Repatriating to Australia at the end of 2018, and into a new state for us in Victoria, it opened up a wonderful opportunity to run new marathons. I set my sights first on my capital city’s major road race, the Nike Melbourne Marathon. (For anyone counting, this would be number 11)
This race had been on my mind many years earlier. Even since I completed the Gold Coast City marathon probably. For fellow Queenslanders, the decision of which marathon outside of Queensland to run usually comes down to their preference to finish at The Sydney Opera House or finish on the hallowed turf of the MCG. I love my sport which, combined with my illogical opposition to all things from NSW, meant Melbourne was always going to be the clear winner.
Once I had finished running it, (in a slightly off target 4hr 03 minutes) I wanted to capture some of the amazing moments from the event, and I thought a Tweetstorm was the simplest (and therefore best) format for that. Now I have found that WordPress has an Unroll feature for Twitter embeds. So here following, are the 12 tweets from my 2019 Melbourne Marathon experience.
Sunday’s #MelbMara was amazing. A thread might be simpler than a blog to capture a few fun tidbits. (1/12)
Before the race I walked more than I wanted looking for the marathon bag drop. My Apple Watch informed me I’d completed my exercise goal before reaching the start line. ?
Loved an early spectator sign in the first few kms saying “You’re nearly there … (just kidding)” ?
Saw a spectator with a “Go Random Stranger” sign popping up all over the course. Runners beside me yelled “Thank you random cheerleader”. ? Later I noticed the sign flipped to show “Go Dan” on the other side when needed.
Another spectator sign I enjoyed, “It’s an awful lot of effort for a free banana.” ? (I might be mistaken, but I recollect there being only half bananas after the finish. Yet on the course they were whole. The opposite would have been better?)
.@EliudKipchoge running the first sub 2 hr marathon the day before was quite a talking point.
At one point on the course our group hit a complete standstill, where I said we’d now not break the world record. My neighbour concurred, since we had no laser guidance from a pace car (we were on 4:30 pace). ?
I saw more spectators around the course randomly handing out lollies than I have at any marathon. I asked one runner if his Mum knows he’s taking candy from strangers. After a pause, he said “At least he was wearing a glove.” ?
Around 30km mark I stopped noticing funny things, as my focus shifted to the pain of running 42.2kms.
I had anticipated a jubilant lap of the MCG before the finish line, maybe even getting out my phone to film the milestone moment. Wrong on two fronts.
1. My legs were excruciating and I could think of nothing beyond moving forward; and
2. My phone had been unlocking and entering wrong passwords in my flip belt. So it was disabled for a further hour. (At least on the drive home my marathon pace sped up quite a bit!?)The end. For now.
I just remembered on the course I saw an Avenger running , but couldn’t keep up with him.
“Which one was it?”
“That’s not important.”
“It was Hulk wasn’t it.”
“But I did beat Spider-Man!”
Originally tweeted by Ryan B (@rbrink77) on 14 October, 2019.