2021 Marathon, Early Publicity
Melbourne Marathon commenced marketing of the 2021 festival by using a number of participants from previous years. The Melbourne based Legends were happy to answer the call in mid June for some photographs, interviews and voice recording at the MCG.
An “Appreciate the Restart” video was the first item released. Snippets of the Legends’ voices were used in the commentary. John Zeleznikow (S0682) and the late Shirley Young (SF0002) also feature.
The Melbourne Marathon website was then periodically updated with personal profiles of previous runners. The Spartans were introduced on July 28 with a post tracing the history of the club. This was followed by posts profiling individual Legends: David Foskey, Wayne Thompson, Roger Weinstein and John Dobson.
From early August the photographs were used in billboards on busy street corners and in major shopping centres. The photo above shows an example at the corner of Waverley Road and High Street Glen Waverley. John Dobson is in the left hand panel.
The Sporty Interview
In late November the five Legends and Ian Gainey were interviewed for the Radio National Program “Sporty” by presenter Amanda Smith. Bruce Hargreaves was in the ABC’s Gold Coast studio. The final program went to air the weekend of December 4, a week before the marathon and is now available from Sporty’s website. Listen to gain insights into the group. Ian Gainey shares his experiences as one of only two wheelchair Spartans and describes his quest to enter the Hall of Fame.
Wayne Thompson was the photographer and Bruce Hargreaves was in the Gold Coast studio.
Pre-marathon Television
John Dobson was asked to participate in a number of publicity spots on News programs prior to the 2021 Marathon.
This story on John “Dobbo” Dobson, was the highlight of Peter Hitchener reading the Channel 9 Melbourne News on Wednesday the 24th of November.
Channel 9 November 24 This slightly different version of the above Allan Raskall story was shown somewhere outside Melbourne with a different newsreader.
Channel 9 December 10 This interview with Channel 9’s Today show was aired the Friday before the marathon.
The 2021 Marathon on TV News
Channel 9 December 12 This is the Channel 9 News story the evening of the marathon. John Dobson (1min10) and Ian Gainey (1m20) are interviewed.
Channel 7 December 12 John and Ian are both interviewed in the Channel 7 News story shown on the evening of the marathon.
Channel 2 December 12 Ian is interviewed in the Channel 2 News story shown on the evening of the marathon. This video was recorded by phone from the TV broadcast, and the volume will need to be turned up.
YouTube video of Ian Gainey finishing This YouTube video shows Ian Gainey finishing the marathon with encouragement from the course commentator.
There was also an article about the Legends and Ian Gainey on page 20 of the February 2022 Edition of The Senior (Vic).
Click on the image at right to see a readable version.
Apologies to Bruce “Digger” Hargreaves who lives in Queensland and hence wasn’t available..