48 Hour Recharge
Last weekend, I hit pause on routine and took a quick trip to Port Macquarie—a spot full of good running vibes and better fish and chips. I knocked out a solid 30km training run, tested my EV on the open road (hello, range anxiety), and enjoyed the clarity that comes with stepping away from everyday noise. No emails, no chores, just time to run, drive, think, and reset. Turns out, all it takes is three laps, two gels, one great drive—and zero distractions—to feel recharged and ready.
My Shoe Rotation
To say I am a fan of good running shoes is an understatement and so it’s been one of the enjoyable elements of training for a marathon to start playing around with different shoes trying to find one that suits best. The good thing is that I found one that suits me perfectly well and so I’ve gone in big on them.
Day 50 Update
When I started this 100-day marathon challenge, the goal was simple: run a race I’m proud of. Now halfway in, I’ve realised it’s not just about the running — it’s about training smarter, planning life better, and having the right people around. Here’s what I’ve learned — and how I’m shifting gears for the final stretch.
My Career
I’ve wanted to write this piece for a long period of time because when you talk to people you work with particularly new people they always ask you about your career, so after putting something together for them I actually enjoyed the task of going back and thinking about the different Roels I have had, the different people I have met along the way and the way that they have all shaped me into the person I am today
Garmin Forerunner 265 Review
Thinking about getting serious with your running? I recently made the switch from an Apple Watch to the Garmin Forerunner 265, and it surprised me in all the right ways. Here’s what happened when I put it to the test.
Sydney Half Marathon Recap
So I finally managed to put a running race together and not fall apart!! Plenty went into preparing for the Sydney Half Marathon to ensure that I performed to the best I could and luckily it all seemed to work and come together on the day.
My 100 Day Challenge
After two marathons that left me frustrated, I’ve set myself a 100-day challenge ahead of the Sunshine Coast Marathon. This time, I’m doing things differently—and sharing the journey publicly. Here’s why it matters more than ever.
Canberra Marathon recap
Six months on from my first ever marathon I decided to have another crack and see if I could make an improvement on my previous result and maybe alleviate a little of the disappointment I felt having not executed my first one as I would have liked.
Watching Football - Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich, my favourite football team in the world and one of the top 5 biggest in Europe. Combine that with a world class stadium and you have a pretty amazing football experience
Watching European Football
One of the most memorable things I have done over the last few years has been to ravel to a whole bunch of different European football matches. I always thought that football was football but the more matches you attend the more you realise that while football fans are passionate all around the world some places the experience is just different. I’ve put this series together to share some of the highlights of the different places to watch some football, but I’d recommend them all.
Goals for 2025
Every year post my review of how the previous year went I like to lock in a few different focus areas for the coming year. Most years its what is most important to me at the start of the year and sometimes they change throughout but I always find that it is importance to start with something clear in mind.
Highlights of 2024
2024 was a year to remember for a lot of different reasons. At the turn of the calendar every year I like to take the time to look back on everything I had done and the memories I had created and enjoy them once again, but also to use them as motivation for the year ahead and the things I want to achieve.
Here I go through a list of my top 7 from 2024
Munich Marathon
I guess not everything always goes to plan, or maybe sometimes the plan we set out isn’t actually achievable, so writing this less than 12 hours after completing the Munich Marathon I haven’t really decided how I feel looking back at it.
NRL Greatness
Greatness, it’s rare that we take the time to appreciate something in all of its greatness in the moment, we normally wait till time has passed and then reflect that based on what has occurred since, that the performance displayed greatness.
Ironman 70.3 #20
I read somewhere that doing an Ironman is 90% mental and 10% and while I’m not sure if those percentages are correct I do believe that being able to complete one requires you to have a significantly stronger mind than it requires you to have strong physical fitness.
MooTri Race Recap
Okay so it has been a while since I did my last triathlon, at last count it was around 1460 days, to be precise.
I think for many people life got away from them during COVID as routines changed, lock down restricted us from activities we did, and in general we just reprioritised some things over others. For me one of the things that changed was that during lockdown triathlon was a hard sport to do, big races got cancelled and the desire to endlessly train and prepare for a race that might not go ahead meant that I probably didn’t stay as active as I could.
Europe Part 2
Holidays don’t always go to plan and for us our trip to Milan didn’t get off to a good start and at times it felt like it was never going to get better, but the important thing is to appreciate the opportunity you have got and try and make the most of it, which looking back I think we did.
Europe Part 1
I wouldn’t go as far as saying we are now experts at finding our way around town, but we have got it pretty sorted in terms of getting around via public transport and we’ve been enough times now that we have started to develop some of our own little favourite ways of getting around.
Travelling Again - 2024
What can I say, I like to travel. I also like European football, so what could be a better combination than travelling to watch European football? And that’s exactly what we did.
This time we decided to do things a little differently to last to hopefully maximise how many games we could see and minimise the lengthy travelling in between games… First stop Munich!!
My Bald Head’s a Symbol
Quite often I find that I get comments about my bald head, a lot of the standard stuff like the glare people get on the screen during Teams meetings, do I shampoo my head and then my face or wash my face and then my head…