City to Surf – Sydney

A large contingent of Box Hill athletes ventured north in early August to tackle the hills of Sydney, joining 50000 other runners in the annual fun run from Sydney to Bondi. There was a lot of pre-race negotiation with the race organisers to try to secure starting positions near the front of the pack, with only limited success, so several of out runners had to venture out at 6:00 am to sit on the road and secure their positions near the start. As a result there was a lot of motivation to run fast times and the Box Hill contingent was near the front in the early stages of the run. However Heartbreak Hill was true to its name and caused most of the Box Hill runners to slow their progress significantly. Marcus Tierney finished off strongly to finish in 39th position, closely followed in by Graeme Olden (50th), Scott Jackson (65th), Christian Ashby (87th), Tom Waters (143rd), Steven Dinneen (208th), Adam Pepper (290th) and Gabrielle Bombell (449th). Both Scott and Marcus were most reluctant to return to their hotel room that night as the door had been kicked in just before the start by a visitor looking for $1000 which he claimed was in their room so they dragged the rest of the team on a sightseeing tour of Sydney’s’ hotels until daybreak the next day when they deemed it safe to return to their room.

RESULTS

The Box Hill Team which competed at the City to Surf

Marcus Tierney, Chris O’Connor, Adam Pepper, Christian Ashby, Tom Waters, Jamie Strudley
Absent – Graeme Olden