Sunshine Coast Showcase | Gregson and Pashley to Contest Australian Half Marathon Championships

Genevieve Gregson and Ellie Pashley have gone stride for stride since giving birth on the same day last June, but for the first time in a long time, Gregson believes she can break the tape against the toughest of rivals come Sunday’s Australian Half Marathon Championships.

Returning from double Achilles surgery and childbirth since the Tokyo Olympics, Gregson concedes the battle is far from the traditional sports rivalry. Centered around mutual respect and admiration, the event looms as a Sunshine Coast showcase rather than a showdown.

“Ellie and I, and all the girls are good friends. We have a lot of respect for each other. I actually asked Ellie and all of them for advice before I ran my debut marathon, what’s really lovely is that every single one of them has given me something to have a successful road career,” Gregson said.

While Pashley holds the half marathon ascendency on paper with her 1:09:14 personal best seemingly too slick for Gregson who ran 1:11:57 on debut, the Australian steeplechase record holder is predicting a closer contest after a stunning 2:28:33 marathon debut on the Gold Coast last month.

“After finishing a marathon, everyone would be proud of themselves and their body. To do it so well and in the context of what I had overcome to get there, I just feel like now I have this confidence on my side that I have really lacked for the last two years,” Gregson said.

“If I have a good race this weekend, it’s only topping up that confidence. I am back in that mentality of thinking I should win races or at least be trying to win them.”

Acknowledging Pashley’s superiority in experience, Gregson is eager to follow in her Olympic teammate’s footsteps in every sense, with the 34-year-old already adjusting expectations for the better despite her initially ambitious comeback journey.

“My first half in Gifu felt like a great run at the time, but now looking back I definitely want to reset my personal best. Going into this weekend, the biggest priority is to win which is a tough ask when Ellie is in the field, so as long as I compete – the time will come with that,” Gregson said.

“It was always a big ask on paper, I will be the first to admit that. I’m obviously going to be my biggest believer, and outside of Ryan [Gregson], I didn’t know if anyone thought I could do it. It was a huge sense of relief, erasing any of those doubts that I had.”

Husband Ryan Gregson will be a few minutes up the road on Sunday as he challenges for the men’s title amidst a star-studded field, with the Olympic couple slowly but surely transitioning to the roads after illustrious careers on the track.

“I have wanted to do this race all year. Ryan and I wrote down a calendar of road races that we wanted to race this year and it has been pretty cool ticking them off, especially because they have all been reasonably successful,” Gregson said.

“I still remember when I did my first 20x1km session, I remember Ryan being so excited because I was finishing and he knew I was looking smooth and comfortable. As soon as I finished that one session, he just told me that I was going to be able to do this.”

The Australian Half Marathon Championships will be run as part of the Sunshine Coast Marathon Festival, with more information to be found HERE.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Atheltics Australia
Posted: 12/8/2023