Tales from the Valley Podcast

TFTV Rat Race – Ballarat Build (5 Weeks Out) 🎙️

Sam catches up with past guests Mel Jefferis & Pete Naseby as the Ballarat Marathon edges closer.

Mel is gearing up for the Half Marathon and building strong after overcoming hamstring issues. She takes us through her recent block, including an 86km week featuring sessions like 6 x 1k + 4 x 400, 3 x 10 mins, and a 2-hour long run. She’s lining up with confidence and chasing a PB ...

Sam chats with Jarrod Boyd and Greg ‘Frosty’ Frost as both line up for Ballarat in five weeks.

Jarrod makes his first appearance on the podcast, bringing some serious credentials with PBs of 16:44 (5k), 33:38 (10k) and 1:16 (half). Coming from a high-level rugby background, Jarrod transitioned into triathlon and reached peak fitness around 2017. After stepping away from running during COVID while starting a family, he returned in 2...

Sam & Katie catch up after a couple of weeks off while Sam welcomes his daughter Elena into the world 👶

Katie shares an update on her injury and the expected timeline for surgery. In the meantime she’s making the most of the situation by getting fully set up on Zwift and learning the ropes with the full home setup.

Sam talks about the early days of balancing newborn life with marathon training, and how the two are already star...

Sam catches up with Luke Hince, 12 months after he was last on the podcast — and for the same reason. Luke takes out the NSW 5000m Championships in 14:00, agonisingly close to cracking sub-14.

They kick things off by discussing Luke’s strong run of form, including his impressive 29:03 over 10,000m at the Melbourne Track Classic (part of the Athletics Grand Prix Series) last year.

Luke recaps his taper week leading into the race and...

Sam & Katie catch up on their training this week with no guest on the mic, and also dive into some listener ChatGPT Q’s along the way. 🤖🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Katie continues her cycling block, hits squat PB’s, and keeps the running load sensible — while also unpacking Sam’s incredibly inconvenient offer to “help” her through one of her track sessions. 😅

Sam bounces back from a bit of a lull with a strong week featuring speedy 400s, shar...

Sam & Katie catch up with Charl Jansen Van Rensburg, who makes his return to the podcast with plenty of updates since last time.

Charl has rewritten his Half Marathon PB, clocking a 1:15 at the Gold Coast Half Marathon last year. Alongside his running, Charl has also launched his business Mileage Mate, and walks us through the product—designed to help runners stay warm, dry, and clean before and after training and racing.

Sam and Katie are joined by Ethan Spears and Cody Bramich from the 360 South Project.

Ethan and Cody are relatively new to running but are passionate about building a movement in the Illawarra through community, challenge, and shared suffering. Their flagship event is a unique 360 km relay from Wollongong to Huskisson and back, completed by teams of six over a 30-hour window, with legs split however teams choose.

Despite being earl...

Sam and Katie are joined by Chris Stone, who shares his running journey—from early runs with his dad, to a long hiatus through university, and then a spark moment after lining up at City2Surf that reignited his love (and natural knack) for running.

Since returning to the sport, Chris has clocked some impressive road PBs:

• 5km: 19:32
• 10km: 39:56
• Half Marathon: 1:29
• Marathon: 3:21 at the Sydney Marathon

More recently, Chris...

On this episode of Café Kit of the Month, Sam sits down with Isaac Shaw.

Isaac breaks down his outstanding performance, finishing 2nd in the State 3000m, and walks us through his summer of training. He also shares his experience with precision gels, gives an early review of the up-and-coming NVR running apparel—with a focus on the Ghost Singlet—and chats about the Puma MagMax.

To round things out, Isaac gives us the inside word on ...

Sam chats with Tim Manuel, a huge part of the KJ’s community. Tim rediscovered his love of running during the Covid lockdowns after first lacing up in his junior years—and he’s been flying ever since.

From a 2:11 PB over 800m through to an agonisingly close sub-3 marathon attempt at last year’s Sydney Marathon (3:00:50), Tim’s range is seriously impressive. A standout Masters athlete, he’s won multiple Cross Country and Track title...

This week, Katie takes over hosting duties and puts Sam in the hot seat for a change. Sam runs through his personal bests — including a 9:57 3 km time trial where a shoelace came undone mid-run, a gritty 1:18 half marathon at the Western Sydney Half, where he came third after running through the field and picking off competitors throughout the second half, and his 2:56 marathon, which capped off his original ambition of breaking th...

Sam and Katie sit down with Rene Collins, a familiar face in the Illawarra running scene who wears many hats — from coaching local ultra-marathon athletes, to pacing at major city marathons, and most recently leading the run sessions for SAVVY.

Rene’s running journey began with the Canberra Marathon, an initiation he describes as brutally tough, famously hitting the wall around 32km. From there, things escalated quickly. He tackled...

Sam & Katie sit down with Edwin Smith – a relatively new runner who’s dived deep into the world of trail running over the past few years. Edwin recently ran Mudgee Marathon in just over 4 hours, and he’s chasing that sub-4 early next year 👀

He also completed the Pilliga Grand Slam (10k, 50k, 20k spread across 3 days!) and is now building a running community through his social content. Edwin talks us through how he documents hi...

Sam & Katie sit down with Joe Mallat, who’s had a breakout year on the roads. Joe’s dropped his 5 K to 16:43 at Sandon Point parkrun, clocked 34:55 at Sydney 10, and finished 2nd at Shellharbour Half in 1:21:54.

A former basketball and rugby player, Joe dabbled in cross-country through high school but only recently found structure after joining JT Running. He credits the group’s training environment and guidance from coach Jame...

Sam & Katie sit down with Brad Milosevic — the podcast’s fastest marathoner yet. Brad lives in Canberra and in 2015 pulled off something wild: winning both of Australia’s biggest fun runs, taking out City2Surf in 42:12 and the Melbourne Marathon in 2:16:00. Over the next few years he chased the Olympic qualifier, ran another 2:16, and represented Australia at the 2017 World Championships.

Across 2017–2018 he rewrote PBs from 30...

Sam & Katie sit down with rising talent Cate Giason, who works at Run Havoc and has just wrapped up school with plans to study something in the sports world. Cate already owns some incredible PBs — 4:53 (1500m), 10:16 (3000m) and 7:08 (2000m steeple) — and she’s not slowing down anytime soon.

Cate shares how she first got into running through her family and Kembla Joggers at age eight, her first ever track race in Year 8, and h...

Inspired by the vulnerability of our past guests, Sam, Stefan Deane-Smith, and Rohan Laurendet sit down for a raw and honest conversation about their own mental health challenges — and how running has both supported and complicated those experiences.

Rohan also hosts The 11th Hurdle podcast, where he explores mental health and performance with incredible depth and empathy. You can check it out here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3P...