C2S 2005

City to Surf
14 August 2005
Race Report

Gareth and I did the City to Surf last weekend. You may have heard of it, it's the biggest run in Australia (numbers wise), and I think the most popular fun run in the world…60,000 runners!!! How about that??!! I was not much looking forward to it, but went along, as it was Gareth's 'debut'. There were multiple starts, and as it was our first time, we were in one of the back packs and had at least 20,000 bodies between us and the start line…time taking wasn't especially scientific! You can't have transponders for that many people.

Anyway, it's about 14.7km, and pretty much straight up…hills that is! From the city centre to Bondi. The sun was shining and the atmosphere was electric. I relaxed as I knew it was pointless going for a 'good time'. Different packs were sardined up different streets at a t-intersection in the city…there were soccer balls bouncing through the crowds and t-shirt throwing competitions going on. Our gun finally went off - 10 minutes later we crossed the start line. Some people were walking before the first K was up!! It was 'bumper to bumper' the entire course, and a lot of energy is wasted just running around people! And the noise of of crunching cups at the drink stops was absolutely deafening! Now and again Spiderman or Batman would run past you too. Amazing to be comfortably passing slow people with about 2k to go…there were that many people that even some really slow runners got pushed that far forward before some of us others could overtake them.

Gareth is a far stronger runner than I, but held back for me, and we managed to stick together most of the way. And finished holding hands (ooooohhhh)!! I've got a new recruit guys, so watch out WMC when I come home! It's great to have him to inject some enthusiasm and competition into my running! He keeps me in line though :0)

I would definitely recommend coming over for this…the biggest community event I've ever been a part of. We did a watch time of about 71 mins…Gareth is already preparing for a 65 min finish next year!

xoxoxo