Courtney ran 1:16:37 in the Nike Melbourne Marathon half, with a negative split and second in his age group, and insists nobody cares about the second bit. Both of us met Eliud Kipchoge: Courtney got his structure question answered on the finish line at the MCG, and Liam's phone tried to answer for him mid-Q&A.

Plus Melbourne vs Gold Coast as a city marathon, Kipchoge's start-line mindset, the Alphafly 3 vs 4 one-shoe-each test, Izzi Batt-Doyle's national record, Kona, and this week's Local Legend, Declan Magill, who ran 2:41 pushing his daughter Hazel.

Follow Declan and Hazel: @runningforhazel

Donate to Declan's Dylan Alcott Foundation fundraiser: Running for Hazel

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Liam on Strava

A fitness influencer with 530,000 followers rode the back of a bike at 38km in Berlin and posted a PB. Courtney reckons the brands should be checking who they sign. It's Melbourne race week. Courtney's still not sure he can hold a half marathon flat out, Liam has a question loaded for Eliud Kipchoge's breakfast, and someone has just done 35 laps of Nerang's Goat Loop, 245km in 50 hours.

Plus Liam's back on the trails at the Blackall 100, Nine takes the athletics rights from Seven, this week's Local Legend Jaime Casciaro, and Greg Norman now follows Liam on Instagram.

Follow Jaime: @jaimecasciaro

Follow the podcast on Instagram @inthebeginningpodcast

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Liam opens with an apology. His DNF tax went down like a lead balloon, and his wife says he doubled down when Courtney called it.

Then it's shoes: Courtney's Teams call with Eliud Kipchoge, the $500 Nike Apex that won't land here until 27 January, why the podium comes down to who brands pay, and whether Adidas' Gear Shift is the new Reebok Pump.

Plus a tribute to Pat Clohessy, a verified-PR fix for Strava, the Stawell Gift winner losing his $40k, and Melbourne runner Amy Robinson as this week's Local Legend.

Amy Robinson on Instagram

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Liam wants anyone who DNFs a sold-out marathon to pay 25% more to enter next year, refunded when they finish. Courtney isn't buying it.

Also in this one: Liam's off to Melbourne for breakfast with Eliud Kipchoge, Nike's Alphafly 4 finally goes quiet, a Titans rookie's reported $600k deal next to Hayden Wilde's prize-money run, and a BBC radio producer's 2:20 live-broadcast half marathon record that Liam reckons he'll beat by Monday.

Plus a listener puts up Upper Coomera grinder Dezi as one to watch for Brisbane 2032. Send us your under-the-radar runners.

The record Liam's chasing: BBC: Presenter may have set half-marathon world record
Follow Dezi: @d_e_z_1_0_1

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Courtney went 33:53 at Bridge to Brisbane — and raced the whole thing without pacing off his watch. Liam did his first SwimRun on the Gold Coast and came back with three lessons, one of them being that pride will cost you a race.

We also get into who actually won Bridge to Brisbane as a brand, why Hyrox owed its athlete a duty of care, whether an actor in a betting ad devalues women's sport, Salomon signing a five-year deal with Ironman, and the guessing game about where world record pace really falls off.

Two blokes who went out and did something on the weekend, talking about it honestly.

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Recorded from the front seats of a Subaru Outback Wilderness on a live rally course at the Sunraysia Safari in Mildura, with Mike Atkinson AKA Outback Mike — Alone Australia Season 1 runner-up, survival expert and former military pilot.

Mike was removed from Alone at day 64 sure he had more in him, spent 50 days on the Great Barrier Reef in a dugout canoe he built, and is about to take an electric Subaru Trailseeker from Birdsville to Mount Dare across the Simpson Desert, charging it off a generator. We get into building a baseline for hardship, why the athletes who look most reckless are the most calculated, the Tiger Woods focus trick that got Mike through jet training, rites of passage, and how the Altra Lone Peaks felt.

No highlight reel. Just someone who's actually been hungry, thirsty and exposed, explaining why that makes the rest of life easier.

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Adzy Gordon's maths teacher told his parents he'd never be a runner because he was too overweight. He went on to race as a professional triathlete, and now runs the Adzy's Athletes run group out of Main Beach and works on driver fitness in Supercars.

With Courtney away, Liam sits down with him to talk why run clubs are the new bowls club, the difference between exercising and training, why he never runs with headphones, the 97kg single-leg press behind every heavy brake, and what it'll take to be on the marathon start line at Brisbane 2032.

Plus Liam doubles down on parkrun being the greatest invention of the last 25 years, and nobody talks him out of it.

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Liam on Strava

Courtney walked off a track session at Pizzey this week feeling better than he has after any run in five years — and he's twelve weeks out from another marathon in the shape he ran the last one.

Also in: a voicemail from a sub-3 mate who pulled out at 30k of the Sydney Marathon and felt nothing but relief, Andy Buchanan's $30,000 first-Aussie payday, why Ned Brockman might be a 2032 Olympian (Liam's call: 60% heart, 40% head), the finisher shirt Sydney hands you at registration, and Nike's Pickle Juice shoe.

Bridge to Brisbane next Sunday, a 12k swim run the day before, and the Melbourne half on 11 October — all of it out loud, times and all.

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