INTRODUCING THE LINE: A HALF MARATHON PROJECT

From day one, our mission here at TEMPO has been to elevate our beautiful sport; to celebrate the athletes that perform superhuman feats, and to shine a light on the people and crews shaping culture around the world.

Our mission is also to grow the sport through inspiring new runners, and show them that there’s more to running than what can be measured on a watch.

Finally, we’re proud of the role we’ve taken in elevating women’s running. Whether it’s working with the Bowerman Babes, taking a women’s team to break the record at The Speed Project, or being the platform for Lydia O’Donnell’s incredible columns, we have and will continue to put women first.

So we’re pleased to introduce The Line - a half marathon project in partnership with Nike, designed to explore and harness the potential of a group of 11 amateur runners in Melbourne.

We know that progress is rarely linear; there are good days and bad, and sometimes life can derail the best of intentions. The Line is about supporting our athletes as they navigate the winding road to the starting line.

Over the next 12 weeks TEMPO and Nike will take these athletes on a journey towards their full potential, and also show them that running can be so much more than a race against time.

The race that awaits our athletes at the end of their 12 week program is the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon; arguably Australia's most stunning half marathon course, winding its way along the famous coastline towards Apollo Bay. This race is no joke; the month of May can bring variable weather conditions, and the rolling hills throughout the early half of the race can take a toll on those who go out too hard.

We’ve hand-picked a cross section of athletes from across Melbourne, all from different backgrounds and with a different approach to running. For Phoebe di Tommaso, The Line represents an opportunity to apply herself to a challenge.

Guiding our athletes on this journey will be two of Melbourne’s most respected marathoners, Nike Running coaches Lydia O’Donnell and Dave Ridley. More than just designing personalised training plans for each of our athletes, Lydia and Dave will be joining the athletes on the run each week, and playing a mentoring role - answering the myriad questions all runners have as they approach race day.

Coach Lydia O’Donnell sees The Line as an opportunity to instill a lifelong connection to the sport into the athletes.

“We have a wide variety of fitness and experience levels among the team, so our approach to each athlete is different. We want to push each woman to their potential in a sustainable and specific way. The end goal for each athlete is similar though. We hope they all walk away with an incredible educational experience as well as a pure ambitious love for the sport.”

Allowing these athletes to reach their potential means more than just having their running schedule dialled. In addition to working with the team at Nike on which products are right for them, each athlete will have the one percenters taken care of - things like having their running form assessed by a technique coach, meeting with experts in the fields of recovery, injury prevention, and nutrition, and much more.

Sub 2:20 marathoner Dave Ridley acknowledges that a good race is about so much more than just a good training program. “We’ll be working closely with each athlete to help support them with any questions they have, and to ensure things like nutrition, smart pacing and even challenging conditions are all considered. There are so many unknowns and variables that sit outside the training plan.”

Every good build up includes a few tests along the way, so our athletes will be pinning on a number in staple Melbourne event Run for the Kids, and will even get to hit the dirt at Run the Rock; a mixed terrain race at the stunning Hanging Rock.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on our 11 athletes over the next three months; joining them on some of their runs and sitting down to find out how they’re going. We’ll bring you all the highs and lows, right here on TEMPO.

Publisher's Note: The Line is a project in partnership with Nike Australia; over the 12 week journey our athletes will explore the work Nike has done in developing tailored training plans for running smarter.  Check out these plans at nike.com/nrcplans and follow our athletes on the NRC app.