Fresh from a two week honeymoon, happy and full of life, Sandra Barwick surprised even herself by winning the Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club’s season finale, the five kilometre President’s Handicap at Ararat last Sunday.
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Barwick, nee Bywaters, wanted to run well in the race but dared not to hope that she could break through for her first win in two years.
With veteran clubman Chris Barwick, the ever-smiling newlywed had honeymooned in New South Wales, visiting historic sites from Cobar to Broken Hill and training every day on roadways, trails and tracks.
“While we were away I was running on some pretty rough ground, roads with severe cambers, and I really hurt my calves”
In desperation the day before the race, Barwick sought a pharmaceutical remedy, a magnesium salt spray squirted under the tongue which apparently did the trick.
“My only thought was to run, run, run as fast as I could and hopefully without pain,” Barwick said.
So effective was her “plan” that she was left speechless at the post-race presentation when told that her winning margin over reigning club champion, Simon Gallagher (after handicaps were applied) was 1.47 minutes, leaving 646-start veteran Jack Trounson a further 26 seconds behind in third place.
The “slow old turtle”, as Barwick once described herself, now has ambitions to run a half-marathon, something beyond her wildest dreams when told in 2013 that, after damaging both kneecaps in a fall, was told that she would never be able to ride a bike, or run.
