Continued rain and strong overnight winds prevented us from using a local dairy farm for the opening handicap events of 2010.  But we still had our dose of livestock when the course setters speculated pre-race on the credentials of the bull in the paddock next to Maccas.  We hear he has an excellent pedigree and he certainly impressed us with the size of his credentials.

We had to settle for an on road course and Macca really put his mind to something which would include plenty of short sharp hills, and finish on a real kicker to boot.  

Interestingly runners were evenly split between the 5 and 10k events so it looks like the choice was a good one to suit everyone's taste, although most agreed that the last 400 metres uphill to the finish was just sheer bloody mindedness on Macca's part.

Welcome and congratulations to Thomas, Judith and Tahnee all of whom ran exceptionally well today to get their handicaps.  Here's the results;

5k	Old Hcap	Race Time	Diff	Points
Brennan	29:40	23:49	-05:51	50
Ian McC	32:37	29:48	-02:49	46
Laimon	22:21	23:32	01:11	43
Glen	21:56	23:27	01:31	41
Robyn E	30:47	35:21	04:34	40
Gundars E	27:23	35:30	08:07	39
Thomas	-	29:00	-	38
Judith	-	45:12	-	38
Francis	23:50	-	-	50
10k	Old Hcap	Race Time	Diff	Points
Will	43:39	45:24	01:45	50
Anja	50:29	52:50	02:21	46
Iain McK	39:26	42:35	03:09	43
Bill	53:23	56:48	03:25	41
Mark P	40:37	44:38	04:01	40
Russell	45:50	50:05	04:15	39
Robyn G	48:39	54:21	05:42	38
Tahnee	-	56:19	-	37
Kids	Time
Tim	4:05
Bradley	4:32
Charmaine	4:36
Mercedes	4:42
Harry	5:23
Rosie	8:10

Master Brennan had a cracker of a run in the 5k and sliced almost 6 minutes off his handicap time.  The only other runner to better his handicap was Ian McC, enjoying his retirement now and running well.  Laimon took the minor placing despite a determined effort by Glen who beat him to the line but suffered at the hands of the dreaded handicapper.

For the 10k it was Macca all the way for line honours but Will who took the handicap lead today after some tense on course battles with Parso.  Anja ran strongly all the way to finish first female in handicap and Macca took third place.

In the kids event Rosie started out with one hand holding onto her hat and the other hand holding up her trousers.  After some quick attention from Dad mid-race she finished au naturale but at least she kept her hat on!  Tim finished strongly as usual and Bradley held on to finish just clear of big sister Charmie who was at the finish to grab Harry as he crossed the line and would otherwise have sailed off down the hill he was running so fast.



Thanks to Iain and Chrissie for their generous hospitality as usual, and Francis who dragged himself from his death bed wracked by flu and numerous other lurgies to timekeep.  Thanks Tim and Laimon for taking some photos to remind us we really do look as bad as we feel on this course.  Next event is on a fast track at Centenary Lakes (starts at the oval where we meet on Thursday) and watch this site for last minute changes to dates/venues etc.  There are some changes to the current Flyer - see Resouces and calendar.

Sunshine Coast Cross Country starts 4 April, Red Rock to Coffs ultra next weekend and a whole bunch of runs now added to the calendar.

Haze remains abed with a mystery illness but we reckon he didn't turn up because he couldn't finish the Mt Mee Tri which he, Macca, Robyn G and Parso started with Leg 1 on Saturday morning, a half marathon of the Gate run and Robinson/Mt Mee Rds loop.  Probably a good idea to stay home because there were no takers for the planned afternoon 11k finale with all contenders totally stuffed after the 10k event.  But there's always next year - and the prospect of another weird event/s from ideas man Macca!