She Promised Her Dad She Would Finish: Kirraleigh’s First Sydney Marathon 2026
Updated: 6 days ago
There are probably easier ways to spend your 26th birthday than running 42.195 kilometres through Sydney.
But on Sunday 30 August, my daughter Kirraleigh lined up for her first marathon at Sydney Marathon 2026. Almost six weeks earlier, we had lost her dad. Before he died, she had promised him she would finish.
There had been a time when her brother, sister and I weren’t entirely convinced she would even make it to the start line. She knew that too. When I asked her before the race what finishing Sydney would mean to her, her answer was simple. “Proving people wrong. You guys didn’t really believe that I’d do it.” Fair call. We didn’t.
There were four of us in Sydney for marathon weekend: Kirraleigh, her sister Tearri, her brother Ethan and me. Three of us there to cheer. One of us there to prove a point and keep a promise.
If you missed the build-up, I wrote about heading back to Sydney as a spectator in Same Bridge, Different Runner. This is what happened next, with Kirraleigh’s answers from our conversation afterwards.
Training For Her First Marathon
Kirraleigh hadn’t followed the textbook path to becoming a marathoner. She’d entered the ballot along with the rest of us, then became the only one to get a place. The one who didn’t even like running.
Before Sydney, I’d written about how seriously she was taking her training. Afterwards, Kirraleigh’s own assessment was different. She had worked with Daniel, a trainer who helped with her running, but felt she hadn’t committed enough, particularly to preparing her ankles.
“I just don’t think I actually committed to it enough. I said that I had weak ankles, but because I didn’t do the training properly, I didn’t properly train my ankles for this.”
Only weeks before Sydney, she’d completed her first half marathon in Hervey Bay. When she finished, I asked whether she could turn around and do the whole thing again. Her answer was no.
She thought her shoes and not taping her feet properly had contributed to the trouble. There was also the minor detail that she’d just run 21.1 kilometres. For Sydney, she bought new shoes and taped her feet properly, hoping that would help.
Race Morning And The Toilet Situation
Kirraleigh wasn’t particularly panicked when she woke up on race morning. She ate a small breakfast and drank an entire bottle of Gatorade on the way to the start. By the time she reached her starting wave, there was really only one thing going through her head.
“I should have peed.” 😂
She had tried. The toilet queues were so long that she eventually abandoned the line to position herself towards the front of her wave. As a slower runner, she wanted as much time as possible before the course sweepers reached her.
So the first five kilometres of her first marathon weren’t spent admiring Sydney or contemplating the enormity of what she was doing. She was looking for a toilet.
Forty-Two Kilometres Hadn’t Quite Sunk In
When I asked whether the distance had hit her as she crossed the start line, Kirraleigh said:
“I don’t think I ever really comprehended how long that was.”
Her longest race before Sydney had been that half marathon. For the first 20 kilometres or so, though, she felt surprisingly confident. She used music to help control her pace rather than constantly staring at her Garmin, largely locked into her own little world.
We discovered just how locked in when we stood beside the course with happy 26th birthday signs, shouting as she ran straight past us. She didn’t see us. Not even slightly.
In the before-marathon blog, I’d worried about embarrassing her with a birthday sign. Turns out she would have needed to notice us first.
Then It Started To Hurt
At around 25 kilometres, things changed. Kirraleigh’s left ankle was hurting, and she felt herself compensating through the rest of her body. Then came pain in her knee, hip and back. “I wasn’t tired, but I was in pain. I think the pain was a lot more of what didn’t make me want to keep going.”
Eventually she stopped at a medical station. They didn’t have the tape she needed, but she had brought her own. She pulled it from her backpack, handed it over and had her ankle strapped by a physio.
Then she kept going.
The Sweepers Were Getting Closer
Kirraleigh had started around the five-and-a-half-hour pacers. After stopping for her ankle, she dropped back to the six-hour group, then later found herself with the 6:30 pacers. Eventually they moved ahead too.
Somewhere around 30 kilometres, she was crying, hurting and convinced the people behind her were the course sweepers. What frightened her most wasn’t missing out on a medal or a finishing time.
“Feeling I hadn’t kept my promise.”
The Promise She Made Her Dad
Kirraleigh’s dad was my husband Jason, or Grundy as most people knew him. Before he died, she had promised him she would finish the marathon.
During our conversation afterwards, I asked whether she thought she would have stopped if she hadn’t made that promise. She said yes, although she didn’t necessarily mean walking off the course. She thought she would have kept moving until somebody swept her, without fighting quite so hard to stay ahead of them.
“I would’ve kept doing it, but I don’t think it would’ve been to finish it. I would’ve been like, ‘Oh no, they swept me. Oh damn.’”
That promise mattered to her. When the race became painful and the sweepers felt close, it was what she kept coming back to.
Grundy was diagnosed with cancer in September 2022. Over the years that followed, our kids watched him go through treatment after treatment, and watched those treatments become harder on him. When I asked Kirraleigh what she’d thought about during those final kilometres, she talked about her dad.
“He kept going. He didn’t give up.”
As she put it:
“He didn’t want to leave us.”
Remembering his determination helped her keep moving.
Somewhere After 35 Kilometres
We caught Kirraleigh again late in the race. By then, she was completely spent. We took her backpack, which contained water, food, sunscreen and pretty much everything she thought she could possibly need to survive Sydney. In fairness to her, she’d even been offering sunscreen to other runners.
We helped her remove an extra layer of clothing to cool down, then she continued. Eventually she received the news she desperately needed: she wasn’t going to be swept.
“Relief. I was still in pain and I wanted to be done, but at least I knew I didn’t have to keep pushing myself to go faster. I wasn’t going to get kicked off.”
The Final Kilometres
Tearri stayed with her towards the end, trying to encourage her to run. Kirraleigh’s internal response was somewhat less inspirational.
“Leave me alone. I’m done.”
She knew she could walk and still finish. Her ankle was already causing problems, and she couldn’t see the point in risking further injury simply to move a little faster. She said she had fuelled throughout the race and felt she still had enough energy, but the pain was stopping her from running.
When I asked what went through her head when she finally saw the finish line, her answer was brief, relieved and unsuitable for the family-friendly version of this blog. Fair enough. 😂
Seven Hours, One Minute And Seven Seconds
Kirraleigh’s Marathon In Numbers
Distance: 42.195 kilometres
Chip time: 7:01:07
Average pace: 9:59 per kilometre
Halfway: 3:15:01
Times shown in the race app, which labels its data unofficial.
Kirraleigh crossed the finish line in 7:01:07. Her first marathon, on her 26th birthday, almost six weeks after losing her dad.
Ethan was waiting near the finish. One of the first things she wanted to know was: “Where’s Mum?” I hadn’t made it to the actual finish line. We’d positioned ourselves at different points late in the course so someone could keep moving forward with her while Ethan got ahead to meet her. Then she took off her shoes, handed them to Ethan and walked barefoot. I think she’d earned that.
Would She Do Another Marathon?
You might think crossing the finish line had created a newly converted marathon runner. At the time it had not. “I don’t plan to, honestly.”
Looking back, Kirraleigh felt she needed more strength and conditioning, particularly for her troublesome left ankle. If she ever does another marathon, she’d prepare differently for the sheer amount of time she would spend on her feet.
She swore black and blue she was never doing another one. After the race and again when I interviewed her, the answer was no.
So guess who’s running the Paris Marathon with me in April 2027?
Our Sydney Weekend
Affiliate Disclosure: This section contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We paid for our own trip, and the opinions are my own.
For anyone heading to Sydney to run or support someone, here’s how we managed our trip. We flew with Virgin Australia, with checked luggage included in our bookings, and used public transport throughout the trip rather than hiring a car.
We stayed at Sydney Central Hotel in Haymarket, which I booked through Booking.com. Being near Central Station worked brilliantly for getting around by train and light rail. I’d stay there again for a Sydney running weekend.
Flying to Sydney? Check your departure airport, enter Sydney (SYD) in the ‘To’ field, then choose your dates to compare flights.
A few things we took away from the trip:
Allow plenty of time for toilets before the start. Kirraleigh abandoned the queue and spent her first five kilometres looking for one.
If you use strapping, bring your usual tape. The medical station she visited didn’t have the tape she needed, but she had her own.
Plan your support points and finish-line meeting place. We spread ourselves along the later stages, with Ethan ahead at the finish. It helped us support her, but meant we weren’t all there when she crossed.
What Would You Tell Dad?
There was one question I saved until almost the end of our conversation. If Dad were sitting here with us right now, what would you tell him about the marathon?
Kirraleigh said: “Have a good look around.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
It was one of Grundy’s sayings. Whenever we went somewhere and the food was terrible, something was ridiculously expensive or we simply weren’t impressed, he’d tell the kids: “Have a good look around.”
Everyone in our family knew the rest. We’re never coming back.
Have a good look around, Dad.
I think Grundy would have laughed his head off. And I know he would have been so proud of her too.
Come Chase Life With Me
Have you ever watched your kid chase something huge? Tell me in the comments.
Want more stories like this in your inbox? 👉 Join the Sunday Catch-Up, my free weekly newsletter, and grab my free travel planner while you're there. Real adventures, practical travel ideas and no pretending every outing goes perfectly.
You can also follow Chooky Chasing Life on 👉 Instagram and 👉 Facebook, and if you're looking for other women to share adventures with, come and join our 👉 Chasing Company community.
No elite-athlete credentials required. Just a willingness to get out there and give things a go.
Keep Chasing Life 🧡
Chooky xx
Embracing the slow. Chasing the now.
Kirraleigh said “never again”, and now Paris is on the calendar. 😂 I can’t judge. Childbirth comes to mind, and I went back for another go twice!
What’s your “never again” that didn’t quite stick? 🧡