Keeping skin in the game and remaining resilient through lockdown(s)

I’d have scoffed if someone told me following the 2019 Melbourne Marathon that I’d still be waiting to run another twenty-two months on, just as most of us at Vigor would have!

There haven’t been any long term injury setbacks from a personal perspective during this time.

Yet COVID-19 - which wiped out the bulk of 2020 as Victorians remember all too well, has returned with a vengeance in recent months.

This culminated in the heartbreak of the Gold Coast Marathon’s cancellation several days beforehand, with several of the Vigor travelling contingent for the weekend - including head coach Liam and his family, airborne when the call was made…

Seeking to capitalise on a successful training block, Liam and I quickly agreed to reload for a crack at the Sunshine Coast Marathon, originally scheduled to take place six weeks later on August 15.

Having escaped our fourth lockdown in mid-June, only for Queensland to be hit by COVID - which ultimately claimed Gold Coast’s scalp, it seemed like deja vu when Victoria entered its’ fifth, compliments of New South Wales.

No matter, keep the head down and train, things will work themselves out - like they didn’t last time, surely it couldn’t happen again?

Because you can’t make anything up in a pandemic world, Queensland suffered another outbreak just as Victoria exited its’ fifth state of stasis, jeopardising our plans once more.

Without admitting as much, despite signing off on the final long run a fortnight out with a strong hitout at Albert Park, we’d resigned ourselves to further disappointment.

Even so, as late as eleven days out - following a 'donut day’ for Victorian COVID cases, hope hadn’t been entirely abandoned with Queensland’s numbers also tracking encouragingly.

As it came to pass, the bombshell - a case from a teacher at a secondary college, emerged that afternoon.

Within 24 hours, we were delivered the bitter pill of lockdown number six, not quite nine days after surfacing from our previous stint…

Aside from the objective frustration, this sealed our fate as far as Sunshine Coast was concerned.

If it was any consolation, not that I realised until a couple of days later having drawn a line through the 'setback’, Sunshine Coast organisers made the decision to postpone the event until October 10, the same date that Melbourne - the next and increasingly tenuous cab off the rank, is pencilled down.

The likelihood of that proceeding grows less realistic by the day, notwithstanding our current strike rate of a fortnight’s lockdown - or longer, on a monthly - or more frequent, basis since late May.

Yet I, along with many within Vigor, didn’t invest this much to write off a second consecutive year so readily.

It’s asking a lot, having commenced training for Gold Coast in late March and extending that block to Sunshine Coast when the former fell through, following little, if any time off the gas.

Immediately pivoting towards a further eight weeks leading into Melbourne, will represent greater than six months ‘up’ in marathon mode, if and when it occurs.

Cognisant that we face being left wanting with another cancellation, it'll be no less infuriating, particularly having come so close with GC.

Yet the accountability to continue fronting up and head out the door each day in the meantime under the... optimistic expectation that we'll finally strike it lucky, is part of the game.

I haven’t consumed a drop of alcohol since the first week of May in order to maximise recovery from workouts, long runs and ultimately, be in the best possible shape on race day.

This run has now been extended for a second time in tandem with both marathon attempts coming to nought, so whilst it might have seemed worthless in retrospect, at least it has contributed to a healthy lifestyle throughout a(nother) bleak winter.

Even so, an additional eight weeks without a drink - with the current lockdown lasting at least several more after the latest extension, is a literally sobering prospect!

I can’t guarantee that I’ll hold out for that long, especially if there are further extensions, though it speaks to the accountability which I alluded to that makes the ongoing sacrifice worthwhile.

All I can say is that I'll be making up for the dry spell once the time comes, and if it isn’t to be come October, I gave myself every opportunity!

Operating under the assumption that everything goes to plan with Melbourne and irrespective of goal times, taking to the starting line is going to be an almost foreign sensation.

It'll be almost two years to the day since my last marathon - alongside many others, with the adrenaline of the unknown such a distant memory.

It’s that thirst which keeps lifting us off the canvas and no matter how uncertain the situation currently appears, we’ve got to remain ready to go if we receive the green light.

Having witnessed our Olympians’ accomplishments over the previous month - with the Paralympians to follow, the motivation shouldn’t be hard to discover!

Whatever fate awaits us on October 10, bring it on!