Episode 118 | The HBF Run for a Reason Recap | Sydreh Back to Front Yard Ultra

the XPA. Oh nice. Good choice. It's on special at BWS. It's not bad. Okay everyone and welcome to another episode of the WO running podcast recording episode 118 on the 25th of May 2026. In this week's episode we cover what Vicki has been calling the biggest event on the WO running calendar the 2026 HBF run for a reason. We also had some loose units battling it out at Cidra at Hoody's over the weekend and we recap the episode with weapons of warp across my screen is not Vicki. She's having a bit of a rest after a big 24 hours at HBF but across one of the sides of my screen is not Chris Shaw but so on that ran 80 minutes with a bit of change. I actually forgot the name but it was a try days one but I'm not looking at a try days man. Chris, can I show how you make? I'm good mate you can call me Jeehe Lee if you like from now on so done. Yeah I ran a I ran a I think I ran a 25 minute PB for Jeehe on the weekends. Very good. As his race mule. Yeah, bib mule this year and Jeehe is going to qualify for a seated entry more or less next year so. Very good. How'd you pull up now? Yeah good I think similar to you we were talking about off screen yeah little tight in the calves but otherwise pretty good had it hobbled through a wooden hobble that kind of felt pretty good actually this morning it's actually going worse throughout the day but had it had it run this morning and yeah feeling great. Very good well you know last week you promised to sub 45 minute 12k obviously that didn't happen perhaps talk us through your training week because I'm seeing a hundred Ks there on the mileage so what was the plan at the start of the week and what made you become Chinese. Yeah so the plan was to have a pretty short taper into this so the plan was to kind of run it run not maybe a full training week but just taper off that Thursday session so my Tuesday session was three by 12 minutes I did the on slash TRC slash easy double run on Wednesday morning with them which was nice I didn't get out to the second run unfortunately but did get out for the early AM run that was good the shoes were great actually but on the on cloud ultra pros I think they were or on cloud out to three I can't remember which one it was but they were great shoe very very soft you know compared to a lot of trail shoes they're a bit softer so they felt good running on the road as well as on the trail and yeah so I have to have a chat to Raf and Sam about a shoe for transcend at some point but something good that could be the one and then a Thursday did three by three minutes followed by five by one minute just off a minute rest for everything and that session was yeah like the taper session but really that was to actually try on a pair of shoes that I'd bought maybe a few weeks prior that I hadn't had a chance to actually running yet and I ended up choosing the the DV8 night trail lead threes that you've been wearing for the last few months and yeah that was great great shoe and felt very poppy I don't think I was those three minutes reps I was supposed to do it at roughly eight race pace and I was doing like three 20s and I was like well I'm just just going to go with it yeah and then yeah that was that was kind of it so I still I think I ran ran 75 minutes on Friday and then had a shorter session on well sorry a short run on Sun Saturday and tonight on another pair of shoes that I had but did just a couple of like one minute strides or reps I suppose just to see how those would feel but they were incredibly unstable laterally so what was the stream they were the sockony endorphin elite twos okay um and yeah those while extremely bouncy and kind of a high level of energy return like the lateral stability on that shoe is pretty concerning so I'm not sure I could wear that I mean it could have probably could have worn it for hbf but I hadn't worn it for a session yet a long session and I think sometimes it takes time to learn how to run in a particular shoe and yeah I the the puma was very kind of natural to me to run in whereas this shoe did not feel natural at all so it might be left for a session down the track that I can use for another race in the future yeah cool so it was Wednesday that you decided to upgrade the ticket no actually I was talking to Jeeer so Jeeer is a one of the dads at school and I was talking him on Thursday morning about what he's running because I know he'd run a couple of marathons in the past and what his plans were for hbf and he said the wasn't running it this year and I said okay I'm gonna do the 12k and blah blah and anyway end up chatting to in the in our running group what's out group we we were talking about who was giving away tickets and who was not running and and yeah bond benching that maybe he had a friend that wasn't running the half and I was like I'll take the ticket just knowing that the weather was going to be perfect and kind of having a nice long long burr run that started at 635 and not 815 was way more appealing to me so yeah I was like I'll take the ticket and anyway I got a message from this gentleman that was bonds made and it turned out to be Jeeer so it was really weird I've said well I'd just been talking to him like three hours bit prior and suddenly I was getting caught in a free ticket off him off of him for hbf so my 12k ticket went to someone else at Lepp's group running team so if you're looking for Chris Shaw on the results he also did 120 just in the 12k yeah that's really strange right yeah the ran you'll ended up running an hour 20 for the 12 so yeah it was almost fate anyway no it was good I'm glad I chose the 21 in the end because had turned out that I was going to I've been talking to Scott Price a few weeks before a few weeks ago maybe a couple months ago about running possibly the half at hbf and yeah he was at gunning for around that kind of 121 time which was what I would be happy with and yeah he got in touch with him again and he said hey macker and Chris Sadler and Cooper we were all going to run around that time because Sadler is doing a marathon specific session I suppose running like a marathon pace long run and I was like oh well I'll jump in and do that nothing better than having a group to run with so yeah thought it was perfect so yeah decided the half was the one for me on the weekend careful all right well we'll get into the recap a bit later um my week started off um look I think you know post general up got over it pretty quickly it was meant to be a light week again because the original plan was to pace Ella in the half um so she would have been looking to do I think she did 128 at busso so anything better that would have been a win for her I think she's she said a pretty full on schedule so I think she would have just been happy with a 127 or dare about and then she had a bit of a niggle on the Sunday like the morning of June lot doing sort of a bit of a long run for her so it was a bit touching go throughout the week but my plan was really no real sessions I think I had a five by two minute on Thursday but it was just three three days of running in the end um so it was Tuesday Thursday and Saturday um and then it was it was going to be a last minute call for Ella so Saturday we usually made down the coast and it was a bit of a 30 minute shake out and she kind of pulled the pin because just wasn't playing ball for her so um so I had to make a decision on what I was going to do with the seeded bib that I did not beg Vicky for and yeah kind of just decided to go oh look my legs feel pretty good well rested not really done much running I had only done 20k's running this week um not 100% but good enough to take another swing at it so um so Saturday morning was the call I made to to have a go and I think I messaged uh you boys saying that it was rearing to go and then as as I put it out in the universe my calves started to feel a bit soft so yeah that was just a bit of a half marathon paranoia really but um yeah so that was a decision and yeah looked at the forecast it was bloody perfect I think was a minimum of three degrees or something and I think it was seven degrees by the time um we kicked things off so yeah perfect perfect morning and obviously a perfect day which we'll cover a bit later but yeah 47k's for me for the week including hbf um probably another easy week this week um and then we'll really decide what the game plan is after this so um pretty happy with how the half went yesterday so my motivation to do another half isn't quite there like I'm pretty satisfied with that time um so it might be a 10k at this time stage, but I haven't really committed anything just yet. Yeah, cool. Yeah, good mate. No, I mean, I'm looking forward to hearing your recap because yeah, it's pretty tough to do that two weeks in a row. Yes. Yeah. I don't know how I did that either. All right. Well, let's just get straight into results and we'll kick things off with Cidra, which is herde's backwards that started Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. Did you want to cover the results? Yeah. So I think you got in touch with Sean earlier just to get and get some of these results because maybe they hadn't been widely broadcast, but yeah, Shane Harris won that event with 34 yards. George Tucker was turned around as the assist there. So coming in second and then in terms of women's, we had Phoebe Hirleman running 30 yards, Jen Miller with 25 yards and we're starting the 20 50 yard brother and Chelsea, Topless running 24 yards. So yeah, pretty good and pretty close cluster from both the men's and the women's there. Not as many numbers as we might have seen that herde's, you know, in the back in March, obviously this being the kind of initial, was this the inaugural Cidra, right? So yeah, probably not as many people buying in and obviously HBF being the same weekend. It's pretty tough sell, but yeah, we also had Matthew, Hibble, Aaron O'Villofflin and Matthew Park run 30 yards. So like, yeah, a considerable amount of people kind of hitting around those that 30 yard number, which is good to see. Because that's over a day of running is no mean feat as Vicky will attest. Yeah. And it would have been freaking cold these last couple of nights as well. So definitely good on those guys for running there. Obviously you've experienced the herde's atmosphere. Would you ever contemplate doing a back out ulcer? No, I don't. It's not really my, like I'm interested in the psychological side of that. And, you know, but I just, it's not something that interests me, unfortunately. I just, I like, I like to have a goal and have that goal be completed in a given amount of time frame. Rather than like an unknown end, I can't deal with the unknown, I think. So, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure it's for me. And neither is sitting around in my own feel for 10 minutes every hour. So. And being watched by your crew, just stare at you, not knowing what to do. No one knows what to say to make you feel better. No one knows how to, whether to touch you or not. No one really wants to touch you. It's like, yeah. Within their feel guilty, like they're like, yes, it's hesitation. Yeah, no, I experienced it with you guys. Yeah, exactly. No, so yeah, I'll take it. You won't be back next year. I won't won't be, but happy to crew. I think it is a pretty special event. I just don't want to be the one experiencing first hand. But not, I think, I think that Friday afternoon is something special. Obviously, I'm happy to crew overnight, I think. Because I think that's probably where things get pretty hard for people. And it's where, you know, the gazebo's acquired. It's just you alone with your thoughts. And, you know, those that sort of last the distance, other ones that have crew in the middle of the night, I think those that do, do sorrow, do struggle. Unless you've done it plenty of times and you know what you're doing. You can be alone with your thoughts, but I cannot be left alone with my thoughts. They spiral. Yeah, well, unless you're that German guy that hates Sardines for, you know, nearly 40 hours. Or nearly, it's been in dark places. Nearly many days to there. That's so, so. All right, let's get straight into the main event we had HBF run for a reason yesterday. So some quick stats here. We had 40,000 runners, walkers competing across all the distances, which is a mammoth, a man of people, uh, in the city of the city. Um, we had $1.7 million raised so far to various charities and, um, it's looking like the individual fundraisers are changing by the hour, but we had Duke Stora fundraising for cystic fibrosis WA currently at 17,520 bucks. We've got teeny ingrime fundraising for motor neuron disease, uh, WA currently second in 17,227. And then we've got Xavier doing it for pop fundraising for dementia Australia, uh, in 10,669. So congrats guys. And obviously you can continue to donate and fundraise all the way through to the 30th of June. Um, let's get straight into some of the results. So I can kick things off with the 3K. Um, so we've got Jonah Hennikiri running the 3K. And I think it was a 3K with a bit of change. Um, I don't know how excited about this 3K is. It's probably a 3.3. Okay, that we had, so we had Jonah Hennikiri in nine minutes, 45. You got, we had Josh Niervort coming second in 951 and we've got Feardor. Can we be growing in 10 minutes and 13 seconds? In the women's race, we had many lost comb in 1109. We may see here in 1128 and Ava DeBritz in 1135. So that looks to be a very tight race across the men's and women's. Yeah. Right. We had the 12K, which I think started at 8am. Uh, take us way Chris. Yeah, we had Reese Harris running 3753 taking out the men's race. Dante Armstrong in 303 and Locklin, Ellen Sari in 30811. Uh, Debbie Donald, I think is a busso local, former Kiwi, or maybe still current Kiwi, uh, 4334 taking out the women's race, Jackie Arters in 4436 and Amy Buckingham in 4440. So yeah, few familiar names there, um, from the track, kind of going across the 3K and the 12K. Um, interestingly in the 12K, we had eight men run under 40 minutes. Um, I think there was only eight people that ran under 40 minutes last year. And um, last year was particularly poor conditions, but I think by the time the, uh, the 12K started last year, maybe the roughness at the half marathon had experienced, um, wasn't quite there. But yeah, interesting. Um, the, the depth of the running fields, maybe there's just more people running, but yeah, overall, and you'll probably elaborate this on the half to this quite a bit of depth in the half. Um, they're both in the men's and the women's. So that's awesome to see. Yeah, we had, um, Demi Donald backing it up after June, I think she won the 10K last week as well. So yeah, you're right. Yeah. Getting the job done and consecutive weekends. Um, we had the half marathon. So start with the men's race. Uh, we had Luke borrows running in a C wave bib, taking out the win in 65 minutes, 54 seconds, Smith, you coming second in 66 minutes and 46 seconds and we had Andrew Hellbush, um, just six seconds behind in 66 52. Um, we, I think I caught sort of the start of the race as we were heading down UWA and they had already made the turn and it looked like boroughs were way ahead of everyone quite early. So looked like he had quite a decent lead and must have just eased off a little bit towards the end there because it looked like a close finish between the top three. But, um, that's back to back wins for boroughs and, uh, looking pretty strong out there. I think I was hearing from Sav that he might have had a bit of a cold or was, uh, was a little bit sick during the wake, but looked like he came back and, uh, got himself the win, which was great to see. Yeah, sure. I did see the footage of the start of that race and, um, you, on that footage, it's kind of taken from afar. You basically see boroughs smashing it down the hill from the start. So I think you probably caught everyone off guard by actually going as hard as you did, um, at the start there. And then I mean, I, when I saw them at the turn at UWA, he was at least, I don't know, like 50 to 60 meters ahead, maybe more, um, at that five case or six case wherever that was. I mean, it's a decent gap to put on everyone. So early in the race. Mm. And then good to see Andrew Hillbush coming third. I think he did the 12k last year and, um, yeah, I did see him at TRC earlier this week, all like earlier last week and, um, yeah, he did predict his time of being roughly at 66, 67 minutes and got it bang on and just looking at his driver splits. It looked like. Yeah, it was consistent splits throughout. So, um, a great race by Andrew there and not too far behind Smithy in the end. I will go to the women's race, Chris. Yeah. So we had nearer Jarab run 1927 to take out the win, um, which was good to see nearer racing. Um, and then we had Rebecca, total, total, slab, club, yeah, total club, um, in 12106. Um, so, so. Apologies Rebecca, if I've mispronounced your name, but yeah, I did see Rebecca in that group with Jules Bennett who came third there in 121.29 and those two along with Lars French were kind of in this kind of 80 to 81 minute pack that we caught up to. But yeah, it was interesting to see how that dynamic played out. Obviously Rebecca turned on the jets in the last few Ks to get a gap on Jules and Nieru seems like daylight between her and everyone else. I think you might have been running with Nieru at one point in time, maybe earlier on the race, but yeah, good to see her racing. I heard rumors that maybe she was injured, but yeah, seems like she's not clearly and maybe she's got some big marathon plans later in the year. Yeah, I've got a feeling. Maybe it was a session. She took off pretty quickly very early, but then backed off a little and just made me think that maybe she was doing a session, controlling some surges. Oh, interesting. Yeah, confusing everybody, yeah. But obviously doing enough for the win, so congrats Nieru there. It was funny because I was running with Chart for perhaps the first half of the race and Nieru was within our vicinity and as we were turning back from EWA, you could just hear everyone cheer and my ego, I just thought, "Oh, everyone just noticing me from the podcast, but it was just. " Yeah, it was fun Nieru. So congrats Nier on a well run. Yeah, and I guess Rod just cried was the fifth woman. Yeah, and she was kind of in and around that kind of 122 mark, I think. Yes, yeah. So that's good, she's obviously not injured at the moment, she's running strong and having a chat to her after the race, it's just she's glad to be back running races again. Yeah, very good. We had talking about depth in the half. We had nine people run under 70 minutes, which is crazy. We had 44 people run under 78 minutes. And to put that into perspective, we only had three people run under 70 minutes last year and we had 31 people run under 78 minutes. So obviously that's just an indication of how perfect the conditions are. Obviously all the big dogs were out racing at HBF and it was amazing to see. And obviously, you know, with our respective races, it was absolutely perfect. You couldn't put a foot wrong in terms of the weather. It was nice and cold with barely any wind. I think the only wind you really felt was coming out the tunnel, but other than that, perfect conditions all around. All right, well, let's get straight into our respective recap. So start with you Chris. So obviously last minute call to a certain extent to race a half, what were your expectations heading to it? Obviously, you know, talking to Scott, knowing that there was a 81 minute bus there. How did it play out for you? Yeah, so I mean, a few months ago, I actually had a half ticket. And so this was going to be my goal half race. And but at the time, maybe a few weeks after I had the ticket, I realized, I don't think I'm going to be fit enough by the time I get there. So I was more, I'd be exchange that ticket for a 12. It's funny how that works. And then obviously doing that that lactate test with Xander and Raffa a few months back, that was giving me the numbers, I guess, that I needed to train for. And over the course of the last kind of couple of months, it's amazing like how, like sometimes by having that data that that data set there to be able to focus your training slightly more, I was actually slowing down my sessions a bit. And through having slowed down my sessions, some, I don't know how it works physiologically, but yeah, my fitness has improved dramatically in the last couple of months. And I think that's based on how yesterday went, I think that showed. So my goal was knowing that I had these guys to run with. And I have to give a massive shout out to Macco because he did a phenomenal job of pacing that kind of 81 minute bus. We were running on the money more or less, 352's for the first kind of 10K. And that 352 mark, I think, was whatever Chris was trying to run. Chris Sattler, and then, yeah, that kind of fit in with where my existing PB was. So I was like, hey, if I run a minute quicker than my current PB without really having trained specifically for this race, I'll be very happy with that. And so, yeah, we went out, we were running. And much like your sentiment with Nira, like cheering, I don't think there's anyone in Perth that gets more cheers than Macco does on a race. He gets so many people yelling his name or yelling coach or whatever. And they're being two Chris's in the group. Neither Chris or myself knew who was cheering for us. It was Macco that stood out there, which was cool. But no, he was great. He was kind of keeping us on top of it, telling us when we needed to put the foot down, when we needed to ease off, and we were going up some of the hills. So that was nice. But yeah, so the goal was run 352's for as more or less as long as possible. And then I guess for that first half of the race, for me, it felt like marathon effort, like it was not. Yeah, nice. It was not. I didn't feel out of breath. And looking at my heart rate, my heart rate was in the low 160's. So that indicates to me roughly where. I mean, I'm not running a marathon at 352 pace. Let's not be silly. But I think it felt like I could have run 30k's at that pace. So yeah, I was like, well, in my head immediately, after 10k's of the IK, I'm going to be able to push this on a bit as we get later in the race. And I think because the group that we had had splintered a little bit, and it was just me and Chris and Macco for kind of stretches of it. And we would every now and then we would pick someone up out of that, had fallen off the back of another group or had maybe gone out a bit too quick. And they'd stick with us for a bit and then we'd drop them again. And then we had that kind of 81 minute bus in our sites and we were kind of approaching them as we went into the tunnel. And that group had laws and Rebecca and Jules in it. Adam Scott was in there and a couple of other folks. And so we're Macco and Chris and I was saying, hey, let's just try and catch these guys after we get out of the tunnel. So as we went through the tunnel, we kind of picked it up a bit because you've got a little warmer in there right, naturally. And it actually was a welcome warmth. When you're doing Perth Running Festival and it's 25 degrees outside, you go in the tunnel and it's 35 degrees. It's not great. But on a morning where it's 7 degrees and it might be 12 degrees in the tunnel, it feels pretty nice. So yeah, the goal was just to catch them and then we did catch them as we kind of get off that exit ramp coming up and approaching off the stadium. And then from there, it was just put the foot down and run more or less as hard as we could. And I think by that point, we were running, we had gone from running 352s to running 346s and then we were then running 330 somethings like for the last kind of 10k. And I mean, I appreciate it that this is not a 10k race and the splits probably, there's some cool splits coming out of the tunnel probably. I think like Strava put me down for a 3620 in that last 10k and I probably add 20 to 30 seconds on that for mustard, but still that would be considered a PB for me. So yeah, I don't really know. It was again feeling very easy and I was looking at my watch. I was like, I don't know why this feels like this. Yeah. As I was expecting to be struggling at that pace and looking back to how I felt at Rockingham a few weeks ago, like I was like finding it hard to run 345. So yeah, I don't know what's really happened in the last few weeks. And yeah, maybe the, I think having someone there to do the pace work for you and running a group and not have to consider how fast you're running or what your splits are. That is just an enormous advantage. And I'm having, having pace so many people in the past, not having had the, having had the opportunity to really be paced by someone since like we first broke 90 minutes a couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. And yeah, they're just having the, the, that level of camaraderie that you have with the people that you're running with for a given amount of time. That, that kind of just makes you forget that you were kind of putting in a hard effort. So yeah. That was good. I think I probably, I thought in my head, because my watch ran 21.5 and so there was a fair bit of mustard there through the tunnel probably, naturally. But and I think our first K registered like a 320 something and I know that we were off because we were about, you know, a hundred meters short of the, the, the K marker and the K markers were bang on. Like I, I lapped my watch at that point and then for every K thereafter, it was more or less exactly where the, the K marker was. So we probably added a few hundred or a couple of hundred meters in that first kind of K really. Yeah. So yeah, I thought I was actually going to run like a 79 minute half without trying. So I was kind of, I was like, the marker was behind. I was like, Chris is gonna run 79 minutes. And I was like, oh shit, that's cool. I'm just gonna jog in a 79 minute half. And then when I got to the stadium, I got to Gloucester Park. I realized that, yeah, I was still a few hundred meters away and I wasn't gonna make it, but I wasn't like totally upset with that 'cause the goal was to run kind of an hour 21 and having run one hour 20 and 10. I was pretty happy with that. I probably could have, if I had known exactly how far that turn was and if I had the dog in me, I maybe I could have got there, but I'm wary that Biber Lake has been the half marathon goal for, I guess, since giving up, this is the half marathon goal months ago. So I hope that I can, if we hope we get a good day at Biber in a couple of months' time and when six weeks' time and yeah, can do that, replicate that same feeling, but hopefully a minute or so quicker. - That would be great. - So are you a man of science? You're trusting the science of 345s, is that LT2? - Yeah, so technically from that test, the LT2 would be somewhere between 348 and 345. - Okay. - So yeah, so running 352s technically is quite, even though it's only four seconds or four to eight seconds, it's only, it's considerably below in terms of a heart rate level below my, it's about 10 beats lower than my second LT3, so yeah, it felt like that's why it felt so sustainable, I suppose, because I wasn't hitting that marker until we then kind of got to the middle case and maybe I was hovering just around it and then went above it considerably. So yeah, I think we were looking, we were both talking about our splits, right? - Yeah. - You were very consistent kind of 340 pace for a memory less the whole thing, but I think mine went from 352 to 349 to 346 to, I think 338 was something. (laughing) So like, yeah, it was stupid, but yeah, I definitely felt it in the last kind of K, I think, if you're running more or less at 10K pace for the last kind of 10K over half marathon, like, you're gonna feel pretty torched by the end, so yeah, I probably didn't have them, didn't have the mustard to get that 79 minute half, unfortunately, but I wasn't expecting that, as I said, it would have been good to aim for that in the start and actually try and do it, but you just never know, I wasn't super confident in my fitness, I put it that way. - Yeah. - But this is now giving me their confidence to then kind of launch a platform to something else and I've been always joking to you about doing Perth running festival marathon. Well, we got to the finish line and yeah, I don't know, we'll see. (laughing) - After dogging PRF for the last six months, here is our tail between our legs. - Yeah, that's begging for a marathon ticket. - Yeah, you have to be on the wait list, we'll see. (laughing) - All right, so obviously an amazing result, didn't really taper for it, 100k week. So that gives you a lot of confidence heading into Bibra. Obviously, you're still playing your time, what's it, six weeks? - Six weeks or something, yeah. - What's the brain thinking as what is the potential at Bibra? With all things considered, Bibra can sometimes be a shit show in terms of like weather, right? It's usually pissing down. But you've got a new tarmac around Bibra Lake now. What are you thinking in terms of what's possible? - Yeah, I don't know. I think I'll probably use a similar game plan. I mean, looking at the past results from the last few years, like the depth is definitely not there. So it's very likely they'll be running solo from K1. So yeah, I think it won't feel as easy, I think because I won't have someone to run with and you don't have the kind of atmosphere that you might have at HBF where you're constantly running past other people or people cheering you or whatever. So, and just the spectacle of running on the freeway and through the city, that kind of adds a lot of distraction, whereas running three laps of Bibra Lake is probably not the same. But given it is, it will be fast, it's flat. And that tarmac is beautiful to run on as I experienced last week. So I think if I can run under, I mean, yeah, 119, if I can run 119 low, I'll be happy. So take a minute off where I am now, that'll be wicked. But again, what I'll do is I'll start conservatively. I think I won't start at 352s, but I'll start at maybe closer to 348s, which is roughly what 80 minute pace and then try and chip away at it. - Okay. - But yeah, yeah, I'm always wary 'cause I feel like you can teeter on the edge or you can sit just below that threshold and you feel really, really good. And but if you just teeter above it's ever so slightly too early, then it can kind of throw everything to pieces at the end. So, yeah. I like to run halfs as a negative split. And my experience at Bumbri last year was the complete opposite of that. And that's usually, that's very contrary how I took it to our usually run a half marathon. So I like to run a very quick second half. So yeah, but the risk of doing that is that you leave time on the table, you know? - Yeah. - Because you don't go full gas at the start. So yeah, I think that's gonna come down to confidence. How much, how confident I feel over the next couple of months, but yeah, I don't know. I feel like 119 is pretty achievable. - Yeah. - Like, how do I tap it for this and how do I have more confidence? Maybe I could have done it yesterday, but. - True. - Yeah, I just don't know. And yeah, a few more weeks training, few more thresholds, few more healing tempos or whatever we're doing. Yeah, anything can happen. - Yeah, beautiful. Sounds good, looking forward to it. - Back to back weeks. Again, late call up for you. What was your mindset knowing that maybe last week you had max, obviously, to run with and you had kind of organized that a long time in advance? - Yeah. - What was the plan having not really any knowledge that you might be going back to back? - Yeah. I mean, I did message Tina on Tuesday saying, "Look, in the off chance that Ella doesn't make it, how far can shelly wouldn't be for me to race it?" And Tina's like, "Oh, well, I mean, you could do it, but your legs will remind you very quickly that you've raced half marathon." - Yeah. - So I think throughout the week that was perhaps on my mind around, okay, look, if I race it, it'd be silly. And I'll pay the price in one way or another. And then when Sarah came around and Ella put the pin on her racing, I think there was a bit of fear heading into it around, do I do the same game plan of 3.45s and then reassess at the halfway mark? Just aim for 80 minutes or, I don't know, likely it was perhaps a bit unclear for me throughout the whole day and then perhaps, essentially at 9pm, I just went, "You know what, fuck it, I'll race it." And they'll do the same game plan as student love and look, I kind of knew where the key landmarks were in terms of key spots. Like I knew the convention sent a ramp onto the freeway was about what, eight, nine Ks, heading out of the tunnel, getting off the Grand Final freeway, perhaps is about 15, 16 Ks. So if I can survive 15, 16 Ks, I can suffer for the last five. Like those were perhaps the two key landmarks for me in terms of reassessing of how I was feeling. Anyway, so yeah, 9pm was when I decided what the game plan was and then waking up met some of the team team of guys at East Perth, so we parked at, kind of near the cemetery, so pretty close to the Gloucester Park. It was Dan, Renee, Hannah and I, we parked there and we jolted to the start line, so ended up being about two Ks or so, warmed up, did a couple of strides and met with some, the rest of the team team of guys for a photo and then straight into the pen. They didn't really, I know Vicki said it in the last episode that the seated areas were going to be placed or the waves were getting placed, but that didn't end up happening at all and found myself trying to squeeze in and then seeing you knowing that you weren't seated out front along with a couple other guys and a couple of guys for C-bibs. (laughing) Yeah, C-bibs, is that? So yeah, no, and that was maybe five minutes before the start and to be honest, I was quite relaxed. I was quite nervous before June Love and perhaps it was just this thing in my head where this was going to be a goal for quite so long and I was actually quite relaxed hitting to HBF and Yeah, was it nervous at all wasn't caught up with the fanfare and stuff and And obviously it was really cold and cool. It was great for me And then when the gun went off so the plan plan was 345 first K 332 And my GPS was bang on so When I saw saw the K marker saw my my watch go off 332 so I went okay that was fast. Obviously that's the downhill and everyone's excited everyone was out really fast And then very quickly saw Colin Dismune K saw charts saw nearer and Couple of others and very quickly we were kind of running Roughly the same pace so Anywhere between sort of 341 so 345s we were kind of in that vicinity so Very quickly I thought okay, this is kind of the group. We didn't agree to run together anything I think it kind of just landed that way And then it was perhaps chart and I for the most part of the first Sort of 4 to 6Ks And then yes, that was Easy that felt so easy I think 345s went out the window in terms of Like staying on that pace. I just You know it assessed based on effort and Heading to the UWA turn heading back. I Think I was just hovering. I think each K felt like I was yo-yoing quite a bit But look at the K the 5K splits. There was somewhat pretty consistent. So first 5K 1829 So as we were heading back into the city and perhaps onto the freeway Post slowed down a little bit heading onto the ramp once you went past the convention center But yeah even in terms of perceived effort that just felt felt easy so I think I was Sort of yo-yoing between sort of 343s 344s and maybe a 339k or something and I kind of just based it on effort more or less And just running with chart I think Colin was a little bit ahead We had Riley Heavitt from double so we were kind of within a couple of seconds from each other so So I think once we got onto the ramp and as we were heading to grandfarm of freeway I think that's where we kind of grouped together a little bit And ran together for perhaps the a big chunk of grandfarm of freeway and then Heading out of the tunnel obviously in the tunnel You know GPS is all out of work So I think I had like a four-minute K on my watch there and then as I was coming out of the tunnel was like 315s or something so Kind of kept Kind of tried to keep the efforts in check more than just you know freaking out looking at the the pace go haywire um and then Chart kind of pushed a little bit more What's we going at the tunnel so I did lose chart after the tunnel and then Perhaps in the tunnel I felt my legs Say hello in terms of feeling a bit of fatigue in the legs So I think that at that point I did feel a bit nervous about oh okay It's earlier than I thought in terms of being reminded of my race last week Um, but then I kind of you know, mentally just went look I just need to make it to the off ramp And once I make it to the off ramp, you know, I can suffer and push and Do whatever it takes to get to the finish line And then once I got off the off ramp Yeah, it was fine like because I think once you get on the off ramp It's a bit of a downhill as you yeah, so head down and then you make that right turn into optostadium Um, and that felt like a second win for me. So um I kind of pushed the pace slightly. I think my case still yo yo It'd quite a bit but Yeah, it just felt easy like you said like the perceived Effort of those paces even when I had some faster case in there Just felt felt like a tempo Yeah, um, which was amazing and um anyway as as I was heading sort of around that turn and you kind of make that optost You head towards off the stadium before you do that turn head back in the opposite direction. I saw Liam shurwen So we've been trying together at team Tina Um, he he was going to do juan lock Um with us last week, but he had a Saw back heading to juan lock pulled out of juan loving made hbf his a race Um, so he went out at 341's like that was his game plan at hbf So I hadn't really seen him until that moment and once I saw him I went okay I'm gonna chase him down like that Me the the motivation and then when I made the turn myself then I saw you guys Entering and I went fuck christian me again and every single time we fucking race together Um, so I think that just gave me the push to the final Final like four case that would have been at that point. Yeah, so I feel like the only slow K. I had In sort of that last little bit was When you pass what the channel nine section where you kind of get onto that little grass area and our skin feeling a bit I don't know like stack it this bit and then getting onto the causeway that was like that weird map Yeah, that looked like he had to veer left then go right so um that was my slow K, but that was 342's and then Yeah kind of pushed pushed to the finish line. I think when we make that turn Going past the whacker Riley turned on the jets a little bit And um the unfortunately I couldn't catch him so there is footage of him What looks to be jogging Through cluster park into the finish line and me Just swing my arms and moving my original style. Yeah, yeah short stumpy legs, but unfortunately Didn't catch him quite in time and Liam was only two seconds ahead or three seconds ahead Oh, no, and so I couldn't catch him um, it was a bit too late, but um yeah looking at my splits they were Like eight twenty nine eight twenty seven eighteen thirty two eighteen eighteen and the last cable three thirty nine last sixty seconds was three thirty six so Um more or less Even splits with a bit of a negative split towards the end so Yeah, yeah never really felt the bonk like obviously you felt in awareness at 12k and It kind of subsided after I got off the ramp so um kind of felt like the perfect day and I don't know how I did that after race and journal last week, but I'll take it um Obviously running with a bunch of guys like he said it it kind of distracts you and Obviously the spectacle of hbf the crowds Obviously what you do there's not that many turns in the grand scheme of things, but you do Make a turn and you head back in the opposite direction So you obviously have the crowd on the other side which I feel like makes a huge difference where a lot of other courses where you kind of don't really get that opportunity like I can't think of Any races where that kind of happens maybe prf is the only Only time you experience that but then You're on Kwanana freeway and it's so you're Aaron like you don't yeah experience the closeness of um Of like utter participants um June you on so I think Just yeah to experience that is pretty awesome and obviously the weather like we thought jude lop Was a perfect day and somehow hbf bettered it somehow It doesn't happen very often we get two weekends in a row like that even if it is may It's the best month of the year like to go from what a six or seven degrees start last week um three degrees this week and more or less no wind Yep pretty pretty lucky in that regard um yeah, so I finished um yeah all the stars lined obviously the body held up Um, it wasn't very dust on the on the cheeks do you think no yeah maybe it was the sparkles on the cheeks I don't know performance enhancing sparkles um yeah like I Obviously heading into it. I was Bracing myself for a bonk at some point and paying the price of racing to excel row because obviously that's really silly But it never happened and um obviously I pulled up Okay this morning Um, so yeah, I think you know when you have perfect Executed racers like this you you wonder whether or not Did I work hard enough is there seconds there um But like you said you're kind of On the edge right so if I had gone out Like with the plan of 341's or like run it with Liam for example I don't know if I would have had the experience that I had yesterday so I'm pretty happy Without panned out obviously it's a good feeling knowing that there perhaps is seconds in there and yeah whether or not sub 78 is a possibility later this year um But yeah like I'll take it Yeah, after after last week's debacle I'll take it so um so yeah 118 24 I think was the final all time and yeah now I'm trying to decide what to do for the rest of the year but it's definitely perked my marathon interest back up again. I think PRF is a definite no I'm not going to be begging for a marathon ticket at PRF but I think Bunbury, Bunbury's on next year I think as the marathon in 2027. Yeah, Sik. Yeah, I think the first thing I said to you after the race was like slapped you on the back and said so when's the marathon? You know, it's perfect. Yeah, yeah and I think you know in my head maybe six, seven months ago I would have said I look I would have had to go under 78 to entertain the possibility of doing a marathon again but I think I'm interested now and obviously it's marathon season everyone's starting to train from marathon like Sydney's coming up talking to Dan about because Dan's going to do Sydney and and some of the group will be training for Sydney as well or if it's not Sydney it would be Melbourne maybe this year so I think that that will really get the motivation going I think I don't think I can afford to Melbourne again not that I can get a ticket or or anything like that but yeah I think I think Bunbury's on that's for sure. Yeah, Ian and Megan will be very happy to hear that so I guess one of the questions I was going to ask you and someone brought it up in our group chat today was like they said you know ever since you ran sub three you seem like a different runner like you've improved and just become more confident. I guess what do you think has changed psychologically for you in the past say six months since you ran Melbourne say from when you ran goal course last year in July to now what what has changed you think it what has made you more confident and and what are you telling yourself different things in the race or you just maybe you're judging your effort better than you might have done in the past like what is it that's changed you think to be honest I think and I hate to say it because I'm allergic to hills I think hills I think hills do pay the bills I did do a good chunk what's it over January a whole bunch of bold park kind of sessions or green mall there were fucking ugly sessions and you know for someone that is obsessed with running a pace during his sessions like they were discussing workouts you know they were either like green mile repeats or Tina was getting me doing like rocky fart lake which was like six ks in bold park where you're you know you're going up hills at an effort and trying to float the downhills and like they're they're tough they're tough workouts and even after goal course heading to you know melvin and train for melvin there were a lot of tough work outs that included you know floating instead of recovery jogs during efforts so I think a lot of the the tough stuff worked on my strength and you know for a guy that doesn't do S&C I guess that kind of made up for a lot of that and what that meant was you know the hard moments don't feel hard and I think that's probably the the honest answer I think I haven't in all the races I haven't really felt it hasn't really felt hard enough compared to the perceived efforts that perhaps I was feeling you know pre-gold coach or during gold coast I think there's probably still mindset issues there I think you know it does make you think would I have raced jundlup better um with those um you know knowing that we had gone off course sure because I think there were a couple of caves there where I was just distracted and not focused and so you know I think there's still an element of that still but I think overall I think you know we always think about a perfect training plan converts to a perfect race but it feels like since gold coast every time I've gone through a bad patch or what I think is a bad patch or training ends up being a really really good race because I just view training as an indicator of if I can nail the training or I feel like I'm nailing the training that surely will convert to a perfectly executed race but I'm finding that it's far from it it's when I'm suffering the training or it feels ugly and abrasive that it does you know not only strengthen my legs but it sort of strengthens the mind a little bit and I'm heading into the race not as stressed and fixated about it going to plan so I think that's probably the difference for me um yeah so I'm a little bit more chill now I feel like yeah a couple of the team members have commented on that as well where like I don't yeah it doesn't phase me how the training goes like the sessions on Saturday like whether it goes well or not like I I take it for what it is and kind of keep moving with it and sort of trust the process that will be fine yeah exactly like I mean Lee Lee like if you're if you're running 2 by 5k on a Saturday and whether you run 18 30 for that 5k or you run 18 45 or 19 for that 5k the percentage in your difference the percentage difference in your actual outcome of your training is probably uh less than 1 percent you know like it actually doesn't matter so yep it's as long as you're turning up and doing the sessions consistently and and and putting in the work and you know not giving up when the session gets hard but just continuing and pushing through the session well that is what says yeah it's going to give you the strength to put true and when it gets hard in a race and if it's not getting hard in a race well then yeah that means that you're you know you're obviously you're tougher than used to be so yeah yeah particularly or mentally you know yeah yeah and I think that was like the the purpose of a lot of the set of sessions that we did like so we would meet at scarves and we're either going south which is you know predominantly flat or we hit north and the underlation of you know hitting north as you head through tree again you know depending on how long your sessions are you kind of almost hitting to hillaries there's a lot of up and downs there and if you're doing your tempos or your half marathon threshold efforts up and down that coast like that's that's definitely going to build a lot of strength in your legs and it's quite easy for us to you know go to mongor or go down the south perth foreshore because it's easy it's flat and you probably know your pace by doing that but it's yeah doing the ugly stuff I think that really builds a lot of strength and that's what I'm experiencing so yeah um when Tina gives me spicy stuff which doesn't involve you know the the classic you know K reps or five minute reps or whatever um I actually get pretty excited by it now because I know that it's going to be fucking hard I'm going to suffer I'm probably going to yak at some point during those sessions but I think it it does definitely pay off so I'm definitely fighting that yeah sick oh very good no congratulations big big big big big PB three minute PB um yep and yeah obviously big things to come I think you said there's a 10K on the cards um probably Shelley I take it um probably at this stage um I'm going to sleep on it for the next couple of days I think front runner do their club uh 10k thing at Shelley so I think it'll be decent group of people doing that so that might be motivating for me um and that's Shelley foreshore um so it's simplest course to run so um yeah that that might be the go I know Shelley and Perth half are two weeks from each other so it feels like I'll have to make a decision on which one I'll take priority over um I'll do Rotto because Rotto is mid-June um as part of the team Tina crew I'll do the half marathon um dance planning to do Sydney and he's planning to do Rotto as a marathon session so I might join him on that cool you see doing the half yeah he must be half yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so he's looking to do sort of like four minute case or just under so that's good enough for me to put a bit of a session in in there so cool yeah that's kind of the plan for me yeah magic um all right well let's let's I mean unfortunately Vicki's not here and she's been working very hard over the last 24 hours as you said so um we would love to have her perspective on the event but um given we were the ones out on the road running it um it might be a good opportunity for us to kind of talk through some of the goods the the positives and the negatives if they weren't too many negatives I'll be honest with you I mean it was pretty good uh it was pretty good and I don't know if we just buys after June a lot but all you know it's the the conditions kind of made the difference right because last year obviously it was pissing down for the half marathon it probably got better over the course of the day but there were you know um puddles and it was wet and moist and humid but yes that was perfect but obviously 40,000 people in the city at some point in the morning like that's always going to be a logistical nightmare but I don't it didn't feel busy. No I think the way they stagger the start times for the waves probably has something to do with that because the waves are kind of starting at slightly different locations or at least to append at slightly different locations before they approach the start line so that's they've obviously absolutely nailed that and they've been doing that for years so they know what they're doing and it feels extremely professional like everyone's kind of held back and then they say with what three minutes to go okay you can approach the start line and that's when we all walked up. I did think that you know it was strange that I was able to stand next to you or more or less just behind you and you were in a seated bib and then you had someone like Luke Barrow's who absolutely should have had a seated bib but he was wearing a seaweed bib and won the race like that would probably be like criticism is that maybe you could set the seated guys off a minute before the wave a just so that it felt like more of a seated or a sub-alit race and so yeah there's that and maybe opening up more seated bibs because the fact that Luke had to run in a yellow bib was pretty laughable and the number of people I got sent pictures of you know why is this guy in a seawave bib winning the race because he just walked up to the start and still with everyone else so yeah I'd find it hard to believe that they could control the funneling of people based on the bib that they're wearing so yeah I don't know if he lies a bit on self-seating doesn't it? I think I mean it felt like it was quite stringent in terms of the seated application process and it seemed like it sold out very quickly so Smithy did message us around whether or not he could get a seated bib and that was very early on in the pace and he eventually did get a seated bit but a lot of people who deserved a seated spot didn't get one because yeah apparently they sold out so I don't know maybe there should have been more spots and clearly with so many people running under 78 minutes there are a lot of people who have the ability to run under 80 minutes yeah maybe I don't know how it is that yeah maybe it has to be under 75 or something because yeah it's yeah and people who who may have begged shouldn't be allowed a seated spot and they didn't really place it on the day as well right seems like everyone was able to just like rock up so I think perhaps that perhaps was a criticism but you know it is huge numbers a lot of people walking around so definitely hard to place even if you did have people there trying to man sections obviously the arch the arch is a winner like that that tells you it's a professional event I don't I mean maybe sit at a serve has it I think sit at a serve do have it but I think it's like a 10 years so I can't remember but I don't think any other event has like a professional looking style like that to be honest like it looks pretty phenomenal yeah because the the one at Perth Running Festival is more just like another inflatable one with like some people on the side from memory so it's not it's still big but it's not as spectacular as say HBF is then with the 630 star like it's just illuminating as well which is amazing yeah perfect time yeah I think they've been bringing that forward over the years right maybe it started at seven once upon a time they might have brought that forward down to 635 I think it started this year so I'm as a person who runs exclusively before sunrise absolutely no complaints from me on the start time yeah perfect for uncorrects and artis that's for sure yeah I'm 100% the finish changed obviously this year we weren't running on the big or in the big blue carpet so we finished on the on the track which was a good thing yeah yeah way better situation I just I wish I could have seen where it was from where I when I entered Gloucester Park I wish I could have seen the finish line because at that point of time I needed to see the finish line yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um it does make you wonder because obviously the whack has been refurbed and you're walking past the whack as you're exiting hmm whether or not I don't know it must be a cost issue or something but finishing in the whack are would be bloody amazing yeah and I'm sure that the the whack of board probably spends enough money on that grass at the last thing one is like people trying to do people yeah exactly um but yeah I felt like that even maybe I don't know maybe I don't know why it felt so different to years past but it was so easy to get out of Gloucester Park this year too like yeah when I decided to leave after having spent 45 minutes at the finish line like to to actually get out of there usually I felt really kind of funnels and tight but maybe it's just I just avoided being maybe I had I had done I'd left before the 12k's it arrived basically so true um but it felt good yeah I mean I felt the same it felt like when we wanted to leave we got out pretty quickly um I remember years gone by like it there used to be more fanfare at Gloucester Park we had more marquees and food trucks and all that and I maybe I didn't pay attention I didn't really see it there and didn't go searching for it so maybe I didn't notice but yeah you're right got out pretty quickly it was kind of pretty smooth sailing for the most part so that was really good um we bitch and moan about the lack of k markers at other events but they were pretty spotless yeah um and I if you could probably wasn't until I think the only blip for me personally was the 8k marker when you get onto the ramp oh yeah that was either too early or too late I'm not too strong but other than that I think there were more or less bang on um and gave me the confidence that we were on track so so that was good to see were they every single k you can't remember um yeah as far as I'm aware I think I saw on every every k um so that was that was awesome um one thing I could create small criticism and and this I don't know like the signage I don't I couldn't every time I wanted a drink of water I got a cup of electrolytes yeah I wasn't sure if they were color coded or something so that was just made my ignorance I think I don't I'm sure that people were definitely yelling stuff but I was so kind of kind of thrilled in what I was doing I was just yeah it wasn't wasn't paying them and look it was cold enough that I didn't need all that much water to be honest we it was just yeah to have a little sip to wash the spit down basically um yeah but yeah um when I saw the race photos come out um and unfortunately I couldn't access my race photos because I ran under a different person's entry and I would not support that at all um of course and sure Vicki has a few things to say about that from a from a risk management perspective but um yeah seeing a $60 price tag on the the photos I thought shit I paid $60 for my 12k entry and I've got to pay 60 bucks for the photos like yeah it's mental but yeah there was a discount on that brief a small discount on as if you bought them the same day um and fortunately I've been sent through the photos from a lovely individual um so I I haven't needed to pay for them which is great um that is not an inside job at all that's just someone else who was running next to me that had the photos and was willing to share them with me which is lovely um and yeah I mean I I when I'm when we talk about Perth running festival I'm very critical of the freeway um yeah but I think the more I think about it over the last 24 hours I think it's because it's in October and freeway is the worst place to be in October but you know what like I feel like and it's because it's a half-mouth on right hmm you are on the freeway for a long period of time but because it's a half-mouth on you're not on it for very long yeah yeah just convention center grain farmer freeway and then exit so it's really eight k's hmm yeah eight k's of freeway um out of the half-mouth on but at PRF the marathon you're spending three quarters of your time um on a freeway so it's it's a huge difference and um the hbf part is perhaps the nicer part of the freeway true yeah it may be yeah we're running on on a different side um you're not yeah you're not on it for as long um you're in the opposite side of the tunnel right so um well you're on the opposite direction rather so yeah um yeah I yeah I don't know it is it is it's it's it's maybe the time of year maybe it's the length of time you spend on it um but yeah it felt it was actually enjoyable to run on I'll be honest um yeah and yeah I think being five degrees or seven degrees or what it was would have helped yeah thanks sir I think sir um I think there could be more entertainment still I feel like that is still a thing um that you know like it's not it's not a huge deal, but I feel like you see videos of events in other countries and other places in the Eastern States and there's massive cheer squads or whatever. And there were a few of those dotted around. I thought it saw the roller derby girls were out there on the freeway, which was cool. There was a bunch of other groups. There was an LSKD group. But yeah, I don't know. I think there are more community groups out there doing community group stuff on the side of the race would be cool. But yeah, that's just a really, if anything, I'm clutching it straws. I'm just trying to find things. We're picking more than anything. I'd say going back to the photos. The discount would have taken you down to 47 bucks, but the quality of the photos were pretty good. I think it's perhaps the best race photos you would get. You and I are far off over all can face photography, but I think North, South are on a different level. Yeah, they're just, I mean, it's a different style of photography, right? They're capturing a mood. They're not just capturing the runners, like they're capturing a vibe and having these semi-out of focus shots with the horizon, sitting in the sun rising in the background, and all this, like it was pretty spectacular stuff. Having been a fan of their coverage on events in the eastern states for the last couple of years, they do a phenomenal job over there. And I was really surprised to see their name on the photos. I instantly knew, okay, these are actually going to be pretty fucking sick photos. And then I started seeing everybody post them and I was like, holy shit, these are like the most beautiful photos I've ever seen. They sent a text at 730. So they were uploading photos within an hour of the event starting. And yeah, throughout the day, it was just refreshing with additional photos that came through. So obviously, look, pricey photos, but I had to cop. Oh, for sure. And the age where social media is so prevalent, having very high quality race photos is just yeah, either kudos to the guys at HBF for organizing it because yeah, phenomenal job to lock them in, let alone have them actually produce a product that they could be proud of. So yeah, I don't know. Anything else to add, mate? I think. I think that's it. Overall, I know it can come across as if we're biased, but obviously with Vicki on the team, but definitely the biggest event of the year. Yeah, for sure, 100%. And it will be hard to compete with it unless CD disserft decides to pick up additional distances again, like it used to do. And for. I think most listeners will know, unfortunately, someone did pass away during the race, which is obviously no one wants that to happen. And I. Yeah, obviously our thoughts with not only their family, but the people at HBF who've been dealing with the role on from that too over the last 24 hours, so that must be an event organizes nightmare for something like that to happen. So yeah, yeah, sincerest condolences to their family. And it's just really hard to comprehend going out for a run at an event like this and then just not going home. Like it's not something that you would ever expect to happen. Especially with someone who's so young and. Yeah, terribly sad. It kind of does put things into perspective in terms of life is short and we'll say health comes first as well. So if it's a reminder to look after your loved ones and make the most of what you have, because yeah, you never know what life throws at you. Exactly. And like another reminder to have regular health checks. If you're feeling any particular way, I don't know the circumstances of this. So I'm really not talking to this specific event, but like just if you are feeling a slightly different for a given period of time, maybe you should go to the GP and get yourself looked at because you just never know what is around the corner. So mate, let's wrap up HPF there. We'll get into some upcoming events this now. We've got Elica running festival this weekend. Coming up, we've got a half marathon, 10k, 5k there. We've got the Cape to Cape Ultra on the sixth and seventh of June. We've got kind of an hour and a half on the 14th of June as well as the Rotten S running festival. We've got Ultra Perth on the 20th of June. And then PDS snakes and that is on the 21st of June. So some busy running coming up over the next month or so. I think the WAMC King of the Mountain is also on the 28th, so that's probably my next effort. Have a go there on the trails. Hopefully not break a leg. Touch wood. And yeah, that's kind of running for the next month or so. In terms of Simon says, there's not much on the list here, mate. I'm saying one thing and one thing only. Yep, that's community run on the third of June on World Running Day. Global running day, yeah. Global running day. So yeah, the guys of Asics are coming down. I was having a look at what shoes will be brought to the wear test. So we've got the MetaSpeed Edge Tokyo, MetaSpeed Sky Tokyo Super Blast 3 and Mega Blast. So decent, so we have shoes there to try on. We did it in Newly to secure your pair and we haven't heard back from Raffa about shoes being given away. So we will wait and see. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. But it'll be good to see Sam Hopper coming down. Oh, for sure. And like all of those shoes are kind of going to be highly sought after in terms of those who haven't tried them. I've never worn a Mega Blast. I've never worn a Super Blast. So I'll be there early to make sure I get a pair of size 12s. Very good back. Alright, let's wrap the episode up with Weapons of Orp. Yeah, so in addition to HBF and Cidra this weekend, we had Cape Town Marathon, which I watched a bit of coverage of after we were kind of popping off in the group chat. We had a few people from Perth over there. I think we had Matt Demassie running over there and a bunch of crew. But yeah, Astrid Roberts, one who World Masters age group champs and she was 19th overall in a time of 251.58. She was about six minutes behind at halfway point, third place at 40k, but then absolutely storm time to take the win. So massive for Astrid. She just seems to be streaming together this series of performances that yeah, he's just going to show how hard work pays off in the long run. And I was talking to Raf actually on Wednesday last week about Astrid and the way she trains and how methodical she is. And so yeah, it's cool to see all that hard work come to fruition. We had Mahar Dhamuni with Hammy and Ab Cramps at 32k and had to be carried to a medical tent. Once the Cramps eased off, she got back on the course and finished the race. So yeah, that's pretty phenomenal stuff and definitely worthy of weapon nomination. Now when we announced our ticket winners for HBF, I think we had Matt Neaves, we had Brody Clark and who was our third winner? Oh, name of the case for you actually. Oh, we had the gentleman with his son pushing the son in the stroller. So we had Brody Clark promise us that he would, well, we've kind of joked around the idea of getting a tattoo and Brody turned up to the start line, tapped me on the shoulder and he's guns up and he had WA and RP on his bicycles, which was awesome to see. He ended up running a 122, 23 and absolutely smashed it. So I think he might be going to Gold Coast or Sydney, I can't remember which one it is. Okay. So yeah, he's definitely looking in that kind of sub three marathon territory. It is. Yeah. Maybe he needs to. Yeah, Sharpie or Walpon his face, Goldie or Sydney or whatever he's doing. Yeah. Sub three on the cards, I think. Definitely. And I don't think you can sit himself a casual runner anymore. So that's unfortunate. We had Jamie Reeves, Abber Listener of the Pod from Down in Bumbry. One of the paces went down and apparently she's okay, but Jamie stepped up with the flag on his back and took the bus home. So that's awesome to stuff. From you, Jamie, Brian Burke completed the inaugural HPF marathon. The history of artificial? Unificial. I mean, as far as I'm aware, I don't think anybody else has ever done this and it is a testament to the way Brian thinks. He's a left of center. Think. And he completed the treble. So he ran the half marathon, presumably in Wave A, then ran back to the start line, ran the 12k, finished that, ran back to the start line and ran the 3k. And I think he totaled 43k for the day. So yeah, really exceptional. stuff from Brian. That was very entertaining to see and having been like a friend of the podcast for such a long time now, it's awesome. Awesome to see that his weapon behavior ever since we took over this podcast has just continued to escalate over time in more creative ways. I mean, very creative. I am very intrigued at how much that would have cost in him. That would have been a very expensive long run yesterday. So yeah, very intrigued at how much the Rego would have cost what sort of fueling situation we had and more importantly, how many Yagers were consumed after. And if we could get like an Excel spreadsheet of our costs, I'd be very interested in cost per minute. Yeah, for sure. Now what do we got here? We've also got someone in our upcoming training series. Now we won't announce it just yet, but we had we've established a group chat for this training series. So we've locked in four athletes, which is very exciting. It took us a little while to get there, but we've had the help of another weapon of warp to do that. So we'll keep their identity secret too. But one of these gentlemen shared a picture of him and four other random guys holding a trophy on Saturday night at 10pm. And I think everyone in the chat was not, not everyone knows each other very well. So it was like, I think I think it was like a photo posted with no no context, no context whatsoever. And yeah, just bewilderment. I think on everyone else's behalf. So it wasn't until Monday morning, like this morning, that it was actually addressed and Michael realized that he'd sent that photo to us instead of a different group chat that he was talking to. I think it was his wife actually. Yeah, and it was I was glad that it was cleared up because I did receive that message at the time. I didn't sleep very well Saturday night. And I was just waiting for a follow up text to explain what that was, but it never came. Yeah, so that I also. Yeah, I've just given their identity away. I just realized I said Michael. So yeah, that that'll give a clue at least to who this person might be. But yeah, that's that's kind of us for this week. I think that's all of our weapons. Yeah, awesome to see everyone at HBF. Obviously, I'd love to just say thank you to everybody who is out there and cheering for me and supporting and the support that you've probably seen on Strava as well. And you saw on course has been phenomenal. So always appreciative of people kind of reaching out and sending us photos, sending us videos and just generally really appreciate the positivity that everybody else is putting out into the world. And hopefully that we can do as part of running this podcast. So yeah, to be here. Yeah. And yeah, it could be the same like perhaps 80% of the cheering was for near up, but they were a couple of sirens there here and there. So I really appreciate it. And obviously, yeah, an event like HBF sort of brings the running community and you know, the casual runners and the broader WA community together as well. So, you know, overall it was a massive day in the Perth calendar at large, not just the running calendar. So yeah, glad to be a part of it. But that's it for this week. You can reach out to us at WREDING pod on Instagram. email address is daway running pod cast jema.com and our Strava group is warp. Thank you for joining us. And we will catch you next week. Sort of had a blank on how's it going to finish this episode. I don't know, but I saw someone wearing an order of Murray outfit on the race course on the weekend, which is awesome to see. Yeah, apparently, Dnast. All right, that's it. Catch you. Bye. See you guys. We've been quite about ice cream. Yeah, I was thinking about that tonight and we were talking about organizing this AGM. Oh, yeah. And I was like, well, why don't we just put them at donuts? Yeah, yeah, true. So this Friday, I will go to McDonald's and sink 16 ice creams done. All right, we'll livestream that.