Email from Jessica Schulter (is that spelled right?):

How come you aren’t doing any in Australia?

Jess

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Heya Jess!

This is a good question and will definitely be added to the FAQs and posted on the Blog. I guess I’ve been pretty comfortable answering friends when that comes up, but never made it clear on the website…

Basically, there are two reasons I can’t do a marathon in Australia.. Timing and Distance..

Timing is an issue because all of the major Australian marathons, like Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast are on the same day as a much bigger/exciting international event. See as follows:

Canberra Marathon 11th April

  • same weekend as Paris Marathon, which precedes Boston and London

Perth & Gold Coast Marathons 5th July

  • same as Oslo Marathon, which we have to race to get to from Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark

Brisbane Marathon 22nd August

  • weekend of Iceland’s Reykjavik Marathon….who doesn’t want to go to Iceland??

Sydney Marathon 19th September

  • same day as the Berlin Marathon, one of the Big 5 marathons

Melbourne Melbourne 11th October

  • same as the Chicago Marathon, another Big 5 marathon

Distance is an issue for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious is how much it would take it out of me to get to Australia and then get back to various Northern Hemisphere countries where most marathons are held. Which ever way you cut it, Australia is a long, long way from anywhere… Which is also why it’s so awesome!

Most of my flights are a maximum of 8 hours, though even this is a really long way on a weekly basis.. I’ve worked that in so I won’t spend too much time being jet lagged.

There is a Solution!

I have thought about this a lot, because I would really like to finish in Australia. I want to come home and get a hug from my Mum around Christmas next year.. I have had a short, but very interesting conversation with Eddie McGuire (who is on the Victorian Major Events Committee) and he thinks we should have a New Year Melbourne Marathon of our own! Perhaps at midnight, or maybe a few hours before…

What a way to finish our adventure, huh?! Let’s start spreading the word for the Runlikecrazy NYE Marathon in Melbourne!

Would you run Jess? I’d hope so.

Keep on watching!

All the best,

Tristan