City 17 done: Melbourne

Last Sunday was the turn of Melbourne in my Olympic challenge.

The race I had entered was a half marathon and was being organised by a local running club called the Victorian Road Runners. I had found the race on their site which worked out perfectly that I could find two races so close together given that it would have been a bit of an effort to come Down Under for one race and then make the trip again another time for the second one. I was a little dubious that the race would go ahead as on the club’s website it said that runners just needed to turn up on the day and pay $20 to run. It was a far cry from the massive event from City2Surf but I was looking forward to it.

The race was in Princes Park in the north of the city. Arriving at the park there were probably about 100 people and we all paid our entrance fee for the race and were given a hand written number to place on our shirts. The main race organiser then gathered us round to brief us on the course. I immediately thought that since I was not familiar with the area at all I would simply follow the person in front until said organiser began his speech by saying that people seemed to immediately turn dumb as soon as they put on a pair of trainers and would follow the person in front meaning that if the leader went wrong then so did the entire group. Ok. So that made me one of the dumb ones then. 

The course was 5 laps of the park which I was dreading (as running in circles is not as much fun) but just had to man up and get on with my laps!

Setting off the leaders were going at a very similar pace to mine which was good and made the first lap enjoyable. There were three of us running together up to this point when the third person started to drop behind. This left two of us running side by side for the first of the larger laps. The laps thereafter were going fairly quickly and at the end of each one I would tick off in my head the percentage of the race that I had completed. This made it much easier to get through another lap of the same thing. The course itself (I avoided saying route there as it means something completely different and a little rude in Australia) was fairly flat. The park was pretty quiet and picturesque and the outskirts of the cemetery that I saw looked impressive. Along one side of the park we ran next to the cemetery which had a high fence. The sun was rising which felt lovely on the skin but when running down this hill it created a strobe light effect which left me feeling a little dizzy after the first time let alone the following 3 times. The hill became known in my head as “strobe light hill” thereafter. To rival Sydney’s hill offering from the week before there was also a slight incline on the other side of the cemetery to strobe light hill which became known to me as “horrendous hill.” It wasn’t a steep incline or even particularly lengthy but it did hurt and the fact it came around every 18 minutes throughout the race played havoc with my mood.

Soon enough though the last lap was upon me. The leader was still about 100m or so ahead of me but I knew that unless something drastic were to happen I would finish in second place. The last kilometer took an age to be over but the finish line eventually was behind me.

I finished in a time of 1 hour 21 minutes 41 seconds. Not a personal best but still a pretty solid time and I was happy to be taking home a medal of the silver variety. The event was only giving out medals for the first three winners so getting a souvenir was a total bonus. 

So that's the last of my Olympic runs for 2014 but there are plenty more to come later on this year in the UK.....

Mark finishing....

Heather finishing:

Back at the apartment with a spectacular view of Melbourne (with our flag of course!):

City 16 done: Sydney

Last Sunday was the annual City2Surf race in Sydney. It is a 14km road race that takes participants from Hyde Park in the heart of the city out to the world famous Bondi beach.

The race started back in 1971 and has become larger each year to become the world's largest fun run. This year there were 82,000 entrants which is insane! I have never been in a race that big before!

So the race would fit perfectly as my Sydney effort in my Olympic Challenge.

At the expo I picked up my number and realised that I was in the 4th start wave. I have to admit that I was a little nervous about starting that far back as I knew the crowds would be big and therefore it may affect my performance as I may need to dodge around people. I asked if it were possible to move up a wave but was told that it wasn't and if anyone tried to enter the incorrect "pen" on the day they would be disqualified. Harsh but fair eh?!

So with that in mind I realised I would just have to enjoy the day and take in the atmosphere of the event. It was sure to be a good one with that many people involved.

On race day it was an early start and despite it being winter here in the southern hemisphere it wasn't too cold although a few locals did think I was a little crazy only being in a vest whilst they waited patiently for the start gun in their jackets!

The race was very well organised and whilst I was in the 4th start group they were actually leaving 20 minutes between each wave which meant that provided I was at the start of my group then I would get a good start and it wouldn't be as crowded as I had thought.

The atmosphere at the start was excellent. Red Foo was kicking out the tunes and Commonwealth Marathon winner from a few weeks back in Glasgow Michael Shelley was due to set us off with the start gun. The elites went off, then the top charity fundraisers followed by another group and then it was my turn.

We made our way away from the park down a hill which sadly suddenly turned into an uphill! I had been warned that "Heartbreak Hill" was slap bang in the middle of the race but nobody had told me about this first one! WTF?! If this one didn't merit a mention what the hell was Heartbreak Hill going to be like?! I made it over the first hill and we carried on through the city and past some of the lovely bays that were filled with numerous yachts.

The course was a lot more undulating than I had anticipated but as we neared the halfway point we got a look back over the harbour towards the harbour bridge and the opera house. Amazing and definitely an energy boost! So being half way through it meant only one thing - Heartbreak Hill was here!

So after a little research I had found out that it was not necessarily the fact it was steep but more the fact it went on for 2km and was windy which meant at each corner when you thought you reached the end you in fact had more to climb. Having now done the race I can concur it met all of the above. It hurt...a lot. I managed to keep running throughout but I definitely slowed down.

Once passed the 8km mark I knew the hard part was over and we were into the second part of the course and on the home straight. I had at this point caught up with the previous group to me and did have to run on the pavement to ensure I didn't get in the way of other runners to overtake but I was thoroughly enjoying the race.

The sidelines were packed with supporters and soon enough Bondi was in sight. We came down the hill to the beach and over the finish line I went. My result was as per the below:

Overall time: 55 minutes 51 seconds
Place: 646th out of 67,527 finishers

My average speed for each kilometer before the hill was 3 minutes 42 seconds versus 4 minutes 23 seconds during the hill and 4 minutes 10 seconds post hill. It clearly took its toll!

The finish at the beach was fantastic and seeing runners cool their feet of in the waves amongst surfers was excellent!

I love this city and event and hope to be back someday to run it again (despite the 9 minutes of heartbreak in the middle!)

16 cities complete and now it is on to Melbourne to get 17 under the belt! Until next week!

Me with the traditional flag:

Runners cooling off their feet Bondi style: