Melbourne marathon recap.

The exciting thing about this year’s Melbourne Marathon was that it would be my tenth. At last! Spartan status beckons ! It has taken twenty years with my first Melbourne being in 2003. That was one and done. Definitely never needed to run another.

In 2008 I ran my second. The guys at the club were in training and we thought we could improve. Wrong! 2008 was one out of the box. Thirty degrees C and a desiccating north wind. The first 20km down to Beaumaris were a breeze, literally, with the wind behind us. Turning back into it, a whole new story. Finished, but only just.
Must be able to do better. Back we went. What do they say about people repeating things and expecting a different result? But we did improve and we started to travel to other events. We tried to get back for Melbourne but a couple of years clashed with major events like London and New York. In 2022 we ran Berlin, London and Chicago. Chicago was held the same day as Melbourne. We didn’t make it back. Cue 2023. There was a chance we would be in Washington for the Marine Corp marathon but that fell through and this was our chance.

Sunday was predicted to be cloudy with rain later. Ideal marathon weather. Also very fortunate as Saturday was windy and Monday has intermittent showers and wind. We were a bit apprehensive as Steve Monaghetti rang the start bell as rain started to fall but it quickly stopped and we were on our way. I was planning an easy run as we are heading to Auckland for the marathon there in two weeks time. Melbourne was a tune up so looking at 3.30ish and don’t hurt anything.
Didn’t look at the watch for the first 2 km as I was talking to someone but 3rd km was 4.35, a fair bit under the 5 min/km that works out to a 3.30 marathon. I tried to settle back a bit but looked over an saw running legend Rohan Day who organises some fabulous runs around Melbourne so I popped over and had a quick chat. I noticed I was near the 3.20 pacers so I figured if I sat behind them for a while and then lost a bit of time later on then I wouldn’t be far off what was intended.
Went through the half in just under 100 minutes so on schedule.

Down along the beach I just tucked in behind the pacers and had a little nap. They do a great job and it is quite hypnotic to simply watch a shoulder and run. Up Fitzroy St to 30 km and wonder where the bear is. That’s the one that jumps on you and makes the last part of the marathon difficult. On to St Kilda road. The half runners in one lane and us in the other until the Merge. We come together with half marathon runners who are running their own race at their own best pace. Unfortunately it is a slower pace than ours. I lost the first 3.20 pacer in the crowd and when we turned away from the half runners he was some 200m in front of me.
Struggled a bit up the hill to the observatory around the tan but still holding on. Back down Domain Rd and up the little pinch at Latrobe’s cottage. That’s the last hill and barring anything unforeseen it is now go as hard as you can for as long as you can. Around the corner at Flinders st station and still near the back 3.20 pacers. No way was I running 3.30 from here. The guys were a bit below 3.20 so sub 3.20 was definitely on as they were running to gun time whereas I was looking at net time.

Around Brunton Ave and stay out wide to get running room. Into the MCG and onto the plastic mat. I can understand that they don’t like 40 odd thousand runners running on the grass but it does dilute the effect of finishing on “The MCG” Line up the finish.Gun time a touch over 3.19, net time 3.18.43. Good run. Looking at the records it is my third fastest time in Melbourne only beaten by 2012 and 2014. Also ended up 7th of 108 in my age group but I move up to the next age group next month so something to look forward to. No major damage. On to…….

Where to from here.

Yes, the Land of the Long White Cloud. New Zealand.

When we didn’t get into New York we had flights to and from New Zealand that were already booked. We decided to visit as Anne has never been and my last visit was some forty years ago with a group of mates. It may have changed somewhat.

Now it just happened that the Auckland marathon is on during the time we are there. Auckland marathon is also one of the qualifying events for the World Age Group Championships which will be held in Sydney next year. So the plan was to warm up in Melbourne and go hard in Auckland. Might have gone bit harder than that plan in Melbourne but what can one do?
An interesting age group problem came up in the planning. I turn 65 on the twelfth of November but the Auckland marathon is the 29th October. This means any time I run there counts as a qualifying time for the 60-64 age group where there are some rally quick runners even though I’ll be 65 when the Competition is held. I queried this with organisers but the only answer was to run a marathon between my birthday (12 November) and the end of the qualifying period (31 December). There’s only one, it is in New Zealand and it is scheduled for two weeks after we fly home. Not going to happen. The Abbott guys came up with a suggestion that I could run the Global Run Club Virtual marathon and that has an age based on the end of the qualifying period so 31 December. If I can run quick enough to be in the top three of that event for my age group that will be enough for an invite. So that’s the plan. We’ll see how it pans out.

And then….

We still have three weeks of touring. We have hired a car and will see just how far we can get. Already booked the Cook Strait ferry so North island and South Island. I found it all just fits in with Queenstown marathon in November so that gives us a fixed point and then we fly out of Christchurch. Should be a relaxing stroll from Arrowtown to Queenstown on the trail. It appears they only have 60+ age group so no racing, just a picturesque run. And then maybe a nice NZ red wine. Fun.