MEEP MEEP: ROAD RUNNERS HIT COAST
STEVE Dinneen admits he is “getting old” so has brought some bright talent along with him for this year’s Great Ocean Road Running Festival.
The winner of the 2018 23km half-marathon, Dinneen is now 41 and says his “best running days are definitely behind me”, so he has roped together “some better runners than me” in a star-studded group to head down the coast this weekend.
Olympic runner Liam Adams — who led all Australians by finishing 31st in the marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games — is Dinneen’s pick to take the halfmarathon title.
Adams has won events in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast.
He will face some stiff opposition with Andre Waring again taking on the race and among the contenders.
Dinneen may have talked down his chances but will be a podium chance, despite carrying a calf niggle.
Great Britain’s Calli Thackery has also been enticed by Dinneen’s glowing sell of the popular run.
Dinneen said he was struck by the beauty of the famous Great Ocean Road on his first run there.
“There is no race that I have seen that is anything like the Great Ocean Road. It is one of the most scenic drives in the world and you can’t walk across it, so this is the only chance you get to spend a few hours on the road and enjoy the scenery,” he said.
“Once you get to about 14 or 15km, you can roll home from there. It’s a really good course, it’s not super fast because there are some hills but it’s not too bad as long as you have some hill training in your legs.”
Reigning champion Natasha Fraser will again return to ultra-marathon, which is run over 60km. The Ballarat runner said she enjoyed the views from the road, but it didn’t always help when tackling the up and down course.
“The scenery is amazing on that road and it is such a rare opportunity to run it and the support from the crowd is always so strong,” she said.
“I do love climbing and I have a really bad memory so usually a year in between runs is enough to forget those hills.”
The running festival will be held over both Saturday and Sunday with adult distances beginning at 6km.