I went chasing skirts one evening

On a rainy day in early October I happened to be in the office twiddling my thumb. And while I was surfing the internet and pretending to work, an email message popped up saying: Get Ready Australia!
With the amount of spam mail going around, I clicked to delete the message but my mouse slipped and instead opened the message. (Yep, I blame this skirt chasing on my mouse).

The email piqued my interest as I read about some skirt chasing event. I was getting excited until it said something about a race series – a running event.

Well to cut the story short, gullible me signed up for the Brisbane leg of the Skirt Chaser 5k Race Series. The venue was at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Now that sounded like a familiar place. I searched my memory. Then I remembered that I had run there before in the Brisbane running festival.

running around brisbane

The email linked to some blurb describing the skirt chaser as-

an experience unlike any race you’ve run. This innovative event puts a flirty spin on a running classic by mixing running and fun in an innovative social fitness event. The Skirt Chaser 5k is a 5km run within the City Botanic Gardens.

On race day I lazed for a bit, skipped on my chores thinking there’s always a mañana. Ahh procrastination, it comes as a thief in the daytime. I drove up to South Brisbane, found a park near the convention centre, and then trudged along the Brisbane river at the parklands.
There’s some worthy attractions along the riverwalk of southbank. From the Grey Street bridge going south and east are: Kurilpa bridge, gallery of modern art (GOMA), Qld state library, Qld museum, Qld cultural centre, Qld performing arts complex (QPAC), thence the parklands attractions – ferris wheel, Qld conservatorium of music, southbank piazza, boat harbour, beach, numerous cafes and food outlets, park amenities, the arbour walk, formal gardens, maritime museum etc. Walking along these places shortens the distance and suddenly I found myself at the foot of the Goodwill bridge about a kilometre down from Grey street bridge.

Grey skies aided the onset of evening as i strolled along the Goodwill bridge overlooking the CBD.

I could see Qld univ of tech (QUT), the parliament house, and a few other of the Brisbane highrise as the dark clouds loomed ominously. I got caught up with sight-seeing when i glanced at my watch which read 4:50pm. I hastened along for the race start.

I got there after negotiating the maze of QUT - the wayfinding map looked like alien script to me.

The girls were about to start as I quickly pinned my race bib and then joined the back of the chasing pack – the skirt chasers group. I was quite certain it was all male.

The ladies scooted off at the gun. And then the males followed 3 minutes later. The starter gun sounded like thunder, or maybe it was thunder I heard, because just two minutes into the race, the first rains of Spring (in the southern hemisphere) tumbled down on that October eve.

The rain didn’t bother me at all. I was running in the rain and loving it – brings back memories from childhood. If only the shoes weren’t so sloshy.

Well we did two laps through and around the beautiful botanic gardens. I managed to catch and pass a few of the ladies.

The single girls had a sticker on the rear of their skirt. This tells that they are single and that the males could flirt. But alas none of the ladies I caught had a sticker on them. I was too slow! The story of my life really.

Hello Jessica. Jessica (from work) was shackled to her running partner.

But hey I beat her.

I took a couple of happy snaps then retraced my steps back to my car as the night fell.

ps

I wrote this blog as October ended. It was a rainy month, and a bit quiet on the running front. But i did do one race. The Skirt Sports Skirt Chaser 5k Race Series. It was held on 2nd October 2010. It now seems like months ago.