Kate Gath claimed three Group 1s and a Group 2 victory across a memorable Breeders Crown finals weekend, but her preparation for the two big nights of racing was anything but traditional.

During the latest episode of Cracking The Codes on RSN, the star reinswoman revealed she used the hours before the Tabcorp Park Melton meeting on November 19 to continue her preparation for a maiden marathon.

“You have to do a few fairly long runs in the lead-up, but you probably don’t want to do them any later than three weeks prior (to the marathon),” Gath said.

“You want to start to taper your training off a little bit then and I had to get a 36km run in. I didn’t want to leave it until the Sunday after Breeders Crown in case I didn’t make it or wasn’t feeling well enough, which is a good thing because I definitely wouldn’t have…

“Friday afternoon before Melton I ran the 36km, had a quick shower and then jumped in the car to head to Melton for seven or eight drives.

“My legs were aching, it’s fair to say. It’s not too bad, but it’s more punishing on the body than what I’d thought it would be, than what I realised.”

The 38-year-old winner of more than 1800 races will put her hard work on the line when she runs the Melbourne Marathon on December 12.

“It’s tough to find places to run because you don’t really want to be stopping across a lot of roads for traffic,” Gath said.

“On the Friday I just ran up and down our road a lot of times. We are smack bang in the middle and it’s 3km to the end, 3km back and then 3km to the other end.

“I thought mentally it would be good, brutally, to prepare myself for the marathon just running up and down in a straight line.”

In an entertaining and informative chat with Dan Mielicki and Simone Fisher, Gath talked about her love for running and reflected on the Group 1 Breeders Crown triumphs with A Little Bit Touchy, Catch A Wave and Encipher.

LISTEN TO THE FULL CHAT BELOW (GATH JOINS THE SHOW AT 28.45min):