Pack it up, pack it in, let 2024 really begin! Yes that’s right it’s time to jump around folks because from the perspective of Australian distance running fans things are kicking off over this next fortnight and Aussie athletes will be entering their own House of Pain in search of PB’s and race wins. Issue 24 brings with it Marugame Half, Adelaide Invitational and Maurie Plant previews, a quick nod to our trail fans with an opinion on the Golden Trail National Series, plus all the usual podcast tidbits, facts and other little snippets. Hopefully when you opened this issue you came to get down, came to get down, so get out your seat and jump around… for 2024 is here b*****.
Main Show
#82. The first ever main show episode at Falls. Joel ran 89 km, Brett ticked 170 km's. The definition of a village by the way is, according to National Geographic, ‘A village is a small settlement usually found in a rural setting. It is generally larger than a "hamlet" but smaller than a "town." Some geographers specifically define a village as having between 500 and 2,500 inhabitants. In most parts of the world, villages are settlements of people clustered around a central point.’ Checks out.
#83. Brooke Feldmeier interview amongst some more Falls Creek training for both Brett (165km’s) and Joel (100km’s with some quality too!). Tune in next week to see how the manifesting has held up.
Chasing Paris UK
#2. Phil was working hard on becoming the Local Legend of Nyaru Road (colloquially known as ‘Mazungo’ road and if anyone needs a reminder of a very famous Mazungo…). A few listener questions on whether they’re doing long runs easy or with a session all the time and also whether Marc is keeping his speed work up through this block. Here’s the British marathon selection policy that was discussed.
#3. Good conversation on whether British runners will be putting up the times that African runners have been posting eventually. Phil ‘was in 7th place’ in his 34km long run and ran a 70 minute fartlek that had 30 sets in it as he dips under a month to go until Seville. ‘Moving on to the roads for me, that was a little thing why I wanted to transition’… What was Marc talking about here?
Live, Laugh, Love & Run, with Jack, Joel and Brett and Riley and then Jude
Riley’s tattoos, Troye Sivan, Jack’s favourite song and the reality of Riley’s 4am wake-up. For non-Patreons, please help and like IBD’s comment on this post…
Jude reappears (previously he was a guest on Episode #10 of the Main Show) behind his first paywall. The real Jude is behind two paywalls though. Instead here are some snippets of what was discussed… Graham Johncock, Mark Blicavs, ghost type Pokemon, jailbroken iPod’s, geography jokes, Mt.Fuji and protruding chocolate cookies.
Ask us Anything
#08. More than 25 questions were answered within 60 minutes and hat’s off to the Patreons this month, quite a few good thought provoking questions were asked (except Jacob Gower’s…)
That’s 429 minutes of podcast audio in the past fortnight. 295 of those minutes are Patreon only which works out to be about $2 per Patreon episode.
January is a strange month for running fans in Australia. Do we look overseas? Do we focus on club and state track meets? Or do we just give up and soak up international tennis and cricket results? Thank the lord Pat Tiernan gave us something to remember January by for when it comes time for the yearly recap.
February is a different story. Training camps are done, it’s time to get the show on the road.
First stop, Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, this Sunday, 12:35pm AEDT!
Brett (59:57) and Ryan Gregson (63:40), training partners in the Falls Creek Village for the past couple of weeks, will be lining up for the 76th edition of this race. Joining them are:
- Tim Vincent (63:17 official PB but there is the somewhat unscrupulous downhill/tailwind Italian result of 61:43 that shouldn’t be forgotten)
- Norwegian NR holder Sondre Moen (59:48)
- Japanese NR holder Yusuke Ogura (60 minutes flat which is pretty cool).
- Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso (57:59 PB and three other sub-60 times) and Charles Langat (58:53)
- Along with a stack of other Japan-yeezy’s including Yuki Kawauchi!
If we cast our minds back to February 2020 a younger Brett Robinson went over to Marugame with only an official 64:15 PB to his name. He then blasted his way to that National Record time of his and hasn’t cracked sub 60 since. Can he do it again given there are another three athletes with a PB of under 60? Can Grego wipe 4 minutes off his PB to go 59:40? And what has marathon training done to Tim Vincent’s capabilities over the half? Hopefully Sam McEntee can find us another loophole through the world of Japanese TV to get us a stream so we can watch them and…
Another of our favourite adopted Aussie’s Charlotte Purdue. Her return to Marugame, four years after setting her PB there in 2020 (68:23) comes off the back of some solid Australian based training. Check out her Strava for some sporadic uploads of hers.
Races don’t always reflect your PB’s on paper or your sporadic Strava uploads though so who knows what’ll happen in Marugame. Interestingly, the last race Charlotte appeared at was a half marathon in Thailand where she ran 72:45 for 6th place which does seem slow at first but a second look allows the interesting-ness to shine through. First, factor in the Thailand heat, there’s a minute or two on the table there maybe, but secondly, more importantly, she was less than a minute behind Ruth Chepngetich (who’s a 64:02 lady) and only two and bit minutes behind Sheila Chepkirui (64:36 PB) in that race and Sheila is also racing in Marugame and is the lead seed.
So who knows then, maybe Sheila and Japanese based Kenyan Pauline Kamulu (66:56) head out at 65/66 minute pace and Charlotte can hang on for a podium finish or hang with them long enough for 67:something. The smokey in the field is Ririka Hironika, Japan’s second fastest 5000m & 10,000m runner ever who is on debut (basically imagine the Japanese version of someone like Eloise Wellings) and could also be in the hunt for a 68:low time. The positive for Charlotte in this case is that hopefully she’s right next to ‘Riri’ and can absorb some of the passionate Japanese running fans' support to crack a new PB.
Second and third stops through February on the main highway of distance running are the Adelaide Invitational and Maurie Plant meets. Both of these fall within the next fortnight so here’s some early preview information to hopefully whet your appetite and convince you to buy a ticket (and join me in Adelaide or the cheer zone in Melbourne!).
Adelaide Invitational:
On the face of it, the Adelaide Invitational this year is set to feature more shorter distance events than long distance. What that means is the storylines in the middle distance events, our focus here, gets more attention. In the Women’s 800m a former Australian representative may not finish in the Top 5 and may still be happy with their result that’s how much depth there is. National Record holder Cat Bisset (1:57.78) leads the way of course with Abbey Caldwell (1:58.48), Linden Hall (1:59.22), Morgan Mitchell (2:00.06), Ellie Sanford (2:00.50), Tess Kirsopp-Cole (2:01.34), Bendere Oboya (2:01.92) and the latest adopted Aussie to appear on FKT, American Brooke Feldmeier (1:59.08) thrown in their too.
For most of these ladies Adelaide will represent their first serious hit-out of the season before doing battle over the same distance in Melbourne at the Maurie Plant meet and then again back in Adelaide at Nationals. Some early confidence with a win over their rivals in Adelaide, and potentially dipping their noses under the 1:59.30 mark to qualify for Paris (which Cat and Abbey have done already within the qualification period) would be a great start.
Along with the 800m, according to this National Event Grid graphic, there’s every distance covered from 100-1500m (Caitlin Adams features in the 1500m) before a skip to the 3000m Steeplechase which is arguably the biggest event of the meet from a local perspective. Matt Clarke (8:22), bird owner and podiatrist, is aiming to shave seven seconds off his PB to hit the 8:15 qualifying mark. From the discussions on Hot Takes though we may see others stepping out in this event for the first time along with a host of other usual suspects. Matt spoke with Athletics Australia and laid out his intentions for next Saturday night (February 10th) where he said “I’m going to try to push for the 8:15. I’ve set an 8:22.62 at Townsville (in 2021) on a real nothing of a track, and that was without a huge lot of prep work. The Adelaide track in comparison is very fast – we’ve seen that with the times set over the last few years – and with my current fitness and form it will be a good starting point,”. If you’re in Adelaide make sure to see Clarkey in action for only $20 a ticket. Local para athlete Angus Hincksman could also do with your support as he goes up against fellow Aussie Reece Langdon in the 1500m with both looking to continue their own Paris builds.
Maurie Plant
Thursday February 15th, less than a week after Adelaide, the Maurie Plant meet will be on. It might be too early for a preview with full fields yet to be announced but here’s what we know so far:
The Women’s 800m is a Gold event meaning we’ll likely see the same field from Adelaide going around again in Melbourne. Will anyone change their race tactics between the two back-to-back meets?
I’m not sure I could find another athlete domestically to bump up the John Landy Mile field:
Finally, both the Women and Men’s 5000m are Gold label events too. Jack Rayner (13:06) has already told us he’s aiming for the 13:05 Olympic qualifying time while maybe we’ll see one of Eloise Wellings (14:54), Izzi Batt-Doyle (15:04), Gen Gregson (15:06) or Rose Davies (15:07) go out for the 14:52 they need. All of these ladies PB’s are at least two years old so given the advancements in their careers and shoe technology I’d be nervous about the 15 minute barrier…that’s if they’re all racing… with over a fortnight to go we still don’t have full fields so this is merely speculation.
Of course, most importantly at the Maurie Plant meet there will be the FKT Cheer Zone! Use the FKT password when purchasing tickets (not if purchasing tickets for anyone based in Melbourne, it’s definitely when you purchase tickets, you’re all going, I’ve made the decision for you). Support some of our top Australian athletes in person so they can lock away their Paris qualifying times nice and early in 2024.
Now the previews are done it’s time to dig a little deeper on an issue that’s been bothering me for a while. Here at The Blue Line, it’s our job to poke holes in stuff where the only information that exists is the information coming right from the marketing department of a company, race or government organisation. It’s like listening to only one side of the story, the job of the media isn’t to fluff it up, it’s to find the truth. With that in mind, and with some trepidation as I also have some skin in this game (being a trail runner myself and defending champion of one of the races), it’s high time we took a look at the Golden Trail National Series that’s coming to Australia in 2024 before we all get consumed with the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series on the track.
As a quick backstory, the Golden Trail Series is a collection of races now all across the world (it used to be just Europe and the US but they’ve been figuring on biggering and biggering) that attracts the top 20-45 km trail athletes. It’s the UTMB equivalent (which has its own issues as well at the moment) for ‘sub’-ultra runners and has the backing of Salomon who originally created the series as a way for their elites to beat-up any other brands' elites. The coverage of this series on Eurosport, Youtube and social media is incredible and is really helping to grow the elite side of the sport.
Underneath this top-level tier is a National Series for most major countries/regions. Australia is getting its own National Series in 2024 and it’s cause for a big celebration. The series will consist of three races and a final with all events on the east coast. There’s a points system that rewards performances across the series but essentially if you’re at the top of the tally after the final race, you’ll have earned a free trip across the world to compete in the Golden Trail World Final. Yahoo! All sounds really good doesn’t it? There’s even spots for U23 athletes!
Now’s the time to head back to the top of this article. It’s time to poke some holes in here because while something might look good on paper you cannot judge a book by its cover. I learned that one in kindy. Firstly, is it really a National Series if there’s no events in WA or even meeting them halfway in SA? The poor souls in the world’s remotest city of Perth will be taking a second mortgage to fly over to compete in the minimum of 3 races (2 races +the final). So how did they select the races for the series then? From the outside it looks like hey, let’s pick some Salomon sponsored events already, doesn’t matter if they’re any good, and we’ll get another Salomon sponsored event as well to fit in on the NSW coast.
Individually, the Warburton Trail Fest’s Donna Double is a good trail race, goes up a mountain and down a mountain, hard to complain with that. The kunanyi Mountain Run also fits the bill as a mountain run, however, that same weekend clashes with the actual Australian Mountain Running Championships (this’ll be a doozy if it happens in 2025 when World Champs qualifications are thrown into the mix by Athletics Australia) AND Buffalo Stampede, another great race with a large amount of support from domestic elite athletes. Will the fields at kunanyi really be an elite field if people choose to race one of the other two races and will the points awarded at kunanyi therefore be a bit compromised? Third, the new/old race on the block, the Coastal Ascent is on the coast. Yes on paper it looks like a good race but it’s not a classic trail race like Six Foot Track or anything in the Vic Alps region, wouldn’t you want some badass races like going along the Razorback instead on the roster?
Finally, the final is half trails, half foot paths in Brisbane’s CBD! Eh! It must be the luckiest trail running race in the country to be selected as the final due to its neat timing in late June (athletes can of course then get qualified for the World Final and plan their Euro holiday). The sporting equivalent of the footpath section of this race is if Emma McKeon had to qualify for the Olympics by swimming a time trial at the local pool during the school holidays. When I ran it last year in my hi-vis safety vest (mandatory gear rules) I had to obey some traffic rules and come to a complete stop. F*** that if I know a European holiday is on the cards. Screw also knowing that you might earn the right to call yourself the National Series champ by how well you run along a footpath WHILE YOU’RE IN A TRAIL RUNNING RACE.
Now I’m not all negative about this. I do think it’s great we have a National Series in Australia but in paraphrasing the words of former AFL coach Terry Wallace, if I hear anyone with a Salomon logo tell me these races are the best in Australia I’ll spew up. They’re good, they’re mostly on trails but they are missing some of the prestige and badass-ness of other races. I’ll be watching from afar in 2024 (so maybe I’m just jealous I can’t make it to these races) but I hope that at the end of the series, the best trail athletes are the ones getting to Europe. That’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Weini Kelati won the US Cross Country Championships just six days after setting a new US national record in the half-marathon at Houston. She placed 21st at Bathurst last year for reference, only two spots behind our top runner Ellie Pashley so the maths points to Ellie running 66:low soon right?
There was this great article explaining some of the factors that go into planning an athlete’s calendar using Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman as examples. “For him (Kerr) to go add on two more races doesn’t mean anything to somebody else,” Mackey (Kerr’s coach Danny Mackey) said. “It’s only a mile, go run it. But the amount of media and stress that he has to handle to do that adds up. If anybody doesn’t think there’s any cost to that, then they’re stupid.” Seb Coe, el presidente of World Athletics, was quoted later emphasising he wants athletics to become more than a May to September sport.
The Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic (that’s a mouthful) happened last weekend. Morgan McDonald ran 13:07.30 (2 seconds off the Olympic qualifying time) to break his PB from 2021 by 6 seconds while Ky Robinson was further back at 13:21 after his brain fade which is still very quick but is his third slowest time at that venue. Lauren Ryan ran 15:15 to set a new NR considering it’s a ‘short track’ meet just like adopted Aussie, Andrew Coscoran who ran 13:12.56 (which was also a PB over 5000m for him too!)
The Osaka Women’s Marathon record was won in a CR time of 2:18:51 by Ethiopia’s Workenesh Edesa. A new Japan and Asian Record of 2:18:59 was set by second placed runner Honami Maeda who obliterated her own PB by 3:33. A result like that from a Japanese runner, breaking a 19 year old record, will certainly give some Japanese women extra confidence in this month’s Osaka Marathon where Ellie Pashley (second mention in the one segment!) might be able to join in on the bandwagon.
The US Olympic Trials are on this weekend and there is just too much going on to give you a full preview so geek out here if you want more info. The only tidbit I will highlight is that the prize money is insane! $80k for 1st, $65k for 2nd and $7k for 10th even! If one benefit of having a trial is being able to sell TV rights to cover a prize pool that big then that is one big big benefit.
Finally, the ACT Championships were held last weekend. Torrie Lewis (11.10, NR) and others gave us a big reason to take notice of what’s happening in Canberra for once. Let’s hope some of their good work rubbed off on the Prime Minister and we get some ‘cost of
livingsuper shoe relief’ in the Stage 4 Tax cuts.
When an Australian athlete rocks up to Marugame International Half Marathon you know a fast time is about to be dropped and this fortnight’s fact proves it.
The table below shows the overall end of year ranking position that the best placed Australian's time at Marugame achieves. For 2022, 2021 and 2017 no result was found in the top rankings list indicating no Australian elites probably turned up given what the data shows for every other year.
Basically if I was a betting man I would say out of MR.TWHSOITWTWATSA, Brett and Grego, someone will record a time that will be in the Top 5 times for the half marathon this year by an Australian.
February 4: Marugame International Half Marathon. Watch for Mr.TWHSOITWTWATSA (... Tim Vincent), Brett, Grego and Charlotte.
February 10: Adelaide Invitational. Buy tickets here.
February 14: Shop run at 6pm at Runner’s Paradise followed by ‘Live show’ with Stewy McSweyn, Jack Rayner and Brett & Joel. Purchase tickets here.
February 15: Maurie Plant Meet. Australia’s only ‘World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Meet’. Procure tickets here. Reminder: Use ‘FTK’ for discount.
February 18: Run the Bridge in Hobart and Seville Marathon.
February 25: Osaka Marathon
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