City-Bay Fun Run
Mon, Sep. 21st, 2026 05:57 pm
Yesterday, I ran in the City-Bay Fun Run! I was kinda considering it last year, but only remembered it was on a coupla weeks out. This year, I got in on the early bird pricing back in autumn. I had grand plans back then of cracking a one-hour 10km by the end of the year, and so set myself an optimistic but not unrealistic target of 1 hour, 12 minutes for the 12km City-Bay. I'd hoped to set one of my Garmin training plans for a 1-hour 10k run the week before, but unfortunately the training plans were all too long to fit the time frame, and if I let it run the full course (to some time in late October/early November) then it'd treat the City-Bay as a secondary event rather than the primary event I was training for.
So I went all through winter just on my own, doing my pilates and gym classes and going for the watch's recommended run on the no-pilates days. A month out and it still wasn't setting me any long runs, barely anything more than like a 45-minute 'base' run (which works out to about 7-minute pace for me) so I largely gave up on it and made up my own training runs. I did discover PacePro Plans, though, literally last week, where you tell it how far you're going and what you want to run it in, then use a slider to work out how fast you should run each kilometre to hit your target, either starting out fast and finishing slower or starting slower and speeding up. I know how my body do by now, so last Wednesday I set myself the 1-hour 10k starting out fast (5:20 pace) and slowing down towards the end. I think it was about 1 hour 2:45 or there abouts, not my target, not a PB, but still only about 30 seconds off my PB after not having done a long run in a while, so definitely something worth sticking with. I set up a PacePro Plan for the City-Bay, knowing I probably wouldn't hit it but it'd at least keep me on track for the duration.
Race day arrived and it was stunning. Blue sky, northerly breeze meaning a tail wind for the entire run, and an absolutely massive group of people all there for the same reason. The highest bib number I saw was like 42,000. Waiting for the tram from South Terrace, I was trying to figure out how to put my bib on, thinking the foamy bit at the top was an adhesive, but nope, that wasn't meant to come off. Asked two people also waiting how it was supposed to attach and they said little clippy things were being handed out when you picked up the bib (missed that, whoops) and they each had a spare couple of safety pins they gave me to pin mine on. In Elder Park, just random people come and start chatting about running. This your first time doing the City-Bay? One had done it twice before, once staying with an injured friend and once just from the 6km, but this time aiming for sub-60 (omg). And there's no distincting among the runners between the elites--the sub-60s, the sub-50s--and those who are only likely to run every second kilometre.
This is something I've noticed even just running along the Torrens--extremely fit people will never shame people who are new to running or using running to get fit. I've had so many complete randos cheer me on. 'You can do it!' 'You're nearly there!' I remember a group of three Lululemon girls with their tight little pilates bubble-butts cheering and clapping with hands over their heads. In a decade of trying to find my Thing, I've had one knob yell out, 'Pedal faster, fat girl!' and let's just say he was trying to make himself feel better than me. Most people just want to make you feel good about yourself, keep pushing, not give up.
And that was the atmosphere in Elder Park waiting for 8am to tick over. 'You can totally smash that,' whenever I said my target was an hour 12. 'Do you do body building?' Kinda-sorta-not-really? I just started doing pilates this year and gym like two months ago? 'No way, you don't get a body like that without body building.' Omg the pump-ups! It was just so incredibly uplifting.
Finally we started lining up, elite athletes including genuine Olympians at the front, then the sub-50s, sub-60s, then the rest of us and finally the walkers due to start at 8:30. A lot of standing around waiting and trying to see if they were moving at the start line yet. For a long time, it seemed not. Finally, by about 8:20, we started shuffling towards the start line. Then walking, then a light jog up to the start and off we go!
'Oh my god now we've gotta actually run 12k.'
'I know, right? Seems fake.'
--two friends, 100m in
It was, against every prior thought I had of Fun Runs, actually fun. Every kilometre or so there was some sort of pump-up thing going on, from just a random member of the public dressed in an inflatable cow suit singing 'I like to move it, move it!' over a megaphone with a cardboard sign saying 'I like to MOOOOOVE it,' to the army band playing outside the barracks on Anzac Highway and various radio stations with pump-up music playing.
The first kilometre I was 5 seconds ahead of the pace on my watch. Second kilometre, another 2 seconds ahead. I didn't start dropping behind until I think about the fifth or sixth kilometre, but not concerned because I was still ahead of where I expected to be.
Drink stations were a hazard. I was running with my drink bottle, so I just beelined for the middle of the road and did my best to avoid all the paper cups in the road. Idk how people run without a drink bottle. I swear I didn't see a single person with one. Insane.
There were a few points, maybe four or five, where for no discernable reason people were bunching up. It made it a bit tricky to weave around them and find gaps to get ahead, but most often people would part when they heard me coming up behind. I only had to actually say 'excuse me' once for the whole run.
We ran past the start point for the 6km run--halfway! A couple of ks later an ambo came back up the other side of the road, sirens blaring, so someone had succumbed :x
At the 10k mark, I was only about 30 seconds off my pace, which I knew would be a PB for the 10km but didn't know by how much. The PacePro feature only gives the target and actual pace for that kilometre, not for your whole run, so I didn't know how long I'd been running yet. Still, feeling good about that!
Approaching the turnoff in Glenelg and a group of three kids running yelled out the '1k to go!' sign. Everyone started speeding up and I kinda got caught up in that a little bit. The excitement was palpable. Around the corner onto Jetty Road, and the street was lined with spectators. Towards the finish line and they were cheering and clapping and it was just so cool! I had the biggest grin on my face as I ran around the last bend from Jetty Road to Colley Terrace, and then suddenly there was the finish and I was done!
I ran the City-Bay!
Slowly funnelled along Colley Terrace to pick up my medal, which feels only marginally less special when you see the literal tens of thousands of them in boxes to be handed out, but getting my first race medal, omg amazing.
Final time: 1 hour, 12 minutes, 43 seconds. I'm absolutely stoked. To be within a minute of my goal, I'm calling that a win.
And I cracked the 1 hour 10k, at 59 minutes 35 seconds. No doubt helped by the tail wind and downhill the entire way, but this one's official so it absolutely counts!
I'm so proud. I had more fun than I could've imagined. The atmosphere is so overwhelmingly positive, so uplifting. I'll absolutely be doing this again. I don't know that I'll ever achieve the sub-60 category, but never say never! Maybe next year I'll target 1:06 😜
So I went all through winter just on my own, doing my pilates and gym classes and going for the watch's recommended run on the no-pilates days. A month out and it still wasn't setting me any long runs, barely anything more than like a 45-minute 'base' run (which works out to about 7-minute pace for me) so I largely gave up on it and made up my own training runs. I did discover PacePro Plans, though, literally last week, where you tell it how far you're going and what you want to run it in, then use a slider to work out how fast you should run each kilometre to hit your target, either starting out fast and finishing slower or starting slower and speeding up. I know how my body do by now, so last Wednesday I set myself the 1-hour 10k starting out fast (5:20 pace) and slowing down towards the end. I think it was about 1 hour 2:45 or there abouts, not my target, not a PB, but still only about 30 seconds off my PB after not having done a long run in a while, so definitely something worth sticking with. I set up a PacePro Plan for the City-Bay, knowing I probably wouldn't hit it but it'd at least keep me on track for the duration.
Race day arrived and it was stunning. Blue sky, northerly breeze meaning a tail wind for the entire run, and an absolutely massive group of people all there for the same reason. The highest bib number I saw was like 42,000. Waiting for the tram from South Terrace, I was trying to figure out how to put my bib on, thinking the foamy bit at the top was an adhesive, but nope, that wasn't meant to come off. Asked two people also waiting how it was supposed to attach and they said little clippy things were being handed out when you picked up the bib (missed that, whoops) and they each had a spare couple of safety pins they gave me to pin mine on. In Elder Park, just random people come and start chatting about running. This your first time doing the City-Bay? One had done it twice before, once staying with an injured friend and once just from the 6km, but this time aiming for sub-60 (omg). And there's no distincting among the runners between the elites--the sub-60s, the sub-50s--and those who are only likely to run every second kilometre.
This is something I've noticed even just running along the Torrens--extremely fit people will never shame people who are new to running or using running to get fit. I've had so many complete randos cheer me on. 'You can do it!' 'You're nearly there!' I remember a group of three Lululemon girls with their tight little pilates bubble-butts cheering and clapping with hands over their heads. In a decade of trying to find my Thing, I've had one knob yell out, 'Pedal faster, fat girl!' and let's just say he was trying to make himself feel better than me. Most people just want to make you feel good about yourself, keep pushing, not give up.
And that was the atmosphere in Elder Park waiting for 8am to tick over. 'You can totally smash that,' whenever I said my target was an hour 12. 'Do you do body building?' Kinda-sorta-not-really? I just started doing pilates this year and gym like two months ago? 'No way, you don't get a body like that without body building.' Omg the pump-ups! It was just so incredibly uplifting.
Finally we started lining up, elite athletes including genuine Olympians at the front, then the sub-50s, sub-60s, then the rest of us and finally the walkers due to start at 8:30. A lot of standing around waiting and trying to see if they were moving at the start line yet. For a long time, it seemed not. Finally, by about 8:20, we started shuffling towards the start line. Then walking, then a light jog up to the start and off we go!
'Oh my god now we've gotta actually run 12k.'
'I know, right? Seems fake.'
--two friends, 100m in
It was, against every prior thought I had of Fun Runs, actually fun. Every kilometre or so there was some sort of pump-up thing going on, from just a random member of the public dressed in an inflatable cow suit singing 'I like to move it, move it!' over a megaphone with a cardboard sign saying 'I like to MOOOOOVE it,' to the army band playing outside the barracks on Anzac Highway and various radio stations with pump-up music playing.
The first kilometre I was 5 seconds ahead of the pace on my watch. Second kilometre, another 2 seconds ahead. I didn't start dropping behind until I think about the fifth or sixth kilometre, but not concerned because I was still ahead of where I expected to be.
Drink stations were a hazard. I was running with my drink bottle, so I just beelined for the middle of the road and did my best to avoid all the paper cups in the road. Idk how people run without a drink bottle. I swear I didn't see a single person with one. Insane.
There were a few points, maybe four or five, where for no discernable reason people were bunching up. It made it a bit tricky to weave around them and find gaps to get ahead, but most often people would part when they heard me coming up behind. I only had to actually say 'excuse me' once for the whole run.
We ran past the start point for the 6km run--halfway! A couple of ks later an ambo came back up the other side of the road, sirens blaring, so someone had succumbed :x
At the 10k mark, I was only about 30 seconds off my pace, which I knew would be a PB for the 10km but didn't know by how much. The PacePro feature only gives the target and actual pace for that kilometre, not for your whole run, so I didn't know how long I'd been running yet. Still, feeling good about that!
Approaching the turnoff in Glenelg and a group of three kids running yelled out the '1k to go!' sign. Everyone started speeding up and I kinda got caught up in that a little bit. The excitement was palpable. Around the corner onto Jetty Road, and the street was lined with spectators. Towards the finish line and they were cheering and clapping and it was just so cool! I had the biggest grin on my face as I ran around the last bend from Jetty Road to Colley Terrace, and then suddenly there was the finish and I was done!
I ran the City-Bay!
Slowly funnelled along Colley Terrace to pick up my medal, which feels only marginally less special when you see the literal tens of thousands of them in boxes to be handed out, but getting my first race medal, omg amazing.
Final time: 1 hour, 12 minutes, 43 seconds. I'm absolutely stoked. To be within a minute of my goal, I'm calling that a win.
And I cracked the 1 hour 10k, at 59 minutes 35 seconds. No doubt helped by the tail wind and downhill the entire way, but this one's official so it absolutely counts!
I'm so proud. I had more fun than I could've imagined. The atmosphere is so overwhelmingly positive, so uplifting. I'll absolutely be doing this again. I don't know that I'll ever achieve the sub-60 category, but never say never! Maybe next year I'll target 1:06 😜