Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead



ferrari hat makes you run faster

While Chris was enjoying taking pictures of the wild seas and ridiculous winds, I dragged myself out of bed extra early on Sunday morning to participate in the City2Surf, a 14K run from Sydney to Bondi.



Manly beach in the morning, great day to stay in bed

 After a restless night waking up several times to the wind splattering the rain against the windows and thinking about how miserable it was going to be running in this weather, I was greeted by gray skies but no rain on my walk to the ferry.
   

It's going to be fun right??

After a rocky ferry ride from Manly I met up with the team in the CBD.  As a group we peer pressured each other into doing this together and made it a team event.  We huddled together a bit for warmth and watched the first two groups take off before we lined up with our group for the start. 

ridiculous number of people willing to race 14K

With about 69,000 people running the race it was a game of dodge and weave through the sea of people.  There were also prizes for "fancy dress" (costumes) and I spotted a few supermen, bananas, and most excitingly someone dressed as Waldo.  Along the course there were plenty of people cheering and music blasting to keep up going.  Best sign from the crowd - "Worst Parade Ever".

It's all worth it for a medal

The run itself went a lot better than I'd expected, and the infamous Heartbreak Hill was not nearly as bad as I'd feared, although some people were calling it Heartattack Hill as we were running up it.  The worst part was not realizing that the race actually wrapped around part of the beach until I'd already put on my final sprint only to see another 500 meters to go!

James and I gutted it out together, still smiling at the end

James and I pulled each other along and managed to finish in just over 82 minutes, not a bad effort for our first attempt. 

Bondi beach at the end, never as great as Manly



we survived!

After the race we were lucky enough to be able to go to the other James's apartment in Bronte (of course at the top of a hill) for some much deserved bbq and beers.  We've now also decided that the best post race recovery food has to be Tim Tams, washed down with a beer of course.
 

every race shirt needs a good motto

After a few funny days at work while the whole team walked around gingerly, the plans are already starting for what the next team race should be.