running writing

This was my 6th half marathon for the year and one I was a bit ambivalent about – on one hand I really wanted to make amends for a very very bad run in 2022 (so bad that I didn’t even write a report about it – OK it wasn’t that terrible but it was WELL below expectations!) and on the other hand I was pretty ready for my 2023 running year to be over!

2023 has been a huge and very successful year for me. Before this event, I had done 5 half marathons and 2 full marathons, with 4 PBs among those. All of the half marathons (with the exception of Pichi Richi where I ran something like 1:40:30) had been sub-1:40 – something I’d only ever done once before this year, and that was way back in 2015! (And I reckon 1:40:30 on a hilly course is as good as a sub-1:40!)

The 2022 Victor half was a hot morning, which definitely contributed to my slower than normal time. The other stuff that didn’t help was having a really bad sleep the night before (I’d stayed down at Victor for the weekend) and really having no idea how to pace a half marathon in Nike Vaporflys, having only really run parkruns in them before. Consequently I got to about 7km (maybe not even that far) and was cooked! I was pretty sure from that day on that I was going to need to come back and do it again in 2023!

My plan for this race was to do the opposite of everything I did last year. Except, I still wore the same shoes and the same kit. I’ve done all my halves this year in my ‘lucky’ kit, which I wore for the first time for City-Bay 2022 because it promised to be a windy and possibly rainy morning, and I wanted something light, that wouldn’t flap in the breeze. That race ended up going really well so I’ve run most of my events in the same kit ever since.

I knew how to run in the shoes now – I’d run my HM PB at City-Bay back in September, my first successful race in them!

Having done Chicago Marathon nearly 2 months ago and not really done any super long runs since, I didn’t want to set my expectations too high, but based on my halves this year, I figured sub-1:40 was realistic!

I did a fast 12k the Sunday before in the Nikes (a bit of a pre-race tradition now!) and then had a relatively easy week. My Tuesday run was 5k on the treadmill which SUCKED (because I didn’t fancy running outside in a thunderstorm, although that may have been preferable!) and then I ran Thursday as usual and a relatively easy parkrun on Saturday. (I don’t normally run parkrun the day before a race but I am aiming for 400 parkruns by the end of the year, so I kind of had to. Also I did the Abbotts 5k the day before the Chicago Marathon and that went well, so I figured, why not?) I also tried to do the usual ‘detox’ from caffeine from Tuesday morning but I forgot to order decaf a couple of times – still I had a lot less than I normally would so hopefully the V energy drink would do its thing on Sunday morning! And I’ve decided to start getting monthly massages (it helps when one of your regular running buddies is a massage therapist!) and it just happened that I had an appointment to see Amanda on the Thursday evening – perfect timing! (The calves needed a good working over after my Sunday run in the Nikes!)

It looked like there were going to be big numbers – even bigger than last year (which I think was the first time the event had been run by Great Southern Runs). I was going to have to get there early to get a park!

I had my traditional pizza and wine pre-race meal – with the added bonus of picking up an IKEA Poang chair on the side of the road on my way back from picking up my pizza (so I saved money on delivery AND got a free chair!) and was in bed super early, just after 8pm, with my alarm set for 4:15am. (I would have liked to go to see the Strikers play in the WBBL final but it would have been too late a night for such an early start, so I watched the first half on TV then went to bed – sounds like it was a great game and a nailbiting win for our girls!)

I left home just before 5am and arrived in Victor somewhere around 6:20am, passing Beck, Kate and Beck’s daughter Alice somewhere on the Southern Expressway. I managed to get a park really close, only about a minute walk from the start line, just near the music shop which unfortunately (or probably fortunately) was not open! I’d already collected my bib so all I needed to do was put sunscreen on, find Beck, Kate and Alice, and have a portaloo stop. (In the race briefing we were encouraged to stop along the way so we didn’t all have to go at the start line, which I did, but of course there’s always the need for a last minute stop!)

I didn’t get time to do a proper warmup but the run to the car and back to drop off my phone just before the start was all I needed – it was enough to realise I hadn’t done up my shoes tight enough so I’m really glad I got to do that!

It was a slightly different course from last year. Instead of heading north past the start/finish area at Warland Reserve, we ran across the causeway onto Granite Island which was a really cool touch! We were asked to clean our shoes before the race to stop us spreading Phytophthora onto Granite Island. I only read the race briefing the day before and until I saw the bit about the shoe cleaning I hadn’t twigged that it was a different course! I was hoping it wouldn’t end up being like the Granite Island Run which I’d done before and is QUITE hilly – I’d been promised a fast, flat course! Turns out we were just running across the causeway, a little way onto the island and then turning around and coming back. None of the hilly stuff!

Alice was doing her first half so Beck had suggested she start with me (and then no doubt take off later!). When I had last spoken with Beck about it I was planning to start at 4:45 pace and then pick up the pace later if I still had anything left. If I could maintain 4:45 that should be a comfortable sub-1:40, and sounded very doable!

Turns out I didn’t do that. By the time I finished the first 5k I was averaging 4:27 pace and my heart rate was 161. I found it more helpful not looking at my overall time, just my lap pace and heart rate, to see my splits but also how hard I was working. And that made for interesting viewing when compared to my run last year. Last year my average pace for 5km was 4:41 and my heart rate at the same stage was 186!

So basically I was a lot faster than last year but not working anywhere near as hard. That’s gotta be good!

It was pretty cruisy until we hit the southern turnaround point just before The Bluff and then we were running into the wind for a bit. I still managed to maintain my pace (maybe dropped it by a few seconds but generally pretty consistent).

I wasn’t looking at my overall time mostly but I was interested in a few ‘milestone’ times. My 10k time was just under 45 minutes.

After the first couple of drink stations I tried to get a drink at each one (aiming to just grab and keep running, even though this meant I wouldn’t get quite as much hydration in) alternating between water and sports drink. The sports drink was clear so it took me a few goes to actually get the right one! And I managed to get my cups into the bin about 50% of the time!

Towards the end of the first lap we went past the start area and across the causeway to Granite Island. One interesting thing about the run was that a lot of the time we were instructed to keep right, which seemed quite unnatural! This included on the causeway. I noticed that although most of the runners on their way back were running along the horse-drawn tram track, a few were running to the left of this. I figured out why, when I reached that point – because there was a whole lot of horse sh!t on the tram track! (Also it was a kind of spongy surface so a bit challenging to run on! Probably a good thing for the horses though – if a horse-drawn tram has to exist, I guess it’s good that it’s a nice surface for them!)

I’ll tell you what wasn’t a nice surface to run on – the gravel on Granite Island, just after we left the causeway! Thankfully it was only a short section as the Nikes did not like running on gravel, and in fact I have gone out of my way to avoid gravel while wearing them.

My 12k time was 53:14 – a couple of minutes outside my City-Bay PB, still pretty good when you consider that it was part of a half marathon!

I was still running quite comfortably at this point and maybe around 14km I thought I might back off the intensity a bit and save something for the finish. That didn’t end up happening as I was still running with the wind at this stage and I found I was even overtaking people which is always a good feeling!

On the way back towards the finish line, running into the wind, possibly around 16km, I started to notice a guy behind me, he seemed very close, I moved as close as I could to the left to allow him to go around me but he never did. At one point he practically tripped over me, at which point I turned around and said “I feel like you’re using me as a wind break!” – something he did not deny! I said that I’d done it plenty of times before (and I recalled a time when the guy I was using figured out what I was doing and was NOT happy!) and he said he was going well due to me blocking out the wind so I said I was pleased to help! (I feel like he could have picked a more effective wind break than me but, hey, whatever works, right?) I ended up catching up with him (Jeff) at the end, and it turned out he was racing against his brother and had beaten him by a good few minutes!

The volunteers were all really helpful and friendly and I’d like to thank all of them for adding to what was a really great experience! The marshals were very clear with their instructions so there was really no chance of going wrong! I’d like to thank all the volunteers and organisers for putting on another fantastic event and I’m so glad I went back for another go at it!

The course seemed less congested than last year – I remember the first few kilometres being really squeezy. Which is quite remarkable considering that there were a LOT more people out there this year!

• Half marathon – 1145 finishers (compared with 388 last year)
• 10km – 523 finishers (compared with 196 last year)
• 5km – 170 finishers (compared with 89 last year)

So that’s 1838 finishers compared with 673 last year so it’s pretty incredible that the bottlenecks that I remembered from last year didn’t seem to be a thing this year!

Once I got to about 16km and I knew I would be around the 4:30 mark I knew I was going to be comfortably under 1:40 even if I crashed and burned (which I thankfully didn’t!)

My watch said I ran 21.34km which is obviously a GPS issue as I know the course was accurately measured. Consequently the last little bit seemed to go FOREVER!

My official (gun) time was 1:34:52 (net time 1:34:39) which made it my second fastest half marathon (out of 36) – so comfortably under 1:40 but also as a bonus I scraped in under 1:35!

I definitely pushed it towards the end (because I’d left enough in the tank to be able to do that) but I did need to sit down after the finish line for a few minutes so I’m confident that I left it all out there!

My slowest 1km split was 4:34 (km 6 and km 16). Somewhat coincidentally, my FASTEST 1km split last year was 4:34!

And my average heart rate for the whole thing was 168 (peaked at 194 but that was right near the end) compared with 184 last year (and it was right up there from about 3km onwards so I was working way too hard!)

I managed a marginal negative split too which was very pleasing and unexpected!

Not wanting to get too much into the overall results but based on age grading percentage I was 19th overall which is pretty cool! (And I scraped into the top 10 overall females which I don’t think I’ve ever done before in such a big field!)

Alice ended up finishing in about 1:39ish, not too far behind me, not bad for a first half!

Beck and Kate finished too – they probably won’t be too excited about their times but nice work getting it done – they’ll be glad they weren’t there last year as that would have been a long uncomfortable slog in last year’s heat!

We didn’t hang around long because Alice had to get back to town for work (working after a half marathon – talk about bad planning!) so we ended up stopping at Mount Compass for a coffee on the way home, as all the cafes in Victor were super busy (which is GREAT for the town!)

All in all, a pretty good way to end the year!

Congrats to the many runners and walkers who tackled the event this year – we certainly had perfect conditions!

Now for a bit of an ‘off-season’ (which won’t involve NO running, but probably a bit less, a bit more cruisy pace, probably some trail running/walking, and a bit more focus on cross-training) and then I really need to start making some plans for 2024 to get myself motivated for another big year of running!

It’s been a big year of events. I’m not sure what possessed me to tackle so many races and I’m also not promising it won’t happen again next year!

See ya 2023, you’ve been great!

To say this was a long time coming would be an understatement – to avoid rehashing the whole story, I was meant to be there in 2019, got injured, deferred to 2020, COVID happened, and so there I was in 2023!

Given that I was busy doing touristy things and not having my laptop with me, I am only just writing this the day after returning home to Australia, 2 and a half weeks after the event, so the level of detail is probably not what it would normally be. I’m sure a lot of you will be thankful for that!

As I had previously done for Boston in 2017 I made it into a bigger trip, working my way from east to west. I started in New York City (because there is still so much left to do there  even after 4 visits!) and a quick stop in Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (well worth it!) before flying into Chicago on Friday around lunchtime.

First stop was the expo where I was very restrained (just bought a hoodie and some chocolate and partook in a sneaky wine tasting!) as well as chatting to an Aussie guy at the Sydney Marathon booth who was going to be pacing the marathon (3:20 so I told him I definitely would not be seeing him on Sunday!) after having run the Sydney Marathon only 3 weeks ago! After this I went back and checked into my hostel (I was in a room full of boys, all marathoners and all looked like they were travelling pretty light which was good for me as I was not, and the room was not huge!) After some Googling I found a cool vegetarian/vegan joint a few train stops away for a Philly ‘cheese’ ‘steak’.

It seemed like there was a DJ in the bar downstairs until all hours of the morning, that did not bode well for a good night’s sleep the night before the marathon! (I later worked out that it wasn’t a DJ, it was every night, and it went ALL NIGHT LONG. Being on the 2nd floor meant we could hear it quite clearly from our room – perhaps the higher floors were quieter?)

On Saturday morning I met fellow Adelaide runner Chantel at her hotel to walk down to the 5k (because what could possibly go wrong? I never run the day before a race!) The plan was to go relatively easy but still decent pace. If not for the multiple times I had to avoid tripping on people who cut me off, it may have been faster but I ended up running 23:40. It was definitely the biggest 5k run I’d ever done, with over 9000 participants!

Chantel and I then went to a bakery for brekky/coffee (no coffee for me, I hadn’t had one since my flight to NYC the previous Saturday as per my usual pre-race ‘detox’)

I then spent the rest of the day wandering around the city (WAY too many steps for the day before a marathon!) before meeting Chantel at Eataly for dinner at the somewhat unusual time of 3:30pm! (That was the latest we could get in!) The waiter was a bit unsure if they could do the pizza without cheese (I genuinely don’t get why this is an issue – literally make the same pizza but don’t put the cheese on – it’s easier for them and I still pay the same!) but it was pretty good (paired with a nice Chianti!)

Chantel very kindly offered to let me stay in her hotel room which I gratefully accepted, so after dinner I packed up all my race gear etc and wandered down to her hotel (which would be not only quieter, but also closer to the start line). Because dinner was so early we ended up going to Nando’s for some chips and the guy there was super lovely and didn’t charge us!

On race morning I woke up early – around 5:15 from memory, with my start time being 7:30 (I had to be in my corral by 7:20). It was recommended to get there 2 hours before start time which seemed a bit excessive, so we had decided to aim for 1 hour. And staying in a hotel with many other runners, and relying on a lift to get down and out of the hotel, Chantel very sensibly suggested to aim for a bit earlier, to factor in having to wait for the lift! I got up and dressed, had my breakfast (granola and some kind of non-dairy beverage – they’re not allowed to call it ‘milk’ here!) and we headed out before 6am. Chantel didn’t actually need to get there that early as she was in the next wave after me, but she had booked the VIP experience so it made sense to get there early and make the most of it!

I wore an old hoodie that I had been planning to get rid of anyway, to discard at the start line. I also had a spare beanie which I had picked up for free at the expo and I didn’t especially want, but I decided I didn’t need that, as it was a bit chilly but not outrageously so. I took a bag with my race shirt (superstition dictated that I would not wear it until after I’d finished the race, although I did see a lot of people wearing theirs for the race itself) and new Chicago hoodie in it, to put on after the race. That was all I had in there, as I carried everything else (phone, money card and room key) in my pockets and Flipbelt. I also had, as I had done at Adelaide, some protein balls which I’d brought from Australia, and a Revvies to have around 30km (I finally worked out that there is an easy way to open those packets! You just peel it from the corner!). And for before the start, I had a V energy drink which I had also brought from Australia. (There had been a minor disaster when one of the two cans I brought, sprung a leak somewhere along the way! Luckily I brought two and one of them survived the journey!) In hindsight I drank it too early as the 7:30 start ended up being 7:50ish, and I usually have it half an hour before I start.

It seemed like an eternity that I was standing in a queue for security to get into the race village, and then once I finally got in, there was another queue for the bag drop. All the while I was messaging Chantel who was sending me photos of her luxurious VIP area with no queues and crowds, which was greatly appreciated (lol)!

By the time I’d dropped off my bag, I joined the portaloo queue for about 5 minutes, realised it wasn’t moving, and that I was going to be pushing it to get to my corral before it closed at 7:20 so I ended up ditching that plan and went straight to my corral. It turns out that portaloos in the USA are drop toilets rather than flush toilets like we have in Australia, and when I found that out later, I was not disappointed that I’d missed out!

I took my hoodie off a bit earlier than I needed to, again thinking that my 7:30 start time meant I’d be starting at 7:30. In the corral I saw a few pacers (actually a lot of them!) as well as people with bibs on with times on them, and I wasn’t sure what that was about. (I later found out that the official pacers held signs, kind of like the paddles that crossing guards hold, but shorter and lighter. The ones that had the bibs on their backs, were just AIMING to run the time that was indicated on the bib. I would not have wanted that – not only did I not really have a specific time that I was aiming for, but I would not have wanted people to know – what if I had an absolute shocker and I ended up running half an hour over my goal time, everyone would know! Whereas I could also NOT advertise my goal time and no-one would be any the wiser!

Anyway I positioned myself around the 3:40 pacer to start with, and I would just see how that went. I didn’t have a goal time other than I wanted to beat Boston which was just over 4 hours (and that should have been a cakewalk, as Boston is WAY harder!). My goal was to enjoy it and get that medal at the end. If I could also run a good time that would just be a bonus! Anyway based on recent form I thought I should be able to manage around 3:40 pace, at least for the first little bit, and then if I crashed and burned I should still be able to get under 4 hours comfortably.

I don’t remember a lot of detail of the race itself, fortunately I wrote myself a few notes on the day after, to jog my memory.

The course is flat (mostly) and goes through a whole lot of very eclectic neighbourhoods. Basically it is a tour of Chicago in the form of a marathon (much like the first marathon I ever did, in Liverpool in 2014). I remember early on, running under a road (there was a lot of that) and kind of wanting to stay under there as it was warmer, protected from the elements!

A few times along the way I saw Aussies in the crowd. I didn’t know any of them, but I still cheered every time I saw one. From memory there were 2 inflatable kangaroos and at least one Aussie flag. And I saw a few people with ‘Travelling Fit’ tops on, which is an Australian company. So I knew there were a few of us out there!

Like in the 5k, I did have to avoid tripping over other runners a number of times. In this case it was mostly people who saw someone they knew in the crowd and just made a beeline for them, with no awareness of the possible carnage they were causing!

I mentioned before that the run went through a bunch of neighbourhoods such as Chinatown, Little Italy and Pilsen (a Latino area). There were people cheering along the sidelines most of the way along the course but there were specific ‘Cheer Zones’ where people were encouraged to gather, which made for a great atmosphere! This was where I managed to get the bulk of the high fives (similar to Boston, I wanted to soak it all up as much as possible, and getting involved with the crowd was part of that! I also wanted to pat a dog, as there were many of those along the way, but I thought I should really ask the owner if it was OK, and that would mean I’d need to stop, and I really didn’t want to stop!)

There were also bands on course, I can’t remember the detail of that now but I’m pretty sure I remember there being a pipe band at some point, and I do love hearing/seeing a pipe band!

Chicago has a lot of bridges, particularly across the Chicago River. and we crossed a few of them. Most if not all of them had a ‘red carpet’ section. I quickly learned that crossing the red carpet was a lot more pleasant than running across the uncarpeted grating! It was partly luck and partly anticipation that meant that I mostly managed to run on the carpet (you needed to be on the correct side of the bridge, and if you weren’t, it was a bit fraught to try to get across!)

Like at Adelaide Marathon I managed to avoid stopping or walking at the drink stations. A few times I had some failed attempts to grab a cup (I recall 3 attempts to get a cup of Gatorade at one drink station!) but mostly I was able to successfully take a cup and successfully get most of it in my mouth – cardboard cups definitely helped with that, as I could make a spout).

There were also ‘aid stations’ which I thought were drink stations but they were more medical stations, band-aids etc. Fortunately I did not need to use them!

Many of the crowd were holding signs. A popular one was “You run better than the government” which is probably equally relevant wherever you come from! (Possibly not QUITE as relevant as it would have been when I ran Boston in 2017!) There were also people holding signs that said “Touch here for a power-up” and I tried to touch as many of these as I could!

I did not look at my watch from the time I started to the time I crossed the line. I think from memory I did the same at Boston, as similarly, the time was irrelevant. (This was also one of the reasons I ran 4:00:19, because I’m sure if I’d known how close I was to 4 hours, I would have been able to get under!). It was easy enough to do, as I was wearing my arm warmers. After a few kilometres I’d rolled them down as I got warm pretty quickly, and then rolled them back up near the end as I thought it would look better in the photos, but all the while they were covering my watch and I needed to make a conscious effort to look at it (which I didn’t!)

At least for the first half, I was trying to catch the 3:30 pacers. I had started somewhere between the 3:40 and 3:35, and despite not having a time goal, I thought it would be nice to get another sub 3:30 and prove to myself that Adelaide was no fluke! I knew that I would have a bit of a buffer even if I didn’t catch the pacers, having started a little way behind them. I did catch them around the halfway mark but they quickly got away from me again. I forget the exact moment that I passed them and did not see them again.

Towards the end I heard someone telling someone that the marathon world record had been broken by Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum – so this was indeed an auspicious day!

I was expecting to see mile markers, but I was happy to see there were also kilometre markers, because I’m used to kilometres and pretty much the whole of the world does kilometres! Weirdly, in the last kilometre, there were metric signs! I remember 800m to go, and then 300, 200 and 100. And I remember that although it was a flat course, there was a hill (OK probably more like a speed bump) at the end!

So I crossed the line, and then finally looked at my watch to see the result – my official time was 3:27:05 – to say I was stoked with that would be an understatement! Could I have beaten my PB 3:26:21 if I’d known how close I was? Maybe, but I didn’t really feel like I had anything left in the tank at the end. I never really hit a wall as such – probably around 30km it started to get a bit hard but not even really as hard as you would expect in a marathon.

Then it was time to collect my medal and go get my bag with my new race top and hoodie, as it started to get cold quickly, despite the foil sheets that we all got given at the end!

I wanted to get a finisher shirt, so I went straight to the Nike store, as they would only have limited supply and I didn’t want to miss out! The atmosphere at Nike was like a party, the staff were all cheering everyone that came in with their medals on! I bought a T-shirt for $US70 plus tax which is OUTRAGEOUS but I figured I wasn’t going to do this again so why not? (The other options were a half zip long sleeve and a spray jacket – I shudder to think how much they cost!)

Chantel was a bit behind where she wanted to be, so I had plenty of time to get back to the hotel for a shower before she got back, and then headed back to the hostel to drop off my stuff. Soon after that Chantel had organised to meet some other Aussies at a local pizzeria (Pizzeria Due, the second place in Chicago to serve deep dish pizza. Pizzeria Uno was of course the first) and I joined them. I may or may not have eaten an entire (cheeseless) deep dish pizza myself – which was quite a feat but not surprising given that I’d just run a marathon!)

It was too early to go to bed so while I had a load of sweaty running gear in the washing machine, I went to the bar at the hostel and met a bunch of other runners who I ended up having a few drinks with. They were a great bunch – a few from Scotland, (one originally from Finland and one Aussie among them), and then an Irishman and an American from NYC came and joined us.

The following day was Medal Monday so the rule is you have to wear your medal all day and you definitely don’t look like a dick for doing so! Chantel ended up getting free stuff/discounts from a few places but I got nothing – other than lots of ‘Congrats’ which was, to be fair, nice!

This was an awesome experience, and it was a bonus that I was able to also have a good run myself.  As a world major that you don’t have to bust your arse to qualify for (unlike Boston) it’s one that I would recommend to any runner that likes flat marathons. It doesn’t hurt that Chicago is also a great city!

Would I do it again? Probably not – there’s so many other events I want to do and travelling overseas is EXPENSIVE! But I would not hesitate to recommend it – great course, vibrant crowds and fantastic volunteers!

Having pretty much given up on getting the 6 world majors (which will certainly be 7 by the time I finish) I’m now thinking MAYBE I might keep it in the back of my mind. Cost is the main factor which will stop me! Tentatively I think I might aim for NYC in 2 years!

And that’s my marathon running finished for a little while!

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 8^th 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 7^th 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!

If you’d told me 6 months ago that I would run the Adelaide Marathon this year (especially given that Chicago Marathon is 6 weeks later) I would have asked you what you were smoking. And if you had told me I would do a (spoiler alert) 9 minute PB I would have definitely asked you to share whatever it was with me!

Before we get into 2023, let’s briefly revisit past Adelaide Marathons.

I’d done it 4 times as an official pacer, in 2015 (21.1k), 2017 (21.1k), 2018 (10k) and 2019 (21.1k).

In 2016 I ran the marathon with Beck to try to get her a Boston qualifier and said I’d never do it (the full marathon) again!

Fast forward to March 2023, just after the Great Southern Runs Myponga event, having a post-run wine with my friend Paul when we started discussing what other running events we might sign up for. Somehow the discussion turned to Adelaide Marathon and he suggested I could do it with him to try and get a better time than he got last time, because he went out too fast and didn’t train properly, and I thought why not, could be fun! And also it would mean I’d have someone to do the long training runs with, and could use it as a lead-in for Chicago, and I was sold!

At first I thought I might struggle to keep up, but as time went by I was doing some pretty good half marathons so I felt like I definitely had it in me!

Theoretically it was a 16 week training programme but it was interrupted by a half marathon every month (that’s just the way it worked out) and each half was preceded by a fast 12k the Sunday before, because although Adelaide was the big one, we still wanted to do well in the halves!

And it worked, up to a point, both of us managing 2 half marathon PBs in the first half of the year!

One thing that I did in the lead-up that I am sure helped me a lot, was that I signed up to do an 8 week RunFit programme at VitalCore Physio, which I had done twice before in 2018 and 2020. In 2020 it was just before I returned to running after a long-term injury and I wanted to make sure I addressed any imbalances and started from a strong base. This time my reason for signing up was because I was already running well and I wanted to be as good as I could possibly be, and hopefully sneak in a half marathon PB! (Marathon PB did not even enter my mind at this stage!). It started with a 1:1 assessment with physio Thomas who tweaked my home programme, then a circuit-style class once a week for 8 weeks, and a follow-up assessment at the end. I think this is a big part of why running is going well for me this year!

A couple of weeks after the McLaren Vale half we did the first long run of the marathon training programme (meant to be 25km but ended up being 26.6) which seemed to go quite well, but after that, Paul was out injured for quite a few weeks, at which point I started to consider the possibility that I might end up doing this by myself, and wonder whether it would be a better idea to pull out and focus on Chicago (and one last crack at my nemesis event, the City-Bay half marathon 3 weeks after Adelaide and 3 weeks before Chicago). In any case I would keep training as normal and see what happened.

Other than a couple of nice trots around Chambers in preparation for the hilly Pichi Richi half marathon, most of my long runs were pretty boring routes along the River Torrens, mostly because I can’t be bothered coming up with a route and it’s easy to do an out and back long run along there without too much thinking required! (Two of my ‘long runs’ were also races, Pichi Richi and Barossa. Definitely helps when there’s a lot of people around and a medal and wine at the end!)

With 5 weeks to go until Adelaide, Paul confirmed he definitely was going to have to pull out of Adelaide, at which point I was still a bit undecided if I really wanted to do it. (The fact that I am writing this obviously means I did!) I then went out that day and ran a solid 35k, albeit a bit crap in the last 5k, with an average pace of 4:49 minutes per km. And then I decided I owed it to myself to give it a good crack! And it would be my first time participating in the Adelaide Marathon festival just ‘for me’!

A week later I did probably the most ‘planned’ run I’ve done since my earlier marathons – 30km with the first 5k at 5:00 pace, 20k at 4:40 pace (managed to hold that pace for about 18km) and then the last 5k at 5:00 pace (ended up being a fair bit slower than that as the fast 20k had taken it out of me!) – it was very hard but it definitely led me to believe a PB was realistic (previous PB 3:35:59 – 5:07 pace) and I could probably even aim for a sub 3:30 (average pace 4:59).

During my 4 week taper I did 28km (4:56 pace), 23km (4:50 pace) and finally with a week to go I did 20k aiming to run the whole thing at race pace (ended up being 4:57 pace) and even managed a slight negative split!

The problem with telling fellow runners that you are going to run a marathon, is that they start telling you what time they think you’re going to run, and sometimes that is wildly ambitious, far beyond my ambitious goal of breaking the 3:30 barrier. And that definitely got to me as race day approached! (In the end I had to tell people to keep their predictions to themselves until AFTER the race!)

Race week was a planned easy week. 10ish kilometres on Tuesday morning and then no running until race day (other than an easy 3km on Friday morning). From Thursday to Saturday (other than the aforementioned 3km) I did practically nothing. It was very weird and disconcerting!

I got a massage from regular running buddy (and awesome massage therapist) Amanda, and had a good chat about what it takes to run a marathon PB, she having done that very thing a few months ago at Barossa! She definitely found all the tight spots, which were primarily in the right traps and glutes. Someone please remind me I need to do this more often!

I had a few ‘new’ things for the race – I decided to treat myself to a new T-shirt, as the top I wanted to wear (in which I’d run my 2 HM PBs this year) caused chafing in one of my long runs. I ran in the new T-shirt once but I wasn’t anticipating any issues as I’d run marathons and ultras in the same style of T-shirt before. I also bought new socks as I wore through one of my favourite race socks (Lightfeet) about 3 weeks out. And my shoes were newish, I’d only been running in them for 3 weeks. (I wasn’t game to run in the fast Nike shoes – particularly as I hadn’t used them for anything more than 5k since December!)

I had a very basic and probably wildly inadequate nutrition plan, but it was more than I’d ever used before Pichi Richi marathon last year. For the last 4 weeks I had been taking protein balls (salted caramel flavour) on my long runs, initially I’d have one every 5km but then I changed to every 6km because then I could just take 6 on the marathon, I could easily fit 3 in the two front pockets on my running skirt, and hopefully not look like I had a couple of massive hernias (because as we all know, it’s ALL about the race photos!). Other than this I just took one Revvies strip for a caffeine boost later on. Anyone who’s used Revvies before would know the packet is notoriously hard to open (something I learned the first time I tried one on my long run!) so I pre-emptively cut the top off so I would be able to get the strip out easily on the day. That was planned for around the 30km mark. Another thing I learned the first time I tried one was that it takes a little while to dissolve on your tongue, and you don’t want your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth before it dissolves, because then it sticks and doesn’t really ever go away, and it doesn’t taste the best! Another reason, I guess, why you need to practise all this stuff before race day!

I contemplated having ‘special drinks’ which I could just grab and run, something I had previously used at Adelaide and Barossa marathons, but as I’d only been training with water this time around, there didn’t seem much point. Theoretically it saves time because you just grab your bottle and you can carry it while running, and presumably you end up getting more hydration in, but I thought if there’s lots of bottles on the table and it takes a while to find mine, it would actually be quicker to stop at the drink station and have a couple of cups of water. So in the end I decided not to bother. Plus, I’d run 2 HM PBs while using cups at drink stations so it hadn’t slowed me down at all.

My pre-race meal was as normal – pizza! I had previously had cider as my drink of choice, but as I don’t tend to have cider in the fridge these days, and because I’d had a successful run at Pichi Richi with red wine, I decided wine would do! I contemplated eating the whole pizza but ended up only having half, a decision which I would be thanking myself for later…

It was a SUPER early start – I believe because there was an early football game on at the Adelaide Oval and they needed to re-open the roads. The marathon started at 6:30 and with over 500 runners registered (the event actually sold out) the recommendation was to get there early, by 5:30am. So it was a 4:30 wakeup call, breakfast, get dressed and pretty much leave as soon as I was ready. The first excitement for the day came when I got breath tested by and RBT on the corner of Port Road, just next to Bonython Park (presumably trying to catch people heading home from a big night out, not runners on their way to a marathon!) Needless to say I blew zero and was sent on my way! Not wanting to pay for a car park I decided to park across Port Road from the race village at Bonython Park, and it ended up being very easy to get a park that was not too far at all from the start line.

It wasn’t too cold at 5:30 and promised to be a fine day so I hadn’t even needed to bother with layers or arm warmers. I did put sunscreen on and had sunnies sitting on top of my hat (which were never actually required during the race)! It was a bit hard to catch up with people in the village before the start as it was still pretty dark! I had my pre-workout at 6 and then went for a quick warmup jog before dropping my bag at the bag drop where Cecile and Louise were volunteering. Cecile told me what time she thought I would run, she thought I was going to do 3:20, I was not too bothered by it at this stage, I told her there was NO WAY I was going to go that fast but hoping for something in the 3:20s!

After a second (possibly unnecessary) toilet stop (yay for fixed toilets – there were also portaloos but I was very happy not to have to use one of those!) it was time to head to the start line.

There was a 3:30 pacer who I planned to run with for the first 30km (or the first 21.1km, depending on who I was talking to). Somehow though I ended up starting in front of him so he wasn’t really going to be much help to me from that point! I could see the 3:15 pacer but I knew trying to keep up with him, even if for only the first km or two, would end in certain disaster!

We started on Port Road and headed around the corner and up the hill over the bridge before the familiar territory of War Memorial Drive. My first two km were 4:46 and 4:45. At that point I decided to switch tactics, I did what I had done successfully at McLaren Vale and changed my watch screen to the one that showed heart rate and current lap pace. I figured, I wanted to try to keep my heart rate below the mid 170s for as long as I could, and as long as my lap splits stayed on or under 4:58, my average pace would also get me under 3:30 (given I was faster than that pace for the first 2km).

The course was all new to me, quite different from the last time I’d run it (when we finished on the Oval) which was actually quite nice as the first lap was almost like a bit of a reccy! There were plenty of drink stations – I think I had a drink at all but the first one (because I didn’t feel like I needed a drink yet!) and lots of familiar faces out there, both running and volunteering! As per previous times doing this event, there were a bunch of out and back sections where you got to see pretty much everyone else in the field so it was nice to give/get some cheers and a few high fives along the way! I don’t recall seeing too many of the runners from other distances but I think I probably saw all the marathoners at some stage!

It was also very nice to have some live music along the course – I had been training with music (as I always like to, when running on my own!) but have never used it in a race (other than those stupid loop ultras where you don’t need to follow any marshall instructions!) so it definitely helped to break things up a bit! The first song I heard near the Adelaide Oval was “Tequila Sunrise” which seemed appropriate given that the sun had not long come up by that stage!

One of the drink stations near the Torrens Weir was manned by a bunch of sharks which was a bit of fun! I half expected them to be cranking “Baby Shark” on repeat but then I thought that would have been WAAAAY too annoying for them!

I wasn’t really keeping track of my splits but I did see my time at 12km and it was just under 58 minutes, which was somewhere around the time I did for my first City-Bay nearly 10 years ago – and I briefly reflected on how far I’ve come since then!

There was a group of supporters with a big sign and I can’t remember exactly what it said but it was along the lines of “Hurry up, we want to start drinking!” – I saw them a few times in a couple of different spots near the Oval.

I managed to keep my heart rate lowish for the first lap, and everything was still feeling pretty comfortable at that stage. Again I wasn’t looking at my watch at the time but looking at the results afterwards my halfway split was 1:42:01 which was possibly a bit fast, but I was able to reset as I ran through the right side of the finishing arch and onto my second lap. That was the warmup, now for the race! (There were timing points halfway through the lap as well, so essentially I could split the race into quarters. My second quarter ended up being the fastest)

The first bit seemed unfamiliar, and I wondered if I was in a total daze for the first part of the race, until I looked at the map later and realised that the start of the second lap was slightly different, running along the path rather than on Port Road – presumably because Port Road would have been reopened by that stage. Once we were back on the bridge on Park Terrace I was back in familiar territory.

Weirdly, with over 500 in the marathon, I found myself running up War Memorial Drive with NO-ONE around me! Fortunately that was short-lived – I almost wished I’d brought some music along but then I would have had to run with my phone, and I was trying to go as minimalist as possible.

Around 24km my heart rate started to climb a bit, and as I tried to drop it a bit, my pace also dropped. I didn’t really feel like I was running slow, but this was one of only 3 kilometre splits that was over 5 minutes (and it wasn’t even an uphill kilometre!) At that point I stopped caring about heart rate and just concentrated on trying to maintain my pace under 4:58. I was pretty confident that barring disaster I would be able to get under 3:30 (Every time there was an out and back section I’d see how far behind me the pacer was, and at times it was a bit scary because he seemed to be a LONG way behind me which either meant I was doing very well, or that things were going to fall apart because I had, as always, gone out too fast!)

In early marathons I had a very structured pacing strategy and I had every kilometre split written on a band on my wrist, as it started slow and then gradually got faster. When I did my PB at Gold Coast in 2015 I had planned to do this but then ended up just running with the pacers and then after 10km I’d left the pacers behind me and I had moved onto the less-advisable marathon pacing strategy of “GHHO” (Go Hard and Hold On). It appeared that I was firmly in GHHO territory now…

Around the Uni Loop I heard my name and I saw a familiar face with 2 border collies – it was Beck, with whom I had previously run Adelaide all those years ago! She ran along the Uni Loop for a little while, it was great to see her come out to cheer me on!

At some point, as I did not have the distance screen on my watch, I lost track of which kilometre I was up to. Happily, I was actually 1km further along than I thought I was! That hardly EVER happens (it’s almost ALWAYS the other way round!)

I reached the 30km mark and had my Revvies – despite having cut the packet I still had a bit of trouble opening it to get the strip out, then I ran past a lot of familiar faces including Sue marshalling on one of the turnarounds, but I couldn’t really talk because I didn’t want the strip to stick to the roof of my mouth again!

At the weir one of the sharks was holding up a ‘touch here for a power up’ sign so of course I took advantage of that! I think at that point I may have accidentally grabbed a sports drink instead of a water – I hadn’t used the Prepd sports drink before so I wasn’t game to try it, plus I tend to end up wearing a fair bit of whatever I drink, so I didn’t want to end up sticky! (Incidentally, kudos to SARRC for using paper Biocups, not only compostable but also much easier to drink from once I worked out I could make a spout and pour the water directly into my mouth and not all over myself!)

I also realised that I need to work on my aim because probably only about 50% of my empty cups ended up in the bins!

My 3/4 split was 2:33:54. Not that I knew this at the time (my mental maths skills are average at best, let alone 3/4 of the way through a marathon!) but that meant I had just over 56 minutes to run 10.55km, an average pace of 5:19, to get under 3:30. It’s probably a good thing I DIDN’T know that, as I may have been tempted to take the foot off the gas a bit!

The last bit was a bit of a blur, I knew exactly what was coming, and although I didn’t know the detail, I was pretty sure that sub 3:30 was in sight. So I just put my head down and got it done!

Coming up to the finish line (that bloody hill right near the end – can we do something about that please?) there was a VERY LOUD cheer squad on the linear path (I could hear them from quite a way away which got me a bit excited!) – I don’t remember seeing anyone I knew there, I think they were just cheering everyone. That was pretty awesome!

Up the hill and the finish line was in sight! Unfortunately I didn’t see the photographer so my finish line photos aren’t great but I crossed the line, stopped my watch and it said 3:26:26! So that was a PB by 9 and a half minutes, which was 7 years in the marking! To say I was happy with that would have been a gross understatement!

After getting my medal and finisher shirt (absolutely stoked with the medal this year, one of the best ones I’ve had!) grabbing a water and an apple, it was straight to the bag drop to collect my bag and most importantly my post-run Coke which I may have been thinking of for some time! I then decided to take the risk of sitting down!

The finish area was really cool, DJ Tim on the wheels of steel cranking out the party tunes in between the podium presentations. I ended up staying there until the very end, waiting for Carolyn who was the sweeper (hardest job of the day I reckon!) and Kristina (who had also done the marathon) and I even had a little dance! (Kristina was scared to sit down in case she couldn’t get up again!)

I also managed to scrape in for an age group placing which was an added bonus, I always seem to just miss out on the top 3 so it was pretty special to get it here!

Probably the most exciting moment of the day (maybe SLIGHTLY below the moment I crossed the line and saw my time) was when I remembered that I had half a pizza in my fridge for lunch! Thanks Past Jane!

There was a physio at the finish line doing post-run massages so I got a quick rub down of my calves and hamstrings which I’m sure helped. When I eventually got home, after inhaling my oh so delicious cold pizza, I showered and got straight into my compression pants, before sitting on the couch for an hour or so going through Strava as there were MANY people to give kudos to!

Then it was off to the pub for a celebratory drink with a few of the Walkerville running crew (somewhat of a post-marathon tradition) and then an early dinner with the Sunday running group (who were good enough to let me join them even though I never run with them anymore). Being a block away from the old favourite Bakery On O’Connell it would have been rude not to pop in for a cupcake to end the day in style!

Congratulations to all the runners and walkers who participated – you definitely earned those awesome medals! Special congrats to the many people I saw who got PBs – the conditions really could not have been any better for running!

And now for the thanks – firstly I suppose I’d better thank Paul for convincing me to do it, albeit not the way we had planned, but I can’t see any way I would have done this if not for him talking me into it! 2 marathons in 6 weeks? Ridiculous!

THANKS SO MUCH to all the volunteers for making this one of the most enjoyable events I can remember participating in. I definitely don’t want to single anyone out – this goes to all of you! And to SARRC for putting on another WONDERFUL event – I loved every moment! Might even consider doing it again!

So now it’s time for a little break and then hopefully back for a decent run in the City-Bay half in (eek!) 3 weeks in the lead-up to Chicago Marathon (double eek!) in 6 weeks!

 

 

I’ve said it before and I will say it again – the Pichi Richi Marathon is a FABULOUS event and just the most awesome weekend!

After many years of putting it off due to other conflicting events, I finally got around to running Pichi Richi Marathon for the first time in 2022 and absolutely loved it! I feel like this will now be a default event every year unless it clashes with something else!

This year I signed up for the half because a) although the marathon last year was awesome, I had no desire to do it again and b) I am nowhere near ready for a marathon right now!

I didn’t really know what to expect time-wise, I know the half marathon is the hillier half of the full marathon, and I did the full in just under 4 hours last year, so sub-2 seemed reasonable, although looking at times that other people have run in recent years, I felt like I should be able to go well under (1:45 maybe?). I knew it definitely was not going to be a PB (with 200+ metres elevation gain, it is definitely not one of your faster half marathon courses!) and certainly would be my slowest half for the year so far.

I did my usual ‘mini-taper’ and caffeine ‘detox’ with 2 full rest days before the event.

As per last year I drove up to Port Augusta on Friday for the parkrun on Saturday (detouring via Clare Valley to stock up the wine rack!).

I was staying with Sarah who was also doing the half marathon (her first time doing Pichi Richi) and we had a nice Indian meal at the Standpipe (the start point for the marathon, and one of the main sponsors of the event)

This year was the 5^th anniversary of Port Augusta parkrun and a ‘pyjama party’ theme – which was a great excuse to wear my Oodie in public (and it was very chilly, even with the Oodie on!) Pichi Richi Marathon ambassador Jess Stenson and her husband Dylan were both there for the parkrun as well as the marathon on Sunday. I kind of wished I was running the parkrun because it would probably have been my only opportunity to ‘race’ against a Commonwealth Games marathon winner and I may have even had a chance of ‘winning’! Dylan had a crack at the course record and wasn’t too far off – apparently he was just going to be taking it easy in the 10.5k race on Sunday. (Although his ‘easy’ is probably a lot faster than most people’s race pace!)

After parkrun we went for coffee and second breakfast and then motored on to Quorn, following the course of the marathon, and dodging cyclists along the way as there was some kind of cycling event on. I had warned Sarah it was a bit hilly but not too bad, she commented that she would have preferred not to have had a preview of the course!

I stayed at Elizabeth House again, where I stayed last year – and I even got the same room! Sarah was staying around the corner at the motel which was owned by the same people. I went for a wander around Quorn, not much had changed since last year although the local distillery, Flinders Gin, was about to open its brand new tasting room in a few weeks. It didn’t look open but we later found out it was open and went in for a tasting (because, gin tasting the day before a race, what could possibly go wrong?) Sharing the table with us were 4 other women from Adelaide who were also doing the half on Sunday. Only 2 of us were brave (or silly?) enough to do a tasting. And I don’t even drink gin! I enjoyed all the 4 gins we got to taste, but ended up buying some tea (they also sell lip balm, candles, pre-mixed cans and a bunch of other merch). They make their own spirit from scratch, one of only a handful of distilleries in SA to do so (and there are a LOT of distilleries in SA!) They try to source as much locally as they can which I also really like. I particularly liked the Quandong gin, made from quandongs supplied by the local community. I wasn’t even really sure what quandongs are – Wikipedia tells me they are also known as ‘native peach’ – but they are widely grown in the local area and Quorn even has an annual Quandong Festival!

Did I mention it was SUPER windy on Saturday! We were all hoping it would calm down by Sunday morning!

Later that afternoon we headed to the Transcontinental Hotel (currently the only pub in town so not a difficult choice!) for drinks and dinner with a whole lot of other Adelaide runners and walkers – we had a HUGE long table! Our gin buddies were there too! They had driven to Port Augusta to get their bibs (we were going to collect ours at the start line). Unlike last year, when I opted not to join the team dinner due to the lack of vegan options and drove to Port Augusta for a pizza instead, there was an actual vegan burger on the menu that was pretty nice! I ordered a white wine thinking I would be safe from Serg and his red wine but once the glass of white was empty it was miraculously filled with red! I managed to keep it to a couple of glasses which was helped by not sitting directly opposite him as I had done last year!

It was a relatively early night, I sat in the lounge with a few Heysen trail hikers for a little while before heading in to bed. The half didn’t start until 9am, which would work in our favour as it might be slightly less cold by then. We had to be on a bus at 7:45 and I was meeting Sarah at her motel at 7:15 to walk over.

I woke several times overnight with the sound of strong winds outside, and I spent way too much time thinking about whether or not to take my phone with me and leave it in my bag, given that if it somehow got lost I had no way of paying for anything for the rest of the weekend other than $20 cash! I knew I didn’t want to run with it so it was either leave it in my room or leave it in my bag. I was also thinking about whether to run with my room keys in my pocket and if it would be annoying with all the jiggling. In the end I did run with my key and wrapped it in a $20 note to keep it quiet!

On Sunday morning I met a guy in the kitchen at the hostel, Zac, who was also doing the half and hoping to do somewhere around 2 hours (not expecting to go under!) and was staying there with his partner and her mum. He was wearing Crocs, I later saw him at the start line still in the Crocs and I jokingly asked him “you’re not running in those are you?” but then thinking if he did he may set some kind of record for running a half marathon in Crocs (needless to say he did NOT run in Crocs)

I went with my recent usual race outfit – similar to Barossa where it threatened to be windy (and City-Bay last year) I wanted everything to be nice and fitted so as not to create a parachute effect! The only difference from recent events was that I wore arm warmers (well they were actually leg warmers). After putting sunscreen on (I thought that was SUPER optimistic of me but as it turned out it did get quite sunny! Not warm, but definitely sunny!) I NEARLY forgot to put them back on! I ended up taking my phone with me, and just wearing a hoodie over my race kit (I didn’t think I needed anything on the bottom half, plus that would be more layers I’d then have to take off).

When I met Sarah it turned out she was having the same thoughts as me about the phone, she had decided to leave it in her car at the motel so I did the same.

As we were walking along towards Quorn Oval a suspicious looking vehicle slowed down as it went past us and a dodgy looking guy offered us a lift, turned out to be Lachy, with Carolyn and Trish, so we decided it was safe to accept a ride! We were at the bus stop WAAAAY early so we had time to acclimatise to the chilly morning!

The bus driver was a bit of a joker, he said he had just got his licence yesterday but he did get us to the start line in one piece! I remembered last year being super aware of the police presence on the roads, it seemed like the entire police force of the region was out on that road! They were being very vigilant, right near the oval one cop almost wasn’t going to let our bus through because he wasn’t displaying his authorisation!

We got to the start line, halfway between Port Augusta and Quorn, with about 1 hour to go before the start. Plenty of time for bib collection and to visit the one and only portaloo (which was surprisingly not terrible!) but maybe a bit too much time to be standing around in the cold! (On the bus Graham had told us that in previous years there had been a fire at the start – that would have been nice!) The half marathon walkers set off at 8:30 and before we started, 2 of the marathoners  (including the eventual winner David) went through – they had started at 7:30 and passed the halfway point a bit before 9.

After the race briefing (essentially telling us to keep to the right as there would be cars driving towards Quorn in the left hand lane), Sarah, Gary and I decided to do a warmup. I think we ran all of about 200 metres!

Soon it was start time, and given that it was a small field and no-one else seemed to be too fussed about getting to the front, Sarah and I decided to stand on the start line. I mean if you have to run 21.1km anyway, why run 1 metre more than you have to?

A few people took off at the start, including one other girl who I didn’t know and who fast disappeared into the distance, so I was pretty sure I was not going to catch her! And a few of the guys passed me early on but not too many which was nice. I don’t think I’ve started a half marathon right at the front before!

The course is essentially net uphill (but undulating) for about 15km and downhill (but undulating) for the last 6km. There were drink stations every 5km in the marathon until 30km (so for us, 4km, 9km) then every 3km thereafter (12km, 15km, 18km).

The scenery is MAGNIFICENT and as you can see from the photos it was a beautiful morning! I don’t think I appreciated it quite enough last time! Thankfully the wind was not a factor (in fact I was told there was a tail wind for a lot of it – I didn’t notice it myself!)

I kept seeing Peter, one of the main organisers of the event, early on. He had previously run the marathon many times (including last year) but this year was not running and he seemed to be EVERYWHERE with his camera!

As mentioned earlier, the road was open to traffic from Port Augusta to Quorn. I remembered last year having people cheer me from passing cars in the first half of the marathon. This time, most of the people I knew were in the half marathon or marathon, so there weren’t too many passers-by that I knew, but just before the halfway mark, I heard my name called out from a passing car, and looked up and it was Race Ambassador Jess! That was a pretty cool moment!

Not long after that I reached the 10.5km start (ie our halfway mark) with all the runners hanging around waiting for the start. I remembered a similar experience last year with the 5km start, and being swamped by 5km runners at the start. Which you would expect, being at the 37km mark of a marathon! I didn’t actually hear the gun go off but I was fully expecting to be passed by at least some of the 10.5km runners but there must have been enough of a gap between me and them that I don’t believe any of them caught me!

Having the designated 5km, 10.5km and 21.1km walk events as well as run events, the participants were nicely spaced out along the course so it was never too long between seeing a fellow runner or walker! Although it was a bit lonelier this year and I was never running ‘with’ anyone, it never felt like I was out there on my own! Even the cars driving past, even with no-one calling my name out the window, seemed like they were a part of it!

I had already worked out that the 5km probably wouldn’t start until I was close to the finish, so I wouldn’t be overtaken by any of them, but it was nice to see a bunch of them gathered at the start as I started the descent into Quorn!

(It’s a lie though, the last 6km is definitely not ‘all downhill’. Net downhill maybe but there’s definitely some up!)

I went the whole way without looking at my watch (well after my first km split which was 4:42), not even to see how far I had gone/had left to go! (There were km markers on the road but they were for the marathon and I wasn’t always in the mood to do the math, but the drink stations all had big signs indicating the distance so that was enough for me!)

Seeing the little signs every 5km saying how far we were from Quorn was nice too! Well more so towards the end of course!

I started out thinking I’d break it down into 3 uphill parkruns and 1 downhill ‘parkrun-and-a-bit’ but in the end I just took it 1km at a time (cliche much?)

Pretty soon I was back in familiar territory, with the “Welcome to Quorn” sign being very welcome indeed! Just a few more km down the road came the left turn and then the right turn leading to the finish line at Quorn Oval. Just before the turn into the Oval I had a sneaky look behind me to see if I needed to put on a sprint finish. I knew no other women had passed me but I didn’t really have any concept of how close the next one was. Not seeing anyone I still put on an extra burst through the finish line and ACTUALLY REMEMBERED THE PHOTOGRAPHER for once!

My watch time was 1:40:34 (Official time 1:40:30 – I must have been a bit slow stopping my watch!) Although I had now done 3 sub-1:40s in a row up to this point, I had to be happy with that on a hilly course! And I was particularly happy when I remembered that that was pretty much the exact same time I ran at Barossa, on a flat course, in PERFECT weather conditions, just over a year ago!

Lunch consisted of 2 buckets of hot chips from the chip van (luckily I had some cash because the EFTPOS was down!) and later a cup of rice that Sarah gave me before she left. Probably not the ideal recovery meal!

(Note to self: Quorn is not exactly flush with vegan food options – bring more food next time! I had gone to the IGA the day before, looking for some food I could bring to the post-race party and all I could find was potato chips and Oreos!)

Sarah was driving back home after the race so I walked back to get my phone, and since I was so close to my place I decided to pop in and have a shower before heading back for the presentations.

Quite a few people I know made the podium of their respective events! 4 of my regular running buddies: Mark, Ben, Riesje and Marjolijn had all done the marathon and done very well, the latter 2 finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. In the half marathon walk, Marg was first and Sally was third, and Deb was third in the 10.5km.

 Apparently I was 2^nd male in the half marathon walk!

A little later I met up with Gary and Carolyn for a (nother) gin tasting, this time with owner Alby who also gave us a preview of the new tasting room which looks fantastic! And this time around I bought another bag of tea and a bottle of Quandong gin.

After that we headed to the Great Northern Lodge to join the traditional post-race party. There was a lot of wine, masses of food, dancing (Nutbush of course!) and karaoke. And marvelling over the size of Gary’s bathroom which was twice the size of his bedroom!

And a raffle in which I won this awesome commemorative print from last year’s 40^th anniversary event, signed by Steve Moneghetti!

And this year I managed to not leave my keys at the party and was able to sleep in my comfy king sized bed instead of the couch!

A great time was had by all, once again another fantastic event and a perfect weekend away!

Thanks to the organisers and wonderful volunteers for putting on this iconic event, and thanks to the weather gods for putting on another perfect day! I cannot recommend Pichi Richi highly enough and definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a scenic, friendly and challenging event!

Pretty sure I’ll be back again next year!

Last Sunday I took part in the Great Southern Runs McLaren Vale Marathon. I had previously participated in 2019 and found it to be a great event, but the course was totally different this year, so I didn’t really know what to expect! I had been told it was flatter than last time – my main memory of last time was that there were more hills than would seem necessary (plus the obligatory post-run wine of course!). Once again I was doing the half marathon (there was also a marathon on the same day, with the 5k and 10k having been run the day before). I was hoping to keep the momentum going from Clare and hopefully getting under 1:40 again!

I tried to replicate as much as possible, my preparation for Clare, which had gone so well! I did all my usual training up until Thursday (although Tuesday was not a normal Tuesday, being ANZAC Day so there was a lot more drinking than a normal Tuesday!). As I had done before Clare, Friday and Saturday were rest days, with no gym or even parkrun!  Because I would have withdrawals if I missed parkrun altogether, I volunteered at Pakapakanthi parkrun on a very wet morning where there was a big event put on by the main sponsors Medibank, and the Sunrise TV crew were there – my fancy leggings made an appearance in the background! Watching the runners come in I wasn’t sure if I’d rather be running or standing around in the rain – it was VERY muddy out there but I think running would have been preferable and possibly even a bit fun!

Due to bad planning I had to pass up an opportunity for a pub crawl with a group of fellow runners (the last time they did said pub crawl I had COVID – I WILL get to one, one of these days!) and also I had a dinner with work people who enjoy a drink and hitting the D-floor but I had to be disciplined and just have a few drinks, my traditional pre-race pizza and an early exit!

It was an early start on Sunday, with the half marathon starting at 7:30. I was aiming to get there at 7, and Google told me it would be a 45 minute drive so I planned to leave by 6:15am, but as I was ready early I ended up leaving just after 6. Good thing I did because with the traffic heading into the carpark at Richard Hamilton Wines, it took nearly an hour!

With many runners delayed by the parking situation the race director announced that the start would be pushed back to 7:40 which gave me more time for a second portaloo stop (the queue for the portaloos was actually not too terrible for once at a race!)

As always at a running event there were a lot of familiar faces, and with so many people there, there were a bunch of people I knew that I later found out were there and I never saw! Among the crowd were my running buddies Sarah, and Paul (who almost certainly was the one who convinced me to enter this event). Hopefully this would be the first event where all 3 of us were happy with our runs!

It was raining while we were waiting for the start. Not ideal. It was forecast but we were hoping it might hold off until after the race was over! It had been a while since I’d run in the rain and I don’t recall it raining in any of my previous 30 half marathons! I was glad to have worn my favourite running outfit which is a fitted purple top and short tights – so it wouldn’t get so heavy and flappy if it was rainy (or indeed windy!). Other than at Victor Harbor, I had always run well in this kit! I also cracked out my marathon socks which I haven’t worn in a while because I’m trying to save them for special occasions to make them last as long as possible!

There were 550 finishers in the half (more than 550 starters!) so the start line was pretty congested, I probably would have preferred to be a bit closer to the front than I was, but after a similar experience at Clare I figured it wasn’t the end of the world! As usual it was a chip start so my time wouldn’t start until I crossed the start line. As I was not a contender for a podium position there was no need for me to be at the front!

Among the 550 was a regular participant at my home (Lochiel) parkrun, Emily, who was attempting to set a world record for the fastest half marathon in a non-sport wheelchair. If you know Lochiel parkrun, it’s not flat, so I’m sure that was great training for her!

I didn’t really have a pacing plan, because I didn’t really know what the course was like. Clare was easy to plan for as it’s out and back, net up on the way out and net down on the way back. So it’s a perfect course for a negative split, and an obvious halfway point. With the vague hope of getting 1:40 (which I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do in the wet) I kept it simple, trying to sit on around 4:44-4:45 pace from the start, and hopefully be able to sustain it!

The first few kilometres were slightly up (only just slightly) and after a slow stop-starty first few hundred metres trying to find my place, I managed to run a 4:37 first kilometre which was exactly what I wanted. The next few kilometres were slightly faster, and then I had a change of tactic. I changed the screen on my watch to the one with lap pace and heart rate. I wanted to try to keep my heart rate from going too high too early. I only rely on wrist-based heart rate which I know is not the most accurate, but it gives a bit of an indication of how hard I’m working. Also, by using that screen, I could not see my elapsed time so I wouldn’t know if I was on track for a sub 1:40 or not – which I figured was a good thing, because if I wasn’t, it might ruin my day! And if I was, well it would be a nice surprise at the end!

I did take a sneaky look at my watch at the 10km mark – my 10k split was 46:16 – definitely the first time I’ve run my age for 10k! I did a quick mental calculation and figured if I could keep something close to that pace for the second half (and bear in mind I had NO idea what the second half was going to be like!) I should be able to crack 1:40!

There were a couple of U-turns in the course where we saw the other half marathon runners. We also got to see a lot of the marathon runners, and the tail cyclist who I reckon had the hardest job – I definitely would have fallen off the bike! I decided to set a couple of goals, to finish before the first marathoner, and to keep all my splits under 5 minutes. (In hindsight, finishing before the first marathoner wasn’t much of a challenge, he finished just over 2 hours after the half marathon start.)

I wasn’t sure whether I liked the signs on the side of the road or not. Instead of the kilometre markers indicating how far we had come, they instead told us how far we had to go. I didn’t think seeing “41km to go” in a marathon would be very motivating! However it would make it easier to calculate required pace if you were going for a particular time!

One of the most frustrating things about recent events I’ve run is, the better my running is getting, the worse my photos seem to be! Maybe because I’m concentrating so hard on running well that I totally forget there are cameras there? I got a semi-decent one at Clare but this time around, the photos were included in our race entry (a great inclusion) and it was Marathon Photos doing the photography which meant there were likely to be quite a lot of photos! Good chance of getting at least one good one! The overcast conditions naturally made for good photos!

With 6km to go I saw my kilometre split and it looked like I was on track for a sub-1:40, if I could run the last 6km under 30 minutes which on paper should be doable (again, depending on how much elevation was in the last 6km). At that point all my splits were under 5 minutes, and although you’d expect to slow a little in the last 5km, I was pretty confident I would not slow down THAT much!

And as much as I said I wasn’t going to be ‘that’ person who says ‘only a parkrun to go’ when we reached the 5km to go marker (aptly right near the Shiraz Trail parkrun course!), I WAS that person. (They should be grateful I didn’t sing ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ at the halfway mark or ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ every time we turned around!)

Annoyingly I did have one split of 5:00 exactly, I was watching the pace and it was initially much slower than that and I think it was all uphill. It was the second steepest kilometre in the course, the steepest being kilometre 4 where I just managed to sneak in under 5 minutes and I was also a whole lot fresher! But it seems like a silly thing to be annoyed about!

After that little discrepancy, the rest of the course was mostly slightly downhill so I was able to pick up the pace a bit. I still didn’t look at my overall time! I wasn’t really watching my HR anymore, as you can see from the above screenshot it had climbed into the 190s but I would expect it to get higher closer to the end when it becomes harder work. And it was almost over! I definitely would have had to make some changes if I was hitting 190 in the early stages!

We turned left off the main road and back into the winery, the finish line was in sight! I tried to remember to do something for the finish line photographer but I think I went too early and by the time I got to the actual finish line I had totally forgotten about the photographer!

I crossed the line, stopped my watch, grabbed a cup of water and an apple and went for a little walk to catch my breath. While walking I saved my run and waited for the time to come up. 1:37:23! Definitely a sub 1:40! And 2 minutes quicker than Clare which was a surprise! As I didn’t have a PB on the radar, I thought it MIGHT have been a PB but I wasn’t sure. I can never remember if it was 1:36:50-something or 1:37:50-something – it was nearly 8 years ago!

(It wasn’t till I got back to my bag and got my phone out that I checked and found out that it WAS a new PB! So unexpected! So happy!)

I knew that I’d beaten my Clare time by about 2 minutes, and that Paul had been about a minute ahead of me at Clare (an all-time PB), and he was ahead of me here so I knew he must have also done a PB here! Every time I get faster he just steps it up a notch too so I never quite seem to be able to catch him! I like to think we have a friendly rivalry and I also like to think that one day in the not-too-distant future I will catch him just before the finish line (and because he runs with headphones in, he will never hear me coming!) One day!

At the finish line, along with a bunch of food outlets and shops (umm including an all vegan food truck where I had a delicious cookie – just what I needed!), there was a medal engraver which I thought was an awesome idea and should be at more events! It was only $5 to get your name and time engraved and for an extra $2 you could get an extra message on there. So I decided it was only appropriate to get “New PB!” engraved at the bottom!

(While waiting to get my medal engraved I was just behind Emily in the queue, she had indeed broken the non-sport wheelchair world record! Well done Emily!)

Given that the conditions were not ideal and it was one of the hilliest of my 31 half marathons, theoretically I should be able to improve on that time, however looking at that pace I just can’t see that I could run any faster! (Then again, I thought that after Clare and somehow managed to take 2 minutes off that time, so I guess anything is possible!)

From the finish line, I went to Paxton Wines to rehydrate appropriately with Paul, Sarah and her husband Dave (come on, it’s McLaren Vale, it would be rude not to!). With 2 seating options, Sarah sensibly opted for the high table with bar stools rather than the low chairs – might have been a struggle getting out of those!

I’d like to say a massive thank you to Matt and the team at Great Southern Runs for putting on one of the most enjoyable events I’ve done in recent memory (even though he said it was flatter and I’m pretty sure that was a lie along with the alleged elevation at Myponga). And also to the many volunteers who really added to the awesomeness of the event (I tried to thank as many of them as possible as I ran past!). I would highly recommend this event and I definitely think the new course is an improvement on the old one!

Next event is Barossa (Clare, then McLaren Vale, then Barossa – I’m sensing a theme here!) and the road to the Adelaide Marathon begins!

City-Bay 2022 TL:DR version: I wasn’t going to do it, then I did, it went well, really glad I did it!

After a 3 year hiatus due to… do I even need to say it? City-Bay was BACK in 2022 and boy were people excited! My main motivation was to erase the memories of 2019, the last time the race was run (or in my case, limped) so as soon as entries opened, I registered for the half marathon again. (That was in 2021 – that event was subsequently cancelled but my entry was deferred to 2022. Other than Pichi Richi, which I had pretty much committed to a year out, after I was finished with the 6/12/24 hour festival (Pichi being so close the 6/12/24 to that the timing had never worked out, although I’d always wanted to do it), City-Bay was my only ‘must-do’ event for 2022.

I’d run the 12km 4 times, from 2013 – 2016, and after a slightly underwhelming result in 2016 (which I would be stoked with now!) and a not-enjoyable run, I said I’d never do it again. (My PB set in 2015 was a hard act to follow!)

Then the half marathon was added in 2018 so of course I had to try that, and again in 2019 (the less said about that, the better)

I’d entered the Heysen 50k again, hoping to improve on last year’s event, but after the broken toe which then put me out of running for 8 weeks following Pichi Richi, I quickly realised that 50k was going to be a big stretch and an improved time was near on impossible, so I cancelled my entry for that, as well as bailing on my plans to run the Yurrebilla 28km again as a training run (as I had done last year).

On 8 August, 6 weeks out from City-Bay, I still wasn’t back to running, and I made the call that to go from zero to a half marathon in 6 weeks (and that was assuming I started running right away), would be a recipe for disaster, so I managed to defer my entry to 2023. Which will be ideal preparation for the Chicago Marathon (which is also what I said in 2019…) 4 days later after a couple of wines a friend talked me into doing the 12k instead, and while I was Ubering home, I was on my phone registering before my brain could figure out what I was doing!

I kept myself reasonably fit during my 8 week hiatus from running – 3 x weekly BodyPump classes at the gym (with some modifications), BodyBalance  at home (again with some modifications) and after a few weeks of no cardio I decided spin classes at the gym would be a good substitute. I definitely felt like I got a good workout and it stopped me from losing all my cardio fitness but it definitely did not compare to running – it’s not particularly social, and there’s no coffee afterwards!

My first run back was a parkrun, and the next morning I felt like I’d just run a marathon! But with only 4 weeks to get myself up for City-Bay (and I’d registered as a sub-60 runner, so I was determined to get a sub-60 time) I needed to back it up with a Sunday run which I did. My next run was on Thursday and my legs were still sore! It was good to be back but it certainly felt a lot harder than I remembered!

Slowly but surely I got back into my regular routine – running Tuesday, Thursday, parkrun on Saturday and ‘long’ run on Sunday (which, after the first week, was around 12km because there was no need for it to be any longer). Prior to Pichi Richi I was also regularly running Fridays but that had now become a gym day and I felt like 4 days a week running was enough. I’d managed to get a few of my Tuesday and Thursday runs under 5 minutes per km pace which led me to believe sub 60 was realistic.

I didn’t really have a time goal, I would have been happy to get a PW as long as I went under the hour! (My previous ‘worst’ was 57:32 in my first City-Bay in 2013 so as a slightly more ambitious ‘A’ goal, it would be nice to beat that!)

The weather forecast was not so great, strong westerly winds were forecast, as well as a very high probability of rain. The rain didn’t bother me so much (especially if it started AFTER we started running) but the wind could definitely make sub-60 very difficult, as it was likely to be a headwind rather than a tailwind.

The week leading up to City-Bay, I had a good solid run on Tuesday and a short but sweet 6km on Thursday. On Saturday I did ‘parkwalk’ at parkrun with fellow C2B entrant Sarah, which was very pleasant (can’t remember the last time I did that!)

It turned out to be a very busy weekend – I had a lunch down at McLaren Vale with a group of friends who all used to work together (The Currant Shed, highly recommend) and that night I had a friend’s birthday party which was a lot of fun but unfortunately I had to bail early.

I dressed for the possibility of rain and wind – I decided that I didn’t want anything that would flap in the breeze and/or get weighed down by getting wet, so I went with a fitted top and shorts (total coincidence that my top was the same colour as my bib!) and also a hat to keep the forecast rain out of my eyes. With misguided optimism, I packed sunglasses in my bag as well although I couldn’t see me needing those, as well as a hoodie to put on at the end and slip on shoes in case I wanted to take off my runners at the end. (Previous years I had gone for a walk in the sea afterwards but again I didn’t think that was likely this time!) Instead of my everyday running shoes I thought I’d give my ASICS Noosa Tris, which I normally reserve only for a fast parkrun, a go. They’re a bit lighter than my normal road shoes and supposedly make you faster. I could do with all the help I could get! Plus they have purple in them so they’d tone in nicely with my top! I attached my bib to my Spibelt – I wasn’t planning on carrying anything in the pocket, but I did put my little good luck charm in there that I’d had at Pichi Richi. Just a little superstition!

Sunday I got up at 5:15 (it was raining quite heavily then, GREAT!) with a plan to leave home as close to 6am as possible – I needed to be at Glenelg by 6:45 and although Google Maps told me it would be 25 minutes, I didn’t quite trust it. A good thing too as Google Maps was going to send me down Anzac Highway which ordinarily would have been a good way to go, but as it turned out Anzac Highway was closed! In my defence, the last time I ran the 12k there was no half marathon and Anzac Highway would have been open at that time. I kept taking the detours but Google was pretty insistent on getting me back onto Anzac Highway – eventually it gave up and took me via the back streets. I nearly got into an accident with a car that pulled out of a side street and cut me off – I may have given the horn a bit of a workout! That probably would not have been a great omen!

My original plan was to catch the tram back to the city, as I had done the previous times I had done the 12km. However my friend Paul wanted to drive to the city and so he met me at Glenelg and I’d drive him back to town afterwards. There was a bit of negotiation required though as he wanted to get there right before the start and I like to have a bit of time to get my shit sorted! In the end I think we timed it pretty perfectly – plenty of time for a non-portaloo stop (bonus!) and to get into the sub 60 cage where there were a lot of familiar faces as always!

Not long before the start I got a tap on the shoulder and there was Beck standing behind me with her daughter Alice – Beck and I had started almost all our City-Bays together including the fateful 2019 event, so why should this one be any different? I did say to her “What are you doing in here?” implying that she hadn’t earned a spot in the cage but also I didn’t know she was definitely doing it until that moment! I also ran into Rob (who asked me to let him beat him, very flattering for me because there was not much chance I would be close enough for that to be an issue) and his brother Steve who were both wearing those fancy Nike Vaporfly shoes that lots of the fast runners seemed to be wearing and which apparently do make you faster – mental note to get me a pair of those! (They also have a nice little stabby pointy bit on the back to fend off would-be attackers!)

It wasn’t really cold (I hadn’t even put my hoodie on, it was straight into my drop bag for the finish line) and I had debated sunnies or no sunnies and eventually decided that if there was going to be sun it wouldn’t be in my eyes (as we were running away from it) so I went without. Just the hat in case of rain!

We were away at 8:00, just behind the elites and the new sub 50 category. I’ve never run from outside the sub 60 cage before but I think it has to be an advantage.

I remembered the first bit was a little bit uphill and then it was all down from there. So if I could just sit on 5 minute pace for the first little bit, I could pick it up from there. “Don’t go out too fast” I always tell myself, and of course I did. I made the rookie mistake of trying to keep up with Paul for as long as possible which ended up being maybe 200 metres? My first kilometre split ended up being 4:21. So either it was going to be a REALLY good day, or I was going to have to slow down a bit!

It wasn’t as crowded as previous years – I hadn’t run the 12k since 2016 and there was probably half the number of people there this year. Which suited me fine as I like having space around me!

There was some entertainment along the way – a few bands that were a welcome distraction! The first band was an Army band playing “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and I wondered if anyone was going to get the urge to take their clothes off, a la “The Full Monty”! There was less entertainment than I remembered, and also less spectators, but I suspect that’s all the COVID effect! Still what we did have, added to the atmosphere!

I felt pretty comfortable throughout. My ‘parkrun’ time was 22:21, which is the fastest 5k I’ve done since breaking my toe. If I’d been able to sustain that pace I would be looking at a sub 54 which would have been nice if not totally unrealistic! I definitely slowed down after that, hovering around mid 4:30s to mid 4:40s. By that stage I didn’t care anyway, I was easily going to get my sub 60 and probably even beat my PW, so I decided to just enjoy it and soak it all in!

The one bit that was not enjoyable was the f**king anti-vax protestors near halfway, at the start of the 6k event. I saw one on my left and I did not want to acknowledge him at all (even though I had some choice words and hand gestures that I REALLY wanted to use) so I turned my back as I ran past only to find the other side of the road was littered with them as well! I ran past as quick as I could, then I thanked the next volunteer I saw, and added “and F**K those guys!”. I mean really, what did they think they were going to achieve – here’s a bunch of people who are clearly into health and fitness, minding their own business, going for a nice run or walk, what did they think, we were going to stop and read the signs and say “Hmm, maybe those guys do have a point?” Heck no!

There were plenty of drink stations along the way but I ended up only needing to stop once for a drink, and by stop I mean grab and run, have a sip and tip the rest out. It was probably the coolest weather I’ve experienced for this event. And while I’m on the subject of weather, not a drop of rain! How lucky were we?

I didn’t see too many people I knew on the sidelines cheering – I did see Jim who was dressed in his Roosters gear ready for the Grand Final later that day – and only just managed to connect with a high five! (I think maybe he didn’t want to high five a Redlegs fan!)

Quite late in the race I saw Michael, a fellow parkrun ambassador/enthusiast, he was a good pacer even though he probably didn’t realise it at the time, I needed to have someone to chase so I wouldn’t relax too much – even though I knew I was going to get my goal time, I still wanted to run as good a time as I could! (I never did quite manage to catch him!)

The threatened wind hardly eventuated, the only time I noticed it was running up Jetty Road but that was so close to the end it didn’t matter!

Running up Brighton Road, just before turning into Jetty Road, I ran past a half marathon guy limping towards the finish and had massive flashbacks to 3 years ago – that was me! I gave him some encouragement and prepared for the road that seems to go on forever! Bon Jovi “You Give Love A Bad Name” was playing and yes, of course I did sing a few lines! (And promptly apologised to all those around me!) Jetty Road is good because you know you’re nearly there but it is SO LONG! And you have to be careful not to trip on the tram lines!

Towards the end I heard people cheering for me which was a great feeling –  I hadn’t experienced that so much before at this event, because this was the first year I’d run the 12k when there was also a half marathon. The half marathon had started at 6 so many of the runners had finished before we had even started, giving them time to have a coffee and probably even breakfast and still have time to get to the road to cheer the 12k runners on!

Then there was the sprint to glory, onto Moseley St to the finish line! I may have experienced all the feels during this short section!

Then it was that magic moment as I crossed the finish line – such a contrast to 3 years ago!

After grabbing a quick water and getting my sweet sweet bling, I met up with Paul who had run a huge PB, we grabbed our bags and went to meet up with Sarah who had finished a few minutes behind me, and Peter who had also run a PB (given that it was his first ever City-Bay!) and found a whole bunch of other friends along the way including Nat who had run the half marathon and a whole lot of other 12k friends!

We were going to go find a coffee on Jetty Road, I’m not sure whose idea it was to go to the Jetty Bar and have an adult beverage instead but what a genius move that turned out to be – they had free scones AND free massages for runners! I ended up getting my calves done and I may or may not have almost jumped off the table several times – turns out my calves are just a little tight! I really should roll more – more than I do now, which is not at all!

After drinks and massages it was time to get on with the rest of the day, a short leg-stretching walk back to my car to drop Paul back in town (and nearly get taken out by another idiot on the road just near the Casino, not quite sure what happened there!) and go home to get ready for the footy!

What was already a pretty awesome day ended up getting even better – I had been umming and ahhing about whether to go watch Norwood play in the SANFL Grand Final (the weather was forecast to be pretty gnarly in the afternoon so although I had a ticket I was considering staying home to watch it on TV) and in the end decided to go, and what a game! The atmosphere was great, crowd around 25000 which was not too bad considering the weather! A low-scoring affair due to the wet weather, it was a thriller from start to finish, probably one of the best games I’ve seen, with Norwood trailing for the majority of the game and down by 17 points with 10 minutes to go at which point I was pretty much resigned to defeat but somehow we managed to get up and win (sorry to my North supporter friends!) by just a point – I would have loved to go to the post-match party back at Norwood Oval (my bus home went right past there) but it had been a pretty massive day already and I was wrecked! Put the Grand Final back on the long weekend, I say!

So after all that, I’m so conflicted now – I’ve rediscovered the joy of the City-Bay 12km and I would love to do it again next year and thereafter, but I still feel like I NEED to do the half marathon one more time! So I probably will, again as an ideal lead-up to Chicago, but I think that will be it for me, back to the traditional 12km after that!

At least I have a year to make up my mind!

Thanks to the wonderful volunteers and organisers for making this event happen – it’s been a long time coming! Well done to all the runners and walkers, it was great to see so many friends out there! And thanks to my friend who convinced me to do it – I’m so happy I did!