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Host City Marathon 2000 - Runner Report
By Neil Harper - Happy with the result, but once is enough - my perspective on the Host City Marathon 2000 Olympic Marathon trialLast Sunday, I ran the host city marathon and finished in relatively good shape in 3:38:59 (1419th place). The lap of the olympic stadium at the finish is something that will stick in my mind for quite some time. The first half of the course was interesting and fun but it became a hard slog for me from the 25 K point onwards.
About 6 months ago when I first heard about a one off marathon on the 2000 Olympic games course, I thought that it would be a unique chance to enjoy a victory lap inside the Olympic stadium. I decided to shelve my 6 foot track plans (scheduled 6 weeks before the marathon) and focus my training towards the host city marathon instead. To cut a long story short, I managed to finish the run in a time that was within 6 minutes of the time that I wrote down in my training log 6 months previously, but the race was not without incident.
A couple of weeks before the run the race information arrived, including the requirement to pick up race numbers on either the Friday or Saturday before the race. In order to save 2 trips to Sydney and the early morning before the race, I called my friend Dan Jones and stayed with him in Crows Nest on Saturday night. Dan and one of his friends Emma (who made the trip from Canberra especially to watch the race) were planning to stay ahead of the race on their bikes, take some photos and give support for myself and their other friend Daniel Green who is an elite runner. It was great to see Dan and Emma out on the course cheering me on along with the thousands of others that were lining the course. Oh yes, and Dan’s pasta creation the night before wasn’t too bad either.
I decided to watch the start of the wheelchair race which started 10 minutes before the runners. Unfortunately, this meant that by the time that I went to the start, it was so congested that I was virtually at the back of the entire field (of 5000). This meant that I could not run properly until almost the 10 K mark through the sheer number of people that I was trying to get around. It took me around 32 minutes to run the first 5 K and I went through the 10 K mark just under an hour. It was a mistake to become frustrated by this but I was impatient and ran the next 10 K in under 40 minutes to go through the half way point in 1 hour 41 minutes - ahead of my planned split time, it was time to slow the pace a little.
The run across the harbour bridge and through town was interesting and fun. The feeling running across the harbour bridge completely closed to traffic was awesome. The stretch along oxford street and surrounding areas was an eye opener in the fashion stakes. Men in short leather skirts and boots (and nothing else) took time out from smooching to each other to cheer on the runners. All of this was done along side the partners, children, mums and dads of the runners. I think that many of these oxford st night owls thought that it was their lucky day, with all of these people running past in their little shorts and running singlets puffing and panting along - a visual smorgasbord. And there was me with my shaved legs - I was getting worried (it turned out worth the effort of spending 2.5 hours shaving them because the aerodynamic efficiency saved me that critical second - 3:38:59 sounds so much better then 3:39…well maybe not).
For me things got a bit tough once the out and back section down to Kensington was complete and we headed west from the city and over the Glebe island bridge. The gentle undulations were not so tough, but it became a mental battle in an area which was relatively boring to run through. Even once Stadium Australia was in sight with around 5 K to go, there was a long straight stretch along the M4 that I didn’t think was ever going to end.
The adrenaline really pumped as I ran onto the 400m track for my final lap of the stadium in front of a rapidly building crowd and found myself waving my hat in the air. I was barely running around that last lap and was still conserving energy in order to produce a Hollywood finish. I made a spectacular Greg Welch style jump over the finish line and breathed a sigh of relief. Tracey videoed my entire last lap and once I watched it back, my “jump” over the line was so small that it could barely be distinguished from my previous steps.
Once I finished, I made my way up into the stand, picked up my gear and finishers shirt, and found Tracey and Kate who were both happy to see me and were proud of my run. I got cold not long after I finished and started shivering, I guess that my body had been working hard to dispel heat for 3 and a half hours and had just continued to do so once I stopped running. Tracey was quick to get some warm clothes out and I had to sit in the warming sun drinking ginger beer for a little while before my body settled down.
We sat in the stand and watched the competitors streaming into the stadium for quite some time. I often think how much tougher it is for there people who have been out running for so much longer than most of the field. We were sitting next to a guy who came 6th in the wheelchair event and he was saying how tough the course was for wheelchairs but is looking forward to coming back here to compete in the paralympics (from Mexico).
We rounded off the day by spending the afternoon swimming / relaxing in the aquatic centre. There were quite a few others like me in the pool area wandering around on legs that had stiffened up and virtually wouldn't bend anymore.
Overall, I was happy because I finished in good shape and injury free. It was a good experience, especially that final lap in front of Tracey and Katie, but the feeling doesn't quite match that from some of the other classic races that I have run such as the 6 foot track, the bogong to mount hotham, or even the brindabella classic. I am very glad that I did the run but you wont see me in another road marathon !
Neil Harper
Wollongong, Australia
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