Sydney Marathon – 7 Stars
If you would’ve asked me upon completing the Boston Marathon last year in 2024 if I was going to continue marathoning, you would’ve received some mixed answers. That was all contingent upon who soon after the marathon ended as well, as the pain subsided with each hour and day and I’d heal from the soreness and mental insanity that marathoning is. The majors were done. There was talk of a seventh major to be added and it was in between Sydney, Shanghai, and Cape Town. It didn’t sound real enough to me at the time and seemed like that would be sometime down the road. Nope. It was fast and furious as the Abbott Majors have been adding more and more cities to their list quickly as of late.
The announcement for the Sydney Marathon came soon after. For a moment I hesitated thinking I was done with the majors and I will stay at my original six. But the FOMO started kicking in and I knew what I had to do. I applied for Sydney and the 7 Stars were to be mine! In a short time after getting in and after talking across different running clubs, I was going into this knowing I’d be one in 4,000 people in the world to hold that title and the only female in Palm Beach County to have that distinction.
The training began and with stability. Yes I was battling some pain in my right achilles going into it but knew what I had to do to keep moving while keeping it safe. Most of my long runs morning were done alongside my friend Leo, who was also gearing up for his first major in Berlin.
Marathon training can be easy to start but tricky to maintain as a working mom with a kiddos’ sports schedule after school to dub as a second full time job. There are many days that I didn’t get the milage I was supposed to or wanted to and would just say I will try again tomorrow. There is some grace you must have on yourself to do something like this. But nevertheless, she persisted on.
I had worked on two separate playlist to get me hyped for the Sydney Marathon, and of course the week before the trip was hit with Kaytranada’s new album drop, which was the perfect soundtrack to my trip.
The day I left for Sydney I went in for a full day of work at school. I had all of my bags with me. I went for a morning 5K around the neighborhood, and the my mental play and body felt so strong, happy, and ready for this marathon. Thankfully, there’s a shower at school where I got to clean up before my very long trip. My cousin Mercy and mom picked Isaac and I up from school and took me to the airport where they got to see me off. Checking went smoothly and arriving to the gate and finding out that one crew member didn’t show up for the flight, not so smooth. Cue a 2 hour delay, which caused me to miss my connecting flight to LAX in Dallas wasn’t in my cards. But oh well, this is why I was going a whole day early now I guess. Oh yeah, about that. I booked my flight a whole day before the tour group began at the hotel so I had to book an additional hotel for just the first night. Follow closely for how this becomes a blessing in disguise. I am asked by a flight representative to call their 1-800 number to figure out booking a new flight to my LAX connection. Jorge, this representative…God bless this man, skipped LAX altogether and said he was going to book me on a 15 hour, direct flight to Sydney from Dallas. Yeah baby, save me time on my feet and get me there faster!
Once we got on our flight to Dallas everything went smoothly. I had fettucine Alfredo with grilled chicken at Maggiano’s in Terminal C before heading back to Terminal D for my flight. Upon arriving at my gate, I settle into my seat with my bottle of water and chapstick and chill for about an hour before boarding begins. Now, I’ve been on a large airbus to a few times before, but I wasn’t fully prepare for the monstrosity that was the Qantas Airbus A380. First class members went via the lower level and regular went on the top level. The best news was that once I was seated and the doors were closed, I looked to my left in utter happiness that I had the entire row to myself. Take off was something quite exhilarating as it was the fastest I had ever felt on any flight. I giggled throughout most it and I hope no one saw me because they’d wonder what the heck was wrong with me. Clearly, a lot, so have a seat. LOL! Once at cruising altitude, I opened all three blankets in the row, laid down across the seats and it was lights out until they’d wake us for our first meal. Dinner was delicious as I got an herbed roasted chicken with a side of carrots, green beans, and mashed potatoes, and a fluffy dinner roll. An easy dinner on t he stomach, a key lime pie, and a small complimentary bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to wash it all down. I set the screen to the flight map, because if you know me…I don’t like t o watch TV on flights, not even 15 hour flights. I mostly sleep to start adapting the the time I am traveling into on longer flights, read, and journal.
Now that I have a full belly and a little bit of wine in my system coupled with the vibration of the airplane, I am instantly lulled to sleep for the next 9-ish hours or so. I wake, walk some laps carefully as everyone in the cabin is doing some serious sleeping/cocooning. We have snack time sometime around here and I go back to sleep. Our next meal comes an hour before arrival. The sun rising was so similar to the sunset coming back from my London flight. I love to notice these little parallel moments that feel like I am being brought back full circle for reflection in how much time has past, how much I have grown, how this marathon journey has had a different life with each race and trip. Breakfast was also delicious as we had the softest scrambled eggs, two chicken sausages, hash-brown, and sautéed mushrooms with a side of an apple muffin, blueberry yogurt, and a black coffee to wash it all down. I chill for the last bit of the flight and continue to enjoy watching the sunrise out of my window.
So this bonus first day in Sydney is off with an Uber ride to the historic The Lord Nelson Brewery and Hotel to drop off my bags and start my last minute, somewhat loose list of sight-seeing with a bit of shopping. Back to the Uber and onward to Bondi Beach. I knew this would be part of a tour with our tour group in two days but something told me we were only going to be seeing it and not getting in it. I specifically check myself into the Iceberg Pools Club for $10. I have my smaller bag with my bathing suit, goggles, toiletry bag, towel so I can shower in their locker rooms and continue my adventuring. Reminds me so much of my days living in New York, living out of a bag. Love it! I am suited up and my first toe touch into the water has me freezing. It was a bit cloudy and windy and that surely didn’t help. But I didn’t come this far to only come this far, I dipped my whole body except for my head and started swimming laps right away to warm up. After about 30 minutes of this my feet started going numb and it was time to get out. In 2014 on a trip to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis I had gone on a 5K run with a group of runners only to come back and discover large white and yellow spots all over my body. I took a picture of this and showed my doctor at my next visit to learn that I have Reynaud’s, which is a circulation issue due to stress or cold temperature exposure. So circling back…I get into the showers and look at my feet and yep, there’s the yellow splotching on my feet. But, no fear…a hot shower, and a coffee and croissant at the Iceberg Pools Club Cafe fixed everything. Shamelessly, donning my Batman towel wrapped around my hair like I’m at a spa, which screams to others…”Tell me I am a boy mom, without telling me I am a boy mom.” At this point my muscles feel so good after the cold plunge and a hot shower.
I take to the shops of Bondi stopping at a tourist shop to get my sons Tshirts and spot the most hilarious keychain. Kangaroo balls! That’s right, you read that correctly. Much like we had rabbits feet keychains for good luck, except I dunno what these are all about. LOL! I stop at Seafolly as I’ve purchased some of the swimwear over the years and have never actually been to their store, which is based in Australia. I buy myself the cutest black with daisies/flowers bikini set. I take the #33 bus towards my hotel but stop at Westfields, a huge shopping area. At this point I am exhausted out of my skull but keep pushing myself to keep walking around so that I can fall asleep hard later at night. I pick up a cute sleeveless black top with gold buttons at H&M. I make a pit stop at Batch Coffee for a chicken Cesar Salad sandwich, a double espresso, and then walk all the way back to my hotel which is 1.2 miles away. I stopped to pick up I check into my room and it is HUGE! I have a dining room table in my room along with a nice big bed, tub in the bathroom, and a convenience store across the street. I am too tired to stay awake much longer and figure out dinner so I venture to the convenience store and grab myself an Oreo ice cream sandwich. I enjoy it along with the sunset view of the Sydney Bridge.
Then next morning I am up super early and catching an Uber to the Intercontinental Inn Sydney, where I will be staying the rest of the week. From the moment I walk in, the hotel smells heavenly and looks beautiful everywhere you look, what a treat! I have a double espresso at The Treasury, which is the restaurant / bar in the lobby. I wait for the tour group to begin the bag check process and as they do they open up breakfast for us as well, which was decent.
I take an Uber to the Expo where the crowds there are unmatched compared to previous marathon majors expos. I find my name on the “wall,” snap my selfie with it and make my way all the way into the expo. People are pushing and shoving and being straight up nasty. I manage to get my pre-ordered Asics shirt and a jacket for myself and two jackets for my friend Whitney. As my luck would have it I run into my old roommate from the London Marathon, Janet and it feels so good to see a familiar face so far from home. While waiting in the checkout line, I meet a sweet lady from Ecuador named Ligia, we instantly hit it off, both of us being seven star medalists, and decide to take the to the streets and explore the area. As we are walking we happen up Chinatown, with it’s beautiful archway entrance and the entrancing array of aromas of provisions. We stop at the Emperor’s Garden Restaurant for hot Congee and steamed beef dumplings.
By the time I get to the hotel and begin room key process, I make my way to my room and my friend Domitillia who I have dinner plans with asks if we could move it up earlier to 5:30pm! Score, as I am already so tired and still adjusting to the drastic time change. I hurry to shower, get dressed and head upstairs to Aster, which is a beautiful bar and restaurant on the 31st floor of my hotel that overlooks the entire Sydney Harbor. I arrive, Domitilia is there waiting for me and we walk into the restaurant. I am in awe of the view as it is even more amazing than the photos I’ve seen online. It’s just after sunset so the entire harbor is twinkling and lit up with all kinds of colors against the darkening night sky. All of the food and drinks here I seasonally crafted. I order the Water Flow Margarita, which isn’t a traditional margarita, but comes in the cutest glass and tastes delicious and refreshing. We order some items, as these dishes are smaller and meant for sharing, but out of all of them my favorite is the prawn katsu sando, with it’s crisy fried parawns surrounding by the softest and most buttery egg, curry mayo, encased in lightly toasted bread. Easily, I could’ve ordered five more of those.
I get back to my room, the lights are off and my roomate, Candi, is already there but quickly tells me she’s not asleep yet. I shower, we get to talking a bit and next thing I know it’s 6:00am and we are up and getting ready for breakfast and our tour day. Breakfast was in a new hall this morning called The Conservatory and we are absolutely blown away by how beautiful it is and the array of options for breakfast. The main room boasts hot dishes of all kinds, served out of green Le Creuset pots and a separate “cellar” has shelf upon shelf of fruits, cold items like yogurt parfaits, granola, and library of charcuterie items. After a breakfast fit for a three hundred pound man, we make our way to the lobby where I met with Whitney and we hop on the tour group bus to see the sights of Sydney.
We stop at the neighboring park at Harbor View Lawn, which will be the last leg of our marathon on Sunday. We continue our trek to Gap Park, with the most breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean. We touch down at Bondi Beach again and it is sunnier than my first visit on Wednesday. We get back to the hotel and I am antsy to get out and walk so I walk back to the Westfields area I was at Wednesday and just look around. I catch Whitney upon returning to the hotel and we plan on skipping the Cocktail Harbor cruise to go see Kipchoge and Sifan at the open ceremony at the finish line. After waiting for two hours on our feet they begin to arrive. We watch the opening ceremony and it was beautiful. The Australians thank the ancestors of the past and apologize for transgressions that they’ve caused to those in the past as well. The smoking ceremony was beautiful too, as is their tradition at the beginning of every sporting event. As the ceremony comes to a close, Kipchoge walks towards the crowd where we are standing with a bag of Nike/Kipchoge bracelets. We each get one and we are squealing like a bunch of school girls in excitement to have not only been so close to the G.O.A.T himself but also to have gotten a bracelet from him. Next, Siffan comes up to our crowd and dabs me and I am left star struck and screaming.
We head back to the hotel and I am hungry so I walk over the the bar at The Treasury to use my complimentary dinner voucher and order myself the sirloin steak, with roasted vegetables dinner and a glass of pinot grigio to wash it down. Additionally I ordered the chocolate moose and a double espresso for my night cap. Whitney joins me shortly after to save my life and bring me safety pins, which I didn’t receive the expo. I head back up to my room and my Candi informs me that concierge delivered desert to us that night, TimTams, which is an Australian cookie/cake-like dessert. After enjoying it, and nice hot shower, I was out like a light.
We woke at our usual early 5:30AM ish time frame and headed down to have our monstrous breakfast once more. I make my way up to the pool on the 31st floor to catch the sunrise over the harbor and it is breathtaking…I’ve said that a lot because I felt that a lot on this trip. I joined the tour group for the 5K shakeout run that we got to do over a part of the actual marathon course. It was a nice preview of what was to come with views of the entire harbor. I came back to my room and found a candle with the same scent of the hotel had been delivered to me since I had asked why the lobby smelled so good and what it was. I showered after and headed up to the pool to relax a bit as I started feeling my nerves reach a peak on that Saturday leading up to the marathon. I headed back to the room to shower and get ready to meet Whitney to go to the Sydney Opera House for our Mozart / Beethoven experience concert. The opera house up close is so incredible. Inside has a midcentury modern vibe complete with Eames lounge chairs to sit in and wine and charcuterie, espresso, and things of the sort while you wait for the show. Surprisingly, upon entering into the music hall, it seemed small especially in comparison to the Kravis Center back home. Nevertheless, it was beautiful and the entire concert was beautiful as well and it was a nice way to stay off of our feet before the big day.
Back at the hotel we chilled leading up to the pre race dinner. That one was decent too, nothing extraordinary in comparison to our breakfasts. I met up with my roommate back at the room and it was hot shower and lights our early for our 4:00am wake up. Thankfully I was so tired that I slept the entire night all the way through. We shot up, dressed, and got going downstairs for breakfast, met up with Whitney, and then it was off to the transit to catch the train to the start line, which was about 20 minutes in all. The morning was brisk and super nice…I ditched the heavy throw away coat early on, which at the same time was a bad sign that it was warming up too early. I had chosen shorts, a thin, long sleeve Lulu top, and a thin windbreaker so I had enough layers to play with depending upon the weather. Whatever nerves were playing with me yesterday are long gone and now it was time to do what I came to do, claim my seventh star.
The first 5K of the marathon was all downhill, the illusion that all was well. We came up on the Sydney bridge before the 5K mark and there was slight incline but the sights were too beautiful to notice any slight undulation. The inclines started off with a bang, sharp, unforgiving and met with declines to sharp to run if you wanted to avoid twisting your ankle, like I saw a lot of people do. At mile 10 my inner thighs began to chafe despite my efforts to rub anti chafe all over. From here on I am mentally checked out meditating elsewhere from the pain for the most part and don’t remember many details. There was blood and it just kept going as I chafed harder. I come up on the Pride section and it’s a whole ass party and vibe as they’re playing “Murder on the Dancefloor.” Mile 18 is a Nike sign that says, “This is bloody tough. But so are you,” fitting and just the inspiration I needed. These positive printed quotes become my mantras as I go. By about 19 there is a Biofreeze station where I get my legs sprayed down and it feels so good. With about two miles to go we loop back around through the Pride section and this time they’re playing Jennifer Lopez’s Waiting for Tonight and I am singing it at the top of my lungs.
At a mile out I see a girl who had to be in her 20’s, passed our with her eyes rolled to the back of her head on a stretcher as the start to put her into an ambulance. One mile that is it and this image of this poor girl is haunting me. If I have to pull back and walk a lot more, I decide I will. I am not trying to be DNF’ed. I round the corner of the park and they’re playing pretty awesome house / Dubstep music, which gets me picking up the pace again. I can see the Opera House on the other side of the park. Closer to the finish there is one final steep decline, I decide to walk the entire thing. Upon reaching the bottom and rounding the last corner I catch a glimpse of the finish line and start hauling ass. My two arms up showing peace signs and a big smile, I cross and begin to sob. It’s the same one that comes at the end of each marathon, the one where I realize I did it once again. I take a quick selfie with the Opera House in the background and then have a medal placed around my neck by one of the volunteers. I cry harder as Jose calls me via Facetime with our boys to congratulate me. Poor fellas were up until almost 1 in the morning waiting for me to finish and giving their support to me from afar. He tells me my finish time was 5:47….not my best but not my worse, considering how much worse overall the incline here is the worse out of the world seven. I stop for another selfie with the Opera House in the background but this time donning my new, shinny medal. I continue to walk through the park then get a phone call from Leo congratulating me and asking me all about the race. He will one day very soon also complete this one as he has Berlin, his first major, on the horizon and I am so proud of him for taking this journey head on!
The walk back to the hotel is short in distance, but lengthy in time as they have us crossing the downhill section before the finish line. When I finally make it to the hotel, it takes me a moment to come off the exasperation before doing anything else. I hop in the shower and the first drop of water to hit my chafe fires off all of my nerves and I want to scream. I get through the shower and lay for the next few hours while responding to messages from family and friends along with sending them my medal selfie.
I get dressed in my sweater dress, medal, and coat, meet Whitney downstairs and we walk, more like hobble, to the restaurant where our tour group is hosting our private dinner. We arrive and the views of the harbor with the sunset are the ultimate reward along with a HUGE plate of food and a very generous two glasses of pinot grigio for completing the Sydney Marathon. From my seat I can see a dance group dancing the night away with twinkling lights overhead and the Sydney bridge in the background. This city is just so beautiful and I am fortunate to be here to see it all. Whitney and I capture some super baddie pictures of each other with our medals and the Sydney Opera House in the background and start walking back towards the hotel. I stop at a convenience store to buy myself an ice cream and also see they have a boxless “Lucky” Labubu behind the counter. I ask the sales clerk if it’s for sale and he said yes for $20. I tell him how excited my son is going to be to finally have this one and the other sales clerk said, for your son we will leave it at $15. I got my ice cream and Isaac’s new Labubu and headed all the way back to the hotel to read the rest of the night before finally falling asleep.
The next morning my roomate and I are up early as usual and I get ready to eat breakfast then go for a walk around the harbor., We had noticed our medals had a Sydney Opera House in a picture online and meanwhile we were thinking it was a shark bite or a palm tree, don’t ask. LOL! I set out to find the right angle of the opera house but a large cruise ship was in the way of the perfect shot so I lined it up from the angle that I could get it best and lined them both up for a match photo. I headed to Jackie’s Sports Massage for a sports massage. My masseuse Jonelle, told me I should’ve gotten it for an hour and not 30 minutes and she was right. 30 minutes just covered my legs but it was pure magic. I left their smelling of lavender after having the best massage of my life along with some meditation music and I felt as if I could float. I walked back to the hotel to chill until lunch time and then took myself to the Meat & Wine Co, where my roomate Candi said to try after she’d tried it on Thursday. The restaurant is beautiful with an African theme and music artists who were all of African background. I Shazamed quite a bit of the songs for later. I ordered the matchstick fries with aged Wagyu tartare to start with a glass of Pinot Grigio and then had the kangaroo skewer with peppercorn sauce and potato wedges for lunch. I closed it out with a creme brulee and a glass of port wine. I walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day reading in bed, not needing dinner as I ate so much for lunch.
I woke up early Tuesday morning to begin my journey back home, leaving through the Sydney Airport.. I picked up a pair of Australian flag socks and a box of Tim Tams to take back home and share with the boys and Jose. I had a nice acai bowl and an espresso at my gate and we boarded shortly after. The flight of 13 hours, stopped in LA but not for long as we had been slightly delayed so I was onto my flight to Dallas in no time. My PBI bound flight was thankfully delayed as we arrived later than expected so I had to run all the way to my gate as they were just boarding my zone. At least I made it on and knew at this point I was making it home at the same time as planned. Upon arriving to PBI Jose and the boys picked me up and I don’t think I have every been so happy to hug the people I love so much. It was so nice to realize another one of my dreams and come back home to my family. Without their love and support, none of this would be possible nor worth it.
Thank you Sydney Marathon for a wonderful experience, albeit painful but scenic. And now what? Well, everyone keeps asking what’s next. I am definitely not done with this journey and I already know what I’d like to do next so stay tuned for my next marathon, in 2026!
