Sydney Half Marathon

Up at 6am (yuck) for half marathon, thankfully the start line is only 5 mins from the flat! Didn't get as much sleep last night as I'd have liked (less than 6 hours) and only managed to grab a slice of melon & some water for breakfast, so not as well fuelled as I'd normally like to be before running 13 miles!

Still, the pale early morning sun gave the harbour a beautiful calm and pearly sheen and as I had Muse's new album on my iPod ready for a first listen, I was quite looking forward to the race.

Started ok as we headed over the harbour bridge and into the city. Felt I was going a little too quickly so tried to pull back a bit as the km's passed by. Despite the early start, it was still a warm morning and so I took advantage of every water station, taking on lots of water, sports drink when it was offered and a few cups of water over my head to keep me cool. Got to the 1/3 stage at 7km quite comfortably but the middle stretch was a bit less enjoyable. Started to feel hungry and slightly weak and my old left pelvis-hip injury started to twinge a bit at around 11km, which had me feeling like it was going to be a long run-in.

Thankfully the second half of the course is more downhill than up - not that there were any horror hills anywhere, but still, every little helps. Got to the 2/3 mark at 14km feeling like I was through the hardest bit, the pain in my left leg had eased off a little and I was just about managing to stay on track for my target time of 1h50m.

By the time the last 3 or 4kms came round, I was feeling pretty good and as the course reached its final few kms weaving round the harbour foreshore, I started to put my foot down a little bit, getting to the finish line in 1.49.22 - very pleased with that, especially as at 11km I'd pretty much told myself to forget my time goal!

A special thanks to the Muse boys for both the new album (first two listens = thumbs up) but also for old classic Plug In Baby which gave me a real energy boost at the end!

All in all, not the most comfortable race I've ever done and I think a few more long runs in training and more strength / core training sessions would have helped, especially with the pelvic injury - my whole left leg is hurting quite badly now! But still, not bad to come in 429th of 2811 female racers!

Wed 24 June: State of Origin

Tonight K and I, along with a couple of friends from my office, went to an Australian institution – the State of Origin. State of Origin is a rugby league contest, consisting of three matches between New South Wales and Queensland. Normally the states don’t have teams or play each other – there are big rugby leagues but the teams are all cities or areas, rather than state-level. State of Origin is so called because the teams have to be made up of players who were born in the respective states, rather than where they grew up or where they currently play their rugby.

It’s billed as one of the great sporting events in the Australian sports calendar and this evening, we were part of an 80,000 strong crowd who turned up for the 2nd in this year’s series. Which makes it all the stranger that it was, to be honest, like watching it with the sound off – it’s hard to understand how 80,000 people can make so little noise!!! No chanting, no singing, no shouting and cheering, just a lot of people sitting making not much noise…so much for incredible atmosphere!!

Saturday 24 January: Australian Open

Had a not-too-uncomfortable night’s sleep in our very basic hostel room, although as it had no windows, I could have slept all day – I need the light of the morning to wake me up (whereas K loves the blackout effect!).

After a brekkie of fruit salad and tea / coffee at a nice little place around the corner, we headed off with excitement to Melbourne Park for the Aussie Open. We had tickets for the main arena (Rod Laver) which is the equivalent of Centre Court at Wimbledon, although only for the daytime session, so we weren’t sure who would be playing. I was hoping for Andy Murray but when we arrived, it turned out he was playing in the evening on the equivalent of Number One Court (the Hisense Arena). Assuming that the evening tickets would all be sold out, I swallowed my disappointment and we settled down to watch the matches that we’d paid for! Nothing too spectacular, but saw Serena Williams, Amelie Mauresmo and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. Decided to stay on in the grounds to watch the Murray match on the big screen there, and then realised that there were actually still tickets on sale – hurrah!! Rushed to the box office, thinking there would only be a few left (you’d never get tickets at Wimbledon!), but as it turned out the arena was half empty and if it hadn’t been for a pretty good and noisy contingent of Tartan Army types, it would have been like a graveyard! It’s bizarre, sport is so much more accessible here – prices are lower and the small population means it’s easy to get tickets – but yet things don’t sell out – Australians don’t know how lucky they are sometimes!

Thoroughly enjoyed the match and was good to see Murray looking in good form (although he was later to meet his match against Verdasco).