PERFECT DAYS

The PB machine is at it again! Stablemate Elise “Cheesy” Beacom blasted almost seven minutes from her best at the Osaka Marathon with a far-out 2:50:23! Strewth!

A technical glitch prevented The Stable News from recovering the gender and age-graded places, but judging by that time, our lass will have been well up there. 

Speaking about the overall standings, Beacom said: “I know I finished 642^nd overall (from circa 30,000 participants). I made up 274 places from 25km to the finish—there was a fair amount of carnage out there). 🙂” Bonza!

Stoating through the streets of Osaka, Ally “the Chin” Smith was six bottles of sake deep and on the hunt for Cheesy Beacs. His comments and questions were utterly unintelligible, but luckily for us, media-savvy Elise came up with the goods:

“About 30 Aussies headed over, so there was plenty of company pre- and post-marathon. We were all pretty concerned by the weather forecast in the days leading up—it ended up being typical Irish conditions! (Drizzled the whole time.) 6℃, but all the weather apps said ‘Feels like 3℃,’ with a nice headwind in the back half. Had to wear arm warmers, gloves, and a hat (not the usual Aussie apparel). Nevertheless, I stuck with my race plan, which was:

1-21km—Big cat calm (be patient, lock into marathon pace, and do minimal work)

21-31km—Increase a whisker (gently tighten the screws, only a couple of seconds faster per km)

31-32km—Claws out (get up and over the only pinchy hill of the course)

32-42.1km—Pounce (business time: pick up as many bodies as you can to the finish)

You’re probably wondering, What’s the deal with the cat metaphor? FYI: I am a dog person, but I was wearing leopard print shorts, so I wanted to team with the theme! 

I had one of those days you always dream of during training. I felt really comfortable the whole race, aside from a couple of tiny rough patches, which passed quickly. I got all my nutrition in and tucked in behind runners where I could. There were several turnaround points where I could see friends running in the other direction, so it was fun to cheer for each other throughout. 

The first 15km went on forever, but 16-31km seemed to fly by. I tried to soak up all the cheering from the Japanese people in ponchos and raincoats. I went through halfway at about 1:25:38, which was about 20 seconds faster than I’d planned, and that and gave me confidence. 

The hill at 31km was cruel and made my quads say ‘Hello!’ but I knew that on the other side of it I could let my legs go. I got to 32km feeling good and unintentionally comparing the feeling at this point in other recent marathons (I knew I was in a good spot). 

A Japanese man started running beside me around 34km, and we had an unspoken understanding that we would push each other along. We pressed for 6km together, stride for stride, and posted a sub-20 5K split between 35-40km. He dropped back slightly in the last 2km, and I pushed on to the finish, running a minute+ negative split, despite there being a significant headwind from 25km onwards. 

This race was such a great experience, and I was thrilled to cross the line with a PB.

I found my new friend at the finish and gave him a fist pump. 2:50 had felt like a pipe dream at the start of the training block, and doing it in gritty conditions made me even more stoked with the run! Celebrations included beers, whisky highballs, and a lot of karaoke! 🙂”

Speaking of karaoke, our very own Coach Stazza was blasting out “Eye of the Tiger” at a celebratory shindig in honour of “the Big Cheese”:

“🎵 Risin’ up, back on the street / Did my time, took my chances / Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet / Just a man and his will to survive! 🎵

Howzat! … The PB machine does it again … The cheety cat metaphor stood her in good stead in the Land of the Rising Sun … Simply sensational!”