nothing over winter now that i have a broken toe. i yeah yeah i am too
00:51:22
Speaker
i was I was thinking, so in Canberra, the biggest event in Canberra is the canberra the Sri Shimnumoy Canberra Trail 100, which is the start of August, and I was hoping to do the hundred k there.
00:51:37
Speaker
Might not be possible now given it's only a couple of months a few months away and I'll only be just coming back from the broken toe. um But maybe I'll kind of bring together, see if I can organise the amazing trail runners of Canberra ah to do a relay with me. Do it.
00:51:56
Speaker
That'd be fun. Nice. Imagine how quick we could go. Yes, I reckon. um But the the big thing for me ah for the rest of the year is um the Asia-Pacific Trail Running Championships, um the long course. um ah with So i with with Buffalo, i i hopefully have an automatic selection for that. So, yeah, um yeah that's great. That's what's on the cards. So very excited about that. And that's far enough away that I have sufficient time to recover, let my bones heal and then have a really good training block. So i'm super excited about that.
00:52:36
Speaker
Amazing. I'm very excited. That's what you're you're aiming for and coming up because, yeah. So seeing the Asia-Pacific champs grow will be awesome, having our little our regional champs for the area. um And China's incredible. So I'm excited that you get to go race there.
00:52:52
Speaker
So awesome. Thank you very much. Everyone can follow along ah what's happening. we might We can probably catch up again before Asia-Pacific. We'll probably try and catch up with the whole team. and see how everyone's going in the lead up to that. So ah this isn't the last time listeners you're going to hear from Alice, but yeah, Alice, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
00:53:12
Speaker
Thank you, Sim. A quick break in the show to thank Bix. Bix has just come out with their 30 gram gel in two brand new flavors. This is a new gel, new flavors. You've got the choice of the salted strawberry or the berry. The salted strawberry is also packing 300 milligrams of sodium as an increase, whereas the berry has 200 milligrams. Both make them perfect for the conditions we have in Australia, yeah whereas most gels on the market do not have sodium within them. What Bix has done here is take the recipe for the gels that work so well, that 1.8 ratio that is very, very friendly on the stomach and added a soft, subtle, but very tasty twist that you can dial in your race day and your training nutrition to that extra fine detail.
00:53:53
Speaker
As you know, bix has been supporting the show from the start and it literally helps keep the podcast coming to you every week. So if you want to support the show, level up your own nutrition game, head over to the Bix website, use our brand new code PEAK, P-E-A-K for 20% off
Sponsorship and Race Weekend Activities
00:54:08
Speaker
at checkout. And with that, let's get back to the show.
00:54:10
Speaker
And we're back. That was a good interview. Yeah. yeah it's It's interesting for me because I've been chatting. I got to chat with Alice all weekend. Well, not all weekend, but a few times over the weekend at Diverge myself. So it was like long time no see. um But yes, what a damn cool race. um Yeah. Did you, did were you looking at any of, actually, I kept sending through messages to the podcast chat. Yeah, I going ask.
00:54:35
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to ask because I think on your Instagram you were saying you were about to make the race and your flight was a bit late. Oh, yes. So, well, that wasn't for the race itself. That was for, this was one of the coolest things though, actually. On the Friday, so the day before the race, ah there was the, ah they called it the Lynchford Express, but there was a 5K run.
00:54:58
Speaker
um And it was at, the run itself started at 3 p.m. But the way it was set up is you caught this um steam train from Queenstown, like right at the finish line.
00:55:10
Speaker
5Ks down the train line to the next station and then ran back. um So you got the really cool experience of being on the train. and It was like the full steam train with the whistles and the really ornate like inner carriages and everything. Did the train go uphill a little bit?
00:55:26
Speaker
Was it a downhill race? No, it was mainly, I'm going to say it was slightly more uphill. Like it wasn't that, it was, it was lumpy. um But I'm going to say maybe it just went up and down actually, but it wasn't consistent one way or the other. It was actually a really nice run into town because you essentially caught the train out and then I was using it as a shakeout as was, I ran, ended up running with Emma Cook-Clark and G. Shegg.
00:55:50
Speaker
And Lincoln, the race director. um And it was kind of like, oh, we're running, like easy running our way back into where we start tomorrow morning. So it was a very fun shakeout. um But, yes, the train departed at 2.20 and it's a four-hour drive from Hobart Airport to New York Queenstown where the race is and I was already due to flying at 10 a.m.
00:56:12
Speaker
So flying in at 10 was due to arrive hopefully at 2 and then ah train takes off at 2.20. My flight was delayed by 50 minutes.
00:56:22
Speaker
so And we were on the plane. Like I was sitting on the plane on the tarmac from 8.20 until we finally took off at 9.20. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, guys, everything was looking perfect. um But then, yeah, we got in the car and I was with um a friend, Claire, and She was in this zippy little red thing and because it was a tiny car down around all the corners, we were just watching the time go down and down and down for our estimated arrival.
00:56:48
Speaker
um And so we somehow made up like 25 minutes on the drive. um So, yes, I made the train. um That was, and it just made it that the weekend, I got the weekend that I sort of wanted because I did the 5K on the Friday, the whole 50K, which was a very big bang for buck in the end for me ah um on the Saturday and then the 5K again on the Sunday. That's cool.
00:57:16
Speaker
which Before we get into your race recap, did you see another cool um race experience? I mean, now that you were talking about this train that you get on and then you run back, which I think is cool. um And we probably in need more exciting kind of events like that in trail
Innsbruck Alpine Race Details
00:57:32
Speaker
running. But did you see the one in Innsbruck?
00:57:34
Speaker
um So they had the Innsbruck, which is kind of like an open like a season opener in Austria-Germany kind of region. So it was the Innsbruck Alpine race. They have like so many different distances. But this year they had the chase. um So they won They had 7K with 1,400 meters of elevation gain. oh um Nice. And then day two, there was the chase. So you start, so like the person that was first in the uphill starts last, but the gap is like the same amount that you kind of um was between you.
00:58:15
Speaker
And so they put a um pretty big prize money, 7,000 for first male, first female, 7,000 euro, which is, pretty solid prize money. um But what was cool about, I was watching the live stream of the uphill race and the finish line was pretty much at the ski station. So you see the runners running up to the finish line.
00:58:35
Speaker
It's all in the snow. And then right next to the finish line, there's a ski lift. So you see all the people that are finishing their run. So like snowboarders and skiers are finishing their run, getting on the lift right at their finish line. So you have this cool aerial shot of people skiing and runners running up.
00:58:52
Speaker
um But yeah, it was really cool to see that. Something bit different. The chase the next day, like what distance is that? was ah back but I would love it if that was just back down the damn thing. No, was a 25K with 1,500 meters of elevation gain straight out of Innsbruck.
00:59:10
Speaker
um So like, yeah, pretty big town with some incredible mountains around it and beautiful trails. So yeah, it was good atmosphere. That sounds like so much fun. But it brought in a lot of um international runners, which was cool to see. and Yeah. So there was only for a lit. So the chase was...
00:59:29
Speaker
If you had ITRA points over 750 for male, over 650 for females, you could get in. Okay. um So that means that I think they had, you know, maybe like 50 elites all up, um which was pretty cool because they had it all live streamed and, um yeah, quite a lot of people. But then on top of that, they have – 25 k stand a long race like um they had the uphill race as well for like an open race so their leads started um and then i think 20 minutes later i was the open race as well but tell me how does it work for who wins because if the person that was first on the uphill starts last like is it still first person across the line because then you're pretty much just disadvantaged for winning the uphill then they had the first person go first
01:00:19
Speaker
Oh, okay. That makes sense. That was the lead. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I did not watch the second day live stream and then they were explaining it. So, yeah, I guess now that you say that, yeah, um first person was first and the gap that they had, people were starting behind them.
01:00:35
Speaker
Okay, that makes so much more sense for like big prize money because I'm like, otherwise what's the incentive to run fast on the uphill? um So awesome. that's still and i Yeah, I kind of thought this was cool because it's so different and kind of made me want to do it next year. um Yeah, yeah yeah but they're the sorts of ones I love.
01:00:55
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah, i just think that finish line is just so crazy. Like you finish and there's people like skiing right next to you. Yeah. Like going on by their like normal skiing kind of, yeah, day here you are like running an uphill race. Definitely, yeah. It's always fun when they finish. And also they would have about got to catch the ski lift back down from the finish line by the sounds of it too, which – Yeah, I remember doing that ah back when Marathon de Mont Blanc wasn't um wasn't a full circle and you got to the top. And it was a really weird feeling if you ask me. You run across the finish and then it's just like you're shuttled straight into the gondola and straight back down and you're like, okay. Yeah, freezing cold on that gondola down.
01:01:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Very, very much so. But ah awesome. Well, yeah, i'm I'm all for all the wild and wacky and weird and wonderful ways that we can make trail running super fun. So and yeah, Diverge definitely had a lot of that um over the whole weekend. It was it was pretty It was a really cool setup, sort of um the town itself. I liked Queenstown. There was a lot of people on the way in. They're like, oh, it's a bit weird with the mining vibes and stuff. And I was just like, it's it's a cute little country town vibes with surrounded by mountains, which, yeah, I'm going to love. um But yeah, the the course itself for um Diverge was everything that i would wanted would have wanted and more. um
01:02:21
Speaker
It was not as actual, um not there was actually quite a bit of good running in the course, which it surprised me, I suppose, just how much um there was because to be fair, I hated that part at the end. um But you pretty much didn't hit anything technical or that steep until about 7k. So the first... 6, 7K, you're uphill but you're on like gravel mountain bike paths. It was beautiful because you start in the dark. So the sun's rising as you're climbing. You're climbing by head torch for the first sort of half hour and then you hit this ridgeline just as the sun's rising and it was beautiful. um
01:02:59
Speaker
and But then I will say you kind of – get to this section and you've been running and running and running and then all of a sudden it's just no trail straight up the side and pretty soon there's ropes helping you climb up rocks and trees and all sorts of things and around and there's not much running for the next little while. Um, so yeah, it was, it was like the technical part on the first c climb, um, was very hands-on very
Reflections on Diverge Race
01:03:28
Speaker
much. You wanted gloves and it was so windy that you didn't want to run even on this parts where you could run because the wind would just pick your feet up.
01:03:38
Speaker
um So it was definitely, I'm going to say, on the verge of if it was much, it I didn't ever feel like it was bad because the we really windy section, you weren't there was no exposure in the way of um falls. It was like clear, open, gravelly kind of rock space. um Like if you fell, it would be a very slow motion. You go an uphill falls.
01:04:01
Speaker
pretty tame terrain but it's just very steep um so there was no problems there it was just the sort of wind that very much makes you feel alive because I have a video of me talking to my camera and you cannot hear a thing ah you can see looking yeah I'm just looking at your Strava right now you said like the first six or seven k were pretty runnable and then you yeah get into like 30 35 percent incline that is absolutely insane and you're out there for 10 hours I was out there for 10 and a half hours.
01:04:32
Speaker
Oh my God. So I was, I felt fine to begin with. And I was like, oh I'm just going to run at a fairly easy pace. Like I was going pretty chill. Um, the whole first climb, cause I'm like I have no idea what my body's going to do to me today. Um, but then at the summit of the first bloody climb, we're at like nine and a half K and I've already sitting at the summit with my feet shoes off. Cause one of my feet was cramping. And I was like, well, this is great.
01:04:57
Speaker
um yeah That was my own fault. like And this is just part of getting used to new shoes. And I didn't know how tight or loose I would want them for a climb quite that steep because I haven't done one. um This is technically like your longest run since September last year.
01:05:11
Speaker
This is my longest, this is actually my second longest race time ever. So only, i was look looking at that yesterday. I'm like the only race I've done longer was 100k with a lot more elevation gain and it only took an extra two hours.
01:05:30
Speaker
um um even the I did was four, three hours faster. Yeah. Something like that. So either way. um But no, yeah, from the bit I knew that going in because from like ah essentially the first super steep downhill, I think you'll see a kilometre at like maybe 11, 12, somewhere around there that's got about 300 metres drop. um And it was kind of from that very first one I was like, oh, I can feel my ITB.
01:05:58
Speaker
area a little bit more than I would want to. So I pretty much walked ah walked that downhill and walked every downhill afterwards. um And it was then like once you'd been up and over that first mountain, which was about three hours or so for me into that first eight ah major aid station,
01:06:18
Speaker
you kind of had what looks on the elevation chart like a good flat running section. um But if you're on, ah you might see some of the videos on Mastrava. I put a whole bunch of videos on Mastrava everyone can go look at. But there was a lot of bog, like shin high,
01:06:34
Speaker
feet disappearing into mud bog. And it was runnable to a point because it was just a newly opened trail. But that section and then the next climb averaged 40, I think I looked it up, averaged 44% for the first 600 metres of the next climb. It literally looks like a wall on Strava.
01:06:58
Speaker
And honestly, you've been running around like the base of this mountain and it was like you're moving, reasonable, um and then all of a sudden you turn left and you just look up and up and it just feels like a wall. You look at it and you're like, okay, I can reach my hand out and touch the ground that I'm about to climb up onto. And it just kept going and going.
01:07:19
Speaker
And the number of times, like there was a but um few people around me at that point. um And there was one guy that was way up ahead ah to begin with. And they look ages up ahead. Well, actually, sorry. No, they look fairly close, but you know, it's like minutes to get up to where they're up to.
01:07:35
Speaker
um And then I saw him at some point just turn around and plonk his ass down and sit there for a little while. And I was like, mate, I want to join you. um it was It was proper, proper steep. It did actually remind me of Yoeda, which was this weekend as well, actually. But it reminded me of the same thing.
01:07:54
Speaker
I going to say exactly a year ago. Yeah, exactly. But the the it was short-lived for what it was because it was, um there was a lot more, um it wasn't technical, I'm going to say. It was just a straight up dirt. um But that was where, yeah, my adductors went because of the bog, I think, and trying to compensate for the ITB. So that uphill was also really painful. And the next 5K from there was, six I think there was a 5K section not long after that into the next aid station that took me over two hours. um I think essentially from the top of that climb or from, yeah, from that climb to the aid station was 8K and it took me two hours and 50 minutes to do that 8K.
01:08:36
Speaker
So I was in, like, and the thing was though, I was enjoying it because it wasn't hard. It was just, I couldn't move any faster without it being painful. So I was like, okay.
01:08:47
Speaker
Here's my pace for now. And I was just getting passed by people left, right and centre. And everyone's like, are you OK? I'm like, I'm actually fine. It's just not worth me going any quicker right now. So I got to sit and have lots of views and like I was eating my lollies and having my dance party for one across the mountain. But there was a couple of 30 minute downhill kilometres or so, um which were pretty painful.
01:09:10
Speaker
But, yeah, from there, which is the 35K mark, you've done the two main climbs and it's really, other than a short section up monument, it's really quite runnable and smooth and, like, fast moving.
01:09:22
Speaker
So I actually really like the race in the way that if you've got legs, at the end. You could really get moving and catch um and make up quite a bit of time because the last 10K really didn't have that much elevation gain. It wasn't technical and it was all on sort of mountain bike trails, um which were absolutely beautiful.
01:09:41
Speaker
So yeah, the last 10Ks really should take not very long at all um and I think took me another two hours or so, ah even though it's 10Ks with not much up and down. But in a good way for me, I think, um A, I made it through. I did almost pull the pin at 35Ks, but I was a bit like, well... I'm happy to move slow and I have time to walk it in. So I'm just going to go see the rest of the course so that next year I know it.
01:10:08
Speaker
um But also i feel like over that 10Ks, my mind finally shifted from where I've been at of just I want to get back out and enjoy events and that sort of thing to going, okay, no, I want to run events well again.
01:10:21
Speaker
um I've had my fun and I want to be able to actually, like when you're walking and like 5% downhill gradient on buttery smooth switchbacky mountain bike trails and you're just like reduced to a walk, I was like, okay, this is no longer fun and I want my body back. So i'm ah yeah, I'm not doing wandi this weekend. Because that was kind of one of my tick the list of just I have a lot of fun knowing that my body's not actually up for racing. um And now I'm a bit like, okay, all eyes on Keema in August. I actually want to race again now, which is a cool shift because, yeah, i'm it's like that whole process of going from being able to do nothing to just being able to do something. And that last 10K was when my brain shifted from being happy with being able to do something to really being able to want to do more.
01:11:13
Speaker
Um, so yeah, it was a damn long day. Um, 10 and a half hours. It was, I was actually finishing like as the sun was setting. So i was like, okay, I got a whole day of running from sunrise to sunset and it was beautiful. It was technical. It was steep. It was everything I'd want. There was actually a few caves that we had to climb our way through and one section that I must admit almost killed me because I was already cramping and sore that we you literally had to get on your belly and like army crawl through a gap in rocks on the ground. um So it for anyone that wants an adventure um and wants like to challenge themselves on –
01:11:54
Speaker
It was very like Euro-like terrain in that way of just you're off track, you're rock hopping, you're the descent, especially the descent into the aid station. You're not on a track at all. You're just descending down the side of a cliff, it felt like. So not your type of running, I don't think, Vlad. No, maybe the first 7k and the last 15k. Yeah, you'd like that section. Yeah, the middle section there.
01:12:23
Speaker
To be fair, the 25K, like I was chatting to Toby Sparks, and and because the 25K is essentially the first 7K and then you've only got a few Ks, like, and they're slow kilometres for sure, but you've got a few Ks of the proper technical up and over the top of the mountain. But then it's really fast again and you get the same finish, the same last 10, 12Ks or so. So you probably only have four or five Ks of actual technical stuff in between and the views are epic. So you might like the twenty five um yeah the safety might annoy you looks beautiful i mean obviously like living in perth i kind of think like tassie is a long way away and it's a long flight because literally the same weekend there was the run johnny 100 which is ah yeah also a technical race not far away from australia technically only like a four-hour flight from perth in lombok
01:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, okay. They had like 100 miles with 1,400 meters of elevation gain. saw that. It looks wild. Yeah, it looks really crazy. So, yeah. yeah Because what is the – is there direct flights from Perth to Hobart? Yeah, I think five and a half hours. And then there used to be a direct flight from Perth to Lombok.
01:13:36
Speaker
um I don't think they have it anymore, but that was about three and a half or four hours, maybe four hours. But there's obviously a lot to Bali, and from Bali, Lombok is not that far. Yeah, okay. So you're more likely to go off that way. But to anyone else that wants to come to Tassie, um yeah, for for a new race, like, it yeah, it's definitely now my favourite race course in Oz um just for the fact it – there's not a single boring bit. Like, I was moving slow and yet I reckon I listened to music for maybe 30 to 40 minutes of that entire 10 and a half hours, even when I was by myself because you're just –
01:14:16
Speaker
entertained by the terrain the whole time and entertained by the view. And it was just one of those ones where you're so immersed within the nature and so out of the way of everything else um that, yeah, the the ability to switch off was awesome. And I made a lot of friends because oh I'm not used to being sort of in the packs um on these sorts of races so it was a lot of fun i just got to trot along chatting to people and meeting meeting new friends so um and you did a 5k the next day I did I did that was that I was wondering because as I came into the finish like I tried to run the last 2ks into the finish of the 50k and it was really painful like that was where I was like oh okay this really hurts like But it's ITB. It's a known pain. I'm like, I know that this feels worse than it is in a way. um But there was me, like I literally hopped down the last set of stairs because my knee couldn't hack it and um hobbling across the finish line. And then when I rocked up the next day, I'm like, everyone's going to think I'm so dumb right now. Yeah.
01:15:16
Speaker
um But I maintain it was a great idea because my ITB, I'd stretched, taken anti-inflammation and done all that. So it was no worse and it really freed everything else up. So my main positives from the weekend is that I really don't feel like most of my body, other than my ITB and knee on that side, feels like I haven't done much at all. Like it hasn't taken a huge toll um in any way. And so like I'll be able to run tomorrow fine. And the only reason I haven't run today is because I'm trying to give the knee some time to recover. I'm It gave me some confidence of like um the fact that my energy levels didn't dip and I don't feel bad afterwards gave me some confidence that like I can pull up fine and I can actually start getting out in the mountains for some adventures again and and trust that I'm not going to be going backwards real quick. So
01:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, that and that 5K actually, Dave Bailey was there letting rip and I was like, go Dave, um off we go. But that 5K actually had a brutal little climb of its own um because you climbed up to the airport and then ran along the airport. But the climb up to the airport was A, full of leeches, which, oh my God,
01:16:23
Speaker
Like I just, if I never see a leech again in my life, I'll be happy. But it was actually quite steep. So yeah, it was brilliant weekend. Yeah, I saw some pictures from the 5K with that airport strip. That was pretty cool.
01:16:37
Speaker
It was very cool that and that that for that and the 10K. Yeah, you just got to run along and it was just, yeah, really weird. But I love how the event um as a whole, like the whole event kind of just tried to immerse itself in the surrounds of every little thing that they had going on there. Like even to pick up your bib, you kind of had to do a scavenger hunt around the town um to get a few facts around the town before you could pick up your bib and Like, yeah, it it really got involved um in the community and everything. So highly, highly recommend. So much fun.
01:17:11
Speaker
m But, yeah. how many people How many people were there for the whole event? ah Good question. um What did they say?
Unexpected Race Outcomes
01:17:20
Speaker
A bit over 600? Oh, that's cool. um I think the, so it was interesting. Everyone was trying to take bets on how many people would actually finish the 50K and actually had quite a high finish rate in the end because the, I think there was 111 starters or so and maybe 60 finishes or close to 60 finishes. um Because the day before some people were saying, oh, I reckon only 20 or 25 people are going to finish. um And I will say that possibly in bad weather that might be the case, but we got,
01:17:49
Speaker
probably the perfect weather you could imagine for a race like this. Like it wasn't cold. It wasn't ever really that hot. um There was no, it wasn't really even sunny so you didn't have the sunburn thing. But the everywhere that would be dry could was dry or could be dry, sorry.
01:18:06
Speaker
um Like obviously there was the bog but it would then rain all night that night and I was like it'd be a different race in the rain. um That's for sure. So, yeah, no, it was good. It was a very cool start for the event and I do hope it just gets bigger.
01:18:19
Speaker
um Yeah. Very nice. But yeah, that's ah that's me and where I'm up to. No one different me, unfortunately. I'm really kind of bummed. I'm still in that stage of like, maybe I should. And I'm like, no, I really shouldn't.
01:18:33
Speaker
but um But yeah, where are you up to?
Preparing for the UTA 50
01:18:36
Speaker
Just trying to bank in some consistency. um guess UTA is is about 10 days away from today. So yeah, um yeahre going to start slowing down a bit.
01:18:48
Speaker
But yeah, it's been obviously I missed um Buffalo with a bit of a cold few days before. and didn't make the flight because I was like, i don't want to risk it fly with a cold and might get worse. Um, so yeah, that was a bit, bit of a shame, but yeah, I was able to still kind of have a few easier days with that cold and then get back into training and yeah, actually looking forward, um, to UTA 50. How are you feeling for it?
01:19:17
Speaker
And also, are you on the Zinc and C? and Please tell me you're on all of the immune-boosting things right now. but But otherwise, how are you actually feeling for the race and especially with the fields and everything? um I feel good. i mean, i think that course kind of suits
The Impact of Running Shoes
01:19:32
Speaker
me. It's pretty runnable, fairly quick. I like the stairs.
01:19:36
Speaker
um Have been, you know, going through trying to find the best shoes, to run in. So I've been trying a lot of shoes lately, still not sure what shoes I'm going to race in. sure you were trying out like the Mount to Coast and stuff.
01:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, um they sent me a pair and I thought that was a good training shoe, like really nice training shoe. yeah But I don't know if it's got like that pop for like going quick, if that makes sense.
01:20:02
Speaker
yeah Really nice like 100k shoe, but like I don't know for a four and a half hour race with some road sections. um If it was like a very technical course, I think that shoe would work.
01:20:16
Speaker
But yeah, it feels a bit slow on the road, even though, I mean, it's the H1, which is the gravel. um But yeah, it's hard. Like once you wear some road super shoes and I do like two or three times a week, it's hard with those trail shoes. It just feels like you're running with bricks.
01:20:34
Speaker
um Obviously for years I ran with trail shoes and I thought they were fine. But now it's just like, it's so hard after doing... five years of super shoes running, super light shoes. And you see how the road shoes are just getting lighter and lighter. And it feels like trail shoes are just getting heavier and heavier. So, yeah, it's kind of.
01:20:55
Speaker
I think the trail shoes are also getting lighter. You're just noticing the difference. Like trail shoes are still lighter than they used to be. i'm not sure like they're all still 200 350 300 grams where roaches are like well like you know the the adidas that um was used to break the two hours was under 100 grams and the puma r3s are like 150 grams or somewhere around there where even added us like the new um super shoe is heavier than the first one um so yeah it's a bit strange that trail shoes are getting well i' i wouldn't say getting heavier but like not really going after lightness where road shoes like you want more protection you want like some of those elements like those shoes that those out of their shoes they're going to be torn to shreds in two seconds on most trails and like Yeah, I know. But, like, I think, I don't know, i feel like for a training shoe, I mind if it's a bit heavy and bulky. Same with my road shoes. But if you want to go quick in a race, like, I think they should have some more, not aggressive, but just, like, lighter shoes.
01:22:07
Speaker
For me, it's actually a lot more just about how it feels, whether it's helping and propelling. Because when you think about it, like, 150 to 150 grams, um like put that in your hand and it's not that much.
01:22:19
Speaker
um No, but like, you know, don't forget like 50K, you're doing a lot of steps. so No, no, I know. and And like, you know, if you're out there and you're just having fun, um you know, I think obviously those shoes are great. The issues the trail shoes have gotten a lot better.
01:22:36
Speaker
um But it just feels like, i don't know, the racing shoes. Or you get those really light ones with like zero underfoot. um or you get really heavy brick kind of a shoe um which i don't mind training like i think that mount to coast shoe is really great and i would wear it on every training session on the trails um but like it just feels like it doesn't have that race pop that like if i would want to go a bit quicker like i think i would struggle a bit yeah yeah
01:23:10
Speaker
Fair. I think in the races I do, it it doesn't make much of a difference ever. Yeah, but if you did like, you know, a two or a three hour race, it does make a bit of a difference. No, I more mean for technicality. Like the more technical it is and the more like rough it is underfoot, think it matters a lot less. If you're running a trail race that's entirely on gravel, 100%, you're going to feel the difference. If you're running a trail race that's all like either soft and wet underfoot or rocky underfoot or like and constantly changing, like I care more about my traction and my confidence than the propulsion or how fast I feel I'm moving. um
01:23:47
Speaker
because at the end of the day, I'm going to move faster to the finish line if I haven't done an ankle. um No, no, you're right. I think by like UTA, the course itself, half of it is technically on on road and gravel.
01:24:00
Speaker
Yes, yeah, it's fast So when you put in like, you know, half of the like 20K on very runnable stuff, like it does make a big, ah well, like maybe 10 seconds a K, which is not much, but it is a lot yeah considering, um you know, that I guess Toby bit me by 40 seconds last year.
01:24:20
Speaker
Yeah, and the battle's back on again this year, isn't it? yeah Yeah, everybody's on, so I think that's... Everybody's on. Yeah, that's where the like you know that's where suddenly you think, well, you know a different shoe could mean two minutes difference, which could be the difference from fifth and fourth, right?
01:24:36
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's going to be ah a bloodical race. We will, probably ah well, I'm assuming Brody and James are on this one, but there'll be a preview coming out at some point. But you've still, you've got Toby, you and Toby get to go head-to-head again, but there's also then... Yeah, we got Blake Turner, Tate Herbst.
01:24:54
Speaker
They're the main um Aussie contingent, which ah Jack Harris is there. There's ah there's Tyler Wyndham. Damn, yeah, there's a lot. um But I'm so excited for this 50K now that Meow Yow's come in a race as well. um um um ah Yeah, I reckon she can. Well, Ruth as well, right? Is Ruth still coming? Ruth is still coming. Yeah, yeah, Which I guess it was more that I i knew Ruth was coming for a while. And then when Meow Meow gets added, I'm just like, okay, the race is on That's epic. um Yeah, I mean, I guess it becomes like regional major.
01:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You know, pretty much like to the top for the women field for sure.
Potential of Female Runners
01:25:34
Speaker
We are seeing some of the best in the world. um Daniel Jones is coming back, but...
01:25:40
Speaker
technically not too many people, I guess, to kind of challenge him realistically. yeah yeah But the female side is definitely going to be a bit more high. Well, yeah, and if if you look at just the UTMB points, I think Meow's ranked like fifth or sixth in the men.
01:25:57
Speaker
Like she's ahead of all the Aussie men ah in rankings in UTMB points. um So I was looking at it and I'm like genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Meow comes like second or third overall. And Ruth not far behind. um Although I do find it interesting, which this is another thing on the points though, but like Meows, ah but I suppose actually this is within the 50K. But in the 50K, Meows UTMB points are 823 and Ruth's 743.
01:26:25
Speaker
Like there's an, like that's a big difference in those points. Overall, um in their general classification, they're almost identical, 822 and 823. But Ruth's come from the longer distance, her high points, and Meow's come from this distance. Yeah, and I mean, it would be interesting to see how Ruth does because she has been doing a bit, well, a lot of the longer stuff lately. um But she's an incredible runner. So would be interesting to see how she does at a 50k.
01:26:51
Speaker
i don't think she's done like a short race for a while. Well, not in my memory, but she yeah quite possibly has jumped in something. But either way either way, we might save more UTA chat now that it's going to be pretty much all that's spoken about next week. um But, um yeah, best of luck. how How's the taper looking? Like how much are you going to back off versus keep moving? um Not a crazy amount. I think similar to last year. um ah Personally, like I think heavy tapers don't really work for me. My buddy does better when I keep moving.
01:27:23
Speaker
um So yeah, I think I did 14 hours of running last week and I might drop to 12 hours this week and then I have a taper I guess two three days before but not too much. And we've got a few questions that we're going to do in Patreon show but I'm actually going chuck this one in now because it's very apt and we've got a few others we can do later.
Training Tips and Techniques
01:27:45
Speaker
But Heidi's asked for Vlad, what do you do for stair training when you don't live near stairs? Now I am going to say If this is for UTA, it might be a bit late.
01:27:55
Speaker
but But we can still answer the question of what do you do you reckon there's anything that helps stairs um if you don't actually have physical stairs to train on?
01:28:07
Speaker
I think obviously the uphills, um box step-ups, is a good one. Like I've started doing a bit more weighted box step ups in the lead up to UTA. um i usually it's part of my exercises. So like maybe once every two weeks I to do some weighted box step ups, but like leading up to UTA definitely a little bit more.
01:28:30
Speaker
um I think stairs technically It's more about the downhill. Um, there's not many stairs in Perth. I think our biggest staircase is about 180, uh, which is in Kings Park and it's usually pretty packed with people. So not that much fun sometimes, but I think it's more about the downhills. So even if you find like a small set of stairs in a building, like a high rise building, um,
01:28:59
Speaker
and smash the downhills even if it's only like 20 stairs but really like go fast on them so do repeats but smash the downhills i think that that's the main thing uphills you can you know this you can build the strength for the uphills the only difference between stair uphill and a normal uphill is that you land on the flight of the stairs so that means that your foot is flat when you're going in up and down so it's a bit of a different muscle group so yeah um i mean even for me it's it's a bit of a drive to get to the stairs but trying before every utf i've been trying to go at least three or four times mainly for the downhill so i'd
01:29:41
Speaker
not too worried about the uphill because that's just fitness and strength. But the downhill is a bit more of a skill and making sure that your quads are used to that type of landing.
01:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I think you can do the landing part, like the downhill parts, a little bit without um having physical stairs, doing things like depth jumps and like single leg, like drop downs. So even from a higher surface, like a table or a bench, like a workout bench, if dropping down onto one leg.
01:30:11
Speaker
and catching yourself and those sorts of things and getting those eccentric loading contractions and stuff. um Like think about the movement and if you don't have the actual stairs to go down to mimic the movement, like you can still mimic it in isolation in the gym and you can do it sort of from higher heights or, know, heavier um loading, then you doing you're you're getting more conditioned for the continuous as well, um the continuous nature of yeah the stairs. but Yeah, but then also think if there's like a bridge crossing, a lot of the times there's like a stair section there. It might only be 20 stairs, but I think like just having a few sessions on that, just going a bit quicker purposely, just seeing where you land and getting used to like looking forward as much as you can and not really at your feet makes a big difference. Yeah. I used to love stairs. I mean, i kind of still love stairs, obviously, after living in Hong Kong for so long.
01:31:12
Speaker
There's a lot of stairs. But you do lose a bit of that skill if you're not doing it. So yeah just a yeah few sessions. Yeah, probably not even too late for UTA, even if you go like two or three times, it'll make yeah ill make a difference.
01:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks for the question, Heidi. um And yeah, from your Hong Kong days, or I reckon Vlad's the stair master first. I mean, I used to love stairs, to be honest. I still kind of do. um Don't see as much of it anymore. But yeah, Hong Kong is all stairs.
01:31:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. On to the news for the week. um James has got so many exclamation marks on this. Writing Western States is going to be epic with a bunch of exclamation marks because ah Jim Wormsley has now just been added back in via a sponsor spot.
01:32:03
Speaker
um which Yeah, I think. yeah i think a bit of like talk about it on on social media. But you know, a sponsor spot is a sponsor spot. I think Goo's got one as well. Yeah. um And Hawker's got one.
01:32:17
Speaker
Yeah. But I think what's cool about Western States is the golden ticket chase, like yeah yeah the whole buildup. um Yeah. But, yeah, it's going to be a pretty exciting race with Killian and Jim and everybody else.
Role of Sponsors in Major Events
01:32:30
Speaker
The way I look at it, um like the races don't happen without the sponsors. So to me it's like, well, the the sponsor can have that they their thing that um sort of makes it worth it for them as well. Because interestingly, that was actually a huge, and I didn't realize this, but – That was actually a huge talking point after the race I did in China, the Chengdu one by Saigu, and because one of the one of the athletes that won, the guy that won the 100k, I think he won in the end, like moved up the day before from the 60k. And it was just this interesting difference, I suppose, to me that I observed in sort of maybe culture or the way that
01:33:07
Speaker
it was perceived of like it being incredibly unfair um and in my mind I'm like well he's a listed elite that's fairly normal um and also sponsored by Fuga Fuga is the sponsor of the race so to me I'm like well that's that's fine that's always going to happen um but being on Chinese social media it blew up and it was everywhere and I was a bit like I I wouldn't have even had a second thought that that's a bad thing um in my mind at least but Yeah, it's interesting seeing then also the chat, some of the chat around, yeah, getting a spot via a sponsor.
01:33:42
Speaker
um I suppose, yeah, my mind always just first goes like, well, yeah, they're paying for the race or they're paying for part of the race. Like, makes sense. um But either way. um Yeah. No, I think like it's, I mean, it's pretty hard to get into Western States. So I think, yeah. Yeah. You know, there's people that wait 10 plus years and still don't get in.
01:34:05
Speaker
Yes. But then running isn't their livelihood and job. But there's still, I mean, if you are trying to make it to Western States, you're not jogging once a week. It's still a pretty big part of your life. You obviously would have had do a 100K race in the leader. But, yeah, I think you're probably right, I think, you know.
01:34:22
Speaker
Yeah. Sponsors, you know, are putting a lot of money in and they want to see some kind of a return. And a lot of the times having a sponsored athlete at a sponsored event like Hawker sponsoring, think. Yeah. um I mean, the yeah, the um Western States and some of the golden ticket races as well.
01:34:43
Speaker
Now, to be honest, my my main gripe looking at this list because I'm looking at the men's and women's is there's actually three sponsor spots um for the men, zero for the women. hu So the sponsors have gone with men on all occasions in this one, but either way.
01:34:59
Speaker
um But, yeah, because Jeff Browning and and I don't know who he is, but Jupiter, Carrera, Cassass are also listed on the elites as sponsor ticket sponsor spots. So it's not just Jim.
01:35:11
Speaker
um Yeah, and I think that Jupiter is from Gu. um could Okay. um And then Jeff Browning. Yeah, I mean, like, Gu was trying to send somebody from a less, like, not from the US, a thing I think, or something like that. Yeah, he's from Mexico.
01:35:27
Speaker
He's a really good runner. I think that he finished second in the Yeah.
01:35:32
Speaker
at Black Canyons few weeks ago. So he's ah is a very, very good runner. Like he's definitely probably will make the top 10. He's got a good chance of getting to the top 10. So it's, um yeah yeah, I don't know. How many weeks is it until the Western States? That's ages.
01:35:48
Speaker
Six weeks away. Yeah, well, not ages, but but I think we – because I've got the fields up here, but we might go into them closer once we – I'm assuming people are going to sort of jump in and out as people get injured, et cetera, and all like things happen um before we go through the full thing. But, yeah, Killian versus Jim versus Dan Jones versus – I don't think – I don't think Caleb Olsen's not listed here, so he must have not taken up his spot.
01:36:18
Speaker
Yeah, him and Chris Myers, I think, were focused a bit more on UTMB this year. They were first and second from last year. Yeah, okay. Yeah, nice. Nice, nice. But yes, we can go into that in more detail as
Acquisition of Popular UK Races
01:36:31
Speaker
it gets closer. The other news for the week was that um Dragon's Back and Northern Traverse were bought by Ultra X. So that's two of the events that Uraya Events owned ah before they went under. So dare say there'll be a lot of people very happy that those races are sticking around. They're the brit they're multi-day events um in the UK.
01:36:55
Speaker
um that they look incredible. The Dragon's Back is the main one I know that they definitely look incredible, but there's still apparently Cape Wrath Ultra and Glencoe Skyline that haven't been bought by anyone or picked up. So we'll, yeah, be interested to see if they... And Ultra X, they do like races all around the world, so...
01:37:18
Speaker
um i think they may be uk based but they have like races all over the world um kind of like i guess um like those kind of race like bucket list kind of bucket list kind of races um you know at really cool locations so yeah this is a little bit different for them yeah um but yeah it's good to see that dragon's back um It's still going. And I think the people that did sign up for the race before the company went under, Ultra X said that they will, um you know, give them the credit to use for the races. So that's that's pretty good as well.
01:37:54
Speaker
Good, good, good. And then the other, the last one, which I'm currently trying to look up where it's up to, but it's ah not very good at finding these things out online, but Cocodona 250 is currently going, um which is actually a fun one to track normally, but I don't have the tracking open because it's the website says that it's got too many people requesting it.
01:38:17
Speaker
That's crazy how big those 250 milers are in the US right now. Yeah, there's, it seems like there's like, well, obviously the website on my end at least says it's down because there's too many people trying to get to it and stuff. So it's definitely heavily followed. um And yeah, I'm intrigued. The last I can see, i honestly, I'm just going off Instagram and the person that's easiest to get to is Courtney, but I think she was in second last I saw. um I'm not sure who was in first though. So I'm going to.
01:38:50
Speaker
Yeah, no idea. and But I do love tracking that one. Would you ever do a 250, Vlad? No, I mean, haven't done 100 miles yet because I'm scared of the distance. True. But 250 miles is, yes. That's long way. Yeah, I'm not sure.
01:39:06
Speaker
it is that's a long way oh yeah i'm not sure I like running during the day. I'm not a big like nighttime runner. Oh, it's Rachel Entrican, I think. Yeah, Rachel Entrican is actually leading overall, at least according to the tracker that I've now managed to get to work, which is very cool.
01:39:26
Speaker
Like it's Rachel Entrican, then Killian North, Joe McConaughey, and then Courtney DeWalter just ahead of Heather Jackson. And they're all reasonably – this is actually saying that Rachel's like four miles ahead of everyone.
01:39:39
Speaker
Which, if that's true, that's bloody cool. I'm now going to be tracking this going, come on, um stay up. But, yeah, the tracker has her way ahead. Um, with the other four fairly close together. So Jeff Browning is on coconut 250 too. So that's pretty, uh, if he's backing up for Western States, some of these backups people do, um, either way.
01:40:01
Speaker
Awesome. Um, where are up to results? Uh, I didn't even get the diverge results open and because, uh, in my head diverge chat was done.
01:40:13
Speaker
But there was a lot of races on over the weekend. and I'm going to quickly run through some of them and then we'll end with ah Diverge. We've got the Ikara Ultra in South Australia. It has lots of different different distances. The 100 mile was won by Bryony Wekert on the women's, Scott Martin on the men's. The 100k, Elise Marchianti on the women's, Martin Goody on the men's. 50 Mile, Michael Kite on the men's, Shailen Vogel on the women's, and she was first overall, got the outright win. On the 50K, Matt North on the wind men's and Clara Morph on the women's. North and Morph. um was ah That was a tongue twister, that one.
01:40:57
Speaker
um Also here in Vic, we had Wilson's Prom Running Fest. The 100K was won by Billy Mitchum on the men's, Amy Patton on the women's. ah They had the 50K. That was won by Jaden Halkett on the men's and Eve Brady on the women's. The 27K, Sav Mafra Fetus was at it again with his third win in three weekends, we think.
01:41:18
Speaker
um so And the 27K, Sarah Wiley on the women's. um And then in the 15K, Harrison Flynn on the men's and Matty O'Donnell was out on the women's.
01:41:30
Speaker
um Nail Can Heel Run. Have you ever seen this one, Vlad? I'm assuming it still has its prize money. But it's like 12K race on the border, Aubrey-Wodonga, and usually, and I'm assuming it still has, but every year it's had $1,000 prize money.
01:41:46
Speaker
up for the win, up for the 12K. And it's been won in the past by like Steve Monaghetti and a bunch of very, very fast people. If you look at the sort of finisher list or winner list, it yeah usually attracts ah quite a good lot. And it was won this year by Patrick Stowe on the men's and Belle d'Array on the women's.
01:42:08
Speaker
um It's one I really wanted to go to at one point and had an entry and then got injured a week before. So now I'm just like forever... It's like one of those ones you look at every year and you're like, oh, damn, yes, right, I still need to go back to that. Next year.
01:42:22
Speaker
I have so many races like that. yeah next year, next year Next year, next year, yeah. The number of times that that happens. um Awesome. Now, last but not least for results, we had Diverge. um And so for the full results from the weekend, Angus Tolson got the win in the 50K on the men's by about 20 minutes. um In 6 hours 33, Andrew Gaskell was second in 6 hours 51 and Alex Hunt third in 7.09.
01:42:51
Speaker
On the women's side, Emma had the run of the day baha a lot by a bit in 7 hours 28, although i do I did chat to her afterwards and she did say it was actually not her best day um and had a bit of a rough one mentally more so than physically. But um yeah, still it's still such a long day for the distance. And then in second place for the women was Julia Farquhar in 8 hours 32 and Alice McGushin was third in 8 hours 36. So they were nice and close and they were close. I don't know if they were close, close all day, um but I just know that like from 10 at ten k they would have already been, because but there was a few out and backs and the only out and back I saw Alice on was the very first one. So I know that the gap between them there would have almost been similar at 10K than it was at the finish.
01:43:42
Speaker
um But the other way around with Alice ahead of Julia. So I dare say they were running pretty close together all day. um In the 25K, which is similar course, just sort of skips the second mountain, ah it was won by Toby Sparks and this one was ah was a proper race. Toby Sparks got the win in 37.53 ahead of Babis Oh, 2.37.53 and Piotr was in 2.38.25, so like 30 seconds back. um And I was chatting to Toby. It was really cool because he did say that he feels like he's starting to actually learn how to finish races um because after being sprint finished, sprint beaten in a sprint finish by Nath last year at roller coaster, he never wanted it to happen again. So he's um he's learning how to push right to the line and it seems to have paid off in this one. Third place on the men's was Sam Wolford in 2 hours 45. Then on the women's, we had Trish McKibben get the win in 3 hours 26. Isabella Comfort was then second in 3 hours 47 and Alina Rodriguez in 3 hours 52.
01:44:54
Speaker
who I think that's, I don't, I'm just going to check the, oh, Dave must have only run the 5K. Toby also won the 10K the next day, um which he was moving quick as well. So yeah, 44.22 for the 10K and that's not a flat 10K by any stretch for Toby the next day. So he backed up very well. And and in the five k yeah, Dave Bailey got the win over Piotr, but there was a big gap and Dave was letting rip. So that was good fun to watch. m
01:45:30
Speaker
Awesome. Vlad, do you want to take us through what's coming up? You know more about Transvolcania than I do. Yeah, great to see that Lucy's back in Transylvania. It was me, Lucy, and Blake Hose back there in 2015.
01:45:45
Speaker
um so I think that's the first time Lucy's back to that race, which is pretty cool. um And also Billy is um coming back to race again after 56K race in Madeira. fifty Yeah, 56 where he finished second. Yeah.
01:46:04
Speaker
Um, yeah, I've been, yeah, I've been telling Billy should, cause I don't think it was, it was keen to do the full 73 K two weeks after it. Um, but I've been every WhatsApp message is like, yeah, you should do it. You should do it. Uh, so I guess he is doing it. He had a few days off and, um, I'm not sure if he's going to go all in. i don't know if you have, did you see the start list for that race?
01:46:30
Speaker
ah For Transvolcania? Yeah. I'm looking at it right now. um It's pretty insane. I mean, this is a UTMB race. This is just like a standalone race. I think we spoke about it probably a year ago, probably this week, a year ago, um that Transvolcania used to be a UTMB race, used to be a Skyrunner race as well, used to be like the season opener for many, many years. like Yeah.
01:46:56
Speaker
back in 2012, this was the proper season opener with Killian coming back, coming, coming like to race this race almost every year. Um, but yeah, it was bought by UTMB only for about a year. it was part of sky runner for a bit,
01:47:14
Speaker
But yeah, now I think like the government like puts a lot of money behind it and they have a really good live stream um and just an incredible race. Like this is this is my UTMB, kind of like the race that, you know, yeah yeah like I always want to do.
01:47:30
Speaker
The problem is that there's no flights because technically um the Canary Islands are off the coast of Africa, like northern Africa. um From Perth is not that far. So if there was a direct flight from South Africa there, which wouldn't be that far, would actually be maybe a 15-hour journey technically around there, 15, 16 hours. Instead, it's like 40. Yeah.
01:47:55
Speaker
Yeah, instead of like flying all the way to Europe and then you got to kind of come down. That's the only way to get to the Canary Islands. um yeah But yeah, that's an incredible race. 73K. You climb pretty much for a 20K uphill, run on top of a volcano for a couple more Ks and then run downhill for 20K. And you can see the finish line the whole time as you're running down. It's yeah absolutely incredible. The whole town like this is massive there. um And, yeah, we're not going to go through elite list, but it's big. The elite list is, yeah, it's huge now that I am looking through it. I do love that Billy's got a mention in the I Run Fire article. Well, Billy is like one of the last elite men and Billy is on like 850. Yeah, yeah.
01:48:41
Speaker
fifty mytra points hundred and eight sixty so um Yeah, there's that both men and women fields are...
01:48:52
Speaker
yeah probably as stacked as i've ever seen it um which is really cool um but also this year it's part of the world cup for the short course so um the uphill so they have the uphill and like a vk which goes on the back half of the marathon the 73k distance or the bottom of the marathon distance yeah um and then they also have the uphill which is the first 20k of the ultra marathon the 73k and ian best is out there i think he's going to do both the the vertical the vk
01:49:30
Speaker
And maybe the uphill as well. um I know a lot of people are doing the vertical, which is 7.5K for 1,000 meters. And then the next day, i think that's the 25K or around 20K. Is it 25? It used to be like around 20K, but maybe it's 25K. But that's got a lot of elites as well now that it's part of the World Cup.
01:49:54
Speaker
Lara Hamilton is there as well. um I guess she's maybe only doing the vertical. Yeah, we're not sure. I need message her actually. um But she's at least doing the vertical.
01:50:06
Speaker
Not sure about the um half marathon or the 25K. But they'll be able to watch them. Or actually, it starts at 2 a.m., m So maybe we're not going to be able to watch them.
01:50:19
Speaker
um But the other ones start at really good times, like 3 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. um So the live streams will be a because it's got the there's ah going to be an English live stream on the Transvolcania YouTube. So, yeah, that's usually a very good live stream as well. So if you do have a chance to check it out and put this race on your bucket list because, yeah, it's pretty special.
01:50:42
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. We um also have the Youth Sky Running World Champs in Croatia where Toby Lang and Xavier Wek are racing on the Oz team. I um think that's all we could find, but once once we see results, maybe we'll be able to um check if there was anyone else going to be there. And then Margaret River Ultra, that's a big one over in Perth. ah Vlad, is there much chat going on in your nick of the woods?
01:51:10
Speaker
yeah a little bit um so yeah i mean it is i think like slowly becoming like a competitive race i think it's been like selling out within like very quick i don't know how long it takes to sell out but for the last like five or six years um it's always been sold out they've added the 42k distance as well which is pretty cool um But yeah, it looks like it's starting to get some more elite runners coming in. um So Ben Lisson, who is actually did a long run with him few days ago.
01:51:44
Speaker
um 35 year old trail runner, just started running not too long ago. Very, very talented. He's doing the 80K and he's going to be facing you against um Josh Chug, who won the race before and also was part of the long trail team um for us in Thailand a few years ago. So yeah he used to be based in Perth, but is is out living in Queensland now, but he's back for that race. So yeah, that race is starting to get some more elites, which is cool to see. But yeah, apparently a pretty nice race. I haven't done it myself yet, but um yeah, maybe soon.
01:52:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think we had, um yeah, there was Nicole Patton on the women too, but will we yeah we be can recap that one next week ah for the full results. And then, yeah, 1D Cross back home, um which does look like but there's some, Benjamin Butler's doing 1D Cross or he's doing, um he's listed on the start list for 1D Cross and he's also doing UTA 100. So there's ah there's a backup and a half considering UTA 100's a week later. But then, yeah, Chad f Freak, James Barnett, Jeremy May, Joe Dorff and Josh Tai. That's a solid men's field for the 27K at Wandi Cross. And then Hannah McRae is going to be there on the women's and it does have me listed but I'm not. not going to be there and to be fair wouldn't have been doing any much more than a hike anyway at this point so um yeah that one's going to be the one in vic to pay attention to then off the beaten track trail series in queensland as well as springshore mountain challenge in queensland and there's the next one on the sree chinmoy canberra trail series in canberra called tid binbilla thriller which yeah what a name What a name as usual.
01:53:42
Speaker
Awesome. Well, I think that might be us for the main show. So stick around Patreons because we'll ah answer a few of your questions coming up. But for everyone else, thank you for listening. If you would like to join our Patreon and get more access to asking us questions, have your questions included in the episodes and have all of the bonus content, ah then the link is in the show notes. And you can click through there. I will suggest don't sign up on iOS.
01:54:11
Speaker
iOS charges you extra. So if you sign up on your computer, um you won't pay and the extra fees ah that are associated with iOS apps, just as a quick one. That goes for all Patreon. Fun fact, guys.
01:54:24
Speaker
Sign up on your internet and then log in on your iOS later. But either way, thank you very much for listening. Thanks for joining me, Vlad. It's good to catch up. Yeah, was good. We'll speak to you next week.
01:54:35
Speaker
See you guys.