Having lived in Brisbane back in 1999 and spent a number of mornings training along the Brisbane River it is always great to get away to my home away from home. It was a great opportunity to meet up with family for a tasty pasta meal the night before the Brisbne Marathon.
Like all marathon race starts it was a very early morning preparing for the 42km adventure ahead. It was a beautiful Brisbane morning with runners meeting in Southbank for the official race start.
Following the Half Marathon gun the Marathon group stepped up to the start line. It was great to star with some legendary Brisbane running legends such as Digger over the first 15km. It was fascinating to listen in to discussions on future race plans to continue similar marathon pacing for another 10 years. It was mentioned that looking at the previous marathon times over the years that similar finish times have been maintained for close to 20 years - incredible effort!
Having not fully recovered from the Gold Coast Marathon a few weeks earlier I was pleased with the opening to the marathon although approaching the 10km stage there was a alarming pain in my lower calf. There were few options at this time other than to attempt to stretch out and there is no reason to ever give up!
In pushing on I was pleased to pass the half way point in 1:57 and with the calf not helping the challenge would be to see out the remainder of the marathon. It is always a little more challenging taking on a loop course simply due to the fact that there is more of the same and no real change in scenery.
There was a great atmosphere provided at the water stations with teenage girls screaming and creating lots of fun for runners. It turned out later that there was $1,000 on the line for each water station team to win.
I finally made it across the line in 4:27:28 and struggled to pick up the ice pack to treat my calf before stumbling back to the hotel for a well deserved shower and then the return flight home to Sydney.
