After navigating Day 1 in Perth it was time for the team to head across country to take on Day 2 in Adelaide. Arriving into the Stamford Grand Adelaide late at night we were soon presented with room keys and straight to bed before being waking up early in the morning and walking a short distance across to the start line only metres from the hotel foyer.
The challenge was made more a little more testing today waking up with coughing, spluttering and with an elevated temperature which was far from ideal prior to running the marathon on Glenelg Beach. The location was absolutely perfect on the beachfront with the course similar to a morning training run along Glenelg Beach a year earlier when in Adelaide on business bringing back memories of the many back to back marathons run along the beachfront in California.
This would prove to be the toughest day for me battling through the health challenges to keep putting one foot in front of the other to go the distance while representing the Braveheart’s team. I was doing everything possible to keep focused on a very cool morning and as the day progressed it was more challenging passing The Broadway Kiosk with the wonderful aromas of food playing on your mind each time you would run by to the point on one of the final laps I decided to pull my shirt over my nose to avoid the temptation which was greeted by some interesting looks.
It was great to see the national Braveheart’s 777 marathon team enjoying the day although for my part I sure was doing it tough out there and was very pleased to hold it together and cross the line in 6:24:41 with the primary goal on this day to push home safely ahead of the 6:30 cut off time in place.
Soon after finishing Greg Ponych one of the inspiring Braveheart’s runners returning for consecutive years thankfully jumped in when Evan asked how I was feeling to mention that I was ‘one step closer to getting the job done’ when in reality all that was on my mind at that particular moment was that I was very fortunate to still be standing let alone having completed the latest marathon.
It was very nice to be able to walk a short distance back to the Stamford Grand for a shower and quick change before we all headed back to the airport to make our way to the nation’s capital for Day 3. Returning to the Adelaide Airport the priority was to consult with the pharmacist and pick up some medicine to help ease the pain and congestion with air pressures concerns flying for the remainder of the week and the ability to back up and go the distance each day.
