From couch to Gold Coast Marathon: get your runners on – Gold Coast Bulletin

How else do you explain the squadrons — and shufflers — pounding the paths and roadways, many training for the winter marathon season upon us, others to lose weight, free their minds, feed their addiction or just because …

As with most of life’s big questions, scientists have come up with a theory as to why humans run.

A group of Harvard researchers believe our species evolved through the uniquely human art of persistence hunting, literally chasing animals down until they collapsed with fatigue.

They say it’s why we have Achillies tendons, arched feet, large buttocks and even a ligament at the back of our necks designed to keep our heads still while we run.

While we don’t stack up very well in a sprint race against most land-based mammals, over long distances humans are the champions of the animal kingdom.

It’s thought if our ancestors could track their prey for long enough, they would eventually catch even the speediest of creatures.

Fast-forward two to three million years and the primeval urge to run is still playing out, despite modern farming techniques taking the chase out of mealtimes.

Around a quarter of Australians identify as runners or joggers, one of the largest participation rates of any activity after walking. But it’s the take-up rate that’s most significant: a 66 per cent increase in participation over the last decade.

For every person who enters an official running event, there are another four runners who’re happy just doing their own thing.

Peak time is in June each year when the weather cools and the event calendar is gearing up.

Former Australian marathon champion Pat Carroll says he’s not surprised by the stats.

Now retired from high-level competition, Carroll is a sought-after trainer for people joining the throng, everyone from elite runners to those still breaking in their first pair of running shoes.

“People say to me ‘I want you to make me like running’,” he says. “And I can’t do that. It can’t be a chore. You have to have a desire to run otherwise it’s just hard work.”

Brisbane-based Carroll is flat out with this squads leading up to one of the most circled of marathon events on the Australian calendar, the Gold Coast Marathon, run for the last 40 years on the first weekend in July.

As one of only two Australian events to be gold labelled by the International Association of Athletics Federations — the other is the Sydney Marathon — this year it’s expected to attract an international and national field of around 28,000 participants over eight races.

As a four-time past winner, Carroll is an official Ambassador for the event and says the Gold Coast is one of the great flat, fast and participant-friendly courses.

But, he says, if you haven’t started training for it, forget the marathon and set your sights on a shorter distance.

“When people come to me saying they want to run a marathon, before they even set off, it’s important to ask ‘why are you doing this?’

“If it’s for a tick on a bucket list, I tell them they might be better off jumping out of a plane or something. That’s where you can get your high from.

“But you can turn it around too, change their mindset from a bucket list thing. I find most people who set out doing it just for the bucket list don’t make it to the start line.”

GOLD COAST MARATHON TRAINING TIPS: HOW TO FUEL YOUR MARATHON

Carroll’s advice to any new runner is to start slow and build up to it.

“You’ve got to strengthen your body over a long period of time,” he says. “I get people who say ‘I’ve been cycling for 20 years. I’m fit’ but it’s a totally different ball game.

“You’ve got to gradually build the strength in your bones, your tendons, your nerves with that action of running then gradually introduce the kilometres.

“It can take two years to build up for a marathon. You can get to a half marathon in a year.”

Fellow event Ambassador, personal trainer and entrant Dani Byrnes is another proponent of the slow and steady approach.

She advises new runners not to worry so much about kilometres as time spent running.

“I tell people to just go for 10 minutes,” Dani says. “There’s less pressure when it’s not about distance and I think it’s easier psychologically.

“You can walk to start with and build up to a run and keep doing that until you can run for 10 minutes. Then you can aim for 15.”

Dani started running as a four-year-old when her parents signed her up at Little Athletics but says the beauty of running is that you don’t need to have done it before.

“You really can start at any age,” she says.

“What I like about it is it’s not expensive, just a pair of running shoes, and convenient. I don’t like driving to exercise when it’s just outside my front door.

“Everyone is different but for me I like to set out before the sun comes up. It’s a good way to set the day.

“It’s how I relax but it also gives me energy, it livens me up, and I can get really good ideas, inspiration, when I’m running. Then there’s the endorphins at the end after I’ve done it. It leaves you feeling really happy.”

HOW THE GOLD COAST MARATHON BEGAN

ALL THE FUN FROM THE GOLD COAST MARATHON 2018

The so-called runner’s high is a widely-researched phenomenon when the body and brain is flooded with post-exercise “feel good” hormones, triggering positive feelings similar to that achieved by morphine.

Science has proven endorphins reduce stress, ward off anxiety and depression, boost self-esteem and improve sleep, an all-round antidote it seems to the ailments of modern living.

Now science is exploring early findings that runners’ brains work at higher levels than sedentary brains, with scans finding established pathways between parts of the brain that aid memory, multi-tasking, focus, decision-making and the processing of visual and other sensory information.

Researchers are hopeful it may lead to hard evidence that we can literally run away from mental decline as we age.

But despite the mounting reasons why we should be running, there is still the human condition to contend with.

While running is not everyone’s cup of tea, there are always inspirational converts from the unlikeliest of quarters.

At the start of 2018, hospitality worker Elise Dunstan, 24, weighed 134kg when she heeded a wake up call and started to control her diet.

“That was what I’d always struggled with,” she says. “It was only after I’d lost 50kg, I thought I should do some exercise.

“I started walking and one day I thought I’ll just try to run to that tree, then I’ll walk again, then I’ll go to that power pole, and it just went from there.

GOLD COAST MARATHON DELIVERS RECORD SPEND FOR COAST

“Eventually I was running four or five kilometres continuously without taking walking breaks. One day I ran eight kilometres and I felt really good at the end of it.”

In Elise’s first official event, she ran 10km and in her second event last month, ran 18km before she had to take a walking break.

“I wasn’t disappointed in myself,” she says. “I told myself, ‘you know what, 15 months ago you weighed 134kg, you’re doing good’.”

Elise, 62 kilos down, is competing in this year’s half marathon with the goal of running the full marathon in 2020.

“If someone told me last year I’d be running in a marathon event, I would have laughed,” she says. “Now running’s a way to keep setting goals for myself. It keeps me on track with everything. When I have stress now, I just go for a run and it sorts everything.”

Indeed, every entrant in this year’s Gold Coast Marathon has their own story.

For every runner aiming for a certain finish time, there are just as many running in memory of lost loved ones; raising money for all manner of causes; celebrating milestone birthdays; thumbing their noses at diseases or mental health battles; or wearing fancy dress for no reason at all.

Pat Carroll has seen it all during his 40 odd years in the sport, but the thing that stands out to him is the camaraderie that develops between runners.

“I’ve seen running groups who’ve been together for 15 years and the friendships I’ve seen people make are often lifelong.

“You can spend a lot of time by yourself with running too, going through stuff in your head. It can be absolutely life changing for a lot of people and become a lifelong passion. You can only really find out if it’s for you by giving it a go.”

TIPS TO STAY INJURY-FREE FOR THE GOLD COAST MARATHON

1) Make a time for it and try to be consistent. You need to create a habit so that exercise becomes part of your routine rather than you drawing on willpower to make yourself do it.

2) Get walking. Your bones, muscles, tendons and fitness need a base so you can progress to running without injury.

3) Start to introduce short intervals of jogging and build up to where you can run for 10 minutes, then slowly increase the time you jog. Do this over a period of weeks. You should be able to talk while you run. If you’re gasping for air, slow down.

4) Be guided by expert advice but listen to your own body. Pat Carroll says many of his runners started from scratch with the Couch to 5K run training app.

5) When you feel ready, start attending your nearest parkrun, free weekly five kilometre timed runs in parks around the world, open to runners, walkers and run/walkers. Dani Byrnes says these events are also a great place to meet other runners.

6) Run in a nice place, along a waterway, the coastline, a scenic track and enjoy your surrounds.

7) Run with a friend or join a running group for support and encouragement.

8) Gradually extend the time you run for to build endurance but don’t push yourself. Injuries come from going too hard too soon.

9) If you’re the type, set yourself a goal; a distance or a time to achieve or an event to train for. If that’s not your style, just keep running.