One of the goals I
set for myself on returning to Brisbane was running in the Bridge to Brisbane. The City2South
run ended up being a longer distance, sooner, so I only stuck with the
Bridge to Brisbane so I could say I'd done it.
The added variable was I had Zoe, and I was pushing her in a jogging stroller.
I did a couple of practice runs up the bridge with Zoe in the weeks leading
up to the run. Mostly to get her used to it, and for me to get a feel for
what the incline was like. I found I had the stamina to easily do the
bridge, but ran out of steam on the return leg. No big deal, I didn't need
to do that for the real run.
I did a poor job of publicising that I was doing the run, so I didn't end up
raising a whole lot of money for my chosen charity, beyondblue, because I had the added
variable of Zoe. I knew I had to get her up early to get to the start line
in time, and I wasn't sure if she was going to be cooperative or not, or
whether she'd have a tantrum half way through the run and I'd have to stop,
so I didn't feel good about taking money from people for running a run that
I wasn't sure I could complete.
My main concern had been getting to the starting line in time. I wanted to
take the train from Morningside to Murarrie and then walk to the start line
(about 10 minutes) because that way I could take the train back to
Morningside from the finish to collect the car and not have to worry about
trying to get back to the start. That meant I'd have to get Zoe up before
5am to get to the station, and if she didn't cooperate, I'd miss the train,
and it'd all be over.
Fortunately, my cousin Renata offered to drop us off, and we did a
complicated car switcharoo, which involved her leaving my car at Morningside
station for me after dropping us off at Murarrie. Now that I've seen the
road closure situation, I feel pretty confident that I could have just
driven to Murarrie and ditched the car somewhere there. Interestingly, a
train that was packed to the rafters with people was arriving at the station
at the time we arrived to leave Renata's car there. I'm not sure if it was
the 5:07am train running late, or if I'd mis-interpreted the timetable and
there was a later train we could have more comfortably made without Renata's
assistance.
Anyway, we uneventfully got to Murarrie station by about 5:40am, and walked
to the start. It was ridiculously packed. People as far as the eye could
see. Apparently there were 29,479 entrants and 24,596 finishers in the 10km
run, so that explains it. I was seeded in the "joggers" group, which was a
fair way back from the start line, and as it was, technically had to walk
around some massive barrier to get in with the runners, but I snuck in the
side after the pack started moving.
Zoe was really, really good for the whole run. I couldn't have asked for her
to be better behaved, really. She was wanting a cuddle at the top of the
bridge, and claimed she wanted to go to the toilet the first time she saw
some portable toilets, but easily talked out of both. My strategy of having
a broad array of snacks for her to eat during the run worked well to keep
her happy, and the course was heavily packed the entire way, so she had
plenty to look at. It was a nice father/daughter thing to do for Fathers
Day.
My official time
was 57:28, which I'm extremely happy with, given the conditions I ran under.
I was going to be happy with anything under an hour. My personal best for
10km (not that course) is 51:52
I'm very grateful to those people who did donate some money
on short notice. I've managed to raise $180, which is better than nothing.
Now that I've done the run, and seen how it works, I'm game to try it again
next year, and I'm game to do more 10km runs with Zoe. My running overall
has been going very well, and so I think it's time to step things up a bit
and I've decided to set myself a goal of running the half-marathon in the Gold Coast Marathon next
year.
