The first run back on home soil following the most recent global adventures took the Marathon Man down to Melbourne for the inaugural Great Australian Run.
The Great Australian Run was live on the Ten Network so the start was slightly delayed to accommodate the Elite Women's and Elite Men's start groups getting clear prior to the rest of the field being released.
Michelle Bridges who is one of the Trainers from "The Biggest Loser" in Australia turned up to lead the warm up though this was a little challenging with the routine not starting until we were all crowded into the start pack.
The elite field was packed with class with Hail Gebrselassie, Craig Mottram, Collis Birmingham and Benita Johnson lining up for the start. The Beijing Olympic Athletes who performed such great efforts for Australia at the Beijing Olympic Games were on hand to get proceedings under way with the Pole Vault Gold Medallist Steve Hooker and the Silver Medallist in the 400m hurdler Sally McLellan.
The morning was perfect for running although it was heating up as we were patiently waiting to start the run. When released it was a process of dodging through the crowds of people to get a clear path.
It was around the 8km mark near the bridge after Federation Square that the Ten cameras zoomed in and I somehow managed to put a few words together which later on proved to be very funny viewing. Considering I had stopped for the interview passing the 10km mark in 49:24 was not too bad.
In the run home I passed a guy with red hair who mentioned that he had attended the "Spirit of the Marathon" movie a few days earlier and passed on his congratulations for my effort in the Marathon des Sables. It was at this stage that he passed me most probably due to the surprise and then with close to 1km remaining I kicked on the after burners and fired up to pass this gentleman and sprint home to cross the line and finish the 15km event in 1:13:57.
Following the race I was fotunate to meet up with Steve Hooker and Benita Johnson and get up close and personal with the marathon champion Haile Gebrselassie. This was a fun morning in Melbourne although I must say following my most recent events it was a little different pulling up after only 15km. All good fun :-)
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