The smell was a combination of piss, chewing gum, chips and burning metal. The only place in the world you could inhale such an exquisite perfume. That’s right, the Central Coast all-stops train from Central to Newcastle. I was heading there to run my first 12km race, the Hill to Harbour. Why didn’t I just drive there?
A bit of backstory, I’d had my car stolen the week before so I’d been walking everywhere and taking public transport just for that week. In one way, it made me extremely exhausted. In another way, it made me more in-tune with my body and even more determined to run. Running was actually my fastest form of movement for a week. Hell yeah, what better time to run a 12km and give it everything.
To make things even more complicated, the trains were slow and there was trackwork going on that weekend. It would take me four and a half hours to get to the race that started at 8am, so my only option to get there in the early morning was to stay the night in a hotel in the area. A lot of hotels were already booked out, but luckily I had just enough time to book a room at the Ibis hotel. It was in the perfect spot inbetween the start and finish line of the race. I took this pic of the course poster with my phone. (Note: I did not plan on doing a writeup until afterwards, so all the pics are a mishmash of whatever I took at the time)
I really liked the look of this course before I even got to Newcastle. Mostly along the water, with some good views and just enough turns to keep the run engaging and interesting. They’ve even got drinks and toilets? What more could you need.
Before the race, there was the important matter of picking up my race bib. This could also be done at 6am on the morning of the race, but I wanted to pick it up the day before to minimise any potential problems and make race day as stress-free as possible. Pickups today were from 10am to 4pm and thanks to all the problems on public transport I arrived there at… exactly 4pm. Plenty of time.
Let me in! I scanned the QR code on the signs, then filled in some details on my phone, and boom. I was given this race bib, a timing chip for my shoe, and a bunch of safety pins. Number 1200 for a 12km race, cool. I didn’t realise at the time that this was quite lucky and special, for some reason I thought they all said 1200 because it was 12kms. Nope, just mine. After that I was finally able to chill a bit around Newcastle.
It was quite a chill afternoon but things slowly ramped up. The night before the race could have easily unsettled me. My hotel window was right near the main road and Saturday night in Newcastle is quite wild. Lads revving their cars, couples yelling at each other, girls screaming, lads fighting, police sirens going off. At 7pm when I was just walking along grabbing dinner I saw a guy just pissing in the middle of the street. Welcome to Newcastle.
I’m pretty sure this is a secret bank for eshays and not actually a KFC. I opted to pass and got a nice kebab down the road.
Despite playing up the dredge, I was happy to be there. Completely removed from my regular job, normal routine, and just able to me myself for a bit. It was like I was in a videogame, where all the shitty stuff is cool. I was completely disconnected from any discomfort. Gamers will know what I’m talking about, when you see something really disgusting sitting on a table in Resident Evil, but you can’t help but admire the texture work. That’s Newcastle.
Enough of that… it’s RACE DAY!
I left the hotel about an hour before the start time, hoping I knew the way. I didn’t bring my phone or any kind of map (I just like running light), but I knew the general direction where the start line was. Even if I got lost, there would be lots of other people heading that way. It was quite a lovely Sunday morning walk, a stark contrast to the buzzing nightlife the night before. It was very peaceful, and I felt like I’d slept amazing even though there’s no way I had. It was 5-6 hours of fragmented sleep while watching a train going around New Zealand on the hotel TV. The camera never moved and it was amazing, I could watch that for days.
“These are my people”. That was my first thought when finally rocking up to the start line. Everyone looked happy, music was playing, an announcer was getting people hyped for the race. People were dancing and jogging on the spot but I felt like walking there was enough warmup for me. I just tried to relax and had a chat with a few peeps.
“You a local?”
“Nah, you?”
“Nah“
It turns out that nobody actually lives in Newcastle.
I didn’t do much stretching, I was just enjoying the atmosphere and breathing in the ocean air. I knew I’d need to save all the energy I could for the 12km. I’d never run this far before without stopping, so you’d think I’d be scared or a bit stressed right now. It was the complete opposite. I wasn’t even thinking that far ahead, just about the start.
LET’S GO!!
What a clusterfuck the start was. The countdown finished and… nothing happened, for me at least. Everyone had to file through the tiny Start Line arches before I was going anywhere. The timing chip in my shoe didn’t start until I ran over the mat, so it didn’t matter in reality. Still, it changed the mood for sure. I had flashbacks to every Parkrun where I arrived late and started at the back. My competitive side which had been asleep all weekend just immediately took over as I felt the need to pass people right out of the gate and get some clear air.
It didn’t take too long thankfully, after about a minute I was on a good pace keeping up with other fast runners. I was impressed with the skill in this field, running much faster at the start than I’m used to seeing. Just the sheer amount of runners who were good was something I hadn’t experienced before. Half a smile escape my face as I realised these “fast runners” included me now, I had every right to be there. Or maybe it was just the wind.
The first 1km was actually one of the hardest, after the start I realised there was quite a long uphill section. The hype died down a bit and I started to ache and feel a bit overwhelmed, it was strange. I knew there would be an uphill section early on, but it hit harder than I expected. Suddenly I could feel the kebab I ate the night before churning away in the gears of my stomach. It was only one kilometre but it felt like much longer. I had all sorts of doubts creep into my mind at this point but it was so early, so I just rode it out.
Thank god I did, because after the uphill section I felt amazing. As the terrain flattened out and we rounded the curve with an amazing view of the water, a huge weight was lifted. Suddenly it felt easy, like the race was only just starting again. This is more like it.
(pic taken from my drone camera that I was controlling while running… just kidding it’s from the official website)
The next challenge came at the first “drink station”. There were a couple of places around the course where you could grab a cup of water or gatorade for fuel. Going into the race, I was thinking this would be amazing because I’m used to running with nothing. I reached out my hand and instantly the dream of instant refreshment came splashing down. Or more accurately, into my face. I didn’t realise how fast I was running and just couldn’t hold the cup still and it went all over my shirt and face. I think I got a few drops in my mouth at least. Oh well. That’ll do.
The next part of the run was probably my slowest, the second uphill section. This one didn’t look so bad on paper but it felt even worse than the first one. This one went round a corner and I had no idea when it would end. This is where the mental battle started and the race went into hard mode. This is when I realised I wasn’t even halfway into a 12km race. The only thing keeping me going here was the uniqueness of the course. A lot of my focus was just on following the course properly and seeing what was around the next corner.
I tried to study this the night before but… nope it still didn’t make sense. Just keep running.
The second drink station came up and I wanted to give it another crack. One of the volunteers was holding a drink up just for me! I could almost see a ray of sunshine highlighting it like a videogame item that would restore my health. As I went to grab it… BOOM! I felt a big nudge on my back. Some guy behind me crashed into me while trying to grab the same cup. “Sorry mate” was all I heard as gatorade flew everywhere once again, mostly on him this time as the poor volunteer gasped. Grab your own one next time, mate. I don’t know why but this fueled me more than the gatorade would have, I was a bit pissed off and doubled my pace just to get away from that idiot. I never saw him again.
There was a small problem that surfaced after that, I realised my race bib had a pin missing. The top right one was gone so it started flapping a bit in the wind. Oh crap, what if it comes out? Then I’m disqualified. I had spare pins in my pocket I could put in, but then I had to slow down. I made an awkward attempt to replace the pin while running, but that just wasn’t happening. There was just no way to do it without coming to a complete stop. I decided to just keep going and see if I could risk it.
I took this pic the day before but this ended up being about the halfway distance of the run. I felt a bit more comfortable here just because it was near my hotel and felt oddly familiar even though I’d been there once in my life. Weird huh.
I passed the 7km mark and looked at the time, 31 minutes. I looked at it again. Then again. Was I on sub hour pace? I didn’t have a goal time set for this race in my mind, because I just like to go with my gut instead. Goals can be limiting just as much as they can be helpful. No matter what I did in my first race here, it would be an achievement and a PB. But now, that went out the window a bit. I was only one Parkrun away from the finish now with mostly flat ground to cover.
I passed the 8km mark and something felt a bit odd, my fitbit timer now said 38 minutes? There’s no way that last 1km was that slow, I suddenly lost a lot of time. It was confusing but I decided that maybe the distance signs weren’t accurate. It was hard to have really complex thoughts or do calculations when pushing this hard so I tried to just not think too hard about it. After I took my mind off the pace and timing, I felt a bit lighter again. Not knowing my pace might actually be my comfort zone, then I can just run with my body.
The next two KMs were the most grueling as I was going into uncharted territory. I didn’t know if I was going to run the entire 12km distance before the race, I still didn’t. I just kept going. I kept looking down at the race bib to make sure another pin hadn’t come off. The worst part of this final section was when we got away from the beach area and near the main road. I don’t have any pics of this top half of the course unfortunately but here’s a random road.
I could smell pollution and smoke immediately and it was horrible. Being completely out of breath with petrol in the air absolutely sucks. I don’t think this affected my performance, and it didn’t make me dizzy or anything, just disgusted.
The finish has to be soon right? The last few KMs were honestly a bit of a blur. I was hurting so much but just kept going, not really sure if the finish line was around the corner or ten minutes away. My thoughts at this point were just nonsensical. I was focusing on random things like the ground and just keeping some kind of pace. I honestly couldn’t tell you if I was going slow, medium or fast here. I was just going. I ran straight past the final drink station with a big “nope” after the massacres at the previous ones. You can all fight for those scraps but I’m good.
If only I had listened to RunningXpert before the race. I had quite a laugh when I recently googled drink stations and found that it was quite a common challenge. There are hundreds of drink station tutorials out there, it’s a real art.
Finally, a sign with “Finish” on it came up. It still made no sense because I couldn’t see the finish. Was this the final straight? I looked to the left as we passed a large building blocking the view of the park. Nope, there was an entire lap of the park to go as the course swung around back to the finish. I was so dead at this point, it actually pissed me off that the course went longer. Somehow, I picked up the pace here and started almost sprinting. I couldn’t really see the time with my fitbit covered in sweat, but it was 59 something, I just had to assume that I could do it.
I have no idea where the energy came from but the last minute going around the park was my fastest of the entire race, my speed was so ridiculous that other people were getting in my way. There was a line of dudes slow jogging to the end and I had to go the long way around them. I don’t really like doing that because to me this wasn’t about racing other people, I just wanted to finish it already. I’m always racing myself in these things, and just do what I can to minimise the time passing people.
I crossed the line and my timer said 60 minutes but I had no idea what my time was until later, I didn’t care at that point. I collapsed on the ground and sat my arse on the grass. There were so many people just standing there at the finish line, it was hard to find somewhere to suffer. I stood up when I could, and grabbed a Gatorade. My first actual drink. It tasted like piss.
Later I found out the time, I saw this while walking back to the hotel actually. It was impressive how quickly they updated the results page, some people were actually still running at this point. I was pretty chuffed with that. I really had no clue what sort of time I’d get coming in, and expected to be in the bottom half. I would have been completely fine with that amongst all these experienced runners.
A bit of backstory on my running to cap this off, I’ve only been running since the start of the year. I finished my first Parkrun in 33 minutes and last week I got it down to 23 minutes. The improvement is very motivating and feels like something I should have done way sooner, because it just feels so nice to run and challenge yourself this way.
I’m excited to come back to Hill to Harbour and see a bit more of Newcastle next time since I was a bit rushed here this weekend. I may do more writeups like this for future events, or even Parkruns and general running adventures. The next event for me will be the Bay to Bay in June, stay tuned. It’s another 12km race and I think it’s safe to say now that I can do it in under an hour.
Goodbye Newcastle. Why did I put so much emphasis on the place in this writeup? Because that’s what running gives you, a deeper connection to yourself and your surroundings.
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