City 2 Surf
First off I am not a full time runner, I find running to be difficult as I have issues with my feet and tendons that hurt, I also find it difficult to enjoy the scenery etc as I am running as I need to concentrate on the running part, maybe this will change over time and if I keep trying, well the scenery part at any rate the sore feet bit is probably not going to change as soon as I would like.
So all that being said yesterday, I did my first ever city to surf run, 14Km of road running with some 86000 odd other people. I had worked out in my mind that I would approach this run by breaking it up into two runs and a walk, given that the course is 6Km to the big hill and then the hill is approx. 2Km long and then you get the final 6Km with a few not necesarrily well placed hills or rises to contend with.
The first 6Ks was fine I managed to get to the hill without too much strife and trouble maybe a few people barging me out of the way and some more fancy side stepping to get past some slower paced entrants. I was hanging out for some water by the time I got to the first water table at 4Km.
The Hill, what can I say it is long and steep and I chickens out and walked up it, albeit at a faster walk not a slow one as I always have trouble stopping and then starting again.
On from there buy the time I got to the 10K marker I was feeling the effort of this run and I started to slow down and was grateful for the frequent and regular drink tables that I was passing. Now at about the 12K mark the road starts to go down hill to Bondi beach and seeing the beach was a joy as I knew the end was in site, the end is one of my favourite things about running. So I made down the hill and did not even say abad word to the people who had already finished the run and were walking back up the hill with their news papers and drinks.. There were a lot of people watching the runners stream past along Campbell Parade and even a few who were determined to cross over the road despite the river of people.