This weekend is the 50th running of the Darlington half marathon, ( http://www.wamc.org.au  ) the longest running race in the West Australian Racing calendar. ( I mean longest running race in the sense it has been running the longest , it’s not the longest running race in distance of course. .. but you probably realised that and I’ve wasted my time typing this and wasted your time reading it…I digress…..) It will also be an opportunity for young Nic Harman to take on the Darlington Half course record set by the great Robert De Castella. How great is Robert De Castella (Deeks) ?   Well his Boston Marathon winning time of 2:07:51 is still an Australian record and he set it in 1986.  His Darlington record is 66 minutes and change and he ran it on the morning of his wedding, so he probably had other things on his mind. I told you he was a great !!

I predict, if conditions are right, Nic will beat the time set by “Deeks” and I’m even going to go as far as to say I also predict one day he will beat the Australian Marathon time as well, the boy has talent. Nic is running his maiden marathon at the Gold Coast in July this year and if he runs to his potential I reckon he’s got a chance of a Olympic Qualifier for next years big dance in Japan. It’s probably a year or two too early but I believe when you’re good enough you’re good enough, age is not a pre-requisite. Experience would be nice of course and for the next Olympics if Nic continues to improve I would think he would be a shoe-in for the team. There is the Commonwealth Games in two years of course which is probably the wiser option but sometimes youth disregards wisdom and exuberance wins the day. It’ll come down to his coach and manager I suppose and with Raf and his team currently on a high from his latest racing results the sky could be the limit. ( http://therunningcentre.com.au )

Talking of Raf, he took a team of runners to Japan recently and they all outdid even what he thought possible. None more than local celebrity Rochelle ‘rocket’ Rogers who propelled herself into Olympic contention. Rochelle worked in Raf’s store for many years and has been a prodigy of his for some time. In Japan she shocked herself and the Australian running community with a run that basically redefined her. A quantum leap in running times  and if she can keep on improving the Olympics is a real possibility. Wow ! Local girl done good , big time. With Rochelle and Nic firing Western Australia is well and truly in the running spotlight….Enjoy the article below from  http://www.runnerstribe.com .

Before you read the article below I’d like to put what Rochelle did into context. Mature marathon runners have a set time they aim for and pace themselves accordingly. We all know it is suicide to run how you feel at the start of a marathon as you are fully rested, carboloaded and full of adrenaline for the task ahead. You could easily run a 10k PB but after that you’re spent with 32k of pain infront of you. This as I have always said ‘the fastest marathon runner is the one who slows the least’. This means set yourself a goal pace and stick to it. If you do for the 42.2k you have your goal time, easy really. The only downside to this is you never really have the opportunity to smash a PB as you mature because you restrict yourself by sometimes holding back until it’s too late to do any real damage to your PB. I can normally predict between 1-5 minutes my finish time in any marathon, I can do this through experience of finishing forty three of them and counting. I know my chances of running anything faster than 5 minutes from my goal pace will never happen because I pace myself to a set time; also at 52 my days of running PB’s are probably behind me (probably?). Rochelle ignored all her experience and that of her coach and ran on feel, throwing caution to the wind and just basically ‘going for it’. This was going end one of two ways, total success or abject failure. in this instance total success.

I believe another reason for her startling time comes down to her footwear. The new Nike Vaporflys 4% flyknit I reckon is good for between 3-5 minutes , depending on your finish time,  in a marathon, minimum. Longer if you’re a plodder with the caveat you need to get on your toes for these bad boys to really kick-in. I saw a photo of the start of the Tokyo marathon and all you could see on the elite runners were these new red flyknits. They really are game changers and now they seem to be available, just in time for the new Nike 5%’s to come out . Yep, Nike have overhauled the 4% and produced another 1% from somewhere. To non-runners this is negligible, to runners this is huge. Another 1% boost in pace and efficiency, with no extra training, where do I sign up. Word on the street is they are even more expensive than the 4%’s of course but whatever the cost I’ll be buying a pair to add to my two pairs of 4%’s I currently own. (not including my first pair of 4%’s which are now done.)

Of course the now ‘fly in young Nic’s running ointment’ is he is sponsored by Saucony. Now I rate Saucony, they make great shoes as do Adidas, Asics, New Balance etc etc.. but no one, and I mean no one, produces anything that comes close to the Nike Vaprofly 4%’s… not even in the same ball park, hell the same planet ! If Nic is really serious about breaking records and going to the Olympics he will eventually need to buy a pair of Vaporflys and I’m not sure how Saucony will feel about this. This is an issue for next year I suppose and one Nic and his coach will have to think very carefully about. Personally it’s a done deal, you want to compete with the best you need to be on a level playing field; at the moment Nic isn’t. On the bright side Nike do seem to have a bit of money to throw around so I’m sure once Nic has moved onto their radar he’ll be propositioned and before long I’m sure we’ll see him zipping around Carine in his Porsche 911 covered in Nike ‘ticks’, he just has to learn to drive first ?

The art of placing one foot in front of another offers up an infinite collection of incredible stories. Too many of which will never be told. It is an inadvertent omission, a regrettable consequence of the modern worlds saturation of inspiration. Due to this, some people simply fly under the radar, only noticed when they stare you in the face. One of these people is Rochelle Rodgers. She is now one of Australia’s best marathon runners.

On February 24, Rodgers won the Shizuoka Marathon (Japan), her time of 2:34:45 shaving a nine-minute chunk from her previous best time set in Melbourne two years earlier. As she battled to the line, her bewildered coach Raf Baugh had screamed support from the side of the road, barely believing what he was witnessing. It was not just the Australian running community that would be shocked by the performance. Even her closest teammates did not see it coming — at least not yet. Nevertheless, it was real; there was no more need for dreaming. The new contender had arrived. The only question: where had she come from?

One reason for Rodgers’ relative anonymity in the upper echelons of the Australian running scene might have been her geographic placement. Residing in Perth (WA), her steadily improving results would often go unnoticed by her eastern competitors. For years, her performances consistently placed her on the precipice of the elite level, always thereabouts but not quite.

In 2013, aged 26, Rodgers ran her first Marathon in Melbourne. Placing 17th in a time of 2:57:20, she was introduced to the gruelling nature of the distance. Instead of being perturbed, it emboldened her. It was confirmation that she was exactly where she wanted to be.

“I can’t remember a thing about it,” she said, recalling that first race. “[But] I love the Marathon. I kind of find it therapeutic. I just enjoy my own time, my own space, and I love the challenge about it as well. I really enjoy the process.”

The next few years were indeed a process. Joining forces with Raf Baugh’s Front Runner Performance squad, she began to chip away at her time. A 2:50:19 for 6th in the 2015 Melbourne Marathon, followed by a 2:47:19 for 5th the following year signalled the first steps of progression. A 2:44:35 in Tokyo then preceded her first podium at Melbourne in 2017, where she placed 3rd in 2:43:50. In 2018, there was no improvement, but a win in Perth assured her that she had lost no ground. These were all good results, but nothing that foreshadowed what was to come.

“I couldn’t quite comprehend [her breakthrough run in Shizuoka],” Baugh said. “I’ve been coaching her for a lot of time. We’ve seen a lot of breakthroughs, but I think we were all a little bewildered by this one. There was no conscious expectation that running that fast was possible.”

The goal heading into the Shizuoka Marathon was to run under 2:40:00. A modest aim in hindsight, but a time that would still have delivered a significant improvement on Rodgers’ fastest time. It was this aim that established the plan to run no quicker than 3:42/km, but no matter how hard she tried, holding back proved impossible.

“I felt really refreshed. I woke up feeling quite fresh in the legs, feeling quite good. I just felt comfortable and at ease with what I was about to do,” she said. “Early on we realised we were going too fast. We tried to slow the pace down, but then at the same time I felt really comfortable with how we were running, and I wanted to hold onto that for as long as possible.”

Moving into the lead at the halfway mark spurred Rodgers on, and by 30km it began to dawn on her that something special was on the cards.

“I realised I was probably going to achieve a faster time that I had set out to run,” she said. “But in the back of my mind, I knew that I had never run that fast for this long before. I didn’t know what the next 12km was going to be like.”

Now the only thing that could stand between Rodgers and the greatest run of her life was the will of her mind in dealing with the mounting discomfort. Utilising mental imagery that took her back to the idyllic sanctuary of her local trails, she powered on. Meanwhile, following on the train, coach Baugh was riddled by nerves.

“I’m pretty invested. I love it. It gets to the point where I’m almost like — I’m sitting on the train completely waiting for the next timing split to come through,” he said. “You’re just willing the athletes on even though, at that point, you can have no impact on what’s going on in front of you. You’re praying to the gods.”

Ultimately those prayers were answered. With one final effort, Rodgers breached the tape, recording a monumental victory.

“We turned a corner and Matt (her training/racing partner) looked behind me and said ‘you’ve got this’. Then I heard Raf say I was on for 2:34, and I just legged it,” she said. “I crossed the line and collapsed to the ground, and was like ‘what have I just done?’”

Rodgers’ time of 2:34:45 was not just a mammoth personal best, but also over two minutes quicker than the IAAF world championship qualifying standard of 2:37:00. It took nearly an hour for her to realise the significance of what she achieved.

“When I crossed the line I didn’t realise I’d run the world champs qualifying time. I didn’t realise until later, once we got back to the hotel. I didn’t even know what the [qualifying] time was. It wasn’t even in the back of my mind,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. It was never the plan.”

With many marathon runners considering to opt out of the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha (Qatar), Rodgers is well aware of the opportunity she may receive. It would be the completion of a lifelong dream to pull on the green and gold.

“Ever since I was a little girl my dream has been to represent Australia. For me that’s always been my main focus,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s an opportunity that I’m going to grab with both hands and take it. It’s incredible that I’ve been able to put myself in a position where it’s possible that I could be running for Australia.”

Such an achievement could potentially place Rodgers alongside some of the runners she looks up to the most, such as Sinead Diver and Jess Trengove. It is something that may take a while to sink in.

“It’s almost surreal,” she said. “I look up to those women because they inspire and motivate me to run and push myself. So, to be saying that I’m in that same sort of category is unbelievable. It’s just so surreal.”

If she does stand on that midnight start line in Qatar, it will be a treasured moment. At 31 years of age, it would be a reward for her persistence. The innumerable kilometres covered chasing the faint glint of hope — the dream that came true.

“I’m willing to take on the challenge,” she said. “I’ll be soaking it up. It will be an unforgettable moment and a very overwhelming moment, but I will be very proud if I am able to [run for Australia].”

The inevitable question: what about 2020? What about the Olympic Games? Her response is measured, but her voice betrays the once impossible thought. Why not?

“Never say never. I’ve learnt that the body is capable of a lot more than what you believe it is. Impossible is nothing.”

Her days of flying under the radar are gone. Rochelle Rodgers is here to stay.

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