We headed out to the buzzing metropolis of Lilydale today, there is so much to do there like….. hey they have a small library open on the weekend. Well I guess you may as well pass the time by running 16.6k of hills in the light drizzle. Well that is what 31 silly people did today and the silliest of all was Michelle Barnard who smashed the race to take out first place. It was a fantastic run by Michelle today on a difficult course, in second place was Matt Zegveld with a time that would have cracked the lopes top 40 if not for Sam Clifford running today. Finally in third was Andy Oliver who bounds past on hills like Bambi, running and skipping through the flowers, makes it look easy.
There were some other prizes up for grabs today and it was privilege for us all to see the course record broken today by Sam Clifford. Sam took the record with a time of 52:13 and an amazing pace of 3:08km, wow seriously what a bloody show off, he was still running around Lilydale as we all left. But that is a wonderful effort to beat Dave Thomas’ record from 2015, well done Sam. Sam also took out the fastest for the day and the fastest new male runner on the course. The fastest female was Deb Pauna with another impressive run and Sarah Menzie was the fastest first time female runner, well done to all.
In the Division 2 race, well the course was short, I guess we could blame the President who had to make up the course on the day after some traffic issues, though he is blaming his wife for nagging him , but apologies the course was short. After some difficult hill repeats the winner was Joe Rogers Snr, who is looking very fit this year, shame he goes for Collingwood, in second was Emily Slocombe (sucked in Richmond supporter) and third was Sharni Long, who apologised for missing a lap (turns out the course was just short). The fastest under 18 male was Harry Jackson and the fastest under 18 female was Rosie Jackson, wonder if they race around the backyard at home.
Division 3 got to share in the pain of hill running and the race was taken out by Spencer Fish who decided to win the one week his mother was not there to watch. He is also a man who picks his chocolate quickly so thank you Spencer and well run. In second and third it was the Staak brothers who are both knocking on the door each week in their brotherly battle, well done lads. The fastest male was Marcus Finearty who also set the timer off with his chip about 350 times !!! and the fastest female was Melia Bugg, a great effort by all the kids on the hills.
Thank you to the North Launceston Athletic Club and their sponsors Nick Duigan and Tanya Rattray. They organise a great event and it is an honor for our club to be a part of something with such a rich history. Thank you to their committee and a special thanks to Frank Nott, I can’t say ill miss our long chats on the phone about the race, but maybe we can do it next year. Thank you Frank for your hard work and commitment to the race.
Full results available here.
Well done to all the runners today it is never easy to journey out in rainy conditions to tackle some hills. Next week we meet at Scotch Park for a bit of cross country style running so we shall see you there.
You can enter next weeks race here
P.S There is no way that was a 50 metre penalty!
