High school teacher from Bendigo breaks national marathon record
Andy Buchanan still thinks of himself as the bloke from Bendigo who runs. Not the high school teacher who became an Olympian in Paris.
Now Andy Buchanan needs to get his head around calling himself Australia’s fastest ever marathon runner.
Months after he was a last-minute call-up to represent Australia in the Paris Olympics, Andy Buchanan set a national record in the Valencia Marathon.Credit: Athletics Australia
Overnight in Valencia, Spain Buchanan broke the national marathon record when he ran two hours, six minutes, 22 seconds – at an average speed of 2:59 per kilometre – to become the first Australian to run under two hours, seven minutes. In doing so, he also booked himself a place at the world championships in Tokyo next year.
“I still consider myself to be the guy from Bendigo that does a bit of running. It’s going to take me a while to process that I’m the Australian record holder,” Buchanan said.
“I feel like I’ve really transformed as an athlete this year.
“I felt confident I could go around the 2:07:15 mark, and I kind of had this thought where the record would have been a bonus after such an awesome year, so if I go for it and blow up, I’d still look back on the year and be really happy with it.”
Runners in the Valencia Marathon.Credit: Getty Images
Indeed, after Paris there was nothing not to like about this year for Buchanan.
The 33-year-old, who teaches at Bendigo South East College, ran a personal best in Hamburg this year (2:08:54), but fell short of the qualifying mark to make the Australian team for the Paris Olympics.
He was home in Bendigo teaching and preparing to watch the Australians in the marathon on TV. Then the phone rang. It was his mate Brett Robinson, who was at that time Australia’s national marathon record holder. He thought it was a bum dial, so let it ring for a bit before hesitantly answering.
It wasn’t a bum dial, Robinson was ringing to tell Buchanan that he was out of the Games and that Buchanan was in. A glute injury had ended Robinson’s dream of running in Paris, and he wanted to be the one to tell his mate Buchanan that his dream was about to be realised.
Buchanan won the Nike Melbourne Half Marathon in October. Credit: Luis Ferreiro
Twenty-four hours later, Buchanan was on a plane to the Australian team camp in Montpellier. He finished the punishing Paris course in 45th place in a time of 2:12:58.
During his race in Valencia, Buchanan realised he was not only on pace to break Robinson’s record, he could hit the qualifier (2:06:30) for the worlds.
Kenyan Sabastian Sawe won the Valencia Marathon in 2:02:05.Credit: Getty Images
“At the last 10km, I was trying to do the math on the record, but I was so fatigued. I realised I had two minutes left to break the record at the 400m mark, so I made my goal 2:06:30 to try and get that World Championships qualifying standard, and I did it,” Buchanan said.
It appeared possible, even likely, that both of Australia’s national records could be broken in the same race, with Izzy Batt Doyle also flying in Valencia and looking on track to break Sinead Diver’s record (2:21:34).
Batt Doyle cut 28 seconds from her personal best when she finished eighth in 2:22:59, the third-quickest time by an Australian woman.
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