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2025 Wrapped Part 1: Performance Of The Year & Breakout Of The Year | Episode 89
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Episode 89 (and 90 coming next week) of Peak Pursuits delivers a comprehensive wrap of a massive 2025 for Australian trail running, as James, Vlad, Brodie, and Sim hand out their end-of-year performance awards.
In Part 1, the team debates the standout performances of the season and the surprise breakout performances, eventually coming to a decision where it feels like there is no right or wrong because how good was 2025!!
Throughout, the team unpack deep fields at global races, compare domestic versus international results, and explore how indexing, course difficulty, and competitive depth shape performance context. With sharp analysis, athlete recognition, and honest debate, this episode is essential listening for anyone tracking Australian trail running results, elite progression, and the stories that defined 2025.
What do you think? Were we close or did we miss something? Let us know!
***Don’t forget, use code PEAK at https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/en-au for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners! And to enter our end of year giveaway make sure you follow us and Bix Australia on insta then tag your friend in a comment on this episodes post!***
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!
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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Excitement
00:00:00
Speaker
Music Music
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 89 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. We have a different episode coming for you this week because it is wrap-up time for what has been a wild 2025 for many, many people. Now, there are four of us on here right now, so I am joined by Vlad Ixl over in Perth. how are we doing, Vlad? Yeah, going well. Thank you.
00:00:33
Speaker
And James Sieber. are we doing, James? Very well. Looking forward to the Christmas break. Also so quite excited about doing this podcast. It's been fun to fun to reflect on the year. Very much so. ah It's like you can't even help, even if you're not that sentimental about New Year's kind of thing, you can't help but sort of in your head think it through it all. Definitely.
00:00:51
Speaker
And Brody. How are we doing, Broads? Yeah, pretty good. I'm excited to recap the year. And I think I just wanted to raise, I don't think we've we've highlighted this news anywhere else, so this seems like a good place to raise it, but I beat James in the betting for the entire season day for the preview episode.
Yearly Highlights and Personal Achievements
00:01:09
Speaker
So a big win for me, which I'm very happy about. That's the highlight of my year, I think.
00:01:14
Speaker
That's great. That is great. Perfect. James, you've got to lift your game next year. I really would have pegged you to win that one. Well, I was for ages and then Brodie had a really good roller coaster and i didn't.
00:01:28
Speaker
And so, yeah, he, bro Brodie did nearly got every single position right across the 23 and the 46. Like he only got a couple of names wrong. So yeah, it was a good day. Thanks to all those athletes at roller coasters for getting me across the line. Yeah.
00:01:44
Speaker
That said, we both absolutely my ni nice well then messed it up ah at Cozzy. we We both, we jointly sucked is the nice way to put it. So we ended the year poorly, but but yeah, it was fun.
Sponsorship and Award Introductions
00:01:56
Speaker
Good to follow. Nice. Very nice. Yeah. We'll have to keep that going into next year. And James, you going to have to get your revenge. Coming up, ah thank you to everyone that has followed along on Instagram the last couple of weeks to give their take on what we have coming up because we have our end of year awards. i've made We've made up some very arbitrary names for them. But before that, I will mention that this episode is brought to us by Bix, as always, because Bix is amazing.
00:02:25
Speaker
And we have an exciting giveaway that's coming up ah over the next week. And how to win that, you're going to find out in the middle
Peak Awards: Top Performances in Trail Running
00:02:34
Speaker
of this episode. So keep listening. um No turning it off early. um But getting us started, performance of the year. Now, this one ah called the Peak Award.
00:02:47
Speaker
Fits the name. Why not? um We're looking for the absolute top performance, male and female award. by an Australian, i'm going to say, or living in australian in Australia trail runner. It does not have to be Australian born. But first of all, while i everyone has a quick moment to think through it, and this, make it quick fire, this isn't the deep dive here. Vlad, what was your best performance of the year? Personal performance. Personal for you.
00:03:15
Speaker
um I'm going to go with the South Australian five-pick trail race. Oh, yeah. one. It was my first ultra marathon in a while, so i was just happy to, yeah, run well.
00:03:28
Speaker
Nice. Love that. Love, love that. James, did you race? i I did. I did two bays, um which was not exactly the best day, but it was my best performance. So that is that is my best run. like I actually ran quite well. I just had like immediately stomach issues. So I couldn't eat or drink, which but apart from that, it was yeah it's but for my fastest time there. So I'll take it.
00:03:52
Speaker
Hey, pretty good. PB is a PB. We'll take it. And you started off the year strong. um So that's something. Awesome. Brodie? Can I cheat and not choose a race? I think maybe my best performance is finally actually listening to my physiotherapist and deciding that I won't schedule another race in until I'm ready to do another race.
00:04:15
Speaker
Hey, I actually, yeah, massive kudos for that one. That is actually a very good point and a very good performance. Yeah, yeah, no, I'll give that one. We'll pay that. Mostly because I have no other good performances.
00:04:30
Speaker
But that's like part partly because you listen to the physio, right? like Well, that only happened in like November, but yeah. yeah fair we all have a year like that sometimes we definitely do um and yeah mine was a year of not even two halves absolutely up and down but I still did thankfully have something in there um probably I'm gonna say that my best performance on paper um was Malaysia Sky Race second at Penang in Sky Running World Series However, the best performance that just wasn't quite because of the day feeling wise was actually Wandi Cross, but then they shortened the course um for me. So that one felt like a much better day personally, but you can't really do much with it because they
Top Female Performances Discussion
00:05:21
Speaker
cut the race. Anyways, on to bigger and better things.
00:05:25
Speaker
Brodie, I'm going to start with you. um Top three female performances of 2025. What have you got? Yeah, it's tricky. ah we Are we going to swing back around to the the people's choice?
00:05:39
Speaker
We are. So people's choice comes at the end um because we're going to give our vote. There was ah four people on there. One of them was Lucy at UTMB. And i yeah I think that's a obviously a super amazing performance, also amazing place.
00:05:55
Speaker
um But for Lucy, I nearly think, like I don't know, i followed the end of her season quite closely. And very, I nearly think, and and I think the points actually show this, the ITRA points, and again, ITRA points is not perfect, but Mount Buller Skyrun for Lucy nearly to me looks like her best performance. Like obviously her best result is UTMB. That's amazing. And seventh for her, that's like,
00:06:17
Speaker
on a huge, huge stage for her. um And probably being able to do that in France when she's from Australia is pretty amazing. um But yeah, mountain ball or sky run, she absolutely smashed that. She was flying that day. So um maybe that one, I don't know. I like it. I like it.
00:06:35
Speaker
Left a field. And then, oh, there's a lot of good performances. I think, um, Meg Coffey at UTA 100 mile was pretty impressive to watch. um Like I was there and and was watching and following along with Claire. So it was cool to see that race unfold and she just looks so strong all day. So yeah, I think that was a pretty impressive ah performance. And yeah,
00:06:57
Speaker
Then maybe even though Demi got beaten by Lucy at UTK, think for herself, like she did such an amazing performance there. She was a very close to very strong Lucy.
00:07:09
Speaker
um So I think, yeah, Demi's UTK was was pretty good for me as well, that 50K there. Cool. Okay. We'll go top three first. You've got to pick a winner by the end once I've chatted to the others. so Okay.
00:07:22
Speaker
fifty bla i think it like ahly I think it is it is super tricky when you look at what Lucy has done in the back end of this year and the performances that have come out of it. like It's almost, don't mean it's in a bad way whatsoever, but it's almost hiding the quality of some of the other performances that they've done. Demi, for example, then like her cosy was incredible, but Lucy still beat her.
00:07:43
Speaker
It's just, it's, it is like, it's great. It's, it's really great as we've been saying to see Lucy actually racing in Australia and racing so densely in this back half of the year, which is obviously, we kind of knew was building up to something. We now know it's building up Tarawara, but it kind of has hidden to a degree, some of the amazing performances that have also happened. But yeah, going to add that Yep. Yeah. It's fair.
00:08:08
Speaker
Vlad, top three. Yeah, I think I would have to go with Lucy. I think especially like she, I guess, didn't have the greatest kind of results in the past few years. And then back half of this year, she really lit it up and had some incredible results, raced a lot, raced a lot in Australia.
00:08:26
Speaker
um So, yeah, I think that was one of the better results that I've seen from Lucy and I've known her for like a really long time. um Steph Austin as well, i think.
00:08:39
Speaker
six foot track win together with Cozzy. It's a pretty good performance. um Yeah, I think that would have been up there for me. Yep, yep.
00:08:55
Speaker
Then, who's your other who's your other top three? I can go even with Jess. Like I think that, you know, maybe the results...
00:09:07
Speaker
weren't exactly there that she wanted to, but I thought, you know, she had a pretty solid season going some longer distances, racing outside of Australia. So I think put that into perspective, think that she did really well.
00:09:21
Speaker
And obviously she's a host on the show as well. No bias there whatsoever. No bias there at all. That's like, hey, it's good bias. I'll take it. I'll take yeah Give our girl some love. ah James. Yeah, so I think this is so this is just best single performance, isn't it?
00:09:41
Speaker
Best single performance, yeah. Yeah, I think i think you can't look past Lacey. Honestly, i'd have to chat to her to understand which one she thinks is her best performance because they're all very impressive. To me, anytime you're performing at a world stage, whether it's world champs or it's a massive international event like UTMB,
00:09:58
Speaker
regardless of what the indexing, like a seventh there to me is more impressive than a first or second anywhere she's done in Australia, it just because of the level of performance. And also, know, I feel like executing in a hundred mile is potentially...
00:10:15
Speaker
and I'm going to go get some crap crap for this is potentially more impressive than executing like a 20k because there's just so many more variables and so many things that can go wrong especially in a year like UTMB was like they they had a horrendous night like the so to actually still put it together is very importantly there's obviously there's different challenges but if I was looking at Lucy's performances i know maybe i'll probably I'm gonna get some real hate for that um Outside of Lucy, though, I think what Brody said, Demi's UTK, Demi's UTA was, I think that to me was like the first time we really saw what Demi was going to be capable of in 2025. He's had some great performances in the past, but that that was a very, very impressive run. um
00:10:56
Speaker
A really random one, but Melissa Houshid in Rainbow Beach, like one of the Queensland races. But in that race,
Top Male Performances Discussion
00:11:04
Speaker
she beat Zoe Manning, who's another one for like a performance of the year, um Beth McKenzie and Ella McCartney. And that race was also sick because they came top four overall, those four women. So that was sick race. But that one's not indexed anywhere. But I reckon if that was actually indexed, that would have been one of the highest results from the year. And then also Jess Short's world sky running masters first in the vertical so it's not it's not often that you get a first in australian in the world championship level whether it's sky running or masters or youth whatever it is like obviously we also had a youth gold as well but I think that definitely is one that needs a mention if I was to, and then Beth McKenzie's Javelina as well for me. I think again, what I, what I just said about doing it at a big stage and the other thing that impressed me so much about Beth was that was her debut hundred mile.
00:11:57
Speaker
So doing debuting a distance, I think adds a bit of weight to that performance. So yeah, I think for for me, Lucy's, Lucy's UTMB is probably my performance of the year for the the women's side.
00:12:11
Speaker
Then I'd go, don't actually think about top three. I just went with number one. I'd probably go Beth's 100 mile. um And then I'll put, I'm actually going to put Bridie Temple's Buffalo 100K.
00:12:26
Speaker
I think Coming in with one you hadn't even mentioned yet. Yeah, I know. I didn't write that one down. Sorry, James. It says five different ones. I should have taken a bet on that one. I knew that would happen.
00:12:40
Speaker
I talked through things and then I realized that I forgot something as I'm talking about it. Okay. Wait, so which one for Bridie? Bridie's Buffalo 100. Okay. Okay. okay Yeah. I like that. She has i like ah obviously didn't didn't get the results she won to the GPT, but I think that that run, yes, she was miles miles back. She was a long way back from Esther, but we're talking about Esther Shelag performance. um I think that was still a very impressive run um going under. Pretty sure she was under the old course record on that as well.
00:13:08
Speaker
yeah Nice, nice. I knew that we were going to get a fair amount out of you. so And i'm I'm the sort of person that sometimes it's nice to look up the, while you've been saying all these things, I've looked up a few of the ITRA scores and UTMB scores out of interest because it's it's always interesting what sort of um ah lines up in your mind versus doesn't quite. But yeah, Bridie's 100K at Buffalo is actually probably one of the highest scoring ones for females. Yeah. um in Oz which is one I hadn't even thought of but just well I will say on that because I did obviously the same thing to kind of go through and see what people have done especially like we'll come to the men's in a bit of Billy Curtis to remind myself of everything he's done this year which is a little bit crazy but it
00:13:52
Speaker
I've looked in the past that I kind of ignore UTMB indexes now, but looking at ITRA and 700 in the women's and 800 in the men used to be kind of the cutoff. Like if you got better than that, that was a really, really good day. That's jumped to 725 and even sort of which is really impressive and scary Yeah, I'm going to agree with you there on all fronts. um which And, yeah, Bridie's was, what, 722 for Buffalo Stampede 100. So it was definitely up there.
00:14:24
Speaker
um My top three, I'm going to throw in one that hasn't been mentioned yet but I think is an absolute blitzer of a run, too. And that was Lara Hamilton coming 11th and being seven seconds off 10th at Broken Arrow Sky Race, being a Golden Trail World Series race. I think ITRA scores in the 7.30s. Like that day for her was, I'm very glad she had that day um because I think it was a long time coming to... be up there. um I just wish you got into that top 10, but I think just how hard that is to achieve, um that puts it in my top three. um As everyone has mentioned, like Lucy's UTMB seventh is very impossible to go past. You actually can't when um going through sort of top performances for females.
00:15:16
Speaker
the The third one is where it gets like, as Brodie said, I was there when Meg Coffey did the ah UTA Mylar and that was just an impressive thing to see firsthand, um just how smooth it seemed, although when chatting to her at wasn't didn't actually go to plan. ah Beth McKenzie with Javelina 100 second. I think that for me would have to be my third, um even though they're now all three international events. Part of me wanted to pick an Aussie one, um but coming second at Javelina in your first 100 mile, yeah, there's just, that's insane. um So yeah, there's my top three. James, you've already given your first, and to be fair, I think everyone
00:16:00
Speaker
Probably agrees. Brady, who's first? Yeah, yeah, I'd probably like, like really like when when you put into perspective loop like the race, like the pressure of UTMB and like James said, 100 mile and executing it on that world stage, particularly there and then, um yeah, it's hard to go past that.
00:16:19
Speaker
um Humour me for a second. um Buy and buy ah ways like best ultra performance. If you were to go sub-ultra just as a one-off, who's who's the best that comes to mind?
00:16:33
Speaker
Sub-Ultra race this year? Yeah. I know this is a dumb question, but are we saying marathon or 50K counts as sub-Ultra? It's a great question, actually. and i like and Let's go technically sub-Ultra. Marathon races or below? Best sub-Ultra.
00:16:49
Speaker
There have been some very... I don't know if there wasn't that much that Aussies were running this year. so yeah like there's... Like there's a bit, but not the... i got Overseas, ah the only one that comes to mind really for me is Lara. I tried to find the result and I could not. I know that there is an Aussie, I think she's an ex-triathlete. She might still be a triathlete who lives in the States. And we we read her out our performance from her. She came first or second at one of the big races in the US and I cannot find her name.
00:17:17
Speaker
i think that might have been in a 50k though so um that's a completely irrelevant piece of conversation to be honest um i i think mia nobles ah buffalo marathon definitely is one um the Yeah, it's it's tricky. Steph's Hounslow Marathon was very impressive, Steph Austin's. um But i'm i'm I'm struggling to think of the, because Mia didn't break your record sim, did she, at Donna?
00:17:49
Speaker
No. oh And it's not my record anymore. It's Laris. Laris, sorry. She was about eight minutes off Laris. Yeah, okay. So, like, as again, a good run at start of the year. um Who took out the win? was Jo Hepton at BTU. Yeah.
00:18:04
Speaker
She did break the record. Yeah. But otherwise, yeah. Vlad, you got any come to mind? Short distance? Yeah, i was just going to say to James, that was Sophie Lynn. um She finished third at the Rats Deserts 50K.
00:18:20
Speaker
Yeah. Which looks like her first trail race ever. She is a... a professional triathlete um from South Australia. Cool. Yeah, that's a pretty good result, 706. Nice.
00:18:32
Speaker
um UTMB index score. Yeah, sweet. Yeah, I think that but that's definitely a name. if she's going to If she's going to do more trails in the future, i think that's definitely a name we're probably going to be reading out more frequently. find it really hard to put into context the um the international short shorter trail races sim. like I know Lara's result 11th is like from – I think it's really good, but like I just find it really hard to contextualize that result without there being like other Aussies running or more people I know – um like Fair, although I will say Charlie Hamilton was 17th or 18th in the men's, if that gives, like, on the same race. So I don't know if that gives any more comparison at all, but it's a bit something.
00:19:15
Speaker
um Yeah, like time-wise, she's about... for just 17 minutes behind Charlie. So again, I don't know. I don't exactly know how that fits.
00:19:26
Speaker
That feels pretty good. so And even some of Lara's mountain running races as well seemed really good. yeah Some of the world mountain running. So yeah, it's I just find it hard to...
00:19:38
Speaker
put that into perspective whereas like in the Australian races you're like it's one to ones and like it's easy to put the i get you yeah that into perspective you you know course records the course records are by Australians like you've got better context whereas I find it yeah i find it hard unless they're like winning or like very high up in an international race which is really hard to do it's hard I find that hard and I think those results then get missed like Lara's probably did this year Yeah, fair.
00:20:06
Speaker
Very fair. Makes sense. So Lara's result probably is, for me, the best sub-ultra one. and i don't But and then again, I don't know which one of hers is best. Is Broken Arrow her best? Or are some of her world mountain running races where she was, again, around that 10th position?
00:20:20
Speaker
How does those stack up? So, again, you nearly need to ask Lara and say, which one do you think was your best? You would. Fair, fair. ah Vlad, did you have any shorter distance ones? You didn't give me a name.
00:20:31
Speaker
No, I think i think the 11th place probably is... for a sub-ultra if we kind of think about a under fifty k yeah i guess that would be the best one from lara i think we've also got um joe you remind me joe heptom she won hounds low 17 as well we're in a pretty impressive field like i think that one now i remembered it that one definitely stands out in front of bridget and sarah levitt um so But I think Lara's would, especially considering the stage, and yes, it's hard to it's hard to compare it because we don't have that context, but just knowing the competitive nature of Broken Arrow, you kind of know that anything in the top 20 there is a very impressive run and we wouldn't have very many Australians, a handful that could probably do a similar or a top 20 in that field.
Breakout Stars and Future Prospects
00:21:22
Speaker
yeah I think next year, top 11 would even be harder. Oh, with the amount of money that they're putting into that. For sure. Oh, my goodness. You would be gutted because not only is 11th out of the top 10, but you're just outside of the cash and it still it still pays pretty well.
00:21:38
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think it might even be so Golden Trail. I can't remember how far down that paid. um But either way, um awesome. That's the women best performance I think we've covered off.
00:21:50
Speaker
We've rambled a lot. Did we actually come up with the top three? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I don't know think we have that necessarily. We're not going to have like a blanket top three for all of us because we've all got our own perspective. But I think we all agree that Lucy there on the ultra distance. And if we were to pick, if you would pick a shorter distance, Lara being the top name. Yeah.
00:22:11
Speaker
two Two performances that I didn't mention that I think are, because of performing on that stage at the World Champs, both Nicole Patton in the long trail and Sarah J. Miller in the short trail, just being first Aussies in that field, in that environment, like that's definitely...
00:22:27
Speaker
they like it's It's tricky because you look at like the the positioning and the indexing and it's not there. it's not there And probably i know whether both of them would say they could do a better day or not. But those are definitely two performances that deserve a mention at least as well.
00:22:42
Speaker
Yeah, nice. So we're locking in Lucy, UTMB. I think we should pick her first. That's good. Lucy, UTMB. And then if we were to pick a sub ultra, probably Lara. And it looks like like I'm just having a look at the stories and 60% of people voted for Lucy, UTMB. So we're in agreement with the people.
00:23:02
Speaker
That's good. That's good. We can't get too much hate that way. 60% All right.
00:23:07
Speaker
Should we move on to the the male equivalent performance? Yeah. Vlad, do you want to take us first time for this one? Yeah, I'm going to go for it. um I think that um Nathan World Champs would have been up there for me for top three. um I also think the 11th place that Mikey ran in the US, in the Kenyans. um Yeah, I think Mikey 11th place, really, really good results. I'd have that in my top three.
00:23:38
Speaker
And I will also, go I'm gonna put Billy in Hong Kong, um winning the 33K early in the year as one of my top three performances only because He sprinted past me on one of the last uphills and I was like, how is he going so quick uphill two and a half hours into this race in this heat on this terrain? So yeah, I'd have to give it to Billy as well as one of those performances. Billy's so interesting because like if I look back at Billy's year without sort of like delving into the results, I'm like, oh,
00:24:11
Speaker
Really didn't have that good a year. But like you pick out some individual results and I think it's just he raced so much. So he obviously, because he raced so much, he had some races that didn't go so well.
00:24:21
Speaker
mine He's done so many races this year and he's actually done some... got some like really good intra points. and And actually the Hong Kong one was one of the ones that was jumping out at me as remembering that race, Vlad, when you were talking about it. But there was also a race in Japan that he did, which is called the Hasetsune 30K. And um I remember he was racing like some of the best Japanese runners.
00:24:47
Speaker
um And yeah, it looked like a really good a really good result. I'll see if I can pull up exactly what. place he was he was fifth he ran 302 and Rui Yuada ran 251, who we know how good Rui is.
00:25:02
Speaker
That's impressive. um Yeah, and I think in in the Hong Kong race, like the guy that came second from China was a 212 marathon runner. So I think that also put a bit into perspective. And you can, I mean, in Hong Kong, you can't really score too high.
00:25:16
Speaker
So he's 750 or 780 that he got in that race. It's not really a good, you know, kind of a real- Yeah, it's better than that.
00:25:27
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna put Billy in my top three as well. I think, um except I think I'm gonna sneak that Japanese race in um as one of his. And then other than that, I think, or there's a lot of good performances. It's tricky to pull pull pull them out. But Mikey's run in canyons, I think was really impressive to watch. um That was a really good real result, probably,
00:25:56
Speaker
I don't know, there's seventy many good ones here, but Mike Carroll's run at roller coaster sort of blew my mind. out um So i I think that's in my top three. But then that's like not even mentioning some of the long distance guys like Ben Kubra, Phil Gore and Charlie's racing in Cape Town. So it's like, yeah, it's tricky. But yeah, I think I'm going to i'm going to go with Billy.
00:26:19
Speaker
Mikey and Mike. Sorry about that. Other guys. So i I mentioned for you guys, like Phil, Phil Gore and, and in the the women's performance of the year with Holly Ranson, I personally have gone, I'm looking at trail races. I'm not looking at backyard ultras or ultra running. Like I'm not looking at track 24 hours and that kind of stuff. Have have you guys done the same?
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah. Similar. Although Phil Gore's run is just wild. Yeah. Yeah. I think backyard is still is still trail, but I just, again, it's something I can't conceptualize. And I like i just, but we've seen some really, really good trail runners have a crack at it, like Courtney Dal Walter.
00:27:03
Speaker
um But I don't know if we've seen heaps of people do it, but then I don't even know how they would go. So like it's, I don't know, ah the backyard space confuses me a bit, scares me a lot. And...
00:27:17
Speaker
I don't know how to weigh out the result. Yeah. It's a different sport. Like I think we're to look at it almost as a completely different sport. They run by the hour. So they're running for time. you have breaks. Then you have, know, one aid station the same way. So it's a bit hard to kind of really call it a race. Yeah, it is a race, but it still goes on like segments of time.
00:27:41
Speaker
um So yeah, whatever Phil Goy did I think is incredible and not many people would be able to even get close to it. um But yeah, I think it would play differently if they just raced for 90 hours nonstop um compared to you know starting on the hour of a lap every single hour. Or 120 hours, I think is what he actually did. Yeah, there's a lot of hours. to that I think that's why it blows my mind. But if you have a look at the story, the people are going to be upset with us because they loved Phil Gore's world record. He got 51% of the vote. so
00:28:16
Speaker
um Although maybe Sim, were you going to go with Phil? um In some ways, Yes, but, and again, it's almost like you've got to put it in a separate category because how do you compare, like, part of me just goes, we have an Aussie world record holder in a, like, running, trail running ultra sport.
00:28:36
Speaker
Pretty damn cool. And it happened this year. So when it comes to, like, a standout performance in the trail running space, It's there. um But then you're you're so right. It's like how do you compare that to like you can't really even compare it to Ben Cooper's 240 mile, let alone like Charlie's 55k at Ultra Trail Cape Town, let alone like any of the other things we've spoken about. Like how do you compare Phil Gore's um Backyard Ultra to Mike Carroll's roller coaster. It's a different thing. However, it 100% deserves a mention and it deserves like almost its own thing of going, you're insane. None of us understand how you do it. Well, he definitely wins best Backyard Ultra of the year, doesn't he?
00:29:25
Speaker
Very, very much so. Very, very much so. But no, um i think, yeah, because for my top three it just – Again, it's like the for the shorter distance, um seeing someone that we haven't had in a very long time, anyone come anywhere within the top 50 at a Worlds um in the Classic, which we've had like a lot of very a lot of our best shorter distance runners have a crack. So I think um in terms of a top three, then yeah, Nath Pierce would be there. But then for the other two, like um the ones that sort of ah stand out for me, Michael Dunstan's 100K at Buffalo.
00:30:10
Speaker
yeah Yeah, definitely. That one just, I don't know what was going on for him that day, but he was on one. Like that was great. um I honestly think like having, having crude Dunstan at Snowdonia and then watching his training and just speaking to him, like, I think that's his level.
00:30:30
Speaker
We just haven't got to see it too frequently. Like he's fast and he's, he can train really, really well. um And that, yeah, that like to go an hour under what Matt Crean beat, who's the road guy, Essex as well.
00:30:48
Speaker
Yeah. I know. Reece Edwards. Reece Edwards. Yeah. So Matt had to run that to beat Reece. Reece is a very good trail runner in his own right. And then Dunstan just smashed their times by an hour on essentially the same course.
00:31:01
Speaker
that was ah That was a very impressive performance. It was incredible. Yes. um And then i didn't didn hadn't said a third. but Yeah, you got your third pick.
00:31:13
Speaker
Jeez. Third pick, men's result. Oh, there's just, there's a lot. um It's been a great year. It has been. That's the really cool thing. yeah And also, i i am also very aware that I'm very disconnected from the back half of the year. So, hence why ah kind of have this bias towards the the front end. um Probably not a bad thing because we typically have a recency bias. So, you you should be bucking the trend a bit.
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah, very fair. um But then Mike Carroll at, um I know you've already said him for um rollercoaster, but his run at UTA 100 I'd also put up there. Yeah. um Because, yeah, that was that was bloody cool to follow along. um But then for who I'd pick to win, even out of those three, i like personally Michael Dunstan. um But who have we got that you guys have picked as the actual winner?
00:32:13
Speaker
I haven't gone I've still got to wait for James. yeah He's got about 10 names, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah, ah yes. i I have to talk things out to work out my order for for certain. So like I think what you guys have said, definitely. I think Mike Carroll's – I think his UTA 100 made me happier to see as a result, like because he's had those DNFs at that distance before like and more and recently. um But I do think what he did at RollerCoaster to run i think it was 334 in that course, which is faster than any course record on any variation of this course that's ever existed and took 25 minutes off the previous one from James Barnett.
00:32:55
Speaker
but he also did that solo essentially for a lot of that race that was a that was a impressive day and i think they didn't get as much props i wish i'm sure he does as well i wish he had got a finish cosy because then he would have put together one hell of a season like he already he has put together a he heck of a season but yeah that that really would have topped it off um I had Dunstan, it's 100K.
00:33:21
Speaker
I think Charlie's Cape Town coming, and getting an international podium at that level, especially with how many athletes Adidas sends out there. It's a very competitive yeah competitiveive field. ah Yeah. Billy's...
00:33:34
Speaker
and I don't know, just throw a dart at Billy's results and pick one. It's a bit like Lucy. He's he's had so many. He might get a bad one, though. I was going to it's not bang on. I'm not being mean to Billy, but he's raised a lot. He's had some great as the others.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah, he's had's he's had some great ones. He's had some shockers. And again, when it comes to like the season, the the UTA one is is is a shame and in there. um His most recent, and this is 100% indexing bias. His most recent one was his best ranked, Arezzo Trail or Wild Marathon, whereas the the highest the the second highest ITRA index of the year, 863. And yeah,
00:34:15
Speaker
and There's not really much about it. He's just gone and done it for as as far as I know, like it's very understated because he is racing so much. so I, I don't, I don't have any context on that race. I don't have any context on the other people that are running that race. Um, objectively, it looked like a very fast time across the elevation profile of the course.
00:34:32
Speaker
Um, The other ones that have stood out to me is Thomas Banks fourth place at GPT. I think that run was very, very impressive and it is kind of lost in the fact that he was fourth, but that was a very, very impressive time. um I don't really know if you can can call this a single performance, but Hayden Barnett's stage race at GPT, the four days, to put together that, was like he was consistently getting some of the higher indexing single races, but he was doing it back to back-to- back to back. That was big. And then at the same as I said for Jeff Short, Patrick Clark's youths, Skyrunning, gold.
00:35:12
Speaker
that That one, like to like, i've yeah, being saying about getting it right on the world stage, getting it right on the world stage at 16. That's like, that's next level to to to to show the poise to be able to go and put that out. Like I'm very excited for what he's going to And we just read.
00:35:32
Speaker
another win for him um in can't remember what the race was called but that that local race in canberra um and then ben burgess his grand raid 40k first which again an international one that i think got kind of missed a little bit because that was in the lead up to worlds for him but that was and and speaking to him afterwards like that's probably the race that he holds as his best performance of the year so I think if I'm going to put it in order, I'm goingnna put i'm i'm i'm going to put Thomas Banks' GPT first. um I'm going to put Mike Harrell's 46K at rollercoaster second, and then I'm going to put Patrick Clark's first at Skyrunning third.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. and I like it. Are we going to order first because we all voted for different things? What's the cumulative... ah It sounds like either Mike Carroll or Michael Dunstan maybe is the cumulative win.
00:36:27
Speaker
i don't know if I'm capturing that correctly. I really think Mikey, the 11th place, Okay, yeah. Against such a deep field. Like, don't forget the the results that you guys are mentioning right now weren't against like such deep field. This was a golden ticket race with a lot of fast hitters coming from all over the world for this and some of America's best like runners and finishing 11th there, I think. um Yeah. deserve that Even though it's eleven
00:36:58
Speaker
For those reasons, is his 11th there better than Charlie's third? I think so. Okay. Charlie's race was competitive at the top, but not outside, like let's say the top seven or eight.
00:37:10
Speaker
um where this race would have been very competitive for the top 25. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot to say that as well. So, yeah.
00:37:21
Speaker
it if If what we've said about Lara's run at Broken Arrow, the exact same point is made for Mikey's run ah Canyon. so ah Yeah, he was 10 minutes behind Rod Favard. Yeah.
00:37:35
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I i know i think i think that that should be the performance of the year. the more I look at it, the more I'm like, holy damn. right, block it in. And what about Sub Ultra then? Patrick Clark?
00:37:49
Speaker
yeah one Just looking at my list. Oh, yeah. I think it's either Patrick Clark or it's one of Billy's. Good days. Yeah. One of them. but We didn't even mention UTA 22. We'll get to that in the in the battle section.
00:38:05
Speaker
yeah That one, yeah, very much so. yeah there's Preface all of this by just going, guys, we're not getting any of this perfect and it is all very subjective and there's going to be many people we've missed and we thought we're sorry.
00:38:18
Speaker
um to summarise the whole year. um Awesome. And Nathan Pearce was also sub-ultra. He was. He was. We give Nathan Pearce the sub-ultra. That's pretty good.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, 46th out of like 250 at Worlds, which... James was like, that's not better than first, though. Yeah, I don't know. I could see your face, James. You were like, nah.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah. or No, like there's there's a part of me that's like, well, theoretically a first in a world stage, surely that should be the best performance the year. Like it doesn't really matter what a world stage is. but But at the same time, um like there is a hesitancy with putting any youth athlete on that there's Like giving them that?
00:38:58
Speaker
There's also that slight hesitancy I have where the trail running is already a fairly new sport and trail running for the younger age groups even more so, mostly because of the financial gap of getting there and doing all those things. So when you're talking competitiveness, is it absolutely incredible 100%? Am I going to be absolutely mind blown if you can go do that at the senior level where it is so much more deep?
00:39:23
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that. All right, so we're going to come back. I'm going force you guys into a decision. We're going to come back to Patrick Clark in the next one. So let's go with Nathan versus Billy for sub-ultra performance. I'm going Nathan for me. Are we happy with Nathan?
00:39:41
Speaker
Lock him in? Yeah. Yeah. hey James is unwillingly saying yes. All right. Well done. oh Good, good, good, good. Okay. We got through one whole award, guys. We did this.
00:39:55
Speaker
um Which, while we take a break from that, everyone take a deep breath. um I'm going to take all our listeners through how to win some BICs. Now, Vlad, I am going to get you in on this because the price is your new salty carb mix. Tell us about it.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, something that I've pretty much sampled the whole of last summer um is a high carb mix with a salty flavor, so electrolytes plus carbs, but with a bit of a yeah salty feel to it. So perfect for longer efforts or training in the heat when you just don't want that sweet um taste.
00:40:37
Speaker
um and yeah launched it in europe a couple of months ago well exactly at utmb and it's been doing really well in europe and we just got our shipment in australia and um some good feedback so far so yeah pretty excited to give away two winners um get to win them and their running buddy get to win a box um each of the high carb salty powders Nice. So to win this, you must be following, ah what's the actual tag? Bix Nutrition or?
00:41:10
Speaker
Bix Australia. Bix Australia. We got this. You must be following Bix Australia. You need to be following Peak Pursuits Pod both on Insta and then on the episode post for this episode when it comes out, you need to tag whatever friend you want to win this with. You can Tag multiple people in separate one person per comment, but you can enter as many times as you like. So feel free to tag away and just one tag per comment and you have to give it to whichever friend your comment wins, like whichever one of actually gets picked out. You don't tend to just get to pick which friend it goes to.
00:41:46
Speaker
um Once the post is out, we will be drawing the lucky winners on Saturday to give us then time book to announce it on the podcast next week. By the time this comes out, it'll be one week away, there or thereabouts. So just to recap, you and a friend will win a box of the Bix Nutrition Salty Carb Mix. All you've got to do, follow Bix Australia, follow Peak Pursuits pod and comment with at the tag of your friend. Simple. Exactly. Simple. You got this, guys. And ah may may ah may it fuel many happy runs together. um
00:42:24
Speaker
Perfect. Okay. We've had a breather. Now. Next one is the breakout performance of the year. Now for this, it's not necessarily rookie performance. It's not necessarily someone new to trail. It can be by all means.
00:42:38
Speaker
um But I named this the Holy Shit Award because it's kind of one of those performances that when you look at it, you go holy shit, I didn't know they could do that kind of deal. Mm-hmm.
00:42:50
Speaker
So it could be someone that's been around for a while and then all of a sudden just they had a performance that doesn't track with their previous results. It could be someone brand new where you're just like, who the hell are you and where'd you come from? um Essentially, yeah, breakout performance.
00:43:07
Speaker
Vlad, I'm going to you first this time around. This is male and female, right? um Male and female, go female first. Who surprised you? I would go with SJ Miller and the world champs in the short course only because only because I know how high that course was and um coming from Australia to that course and then running so well.
00:43:30
Speaker
think um that surprised me. I didn't think anybody would do well on that course. But, yeah, that was, I thought, a really good performance. Very nice. Very, very nice. Do you have any runners-up, any honourable mentions that you can think of? Yeah, no, no, probably Beth in there. Well, I don't know we call that as a breakout performance. She had a lot of performance. That's a bull pick there. I guess it was a breakout at the 100 miles.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah, US performance. Yeah. Fair. I'll pay that. I'll pay that. Nice. yeah feel free to feel free to chime in with any more you think of or agree along as we go.
00:44:13
Speaker
ah Brodie, what you got? I think Demi Caldwell, like her whole season was probably a bit of a breakout season. Like if you compare it to last year when she was doing the Golden Trail series, yeah,
00:44:27
Speaker
She wasn't on the level she was and UTA, I guess, was the the first one that was really obvious. So maybe UTA 50 for Demi was was a really big breakout, I thought. um Who else? I think you mentioned Joe Hepton before, who i don't know if we've seen...
00:44:45
Speaker
anything since um but she did really well oh she did hounslow as well yep so she did the btu one was the first one so i guess that's that's the breakout but like those two races that was really good uh yeah they're probably the main two i'm thinking like mia noble i guess she had a really good start to the year um but i think we also knew of mia's talent last year as well so it's less of a breakout for me i think But that was one of the ones we had in the poll, which like I sort of semi-agree with. But i I think maybe that one's less of a breakout for me.
00:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, fair. Fair. James? Yeah, I think what you guys have said so far, Demi, i I've kind of thought of this as doesn't have to be an entire season, but not so much just a single race um for me. Like it's it's hard to have a single great day, but it does happen. And then people kind of like disappear again a bit. um So I do think demi's Demi's year as a whole has been each time we've seen her, she's kind of leveled it up. And each time I've gone, wow, wow, wow. ah So that's definitely there. Like having said what just said, I think, ah was it Sophie Lynn Vlad? Yes.
00:45:55
Speaker
At Desert Rats. Like that's the first, the only result we've seen of her. So that definitely is one. um I actually see for me though, it would go to zory Manning. Yes. She won the under 23 age specifics last year, but she's done, she took out surf coast, black hole 50 K and something else. I can't remember. I'm not missing this off to my head at the moment, but yeah,
00:46:17
Speaker
I'm really excited to see what she can do in the future. And I think this, she she made that attempt to do, I think it was Cosimila last year in DNF, and she's brought back the distances a little bit, but she's still so young.
00:46:29
Speaker
um And at the moment it's healthy. Oh, she also got third place in that ran in that rainbow beach marathon. I said that Melissa won and Beth came second in, and Zoe was very close to them as well. She also won Boyne Valley, and then she was second behind Joe at BTU.
00:46:45
Speaker
Yeah. So I think she's, she's probably the one where I look at 2025 as a whole, the break breakthrough. I go, yeah. Okay. I think, I think it's going to be, be Zoe because and and Demi has had podiums already at UTK in previous, like last year. So it's kind of, yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, i'm I'm actually going to fully agree with you ah on the Zoe front, especially for like 9.15 for second overall at Surf Coast Century.
00:47:14
Speaker
That was the one for me where I was like, holy moly. yeah that's like And she's still young, very young, obviously, but the like that was her first hundred.
00:47:26
Speaker
She'd tried the Mylar. but She tried the miler. So I can't find another result for one hundred k I can't find another result for an ultra that's over 50. Like she did surf, not surf coast, yeah, black hole 50K. And that's really it. The ah only one else, you sorry, i feel like we should mention, I i still i still say Zoe takes this out. But even though she's had a win at Alpine Challenge in the past and Jabalani last year, but Bridie Temple was, I remember when we were doing the preview for Buffalo,
00:47:55
Speaker
I had no idea who she was. And it wasn't until Joe Dorff said to me, he's like, hey, have you been following this girl Bridie on Strava? And I looked at a Strava and it was she had done a training camp in Bright and it was just crown, crown, crown, crown. crown crown crown crown And I was like, wow. And the the speeds, like the time she was hitting was hitting men's top tens. We haven't seen the whole season from her, which is obviously, which is why I'm not, but she's gone Buffalo 100 and then taken a second place at UTA 22. So great range.
00:48:21
Speaker
And she's only 19. So great. so She'd probably be my second third in in this with with Demi, but yeah, Zoe's still for the the top. Yeah. I love this. future The future of trail running is bright. I'm going to yeah, my my top three are Zoe,
00:48:37
Speaker
For me, it's Zoe Jo Hepton. And um now that you mention it. Zoe won Asia Pacific Champs last year. She did, but, like, that was.
00:48:48
Speaker
she also ran a crazy fast 50K in Queensland. I know she's done different races this year, but. I don't know. But like this this was the year where like i've gone I've constantly noticed her and I feel like... I do i still don't think she's... like I think the time she's ran have been fantastic, but she still hasn't done any like she hasn't done any domestic races that she's been in a really competitive field. No, no, she hasn't.
00:49:12
Speaker
Sorry, I'm just playing devil's advocate. No, no, no. This is the problem. If you're listening, I think you're amazing. But you're I'm just playing devil's advocate. I want Demi to win, so I'm fighting for her. I was talking to Ben Burgess before about this, and I asked, i sent him a message before we got on. I was like, Demi or Zoe for Breakthrough, like who, I can't decide. So I'm i'm very much on on the fence. And you are right, Brody, that Zoe hasn't done it in a competitive field yet.
00:49:38
Speaker
and where would she lie but then in the degree she has because she did that rainbow beach marathon and she was just behind melissa and beth which is yeah that's a very competitive race yeah like we're talking about second at btu yes it wasn't as competitive as last year but it was still but it's still second yeah yeah yeah no i'm no screw you brodie i'm sticking with my sorry i got you all right i'm happy to give it to zoe Oh, love the arguments. And this just shows that there's many, many options and everyone we've mentioned, different people would give it to. I'm just going to say that the people's choice, they voted Demi ahead of Zoe. Yeah, the people are wrong. Although they also voted Mia as the top. So Mia took 39% of the vote.
00:50:24
Speaker
Yes, I can say people's choice is Mia Noble on that one. um Awesome. men or yeah Men's for the breakout award, um just for changing it up.
00:50:36
Speaker
I'm going to start and go that for me, the back end of the year probably was where I'm going to fall apart again. But just some of the results where I'm just go, who the hell is that?
00:50:47
Speaker
um Godfrey Slattery. That's UTK100, brand new name and just bang, he's there. um So that was definitely one. Patrick Clark, for me, gets the breakout performance. ah like he I put him in the breakout category for his sky running youth. worlds for being because what he got he got first in the vertical and third in the other one and so first overall I think was what happened um and so just having that double up there for me that was um a breakout the I missed it completely didn't follow this along but in hindsight George Knight at GPT he's up there um
00:51:30
Speaker
I also would put Hayden Barnett at GPT almost as a breakout for Hayden just for when you look at it compared to previous. I'm not sure though because I haven't followed him super closely. Hayden's – I think you could say this because he's gone quiet for a couple of years. like But you go back to – his breakout was his 1D cross in 2002, think Fair, fair, yeah. And that like that that performance was was incredible. And he was putting out, well, his breakout was when he was 15 or 16 and he came third at Buffalo 20K. Like that was his true breakout. But then he has done it. But he kind of has these highs, disappears for a little bit, highs, disappears for a little bit. um
00:52:10
Speaker
You could say like doing that stage race format though, that's the first time we've seen Hayden do anything like that. And it's clearly suits him because he just kept, he, that gap never got bigger to Dan Jones. If anything, it got smaller, actually, I think.
00:52:24
Speaker
It did. Yeah, no, he was, yeah, that was the what surprised me, I suppose, the back end of that. what He ran faster than Dan on some of the stages. I thought he was slower on every stage. The distance he was behind Dan. Oh, the distance behind Dan. Okay. It sort of like he started to to shrink. But like, you obviously don't, there's so so many caveats to that, but it was still very impressive. Well, then James, keep going with yours now that I've kind of handballed it. Obviously, the the very recent one that everyone will have in their mind is George Knight, who has just kind of come out of nowhere. Like he's done other aces, but we've never but had a reason to mention his name before. And yeah I just love the way he did that.
00:53:02
Speaker
Just to have the confidence to go, going around with Caleb for... was it 55, 60K or so, the speed at which they came through that 50K mark as well of GPT would, i yeah it would have easily been top 10, if not top five, or getting close to that top five position.
00:53:19
Speaker
um Patrick Clark, definitely. i think Toby Sparks is one that's really broken out to me. like He's, especially going from where he was at five peaks with Vlad and getting beaten by an hour.
00:53:33
Speaker
And then he comes to, uh uta 50 um and has like a pretty think was he fifth there fourth um and and like had turned the tables on vlad as well like and i think that that was a that was the first time i went okay that's really impressive and then he's gone on to do had a great race with Nath at rollercoaster and then had a great 12th at Chiang Mai ah at a very, like a super, super competitive 50K. So it's really hard to go past Toby's.
00:54:08
Speaker
kind of back end of the year whereas like George was just that one that one thing um I'm I'm more inclined as I've already said to not reward the single wow performance I'm more looking at what have you done in the year or at least in the ah six months of the year kind of how have you finished this off um so yeah I'd actually I'm i'm actually going to give it to to Toby for this year I think it's the the the level he's put himself up to is is is what's really impressing me. and And having spoken to him at Rollercoaster, his mindset towards the sports and the shifts that he's made in there and the way that he's now thinking about it, like that makes me really excited for him in the future. Like I'm so i'm very excited to see what George will do and very excited what Patrick will do. But yeah, Toby just stands out a little bit to me.
00:54:56
Speaker
Nice, very fair. Vlad? Yeah, totally agree. I think that Toby is my number one pick. He's done a couple of races before, um but this year he really like came out swinging. And um i would go as far to say that I think he's the most talented, naturally talented trail runner that we have in Australia right now. And I think we'll see that in the next two or three years.
00:55:19
Speaker
um And then I also think like Ben Burgess did really well. Like obviously he's been running, well for a couple of years, but this year really put some really good results up.
00:55:31
Speaker
um So I think that's yeah a really good year. And obviously, Patrick with with you know ah a world class performance will go probably third for me.
00:55:43
Speaker
Yeah. And I think from memory, listening to you guys last year, Ben was your equivalent breakout rookie, I can't remember what you called then for 2024, because I remember you saying his name and I was like, who? Was he the person to watch or something? Maybe the person, maybe the person, I can't remember what your categories were. could be a good pick by us if he I was going to say. No, he, because that was, that was the first time. Yeah, he definitely was, he definitely was. Yeah. But no, because I remember listening to it and being like, I don't really know where that's come from. That feels a little bit left field. And Ben has gone on to have one hell of a season, as we'll talk about in the later categories. So, yes, you guys did well on one.
00:56:24
Speaker
Very nice. we are I'm going to go back and listen, just confirm. But I reckon that was it. Yeah, maybe. Brody? Brody, who you got? Yeah, yeah think I think in similar names, um Toby was one that's jumped to mind the same as what Vlad and James were saying. I agree with Vlad. I think he's probably one of the athletes that looks like he could go to like like similar to sort of Charlie progression, um hoping that he does like head to that level. um And he's had, yeah, UTA was obviously a great run. And then he's sort of, yeah, the thing is I don't know the actual races he did really well in, but he just I know they're there. But obviously Rollercoaster was great, and I think UTA, they may be his two best. I'm not sure if he has...
00:57:08
Speaker
other ones that are at that level. The Chiang Mai, i think. Oh, Chiang Mai, yeah, most recently. Yeah, yeah yeah when you look at i've got i've got the I've got the results here. So, Guangfu Meng won, Riê-Waida came second, Hayden Hortz came third. it was a pack. And Charlie, I'm sorry, Charlie, to Toby, like, yes, he was half an hour off Guangfu Meng, but he was only 20 minutes off Hayden. And then some of the other names that are in there, like Alain Santamaria Blanco from Spain, He was only 10 minutes off and he's like a very much world-class level. And this is not meant to sound like ah negative.
00:57:45
Speaker
He beat Maud Mattis, which is very, very hard to do. like it It sounds it sounds a bit weird, but we look at like Tate Herbst was someone whose ICC run was really impressive to me, but Maud smashed him. um And yeah he, so I think that, yeah. I'm sure Maud beat me by like 15 minutes at CSNL. Yeah. like And that's a 30K race. yeah Yeah. So Toby's definitely won. I think one we didn't mention is Thomas Banks. yeah I think he has been around, but he's had sort of, again, and he didn't end up on any the top of any podiums, but he had some really impressive runs. UTA 50 was really good because that was a really competitive field in that sort of,
00:58:26
Speaker
first to eighth or first to tenth um he ran really well at a roller coaster and then he had the gbt race so he's one that i think sort of he also ran really well he also won cozy he won cozy he ran kenyani yeah he's done a lot of things um So I think, yeah, but I think he sort of stepped up a level, I think. He'd obviously won Cosi in the past, but I think these performances were a higher level.
00:58:51
Speaker
um Yeah, so that's probably the two that I was thinking about the most. But yeah, i agree with Patrick Clark. Ben Burgess, again, bit of a, like he was, I guess you could say he was breaking out at the end of this year, but he's gone on to sort of continue that and even show a bit more, um show a bit more variety across lots of different distances as well. He went from Kenyany up to West Mac Monster, so.
00:59:13
Speaker
Nice, nice, awesome. Well, I think you guys have the consensus of Toby um being being the winner of this one with strong mentions for Patrick Clarke and one-off performance George Knight there.
00:59:27
Speaker
um The People's Choice was George Knight. um Maybe a bit of recency bias, but also that was a heck of a run. say It was it was an incredible run. Yeah, me not picking George is not anything get against that. We don't have a one to watch, but he's one to watch, I think.
00:59:45
Speaker
yeah Yeah. We don't have an award today, but that's that's my one to watch, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be for many, many people. Awesome. Awesome. That's our breakout.
00:59:57
Speaker
ah Award number three. Wait, go. before Well, considering Brodie, you just said that. Women's field, one to watch for next year. any names that stand out to yeah and you guys? If she continues.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, okay. On shorter distance. Brodie? Sorry, say again. One to watch on the women's side? or um Yeah, probably for different reasons, but like it's like the other end of the spectrum in the women. I'm sort of not the breakout people. I'm also interested to see the ones that have been developing through the season. So I sort of want to watch what Lucy does next year. That's one to watch. But also probably so um Ludo and Kate coming back from pregnancy. I think that's yeah going to be something to watch as well.
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Very, very good. already shown that they're running pretty good. So, yeah, it's going to be once they layer in some training, I'm excited to see what those two can do. Yeah. Vlad, is there anyone on your mind?
01:00:56
Speaker
Definitely Lucy. If she continues that end of the year season, yeah and she would win everything next year. like It's going to be fascinating if she gets that golden ticket at Tauera and then goes on to States, like what this build can do for her.
01:01:12
Speaker
um I might be a year too early on this one, but I'm really curious to watch Emily Bartlett. in next year. think she's just been at Four Peaks and at GSER Worlds.
01:01:26
Speaker
It's, um yeah, it might be a year early, but she's another name that I'm excited to see definitely for the future, but into 2026. and especially i don't like encouraging people to go longer but I think when she does decide that she wants to go longer if she does yeah listening to what she's done and she's done like some multi-day hikes in in ah in Europe and the way her body was responding to the the volume of of those days she's clearly very durable so it's going to be exciting to see if she does decide to go longer what she can do on those distances as well
01:01:57
Speaker
Yeah. Nice. I like it. James, you snuck in an extra little thing there, but that was good. sorry There's our interlude. Technically, Brody started it because he he said.
01:02:10
Speaker
That's all good. And that trail, friends, is where we are going to leave you for the first half of our 2025 wrapped. You can listen in next week to hear the next two awards for the best overall season. And then some of the best races and race battles that went down throughout 2025, as well as a few other quickfire questions and all of the fun that comes with celebrating the end of another year and the beginning of all of the possibility of a new one. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening.
01:02:44
Speaker
Thank you for what has been an incredible year on both the podcast, the trails and for everyone listening, I hope. And from everyone here at Peak Pursuits Podcast, we wish you a very, very Merry Christmas if you celebrate.
01:02:59
Speaker
Otherwise, a very happy holiday season. And hope everyone is out there enjoying some trail time in the summer weather. See you next week.