Sydney 2024, July 27

I had a 6:45 alarm to get ready in time for parkrun. Checking the weather radar there was lots of rain due to come in from about 7:30am so I was a bit undecided about going. The main concern was having no other shoes to wear except for my race shoes for the weekend, and soaking wet shoes take a long time to dry.

The bus was a bit delayed and slow due to so many people getting this bus instead of the usual train service. I was about to give up and get off the bus because it was already 7:30am and the rain was getting heavy, but just then we made it on to the Harbour Bridge. From the bus stop at the other side I had to walk up a steep hill for a few blocks to get to the course, the rain was a bit lighter and some parts were undercover thanks to the shopfronts.

The event was a short three lap course around a small park, the rain got heavier during the race but I avoided the biggest puddles on each lap. I was running even slower than the effort felt like, didn't get much better than 4:40/km at any point. The race finished and my watch was only up to 4.80 kilometres so I got a bit of a bonus to my finish time at least.

I ran back down to the bus stop to travel back to Museum station, going back the other way wasn't very busy. I headed down to check out the free hotel breakfast, it was alright but didn't have a huge range, I got my usual bowl of toasted muesli and some mini croissants and muffins.

I went back to the hotel room to check the radar again before going to pick up my race bib for the race tomorrow. There was steady patches of rain still coming through for a few hours, but only very light. I hoped that my rain jacket and shoes had dried off a bit, and lucky there weren't too bad.

Heading off to get the circle loop train from Museum station, it was only two stops to reach Circular Quay. The race just a small tent out on the footpath near the Overseas Passenger Terminal, so it was good that it wasn't busy and raining. I collected my bib for Group A which was for anyone finishing in less than 45 minutes, so a very diverse time range. The preferred start criteria was a crazy 34 minutes, there would be lucky to be fifty people doing that.

It was cold and drizzly outside in the city still so I didn't stick around at Circular Quay for long. The train was only going to Town Hall and not back to Museum due to other maintenance work. I could have stayed on this train all the way to Homebush and walk about 1.5 kilometres each way to the DFO and Nike Factory, but thought it was a bit too much before race day.

Instead I had a slightly longer walk back to the hotel from Town Hall station to drop off the bib and also found a Bread Top along the way. My legs were feeling a bit sore already, so I had to limit my walking for the rest of the day.

My next trip was to nearby Darlinghurst and Surry Hills for food, and the rain had finally stopped. I got some groceries from Woolworths and a burrito from Zambrero on the way back, the best of the Mexican fast food chains. I ate lunch and watched some episodes of the rebooted season one of The Mole USA from Netflix.

I was feeling a bit better after a bit of rest so walked through Hyde Park to Australian Museum. It was free entry but there wasn't that much to see on the three levels, a few dinosaurs and lots of stuffed animals exhibits. I also quickly stopped in at the ANZAC memorial on the way back to the hotel.

After those afternoon activities my legs were back to feeling quite tired again. I had some dinner and an early night to be ready for the race in the morning at 8:30am.