Sunshine Coast Marathon 2018

First Female 2:59:25

Dreams can come true!

Saturday 18^th August 3:50pm, jump in the car with all the family and head to the airport. Pumped this trip is finally happening!!

3:52pm Text from Jetstar “We’re sorry your flight is cancelled” My heart went from pumping with excitement to instant anxiety! Called Jetstar. “Sorry for the inconvenience Mrs Goldrick, I can put you on the next flight to the Sunshine Coast tomorrow at 2pm” TOMORROW!!!!! All I wanted to do was yell at this poor lady…..DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAVE DONE TO GET ON THIS FLIGHT?! I’VE HIRED A SLEEP LADY TO TEACH MY 11 MONTH OLD HOW TO SLEEP, LISTENED TO HIM SCREAM EVERY NIGHT FOR HOURS ON END, WHILST WEANING HIM OFF THE BOOB, SO I CAN GO AWAY FOR 24 HOURS TO BREAK 3 HOURS IN THE MARATHON. NOT TO MENTION THE LAST 3 MONTHS OF INTENSE TRAINING!!!” …… I decided to just go with… “No worries, please put me on the 7:25pm flight to Brisbane”. Finally got to Maroochydore at 11pm, straight to bed! Alarm set 4:30am.

4:30am alarm goes off. I instantly jumped out of bed! I was PUMPED! Shower, dressed, 2 bananas, ½ instant coffee with sugar (yuk!), 2 bliss balls, a gatorade and I was BUZZING. I firstly thought I’d eaten too much, but in hindsight it was perfect. Golds drove me to the start line. Did a 1.4km plod at 6:03 pace, the majority of the time trying to find an empty toilet, only to see 300 other people doing the same thing! 5:55am. I was stressing. Then I saw the Elite area. I walked straight into the Elite area with my head down and straight to the toilet. No one will ever know!

5:57am – Finally tracked down Golds to give him my jacket. I haven’t felt this nervous since I got married!!! I see Andy Heyden plodding around with the biggest smile on his face, not a worry in the world!!! (gosh I wish I was that relaxed at the beginning of a race!)  He gave me a hug, put me at ease instantly, gave me a pep talk and I was ready! Andy you are a legend!!!

6:02am Gun goes off! And we’re OFF!! Just breathe and stick with the 3 hour pacer. Simon Wolnizer!! So happy to see a familiar face. Caught up to him in the first 500ms, had a quick chat, he had the music pumping and then we were ON! Pace felt slow, but I knew I needed to start conservatively. Don’t get too excited! Stuck with Simon for 5kms and then got a bit excited. Let my legs go on the downhill and couldn’t resist pushing ahead. I knew this decision could ruin me later, but I figured I’d just take the risk. Sitting at 4:10 average pace, I knew I was going too fast, but I was in a good rhythm and I didn’t want to stop.

21kms. Coming back up the hill to Alexander Headlands, I saw a bike on the other side of the road coming down the hill with a sign on it “Lead Female Marathon runner” NO WAY!!!!!! It couldn’t be!!!!!! I felt like it was WAY too good to be true!!!! I could see the lead female was starting to slow down. It was at that moment that I thought back to all the amazing encouragement and support I’d received over the last week, thought about all the training sessions I’d done and decided to back myself and go for it!!!!! I ran up the hill, and pushed on the downhill to catch the bike. With the BIGGEST smile on my face I said “HEY, nice work, keep with me” to the leader and kept pushing past down the hill. I couldn’t believe it. I was leading for the FIRST time in my entire life. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. The lovely lady on the bike (I later found out her name was Deborah Latouf), said where do you usually like the bike, front or back? I was like…. “ummm…I’m a complete amateur, I have NO idea! I’ve never lead a race in my entire life!!!” She just smiled and rode out in front.

23kms and my watch ticked over at 3:54/km.. SLOW DOWN Elle!! I saw Golds on the sideline yelling out at me.. “half way Els”. I tried to reset, take a deep breath and just relax. I couldn’t stop smiling. I was already thinking about the ribbon at the end and having flashbacks to Erika winning the Sun Run and Laura winning Blackmores. The crowd was amazing! Yelling out at me every step of the way. I could see Simon at every U turn yelling out encouragement. I saw Andy encouraging me from the crowd. Golds was popping up every few kms (I later found out he was wizzing around in a hired car – and I thought he was running!) My new bestie Debroah on the bike was shouting out to the runners in front of me “move to the left, lead female coming through”. IT WAS THE COOLEST THING I’D EVER EXPERIENCED!!! I couldn’t stop thanking everyone for moving to the left!!! I said to myself… “this is NEVER EVER going to happen again, so lap it up!”

I was able to hold 4:11/km until 33kms and then the legs started to tire and I was beginning to worry if I’d gone out too hard. The next 4kms I was hitting 4:20 pace. The wheels were falling off. At 37.5kms a young girl with a black t-shirt sailed on past as if she was just doing a Park Run. She wasn’t even sweating! My heart sunk. I was 2^nd.  The ribbon finish was fading. From 37.5kms to 42kms I was averaging 4:30’s. 41kms being my slowest km at 4:35. I could still see the leader ahead, but I didn’t have the energy to catch her. I had given up on the win, but was confident I was going to break 3 hours. I kept reminding myself that WAS my goal!

I got to 42kms and I could see the finishing chute. I took my 8^th gel, and decided at that point that you can always squeeze 1 more percent out. Surely there was something left in the tank to sprint the leader down!! Just TRY, you’ve got nothing to lose! I turned into the finishing chute and just SPRINTED and SPRINTED and SPRINTED until I grabbed the ribbon and fell over the line. I HAD DONE IT! I couldn’t believe it!!!! I never ever ever thought I could possibly EVER WIN A RACE. I only ever WATCH my friends win races. I was in complete shock. No words could ever explain the feeling I had when I crossed the line.

After dramatically falling to the ground, I found Golds and couldn’t stop the tears. I was on cloud 9. Selfies with Simon and hugging Andy, interview with Channel 7, presentation, more interviews (somewhere in the middle the reporter asked me what was next? And my reply “I’ll probably just go back to breastfeeding my 11 month old!” I really had lost the plot!!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the most amazing group of athletes I have ever come across. I am so proud to be apart of Hurts. I can honestly say, I would not of been in this position if it wasn’t for every single one of the Hurts members encouraging me, training with me and guiding me. It is a rare group of people that I am honoured to be a part of. It is so much more than a running group. It is a group of lifelong friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Let’s face it, who else would want to get up at 6am on the coldest morning in July to run a long tempo!!!!???!

BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!