I recently interviewed friend and Marathon runner David Thomas about his Melbourne Marathon experience.

Tattoo covered David is a virtual unknown in the running world but he has on several occasions surprised competitors and officials by placing in major fun runs and most recently, fuelled by just two pieces of toast, came fourth in the Melbourne marathon. The mysterious runner has been generating comments on the Australian cool running forum like, "I was wondering about that David Thomas guy too! I could not find any info about him on the net. I saw him at the start and finish and thought he looked like he belonged in a rock band rather than a marathon. He finished 4th and did not really look like he was wearing the proper running gear. No racing flats, proper running singlets etc. Aged 20-24 it was a great run."-Dash and "He came to Hobart and won a local fun run in April this year and no one knew who he was. Apparently the organisers thought he might have jumped in at the end so they viewed the footage from the start and saw he was there. That is all I know but it was an awesome effort for what I am guessing was his debut marathon." Shawble

Davids time of 2 hours 32 minutes for a marathon while not a world beating time is very reasonable for a 22 year who coaches himself. Dash was right he would look more comfortable in a heavy metal rock band or snow boarding the slopes of Whistler than pounding the pavement in a marathon. But David is really a mega switched on runner who is now looking to improve his 10 kilometre times before attempting another marathon.

A number of interesting points surfaced in our interview, one being that David ran the whole race fuelled by only two pieces of toast. This is what he had to say when I asked "So you actually ran the whole marathon on a couple of bits of toast? "Yeah but you eat a lot the day before. You dont need to eat on the day because you will get the runners trots. If you eat too much in the morning or even the night before, so I eat a massive breakfast the day before and a pretty big lunch and then just snack and sip on water throughout until the race." David eats this way before all his long runs and always races the same way he trains. He trains for his long runs on two pieces of toast, so he races long distances on two pieces of toast. This is great advice for all runners preparing for a race. Set up a routine and adjust it gradually in the lead up to a race. Make sure it fulfils your needs for sleep, sustenance, water etc and then settle into the routine for the last 3-4 weeks prior to the race. It will give you confidence that your preparation is sound and your needs have been met prior to the event. More from David later once I have edited and transcribed the interview.