What really happened at Gold Coast?

RUNLY NEWSLETTER #150
July 16th 2026
 
Robbie here, Runly founder.

It's been almost an entire month since my last founder update. For those that have been reading these founder updates for a while, you may have noticed that this year I went from weekly updates to fortnightly.

The idea was to try and pack more into them every couple of weeks rather than giving you surface level updates every week.

BUT.

Exactly two weeks I ago I was sitting at my hotel up in the Gold Coast trying to tick off what felt like an endless to-do list before the opening of the Gold Coast Marathon Expo.

So unfortunately I missed the last update (please forgive me).

But I'm back.

If I'm being really honest, I can't believe the GC Mara was almost two weeks ago. It is such a special race & weekend, I actually think it is underrated on the world stage.

It's a special place for a race, the vibes, the weather, the atmosphere.

And for us, activating at the expo is incredible. It's very likely the best expo in Australia. The organisation is fantastic, and the vibes are always super high.

We setup our activation at the expo on the Wednesday and if you are a long-time reader of this newsletter, you already know that bump-ins are guaranteed to be chaotic, sweaty, messy and long.

To be fair, I had help, and we got through it.

But not without issues.

One of our new displays broke straight out of the box (that's on me, I should've tested it back in Melbourne first).

But I tell ya' what...

There is very little that duct tape can't fix.

We wrapped it up like an ancient Egyptian mummy and it did the job.

On the subject of not testing the equipment, the new hooks that came with the display were AWFUL.

I sought them out because they had a high weight-bearing capacity, especially for vests.

Wait, let me just interrupt the flow of this update for just a second. I apologise for those that signed up for these updates expecting to get incredible running content, only to be bored to death from me talking about the weight-bearing capacity of display hooks.

Anyway, back to the hooks.

Day 1 rolled around. In the first 15 minutes we knew had a problem. Every time someone came and looked at a vest and pulled it off the racks the hooks went flying. They hooked the product on great, BUT THEY HOOKED ONTO THE DISPLAY SO POORLY.

Enter: Dave.

Around 6 months ago I got a message from Dave on my Instagram.

He said, 'Hey Robbie, I'm going to be running at GC if you need an extra hand at GC'.

I said YOU BET.

But wait, first let me take you back 12 hours before the opening of the expo.

I setup a group chat for our small team that would be working at the activation at the GC Expo.

A message comes through on the Whatsapp. It's Dave.

He sends through a long-ish message about how he can't wait to represent the brand, share stories, engage with the Runly community etc.

I was pumped.

I hadn't even met him in person yet. But I felt like I was standing in a Deep Heat drenched, dirty, suburban football club changing rooms getting the world's greatest pre-game motivational speech from a coach. I was ready to run through brick walls.

Back to the first morning.

Dave finds some of the special duct tape and within 10 minutes he had expertly cut and wrapped every single hook in the entire display so they were rock solid.

You would have no idea they'd been taped.

They didn't move for the entire weekend.

Legend status unlocked.

But wait, there's more. A few days before, I had messaged Dave to get his information so that I could pay him after the event.

He replied, 'Wait, I'm getting paid?'
😂

I know he reads this newsletter, but I can't believe he thought he was going to come help me out and work for three days and not get paid for it.

What a guy.

It would be remiss of me to not mention Dan. Many of you would have met Dan over the last 12 months at one of our events.

Dan came into the Runly family this time last year, when he offered to help at the Gold Coast Marathon.

Just like Dave, Dan made an immediate impact. He has since worked at all of our major events since - Gold Coast, Sydney & Melbourne.

Now, Dan is young, hungry & fast.

We collectively gave him a lot of stick during the expo when he told us he had looked up all of the big marathon results this year and told us he was the 52nd fastest man in Australia right now.

But, he undoubtedly walked the walk.

Dan competed in the 'Double' at Gold Coast, that is, a half marathon on the Saturday and the full marathon on the Sunday.

And I am extremely stoked to tell you that Dan finished 3rd in the double! A truly incredible effort.

After being on his feet for three days prior, running a half marathon the day before, Dan turned up and ran an incredible 2:38 marathon to get himself the bronze.

Of course, Dan ran the double in the new Performance Socks which sold out in a matter of days.

I felt like a proud Dad tracking him and finally seeing the result.

Overall, Gold Coast was another incredible weekend. An amazing opportunity to connect with our community and be part of a race that is weaved into the fabric of Australian running.

You can grab your limited edition Gold Coast City Edition Sock Pack here.

THE CANDY RELEASE:

Every now and then we come up with a new vest colourway. We've had a few limited edition releases that have come and gone over the years. But this one felt different, it wasn't your usual 'running product release'.

In case you missed it, we launched the Candy R700 Vest.

It's a fun play on its namesake. One of the best things about running (imo) is the fun you can have with your fuelling. There are no rules.

So instead of doing the usual thing you do for a running campaign, we did the opposite.

We scouted an old-school, retro convenience store that has 1995 written all over it.

We got some runners in there, a photographer, bought a couple hundred bucks of candy and just went to town.

It was fun, it was unusual.

I was a little bit worried that we might get some stern feedback about it from the general public.

Because as I said, it's not your usual 'running campaign'.

But I think that's what has made it special.

It's against the grain, different, unique.

And when you flex creative muscles in this way, you will always put yourself in a position for criticism.

But to my surprise, nothing. Nada. Not a single bad comment, DM or email about it.

To give you context into my thinking behind this campaign, this is a product that has over 1,000 verified 5-star reviews.

It's not a new product. It's fully-tested and worn by thousands of runners.

So, the campaign itself didn't have to prove it was high-performance, it's just a new colourway of the same great vest.

The campaign has been a great success.

It's sold out multiple times, and by that I mean every time it sells out we do a manual stock-check and if there's any left we put one more online, or two, one again.

The last of it is now online. If you're keen, you can grab the last of the R700 Candy Vests here.

That's all for this week.

Thank-you for being here on the journey with us, it means the world.

Run well,
Robbie

P.S this is my 150th founder update. I can't believe I have sat down 150 times to write this newsletter! Here's to another 150.