The Mad Hatters' Tea Party

Today’s City to Surf, my third, reminded me of the Mad Hatters’ Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. There were enough mad hats on display for a start (as at left). But is was such a great day, a fantastic day, that I could just imagine the Mad Hatter saying to the March Hare: A very merry unbirthday to us! .. The day mightn’t be any special anniversary of sorts. But to those who ran and walked it was special just the same and worthy of a birthday party.

There’s something incredibly seductive sucking in the collective energy of over 60,000 kindred spirits. James Redfield in his Celestine Prophecy talks about how we can become more complete people by drawing in the positive energy from those around us.

I certainly felt like that today. I had a ball. The weather was stupendous; all of us were excited and happy just to be there to participate in one of the world’s great community events.

I stopped the clock at 59.37 and was ecstatic to come in under the hour. When I saw the finishing chute come up ahead and I knew I had beaten sixty minutes, I punched the air and did a little two step. It wasn’t a PB but that didn’t matter. I was just stoked to really run strongly and tackle the hills aggressively. And truth be known I had some help. Throughout the race I could hear this little birdie at my ear, whispering encouragement. Pollyanna we’ll call her.

Being from Canberra, I really noticed the heat. Just after the 6k marker and approaching the bottom of Heart Break Hill I was starting to fatigue. But Pollyanna said: “You can do it - I'm sending some positive energy your way - you love hills so run ‘em hard”. So true I thought to myself, so true. So I pushed on. Again feeling hot and under pressure with those pesky hills between the 10 to 12 k markers I can hear my special friend saying, “…come on you can do it, you’ll be through the hills soon and then it’s all down hill”. “Yo, I can do it…on, on.on…”

Then finally, when I hit Campbell Parade I was really feeling the pain. My chest was burning, my legs were killing me, and I was sick in the stomach. Then I whiffed some wretched cooking smells from nearby bbq's. I felt like puking. “I’m a goner”, I thought, only to have Ms Pollyanna say “you’re running like a rubber ducky. Come on, you’re almost there.” Somehow, out of nowhere I got up a sprint for the last 300 hundred metres. I stormed home, forever grateful to my sweet voiced friend.

I caught up with so many friends and Cool Runners on this gorgeous day. PRB, Bernie, Elle, James, Jane, Greg, Leah (great PB), Aki, Marg, Wombat Face, Jim, John Rawlings, BlkBox (great to meet you mate), Tesso and Miners (pictured at left), Gronk, Ellie80, Strewth, CJ, Shelly, Sekhmet (telepathically), Unidentified friendly lady at the Hash tent, Unidentified friendly guy who’s ran every C2S I chatted to at the start, and to all my other friends who were there in spirit if not in person – thank you so much for this special day. With so many unpleasant things happening in this world, all of us did our bit today to make the world a better place.

It was our very own Mad Hatters’ Tea Party.