This post should come with a warning ... there are many gratuitous selfie shots. Be warned! ;-)
So the weekend saw me heading up to Melbourne to once again take part in the City2Sea. Last year it was my first really big Melbourne event and I went with Chloe, you can read about the hijinks
HERE. But alas this year poor Chloe and family started dropping like flies in the week leading to it and my partner in hijinks succumbed to the bug and didn't make it.
So me being the seasoned Melbourne runner ... yeah right!! ha. flew the flag for both of us and I headed off. Friday night was a sleep over in Geelong at mum's, and then Saturday morning I took the train to Melbourne. Found the accommodation I had booked and checked in and then headed up to the Melbourne Museum to collect my bib.
What the heck was with that, making us trek all the way up there, and honest me made sure I swiped my Myki, even though I was only one stop outside the free zone.
So with that done I dropped that back to my hotel room, which incidentally was very conveniently located in amongst the shopping precinct, hmmmm don't know how I planned that! Checked the envelope and cheapskates, only the race bib, no pins! Thankfully I had put an emergency set of pins in my bag just in case.
Then I hit the shops baby! I had some things on my Christmas shopping list to buy so while I had the shops at my feet I made good use. Love the decorations in the arcades. Christmas is coming like a steam train for sure.
First visit to Morris & Sons. I have bought online before from their Sydney store, but now there's one in Melbourne, not sure how long it's been there, but ended up buying some wool and a crochet hook to keep me entertained on Saturday night tucked up in my room.
And what's a visit to Melbourne at Christmas time without checking out Myer windows. Oh how I loved it. The story of a little doggy at Christmas. The people my age oohed and ahhed at the recreations of Melbourne in the 50's (I think it was), it would have gone over the little ones heads, but it was completely delightful.
During the day I had had some chats with Mike about the dreadful happenings in Paris. Mike was a bit freaked out at me being in Melbourne on my own. He knew I would look after myself, but it's the fact I was far away from him. I assured him I wouldn't go out wandering at night on my own, even though I would have been fine! I did want to see the town hall lit up, after having my dinner at a little sidewalk cafe in the arcade, oh delicious I headed back to my room, and to be honest I was too comfy to go out again when it got dark. I just wanted to sleep.
Took the obligatory photo of the gear for our runners group and then lights out!
Sunday I woke up to perfect conditions, it was coolish, overcast, but not so cold that I needed a jacket. I checked out but left my case at the hotel and then super early headed to the MCG. As I walked up Swanston Street there were 14 police cars all parked in a row, yep they would be out in force at the big events in the city today.
There was a slight toilet issue as soon as I got to the MCG. The portaloos were backed up, and it was only 7.15am !!! Oh dear I couldn't bring myself to brave them, ewwwww. And they had only one outside access toilet to the G open, obviously no access inside the G at this race. And the line just kept getting longer and longer being that there were only three ladies loos available!
At 8am I met up with some of the girls from the 12wbt Runners Connect Group (Katherine, Nadine and Beth here) and then Trina came a bit later but I don't have that photo.
Beth and I had decided to run the race together, twinnies we would be. Love this pic, instead of saying cheese Beth decided to say moooo (paying homage to our Runners Connect cow mascot!). Poor man behind us just stood and scratched his head.
Katherine also said she would run with us, yay we would be a trio. Only one thing, Katherine and I were registered for the blue zone and Beth in the yellow. Now we reckon we could have run in the yellow - as in you could run in the zone after, but not in the zone before, yellow was starting five minutes later than blue. But Beth didn't want us to try in case we were disqualified. So because this race was for pure fun and enjoyment, not for time, not for a PB, we made plans that we would start in the blue, run the km and whatever and wait on the corner of Fed Square and Flinders Street station for Beth and then we'd all run together.
Bit excited waiting for the start.
And then Katherine and I were off from the blue zone, action shot, bobbing along trying to get our heads in the photo. Hey the world is on a lean!
We got to the designated corner and stopped and waited, what a funny experience that was, seeing the avalanche of runners coming down Flinders Street. Hey there's a storm trooper!
Soon enough the bibs turned from blue to yellow and we kept a keen eye out and there was the pink flash waving madly at us and then the three of us were off. What a fantastic time we had. I usually run alone, I don't train with anyone because of the fear of holding them back, but we were all about the same pace, super quick Beth was coming back after injury and we ran at a comfortable pace. There were music and dancers placed strategically along the route at intervals, hence the Run Out Loud tag the event had been given. I took a photo of a few of the acts.
No idea how this lass stayed on her stilts but she was grooving away to the best of them.
There were rock bands and dancers, kettle drum players, a ukelele band, some bagpipes, and cheerleaders. One thing I did notice was that the energy levels of the acts didn't falter, no matter how far into the race we were. We made sure we cheered and applauded the acts as we went past.
A couple of action shots along St. Kilda Road, heck it's hard to run and take a photo and get all three heads in at the same time! ha.
Almost, but still not quite!
Then the Albert Park slog! Hey there's a sign for me, obviously I was going way too fast! NOT. The next flash that came up was "SLOW DOWN ... FOR CROSSING SWANS" haha. Oh and we saw some little baby swans while we were running, totally adorable.
It is a slog around Albert Park, and we noticeably became quiet at one point, so much so that I commented. But continue on we did, because once we came out of Albert Park it was just a short run down to Catani Gardens.
I high fived a couple of police that were on the route keeping an eye on proceedings. We rounded the corner and then saw the finish line up ahead, Beth's husband was having a cheer and taking photos and then the three of us, arms in the air crossed the finish line, yay! More bling!
Water and an apple and some fun photo opportunities. Damn straight three hot women running the race!
This one made me laugh "Run like there's a creepy man behind you". I will remember that one in speed sessions!
And here's the run, all 15 kilometres of it.
I will go on record and say this was probably one of the most enjoyable events I've run, because of the company obviously. We were out there for the pure enjoyment of it on Sunday. The weather was good, we chatted and boogied to the music, we laughed and laughed, there's something to be said about not taking the events so serious all the time. I missed my mate Chloe, but we will be planning some hijinks for 2016, don't you worry.
So that's the last fun run I've entered for the year. I seriously think I need to rectify that. I've registered for fun runs every month of 2015, but nothing for December. I may do a couple of Park Runs, but I shall have to have a think about what else I can do. Then the fun begins to plan for 2016.
