The Challenge

After it was announced that Cape Town in South Africa would be the site of the 2026 World Age Group Championship we sat down and wondered if

1. we could go there and

2. we could qualify.

The second one first. To qualify in my age group 65-69 there are two means of qualification. The first is to run sub 3:26 in one of the qualifying races, the second is to be one of the fastest X number of athletes to take up an invitation. It’s not entirely clear from the website what X is but it is contingent on the number of automatic qualifiers and the number of runners who are prepared to go to South Africa when invitations are sent out. I think further invitations are sent out when the original ones are refused up to that certain number. It would be far more desirable to run an automatic qualifier, it saves much angst.

The next challenge becomes to find a suitable race to try and run. The only available races in Australia after June were Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Sydney and Rottnest Island.

Gold Coast and Sydney sold out long ago. Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth is a four hour flight away. It is quicker and easier to go to New Zealand. Sunshine Coast and Townsville are on the same date and Townsville is much further North and thus more likely to be hot and inhospitable for marathon running. Sunshine Coast was the choice.

Training went well and I was not getting complaints from my back which was great although there are age related twinges and stiffness, c’est la vie. I ran the AthsVic 5 km on the road followed by the 8 km cross country and the 10 km on the road. All went well and I was holding on to decent times in the low 4 min/km range and finishing without too much damage so I was hopeful if everything went well……

To try and keep this adventure more affordable we flew Jetstar after promising never to use them again after our adventures in Hobart a couple of years ago when they cancelled our flight home. This time they were only 45 minutes late on the way up and two hours late on the way back. You do get what you pay for.

We caught up with running buddy Adam Bryce in Brisbane for a beer and then stayed with our younger son Luke. He kindly loaned us his car for the weekend and off we went. It’s a pretty easy hour drive from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast along the Bruce Highway. We stayed at a little rental unit just out of Mooloolaba. It was described as a cosy studio and that’s exactly what it was. It suited our requirements perfectly.

The Marathon

6.00 am start time. Means up and about at 4.00 am, down a pastry and a yoghurt, make sure I have everything necessary and out the door by 4.30. Twenty minute drive and find a park. All good. Still well before dawn but weather was about 10 degrees and the sky overcast so good conditions for marathon running. It was a long trek to the bag drop but I had given myself plenty of time so everything was in place.

My very clever plan was to stick with the 3:15 pacer for as long as possible and then hopefully be in a position to get to the finish without dropping the 10 minute buffer to be under 3:25. It was a great plan. Starter counts down to zero starting blast goes and we’re off. First part of the course is up the biggest hill on the course. Not really a problem as it is early in the event but unfortunately nobody told that to the pcer who went through the first km in 4:30 which is closer to 3 hr marathon time than 3:15. Fortunaately he settled down on the back side of the hill but we were about 40 seconds under time at 3 km. I was wondering when this would come back to bite me.

We come back over the hill and the pacer gets a little break on me, about 6 km in and I decide to stick with the original plan and work a bit to get back on the group of about fifteen to twenty runners. We get a light sprinkle of rain. Not enough to be annoying but enough that you know it’s there. Better than sunshine. We stay like that all of the way out of Maroochydore and on to the freeway. This is the new part of the course. The old course had us going back and doing another two shorter laps but the new course is on big loop and advertised as quicker and flatter. It’s still 42 km long.

The pacer starts to get a bit of a break again just after 21 km as we head into Twin Waters and this time I let him go. He was still well under 3:15 pace and the risk reward of holding on to him didn’t seem to make sense. There is no advantage for me in running 3:15 as opposed to 3:20. My stated aim in big letters was SUB 3:26 not sub 3:15. It is very easy to drop ten minutes at the end of a marathon. It’s not easy to pick up minutes if you lose them. The leaders come back the other way, Ryan Gregson being paced by Brett Robinson. Ryan won by about four minutes in 2:15. The nice thing about this is when you see the leaders you know that eventually you will get to turn around. It also gives you a chance to look out for other old blokes to get an idea of where you might be in the race for Age group awards. I couldn’t see anyone who looked as ragged as me. I’m not sure whether that’s a recommendation or not.

Around the turn and heading back. It’s a pretty spot out there and will certainly be photogenic if, as they were saying, it becomes the Olympic marathon course in 2032. Back over the freeway bridge with the sun out. Fortunately, not cooking up as it might have but starting to warm up.

With about 8 km to go I started doing that thing where arithmetic becomes important. I had been holding 4.45 minutes/ km and so had a couple of minutes below 3:26 up my sleeve but starting to get to the hard part. It gets worse.

We turned on to the course at Maroochydore to find ourselves smack in the middle of the half marathon field. Just like in Melbourne the two events merge but they merge at different paces. Imagine driving on a freeway at 100 km/hr and then hitting a full three lanes of traffic doing 70 km/hr. That’s about this. The half marathoners we merged into were running around 5.30 min/km across the width of the course while we tried to go around them and maintain 4.45 min/km. As a positive it also meant that we couldn’t get transfixed by our watches and start to panic about time slipping away because there was no opportunity to look at them. Try to remain calm and positive. I still had time and I appreciate that this is their event as much as it is mine. Not fun but certainly gave us more to think about than just how much everything was starting to hurt. I’m not sure how much time it cost but certainly a significant amount.

Around on to the esplanade and the course widens for the run home. It didn’t feel this far when I dropped the bag this morning. Lots of people and lots of noise. Surrounded by half marathoners and a couple of marathoners. Into the chute and over the line. Stop the watch 3:20’04. Nearly six minutes under my qualifying time. Job Done.

It took a fair while to get out of the finish area and then to pick up my bag and get out of there. It is something the organisers will need to look at in future but really I couldn’t have asked for better for me. Maybe I could have picked up 20-30 seconds without the half runners but it didn’t make any difference to what I was trying to achieve.

Final result was 3:20.03 officially and I won the 65-69 Age Group. We headed back to the studio for a shower, a sleep catch up and then out to a nearby. very pleasant pub for a beer and chips.

Monday was back to Brisbane for a catch up with friends and then to the airport where we were first evacuated, the fire alarmed, and then delayed. Finally home again to Melbourne 3.00 am Tuesday. Whew!

From Here

The way the system works.

Sunshine Coast has to confirm their results and then these are forwarded to the Abbott people. They check the result and slot it into the system. Then, all going well, they send me confirmation and invitation to the Age Group Championship. According to where I slot in at the moment I rank at 125 in the world and now have an automatic invitation by time.

Then comes logistics. That’s another blog in the future.