city to surf

on august 30th 2009 (a bit late, i know), i joined 40 000 other perthites and ran the city to surf. cts is the largest sporting event held in perth. the event has grown from 500 participants in the 12km run in 1975, to over 40 000 participants competing in 6 events. the event is a fund-raiser for activ, a not for profit organization who has been providing services for people with disabilities since 1951.

this year saw the inauguration of a full marathon, which was won in 2:13. the half-marathon was introduced in 2007. there is an 11km wheelchair race, a 12km walk, a 4km walk/run, and the original and most-popular of the races, the 12km run.

the 12km run starts in perth cbd, then heads straight out to the beach. the course had to be changed this year as there were more events and significantly more participants. it did, however, manage to keep the 3 major hills on the route!

the event organization had some flaws, but none so bad that i wouldn't participate again. what would make me reconsider, however, was the quantity of people on the course and the blatant lack of respect among participants. people in perth don't seem to grasp the "queuing based on expected time" idea- preventing faster runners from overtaking slow runners early on, as they should be further. but no! in perth, even though we had different coloured race numbers based on our expected finish times, were coralled at the start of the event because of these numbers and were released onto the course in light of these numbers, i still managed to overtake walkers in the first 2km! ugh.

luckily, it was perfect conditions for a race and after km 5, i was able to find some space and get into a bit of a groove.

i crossed the line at 56:00.
xo