An emotional Terry Jenkins paid tribute to his old mate Ray Scott after winning the race he dearly wanted to win – the ten kilometre Run for Ray Handicap at Stawell on Saturday.
The Stawell Amateur Athletic Club race is held in memory of Ray Scott, a club stalwart who died tragically whilst training alone in the Ironbarks Forest in 2010.
“I trained five days a week with Ray for five years and I never heard him say a bad word about anybody. There was no bloke more easy going and likeable,” a tearful Jenkins said.
The Run for Ray is run fittingly on a course that snakes through the Rifle Range Bushland Reserve and climbs to just short of the Western Highway before turning back.
It was a course near to where Scott lived in Holloway Road East, which he ran regularly…a course that the seventy-year-old Jenkins had never experienced before.
“I didn’t know what to expect and I was a bit apprehensive about it because it was a race I really wanted to win.
“I’d done 45 kilometres in preparation for it during the week and the last thing I wanted to do was make a mistake that would cost me time, because as it turned out I didn’t have much of that up my sleeve.”
The veteran’s winning margin over a gritty Jess Cass was just sixteen seconds with Nathan Baker running faster time but finishing a distant third once handicaps were adjusted.
In the one kilometre Sub Junior event Kayla Membrey scored the narrowest of wins over newcomer Blayze Kenny, with the consistent Chloe Hunter next on the podium.
The club returns to the Ironbarks this Saturday for the ten kilometre Stawell Sportspower Handicap. Fun runners are welcome and should meet at the North Park Clubrooms from 9.30am.