BAY 2 CITY RACE REPORT - MARCH 19 2016

Bay 2 City is the sister reverse race of the City 2 Bay here in Adelaide.
The City 2 Bay is one of my favourite races, run over a 12km course from town down to Glenelg.
Bay 2 City in 2015 was in April the weather was perfect.
This year, the race for no particular reason that I can find out was a month earlier. March is always hot here in Adelaide. It as forecast to be about 28C which for me is a hot run.

The race started at 8 am, I'd honestly be happy for it to start earlier. The appeal of this race is it is so much smaller than the City 2 Bay. This race attracts no more than 4000, the Cit 2 Bay- 40,000.

I met with my friend Julia (Rubenesque Runner) who was in the final stages of training for London Marathon. She was race fit and went off like a rocket (we are usually similar pace). I had bought my bib from her as fund raising for the Heart Foundation for her marathon campaign.

It's a great course, presumed uphill (as in City 2 Bay you feel you are going downhill) but is flat bar a couple of short inclines, one up a bridge at the end. The race starts at Colley Reserve at Glenelg, travels up Jetty Road, left on to Brighton Road and then it's straight up Anzac Highway to the city.
This year rather than going down Currie St from West Terrace and on to Morphett Street bridge, it turned from West Terrace on to Franklin St and then through Light Square on to the bridge and then right towards the finish.

I wasn't race fit for this race, after just training to 5 km for the Friendship run in Tokyo. However, after coming back from Tokyo I did a 7, 10 and then a 12 on the treddy so I knew that I would be able to cover the distance. I didn't rule out a PB (1:28) but knew it was only a very slim possibility.

It got quite warm by about 8km. At 10.5km, due to the heat, I began to get my calf cramps (magnesium- need to start back on that!!!), but knew with not far to to go it wouldn't be like Melbourne where for 5 kms, I ran in pain but still got a PB.

Finished officially in 1:32:06 which I was totally happy with as not really race fit. So I did well.
I did experience post race cramp like I never had when I flexed my calf. IT went on for about 5 minutes. I had Julia and her friend massaging my legs. It finally went away but was a note to self to reintroduce the magnesium and increase dosage towards race day.

I hope they put this race back to April for 2017- the chance of cooler temps makes it so much more attractive.

Ubiquitous Garmin Shot

Me, Julia and her friend

#garmin
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#dashernation

BRIONY'S STILL RUNNING!

Well- its been months, but I've been racing and training.

City to Bay in mid September went well- got a bit warm so a little over PB time.
The Melbourne Half went really well in the end. I got sub 2:40 which was 3 minutes faster than NYC- so pleased.

Then I got sick.

A trip to South Africa in November was fabulous, but I got worse until I was sent to hospital in the 3rd week of November with suspected pneumonia. Thankfully it was not but my asthma was so bad it was replicating pneumonia. Was better by December, and then I had my Gran's 100th in early January.

January 11th I began again, birthday's over, sickness gone. 78 days later, I am still going. Inspired by a friend in the US who is currently on Streak Day #120 something. So the Streak began.... and hasn't stopped. Minimum of 7 sessions of exercise (or min 1km) across 7 days. If a day is missed because of work it is made up as soon as possible in that week. So far a success and nearly 300 kms achieved.

There has been a trip to the Tokyo Marathon with my dear friend Anthea to cheer some friends around the course, including our favourite Belgian who completed her 6th marathon major.

Last week was round 2 of Bay to City- no position to run as up until end of February my longest run had been 5km- in preparation for the Friendship Run in Tokyo. No PB but a time of 1:32 I was pleased with the result.

Next race is a 10k up in Salisbury and also on the local calendar, a 10k at Semaphore.

The big race for the year will be the Philadelphia Half in November with a warm up at the Rocky Run in Philly the week before.

Watch this space for some posts from Tokyo and Bay to City.

Thanks for following :)