Wangaratta 2014, February 23 (Day Of The Ned)

Sunday started early at 6:30am to have enough time to be ready for the 7:30am race start. I clearly hadn't kept my fluids up the previous day, as I woke up looking and feeling very dehydrated - and the previous days pizza wasn't even salty. I'd also been dealing with the incredibly annoying leg discomfort / restless / soreness thing since about Wednesday, which I haven't really had any issues with in the last six months, so it was a big worry if that problem is about to come back too.

Putting all of my depressing physical state aside we jogged off to the race start, which was about 2km from the motel, and made it with a bit of time to spare. Strangely there didn't seem to be a timing mat at the start line, only the finish, which I have never seen before - how would they know when you actually crossed the start line with respect to the official start? I think the answer is they don't.

I tried not to go out quite as hard as usual in the first kilometre since this was a slightly longer race than the others I've done in the past few months, this meant I was running down in around 30th after the first few hundred metres and just ahead of Jason who seemed to have employed a similar strategy. Within the first kilometre we had pegged back a few and by the first turnaround point I was able to count 23 people ahead of us. This was a few more than I hoped for, and we also weren't making up a lot of ground on the people ahead, but you can only run your own race - I knew I wasn't a chance of a top three or even a top ten finish really.

After the turnaround I caught a few more people before the 6km mark, but there didn't seem to be anyone else up ahead except for a few marathon runners that you could easily identify by their (understandably) much slower speed. So the final 4km I was left mostly to run my own race with Jason hanging right behind. After the 9km mark we finally started to close in on another runner, I was planning to make a dash past him up the last small hill only for some idiot cyclist to fall off his bike up the narrow hill, causing everyone to slow down to get around his bike and the others runners coming back the other way. I did my best to chase him down anyway, but he had enough left to stay ahead. My final position was technically equal 18th since they did not use milliseconds for the timing, but I really came 19th. Jason was a few seconds back in 20th.

The final time was 10km in 38 minutes and 17 seconds, a new personal best for that distance I think.

The finishers medal. Everyone's a winner !

With the race over it was another jog back to the motel before packing up and getting back in the car. We stopped off again at Glenrowan to see if there was actually anything we missed the day before - turns out, not really. However I did manage to buy a Ned Kelly magnet which almost makes up for missing out on one in Wangaratta.

Old police shop.

Old blacksmith shop.

Neddy again.

I managed to drive as far as Wallan without too much discomfort, before a quick stop and driver change again for the final half hour into metropolitan Melbourne.

Overall it was a good event and was worth attending once. Since Wangaratta didn't have much to see and do I don't think I will feel the need to go back again next year, instead I'd want to try some other events and towns instead.