TRARALGON HARRIERS KING & QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN 2005.
Surprisingly after Saturdays wintry conditions the rain and wind stopped to provide a perfect day for the 38th running of this event. As usual the club was able to provide great support for the small field that took on this year’s event. Rick & Jackie Mann, Ray & Doris Ellis, Anna Cardillo, Duncan Orr, Paula Lucas, Jenny Prucsino, Marissa Schill, Meagan Butler, Carol Summersgill, Richard Clavarino, Sharon Maximiw and family, Jenny Comber and family, Mick Bridle, Rachel Mcleod and family, Gillian and Bill Van Der Brand, Allen Timmer-Arends and Belinda Issell all pitched in to man drink stations and cheer the runners on.
21 runners started the race with Daniel Smith from Warragul taking off early. Unfortunately Daniel unfamiliar with the course missed the arrows that directed the runners to Traralgon South and continued on to Loy Yang. By the time he was turned around and put back on course Roger Maximiw and Jeremy Mannix had a good 1km break on him. He bravely caught up to the two race leaders at the 20km mark but at about 25km he had found the extra distance and effort to catch back up too much and started to tire. Jeremy Mannix a vet from Sale who had set the pace with Roger Maximiw early and had fought hard to maintain his lead when Daniel challenged ran away strongly with the race. It was an impressive performance by Jeremy who has not done many long distances races and was quite surprised with his efforts. Roger Maximiw ran strongly to finish second with Jacques Coetzee pipping the fast tiring Daniel on the line for third.
Sandra Timmer-Arends the Queen of the Mountain in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004 ran her fourth fastest time to win her seventh title. Melbourne runner Jane Sturzaker was second with Pauline Lindsay third. Pauline Lindsay has been a real inspiration this year having just turned 50 earlier this year. This was her first completed Queen of the mountain run and she will tackle her first Marathon in Melbourne on October 9th 2005. She recently ran a P/B for a half marathon at Burnley. Bruce Salisbury won the veteran male title from club favourites Ian Heafield and Barry Higgins. Brian Glover a regular at the Mountain run walked the 30km course in 3:33:04 another outstanding effort. Another great effort came from Steve Mcleod who completed his first King of the Mountain run. Rudolph Skrucany another runner from Melbourne also battled on bravely to complete his first King of the Mountain run.
Results Jeremy Mannix 2:10:16, Roger Maximiw 2:13:07, Jacques Coetzee 2:19:02, Daniel Smith 2:19:03, Sandra Timmer-Arends 2:23:46, Shinichi Taniguchi 2:25:02, Matthew Franke 2:33:52, Bruce Salisbury 2:46:51, Mark Peek 2:52:12, Ian Heafield 3:02:18, Ken Lancaster 3:06:56, Steve McLeod 3:10:10, Barry Higgins 3:13:01, Jane Sturzaker 3:14:12, Peter Grixti 3:22:50, Pauline Lindsay 3:25:25, Brian Glover 3:33:04,
Rudolph Skrucany 4:17:00, Richard Comber DNF, Bob Bickett DNF and Ian Twite DNF.