When Christmas was only last week
In 2024 I was fortunate enough to be quick enough to qualify for the World Age Group Championship in New York in November of 2025. In fairness, it did take a pretty hard run to get under the automatic qualifying time in Canberra 2024 but it was done. Later in 2024 I suffered an unusual setback when I had a bulging disc in my spine pressing on the spinal cord. This led to a particularly slow and painful run in the 2024 edition of the Age Group Champs in Sydney.
So with a bit of trepidation that I could come back but also a bit of redemption available, we accepted the challenge. One of the things about accepting for an event such as this is that flights, accommodation and training all have to be planned a long way in advance. Which then leads to a long, long lead in and a feeling that it will never get here. Until it does. The last couple of weeks involves long runs, paperwork, complaints about exchange rates, long runs and debates about weather. How cold, what to pack etc.
During a pretty standard winter Cross country season I put in a solid run at the Sunshine Coast to qualify for Cape town in 2026. (let’s get ahead of ourselves) and paced the Brighton beach Marathon. There were miles in the legs. There would need to be. I had signed up for the Melbourne marathon and then two weeks later the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington DC, another week to the New York Marathon and finally another week to finish off with the Rocky Run in Philadelphia. This a 5 km run followed by a 10 mile (16 km) effort.
To the first event.
The Melbourne Marathon of 2025
What do Marathon runners and farmers have in common ? An almost overwhelming desire to talk about the weather. Farmers, longer term, about seasons and drought and crops. Marathoners much shorter term what will the weather be on Sunday in two weeks time. Will it be too hot to run? Will it be windy? Will it be wet? Melbourne this year was no different. It must be remembered that Melbourne is already famous for four seasons in one day and that weather forecasts generally are taken as a suggestion not as fact.
Marathon day came around and the possible rain stayed away. Conditions were pretty well perfect at 10 degrees and overcast. 14,200 registrations were touted at the start which made it the biggest Melbourne marathon in history but also led to lots of congestion around the course. This, as mentioned above was only the first of three marathons and although important as my hometown marathon it was not one in which to hurt myself. This was my first one in my nice new green Spartan singlet presented to those who have run 10 Melbourne marathons. I set off at an easy pace of just on or just under 5 min/km which should work out to around 3hr 30 min. I had company with one of my training partners, Adrian, who was also looking to run around that time so we kept pace together and had a bit of a chat and kept half an eye on the 3 hr 30 pacers.
The first half was pretty well spot on at a touch over 1hr 45 and we were running fairly easily. There were moments around the drink stations where some runners demonstrated a lack of experience darting across the course and clogging up the first tables but all in all fairly uneventful. We headed down towards Elwood and the furthest point on the course. There was good crowd support at the turn but a fair bit of congestion as well. It was a chance to see some of the other runners that we know as they were going in the other direction. The weather was starting to warm a little and here we started to see our first runners starting to flag or cramp. We saw one runner fall tripping on the feet of the barrier off to the side. I’m not sure why he was that wide but may have been trying to get through a crowded area.
Around through St Kilda and up Fitzroy St, 30 km down. Still going along fairly well. Holding at around 4 min 45-50 sec /km so a bit in front of 3 hr 30 min but we know that the tough bit is yet to come.
Surprisingly for a marathon the hard part of Melbourne is not necessarily the last 10 km or even the hill up past the shrine. It is when the marathon and the half marathon merge and twice as many runners try and take up the same amount of road. The organisers try to keep the two events separate as long as they can with the marathon runners on the road near the trams and the half runners in the service lane up St Kilda road. Unfortunately the signage wasn’t that good and some of the half runners thought they should join the marathon. This wouldn’t be such a problem if they were running the same speed but they were not. The half runners were about a minute per km slower and causing a lot of trouble. Eventually this becomes moot because the separation stops and all of the runners share the same space. Marathon runners continually shout to try and get some clean running room and half runners try and stay out of the way. At least some of them.
It was in this section that I lost my running partner, Adrian, as I lost momentum going around City Road and under the St Kilda Road bridge. Going around near the Tan the half runners turn right and the marathon runners go straight ahead. This involves the two events crossing over with all sorts of excitement. At 35 km in a marathon.
Up around the Shrine of Remembrance and down Domain Road. Last hill done and still feeling pretty good. I passed the 3 hr 30 pacer. The pacers in Melbourne run to gun time which is a little unusual these days. Most events have the pacers run to their own nett time so they don’t have to chase time early to get on to the aim pace. I knew I was a couple of minutes under 3hr 30 but was expecting to run out of legs somewhere down here as we were going quicker than the pacing job I did in Brighton and not much slower than the Sunshine Coast. On to Flinders St and heading back to the MCG. The crowds build and the excitement also. The organisers split the half and marathon to get everyone a clean run along Brunton Ave but then strangely at the entrance to the ground it is necessary to cross over again for the final half lap of the ground.
Over the line in 3hr 26 min and 54 sec nett. Ended up as 2nd of 70 in my age group and with a (just) negative split for the event. Remarkably consistent even for me. Didn’t hurt anything so job done and then home to clean up, get organised and get on a plane to Vienna the following Thursday. But that is a tale for the next blog.
Anecdotally, I have heard there were 12,200 finishers so a number of did not starts or did not finish but the largest number of finishers ever. It seems there are plans in place to make that number even higher but that is going to take some pretty major changes to course. We wait with bated breath.