Weight Loss

Running on a Weight Loss Drug

The Short Version

I wrote about my marathon journey in 2022. How being locked down during the initial Covid outbreak made me turn to running and tackling a marathon. I then ran a 1:17:50 City2Surf. In July 2023 I ran the Gold Coast 63.3km Double, Half Marathon on the Saturday and Marathon on the Sunday. And I finished Sydney Marathon in September 2023 after jogging the City2Surf while getting over flu.

I’m currently on a clinical trial for a new weight loss drug NNC0519-0130. I have experienced some really hard runs on the drug and have started experimenting with fuelling to manage my performance on race day. Last Sunday I ran the City2Surf in pretty much my exact goal time of 75 minutes. An improvement of 2:51 on 2022. As part of my fuelling I took on way more carbs and calories than I usually would for a 14km run. But it was necessary to get the job done. My next race is Sydney Marathon where I will have to take on even more carbs and calories on race day to survive.

The Long Version

I’ve been running for about 4 years now. You can read about My Marathon Journey and Becoming a Marathoner in my previous blogs so I won’t go into too much detail on that here. Cramps are still a concern. I have managed them pretty well lately with strength training and sodium intake.

2023 Running

2023 was a good one for the continuation of my running. I increased my mileage in training and was ready to take on a few more challenges. One of the hardest challenges I took on was the Gold Coast 63.3km Double. Half Marathon on the Saturday, Marathon on the Sunday. Somehow this marathon was the fastest of the three I have completed. I set an official PB of 5:07:33. By the end of that weekend I was absolutely spent. I swore I’d probably never attempt that again. Probably.

I’ll probably never do the Gold Coast 63.3km Double again

By City2Surf 2023 I was in really good fitness and ready to shave some time off my 2022 result. I thought 75 minutes was a realistic goal. Alas, I got the flu in the week leading up and was only just getting over it by race day. I still ran the course, but at a leisurely jog. I stopped and checked out all the musical stands and took a selfie overlooking Sydney Harbour and another heading down onto Bondi Beach. It wasn’t the race I was hoping for, but still a fantastic day out with 80,000 other runners in the World’s Biggest Fun Run.

Sydney Marathon was very hard. Training indicated I was on track for a sub-5 hour marathon which would be a PB. Unfortunately Sydney turned on an absolute stinker. By the time I crossed the line in 6:17:21 the temperature was up around 30°C. The only positive from this day was that I finished and was there when a mate finished his first marathon.

Brisbane Half Marathon

In June 2024 I drove up to Brisbane to run the Brisbane Half Marathon. Training had been really strong. I was working on a goal pace of 5:55/km or a race time of around 2:05:00. I was confident of running the goal time, if the weather wasn’t too bad and I handled the hills alright. When I left home I was 120kg. In the back of my mind was the idea of running my mass for a half marathon. I’d heard Dr Ross Tucker mention it on the Science of Sport Podcast. He said running your mass in kg for a half marathon was akin to a golfer shooting their age. I didn’t think it was a realistic goal for my fitness level so I left a 2 hour Half out of my plan entirely. I started out conservatively with the climb to Story Bridge in the first 2km being my slowest part of the race. But I conserved energy for later in the race and it paid off.

Through 10km I was going slightly over 6:01/km. I knew I needed to negative split and run about 5:48/km from here to reach my goal. It felt like the longer the race went, the stronger I got. There were a couple of cramp scares but they quickly went away with a Fixx Nutrition Crampfix. By the last 3km I knew I was on track to crack 2:05 if I didn’t blow up. At one point I heard another runner call out to the crowd and his group of mates “what are your legs?” I heard the call and yelled back “steel springs” I then took off for my last push to the finish line. By the time I reached the line I finished in an official time of 2:04:27.

It was a very pleasing result to have trained so hard to achieve a goal, and then to leave it all out on the course and make it. I’d shaved about 8 minutes off my previous Half Marathon PB which was set during my first marathon in 2022.

NNC0519-0130 Clinical Trial

Let me preface all of this with the following caveat. I am not a running coach. I am not a doctor. This is all my personal account of experimenting with running long distances while on a clinical trial of a GLP-1 GIP drug. It may give you an insight into how I fuel my runs. But if you are planning on doing similar, you should have a conversation with your doctor first.

In late June I received an email from Paratus Clinical Research regarding a clinical trial for a new weight loss drug. I was on their database because I was set to take part in a new Covid vaccine trial in January but contracted Covid just before I was to go in for my jab. As a result I was excluded from that trial, but I remained in their database with all my testing results from January.

This new drug is from Novo Nordisk, makers of the Semaglutide drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Where Ozempic / Wegovy are GLP-1 agonists, NNC0519-0130 is GLP-1 / GIP similar to Tirzepatide, sold under the name Mounjaro. It slows gastric emptying like Semaglutide but also decreases blood sugar by promoting insulin secretion.

I wasn’t feeling depressed or even down about my weight. I felt incredibly healthy even though I was between 115 and 120kg. My running was strong and I was on track for some really pleasing results in races later in the year. I had even expressed interest in running UTA 50 next May. But my weight was a limiting factor of just how fast I could go. Running a sub-4 hour marathon was not even a possibility. So I contacted Paratus and expressed interest.

A week before the trial began I undertook a series of tests at Paratus. As part of the screening process I had a conversation with a doctor regarding my current diet and some changes I could make. As a result of that conversation I started to have the recommended serving size of my meals. A bowl of weetbix went from 5 to 2 biscuits. When I made porridge I used the recommended 1/2 cup measure instead of just eyeballing it. By the following week, just by making a few simple changes I dropped 1kg.

I began the clinical trial on 4 July 2024 weighing 116.2kg. The clinical trial is a double blind trial comparing different doses of the test drug NNC0519-0130, with placebo, and Mounjaro (Tirzepatide). Mounjaro is administered via the Mounjaro pen, while NNC0519-0130 and placebo are administered via the Novo Pen. I am on the Novo Pen, so I either have NNC0519-0130 or placebo. But if I’m on placebo it’s the best placebo effect ever. I noticed the effect of the drug on the first day. Straight after getting my first injection I had lunch at the shopping centre as I was pretty hungry after fasting blood tests. I didn’t feel hungry again until late on that first day and it wasn’t even strong hunger. Six weeks in and I’ve barely felt hungry in that whole time. It’s amazing how full I feel, for how long.

I’ve been measuring my weight every Thursday since the trial started. Through 6 weeks I am down 9.1kg or 7.83% body weight:
Week 0: 116.2kg
Week 1: 112.5kg -3.7 -3.7
Week 2: 112.9kg +0.4 -3.3
Week 3: 109.3kg -3.6 -6.9
Week 4: 107.2kg -2.1 -9.0
Week 5: 107.7kg +0.5 -8.5
Week 6: 107.1kg -0.6 -9.1

Running on NNC0519-0130

I searched all over the internet looking for info on running while on these types of peptides. I searched long distance running on Mounjaro, marathon training on Ozempic, running with Wegovy and all of the combinations of each. I tried Google, YouTube, I even turned to Twitter. Turns out there isn’t much out there. I guess most people who get onto these drugs aren’t coming in with three marathons under their belts. Not a judgement. Just a fact, because there was zero information available. On Day 0 I had a chat to the Paratus doctor about my plans to run City2Surf and Sydney Marathon. Carb loading is pretty hard to do when you’re on a calorie deficit. They suggested I might have to intake gels on the run to make up for my lack of available carbs.

3k Time Trial – 24 July 2024

For the first three weeks of the trial most of my runs had been easy Zone 2 jogs. I was getting used to the effects and trying to prioritise consistency over high effort. There were a couple of short interval type runs. But nothing resembling a full send. 20 days into the trial, I had a crack at a 3k time trial. My legs were burning after 2km. It was like I just had no way of replenishing my muscles as they worked. I’d had porridge for breakfast and this run began at almost 11am. Usually that would be fine for a relatively short hard run. But I just had nothing to give. In that moment I became worried about my ability to run out 14km of the City2Surf, let alone finishing a marathon. The following day I tried for a steady 10km run. Slightly faster than easy Zone 2 pace. My legs gave out after 7km of that run too. I decided I couldn’t do a hard run without fuelling on the day with simple sugars from gels and drink mixes.

Hard 10k Fully Fuelled – 28 July 2024

This was my first fully fuelled hard run. It was a hard 10k in the morning.
My intake for this run was:
2 x sachets of Maurten Drink Mix 320 plus added electrolytes in the form of Salvital before. 158g carbs, 640 cal.
90g Precision Hydration gel during the run. 90g carbs, 360 cal.
Total carbs 248.
Total calories 1000.
Stats for this run courtesy of the Garmin Connect App are as follows:
Distance 10.15km
Time 55:22
Avg Pace 5:27/km
Avg Heart Rate 158 bpm
Calories 1,059
Almost an exact match in terms of calories in and calories out. Noting I’m still in a clinical trial to test the efficacy of a weight loss drug. I need to maintain about a 500 cal daily deficit. So I was very happy with how the drink mix and gel worked for fuelling the run. At the time it was my 2nd fastest 10k per Strava. City2Surf was back on!

I then went back to easy jogging and controlling my food intake. I don’t want to take on gels and carb loaded drink mixes for daily jogging. Only for the hard efforts. I can still jog in Zone 2 for about an hour with relative ease. And this has helped to keep lowering my weight as time goes on.

3 x 3km Intervals at City2Surf Pace – 7 August 2024

My final hard effort to lock in my fuelling strategy for City2Surf. The plan was to run 3 x 3km at goal C2S race pace 5:20/km with a warm up, cool down and 3 minutes between intervals.
Intake:
1L Precision Hydration Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix mixed at 1.5 strength for added electrolyte concentration before. 90g carbs, 360 cal.
30g carb, 100mg caffeine Precision Hydration gel before. 30g carbs, 120 cal.
90g Precision Hydration gel during. 90g carbs, 360 cal.
Total carbs 210g.
Total calories 840.
Stats for 3 x 3km interval from Garmin Connect:
Distance 11.93km
Time 1:06:16
Avg Pace 5:33/km
Avg Heart Rate 151 bpm
Calories 1,156
A bit of a calorie deficit and I definitely felt my legs going by the end of the run. This run set a new 10km PB (53:16) since I started recording my runs on Strava. I now felt very confident in my strategy for running a hard City2Surf.

City2Surf 11 August 2024

My favourite event of the year, running 14km from Sydney to Bondi Beach. This year with 90,000 other runners and walkers. Buoyed by the last hard interval I went in with a plan to run under 75 minutes. I wanted to average around 5:20/km up to the start of Heartbreak Hill. Then just to give steady effort for the 1.5km climb up to the top of Vaucluse before trying to pick up the pace a little knowing I had a long downhill to make up the time lost going up Heartbreak.

The first few kilometres were fantastic. I eased off on the climbs and let gravity do the work on the downhills. It was really fun getting up to speed on the downs. One of the drops was particularly fun where I found another runner who was doing about the same pace as me. I acted like I was a running back and they were my lead blocker as I just followed them through every gap in the crowd.

I was averaging right on 5:20/km to the base of Heartbreak. Kilometre 7 took 6:19 with 56m of elevation. The first half of kilometre 8 was about the same. So I had 6.5km to make up about 1 minute. Across the top of the ridge of Dover Heights averaged about 5:20/km again and I had the huge downhill to make it all up heading into Bondi Beach. By this stage my legs were really tired. But I dug deep heading along Campbell Parade to the turnaround point. My watch hit the 13km mark about 100m before the 13km flag on the course. Once I reached the 13km flag I had exactly 1 minute to go under 75 minutes. It was going to be touch and go but I didn’t think I had another 5 minute kilometre in me. I tried my best but it appeared out of reach.

To my amazement, the finish line appeared on the road before I expected. And as I stopped my watch going over the timing mat, I hit exactly 75 minutes.

The text message came through shortly after: Congrats Josh, You finished the 2024 City2Surf in a time of 01:14:59. Keep up the training! See you in 2025! You couldn’t get closer to your target time if you tried.

Intake:
1L Precision Hydration Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix mixed at 1.5 strength for added electrolyte concentration before. 90g carbs, 360 cal.
30g carb, 100mg caffeine Precision Hydration gel before. 30g carbs, 120 cal.
2 x 90g Precision Hydration gel during. 90g carbs, 360 cal.
Total carbs 300g.
Total calories 1300.
Stats for City2Surf from Garmin Connect:
Distance 14.02km
Time 1:15:00
Avg Pace 5:21/km
Avg Heart Rate 164 bpm
Calories 1,399

Moving Forward

I am entered for Sydney Marathon on 15 September 2024. I plan on easing right back on the pace for the marathon distance. I will have one practice long run out to about 3.5 hours to test fuelling on a long slow run. Other than that long run, the rest of my running in the lead up will be unfuelled by gels and drink mixes. Afterall, I am still on this clinical trial and I don’t want to have too many days where I’m taking on large amounts of simple sugars.

After Sydney Marathon I will get back on the bike and prepare for Sydney to Gong bike ride. It’s a charity event raising money for MS. I’ve always thought it would be a fun event but was never sure I’d be able to make the full trip. But now I am certain 82km from Tempe to Wollongong will be no problem. For that ride I will definitely have to fuel appropriately.

For both of these events I’ll be estimating my calorie output beforehand and planning on taking on about the same amount of calories in the form of drink mix and gels. For the marathon I’ll be running with a running vest and water bottles. I don’t usually run with a vest in races. But there is a very specific reason to this year as I’ll be able to take on calories with my hydration and electrolytes.

Fundraising

We lost Mum 10 years ago to Pancreatic Cancer. I have been supporting PanKind for the last few years with my runs and other fundraising ventures. Their mission is to triple the pancreatic cancer survival rate by 2030 and dramatically improve the quality of life for those impacted by the disease. If you can afford to give just a little I would really appreciate it. Donate here to support PanKind and my Sydney Marathon run. If you can’t, I understand. A few words of encouragement on my socials are always welcome.
@PiesJosh on Instagram
@PiesJosh on Twitter
I also have a Sydney to Gong fundraising page if you’d like to support MS research.

Anyone Else?

If you are going through similar experiences of running or other long distance events while on GLP-1 / GIP medication, I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up on the socials above, PiesJosh in most places.

My Marathon Journey

The Short Version

After Covid-19 lockdowns and eating porridge every morning my weight ballooned to 138kg. I needed to do something. I ate healthier, I started cycling again, and then I took up running. A bloke on Twitter called Bogues got me onto Zone 2 training. Then I entered a few races including the Virtual City2Surf with Melina, Hawks Nest Sprint Triathlon with Neil and Jenn and the SMH Half Marathon. Now I’m a few days away from toeing the line for my first marathon on the Gold Coast.

Josh’s GCM Donation Page for PanKind

The Long Version

In the last few months I’ve joked on Bats and Balls Podcast that the show has become more about sim racing and running than about NRL, AFL, and other sports. In part that’s because our lives have drifted that way. I can’t speak for The Producer and the fun he’s having playing GT7 but I can speak to the influence running and fitness in general have had on my life in the last year.

Since my teenage years I was always heavy. But as a teenager I was super fit. I left school at 100kg playing hours of basketball every day. I could dunk in Year 12. The following year I was in the Army and during Infantry School I ran an 18:30 5k at 105kg. That was probably the fittest I’ve ever been. I only did one year full time Army. Since then my weight has fluctuated even though I have consistently played sport. Basketball, cricket, soccer, I even played two seasons of Aussie Rules. More recently I have played Masters of Rugby League and I still play Basketball. But throughout that I also ate and drank a lot. And playing park level sport doesn’t necessarily mean you need to stay in peak physical fitness to be competitive.

Fast forward to 2021. Like half the population I’d spent my disposable income on a new bike because what else could we do with it? But after lockdowns and eating porridge for breakfast every morning, the bike was gathering dust in the garage after a few rides here and there.

3 April 2021

I stepped on the scales and it read 138.15kg. I’d been heavier. At one point I had blown out to 143kg before a concerted effort on the Man Shakes brought me back into line. But this time I drew the line at 138. I was feeling lethargic and just generally in a bad way physically and mentally.

The next day was Easter Sunday and I took the kids to Wylde MTB Park. Just played around on the pump track but it felt good to get the legs moving again after so long. The day after I went with Brendan and Erik to the Easter Monday game between Parramatta and Wests Tigers. Two days into this latest health kick I was keen to make a change. We parked for free far from Stadium Australia and I made the boys walk there with me. Then instead of the standard pie and sauce I had a Vegan Rainbow Bowl. Blody tasty stuff. I was away. But the exercise didn’t come quite as quick as the dietary changes.

I adjusted what I ate. Mostly just reduced carb intake and ate way less take away. It wasn’t a full on vegan diet or keto. I just ate less pizza and sandwiches. Dinner was often chicken breast cooked in the air fryer with broccoli and brussels sprouts. I often had Man Shake for breakfast. But none of this was hard and fast. Mostly I just made sure there were more vegetables than before. I stopped having porridge for breakfast every morning and started eating more eggs.

I began cycling again. My first ride was a 25km spin down to the M7 cycleway. That was about my limit. I noted on my Strava that I listened to Episodes 7 & 8 of FitBet Pod. It was around this time that I decided to only listen to FitBet on the bike. So every hour of cycling was equal to one hour of FitBet. And I wouldn’t let myself listen to the pod off the bike. The podcast had been going since 2018 as a $1000 bet between comedians Dilruk Jayasinha and Ben Lomas to see who could get under 100kg first. I found a lot of similarities between their stories and mine. And it was a big part of the motivation to keep going. There was a huge back catalogue so I had plenty of episodes to catch up on.

By July I had dropped around 15kg. The knees didn’t hurt as much after basketball. So I started running. My Strava calendar in July 2021 is balanced between cycling longer distances and short runs out to about 6km. I found an out and back 5km course which I used as my benchmark. 17 July 2021 – 31:39, 23 July 2021 – 32:10, 24 July 2021 – 30:54. It was around this time I posted something on Twitter and started DMing Bogues. He introduced me to the concept of Zone 2 training. I’d understood the idea of fat burning zone as exercise related to weight loss. The idea that a long fast walk was better than running fast for fat burning. But I’d never considered it for training. My first Zone 2 test resulted in 6.5km in 1 hour at 9:16/km. Turns out my HR was a little low averaging 124bpm. I started researching HR zones. That sent me down a YouTube wormhole I still haven’t emerged from. I think my ideal Zone 2 heart rate is in the range of 137-142bpm. Now I’m completely on board with training slow to run fast. If any of this sounds like something you want to try check out Phil Maffetone and give the Extramilest podcast a listen. They’re good starting points.

Then in August our suburb was locked down to exercise only 5km from home. No more long bike rides. And running in Zone 2 took on more importance. Bogues introduced me to the 2 Zoners. Just a motivational group of blokes who like to run and support each other. The Zone 2 runs continued and it was amazing how quickly my pace improved while running at the same heart rate. Not that pace matters that much when on an easy run. But I’m down around 6:25/km on my easy runs.

18 October 2021 – Virtual City2Surf

The first time I really had a chance to test out my training. The City2Surf was not run on course because of Covid-19 concerns. But you could still run a virtual race as a lot of other large runs around the world had done. Melina entered and I walked the entire course with her. She was battling to finish and I motivated her to the point of exhaustion but I was so proud when she completed the 14km walk. A few days later I ran my virtual race over the same course. I paced the race really well. Comfortably running the first 8km before slowly ramping up the pace over the final 6km. Finished the 14km in a time of 1:30:27 to earn my Virtual City2Surf finishers medal.

All of this exercise had me in a really good place mentally as well. I was so motivated that I earned a promotion at work. My first promotion in 22 years. By Boxing Day 2021 my 5km time was down to 27:33. I sold off all of my homebrew gear because I really don’t drink that much these days. That was a hobby I poured my heart into for a long time. I won awards at the national competition. But I just didn’t feel motivated to brew anymore. So I moved all my gear on to brewers still keen on the process. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a bath beer every now and then. But I drink way less than I used to. And that is a healthy thing.

March 19 2022 – Hawks Nest Triathlon.

Training progressed well and my mate Neil asked if I wanted to enter a triathlon. I’d never done one before but I entered the Sprint distance with Neil. Jenn her sister Booz and some trail running mates also entered. Jenn’s accomplishments in running over the years have been inspiring. Our suburb was out of extreme lockdowns so I could ride longer distances. I bought a used road bike off Facebook Marketplace which meant I didn’t have to ride my mountain bike with road tyres anymore. Compared to the tank of a MTB my used road bike was a sports car. Not quite the Ferrari of an Ironman bike. But a quick coupe at least. I even managed to get a couple of swims in. Though I didn’t do nearly enough swimming training. Hawks Nest Triathlon was a fun weekend in March. I stayed in the camper trailer next door to the transition area. As our Sprint distance race was the last of the day, we watched a few of the other races and soaked up the atmosphere. While I’ve swum all my life and could bob around in the surf all day I’ve never tried to swim out past the breakers. One of the turning buoys was right where the waves were forming and it took me three attempts to get around it. Then I was disorientated and wound up about 10m further out to sea than the rest of the competitors swimming in single file towards the next buoy. Eventually we turned and made it back to shore. Lungs were burning from the effort of the swim and I knew I had to settle it down a bit. I took my time in transition before heading out on the 20km bike ride. Neil was comfortably in front of me. I never expected to beat him but I did attempt to catch him or at least shorten the gap. All of that pushing on the bike had my calves pinging in the last 2km of the ride. By the 5km run I couldn’t stretch out and run at all. I basically ran the whole leg with my calves threatening to cramp at every step. But I did finish in a time of 1:42:25 with a 5km run time of 31:55. For the record, Neil finished it in 1:26:59.

with Neil after the Hawks Nest Triathlon

May 15 2022 – SMH Half Marathon

Around the time I got talking to Bogues my ultimate goal was to run a full marathon. I think that was the basis of my first message to him. How to train for one. But one of the most significant events for me was racing the SMH Half Marathon around the streets of Sydney. I’d stretched my long runs out past 21.1km already. But I’d never run one at race pace. Always in easy training pace. The best part about racing the SMH Half was putting all the training and theory into practice in a race situation. The best lesson was race day preparation. Two weeks out from the SMH Half I ran a long run under fatigue. I was completely spent by the end of it. I had worked overnight shift and run 8km the day before. The following week I did the same run fully rested, nourished from a decent meal the day before and well hydrated. I also had my new hydration vest purchased to make long runs easier. That run was extremely confidence building with a strong last 5km just to test the legs out. I went into the SMH Half Marathon full of confidence. I set my Garmin Pace Pro strategy on my watch and ran close to my goal time of 2:10. I didn’t expect the course to be quite so hilly and that ended up slowing me down a fair bit. Looking at the results I did pace the race really well though. First half 1:06:53, Second half 1:10:17 for an overall time of 2:17:11. Of note my positions for each split: First half 5557, Second half 4686. That meant my pacing strategy worked and I could trust my training as long as I attempted an achievable pace.

Gold Coast Marathon

All of that has led to this next chapter. I don’t say final chapter because this fitness caper has become a lifestyle rather than training for one specific goal. My training is going well. A mate once told me that if you can get a training run out to 32km then the adrenalin and crowd will get you to the finish line of a full marathon. I managed to complete 5 laps of the Nepean river walk a few weeks ago thrown in with some car key issues which had my alarm going off every lap when I went for my hydration. But I did it. And the last kilometre was the fastest of the run. So my fitness is where I need it to be to finish a marathon. Last weekend I had one last confidence building run where I ran my virtual City2Surf course of 14km attempting to maintain race pace without looking at my watch. Each km lap when the watch buzzed I checked to see how the pace was compared to my goal pace of 6:15/km. I pretty much nailed it for a large chunk of the run. And then I finished off with a quick last 2km home and the legs had plenty left in them. Finished the course in 1:25:12 or 5 minutes faster than the Virtual City2Surf in October 2021. And that was at marathon pace, not racing for a fast 14km. After the SMH Half I’ve decided a confidence builder the weekend before the race is my way to go.

Weather forecast is for rain and a sourtherly wind. Which means the first 16km into a headwind, followed by 21km tailwind and a final 5km push into the breeze to finish it off. I love training out and back with a headwind first followed by a tailwind. One of my favourite training runs was a long run down along Botany Bay to Georges River into the headwind with a tailwind home. I’ve downloaded the course for Gold Coast Marathon to my watch and set the Pace Pro Strategy for 4:25:00 or around 6:13/km pace. I am confident I can run the time after all my training. But I won’t be afraid of slowing down if my body isn’t feeling that pace. I’ve done the work, now it’s time to put it into practice.

Weight

You may have noticed that I haven’t even mentioned weight for most of this post. That’s because weight hasn’t really factored into my thinking since I started getting fitter. For what it’s worth I’m sitting around 110-112kg most of the time. I feel ridiculously healthy though. If I could drop a few more kilograms that might make me faster on the bike so it’s not undesirable. But weight really hasn’t been my focus for a long time. My body is definitely carrying less fat. My legs are a lot stronger. And I think more important than all of that, I’m in a really good headspace. I have a positive outlook on most things these days. Though the Parramatta Eels, GWS Giants and New York Knicks test me on a weekly basis.

If you’ve got anything out of this please consider donating to my Gold Coast Marathon donation page. I’m raising money for PanKind – The Australian Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. We lost Mum 8 years ago to Pancreatic Cancer. So it’s a charity that is close to my heart.

Josh’s GCM Donation Page for PanKind