Marathon lady
Back-to-back wins in first year

Going the distance: Sgt Eliza Mayger after winning the ADF marathon in Melbourne.

By Pte Andrew Hetherington

A FINANCE clerk has run away with two marathon wins after taking up the sport just over a year ago.

Sgt Eliza Mayger, from the Army Financial Services Unit in Darwin, won the overall women’s Adelaide marathon in August and then went on to win the ADF marathon championships at Melbourne just six weeks later.

Sgt Mayger said going into the Adelaide marathon she did not feel that confident winning, as she did not perform that well in the Canberra marathon earlier this year.

“I really hit the wall in that race, I thought that was it, and I was going to give up running marathons,” she said.

“I went into Adelaide being very cautious and I would have been happy to finish and break the three-hour time mark.”

Sgt Mayger said it was great having her family and friends there to watch her and she felt good running the race, as she knew the course well.

“I lead the race from the start and at the turn around point I could see that there were two other female runners about 10 minutes behind me, so I thought I had a nice lead,” she said.
Sgt Mayger won the race under her three-hour time goal in 2:58.25.

Six weeks later she ran in the ADF marathon championships, which was run as a part of the Melbourne marathon.

Sgt Mayger said that race was different to the race in Adelaide, as there were more competitors running.

“In Adelaide, a lot of the time I ran by myself, while in Melbourne I found myself competing in packs of runners,” she said.

“When I got to the last 4km of the race I was able to put the rest of my remaining energy into a fast finish.”

Sgt Mayger finished fifth in the women’s group and was the first ADF woman across the line. Her time of 2:57.33 was an improvement of her Adelaide time.

Sgt Mayger said her next marathon was on the Gold Coast in July next year, where she hopes to come one step closer to her long-term goal of competing internationally.

Another Army runner also achieved good results in the Adelaide and Melbourne marathons.

Cpl Mat Skate, 3HSB, won the Adelaide half marathon in 1:18.54 and won the ADF marathon championships in 2:39.14 seconds. He was the ninth placed male overall in the Melbourne marathon.