Park run at South Bank of Brisbane, Australia.

The narrow jogging track at kangaroo point

After spending almost one week in Sydney and achieving our goal of running in Sydney park, We boarded a train to Brisbane. The journey was almost 14 hours but the nice scenery we saw outside the train was enough to compensate the slight discomfort on the train. My main aim of coming to Brisbane was to attend Kai Yang's graduation ceremony and also visit interesting places including a run along South Bank of Brisbane river. We stayed on the 67th floor of Meriton Service Apartment which allowed us to have a panoramic view of Brisbane city. What attracted me the most was the long jogging bridge along the South Bank of Brisbane river. South bank was very near to our apartment and we decided that we should at least run once along the river bank. On our second day in Brisbane, we walked from our service apartment at Roma Street to South Bank via  Kurilpa Bridge which only allows pedestrian and cyclists to pass. 

We can never keep up with pace of the Aussies

The bridge is just a few hundred metres long and within minutes we were already at the other side of the river or South Bank. We started our run at the entrance of Kurilpa Bridge to Kangaroo points  roughly 4 km away. The jogging track or jogging bridge along the river bank is really fantastic, the tarmac is even and there is absolutely no pothole. There were many joggers and cyclists but their tracks are separated. It is very safe and fresh air all the way running at South Bank. We ran at our leisure pace and we were really no match to those seasoned runners sharing the same jogging track as us. In fact their fast pace really inspired me to run faster. Besides having a breathtaking view of the meandering river and the skyscrapers on the north shore we also passed through the Arbour or Bougainvillea canopy, Griffith University, the street beach , The Cliff Boardwalk where cliff climbers were seen doing abseiling before we reached kangaroo point via steep stairs from the track. 

The Arbour, Bougainvillea flowers on artistic arches

The staircases to Kangaroo point above

City Botanical Garden and Eagle Pier viewed from Kangaroo point

We stopped at Kangaroo Point to enjoy the the city view before turning back and ran across goodwill bridge to City Botanical Garden next to Queensland University of Technology. We ran through the Botanical Garden along its beautifully patched jogging track roughly 2 km. We stopped our run after coming out from the Botanical Garden. From there we walked another two km back to our Service Apartment along the busy city streets of Brisbane. We did not time our run but the run was easily more than 8 km. We had slight sunburn due to the scorching summer sunlight of Brisbane. We don't have to bring along drinking water as there are water sprinklers along the South Bank Park and City Botanical Garden to serve as our water stations. We really enjoyed our run as we were running on our own and there is no urgency to complete the run within certain specified time. My thumb up to the Brisbane Municipal council for building such a beautiful jogging tracks and bridge at South Bank for the well being of the residents. I like Brisbane city especially South Bank and it is a pity for those who stay near South Bank but do not make use of the facilities so meticulously created for them.

Beautiful Brisbane city with its bridges and jogging bridge along the river.

   

Park run at St Peters, Sydney

I spent nearly two weeks of holidays from 1st Dec to 13th of Dec in Sydney, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast of Australia. As I always include a running event in my travel itinerary, I tried to register a competitive running event in one of the places I visited but there was none that coincided with the date of my visit. At last I stumbled upon the Park Run held every Saturday at different locations in Australia. Only Sydney's Park Run could fit into my travel itinerary. So Seok Wan and I  registered to be members of St Peters park run group in Sydney so as to satisfy our urge to run in Australia. The run is only 5 km and as members we were given personal bar code which could be downloaded and printed online. The bar code will allow our time to be recorded and we can run in any of the park run held all over the world. 

We were all alone running in the vastness of Sydney Park

Enjoying the scenery while running at our leisure pace

We did not notice this and continued straight another two km

Great!  We had run at Sydney park, Australia

The Park Run which I took part was held on 5th Dec at Sydney Park of St Peters, a suburb of Sydney. The Run started at 8.00 am but we were late almost 20 minutes due to unfamiliarity with the train schedule in Sydney. I was at Sydney Central station and instead of boarding a metro train to St Peters there, I travel to town Hall to board a train to St Peters. That mistake cost us at least half an hour of delay. When we reached the starting venue, some of the fast runners were already coming back. Even though we were late we still participated in the run. The park run organiser briefed us about the track to follow and comforted us to just run with our own leisure. We started our run by following the arrows shown along the track and everything was smooth until we reached the 4th km mark. I was anticipating the finishing line soon but it never appeared. We made a second mistake by over-running the designated 5 km. There were marking on the track asking us to dash to the finishing line but we missed it and continued running until we realized our mistake 2 km later. By the time we returned to the starting point, most of the participants had left. That is the beauty of park run where we can continue running after the designated 5 km distance. Perhaps the organiser thought we wanted to run more than 5 km and did  not bother us.  

Even though we did not run together with the other park runners and get to know them but it was still a new experience for us running in the vastness of Sydney Park. There were quite a number of joggers who came with their dogs and kids. After the run we had our breakfast at the cafe in the park. There is even a toilet next to the cafe where we changed into our dry clothes to board a train back to Sydney Central and then by Light Rail Transit ( LRT) to our hotel at Darling Harbour.  

So that is our first park run and we are not sure when we will be able to take part in our second park run as the nearest park run to us is in Singapore.