40,000 runners is the edge — Sydney Marathon is flirting with breaking its own event, and we need to talk about it.

Episode 80: the Sydney Marathon 2026 recap. 70+ at the shakeout run, 36 TPP athletes with 33 PBs (27 of them by 15+ minutes), and an honest coach's take on the bottlenecks, wave timings, and slower runners baking in the heat. Plus Georgia's first big event with Millie, business updates, and listener Q&A on gels, stress fractures, race-day underperformance, and knowing when a good workout means you should push your goal.

📢 Next week is a full Sydney Marathon Q&A — DM us your questions.

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Sydney Marathon is four days away and you've got nothing left to gain. Only nervous energy to lose.

Emergency episode. Matt and Georgia work through every race-week fear runners actually have: heavy shakeout-run legs, a bad night's sleep, carb loading, and whether you'll make it to 42. Matt's worst-case exercise for killing head noise, the sleep study that proves one rough night won't cost you, and carb loading without the maths. Plus listener Q&A on triathlon vs marathon fitness and whether Pilates counts as strength work. Matt also explains the 17 stitches that just put his sub-10 Ironman at 50/50.

💻 Join The Performance Project Coaching:
https://performanceproject.typeform.com/apply?utm_source=btfl

📸 Follow BTFL:
https://www.instagram.com/beyondthefinishline_pod/

📸 Follow Coach Matt:
https://www.instagram.com/mattb_performance/

📸 Follow Georgia:
https://www.instagram.com/georgiahillis/

📸 Follow The Performance Project:
https://www.instagram.com/the_performance_project_/

Your Sydney Marathon Q&A, plus a full catch-up on life. Georgia is back from having Millie. Matt recaps a 24-hour team backyard ultra. Where his Iron Man WA prep is landing 15 weeks out,

Then ten rapid-fire Sydney Marathon listener questions covering pacing on the hills, arrival timing, aid stations, carb load meals, GPS vs elapsed time, and the seven days leading in.


🎧 Listener Q&A:
– Should I power up the hills to hold pace?
– How long before the gun should I arrive?
– Any hill advice if I've only trained on flat?
– Should I stop at every aid station on my first marathon?
– Favourite carb load meal if you could only pick one forever?
– Best post-race recovery routine?
– Sub-4 pacing strategy when the GPS gets shaky?
– Bad calf pain race week — push through or shut it down?
– What should the seven days leading in actually look like?

🎁 TPP shakeout run Saturday morning in the Sydney CBD — details on @beyondthefinishline_pod. Come say hi.

💻 Join The Performance Project Coaching:
https://performanceproject.typeform.c...

📸 Follow BTFL:
/ beyondthefinishline_pod

📸 Follow Coach Matt:
/ mattb_performance

📸 Follow Georgia:
/ georgiahillis

📸 Follow The Performance Project:
/ the_performance_project_