Running with 80k friends, some kangaroos and a photo finish at the Opera House

It was a busy winter here prepping for three different races! And can I just say that running in the winter in Sydney is just about as perfect as can get? Sometimes a little rainy or overcast, but rarely ever too cold and definitely not too hot. I think I'll enjoy training for something again come next winter, but let's just say I'm not planning to do any long distance training the next few months here... running and the heat definitely don't mix for me.

Finally catching up on writing this, my first race was the City2Surf right here in Sydney in mid-August. It was an odd distance at 14k (just under 9 miles for my US friends) and started in the Sydney CBD (downtown) and finished at Bondi Beach. I ran with 80,000 of my "friends." Yes, you read that correctly, 80k! I think I misinformed you all in a previous blog when I said 60,000.

Just a glimpse at one of many starting corrals

Surprisingly it really didn't seem that massive. I think the largest race I've run in comparison is probably a marathon or two that were about 25,000. City2Surf did a great job of segmenting out the different waves to start over the course of over an hour.

Beautiful Bondi Beach made a pretty good finish line

It was a beautiful meandering course through some of the most scenic of the city's "eastern suburbs" before encountering it's own version of "heartbreak hill," which was certainly no joke. It mirrored Boston Marathon's own heartbreak hill in the way that it deceptively seemed to finish 3 or 4 times before turning a corner and discovering there was still more to go!

Coming from an event manager's perspective... these people were planners, glad I didn't bring my children to get lost!

And for mid-August it was surprisingly warm with picture perfect Australian blue, sunny skies. While my little team of cheerleaders didn't make it out to the mass chaos that was that side of town I still had a great time running solo and just taking the experience in!

She was upset it wasn't her own medal, but still pretty proud to think "momma won the race!"

Some last minute planning left me also booked the following weekend for a run, but this time for my first full marathon in over two years! I was excited but nervous and had thrown in this weekend trip to Mudgee, NSW (about 3.5 hours NW from Sydney) only a few weeks earlier.

Rest stop!

While I had already planned to run the mid-September Sydney full marathon way back in February as I had registered for it (in typical pregnant me fashion) the day before Morgan was born. However, in some crazy sense of training mode me I had decided I should do another full marathon as part of my training. I figured it was either run a race or run a 32-35k solo training run, and frankly the race option sounded more fun.

Mudgee was going to be a super small race (less than 100 people ran the full) so it sounded like a nice change of pace from the City2Surf. And in all ways except for one, it really was a great weekend away. The one negative - well Morgan didn't sleep but a few hours the night before the race. Tiny hotel room, first night away from home in awhile, who knows what else. But sleep is overrated of course, that's why they always say to make sure you sleep well two nights before the race and luckily I had! Nonetheless I was grouchy enough to the point when I started getting ready that I contemplated not doing it. Then I thought that was silly after our entire family drove all the way up and hurriedly ran the 800m from our hotel to the starting line.

Upon arrival the whole clan was happy to be out of the car!

It was a perfect, crisp late winter morning to start a race with a nice warm up forecasted for the day. And that it did. I enjoyed the rolling hills, vineyards and kangaroos as my scenery to an otherwise very quiet course. About 7-8 miles in I thought it wasn't going well at all while I endured a long, slow uphill and was worried the night before was taking a toll on me. But luckily just at that point there was a slight overlap in the course and I was uplifted by other runners ahead of me exchanging "well done mate" as we ran past one another. I enjoyed some fellow conversation with the rare runner I passed or passed me along the course including one that was sporting a jersey of a former client of Steve's and one whose watch had stopped and we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convert paces between miles and kilometers so he could figure out how fast he was running.

Emma wanted to run the rest of the way with me when she saw me around mile 20

My little buddy at the finish line with me (no she didn't run the entire last 6 miles with me)

She even got announced when we crossed the finish line!

And in the end I finished far better than I anticipated. I saw my cheerleaders around mile 20 and then I knew I was in the homestretch, especially when I passed a couple vineyards handing out both wine and water to runners! It was again, picture perfect Australian weather and I even finished just one spot out of prize money (before you get too excited, really it was a small race). Steve is already suggesting booking our return trip next year...

Happy to see this face (even if she did keep me awake most of the night)!

Everyone's happy to be done!

Pretty cool when an extra medal shows up in the mail a few weeks later too!

With Mudgee complete I had one big race left on the calendar - the one that was first on my calendar to begin with. It is a rare day lately that I run a marathon in the same city in which we live, which is normally how I like it - making it a destination race and vacation all in one. However, this time I was excited to have a little less pressure in the preparation and packing of getting us somewhere new and instead just being able to sleep in my own bed the night before. I even got the VIP treatment of my personal team of supporters driving me to the start line.

Support team doing some prep work to find me on the course

I wasn't lucky enough to go three for three in the weather department though. It was overcast and rainy. At least it kept it cool. My body also didn't hold up quite as well for the third race as I had hoped. I was fighting a bad case of plantar fascitis and hadn't been feeling very well the week leading up the race. So I set out to just finish the race. And thankfully that's what I did. Far from the time I had hoped for, but I got a tour of this beautiful city on my own two feet and I even kept running the whole time. They even shut down all 8 or so lanes of traffic on the harbour bridge (which is a BIG deal) and we finished under the steps of the Opera House!

The race finished just in front of the Opera House!

It was a long, wet, slightly painful race but I could smile at the end because I was thankful that I once again had the opportunity to both start and finish the race. I guess it's time to start planning #18...

This girl knows what to do with medals!

Wet, cold, HAPPY ferry ride home.