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2007 Report & Run Times Report The 4th annual Bellarine Rail Trail 34km FatAss Run was held in splendid conditions once again on Sunday August 19, 2007, from the Geelong Showgrounds to the Queenscliff Railway Station. 80 keen runners took part which was slightly down on the 88 that participated in 2006. I suspect this was due largely to a heavy running calendar for the weekend that included the Sandy Point Half Marathon, the VRR Princess Park Half Marathon and the Prom Country 30km challenge. Nevertheless, it was very pleasing to see many familiar faces return as well as a large number of new runners. As always, the focus was on providing a unique and enjoyable training run for a large group of like-minded runners over what I would like to say, unbiasedly of course, is a magnificent running trail! Thanks once again to Phil Essam who was the mastermind behind the idea and the run director for the inaugural event in 2004. Unique to such training runs as opposed to running races, apart from having to give way to traffic at road crossings, is the camaraderie associated with focussing on having an enjoyable run rather than competing for times and places. For the first time this year, the 68km option was dropped as an official part of the run. I realise that this was disappointing for the ultra enthusiasts, but it became necessary for a number of reasons outlined on the run webpage at www.ultraoz.com/bellarine. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop a few enthusiasts who opted to run the “unofficial 68km BRT FatAss Run”. Consequently, it was an early start for Brett Saxon and Peter Gray both keen to make the return journey. Brett opted for a 4:30am start from Queenscliff in the hope of making it to the official start point by 8am. He unfortunately fell slightly short of this goal, however, courtesy of a slightly late start and the lack of sunlight that made him take a wrong turn and made damp spots along the trail look like large reservoirs! Peter opted for a 5:30am start from the Geelong end as he has done in previous years, having spent the day prior placing supplies in various hidey-holes along the trail. The 3rd ultra enthusiast was Andrew Hewett who opted to start with everyone else and make the return trip alone. For the 4th year in a row, Olympian Lee Troop was kind enough to support the run in his lead up to the Berlin Marathon on September 30. Rather than sipping a latte in front of us all at the start as occurred in 2006, he chose to start his planned 3hr run at 7:30am and join us for the start at 8am. Feeling that “station to station” sounded like a great run, he first opted to run along the South Geelong railway platform, much to the amusement of a few early morning commuters, before heading to the start point along the Barwon River trails. Expecting a fashionably late start, however, he found himself a minute or so late as I finally managed to get the run away bang on 8am! Always on the lookout for a bit of a laugh as he worked his way towards the back of the pack, he shouted in a way only Troopy can, “Oi, get off my trail!” Expecting a few wry smiles as he soon caught up with the back of pack, he reported a range of fearful, silent expressions that looked prepared to scurry in the opposite direction at any moment. He opted for alternate greetings thereafter! Another first for the run this year was the participation of 3 teams of 4, all from a group of local runners trained by Daniel O’Connor, better known as Doc. All sporting DOC singlets, they certainly added some colour to the run, especially at the drink stations that doubled as relay change over points, where it looked like I must have invested in rent-a-crowd for the run! The first half to Drysdale Railway Station would have been uneventful had it not been for Tony Dell deciding that large fences make for ideal steeplechase practice. The first half of the jump looked smooth – the image (along with many others) is located at www.myimages.com.au. The 2nd half of the jump, regrettably not caught on camera, was not so smooth, as Tony’s face was able to attest! The 2nd half of the run from Drysdale to Queenscliff, although slightly wet in a couple of places, also proved relatively uneventful. Colin Sing took a tumble on one of the turns but for someone 6 foot plus tall, almost managed to get back up & going without breaking stride! What was equally impressive was that he was still on 3hr marathon pace at 30kms, despite having aims to run 3:15 in the marathon. A special mention again for Brett Saxon who is training towards a 162km run on March 29, 2008 where he hopes to raise $25,000 for CanTeen. Anyone who is able to support his run, please see www.brettsrunforcanteen.org . A huge thanks to those who came out to support the run, especially family and friends who kindly gave up their morning to marshal, drive minibuses and man the drink stations. Thanks also to the City of Greater Geelong for their continued support and Kevin Tiller of CoolRunning for his help with the run website. Good luck to all of those competing in the Melbourne Marathon and look out for me as one of the 3 hour pacers. Good luck also to Troopy at Berlin where he hopes to run a qualifier for the Beijing Olympics. The run times can be found at Run Times 2007. They are to the nearest minute and in alphabetical order where the times are the same. As everyone knew, this was a training run and not a race! Hope to see everyone back next year and be sure to tell your friends! Brett Coleman
Run Times
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