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lalorrunningclub · 6 years

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Melbourne Marathon 2018 by Kirsty Branagan

Last year I had the pleasure of running the 10km event at Melbourne Marathon with some amazing runners, Laura and Renee. This year, I knew I didn’t want to do the 10km again, and as I have a half marathon coming up, I didn’t really feel the need to run the event at all.

I have always wanted to volunteer at a major event, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity! I knew Paul Tait had volunteered last year and intended to again, so I got in touch with Tim Crosbie, who is the Elite Athlete Coordinator, and asked if there was anything I could do to help him out. About 5 minutes later, I was duly appointed ‘Elite Athlete Assistant’, a role I shared with Melissa. What the job actually entailed I wasn’t certain, all I knew was that for the weekend of Melbourne Marathon I would be busy!

Well, busy is an understatement! Due to the aforementioned half marathon coming up, I needed to do a 19km training run.. and I needed to be in the city on Saturday afternoon, and back again early Sunday morning. I know what you’re thinking.. ‘it makes total sense to get hotel rooms and stay in the city all weekend’. Well, Mel, Kaz (who was also volunteering) and I agreed! I did my 19km around Princes Park, incorporating Parkville parkrun, and then we headed to the MCG to begin our official duties (actually, Kaz and Taity had already begun theirs on the Thursday night when they did an airport run for one of the athletes).

We arrived to the MCG and Tim came and met us with our AAA passes. Access All Areas? We would be sure to take advantage of that over the course of the weekend! We went down to the Elite Athlete and Pacer area, which just a couple of weeks ago was a change room for some debacle occurring in the last weekend of September. We helped to set up the room, doing odd jobs such as laying out Athlete bibs, running up to the outside broadcast area (OB for those playing at home) for water (and yes, we may have come back with boxes of chips, muesli bars and lollies, but they said we could take whatever we wanted, who are we to say no!) Soon it was time to head around to the main gate and bring all the Elite athletes into the rooms for their briefing. When Tim went through the details with the athletes, including introducing Mel (who was conveniently out of the room, I think dealing with a turtle) and I, I was amazed to see these inspirational athletes looking to me for assistance! I had to remember to only introduce myself as KB for the weekend as these athletes had no idea who Kirsty was!

Once the briefing was over, we continued to help with set up, and it was time to go through the plan for early the following morning. I explained to Tim that I don’t have a great sense of direction (as anyone who has been in the Kuber would know), so he promptly worked out a schedule which had me taking the Elite 10km runners for the 10min walk to the preferred start area by myself, without even a pacer group to lead the way. Great plan Tim. Fortunately we then all walked the path we would be taking, which also helped Kaz as she was Chief In Charge of ‘No you can’t come in’ at the preferred start area. Tim causally wandered across roads, saying ‘these will be closed tomorrow’, however he failed to acknowledge that they were very much open to cars at that particular time. We managed to avoid being run over, and with a few key landmarks I felt like I may be able to get the athletes there on time.

Mel, Kaz and I made it to our hotel room with just enough time to flake out before dinner. We got changed as it was getting a bit chilly. I was very grateful for my Melbourne Marathon Event Team jumper. After eating way too much food, we were walking back to our hotel and my phone rings. Tim is at the front of our hotel with a car parking pass to let us in under the MCG on event day. We met him (and William, who had flown in from Kenya that evening and was due to run a marathon a few short hours later!) then made our way up to our room, via the IGA to purchase essential supplies (I still can’t work out how cans of Moscato are essential, but apparently they are!). Suddenly it was way past bedtime and alarms were set for the horrific time of 4.30am.

It continues to amaze me that waking up to a ridiculously early alarm on an event day doesn’t seem like a chore, and it turns out this is also true when volunteering. We quickly got ready, packed our stuff and checked out of our hotel at 5.15am. We got into the car to find yet another parking ticket! How infuriating, as this time we actually put money in the meter (we won’t talk about the parking ticket we received earlier when we may have overlooked the whole ‘meter’ part of the sign). When we arrived at Brunton Ave, we flashed our car park pass and drove around the barriers to get to the car park queue. A queue at 5.30am?! Ah, they are security checking cars. We got through that fine (I think the security guards questioned their career choice when they got to our boot full of day old running gear and leftover cans of moscato!) and traveled into the bowels of the MCG to park the car. Speaking of bowels.. ah, no, wait.. that’s a story for another time.

There were already a few athletes in the Elite room when we got there, so we said a quick goodbye to Kaz who made her way to the preferred start area ready to defend those elite portaloos like her life depended on it, and Mel and I got to work checking Athlete names off, stocking the fridge with more water, letting any athletes who had missed the briefing know what the process was, and generally marvelling at the calm atmosphere in the room.. it sure wasn’t like the last carriage on the South Morang train usually is!

Soon it was time for Mel and Tim to escort the marathoners across to the start line. I waited in the rooms with the 10km and Half Marathon athletes, and very soon I was calling the 10km athletes to be ready to walk with me. There were about 15 elites entered in the 10km, and I was rather horrified that despite almost all the names being checked off the list, only 4 women were ready to walk with me. It appeared I had failed already. Charlotte Wilson, one of the athletes, promised to vouch for me that I had given plenty of time warnings. I sent a panicked text to Tim saying most of the athletes had disappeared (note to all, probably don’t ask me to babysit!). He wasn’t concerned, so the girls and I walked over. As we crossed the bridge, and I was trying to count the ramps to make sure my careful landmarks were going to guide me to the right path, I was accosted by a leaping giant jumping on my back. Thanks Murph, was great to see you! Amazingly, I saw Mel walking towards us, which meant I must be going in the right direction! She was heading back to the rooms to collect the Half marathoners, and return the marathoners clothing to the room #gbb.

We made it to the start line, and incredibly the other 10km elites turned up there too, they had been warming up and found their own way to the start. I met up with Kaz and Taity, who was preparing to ride alongside the lead female in the Half marathon. The excitement built as the 10km runners prepared to start and before I knew it, they were off, and we were keeping our eyes out for awesome LRC runners. We managed to spot a few, and yelled out (sure, most of them took a second to work out who we were in our event staff uniform, but we got lots of happy waves!) Mel soon arrived back with the Half marathoners, and while we waited for the start we couldn’t help but make conversation with our favourite event MC, famous in LRC for his Sunset Series work! He may have spotted us as we excitedly cheered some LRC people over the start line (‘oh, I know that cheer, the ladies from Lalor Running Club must be here’!)

Soon enough the half marathon runners were on their way, and as we cheered everyone over the line, we couldn’t help but realise how starving we were! We went back to the rooms and scoffed various muesli bars, packets of chips and one or two lollies as well. Tim had gone up to the finish line to see the 10km winners through, and we made our way up there to soak up some atmosphere before our day got busy again.

Mel had the walkie talkie wired up and was able to listen to the race progress. It seemed like no time at all before first finishers in the half and full were nearing the G. The finish line was a buzz of activity, with Brett Robinson coming through the Half Mara finish line just 64 minutes after we had seen him off at the start! The really funny part was that Melanie Panayiotou was due to come through as first female Half marathoner at almost exactly the same time as Liam Adams was due to finish as the first marathoner. The finish line ribbon staff didn’t know which way to look, and as for the press they were scurrying everywhere! I was firmly planted at the marathon finish line though, as my next task was to chaperone Liam Adams from the minute he crossed the line, right up until the presentations around 90 minutes later.

I was a little intimidated. What if this Elite Athlete didn’t want weirdo KB following him everywhere? What if he demanded I get him a pizza? (I’m pretty sure that’s what I’d be asking for if I’d just won a marathon in the time it takes my children to get their shoes on in the mornings). Well, I had nothing to fear. Liam was not in the least demanding, simply asking for a bottle of water. Suddenly, I was very sought after though, as all the press had to go through me to get to Liam! I was asked to check if he would be willing to do a live cross for the Today Show. He was most willing, and on the way to the quiet area they were filming from we stopped a few times for photos and a couple of quick bite interviews. While he was being interviewed, I managed a sneaky text to my mum to let her know what I was doing. She was very excited to know that I was just off screen of the interview she was watching (it’s as close as she will get to having a celebrity for a child, the poor dear). I hadn’t seen Kaz for a while, it turned out she was looking after Dominic Ondoro who had come second, and he preferred to wait downstairs in the Elite room. Meanwhile, Sinead Diver (my 9 year old’s hero) was powering home for a record breaking marathon win, and Mel was lucky enough to be chaperoning her.

It was incredible to listen to Liam speak, not only during his interviews, but also just in his relaxed chats with us while he waited for his next task. I expect to be basically on my death bed if I ever manage to complete a marathon, but he was coherent, friendly and more than happy to chat to anyone. I think my favourite part was actually leaving him to meet with and chat with his family. His partner Charlotte happens to be an elite athlete herself, having come third in the 10km (and also a lovely down to earth person, see above about vouching for me!) so she was able to be on the ground, but the rest of his family were in the stands watching him. The other good thing about him being happy catching up with them, was that it gave me a few sneaky minutes to check out the half marathon finish line. I got to see a few LRC come through, and had blubbering hugs with Renee and Hayley, among others.

I saw Kaz come up from the rooms with Dominic, so I knew that it was almost presentation time. I went to get Liam, and delivered him safely to the presentation tent (amazing that these runners can go 42.2km on their own, but need an escort to go 20m to get a prize!).

Once the presentations were over, we had a few odd jobs to do, mainly tidying the Elite room (which looked like the aftermath of a really tame party - just water bottles and muesli bar wrappers strewn around!) and making sure that all the athletes had what they needed. Then we got to spend a bit of time at the finish line waiting for LRC peeps.

It’s an incredible experience seeing the first runner through the finish line, but so amazing to also see the some of the last runners through and know that they have worked so incredibly hard for 7 hours to cover the distance. Soon enough, we were off to the pub to celebrate with our LRC heroes.

I have already put my name down to volunteer in the same role in 2019, I had such a blast supporting everyone! A massive thanks to Tim for the opportunity, Mel and Kaz for spending the weekend with me, Sim for the random Saturday night wine, and Taity for the jumper.

#lalorrunningclub #lrc

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