Anybody here luck out on the Sydney Marathon ballot? I did not but I’ve been randomly selected for the wait list apparently so I’ll get another go on the 14th…
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Good luck. I got in on the basis of having run it during the 3 year candidacy period for the world major status.
The days where you could register for the Sydney marathon days before the event seem like a long time ago. It’s a good problem to have.
In other news I’ve notched up 500 runs since I started running 5 years ago. The cumulative distance is the equivalent of running from Perth to Sydney which is cool to think about.
My new goal is to run 40,075km in my lifetime which represents one lap around the circumference of Earth.
(Ignore my PB times for the shorter distances as they are due to GPS errors, I’m nowhere near that fast)
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Kipchoge is coming to Sydney.
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I recently rewatched the Nat Geo doco on him trying to break 2… truely a phenomenal athlete and human. So much grace and presence.
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Oh great, just what I need
Good story for the rest of your life, “I would have won that marathon if it wasn’t for that damn Kipchogie.”
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Yep, probably won’t bother entering now (actually, the ballot process would have thwarted me anyway, I assume)
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Signed up the City to Surf for when I’m back in Australia in August.
Have a few half marathons before the in the meantime. Hoping to get a time of around 1:45.
Also, finally made it into the elusive ‘excellent’ category for VO2 max!
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Update on my aim of 1hr 45m half marathon…
Did the London Landmarks half marathon in 1:44:57! I have never pushed myself that much for that last km…
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That’s awesome, the feeling of hitting a big running goal like that is so amazing.
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Well done!
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Nice one. Which landmarks?
Started at Whitehall, ran to Bank. Saw all major landmarks in city mile, up to Soho and finished at Trafalgar square.
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Pretty sweet. Back in the day the old (cycle) commute was Hyde Park → Buckingham Palace → Either the Mall to Trafalgar Square or down to Big Ben → Embankment → St Pauls. There’s just so much cool stuff to see in London I’m half surprised you didn’t get distracted and slow down
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I’m going all out this year. Started by getting lucky on the Sydney Marathon draw, then signed up for a bunch of half marathons and trail runs up to 45km (Jabulani Challenge in Bobbin Head/ St Ives).
Currently on week 8 of doing a half marathon training run every Sunday until the Sydney Marathon on August 31, with a weekly cumulative mileage of 40-50km. I know this has to increase if I am to run a decent marathon time.
In the spirit of striking while the iron is hot, I’ve signed up for the Backyard Ultra in September. For those unfamiliar, competitors run a 6.7km loop (called a ‘yard’) on the hour, every hour and are given a DNF (did not finish) result if they fail to complete the 6.7km loop within the hour, or fail to line up for the start of the next loop. Runners who finish the loop early can rest/eat/change clothes or even sleep until the next hour.
The race continues as runners start to drop out, and ends when there is only one runner left. The winner of the most recent Sydney event ran 81 loops, covering 543km. The race started at 8am on Saturday and finished on Tuesday arvo.
I’m aiming to run 100km in 15 hours, although covering 100 miles (160km) over 24 hours would be the stuff of dreams.
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So will you have a crew for something like that? i imagine it would make life much easier… especially the deeper i to it you get?
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Total volume/time on feet is good, but my advice is it’s best to dial in your race day nutrition and gear based on a solid 30-32km race pace effort around 3-4 weeks out rather than just HMs. There’s things your body only starts doing after 1.5hrs of running that a good half marathon isn’t going to prepare you for, it’s important to know how much nutrition or even fluid is your limit before you start to get nauseous, chunder or shit yourself. There’s not much extra training benefit beyond a 3hr session and it increases your risk of injury.
As for time, have you come across the Yasso intervals? Great diagnostic session around 2 weeks out from a mara in my experience, better guideline of what you should aim for than Garmin etc which I find to be a little ambitious.
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Yeah sort of. I’ll probably go it alone for the first 8 hours or so but after that I will have 2 teams of family members taking turns occupying a cabana and hand me my gels/ electrolytes/ change of clothes/shoes and socks when I need it.
These were from the event a couple weeks ago:
The winner (Phil Gore from WA) had a set-up like this:
Thanks I’ll definitely be doing some 30km runs in the weeks leading up to the marathon. My nutrition plan is pretty simple, a gel every 30 mins and sip on electrolytes. Hasn’t failed me yet.
As a slow runner with a HM PB of 1:59, this year’s marathon is my attempt to run ‘one good marathon’ before I shift my focus to slower and longer races and trail events. I’ll check out the Yasso intervals.
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