Dr Awele Elumelu, medical doctor and wife of Tony Elumelu, has shared her experience and the lessons she learned from the Sydney Marathon 2025, held on August 31 in Sydney, Australia.
Since its launch in 2001 as a legacy race of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the Sydney Marathon has continued annually as a mass recreational race with an elite component. And, interestingly, 2025 is the debut year for the Sydney Marathon as a World Marathon Major (WMM), the other WMMs being New York City, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo marathons.
Dr Elumelu was among the 35,000 Sydney Marathon 2025 runners selected from the 79,000 applications from 156 countries, with runners from the United States, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and China topping the list.
She described her Sydney Marathon experience as one of the toughest courses she has faced yet, against all odds, stressing the few uphill and downhill aspects of the course, and the fact that she did not train as she could have for the marathon.
“But, sometimes, life does not hand us perfect conditions. You show up anyway. You do the hard thing anyway. Even if it means finally deciding to undertake that journey, the very last minute, like I did a few days to the marathon,” she said.
Furthermore, she said that though she was not prepared, and doubted her ability to finish, but much like in business, the same principle applies: resilience.
According to her, the life lessons that stayed with her, following the marathon experience, is that reparation matters, but the courage to begin is what truly counts.
She added that challenges will come, but they do not have to be barriers; rather, they can be opportunities to discover strengths we did not know we had, adding, “A great mindset is not about avoiding difficulties, but about meeting them with determination and a resolve to scale through.”
Dr Elumelu admitted that she knew the marathon would not be easy, but she chose to do it anyway.
“This time, I was not chasing personal bests. My goal was simple — to finish. And I did. The resolve to stay the course and cross the finish line, no matter how tough it gets,” she said.
For Tony Elumelu’s wife, “Crossing that finish line and receiving my medal was a powerful reminder that resilience is built in the moments when the odds do not feel in our favour, but we go ahead anyway.”
She appreciated the organisers of the Sydney Marathon 2025 and thanked her husband and children for encouraging her to participate in the marathon and for always standing by her.
Dr Awele Elumelu is an African business leader dedicated to transforming healthcare and fostering entrepreneurship across the continent. She is the chairperson at Avon Healthcare Limited and Heirs Insurance Brokers. She is the co-founder at the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the founding director at Heirs Holdings.
