If last fortnight was Christmas in the running world then this fortnight was certainly Boxing Day in one sense, a lot quieter, allowing time for the results of last weekend to digest.
But it’s actually Christmas this fortnight so bring it on Santa! In the final issue for 2023, we’re taking a look at how to handle the Christmas break, celebrating the year that was 2023 in running from a biased Australian perspective and there is both a fact and quiz question to ponder on. Merry Christmas!
Main Show #78 - #79
#78 Andrew Corscoran featured and brought a lot of laughs plus some inspiration for Brett to tell some great Feidhlim Kelly stories. Worth reading more about Feidhlim’s approach to coaching in this article.
Joel was thankful for the team of Irish pacers last week to help him on Tuesday (2:59 for 8*1km), improved his threshold (7ish km’s at 3:16’s) and had another good week (almost 90km). Brett did ‘barely anything’ (37 km) in the week of #78 after thinking he was ‘going to be f***** for a while’.
#79 was a review of the year with FTK lenses on. The studio fail was addressed along with the geography of Rottnest Island. Joel had another 90 odd km’s for the week and just jogged instead of thresholding while Brett started back from Fukuoka with 107km’s, including a 20 min threshold and some 50 sec work on Wednesday. Watch out 400m runners, he’s coming for the shorter events now…
Q&A Session Sixty-Four: OAC Physio Kurt Roeser
An excellent chat covering the similarities and differences of being a physio to elites and amateur runners, the importance of strength, activation and warming up … ‘every degree increase in temperature, I think it equates to about 5% increase in force production’ … plus a few anecdotes of working with OAC’s athletes (including Olli Hoare and Morgan McDonald). Kurt has his own podcast too, Ready to Run, for those who want to learn more from his wisdom.
Live, Laugh, Love & Run, with Jack, Joel and Brett 15 & 16
If you enjoyed Andrew Corscoran’s feature episode then LLL&R is like that most weeks. Unless they’re all in separate rooms and Joel gets distracted taking screenshots. Barber gets his weekly mention too.
Hot Takes - 01 & 02
Patreon King and Queen Riley and Elise were joined by Lachie Moorhouse from Athletics Australia (a real professional in the space of running media!) for episode one where there were many topics discussed: Road to Paris updates, Melbourne Marathon registrations and the work AA is doing to bring more internationals to the land down under. Episode two covered Adelaide’s run-ability, Australia’s 2023 athlete of the year and a bit of chat about the Rat!
‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while, you could miss it’. Best we follow Ferris Bueller’s advice then, and take a minute (or seven) to pause and reflect on the year that was 2023 in Australian distance running.
After a typically quiet opening couple of weeks, the year went bang-bang-bang in late Jan, early Feb. World XC, Maurie Plant Meet and the year’s biggest off-field news with the Peter Bol run-around. Glad we got that out of the way early. The Bathurst edition of World XC provided another stage for East African dominance in distance running and our first medal in a long long time as well with our Bronze in the Mixed Relay. Perhaps the diabolical weather that disrupted the final proceedings was the first of a bad things come in threes streak (Sydney marathon’s heat, Zatopek’s drizzle), or maybe that’s just cherry picking a newsworthy item and forgetting we had 362 other really good days for events this year. Fred Kerley celebrated how good the Maurie Plant meet was ¾ of the way through winning the 200m while Jess Hull got her year rolling with a victory over Abbey Caldwell in the women’s 1500m. Cam Myers was also too busy for an interview with us (but now he’s pestering Brett on Strava) because he was busy becoming the second youngest person to break the four minute mile.
Next we progressed into the autumnal months in the southern hemisphere. Jess Hull broke the 3000m record at the Sydney Track Classic making it the only major distance event on the track with a NR set in Australia. Autumn is of course popular with international marathon news. Just as King Kiptum was rising in London, King Kipchoge lost some shine at Boston and received some flak for the way he brushed off the post-race presser. Brett got his first 7th for the year at London alongside Ellie Pashley who ran her first marathon since her daughter was born to follow up her best-Aussie result at World XC earlier in the year. To finish off autumn, Leanne Pompeani ran the fastest 10,000m race for the women this year on her US trip which segues nicely into…
Winter! Where Leanne broke the 10km all-comers record in Launceston. Yours truly visited the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships and can attest to the Austrian alps being stunningly beautiful. If there’s one trail running event you watch on a livestream make it this one in future. Winter though, means roads in Oz and track in Europe. Olli Hoare set a new 1500m record in Norway, Stewy McSweyn and Adam Spencer ran almost as fast in GB and Hull and (Linden) Hall continued to play cat-and-mouse with their 1500m record (well Linden owns it but they practically share it…sisterhood of the travelling 1500m record?).
More was still to come in winter though. Hull set a new Mile record, almost beat her own 5000m record and ended the year with the fastest times across the Mile, 3000m and 5000m for Australian’s this year. Clearly makes her the most dominant track athlete we have. Domestically, the first ever ‘Marathon Special’ series aired on FTK’s Patreon channel. Jordy ‘Dumplings’ Williamsz ran a commendable first marathon, Gen Gregson at the time seemed to have smashed her debut but now we know maybe she was just cruising along at the time? Liam Adams almost beat the internationals in the men’s elite field but fell short of the win and an automatic qualifier on his way to joining the sub 2:10 club. Gold Coast isn’t just for the full marathon though, Leanne and Ellie continued their strong first half of the year to set the fastest half-marathon times for 2023 in easily the strongest field of half-marathoners we had this year (who can forget Keira D’Amato’s water guzzling efforts in the same race to break the US NR).
To close out the winter, our attention shifted to the northern hemisphere summer in Budapest specifically for the World Athletics Championships. A strong team was present, we collected our best ever medal-haul thanks to the field events but for the most of it Australian fans had to continue to look on in hope for that big result on the track. Lisa Weightman achieved her highest placing in a World Championship or Olympic Games marathon with 16th place while Joseph Deng, with his 1:43.99 NR now back on his trophy shelf after he let Pete borrow it for a couple of years, was back representing us for the first time since 2018.
Spring rolled through next and brought, as it does in the animal kingdom, a new dawn of life to the marathon world records. Kelvin Kiptum set a new men’s record at Chicago only weeks after Tigist Assefa blew our brains out in Berlin. Sinead Diver and Brett cleaned up the National Marathon titles in Sydney’s first dig at World Major status which went very well (they’ve shown they can handle an event like that in the heat, imagine it in perfect temps). The track athletes had one final dig in the northern hemisphere and Stewy made the most of two days in Eugene setting the fastest 3000m and Mile times for 2023 after he added the 2000m record to his collection of NR’s. Stewy currently has two NR’s, Olli also has two and boy are we lucky to have them both at the moment just like we are with Hall, who also set a new 1500m NR in Eugene, and Hull.
The 25th and first edition since 2020 (before podcast era) of the World Athletics Road Running Championships was another highlight to reflect on. We’ve had a lot of bloody highlights haven’t we, no wonder we won the member federation award. Jess Hull came fifth in the women’s mile, Jack Anstey 10th in the men’s and Morgan McDonald shot the lights out with 13:26 for 7th place in the 5km. That time lifted him to second on the Australian all-time list behind the big Mazungo Craig Mottram.
And then, just as the last of the spring winds blew through, taking Jack Rayner and Gen on a merry-go-round Australia winning road races (and National XC titles too!), the summer heat came through Jack Nicholson style bursting through the door on the first weekend. Here come those extra fitness gains! Last year’s December marathons included two NR’s but this year we had PB’s, another 7th place (for Brett) and our first Zatopek:10/On collab in Christmas version one. The results of those events are fresh in our minds as we wind down to re-set over the actual Christmas break.
Another quiet January is then on the cards to start 2024 off but what will the rest of the summer and year bring? The Maurie Plant meet is just around the corner, the Olympics are next year too or who knows, will the 2-hour mark be broken by Kiptum, Kipchoge or someone else? Maybe next week we’ll have to get out the crystal ball and predict what the seasonal forecast will bring. For 2023 though, the Australian running climate has certainly experienced some change and we look forward to celebrating more of it in 2024.
Runners can either go one of two ways with the upcoming festive season. Relax the training, relax the focus and celebrate the arrival of Santa with friends and family. What a wonderful few days that would be.
Or, you can go the Steve Ovett method and triple on Christmas Day to really show your commitment to the running dream. ‘Camp Krusty is open 365 days a year’ according to Feidhlim Kelly.
Either way though you’ll have to negotiate some family gatherings around Christmas and with that, comes the questions and the conversations about what it is that you actually do with your running. Here are some possible helpful conversation starters or scenarios to consider to successfully navigate the Christmas period.
Grandparents: These folks are generally your biggest supporters and are your best options for potential sponsors. ‘Grandma, have you and Grandpa thought about ever visiting Berlin with me in September? Or doing a cruise to the Gold Coast in July? It’s always something I’ve wanted to do with you both but I just don’t know if I’ll ever have the finances…
Children: Whether they’re yours or not, children are the life of the party at family gatherings. Hold the babies, excite the young ones about Santa’s arrival and dominate the older ones in games while you still can. They’re also the most curious and brutally honest. Instead of being subjected to their critique, instead, distract them first and get them on bottle duty out the front of the house now that they’re not wasting their time at school. Or, if they’re old enough, get them on the bike to help with your easy runs. Bonus points if you can help practice their maths skills when calculating splits! Play your cards right and when they grow up they won’t think twice about pacing you for your workouts during Christmas instead of going to a New Year’s Festival. ‘Selling one BTV ticket, Dad’s got his 4*5km session coming up and I really can’t miss it’.
Uncles/Aunties: The stereotypical uncle or aunty is one who consumes too much and makes things awkward and uncomfortable for your new partner. That’s not helpful in a running sense. What is though is that often these uncles/aunties live interstate or away from your usual circle of friends. This makes for a great alternative training base hopefully free of charge that you can plant the seed for after their sixth beverage… ‘so it’s fine if you offer me your car, spare bedroom and convert your second bathroom into a sauna for a week in winter for when I come to visit?’. My best advice though is to get them on your side and use them to your advantage. ‘Mum and Dad reckon I should run less next year and focus on my career, I just wish I had an older relative who was supportive of my running aspirations…what do you think Uncle/Aunty?’ Again, the later on in the day, once they’ve passed into stereotypical uncle/aunty territory, the higher the success rate.
Cousins and/or Siblings: The nature of these relationships is either friendly conversations or intense rivalries. Who is the most successful? Why can’t you be more like Rupert and his successful business? (Gee I don’t know, maybe it’s because his Dad gave him a successful business…). If you don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with them (hello to my brother), challenge them to a handicapped 5km and see if the added spice pushes you to a new PB. Or maybe you do see eye-to-eye but you’re the weaker runner (not sure if this is Phoebe or Joel Tobin-White?). Stroke your better runner cousin/sibling’s ego with questions on training advice, races to run and they’ll be offering to pace you for your next marathon in no time. If you’re bold enough to suggest the present they got you wasn’t up to scratch their guilt will also help here…
As discussed in Hot Takes, the World Athletics of the Year were announced last fortnight. Read the official press release here. Not terribly difficult for the out of stadia selectors… two world records in the marathon helped Tigist Assefa and Kelvin Kiptum to their awards.
European Cross Country happened the weekend following Issue 20. Best news story to come out of the event was Belgium won the Senior Men’s title on their home turf!
Focusing on our shores, the kids clogging up the grocery stores in the middle of the day now it’s school holidays competed in the All Schools Champs over in Perth. Notable results included: Izobelle Louison-Roe won the Under 17 long, triple and high jumps (and is the first field event athlete to get a mention in TBL for a very long time), Isaac Beacroft walked the walk towards the second fastest U18 time in the 5000m walk and lastly Cody Hasler and Olivia Dodds matched each other’s feats in the U18 category. Both completed the 100-200m sprint double.
The City-Bay Fun Run Trust has jumped on board the Adelaide Invitational as a sponsor, helping to increase the prize pool to $25,000 and ensure the event is upgraded to World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze status.
Finally, in breaking news just before I hit publish, word dropped that Sifan Hassan and Eliud Kipchoge will be racing the Tokyo Marathon in March next year. The last and only time Kipchoge ran Tokyo it was the 2021 edition held in 2022 (#justcovidthings) and he set a course record of 2:02:40 so it’s another happy stomping ground for him while Sify is looking to maintain her unbeaten record in the marathon after winning London and Chicago in 2023. Sify’s PB is also two minutes faster than the course record at Tokyo so watch out for a CR bonus.
Lachie Moorhouse’s comments on Hot Takes provided the inspiration for this fortnight's fact and quiz questions (yes it’s back!). As it stands on the Road to Paris website, there is a list of the Top 80 athletes set to race the marathon in August 2024. This of course is the Top 80 athletes when the ‘3 per country’ rule is applied. But what if we forgot that rule and let everyone up to and including that 80th runner compete? How many athletes would some of the stronger marathon nations have qualified?
Ethiopia would have 91 women racing in the city of love! If that doesn’t impress you then maybe Kenya having 139 people faster than the 80th male does.
Ok, so Ethiopia and Kenya are the two strongest nations, that’s pretty obvious, but who is next? For the first question this week, which nation has the next highest number of athletes within the top 80 (but unfortunately have to leave the majority of them home)?
If that’s too easy and you’re more interested in quality over quantity, after Ethiopia and Kenya, which nation has their Top 3 athletes qualified in the highest positions? The application of this quirky fact would give us the ‘favourites’ on paper for a team medal in the Marathon if it was organised like XC. IOC what do you think? Teams medal? Yes?Answers at the bottom.
December 25: Santa arrives and a great excuse to take advantage of the 12-month Patreon discount.
February 4th: Marugame International Half Marathon. Jack Rayner and Riley Cocks ran Australia’s 1st and 4th fastest half marathons for the year 2023 and it’s also the location where Brett ran 59:57 (and he won it!) in the ‘before podcast’ era.
February 10: Adelaide Invitational (next Chemist Warehouse Open event). Buy tickets here.
February 15: Maurie Plant Meet. Australia’s only ‘World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Meet’. Buy tickets here.
February 19: Live show attempt #2. New ticket link inbound in 2024.
This division of Grattan House welcomes any and all reader feedback. If you want more or less of something, want something investigated, or Jordy Williamsz hasn’t dealt with your complaint in a timely manner, please enquire at theblueline@grattanhouse.com.
Quiz Answer:
1) Japan is the next strongest nation with 23 women and 45 men that would have qualified if it weren’t for the 3 per nation rule.
2) If you had guessed Japan for the third best Women’s nation and Israel for the men’s I would either say well done or you cheated and looked at the rankings! Shame on you!
Either way, please subscribe for free and send this to your mates!
And, reprising the words of Ferris Bueller again, for TBL in 2023, ‘…it’s over, go home, go’.