Transcend Ultra and UTMB Predictions with Charlie Hamilton | Episode 124

Transcript

Speaker: Music

Speaker: Hello and welcome to episode 124 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Brodie, one of your regular hosts, and we've got a big episode coming at you. Lots to talk about, very special guests, and then UTMB week on on the on the cards, so it's going to be really fun. Firstly, I'm joined by someone who is at UTMB, Vlad Ixl. How are you going, Vlad? It's been a while maybe since we've heard from you. Yeah, i going quite doing quite well. Yeah, went for an easy run. um The town is full of people, a lot of runners, a lot of people. Yeah, pretty cool vibes.

Speaker: Nice one, nice one. Yeah, we'll be able to hear from you a little bit in a moment. And then our guest ah who's off a big run on the weekend. We teed up to try and catch him earlier in the year. didn't quite work out, so good to have him on. Charlie Hamilton off the back of a win at Transcend 65K. Charlie, are you going? Yeah, I'm great.

Speaker: um Shame we couldn't make it work couple months ago, but I'm always happy to come on the pod, always happy to talk about running. So let's go. Yeah, excited to have you. And I think it's good to have you on this week, someone who knows the how things work on the international level and and maybe some of the names that we're not all familiar with. It'd be good to get your insights on UTMB as well. So good timing, I think.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, this is probably the biggest week in trial running, hey? Like, we've got races coming at us already. And it's it's Monday and we're, what, halfway through TDS. So it's really, it's getting going.

Speaker: UTMB's decided to add a few extra races as well. So we'll get we'll get we'll touch on those quickly when we get to it. But firstly, Charlie, we last talked to you last year, which feels i feel I was looking back. I was like, ah surely we talked to him since then. But we from what I can tell, last time we spoke to you was after Ultra Trail Cape Town in, say, December time. um what' ah yeah Maybe start us with how summer went and then and what was on the cards in the start of 2026. Yeah, so after Cape Town, um I were raced at Tarawera.

Speaker: um That went okay. I think I was second in the end. I just, I kind of felt terrible all day, um but still managed to, like, be close enough to, like, competing for the win that it was, like, frustrating where I was, like,

Speaker: God, if I like was one felt 1% better, if I like felt normal, then it would be just there. Like Sam who ended up winning was like just there for ages. Um, that was a little disappointing actually. I think I'd come second there before raced there a bunch of times. Um, but nevertheless, it was still like a good learning opportunity and to to not have a good day, but still be able to get a result was pretty awesome.

Speaker: um Then I was at Buffalo. Buffalo was awesome. um As always, it's like probably my favorite race of the year. um Then I was just over in Europe for a couple months.

Speaker: My first race was Maxi Race, which is in France in Hennessy. um Does like half a lap of the lake there. um didn't yeah quite Didn't quite have the run I would have liked. um came eighth and I was like, all right, it's all right, let's move on.

Speaker: did a really big block in Chamonix of training, ah went to Monta Rosa, and that didn't go very well at all, actually. DNF'd. So that was quite a shame. um And I basically came away from that race being like,

Speaker: geez like am I just not good at running or like I don't know just like it kind of took a bit of the confidence because I felt like I was really fit coming in and then it went south early so that's what I was really looking forward to transcend for is to just like nail some systems get everything back ticking ready and just yeah be able get some confidence back really Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot lot to unpack there. um Starting, I want to start way back at Tarawera. When you did that race, was there anything that you say learned, you took forward from that race? I know there was, there was someone in front of you. I can't, I forget his name. It's the Nike athlete. What's his, the guy who, did he pull out in the end? Yeah, Liam Miro. Liam, that's it. He ripped off the front. Like we were running so fast um and he was just running so, so quickly. he and I think I passed him with like to go and he finished about an hour back. He just walked in. Yeah, was going to say, I can't even see his name. here um did that influence like how you race was it like a little bit intimidating for you going into that race i guess probably thinking i'm going to be up the front and then him going off so quick do you think that influenced how you raced or do you think it wasn't that wasn't the part of what what led to your performance well no so we had like a stomach bug go around the terex camp um funnily enough

Speaker: the The New Zealanders who weren't staying in the Terex house, who were all staying with their families, none of them got it. So like Dan, Ruth and Caitlin, they were all fine. And then the rest of us, we're not sure what really happened, but um pretty much everyone had a stomach bug, which is like for for the Euros, it's a long way to go in February to have a stomach bug, you know. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's frustrating. And it seems to be something that's like, it's a bit hard to avoid as well. um Like obviously you can do put lots of things in place, but it's like one of those things that maybe sometimes just strikes without, without realizing. So yeah, that was, that was part of the picture there. Like still you're,

Speaker: Like if you look at your UTMB scores, like this year that is your highest score. um So far, Transcend doesn't have a score, would be interesting. I would assume that might be a bit higher. But i still a decent performance, like you said. Like you still started strong and even though it wasn't what you wanted, not a bad performance to kick the year off.

Speaker: Yeah, like I said, I think it was a good, it was kind of a good learning example to be like, I feel I'm not feeling very good. um Things aren't going that well, but just keep, put your head down and keep running and um it'll end up okay-ish. Like I still didn't quite get the result I wanted, but I still got something out of that race.

Speaker: um Yeah. so yeah but That was a good learning there. Nice. and then And then Buffalo running in familiar home ground nearly. You've run there a fair few times. A really strong performance. ah really i remember talking to you afterwards, a somewhat reserved performance as well. Like you you ran hard, but you ran in control. um Did that sort of set you up?

Speaker: Did you feel like coming out of that that you were sort of set yourself up for some some good races overseas? Yeah. Yeah, I thought i was I was in really good form there. Like, I'd had some of some awesome training. um Like, as always, i was really excited to race Buffalo. I was excited to race with Mike. um There was some pretty good runners there. And also, like, um having Mikey's, like...

Speaker: historical course splits are something really good to compare to because like in my mind Mikey's like close to world class and um whilst I might not be able to race him exactly which is probably a good thing because it would be in the death of both of us I have something to like compare myself to and and you know in times where like I have spent a lot of time running like in the race by myself um it's nice to have that to compare to to say you know it was a good run in the end Yeah, nice, nice. um And then getting to your overseas races, you said Maxi race was up first. I remember that one was like not too long after you got off the plane, like you didn't have a ah lot of time in Europe before before that race, maybe like a week or so, was it?

Speaker: Yeah, I think five or six days, which is, should be enough, but it's still like something I'm just still learning is, is like the travel as all Aussie athletes, I assume like most people listening to this, um, the travel is something that like has to be part of our racing. Um, and it's not just like, you know, a couple hours on a plane. It's like we're traveling for 30 hours, um, to completely different weather, whatnot, um,

Speaker: It's just something I'm trying to figure out and I'm trying to trying really hard to like get my systems down pat. Like I think I'm getting better at it, but it's still something that's, you know, taking a while to get there.

Speaker: Yeah, I think it's definitely something that comes with time, but also like five, six days is probably not ideal. Like in an ideal world, you would have at least a couple of weeks probably. um Especially, I feel like the longer it gets, the sort of harder it is because your sleep is interrupted for a few days, your eating, your hydration, all that sort of stuff is... Even your movement is interrupted for a few days, which is just maybe not ideal when you're trying to sort of be in the best shape for a longer race. But like still... had a good experience there. Was there anything in that race that like you took away and went, I need to work on this or this is something that's been going well for me and I need to reinforce that or like anything that you took away?

Speaker: think I'm starting to figure out like a little bit how these races are run. um in In Australia, like – We can be like – it goes out a lot more conservatively. So, like, you're usually in control, even if it's pretty It's –

Speaker: like outrageous whereas at maxi race like the first three k's on the flight were running like three 15s and then then we get into a 45 minute like nine percent climb that i was running like above threshold and like surprise surprise that's a dumb thing to do so like you feel good at the time in a race you know you're bicarbed up you've got the nomeo you've got everything and it feels good but whether it's good to be like, yeah, that's just really something I'm like starting to figure out. It's like, you don't need to be going full gas because these races are long and that was a five and a half hour race. And, um, maybe if I wasn't so silly at the start, then I would have been able to run a lot better. And,

Speaker: that That kind of goes hand in hand with with how Montarosa went. And I'm just like now kind of looking back at these races and being like, you know, if I was a little bit more sensible and a little bit more measured, then maybe it would have I would have had a lot better of a result. But well that's how it goes. We're all learning.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. We were talking actually on the live stream on the weekend for Transcend. We were talking a bit about like how how can an Australian athlete and we were talking about yourself actually yeah or other athletes like you convert then in international events because yeah we see some fantastic performances on – on home soil a lot of the time um and then it's hard to maybe we don't always see the exact conversion overseas for lots of different athletes and i think it's a challenge for everyone and we were talking about the the challenges and for me one of the ones was the the psychology of it but not so much the sort of psychology of like oh i'm in this big race and like i'm intimidated and that sort of stuff for me it's the psychology of like the tactics behind racing and and how that fits and i think The Europeans have spent many years racing each other, racing in really high quality fields and they know where they fit. They know where they can push. They know where they should hold back, that sort of stuff. And I think that's the stuff that we maybe struggle with because we don't compete in those really competitive fields all of the time. um And I think, yeah, it comes with practice, but it's it's really tricky to get right because you're also like, I'm mega fit. I want to have a great performance. I know I can do, like I look at the splits. I know how I'm training. Like I should be able to do that, but it's just like trying to,

Speaker: yet key up that information I think is really tricky Yeah, for sure. And I think the thing is like for me that i like I think that I've really struggled with a lot and has actually affected a lot of my races is like at home um when the race goes out, even if it goes out fast, like it's – they're still there and I'm still comfortable.

Speaker: yeah um And you say maybe there's one person going ahead, but I'm like I know that they're going to come back in five minutes. or um But over there it's like you go out – solid and there's 30 people around you and there's people running away on the climbs and if I was smarter and if I ran to the effort that I'm going to be able to run to for six hours it will be fine because I can just pull them back but it's still like I think I've always really struggled with when there's people around me because often for better or for worse at home there's no one around me and I'm kind of usually just

Speaker: out there running. um And like I'm able to control the race, whereas that's not that's not me when I'm overseas. There's much, much, much stronger guys. And so that's where I need to be ah smarter with my efforts because like i'm like I'm pretty confident in the level that if I if i could run to to what I could run, then I'd be okay and I'd be around the podium. But I just think I get caught up in the racing and that's yeah what's been my undoing, i think, countless times.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So it tell us a little bit about Manta Rosa. Was that, was that what, what happened essentially? Or like what, what, what, what went down in that race? Yeah, I think so. Like again, after maxi, went to Cheminine and I had like probably the best month of training.

Speaker: yeah. Even so like now, like I kind of am looking back at that month and I'm like, I can't believe i was able to run that much. um but And so I was really confident. ah like e Like I was able to run... <unk>x Yeah, aerobically, I was super strong.

Speaker: My downhills were super good. And so I think I came into that race being like, I am going to be racing for the podium um and that's how I'm going to race. And it was, I mean, it was a 10-hour race. It's like almost twice as long as my next closest race. So I think I just...

Speaker: I think I just ran like an idiot, to be honest, which like is hard to say because like you look back and like, if I was just a bit smarter, who knows what could have happened. But like I said before, in combination, you start a race, you're tapered, you're fresh, you've got your bike harbed up, you're like, you've got the note, like you've got everything going and you, you feel invincible for the first few hours. Um,

Speaker: And it's funny, like these, you make these mistakes early on and they don't have to be very long, but you push close to threshold early. It's not going to bite you straight away like it would in 5K if you pushed you hard. It bites you an hour and a half later.

Speaker: um And it bites you in the way of like, oh, you know, i had I had a stomach issue or I started cramping. But really, it's just a pacing issue. Because yeah on your long runs, you're not having stomach issues and you're not having cramping. So it can only be one thing. I think it's it's a classic, like as runners, we always say, oh, you know, like it wasn't my fault. I just had yeah the heat got me. The altitude got me. the yeah ah This cramp came out of nowhere. And that's like, it's like, that's what I can't, that's what I say as well, because then I don't have to say I ran like an idiot.

Speaker: Um, but it's also, it's also what you feel takes you out at the time, but you forgetting what you did earlier. Yeah. Yeah. And so after that race, I had some like talking with, um, Scott, my coach and, um, my mate, Dan green, who, who lives around here. Um,

Speaker: and And Dan works in performance for cycling. So he he kind of knows as well. And Dan was just like, you're just an idiot. just You just have to stop being an idiot in these races because I get too excited and I just want to race. you know like yeah That's what I like to do is I like to...

Speaker: I like to be there and I like to be in it. And then, but really like I'm just making mistakes. And so, um, just that's kind of what transcend was all about as well is like we had a really solid plan and, um, I just needed to figure something out so that I can action it in these bigger races. Um, um,

Speaker: that's why I'm so glad transcend went so well because now I have a system that I know that if I do this, I can run really fast for, for six hours and like probably even longer at that effort, you know? Um, so yeah, that's what basically as soon as Monta Rosa went wrong, I was like, all right, I need to sort this out. What's a race where I can practice this. What's a race where I can like put in, put in some right effort. And we did some, like lots of analysis of lots of my files and I've,

Speaker: Basically came back and the first thing Scott and I did was get on the treadmill and do a bunch of tests. um And, yeah, we've just got a better of idea of things that that will guide my races, my longer races in the future now.

Speaker: And is that in terms of guiding them, we'll get into Transcend in a moment, but in terms of guiding races, is that using heart rate or is that using like RPE or what sort of things are you using to...

Speaker: Well, it's kind of a bunch of things, like mostly mostly heart rate, but you can... um Yeah, heart heart rate's kind of the main one because that's like your internal engine. like Like you have mechanical workload and then you have internal workload and heart rate is just an indicator of internal workload. if i had a if If we had continuous lactate monitors, which we don't, you could use that. yeah But um heart rate's probably the best proxy. so ah Yeah, it's a substitution of... of like getting an idea of what your lactate is using heart rate as an indicator of that and the testing was to get a bit of an idea for that.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I feel like that's something that I've always come back. Like i remember overanalyzing chemo when I did it a few years ago and they were some of the I'm getting a lot of parallels from your Monteroza experiences. i i thresholded the climb for like an hour and a half and then i had I felt shit the rest of the day. And for me, it's like I get excited and in a field where you're not the best,

Speaker: Well, you might be, but for me, I wasn't the best. Like it's it's important to key into the effort and not get carried away trying to run with the best. um And I think the pacing and and and keying into figuring out like what is the sustainable pace for the start of the race that's going to see you succeed at the end. I think it's it's really good.

Speaker: But that's all that sorry i cut yeah no no good yeah but this also comes from like racing a lot in Australia where you feel even if you're not going all out, you're still in the lead and still in control. And then you come to Europe with a similar mindset that I should be somewhere in the front.

Speaker: um But this, yeah, the talent pool is just so great that... you could be running the right pace, but that means that you're going to be at like 30th place. So it's like an ego hit as well.

Speaker: But I was going to ask if you were planning to go to Chamonix. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, as in for UTMB? Yeah, like after Montarosa, were you supposed to come to Chamonix for the UTMB finals?

Speaker: No, no, no. I never... um i Actually, I didn't do UTMB race last year, so I didn't have a ticket for last year anyway. okay So he was supposed to... I kind of thought, oh, maybe you had like a bad day in Mount Arosa and then he decided to like come home a bit earlier.

Speaker: sent home and Sent home by Adidas in disgrace. Put him back on the plane. Adidas paid for the ticket. Get out of here. it's nice it wasn't It's not quite that bad.

Speaker: o Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I yeah i think it's um like it always comes back to this. We know that consistency and discipline in training is really important and and discipline in racing is something that we maybe don't always practice and it's really hard because...

Speaker: Like ego is beneficial sometimes in racing to get the best out of yourself, but it can also, if you let it tip over the edge, then it can also work against you a lot. So yeah, it's a tricky balance, but it sounds like transcend you were able to sort of key into that. And the good thing about transcend is you had a couple of great athletes lining up ah against you. Unfortunately, Ben Leeson didn't get to start and a few others. It would have been great. with them At least you had Billy Curtis there and he was with you for a good 40K maybe a little bit less. How um how did Transcend pan out? Yeah. Oh, I had a great time. It's like...

Speaker: Like I said, we um do all these like did a bunch of tests and and had like an idea of of how I wanted to like kind of pace each section. Essentially, my goal was to be able to hit consistently the highest heart rates of the race in the last hour and a half.

Speaker: um And so that just meant – it's quite funny. Like, we started the race and usually, like, I'm, like, at the front. Even if, like, doesn't matter who's there, I'm, like, we'll be pushing. But I started off and my heart rate was a little high. So I was like, no, no, no, I'll let these guys go. we'll just jog for a little bit in the first, like, few Ks.

Speaker: um So, yeah, a bunch of guys ran off. And then i ended up with Billy who – his head torch wasn't working for some reason. So I was just like – was like, maybe just like run next to me, Billy, and can use my head torch.

Speaker: so So then, yeah, we we kind of got together like 2K in and then stayed together for a while. So that was awesome to run with Billy. And, yeah, the field was it was great. It was a bit of a shame, like you said. There was heaps of people that were meant to be there that kind of slowly dwindled out.

Speaker: um But I still think I'm glad that Billy stayed there because – Yeah, Billy's been incredible the last few years. So I really wanted to be able to compare my like race against him and see how that went. Yeah, yeah. And then as the race panned out, like it was obviously you guys were um running together for for a bunch of it. um But I'm sure both of you wanted to to beat the other one at some point in the race. Was there a plan in terms of... Like beforehand, had you looked at like where you might start to turn things up a little bit with with your coach, Scott, or did anything pan out in the race where you're like, okay, actually I'm feeling really good. This is the time when I need to move on or did it just, you just sort of maintained all the way through?

Speaker: Well, To be honest, the goal, the idea was to have someone with me. So there's like a, like, it's only like 6%, but it's like the longest climb of the race is like three and a half K at like 55 K or something like right towards the end. And I wanted, ah like, I wanted to have someone with me coming into that. And then I wanted to like really turn on the gas there. yeah,

Speaker: i to be I did get a little bit excited and I did get a little bit like, like I was just having so much fun with Billy and he was squeezing a couple sections and then like I'd squeeze in a couple sections. i was like, Oh, this is so good. Um, but yeah, we were running together for a while. um I dropped him like kind of accidentally. I think I was just – there's a starey section with maybe like 40 to thirty five k to go. um There's a bunch of – yeah, it just kind of feels like – kind of feels like Hounslow a little bit actually. through this Yeah, I saw it on the footage. It looks like, yeah, mid-sized steps up and Yeah, it was great.

Speaker: Anyway, I think through there I kind of accidentally dropped him and I was like, oh, well – um that happened a bit easier than I thought. But I think he was just running his pace because I had a bit of a gap. And then um i was like, oh, well, that's sweet. I'll just continue running this effort. And um and i was running like quite cruisy then. um And I was like, I'll just will continue running this effort and i hopefully we'll be able to win. um But then like maybe five ks later,

Speaker: I couldn't see him behind me for for ages. And then there's this like false flat uphill for a couple K and I turn around halfway up it and he's like teleported behind me. It was like a splendor man. Like I turned around at one point, couldn't see him at all. And then I turn around again and he's just there.

Speaker: um and And I was like, i I kind shat myself a little bit. I was like, oh, my God, like it's on here. like I don't know if I'm like, Billy's going to just run past me. And it's actually funny because I went back and I had a look at the stream. The camera, like there's no camera on us from the aid station where I dropped him just after. The the first time the camera comes on us is when Billy's running with me. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know that he got away because that's when I was watching. Like he was with you up until that sort of aid station three. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, and so he'd just come back to me. um Yeah, okay. And he caught up to me. He kind of went to pass and I was like, no, no, no, I'm not letting that happen. So I like, I wanted to come into the aid station first. So I sped up and we came to the aid station together.

Speaker: um And I was trying to stay relaxed, but I remember coming in there thinking like, what was that, two hours, 20 to go. and I was like, oh, it's like, it's on here. Like, I'm really going to have to, I didn't really expect to have to work this hard.

Speaker: um Basically, we came out of that aid station and my partner, Lily, was crewing me and she was like the fastest crew I've ever seen. She was just like getting me in and out. So great. So i I had like a little gap on him out of there. And then basically I bombed this downhill and that's where on the course, you can see on the course markers, you can see the, um it looks flat, but over 10 K there's like 350 meters of climbing. It's just like up and down these tiny little climbs. It's like a, like a hard cross country course. Yeah.

Speaker: Honestly, it was like that for ages. And i had this little gap on Billy And I was like working quite hard, but I had, I was, you know, there's still, still two hours to go in the race. So I was like, I can't, like, I can't work too hard, but I was kind of, you know, like a little bit stressed being like, he's running so well. And for maybe half an hour, he was just 10 seconds behind me. Like he wouldn't go any further away.

Speaker: he was just there. yeah. And, and then eventually ah like ah like there was these quite steep pinches out of the, some of the creeks would go through there. And I just decided like, I'm going to run, i'm going to push all these and like run all of them, even though they were really steep. Um, and eventually I turned around at one point and he was gone. So like before when he'd been slender man and he'd like come up to me, one point I turned around and he was just gone. And then, um, um,

Speaker: I still had an hour and a half left. So I had to like concentrate quite a bit, but I turned it up from there. Like I started running a bit faster to try and bury him a little bit, which which seemed to work because I got a bit of a gap from there.

Speaker: Yeah, I think at some point on that flatter section ah between aid station and and three and four, not the sort of the cross-country style bit, um he it looks like he sort of just at some point started to hit a bit of a wall. And I think talking hearing him talk afterwards, there was just a point where he...

Speaker: he just stopped feeling it um and he sort of trudged in a little bit from there. um when When I was sort of watching the broadcast, it looked like when you got onto that flatter section that like you just looked really good running that I thought maybe you'd picked it up a little bit but sounds like maybe you just kept the pace um and, yeah, because it was a bit of a flatter section but you were both looked like you were moving pretty well still at that stage. So it was impressive to watch. think in the end, like um like I said before, you have like – like internal, internal workload. And I think towards the end of a race, like you're going to slow down a little bit, but you're going to be working harder to run that same pace. So like I thought towards the end, I was speeding up a little bit, but to be honest, I just stayed consistent. Like I basically just ran the same pace all day, even though i was like pushing at the end.

Speaker: um And I think that's just kind of how it worked out. But um yeah, like it was probably, it was one of the hardest I've had to work in, in any Australian race. Like Billy was, legit and he looked good all day um he's running really well at the moment yeah fantastic um both yeah good and he he did fall off a little bit but he did still sort of go under six hours which was a also a very good time um so it was cool to see you both sort of race through um afterwards sounds like like it sounds like from talking to you that you're pretty happy with the execution of this race like do you go away and say yep that was job well done and take some of those learnings forward to future races

Speaker: Yeah, I think now we have like a good structure um that obviously will change around compared to like the length of the race. um But i'm pretty I'm pretty happy with it. And to be honest, I'm pretty happy with that run. Like I've only done maybe three or four races that over five and a half hours. um And that's the strongest I've felt.

Speaker: um and And I still feel like I had quite a bit more to go. Like ah so I probably could have... yeah So i'm I'm really happy with that and we just like now we just need to keep working, keep getting better essentially and and try and nail now the next few.

Speaker: Yeah, amazing. um On that note, what's ah what's coming up next? what ah What have you got for the tail end of the year planned? um I'm going to go back to Cape Town. So that's in like 12 weeks.

Speaker: um I had like the best time there last year. the Not just the race, but everything around it. It's it's such a sweet place. The people there are awesome. um The course like scares me quite a lot, but um but I find that quite exciting. Like I'm not amazing at technical, but it's something i need to get better at. And so this is just a great race to do it. So I'm pretty, pretty excited for that.

Speaker: Yeah, cool. And is that is that all on the calendar for the end of the year? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's all in. um Do you like do you have any specific goals around that race? Obviously, last year came third. Is it to run a quicker time, run a place or just more so execute like you sort of have in this race? Like what's any thoughts around like what you want to achieve there?

Speaker: It's just to execute. Like I think that's – I think for the next few – the next year, like the next few years really, I'm just trying to get – like if I can execute my races and not worry about everything else, then I'm like – I'm pretty confident in in the level that I can get and I'm pretty confident that if I can do the right thing, then like I'll get the results. And so I'm just trying to put out all this like – get rid of any like all the ego and and anything else and just do what I need to do in the races and if I can execute them the way that I'm confident that I can then that's going to be the best way to get the results so yeah the results will come yeah I've got this system that I'm happy with and i just need to put that in place and hopefully that's that'll get me where I need to go cool awesome sounds good Vlad you got any questions for Charlie

Speaker: No, I mean, obviously you've done that race last year. um Is there anything you learned from last year that you're going to implement in your training for the next 12 weeks to hopefully try and improve? um The race is interesting in that like it's actually really similar to a climb we have out the back of Canberra. We have this climb called Mount Tennant and it's essentially like rocky steps where you're just jumping up and down rocks for however long. The course is just basically like that. um I think...

Speaker: um i think we just need to do what we did last time like the i started with scott i think 12 weeks 14 weeks before this race and we'd had a really good block into it um but now i'm a year later ah can do a lot like a lot more and i think train a lot better like Um, overall training load can be a lot higher. So I think we can do more specific stuff and lot more strength, which will mean hopefully I can run lot better light into that race. And what is a lot more like, what kind of volume are we talking about?

Speaker: Oh, Obviously, depends. Secrets of the trade. Yeah. Obviously, like volume is funny because like you could say if if you were running on a flat land, you could be like, oh, I'm running x amount of Ks and it's super far. And then you go to Chamonix and it's like i was running like 19 hours a week but like not actually running that far, you know. I was just doing heaps of vert.

Speaker: um So just it just depends. Yeah. Yeah, it depends. But I'm just like something I've been really i' surprised by and happy with is that in like in the last 12 months, like my overall volume in terms of time has gone up 35%, like running volumes up over 30% and verts like 40%. So like I've been able to like have this increase in training and for some reason it's just worked out well. I think it's probably the way that it's structured by Scott.

Speaker: Um, so we just need to keep nailing that because like this is a sport that like you don't get better in ah six months you get a little bit better in a couple years but like you look at the results of a lot of these top guys and a lot of them have just been working at it for years and been doing the running doing the races for years and that's when you get better at the sport so that's kind of like the way i'm looking at it and your ability to increase your field comes from doing a little bit less intensity or just you getting stronger over time Yeah, but it's like we do lots of intensity, but it's controlled intensity, I think.

Speaker: um You know, it's easy to go out and be like, I'm going to run 5x2K really fast and then get a lot of confidence from the fact that you've ran really fast.

Speaker: But... Like really when you're doing high lactate stuff, you're just like creating a lot of acidification essentially in the body, which means that you can't recover from it quite quickly. So like if you do the right intensities, you can do a lot more of it and a lot more of it at more of a specific style, like intensities to what we do these these long trial races at.

Speaker: um So yeah, it's just about the really. Yeah.

Speaker: And like, that's why sometimes like I've gone on Strava dark a little bit because like sometimes like a lot of these workouts I'm doing, like a lot of the stuff I'm doing is is is not that hard really, but you just do a lot of it.

Speaker: But that's also because your ceiling is pretty high. Like speed wise, you have the natural ability to run three minute Ks any single day technically. yeah um So you're able to do more controlled work.

Speaker: Well, like personally, I feel like I need some faster stuff. Otherwise I'm just getting slower and I can do a lot of control training, but I have to sprinkle in some like VO2 max work. Otherwise I just get slower. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, that's the context of each runner, hey? like yeah Everyone is at a different point and everyone needs to work on different things. And I think that's, that's like why training isn't a one size fits all type thing. Like there, you know, maybe there are some athletes who are new to the sport and maybe they'd benefit from doing lots of fast work or they'd benefit from doing lots of aerobic work. Like there's a mixture and and it's really well, and the style of races we're trying to work at. So yeah, it's kind of how it goes. Yeah, that's the beauty of like either understanding it really well yourself or having a coach, someone who can guide you through it because it is very different for everyone. Like even though I'm thinking of Mikey a few years ago, he hadn't really touched any speed work, but he had a massive aerobic base and then he actually benefited from doing a little bit of speed work. um Whereas you've trained pretty traditionally, I guess, and now you've built that sort of you've got the capacities where you can now layer in that massive sort of aerobic base. And like you said before, It's not going to benefit you in six months. I think even like you said, those 30% increases, i was sort of thinking like watch out for Charlie in like a year or two years because I feel like that's what you're doing now and in the last 12 months, that's going to hit in a few years. It's not hitting now. um So, yeah, it's going to be it's ah yeah a good approach I think for sort of long-term ah performance.

Speaker: And it's also, it's funny though, sometimes like you have to swallow your head a little bit because I think 12 months ago, i would have said, ah i could have run a really fast 10K. And like now i couldn't I couldn't run the paces. I couldn't, maybe I could, but I couldn't confidently say that I could go and run the paces I thought I could of a year ago. um You'd at least need like a six to 12 week block of training at that pace. Because like you said, you just haven't done it.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Like I just don't have that specificity. And it's like sometimes, you know, when I get caught up, I'm like, oh, damn, i'm I'm just I'm slow now. Like I'm old and slow. But it's really like it's just different. And you're right. It's just specificity that would require to get there. yeah There's not many times where you need to run three three minute Ks, three 10 Ks in ah in a 60 K trail race.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Nice. Cool. Vlad, any more questions for Charlie? Otherwise, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you've been up to and where you're at at the moment. 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 all also packing 300 milligrams of sodium. an increase whereas the berry has 200 milligrams. Both make them perfect for the conditions we have in Australia, whereas most gels on the market do not have sodium within them.

Speaker: 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.

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 at checkout. And with that, let's get back to the show.

Speaker: Yeah, well, i'm I'm slow and old now, so um I did an 8K trail race. You've got to do the speed work. Yeah, yeah, I mean...

Speaker: Um, yeah, I feel like as I get older, like I just get slower. So I actually have to do a bit more speed work, even if I sprinkle it in, like not as much as like I used to, but just a few faster reps, um, keeps the speed going and just makes me feel strong and fit overall. And that confidence helps, um, But yeah, ended up doing a 8K race, um dropped out from the 25K Cat Ultra in Austria that I was supposed to do and did an 8K, which was fun. It was like 33 degrees at the start. So I had an ice bandana for the climb and yeah, ran 30 minutes and 31 minutes and it was Yeah, a bit of fun and yeah, made it to Chamonix, which is kind of feels weird um being here without a race or without an expo.

Speaker: But yeah, trying to enjoy it this week. And um before we went on air, I was talking a bit with Charlie about how big this event is now and the whole vibe. um It's definitely a little bit a little bit like, you know, a scrum, a little bit out of prop proportion maybe to the town size and just so busy. Like, I don't really want to go on the main street anymore. it's just like bit too much. um And even on my 30-minute run this morning before this podcast, literally saw maybe about 50 runners, um which is nice, but also like that's quite a lot like, you know,

Speaker: um so yeah this week is going to be trying to catch up with some people and trying to get some training in um and then next week i'm doing a vk in italy and a 20k trail race with 1200 meters of elevation gain so kind of the races that i enjoy maybe not the races i'm the best at but um short i guess two hour races um it can recover pretty quickly from um pretty competitive and yeah then come back to australia and build some fitness i think that i kind of as i'm i've turned 39 last month so i feel like i need to change a few things in my training because i've plateaued in the last year year and a half so i'm going to try and mix it up a little bit with a bit more cycling and um and then maybe going a bit deeper into speed work and trying to keep a bit more speed for the next

Speaker: maybe two or three good years of running that I've got left realistically. um I don't know. I don't have that kind of thinking about like I want to keep racing until I'm 50. I think realistically it's two or three years of of good running. And yeah, I just feel like going get in slow. stop there for one second.

Speaker: yeah at At Monterosa, the the the first two guys were both 43. So you've got years and years and they're just like Christian Minniogo feels like a new guy on the scene. He's 43. Yeah, and he's also like chasing down Jim Wamsley as well. not like he's slow. he's he see He's still got wheels.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't know. But also it's that commitment that you have to put so much effort to. um And realistically, I don't know like how many more years I can be so selfish and just think about my own training. There's other things that I should be putting my effort into.

Speaker: So in that kind of sense, I feel like obviously I'm going to keep racing and and and running, but I don't know if I'm going to be doing 13 runs a week. um you know So in that kind of sense. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah that's also what i've been telling my wife i don't know the last time i did 13 runs in a week yeah i was like i'll keep telling my wife don't worry it's only like another two or three years and and i'll be done um but also the sport like you know i think i've been saying that on the podcast literally every time i'm on um the level of of the sport is is increasing with every year and i feel like i put in a fair amount of work but like the results are not really showing it so the motivation is is dropping a little bit um so yeah i i don't feel like i feel old but there is days where i feel like a bit slow at times um but yeah you're right there's so many good runners that

Speaker: I still performing well mid-40s, but yeah, not sure that's going to be me. Yeah, you got to balance everything. i I remember telling Laura that I was going to retire from like orienteering when I was like 28 or 29, like that's when I would finish. And now she's like, what are you doing? Why are you still running?

Speaker: Yeah. This damn trail running thing that you can run till you're 45. Yeah.

Speaker: um Vlad, when you're Chamonix, are you going to like support any of the Bix runners or like what what are you going to do over the three days if you're not sitting in a tent at the Bix tent? like what are you What are you going to get out there and do? Cheer on or like have you got any plans?

Speaker: Yeah, more like catching up with people, um catching up with a few people, dropping some big deliveries. I still have to work like obviously my normal work on the computer that I still have to do.

Speaker: um So not a crazy amount. it's you know Again, like you know if I'm still running two hours a day, then trying to work four or five hours a day, then there's not much time left.

Speaker: um So it's not going to be like a full on, just trying to soak in the race as much as I can. Just a bit of trying to see a few start lines probably. um The people that I'm staying with here are going go and watch the race, but I don't really have the time to like drive somewhere mid race and watch watch the race.

Speaker: So, yeah, there's still a lot of emails that I have to reply to. The um digital nomad that you are. Vlad, who's the best BICS prospect for the UTMB finals? We're going to talk about UTMB in the moment. Who's the athlete that you guys support that is your key runner this year?

Speaker: Oh, I mean, there's like... I'll give you an example. Like Charlie knows Sven, part of the Adidas team.

Speaker: ranking. And I think he's ranked 57th in OCC. um So yeah, it's it's so competitive. Like I looked at all the lists and I was like, this is crazy. Like um we have...

Speaker: Um, a a few good runners, but then like you look at the rankings and you go like, wow, it'd be pretty hard to like break in the top 30 in a lot of those races. Um, yeah, I think the average UTMB ranking of the top 50 men in OCC, I think it was the highest for the men is over 900 is the average for the top 50.

Speaker: Yeah, I like because I saw we we talked at we called out the people who were like in the top 50 last week because they'd come up already and like Toby Sparks is not in it. i was like, oh, maybe his rankings not that good. He's rankings are 840 and I think he's like, yeah, he's probably like 100 ranked. Yeah, that's what I mean. like And he's a really good runner. He finished fourth it the um at yeah at UTA, which is the Asia Pacific major.

Speaker: um But yeah, it's just that's what I mean. like The level of this sport is just exploding and there's so many good runners. Which also makes it tough because we have like a lot of emails of like, I'm looking for support for nutrition and stuff like that. You know, i got a UTMB score of 800 and you think, yeah, 800 is really solid. But then, you know, you look at the ranking and you go, actually, 800 is not that high anymore. Like, 850 is not that high anymore.

Speaker: um Yeah. Which is, it's not the perfect the sporting step system. definitely changing. But yeah, there's just so many good runners. Yeah, nice. Well, enjoy the week. We're going to get into talking about some of the runners in a moment. um I'll give a quick update. i kind of I think I was just on a couple of weeks ago. i um Not much to update for me, um just doing some gym. I started to try and do like more cross training and then managed to like aggravate my ankle a bit. So I've decided that I need to focus more on training. and just not force the cross-training. Like fitness at the moment doesn't really matter. um

Speaker: So, yeah, I got into my head. Like I knew that the last thing was like, I don't need to force getting back to running. But then on the back of that, I was like, oh, well, but I'll cross-train and I'll get fit.

Speaker: um But it's still my calf capacity isn't great. So any sort of cross-training that's decent for... running um still aggravates not so much of my Achilles, but because my calf is weak, um my calf complex doesn't work properly, which puts more load on my ankle and my ankle gets sore, which then sort of stops me a little bit from doing my rehab. So, um yeah, I've just got to sort of suck it up and and and just focus.

Speaker: Rehab is most important. do a little bit of cross training, don't force it. um And then at some point, hopefully when the calf gets a bit stronger, then I can bring it back in. um But yeah, I keep learning something every week about just chill out, ah just wait.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you don't you don't have to rush to get fit, right? You don't want rush it, just want to get healthy and strong. Yeah, and I know I tell all my athletes this and I also like we're having this conversation about longevity in the sport and how you can be competing in your late 30s still really well and even into your 40s.

Speaker: But if I'm ever going to do that, rushing now is not the way to get there. It's taking it really smart. So, yeah, I just have to keep reminding myself that lucky. that I've got parenting to do and getting back to doing some work. So I've got lots of things going on. um So it's not to, I'm not worried about it. I just like got a bit excited with some cross training and went, oh yeah, great. I'm getting back in. Like I was doing the stepper and doing some cycling and I felt like I was actually, like I i felt a sniff of fitness um and got a little bit excited. So I just got dial that back a little bit and go back to the pool, which I hate. Yeah.

Speaker: you doing pool running? so i can That's essentially probably the best thing I can. I was doing mostly swimming and then at at maybe a month ago, the physio is like, you can do pool running and pool running is better than swimming for me. Like I prefer to do it. um So I'm going to lean into that a little bit. I feel like it's,

Speaker: interesting Interesting. It depends how you do it. It feels similar to cycling in terms of because it's a bit of a cycling motion. What you end up doing, it's more like that than running nearly. um If you do it hard, I've been doing some like 30 second hard 30 second rest. I just get like massive lactic burn in the quads like that sort of where I feel it. um So I feel like it's still like I don't think it's super relevant, but it's like somewhat relevant.

Speaker: I'd love to see how long you can do a pool run for. Do you reckon you can get three hours? No, there's no way. like i The other day I started doing, like I can go slow for like 30 minutes. That'd be fine. But when I did the efforts, I did efforts and I maybe done like five by 30 seconds.

Speaker: And then i was like, oh, just continue it like just a steady effort. And I did like another five minutes and I was cooked. So like it actually is quite tiring. I could probably do three hours if you went really slow, but I don't know the benefit of that. my heart rate would probably be like 90. Yeah. It would also be the most boring thing Yeah. Yeah, you just sort of like look around the pool and you try not to like look at people too much, but you're going so slowly that and you're always facing the same way that you're like, where do I look?

Speaker: The lifeguard's like, what is that guy doing? So, yeah, it's good fun. um But, yeah, not too not too much to update. I'm like – I said that I wanted to run something at Australian Champs next year at KMR and um I talked to Lockie in the week as well. Like i'm seeing I'm seeing a physio at the hospital but I'm also still sort of working with Lockie on my strength and getting his input a little bit as well. And we're like probably realistically not going to be able to do the short the trail distances at Australian Champs because it's just like a bit too long. um

Speaker: So I'm going to become a mountain athlete again, maybe only do the VK. Yeah. But I feel like that's just the thing. I'm not good at it. But like you said, Vlad, it is actually quite fun. I enjoy doing those races. So maybe it'd be nice to try and knock off my PB on that course.

Speaker: um And I'm sure I won't be at the very front, but um try and be in the mix, and maybe in the top ten, top five, if I can if I can really get it. So I think that's my long the only goal I have on the horizon. I just want to do something at that race um and figuring out where I am now I think it's a good idea to not try and make that the short trail or the long trail is what I want to do but like it's just not going to happen so um yeah um that's where my head's at at the moment so yeah once everything starts getting better I'll be hitting the stepper and um hitting the hills

Speaker: yeah vks are like i'm also not really good at vks but they're actually like fun um except that i did arrive in chamonix like two days ago i had like two hours till i can check in so it's like two o'clock in the afternoon so i might just do the vk quickly and it just made me realize like how hard it is um but yeah still fun and in in in a way because you can know that it's short Yeah, it's super, especially like the last K of that VK is bit too much scrambling for me. um Yeah, yeah. But even trying to go slow, your heart rate just goes up. Like you can't go, like you can't take it easy yeah on a VK.

Speaker: I live in of having to do a VK effort. Like that is something that scares me properly. I don't think I could push that hard. thought and Just pretend it's the start of maxi race, but go a little bit harder.

Speaker: True. That's probably the effort I'd go anyway. The thing is, it's probably how fast, how hard I started. Like when I did the VK last time at Kenyany, it's probably the same speed that I started Kima, but for Kima I had to run for another six hours. Yeah.

Speaker: So, yeah, it's it's fun because you get to stop at the top and you're not that tired because your muscles aren't beat up. So, yeah, that's that's sort of giving me some like something to sort of look forward to um for next year. But, um yeah, otherwise I'm just trying to be trying to reset expectations a little bit and just enjoy being a parent, enjoy other parts of life which are great. So, um yeah, i'm not I can't say I'm worried about it at all. It's just sort of like – every time and so yeah I will reflect on it and I'm like well that was predictable Brody you probably could have told that if you went from not a heap of cross training to doing it not I didn't do heaps but it was just like it was just a a silly increase anyway

Speaker: Enough of that. um ah We might move on to some news. So this week, mostly we're going to touch on ah talk about UTMB, but we did have one other news story, which was that, and we talked to, I think they mentioned it last week, that Phil Gore has started um, backyard ultra thingy, Bob project 168 over in Perth. He's, um, doing this to raise money for like the seven telethon over there. Um, and he's already raised about the reason I wanted to bring it up is he's already raised nearly 50,000 and it might've gone over 50,000 by now, which is pretty incredible. So, um Yeah, cool to see what Phil's doing over there. And, ah yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he makes it all the way to the 168, which is different to the normal Backyard Ultra because he's just doing it. as He doesn't have to have the assist. He's just going as long as he as he can. So just as a bit of a personal challenge. So, yeah, interesting to see what's going on over in Perth. um did you know What's the lap like that he's doing?

Speaker: Have you run around there? um No, I'm not 100% sure. It's actually not far from where I live, but it's just under the hills. I don't think I've ever ran there. But I was going to ask you guys if you saw that 99 race in Germany.

Speaker: So it's pretty much 99 runners start a one point two k loop. and you have to start the loop every 15 minutes and the last runner is eliminated um so it's kind of like they only go for 24 hours that that's like the time okay and they kind of get faster um with each lap so you do get like you know i guess 10 minutes between each 1.2 k um but yeah it seems like a pretty fun event and um you know not that long like so that is three day backyard ultra events this one you know that's gonna finish in 24 hours

Speaker: They had a similar format in Victoria recently, which like a mile, I think, and they just made the mile faster every lap. Every lap, yeah. I think they got, I don't know how many miles they got to, but they went from like a, they had to do a mile in 15 minutes to a mile in 1450 to then 1440, 1430, and sort of wound down. um which i thought is another i i'm not a huge fan of backyard ultras in general but i really like these 24 hour format ideas because i feel like having an end point um from a from an event point of view it's probably easier to manage like they know when it's going to end there was one in the results actually in queensland where it was just 24 hours and then the last lap it was like whoever was left it was whoever did the last lap the fastest which sounds pretty tough But like I like the – yeah, I'm more of a fan of the 24-hour finishing time but each to their own.

Speaker: The concept of Phil going for a week, like think of everything that you can achieve in a week and he's running for a week. Like hats off. I really – I can't – like I can't fathom it. Yeah. I really can't fathom it.

Speaker: Yeah, one thing one sort of like one thing like feel yeah one thing about Phil is super professional though. like I've seen him set up his aid station or his station for backyard events for the past few years.

Speaker: And he's probably like the most professional one out of all the ah ah ah other athletes that are racing. He comes and he's so ready. is like He's got food and clothes and everything that he needs for like a whole week in every event that he does is like he's got his crew is is on point with everything so i feel like it's such a big part of why does so well is because he's so well prepared and obviously he's the best in the world and i hope he finishes this week but like charlie said a week is a long long time yeah it's an interesting one because i feel like the general public it's hard for them to understand like people can understand running from

Speaker: from Perth to Sydney or like these other ultra long stuff. But I feel like this 168 laps of the random distance is very hard for ah outside the ultra community to understand it. um So it's pretty cool that he's still earning. So he's still raised so much money so far because I feel like it's easier to raise money when it's like, oh, I'm running this distance or I'm running from here to here. um So, yeah, good on your feel and keep it up. Hopefully you make it to the end of the week. um

Speaker: And I can say that I will never be doing that myself. Lock it in now.

Speaker: All right, let's get into UTMB. We've been talking for a while, so we'll get into a bit of detail, but we won't ah go overboard here. um We'll start talking.

Speaker: I'll just outline a couple of the races that are happening that are probably like outside the main three races. So ah we have PTL and TDS already started. PTL is like the 300-kilometer more adventurous distance that you may have seen over the last few years because Millie and Charlie Young have been doing it and they are doing it again this year.

Speaker: Last I looked, they were 71 kilometers in and they were in fourth overall, but I think the first mixed team. um So, yeah, keep an eye on that one if you're interested. They're still going strong, but I think, yeah, this one covers a bit more technical terrain as well. I think some more mountainous stuff. You've got to have a helmet with you. It's like full mountaineering spec.

Speaker: Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, so it's a bit of like sky running, but long distance sky running. yeah they Millie and Charlie are exceptional at it. i yeah Correct me if I'm wrong, they might have been second overall last year. i think so.

Speaker: Which, considering they're from WA, like, is is really, it's unbelievable. Like, you know, we all know how good some of these heroes are in the mountains, and they're some of the best in the world at this event, which is...

Speaker: um Yeah, and then matching it with um with like two with with male teams, like that they're the ones that they're racing. So like it's, yeah, it's really impressive. Like we know Millie's an incredible athlete and like I don't know much about Charlie, but he must be pretty good if he keeps up. Like he's obviously such a good athlete himself as well.

Speaker: Yeah, he's just he's just he's just a farm boy, just a farm boy who can just get around the mountains for a long time. just he does he does his annual trip to Chamonix to go 300 Ks.

Speaker: Fantastic. ah TDS has also started. ah That is the, well, yes, slightly more adventurous, but slightly shorter version of UTMB. I don't know where the exact course goes. um Does it do a lap, but it's just like a shorter lap?

Speaker: No, it goes from Cormier to Chamonix, essentially, like backwards on the UTMB course, but it's it's quite different. goes through Bourg-Saint-Marie, the Beaufort. It's a bit more technical, um lots of climbing, like how much climbing in the 100 miles? Yeah, in 150K, there's 9,300 climb. um Okay. so yeah, a bit hill.

Speaker: Pretty awesome race, actually. It's going on. So, yeah, I think they're, like Brody said, seventy five k in That one looks cool. I reckon that would be a cool one to do one day. It looks tough, though. um We've got a few Aussies running, and that one is underway. Last I looked at it when I screenshotted this earlier today, Gerald McPherson was the leading Aussie. He was in 65th overall at that time. it was ah just 20K in, so it was pretty early days. um And then we also had Thomas Kinsley, Isaac Heppel, and Marcus Angwin running, so good luck to...

Speaker: all of those runners. um We, the couple more, and these ones are shorter races. So the new race this year, well, I don't think it was on last year, called YCC, which is, I believe, for juniors. I don't know what, I think it stands for youth Cormier, Chamonix. I think they have races maybe in both places.

Speaker: They have some sort of weird knockout thing for the second race. But, yeah, it's a junior race. Still some pretty good people running it. I saw the highest-ranked male. I just looked at the top one. He had an index 840, which

Speaker: Pretty good, probably rank him maybe top ten in Australia, I guess. Maybe so. Yeah, decent. We have an Australian Fergus Jackson running. I think Fergus is from the Blue Mountains. I think I've seen him run UTA and whatnot a few times.

Speaker: um So he's running in that race. So good luck, Fergus. And then we have the other short distance race, which is more of an elite race. um It's 15 kilometers, sometimes has some of the best short distance runners in the world doing it.

Speaker: um In ah the Australians we have running, we have Etienne Blumstein-Jones and Luke Pryor. So that's the sort of, I'm calling them the additional races at UTMB, but I'm sure they're just as important to the people who are running them. But there's just there there's a lot going on, as Vlad was saying before.

Speaker: um Anything about those races from you guys before we move on? I'd say TDS is, I mean, we talked about it a little bit, but that's actually an awesome race to follow. And right now it's super competitive.

Speaker: um Yeah, ETC is an interesting one. um It's cool that we've got Fergus running the YCC. It's been interesting to see how he works. Yeah, it looks like sort of like a junior development race, which is quite cool. I like that i like that as an idea.

Speaker: Cool. And they had the MCC. Oh, sorry. Go on. i I was going to say they had the MCC yesterday. So that's like the locals... Well, it's actually, um i think they changed it. So they used to be like 100% local event.

Speaker: And then this year, it's like 80% local. um But then they also give out like 20 or 30% to volunteers. And then they have like five or six spots, five or 6% of the entries goes go to influencers. um So that was on that finished yesterday. kind of the race Yes, I kind of saw the finish line of that. Yes, in town. I'm sure that would have been a fun start and finish line to watch a lot of cameras out.

Speaker: It was won by someone with 783 which is crazy. and he works there' an um there's an i there's an eight nany I think he's like a shoe developer for Salomon.

Speaker: Yeah, I think he's like a... He works for Salomon for sure. um Yeah, shoes or product development. What is it with these shoe developers? People you've never heard of turning up and being the best runners in the world. having saw Like Anton Shavalin's a shoe developer. This guy seems to be the trick.

Speaker: that Yeah, I guess, well, like if you're a sporty person, you probably end up doing a career that is sport adjacent. Like you've got Vlad who owns ah ah a sports nutrition company, me who's a physio and you who's training to be a physio. So um I feel like sport adjacent makes sense. But yeah, it is it is cool to see. Yeah, it it makes for a good storyline when it's just like someone who works for the brand like coming out and crushing.

Speaker: Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, on to OCC. So that is the shorter race ah of the three. It is this year a bit longer, about 60K. There's seen some changes to the course. They're not going up to Fleger in this race, but maybe still in the other in CCC and UTMB. Yeah.

Speaker: So, yeah, a bit longer, but a little I don't know if it's less climb or they just the percent over the 60K less. um So, yeah, a bit of a different course, finishes with 17K that's mostly downhill and relatively fast. So, yeah, it will be interesting to see how that plays out. um I'll call out some of the big names. Tove Alex Anderson was supposed to be running, but I saw just recently, and just earlier today, that she's pulled out, um unfortunately, with like a stomach bug. That was going to be really cool to see how she raced. It was a bit of a shame, but um unfortunately, she's not going to be on the start line. But we do have Judith Vita and Maud Matisse from Switzerland running, Lauren Gregory, Naomi Lang, Sarah Alonso, Marlon Osser. There's a lot of different runners. Hua Hao.

Speaker: Ho Ha, sorry, from Vietnam is running. She usually runs longer, so interesting to see her running in the 50 or the 60. It was just... um like podium Western States or top five.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah quite interesting Yeah. She's usually doing much longer races. um Yeah. So it'd be interesting to see how she goes. Yeah. She was on ninth. So it'd be crazy to see if she has a good run. it That's a crazy backup. I guess poopy's doing the same thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I feel like the, how these athletes back up is bonkers these days. I don't know how they do it. He's ranked quite high. Actually. She'd be top 20 here. Who's that? Sorry.

Speaker: Beth McKenzie in OCC? Yes. Yeah, nice. Yeah, I need only screen. Wait, is she running CCC? No, she's doing OCC. Oh, because she's American. That's why she didn't show up on my list. Sorry, everyone. Bit of background chat. Okay, yeah, so beth we should give Beth McKenzie a shout-out, so thank you for picking that up, Charlie. She's ranked quite highly. So, yeah, she's running OCC, which would be cool to see.

Speaker: um When we had Beth on, she said that she's working towards Australian citizenship, so maybe next time she will be Australian on this, which would be cool. That would be great if we could claim her even more. We already sort of claim her, would be great to officially claim her. um On the men's side, we have ah Remy Bonet, Francesco Puppi, Frederic Tronchard, Daniel Padas, Petter Engdahl, then just like the classic great mountain athletes, Roberto Di Lorenzi, Luca Delpero, Sylvian Cachard, the Spanish runners, Elaine Santamaria,

Speaker: Andre Blanes, I think Antonio is also running, who's come third twice. So, yeah, stacked field on both the men's and the women's side. Anyone that you've, any stories there or anyone you've got your eye on to that you think might take it out? Maybe I'm a little bit biased, but Petter's my pick.

Speaker: Petter Engel is in crazy form at the moment. He's climbing really well. His Transvolcano was amazing. um To be honest, looking down this list, it's scary how many fast guys there are.

Speaker: But I think Petter's going to be my pick. Yeah, because he was like, so was he second at European Champs uphill as well? Or he was in the top three, I think. um So over a short distance, like with Pet has run longer races in the past, but I know this year he's doing some shorter stuff. um He obviously absolutely crushed CCC whenever that was. Was that 23 or 22? Like that was incredible that day.

Speaker: um So yeah, he's he's got the distance. And I think like last year we saw Jim... um have that sort of strength in the last part of the race. So I feel like coming to OCC with some longer distance in the legs, but with the newfound speed, or not the newfound, but the current speed, well, yeah, that could be a good pick, I reckon. He's got the new red shoes as well, so he'll be fast, not the not the zebras this year. They're actually pink.

Speaker: Oh, they're pink. I don't know if you got all the new Addy color is pink. Which actually everyone keeps saying it's red, which is funny. So maybe they need it. Maybe it's like a reddish pink. I feel like it's not a pink pink.

Speaker: No, it's pretty pink. Okay, there you go. ah but like From what I've seen, it looks red. So maybe I just need to get my eyes checked. yeah um Yeah, that shoe looks good. That was the one you were running and in on the weekend, but you had like the white version. Is that right?

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. um I was super lucky when I joined the team. I basically pestered them to get involved in the the prototype squad. um And so I've been testing that shoe for the last year and a half. And to finally like properly be able to race in it is is awesome. it's It's pretty crazy.

Speaker: Yeah, it looks like a looks like a cool shoe. Nice one, Vlad. Any one for the men or the women that you got your eyes on there? and Probably Frederick. I think that is um iss also in like crazy shape as well. And I think he has a good chance of winning it.

Speaker: I don't know if Ramy is like run fit. He's had a bit of an injury. But yeah, I kind of think Frederick is going to do quite well. But... like Like we said, there's so many people. Yeah, a lot of good runners.

Speaker: So many storylines on on both the men's and women's races. Frederick's an interesting one because I feel like before World Champs last year, he'd performed well in some races but not in not always in like the big, big races. Whereas like since then, he's he's done quite well, like winning World Champs, ah also Marathon Mont Blanc. Yeah, so he could be a good shout. In the women's race, I feel like it's a bit more open now without Tove, like with Tove in there, it was sort of like, oh, how fast is Tove going to run? Yeah. Whereas I feel like without, or it was more Tove's to lose, whereas I feel like now it's like, could be any one of 10, 15, the same in the men, but like the women is like, I don't actually know who's going to be best, who's going to come out on top. They'll be really interesting to see.

Speaker: um In on the Australian side, as we said, Beth McKenzie is running. We claim her as Australian. um In also in the women's race, we have the podcast very own Jess Jason, which is exciting to see. She's been over there crushing some training. So looking forward to seeing how she goes. We've also got Sophie Lynn, Monica Ludricks, Gillian Turnbull, Cecily butter Butler. There's a lot. So I'm just going to call out the top five ranked. So everyone else, sorry, but good luck. um On the men's side, we have Toby Sparks, Thomas Banks, Eddie Keough, Xavier Mead and Trent Irwin running as well as a bunch of others. So exciting to see. I'm excited to see how Jess goes, excited to see how Toby goes.

Speaker: Thomas Banks, I feel like we haven't seen much of him this year, so I'm not sure what he's up to. But i'm yeah, excited to it be good to see him on that start line as well. Yeah, I think um it'll be especially Toby and Jess, I think are both running really well at the moment. I know Jess has been over there at the Assics house.

Speaker: So hopefully she's fit and flying. It's going to be good to see. Yeah. And we've had sort of a bunch of people come around thirti s the last few years. i think I think when we were looking at the UTA preview, both Tate and who was the other one? Blake Turner had come maybe just outside the top 30. So it'd be interesting to see if any of the Aussies, like I feel like the field gets better and better every year. So maybe it's ah it's a hard call to try and crack that top 30. But it'd be interesting to see sort of where they come out in the field.

Speaker: um Jess is, I think Jess and Sophie are ranked by their rankings in the top 50. Whereas I believe Toby was outside the top 50. So um yeah, it'd be interesting to see how that plays out.

Speaker: With an 8.43, that's terrifying. Yeah, crazy. It's crazy. I think the lowest was like 8. I think it was in the 8.60s or maybe high 8.50s. So there's still probably a bunch of people between Toby and and the 50s. So, yeah, it's a very deep race, but there's also a lot of people that blow. So, yeah, it's a good if you if you run a measured race, as we've been talking about the theme of the podcast, then you can um you can still get a great performance um and and the rankings are not everything. So, yeah, excited to see.

Speaker: how those aussie go those Aussies go on to CCC ah where, yeah, there's, again, some exciting Australian prospects. We'll start ah with the general field. So on the men's side, we have who we were talking about before, Christian Monogio, second at Monta Rosa, I think. He got beaten there. Is that right? Yeah, he got a... um He got a time penalty, 15-minute time penalty, and then lost because of that.

Speaker: and That's it a shame. um oh Or maybe he needed it. you know What was the time penalty for? He was being super Euro and just cutting switchbacks. Yeah, okay.

Speaker: Because he's a Skyrunner, so that's kosher. That's very Italian of him. Yeah, it's kosher. Skyrun-esque. Whereas not so much in trial running. Yeah. But he's on the chair at the moment. His Mont Blanc 90K was unbelievable. Yes. he just He just looks so good right now. So I'm really interested to see how he goes.

Speaker: Was it the next guy, Benjamin Rubio, was he also at the Mont Blanc 90? Is he the French guy or was that Coffey? No, that was Louis-Song Coffey. Benjamin Rubio was the one who was he was second at um World Long Trail. Yes. There's so many good French long-distance athletes, it's hard to keep up yep um Also, another Frenchman, Thomas Carden, or Thomas Carden, running. And ah before, ranked slightly higher, ranked third in the field, ah Dan Jones. So, yeah, excited to see how Dan backs up after maybe not his best day at Western States. We also have Guangfao Meng, Nadir Maguire,

Speaker: Adam Peterman, Andre Witek, Eli Hemming, previous winner of OCC. So, yeah, super stacked teams. field on the men's side and on the women's side, headlined by Jen Lichter, who had an incredible Western States.

Speaker: Miau Yao, who i don't know if we've seen her run. She's run a bit of shorter races this year, but like based on what Sim was saying, she was training like earlier in the year and like she had a pretty good UTA. um Excited to see how she goes in the hundred k yeah yeah she one sorry She's actually won ccc before years ago.

Speaker: Okay. And then she went down to shorter and then she's back up. Yeah, in 2020? 2018, she won. Yeah, okay. she's been doing this for a long time and she then she went faster and has come back.

Speaker: think it's really exciting. i think she'll be flying. Yeah, should be a great addition to this field. ah Yingville Kaspersen, again, another one I think maybe the Western States wasn't great. Caitlin Fielder, who did have a very good Western States running. A lot of backups from Western States in this one. Tony McCann, who she did she win CCC a few years ago?

Speaker: She won OCC and CCC. So again, some incredible um some incredible credentials on this course. Fabiola Conti, Hanoka Akiyama, Veronica Lange, Emily Hallgood. So yeah, lots of great, again, lots of great runners in both the men's and women's field. Anyone ah looking out for on either the men's or women's there? didn't call out someone you'd be looking out for. Maybe Mikey Diminantes. Is he one we're looking out for?

Speaker: I think something that makes this race super interesting is that it's a golden ticket race. So there's three entries into Western States for the men and the women. um Whether people take them or not, like I know, say, Dan and Hans Troyer, some of the other Americans are are people that certainly would be going there for the ticket.

Speaker: But it'll be interesting to see how that plays out for it. Yeah, and then given there's some backing up from Western States, there'll probably be some podiums that already have spots at Western States, so there might be a bit of a roll down as well. So Hans Troy is not even in this top 10.

Speaker: No. Ranking-wise. ranked 11th or something. Crazy. Yeah, 10th ranking is 923. Yeah. yeah And the women's 784. That's bonkers. Yeah, some high rankings there. Vlad, anyone that you're keeping an eye on or just the general feel for this race?

Speaker: um Yeah, I think Daniel John is going to do well. I think maybe he's got like a point to prove after Western States. it's of I mean, I see him on Strava and like the amount of case that he does is insane. um And then ah also Thomas Kedan.

Speaker: um Seems like he just does well in any race that he races. um So I think could do well as well if he recovered from Western States. Definitely, definitely. I'm excited to, yeah, be interesting to see If Jen Lichter can back up from Western States, it would be pretty impressive double to do Western States and then also win CCC. I think she definitely got it within her. um But she is yeah up against a pretty strong field there. um So that was yeah' an interesting storyline on the women's side.

Speaker: um All right, the Aussies that we have running. So I mentioned we got we had Mikey on. or maybe a couple of months ago now, talking about ah his preparation for this race. So he, ah Mikey Demiantes, is running um Jack Ferris, Andrew O'Brien, Todd Simpson, Zane Robertson, ah the top five Aussie ranked on the men's. And then in the women's, ah we have Meg Sinclair, Sophie Broome, Nicole Patton, so pretty strong top three there, Belinda James and Tia Bull.

Speaker: um I think Tia won this. in a She won that fractal competition. So she's over there running. I think they paid for her to come across and run. This is her dream race. So oh well very cool to see her there. I think, ah yeah, she was the one that won that competition.

Speaker: um but yeah meg sinclair i we haven't seen heaps from um i'm really been following what she's been up to it'll be interesting to see how she goes sophie ah know has been training pretty hard for this one so looking forward to seeing how sophie does um yeah and i'm i'm really excited to see how mikey goes i don't where do you think he can come charlie like what's what's his prospects i think I think on a dream day, Mikey can sniff around the top 10 if everything goes well, if you know maybe there's some blow-ups. um

Speaker: I think he's in good form. he's This is his main goal of the year. like he hasn't really... done anything else that he's focused for he's built up a lot for this um yeah like i said dream day maybe you sniff top 10 i think top 20 is probably like par um but but the thing is his top 20 is like unbelievably hard to do you have to be so good so it'll be interesting to see i think i think if he's smart and if a couple of things go his way he could have a really good run are you gonna send him any words of wisdom

Speaker: He doesn't want to hear them from me.

Speaker: have to get Vlad to tell him then. Yeah. Nice. Very exciting. Yeah. So be good to see how those Australians go. Good luck to everyone who is running CCC. And then the big dance, the iconic ah final final race to cover today is UTMB. So the full loop, um again, a big strong field. I think it's the strongest women's field by ranking out of the three.

Speaker: um So yeah, but very strong ah ah top 50 runners towing the start line and Leading that, we've got a multiple winner. I'm not sure how many times she's won. More than two. Probably more than three. I don't know. I should know that. Courtney Del Walter. She is running again this year. ah Riley Brady from the US. Fu Zhao Zhang, who we saw at Buffalo earlier in the year. I'm sure that was a key preparation race coming to UTMV. Ruth Croft, winner last year. Abby Hall, winner of Western States last year.

Speaker: Blandine Hirondel, who's just good every time she tows a start line. I'm sure she's won or podiumed at multiple of the the world finals in the past. Lucy Bartholomew, who we'll have our eye on two top tens in the last two years. I'm sure she'll be wanting to ah improve her position. um And she looks like she's having a fantastic year. She's had two seconds against ah two really good runners. She was second at...

Speaker: ah uh vlad's favorite race transvolcania Charlie's been there before. She was second behind Blondine. And then she was second behind Sumaya Buddha at Lavarito.

Speaker: And she was leading a bunch of that race. So, yeah, hopefully Lucy's continued her trajectory and she's on for a good one. um Also, ah Esther Schillag. I'm pretty sure Sunmayer's running as well. She's not in this list. So, yeah, fantastic lineup of women in UTMB.

Speaker: It's an interesting race because... Anything can happen, um and it'll be interesting to see how that one plays out. On the men's side, we have last year's second place, Ben Demon, Caleb Olsen, who won Western States last year. We saw him at GPT.

Speaker: Vincent Bouillard's one previous UTMB winner won Western States this year. Hannes Namburger always seems to be crushing some European races. He's very good at Leverito. John Albin.

Speaker: not sure. Oh, yeah, I think we've seen John race a little bit maybe in the UK. He's had some good performances, but he's all-star, had some great performances over the years. Chris Myers, Andreas Riteria, Baptiste Shazang. Like, there's just, yeah, again, in the men's race, very competitive. So...

Speaker: It's going to be a good, I feel like UTMB is going to be very exciting to watch this year. um I'm particularly excited for that one. I'm excited for the other ones, but like this one just feels really exciting. And I think for me, like having an Aussie who we can maybe follow for a top five, top three potentially is ah is pretty exciting to watch on this end.

Speaker: and watching Ruth, I think Ruth v. Courtney will be like the big battle of the weekend. it's To me, it's like two of the goats going again against each other. um You know, like if Ruth can get a second win on the trot, then That would, I think, inarguably make her one of the best runners of all time. I think she already is.

Speaker: And you're right with Lucy. Like, her training this whole year has been kind of scary, to be honest. Like, she's just been able to do consistently incredible amounts of work.

Speaker: So if if this is if any it's time that we're going to have an Australian on the podium, um this is the year. I mean, we've had Kelly was fourth or was she fifth?

Speaker: I think she was fourth. 2019, which is our best result ever. It's still crazy to think about when you think of this race now. like I feel like I wasn't really in trail running then, but like I know it's changed a bit since then, but it's still like an incredible result. It's crazy.

Speaker: Yeah, Kelly is a legend. So to see someone go close to that would be so special. And I think if anyone can do it, it's Lucy and now's the time. So, you know, we're rooting for you, Lucy.

Speaker: um In the men, I think it's actually quite an open race because you don't have the goats. you know There's no Jim, there's no Killian, there's no Francois. You've got all these guys who ah who ah who were there. I mean, Vincent, is if he didn't have Western States in his legs, then it would be ah probably a different question. But Ben Deem has been so close. Caleb Olsen, on paper, should be really good at it.

Speaker: um Then you've got all these guys that are just waiting to have a good run um and it's just going to take a good run from one from Plus, UTMB is beautiful in that it it's not always as um predictable as some of the other ones. Someone from... yeah Anyone in the top 50 really could podium.

Speaker: So that'll interesting to see. Yeah, I was just like, I was just watching ah the Tom Evans video from from last year and um him and Ben Damon were so far back early on. Like they were nowhere near the front. So it's yeah it's ah it's a cool race to see how that... how it changes and ah someone was saying something like if you get to if you get out of Cormier and continue like you'll gain a bunch of places because like just so the attrition rate past Cormier is just not great so yeah um yeah it's one that you sort of just got to stay in it and you can end up in quite a good position so yeah excited to see

Speaker: how that ends up. On an Aussie side, we talked about Lucy. We've got Steph Austin also running, Hannah McRae, Cecilia Mattis, Anne Hand, and i also just seeing Jasmine Vollmer's name here just under that. So there's some really all-star cast of Aussies running as well. um And on the men's side, the Matt battle, Matt Crayon versus Matt Dunn.

Speaker: um battling each other probably battling themselves to get around I think both of them have maybe not had their best days here in the past so I'm sure they're keen to have a good one um Vlad Shatrov Tom Payton Chris McAuliffe so yeah some really good Aussies running UTMB as well so that's exciting to see sure I think we've been waiting for Crean to have a great run for years and maybe this is the year maybe maybe yeah hopefully fingers crossed Anything else on UTMB, guys, before we yeah jump into some results and then finish up?

Speaker: um No, I just think like all of these races are worth following. So make sure you have your phone charged over the next week because be on the live everyone's going to be on the live stream a lot. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, excited to watch. And like the timings work out quite nicely because they're all starting at random times and whatnot. So you'll be able to catch good bits. You'll probably miss some bits, but there will always be something to watch probably by the end of the week. So yeah, it's going to be good viewing. All right, let's jump into some results. So overseas, we had just the one with some Australians running in it was Trofea Kima. Simone was running. Looks like she had a long day, a tough day, but she got around. She beat all the cutoffs and finished, and I think that's A key part of running Kima is just to get to the end. It's an incredibly tough race. I would encourage anyone who wants to sort of see what the terrain is like, just YouTube, Trofea Kima 2026 highlights. If anything, it's just beautiful mountain watching because the drone footage there is crazy. But, yeah, it's a crazy race. Sim finished in 11 hours and 6 minutes for a race.

Speaker: It's a 50K with 4,000 roughly meters of climb. So it's it's incredibly slow going. um But she got it done. Matt Cooper was also running. He ran 9 hours 28. And ah shout out to Jax Cooper who came nineteenth in mini Kima. I don't really know how far that one was. He ran 28 minutes, so maybe like 5K. Little kids race. So went on to Jax.

Speaker: There was 18 Italians in front of him. Kima is in Italy. One to watch. Yeah, one to watch. One to watch. The son of Coops, he's going to be probably the best technical kid you've ever seen in your entire life.

Speaker: Yeah, and that's saying something like Coops took nine hours, 28 to get around that course, and he's really good in the mountains. So, yeah, it just sort of shows how tough that course is. um So, well done to or everyone, to Sim and and and the Cooper family who were there.

Speaker: um More domestically, we had Transcend. We talked a little bit about this before. Charlie, obviously winning the 65 kilometers in five hours, 39.05 new course record. take it off Took it off Mikey. Did you send him a message to tell him you took his course record?

Speaker: He's trying to say that it's a short course, which it is. It was a couple of K shorter. Okay. And he got lost a little bit, but don't worry. I've already sent him all the little splits where I ran. Yeah, you've got to find the data that proves it.

Speaker: yeah It was a different course, but um yeah i think I think I've got him a little bit there. yeah We'll give it to you, I think. i think ah Billy Curtis ran five hours, 59, 27 to come in second, just under six hours. Federico Cravara came in third in six hours, 26. was sort of in third all day. He had a very rough-looking last 5K. He kept popping up, on the like cramping on the in the in the last 5K. He did well to...

Speaker: get to the finish line and maintain his third place. ah In the women, Holly Ranson had a blinder after running one hundred and twenty five k race the weekend before. I don't know how she did it, but she ran first in a new course record as well in six hours, 35. Kelly Angel was in second in 10 hours, 14.31, and Chrissy Laurie was third in seven hours, 25.08. And, yeah, it was pretty tight for Kelly. I mean, Holly sort of ran out the front, but the other girls were sort of all going backwards and forwards all day. um So, it was yeah, it was a really good race for sort of second to fifth there in in the women's race. um So it was cool to watch.

Speaker: In the forty k Ben Burgess took the win ah in three hours, 24-54. Joel Gray was second three hours, 28-20. And Luke Hutchison in three hours, 41. For third, Petra, je I always say her last name wrong, Geragian.

Speaker: sure that's wrong, 4 hours 10, sorry, Petra. And second was Abby Watson in 4 hours 20, and in third was Jerry Viros in 4 hours 43. There was a 28K. The winner was Chris Council in the men, 2 hours 24, and Jennifer Boer in 3 hours 13, and a 12K, Kaylin Bennett in 51 minutes, and Sandy Franco in 1 hour 15, 29 in the women. So that was Transcend.

Speaker: I can continue on. We had Run Your Outback Trail Festival. I'm just going to call out some of the winners. So there was a 7K night race. Lorna Bade took the win in the women 37.31 Keith Bosworth in and then there was a twenty eight k Catherine Boyd won in 3 hours 31. Jack Hopkinson won in 2 hours 44.24 for the men. And a 56K Felicity Pigeon won in 7.02.20. And looks like that was the outright win because Paul McDonald, won in the men's in seven hours 21 14 so well done felicity uh there we talked a little bit before there was the back out ultra 24 hour max format uh the winner there there were six remaining after 24 hours and then lockron lachlan cameron came out on top in the last lap

Speaker: um Russell Falls trail run down in Tassie. I put this one in because it's like a 6K trail race and it's the only distance, which I think is quite cool. So it's short and fast. It's a really nice loop if you ever go to Mountfield National Park. It's sort of just around the bottom part with the like three or four waterfalls that you run past. It's very nice. Titch Hager won 25-13 and Anna Hughes won the women's in

Speaker: And then we had Fed Hill. Fed Hill? I've lost it. Oh, Federation Hill of the Riverina Trail Running Series. I believe this is the last one. Ellie Jackson won the females long course in 1 hour 41. Nadia Birch was second in 1 hour 57.27. And seconds separating.

Speaker: So a bit of sprint finish.

Speaker: separating so a bit of a sprint finish uh rory parnell was first in the men in one 39 25 second was geordie probit in one hour 46 59 and joey evans it's one hour 48 28 so yeah another really good run from ellie jackson i'm not sure if it's a course record on that one i feel like she's broken all the course records this year she would have been second overall as well so good run from her ah In the medium course, Annabelle Horne won the females 47-20 and Craig Fjordahart won the men 41.

Speaker: And craig foorhart won the won 29-20 Hudson won 42. and in the short course zoe hancock won twenty nine twenty and hudson fisher won In 2907. So Hudson ran 2907. Zoe ran 2920.

Speaker: Chris Tolk ran 2917. And Rhys McKee ran 2947. So pretty tight at the end there. Four people within 40 seconds.

Speaker: It's some fun racing when it's the short distances. um Always get a sprint finish. Nice one. So that is all the results from this week. ah Coming up, we have Capital to Coast stage stage race, stage trail race from Canberra to the coast, I assume. Have you heard of this one, Charlie?

Speaker: Um, like a little bit. It's pretty, it's, it's like a really good community event. I think a lot of people get around it. Um, so what, yeah, we've got over three days, but I think it says there's stages one to four on Saturday and five to eight. I'm not actually really sure. how Yeah. I feel like there's lots of short distance, if I remember correctly, like these sort of do multiple shorter distances within, and I'm not sure you run, like, I don't think it's like consecutive distance. I think you just must run like,

Speaker: you must have to drive to the next spot and then run or something like that. You do. So so you start, there's you do a 10K loop on Friday afternoon and then on Saturday you have four stages. One starts at 6.30.

Speaker: no, they all start at different times. Yeah, 6.45, 9.15, 12.30, 10K loop, 12K loop, 10K loop. That's so fun. Yeah, that sounds really fun.

Speaker: That must be hard backing up run after run. You'd have to really think about how you're sort of managing your speed because you'd be like, I can run really quick, but you've got to run another like seven times.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So that's a cool race coming up in Canberra. ah Coastal High happening up in Queensland. I think this is a relatively big one for our Queensland trail runners in Springbrook, which Springbrook National Park. I think it's pretty nice trails up there. Yeah.

Speaker: Great White Ultra in South Australia, ah Northwest Trail Running Series number three in Penguin in Tasmania, and trail Trailblaze Fun Run WA and Wonderland Run in the Grampians, which I believe is...

Speaker: single track have taken over this year but has been sort of around for a while so that one's a cool race in the grampians pretty iconic in that middle section which is yeah really beautiful trails lots of like really rocky um so yeah that one's happening there few others up in queensland there's a lot um lot going on still up in the northern states so Yeah, we'll touch back in on some of those next week. But thank you for joining us. Charlie has been great to have you have your insights on UTMB here about what you've been up to. Vlad, good to check in. Chamonix correspondent. Have a good yeah have a good UTMB week. um And yeah, thanks. I'm going to try and do all the group runs this week. Sorry, go on. but

Speaker: Yeah, how many can you get to in one week, Vlad? I'd like to see a counter. I think there's probably like 10 every single day now. So um you can probably 19 hours of group runs this week.

Speaker: That could be your ultra training is just like do all the all the group runs and just win them all. Make sure you win them all.

Speaker: Vlad's going to become the biggest influencer in Chamonix this week. He's freed up from his BICS requirements. I'm not cool enough. Always time for a rebrand. That's what I said. Anyway, thank you, Vlad. Thank you, Charlie. Great to chat. And listeners, hope you enjoyed this one and we'll talk to you next week.

Speaker: Thanks, Brody. Thanks, Vlad. See you guys.