Star IRONMAN athlete clocks a sub-2:20 marathon – and says there’s more to come

Steve McKenna has won both IRONMAN Australia and IRONMAN New Zealand in the last couple of years.

But having said the technical descents on the bike course at the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice this season don’t play to his strengths, he’s taken a break from triathlon to focus on running.

And he’s making quite a splash en route to the Sydney Marathon on August 31.

Runner-up on Sunshine Coast

Having already been a 2:20 pacer at the Ballarat Marathon earlier this year, the 33-year-old Aussie raced over the 26.2-mile distance last weekend – and finished on the podium.

Writing on his Instagram feed, he said: “First crack at racing a marathon🥈Place @sunshinecoastmarathon 2.18.34 on a lonely solo day out there.

“A great step in the right direction ahead of @sydney_marathon where I’ll have a lot more bodies around me and many more reasons to go to the well in the last 5-7km where I lost 60-90secs today as the quads blew up from running a pace very foreign to me!

“As expected racing comes with a lot more risk than pacing a 2.20 marathon and a more conservative plan would have been faster, but I preferred learning what the quads could deal with. 3.17-20pace is like second nature to me and although aerobically 3.13/km pace for the first half (1.07.50) felt easy enough, I knew that the impact at that pace was something I’m not used to at all. With a half marathon PB of 1.09.02 off the bike in an ironman 70.3 – today was my half marathon PB by 1min12secs 😂”

‘Frothing to get this time down’

And it sounds like he can’t wait for another crack at the distance, with Sydney now officially part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors Series, and the only one of the seven in the southern hemisphere.

McKenna added: “It’s going to take some time for my legs to deal with these paces all the way through to the finish and I’m frothing to get this time down more and more.

“Being a shameless frother isn’t something I’ve felt for a long time and with my first time running over 100km/week being six months ago, I really can’t be disappointed – there’s many positives to take home from the sunny coast.”

To put his time into context, it’s not as quick as Olympic champion Alex Yee’s sensational 2:11:08 at London in April – but it is faster than Matt Hanson’s 2:22:57 when he tried to get under the Olympic qualifying time at the US trials last year, in a project he titled ‘2:18 or bust’.

Hanson, like McKenna, is one of the sport’s quickest runners, and it was only this year that the mythical 2:30 barrier was finally broken in a full-distance race so 2:18, albeit without a 3.8km swim and 180km bike ride beforehand, is seriously impressive.

RELATED CONTENT: What is a good marathon time for runners and triathletes?