Bob Goes to Australia: September 2011

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sydney Half Marathon

September 18th, 2011

Time: 1:25:20

Place: 95th / 8,357

The best race I have ever been in.

Ok so the half marathon was scheduled to start at 6:20am sunday morning and it recommended you got there an hour early so at 5:20am. This being a very early start and having the train ride from wollongong to Sydney being just over an hour and a half we decided to go up to Sydney on saturday afternoon and stay the night in a hostel on Sydney Harbor. The hostel was really really nice, the best hostel ive been in yet. It was basically a hotel room but with 2 bunk beds instead of 2 queen beds. During the day on saturday we went to to marathon expo and picked up our number and pins we needed for the race. Then we walked back towards the hostel to find a nice place to have a pasta dinner and then went to bed early. Steve, Steve, and myself were in one room with another random guy who did not leave his bed the entire time we were there and then Christa was in another room with two strangers. We set our alarms for 4:45am which came quickly. We got up, showered and walked over the harbor bridge (about 1.5 miles) to the starting line. We were walking over the bridge right at sunrise which was really cool. At the starting line we got in our singlets and I got in line to use the bathroom which took forever. Just as we were stepping out if the bathroom the announcer started the countdown from 10 seconds until the start of the race. This was still when there was hundreds of people walking around and still in line for the bathroom. We wernt even sure where the starting line was so we sprinted over towards where we thought it was and ended up being stuck in a line of people backed up way behind the starting line. It ended up taking three and a half minutes to get to the starting line and start the race. Once it started I wanted to run but I couldnt because there was a million people in front of me. I got impatient very fast because I wanted to run a good time and began running between people to pass everyone for the first 2 miles. Eventually I got in front of the huge pack and could settle into the pace I wanted to run. This was the longest race I have ever been in so I was nervous and didnt want to start out too fast. The first half of the race (7 miles) was fine but after the halfway point I quickly began to feel tired but I ended up keeping my pace until about the last mile when I feel like I slowed down a little. I ended up crossing the line in 95th place with a time of 1:25:20 which I am really happy about considering I wasnt training very hard before the race and it was a slow start. It was really cool to run across the Harbour Bridge during the race and to run past the Opera House a few times. The weather was pretty hot too, around 75 degrees probably. At the end we collected all the free stuff we could such as hats, visors, bags, water bottles, blankets, stopwatches, and lots of food. After everyone finished and recovered enough to move again we jogged off to the train station to make it back to Wollongong in order to catch the last few games of intercollege soccer which is a tournament between all the different housing locations at the University of Wollongong.

Results

Race bib and medal

Opera House the day before the race

Opera House while walking across Harbour Bridge at 5am to the starting line. (start time was 6:20am)

Opera House at sunrise before the race.

Four of us before the race starts.

Recovery zone after the race

Recovery Zone

People still finishing while we are walking back to our hostel to catch the train back to Wollongong

Finishers

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Sydney Harbour Cruise

This past friday me and 99 other students from Weerona College (The residence hall I live in) went on a cruise of Sydney Harbour. The dress code was formal so most of the Australians were wearing a full suit so us Americans tried to round up the most dressy outfit we had brought and wore that. Some went out and bought some nice clothes but I wasnt in the mood to go spend $100+ dollars on a shirts, pants, and tie so i had my mom mail me my dress pants and wore one of the nicer shirts I brought which was fine. At 3:00pm we all started getting ready and started walking to the North Wollongong train station (15min walk) at 3:30pm in order to be there in plenty of time to catch the 4:05pm train into Sydney. The train from NWollongong to Central station in Syndey takes about an hour and a half. Then we had to transfer onto a more of a Subway type train to get to Circular Quay which is a 5 min walk from the Opera House. The boat picked us up at Man O' War dock right next to the Sydney Opera House at 7:00pm and we cruised around the harbour until 10:00pm. On the boat was unlimited free beer/wine/pizza all night. The boat was a decent size, had two floors with plenty of space to be inside or outside on the deck. The weather wasnt too great (drizzly and cool, mid 50s) but it was still a lot of fun and cruising around Sydney harbour seeing the buildings, Opera House, and Harbour Bridge all lite up was really pretty. After the cruise most of us headed for the train station in order to catch one of the last trains back to Wollongong. We caught the 11:30pm train after looking for the right platform for a good half hour and finally made it back to college by 1am. Here are some pictures!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Bondi Beach Road Trip

Saturday September 3rd I convinced two of my friends amy and jess to drive to Bondi Beach with me for the day. At first we were going to take the train which wouldve taken about an hour and 45 min approx but while we were driving to the train station we decided that driving would be much more fun. So on the way there Jess (Australian) drove Amy (American) and I the scenic way which took us over the famous Sea Cliff Bridge and through the Royal National Park. Sea Cliff Bridge is a bridge that goes around the edge of a huge cliff and is sticking out over the ocean. It was really cool to drive over. Some pictures taken while driving over are below.

Sea Cliff Bridge

Royal National Park

Just before Sydney is a huge national park called Royal National Park which we decided to drive though instead of taking the highway around it. This added about another half hour to 45 min of driving but it was well worth it. It was lots of windy roads through lots of forests and hills. Unfortunately we didnt didnt see any wildlife like kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats or anything but it was still really cool.

Sydney skyline

Sydney Marathon 15 Days!!

All around the city were signs about the Sydney Marathon. Looks like its going to be a really popular race. Im really excited even though im not in my best running shape. The race course goes over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and then finishes at the Opera House.

Finally we made it to Bondi Beach! It is by far the best beach I have ever been to. It was just so nice and had lots of really cool buildings and shops around. Had lots of rocks to walk around on on the sides and had the city of Sydney right in the background. When we first go there and found a parking spot we walked straight to the beach and felt the water which was cold at first but you could get used to it once your in. Probably the same temperature as New England beaches. Being winter there wasnt a ton of people on the beach but still a fair amount seeing as it was still a 70 degree day which is actually cold to some australians. After laying down in the sand for a bit we decided to walk down to the flat rocks on the other end and on the way back a few of the Bondi lifeguards were just sitting in one of there blue quads so we asked to take a picture with them. Little did i know these two lifeguards were both some of the famous ones from the show Bondi Rescue which i was really into before coming to Australia so I knew who both of them were right away. It was Deano and Kerrbox, both some of the main lifeguards on the tv show and Kerrbox is also a professional surfer. Eventually we got hungry and went up to check out all the restaurants and shops along the boardwalk. Ended up getting Bondi Burgers which were really good and then some gelato for dessert. I got Nutella gelato which was really good. America needs to have more Nutella, its so good. After having lunch we checked out some of the stores which were all full of bondi souvenirs, bathing suits, and dresses. All I could think about was "Dont bring kathryn here unless you want to spend atleast 24 hours watching her try on bathing suits" Kath would love these shops. Bathing suits were really expensive like over $100 but there were a bunch of cheap dresses for like $20. Anyways i didnt buy anything because I will definitely be back a few more times, especially in the summer when the beach is packed with over 40,000 people and its over 90 F or ~30C.