Two PBs in 14 Weeks: Fraser Pope's Run2PB Athlete Interview on a 2:46 Melbourne Marathon PB
Fraser Pope returned to the Better With Running podcast on episode 319, fresh off running 2:46:23 at the Melbourne Marathon, his second PB of the year. Just 14 weeks earlier he had run 2:49:23 at the Gold Coast Marathon, and a year ago he was running around 2:56 in Melbourne.
Coached by Run2PB's James Telford, Fraser is a dad of three and a site manager on high-end homes who fits his training in before sunrise, and his marathon journey has gone from a 3:13 debut at the Gold Coast in 2024 to two sub-2:50 runs in a single year.
Telford first met Fraser at the McLeod Footy Club, where he was club physio and trainer. When Fraser retired from footy and took up running, he reached out to make the coaching more formal, and Telford says it has paid off.
Losing the Weight, Finding the Runner
Asked what drove the progress this year, Fraser pointed to a photo. After finishing Melbourne last year, a friend of his brother sent him a picture from the crowd, and he didn't like what he saw. He has since lost 8 to 9 kilos, which he says makes everything easier, from the sessions to the load on his legs. His debut was a very different story: 3:13 at the Gold Coast in 2024 after six or so months of running, with a bowl of pasta the night before and no idea what a carb load was.
Outside of running, his only extra is a challenge he set himself for the year: 50 push-ups and sit-ups every night. He says it won't do much for his running, but it keeps his upper body strong and his mind right.
Gold Coast vs Melbourne: The Numbers
A look through Fraser's training log puts the two builds side by side. He ran 2:49:23 at the Gold Coast on 5 July (4:01 per kilometre) and 2:46:23 at Melbourne on 11 October (3:57 per kilometre), a gain of three minutes. For context, he ran 1:19:42 at the Ballarat Half in April, and a standard half-to-marathon conversion predicts about 2:46 from that. Melbourne landed right on his fitness, while the Gold Coast left roughly three minutes on the table.
The structure was the same both times: two quality days a week, a 65 to 70 minute mid-week long run, a Sunday long run and a marathon-specific session roughly every second week. The difference was in the detail. The Gold Coast block ran for 18 weeks and averaged 108K a week over six peak weeks, with a 116K top week. Melbourne was about 10 hard weeks after a four-week rebuild, averaging 111K over seven peak weeks and peaking at 124K. Fraser also ran five sessions of 30K or more for Melbourne, compared with three for the Gold Coast, and his median easy-run pace dropped from 5:03 to 4:56 per kilometre. The tapers were almost identical, at 93, 82 and 81K for the Gold Coast against 90, 80 and 78K for Melbourne.
What barely changed was the workouts. A 5 x 6 minute session at 3:45 to 3:50 went from 3:56 per kilometre in May to 3:53 in September, and the 35K marathon mixed session averaged 4:19 in June and 4:20 in September, even though the September target paces were tightened by about 5 seconds per kilometre. So the three-minute gain probably came less from faster workouts and more from the extra marathon-specific long runs, slightly higher peak volume, a base carried over from the Gold Coast build and a better day on the roads.
Reloading After a PB
Going again so soon after a PB made Telford nervous, as he admits any coach would be when an athlete wants to reload. So the pair sat down and built a considered deload, recover and reload, using the old philosophy of one day per mile before the hard running restarted. The log shows six days of full rest after the Gold Coast, then a rebuild of 59, 75 and 83K before Fraser went back above 100K. Fraser says it was two to three weeks of just easy running, even while he watched other people on Strava getting back into sessions.
The temptation did bite once. On his first long run back he joined a mate who runs 2:35 for the marathon. It was meant to be two hours easy, and they ended up throwing in 8K under 4 minutes. Fraser pulled back, the next day's easy run was very slow, and he took it as a lesson.
"There's no use going rogue and sort of doing your own things, it's just not gonna work out."
Telford reckons Fraser missed only one or two runs in the whole block, and still kept better balance with life outside running.
"He's just an absolute dream to coach. You give him a session, and he hits it, and then gives you feedback."
Training by Feel, Not Pace
Telford coaches to time rather than distance, and wants to know how Fraser felt towards the back end of the longer sessions. A theme this block was Fraser feeling like he was on the brakes, which Telford takes as a sign he is keeping sessions at a 7 or 8 out of 10 rather than dipping into race gear and ruining the next week. Fraser says the long runs are his favourite sessions, and he pulled up from a 35K workout better than he did from a normal mid-week run.
"As a coach, it's always a good sign if they can say they're on the brakes."
One session that helped Fraser mentally was an hour at marathon pace at Albert Park, which turned out to be 15K, or three laps. Splitting it into laps made it feel easier, and he took the same trick into the race. His last mixed session went differently: he started too late, into wind and heat, and struggled through the quickest set. Telford told him it was good training, and Fraser says he thought back to that day during the marathon.
Race Day: Gut Trouble, a Good Group and a Headwind
The build-up to the start was not smooth. On the train in, Fraser felt so crook in the guts that he nearly pulled out, putting it down to too much honey and sweet carbs, but he decided that if he started he would finish. Standing near the front, he watched Kipchoge walk in with the elite group. With no pacer, he was aiming for 2:45, and a couple of kilometres in he asked the runners around him what they were going for. They said 2:45, a group formed, and by 15K there were 10 to 15 of them.
He felt good until about 30K, when the course tucked behind Albert Park and the wind picked up after a week of perfect weather. His watch showed only his average pace, with no splits or heart rate, so he focused on holding about 3:54 to 3:55 per kilometre. Into the wind and up the slight rise of St Kilda Road he held the same effort but lost about 40 seconds over that 5K.
"I'm feeling that good, then 3K's later, you're like, oh no, I'm in a hole here."
To fight through the last 7K, he chopped the distance down, 8K, then 4K, then 2K, thinking of the final stretch as five laps of a track. Telford's advice had been to run on feel rather than chase a number, asking at each stage whether he could hold it for another 21K, 10K or 5K, and once past 40K to forget about it.
"Once you get over that, sort of, 40K mark, forget about it, you can just recover at the finish line."
Telford followed the race on a bike with the live tracker on his handlebars. He saw Fraser have a rough couple of kilometres between 38 and 41, then come home with a hurricane. Fraser crossed the line in 2:46:23, 1:23 outside his 2:45 target but a new PB. Experiencing a marathon from the course as a coach for the first time, Telford admits he got emotional when he saw that the Pope had finished.
"He's just smacked his second PB for the year. He's worked so hard for this."
Early Mornings, Family and Site Life
Fraser is a dad of three who runs early in the morning around a job as a site manager on high-end homes. He says the hard part is the drive home after a big morning session, when the heater goes on and he needs toothpicks to keep his eyes open. Running has spread through the house too: his girls ran the mini marathon at the MCG, and on Saturdays his daughter rides her bike alongside his easy run.
What's Next for Fraser
Next up, Fraser wants to focus on shorter distances, as his 5K and 10K PBs are a tad higher than he'd like, with the 2XU 10K a possibility. Telford, who graduates to the 40-plus ranks this year, joked about recruiting him to fill his shoes in the opens at DVAC.
Listen to Fraser and James's full chat on episode 319 of the Better With Running Podcast at www.run2pb.co/better-with-running-podcast, and go back to Fraser's first appearance for the story of his earlier marathon builds.
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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