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Kilted Runner Down Under

@kiltedrunnerdownunder

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🏃‍♂️High-performance running for busy dads
🌍 World Record Fastest Mara Kilt (3:11)
⏱️5k 18:22 | 10k 37:50 | HM 1:24 | M 2:55
👇Free Marathon Blueprint

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WORLD RECORD BABYYYYYYYY* fastest marathon in a kilt 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⭐️

*to be verified by @guinnessworldrecords

The hardest thing I’ve ever done. In constant decline the entire race but ground it out.

Absolutely delighted

Thanks for the all the love xx by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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21 days ago

Trying to run fast AND be a present dad? Read this 👇

Most marathon advice sounds great…

Until you try to fit it around:
👨‍👧‍👦 Kids
💼 Work
😴 Broken sleep

6 runs per week. Perfect structure. No interruptions.

That’s not real life.

I’ve been there.

From 3:56 → 3:27 → 2:55 marathon
While working full-time and raising two young kids.

Not by doing more.

👉 By doing the right things consistently.

⸻

So I built a simple system:

📈 Structured long runs
🎯 One purpose per session
🧠 Flexibility when life happens

If you’re trying to:
👉 Run a faster marathon
👉 Without sacrificing family life

I’ve put the full blueprint together.

⸻

👇 It’s free — link in bio or
COMMENT ‘plan’ and I’ll send you it.

FOLLOW along for realistic marathon training around real life.

#running #sub3marathon #parenting by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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3 months ago

Still on a massive high from yesterday 🤩 (my quads disagree)

The best run of my life. I felt brilliant through 99% of the race, smiled a lot, met some fantastic people and soaked in the support and noise from friends and randoms.

10 years ago I ran 3:56:31. Just over 1 year ago I ran 3:26:58. Yesterday I ran 2:54:49 🤯, well below my sub 3 hour target.

🔑? Consistent, quality training and an amazing supportive wife @stephgham.

As a below average height, hairless shinned Scotsman, I’m delighted.

Thank you to so many for the encouraging and thoughtful words - it has meant a great deal.

@danibastick amazing artistic support, @kingkarsten87 sharing some kms with you as we “ate road” 😅, @dhrunstheworld and @extramiletherapy making some Scottish pals, @the_bayrunner respect your efforts to grow running, @richard_whitehead_mbe amazing sharing kms with you you’re an inspiration, great to shakeout with @matt_archer16 @naans.v @christopherjacobsen, enjoying a celebratory @bunnahabhain courtesy of @mgeb89, and @rcvr_aus for sharpening the legs for race day. @lskd.running Race Day shorts performed spectacularly.

And of course @thefraussierunner and @val_buto for your company, amazing results and double poussée chat.

Incredible event @wmmajors and @sydney_marathon 👏 bravo

#Marathon #MarathonTraining #howtorunfaster #running #sub3hourmarathon #tapermarathon #syndeymarathon #run #runner #syndeymarathon2025 by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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a year ago

Running is only a competition against myself, no one else 🙃👀

SHARE with your running pal / gossipmonker

#running #runningmotivation by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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12 hours ago

Everyone talks about “the long run” like it’s one thing.

It isn’t — I’ve found there’s more too it. And this made a big difference from going to 3:27 -> 2:55 in one marathon training block.

Across my last marathon blocks, my long runs did 3 completely different jobs. These are the ones that mattered:

1️⃣ The easy long run.
The one I should run more tbh — 30 to 36km, easy and conversational, ideally with mates. No hero pace. This is pure time on feet: building the aerobic engine and the durability to hold form when it’s falling apart late in a race. Boring? A bit. Non-negotiable? Completely. If you only nail one long run a week, make it this.

2️⃣ The progression long run.
32km with a sting in the tail: the first 23km easy, then lift the last 9km to marathon pace. Sounds simple. It’s brutal in the best way — because it trains your legs to speed up when they’re already tired. Which is exactly what race day asks of you at 30km. I had some failed attempts on this so use at the right moments.

3️⃣The marathon-pace fartlek.
34km, alternating 2-4km easy with 2-4km at marathon pace — around 16km at goal pace, chopped into chunks so your head can actually cope with it. My favourite way to rehearse race pace without frying myself. It’s also where I dial in my fuelling: gels on the clock, gut trained, nothing left to chance on the day.

The point? Long runs aren’t about grinding out slow kilometres and hoping. Each one has a job. Variety with purpose beats junk miles every time.

Want the full framework I use to structure a block like this — built for busy, working lives?

Comment PLAN and I’ll send you my free marathon blueprint 👇

#marathontraining #longrun #marathonrunning by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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2 days ago

Choose your tired 💪

SHARE with a friend that’s working hard.

#running #runningmotivation #community by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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3 days ago

Share this with a friend that you’re better than.

SIGNING UP FOR ANOTHER MARATHON

#running #runninglife #runningmotivation by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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3 days ago

I set a world record last month — the fastest marathon anyone’s run in a kilt. 3:11 at the Gold Coast.

And I still can’t tell you, hand on heart, whether my training actually worked.

Because a marathon in a kilt and a wool jacket is its own brutal event. My heart rate hit 167 in the first kilometre and never really came back down. So the result and the training got tangled together, and I can’t cleanly pull them apart.

But strip the kilt away, and the block still taught me plenty.

6 honest lessons:

1️⃣The volume trap. I peaked at 110k weeks and ran six 36k long runs back to back. But chasing that weekly number quietly became the goal itself. My 4th 36km long-run in the block, I stood on the side of the road for ten minutes with nothing in the legs, thinking “maybe I just don’t have this pace.” The volume had stolen my speed without me noticing.

2️⃣ I didn’t nudge my threshold enough. I hit my weekly speed sessions — but I leaned too hard on VO2 and anaerobic work and not enough on threshold. I’m not sure how much I really moved my floor or my ceiling.

3️⃣ I was too rigid. The discipline got it done, but I worshipped the number and ran hard even when my legs were flat. Bad sessions stacked on top of each other. A bit more flexibility would’ve served me far better.

4️⃣The solo grind nearly broke me. Every run outside the long one was 90+ minutes — alone, in the dark, done before sunrise. It started to drain me mentally. I should’ve run more of them with mates. Company beats a few “perfect” kilometres every time.

5️⃣Respect the marathon. I treated a kilt marathon like a run in fancy dress. It absolutely was not. The jacket cooked me, my HR sat pinned from the gun, and I spent most of the race in zone 5. Prepare for the conditions you’ll actually face.

6️⃣I felt the pressure. It built in the days before. Negative thoughts crept in on race morning. And crossing the line? It felt like relief, not triumph. The joy came later with family and friends.

I’m sharing the debrief because we are always learning.

👇 so tell me whats your biggest lesson from you recent marathon training block? by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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4 days ago

And what gave you the confidence? Um, delusion…

#running #marathon #worldrecord by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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5 days ago

You’ll be surprised.

This isn’t motivation. It’s a handful of boring systems, repeated on loop.

Here’s what actually keeps me consistent 👇

1. Same lunch, most days
Rice. Chicken. Tuna. Veg. Over and over. Not exciting — but I don’t have to think about it. One less decision every single day.

2. I never leave the house without fuel on me
Banana. Handful of nuts. Water. Every time. Stops me grabbing junk, under-fuelling, and crashing mid-afternoon.

3. My week of runs gets planned with my wife, and trying to make sure she gets what she needs too.
Sunday night. Five minutes. No last-minute scrambling.

4. I stretch wherever I can steal 5 minutes
On the lounge floor. Beside a cot, waiting for a kid to fall asleep. Doesn’t need its own slot. It just needs to happen.

5. I front-load the hardest session of the week (where I can)
Not save it for Sunday. Life gets messy by the weekend, and the long run is the first thing sacrificed if I leave it too late.

6. I don’t wait to “feel ready”
Most days I don’t. You’re not supposed to. The training happens in the gap between motivation and doing it anyway.

7. Something always beats nothing
Plan falls apart? Pram run. Run commute. 20 minutes instead of 60. The session can shrink. It doesn’t get cancelled.

8. I run before they’re up so I’m actually present after
Early miles now = a dad who isn’t distracted, tired, or resentful come dinner and bath time. That single trade-off changed everything.

10. I make the decision the night before, not the morning of

Kit laid out. Route chosen. Alarm set. 4:45am me is not a reliable decision-maker, so I don’t ask him to be.

None of this is clever. It’s just repeated, week after week, around a full-time job and two kids who don’t care what my training plan says.

If you’re trying to stay consistent around your partner, work, kids, actual life — you’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing it the only way that’s real.

🔑 COMMENT “PLAN” and I’ll send you my free marathon blueprint (or grab it from my bio)

#marathontraining #busyparent #runningmotivation by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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7 days ago

Wow

🤩 this could be the pinnacle

@bbcscotland actually featuring me with photos of me in the studio and the blokes saying “I’m sure you’ve seen this guy” 😅😅😅😅 incredible scenes.

Will this be the moment a cult of kilt runners is born? Probably not but let’s dream by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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9 days ago

Nick shares a beautiful moment from his Gold Coast Marathon triumph 😲.

Full story in ep 41 of runbelievable 🎙️ by @kiltedrunnerdownunder

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9 days ago