I think there’s some truth to this. I’m a smaller woman and people often don’t realise how much of a difference having a pack of big dudes around you for an entire race makes- it’s on par with those stupid downhill marathons. We have a couple of local ladies that frequently show up with a whole entourage somehow and they don’t put out remotely the same performances in a women’s only heat. I wouldn’t cast too much shade on Anya having a pacer for a road marathon obviously, but it makes me roll my eyes a bit when people milk those times and never back them up with anything else which is fairly common in influencer- land.
Bowden was the same in Berlin. She had a whole pack of men around her and her small frame and then at the very few races she has done since then she has done relatively nothing.
She also had a personal pacer, Dan Nash. Legit race wise, I think she's only taken a "big swing" and a miss at London. It's been nearly 2 years now, since she's run an elite time! It's not looking like she anywhere close to a legit training block. My prediction is she is transitioning into a full time runfluencer now.
. Bester than struggles to adapt to the trail paths while running in 40mm stack supershoes, the altitude and the incline gets to him and he fights to drop 4 minute kilometres. Nick then drops out of the planned 13x3' session after 8 reps.
That preachy intro bit for the fartlek was so weird, if I've done my warm up and some full kit guy starts wasting time with that I'm off.
Harking back to his complaints about not being given an elite place at London on the back of his 2:19 - stuff like this is surely holding him back (alongside being too slow). Fairly sure his popularity is going to wane exponentially the further towards the front of a race you go. Feeling of most champs runners is that he's a chump runner, I imagine him being in an elite field would go down like a cup of cold sick. Even thinking he'd have a sniff as a barely sub 2:20 marathon runner is nonsense - either he genuinely believes it and is maybe more clueless than we might imagine; or he's just pushing a narative for his followers which again goes to show why he's unpopular among serious runners. Imagine him trying to coral Emile and Phil to give them a pep talk in the warm up area...
Hosting a podcast once awake with Parker isn’t full time work. The whole coaching experience is automated with Ai so she isn’t a coach. What else does she do? Apart from post her runna code on Instagram?
I hear the coaching team at Runna are doing cutting edge work into new ways to measure intervals that are neither time or distance based. Busy inventing a whole new dimension for Runnas everywhere - coming to the beta testers Q2 26.
Also I think I'd still criticise and say that Runna use her too much. Every time you catch her on the podcast, or on videos it becomes increasingly clear that her understanding and knowledge is super surface level - which at some point is counterproductive having your star 'coach' making appearances.
Yeah she's not really improving going to solve women as assumed primary caregivers in western societies and triathlon being a super time intensive sport. Or the fact that women training for solo sports have far more legitimate safety concerns when balancing training times outside work than men do - esp. given that she's not experiencing either to the same extent, being able to chose to train during daylight hours with film crews.
If it's just bringing a few viewers with you great but are the runna hobbyjoggers going to bring extra money for the women competing at the pointy end or just watch anya and say how impressive whatever achievements she does are?
Expect triathlon will fare the same way as her running, 85% commitment until something else shiny comes along. Like has been said before - Bester was pretty pivotal to her running development because she needed someone to almost literally hold her hand through every stage.
Would be lovely to see Bester get some recognition not just for what he did for their career but also the running scene in the UK in general. Sure the likes of Fenton, FOD, Cole, Jake must have learnt a lot from him over the years.
Not sure how many of you here remember the programme ‘This is your life’ hosted by Michael Aspell. But it would be wonderful to bring Michael and the show back for one special episode dedicated to Nick. Imagine the guests from his life you could invite on to pay tribute to him -
Matt Fox,
the guys from the corporate world,
the bloke in Africa who wore Prime X shoes to illegally beat him in a race
the fireman in Valencia
SirPoc
that let’s run poster who said he’d never break 2:20
Agree re Anya not having a clue how Runna works. I recently heard her on a podcast (Goddard's - I'm a glutton for punishment), and she didn't have a clue what she was talking about when it came to the nuances of the product. It sounded like the intern being asked to pitch to investors.
Stumbled upon this place this week - holy hell, it's been cathartic!
This post was edited 42 seconds after it was posted.
Looks like he also took advantage of the free hot coco situation and fed the whole family with it, again showing his “I’m the only one that matters” attitude
Was thinking parkrun courses aren't generally that quick and you end up weaving through slower runners. But the course looks absolutely perfect, fewer than 100 finishers and weather looked spot on too. There could have been plenty of non parkrunners to get round though.
Maybe if he had someone to chase/share the work with he could have taken another 15secs off the parkrun, we all know he's a self proclaimed carthorse but 14:42 is equivalent to 2:20+ marathon on vdot calculator.
Given his recent drop in training volume, illness etc I'm guessing he's more like 2:16 marathon shape right now, might get that down to 2:14-2:15 for Tokyo in five weeks?
I’d love to see him step up to ultras. I don’t particularly care about the results; it’s more that he’d shed positive light on the sport and tell a great story.
He is down to do Comrades,the biggest ultra in the world,do well and document that well and his youtube will blow up
Agree re Anya not having a clue how Runna works. I recently heard her on a podcast (Goddard's - I'm a glutton for punishment), and she didn't have a clue what she was talking about when it came to the nuances of the product. It sounded like the intern being asked to pitch to investors.
Stumbled upon this place this week - holy hell, it's been cathartic!
He’s so clueless - and pretty narcissistic- but it’s kind of fascinating.
I'll admit, I've often found Ben Parkes pretty dull, but there's one outcome I hoped to see when I saw he did the Mumbai marathon, and he came through with the (spicy) goods.
Found him on one post but he’s not on a few of the graphics pages are reposting.
Jake posted on his IG account that he's confirmed elite field, think he called it an away fixture on home turf.
In recent years, London/Berlin have been seeing warmer then ideal conditions so I still think Valencia has to be his best shot at breaking 2:10, but I'm very interested to see how he gets on in London.
Perhaps Culling knows she’ll never run quicker than her 2:34 (where she was paced) and is too afraid to admit it? Instead she’ll play the card of she’s not taking it seriously. For someone sponsored by Lululemon, doesn’t have a 9-5 job, can workout anytime she wants and has numerous other brand deals, she really is stupid. 90% of people with those opportunities would try their absolute best to get better and better. Then again, Jonny Davies doesn’t. Absolute flog. And for the record, influencers are not relatable. Good luck to them In 5 years when their not relevant.
I think there’s some truth to this. I’m a smaller woman and people often don’t realise how much of a difference having a pack of big dudes around you for an entire race makes- it’s on par with those stupid downhill marathons. We have a couple of local ladies that frequently show up with a whole entourage somehow and they don’t put out remotely the same performances in a women’s only heat. I wouldn’t cast too much shade on Anya having a pacer for a road marathon obviously, but it makes me roll my eyes a bit when people milk those times and never back them up with anything else which is fairly common in influencer- land.
Great point. And often overlooked.
I am a not-very-tall dude at 5' 8 1/2" and I must admit running in a group of men (most of whom are my size or taller) makes quite a difference.
I try not run behind smaller guys because that feels like no help at all. A tall guy with big shoulders is the perfect windscreen.
I think Mary McCarthy has given herself a stress fracture - she posted a pic from the PRP in Moore Park and shes probably been enjoying the Bondi life too much and has ran too hard in the heat and paid the price. Expect a teary video about it I guess but she hasn't run in 10 days so I think her dream Tokyo build is over
Grade 4 tibia stress fracture confirmed on her insta. In a boot for 6 weeks minimum…
