Ep 30: This Brisbane Run Club Has Been Around Since 1900… Here’s Why It Still Works

What does it feel like inside Brisbane’s oldest sporting club?

In this special episode of Runbelievable, Joshie steps away from the usual one-on-one format and heads down to Thompson Estate Athletics and Running Club (TEES Athletics) to find out.

Established in 1900, TEES is Brisbane’s oldest sporting club. On a perfect Monday evening, with close to 100 runners, Joshie set out to capture something simple… the spirit of training.

What followed was anything but simple.

From sprint groups flying past at full speed, to kids laughing trackside, to coaches driving their athletes, this episode brings you inside the energy of a real running community. Along the way, you’ll hear from coaches, the club president, and runners of all ages and abilities... each sharing what keeps them coming back.

This isn’t a polished race recap or a single story.

It’s the sound of running, exactly as it happens.

Everything TEES: https://thompsonestateathletics.au/

In this episode:

• Inside Brisbane’s oldest running club (est. 1900)
• Three training sessions happening at once
• Coaches, athletes, and community voices
• The sounds and atmosphere of a live training night
• What keeps people coming back to run clubs
• Why community matters more than pace

Runbelievable — real runners, unreal stories.

Interested in being a guest on the show? Hit us up!

👉 Everything Runbelievable:

http://runbelievable.au

🎧 New episodes drop weekly; hit follow so you don’t miss a lap!

Transcript

Joshie 0:10

Hello everybody and welcome to Unbelievable, the podcast that celebrates why we run. I'm your host, Josh Rishan, and I'm here to bring you stories about what first got people running and what keeps them lacing up day after day. From the laughs and the lessons to weeping toenails, this is why we run and how it shapes who we become. Today we're doing something a little bit different. Last week I was kindly invited down to Thompson Estate Athletics and Running Club. Affectionately known as Tease Athletics, and established in the year 1900, can you believe? They proudly boast to be Brisbane's oldest sporting club. Now my objective for Tease Athletics seems straightforward enough to capture the spirit of a regular training session on a perfect Monday evening in Britain. But I'll be brutally honest, I felt completely overwhelmed. There were three separate training sessions and what looked to be close to a hundred participants. After being introduced by Club President Wiz, I said about trying to chat with as many runners as was feasible. In this episode, you'll hear from two of the coaches and roughly a dozen runners of all ages and abilities. I should add, there are some intentional pauses, and I really wanted to capture the training of it. If you listen really carefully, you'll hear kids laughing, coaches motivating his charges, and thundering footsteps as a three group passes meet at the end. And before I roll the table, I do want to sincerely thank Wizard for supporting this initiative and him for opening the door to me to tease athletics. I sincerely hope I've done justice to your wonderful club and its people. Really, really looking forward to capturing the spirit of Brisbane's oldest run club. It's quite a busy road that we're walking down at the moment. I can see the oval where people train. It's about four or five people that are out there already, a few runners doing laps. It's about 5.30, so half an hour to go until the session starts, so it's a pretty keen folks. I don't know that much about the session or what's involved, but really, really looking forward to capturing the hearts and minds of the locals here. Okay, so we've got our very first runner that I'm going to speak to tonight, Addison, who's standing with me. Firstly, Addison, you just ran your 50th park run on the weekend. How did that go?

Addison 3:03

Yeah, it went really well. I got a 20-second PB and it was just a good park run.

Joshie 3:10

Wow, congratulations. Um can you talk us through your experience with Teas? How long have you been training with Teas for?

Addison 3:17

Um I've been training with Tease for just over a year and it's been a really like positive experience and it's just been fun.

Joshie 3:27

And so you've had huge improvements since you started running. I think you've said eight minutes or thereabouts that your 5k time has come down since you started. Um how much of that do you attribute to the training sessions? All of it is what you meant to say.

Addison 3:45

Oh yeah, all of it.

Joshie 3:47

Um yeah, look, there's certainly benefit to training. And aside from training, do you do much running during the week?

Addison 3:53

Yes, every Tuesday I go and do an 8 to 9k easy trail run and I do some other run clubs in Brisbane, or I just run with my dad.

Joshie 4:07

An 8 or 9k easy. Is there such a thing as an easy trail run? I've never had an easy trail run.

Addison 4:12

Yeah.

Joshie 4:13

Um and so what have you got planned run-wise this year? Do you have any goals, any events that you've got your site set on?

Addison 4:19

Um yeah, I want to drop some time off my 4K cross country and get like a better 10k time as well.

Joshie 4:29

So the 4K cross country is that a school thing? So you're hoping to make districts? Do you have any goals in that sense?

Addison 4:35

Oh well, I found out today that I made districts for yeah.

Joshie 4:40

Oh congratulations, Addison.

Addison 4:42

Yeah, and the cross countries are Queensland Athletics One.

Joshie 4:47

Fantastic. Um and do you know what session you're doing tonight? Do you know what the coach has got in store for you?

Addison 4:53

Um, not sure, I think maybe like intervals or something like that.

Joshie 4:59

Awesome. Well, uh thanks for taking the time to chat with me, Addison. I hope you have a wonderful session tonight.

Addison 5:04

Thank you.

Joshie 5:06

So I'm yeah, so I'm so I'm standing here now with um with our club president, where's thanks for making the time to chat with me this evening. Yeah, not a problem.

Wes 5:15

Um great to have a chat.

Joshie 5:17

Yeah. Um what can you tell me about your experience with the Teas? For how long have you been involved with the Tease and what can you tell me about your role?

Wes 5:24

Yeah, look, I I've been aware of Teas for quite a while. I um I did my first Minipi park run, I think it was in 2013, like when the event started. And um I know Tease has had like a long affiliation with with that park run. A lot of our members run there, a lot of people find out about us from there. And I so I was kind of aware of it through that. Um but it wasn't until you know 2020, when you know, when COVID hit and we were all locked in that I got back into running properly. And um I hit that point probably later in that year where I was like, what's next? And you know, internet searches and everything told me that I should be doing intervals. And I started doing that myself up and down the road. I thought this is crazy, it's got to be a better way. And it's like, hang on, there's a running club around the corner. Yep, and that's exactly what they do. So I I joined up and started doing that, and uh I got quite into it to be honest. So um I didn't have specific running goals at the time, but I was like I'm a little bit competitive sometimes. So yeah, being in an environment where there's um a bit of competition, like it's not um it's it's not like explicit or anything, but it's kind of like if you want to, you know, tack on the back of someone and go, oh they're pretty good, I'll try, I'll try and keep up with them next week, or maybe in a few weeks I can kind of catch them, but it gives you something that you can't do running alone.

Joshie 6:47

It's exactly right. But at what point did you decide uh you wanted to be more involved or set your sights uh um on something that's bigger than your own goals? I mean, obviously you don't just suddenly go from running to being club president, something's obviously um lit a spark in you that's at your aspirations.

Wes 7:02

Actually, I think like again, it was COVID being locked in. I think the Tokyo Olympics was on. Yeah, and I I'd always been interested in athletics. Um, I just not paid much attention to it for a while. And it's a little bit funny because I'm uh rugby's always been my number one spectator sport, but um being an Australian rugby fan is a pretty tragic experience or it has been for the last 20 years.

Joshie 7:26

Yeah, not since the 90s.

Wes 7:27

I grew up I grew up in the 90s when you know when they were on top of the world, so it was a big crash to come down. Yeah, but the thing I realised like watching the Olympics, and this is with my family who aren't necessarily athletics fans, I kind of say they are now, I think. I've I've got it got them into it, but um like every race was kind of a celebration, like it didn't matter if someone was uh struggling or someone was getting a PB or whatever, there was always something like quite exciting and yeah celebratory about every race. Whereas I found like being a rugby fan is like 90% of the games I felt miserable afterwards, and I was like, there's not many sports like that where you know you can enjoy every race because yeah, you can celebrate the highs and you can kind of commiserate the lows or whatever, but um yeah, so we like we we really enjoyed that aspect of it, and we got into the backstories of who all the athletes are, and you know, I think at the time too, I think Australia's been on the rise a little bit in the last few years. It's had some good, particularly middle distance, yeah. Um, so it's been easy to latch onto that as well. But like even if they weren't there, I think you know, watching other athletes or even you know that person who's just scraping into the final, yeah, yeah, it's quite quite fun to watch.

Joshie 8:46

Yeah, it really does help inspire the next generation, doesn't it?

Wes 8:49

Yeah, that's right. So um yeah, we we just really enjoy that as a family, just enjoying the buzzer. For how long have you been club president? Um not not a year. So um what our our former club president who is here tonight, um Eddie, he he's been like a club stalwart, so he's been around since the late 90s, I believe. Um and I think maybe not last year, but uh recently he's like decided that he he wanted to hang up the boot, so to speak. And um uh yeah, I think you know, just because I'm so passionate about athletics and um yeah, I think he he saw it was a good good time to go and um not that I was taken for granted and assumed it was a position I was gonna take, but I put my hand up and yeah, here we are.

Joshie 9:37

And how are you finding it uh managing a I guess a balance between your own goals and the club's broader aspirations?

Wes 9:43

Yeah, look, I I've definitely had to refocus because I'd say a couple of years ago I was um quite not fanatical, but I was I was very um focused on improving my my times um and then had a bit of an injury and uh I think having the club at that time while I was injured was was a nice distraction because it's pretty tough sometimes when you I couldn't run at all for uh probably three or four months um under instructions, so it was good to be able to refocus, but I've also now like kind of you know happy balance between I still run, I still compete. Um I'm probably not gonna get back to where I was because I don't have the time to commit to that, but but I'm okay with that. So I've I've I've achieved some pretty good goals in the you know in the last three or four years running-wise, so I'm pretty pretty happy with where things are and yeah, I think there's good opportunity for the club. Um Olympics isn't that far away. Yep, we you know we feel a pretty unique position in um you know there's not a lot of Queensland athletics affiliated clubs, so yeah, we've got a bit of a I think a responsibility to nurture and promote um athletics in in the community. And yeah, so that's kind of interesting to me. I'm still figuring it out, but a lot of it. We've got support, so that's that's great.

Joshie 11:07

So can you believe in the time that we've been talking? We've done a lap of the oval. Does that count as a warm-up?

Wes 11:11

Yeah, I think I should have put the um the watch on for that one. Could have tacked on an extra 400, but yeah.

Joshie 11:16

Wiz, thanks for taking the time to chat with me and hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.

Wes 11:20

Yeah, thanks.

Joshie 11:21

Cheers, thank you, appreciate it. So Wes has very kindly introduced me to Jamie and Alex, a father-son duo. One professes to being old and slow, the other didn't say, but I get the sense that he's young and fast. Uh firstly, Jamie yourself, what can you tell me about your experience with the tease?

Jamie 11:42

Um well I actually just came down here by accident to be honest, but I um my experience here is I've found a community. Yeah, yeah, um and and nobody really cares how fast or how slow you are. If you're turning up and putting in an effort and getting out everyone's happy. Yeah, everyone's happy. Very caring community.

Joshie 12:02

And what about yourself, Alex? Are you here because dad made you come down or have you got your own your own goals? The opposite. Sort sort of. Really? Okay.

Alex 12:09

Um he's sort of came down here because of me to start with, because um, you know, I was I was always a runner, but I needed something, I need a bit of structure. Yep. Um, so yeah, T sort of gave me that in terms of you know training and stuff and made me a better runner, corrected my form a bit. Um and yeah, I've been coming here for what six, five years now, five, five years, I think. Oh that's a long time. How old are you now, Alex? I'm 19.

Joshie 12:36

Yep. And what do you what do you got your 5k times down to?

Alex 12:40

Oh 5k is probably my favourite distance. I've got it down to 17, 19, but I haven't done that for a few years now. Oh, that's rapid. I've got close. Yeah. I've got close.

Joshie 12:51

And you're now old enough, well officially old enough to run a marathon. Is that something you've got your sights set on at all?

Alex 12:56

Yep, it is. I'm actually in for Sydney this year. Oh, awesome. Um setting my sights on a sub three hour, hopefully. Geez, that'd be a nice debut.

Joshie 13:05

Um about yourself, Jamie. Have you have you run marathons?

Jamie 13:09

No, I don't do marathons. Um I've done three road halves and a trail half. Yep. Um, but I also uh had a go at a backyard ultra earlier this year too, but no I sort of body broke down a bit and I did 36Ks, which is still my longest run. Oh, that's awesome. Um but I didn't quite get the distance that I wanted to. But yeah, it's okay halves and things like that for me.

Joshie 13:31

And what about this year? Is there any goal in particular you've set yourself, whether it's a distance goal, time goal, or just something that's community-based? What have you got your sights set on?

Jamie 13:39

Um I I didn't get into the Gold Coast Marathon, which is the one I've done up until now, so I want to do Brisbane. Um, my understanding is that's a little bit more hilly, so I can do that some two hours. Yep. Uh or around about a two-hour mark, I'll be happy with that. Yep. Um, but I do, I've I felt like I let myself down into backyard ultra. Yep, so I do want to have another go at that and at least do the 42s and then maybe stretch out to the the 50k mark there. So they're they're my goals, yeah. Awesome.

Joshie 14:05

Uh Jamie and Alex, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me and good luck tonight. Alright, thanks guys, yep. Cheers. So, right now, Club President Wes is doing an introduction, giving some updates on club news. A lot of people here, it must be 70, 80 people, thereabouts. Much bigger session than what I thought.

Bryce 14:31

Very quickly, there's a poster up the back there which gives all the details of my 62 kilometre run. I turned 62 this year, so I'm running my age of kilometres. But section seven is the Tees Kids Club run.

Gaj 14:41

Oh, my pleasure. Um, yeah, so I'm actually standing here with Gaj, who's the hopefully I've pronounced your name correctly. Um so you're the sprints coach, is that correct? That's right, yes. Yep. So how do you how do you find it walking right now, not running? Well, you know, it's it's boring. Jury jog? Yeah, let's joke. Alright, let's do it. So you're gonna have to talk to me about your experience with the tease. How long have you been uh coach for? Oh, I would have been a coach here for oh it'd be probably close to five years now. Yep. Yeah. Is it just the sprints coaching that you're doing or do you coach other sessions too? Just the sprints, yeah. Yep. And so you said that the um the guys know the warm-up routine. What can you tell me is involved in a typical warm-up for a Monday night session? Yeah, so uh our the way that we do sprints is probably a little different to what other people get exposed to. So we focus particularly on technique. Yep. And um as opposed to just sort of running flat out all the time. Yep. And we f my approach has always been uh I treat running a bit like we treat swimming in Australia. Sure. You don't just jump in a pool and expect bird to swim. Yeah, and I think learning how to run is really important, yeah, and so that's a lot of our focus. It is. I suppose you know that if you have a look at a lot of our environmental conditioning, even though we're perhaps born to run, the way that we we tend to live and work and operate kind of takes a lot of that conditioning away from us. Yeah, you're right, and I think people just run in a way that comes naturally. And for some people, great, you know, that's perfect, but it's nearly never right for sprinting. Yeah. You need a specific, you need to do it in a specific way. If you want to run fast and and it's great, one of my favourite things is when kids come along and they just want to run fast and have fun, teach them how to start, teach them to accelerate, and suddenly they start just doing really well. Yeah. So talk me through tonight's session, what's involved. Uh tonight we're going to do some, uh so we do technique drills, so uh we tend to focus on well always upper body and lower body, so arm swings, um, and the uh particularly things like um getting what we call triple extension, which is um extending the hips, knees and ankles in the right coordinated way, which gives you your power off the ground. So we're talking things like A skips and B skips that kind of thing. Yeah, that's right, that's right, yeah. Um and then um uh I do some brief plymetric work as well. Uh just keep it nice and light, and that gets a heart rate up. And then I actually just I pretty much adjust to see how people feel after that for actual running bit of the session. So it depends on our proportion of smaller kids versus um top tier, more top-tier athletes versus um the master's athletes who are also often top tier athletes. Um, and then we just adjust around that really. Yeah, yeah. And what about the actual session? What are the what have you got people doing tonight? Yeah, so we're into winter training now, so that means we're gonna do a bit of we'll we'll do a bit of fast work, which will probably be in the realm of sort of 60 to 80 meters distance, but broken up in different ways. And then uh in winter we always do something that gets the heart rate up and we go a bit longer, and for a sprinter, that's probably about 800 metres, but but it's split up. We usually will do a maybe a hard 100, 200, then a slower jog for a s for a small amount of time, and then back into a sprint. And um, for these guys, there'll be a lot of moans and groans when we do 800, but they all do it, and it's it's different to normal for them, yeah. That's incredible. I mean, uh 800s for uh some other sessions that I do with my own run club are on the shorter end, like we we've done some two, even three K intervals before. Um do you find that having those um really short um sessions does that at all take away from people that are training for you know endurance events like marathons? I mean, does it complement marathon or can it complement marathon training? Absolutely, yeah. And we have quite a few adults that um uh use this kind of sprint training. Yeah, good thanks. Use this sprint training to um uh complement their other sports actually as well. So we've got quite a few sort of people that do it as cross-training for AFL and footy and various other things. Yeah, and so just learning to accelerate when they're off the ball. Yep. Um and um because we're so technique focused, I'll tell our longer distance runners if you want to put in a short burst or have a nice hard finish, don't just move faster, adjust your technique and and um figure out um how you can gain a bit more from that. Yeah. Awesome, gosh. Thanks for your time. Enjoy the session tonight. Cheers, thank you.

Joshie 19:07

Cheers. So it looks like these guys are doing ace skips at the moment. Geez, I guess some serious height on their ace skips. Looks to be about 10 metres that they're doing, going to a jog. Turning around and doing it all over again. Hello guys, how are you doing? What's your name?

Jodie 19:29

Jody.

Joshie 19:30

Jody.

Jodie 19:32

Do you like sprinting? Yes, but I am a long distance.

Joshie 19:36

Long distance? What's long distance for you?

Jodie 19:38

5k.

Joshie 19:39

That's a long way.

Jodie 19:40

Yeah.

Joshie 19:41

Wow. What's your 5k PB?

Jodie 19:44

2027.

Joshie 19:45

Oh, getting close to that magical sub-20 minute barrier.

Jodie 19:49

Yes, I'm gonna try the Nusa 5K.

Joshie 19:51

Oh, awesome. That's on this month, isn't it? Later this month.

Jodie 19:54

Uh it's May 25th.

Joshie 19:55

Oh, next month, yeah. Oh, good luck with that. Hey, I better let you get back into your session. Thanks for chatting.

Jodie 19:59

Thank you.

Joshie 20:04

It's a beautiful evening for running. Temperature's probably sitting at around 21, 22 degrees. No humidity. Jeez, kids know how to do their drills. My goodness. Oh, I saw you were a little bit disappointed that you missed out before. What's your name?

Jodie 20:20

No, I didn't. I don't need one. I don't need one person.

Joshie 20:24

I think your base just sold you up the river there. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. What's your name? Um, my name's Billy. Billy? Nice to meet you, Billy. Nice to meet you, Josh. Yeah. So what can you tell me about your experience with with uh with Tease? How long have you been a club member for?

Billy 20:39

Oh I have only been club member for like a month only, so I'm pretty new to the club, but I absolutely love it because I live in the south side. Yep, and then Tease is the only club I can find, you know, something they can organize around for us in the afternoon after work. And then I'm looking for something that is not so competitive but also like social friendly as well, that you can meet people. I think this is the number one in the southern suburb. I absolutely love it. A lot of it's super friendly and close to walk, close to house. And then the scenery here is beautiful after sunset, so I absolutely love it. And then I would recommend everyone just go for the club and have a bit of dinner because they always like put steak on the charcoal. I can we can smell it while we're trying, so it makes everyone feel super hungry. Is that a form of torture though? Yeah, it is a bit of torture. It's a bit unfortunate they can't serve you steak while you're doing running as well. I would love to see the steak in the future.

Joshie 21:26

Yeah, to be honest, Joe. You've picked your timing quite well. Have you only come over now to get out of doing some drills?

Billy 21:32

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, it's just you know, just all about the vibes, about people, also it's also about your improving your own personal fitness as well. I mean, T says to everything. I mean, absolutely love to recommend this club to everyone. Yep. And so, what have you got your sights set on this year? Do you have any big goals or milestones that you're working towards? Oh, look, I was just trying to get my six packs back because apparently I had too much last year and then losing my six packs, so too much fat in my body. So I just try to get rid of it. That's why I keep coming back.

Joshie 21:58

And so, do you do much running during the week? What's your volume at at the moment?

Billy 22:02

I only run twice a week, one on Sunday, um, one on Monday, which is this one here, and the other One Sunday. I also do another interval training at UQ every Sunday afternoon. Yeah. Yeah, awesome. It was Billy, wasn't it?

Joshie 22:12

Billy, yeah. Billy, enjoy the rest of the session. Thanks for chatting. Thanks, George. Cheers, mate.

Billy 22:16

Thank you.

Joshie 22:17

So the Sprints guys have just done, well, it's probably about 10 minutes, maybe even more, close to 15 minutes of drills, and they're just doing some run throughs now. Jeez, these kids are quick. Oh, to have that youthful run form. My goodness. Now what's your name?

Leon 22:35

Uh Leon.

Joshie 22:36

Leon? Yeah. How old are you, Leon?

Leon 22:39

Um, I'm nine and I'm turning ten.

Joshie 22:41

Oh wow. So what is it you love most about the sprint sessions?

Leon 22:46

Um, so you can play soccer on the Uber.

Joshie 22:49

Yep. Okay. That's that's the only reason you're here.

Leon 22:52

He likes it during uh tractors. Yeah, yeah.

Joshie 22:55

Actually, Leon Leon? Yeah. You can help me understand something. There's a kids club on tonight, kids' running club, but you but you're over here doing sprints. So tell me what some of the difference between the two sessions.

Leon 23:06

Uh because we're gonna sign up and I'm not signed up, so can I tell you my difference?

Joshie 23:11

Yep.

Jodie 23:12

I think the difference is I come here for running, but the kids group, a lot of it is just the young kids and it's not really old kids there, and they just play lots of games and stuff, and when they do run, it's a very short distance, so I feel like it's just stop after one second for people.

Joshie 23:29

Yep.

Jodie 23:30

So I feel like if I come to this group we still do get quite a bit of running, and but the distance is a lot of running.

Joshie 23:37

And do you think that having some adults around you helps to provide just a little bit more structure to the running as well?

Jodie 23:42

Yes, because I think if the coach was my age, that they wouldn't know that much stuff as adults.

Joshie 23:48

Yeah. Where did that come from? Is it? How did it get down there?

Leon 23:53

Oh, it was up there. Someone kicked it.

Joshie 23:55

And so, Leon, what are you hoping to achieve this year running wise? Have you got any goals or you just turn up and have fun?

Jodie 24:01

Uh I turn up to have fun.

Joshie 24:03

Yeah? Are you having fun so far tonight?

Jodie 24:06

Uh yeah. Probably because he's he wants now that he's that he will be it might be on something. Yeah? Like Facebook or something, he wants to do it.

Joshie 24:15

Uh it'll be on um Spotify, Apple Podcasts, so yeah, wherever you wherever you want to do it. Uh it definitely won't be on the news. Well, who knows? We'll see.

Leon 24:24

That's the thing he didn't want it to be on.

Joshie 24:26

But there's a way that you'll you um have a look out. It'll be in the newsletter. Um we'll have this episode being released Wednesday next week. Um so look out for it then you and yeah, you'll be a superstar. Thanks, Lisa.

Leon 24:36

Uh I earn money.

Joshie 24:37

Well, you earn money. A young entrepreneur. Tell you what, you're on the right track, buddy. Thanks so much for chatting. So Gaj, we spent what about 15 minutes doing drills and warm-ups. Um so now we're doing some stretches, and what's this all about?

Gaj 24:56

Yeah, so um I like I think a stretch is you know, there's some evidence around injury prevention, but I think it's really good for just slowing down and just getting ready mentally for your session as well. And I think especially when with sprinting uh a lot of the kids and some of the adults find it really exciting and they're tempted to just go as fast as they can and just do that. It's important, I feel, to just slow down and stop and stretch and talk, um, and then we can focus on what needs to be done. Yeah, yeah. Oh wow, it's uh it's quite a unique experience. I haven't seen such a dedicated focus on the conditioning side of running. Like it's something like I say that often gets overlooked. Um so what can you tell me about um I guess uh people's general levels of motivation for the for the drills and the stretching? I mean, do you get met with much resistance or do people know what's involved and they just do it? I I think I no, there's never really much resistance. Like we we we keep it the same enough each week, but I throw in just one or two different things each week as well, just to try and keep it interesting. But um I also try and explain as I go like why we do things and um uh and yeah, I think people just appreciate that. Yeah, so no, I mean no, the the drills I've told the team it's all uh it's an important part of sprinting is knowing how to move your body in space, and that's what it's all about. Yeah, awesome. I'll look forward to watching the session. Yeah, yeah, cheers, thanks. When I turned up here, I had some vague plans to run with some of these guys, but tell you what, they're quick, and having seen the amount of effort they put into their preparation, I'll almost certainly break down with some kind of major injury if I even try. Looks like there's about 15 kids or thereabouts that are joining Bryce with the kids club. They look like they're having an absolute ball. Similar number for the sprints group. Don't know how Garch keeps these guys motivated. We're sitting at about half an hour now of just drills, and my goodness. No one's complaining. There's no way I do what they're doing though. Far out. The biggest group by far seems to be the distance group. There must be 50 people thereabouts. It's nice cool weather, isn't it? It's not too hot.

Jodie 27:26

Yeah, it's kind of cold.

Joshie 27:28

Yeah? We need to run faster then, warm up. What's your name?

Kristin 27:42

My name's Kristen.

Joshie 27:43

Kristen, nice to meet you, I'm Josh.

Kristin 27:46

Nice to meet you too, Josh.

Joshie 27:47

Looks like you guys go absolutely flat out of these sessions.

Kristin 27:50

I certainly try to, it's a bit different to what I'm used to, having like been more of a trail runner. Oh really? But now that I'm in my mid-40s, just looking for something different to do and to use that body in a bit of a different way.

Joshie 28:04

Is it too early to say whether or not you've got much benefit from it? Or are you Wells?

Kristin 28:09

I would say absolutely. Like I'd now do weights a few times a week.

Joshie 28:13

Yep.

Kristin 28:13

And then with the sprints, I just find like my overall cadence has improved and also the sort of endurance component as well. So I definitely recommend it's never too late to start. Yeah, it's get back to that eight-year-old self.

Joshie 28:28

As we get into our four, I'm also mid-40s, like um uh building that elasticity and that muscle strength becomes so much more important. Absolutely. Um, I mean, have you found that you're getting sort of benefit now with with some of your your endurance events? I mean, you're still doing trail runs, and how are you finding that the I guess the um the benefit from the sprint work is carried over?

Kristin 28:47

So the way that I do it is that I really try to commit to this each Monday night, um, and then I still make sure I can like do my trail running. So certainly that's almost like that community side of things and that really you know nice sort of way to sort of lean into that weekend doing the Friday morning, but it absolutely I would say like objectively, it has started to make an impact. Just like simple things like pushing off with your big toe, arms back, those sort of like more of the technical components of sprinting. If you actually take all of that on board and then you do it across, you know, the trail running and also your casual running, it's it's yeah, it does make a difference.

Joshie 29:29

Is it something that you can do every week, or do you find that once you've done a sprint session that's it for like a few weeks?

Kristin 29:34

I would say every week. Really? Um so I was chatting to um some other of the athletes and they were saying that up it to two, but for me, um, I'm just a little concerned I might do my calf muscle if I do that. And so, you know, what I'm wanting is that you know I can be doing this into my 50s, 60s, 70s and having really that breadth of like skill set or running set to be able to sort of draw upon if I'm not having much luck in this, I've got this, or if I'm injured by doing that, I can still do my weights.

Joshie 30:04

I love it. Just having a bit more versatility with your running, and yeah. And do you do you spend much time in the gym like doing strength and conditioning?

Kristin 30:11

I do, sadly.

Joshie 30:12

You might it's not it's not common for runners to spend time in the gym as well.

Kristin 30:17

And I've now done it for about 18 months, and I I certainly started off and you'd almost like hear me like sucking out loud when I was there, but I'd start with my chest press and I couldn't even lift a 20 kilo bar. Like I was just like, yep, oh my goodness, and over sort of the last 12 months I've been able to now do a set of like 40 kilograms. So that is um, it absolutely has progressed.

Joshie 30:40

Oh good on you.

Kristin 30:41

So it's just yeah, so I would again say just get on board, get out there, and and start, you know, here on a Monday night. You can see like I'm maybe not the fastest in the group, but that's okay.

Joshie 30:51

You're smiling. I'm that's amazing, yeah. Um thanks for chatting, I'll let you get back into the session. Cheers. I've got chance on real mix of different shoes, there's people just in regular runners, some in track spikes. Let's see if we can hear these guys as they run past flying. It's interesting, interesting layout from this uh for this track. It looks to be close to 100 metres, maybe 80 meters. It looks like they accelerate into the last 20 metres, which is quite something. What's your name? Alex. Alex, I'm Josh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You have to tell me what the um we can walk if you want during your during your recovery. Um, it looks like you guys have to accelerate into that last 20 metres or so. What's that about?

Alex 31:39

Yeah, so you start fast for the first like 20 metres, then go slow and then accelerate at that last part. And how many reps are you doing? Uh four reps. Yeah. Sort of max intensity. Yeah. And just helps like your hamstrings build up a bit of strength and all that. So yeah, it's pretty good.

Joshie 31:57

Yeah, I love it. And how do you find that look at it? I can't believe you guys just seem to really thrive on doing the drills. Like, do you find it easy? I mean, or do you just want to get straight into the session?

Alex 32:07

Uh it's probably good, like warming up, prevents like injury and all that sort of stuff, and gets you a feel for like where like if the track's wet or not, so it's pretty good.

Joshie 32:16

And what do you got? It looks like you got spikes on there.

Alex 32:18

Yeah, yeah, new spikes. So they're pretty good. Um bit of friction against the ground, so it's good, good traction. And what are you working towards goal-wise this year, Alex? Uh just getting faster, really, like um, and just improving my starts and everything.

Joshie 32:33

So yeah, track work or um you're sort of doing middle distance work as well.

Alex 32:37

Uh yeah, just like 100-200.

Joshie 32:38

So, yeah, the shorter distance. Yeah, and so is there any particular time-based goal you've got your sights set on at the moment?

Alex 32:45

Uh I'd like to break 12 seconds to the hundred, so like 11 something, hopefully. I haven't tested it for a while though, so yeah, I have to track uh check it on actual track, so synthetic.

Joshie 32:56

So awesome. Uh well thanks for chatting, Alex. I'll let you get on with the session. Very much appreciate it. Cheers, mate. Yeah, thank you. Uh what's your name?

Will 33:03

Will Morris.

Joshie 33:03

Will Morris. Will Morris, thanks so much for taking the time to chat. Uh, how did you find that last rep? Looks like you were flying.

Will 33:09

Oh yeah, I think that was a pretty good one, honestly. Yeah? My form is perfect.

Joshie 33:14

Yeah. Can you tell? This is the thing I don't understand. I don't do any track work. Um sort of, you know, middle long distance running is kind of what I do. Um, with your run form, is it something that you can tell? Like when you're out there in a session, do you know if your form is on, or is it something that you um have to sort of watch it on video to be able to see?

Will 33:33

You mostly have to watch it on video afterwards because you're not always thinking about it as you're running. Yeah. You're just thinking about, oh, am I in front of him? Yeah. Or am I winning? What can I do to like get more force?

Joshie 33:44

You know? Is it someone here that you're like um quietly competitive with? Oh yeah, Alex obviously.

Will 33:51

We're always like neck and neck all the time. Have you guys um ever raced against each other? Um, not in a proper race. It's always been here. It's had it's had its up and downs, like I've won, he's won. Yep. I think there's always someone who's won, it's never been like a proper tie.

Joshie 34:10

Yeah. And so what about yourself goal-wise? Is there anything you're working towards this year, either track work or long distance wise?

Will 34:18

Um I'm working to get more what's the word? More stamina. Yeah. Like I've only got the hundred metres and then that's it, I can't do anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, I think getting below 11 seconds, like I've gotten 10.99 once, but I haven't been able to pull that off again. For 100 metres? Oh yeah, for 100 metres.

Joshie 34:42

Bro, that's rapid. Thank you. Wow, wow. How old are you? I'm 16. 16, you've run a sub-11 second uh oh geez. Yeah, that puts you in pretty uh um rare air, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. I don't I'm not ready to compete against gout gout though. I don't think I'm that level. Got prepared to put it out there on social media and say, I'm coming for you, gout. Not yet, no. Not yet. Just quietly keep chipping away, and when you're ready, let him know all about it, hey. Thanks so much for chatting. I'll let you finish the session. Cheers, mate. Cheers.

Greg 35:12

Yeah, pretty good.

Joshie 35:15

Is this the break, Gaj?

Greg 35:16

It's the break, yeah. Oh awesome, time that quite well. What's uh what's your name? Greg. Greg, I'm Josh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. How old are you, Greg? Excuse the heavy breathing. That's alright. I can't believe it's 100 metres, but it's amazing how much it takes out of you guys. It is, it is. Yeah. And how old are you, Greg? I'm 55. Oh geez, you don't look 55, my goodness. You're quick. Are you new to running or um fairly new, yeah. I yeah. Turned 50 and decided to start sprinting.

Joshie 35:43

Yeah?

Greg 35:43

So yeah.

Joshie 35:44

So what made you decide to take up sprinting?

Greg 35:47

Um I always wanted to sprint ever since I was a young lad. And because of the school that I went to and how I got in and all that, I was kind of forced to play rugby. Yep.

Joshie 35:58

Um, is that a South African accent I detect there?

Greg 36:00

Yeah, yeah, and do swimming, so I never got a chance to do athletics. Yep. Um and then um I was big into other sport martial arts and whatnot, so I never really considered it, but I always wondered how fast can I run 100 metres? Yeah, and um yeah, 1050. I thought, let's find out.

Joshie 36:18

What's your time down to now?

Greg 36:20

Um, I'm in the low 13s, I'm just battling away to crack into 12.

Joshie 36:24

Yeah, yeah. Do you think this is the year that you'll crack the sub 13? I think so, yeah. You have to tell me about the shoes you're wearing. Um you guys seem to be wearing spikes on the grass here.

Greg 36:33

Yes, yes, yes. So these um we got track spikes and then grass spikes. So the grass spikes are as you can see, they're like nine. Oh wow, nine and eleven mils long. Yeah, that's quite long. And then the longest spikes, which you see, the little pointy ones on your track shoes, um, I think is seven or eight mils, is the longest seal out on there.

Joshie 36:54

So wow. And so do you find that um like I've I've never really worn spikes before. Do you find that it can be quite fatiguing if you're doing really long sessions?

Greg 37:02

Um yeah, I mean just doing the session is fatiguing. But the spikes really, really help you to grip. Yeah. Um, I did find the big wake-up call with the spikes is it really starts engaging your muscles and your tendons. Really? You've got to be careful because I pulled things left, right, and sand account. Really? Yep, there was no slipping of the clutch, it was just grip and go.

Joshie 37:26

So and so is it just uh track work and speed work that you're doing, or um do you do sort of middle and long distance running as well?

Greg 37:33

No, no, the first furthest I run is a 400. Really? Yeah, that's that's as far as I go. So no park runs or anything like that? No, no, if it's not finished in a minute, I'm not interested.

Joshie 37:45

I love it. Um, good luck breaking that 13-second barrier, and thanks for chatting and enjoy the rest of the session. Nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you too. Cheers. So now here chatting with Bryce, isn't it? That's right. Bryce, nice to meet you. I'm Josh. G'day, Josh. Great to meet you too. Now, um, amongst other things, you uh have a podcast of your own.

Bryce 38:01

That's right. I do Trail Tales with Tara and Bryce, which is a sort of a trail running podcast specialising in yeah, just your average plotters and why we do it. And we also interview some really interesting people. So Tara is actually a brain researcher or a brain scientist at Queensland Institute of Brain. Really? Yeah, so she's a really switched-on person about how running and socializing actually grows neurons in the hippocampus. That's my take on all of her years of research. I've got it through there in a nutshell, but basically, she has the evidence that running and chatting is actually offsetting Alzheimer's and dementia in spades. Like it's really, really effective, and she's got the evidence to back it up. So there's that, and uh yeah, so it's a great podcast. We have scientists and exercise physiologists on there too, so it's good fun.

Joshie 38:44

Oh, I love it. And so, how did you come to being involved with the Tees and in particular taking the kids class?

Bryce 38:50

Uh so look, I was at Parkrun. So I was at Parkrun and someone from Teas came along to Parkrun at uh Mansfield Parkrun and uh had friends there. I think I had I think I was running with some friends who came here and they said you should come along, and so I just ran regularly here for perhaps a couple of years, and kids club was kind of happening in a sort of a way, but uh it was something there was always a call out to see who could actually run this and kind of look after it each week and take responsibility because you you don't get to run with your mates when you do the kids club, you're just hanging out with kids. Yeah, but uh I'm I'm a grandfather as of last week, would you go? Congratulations. So I haven't got any little people in my life, but I love kids, so I just took to it and uh have really enjoyed it. And so now there's probably 20 or 30 kids each week and we have a lot of fun. And look, it's getting kids out running and being active at not watching screens, yeah, just outside playing, and you know, there's there's just joy. It's I get I get I go home to my wife and I say I've just run around with little kids for the last hour. I've had a ball.

Joshie 39:44

Yeah, I run around with it. I can tell. Like you're not just there letting them run, you're actually very um very hands-on, and it seems like the kids really thrive on that. Um I mean, what can you tell me about um about the session tonight?

Bryce 39:59

So, look, there's just something about a little kid who wants to chase you and try and tag you, and you dodge and weep, and they just giggle, and the joy of that.

Joshie 40:08

I'm giggling as a 46-year-old. That's right.

Bryce 40:10

There's something so joyful about a little kid trying to chase you and you're running away, and you know, you let them get really close and they nearly get you, and they're just so close and they just can't believe it. So I could have 10 kids running after me like that, and I I just I just get so much out of it. Do they ever catch you? They're at the kids. Oh, they always catch me, yeah, yeah, yeah. They always catch me. I let them I'll let them catch me eventually, but there's a few kids who are just so fast. I I can't not let them catch me there. And they target me too. Yeah, they're very they pick on me. But look, I love seeing kids because a lot of coordination stuff, we didn't really do much of that tonight, but we often have an obstacle course where they're going through ladders and dodging and weaving and you know jumping through hoops and things like that. And so agility and stuff like that, you see where a kid's at when they start, like 12 months ago, and you see where they progress. So they actually improve, and I see improvement in kids in their agility and in their capacity to run, in their enjoyment of running. So it's sometimes now I'm doing parkrun, and kids who come to the kids' club see Coach Bryce running park run, and they're after me, you know, and they're they're really into it.

Joshie 41:04

So, yeah, it's good. I love it. And are you connected with any, I guess, um, talent pathways, like if there are kids that are showing a lot of promise, I mean, what's sort of the next step for them?

Bryce 41:12

Yeah, look, the Thomson Estate Running Club is one of the oldest running clubs in Brisbane, and so they have connections all over the place. So just being involved here, there's natural progressions from kids' club to the sprint club, and then to run around the oval with your mums and dads, and to join their cross-country events and things like that. So I just see the kids getting involved in that because they're part of the crew and their mums and dads are there and encouraging them, so yeah, they want to be involved. So, yeah, it's obviously that's what's going to happen. Awesome.

Joshie 41:35

Bryce, thanks so much for chatting with me and enjoy the rest of your evening. Terrific. Cheers, thank you. Cheers. And so I'm now standing here chatting with Sue. Now, Sue, you and I actually very briefly met a few months ago at a tourist park run. You guys did the uh the takeover of um Mini P Park Run, and I got invited to come along.

Sue 41:57

Just about right.

Joshie 41:58

And we I think were you on pacing duties that I probably was pacing for 40 minutes. Yes.

Sue 42:04

Yes.

Joshie 42:05

Um, so what can you tell me about your experience with teas? When did you start um running with tease?

Sue 42:11

Initially, I was involved with Tease about 35 years ago when my kids were runners.

Greg 42:17

Wow.

Sue 42:17

I was on the committee, etc. And then I had a big break for decades and decades. Yeah. And then Steve would see me at Parkrun and say, you should come back and you know, you should come back to TES, come back to TES. And so finally I did. Yeah. And it's the best thing I ever did. I never miss a session unless I absolutely have to. Yep. I'm getting fitter and faster as I get older, and I'm yeah, really happy with that.

Joshie 42:49

What can you tell me about tonight's session? What was involved?

Sue 42:52

Okay, well, for me, it's not only just the running, it's also the the community involvement. There was a little kid, Theodore, who I ran with most of the time. A lot of times he went backwards because I'm so slow, but I'm still moving, and that's the important thing.

Joshie 43:10

Yep.

Sue 43:11

And uh yeah, and then there were some some other little kids that we've organized to have a get together and do some running, which uh yeah.

Joshie 43:22

And what have you got your sights set on this seat? Do you have any personal goals or you just run for the enjoyment?

Sue 43:27

I I run just to keep moving.

Joshie 43:30

Yep.

Sue 43:32

I I like the Monday and Thursday nights because I get my heart rate up.

Joshie 43:36

Yep.

Sue 43:37

It's about the only thing I do that really gets my heart rate up.

Joshie 43:40

Yeah.

Sue 43:41

I uh I play golf three days a week, I garden all the time, but that doesn't get my heart rate up.

Joshie 43:46

Yep.

Sue 43:47

It uh yeah, my thing is to get everybody moving.

Joshie 43:51

Yeah.

Sue 43:52

It's some, you know, it doesn't matter if it's fast or slow, just move.

Joshie 43:56

I really hope you enjoyed this episode. And once again, I'd sincerely like to thank Tease Athletics for having me. It's not every day you have an opportunity to capture the spirit of a run club. And truth be told, I'm still buzzing from the experience. Listening back, it's impossible to overlook the pure joy from the running community. It's almost like you can hear people smiling. I was particularly enamoured with the sprint session, and who knows, I might come back in a different capacity one day. Thanks again, Tease Athletics.