06/07/2026
1114 days in the making! ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
3 years ago when I had my footy accident I set a goal to run my first Marathon before I turned 40.. the doctors said "maybe" I could get there ๐ซฃ CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! ๐ซฑ๐ปโ๐ซฒ๐ฝ
Yesterday I completed the Gold Coast Marathon with 27 days until my 40th birthday ๐ฅณ
My goals were:
โ๏ธ To finish it
โ๏ธ To finish under 4 hours
โ๏ธ To finish at 3:52 or less
I ended up with a finish time of 3:52:54 ๐๐
That's close enough for me and I'LL TAKE IT! ๐
That included 8 gels, 7 salt tablets, 3 spotify glitches, 2 toilet stops, 1 drop of the ear bud.
At the 35km mark when people started hitting the wall and dropping it started to worry me.. would I be next? My legs were heavy and the wind was strong the last 5 km. I tucked in behind my wind break (travis) and just focussed on his feet, and kept mine in sync (as much as I could because there is a significant difference in height ๐ค๐ป๐คฃ) In true fashion I took off too early at the end because I mistook a random arch way for the finish line ๐คฆ๐ปโโ๏ธ
So much training and learning along the way but I couldn't have done it without my buddy and unoffical running coach Travis - who got a ridiculous ammount of encouragement from strangers on the Marathon course so much so that I will be lodging an offical discrimination complaint and putting "BOB" on the next bib because I am convinced no one could read "BOBBIJO." ๐๐คฃ
All the early morning starts, the social sacrifices, sore legs, carbs (๐คค) and chaffe has all been so worth it!
I'm not ready for another one yet, my first goal is to walk to the toilet ๐
๐ฉผ