#but I could also see them going for cameron since he’s the proper winner of the season

[ripaxed]

Season 2’s only big cameos have been past winners/finalists… fresh tv bring them back blease

[canonically47]

canonically47.tumblr.com/post/742593997706559488

this one

okay well total drama has a LOT of obvious mistakes and most of them come from the time in which it was written and published and the rushed season of only 13 instead of 26 episodes starting with ROTI

i also feel like they treat their characters and ships very badly, making them go right back where they started if they ever get any growth, which rarely happens. or their development is too sudden and not believable. priya, max, scarlett, that mini-arc shasmine had about splitting the money, aleheather in TDWT, prileb in TD 2024...

i rewatched ROTI and the girls were mistreated horribly. what can you expect from a season where the finalists are two guys? dakota’s internal issues were never discussed further than a funny haha moment when dawn read her aura, dawn never got to do anything for her team and her elimination was rushed, jo’s internalized mysoginy was a haha joke and never adressed properly, zoey had a whole villain-and-back-to-hero arc and STILL didn’t make finale???

also i hate when they introduce some groups and never further develop them, or develop them very little. lindsay, beth and ezekiel could’ve been an ICONIC trio. i miss leshawna and gwen’s friendship so much, and same goes for bowie and emma. jo and brick had so much potential to become allies or at least frenemies, amy and sammy were not handled well, THE E-SCOPE TRIO!!! i’m in shambles

so if i wrote TDI i’d just give the characters some proper development, more moments to shine, more fun relationships with the others. this show is based on its characters, they’re the stars!! so why not make them shine instead of burn??

gen 1 is too much work to rewrite but i’d keep TDI about the same except have a leshawna vs gwen finale, with leshawna as a ‘canon’ winner. TDA would have a harold vs lindsay finale with harold as the ‘official’ winner.

in TDWT i’d cut the duncney-gwuncan arc, make duncan never come back cuz fuck that guy, gwourtney wins. sierra gets better development. noah makes merge and fulfills his schemer role, constantly sabotaging alejandro. they become frenemies. aleheather still wins and goes to finale. alejandro doesn’t get the robot costume and we don’t hear from him again until TDAS.

for ROTI, would make jo a proper antagonist and make her butt heads with scott when the merge happened. my final six for ROTI would be scott, jo, zoey, brick, lightning and anne maria. yes, brick and anne maria, you read that right.

i still think scott shouldn’t make finale, and jo only if she got development. so maybe the merge could happen just two episodes earlier to get more stuff out of them, so the merge would include cameron and mike. scott would go before jo, and jo would be left to fend for herself after scott got cameron eliminated. this is where i would make her develop a friendship with anne maria and brick. get zoey in there and you have the anti-scott alliance. they get him out (NO TRAUMA CHAIR NEEDED, HE WILL BE FINE) and then lightning, then the girls unite against brick. sorry man.

the finale would be between two of the girls, i’d like to see jomaria or joey fight, jo needs that development. the one who gets out previously is an insta-elimination and not decided by the others.

and voilá! jo gets development and some healthy friendships! her and brick could also get together but maybe in another season. this season is for her alone to shine, she deserves it.

oh, and that’s the main thing about ROTI - i’d give them two more seasons. they deserve a WT-esque season.

i’d completely rewrite TDPI. make rodney first diss when the girls are disgusted by him (and also shit him cuz fuck him), dave an earlier boot, get beardo like third or fourth cuz i wanna see more of him, give scarlett a proper character arc instead of a rushed one throughout just one episode, make max a bit smarter and let him become a ‘hero’ rather than a villain he wants to be by rescuing everyone from scarlett since he knows her weaknesses best...

my ideal final five are shawn, jasmine, max, topher and ella. also my five favorites so no wonder. i’ll explain their arcs.

topher - 5th: shawn and jasmine, as well as max and ella, become duos after the scarlett incident (maybe it happens earlier?), and topher is outside of any alliance. plus he was getting kinda annoying, not to mention he gave chris too many ideas for challenges. damn it, topher!

ella - 4th: when she is forbidden from singing, she still goes behind chris’ back and does it, only that she intercepts sugar’s note and burns it. sugar is an earlier boot than originally because ella realizes she just hates her guts and she’s trying to befriend her for nothing. when ella stops singing, she puts her head in the game more than usual, but her refusal to hurt animals and serenade them instead gets her out eventually, by chris, not by the others.

max - 3rd: with no alliance and a softer spot than usual, he gets out at his own, last challenge.

finale: shawn vs jasmine

the same conflict about splitting the money, only that it comes earlier and is developed more. for one, chris shows jasmine the confessionals right after max’s voting ceremony.

shawn’s helper ends up being ella, but she’s been watching from playa des losers and is unhappy with how shawn treated jasmine. meanwhile, max is jasmine’s helper. max and jasmine sabotage shawn, ella doesn’t help him, but then when max and ella are given the controls for the island, they both realize the gravity of what they’ve done when they see shawn and jasmine buried in snow.

both jasmine and shawn get an ending. in both endings, jasmine gets out of the snow, doesn’t pay attention to the finish line, and goes to search for shawn, who pops out in confusion. the two have a heart-to-heart interrupted by chris to announce the race is still happening, and they have ten seconds left. in shawn’s ending, jasmine just nods to him and he crosses; in jasmine’s ending, shawn insists she crosses. pretty similar endings, the outcome is about the same, but i like to think jasmine’s is the ‘canon’ one.

and then they get another season!

so, our seasons are...

gen 1 - 3 seasons: total drama island, total drama action, total drama world tour

gen 2 - 3 seasons: total drama revenge of the island, total drama retour, total drama cruise or lose

gen 3 - 2 seasons: total drama pahkitew island, total drama reaction

gen 1 x gen 2 x gen 3: total drama all stars

TDAS would include eight contestants of each generation. gen 1 gets heather, alejandro, owen, noah, gwen, courtney, sierra, and leshawna. gen 2 gets jo, anne maria, zoey, mike, brick, cameron, lightning and scott. gen 3 gets shawn, jasmine, topher, max, ella, sugar, sammy and scarlett.

and then for the reboot i’d just make bowie win for the first season. the second season would have more development.

emma and bowie become friends again. mkulia become reluctant allies but still dislike each other. eventually they warm up to each other tho 👀. ripaxel also happens over the course of more episodes. couples butt heads - mkulia, rajbow and ripaxel - but mkulia dominate the game. short ripaxel-mkulia alliance in which they get out prileb (who have a better development trust), wayne and bowie.

damien gets to keep his immunity idol but doesn’t need to use it until the final five: axel, julia, mk, damien and raj. the girls unite against him, but he and raj voted for julia, so you can imagine mk is unhappy, but damien wins immunity. yikes.

so finale time is damien, raj and axel. everyone gets an ending, but damien is the ‘canon’ winner because HE DESERVED IT COME ON.

[hazyheel]

WWE NXT Takeover: Toronto II Predictions

We are headed back to Toronto for Summerslam weekend this year, which means that Takeover will be hosted from the same city. It is certainly an interesting card this time around, with every championship in NXT proper being defended, in addition to a non-title women’s match, which is nice. All of the matches look really good, so let’s just hop right into the list.

The first match on the list is Candice LaRae vs. Io Sharai. During Sharai’s pursuit of the NXT Women’s championship, her and LaRae were best of friends. Sharai had a championship match at Takeover XXV, where Shayna Baszler’s lackey’s tried to get involved, but LaRae beat them down with a kendo stick. Still, Sharai tapped out to the kirifuda clutch, and lost. But after the match, she beat down Baszler and earned herself a rematch. That rematch was inside of a steel cage, and the two beat the hell out of each other. This time, Sharai looked like she was about to escape, when Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke came out again to cost her the match. LaRae ran out to support her friend, and helped to beat down the women. In the finish, Sharai was locked in the Kirifuda clutch right in the door frame of the cage as she tried to escape. To get out of the hold, she bashed Baszler’s head with the cage door, causing Baszler to fall out of the cage unconscious, but still winning the match. Afterwards, Sharai brutalized LaRae and blamed her for the loss. Since then, the two have brawled a couple of times, prompting Regal to make the match for Takeover. This is a bit of a tough one to predict, because LaRae is probably next in line for a title shot, but Sharai has had a recent heel turn. Both women need the win, but I would say that LaRae needs it more. It will propel her into the Women’s championship scene, and she can finally be the one to take the belt from Baszler. I doubt this will be the last time these two fight, and it is very possible that Sharai actually takes the women’s championship from LaRae, but right now, the babyface needs it more. This is LaRae’s Takeover debut, at least in a match, and it is the biggest stage that she has ever been on, so I think she will deliver in a big way. Sharai is great and has proved as such, so she is the perfect opponent for a debuting star. I’m excited for this match a lot, a sleeper great match for this card. 

Then, in the first of the championship matches, we have the Street Profits vs. The Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championships. This is a pretty simple story. The Street Profits won the titles in a ladder match at Takeover XXV, and have proceeded to beat each of the other teams in that match since then. They beat Lorcan and Burch, and then the Forgotten Sons. Fish and O’Reilly are the last team on their list, but they are also probably the best tag team in NXT history. I found this one a bit tough too, considering that the Street Profits have been appearing on Raw lately, but something about their NXT promo makes me think that they are going to retain. The two are really good together, but they haven’t had a breakout tag match yet. They were awesome in the ladder match, but in that sort of environment, big spots are given more attention. So in a straight tag match, they can show all of their talent and establish themselves as good champions and a great team. Of course, we could also end up with the Undisputed Era with the championships, so that the team holds all the gold at the end of the night, but considering how common that is in WWE right now, I think they will hold off on that for a bit. I think the Street Profits will win in a match that will be very good, but maybe just shy of great. 

Then we have a triple threat match for the NXT North American Championship: Velveteen Dream vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong. This match was originally just going to be Dream vs. Strong, because Strong pinned Dream in a 6-man tag a few weeks ago. So he had a claim to the title, but Dunne made a shock return to NXT proper, and inserted himself directly into the title picture by virtue of his very long title reign as the WWE UK Champion. He also has a noted history with Roderick Strong, as the two were tag team partners for a couple months before Roddy betrayed him last year to join the Undisputed Era. So we had a triple threat on our hands. I don’t think that Dunne is going to win here, but I do think it is a toss up between Strong and Dream. The only reason I’m picking Dream to retain is that I doubt another stable will hold all the gold in WWE. But if there is any match that I’m going to be wrong about, it will most likely be this one. I think Dream will retain here, but then go on to lose the title to Cameron Grimes after he wins the breakout tournament. But I could definitely see Roddy winning too. This is a match that makes my mouth water, and I’m really excited to see three of the best talents in NXT square off. 

Next up is Shayna Baszler defending the NXT Women’s championship against Mia Yim. The two have had a very violent and personal rivalry, starting in a match where the two beat the hell out of each other for a short period. When Yim was granted this title shot, Baszler, Shafir and Duke all beat her down in the ring and left her laying, calling her gutter trash as they did. In response, Yim channeled her street smarts and put both Shafir and Duke on the shelf with attacks in the parking lot and locker room respectively, saying that now the field is even. Baszler insists that Yim doesn’t deserve a title shot and is not good enough to be on the gold brand, while Yim says that Baszler can’t win without her friends and can’t deal with an opponent who fights dirty. This is an easy pick, Baszler is going to retain. Yim just doesn’t have the star power to take it right now. She is a placeholder. Still, should be an interesting match. 

And in the main event, we have Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole three, for the NXT Championship, three stages of hell. It isn’t being billed as that, but it is a much cooler name for when the stipulation changes. This all started back at Takeover New York. The title was vacant, and Gargano was the most recent #1 contender, so he was guaranteed a spot. Cole won a fatal 5-way to be the other competitor, and it was a 2 out of 3 falls match to ensure a decisive winner. Cole won the first fall, but Gargano came back and won the match. Cole said that he would have won in any other match, so he was given a rematch in a straight singles match, and sure enough, he won. So now, Cole has been rubbing his championship in Gargano’s face. He paraded around with the title, going to his wrestling school and telling students to give up, and even showing up at his parent’s restaurant and pinning his picture on the wall. The two brawled several times, so Regal made the match official. He also added the 2 out of 3 falls stipulation, but with a twist. Gargano picks the stip for the first fall, Cole for the second, and regal picks for the third if it comes to that. Gargano picked a street fight, as he has been tapping into a darker side for about a year now, and he wants to embrace that here. Cole picked a straight singles match, as he said that he does not need anything special to win. Regal hasn’t revealed the third stipulation, which adds some intrigue into an otherwise predictable stipulation. And I know I’m picking every champion to retain here, but I really don’t think there is any point in putting the belt back on Gargano. He is better chasing, and he already had a fairytale moment. Cole is a great villain right now, and he should have the belt for a while. For it to mean anything, Gargano is going to need to beat a new foe for the NXT Championship, maybe even Tommaso Ciampa when he returns. Cole should have a nice run, because if he loses it now, then it will be way too much hot potatoing for my liking. The last two matches have been great, although I question the A+ I gave the second match in hindsight, and I have high hopes for this match. They killed it twice before, make it a hatrick.

So, those are my predictions. No title changes I don’t think, but anyone in the Undisputed Era can concievably win their match. It’s a toughy for a lot of them, which makes the pay per view that much more exciting. I can’t wait for tomorrow night. 

[getseriouser]

20 THOUGHTS: Bugger

FAR too many assumed we’d be having the biggest grand final in over 30 years this time last week 

Half-time Friday night we all thought we’d got it wrong but alas regular programming prevailed and they then expected Saturday to be the breezier of the two prelims .

Yeah nah.

Now we have third playing sixth in a Grand Final no-one saw pre-season, mid-season, to start the finals or even last week when it was a one in four chance.

Expect the unexpected they say. And they are usually right on that.

 1.       Tigers just win, by five goals plus. As soon as that siren went Saturday, and thousands of male Collingwood supporters suddenly sprouted innies, thousands of Richmond fans grew really firmly in the trouser knowing it was only the expansion kids ahead of them next week now. Giants have won two games by under a kick in the dying minutes, once lucky, twice you’re kidding yourself, three times though, yeah nah.

2.       Actually, lets knock out some Brownlow before getting back to the on field. Interesting year, probably the greatest field of live chances going in for some time. So much analysis available these days that someone out there will get it right but about a dozen others, whilst looking super schmick with their spreadsheets and formulas, will be way off. This column has no idea although liked Fyfe for a while. Gets 2 or 3 votes in each Dockers win. Nice platform.

3.       Otherwise, three randoms to watch – Boak, Yeo and Treloar, could easily podium. And a real smokey from the clouds? James Worpel. One for the exotics.

4.       Back to on field, let’s go back to Friday. Cats missed a Scott Selwood type in the midfield. Getting ahead was one thing, and they did that well to their credit. But when it got tough in the second half, when the Tigs were coming, they lacked grunt and determination like the Giants showed in the final term Saturday, to get the job done. And to be honest its plagued them since the bye too. Can look flashy, can score, but when it needs to get ugly for 15-20 mins, think back to the first half of the first final too, no dice. Kinda like when its past 2am on a Bucks night, usually phantom, usually pass out, usually Ryan Babel.

5.       Alrighty, Saturday. Yikes. Wet weather clearly didn’t favour the Pies. No excuse but it mattered. Why? Well would you like to know who trained in a down pour midweek? The Giants, in their main session. Probably the best training session in that football history given the conditions that eventuated.

6.       So – and thanks to Rohan Connolly for this, who I’m shamelessly stealing from – between 2008 and 2015 only one Qualifying Final winner of 18 lost a prelim final. The last four years where we’ve had a pre-Finals bye, it’s a 4-4 record. Look at the Pies, didn’t turn up until three quarter time, the Tigers at least turned up after half time. Plus last year, the Pies had no right in their matchup with the Tiges and jumped them something shocking in that first half. Might be something to it. Might not be wrong, but there’s something to it.

7.       If you look at the Pies, Tigers and Giants, on balance this all looks about right. Richmond since 2017 probably deserve at least one flag and a go this weekend at a second. The Giants these last four years probably deserve a Grand Final appearance for their body of work. And Collingwood these last 18 months, a toss of the coin Grand Final result probably sits about right for them too.

8.       Difference between Richmond and Collingwood? One covered their injuries a lot better and was better set up for the pointy end as a result. Injuries aren’t the reason the Pies lost Saturday or that they would have been underdogs to Richmond had they won, but it’s the reason Richmond has a better list and is likely to win a second flag in three. Case in point – Richmond’s reserves win the Grand Final a week before their Seniors probably win as well, the Collingwood reserves didn’t even make the VFL Finals.

9.       Bucks getting questioned a bit in the media, ‘oh, that’s 22 years now without a flag, ho hum indeed’. Relax. On that basis we should give Bob Skilton a call, interrupt his midday movie to let him know despite his three Brownlows and everything else he means to South, his Hall of Fame Legend status is getting revoked coz he never won a flag. And that his spot will be taken by Tom Barrass instead, because he has actually won one. That Buckley hasn’t got a flag isn’t news, it might be factual but its not a story. The idea that obviously would clearly yearn for one is also factual, but not a story. Please be serious.

10.   Matt De Boer was excellent on Saturday but then again the Collingwood mids weren’t requiring a tag to be kept quiet. Does he got to Dusty and try and ruffle him again like he successfully achieved last time in Sydney? Won’t matter, Martin goes forward and kicks four on him in that case. Whether Martin gets shut down in the midfield by De Boer or not won’t prevent a Tigers’ flag anyway, lets not bother about that discussion all week.

11.   Norm Smith tip – no Tiger is in better nick than Shane Edwards, otherwise Bachar Houli for a little value with you preferred corporate bookmaker. But Titch onball will be as dangerous for Leon Cameron as nailing your Tinder date in Bali. You better put a clamp on that otherwise you’re in big trouble.

12.   Marlion Pickett was BOG in the VFL GF yesterday. We know that the Tigs have held over Jack Ross and Kamdyn McIntosh in lieu of the incredibly-stiff Jack Graham being doubtful to get up for Saturday. But back on May 28th we said this lad, who was playing for South Fremantle four months ago “would be best 22 by year’s end”. We’ve left it late but whilst McIntosh might be the safer play, Dimma will go very close to debuting the Western-Australian in the hope his mercurial style might just be perfect for an occasion like Saturday. If he’s picked, remember where you heard it first. Or read it first, even.

13.   Presume Kevin Sheedy is on standby to present the cup to Phil Davis and Leon Cameron should the Giants salute, the link to Richmond notwithstanding. The GWS best and fairest is the Kevin Sheedy medal, and unless you’re looking to Chad Cornes or Izzy Folau it has to be Sheeds. On the Tigers side, I think about Dale Weightman, otherwise Matty Knights or even Chris Newman if you want to go more recent.

14.   So yes, Richmond has been the pick for a while and it remains the pick. They are beatable though. Last four games their opponents all had strong chances they didn’t take. Eagles down here, in the wet, stuffed it and lost by a kick. Brisbane the week after got spooked but did a lot right but too late. First final, Brissy again, they kick straight they’re in it up to their eyeballs and then Geelong was leading by 21 points at half time, kick straighter its over five goals and the Tigs are staring down a repeat of last year. They’re not invincible, but it was only ever going to be a hot Essendon or hot Collingwood who stood a chance this finals series. Yet the Bombers lasted as long in September as Saturday Night Rove and then the Pies made a mess of it like The Veronicas on a Qantas flight.

15.   This column gets it right far more often than most and has banged on about the Clarkson-assistants theory for some time. This week’s Grand Final coaches, both ex-Hawthorn assistants. It will mean that after this weekend the last seven premierships will have been coached by Al Clarkson or one of his ex-assistants. Incredible. By this column, that is.

16.   More people in Sydney watched the Giants on free to air Saturday afternoon than people in Melbourne watched the Storm on free to air that night. What do we make of that?

 I love Victorian footy as much as the next Ted Whitten. This column still lapses occasionally and refers to Fitzroy instead of Brisbane, and it’s only been 20+ years. And whilst this column’s position on the Gold Coast experiment is well documented, the idea of a team in Western Sydney has always made sense to me. The population out there alone is more than Perth, Adelaide and Geelong combined.

 So to see GWS successful, largely on their own merit now (Gold Coast with the same concessions stuffed it, and you didn’t see Toby Greene playing on Saturday did we), is a good thing for the comp. Leave Gold Coast and Tassie aside, mind you.

17.   Speaking of Victorian footy, can we just kick the AFL reserves team out of the VFL into a legit reserves comp, and let Williamstown and Port Melbourne and Werribee actualy duke it out for a proper VFL title? Williamstown are long-storied VFA club who were looking for their 15th flag in 155 years of history. They lost to a team who sat out two of their players because they might be needed this coming weekend in a different comp. Don’t like it. Split the AFL reserves from the VFL. And the SANFL…

18.   Great to see Glenelg, another historic club in this country, win its first flag in 33 years. And yes they were playing Port Adelaide, their biggest rival, but half the opposition Sunday were Port Adelaide’s reserves, not SANFL players, so it’s a similar story. Great for the Bays to get up, but let the SANFL Magpies be just that, and then Port and the Crows can have separate reserves teams playing reserves footy.

19.   Speaking of Williamstown, feel for Willie Wheeler. Just a knockabout VFL footballer who had the win on his boot twice in the last term, so to lose by under a kick is devastating.

20.   Still not bothered by trade chatter. It’s all glorified brainstorming and suggestion permeating from the Herald Sun lunch room. When something remotely close to an actual story emerges I’ll get interested. Until then I’ll pass on Ralphy and Sammy and Jay-Z getting far too eggplant about what boils down to guesswork or stuff they dreamt about the night before when their partner slept at her friend’s house once again.

[lalorrunningclub]

MELBOURNE MARATHON 42.2km Race Recap by Cameron Jenkins....all the way from sunny QLD.

Wow, what a weekend Melbourne Marathon was for all involved. The laughs, the struggles, and the pure enjoyment of seeing all the smiles on the LRC faces, who'd wanna be anywhere else?

Training for my second ever marathon happened almost immediately after Gold Coast half where I had just come off a massive PB. I had gotten a proper running coach a few weeks before (Tash Fraser - winner of GOR 60km and the recent Tan 50K ultra) and training was a mix of speed and longer distance runs.

Since moving up to the Gold Coast with the family, training started to go downhill fairly quickly. It even culminated in a DNF in a half marathon 3 weeks prior to Melbourne Marathon, and I was quickly becoming quite concerned that this marathon idea was a real stupid one. Even though my speeds had been good, the endurance was lacking and I was very hit and miss as to whether I could run 5km+ or go strong for 20km - 30km.

I had gone above and beyond to try and figure out what was wrong, including: - Getting an official sweat test done. Figures came back at losing 2.5 litres per hour, and 800mg of sodium, so I know now my electrolytes and water intake requirements for the long runs - Going and seeing the sports doctor of the Gold Coast Suns to get blood tests to see if anything would show up why I was getting random head fades - Having a Skype call with a very well respected Sports Scientest in the US who pioneered the OFM (Optimised Fat Metabolism) program I am following

Even 2 weeks up until Melbourne Marathon I was still struggling with some runs and had to pull them short at 6km mark and I was getting really worried. But after taking some magnesium and Vitamin D, things started to turn around relatively quickly and the week before I had some renewed confidence that I could nail this run and get that sub 4h goal.

One of the things I like to do before every race is list 4 goals of various difficulties, and for this race it was: 1) Finish the marathon 2) Finish without walking at any stage 3) Sub 4h00m 4) Sub 3h45m

The whole fam flew in to Melbourne on Friday, and we had so much to do that I never really had time over the next couple of days to overthink what needed to be done. It was awesome seeing some familiar faces at Lalor Parkrun on the Saturday (sorry Team Radovic, I promise we will do Mernda one day!), and it was even more awesome receiving a phone call from our marshall about 15 minutes into the run who was ranting that the guy who ended up winning was running too fast for his liking.

Race day came, we got up early for the third day straight. 2 scrambled eggs were consumed, and a small coffee from Maccas was grabbed along the way. We found our car park that Ciaran had so beautifully scouted during the week, and started to make our way to the start line. Some pre race special fuel called Vespa was taken in 45 minutes before the run, and a really slow 10 minute warm up 30 minutes before the race was due to start.

And so 7 am came about, and I got to wave to the fam and the LRC Offical Awesome Babysitter (aka Karen Carberry) for the last time before the finish line. The focus was a slow and steady start, as I'm known to go out like a dog chasing a rabbit at the start of some races and then blow up after about 10km.

Before I had even been able to complete the first km, my first challenge came up. Some douchebag who was passing people quickly had gone past me then turned back and muttered something, so I asked him what he had said and he was criticising me for looking down at the ground instead of looking up at where I was running. Now I would normally start to get a bit of a rage on at those kind of moments, but I shrugged it off and just and kept running so I could focus on the task at hand.

I have to admit the first 21km was a bit of a breeze, running at a nice solid 5:15/km pace and the heart rate remained under 170bpm which is where I wanted it to be. I had seen both Ciaran and Vincent twice on the course which was great to see and gave me a bit of a boost.

Running down Beaconsfield Parade, I could see that the 3:40 pacer was only a few hundred metres in front of me, and I guess I was doing some calculations in my head and thinking the 3:45 goal might have been on the cards. But by the 30km mark, and starting to run back up St Kilda Rd with a little bit of elevation, things started to slow down a little.

The head was fine, but the body was starting to struggle and by the 36km mark my pace had dropped and I knew the Tan was still left to complete. The left ankle was super sore, the legs were tired and cramp was coming on, I was thirsty as hell but I knew that there was the LRC team waiting for me just outside the G and also inside the G, and so I kept plodding along. I was forced to walk in places, which meant I had immediately missed out on one of my goals, but that sub 4h00m was still on the cards and so after 250m of walking I picked up the pace again. This happened a few times in sections around the Tan, especially some of the climbs as I wanted to be able to run out the last km and a bit.

And finally I had reached Jolimont Drive and seen all the chalk markings that Kaz Agnew had laid on the ground, and that was it. I knew I couldn't stop now! I turned the corner onto Brunton Ave, and I kept looking for the LRC cheer squad. Out the front of the Mantra they said, but they weren't there! Where the hell are they I kept thinking... and there you were just at the start of the grass, 3 of you guys on the right hand side to give me a high five. I look back at my Strava pace details and I reckon thats about the fastest point of my race from the time I saw the LRC cheer squad to the finish line and I had looked down at my watch and seen the 3h49m time. I saw the fam in the stands, and raised the finger in the air, and then did a jumping fist pump just before the finish line. A new PB by over a hour!

After the race I was completed knackered. You'd think that after the marathon that the most hurty part would be like the legs or something like that, but nope I couldn't raise my left arm for some reason and got some panadol at the medical tent.

My dad and my sister had come into the G to see me finish over the finish line, and it was overwhelming being able to hug everyone including my beautiful supporting wife who knows how much effort I've put in to drop 45kgs and get into the shape of my life.

2 out of 4 goals achieved, which just means I now need to come back again next year and grab the other 2 🙂 Thanks once again LRC, what an absolutely awesome community we have.