117 | Asics Sonic Blast 2 and the SYDNEY MARATHON

A different kind of episode this week. Oska sits down with his good mate Macca from Tempo — recorded in two halves, the first at the ASICS house in Sydney on Saturday night before the race, the second a few days later once both were home — to properly debrief the Sydney Marathon.

Neither of them raced it. Oska's still working back from injury and ran a relaxed, deeply enjoyable 2:50-something with a genuine negative split; Oska stepped out of his usual elite-adjacent world to run as one of "the masses" for the first time in his career, and came away with a completely different appreciation for what a major marathon actually is. Between them they cover the Harbour Bridge, a 100-plus person choir that stopped Macca in his tracks around the 11K mark, the noise of Oxford Street's Pride corner, and a chance elevator conversation with a man running his 101st career marathon — his 25th Boston. There's a genuinely good discussion in here about what separates a "major" from every other marathon: not the course, but the fact that for one weekend, an entire city's worth of strangers are speaking the same language.

We also get an update on what's next for Oska — chasing a 5000m PB on the track, working the hamstring and Achilles back to full health, and eyeing a crack at his own Christchurch Marathon course record next April — plus a first tease of Race the Pro 5 After Dark, easily the biggest event Frontrunner's put together.

This episode covers:

• Sydney Marathon race day, run relaxed rather than raced
• Course highlights: the Harbour Bridge, the choir, Oxford Street
• Meeting a 101-marathon veteran in a hotel elevator
• Local names who had big days: Tommy Richards and Jared both breaking 2:30
• What actually makes a "major" marathon different
• What's next for Oska: a 5000m PB attempt, then a Christchurch Marathon course record tilt in April
• First look at Race the Pro 5 After Dark