Sydney - the Main Event

I really need to get back to completing the blog posts on this before my next big exciting adventure!

Sooooo Sunday morning Alison and I were up at stupid o'clock and went about getting our planned breakfasts, trying not to wake Kellie, as our half marathon started at 6am and her marathon not until 7am, but she was awake and listening to us pottering about quietly, lost in our own thoughts.

We were out the door just before 5am and heading down to the train station.  Oh yes, remember we practiced this the day before?  Well things look a tad different in the dark and we took the first left instead of the second!  As we were walking down thinking hmmm not sure I remember this shop here or there and we see some fellow runners coming up from the other direction.  I lifted my throwaway jumper to indicate my race bib and said "are you going the wrong way?"  Ummm nope, we were! haha  They said "follow us, the train station is over there".  Oh dear.  

So we get to the Town Hall train station and descended the steps and see wall to wall runners on the platform waiting for the train.  Alison announced:

"We've found our people"

I had to laugh.   We fitted in amongst the crowd on the platform where we could, the train soon stopped and we squished our way on board holding on as there was standing room only.  It took only minutes to get to Milsons Point and we walked to the starting area in darkness, deciding the wait to the portaloo was way too long and we didn't really need to go.  A quick photo (excuse the grainy texture) which I sent to Kellie so she knew we were there, a quick hug and then Alison headed to her A Group starting area (because she is superfast) and I made my way to the B Group and started chatting to a lass from Queensland who was finding the weather just a tad coolish!  About ten minutes before the start I braved the cold and ditched my throwaway long sleeves ready to start. 

I don't remember much about the start really, I can't recall if they played the National Anthem like they do in Melbourne.  I just remember walking for about five minutes to get to the actual spot where we could start running and off we went.  It's so colourful on race day, the gear people wear, the flashes of colour as runners go past.  We did some winding around streets before we got to the bridge.  Now my pics going over the bridge are quite blurry as you'll see but that's because I didn't stop.  I kept on running, that was my aim to make sure I ran continuously over it.  It was one of the highlights of this race.

 

And I took no more pics during the run, I just wanted to soak it all in, so relied on the race photographers and there were plenty!  Despite being overcast it got quite humid running amongst the buildings.  I lost all sense of direction though, I had no idea where I was.  Lots of chatting and camaraderie on course, I couldn't stop smiling.

Lots of too'ing and fro'ing as you'll see from the course map and lots of areas where you could see other runners which was great.  Once we got to the water front it was lovely and cool, the humidity of around the city building was gone.  Gorgeous vistas, but I swear the Opera House had been moved, it seemed to take forever before we rounded that area at Dawes Point and ran under the bridge and there it was, yay.  The end was in sight, 

At one stage I got passed by a dog! ha.  And saw the lass and her dog at the end, it was an assistance dog.  I loved that the dog had it's own race bib and yes, it got it's own finishers medal.  Awesome.

   

What an impressive finish running amongst the flags and finishing right at the steps of the Opera House, here's a pic from the facebook page:

Not my greatest time by a long shot, finished in 2:44:57.  I will admit to worrying about finishing before the cut off of 2:45, they had quite a strict policy on their website that you had to be at certain points of the course by certain times otherwise you would be instructed off the course.  Considering I had no idea where these points were I just kept on as fast as my legs would take me.  I don't think the cut off was as strict as they indicated as I saw loads of people way behind me on the double back sections and besides which the marathoners would be coming after us anyway.   

But I do want to thank my running group buddy Diala for talking me off the ledge in the days prior to going to Sydney when I was having a mild freak out of finishing before the cut off.  Thanks Diala!

Despite my finishing time, despite my worries and misgivings before the event, THIS is the look of happy...

The spots of rain started not long after I had finished.  I wandered what seemed to be a million miles through the park to get my bag and quickly put my warm jacket on and caught up with some of the other ladies at the Opera Bar.   I got to finally meet Munuela for the first time, one of the motivational forces of our online running group.

And Tamra and Jacqueline who very shortly will be flying away to New York to run the marathon.  How exciting.

But I was eager to see Kellie out on course.  Alison was back at the hotel and was going to try to find Kelly en route around Hyde Park, I was hoping to catch her at Circular Quay.   Well we both soon realised, that despite even having her Road ID tracking going on our phones, that as spectators we make amazingly good runners!  We suck at spectating.  We missed her at every opportunity.   We were texting back and forth to each other from various spots on the route and then gave up and decided to see her at the end.  What a moment seeing my dear friend finishing her marathon.

I love these photos full of emotion that I took as soon as Kellie exited from the finishing area.  They speak volumes of how proud we were of her.

 

Once Kellie finished we got cold, the rain was coming down a bit heavier so we got her legs moving and said farewell to the girls and headed toward the train to get back to the accommodation.  Grabbed some food from a cafe around the corner and later on after a bit of a rest broke into the champagne.  

We did have some grand plans of dolling ourselves up and going out to a swish bang up restaurant on Sunday night for dinner.  But the last of the red hot ragers, we ended up back at the same pizza/pasta place as Friday night and Tamra joined us for dinner.  Then we were back at the accommodation and in bed by 8.30pm!  Yep, we girls know how to party.  We were exhausted.

So as mentioned I would leave it to the race photographer and got a lot of nice photos, here are some of them.   These are the types of shots you do this race for with the iconic bridge and opera house in the background.

See, there really were people behind me, I wasn't last!

Elated coming down to the finishing area.

Finished!

I can highly recommend anyone reading this to make the trek to Sydney for the event, it's really well run, such a gorgeous course, possibly not as flat as they made it sound like it was going to be, but loads of fun.

Sydney - the Prelude

Okay, well sooooo much happened last weekend I'm going to have to divide it into three posts, so bear with me.

Sydney - the Prelude

Sydney - the Main Event

Sydney - the Encore

So the Prelude ...

Friday afternoon three very excited runners made their way to Avalon Airport, thanks to Alison driving.  And it was a sign.  In our uncanny way amongst our closest friends in our Athletics Group that we turn up wearing the same colours - we've even done it for the plane flight - all wearing stripes!  It was a sign!

The flight to Sydney and we got in before the scheduled 7pm and decided on a taxi rather than working out the train system.  I think the poor driver thought we were checking up on him, we all had our mobile phones out and he kept explaining the one way streets that he really *was* on his way to our accommodation.  Except he took a wrong turn so turned the meter off and made his way back to where he was meant to be going.  So there's a tip people, you won't get ripped off in a taxi if they think you're GPS checking up on them!  

We were delighted by our accommodation at Hyde Park Inn.   I can well and truly recommend it - in terms of location (right opposite Hyde Park),  location to the train stations (within a very easy walk to both Museum Station round the corner and Town Hall Station a couple of blocks away), and the accommodation itself was exactly like the picture and the slight problem we had with the fridge not working they actually replaced the fridge for us.   The accommodation also gave us free continental breakfast, free newspapers, free wifi and there was free parking (if we had a car, which we didn't).

Alison found a nice pizza/pasta place around the corner called Macchiato, and we were ready for a feed so headed down there post haste.   Ended up with a flirty waiter who asked me for my ID, hahahaha.  Well it was a bit dim in there, the girls quickly got out their phones and used the torches for the menu!  Got to love their ingenuity.  You can take the girls out of the country but ...

Up and ready on Saturday morning to explore we headed to the Expo to pick up our race pack and drop off our bags to the bag drop - warm clothing and anything we needed after the race would be taken to the end for us tomorrow.   I tried on a number of the Asics event tops but they are all such super slim fitting and didn't suit me at all.  I came away with a nice cotton t-shirt with the event on it, which I actually liked a lot better and I have been wearing it ad nauseum this week with jeans.  I also bought some mandarin GU which has been my favourite flavour of late, tastes like Fanta!  What's not to love about that.   The GU man (well what do you call him, he seemed to be a GU aficionado) was showing us the new GU wafers about to come out, a pre-run snack to have to keep the hunger pangs away. 

So right, event bag dropped we headed back to the hotel to take our all important race bibs back so we didn't cart them all over the city and decided we should do a trial run to the event start for tomorrow, being that it would involve a train trip.  Nothing like being prepared.  We had bought our Opal card and timed our walk to the Town Hall Station and then the train trip to Milsons Point.   

Silly me, I don't know what I was thinking, we were on the train and I looked out and it was my first glance at the Harbour, and then the penny dropped.  WE WERE ON THE BRIDGE!  But were we?  I'm looking out the window for the bridge, is it possible we were on the bridge or another bridge?  And I'm asking all these questions out loud in the train to anyone who would listen to me ... "Are we on the bridge, noooo we're not on the bridge, are we? OH MY GOD WE'RE ON THE BRIDGE!!"  

Apologies to my travelling companions for being such a dork!

So we we were glad to have done this trial run to Milsons Point so we knew exactly what we were to do the next day and could work backwards so we knew what time to leave the accommodation.  So we had a little wander down Milsons Point, I'd never been over there, it was great seeing the Bridge and the Opera House from this unique angle.   And as you can see it was a magnificent day.  We were just relishing being in short sleeves after leaving such a cold Victoria.

So as the tourists we were, we thought a ferry trip would be in order so decided on a ferry to Darling Harbour.  Inside or outside?  Doh, was there any question.  We enjoyed the scenery as we sailed.

We really didn't want to walk too far, so took a very easy stroll to the Queen Vic Building to our meet up with the other ladies from the 12WBT Runners Connect group.  Although on the way Alison and I were accosted by "Giovanni" from some beauty salon.

First rule of thumb ... DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT !!

Too late, he had us in the store and sat down and started applying gunk to our eyes.  He doesn't just take any woman off the street you know, he only takes those he thinks he can help!  What a line!  Need to work on your flattering skills Giovanni.  Once the $300 bottle of diamond dusted encrusted gunk was presented to us, Alison and I hightailed it out of there.  Oh Lordy Lord.

Lunch at the Jet Bar at QVB, yay, getting to meet the Sydney contingent from our runners group was surreal.  It was actually hard to take pictures in the cafe as it was dull inside so by the time the cameras came out a number of the ladies had left.  But not before I got these shots.  I also got to meet my RDU buddy Tamra in the bright pink shirt, we cat and mouse all the time on Run Downunder.

And after lunch we got to see some of the delicacies at Zumbo.  I didn't even trust myself with one macaron, it all looked too amazing.

We utilised the kitchenette in our room that night and Kellie, Alison and I had pasta with a plain tomato napoli topping, parmesan cheese and a bread roll for dinner and it was perfect.  I didn't even do a 'Flat Carol' like I usually do, this was as good as it got.  Red on red, that means fast right?

Alarm set for stupid o'clock 4am wake up as we would want to leave the accommodation by 5am the next day, we said our good nights and I'll honestly say I had one of the best nights sleep pre-race than I've had before.   More to come in the next post.  Stay tuned.

Catching up

I've been a bit slack on the ol' blog hey.  But that means I've been busy.  So here's a catch up in 100 words or less! ha, since when have you known me to only use a hundred words!!

We've become a Garmin family!  Well I've had my Garmin for a while now, but Mike was fortunate to buy a second hand one and he's loving it.  Says he feels like a 'real athlete' now! ha.   For any non-runners reading this or anyone scratching their head - the Garmin is one of many ways to track your run.  It's like a little computer on your wrist.  Measures your pace and distance by way of GPS, lots of other things too like heart rate.  Then you sync it to the app and you can get all sorts of data from it including elevation that you ran, amount of steps, speed, it's wonderful for stats junkies like myself. 

Mike has been out in the studio painting.  With all the rain and cold weather we've been having, this has been his 'time out'.  It's nice a cosy in the studio too.   He's slowly getting back into it.  He studied painting in his younger years, and it's been annoying him how it's not really like riding a bike, you don't just jump back into it.  But like anything the more you practice [ train ;-) ] the better you paint [ run].  You knew I'd have to put a running analogy in there somewhere.

So the running, gearing up for Sydney.  I've been doing hills!!  Not that this Sydney run is hilly, it's a new course and is apparently flat.  But hills make you stronger.   On this particular night it was so funny.  I have this crescent that is a nice out of the way place to just go up and down ad nauseum.  I was doing 5km of hills this particular night and at one stage as I was puffing my way up, an elderly lady came out of her house and said "are you lost dear?"  

And long runs!  The thought of doing 19km around my little town here would do my head in, so on this particular Friday off I popped into Warrnambool and had a lovely scenic run along the ocean and up to the whale viewing platform.   

So much nicer on your run to see sights like this - just gorgeous.

Or this...

And as of my run yesterday there were only 8 days to go!   7 days now.  Heck by this time next week it will be all over red rover and we shall be cheering my friend Kellie in doing her first marathon.   I have the best travelling companions in Kellie and Alison for this trip.

We've been getting a fair bit of water around these parts in the last few days.  There's been some shocker floods up in Coleraine and Casterton and yes we've had rain, but now the water coming down from north is adding to it and we're flooding down here.  So much so that the Koroit to Warrnambool half marathon that was MEANT to be happening this morning and which I was volunteering at, has had to be cancelled.  The rail trail is under water in parts.  As in under REAL DEEP water!   Sad sad sad for the organisers to make this hard decision but safety first always.  There's no way you could have run it, and too late to change course and get the various permits.  Disappointing for the runners who were training to peak specifically for this weekend.  But as runners they will understand that the decision was not taken lightly.

And so to end this post on a fun note, look at these two munchkins.  How lucky we are to be their nanna and grumpy.  Their Great Uncle from Scotland sent them Celtic jerseys as a gift.  I think they're pleased.

Wonderland

I had major Wonderland envy when I saw the pics last year for their inaugural event. I just knew I would do it this year and Mike surprised me that he wanted to as well.

A pic from the most awesome race shirt ever!

Let me back up.  Wonderland is an event run by Big Long Run P/L in the Grampians, at Halls Gap, our favourite town on earth.   The Saturday had the 8km and the 2km kids run.  The Sunday is when the big boys and girls, the serious trail runners, strut their stuff in a gruelling 20km or 36km run up over and around the mountains, alongside waterfalls, over rocks and well you get my drift.  Those two events have mandatory requirements and you need to qualify to run them.

Needless to say we were doing the 8km!

So why did I have Wonderland envy after last year?  Well Wonderland is actually an area in the Grampians, but they theme this event after Alice in Wonderland.  The most amazing volunteers dress up and do their utmost to ensure we have the best ever time as runners.

So the 8km Fyans Flat it was called and hmmm there was a few bits I wouldn't call flat. But nothing bad though. And despite the torrential rain they got yesterday the trail part wasn't too bad at all.

So freaking cold before the start with rain on and off.  We got a good park, probably because we were there around 12noon (the race wasn't starting until 2pm), so wandered (actually dashed through the rain) to the local hall to pick up our bib.  We got looking at the Thirs there and Mike decided he wanted one, not to be outdone I would get one too.   Mind you if he told me once he told me a thousand times he was looking like a "bad-ass" !!   He did a double take when on facebook later that night one of his mates likened him to Keith Richards! hahahahaha  And his sister queried "what's with the pirate look".  Not so bad-ass after all.

So once bib was picked up we popped back to the car for a cuppa, Mike had a sandwich and I had a banana as we still had over an hour to kill.  Saw a couple of the girls from our Runners Connect group, always good to catch up.  The bibs were so cool with our names on them (The Sodd being Mike's camping nick name) although he wasn't too keen on the pink! ha.

So I dragged him to mill around the start line about 30 mins to go, I get anxious to be amongst the throng like that.  Of course he complained - it's cold!!!!!!  And then it started to rain, oh joy.  We huddled under the picnic shelter amongst other race goers.  Time to start moving up to the start line and lo and behold the rain stopped and the sun came out.  It was lovely.  

The idea of doing this event was purely for fun.  I wanted to run with Mike.  He's not really into events, so the first surprise was that he entered.  But I just hated the idea that if it was miserable weather and he was bringing up the rear, he'd be hating it, he'd be wet and cold and well I've been there done that and it's a horrid feeling when you're on your own knowing you still have to slug out X amount of kilometres.  So I figured if we were going to be wet and cold we were going to have a darn fun time together doing it.  

Mike had planned to do his 1 minute run, 1 minute walk.  That was all good, but when his runkeeper told him each time that it was time to start running he would never warn me and he'd take off like a jack rabbit (or was that the white rabbit, tee hee!!) and leave me in his dust, only to stop and walk a minute up the road.  Gaaah!  Warn me when the one minute ding happened will ya!

So I mentioned the volunteers, they were nothing short of amazing.  Dotted around the route we just smiled and smiled.  Pics following.  

Probably about half way through it clouded right over and at times some misty rain, but it was okay, we were hot from running so the misty rain was welcome. We took so many photos, today was about fun. Loved hearing the kookaburras (who were prob laughing at us!!) and seeing lots of kangaroos and wallabies. The bush smelt so good too.

Didn't realize though I was running with Usain Bolt!!   This bad-ass took up that Bolt pose for every race photographer!!! Good grief  

Pics courtesy of the facebook group from the local people taking photos around the traps.  The Sports Image photos have come through today, I just haven't yet had a moment to purchase them.  They are as equally hysterical.

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee directing us down over the bridge to the trail below.

Really now magnificent is this area, look at the running track.  Yep, another Bolt moment! 

A lovely racegoer who came up behind us took our photo.

Something you don't see every day in the middle of the bush - 

Mike was passing a Tweedle Dum race goer.

The pose wasn't only a static pose - he did it on the fly also!  

This is probably one of my most favourite photos, he was having the time of his life.

Even despite the torrential rain we had seen on the FB group from the day before,

the track wasn't too bad, only a couple of areas like this.  

How high can you jump?  As high as needed.  

Got to the Bramuk area and the sun was magnificent.

Still with the pose - da plane da plane (a la Fantasy Island I reckon)

  

How magnificent is this area - this view stopped me in my tracks.

More of the rockin' volunteers who just made this event fantastic.

Mike really tired in the last couple of kms as we were heading back to the start (by way of a big loop).  The cloud cover had come over and it started raining a little bit but soon stopped.  I could hear the loud speaker and I said to him that when the finish line area came into sight we had to run.  And he did.  Over the finish line a bit red in the face but oh so happy.  Until he realised his very first piece of bling, his finishers medal was also PINK! hahahahahaha  

  

We came in I think third and fourth last, ha.  But as you can see from these pics, there was so much fun being had, it wasn't about racing.  We certainly got our moneys worth.   Mike was worried he was holding me up but heck, if I had gone on ahead I wouldn't have had half the fun I did.   It truly has gone down as my most funnest event ever being able to take part with my running-bad-ass-bolt-like-keith-richard-pirate-looking husband !!

And the best part was he said "I think we should do it again next year" !  

We finished off the day getting an icecream cone from one of the shops, and on this cold afternoon it was really yummy.  Then back to the car to have our thermos of coffee and hit the road back home. 

LSR ramping up

EDITED TO ADD:   I had written this post a couple of weeks ago and still had it sitting in my drafts only to realise tonight I hadn't hit publish!


So my weekend LSR (long slow runs to the non-runners reading this) are ramping up as I continue on with my half marathon plan.  Not sure if I've ever mentioned, I use a plan from the Marathon Training Academy to which I also avidly listen to their podcasts.  But heck it's hard to get out when the mornings have been looking like this - ICY !

My weekend runs are taking me out of town and down lonely country roads.  Actually lots of roads around here like this, but admittedly this one lead out of town.

And I had the 'girls' for company, a veritable cheer squad lining up along the fence watching me run by.   Actually this heard of cows started following me along the fence, not sure how I can get the video I took in here, it did make me laugh.

But you know when you run way out of town, you've got to run back in, so in my effort to do a big loop I went along under the cypress trees and came across lots of puddles like this.  Oh no!  Not my finest hour.  

Didn't really think that plan through properly did I?