Fraser Darcy

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Written on Thursday afternoon before I flew out to Sydney. It’s been a good week so far. Monday was an easy hour along Sturt River followed by my 5th sauna session in a row. Having managed to hang in there for 35 minutes on Sunday I hoped to once again push it to 35 on Monday. Job done. I’m getting good at this sauna thing. I spent the rest of the day putting together last week’s blog, catching up on some coaching admin and staying pretty low. Monday’s are good like that after a busy weekend of running with people.

Reflecting on Tuesday, that was a good day too. I was on the bike for the group’s session and then went out at 9:30 with Connor and Adam for our own session. I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to get out of the final session before the marathon, some more tempo work? some faster stuff? a mix? In the end I just kept it simple, that’s generally a good idea, and did 6*1km with the other boys. It was the first time I had ran faster than 3:15/km for three weeks and it felt smooth. Maybe all that effort at running below 3:00/km pace in the weeks leading up to Adelaide and then resting afterwards has finally absorbed into my body? Or maybe I was just fresh. Another afternoon, another sauna session later, this time with Luke, and I was another day closer to the Sydney Marathon.

It was really starting to sink on on Wednesday that I was running a marathon on Sunday. I’ve mentioned before that Marathon Race Week is like Grand Final week. Adelaide kind of had that feel but this week definitely has that feel. The days are longer, the grass is greener and the temps are warmer. All the hallmarks of Grand Final week in football. I ran an easy 50 minutes on Wednesday, felt pretty good, and received the information around drink stations, elite access etc for Sunday which was nice. It made the fact that I’ll be running in the top 30-40 runners on Sunday, possibly in line with the elite women all the more real. I thought about this a bit on my 7th sauna session in a row where I lasted 45 minutes before taking a break. No, I’m not a freak, the sauna door was almost open every minute or so it was that busy so it wasn’t as warm as previous sessions. Still, it allowed me to notch up almost 60 minutes of time in there pretty comfortably.

Thursday. The day I’m putting this together because I have ample time and know that the finished product will be better for it the sooner I put it together. Almost a repeat of Monday I went down to the Sturt River for an easy 10km and felt very fresh. Could’ve just been the nice weather though. A trip to the shops to collect some food supplies for Sydney and then one more final sauna visit. I scanned my sister’s card one last time and was given the red light of shame *please see reception*. Uh-oh, I’ve been undone at the final hurdle. The receptionist informed me that my card was suspended…oh shit, I’ve ruined it for Emma… for a month. Oh actually Emma told me she was suspending it for a month while she was away, but I thought that wasn’t going to kick in for a few more days…How do I handle this one… ‘Oh… can I just pay today?’ I said frustratingly. ‘No, I can change it by another day if you’d like?’ ‘Ah yes, that would be great…’. The lady tapped away at the keyboard, her co-worker made a joke I couldn’t hear but I laughed anyway, play it cool Fraser. She then ripped off a paper form to fill out my details on and asked me to clarify my name, ‘Emma Darcy’ I said confidently. My strategy was that if they kept hounding me I could just say I’ve been secretly stealing Emma’s card without her knowledge. The receptionist kept filling out the form, probably a form for me to acknowledge membership card fraud, passed it over to me to sign, sign it quick and get it out of there, took it back and waved me through. I had survived for now. If they suspected I was a fraudster I thought they should’ve kicked me out but seeing as they didn’t maybe I did convince them. Emma will tell me I suppose if she hears otherwise when she reads this…

In the sauna finally it was good to relax. No more stress until Sunday I thought. It wasn’t as hot again as normal and I lasted forty minutes before my first break. It’s been nice sitting in the sauna for a week straight again. I believe it’s made a difference to my fitness so that’s nice too. With Thursday’s run and sauna out of the way it also marks my last official exercise before I fly out to Sydney on Friday.

Written on Monday morning flying out from Sydney. I flew into Sydney on Friday morning, went to Harry and Susie’s (my brother and his fiancé) house in Woolhara to collect the key from Susie. Had some rice for lunch and then went to the city to collect my bib, have a poke around at the running show and catch up with a mate. All went smoothly and I was back home by 4pm for a quick nap and a jog. On the Friday before Adelaide Marathon i ran an easy 10km and felt that was fine but also felt like I didn’t need a full 10km. This time, I ran to Centennial Park, ran a lap and included 5*1min on, 1min off towards the end to get the legs ticking over to marathon pace. This felt like a good idea at the time and had me getting pretty psyched to be running back here on Sunday morning for 140mins of the same thing at the same pace. At Harry’s house that night I had the place to myself and cooked up 500g of pasta thinking I might save some for the morning. Wrong, I demolished it all. Harry invited me out for a beer at the pub with his mates at 7pm and I said yes at the time thinking it’d be a nice brotherly thing to do rather than refuse the offer. I was concerned that the 1km walk there and 1km back was a lot of walking on top of what I’d already done. Plus, the socialising wasn’t exactly ideal two nights out from a marathon, but appeasing my brother was also important to keep him off my back. Luckily for me though the pub catch-up was pushed back to 8pm as Harry ended up working late so I had a good leg to stand on to refuse the offer. 

Saturday. Up early and into the city to catch up with my FTK colleagues for their Sydney shakeout run. Last time I saw Brett and Joel was at Sydney Marathon last year so it was good to say hello to them, and Riley who I saw in Adelaide, and another mate, Kieren, who had stayed with me in Quorn a few months ago. After the shakeout was done I headed back home for another 500g of pasta. I prepared my bottles, had a nap, watched some TV and then went back into the city for the elite athlete briefing. This was my first time at such an event and I got there twenty minutes early to find mostly the elite international runners all having their shoes and singlets inspected. Fuck, was I supposed to bring my shoes and singlet? I was a little stressed and unsure of what the deal was so asked the only two people I recognised, multiple Olympian and elite Aussie runner Liam Adams and elite runner/podcast celebrity Brady Threlfall. They kind of looked at me like what was I doing there but gave me some helpful advice. I relaxed, I didn’t need my shoes or singlet and just needed to chill out a bit and listen in. All that was really important was that I learnt Brady was pacing the elite women at 3:22/km (2:22 marathon pace) and I needed to drop my bottles in the special boxes. There was a little confusion with how the bottles would be displayed on the table but after hanging around a bit afterwards and asking another elite Aussie runner, Thomas Do Canto, me and a few other newbies figured it out. That was all the stress I needed for the final day before the Marathon so I headed home for another batch of rice and an early night. Harry asked to go for a hit of tennis when I got home but I had to politely refuse again. My argument was that this was the closest thing to my grand final. I’m not sure that argument sunk in though because after he had cooked what I’m sure were some wonderful chips to go with his steak for dinner, he was not very happy that I refused to have a few of his chips. I went to bed at 8pm pretty bloody excited to get the race underway the next day.

Race Recap: Which started for me at 3:15am when my alarm went off. Two bits of toast and honey, coffee, couple of poo’s and I was out the door at 3:50am heading to catch the 4:04am train from Bondi Junction. This time last year I was heading to the start of Sydney Marathon with Georgia and her mate Jeremy, albeit at a later time because the race started later at 7am, not 6am, last year. My role last year was to make sure they both got to the start line and could hand off any last minute items to me to take to the finish line. Without any crew of my own to roll with I headed in without my phone, a pair of old shoes to walk in with my race shoes in my hand and a jumper I was going to toss away. The 4:04am train was the first one to leave from Bondi that morning and I was the first on. Over the course of the next twenty-thirty minutes the crowd grew and we picked up more people when we changed to the Metro. It’s a pretty special experience, like going to the MCG, catching the train to the start of a marathon. We’re all there for the same reason. It was a bit of walk to get to the start line venue of North Sydney Oval but eventually I arrived at around 4:35am, almost 1.5hrs before the start of the race. 

With only my hoodie to keep me from being cold it was a pretty long 1.5hrs. A couple of highlights were taking a few pisses on North Sydney Oval instead of lining up for the toilets and getting to chat with a mate from Adelaide, Ben, who I’ve crossed paths with many times through running and is married to an school friend. It definitely put me at ease getting to chat with someone familiar to pass the time. By 5:50am there wasn’t much more time to pass though and we were ushered to the start line. I saw another familiar face whom I had met earlier in the week right on the start line, got a picture and then made some casual chat with Tom Do Canto and Brady. My game plan for the race considering what pace the elite women were going at was to sit with them for as long as I could, as long as that felt comfortable, and then try and race to be in the top 5 Australians. I had an epiphany during the week that comparing times in races is fraught with danger so I was trying to not worry about what time I would get. I came to that realisation through understanding that runners all profess that you should never compare times in training sessions to past sessions because of the differences in weather, mood, cumulative training load etc. Yet, that’s what we do with races and our PB’s?! So for this race I was just going to use the pace the elite women were running at as a guide and then settle into ‘racing’ mode not ‘look at what time you will run’ mode. 

Off the start line we ran straight down hill for over a kilometre. Just like at Sunshine Coast Half Marathon I failed to press the start button on my watch properly and looked down after thirty seconds to see it hadn’t started. Oh well, not the first time this has happened. I pressed start and got myself sorted on the front of the elite women. Brady was an official pace maker and was looking around to see if all the elite women were following him which they were. We had our first chat of many about how steep the hill was and what that meant for our pace. I said it felt about right to give him some confidence so we settled into it. It wasn’t long before we were crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I thought to myself, well this is pretty cool, I’m on the front of the elite women, with multiple camera’s staring at us, running across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I saw a Riley taking footage for FTK which added to the whole experience.

After a few km’s I had started to settle in and realised I felt pretty good, the temps were nice and cold, the wind wasn’t too bad and a sore hip tendon that I’d been managing wasn’t too bad. I could’ve sat back in the pack from here on to get a bit of protection from the wind but the urge to be on the front, chatting with Brady to distract myself, out of trouble from clipping someone’s legs and in front embracing the full experience was too strong. It was fucking awesome and such a difference from how Adelaide Marathon felt at this point. The closest running experience I could relate to was the start of the Adelaide Marathon the first time I ran it in 2022.

At 5km’s in I grabbed my first drink and gel and pretty much finished the whole bottle (250mL) and held onto the gel until 30 minutes when I took it. With my last three marathons being at Adelaide where I only have access to 5 or 6 bottles I generally just try and finish each bottle and gel. For this race I had access to 8 stations in total and drinking 250ml of stamina/hydralyte + a gel at every 5km’s was going to be too much. I prioritised finishing the drink every 5km and taking a gel every 10km as a different strategy. 

At 12km’s in I passed Ben’s partner Maddi and my other school friend Lara who didn’t know I was running which was pretty cool. A few minutes later I passed Brett, Joel and Riley again and they all said good work but also sternly told me to tuck into the pack, I was ‘not there to do the work’. They were right of course, Brett and Joel are elite runners themselves so know what they’re talking about. I thought yeah, it’s about time I tucked in anyway for a different experience. So instead of being up front, I settled in behind four or so of the elite women in a pack of about ten-twenty elite women, a couple of elite Aussies (who I was racing for top 5) and some Japanese runners contesting the age group world championships (40+). Tom Do Canto was well up the road so was never going to be someone to chase as he’s a much better runner. For all the other Aussie blokes in my pack though, it was definitely game on. 

In the next few km’s there was mostly easy running uphill towards Centennial Park. The pack slowly disintegrated, most notably at drink stations and corners. Somewhere around 16/17km’s I caught a glimpse of Harry and his mate on course cheering me on. The ironic thing about Harry and me having some quality brother time this weekend is that Harry is the reason I started running so for all the shit he gives me I can’t be too mad. The other cool part I was focusing on was that last year I flew to Sydney and stayed with Harry for a night before I raced the National Mountain Running Championships (which I won) and this year I was here racing the National Marathon Championships and again staying with Harry. So while I definitely do a lot of running with RunAsOne and am very thankful for the support I receive from all the people in the group both before and after the race, it’s hard to top the connection that my brother has with my running. A friend also pointed out that perhaps for some of my running I’m just trying to seek the approval of my older brother as most younger brothers would. She may be right and if so, it’s a pretty powerful motivating tool.

Back to the race, it was now about halfway and we passed through in 1:11. Pretty much the same time I passed through in Adelaide only three weeks earlier. I felt a lot better than I did in Adelaide and still had a big pack to run with instead of being on my own like in Adelaide. The uneasy thing about feeling good in a marathon is you don’t want to stuff it up by doing something stupid. This is money in the bank here Fraser, bank these km’s early while you’re feeling good. It felt like we started picking up the pace a bit over the next few km’s to a point where we then started slowing down. Brady felt the women were struggling so just slowed it up a stretch for a few hundred metres before realising that they weren’t actually slowing and we were back going at a pace that felt comfortably hard. 

I crossed paths with Harry again around 26/27km’s I think as we dropped down into Centennial Park. I knew Brady was planning on dropping out around 30km’s so soaked up the last of having a big group to run with. The other Aussies had dropped off long ago and the group was starting to lose elite women and some of the random Japanese runners. At the 30km mark I missed my drink bottle and had to stop and turn around to collect it. It had been placed right behind the place card identifying the table number so I couldn’t see it. I had to work a bit hard to rejoin the front and tried to stay relaxed when I had done so. The marathon doesn’t really start until 30km when you’re racing it. That was something I had thought about at Adelaide when I watched Kaleb run away at 20km’s or when I put the foot down on Robbie at 35km’s in Adelaide in 2023. This time, in Sydney Marathon I was feeling very good at 30km and ready to put the foot down if needed. 

At 32km Brady finally dropped out and left me with the comment ‘you’re in this mate’ meaning I was on for a good one. I was pretty pumped. It was only me, the other pacer (an African who didn’t speak English) and two elite women. I had a front row seat to the race between these two and I also knew we were on pace to break a 24 year old record for the fastest time run by anyone, international runners included, on Australian soil by a woman of 2:23:14. Pretty much straightaway the second lady dropped off our pack and it was three of us heading towards the finish line. The other pacer tried to communicate with me and so did the leading lady but without English I didn’t understand him. At 34km’s the lady put a gap onto me and I realised the other pacer had dropped back to run with the second lady. The woman was about ten-twenty seconds in front of me and not increasing her lead. We had a few km’s of slight downhill before an out and back (and downhill then uphill) section before one final downhill km into the finish line. This was probably the best section of the race as I felt like I was in the period of the marathon where you’re almost trying to run as fast as you can and I was receiving a massive amount of support from the mass of people on the other side of the course who were all only at 15-16km’s through their own marathon. I could feel my calves starting to cramp so didn’t really hit 100% of my aerobic ability in this section just in case the mechanical side of things, my cramping calves, couldn’t keep up and I blew up completely. I was loving the crowd support so much I was interacting with them like a bit of hero/a tennis player, swinging my arm around getting them excited, putting my hand to ear etc. It was great fun, just the way running should be sometimes.

Coming up to the out and back section towards Mrs Macquarie’s chair the crowd support dissipated. It felt like a graveyard out here and the downhill run to the famous Sydney landmark was testing my sore legs. Just hang on here Fraser, make it out of here alive and you’ll be second Australian with a big PB. I was very thankful to turn around and find that the uphill out of there wasn’t too bad. I slowed a bit as we came out of here but not as much as Workenesh, the leading lady. I was starting to gain on her and provided my calves didn’t worsen I had a chance to race her in to the finish. I saw Harry one final time and knew that this was it, this was the moment to start kicking for home. I came around the corner with just over a km to go and came past Workenesh at a section where there was still heaps of runners on the other side of the road. I tried to encourage her to come with me to see how fast she could break the record but she was obviously cooked. I gapped her and started to soak in the downhill stretch to the finish.

As I was starting to switch off my cramping got considerably worse and my hamstrings completely grabbed me. Oh know, I’ve fucked it. I saw Riley one last time which was nice, got onto the flat section, did a bit of celebrating with my fist in the air and pushed onto the finish line. Fuck yeah, I did it! Oh shit, I have to move or else I’ll ruin the photo of Workenesh winning… Ok, now I’ve done it!

I’ve actually done the thing I had hoped for and planned for over the last twelve months since being at this same event with Georgia. I chose to not work as a teacher this year and risk prioritising my running at my ‘career’s’ expense for the opportunity to do events like this. It was the same feeling I had when I won the National Mountain Running Championships in 2023 after deciding to move to Quorn to be a better runner and now I was adding to that feeling with coming 2nd in the National Marathon Championships. I almost cried it was that bloody good. The first person I had a chat to was Tom who had run a few minutes quicker to be the first Australian across the line and finish in 12th position (which made me 13th!). Tom’s running career is something I look up to and it was nice to be able to properly chat and tell him so.

After that, it was a very long lonely walk to the finish line area. Last year I chaperoned Georgia through this area but I was by myself which was pretty nice as well as I got to just soak up the feeling of executing the race how I wanted. It would’ve been a cherry on top to run sub 2:20 but that would’ve meant a whole different race and being off the front of the women so I’m not sure I was even capable of that. I didn’t organise very well with Harry where I would meet him with my phone and things after the race as I didn’t want to think about the plan after the event while I was doing the event. I sat next to the bag collection area for a while, borrowed someone’s phone to send a text to Dad to pass onto Harry and then did some more waiting and chatting with other runners. Eventually Harry and his mate arrived so I got to really celebrate and relax now for I had warm clothes, a change of shoes and an Up’n’Go. The next couple hours was spent chatting with other runners including Simon from RunAsOne who it was great to debrief the race with while I waited for my presentation. That was the theme of the rest of the day really, I had a beer with a mate Nick and just chatted with others whether in-person or via text about the race and I bloody loved it. I made my way back to Harry’s eventually at around 1pm and had a very Fraser meal to celebrate of a can of tuna, a bread and butter sandwich and then another bread and butter with cheese sandwich. After a bit of sitting on the bed and the couch responding to messages and seeing the success of people back in Adelaide at City Bay I was keen to get back into the city to soak up the Sydney lifestyle. Having a couple of very big and costly beers at the Opera Bar with some RunAsOne people watching the sunset over the bridge and chatting about the race was a great way to wrap up the day. I wrapped up the evening with a burger, chips and a pizza at Harry’s while doing my best not to piss off Harry. I had lost my ‘about to race a marathon’ privileges and it was back to the real world.

Where, I’m happy to reflect from headquarters back in Adelaide things are pretty good. Some of the more reflective thoughts about my race are:

• It was good to have raced in Adelaide three weeks earlier and get another marathon under my belt. I enjoyed this race being able to think ‘I feel better than I did at Adelaide by this point’. I think it also helped prioritise my focus on becoming efficient at marathon pace/effort in the last three weeks. In future marathon builds it’s something I should probably not overlook as much as I have in the past.
• I felt aerobically pretty good throughout the whole race and never found the race hard, except for the moment I had to chase back to the group at the 30km drink station.
• Being in a big pack of runners is very very, very conducive to running fast.
• After I broke through some barriers at the start of the year with a great 5km and 10km PB, this marathon caps off a year of putting other results on the board that match up with my new fitness. You could argue that even with this time on the hilly course that Sydney is, it’s almost a breakthrough into the next level up.
• I’d be keen to come back and race Sydney again for the experience of another National Championships or even as a pacemaker for the women.
• I’m not 100% sure but I’m pretty close to it that I’m in rare air of being a National Mountain Running Champion and finishing 2nd in the National Marathon Running championships. Niche little fact.
• I’m only 29 for a few more weeks but Tom Do Canto is 38 and is still showing signs of improvement. Food for thought…
• I was impressed with how many people congratulated me on my result via text, in person, or on Strava/Instagram. Thank you again those people who sent a message. To those who who didn’t and are still reading, that’s impressive too and thank you for boosting my page views on my website, that’s just as special.

Overall, it’s fair to say that the Sydney Marathon ‘project’ I had been planning since attending last year was a success. In the short term my goal is to work on my 10km ability with the next race I do being at Melbourne Marathon festival (10km only). After that, who knows. I like the idea of picking another marathon to aim for in April which may come after another crack at the National Mountain Running Champs. Still too early to know though because the date of that event and it’s location hasn’t been set. But, for the very, very, very short term I will be basking in the glory of my race in Sydney! Thank you for reading this blog, if it’s your first time and you made it to the end, that’s impressive, well done. Maybe subscribe (on the home page) for more. Or not, it doesn’t bother me. If you’re interested for more Sydney Marathon content, have a watch of the race on SBS On Demand as well…Thanks, again.