The race was scheduled to start at 7am and was a little over 1.5 kilometres away, just south of the finish area at CommBank stadium. I woke up with my alarm at 6:15 and had one gel and a small drink before leaving the hotel, which is definitely not the ideal pre-race nutrition but low risk.
There was a lot of detours through the city centre so the walk was a little longer than expected, but came out just in front of the start line. It was possible to do some warmup laps on the road, but I wanted to get a good spot at the start so only did a very short jog. Once I found a spot I had about 20 minutes to wait, a little cold but not too bad.
As the race started I was a few rows back from the start line, but a bunch of eager people immediately went ahead down the first straight. I estimated I was around 100th place as we started through the park, which was a little steeper than I expected. The first drink station came at 5km but was just after a corner so I wasn't prepared for it and was also on the wrong side of the road. It wasn't a hot day so I didn't really need a drink, except I knew the next one wasn't until 12km.
The middle of the race was not the best, switching to some narrow river paths and footpath sections, with a few step hills added in. I was staying on pace at around 3:45/km and even started to feel good after 12 km. I got through some gels at 7 km and 14 km and then we were back into the park for the final third of the race. Inside the park there was another steep hill down and then straight back up again, which probably could have been avoided with a better route.
Going through 17 km my hamstring started to feel weak but I was still managing good times just behind a small pack of about five runners, even getting a bit quicker it turned out. Only after about 19 km as we had a very long route around the back of the stadium I probably started to struggle a bit. I didn't realise I was so close to 80 minutes due to the increasing difference between the course markers and my watch distance. I only got a view of the time when it passed 79 minutes 50 seconds on the board, so there wasn't enough time for an extra sprint and I ended up just missing out on 80 minutes.
Overall it was a well organised race with great crowd support, but just a bit too complicated to run really fast times. There wasn't as much of an expo or finish line experience as other races, although that will probably improve in future. A free t-shirt and free photos with the entry price was a good addition.
After the race I didn't have a lot of time so headed straight back to the hotel. With a quick shower, breakfast, and packing up I was just on time to run to the station in time for the train. Getting off at central station I walked all the way down to the airport platforms only to find they were closed for maintenance. Instead I had to walk all the way back to the street outside, and find a poorly marked queue for replacement buses to the domestic airport terminal. The bus took a while to show up but the trip itself was fast, hardly any different to the train.
I had a little over an hour before departure so got some food for an early lunch and headed to the gate. The flight and the rest of the trip home took the usual five plus hours from start to finish and that was the end of the weekend trip. Being only two weeks before Gold Coast I'm not sure if this would be a definite inclusion to my plans for next year at this stage.
25658 steps with 21.25 km running
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