Six Stars and Then Some: Jenna Truman's Run2PB Athlete Interview on the Majors and a Jungle Trail Debut

Jenna Truman came on the Better With Running podcast fresh off the Sydney Marathon, and there was a lot of ground to cover. A finance professional and mum of two calling in from Brisbane, Jenna has worked with Run2PB coach Matt Davey since 2019 and has since ticked off all six Abbott World Marathon Majors — including backing Boston straight up into London in the same week — survived a gallbladder attack mid-race, and, two weeks after this year's Sydney redemption run, thrown herself into her first ever trail race through the jungle in Malaysia.

Finance, Motherhood and Mornings Before Six

Jenna works full-time in finance and juggles training around raising two kids, which mostly means getting out the door before anyone else is awake.

“It's probably more about carving out time, and I get up before everybody else in the morning, and usually head out for a run, and come home, and make school lunches, and get everyone ready, and off to work.”

She's out the door by 6am most days — not the 4am crowd, she's quick to point out — and credits a husband who's been a runner for just as long for making the juggle possible. Her six-star medal sits in the dining room, and her son already has a favourite.

From School Cross-Country to an Accidental Habit

Jenna ran cross-country at school and always preferred short, sharp efforts over anything long. She barely ran past 10 kilometres before signing up for her first marathon on a whim in 2017 — New York, talked into it with her husband, who decided to join her almost as an afterthought. They finished together in 4:17, and Jenna figured that would be the only one.

“I think I ran my first marathon thinking, oh, it'll be my only one. And, yeah, I kind of got a bit addicted.”

A baby arrived not long after, and it was almost two years before she lined up for a marathon again — Berlin, with her son barely 12 months old, back when the sport looked nothing like it does today.

Signing Up with Run2PB

After Berlin, Jenna decided she wanted to stop winging it and actually learn what she was doing — which is how she found her way to Run2PB and coach Matt Davey in 2019. The early sessions were a world away from a major marathon start line: solo time trials around near-empty Brisbane paths, including a half marathon Jenna measured and ran completely on her own.

The results came quickly. Jenna knocked out PBs across every distance from 5K to the marathon through the early years of coaching — until her body had other plans.

When the Body Pushes Back

By the end of 2022, Jenna was dealing with worsening endometriosis. Consistency became harder to hold onto, injuries crept in, and the training had to pivot from chasing times to simply protecting her ability to keep running at all.

“I've had to really learn the mental aspect of it, that it's okay not to be gaining all the time... just appreciate every run that you do, because there will be one day when you can't.”

That shift in mindset would matter more than she knew. In 2024 Jenna pulled out of the Sydney Marathon around the 29K mark with a gallbladder attack — a DNF that led to her gallbladder being removed weeks later, and, once surgeons were in there, the discovery of internal bleeding tied to her endometriosis that required a second surgery, and a full hysterectomy, five weeks after the first.

She's clear-eyed about what's changed since. More energy day to day, better recovery, none of the couch-bound afternoons that used to follow a hard session — alongside a gel rotation she had to rebuild from scratch through months of trial and error.

Six Stars: Backing Boston Straight Into London

With her health uncertain and the two majors lining up just six days apart, Jenna decided there was no better time than the present to complete the set — running Boston on the Monday and London the following Sunday, entered separately through charity places, in the same week.

“Boston's very hilly, as I'm sure you guys know. So there was a lot of lactic acid in the legs. It was probably the first marathon I ever did where I struggled to walk afterwards.”

Two light jogs and a lot of walking got her through the gap before a second carb-load she describes as the hardest part of the whole week. London brought 24-degree heat and heavy legs from the 20K mark, but her husband running alongside her and her kids waiting at 35K carried her the rest of the way.

“It was just pure determination. But I'd never ever do it again.”

Asked to rank the crowds across all six majors, Jenna doesn't hesitate: New York is next level, Tokyo's quiet calm is a personal favourite, Boston is “just special” start to finish, and this year's Sydney cracked her top four. London, surprisingly, left her a little flat — “too crowded,” in her words — and if she had to cut one major from existence, it's Chicago, for a course and finish line she found simply dull.

Redemption in Sydney

This year Jenna went back to Sydney to finish what last year's gallbladder attack cut short, and the difference — in the race, the crowds and the city around it — was dramatic. What had been a DNF and a hospital admission twelve months earlier became, in her words, “very much redemption,” and one of the best-supported majors she's run.

New Territory: A Trail Debut in the Jungle

Two weeks after Sydney, with zero trail background and a hydration pack she'd worn precisely once before, Jenna lined up for a 26-kilometre jungle trail race in Malaysia with just over 1,000 metres of vertical gain — ropes, river crossings, 40 per cent gradients and stinking humidity, aid stations instead of drink tables, and three peaks to get over.

“There was 3 main peaks in the run, and it was sort of halfway through the second peak, and I remember thinking: what have I done? There's no way out of this.”

Asked which back-to-back was tougher — Boston into London, or Sydney into the jungle — Jenna gives it to Boston and London on balance, but with one asterisk: the trail race left her needing the lift for longer afterwards.

What's Next

With six stars banked, a serious health scare behind her and a first trail finish now on the resume, Jenna isn't chasing a big target for the rest of the year. For now the plan is smaller and sharper.

“I don't really have anything lined up at the moment, so we're just gonna try and focus on maybe some 5K and 10Ks, and see what inspires me next.”

More trail races keep turning up in her feed, so don't rule out a repeat performance in that department either.

Listen to Jenna's full episode on the latest Better with Running Podcast.

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