Debut marathon at 42 over 42

It’s been a long road to completing my first marathon, while I’ve been a runner for many years the marathon has eluded me for many years.

People would aways ask why I hadn’t done a marathon if I was a runner and while I could have made the distance it was about achieving a respectable time. Also I had many life events that had gotten in the way of me achieving this goal. Back in 2012 I was ready to run Gold Coast and instead of lining up on the start line I was battling testicular cancer, then I was looking at getting back into running in 2014 and I suffer an arrhythmia issue with my heart. After 5 mins of exercise my heart would jump up to 250-300bpm. The next 6month I had to see heart specialist and had this operated on. From there I thought that my running days were done and for the next 4 years went away from the sport and was battling my own mental issues and divorce was at the forefront.

In September 2018 a group of school mates decided to book a trip to Kokoda which was just the thing I needed after the last couple of years I had had. It would give me a goal. Training started slow and was at my heaviest at 86kgs by February 2019 I decided to join F45 and do weight loss challenge over 8wk this is where I start to make in roads and after the 8 weeks I’d had lost 14kgs with cross training and running and my thoughts start to wander that I could actually run this Marathon finally.

I had no goal at this stage apart for completing the race. That’s where I called up Adam Didyk and asked to meet up to discuss the prospect of competing in Melbourne.

Alway the positive person Adam jumped on it and we didn’t look back.

Flying over to Melbourne today I now see how far I’ve come mentally and physically. Everyone can see that I’ve lost weight and look fit, now weighing in at 66kg but the mental benefit I’ve gotten from running is where the real success has come. There were weeks and days before all of this I drank and slept my days away with no real purpose for living. My only thing getting me up each day was my son.

With the support though of my partner Tish and family I took the first steps.

Tomorrow will be race day and while I have goals to achieve on the day the real goal was getting to the line and what ever happens from there is a bonus and hopefully my son can be proud of the person I’ve become and can be the role model I wanted to be.

Thank you to everyone that’s been a part of the journey as I wouldn’t have made it without you all. This is just the start of the journey though

Race day to be continued….