Beep Beep! Elite Level Speed with Running Champ Verity Breen

###### Verity Breen: [00:00:00]
I think it's very easy to sabotage yourself because you're afraid of failure. So back yourself, don't undersell yourself, take the free stuff. Don't be shy, be shy, and then be afraid to make mistakes. Because the amount of knowledge I have now is through trial and error.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:25]
Hello, and welcome to the RaceMob podcast.
This is episode number 10. I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of RaceMob. I'm joined by master motivator, founder of Too Legit Fitness co-chair of the Taji 100, RRCA certified coach, USA track and field certified official, the incomparable Bertrand Newson.
We're so excited to welcome Verity Breen to the podcast.
Verity has been racing competitively for over 30 years. And has won many prestigious races. We're talking about big events like being the Australian marathon champ, the Australian 50 K road race champ. And big events like the Nike women's marathon. Now a marathon and us half marathon after racing competitively in triathlons varied, he decided to switch to running and she's won nearly every distance from cross country races all the way up to 50 Ks.
And she continues to set the bar and wins races in her fifties. We're not talking about being the age group champ. She's outright crushing competitors that are 30 years, her junior on top of that, she's fun. And she's spunky. And she'll give you her trademark. Beep beep if she's about to zoom by you on the trail, this is just a fun, all encompassing conversation.
And honestly we could have just kept going and going. So this is definitely a to be continued episode. All the show notes can be found online at dot com slash podcast. This episode is brought to you by race, mob, and inclusive community for fitness enthusiasts, whether you're brand new to fitness or a veteran athletes, we all need support motivation.
And accountability. We're launching a brand new community sites where you'll be able to interact with our guests, coach B and myself. And we're going to be launching a brand new training program that's led by coach B. So go to dot com. Sign up for your free account today. And you'll be notified when these projects go live.
And without further ado, here's our conversation.
all right. We are so excited to welcome the one, the only Verity Brene to the podcast. Welcome Verity.
###### Verity Breen: [00:02:36]
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:02:39]
So for those that don't know about you, I mean, we can rattle off a list of accomplishments, but, in your own words, how would you describe yourself?
###### Verity Breen: [00:02:48]
it's a really, it's like most awkward questions. When someone asks you, describe yourself? I think really, in terms of my running, I like the word, uh, wanderlust.
Um, and I think that predominantly, that is me. I'm a prolific racer, not just marathons road, track, cross country. and I just think I love the art of it. I love strategy. So I think. I think when I described myself on being interested in all aspects of the sport, I didn't want to fundamentally just be like a one man show like, Oh, I'm a marathon runner, I'm a road runner.
Um, so I wonder last is probably me and that I've explored heavily just about every aspect of the sport I can within reason. , and I just love racing the traveling, and the, the things that can happen. You know, during a race one, the last as a runner is probably me

###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:43]
Bring us back, I guess how you got into the sport
###### Verity Breen: [00:03:46]
you want me to go back to what made me start running?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:48]
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, how you got into it,
###### Verity Breen: [00:03:51]
I got engaged, it's supposed to be married. I'd say, can I do this? You'd say, when does it start? How much does it cost? How are you going to get there?
How are you going to get home? And he gave me the money and said, if you don't finish the season, don't ask me for any more money. So I think looking back what it did, it seems a bit rough. Like, Oh, he's not going to drop me off. He's not going to pick me up. He's not going to come and watch me all the time, but it actually made me very independent and organized.
So then anyway was seven months out from being married. He calls it off. We bought a house, we booked the wedding. I mean, can you imagine. And it was a pivotal point in my life because he was a triathlete and I was following him around. So then I was like, wow. So all of a sudden, I wasn't going to get married.
Had children live in the house. We bought near the beach. I was now single again with the bundle of money that I got back from the house. And I was like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? That I realized that I really liked the running. And the stuff that I was falling human doing, and I was in the final year of senior high school.
I was a school SUNY champion. Um, it's swim. So then I thought, I know what I'll do. I'll take a job somewhere else that people don't feel sorry for me. And that's so good. It's great job up in Queensland. Then I bought a car. I'd never bought a car. I never had a car. I bought a bike, but running shoes and some really cool clothes.
And my mum and dad sounds cliched, wave me off in the driveway. And I drove by, and then two years later I was in the Australian triathlons. So what I did, and I say, if your heart's broken or your mind feels broken, or you just feel obviously dislocated in some way, I just got busy. I'm like, I kind of was a relief.
You can look back at things and think, Oh God, that was so shit. But I look back and I think I, you, God, that, yeah. So then I just started, I was writing and training and I was, I got a job at the Sheraton is an aerobics instructor had on my LA CRA. Wow. That was good. So that's how it started. And, but what I had an important point is the triathlon led me to running because, or we get off the bike like an automaton and I would have the math down every time.
Like I would study the Switzer, the other girls. And I'd be like pack. And so then I was, Oh, I feel sorry for anyone. I was hunting down and off that bike. I mean, I was relentless, so that's how it started. Okay. So now that boring word today, so does the Australian team Adrian team, and that's when they selected people and you had to wait for the magazine.
Guess how old I am. You guys look so young to me. So in those days, You didn't find out if you were selected until the magazine came out.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:53]
Wow.
###### Verity Breen: [00:06:54]
You had the white. Yes, it was very, and you know what? It was really exciting because they had all the races. So you did, they had all the races that were part of the strategy and selection.
And you did the rices and you earn your points. Then there's a selection team. And those are only five men and five women in the 25 to 29. She can imagine he's very competitive in those days in the heyday. Yeah. So, um, yeah, magazine came out and someone came up to me. They had it before. I mean, I bought like five copies of the magazine and they went to my parents.
It's so silly, but it was so exciting. You know, and then, then, uh, I started getting close to like what they what's called going pro. Like I started becoming, you know, getting up in the top three in these Olympic distance races. Right. But then I had another blow because they, they introduced drafting. You remember when they introduced drafting and triathlon?
I don't know if you remember that. No. No. What is that? They introduced drafting, which is they allowed in a lesson that you could ride. The hind, the bikes in front of you. So beforehand there had to be a three byte gap. There was non rafting race. And then they allow drafting because I wanted to make it more consumer friendly.
And that's when they started putting triathlon on TV televising it.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:08:19]
So, so why was it that you felt after they introduced drafting that you could no longer compete?
###### Verity Breen: [00:08:25]
I mean, I still have done triathlon since then, but it made it very difficult. Cool shadows that didn't come out of like a pro sort of swimmer.
Like most of the triathletes we're winning an Olympic stuff, came from a very, very powerful swimming background. I was a pretty good swimmer, but I would come out in the second pack so that there'd be like 10 girls would come out in the first and then another 10, 15 or 20 of us would come in a minute behind 30 seconds or minutes.
But if they're on that bike before me five, six, seven girls. Then they can all hook up and help each other, but I've missed that boat. And so if they get off the bike, the 10 K run and they've all helped each other by drafting got faster, faster. If I come into the transitionary for the run and they've already left.
To run 60 seconds before me. I've a 10 K. Even if I dropped down to 37, yeah. Minute 10 K or something. It's really difficult to pull them back over that distance. Right. So in Ironman, really great runner. You can pull them back. We both say that. And anyway, I think to be honest, running was eventually where I would end up, I think all these things we do, I just earned is towards the ultimate conclusion, right?
Yeah. It's like a big photo say, you know, life's like a big so you see what's left. So I went from triathlon to running and then, um, I've been here Annie as well. She's Australian. Yeah. Mountain running team, open women's to Italy. That was really difficult to get on that team. It was a, yeah, very tough race against very strong competitors.
No done anything, but I decided that it'd be really cool to give it a go. You had to, you had to run a fast time. You had to come and chop three. So you couldn't just come in the top three at the Australian championships, you had to run a time, so you could come third. And run slow and sorry. You're out. So it was pretty brutal.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:10:24]
And what distance was that? That was a mountain.
###### Verity Breen: [00:10:27]
Well, mountain running for those that aren't familiar with it is they alternate years. So one year would be a scent and then it will be a cent decent. So the year I was going or wanting to be selected, it was a scent decent. So it's through it's eight kilometers for the women, 12 kilometers for the men.
The Australian championship was a cent decent. And, uh, I'm the decent, I. I wish I could run as fearlessly and is relentlessly ridiculously out of control. As I ran the day, I made that team because I swear to God, I've never been able to duplicate the hanger. So it made the team super cool. That was Italy.
So the thing about Italy when I went 2001 was a summit. Wait for the assist, bizarre summit, Bangkok airport, waiting for a connection to Frankfurt. There's all these people crowding around every TV screen in the, in the, in the place. And I'm like, what's going on? I walk over and I'm like seeing the buildings on fire.
So I'm in transit to well, mountain running and the twin towers were on fire. Right. And then I go to Frankfurt airport then anyway. So that's why that trip was memorable. The span cock marathon is the Australian team with the mountain running. I've represented Australia at a world, 50 K roads as a consequence of winning the Australian 50 K championships.
Let's see. I'm just trying to make sure I can smile.
It's funny. I use that term consequence. It's cause you win, you win stuff right in Australia, then you go, where am I going? And they go, are you going to go to Gibraltar? And I'm like, where's that? And I knew there was a big rock there because I'd studied it at school and I'm like, I'm at a joke. I go, well, how big is his rock?
We're running around. And they're like, it's not like that. Wow. Verde, just for a point of reference, um, timewise 50 K winning times. So for those listening, the Australian 50 K road championships was held in conjunction with the Canberra marathon, which I've done many times. You have to run through the finish line and you have to keep going.
Everyone else around you is stopping. Right. So for a few years, The ultra running table guy, Ian dirty, come on, come on, do it, do it. And I go out and I validate and I Stanford ready, but then I just do it. I like basically do it. Is sign your name on a piece of paper, put a pink ribbon on saying. Yeah, I'm doing it.
And then at the back of my mind, I'm like, I don't think so, but I just wanted to make him happy, but it doesn't matter if you don't do it right now in case no one remembers anyway, but I'll be honest a few years. I just did put the ribbon on and then I crossed the finish line in second or third or fourth one, the CAMBA marathon, but I've come secondary and fourth there.
I don't know. A lot of times prize money goes to fifth. So I'd always think, Oh, you better get on the goddamn podium and pick up some cash, right? Yeah. Cash is King. So then this year, 2009, I had met Randy, who I'm now married to a mood dating and he was in town. You see? So I might, I'm doing it. Randy's coming with me.
Got my boyfriend. Yep. No one would ever see me to race with a guy. That's another thing about me. I told Randy, I'm going to do this 50 K race part of the marathon. And he said, well, I'll do the marathon and I'd never seen him run a marathon, but I was like, Oh, good on ya. So he, he was staying with me for about six weeks cause he was coming from America to, to where I was.
And I had this little apartment in chronology. The last run before the race, the championship race was torrential, rain, wind, like the worst possible. You know, you look out your window, you guys have done it. You know, you gotta do your long run and you look out the window in the morning, go, Oh
###### Kevin Chang: [00:14:18]
yeah,
###### Verity Breen: [00:14:23]
disgusting weather. Right. And I don't really feel like being in that shit show. They're like, I knew I had to be out there. I'd have to run very solidly under four hours to win this thing, because I knew the woman that had one yeah. Every year had been running about three hours, 41. Right. So I said to Randy, look, this is really vile lightning.
I said to him, well, let's hold off. I don't normally do it in the afternoon, but I'm going to do it in the afternoon. Hopefully it will change. And you don't have to come with me. I said to him, you don't have to come with it. Cause I've got the poor guy. Like I was worried. It would put him off actually continuing to date me.
I mean, yeah, she's going to go out and run the ride. And that I knew in the lightning, like an idiot to like, sorry. And Randy's like, no, I'll come with you. I actually mentioned that I had a mild case of not key idea. I picked up like a bacterial thing from the one of the local pools, and I've been battling this for weeks and I was like, this day, it sort of was acting out.
So you've got to go to the toilet all the time. Okay. So. Listeners without boring. The minutia of this run, we're out there four and a half hours. So King wet pummeled in the disgusting rain. And when then, Oh, wait, I counted how many times I went to the toilet. It's risky because I felt mentally I'm set physically.
It's taken out of me. It gets worse, but better. So the day before the race, I felt a bit off and I'm like, Oh, come on. I've done all this work. You know, I was doing big miles and let's be honest. I don't say I'm going to put on a show, but I wanted to make Randy proud. I wanted to show him, this is what I do.
God now keeps sort of talking to myself, just relax. He doesn't care. He doesn't, he's not going to change what he thinks about you. If you screw up, blah, blah, blah, blah. So then wait for it. Okay, ladies, here we go. Cut to the chase. I've thought, Oh my God, I'm going to get my period. I knew it. I could feel it.
And then my buddy I'm like, God damn it. So we go to the, get the farmers. So we get the staff, Randy's driving me around Canberra, but then I'm thinking if it starts before the race, I'm solid gold, man. I'm ready to rage. And Randy is watching this.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:16:29]
What did you get at the pharmacy?
###### Verity Breen: [00:16:31]
I made it my business to work out how to manage this stuff and not to just get, get a handle on it.
So what I know for me. I absolutely have to tighten a product in Australia, the products person, and it's, it's great. And it's not hard on the stomach. So, so you take the nap, the naprogesic, the Naprosyn is what. Totally blocks the pain. Some women have fine. And if you're like me, I can, I can muscle through it.
I've been in races where it started Kaiser, Kaiser half's last five K I'm like, Oh, thank you, Jesus. Sort of like, like people want to talk to you at the end of the race. And you're like, cause you're not going to talk about that. No one wants to know about that. Yeah. Naprosyn so is in America, it's called a leave.
A leave is my go to, I make sure I've got it. Some of it around in the car, just in case, you know, I think for a marathon, um, I'll have two of those two, any more than two, two of those with some food. So in the morning I just took those, I think at that time I was eating rice pudding before, but yeah, I mean, it was fine.
And, um, I just had a total. Gangbuster race. What? I try to use this race as an example of it's just because everything feels like it's going wrong, or you have this very treacherous challenging lead up. It doesn't mean that it's not going to go right on the day I look back and it did powerful lessons because we can all get to places in life where we think, Oh, I'm.
So if one more thing goes wrong, I'm just going to flip a lid. And then I think it was almost, to me, it's a relief to when the gun went off, I'm like now I get to do it. And all those things are behind me and I just completely let it rip. I just go into that and at the whole race was great. Anyway, in answer to your question, but chinned gone around the long way.
Is ran three 38. And that, that woman that always, always wanted, wow. She came second and she was really wonderful person. And I did what I knew I had to do would be to go under three 40. Would be the win cause she would sort of run around the same time. Then she was fairly uncontestable like no one had really come along that had sort of got in the mail.
But since then we've had a good friend of mine has passed away. Jackie Fairweather, one of Australia's greatest athletes on multiple levels. So she dropped it down dramatically. And then we've had multiple girls. So that was sophisticated
###### Kevin Chang: [00:19:12]
and a three 38 out of 50 K. Do you know what pace that is?
###### Verity Breen: [00:19:16]
Oh, man.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:19:18]
I hate that as kilometers to,
###### Verity Breen: [00:19:21]
well, let's just say it's respectable.
Gibraltar came from that. So then I also won the Australian marathon championship in a hundred degrees. This is your temperature. Uh, that was insane. That was brutal. What year? 2000 finishing time to go to three hours, two 59. And, and some, some journalists joker. He made some comment about the time and I'm like, okay, buddy.
You get out there and do it. You go out there and run a hundred degrees on a very technical course. I just played it smart. It was a war, a lot of runners drop. So a lot of just people that are just brings people on down extreme heat. It can just really do your head in. I think if you're not ready for it, it's the same as extreme cold too, you know, like.
Either ends of the spectrum, but he in a marathon can be very debilitating, but that was a good day at the office. And my dad was there and he had hardly ever watched me do anything. And I said to him, maybe come out, cut, promise you anything. This is always very cut and dried as an account. Woo. Here we go again.
You know that he came here and he was so excited and anyway, he was excited. And then I got selected into this thing called the prime minister's five, which would be. In America probably be called the president's five. So it was a team of five men and five women. And this was really cool. So you got given, um, $15,000 to spend during the year.
The deal was you would pay for whatever races you're going through out of your own pocket. And then you would send the receipt. And they would send you a check. So if I, if I wanted to go to somewhere and I would spend $500, so I'd send them receipts and they'd give me a check $5 to spent my 15,000 some dollars.
So it was really cool program because it made you accountable. And, you know, so I was like, Oh my God. Like for me, it just was like, I can finally go to this race. I can finally go to this race. And then that next year was awesome because of the winning my first straight championship, but also getting this opportunity.
Just to have some money to go places. Um, but then happily, sadly. So I use some of that money to go to the Perth city to surf, which is the other side of Australia. And it's a big race. And, um, I, I, again, it was one of those races where I'm like, damn, how did I do that? One of those races. And I think we all have them.
We do things in life. When we think if I could just duplicate that, I just had an, that ripper. It was 14 kilometers. One way I was terrified in the last mile because I don't know what's behind me. And I'm like, Oh my God, I'm so close to pulling this off. Right. And it was just insane. And, uh, my mum, I rang her now without getting emotional.
So after I won that, I rang home. And I said, it's me and mum, because mum, my mum and dad hadn't traveled. They haven't really gone anywhere apart from like dad's town. They haven't, they never went overseas. They're passed away now, but they was so excited as all our parents are to see us do things they they'd never got to do.
Alright. And I ring her and she goes, I was in purse. She gets what's birth light. She didn't ask me about their eyes and I go, it's cool. It's hilly. And she goes, where did you go? How'd you go? And she yelled out to my dad using the bed. Oh, is it? My dad was always in the back yard to be yelling and I'll have to wait for it to stop yelling at him to tell her the good news.
She said, okay, now tell me he's here I go. Well, I want, she goes, yeah. What, and I dare to go, I'm standing beside. Yeah. Do you don't have to touch it. And that was so funny and she was so excited and it was filled, but then she passed away. Let me think. Not long after that phone call, like it was like, it would have been a matter of weeks, right.
Suddenly, so what's cool. Is that I got to make her proud. That was memorable from that perspective. Cause that's the last race I had. I want to get all mushy on you guys. Do I think we've all everyone listening. We all go through grief, but I think what this is making me think about is that a lot of the memory timelines are tied into other timelines.
Do you guys find that, you know, with your races with your life and I could even you Bertrand, you said that when we met that day, you had never normally raised. Right. And certainly Andrew. Yeah. So the Australian championship and what else have I been. Oh, 2011, I went with the Australian team to Wales with the old chair, my first old chair representation.
So that was the ultra trail in Wales. And that was hard and we got bronze and I was. Marriage Randy by then. So the span of the teams has been from 1990. One was the Australian team 2011 was the ultra trout team. So that's the wingspan of, of representation, right? 20 years. And so I used it as a reference point to developing athletes.
Some people think it's over like that. You have to be young. We have, you know, what are your thoughts on that? I think it's,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:24:27]
I mean, you're still crushing it. You're still, so we were just talking about it just a minute ago, how you're brushing and all these races that no, you don't have to be young. You absolutely don't have to be young and you can still continue to get better.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:24:39]
And aid is all in how you feel. And I know people that are in their twenties that feel much older. You know, I know people that are older and feel much younger and it's all a state of mind at all in how you feel and you, as you've talked about, and thanks for sharing your trail and road accomplishments, is there any, do you prefer road versus trail?
Is anyone
one of those two, a little bit more.
You get into some of the difference in training between those two. That's a good question.
###### Verity Breen: [00:25:07]
I mean, see, I dabbled in the trail. So the mountain running team going to ELEAGUE, I'll be honest. It scared the crap out of me, like on the climb, I was still like in the top 10 and I'm like, yeah, I got it on the downhill.
I was like, what the hell is this?
This is the most treacherous Nally, bloody the Italians. They do it on purpose. Say they know, they know this is their background, this is their backyard. We come in we're like, what is this scared? The living daylights out of me, I could never been so happy to get down the bottom of a 3000. So I dabbled in it.
Right. So, yeah, so I did that Australian mountain, Australian mountain running team, and then I was a big, big fan of interests on before any of this stuff, I was very aware of who she was. And I was like, this woman is something else. One day, one day, I'm going to get in, I'm going to have the courage to get in this.
Then I, then I went to the ultra trail in Wales, 2011. So there's these hiatus. So I come to America, I'm married and I'm, this trial seems developing and I'm thinking, okay, You know, I'm, I'm coming here and I'm just totally hammering out. I'm just throwing myself into the American road racing scene, like a, like a drag, like it was like, it was like putting a kid in a lolly shop and the sun have whatever you want.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:26:33]
What about the caliber of competition? Was there a change from when you're running back home versus coming to the States?
###### Verity Breen: [00:26:38]
It's like big fish, little fish, big pond. And upon you make a decision, you can, I can be the King of my little castle and. And be my own personal hero, my little pond, but I like to surround myself in the big kids and I, in Australia, it's less people, but the ones that are competing, the women and the men that are competing in Australia, then I muck around.
I mean, it's man, it's game on, man. It might be less people, but you again, have to work real hard to establish yourself because then everyone knows everybody here. Everyone knows everyone. After a while I realize, you know, it's the same community, just much, much bigger. The caliber of running. When I came here and I came here in pretty good shape.
I mean, I've just come 2009. I've just won the 50 K right. I'm married. I'm in love. I'm here. I don't know anyone apart from my husband. It's so weird. I, I come here and I'm like, Oh crap. This is a whole nother playing field. These women over 40 are animals
brutal, but lovely. But when that gun goes off, I was just blown away. So I found it exciting and then like, I responded to that by just sort of recalibrating and I think trail wise, it's hard not to be attracted to it. I mean, Marin originally I was in Berlin games, so it was easy to ignore it.
You know, I thought I was really like, Charging it up on soya camp trial who jumping rattlesnakes. Oh man. But the thing is in Marine, you come into this whole new world and then the more I started doing the trial, I mean, at first, so I'll be, I mean, look hopeless. I mean, when I first started doing trail running here, I was like, it was weird because road running and trail running.
Yesterday. I w I went out on China camp, right. And the day before I'd done this full on fartlek in my foot and my road shoes. And then yesterday I'm at China camp. And I was like, Oh, come on. Do running is different. I actually land completely differently. And I'm on the trail. My, the length of my stride is totally different.
And just back to backing, like often I'll do fast fight late Saturday, and I'm ripping along Crissy field. And I'm just, you know, the music glaring. Cause I just. Something to do. And I like listened to my eighties music,
but the thing is they're different. So, so the training's different. You have to really be honest with yourself about what you're crap at and, and my downhill tragic. It was tragic. It's much improved and it's still nowhere near the likes of a lot of people, but it's improved. And a lot of it's just fear based.
K Kevin. So. The differences between road and trail, you fall down on the road, like it's kind of going to be a little awkward and you might get some go of it. You fall on the trail and yeah, you can get pretty messed up. Um, but I love them both. And now I find myself becoming more and more attracted to the trail.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:29:43]
Let's talk about the time that you came over to the States. Um, those first couple of races that you're now kind of, you know, there's a new pond, there's new fish out there. Walk us through those first races. And then you said that you basically recommitted yourself to. Getting to the top of that pack. So what was that training like
###### Verity Breen: [00:30:03]
using only the eight week block at 200 kilometers?
Because I just thought I want to explore to see how do I respond to that? Is that something that would take me to the other level? Like you hear a lot of these talk about these. Big monitoring. So I did that. I did it for eight weeks and I don't really feel like it contributed a lot more to, to my running or racing in some ways it's detrimental.
Cause you're just sort of chewing up time. And I think for ultra running the interesting, but I wasn't doing ultra running and I think my sweet spot in miles was, is about 80. So I realized when I came here, I thought I'd probably have to have to go back up to at least 120 Ks a week minimum to be competitive.
And then. Every now and again, I've been here 10 years every now and again, I'd bump it up a little bit. So I knew that I wanted to ride race and be more and more competitive, but I also wanted to keep my hand in the pot to be ready to run the marathon. So I've always set myself in marathon ready shape.
So if you said to me, Bertrand said to me, they're already, why don't you come on out next week and jot down a marathon with me somewhere. I'd be like next week. And you'd be like, yeah. And I'd be like, okay, I I'm kind of
remember, this is being recording 40. You can have your word. What I did was I went back to the fundamental principles of. Monday easy Tuesday speed. When Wednesday long Thursday speed, Friday easy Saturday could be speed depending on how it absorbed the other two speed session. Maybe Saturdays lead or not Sunday long run.
And then I would, yeah, back on the track Tuesday track track speed, Thursday road speed. And then I'm here, I'm here. And I'm like, I want a piece of the action, right? Mmm. Yeah. And then I started, um, pick it up. Some wins us half marathon, the Nike women's marathon, um, Maui marathon. I mean, there's a blurred, like there's a lot of there's wins and there's a lot of seconds and.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:32:03]
Let's not gloss over those. We're not talking about age placement winds. We're talking about first female overall wins Nike women's marathon.
###### Verity Breen: [00:32:13]
And I was in my forties. So we've got to remember for those beautiful ladies out there. Well, you gals. So I was 40. Well, I mean, yeah, it was 43, 44 and I came here. So, I mean, I think there's part of me that thinks are not now I should just roll over and I'm like, yeah, no, I'm going to step it up a notch.
And I'm really glad I did. I think coming to America, I was like, wow. Oh, man, I got two choices here, you know, either get in there and start scrapping around and having to read them. Yeah, yeah, totally intimidated. And just put the towel between my legs. Just yeah, just get lost, you know, but I I'm really glad.
I mean, it's been, ah, it's been amazing. Like the, some of the, even the hard fought division wins. I remember winning, winning the masters at the, um, PA cross country champs. I mean, yeah. I used every trick in the book, man. I even did a massive tree block. I was brutal. I feel sorry for those women. I had, I had three masters right behind me.
We're all in a row and there's an second lap. They do one lap and there's this big tree, right? I'm going to share a little sneaky tip here for the viewers. Yeah. This is what you do. You got people behind you and this is cross country. I mean, I just had to do it. I had no option. I was desperate woman. I was a desperate woman.
So you come up to the tree, right. It goes up and it goes over. So this one in golden gate park, it goes up. And then down, and then you're on the second loop and there's lots of people watching. So it's like, well, I'm like, okay, so you got to look like you're taking it wide. The trees on my right. So you come up at speed, you crank up the Hill, you look like you're going to go wide.
So the other women behind you home extremely intelligent, of course, they're gonna think I'm gonna go on the inside. Take her out me, take me out downhill. But as soon as I get up from the tree, I've taught myself that dynamic like that. I just went boom and jumped in that space that they all thought they were about to go in
crafty. They're crafty. It's like a slip. No, but it's like, you know, when you watch football. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a little like little. Yeah. So then, then they'd have to sort of forces them to sort of break pace. Then I regrouping. And by that time I'm down the Hill and I'm like
but I mean, that was a game changer, cause I just felt it was a bit bad, but a couple of coaches come up after this classic, it's a classic. And I said, look, I feel bad, but I just that's racing.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:34:56]
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tell, tell us the story of a Nike one. I know we talked a little bit about it earlier. .
###### Verity Breen: [00:35:20]
The Nike thing. I miss the jump on entering it. And in my mind, I was like, I'm going to do this. And then I was like, Oh no, are you an idiot? I forgot to like set a reminder to enter it.
Like whatever the process Nike had, there's always, Nike has always got some game, like. Just if you are lucky, but you're not really lucky cause they make you feel special, but they're just chicken. Yeah.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:35:44]
Everyone's fighting for those necklaces. Tiffany necklaces, the firefight. Yeah. Yeah. I knew so many people that was their first.
That was their marathon. That was the one that they were fighting to get into. So,
###### Verity Breen: [00:35:55]
so I missed the entry game and I was like, damn it. I know. I like their Facebook page. And then maybe they'll put up some entries, right. Sure enough. I liked the page and I get this alert or see something that says, Hey people lucky 10, whatever.
She's at $250. I think it was so, so that's 2012, right? So that was a reasonable chunk of change. Okay. So then I'm like, yep, I'm going to do it. So I buy my Charlie and the chocolate factory ticket, one of my favorite books too. So I bought that. And then the morning of the race, um, my husband said, um, listen, one only give you a lift in, um, cause I was going to drive myself in and I was a little nervous about it because so thought parking's going to be crazy.
And so the thing is, um, he dropped me off and I found, I went straight. Uh, someone pointed me in the direction of the start on it was packed and. You know, Cheryl shorter and I'm like, okay, come on. Let's go. That was just a strategic race because all the half marathon, instead of marathon, it's sort of, sort of a little doc, like it wasn't.
Yeah. Quite sunrise yet. I don't know what's going on here. This is super hectic. And it rolled out of the city and you can imagine like ours is a women and.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:37:09]
Were you in the first wave or were you, you said that there were a lot of people so