XCR Round 9 Burnley Half Marathon - Sat 7 Sep
The penultimate round for our winter season, and it was a windy one at Burnley. It was a slightly depleted Waverley line up with late injuries to Janice and Em and Peter keeping them out. But House was on the starting line just one week after completing the Sydney marathon last weekend, and keeping his amazing stretch of 20 years in a row of sub 3 hour marathons.
We all started together at 8am, even the 4k runners. Matt was first to finish (not surprisingly, running 4K) with a nice 17:52. Of our half marathoners, Davin led the Waverley field away. He held his lead for nearly 21 of the 21.1K, before Martin kicked past with the finish in sight to finish 16 seconds ahead. House pulled off an amazing effort, running below his target 90 minutes in the windy conditions with last week’s marathon still in his legs.
Beck came past me in the last lap and pulled away nicely. Daniel was next, and then Ernie, just hours before their plane leaves for Malaysia. Niamh followed, and she won her age group, which means she moves from 2nd to 1st for the season, and takes out the season gold. Well done Niamh.
Then we had an intriguing battle between Smurf, Nick, Michael Jansen and Harvs. The order between these 4 has been mixed all season with Smurf smashing them in the 15K, and Albert Park. Nick and Smurf were in a photo finish at the end of the Ballarat 10k cross-country. Nick was fastest at Sandown. and Michael Jansen was fastest in the 5K. But Harvs was fastest in the first 3 rounds. This time it was the wily Harvs who came through, with a nice 1:45. Redemption after trailing the other 3 in the previous 3 events.
Petra ran 10K, and Nickie didn’t finish. Sorry I didn’t see you at the end Nickie. I hope all is ok.
Our results:
Female Open
21.1km: Rebecca Kirkham 1:31:27; Niamh O’Reilly 1:39:42; Nickie Gibson DNF; Petra Spiteri DNF;
Male Open
21.1km: Martin Spiteri 1:26:23; Davin Hopper 1:26:39; Stephen Paine 1:28:41; James Atkinson 1:32:58; Daniel Spiteri 1:38:28; Ernest Lim 1:38:35; Michael Harvey 1:45:54; Ewen Vowels 1:51:18; Nicholas Spiteri 1:54:46; Michael Jansen 2:00:49;
Male 20
4km: Matt Harvey 17:52;
Our Mens 50+ team finished 2nd behind Peninsula. But we smashed Box Hill, to sew up the Mens 50+ trophy even with 1 round to go.
In the individual seasons trophies, Niamh’s win today means she takes out gold in the F50+ category for the season. Awesome result Niamh!
Davin’s run today clinched him the silver medal in M55+ for the season, and Smoothy will finish 3rd, despite missing the last 2 rounds. So 3 podium individual season finishes for Waverley is an amazing result to be celebrated.
Thanks Sally, Em, Matt and Peter for cheering us on, and thanks Matt and Em for the photos.
