Marathon Number 4

In October 2019, I traveled to Melbourne to run my fourth marathon. I knew Melbourne was one of the biggest marathons in Australia and had been looking forward to the event since I ran Canberra marathon in 2018.

Not the most ideal preparation

Though I tried to keep my training consistent, looking back now I realise 2019 was one of the most difficult  years for me. I was  completing my third and final year of my undergraduate degree before hopefully being accepted into the Honours program. So, I was having to log into lectures, discussions, and group assignment meetings while factoring in a three-hour time difference with Perth thanks to daylight savings, all while trying to prioritize rest before race day. Despite this, I was energized and thrilled to be running in Melbourne.�

I booked a hotel close to the Melbourne Cricket Ground where the race precinct was. However, I had still not learned my lesson about ensuring I had cooking or self-catering facilities in my accommodation. I made do with a pre-race breakfast of coffee, a convenience store muffin, and a banana. Nowhere near adequate, but it was the best I could do.

Meeting new friends

The morning of the marathon, I stepped into the darkened streets out of my hotel. There were already runners everywhere walking in the direction of the MCG. I fell into step with a group who had traveled from Adelaide, chatting and making small talk about our expectations for the day. One of the ladies in this group had a wonderful, strong Irish accent, and we immediately connected. Patricia was a seasoned athlete who had been very competitive at all distances up to half-marathons. Melbourne was to be her first attempt at the full marathon of 42.2km.

I head up to the gate where I had agreed to meet some family and friends who were also running. Spotting the queues for the porta-loos snaking for what seemed kilometers I was grateful not to need them. I dropped my gear bag with my family and walked towards the starting corral. I met up once again with Patricia and we grabbed a quick selfie before the starting gun was fired.

The mad starting line crush

Like many of the larger marathons, Melbourne offers pace groups, identified by pacers carrying colored balloons. I wanted to try sticking to one of these pace groups as I hoped again to better my time and come as close as I could to 3 hours 30 minutes. This wish rapidly evaporated as soon as they fired the starting gun. The first few kilometers became an exercise in survival as a crush of bodies pushed forwards along Batman Avenue to a bottleneck turn onto Flinders Street.

The pacers must adhere to gun time, not net time (which is the time measured from which you cross over the starting mat and the GPS tracking records your start time). This meant, due to the sheer numbers of participants, that the pacers had to bolt off at the start in a sprint to make up potential time lost as they waited their turn to cross the start line.

Elbows and shoulders came at me from every direction as runners tried to force their way in front away from the crowd. Distracting me from the push and shove though, was an older man carrying a backpack, and wearing cargo pants, and THONGS! He is Francis Kaszmarek, a who is a veteran of 27 Melbourne Marathon finishes, and still managed an impressive time 6 hours 20 minutes (his age group in 2019 was 50-54). Legend has it the backpack carries his spare pare of thongs, in the event of a blow out!

In case you can’t catch the pace group – find your own

Running off the St Kilda Road section and into Albert Park Lake, I managed somehow to latch myself onto a very tall runner who was wearing a Spartan’s singlet. These are worn by a prestigious group of runners who have run at least ten Melbourne Marathons. I figured this man would know what he was doing pace-wise, and so I became his shadow for the next 20 or so kilometers.

The tricky task of getting nutrition into your face

I trialled some new energy gels leading up to Melbourne and opened one at around the 18km mark. Unfortunately, its peanut butter-like consistency meant it was quite sticky. I also, clumsily, managed to squeeze most of it onto my singlet instead of into my mouth. I didn’t really want my marathon photos to show me running with what looked like vomit spread across my front. I spent the next few aid stations trying to splash enough water on my chest to wash it off. Not ideal.

At around the 26km mark, my personal pacer Spartan runner dropped back a little, but I felt strong, so I pushed on. I remember passing Patricia again shortly after the turnaround point in St Kilda, shouting encouragement to each other.

The dreaded joining of half-marathoners

For reasons I’m sure make sense to organizers but likely not to any participants, half-marathon runners join up with marathon runners at around the 32km mark. This ordinarily would not be an issue, except that whoever decides on the timing of this has not quite got it right, meaning the marathon runners at this point now find themselves surrounded (and blocked) by half-marathoners running at a pace around one minute slower than them.

It is infuriating, for runners in both events, marathoners trying to force their way through a blockade of half-marathoners who have inadvertently found themselves very much in the way. Spending the last ten kilometers of a marathon shouting at other runners to move to the left – most of whom can’t hear you because they have earphones in – is not fun!

A sugar and ego boost

I knew the hilliest part of the course would be around part of the Tan track, an iconic 3.827km track around the Botanical Gardens. I felt a huge boost running into these hills knowing I had done a lot of hill training during my build. Along with that, many fellow runners at that point were struggling with cramps. Not wishing any other runner to suffer, it does, however, give a big motivational boost to be passing numerous runners in the final stages of a marathon, particularly on a hill!

A group of volunteers had set up a table with icy-poles, welcome relief no doubt as the heat of the day was feeling fierce at that point in the run. It does, however, make for a sticky few meters of road where melted ice lollies were discarded along the course.

One of my best memories of this event was a pair of supporters who moved all over the marathon course during the morning with a great motivational sign. “Go Random Strangers!!” Turning for the last time onto Flinders Street before the final turn to head into the MCG, I spotted them again and told them they didn’t feel like strangers anymore as I had been meeting them all morning!

The final stretch to enter the MCG

I felt a huge wave of emotion overcome me as I ran into the MCG. I was here, I had done it. The stadium sounded like it was roaring. Different colored mats ran around the perimeter of the oval, indicating different lanes for different distances. As I ran those final few meters, I had a giant smile on my face – another PB with an official time of 3 hours, 38 minutes, and 20 seconds.

The most positive aspect of this marathon was the lasting friendships I made with otherwise random strangers. I had a wonderful feeling of community and connection growing through a mutual interest. My next goal was Gold Coast Marathon – but a global pandemic would put a hold on those plans for another three years.