Run Culture Podcast

Welcome back to Episode 10 of the Boom or Bust podcast! With just six days to go until the 2025 Ballarat Marathon, this is our final episode before the big dance! Today, Kate, Throbber, Noodles, and Dane discuss how their taper weeks are going. The four of them go over race day goals, plans and predictions! Plus, don’t miss the fantastic listener question about how they mentally prepare to get the best out of themselves on race day. Tune in for all the insights! #BoomOrBust #BallaratMarathon2025 #racedayready

Today marks Episode 9 of the ‘Boom or Bust’ podcast, and with just 12 days to go until race day, our four runners are in the 'tapering phase!' Join us as they chat about their training weeks—sharing both the ups and downs. The conversation takes some fun turns, covering everything from 'cask wine to lipstick!' Plus, we have a surprise guest: Riley, Dane’s 3-year-old daughter, who joins us for a special cameo at the end of the episode. Don’t miss next week's episode, where we’ll dive into everyone's Ballarat marathon goals, predicted times, race strategies, and even tackle a listener question about preparing mentally for race day.Thanks to all those that are listening and for the streams of positive feedback we have been getting for doing this podcast series, very much appreciated!Not long now @ballaratmarathon !

*Boom or Bust Episode 8 Update* In today’s episode, we faced a tough moment as Aaron "Throbber" Sim has had a hard time shaking off his sickness and has opted to rest and recuperate, aiming for a strong comeback at the Gold Coast marathon. The bright side? Kate has scored a solid pacemaker to support her on her journey!Before diving into their training updates, the athletes took a moment to answer a listener question about their strengths and weaknesses as marathon runners. Their insights were both enlightening and inspiring!Ned, Kate, and Dane all reported stellar training weeks, building excitement as they gear up for the Ballarat marathon—only 19 days to go! The energy is high, and they’re ready to give it their all! Stay tuned for more updates as we follow their journey! #BoomOrBust #MarathonTraining #Ballarat2025

Last night, we recorded Ep. 7 of the “Boom or Bust- Ballarat” Run Culture miniseries, where four athletes share their journeys as they prepare for the 2025 Ballarat marathon. With just 4 weeks to go and with our athletes very much in the thick of it, it was a ‘mixed bag’ of a week!🏃‍♀️ Kate is absolutely crushing it, hitting her stride and feeling ‘marathon-ready’. We’re all cheering her on to ‘wrap herself in cotton wool’ now and make it to that start line! Ned had a bit of a rollercoaster week with a sore heel at the beginning and needing to pull out of a session mid week because of fatigue. However, he finished the week strong with a confidence-building marathon workout on Sunday! 💪Dane faced some struggles managing his asthma but ended the week on a high with a couple of great workouts. 🌟 Meanwhile, Aaron is still battling illness and is taking some well-earned rest under coach's orders. We’re all hoping he can bounce back and make the most of the months of training he’s put in for this event🤞I hope you’re enjoying the show as much as we are! Remember, it’s all about the journey and enjoying your running path. Thanks for following along and for all the lovely feedback we have been getting (particularly from Kate’s niece; Mila!)

Episode 6 of the "Boom or Bust" Podcast is here! Join us as we follow the journeys of our four runners training for the 2025 Ballarat Marathon. With just 5 weeks to go, the training grind is real, and as always, our runners share their ups and downs filled with a bit of a laugh. A huge shoutout to Throbber and his former bandmates from ‘Red Ink’ for letting us use their amazing song ‘Empty Road’ as our opening jingle! This week, we had a surprise guest—Otis, Aaron’s son, who jumped in to perfectly highlight the juggling act of life! If you’re a running fan or training for a marathon, be sure to tune in.@ballaratmarathon

Welcome to Episode 5 of ‘Boom or Bust’! A podcast documenting the build ups of 4 athletes aiming to run the 2025 Ballarat Marathon! There was a bit happening this week!Aaron and Dane kick things off by sharing their experiences from the Inverloch Half Marathon. Despite falling ill right after last week’s episode, Aaron took a pragmatic approach, focusing on recovery and lighter training to bounce back. Meanwhile, Kate had quite the adventure at school camp in Dartmoor, facing challenges like 4hrs of sleep most nights, lightning and bushfires! After a lighter week running wise she finished the week with a confidence-boosting marathon-specific session!Ned enjoyed a planned down week as he nervously awaited a 35km progressive run over the weekend around his favorite loop.Even though I’m the host of this podcast I personally enjoy sitting back and listening to everyone’s weeks. It’s great to see everyone adapting and pushing through their unique challenges!And a little teaser for next week— we might just have an Intro for the podcast, possibly featuring a 'B-side' from Aaron’s rockstar past! So stay tuned for that!

Welcome back to Episode 4 of the Run Culture podcast mini-series, “Boom or Bust!” Join us as we track the journey of four athletes gearing up for the 2025 Ballarat Marathon, just under seven weeks away! This week, we have Kate Mason sharing her experience from a tin shed during a storm at school camp in Dartmoor—talk about dedication! While she faces a down week due to camp and a frustrating workout on Friday, her spirit remains unbroken.Ned Verwey updates us on his dietitian appointment and his impressive long run on Sunday, truly living up to our podcast's title! Meanwhile, Aaron ‘Throbber’ Sim continues to crush it with a solid 3 by 5k workout at goal marathon pace, preparing for a head-to-head showdown with Dane at the Inverloch half marathon next weekend.Dane Verwey wraps up the episode with details of his consistent week, including a double threshold session and a marathon workout with Pete on the bike. While he’s pleased with his endurance, he’s working on finding that extra speed.We hope you're enjoying the show! We’d love to hear your thoughts or any listener questions for next week's episode! #RunCulture #BoomOrBust #BallaratMarathon2025

Kate, Ned, Aaron, and Dane not only recorded episode 3 of the "Boom or Bust" podcast—locking in its new name and thanking listeners for their suggestions and questions—but also powered through another eventful week of training for the 2025 Ballarat Marathon. Ned notched up a couple of big sessions (including one in heavies as he forgot his trainers and one with the Geelong River Run) whilst suspiciously getting lost around the chocolate factory on a run, go figure?! Kate hit another impressive 100-mile week, enjoyed the Kooks concert, rocked an outrageous shoe and sock combo on Friday, whilst the boys marvelled at her incredible ability in a 5am easy run to hit low 4 min/km out of the gate. Aaron enjoyed his new Vomeros, checked off both a quality track workout and a marathon-specific session, whilst locking in the nickname "Throbber" on his Ballarat Bib. While Dane recovered from minor niggles and maintained a solid training week, reinforcing his focus on recovery.If there are any listener questions, please reach out to the Run Culture Instagram or any of us on socials. @ballaratmarathon

Guess what? It’s time for Episode Two of “Ballarat Marathon Buildups!” I’m excited to have Aaron, Kate, and Ned back on the show. This episode starts with our favorite training sessions and workouts that help us gauge our fitness.Ned and Aaron then detail their first marathon-specific workouts, while ‘Kate 5am Mason’ shares the crazy things she sees during her early runs (I still can’t believe what she saw in the ocean?!) She also shares a powerful lesson from her Gold Coast marathon experience when she faced ‘heat stroke.’Unfortunately we lost the last 10 minutes of the recording due to a software glitch (one technologically savvy person had so many podcast recordings saved to their computer that their storage reached capacity, sorry all!) Nonetheless, Dane, jumps back on and wraps it up with details of another motivating training week! We cover a lot in this episode, and I hope you find it entertaining! All 4 of us would love to hear your thoughts! Drop your listener questions or name suggestions in the comments below.

Today and over the next couple of months I've got something a bit different for you all!Each week I am going to catch up with my brother; Ned Verwey and good friends from down here on the 'Ninch'; Kate Mason and Aaron Sim, as we all train towards the 2025 Ballarat Marathon in just under 10 weeks time. We will catch up weekly to chat about the inevitable ups/downs and life hurdles typically encountered in a marathon build. I hope this podcast can inspire, entertain and/or influence other runners in some way. I also hope it highlights the fact that we can all come at the marathon from different angles and different approaches. That we all have similar challenges and different challenges, and that no one is perfect and that's ok! We aim to have a lot of fun:)More about the Guests:Aaron Sim is a 35 year old father of two, who only picked up running during COVID (2021). In the space of 3 years he has dropped his marathon time from 2:50 to 2:25:32! From 2008-2013 he travelled far and wide playing drums for an Indie band. Prior to finding running, he was an avid golfer! He's now a music teacher at Woodleigh Secondary.Kate Mason is one of the most infectiously bubbly and positive people you will meet. Her and her partner, Ben Griffith (Griffo) with their fur baby Nala in tow, intentionally make their whole life 'not' about running. If they aren't caravanning in NZ, they are always doing something interesting be it: mountain biking, going to a gig, catching up with friends or house renos etc...Kate's an incredibly talented runner with amazing grit and endurance, coming 3rd in 2:34:08 at the Melbourne Marathon in 2024. My brother Ned Verwey is 32 years old and lives in Anglesea and works in Prosthetics and Orthotics at Ballarat Hospital. He was a super talented junior track runner over 1500m-3,000m medaling Nationally! During University years he enjoyed himself and running fell by the way side. He then had several years plagued by injury. However, with patience, persistence and the helpful encouragement of his lovely wife Simone McInnes (also a runner) he has slowly got himself back to the strongest and fittest he has ever been. He's learnt a lot through the process and loves going out for a run everyday!And, then there is myself; Dane, a 39 year old father of two, I have been immersed in running my whole life; as a runner, physiotherapist and coach. This will be my 19th marathon and there is certainly a deep seated motivation to turn back the clock a little, show myself that I can still do it and nail a 'dad PB'!Listen in if you want :)