on the road again

...having passed the poor downtrodden wretch in the carbon fibre wheelchair I continued to retrace the route back towards the city. From the western distributor (I think that is the name of the road) you get a lovely view of the City. The next part of he run was fairly uneventful. At arouf 15km I was starting to labour a bit but my pace did not seem to be dropping, I was merely making harder work of it. A couple of slight ascents added to the sense of fatigue but th km kept on clocking up. By 19km I knew I was i with a shout of getting a decent time - I'd not looked once at my watch. At this stage we were approaching the Bridge from the south. The route goes under the bridge and finishes hugging the Harbour foreshore around Circular Quay. As I turned into the last few hundred metres, with the sun out in the clear blue sky, I had the Harbour Bridge to my left and the Opera House ahead. If the start is one of the best then the finish has to be the best. I sprinted the last couple of hundred metres, not quite managing to catch a guy immediately in front who was putting in a similar finish. Clenched fists, I stopped my watch at 1:27:36. Gotta be happy with that.

I walked through the chip-return and the recovery village, collected the bag of clothes I'd dropped at the start and headed to the quayside to see if I could spot Niall coming in. I waited until 08:30 and headed off, not sure if he was yet to finish or if he had already finished. As I phoned Sal to let her know how I'd gone and to arrange a pick-up from Mosman Ferry stop I spotted a shuffling Irishamn in the distance. I hastily ended th call with sal and trotted over to catch up with Niall and congratulate him on his very impressive 1:49. What a way to start Sunday.