Tyler passes the hills test
Hardened by a tough run in a 21.5-kilometre Run Melbourne in July, Horsham’s Vicki Tyler led an allgirl charge for the second time this season to win an eight-kilometre handicap at Stawell.
In May it was Tyler, Jess Cass and Naomi Hunter who shared the spoils in a Stawell Amateur Athletic Club race. This time the more experienced Tyler out-gunned raw but fast-improving rookie Kate Field.
Tyler, who has few hills to train on, knows inclines are her weakness, but that knowledge proved her strength in a tactical battle.
“I knew I was fit after Run Melbourne but I know better than to try and keep pace with the others uphill and so I saved myself for the downhill,” she said.
Placegetters all started from similar marks in the handicap race and the resilient Tyler surged to the lead with about three kilometres to run. She reached the timekeepers with 51 seconds to spare from tiring chasers.
Tyler’s goal is to run Melbourne Marathon in October.
“It will be my last, because it’s my 10th and hopefully I’ll do it inside four hours,” she said.
In a one-kilometre sub-junior dash, Kelsey Hurley led all the way to beat Nate Lyons and Miles Membrey.
The club meets at Stawell’s Rifle Range Road on Saturday for a 10-kilometre Run For Ray.
Barwick beats injury blues
Injury-plagued veteran Chris Barwick can’t train with the intensity he did in the past, but he was still swift enough to record fastest time in winning his third 10-kilometre Blizzard Family Handicap in Ararat.
His winning margin of 1.42 minutes over race sponsor Sue Blizzard and front-marker Julie Hertz was next to the biggest of the 14 races so far in the Stawell and Ararat Cross Country season.
“I don’t think about winning these days. I only set out to do the best I can on the limited training my body allows me to do. And that isn’t much: just two training runs this week and one the week before,” Barwick said.
At 61 and about 380 club runs, Barwick has to listen to his body and stop when the aching niggles become nagging, as it did in 2017 when he missed the entire season.
“A lot of it is psychological. I get a bit embarrassed about getting slower and slower, but it still boils down to getting out of bed on a Sunday, putting one foot after the other and hoping for the best,” he said.
It’s a simple formula that works well for the Barwicks. Chris’s wife Sandra broke through for her first win of the season a fortnight before.
The club visits Stawell on Sunday for the season’s richest race, the new nine-kilometre AESC Cup which carries prize money of $500. Fun runners are invited to meet at Rifle Range Road from 9.15am.