City2Surf 2011
Last Sunday was my fifth time running the City2Surf and the fourth for the Snook. (Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. We only missed last year because we were overseas.) As we’re both training for next month’s Blackmore’s Half-Marathon, the C2S was merely a training run for us this time. We were actually scheduled to do 17K, and the C2S is only 14K! So we left home a bit early and jogged/walked a few kilometers through the city to the starting line. It was a cool and misty morning, but somehow we managed to miss the small rainstorm that soaked most of the waiting runners. We had finally finagled our way into the Green Group (thanks to our qualifying times in last year’s Run4Fun), but we positioned ourselves to the very back of the group. And then we were off!

With no specific time goal beyond hoping to maintain a sub-8:00/km pace, we took it nice and easy with 2:1 run/walk intervals. They spaced out the various group starts a lot more this year, and we found ourselves running on mostly empty streets for the first 4km. It was only as we neared the 5km mark in Rose Bay that the first of the Blue runners started to catch us. From then on, we were in the crush of 85,000 runners making their way to Bondi Beach. We did a great job of maintaining a constant pace and adhering to our walk breaks. Heartbreak Hill was tough, but not as tough as it was in previous years. As we ran down the last few km to Bondi, I remarked to the Snook that I didn’t feel as shattered as I did at that point in previous years. We weren’t going fast, but we were having a great time and enjoying ourselves.

We skipped the walk breaks in the last kilometer or so and tried to finish strong. As I have a history of very bad C2S finish line photos, we decided to make a plan for this one. Do you know the “Haters gonna hate” meme? Yeah, we decided to imitate that kid. The “before finish” video captures us in all our glory. (Watch for Snookums in the red shirt going from center to lower-right.) Our final time was 1:48:05, which is exactly the pace we’d planned for. Afterwards we headed over to meet up briefly with some of the Sydney Dailymile runners and snap a few photos. Then we headed to catch a bus back to the city. (The new bus system of taking everybody straight to Bondi Junction was BRILLIANT. That was the quickest we’ve ever gotten out after the C2S.) Overall a good training run and a fun day out with 85,000 other local runners!

Read on to see photos I took on the day.As we walked through Martin Place before the race, we snickered at these brightly-coloured fellow runners. They were carrying a goon bag between them and taking swigs. “I hope that’s full of water, for their sake!” the Snook laughed.

This was my view from the very back of the Green group waiting to start. (Incidentally, we saw LOTS OF CHEATERS from other groups who had snuck up to start with us. Jerks! We got in fair’n’square via a legitimate loophole!)

Here we go down William Street! This bit always reminds me of the Charge of the Rohirrim. It’s just such an amazing feeling to be part of the giant surge of humanity. (And 2/3 of the runners hadn’t even started yet!)

Here we are coming into the final stretch in Bondi, mugging for the cameras.

The Snook is looking fresh as a daisy!

Haters. Gonna. Hate.

Here we are at the Dailymile meetup afterwards.

The Sydney Dailymile crew (minus a few who started late and were still on the course).

This was the crush that awaited us as we headed towards the bus pickup area.

Lastly, a gorgeous shot of my wonderful Snookums with all of Bondi laid out behind him…

That’s all… See you next year!