Tales from the Valley Podcast

Sam and Russ chat with Charl after learning he is gearing up for Osaka Marathon on February 25th. Charl has impressive PB's across the board including 15:57 for 5k, 34:10 for 10k, 1:16 for the half and 2:45 at New York marathon. Charl tells us how he started running in Africa growing up, and how he dabbled in multiple sports which gave him a basis for a long and healthy running career. Charl has had an impressive and consistent training block despite a very busy schedule and working in a high

This week we get to chat to good mate and 2:32 man Greg Frost. Frosty ran his Marathon PB at Berlin Marathon in 2022 and took out the first Wollongong Running Festival 10k. Frosty hails from Narooma and spent is junior years playing a bunch of different sports. Frosty now stares down the barrel of Tokyo Marathon on March 3rd and he’s in some ripper form off the back of some beefy Marathon Sessions, with friend of the show James Tunbridge at the helm coaching wise. Russ is back running some

Sam gets the chance to speak with Chris 'Becko' Beckmans - 8:28 Ironman Triathlete, 1:12 Half-Marathoner and an all around accomplished endurance athlete. Chris grew up in Wagga and studied at UOW, though he flew under the radar as a very gifted athlete while he carved up the South Coast AFL Comp for the Wollongong Bulldogs. Years down the track Chris is now living in the UK and sticks to a very impressive training routine. We hear about his training philosophy, including how he approached the

Mitch Ryan, the informal Executive Director of Wollongong Track Club joins Russ and Sam this week. We hear about MItch's stellar junior running career and how he rekindled his love for running in recent years; and we can't forget about his fierce rivalry with Josh "Frothua" Engels. Mitch and Russ then run through the history of Wollongong Track Club and Mitch talks about his goals to bring the different running communities in Wollongong together with interesting and inclusive events. Russ goes for

Sam has a chat with Zac O'neil 2 months after his ripper top 10 performance at C2K (240km from the Coast of Eden to the top of Kosciuszko). Zac tells us how he got into running, and talks about his travels across the Middle East and Europe last year which featured 2nd place in the Wadi Rum Full Moon Marathon (informally known as Tatooine Marathon) and the Val d Aran 110k in the Pyrenees as a qualification event for C2K. He also opens up about his training prior to C2K and the race experience itself

Sam and Russ introduce the Tales from the Valley Podcast and the intention to bring awareness to running on the South Coast of NSW. Sam is stacking together training weeks, while Russ talks about how he manages an unfortunate early injury in his leadup. While Russ gets back to the training track Sam is lacing up for the Blue Mile 5k at the Wollongong Aquathon on Australia Day, and the Bay to Bridge half marathon in Batemans Bay the following week.