XCR Round 1 Hanging Rock - Sat 10 May
It was a balmy day out at Hanging Rock today. The kangaroos were out hopping about, the big Rock was looming eerily in the background, the movie music was playing over the loud speakers and Waverley turned out in force to welcome in the new XCR season and get a dose of the real Hanging Rock experience.
We welcomed Beck Kirkham to her first run with Waverley, and Glenn Carroll back after a couple of years hiatus. It was Heritage round and Davin had his heritage singlet on, in pristine condition after 29 years resting. Harvs had his heritage singlet on as always.
First away was the 5K, with Matt running the U20 mens race. He has been in great form running well under 20 minutes for 5K in Adelaide to win the marathon fun run. But a niggle at the bottom of his back (and on the back of racing his schools cross country race during the week) saw him taking it easier for this one. Unfortunately, like his Dad he hasn’t quite mastered the art of taking it easy, and managed to strain his injury after the first couple of km. Dramatically an ambulance was called for and Matt reappeared well after the race finish in the St Johns tent. We wish Matt a speedy recovery.
Then it was time for the mens race. All the envelopes with the new rego numbers had been taken except for one – David (Smoothy) Venour. We couldn’t see him on the start line and it looked like we’d be without our superstar, who had recently won the National Masters 1500m and 5K, and doing what we all had though was impossible, outkicking our speedster Craig Sanford. He also recently ran a speedy 78 minute half marathon at Ballarat. It turned out that Smoothy had pulled a “House” move and turned up with just a few minutes to spare. But he mistakenly thought the race started at 1:50 rather than 1:40 and headed out to a remote part of the course to warm up. Alerted by the gun, he had to race back to the start and ended up starting 2 minutes late.
Our first runner in was Davin Hopper, who despite getting back from a calf injury, managed to race away from the rest of our elite Waverley field and smash us all. Next in were Martin and Julian, who ran together for much of the course, but then Martin unleashed his deadly kick, which was just too much for Julian’s marathon weary legs and he beat him by a second.
I was not far behind them with 300m to go, but a procession of runners cruised past, just lining up to put me away. The last was Smoothy, who had given us all a 2 minute start and still caught most of the field. He very graciously slowed after he caught up and let me cross the line first, but he could have easily smoked me.
Next in was Glenn Carroll (great to see him back), then Ernie, Daniel and Peter. They were followed by James M, Harvs, Smurf, Nicholas and Michael. It was great to see 14 men in our first event.
In the womens race, new girl Beck ran an awesome 35:41 (especially as she’s on the way back from injury and illness). Then Niamh, Janice and Wendy followed by Em and Petra.
Our results:
Male Open
8km: Davin Hopper 31:07; Martin Spiteri 31:37; Julian Russell 31:38; James Atkinson 31:59; David Venour 32:00; Glenn Carroll 33:46; Daniel Spiteri 34:23; Ernest Lim 35:57; Peter Kormendy 36:12; James McEniry 38:22; Michael Harvey 39:43; Ewen Vowels 39:47; Nicholas Spiteri 41:20; Michael Jansen 42:50;
Female Open
8km: Rebecca Kirkham 35:41; Niamh O’Reilly 38:21; Janice Marston 42:03; Wendy Masters 43:30; Emily Stokes 45:34; Petra Spiteri 52:52;
Teams:
Men Div 4 4th
Men Div 5 5th
Men 40+ 4th
Men 50+ 1st
Women Div 3 4th
Women Div 4 7th
Women 50+ 4th
