One of the best

October has rolled around again, and with it comes the Melbourne Marathon that I have raced every year since my debut in 2009. This marathon has been especially kind to me over the last three years, for many reasons, including being my 'home' marathon, the chance to run with so many great friends and of course having achieved most of my running dreams in this race - a debut marathon,  a Boston qualifier and first sub 3hr marathon. It is fair to say that this race is special to me and it is now a given that I will run it for as many years as I can.

2012 has been another really satisfying year with my running and I have continued to build on some solid performances in 2011 with P.Bs at every distance culminating in a fresh 5km P.B last Saturday. However, my 'A' race of the year is always Melbourne Marathon, and without doubt I would judge my year by my performance on this day.

This would be marathon number six. I have lowered my P.B in every attempt, except Boston and the expectation was that I would give a P.B another good shot in this race. My build-up for this one was not ideal, in particular due to a nasty virus that I caught about five weeks out which really knocked me about and forced me to lay low when I really wanted to be putting in my biggest couple of weeks. Furthermore, I had being feeling a little low and lacking in running mojo for the past few months, which I put down to a heavy load over the last two years. However, on the flip-side, I had run a solid 2:52:01 in Rotorua earlier in the year on a demanding hilly course in less than perfect conditions, so after a solid cross country season, including a half marathon P.B, there was every chance that given good conditions I would still be a real chance of a marathon P.B.

The marathon distance always deserves respect, and even after five previous ones, I was still as nervous as ever and the nagging doubts had begun to creep in during the final week. Have I done enough miles? Is my goal time realistic? Will I blow up? What is that little niggle in my hip? Is the weather going to be too hot? How much pasta and rice should I eat? On the morning what if I can't go before I go? Will I meet my expectations?

The scene was set then. October 14, 2012. 7am, sunny, 8 degrees, not a breath of wind. In short, perfect running conditions. Incredibly, over 6000 others from around Australia and the world had turned up for MM number 35, so the atmosphere on the start line was electric. My plan, as usual, was to be conservative early on trying to sit on my goal pace of 3:57 for the first half of the race.

The gun went and we were off. 42.2 km that would test the courage of all 6000+ entrants. I found it pretty easy to settle into a good rhythm and was maintaining a very comfortable 3:55 pace down the first stretch on St Kilda Rd. One of the things I love about the marathon is the general camaraderie between the runners. Because it is such a long race, during the first half (at least) you should be able to maintain a conversation with others around you (well at least a few snatched sentences between breaths). I had struck up a conversation with a lady named Claire from Queensland and another bloke (Adam I think), who were both aiming for similar times to me. We shared a few thoughts about the race, the weather and how we were feeling. Melbourne was really looking spectacular, and the view towards the city while running around Albert Park, despite knowing it well, looked like something from a postcard fantasy.

Writing of fantasies, I was running very comfortably and feeling good. You can never know for sure until later on the race but I was already starting to get the feeling that this was going to be a good day. Perhaps the best thing about the Melbourne course, is all the switchbacks that allow you to gauge your progress against other runners and give a shout out to your friends in front of or behind you. On the switchback near the pit lane of the Melbourne Grand Prix, I could see that Kirstin, Rob, Alan, Tim and Andrea were all in good form so it was shaping up to be a special day for the Crosbie Crew. By this stage I had dropped my earlier friends whom I struck up a conversation with and found myself a little isolated. This was okay, I was running my own race and I was still keeping consistency.

Going down Fitzroy Street for the first time, I saw my wife Asia, who had also gotten up early to support me, take photos and just be a general on the day superstar. Thanks love, I couldn't have done it so easily without you by my side! I also saw a large contingent of South Melbourne Athletic Club veterans who gave a huge cheer of encouragement as I rounded the corner to tackle the out and back stretch up Beach Road.

At the turnaround at Port Melbourne, I saw clubmate Corey Lawson for the first time. I knew Corey had aspirations about running sub 2:50 and he has been slightly ahead of me all year in the road races and cross country, so to see him about 100m behind had me slightly concerned at first and I was wondering if perhaps I had gone out too hard. No sooner had these thoughts entered my head and I could hear his loud footfall off my shoulder and all of a sudden we were running together. That was how it stayed more or less until about the 26 km mark where we were heading back towards home. Corey was obviously feeling good and had pulled away from me, developing a lead of about 200m at one point. I decided not to go with him and concentrated on maintaining my rhythm and started to prepare myself mentally for the final 10 km.

If you have experienced the wall in a marathon, and most marathoners will at some stage, then you know that it can happen fast and hard, turning the final kms of your race into a battle for survival and a maximal test of courage. I was still feeling pretty good at 30 km, so I was fairly sure that I was going to make it home and keep the wall at bay. At 32 km, I could see that I was gaining slowly on Corey and at this point I knew I would catch him. Compared to previous years, running the stretch down St Kilda Road and not having to battle with hordes of iPod wearing half marathoners was a breeze. I steeled myself for the slight uphill section through the back of the Melbourne botanical gardens and managed to almost hold my pace.

By now it was really starting to hurt, as expected, so I summoned my last burst of energy for the final section through Federation Square and down to the MCG. It is an incredible feeling entering this great stadium knowing that friends and family are in the crowd and that you are going to smash through another P.B. I probably got a bit carried away with my celebrations during the lap of the stadium with plenty of hooting and hollering to go with the fist pumps. I had done it again, coming through the line in 2:47:49, lowering my P.B by over four minutes and putting to rest all the pre-race demons! It was one of the best running days of my life without doubt.

I didn't achieve a negative split. There was no half-way timing mat, but based on my watch I reckon I went through halfway in about 1:23:30, which meant that I came home in about 1:24:20 which gives me as near as damn an even split, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Some final thoughts on the race itself:

The Good

• The course. On a good weather day, this course is simply spectacular, and fast. The organisers seem to have listened to the previous problems with merging into the half marathoners and the dedicated lane up St Kilda Road for the marathoners was brilliant. I hope that this is the course that is settled on for a few years now as it is close to perfect.
• 7am start time. This is the same as previous years but when the sun is out as it was yesterday, you are thankful to be finishing before 10am and beating the heat of the day.
• The support. I would love to see even bigger crowds out there but I think this race is starting to build momentum and it was good to see plenty of Melbournians out there. Those that were out there were also extremely encouraging, loud and helpful.
• Aid stations. No complaints here. Well staffed, well stocked, well organised and plenty of them. 
• The MCG. To enter the MCG for the race finish is just amazing and the real thrill of a lifetime.

The 'Needs Improvement'

• Timing mats. It is great to have four timing mats at 10 km intervals but for a marathon of this size and quality I would really like to see a mat every 5km and one at halfway. To not even have a marker, let alone a mat at the halfway mark was a bit poor.
• Show bag. Terrible, again. Maybe this has to do with the sponsors but a bag full of advertisements, a can of tuna and beans and a can of Powerade is along way from the sort of quality bags I have seen at other international and local races.
• Pre race speaking. With all respect to Steve Moneghetti, the last thing we want to hear about before setting off on our marathon journey is how you could probably trot round in a personal worst performance of 2:30. We need motivation and inspiration. Bring back Deeks.

The needs improvement are really just minor gripes, and only detract slightly from what is a super race -  8.5 / 10.

Thanks must go to my lovely wife who has put up with yet another time consuming, social life interfering marathon build-up. As usual, a marathoner is not the most fun person to be around during the pre marathon taper - with all that pent up energy and nerves you tend to snap at those close to you. Asia you have been super supportive yet again and I'm thankful to have such a special person as my wife. I love you.

Thanks also go to my coach Tim Crosbie, who continues to do amazing things with the Crosbie Crew training group. To my friends in the Crosbie Crew and South Melbourne AC, WOW! What a day! So many amazing runs and to be out there with you while you also achieved your own running nirvana was super special. I look forward to many more great runs with a super bunch of people.

Time to savour the achievement, put on a few kilos and then think about the next thing.

Taking on the lake

New Zealand is renowned around the world for its stunning natural beauty and Rotorua is no exception. Of course, I was here to run a marathon, so the scenic sideshow was something of a secondary consideration. However, if you are going to put yourself through 42.2 km of pleasure and pain then why not make the ride as pretty as possible?

The course is one full clockwise lap of Lake Rotorua mostly on tar seal road and takes you from Rotorua township out of the city, through some rural areas and stunning native bush followed by winding your way back past the airport and back into the township and finish line. The course has a reputation for being tough, hilly and not a p.b course - as nearly everyone I spoke to before the race liked to remind me. However, my feeling is that so many of the world's marathon courses are pancake flat - think Berlin, Rotterdam, Chicago, Gold Coast, so a hilly course is a selling point, rather than a negative. You can approach it with fear or you can see it as a challenge to be conquered. Also, people sometimes forget that a marathon is a race, a race for position. On the day, everyone faces the same course and the same conditions. If you are better prepared, mentally and physically, then you will definitely run better.

Why did I choose Rotorua marathon for my fifth? There were a few reasons, one I'd never done a marathon in NZ, two I had a good friend in Wellington who'd done it a few times and was keen to make a weekend of it, three the timing of the race fits in well with my new Spring + Autumn marathon schedule and four it was a race I heard about growing up and subsequently it had always been on the 'todo' list since I started running marathons three years ago. All in all, plenty of reasons and so I was signed up early in the year and set about getting in shape following my wedding.

It's fair to say it's been a reasonable year of running since my epic blowout in Boston one year ago with my first sub 3 in Melbourne and numerous other p.b.s throughout the AV cross country season. More importantly, I've really been enjoying my running this past year, so much so that a rest day, or day without a run feels strange and often I find myself a bit grumpy and irritable if I haven't knocked out ten or so kms at some stage during the day. However, although I rescued one demon from Boston, ran a negative split and a sub 3, I hadn't taken on another hilly course, so I felt I needed to prove to myself that I was tough enough to get through a hilly marathon and finish strong.

My training prior to the race had been pretty good. I had completed 7 runs of 30+ km in a 12 week buildup (including sectors at marathon pace), run plenty of fast 5 km time trials at parkrun and been consistent at weekly speed sessions. If there was one thing missing from my build-up, it would have been a quality half-marathon leading into the race. Unfortunately, the Victorian calendar features almost no half marathons in the first quarter of the year, so anyone looking at an autumn marathon is plum out of luck. Nevertheless, I had a good run at 'run for the kids' over 14.4 km and from my training I felt I was probably in around 2:50 shape on a flat course.

Because I had been warned of the hills at Rotorua, I had to be a little conservative in the first half. I decided to take off around 4 min/km pace, knowing that it should be pretty comfortable for the first half of the race. As always in a marathon, the first half of the race should feel easy. In fact, to me this is one of the things that makes running marathons so much fun - there is no other race you can run where you feel so good for so long. I listen to the podcast marathontalk, and one of the co-hosts, Tom Williams, often states that the objective in the first half of the race is to get through to half-way with as little fuss as possible. I think this is great advice. In a marathon all runners make a choice - what time do I want to run through halfway at? It better not be close to your half marathon p.b, otherwise you are going to be in for a very tough day come 30 km. Run light, strong and comfortable in the first half and steel yourself mentally for the challenge to come. When the pain comes, and it will, welcome it, because you are ready.

Conditions at the 9:30am start were very good. There was a light breeze with a gentle shower and the temperature was about 14 degrees. About two minutes before the start, we had a special send-off from a local Maori choir which helped remind me that I was back in NZ. The starting hooter was probably the loudest I have ever heard and it gave me a bit of a fright. The first 10 kms of the course were on the highway leading out of Rotorua north towards Tauranga. I slotted into my 4 min/km splits and was feeling pretty comfortable. At this point I started to notice one of the few negatives of the race and that was that the roads were not completely closed. The marathoners were pushed onto the shoulder of the highway and separated from the oncoming highway traffic by a line of road cones. Through most of the course, the traffic was very light so this wasn't a problem but in the early stages and towards the finish where the traffic was a bit heavier you did get the feeling that you were a bit of an after thought.

At 10 km came the first serious hill. It was only about 200m long and because I was feeling strong at my target pace, it didn't worry me at all. In fact, I really enjoyed cresting this one and coming down quickly on the other side. Being a smallish marathon by city marathon standards (1299 finishers in 2012), and because I was running at the pointy end of the field, there wasn't many runners around me. I was running with the eventual female winner for a little while and eventually settled in behind the second place female and another guy who were both about 20 metres in front of me. I stayed with these guys until just before halfway where I could tell they were starting to slow a little and I pushed past them.

Just before halfway came the largest hill on the course - a 3 km, 60m ascent. Needless to say, I was pleased to get to the top of this one, not breathing too hard and having passed through the halfway point in 1:26. This was a little above my target of 1:25 but I had settled into what I felt was a good rhythm and I told myself that the hills had probably cost me a minute. I also knew that if I felt good in the second half I was a chance of a negative split (after all I had done it before) and I didn't fear the final 10 km.

I got a welcome boost from my supporter club at about 26 km, which included my wife Asia, my mother-in-law Mary and my friend Brian's wife Kirsty and daughter Phoebe. Turns out this was a welcome boost because I was just about to enter the last really testing hill of the course. - A rise of about 40 m for about 1 km. I pushed through this to the top knowing/hoping that it was all flat to the finish. At this stage, I was starting to lose that easy feeling and holding my splits was becoming a little more challenging.

This is the time in marathons when things are won and lost and you can easily undo all your hardwork from the previous 30 km if you start to crash and burn. I find it helps to have a mental visualisation that you can draw on. For me on this day, it was the regular 10 km easy run I have from my house to Patterson Lakes. I told myself only 10 km to go, you know how far that is, you do it all the time, easy. Because I run this run at least twice a week, I know exactly where all the km markers are, so 10 km to go and I was just running out the door of my house, 9 km and I was running past the golf course, and so on.

Unfortunately at this point the weather chose not to be so kind and I was running into quite a substantial headwind, which didn't abate much at all throughout the final stages of the race. I was now pushing hard giving everything I had left but I was struggling to hold 4:10 km pace. Although this last part of the race was flat, due to the wind it felt uphill and it was a relief to see the 41 km marker and take the right hand bend into the finishing straight.

The straight was a nice long one, giving you plenty of time to savour the moment. Finishing a marathon is always a special moment in life and this one was no different; I always tend to get a little teary and emotional. I was running down the finishing straight on my own, knowing I'd scored a massive 4 min p.b on a tough course. Final time 2:52:01 and time for a few brews to celebrate.

In summary and in review I have a few thoughts on the Rotorua marathon. First the 'room for improvement':

• Sharing the road with oncoming traffic was not great and potentially a bit unsafe. Although some extra road cones would probably rectify the safety issue, full road closures would probably be better. However, I understand this could be prohibitive in terms of cost.
• The road works at about 40 km were a bit unpleasant. Having to dodge around a massive front end loader is not something that you want to do at the best of times, let alone at 40 km into a marathon.
• Walkers. I understand you need to let the walkers go early so they can finish at a reasonable time and when running multiple events on the same day it is always a juggling act. However, I really hate having to dodge around slower runners/walkers at the end of a race. Having said that, it wasn't nearly as bad as 'the merge' at Melbourne.
• No halfway split mat. I get my km splits from my watch so having mats every five km is not such a big issue but as a minimum I think you should get a halfway split as well as your final finish split. I'm told there has been a halfway split in the past so I'm not sure why it was absent from this year's event.

And the pat on the back:

• The race pack was awesome. To get a top quality asics technical t-shirt in the race pack along with plenty of other food goodies was a welcome change from some of the garbage and loosely disguised advert-a-bags, I have received at other events.
• The course! Loved the variety of terrain, the scenery, the ups and downs and the hills were not nearly as bad as I had been warned they might be. It's a great course full of interest and you can run quick if you pace it right.
• On course support. You can tell the community really gets behind this event and it was great to see so many of the locals out supporting and cheering on the competitors.
• No medal. Yes, this is a positive not a negative. Not every one wants a medal and giving people the option of purchasing a medal for $10 with personal engraving after the event allows everyone who wants one to get one while keeping the entry cost down. Great stuff.
• Water and aid stations. There were well stocked water and aid stations every 4 km which was more than enough.
• The start. I loved the Maori choir send-off at the start.
• Bibs. Having your name on the bib was a nice touch and it makes a difference on the course when someone can shout "go Brad". Also having the race chip embedded within the bib is great and surely must be a mandatory feature now for any serious marathon organisers.

In summary, I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a marathon which is a bit different from your run-of-the mill pancake flat race. It was well organised, well supported and enjoyable to run - 7.5/10.

My splits (from my Garmin):

5km       19:46
10km     39:48 (20:01)
15km     59:59 (20:11)
20km  1:20:11 (20:12)
25km  1:40:12 (20:00)
30km  2:00:30 (20:18)
35km  2:21:07 (20:37)
40km  2:41:57 (20:49)
Finish 2:52:01 (10:04)

Finish position 16 out of 1299.

I also must thank my lovely wife Asia, who has supported me through another marathon campaign which can be a strain on time. I love you darling.