Hot Pink Energy: How Casey Dean Went From Winging It to a 3:38 Marathon
Casey Dean signed up with Run2PB to be coached by Elise Beacom with the simple goal of finally training properly for a marathon, instead of "winging it." An ex-footballer with a media and communications background, Casey came to running through COVID lockdown loops and a string of half marathons — but it was the coach-athlete relationship with Elise that turned a hobby into 18 months of pure running joy, hard lessons, and a genuine friendship.
In a recent interview on Better With Running Podcast Casey and Elise took us on their journey together as athlete and coach.
A False Start
Before the partnership even began, it almost didn't. Casey reached out to Elise, signed up, and had a Queenstown Marathon build ready to go — and then disaster struck at football training.
"I got very badly injured. I was pretty much... I'd signed everything, I was ready to start pretty much the next week, and then I emailed Elise and said, actually, we're gonna have to hold off. I'm gonna be in a moon boot for about... I think I ended up being in it for nearly three months on and off," Casey recalled.
Casey didn't return for six months. On the coaching side, it looked like a lot more than a delayed start.
"I kind of took it borderline personally, actually," Elise laughed. "Was it something I said?"
It wasn't — and looking back, Casey says the injury was the turning point that made running matter in the first place. "When I got that injury playing football and I couldn't run for a while, I realised how important it was for my mental health and as an outlet, because it's pretty much the only thing I really do for myself, by myself."
From Winging It to a Real Plan
Like a lot of runners, Casey's early training was a patchwork of Couch to 5K, half marathon plans pulled from the internet, and following whatever the running influencers of the day were doing.
"I was definitely running way too much... they were all running twice a day, every day, and so you're like, I have to do that, which is absolutely not the right approach," Casey said.
A sub-2-hour debut at the Melbourne Half in 2021 was a promising sign, but it was the Mornington Half — a brutally hilly, windy race Casey ran unprepared to pace a friend — that convinced her a coach was worth it. A cousin who'd run with Run2PB suggested Elise would be a good fit, and the rest, as Casey puts it, "is sort of history."
Once the formal coaching started, everything changed. "I started running, honestly, a lot less. Like, a more formal plan, feeling much better, seeing actual progression, rather than just adding on one kilometre each day,"
Ballarat Marathon - The Dream Run
Eighteen months, a Gold Coast Marathon debut and a Ballarat Half PB later, Casey lined up at the 2025 Ballarat Marathon aiming for 3:45. She ran 3:38.
"Every single other person had the worst run of their life that day. And I finished, and I met a couple of my friends at the finish line, and they were like, that sucked, that was the worst thing ever, and I was just so confused... I felt amazing the whole time," Casey said.
Elise, watching the build unfold from the coach's side, put it down to a smoother, smarter block than the one before it — short, sharp intervals early in the week, broken threshold sessions later, and not a single long run missed.
"Her pacing was so on point that day, like, negative split. I'm calling it run of the day," Elise said.
Sydney: A Different Kind of Lesson
If Ballarat was the day everything clicked, the Sydney Marathon was the day everything got real. Casey went in off the back of a holiday to Vietnam, humid treadmill sessions crammed into a hotel reception area, and barely a break between marathon blocks. Elise had floated a gentler option months earlier. Casey recalls the conversation, "Elise sort of did warn me... maybe just do the Ballarat half again as a nice little lead-in, and I was like, we're doing both!"
Sydney Marathon vibes were high, some epic views before, Centennial Park is where it all unravelled, At 36km, Casey called her partner in tears. "My legs were just heavy, and I was just mentally couldn't do it," she said — but she got herself to the finish line in 3:40, a result Elise refuses to let anyone undersell." Even though you said it was hard, you hit the wall, you were two minutes off your peak — on an insanely challenging course, the most challenging course of all the World Marathon Majors. To me, that's worth a PB on a flat Ballarat or a flat Gold Coast course," Elise said.
More Than a Coach
Ask Casey what it's like being coached by Elise, and the answer isn't really about splits and sessions at all.
"There's another person on the other end of that phone who's like, hey, you haven't... you missed your run today, is everything okay? And they really want you to do well.
Especially in winter — I would not have gotten out of bed if I didn't know that Elise was going to check whether or not I did my run that day," Casey said.
It's a point Casey comes back to when she thinks about what a real coach offers that an app never could. "A real coach, and especially Elise, will build it around my life and how things are feeling, not just what's in the calendar... I think the investment is absolutely worth it, as opposed to just another app on your phone that you're probably not going to really use."
That relationship shows up most clearly at the finish line. Elise has been at every one of Casey's marathons, and Sydney was no exception — yelling across the mixed zone to get her athlete's attention for a hug before Casey even knew she was there.
"You want to have that raw moment at the end — a big sweaty hug, a big congrats, because you just ran a marathon, and it's just a huge achievement," Elise said.
Coach Elise Beacom on Casey's Progress
Casey's come such a long way since that first "ghosting" start — from someone figuring it out on her own to an athlete who trusts the process, digs deep when it matters, and keeps showing up no matter what life throws at her. Ballarat and Sydney were two completely different tests, and she passed both. I can't wait to see what she does over the shorter distances next.
Listen to Casey and Elise's full conversation on the latest episode of Better With Running Podcast.
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!
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