I ran my first marathon last year at City to Surf in August. It was a mammoth effort. I survived it, I ran under 4 hours (3’48) and was very happy with how I went considering I had only been running for a year. This is the story about the sophomore, the second album always has its challenges.

This year started with running some faster half marathons. I felt it was time to start thinking about the full again, I needed the challenge. I must have removed the painful memories of city to surf marathon last year from my brain.  I had heard Melbourne was a good course with many fellow BTers thinking of doing it.

This year the training was different. I had trained for a marathon before, I had built up to 30kms early on in the program running with Josh Bruins for his C2S marathon, I was regularly commuting to work on the bike and I had improved my pace by quite a lot.  This made for a different build up. There were many runs that I felt were real confidence boosters including: Yasso’s 800s in Port Hedland around camp with a heavy cold, a few super windy wet long runs, a long run with a 22k shift finishing at 4min/Kms with Simon, some great runs with Gill around the Tonkin loop and, to finish off, a huge improvement on the 3x3k intervals. It didn’t stop me being nervous!

To target a time that was a huge improvement on the last marathon made me nervous. Running is physical and mental.

Come race day, I was nervous. Finding parking, finding a toilet, eating the right food, drinking enough water, drinking too much water. Once I took that gel 15 mins before the start, took the jumper off and had a good pep talk from my wonderfully amazing wife, I was ready to go. I pulled into the appropriate sheep pen somewhere between the 3:00 and 3:10 pacers. Once I crossed the start it was inevitable: today I was going to run a marathon and at the end my legs will be really sore. They were feeling great though! Simon had told me to try get the first km somewhere under 4:30. That was my first goal. To do this I was making my way through the crowd trying to take in the scenery. Before I knew it, 4kms were up the crowd had thinned, I had seen TB, the 3:00hr pacer was in front and 3:10hr behind me, my average pace was 4:20, and I was feeling comfortable. Great!

Heading into Albert Park, I was just happy sitting on my slightly faster than planned pace (4:25). I was feeling good. At this point my brain was thinking about pace and then a whole lot of nothing. It was on holiday. It was enjoying itself. My brain was in the green room getting ready for its show in an hour. But for now it was idling. I run through pit lane grab a drink, run up to the turn around and start looking for Danny and Gill. I see Danny, he sees me. He is looking comfortable. I see Gill, I yell her name. She doesn’t see me. I try again and she snaps out of her concentration. We both fist pump and then carry on! By this point I had introduced myself to a Spartan (completed 10 Melbourne marathons and has a running singlet telling everyone so). We discuss pace, the weather, Perth, previous marathons.

The 13k mark comes up and I take a gel and some water and catch up to my friendly Spartan friend. We are now cruising towards the coast pretty comfortable and third of the way in. This is going well.

We hit the coast and I lose my Spartan friend in the crowd. I see the lead car coming and then see the lead pack of males coming. So impressive to watch them. It gives me a bit of a boost seeing them run past. The lead female comes not too long after, all by herself. She is flying. It looks effortless. Wow. I was still feeling great. My best running the last few months starts at least with 15k into the journey. The legs were loving it. The huge  3:00hr pack run past. I get to the turn around and start making my way down the coast and look out for Danny and Gill. I see them both looking comfortable. The 20k mark passes. I get to the 23k mark and I had to go…to the toilet. I had been ignoring the need for for 10k. I lose 30 seconds but catch up to the guy I was running with and pass him and see my spartan friend again! Some kids were handing out snakes. I take a couple and bite off a small mouthful.

At 25k, I take a gel. Very hard to swallow. I stop and take some water with that one!  I go around the turn around and realise these quads are burning.

Now I’m thinking about the 30k mark, I’ll see Kylie, Simon and Fi there hopefully, and then I’ll be heading back. I get there and I don’t see them. Must have run out of time getting down here. I don’t think about it too much and push on up the slight incline. My legs are hurting a little but I’m still going at a good pace. I get up to the Albert Park turn off and get bombarded with slightly too slow half-marathoners. I didn’t want to be that rude guy yelling ‘runner coming through’  but I had to. I was not as nimble as I was 30k prior. I found a space and really appreciated the crowd around me.

The course splits with the half having their own half of the road while the lonely marathon runners have the other half. It was really good to have the crowd running next to me. I forgot I had 34k on my legs. The course takes a left and I am back with the half marathon crew pushing through into botanical gardens. I take the small lump they call a hill. My legs are stiff and sore but I pass a few guys up the hill. Before I know it I have 5kms to go. I tell myself “You’ve got this”. I keep trying to push but my legs were not going to go any faster. I had to be happy with how well they had done today. I get to Flinders St station/ Federation square. The crowd is building and out of the corner of my eye I see the MCG. It looks too far away. I can’t think about it. I look away and down at the road. Up Flinders St was a slight up hill into what was a bit of a downhill.

I am within reach of the MCG. I just enjoy it from here on in. I go through the chase, such an unreal feeling. I feel good. I have done it. I have run to plan. Not just any plan: the A-goal plan. I enter the MCG and the crowd was unreal. Somehow I hear Kylie’s voice in the crowd. I see Sam and Dee and Kylie cheering me on and I get through the finish feeling really happy with the run. I just ran it without needing to dig as deep mentally as last time. I really enjoyed it this time! I ran it to plan with a 3:08. I still cant believe it. Praise the Lord!

Thanks to Kylie and Simon: two people who really believed I could do it and supported me through it!

To Gill, who’s company on those runs out to Tonkin Bridge was very much appreciated. I always looked forward to the deep conversations we had on the Saturday morning long runs.

Thanks to all the 6:00AM crew who I had the pleasure of running with for weeks on end.

BT Run Club is  a special thing. So much support for each other, I wouldn’t have done it without BT Run Club!

P.S.: Kylie made a poster to cheer me on in the race. Pretty sure she meant ‘boss’ but this was way more memorable…