Sat 24 Mar 07, AV NorthWest Shield Finals

Western Athletics have four teams competing in the Region Champs at Newport, Men Div 2, 4 & U18 and the Women U18s, this is the Clubs first opportunity to win an Open Men's title. Showers, loads of wind and only 20 degrees, maybe!

My day as per normal started early (7:30), setting up a 'fun day' at WLAC, lots of little team games and then Club Presentations. Declan (5) is very excited he is gettinghis very first trophy and is VERY excited, did I already mentioned that! Well I took the boys home at 11:45 with trophies in tow, noting 6 hours later I seen Declan and he was still carrying his trophy around showing visitors (they had a b.day party), very cute!

Today I was competing in our Div 4 team in the 1500m, 800m, 3000m & the 4x400m relay. Finals racingis all Div racing, so times are not a concern, just your finishing place, so lots of tactics will come into it, esp in the distance races, generally very exciting as all of the distance runners only want to do what they have to and not anymore.

My first race was the 1500m, Div 4 had four teams represented, Western Aths, Coburg, Keilor St. Bernards (KSB) & Brunswick, with three runners per event. For the Div Premiership we knew our comp would be Coburg but KSB wold be the best distance runners but they didn't have the depth for the other events. The 1500m race had 9 athletes, the race started and 2 KSB guys moved ahead and then there was a tight pack of 6 for 2 laps, coasting 82 sec laps. A Coburg guy was leading myself and Adrian (Wes A'), after 2 laps I moved to front of the pack and slowed the pace a bit just to annoy and to bring up our third runner back onto the back of the pack, after a very slow 200 the Coburg guy moved around and re-set the pace, with 300 to go myself and Adrian moved around him and made a small break and David followed up too, with the race finishing well for us, KSB 1 & 2 and Wes A' 3, 4 & 5th, me 4th in 5:03.

Today I was very aware I needed to try and keep my back warm and ensure I had good w/ups & cool downs with lots of light stretching and as the day progressed I was losing my flexibility. With a 90 minute break between the 15 & 8 I went through another slow w/up. There were 10 starters for the 800 and we were all grouped inthe one race with 2 lanes shared, Wes A only had two eligible runners, me & Adrian. I was in lane 2, the start was surprisingly quick, unlike the previous Divisions, but we settle and slowed down dramatically in the back straight, from the 100 to 500 we ran in 79 sec, a tight pack with Adrian leading, KSB, then me with 5 others right behind me. With 220 to go Adrian made his move which the front 3 repsonded, we all settled in the straight and cruised in, me in 3rd in 2:27, with a smile to my coach, he knew we had being using slowing tactics.

Next up was the 3k, the Div 4 were grouped with Women Div 2, U20, 18, Men & Wmn 16 & 14, so a decent size pack was there on the start line. In Div 4 there were 3 Wes A, KSB, Coburg and 1 Brunswick, the other age groups didn't matter to us. The men and a couple of juniors went to the front, but we all knew that a KSB guy would sit at the front and then we sat. Once settled after 200, 2 KSBs had pulled away and then there was a pack of 5 Wes A's & a Coburg runner, the extra runners were two U18 girls who sat in behind being protected from the wind. After 2 -3 laps of sharing the llead of the second pack, Gary slowed, he was having BIG calf issues, so myself and David T continued on providing protection to the girls but also we has a Coburg runner boxed in too, but I think he was happy enough as he was being protected. With 800 to go we lost one of the girls, I decided enough was enough and I wanted to drop the 'Burger', but he came with me and David, with 500 I again increased pace and dropped the last of the U18 girls and David started to struggle but Coburg sat right there, but in the back straight I knew I was sitting comfy in 3rd, but with 200 to go I thought I could drop him BIG time and catch 2nd which I did with 100 to go and I was able to relax and cross in 11:15ish.

With the relay to go, we knew we had won Div 4 but of course we wanted to win our relay too. With three of us doubling from the 3k in Div 4 and our 4th runner is a AWD we were just hoping to run as well as possible. After the first leg we were 2nd, I moved us into first and the last 2 guys moved us furtherahead and we won by 50m.

Four teams, 3 Region Premierships, Div 4 men, U18 men & women and our Div 2 team came 2nd, only 10 points behind Preston AC. A great day for our Club!