t’s been a very quiet year for me running-wise! Other than Run Army in April, and also the 4km fun run associated with the AFL Gather Round, City-Bay was my ONLY event for 2026.
I’ve previously run the 12k in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022 and 2025, as well as 3 times doing the half marathon, in 2018, 2019 and 2023.
I ran my best ever time last year. My slowest (and I’m not calling it slow) was my first time around, 57:32 in 2013.
This year, I had zero expectations of getting close to last year’s time. I did, however, hope to do better than 2013.
I hadn’t been training consistently, especially since having a full 3 weeks break while travelling overseas. I never really got back to the pace I was running before that. On my return, winter had set in, so a lot of my usual running buddies were also a bit inconsistent, so motivation was a challenge!
The week before the race, I did my usual thing of going out in my race shoes and trying to run a fast 12km. While the first half was decent, I ended up coming in only seconds under the hour, so I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to keep my sub-60 streak going! (For those not in the know, if you run under an hour you get to start ahead of the main group, only behind the sub-50 runners and the elites. It means that theoretically you don’t get stuck behind walkers and have to keep dodging and weaving. With around 30000 participants, sub-60 is a big advantage!)
I had a very easy running week, after that Sunday run I went on an Army driving course for a week, only managing to squeeze in one (decent) 6km run during that time.
I kept up the usual Saturday night pre-race tradition of pizza (previously that was just for marathons but now it’s for any running event!)
I got up at 5:30 for breakfast and was parked in the city (near the rowing sheds on War Memorial Drive) before 7. The 12k started at 8, so I was a bit earlier than I needed to be, but it was worth it to get a nice close park! I wore my Birkenstocks to walk over to the start area, as my race shoes are not the most comfortable to walk in! I also threw a jumper in my bag, even though it was warm enough on the morning to not need to wear it. I also put in a can of Coke for afterwards – I nearly didn’t, because I remembered the bag collection situation last year where it took so long to get it back that by the time I got it, I didn’t even really want the Coke anymore! Also last year it was cold and wet so that made it even worse! What I didn’t think of doing, was putting some cash or a credit card in my pocket in case it took a while to get my bag back at the finish! (Hint to future Jane reading this in a year’s time!)
I did a warmup run of 2km at around 7:15 after having dropped off my bag (and changed into my race shoes – I wasn’t about to attempt running it in Birks!) and then had my V energy drink at around 7:30 (it was the very last of the V Refresh Citrus Lemonade which was discontinued some time ago but which I’d managed to stockpile – I need to find a new flavour now!)
I then made my way to the start area and waited for the Traditional Welcome and the speech from the Governor before we set off (according to my watch, I crossed the start line at 8:01).
I was aiming to run 4:45 per km pace. That would put me on 57 minutes, so slightly faster than my PW. Nice and easy to work out!
The first kilometre, which is the most uphill, was 4:24. I always start a bit too fast – it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement!
I was trying to keep left mostly, except there were a few times where I had to veer left onto the nature strip to overtake people, because there were too many people in the way to overtake on the right.
I was sitting on 4:30 pace at the halfway mark, which I knew I would not be able to sustain (also, it still wouldn’t have been close to a PB) so I worked out that if I ran 5 minutes per km for the last 6km that would put me right on the 57 minute goal. Although I was still hoping to run a bit quicker than 5 minute kilometres (and being slightly downhill, that was very doable), I would be satisfied with anything under that 57 minute mark.
It was a warm morning so I got drinks at every drink station. Just the usual grab and keep running, most of the water ended up on me or on the ground rather than in my mouth, but I got enough in there to keep me hydrated enough! (At one of the later drink stations I even got 2 cups of water!)
I did notice at least 3 people on the side of the road who were being assisted by medical staff, didn’t look like anything too serious, but there seemed to be more casualties than in previous years, I can only assume it was due to the heat.
There was not much of interest to report for the second half, other than I was managing to keep my splits under 5 minutes. Every time I ran a sub 5 minute kilometre, that meant I could be even slower in the subsequent kilometres and still make my time. It was a novel approach to pacing for me, but to be fair if I hadn’t entered this event over 6 months ago, I probably wouldn’t have bothered doing it at all.
There were a few ‘Touch here for a power-up’ signs, and I did manage to hit one of those (not sure if it worked though – maybe I needed to hit a few more!)
I tried to high five people on the side of the road, I managed to high five a cow and a shark, usually the kids are sticking their hands out for a high five but none that were on my side of the road!
There was one girl at a bus stop in the second half holding up an oversized face of The Wizard (aka Hawks AFL star Nick Watson) and I gave her a shout out, and she said something like “He can’t do it, but you can!” which was nice motivation to try a bit harder!
When we reached the ANZAC Highway/Brighton Road intersection, I was expecting to turn left into Brighton Road but we were funnelled straight down ANZAC Highway, to turn down a side street. Actually I think I prefer that to the more ‘traditional’ left on Brighton and then right on Jetty Road. Jetty Road seems to go for an eternity when you enter from Brighton Road. The atmosphere is great but it’s just as good if you only have to run half the length of Jetty Road.
Heading down Jetty Road I started to see photographers. As per usual I had totally forgotten to look for photographers earlier in the run, but because I was running a bit slower than usual, I was a bit more observant, leading me to get a few more good photos than usual!
I couldn’t help myself when I got around the corner into Colley Terrace and I put a sprint on. You can tell by some of the photos – in the earlier photos a few runners are ahead of me, who ended up crossing the line after me. It’s a good way to finish!
My watch time was 56:16, comfortably under my goal time. Officially it was 56:32, I’m not sure where that extra 16 seconds came from, as I started my watch on the timing mat and stopped it just after the line, but it’s still sub 57/4:45 pace so I’ll take it! Certainly won’t be getting it engraved on my medal but it’s respectable nonetheless!
The finish line process went smoothly unlike last year, as soon as I got to the bag drop area I could see my bag and get it straight away. I was glad of the jumper as it got pretty cold once I’d stopped running! (White was a bad choice, especially after I spilled coffee on it twice on the bus back to town!) and also of the Birkenstocks! Nike Vaporfly shoes are great for running but not so good for walking around! And of course I appreciated past Jane for leaving a Coke in the bag for me!
It’s pretty busy at the finish line and I wasn’t aware of too many people I knew who would be there, so I headed for the bus, after grabbing the aforementioned coffee. I was also on a pretty tight schedule, as my friend was picking me up at 11:45 to go to the SANFL Grand Final. I’m not sure if this is fact or just what I can remember, but I’m pretty sure my team (the mighty Norwood Redlegs) is undefeated in Grand Finals when they fall on City-Bay day!
And if that was in fact true, it remained true this time around – we started strong, were level at half time, three goals down at half time (at which point it was looking a bit iffy) but came home with a wet sail to win by 14 points!
A long, but very satisfying day!
