About Me

My photo
The older I get the better I was... but after many years of idle burrowing the candle of desire is still burning and I have come to realise that running is as much a part of me as my heart and lungs... In Christmas 2008 I was 82kg and was not running a step..This is my journey , the journey of the wombat...Dogged...determined...persistent...and maybe a little grumpy.. but like the wombat my journey is territorial, its about running and I am going to work to protect it...Come along for the ride and see if I can become the wombat warrior. 2009 was a mixed bag for the wombat's journey.A top ten placing in both the Bridges and the City Surf brought a small sense of achievement but also a degree of frustration.... I think I can do better and better I will in 2010. A better run in the Busso Half iron man in support of TV in his swim and bike ride and that was about the extent of my racing. Lets see what happens in 2010 as "My journey Continues". Now in 2011 the wombat will continue his journey, but not alone the wombat has a youngling who knows how to dig. 2015 and its a new beginning , time goes on and the journey to the 2016 World Masters is under way.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Ray Brown Kings Park All- schools PSA 8km Cross Country

I was sitting on the plane, heading to Melbourne for a work conference, while I was thinking about this morning’s race and came across an article on running and successful business people. The author stated that   “For many – writers, business people, artists, actors – running offers a gift of simplicity. For all the gadgets , hype around new trainers and technical  claims of big brands, the reality of running is this: your feet carry you, as fast as they can, as quick as your lungs allow you, for as long as you can. You cannot ‘buy’ your way to faster times – there is no equivalent of a fancy racing bike or a better engine. If you want to run faster you must work harder. There are marginal gains: drop a kilogram or two, get some lighter shoes, improve your form – but mostly it’s a simple equation: put in the kilometres and get the results” (Virgin Australian In Flight Magazine, 2015, p. 133). Today’s results from our boys epitomised the final statement.

Saturday morning greeted our lads, as it did all the competitors, with clear skies and a fantastic day for the final PSA Cross Country event. This race has traditionally been the final race of the cross country season calendar however since 2012 it has been known as the Ray Brown Memorial Event. Ray Brown was a previous coach at Aquinas College as well as the Technical Drawing teacher and a house Master. Ray played a big part in the creating the culture that exists within the cross country team at Aquinas. On a personal note he was also a friend and my fierce competitor in the many distances races that we both contested in Western Australia. I travelled with Ray to Japan back in the 90s to contest the half marathon championships and on that day it took everything I had to stay ahead of him such was his tenacity as a competitor.

Ray died in Kings Park during a Friday run, known as the constitutional which leaves from the UWA boatshed every Friday afternoon having just returned from his climb of Mt Everest where he summited. It seems fitting that the toughest single distance race for the boys is named after him.
For many of our younger squad members this race was a baptism by fire in terms of distance and the competitive nature of the event. Today did not disappoint with many of the clear favourites getting into trouble and either stepping off the course or blowing up after the first sustained climb and dropping well back through the field. In addition to this our lads were contesting the E.J Warren Cup for 5 miles (8km for the uninitiated)

Our boys had been warned of this and Jackson and I were extremely pleased to see that while they raced aggressively, they ran strategically. This resulted in some fantastic runs for the line and tight finishes. My only disappointment and one shared by others was the finish. Since 2012 when we established the current circuit when the boys exited the bush for the second time they headed back up towards where they started, completed a hairpin turn then ran down to the finish shoot. This made for a very exciting finish but more importantly made the race an 8km event. Today’s format resulted in the course being 500m short of the 8km so direct comparisons to previous races prove difficult and mean that the boys who have run this course previously will need to look at their km pace to compare their runs.
We speak often of building a culture within the team and around the endurance discipline; once again we witnessed this on multiple levels this morning. Darryl White and his wife Wendy were on hand to support the boys. Darryl, our previous head coach, still watches the boys with interest and to have him on hand to speak with the boys was wonderful. Many of who were quite excited to see him. Further to this old boys Sean Brown, and previous Captain and Vice Paul Harcus and Fraser Sewell were also out on the course. Our parent contingent was the icing on the cake and I know the boys are very appreciative of their support.

On another level the team mentality and focus for today’s event was brilliant. To see the squad being taken for the warm up by their captain Declan White, be taken through their stretching routine by Jas Bowie-Jarvis and then their run through drill by vice-captain Marcel Niutta and finally coming together as a group to hear their leadership team’s final motivational focus words was awesome. It set the tone for the morning and helped all the squad come together as one unit.

From the gun is was a great race. Trinity’s Mickey Martin  and Aquinas’s Luke Bate took it out and set the scene for the first lap however as we had warned the boys, the favourites often falter on this brutal course and Mickey was the first. He was shortly followed by Hendry Louden from Christ Church and suddenly the race was opened up. Declan and Bailey were well placed and after the first lap sat in 9th and 10th place. Niutta had again taken the race by the scruff of the neck from the get go and was right up with Ben Armstrong in 31st and 30th place as they passed through the timing gate for the first time.
Young Rory Adams was the first of our year 7s through the half way point and he was sitting in 64th place in a 200 plus strong field.

Foppa, Manolini, Sharp, Frant, Simba and Hillier were all fairly tightly grouped at this point in the race and it was great to see them running as a team rather than working against each other.

Despite the race being shorter (500m) than last year it was still very evident that a great deal of the team were running at a faster pace than they did in 2014 and in time I will provide this detail to the boys but to get 19 boys under the 40 minutes was a great result and helped us finish ahead of Wesley at the end of the day.
First over the line for Guildford was Bailey Gillam who took 10th place and hot on his heels  27seconds later was Declan. While it was Bailey’s first outing over this course Declan ran at such a rate that he was well under his personal best from last year and even with the distance difference Rollo and Hillier, Niutta, and Miles were all running in new territory with huge time improvements on last year. This can be seen in the second table provided on this report.

Pos
Name
Time
PACE
1st Lap
1st Lap Place
2nd Lap Split
Rank for School
1
Bailey GILLAM
28:45.7
3:35 min/km
13:33.6
9
15:12.1
1
2
Declan WHITE
29:12.3
3:39 min/km
13:35.3
10
15:37.0
2
3
Benjamin ARMSTRONG
31:01.0
3:52 min/km
14:46.3
30
16:14.7
3
4
Marcel NIUTTA
31:43.8
3:57 min/km
14:46.9
31
16:57.0
4
5
Rory ADAMS
32:44.2
4:05 min/km
15:35.9
64
17:08.4
5
6
Nicholas ROLLO
32:48.9
4:06 min/km
15:53.9
79
16:55.0
6
7
Aiden MCLAUGHLIN
34:58.2
4:22 min/km
16:45.1
94
18:13.2
7
8
Heath COLLINS
35:11.4
4:23 min/km
17:21.4
118
17:50.1
8
9
Jack SPARK
35:38.3
4:27 min/km
17:08.8
108
18:29.4
9
10
Dylan FOPPA
36:11.0
4:31 min/km
16:14.4
85
19:56.7
10
11
Jasper SHARP
36:42.8
4:35 min/km
17:20.2
116
19:22.6
11
12
Jake MANOLINI
37:08.8
4:38 min/km
17:20.8
117
19:47.9
12
13
Jack GRANT
37:16.4
4:39 min/km
17:53.1
133
19:23.3
13
14
Samuel SIBMA
37:20.7
4:40 min/km
17:54.9
136
19:25.8
14
15
Blake HILLIER
37:22.0
4:40 min/km
17:53.6
134
19:28.4
15
16
Bailey BARTHOLOMEUSZ
37:51.9
4:43 min/km
18:08.7
141
19:43.2
16
17
Cameron MILES
38:10.6
4:46 min/km
17:35.9
124
20:34.8
17
18
Sebastian BOYD
38:11.6
4:46 min/km
17:24.7
119
20:46.9
18
19
Jack MCLEAN
39:32.9
4:56 min/km
18:23.7
147
21:09.2
19
20
Jas BOWIE-JARVIS
40:03.2
5:00 min/km
18:18.5
142
21:44.7
20
21
Wei NGO
40:30.0
5:03 min/km
18:03.2
139
22:26.8
21
22
Caden ALEXANDER
41:15.9
5:09 min/km
18:19.9
143
22:56.0
22
23
Henry VAN DEN WALL BAKE
41:17.7
5:09 min/km
17:53.1
132
23:24.6
23
24
Guy TAYLOR
43:24.8
5:25 min/km
20:59.0
175
22:25.8
24
25
Gabriel BOYD
43:51.8
5:28 min/km
20:19.4
169
23:32.4
25
26
Thomas SCHOENAUER
46:11.3
5:46 min/km
21:43.6
178
24:27.7
26
27
William VAN DEN WALL BAKE
53:20.3
6:40 min/km
21:18.9
177
32:01.4
27
28
Liam COWIE
54:15.0
6:46 min/km
25:32.4
185
28:42.6
28
29
David ASHENDEN
54:15.3
6:46 min/km
25:32.6
186
28:42.6
29
30
Daniel BRECICH
59:54.1
7:29 min/km
28:34.9
189
31:19.2
30
31
James HOLMES
02:45.0
7:50 min/km
30:44.1
193
32:01.0
31
32
Jean-Louis HANSEN
02:47.3
7:50 min/km
28:55.6
190
33:51.6
32
33
Gabriel LITTLEFAIR
02:47.5
7:50 min/km
28:56.9
191
33:50.6
33


School Position
Name
Positon 2014
Position 2015
Time 2015
Time 2014
Time 2013
Position 2013
1
Bailey GILLAM

10
28:45.7



2
Declan WHITE
34
11
29:12.3
0:31:38
0:35:39
91
3
Benjamin ARMSTRONG
24
26
31:01.0
0:31:12
0:35:00
53
4
Marcel NIUTTA
83
35
31:43.8
0:35:04
0:37:00
117
5
Rory ADAMS

63
32:44.2



6
Nicholas ROLLO
100
64
32:48.9
0:36:15
0:35:54
96
7
Aiden MCLAUGHLIN

90
34:58.2



8
Heath COLLINS

93
35:11.4



9
Jack SPARK

101
35:38.3



10
Dylan FOPPA
112
108
36:11.0
0:37:02


11
Jasper SHARP

116
36:42.8



12
Jake MANOLINI

121
37:08.8



13
Jack GRANT

124
37:16.4



14
Samuel SIBMA

129
37:20.7



15
Blake HILLIER
140
130
37:22.0
0:39:40
0:39:53
154
16
Bailey BARTHOLOMEUSZ
130
134
37:51.9
0:38:35
0:37:48
127
17
Cameron MILES
171
137
38:10.6
0:41:37


18
Sebastian BOYD
141
138
38:11.6
0:39:42
0:45:19
197
19
Jack MCLEAN

151
39:32.9



20
Jas BOWIE-JARVIS
151
155
40:03.2
0:40:16


21
Wei NGO
197
157
40:30.0
0:48:00


22
Caden ALEXANDER

159
41:15.9



23
Henry V. DEN WALL BAKE
195
160
41:17.7
0:47:45
0:41:37
169
24
Guy TAYLOR
189
167
43:24.8
0:45:10
0:42:58
180
25
Gabriel BOYD
198
172
43:51.8
0:48:36


26
Thomas SCHOENAUER
213
177
46:11.3
0:58:52


27
William VAN DEN WALL BAKE

183
53:20.3



28
Liam COWIE

184
54:15.0



29
David ASHENDEN

185
54:15.3



30
Daniel BRECICH

191
59:54.1



31
James HOLMES
214
192
1:02:45
0:59:22
0:55:20
210
32
Jean-Louis HANSEN
212
193
1:02:47
0:58:14


33
Gabriel LITTLEFAIR
211
194
1:02:47
0:58:14



Boy’s you should be extremely proud of your efforts today. Every one of you that started also finished and in doing so, stood by our mantra of  ‘Finish what you start’. I look forward to see you all at the End of Season presentation.

Barrel on wombats...

No comments:

Post a Comment