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Episode 22: Jess wins Hounslow Marathon, Trail Running Nutrition, and SkyRunning World Championships Results!
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Welcome to Episode 22 of Peak Pursuits, your ultimate podcast for everything trail running in Australia. This week’s episode is hosted by Sim Brick, Vlad Ixel and Jess Jason! The team brings you updates from Vlad and Sim and Jess’ race recap of her win at Hounslow; before diving into a review of all the results from the week including the awesome Aussie team at SkyRunning World Champs!
Start - 59:30 :- Vlad update, nutrition talk, Jess’ race recap and Sim’s race prep.
With the running news light on this week, most of the ep is catching up with the team as we get an update from Vlad after the whirlwind end to his 12 weeks in Europe - with a side tangent all things Bix nutrition and where trail running nutrition is heading in general. Then we get the deep dive from Jess of all the lessons from her triumphant first trail marathon, taking the win at Hounslow Classic against an incredible field of women! There was lessons galore that we get to her just how Jess came out on top of, and the brutal aftermath of her longest race yet. We end this segment with hearing about Sim’s final lead into her next two Golden Trail Series races in the USA on her training stint in Font Romeu.
59:30 - 1:05:45 :- SkyRunning World Champs Brief Recap
We start our results for the week with a rundown of all the Aussie performances at the SkyRunning World Champs in Spain, with some great results across the board from the team in some gnarly and steep terrain! We will be aiming to get
1:05:40 - 1:14:15 :- Aussie Race Results
We then cover a couple of Aussie races that went down over the weekend:
Hownslow Classic: https://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/races/hounslow-classic-2024
Sturt Gorge Trail Run: https://eventstrategies.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=90&RId=553
Kedumba Half Marathon: ttps://tempus.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16516&RId=391&EId=1&dt=2
Coastal Classic: https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16253&RId=6242
1:14:15 - End : What’s coming up
Lastly, we do a quick run through of the upcoming trail races around the country and what is coming up for us.
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Sim: @theflyingbrick_
Jess: @jess.jason95
Vlad: @vladixel
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter
License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Updates
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 22 of the Pick Pursuits Podcast. My name is Simone Brick. I am coming to you once again from Font-Rémo in France. This time with two people back in Oz. Welcome Vlad Ixell, you're back in Perth finally. Yeah, finally after three three and a bit months back home.
00:00:30
Speaker
uh, dealing with the jet lag currently, but hopefully we can keep you awake for the podcast.
Jess Jason's Marathon Experience
00:00:36
Speaker
And the, uh, the most recent winner of the Hounslow marathon coming to us from Canberra instead of Perth this time, Jess Jason. Yeah. Hello. Um, yeah, coming from my new hometown.
00:00:50
Speaker
Okay, still hotel living while moving into a into the new you dig. But um yeah, it'll be a podcast this week that'll be shaped very much around getting to hear the experience of Jess's first trail marathon and pulling off the wind nonetheless. And we haven't caught up with Vlad for quite a while after his escapades over in Europe and the trip home. So bit of a catch up all around. And then we've got the sky running.
00:01:20
Speaker
world champs results to go through, as well as some very cool results around Australia, obviously including the Hounslow classic that Jess was part of. But to get us started, um we might actually throw to you Vlad first, give us the update because we haven't heard from UN agents and there's been still some chaos on your end.
Vlad's European Adventures
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So the trick pretty much finished with the UTMB Expo, which was It was fun, was um nice to be around. Obviously, UTMB is such a beast now. It's such a big event. There's so many um brands and expotents there that it was absolutely crazy, but super tiring as well. um The expo itself goes for like five days, but obviously you got to set up, bring everything down, and I still have like normal work that I have to do. So yeah, about six days of like waking up at 5am, doing some emails and computer work, and then
00:02:19
Speaker
doing about 12 hours of the expo and then coming home and trying to do like a 30-minute jog at like 8.30, 9 o'clock at night. It was a pretty painful way to finish the trip.
00:02:32
Speaker
so But yeah, managed to, to get it done. And it was, yeah, it was fun to be a part of that event without racing there. There's obviously that pressure of racing compared to like, just being there. Obviously, Sim, you were there. Yeah. to Your team B has become a big, big event. What did you think of the of the expo of the week itself? Yeah, it was my first experience of it. I hadn't actually been in Cheminy around UTMB time and it was definitely busy. It it was mayhem. that it's um That run we did with the the podcast catch-up run, like that was the most Aussies I'd ever run with overseas. So that was a bit of fun.
00:03:12
Speaker
and um Yeah, it was really, really cool to see just how much people were showing up, obviously, for a big, great big celebration of trail running. Like, it's just hard not to get caught up in the hype of it all at that point once you're in amongst it. And the expo was huge. And where you were was pristine, being a little bit in the shade and like your spot next to the river there. But at the same time, man, spending every day there,
00:03:37
Speaker
I would have been wrecked. Absolute props to you for for getting that done. yeah no i mean I think we had a good spot because we had a lot of people just walk by. It was a really good expert for us. We sold a lot more than what we expected to. We pretty much almost sold out of all the bigs. That was Um, really, really good. But yeah, definitely, it was definitely hard. And I think like last year, it was only me and my wife this year, we had an extra person and maybe next year there might have to be four people to be able to, to cover the demand and how, like, you know, the amount of people that just come there, like there was so many people there that weren't racing, but they were just there for the whole week just to kind of do some of the group runs. Like obviously we did the group run on Monday, but
00:04:23
Speaker
Then we did like a big T8 run on Tuesday. You did the shocks run on Tuesday. There was a couple of other group runs. So there were like so many group runs. There was a Hawker group run. There was like thousands of people, like literally probably like 2000 people did that one. And yeah, it seems like it's i mean i mean Obviously, I've done some of the UTMB races during that week, but it's nice being there without racing because you can still like enjoy the atmosphere without ah without thinking, ah do I have all my mandatory gear kit? I need to go and rest where you can just like hang around, see all your friends, see all the runners. so yeah It was pretty hard, the amount of hours that I did, but it was also like
00:05:06
Speaker
cool to be part of this growing, running community and seeing people that I haven't seen for so long. And and then also at the same time, um you know, getting some good feedback about some of our new products. So that was extra motivating for the future and um the stuff that we do with Bix. So I think that that was, yeah, it was the end of 13 week expert trip and 13 weeks of a new Airbnb every single week. But it was also like super rewarding.
00:05:35
Speaker
being there, but definitely once the expo finish, I was super exhausted because it was like the end of the trip. You know, we've done it all. And now it's kind of like getting ready to go to back to real life.
Vlad's Return to Australia and Future Plans
00:05:47
Speaker
And like, so the expo finish on Friday had to drive back on the Sunday because we had a bank meeting in Munich on the Monday. So yeah, back to real life pretty quickly. And, you know, yeah, I was,
00:06:02
Speaker
ah big switch now coming back to Australia and then dealing with three months of stuff that you know, real life that we haven't done. um Yeah, my wife is still in Europe. So I really still kind of yeah, picking up the pieces a little bit by myself. Yeah, she stayed an extra two weeks so she can spend some time with her family in Germany. Yeah, the last year 13 weeks was just work. So she decided to the two weeks there. So I'm Yeah, trying to slowly build my fitness up again for the Asia Pacific Trail Champs, which is coming up pretty quickly. And then at the same time trying to yeah finish the last little bits of this house build that has taken us exactly four years to do or four years to build the house.
00:06:49
Speaker
It's a long time. But it'll be cool now. It'll be cool now because both you and Jess are going to be building up to the same race next, which is exciting for both of you. Both of you prepping for the same thing, but not from the same location like we thought you were going to be. Vlad, I was going to ask, can we talk about some of your new products yet? Or not really. Yeah, I mean... I'm keen to hear about how the shells have gone.
00:07:15
Speaker
yeah Yeah, the gels, um they're on the way to Australia right now. So they're on the on the boat right now. So they should be here in a couple of weeks. um It was a massive process of testing different amounts. And so we ended up having 40 grams of carbohydrates per gel for 16 mil gel. So it's, I guess size wise, it's similar to the Morton 160. But I didn't obviously I I've seen Morton as a great company, but I never really liked the feel of the Morton gel. So we wanted something a bit easier to drink. And um same, you've tried the gel, it's a little bit easier to get down compared to like a Morton.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, I've never been able to keep a Morton gel down or actually get it down. And yeah, in trying, the the consistency is a lot better, that's for sure. But make it late. um Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like yeah, I mean, the world of um endurance sport is moving towards higher amounts of carbohydrates during training and racing. So I did test 50 for a while, but 50 was going towards that Morton field. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like, for example, like, you know, to get down a Morton gel takes like a minute, where like, the big gel I can get down within five seconds. Oh, wow.
00:08:43
Speaker
So I think that, yeah, that was kind of important. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. But yeah, 50 was something that I wanted to do, but I also didn't want to like go through that pain of eating a Morton gel that takes so long. So see you're just going to do one size? and So I think we're going to start with one size. It's obviously like a massive investment. We've got the caffeinated one and non-caffeinated.
00:09:08
Speaker
you know, we're not going to see more than, um, and the minimum order quantities are pretty big. So it's like pallets. So we've got to order the few pallets of each one, um, as the minimum order quantity. So we're going to start with that one. Um, we've, we ah have started testing some flavors. Um, so that might take yeah six to nine months, probably from now we might launch one or two flavors. Um, and then,
00:09:37
Speaker
I am going to think about some bigger sizes. I don't think we're going to go any smaller, but you know, I've obviously been thinking about maybe something bigger. Um, but yeah, not a hundred percent sure about the size. Definitely know that we're going to do some, um, some different flavors. Um, cause right now it's a natural flavor, so no flavor at all. But like, you know, I think that when you do a long rice, it is nice to sometimes like mix it up a little bit.
00:10:07
Speaker
Um, so personally, I know that a lot of runners would, for example, would have like three or four Mortons and then a different jail just to kind of mix things up. And then maybe go back to again to a Morton or or the jail that they have, but.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that we are going to get some one or two flavors for sure, and then see how it goes. and And, you know, realistically, it's about seeing what people, ah like how the, like, you know, how the product sells, what people think about it, and then also seeing where enduring nutrition is in like a year or two years time from now, and then kind of seeing if we are going to do a bigger gel or ah bigger a bigger package.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, not sure. I mean, it's moving so quickly. Like, you know, I know that precision got that 90 grams, like the really 90 gram pouch. It's good. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, that's definitely a good one that, you know, I'm not sure if we're going to do something similar or yeah, I think we'll see. Also we don't know, like, I don't know how well it does for precision as well. They're obviously not selling as many as the small, small ones that they have. So yeah, I think it would just take a bit of time.
Nutrition and Hydration Strategies
00:11:22
Speaker
Other than that, we just like have the sole tablets as well. Actually, surprisingly, a lot of people use them as well. like I don't know, Jess, if you use sole tablets in your training and racing, but I never realized how big the market for sole tablets is still i started. obviously yeah i'm like you know Obviously, I'm talking a lot with shop owners and distributors and stuff like that. And yeah, I think probably like a year and a bit ago,
00:11:50
Speaker
you know, it's kind of realized that it is a big market. I use it sometimes, but only on like very, very hot days. So like, you know, I might use, I don't know, maybe like 10 tablets a month during summer. Like, you know, I might take one or two tablets on on ah on a longer run, um, during summer in Australia, but yeah, it's actually like a lot of people use a lot more than that. So we have like a 15 pack salt tablet, um,
00:12:19
Speaker
which is 250 milligram of sodium. And just also like a nice way, I guess, to break it up a little bit when you don't want to be having a crazy amount of electrolyte drinks and stuff like that. It's an easy way just to kind of have one or two tablets an hour. And and and like, you know, it helps you make sure as well that you drink normal water, which is actually quite important. So yeah is the main reason for having salt to like prevent cramping?
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, I just electrolyte balance in the body. um Yeah, you don't want to get energy levels. Yeah. You don't want to get hyponatremia. People can get really caught out. It's one of the like working medical in some of these races. People get caught out by hyponatremia, which is like low salt levels in the blood because you're so if you're sweating out salt and only drinking water or say you're drinking water and taking gels, but the gels just don't have much electrolytes and those sorts of things.
00:13:16
Speaker
It's not just, it's definitely not just cramping. You can end up with very, very bad distress um in terms of like brain fog. Your body kind of just, if it hasn't got the salts in it, it will but start to shut kind of shut down. um So yeah, people that, especially those that are moving maybe slower and some people can end up drinking and drinking and drinking and not realizing they need to replace electrolytes and specifically sodium as much as they, um to combat as much as they drink so like the only time I've ever used salt tablets mostly because of how much nutrition I'm normally getting in and the fact that I use liquid nutrition in tailwind that actually has a whack the amount I get in normally has enough electrolytes unless it's a hot day because if it's a hot day I'm normally drinking a lot of plain water as well and that's when I know I need the salt tablets
00:14:09
Speaker
because I'm a salty sweater. Like my clothes are always covered in it. So yeah, it is individual, but it's definitely not just for cramping. Like your whole body needs it. Yeah. And I think like going back to salt, we I mean, have I wasn't sure if I should put electrolytes in our gels or not. And then in the end we did decide to go with electrolytes in the gels as well. So we got 200 milligrams of sodium in the gels.
00:14:36
Speaker
But i think like you know I think Jess, if you've never tested salt tablets, like you should at least give them a try in a few hot days and see how you feel. yeah i you know It doesn't have to be too much. You can always try like you know one or two salt tablets a run. yeah It's not a massive amount of sodium, but I think it's about self-experiment and seeing how you feel with yeah with a bit more electrolytes.
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, I was sort of just thinking if they would have helped with the race on the weekend actually because I did start to cramp like in the last few days. And I was having electrolytes, like I wasn't having playing water at all. I was having electrolytes the whole time because I heard like Joe McGrath say at the start of the race that It was pretty hot, so like try and get those electrolytes in as much as you can. um But yeah, maybe I just didn't have enough by the end of the race, so it's definitely something I would play around with next time. Yeah, I mean, I think that you mean that was a long race. You won a house in plain water. Yeah. Yeah. like I think as much as... like Because you can throw away your balance as well by just having electrolytes, and especially if they mix pretty heavily with
00:15:56
Speaker
um with like, you know, not much water. So I mean, I think like, you know, especially for any race that goes over a couple of good hours, playing water is super, super important. I think if it's like up to two, two and a half hours, you can get away just with sports drinks most of the time. But yeah, anything longer, it's pretty important to have plain water, even if it doesn't have to be crazy amounts, but um Anyway personally for me I know that I do need plain water.
Jess Jason's Race Recap
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah yeah well ah all the fun adventures so far for you Vlad but on this topic since we've already gone there a little bit ah we might start throwing it to Jess because Jess you can give us the rundown of the nutrition and the race and the lead in yeah and I'm like, I want to know everything because I haven't heard any of this yet. So but start at the beginning, start with the lead in and um then yeah tell us tell us all about it. Yeah. um yeah So um I arrived over in Sydney on the Wednesday. um And to be honest, I had a pretty shocking sort of laid off.
00:17:05
Speaker
I got pretty sick the weekend before the race, um like to the point where I didn't do i didn't run at all for two days. like I missed my last long run.
00:17:19
Speaker
because I felt just like so fatigued. um And I was just like, well, sort of made the decision that it just wasn't worth it. And it was I was going to gain more from just like resting. um But obviously, like I was a bit concerned about how I felt um and like whether I was going to fully recover by the next weekend. But I just tried to like take it as easy as I could. and then Like just smash the vitamin C and zinc and that slowly just like came like slowly felt better and better each day. um Yeah and then obviously felt like super tapered like.
00:17:57
Speaker
super rested, which was probably a good thing. I was going to say it might have helped, didn't it? Yeah, because I did have the whole move. So I was also packing boxes the week before, finishing off my work that I had left at my old job. So it was pretty stressful. So it was probably good to take the running off my plate.
00:18:19
Speaker
and just like save energy that way um and yeah so we had I just literally jogged like a couple of 6k jogs that week and then yeah the race was Saturday morning um It was a pretty early start, so 6.20 was a start time, so I was up at 4.30, which was pretty rough actually because I was still sort of in that Perth time zone, so for me it was sort of like 2.30 in the morning. um Yeah, I always struggle to like get into the Eastern Standard time zone, like it takes me ages.
00:18:59
Speaker
Um, but yeah, anyway, it's crazy because you wouldn't think two hours would make a huge difference, but especially at that time of the morning. at times Yeah. I mean, like with all the adrenaline and everything, I didn't really notice that by the time I'd had like a bit of caffeine in me, I was fine. Um, yeah. And then, so the race was like two sort of out and back loops. Um, and in the week before I had sort of checked out like the first loop which is like the 17k course um and like it was it's actually like quite a difficult part of the race like it on paper like it looks like kind of the flutter section but it's there's just no like flowiness at all like it just stares up and down the whole way just like
00:19:47
Speaker
Um, kind of, yeah, just like punchy little heels and, um, like little steps to like leap over that just like disrupt your cadence a bit. So, um, yeah, so I went out and I was sort of like maybe second or third female for the first couple of K's sort of back and forth with, um, Caitlin Howard. And, uh, um, sorry, the lady that came second was... Julia.
00:20:16
Speaker
Julia. Yeah, I don't know this lady. you Have you met her, Sim? No, it was definitely a name that since I've been like, oh, who is this? Someone knew this is exciting. Yeah. Definitely unsure of, ah but as far as I can tell, she's from Townsville. Okay. um Does some like off-road duathlons and those sorts of things. So a lot of mountain biking and biking. and I don't know about the swimming, but yeah, from Townsville and jeez, Crusher. She was definitely a dark horse. I don't think anyone really knew about her, so that was pretty cool. um and yet She kind of flew off after about 2k.
00:20:53
Speaker
um and i didn't yeah I literally didn't see her again until at the very end of the race, um but we'll get to that stage. oh So yeah, so it i I was like pretty unprepared for how hot it was going to be. I think I thought like I saw the temperature on paper and I was like, oh, that's fine. Like coming from Perth, I won't like feel the heat. And I like an hour in, I started feeling really nauseous and um I was like, oh no, like I've cooked it already.
00:21:26
Speaker
And like my legs were feeling fine, but like, cause I was feeling nauseous. My breathing just got like quite like labored. Um, and then I yeah threw up a little bit while I was like trying to get a gel down and I was like, Oh shit. ah jim I was like, Oh, that's not good. That is early. I had like, um, a different pre-race breakfast, which probably wasn't the best idea. Um, I had, what was it? Well, I had my usual rice bubbles And then I had like a banana bread, like a one from Woolies, which i've never I've never had that before. I've run before, so it probably wasn't the best idea, but I thought it would be fine. And um yeah, I think it was more the hate that was making me feel nauseous. And then I was just like, oh, just try not to panic. Like ah I'm sure it'll go away. And just like focused on getting the nutrition in the like bottles that I had.
00:22:24
Speaker
um and then it got back to like the start in second place. um the start like the end of the 17k loop and my dad was there and he handed me some new bottles um so I swapped them over and then we there was sort of like a 4k road section before like the second out and back part of the course um and on that section I was just like really focusing on um trying to get like the fluid down and like try and relax a bit and like stop trying to get rid of that like nauseous feeling
00:22:57
Speaker
And then I saw Charlie on the road and he was like, how are you? And I was like, I'm feeling a bit sick. And then he gave me some tips on like um like putting some ice down my top when I got to the aid station and like jumping in the river when I got to the bottom. So as soon as I put the ice like down my top and cooled myself down, I felt a lot better. um And then, so,
00:23:21
Speaker
like I got to the aid station, got the ice, ate like a piece of watermelon, and then jumped on Perry's Lookdown, which is like the first big descent, and that's all like manicured stairs. so um It's pretty slow going, though, like when you're descending on stairs, because you you don't want to like you're just trying not to eat shit. and When I got to the aid station, there was a guy there who was like, oh, blood all over his face. like he'd already like I saw that photo. like Oh God, here we go. I was just like, what are we in for now? And then, um yeah, it's a pretty like steep staircase. It goes for like three Ks or something and you descend like 600 and something meters in those two Ks, which is.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah, good. Yeah, definitely like the longest. This race definitely had like the longest climbs and descents I've ever done. Um, yeah, I felt okay. Like on the stairs, like, um, I sort of ran off them pretty well. And then you sort of get straight into, um, the next big technical climb, which is luckily is Pylon, um, which is like less of a manicured trail. It's like more technical kind of rock fla faces is like a bit of, um,
00:24:35
Speaker
scrambling and like like jumping over rocks and like really over green bush and everything. So I sort of just like took that climb pretty chill because I was like, oh, it's still like quite early in the race. um and i didn't And I knew like how hot it was. I was like, oh, I don't want to like cook myself.
00:24:54
Speaker
um Yeah, and then I was still in second by that stage. um And then sort of got to the top of the climb. and then there was like some runners that were sort of coming back because it was like an out and back so I saw like Mikey um and Michael Dunston come past and then like a few other guys and then eventually I saw um Julia and she was pretty far in front like she was probably like 10 minutes in front of me so I was sort of like oh I guess like I'm gonna have to like settle for second today like that's pretty it's a pretty big gap I was like um let's just try hold on to second
00:25:33
Speaker
And then I got to um the aid station that's sort of at the turnaround point um and I filled up my bottle with um just like a really diluted electrolyte thing and some coke in the other one. And then I grabbed like a few pieces of watermelon and had that. And that went down like pretty well. The coke actually made me feel a lot better. So that was good. Coke is a revival. It's so good. um But I was kind of like, oh, maybe I should have got more water because I filled up the whole bottle with coke. And I was like, oh, probably needed more water but anyway it was fine it was sort of fine in the end um and yeah got some more ice to cool myself down um and then once I left the aid station Kelly and Sarah came in pretty much together like and they weren't very far away like far behind me they were probably like two two or three minutes
00:26:31
Speaker
um So then I was like, yeah oh damn. like like And then we sort of had the really technical descent coming up. I was like, oh, they're going to catch me like if I don't send it down here. Well, like sending it for me, which is not really sending it, but doing my best.
00:26:49
Speaker
um Yeah, so then that descent down the Achilles pile is pretty hectic. It's like, yeah, climbing over rocks and trying not to like push people over that are trying to like come up the other way. and like just chaos and it's like fully exposed to the sun so you're just like absolutely cooking um but yeah it got to the bottom of that still feeling pretty decent like i was able to sort of run off it um and then back up um the stairs which were pretty brutal like there was yeah no running involved out that final climb two k's of stairs is hell
00:27:28
Speaker
I honestly like i felt like I was absolutely crawling um and I ended up being, apparently someone told me I was third fastest overall up the last climb like out of the guys and the girls.
00:27:43
Speaker
So, yeah I don't know how I managed that. But yeah, I actually like felt okay during the climb. like I was like using, I don't know, I felt like I knew I was going to be able to finish the race on the road.
00:28:00
Speaker
Okay. um I started feeling the cramping like towards the top of the climb and I was like I was running out of water so I was like oh I'm gonna need to fill up at the aid station at the top before the last 4k stretch.
00:28:15
Speaker
um And at that point I had no idea like how far Julia was in front of me. I just assumed she was ages in front. I wasn't really focusing on catching her. I was more like um just wondering if Sarah and Kelly were gonna catch me. And then when I got to the top of the climb my dad was there which was like not planned um and he like handed me a bottle with electrolytes which I reckon like pretty much Almost like got me the win because me not having to like fill up my bottle myself would have saved me like a minute or so. Just pretty incredible, sorry.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yeah, really cool that he was there um to help me out. um Nice. Yeah, like a really special moment. um Yeah, and then my dad told me that Julia was two minutes in front. um And I was sort of like, oh, that's still pretty far. It's going to be hard to catch her in 4K. So I was like, oh, let's just try to finish strong. As strong as I could, like the last 4K stretch was a net uphill.
00:29:17
Speaker
um I've just like a few rolling um climbs on the road which felt like bloody mountains after like all the climbing you've done in the race. um ye And yeah, I just saw Julie, I saw someone in the distance after like getting to the top of one of the hills.
00:29:37
Speaker
And I was like, oh, is that a guy? I couldn't really tell. And then as I got closer, I could see that they had a ponytail. I was like, oh, my God. Like, I'm catching this person, like, quite rapidly. And I was like, I can overtake them. And um yeah, I overtook Julia. And I was like, try to say, how many cases? Like, two K to go. um And yeah, and she was she'd hit a wall by that stage like she was moving quite slow. um So yeah, yeah, I just went past her. My legs were like cramping up and I was absolutely gassed like never been that cooked before. and I just had to use like everything I had left to like just get to the finish. And I was still running scared because I was like, what if Julia like has a second wind and then like chases me down? So I was like,
00:30:29
Speaker
Didn't look back and just like moved as quickly as I could without my legs completely giving way. um dan is So yeah got to like the turn into the um like event hub and Colin was there from Singletrack and he was just like so happy for me and I was just like oh this is so cool um and then I could sort of tell that like I'd bridged a bit of a gap on Julia because they were all just like um everyone was like cheering me and I was like oh this is ah awesome um and yeah turned into the
00:31:02
Speaker
finish line and managed it first place, which was, yeah, incredible. To be honest, um it hasn't like fully sunk in yet. like it's just I really didn't expect it because it was like the first walk I've ever done. Training in Perth like didn't know like much of the course at all. I'd only really done like the um lesser sort of technical sections of the course and um yeah just not really knowing my limits over that distance. so Yeah, it was a really proud moment and like really special moments. So Yeah, I couldn't be more happier with it for sure Holy moly to like to pull that off on your first one and when you say not sure of your limits You've nowhere near here. It's clearly because that was um, you never do on your first try.
Jess Jason's Race Reflections and Improvements
00:31:48
Speaker
There's so much to learn I think I have so much like left to do with the nutrition because I hardly had any of the gels that I was supposed to take like
00:31:59
Speaker
Um, do you know how many cards per hour you managed to actually get in? No, I wouldn't. Oh, I'd have to sit down and calculate it. I'd probably had like, so I had three, two and a half liters. Oh, no, three liters of water with maybe like 40.
00:32:21
Speaker
grams of carbs in each bottle. um yep And then I had two of the like 90 gram gels from Precision.
00:32:32
Speaker
um ye And I had one of their caffeine gels and I had one of the pure um gels which only has like 30 grams I think.
00:32:45
Speaker
Um, yeah, I think that was about it. Oh, and I had the watermelon and the Coke and the Coke. Yeah. Yeah. So you would have been 65, 70 grams of carbs an hour, which isn't horrible. Um, just doing some quick math there, but, um, definitely like, uh, as every, as Vlad was alluding to earlier and as many people that I race against and I'm learning over the years is that kind of.
00:33:11
Speaker
your limiting factor often is your nutrition in some aspects when it comes to racing. So people are getting more and more and more in. So you know that it can just get better from there with gut training and learning of the ropes of everything. And also obviously the learning how to cool yourself in these hot races and the fact that rivers are your best friend in a hot race to get in the river. I forgot to mention that each time I went past like the river crossing at the bottom of the big staircase. Like I literally just like supermanned it into the river. It was so good.
00:33:48
Speaker
Good, good, good. I did learn the hard way to, um, I was desperate one year in a hot race to, uh, get, do that. And I supermanned into some, uh, a river and forgot that I didn't have my phone in the zip lock bag. Oh, I didn't either, but it managed to be fine. So that was lucky. That lucky because it was not until the end of the race that I had to spend the next three days with my phone in rice. no
00:34:13
Speaker
things you learn But now that's like, it doesn't surprise me because I know how but bloody powerful of a runner you are, but also like it's never a guaranteed to actually pull something like this off the first time you try. Yeah.
00:34:27
Speaker
I reckon you've done bloody well. And Vlad, have you run in this area? Do you know where? um hands later Yeah, I had a look yeah i had to look a bit in the map. um Sounds good with all the stairs. I mean, I lived in Hong Kong where everything is stairs, so I actually don't mind stairs. But I also think like the amount of carbs that you had for that race wasn't that bad at all. So I mean, you can easily um hopefully increase it to like 80 or 90 an hour or, you know, hopefully a hundred an hour. Yeah. But that would just require some proper gut training. and yeah Yeah, not easy doing a lot more training with a lot more nutrition. But yeah, I think there's a lot of room for improvement there. And the course that you did is pretty similar to the Asia Pacific Trail of Champs as well. So I think yeah like in many ways, like it was a perfect preparation. And now you know your kind of weaknesses and you can really next six weeks like spend some time hopefully working on them. Yeah. Yeah. But I remember when I did my first
00:35:27
Speaker
Ultra Marathon 100k. I had 20 good gels in 13 and a half hours. And they all were caffeinated as well. Oh, man. That not that just makes me feel it to the stomach thinking about it. That's like, like,
00:35:52
Speaker
like So that's 400, that's 440 grams of carbohydrates in 13 and a half hours. so How many? That's approximately like 30 grams an hour. I was going to say that's not much. That's really, really nice. That's not much. How many milligrams of caffeine though? They would have had like, I don't know, maybe like 30 or 40. I don't think Gu has like a massive amount. That's not a huge amount. Yeah, true. Like you can, you can knock back the caffeine pretty hard.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like, I do remember like finishing at midnight and like lying there and like, kind of like looking up in the ceiling and going, wow, how come I can't fall asleep? asleep oh on yeah but Yeah, that was, I only got better from there. So I think that there's a lot of room for improvement from your first author marathon and you should be proud of the effort you put in and She's already starting ahead by the sounds because Jess, you've done a lot better job than what Vlad just described. Yeah, yeah exactly. Like I think.
00:36:54
Speaker
I think like your nutrition wasn't that bad. And it's like having little cramps, like, you know, five in five hours into a race is, you know, it's all right. Like it's not that bad. You could have had like a massive cramp, like, you know, 20 or 30 K. So two hours. Yeah. Um, so I think like, yeah, overall, like those little cramps could be just, so you're not used to the distance. It could have been that your nutritional spine is just like,
00:37:21
Speaker
you know, your muscles will just a bit out of their comfort zone. Yeah, like ah I'm pretty sure cramps could come from lack of obviously lack of nutrition and electrolytes and hydration but also if the effort is just like way out of there and your body's not used to it. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, yeah.
00:37:39
Speaker
I think you did well with the nutrition, that's for sure. Thank you. Yeah. And especially like working your way through nausea and learning how to like keep managing that and pushing through and those sorts of things. And I would have put that down definitely to heat. That's one of the main things that can cause nausea, especially like that early in a race when you hadn't gotten a huge amount down yet. So yeah, you've learned a lot of lessons right there. Yeah, definitely. Oh my God. I've like, I've never been this sore though. Like,
00:38:07
Speaker
way soer than ah I was going to say, I have the aftermath. and yeah the slave it's hard like i can sort of get to sleep fine but then i wake up in the middle of the night just like so hungry and then just like can't sleep again i'm just like tossing and turning i had this like weird nightmare last night that like someone was dragging me off the bed and it was so stressful yeah welcome to the post-race horror show
00:38:41
Speaker
um Nice. You're getting all the experiences. This is kind of fun, um reliving it all again. Cause yeah, I do remember that well. And the cramping in the middle of the night and you can't decide. or It's not even cramping. It's just like a weird like pain that you can't describe. I can't like point my, like flex my foot without my calf just like hurting so much.
00:39:04
Speaker
It's amazing how you go from like, obviously incredibly fit and feeling powerful and like able to run obviously for like six hours straight. to not wanting to do a five-minute walk because your body feels like you're a 90-year-old all of a sudden. The shock to the system. You excited for Asia-Pacific? Oh, God. don't want to think about doing that again just yet, but hopefully I'll be right. by then I didn't think so. It'll be so much easier though. I think that like now that you know ah that it is going to be painful and your buddies used to it a little bit, it will be so much easier. yeah
00:39:39
Speaker
And it does get better. I think just make sure that you like do a lot of movement now, even though you don't want to. like I remember after my first 100K race the next morning, I like jogged for 1K and that was the most painful thing ever. But it really helped me like recover quicker. And yeah um you know obviously now I recover pretty quickly from races and stuff like that because of things that I did.
00:40:06
Speaker
like 10 years ago. yeah yeah So try, like obviously I can see on Strava that you haven't rented yesterday or today. Right. I can't even think about renting. Yeah, you might want to do some like long walks or like recycle or something. You definitely need movement. Yeah. I did a bit of walking today, like um first day at the new job and we did like a tour around the AIS, which was a fair bit of walking. So I might try to like walk into it or something.
00:40:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think like some of the Kenyans, like if they are going to have a few days off after a marathon, a lot of them will like jog the first a day or two after the marathon and then like have like a week off or two weeks. Okay.
00:40:47
Speaker
um Yeah.
Training and Recovery Insights
00:40:50
Speaker
I know that some, obviously some have few days off straight away, but I also know of some that actually first have like two two days of easy jogging before they have some time off. Okay. Yeah. I've learned that that does better for me too. Like the day after ah a lot of the ultras I've done, I won't actually go for like a proper run, but I'll do a 30 minute run walk where I do like a two minute run, one minute walk. So I'm doing 20 minutes of running total and 30 minutes of movement and I am moving slow.
00:41:19
Speaker
But that then is what helps the sleep. And like, it just feels like my whole body gets back into a bit of a rhythm. Maybe it moves all the toxins or whatever you've done to your body through. But I've definitely tested that and can attest that for me, it also feels so much better. It feels shit in the time, like that actual movement the next day. But then I feel like I recover a lot better. Yeah, good tips.
00:41:47
Speaker
Jess, what do you think? like Obviously, you have like five, six weeks. What are you going to do now in terms of training before Asia Pacific Trail Champs? Um, I think I'll probably start, like try to get back into it next week. Um, I probably won't change too much, uh, from what I was doing because I know that it worked. Um, but yeah, I was sort of alternating between like bigger kind of session weeks and like lighter session weeks. So maybe I'll start off with just like the lighter version and then see if I can squeeze in like a couple of the bigger weeks. Um,
00:42:25
Speaker
But yeah, I'm just going to have to play it by year because it's more important for me to make it to the start line than to worry about like the fitness, I reckon. Yeah. Yeah. The fitness is there, clearly. Yeah. I mean, you can lose a bit of fitness in six weeks as well though. You can't we can. You can. It was like two or three weeks. It'll be a bit different. Six weeks is a long time. Yes. Yes. But you can also do a very good job of overcooking it after your longest race, first longest race ever too. so Um, I think you're still going to be slightly better off it and that do underdoing it at even just slightly than overdoing it even just slightly.
00:43:04
Speaker
um very different results at the end, but depending on those. So, yeah, but it's all a learning process for you Jess. It's going to be exciting to follow along because I think you two are probably both going to have very different preps from here on out because Vlad's raring to go after not racing as much and travel and rest and Jess needs to rest before revamping. Yeah. So how have you been, Tim?
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, interesting, as usual. My life never gets a a travel solo travel life, never doesn't interest me at least, because I'm always learning even when I didn't think I
Simone Brick's Training Challenges
00:43:43
Speaker
had any. Well, now I've always got more left to learn, let's be honest. um But um yeah, my week overall, actually a really good week of training, didn't feel good.
00:43:53
Speaker
ah because I like it just felt like a lot happened. um But obviously coming off being gluten last weekend, um and when I jumped was on the pod last week, like that that knocks me around for three, four days of not being good at all. And it made us have to sort of reshape my week in terms of training. um And one thing that because I haven't been gluten in like three years or so now. I always forget how, like, because I can't sleep, because my stomach, honestly, like, I can't even describe. It's so freaking painful.
00:44:30
Speaker
But because I go and can't sleep, I end up like way more anxious and I was sleep deprived for like four days straight and at altitude. And it was just not pretty, like genuinely not pretty for a few days. But I was just, I was essentially ticking off the training and then sleeping in between everything or trying to. I was in bed um in between every single bit of training for a while there. So.
00:44:53
Speaker
Not the most fun. It's definitely not what people would imagine when they think of a glamorous Euro summer, especially when for three days straight, we're in whiteouts and running in rain and about 10 degrees. So I was not having the time of it. Not gonna lie, definitely not having the time of it. um But we did, I turned it around slowly. um So on Wednesday, so Yeah, had to just jog Monday, Tuesday, did get a gym session done. By Wednesday, I did manage a track session, um which was really, really good. Like kind of surprised myself more for the fact that like this track session is at like 2000 meters. I hadn't been that high for that long yet, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. And I also, I don't remember the last time I did proper speed
00:45:44
Speaker
any sort of thing fast. So I was going to do 10 by 400. And this was another one where I had to sort of put my coach brain on and adapt on the fly, because I did the first 5 by 400. And being at altitude, I always take longer recovery for the first um one, because first session, because that's the main thing that is hard.
00:46:06
Speaker
The speed's usually fine. So I did the first five by 400 off two minutes. um Started at 77s and the last one was a 79. And that was when I was like, I'm in this weird position where 300 meters in, I can feel sort of, to me, it feels like the altitude, like my arms are going kind of oddly lactic and just for the pace I was running, it was wasn't feeling great.
00:46:30
Speaker
from 300 to 400, but then because having a two minute break and it was raining the entire session. So that wasn't fun. It was like, feels like 10 degrees and rain and wind and white out and fog. Like it was honestly the most miserable conditions for a track session. So in the two minute break, I was actually getting cold before every single rep. So switched it up and did five by 300 faster off 90 seconds recovery. And in that 90 seconds, I was sort of walk jog in the one hundred meters back to the start and that went a lot better. um So I was moving faster like 53, 52,
00:47:08
Speaker
And then, um, still getting most of the work done, ended with one fast 473. And I was like, sweet. Okay. Like for 2000 meters and the conditions I'm in a kind of was like, sweet. So, um, turn the week around kind of thing and get back moving. And it kind of did kick me back into gear, but having not done speed work in a while, the next day, my hamstrings were letting me know about it. Um, so I had to have.
00:47:37
Speaker
I don't know, like on these sorts of days when I'm this tired and sore from from a session the day before, um sometimes I take a rest, but then I definitely didn't feel like resting. So I ended up still doing like a two hour run, but there was more walking than running. And there was definitely a lot of sitting and eating lollies while looking at the view, um which Kind of makes me when I do that feel very lazy. Um, but at the same time I could feel that my body needed it and it clearly worked because, um, after another double day and Jim, the next day and easy run Saturday, um, I did my last session. So obviously normally I wouldn't do this, um, because ah I'm six days out from the race by Sunday, um, for the long run.
00:48:27
Speaker
But I was meant to have one fast session, one uphill session during the week before an easy long run to finish the week. Obviously, I had to flip that around with the Wednesday session. And we decided to just combine my long run with a session. um So my only other session for the week came yesterday on Sunday, where I did four. So it was a 40-minute straight session, four by eight minutes uphill, turn at steady, sort of um upper aerobic effort, and then turn around two minutes fast downhill turnaround, repeat four times. So 40 minutes straight of effort, but alternating up and down. um And I did this on a fairly technical trail um that it was about a consistent 10% climb, ah which
00:49:15
Speaker
Actually went really well. Like I felt great. I was at 2000 meters or above for almost the whole session. I somehow, somehow, no idea how this worked because I was not looking at my watch. I was just lapping it. The first two reps, I'm on very different terrain, like completely different areas of this thing. And I managed to run exactly one K for the first two eight minute reps on the nose without trying. So I was pretty impressed with that. And then my first two, two minute reps were also 410 meters exactly.
00:49:44
Speaker
But anyways, that's just one of the things you look at afterwards. um And yeah, so that was a confidence builder just for the fact of it felt smooth, it felt good. um I've been sauna and ice bathing almost every day while trying also not to overdo it and dehydrate myself, knowing that I could very easily do that at altitude. I've probably averaged 5 hours sleep a night for the entire week.
00:50:07
Speaker
which is not ideal. um But we have reached race week. I still got 12 hours of running, 120Ks, 3000 up and down, and race is five days away. So yeah, anyways, that's where I'm at. I don't even know what to think about that, having just actually looked at what I did for the week.
00:50:29
Speaker
What day is the race? I'll show you a bit of fun. Race is this Saturday. So in for me, it's a bit of an experiment, this go round, just that I've never traveled for the, like, because it's a 12 hour flight I've got tomorrow on Tuesday. um And the race is Saturday and I've never traveled quite that close to a race. So it's a bit of an experiment to see how that goes. Obviously I'm going, I think eight hours time difference back in time, something like that. So it's a decent chunk of time difference and a decent bit of travel for four days out from a race. um But sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. So like, I want to just see how it goes. I'm optimistic that I'll manage it fine. um
00:51:14
Speaker
I actually have, jet you know, Jess, Jess Coyne, me and Jess, ah she's in San Fran. So um I'm actually going to be doing my last session is six by one K on Wednesday, which I'll have Jess for company for who it'll be epic to be doing a session with someone from home. Yeah, that's so cool. In San Fran. So the idea will essentially be I arrive Tuesday, 7pm, wake up the next morning and do the six by one K to sort of kick my body into gear in the time zone.
00:51:44
Speaker
and then go easy from there um because it's two races in a row now. So Saturday, ah first race at Headlands and then then following Sunday, eight days later, um racing really high altitude in Mammoth. So yeah, see how the roller coaster of a build the last three years to six weeks is going to get me. So how far is the race?
00:52:09
Speaker
Uh, the first one's 27K, I think with 1200 or 1300 up and down. Um, but over three separate climbs. So three short climbs, shorter descents sort of one. So it'll be fast, I dare say. And because it's in the US and it's at sea level. Um,
00:52:26
Speaker
So yeah, short, sharp and fast for the first one. And then the second one is 26K, which is just a really fricking long uphill and a really long downhill. So um two very different ones. So are you sort of like in the mindset where the first one is kind of like an experiment to see how you feel and then hopefully if anything goes wrong, like you feel better for the second one? Probably the other way around where I'm kind of thinking the first one, if anything's going to go better.
00:52:55
Speaker
um bit just because of the, the course and being at sea level and knowing that as much as obviously I'm in front remote for the altitude, but I've only been here for 12 days and I'm only just starting to sort of feel the effects of like, as in feel the adaptation to this altitude, which is like 1900, 2000 meters. Mammoth Lakes, the second race, we're racing uphill all the way up to 3,300 meters.
00:53:25
Speaker
ah And I just know how much that hurts when you're not fully adapted to that altitude. Um, so that I think is just going to feel pretty shocking. Um, but I'm, I'm kind of, I'm very prepared for it to feel pretty shocking because I know that I haven't done as much altitude prep as I normally would have for a race like that, just because of how the calendar falls of the sea level race first and everything else in the lead up. So.
00:53:54
Speaker
Um, I'm, I'm like, as much as yes, I haven't traveled this close to a race, obviously I've traveled a lot. So I'm actually fairly confident for this Saturday. I could eat those words in six days. Um, but, um, yeah, if anything, I'm, I'm, my brain's more anxious about the altitude the next week than it is about this weekend's race. Um, so yeah, but also with the way my season's now gone and the final and everything, like, it's almost like this weight lifted off my shoulder of it feels like nothing really matters much anymore. um In a good way, like in a bad way initially, because I'm like, well, I'm not gonna have all the races I need, but in a good way, kind of as well. Because you can't, you just go, well, have a crack, yeah learn a lot. And nothing's riding on it. Like I could have a crap day and it means not much. I could have a really good day. And obviously, to me, it means a lot, but it's still
00:54:50
Speaker
in the scheme of the world means not much. So yeah. No, I think that mindset's good. Like it's good to take the pressure off a bit and like, yeah, not put so much weight on the outcome of the race. Um, that's sort of what I did for Hansel. I was sort of like, use it as a learning experience. I've had a bit of sickness and I'm moving. So like, I'm not, I didn't expect much out of myself and ended up doing really well. So I think it's the way to go. Yeah.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. That's, that's kind of what I'm thinking going in. Cause I just know that as long as I feel good and I'm racing my, um, best sort of race. And I will say actually I practiced, um, on the nutrition front yesterday during that 40 minute session, I got 90 grams of carbs and 500 mil down in the 40 minutes feeling great.
00:55:39
Speaker
So that's like, that's at a rate of if I kept going for another 20 minutes, 130 grams of carbs an hour, um which is more than I plan on taking in, but it it was just good that that sat really well because I do plan on obviously having two races back to back. I plan on getting as much nutrition as I possibly can in on the first race, both obviously for that race.
00:56:01
Speaker
but then also for the recovery aspect of back-to-back races. So I'll be aiming for a hundred grams of carbs or more an hour. Obviously it's a shorter race, so it's a bit easier to get in. um But there's also no mandatory equipment whatsoever. So I'll probably have handhelds. It'll be, yeah. How long do you think it will take you to do the 27 K with 1200 meters of gain?
00:56:25
Speaker
Um, with the way it's interspersed and being fairly fast, like it'll be like definitely closer to two than three hours. Um, what is it? Oh yeah, two hours. Like, geez, I could put a time out here now and be proven wrong, but I'm thinking of it about a two hour race.
00:56:48
Speaker
Um, what's that? That's only 13 K's an hour. ah and I dunno, like that sounds do a lot. Obviously I reckon the men will go damn fast at this one, um, for the amount of climb and being at sea level. So I'm going to put it to be fair ballpark two to two and a half hours. Um, which isn't like, it's pretty easy to navigate in terms of nutrition and that sort of thing. Cause you're not out there for long enough to have to run into too much trouble.
00:57:16
Speaker
no Yeah, I mean the trails, they're pretty quick. I've ran there a few times and it's pretty compact. yeah okay Yeah, because I've never been there, so I don't exactly know what to expect. Yeah, I mean you if you have time, I don't know, obviously you don't have too much time, but if you do um talk with anybody that lives there, they can probably tell you you can do it with road running shoes.
00:57:37
Speaker
um Yeah, okay. Okay. Well then I'm sure some people will well then yeah the front of the women's field I'd dare say he is gonna go under two hours then like Yeah, cuz that's not actually Yeah, I don't know. Don't know. My brain could be way off. I haven't even looked at, done a Brody and looked at all the Strava segments on the course.
00:57:57
Speaker
i ah But anyways, yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I won't be able to get on the podcast next week to give a rundown because I'm in group travel mode and between races. So there'll be a lot going on, but um I'll be able to give a rundown of the whole trip afterwards, which will be,
00:58:14
Speaker
interesting to see. i'm just I'm just hoping it goes a lot smoother than the last one, which actually I woke up this morning.
Race Results and Highlights
00:58:22
Speaker
I don't know your guys' thoughts on this, but obviously they canceled Tatra at 11.5K out of the 30K we're meant to do.
00:58:28
Speaker
I woke up this morning to an email from Itra saying, um, congratulations on your race. Look at the Itra results. And they've put the 11.5 K in Itra, like as our result with our time and our position after 11.5 K and like Itra score and everything, which was that a good score for you or not really.
00:58:48
Speaker
Uh, it was what, it gave me like 685, which is not horrible, not amazing. Um, like I don't think it hasn't dragged my score down. Thankfully, that would have really annoyed me. Um, and it's not as if it's annoyed me. It's just surprised me. Like, I'm like, pardon of me, my brain goes, it wasn't a race. Like I wasn't racing to that 11.5 K mark. It's an odd one to see like, Hey, here's your result listed on a website. That's like.
00:59:18
Speaker
But that wasn't the story. Like that's not the result. So anyways, interesting one. Interesting one. I reckon we should probably move on though to some actual results um because there was some pretty big ones this week. Obviously we're going to let Jess go through Hounslow soon as um and run through the entire results there. But Vlad, keeping us overseas for now, do you want to take us through swelled sky running championships because you're the only one out of us that's done these before but it was a long time ago. Yeah, yeah I mean I probably did one when both of you were still in high school. It was a long time ago. I did see a lot of the team of the Australian team um in Chamonix. A lot of them were there um the week before around UTMB so it was nice to see.
01:00:12
Speaker
a couple of the guys, but yeah, there was the VK, which was 5.3 K with just over a thousand meters of elevation gain. Um, and Ursula Adams came 23rd, um, in the women's. And then we had four, four males in the men's race. You got the three in the two wrong way around there. 30 seconds. Still a really good result. I mean, that's one of the easy VK as well. It's like a technical VK. So, um, yeah You're not going to see like 30 minute winning times that you might see it like no. Um, Chamonix, VK or some of the faster, uh, VK. So yeah I saw some pictures and it's like super technical and the whole race, the whole weekend can was super technical. So some of the town times might sound a bit slow. Um, but our best male was Ian Best at finish 36. Atley named. Yeah. Um,
01:01:11
Speaker
Brody finished 37th just behind, only about 15 seconds, 14 seconds behind. Andrew Hager finished 43rd and David Bailey 54th in 52 minutes. So yeah, really good results. And great to see a pretty big team as well. yeah Nice to see them with their North Face t-shirts with the Australia. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, it looked good. Like I thought it looked really cool.
01:01:39
Speaker
um In the ultra distance, which was 70K with 4,315 meters of gain, um ah Nicole finished 14th in 10 hours and 17 minutes. Winning time in the females was 8 hours and 38 minutes. So obviously that just shows how technical that was. So she was 14th, but still a fair way behind, but just means that it's a super technical race.
01:02:08
Speaker
Matt and Madge finished together, which is nice to see. Um, they finished in 17th and 18th place in 8 hours and 43 first male was 6 53. So again, just a super slow technical race. Um, Owen Davis finished 28 in the males.
01:02:31
Speaker
So great, great result. and And probably the main event was the sky distance, which was 37 K with two and a half thousand meters of gain. Georgina Campbell finished 19th and Ursula Adams in 30th. Blake Hose, a good friend of mine who did the same sky running race in Chamonix that I did in 2014, finished 18. So great result for but Blake. Another good result for Ian. Best at 39th place. um Daniel Trevena, 42nd. And David Bailey in 55th place. So yeah, solid results. Obviously not easy.
01:03:20
Speaker
living in Australia and training for a sky running race in Europe. So well done for everybody that traveled over and put on some good results.
01:03:31
Speaker
Oh, and um I did forget to put in here actually, Piotr Babus, who we he ran for Poland, but lives in Tassie, so we half claim him. um He actually finished in 19th right behind Madz and Matt. I forgot to put that in. And that is backing up two weeks after winning the Polish Sky Running Champs, which was the same distance and took him like 10 hours. So that's a decent bloody backup as well. So yeah.
01:04:01
Speaker
He did well. I know that the Aussies were helping him out supporting him because I think he was the only Polish male runner from what I've seen. wow but well i Based on photos of like the opening ceremony, I couldn't mean i don't know. um I should actually have checked all the results on that, but I didn't see any others. I'm saying that's weird because Poland is going through a massive booming trail running. A lot a lot of talent. but A lot of people are getting into the sport. Obviously we saw that Golden Trail had a race in Poland and the demand for trail running in Poland is just like through the roof right now. So that's weird. There's only one maybe because it's so close to UTMB. um Yeah.
01:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, there was definitely, I'm actually looking at results now. There was, I think I did see a female, um but she, she's not coming up in the sky or the ultra, so she might've done the, um the VK, but yeah, I think there was only two of them from the country. So, which also they had their, their national champs only two weeks before the world champs, which isn't conducive to world champs' performances, because obviously their national champs look pretty competitive. Yeah.
01:05:08
Speaker
but Yeah, I think I think we'll see Poland up there. Like, you know, obviously France and Spain, but like, you know, just below them, they'll be super, super competitive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was very cool to see very, very cool but has big mountains in Poland as well. Sorry. Oh, they do. um Like having just been there, Tetra was f freaking incredible and technical as epically technical. Um, yeah. So yeah.
01:05:37
Speaker
Really cool, really, really cool. But Jeff, you want to take us on? Yeah, um yes so I'll take us through Hounzo first. ah So the marathon was on the Saturday morning and that one was like 43k with 2500 meters of gain and loss. um So in the man we had Machi Diamantis in first, in a very fast time. 4 hours 25, 35 which is just so fast on that course. like
01:06:10
Speaker
um And so I came to Michael Dunston, so he's a Blue Mountains local, loves the race. He actually was the one that told me about it when he was over in Perth earlier in the year.
01:06:22
Speaker
um so yeah he did really well as well like stuck to my key for most of the race and then i think the wheels just fell off a little bit on the last climb but he was like a lot quicker than his time last year so i'm sure he stoked with that um and then third was quinton gill in five hours oh four um and then in the women it was me in first place um Yeah, I think our time was like although I think I had like the top eight women role under the course record ah from last year. So that was pretty awesome. Like the women crushed it on Saturday. It was, yeah, so cool to say.
01:07:06
Speaker
um Julia Anderson was second um in five hours 45 Kelly Angel was third in five hours 59 and shout out to Sarah Ludo for fourth place um just over six hours so yeah I think Kelly and Sarah were super happy with their races as well so um and it's such an honor to like race against those girls like they're so experienced and Um, yeah, they're amazing runners. Sarah was so funny at the end. She was like, if I had another 50 K, I would have caught you. And I was like, probably.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, this was short for her. It was pretty cool to see her doing it. yeah um Yeah, so that was awesome. And then ah we had the 17K, which is the same as the first out and back loop of the marathon. ah So I think the elevation was about 800 meters up and down. ah In the men, we had Ben St. Lawrence in first place in one hour 26.
01:08:09
Speaker
i And then second was Andrew Guttonby in one hour 31 and third was Henry Huggman in one hour 33. And then in the women we had Sarah Levitt in first place in one hour 47. And yeah, she's an absolute gun. Like, she runs so fast.
01:08:33
Speaker
um And I think she's a Blue Mountains local as well. So she's obviously so experienced on um like the, cause the terrain is so unique to that area. Like, um yeah, it's just stairs and yeah, it's just different. um Yeah. And then second was Jess Broden in one hour 57. So she was about three minutes faster than her time last year. So she was pretty stoked with that. um And third was Monica.
01:09:02
Speaker
Ludricks and I think her and Jess had a bit of a back and forth battle throughout the race. So um she was third in one hour, 58.
01:09:13
Speaker
Nice. Do you want to go through the monster or just those two? What's the monster? So there was also the monster, which is like the people that did both the marathon and the 17K. Oh yeah, give us the winners. Which is bloody crazy. Like, I don't know how you'd do that.
01:09:30
Speaker
um So in the men, um, the first place in the monster was Quentin Gill and, uh, I think they've just combined his time. So it was six hours 41 all up, which is, yeah, that's incredible. Um, and then second was Chris Stevens in seven hours 33. Um, and third was Daniel Hall in eight hours or six. Um, and then the women we had just short.
01:09:55
Speaker
in the first place in the month star, so nine hours 27. Second was Kathy Duffy in nine hours 44. And third was Karen McMurray in nine hours 56. Nice. That is an effort. ah I can't imagine. That's harder than doing it all in one go. I can't imagine having to back up the next day. Or they would be like, wow. Yeah. Oh, nice. Very cool results. Do you want to um then run us through? There was one of the ah trial running South Australia series. Yeah. So there was a Stewart Gorge run, which was 21K.
01:10:30
Speaker
um And there was also a 15K. So in the 21K, in the men, we had Andrew Heitman in 1h37 and then Brett Goldfinch took out 2nd in 1h39 so it looks like a bit of a close race because in 3rd place was Clay Smith in 1h41 so they were they were all pretty close together.
01:10:56
Speaker
um And then in the women, we had Mikala Sexton in one hour 53. And then second was Bruna Lanzoni in one hour 58. And then the third female was Abigail Drew in two hours, oh five. So well done to those runners. Nice. I'll take us across to Kadamba half marathon, which is actually, I just realized not even far from where you guys were.
01:11:26
Speaker
um rating at Hounslow because this one's ah well this one's at Wentworth Falls. I've done this one before okay and this one hard because it is a half marathon exactly. late i think yeah half marathon exactly um But you start at the top of Kadumba, you run downhill and drop Like over 800 meters in the first 10 and a half K and then you turn straight around and run back the way you came up the hill. um So it's pretty brutal, especially for the yet just for the fact that it's out and back. And if it's still the same course from memory, we crossed a river at the bottom.
01:12:05
Speaker
And you literally crossed the river, got your feet wet, ran 50 metres to the turnaround point, and then crossed the river again, got your feet wet, and then went back up the hill. Which I just remember being so annoyed about because we didn't need that, guys. But anyways, I digress. In this year's Kadamba Half Marathon, the women's was won by someone, I swear we, I kind of remember which race it was for, but we called her out last week, I reckon, Kate Cush.
01:12:32
Speaker
Um, she won in an hour 5501. And in second was Eleonora Cordy in 202.04. And only like 20 seconds back in third was Joe Nevin in 202.32. So nice and close. In the men's, we had Luke Taylor. ah He won in an hour 35. Simon Coughlin in an hour 38. And in third was Steve Mrakovich.
01:12:56
Speaker
in one hour 46. So well done to everyone at Kadumba. And I hope, yuck, the uphill after that long of a downhill or long gravel. Yep, I hope your legs are okay today. um Mine certainly weren't the next day. Then the last results we're going to go through for this week is one called Coastal Classic, which this one is in New South Wales. um And it's like all along the coast. I know that my partner Matt's done it and he recommends it as one of the best races, like the most beautiful races to do. It is point to point, I believe, um and it has 830 up and 930 down. um So 30Ks all along the coast.
01:13:38
Speaker
And that was taken out on the women's side by Sarah Brewster in two hours 34. Second was Tippi Weiland in two hours 36 and third Emma Watkins in two hours 39. On the men's side ah was won by Samuel McNaughton in two hours 18, 27. Only 40 seconds back was Josh Bignell in two hours 1912. And then not far back at all was Jonathan McLennan in two hours 1937.
01:14:06
Speaker
So very tight racing at the front for the men all top three and within a minute of each other which is always cool to see love a good race on the trails and Yeah, that sums up all we've had this week. Did you guys see any other big results from anyone? um Overseas or just big big races happen Vlad. You're always the one that seems to know all that No, the only important thing that happened this week is Strava took away my pro um badge No, yeah yeah
01:14:36
Speaker
So i'm in my stravis it's like you get an email saying you've been dropped. Yeah, exactly. So I've been on the server since 2013. Um, and yeah, I mean, I don't mind paying for it. Like I'm happy to pay for Strava. Like it's such a cool app. Um, so I will pay for it. Um, but yeah, got an email this week saying that you're no longer a pro. You can apply again. I remember like the first time, um, I got it. I sent an email. This would have been like 10 years ago. I just sent an email.
01:15:06
Speaker
um And they kind of have been a Strava pro for the last 10 years, but now they have like a proper like Sign-in um Form like if you want to get like the Strava pro account um So I did that as well I'll see what that comes back with and then if it doesn't come back I'll just pay the five or seven dollars a month that Strava charges which I'm happy to support them because um I use travel all the time, especially when I travel to like look at stuff, look at hit maps and and segments, so I'm happy to support them. But yeah. me
01:15:46
Speaker
That's all the news that happened to me. For a guy that's been recently running PBs, that's a brutal email to receive. Yeah. um Fun times. um One I did actually just think of because he only arrived um here in Font Rameau with me yesterday. Leo Peterson, who's over in Europe now prepping for the Golden Trail final, he ran the Prague 10K on the weekend. um So flat road 10K because he's bloody fast.
01:16:13
Speaker
He ran 30-28, I believe. Was on a faster pace. It was a hot evening. um And then said he died off a little bit, but still came in, yeah, 30-28, which is bloody good running. And yeah, it'd be interesting. I'm so keen to see how he goes at the Golden Trail final. He's in front remote, cut west, staying where I'm staying for the next six weeks, all the way up to the final, so.
01:16:37
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, big prep, big prep incoming. But that that does us for this week for the most part. um Unless, Jess, you've got any other news you've seen on the horizon on the trailfront or any Aussie news since you're the one that's been amongst the Aussie scene? um No, nothing that comes to mind.
01:17:00
Speaker
That is fine. We had a big week previous with UTMB, so we can have a later on week this week. ah But next week for what's coming up, there is the Pilliga Ultra. um That's one I always keep tabs on. It's a very cool event in the pigola Pilliga um National Park, I believe it's a National Park, um but a big fundraiser, I think, event. um I don't actually know the distance. We might give some more info on that next week when it happens. But then also, and I'll be interested, do have either of you heard, it's in WA, there's one called the Mighty Jarrah Trail Run next week? Yeah, someone told me about that one. um I think it's like quite a flat brace. Is that right Vlad? I mean, everything is flat. That's not a surprise, but
01:17:45
Speaker
It's part of the the big bike race that they have here that would be like the mighty Jara bike race, which is and the main event. And then in the last few years, they added a trail run and they probably have like a $500 prize money for that race. we get out and with the twenty you rock and yeah do it blood No, no, it's a bit too soon. I got to take it easy on some racing and bank some training, but um it would be a nice race because there's a lot of geographies. Yeah, nice.
01:18:17
Speaker
Nice. Sounds cool. ah Well, there's another one that just looked cool because it's on Bruny Island in Tassie and is part of the Tasmanian trail running series is the La Biladier Peninsula Trail Run. No idea if I've pronounced that right. Another one that's over in Vic that I'm putting in here because it's very typical Aussie is a point to point one called Pub to Pub.
01:18:40
Speaker
that runs from Romsey to Lansfield, right in the middle of Vic. So kind of the middle of nowhere, running from one pub to another. It's a very, always sounds fun, along a rail trail, I believe. And then another alternative, but very cool looking event is one called Trails and Tales, Coopernook in New South Wales, which is a looped course where you can obviously trails and tails running with your dog. And there's everything up to a half marathon. So to all the dogs that manage that one too.
01:19:09
Speaker
That is cool. ah So we will see what we get next week when it comes to results from those ones. Then on the world scene, I suppose the only one that I'm necessarily focused on and know is obviously Headlands. 27K is the one I'm doing this weekend coming. um Also in action on the Aussie front will be Lara Hamilton.
Upcoming Races and Conclusion
01:19:30
Speaker
So I'm excited to be racing with her again. And Nathan Pearce is also going to be in this one at Headlands.
01:19:36
Speaker
So there'll be three of us, I think that's all the Aussies. um I haven't seen any others on the start list. And I'm not entirely sure what the rest of the Aussie contingent that's over in Europe is doing or what other races they're on. Vlad, have you got any on the horizon or all the big ones done? Next one. Yeah. Next one being South Korea.
01:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, fun. Oh, yeah, no, but as in the, I think the bigger races on the world scene, um I think Les Templiers and Piranoo, the few of those bigger ones coming up, um but I don't think the next weekend. Yeah, probably the week after is the next UTMB. There's Niss and the one in the Julian Alps, the Slovakia one. So a lot of races still.
01:20:22
Speaker
to go. I mean, in Europe, like September is still like a big part of the season. So there'll be a lot of races in Europe still coming out. Anyway, but there will be a lot more things happening next week. So thanks a lot for joining and we will see you guys and next week. Hopefully have a great rest of your week. Great week, guys. See you next week.