[City2Surf.005] My 3rd City2Surf run

I finished my 3rd City2Surf run last Sunday. This year there were a lot more runners than before: 75,000+ !

This time, I wasn't as well prepared as last year, plus a 2-7am work related activity on the day before, and my time was about 108 min. Certainly a lot more room for improvement next year!

I tried to convince wife and kid to join me again, but unfortunately the race is still not as attractive as the warm and cosy bed in the cold weather, probably next year then...

There were these 2 policemen riding on the horses in the Hyde Park before the race starts, looks pretty cool when you are so high above from the others. Just wonder, do they also have to get off the horses to clean up like those who walk their dogs in the park if the horses have to "release" themselves? They would certainly need a much bigger plastic bag!

[City2Surf.004] Better Result plus $215 raised for Starlight Children's Foundation!

I finished my 2nd City2Surf run on 10/8. Compared to last year, I was more focus on the run thus not many photos taken and I got a much better result! My last year's City2Run post is available here.

This was taken while we slowly move forward towards the starting line. This year we all have a timing chip tied to our shoes, and it will only get activated when we cross the starting line. The timing will be a lot more accurate and there's not much rushing like last year! A huge improvement!

Here we go, just crossed the starting line! There's runners everywhere...

The heavy metal band singing on the roof is back, with even louder music...

There's the finish line... Yes, sorry I didn't take any photo during the run. And yes, there's still lots of rubbish near every water station, just like last year.

My medal and bag as souvenir, the cap was from last year actually...

Many thanks to help from friends and colleagues, I raised $215 for Starlight Children's Foundation this year, almost doubled last year's figure!

My result is also much better than last year. 93.23 min is at least 30 min faster, yeah!

[BlogSite.023] Start preparing for City2Surf 2008!

I decided to have my 2nd charity run for City2Surf this year, last year I raised $110.00 for "Youth off the street", details of my last run can be seen here.

My charity this year is "Starlight Children's Foundation", and hopefully I can raise some money for them as well.

There's only about 5 weeks left before the 10/8 run. Although I have been running for 2 weeks, I just setup this little "ticker" from tickerFactory.com on the left hand side banner, to remind me of my progress. I would like to have at least 30 runs in the next 5 weeks. Which means I will only allow 1 day off per week... That might not sound that cool, don't forget it's winter now in Australia and it's indeed quite cold at night...



Any way, the ticker starts from tomorrow, wish me good luck!

[City2Surf.003] My Result

The result of City2Surf was published on the paper the other day. Out of about 65,000 runners, about 53,000 completed the race.

Mine is "29,906" time is "127.02", just over 2 hours. Will work harder and get a better result next year!

Update (17/06/2007): Checked City2Surf web site and got this result. There was also a video, but can't capture the video by screen dump...

[City2Surf.002] Thanks for your support

This post is about today's city2surf run and my fund raising activity. So far I have collected $110.00, thanks to everyone who kindly made a donation, if you forgotten about it, it's still available at this page.

When I arrived at city around 7:15am this morning, the main roads for the starting point were already closed.

It's still quiet in the early morning. Lucky I was there early and only have to wait about 10 min to get my chest bib. The queue was almost 5 times longer when I finished.

The next photo is around 8:30am while waiting for our turn to start. I was in the last group and have to wait for the 4th signal which is more than 20 min behind the 1st group (starts at 9am).

We finally started and the whole street was packed with people...

Someone tried to write something on the sky but I don't have time to wait for it to finish, wonder what's after "J"?

When the crowd pass the famous Coke sign at Kings Cross there were lots of people over the bridge.

The first 2KM seems to take forever...

These 2 firemen got the best view in town.

There was this rock band singing "eye of the tiger" high up in the air...

When I pass the 1st water station I was shocked by the scene. Plastic cups everywhere! Wonder how are they going to clean this up after the race.

We all have to slow down a bit as it's quite slippery if you stepped on the cups...

This group of young people wear yellow beaks on their face and dressed in green, don't know what is it but they seems to be Japanese.

This is the 6km area, I looked back and there were people everywhere...

It was really hot, and this guy tried to help with his garden hose. Luckily the water restriction was over...

This is another smaller band, with much better music...

Another water station, another big mess...

It was very hot and this guy was really brave (or was it his job?), dressed like a green dragon with long sleeves, pants and a long tail.

After the 13KM sign everybody runs even faster...

The beautiful Bondi beach is right in front of us, almost there...

Yes, the finish line!

My time card says "147.30 min", but I think I have to deduct at least 20 min as we have a late start. So I think it should be around 2 hours, not bad for my first run! Will check official result on Tuesday's paper.
After the finish line, I saw how they make the Gatorade drink: open up big bags of powder, pour into big tanks and add water... On the way I have seen how the volunteers serving this drink. At the water station with orange Gatorade, all their hands and fingers were in orange colour, at the one with yellow Gatorade, you can see lots of yellow fingers... I don't think I will let my family touch any of these drinks, water is the best, we don't need any of those chemicals and colours...

After the race, I went to China town with family for lunch, this bottleman was playing music on the street.

After 2 weeks practice plus a whole day's hard work, this is what I got: a city2surf cap, a small medal (everybody got one!), a chest bib, sore legs, some weight loss (I think), and lots of fun. Also, it's good material for my 6 years old to talk about it in her Tuesday's news day at school!

[BlogSite.013] Help me to improve my blog!

Since last Thu, I have been spending about 2 hours every night training, preparing for next Sunday's City2Surf run. So I definitely won't be able to spend a lot of time on the blog until next Sunday, sorry about that!

During my cold daily run on the road, I have been thinking about the way this blog has been running and also looking at different ways to improve it.

In the past, I have been trying to cover detail information I learned from various areas, organise it and shared it on the blog. That seems to work quite well so far.

The fundraising run for City2Surf was another attempt, hopefully will get some support.

Next, I have created this poll and hopefully can collect some feedback from everyone. It will only take you a few seconds, but your feedback is very valuable to me, thanks a lot!

[City2Surf.001] For Good Health, New House, Charity and Some Fun!

Answer to my "secret mission"...
My GP asked me to drop 5-10 Kg, and I also like to change my "couch potato" life style after work. Plus I probably need to keep fit for this long battle, sorry, I mean construction work in the next 8-12 months with our builder. So after discussion with family, I decided to attend this 14 KM city2surf thing next Sunday (12/8).

At the same time, I think it would be nice to raise some money for charity, hopefully also generate more traffic to my blog, and have some fun!



My exercise patterns in the past...
In the past few years, I did go to gym every weekend -> but that's mainly for my daughter's swimming lesson, I simply sit there and wait... My daily walking distance is about 1.2 KM from home to train station in the morning and another 1.2 KM back home after work. So both my wife and my concern is, will 14 KM be too much for me...

Testing testing...
I did a few trials in the past few days, "walking + light jogging" for about 7-8 KM daily. Other than my sore legs, my body seems to be coping it quite well. And I plan to slowly increase the distance and my speed every day. So I think I should be able to handle that. In the worst case, I can simply walk!!

"Youth off the streets" needs your help
So if you have some spare changes please kindly have a look at my fundraising page and any donation to "Youth off the streets" would be really appreciated. As usual, any amount over $2 are tax deductible.



Have some fun...
To make the whole thing more interesting, I am also thinking about offering the option of putting the company logo/preferred images of the person/company with the highest amount of donation on my blog for the next 6 months. Note: as this is a "G" rated site for family and kids, so only suitable images/logos will be accepted.

Ok, that's almost everything, what are you waiting for?

Again, my fundraising page in case you missed it...

Finally, like to thank my lovely family for their support! Big kiss!

Cheers
Allan