city to surf - results

So, as the official website said this morning, here we are with -2 days to go until the city to surf 2005:

:P :P

As might be readily apparent, I ran the City To Surf last Sunday, and it all turned out a lot better than I expected. I've just read my official time in the paper; a not-too-shabby 106 minutes and 49 seconds :) Sure, it's not a world beater (I'll comfort myself with coming in at position 23 thousand and something - a bit above average :P), but its well under my target time of two hours and close enough to a 100 minutes which was at the upper end of what I was expecting.

Turns out all the effort was worth it ;)

So, a quick little tour of the day that was as far as City to Surf went:

The order of the day in town on Sunday would have been a UK resident's delight; each step of the day usually involved waiting in line for something or the other; this shot was of the hundreds of people running in and out of the underground carpark near Sydney Grammar to get their bibs with their race numbers on, a little like..

..this. This was my bib, stylishly pinned on at a skewed angle.

Before the race, there were, I kid you not, thousands of people queuing up to use the small banks of portaloos scattered around Hyde Park. Rather than cram myself into one of those tiny little plastic receptacles, I walked to nearby Centrepoint to get some light relief before the race.

Speaking of Centrepoint, here it is, close-up and personal near the start of the race at Hyde Park. Just take note, it'll factor in a bit later on in the post.

Shoulder-to-shoulder at the before the start of the race, there were people as far as I could see . Given my height, I admit, I couldn't see a lot, but I was assured there were about 60 thousand people at the start line.

These are my feet. Don't ask.

About half-way along the race, looking across Rose Bay (I think) to the city. Centrepoint is now a heck of a lot smaller. I really didn't feel like taking many (any?) photos during the race, as I felt a lot more like running. Actually, it was more like walking, until I came to a downhill slope, in which case I ran like mad, but in any case, it worked out. Yes Ray, next time, I'll train properly.

So this is my time card at the end of the race; I started in the second group, so there was a 8 minute 8 second delay in the starters gun, so my actual time was 106 minutes and 49 seconds ;)

The race ends up at Bondi Beach. Mainly to be contrary, I actually do like it a lot more than Manly beach :P

St. John ambulance were there as usual. Briony tells me that they deal with the massive task of handling first aid for the day by classifying the event as a national emergency.

All in all, the day was great fun. I got a reasonable time, managed to nearly destroy my running shoes, and get a blinding headache in the bargain :) I really did enjoy the day, and with a little bit more training, I'm very much looking forward to next years run as well.