City 2 Surf

The City to Surf is a 14km run held every year in Sydney. It has 70,000 participants. I ran it 5 years ago with a time of 118 minutes. I’ve become much fitter during the past year from riding my bike, participating in aerobics and netball in Laos. It’s a fun race to do with great views, pretty easy and lots of people with some in costume. This year they could more accurately time you than in previous years. That’s because this year you have a timing chip attached to your shoe which records the time you cross the start line is recorded, and a more accurate time of when you cross the finish line. Previously I was stuck behind the start line for at least 5 minutes after the starting gun which is when the timing used to start. Previously your finish time was an estimate also. I agree with my boyfriend who said it was harder to get to the race by train than running the race itself!

Km 1-2 I jogged quite slowly. I was still a touch cold from lining up with just t-shirt and shorts on a Sydney at the end of km 2.

Km- 3-4 is where I actually started to sweat, but only slightly

Km 5-6 I ran steadily, chatting to my boyfriend and enjoying the band and views

Km 7-8 I think this is where Heartbreak Hill was- an elevation of only 90m. I jogged up that slowly and after that I started picking up the pace a bit because it was generally downhill.

Km 9-12 I was just running at this steady faster pace. I felt slightly sleepy and didn’t want to talk anymore. I think this is where getting more than 4.5 hours sleep would have helped.

Km 13 Was running a bit faster

Km 14 I ran pretty hard and finished strong. Unfortunately they put up the pictures as I came over the finish line on the website showing I was trying pretty hard!

I was pleased with my time of 97:30 which means next year I can start in a faster group. I should be able to easily knock off another 10 minutes because I stopped for a toilet break and I could have run kilometres 7-12 faster because they were downhill.