Done and Dusted.....

Well I saw a bit of the wombat this Sunday. For me the journey was tough over the 12km.. The difference between the Bridges 10km and Sundays' 12km is that in the 10km race my legs gave out before I was completely smashed. On Sunday my legs felt strong and I sensed that it was an overall lack of strength that was letting me down.

Getting to the top of Selby street hill I had that wonderful dry reach feeling that feels like you backside it going to come up through your mouth...

The overall race was solid and I really enjoyed the competitive nature of the group I managed to get in with. Watching Raf disappear up the hill and the group of chasers following I was quick to settle into a rhythm and climbed through the mad minute group. Around me was the impressionable Doig, Lajos, Dymnicki and Bailie. Over the hill It was easy to see those who would pay the price later and at this point I was around 18th place and fairly comfortable. I lenghtened my stride and let the hill do the work going down the other side. Lajos tucked in behind along with a few others. For me this was not a problem, I felt good and was happy to work. I figured if I was strong enough I would beat this pack anyway.

As we moved through Hay street our group slowly picked up the stragglers. We told them to try and tack onto our group, some did some didn't. Going up Selby Street Hill, Lajos came through and called me on along with Dymnicki and Bailie.

The pace was solid and everyone seemed to be moving well as we crested the hill, at which point I dry reached a couple of times, (gotta love that feeling) gathered myself and chased.

Bailie pulled through the group and began to tussle with DeBoer leaving Dymnicki, Doigy , Lojas and myself to sort things out. High 5s to some of the kids on the sideline as well as giving away my sun visor to a small child got a few cheers. Turning into perry Lakes our group had a solid advantage over the boys we were chasing. On an open road you run the race line which we did, the others stayed well left. A course is measured along the race line...

We turned onto Oceanic Drv (the three sisters, a staged hill) Someone shouted "Go the wombat" at which point I moved past two more competitors as we climbed. Caught and passed Doigy and began to chase Lajos however to his credit he also kicked down..

Bailie was winding up and looked to have covered DeBoer while Dymnicki , with cracked ribs was running a blinder. Coming onto West Coast highway I chased Lajos but the little bugga held me off. Doigy also came past in the closing stages to get both of us... Gotta watch these AFL umpires.

A very happy wombat in terms of placing (10th) but a little disappointed with the time (41m4s) still lots of work to be done for 2010 and " Every Journey begins with a single step".

Congratulations to everyone who competed and a big thank you to all the volunteers on the day.

Barrel on wombats....