Running the world marathon majors
The World Marathon Majors – six marathons spanning from Europe, Asia to the United States. Jeff Wright (60) is Building and Facilities Manager at the Monash BDI. He’s just returned home after completing the last marathon on his list to receive the World Marathon Majors medal, and hit a personal best doing it.
I've been a runner since Little Athletics. That is eleven years of age, I'm now sixty. I've run for all of that time through marriage, mortgage and multiplication (two boys, now 30 and 28 years old and out of home).
I ran my first marathon in 2003 along with some friends. We trained up and ran the Melbourne Marathon from Frankston to Melbourne and it hurt! I ran three hours and 24 minutes and that was it, I never needed to do another one. That was all well and good for a couple of years. More running and analysis and we thought we could do better. In 2008, I tried again and went quicker (a whole one minute) in Canberra. “Must be the hills” we said and fronted up in Melbourne to the hottest marathon in 10 years. “Must be the heat” we said and went on to the Gold Coast in 2009. My times stayed stubbornly around 3:25-3:30. Then in 2010 in Melbourne came a breakthrough – three hours 12 minutes – a 12 minute personal best.
In 2011 Anne, my wife and number one supporter, and I decided to holiday overseas. The boys were old enough to look after themselves so we looked for a holiday with wine and running in an attractive location. The Marathon de Medoc in France. This is the run for wine lovers, a run through the vineyards of Bordeaux. Sampling red wine over 42km is not for the serious runner, but is a heap of fun. Anne was at the finish line and said that about the first five of the 8000 were serious runners, the rest enjoyed the run (and the wine!).
Around this time I had a couple of aims, one was to run a marathon in every state and mainland territory of Australia (no, not the Australian Antarctic Territory). The other was to see if I could run a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. Boston has a set of pretty tough time qualifiers based on age. I needed to run a couple of minutes under 3:25 to qualify. This I did in Melbourne in 2014.
So 2015 saw us in Boston, an amazing experience for my first major marathon. 30,000 starters are bussed out to Hopkinton and run back into Boston. The whole city stops and people cheer the entire length of the course. It was also seven degrees and raining for much of the race. Narrowly avoiding hypothermia in these tough conditions, I ran 3:13 – my second quickest time up to that point.
My time in Boston gave me an entry into both the Berlin and Chicago marathons. We combined the two in 2016. Berlin went really well but by the time we got to Chicago I was suffering the after effects of a bronchial infection I picked up while touring in the two weeks between them. I still blame all of the sickies on the bus back from Poland to Berlin.
So, three major marathons down. It was at about this point that the idea of completing all six majors started to look feasible. Only New York, Tokyo and London to go. We'd also knocked off Adelaide, Hobart and Sydney and there's a little aside there if you're not getting too bored by now. I went up to Sydney in 2015 to run my New South Wales marathon. A friend of mine was coming back from overseas and was running for Victoria in the Australian Marathon Championships. I got a phone call as we were coming into Sydney, "Have you registered yet?" No. "Would you like to run for Victoria?" One of the three runners had pulled out and I've made the team. Standing just behind Kurt Fearnley and the elite Japanese runners at the start line was just a little daunting. Running a personal best in the Victorian colours and our team finishing in the bronze medal position was amazing.
2017 was New York, another cold one. 55,000 starters, finish in Central Park. Four down.
Tokyo and London are the hardest for good average runners to get into but we worked it out. Tokyo was 10 degrees and raining. In fact, we didn't have a warm day the entire time we were in Japan. We did however have a fabulous time. After travelling through Europe and the USA, Japan remains the most foreign, foreign country I have been to. The people are lovely, the countryside amazing and the food is great if incomprehensible. The marathon was a rock solid 3:11 and now being 60 years old I was twelfth in my age group out of 1592. Back home again for six weeks of training and then off to Paris. An intended easy run turned into a 3:13 (it felt easy) and then the final of the majors.
London blossomed cool and clear. 10 degrees and a slight breeze, ideal marathon weather. I went out hard and waited for the wall to catch up. I became more and more excited as the race went on as I was on for a good time and the crowd was pushing us all along. In the last 5km I could see a sub 3:10 finish if I could hold together. In the last kilometre, heading up towards Buckingham Palace, I was well in and the crowd was roaring. Over the line at 3:07:24. A new personal best and the sixth major marathon down. I came ninth in my age group so it was also my first top ten finish in a major.
I've always run, it's just part of who I am. I'm a better person when I have time to declutter out on a run. I've raised money for Doctors Without Borders and Operation Cleft. I also breed budgies and I'm not as fast as Jamie Rossjohn.
Jeff Wright
About the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
Committed to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 120 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure, and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.