From Ballarat Blow-Up to Sub-3: Bowen Law's Run2PB Athlete Interview on a 2:56 Melbourne Marathon PB

Bowen Law returned to the Better With Running podcast on episode 321, fresh off running 2:56:52 at the Melbourne Marathon, a sub-3 PB that is 26 minutes quicker than his 3:23 marathon debut. It came after a tough 3:30 at Ballarat earlier this year, where a 1:29 first half unravelled and he ended up walking about 5K.

Coached by Run2PB's Matt Davey, Bowen is a plumber from Frankston, down on the peninsula, who caught the running bug during COVID. He first joined the podcast back in 2023, when his 10K PB was 48:10 and his 5K was around 23 minutes, and Melbourne was his fourth marathon.

From Wondering Why They Run So Much to a Fourth Marathon

Bowen grew up around running without being part of it. Matt is a family friend, and he used to wonder why Matt and Gemma ran so much. Then COVID hit, his fiancee had time off work, and the two of them started getting out for exercise together around Melbourne. They kept going, she has since completed two marathons, and Melbourne was Bowen's fourth.

He says running is a good escape from the day-to-day grind of plumbing, and the peninsula makes it easy to appreciate, with the beach, the sunrises and the sunsets right there on his runs.

Learning from the Ballarat Blow-Up

Bowen went into Ballarat feeling good about a strong summer of training and the goal of breaking 3 hours. He went through halfway in 1:29, but around 23 to 24K he could tell it wasn't going to be his day. By 30K he had flagged down a woman on the side of the road, borrowed her phone and messaged his fiancee to say sub-3 was gone and he was aiming to finish. He walked about 5K, started running again near the end of the lake and crossed the line in 3:30.

A lot goes through your mind in a moment like that, and while a few people around him didn't finish, Bowen knew he had to. He gave himself a weekend in Hepburn Springs to let it blow over, then went back to the drawing board with Matt. Matt, whom Bowen calls the Wizard and the hosts call the Mad Scientist, kept it calm. Melbourne was already around the corner, so it was a matter of getting back on the horse and putting together another consistent build.

"I knew I had it in me."

Respecting the Body: Niggles, Nutrition and a Team in His Corner

The biggest change in Bowen's running, he says, is learning to listen to his body. Early on he pushed through niggles, and one of them turned into a stress fracture and six weeks out. Now, if he doesn't feel 100%, he will skip running for a couple of days or even a week, and Matt, who understands his work-life balance, trusts him to make the call.

"A little niggle becomes a stress fracture. A little niggle becomes 6 weeks out."

He has also built a team around him: a physio, a myotherapist and, through 2024, eight months with a sports nutritionist who gave him a food plan. Because a lot of his runs are solo, having people to bounce information off matters. Nutrition, he says, is something a lot of runners underestimate, and the little one-percenters go a long way.

He also plans big race weekends early. As soon as the Melbourne dates were out he pre-booked his accommodation and ticket, and he likes to stay in town for two or three nights so he can relax, get to bed early and eat a good dinner the night before. He had six and a half to seven hours of sleep on the night before Melbourne and says he was a lot better prepared than he was for Ballarat.

The Numbers: From One Quality Session to Two

Matt sent the hosts a document with every stat from Bowen's builds. The big shift was not only weekly volume but hard-session volume. In his early 35 to 38K weeks, Bowen averaged around 4K of hard work and had one quality session a week. Over his builds his weekly average climbed from 38.6K to 58.8K, and he moved to two quality sessions a week with more than 20K of hard-session volume. By his own count he tops out around 68K in a marathon block, a long way from the 100 to 130K weeks he hears people say you need for a good time.

"It's just about getting the right training under your belt, in the right sessions and runs, and being consistent."

A typical week is four runs and three gym sessions, with the gym days mostly landing on his rest days. There is a Sunday long run, a lighter session on Tuesday, an easy 30 to 50 minute run on Thursday and another session on Friday, with the odd double to free up a day. Bowen says he enjoys the sessions, and the fartleks and tempo runs twice a week made his body stronger.

His day job adds to the load. Plumbing is very physical, with 15,000 to 18,000 steps on some days carrying tools, steel pipe and buckets up stairs and scaffolds, and he is up at 4am. Chris reckoned you could credit him with an extra 8 to 10K a day on Strava, and Bowen thinks the movement helps his recovery. A work job at the Albert Park pit lane before Melbourne even let him fit in a couple of runs around the course.

Race Day: Sub-3 and the MCG

The plan from Matt was to sit at the back of the 3-hour pack and, if Bowen felt good at 32K, step it up. It was a hot day, and about 3K in he fell into step with a first-time marathoner from Mount Eliza. Bowen told him to get water in at every stop, and did the same himself. He also carried his own maltodextrin carb drink in two soft flasks, one in each hand, plus a small bottle of gels in his pocket, around six or more over the day. Running through Brighton, he says, he was still in a huge pack of 3-hour runners.

He stayed with the 3-hour group until roughly 31 to 32K near the pit lane, then took off, feeling he had more in the tank. A spectator was handing out icy poles in the heat, so he flagged one down, a Super Duper. Coming out of Albert Park and up Fitzroy Street he checked his watch and did the maths, and realised he was well inside sub-3. His fastest 5K was his last one, holding around 4:05 to 4:10 per kilometre for a negative split of about 30 seconds.

"You know you're there when you get into the MCG."

Bowen knows most of the crowd was there for Kipchoge, but the random shouts of his name gave him a big mental lift. As Chris pointed out, a 2:56:52 marathon works out about 40 seconds per kilometre faster than the pace Bowen ran for 10K when he signed up with Run2PB.

Mech Tools: The Plumber's Side Hustle

On top of full-time work, training and three gym sessions a week, Bowen runs a side business, Mech Tools, selling tools for plumbers, HVAC installers and electricians who put in cable trays. It took about eight to nine months in 2024 to go from the idea to prototypes, stock and a website, and he built the first version of the site himself, lost it and had to rebuild it. The site was live by November 2024, the first order came in December 2024, and he has since sold about 2,700 tools, with Reece HVAC now on board so customers can order through Reece stores. You can check it out at mechtools.com.au.

"I think the biggest thing is executing it and taking action."

Quick-Fire Questions and the Sub-3 Club

In the quick-fire round Bowen picked super shoes over timing devices, Strava over Garmin Connect and a Zooper Dooper as his go-to icy pole, and says his singlet is either grey or black. His shoe rotation is the Metaspeed Tokyo for marathons, New Balance 1080s for easy runs and Superblast for long runs.

Asked for a favourite athlete, he said he doesn't really have one, and would rather follow individual stories and the years it takes to earn a time. A guy at his gym in his late 60s, a former bricklayer who chased 2:30 to 2:40 marathons in his day, took his hat off to Bowen's 2:56 because he knows how hard it is to train around a trade. His training partner Carl, who he beat by just seven seconds in Melbourne, reckons telling a non-runner you have gone sub-3 means nothing, but telling a runner gets you a fist pump and a big hug.

What's Next for Bowen

Bowen hasn't locked in his next marathon, with a busy year ahead, but he feels like he has more in the tank and would love to run one overseas, somewhere different. The hosts pointed out that the timing is good, with more marathons opening up as the boom continues and secondary events catching up while the big races squeeze entries.

Listen to Bowen and the hosts' full chat on episode 321 of the Better With Running Podcast at www.run2pb.co/better-with-running-podcast, and go back to Bowen's first appearance in 2023 to hear where it all started.

Want to join the Run2PB team and be personally coached online by an elite athlete with a proven record of helping runners achieve their PBs? If so, check out all the details at www.run2pb.co and fill out the 'Sign Up' form to start achieving your personal best today!