City to Surf Photos

Not my best race.

But some of the photos came out alright

61:34

Pre Race. That was my first City to Surf in 24 years. I left for the start very early because I couldn’t sleep. It was icy cold and I put my hands in my track suit pockets to keep warm as I walked from the motel to Central Station.

I’d pinned a yellow daffodil and pink ribbon on my running singlet to show that I was running for cancer research, and to run for all the people who kindly contributed to my charity that had lost someone to cancer. And there were so many.

I ate a breakfast of an apple and banana in Hyde Park as the sun started to light the Sydney Centrepoint Tower and MLC building. I lined up very early with the red bib group. I was within three rows of the start. When the sun peeped through the leaves of a large Moreton Bay Fig it was quite pleasant. I had an hour and fifty minutes to wait for the start.

Many runners were wearing their daggiest shirts and jumpers. These triaged clothes are worn to keep warm and then discarded just before the start. Bridge climb I did it, proclaimed one shirt, but the owner really didn’t care anymore. World Series Cricket 1995 was emblazoned on another shirt. Now that was a memorable series! I wore an old Hanes windcheater that was stained by Lenny the Cockatiel’s poop. Competitors had brought plastic crates to sit on and newspapers to read to entertain themselves during the long wait. For me the time went very quickly.

Superman made an early appearence, and a bunch of Gorillas high-fived members of the red bib group as they walked by. The race coordinator barked orders at the entrants. “Clear the central court now.” “Yellow bibs you should be in your area now.”

Michael Jackson moon-walked into the preferred area, and was interviewed by the Channel Ten Crew. I spoke to a guy who did 65 minutes last year, but was not confident given his lack of training. I said I was worried about the hills and rightly so.

With about five minutes to the start the barriers separating the preferreds (less than 55 minutes) and the red bib group was removed. I used to get a start in the preffered group, boo hoo, but now I’m old and slow. Then a rope was taken away and the red group inched forward into the rear of the preffereds, led by the Devil in a Sydney Strider’s singlet.

Then I was standing next to Spiderman! He asked the time and I replied it was 00:00:00. That was what my Garmin said. The gun fired and I started my Garmin, should’ve waited until I crossed the timing mat.

The race. At first the competitors inched forward, packed like lemmings or sardines or ferrets, then little by little, they broke into a stumbling shuffle, a jog, and finally a side-stepping run. Down the hill towards the William Street tunnel I strode out.

I crossed over to the left hand side of the road. This side of the Willam Street tunnel is shortest. I started to work hard up the first hill into the tunnel. It was hard to find a free path to run. It was like trying to negotiate a busy shopping mall, except these are runners coverging at very different paces not shoppers. However, some of these runners travelled as straight as a shopping trolley with a dodgy wheel.

You choose what you think is an open path, but two or three runners converge and the gap closes. Some runners are all over the place like drunks rolling home from the pub. The whole way to Bondi turns out to be like this. Very hard to gain momentum.

I was almost wiped out by a runner who decided to side step across everyone at a ninety degree angle. Then a lady spectator in her wisdom shambled across four lanes of William Street against a tide of tens of thousands of runners. Not an astute survival strategy. She survived as did all the runners.

1km 4:18.

The second kilometre had a major down hill section in it. A couple of runners went flying past, and kept going into the porta loos by the side of the road. I laugh about this to another runner. No way I’m going to stop for the loo. I’m going to finish this first, even if I have an accident.

2km 3:46

Wow, that was my fastest kilometre as an old fart, even if most of it was down hill.

Then the course flattened out and the undulating parts and hills reared their lactic acid producing heads, which slowed me down.

3km 4:10

There goes Batman and Robin off into the distance. All the superheroes have the wood on me today. Superman and Spiderman and even Michael Jackson are way ahead.

4km 4:25

5km 3:58

I passed 5km in 20:39. Must’ve been significant downhill in that fifth kilometre.

6km 4:19

I’m going pretty well, just under 25 minutes for 6km, when I reached the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. I decide to run it pretty conservatively. It goes on and on and on. I get to the top feeling that I haven’t overdone it.

7km 5:34. That’s half way in 30 minutes 30.

The really hard part of the City to Surf is not Heartbreak Hill itself, but the hills and undulations immediately afterwards along Military Road. Heartbreak Hill weakens your legs and the subsquent smaller hills deaden them.

8km 4:39

As soon as the course flattens out I get a bit of speed going again.

9km 4:16

Then as soon as I hit a hill my pace slackens. I need to do more hill training for next year.

10km 4:42

44:09 (second 5km 23:29)

11km 4:41

These kilometres killed any chance I had of going sub 60. I was in uncharted waters, not having raced over 10km in my return to running.

At last the race headed downhill and I could see the line of blue of the Pacific Ocean horizon.

12km 4:13

I go past Michael Jackson. Man, I have slowed down since my 20s. I never got beaten by novelty characters back then. Kind of puts my running credibility in perspective!

13km 4:03

I tried to go faster, but I had to dodge around other runners, and other runners pushed past me. It was more of a dance than a running race.

I ran onto the flat of Campbell Parade. Never thought I’d do that again, but there I was running in the City to Surf after a break of 24 years. A dream come true.

14km 4:28

“You’ve done it, enjoy yourself,” I say. It is a long way to the turn around point back to finish on Campbell Parade.

I turned the corner looking for clock with short sighted eyes. My eyesight was a lot better 24 years ago. Sub 60 is gone, which I am a little disappointed over. I see 61 minutes, and the competitor in me emerges. I sprint to get under 62 minutes.

I see the cameras, and I think I tried to smile.

Post Race. There is a different feeling in me after this race: a hunger for more racing. There is not the amazing wonder of finishing the Bridge Run, the pure incredulity of running that race. The Bridge Run will live on as my best ever race of running dreams come true. That was the first. The first is often the best.

With the City to Surf 2009, I immediately feel that the dream is unfinished. I hunger for more, I want to train harder, and do even better next year and the year after. I’m driven now by a dream to improve, a dream to see what is possible. Just finishing a fun run is no longer enough, I know I can do that. Running faster is the dream now, running a half marathon is the dream now. Maybe running a marathon: now that would be something!

I’ve set a time that is there to be broken. I can run this race next year and the year after and the year after next and watch the improvement that is sure to come. Who knows I might run this race more times as a master than I did in my twenties?

My running dream lives on and the possibilities are limitless.

Time 61:34 Place 1533rd/62626 finishers!

I finished 84th/2483 in the 45-49 age group, based on gun time