The basic story of the Sydney Marathon race report is that I just never got to my target pace with consistency, having in the lack of training sort of forgotten what that rhythm felt like off the top of my head, and then struggling through the start of the race to hit a consistent line… Continue reading Sydney Marathon 2025: Race Report
15,000 people this year’s Gold Coast Marathon. In 2023, I ran it with a friend I left behind early. In 2024, I ran 42km with a friend just on a summer Sunday morning through Brisbane. In 2025, I ran the Gold Coast alone (with thousands of my new friends). That’s 1.5 times up on when… Continue reading Gold Coast Marathon 2025: Race Report
Last time I tried to run 32 kilometres I didn’t get it done. That was on December 1st, 2024. I ran 23.3 kilometres and had made a range of errors. Today, I reached the peak of my Gold Coast Marathon training program with a 32 kilometre run. This time I did it. I ran from… Continue reading 32 Kilometres Of Marathon Prep
If you're marathon training in Brisbane and you're looking for an almost exclusively hilly route to get your legs tender and ready for what's going to be a pancake flat Gold Coast Marathon, do I have a route for you! This simple hill route is easy to follow but boy oh boy will you start… Continue reading Up And Up And Up
I ran from Quest Maribyrnong due west. The thing that strikes me the most as the difference between Melbourne and Brisbane are the kinds of houses that make up suburbia. Brisbane’s dotted with elevated wooden Queenslanders, airy, light, impossible to really ever be ahead of the upkeep of. Melbourne by contrast is almost all single-storey… Continue reading The Maribyrnong River Trail
Legend has it that the Kamo River through central Kyoto first ran south in another location altogether. When the city became home to the imperial capital, the thought was that a river cleaving this new home in two would signify the division of the nation. So the Kamo was diverted to its current course due… Continue reading The Kamo River Running Path
The Gold Coast Marathon, the only full marathon I've run before, is a warm marathon. On July 7th, 2024, on the day of the full marathon, the Gold Coast had a low of 15 degrees Celsius and a high of 24 degrees Celsius. Today in Brisbane on my homemade marathon, we finished in 28 degree… Continue reading Zac & Sean’s 2024 Homemade Marathon
On Sunday December 22nd the plan is to run a homemade Brisbane Marathon to make up for the one proper I missed earlier this year. The current track is pretty simple: from my apartment building in Milton along the river towards the city then further around past the Powerhouse then all the way along the… Continue reading 23.3 Out of 30 Out Of 42.2
On alternating Monday nights you take the green bin out with the red bin and the yellow recycling waits for the off-weeks. You remember this because you’re running down the other side of the hill and the rain that threatens to linger has softened the purple flowers to mush on the concrete so you slow… Continue reading Jacaranda
Next Sunday, June 2nd, thousands of runners will line up at the northern end of Margaret Street in Brisbane’s CBD. At 6am, the gun will fire and they’ll start the 2024 Brisbane Marathon. I won’t be among them. The plan was to be, of course. For 16 weeks I trained and through April I ran… Continue reading Non-Starter
Zac van Manen 