2025 Melbourne Marathon Recap - Sub 3 Project Third Times the Charm!

The following is an email I sent to Tina (my coach) a couple of days after the 2025 Melbourne Marathon where I ran 2:57:11, finally cracking the 3 hour barrier in my 3rd attempt.

—

“Hi Mama T,

To be honest, as I type this on Monday afternoon on a plane back to Perth from Melbourne, it hasn’t quite sunk in with what I’ve achieved. There’s a sense of relief for the most part but I’m sure in the days and weeks…or maybe by the time I finish writing this, I will be absolutely stoked and proud at what I’ve just done here in Melbourne.

Race Week

I was quietly confident over the last two weeks and much the same heading into race week. Prior to that I was feeling very flat, mentally tired and not feeling like I was fit enough to improve on my fitness from GC. I wasn’t hitting paces or times that I expected to be hitting and it felt like I was yo-yoing between good session days and not so good session days. A bit of a contrast to the road to Gold Coast where I felt like I was nailing every session, week after week. After taking a Sunday off that all changed - I felt fresher and had a bit of a pop in my step.

I worked until Thursday which meant that i wasn’t thinking about it as much. Work has been going well and not as stressful as it was around GC time. And after speaking to you Tina, I have been intentional in visualising the race for an hr and then not thinking about it for the rest of the day. Whether it was looking at the course map, pov YouTube videos of race experiences or running through potential scenarios on the day and how I will respond to it.

I flew in Friday morning at 11:20am after dropping Miata off at school holiday care. She’s been struggling with these as she feels anxious about her mates not being there but Friday morning she was in a great mood and had friends waiting for her. It was a breeze. I then headed straight to the airport with my carry on with plenty of time to spare. Bumped into someone from Bunbury who I knew as they listened to the pod who was doing Melbourne along with a couple of others. I was feeling good. Flight was smooth despite the delay in takeoff and got to Melbourne at 6:30pm. Caught up with Narri who was already in Melbourne for dinner.

Didn’t carb load as much as a wanted to and with the 3 hour time difference I was wide awake. Had dinner number 2 via uber eats and didn’t get to sleep until close to 1am. Woke up around 6:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep so decided to just try to head to the expo first thing for bib pick up.

Relatively straight forward bib pick up which I jogged to and from. Promised to keep a low profile I walked with Narri to grab pastries at Lune before walking to the start line to familiarise ourselves on where to go the next day. The start line was only 1.2km from the hotel which was perfect. Went back and rested. Although promising to stay low - Ash came over and we had lunch. Gave her my honest take on whether she should race as I knew the btrc fellas would egg her on to run. I think she made the right choice! I rested before dinner with Narri, David Perich and Mike Lawson and his partner. Probably too bougie of a Japanese restaurant but it did the job! Went back and tried to get some shut eye.

Race Morning

Managed 4hr30 of sleep which I’ll definitely take because it’s 2 more hours than what I had at GC. Usual protocol and met Narri before walking to the start line from 5:20am. We walked and it was plenty of time to do a loo stop and drop my bag and jog before the start. Completely different vibes compared to GC.

Corral was a bit hectic as the security dude didn’t let us in 15min before the start. Weird and I was a little anxious but I knew I wasn’t running to a pace group and focused on just myself and my efforts. Managed to get in and it felt like we were wedged in the 3:10 pace group. Drums, welcome to country and national anthem (no Deeks weird sermon/rev up) and we were off!

0 - 10km

First couple of kms were a bit wild with the two lanes and the ridiculous amount of hazards. People switching lanes randomly, bollards, tram infrastructure and people going psycho making weird inconsistent movements made it tough but finally settled the nerves and an effort. 4:12 avg pace was the plan for the first 5km and I managed to nail it. Turns out despite setting up a 5km alert, I had set my watch to manual lap which I didn’t realise until the 10km mark - a blessing in disguise as it meant that I just focused on effort and made sure the average pace across the total distance was within range.

The Albert park section was where I saw Ash and Dav and then BT. Seeing him sitting down devastated and pulling out of the Mara made me emotional knowing his injury leading into race day and that this was an A race. Took me a while to recompose and get back on track. I did tell myself in that moment that I should be grateful to be running this and have the ability to do so. I was back on track. My watch at 10km showed an average of 4:11/km although the tracker showed the 5-10km split as 4:15/km. I was in cruise control and that felt awesome.

10km - Half way

Heading to the beach section of the course, by now I was getting really really sweaty. I was carrying a 500ml flask of precision 1500 that I was sipping on and continued to do so until I ditched it before the halfway mark. I avoided the aid stations up until this point so avoided the chaos. Before the 18km hairpin turn I bumped into Grazer and Andy C. That caught me off guard as I thought it was the 2:50 pacer ahead of me this whole time! Turns out the 3hr pace group was going out hot and it wasn’t actually until 23-24km that I passed them. The bus was huge and there was a little bit of anxiety to try and get pass them. Used the aid station which was chaos. Pushed and shoved and utter carnage. Veered well right to get out of danger and then surged a little to try to get out of harms way. Half way mark at 1:28:31 - perfect.

Halfway - 30km

After making a surge to get pass the pace group I settled into a pace before making the next hairpin turn to get back in the opposite direction. I saw Mike Lawson and Sarah Greenwood and yelled at them which was a great distraction from the slight mental fatigue. Heading the other way, I cheered for Perich who was behind and another mate and that inadvertently spurred me on. Heading into 30km it started to rain and there was some decent headwind albeit for only a short period of time. This was a relief as it felt muggy for me so this cooled me down. I sat behind a group of guys who started to pick up the pace slightly. On my watch the average pace for the total distance dropped to 4:09. I was physically feeling good and felt in control which was amazing. On the tracker it looked like I hit 4:10 and 4:09 5km splits.

30 - 35km

Fuck me this was chaos with the half marathoner merge point. We hit into the back of the 2hr half Mara pace group and was weaving and dodging and yelling. I was at high anxiety levels as I was running on the right but I knew at some point that I needed to veer to the left. Not sure how this translated into km splits but I felt like I was yo-yoing in surges which I was conscious that it could screw me over. Decision point. I decided to maintain and if I felt good to only just push just a smidge. I’m glad to have navigated this section in one piece. We had a mate who stacked it in this section due to the chaos of the slow half marathoners. I would imagine a lot of people’s races would be over because of this merge point.

4:09/km average for this section.

35 - 40km

Physically I felt in control but my mind was wandering due to the anxiety of the eventual splitting of runners. I then went to my anchor words that I wrote on my arm. My best self, I want to be a role model for my daughter, I want to be mentally strong and I want to be fucking courageous. I was repeating those words in my head and even said it out loud.

As I approached the botanical gardens I saw Ash, Dav and BT. I felt strong and got the rev up from the guys to give me the confidence to tackle to little climb from 36-37km. Role model, strong and courageous was what I repeated to myself. As I got to the top and turned around - 5km to go.

I continued to repeat the anchor words and even yelled let’s go to runners I passed. I saw Ash, Dav and BT again. Gave them a love heart. They were immense today. Almost there. Watch still showed a 4:09/km average pace though this was a slow 5km split of 4:14. I was dehydrating at this point and was conscious that the eventual cramps were going to hit me.

40km - Finish

There was a sudden urge to send it but then at 41km the cramps finally hit my calves. I was forced to heel strike to try to stretch out my calves. I decided to try to then just maintain as much as I could muster up to get to the finish line. It was hobbly, I was in pain and as I entered the G the finish was there. I tried to muster up whatever I had to get me to the end. I felt emotional but to be honest that went away with the pain I was feeling in my calves. Finish line. 2:57:18. Sarah Greenwood was at the finish line after she finished in 2:53 and we hugged. Huge relief. The monkey off my back. Finally.

Closing thoughts
Is this the time I deserved? Before the race if I was told that 2:57 would be the time maybe not… but after executing the race that I did, I am proud of how I controlled that race and everything up until 41km was on my terms. A completely different experience from GC where I was a broken man from 10km. I’m content with the time and I’m sure over the days and weeks it will finally sink in properly.

Gosh I have so much love for the TT support crew on marathon morning. Ash has been immense. Obviously dealing with her own physical stuff and I was doing what I can to cheer her up on Saturday. She put in a bloody shift Sunday morning. Very grateful to have these guys in my life.

My immediate thoughts post race is that I’m not motivated to push and race a marathon beyond a 2:57 with my sweating and saltiness being a limiting factor. I’m motivated by the shorter distances up until the half where I can take more risks with hydration not being a big factor in my performances.

Tina. Thank you for revving me up. Thank you for believing in me and I’m grateful for your guidance and support in making this all happen. You’re a big part of this sub 3 marathon project and I can’t wait to continue to improve my running with you for the years to come. I know our touch points is relatively minimal but you’ve been pivotal in giving me the belief that I can run well, strong and courageously. Thank you Mama T.

Cheers
Simon”