Running 5:44:00 [3] 51.0 km (6:45 / km)
Brooklyn to the Sphinx down the GNW with Jono & Chris. ie. first half of the Oxfam course.
Logistics proved to be harder than the run itself. Plan was to meet at 8:45 at the Sphinx, then hop a train up to Brooklyn. Called Chris at 8:30am to synchronise, to find that a) he was still in bed, and b) unlikely to be under the limit to drive. Reworked the plan for Jono to collect him and drive to Brooklyn, while I left car at Wahroonga station and took the train.
Great day for a run when we got going. The track was underwater from all the rain, but the sun had come out which made it rather fun playing in the wet. Decent tempo thru' to Berowra Waters (1:30 to Cowan, 2:30 to the water) which was about 10min up on Oxfam race pace from last year. Tired a bit, eased up and got thru' to Bobbin Head in 4:55 (5:07 last year). Missed the turn up the hill for a bonus km, and got the the Sphinx in 5:44 (vs. 5:58).
Cunning plan then was to take a taxi back to my car. Unfortunately teh taxi booking got screwed up, and they went to the wrong spot. By then it was saturday evening and chance of getting a cab from there had dropped to zero. Wandered up to the hospital and hitched hiked a ride from an old bloke, to get back on track for making it out to Homebush for the Wallabies. Too late to take the bus, so I drove direct. To continue the delays, there was an accident that had created a traffic bankup and I arrived at Olympic Park with a couple of minutes to spare, but facing a 2.5km run from the carpark to the ground. Just what I felt like on 50k legs. Made it, grabbed change of clothes from Katrin and sat down to a VB in a plastic cup.
Then home for the ITT.