My first participation in The Great Train Race, also known as the Puffing Billy Run, and less often known as the Steamboat Mickey Run.
My preparation for the race was less than ideal, picking up my 500th nagging calf injury the weekend before at the Sri Chinmoy Princes Park 10km event. I went for a long run on Tuesday (down to The Tan for two laps and back) and felt bad, then feeling good by Friday I tried just one lap of The Tan and had a similar setback.
So the weekend was spent icing and hoping for a miracle recovery, at least to the point I wouldn't break down during the race and waste my time and money. The race start was 9:30am which was a little more reasonable than most events, but probably necessary when everyone has to get to Belgrave. We took the train and got there by around 8:30am, for some reason the luggage drop-off shuts down at 9:00am, meaning everyone is standing around freezing for another half hour until the race starts.
Having an injury and standing around in the cold is not a good combination I imagine. They opened up the bays with about fifteen minutes to go, of which I was meant to be in the third group because I listed a very conservative 10km baseline time on my entry (due to having just completed a terrible 10km Grand Prix Run shortly before signing up). I didn't bother with the guidelines and upgraded myself to the second group instead.
Just before the start we got to go down the hill to the start line, followed by Boston Marathon tribute and national anthem - the USA national anthem would have been better. Then we were off, it took about 20 seconds to get across the start line and then I started to find a comfortable pace.
It was mostly uphill in the first 2km, but not steep, then a couple of kilometres of downhill, I could have gone a bit harder in this section if there wasn't so many people in the way, but I didn't want to waste too much energy and I didn't know how hard the rest of the course would be. Just after 5km we hit the drinks station and the big hill. Up until recently the hills had been my major downfall, but somehow I've become much better. This was the major hill climb on the course, and Cadel Evans for sure would have run out of gas before the top, but I did well to overtake a heap of people, even though slow people *never* stay to the left.
Just after the hilltop was a train crossing, and people were screaming like mad - I couldn't work out if the train was just about to come or had just passed, just general confusion really. I made a mad dash for the train tracks which was probably unnecessary and got through without delay, then just before the steep downhill I actually managed to catch up to Jarrod who had started in the first group. He broke ahead again on the downhill as I was trying to avoid an injury, then we began on the never ending uphill. It wasn't nearly as bad as the previous hill segment, but it went for at least 3km.
I passed Jarrod again during the uphill, then at the next train crossing I was just behind the train, but luckily it was just far enough I didn't get stuck waiting for it to pass and lose any time. I figured all hope was lost and I was not going to beat the train then, but kept running for a good time anyway. The last 2km was great as it was all trail running and downhill, I had to hold back a little again as I didn't know how much my calf had left and for the first time a few people were overtaking me, but not too many.
Near the finish there was a couple of annoying small uphill bends, and more people shouting encouragement, yet I still couldn't figure out if the train had won, as I couldn't see it anywhere. I crossed the line just under 55 minutes but still with no idea where the train was. It was only a minute later I heard them announce the driver was coming across the line at about 56 minutes. Found Norval after the finish who had just missed out on breaking 50 minutes, Jarrod came in about 30 seconds behind me and Jason got stuck at the second train crossing and finished another minute or two back.
So a successful event, and a pretty good time given the hills. Too bad for my calf, it was wrecked by the following morning and still isn't much better four days later.