State Transit Owes Me $50
The 2nd annual Run4Fun (which needs a less silly name) went off at 8:30 this morning at the Olympic Park, and I barely made the start, so there was a substantial pack ahead of me when the gun went off. 55:27 at the finish, by my watch, and I reckon that ought to be the chip time, more or less. It was much more crowded than last year, so a lot of charity money would have been raised, but that section down by the Hockey stadium gets very crowded. It opens up again after that, but you're never not in traffic, much like every other large road race in town. It was good fun and an easy, quick ride back to Central on the train, but getting out there was logistically more difficult than it should have been.

I was at the bus stop in plenty of time for as many as four buses that could have gotten me to the train and a ride to Homebush, but nothing, no bus. From my stop, you can see over a kilometre down Parramatta Road, so with all that nothing coming down the street, I walked down to the Broadway shops, where I could hope for the Lilyfield line, the Glebe Point buses, or service out of Newtown. What turned up? The bus I should have caught to begin with, half an hour late. Half an hour? Sure, it's Sunday, but if you're running a bus service, how do you account for those 30 minutes? Traffic? C'mon. I sat next to a young woman, also going to the race, and we got to the train platform with about 45 minutes to get to the venue and no train for another 10. It'd take all the remaining time to get to Lidcombe, let alone to the start, so we opted to split a cab. Hence the $50. But it was a cheerful enough ride, if not offering much of a chance to get a little extra sleep, and in the end a good run. And a free newspaper, too, although why, when they give you a subscription, is perplexing.

Update: It's a cheap watch, but it's pretty accurate.