Culture
Gold Coast Marathon: Guts and Glory!
Going the distance in sunny Queensland
By Sunday, the Gold Coast had remembered how the rest of the country thinks of it: sunny and warm. While Saturday had turned on some rain and a fair bit of wind for the half marathon, the following morning was back to Goldy's usual postcard behaviour, if a little hotter than some runners might have liked.
You probably know the results, and that's not what this is about. But quick congratulations to Japanese runner Yuki Nakamura for coming from low on the pre-race leaderboard to break the women's race record with a time of 2:24:22, improving on American Lindsay Flanagan's 2022 record by 21 seconds. And to men's winner Timothy Kattam, who takes home the gold medal as a souvenir of his first visit to Australia.
In Saturday's half marathon, Andy Buchanan did indeed – as our astute readers predicted – put the competition to the sword. Canberra's Leanne Pompeani held off Paris-bound Olympian Jess Stenson in the women's half.
Others had good days or bad days, ran PBs or did not finish. Congratulations to every single person who took part – you’re all stars.
We hope you enjoy these shots from the Wolfferine.