HE may live and train in bitterly cold Ballarat but marathon runner Julian Spence is preparing for the hottest race of his life.<\/p>\n
Having qualified for next month\u2019s IAAF World Athletics Championships, he\u2019s heading over to Doha, Qatar to race 42.195kms in the searing mid-30-degree heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran a qualifying time in Japan earlier in the year, two hours and fourteen minutes, then about a month ago I was selected by Athletics Australia,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
Four Australian men ran underneath the qualifying time of two hours and sixteen minutes, but he\u2019s the only guy taking the unusual challenge, alongside two Aussie women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be out in the streets, out on the waterfront of Doha. The course is very small, you can\u2019t go out and hide, it\u2019s a looped course. It\u2019s being run at midnight to try and escape the sun, but it\u2019s still going to be really hot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Ballarat, it\u2019s the opposite way, being freezing cold, raining and windy all the time. Different challenges. It\u2019s hard because you\u2019ve got to keep so many layers on, you\u2019re wet all the time and cold,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt snowed yesterday, which isn\u2019t great, but I\u2019ll be going away to Europe for a training camp and using a lot of saunas and heat rooms to try and prepare for the heat of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spence spends a lot of time running in the bush and out of the elements, but once he gets overseas, his routine will become a little more nocturnal, altering training times to be closer to 12am each day to adjust his body clock.<\/p>\n
Taking up running in his mid-twenties after many successful years of local football, he\u2019s excited by the solo nature of the sport and recognises how rare his trajectory is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty unconventional way to get into elite running, where most of the people have done it their entire lives,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very long term, patient game. Most of the best marathoners are in their mid-thirties, and it\u2019s a culmination of years of training.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t go out and train, no one can do it for you. You don\u2019t have teammates that can carry you. You get everything that you want to put in, and if you don\u2019t do it, there\u2019s nowhere to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representing Australia was never a dream for Spence, simply because it seemed such a long journey away, but now it\u2019s a reality, it\u2019s a whole new world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happened so quickly and it hasn\u2019t really sunk in yet. Everything\u2019s so new to me. I send questions every day because I don\u2019t know anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I\u2019m probably going to be one of the oldest people there on the team, I\u2019m super rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spence expects the audience that comes with wearing the green and gold will be like nothing else.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone I know is going to be watching this, caring, and there\u2019s going to be a lot more judging on how you perform because you\u2019re the only one in the Australian singlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll eyes are on you and if you have a bad day, it\u2019s going to be the race that everyone remembers you by, and if you have a good race, it could open more doors for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat pressure is what will drive me to get out when it\u2019s snowing, so it\u2019s really helping because I need to be as fit as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HE may live and train in bitterly cold Ballarat but marathon runner Julian Spence is preparing for the hottest race of his life. Having qualified for next month\u2019s IAAF World Athletics Championships, he\u2019s heading over to Doha, Qatar to race 42.195kms in the searing mid-30-degree heat. \u201cI ran a qualifying time in Japan earlier in […]<\/p>\n