August 13

I actually managed to wake up this morning before my alarm clock, and got out of bed around 6:45am. I got dressed with my running clothes, packed my bags, ate a fruit/cereal bar, 1.5 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, drank a bottle of powerade, checked out of the hostel, put my bags in storage ($3/day), and walked up the street two and a half blocks to the registration tables for the City to Surf race.

At the registration center I picked up my chest bib (number 693, woo!), took three free baseball-style caps (they were encouraging me to take more than one), and drank some more water. They had color-coded bags to match bib colors, and I got the lady to write my number on one that was lavender (my bib color) so that I could send my clothes to the finish line. I stretched and drank water until about 8:00am, then even though it was cold, I took off my long-sleeve shirt and pants (keeping on only my running shorts and wife-beater) and put them in my bag to be loaded on the truck for delivery to the finish line. I then went through Hyde Park and wandered around for a bit, stretching every now and then and enjoying the warm feel of the sun.

After a while I got a look at the starting setup, then went off to a park with some open athletic field-type areas to warm up and chill out until the start of the race. It turned out to be quite nice as there was a bathroom that very few people were using (mostly just other "seeded" runners, as this was designated as the area they were supposed to warm up, etc.), so I never had to wait in line. I did a good 5-minutes or so warmup followed by some stretching and some shorter strides about a half hour before the start of the race. At 15 minutes to go I made my way over to the starting line. They had the streets sectioned off for the different starting groups. The seeded runners (top-1500) got to start in the very front of the pack. The first group of 18,000 people started immediately behind them, then each of two side streets had other groups that included HSBC start (average runners) and Back of the Pack (the slowest seeds, everyone with bib numbers 40,000 and higher). I couldn't believe how close to the front I was -- granted the road was 5-lanes wide here, but I had no more than about 10 runners deep stacked up in front of me. I got to see the number one seed, a guy from somewhere in Africa (Tanzania, I believe).

As I waited for the starting gun to fire, I stretched and stayed relaxed as the guy with the microphone said to do, and every now and then I would look up at the 5 helicopters that were circling overhead and the sky-writing that was occuring above them for companies such as Bose and Donut King. I found out at the end of the race after I picked up my free newspaper (the race is sponsored by a newspaper) that there was a new record number of entrants this year -- 63,541 compared to the old record from 2002 of just over 60,000 -- this was a HUGE event! As I continued to wait for the start, I wore one of my three hats (the other two I had sent to the finish line) to keep the sun out of my eyes and noticed that there were several female runners with bib numbers in the low-100s or below, indicating an elite female athlete presence.

Finally the time came for the start of the race. When the gun fired I started my watch, and I started running within two seconds. The race started down a hill, and within 30 seconds the crowd had comfortably thinned out so that I could run uninhibited. It was amazingly nice being able to see the front of the pack and running with many people that were going a pace similar to mine. I knew it was a long race ahead of me, so I kept myself from going out too hard at first -- I held back down the hill. After the bottom of the hill there was an uphill, and here I got into my race rhythm. At this point I started passing as many people as were passing me, so my position within the "pack" didn't change very much or very fast. As I continued to go uphill, downhill, through flat sections, under bridges, and around corners I managed to keep my rhythm. After maybe 20 minutes of running a steady incline began and I said to myself "I wonder if this is Heartbreak Hill that I've heard about?" I used to love running hills back home and running up this hill reminded me of doing the Colton Point hill workout back home. I kept relaxed and visualized Colton Point workouts as I worked my way up the hill, passing more people than were passing me. The hill was actually rather enjoyable as far as hills are concerned; it wasn't too steep to psych me out or make me too tired, yet it wasn't a shallow hill either.

At the top of Heartbreak hill the incline become much less, and a clock indicated that I was around 27 minutes. There were some smaller uphills mixed with downhills and plenty of curves after this, which kept the race from getting very monotonous. During a period of about 10 minutes after cresting Heartbreak as many as several dozen other runners passed me. I kept myself relaxed and used this period of "recovery" to my advantage. For the next 10-minutes I kept with a female runner that was slowly working her way forward. I ended up losing her up another hill where she increased her speed, but then I set my eyes on a couple of other runners ahead of me and started working my way forward. As the ocean became visible and I knew I was nearing Bondi Beach I kept picking it up until I had caught the people I was attempting to pass. The course started down a steady decline and I knew the finish was near. Going down a straight stretch I heard the announcer at the finish line around the next hairpin. I opened my stride and started kicking.

In the last 30 seconds of the race I caught and passed close to 10 more runners. When I finished I stopped my watch, proceeded through the gates where they took the small adhesive number off my bib and placed it on my time card, picked up a free New Balance/City to Surf keychain, my "city to surf finisher" medal, and myCity to Surf bag and free newspaper (I actually took three, since there were tens of thousands laying around. :)). There was a row of parallel tables that I guesstimate were about 200 feet long and were stacked completely across and three to four high of red gatorade and water in cups separated by sheets of cardboard between the layers. I've never seen so much refreshment in my life. I can't imagine how many thousands of cups were there. I personally drank four cups of water and gatorade. After I had consumed my fill of oranges and liquid refreshment I made my way over to the baggage claim. The bags were divided up behind temporary fences where they were divided according to color and arranged into numeric rows. As I walked up to the section with lavender bags a volunteer kid saw my bib number and when I got to the fence he handed me my bag. I tell ya what, these volunteers are efficient, that's for sure!

Next, I made my way over to the temporary bus terminal that was set up to shuttle city to surfers back to where they came from. As I walked up the hill and along the street I couldn't help but admire Bondi Beach. I wished I had my camera as the bright blue skies, green grass, bluffs, houses, and white sand made Bondi one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, if not the most beautiful. Maybe next time I'm in Sydney I can get some pictures. :) I got on the bus back to "City" and 30 minutes or so later arrived back at Hyde Park where I had arranged to meet with Amanda and Melissa.

As I waited about a half hour for Melissa and Amanda (we agreed to meet at noon), I layed out on the grass in my shorts and t-shirt and soaked up the sun while skimming the Sun-Herald newspaper that I had received for free. When the girls arrived we walked through Hyde Park then to the botanic gardens north of the park. The gardens were huge and had a significant variety of plants scattered throughout. One highlight was taking our shoes off and walking across the warm grass (there were actually signs that said "please walk on the grass"... haha). I also enjoyed spotting a buff-banded rail skulking in some vegetation about five feet away. Rails are typically hard-to-see birds, and it was neat to be able to ID this one without any binoculars. :) Another highlight was walking through the Australian rainforest section of the garden. We skipped the section of the gardens that was deemed a tropical jungle within greenhouses as it incurred an entry fee that we were not willing to pay ($4). Intriguingly the tropical rainforest section of the gardens was titled "sex and death". I guess because of all the plant interactions that are occuring inside.

Yet another highlight of the botanic gardens were the hundreds, even thousands of bat -- flying foxes -- that were hanging upside down from some of the tree tops! We got to see as many as a dozen or so bats that would fly around at any given time looking for better perhes. Some of them screeched as they argued over perches and hung upside down by one or two "feet", trying to curl up under their wings and sleep. I thought the screeching was parrots at first, but was pleasantly surprised to see these guys. I've always liked bats, but it was really neat and amazing to see bats that were so big, and indeed had wingspands that appeared to be at least as big as a crow's wingspan when they were flying around. Flying foxes are fruit eaters, and have got to be one of the coolest animals in the world in my book! Birds are still pretty cool too. I guess I just like things that fly. Except mosquitoes. Which is good, because normal-sized (small) bats eat mosquitoes. :-D

After we had satisfatorily spent enough time walking through the gardens we started walking back to the hostel. We stopped along the way at a mall to get some lunch and do some wandering around/shopping to kill time. I ended up getting a foot-long veggie sub at subway, and the girls each got something from two other fast-food places. When we got back to the hostel we claimed our bags, I changed out of my running clothes, and we headed to Central Station. We got there 15 minutes before our bus left (exactly when they ask you to get there), checked out bags underneath, and enjoyed the 3.25 hour ride home. It felt kinda good (although a bit cold) to arrive back in Canberra, as Canberra sort of has a "home" feeling to some extent now. We caught a Canberra bus from the city back to our suburb, then walked a couple minutes from the bus stop to the dorm. On the way we passed three wild kangaroos that were in the grass/field along the road, which was pretty neat.

Oh. P.S. For people that have run the boilermaker before -- the Boilermaker has way better crowds of people cheering for you. Don't get me wrong, the crowd at the City to Surf was still way better than any other race I've done, besides the Boilermaker. However, out of five bands along the course today, and none of them were very good -- I didn't hear any heavier/rock music at all! And only one band was on a roof like I had heard about. The crowds were thin and only a few scattered people here and there along the course to cheer us on. Also, there was only half a dozen water/gatorade stops along the course. It was a good amount, but we definitely get spoiled with drinks at the Boilermaker! The hills and scenery were definitely a lot better in Sydney though! And they're both really fun races!! :)