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Episode 72: AUSSIE UTMB PREVIEW!
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Welcome to Episode 72 of Peak Pursuits, your ultimate podcast for everything trail running in Australia. This episode is hosted by Sim Brick, Brodie Nankervis and guest host Nathan Pearce as Nathan prepares to race at ETC this week. Start off by hearing an unfortunate update from Brodie that sparks a discussion on guilt, dealing with injuries, and decision making as an athlete, before Sim thankfully brings much better news and stories than last week as she gets back into training well again in Chamonix.
Then it is all things UTMB as Nath lets us know how he is feeling going into ETC, the 15km race of UTMB week, and the team then talk through some of the top contending Aussies across all distances!
Make sure you follow along and cheer hard for our fellow Aussies that are tackling any of the races! For the full list and more interviews put together by RunDais see here: https://rundais.org/blog/utmb-2025-australian-entrants/
And for a schedule including Aussie time zones see their guide here: https://rundais.org/blog/utmb-2025-the-ultimate-guide-and-schedule/
***Don’t forget, use code PPP at https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/en-au for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners!***
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
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Transcript
Introduction from Chamonix
00:00:00
Speaker
Music Music Music
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 72 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Simone Brick coming to you from Argentier in Chamonix and i am joined by someone else in the other end of the valley. I love how we're both in Chamonix but didn't quite make it to be in person and that is someone well known to the podcast, Nathan Pearce. How are we doing, Nathan?
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, pretty good. I'm sitting here with my beautiful backdrop um of Mont Blanc and Middy. So yeah, no, I've been here for two days now and yeah, loving it. I've already fallen in love with this place um as I thought I would. So it's going to be a good week ahead.
00:00:51
Speaker
Nice. Is it this your first time? Yeah, yeah. like Everyone forgets that I've only been trail running for not even three years. So, yeah, this is my first time at UTMB, first time Chamonix. So, no, it's pretty exciting.
00:01:06
Speaker
Very nice, very nice. And also on the line with us, not from France, but from Ireland. Who's end is that on? That's me, sorry.
00:01:18
Speaker
He's driving a Ferrari. Yeah. Yeah, we're next to a road here, so it's not great. I did have myself on mute, but then I was like, oh, well, I'm going have to unmute to talk. um It's only infrequently the cars come past,
Nathan's First Impressions of Chamonix
00:01:30
Speaker
so we'll see. Hopefully we can get through that. yeah sorry yeah um Yeah, I'm in Ireland, so um yeah, pretty cool. I'm sitting at the foot of a mountain, maybe not quite the same as Chamonix. But yeah, I was thinking when Nath was saying that, like, yeah, it's pretty crazy place. And like when you've never...
00:01:47
Speaker
when you've never been to Chamonix before, like even if you've watched lots of videos and whatnot, like it's just not the same as like being there in the valley and like looking up, like you need that 3D perspective, I think. And it's just, yeah, it's such a crazy place. Very cool. Yeah, definitely. I feel like I've been spoiled with how much time I've spent here because ah come back and I'm like, yeah, we're we're back. Like I know all the trails. i've I've seen most of the summits and it's just, it's still special.
00:02:14
Speaker
It never gets old. um That's for sure. But there's, yeah There's so many places like this where it just blows your absolute mind when you're in the mountains. ah and That is going to be the theme of this week's podcast. We are going to get an update from Brodie um and then myself. which We're in for a bit of a roller coaster with the two of us before Nathan then levels us out with his ah pre-race thoughts as he is about to tackle ETC as part of UTMB week.
00:02:47
Speaker
But this episode is mostly going to be a big preview of all of the Aussies that are going to be in action this week at UTMB. It all starts tomorrow, which has like... caught up real quick to me.
00:02:59
Speaker
um And yeah, I will be happy, sad going through this entire episode that I'm not on that list anymore. But we will we will be cheering for every single other Aussie and every friend out there um that's going to be tackling
Brodie's Injury Dilemma
00:03:16
Speaker
it.
00:03:16
Speaker
So that's what's in store for this ep. We'll keep it pretty simple because we've got a lot of names to go through already. But, Brodie, give us the update that is less than fortunate. Yeah. No idea. Yeah.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, so it's been a lot's happened since I was last on the podcast, actually. So that actually the day that I was on the podcast with Jess last, I did a little test run. I thought I had something brewing um and that test run didn't go so good. So then I stopped running. So yeah, I started of getting some pain in my left foot out on the outside side. Sorry, they're like the lateral side, so that where the fourth and fifth toes are.
00:03:58
Speaker
And... and Yeah, I've had pain there before. I've had a stress fracture in fourth metatarsal on my right side. So i was like, well, this feels like something. Or the first couple of days I was like, oh, it's just maybe some weird soreness there. But given that I had an injury in the area before, I knew that, like I sort of knew, you sort of know what it feels like or similar to what it feels like.
00:04:19
Speaker
don't want to like freak yourself out too much. So I let myself run on it for a couple of days. um then had a complete day off and then did a test run after a complete day off and it was like worse in that run so um i was pretty sure that was something and it felt bone related so i stopped running um and then did the mad scramble to try and figure out what to do uh because it's always a bit tricky when stuff like this hits you when you're overseas or it's tricky at any time but particularly when you're overseas um and I also obviously had world champs at that point it's probably like I think seven weeks till race day or something like that like six and a half maybe weeks till race day when I when I found out and I am doing the calculations in my head of bone how long that takes to recover from
00:05:12
Speaker
ah and add that to the Achilles lots of thoughts going through the head and so yeah I started started scrambling a little bit at the same time feeling a little bit sad yeah feeling a bit guilty It's an interesting one. I think I'll come back to that because like the guilt for me is has been quite strong in the past 12 months of like every time I'm not progressing like I want or something like that. I feel like I've ive sort of let myself be guilty.
00:05:40
Speaker
and And I think maybe this this one I'm feeling like maybe I need to step away from that. um But anyway, yeah, I started... Started a bit of a scramble. I had a bit of a clock on me to pull out of World Champs if I wanted to ah sort of get my, what I'd sort of, the outlay I'd made to go to World Champs back um because I had to submit the entries.
00:06:01
Speaker
um So yeah, I did some some phone calls, spoke to Lockie, which was great. um He was on his way to the UK, which is strange because I was in the yeah UK. He wasn't coming to visit me, but He was he was on his way.
00:06:16
Speaker
Timing. Yeah. He has a few friends ah in the UK still, so he um got he sort of got in contact with them and I needed a referral to get an MRI in Ireland and I couldn't get one in Scotland because the private ones were all booked out.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah. So that was my option was to, I was in Ireland the following week and my option was to get one there, but I needed a referral. um So he called up he's one of his physio friends, who now happens to be the physio for Manchester City.
00:06:46
Speaker
football club so I never spoke to this guy or met him uh but he he was my referrer which was great so thank you Michael uh for that um but yeah got the referral letter and got the MRI booked in for the following week um but before I got the MRI I had to make the call because the deadline was was there um so yeah i decided that All in all, I was going to have at least a week off running. My Achilles had been probably the edge of what I was – like I was already towing the line and of risk in terms of turning up to that start line and being able to finish as I would like to.
00:07:28
Speaker
um So adding in a week off and a foot injury that I didn't know what it was, even if it wasn't bone, it was possibly something, I decided that it was – yeah, it was sort of just – it was the right decision to make. It was a very hard decision to make. Like I actually missed out on 2022 because I had a stress fracture in my foot.
00:07:51
Speaker
So it was sort of felt like it was coming around again. Cause I was in that, I got selected for that team, but didn't go because of the stress fracture um missed out in 2023. So I, this was sort of like one that I'd,
00:08:04
Speaker
wanted to tick off but then I was laying that up and thinking like is it is it that I just want to tick take a box like is this the right time for me to go and I think all in all it wasn't um Obviously, I've booked a trip around it and a holiday around it, so it's a bit frustrating, but I'm also here on holiday, so um there's worse things to happen.
00:08:28
Speaker
um And actually, like I didn't post this on my Instagram, but like at the same time that I was sort of struggling with this, um there was a big international competition for orienteering in China. And very sadly, one of the Italian athletes actually passed away during – he had to go hospital after and after one of the competitions and and and he passed away. And it was extremely sad. like it and that That hit me really hard as well. Like I've never had someone – he wasn't super close. Like I've spoken to him before, but like we weren't, I wouldn't say we were close friends.
00:09:03
Speaker
But I think just being someone who I knew and competed with and I hadn't seen that happen in the orienteering world in the 15 years I've been running, someone sort of ah died during competition. I think like for me that just like struck home pretty strong and and and I went, okay, well, there's bigger things going on in the world that this is not not the end of the world. So,
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, it was a long, long week. ah I think it was the right decision
Coping with Injury Guilt
00:09:33
Speaker
to make. And then i got the and MRI on the Monday and it turned out that it was probably the right decision to make.
00:09:40
Speaker
um I have some very, well, it's mild at the time of the um MRI, ah bone stress in my fourth metatarsal and maybe a little bit in the fifth as well.
00:09:52
Speaker
um It's pretty good as bone stress goes. ah But again, it's only... one image in time so we don't know if it's still evolving or not ah but given that we sort of got onto it really quick and and managing it it's it's it's a positive so um yeah it was turns out it probably was the right call to make and and then obviously it's not great having bone stress but it's not it's not really really severe so um the time off will be less and
00:10:25
Speaker
I'm sort of hoping that I can throw the Achilles off my back with this return. If that's what I'm really hoping I can do. So, yeah, it's been a two weeks, I'll tell you that.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, damn, that is and he's not the two weeks anyone wants. Even as you're going through that story, i was like, oh, like we've all been there before of that like unknown of what is this injury and then having the deadline over your head of of making making things, making you have to make the decisions a lot faster, um which sometimes can be a blessing in disguise in a way um because, I don't know, there's something about having made the decision, making the next steps a little bit easier.
00:11:11
Speaker
But at the same time, man, I was really, really rooting for you for this world champs, knowing what's happened in the previous two and like, It's just life doesn't seem fair sometimes. Like I can't offer any advice other than you because it feels like you've you have, at least from the observation side of things, like you've you've been so patient this year and so calculated with everything you've done and then it's just that your body hasn't fully come along for the ride, it sounds like. But, um yeah, I don't know. Like is there any, like because there's there's nothing i can pinpoint where I go, yeah, that was that was not a smart move this year. Last year?
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a really good point. Last year there was last year there's plenty of stupid stuff I did. And even the year before that, when when I started off this sort of last episode of Achilles, I've had Achilles in in the past, but the the most significant has been since, what, end of 2023. There was errors there and there was things I did last year that weren't that.
00:12:13
Speaker
weren't that good. So I think that's where like the guilt comes from in terms of like, I get this and I've gone, God damn, like i've done this to myself again. um Yeah. There's probably some small things and I've spoken to Lockie about this and like,
00:12:24
Speaker
maybe lower profile shoes in orienteering, more uneven surface, bit of extra loading on the Achilles, like the Achilles, offloading the Achilles, more load goes through the forefoot, maybe, but nothing massive, which is they're reassuring, but i'm obviously frustrating for it still to happen. But yeah, that's sort of what I was referencing before with that sort of guilt part, like,
00:12:49
Speaker
i yeah, I'm still sort of coming to terms it a little bit, but I think I've sort of blamed myself for all the injuries I've had over the last few years and being like every time something happens or I'm not progressing like I want, I get sort of angry at myself and go, well, like, why do I keep doing this to myself and why why is this happening?
00:13:07
Speaker
Yeah. But I think, I don't know, this time i've i'm I'm starting to come to the realisation that, yes, these are the cards I've been dealt and, yes, maybe I've made some small errors here and there over the past six months. But you can't – it comes from trying to be a perfectionist, I think. Like I can't get everything perfect.
00:13:25
Speaker
um So, like, I have to give myself some slack when these things happen. and my body is maybe not as designed as I would like it to be to do the things I would like it to do And I need to be patient with it to come back and, and yeah, maybe, yeah, I'm not going to get it right all the time.
00:13:45
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I, I'm feeling a lot more content from that perspective, I guess. Um, I still want to have a career in running and orienteering in the coming years, but, um,
00:13:57
Speaker
yeah I guess I'm just gonna have to see how it goes but I'm not gonna I'm gonna try not to like blame myself if I if it doesn't work out like if I go oh it's not happening this sort of thing's not happening not being like okay well you did that and that's why that's happening it's more just like it's just it's just what happened um so yeah that's very nice coming to that?
Learning from Past Injuries
00:14:20
Speaker
no one like No one purposely does an injury to themselves or like does things to themselves that causes injuries.
00:14:27
Speaker
ah We sometimes are ignorant enough to push through when we know we shouldn't, which maybe you were doing last year. But a shift in perspective um that helped me it Like my first, my very first stress, like I've only had two stresses. They were four years apart.
00:14:43
Speaker
My first one, it was like so obvious everything I was doing wrong. I'd pushed through pain, wasn't feeling correctly. Like I was just pushing my body to its absolute limit.
00:14:54
Speaker
And that almost made it easy to go, okay, could have seen this one coming. I'll cop the consequences. Yeah. Then four years later, when the next one happened, the shift in perspective I had to make that did really help was actually going back through with every single one of my medical team, sort of the physios, the dietician, the doctors, even coach and just going, okay, like, what did I actually do wrong this time?
00:15:19
Speaker
And the small things that they could pinpoint, which were like, there was only one thing they could pinpoint, which was a random adventure I went on that wasn't necessarily good training, but was an adventure of a lifetime sort of thing.
00:15:34
Speaker
um That they went, there was not much you would change. Like there's there's not much you could have done differently. And that sort of then I went, okay, this is just one of those things that by being an athlete, we're walking a certain line.
00:15:49
Speaker
And I wasn't doing it in a dumb way. And that like having other people to give you that perspective of going, well, no, you were being smart here. It's just sometimes it's not fair.
00:16:01
Speaker
And sometimes we don't actually understand the human body. Or as you when you were saying, ah don't have a body that's the most designed for what I want to do. I'm like, I hear you. i hear you to like the kingdom come at this point.
00:16:14
Speaker
But at the same time, I've just always believed that there's a way to sort of make something happen. It's not everything you're going to want, but make something happen. But yeah, I think if you can have that sort of perspective of going, well, if it's such, if it's little things, everyone's making little mistakes all the time without knowing because it's impossible not to, I think.
00:16:35
Speaker
And then that sort of can hopefully take away some of that guilt because I don't think you should feel guilt for this one. um at all. like Yeah. Yeah. i think I think it's just like hard. was like, especially this year, I felt it quite a bit in terms of like I've done 18 and it was sort of unfounded because I've done like 18 months of rehab um and mostly smart training between and and especially in the last six to eight months or nine months has been very well thought out and and you would say smart, but the Achilles has been so good.
00:17:07
Speaker
slow that like I still blame myself which is just like it's not really fair because like I can't blame myself for my Achilles being slow um but it feels like I must have done something wrong because it's taking so long if that makes sense like it makes sense but I'm also going to tell you that yeah yeah no I come to that realization now but that was like why I was thinking it because you're like well I've done everything I must have done something wrong because it's taking so long like There's no other reason why it should take so long unless I've done something wrong. So you're always searching for what you've done wrong.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But sometimes the human body is the human body and it's going to do what it's sort of... like And that's the hard thing with all these sorts of things. what The way one Achilles recovers is completely opposite to the way another Achilles recovers in timeline and all sorts of things. So even...
00:17:55
Speaker
Like even the experts are going to tell you that there's no perfect recovery and there's no perfect like way to go about things. All you can do is the best you've got with the information you have about your body.
00:18:07
Speaker
um So, Nath, have you ever dealt with Achilles stuff? No, not Achilles, fortunately. I had a bit of a calf issue at the start of the year. that was um That set me back a little bit. But I think back to sort of, yeah, that that guilt thing, it's like i've I've had plenty of injuries my my time. So i've had through junior where i obviously over-trained and, yeah, got stress fractures and then when I've had had time off from running and then got back in and,
00:18:40
Speaker
You just, you have these injuries and I think the way that you want to look at it is, yeah, you want to reflect, you want to sort of look back and go, okay, where where were those steps that went wrong?
00:18:51
Speaker
But I don't think you should look at it and going and blaming yourself for making those errors. Because in that time, they were correct in your mind. Like if that be, as you said, Sim, like you went on an adventure, but it was an adventure of a lifetime. So at that current time,
00:19:09
Speaker
Mentally and like for your well-being, that was an awesome experience. So I think there's these little things that you can kind of get tied up and go, ah probably shouldn't have done this, I shouldn't have done that.
00:19:21
Speaker
But in the time when you were doing it, it wasn't wrong. So I think that the guilt thing... It's probably it's it's less guilt.
Balancing Enjoyment and Competition
00:19:31
Speaker
It's like just learn from that to move forward. But I think you're pretty optimistic, Brodie, in the way that you just spoke. is you're very You're still positive. like i'm ah The way that I sort of, as Sim said, she's got sort of nothing for you, I sort of just said, sorry to hear, because I was like, it sucks.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. And you I'm not going to say you'll but you'll be better for it because we just know that these things sometimes just are unfortunate such circumstances and they happen at random times when you don't want it or they happen at times that at the end of the day, you look at it and you go,
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, could have happened at a worse time. But I think you're overseas, you're traveling, you're training. These things can like even if you're doing everything right, like the nutrition, the sleep, there's things that are out of your ballgame that can go wrong.
00:20:27
Speaker
um So I think, yeah. The guilt thing, yeah, I've i've definitely felt that before. but um Oh, yeah. You've just got to, I think, reflect and think that you're doing things for the right reason and you've got that mindset of wanting to get better and, yeah,
00:20:48
Speaker
and be competitive but sometimes you've got to reflect and go no what what's more enjoyable um and that's yeah i think that's i'm seeing that now it's like when traveling around because i can't i'm not running at the moment um and i'm like oh i just want to go for a run there like even it's just like 6K, easy run, like just want to go and explore that little thing or whatnot. So, yeah, it it does sort of bring all that back into perspective. But, yeah, I really like ah lock what you said.
00:21:16
Speaker
and that No one said we were getting therapist Nath today. Sim, what's going on here? I love therapy. I feel like I've got to pay him now.
00:21:26
Speaker
No, see, Nath has really, really smart things to say. You've just got to spend long enough in conversation with him to come out. Or I've got to stay quiet for long enough that I just keep going.
00:21:38
Speaker
This is true. I think like it's true. I need to think of it more that way. And like I think it's like very personality-driven how you approach these things, but I think I've got to do more of what you're saying. is like it's ah it's It's a healthier approach to these sorts of Yeah.
00:21:53
Speaker
Like, as I said, like when I was a junior, those injuries were caused from probably not the enjoyment side of running. It was the addiction of needing to be the best. That's where these injuries came from. I was doing 150 kilometers when I was 16, 17. Like, why was I doing that? Of course, I'm going to get injured.
00:22:14
Speaker
But then... Some of the injuries that I've had in, a well, like last year, I dislocated my hip from a fall. Like that that's out of, no one can predict predict that from happening. nice I think i' I've sort of had longer strings of training because when I had that two years off running,
00:22:34
Speaker
i I didn't even think about going for a run. Whereas now, obviously, I'm the same as you, Brodie. I sometimes see a ridge line or I see ah a paddock or a trail and I go, I need to run that.
00:22:45
Speaker
Like, the I need to at some point come back to that. But I think when I had that two years off, I didn't even think about running. And I just sort of, when I got back into running, ah just, there's this philosophy in me that will always stay there is running's just not that deep.
00:23:01
Speaker
Like, it's It's just a passion. It's an enjoyment. And we're all three of us are overseas because of it. So we've got to be fortunate in some way.
Accepting Setbacks in Running
00:23:13
Speaker
But um yeah, I think just being that sort of more nothing that you do is wrong, but learn from those errors, if that makes sense kind of thing.
00:23:25
Speaker
um or learn from those sort of things that did cause the issue, but don't think that that that sort of... is the main reason of why um that sort of, don't know, I'm going around in circles here. but and That's usual. i Yeah, just don't, I don't think that that, as I said, the guilt thing, I don't think that needs to be around because everything happens for a reason, right? Like, um yeah, as I said, travel.
00:23:57
Speaker
One thing I always come back to and, like, I've actually thought that in my current circumstance of, staring down a race that I really wanted to start and aren't and I'm not for different reasons um but there's one thing I come back to it all the times I have to pull out of a race or something like this happens and I go well even if I knew exactly how things were going to play out and I couldn't stop it from happening like I just it was always going to play out exactly how it played out would I go back and not try or would I go back and decide not to even come on this trip or decide not to have a crack at training for CCC or like just trying to go back and go, well, is this going to stop me trying in future?
00:24:39
Speaker
Is this going to stop me having another go at something else? Like would I actually change my life to completely and i like to completely get rid of the possibility of this disappointment? No, like I'm not going to.
00:24:50
Speaker
um And that can that can sort of help. I'm like, well, it sometimes sometimes. part and parcel of the brutality of using your body to do so much so many things being an athlete of any kind um but that being said there's not nothing that's going to take away the fact that it sucks so i'm sorry yeah yeah so yeah i won't be uh world champs in spain in can franc unfortunately um Which I'm very scared about.
00:25:21
Speaker
ah I sent to Matt when you said that you weren't going to, I was like, I was looking forward to having Brodie on the team because, yeah, we we were unfortunate to not have you ah in Thailand. And then um i was like, just another familiar face that we can sort of enjoy the experience with as well.
00:25:40
Speaker
So, yeah, ah it sucked for me as well. i was like, oh, I had a lot of nice messages from a bunch of people in the team sort of saying that sort of thing. So that sort of made me more sad to start with, but also happy that that I was.
00:25:57
Speaker
that's what i That's one of the things I'm most sad about is we had such a cool team that I was going to be a part of. And that's, I don't know, that's why I go for these teams sometimes over like specifically targeting a race is because,
00:26:12
Speaker
I guess I did team sport as a kid, but I've done a lot of individual sports since then. And I still, you still crave that sort of team atmosphere and the camaraderie that comes with it.
00:26:23
Speaker
um So I think, yeah, it's it's disappointing to, to not be there, but um I'll be cheering from, well, not not I'll be in Spain, but i'm not I'm not going to put myself through going to Canfrank, unfortunately, good for the team. But um I just, yeah, and I'm not going to put Laura through going to Canfrank. She was already not that interested in going, I think.
00:26:45
Speaker
Oh, no. Yeah, that is ah that is a smart move, I'm going to say. I'll be at the beach and I'll be watching the races and and i'll be yeah it'll be exciting to watch.
Race Preparations in Chamonix
00:26:55
Speaker
What's a typical like Spanish alcoholic beverage? That's what Brodie will be sipping on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think i think the Spanish wouldn't say it's sangria, but everyone from outside of Spain would say sangria when they think of Spain.
00:27:07
Speaker
Probably. Something along those lines. Awesome. Spanish wine, no doubt. um But, yeah, so actually I will be probably just starting to do some running around the time World Champs comes. I'm having six, four weeks of no running and no sort of avoiding too much sort of bone loading. And then I'm doing, I'll do sort of two weeks of,
00:27:31
Speaker
some more like jumping plyometric-y, I don't exactly what that'll look like from four to six weeks and and see how it responds. And that'll be a bit of tester to be like, okay, well, was it just mild and we can start the running or is there a bit of pain and therefore we need to maybe take a few more weeks off. But or if that goes well, then I'll i'll run from six weeks.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah. Nice. I'm going to hope for you that this break also sets the Achilles a bit more right again for the next rebuild. and Yeah. And I have to come back a little bit slow with the bone as well. Like it won't be a full, it won't be quite as slow as last time that I did this. Like the last time I did a really slow return to run because I was coming back from a full stress fracture.
00:28:12
Speaker
um We can be a little bit more aggressive, but it will still be conservative. Like it will still be, building up slowly and I think that'll be a bit of the foot and a bit of the Achilles and I'm i'm a bit sick of just living with a sore Achilles so I'm going to be and I have no like this year again I was like oh well the goal is to get the Achilles right but then I tried to go to world chance for both orienteering and trail running so I still set myself pretty high goals regardless whereas like now I have pretty much nothing on the horizon and
00:28:45
Speaker
I will race again when I feel like I can. I think I'll try and do a few things at the end of the year, more for fun than, than sort of going after a goal. I've already entered for triple top. So hopefully I can do that, but we'll just see.
00:28:57
Speaker
um And then sort of like big goals. I've just like, I'm just, I actually have nothing now, which is, which is sort of good. um And I can just sort of focus on the running and enjoy it, get back to the enjoyment and be able to run up that ridgeline and,
00:29:12
Speaker
and run on that coastline or like whatever it is when I'm out and about. Perfect. Perfect. Well, I think we'll all be cheering the day that that does happen um for you and that, yeah, we can forget about the Achilles for you because, um yeah, I can only imagine having something lingering that long.
00:29:29
Speaker
is That word is so cursed now as well. Yeah. I would not wish an Achilles injury on my worst enemy, like the worst criminal. I wouldn't even wish it on them. It's too hard even them.
00:29:42
Speaker
but Fair, fair, fair. Oh, awesome. Well, not awesome, but there's our update from Brodie and we'll all be along for the ride as you – travel first, enjoy the travel and then recover. Um, but to, it's already been half an hour.
00:29:59
Speaker
Love that. That was a good chat though, I reckon. Um, but so to move on I'm going to, I'm going to give my update next, um, cause Nath is going to lead us into the awesome week that is UTMB when we get to you, Nath.
00:30:12
Speaker
Um, But mine is thankfully this week. I don't, I'm not the sad, I'm not the one that's in the sort of sad spot um at this point because I'm on the way back.
00:30:23
Speaker
um I'm alive again. it was like whatever the food poisoning et cetera, was it was more like a parasite of some description because it stuck around.
00:30:35
Speaker
um I think thankfully I had some antibiotics that I'd bought over from Oz that did help knock mine on the head and because poor Matt, I reckon he's only been good for the last sort of 24, 48 hours. So for him it was two weeks pretty much of almost not being able to eat a meal. um He's been really bad. i was really bad for maybe – four or five days um and then I've slowly been coming good, which thankfully has actually allowed me to train again.
00:31:08
Speaker
um So I still actually managed to, I think, run over 100Ks this week. think I think got like 105-ish, 10 hours of running um and two and a half grand of vert or something like that. Most of my running was actually quite flat, which was needed um because it was around Prague.
00:31:26
Speaker
So um i took myself off to Prague. was meant to be the start of my taper. Like the day that I was meant to do my last big long run, um i managed to run like 80 minutes of flat feeling shocking on that Sunday.
00:31:42
Speaker
um And then the next day I rested on the Monday I for flew to Prague and I was just there like, well, I feel as destroyed. as I would expect to be if I'd just finished this entire block.
00:31:54
Speaker
Just the sad thing is, I think at that point, my Strava had reminded me that I had run a grand total of maybe 50 Ks in the whole month of August. um And this was on the 20 something, um like the 20th so. we were doing great, um but we revamped. So yeah, lots of flat running in Prague. I did get straight back into sort of 20 runs because there's nothing wrong with my body per se like nothing hurts um I still feel can feel somewhat of the fitness um there I just needed to wait until I had enough fuel in me to actually expend running but yeah I did do i did my first session back on Thursday in Prague and it was an interesting experience because
00:32:43
Speaker
First session in what, three weeks, three and a half weeks, like since I was in Australia. Although you could probably count the first 7Ks of the race that I managed to do as like a hard effort.
00:32:56
Speaker
um But I went out and I did the typical like, I was like threshold, short reps threshold. um And the first rep, like 3.45s for one point, it was like a 1.8K loop. And I just used the loops and i was like, that'll do.
00:33:12
Speaker
um ran like, think it was like 347s or something. And it was like so fine. I'm like, oh, sweet. We're good here. Like body is actually okay. That felt as I would expect. Then, then tried to do some one minute reps.
00:33:26
Speaker
Like I was just trying to do one minute on one minute off. And I don't know what returns are like for you guys. Cause I feel like there's like two different types of runners where there's those that are like speed comes easy, endurance comes later.
00:33:38
Speaker
or endurance comes easy, speed comes later. I am definitely a speed comes later person because I went to do, like I did one one-minute rep and I'd been doing, so I did like pretty much close to 2K at 347s, did one one-minute rep and managed 330 pace and was gassed to the hilt.
00:33:56
Speaker
The next one-minute rep was like 343. Wow.
00:34:01
Speaker
And then I did manage to pick it up a little bit again, but I had to change my one minute reps down to 30 second reps just so I could maintain like some form of pace that wasn't my threshold.
00:34:13
Speaker
um And so that was mildly demoralizing because I think I did manage one 30 second rep at like 320 going, how did I ever used to like think that this pace was sort of okay-ish for longer than this?
00:34:28
Speaker
um And then I went to do the second threshold after I'd done, so I did four by one minute, six by 30 seconds. I went to do the second threshold and I got all in my head about the whole, like when you're doing threshold, faster reps threshold, I want the second threshold to be the same pace as the first one.
00:34:46
Speaker
Like you just want the pace to be the same. You don't want to die off in the session. So I managed to make the pace the same, but my average heart rate for this was a so it was six minutes and 37 seconds of this rep.
00:35:00
Speaker
think my average heart rate was 183 and my heart rate for the whole last two minutes of the rep was 193. So was like in the well, very much so.
00:35:12
Speaker
And it was like the pace came out at like 346s. So I kind of got to the end of the session and messaged coach and went, well, I did the thing, but I feel like I've just gone back.
00:35:25
Speaker
years in fitness um where that pace should not have been that hard at any point. But it was, so it was fine. um Yeah, I don't know. I just find speed on that on those first sessions hurts and it hurts differently than at any other point that you do it. Like one session later it's fine-ish.
00:35:46
Speaker
I don't know. ah don't I don't know. It's funny because it's like coming from track and road, Like I think fitness was always because I would always, if I was coming back from something, I would always be like, yeah, either cross training or whatever.
00:36:01
Speaker
So the endurance would always sort of sit there. It's just, yeah, it's that high anaerobic or high aerobic and like anaerobic that takes, yeah, it takes a little bit of a while because it's like, as you said, your heart rate just spikes. And once it spikes, it's like good night.
00:36:18
Speaker
yeah Like it's not coming back down. Yeah, like even the one minute jogs, I was like, my heart rate is still so high. Like, I don't actually know if I can go again. um Yeah, it was certainly, it's always that reminder of like, hey, like you were fit, by the way.
00:36:36
Speaker
um You're not now, but you were. um So, yeah, anyways, we got through that and then the rest of the week I did um on Saturday I went and did the last, and I don't know if this was like beating my head against a wall or not, but it was the last session I was meant to do before CCC.
00:36:56
Speaker
um I didn't necessarily do it as a session, but I did the last sort of 16-ish K of the race, which is up to Fliger and then down into Chamonix. um And yeah, I do have some races coming up, so I did still push the descent just to get some downhill conditioning.
00:37:13
Speaker
And that was the first day of this entire trip where the whole run felt great. I was like, I am back. Like I was sent the descent and sort of just flowed down the descent. And I was like, I know I'm moving quick.
00:37:24
Speaker
I know I'm moving strong. This feels fine. um So that was super happy days. And then it felt fine in the end, but um I then got a message from Meowth Yao, who's doing OCC, and she ah she invited me to her session this morning.
00:37:40
Speaker
um that was a two-hour run yesterday. And then this morning, Yao was doing six-by-five-minute uphill reps up the bottom of the Chamonix VK.
00:37:51
Speaker
um Which I jumped in on and actually quite surprised myself. Like I was only getting dropped by sort of 10, 20 meters over five minutes minutes. And I was like, sweet, I will take this at this point.
00:38:04
Speaker
um But yeah, it was like five minute uphills at 25% gradient. And those hurt. And six of them, by the time we'd done six of them, because every single rep were running right back down to the bottom.
00:38:17
Speaker
So it was like four minutes downhill running in between each of the five minute reps. like This is 54 minutes of session that I'm doing right now. um But they're all pretty similar ah paces. And as much as my legs died, i got to the end of it going, okay, I feel fitter at this point. Like I feel like I've just put in a good week of training. There was my second session of the week.
00:38:38
Speaker
I adore training with Meow. She's one of the most lovely people. yeah. so Yeah, that was my day in the end today. um i don't even know. Like, yeah, was half an hour of uphill running hard, essentially.
00:38:50
Speaker
Although my heart rate was staying much more controlled today. I think it was like 171 average for every rep. And I'm like, okay. We're managing heart rates dropping on the descents. anyway So anyways, I'm essentially on the way back.
00:39:03
Speaker
That is the update. And the fun fact of that is that because I'm feeling good again and I sort of go, well, I do still have this. I feel like I haven't lost all my fitness. Like, yes, I had three weeks.
00:39:16
Speaker
that were absolutely shocking and feel like they put my body through the wringer. But I'm sure three weeks can't undo the last three months before that of good training. So I have actually signed up for Hounslow Marathon.
00:39:30
Speaker
which is two weeks after I get back from Oz, um two weeks after CCC was meant to be and being only it feels very manageable at this point.
00:39:41
Speaker
And yeah it's one of those races in Oz that has always been bad timing for the rest of the season in terms of a big big overseas races or overseas trips and those sorts of things like mid-September.
00:39:53
Speaker
usually wouldn't work for me. And so i was trying to kind of look for opportunities to use some of the, not even the fitness, but the race build up like mojo. i don't even know, like just that whole, I've been looking forward to a race for so long. I'm about to watch it go off without me.
00:40:12
Speaker
I want to use, like, I want that start line feeling. um Like it's been a while, it feels like. even though it's not that long. But yeah, that's my update. Hounslow is the go. We'll see how that goes.
00:40:26
Speaker
and the And I'm actually doing Burnley half marathon the week before as well now because I can for points for the team. So i'm I'm filling my cup.
00:40:37
Speaker
um It's still there. It's still exciting. So one more week in jam. but How long, Sim, do your races in the end of the year? Like when's the first one? What date? Is it the the career one or is it the one in kimbali which ones Kinabalu? Kinabalu Climathon. So that's, it's October 19th.
00:40:59
Speaker
um So it's not actually that long. that like six weeks or five weeks after Hounslow? Five, I think. Five weeks after Hounslow. I'm home for six weeks. So I get home on the 1st of September.
00:41:10
Speaker
I fly out again on the 14th of October. um I'll update people on some of the ways I'm going to be trying to acclimatise for Kinabalu, which goes to 4,000 metres because I do have a tent organised and things to exercise with a machine at altitude, simulated altitude, um trying to get myself ready for that. But, yeah, I've essentially got six weeks in Aus.
00:41:32
Speaker
um And the marathon, I'm like, it doesn't feel like at that point it's going to hurt because it's still on my build. Like I'm not expecting massive things. I just want to be in a race. um That's kind of the vibe of that one.
00:41:45
Speaker
um Because, yeah, then I've got three races in four weeks across Malaysia, South Korea and Spain. So not a small trip. Maybe don't go too hard in Burnley then.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, no. Burnley is... I just want to say I love how we've gone from a conversation with Brodie about how little pig and things go wrong.
Sponsor Mention and ETC Race Discussion
00:42:11
Speaker
I think, Sim, you need to take a little bit of a note. I think Burnley is probably not supposed to be on the cards. No, no, no. Burnley I will be doing for points for the team. I will not be running fast. I'm six days off the plane back to Oz. Like I'll only just be recovered from the jet lag.
00:42:27
Speaker
Do not worry. Burnley will be sort of the – and i'm i'm actually I actually do know I am good at rocking up for the team, doing my thing and not rinsing myself because I certainly can't afford to. So Burnley I might even just do as a progression run. I don't know.
00:42:42
Speaker
But it's more just it's fun. Or just a high zone too, mate. That might do it. Yeah, even a high zone too, happily. Like I'll listen to my body. I feel like Hounslow, like it it does add a risk, but it doesn't seem like too crazy because you've at least got a few weeks. You've got like good five weeks afterwards.
00:43:00
Speaker
And like you said, you you were ready to do 100K, so it's it's no worse than than that. But ah yeah, just be careful with that. No, I certainly cannot go rip a good half marathon at this point anyway. So there's no point in trying.
00:43:15
Speaker
Like there's actually no point in trying. um I would just demoralise myself. So, no, do not stress. That will be um a bit more chill. um It's for fun. Everything between now and, like, even Hounslow is more for fun. Like, I want to enjoy these things because... That'll give you a good chance to, like, practice some race craft that you didn't get to do in CCC at Tatra, like you your gels and your logistics and all that sort of stuff, which is... It's always good to have that before you attack another...
00:43:44
Speaker
and Another sort of serious race. And just a good race experience because even before Tatra I had BTU where I was sick. So it's like I've just had a string of sort of best luck at this point um with sickness and not injury for once, which is not normally my jam.
00:44:00
Speaker
so And it is, like you said, it's a good opportunity to do Hounslow because, like, whilst it, like, that that's where it sits in the calendar and at that generally is, if you're racing overseas or something like that, it doesn't always fit in quite well whether you're actually away or whether you've just raced a big race and you're not ready to get up again. So, yeah, maybe it is a good opportunity to sort of tick that one off, which looks like a pretty cool race.
00:44:22
Speaker
That's my thinking. That's certainly, it's a bonus as opposed to ah a pressure or ah I must do this sort of thing. Like it's genuinely a really cool bonus of the situation I'm in. So. This episode is proudly brought to you by Bix.
00:44:35
Speaker
Bix has supported the show from the start and personally, I'm really loving the big 40 gel. Whether you're just going out for a 60 minute run and want the one gel, you're a moderate carb fueler and have 80 grams an hour, or like myself, you're trying to hit that 120 grams an hour range, it makes the maths super easy.
00:44:51
Speaker
Not only is the 40 grams of carbs, but I really like the fact there's 200 milligrams of sodium. It's a nice number that's not going to overload you if you're going high carb fueling, but it also means you don't have to carry around any annoying little salt tablets.
00:45:02
Speaker
And again, the natural flavor, I've always been a fan of that. There's no palate fatigue. The consistency is really nice and thin. It goes down super easy. So I've become a really big fan. If you want to give that a go or try out any of the rest of the range, head over to website, use code PPP at checkout to save yourself 20% off the entire range.
00:45:21
Speaker
And with that, let's get back to the show. Anyways, um and enough about me and Brodie. Nathan, you are on with us from Chamonix because you are getting ready to race ETC.
00:45:34
Speaker
Now, the last we heard from you was just after BTU, Brisbane Trail Ultra, back in, geez, it must have been early July at some point. So give us the update on how things have been since then and how are you feeling leading into ETC, which is only two days away.
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, no, everything's been pretty good. So BTU, obviously that was a few weeks after I had a bit of a sickness. So was sort of still in the early stages of building back up. um But I think I'm coming up to about 12 weeks now of 100 plus K weeks consistently.
00:46:08
Speaker
um Consistently getting into the gym. I've had a, yeah, threw in a couple of the XCR ah series races as well. So State Cross and... um Lakeside 10 and then Ballarat 15, which I didn't ultimately want to um do. But as the as as we are both do doing it for the team to get points. So I think the boys have um pretty much sewed up the season. So we've gone back to back on in that front. But now um now everything's, yeah, like um pretty good, like tight turnaround. So flew in.
00:46:45
Speaker
Friday night, 25 hours of travel. um It was pretty cutthroat. I ah didn't really think about it. My um changeover, my connection in Dubai was an hour 20. And i was like, seems tight, but I think it's doable. And then when you're about for an hour to land and they 30-minute delay, you sort of go, ah I'm pretty calm, cool, collected usually, but I was sweating it then.
00:47:12
Speaker
um And then luckily, yeah, made the connection. made it to Geneva and got on the bus and made it here at sort of 10, 10, 15 p.m. I had the same thing with my Dubai connection except it wasn't that it was a, um I had an hour 30 and it wasn't that we were delayed. It was that we were landed and got off the plane like ages from the terminal and we were then bused to the terminal only to then have to go through transfer. And I was, I kid you not, bused back out to the plane next to the one I got off.
00:47:42
Speaker
And I made the cutoff by one minute before they come like shut the gate. I was running through the airport going, i had 90 minutes, guys. Like we landed on time and took off on time. I had 90 minutes. Anyways, Dubai is a nightmare.
00:47:55
Speaker
I was one of those annoying people. Like, on the plane, I was pushing past people. I was like, I need i need to get off this plane. but um So that was a bit bit stressful. But, yeah, made it here and then woke up yesterday morning with, um yeah, stunning views of Mont Blanc and um the surrounding, yeah, valley. And ah it's a dream of a place. So, yeah, very excited. Got out on a... um a run along the Petit Balcon Sud.
00:48:22
Speaker
No, yeah, Sud. It's confusing. So something I've learned is north is south and south is north because of the facing of the mountains rather than the actual orientation of where they are. So um anything north is south. and then So, yeah, beautiful run.
00:48:44
Speaker
um Kept it pretty easy because obviously, yeah, three days before a race off a 25-hour transit, you sort of don't want to push it too much. And then, yeah, this morning just sort of got out for a real easy run along the river, did some strides at the track, one of the most scenic athletic tracks, I reckon, in the world.
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a bummer that it's 300 metres. I would love it to be 400. That's true, but like how often you going to be doing track reps around there, right? Like most of the time that you're going to be in sham is around UTMB time or Mont Blanc marathon or something like that, right? so True. I've done my fair share of track sessions on it though and it's a mental arithmetic.
00:49:28
Speaker
Yeah. Some people are more lucky than others, i guess. Yeah, know. I'm not going to say that's a bad thing. It's a good thing. Yeah. But no, looking forward to it. I won't get a chance to sort of suss the course, but sometimes I don't mind that. I don't mind sort of.
00:49:43
Speaker
Like ah you I know enough, I've got it on my Garmin, so it alerts me of the climbs and all those sort of things. But I sometimes don't mind, especially running in a very scenic place, just sort of enjoying the race rather than sort of predicting and preempting what's coming up.
UTMB Week and Australian Competitors
00:50:00
Speaker
um Obviously, it is nice sometimes to know where you can push and those sort of things. But i think in a race as competitive as this, it's sort of, you'll soon find out who where who the boys are that you sort of want to be um i around. so There's a couple of familiar names from um Headlands last year and in San Fran.
00:50:20
Speaker
um But it's going to be it's going to be pretty quick off the gun. So I think I've just got to sort of settle in. Play it smart as well. Don't don't be stupid. There's a fairly big climb pretty early on, um which I think that's I'm going to yeah take the first half pretty cruisy of that. And then if if I'm feeling good, sort of...
00:50:41
Speaker
use it as a bit of momentum um off the top and sort of use my strength and my sort of more flat speed um towards the top there and see if I can get some people back.
00:50:53
Speaker
But who knows, right? Like it's it's the first time that I've ever been here and – And probably in a race, obviously I've been to world champs before, but I think in a race where it's like there's 20 Spaniards that ranked higher than me. So it's going to be quite interesting in that front because at world champs, every country only has four.
00:51:15
Speaker
So it's going to be very tightly bunched. um So yeah, pretty much. It's a cool experience though. I feel like these some of these ones can be really fun when you just go, I actually just don't know where I'm going to sit in this field. Let's go have a crack and find out.
00:51:31
Speaker
Like it see what happens on the day. Like there's just, you can't, Like Aussie races, you know everyone around you. you know where And sometimes that can almost limit you because you go, yep, I should be around this person or I should be in front of that person. or like And then sometimes if you're not where you think you should be, it just changes your entire feeling about the race, um let alone even though it could just be someone else's having a blinder or anything like that.
00:51:56
Speaker
Whereas, yeah, in these sorts of ones, you're you're going to get lost in a single track crowd of just a line of guys and probably lose like even the sort of sight of where you are in the field necessarily like pretty quick and like this race was always set up as sort of a lead into world champ so as much as I will be given it a hundred percent crack it's going to be more of a just sort of dial in before um gearing up for the rest of this trip because, yeah, I'm only two days into a six-week trip. So it is um he's going to be competitive and I'm going to put my best foot forward, but it is sort of more of a um ah guide of where I'm at.
00:52:40
Speaker
Nice, nice. Nate, do you know what ah rank you are? I assume it's UTMB scores that rank it. like where does Where does it come in? I think I'm 29th ranked. But in saying that, I know Zach Hanna's here. he He did mention to me that he possibly won't do it because he hates downhills, which is fair enough.
00:53:03
Speaker
We all do. But he is here. And he's ranked 32nd. Okay. So it doesn't – the UTMB index is huge. Like I've only got two results on it from um my two UTAs. So yeah it's not really like – you get points everywhere. It's not like an ITRA index where it's like. And I think particularly for that distance, like it's not very, it's not super accurate because there's not a lot of races at that sort of shorter distance that it actually picks up people's points.
00:53:37
Speaker
I'm mostly asked because I think like I was supposed to do it in 2023 and like looking at the results of maybe 2022, I was like ranked like sixth or something in the finish. Like it would have been, um i think that race has grown in, like it wasn't that big a deal back in 2022, 2023. Might have two or three good people running it.
00:53:58
Speaker
um Now I think it's like, it's actually a really attractive option. And I think with most brands, wanting people to go to UTMB, there's people that are like, well, it's not my big goal this year, but okay, I'll jump in ETC or something like that. So yeah, I think it'll be a super good race to be part of and and you'll get really good experience from it.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we've got probably notably the number one ranked trail runner in the world at the moment doing it, Althusser Hussain. So that will be interesting with him in the field. And if he is running, I don't know. I haven't really sort of looked and seen the any press or anything, but...
00:54:33
Speaker
um Yeah, I think it it is a lot. Just from looking at results over the years, it has gotten a bit stronger. And I think the idea of trail running to me when I first joined was like, oh, you have to go long, you have to go long. But I think there is now this...
00:54:50
Speaker
there's a bit more money being put into more that sort of, um, the speedier side of trail running as well. So will, yeah, it will be good. Um, I'll like a top 20 would be awesome.
00:55:03
Speaker
Um, but as, as I said, I, it's hard to know where i stack up, right? Like it I could be looking at all wrong and a top 30, top 35 could be really good. So,
00:55:13
Speaker
um All I know is ah how I feel throughout the race myself. And if I um give it a red hot go, then that's all I can do. so um And as Tim said, like there's going to be people that will have a blinder and they've probably spent months or weeks going around the course. And and this is their key race for the season as well, right? So um it'll be interesting.
00:55:40
Speaker
Oh, it'll be interesting no matter what. It'll be a lot of fun. um And to get into some of the other Aussie names since we're already talking about ETC, a couple of the Aussies that will be joining you that you would know, um you've got Henry Hugman.
00:55:55
Speaker
um So he's not running? Oh, he's not? No, so i messaged him and, he yeah, he's is unfortunately not making it over. Damn, there's a few names on this list then that are joining me in the DNS um category. But is Etienne running? Have you spoken to Etienne? Etienne is, yeah yeah. So he's based up over in Italy, so he's he's keen.
00:56:16
Speaker
Good, good, good, good. Well, then, yeah, those were the two um guys I had listed with you for ETC. um On the women's side, we had Jess Short as our, I can't remember where she's based um now, but I'm not sure if she is based in Oz or overseas. But, um yeah, yeah she because she already has done Marathon de Mont Blanc this year and the VK at Marathon de Mont Blanc.
00:56:38
Speaker
But, um yeah, she's podiumed in Oz a few times, longer distance races. So I will be interested to see how she goes. um She was 15th at the Marathon de Mont Blanc VK.
00:56:50
Speaker
So it sounds like a pretty good result to me. So um yeah, Jess Short. And then Victoria Boyd and Amy Hiller are the next two ranked Aussie females in the ETC, which 15K, 1200 up and down. Yeah, nice something like that.
00:57:04
Speaker
It's punchy. I just, I can never forget Kate. um Kate Avery did this one, I think two years ago. And I can never forget her describing when she went looking for the course and how her and Lockie walked past the bottom of the climb.
00:57:20
Speaker
And Lockie just said, or even one of them said, no, there's no way the course goes up there. And they walked around the bottom for a bit, trying to figure out where it goes before realizing, no, yes, the course goes up there.
00:57:32
Speaker
So I have not seen what the start of this trail looks like. All I know is you might be in for some real fun there, Nath. Let's hope it's not triple tops, right? Like it can't be any worse than that.
00:57:45
Speaker
No, it cannot be as overgrown as triple tops. So we're fine. We are fine. Awesome. Well, Now that we've ah we've ticked off that one, let's get into this preview proper. I'm going to go back up to the opposite of ETC and UTMB.
00:58:01
Speaker
And we're just going to go through the top Aussies. Feel free to chime in with sort of the other names you guys are excited to watch in these races. um I have looked at a little bit and but not a huge amount of the fields.
00:58:12
Speaker
But on the Aussie front, um on the men's side, we do have Michael Dunstan. He's our top-ranked Aussie, and I am super excited to see how he goes at this year's event because what was his last race? I haven't seen him since, Brodie, do you remember? Buffalo.
00:58:30
Speaker
Buffalo, that's the one. Yeah. Yeah, I think since Buffalo, he's been specifically only building up to UTMB. So I don't know exactly how he always races, but he seems to be focused on like one particular race at a time and he puts all his time and effort there into that race. So yeah, I think he should be, we'll be expecting that you if he has a good day, he'll have a pretty good result, I think.
00:58:56
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Or a good day and night, I guess. Or night and day. Good very long time, night and then day. um Joining him is Nigel Hill as our second-ranked male ah on the list.
00:59:09
Speaker
And then Matthew Dunn as well ah is up there. I will should mention actually Chris Link. Lenkic is um on the same ranking as Matthew Dunn. So they're the top four men.
00:59:23
Speaker
um And then on the women's side at UTMB, we do have the woman that knows how to perform best here out of all the Aussies so far, and that is Lucy Bartholomew. She is back.
00:59:34
Speaker
um I did have a brief chat with Lucy when I saw her ah couple of weeks back. and she was seeming raring to go and said she was in really good shape. So ah would be, given that she's come 10th, what, the last two years, um even though last year I think she came 10th again but was maybe an hour and a half, two hours faster than the previous year.
00:59:55
Speaker
So the the trend may continue and she may need to go faster to still break into the top 10. But um with any luck, she might be a little higher up the field. um And yeah, still inside that top 10 position.
01:00:08
Speaker
Emily Brunt is also um in the field, which I'm super excited to see how Emily goes. Emily, past winner of UTA 100. Jeez, I should know more of what she's done. um Previously, Emily Gilmore Walsh.
01:00:20
Speaker
People may know the name. um ah And then also on the women, we have Chantel Smith, which was not a name I was super familiar with. But then looking back, she was second at Tarawara Mila this year.
01:00:35
Speaker
Oh, no, sorry, last year. got my dates wrong. um She's won Brisbane Trail Ultra 110 in Oz. And then, yeah, she's got lots of podiums um and high place finishes in everything from sort of 20K up to the miler.
01:00:52
Speaker
So it seems like she's more recently stepped up to longer distances. um And, yeah, with her second at Tarawara, she's um certainly no stranger to podiums and being at the front of fields.
01:01:05
Speaker
So be awesome to see how Chantel goes. but Yeah, any thoughts on our Aussie field for UTMB and then just the field in general if you guys know a huge amount about it? Yeah, i think I'm... They're all crazy.
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's good. I was actually, someone asked me the other day, I'm excited to watch UTMB and I'm like, I actually find watching trail running not particularly interesting. um But then I had a look at the UTMB post and i was like, oh, God, these are going to be some really good races. So maybe I'll have to try and dial in every now and then. I think it's hard to watch the entire thing from back to back for me.
01:01:39
Speaker
um But maybe, yeah, dialing in and out, there'll be some and epic racing. On the Australian side, I'm really excited to see Matt Dunn get around. um He's had a few shots at it. So hopefully he gets it done this year. And Matt Dunn gets it done. That'll be good.
01:01:55
Speaker
We'll call that the catchphrase. um And Lucy, yeah like you said, she's been looking like she's in really good shape. So I'm excited to see how she goes.
01:02:06
Speaker
um But, yeah, the race in general is going to be really good. Dan Jones running UTMB this year. Yeah. Hayden Hawke's coming back from injury. On women's side, Courtney, like, is she going to be top 10 overall? Is she going to be higher? Like, who knows? Like, it'll be exciting to see how she goes. um Ruth Croft is running as well. Like, it's just, yeah, superstar, star-studded field for UTMB, but all the races really, like, it's just like the who's who.
01:02:36
Speaker
Everyone's there. Yeah, definitely, definitely. I'm like, ah can't decide if I'll actually be excited to watch or if I'll be too sad. But anyways, we'll figure that out when the day arrives. I'll probably, so I'll still definitely pay very close attention.
01:02:53
Speaker
But moving on to CCC, um which is the one I've been scored off, but we still do have running Joshua Chug. um Matt Gore.
01:03:05
Speaker
And then i think I did just get a message to say, Bastian Missed was on the list as our third ranked, but he is not running anymore. So yeah, Josh Chug, Matt Gore, and then the next ranked would be Paddy Traheek.
01:03:21
Speaker
um I will say while I'm doing this, shout out to Run Deus, who ah have done a great big blog post that lists every single Australian that's running.
01:03:33
Speaker
um So we'll link that in the show notes and love what they're doing there. There is a very long list. So we certainly couldn't go through every Aussie. ah But yeah, they've got heaps of interviews from a whole bunch of different Aussies um and they've list everyone there in their ranking order, which has made my life a little easier too. but they And they didn't actually mention, who will give a big shout-out to because she is now an Aussie citizen, um is Juliette Sewell.
01:04:00
Speaker
she's in the She's in CCC alongside Nicole Patton and Anne-Marie Cook. Nicole wouldn't be running, would she? No, she's not. Of course. i was just about to think. I was like, hang on, no, Nicole's in the world's team. She is here. She'll be cheering, but I don't think she's no she's not racing.
01:04:17
Speaker
Yep, yep. Okay, cool. So take Nicole off that list too, which takes us to, yeah, it's just Juliette Sewell, Anne-Marie Cook, and then I'll give a shout-out to pseudo-Aussie, lives in Aussie, Beth McKenzie.
01:04:31
Speaker
um So there will be the the three ladies out there that are the highest-ranked Aussies, but there's plenty, plenty more. So, yeah, if you want to see the rest of the list, definitely go to the Run Deus blog, which we'll link.
01:04:47
Speaker
um Yeah, thoughts on CCC? Yeah, it's also going to be a really good race. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Beth goes after her somewhat troubled lead-up to UTA but still running pretty decently there. And she looks like she's been moving pretty well after that. So it'll be cool to see how she goes. And Juliet, coming back from an injury earlier in the year, put her out of Tarawira.
01:05:13
Speaker
So she's... on the way back and she looks like she's been training really well and she's been in the mountains for some time now she's in font remote for a bit as well so yeah i'm really excited to see see those ladies race um hopefully up in the mix maybe but yeah again the internationals running in these races are really impressive tony mccann running previous winners uh Fuzhou from China. Yeah, it's going to be a tough field.
01:05:41
Speaker
And in the men, oh yeah I think I'm most excited to see Francesco Puppi. Like I think he's become one of, like I think he is one of the best trail runners in the world now. um And his results are sort of slowly showing that, but he hasn't maybe like fully cemented that.
01:05:57
Speaker
But I think, yeah, I ah suspect he'll get a big win in CCC and then that'll but' cement him up there. But we'll see. I guess there's so many other guys that could also challenge him. 100%.
01:06:07
Speaker
hundred percent And, Yeah, this women's field I was so, so excited to be a part of because CCC, I think on paper, might be the most stacked this year. Every year it seems slightly different as to where a lot of the people have gone. But, yeah, CCC – between Blandine Lirondel, Yingville Caspersen, Toni McCann. I've chatted to her a bit and she's she had a rough start to the year with injury but she's certainly back and she's she's moving well. Anna Tarasova and Fu Jia Jiang. But then there's just so many more.
01:06:41
Speaker
um When you go down the list, it just kept going. Yeah, so yeah. Was it intimidating, Sim, at all to like look at back? Was this released when you were still training?
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think I was just excited. Like at that time, also Caitlin Fielder was on the list. um Well, Dani Moreno, she's still there. She's debuting. um yeah And I think for me, which this is a blessing of sort of the path I've led and how much experience I've got now, it's less um intimidating and more exciting because I know so many of these women. like Yeah. They're not this strange enigma of a human that you sort of like put on a pedestal in a way that you go, that they're just not human in that sort of way where yeah i've got I've spent enough time with them to go, every single one of these ladies is human and awesome and they have their own story and path.
01:07:31
Speaker
And I kind of look at it and go, well, I've run with them enough to go, If they can do it, why can't I at least have a crack and see where I land? Like I haven't actually had a crack at a hundred k yet. This was meant like my, because um the whole thing of um Thailand was just um to get to this point. Like I was happy running along in 10th going, yep, this was to get me into CCC.
01:07:54
Speaker
So I was just going, well, I've had a crack against a lot of these women at shorter distances where I felt like it wasn't my jam um in a big way. And now I was going, I'm just excited to see where do I land on my first big crack at distance.
01:08:11
Speaker
distance um So that was kind of my mentality at least going into it, which I felt so freaking good. So anyways. It sounds like, Nath, what you need to do is you need to go around and make friends with everyone you're racing and then you'll feel, then it'll be good. now but It makes sense. Like it's not as scary or like it's not as much unknown. You know the person and you're like, okay, yeah, like they are pretty good, but like i know i know they're still human. Yeah.
01:08:38
Speaker
Exactly. And like, even when I thought of standing on the start line, I'm like, I'm standing surrounded by people that I can walk up to and give a hug and say hi. And like, like it's, it's not, I don't know it's a different vibe when you actually know these people, like in Oz, like there might be someone that you go, well, yeah, it's going to be really fricking hard to beat you, but I'm not intimidated standing next to you sort of deal.
01:08:58
Speaker
Um, it's like, yeah, it's a lot more fun. It's so much more fun when you're like on a start line just with so many people that you go, I'm just as happy if you do well as if I do well because I know you.
01:09:09
Speaker
Anyways, it's definitely a game changer when you've been in the sport long enough to sort of have built that sort of almost a community but just at least know people. which is nice.
01:09:21
Speaker
um But yeah, on the men's side, when you've ah you've mentioned Francesco Puppi, but then having Eli Hemming, he's in there. i'm excited I'm always excited to watch Eli race. I'm actually also super intrigued to see how Chris Myers backs up from having such a ripper at Western States because...
01:09:36
Speaker
I've seen him training around the trails quite a bit um and doing some great big runs and he looks as recovered as you could imagine. So as i was like recovered as anyone. So um yeah, after what he did at Western, I'm certainly intrigued to see how he goes. Yeah, it's very strong American men's field.
01:09:56
Speaker
So I'm sure they'll be racing hard to for one of them to get on the podium. Yeah, definitely, definitely for sure. But awesome. Well, yeah, good luck to our Aussies in CCC.
Race Highlights and Predictions
01:10:10
Speaker
um Then moving down one again, we've got in distance. um We've got OCC. I haven't heard from him. Do but do we know Tate Herbst? Is he running? I believe he is. He's in Chamonix.
01:10:22
Speaker
um Perfect. then I must spoke to him. he was in he He had to go to, well, he had to get out of the Schengen zone. He's been in the shrinking zone for too long, so he ended up going to South Africa for some time. um But he seemed to be training pretty well down there, and then he's been back in in France for the last two or three weeks, I think, so.
01:10:40
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Now, um well, yeah, I'm super I haven't seen Tate race in a while, so and he certainly knows his way around a trail. So he's um he's right up there. And then Tom Driscoll was meant to be running. Unfortunately, Tom is also on the scratchings list, um and he'll be out there crewing Juliet.
01:11:00
Speaker
But um Joining Tate is the next ranked Douglas Price and then Andrew Clarkson, um two names I'm not super aware of, but they're the Aussie names to look out for at the slightly more pointy end of the OCC field on the men's side.
01:11:17
Speaker
On the women's side, we have Kelly Angel, um who is also doing World Champs, and you can hear sort of an interview from James with her and um Ben, um if you want to get an update on sort of how she's feeling leading into the race.
01:11:33
Speaker
But, yeah, Kelly Angel, um Maddie Reynolds was listed but has had to pull out as well. So then Emma O'Sullivan and Kerry Clayton, two of our other women in OCC. um Emma O'Sullivan, she's got plenty of ah podiums around Oz. She was third at Six Foot Track last year.
01:11:53
Speaker
um She's come... second sort of COSI 27K and she's got a lot in their sort of shorter distance races. I'm not sure there's much. I can't see anything other than 50. She was 11th last year.
01:12:05
Speaker
um and then their six-foot track. So it seems like she's just getting into the sort of longer distances here. So that'll be cool to see. um Yeah, thoughts on Sounds going to be crazy.
01:12:17
Speaker
I'm so excited. but Actually, this would be this would be the one I'm, I don't know, maybe a bit biased because this is closest to the distances I'm running at the moment, but like, It just looks like it's going to be such a good race in both the men's and the women's. Like in the men's, you've got Jim Walmsley running the shorter distance, which is going to be super interesting to see how he goes against some like short distance specialists.
01:12:38
Speaker
um Some other long distance specialists also running like Christian Monogio, who's like, such a good runner um Petter Engdahl who absolutely crushed CCC a few years ago um yeah it's going to be epic and that's like the top five and I'm like oh didn't even know those guys were running there's like all these other guys I know that are running OCC that are awesome that aren't in the top five um like you've got Antonio Martinez Perez who's been in the top three the last two years also but he's he's not in the top five ranked uh Chris Jones from the UK came six last year like
01:13:11
Speaker
There's just, there's so many good runners um that, yeah, that's going to be epic, I think. 100%. um hundred percent I think from what I can tell, there's also a bunch of the, there's this ah group from Kenya. ah On their page, they say their first pro running, trail running team from Kenya, the Milamani runners.
01:13:31
Speaker
um And I think a bunch of them ah ah going. I follow their page and, like, have they look really quick. I don't know they're going to go, but, like, I think that's going to be so special to watch because, like,
01:13:42
Speaker
We've seen Kenyan runners in the World Mountain Running Cup races. We've seen they they sort of like dominate those races. We've seen them at World Champs really good in the mountain distances. We've seen them do some Golden Trail races, um but we probably haven't seen them do these sort of, I guess, this OCC is starting to be like a longer distance race. Yeah.
01:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm very excited to see how that is. Cause that's also in the women's as well. Both the men's and the women's races. So. Yeah, definitely. So Joylene, who's Joylene Chepkino, who's one of the Milamani runners, which is the group that got picked up by Solomon um in Kenya. um She's, she's doing OCC, but then, yeah, you've got Judith Vida, Sarah Alonso, Meow, Meow.
01:14:29
Speaker
I will be cheering hard for Meow. And then, Rosalara, Feliou, they're like the top five, but as with all the others, it just keeps going. um So OCC, I will say, I'm going to agree with you on the fact that it it's just the more slightly more interesting race sometimes to watch because the shorter distance races, there's just no going, there's like no way around the fact that the field stays more compact, it's shorter.
01:14:53
Speaker
um There's more changes of positions. there's It's just, it's ah it's a slightly more intense race. So um that will be some fun viewing, definitely. And that is sort of the last of the UTMB races that are deemed the sort of finals.
01:15:08
Speaker
That's, yeah, UTMB, CCC and OCC are the three sort of major final races. But there is still a few others um that we've got. Obviously, ETC, which we've chatted about with Nath.
01:15:20
Speaker
um There's TDS, which is still... crazy long and it's actually more technical so it often can take like more time per k in in a way than um utmb i think it's what 140k or something along those lines um yeah it goes different places and then on the men's side we've got morgan pilli who is an australian based in italy i think um runs for last sportiva and then we've got male match backhausen um who's going to be doing TDS on the women's side, Jalna Clare, who shout out to Jalna because, well, we actually, i don't know if we were doing the podcast at this point, but we might've been. um to She was second at Cocodona 250 last year.
01:16:05
Speaker
So, and then she also has one great Southern Endurance run, Myla. um And so she clearly is one for the really, really long, tough races, um but she's our top ranked female Aussie in the TDS world.
01:16:22
Speaker
um And then joining her is also Fiona Castle um on that one. And then PTL, which I'm actually like a little bit more intrigued about this one in some ways because of the awesome interview that um James did with Claire Young. So go back and listen to that if you haven't listened to it. It's a really, really interesting listen. And she talks about her and her brother's experience with it last year. But Claire and Charlie Young are back at PTL. They did come third last year.
01:16:52
Speaker
and So this is the partner one that's what, 300 and four, 300 and something kilometres. um And there's normally one in like four, five, six days, something along those lines. It's it's the one that is very, very long, um the PTL. And you can't do it by yourself. Nath is just sitting there absolutely shaking his head going never in a million years.
01:17:14
Speaker
um But these two Aussies did come third last year. so Claire and Charlie, we will be absolutely cheering for you because it's not far between third and first. um And also out there, I'm not sure who her partner is going to be, but Kira Balmano um is going to be in PTL.
01:17:31
Speaker
Then MCC, this one's the one. There's many acronyms. Imagine, Nath, if you accidentally signed up for the wrong one. Instead of being ETC, accidentally signed up for PTL. Would you still do it or would he's you just be like, sorry, I can't do that?
01:17:46
Speaker
It's so hard trying to explain what I'm doing to someone that does trail running. Like I'm doing UTMB, but I'm doing ETC at UTMB. And they're like, mean he led that's the alphabet. You're doing the alphabet. so And I don't even know what they stand for. I'm pretty sure ETC stands for experienced trail.
01:18:10
Speaker
Okay. and as okay Because that's where you start. don't know what you're speaking for, but that's about it. Yeah. Most of them are just, it's literally just where they start, like at the middle point and the end.
01:18:26
Speaker
So, like, MCC is Martini Coombe Chamonix, something like that. Okay. Sorry, I interrupted. What's MCC? No, no, no. It's all good. It's all good. but I actually agree with you. it's but ah Sometimes I just say I'm doing the 100km at the UTM. Yeah, it's probably easier. It breaks it down for people.
01:18:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting. But MCC is the one, um for at least on the Aussie side, there's not many Aussies doing it, but it's certainly the one for the inspiring Aussies in a way. We've got Mick Marshall, who is the He's an adaptive athlete, um amputee. Oh, I really don't want to get this wrong, but amputee, um Mick Marshall, who is a motivational speaker, awesome guy, um and gets out on the trails.
01:19:09
Speaker
And then um I will give a shout out. This is slightly... I'm not going to say self-serving, but I do coach him. But Owen Lancelot, you can read his sort of interview on the Run Deus website, but he's doing MCC. He was invited over as part of the Shox team, but he um is raising a lot of awareness and actually starting a company for his runs with a stoma.
01:19:32
Speaker
um because he has had his colon removed from ulcerative colo colitis, which is an interesting thing to try and run long distances with hydration, nutrition, everything-wise, and especially longer distances. And we're currently trying to build him up for...
01:19:51
Speaker
What he signed up for and or he's put a um bid in for it being a Guinness World Record, and we're training him up for 100K at Kosciuszko where we believe if he's successful might be the Guinness World Record for sort of the longest distance run by a male with a stoma.
01:20:10
Speaker
um So he's doing pretty good things. So what is MCC's race for? Marathon. Marathon. Okay, and it's it's specifically for people like adaptive athletes and that sort of thing? or No, if no, not at all. Not at all. People that we have running.
01:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. That's the two we have running. um But MCC is actually the one that's saved for sort of – it's volunteers, locals. Ah, okay, yeah. um Like you can't just enter it as anyone. um You have to have some sort of time. And it's in the more in the valley, like in same – Yeah, it's not super wild, no, by any means. It's it's sort of the more runnable. Nath, you would probably love this marathon.
01:20:47
Speaker
um it It's still too far. Yeah. fair I'll pay that one but um it's certainly some one of the sort of more approachable races in terms of elevation gain it has a very flat end through the valley um into Chamonix but um but yeah it's the one I love the fact that they sort of save a race for locals in a way or for um volunteers and all those sorts of things so It's that one.
01:21:15
Speaker
um And then, yeah, Owen got his invite through shocks being a major sponsor. um I'm not sure how Mick got in, but we do have a couple of other Aussies in it, but um not as many because it's actually probably the hardest to get into in a way.
01:21:28
Speaker
You've got to have a connection um somewhere. way But, yeah, those are just two stories to sort of look out for. And that goes off tomorrow. So, like, by the time this podcast is out, these results will be out. So, yeah.
01:21:39
Speaker
for MCC, possibly even ETC, depending on when someone's listening to this. So go look up how Nath did. Spoiler, he came first.
01:21:50
Speaker
and i thought Imagine if I predicted that. I would love that. We would love that, Nath. don't know how that would happen, but, hey, weirder things have happened. You go buy a lottery ticket if that happens.
01:22:04
Speaker
Do I need to go to World Champs if that happens? Yeah.
01:22:09
Speaker
i'll just I'll turn the six weeks into ah ah just a a rave, a party. I would not even put it past you to do that.
Anticipation for Race Results
01:22:18
Speaker
Oh, that'd be great. um Awesome. Well, that actually covers off all the races.
01:22:24
Speaker
um Have I missed anything, guys? like don't I don't think so. I feel like yeah any given time you put me on a podcast, it's definitely on a 90 minutes or more. Yeah, ah I know. Exactly.
01:22:37
Speaker
exactly No, we've had a little bit to get through on this podcast, um on this episode. We've covered a lot of things. We've covered dark trauma. We've covered the the alphabet. Yeah, there's lots going on.
01:22:54
Speaker
Been all over the shop. So, yeah, that is our Aussie UTMB preview. um We will obviously have a lot of interviews and all sorts of things come out afterwards. We'll get as much of the goss from action what goes down on these trails um after the races, but we hope everyone does enjoy following along.
01:23:11
Speaker
And then the one result we do have on the agenda, just to finish off the agenda that we've got, um is actually an overseas result ah that came today yesterday and
World Cup Performances and Upcoming Races
01:23:24
Speaker
today. um And that came from the World Mountain Running Association, their World Cup final.
01:23:30
Speaker
um and We had Lara Hamilton go in the vertical yesterday where she came 13th. And if anyone else follows Lara on on socials, which i highly recommend you do, she's an awesomely crazy human being um that is DJing the party as we speak.
01:23:50
Speaker
I think um she managed to drop a knife on her foot that went through her sock into her foot, like point down ah the day before the race. um So she ended up in the hospital getting that looked at after the race.
01:24:05
Speaker
um I believe because it started bleeding again and it must have been quite a deep cut. So she was also meant to go. like Matt came 13th with that going on in her foot and then ah was meant to run again this morning in the classic distance but was not cleared to run.
01:24:20
Speaker
So she didn't. But we did have an international debut by Katinka von Elstner-Wellsteed who people may have heard her name many times on this podcast before hopefully um where she came nineteenth And this was at Smarna Gora, which both of these races were in Slovenia in their capital, which I am not going to embarrass myself by trying to pronounce. Brodie, do you know it?
01:24:46
Speaker
think it's Ljubljana, but that may be wrong Awesome. i'm You've got more a little more confidence than I do at this point, so we'll go with that one. Hopefully confidence yeah doesn't work on a podcast where people can fact check me. yeah Hey, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Yeah.
01:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, 19th there by Katinka, very strong running, especially when it's like your first foray um into overseas running in Europe. It's a different kettle of fish. so awesome to see her getting her. Yeah, and it seemed like a pretty quick time. i haven't seen the full results list in terms of like the time gaps and that sort of thing, but like just looking at the course and looking at the vert profile and whatnot, she looked like she was moving pretty well. Yeah.
01:25:30
Speaker
Definitely a good start. Yeah, yeah. She was just over an hour. It was one in 49.50. forty nine fifty I can't actually remember who by. I did look at the full list of results.
01:25:42
Speaker
um But, yeah, being typical shorter distance, it's pretty stacked at the front in terms of time gaps. So 1st to 19th only being about 10 minutes, that's bloody quick.
01:25:54
Speaker
So, yeah, that's our results for this week. And then obviously for what's coming up, there's UTMB. But to give a shout-out to our Aussie racers, Wonderland Trail Running Grampians.
01:26:06
Speaker
is coming up next weekend, which is a brilliant place to run. So hopefully everyone enjoys their time there. The Northwest Trail Running Series down in Tassie has their third race of their series.
01:26:17
Speaker
And as I was looking up the calendar, there was a really interesting race called Capital to Coast, which goes from Canberra to the coast of New South Wales.
01:26:28
Speaker
um And it's a 100K stage race where they run like, I think they run like more than one stage a day. But anyways, looks like a really fun adventure for anyone that's in for a different kind of 100K.
01:26:41
Speaker
All the stages are like 15K or less, a lot of them. So um it seems like they just race really short races and then get to another spot and then race another race. They're all on different spots.
01:26:52
Speaker
So interesting racing going over in Oz. There'll be all the eyes on Chamonix. um Nath. Good luck. Thank you. How are we feeling?
01:27:03
Speaker
Happy days. Good. Relaxed. Calm. Ready. We like that. We like that a lot. um Brodie, I won't ask for too much of a what's coming up other than what holidays have we got planned um in the next week? Like where are you going?
01:27:17
Speaker
I'm in Ireland for the next ah maybe like 10 days. He's already gone. Now I'm here. Yeah, yeah good. My internet's gone though. Sorry for everyone.
01:27:29
Speaker
putting out with my internet through this podcast. But, um yes, I'm in lovely Ireland. It's beautiful here, actually. i'm Going to do few hikes, look at a few castles, that sort of stuff.
01:27:40
Speaker
um Yeah. Nice. forward to it. Love that. Enjoy it. Enjoy it, all of it, while you are not super-duper tired from also trying to stack in some training as well. It's different kind of enjoyment.
01:27:52
Speaker
um Yeah, definitely. that doesn't make it bad. So have fun. And then, yeah, I've got one more week over training the house down at this point in Europe will be what I'm trying to do um But I am getting out of Chamonix before the race. I leave on Wednesday to go spend the last few days of my trip in Italy because – Not only is Italy a celiacs heaven, um I just absolutely adore it.
01:28:16
Speaker
So um I won't be too far away in Aosta. It's just ah and about an hour's drive from where all the races will be going down. But I'll either be tuning in or completely switching off, one of the two.
01:28:29
Speaker
um but yeah, hoping to get some really good training for Hounslow in. It feels nice having something to train for, I will say that. It's like something close. So thank you. Nice. Enjoy it.
01:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, we have made it exactly 90 minutes. So thank you, everyone, for bearing with us on this one. Hopefully it's gotten you through a midweek
Episode Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
01:28:49
Speaker
Wednesday long run or something of those kind.
01:28:51
Speaker
um Or you've broken it up because, you know, we get a bit much sometimes. um But thank you. This has been Episode 72, our UTMB t m b preview Can't miss that letter.
01:29:05
Speaker
um Of 2025. And, yeah, any tips, any shout-outs, any um results or any stories that you guys have, feel free to message them through, questions, anything. um Our DMs are always open on Instagram. So,
01:29:22
Speaker
Thank you so much listening. If you want book in with Nath, send him a message. He's doing psychology counselling. Yeah, definitely. We did also accidentally miss renouncing on the podcast last week that we are go doing an Aussie catch-up slash run tomorrow morning. But by the time this podcast goes out, that's already done. hope you enjoyed it.
01:29:42
Speaker
Kate Herbst just messaged me just five minutes ago saying, will you be at that run? Perfect. We did get these socials out. So awesome. We'll see a few of us Aussies there. um Awesome. To everyone else at home we hope you're enjoying it. We hope it's warming up for you all and we will speak to you next week.
01:30:01
Speaker
See you. Bye.