Karen and 65,000 of Her Friends

Karen and I went down to Sydney last weekend so she could participate in her first Aussie road race. It is called the 'City to Surf' because it starts downtown at Hyde Park and meanders 14 K (8.68 miles) to the beach at Bondi. 65,000 people took part. That's about the size of Olympia, I think. It took her over a minute to reach the starting line and she said it was 22 minutes before she felt she could run unencumbered. She did convince the race committee to let her be in the first of 4 waves of starters. She must have trumped up some supposed qualifications or something...

She really hasn't been able to train here at all as there are no runners in Old Bar with whom to train. She does it all on her own and I can't tell you how much she misses her training group back home. She was also quite sick the whole week leading up to the race. And yet she finished in the top 2% of the pack. She wants me to express it that way since she finished in about 1,100th place. I told her that that can be swallowed more easily if broken down as a percent. She agreed. If you know Karen, you know that 1,100th place doesn't sit well with her. I counted her to be in 72nd place for women. The winner was from New Zealand and she ran a 46:33. She was a good 3 minutes or so in front of all other women.

Karen ran the race in 1:01:52. Her pace was about a minute per mile slower than her fastest marathon. She looks forward to coming home and being pushed by you running ladies and gentlemen again. All the runners walked down to the beach and jumped in the sweet waves when their race was over. We hadn't been to Bondi Beach before this race. It's arguably Aussie's best known beach and it was very nice. We preferred Whitehaven Beach up in the Whitsundays...

We stayed the night in town with our good friends the Luckhursts from Devonshire, England. They have hosted us at least 5 times. They are beginning to think we may be stalking them...The photos are mostly of the finish area and of some of our exchange league friends that ran the race, too. We had a lovely walk and picnic with them and their families after the race. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Mike and Karen