It was without doubt the biggest thing Canberra had seen in since Mal Meninga first raised the Winfield Cup in 1989. Eight of Sydney’s finest boarded the bus to run in the Australian Running Festival, which included the Canberra Marathon and Half Marathon events.
7 legends from the Eastern Suburbs took up the Half journey and completed the 21km course in style. Among them was, internet mogul and perennial PB runner Adam Franklin set yet another personal benchmark of 1:34.24. He was tailed by Bondi running’s meteoric riser Jack ‘Giant Killer’ Geddes who recorded 1:40.34 (and he didn’t really train, talent here). Sydney’s smartest human Caroline O’Brien was our first woman home in 1:56.33, followed by Clare Broad (running under the alias of James Brown after a registration bungle) in 1:59.58 and the ever consistent and persistent Charlotte Juhasz crossed in 2:01.36 completing her Half Marathon debut.
In the marathon we were represented by Neutral Bay’s finest endurance man and most colourful dresser, ‘Dashing’ Daniel Begley. ‘Begz’ who sprang from the mean streets of Stafford, Queensland during the 1990’s and forged his niche in sports that are too crazy for most people to even consider, stomped authoritatively all over parliament city to bag his 11th Marathon finish in 4:08.33.
It would be remiss of me not to mention our ‘bubble and squeak,’ one-man support crew of ‘Philthy’ Phil Pineo who provided informative stories and history lessons that helped to pass the time on the bus trip. One of our colonial brothers from ‘Jolly Old England,’ still shaking off the last effects of sea-sickness from the trip over, Phil was handing out supplements and jackets to our runners like Mother Teresa. Legend Phil.
Australia’s greatest road race, City2Surf is next on the agenda. Who’s coming to the big dance?
Nice commentary Sean. It sums up the mood and the outcome of the days events which was more than 8 weeks in preparation.
Given that Sean ‘WolverHAMpton’ is a modest man I will do the the bragging on Sean’s behalf.
The Canberra half marathon for 2012 was won by Sean Bowes in a blitzing time of 1:12:58 sitting on an average pace per km of 3mins 27secs. A truly remarkable time from a unassuming young man that does that work behind the scenes and gets results.
It takes more than training to achieve success. It takes a strong mind to achieve victories.
A 1994 Triathlon magazine I bought had a saying in it which I learnt. The advertisement was a double page ad of about 8 Kenyan runners wearing red singlets and they were probably wearing splitties, but to be honest it didn’t show the bottom half of their bodies. It was a scenic picture of them running across the African plains.
The words above the photos of the runners were like something written by the great Robert De Castella “Deek” who as the last name would suggest (ending in a vowel) he was of Italian descent and also part Swiss. Deek, a legend in his own right earned his stripes as a runner by winning the 1981 Fukouka marathon in a time of 2:08:18
Sitting on the right hand side of the double page photos of 8 Kenyans were the following words
“To believe you can win
is like any other kind of faith
you can think about it, write about it
talk about it and even dedicate your life to it
But it doesn’t matter. Belief is a simple thing.
The Kenyans believe they will win as simply as the sun shines
And even if you match their training, to beat them you would have to match their faith.
Nike –
Just Do It
Team work increase inspiration. if the member of the team are friend it is more enjoy able.