Brady Threlfall believes in one of the classics - you only get out what you put in.
He put in the work for the Rotterdam marathon this year, but like many sporting events across the globe, COVID took it away.
“I was pretty down about it for a while,” he said.
“You put the effort in, you do all the work to prepare, but you don't get the result as a reward for your hard work.
“From there on in you're running without a goal in mind, and that can be difficult. Instead of slowing down or going to your physio or things you would typically do in recovery from a race, you can lose direction which can be bad for your body.”
But not long after the cancellation of Rotterdam, Threlfall found another local in the same position in Archie Reid.
“Archie had his under 20 championship cancelled around the same time,” Threlfall said.
“We've spent some time training together at different stages, but never anything extended. But this break we realised we could use each other to our advantage.
“We started to train together regularly, set time trials over the 5km, 10km and half marathon distances every five to six weeks.
“It gave us an opportunity to build towards an event, towards a proper challenge, and that allowed us to get back into a proper system and program which I think we both needed.”
The two have now been training partners for the majority of the coronavirus shutdown, and Threlfall said it has been incredibly helpful.
“I think the big thing is motivation,” he said.
“You get into those colder months, you hear the alarm go off and wonder if you should turn it off and go back to sleep. But you can't, there is another person waiting for you, so it makes you get out of bed.
“When you are time trailing against each other, you push each other to go a bit harder and to get the best out of yourself. It's a great position to be in.”
And Reid may be starting to make a slight move on his training partner.
“He's got the edge on me a couple of times,” Threlfall said.
“And he will continue to get better. I'm looking forward to seeing what he becomes as a runner. It's been fun to in a way have a bit of a mentor role with him and to see where both of us can go based on the work we have done together.”
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