News from Canberra Marathon

Two totally different weather patterns over the weekend in both Orange and Canberra resulting in club members enjoying perfect conditions in the ACT on Saturday and cold, wet mornings in both locations Sunday.

On the home front, only 29 members took on a no-watch day over the Bargwanna Road track, 6 of them being the Dean clan with Estelle and Matt dragging Molly, Abby, Jessie and Harry out to face the elements. None of the Deans’ came close to their estimated time, gentleman Jim Rich was 7 seconds out but couldn’t match the 4 seconds of Kimmie Jarvis who ran the 5km in a good 26m37s.

Sunday was also Jim Rich’s 600th run with Orange Runners and he received his certificate in front of one of our smallest galleries for a while. Gentleman Jim has been with the club for more years than I can remember and although not a regular Wednesday night participant is normally there each Sunday for our longer events. On Sunday, and Jim will acknowledge that he is one of our more senior members, he ran the 5km course in 22m55s. He just floats along and is always a major age category contender whenever we attend other events.

Looking at the results and picking out one of our newer members it looks as though Gary Penrose has given up the walking shoes and doing a good bit of running. Given Gary hasn’t been coming along too long he did a very commendable 36m48s for the 5km event; it will be interesting to see if he improves on the benchmark over the coming months?

Over to Canberra and a supportive contingent of runners and families visited the capital. It was good to be there for once just to watch the events and thank you also to the Cotten and Townsend vocals that also made the weekend of it. The 5km and 10km events on Saturday were held in perfect conditions with excellent results from the Orange contingent.

Didn’t make the Saturday event so for anyone I may miss please advise and I will ensure it is in next week’s report.

Kyle Ostini was the first of the Orange contingent to cross the line in the 10km event in a time of 42m13s, 19th over all in a field of 596; Kyle was 3rd of 15 in his age group.
60-70 age group winner Wayne Stewart was next to greet the judge in 49m25s, a great run by the veteran, he wasn’t even feeling 100% on the day.

Jack Daintith took out the 12 years and under and wasn’t far behind Wayne, Jack crossed the line in 50m53s.

Yet another youngster and also winning her age group under 12’s was Kinisha Roweth in a great 53m58s. She then turned up on Sunday to watch Dad run the Half Marathon.
Not winning her very competitive age group but also a good run by Pam Fullgrabe in 57m37s, a little off her best Canberra time but well done Pam.

Jane Patteson ran a commendable 28m43s in the 5km event with no real training behind her.

Sunday morning with a 7am start; it was cold and the heavens opened for the entirety of the half marathon, marathon and ultra marathon races. With the marathon winning time of 2hr24m it was not a fast run race, however all our club members finished strong in great times.

Starting with the 50km ultra marathon, one Orange entrant in Brett Sammut who stated before the gun that he was not out to break speed records and hoped to finish the course in 6 hours. A man of his word he crossed the line in 5hr 49m, tired and sore but with a big smile. His marathon time was 4hr46m and we have to commend and congratulate him on a job well done. Brett now wants to do the Gold Coast marathon and break 4 hours which is the qualifying time for entry to next year’s 6 foot track event from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves.

A surprisingly large crowd gathered at the finish line despite the inclement weather, due to the large number of our members in the Half Marathon I will list them by finishing times only, however all went very well and special mention to Judy Tarleton in going under the magic 130 minute mark and Stephen Blackwood getting back into good shape:
Anthony Daintith 100.41s, Karen Neal 100m45s, Penny Chandler 104m45s, Brian Sharp 105m55s, Daryl Roweth 106m25s, Stephen Blackwood 118m39s, Simon Lun 118m40s, Lynda Chapman 119m30s(broke the 2 hour mark) Judy Tarleton 129m57s with Glennys Rosser and Sharon Fahy together on 165m47s.

In conjunction with the half were the marathoners and ultra marathoners. Brett Sammut has already been mentioned but we had another 3 members out there in the rain; they finished within 3 minutes of each other.

Behind the others at the 16km mark was Jared Sullivan who eventually passed Peter Mueller and Frank Ostini to race away to a very impressive 3.20.14 and looked in good shape in the home strait.

Finishing together over the line were the duo of Peter Mueller and Frank Ostini, however the timing chips revealed that Peter had crossed the start line 9 seconds behind Frank so in the end actually bettered Frank’s time by the same space. Peter’s finishing time was 3.22.57 and Frank’s 3.23.06 so a great job done by both.

I must mention two of our ex club members also ran the marathon and well done to Emily Lamrock 3.25.02 and just out for a quiet stroll Erika Bunker in 3.33.54.

79 finishers on Wednesday night and the cooler weather is definitely with us. A big run of 13m18s and a big sprint finish gave youngster Jackson Willis the line honours; handicapper Mike Sharp has done a great job as hoards of runners came over the line together.

Personal best runs were recorded by the following:
Daryl Roweth an impressive 17 seconds in 13m32s, this follows up a very satisfying Half Marathon run in Canberra on Sunday where he recorded a terrific 1hr 46m in only his second go over the 21km distance, Looks like next year in Canberra we will be watching Daryl go over the extended marathon course?

Brian Penrose 7 seconds to 14m51s.
Simon Lun 15 seconds to 13m34s.
Alistair (IT) Merrifield yet again with 18 second PB and now down to 11m35s.

John Hannan 5 seconds with a new best of 18m25s. I was doing the timing clock and over the last 100 metres John was certainly on a mission, crossing the line so fast he missed his number.

Martin Ryan is coming in under the radar too, he finished in 15m17s and now getting back to his old form. In saying old form Martin used to be an annual contestant in the Canberra Marathon, having completed his normal 4 weeks training before trudging over the 42km trip. Could we possibly see another runner joining Daryl Roweth in Canberra in 2012, according to Martin there is no chance?

So to this Sunday and a 10am start from Pinnacle Reserve over 3km and the very testing 7.7km. A favourite type of run for Tom Gleeson who likes the undulations, this course does not have one iota of flatness to it and certainly not one where you can expect to do a fast time.

Just a reminder that on Wednesday evenings at Elephant Park we are required to be registered by 4.50pm, listen to the announcements and be on the start line for a 5pm start – good running