The alarm woke us at 5:45a.m. to a cool, dewy day: ideal running conditions possibly, but with the promise of summer just around the corner, it seemed too cold to be getting out of bed before dawn. However we did just that as this was to be the first time Mrs MLCM and I had entered a race together. We wouldn’t be running it together as such, as she was following a run/walk routine and I was feeling sassy enough to contemplate a good showing
if the conditions suited. But it was the first time we had both entered the same race, and so was a special day, especially as it was just 12 days after celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.
A quick breakfast of cereal and a banana was had and we duly hit the road. We didn’t have to travel far however: just up the road to Mrs MLCM’s women-only gym who were laying on a bus to and from the event - an excellent option, as parking is a nightmare at both ends of the race.
We arrived in good time and tried to keep warm. The sun was only just up and it was still quite cool, but old Sol promised to shine on us soon enough and it looked like it would be a corker of a run: visions of a possible PB began forming in MLCM's brain.
The City to Bay runs 12km from the centre of Adelaide to the beach-side suburb of Glenelg, and is one of Australia’s largest running events. This year saw a record 29,720 entrants, and the start line crowd began to swell alarmingly as the scheduled kick off drew closer. We stripped off our outer layers, took our bags to the gear truck and lined up at what we thought was the back of the starting group. However several thousand more starters duly arrived, and so we probably started about 2/3rds of the way through the pack. It took us 19 minutes to cross the starting line after the gun, despite a pretty impressive corralling procedure by the organisers. Interestingly, whilst invite-only elite runners had their own corral at the head of the queue, the race caller invited anyone who professed to expect to finish the race under 50 minutes to join the elite group! Declining the invitation to join the serious athletes, Mrs MLCM and I duly shuffled patiently forward, then approaching the start line we wished each other luck and took off at our own respective pace - not very chivalrous of me perhaps, but we were happy enough just to be in the same race together.
The first 2km involved a lot of ducking and weaving as the crowd slowly sorted itself out, and I completely missed the first kilometre marker, but was mildly surprised to hit the 2km point in a quickish 11:39. My race plan was simple: take it nice and steady and aim for even kilometre splits. If at the 10km mark a PB was in the offing, then go for it, otherwise just relax and enjoy the race.
From the 2km mark the running was much easier. The route follows the main road out of the city centre and then joins the six-lane highway to the coast at about the 2.5km point. Bands and assorted entertainers line the route, and folk who live along the highway set up tables and chairs to watch the seething mass who, for the only morning of the year, close their otherwise busy highway and gave them a rare morning free from traffic noise.
There were a lot more costumed and thematic runners than I remember from my previous running of this event: I was sure I passed the same superhero four times in the space of only two or so kilometres and was thinking perhaps he’d been using his super powers to leap ahead of the runners, but in the end had to conclude it was four different people wearing identical superhero outfits. Why do superheros seem to prefer to work alone?
Other interesting characters included Darth Vader (fresh from his triumph in the Aldebaran Half Marathon, apparently), a giant chicken (who only spoke Squawk), several ninjas who didn’t speak at all, a trio of clowns on stilts who only spoke greetings, a whole company (platoon? 30 or 40 anyhow) of army grunts with full packs and weapons who also didn’t speak, and incredibly, a bloke playing a piano – he was installed upon a modified trailer hauled by 6 compatriots and he played the entire way and mortified a lot of people who had to confess later to being overtaken in the race by an upright piano playing melodramatic film music.
Kilometres 3 to 6 went surprisingly smoothly and in what was for me really good time. I reached the 6km half way point in 34:36 and was travelling really well. This put me bang on target for a PB, but I was trying not to think about that just yet - what did occupy my mind was once again the strange truth that running a race is so utterly different from training for one. I was maintaining a pace that I would find very difficult in training, and yet here I was plodding along in apparent head-shaking ease. My splits were also remarkably even: the first 6 kms all went by in just a few seconds either side of 5:45… a pace I would normally struggle with, especially of late.
After the half way point it did get a little tougher, but still my pace was around 5:53 - 5:55 (and not once over 6 minutes!), and I hit the 10km point in 58:10 – this meant I was still in with a slight chance of a PB, so I determined to pick the pace up a bit for the 11th km and see how I felt. I hit 11km in 1h03:54 – which meant I could just make it, but I would have to sprint much of the last kilometre. But as I felt good I had to have a crack so I ramped up the pace and just put my head down. Rounding the last corner, and with the finish line in sight 200m away it was touch and go – I could probably do it but the crowd was pretty big and there seemed to be a log jam at the finish.
Luck was on my side however – the crowd parted like the Red Sea and I dashed through a gap to hit the line in 1h 9m 9s; just 6 seconds inside my previous (and best) time, 5 years before, and I did it in negative splits – 34:36 / 34:33! The last kilometre took 5:15 – and if you had suggested that was going to happen before the start of the race I would have just laughed at you.
The relative comfort in which I ran this now bodes well for a possible sub-2hr half marathon, which I’d still like to achieve and which feels readily attainable.
Mrs MLCM came in a while later, having suffered cramps but finishing well and helping to celebrate our silver anniversary in a slightly different way. Actually I find the whole 25th wedding anniversary thing a bit weird: when I was growing up it seemed like it was elderly grandparents who celebrated such things; holding horrendous tea parties or tedious knees-ups with nothing stronger than a glass of port or sherry to mark the occasion before returning to their nursing homes to wait for God. It’s great that instead today we’re able to run a race together and half-truthfully pretend we’re still young. Gotta love this running!
Looking back over my running record of recent weeks and months, I see that it has been a very long time since I last ran a race – so this was a pretty good way of getting myself motivated again. As usual, thanks to all you RCers for your continued support and inspiration! And I’m pretty sure I’m right in saying that among the other 29,700 runners today I didn’t see a single T-shirt or singlet that was half as attention-grabbing as that big old purple foot!
Here’s to running.
City to Bay
City to Bay 12km Race Report