Super-girl Susie Ellis knocked off a 40 kilometre bike ride at Horsham, and met up with a group of riders from Natimuk for a 50km spin out to, the up, down Mount Arapiles, all on the morning of her winning the Stawell Curtain Centre sponsored 10km Championship last Saturday.
Grinding out a solid pace on a challenging course, that winds behind the rifle range and rises up to the highway before snaking back again, Susie ran a gritty and determined race to out-muscle Gaynor Radovic in the popular event. The winning margin was a mere 19 seconds, with less than a minute separating the next seven runners to finish – a more than pleasing result for the club’s hard-working handicapper, Charlie Jones.
Fastest time was recorded by last-start Tyler’s Hardware winner, David McAllister, who sped over the distance in a blinding 38 minutes and 31 seconds to beat reigning club champion Nathaniel Warren by 33 seconds.
“He was too slick for me downhill,” Nathaniel said. “He’s a machine!”
“I didn’t expect to win,” Susie smiled, “but strange as it may seem, I was reasonably fresh for the race because rain during the week prevented me from doing as much as I normally do.”
Susie always sets herself tough targets and is gearing up for a half-marathon next month as a warm-up for the Melbourne Marathon in October, and then the New Zealand Ironman early next year.
“I particularly want to run the Melbourne Marathon this year because Ray Scott and I had planned to run it. Now I’ll be running in black armbands in memory of Ray.”
The junior division of the race over a testing four kilometres was won in fine style by Luca O’Flynn in a time of 32.53.
By Keith Lofthouse