Craig Kirkwood and his son, Matthew, doing the 26hr Marathon (1mile every hour for 26hrs) during level 4 lockdown.

Kia Ora Whanau. This week on the podcast, Matt and Eugene take a deep dive with coach extraordinaire Craig Kirkwood. Craig has been a life-long student of running, immersing himself in the works of Arthur Lydiard when Craig was in his early teens in Timaru. From there Craig went to Oklahoma on a college track scholarship, then to London to work with Olympic runners to further hone his coaching skills. As an elite athlete himself Craig has competed many times on the world stage at the highest level. As a runner he has been to two World Mountain Running Championships (2006), World Cross Country Championships (1999 & 2000), World Half Marathon Championships (1998), World Student Games 10,000m (1997), and the 2002 Commonwealth Games for the Marathon. As a Triathlete he has been to the World Ironman Championships three times (2009, 2013 & 2015), World 70.3 Champs in 2016 (finishing 6th) and has been selected four times to compete in the ITU World Long Distance Championships (finishing 9th in 2018) and once in the ITU Duathlon World Championships. Craig launched himself full time into coaching in 2013 after being made redundant, and hasn’t looked back since. We explore Craig’s love of running and coaching, his approach to coaching, and why flexibility is important both in your mindset and hips. Craig is honest about how his preparation for the highest level of the sport cost him his future in the sport, and why it’s important to focus on the whole experience, not just the good bits … Enjoy!

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