Just to add to the weekend antics, it was time for City to Sea, after my complete failure last year, I signed up as soon as I finished the race last year. This is when I was suffering from all my knee issues so was struggling to finish towards to end. This year not so much but then again, I did roll my ankle the day before. I just tried to keep at the same pace throughout the entire race, I was hoping to do it within 1hr 15min and managed to complete it within 1hr 23mins, to say I was a little disappointed would be an understatement. Dave as always provided that little extra encouragement especially when I am my own worst enemy, reminding me that I bag was still suffering from the car accident, I rolled my ankle the day before and I am only just recovering from knee issues. So apart from getting older and generally falling apart I shouldn't be too hard on myself (this is definitely a lot easier said then done).
 | City 2 Sea is such a great run, obviously starting in the city at the iconic MCG, along St Kilda Road, around Albert Park and then straight down the beach. Thank goodness they made some small changes including the where the start line was compared to a few years ago. It used to start on St Kilda Rd and then you had to keep going along to Kerford Rd and round again once you got to the beach, and for some reason just felt so long. Just adding these small changes, really does enhance the course a little more. Each year I do this I have some new goals, and yes next year I still aim to get under the 1hr 15min mark. I have been a little slack in my running due to ankle and knees, and really need to start building up my speed and distances. Since we have signed up to do Enduro again as well as the Oxfam 100km, I need to start getting the kms on my legs, going to try and avoid road running and try and stick to the trials (since these are a little better for my knees). |
Runners Bummmm eeekkk and toilet rant
For some reason I always feel so much worse when I do these running events than I do obstacle races, although I still get the nervous twitches during OCR, it was nothing compared to what happened today. I still don't know if it was just nerves or if I had picked something up from the water at Summit yesterday, so most of morning was spent visiting the bathrooms. This really doesnt help as the queues for these are damn right ridiculous, and I guess desperate times calls for desperate measures. So after a few visits, it was nearly time to start the race (not good timing on the tummy again), so we headed off to queue for the toilet again. At this point I noticed that the last bathroom door was left open, and no one from the queue was going into it. So I stomped to the front and asked what was wrong with it, the person at the start said they thought it was blocked or something, so no one was using it. (At this stage I dint care, plus I had been to many toilets in worse condition than that, so I went in to the dismay of the people in the queue). Seriously 1. I was not going to wait and 2. I bet you anything that the rest of the toilets were in just a bad of condition. I admit it wasn't pleasant but I guess you do what needs to be done. Of course this wasn't the end of it, and throughout the entire 15kms I probably had my butt cheeks clenched together (this however is a great butt workout). You would also have thought that this would have made me run that little bit faster but no top many things were going on so waiting until I got to St Kilda, crossed the finished line and headed straight to the bathroom.
Apart from the butt cheeks clenched together, the run itself was as always enjoyable, taking in the sights and sounds of the city, but I did feel myself dropping back from the group a little bit, but was comfortable with my overall pace.
 | I always try an break down long runs into sections so section 1 would be St Kilda Road, which always feels like a really long stretch, with nothing really breaking it up. Next would be Albert Park, you hit this section and your mind switches as Eureka starts to come into view, and you then have the realisation that you will be soon running up it. After that is down Fitzroy Street and the heading to the beach for the finish line. It is a shame that I do always have to quickly jump on a tram (which is free for City2Sea participants), to get to the city, as the finish line vibe is always quite vibrant and fun, and I would love to spend sometime just having a look around. |
Transport rant
It is fantastic that City2Sea does organise free public transport for those running in the event, however for those that live some stupid distance away and need to get the train, its kinda of inconvenient, as the times of the train starts running doesn't allow enough time to get from Flinders to the MCG and get to the race, so we still had to drive. You would think that if you are going to offer a service for a particular event, you would at least have the trains running at earlier times (ok little transport rant over).
It doesn't end there - next up was the Eureka Climb
Luckily at the end of City2Sea there was a collection of bananas, apples and water, so I had a chance to refuel on my way back to the city. I was meeting Dave at the Arts Centre, so we could walk down to Eureka. At this stage I was starting to feel a little cold, and was glad for the jacket that I brought with me. I couldn't quite remember the time I was running so had to check, and discovered I still had over an hour to wait until my wave time. Which gave me more than enough time to visit the bathrooms again, and have a quick banana, top up with my fluids and chill out.
Eureka is a great event when your calves just burn trying to reach the top of the stairs, for the first few floors you power run up and then after that your tactics have to change, as your calves start to burn and your start to breath that little bit heavier. You slowly pass the people that are waiting on the stairs just to catch their breath. For me, I always find it easier just to keep powering through and not look at the floor number, knowing that each one is getting me closer to the top.
I always find it amazing how the group splits up, and unless you are overtaking people or someone is overtaking you there is no real traffic jams which could be expected. The stairs are always a little clausorphobic and gets a little bit dusty, so you find yourself dry coughing by the time you reach to the top, it ends up feeling like an ongoing tickle.
There really isn't too much you can say about going up 1642 steps to get to the 88 floor, expect that next year, I will be getting under 15mins and maybe I need to visit the 1000 steps a few more times before next years event.
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Previous race results, I am always interested to see where I came in comparison to years done prior, so I have got the results for the last 4 years. To be honest, I am totally surprised that I had actually completed in these events for the last 4 years, and hopefully many more to come.
2014 was when I was having my knee issues and 2013 was probably when I was at my absolute fitness, 2012 is when I first started tying to do something healthy. I think I just get a little disappointed in myself, especially as I want to improve on the overall times and not get worse. Next year I hope to smash them all.
 2014 |  2013 |  2012 |
 2014 |  2013  2012 |
Looking at these results, I know that 2013 was my fittest year, I was lighter and in a better frame of mind. My nutrition was on par as well as my exercise, unfortunately life did get in the way, I let me nutrition slip and my exercise was reduced because of the knee issues. I hope that I am now on the mend, with some niggles but definitely a lot better than last year. I am in a more positive mind frame, and know I can get better and better. The good thing is, there really isn't too many variants, with a new 2016 goal to smash them all...
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