The City2Surf

Today was Sydney's annual fun run from the City to Bondi, aptly named the City2Surf in a nod to the San Francisco 'Bay to Breakers' which the race emulates. I've done it a few times and will probably do it a few more. The optimistic aim this year was to break 55minnutes. Having broken the curse of the Rose Bay piss-stop thanks to my new approach to hydration 55 was achievable at a minute and a bit better than my PB.

But preparation had not been great. I've done no speed work as such, although I did pick the pace up a bit when I ran with Andrew Fletcher a couple of weeks ago. And I have clocked PBs in the Six Foot Track and over the half and 10k this year. My cruising speed is up, so you never know.


Preparation was borderline awful. Harrie is back to waking several times a night and I'm tired pretty much all the time. Saturday night was bitter sweet pasta with two dear friends who I see rarely. We used to meet several times a week, go diving, have beers...then, one by one, we all had kids. The reason for the meeting was that they are both moving to the US; Justin for 3yrs and Vince is moving back to the homeland after 13years in Sydney. We had a good evening; the fact they will be half a world away is unlikely to make much of a difference in how often we meet. Such is life. I had pasta, apple crumble and water and was back home and in bed at around 11:30pm.

I had to deal with Harrie 4 times, Alex twice and Rowlf once before I got up at 5:30. So it was a thoroughly disturbed sleep. I went through the pre-race motions of getting the bus to the City, wandering to the start, dropping my bag off, having my last piss and then hanging around in the red group pen for 40minutes before the gun. The MC tries to gee-up the crowd with mixed success. I did learn that there are now more people helping along the course than the number who ran the first event. The wheelchair athletes went first (Kurt Fearnly, for my money Australia's greatest athlete, won), then the elites and then the red group.

I don't like the start of the C2S. The sheer number of runners, not all whippets, makes for a choppy first km as you try to get some clear air and into your stride. And so it was today. It knocks my confidence a bit because it feels slow. By Double Bay I was running reasonably unobstructed but
feeling that it was all a bit too laboured. My head was all wrong and I had pretty much convinced myself I was not going to get a PB today.

As I ran through half way the clock was somewhere around 28/29mins. That gave me a glimmer of hope, albeit very faint. The first half has the choppy start and the big climb, so a reverse split is always a possibility. It was an uninterrupted run to Bondi; not too crowded and I wasn't planning on any drink stops. My hydration approach was to belt 600ml of water at a little over15mins to the gun. Doing this shocks the body into shunting water around and not into the bladder, which is what happens if you drip feed. Apparently. It seems to work for me. I figured I could run for an hour (in winter) without water breaks.

Much is made of Heartbreak Hill but a lot of runners will tell you it is the bastard little hills on Military Road and up to Dover Heights that are the unpleasant ones. I'll certainly tell you that. I kept a fairly even pace on the second half. I didn't look at my watch because I wanted to run to how I felt and not chase anything. If I didn't have a wife and 2 kids I'd probably batter myself, but nowadays I tend to run to what I think is the limit of not-being-a-zombie-for-the-remainder-of-the-day-and-the-following-day. My mood improved as I got to glance out at the ocean, and I always get goose-bumps when I see Bondi and the southern coastline. It's a bit special.


I got a shout from my sister-in-law Mara just before the drop into North Bondi. She is in the SES and helps marshal the event. It was a good job she recognised me as I was peering at her colleague and not her. In my defense she was in a cap, sunglasses and shapeless orange fatigues, so was not standing out. From Mara the course is run at a decent pace down into Bondi before a fairly nasty 700m gentle climb along Campbell Parade. Then you turn for the last 400m along the beachfront to the finish.

As I approached the finish line I saw the clock; it was still under 55mins. I didn't go flat out (I probably did the whole thing at about 90-95%) but I kept the foot down. I went over the line at a clock time of 55:22 and stopped my watch at 55:01. A personal best...but had I officially sneaked in under 55mins? I didn't know. Seeing 55:01 pissed me off a little. It's like bowling 199.

More logistics; get medal, collect bag, chat to colleague who did about 57mins, call Sal to see where she and the kids were - Bronte, same as last year. I skipped the coffee with colleagues and did the Bondi to Bronte walk to join the family. It was a stunning day; ocean flat and clear, skies blue, warm sun. I stopped to watch a couple of dolphins at Tamarama - proper good-to-be-alive stuff. I met Sal and the kids at the playpark at Bronte Beach, we loaded up and headed to Charing Cross for a full-Irish refuel, black and white pudding and all. Marvelous.

Oh, and for the record, I ran an official 54:53. Not a bad days work.