RUN Melbourne 2016

It was a very crisp start to the morning, but luckily the weather had otherwise turned it on for the race. The course was relatively quiet compared to previous years and there were only a few sections with spectating crowds, of which were pretty much silent.

The best part of the course is always the NOVA section, with pumping music and crazy antics. This year they had a “High Five Zone”: a DJ spinning some tunes and NOVA reps wearing big red foam hands that you could high five on the way through. That section is immediately followed by the overpass bridge to the MCG; through here everybody started spontaneously yelling and pumping some noise and excitement into the course. A girl next to me saw a stray NOVA man moving in the corner of her eye and went for a inattentive high five but slapped me in the arm as I was going past. She apologized and we both immediately cracked up laughing about it.

Nearing the end, a quick glance at my watch signaled that I would have to pick up the pace to finish in under an hour. Luckily, the last section is a steep downhill decline. Some supporters cheered “Finish strong Reece!” (clever supporters get your name of your pinned race number). I still felt in pretty good shape, so I gave them all a big fist pump and was able to let fly downhill!

I finished in just a scratch under an hour: 00:59:51

The new course layout was fantastic. See you next year Melbourne!

PS. bring back the Jazz apples 🙂