Long Run
Today I have the pleasure of posting the conversation I had with Zac O’Neil who is a wildly inspirational human. I finally did it! I finally reached out to someone I’ve never spoken to or met before to ask them some questions about what they do and I’m really glad I did.
Deciding to reach out to Zac was somewhat serendipitous as I came across a video of him that my friend had shared on Instagram. The video detailed Zac’s experience completing an ultra marathon called Coast 2 Kosci, a 246 kilometre race from Eden on the South Coast of NSW, to Charlotte’s Pass, via the highest point in Australia. An incredible feat that left me with a few questions that I wanted to ask Zac. So I nervously composed a long and rambling message explaining why I wanted to interview him. I conversed with myself and compiled a list of reasons why he may or may not take me up on my offer but shortly after I’d sent it, my message was met with a friendly “For sure mate, I’d love to”.
Before getting into any of the notions I took away from our conversation, one thing that stands out about Zac is his willingness to share what he’s learned from his experiences in running. All symbolism aside, it’s evident that he’s taken the long and hard road in order to build his mindset and resilience from the ground up and I can feel a sense of pride and confidence in what he now knows and how he would love for others to take these lessons away for themselves.
Running seems like the perfect medium to use to push yourself. I’ve talked to people about this before but there’s something about the simplicity of the sport and how accessible it is that poses a challenge to anyone who could physically decide to get up and go for a run at any moment. How far you run, how fast you run and where you run is where the variables come in and these challenges are where you begin to see the endless possibilities of how far you can push yourself, your mind and your body as you work up from your first short run, to an ultra marathon like the Coast 2 Kosci.
The great thing about running is scale. The prospect of Zac running 246km for the first time is comparable to the difficulties of someone running a shorter distance like a marathon or a park run. It may not take 37 hours to complete a park run but to some people the perceived challenge can feel equivalent to what Zac has undertaken. Despite distance, time or whether we’re talking about running or not, Zac believes that If you truly care about something and you want it bad enough, you’ll do everything you can to try to make that happen. Whilst this speaks to his immense attention to detail in preparation and the 1%’ers as he says, I also think it poses an interesting challenge when it comes to the determination of success or failure.
People have different definitions of success but I reflect on Zac’s process with the thought that if you are doing everything you can to make something you truly care about happen it gives you a point of accountability that you can reference when it comes time to the determination success or failure. (This may need to be converted into a flow chart but bear with me) If you succeed, you can be confident that you did everything you needed in order to achieve what you wanted. If you fail, you can ask yourself if you truly did everything you could. If that’s the case, you can be proud of putting yourself in the best position to succeed and knowing that you won’t die wondering if it was possible or not. If you didn’t do everything you could, or your circumstances changed, or you think there’s still room for improvement. You can always line up at the start line again next time and give it another shot.
Zac - I’m Zac O'neil, 26 years old from the South Coast of NSW. I started running after my first relationship breakdown 5 or so years ago. At first it was to clear my mind, get fit and keep some weight off which soon turned into a fun little local 9km race in Kiama. The feeling of accomplishment I got from doing a time I was proud of had me hooked from that point. 5 years later it’s spiralled into me running a 246km race (Coast 2 Kosci) and practically transformed my outlook on mindset and what the human body is capable of.
Brett - That’s such an incredible path of progression over relatively short period of time. Like I mentioned to you earlier, I came across the video of you doing the Coast 2 Kosci and was initially blown away by the enormity of the task at hand but at the time assumed you’d been running all your life. The fact that you’ve reached that level in this time frame is definitely something to be admired.
If you had to talk specifically about what’s changed in your outlook on mindset and what the human body is capable of how could you describe that to 21 year old Zac just about to start his first 9km run?
Zac - When I was younger I think I had a victim mindset, maybe I felt I wasn’t the right shape to be a runner or my body just holds on to fat more than other people. Over time I started to realise that I was using excuses to hold me back, I started listening to people like David Goggins, Cameron Hanes, etc which helped push me in the direction of realising that our brains really do tell us lies and hold us back. The more I kept pushing myself in running the more it started to flow over into other aspects of my life. If it was possible to go back in time and tell my 21 year old self about this, I probably wouldn’t because it was something I had to learn through hard work and determination to be better everyday. I might just say to him that it’s going to take day in day out work and you better be ready!
Brett - I love that man, i always talk about how I wouldn’t believe the advice I’d love to give to a younger me because I feel like it’s something I wouldn’t have truly appreciated until I experienced it myself which definitely aligns with what you’ve just said.
Speaking of being ready, how do you prepare for something like Coast 2 Kosci? How much of the preparation is physical and putting in the Km’s and how much is mental?
Zac - There’s a saying in the ultra world that it’s 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head, but I think it’s 100% mental and 100% physical because you need both. I believe if you want something bad enough you will make the time for it to just get the work done no questions asked, it has to be second nature to just put the shoes on without even second guessing if your going out to get the work done, it’s now a given to me.
I usually will start a proper training block about 12 weeks out from the race, at the start of the Coast 2 Kosci block I was running about 80-90km a week with 3 gym sessions. Towards the peak of the block I was doing around 110-120km a week with 2000+ some times 3000m elevation gain, mixed in with 2 gym sessions a week. The biggest thing I try to prioritise when training that much is adequate nutrition and sleep, especially with working a physical job 5 days a week also.
Brett - I can't even begin to fathom how extensive those training weeks are and it's pretty evident that there's a clear crossover between the physical and mental aspect which is just as important in the training as it is in a race.
Are there any other parts of your life that have also had a positive influence from this mindset? I'm also interested to hear what your advice would be to someone who may be inspired by you and what you do.
Zac - Once i started to realise that I could lock myself in and run those distances I figured out that the only thing holding me back in my life was my brain. So once that seed was planted I started to think of what else I could do. So I started to get into the gym and move towards having the body that I’ve envisioned since I was a kid, it’s quite shallow but still a hard thing to achieve nevertheless. The other aspect it helped me in was my work, I’m not sure why that happened but it did. If I have to do the 1%’ers right in my running than I have to do them right in every aspect of my life.
Some people tell me that I’m crazy or special which is flattering but the truth is I’m not special at all, this is something that anyone can do. If you want it badly enough and are willing to work hard at it then it’s possible!
“The best time to plant a tree other than 10 years ago is today”
This is a great quote to read if you feel like you’ve missed the boat and should have started a long time ago. Just start today you will not regret it one bit, trust me. It’s going to take a long time but good things come to those who wait. These lesson don’t even have to applied to running, they can be applied to anything you’ve been putting off in your life. The sooner you start the sooner you’ll be at the finish line and sooner you can start that next challenge. Get after it!
Brett - I try to take on a quote every day and you've just given me today's one! I often talk about a message that my physiotherapist sent me that was huge in getting me through my own experiences and has had a flow on into other parts of my life "People fail, not by aiming too high and missing, but by aiming too low and hitting." and I think that goes hand in hand with what you've said there. Be audacious with what you want to do in life but don't expect it to arrive without doing everything you can to make it happen.
Just going back to your video to kinda wrap this up a bit. You mentioned you had a time goal in mind for Coast 2 Kosci and although you finished, you didn't hit that time. I certainly wouldn't consider what you did a failure but how do you reflect on what you did achieve by finishing the race and what did you learn that I'm sure you'll use to either try again or move onto something bigger and better?
Zac - Yep that’s a great quote people definitely aim to low!!
I was super disappointed with the time that I had finished in and it played on my mind for a while after the race. I had worked so hard and fully believed I would get that time only to be let down on race day. Now I’m left to battle with the thought that maybe I just wasn’t good enough to achieve a time like that on that day, or my body let me down from poor preparation and making decisions off the cuff on race day. Doing races this long that go for such a long time, it’s usually a given that something won’t go as you’ve planned. Being resilient is a must in ultras and especially in life, I’m proud that I didn’t drop my head and just quit. I know there will be huge challenges I’ll have to face in the future that’s for sure, hopefully after this race I’m a step closer to being equiped to face those. I learned that I’m capable of just gritting my teeth and getting the bastard done no matter what.
Brett - What you talked about there with the ability to push through certain things when your back is against the wall is a quality I'm sure most people wish they had and that can't be found without experiencing that feeling of wanting to give up. Obviously people have different levels of tolerance when it comes to reaching that point of challenge and I think one part of this conversation with you that I think people can learn from is the ability to start somewhere, find something that challenges you and be open to the possibilities of how far you can push and what you can achieve when you really want something. Last question, what can I expect to see you doing in the next 5 years with twice the experience you have in running from now?
Zac - This year I’ll be in the Middle East and europe so hoping to get a big race ticked off over that way, at the moment I’ll go back and do Coast 2 Kosci at the end of the year in the fashion I’d originally envisioned. After that I’m keen to give the bad water 135 a crack next year also. Haven’t really spoke to many people about this one but I have my eye on running across our great southern land before I turn 30, so I look forward to starting to plan and execute that.