Report?

*Edited for pictures from Eric, thanks!*

*Race photos from official photo website*

Okay, so I mentioned that I will do a write-up on last Sunday's City to Surf run. Actually I don't have much to report on my actual race itself... it's a 12km run, and I wasn't spefically training for it.

But this would be my first run here in Perth, taking part with darling and a few of my SLB friends, who are slowly (but surely) joining in this craze as well. So we'll see how much I can right, okay?

The usual format... start at Perth City, and finish at City Beach. This year promised a turnout of almost 40,000 participants and it didn't disappoint, just falling slightly short at 38,800. Also, the marathon distance is a new exciting addition.

Because of the marathon, most of the roads getting into the city were closed. Li-Ann and I took the train in, which were packed choc-a-block! We arrived at the city at 8.15am for the 9am start.
On the way to the start line, we coincidentally met Ben Swee from Singapore, who was running the marathon since 7am that morning, coming through the halfway mark. Ben went on to finish in an awesome time of 3:06:50!

We met up with our friends at the Esplanade Park. This year, we are required to gather at the park, rather than at the start line on St Georges Terrace, supposedly to ease the congestion. And we would be starting in waves according to seeded times.

I bade the rest good luck and went off to place our bags at the clothing transport vans, then heading off to my designated gathering area. The runners in my seeded wave were already walking to the start line, so I didn't have time to do my ritual stretches.

I was plodding along with the other runners in my wave to the start line, then I saw everyone started racing through the start... oh, it has already started. I thought each wave would be getting their own gun starts. The only ones who did were the runners starting at the fastest category. Hmm, I don't like this new start format.

The criss-crossing ensued amongst the large crowd. There were some walkers who started in my wave as well. I was keen to find out how much I was delayed by this at the first km mark, but sad to say, organizers decided to get rid of all the km markers this year... another thing I didn't like.

The criss-crossing continued nearly throughout the whole race, which is expected with such a massive turnout. Uncertain as to how I was progressing throughout the race, I could only estimate. The only signage that I saw was the 20km mark for the half marathon runners, which means another 1.1km to go. At that time, my watch was showing 46 minutes, which means it would be tough to beat my last year's time of 50:24.

I crossed the finish line just under 51 minutes. I do like the new finishing area though. It gives the runners a lot of space to remove their timing chips and do their stretches.

After collecting my finisher medal and some fruit with drink, I took a short walk around the corporate tents before heading to the finish line, to wait for the rest to finish.

Unfortunately, I was able to see everybody finish BUT Li-Ann. And all those times that Li-Ann had been cheering for me relentlessly at my races. I must have missed her, maybe she was running too fast :P

Finally after reuniting with her, we then had a chat with some of my former colleagues at the KPMG tent. After gathering everyone in our group (and savaging the remaining Gatorade bottles and fruits from our UWA tent), we queued up (a very long one!) for the shuttle service back to the city... where we had our rewarding dim sum lunch (thank's to Eric's mum!)

Fun run, great company... looking forward to more of these to make my triathlete life a little bit more enjoyable. Yes, I'm spreading the cult! Hahhah.