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Gary Mullins & Geoff Russell | Why They Stepped Down From AUTRA
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AUTRA President Gary Mullins and Vice President Geoff Russell have stepped down — and it’s sparked a lot of questions across the trail community.
In this episode, Gary and Geoff share what led to the decision, the internal challenges they faced, and why athlete advocacy, selection, and governance direction became major pressure points.
We also look ahead to what the AGM means, what they hope happens next, and what needs to change to keep Australian trail running moving forward.
If you care about the future of trail running in Australia, this one’s worth a listen — and if it helps, share it with a mate who’s been following the story.
***Don’t forget, use code PEAK at Bix’s website for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners!***
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
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Transcript
Introduction to Leadership Changes in ORTRA
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Peep Seats podcast. My name is James Sieber and we've got a bit of a different one for you today. If you've been following the news around trail running in Australia recently, there was a big announcement made on behalf of ORTRA a couple of days ago the time recording at the beginning of March, stating that the President Gary Mullins and the Vice President Jeff Russell were going to be stepping down from their positions within ORTRA. Now,
00:00:42
Speaker
Gary was on the podcast back in, i think, October. um There's been this big push within an Ortra to really try and take trail running in Australia to a new level, create a governance structure around it, obviously also with the conversation about going to the Olympics.
Future Direction of ORTRA: What's Next?
00:00:56
Speaker
And that's all changed, or at least that's the perception that we've had a lot of questions from. So because a lot of you have been asking what's going on, um those were sort of the p polite way of putting it with Ortra. We thought we'd get the guys on. I did reach out to David Martin, who is the acting director. president at Autra. He's declined at the moment to have a chat with us, at least until they do the AGM, which is on the 28th of March. and the twenty eighth So and until that point, we're just going to hear from from these guys. So Gary, Jeff, welcome. Well, Gary, welcome back to the show. Jeff, well welcome to
Reasons Behind Leadership Resignations
00:01:26
Speaker
the Thank you guys for doing it. Thanks, James.
00:01:28
Speaker
um So just going to kick off with as much as you can say, this very much seemed like it came out of the blue. We got then and the email saying that it was, I think, for for personal reasons that you guys have stepped down. And it was saying that you've both made a really big impact into Autra. And the time that you've been there has been a big transition over the last sort of nine months or so with Trail coming into what was Aura. But Gary, asked start with yourself.
00:01:56
Speaker
From what you can share, What ah has kind of caused both of you to step down at the same time? ah Well, I'll speak for myself because Jeff will have his reasons of stepping down. um You know, I'll start. I think the the good thing with Jeff and I is like probably four to five months before taking on this role, we were introduced to each other. So we got to know each other and share.
00:02:23
Speaker
um each other's vision and I think we aligned in a ah lot of things and we made a pact that we would support each other and but on the same breath that if there was something that we were doing as well that the other thought no we can't do that or shouldn't be doing that or shouldn't be saying that we'd call them out as well which which we have all along ah I'm sure stuff will come out, but I won't take up too much, but it's from the get-go from the very start when I was
Challenges in Athlete Support within ORTRA
00:02:58
Speaker
elected.
00:02:58
Speaker
And I said, I was in here for the voice of runners, members, race directors, volunteers, and everyone else involved in the sport. ah Every,
00:03:11
Speaker
decision I've made along that journey has been for those members and the runners and the race directors. What I wasn't expecting was, what's the right word? Pushback.
00:03:28
Speaker
um In me, when I say me, sticking up for athletes, athletes like fighting for being on the team, fighting for an athlete for his crew member to be on the team um and then just recently fighting being on the team as well.
00:03:47
Speaker
um I wasn't sticking up for those people because they're my mates or I know I might never met them before coming into this role. I stood up for them because they had a voice and I believed and this was around the 24 hour running I believed they were an asset to 24 ronnie ah They have a huge following.
00:04:10
Speaker
They're our best current athletes at those distances. They deserve to be on that team. And I fought for them and I got kicked back from it. And I wasn't expecting that.
00:04:22
Speaker
And three months in, was reprimanded, I think, if you want to say. A letter was written ah with a whole lot of details outlining the why I wasn't a good leader.
00:04:37
Speaker
And so this is three months in, I just passed that over to my lawyer to deal with um and came back in the meeting. And the that meeting, it was raised um and the person that had submitted it, all those complaints had nothing to say.
00:04:55
Speaker
And I just moved on from it straight away. But that started the common trend. that every time we would try and do something for the good of the sport, there would be fight back.
00:05:08
Speaker
um There was, um you know, selectors, you know our selectors or resigned, I think two weeks ago, um not because they have done anything wrong.
00:05:22
Speaker
I want to make this clear, right? Because people, that people go, oh, the selectors resigned. What did you do? What I did was stand up for athletes um in what I thought was the best thing that should be done.
00:05:36
Speaker
The selectors and i give credit to them i stuck to what the policies were and they didn't do anything wrong. They just didn't see the vision that I had and maybe Jeff had and the rest of the committee had.
00:05:52
Speaker
um And I think James, 10 months of constantly fighting for runners in the sport We launched this frigging awesome, and like I might get a bit upset on this, that our playbook, which is supposed to be the next five years, okay, and that moves and changes for what it is. Do you know how much time I got to spendt on spend on that from January 1st to last Wednesday?
00:06:23
Speaker
lost my swear word, zero, nothing, because I was constantly fighting. um I was waking up at 2 a.m. every night. And it came to the point ah last Monday week, I had, sorry, last Wednesday week, I woke up again at two and my wife was up. She said, let's go for a walk.
00:06:46
Speaker
And she said, when you said you wanted to do this, we said we knew it would be 20 to 30 hours a week. um And there would be battles. And there have been, she goes, but this is constant, this can't go on.
00:07:01
Speaker
um I went and had a chat with one of my runners who happened, his career and life, he's on boards and same with his wife. He put a question to me um that I took away. i walked out of his house and I jumped on the train. I opened up my emails and there was another email in there just ripping me apart and everything that I'm pushing for. And I just went, I can't do this anymore.
00:07:26
Speaker
because there's just constant kickbacks. That was seven just over seven days ago. Okay, so a couple of things in there. First thing, from from the you fighting for the athletes and the selection process, was that a case of the athletes that you felt should get
Internal Conflicts over Policies and Criteria
00:07:42
Speaker
on and met the criteria not getting on? Or were you kind of fighting for athletes that maybe didn't hit the exact selection criteria as it is? Because we do know that there are criteria that have, I guess you could say, grandfathered in, especially towards the trail side of things, yeah that conflict a bit with how you would naturally select someone. Yeah, look, they they both met the criteria.
00:08:04
Speaker
um Selection on merit alone, they get selected full stop. um There were, and I'm, Jeff, should i Jeff's my advisor here.
00:08:15
Speaker
um You know, there was, with there was a bit of to and fro. um we at that time, not just for her, but for a lot of athletes that Jeff had spoken to, a lot of trial athletes and a lot of athletes that we had spoken to.
00:08:30
Speaker
um i had spoken to of the changes within the athletes agreement. So we we did that. And, ah at that time you have to sign the athletes agreement and she wouldn't.
00:08:46
Speaker
I did ask the selectors ah to allow her one week and they did, they did allow her. um And she like got on the team and you know, we saw how awesome she ran.
00:08:58
Speaker
ah With I won't at this stage, I won't go into the detail on Merit alone. selected. ah a selected um And however, so he wasn't selected um and there's, oh, Jeff, should I, because I don't want to make it like it ah all it's all the selectors fault because it wasn't, they stuck to selection policy and there's part of the selection policy
00:09:29
Speaker
ah that ah had asked for something to happen. The selectors said no. um and at that time i was i was like requested to speak to selectors by Assume Corps where there were other committee meeting members on there.
00:09:48
Speaker
They expressed at that time their disappointment in how I had handled the situation, um which is fine. They have their view. I have my view.
00:10:00
Speaker
um I hadn't done anything wrong. um i made a mistake by not sending ah a certain email through, right? But that was an oversight, but it's not like I kept that email to myself. I had spoken to Jeff about it. ah It, you know, and it wasn't myself that kind of kicked on with f***ing ah it was He appealed his non-selection and we went through the process and he was selected.
00:10:34
Speaker
ah And off the basis of that, the selectors decided that, no, they're stepping down. Again, they've done nothing wrong, they've worked within the policies.
00:10:46
Speaker
um However, i feel we we have policies, right? And I think one of the selectors said, our policies need to be changed to reflect what we're trying to achieve. And I 100% agree with him on that.
00:11:02
Speaker
What I was trying to do was put on the the wide lens and I'm very open about this. can we put on those wide lents and have a look at the sport of 24 hours, the struggles, there's no next generation.
00:11:17
Speaker
We have, at the end of 2027, we only have 20 certified tracks in Australia that you can run on, that you can break Australian
Trail Running vs Ultra Running: Representation Challenges
00:11:26
Speaker
records or age group records.
00:11:28
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff going against the sport at the moment. So I'm looking at from a broad lens and going, well, we want to grow the sport we want to protect the great history of twenty four hour running in this country Right, so let's try and work together.
00:11:44
Speaker
Hey, James, maybe my leadership and my communication wasn't, you know, the best in that to get that message, I don't know. But that's that's that's all I do. i've I try and look at the sport where it is and where we need to take it and go, right, can we do this?
00:12:01
Speaker
When you guys came on board, obviously this is the the the previous committee had got trails be part of Aura to become Autra. Then you guys come in.
00:12:12
Speaker
Inevitably, I think anyone would expect that to be some form of struggle as the two sort of assimilate together and find this new new normal. How did you feel representing the trail side of the community when you were coming into what was once Aura?
00:12:28
Speaker
Jeff, this is yours. Yeah, I suppose, James, just going back on what Gary said, when i when I came in, the reason that I put my hand up to be part of what true was mainly to, well, was to represent trail.
00:12:43
Speaker
Um, it had only been in when I started, had only been there for a year. I think it was, and was still, well, not the poor cousin, but it was the forgotten part of aura I felt and wanted to try and represent, uh, trail as best as I could.
00:13:02
Speaker
Um, and I thought I'd be able to do that. Um, With Gary's support, we were able to come up with the playbook and a big part of that playbook was there was a lot of trail initiatives in there around volunteering, around sort of environmental stuff. um And that was stuff that we wanted to get to and still want to get to.
00:13:26
Speaker
And ah the plan was to get to it this year. um But we never got to that because unfortunately the ultra side of Aura was just taking up and still taking up way, way too much of our time.
00:13:43
Speaker
um I don't know what the numbers are. The numbers are something like 80% of our members are um are trail runners. 83%. 83%. So, eighty three percent so That's a big portion of the membership base, but that other percent is taking up 83% of the time, that other 17%. And for me, it was very, very frustrating, um not just seeing what was happening to gary because there was a lot of really really personal attacks there and i had to um go in and try and defend him an awful lot um but i just wasn't getting anywhere with what i wanted to get done with trail um so that was sort of i suppose
00:14:28
Speaker
and And the final straw was when Gary did resign was some emails that got sent out, which was basically saying, okay, well, let's bring the selectors straight back. Let's renege selection um and stuff like that. And it was just...
00:14:48
Speaker
it was just wrong to me i i just wanted to come in get into the trail stuff um having like last night i spent two hours on the phone call uh with itra until after midnight so i'm still doing stuff for trail in the background and one of the good things and one of the things i did ask is even i'm resigning as vice president that i could stay on as chair of the trail subcommittee which um i'm grateful that ortra's committee at the moment have done so i can keep doing some of that work i've got in the background um i'm talking to itra and and things like that where like um still going to buffalo which is our national
Optimism for Trail Running's Future in Australia
00:15:30
Speaker
championship so part of that will be going talking to the race organizers finding out
00:15:34
Speaker
a lot about what they're doing environmental-wise so I can keep doing that stuff, um but it'll just be through the trail subcommittee. And um as you mentioned, we've got an AGM coming up. So at that AGM, we'll see what the new committee looks like and hopefully they will want me to stay on and I can keep doing some of that trail work at least in the background. Yeah, all right. For...
00:16:01
Speaker
the sake of trying look at this from both perspectives and maybe this is like a bit of an impossible question but if you were to zoom out look at this objectively do you feel like there are decisions that you made or or or ways you went about things that knowing what you know now you would have changed but about your approach gary for coming in as the president yeah i i wouldn't have changed my approach of like the best for the sport my communication maybe.
00:16:32
Speaker
ah i would well I had a lot of phone calls with a lot of people when when I first came on. um you know We're talking five to 10 phone calls day a day, ah speaking to the chair of selectors, um you know speaking with race directors.
00:16:52
Speaker
So i communicate a lot. I communicate that much that afterwards i have to write down in my book what I've said because have that many conversations in a day.
00:17:03
Speaker
um Maybe I could have painted the vision better. um the committee agreed on the playbook. I think when a committee agrees on a playbook, um I remember when it was finally presented to them and I went through it and I spoke and there's this that awkward silence afterwards. And I went, what do you think guys? And they're like, no, that's good.
00:17:28
Speaker
So kind of think when you've got something, a vision, right, let's get behind it. um And, you know, I know we only launch launched that at the end of October um and we went through some, yeah, we had a fairly hectic first six months to get that out and deal with everything else that was happening.
00:17:49
Speaker
um But Jeff and I were confident, right, we got through that. the The two championships that we'd had, the team managers were great, the athletes were had said that especially the 24 hour team, it was the best team they had been part of.
00:18:08
Speaker
And that was because nothing to do with me or us or any portrait. We had a great leader in Hayley, Boneham as team manager, got the team together. And we're talking like girls and guys that are represented three, four, five, six times.
00:18:24
Speaker
And for them to say, you know, in the last four or five years, that's the best team, that's a blueprint. that we can start working towards. And one of the the team manager for the 100K, he actually sent through, I think it was about a month ago, Jeff, three weeks ago. yeah He wrote a blueprint. He said, here it is. Can we start working towards this?
00:18:46
Speaker
So the athletes could see it. Everyone we were speaking to could see it. Race directors could see it. Everyone Jeff was talking to could see it. um There were people behind the scenes that maybe they could see it but they just didn't want to be a part of it. And I can't, you've got to get them on and get their perspective of why. Like, I don't know.
00:19:09
Speaker
It puzzles me. No, I understand
New Initiatives and Internal Opposition
00:19:12
Speaker
that. And obviously, yeah when when one feels like they're doing all the right things and the momentum is there and there's a roadblock, you have to question why and and who and what. if Even when, sorry to dominate here, Jeff, but even like the idea, this was Jeff's idea for like to bring in first and second state champs.
00:19:34
Speaker
short course long course automatic over to Asia, right? Brilliant idea. No one's ever done it before. Great idea. First first thing, right, Jeff had done.
00:19:46
Speaker
It was a Friday night and I think it was about, it had been released and within been about half an hour, Jeff's messaging me. And those messages went back and forth for over three hours because Jeff was getting criticized.
00:20:03
Speaker
Why? You can't do that. It has to fall in within the framework. And, you know, Jeff will probably talk about it. And it's like, well, yeah, we know. And we've we're communicating that. And this is what we're doing. Right.
00:20:16
Speaker
But he just kept getting payment from it. And then at 7.30, I get a phone call. Right. And i won't say who it was from. And before they spoke, I went, can you just, before you speak, I know what you're going to say.
00:20:30
Speaker
I said, Jeff has been copying it for three hours. Now you're ringing me up. I know what gonna say. now How about you just look at it and stop and go, this good for the sport?
00:20:43
Speaker
Is this good to attract our top runners to an event? All right, it is something different. It's not perfect, right, but hey, If it isn't perfect, we'll build on it afterwards.
00:20:57
Speaker
And how about giving us a pat on the back, right? That person did a lesson and then gave me a full lecture of everything that we did wrong. It was just everything that we tried to do was just met with criticism within our area, not from the athletes and the people outside.
00:21:16
Speaker
and that And that took a lot of work for us to get that to happen, James, is because we had to Massage that relationship with Athletics Australia after the World Championships and um and they basically agreed for us to trial it because it's what the athletes wanted and that's what I listened to them when I was over there in the chats I had over in Spain and it's what they wanted was all those spots yes we might not have got this field and depth that we might have hoped for but it's a start and it's a starting point and like i listened to your podcast the other day where you interviewed michael and he was just over the moon and just listening to him and i remember us talking to him afterwards where he said so i actually get to go to china now do i and and the realization that that
00:22:06
Speaker
that had happened and like um we rolled down one of the um to britney uh harridan who got third so she got a roll down spot because um uh sophie who got second couldn't take it um and and then i think um Yeah, I believe or understand that now Michael's ITRA score is actually after that race um puts him in the top 30. So yes from going where yeah from going to where we were getting criticised, he's now in the top 30 and he'd be likely an automatic selection anyway.
00:22:44
Speaker
And he's news to the sport and that's what we need to do. That's what we need to do is find these people, find these cross-country runners, find these junior runners that are coming from school cross country and get them to come over to Asia, represent Australia, do the 15K and stay in our sport.
00:23:03
Speaker
So that's what I'm trying to do. Now, I can... Speaking to the auto selection and also just using basically every single country that has an um a developed trail, professional trail side to it, they all have ah national trail champs with at least one or two spots of auto selection.
00:23:23
Speaker
And yes, we didn't get the depth, but we still got the quality. as ah Before were looking, and Michael scored an 857 to average out at 831. 857 is one of the highest scores we've ever seen on Australian soil. It places places him eighth now in the rankings. And Brittany, she's ranked 27th general now in Australia.
00:23:43
Speaker
So that also puts her into there. So ah from from my side as a podcaster and a coach and a fan of the sport, I'm looking at this and saying, well, it's achieved its objectives because it's taken... it's It's brought people in that probably wouldn't have made the seven-hour drive to this event in the high country or even to the national chance. We saw that last year with five peaks.
00:24:02
Speaker
And it's placed very competitive runners into that field. um And even you look at Michael, he did cosy bunch of years ago, like it's not like the novices to it. It's not like a guy's just come off the roads and into the trails and smash it straight away. He's been a two base for the last five years straight and has that experience, but now it's had a reason to translate that a bit more specifically to it. So from that side, I'm definitely a big fan and I commend you for putting that.
00:24:28
Speaker
Well, for fighting for that, because we definitely, it's something that we've been screaming for, for a while. Yeah, and and the hope is that Athletics Australia will see that and um we can work with them still and for it to happen for the world champs next year. so Geoff, I guess the question now is you're still involved in Ortra from the trail perspective. there was It felt like there was a lot of momentum building within the trail running side and obviously this is a trail running podcast so I'm not thinking about the Ultra. um Although we we had *** who straddles both and I guess you could say to a degree ***.
00:25:01
Speaker
But where do you see, what's the landscape now for trail running in Australia? And where do you see that momentum going? Have we lost it all or is it are we can we stay optimistic?
Growth and Professionalization of Trail Running
00:25:13
Speaker
I think we can stay optimistic. I think um the trail subcommittee, we've got some great people on that subcommittee. um Until we see who the new ORTRA committee is and what and how we can work with them,
00:25:29
Speaker
um That's going to be the next big question, I suppose. um if yeah Hopefully I'm umm kept on and I can work at it just coming at from a different angle. and And to be honest, it might actually work out better because i won't have all of that overlying politics. I can just focus on trail running and doing the trail running side of things as long as I can get some support from the ORTRA committee. going forward like we've already started with the relationship with athletics Australia so it's about maintaining that and um speaking regularly to Adam around that as well um so I think we can be optimistic um just listening to
00:26:17
Speaker
how many of our athletes at the moment are getting contracts so with manufacturers and shoe manufacturers or product manufacturers is what we've seen happening in america over the last two to three years is now starting to happen in australia and that's what we need to do is get get that money into our sport one of the things that gary and i were working on closely was around marketing and sponsorship and getting money into autra and and Hopefully the new committee still pick up on that and still keep driving it because that's the one big thing that is holding our sport back in this country is the money or lack ah of it in trail running.
00:27:00
Speaker
um Athletics of Australia, for example, they're looking at their participation numbers and they see trail running as they' one of their biggest areas to find those participation numbers. So um that's something that we need to look to leverage off as well going forward.
00:27:16
Speaker
When the news came out, my first concern was knowing how much work has been done to develop and establish this relationship with AA. Obviously trail running at the world stage is now coming under World Athletics and that's why we need that relationship with AA.
00:27:29
Speaker
It was that they might now look at ultra and trail trail and ultra running. um with and ah a view of maybe it's immaturity or or it's it's just a bit of incompetence almost because like, well, how how can you your president and your vice president be stepping down and you want us to trust you with actual governance, not just a a a committee essentially.
00:27:56
Speaker
To those concerns, Gary, I'll come to you what What would you say to to that train of thought? Nah, I think it comes down to the the next AGM and who is on that committee.
00:28:09
Speaker
ah Like Jeff, the sport, we we were only caretakers of the sport. ah New people come in and new people will pick up the conversations ah with AI.
00:28:22
Speaker
Still having Jeff involved within that trial a subcommittee is a huge, huge bonus ah to Autra. And I'm not worried. i ah think the momentum can still keep going with what Jeff and I have created. What I'm hopeful is that this was the line in the sand for...
00:28:47
Speaker
the current committee and people involved in the sport and that we will get younger, fresher minds, people that have got, you know, that can come in and pick up the playbook, make adjustments, they might create their own.
Vision for State-Level Growth and Engagement
00:29:03
Speaker
um But just see the sport how it is and see the amazing opportunities that are there and have a committee that's working together and progress forward and continue with the work that Jeff and I have done. Yeah.
00:29:16
Speaker
And Jeff, to trying to what what still leaves you, stepping away from this, what's still leaving you excited about being part of Ultra from from the more of a trail-specific component? like what what yeah What should we be excited about for the future? ah Yeah, look, I think um the Ultra side of running i i've never really been a part of that side of things ah but look i i love the history that's there i've got a lot of people a lot of great mates that have been a part of that um but when it i and gary will say that when when we talked about the loopy stuff i think i called it didn't i gary but um my eyes had sort of glazed over because um
00:30:06
Speaker
It was not where my passion was. That doesn't mean that um I wasn't part of the conversations and everything, but the trail running side, going to over to support the team last year over in Cairn Frank, just being around the team, but also around all those other ah great athletes and seeing of where trail running is going. Trail running is just on such an upward trajectory at the moment, it's just, um it's going to be mind blowing what goes on. And it's about trying to make sure that what we do here in Australia is support our best runners and do the best that we can. We get money into the sport so we can be supporting them like um up here in Queensland, I'm still part president of track and have been for the last couple of years. And one of the things I'll be doing is staying on here.
00:31:04
Speaker
I have a development team which I've always um um been running for the last couple of years. We had visions of that happening at a national level. We've got visions still of state bodies in each state having a different um organisation.
00:31:22
Speaker
um How that looked, um was where we were working towards with with OTRA um how that looks now is I suppose it hopefully still looks the same but I think it's really important that we get some of these trail organizations in each state a bit like track so we can um have some sort of local oversight about races and what's going on. We can look at driving the membership base, listening to our members regularly. um So that sort of stuff, will it'll still continue on. ah
00:31:58
Speaker
Hopefully, if if I'm still part of the trial committee, if I'm not, whoever takes over the trial committee, I know we've got some strong people on there. Hopefully they stay around and they can drive that forward as well.
00:32:11
Speaker
um But, yeah, i I just see Australian trail running as booming at the moment. Like we've got so many events popping up. if if that I don't know that that's a good thing sometimes. I think um there might be way, way too many. And that's why that's why our national championship numbers, I haven't seen the long course ones, but that's why the numbers are slightly down, I suppose. Yeah.
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah like i I think we'll, by nature of the event, I think we'll definitely see ah a denser field at the the long course. But is there is there ah and an opportunity or a way that Aura or Ultra is one avenue under AA and Trail and Mountain or separate becomes another avenue and and the two do separate again, but still governed by ai Yeah, I think the biggest thing sort of ah a lot of what I've been doing since over the last seven days, Gary and I have obviously been doing a lot of thinking about how we can still try and influence the sport. monitor
00:33:13
Speaker
history lessons I suppose that I've come across is that um Athletics Australia was ah quite vocal in pushing for trail running to come under Aura so they dealt with the one body so um it's a conversation I suppose that we'd have to have chats with AA going forward whether it's through Autra or through trail running um I know AA look after the mountain stuff at the moment. And they sort of more or less said to us that we can sort of be helping out and having a lot more involvement in that. And that's something that we want to do. So like next year, for example, I'd love it that we have a big national championships where all races are sort of at at the one event or um at two events or something like that. We have sort the mountain at one event and the trail long and shorter than another. So we make a ah big deal of it. and
00:34:13
Speaker
You start doing things like that. You can start following down and doing trail cons and stuff like that. and make ah mike yeah then Then you're starting to get our sponsors, all of them coming into the sport, all coming together as well. as And taking track and trail running Association of Queensland, an example, did that get started by anything to do with Aura or Trey? No, no. It was...
00:34:40
Speaker
was that no no it was um Well, believe it or not, this weekend we've got our Pinnacles Classic on and it's our 20th anniversary. That race is 20 years old and the um yeah and tracks 20 years old um this year. So it came about basically, um the history is the Glasshouse series of events. So anyone who knows trail running history knows that the Glasshouse used to be Australia's oldest miler.
00:35:11
Speaker
um And many, many, a big name ultra runner or trail runner will have run or won that race. And it was one race that everyone knew about. It was started by track.
00:35:23
Speaker
um and all those years ago and that was how it is. There's out on the signs around the Glasshouse Mountains, there's all these signs saying this track or um this was donated by track giving money and doing regeneration work and and things like that. So that was sort of how track started. It came about with some some sort of guys that wanted to have an event and then it started to sort of have more of a mind of its I suppose we've had race...
00:35:56
Speaker
We've still got four of our own races on, um but that's something we're even looking at at the moment of sort of moving some of those races on to be run by some of our local running clubs and them taking over and them taking over as custodians of those races. So um we give money away to charities. So we've given seven and a half grand of money that we raised at those races around away to charities this year as well. So.
00:36:22
Speaker
but So there is the opportunity for say Victoria which is like the standout to create something like that even if say say Orchard wanted to get behind it but they were two years away from doing so there is an opportunity it's there or or is is that not not productive? Yeah that's sort of i suppose that's a bit where my thought process is going around sort of New South Wales, Victoria and sort of setting up some sort of state bodies there but on saying that it's something that we'd have those discussions with the ORTRA committee because we don't want to go and create an association that we've then got to sort of disband because it doesn't fit under what ORTRA want to do. so
00:37:03
Speaker
Cool. All right. Well, Jeff, we kind of know what's next you to a degree. You're still obviously until, well, for a another, hopefully long term, but for at least three weeks, you're still still chairing the ah the trail committee. Gary, as far as I know, you've probably just freed up essentially an entire weeks worth of volunteer time what's what's on the cards for you going forward he found his backyard yeah yes yeah yes it hasn't been looked after for a while uh no no decisions uh it's the first time in a long while where it's just coaching and my sessions um i have you know just communicated with everyone i'm taking 30 days
00:37:47
Speaker
ah off just I do need to refresh mentally. You know, it's like, yeah, it's it's interesting how much it does take out of you physically and mentally something like this.
00:38:02
Speaker
ah So no idea, I'll decide obviously coaching, I've been doing that for 20 years. So that keeps rolling. But whatever other adventures at the moment, I'm not sure.
00:38:16
Speaker
Gary, just staying with you, is is there anything that we I haven't touched on or you feel like is is relevant to this conversation?
Call for New Leaders in ORTRA
00:38:22
Speaker
na look, um shit happens in life, right? Sorry. Like it's – I don't – you know, everyone keeps moving forward. The sports – sport keeps moving forward.
00:38:37
Speaker
ah i think that's the most important thing here. ah I just – what – I hope is at the AGM that there's people, new people, because that's what we need.
00:38:51
Speaker
ah we need you people that you know love trial and any form of ultra as well um but they understand that you know as custodians of the sport we're there to serve of the sport not the other way around and I feel that was a big thing with a lot of people that's been involved in what was initially aura and now aa um i respect everyone that's been involved and they're all good people. i don't have any issues with anyone.
00:39:27
Speaker
um However, I think you have to be smart and understand that when it's your time, it's your time and you should move on and let the sport grow.
00:39:38
Speaker
um So this is my call out for, man, if you love the sport and go and read the playbook, this guy, you know i call him the dude, right? The trail dude, um man, the the passion, have passion that, never seen anyone have more passion than myself.
00:39:57
Speaker
for sport. My passion is running, Jeff is trial. um you know Get involved and you know whole new committee, whole new selection committee, probably shouldn't say that, but oh well. ah you know Get involved and like work out the things that do need to be changed, the policies to fit what our sport should be about.
00:40:22
Speaker
And let's get cracking. Jeff, anything else to leave us with? No, I think the biggest thing yeah really is, as Gary said, we do need to change. Trail's been part of...
00:40:35
Speaker
orrugh for two years now we need a voice or more of a voice on the on the committee um what that looks like if if you're an ORTRA member and you're willing to put your hand up and have a go um trust me you'll have my support and I'm just only a phone call away because My vision is that trail becomes a big part of OTRA going forward and that we can get some traction.
00:41:08
Speaker
We get the traction with Athletics Australia. So, um um yeah, as I said last night, i was in a meeting with ITRA. ITRA are listening. They're already listening and they're looking at adopting some suggestions that I've made. They've made made mention of it at their General Assembly last night. They're looking at Asia Pacific having some wildcard spots available for the country, which is one of the things Gary and I talked about is some development runners.
00:41:37
Speaker
um Is this that wildcard, is that a potential avenue for us to send a development runner across the Asia Pacific with the hope that they then kick on to the world. so um So, yeah, so I think that's the biggest thing. And it's a shame the AGM does fall on the sort of Thursday night that um Buffalo and also Kenyanya are on the same weekend. What's doing there, guys? Got to have got to separate those weekends, please.
00:42:05
Speaker
I would love to have gone from one to the other. um But, um yeah, so, um yeah, try and be there as much as you can. ah Hopefully in the next week or so we'll start to get the applications are out and we'll start to see who's putting their hand up and what names are out there. And, um yeah, any questions you've got, then don't be afraid to reach out to Gerra and myself. and um Yeah, it's not all bad. Like there was a lot of great stuff that we got to do and lot of good decisions that we got to make. And we saw some great results from three Australian teams during our period with the world's team.
00:42:45
Speaker
Over in Spain and then the 24-hour, the women getting second with the new world record and the men getting, but they got second overall and one of our runners got second overall at the 100K champs. So, um yeah, our sport's in ah in a good place and going forward, we've just got a make sure we get the right people to keep that momentum going. And I suppose don't go back to the old days.
00:43:11
Speaker
we We need to move on. Yeah. I should add, I did ask David Martin, the acting president, about the date of the AGM. And he said that they were constrained because of Easter and the reduced committee capacity, but it is still a proposed date until the formal AGM notice has been published, which I don't know actually if that has been i haven't seen it at least personally um but they will have an online option so if you are an ultra member or you're not an ultra member listening to this but you do want to have a vote or or take part in that um you will be able to do so online and and please do do turn up even if it's yeah if you are racing that weekend hopefully it it is possible for you but
00:43:49
Speaker
Guys, really appreciate you both coming on to share your side of this. Hopefully, for those listening, we will be able to chat with the new committee, the new president going forward and get an understanding of what this means for Autra in the coming years. But for now, thank you both for everything that you've done for this sport.
00:44:05
Speaker
can i Can I just shout out David and Lisa who's on the committee as well. that that They were awesome. Awesome people, just really good to work with. So, yeah, thanks, guys. No, it's good to hear.
00:44:16
Speaker
Wonderful. Well, Gary, you enjoy some much-needed R&R. Thanks. You'll Buffalo. Yeah. He's still going to Buffalo. Yeah, yeah. That's just relaxing, isn't it?
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. Wonderful. Thank much, guys. See you. Thanks, James. Appreciate it.