City to Surf 2008 (Perth)

I was one of 37,000 people who braved an early morning chill to put my running shoes on and run 12ks for charity. It is the second time I have attempted this feat and this year I am glad to say was a whole lot better than last year. One, I managed to run the whole thing, no breaks and two, I am pretty sure we smashed last years time (go team).

I was definitely paying for it yesterday and so today took some “recovery” time to recouperate, my knees and back are thanking me greatly.

The only things that bothered me were:

• The amount of people that were nowhere near their starting group.
• The amount of people who were in groups that they shouldn’t have been in

I will break it down so you understand why I am being a bit of a jogging nazi about it.

There are several groups in which you can run/walk. If you do the half marathon (by the way good on you, props to you that shit is hard!) you are orange and because you have further to run you start at 7.00. Then there is group A, they were coloured green and should be expected to run the 12ks in under 40 minutes. The next group was B and they were pink and should be completeing the 12ks in under 50 minutes and group C (yay my group) yellow in colour and able to run at under 70 minutes (which I think we did which is about a 15 minutes less than last year and when you are talking records, for me that is pretty staggering). Group D were blue and should be running at 70 minutes and over. The 12k walkers were hot pink.

What I continously saw was D’s and walkers all up in the B and C area and when your trying to run, dodge, swerve and avoid crashing into and past a whole bunch of people taking their sweet time or not in your group can really frustrate you. frustrate you enough that you want to throw your cups of water at them 9it was an accident really!) If you chose to start in D group or walk please, please go to the back where your starting area is because I can guarantee that everyone in B or C and maybe even A where you have slotted yourself in is not happy having to dodge you while concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. If you wanted to walk and take your time go to the back because one that’s where you should be starting and two everyone overtaking you is not happy that they have to because they shouldn’t need to in the first place.

I also had problems dodging people who werent walkers but were walking. If you know you can’t run a full 12 ks dont put yourself in a running group, go in the walking group or D group and get your arse to the back. I could have shaved 30 seconds to a minute off my time if I wasn’t practicing to be a formula one runner and overtaking on the sly. I am quite surprised no one ended up arese over tit because they were having to overtake a walker and were being overtaken themselves and then the walker pulled out in front of them. It is a very dangerous activity runnning.

I did let everyone around me know this was how I felt because when you’re sweaty, out of breath, tired and there is some slight chaffing going on and you are only half-way done you are not in the best of moods. Maybe those people who were walking felt the same way but I have no sympathy because I kept running and I didn’t stop no matter how much I really really wanted to. And I really really wanted to.

Being the jogging nazi I am I have been wondering what if Hitler was into event management and coordinating community activities and not taking over the world the city to surf would be run so precisely and noone would dare step out of their starting group, or maybe he would revolutionise it by starting the groups at different times, staggering the start so the runners can run to their hearts content and the walkers, well the walkers, I don’t imagine “event management Hitler” would even have walkers they aren’t good for progress.