Melbourne Marathon passes 505

Although I have tried to repress how knackered I felt on the two occasions I ran the Melbourne marathon I thought it nice to record todays event in a more relaxed style.  The road was closed heading in to town but - somewhat to my surprise - the trams were running and the road out was open to Commercial Road.

Course clearers - these become important later in the event.

Not sure if there was a telecast but this was definitely following the race.
The leaders at about 3.5km.

The next few.
Seeded runners taking their time.
Numbers building.
I missed the lead woman Genevieve Gregson (who I didn't spot at all) who came in at in 2:28:13.  This was the first woman I noticed  (darkish green, 4th from right in bigger bunch).  She, Sarah Klein, came 2nd  in 2:31:05 .
This woman (Kate Mason) came third in 02:34:08.
Photographer on skateboard
3 hour pace-setters.  A lot of folk here.
2 costumes.

The footpath began to be used ...

As did the main lane as well as the slip.  Trams and Mr Plod used the tramline.
From our apartment we could see the race in Albert Park.  The route actually came past heading right this side of the Lake but that was below our sight line.
The course clearers shifting the half -runners off the main road.
The lead car at about 31.8km.
Lead male: one of the leading 3 on the way out, with a very handy lead.  He won in 2:11:49 with a 2 minute gap to Ryan Gregson (in yellow shirt in pack of three on way out.  The third guy must have blown up as he didn't come 3rd, who was a further 5 minutes back.
I thought that I had had snapped the three leading women.  However the  females in that didn't get on the marathon podium as they filled those roles in the Half!  See below for a snap of them, and their times.  I had picked out the 2nd and 3rd place getters as shown above.

Now back a few minutes to the approach of a wheelchair racer and the leaders of the Half.
In the half the leaders were really moving along.  This is the leader who had a fair gap to #2.
I have put yellow arrows to mark the next few folk.
I thought that these were the three leading women in the full race   However they didn't get on the podium.   In fact they are the three leading women IN THE HALF.  The front one is Leanne POMPEANI who finished first in 01:09:01.  Then Jessica STENSON, second in 01:09:03 and Issy MATT- DOYLE (3rd).
Doing some arithmetic Ms POMPEANI finished at 0909 hours, while the winner of the Women's Full race didn't tread the hallowed turf of the G (or at least the important bit over the finish line) until 0928.  This seems a tad unfair.

It was quite tricky to cross through the pack with just a camera and a coffee cup.  These folk waited - with little choice - about 20 minutes.
A big pack on 90 minute pace.
A much higher proportion of females in the half (but still not 50%).
The only costumes I saw in the half.


A Long-billed Corella (one of 5) grazing on the nature strip.




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