Chipping away at a masterpiece

For some, just the thought of waiting in the starting corral on race day stirs an army of butterflies, eliminating clear thought and calmness.

Athletes spend months upon months training for a race, always wishing they could squeeze in one more session. And then, the final 24 hours before a race can be agonising. Alone with their thoughts, they sit and wait, nothing to do but run the race in their head, over and over again. The body may be fresh, but the mind is exhausted before race morning even arrives.

For 20 year old Sydney runner Ed Goddard, nothing could be further from the truth.

“The day before the race is my favourite day of the week. The race is inevitable by then.

It’s like ‘on the 7th day God had finished his work’. The work is done, you just look back at your training log and know you’re ready”.

Goddard is an emerging talent in Australia’s distance running scene. He is part of Melbourne Track Club, and recently took out 3rd place the Gold Coast 1/2 Marathon (64:06) behind winner Jack Rayner, who is someone he counts as both a peer and an inspiration.

“I look up to Jack because of how much he has done already, and he’s a couple of years older than me. Watching Jack, I can kind of see the steps I need to take to get to his level, so I really enjoy getting to run with him anytime I have the opportunity”.

I’ve joined Goddard for a shakeout run around 21 hours before the start of Sydney’s famous City to Surf, a 14km race that doubles as the biggest fun run in the Southern Hemisphere, with 80,000 participants. Goddard finished 5th last year as a 19 year old, and while he doesn’t explicitly put a number on it, it’s obvious he has bigger expectations in 2018.

“I’ve beaten most of the top contenders in different races in the past, but to have them all in one race is a different challenge".

“I know guys push themselves to the limit now to beat me because they know I’m improving and those days of beating me are numbered. I kind of like it, especially when I sense they’re just hanging on, so I try to stretch them as much as I can".

When I arrive at Goddard’s house in Mosman, an inner city suburb of Sydney, I find a home punctuated by reminders of his success. It’s clear his parents are immensely proud of him, and he too, is proud of his hard work. It says something that the first thing he shows me is his training diary, something he shows very few other people, rather than the cabinets overflowing with medals and trophies. For Goddard, the work is the source of pride, not the result.

As I flick through the ink soaked pages, each one of them almost completely covered in times and notes, I ask Goddard why he keeps a diary when there are so many good training apps available.

“I like being free to put whatever information I want in my diary, I’m not bound by the apps. I can record how I’m feeling and write whatever, and it doesn’t feel like it’s on the record”.

One thing Goddard writes a lot of is numbers. He’s a volume animal, chalking up 175-190 kilometres a week with regularity, 90% of it on hard surfaces. Ask him how his week is tracking and you receive all the details, day by day, run by run.

While we get a lift to the start of our run, I ask where the end point is. “It’s at my favourite cafe, it’s called ‘5 loaves 2 fish’. I get the turmeric chicken. I really like cafe’s, I have a list on Zomato of all my favourites”.

It’s only when Goddard and I get out for the run that I realise how obsessive he is. We start with a 10 minute loop of some local parklands which quickly starts to feel like a maze. We duck in and out of carparks, doing add-on loops that give us as little as an extra 100m on the loop, and as we run a lap of a cricket oval Goddard explains that some days he runs 2.5 laps of the oval, while some days he does 4.5. Goddard likes repetition.

Later, as we near the end of the run, Goddard tells me “We’ve got three sets of lights left, normally we get two and have to run around at the third, we never stop”. I feel like he’s done this exact shakeout run hundreds and hundreds of times. He knows it intimately; every crack in the pavement, every overhanging branch.

As we walk into the cafe, Goddard is greeted enthusiastically by the kitchen staff in the back. He’s something of a celebrity here, but I wonder if it’s because of his burgeoning running career or because he comes here so frequently. Regardless, he’s not even presented with a menu. He will be having the turmeric chicken.

We talk about the usual things; training camps, upcoming races, and different workouts.

When we finish our meal I agree to meet Goddard’s taxi the next morning en route to the start line.

When I jump into Goddard’s cab early on Sunday morning, he’s calm and relaxed, focused only on the logistics of getting his warm ups done and dropping his gear off at the elite zone. As we get out of the cab he remarks casually “Should we go for a little jog?” and we’re off, dodging tens of thousands of people, chuckling as someone’s Uber drives away with their Garmin still inside. Why you take your Garmin off in an Uber, I’ll never know.

As we jog along, I ask what the plan is for the day. “Attack at the top of Heartbreak Hill. People have tried to attack early before and it doesn’t seem to stick. We’ll see”.

We see plenty of familiar faces during warm ups, faces that will likely be going head to head with Goddard the whole way to Bondi. Training parter and friend Kev Batt, and Australian running icon Ben St Lawrence amongst the runners we bump into. Finally, after 20 minutes of warm ups it’s time to head to the start line. I wish him well and we head our separate ways.

The next time I see Goddard is about 600m into the race, as the leaders climb the hill to Kings Cross. Sure enough, there’s a lead pack including Goddard, Batt, St Lawrence, and a couple of others. If you’re not familiar with the City 2 Surf, the hills are a hallmark of the race.

The group splits early in the race, and St Lawrence would go on to record a thrilling sprint victory over Liam Adams. Goddard spent the race in close company with Batt and James Nipperess, two adversaries he knows well. Goddard would go on to finish 5th, the same position he took in 2017. It is however a 46 second PR.

“I just didn’t feel like I had that extra gear that you need when you’re racing. Normally you feel like you can go to another level in a race but I didn’t have that today. The pace was on really early so I couldn’t conserve as much as I wanted to”.

It’s normal to feel disappointed when you have high expectations, but Goddard is realistic. He speaks with several people after the race, including course record holder and arguably Australia’s greatest ever distance runner, Steve Moneghetti. Moneghetti tells Goddard to be patient. St Lawrence is 36, and women’s winner is 29. Goddard is coming off another big week without a taper as he looks to National XC titles in two weeks’ time.

“All the guys were dead silent on course. Not a word was spoken between us the entire race. At Gold Coast I was making jokes, but I couldn’t find the right time today. Anyway, sometimes the jokes sound great in my head, but they don’t come out right during the race”.

We catch up for lunch post-race, joined by Ed’s parents. For finishing 5th, Goddard has received some wine, the same prize he received last year. “I don’t drink. I feel like if that takes away 1% from me, then it’s not worth it after I do so much training. There’s probably some other 1%ers that I forfeit too, but I try not to”. When asked what those things are that Goddard could do better in his training, he offers “Maybe I have 1 too many milkshakes per month, or sometimes I don’t get enough sleep. I do like a milkshake, mint is my favourite”.

While we eat lunch, Goddard pulls out a pen and paper and starts planning out his lead up to XC Nationals. He scribbles down his daily training plan, then quickly makes adjustments before settling on a plan. 160k this week, and 140k next week. I ask him what he does in his downtime, when he’s not studying or working part time. “I watch the Cubs (Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball team). They play 182 games a season, so there’s like 100 games that are on at the right time for me to watch them during the day”.

We leave the restaurant in Sydney’s popular Circular Quay area, and are hit by cigarette smoke almost immediately as we hit the street. Goddard’s father, John, remarks “Ed hates cigarette smoke. He’ll cross the street to avoid it”. Sure enough when I look up Ed is nowhere to be found. As we say our goodbyes Ed says to me “Let me know when you’re in Sydney next, we can go for a run”. I’d love to, provided it fits in with one of his easy days.