XCR Round 2 St Annes - Sat 24 May
Waverley made the trip out to Myrniong today for the 12K. And obviously since there was a winery involved, the Waverley bus was required. It was a lot of fun.
We arrived at Myrniong just in time to see Matt head off in the U20 7K. After injuring his hammy/hip/back just 2 weeks ago, it was impressive he could run again so soon. But he did have to nurse that injury around, which involved a fair bit of limping at the end. Kudos to Matt for finishing, in a fair amount of pain.
Next off were our women, in high spirits after the bus ride. The course was a challenging one – the hardest ever according to Em and Janice. So certainly not one for fast times. The hills were relentless, and some sections into the wind and dust were particularly soul destroying. Beck impressed with a top 50 finish. Niamh doggedly tried to stay in touch for the first lap and a half, but eventually the rubber band broke. Niamh still finished in a strong 71st place and 4th F50+. But what was most impressive was her time of 1:00.00 on the dot. Sadly she didn’t pick to run it in an hour, or she would surely have set one of our most amazing nearest the pin picks of all time. Janice, Wendy, Em and Petra all conquered the tough course, and impressively our women won Div 3, and finished 3rd in F50+. Great work girls.
Then our men were off. Smoothy impresssed us by turning up an hour early for this one and getting to the correct St Annes winery. Then he promptly ran away from us all to set an amazing time of 46:54 and place 2nd in M55+. Davin could see him in the distance for the first couple of laps, but he pulled away even more in the last lap. Davin running an impressive 47:49 and 3rd in M55+. Julian started at a canter, taking it easy just 2 weeks before the Comrades Marathon, but cruised past Martin and I finishing a minute ahead.
Martin disappeared in the first lap but by the end of the 2nd lap I was just behind him. However he held that through the last lap and had pulled away a bit when my calf went in the last downhill stretch and hobbled into the finish half a minute behind him. This was particularly impressive given that Martin had just flown in from Korea a couple of hours earlier, with Smurf bringing him straight from the airport.
Next was Daniel who had a good battle with Glenn, finishing within 30 seconds of each other. Then Ernie and Peter and James M, with Harvs and Smurf then finishing within 30 seconds of each other. Then Michael and Nick, with Nick saving his legs a bit (hopefully) for the Woodlands marathon the next morning.
Our M50+ team had another win, and our Div 4 team finished 4th (would have been 6th in Div 3). So two team firsts, a 3rd and a 4th is a pretty good day out.
Our results:
Male 20
7km: Matt Harvey 47:53;
Female Open
12km: Rebecca Kirkham 54:47; Niamh O’Reilly 1:00:00; Janice Marston 1:05:20; Wendy Masters 1:09:35; Emily Stokes 1:15:25; Petra Spiteri 1:24:11;
Male Open
12km: David Venour 46:54; Davin Hopper 47:49; Julian Russell 49:17; Martin Spiteri 50:12; James Atkinson 50:40; Daniel Spiteri 53:15; Glenn Carroll 53:43; Ernest Lim 54:47; Peter Kormendy 56:06; James McEniry 1:00:24; Michael Harvey 1:02:40; Ewen Vowels 1:03:05; Michael Jansen 1:04:39; Nicholas Spiteri 1:09:54;
Teams:
Men Div 4 4th
Men Div 5 4th
Men Div 7 4th
Men 40+ 4th
Men 50+ 1st
Women Div 3 1st
Women Div 4 3rd
Women 50+ 3rd
Full results are available at: https://www.athsvic.resultshub.com.au/#
