Swaledale Road Runners

On Sunday September 11th I got up at 4:00am to take part in The Bridge to Brisbane 10K Race with Dave, with an early race start time of 6:10 am. (I should have been taking part in the Wetherby 10K but unfortunately it was too far for me to get there). The race was like a short version of The Great North Run with 42,571 runners taking part, some in fancy dress, some serious. To get closer to the front in the under 60min block you had to have qualified in the previous year's race, so Dave and I had to start with the many thousands at the back.

The race started on the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridge with a long steep hill. Once at the top of the bridge it was a long down hill and then flat for the rest of the course. There were plenty of water stations along the route but far too many people to actually be able to stop and get one . There were several toilet stops on route (yes, toilets on a 10K!) and to my surprise runners were queuing to use them! It was tricky to keep any kind of pace going with people stopping to walk and queuing for drinks and toilets, but with my lack of running club over here and being too hot to run I was not too disappointed with my time of 50mins 30sec. I was 503rd out of 13,601 female runners and 116th out of 2,465  in the 25-29 age group but most importantly 1st home for Swaledale Road Runners! Dave piped me to the post with 50mins 1sec.

Amy Cassar