City-Bay has been a part of my life pretty much since I took up running! I seem to recall training for it once when I was in about Year 10 but never made it to the start line due to injury, and then I tried again in around 2002 where I had got up to running 3.3km nonstop and then I had an incident with a 20kg weight set which stopped me running for a few weeks and then I totally lost my momentum and gave up after that!
Then in 2012 after I’d done my first ever 5k race I made a pact with my friend Sara that we would both do City-Bay the following year.
I’ve done the 12k 5 times now – in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, then I had a break in 2017 (because I thought, what’s the point if I know I can’t do a PB?) and went back and did it again last year where I rediscovered my love for the 12k! (And, I do believe that was the start of better things to come, as I feel like my running has really improved hugely since then!)
In between that I did the inaugural half marathon in 2018 and then went back again to try to beat my time in 2019, it was a complete disaster and should really have been my first DNF but I’m too stubborn!
Ever since then I have wanted to go and do it at least one more time to try to totally erase that memory! I was all set to sign up in 2020 – it would not have been a PB as I was only just back to running longer distances after injury, but in the end it was cancelled due to COVID. I signed up in April 2021 and then it got cancelled again so my entry was deferred to 2022. And then I deferred it in 2022 due to injury and then later signed up for the 12k. So this one has been a looooong time coming!
If you’d told me at the start of the year I’d be doing a half marathon PB this year, I would have put money on it being this one (also because the only other one I planned on doing was Pichi Richi!) But then when I knew I was doing Adelaide Marathon, I figured that would be a long shot, only 3 weeks post marathon! Besides, I had already done a PB at McLaren Vale and then at Barossa so I had ticked that box!
This was also going to be a bit of redemption for Victor Harbor last year – Victor was a race I had signed up for after last year’s City-Bay, and was gunning for a PB until everything went wrong. That race, and City-Bay 2019 are the 2 races that I wanted very much to forget, so much so that I did not even write reports for them! I had worn my Nike Vaporflys, shoes normally reserved for parkrun, at Victor and that was part of the problem, I went out like it was a parkrun and of course I could not sustain that pace for more than 7km! (Amazingly I averaged 4:43 pace for the first 8km at Victor and then died in the arse – that pace would be very comfortable for me now!)
I took the Nikes for a spin the Sunday before when I did my ‘traditional’ pre-race fast 12 and I did it in 53:40 and seriously considered changing to the 12k because there has never been a better chance of my beating my PB of 51:21!
However I stuck with the original plan because I knew that if I didn’t do the half this year it would be hanging over my head for another year, and also I have Chicago Marathon in 3 weeks and haven’t run more than 12km since Adelaide Marathon 3 weeks ago so I just really needed to do the half.
Normally I wouldn’t do parkrun the day before a race but I’m hoping to get to 400 by the end of the year and with parkrun not being a big thing in the US, I’m going to miss a few while I’m away. So I ended up doing a ‘parkjog’ with Kate and Beck and Beck’s dogs.
I arranged to meet Sarah (who has done the 12k a bunch of times but never done the half) and Amanda (who was going for a PB, having got close to it last year) in Glenelg before the race, so we could all walk to the start together as it would be dark.
It was an early night on Saturday, with the half marathon starting at 6am so my alarm was set for 4am (just so I could have breakfast – I didn’t actually need to leave home until 5am)
Other than the shoes, I went with the same kit that I wore last year for City-Bay, it has served me very well this year!
There wasn’t heaps of time to overthink things or even warm up – as we were walking to the start line I realised I didn’t have my sunnies, I’d left them in my bag – very glad I remembered and went back for them as it would have been quite challenging running into the sun with no sunnies! (Even with sunnies and a hat on I still had to dip my head at times to be able to see ahead of me!) It’s probably a good thing there was not much time to think after the portaloo stop and bag drop because I did not want to think about 2019. I wasn’t super psyched about running the half again but I knew as soon as I started running all would be good!
I moved a bit closer to the front of the pack (looking at the results there were just under 800 finishers so it was a pretty congested start line – nowhere near as much as the 12k but still!) and practically had to walk across the start line when the gun went off, but thankfully once we got through the arch and onto Jetty Road there was enough room to move.
The half marathon doesn’t have much atmosphere because it’s so early, but it is nice to have room to move! I kind of wished I’d brought my music as there weren’t a lot of opportunities for chatting, but I didn’t want to run with my phone, plus I’ve never used music in a race before (other than the loopy ultras) so I was quite comfortable with the quiet!
Early on I ran briefly with Robert and Ben and I was fully expecting them to pass me later, then I was pretty much on my own.
Somewhere in the first half a guy came up from behind me and ran alongside me briefly, and told me I looked ‘graceful’. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that word used to describe me before but I’ll take it! I remembered that at times throughout the rest of the race and hoped I still looked graceful. I certainly felt pretty good throughout!
A bit later up the road I caught up with Chris who I had run with briefly at Adelaide Marathon – he had also run a PB at Adelaide and was hoping to run a PB here. (I later caught up with him at the finish and he did do a PB!)
I couldn’t remember what the turnaround was like 4 years ago, I pretty much blocked it all out. Looking back at my Strava it looks like we ran into the city and did a U-turn and returned to the Bay the same way. This time we did a bit of a loop which I think was better, although it did mean we didn’t get to see everyone on the way back. I saw Sarah coming into the loop just as I was coming out of it and I figured I’d probably missed Amanda. I also saw Karen who I remembered cheering me into the finish line of the 12k last year, but not too many familiar faces! Most runners I know were either doing the 12k or the Sydney Marathon.
My halfway pace was 4:27, given that there was supposedly a tailwind on the way back (I’m not sure if there actually was) and that it’s marginally downhill, I thought it should be pretty easy to maintain that pace at least up until the last few kilometres, and then I might even be able to sneak in a PB!
I also took note of my 12k split – 52:52. Then I thought I’d BETTER do a PB here because I just knew I could have PB’d in the 12k! (My PB was 90 seconds quicker but that was all downhill and this 12k was mostly (albeit only slightly) uphill. Plus I had 9.1km to go so I was naturally running slower than I would have if I’d done the 12.) The first 3km after the turnaround were 4:13, 4:11 and 4:08 so it was almost certainly going to be a big negative split and a PB!
From about 16km the pace slowed slightly (but not enough to be an issue – my slowest km in the second half was 4:27) and then I started doing the math in my head to see how slow I could go and still get a PB. Of course I didn’t want to go slow, but it’s a good feeling to know you have time in the bank! It was looking like I could do 5 minute kilometres and still get under my PB.
So this was my 8th time doing City-Bay and that last kilometre always seems to be that little bit longer than all the others! This time it didn’t seem so bad because I KNEW it was going to be a PB, and by a fair bit too.
Down Jetty Road, almost considered stopping to pick up a credit or debit card someone had dropped on the road (probably a runner, and they presumably knew they’d dropped it but were going to finish the race first and THEN go back and get it), and around the corner to glory!
I heard my name over the PA system, and they said top 10 females, so I was pretty happy with that! (When I checked the official provisional results I was 7th but my name was in green and all the other women were in pink – it seems I came up as gender neutral for some reason!)
After crossing the line I looked at my watch – 1:32:30! So that was a PB by nearly 2 and a half minutes, around the same margin I beat my PB by at Barossa. I have now improved my PB 3 times this year by a total of nearly 5 ½ minutes. Add that to a 9 ½ minute marathon PB and I’m pretty happy!
(Side note: I also did my second fastest 10km of all time during this run, and it was only 22 seconds slower than my fastest, set during my PB run in the 2015 City-Bay)
I knew I probably had a few minutes before Amanda and Sarah finished so I grabbed my bag, drank the Coke that Past Jane had very considerately packed for me, took the Nikes off and put my thongs on. Although the Nikes are great to run in, I can’t wait to get them off as soon as I finish running!
When Amanda and Sarah finished (Amanda got a PB and Sarah said she was a bit slower than she’d hoped but still comfortably under 2 hours) we sat in the finish area and chatted to Patrick who used to run with our group years ago, then went to get free fruit and go get a post-run coffee! After the coffee we wandered through the finish area and considered getting an IV recovery drip before Amanda and Sarah headed home.
The good thing about the half marathon is that you get to watch the 12k runners finish, as they start at 8:00. I ended up getting a great spot right near the finish line under some shade, which I was grateful for, as it was starting to get warm! (Another reason I was glad to have done the half this year – it was quite warm by the time the 12k runners were finishing!)
I got to see a lot of the fast runners finish (I didn’t quite make it back in time to see the winner!) and a lot of familiar faces coming in under the hour.
I got a message from Paul asking me where I was as I was giving him a lift back to the city, I had managed to miss seeing him finish the 12k (another PB!) On the way back to the car we decided we’re going to do sub 50 next year (and hopefully also somehow get a sub 50 bib – apparently sub 50 is the new sub 60!) (Also I am 100% sure he was relieved that I wasn’t doing the 12k this year but really it is just delaying the inevitable – my time will come!)
I also caught up with Cecile who hadn’t been running but she had a good excuse, she had done 100km only a day or so ago in one of those crazy arse last man standing events, something I don’t see myself doing as my ego won’t allow me to do a race where I’m almost guaranteed to DNF! (Hey, if I didn’t DNF in 2019, I’m not about to start now!) Absolute massive respect to all those who do do it though!
So. I think I’m done with the City-Bay Half now. Ticked that box. Demons exorcised and all that. Absolutely super keen to give the 12k a red hot crack next year!
I don’t think the post-event flatness has ever hit me quite as hard as it did this time! Probably because it was such a long time coming! Seems a bit weird when I’m running a World Major in 3 weeks!
Next stop – Chicago!