A New Year.

Morning crew! I hope and pray this finds you all well and loving the start of 2022. Our Christmas and New Years has been wild and SO so busy at the shop. All good things but I am pretty exhausted. Looking forward to a little down time to recharge. This week, I have a write up I have been asked to contribute for AAA Racing in the lead up to my cross country run. Have a read, follow them and lets rock into this event full gass. Much love yall.

AAA Family!  What is happening?!  

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mat Grills.  Family man (married with two daughters 12 and 8), owner of two specialty coffee shops and general all round guy.  Some of you may have seen me at races or up to random antics on social media.  None the less, Alun has hit me up to do a little writing and to contribute some content for the AAA gang in the lead up to an event I am doing later this year.  A little background first….

I have been floating around the Australian ultra and trail running scene for over 12years now.  I have finished many AAA Racing events and known Alun and Suzanna for quite some time.  I have competed in over 50 ultramarathons both in Australia and the USA (Leadville 100).  I have been reasonably successful in a number of these races, however, hang my hat on my consistent training, hard work and daily practice of getting out the door and simply putting one foot in front of each other.  My favourite race distance is 100miles on trail and have done Glasshouse 100, UTA 100, Brisbane Valley Rail Trail 100, a self organised 200miler, won the inaugural Buffalo Stampede, Coast 2 Koscki, ran relay from Bundy to Brisbane and back with dad and a heap of races in between.  I am generally known for my big training volume, shirtless/minimal antics and tattooed exterior.  I love bringing the good vibes and seeing people do their best wether that means running their first km or completing a 100miler.  Joy comes from seeing people set a goal and achieving it!

So, I guess the reason Alun has asked me to start doing this is to create some excitement and insight into the venture I have coming up later this year….something I have had vision for for about eight years now.  On the 22nd of September, 2022 I will be starting at the western most point of Australia (Steep Point) and running 100km a day for 50days to the eastern most point of Australia (Byron Bay).  In lead up, in 2019 I ran 100 half marathons in a row and in 2021, ran 10x 50k and 40x marathons consecutively.  This will be my next life legacy and I would love for you to come along for the ride with me.

Over the coming months, I will keep you in the loop, touching base with my training, racing and any other randomness I get up to!  Immediately though, I will see some of you at Hares and Hounds this Sunday.  I am looking forward to getting back to some racing and building my year, brick by brick before the main event.  

I hope my writings and adventures might encourage some of you to take up your own challenges in 2022, push yourselves and go above and beyond anything you might have ever achieved.  I am much like you; a normal ‘everyday Joe’ with massive dreams and desire to see them achieved.  Much love friends, follow along on Instagram at Adventures and Activism and I hope to see some of you super soon!