Great Ocean Road Marathon

I was really excited to run this race, not only the first full road marathon since NYC! I was aware that it would be a completely different experience having run the last time with 2 million spectators to maybe 100!

The day started of spectacularly with the sun shining not a breeze in the air and a mild 15c, however as the day panned on it turned out to be one of the toughest runs to date! The Great Ocean Road Running Festival from Saturday, 18 May to Sunday, 19 May 2019 offers one of the most spectacular marathons in the world! You start in the cute town of Lorne, which since my last visit has changed in a really positive way, beautiful shops, restaurants, coffee shops, a really enjoyable place. The run ends in Apollo Bay, a sleepy town only really waking up for the marathon, set on a gorgeous back drop of sprawling coast line and sandy beaches.

Over 7,000 participants of all ages and abilities ran or walked one of seven event distances ranging from the 1.5km Kids' Gallop right through to the 60km Ultra Marathon, I completed the Marathon distance of 46.5km, the last few kms were definitely the hardest! 

The actual course started off with a hilly start, windy around corners on an incline, this basically set the scene for the rest of the marathon! lots and lots of incline and long windy descents.....the road if you have ever driven it winds back and forth, cutting back against itself, rising and falling and ocean as far as you can see! A lot of the time your running you can actually see Apollo bay which is a good and bad thing! The race really kicked in for me at the 35km mark where the temperature dropped to a cool 11c and strong headwinds and rain made for a pretty lousy last 11km! It was mentally really tough constantly being pushed back by the wind, not being able to see anything at all, and being soaked from head to toe! 

I can definitely say this race was by far my least favorite, and in terms of my training it would of been much better to have done a lot more hill training to prepare I honestly thought it would be mostly flat terrain! I would love to do it again one day when its gorgeous conditions, it would make a massive difference!

Registration also gave participants free access to a range of activities across the weekend. Lorne and Apollo Bay had live music and yoga sessions so everyone can enjoy the festivities, overall a really well organised event and weekend away :)