City 2 Smurf - Review

City 2 Smurf? Oh I get it….
by danehiser

A review of The Sydney City 2 Surf, Sunday 11 August 2013.

Family guilt is a powerful thing. It can drive you to do things you wouldn’t normally do without a push. And as much as I hate to admit it (and I do hate to admit it), that can often be a good thing.

Today it drove me to complete The City 2 Surf as a walker, with my brother, Trent, and my Dad, with a guest appearance by my Aunty.

Trent is disabled, and afflicted with a condition that leads him to put on weight much faster than anyone else. So to combat this, we have, for years and years arranged for Trent to walk 6km a day on a treadmill. Now correct me if I’m wrong (actually don’t correct me), but that is more than a fair majority of people. This strategy has worked and kept the weight relatively at bay, and has really increased his fitness and walking speed. As my mum, rather bluntly, pointed out: he’s fitter than I am, which I don’t think is true, but I’ll stew on it while I eat this cheeseburger.

This year, Trent decided he wanted to walk The City to Surf, so my Dad agreed to take him, and I rather foolishly felt like I should join them to help Dad out and spend time with Trent, even if it did mean a day of his endless questions and repeated catchphrases – enough to make a devout and disciplined monk break his vow of silence.

Now, I’m currently unemployed, which means that I don’t have (m)any early starts. In fact, 11am at best, is not an unusual wakeup time, and on Sundays, sleep-ins should be enforced by law (preferably by a hard-assed, no-nonsense Captain Snooze).

So we woke at 6am to make the trip from Penrith into the city. Trent was up first and already in the shower…and he was pumped! I have to say, he had WAAAAAAYYYY too much enthusiasm for 6am in the morning.
We caught the train into the city, and I admit, my enthusiasm wasn’t exactly at peak at the starting line. In fact, it was so far away from peak, that I didn’t even know this so called “peak” existed. It’s safe to say, I wasn’t pumped….but Trent was and so were the 85, 000 participants, particularly our fellow walkers…and to be honest, that energy became incredibly infectious as the 14 kilometre walk went on.

There were onesie wearers, astronauts, gorillas, superheroes, cheerleaders, young people, old people, dancers, musicians, idiots, painted idiots, fitness instructors, charity walkers and promo people, as well as very enthusiastic supporters and staff pumping us up. Along the way there was music, dancing and onlookers waving signs and cheering encouragement….from the sidelines, while drinking lattes and beers and mainly cheering because they weren’t doing the race. To me, nothing says fitness, like drinking beers in the street while people run/walk by, and occasionally pop into a pub for a quiet one themselves.

There was everything from ABBA to Pink, to Robin Thicke and The Village People pumping through the loudspeakers. The latter of which provoked a spontaneous flash-mob style performance of ‘YMCA’ by most walkers around us. There was live entertainment, including dancers and live music, such as a KISS cover-band on the roof of a pub (probably actually KISS, looking for work). There were even drunk idiots painted as Smurfs and revealing far too much (primarily, I assume, so they could overuse the “City 2 Smurf” pun).

To top it all off, it was an absolutely beautiful day – the sun was shining and showing off the city in all it’s glory, making it warm but not too warm, so we weren’t sweltering. The walk took us through the often pleasant and beautiful Eastern Suburbs and past some truly stunning harbour, bay and city vistas.

So against all odds, I really enjoyed the day and was inspired by the creative and enthusiastic energy of walkers, runners, onlookers and staff. So much so, that I almost forgot about the pain in my foot caused by a gigantic hole in the sole of my shoe. I tell you, the feeling of Gatorade, squashed cups and gravel against your bare foot peaking though sole and sock, isn’t the best sensation.

But the best thing about the day, was how much my brother enjoyed it. He was high on energy and enthusiasm all day…and he kept pace and completed the whole thing without fuss. Yes, it wasn’t the fastest walk, but he was happy and proud that he finished it successfully, and that was great to see. My only criticism would be that if he conserved the energy and breath it took to continuously talk and ask questions, it would have been a much quicker walk.

Follow @DaneHiser on Twitter