Date: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
From: Ashleigh, Jennifer, Robyn & Brendon Sinclair.
Family friendly fun at Broulee with the Sinclairs
Within an hour of finishing Bacchus on the Lake the Sinclair family were in the car headed for ten days on the South Coast. After enjoying the Easter festivities (a little too much) Brendon was eager to catch up on some training and put in a couple of runs around Longbeach but with the enjoyment of Bacchus still fresh he took to google to find some competition.
The search returned the Broulee Runners a local running group only 30 kilometres from our accommodation. Their first event was held in 2007 and they meet every Wednesday afternoon at Mossy Point offering a 2km, 3.5km, and 5km out-and-back course.
We arrived and registered our details with the friendly committee and nominated our preferred course. Ashleigh and Robyn selected the 2km, Jennifer the 3.5km and Brendon the 5km.
The course started at the Mossy Point headland featuring a magnificent ocean view. It followed a grassed section along the headland south towards Broulee where a steep descent down a tree root infested path required careful negotiation. Through a picnic area on the foreshore and then onto the bridge that heading into Broulee where the 2km competitors turned back. The bike path then followed the beach further south to the 3.5 and 5km turnaround points, then in reverse back to the finish.
Times were recorded by way of a handheld multi-timer. At the finish you are handed a ticket with a number reference to your finishing time. You hand the ticket to the timing marshal who records your name against that time.
Ashleigh and Robyn finished with three runners behind them in a time of 18:20. Jennifer ran fourth of six in an adjusted time of 25:53. Her time was reduced by 5 seconds because she ran a bit past the 3.5km turnaround point. A fellow competitor altered the race director who applied the time reduction (we giggled about how Neil would have handled that situation). Brendon finished 4:48 behind the winner in 23:12 (7th of 18).
Afterwards we were invited for photos for their website and the local rag.
The organisers were ecstatic with the turnout, 51 runners on the day was their new record!
We look forward to joining the Broulee runners again next time we’re down that way.
You can find more info at http://brouleerunners.blogspot.com/ or find them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BrouleeRunners?ref=stream