Welcome to another issue of The Blue Line - your fortnightly catch up of all the things you would rather be thinking about, instead of the junk that’s in your head - shopping lists, the economy, and a small coffee now being $6.
Anyway, we’ve got another stellar issue for you this week, especially if you like running long distances. Our newest employee, Riley Wolff (this guy), has written a piece about goal setting for the marathon. It’s long, but we think a lot of readers will relate.
Fraser reminisces on the Sydney Track Classic (the Maurie Plant Meet’s younger, smaller brother), and Elise keeps us up to date with the state of Australian women’s marathoning. Speaking of - shout out to Izzi Batt-Doyle for her great run at Nagoya last weekend, running 2:27:55 for a new PB and 10th place.
Let’s jump in.
by Fraser Darcy
‘Well there’s pandemonium here…’ is the opening line to Southend’s ‘The Winner Is…’ which is a dance track synonymous with the Sydney Olympics. Seems you put Sydney and athletics together like as happened on Saturday night and once again there was some pandemonium with the results. If you didn’t catch the broadcast (which had no commentary from Bruce this time 🙁) and you haven’t got the time for the full replay here’s arguably the top 3 things you missed (complaints to Jordy Williamsz if you thought something else was better):
Jessica Hull wiped almost 5 seconds off her 3000m PB to finish first and reset the national record. Her performance was utterly dominant, with Rose Davies (note: a very good runner) finishing 2nd almost 20 seconds behind Jess.. Japan’s pocket rocket Nazomi Tanaka paced her through the first few laps and then let Jess finish it off. While it was the last race of the night it put an exclamation mark on a night of PB’s across a lot of events which segues nicely into…
Across the 10 main running events of the night, the first Aussie across the line set a PB in six of them (Men’s 110m Hurdles, 400m, 800m and Women’s 100m, 800m, 3000m) with one other (Women’s 400m Hurdles) being a meet record and the other three (Men’s 100m, 3000m and Women’s 100m Hurdles) were won in times that were 2-3% slower than the respective athletes PB’s. Add in Fred Kerley cruising home in his 400m and New Zealander Zoe Hobbs setting an All-comers record in the Women’s 100m and there were certainly some ‘extraordinary emotional scenes’ (å la Bruce’s commentary from ‘The Winner Is…’) on Saturday night!
Abbey Caldwell sneaks into the top 3 here with her win in the 800m and PB of 1:58.62 which moved her to second all-time and 0.53 seconds off Catriona Bisset’s Australian record (who herself ran 1.59.9 earlier in the week at the Box Hill Classic). Abbey dragged along Ellie Sanford (3rd) and Sarah Billings (4th and guest on Episode #30 and Q&A Session 25) to new PB’s whilst Georgia Griffith (2nd) ran her fifth 2:00.something time indicating that this was probably the highest quality race on the night.
The focus on the track now turns to the Brisbane Track Classic (a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet) on the 25th March, then the National Championships the following weekend (30th March - April 2) and then the first Diamond League event in Doha (5 May).
by Riley Wolff
Some of you may know that I’m part of the growing Grattan House conglomerate - my role isn’t really a content role, I’m mostly working in our agricultural division or handling livestock, but I felt compelled to put pen to paper (you know what I mean) this week to talk about marathon training.
It feels a little self indulgent to be writing about my marathon training block, but I want to assure you the words that follow aren’t simply a recount of my favourite sessions or a way for me to convince you (and myself) that I’m very fit and ready to run fast. Truth is, I don’t know if I am - that’s probably pretty normal for the latter stages of a marathon build, but what’s not normal (for me, anyway) is being OK with that.
If you’re in a marathon build right now (Boston or London, maybe?) or starting one soon (Gold Coast, probably), maybe what follows will be a handy reference point for you at some point.
All things considered, I have had a good block of training. It’s not my training that has me in my head. Those who know me would know that it’s a genuine coin flip on race day as to whether I have a great race or barely make it to the first drink station.
Before Melbourne in 2022 I had the perfect block; not only did I not miss a session, I didn’t even miss a metre of a session, or a second of a pace range for any workout. If NFT’s were still a thing, the NFT of my training block would have been highly sought after. My race ended up like a crypto collapse.
Anyway, the last few weeks have been filled with all the standard thoughts that go through someone's head when they train for a marathon. ‘What should my goal pace be?’, ‘does this feel too fast?’, ‘could I hold this pace for 42km’, and so on. And for whatever reason, I haven’t had good answers for those questions. Feeling nervous or lacking confidence before a race is one thing, flying across the world for your race adds another layer. You see, my race is in Los Angeles this weekend. It’s a race I’ve done before - in 2019 I had a great run and surprised myself, and in 2020 the coin flip went the other way and I barely made it halfway.
The uncertainty of how I feel, and how well I think I can run, led me to consider cancelling the trip, putting my head back down, and banking another month of training before looking for a different race - effectively pushing the problem down the road, and insulating myself from any prospect of disappointment. For 48 hours after my last big session, I was sure I was going to cancel. Then I remembered a conversation with a colleague the week prior.
I’m careful never to bring up running in my ‘real life’, lest someone accuse me of being as unbearably dull as people who talk incessantly about CrossFit. But however they know, a few colleagues (not Grattan House colleagues, it’s worth pointing out) know that I run a lot.
Someone asked me why I get up so early and why I run so much. Apart from the obvious physical markers like how good it feels to sweat, the endorphin release, and keeping in good physical health, I mentioned that I like the personal challenge of it. I like chipping away at one thing every single day, measuring my progress over the course of years and thousands and thousands of kilometres. When I think about running at the track on a Tuesday, it really never gets easier, but I’ve gotten a lot faster. So the challenge is always there, and the preparedness to put myself in uncomfortable situations has always been there. It’s probably the same for you, too.
So why was I about to cancel a trip to run another marathon in one of my favourite places, amongst some of my favourite people? Because I was worried I might not run well? Since when was it about that? If it was, I would head out the door only a couple of mornings per week, and run for 30 minutes at an easy pace - never pushing myself beyond a light sweat or a slightly elevated heart rate. I’d sleep in, and I damn sure wouldn’t be sucking down 4 gels every Sunday morning when I could be at the cafe with my wife and our dog.
I like running because it’s challenging, and here I was about to cancel a trip because I thought the run might be too challenging. Because maybe I’m not fit enough to run a PR. But maybe I am? And so what if I’m not.
Too often, we get caught up in chasing times - myself included. It has brought Australia’s best undone in the past, and the streets of every marathon are littered with the lament of people who chased a time they weren’t ready for.
The flipside though, is forgetting about time. ‘Running for so much more than time’, is something you can read daily on wannabe influencer accounts on social media. And usually when I read that, my first thought is ‘oh here we go, it’s excuse time because this person didn’t do the work or can’t commit’. Let me tell you, I’ve done the work. I’ve missed two days of running in 2023, and stacked a great bank of mileage. Believe me, I’m not looking for an excuse, and I’m not uncommitted.
What I’m doing is reframing the goal. The goal is not to hit a number on a watch; a number that can be impacted by so many things on race day - some in my control, some outside of it. If you told Des Linden in 2018 that she would cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon that day in 2:39:54, she would have been tremendously disappointed (if you’re not intimately familiar - the Boston Marathon is usually won in the low to mid 2:20’s). But not only did she run that race to the best of her ability - she won, and cemented her place as one of the grittiest marathoners in American history.
Similarly, we’ve all had workout days, long run days, or even easy run days that have felt impossibly hard - and never known why. We think we were rested, fuelled, and ready to run, but some days you just don’t have it. Kobe Bryant, the late NBA superstar worshipped by many (myself included) for his fierce work ethic, incredible determination, and exacting standards, scored 0 points in an NBA game 15 times in his career.
My goal for this race is simply to run to the best of my ability. To be conservative when I need to be, and fearless when the moment dictates. To be calm, but hyper alert. To feel the flow and lean into the easy miles, and to sense when the occasion demands that I lock in on the discomfort.
I’ll stand on the start line knowing that whatever happens, only my best is good enough.
If you’re training for a marathon right now - I’d urge you to consider reframing your goal. It’s not easy - everyone you know will ask you what time you’re hoping to run. But if you can reframe your goal around reaching as close to 100% of your potential on the day, the result will take care of itself.
by Elise Beacom
Ruth Chepngetich overtook the female pacers early at Nagoya Marathon on Sunday, running alone from gun to tape in a valiant 2:18:08. It was the Kenyan’s second win in a row at the women-only marathon and running the whole race solo this time made it even more remarkable. Ruth took away a healthy prize packet of US $250k, while all participants got a Tiffany & Co. pendant (la-dee-dah)!
For elite women looking for a substantial payday, the shiny jewels and novelty cheques might be worth it, but for those chasing qualifying times and spots on national teams, running fast in a women-only field can be difficult.
It’s widely accepted that female marathoners who run with male pacers experience a greater performance benefit, compared to those who run with female pacers or get stuck in no (wo)man’s land in women-only races. Acknowledging this, World Athletics explicitly distinguishes whether women’s world records were achieved in women-only or mixed-gender races. The differential between these contexts is significant – as an example, three minutes separates Kenyan Mary Keitany’s women-only world record (2:17:01) set in London in 2017, from fellow Kenyan Brigid Kosgei’s mixed-gender world record (2:14:04) set in Chicago in 2019.
Let’s take a quickfire (non-exhaustive) look at some of the other pros and cons of women-only marathons.
Pros:
More camera time for the women, including footage of lead and chase packs
No sub-elite men hanging onto the back of the elite women (seriously, why don’t you guys help them out rather than getting towed to 67th position?)
Less crowded packs mean more space to run without fear of clipped heels or elbows (Sinead Diver had initially freaked out about falling down in Valencia (mixed-gender race), but instead broke the women’s Australian marathon record there)
Easier to stay out of trouble at drinks stations
General girl power
Cons:
Slower finish times (more time spent running solo at the pointy end of the women’s field)
Harder to find female pacers fast enough for the top women
Female pacers stay with the runners for a smaller proportion of the race (in mixed-gender races, male pacers run nearly the whole way)
Fewer runners in packs
Back to Nagoya Marathon… we also had a raft of Australian marathoners vying for Olympics and World Athletics Championship qualifiers in the mix (or setting the pace). Izzi Batt-Doyle ran a mini PB for 10th in 2:27:54, which earnt her a World Champs qualifier. Eloise Wellings went out hard but struggled in the back half for 2:32:09 (18th position) and Sarah Klein sacrificed some toenails for 2:33:51 and 24th. The women had pacing help from two other contenders in Ellie Pashley and Leanne Pompeani.
Zooming out to the bigger picture, Sinead Diver (2:21:34) and Lisa Weightman (2:23:15) are in a good position for Paris selection based on their recent times (both secured in mixed-gender races). If our other Aussies want to give Sinead and Lisa a nudge (or snap up the third spot), a flat and fast mixed-gender race might be their best shot.
It really doesn’t stop at Grattan House. ICYMI, Dave McNeill hosted his first pod last week (go check it out in the podcast feed if you haven’t already), and has a few more shows lined up. We’ve got a new series with Izzi Batt-Doyle on the way, and both Brett and Joel are trending up at the moment with their training. There has really never been a better time to be an FTK listener, so head over there if you’re not up on the latest.
The hits keep coming on The Blue Line as well - next issue will feature an interview with Sean Tobin on his Antarctica experience 🥶.