All tired from our travels the night before, no one would have blamed us for pulling the covers up high and catching some extra rest. We HAD come here to run, but the main event was the following day.
We all piled together into the one hotel room, excitedly preparing the athlete's breakfast of choice (peanut butter and honey on toast), before layering up and facing the cold, 7am commute to St Peters park run AS TOURISTS!
A short walk to Central station, an easy train ride, an even shorter walk across the road with groups of other parkrun tourists from near and far, and there we were, in that familiar parkrun environment 1,000km from home.
We mixed and mingled with anyone and everyone, determined to squeeze every ounce from this experience.
In fact, we talked so much that we sort of missed the start and found ourselves at the back of the pack.
The course at St Peters is around a lovely reclaimed brickworks site that they've turned into park land. It's basically an out and back with an interesting loop (with hill) at the turn point.
I'm sure each of the fab 5 will have a slightly different view of the event, but from my lens, here's how the 5km unfolded;
Keen to not go out too hard and destroy my legs for City2Surf, I planned on a comfortable 6:30 - 6:40 / km pace.
1st km 6:39
2nd km 6:50
Thats the good thing about plans - they're subject to change. Just before the 2km mark, one of the many people I chatted to on course completely lured me in. He was struggling; laboured breathing, slouched posture and moving at a shuffle. And the more we chatted, the more I wanted to know.
Running in the 65-69 age group and on his second ever park run, David's chest swelled with pride as he told me how much he'd endured to be at this point. Five years ago he underwent a double knee replacement and at the time, even walking was difficult. He remembers feeling as though he would never be able to walk properly and live a normal life.
But he kept at it. And two weeks ago, on his park run debut he almost ran the whole 5km and crossed the line just a few seconds short of 40 minutes. We chatted some more. I shared my story and the reasons why the group of us were in Sydney, as well as what we'd all accomplished.
I could tell though that David was incredibly strong of mind. He was proud of his first-up time, but felt a little disappointed that he hadn't run the whole way. He so desperately wanted to make his kids and grandkids proud by completing the 5km without stopping.
David was also intrigued by my array of techy gadgets, which I was only too happy to share. And as each kilometre beeped on my watch, he'd ask me how we were going.
3rd km 7:54
4th km 7:43
We were on track to completely smash his PB.
The 5th was tough. A sneaky little grassy hill that was quite slippery underfoot meant that we had to back off the pace a little. But not long after the top, we were on a downhill and heading for home. When the view of the chimneys came into view, David's sigh of relief was audible and I became his personal cheer squad.
5th km 8:03
We crossed the line together in 37:14. Almost 3 whole minutes faster than his best. And he ran the entire distance.
Parkrun - you've changed me.
And I thank you for it.
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