Yesterday Sunday August 9^th the annual Sydney City to Surf was held. Over 80 000 people ran the 14 kilometres from the heart of Sydney, up Heartbreak Hill and down to the beach at beautiful Bondi. My social media feeds filled with friends carb loading at local restaurants the night before, nervous selfie shots in front of Sydney iconic buildings and then photos as they puffed up the hill and celebration images as they made the finish line. Very inspiring and so many people from regional areas travel to tick this off their bucket list, even more than once

So what did I do? Are you beginning to think I am going to tell you about my City 2 Surf bucket list experience?

Not quite.

I have a bit of a love–hate relationship with exercise, especially running. I have lots of plans and twice as many excuses. I can make all sorts of commitments the night before, even set an alarm to get up, throw some shoes on and head out to the tracks around home to start an exercise program of walking and even sometimes think I could run in such an event as the City to Surf.

The views in the early morning sunrise should be enough to get me out there every day.

But the call of the warm bed and snuggly pillow can win me over very quickly.

I even bought a book called “Running” at one stage – yes I was committed! Once I worked out I had to actually read the book to make any progress I set about to dive into Chapter One.

“Begin your running program with a 5 km walk and then over the next 5 kms jog and walk, improving the length of jogging over the first week. Finish the session with another 5 km walk as a warm down”

Warm down??? What is a warm down? I could barely stagger back to the house, let alone another 5 kms to warm down.

Chapter Two. I have no idea what came next, I decided my dedication to jogging and running wasn’t going to come through a book.

Yesterday morning I watched the TV and quietly cheered on the starters to the 2015 City 2 Surf, hot coffee beside me, warm feet inside my snuggly bed. Its what I do as a treat on Sundays, especially now that the children have flown the nest.

And boy those guys can run! As I went through all my lives on Candy Crush (don’t judge me, it’s the only game I play!) the first of the runners crossed the finish line – 14 kilometres in 42 minutes. And they looked like they could easily run back again. That’s commitment, that’s athletism, that’s just crazy when you can squander time in a warm bed surrounded by life’s little luxuries.

I will keep “competing in a public run” on my potential list of things to do in this life, its not high on the bucket list. For now just trying to get through level 577 in Candy Crush before my lives run out is taking all my focus. If I could just apply that focus to…….