Sydney Marathon beckoned as the newest World Marathon Major, and I couldn't resist answering the call after earning my six-star medal in Tokyo. This Australian adventure would become my seventh major—a milestone I never expected to reach when I started this journey.
The electric atmosphere at the expo set the tone for the weekend, with volunteers and organizers proudly showcasing Sydney as the latest "world wonder" in the marathon circuit. Abbott created special photo opportunities for seven-star finishers, and I was thrilled to see strong female representation among participants. While the expo ran smoothly on day two, some logistical challenges emerged on race morning—most notably a 75-minute porto potty wait that left me rushing to my corral!
Let me be crystal clear: Sydney offers the most challenging course among the majors, with significant hills in the later portions. The spectacular route winds through beautiful landscapes with perfect weather, culminating in that iconic finish at the Sydney Opera House. What Sydney currently lacks in crowd support compared to Chicago or New York, it compensates for with stunning scenery and strategic entertainment stations. Fellow runners considering this race should incorporate hill training at the end of long runs to prepare for those climbs on fatigued legs.
Managing the 14+ hour time difference presented its own challenge. I fully committed to time-shifting protocols—even giving up caffeine despite Australia's amazing coffee culture! While not a perfect solution, these strategies helped me avoid illness despite extensive travel. The experience reinforced valuable lessons: you get the race you train for, preparation matters, and finish lines aren't endings but transitions to what comes next in our running journeys.
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Episode Transcript
Hey friends and welcome back to Extraordinary
Strides.
It feels so good to be backbehind the mic.
This is my first officialepisode since running the Sydney
Marathon, and not just anymarathon, but the one that
earned me my seventh worldmarathon major star.
Today I'm going to take youbehind the scenes of that
journey from the expo to thefinish line and beyond, and
sharing what it meant to finallycomplete this goal.
(00:24):
Plus, I'll give you an update onthe retro reboot wrap-up, what's
ahead in October, and somepractical tips for tackling that
jet lag or giving you a littlebit of my behind-the-scenes
reviews of the two methods thatI used.
I can't wait to get into thisconversation.
So, my friends, as you may ormay not know, I have tackled the
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Abbott World Marathon Majors.
And after Tokyo and getting myofficial six-star medal, I
thought I was done.
Then the World Marathon Majorsadded in Sydney.
And there's more coming up anddown the pike, but for now,
let's talk a little bit aboutSydney.
We're gonna talk about the factthat it really was a very
(01:05):
different training cycle for me.
I can honestly say that this isby far the hardest course of the
majors.
But those hills that I tackledin North Carolina did come in
handy.
Before we even get into thecourse and what you can expect
for Sydney, especially as thatballot is opening up and you may
be considering throwing your hatinto the ring to take your 26.2
(01:30):
down under, let's start at theexpo because that's where I
think it really hit me that Iwas about to earn my seven star,
and that is because they didsuch a fantastic job of really
welcoming and giving a lot ofnotice and kudos and applause to
the seven-star finishers thatwere there to tackle that
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weekend.
And also, I want to thank allthe volunteers that made that
expo possible.
The energy that Sydney and thevolunteers that the expo had was
absolutely electric because theywere so excited to be the
seventh world wonder, if youwill.
The logistics for the expo,well, my friend, uh, they were
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good.
I think there are some thingsthat they're going to need to
iron out as this continues togrow in popularity, but I will
say that it was relativelysmooth.
I had no hangups, I got what Ineeded from the experience in
terms of picking up my bib,getting some really fun photo
ops.
I went with a couple of gal palsthat were going to be running as
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well.
So I can honestly say that weall were able to get in and out
relatively quickly.
There was really no issue.
This is the first time that Ican say that I have had to
reserve a very specific windowfor a major, but that may be
something that we're seeing alittle bit more in the majors
coming on for the expo.
And they had a lot offlexibility within that.
(02:58):
I think they were really justfiguring out how to logistically
onset all of the individualsthat are coming in.
Now, I will tell you, I went onthe second day of the expo.
Reports from the first day ofthe expo weren't quite as
favorable.
I heard a lot of things got soldout.
There were a lot of logisticalchallenges.
And I can honestly say that bythe time I got in the second
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day, most of those things hadbeen worked out.
So I did not experience allthat.
If you do not know, I'm also nota huge swag person.
Like I don't need to buy a lotof things at the expo.
I will say from what I saw, itwas a little messy in terms of
how they approached those SydneyMarathon swag from their special
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official sponsor, and that areawas a little bit different.
But all in all, it did appearthat most folks were able to
snag what they wanted at thatspecific portion of the expo.
Again, the World Marathon Majorsdefinitely brought it.
Abbott had a really great setupfor folks to get photos and to
show off their seven-starcompression sleeves that were
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given to us and take our photoswith all of the really fun
aspects of tackling thatjourney.
It was great to see that thisparticular race also brought out
a lot of female finishers.
You know that I've always beenreally forward in its mission to
get more women into the WorldMarathon Majors track, and we're
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seeing that happen, and wedefinitely saw it at Sydney.
That was incredibly exciting.
Now, I will say from thatexperience that I can tell you
that there were some ups anddowns in the actual process of
race day.
By far, Sydney gets top marks.
I mean, absolutely a plus plusplus plus on helping logistics
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for the transportation to thestart line.
I was so impressed with the factthat they had volunteers in the
subway station or the trainstation.
There was great signage.
Definitely really helped so thatthat wasn't an issue.
However, it was also my firsttime experiencing going to a
major and not having the roadsofficially closed.
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I think Sydney will probablychange that in the upcoming
years, as I saw quite a fewrunners that maybe were anxious
or maybe running late to theirstarting corral time try to take
on some of the traffic that wasthere, and it wasn't necessarily
something that I have everexperienced before.
So luckily, from what I saw,everybody stayed rather
relatively safe, but I thinkthat that could definitely be
(05:26):
tightened up.
So keep that in mind.
If you do decide to take Sydneyon as your next adventure next
year, please, please, please, myfriends, allow yourself plenty
of time to get to that startline.
Now, I did allow myself plentyof time to get to that start
line, but when I got there, Iwasn't allowed into the corral.
Went wh.
Or even the area, not even thestarter's village.
(05:48):
I was on the outside of thestarter's village as they
prioritized the really smallspace for the earlier corrals.
I will say this is also probablya logistical hiccup.
There weren't as many portopotties as they likely needed to
have them.
What I heard from other runnersthat had run Sydney before is
that they had twice the amountof porto potties that they did
the previous year, but they alsohad more than double the amount
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of runners.
So keep that in consideration aswell.
A couple of Gal pals of mineactually were able to use their
restroom before leaving theirhotels, and I think that they
may have made out better than Idid, as I ended up standing in
my longest two-date wait for aporto potty, around 75 to 80
minutes.
I've never experienced that.
And although I got thereincredibly early, I can honestly
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say this did throw me for a loopas I had to hurry up and rush to
try to get to my corral in time.
Also threw me for a loop becausewhile I have advocated for folks
who are doing Run Disney or themajors of not standing around
too long, I didn't really havean option.
I definitely wanted to be inthat port of potty line, but I
(06:55):
do feel like that created alittle bit of stiffness, a
little bit of not feeling myabsolute best when I went into
the starting corral.
Now the course.
Course was gorgeous.
The day was beautiful, theweather was perfect.
In so many ways, it was sublime.
Was it the energy of a worldmajor?
No, it was not.
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Yet, it will be.
And I have zero doubts that oncethat comes around to having the
same energy of Chicago, New YorkCity, London, it is going to be
a spectacular experience.
It already is a spectacularexperience.
But if you're going on to Sydneyafter channeling that energy
(07:39):
from New York City or Chicago,do expect it to be a little less
crowded in terms of cheering andsupport.
The volunteers did amazing work.
They definitely had a great,great connection to the
community and cheering us on.
I will say Sydney did a greatjob of having different spots
throughout the course ofentertainment and to keep us
(08:02):
going, but the crowd support,the community support just was
not there yet.
Now, this isn't the first timethat we've seen this happen.
This is something that does tendto happen for the newer majors.
You have heard likely Tokyo camearound a little bit later
through in terms of the amountof crowd support that it had.
I fully suspect that Sydney willas well.
The energy though around theactual marathon events was
(08:26):
palpable, was electric, morethan made up for it.
And that's okay because I justthrew on some Nate Barsgetty and
his latest bio of big dumb eyes,and that got me through those
lulls when there was nothingelse going around.
And again, the course wasabsolutely beautiful.
I will say that those hillstowards the end, they are
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something you should reallyconsider to have in your
training of not just trainingfor hills, not just doing hill
repeats, but consider addinghill repeats at the end of your
long runs to practice thosefatigue legs going up and down.
Both the up and the downhill arepivotal so that you feel your
absolute best.
(09:08):
Come that finish line.
And what a finish line is it.
Truly, of all of the worldmarathon majors, this may be the
most spectacular finish line,finishing right at the Sydney
Opera House.
But be prepared, my friend.
If you've done New York City,know what I'm talking about.
You know how you're finished,but yet you're not finished.
You're walking and walking andwalking and walking and still
(09:31):
walking more.
Well, Sydney had a little bit ofthat as well, too.
Because you have thatspectacular finish at the Sydney
Opera House, they have to funnelthe runners out into a
finisher's village, and thefinisher's village is about a
mile away from the actual finishline, or a couple kilometers if
we're gonna get super fancy.
(09:52):
Which basically means that youneed to be prepared to continue
going, even though you havefinished your entire legs.
Hopefully, you feel elated fromcrossing that finish line, you
feel fantastic and energized, orat least you're really excited
to be able to get back to yourroom and shower and sit down.
Whatever the case may be, doknow you need to prepare for
that.
(10:12):
But as not just with Sydney,that is something you should
likely prepare for, any of theworld marathon majors, but I
will say this felt a little bitmore like New York City in terms
of how much you had to continuegoing.
Now, what lessons did I learnspecifically from this race?
Well, I learned that you get therace that you train for.
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My training season had its ownlittle hiccups.
I was consistent, so I felt goodfrom start to finish, but I
didn't necessarily feel like itwas the strongest race that I
have ever had.
Wasn't the worst race, it wasjust the race that I had trained
for.
And I think that that's reallyimportant that you keep in mind.
Also, really important to keepin mind to have the right
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mindset as you approach therace, knowing that not every
season will be the season foryour strongest race, nor should
it be.
You should have some races thatyou do just for the joy.
And I think that when it comesto the majors, especially when
you're traveling 14, 15, 18, 20hours to get to some of these
locations, you have to take thatinto consideration.
(11:15):
So I did discuss before headingout that I was using time
shifting.
I did.
I 100% committed.
I committed so much, my friends,that when my time shifting app
told me not to have caffeine, Iactually did not have caffeine.
And if you know me, you knowthat that is a big commitment
there.
That may be the strongest of allcommitments, which was very sad
because Australia has someamazing coffee.
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But needless to say, I fullycommitted.
It was a tough transition.
Even with using Fly Kit, evenwith using the Blu-ray blockers,
even with using thesupplementation that came
through and shifting my timesand taking naps when it said to
take naps and reducing coffeeand all of those different
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things.
It was a tougher transition.
I do feel that it takes a fewdays, if not longer, to really
get into the swing of things.
I feel like I was likely gettinginto the swing of things the day
after race day, and that's kindof what the time shifting app
did tell me that was gonnahappen, which is okay, my
friend, because again, I knewthat going into it, and I was
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still really loving the energyof being there for that seventh
world marathon major.
However, I want you to keep thatin mind.
Does not mean that you cannot PRat these races, just keep in
mind that you will be impactedby it.
One of the big positives that Ican share though is that despite
the fact that I had to take one,two, three, three different
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planes, and I feel like I tookplane trains, automobiles, and
even ferries to get to thisparticular race and to make this
trip happen, that you still needto take care of your body and
taking in those supplements.
And I'm so excited to reportthat I didn't get sick
throughout this trip, which is ahuge deal considering again,
you're going through that reallydry air of being in the
airplane, your sleep is a littlethrown off.
(13:04):
So, from that perspective, Ihave to say that the
time-shifting supplementation offly kit and the time-shifting
hours and shifts of when to eatand what to eat really did work
for me in terms of keeping me atleast feeling my healthiest in
that perspective.
Now, I will say, my friends, thething to note about finish lines
in general, whether it's at theSydney Opera House or the finish
(13:27):
line of your local 5K, they aremagical, but they're also just
the starting point for whatcomes next.
And that's where we're headedright here now, because back
here back at home, I had folkstackling their retro reboot
within the Extraordinary League,and you guys were crushing it,
my friends.
I'm so excited to see how manypeople really brought it every
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single week.
It was a really fun reset.
It reminded us to return thefoundations, dust off the
basics, rebuild strength andconsistency.
And so many of you in the leagueshowed up beautifully through
this.
I want you to remember thiswasn't just a short-term
challenge.
It's about laying down thebricks for what comes next.
And what's coming next here inOctober is that we've got a new
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challenge lined up.
And my friends, if you've beenlistening to the podcast and
you're wondering what theExtraordinary League is all
about, well, let me tell you,it's a group of athletes that
are all about consistency,connection.
And here for October, we'retaking it up a notch and adding
in a hint of spooky season fun.
So for those of you curiousabout this community, I want you
(14:35):
to consider this may be thechallenge for you to join us at
the Ghoul Friend Gauntlet or theCoven Clash.
It is a team-based challengewhere duos work together to move
their squad forward so it hasthat support, accountability,
and you get to meet anincredible community of people
chasing after big, audaciousgoals.
So, with that said, if you wantmore information, head to
(14:56):
episode notes.
You'll see the link there.
Now, let's talk a little bitmore about some of the practices
that I learned from this tripthat I'm going to take into my
everyday that I want you toconsider taking into everyday.
So, with jet lag, or trying toavoid jet lag, a few different
things came to mind that I thinkwe can implement in our everyday
life, which is to really keepthat structure of your waking
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time and your sleep times sothat you can be strategic with
it, using light to your benefit,having that morning light to
help you reset your body clogand avoiding those bright
screens at night.
And to keep moving.
One of the best ways of reallygetting through the jet lag, I
feel, was that I kept moving,whether it was on the plane or
when we were waiting for thenext leg of our journey.
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It really did help us to resetby getting that mobility,
getting in a little bit ofwalking.
And I feel like from day to day,regardless of what's going on in
your life, keeping moving isgoing to be a really important
element to help you feel yourbest.
What I also loved about thelessons that I learned was
anchoring our day with thosereally important, nutritious,
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and delicious meals.
So I will suggest that these areall practices that you can take
into your everyday, regardlessof whether or not you have a big
trip in hand or you're justtrying to feel your best on the
everyday basis.
Now, with that said, friends, Iam so curious if you have any
particular questions, if you'rethinking of throwing your hat
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into the rink for Sydney,because while Sydney may have
been my finish line for theseventh world marathon major, we
also know that there's alwayssome fun adventure in store.
So I'd love to hear more aboutwhat you're training for, shoot
me a message or drop into theStride Collective and let us
know what's going on in yourworld.
So again, if you're ready foraccountability and connection,
(16:44):
join us over at the league.
And until then, I want you toknow that I thank you for
letting me share my Sydneyadventures.
I'm gonna ask you to keep movingforward, keep chasing your
goals, and keep makingextraordinary strides.
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