All the cards fell into place for Ararat schoolteacher Jess Smart when she arrived at Dunneworthy Common to compete with the Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club for the first time since her only two previous starts in 2018.
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A seventh and an eleventh in those two races did not seem to pose a serious threat to the speedsters that lined up in the five kilometre David O Jones Mitre 10 Handicap, but she stunned chasers when she led for the last kilometre before forging to a comfortable win over Matt Haddow and Jack Trounson.
"I don't know how that happened. I had no expectations but just hoped to finish in the middle of the field," a bewildered Smart said.
Had she returned to racing a week earlier at Stawell she would have been lost in the wake of Nathan Bendelle's record-smashing six minute win and left behind by the explosive speed of Gabe Tonks and Paula Pettingill in that race.
Ignoring warnings from Haddow to "take it easy" in Ararat's Park Run just an hour or so earlier, Tonks and Pettingill made the mistake of racing as if their lives depended on it and both "blew up" in the Mitre 10.
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Tonks finished next to last in slow time (for him), while a distressed Pettingill stopped frequently over the last two kilometres when totally spent.
Due to her long absence, Smart was an unknown quantity and under the handicap conditions that gives everyone a chance of winning, she received a five minute start from Haddow, the runner-up in Bendelle's big win, and two minutes from Trounson, the club's 670-run veteran,
At the post-race presentation, Smart thanked her coach Sue Blizzard for encouraging the thirty-two-year-old to return to the club after that three year hiatus.
The mother of two said: "I stopped running after I injured a knee pushing a pram in the streets of Ararat and lost confidence and motivation."
Second at his only two starts so far, Haddow will be favoured to win the King of the Hill at Ararat this Sunday, but the gut-busting climb to the top of One Tree Hill is a challenge different from any he has faced so far. Fun runners are welcome.
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