SAAC Race Recap: Tylers Hardware

Event: Tylers Handware
Where: Rupanyup
Distance: 8km

---

This will be my 3rd year running with SAAC.  The Tylers Hardware Handicap however I have never ran before. I’ve also never been to Rupanyup.

Back in 2012, I chose not to do this run because I was running Run The Gap and I wanted to save my legs (the event was the day before the race).

The same thing happened again last year (2013).

This year the committee decided not to put a run on before Run The Gap (yay for being on the committee). Therefore the Tylers Hardware Handicap got moved from May to July.

So now I can say I have officially run this event.

Rupanyup is a small town about 30 minutes drive from Stawell.

The difference between running in Stawell and Rupanyup is Hills.  Rupanyup doesn’t have any.  It’s flat as all flat.  This makes any runner happy.  Flat course = fast course.

The sub-juniors went off first.

Although the sun was out it was cold, and there was an icy wind.

I ran with Miles to allow that for my warm-up. We went slow, but with 200m left he was dying. Not literally but he has asthma and the cold air wasn’t helping him, so he was struggling to catch his breath. He was doing so well too.  If we didn’t stop to walk he would have come first, but he came equal 3rd to his sister Kayla. Oh well, next time.

Once all the sub-juniors had come in it was time for us adults to run.

The track was flat, and although I made a wrong turn (confusing cones), I ended up still coming 6th overall.

The track started from the Rupanyup football clubrooms.  It then went around the oval and onto the road, and then followed Jack’s Track.  Then we did Jack’s Track again.

The course wasn’t quite 8km (7.68 to be exact), but hey it’s not an ‘official’ race.  You can view the map here.

I was happy with my time of 37:17 as I finished hard and strong.

I also tested out some new shoes Brooks Glycerin 12’s for an up-and-coming blog post.

I will say they are great shoes, but maybe not for ‘racing’ in.  I think they will be a good training shoe, however.

That being said it ended up being a great day, because waiting for me when we got home was a delicious Pork Roast, cooking away in the slow cooker.