City to Surf - 53.04

Jumped on the train and sat besides what I thought was a homeless man and was just about to give him a couple of dollars to get a coffee when I realized it was in fact Stevie ‘Wildman’ Thurston in his daggiest trackie bottoms ever seen heading into town for his City to Surf comeback race (oh what I fall from grace).

YEP, this is Sydney’s biggest race of the year and gets everyone racing and making the pilgrimage to Bondi Beach, met a few friendly faces at the Stone Gates for a warm up and if Stevie had the bottoms then Tucks had the matching jumper…what a shocker that was as well.

Warmed up in the designated area and met everyone and wished them luck before the mad dash heading down William St, I’ve done all the training sessions lately but knew I wasn’t in great shape so took it out a lot slower this year compared to previous, Felt pretty good early on and was happy enough to get to 5k in around 18.25, another 1500m down the road and through Rose Bay before Heartbreak Hill and for the first time in a long time had nobody coming past me  any stage that I considered a positive sign. Got to the top  around New & Old South Roads and knew I only had one more tough section around the 10k mark near Military Road and was happy to hit around 39 minutes for the 10k marker. Got a good boost at 11k as the injured Sharonne was on supporting duties for the day and then tried to lift it and let the legs go on the 2.5k downhill coming back into Bondi. It’s always a battle the final 1k and I swear Waverly council add an extra 200m of road every year until you hit that roundabout back towards the finishing shute.  Got a massive shout out from HuRTs supporters Mikey, Elle, Damo and Laura that was very much appreciated and was happy to cross the line in a time of 53.04……. Pretty happy with that to be honest, certainly not my quickest time, but I felt strong unlike the past half a dozen runs when my pace was gone even by half way, Even happier then to find myself home before recent Dungog Half Marathon winner and friend Taffy James, Pete Walker, The Champ and the original Hardman J.C

Some great times from the team as I predicted would happen, and perhaps the biggest shock of the day was seeing Quentin first HuRT home beating the more fancied Tom, Tucks and C.T. Great run from him though to stop the clock in 45.53 and simply because of that and the importance of it he gets the ‘Timmy Run of the Day’  Even though Laura was out injured the girls didn’t disappoint either with new Queen of the Track Renee Simon smashing all before her (not to mention smashing Birchy and the ‘Sweaty Sock) with a 5 minute PB 55.38. socialites Sonya and Lisa broke the 60 minute barrier (57 & 59 respectively)  

You can’t rest on your laurels in this team either with Clarkey going into this race as HuRTS #1 only to find the pressure all too much and was way down the list when it came to the big boys battling it out. Tommy Highnam put in yet another near perfect race (he’s unbelievable) and HuRTS favorite son Andrew Tuckey was 3^rd home, Enda will be disappointed with his 48.57 (and should be doing better) although he was complaining of a head cold, and I suppose he PBed so it wasn’t a complete waste.

Congrats to Muzza and his team of ‘Yule’ boys in taking out the first team event the squad had going, and even with Quentin taking line honours it wasn’t enough for his Models from getting the ‘wooden spoon’

Enda opened his house up at the end for breakfast hosting,  Excellent it was too, great spread laid out for the numbers and the bacon & Egg Rolls went down a treat, as did the half a dozen sausage snags, Poor Super Kev got lumbered with BBQ duties and was then forced to turn all bacon with a 2 inch plastic fork Enda must have picked up on his last China visit care of a $2 shop. She may be out injured at the moment but young Laura got stuck on Tea duties, and boy does she make a good cuppa and they went down as well as the food.

A bit of a standoff happened then when heavyweights Birchy and the Italian Stallion Durante came together……. Both got pretty good PBs when it comes to scoffing down the old Bacon Roll and it was on for young and old when they went head to head.

Stomach fully set and it was on for the stroll down to the Allen’s tent for the day care of the Chairman Tommy H. As always a top afternoon was had by everyone that attended with the beers in full flow as many a story unfolded.  Tommy never disappoints in this area, although I do think he underestimated how much socialite girls Sonya, Lisa and Renee  drink as supplies did run out late in the arvo that saw about 50 of HuRTS boys and girls kept ducking next door to the E. Y tent (Ernst Young) for a supply of food and drink, (they even had a triple toilet to use)  Think we may have overdone it mind you when Taffy and Birchy stripped off and jumped on the massage table that saw their C.E.O start to put trees in between the tents to stop us. It still wasn’t enough to stop Renee who then casually walked out with about 6 pieces of the C.E.Os own birthday cake.

Ventured down to the Surf club after that, and its around this time of the evening that it started to get messy, the occasion got all too much for Tommy H and he was sent back over the bridge in a taxi after falling asleep (standing) and now joins C.T on the drinking HuRTS ‘Wall of Shame’  Enda was talking even more trash then normal so we sent him packing as well as only the hard core made the way to ‘Ravesis’. Unfortunately Lisa & Keith had problems even getting in, as did C. T who then snuck in from another entry. Taffy James, Skippy Heyden, Birchy and the impressive Sonya were last men/women standing as I was starting to feel the effects of a long day.  

A taxi beckoned and into the local Pizza shop near home saw me mumble my favorite dish (well point to number 29 on the list) and I could have given Durante or Birchy a run for their money in demolishing it.

Highlights of the Day, Too many to mention , but seeing the team run so well is always pleasing. The pre race is always a good buzz as well and still with 25 minutes before the gun goes some ‘Hitler’ volunteer decides to pick on bib number 138 Andrew Tuckey and demand he get behind the line, whilst about 300 other (slower) people casually roam about. He obviously didn’t realize he was talking to HuRTS #1 ….. Muppet.

Fashion Crime of the Day, In Charlie Lows absence, Angus Boyd took top honours this year with his pearly white Puma 1970s shoe – managed to take a photo of them for you to decide.

A top day all around once more and special thanks once again to Tommy Highnam for sorting the marquee tent out for us and to Edna Stankard for the breakfast hosting, it really is much appreciated.

So all done and dusted , time now to get back out there and get some solid training done in ready for the next big challenge.

WINNERS

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

Yule be Right Mate

The Old Timers

Chairman’s Selection

League of Nations

Beauty and the Beasts

The Triathletes

The Wild Cards

Models Inc and Charlie

Anthony Murrel

0:47:58

Chris Truscott

0:46:34

Tom Highnam

0:46:11

John Bartlett

0:46:40

Andrew Tuckey

0:46:30

Dave Clarke

0:47:58

Andy Cross

0:47:01

Quentin Reeve

0:45:53

Andy Heyden

0:48:48

Tony Fattorini

0:47:54

Jamie Stewart

0:49:22

Enda Stankard

0:48:57

Richard Mullaney

0:50:41

Paul McClarnon

0:48:32

Steve T

0:48:41

Phil Dove

0:50:44

Kevin Branagan

0:50:52

Adrian McGarva

0:51:48

Angus Boyd

0:50:16

Dom Dumanie

0:51:37

Bruce Lambert

0:52:04

Pete Walker

0:53:48

George Pagotelis

0:52:47

Renaud Herington

1:02:00

Steve Perry

0:53:02

Champ

0:53:17

Paul Birch

0:57:02

J Matthews

0:54:06

Timmy Lindop

0:53:04

Brendan Krone

0:55:16

Sam Johnson

0:57:09

Renee

0:55:38

Anton Yule

0:55:01

Sonya

0:57:12

Adam Murray

0:54:37

Craig Wiseman

0:56:15

Erika Ekland

0:55:32

Greta Truscott

0:55:25

Steve Jackson

0:57:04

Charlie Dalzeill

1:02:00

Michael Yacoub

1:00:55

Caroline Sweeney

1:02:30

Andy Pettica

0:56:32

Total

4:15:41

Total

4:16:45

Total

4:17:28

Total

4:17:35

Total

4:17:51

Total

4:20:59

Total

4:22:42

Total

4:36:15

Some of the HuRTS team post race.

HuRTS Top 5 with Quentin, Tommy H, Timmy, Barts and C.T. OK...Barts shouldn't be in but Tucks wasn't around at the time of the photo.

Clarkey's reign at #1 lasted all of about 8 days , seen here getting some tips from the real deal Tucks.

NEW #1 HuRTS lady Renee after a huge PB 55 mins run with supporters 'Kenny and Elle.

Birchy loitering around the E.Y toilets with new friends WonderWoman, Bat girl, and Super Woman after telling them he just run 45 minutes.

Fashion Crime of the Day - Angus Boyd what were you thinking?

Starting to get messy , with Sonya and the Taffy Lad.

and even later , C.T and Sonya try to claim victory in the team event ...... they were 2nd, Shameful.

cheers

Bar Italia - Carbo Loading

No running for the past two days and instead of an easy lunchtime run I decided to go over to Norton St Leichardt and pay the Italian Stallion Durante’s  family a visit and go to popular ‘Bar Italia’ for a good old carbo load pasta lunch.

So, no running and hopefully I have freshened up for Sundays biggee of the year – City to Surf. Always a big event and even more this year for the HurTS squad  with the added incentive of the teams competition that has been brought into play. I posted the teams yesterday and even 24 hours later I’s still tossing up what team will win it? Personally I couldn’t be happier, drawn in the same team as #1 Tucks who never lets us down, add in the impressive Mullaney & Lambert boys not to mention a big of glamour in the shape of Erika Ekland and we should go close.  I honestly think though that to take it out you will need ALL 5 members to run sub 54 minutes, and this is where I’m hoping C.Ts, Barts and Quentin’s mob will fall down? Muzza’s team could be the dark horse with even the slowest (Anto Yule pretty strong) can knock out a sub 53.

I’ve not been in good shape myself, although I have been doing all the sessions asked and I was happy with the 1k reps last week and got through the 20 min hill repeats ok the previous week.  Not expecting much time wise and if I can break 54 mins then I’ll be a happy boy. Don’t’ normally predict a time going into this race but I’ll make an exception this year – 53.51

The rest of the team as in great shape and really looking forward to see what they can run this year, and more importantly who will be FIRST home?

For what it’s worth (not much), here’s my predictions

Tucks   46.22

C.T        46.27

Clarkey46.33

Tom      46.48

Barts     46.51

Muzza  47.30

Enda      48.21

Angus    49.57

Super Kev 49.58

Taffy      52.57

Timmy  53.51

Birchy   53.52

Renee  57.31

Whatever happens it’s a guaranteed great fun day out, and with the Chairman Tommy Highnam offering us a place in his post race tent with drinks, it can’t get any better,

Will have a full wrap up with all the photos on Mondays blog.

Until then, have a great weekend,

Race well and look forward to having a frothy with you on Bondi Beach, Let’s just hope I get to Enda’s in time and he serves up something better then the burnt Rissole I got last year

cheers

HuRTS City to Surf Teams

Rolled into town today for the much awaited draw for the HuRTS City to Surf.
Some very strong teams were drawn and will be tough to predict a winner from these listed below.

	Chairman’s Selection	The Triathletes	The Old Timers	Yule be Right Mate	The Wild Cards	League of Nations	Models Inc. and Charlie	Beauty and the Beasts
Pool A	Tom Highnam	Dave Clarke	Chris Truscott	Anthony Murrell	Andy Cross	John Bartlett	Quentin Reeve	Andrew Tuckey
Pool B	Jamie Stewart	Paul McClarnon	Tony Fattorini	Andy Heyden	Steve T	Enda Stankard	Phil Dove	Richard Mullaney
Pool C	Angus Boyd	Pete Walker	Adrian McGarva	Kevin Branagan	George Pagotelis	Dom	Renaud Herington	Bruce Lambert
Pool D	Paul Birch	Brendan Krone	Champ	Steve Perry	Sam Johnson	James Matthews	Renee	Timmy Lindop
	Adam Murray	Greta Truscott	Sonya	Anton Yule	Steve Jackson	Craig Wiseman	Charlie Dalziell	Erika Ekland
	Caroline Sweeney	Andy Pettica	Michael Yacoub

Easy Midweek with Enda and Quiff Man

Final touches to the week and just did a few really easy ks before meeting Enda for one 6k Woollahra Hill loop, Picked up Mr. New Hairdo himself Paul ‘Birchy’ Birch along the way although he only run with us for about 4 minutes before his Quiff started to drop and had to make a mercy dash back up to Oxford Street to fix it up.

Despite a solid session yesterday, felt I recovered OK and was running pretty easy this morning. Didn’t have the Garmin on and it certainly wasn’t a fast pace but was happy to get another 10ks under the belt.

Talk continued this morning on the City to Surf and we are having the draw for the teams taking place in the city tomorrow – Martin Place has been booked and the camera’s are ready to roll to reveal all . There will be 8 teams with all the BIG guns(fastest 8) coming out from Pot ‘A’ , then ‘B’, ‘C and finally ‘D’ ….sad state of affairs when my name will be coming out of Pot ‘D’ although I will also be joined by Pete Walker, Taffy James, Renee,  Krone, Greta and the Sweaty Sock from the Sunday long run group.

Pommy Paul showing off his new hairdo, all ready to go for Sunday. I'm sure the ladies will love it.

Cheers

Final Prep, and Preening for Others?

Down to Rushcutters Oval for the final preparation and yet again another massive turnout on show for the alternative 5 x 1k session that I had suggested Mikey to do.

The big guns were out with C.T today staking his claim putting in a big performance, with Clarkey, Barts, and Crossy also present, The session was 5 x 1k reps of a rolling 5 minutes although the front group were rolling every 4 minutes.

I was in a nice group today, leading from the front with the likes of Adrian Mc, Mikey, Jonathan, James Lambert and Dom, rolled around the first rep in 3.12, knew it was too fast but felt good and was looking for a real solid hit out today so was keen to see how long I could hold for. Pretty much the same for the 2^nd & 3^rd reps and wasn’t  losing any time although Mikey was coming past at the 900m mark finishing the stronger of the two of us.. Managed to tag on to the faster front group for a lap on the 4^th (they were on the 2^nd loop of the 1k)  that helped and was still moving OK at this point of the session and knew I could hold for the remainder.

Times for the day were; 3.12, 3.13, 3.13, 3.15, 3.14

Very happy with that to be honest and will take some confidence out of the session.

Still a long way off any good form but I think that’s probably the best times I’ve knocked out for at least 12 months?

As I say the front lads were flying, think they were going sub 3 min/ks for the 5 reps, No sign of #1 Tucks or Tommy H mind you – think they saw enough not to worry on Saturday and rumor was they were sat in the office with their feet up resting.

That’s pretty much it now, want to try to freshen up and get life back in the legs before Sunday, although will have an easy trot around the park tomorrow sometime.

Took a photo of the team from today, minus Clarkey who decided to do another 10 x 400s once the 1k reps were done… The mans a machine.

So whilst some of us were putting in the hard yards, and some with the feet up resting, there was one notable absence from training this week? No sign of one Pommy Paulie ‘Birchy’ Birch, that got me slightly worried, Well fear not ….  Birchy’s just been getting his ‘preening’ done and making sure he’s looking his ‘Sunday Best’ in time for the race. I went past him in the local hair salon on the way home today, I did call out to him but he was deep in conversation with his stylist Rupert.

I managed to pick up the last part of his conversation and heard him say (in his dull Mancunion tone), “Well Rupert, I may not get the time I’m after but I’ll knock the ladies dead with this NEW hairdo and those nice boys Taffy Lad, Clarkey, and Champagne won’t have a chance when I fire up, C’mon get more gel in there for me”

Spotted, Birchy getting his final preening done before Sunday, Texting his mother to tell her to watch the telly coverage to witness his new hairdo.

Cheers

Bank Holiday Monday Run.

Went into town today to catch up with the Monday crew, unfortunately it just happened to fall on a Bank holiday for all those that work in the banking industry. Still a good team turned out with the likes of Muzza, Enda, Mickey, Razor, Super Kev, Warrior Charlie and a few others.

Just the normal Monday route around Mrs. Macs, Opera House, Passenger terminal and up Hickson Rd  and back. A good chat with all the talk central to  this week’s City to Surf and it seems as if everyone has their own opinions on who will be first home and who is #1

Unlike Fridays run on tired legs I felt pretty good today – covered 14.2ks in 63 minutes with the boys average pace 4.27s

One final hit out tomorrow down at Rushcutters and the 1k reps that I think is a perfect session leading in, so will be keen to give that a nudge tomorrow.

So City to Surf week yet again and in all my time with the HuRTS team I’ve never known everyone to be in such good form (at the same time).  Everyone is flying at the moment and its possible that at least no fewer than 12 of the top guys can all go sub 48 minutes on Sunday.

A great weekend just past with current #4 Tucks showing C.T, and Tom a clean pair of heels on Saturday to take the age win in the short course x/country, Fats is peaking well coming 2^nd, meanwhile even the Taffy Lad ventured north and took out the ‘Dunny’ Half Marathon ( the trophy is an outside toilet – seriously), and Muzza continued his fine training with a  fast 23ks in the National Park. Most impressive though has to be Tucks (yet again) who then backed up on the Sunday and WON a 25k off road race – and has in the process sent Barts into breakdown mode and wasn’t even seen today .

I will predict all the times and how I think it will prevail later in the week, but if I was a betting man then my dosh would now be on Tucks to be 1^st HuRTS guy home. He probably won’t like me saying this but here are my reasons.

Tucks is in some fine building form at the moment, he let me look at his GPS data from last week’s Farm Cove time trial

-          The 5k effort was closer to 15.50 than 16.23

-          The last km was 3 mins flat

-          I reckon he lost 15 seconds in the traffic with all the ‘Tammy Tourists’

-          Not to mention the tight hairpin bends

ADD in

-          He run Tom down in the last k on the Tuesday session last week

-          He eats Hills for fun

AND FINALLY

-          Tucks NEVER forgets, he passed me a little note I wrote from the blog  that stated. Barts comment following last year’s C2S… “ You can tell that Welsh Buoy Andrew ‘Tucks’ Tuckey that we have raised the bar to another level and that he will struggle to handle both Tommy H and I when he returns from his Valley holidays’

……Mmmmmmmm, this is going to be one hell of a good event J

Tomorrow I will be giving other tips for the big day

Cheers

Taffy Lad with his winnings from the Dungog Half Marathon, A Dunny trophy and he even gets an upgrade for the night from his sheep with new lady friend.

Cheers