Going for gold

The first weekend of June saw a small WA Goldfields town play host to Australia's richest mile. Leonora, 60 minute plane ride inland from Perth, has held the event for the past 9 years and has attracted some of the highest calibre athletes in Aus with the prospect of winning gold. The winner each years earns $6000 and a one-ounce gold nugget, with all places through to 8th in the final (my finishing spot for the past 2 years) winning around $250. In other words, its quite a handy weekend's worth of work.

This year heading out to Leonora there was a slightly lesser field than in previous times - not that it was a slouch field by any reckoning, however it was missing a few of the bigger names of previous years.
With a few more K's under my belt than previous years I was hopeful of finishing higher up the ladder. Although a lack of lactic-tolerance work since the national champs would also make the final 400m tough.

Runnerstribe.com.au has helped organise the event for the past few years and get elite runners over from the eastern states to participate in the event and local council has helped make the mile race a centrepiece of their Foundation day long weekend.

Once all the elite athletes had landed out in the red-dirt mining town the few first-timers were a little awe-struck with just WHERE we were racing. The mile race is 3 laps of a 530-odd metre lap of the main street of town, from one hairpin turn back to another. The fast pace, quick turns and close proximity for the crowd makes for exciting racing - both for competitors and spectators alike. As we all warmed up the locals would all shout out encouragement and joke with us - not quite as cynical as when you jog the streets in the city.

I managed to get through the heat ok on the Saturday night. Nine men were only split down to 8 for the final the next day and the heats were more a good hit out for the legs than really taxing the body. We all slept in our dongas that night to the sounds of "Run to Paradise" by the Choirboys.

The Sunday final was a much more anxious affair. With serious cash on the line, no one had come out just for fun. This was work time. With middle distance running not being the most lucrative of endeavours, a high paying race is one you want to peak for.
We all lined up - Jeff Riseley (the current 1500m Australian champion, 3rd fastest Aussie of all time over the 1500m distance and 2nd fastest for the 800m), Philo Saunders (10 times Australian championship finalist), Malcolm Hicks (the New Zealand Mile champion all the way over here just to race), Chris Discombe (2011 Whelsh 5000m champion), Josh Wright and Josh Johnson (very fast young middle distance proteges), Tom O'Shaughnessy (training partner of Jeff Riseley)... and me... the "local favourite... and five-time reigning WA 1500m champion... Marc See!" as co-founder of the event, commentator and also my boss, Raf Baugh, put it.

The final went like most middle distance races... slow first third, slowly picked up the pace and then was on for all money (which in this case was quite a bit) after the bell. The hairpin turns kept us all bunched up for the first 2 laps but once we rounded the third last hairpin the pace quickened. Jeff Riseley (the obvious favourite) lead the pace until this point and was not looking like giving up the lead any time soon. His effortless stride seemed to just lengthen and push him further ahead (or thats what I was feeling at the time 10 metres behind him in 5th). Along the long back straight Josh Wright challenged Riseley and Philo Saunders ensured the pace was still hot through to the final turn. As we rounded the last corner I was just in touch with the leaders (the hairpins have never been a favourite of mine and I slipped over on the 2nd last corner in the rain last year) but as we all accelerated out of the turn I didn't have the same emphasis that the four in front of me did.

Men’s final results were as follows:

1. Jeff Riseley: 4:17.06

2. Josh Wright: 4:18.01

3. Philo Saunders: 4:18.47

4. Malcolm Hicks: 4:18.59

5. Marc See: 4:20.58

6. Joshua Johnson: 4:23.92

7. Chris Discombe: 4:24.42

8. Tom O’Shaughnessy: 4:37.97

and the link to the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StLS391MJHs

It was another good year out in rural WA and I look forward to next year, going back and fighting again to get to that golden first place.

The week after Leonora has been one of my biggest so far in 2012, I ran 135km with a couple of good sessions in there. The coming weeks I am looking to maintain around 140km/week and more importantly maintain the body at this level of effort. The Gold Coast Marathon is on at the start of July and I am running the 10km event along side this with many of the Front Runner athletes we are taking over to compete. Hopefully a PB (sub 31:43) or even sub 31minutes is on the cards but really its all about Summer...

Happy running to you all and thanks for reading,

- Marc