City2Sea Race Recap

What a weekend!  Yippee!  Okay backtrack, one day ages ago in a moment of madness, or perhaps chocolate high, Chloe and I decided to enter the City2Sea, not thinking about logistics as to sure, we could enter, but how were we actually going to pull this together.  But this weekend we did.

Accommodation booked at the Travelodge, method of transportation decided, which meant early starts for both of us with a 3 or 4 hour drive for Chloe just to get to the train up north and a 2 hour drive for me to get to my train from Geelong.  We met within moments at the train station, see we timed the trains to get in roughly at the same time, and the adventure had well and truly begun.

After checking into the accommodation we ventured over to the Race Expo.  Not having been to a race expo before we had a browse around, picked up our number, and I entered the contest for a year's supply of Gatorade, oh goodness!  You had to anticipate what your finishing time would be and nearest the pin would win.  I'm about 2 minutes 15 seconds away from my finishing time, so wonder if the others who entered got closer?

We popped over to the sports section at DFO and did a bit of damage there.  It very well could have resulted in a buying frenzy but we were a bit restrained, but I ended up walking away with yet another two running tops - electric blue and jade green.  Thank you Adidas and Asics!   Then headed up to the Running Store in Queens Street and it was at this stage I'm thinking all this walking we were doing wasn't really boding well for our legs, getting a bit tired.

We found a lovely eatery in an arcade and ordered our pasta to do a last carb load !  We asked for fast running pasta, the waitress assured us it was.   We almost (I say ALMOST) talked each other into ordering dessert, wondering if we could fit this into the realms of necessary race preparation, but the 12wbt angel that was sitting on our shoulders that night talked us out of it.

After an early night I was almost too scared to open the drapes this morning to look out ... what was this drizzling wet stuff on the window???  This was not in the race entry form.  It looked cold and dreary and WET out there.  Decided a taxi was the easiest way to get from the Docklands to the MCG and we were up there like a flash and on the look out for any of the other runners from the 12wbt Runners Connect group.

Here we found Cat and Catherine, or actually I should say they found us.  Yes we all looked like we were half drowned and I was about to feature in my first wet t-shirt competition!  This old long sleeved t-shirt was donated to charity at the start line.  And yes I may look a little weird.  I didn't realize I had my running cap on inside out.  So the brim wasn't bent in a naturally arching shape, it looked like I had a board out the top of my head.  How stupid.  I later realised that a few times when I took my hat off and on to wipe the wet hair, that I either put it back on right side in, or back inside out.  Doh!

We soon lined up at the Green Start, wished each other well and wonder of wonders the rain stopped and we were off.  I took a few photos on the run, amazing looking ahead and seeing a sea of runners, it was all so very colourful, how far in the distance had the group spread out.  We ran through the start to be rained on by green confetti.  Chloe teared up ... in a good way, not a bad way, it was all very emotional that we were here in Melbourne and doing this amongst all these people.

Action shot on the run, forgive the blur, but I was on a mission trying to get us in the viewfinder whilst bobbing up and down and laughing hysterically.

Over the bridge to see the runners ahead of us rounding back, you could see how careful we had to be not to slip on the wet road.  Yes, that was a bridge we were soon to run under, eeek!  Not a long bridge thank goodness.

Running through the streets of Melbourne was pretty special, down Flinders Street, along St. Kilda Road.  We made sure we clapped as we went past any of the bands, and thanked volunteers.  They were pretty great yelling out encouragement.  Through into Albert Park, check out those ominous clouds, you couldn't even see the tops of the buildings.

We got to the counting down stage, once we hit half way.  One thing I am very VERY proud of us for during this run was that we ran the whole flipping way.  15 kilometres!  Walking only through the drink stops, because lets face it who can run and drink without snarfing the water up their nose, right?  Amazing what a bit of peer pressure, or friendly running camaraderie can do to make the legs continue on.  And soon enough we knew we were nearly at the end, we could see flags, we rounded the corner and there was the finish line.  No stopping now and over we went.  Terrific.   Through to be given a banana and a chobani yoghurt and the medal, ahhhh the bling.

And yes, I still had my hat on inside out.  Oh woops, lets do that again, that's better!  So that means my finish line shots are going to have a stupid stupid inside out hat on. Oh Lordy Lord.

There you go, get that hat off and that's a bit better.  I don't think I'll ever wear that hat again, I think it's cursed.

15 kilometres is a flipping long way !!!
1 hour 55 minutes and 31 seconds.

Definitely not 3rd last or 6th last this time.
I came 6060th out of 6672 finishers in the 15km
And 194th out of 270 female finishers in my age group, shhhh 50-59.

So by this stage we were damp through, a combo of sweat and the cold and wanted to head back to the city quick smart so after about 4 sardine packed trams we finally squeezed onto one.  Way to get cosy with fellow runners, that's for sure.  Back to Southbank so we could grab a bite to eat, our tummies were definitely at the grumbling stage, despite having some 12wbt banana bread at 6.30 when we got up.  Collect the bags at the hotel, change into warm clothes and then back to the train station to say goodbye and make our treks home, feeling so darn proud of ourselves.

I still had my medal on :-)  made sure I showed the taxi driver at the Geelong train station who took me back to mum's to collect my car, then showed the man at the Inverleigh general store when I ordered a coffee to go.  Yep, pretty darn proud of this medal, it was definitely earnt today.

Thank you Chloe my friend for making this a possibility and making this a weekend to remember.