Coffee’s at the ready folks, you’ll need some sustenance to get through this fortnight's mega issue of The Blue Line. Not only is there a preview and commentary around the On Track Nights Zatopek:10 in a week’s time but there’s a heads-up of Valencia and Fukuoka marathons. Is there a bigger weekend in Australian distance running? On top of that we have an article focusing on Izzi Batt-Doyle’s European adventures over the last few months. Before we get started though, a quick shout out to those people who: shared their appreciation of the return of the dead (us, we were the dead, but not anymore), are new subscribers (good to have you reading along) and to those who fell for the free Patreon rickroll trap in Issue 18 (sorry)!
Main Show - #74 and #75
Brett completed his 4*5km session, some big weekly km’s at Falls Creek and his 37km final mara session.
Joel progressed from a 3*7mins threshold to a 22 minute threshold while his long run went from 80 minutes to 1500m.
Jack Rayner featured in #74 in a more informative discussion than LLL&R and Zach Facioni joined in for #75.
Chasing Paris
Gen hit another couple of 150km weeks and celebrated her final big marathon session with just as big a dinner party (at 4pm).
In a moment that was as climactic as Truman talking to the creator on The Truman Show, Andy revealed he had a stress reaction in his femur and was now switching to being a full-time cross training influencer. He’s not the hero we wanted but the hero injured runners everywhere needed.
This week’s episode also featured a number of interesting Q&A’s as well.
Live, Laugh, Love & Run, with Jack, Joel and Brett
Jack’s housework standards were questioned by Brett
Noosa’s egg and bacon roll standard were questioned by Jack
Joel’s jokes were questioned by Jack and Brett.
Q&A Session Sixty-Three: Getting the most out of your running watch
Dave McNeil asks the questions and Nathan Pearce, of international trail running fame and Garmin rep, answers them.
Ask Us Anything - #07
Patreons submitted questions on the following topics; What do you eat? How sore are you all the time? Favourite post-long run meal? Do you ever contemplate early retirement? Would Joel ever run a marathon to get one on the board? How would you go on the beep test?
Sign up to Patreon to ask your own questions or listen to these answers.
This year’s Zatopek:10, the Australian 10,000m Championships, is getting the ‘On Track Nights’ treatment. Is that like a special rub down treatment? Nope, it’s a beer tunnel, tattoo if you want, Peking Duk in your ears and a bridge over the track type treatment. A collection of remedies that if done back in the 50’s would’ve raised the question of ‘why are you not just eating the Peking Duk?’
They probably wouldn’t have cared about the answer back in the 50’s though because athletics fans back then were too busy watching Emil Zatopek win just about every race he entered. Zatopek had a Kipchoge-like presence, until the Red Army marched into his home country to crush the Zatopek supported democracy movement. He was given a choice between staying a national hero and supporting the new system or standing up for what he believed in but having to do menial labour tasks and not be a national hero. He took the boring job and disappeared out of public life so we named a 10,000m race in his honour to remember him. He’s worth more words but you’ve only got a short attention span so I’ll skip to the race itself.
In the men’s event Jack Rayner has been in Zatopek like form lately and won the race in 2022. Hear more about his psyche heading into the race in Episode #74. Pat Tiernan is probably the biggest rival for Jack. Not much had crossed the Pacific news wise about Pat until he ran sub 62 over the half at Boston a fortnight ago. If he’s packed that form in his suitcase the former Australian 10,000m record holder will be right at the pointy end come the last of the 25 laps. It’s not a two horse race though, there’s also Zach Facioni who’ll be waving the On flag and Andrew ‘Cosi’ Coscoran who’ll be waving the Irish flag. Neither of those athletes have a huge amount of 10,000m races in their resume but do have fast 5000m times (Zach) and 3:30 1500m speed (Cosi).
Our defending women’s champ Leanne Pompeani won’t be returning this year. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wide-open though because the Queen of running and our 2019 World Champs 10,000m rep, Sinead Diver, is entered. She has technically never won the Zatopek:10 (Japan’s Hitomi Niiya pipped her in 2018) so might be looking to cross that off her bucket list. Two-time champ Rose Davies will be hard to beat though along with Caitlin Adams if she can transfer her road form to track form.
The Zatopek:10 isn’t only a 10,000m event too. The U20’s of Australia are racing over 3000m (in what was going to be a pseudo-XC trial before Athletics Australia woke up). And there’s also some other fun stuff like pole vault and shot put events! $20 for a ticket and a chance to say, ‘yeah I was at the On Track Night in Melbourne, I came for the races and stayed for the free Peking Duk at the end’.
Saturday night is for Zatopek and Sunday is for Valencia and Fukuoka. Book in Monday for celebratory drinks at the water cooler because there are so many Aussies running a marathon we’re sure to have something to celebrate.
In Valencia on the roll call are: Lisa Weightman, Eloise Wellings, Gen Gregson, Izzi Batt-Doyle and Thomas Do Canto. Last year Sinead set the AR in front of only a handful of other Aussies (including Grattan House’s own Elise Beacom who got to celebrate with her) so there’s good juju already on course for us. Will anyone match Sinead’s run on the women’s side? Lisa has had one of her best years, PB in Osaka, ran Tokyo a week later, 16th at Worlds and has put more 200km weeks in the bank since (watch a recent training video here showing 6.4km’s of one of those training weeks). Eloise notched up a couple of interstate wins in Adelaide and Brisbane in the second half of the year on the roads before joining Brett up at Falls Creek. Her PB is almost 2 years old though now so she’ll be hoping to put a strong performance in her third marathon of this year. Throw in Gen and Izzi and it’s hard to see who has had the best prep out of all them. A good problem to have. While you’re watching the Aussie women power round the course, keep an eye on the top ladies too. No big headliners to follow (Gemechu might count? She’s a 2:16 lady) but Nienke Brinkman is a interesting Dutch runner who holds a 2:22 PB and races regularly on the international trail running scene and could be running next to Lisa if all things are going well for both of them.
On the gentleman’s side, Do Canto's Sydney marathon was a wake-up call to not forget about the 2:14:59 man from Fukuoka in 2017. His Sydney race wasn’t crash hot quick (was anyone’s?) but it was his most enjoyable marathon yet according to Strava so hopefully he carries that positivity to Spain. The international elite’s rubbing shoulders in the warm-up area with big TDC are; Kenenisa Bekele, Kibiwott Kandie, Joshua Cheptegei and Gabriel Geay. All names that have been mentioned in passing on FTK (that’s the official making of a big dog). Click here for a official event preview that also has links to the full men’s and women’s start lists.
Fukuoka was going to be the Andy, Brett and Ed Goddard show but Andy’s femur said no. Brett’s training has been very smooth recently and his only hitch may be the ability for Stewart McSweyn to keep consistent splits while pacing him. A vocal Robbo mid-race yelling at Stewy to ‘get the f*** back’ would be great entertainment! Ed meanwhile has been doing what appears to be double session days in Sydney while listening to the Grattan House Spotify playlist (he uses other song names to make him seem Indie). Joining those two in Japan is a handful of East African’s a bunch of Japanese of course, a pair of Chinese athletes and Sondre Moen from Norway. Moen’s storyline is interesting because the last time he ran Fukuoka was 2017 when Brett of all people paced him. Stewy should take notes of Brett’s pacing because Moen set the then European record and his current PB of 2:05:48 on his way to winning the race six years ago. Since then he hasn’t fallen off the wagon by any means but he hasn’t been the great white hope that some in the online world of wannabe running commentators (Letsrun folk) were hoping for. Can Moen and Brett hang with the top East Africans on 2:05,2:06 pace and make it a race this time after 35 km's? Throw in a handful of crazy Japanese runners (famous for going out at suicidal pace) and it could be a big pack heading into the last lap on the track at Fukuoka.
On the minds for all these Aussies abroad is of course following the blue line on the Road to Paris. This website will be one to bookmark and check back the week after next to ensure you’re up to date with the implications of each athlete’s result. The only disclaimer here is that even though an athlete might be sitting in the top 3 for the country and in the quota, they still have to be selected by their country. This protects against the unfortunate example that someone in the top 3 is injured and can’t run. They can be replaced so long as the substitute athlete has run 2:11:30 (men) or 2:29:30 (women). The full qualification system and dates as given by World Athletics are here and the Athletics Australia policy as discussed on Chasing Paris is also worth a read.
Something to consider for Athletics Australia due to the current depth of marathon running in the country at the moment is whether using a selection committee is the fairest way of deciding who we send. The alternative model is a straight out trial (USA style, provided the top three finishes have met the criteria AND enough spots have been ‘unlocked’ in the quota) or do what the Japanese do and hold a trial for the top two spots with the third being a ‘you’re in for the moment’ spot unless someone breaks 2:21:40 or 2:05:50 (basically annihilating the standard) at one of Japan’s major domestic marathons before the Olympics. A trial held in the late Australian summer heat might be a good way to test who can handle some warm European conditions the best. Or it could just be another step towards copying the USA in everything we do in life. Kenya, after all, the greatest marathoning country in the world, still uses a selection committee to decide.
by Fraser Darcy
Feature time. Let’s frame this up first. Only just over a year ago Izzi Batt-Doyle ran her debut marathon of 2:28:10 in the 2022 edition of Melbourne Marathon. Another 2:27 at Nagoya in early 2023 put the then 27 year old in the selection frame for this year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest. The anticipated progression for the experienced Australian representative was maybe another high 2:20’s or low 2:30’s given the ‘championship’ conditions? Instead, those championship conditions ‘were much more challenging than I could have imagined’ Izzi tells The Blue Line. Not all of which were due to the hot temperatures experienced on a Sunday morning in late August.
‘Unfortunately I came down really sick twice in the two months leading into the race with the flu and then a chest infection and missed some key training. I was still confident in my fitness going into the race having run a 15:09 road 5km (a road PB by almost 50 seconds and only a smidge off her track PB set in 2021) a few weeks before in Adelaide, but unfortunately I really struggled on the day and had a number of factors go wrong… including a missed bottle, strained calf and a toilet stop and just generally struggling in the heat and humidity.’ This doesn’t sound like the progression fans would have hoped for but it sounds exactly like what running a marathon can be like. ‘I was willing my mind and body to keep going no matter what and make it across the finish line, and at the end of the day that felt like an accomplishment in itself. I ended up in the medical tent afterwards and don’t think I’ve ever been in such a bad way after a race’.
So maybe the time and result progression wasn’t what was expected of her (2:37:53 for 43rd place). To Izzi’s credit though her motivation for competing in Budapest was to represent Australia and ‘gain some more experience in the marathon’. Ticked that box. In other aspects she also added her name to those of other Aussie elites to suffer from poor performances in an Australian singlet (Steve Moneghetti and Lisa Martin’s Barcelona Olympics performances spring to mind, 48th and a DNF respectively after being favourites) so you could argue she was still ‘progressing’ in her journey as being a marathoner, just in a different sense.
But how do you go from feeling in such a bad way to getting back on the horse, especially with another Aussie singlet for the World Road Running Championships (in the Half Marathon) in your suitcase staring you in the face. ‘Coming off the race with a minor calf strain meant I had to take a full week off running but I think it actually helped me recover better in the long term. I approached World Half as another experience to represent Australia and run hard but I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself as it was only five weeks after the marathon and didn’t know how I would go getting back into training. I was lucky to be offered a slot at the new ASICS Chojo Camp Europe in Font Romeu which fitted in perfectly after a week holiday post Budapest and in the month prior to Riga. It was a place I’d never been to before and for the first two weeks I just eased back into running and then jumped in with different people’s sessions. It was really refreshing to mix up the training location, people I was training with and also the sessions. I got up to running in the 160km/week range with gym and cross training and by the end of the 4 weeks there I felt like I’d banked a solid few weeks of training and had confidence that I could run well in Riga as long as I wasn’t too tired!’
That she did. 14th place and 70:08 was a result that made Izzi ‘really happy’ and showed a little rest (one week off running five weeks out from a World Champs is not a usual tactic), some variety in the training environment and taking the pressure off is one way of getting back on the horse. Everyone always hopes for faster times, something Izzi admits she is not immune to, but ‘I competed well and I definitely felt like I got some redemption after a disappointing day in Budapest!’ says Izzi.
Two Aussie singlets in the space of just over a month but neither of which are at the one big marathon event where every marathoner wants to be. The Olympics. The place where the modern marathon was born. Izzi’s quest for a fast time to gain selection into Australia’s team was best satisfied with an entry into the uber fast real running of the Spanish bulls, the Valencia Marathon. That meant another two months away in Europe so as to avoid the interruption of travelling back and forth, a problem that every professional Australian athlete who competes overseas knows only too well. While the sacrifice of being away from family and friends (and her mega-big RunAsOne crew) are just part and parcel of pro life, Izzi’s main concern was the impending winter weather. A few cold, long-sleeve, gloved up sessions at the ASICS camp were followed with where we now find Izzi finishing off her preparations, in Teddington running loops in a rainy and windy Bushy Park next to Charlotte Purdue (2:22 British marathoner), putting another layer of training into her pre-Riga block.
‘After Riga my training has gone 153, 184, 187, 204, 202, 201’ says Izzi. Big numbers from someone who was averaging 140 - 150 kms previously before jumping up to 160 - 170 kms for her first marathon builds. The increased mileage from this block is a result of having longer to prepare (there was less than 6 weeks for the Melbourne build), no other races (World XC was 3 weeks before Nagoya) and ‘this time around I had an opportunity being away on a training camp and a clearer schedule to push it out a bit more. I didn’t anticipate getting to the 200km mark, I just did the training set and swapped most of my doubles to runs versus cross training and just saw the number at the end of the week. I’d run solid volume for three years now and my body was ready to handle a bit more volume. I have been really pleased with how I’ve handled the higher volume and still been able to run quality sessions and long runs’. With her coaching hat on though Izzi stressed that just because she’s been hitting big numbers in this block it’s not the weekly total that’s important to her, other people get great results with a lot less and a lot more, so instead, it’s about being confident in the preparation that’s most important.
The nitty gritty of Izzi’s training is on Strava for the running nerds to investigate but if you’re looking for a quick guide to the best and worst session, here’s the inside goss.
Best Session: My best sessions probably came up in Font Romeu, I think the highlight was probably my 5x4km reps session. I felt strong and controlled and was hitting paces I was really pleased with - especially at altitude! My paces were 3:22/km average for the reps with a 2 min jog between. While I was out in Font Romeu I had a lovely girl Manon who worked for the ASICS camp biking with me giving me drinks, support and taking videos and it made it so much easier to tick off the big sessions’.
Worst Session: Probably the worst session of the block was the first one, 20km on 1km on/off around Bushy Park before I went back to Font Romeu. It was six days after Riga and I pulled up with a really sore hamstring/glute after the race and felt like I couldn’t extend my leg properly. I was lucky to have Riley (Cocks, her partner) on the bike with me and he was visiting for a week but it was just an unenjoyable session as I was in pain the whole time running into a headwind the whole way around the park! I wasn’t able to hit my splits but a session like this just reminded me that sometimes you just have to tick the box - it doesn’t have to be perfect. The body only knows effort, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a few seconds slower per rep. Plus factors like the terrain, weather, sleep, training load, etc. all add up and that’s why you really can’t compare your training to anyone else’s (or even your own previous sessions!).
That winter weather popped up again for her final big session (60 min run, 8km threshold, 10x1min on/1min recovery, 5km hard, 15 min cool down) which ‘was in horrible weather and I just felt tired from the start of the session and the last 5km solo was pretty challenging. I didn’t hit any amazing times but just getting through it in one piece is a win. Every session feels like a bit of a grind but I’ve got Charlotte pulling me along and I figure if you can do it in the wind and rain then it’s going to feel even better on race day with (fingers crossed) nicer weather!
If you mix her recent block of training in with her learning from Budapest it seems like the progression to a faster marathon is around the corner in Valencia. That expectation can weigh on any runner, elite or amateur. It takes experience to be able to relax into the fact that ‘just because you’ve done a few amazing sessions or banked a big block doesn’t mean that the result you want is owed to you - you still have to go out there and work for every second of it! It’s sort of crazy that we work so hard for three months for one specific day, things can still go wrong on that day even if you’ve had a perfect preparation’ admits Izzi. Her training partner Charlotte is no stranger to things going wrong and it’s something that has definitely rubbed off on her mindset. ‘Charlotte's had every possible adversity thrown at her with injuries, controversially not being selected for Tokyo, Covid at World Champs, food poisoning the night before London Marathon - but she's still so positive and believes in herself and went out and got the result she knew she had in her at Berlin (2:22 makes for a handy training partner!). I've taken away a lot from her approach to training and her perspective on running’. Which overall is a belief that even if the result you end up with on the day is not what you were hoping for ‘the reward for the training will come at some point and you just have to believe that it will’ concludes Izzi.
If that sounds like typical cliche coach/elite talk, well that’s because Izzi is a coach/elite runner and that’s the type of mindset you have to live in day in, day out while chasing your goals as you live alone on the other side of the world. As for the actual day in Valencia, Izzi’s obviously aiming for the qualifying time (2:26:50) but is fully aware that it might not be enough considering the depth of women’s marathon running in Australia. An improvement on her PB and trying to be a better athlete is the only thing in her control she emphasises when considering her chances. Being a better athlete this time around the 42.2km will involve using more gels than drinks (she’s thankful it won’t be as hot as Budapest but has been practising with more gels) but still hopes she’ll be able to grab a few bottles along the way in the marathoner’s version of running with the bulls with the other bajillion sub 2:30 entrants (ok, maybe not a bajillion).
Drinks or no drinks, this fourth marathon of her career will arguably be Izzi’s biggest. Melbourne had the ‘debut card’ and 6 week block attached to it, Nagoya was her first time without a personal pacer and off an interrupted build and Budapest was a ‘championship’ race in hot conditions off another interrupted build. Valencia will be known as the ‘200km Euro build’ in a race that is set to feature multiple Australian’s aiming for an Olympic qualifier. Hopefully it won’t be Izzi’s only ‘200km Euro build’ in her career and the rewards for her training come not just at some point in the future, but also exactly on Sunday December 3rd in Valencia so she gets another crack at a late August European marathon.
With Brett heading to Fukuoka again this December it brings back memories of his Aussie record run last year. How many of our other top marathon performances have occurred in the land of the rising sun?
Using Australia’s top 100 male and top 100 female times as a sample size, there have been 26 men’s and 21 women’s performances from that selection occur in Japan. Combined together, it’s more than any other country (besides Australia). The factors that make Japan such a happy hunting ground for fast times compared to other countries are plentiful; easy travel logistics, similar timezone, several race options and consistently strong fields. Those 47 ‘Top 200’ races came across six different events; Beppu, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Fukuoka and last week’s Kobe marathon (kudos to Tim Vincent).
At the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Ky Robinson placed third in the Men’s 10km. Haftu Strintzos and Izzy Thornton-Bott finished top-40 as well and as such, became All-American’s. Adam Spencer (past FTK guest) finished 70th.
25 year old Tasmanian Aaron Harvey won the world’s toughest road half marathon and $2,000 at Tassie’s Point to Pinnacle. Milly Clark was first female for $2,000 as well.
Gemma Maini backed up her Melbourne Marathon win with a victory in the Victorian 5000m Champs (16:53). There would’ve been a spicy finish to the men’s race as only 1.02 seconds separated 1st (Harry Norman) to 4th.
Caitlin Adams followed up her Noosa win and her earned her second shoutout in this fortnight’s issue by winning the SA 5000m Champs by almost half a minute (15:57). Adrian Potter did Adrian Potter things and won another SA State Title.
Jordy Williamsz reached his $1000 Movember donations goal in the space of a few hours thanks to the FTK community. If he honours his word he’ll be returning for Gold Coast Diaries 2.0. If he doesn’t, he’ll be guilty of crimes against FTK.
Imagine if Gold Coast, Melbourne Marathon and Burnie Ten were all on the same weekend. That’s how much depth we have running next weekend!
December 2 - On Track Nights Zatopek:10 (Australian 10,000m Championships)
December 3 - Fukuoka Marathon
December 3 - Valencia Marathon
December 23 - Albie Thomas Mile (Australian Mile Championships)
This division of Grattan House welcomes any and all reader feedback. If you want more or less of something, want something investigated, or Jordy Williamsz hasn’t dealt with your complaint in a timely manner, please enquire at theblueline@grattanhouse.com. No game or quiz this week (I did give you a fun fact though) because by now you probably need to put this down and get back into real life.
Once again, thanks for your support and remember, The Blue Line is free to subscribe, free to share and free to evangelically shout about from your soap box in the local shopping centre. Reading it may also improve your own marathon time (Brett and Sinead are the No.1 readers after all).