City to Surf

Sunday, 22 August 2010 22:03

Once again a large contingent of KSB runners head to Sydney to compete in one of the world's largest fun runs. Many were seasoned Sydney veteran, but only by the number of times they had competed, not by age. Each has their own love/hate relationships with various 'features' of the course.... most notably "Heartbreak Hill". Read Below for results and Micheal McIntyre's detailed report.

City to Surf Report

When I think of the City to Surf weekend I usually see blue skies and sunshine, glassy waves and muffins (the cake variety). Not this year. I suppose after all the drama prior to the event I should have expected a lousy day.

For myself, and the group that travelled with me, the grounding and subsequent take off of Tiger Airways created plenty of nervous days. I had more a sense of relief when we took off than anticipation.

KSB was well represented as usual with Rob Trott, Dom, Gerard, Emma, Bianca, Amy, David Ireland, Brendan O’Loughlin, Patrick Grech, Matthew Matarazzo and myself.

Most of us had preferred runner status and wasn’t that a godsend. As we alighted from the bus at the start the heavens opened. Huddling under a tree kept us relatively dry but delayed the warm up. I wasn’t too concerned, however, I didn’t want a long warm up. I wanted my hip/glute to remain pain free until we started.

After a few anxious moments getting onto the startline, mainly to do with ensuring everyone made it past the very zealous officials, we were ready for the 14km rollercoaster to Bondi.

David began like a shot out of a gun, odd that, and just about led the right hand brigade. Gerard bounced away also, leaving me in his wake as I sauntered across the line. On the opposite side of the road Brendan, Rob and Bianca got away to a good start while Emma, Patrick and Matthew had to cool their heels waiting for the masses in front to begin marching across the line.

As I approached the tunnel I could see Gerard ahead and caught up with Bianca. I reminded her about not losing her head early and, while that was a foreign concept, she appeared to be in control.

By this stage Dave was a dot in the group ahead.

Up the hill to Edgecliff I spotted Rob. He was moving away from me. Down the hill Dom came alongside. I said I hoped he was on a blinder. That would put me in contention for a decent time. I can’t recall exactly when I passed Brendan but it was somewhere before or along Rose Bay(5k). I was a little surprised by how early it was considering my shape, but as he’d missed a lot of training also, I suppose we were relatively as well off so I should have expected to pass him at some point.

Along Rose Bay Gerard was some 30m in front. He didn’t look to be flowing along in his usual style and he wasn’t running the tangents as he normally would, so I figured his mind was on something else. As we began the ascent of Heartbreak I joined him and within a hundred metres or so had already established a sizeable break. I could see Dom’s white cap bouncing along a little way in front and had visions of catching him around the 10k mark.

Behind me Patrick was running a strong race as he worked his way through the throng of runners that began ahead, one of which was Bianca who was still on target for 57mins. Emma’s main goal was to break the hour and by half way she was well under that. Matthew would also have been aiming to break the hour but he was right on the splits necessary so couldn’t afford to drop off.

Amy had begun the furthest back but was pacing herself well through the initial hills.

As I hit the undulations I noted that Dom had caught the two leading SBC boys, one of which was my son Liam. Rob had sailed past well before that. If Dom provided some motivation to keep pushing, spotting Liam and his teammate was like a needle to a junky. The pain was forgotten as I closed the gap between us. At 10k order was restored in the McIntyre household. At this point Dom was only 12 secs ahead, 40m at best. If he faltered at the finish I would nail him.

Gerard went through 10k 37 secs later with Brendan 16 secs astern and Patrick 32 secs. Both were closing in. Bianca crested the final hill next 51 secs ahead of Emma with Matthew a further 26 secs back while Amy went through much later amongst a mass of runners.

Dave was still motoring along close to a top 50 position with a low 47 possible with a strong finish. I normally add about 13 minutes to my 10k time. In 2009 when I ran 47.30 I finished in 12.58.

However, Dave slowed a little, running 13.29 for his last 4k. Contrast this with Rob who finished 2½ minutes later but his last 4k of 13.48 was only 19 secs slower.

Dom didn’t falter at the finish running a PB if my memory is still functioning properly. I managed to keep the legs turning over sufficiently to finish next. As Gerard approached the final turn he was about to bask in the satisfaction of not having another KSB/SBC runner go past when Patrick gave him windburn. As if that wasn’t demoralising, his hamstring started to seize up and threatened to go into spasm with the finishing gates in sight. As he slowed down to ensure that didn’t happen Brendan sprinted past him in the shadows of the post. Talk about a lack of respect for your elders.

A few Gatorades later Bianca came sprinting home, resplendent in her grey shorts and top (NOTE: not KSB colours) followed shortly after by Emma in what must be her lucky red singlet. What happened to the KSB crop tops girls? Emma’s last 4k is interesting compared to Bianca’s. She was 23 secs slower in the first 10k but 21 secs slower in the last 4k.

Matthew broke the hour on net time by 9 secs despite a significant slowing down in the last 4k. 16 secs slower than Emma at 10k but 1.11 slower in the last 4k. That has to go close to hitting the wall. The last one to finish was Amy but without knowing her previous times I would think it was a PB.

Overall I think the KSB runners would be happy with their performances in the conditions. I’m sure Rob will be back to break 50 mins and Brendan, Gerard and I will be hoping to go injury free into next years race.

Times and splits

Michael