Ben Wilson - C2K champ Return to the Beach

What is Happy Trails Podcast?

A trail running podcast for all runners' ether you're at the front, the middle or the back of the pack. Hosted by Benn Coubrough, an accomplished ultra-endurance athlete and Mitch Clark an everyday trail warrior, gear nerd, and an unapologetic trail running fanboy. This show dives into the raw, ridiculous, and rewarding world of running wild.

Ben Wilson (00:00)
Let me ⁓ just turn you're up.

Benn Coubrough (00:04)
Just ⁓ stalking it.

Ben Wilson (00:07)
Going on.

Benn Coubrough (00:08)
good, good, yeah, just g looking at your last couple of weeks as grava and training.

Mitch (00:09)
T.

Ben Wilson (00:13)
yeah. Had a bit did a bit.

Benn Coubrough (00:18)
Yes. Yeah.

Mitch (00:18)
Yeah. It takes a bit to make Benny get a bit jealous of kilometres, mate, and ⁓

Benn Coubrough (00:22)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (00:25)
I the s the ⁓ the secret is that I've been off work for five weeks. So I've been I transitioned off full-time work into parental leave.

Mitch (00:32)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (00:36)
Yep. Yep.

Mitch (00:37)
Yeah, no.

Ben Wilson (00:38)
And my missus has just gone back to work after nineteen months off. So we've got an eighteen month old. So we've done the handover. And there is a little bit of time there where I was able to do a bit more running because of the way in which ⁓ the handover, the transition times worked. But I'm a week and a half into solo dating and it's ⁓ exactly.

Benn Coubrough (00:45)
Yeah.

Yeah. So so so that tape so that tap so that taper isn't isn't really taper, it's just you've got no buddy time.

Mitch (01:03)
Yeah. And you gotta battle a taper as well.

Ben Wilson (01:12)
I've well got no choice. Yeah, like so I've it's ⁓ two kids is much harder than one. first time I did it I spent a year off with Lenny and it's easy, like one on one. You just then you've got now I've got a five year old doing the same demands with the eighteen month old and it's just like yeah, it's been it's been a challenge but ⁓ I'm also quite ⁓

Mitch (01:20)
It is, yeah. Yeah.

Hm.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (01:39)
And it wasn't it wasn't by design, it really was a coincidence that it happened to line up and I was like, Well, I'll make the most of it, you know.

Mitch (01:48)
Yeah. And how do the ⁓ how do they get along? Is the five year old sort of yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (01:49)
Yeah, if

Ben Wilson (01:54)
Yeah, they're good, man. Like there's a enough of a gap that they're they're very loving. They kiss each other goodnight every night.

Mitch (02:01)
Yeah, that's awesome. That's cute. Yeah, nice.

Benn Coubrough (02:02)
Yeah, that's good. No.

Ben Wilson (02:04)
So ⁓ yeah, that's that's where where I've been at. ⁓ I'm just ready f ready to stop running for a bit as well though.

Benn Coubrough (02:12)
Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. Well yeah, we might stop it there before we start talking and not getting to the podcast. And yeah. And we can't just ki we can't just roll and kick it on, but yeah, we may as well if you want.

Mitch (02:13)
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah. And he's recording, so we can just we can just keep rolling. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (02:26)
Yeah, sure.

Mitch (02:27)
well yeah, just we'll probably obviously being what is it, a week and a half out now ⁓ from the big dance, we'll we'll focus obviously on Costa Cosie. but sort of run in like a bit of your kind of background, obviously spending a lot of time up in the Queensland races, man, from where you are. and then

Ben Wilson (02:43)
Yeah.

Mitch (02:46)
kind of into this year's race, a little bit of last year's, into this year's and any differences in training and all that sort of stuff we'll get into. But you know, the standard kind of what's your background sort of question at the start. but yeah, we don't really try and put too much on an agenda for these sorts of things. We just have a yarn and and see where we end up basically, if that sounds all right.

Ben Wilson (03:06)
Yeah. Yeah, cool. ⁓ I might grab a drink before we start if that's cool, I'll just go grab that. But ⁓ I actually thought when you said eight o'clock your time, it's like fuck, nine o'clock my time. So I've been upstairs f and about and then I had the the fifteen minute reminder at six forty five I'm like, Fuck, it's two hours before I thought. So I'll I'll just grab me water, mate, I'll be back.

Benn Coubrough (03:11)
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

Mitch (03:11)
Yeah, go for it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, hurry.

Benn Coubrough (03:19)
Yeah. ⁓ shit.

Mitch (03:22)
⁓

Benn Coubrough (03:27)
Why not yeah?

Mitch (03:27)
Ha ha ha. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (03:31)
Yeah. No worries, mate.

Hm.

Yeah well the boys did that this morning because they're in Sydney they're in Sydney or sorry Sydney they're in Newcastle. And we had our manager's meeting at ten fifteen which is yeah they're normally used to jumping on at nine fifteen. So they would jump they got ready at nine fifteen and then they went, shit, it's it's eight fifteen in So yeah.

Mitch (03:46)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I've I've been stung a few times. When I used to go up and do the cross border stuff in my last row, it was this time of year was a nightmare 'cause the insurer was on the New South Wales side and then the client was on the Queensland side, so you'd be skipping in between both the whole whole day and you'd inevitably stuff something up. Nearly every trip I'd stuff I'd double book by accident.

Benn Coubrough (04:05)
Mm.

Yeah. Mm.

Yeah.

No. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Well n Nicole's head office is in Brisbane, so she hates it because this time of year 'cause they're always jumping on and she's like, I wanna be home, I've got shit to do with the kids and whatnot.

Mitch (04:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (04:32)
We just com yeah, just complaining of the ⁓ the hour difference, how easy it gets ca catches everyone out.

Ben Wilson (04:38)
it's it's easy, hey.

Mitch (04:40)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (04:48)
I did a podcast ages ago and it I sort of put like my decade on a page type thing and I would have sent it to you. It was just sort of like just good reference point to sort of have have on the side of the

Benn Coubrough (04:50)
Mm.

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mitch (04:57)
yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Benn Coubrough (05:04)
Mm. Yeah, I I just I'm ⁓ more or less just sort of went through your ITRA and and that sort of stuff to try and get some background but but you'll be the best person to fill us in the details. But yeah, we'll we'll get started.

Ben Wilson (05:12)
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Mitch (05:15)
Mm. And I've got no notes really, so we're f we're freewheeling.

Ben Wilson (05:17)
No

It's right. Yeah, cool, yeah.

Mitch (05:24)
Very good.

Benn Coubrough (05:26)
Cool. Alright, you ready to kick it off?

Ben Wilson (05:29)
Is it light all right? Like a I know the fucking

Benn Coubrough (05:31)
Yeah, yeah, we don't really use video that much anyway, so yeah, that's that's pretty sweet.

Mitch (05:31)
Yeah, man. Yeah.

We say the last few we've said we'll start trying to do some little clips, but we haven't actually got around to it. We'll do it this one. Well Benny, that's your job. You're the social media guru.

Benn Coubrough (05:43)
Well y you've gotta give me the you gotta give me the login. I can't can never log in. You keep forgetting the password and changing it.

Mitch (05:49)
We'll work it out. Yeah, I know. I know. Like every other password I've got. Alrighty. Alright. Welcome back to another episode of the Happy Trials podcast.

Benn Coubrough (05:56)
Yeah. ⁓

Mitch (06:01)
really pumped up for this one, being that it's it's super close to one of our favourite races, Coast to Cosie for 2026. We're lucky enough to have last year's winner with us ⁓ today, Benny Wilson. ⁓ Queensland fella. Done a lot of racing up in in Queensland and checking out some of his results over the past sort of well, number of years, just seems to have slowly gotten ⁓ closer to the front of the pack, very close to some podiums on a couple of races and ⁓ obviously culminating in.

⁓ an unreal run last year ⁓ at Coastacozie which I was lucky enough to to be in and racing and ⁓ Benny Cooper, the co-host obviously was part of my crew who beat me round the ears and I didn't see I don't think I saw you. ⁓ Ben Wilson except on the beach, you you took off well and truly before me. But ⁓ Ben welcome to the podcast mate thanks very much for joining us.

Ben Wilson (06:57)
⁓ thanks for having me, gents. It's great to be here. I just skimmed my run report before and I you do actually get a a call out in that mate. ⁓ so I went past you sort of making our way to ⁓ to Womba. So you're you're listed there.

Mitch (07:04)
Mm-hmm.

yes. Love it.

Benn Coubrough (07:07)
There you go.

Mitch (07:14)
There you go, there you go. Yeah, it's ⁓ good, good. It is all about me. No, look, I mean d what I mean we won't sort of jump too you know, jump off too much there and and spend too much time on Coast of Cosie just yet, but wow what a what an event and what a god. That was such an exciting ⁓ exciting place, especially for a first timer like myself and I think it was your first as well, Ben, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, amazing.

Benn Coubrough (07:17)
Yeah you get it.

Ben Wilson (07:20)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (07:20)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (07:37)
Yeah, correct. Yeah, it's just ⁓ for me it was like I I found my community, you know, like it was such a cool event. and we'll I'm sure we'll get into it later. ⁓ but it was so much more than the race and the outcome, you know, like it was and and that's what took me back ⁓ to to sign up again this year.

Mitch (07:44)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (07:44)
Mm.

Mitch (07:51)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (07:54)
Yeah.

Mitch (07:55)
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (08:00)
Yeah. 'Cause had had you actually had you crewed before or?

Mitch (08:00)
Yeah, brilliant.

Ben Wilson (08:03)
So was a I applied two years prior and I got in, but then I had to pull out and have spine surgery. So then I missed I applied the next year, missed out, and I was going to crew for Bevo. I flew down on the plane, caught COVID on the plane, was at my mum and dad's house eating dinner that night.

Mitch (08:24)
Ha ha ha.

Ben Wilson (08:28)
Mum goes, why don't you like have a covert test? And then so I had to watch that edition from my parents' house and Bevo went down one crew short and the boys had a a rough time and then then I got selected last year. So it's a little while to get there.

Benn Coubrough (08:39)
That's true.

Mitch (08:43)
⁓ no.

Benn Coubrough (08:45)
I I rema that's I do remember Bevo saying that he was down ⁓ that yeah, so that was yeah, okay, there you go.

Mitch (08:47)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (08:52)
Yeah. So that was me. ⁓ lucky 'cause like we sat next to each other on the plane and I like we flew down together and we separated because I went to my parents' house. The boys went ⁓ to the hotel and had dinner together and we're gonna catch up the next day. It sort of like puts that moral question on you, do I what do I tell

Mitch (09:00)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (09:09)
There you go, very lucky.

Mitch (09:10)
And it wasn't today.

Ben Wilson (09:12)
Like how do I how how do I handle this? So I I told them and I th like obviously it's the right thing to do for the broader race, ⁓ and for Bevo and for the re everyone else. But it was also like such a a gutting experience because you'd you'd gone down there to help your mate and at the last minute you you but like you No fault of your own, but was unable to help.

Benn Coubrough (09:14)
Yeah.

Mitch (09:21)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. And it's such a close knit race, isn't it? Like it's if you went in there being a a positive spreader, there's a lot of everyone just naturally sticks together and then at the end of it it's all hugs. Like

Benn Coubrough (09:36)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (09:43)
Not yet. Imagine taking the whole community down.

Benn Coubrough (09:49)
Yeah. Yep, that's it.

Mitch (09:53)
very good. Well look before we get too far into it, because I know we're all itching to get into some of these conversations, but you wanna take us back a little bit? ⁓ obviously I've mentioned you're from up in Queensland there and done a lot of racing up there, but do you want to sort of take us back to ⁓ how you kinda got into into running and and how you kind of made your way into these silly longer events?

Benn Coubrough (09:54)
⁓

Yeah.

'Cause yeah, it's sorta l it sorta looks like where you started was pretty much a fifty K at six foot. Is that about right? Yeah, like yeah.

Ben Wilson (10:13)
Yeah, sure.

That's the first ⁓ ultra, yeah. ⁓ so back in twenty seventeen. ⁓ prior to that, like I sort of ran a little bit at school. I it's always a stocky

Benn Coubrough (10:24)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (10:32)
little fella, ⁓ wasn't great at it ⁓ and just sort of did it for fun. ⁓ I was fortunate to grow up on ⁓ a nature reserve in Tugrenong down in Canberra. We had a chicken wire fence with a fire trail up behind it and I'd probably run ⁓ two or three times a week around the hill, maybe five to eight Ks. and I sort of started doing it following my old man's lead and my uncle's lead.

Benn Coubrough (10:37)
Hm.

Ben Wilson (11:01)
Then sort of through the boozy teenage years, ⁓ I always managed to have some discipline around when I'd get on the t turps and I'd always go get out for a run. And so sort of through that period it was sort of partnered with

Like if you're gonna go drinking, make sure you look after yourself a bit, and I sort of coupled it with that. I think I ran my first half and first full marathon about 25 years old. and actually like did okay at those with the times. ⁓ but the the in 2017 ⁓ that six-foot track as my first

Benn Coubrough (11:22)
Mm.

Mitch (11:23)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (11:44)
Ultra. ⁓ that was just before I moved overseas for eighteen months. ⁓ and so I didn't it wasn't a deliberate step into something, it was just a an event that was on that I sort of ⁓ got wind of and and went and had a crack at and then moved over to the UK for eighteen months. No.

Benn Coubrough (12:06)
Yeah, well yeah, that explains the UK results. And you actually did the the Southbound Ways Devil's Challenge. Three day. That yeah.

Mitch (12:06)
Yeah, right.

Ben Wilson (12:13)
Yeah, so ⁓ the the story like w what happened with the UK is I was expecting my partner to come over. ⁓ she never did. ⁓

And I needed to find something to do other than just drinking in all the town clubs in Portsmouth. So so ended up pursu taking up my running. ⁓ and what I found an organization that did multi-day sort of marathon plus distance trail runs in preparation for MDS. ⁓ so those ⁓ there's a few of those events there that were two or three day, 45k a day. ⁓ and what's really

Benn Coubrough (12:29)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (12:54)
Big over there is people getting 100 marathons, and so they could get two or three marathons recognized in a weekend. ⁓ so in the 18 months I was there, I think I did four or five of them, ⁓ branched out into a 70 and an 80, and then I think it was called the Wanna down along the Jurassic coast. It sort of was ⁓ 130 Ks, I think. So, like just steady progression over that time, ⁓ which was sort of a lot.

Mitch (12:57)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (13:23)
lifesaver in many ways given where I probably was with my head at the time as well. So

Mitch (13:29)
Mm.

Yeah, right. And what's the like I w I've I've never raced in England. ⁓ but you do hear it's just completely different to any of the races we've got out here, but out here, be it the boggy nature or the the the gnarly kind of the different sort of climbs they've got, the rocks there, whatever it is. Is that kind of spot on? Is it is it really different to what we're used to?

Ben Wilson (13:50)
Mm.

I definitely remember a lot of ⁓ s muddy, slippery like there was one event that we could barely run through the the boggy sort of marshiness. and like I was by no means a runner at this stage either though. Like this was just sort of weekend warrior out there enjoying it. ⁓ and like at the same time I I I'm getting to

Mitch (14:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay. Yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (14:19)
⁓ experience and explore the UK. You go running in the trails, right? You're going out doing stuff. So it was so I I'd like I I'd hire a hire calf. Yeah. I I'd done plenty of the other in my time before, so ⁓ so yeah, and that sort of set me on my path, I guess. ⁓

Mitch (14:23)
Yeah. that's so good. Yeah. What a way to see the place. ⁓ like you say, I mean it's i it's it's opposite to the way most Australians

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (14:38)
Well.

Mitch (14:47)
Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Ben Wilson (14:48)
In into the trail running space.

Benn Coubrough (14:50)
What what took you over to the UK? Foo.

Mitch (14:51)
Just a

Ben Wilson (14:53)
⁓ I had a Tier five youth visa, ⁓ and I was turning thirty. So you had to you had to use it before then or lose it. it was just something that I always wanted to do and go and sort of live in the UK and travel into Europe. I was fortunate enough to to jag a job which sort of added to my professional experience. ⁓ worked for an autonomous boat building company down in Portsmouth. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (14:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm, mm.

Mitch (15:04)
Mm.

Yeah, cool.

Ben Wilson (15:22)
So that was cool. ⁓ and it led to a a different sort of experience to being ⁓ perched up in London. So

Benn Coubrough (15:30)
Yeah, yeah, different yeah, I yeah, Portsmouth, completely different, different lifestyle and mm. Cold and w windy and did you get ⁓ you did you watch much of the football at Portsmouth?

Mitch (15:31)
Yeah, that's awesome. That's great.

Ben Wilson (15:36)
Hundred percent. Yeah.

look it was on but I'm not a I'm not much of a soccer boy, so yeah

Benn Coubrough (15:47)
No the foot you don't follow the football. Alright, we'll we'll skip all that then. No no no one needs to listen to the football chat then.

Mitch (15:53)
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And then back into back over to Australia, obviously d you know, there's th the sort of I guess that the the handful of races that everyone knows up there with the Gazler and Black Halls and and the and BTU ⁓

Benn Coubrough (16:06)
Y yeah, you you've done a lot of buffalo you've done buffalo a few times and and you Yeah. You tell the story.

Mitch (16:10)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (16:11)
So I'll just jump so I'm actually a Canberra boy and so when I came back well I I went back to Canberra. And so we're not so

Immediately after I got back to Canberra, ⁓ I saw the hundred K Canberra Trail was on and I I ran that and I didn't know about trail running clubs or running clubs or anything and I I ran it and I saw all these people getting cheered by all these other people. I was like, ⁓ I I've got none of that. Like I just did it solo. And then sort of I posted on the Canberra trail running page and ended up joining the Canberra runners. And then that was sort of the ⁓

Benn Coubrough (16:27)
Mm-hmm.

Mitch (16:41)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (16:51)
probably a pivotal moment into sort of the community side of running. from there we ⁓ did the Buffalo and UTA stuff.

as a group, you know, like it sort it sort of becomes all immersive once you're amongst others and you do the Saturday run and have a coffee and so the Buffalo trip was ⁓ with that group. ⁓ and then look I I think I've moved to Queensland early twenty one. So I was back in Canberra for eighteen months, two years before I came back up here.

Benn Coubrough (17:04)
Yeah, okay.

Mitch (17:04)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (17:07)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mitch (17:22)
Yeah, right. Okay.

Benn Coubrough (17:25)
Yep. Yeah. There you go. And you ⁓ so and you did U T and B obviously this year. And cracking result. So congrats on that. Well done. But but it wasn't your first time. Yeah.

Mitch (17:25)
Yeah.

Yeah nice.

Ben Wilson (17:33)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, thanks Matt.

No, no. So yeah, soon after I I came home, I did that Canberra trail and ⁓ I thought, well there's a hundred K qualif qualification, why don't we have a crack at triple C? ⁓ blissful ignorance. ⁓ I got over there and ⁓ I

Benn Coubrough (17:59)
Yeah.

Mitch (18:00)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (18:04)
Knowing what I know now, I probably had no place being there. ⁓ but they were happy to take my money and I was happy to give it. ⁓ because it was a like running in the Alps, what a what an amazing place, mate. So I ⁓ I DNF'd at Champagne Lac in the CCC, which is about 65 Ks. ⁓ I couldn't keep anything down. I went into the medic tent and it was like a scene from MASH. It was like like people are just scattered everywhere and it's like

Benn Coubrough (18:11)
Ha ha.

Yeah. ⁓

Mitch (18:31)
Ha ha ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (18:31)
Ha ha ha.

Ben Wilson (18:34)
⁓ so my Ange, my partner, she came over with me. ⁓ we tried to keep food down for a few hours. The last bus back to Chamony was gonna go and I it was sort of like, Do I take on the mountain by myself or do I call it?

Ended up calling it. ⁓ jumped on the bus and then sort of had like a metabolic meltdown. It's freezing, it's snowing it's really cold. And I had to strip down to my underpants and vomiting into a bag and then like I was just overheating. It was just amongst all these like Asian tourists, it was horrible, man. Like sweating and like it's cold and I'm sweating bullets and vomiting and it was just just a horrendous So I think it the right call to pull out. But really ⁓

Benn Coubrough (19:00)
Yeah.

Mitch (19:01)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (19:06)
No. ⁓

Ha ha

⁓

Ben Wilson (19:23)
Like that my lack of experience my lack of training really ca showed. Like, you know, so I just cooked myself and ⁓

Mitch (19:24)
It's a glamorous sport, isn't it?

Benn Coubrough (19:29)
Yeah.

Mitch (19:29)
I think that's I think it's such a fun story. Like it the ones that, you know, people sort of go, I ticked that box, so I did that, then I ticked that box and I did that. I just love the fact that people like yourself and plenty of others are sitting there and go, Well I did a hundred hundred K is a hundred K. You know, I've done a hundred K, I'll just go and do it in France. That'll be fine. And it all goes to pot. Then you end up learning a very hard lesson a very hard way. But then you learn from there and off you go.

Ben Wilson (19:45)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, and like like that added so much to this year. It's been seven years in the making to get back there. ⁓ Ange wasn't real happy when so I I jagged a direct entry from UTA Myler and didn't expect to. ⁓ I actually wanted the ⁓ glasshouse Myler up here to be my qualifier for Costa Quasi last year.

Mitch (20:00)
Mm. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (20:00)
Yeah.

Mitch (20:03)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (20:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (20:20)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (20:20)
It got postponed like two months before and it was on the same weekend as UTA. So I managed to find someone to buy a Milo entry off because I just wanted it for Costa Quasi qualifier. I didn't know about direct entry, I didn't know about any of that stuff. And then so I ran a

Benn Coubrough (20:24)
Yeah, that's right. Mm.

Mitch (20:28)
Yeah, right.

Benn Coubrough (20:33)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (20:34)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (20:38)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (20:41)
⁓ just under 24 hours and ⁓ got direct entry to utmb and i came home i hey babe like i've got a direct entry to utmb she goes well you can't go we were gonna go back together because we went over together we've just got a new little little bob like the and I was like I can go

Benn Coubrough (20:47)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe.

Mitch (21:00)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (21:05)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (21:06)
You don't know And then so she she wasn't that happy and then come back to me a a day or two later and was like I think you've gotta go, like given the background to it. ⁓ and then so that was the s the start of this year's plan, I guess.

Mitch (21:14)
Mm. Mm.

Benn Coubrough (21:16)
Mm.

Mitch (21:24)
Yeah, nice. Just on the on the glass house. That's ⁓ that's finished now. Are they are they done with that race or is it coming back to you now?

Benn Coubrough (21:25)
Yeah, no, it's

Ben Wilson (21:32)
Look, I I was speaking to the the guy that looks after it at the moment two weeks ago about it. And it's unlikely that they're they're really having a lot of stakeholder ⁓ approval challenges. ⁓ and yeah, yeah. They would love to ⁓ actually it was Susanna, ⁓ but but they would love to get it back up and running. It's the first Milo in Australia, it's like got all the history of twenty years ago.

Mitch (21:37)
Okay.

Okay.

Benn Coubrough (21:45)
Mm.

Mitch (21:45)
Yeah, right. Th is that Triple A? This is Alan another one of Alan's. Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (21:49)
Yeah.

Mitch (21:56)
Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've wanted to do it for years. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (21:59)
Mm, yeah. Yeah, same.

Ben Wilson (22:02)
But ⁓ they s yeah, like it it's not in the s s short term sort of plans or anything.

Mitch (22:10)
Yeah, well fingers crossed it'd be good to get that back. A lot of people speak very highly of it. Like a little bit not backyard, but that sort of that grass rootsy style of race, ⁓ which I think is is just unreal. You know, we used to have the Great North Walk and that was pretty similar, ⁓ that big long mileer and and very grass rootsy, but yeah, hope hopefully yeah, Triple A get that back up and running, isn't it?

Benn Coubrough (22:11)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (22:20)
Yeah, a hundred percent.

Benn Coubrough (22:21)
Mm.

Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.

Ben Wilson (22:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, hundred percent. ⁓ I yeah, obviously missed out. ⁓ that was the goal. ⁓ but it's sort of like a sliding doors moment 'cause a lot of cool stuff's happened in my life since then. So ⁓

Benn Coubrough (22:35)
Yeah.

Mitch (22:39)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (22:44)
Yeah. That's it, exactly. And and I mean that's in as time goes you get more experience. Have you so what sort of

Mitch (22:45)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Benn Coubrough (22:56)
You've I mean obviously you've won Kirst Scozie. You've had an awesome result this year at UT and B. You've ⁓ definitely progressed in the sport. What sort of what what changes have you made as like of obviously the ri like as you get into the sport you realise different things and you what what what have ha what changes have you made and what sort of ⁓ what have you identified to make such a massive like improvement?

Ben Wilson (23:21)
So I think so I I've a pretty analytical. ⁓ I did a podcast about six months ago and in preparation for that I went and pulled all my Strava data. I've always been a mid pack at best runner.

Benn Coubrough (23:25)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (23:36)
Like I've got like I I I think I wanted to run UTA in twenty nineteen in fifteen hours and blew out to eighteen hours. ⁓ like that's where I started from. And it's been steady slight and incremental progress ever since. Like it's been a decade, you know. ⁓ so anything that's happened in the last eighteen months has happened over the last ten years. And when you look at that data, so

Mitch (23:36)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (23:44)
Mm.

Mitch (23:48)
Yeah.

Mm.

Benn Coubrough (23:54)
Yeah.

Mitch (23:59)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (23:59)
Hmm.

Ben Wilson (24:03)
Twenty fifteen, sixteen, I'm running a hundred and forty hours a year. And then it's just steady progress up through to two fifties, sort of around the mid in twenty twenty, and then the last couple of years are four hundred, five hundred, six hundred hours, you know. So it's it has just been ⁓ consistency and and load, you know, like the I that's what the key has been. ⁓ in I would say that the key the the tip or the trick that's worked for me about

Mitch (24:16)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (24:18)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (24:33)
getting that sort of mileage and hours on board is finding the community, finding the social runs, like doing two or three s runs a week where you get those three hours, but they're not and they're not junk miles, but they're they're social miles, you know, and then you can do your long stuff or your more dedicated stuff, ⁓ by yourself outside of that. ⁓ and then it you sort of turn from from being that social runner to it to just

Benn Coubrough (24:38)
Yeah.

Mitch (24:39)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (24:48)
Mm.

Mitch (24:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (25:02)
to being a runner trying to improve and more focused on it and you sort of it's a slippery slope, right?

Benn Coubrough (25:05)
Mm.

Mitch (25:05)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (25:09)
Yeah. No, I mean I I couldn't couldn't agree more. It and ex just straight on the money, like consistency.

Mitch (25:10)
It is.

Benn Coubrough (25:17)
And being able to tolerate load and just building load, load over time. I think yeah, they're two massive fundamental things. Getting your body stronger and and that's the thing. Like everyone tries to run more, do more, run faster, but if your body's not strong enough to take on the load, then y it's just not gonna happen. And it takes time and it takes like I mean you yeah, you've been running for a long, long time and you've been doing big races like more close

Mitch (25:23)
Mm.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (25:48)
fifty K races, fifty hundred hundred mile races for many many years now that you're able to tolerate the load ⁓ and it's no surprise to where you are now.

Ben Wilson (25:58)
Yeah, and like I I probab I'm not the ⁓ perfect or typical ⁓ trainer, you know, like I I'm I don't do good intervals. ⁓ I ⁓ I for a long time it was just kilometer based, you know, like it was slow, steady kilometer like improving mileage over time. ⁓ and that works to s to a certain degree, right? Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (26:08)
Mm, mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mitch (26:17)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (26:25)
Mm. Yeah.

Mitch (26:25)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (26:25)
Only only so much. It depends where your your targets are. ⁓ I had a a pretty dense sort of twenty-three, twenty-four in terms of activities or or running events. ⁓ I think the first

Benn Coubrough (26:29)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (26:44)
The first year I applied to Costa Cosi I had ten qualifiers if you include the hundreds in the qualifying period or something. So I ha I've sort of slowed down since then, but I I was just loving it and it was also ⁓ my hobby, you know, and it was I'd use it to sort of ⁓ it got into the backyard ultra stuff and sort of explored a a lot of that. So

Benn Coubrough (26:49)
Yeah.

Mitch (26:51)
Jesus.

Benn Coubrough (26:53)
Mm.

Hm.

Mitch (26:58)
Yeah, yeah.

Hm.

Yeah, nice.

Ben Wilson (27:12)
Yeah, steady progress, mate, is the the key for sure.

Mitch (27:15)
That's good. I do certainly do want to jump at like have a chat about the race from last year. But I just on on the on the I guess your journey and your your kind of I think you're really relatable. Like for a lot of people and well to to an extent, not all of us go from mid-pack to winning Coast to Cosie, but like I think the the story of being that mid-packer a and moving forward slowly, consistently

Benn Coubrough (27:15)
Yeah. And

Mm.

Yeah.

Mitch (27:42)
and getting to a peak. Whatever that peak is, yours was fantastic and not everyone's gonna get there. But I just think that improvement and the the rate you can improve is Edd is really relatable and inspirational. Like I remember certainly getting to the finish line before the start here, but when you at

Ben Wilson (27:51)
Mm.

Mitch (27:58)
the presentation, I think it was, when you had y you said a few words. And it was very much based around that, around the look, I I'm not built like your general runner. I never have been. ⁓ I was a mid-pack. I didn't expect to win this. You know, it was sort of the real very, very humble, but you could tell it was very genuine around you kind almost sort of as if you still see yourself as that well improved mid-pack runner almost who

Benn Coubrough (28:03)
Mm.

Mitch (28:25)
you know, got yourself to the front of a race basically. But it was it was really long way of saying it was really relatable for someone like me or for most people out there who du who don't look like, you know, the six foot two long legged ⁓ eight pack runner. It's kind of nice to go, well I can actually improve a lot as well.

Ben Wilson (28:43)
Mm. yeah, thanks thanks for that because I got a lot of similar feedback from a lot of the Coast Quasi community. ⁓ I hundred percent didn't expect to to win that. I I thought I'd be

Mitch (28:49)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (28:58)
there and I'd put on a good show. Like not for a show as in I'd perform my best. ⁓ I thought if I did that I could get a top five maybe. Like I I s I was confident in mobility, but just not expecting to do that. ⁓ I'd won a ra the Canva Trail s ⁓ three or four months prior, but before that I didn't won anything. You know? So I'm not I've never run and I've never raced. So like

Benn Coubrough (29:22)
Well you were yeah, 'cause

Mitch (29:22)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (29:26)
'Cause you're yeah, you were my you were my dark horse. Like I obviously had my thoughts of who had the chance or who would win and I'd seen like obviously I've had not known of you at all only by looking at a sheet of paper and seeing one Strava or a results page, etcetera. But you were like a bit of a like my sort of dark horse. I'm like looking at how you were training your numbers and s and like some of the results, I'm like, well

Ben Wilson (29:30)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (29:55)
You've got potential, like you could do it, but I'm like, will he win it? I've got n I don't don't know. But yeah, you just yeah, I mean the well and being there in present and watching the race go down. Obviously I I wasn't sort of didn't quite see a lot of that top end stuff, but but it was amazing.

Ben Wilson (29:56)
Yeah.

So

Yeah, no thanks mate. Like the it turning point was the UTA mile. I was out running with Jace Richard and I was like, you know what, stuff it. I'm just gonna throw down and got four weeks the UTA mila. I'm gonna do I think at the time it was like 120, 40, 60, 80. That's gonna be my four week block of mileage and we'll just see what happened. Then UTA happened and I was like, shit, well maybe I'm on to something. And then I was like, well again, like this is my

Benn Coubrough (30:22)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (30:44)
Third crack at UT, sorry, Coast of Quasi. I might never tow the line again. Let's just do a four week, everything at it. This might I might not get a chance to come back. And I sort of did, I don't know, 160, 70, 80, 200 or something. And then you just start your body adja adapts, you know, like but like we were saying before, you've got to be able to absorb that. You've got to be able to sustain that load.

Mitch (30:49)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (31:12)
⁓ and so ⁓ racing, winning, ⁓ sort of being part of the conversation is just was all so foreign and it still is. Like I I still feel uncomfortable. ⁓ but I I

Benn Coubrough (31:20)
Yeah.

Mitch (31:24)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (31:24)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (31:30)
Yeah, I think I've only moved forward from that point equally, you know, so ⁓ it's just sort of like it it's a it's a cool experience, it's a cool ride to be on going from that ⁓ sort of mid pack runner and going into it and it but it it's f like it's it's mind blowing and you just fit like the last year has been cool as. Like I've I've sort of

Mitch (31:34)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (31:39)
Mm.

Mitch (31:44)
I'm sure. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (31:45)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (31:54)
Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

Ben Wilson (31:56)
running with Nolas and Roomy and like just sort of like you you become f mates with different people too. Like it's just been yeah, cool.

Benn Coubrough (31:58)
Yeah.

Mm.

Mitch (32:04)
Mm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

Benn Coubrough (32:07)
No, like you've yeah, I mean like I mean looking I mean I'd love like do you so with your train like we'll get into sorry, we're getting I'll just I'm just curious of training and stuff like so ⁓ just I mean y you've you've re definitely like used to heavy loading and heavy mileage. Like your year this year's look is a little bit different to last year. ⁓ you've had some

Ben Wilson (32:18)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (32:35)
⁓ you've had like steady blocks. Like it's last year you looked at was it like it you've be just basically built in blocks. your middle of the year this year was a little bit lighter, but like your last solid couple of months leading into Koscosy's been been huge with getting up to two I know you did ⁓ yeah well you actually we weren't recording when you're talking about that but you obviously had ⁓ a different change in lifestyle for the last couple of weeks coming into this year but

Ben Wilson (32:51)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (33:05)
How is as far as your learnings from last year building in because and and that's the the magical thing about like these sort of races when you start learning what you can tolerate and how you handle builds and when you start doing these 'cause yeah, I mean the 100k, 100 miles are sort of very sort of common now, but it's the 200 space that is a little bit less established.

Ben Wilson (33:31)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (33:32)
⁓ what like wha have you changed much or and what have you learnt from your previous block from Coast Clause into this year?

Ben Wilson (33:38)
Yes. So I wrote the plan for this year in January. At a macro level, like high level. When I got to 24 hours in the Coast of Cosie last year, I'd ran 219 Ks and so I'm like, that's a kilometre off a B qualifier for Australian 24 hour running. And I was just short of Charlotte Pass.

Benn Coubrough (33:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mitch (34:02)
Yeah, right. Okay.

Ben Wilson (34:03)
And I was like, right, this is an opp there's a world championships next year, there's an o opportunity to try and get on an Australian team. Like mid-pack of making an Australian team, like mind blown, right? So I considered that Canberra 24 hour was in April or Mar April, I think.

Mitch (34:13)
Hmm.

Benn Coubrough (34:14)
Mm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (34:24)
UTMB I'd already had the qualifier, that's in August, end of August. So there's two two A races and then I was gonna apply for Costa Cosi again and then that. So I I had three builds, three sort of four month builds through the year, three A races. and I don't know, like

Benn Coubrough (34:39)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (34:45)
Th that's the logic that sort of came to it. And then I could rationalise how it made sense. So a a big load, ⁓ cardio base load for the 24 hour. I did maybe six weeks of under 130 beats per minute, really sort of worked on that metabolic efficiency. And the the logic was I'll hold that for the rest of the year. That'll be handy, come Costa Cosie. Get out of that, and then

Benn Coubrough (34:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mitch (35:03)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (35:13)
I've got to build strength in my legs.

Because I'm going to UTMB, ten thousand meters, and then but I'll have the base from the previous build. And then so I I did a I stopped measuring in kilometres and moved to meters for that build. ⁓ and sort of got up around nine and a half thousand metres for my last week, sort of builded in a similar sort of aggressive way, and my legs were quite strong, like and then the early on the the logic is well I'll hold that for coast to coast.

Mitch (35:20)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (35:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Hmm.

Mitch (35:42)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (35:47)
Because when I did my after-event analysis with my mate ChatGPT, it was the suggestion was that my muscular durability and downhill running at the end of the event was sort of my weakness. So having that strength from the UTMB build would definitely help me for Costa Cosy. So it made sense in three blocks, you know.

Benn Coubrough (35:47)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mitch (36:08)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (36:11)
Yeah. Well and and that's exactly what you're train like looking at as a whole looks as it represents. And you can definitely see, like just going back to your lower Ks, but you have extra elevation. Mm.

Ben Wilson (36:23)
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And then when I did get back from UTMB, two weeks off, didn't run at all, ⁓ started moving, then wrote a more detailed plan. ⁓ had eight weeks ⁓ with a with a two and a half week taper. ⁓ so I did three up, one down, four up. ⁓ I wanted to start moving again and I think it was and like I always

Back in January I had the plan to run twenty percent more into Costa Kosy than I did the year before like last year. I just felt that whilst it was a lot last year, I felt I could with the year I've had, I could sort of continue and build on that. And then ⁓ like my motivation

Benn Coubrough (36:57)
Mm.

Mitch (36:58)
Yeah, right.

Ben Wilson (37:12)
It for Costa Cosi is just to do the best I can. Because I I don't think with changing family circumstances I'll ever be able to I hope to have ten pins one day, you know. But I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to run as well potentially as I have this year because of just the the work I've done prior to it. ⁓ and

Mitch (37:15)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (37:37)
I just yeah, I targeted sort of a a ⁓ big last four weeks. To get to a big last four weeks you need the the three up to get there. Sort of there's a build to that. ⁓ and I managed to get through it okay.

Benn Coubrough (37:47)
Yeah.

Mitch (37:47)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (37:52)
Yeah. Good, good. No, that's the main thing. That's

Mitch (37:52)
Yeah, it's very cool. And and how i how is the body feeling leading into what are we, ten days out? Not even, nine days out.

Ben Wilson (37:58)
Yeah. Pretty pretty good. Look I'd I'd take it if you offered it to me eight weeks ago for sure. ⁓ I've had a a niggly knee for like the last two years. I think it's more ⁓ I think

Mitch (38:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (38:12)
It's inflammation based, so when the load gets up it sort of flu inflames and then it g gives me a bit of grief. But it was there last year and I worked through it. ⁓ it was there for U T and B. ⁓ so assuming that's okay, every everything else feels pretty good.

Mitch (38:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, nice.

Benn Coubrough (38:28)
And how did you ha how did you handle U T and B this year? Is it as far as like ⁓ the body and how do you found the race in comparison to obviously you've been there well, what was it? Si six seven years, yeah, seven years prior. What

Ben Wilson (38:40)
Nine no seven years ago. ⁓ look I I s I felt I did the work. I I was stronger. ⁓ I'd done a lot of hill work. ⁓ what I didn't recall was just like there's only so many mountains and you're either going up or down ⁓ you know. Yeah. ⁓ so

Benn Coubrough (39:00)
Yeah. Yep. ⁓ the downhills are just ⁓

Mitch (39:02)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (39:09)
The ⁓ most frustrating thing for and the biggest rookie ⁓ error, ⁓ I never checked my poles before in the week de days leading up to it. Cracked my polls open on the first climb and they were seized, both of them, and I couldn't get open. ⁓ so I tried and it was dark. We were sort of heading up. no, no, like just before that. We we had we started

Benn Coubrough (39:19)
Mm.

Mitch (39:26)
Ha ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (39:32)
Heading out into Italy. ⁓

⁓ yeah like

Ben Wilson (39:38)
We started at 8 p.m. We had a delayed start. So by the time we so not even at not even at Saint Saint Gervais. And then when I got to

Benn Coubrough (39:41)
yeah yeah, so so you were yeah, sorry you mean like when you were sort of shit. the the the first rule climb.

Mitch (39:48)
So you didn't get just to clarify, you didn't get your polls out at all before the start line.

Ben Wilson (39:55)
I put them in my bag. I could put ⁓ in. But I didn't open ⁓

Benn Coubrough (39:56)
No. ⁓

Mitch (39:58)
So all the all the I like how you're overly analytical with everything you do. You turned up to a a podcast with ten years worth of Strava data and you didn't take your poles out of your thing and put up.

Ben Wilson (40:03)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (40:05)
⁓

Yeah no. So he he starts starts comes down to le starts starts down to Lahoosh thinking, yep, here we go and then we pull the poles out and shit.

Ben Wilson (40:10)
Biggest blind spot.

Mitch (40:17)
Yeah, yeah. Jesus.

Ben Wilson (40:19)
Yeah yeah exactly. And then I get to Saint Gervais, I come into the checkpoint and bloody Catherine Pelletti's there. I'm like, hey, you is there someone here that you can help me with the polls? She speaks poor English and she thinks my polls are stuck and then so she's trying to help me. Got two cameras in my face and like it's just this confused d like situation. And then I

Benn Coubrough (40:26)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (40:44)
Because she's the big boss, we end up working through that my poles weren't stuck. They were actually stuck inside themselves. A guy had a crack and he's like, No, mate, they're stuffed. And she's go, Well you've got to carry 'cause that's the rules. It's a written rule that y if you start with it, you've got to carry it. Well, it's just the f literally the first person I come into. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (40:56)
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Why did you go to the why did you go to the the big person?

Mitch (40:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Let's go.

Benn Coubrough (41:05)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (41:06)
My mate ⁓ had his sister was there ⁓ crewing f ⁓ helping us out. So then at Cormay I got some olive oil, tried to jam that into ⁓ no good. So ⁓ and like that really come to bite me coming up bovine. Like it

Benn Coubrough (41:16)
⁓

Mitch (41:16)
Ha ha ha. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (41:24)
Yeah. That

Ben Wilson (41:25)
So my legs I just lost all sort of uphill power. I I I held on pretty good till then. ⁓ and it was the only point in the race where people were going past me. and so it was just those uphills for the last three hills. Otherwise I sort of progressively worked through the field. ⁓ so I think ⁓ mate, check your poles would be the first thing.

Benn Coubrough (41:32)
mate, see he did well.

Mm.

Mitch (41:38)
Mm.

I got the shits when I turned up to Mount Fork Road and they didn't work.

Benn Coubrough (41:52)
Well well well I had a I had a s I had a similar situation last month in Moab. I got my pack ready, got the poles ready, but my quiver and I I was trying I got a new pack and I'm like putting through trying to thread it through and ⁓ Brooklyn goes, I'll do it and I'll have a go and then ⁓ I'm I knew I knew like before I needed to buy a new quiver 'cause the actual like joints were sort of just

Ben Wilson (41:54)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (42:20)
I know, just mouldy and just rotten. And anyway, he's pushed it through and it's just snapped off, so I'm like, shit, there goes the quiver and we're like in Moab in this town, like, where the hell are we gonna find a quiver?

Ben Wilson (42:26)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (42:33)
Luckily went to like three bike shops and this other this op shop basically it it's a trowel a trail op shop. Basically people just drop stuff off and went in there luckily and she goes, yeah, I think someone dropped off a quiver about two years ago and lady went at the back and found this quiver.

Ben Wilson (42:50)
Where else in the world do you have a trial op shop? How good's that?

Benn Coubrough (42:53)
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Mitch (42:53)
Yeah, how good's that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad I didn't know that was there. I would have got lost in it.

Ben Wilson (42:58)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (42:58)
There we are, with some good stuff there, but yeah, we're just lucky. That's

Ben Wilson (43:02)
⁓ yeah. ⁓ I don't know how I I ⁓ it was a blind spot and I missed it. ⁓ but because like I I had everything packed before I left. Everything was labelled, everything I was very organised and just

Benn Coubrough (43:15)
Yeah. Was it ⁓ was it the black was it black dog and poles?

Ben Wilson (43:19)
No, the ⁓ Leckies. So so my mate Yeah, my mates got open. ⁓ they're upstairs now, but ⁓ so I I didn't look at ⁓ for for a few weeks. I just ⁓ left them. I didn't want to go near ⁓ I gave to my mate and he managed to get open. So I'll I'll bust out for Coast Quasi in a few few weeks.

Benn Coubrough (43:22)
the Leckies, yeah, see I've leckeys do that a lot.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Nah. Well sh ⁓ shout out for a sponsorship for Black Diamond, I always prefer Black Diamond because l that happens so many times to Lekie Poles. They either snap or they get stuck.

Mitch (43:44)
Yeah, nice.

Ben Wilson (43:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, sure. f first time for me and ⁓ what a what an experience though. ⁓ it was hard to sort of keep your mi keep your mind, you know, like 'cause it was like but then equally like what are you gonna do? You can go home, like get on with it.

Benn Coubrough (43:57)
Ha ha

Mm.

Mitch (44:06)
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (44:09)
Exactly.

Mitch (44:10)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (44:13)
Well that that happened to one of one of my guys, ⁓ Hugh. He ⁓ when I went over in twenty three, he ⁓ snapped his pole. And then a lucky pole. Yeah, really early on the first climb. And he had his sister running around Switzerland getting him a another pole and and ended up getting it. But anyway, but yeah, it's ⁓ yeah, what do you do? You just

Mitch (44:21)
Yeah, really early too, isn't it? Yeah.

Ben Wilson (44:23)
Yeah.

Mitch (44:25)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (44:30)
Yeah, sure.

I and I did contemplate reaching out to I knew other people around the mountain that were there for the week and I was like, Are you really gonna hassle someone to try and get who's not part of your crew? Like obviously that's different, but for me I thought about that and I'm like, You're just gonna suck it up. You're just gonna have to get through it and use your hands on your knees, you know, like

Benn Coubrough (44:41)
Mm.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Mitch (44:48)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (44:53)
Yeah. That's it, exactly.

Mitch (44:54)
Well then and then you're trying to control something you can't control. Like you you sort of your mind of naturally go on, ⁓ I wonder if they've got one yet. Have they got like I wonder if when I get an update on the poll that I you know, like can it just it'd screw your race completely.

Benn Coubrough (44:59)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (44:59)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (45:04)
Yeah. Well no Well Ben Ben Dieman broke his pole. He l he broke his lucky pole and he had to carry his one pole around for the rest of the race.

Ben Wilson (45:08)
Yeah.

Mitch (45:15)
Yeah. If Ben Diemon can do it. Yeah. There's the thing. You're not getting sponsored by Lucky ⁓ Betty Cooper. That's for sure. wait, well look heading into obviously heading into Kostacosi soon. ⁓ and it'd be good to not to give too much away, obviously leading in as far as your strategy and whatnot. But going back to last year

Ben Wilson (45:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Another lucky, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (45:16)
There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Black Diamond, if you're listening. No, Black Diamond.

Mitch (45:40)
Did you have a set strategy on how you were gonna run that race ⁓ leading in and and I guess how did it sort of all play out for you? ⁓ you know, you you didn't go out like some people do.

Ben Wilson (45:51)
No, I'm sorry.

Look, I I'm not a fast runner. I'm never gonna be. ⁓ I al I knew with the the mileage that I'd done any strength of mine would come at the back, comparatively to everyone else. ⁓ I thought I'd done the work to run up the ⁓ run up the mountain. I

Mitch (46:04)
Hm.

Benn Coubrough (46:06)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (46:16)
Speaking with J so Jason and Richard and I sort of good mates and we talk about this race flat out for the last four years. And sort of in the the the pre-brief, it was like those that have done really well, like Vroomy and Rob Mason, ran up the hill and they saved enough, and they it was a really paced race. And so trying to model that, I really was conscious of my patience and discipline early. ⁓ and

Benn Coubrough (46:25)
Mm.

Mitch (46:35)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (46:46)
With the ⁓ sort of my background in sort of my understanding of how the body works, it's I was very heart rate, effort-based, you know. ⁓ that said, that went out the window. ⁓ like by the time I'd got to CAFCart, I'd spent way too much time well like up around one high 140s when the goal was to stay 130s.

Benn Coubrough (46:57)
Mm-hmm.

Mitch (47:09)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (47:11)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Wilson (47:12)
And like so I like Bevo was like, Benny, slow down at like three passes through as I went past him, he's like, mate, you gotta you're cooking, keep keep it down. And at the time you're just sort of getting excited. ⁓ Vr Vroomy told me the same thing going through Rocky Hall and then it was based the two of hearing that information from two different sources within thirty minutes, I was like, Well, I better pull back.

Mitch (47:25)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (47:35)
Yeah.

Mitch (47:37)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (47:38)
Yeah. And like last year the people like the people ahead of you, they were cooked. Like they were pushing. They were like they were like it was hot, it was humid and yeah. It was a hot it was a hot morning and yeah, sort of they looked they looked better getting at the top of ⁓ Big Jack but but yeah, coming into that Rocky Hall, a lot of people looked very cooked.

Ben Wilson (47:43)
Hmm.

Mitch (47:43)
Yeah.

It was a hot day and it's yeah.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (48:00)
Yeah, and like I I again like I didn't expect to be up the front, so I'm not my strategy is not a race strategy. It's a the best time like I come up with I used Garmin Pro Stra Pacer or whatever it's called. And like but to be fair, I s I thought I could run twenty eight and that's what I had in my watch.

Mitch (48:01)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (48:21)
and I thought that was ambitious but achievable. ⁓ and I was an hour and a half quicker than that over the race. ⁓ but I it was heart rate effort based against just the gradient, you know, and being able to still push and stay within my heart rate ceiling that I I wanted to give myself. ⁓ once I

Benn Coubrough (48:29)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mitch (48:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (48:50)
I w I must admit I was surprised at how strong I was still after gingerbine. ⁓ I was still able to steady progress up that and I s like I think I averaged that eight and a half, nine Ks an hour from Gindy to the finish. ⁓ which I was surprised with. ⁓ but so no real s no real strategy, you know, like it was just see do what the watch says and try and stay under your heart rate and keep moving.

Benn Coubrough (49:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Hm.

Yeah. Yeah. Well that I mean that was I that well my I had similar my thing was similar was keep controlled and then from Gindy just boom. And like I know I think Rob Mason had the fastest I I can't even think of 'cause I haven't I haven't been analyzing the race as much as far as time wise, I can't remember the time, but ⁓ my goal was to beat Rob Mason's time from Gindy to Cosie.

Ben Wilson (49:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, no.

Benn Coubrough (49:43)
'Cause he on record he was the fa had the fastest time recorded. And that was that was my goal, which I did beat it, but Ali was a I think Ali ended up finishing a minute faster than me. So but I was obviously ahead of Ali as ⁓ into it but ⁓ but yeah that and yeah the it's as everyone says, it's from Gindy. But as the race gets faster it's

Ben Wilson (49:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Good.

Mitch (49:56)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (50:07)
Yeah.

Mitch (50:08)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (50:10)
Maybe it's Delgetti, but it's it is it it's but it's definitely that once you arrive at Gindy it's if you've cooked yourself then

Ben Wilson (50:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think you need to be able to rely on your training. You need to have the training there so that you can go Right, I like have that confidence that you can run up it, you know, like and ⁓

Benn Coubrough (50:28)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (50:40)
Yeah, and that's why I was sort of just a proponent for the bigger mileage, you know, like I it give for this race particularly. it just gave me the that confidence. How ⁓ set obviously it's not sensible for others that haven't got the base there to sort of get after that, but if I wanna try and my goal for this year is just to to run better. Like all things being equal would be to run a better time than last year. Obviously we're gonna have horrible weather and run four hours slower and but

Mitch (50:46)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (51:06)
Mm.

Mitch (51:08)
Yeah. Yeah. Well you had a touch of that last year.

Benn Coubrough (51:09)
Yeah. It Yeah. That's it.

Ben Wilson (51:10)
still be a a a better run you know so ⁓ so it's obviously so many variables and hard to sort of talk about but ⁓ i i feel for this year with with the the the last 12 months that i've had ⁓ i'm fitter the the engine's more efficient stronger legs ⁓ a little bit lighter ⁓ so like things are trending in the right direction but

Benn Coubrough (51:18)
Mm.

Mitch (51:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (51:39)
Yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (51:40)
That can all turn to custody as you soon as you cross the river, you know, like

Mitch (51:40)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (51:42)
Yeah.

Mitch (51:45)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And look there's such there's such a long way, and it is that traditional thing of ginger binds where the race starts, but it's such a long way to get just to that, right? And I know it sounds silly, but what are you a hundred and eighty five Ks in and it's hot

Then it's cold, then you're overnight, then it's or leading into that night sort of thing, whatever it is. There's so many variables and you know, Benny, when you raised yours, Benny Kerbright, your you hit forty odd degrees. ⁓ we certainly didn't have that last year. But it was really muggy, and I think people burnt themselves, who were very, very good runners, burnt themselves out because it didn't necessarily feel that hot until it did, kind of thing, and then it was a bit too late. but it's but like getting to Gindy, like you said, ⁓ Ben and

Benn Coubrough (52:12)
Mm.

Yeah.

Mitch (52:30)
feelings surprisingly strong. Well we in second, I think, by the time you got to to Jindy and chasing down Maddie Pilly. how did how did that go? Like what's what's your sort of I I guess when you're going into the race thinking I just want to do well, I want to try and get to twenty eight hours, which I don't know what that would have done the year before, probably what third, fourth, fifth, somewhere around there.

Ben Wilson (52:53)
Yeah, like I I thought fifth might have been possible, you know, but

Mitch (52:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what what goes through your head when you 'cause you some re you've got some good runners in that field. Like what goes through your head when you find yourself in second feeling strong leaving Gindy?

Ben Wilson (53:03)
So I'll go back to Gunning Rack. I I hit Gunningrak at like eight or something. And get on the road and I'll go past I think four people in the space of forty minutes or something. And you got Margie, Chris Wilder, Kieran like

Benn Coubrough (53:11)
Mm.

Mitch (53:12)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (53:19)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mitch (53:20)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (53:24)
These people that are expect like it and I'm I'm not expecting to be up there. I'm like, hang on, like what's going on? And then like and then I think I got into Dalgeti in third and I think ⁓ the other ⁓ I forgot his name, the other Avery might have dropped out and I've left ⁓ left out into second behind Matt. ⁓ and then I'd

Mitch (53:28)
Yeah, so good.

Benn Coubrough (53:29)
Mm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (53:35)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (53:40)
Mark every, yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (53:41)
Mark ⁓

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (53:49)
I just thought Matt was gonna run away with it and he had a really strong section to ginder and I think he threw Jinder from Ginderbine he sort of fifteen minutes away. And I I remember saying to my crew, like, I'm not ready to race this. Like, I hope he runs away with it and I'll just have a good run and my I'll run a good time and we don't have to race. Like 'cause it

Benn Coubrough (53:53)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (54:12)
It's not the vibe of the the event, you know, like for me it's still not a race. It's it's it's against yourself and against the course and against the condition. And then I started to catch him and it like, fuck, this is gonna change. This is gonna be like I'm now soon to be probably leading Coast of Cuzy, like pinching myself. and then I was like, what do I say to him when I go past him?

Mitch (54:17)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (54:35)
Mm.

Mitch (54:41)
Ha ha ha. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (54:44)
Good job, mate.

Ben Wilson (54:46)
But then like you've got a so it's sort of like it was good. Like it's nice and sort of said g'day and but and then ⁓ but you've got you've gotta sort of drop the hammer a little bit. You can't just sit with him.

Benn Coubrough (54:52)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (54:53)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's a good dude.

Benn Coubrough (55:00)
Mm. No, you can't just sort of stop and yeah.

Mitch (55:00)
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (55:03)
So then we sort of like burned a few matches to get ahead a bit. And then I was like, but then we've got to slow down. And like this is the first time I've ever raced. And I was like, all right, now we've got to fox and fox a bit. Like sort of slow down in case he comes at me later. ⁓ and then like it that was sort of Perisher, I guess, where I might have got past him. And

Mitch (55:15)
Hm.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (55:27)
I was expecting him to come back for sure. ⁓ and then by the time we got to Charlotte's I think there was only five minutes on us. ⁓ his crew were up there and they were doing their checks and and

Mitch (55:35)
Yeah. ⁓ four minutes.

Ben Wilson (55:41)
Got through there and then probably my darkest part of the whole race was up on the s on the way to the summit. And I sort of just gave up and I like, If he gets me, he gets me, he can have it, I don't care. Like I'd already I'm like, that serves yourself right for thinking that you could win this. Like you sort of celebrate before you did it and like

Benn Coubrough (55:48)
Yeah, okay.

Mitch (55:52)
Yeah, right. Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (55:59)
Ha ha ha.

Ben Wilson (56:00)
thinking all those thoughts and then I I just said to Mark who was with me, like, all we can do is just push to the top, turn around and count how long we're ahead by, and it'll be sort of two thirds of that, or one and a third further than than longer than that. So I think we turned at three, it was three minutes of me running downhill.

Mitch (56:26)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (56:27)
that he then went past and so it was sort of worked out that I've got nine minutes on him. So he needed to make a minute a kilometer with me running downhill. And I was like, still possible, he can run a lot faster than me and ⁓ and then but we got to four K's and we couldn't see him and I was like, I I I think I might have this here and then it started to all get emotional and I started to think about the the missus and the kids and everything and all the I was just really ⁓

Benn Coubrough (56:52)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (56:55)
It was amazing. Like never have I had I ever expected to contemplate that. And you're just like, holy shit, like ⁓ Yeah, a great story or a great experience. It's just I'm so grateful to have experienced that once in my life, you know. And then like that's that's the race part of it. Then what's even better than all of that is the community part of it. And then like what happened afterwards and ⁓ like I I still I still like

Benn Coubrough (56:58)
Yeah. No, it is. It's

Mitch (56:59)
Yeah, it's such a great story though, I love it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's fantastic, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (57:10)
Yeah. Yeah, then

Mitch (57:13)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (57:18)
Yeah.

Mitch (57:19)
Yeah, totally.

Ben Wilson (57:26)
Think about this race and it's the status when you're having a beer on the Sunday, the status of the cohort and the peers around you is the number of pins you've got, not how fast you ran it. Yeah, and I and I love that. I love that. And it's just sort of part of this family and it's it's just so cool. So

Mitch (57:34)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (57:36)
Exactly. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you've ⁓ yeah.

Mitch (57:37)
totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (57:44)
I know. Yeah, like the fact that I've only got one kin I don't feel like I d I've done enough.

Mitch (57:44)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (57:51)
Yeah. Yeah, no, and and that's so yeah, hope to get a second pin and like I I see myself over time, hopefully going back over time running slower times, but being sort of one of those storeworts. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (57:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (58:03)
Yeah. exactly. I I it's d that n like you say the next day, Ben it's you know, you had your sort of I don't know, I'll put it nicely, but that that little sort of time to shine almost and, you know, the attention. But you walk in there, within minutes, it's more about Pam Munston and it's more about, you know, these guys who have got it's just more stories and

Benn Coubrough (58:03)
And that's a part of it, yeah.

Mm. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (58:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Mitch (58:27)
They're going through all of it because they're out now out there for three times the stories they were when they first started, because they're out there for longer. And it's just it was unreal. Like it's yeah, I absolutely loved the Sunday. It was such a great crack.

Ben Wilson (58:33)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (58:34)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (58:38)
Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Like the the the presentation was unreal and then just even sit at the pub was just as good, you know, like just talking of legends of the the sport.

Benn Coubrough (58:39)
Yeah, it is.

Mm.

Mitch (58:45)
Yeah, so well done.

Benn Coubrough (58:49)
Yeah.

Mitch (58:49)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (58:52)
That's exactly

Ben Wilson (58:52)
⁓ and like the the even check-in on Thursday like is awesome. You know, like it's like I I remember going in like bright eyed, ⁓ there's there's whoever from a podcast or there's someone from a result that I've seen them get. And it's just like I knew as a fanboy of the sport, you sort of like know who people are.

Benn Coubrough (58:56)
Hmm. Hmm.

Mitch (58:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (59:06)
Yeah. Hmm.

Mitch (59:12)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (59:14)
it was just yeah, it's just cool. Like I I first started tracking it back in like fifteen years ago before I was a runner. Went through the Cool Runnings website. I'm not sure if you ever tracked that. ⁓ So ages ago. So I've been a I've followed it and it's just it's just crazy di for the outcome, you know, like but I don't know, like I don't want to undersell the the work, like 'cause I'm firm believer in the work.

Mitch (59:14)
Yeah, I n no I agree with you there, that's for sure.

Benn Coubrough (59:22)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I remember that, yeah.

Mitch (59:24)
Hmm. Yep.

Yeah, that's cool.

Ben Wilson (59:42)
the the outcome was due to the work, you know, so you don't wanna sort of s undersell that either.

Mitch (59:42)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (59:44)
definitely.

No, not at all. And yeah. A and like I mean, after doing like bad water this year, it's and I was speaking to Greg at Six Foot this sh like this year and he was like really keen to understand like to learn about the race and how they run things, etc. And it's it's you does have such a the same sort of feel of community and culture and you've got so many people that have been there and done it that many times that just continually want to come back and do this ridiculous hot

Mitch (59:50)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:00:17)
Yeah. Hasn't Harvey got fourteen finishes or something? Straight? Something like that. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:00:18)
race it's fifty degrees. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And like meeting Harvey, like meeting hi it was he's such a nicest guy, like he came up to us straight away, like at the check in and was like, ⁓ you're the Australian dude, look look I you've come far away like a su like I'd travel the furthest. And then he's like, if you need anything, just let my crew know and my wife's staying at the same accommodation, we'll sort you out and it's just awesome.

Mitch (1:00:20)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah. And that's yeah.

There's a legendary.

Mm.

Ben Wilson (1:00:44)
I I met him at I met him at Dead Cow. I got stage fright and he was the nicest guy. And I like I've got all the time in the world for that guy. Like he was just the best. So unreal. ⁓ so

Benn Coubrough (1:00:47)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Mitch (1:00:54)
Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:00:59)
People you get to meet.

Mitch (1:01:00)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Benn Coubrough (1:01:03)
Yeah, no, it's the

Mitch (1:01:04)
What's what's the taper look like now? What do you do for the next ⁓ nine or so days on the lead in? Or nursing a baby, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:01:09)
Nursing n nursing and picking picking up and kids picking up kids from school. ⁓

Ben Wilson (1:01:14)
⁓ yeah, so there's a bit of that. ⁓ but I've fortunately up here we've got a really good training group. ⁓ so Benny Fosal, ⁓ Chris Bevan, Jason Richard, Toby Steele, Vroomy, ⁓ Chris Coombs is up here, he's a new runner this year. So a couple of weeks ago I organised a run just at Mount Kutha. There was eight of us there.

Mitch (1:01:28)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (1:01:38)
eight Coast of Quasi runners. Jace Richard was the only one not on the start line this year. So Holly reached out to Holly reached out. She was up here. ⁓ So we had this eight-person run running around the road, Mount Kutha. So ⁓ Holly's down in Canberra at the moment, but ⁓ we're keen to try and do the same this Sunday as sort of the last hurrah of the group. ⁓ And so that'll be sort of like the

Mitch (1:01:41)
Everyone there, yeah.

is that right? Wow.

Benn Coubrough (1:01:53)
Mm.

Mitch (1:01:54)
Hmm.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:03)
Yeah, okay. cool. Awesome.

Mitch (1:02:05)
Awesome.

Ben Wilson (1:02:08)
pr yeah, pretty well. It's it'll be nine Ks, you know, like so, but it's more of a social coffee thing. ⁓ and I think it'd be a really nice way to sort of round out

Mitch (1:02:12)
Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:13)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:02:17)
The prep and some of those guys. It's been so good going through the prep, the build with them as well, because some of them have just thrown down and done massive mileage themselves. And I it's inspirational, you sort of build off each other and it's just been really, really cool. ⁓ so that'll be Sunday. We'll probably run, I don't know, ten a day, roughly, try and keep keep moving. ⁓ next week will be maybe ten, ten Ks about.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:18)
Definitely.

Yeah.

Mitch (1:02:24)
Yeah.

yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:29)
Hm, yeah.

Yeah. No, that's it. Yeah. What?

Ben Wilson (1:02:47)
that. ⁓ I'll drive down on Tuesday, Wednesday ⁓ and then from Canberra to Eden on Thursday. So ⁓ it's ex it's exciting just to be talking about it. Like it's really starting to

Mitch (1:02:48)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:52)
Yeah.

Yeah. Break it down. Yeah. Yeah. Hello And then you've got yeah Yeah.

Mitch (1:02:57)
Awesome.

Yeah, and so close now, yeah. It's that frustrating time out, isn't it? Like it's I've got Cosy Hundred the week after and I like even that, I'm winging about my little lead in now and it's I'm in a very different position than you. Like it's it's close. You've done a great block. ⁓ and like you're saying, like a lot of the guys you've trained with have done

Ben Wilson (1:03:10)
I see.

Mitch (1:03:22)
huge blocks. Like I've been following Toby Steele a little bit as well and just you know, he cl he called it early that he's gonna put everything into this and do really you know, really back himself and he's I know he's had a little niggle here and there, but he's done really well and yeah it's awesome to see a run progressing and be able to run with eight or nine of your mates who are all doing it, or pretty much all doing it and hopefully get it. I've seen a few group shots with the the cup last year's Costa Cozy shirts and things like that. It looks so good.

Benn Coubrough (1:03:35)
Yeah.

Mm.

Ben Wilson (1:03:41)
Yeah, it's been

Benn Coubrough (1:03:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:03:48)
Yeah, it's just ⁓ awesome to share it. You know, it's sh the suffering is shared and halved by you know, like

Mitch (1:03:51)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:03:53)
Mm. Mm. No, that's it. Yeah, no. ⁓ that's a good one. What do you what what do you think about the field this year?

Mitch (1:03:54)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, totally. No, it's it's unreal. It's unreal and yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:04:03)
it's like any any any year, like it it's it's quality. ⁓ I think ⁓ be remiss not to start with the ladies' field. You've got seven or eight A qualifier standard women that could that that like I I think might have been Brent's podcast saying something the other day that

Benn Coubrough (1:04:05)
Like it's yeah. It yeah.

Mitch (1:04:09)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:04:16)
Mm. Yeah.

Mitch (1:04:17)
No, it's an unbelievable field. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:04:28)
four of the five fastest twenty-four hour times in Australia history have are in the race. ⁓ yeah, so it's it's super s yeah, yeah. So Cassie's a legend. Look forward to catching up with her again. ⁓ yeah, like it I I I like it's awesome and I looked at it a while back. ⁓ but I also

Benn Coubrough (1:04:31)
Exactly, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That yeah, I think that was only Cassie I think that was on with Cassie Collin. Yeah.

Mitch (1:04:35)
really? Yeah, right. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:04:42)
Mm.

Mitch (1:04:45)
Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:04:55)
made a conscious decision, I was not gonna look at anyone's builds. I and like even Vroomy, like i I I'll get a Strava feed when I load an activity and I'll like it if I see it and whatnot, but I won't actively go look at what's Droomy been up to, what's Holly been up to. ⁓ because I I thought

Benn Coubrough (1:04:59)
Yeah.

Mitch (1:04:59)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:05)
Mm.

Mitch (1:05:09)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:10)
Yeah, yeah. Hmm.

Mitch (1:05:12)
Mm-mm. Hmm.

Ben Wilson (1:05:17)
that if you want to run your own race, you need to run your own race from the start, you know, and and if I'm gonna allow myself to worry about what other people are doing because I don't know, like pressure's a funny thing, you you you apply it to yourself. ⁓ and I didn't wanna get caught in that cycle of sort of worrying about what other people so whilst it's a an awesome field, I've really tried to not get too caught up in that.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:21)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (1:05:22)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:28)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mitch (1:05:30)
Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:05:44)
and and really just focus on what what I'm doing. and yeah, like I like I've never braced th my best outcome will be setting to a plan and following my plan and it'll finish I'll get to Charlotte's Pass it when I get there and wherever that is, so be it, you know, like but it's about how how I got there, you know, is what I'm interested in.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:47)
No.

Mitch (1:05:57)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:57)
Okay.

Yeah. Nah. Spot on. Yeah, spot on. I mean that that's all you you have to do. And I think yeah, from that's ⁓ sorta going like for bad water I lost a bit of track of that. I tr I sort of tried to race the field a little bit 'cause they went out c hot and I shouldn't have and then yeah. But

Mitch (1:06:03)
Yeah.

Yeah. It's a great attitude.

Benn Coubrough (1:06:26)
You're spot on. You you just gotta stick to your plan and race yourself and be patient and that's then that's what I sort of did for my and went back to b went back to what I normally do and did that in my but you're spot on. You there's no point worrying about anyone else, you just you've you've you've done all the training, you know where your body's at, you just gotta do do what's your strength. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That's it.

Mitch (1:06:39)
Mm.

Ben Wilson (1:06:46)
But you've built your plan based on your knowledge of that, you know. So so then why would you throw it out? Because you've built the you've optimized the plan to get your optimal result. So stick with it. And it's just might not be as sexy as running off the front, but it's n it's not it's not about running the first hundred Ks, it's about running two forty, right? So or or whatever the distance.

Mitch (1:06:50)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:06:56)
Mm.

Mitch (1:06:59)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:07:02)
No, you don't but it's the end result.

Mm. Yeah.

Mitch (1:07:10)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And if you get to ch if you change it into a race at Ginderbine again, you've got forty you got, you know, a a handful of kilometres left then and you can get away with it. But if you try and do it too early, it's it is fun. Like it's it's such a fun race to go through in reverse almost. And yours is a really good way of doing that. But if you look at when you come through tooomba, you're

twelfth or thirteenth or something like that. Which isn't far down the pack. But I think from I I don't remember it, but someone told me that you were almost last off the beach. Like you were very, very, very lo you know, like kind of past me sort of thing back. and just made your way through.

Ben Wilson (1:07:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And I I ran with a I ran with Adrian and Ben Bailey for ten minutes. right up the back. Yeah, like I and there was a a stage there that all four Bens were together. Like I just remember like Yeah. I think that was in Adrian's podcast. ⁓ and like I I spent plenty of time just

Benn Coubrough (1:07:55)
Yeah.

Mitch (1:07:56)
That's right, it was Bales that told us, yeah. Yeah.

That's right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:08:04)
That's they commented that that's right, I do remember that, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Ben Wilson (1:08:16)
cruising through and like that wasn't deliberate, but it was also like like 'cause you you don't know what's gonna happen over the next day. But I was also like, I've got twenty four hour like twenty whatever hours to get there. It's gonna be like taking an extra couple of minutes here to run with my mate Henry and say good day to her be like or or meeting Ben and Adrian like like that's not gonna cost me anything. ⁓ and

Mitch (1:08:25)
Yeah.

Ha ha

Benn Coubrough (1:08:29)
Mm.

Mitch (1:08:36)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:08:39)
Mm. Nah.

Mitch (1:08:42)
Yeah, it's so good.

Ben Wilson (1:08:43)
And fortunately in this sport it that probably rewards patience up front because you run faster at the end, right? So

Mitch (1:08:47)
Well that's right, yeah, yeah. I think you ran the perfect race. You got to hang out with the party pack as they called it at the start, the the mid pack party pack, and then once you got bored of everyone else you just see you later. I got a job to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's unreal. That's unreal.

Benn Coubrough (1:08:49)
Definitely. Exactly. ⁓ yeah, definitely.

Ben Wilson (1:08:54)
Okay.

⁓ Yeah, it was it was yeah. A dream race. Dream race, mate. Like I couldn't ⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:09:05)
Yeah.

That well very well deserved. But yeah, for now.

Ben Wilson (1:09:09)
⁓ so

Mitch (1:09:11)
Yeah, definitely. And it's ⁓ yeah, very, very close and we certainly ⁓ will be tracking it very closely like we ⁓ like we do each year. ⁓ but yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:09:19)
Yeah. Yeah, I'm spewing I'm not going down this year. I I did plan but unfortunately work and ⁓ can't don't have enough staff to cover it, so

Ben Wilson (1:09:30)
I'm sure we'll see each other down there, like face to face in the coming years at some point for sure.

Benn Coubrough (1:09:36)
definitely. Definitely. Hoping if she, but yeah.

Mitch (1:09:36)
Yeah. I'll be applying again next year. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:09:40)
Yeah, you Yeah, sick. It's just a yeah, the way we've always talked about it is something that you you go back to over time and it's sort of ⁓ and and that's why it's not like this is just potentially my f fittest year, you know, like 'cause I've had a really good life. But like there'll be plenty of other times where I won't be in sort of the same nick and

Benn Coubrough (1:09:49)
Mm. Yeah.

Mitch (1:09:49)
For sure, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:09:58)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean

Mitch (1:09:59)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:10:06)
But like it the weather. I was tracking I had a tried to follow the weather and it seems like the weather there's weather like rain in Eden and it moves progress like Catcart at lunchtime and then it's raining like Galgetti in the evening and it's sort of like moving with the

Benn Coubrough (1:10:22)
Mm. Just Well that's it. That could make everything ki the race completely change. Yeah, like

Mitch (1:10:24)
One one block so yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:10:28)
It could be like yeah, a hundred percent, like then then it becomes a foot management thing.

Benn Coubrough (1:10:34)
Well that's it. Like twenty three was that. It rained. They I mean they had to change the course and everything and it just yeah, twenty three was shocking. But then I think the year before that they had a heap of rain, but then they had the wind as well. So you just never know.

Mitch (1:10:35)
Yeah. Yeah.

God, that was awful, wasn't it?

Ben Wilson (1:10:40)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So we'll see what happens. It's ⁓ and that's part of the the the the awesome trav travelling so far across such di different terrain, you know.

Mitch (1:10:49)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:10:54)
That's it.

Mitch (1:10:55)
Yeah, exactly. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:11:00)
Mm. that's it. Exactly. Be thirty thirty five degrees and then you can have snow at the top. Yeah, the hail storm.

Mitch (1:11:01)
definitely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

And that bloody hail and and that wind. Jesus.

Ben Wilson (1:11:10)
Yeah.

Well and like talk about the dream race. Like Knowles got pinned he come third. He got pinned in the hail. Like dodged all of it. You know, like I just it was just like just luck was on my side that day, you know, like

Benn Coubrough (1:11:20)
Yeah.

Perfect time and just

Mitch (1:11:30)
I'll have to you would have so I'm sure you've seen videos in the mid pack ⁓ throughout e of that. I'll d yeah. The v there's a ripping video of me and Benny and that trying to get out of the car and you or I get brushed three meters down the r like

Ben Wilson (1:11:36)
They

Benn Coubrough (1:11:39)
⁓ but Anj Angie going in Ang just run over to the car, ⁓ run over to us on the side from the car saying, guys you gotta get in the car, there's a house storm coming, and I'm looking up, there's sun shining, and I'm like, nah, we'll just push through, we'll just push through. And then two seconds later, this hate just come down and went, just running for the car.

Mitch (1:11:50)
That's what you're

Ben Wilson (1:11:54)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (1:11:58)
⁓ it was unbelievable. But it made it for so much more fun, but

Ben Wilson (1:12:00)
Yeah. There's some

Yeah, it's it's it's trail running, isn't it? But yeah. ⁓ there's a great video it's great.

Benn Coubrough (1:12:04)
Yeah. Hm, that's it. Yeah, that's it.

Mitch (1:12:04)
Great story. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. Ultra distance running, yeah, yeah, yeah. very good. Very good. Well look, I think ⁓ is there anything else from you, either Benny's?

Benn Coubrough (1:12:19)
You go first, mate, it's you you on the floor. So if there's anything you wanna anyone anything you wanna mention or a think you wanna thank or anything, just yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:12:28)
I in terms of thank yous, it's ⁓ it's taken a a tribe to sort of

Clear the runway to allow this to happen. ⁓ obviously my my partner Ange and and kids and in-laws and my parents have like e even so my Ange is back to full-time work now and so in order for this to happen, my mum's flying up to look after the kids while I'm away. Then my dad's gonna drive me home from Canberra because I probably won't be able to on the Monday and fly home. And then the in-laws like it, you know, it's it really does take a community outside of the running to

Benn Coubrough (1:12:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mitch (1:12:58)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:01)
Yeah.

Mitch (1:13:03)
totally. Yeah.

Ben Wilson (1:13:04)
sort of make it happen. So I just want to sort of acknowledge that and ⁓ express my gratitude to them. ⁓ and ⁓ to everyone involved with the race. I can't wait to see us and be part of it all again. I'm sure we're in for a massive adventure and ⁓ yeah can't wait for it.

Mitch (1:13:18)
Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah, well said.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:23)
No, man, very, very excited, yeah. No, you well well said and yeah, can't wait to see the race unfold and ⁓ yeah, we wish you all the best and excited to see how it cracks down and how it breaks up and how the yeah, what the conditions do and all as you said, you can just do what you what you've trained for, what you plan for and just adapt to whatever the race presents and the conditions present.

Mitch (1:13:32)
Absolutely.

Ben Wilson (1:13:35)
⁓

Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Thanks for having me on, guys. It's been great to chat and it it really has just been a chat. I've felt really comfortable.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:51)
No.

Mitch (1:13:52)
No mate. Yeah, definitely no. I really appreciate your time and it's it is exciting. But yeah, look, gen genuine, like it's be said before, like you are like a real humble, really nice, relatable sort of fella, and I think it's I think it's awesome to see your your progress, your success, and just your genuine love for the sport. ⁓ you know, winning is seems like it's an added little cherry kind of thing. It's not what you're chasing, it's just a cherry that happened a and and you deserve every piece of it. But yeah, it's nice to see your attitude with everything.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:54)
Yeah.

Mm.

Ben Wilson (1:14:14)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:14:17)
Yeah.

Yeah. No, you you're definitely yeah, one of the one of one of the top likes of the sport and it's yeah, it's good to see.

Ben Wilson (1:14:22)
Yeah, thanks guys.

Thank you guys. Much appreciated and ⁓ yeah, thanks for having me on.

Benn Coubrough (1:14:33)
Yeah.

Cool. No, no. Thanks very much again mate. Appreciate the time.

Mitch (1:14:36)
That's fun.

Ben Wilson (1:14:40)
good one.