What I Learned from Not Running the Sydney Marathon
Serving other runners is the big unlock
This past weekend, the Sydney Marathon punched me in the face, and I was not ready for how great it would feel.
I’ve just wrapped up a really intense last four days of hanging out around the Sydney Marathon. I didn’t even run the damn thing, and I’m exhausted.
Random fun fact - I’m extremely introverted. I’d say for every hour I spend with someone I need three hours to recharge my introverted battery.
Where The Marathon Idea Came From
It was a perfect day, weather and event-wise. While a bit too cold for me as I stood around trying to get primo finish line content, the temperatures meant lots of new and old running friends ran their best or close to their best times. I was even able to run the 10k marathon and be a part of the event (Wait - before you get angry that I said “10k marathon), it was an actual 10k race during the marathon festival, haha).
Throughout the weekend, I started getting these interesting feelings that turned into ideas. The feelings were around how I could involve myself more in marathon racing without killing myself through training for the actual event. In this internal brainstorming session, I’ve come out with a few crazy ideas I’d like to share. Most won’t see the light of day and will most likely be the catalyst for something cool in the future.
The excitement of the Sydney Marathon this year, the execution, and the general hype were even bigger than last year. And last year was awesome. This year so many international folks came down because it was the Abbot’s World Major’s Age Group World Championships. Yes, as someone who doesn’t do marathons and just found out about Abbot’s World Majors a few years ago, those are a lot of confusing buzzwords. TLDR - it’s a big world race for the fast amateur runners who aren’t pros. It gives these talented, normal, working humans something to compete, look forward to and travel around the world. It’s a great business model and also allows me to go for runs with said global people and make cool content showcasing their lives.
Win-win-win in my books.
I really like this new idea and format of “Conversations in Zone 2”. It’s like comedians in cars having coffee, but we are running and video podcasting. It’s a technical nightmare to capture quality video and clear audio, but after six years of iterations, it’s at a place that I think is cool and should be an enjoyable experience for you as the end watcher/listener. I also have to bring my a-game as a host and guide the conversation in a way that is engaging for all. Oh… and do that while tying it to habits, consistency and getting better one step at a time while fighting the elements of being outdoors. Why wouldn’t I pick anything less ambitious?
Running with Roberto Mandje, who is Casey Neistat and Lil Nas-X’s run coach, got me thinking - “Dude, you should be more involved in this marathon stuff”. Roberto’s business model is loosely based on coaching runners to sub-3-hour marathons and then flying out to pace them in their marathons of choice. While I will not be flying out to pace anyone anytime soon, I can do a variation of that.
What it looks like
I love documenting stuff. I like being in the action. I like coaching people. I like pacing people in races. I don’t particularly love racing as I’ve said in many newsletters of the past.
I enjoy running and I like telling stories. I can do that by getting in-the-race style footage, using it as coachable movements, and doing it all while documenting it from a first-person point of view. Boom, where do I sign up?
But before I do it I need to get my body physically and mentally ready to run that distance with somewhat ease. I do have genetics and consistency on my side. My half marathon every year training does allow me to get in just enough volume to handle the overall load that’s needed for the marathon. I’m also super grateful that I don’t need to do “run as fast as possible” marathon training. Instead of chasing my marathon potential time of 2 hours 35 minutes, I’ll just look to maintain around sub-3 hours when I go to pace, coach and record someone on race day.
But before I can see how any of this fits in my life, I need to complete the last three years of my half marathon every year 1% better challenge. It’s still an idea coming off the tail end of a super intense weekend, so this might fizzle out a bit. And that’s okay, because it could be a spark that ignites into a different type of raging fire.
Let’s see if Sydney becomes an Abbot’s World Major next year and how many of you end up making it down to Australia for it.
Where are all the African nation runners in trail racing?
This is a question I’ve had for years and a friend of mine (Gus from Kaizen) answered the question. They are right here competing with the best trail runner of all time and testing his limits.
In Golden Trail Series - Season 3, the coolest thing is seeing African nation runners going up against trail legends like Kilian Jornet. These guys (the African nation runners), who are total beasts in marathons and road races, are now hitting the trails, and it’s wild to watch. They bring insane speed and endurance, and it’s cool to see how they handle the tough, technical courses that are Jornet’s playground.
What’s even cooler is how this season feels way more global, with athletes from all over mixing it up. The competition between the African nations runners and the European stars adds a whole new vibe. I won’t spoil what happens, but don’t worry, it’s got all the drama you’d expect and it’s shot so beautifully that it feels like a Redbull commercial.
