Ballarat Marathon - Before and After #

Sunday, 12 May 2024

A few weeks ago Jon and I travelled to Victoria to participate in the Ballarat Marathon. We'd both been training hard for months - Jon had been running while I'd been focusing on positive yelling and bell ringing.  I should have done more training with taking photos AND bell ringing at the same time as it turns out I needed that skill too.

Anyway - we were lucky enough to have time to fly over on Friday so we could have a relaxed Saturday checking out the course and the various vantage points:

We also spent time hanging around our cute little airbnb - which was so quirkily styled it was starting to look like an escape room:

The weather for the weekend was really calm and not too cold which was nice.

On race day I dropped the 'before' version of Jon off near the start line:

then I rushed home to gather my stuff and take my position at the first place I'd said I'd definitely be at.  Unfortunately because I had to park so far away due to street closures, I totally missed that first spot and had to find somewhere else to catch sight of him  -around 7km into the race where he was looking good and running comfortably at the back of the 3hr pace group.  This is where first I discovered my inability to ring the bell AND take a photo.  After that first spot I rushed over to another vantage point, then another, then another. Sometimes I even had to jog to make it in time - although on the second loop I seemed to have a bit more time to spare and instead of Jon being within reach of the 3hr pace group, they were my warning that I had 5 or so minutes to go. 

 I did manage a few dodgy photos as we went:

I 

I wouldn't say the streets were lined with spectators (see above), but there were a few larger groups at some of the turn around points. I particularly loved this sign: 

 Eventually after 20000 of my steps, and 40000 of Jon's, he crossed the line in 3hrs 13 minutes.  We're very proud of him.

And he was still in good enough spirits to pose for an after photo:

Thankfully we'd organised a late checkout, so we were able to return there so he could have a shower and some food before we left for the airport. 

All of this was a few weeks ago and since then Jon has recovered enough to start looking for a new marathon course to do. I'll have bell ringing AND photo taking down pat by then I'm sure.