Melbourne Marathon
Sunday, 12 October 2008

The Coburg Harriers were well represented in this year's Samsung Melbourne Marathon and Asics Half Marathon

The marathon saw Rohan King make his annual assault on this gruelling event in perhaps the best shape for many years. Going through the ten kilometre mark in 46:14, King showed no signs of fatigue with an even split at the halfway point and 97:05 on the clock. Strong all the way to the finish, only a slight drop off in pace saw King record a second half split of 99:44 and finish with 3:16:49. A fantastic performance

Ken Souyave was next home for the Harriers. Souyave began very well, going through ten kilometres in 45 minutes and holding onto that pace through the halfway mark in 94:46 and on track for a sub 3:10 time. However, Souyave does prefer cooler weather than that experienced by athletes as the morning wore on, and was unable to maintain that tempo. Souyave struggled across the line, his running stance in a backwards lean, very much like Kate Smyth at the 2006 Commonwealth Game. His time of 3:24:01 would secure fifth place in his age group

Rob Virgona also lined up in the marathon. Like King, Virgona judged his race beautifully and went through 10 km and 21.1 km with a very even pace. With conditions getting warmer, Virgona did slow over the last half but would not have been displeased with the four minute positive split. A time of 3:58:35 had Virgona comfortably under the four hour mark

And the club had a sole female representative with Debbie Canal lining up for yet another marathon. Deb ran 2:14 through the first half of the race but found the unseasonably warmer weather and the hot gusting northerly winds hard to work through and crossed the line in 4:51:20. Neverthless, Canal can take heart from the fact she was in the top seventy for her age group

In the Asics Half Marathon, the club had four representatives. One of those, Stacey van Dueren, finished in 11th place in the women's secton with 82:58 and helped Victoria win gold in the team's event. More on that here

Philip van Dueren also lined up in the Half Marathon and was second Coburg Harrier home. Another to judge his pace well, Phillip went through the halfway point in 42:10 and would complete the second half in 43:48 to cross the line three minutes behind Stacey in 85:55. Philip was 122nd overall but more importantly secured fourth place in his age group

Relative newcomer to the club Glenn Carroll also competed in what was a much anticipated race. There had been much talk on the training track in the weeks leading up to the race with some predicting a finish in the low to mid 90 minutes for this versatile athlete. Carroll ran almost the most perfectly judged race of any of his Coburg Harriers team-mates with just a 24 second positive split overthe last half of his race. Carroll would cross the line in 92:04

And the club's sole female representative was Carmel Taylor. If you thought Glenn Carroll judged his pace well, Taylor went one better. Going though the halfway point in 51:00, Taylor would finish just as strong to post 51:12 through the second half and cross the line in 1:42:12 and finish 26th in her age group

And in the 5.5 km event, Nicholas Harrap finished just outside the top 500. Crossing the line in 39:31, Harrap would have faced a lot of heavy traffic with thousands of walkers to navigate in the course of his race

Well done to all our Coburg Harriers who represented the club so well in the various events. Particular mention to Rob Virgona and Glenn Carroll who were resplendent in their Coburg Harrier singlets