Issue 40
Sydney Marathon is on and that’s a Major deal.
I could really just copy and paste last week’s opening blurb and be done with things here. Two Diamond League’s, a capital city Marathon, a National Championship, the Junior’s are on the world stage and the Paralympics are on. Yep, that’s about right again apart from some of that should be in the past tense. While the stage is kind of the same in this Issue, the characters and storylines are of course different and that’s why AI hasn’t figured out how to take my job and why you need to read this Issue to stay on top of another fortnight of Australian distance running. It’s another rather large one.
FTK
#112. Brett was back running 52 km’s for the week following a 2 on, 1 off, 3 on 1 off cycle. He had some issues with his bike and phone on the Sydney Marathon long run as well. Joel had a good k’s session with Bailey where he burnt his matches. The difference between the two was emphasised with their interpretation of Brett’s strength training notes. 100 reps of the Reformer 100’s or 12 reps?
#113. Brett moved up to a 4 day cycle and 90 odd km’s for the week including some 15 second efforts at one stage. Joel, who is two weeks away from running 28:low at Run Prix 10km, pulled together another week of two sessions and a long run. He also added in some skipping too. That’s the secret to being a pro athlete. Skipping.
Spiked Up
#23. Rose, Sarah, and on late notice it turns out, Georgia. Rose didn’t run that much for the week but did once at 4:20’s. Sarah and Georgia session’ed together as they counted down the days until their last events overseas. Georgia then elaborated on her brief holiday post-Olympics before resuming to run 8:31 at altitude.
#24. Somewhat original programming resumed with Rose having a bit more training to discuss. More interesting than her training was the current status of Douglas’s welfare and whether Scotty will reply back to her messages. Sarah’s training and racing in Silesia was the running highlight of this episode but really, it was all a precursor to her 1.58 over 800m this fortnight!!!
#25 Which made Sarah 5th fastest all-time over 800m! Sarah recapped the race plus the story behind the selfie and the other two races she completed. Rose ran a few 60 minute runs, updated us with Scotty’s plan for her and made some decisions about her hair styling.
Sarah Billings. Image: Jan Figueroa
Ask Us Anything
#13. Patreons had their monthly opportunity to ask Brett and Joel anything and we received answers about; Nelson’s living arrangements while Brett was away, who would win out of some interesting former Olympic sports and what each other would do if they coached the other person. The opening question around David Roche’s training philosophy, while backhanded by Joel and Brett, interested my trail running brain and has been given some airtime in Hey, Did You See?
Race to the G
#3. Jack and Alice. Jack revealed the story Joel alluded to on FTK (hint: Trevi fountain contains holy water). Alice continued with her 4*10 km plan and added in talking to some dolphins. She also may have convinced Joel to get a sports bra. Please follow this link to see all of Alice’s Byron Bay affiliate links. Jack continued his own irregular training amidst the busiest Saturday morning at the Tan ever.
#4. Jack and Tess. The confluence of the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers was discussed along with whether deers hoot. Jack’s training highlights were some fast long runs on the Yarra, and 8*km on Saturday. Tess trained in Melbourne and Sydney, drank some wine and onboarded a bit of feedback from JTW.
Marathon Training Block Special
Brett and Joel sat down to discuss; macro-nutrition, micro-nutrition, training (especially the difference between training for a marathon and other events and how long to schedule the marathon ‘block’ for), psychology and recovery (there’s a time and a place for socialising and a marathon training block isn’t necessarily it…). Listener questions on pilates and when to structure the gym added to the hour of power of content. Revisit the Marathon Mindset Special (7 September 2023 release date) to top up your marathon information.
With 9 episodes released this past fortnight that is the biggest section of TBL Housekeeping in history. If you would like access to all of these episodes and recipes for Express Fried Rice so you can be in on the jokes on Brett’s Strava, sign up to Patreon.
If ever there was a clickbait title in The Blue Line it’s this one. In a fortnight where we had Tasmania hosting National XC, Brisbane had a fun run, Sydney has a soon-to-be-Major and the National Marathon Championships, Adelaide has it’s fun run and Melbourne has a race on a GP track there’s enough content to warrant some clickbait though.
First, the events in the past. Launceston played host to the National XC for the first time in a long time and didn’t disappoint. For a state that oozes ruggedness, beards and nasty weather the championship weekend didn’t disappoint. If you’re a Tasmanian you were probably proud that for once, your beautiful outdoor qualities were epitomised by this year’s conditions at National Cross. In the results, Leanne Pompeani broke through for her first ever National XC title and continued on her unbeaten streak. Her win and Holly Campbell’s third place helped NSW win the team’s comp. In the Men’s, mad Hawks supporter Seth O’Donnell became a two-time champ repeating his muddy heroics at Oakbank from 2022 to sneak past Ed Marks at the finish. It makes sense given Hawthorn always play well at Launceston and are all up and about. Of course with Seth, Ed and Haftu running well Victorian dominated the teams competition once again. Seth continued his form to run 62:05 and obliterate his PB and the field at Burnley Half over the weekend.
We move onto Brisbane next. A good old fashioned fun run through the city, the Bridge to Brisbane is very Queensland. Everyone up north loves what they have up there, nice weather, nice events, but no-one down south seems to care what actually happens in Brisbane in running unless it’s Peter Siddle running in to claim a hattrick on his birthday at the Gabba. Well, here at TBL we do care enough to warrant noting that Liam Boudin won the men’s race in front of every other QLD based elite (except for Ryan Gregson) continuing his strong form after Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Gen Gregson tested out the post Olympic fitness with a 32:45 10 km to win by almost two minutes in the women’s race.
Both of those athletes are expected to turn up in my favourite city and every reader’s second favourite city for those not residing there, Adelaide. Yes, the city where it takes twenty minutes by car to get anywhere and around 35 minutes to get from the City to the Bay by foot. It’s very Adelaide that our biggest race of the year is only a 12km yet we have beautiful roads and climate and hardly any people clogging them up. Still, we are in for a treat at this year's 50th anniversary of the City-Bay with multiple contenders. Jack Rayner is building up to peak fitness for Melbourne, local Isaac Heyne had a ‘tough day’ at Launceston and will be keen to show the interstaters who’s boss while Haftu Strintzos was the man of the hour at the Goldy 10km and now Seth is a certified 62:low man. In the women’s it could have been very spicy if Leanne was turning up (she’s at the Sydney 10 instead) but we’ll have to settle for Gen, Jess Stenson and Izzi Batt-Doyle. That’s three Paris Olympians of course. Each lady is still on the up after their Paris experiences so will be as equally vulnerable as they are opportunistic about their chances.
With Leanne earlier bringing Sydney into the conversation it of course highlights that yes, the most populated city in our country with its fancy harbour, bridge and Opera house is hosting the biggest running event ever. They just do things better than everyone else in NSW. A larger Sydney preview is available below.
A city who would hate coming after Sydney in the order of things and not having the sporting spotlight is Melbourne. Melbournian’s next event, the Run Prix, is very Melbourne though. Big prize money and a focus on fast races, not this whole 100,000 spectators having a party on the course shebang like Sydney. Expect to see a host of names who ran Burnley Half or even City-Bay go round Albert Park for a hot lap or two.
Those not going for a hot lap around an event in their city are the often forgotten cities in our running map of Australia. Perth, the most isolated city in the world, Darwin, the most humid city in Australia and Canberra, filled with the most public servants in Australia. If those three identifying factors of each city don’t explain why they don’t have a major event this fortnight then please email for further exploration.
Now, with Sydney on this weekend there’s a chance you are either running it, watching it, know someone running it, know someone watching it or just hate running and don’t care. There’s a lot of information to digest with Sydney with it still being relatively ‘new’ in our minds as a big race. These are the facts you should be on top of:
Start time: 6am. AEST. Last year’s start was a lot later.
Events: Marathon and 10km. No half marathon.
Australian’s to watch: Thomas Do Canto and the rest of the field for the National Marathon Champs.
Elite’s to watch. Re-listen to the podcast special Brett and Riley recorded.
Download the app. Follow your friends, enemies and me (enemy for some, friend of others). In the name of Gonzo journalism I will be racing as bib number 145.
Start manifesting that Sydney becomes a Major and joins the club with Berlin, Boston, London, Tokyo, Chicago and New York. Good things will happen if it does so start manifesting now!
Casting your thoughts away from Australian distance running for just two seconds and onto Australia’s doing distance running away and you get thoughts about the Diamond League.
The highlights from the only Italian stop on the DL circuit in Rome were the; Men’s 5000m, Women’s 1500m and Women’s 3000m SC. The Men’s 5000m field hinted at a possible WR attempt however the conditions on the night were not favourable. So, instead Hagos Gebrhiwet, who burst into our consciousness with a 12:36 at Oslo in May, won it in a lowly 12:51! Our own Morgan McDonald was back in 14th with 13:20 which is very quick but, not to sink the boot in here, wasn’t our quickest Aussie over 5000m this fortnight 😮. Hagos described the race as ‘a very nice race and the track is fast, so I am really happy. Our tactics is that we Ethiopians work together, we have many good Ethiopian 5k runners and if one of us gets tired, another can help out with the peace. I knew "I am not alone". I trained a lot for my last 300-400 meters, for the final kick and this helped me tonight. I will race in Brussels. In Paris I was unlucky because after the qualification I got corona so it was very difficult for me. I am very happy about this victory.’ So you should be Hagos.
A lot of big names were present in the Women’s 1500m with only Gudef Tsegay and Sifan Hassan notable omissions. Jess Hull ran 4th in 3:54 to finish behind Faith Kipyegon in 1st. Linden Hall ran her second fastest 1500m of the year to finish in 3:58.84, just edging out local hero Nadia Bottocletti who ran a 3:59 PB. Linden’s result is arguably the Australian result of the night after she was not able to run at her best in Paris following the management of a calf injury. It seems Nadia Bottocletti was also on the same return to full facing program as she ‘wasn't really expecting to break 4 minutes today, because I have been training for only 2 weeks after an injury. But at the same time I have run 4:03 over the last 1500 into a 5000, so I knew I had this in my legs. This is a prize for everything that happened this year. My life changed a lot after the Olympic medal, but at the same time I am still a regular girl. For example, I just took an exam 2 days ago.’ The takeaway from that is run a 1500m 2 weeks after an injury and 2 days after an exam, that’s the ingredients for a PB right?
The final event from Rome was the Women’s 300m SC. I’m not a woman and I’m not a steeplechaser so the inherent bias I have when looking at results that interest me is at its most distant (Men’s 5000m is my go to event). When Winfred Yavi runs 8:44.39 and misses a WR by 0.07 seconds that makes this event certainly get my attention and hopefully yours. In second place, Peruth Chemutai ran 8:48.03 for the third fastest time EVER and a Ugandan NR. To put how fast this run from Winfred was into context, it is almost exactly 30 seconds faster than Gen Gregson’s NR. That’s a big deal for a race that only goes for 3000m…
Moving on from Rome and onto Zurich. Georgia Griffith paced the 5000m there on WR pace and not far off her 3000m PB pace. The aim was to make it to 8:25 through 3k and while Georgia didn’t quite get there, Beatrice Chebet herself still went through the mark at that time. There was a slight slowing after that from Beatrice who later blamed it on the weather. ‘I really wanted to run the WR, but I missed it, this is due to the weather. And the pacemaker was supposed to pace until 3000m. But she dropped of earlier. I used a lot of energy to push. It was not easy. Today, I just want to say thank you to the audience and to the fans. I am over the moon that I ran a WL time. I was not tired in the second half of the race. I got somebody´s spikes onto my leg at the beginning of the race, now it is bleeding. I will do Brussels, I will have to talk to my coach about another attempt for the WR. I guess I do not have the WR in my legs anymore for 2024. Next year.
She mightn’t have the WR in her legs but 14:09 is still quick enough to destroy the field by twenty seconds.
The final DL result of the fortnight was a Men’s 1500m featuring everyone from the Olympics. It’s getting to the level now with this event where it’s very much a raffle on who will win on the day which is very exciting as a fan and must be excruciatingly nerve-wracking as an athlete. Olli Hoare ran 3:37 (13th) to record a similar position in the field as his Australian OAC teammate and podcast host.
Athletes who won’t be changing a thing, except adding DL Champion to their CV, are the one’s lining up in Brussels this weekend for the DL finals. The Australians in contention are Georgia Griffith and Jess Hull (Women’s 1500m), Olli Hoare (Men’s 1500m) and Stewy McSweyn (Men’s 5000m). Follow this link to see full fields listed over the two-day program and read the excellent Australian-focused preview by AA.
Over in UTMB Katie Schide broke Courtney Daulwater’s CR by 21 minutes and completed the Western States and UTMB double. Jim Walmsley was a DNF after leading in the Men’s race. An amateur, Vincent Bouillard, who designs shoes for Hoka won the race and described how even in his A+++ dreams he never expected to win.
As mentioned earlier in the podcast highlights, David Roche’s training philosophy to win Leadville in CR time put the spotlight on how to properly implement under-training to yield fast results. One key factor in David’s philosophy was increasing his HR when taking on nutrition so he could increase his metabolic rate and therefore absorb more carbs from his fuel, thus having a higher amount of fuel, thus becoming a bad-ass. When you’re so focused on training and fuelling though, it can be easy to forget simple things like proper penis management. Look closely at the picture below to see what I’m talking about and notice the blood in a place you don’t want it…
Jarryd Clifford showed us what it’s like to give your best and fall short of your dreams. A slip of the mind and tether in the 5000m to go with a narrow loss in the 1500m is a reminder to all readers that just because you want something really bad, train very hard and believe you can do it, doesn’t mean it will happen. That shouldn’t stop you from trying though nor should it stop us from congratulating Jarryd on his efforts.
Claudia Hollingsworth (1500m), Peyton Craig (800m) and Cameron Myers (1500m) made things simple for us to remember how they went at World Juniors. The headline trio all finished 2nd in their events.
Speaking of Juniors, a small footnote to National XC to blow my own horn as a pundit, Torben Roberts took home the U20 Men’s race after I suggested he was a strong favourite in the last Issue. For any other juniors looking to get some air time in TBL please either join my local athletics club (Torben runs for Flinders Athletics Club) or buy me a nice seafood dinner.
Sarah Billings ran another World Champs qualifier, this time in the 800m with a PB of 1:58.94. Sarah is certainly making the most of her European opportunities this season which warms the heart of many Spiked Up listeners. Other results from overseas; Ky Robinson ran 13:17 over 5000m and 3:52 to record a new Mile PB and Linden Hall notched another sub 4 1500m running 3:59.72 in Croatia.
The Australian Allcomers record for the Marathon is 2:07:03 for Men (Moses Kibet, Sydney September 2022) and 2:23:14 for Women (Naoko Takahashi, Sydney September 2000).
There are 9 men and 9 women in the elite fields who have faster PB’s than the respective records. In fact, every woman listed in the elite field has a faster PB than Takahasi’s 2:23:14.
With a more favourable race day forecast than last year will these records be broken?
September 15th: Sydney Marathon
September 15th: City Bay - Australian Road Running Championships. $3000 for the winners and $1500 for the first SA athlete are notable features of the prize money allocation.
September 22nd: Run Prix. 5km, 10km, 21.095km. $12,000 in prize money in the 10km all up.
September 29th: Berlin Marathon.
October 13th: Melbourne Marathon.
This division of Grattan House welcomes any and all reader feedback.
If you want more or less of something or want something investigated then please enquire at theblueline@grattanhouse.com with an email starting with ‘Dear Fraser Darcy,’.