Visit to Oz, run 8 - Sydney Harbour Bridge and all that. Having postponed from the previous day, I was eager to get going on the run I had been visualising for weeks. We were staying near Sydney's Central Station and the run to the bridge was 2.5k. Mostly uphill. But that tremendous run up Mount Lofty had made a difference, and I got to the bridge without trouble. This is more than can be said for my son, who along with his fitness fanatical partner Emily, was doing the run with me. I think he would have struggled with week 2 of C25K... You can imagine how it felt tro now be fitter than your son. Except, of course, I had to encourage him rather than have a wee snigger. Now I know how Emily probably felt when she first ran with me!
Anyhow, we did get to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Up close, you find that pedestrians use a separate section that runs alongside the main deck of the bridge. It feels quite enclosed - the main deck on the inside and a heavily 'suicide-proof' fence on the outside. In fact, they must be sensitive to jumpers - we passed three security guards on the bridge. Presumably their main job will be to 'save' anyone from climbing the barbed wire.
The run over the bridge itself was great - just on half a kilometer long. That made the distance 3k at the turnaround. We took the inevitable photos for the scrap book and hoped to get a passer by to take one of the three of us. Passer by number one just looked at us in a funny way, then continued walking by. Number two did take a couple of shots but was remarkably efficient job of NOT including the bridge in the shot. The third person got the idea and a good shot mmcinteractive.com/oz/21.jpg
A run back to the city side left Emily jumping for joy mmcinteractive.com/oz/22.jpg and myself just happy to have had the chance to be there and do the run. As we got back to dry land (so to speak), we hit a bit of traffic control. I think Andy was quite relieved to see the sign "JOGGERS SLOW DOWN" mmcinteractive.com/oz/20.jpg
Back at the hotel, we found an anomoly. Nike+ said we can covered six and a quarter miles. But Endomondo said it had been four and a half. Nike+ has been calibrated and quite accurate until this one. I had been keeping my steps going while waiting to cross at the many intersections during the run, and Nike+ probably counted that as 'distance'. But I don't think I stepped for two miles worth...
Anyhow, iconic run number one is under my belt. Number 2 will take place tomorrow (Monday) morning. That means no rest day, but who can miss the chance to do the Sydney Opera House and Botanic Garden? I certainly don't intend to. I might be doing this one on my own, with just a little help from Laura!
Photos from my recent sponsored 5K Run.
A loo stop... Doing a half marathon, who'd have thought!
