BONNY Hills local Anthony Donohoe has been pounding the pavement for most of his 61 years, regularly journeying through Dunbogan, Jolly Nose Mountain and Diamond Head on his runs.
On 31 August,he fulfilled a long-held goal to run the Sydney Marathon alongside his sister Katrina Hayes and daughter Abby Donohue.
Renowned for its spectacular scenery the world-famous marathon course covers 42.195km, crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and finishing at the Sydney Opera House forecourt.
The marathon celebrates 25 years in 2025, with 35,000 taking part and many thousands more lining the route to spectate.
Around 79,000 people entered the ballot to race, and Anthony was delighted to be one of those selected to participate.
“The infectious atmosphere and crossing the Harbour Bridge to the Opera House were absolute highlights,” he told News Of The Area.
“I’m absolutely going to do it again, once you start running marathons it gets in your system.”
While Anthony has run in 100km trail races and competed in Ironman events, this was his first Sydney Marathon.
“I was happy with my well-paced time of four hours and 50 minutes, with an average speed of seven minutes per kilometre,” he said.
Anthony’s secret weapon is a product he refers to as “pickle juice”, which came to the rescue two kilometres from the finish line when he was overtaken by cramps.
His running group chat is already talking about the Sydney Marathon in 2026, but the next big adventure is a 50km marathon through Mt Kosciuszko in November.
By Rachael THORPE
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