A (great) weekend wrap...

Saturday
up early again at 6.20am (with fully charged batteries) to fulfil my assignment for some landscape shots - i joined Suze & Hux again and we were out for about 90mins......got quite a few good ones including one i'm really happy with - i will post it after tomorrow night's session (i'll do a before & after just in case we do any enhancement with Photoshop)...

came home & then headed straight back out on my easy run...

the stats:
start temp/humidity:
start time: 8:13am
total distance: 7.14
total time: 40:00
avg pace: 5:36
total calories: 536
avg HR: 157
finish temp/humidity:

loaded up the car ready for the trip to Sydney & then headed out to golf...played a little better than last week - managed consecutive birdies for the first time but my putting was very inconsistent, varying from excellent to atrocious!

finished at 3pm and then went straight over to mum & dad's before heading to Sydney...

arrived near the hotel @ 6.45pm, mum & dad went & checked in while i endeavoured to find a short term parking spot (fat chance)...ended up picking up my brother, Tim, from Vaucluse (after his haircut @ 7.30pm) then his girlfriend, Jane, from Bondi Junction before finally parking in the city - thankfully there was no more driving to be done until we returned to Canberra...

had dinner at a Japanese restaurant @ 9.20pm, not returning to the hotel until after 11pm...mum kindly did my regular Saturday massage (awkwardly using the bed as the table) before it was lights out at about 12.30am...

Sunday
up at 7 and out of the hotel by 7.30am, we called past the car to offload all unnecessary gear before meeting Tim & Jane just after 8am at Starbucks...Tim had a preferred start (#340) while Jane was doing her 1st C2S from the HSBC start...

took ages to get a signal on my Garmin - while i was waiting for it, Aki yelled out a hello after arriving on the ACTCCC bus...

jumped into the A2 start just after 8.30am...The Owl & Caro said a quick hello and then i was joined not long after by a friend of Tiger Angel and the Gnome - we had a bit of a chat (he was doing his first C2S) and then he disappeared before the start without me even getting his name!

by my timing the first gun went off at 9:30:27 and the second gun at 9:34:01...it then took me until 9:35:24 to cross the line so it'll be interesting to see how much time they take off for the A2 starters...

as usual the first k or so was a bit of a shuffle with lots of evasive action...was nearly brought to the ground by a runner who decided at the last minute that he wanted to get a drink & cut across me at right angles, i bounced off him & into another runner which kept me upright!

thought the conditions were ideal for me although i really did appreciate the breeze at the top of the run...

cheered on a couple of CRs & appreciated the CR squad's cheer near the 13k mark…thanks guys!

tried to avoid congestion on the inside of corners by sticking fairly wide which would explain why the Garmin measured 14.15k (after editing in SportTracks) at the end which was the same as last year…

felt pretty good throughout and passed through 7k in 35:22 and managed to negative split with 33:59 to finish in 69:21 by my watch for a PB of 6:20…(last year's run was a positive split with 37:16/38:25 for 75:41)…

no 6:00+ splits this year with my slowest ks being the 1st one (5:45) the 7th (5:37)…in fact i only 2 other ks that were over 5:00…woo hoo!

my timing card said 74:11 so i'm hoping my official time will be 70:XX but regardless i've achieved an A1 start for next year!!

said hello to wombatface in the finish area before chatting to Grant W & a couple of other runners from Customs Joggers not long after the finish…also spoke to CJ (another with a big PB) before heading to the front of the North Bondi SLSC to meet the family…Johnny Dark said hello on his way to the CR gathering & said he thinks he got a photo of me up near the 13k mark so i have to check the CR site…Tim finished in 52:41 while Jane took 94:XX according to her timing card (she forgot to stop her watch!)…hopefully they'll both be back to run next year…

walked about in the surf for recovery (twice), had a sausage on a roll courtesy of the North Bondi surf club then had a nice late lunch at the Swiss Grand Hotel with a great view out over the beach…even saw the last finisher wheeling her way up Campbell Parade with everyone stopping to clap & cheer her on…

after saying goodbye to Tim & Jane (they return to Melbourne tomorrow) we walked up to Old South Head Rd where we eventually caught a taxi back to the city…ended up back home after dropping mum & dad off at 8.45pm…

a long but EXTREMELY satisfying day!