Keep on Runnin'

Sydney Running Festival 2007

*All photography on this post belongs to Warren Clarke Photography published on the official Bridge Run Website.

The past few weeks have been nice. Meals a plenty, nothing too stressful, and good weather returning, meaning several days at the beach sun baking... albeit in 22-26degree heat - regardless way better than the past few months.

Staying out of trouble I was half training for another organised race/run. This time it was the 9km Bridge Run starting at Milsons Point, shifting up and over the Harbour Bridge, across Circular Quay and then up and into the Botanical Gardens before returning back down Macquarie Street to a final finish on the Quayside.

Myself and Aaron managed to get up at 6am and to the start venue by 7.25am - pretty bad going since we could've stayed in bed some extra time, or stayed out a bit longer at the previous nights engagement party in Wooloomooloo. But hey, heroes we are and a race we were to run. So after Glen McGrath had started the family 5km run off, it was, an hour later, our turn.

Unlike City 2 Surf, this race was about me bettering a previous known time, rather than about extending a personal running boundary. I was aiming for 5minute KMs, considering my C2S ones were about 5mins 14seconds. I was going for the full distance in 45mins.

So the start pistol sent us all packing, and pretty soon we were jogging across the highlight of the run. The police had shut off the Harbour Bridge to Traffic and it was the one chance of the year to run across it. So a completely different perspective on one of the big tourist attractions I see and travel across day in day out - pretty amazing really. I remember being a little in awe of the steel girders rising above me in perfect symmetry.

2kms, all good

3kms, I was wishing it were 4

5kms, I was into the Botanical Gardens watching the race winners running the opposite direction past me - not the best thing for running morale!

8kms, Finally the home straight down Macquarie Street. I dug deep and upped my tempo down hill to the Quay - only to find out what I'd thought was the finish line wasn't... and I still had the length of East Circular Quay to run to the finish line. Luckily the power of the people stepped in to help me out. A real roar of encouragement, and I found not just a 2nd wind, but a hurricane. I sprinted down those last couple of hundred metres feeling almost floaty light. The shouting crowds making me feel like I was finishing the Olympics rather than a Sunday morning Running Festival. One last lunge and I was across the line and virtually motionless other than my rapidly expanding/exhaling chest. I looked over my shoulder at the clock and noticed I'd not only cracked my target of 45mins but also cracked 42minutes - official time 41minutes 22seconds. 462nd place. Stoked Fon.