Thankfully Sunday morning went to plan, I got up with plenty of time, had my race day outfit planned already and had a leisurely breakfast.
We were collected at 7:05am, about 5minutes late and I stressed a little as we had to then catch a train but we made it with plenty of time.
There was six of us in our group but unfortunately due to some entering later than others we were spread over different groups.
The City to Surf advertises itself as the worlds biggest fun run and this year it had 85,000 spots available. Due to its huge size it has around 7 different start groups with each taking about 30mins to go over the start line. This meant that despite our friends being in the group behind us our gun time was 8:30am and theirs was 9am.
The City to Surf is notorious for being so crowded that you have to dodge and weave to get past all the people slower than you. I have heard it called the Sardine to Surf before!
However what it lacks in room to move it makes up for in entertainment on route. People who have houses on the route set up breakfast bbqs, pump up the music and generally entertain themselves watching everyone go by, one pub has a band on its roof playing everything from Kiss to YMCA and there is always a great brass band made up of old guys near the end. Thankfully this year was glorious weather, with a top of 23C I believe.
It was a tough run, surprisingly heartbreak hill (no need for any more description) did not test me as much as I was expecting, it must have been due to the hill training I did the week before but I really felt the small inclines.
From the beginning I was aiming for a sub 80mins. I knew roughly what time I needed to each km but hadn't worked it out precisely. I am very pleased to say I came in at 79mins15 with an average speed of 5m39 kilometers. Michael Clease ran with me most the way (in his usual forcefield kind of way) and sprinted to the finish for a 79min09 time.
Once we'd hung around to cheer in the rest of our group we headed to the pub for a burger and beer to celebrate.
