April 7, 2015
Marathon veteran Bruce “Digger” Hargreaves has hailed the inaugural Maidenwell Marathon held at the weekend as “spectacularly good”.
In fact, the date has already been set for next year’s event: the last weekend in March.
“It is now ‘an event’,” Bruce said, meaning that even more runners on the marathon circuit will be marking it in their calendars.
And he said the support from the Maidenwell community had also been terrific.
“It can’t work without helpers, and they have been marvellous,” he said.
More than 150 runners took part in Sunday’s events which ranged in length from 2km to 42.195km (the traditional marathon length).
The shorter distances attracted many local participants, including students from Tanduringie State School who have been running every day the past month to add up to a full marathon distance. Many of the pupils ran in both the 2.2km and 5km events.
Sunday’s events also attracted support from people of all ages.
“We had old farmers here in their 60s in the 5km and four-year-olds in the 2.2km,” Bruce said.
As an added incentive, everyone who finished was presented with a cow’s bell.
There were also four races held on Saturday which were for more serious runners: 14km, 28km, 42.195km and 56km.
For these runners, marathons are their life – and several ran in both the Saturday and Sunday events.
Winner of Sunday’s 42.195km marathon, Jane Trumper, will be off to the world’s oldest marathon, the Boston Marathon, later this month.
Paul Crouch Chivers, who came in second, will be heading off next month to run in the world’s highest marathon, the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon, which starts at the Everest Base Camp.
And third placegetter, David Cannings, will be joining both Jane and Paul in the Canberra Marathon next weekend before heading back home to Papua New Guinea.
The big weekend in Maidenwell was topped off by markets on the oval on Sunday morning and the always-popular Bull Ride on Sunday night at the Maidenwell Hotel.
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