Saturday, 16 February - AV Shield Final

Today was the day of the big AV Shield Final. We only had men's Division 4 in there for the guys, but more importantly we had Division 2 Women - who won the NW Region title

The only event I qualified in was the 400 metres. It was a pretty warm day and my warm up of ten minutes had me streaming with sweat. I had a friendly competition going with an older fellow from Richmond over would run the faster time. It was going to be tight as he was in really good 400 metre form and the previous week had broken 60 seconds, while I had not done that all season in my return from a knee injury

Waited nervously for my race in theblazing sun. The nerves intensified when I saw the flolow from Richmond had put in a blinder to run 58.5 and I was in trouble! Finally we were ready - heat 3 and I was in Lane 5. Went out pretty hard and from very early on I was in the lead. At the 200 metre mark I was still leading and comong round the bend I was straining to see the finish clock

I get towards the finish and I finally see the clock. Thought I had done enough and eased up a metre or two from the line, only for the clock to register 59.06. Doh! Still, I won my heat and that was pleasing. I would later find out that I finished ninth overall in Division 4

We went out for dinner afterwards at the Doncaster Hotel which was quite pleasant, especially with a couple of the guys from Athletics Essendon who joined us. After 9:00 pm the children were getting ratty so we shot through and went home. Long run tomorrow

TOTAL DISTANCE = about 2.5 kilometres