Running on Empty

This weekend I participated in one of the biggest fun runs in the southern hemisphere "City to Surf".  It's a 14K run from Hyde Park, in Sydney's center, to Bondi Beach.  I had been training for this by exercising on a weekly basis, slowly building up to the 14 kilometer mark.

I practiced my quick cat-like reflexes by dodging buses and trains during peak traffic, strength training at the bar lifting 120 oz beers and increasing my endurance by watching marathon re-runs of The Antique Roadshow. After weeks and weeks of training, I was ready!

The morning started out a bit bleak but soon the 84,000 participants were up and ready to go.  Our group's start time was 9am, but we didn't start until 9:30. By then, over 10,000 runners had already crossed the finish line!  The announcer made sure EVERYONE knew we were late as he announced us as the "stragglers".

With all the training I had done, I quickly outpaced my friends, with just one struggling to keep up with me throughout the run.  Being so small, I was easily able to run into people and knock them to the side as I plowed through small openings and gaps in the crowd to push ahead.  My fellow runnee, who had their own regime of smoking and binge eating to help prepare for the race, was unable to keep up with me, and begged me to slow down.

After helping people back up (from knocking them down) and slowing down for my friend, I decided to pull ahead at the 400 meter mark and completed the run in 85 minutes. My target was between 60-90 minutes, so this was perfect! If I could have run straight and without slowing down, I'm pretty sure I could have been at the 75 minute mark.

Work at Fortune is going well. I'm still fully immersed in training, and continue meeting great, fun people.  There is an office hottie #2 but I'm still thinking of a name for him.  

Today, when I was getting on one of the buses, the driver was really rude for some reason. Quite a few people had boarded the bus ahead of me, and when it was my turn, he lifted his hand up.  I could tell something was not quite right with this guy. I could see beads of sweat across his brow, and an expression only a mother could love.  Before my eyes, he started turning green and greatly increasing in size and bulk as he stood up and roared "GET OFF THE BUS!!!! IF YOU GET ON, I'M TURNING IT OFF. I'M NOT KIDDING."  To which I replied, "Whoa! It's ok!! All you had to do was ask. You don't need to threaten me!"  weirdo!!!