The crew had a great build up including many trips up the mountains, training camps and a slightly earlier introduction of eccentric conditioning and specific sessions. We knew all our runners were ready to race well, but even we were surprised at how well they performed.

Massive congrats to Gemma Jenkins, who came 2nd, with 3:55.51 on debut. She executed perfectly on race day, capitalising on the last two years of relentless hard work. What a rapid transition from “I’ll never race further than 10km” to podium finish at 6 Foot Track and the 6th fastest ever time on the course.

Ross Lambert finished 5th in a time of 3:33.22 (a huge 25min pb). Ross ran a blinder. He has trained his arse off and it was great to see him get the huge breakthrough he deserved.

Cecily Parsons finished 8th in 4:17.21, on debut, with a brilliant fast finish showing a lot of promise for her upcoming Ultras. Persistence is paying off!

There were many other great performances:

  • John Binfield 14th in 3:45, on debut. One of the original squad members, JB has now mastered race execution, look out for his next road race.
  • Tony Fattorini finished in 4:04, a bloody good effort given his build up.
  • Gerard Riordan ran 4:21—40min pb. We’ve never seen anyone improve so much in such a short time—look out for this guy next year.
  • Joseph Vella emptied the tank early and fought hard for 4:26 (3min pb).
  • Amanda Underwood took down Adrienne Torda (2nd in her age group) in a battle royal.
  • Jill Hennessy in 6:12 smashed it out of the park, with a 13min pb.

Thanks so much to the great people that make this race happen, they do an amazing job. Special thanks to Kerry A Ross, Antoinette Baron and Anne Elizabeth Boyd, who were among the many volunteers.

Also, congrats to the runners up front: Vlad Shatrov first, Courtney Atkinson second, and Marnie Ponton first and Steph Auston third. These runners set the standard on the day and are a big reason why so many runners came away with fast finishing times.

It wasn’t all about 6 Foot, though, on a very busy weekend. Hamish MacDonald and Emily Morton won trail races in Tasmania; Kaitlin Bell had a cross country win; in Singapore, Rachel O’Connor was second in the 5km (18:26) behind the great Suzy Walsham; at Canberra GP there was another great 800m (in 2:05.32) for Abigail Rose— she also backed up well for 5th in the 1500m on Sunday—and Michael Hazan smashed his pb 2:00.25 (he’ll smash that again next season!).