first city to surf

Ran my first ever city to surf today. I was hoping for a time of 100 minutes or less, but I was a little over that: time will tell, but I think it was somewhere around 104 minutes (though it took me three-and-a-half just to get to the starting line after the “back-of-pack” horn was sounded). The guy who came first? 41:10.

Update: official time – 106:45.

finished the city 2 surf

For years I’ve said to myself that I would enter, but this year, I went one step further, and actually ran the race. In fact, it was a combination of fast-walking and running.

A few observations:

  • There are massive toilet queues before the race, and even during the race – at various places, there are lines of port-a-loos, and always a queue for each one. The smart money is on making a short detour before the race starts to one of the nearby shopping centres: I spotted a few people wearing their racing bibs in the various centres near the race.
  • It’s a long wait for the race to start – especially if you’re in the back of the pack. I think I was standing in the midst of the crowd for about 20 minutes before the first horn was sounded, and then it was another 20 minutes before we were allowed to start.
  • For the duration of the race, but especially at the start, you need to watch the ground, and make sure you don’t trip over anything that’s been discarded – jumpers, cups, water bottles, anything else you can think of.
  • Be careful at the drink stations – especially the ones that are giving away gatorade. People discard their plastic cups all over the road – you can hear the load crunching sound for about 100 meters at each one. The gatorade in particular makes the road sticky!
  • Though I was warned about this, it’s still discouraging when someone pushing a pram overtakes you. Thankfully, this didn’t happen too often.
  • When you get to Bondi, there’s still about 1.5 km to go: it’s hard running this part (I was starting to get noticeably fatigued about 10.5kms), but it’s a good feeling to have run all the way through Bondi to the finish.

post city-to-surf latte

I’m a bit sore now, but having had a shower, I’m no longer salty. It’s time to go to Grind. I ran the whole race wearing my Grind t-shirt: the least I can do is visit them!

Update: someone had spotted me wearing my Grind t-shirt, and told Richard (the owner of Grind).

Join the Conversation

5 Comments

  1. I must confess I usually line up at the start line with an empty opaque bottle of some description … just in case I’ve got to go to the toilet. Thankfully however I’ve never had to use it.

  2. But the big question is whether you would do it again next year and beat the 100 minute mark. Surely someone of your athletic ability and standard would want to push themselves to greater limits.

  3. well done, proud of you, might make it in person if you run next year, that could be a + or a – you be the judge

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