Athletics Victoria XCR08 Series
Burnley - 7 September 2008
Victorian Half Marathon Championships

Sunny conditions greeted athletes for the penultimate round of 2008 winter season action. The air temperature was cool at race start, with a fresh breeze in the face of runners as they made their way to the Monash Freeway end of the course.

This is a hard, fast course beginning at Kevin Bartlett Reserve on the Yarra Boulevard as the mid point. Athletes were then to run up toward Bridge Road to the first turnaround, then a three kilometre leg down toward the Monash Freeway to the bottom end of the course and another turn around. Then back to the Bridge Road turnaround and so on until the race finishes back at Kevin Bartlett Reserve. It would four times to Bridge Road turnaround, three times to the Monash Freeway turnaround

From the gun, a number of athletes took the start a little hard with several having to rein in their pace. Through the first couple of kilometres and several Harriers were well placed. Stacey van Dueren started off very conservatively and was slowly moving her way through the field after initially finding herself barely inside the top twenty. Van Dueren is a regular in the top ten at this event

The club suffered its first casualty at the five kilometre mark. Unfortunately club president Mark Kelly had been feeling unwell all morning and he wisely pulled out before risking further harm to himself. From the seven kilometre mark, Jeremy Grey began to feel that perhaps he had gone out too hard and was battling to keep the concrentration going. He would come good from about thehalfway point

About half an hour into the race and conditions were beginning to become more benign. The sun was starting to exert some influence and the water stops were working overtime. At the nine kilometre mark, Delaney began to feel the pinch also. Like Grey, he also pushed through and continued on strongly only a little further on

Just over the half way point Masters Champion Bernie Goggin was starting to drop off and he pulled out at the fifteen kilometre mark, this not being his day. Another to feel the early pace was Liam Magee who was looking strong at halfway to finish in sub eighty minutes, However a shocking run with injury resulting in an interupted winter season had Magee also starting to get heavy legs

At the finish, Jeremy Grey led all Harriers home in a personal best time of 77:05 and a best ever placing in an Athletics Vicrtoria cross country event of 46th. Next home for the Harriers was Liam Magee in 81:01 and while he was unhappy with the time, Magee can take a lot of solace from the fact that this was his first winter season as an adult, interrupted by injury, and one can only imagine how fast he will go next season with a full winter season under the belt

Next through was Luong Dao in 83:33. What a superbly versatile athlete is Dao, who took an extended break through the middle of the season, only to come back and run these fabulous times. What's more, Dao slashed over ninety seconds off his time from last year. Next home was Winter Captain Philip van Dueren in 85:39. The flying Dutchman anchored the team home to its second third placing of the season. Not surprisingly, these have both come at the two longest races Athletics Victoria have on offer in the XCR08 series

Ken Souyave led our Division Four men home with 86:01.John Braszell remarkably took almost seven minutes off last year's time and this performance will no doubt exorcise some of the demons Braszell was facing after last year's race. Next in was Rohan King 89.5, who like Braszell, took a massive chunk out of last year's time - in King's case almost four minutes! Hopefully this will augur well for King in the lead up to the Melbourne Marathon. Next home was Brian Delaney with 98:26. Like Braszell and King in front of him, Delaney was a big improver on 2007 with well over three minutes off his performance from last year. Withsuch a rich vein of form from all four runners, our second team emulated the feat of the Division 3 men, in coming home third overall - and their second third placing of the season also

In the end, the club was just one runner short of fielding a Division Six men's team. Running for individual glory was Robert Virgona whose 103:22 was three seconds quicker than last year. Len Hallett finished with 107:20 and Daniel Norris' 117:43 was ten seconds quicker than last season.

For the women, Stacey van Dueren finished in ninth place, and had the distinction of being the third Coburg Harrier home overall, in 83:14. Next home was Carmel Taylor in 95:33 and recorded 38th place in the women's section. Jo Francken enjoyed her day out with 108:39, while Johanna Hayes' 126:31 anchored the team home to their best ever season placing of ninth

In the overage categories, Stacey Van Dueren again won the F50-54 age group, while Ken Souyave finished fourth in the M55-59 age group. Soyave has steadily picked up points this season in his age group

And last, but certainly not the least, well done to Marc Chew who has recently returned to the Brian Delaney training group and completed his first Athletics Victoria event - the Half Marathon no less! Chew crossed the line in 115:32 and is keen to run more Half Marathons after this first initial taste. Well done Marc from all your friends at the Harriers

The next race on the Athletics Victoria XCR08 series is the season ending Tan Relays on Saturday, 20 September with the winter season and training group BBQ to be held afterwards at the home of super coach Brian Delaney

SPEEDY GONZALEZ

Men's Division 3 – Jeremy Grey (77.05)
Men's Division 4 – Ken Souyave (86.01)
Women's Division 1 - Stacey van Dueren (83.14)

MOST IMPROVED

John Braszell (-6.51)
Rohan King (-3.52)
Brian Delaney (–3:32)
Len Hallet (-1.59)
Luong Dao (-1.33)
Jeremy Grey (-42)
Daniel Norris (-0.10)
Robert Virgona (-0.03)

ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

BLOOPER OF THE DAY

This one goes out to Jo Francken. Showing off her posh new sunglasses, she handed them to a teammate who promptly started to parade around with them, before placing them on her head. Off Jo goes to head home - gets halfway to the car park - then comes back to look for the item. A massive search ensues with people turning over bags, plates, cups, even the stove. That is, until concerned teammate checks her head to find sunglasses still there. All's well that ends well

And perhaps Jeremy Grey should get a mention for bringing an outside beer to the Grand Hotel where the crew had lunch and getting busted with it by one of the staff. Despite an assurance it was the only one, grumpy staff member did not seem convinced. Grey had been given the bottle of Brass Balls Beer for a taster from a colleague at an opposition club. And the beer is highly recommended. Check it out. Brian Delaney and Mark Kelly can also recommend it