winda
: 15 sie 2003, 05:48
Taka to historyjke znalazlem na Coolrunning Australia:
I'd just like to share perhaps one of the more bizarre stories from amongst the 58,000 or so tales that were told yesterday.
One of the athletes I coach was in damn good shape coming into the C2S. A PB was on the cards and if not then sub 45min shouldn't have been a problem.
My wife and I had dinner with him on Saturday night before saying goodbye at 7:30pm and walking back to our respective hotels. Everything was in place for a big race.
All went to plan early Sunday morning. He was up on time, showered, had breakfast and started to focus on the race. Then it was off to the registration building to collect the number and drop off the clothing for Bondi.
Upon returning to his Hotel (located 100m from the start) at 8:45am he jumped into a lift with 8 others to take the ride to the 17th floor. The doors closed, the lift starting moving, stopped again between floors, then started decending again. Once at the basement level, the lift came to a slow halt - fortunately there was no rapid decent or screaching of brakes against the lift ropes.
OK - the lift has stopped so lets get out?? This however was not to be as the doors were jammed shut and no manner of button pressing combinations was enough to release them. A less than helpful voice at the end of the intercom assured them that help was on it's way.
10 minutes passed and one of the trapped passengers was starting to get agitated. A couple of party goers (returning from an all nite rave) were a bit spaced out at the back of the lift offering constuctive suggestions for escape Meanwhile the 3 or 4 C2Sers in the lift were getting a bit worried about the disruption to their warm up routine.
30 minutes went by with no real change. The service people from the Hotel were unable to do anything constructive - time to call in the experts from the Lift company.... whose name bears an uncanny resemblance to a Thomas Keneally WW2 book. As the time went by, the quality of air diminshed - not such a good thing for a highly trained athlete! The more claustrophobic amongst them became even more claustrophobic.
The hour came and went - race time was just a few minutes away. Realising that our man was wearing No.23 on his race bib and was obviously elite, the other C2Sers offered to move eveyone else to one side of the lift so that he could have room to stretch and warm up. The offer was politely refused, but appreciated none the same.
Crow bars were soon set to work to prise open the doors. Fortunately a gap was forced open to allow an air pipe in, but there was no way the doors would part to allow anyone to escape just yet. Relief of sorts though as the waft of 20 something Bourbon and Cokes coming from the back of the lift was replaced by freshish Basement air.
Soon, what sounded like the murmur of a distant earthquake was actually the start of Group A. Our man could only think of what might have been as the lift stayed put.
The minutes ticked away.... Group B were now on their way and the Back of the Packers were surging to the line. For our lift dwellers the time just passed slowly, new friendships formed and a sense of reality dawned on our partygoers as they sensed that this was serious sh#t!
Eventually the lift experts arrived (ironically one wonders how many lift mechanics were only metres away earlier in the C2S crowd??). Progress was made and finally the doors were opened. Time check... 10:45am - 2hr after being trapped, they were out again.
Never one to give in, our man made his way to start line. The picture was bleak.... William Street was totally empty not a Yellow Bibbed runner to be seen. At 11:00am he started.
Through the tunnel he came across the first few walkers. Soon after, the crowd grew thicker... and thicker so that by 5km the only way to pass was to run on the footpaths or nature strips.
In the end he made his way past many thousands to reach Bondi at 11:56am. Official time 1hr 56in - good enough for him to secure a Back of the Pack start for next year.
With a run time of 56min, I'm tipping this was one of the fastest times run from such a position??
Even if he didn't get the PB yesterday, at least he's got a decent tale to tell (and of course embellish) for many years to come. Coaches' orders for next year are - find single story accommodation or take the stairs........
I'd just like to share perhaps one of the more bizarre stories from amongst the 58,000 or so tales that were told yesterday.
One of the athletes I coach was in damn good shape coming into the C2S. A PB was on the cards and if not then sub 45min shouldn't have been a problem.
My wife and I had dinner with him on Saturday night before saying goodbye at 7:30pm and walking back to our respective hotels. Everything was in place for a big race.
All went to plan early Sunday morning. He was up on time, showered, had breakfast and started to focus on the race. Then it was off to the registration building to collect the number and drop off the clothing for Bondi.
Upon returning to his Hotel (located 100m from the start) at 8:45am he jumped into a lift with 8 others to take the ride to the 17th floor. The doors closed, the lift starting moving, stopped again between floors, then started decending again. Once at the basement level, the lift came to a slow halt - fortunately there was no rapid decent or screaching of brakes against the lift ropes.
OK - the lift has stopped so lets get out?? This however was not to be as the doors were jammed shut and no manner of button pressing combinations was enough to release them. A less than helpful voice at the end of the intercom assured them that help was on it's way.
10 minutes passed and one of the trapped passengers was starting to get agitated. A couple of party goers (returning from an all nite rave) were a bit spaced out at the back of the lift offering constuctive suggestions for escape Meanwhile the 3 or 4 C2Sers in the lift were getting a bit worried about the disruption to their warm up routine.
30 minutes went by with no real change. The service people from the Hotel were unable to do anything constructive - time to call in the experts from the Lift company.... whose name bears an uncanny resemblance to a Thomas Keneally WW2 book. As the time went by, the quality of air diminshed - not such a good thing for a highly trained athlete! The more claustrophobic amongst them became even more claustrophobic.
The hour came and went - race time was just a few minutes away. Realising that our man was wearing No.23 on his race bib and was obviously elite, the other C2Sers offered to move eveyone else to one side of the lift so that he could have room to stretch and warm up. The offer was politely refused, but appreciated none the same.
Crow bars were soon set to work to prise open the doors. Fortunately a gap was forced open to allow an air pipe in, but there was no way the doors would part to allow anyone to escape just yet. Relief of sorts though as the waft of 20 something Bourbon and Cokes coming from the back of the lift was replaced by freshish Basement air.
Soon, what sounded like the murmur of a distant earthquake was actually the start of Group A. Our man could only think of what might have been as the lift stayed put.
The minutes ticked away.... Group B were now on their way and the Back of the Packers were surging to the line. For our lift dwellers the time just passed slowly, new friendships formed and a sense of reality dawned on our partygoers as they sensed that this was serious sh#t!
Eventually the lift experts arrived (ironically one wonders how many lift mechanics were only metres away earlier in the C2S crowd??). Progress was made and finally the doors were opened. Time check... 10:45am - 2hr after being trapped, they were out again.
Never one to give in, our man made his way to start line. The picture was bleak.... William Street was totally empty not a Yellow Bibbed runner to be seen. At 11:00am he started.
Through the tunnel he came across the first few walkers. Soon after, the crowd grew thicker... and thicker so that by 5km the only way to pass was to run on the footpaths or nature strips.
In the end he made his way past many thousands to reach Bondi at 11:56am. Official time 1hr 56in - good enough for him to secure a Back of the Pack start for next year.
With a run time of 56min, I'm tipping this was one of the fastest times run from such a position??
Even if he didn't get the PB yesterday, at least he's got a decent tale to tell (and of course embellish) for many years to come. Coaches' orders for next year are - find single story accommodation or take the stairs........