Last year I was unable to run in the City to Surf because of a stress fracture, but I had a lovely weekend and the weather was amazing. This year I was finally able to complete my first City to Surf, the weather was horrendous and I still had a (mostly) lovely weekend. We drove into Sydney from Umina Beach with M, late on Friday afternoon and were soon joined by two more of our friends. This year we decided to stay closer to the finish line and found a three bedroom apartment in Tamarama Beach which is just south of Bondi. Although the weather looked threatening, we decided to make the most of this window of fine weather and walked along the coastal path to Bondi for dinner at Salty’s. We were all pretty happy with our meals and the service. I had my pub favourite—a parma.

We made it back to our apartment before the rain started, and boy did it start. When it rains in Sydney it pours! We watched the final episode of Untamed then played some rounds of banangrams, before going to bed. We had originally planned to do the Centennial Park Parkrun on Saturday morning, and then pickup our bibs for the race, but before bed the previous evening most of us tapped out because of the rain. G and P ended up doing an early run along the coastal path in one of the few non-rainy 40 minute windows of the day. After breakfast we went to the expo, collected our race BIBS and dropped off our post-race bags, filled with warm clothes. We had received an email from the race organisers promoting the bag drop due to the bad forecast.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, lazing around and rainbow spotting before heading out for dinner to meet some more friends from run club who were up for the race. Our friend had booked Jewel on the Bay, the night before, after quite a few drinks. There were a few questions on our end regarding the choice of Indian the night before a race, but since none of us were going for a PB and we could choose some less spicy dishes we decided to roll with it. Our friend woke up the next morning, wondering what he had been thinking. Anyway the food was excellent. We had some samosas, lamb biryani, a mild butter chicken with rice and naan.

Sunday was race day. I got up about 5:45 am, got dressed, had a small breakfast and we all left the apartment about 6:30 am. The guys ran there and the girls caught the bus. Our nearest bus stop was where the bus route began so we got a seat, which was good. If you showed your BIB you got free public transport all day. The City to Surf is the one of the largest fun runs in the world and had 90,000 entrants this year. The course is really hilly—221m over the 14 km including the 2km long “Heartbreak Hill.” This was my first time running the race. Fortunately for us the rain held off until later in the race so we got to the start line and waited to start without getting wet. I was in the Green wave for people aiming for a 70-90 min finish. We had to provide a qualifying race time which I had, but with my slow running lately I was just hoping to manage the sub-90 minute.

The atmosphere at the start was great. My wave was the second wave (the elites, preferred and red groups started at 7:35am) and we were corralled to the left of the start line. There were multiple big screens on the side of the corral so we could see what was happening at the start line. Right on 7:40am there was a big puff of green smoke to signify our start and we began walking to the front of the corral. Towards the front of the corral they had fencing to funnel the runners into a few lines. At the very front we turned the corner and had free space to run down to the start line which was about 15 m away. It was probably one of the cleanest starts I’ve had in a big race, with plenty of room to run in from the start. Props to the organisers for handling the numbers so well.

My strategy was to hammer the downhills and then do my best up the hills. I hadn’t warmed up prior to the race which was a mistake and felt pretty ordinary until a couple of k’s in, although one of those k’s was 4:54/km. There are a couple of decent hills early on and I just kept the legs turning over on those without pushing too much. By the time I got half-way in I had a good amount of time banked for my walk-run strategy up Heartbreak Hill. By this time it was also starting to rain. Since I was hot by this time, I wasn’t averse to a cool down but I had to keep my head down to stop my glasses getting rained on. Heartbreak Hill felt like it was never going to end, you think it’s leveling off but it just turns the corner and keeps going up. Anyway I made it up and then it was mostly downhill with a few bumps along the way. By this time Sydney was doing it’s usual and the rain was bucketing down. There were rivers of water running down the road. At first runners looked to avoid them, but soon the futility of that sunk in and everyone just slogged through the sometimes ankle deep water—fun times!

Almost at the end you pass the finish line and have to keep running. I knew this was coming, having spectated at this point last year, but that bit of running to the turn around was not fun. It slopes up slightly in the beginning, my shoes were water logged and heavy and we were still splashing through rivers of water. I did manage to pull myself together and try, managing low 5’s/km towards the finish. My final time was 1:24:18, well inside my 90 min low ball goal, so I was pretty happy.

I was happy that is, until I went to the bag drop. For the bag drop you have to use their bag which was a white mesh thing. All of these bags were waiting for us having just been sitting in the downpour. The was a big queue to get my now useless bag of warm clothes. There was a bit of angst over the whole thing. Did nobody think about the rain? Why did the organisers suggest everyone bag drop warm clothes if they were just going to leave the bags in the rain? Apparently they posted on their Instagram on Saturday morning to pack your clothes in a clear plastic bag to go inside the mesh bag but I don’t have Instagram and they didn’t include that information on their website or in the emails they sent out. The debacle even made the news sites.

Once I was finished G rang me and told me he was with our friends in the enclosed outdoor area with heaters at Salty’s. Our friends were already well into their first beer, but 9:30 am was too early for me so I ordered a zero beer and we shared a couple of plates of sweet potato and normal fries. The breakfast of champions? I also scrounged through my drop bag and found one of my tops was only wet in parts so I swapped it for my soaked T-shirt.

After about 45 mins G and I decided to head back to the apartment. We only got a short way up the street and it began to bucket down again. Luckily I had a poncho in my pocket that I hadn’t needed before the race so I was able to put it on for a bit of protection against the rain and wind. We were halfway back when my vision started to get blurry patches which is a precursor for me getting an exercise induced migraine. (I don’t get these very often, usually I get vestibula migraines which involve vertigo which are a lot worse). We made it home, I took some medication and managed to have a shower and climb into bed which circumvented the worst of it. I slept until lunchtime, then just hung out on the couch while everyone else played card games. It was a pretty quiet evening. I did not take part in the celebratory drinks. We cooked dinner and ate in, then had an early night ready for our 5:30am car packing the next morning. It was the end of another great running weekend away. Monday was a big day of driving. I was so happy to get home, see the kids and Riley and eat lots of vegetables.