The doctor told me to give the marathon away and to concentrate on the shorter distances. But little did he know that those words would spur me on to achieve not only to run a marathon but to break the magic 3hr barrier. As I progressed through all the rehabilitation and physiotherapy appointments I could see progress and this gave me hope. As I set up to run the 2018 Melbourne Marathon I would yet again subcome to injury this time a torn calf muscle and a stress fracture in the foot. As I put that behind me I said to myself I’d be back next year to achieve a marathon PB. And after years of frustration, I finally ran a marathon PB by 2mins in 2019 Melbourne Marathon. It was a huge relief but I felt I had more to give and thought I’d only get stronger and felt the knee was showing enormous signs of improvement. As 2020 rolled around I was set for another attempt of a sub 3hr marathon finally after taking 3 years of hard work to get back into my 2017 shape.

But as we all know 2020 turned on its head in March due to covid with all events canceled to the least December so this meant yet again I was unable to run the Melbourne Marathon. This was until the Melbourne Marathon 2020 decided to go virtual with the event for the first time in its history.

All of a sudden my sub 3hr attempt was back on so I knuckled down to training so I could reach my lifelong goal of a sub 3hr marathon.

Marathon Day Saturday 13th December

As I stood at the start line of Albert Park ready for 8 laps and 640m to make up the 42.2km distance I knew I’d put in all the work and this was my time.

As the laps turned over my pacers Damien Bruneau and Julie Ann Undrill did a fantastic job of keeping me accountable to my target pace of 4.11/km and I’d pass through 21.1km in 1.28.10 feeling confident I had this.