GOLD COAST MARATHON SERIES - THE INNER WORKINGS & RACE DAY STRATEGIES

[00:00] In the beginning runs the Gold Coast Marathon. We continue, Courtney — and while I keep battling on with whatever this run might present for me, you still can't run. No Bronte, no Benita for this one. What we want to do today is get into the nitty-gritty of the race itself, because we've got people out there listening who are preparing, who are going to be down there as spectators, whatever it might be on the day. We want to unpack some of what makes this Gold Coast Marathon great, and maybe some changes that might be in store for people getting involved this year. So it's a pleasure to welcome

[00:30] to the podcast, from Events Management Queensland, who run the Gold Coast Marathon amongst other things — Athlete Services and Elite Athlete Programme Manager for the Gold Coast Marathon, Ryan McDonald. Ryan, how are you? I'm very well, thanks. Thanks for having me. Can we start by explaining what the hell that job title actually means? Athlete Services and Elite Athlete Programme Manager for the Gold Coast Marathon — well, basically it covers anything sort of outside the core elements of event

[01:00] organisation. So you've traditionally got registrations, marketing, operations, and then admin and finance — but it's everything in addition to that. So I look after, as it says, the elite athlete programme. And under that we've got the seeded and priority start programme, which is our elite and sub-elite runners. We also host a number of championship events within the race, so I liaise with all the organisations hosting those championships on our behalf. We have a pace runner programme, both for the elites and for the recreational runners,

[01:32] so I look after that too, plus timing and results. OK, so you're busy. Yeah, pretty much — lots of extra things, trying to add some bells and whistles to make it a good experience for people. Pretty much as soon as I walked in here I said — I'm sure at some point I've hassled you trying to get myself on the front of the start line at one of the races. Yeah, you have. I usually get quite a few of those emails, especially as the race gets closer — 'is there still a spot? I can run this time, I'm aiming for this time, can you let me in?'

[02:02] Who's the biggest diva you've come across in the marathon world? Are you going to give us some inside information? Let me give Ryan an out here — can elite marathoners become divas, can they behave like divas? Honestly, most of the elite marathoners are pretty down to earth. There's a really good bunch, particularly at the moment in Australia — men and women who are performing really well in the marathon, and most of those guys are very down to earth, just very appreciative for

[02:33] whatever any of the races around the country are doing for them. So I don't really have too many secrets to give away. That's good — he's looking after his clientele there. True, true. But I'm not going to let you off the hook that easy — what's one of the main things elite athletes expect when they come to the Gold Coast Marathon? What do they ask for? They've got their own private area to a degree, the top seeds — is there something specific they're asking for in there, beyond toilets? Well, one thing — Yuki Kawauchi, who's raced the Gold

[03:08] Coast Marathon eleven times now, so he's in the Gold Coast tenure club, and won the race in 2013 — he asked for a room with a bathtub. Most of the athletes are happy just to get a room at the hotel, but Yuki needs a bathtub because he likes to relax and recover that way. I love that — that's the most outrageous request Ryan can offer us from the elite marathon runners. I don't know if you know this off the top of your head, but do you have a rough idea what the elite field looks like for the marathon this year?

[03:38] Yeah, a rough idea — we're still working on a few details, but we've been having conversations with quite a lot of the international athlete managers we've worked with for years, plus a few new ones who've reached out saying they'd love a spot in the Gold Coast race for their athlete. What's the draw card, by comparison? Marathon running has never been bigger in this country, as you'd be well aware, but Sydney's now a major, and that

[04:09] attracts eyeballs and attention because it's a major marathon. What's the appeal of the Gold Coast Marathon to elite runners? It's still a very flat, fast course — so number one, people come here and run a PB. Number two, we've made a really big effort to look after the elites and sub-elites when they come to run on the Gold Coast, so the depth in our field is quite good. We're not just looking after the people at the very pointy end trying to run super fast, then having a whole lot of daylight

[04:41] between them and the next few runners. What we're aiming for is depth all through the field. If you're coming to run sub-2:10 for the men, or 2:15, or sub-2:20 or sub-2:30, whatever it might be, there's an opportunity to run with a group. Look at some of the big races around the world with a really fast front and then you're waiting minutes and minutes for people to cross the finish line because of the big gaps — our focus is on

[05:12] building really good depth across the whole breadth of the field. That's what we talked about with London, wasn't it — you were looking at some of the times from the London Marathon and were surprised by the gap at the pointy end of the race? Yeah, it was stacked up around the 2:10 mark and then between 2:10 and 2:30 was actually quite sparse. What we were saying is maybe they attract the top elites, and then the next tier of sub-elites go looking for not a second-grade race exactly, but a race with a better

[05:44] field around the 2:20 mark, for example, and go chasing that. Whereas Gold Coast — I've sat there and watched the marathon, and it trickles across pretty much the whole time. There never seems to be a major gap from the front group right through. Yeah, and that's pretty accurate. Normally once the leaders come through, there's a constant stream of runners trickling through and it picks up from

[06:14] there. Across the country, if you look at the major marathons, I think we have the most sub-3-hour finishes on the Gold Coast. Good data for someone who wants to run under three hours — I want to be in that field this year. Do you run? I do — I haven't been doing as much running recently, but I've run five marathons, six half marathons and a 150K ultra. So you've done a bit of running over the years. Fair enough. Do you think you could do as good a job at your job if you hadn't run marathons and

[06:47] didn't have that understanding? Has it helped you, having that knowledge of what to expect out there? Yeah, I definitely think it helps. When you can experience walking in someone's shoes, or what it might be like on a particular event day, I think it really helps you think about the things that are important to them. So yeah, that definitely goes a long way. That brings me to one of the questions we want to ask — and I know a lot of the audience are always wondering this — for those who haven't

[07:19] got a ticket at the moment to come and run, how do you work out how many people can get on that start line and still have a great event? It's a fine line — some people just say, can't you order more shirts or more medals, just let everyone in? But as you said, you want everyone to have a good experience, whether they're first across the line or last across the line. You want people to have a free run once the gun goes, not held up on course. So we use a crowd science expert,

[07:51] actually based in the UK, to do analysis on the course. He works with a lot of the marathon majors too, plugging in a whole lot of data on the course widths at certain kilometre marks along the road, to work out the maximum number of people who can fit comfortably at that point in terms of the road width and the distance they've run. For example, if we have a

[08:22] pinch point at 10 kilometres, that might be a road width of three metres. It's different to having a pinch point at 30 kilometres, because by then the runners are more spread out. So if your pinch point is further into the race — our narrowest point on the course — we can actually fit more runners in, because by the time they reach it, they'll be a lot more strung out. So the data that goes into that analysis gives us the maximum number of

[08:54] starters we can have on the start line to run comfortably across the course — not necessarily the number of entrants, the number of starters. I love the idea that there's some bloke in the UK sitting at a computer working out how wide the pinch point is on the Gold Coast Marathon and how many people can compete in this thing. So then we take that data to council, police, main roads and say, look, we've got a pinch point limiting our total number of runners. If we can go from using one lane to using a lane and a half on this particular road by

[09:26] changing the course slightly, we can fit in a lot more people, right? And that's important for the city of Gold Coast, for the Queensland economy — the more runners that come, the greater the economic benefit for the city. But it is a balance to try to strike. And in addition to the theory around the numbers you can take, there's also anecdotal evidence we work on — looking at CCTV footage, footage from on course, feedback from athletes, feedback from our zone managers, and so on,

[09:58] to work out what's manageable and where we're really pushing the envelope a little. With the biggest numbers this year for the Gold Coast Marathon, how has that affected — can you explain the course changes, how it's worked? Are there course changes compared to last year? Yes. Good, I was right on that. So I guess one of the key challenges we had was with the marathon start time. Last year on the Sunday, the marathon

[10:30] started at 6:15, and then the 10K started at 6:45. That meant that once the marathon started, we had to load the 10K, and they'd run on part of the marathon course as well. We had to make sure as many 10K runners as possible had finished before the wheelchair marathoners, who catch the back of the 10K, and then the lead

[11:02] elite marathoners, who are also catching the back of the 10K. So for us to grow the marathon and have a longer start period — because roughly for every 1,000 runners with an 8-metre start line, it's just over a minute per thousand runners to cross the start line — we get some struggles at the end. Say that again? Roughly speaking, with an 8-metre start line, we get about 1,000 runners crossing the start line every minute. That's

[11:33] amazing — I ran the marathon last year, and I can just visualise it, and people listening who've run it before or know the start line can picture over a minute, every minute, a thousand people passing through that start line. That clears out pretty quickly. That's a cool number. You normally have a couple of stragglers who come in a bit late, but generally speaking that's about the time to get the whole field

[12:04] across the start line. Sorry — getting back to the changes in the course. In terms of last year, we had a capacity of 10,000 runners in the full marathon, and we basically worked around what's traditionally been our limiting factor, Hedges Avenue, where we've had two-way runners on that stretch, which is about

[12:37] a mile long and only about 5 metres wide — it's not really super wide, like an average road lane is about 3 to 3.3 metres, and Hedges Avenue is normally only one-way traffic anyway. So that was a pinch point. We wanted Hedges Ave one-way for runners, and last year we were able to do that — we had a couple of spots where runners came down Hedges Ave one

[13:08] way northbound, and they were on the Gold Coast Highway a couple of times heading south. That was to open the Gold Coast Highway a bit sooner. This year we've actually been able to flip it so the runners head south all the way — they do the Hedges Ave part first, heading south with the Pacific Ocean on their left. Then we turn and duck out onto the Gold Coast Highway a couple of times, which allows us to increase the road width, and we hit the narrower

[13:40] sections a bit later, to increase capacity. So let me just talk that through — basically, last year, if you ran the course, you came back up Hedges Ave. Yes. This year you'll run away from the start line along Hedges Ave. Yes. And your return route will be out on the main road — not completely, there are a couple of spots where we run parallel to the narrow parts. The two narrowest parts of the course, where we've traditionally had two-way flows of runners, are Hedges Ave

[14:11] and Garfield Terrace. I heard somewhere that Garfield Terrace is the narrowest two-way street in Queensland — no cycle lane, no car parking bay, literally only about 5.2 metres kerb to kerb. So we're running one-way on Garfield Terrace heading south, and one-way on Hedges Ave heading south, and on those two bits we head out onto the Gold Coast Highway to get around. So what's the capacity gone up to this year for the marathon? 15,000.

[14:41] You've added 50%. Yeah, that's incredible — that's really good. And we've been able to do that as well because with the 10K moving to the satellite programme, it gave us more breathing space to let the marathon start and be the focus, without impacting the leaders of the marathon catching the back of the 10K, which used to impact the marathon experience, the wheelchair race and marathon experience, as well as the runners at the front of the field, and also the back of the 10K field, who were being pushed to the side while the marathon runners came through. We actually had an alternate finish for the really slow 10K runners in the past, which wasn't a great experience — moving that to the satellite means they get an experience where they can run the same course as everyone else, start to finish. That's really cool. Can I throw my idea at Ryan now — I don't know if he's heard this yet on the podcast, so you can have this for free. I know one of the

[15:11] big focuses for the marathon this year is activation on course — you're looking to lift the vibe and lift the experience as runners go through the different sections of the Gold Coast. I pitched this idea on the podcast a couple of weeks back, I'll pitch it to you again — the halfway house. Where's the turnaround this year on the course? There's a turnaround in the south. That's what I'm talking about — Miami, about Miami. It's called the halfway house, right — have you seen the party holes at these golf courses?

[15:42] Yes. Build a grandstand at that turnaround point, two or three storeys of scaffolding, à la what we just saw down at Burleigh Heads for the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro. You have drinks going, a DJ going, an MC there — that's the halfway house, one of the energy points of the race, where the various pace groups come around and people lose their minds — instant energy for people as they turn around, motivation to head back. What

[16:13] do we think? I think that's a great idea — I'd have to talk to the operations team about the grandstand part of it, but we'd certainly love to come out at that southern turn and support the runners, plenty of cheering signs. That's it, yeah. And all I ask is that it's named the Liam Flanagan Halfway House. That's all I ask for. I thought you were going to ask for a job. No, no — I'll be running, Courtney, hopefully with the car fixed this year. Well, it's not a joke, I think that would be a good thing — a great idea. But this year, beyond that, what

[16:43] are some of the initiatives to build that camaraderie around the course and local activations? Do you work with the surf clubs, community groups — how do you go about building that out there? And if the audience are listening and they're running the Gold Coast Marathon, how can they help? Reaching out to the community is a multi-faceted approach. We certainly have some community groups, surf clubs included, who take on roles to support the

[17:17] race and participants at the aid stations — they might work an aid station handing out cups of water and collecting it all at the end. That's a really big part, and we encourage them to support the runners too. Surfers Paradise Brass Band has been a long-term aid station community group for us, and they have their band playing at the station while they're working it. We've reached out to surf clubs — there are some surf clubs that

[17:47] also run aid stations, which is really great. In terms of activation, we also contract a whole lot of musicians out on course, so there's regular on-course entertainment, which really helps change participants' thinking beyond just themselves and one foot after the other — taking on some of that atmosphere. We also encourage the general spectators to go out and support the runners with music and signs, whatever it

[18:18] might be. We normally run a best-sign competition, that type of thing, which really adds to it. So a whole lot of different ways to try to get the runners excited, and sometimes distracted from what might be a painful experience if they haven't quite done their preparation. You talk about it that way, because in one of the earlier episodes people might have heard, Benita gave us this incredible mindset exercise, picturing

[18:51] the first 30K as being on a bus and pressing the button at the 12K marker — that's when your race really starts. And Courtney, you were talking about how Michael Shelley used to picture the first 30K — he'd always say he'd sightsee for the first 32, wanting to take in the crowd, and if he had friends on the course he'd actually be able to identify them, and then he'd go into the hurt zone — the last 10K, his red zone. The rest of it he wanted to enjoy and take in — and that's where that

[19:22] activation, that atmosphere along the course, that you're talking about, Ryan, comes in. If that's the mindset people are trying to apply to this year's race — alright, I'm going to try and enjoy the first 32K — and they've got things to look at, things to listen to, things to look out for, whatever brings a smile to their face, that makes it that much easier to actually engage with that mindset for the first 32K of the race. Yeah, 100% — you want to be relaxed for that first half, up to 30K, if you're running a marathon, because as a

[19:54] lot of marathoners have said, like Benita and Michael did, that's where it starts to get a bit hard. That's when you want someone to carry you home. Listening to us right now, if you've got a partner or son or friends running the course, what's the best way for me to get around it, Ryan — what would you recommend as a spectator? How do I take the Gold Coast Marathon in, physically?

[20:29] Sorry, in a physical way — you probably

[20:59] want to look at the course and identify spots where you might get to see someone twice. Probably the first is near the start — the course loops back on itself through particularly Broadbeach and Surfers, which are really popular spots for spectators, usually with a great atmosphere. Last year I was on course on a scooter and, coming back after the southern turn through Broadbeach, it felt a bit like the Tour de France.

[21:29] Spectators kind of encroaching on the road, with police literally in front of us, parting the way for the elites to come back through. So, having a look at some of those places where there's maybe some entertainment to keep you occupied while you're waiting, where you might get to see the runners a couple of times, and then potentially having a plan to go out — you might see them twice, at say 8K and 23K, around Broadbeach — and then you might decide you want

[22:00] to drive up and see them in the last five K somewhere. So up around the Grand Hotel, or Chalk Seafood, there's about three K to go — that's quite a popular spot as well. So you could either park west of the course and drive up the inland route, potentially the G:link, which currently gets you to Southport — that might get you back to the start/finish area to wait for the finish, or get there in time to see them come past Anzac Hill around 31K, when they head back to start/finish. That's a bit of a challenging part of the course, mentally,

[22:30] because you've done the first 30K, you've just come across the Sundial Bridge — 30K is just after the Sundial Bridge — and then you're approaching the start/finish precinct at about 31K, going over Anzac Hill, and then you're running away from the finish line for another five kilometres or so before you turn and run for home. The G:link's a great call, I hadn't really thought of it, because then you're avoiding the traffic — you can get down to Pacific Fair, can't you, and across to Broadbeach there. I know it's probably not what

[23:01] you want to hear around safety on course, having people encroaching on the road, but the idea of the halfway house, and a section that has that Tour de France style feeling, is something that could work really well. I've been involved in enough races, whether it's trail running or triathlon or cycling, where it does work itself out to a degree — people do move, and it's not like they're moving as quick as

[23:32] bikes, where there can be safety issues, but crowds tend to self-regulate. If you had a corridor where people come out and you knew you were going through that section — I might be throwing something out here that shouldn't be said — but I love the idea of it being like a corridor that I know I'm going to get pumped up in. Yeah, that's a really good idea as well. Obviously participant safety is number one, and we don't want anyone getting impacted for their race, or drifting over, or

[24:03] whatever it might be. But as you said, a lot of crowds do self-regulate — most people know which way the runners are coming from and so they're already looking that way. It helps this year that on most of the course the runners are running the way the regular traffic flow would go — sometimes it's the opposite way, which means people naturally start looking one way when runners come from the opposite direction. But yeah, a tunnel of noise or something like that would be pretty cool for participants, in terms of

[24:33] breaking up the race a little, giving them something to talk about. One of the things we've done over the last 10 years is a group we call the Marathon Motivators. There are a couple of groups who patrol that last 10 kilometres, running alongside some of the runners when they're starting to find it a bit hard — they might have some flat coke, some lollies, and a friendly bit of advice if someone's looking like they're struggling a

[25:03] little. Where were they last year? I saw them, they just didn't find me. That's because you're too fast — what's that about at the back? I popped, good and proper, in those final five K last year, Courtney — I could have done with the Motivators. I saw the Motivators last year, but I've got a few things I want to raise at the moment — where I saw them was looking across the elite athlete table, have you seen all the different bottles that go on there?

[25:35] So how many is it — can you explain who gets that preference table, and then obviously there's the extra tables, because this is the drinks table? Yeah, the drinks table. For people who qualify for our seeded (elite) or priority (sub-elite) groups in the marathon, one of the benefits is being able to have their own personal fluids delivered out on course. We have eight personal fluids stations, basically every five kilometres, and runners can have a drink at all eight if they want, or they

[26:05] might only want it at a couple. They decide where they want their drinks delivered on course, and normally they decorate the bottles so they're easy to identify. The seeded runners — the elites — are at the front of those tables, numbered and placed in order, and the priority (sub-elite) runners have their drinks at the back of the table, so the runners know which table their drinks will be on. We have six tables at the start of each of those refreshment stations, and using it is optional —

[26:35] a lot of runners still just use the regular water, take a couple of gels, use the fixed electrolyte on course as well. But if you've trained with something specific you want to use on course, and you're in the seeded or priority start group, you have the option to take that up. What's the middle ground — I'm not elite, can I, within the rules, take something off my wife as I'm running by, or do I have to stick to what's on course? Look, the World Athletics rules say you can't take anything from other than the designated aid stations. Within those rules, it does say someone can be an authorised person to hand out drinks at the stations, but typically that only applies to the elites — so rather than them trying to spot and grab their drink themselves off the table, they might have their coach or partner actually in that designated aid station to hand it to them. Outside of that, the rules are basically you take it from the tables, and

[27:07] a lot of people carry stuff on them too, whether it's gels or whatever, to use when they get to the aid station. Can I quickly say, for anyone interested, go and look up on YouTube the Eliud Kipchoge water bottle handler — the way that man gets his nutrition supplied to him in races, whoever does it has to be the greatest run support crew member in history.

[27:38] He celebrates every time he successfully hands Kipchoge a water bottle in a marathon — it's great to watch, that's just an aside from what we're talking about, the elite runners' table. Oh, no, we're talking about the Motivators — I'll come back to that. When we had Benita and Bronte in as well, we were talking about warming up for a marathon — when you've got 15,000 people all in one spot, you've got to get to the start line, so please let us know how early we need to be there.

[28:09] if I want to warm up — what's the best process to get down there in the morning, to have the best experience? What does the event expect, and how can I get on the line in a good position, comfortably? Well, I guess it goes back to every participant's preparation — making sure you've collected your race number during the check-in hours, the days preceding the race, making sure you've got your kit laid out the night before,

[28:41] your race number attached to the front of your running singlet or shirt so you're not stressed on the morning. We recommend everyone arrives at the precinct about an hour before their race starts, so if you need the bathroom you can get to it, if you want to leave a warm jumper in the bag drop you can do that, and then you make your way down to the start line. We do have start zones, so participants can start around people running about the same pace as them —

[29:13] in the entry process, people nominate their expected finish time and get allocated a start zone based on that, so traditionally it means people walking or jogging are towards the back, not impeding people wanting to run four-minute or five-minute kilometre pace or whatever it might be. The start zones, A through to whichever letter, are all self-managed through the entry process.

[29:45] It's just the first two groups — the seeded (elites) and the priority start (sub-elites) — that we verify and vet, looking at past performances and so on. Every other start zone is nominated by the participant when they enter, and for the most part, people doing a marathon are pretty honest about what they expect to finish in — because it's not great if you start towards the front but have people passing you all the time,

[30:16] and it becomes part of race etiquette in terms of filling out the entry form accurately, and then on course, keeping to the left, allowing people to pass on the right, not stopping or changing direction suddenly — all those things help make everyone's experience better. But how long before the event should I expect to be in the pen? We normally open those start zones about 30 minutes before race start, so if people

[30:46] want to do a bit of a warm-up wherever they can find space leading up to that, they can, then make their way into the start area — we open the gates about 30 minutes before the start. I'm glad you mentioned race etiquette, because that's what I was trying to think of before, when we were talking about aid stations — give us the official etiquette for the average jogger like me running through aid stations. What should we be doing, because I know what I see a lot

[31:16] of and I don't like it — approaching the aid station, taking the water and stopping. And walking. Yeah — the races I've done as a participant, I've seen this a lot too, and I always shake my head when people see the aid station and think, right, I'm going to get a drink, but they go to the first table and stop, and it's a domino effect through everyone. I normally just run down towards the end, grab one off the table and

[31:47] keep going smoothly. So if you're going to grab a drink, try not to just get it and stop right there at the table, because you need to be conscious of other people also trying to get a drink — but also a lot of people do want to stop and walk, so they can actually get the fluid in, because some people do have a bit of trouble drinking from a cup while running. So let's work this through — Courtney, you've been involved in races, you're always at the pointy end, so you probably don't have to put up with all the traffic like I do, but let's talk it through.

[32:18] In a perfect world, say the four-hour group is coming through, approaching the aid station, full table, plenty of space with waters — what should the runners at the front be doing? Should they be going to the furthest water? Ideally, yeah. So then everyone merges in behind. Correct, it's like merging in a lane — ideally it's fairly smooth, so the ones towards the front go to the tables further along the station, so everyone can pick it up and keep going at the pace

[32:49] they want. So then say I'm a runner at the front or middle of the group, I get my water, and I'm someone like you mentioned who can't swallow liquid while running, so I need to stop — in theory, where's the best place for me to pull over? Should I be diverting into the middle of the course, or getting past the tables and finding a spot to walk? Ideally, do it after the end of the run of tables, and

[33:19] we've normally placed rubbish bins about 100 metres afterwards, so you can drop your discarded cup — that's your spot, the 100 metres between the tables ending and where those bins are, have a little walk, get your fluid down, drop the cup in the bin and carry on. This is important, Courtney — you've never had to deal with this, you don't know what it's like back in the pack with the likes of me. You've normally got clean traffic, right? Pretty much, yeah. You don't understand the pain, unless you're on a

[33:50] double-lap course. Oh, OK, then you do. Talking about aid stations, I think it's worthwhile — everyone should read the website, what's available and all of that. We had Bronte in, and most don't know — can you give us an idea what's available at aid stations and what to expect? If we're just talking about the full marathon, we have sixteen aid stations on course, so approximately every two and a half

[34:23] kilometres — not perfectly 2.5 kilometres, it kind of depends whether there's a suitable car parking bay or whatever, but roughly at 2.5K the first one is water-only, and then every five kilometres after that is water-only too — so 2.5, 7.5, 12.5 and so on for water at each 5K station. Those bigger stations we call refreshment stations — they have the personal fluids for the seeded and priority start runners, they

[34:53] have water and fixed electrolyte. So those stations have your water and electrolyte for the recreational runners. Beyond that, is there soft drink at the end, does it progress as the race goes on? Not from us — in the recovery area at the finish we have water, fruit and fixed electrolyte. And gels as part of the fixed — we've traditionally had gels at the 30K point on course, as that's when the race would

[35:27] start to get hard, but a lot of participants also use the gels they've trained with, which is something we recommend — and fix are very keen to make sure people have tried it and hopefully want to use it in the race too. 100% — make sure you've tried what's on the course. That's the reason I asked, good heads up for everyone — actually, this is what will be available on course. The recommendation, though, is if you want your own stuff, carry it, but

[35:57] also try what's on course, in case — I remember running a trail race and the first thing I did was drop all my gels out of my pocket in a new pair of shorts one day, and then you're stuck. You need to know what's on course and that you can get through it. I think doing the training, whether it's three months or six months, is one element — also understanding what's available in the race, because a lot of people have been training by themselves and then suddenly there are thousands of people

[36:27] around them, it's a different experience, so you need to understand what you're walking into. Reading the website, reading the race guide when it comes out, understanding roughly where the stations will be and what's available there is really helpful. But as you touched on before, you really don't want to be doing anything new on race day — it's a good idea to do a race-ready preparation run, a week or two out, in exactly the clothes and shoes you're going to wear, carrying the nutrition you're going to carry, making sure it doesn't chafe however you strap

[36:59] it on or carry it. That's really important too. Just as an aside, for people doing it for the first time — get around the expo. If you're not interested and just want to grab your bib and leave, that's fine, but the expo is really good fun, as well as reading all the website stuff — it's a really fun way to learn about the race and see all the different suppliers involved.

[37:30] It's worthwhile, if you've got the time, to spend a couple of hours around the expo once it opens at the convention centre. I've got a question about the expo — a few people who've been listening have asked about pacing wristbands, do you supply them, is that a Gold Coast Marathon thing? Yes — as part of the registration process, people can order a silicone waterproof wristband with their goal time and the pace per kilometre, whatever their target time

[38:03] is. You can order those online, it's just $5 to purchase one, and you collect it when you go through the expo at our Gold Coast Marathon merchandise stand. If you don't preorder it, you can log back on to your registration and add it to your order, or have it all prearranged. If you don't do that, you can buy one on the day, assuming there's some leftover — there are two sizes, small and large, and there are bands for each of the time goals for the pace groups we have.

[38:34] If anyone's after a sub-three-hour wristband, extra-large, they can have mine — you ordered one and that's no longer your time? I'm not going to be needing that. Did you want to change your order? Yes, once I figure out what time I'm capable of, Ryan, I'll let you know. On the other option, there's the pacers themselves — what's the expectation? This has been a hot topic on the podcast the last few weeks — expectations of what the pacers

[39:05] are there to do, how close to the time they're expected to run — we'd love to know everything you can tell us about pacers, in a nutshell. Sure — the pace runners are volunteers, usually quite experienced runners who've run times faster than the times they're pacing. So they should be able to keep a conversation going at that pace, and drop back if they need to help someone catch back up to the group, or

[39:38] keep them motivated along the way. In the marathon we've got 15 different pace groups, in the half marathon there are 9, and in the 10K there are 4. Generally speaking, if people have a time goal in mind, they should be able to find a pacer fairly close to what they want to do, unless it's a really specific time. We generally say it's a guide — don't rely on them blindly — but at the same time, if you're

[40:09] aiming — say you've run three or four marathons in the past, you've run 4:02, 4:03, 4:01, and you just haven't cracked sub-four — running with the pacers, we do say look for them at the start line, they'll be in the start zone, it's on the website where they're going to start, in the zone relevant to that finish time. They run to net time — they start their watch when they cross the start line. And the aim is, because the

[40:39] Gold Coast course is flat, to run even splits — the first couple of kilometres normally a little bit harder because it's more congested and people are settling into a rhythm, but the aim is even splits throughout the whole course so you get to your goal time in the best way. One thing that should hopefully help people is not starting too fast, because we know only a small percentage of people can negative-split a marathon. Most people run the second half

[41:10] of the marathon slower than the first. So running with the pacers, assuming you've done the training, that first 30K should feel really comfortable — it should feel like you're almost holding back a little, because you know they're running even splits and you can trust them to do that. At the same time, they're human, they might have an off day, but every pace group has two pacers, so even if one drops out the other can carry on — typically they'll decide to run either

[41:42] together at the front, or one at the front and one at the back, depending on how the group is spread out. So it's supposed to be a bit of a guide, but it's important to note they're running to net time — so if you start minutes in front of them and progressively slow down, your time isn't going to be the time they finish in, because of when they started their watch,

[42:12] going over the start line. Sorry, yeah — over the start line. If you want to run with a pace group, start with the pace group, essentially. And that comes back to planning again, making sure you're at the start nice and early — they'll be there, we'll have volunteers holding a sign in the start area showing where the pacer will stand, and then the pacer comes and stands there with balloons showing the goal time on it. My experience with a pacer last year was fantastic — I was running with the 3:20 pacer, he was from a Brisbane running club, I can't remember his name, but he paced it beautifully. It wasn't his fault that at

[42:42] 32K I died — that was on me. But yeah, the consistent pacing, and someone chatting to the group, providing motivation — all of those things. That's great, they're volunteers. I think people will be interested in the elite field too — do you have a different expectation on them, is it different, are they paid — you don't have to tell me if they're paid or not, but is there a different expectation of pacers in the elite field versus the volunteers? Yeah, there is a different

[43:13] expectation. For the elite field, we traditionally try to set up the front of the men's race and the front of the women's race to run through halfway just ahead of the current race record times. For the Gold Coast Marathon men's race this year — our course record is currently 2:07:40 — we're looking to have the lead group go through halfway in about 1:03:30 to 1:03:35, setting up the race

[43:46] for a target time of around 2:07 to 2:07:30, under that race record. Why do you do that? One, because we want a fast race — sometimes if you leave it to championship race conditions, everyone just eyeballs each other and runs only as fast as they need to, until the end, and it turns into a sprint finish. So we like to have a nice honest pace. And we want the

[44:18] race to unfold as it normally does after 30K. Most of the elite pace runners — we might have a couple running with that front lead group — are tasked with getting the field to at least halfway, ideally to 25K and 30K, with that lead group on target to run under the race record. Then the race just unfolds from there — that last 12K or so

[44:48] is the real race, for both the men and the women. Because I guess that creates the environment you talked about, Courtney, that Michael ran with — the first 30K as sightseeing. Yeah, it takes the mental strain off the elite runners too, thinking about pacing, because they know these guys are here to do the job — they'll drive the bus to 30K and then I'll jump in the driver's seat. In your time, have you ever seen one of the pacers at Gold Coast Marathon get to 30K and just decide, I'm having a great day, I'm

[45:18] going to keep going? Some races have it in the contract with the elite pacers that they must step off the course, they must stop. Other races say, if you get to 30K and look around and there's only a couple of other people with you, you're able to carry on and finish — that sometimes comes down to the agreement, how much you're paying the pacers for the specific job. If it's not a huge amount of money, sometimes it's, well, if you're feeling good and want to finish, you're able to.

[45:49] So we've done both over the years. I think one year we had a pacer decide to finish and finish in the prize money. Which was — I can't recall anyone actually winning as a pacer, but when Pat Carroll ran his fastest ever marathon PB, he was actually a pacer in that race, and went on to win it — his PB, wow.

[46:20] You've got me thinking, just because you're wearing this very snazzy Gold Coast Marathon jacket here, which I like — do you encourage people to drop jackets at the start line if it's cold? Yeah, we want people to be able to start feeling comfortable, so if they need to wear something warm, maybe an old jacket, that's fine, as long as they discard it over the barrier, because otherwise it becomes a trip hazard for people coming behind them. We collect it all and donate it to charity. Terrific — but if they want something better quality when

[46:51] they finish, that they don't want to lose, they can leave it in the bag drop. Beautiful. Nearly forgot to ask one of the most important questions — course measurement, and how it's done, so people can understand. We've had a bit of discussion in this series about how runners now use GPS, and everyone agrees it's not perfectly accurate, but what's the international standard for measuring a course? I think I once heard it was one metre out

[47:23] from the apex, or a sight line off the apex — like the blue line you see at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games. How does that work, and how do you measure the course? There are a few different parts to that. In terms of the international standard, World Athletics has said road races — all the label road races around the world, and basically all races that want to be taken seriously — need to be measured by an AIMS/World Athletics

[47:56] accredited course measurer. AIMS is the Association of International Marathons and Road Races, and World Athletics is the governing body for athletics — together those two organisations set the rules for how course measurement should be done, and it hasn't changed in 30 or 40 years. It's a Jones counter attached to a bicycle, and the course measurer takes the tangents where there are turns — about

[48:30] 30 centimetres out from the kerb if going around a corner, not right in the gutter, but about 30 centimetres out, taking the tangent, the shortest line. They also build in an error factor, because they never want races measured short — that's not great for the participants. The error factor built in is 0.1%, so for every 1,000 metres they measure, they're actually measuring 1,001.

[49:03] So the marathon course ends up 42.2-something metres longer than the exact 42.195 distance — that's the error factor. Sometimes races have challenges where a volunteer might slightly put a turn point in the wrong position, so one of the other fail-safes for the big races, the label races and big city marathons, is that the course measurer has to be at the race on the day, ensuring that

[49:36] everything's cloned correctly, the turn points are in the right spot, and so on. Is that part of getting your world governing ratification for the event too, do you have to have one of them there? Yes — we have a course measurement certificate that's issued for all the distances. So for those out there complaining about their race time — it's one of those things, most GPS watches will probably

[50:07] measure a bit long, because you're not taking the perfect race line — if you're in a group and can't get closer to a corner because the group's so big, you add a few metres every time. If you go slightly off course for a toilet break, or across to an aid station, that adds a few metres too, it all adds up,

[50:37] and then there's the way GPS is calibrated with line of sight to satellites and so on — it all adds a little bit of distance. That's the correct information, we can never tell exactly. Right — how long have you been working on the Gold Coast Marathon? My first year was a contract in 2003, and then I've been full-time since 2004 — so you're over two decades with the race now. Last year was my 20th in-person Gold Coast Marathon,

[51:07] plus the two COVID years we did as virtual races. So this will be your 21st. Happy 21st. Thank you. What do you make of it — obviously this is the biggest one ever coming up this year from a numbers perspective, and running, marathon running in particular, has never been more popular than it is now. Where do you think the race is at, where do you think it can get to, what's the future of it — what are your takes from inside the tent? They're all really good questions. In the many years the

[51:39] race has been going — since 1979, so this will be the 45th edition of the Gold Coast Marathon — when Events Management Queensland took over the race in 2001, the race had been through a bit of a downturn, a few changes of ownership, and was in some financial trouble. From 2001 to 2012 there were 12 consecutive years of growth, and then between 2012 and 2019 it plateaued, numbers were between 25,000 and 28,000 consistently. Then we had a couple of years of COVID, and coming back after COVID we had about 20,000 in

[52:12] 2022, about 24,000 in 2023, and then last year we had 30,000, which was an all-time record. This year we've already got over 35,000 registrations across all the distances, so it's crazy. For most of that time it was about how do we get more runners to enter — the marathon distance actually sold out for the first time in 2018, off the back of the

[52:44] Commonwealth Games and general growth. We made some slight tweaks to the course the following year to increase capacity, but it didn't actually attract more entrants. Then COVID hit, and since then we've had this wave of growth in running, particularly marathon running, particularly in the 20-29 age group — that's the age group we've seen the most growth in. So now our challenge is we've got a lot more people interested than can actually fit physically on the course,

[53:15] because it's not just about the road widths and capacity of the course — we've also got to think about transport to get people there, capacity in a short space of time to get everyone to the start line, and capacity of the precinct, people flowing from the bag drop into the start zones. There are lots of different elements in terms of where the race can go. It's something we're actually talking about now — do we want it to just be a marathon that keeps growing, in which

[53:50] case we need further course changes? Sydney's gone down the route where this year they've got a full marathon and 10K, and potentially next year it'll just be the marathon — they've done away with the shorter distance races, focusing all in on the marathon becoming the seventh major, which is great. We've traditionally been more of a race for everyone, families coming to the Gold Coast, school holidays, coming up from the colder southern states, because our focus is more about being a destination marathon.

[54:21] Roughly 50% of our entries are from Queensland, about 40% interstate, about 10% overseas, and that's held pretty solid and standard over the years — it fluctuates a little, but it's held pretty standard. Even with the growth from 20,000 a couple of years ago to 24,000 to 30,000 now to 35,000, it's almost doubled in three years, and those percentages have held pretty standard, which means you start looking at capacity of accommodation — people last year and this year

[54:53] are staying further away from the start line. Traditionally people could find accommodation in Main Beach, Broadbeach, Surfers — now people are staying further out because of the numbers, so they have to plan a bit better how they're going to get to the start line, because the G:link currently starts at Broadbeach. It's exciting, isn't it? Yeah, it is exciting, and I think — we're both invested in the race, but the

[55:26] boom in running doesn't show any signs of slowing, is the point — and we haven't even raced the 2025 marathon yet, and I'm sure there are people already targeting Gold Coast for 2026, and that 35,000 — Courtney Atkinson for one. Well, I'm certainly targeting an injury-free one too, so you've got two enthusiasts here. But that 35,000 record number you mentioned — are you going to have to make it bigger? Can you make it bigger, or is it too early to ask?

[55:57] It's probably a little early — we've already been thinking about some of the tweaks we could potentially make, but we also want to see how this year goes, deliver a good experience for people, and then review afterwards. The experience — hopefully the roadworks will be over soon too. You're kidding, aren't you — you actually think they'll be finished? They're never going to be finished, the roads here are never going to be completed. That's not Ryan's fault, we'll talk to Tom about that another day.

[56:27] I think — if you're coming to run, one of the things that's always stood out to us about the Gold Coast Marathon — we had someone write to us this morning about coming up to do the double each year, and there must be a fair few of them — comparing to the southern marathons, one thing they love is that the village at the end, that area at the parklands, feels like it has the most potential to become a festival of all the races they go to around the country. Big kudos there.

[56:58] And for me, it's still the one if you're going to race a marathon in Australia — the flat, fast course, which is exciting for a lot of runners. And it's the best place to run in the country, easy, hands down. And of course, in 2025, the halfway house will be a permanent fixture on the course — Ryan's committed to that on the podcast. I don't remember saying that, Ryan, but — Ryan McDonald, the Athlete Services and Elite Athlete Programme

[57:30] Manager for the Gold Coast Marathon, we really appreciate you coming in. For a lot of people listening, their training's locked in, they haven't thought too much about the logistics side, but I'm sure what you've told them today has them thinking, oh, I need to think about that, and that. And that's when the excitement about the race really starts to kick in, because you realise you're getting organised for race day now — it's close.

[58:00] And it'll come very quickly. Amazing. Ryan, thanks so much for your time. My pleasure.