Same Bridge, Different Runner: Heading Back to the Sydney Marathon 2026
- Aug 23
- 6 min read
A year ago I wasn't even sure I'd make it to the start line.
This year I'm going back as a spectator, watching my daughter do the exact same thing — on her birthday of all days. Turning 26 and running her first-ever marathon.
Look at her go.
How I Nearly Didn't Get There Last Year
Grundy was sick.
The extended trip we'd planned around the race got cancelled, and for a while it looked like the whole thing was off.
Last-minute flights booked. Tearri and I flew down Saturday, went straight to pick up the race pack, then checked into the Sydney Central Hotel. Sunday: marathon. Flew home straight after.
No extended trip. No relaxed build-up. Just get there, run it, get home.
Which, in hindsight, is a fairly accurate summary of how a lot of our plans went over the last 12 months.
Same Marathon, Different Runner
Sydney was my first marathon last year.
It was also my first World Major, back when Sydney had just joined the major club — which at the time felt like a nice bit of trivia and has since turned into A Whole Thing, because now it's going to be Kirraleigh's first marathon and her first World Major too.
Same race.
Same start line.
Same bridge.
Twelve months and one generation apart.
Turning 26 by Running 42.2km
There are worse ways to spend a birthday than voluntarily running a marathon, but there are also a lot of easier ones.
Cake exists.
Shopping sprees exist.
And none of them require nipple tape.
Here's the part that still makes me giggle: Kirraleigh is not a runner. She only entered because everyone else did — one of those "may as well" ballot entries you assume will come to nothing. Then the draw happened and, out of everyone, she was the one pulled out.
Of course she was the ONLY one to get pulled out
Her.
Not me.
Not Tearri.
Not Ethan.
No, no, no.
The one who hates running.
Our reaction was basically, what the fuzz? She doesn't even like running. Why pull her name out?
It definitely didn't seem fair.
And yet she's trained for it properly. No half-hearted approach. No "well, I'll just see how I go."
Actual training. For a distance she never wanted to run in the first place, because apparently the universe thought that was funny.
And the funniest part is she still doesn't want to run this marathon, yet she is training for it.
And every time I enter a new Major, guess who throws her name into the ballot too?
FOMO is real, people.
The Four of Us
This year carries some extra weight I wasn't expecting to be writing about in a marathon post, but here we are. It's six weeks since we lost Grundy, and now we're heading to Sydney to celebrate Kirraleigh's birthday without her dad.
Ethan is flying over from WA — not just for the marathon, but for her birthday. For all of it.
The four of us will be together.
It's heartbreaking because there's one very important person who should be there and isn't.
We were always such a close-knit family, even with the kids now in their twenties. And to make matters worse, Father's Day is the following weekend. Since we'll all already be together in Sydney, we'll celebrate Father's Day too.
It won't be the same.
But we'll be together.
Going Back to the Scene - Sydney Marathon 2026
Sydney Marathon 2026 is going to feel very different from last year. This time, I'm heading back to the course I've already conquered — except I'm not the one who has to run it.
Poor Kirra. 😂
I get to walk around Sydney this week without a marathon training plan hanging over my head — although I do have a half coming up in October — and without doing the pace v distance v time equation in my head for the five hundredth time.
Or analysing whether that twinge in my knee is Something Serious or just my head inventing reasons why I will fail before I've even started. Instead, I get to just be there.
Which sounds relaxing and is probably going to be the complete opposite, because apparently watching is its own kind of stressful.
I know what's waiting for her out on that course. I know how exhausting those final kilometres can feel, and this time I get to stand somewhere along the way and watch someone I love experience it for herself.
Thankfully, this year will not be a whirlwind. We head down nice and early Friday morning, with plenty of time to grab the race pack and souvenirs. Saturday morning we'll head to a nearby parkrun because Chooky tries never to miss parkrun.
It's a Saturday ritual.
Then I'll spend the day sightseeing around Sydney with the munchkins.
And yes, even though they're in their twenties, they will always be my munchkins.
Sunday is race day.
Kirra at the start line.
Me, Tearri and Ethan chasing her around Sydney, supporting her along the way.
Then Sunday night we'll either celebrate or commiserate at a fancy restaurant.
Either way, we're eating somewhere fancy because it's still her bloody birthday.
Monday we don't fly out until the afternoon.
Very civilised.
The girls and I head back to Queensland and Ethan heads back to Western Australia.
A much nicer Sydney trip than last year's get-in-run-a-marathon-get-the-hell-out approach.
What I Actually Remember From Last Year
People are like, "OMG, you finished a marathon. That's so far."
But honestly, I have gone so far down the runner algorithm on social media that I forget a 5km parkrun is not the norm. Someone will ask what I did on the weekend and I'll say, "Nothing."
"You didn't do parkrun?" "Oh yeah, I did that."
Apparently running 5km doesn't count as nothing to normal people.
Meanwhile, my algorithm now has Ethan and me trying to work out how we can get into the Moab 240.
I've been looking 😂.
Not yet, Chooky. Not yet.
What I remember about Sydney is breaking the marathon down into 5km lots.
Just do another parkrun.
You can do that.
Then another one.
And the best part about it being your first marathon is that no matter what time you finish in, it will be a PB. Kirraleigh will find her own rhythm.
I've told her so much of it is mental. Your body will want to give up, but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And eventually those footsteps add up to 42.2km.
The Bit Where I Admit I'm Nervous
Not for me this time, which is a strange kind of nervous I haven't had to deal with before.
Running your own marathon, you have some control.
Badly, perhaps.
But some.
Watching someone else's?
Especially your non-runner daughter
You can't do anything except stand on the sidelines with a sign, shout HAPPY BIRTHDAY!, and hope the sign isn't the one embarrassing thing she remembers about the day.
I am so damn proud of my little cupcake.
She's putting in the effort for something that is so far outside her comfort zone, and I'm not even sure she knows how impressive that is. Trying to find her in a crowd of thousands will also be surprisingly easy thanks to Life360. I love being able to stalk her.
Although it definitely works against me when I'm at sushi and she calls me with her order.
Sydney, Again
So that's where we're at.
One year.
One bridge.
Two first marathons.
A new shape to our family.
And a birthday that's about to become permanently associated with 42.2 kilometres whether she likes it or not.
She hates running.
She trained anyway.
Come Sunday the 30th, whatever happens on that course, I'm already one proud mama.
More soon — once there's actually a race to report on.
🌿 Before You Go...
Thank you for taking the time to read this week's blog.
Every Saturday at 8:00 am (AEST), I share a new story here at Chooky Chasing Life — whether that's running, travel, life's challenges, our cancer journey, or simply choosing life one step at a time.
Want a little more Chooky in your inbox? Join me for Chasing the Week — a weekly email about what I'm chasing, what's coming up and whatever life happens to throw in along the way.
Until next Saturday... Keep Chasing Life. 🧡
Chooky xx
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