The race is a five or six person relay from Harcourt to the Bendigo Athletics Track. Western Aths had eight teams, four men & ladies teams, involving 41 members and our first experience competing in Men Div 2 which involved 6 runners, one racing a 10k leg (an out & back tough undulating leg).
My job was 'three fold'; Team Manager for all 8 teams, coach for four of the runners and runner in the men's Div 5 team (our third ranked men's team). Once I had completed and handed in all of the paperwork, attended a TM meeting and then passed on all of the relevant info to our runners, coaches & parents we were off; get 33 runners to their starting location and I stayed to watch the start of all of the Divisions over a 30 minute period.
I was allocated the final leg in our Div 5 team, this team has suffered the numbers game in previous rounds (not enough runners to field a regular team) and sadly we are nearing the bottom of the ladder, but today we were secretly hoping for a top 3 finish and we thought we had the team to do it, but of course the opposition have their say too....
I was waiting for Cookie at the change over and I knew he would run a good leg; Cookie is 47 and still capable of a 2 min 800m and he is a tough racer. Over the day it had become apparent that the Bendigo 1st team was going to SMASH us and Eureka (2) had also come with a quick team too, they both flew through the change over and via mobile phone calls and some quick calculations we were 8-10 minutes behind these two. So has Cookie caught and past third??? Sadly no, third placed Box Hill go through the change over 2 min 34 sec ahead of my start! Damn it and knowing that they more than likely do not have a 25 min runner bringing them home I would have to run and just hold onto my 4th spot and that I did.
My run went ok, I worked fairly hard to start with and then settled for a 500m or so, then with the knowledge that there was only 1k left of the incline I increased my intensity until I could get over the highest point and then make my trip home along the road, 21:36 (2007 - 20:22) ....hmmm, not too bad, but I have run it better! BTW, I did close in on 3rd, his 2m34s lead was reduced to 58 sec, but honestly I didn't have 58 seconds in me.
This photo is obviously not a favorite, but it shows I was having a hard hit out...the actual photo was taken by Aths Vic and posted on the AV web site. The photo was taken as I hit the track with approx 280m to go.
Club Results:
- Men Div 2 - 3rd, Div 4 - 2nd, Div 5 - 4th, Div 7 - 6th
- Women Div 2 - 3rd, Div 3 - 2nd, Div 4 - 2nd & 4th
A very good day for Western Athletics, one win would have been great, but overall 5 teams on the podium, you can't complain about that!!! :-)
1 comment:
it was a good day! and you did beat your fave gf!
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