Forced to quit A-grade netball and basketball due to a knee reconstruction, an overweight Amy Yole laughed at her doctor’s advice that she should take up cross country running.
“It was something I had never given a moment’s thought to. To me, the suggestion came so far from left field that I just thought it laughable,”
But there came a time when the thirty-one-year-old mother of two realised that she would have to lose weight.
And on Saturday, sixteen kilograms lighter, in better shape physically and mentally, her medico’s advice resounded in her ears when she easily won the five kilometre David O Jones Mitre 10 Handicap at only her second cross country outing with the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club.
“I lost all that weight in six months of high intensity training, a dedicated gym programme and boot camps,” Yole said. “I returned to equestrian eventing and started running, but I never gave any thought to actually winning a race. I just run for fun and I feel so much better for it.”
Yole had learned much from her debut with the club a week before when only thirteenth over the same distance.
For starters, it gave her the confidence to know that she could run a solid five km; she was fitter for the Mitre 10 and so much better prepared.
Her winning time of 29.12 minutes hacked an astonishing 4.40 minutes off her first up effort in conditions that could not be more extreme – from 32 degree heat one week, to rain and 12 degrees the next.
By the time Yole reached the sodden timekeepers, she had 1.43 minutes to spare from Horsham visitors Colin Barnett and Graeme Eldridge.
In the Sub-Juniors event at Stawell’s North Park running track, Chloe Hunter best defied wind and rain to defeat her determined chasers, Jerome Baker and Olivia Hunter.
Race action moves to Concongella this Saturday for the 5.5 kilometre Hunter Gardens and Landscaping Handicap. Fun runners are welcome and should meet at Concongella Hall from 9.30am.