Joslyn Thompson Rule Conquers City2Surf in an Inspiring Bondi Beach Finish

Joslyn Thompson Rule finished the City2Surf 14km fun run in Sydney on August 9, capping off a trip that included a pre-race warm-up event with guest instructor Tim Robards and a stop with the Coogee Run Club. Her Instagram post shared her excitement – and her relief after completing Heartbreak Hill!

Who Is Joslyn Thompson Rule?

Joslyn is a Peloton tread and strength instructor and the author of How to Move It, known for coaching that leans on posterior-chain strength, mobility work, and a no-nonsense approach to building runners from the ground up. Alongside her Peloton classes, she hosts the Listen Loudly podcast and has spent much of 2026 building out unofficial strength programming for members, including a flexible summer series she called Summer Strength Recess.

City2Surf marked new territory for her: the first time she has tackled the 14km Sydney course, and she treated the buildup the same way she approached the Chicago Marathon, aiming to start and finish feeling strong rather than just survive it.

Joslyn’s Countdown to City2Surf

Joslyn has been documenting her buildup to City2Surf all summer, including a six-part training diary that started when she confirmed her entry in mid July. In her finish line recap, she said her goal mirrored the one she set for the Chicago Marathon last year: not a specific time, but a feeling of strength from start to finish. She broke her preparation down into a handful of key pieces: consistent strength training, one long zone 2 ride each week in place of a long easy run, prioritizing recovery whenever her schedule allowed, and balancing her own training with a full teaching load.

Tackling the Hills of City2Surf

The course is notorious for a reason. Heartbreak Hill, a two kilometer climb from Rose Bay to Vaucluse around the halfway mark, has humbled runners for more than five decades, and Joslyn built an entire on demand class, the 30 minute Aussie Heartbreak Hill Run, specifically to help members prepare for it. She said the hills built into her own classes, combined with her weekly zone 2 rides, meant she genuinely enjoyed every climb on race day, Heartbreak Hill included. The downhills told a different story. She admitted in her recap that the descents tested her legs more than expected, joking that squats and lunges “understood the assignment,” even as she wished she had added a bit more knee specific work beforehand.

She also opened up about her mindset heading into race day. Since she only runs one or two races a year, Joslyn said she has learned to treat events like this one as a run rather than a race, noting that framing a fun run as a competition adds pressure that doesn’t need to be there. Her training diary leaned on prehab, zone 2 swaps, and steady strength work rather than piling on mileage, a plan she has written about in more detail over on The Clip Out’s six week training breakdown.

Race Week in Sydney

While in Sydney, Joslyn connected with the mental health charity Beyond Blue, did a mobility session with Tim Robards ahead of the run, and joined the Coogee Run Club for part of the buildup. The pair appeared together at Peloton’s Wellness Warm-Up event at Clovelly Surf Life Saving Club two days before the race, a morning that opened with a Beyond Blue panel on resilience and mental health before rolling into a mobility class and a shakeout run.

Peloton also fielded an official Team Peloton entry for Sydney members this year, complete with a runner’s singlet and a Finisher’s Village surprise, a bigger on the ground push than in past years, as The Clip Out covered in its City2Surf 2026 preview.

Joslyn’s Official City2Surf Finish

Race day itself drew a sold out field of roughly 90,000 runners for the 56th running of the event, released from Hyde Park in staggered waves between 7:35am and 9:55am. Joslyn posted her full recap, and her results are now up on the official City2Surf results page.

She crossed the finish line in 1:15:52, placing 13,723rd out of 77,382 finishers overall, 2,933rd out of 37,493 women, and 188th out of 2,824 in the 45 to 49 age group.

That’s a strong showing for a first timer on a notoriously hilly course, and it lines up with the goal she set for herself all along: not a specific time, but a feeling of strength from start to finish.

Congratulations to Joslyn and all the finishers!

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