Northface City Race - Mid Distance (Team) Race Report

The City Race was quite a bit of fun,and Team Small Dragon Baskets did well considering the complete lack of any semblance of training. All our "we should train like we're running a half marathon" plans pretty much crashed and burned over the two festive periods. I think of us 3, Gina probably put in the most training although she got hit with consecutive bouts of some kind of flu a month before. Rich's spirit was willing but his flesh wasn't so much, so he didn't get much in. Me? I did everything BUT run because I am still on the ban from my podiatrist. I swam, cycled on the stationary bike, used the elliptical... All things considering, Rich seemed to have the most energy (Gina and I also agree that his longer legs meant that with each stride he covered more distance), Gina wilted in the heat and I could only run up slopes because I got a stitch on flat ground.

For me, the good part about the City Race is that it is a hell lot shorter than Let's Take a Walk, so none of us felt too much like dying after. Also the element of surprise was pretty interesting. Essentially everyone has to 'check-in' 30 minutes before the race and they'll give you a map with 5 checkpoints and then you and the team pretty much figure which order you want to take them. Rich did awesomely with the map and what we lost in our severe lack of fitness we made up for in superb orienteering. If I had been in charge of that we'd be taking all the scenic routes and finishing heaven only knows when.

Anyhoo we walked most of the run (and the day after weirdly enough our arms and backs were aching more than our legs) and did a mad sprint to the finish line. All 5 metres! Fancy that! At least we ended things with a bang. Inside the race area, we were greeted with free Subway sandwiches and tons (and I mean like a whole variety) of fruit. I grabbed an orange because only challenging fruit interest me while the rest grabbed sandwiches and bananas. I thought that was pretty decent of the race organisers. We all agreed on two things at the end - one, that we thought it was a very well organised race and two, that it would have been lonely doing it alone. And I'm sure Gina would want the last word in and say that she much prefers running 10k to walking/running 20k.

Race results - Just under 20k in 3:20:04 hrs