The anticipation for my eighth Melbourne Marathon and eighteenth altogether was high following a satisfying training campaign. This would be my fifth for 2019, comfortably exceeding the three I’d completed in 2015.

Whilst I ran at Sydney four weeks earlier, this was a glorified long run – pacing ‘good honest toiler’ or simply, ‘GHT’, Mark Berry, to a PB (2:48), Melbourne represented my first goal event since linking up with Vigor Coaching under Liam Delany’s guidance after July’s Gold Coast Marathon.

The inroads from enjoying a formalised structure for the first time in my running journey, and regularly attending track sessions quickly became evident.

The largest adaptation in philosophy was quality over quantity, as my mileage dropped from the 160-180 km window it’d largely sat in for the past two and a half years, to an upper limit in the 140’s. 149 km was my largest haul in the ten weeks leading into Melbourne.

This decrease wasn’t to my detriment, as I found I was able to extract more from myself – particularly at the sessions, which certainly required some extended time embracing the pain on a level I’d seldom reached previously.

On this basis, and with a concerted effort at body maintenance, primarily through regular treatment – which had been non-existent until the lead up to Gold Coast, leaving me with no injury concerns unlike the short turnaround between Great Ocean Road and GC – when I was severely hampered by my right quad, the confidence was real that 2:30 could be broken on the day.

Whilst this didn’t come to pass, with Melbourne ultimately having my number once again, there were many positives to draw from the experience, and the satisfaction of witnessing the majority of the Vigor crew achive their goals outweighed any personal disappointment.

Saturday afternoon’s INEOS 1:59 challenge in Vienna was the perfect prelude to race day, as Eliud Kipchoge realised the milestone which few thought possible. Seeing him cross the line with almost 20 seconds in hand, chest pumping and all, definitely made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. The performance by all involved from the organisers to the pacers, was clinical and just reward for the preparation towards the effort.

On that note it’s a good moment to recap the race that was!

Sunday, 13th October 

I woke at 4:30 feeling adequately rested, showered and made a coffee alongside some peanut butter on toast. I’ve usually been reluctant to eat much prior to a marathon, but it’s fairly neutral fuel that I could eat all day, and it proved to sit well through the morning.

By the time I’d finished eating and taken a final trip to the bathroom, it was already nearing 5.45. With infrequent train services at the hour, Uber had presented itself as the only option. Thankfully, the driver arrived in short order, though I still arrived outside the MCG a little later than desired shortly before 6:15.

I then had to step on it to drop my bag, whilst the exact location wasn’t specified clearly, thus it ended up being well after 6:30 before I was relieved of the cargo and able to make my way to the start zone.

This was easier said than done, with one of the access bridges closed down, and thousands of runners to navigate around. I ultimately commenced my ‘warm up’ as I struggled to find some clear space – consequently I was unable to work up to any real pace, and it wasn’t until nearing 6:50 that I reached Birrarung Marr.

I hastily commenced some stretches before attempting to find some air to complete a few strides on the gravel path adjacent to the start line.

From there, and without the priority status I’d been declined for despite posting several qualifying times in the past twelve months, I attempted to find an opening in the fencing to avoid a nightmare scenario being relegated to the crush some 50 metres behind the start line.

One participant kindly indicated where I could, and within moments I was making my way up the queue with less than five minutes in hand. None of this had been ideal, but I remained calm about the task at hand.

I bumped into Sean Helmot, Mark – who was on pacing duties himself this time for Jarrod Dempster, as he sought a sub 3:30, had a quick yarn, wished them luck, then doubled down on the aggressiveness to be near the front as possible.

With under two minutes remaining, I sighted Danny, Cara and Matt from the Vigor crew taking part, exchanged more positive wishes, and squeezed a few more metres out of my push forward, as many as I could manage under the circumstances.

I found Xavier and Simon – the latter pacing the former to a hopeful sub 2:40, shook hands, and then it was start time!

As a result of the relentless lead in, the first kilometre felt quite surreal as I jostled for open space, which finally came as I turned onto St Kilda Rd. In hindsight, a 3:33 km wasn’t too bad.

Looking back on the times, not that I checked frequently until the later stages, I pressed the foot down pretty rapidly from there – perhaps to my detriment, following up with a 3:25 and 3:24, in my attempt to latch on to the group including Hugh, as he was chasing a similar time.

I did feel as though I was working slightly too hard once this was achieved, having already broken into a decent sweat, though I settled relatively quickly from there on the run towards Fitzroy St. There was some decent airtime from the film crew on the motorcycles!

My pace generally sat just above 3:30 through 10 km, which dipped into 3:28 as the chasing pack merged with the one I’d been in. Not that I recall exactly when, but I had my first gel sometime after descending on Albert Park.

As it proved, the sprint back up pit straight to 12 km was the final time I would go under 3:30, the pace of the group which had slowly put a gap on me was unsustainable.

I soon found myself in the not unfamiliar position of having the road to myself, neither here nor there. Once I reached Beaconsfield Parade, lacking a solid reference point, and with another small group catching and dropping me, my times crept further away from 3:30, a slide which I was unable to arrest despite another gel.

Falling beyond 3:40 for the first time at 20 km, I accepted that the rest of the morning was going to be a grind. A 21.1 km split of 1:15:07 seemed encouraging on paper, but with my right calf had already exhibiting mild fatigue, and with the toughest part of the run ahead, designs on a negative – much less even, split in the back half were optimistic.

An electrolyte bottle provided by Liam as I approached Marine Parade proved timely, as the desolate trudge towards Elwood loomed large. There were no excuses on account of conditions – which were as optimal as you could ask for, so it was about embracing the pain.

There wasn’t much on offer on the chase towards the final turnaround, but a gel and encouragement from Mum on the approach was appreciated.

Nevertheless, my pace continued to decrease – unsurprisingly as the elevation gain came into play, as I fell into 3:50 for the first time at 29 km. Despite a 3:48 30th km and final rev up from Liam, I’d subsequently remain beyond 3:50 pace for the balance of the race.

Being cautious on anything that might flare my stomach, I’d never previously experimented with caffeine gels, but as it’d been generally sound to this point, I decided to see if an SIS infusion could lift me at 32 km after navigating around the bulk of the half marathon crowd which had spilled onto the course at Fitzroy St.

It was immediately more viscous than their standard gels – which have an easily digestible water like texture, so I took my time devouring it. I did notice that I felt slightly more attuned to my surroundings, though it provided nothing that would eradicate the fatigue which was now inhibiting both calves.

I was unsurprised to see my first real dip arrive on the climb up Birdwood Ave – my pace ballooning beyond 4:00 at 37 km, so I had to maintain my composure in the knowledge that once I’d negotiated the arduous portion and returned to St Kilda Rd, I was effectively home.

The time I’d bled to here was nothing on previous years, so in relative terms it wasn’t a disaster. What I was most pleased by was my ability to close out the final kilometres at a respectable pace despite now being very restricted by the calves, with my 40th and 42nd kilometres dipping back under 4:00.

Once I entered the MCG, there wasn’t much in the tank, yet I gave it everything I had with the irrepressible lift the crowd provides. Navigating the final turn, leaving an 100 m dash to the line, my right leg felt close to buckling, so crossing it couldn’t have come soon enough.

I’d fallen short of the sub 2:30 goal – or a new PB, at 2:38:31, but I was happy to have persevered at a place which has bitten me much harder through the years, whilst a six minute course PB remained a satisfying takeaway.

Whilst Hugh couldn’t manage a PB either, finishing with 2:30 after battling a foot issue since Gold Coast was a great effort, and seeing Xavier cross the line barely a minute behind me was a brilliant result so early in his marathon days.

Several other sub threes – and in most cases, PB’s from other Vigor runners, amounted to a great collective outcome on the day.

After catching up with those that had finished, I decided it was wise to make a move to freshen up as the legs were feeling sorer by the minute!

I was sorry to see that Dion wasn’t able to break 2:20 at a place which has had a colourful history for him, following a hugely impressive training block and year of consistently fast marathons.

It only reiterates that Melbourne is unforgiving, leaving you to be punished if you’re even slightly off your best on the day, though I have no doubt that even more determined, he’ll break through sooner than later with a big twelve months beyond the marathon scene ahead.

I was conversely rapt to learn that Jarrod achieved a 3:29 with Mark’s pacing spot on, so it was nice to catch up and toast the achievement with both at the local later on.

Mark now turns his attention to ramping up preparations for Osaka on December 1 as 2:45 becomes his new medium term target.

From the local, it was back to the MCG, where many of the Vigor crew had reconvened to celebrate the culmination of the previous months’ efforts, the drinks went down very easily!

With Melbourne in the rear view mirror and no future marathon date set in stone, it’s been nice to have enjoyed a little downtime in recent days, even though the itch is definitely asking to be scratched having ran just once in the week following!

The sub 2:30 might have to wait a little longer, though we’ll settle for this year’s yield of 2:34 – a ten minute PB, a 2:38, a pair of 2:40 and a 2:48 – pacing, following an underwhelming 2018.

The priority now shifts to improving times at the track through summer, which we’ll work together to accomplish.

Digging in when it’s hot and uncomfortable might not sound like an attractive proposition, but if we can stay the course the benefits will be on display when it’s time to refocus on the longer hauls towards autumn.

As individualistic as running might seem, it’s a journey which relies heavily on others to achieve respective goals.

To everybody who has been a part of my 2019 marathon ‘season’, whether personally or from afar, thank you for your contribution, I hope you got as much out of the year as I have.

To Liam and Vigor, it’s only early days, I’m looking forward to what we can achieve in the future!

Bring on the 2020’s!