Sunday morning I headed out bright and early with the rest of Brisbane for the Bridge to Brisbane run run. I didn't particularly sleep well on Saturday night and found myself awake a little before 4am so figured I'd get up anyway seeing as there was no real point in just lying awake for another 20 minutes.
After learning last year that traffic builds up on the Gateway and Wynnum Rd well before the race start time I left home about 5.20am so as to only catch a little of it (which worked well as I only had to slow down to a first-gear-crawl from the Wynnum Rd offramp). Another five or ten minutes later and I'd parked my car and wandered off in a quick shuffle towards the start line about a kilometre away. A few brave individuals jogged there way along, but most people were seemed content with walking pace as it was just shy of 6am and start time wasn't until 6.45. There was still quite a bit of open space around the start areas when I arrived, so found a spot near the front of the green group (given that I was aiming for around the 50 min mark). I've heard comments from other people about seeing walkers lining up in this part of the crowd and can concur with this - I was standing next to a group comprised of people with walker bibs on standing next to their green bib friends who were apparently not concerned about being in the wrong area, let alone at the front of it.
The organisers had attempted to control the start line madness this year with separated starts for the blue/red runners (anyone with a time of about 62min or less from last year's event), the green/yellow "joggers" (anyone else who thought they were going to run and finish in under 60/70 mins, and the walkers. Given that they'd said they were staggering the start, I expected to see the red/blue groups start, then the green group start, then the yellow, then the walkers, perhaps with a few minutes between each to let some of the people-traffic through. What *actually* happened was that about 10 minutes before we started, the entire green group started surging towards the tail end of the red group and "meshing" a little. I'm not sure if this was prompted by any kind of announcement - the ribbon barrier which was "blocking" our start was still in place when we started moving.
So I ended standing pretty much at the top of the ramp leading down to the start line when the gun went off (and had a nice view of the start). As usual, though, it took a little time for the crowd to move, but we were at least jogging as we crossed the start line. Despite being somewhere near the start (although possibly still about as far back as I was last year) I ended up passing quite a few people on both the uphill and downhill sections of the bridge. How do so many people who are obviously *not* running fast manage to start so far near the front of a race (let's put it this way, if I can pass you, you're not a sub-50 min runner over 10k)? I don't get it. There's a common courtesy amongst those who run on a regular basis that you keep left, don't block pathways, and generally give way to those people who are running faster than you are, so I don't know where all these other people come from. Gyms? Treadmills? Have any of you ever run outdoors with other people? It explains a lot about the driving style of people in this city as well, if you really think about it.
I think the most interesting person I ran near all day passed me just after the base of the bridge. A brave lady was out running in a fairy costume (the kind with the past-knee-length skirt) and putting my constant plodding pace to shame :-) I also managed to find one of the Healthwise chicks from FC along this section of road and decided to tail her (and whoever she was running with) - the crazy personal training types are probably decent people to try and follow...
Anyhow, the first main point of chaos after the start was the water station at the 3km mark. I carry a bottle of water with me when I run, partly of of habit, but particularly at events like this where there are herds of people just so I don't have to fight for space at a table. It also means I can strategically move to the other side of the road when I know it's coming up so I don't have to deal with as much of the people-dodging.
A little after the the water station I passed the 55 min pace runner and felt a little annoyed at having been so far back to begin with. I'm not sure where the pacers started (which isn't their fault) - I guess I was expecting to see some of them starting in the green area so I could judge where I was in the starting "order" . But that's a little like last year, really :-)
Kingsford Smith Drive seemed longer to me than last year, and a little more built up, but at least it's pretty much flat. Along the way there were locals waving from the street, locals waving from balconies (at what looked to be especially set up breakfast parties) and musicians, so it's all very festive. There's also some nice views of the city and New Farm once you get past the cruise terminal and Brett's Wharf. Somewhere by the 6km mark I gave up on following the PT-types from work (just not quite as fast as I'd like to be). Will be looking for a rematch next year though :-)
Further along the river by Breakfast Creek is where the course change kicked in. Last year we headed around towards New Farm; this year we all went through a short tunnel and up onto the Inner City Bypass. This was the only other really incline on the course, and coming at 8km in, it's a bit of a doozy. It's one of those nice hills where you think you're all the way up, only to find out there's a second half. Yay! This proved to be a little bit on an undoing for some and I passed a few people who'd succumbed to walking their way up the hill. As it was, I probably only slow-jogged my way up, but once up the top the RBH became fairly prominent, and despite not knowing my way to the Ekka grounds, I knew it was across the road from there so at least I had a landmark to work with.
One of the organisers thought it'd be a good idea to put a big banner-thing up at the 9km mark to jubilantly announce that there was 1km to go. I don't think too many people around me appreciated the sentiment as there were quite a few mutters going around at that point about how it should have read "Congratulations! You're not finished!"
The pace picked up noticeably with about 500m to go, and again there was more muttering when we went under the train line and found another arch announcing another 200m to go. I didn't notice at the time, but the course goes right past the main stage (was too busy watching for people and trying to get to the end). I believe the clock said 51min something when I finished. I'm not sure what the "something" was. And I don't know what the official time is yet, but as long as it's under 51:57 it'll better my existing PB from a different event last year. Most likely didn't quite crack the 50 min mark, but I guess we'll see :-) (Update: my time was 49:55 - woohoo! Turns out I did get both the PB and the sub-50 time!)
The RNA showgrounds is a better venue for the finish - more space, more facilities and easier to get home from. But dragging out the presentations until nearly midday is *not* cool. Especially when at 8am they keep saying it'll be over by 10.30! There's still a few things they perhaps need to work on for next year (?) but it's still reasonably well organised given it's size compared to all the other events on the Brisbane calendar.
